/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

It would make absolutely no sense for Strahd to save them unless literally the only thing keeping Ireena alive was the party. Strahd wouldn't necessarily kidnap Ireena immediately, he likes to think of himself as a more romantic, aloof figure.

I gotchu covered brah
imgur.com/a/Am8XK

Strahd's plan is to wait for edgy, That Guy adventurers to try to rape Ireena, then he can white knight in.

But then you can spend those stat-ups and feats elsewhere.

I'm still skeptical if they would outdamage, but ... No, okay, if you get the +10 damage and you have advantage and manage to hit a few times, it'd definitely out-damage. Still, it's competing with things like sneak attack which has a much higher chance of giving all its damage.

Though really the intent of the barbarian-rogue thing isn't to entirely outdamage the barbarian. It's to avoid all the crap from level 6 onwards on barbarian and instead get something more worth it.

Berzerker with GWF and a great weapon would no doubt outdamage the rogue, but they make some great sacrifices.

And how does that stop you?
You either use two-weapon-fighting, or rapier and shield.
Totem barbarian is supposedly better if you go two-weapon-fighting anyway.
Keep dex at about 14 because you need 13 dex to multiclass into rogue and you'd want it so you can wear medium armour.
Maybe if you get insanely good stats you might end up going no armour at all, though.

I'd just go with a short term spell effect, a long term spell effect, and a permanent crafting option to grant a weapon a +0 magical affect that bypasses both general physical resistance and a specific damage resistance that can only be bypassed by that exact type of damage. I *might* give the BBEG damage immunity to other forms of damage, but I'd use that sparingly if at all.

*unless*

The point is that "we" make and use the weapons that are mankind's only hope against "them" in which case I'd give all of "them" the resistance but make it relatively easy/cheap for "us" to keep our weapons blessed.

(OP) #
My party hit the Bonegrinder last night!

Over two sessions:
>Party sees the old woman arguing with Barovians
>Rogue intervenes, pays a fake debt the Barovians owe
>Ranger figures out he was duped, they stealth together
>Through a series of mishaps the old woman gets away with a suspiciously child-sized burlap sack that squirms constantly
>Party finds drugged out townsfolk
>Ismark says the old woman comes from the windmill he thinks
>Stuff happens
>On the road to Vallaki, they stop by the Vistani
>Vistani tell them to no go to the windmill
>Vistani say sleep at the crossroads by the windmill and then decide
>Party moves on, scaling the walls of the waterfall and fighting Druids
>Extra long rest about a mile and some change from the windmill
Had they slept like the Vistani told them there would be extra spoopy stuff involving teeth.
>Meet some werewolves they convince to not eat them
>Get closer to the windmill
>There is constant rain
>They see the ghostly images of creepy children
>They understand a Raven is trying to warn them
>They enter and see bones
>They try to burn it down, but every fire is snuffed out by a strange wind
>They enter again and have a funny exchange of words with the old woman
>She suddenly appears behind them to spook them
>She paralyzed 4/6 party members and NPCs in a single spell
>Initiative
>She tries to get them to leave and tries to bargain with them poorly
>Rolls go their way despite me using the coven spells as a legendary action
>She retreats in the windmill and slams the door taking a bunch of opportunity attacks
>End of session

I have warned them next session I'm taking off the kid gloves, they will most definitely all die since I didn't cast damage dealing spells at all yet. The thing is, does it makes sense to have Ismark and Ireena run away? Where would they go? How do I handle the dark powers if they die there? Would it make sense for Strahd to save them and take Ireena?

So, they're equally viable?

Fuck off with your viable shit.

Sounds like some viaBULLSHIT to me

...

How to use a net efficiently as a fighter?

I'm the only melee person in my party and I have to be able to at least occupy some people for my friends to deal damage.

I'm roleplaying as a fisherman so I thought a net would be fitting.

How do I use one smartly?

Is this some sort of trigger word for you?

I was wondering if either option might be a dud like the elemental monk or something.

Nets waste your extra attacks.
If you want to throw lots out, you could get the feat that allows you to two-weapon-fight without light weapons.
That way, you can make your attack with a one-handed weapon and then, as a bonus action, throw the net.

Still, nets work best on beastmasters or someone who has only one attack every turn and has nothing better to do that turn.

Of course, you could ask your DM to let you get creative and make a netgun.

My goal was to get great weapon master.

Throw out nets then 2 hand a trident to fuck people's shit.

Thing is that nets suck and that the enemy has to make a save of 10 to get out and also the net breaks if it takes 5 slashing dmg.

