/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General: DMs Guild Trove Edition

I'm designing a one shot I can dm for some friends who have never played D&D before. Any advice on what level I should set them so they aren't overwhelmed and what I should have them do?

So why aren't you guys playing Dungeon World yet? It's pretty much everything D&D offers except better.

> I want fast combat

Dungeon World does that

> I want character background mechanics

Dungeon World does that

> I want it to feel like D&D

Dungeon World does that

> I want balance between casters and martials

Dungeon World does that

> I want varying levels of success

Dungeon World does that.

Seriously, I don't get why people still pay 50 bucks or MORE for the core rulebooks of D&D when Dungeon World does everything D&D does, except better. It's not a hitpoint slog that requires you to remember tons of complicated rules (even 5e, yes).

Also there is no "builds" or overpowered shit to troll new players who haven't figure out the most OP combos in a game.

So really I don't see what excuse you have for continuing to play D&D, when you can't name a single thing that D&D does better than Dungeon World.

> inb4 sell

If you are unwilling to take the time to find a group that isn't made up of Pathfinder / D&D addicted fucktards, then you don't deserve quality gaming. End of story.

I really enjoy starting at level 3. Early enough that big dangerous threats are big and dangerous and threats, but high enough that you always have options and dont die from a bad roll.

fuck off.

Follow up: should I give everyone a character that I made or should I let them do it themselves?

Warlock/Paladin could be fun. Recharging spell slots for smiting, everything's based on Charisma, lots of per-rest abilities between Channel Divinity and invocations.

At higher levels, possibly Sorcerer/Bard. Magical Secrets to nab the best spells, metamagic to really make 'em pop, like Twinned Swift Quiver.

Or possibly Finesse Weapon Rogue/Barbarian. The build's not as great when it means lagging behind as a rogue, but that's not a problem with gestalt. Use Reckless Attack for free advantage for sneak attacks and Cunning Action to avoid the consequences.

thats a tough call. Ive both ran and played games where we did either or. If this is a 5e, id suggest letting them make their own, but have a few premade characters there for reference and possible NPCs to help round out the party.

That being said, one of the best games I've played was a horror where everybody played a random premade. In that case, the premade characters made sense from a storytelling perspective, so your mileage may vary.

Wizards has some pre-made character sheets that are available publicly for free. They're the same ones that came with the Starter Set, if you know those. I love them because they're basically pre-made and ready to play, but a player can tailor a lot about them to their needs, and of course they can always use them as templates to base their own characters around. I'd reccomend bringing them with you and asking the group what they'd want.

They will need to be scaled up to Level 3, but this also provides your group with an opportunity to taste leveling up and get their teeth into their characters a little bit.

Basic character creation in 5e only takes a couple of minutes. Tell them it's a one-shot so you don't want them trying anything too fancy (like making their own backgrounds) and it should be fine to let 'em make their own.

Alternatively, you could have some partially pre-made characters; you make the race/class/archetype, then let the players choose who they wanna play and let them choose the background and fill out the character's personal info. I'd recommend this if you wanna get them into actual role-playing.

If nothing else, several classes (at least the main four) have at least one archetype specifically designed to be simple to play.

Level 1, or 2 (only because it's not quite as deadly)
Pre-make some characters, get a variety of classes and races, but pick simpler options. If you're running it for a small number of players, make one excess character so everyone has more choice.
Have them be an established group of adventurers, already on a simple quest (such as retrieving an item for a noble, or killing a monster).
Along the way, bring in some complications that allow the group to think on their feet a bit, and improvise. Show them what makes tabletop different from video games. Give them choice. (you can prepare a couple of options you can suggest for them, but don't suggest anything unless they're really stuck)
Let them find some (weak) special items, use them on the monster, trap the creature somehow, or lure it into trouble (pit monsters against each other!)
Have a simple trap that can be escaped or bypassed.
Don't get too bogged down with talky, 'politics', foreplay stuff - get to the adventuring! Roleplaying aloud can be difficult or offputting for new players.

Most importantly - LISTEN! If they're asking about trying something, try and help them do it (if they want to do something unreasonable, suggest something reasonable instead of just telling them they can't do it)

I hope you have fun, too!

4E =/= FR, asshat. If you had the slightest bit of reading comprehension, you'd know that from .

Be a fighter/paladin and be the shiniest knight there ever was. Stack smite and superiority dice.

What is it with you coming in to every thread and going on and on about Dungeon World? Start a Dungeon World thread if you want to talk about it, it's pretty simple

He's a troll.
He probably doesn't even Dungeon World.

