/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition General Discussion Thread

>Official /5eg/ Mega Trove v3:
mega.nz/#F!BUdBDABK!K8WbWPKh6Qi1vZSm4OI2PQ

>Community DMs Guild trove
>Submit to [email protected], cleaning available!
mega.nz/#F!UA1BhCBS!Oul1nsYh15qJvCWOD2Wo9w

>Pastebin with resources and so on:
pastebin.com/X1TFNxck

Old Thread

Other urls found in this thread:

reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2j6xbo/5e_guide_to_homebrewing_races/
traykon.com/pdf/The_Net_Libram_of_Random_Magical_Effects.pdf
drive.google.com/file/d/0B3iepHSsCJzucWtWc3ZhWjdyRGc/view?pref=2&pli=1
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

I'm making a homebrew race for two friends to play
Fluff: they are small and stout catfolk that live in mountains, they are usually guides, cooks or merchants.
They have a natural attraction to shiny objects and can easily tell fake and real jewelry apart.
Neither of my friends are munchkins/powergamers, but I fear that I either gave them too little or to many features, or a feature that will make them stupidly broken
Any advice of what should I change? Wording I should improve?
Also I realise I gave them a slightly better version of the half-orc feature, but better than what I had tried before that
I gave them a second chance at death saves if they were to get three failures, no failures or sucesses would carry over from the previous attempts, this was once per long rest btw

May be starting a character in a 5e game next month, is there anything I should know that I might miss in the starter kit? I have played 2e for 4 years.

anyone play on TTS?

got a few games in playing 5e and I love it

Which is the better witch doctor? Land Druid (Swamp /Underdark) or Cleric (Nature /Knowledge)? Something else I haven't thought of?

Surely they should get two extra chances, so they would need to fail nine times?

Totem barbarian with proficiency in medicine perhaps. Or maybe some sort of warlock?

Kind of a quick opinion poll of sorts, but if you wanted to play a Wild Magic Sorcerer, how would you feel about the GM using a custom wild-magic table instead of the one in the book? Balanced to be about 50% useful effects, 50% harmful effects, and 0% the completely WTF RANDUMB effects like turning into a potted plant.

I'd say turning into a potted plant is pretty harmful and detrimental. Also, 50/50 is bullshit. It has to have a majority of good stuff, at least a small edge. I think right now only 20% of the table is actually just bad stuff.

seems like it would be a lot less of a headache to just give them Stout Halfling's racial traits and fluff them as catfolk. Hell, even the Lucky trait seems to fit a cat race. If you wanted to, you could trade their poision resistance or their fear resistance for the tool proficiencies. "Scent of the deal" doesn't really feel necessary and "9 lives" is way too strong

Dense fur is ridiculous, nothing else with fur gets cold resistance because of it

Is it just me or did we not get a UA article this month? I heard some rumors about another MtG conversion, are they just counting that?

I'll let you know how the conversion goes. Most of the text will probably be straight copy+pasted from the original, I'll just focus on stat conversions and similar stuff.

Isn't roll20 better?
As far as I know TTS doesn't track your heroes or monster stats

I agree with if there are no neutral effects than 70/30 seems like a good way to keep the class feature a benefit while still adding the risk.

Agreed, dense fur should just give the winter resistance feature of the Goliaths, if they keep it at all.

I'll admit I haven't played one yet, but at a glance the Warlock class seems pretty underwhelming barring multiclassing into something else later. Shame too cause I really like the concept from a roleplaying perspective - owing your powers to some other force you need to be diplomatic with.

Is there something I'm missing?

Warlocks don't have leveled spell slots. Basically they can cast every spell they know at it's highest level until they run out of slots.

Basically, they can't produce effects as strong as a wizard or sorcerer using their best spell slots, but they maintain their power level alot longer, after the wizard and sorcerer have burned out their good slots and have to scrap by with the low-level ones.

Same.

I've been asked to play in a friend's campaign and I've been struggling with picking a class for the better half of twelve hours.

Warlock and cleric are two classes I'm fairly drawn to that just don't seem to cut the mustard in comparison to bard, fighter, and rogue. I've considered paladins, but the group needs something capable of dealing with hordes, and wizards have never really piqued my curiosity.

Not playing one.

Warlocks are strong if the game is run with multiple short rests between long rests. Most DM's don't end up running it that way though.

Clerics can be pretty cool unless you shoehorn them into a single roll. They're actually pretty versatile.

I mean, not as versatile as a wizard, but what is?

