/5eg/ 5e D&D General

What's the most complicated thing an Unseen Servant can do?

Become seen

Do they have anatomical features?

It says formless I think, but it can serve drinks and stuff so it should have the capabilities of mage hand for example.

But can they sex.

It depends on the setting.

Yes. Mearls thought that The first monday of the month being a Holiday meant he didn't need to make one for this month. Fans got pissed. He stayed lazy.

The good news is that he has spent the past two weeks working on August's UA more seriously.

Checking his twitter, it might have something to do with advanced traps?

Probably a sub system variant rule for having traps not be so bad, something where the players are able to make meaningful decisions and have agency hopefully.

>The good news is that he has spent the past two weeks working on August's UA more seriously.
That's impressive optimism, bro.

It means we'll have a real UA. I never said I was expecting it to be good.

Anyone have experience with 0-level PCs in 5e?
Thinking about running a 0-level meatgrinder scenario to introduce players to a campaign. They'd have 1-2 backup characters in the (very likely) event that their first character dies.

Yeah, it just means that it'll actually be a .pdf this time :^)

What's a cool but not crazy powerful magical longsword an elf Eldritch Knight would have?

My party should meet this villain elf 7th level Eldritch Knight soon, they're all level 5. I want something that is nice and useful and with a +1 bonus. If they defeat him, it'll most likely go to the paladin.

Still better than "Oh, this month is just DM's Guild shillery" or a docx he literally slapped together yesterday.

Sword of Vengeance.

I actually ran two session of "Background Adventures" where the individual party members had to make key decisions in dramatic situations as children/young adults.

Third week was a scenario with very limited fighting that tied together elements of their backstories, reflected decisions they had made in them, and tied the party's story together. At the conclusion of that third session they were all level 2 (I use story progression based leveling).

Fighting vermin is overrated.

> thinking that Kike Mearls will actually accomplish anything

>have a huge boner for muddy and realistic Sword & Sorcery
>favorite setting is Forgotten Realms, despite this

Wat do.

Depends, you just a player, or do you DM?

Make up your damn mind.

Have it give a +2 to the Save DC of whatever magic school that paladin uses most often.

My campaign's Arcane Trickster recently got a +1 Dagger that has a fragment of a relic-stone used by ancient Warlocks to mind-dominate a (now-fallen) empire. It adds +2 to the DC of all Enchantment spells. (It also merely has to be carried while attuned to it for this effect).

It's something he'll get great utility out of all the way to 20th level. (it's also a fairly rare-magic campaign).

Use the spell point values in the DMG,

Arrow of Dusk is stupid.

I've given up trying to read this more.

>have a huge boner for muddy and realistic Sword & Sorcery
>my favorite setting is Lankhmar/Nehwon

This is how you do it right. On week 15 of my Nehwon campaign.

I'm the oathofthedragonfag.jpg from yesterday's thread. Decided to scrap it and made a fighter archetype for it instead. I'm the DM and one of my players is really wanting to play a dragoon type character, so I'm just trying to work with him and appease him.

ANYWAYS, I've reworked some of the stuff for the rogue archetype "Revolutionary". Would love some feedback on that one.

homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SyGRUsiD

If he's wearing metal armour, he pretty much cannot attack you if he values his life because of how ridiculous heat metal is, at which point he'll be begging you to end the spell.
Of course, you have to directly attack them for that, but if they directly attack you...

You could just simply bring up how dangerous they are to the party constantly until everybody agrees and it gets to the point where not attacking him is like saying "Yeah, we have the villain next to us but we can't attack him because DM says so."

Put a magic mouth on the inside of his helmet if he has one that screams as loud as possible for ten minutes straight. Heck, put two magic mouths.
Make all the NPCs distrust and hate them. Though they probably do already.

Lock their door really tight in the morning.
They'll either sit there and weep any never go anywhere or rather than calling for the innkeeper they'd just break the door down and make the NPCs hate them even more.