So I was thinking maybe reinforced steel nets or something but that's not something a lvl 1 should have.

Can't I still throw a net and then attack without a two weapon fighting skill?

Reinforced nets might be a good idea, but..

The enemy still has to take an action, or an attack with disadvantage against the net to get free. If they have multi-attack they won't completely waste their action if they then go on to attack you.

Also, the net can only take slashing damage.

Also, if you throw the net before the monster even gets a turn, everybody gets advantage before the monster can even react.

Nets aren't bad.
They're just hard to use effectively on a fighter as they consume your multiattack.

Those dices are so bad.
You can learn to toss them such that they land somewhere on the hemisphere with the higher values.
Had a player who cheated the hell out of dnd with that die

Homebrew Invocations:

Hexblade (blade pact) :
Whenever you cast the Hex spell you can make an attack with your pact weapon as part of the same bonus action. Additionally you can transfer the Hex onto a new target as a free action once per turn.

Eldritch claws (no requirement):
You add your proficiency bonus to attack and damage rolls with natural weapons gained from the alter self spell.

Binder (Chain pact lvl 11):
You may merge with your familiar at will as a free action.
You gain additional AC equal to half of your proficiency bonus and 2 other abilities related to the nature of your familiar.
Examples
- Imp - your weapon attacks deal an additional Cha mod poison damage and you gain a ressistance to fire damage.
- Fairy dragon - You add an additional half of your proficiency bonus to all checks pretaining to illusions and gain flight equal to your land movement speed.

everything that is not Elemental monk, beastmaster or berserker is viable

Hexblade seems nice.
Eldritch claws seems more fluff than anything. Alter self just wasn't made to be good, I suppose. Except in a jailbreak.

Binder seems overpowered.
>fuse with imp
>gain AC increase
>gain magic resistance
>gain at-will invisibility as an action

Asking again this thread. Has anyone got an extension for the PHB Wild Magic table that doesn't tend to be ridiculous like the d1000 ones out there?
If not, does anyone want to see if we can scrape up 50 more effects so we can fill a full d100?

No worries senpai

Posting here for input on some homebrew archetypes.

The Legend Pact for the Warlock draws its power from the collected myths and tales of a legendary folk hero.

The Spellcoder wizard uses careful planning to improve the power of his or her spells.

I'm looking for anything that's too strong or too weak or if it could be combined with something in a game-breaking way. Specific trouble spots are listed at the bottom of the document.

Turns out you're both illiterate

Wild Magic from the books is garbage. I don't know why would anyone use that crap as a DM.
The only effects that are nice are mundane visual ones, and even better would be to just improv on spot
something that makes sense. Also the occurrence rate in the book is stupid

Well eldritch claws boosts them enough to work well enough in combat which is Ok.
Basically a scaling magic weapon you always have on you.
This will be great on a fighter or Barbarian as an MC option.

I thought the same on the binder so I made it require 11 warlock levels.

>Permanent changes that repeat often and range from "Slight fluff" to "Permanant buff" to "If you do this it will kill you"
0083 After each spell, caster is afraid of his own name
0085 After each spell, caster is base AC zero for 1d4 rounds
0090 After each spell, caster is immune to bludgeons for 1d4 rounds
I...I'm not even going to keep sorting through this for specific examples. Most of these are terribly disruptive to the game and far to wide reaching to consider using.
Which is why we need more, no?

Is it worth and how would you go about punishing that sort of "my first PC" character as a DM? (Without telling them they can't play)
I've got a player who is trying to take homebrew elements and is obviously an orphan, super unique, that kind of thing.

>punishing
Just tell them to stick to core instead of acting like a passive agressive bitch DM

Also urchin is in the fucking PHB

They say the only way to improve at something is to get rid of the shoddy work. Put your bad drawing out on paper, let your off pitch notes fly loose, and when they're cleaned out you can make the good stuff.
The same applies. Just treat them with the same judgement you would other characters. Don't let them use ridiculous homebrew and have the world interact back in a logical way.

Well, I took a second look at eldritch claws and it's not as bad as it first looks.

However, you're a warlock. Getting into melee. With a concentration spell. It's destined to go wrong when you could have used that spell and action to just straight-up deal damage instead.

If you made it so you could then make the attack action as part of using alter self to gain natural weapons, I think it might be good.

It still has the major problem of using a spell at all and concentration and an invocation, but I can certainly see it getting used. A barbarian would be able to wear a shield and use the unarmed strikes for two-weapon-fighting, which would be a fair butviable thing to multiclass for, I think.

