/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General: Basilisk Edition

Whatcha mean? Also, what would you change to make it more Fey-like? I figure being able to turn into Fey is pretty on the nose.

Yes.
It's not their fault and it feels incredibly dumb when RNG just constantly fucks someone in the ass.

Nope, but I do tie it into the plot. Character is paranoid they're cursed and what have you.

so why does the revnant get a cha bonus?

The cult of personality.
The cult of personality.
The cult of personality.

did I just ask an honest question and receive a meme?

...

The force of personality.
The force of personality.
The force of personality.
It's the same reason an unsociable person can have a high charisma score.

Undead have long been cha-based. In previous editions, they had no CON scores, and got their HP from their CHA scores. One of the things CHA represents is how, shall we say, solid your self-image is.

ah okay

Not one of my characters, but in our last session our fighter and paladin were both petrified by a medusa. Both got the insta petrify from failing the save by more than 5. I kinda feel bad for the paladin player since he wasn't present for it, we were running his character for him. But we're close to a city so it shouldn't be too hard to get them back, it'll probably just cost us all our savings (we don't have anyone who can cast greater restoration in the party).

So my brother and his wife have very low attention spans and I was thinking of running a zombie survival horror game with them as Commoner npc's (to make it realistic and fun, and I'll just throw them another commoner or maybe give them a noble as they "progress" through the game, giving them different abilities and eventually graduate to magic user npcs) until finally, I unveil that this isn't actually how the game is played, and that the actual char gen gives them a lot more options.

Or should I just give them a premade and call it a day? I just figure this will be super casual and much more easygoing than just running a premade phandelver game.

>paladin getting insta-petrified
Wat. He gets +5 to his fuckin' save if he doesn't build all retarded.

Anytime as the DM I try and throw status affecting spells and crap at the party they have the Devil's Luck at rolling dice in the open. Even the players with low stats for saves end up with 15 or highers. I even made an encounter where the boss was three Medusa clerics and the players all passed every single save every round, every spell. That was so demoralizing as the DM.

>zombie survival horror game
fuck off

He rolled something like a 2 and the DC is around 14. I don't know the exact numbers of his build but it was close to just getting the first stage.

The 2 would explain it. That sucks dick.

She looked upon a divine-blooded Queen so beautiful that she was petrified for a few moments, if that counts. She's now dating the Princess.

I recognize that bulge.

Can you cast a spell on someone you see with Scrying?

If they're in range and satisfy the other necessary conditions to cast on them.

the dice care not for you plans or your builds. The dice roll where they may.

I had a plan fail because the course of 6 die rolls were
20, 2, 20, 1, 19, 1.

You could make that more fun if they're actually adventurers but it's expected they won't survive the one-shot, and then you go balls to the wall with the horror tropes and undead monstrosities. Just run it Left 4 Dead style.

If you want to have them just burn out and die (which is boring IMHO), run them through All Flesh Must Be Eaten or Call of Cthulhu.

No shit RNG is RNG.
Great insight Einstein.

alright I'll think about it

Gygax does not play dice

>talk about dice, listing some random rolls he rolled one
>"Gygax does not play dice"

What are Werewolfs like in 5e?

I was thinking DR 5/silver, advantage on CON checks, and maybe +2 to a random physical stat.

Monster Manual page 211.

How about lycanthrope in general? I'm using an SRD and don't have pages. I can see a werewolf entry, but I don't know if there are actual templates available, and I'm interested in tweaking it towards something I need.

Download the Monster Manual from the Mega. It's in the OP.

MM 206-211.

anyone ever play 5e using 2dX or something instead of d20

...

Not 5e. The rules are pretty tight.

Thanks for spoonfeeding me, m80s. I checked, nothing quite matched or looked like what I wanted to use.
Any suggestions as to a predatory desert-ish creature that could be used for were-template?
Flavor-wise, I have a tribe of marauding gnolls who worship the classic gnoll goddess of monsters, bloodshed, and barbarity. I was fondly regarding the idea of them deliberately infecting captives with lycanthropy to make them tougher while they worked them to death. (And keep them shackled with spiked silvered collars of course.)

Were-hyena duh

Were-hyenas. Were-coyotes. Were-monitors. Were-crocodiles. Were-scorpions. Were-bats. Were-tasmanian tigers. Were-koalas.

