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Gimme your homebrew monsters, /5eg/.
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How do you decide what loot your party got at the end of a session, /5eg/?
I don't do much homebrewing, but I do a lot of refluffing of monsters with slight trait modifications.
I do have a "danger room" with all sorts of weird, out of context and totally optional challenges because my games are never that serious. I do stuff like this:
The Gelatinous Hypercube
Standard Encounter Room (50’x50’x50’ cube) with a hole in the ceiling. The encounter begins 3 rounds after the party enters. (There’s a timer.) An astute character will realize it’s a bad idea to stand in the center of the room. As the fight begins 50’ of gelatinous hypercube falls from the ceiling forming a 10’x10’x50’ high pillar of cube, but this is just the beginning. Each 10’ cube is a gelatinous cube in its own right but with only 30 hp. The front of the snake will always try to engulf, whereas other cubes will attack with a pseudopod if anyone is adjacent to them. Each turn the snake of cube moves 20’’ towards the nearest prey, choosing randomly, even straight fucking up if need be. If a single section is dealt 30 damage, that cube is destroyed, but unless 3 or more gaps are made in a single turn, the cube will use all or part of its movement/growth the next turn to bridge the gap. Once this happens the “back” snake turns green and the front snake turns blue, and the two act independently but grow towards prey or bridge gaps at a rate of only 10’ a turn. If one of these ‘snakes’ loses two or more sections in a single turn, it stops growing and in fact dissolves into independent cubes that act on an initiative count of 0 and a speed of 10’.
If they come across a stash of treasure, I usually just roll on the loot tables in the DMG.
I just use the loot tables. The seem okay. I also have a system where treasures that are way too powerful for the party are found in dungeons, but they are broken beyond repair and the only way to fix them is to take them to a time dragon who will happily restore them to their former glory in exchange for a charitable donation to his horde. I keep the purse strings pretty tight with raw cash so the party has to choose which relics to restore.
Explodo-bots.
Little robots with 5 hp, 12 AC, +3 to hit, and deal 1d4+2. When they die, roll a 1d20. On an 11 or above, the bot explodes at the start of its next turn, dealing 1d4+3 fire damage in a 15-foot radius. The give off a little warning light, and the PCs can chuck them elsewhere with an action.
I see.
In our game, two of the players got a cloak that gives +1 initiative as long as they wear it, and I'm trying to find some loot that's not TOO good for the other players.
What are the other classes? I usually make custom items for each player that level up with them so that if loot ends up unevenly distributed I can help the players that got less loot out by temporarily letting their special items get ahead of the curve.
The rogue and the ranger got those cloaks. The armored-to-the-teeth fighter opted to give his reward to the villagers instead and the barbarian just sold his.
It was our first game so I'm not 100% sure what to give them.
protip to the players out there looking for magic weapons: go to acheron
Holy shit martials out the wazoo.
sounds like a good party senpai
i'm rly happy our gnome illusionist just died
don't tell him i said that
t. male human thief
"Magic is for cowards who aren't willing to risk dying at the hands of an enemy" - the fighter at one point.
I was under the impression that the goal was *not* to have to risk melee.
fuq
basically how my party has gone. a few weeks back the druid and wizard went to the library, and me (thief) and the champion went and infiltrated this huge cultist complex. we agreed later if the wizard and druid were there they would of fuxed around with magic somehow and gotten us all killed probably. just, you know, between us
How do I make a Homunculus?
Would I be able to use one and a familiar at the same time?
Can any class use one or only casters?
I love the party.
>Dwarf fighter asks if he can arrest the bandit who didn't end up dying
>Tell him he can, just has to roll a strength check to see if he can hold the guy down to shackle him
>He passes
>He asks the human barbarian to hold his glaive over the guy as a threat
>Barbarian rolls for Intimidate, it passes
>Fighter starts getting answers out of the bandit, demands to know where their base is and where the package they're looking for is
>As this is happening, the tiefling rogue pips up from the husks of the burnt barrels and crates from the caravan they were trying to save
>Bandit responds with a racist remark
>Tiefling throws a dagger in rage and kills the guy
>The dwarf just storms off in frustration
Their dynamic is great.
I rolled a dragonborn sorcerer for the campaign I'm playing and I am constantly trying to put him in harms way at this point so he can die and I can roll a human with martials because
1) fuck magic
2) i don't want to roleplay a furry and the DM just gave it these weird bright green scars and they keep making me think about how furries love neon shit
...
i was trying to make a strong character and ended up with a weak character structure
I get that you are trying to fit in but maybe try a bit less next time.
so you're saying I should stick with my character
step 1. look at homomucus in the MM
step 2. decide from there
It's a homunculus. Make it however you want senpai - that's kind of the point.