Even so, limiting it to a level 11 warlock doesn't seem fair even then.

It's a way, way better version of 'at one with shadows' which requires you to be in darkness and not move at all, and doesn't give you the AC increase or magic resistance.

I think instead it should be
>no AC increase
>choose only one feature to gain when you fuse
That means you can choose between things like at-will invisibility (Again, obsoletes at one with shadows, not that that was a great invocation anyway), magic resistance, et cetera.

I'd like to see the homebrew, so I can laugh at it.

>permanent buff
There is also a table for when an effect ends.

And, typically, it doesn't tend to kill.

The problem is with creating new wild magic effects, is that you'll either buff wild mage or nerf it.

As it currently stands, I believe the wild magic table is a buff to sorcerers. However, it's only a 1/20 chance of happening anyway.

An increase in the rate of wild magic by four times and an increase in the wild surge table would be nice, what with wild sorcerers not being considered too awfully strong anyway, just fun.

Hey 5e. I need an idea for BBEG that isn't a humanoid. I have one villain who is an Elf and another villain that is an evil Robin Hood.
Both those villains aren't large and imposing. They both are cunning villains who don't command an army.

What type of intimidating creatures could make interesting conquerors. I was thinking of powerful rogue Storm Giant who enslaved many different dragons.

I want a villain who would instill fear into my PCs.

An old, evil giant wouldn't be a bad choice.

Don't make the giant directly confront or regard the players too much, but kind of make sure they see him and are aware of him.

It's better to have the 'villain you can't really kill yet but can kill later' not really caring about you than having him constantly breathing down your back, because otherwise he could just step out and murder you himself.

Although, there could always be a thing where he arrives after you fuck something he likes up and gets angry, but the party has several ways to escape him what with him being big and old and you having a lot of places to hide.

I think you're misinterpreting the wild magic features.
Wild Magic Surge
>Immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st level or higher, the DM *CAN* have you roll a d20. If you roll a 1, roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect.
Tides of Chaos
>Any time before you regain the use of this feature, the DM *CAN* have you roll on the Wild Magic Surge table immediately after you cast a sorcerer spell of 1st or higher level. You then regain the use of this feature.
It's entirely DM dependent. They could have you roll it all the time and be a walking storm of advantage and magic, or forget about it entirely and have you never surge at all.
It isn't 1/20, it's "When the DM wills" if you're using your main feature.

I completely understand that, and I just go by the assumption that if the player is playing a wild sorcerer they'll actually ask their DM how often they'll trigger it.

Dragon. Duh.

Beholder.

Any classic D&D BBEG

It's a variant wizard that can use nothing but telekinesis, doesn't use spell slots and has zero options for progression aside from feats and stat increase.

So the master of the unseen hand from 3.5, that sucked a fat dick unless you cheesed your way into being a ghost since they had telekinesis at-will.

So.. Either shite, or very, very front-loaded and encourages taking it as a multi-class?

What's it called, or is it something they made up themselves?

I saw something yesterday about Storm King's Thunder previews before I had to go out. Any update on that?

He forwarded me a document called the telekinetic, so I don't have a link, it looks pretty BS for 5e so I assume he's trying to sneak in something from 3.5

I wonder if I could hide his character being a ghost that possessed his body. Is that taking too much control over PCs as the DM?

Yeah, no.

If the homebrew isn't even uploaded to something, then it's gauranteed to be trash.

I still believe the only truly decent homebrew I've seen in the Tarrochi, and even that has a couple of flaws.

Oh, and the four-elements monk alternative didn't look so bad either, I suppose. After they fixed broken things like water whip.

This is why I just always have them roll the d20 and then give them Tides of Chaos back when they surge as a result.

I've got enough shit on my table controlling the enemies and writing the story, I don't also need the player yelling at me because I am "gimping" their character.

Keep an eye on this page over the next two weeks or so:
dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/extralife2016

WotC tends to not do shit on weekends so it probably won't be updated til Monday.

Can a full party of 4 level 5s take out a young blue dragon?

The challenge rating is 9 I think, so probably not without some difficulty or death.

Depends on the party and their gear / resources.

I'd say yes if they can prepare specifically for the fight or prep the battlefield in some way, but as a surprise encounter it'd depend on the party.

Anyone have any mapping tools they recommend?
I've seen some really great software online but it's not free. (And I can't find a torrent)

For now I am using pen and paper.

A good image editor (Photoshop or GIMP) will always have the best results if you take the time to use it.