Strength mod+wis mod for AC.
MA bonus action attack works with non monk weapons.
Gains proficiency in hallberds.

>Basic character creation in 5e only takes a couple of minutes.

Same deal in Dungeon World. And you have a lot more freedom in Dungeon World than in D&D.

Except a lot of you guys would be a lot happier if you stopped playing 5e and started playing Dungeon World. Most of you haven't even tried it, how do you know it's bad?

People only continue playing D&D because of sunk cost fallacy.

Shhhh. When you respond to him, it's like you're stroking his little pee-pee. When you get angry, it's like you're sucking hungrily at his hairy malformed shaft. And if you think you can just make him squirt out his watery little load so he'll stop, you're just gonna encourage his bad habits.

Lightning arrow

>Gains proficiency in hallberds.

* halberds

And please note than in Dungeon World you don't get punished for playing a fighter, like in 5e D&D. You are proficient with ALL weapons in 5e. Also, damage is by class, which is superior because it doesn't punish you for your weapon choice.

You do know I can read what you are saying, right? And until you come up with a valid counter-argument, I am going to keep posting.

Best magic items for a Necromancer BBEG? Thoughts?

>He probably doesn't even Dungeon World.

That is not a grammatically correct post. The correct post is "he probably doesn't even play Dungeon World." Stop removing words to sound cool, you just sound like an autistic youtuber with 50 million subscribers who gets asshurt when he doesn't get a butterfly knife in the latest CS GO case he opened.

Talk correctly, or get the FUCK out.

The problem with giving an NPC magic items is that those magic items become lootable. The better option is to come up with cool ideas for abilities and give them to your BBEG wholesale.

Its the end of the campaign, so don't matter much...

In that case go all out and give him the Wand of Orcus.

Don't want to be *that* crazy. The party is level 15-16, and the BBEG is a CR20 Death Domain Cleric; I've already put a candle of invocation in there, because its fun.

> dat ass on Mialee

I really with they had brought her back in 5th edition. I wanted to fuck her harder than any of the other 3.5 iconics. None of the Pathfinder iconics do it for me; half of them are trannies anyways. But I used to masturbate to the D&D novel where Mialee hooks up with Devis, imagining her tall body rocking up and down on the bard's thighs, and the kinds of noises she would make at orgasm. Her face seriously reminds me of Liza Cuddy from House and I used to fap to their Season Seven sex scene all the time so Mialee is pretty intensely cemented in my sexuality.

Lidda is also pretty hot, Ember really isn't my thing, nor are any of the others, but Mialee is fucking amazing and gorgeous. I am yet to find a porn star that looks like her. Unfortunately she is a wizard so she has a pretty high Will save and it would be pretty hard to rape her with hold person, plus she's an elf so she's immune to sleep so that idea is fucked, too. So it'd have to be consensual. So what I'd do would be something where I get her really drunk like Devis did but since elves have low Con I'd use whatever the D&D equivalent of GHB is (drow knockout poison?). Then have my way with her once she's out.

Seriously, though, I'd wife her in a second, and you're literally gay if you wouldn't do it, too.

Post that PDF if you're so great!

Actually I really did forget to type play. I was typing too fast.
Way to display your sick memes though.

I've played Dungeon World and it wasn't to bad BUT I much prefer a system that people know and has crunchier combat. Plus I don't really like the you succeed but x happens crap Dungeon World uses even though I can see some people most likely do.

Hey Veeky Forums here's a challenge:

You are facing a human with 10,000 health. No resistances, immunities, or vulnerabilitie. Every stat is 10. AC is 10.

You may choose any race, class, background, and you are level 11. No magic items, all standard equipment is legal. Multiclass if you want.

Find the fastest way to kill this creature. It only resists your attacks and never strikes back. You may not suffocate it or drop it from a cliff. The idea is to use class features/spells.

I can do it in 7 turns. Can you find a shorter way?

If I want to play a Jerren should I just play an asshole Lightfoot Halfling or try to homebrew a subclass?

Can't you just incapacitate it with one of various CC spells and then coup-de-gras? If we're really talking about a plain-jane human that happens to have 10k hitpoints for some reason.

Off the top of my head an Orc Champion could do it fairly quick, but frankly I'm not going to be arsed to do the math.

Wizard 11. Use Wall of Stone to trap it in a box of stone. Wait for it to suffocate and die. It won't take but a few minutes tops.

For a battle royale one shot, what lvl and with how much gp should the players start?

11th level, 5000gp plus one randomly-selected magic item from Magic Item Table H (chosen after their characters are made).

Open Hand monk. 2 turns.