What options are there for a character to gain a decent AC without a high Str or Dex score?

I like the Guardian property from the minor table. +2 to initiative is nice without being game-breaking.

Read the post, he's playing a ranger you silly git.
No metal armor or helmet in all likelihood.
Besides, since he's playing a ranger, just wait until later levels for him to be depressingly useless all on his own.

Magic. Wild Shape. Armor.

Wear plate armor and just accept the speed penalty.

Dip Monk with a high Wisdom score.

Half Plate and a shield. no strength requirement, AC 17 before dex mod.

DM. And I have a small idea of what to do, as I've introduced grittier rules and toned down (in-setting) magic A LOT. Streets are trodden by mud-caked boots and the inns are hard-pressed to serve anything else than pan-fried salted fish. Physical hits that deal more than 1/4th of targets HP (or damage taken when target is under 2/3rds of total HP) result in a locational table roll and appropriate events; arteries being severed and covering the attacker in blood (which might make stone slippery), guts spilling out from a slash at someone's stomach, eyes poked out, thrachea punctured or crushed, etc.

I guess in a way I toned down magic to a 2/10 and turned the pulp dial to 11.

I was mostly looking for other DM's input on how they would deal with a similar situation, and if any players have experience with a more Sword & Sorcery -tuned FR.

changed arrow of dusk to deal necrotic damage, figured thatd be a worthwhile nerf.
Changed the class from cha to int based casting to avoid sorc/lock multiclassing

also Im purposefully not using the spell point values from the DMG. casting higher level spells is particularly taxing on the class, so at most they can cast 5 5th level spells at max level.

Next Thursday's adventure has an encounter on a shipwreck, looking for treasure, with a Huge Octopus in the hold that attacks the middle deck through holes with swords. It has also set net-traps and anchor traps to kill the giant crabs on the top deck that it lures down with bits of dead sailor. It's a very crafty Nehwon Octopus (pic related).

thats pretty damn neat. 10/10 user, would play.

>Octoboss
>Rocking 8 scimitars
Good taste.

I immediately thought of Super Mario RPG. I think I'm going to steal the idea for some the lovecraftian horrors I like to make. Thanks user.

Thanks. The Octo has the ship's treasure in the back of the hold (with itself) and also a special shipment of healing potions. After the party has fought the crabs, (including a large Alpha), avoided/disarmed the traps mid-deck and fought the arms, they end up fighting the Octopus itself, which has been slugging potions from a special shipment to recover from having it's arms disabled in the previous battle. (the party has options to cut off the octopus from the chest at this point, saving potions for their treasure haul).
So
1. Getting onto the ship, which has run aground on rocks at the edge of a Whirlpool, below a high coastal cliff
2. Dealing with the Giant Crabs and Alpha Crab (s), a fairly easy encounter.
3. Traps and Sword-arms (moderately dangerous)
4. Traps, sailcloth screens and carefully placed cargo making a fight with the Huge Octo a pretty difficult close-range battle.

That's a dope-ass encounter and I would enjoy having you as a DM. Keep on keepin' on.

It's interesting, but I was looking for something more useful than that, especially since it'll be the first magical weapon they'll find in this campaign.

Thanks for the idea, but I'm not sure how it would work. EK only get Abjuration (which usually doesn't involve saves) and evocation, but with very few spells and spell slots. Wouldn't make much sense for the guy.

Yeah, I was considering something like that. You think perhaps gaining the ability to cast 1 or 2 wizard cantrips from it would be too much?

Why don't you use the variant rules from the DMG for Massive Damage and Lingering Injuries?

I figured that after a re-read before, but it's quite possible they might wear medium armour for whatever reason. If they didn't train up their dexterity, if they're money to waste, if they found some sort of improved armour... If they have no idea what they're doing, even.
Honestly, you could technically even put a thin iron wire around their neck that's too tough to easily cut then heat that and still do full damage.