>Is there something I'm missing?
Campaign-altering at-will abilities. At-will silent image, at-will detect magic, at-will alter self, at-will disguise self, at-will invisibility in dim light. Darkvision that pierces magical darkness. And so on.

Which are all on top of their dead-simple way to keep up in combat (Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast), Pact Boon goodies, and then the extra pact goodies themselves.

Isnt it mountain resilence?

Wizards are only super versatile with shit GMs that let them study every school of magic at once. Someday we'll get a version of DnD that forces Wizards to actually pick something to focus on.

How many skills do you have a rank in at level 1? Determined based on your class, right?

Class, race and background

Right, thanks.

Reviewing character sheets on roll20 and I kept getting the feeling someone did their skills wrong.

A warlocks role is not to be diverse and flexible. It is to be powerful and resilient.

You want damage? You have the best cantrips for that in the entire game.
You want utility effects? There are a shitload of them for you to pick up as invocations, most of them being 1st or 2nd level spells that you can then cast at will, no spell slot required.
Need some extra oomph to finish off a tedious encounter? Don't worry about conserving resources, you get ALL of your spell slots back at the end of a short rest.

BUT WAIT, that's not all!
If you roll up a warlock RIGHT NOW of level 3 or higher, you'll also get your choice of EXTRA CANTRIPS from ANY class, a FREE FAMILIAR with alternate forms not available anywhere else, or a summonable MAGIC WEAPON of ANY* type, with automatic proficiency with it!

Order right now, and you too can be a member of this amazing class for just one low payment of only 1, that's right, 1 eternal soul!

*Subject to shipping and handling. Magic weapon may not be off a ranged type. Offer void in Ohio and Montreal.

You get skills from two, possibly 3 sources.

Background: This usually gives you two skills.

Class: This usually gives you two skills, but Rogues and Bards and a few others get proficiency in more than two, I think.

Race: Sometimes gives you a skill (elves are proficient in Perception, for example)

iv said it before and il say it again, because i feel its a good analogy
"you have a fighter who shotputs glaives at the enemy every round for his attack" and you learn some spells.
you probably think its boring because of exactly that, you're "autoattacking" every round like the mundane martials. the non underwhelming part is really the spells and invocations. if it was really really badly described for a dumb person, warlock is an Eldritch knight that trades defense for better spellcasting

as in naked tiki-man with a wooden mask, zeebra skirt and bone through his nose?
probably land druid.
cleric might be better spell and skill to fit the archtype, but they're also worse, since nature is melee, and wears heavy armor, and knowledge... doesn't really fit to me, but you might have just been throwing out ideas

land gets similar spells, just alot more naturey, cant wear metal (more thematic) and can reasonably still turn into spoopy voodoo animals

Undying Tomelock. Friends on the Other Side, yo.

Are all magical weapons at least +1?

Like the Mace of Terror in the DMG, the book describes its special effect, but doesn't mention actually attacking with it.

Is it a +1 Mace?
Is it a regular mace that bypasses non-magical-weapon resistance?

The book is not particularly clear

i dont believe so, if it was +1 it would say +1 as well generally
that being said, they are clearly magical, and still apply to resistance as such

>The book is not particularly clear
No, this is you assuming things from past editions.

If a magic weapon gives you a bonus of any kind, it says so in its description.

Warlocks can receive their powers as an award for a service and are taught how to use magic (they used to be int based).

For example a fey pact warlock could have helped out /befriended a fey at some point in his life and was awarded magic knowledge for it.

This should be the case, except the warlock has so few spell slots.

Compare Warlock and Wizard at 5th level, where decently powerful spells come into play.

Warlock: 3rd level spells with 2 spell slots.

Wizard: 2 3rd level slots, 3 2nd lvl, 4 1st.

Wizard just has objectively more slots, though isn't spontaneous.

Sorcerer: 2 3rd levels, 3 2nd, 4 1st.

Objectively more slots, with fewer known but from a much more generous list.

All other casters tell the same story.

Warlocks are absolute shit and it is a shame because their flavour is excellent.

But warlocks get their spell slots back on a short rest, while the others don't.

so tempest cleric, wheres their "every round" cantrip/multi attack damage come from? they get some good spells, specifically damage ones, but like every spellcaster they have to fall back on something.
clearly its not cantrips because they get divine strike not potent spellcasting, but in melee the best they could reasonably do is 1d12+stat+2d8, which to me is relatively low, even compared to some other cleric domains.
is it really just because they are so much more blasty than the other options? i mean 6d6+30 is pretty fucking massive for a 5th level spell

Ideas for class/multi-class/feats for a character that is primaly a melee dude but can use a few ranged aoe spells, in a way that doesn't suck entirely? It can even suck a little bit, just not entirely.