Maybe re-evaluate your decision considering it was made 50% based on other people's/the internet's opinions and 50% based on an accepted part of fantasy as a whole.
Given how rare 5e wanted to make magic and magic items, how likely do you think the PCs in any given 5e setting are the only non-monster creatures in existence with class levels and/or special abilities?
I'm getting ready to run Princes of the Apocalypse, anybody here run it? I had a few questions, not all of which got answered last thread:
1. I hear the Temples are kind of boring: how can I spice them up a bit?
2. Any advice on managing the transition from Lost Mine of Phandelver into PotA, as in balancing encounters, merging the stories together, beyond what the book offers? (I may drop the whole delegation plotline, as it doesn't seem important, but I want there to be a good motivation for my players to be doing what they're doing)
3. Any side-treks worth doing? Skipping?
4. Did you play/run it as a hexcrawl, or just go location-to-location?
PCs are the heroes of the story. If you want to make enemies strong, you don't need a single class level to make them so.
not very?
magic items are rare through creation, some fatass dwarf has to stop braiding his beard long enough to spend 5 gold a day making a multi thousand dollar pair of pants
a fighter has to flex really hard, and read alot of books, so he can make some guy drop his sword
a wizard has to read alot of shit, and hope he doesn't die from reading it
i mean, yeah pc's are heroes, they're better than most everything around. but the reason for that in 5e, is that npc's are just higher cr now, to make it "easy" to populate the world with "not the heroes" rather than just making the town guard leader fighter3
Not really either, I was only prompted to respond because I had shared the opinion.
I'm not exactly a D&D veteran, and keeping up a spell book, even for a sorcerer, is a drag. And, while I'm getting that as time goes along there's stronger and stronger spells, I'm still putting out less than a paladin that's several levels behind. Moreover, being a dragonborn is a fucking mystery to me and is really out of place in the campaign, so there's no agreement with the DM on any sort of lore or background or even deities. It's just a huge gray area and it gives me nothing to go off of, therefore I have been the least active in the group in every aspect. All I do is go up and waste my blights, fireballs and chromatic orbs and call it a day.
NPCs run on wildly different rules compared to PCs, so asking "how many NPCs have class levels?" is a nonsequitor. It's not like 3.5e where PC and NPC creation run on the same guidelines. NPCs have abilities as needed to fit the setting and story.
You're not understanding the niche of a spellcaster at all.
But if you're actually just a new guy, that's common. If you must, play something else. Watch what other casters do - presuming you have anyone with half a brain playing a caster in your party - and learn how to play them from the sidelines.
I can get not wanting to stress with spells, it takes a bit to learn all of it. Paladins are good at burst, blaster casters are good at (burst) AoE though most casters focus on control and utility powers.
As for Dragonborn, they are one of the less defined races in terms of origin, so if your GM just has kitchen sink (or even worse, homebrew world with them thrown in) it's up to you to say your people are blessed humans of Io or something, or if he gives you no worldbuilding freedom deal with the fact that your race won't matter much and build your character entirely on individual personality or culture.
we have a warlock and all they do is cast eldritch blast
he is also roleplaying as a girl
Warlocks aren't really casters, they're halfcasters.
What's wrong with roleplaying as a girl?
I'm just saying I am learning.
What the other anons said. And, you know, you could just talk to your DM and say you'd like to play another character. As long as you're not bringing a different PC to the table every week, it should be fine. Go be a rogue, monk, fighter, barbarian, whatever. As long as it is something you actually want to play.
Read this - it's for wizards, but in general this tells you how to get the best bang for your proverbial buck out of casters in general.
docs.google.com
If I want to play a jolly giant type character (Reinhardt, Heavy, Fezzik, Colossus) what should I take as a tool proficiency? Some sort of instrument? Or should I just take weaving/ask the DM to take a Sewing Kit so I can repair the party's torn clothing and townschildrens' dolls? Perhaps Woodcutter's Tools, so I can spend off time making little toys?
Bagpipes.
>My party decides to split up in a dungeon
>Despite being warned by the guy who sent them in there that they need to stick together
>Mad at me that two of them died
>playing with people who get salty when they suicide
If I took an instrument, I'd like to actually take some time to nominally be able to use it at the table. While there are plenty of guides on how to DIY bagpipes as they are not cheap or common, bringing a taped up trash bag recorder monster to the table would be annoying BEFORE I played it.
Bagpipes.
Has anyone in here used obsidian portal before? What do you guys think of it?
Bagpipes.
My DM uses it a fair bit.
He's got a list of characters, with a wiki associated, he bribes us to write a journal for each session and post it there with inspiration, he uses the calendar to schedule sessions etc.