But that's a good point.

Bard - use magical secrets to steal all of the ranger's good spells before the ranger can even get them himself like quick quiver.

Yeah, it works better for an Enchanter or for a creepy Necromancer staff than for an Abjurer, I'll admit.

I'm struggling to find a higher DPR than Monk 2/Fighter 11//Mystic 7

Assuming my math is right, without any magical items that's 530 damage in a single round

Like said, guardian is a great ability.
I might also suggest checking this site out:

lordbyng.net/inspiration/

Go play Baldur's Gate or Pillars of Eternity. ESPECIALLY Pillars of Eternity.
Both take place in fairly bog-standard fantasy world (okay, halflings are called "orlans" and half-orcs are called "aumaua" and there's some weird subcultures), but both use fairly realistic weapons and armor and shit.

More to the point, both have some fairly grim storylines, especially PoE with it's core themes being being the meaning and validity of faith as a motivator.

>I'm struggling to find a higher DPR than Monk 2/Fighter 11//Mystic 7

Why?

>I'm struggling to find a build stronger than one that can one-shot an ancient blue dragon
For what purpose.

Not him, but I'd say "for shits and giggles"

e-peen

I've never played to 20 myself, but even by 16 it's not even a slug fest when most problems can be solved in other manners. I never understood why people spend so much time looking at DPR when one of the main advantages of a TTRPG is your not restricted out DPSing mobs like it's an MMO.

My suggestion to you:
>Magic Longsword +1
>(fancy description to read to players)
>Can be attuned to by a spellcaster, functions as a Stone of Good Luck while sheathed

>I was mostly looking for other DM's input on how they would deal with a similar situation, and if any players have experience with a more Sword & Sorcery -tuned FR.

So you want grittier RULES then?
That's easy; do what you're doing.
If you want grittier themes, that's going to be something rules aren't going to help you with at all, that's a verbally descriptive storytelling thing.
It sounds cliched, but the Northern Kingdoms of the Witcher stories are an example of a fairly muddy and unpleasant place that is still pulpy as hell with all of it's warped fairytale stuff and it's dwarves and elves and mages and demons and golems and shit like that.

The difference is presentation and focus, that's all. Rules won't help you with that.

Are there even official rules for multiclassing Mystic?

You could just start mystic and multiclass out of it, class order doesn't actually matter

Pretty much

What are some typical follies for homebrew campaigns? What do you guys think are some really bad things I should avoid? I want to make a campaign where constructs are the most typical type of enemies but I'm not sure how to go about it.

I was planning on using the DMG variant rules you mention, but Massive Damage is clumsy and very non-specific, Lingering Injuries are much the same and the effects range from negligible to crippling (to the point where they may as well suicide their character).
Using a locational table (one for slashing/bludgeoning and one for piercing/ranged) allows me to narrate the target getting hit in the specific body part and to let it influence the game appropriately (usually avoiding intentionally crippling effects for an unlucky PC, but NPCs often find themselves clawing their throats for air while falling to their knees).
Some other rules I use is that they receive one level of Exhaustion when reaching 0 HP, and the need to be treated by a "medic" (healer's kit/herbalism kit proficiency) if any HP is going to be regained non-magically (this means no HD spending on short rests and no full-HP on a long rest).

I've played the BG games yearly since their release. Bought PoE but it didn't grip me, also not a fan of whatever spirit-mystic bullshit they had going in the story.

Rules help set the tone. A setting where heroes are healed to full every night is very different to one where they need to spend a couple of weeks getting treatment for their wounds.

My unpopular opinion is that Multiclassing is the worst optional rule to implement in a system that already has Backgrounds, balanced Classes, and plenty of Archetypes.

The worst official rule is the Alignment system.

>A setting where heroes are healed to full every night is very different to one
DMG has optional rules that slow that down, as well.

Nope.
And not just because UA are not official. UA mystic v2 has no info on multiclassing as mystic.