I've updated the shadowcaster homebrew i've been working on for the past few weeks. Clarified some of the text, lowered the hit die of the class from d8 to d6, lowered the number of spells known to 18 to keep its total spell uses per day closer in line with the other spellcasters in 5e. Still has the same amount of dark and shadow references so bear that in mind. Tell me what you think Veeky Forums.

Pretty much what said. Warlocks potentially have near-infinite slots per day, while the others casters need an 8-hour rest or whatever a "long-rest" qualifies as.

Bladesinger or tempest cleric are probably your best bet. I guess you can also try fiendish warlock but YMMV.

Eldritch Knight can use a few blasting spells, although I suppose you should want to use the defensive spells more.

Why not magicFighter?

with a single short rest a warlock has 4 lvl 3 spells, compared to everybody else's 2.

EK doesnt get as many blasty aoe spells as the tempest cleric or straight wizard. they are limited to abjuration and evocation spells and wont be able to cast 3rd lvl spells until level 13.

you *can* do it, but itll take much longer for it to come online.

Which paladin oath lends itself to a LE alignment most? I feel Vengeance is more chaotic than anything but the tenents of Devotion make it seem like you'd have to be good to play it. Maybe Oath of the Crown?

Ranged is the best option for them generally, so you get 1d10+stat+2d8 with heavy crossbow and no feats dedicated to it. If you just look at their features, they have the proficiencies to tank better and deal a bit more damage at will, a melee reaction damage ability that can push back as well, max lightning damage on a spell, the pushback which works well with certain spells, the basic at-will damage boost at level 8 like other domains, and flight without requiring concentration etc.

They don't get a lot of damage from features, but they do get good options for spell nova and some nice utility especially with the flight.

Eldritch Knight is one of the worst classes in 5e. When you can already do damage with your sword, you don't need magic to do damage unless something is specifically resistant to melee.

What Eldritch Knight should have is support spells and defensive magic, but I think they're limited to Evocation magic only, which is almost all entirely offensive in nature. It's kinda the same problem the starting classes in recent Fire Emblem games have had, except you're meant to spec out of those later. Eldritch Knight is meant to be a standalone class and fails at it.

EK's fine. Their concentration spells are as good as anyone else, they can do forced movement in an area, they can get stoneskin.

There are a ton of monsters past level 6 that are vulnerable to magic damage only. Have you even ever played EK?

They get Abjuration spells too, and on some levels they get to choose from all the spell schools.

I'd say Crown>Vengeance>Devotion>Ancients (that one won't fit LE at all)

2 dex and 1 con seems more fitting
Scent of the deal seems out of place maybe try Mask of the Wild from wood elfs?
Whats the point of the two tool proficiency?
No ice damage, only cold.
Look at this and aim for your race to be at around 6 points reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2j6xbo/5e_guide_to_homebrewing_races/

Yeah, I just have this idea for a fighter who is kind of a combination Darth Vader/Monarch who has a bunch of punchclock henchmen, but really cares about them and doesn't just send them to random deaths. I'm torn between Battlemaster Fighter and Paladin though. Battlemaster definitely gives the commander aspect, but Paladin has a bunch of features and tenents that could compel him to care.

Besides Oathbreaker, I don't think the paladin subclasses I've seen really lend themselves to being evil, or at least the sort of evil who's out mostly for himself I think of when I hear "evil". Even Oath of the Crown feels more like Lawful Neutral.

Should be noted that they get their spell back on short rest. Normal adventure expect 2-3 short rest per 1 long rest.

So while level 8 Wizard can cast 2 4th level spell per day, a Warlock is expect to cast around 6.

Oppinions, how much should a band of adventurers (5x3rd level) get for saving a steam train with mostly military suplies and rich people on it? (from total destruction/100% loss) 1 train+long cars full of stuff.

I decided in my Curse of Strahd game that this version of Ravenloft requires constant sacrifice for the Dark Powers to keep the lights off in Barovia. So the heroes are brought to the realm, get their fortune, and then die to fuel the great magic powering the domain and keeping it separate from time and space.

The last ritual failed and now the party has been brought in to follow the mad Mage.