Or were-lion maybe

Lion's one I hadn't thought of. Hyena is... almost too cliche, given gnolls, but.. Well. Monitors kinda work, I guess. I'm not sure how I feel about were [reptiles] as opposed to were [mammal]. Same to scorpion, and I didn't think the last three were really 'arid/desert'?

But despite my whinging you've helped, thanks, anons.

The last three do dwell in and around arid deserts.

Make it were-lions, and then also put Wemics in your game as their enemies.
That'd be a good reason for them to really hate the gnolls.
I like wemics

Wemics are the lion-people centaurs?
I didn't find them on the SRD (quick search) but I do kinda like them. I think I remember them from the 3e mm I had as a kid.

>primalist barbarian
Charisma dependency makes this MAD.

I'd make it constitution based casting, because that hasn't been done before, and seems more appropriate. The spell list seems too small. Of note, I only count a few spells that even make use of the increased save DC/spell attack that your features provide.

>chaos cleric
This features wayyyyyy too much wild magic table rolling, which will both make that table boring sooner, and derail the campaign eventually. you may want to tone it down a tad.

>bushido monk
Level 17 feature is waaaaayy too powerful.

Also, as a general rule, messing with spellsave DCs and rolls the way a few of your classes do should be avoided.

Basically yes

You could get one in your party in stone prophet, a super old ravenloft vidya.

I've had a soft spot for them since then. They'd pretty much be more exotic centaurs.

OH SHIT SON. FUCKIN' WERECAMELS.

Predatory. Want a little menace pls. (Though that might turn off the "I want to destroy civilization" druid.)

Sounds sweet. Any suggestions for culture or design, or should I make them as abusively weird as normal lions prides?

OH SHIT!

IS THIS SHIT NOT MENACING?

Forget my ideas. Imagine dessert-roami ng, flesh-tearing, acid-spitting fucking were-camels

I'm dealing with a druid who I think will be all "Lycanthropy? Oh, bitemebitembiteme-".

If she doesn't check to find out what it is first, it'll be camels. Otherwise I'm thinking jackal, hyena, or lion.

I wish my DM would do that for me.

Managed to roll 2 1s and 3 sub-6s in a row last session, almost died on my very first encounter, having to go down to my last saving throw before being helped and could have been killed while not even there in one session I recently missed, only not having my character die because I wasn't even present for that session and my DM still has plans for him.

I hate my luck.

>If she doesn't check to find out what it is first, it'll be camels

So tomorrow I've got a session and last week ended with us hitting level 5. I'm playing a wizard who I've been grooming to be a necromancer, so the obvious spell pick is Animate Dead, but I've been thinking of taking Haste for my secondary spell. Thoughts?

I know Counterspell/Dispel are both solid picks but we really haven't been doing much fighting against other magic-users, so I think I'm fine holding off on those for now.

Haste doesn't benefit you much but if you have, say, a rogue or a fighter in the party then it is a great investment.

Yeah, Haste isn't for my own benefit. I've mostly been trying to play a support caster rather than a blaster.

Pick counterspell when you don't have anything else that's really competing for your memorized spells.
Having dispel in your spellbook is good, but I wouldn't prepare it every day like I would eventually prepare counterspell every day. Proactive > reactive.
Haste is an amazing buff, but it takes y our concentration. The only thing at fifth level though that's going to compete for your concentration is fly or occasionally invisibility though.

So, the sorcerer.
I've never seen the Wild Magic Sorcerer in play, but it seems like it's very dependent on the DM remembering to have you make surge rolls, and even then you're hoping it doesn't happen too little or too often. But, like I said, I've never seen it in practice, so I dunno.
Anybody played one? How does it tend to work?

I as a DM houserule that tides of chaos actives on a 6 on a d6 roll instead of just at my arbitrary discretion.
Six seems to be alright, though I've thought about doing a d4 and having it trigger on 4's before too.

>I know Counterspell/Dispel are both solid picks but we really haven't been doing much fighting against other magic-users
I don't know man it depends on your DM's style. If he's trying to put some challenges together he'll HAVE to make some casters show up or else he'll clog the initiative. I'd say skip it for now, but go for Dispel next, because you'll need that to keep your summons up.