Level 11 divination wizard
1) Cast Magic Jar
2) (from 100ft away) use a bad divination roll to force the monsterhuman to fail its save, possessing its body
3) walk twenty feet away and cast dispel magic on the soul Jar, using another div roll to force success. You both die

Room for improvement

He said 11th level.

>You may not suffocate it or drop it from a cliff.

>level 11
If you want to do higher levels then
>Polymorph target into a cat
>Power Word Kill

So, including walk/fly/haste time, just how fast could you do this?

It would take 1 minute (Magic Jar) plus 2 rounds (possession, then walking away and casting Dispel Magic).

If you count hirelings as standard equipment, you could cast magic jar beforehand, possess the hireling, and get him to carry you to within a hundred feet of the 10k dude, saving you the cast time, bringing it down to a couple of rounds

That which is presented without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. Besides, we all know no reply would make the shitposts stop.

> no (You) for anyone.

One thing that I have always wanted to do with monks is to make 1 big perfect punch, rather than a speedy flurry of blows sort of monk.

A single punch of perfect form and focus that could split the heavens themselves.

Hey /5eg/, as a GM with some experience running previous editions of D&D planning to run 5E for a new group, is there anything in the core player's handbook I should consider restricting or forbidding at the table for the first campaign, or is the book as is reasonably balanced for use?

That's exactly what I wanted to have, but I don't know how to represent that mechanically. I'm thinking something similar to fiendlock's hurl through hell, rather than quivering palm or touch of the long death.

Read the Errata and remember that the Contagion spell is intended to kick in after the target fails three saves, not immediately.

I wouldn't consider anything released thus far worth restricting or forbidding, until you get to like 8th or 9th level spells. But at that point all bets are off anyways.

Who is this semen demon?

Heat Metal and Phantasmal Force, maybe? Heat Metal is especially egregious at low levels against any armored enemies. And Phantasmal Force is a pain in the ass to adjudicate for.

I should note that even with these in, the game runs fine. They can just be a pain in the ass from a DM perspective, compared to other spells of the same level.

Death clerics can do some nasty stuff with a simple Ring of Spell Storing. Remember that if a concentration spell is stored in the ring, the cleric can effectively concentrate on two spells at once, and one of the spells automatically succeeds unless the ring is destroyed. This + Banishment = instant removal spell. Alternatively, the death cleric could use it for something slightly less cheap, and just always have Spirit Guardians turned on.

Heat Metal is equally irritating for players to experience when armored, i recommend blanket restricting it to held and unattended items only, neither the DM or the player has fun if heat metal gets used on someones heavy armor.

I'd also consider restricting a good/evil party mix unless you feel quite confident in your players ability to not fuck up.

>Remember that if a concentration spell is stored in the ring, the cleric can effectively concentrate on two spells at once, and one of the spells automatically succeeds unless the ring is destroyed.
That is, in fact, not how a Ring of Spell Storing works at all.
It DOES allow a non-caster to be your second pseudo-concentration, but it acts entirely as if they cast the spell with your statistics at the time of casting. They need to make potential concentration checks, are limited to concentrating on one spell, and the spell doesn't have any higher chance at success than the original caster would casting it.

>you can't name a single thing that D&D does better than Dungeon World.
I can name two. Its fans stick to their own threads and when I look at my 5e pdfs I don't see a faggot with pink hair and piercings all over his face in them.

What's so bad about it?

Kirara from GJ-Bu. She's tall, cute, and likes the meat. Best girl.

2d8 fire damage each turn for 1 minute, no save, for a 2nd level slot so long as the target is wearing metal armor or metal something that can't be removed easily.

It's also Concentration and you need to use a bonus action every turn to continue dealing damage. It's only really useful against enemies wearing armor, which in my experience is honestly not many enemies. You could use the same slot to cast Hold Person.

For concentration and a bonus action. Also making it likely to have the caster become a priority target.
Good to scare a PC with.

It's irritating because the player will often feel like they can't do anything about it, and the lack of save doesn't mesh with pretty much everything else.
It's not overpowered, just annoying to have happen to you, and is uniquely punishing to heavy armor wearing classes.

only thing i can think of is teleportation circling someone to somewhere where a monster will turn them into stone (medusa, gorgon, basilisk, cockatrice, etc.) and then using disintegrate on them. so 11th level wizard of any race i guess. but that doesn't really seem like using class features/spells so much as tricking the environment into winning this contest for you.
but that would be like.... 1 round to teleportation circle, 1 round to shove them into it, 3 rounds to turn to stone, then 1 round to cast disintegrate, so 6 rounds. one up on you in a perfect world.

otherwise 7 rounds is like 1500 damage a round, which i imagine you aren't dealing, even if you are summoning tons of creatures to help you.