On a related note, does anyone have that fuckhuge PDF of extra wild effects? It was like a d1000 roll?

They have abjuration too.

However I will say my Warlock 2/Battlemaster 3/Abjurer 3 in my current game is a lot more fun than my attempt at the EK so far.

i guess it makes more sense for them to be range, specifically with the flight, and partially the knockback. it just seems weird to me that a spellcaster would prefer a ranged weapon to cantrips or a heavy armor would prefer ranged to melee

traykon.com/pdf/The_Net_Libram_of_Random_Magical_Effects.pdf

Depends, who was their client?

Thanks, user

Some of these are fucking gold

I have a player that wants to play as an alchemist in one of my dungeon delve shots. Looked around online and found this.

drive.google.com/file/d/0B3iepHSsCJzucWtWc3ZhWjdyRGc/view?pref=2&pli=1

Do you guys think its balanced? Im leaning towards yes, and allowing him to use it, but I wanted to get a second opinion.

werent hired in advance by a specific client, they are sort of mercenaries for the government, rewarded for their achievements with fame, glory, titles and cash when applicable.

think blackwater mercs for the usa. but in medieval/steampunk times.

Two questions about polearm master & GW master;
A) Can I use the GWM 'Power Attack' (-5/+10) on the 1d4 attack given to me by PAM.

B) How useful is a combo of GWM/PAM for a Paladin. Would I be better going for an ASI instead (level 4 Vhuman character with 16Str/16Cha)?

1) I believe the bonus attack is an attack with a two handed weapon for all purposes that matter, so long as you aren't using a quarterstaff in one hand. So yes, you should be able to power attack as it does not require the attack action be taken.

2) STR is way more important to max first, especially if you are already trying to land power attack. You need all the accuracy you can get.

The vestige warlock homebrew, or the shamman

Thanks, that's what I thought. I think my DM won't let me do the -5/+10 on the 1d4 dice anyway so I think I might actually just bump strength.

I'm trying to build a Paladin/Sorcerer,

So far I have
Ftr 1/ Paladin 4 (Oathbreaker),
16Str/16Cha/14Con/8Int/8Dex/10Wis
Polearm Master + ASI/GWM, not sure yet.


Looking to go to Paladin 7 for the Oathbreaker damage aura and the Save Aura.

Then I wanna go for 5 levels in shadow sorceror for Haste.

Not 100% sure where to go after that.

Pretty sure Oath of Vengence is pretty Evil. They are "Kill Evildoers and those who help them be any means possible". And have loose morals that pretty much let them do anything, kill helpless enemies, burn down homes, even kill innocent people for the crime of "You got in my way. This means you are an enemy of justice."

>Pretty sure Oath of Vengence is pretty Evil.
I want the faggots who can't stop slurping on BoED cock to leave.

>Bringing up alignment wars in a D&D thread

Weak sauce.

I didn't bring up Alignment wars? What are you talking about? The conversation on Paladin alignments has been going for a while mate.

What is BoED?

>Fighter-anything
>Worst class

Man, you sure you're not playing 3.5 or Pathfinder? Because the fighters in 5e are one of the better classes. They're not Ranger, that's for sure.

That being said, everything Eldritch Knight can do, you can do better by cross-classing smartly. They get so in the way of useful magic that even just dipping into an actual caster class tends to give better rewards.

book of elemental dicks

One of the biggest piles of shit WotC ever put out. The Book of Exalted Deeds claims that if you don't act like a literal fucking saint, you don't have the right to call yourself good aligned.

Book of Exalted Deeds

Have you even read the oat of vengeance tenets?
Like Restitution?

Do tg, whats a good RP wise class to multiclass as a Paladin that doesn't fuck up the character mechanically?

warlock is pretty fun. oath of ancients into fey pact is super thematic and fun.

>Do tg, whats a good RP wise class to multiclass as a Paladin that doesn't fuck up the character mechanically?
Favoured Soul sorceror

Warlock's Undying Light or Sorcerer's Favored Soul

>Trying to multiclass in 5e
This was your first mistake.

One of the players in my new group wanted to make his fighter a rapier-and-dagger fencer (suboptimal but who gives a fuck, there are no charoppers in the group) but it isn't supported by the system in any way. Had anyone run into this?

I'm thinking of making a custom fighting style that allows you to treat off-hand daggers when you have a Finesse weapon in your main hand as shields. Maybe even allowing you to attack with the dagger as if your main hand weapon was also Light but then it's not counted as a shield anymore until the start of your next turn.