>go for Dispel next, because you'll need that to keep your summons up

They're fine, just remind your DM about it or come up with a concrete policy about it.

As a DM I do d20 on every 1st spell or higher, with 1 = wild magic, and after Tides of Chaos it becomes 5 or less = wild magic instead of me deciding when to do it.

I'm gonna want Counterspell eventually since if nothing else the big bad of the campaign is shaping up to be a wizard, but we're probably a few levels off from facing him. I did figure Counterspell was the better pick over Dispel though, but mentioned them both since they both have solid utilities.

Basically I'm wondering if there's a better buff to pick than Haste, though at the same time my DM's been pretty generous with allowing me to brew magic potions and craft magic items and such so Haste may be worth it anyway just to brew Potions of Haste.

As a straight combat buff in most encounters, haste is generally your best bet.

There are outlier combats where, say, fly on your ranger against a bunch of enemies with no ranged weapons on an open field can be better (you have your whole party stay out of melee and have the casters kite around while the ranger rains unchecked death from above) but more commonly haste is better.

And I'll mention that even then, haste doubles one's movespeed, so the ranger in question can kite them on the ground with haste on as well, generally even if the enemy is using their action to dash every round.

i agree with this user

cracked out wild mage just doesnt sound good to me, caster barb is really really super extra MAD, and bushido monk just seems OP.

Preparing my first ever self-made campaign for a group of complete beginners. We rolled their characters already (starting at level 1) and I have planned arouns 4 encounters and a boss of sorts (with alternative peaceful solution) for the first arc. What do you think would be a good pace to get to the juicy stuff from level 5 onwards be? 1 level per 'prologue' encounterso that they have options going forward? Or more of a 'level 3 after the prologue' tempo to not go head-over-heels?

Don't want to force them through the super low-level sludge too long as that might bore them a bit.

That's what I figured.

Our current group consists of a wizard (me), a cleric, a paladin, and a fighter, the latter two of whom are ripe for buffing. I even took a dip into cleric by way of Magic Initiate at level 4 just so I could cast Bless and have my familiar slap people alive with revivify.

Bless is such a great level 1 spell. Even though you can't twin haste like a sorcerer can, it's still an amazing spell - your martials will do work with it.

if they are complete beginners then you should take it slow, definitely don't rush through levels 3-5

Do interesting milestones for each level before five, and then slow the pace down a bit afterward to match on with how long you're going to draw out the game to fit in everything you wanna fit in and that they'll have effects on.

Yeah, though I can only cast it once per day sadly.

I also took the time to craft a Wand of Magic Missile in my off-hours to free up more spell slots for utility casting so I can still do damage when it's needed and there's nothing else to be done.

Is there a lore reason for the limit on the number of spells a Sorcerer or is it just a mechanic?

*knows

They're just natural talents you happen to have developed. You can't learn more, because it's just not in your nature to be able to use more. You could always become a wizard if you wanted to develop the skill to cast other spells.

Please tell me the Harpers don't still exist in 5e and that these Mary Sue bitches are dead.

Oh man are you going to be disappointed.

All of the characters and factions you hate are back.

Tell me the horrible details and where I can read them.

At the very least sorcerers should be able to know as many spells as a wizard of the same level gets from their free spells they put into their spellbook while leveling. But NOPE. Wizards outclass them at virtually everything but twinned buffs.

They're better at being dragons and you can't steal their spellbooks

>They're better at being dragons
I like their flavor, yeah. I'll just specify mechanics.
Most of the time spellbooks are irrelevant. Even if you get your spellbook stolen and burned, you still have your spells memorized and can re-scribe them in a new book. And you have more spells memorized than a sorcerer has spells fucking known.

Twin haste-ing Bless? That's what the life domain favored soul is for, the way to become everyones favorite team member.

Twinning bless doesn't werk though. Twinned haste is god-tier.

favored soul is for death domain

I think the Harpers were in the dragon adventure that people didn't like.

The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, and also the AL materials if you care for those.

Can you twin Spiritual Weapon?

Yes, but it'd be pretty pointless. You only get one bonus action a turn.

Wait, nvm. No you can't. Spiritual weapon doesn't target anything.