It's pretty handy, but you could use another website for it without too much trouble, if you wanted, I think.
there is a section that describes creating NPC's the same way you would create a PC, i don't see why it is a problem to have other people in the world follow the same rules
Because it's tedious, time-consuming, and requires you to calculate CR outside class levels in the end anyway.
People need to let the 3.5 mindset die on this issue. They made it different this time, and it's just fuckin' better.
Hello /5eg/. I've only ever played 3.5e and am likely going to remain playing it, but just how different is 5e in comparison to it? One of the things I love about 3.5e is the ridiculous things you can do by investing skill points into certain skills, such as being able to jump 30 feet without any sort of magical assistance, or if we're including Epic checks, then being able to forge handwriting you've never even seen, for example.
I want to hear your pros and cons about 5e. I'm genuinely interested.
it's not different, they give other options, but it still suggests creating NPCs as if they were PCs
i don't know what you mean by let it "die" when its in the 5e RAW as a way to create NPCs
It's an option, and should be disfavored. Ought. MM doesn't do it. It's needlessly complex.
Guys, I looked into the logistics already, and just...no bagpipes.
Besides, it makes just as much sense for the character to have an easy, non-cumbersome instrument as it does for me.
Bagpipes.
Bagpipes
Bagpipes.
Grand piano.
sure, if you want simplified NPCs that don't stand up to scrutiny, it's fine if you're lazy
5e is better in every way except sheer content-mass. But a large part of that is due to 5e's age.
Noteworthy points:
- rocket tag is mostly gone beyond 3rd level
- classes are *far* more balanced and all are playable
- much simpler rule set
I was unaware Strahd was an NPC that "doesn't stand up to scrutiny".
>Earlier, thought it would be much too far off to bring a small keyboard
>Remember the character is a 16 Str/Con Goliath
Maybe bringing a small piano is an idea.
strahd is a monster
So are most men.
I figure there's got to be a lot of magic weapons in the Astral Plane, lost from broken Bags of Holding and the like.
This is just my opinion about 5e, so take it for what you will.
Pros:
> (basically) every archetype or build you can think of is possible and viable from a mechanics standpoint
Some classes need a bit of TLC from both player and DM to make up for lack of usability (4 Elements Monk, Beastermaster Ranger are the main outliers) but they all work pretty well.
> Low levels are no longer a death sentence
Level 1 is probably the most lethal/threatening time for a PC, because one lucky crit can potentially KO a party member. But once you hit level 2 and gain more class abilities/features, and mainly that extra bit of HP, you can finally take a hit from a goblin or kobold and not feel like you're about to die. I fix this by just not adding on bonus damage from their stat until level 2 (for the monsters), as that is what usually kills a PC, not the weapon hit itself.
> No longer requires magical items to increase odds of hitting and dealing damage thanks to bounded accuracy
If you want to run a low-magic or no magical item setting you definitely can, and take it to the level 7-14 range no problem.
> The advantage/disadvantage system gets rid of a lot of the situational modifiers and floating numbers that can pop up
No longer do you have to try and buff up a spellcaster's turn with situational bonuses or random "+1s and +2s" to hit for martials, there's very little of that left in the system, and those that do exist are flat minuses for flat gains.
> Lots of customization/portability thanks to being so close in design to 3.5 rules
Probably it's biggest selling point, in that almost every 3.5 and PF class and race can be ported over with little to no changes.
My cons will be in the next post.
Cont. from Cons:
> Bounded accuracy at high levels starts to show its flaws
When everything you end up fighting above level 15 or so has at least a +13 to hit and DCs above 20, it's more than likely you're going to hit party members with 20+ AC or their save DCs at a +8 or even +9, leading to huge damage that even the tankiest of tanks will have issue shrugging off
> Like every other D&D edition, it starts to break down at higher levels
Due to how 7th-level and higher spells work, even if they got rid of a lot of the 'save or die' stuff there's still 'save or suck' stuff where you eat a bunch of damage on failing, and slightly less on succeeding the save.
> Martials can now do damage, but still lack the versatility of casters in higher levels, and casters can still dish out the damage
They bridged the gap that martials can now do over the course of a battle thanks to various things for each class (getting sneak attacks more than once a fight for Rogues, 4 attacks for Fighters, Barbarian rage bonus damage, Ranger's Hunter's Mark, stronger Smites for Paladins), but the stuff a creative spellcaster can do is still leagues ahead of anything a martial can do.