>I'm trying to build a Paladin/Sorcerer,
>So far I have
>Ftr 1/ Paladin 4 (Oathbreaker),
>16Str/16Cha/14Con/8Int/8Dex/10Wis
>Polearm Master + ASI/GWM, not sure yet.
>Looking to go to Paladin 7 for the Oathbreaker damage aura and the Save Aura.
>Then I wanna go for 5 levels in shadow sorceror for Haste.
>Not 100% sure where to go after that.

Anyone built a Paladorc before? Am I going in the right direction?

The halfling's Lucky trait is a pretty good representation of a cat's nine lives instead of that 1d4 HP thing.

No such thing as ice damage, you probably mean cold damage.

History doesn't deal with the value of jewelry RAW. It's a plain Intelligence check with no associated skill. Drop the history part of that feature and just tweak the wording to "you add double your proficiency bonus to Intelligence checks made to appraise the value of jewelry."

If you want to give them something else, give them 30 ft. movement speed. No small race has that and it's a simple tweak that is useful if you do grid combat.

You used my Jew joke

Fighter can cross-class into anything decently in 5e. If you have a GM who's not a total shit, Clerics can do it reasonably well.

> I'm thinking of making a custom fighting style that allows you to treat off-hand daggers when you have a Finesse weapon in your main hand as shields. Maybe even allowing you to attack with the dagger as if your main hand weapon was also Light but then it's not counted as a shield anymore until the start of your next turn.

Why not just refluff a shield as a dagger in that case? Giving up a fighting style for what is essentially a shield with the chance of doing 1d4 damage and losing 2AC seems pretty shitty. Maybe have something instead like if you get hit by an attack, you can use your reaction to increase your AC by 2 and deal 1d4 damage to the attacker?

If you're flexible, go bard and use magical secrets to pick up things like Conjure Animals, Spirit Guardians, Animate Dead, etc. Use voodoo chants for Bardic Inspiration and Cutting Words. I would think of witch doctors being very vocal.

>Maybe have something instead like if you get hit by an attack, you can use your reaction to increase your AC by 2 and deal 1d4 damage to the attacker?
Ooooh, that sounds much better. Would it increase AC retroactively?

>Ooooh, that sounds much better. Would it increase AC retroactively?
I would imagine it works like the shield spell, so if the enemy rolls 19 and I have 18 AC, I can use my reaction to bump my AC to 20 and therefore not get hit by the attack.

>rapiers are suboptimal
Duelist fighting style exists. Don't coddle a special snowflake.

Nope! Strictly speaking you can have a magical weapon with no properties other than being magic. That's still a huge deal when it comes to resistances.

>historical fighting style
>special snowflake
sure thing bub

You're probably missing out on the scaling spell slots, the spells they have that get better because of those scaling spell slots, and mystic arcanum giving you access to high level magic. You only have significantly less magic to use than other spellcasters if your DM deprives you of short rests.

You pick spells for power. Versatility comes from invocations and 2 of the 3 pacts. Blade is not really that versatile.

Restituion means absolutely nothing to a Oath of Vengeance. They can declare anyone who disturbs their quest to be an enemy of justice and exterminate them on the spot. At the farthest end of the spectrum a wanted bandit is hiding out in a tavern room but the Tavernkeeper won't give you the key to his room? Tavernkeeper is an accomplice. Murder him on the spot and anyone who tries to stop you in the tavern. When the floor has been cleared, the Barkeep and a few patrons dead the paladin can move up to the rooms and murder the bandit in his bed while the guy begs for mercy. This is all within the OaV tenets. Then just to be sure on the way out, they can lock the doors and set fire to the building just to be safe and make sure they got all of those evil-dooers and criminals who were hiding in other rooms, while killing any town-guards who try to stop them on their way out of town. Can't have measly lawkeepers interrupting TRUE JUSTICE.

Oath of Vengeance are Lawful Neutral at best, with the dickier ones leaning towards Lawful Evil.

Lawful evil (LE) creatures methodically take what they want, within the limits of acode of tradition, loyalty,or order. Oath of Vengeance are pretty much just asshole paladins who want to murder people who they see as "Villians" at any cost, the boot fits.

Yup, sounds good. I'll give him a choice of either taking this or keeping a shield refluffed into a dagger and taking Dueling FS

As for rapiers being worse than longswords... well, it's an iron-poor setting (and his rapier cost silly amounts of money) so basically no one has decent armor and most of the party is DEX-heavy because of that