I've never played a Monk before, but I'm looking into it now. Is Open Hand Monk a good way to go if I want to make a martial character who has some control of the battlefield?

Sure

>Is Open Hand Monk a good way to go if I want to make a martial character who has some control of the battlefield?
if you want to play a monk sure
monks are less martials and more weird ability lock down characters. you're going to be capable of contributing to your party's damage, but you won't be the one doing it no matter how hard you try, or not past the first few levels anyway. its a battlefield control style character in the sense that you can move through the battlefield and lock someone (or someones) down.

Should a Bearbarian bother with DEX? They get more HP and take half damage from pretty much everything. It doesn't feel like having more than 12 is worth the Ability Score Points.

How would you stat a kestros? I was thinking it could simply extend the normal range of a dart up to 30/40 and the long range to 70.

only if you want to
multiple ways to build a character etc etc

But can I be mechanically sound with low DEX?

yes, and you get advantage on initiative too eventually.
especially if you use a shield, but you don't really """"need"""" to.

...

just use elemental monk (a fixed one please) and the various "fist" elemental disciplines
also bring back VORTEX PUNCH

You just need to break the container from out of return range while being in range of your own body. Then you at least don't automatically die, and you don't have to roll for dispelling.

>you're going to be capable of contributing to your party's damage, but you won't be the one doing it no matter how hard you try,
By this you mean, I'll be capable of some damage, but I won't be doing the lion's share of it, right?

Also, does anyone have other suggestions for a character like that, Monk or otherwise? Control of the field/able to hinder lots of enemies'movements/weaken them in ways besides only doing damage?

Battlemaster Fighter sounds good for you.

>By this you mean, I'll be capable of some damage, but I won't be doing the lion's share of it, right?
yeah. you won't be incapable of killing people, just versus some other damaging classes you'll quickly fall behind. and that isn't to say you won't contribute, just your damage will be secondary to the other things you can do, which is stun, knock people prone, push, etc.
battlemasters can do this to an extent too, but their damage output is higher and their mobility lower (and their number of weird abilities is lower as well). totem barbarians can to an extent. rangers can be okay at this with some terrain spells (and druids too). bladelocks can be surprisingly punishing to be near, but aren't really controllers to the extent that controllers even exist in 5e.
the thing about monks is you'll be the guy who can get anywhere in combat and stun a caster, and even against high constitution enemies, you have 4 chances to stun someone per round, which makes it pretty likely you can stun pretty much anything.

Thanks all for the input. I already know I won't be the primary damage dealer with this character. Open Hand Monk sounds good for what I have in mind

On the subject of Monk, anyone else find the Monk's ki ability underwhelming? The abilities themselves are good, but it feels like it doesn't scale well with the level progression. At the very least expending FoB at higher levels would strengthen Monk.

>expending
Typo; I meant to say 'expanding'.

Flesh to Stone, break its neck. Takes 4 rounds

Am I right in saying a Sun Soul Monk can use radiant sun bolt while wearing armor/shields?

Don't let your players multiclass sorcerer with warlock.

I dont see why not.

The only problem i can see with monks is a lack of ways to get Ki back.

At the very least they regenerate on short rest, but I don't know, I feel like a lot of the later level abilities are too situational and the progression of the first couple of levels is sort of stunted, ki only coming into the picture at level two. What if, when your character runs out of ki points, they have the option to meditate for 30 minutes (without short rest) to regain some, but only a number of ki points up to a maximum of their WIS modifier?

I dunno, the capstone sort of covers that well.

Yeah, but I feel like that's the sort of thing that should be an option way earlier. Things like that and Timeless Body (which I frankly fail to see much broad mechanical utility for) and some others feel inappropriately underbalanced for their level. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like Monk should be taken back to the workshop along with Ranger.

Is there any difference in choosing a fey, fiend, or celestial familiar? Specifically for the warlocks pact, though i guess it applies to the find familiar spell as well.

It depends on the campaign really I guess.
but yeah I agree with you, if it and perfect self were swapped around and timeless body was given something else alongside the benefits already listed that might make more sense.

Not really, although if you're a good guy walking about with a fiendish creature it's a bit weird. Other than that there's some magic that affects different creature types as well but that's awfully specific and shouldn't really be worried about.

I think maybe if their number of Ki points was increased BY their Wisdom modifier or something they'd have slightly less issues with resource management.

I'd thought about that too. I'd definitely take that over the class as is. It still has the problem of not scaling well to later levels for something that's the bread and butter of the class, but it's an improvement.