I started playing D&D when becoming a Bard was a clusterfuck of mandatory multi-classing.

The Bard is now a class, and all the better for it. There's hardly any character concept that requires more than a good Background and an Archetype to pull off.

Optimizing in 5e is a silly, silly pursuit.

Mystic Theurge

I am aware of that, if you knew how the DMG rules work you would see that the rules quoted as being used are slight variations of them.

In the DMG variant, players still recover health despite having gaping wounds that are not bandaged, stitched and cleaned.

>this furry cunt with his magical mouse realm bullshit again

Play a Cleric with an Arcane archetype, or an Arcane caster with a homebrew religious archetype.

Added bonus: you actually get some strong high level abilities/spells to toss around.

Quick question, I'm a long time 3.5 player and I have questions about how 5e compares to that edition. Would you all prefer them in here or a new thread. Don't want to shit up this one if you all would prefer to keep that out of here.

That sounded nice, until I saw that Stone of Good Luck gives a +1 to saves. Next level that paladin will already have a huge bonus to saves, so I'd rather avoid stacking more on top of that.

>and the need to be treated by a "medic"
I assume this means they have to expend a healer's kit use for every short rest healing with Hit Dice? This is also a variant rule there, "Healer's Kit Dependency". I would suggest not needing a "medic" on long rests, but having to spend Hit Die as well. Considering characters only regain half of their total HD rounded down per long rest, that would make recuperating take appropriately longer.

It's for a one off adventure to rescue one of the PC's little sister who's trapped in a pocket-realm from one of her books of fairy tales.
Stop being a no-fun piece of crap.

Looking for advice here: Doing a campaign with some friends and I have one guy playing a rogue. It's his first time playing and we pretty much just threw him into a session so he really struggles on what he can and can't do in combat. We're having an off week this weekend so I was planning on meeting with just him and running him through mock battles so he can get used to combat. I can think of three ways to handle this and looking for feedback on which would be the best
>pit him against some creature and go 1v1 until he learns his shit
>I play a rogue partner with him and we team up so he can watch someone else play a rogue
>Have him fight himself in like a mirror match so he can see what his character can actually do
Thoughts?

>Bought PoE but it didn't grip me, also not a fan of whatever spirit-mystic bullshit they had going in the story.
Alright, to each his own.
>Rules help set the tone.
They won't help you carry it though.
It's one of those things where over eighty percent of the workload is going to be on you, not the rules.
If you want grittier rules then go right ahead, but you're gonna have to make most of them yourself from scratch and even then it's only going to help so much and most of the rest is going to rely on your language and storytelling skills.

If you want a system better suited to gritty combat and storytelling, try Symbrorum, it's the kinda thing you're looking for I think.

1. Use ranged weapons/cunning action to avoid being stuck in melee
2. attack someone engaged with the "tank" (Fighter) or where the spellcasters have given you advantage on an enemy, for Sneak Attack damage.
3. Rinse, repeat.

Is there a good way to do a Draconic Bloodrager in 5e? Basically imagine a magical Berserker that gets a bunch of dragon stuff when they rage. I'm guessing there really isn't and my best bet would be to just go with a Dragonborn Berserker/Monk instead.

1. Homebrew an Archetype for Barbarian
2. Try to control yourself so DMs don't roll their eyes at it/laugh in your face
3. Profit.

Rogues are mostly useless in one-on-one battles. Play a Mastermind Rogue with him, that should be interesting. Or use any front liner that could tank while your friend sneak attacks and disengages. Make sure to turn the enemy attention to him if he doesn't disengage.

Yeah, I get that it's kinda silly. Just thought it was a neat archetype from Pathfinder for some nutty dragon worshiper or something.

Or optionally, make a Monk Archetype.
Which is really what I would suggest after thinking about it, as Monks have a crap-ton of "manuevers" powered by Ki, whereas Barbarians are pretty straight-forward.