> Not enough official support from WotC
Some think this is a pro, I view it as a con simply because they put out (basically) 2 books a year, 3-4 modules that tie into the adventure league for that season, then have their general errata and UA (that isn't even on time sometimes) for additional support. They've tried to supplement it with their DM's Guild initiative, but then you have the same issue with anything homebrewed: little to no balance/playtesting of the material. Personally I'd like to see 3 books a year: A new setting book (fluff updates mostly, some crunch), a new book for players (new archetypes, new races, new classes), and a book for DMs (new magic items, additional rules advice, new optional rules, more tips and tricks to spice up your games).
That's it.
The higher end of skill checks are largely muted this go around. No balancing on clouds or climbing up the orcs arse.
Well roughly 10% of the population are supposed to have pc levels (mostly lvl 1-3 fighters , some rangers=huntsmen and scouts of the local Lord, the local court wizard a few other low level casters who mainly focus on doing crafts like alchemy and a cleric or two who cover the local cittys and surrounding villages needs.
There might be a band of briggands in the employment of the local spymaster to control the few thieves around as well as a monastery where nobles send their hyperactive kids to become monks.
There's save or sucks at ever spell level senpai. If you're a melee monster and someone casts levitate on you and you fail the initial save, they can make you float harmlessly in the air for *10 minutes*, during which time you never get a re-save.
>Well roughly 10% of the population are supposed to have pc levels
?
they're a miserable pile of secrets
As in class levels. Most of them are like lvl 1 to lvl 3.
Take for example town guards.
They at least completed training with a few weapons and armour.
Then there's merchants who spend their time dueling for sports etc.
Is a boss using an unconscious party member as a hostage to escape an ok thing to do?
I tried to be as impartial and detailed as possible.
>As in class levels
>10% of the population are supposed to have class levels
?
>not being an archer and using the opportunity to rain down death from above
He'll even monks have ranged attacks.
It's not like every city guard, no matter how experienced in their job, is going to be able to action surge, or even have proficiency in more than a few weapons.
Of course.
Tons of monsters in 5e don't have jack shit for ranged capabilities.
Why wouldn't it be? The guy wants to survive, after all. I kind of did this the other day, in fact, to great results from the party.
It's fine, but it might complicate things if the party ends up split over it.
How large of a garrison does a city with arround 8000 people have?
It ain't going below 500.
Being able to use a spear, shield, and wear a chain shirt does not fighter levels make.
Even NPCs that are clearly based on some classes (assassins, for example) are wildly different than a similarly-built PC.
>It ain't going below 500.
Where is it stated *anywhere* in 5e how many NPCs have class levels? Where is it stated that *ANY* NPC necessarily has class levels?
So suppose a mage figured out an easy way to create gelatinous cubes and things got screwed up such that the production process is unlimited and unstoppable. How big and rapidly growing does a mass of gelatinous destruction have to be before even an epic level party has trouble bringing it under control?
Not that big. Numbers > everything in 5e.
I think he's doing some bullshit based on ability score statistics
weak city guard = murderhobo fiesta
i feel like the average adventuring party shouldn't be able to slaughter an entire civilization
>how do I stat up a grey goo apocalypse?
You're forgetting this is 5e. Bounded accuracy and hectopeasants, numbers trump all.
1000 children with crossbows will slaughter any given epic level adventuring party in 5e that doesn't have a way to immunize itself against the barrages (which, given, you can with a few spells).
If the party is only martials though they're dead as all fuck.
i guess it just depends what atmosphere you are going for
if you want the party to feel like heroes from level 1, then its fine if only they have access to class abilities while other people in the world are just inferior, oldschool role-playing games went for a different sort of feel
that's why the DMG offers different ways of building the npc's and the world
if you give the town guard, bandits, and hedge wizards PC levels, you end up with a more down-to-middle-earth challenging world which is a different experience
Bagpipes.
PC classes are for exceptional individuals, they aren't a statistic. And even then, exceptional npcs have no need to be based on PC classes they can and should all be their own thing
>omd1 guardians
brah you dont even kno
>tell the party you're bringing a small piano
>they think its some Peanuts level shit
>its actually a regular sized piano
My only issue with PC classes being special within the setting is that it makes character growth that much harder to explain anything about their mechanics within the setting, you're stuck with explanations like awakening latent potential because none of the things you can do are actual skills that exist within the general setting.
You can give any ability PCs have to any NPC without giving that NPC actual class levels dude.
>Build encounter
>Have hidden mobs that will only be used if the party breezes through the encounter too easily
>Party gets lucky and knocks those down with ease
Well alright then. Didn't expect 5 level 2s to knock two Berserkers out so easily, but hey, that's how the dice rolled.
Bagpipes.
>mobs
I've played so many MMOs with my brother since I was a kid that my brain uses that word as the default, sorry user.