Encounter suggestions? My players are about to go into a mine that was run by dwarves, but taken over by militant religious group (basically cult of the dragon).

> Dwarf prisoners
> Boss lady
> I have no idea what's about to happen and were playing this week.

Isn't the Pathfinder Bloodrager a hybrid of Barbarian and Sorcerer?

Cult of the Dragon? Use ambush and guard drakes. Perhaps a Roper, depending on your party's level. Kobolds, obviously.

Being treated is not part of a short rest (which is shorter than the regular rules, because much of what was previously included in it is now handled otherwise, this also amps up the classes who are more likely to depend on short rests (usually martials)) but takes an amount of time roughly equal to the amount of HP regained in minutes, multiplied by two. The character that has been treated needs a short rest before being treated again. Short rests are limited to 2/long rest.
If they wish to regain health during downtime (long rest), they still need to be treated. Their total HD and HD-recovery is ultimately what limits their HP recovery (and amount of healer's/herbalism kits).

Using these rules, the players themselves have fallen into a sort of doctor-patient routine, where they actually care about what and how they happen to regain those sweet sweet HPs.

Most of my previous DM-experience comes from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eon_(role-playing_game) which helps with the gritty part of storytelling (and neat locational tables). Though I might set my next 5e campaign in Mundana, it is very human-centric though.
There might be a disparity between the player's expectations of FR and the FR my campaign is set in, but they'll have to bear with it.

Religious guys heard that the Dwarves had dug up some important Golem/Angel/Relic that was swallowed by the earth in ye olden age, forced the Dwarves to finish uncovering it or their families would suffer, now the party needs to stop them because the thing they are digging up will also free Some Evil Thing.

Now you have a mine with spooky environmental effects, maybe some creepy manifestations of Evil Thing haunting the place.

Maybe like the classic film The Keep, only in a Dwarven mine.

Oh, Cult of the Dragon?
Then make it a relic to control/trap dragons or something (broken if you don't want the party to have it), and that it's keeping an awful Dracolich trapped or somesuch.

Yeah, though I feel a Bloodrager has better martial prowess, which is more what I'm aiming for. Not to mention, if I recall correctly, your bloodline powers manifest when you rage.

>There might be a disparity between the player's expectations of FR and the FR my campaign is set in, but they'll have to bear with it.

Good luck to ya then user.
I certainly hope it works out for you, because it sounds like you've got all your angles covered and now it's just on the players.

Martial Adept feat lets you be a bit of a Battlemaster, Magic Initiate lets you be a bit of a spellcaster. What other feats can you think of/homebrew to be like that?

>and now it's just on the players.
And on him to let them know what they are getting into before they brew up ideas for a character and start creating them.

If you are going to limit the core rules/alter the rules/tropes in any significant way, you really ought to prepare the players for it in advance.

>Player: I want to be a gish but the EK is too weak!
>Me: How about Paladin or Cleric?
>Player: Fuck no, I don't want to be a religious goody-goody

I hate that people still think like this.

Expertise
You may add your proficiency bonus to a chosen skill you are proficient in twice. You gain +1 to the Attribute that skill is based on.

Allows you to be a bit of a Rogue.

1. Cunning action is what he can't seem to figure out. He barely understands the attack action and is more likely to dodge than disengage
2. His other party members are a bard, sorcerer, and warlock. So none of them want to be engaged with an enemy

>Fuck no, I don't want to be a religious goody-goody

Worship an evil god, shit ain't hard yo. Hell, I'm playing as a LE Tempest Cleric of Umberlee right now and having a blast. Though maybe that's because I somehow ended up playing the character like pic related, but uh...a pirate...

In that sort of party makeup, you really want to be the Ranged Rogue, helping to shoot down enemies before they close.
You do NOT want to be the melee rogue who becomes the tank/target.

>don't want to use the shitty-ass character backgrounds
>but they're directly tied into bonuses, proficiencies, and equipment
This is why I wanted to play 3.5