Chromatic dragon, aboleth, beholder, weird-ass demons and fey, dude you have monster manual and tome of beasts

My party has been having an easy time in my campaign through a string of really good rolls, and at the risk of their boredom I think I need something better than a bigger bad to throw at them for my next session. I'm looking into particularly devilish ways to make smaller enemies utilize cleverness and low cunning to pose a threat a la Tucker's Kobolds. I've been looking at things like the mini-Ashes from ED:AoD for inspiration on how to RP a tactical yet easily underestimated enemy.
Any recommendations on things user DMs/players know of or have drawn inspiration from to similarly Tucker an especially bold party and keep things interesting for them? Greentext welcome.

Disciplined, well-organised hobgoblin troops. 3-5 frontliners, cleric of Maglubiyet the Mighty One, some bowmen and using terrain.

More terrible homebrews incoming, now in fewer-woooooooooords format.

It tries to address some questions: why would a(n) (optimized) non-half-orc with great weapon fighting ever opt to take a greataxe over a greatsword/maul? Where's muh no shield-one-handed sword fighting? Why can't Mearls write about historical arms and armor competently?

I don't know your particular situation very well.
But my players got pretty overconfident so I caught them up in a goblin ambush with the majority of the enemies at an extreme height advantage over the players.
Only one player realized how bad of a situation they were in. While the others seemed to be like "it's just goblins." Nearly a TPK. They learned their lesson to take into account the environment.

Has anyone here checked out Ultramodern5? Is it any good?

iv been meaning to get back into D&D, iv been out since 3 maybe 3.5, saw what 4 had to offer and wasn't really digging it, 5 has got me interested again. Anyways are there any go to character creators that you guys recommend.

thanks

I'm playing a fiend patron warlock, that's essentially black magic evil Darth Sidious type. I've been having a lot of fun with the bad reputation background feature, but now I'm level 3 and I can't decide which pact to choose. I hear that Blade is redundant with Eldritch Blast, Chain doesn't scale, and Tome is only good if your DM supplies the party with enough ritual spells to learn.

I'm more interested in ways other players have seen or played their 'bolds so I can adapt the ideas or a particularly nice trap into whatever makes the most sense for them to run into. They're wrapping up a mini-module I HB'd for them at the moment, so their next adventure is up in the air.

>are there any go to character creators that you guys recommend
Chapter 1 of the PHB.

I had some interest in it, but after checking out the 30-page preview on DrivethruRPG or whatever it has some pretty crap design. Their "ladder" progression thing is just boring feat chains and there's a lot of 3.PF-style +1s throughout.

Blade is fine if you want to play like that. The other day someone pointed out the average damage is like 4 less than EB at high levels. You would also benefit from Fighter levels, so that's something. The only downside is the melee aspect.

yer a cheeky little cunt, ill give ya that.

Dumpin' these.
Gonna be working on a some magic-blooded races as well - basically races that have draconic/fiendish/celestial/fey/whatever in their lineage, but that don't necessarily manifest themselves in a full class/archetype like a sorcerer or so strongly they cause anything more than minor physiological changes. I'm making them with the core functions of the base race but with minor changes.

...

Suggestion: throw your shit into a PDF instead of making fifteen posts every thread for them.

Need to playtest Star Chain more. I really like the fluff of it.

Don't know how to do that senpai. MS paint and pirated 2007 Word is the pinnacle of my technological capabilities.

microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7

>sorcerer casts Poison Spray
>mispronounces and accidentally casts poussin spray
>shoots chicks from his hand

That fucked my shit up - asking for encoding options when I try to open my shit in Word, but literally none of them leave me with a legible doc.

Nvm - ignore me I was literally trying to open my picture of the doc instead of the doc.

Test.

Thanks senpai.

>sorcerer casts poisson spray
>target is assaulted by a shower of fish

New 5e player with a question.

Are feats better than ASIs? Should I prioritize feats over ASIs?

Going to be playing a Vhuman Paladin wielding a halberd. Vhuman is giving me Sentinel, but with Polearm Master and Tunnel Fighter UA fighting style, I'll really be able to lock down enemies.

But then the question becomes, I'm probably going to give up my level 4 ASI for Polearm Master. Is this going to put me behind the curve?

Would it be smart to take Great Weapon Master instead of the level 8 ASI? Or at that point are the ASIs more critical? I figure you'd need the ASIs to ensure you'll be able to land attacks.

Could use some thoughts on the matter. Thanks.

Get ASI first, there are a few exceptions (polearm master/xbow expert) but ASI is usually best.

I would make your Vhuman feat polearm master instead of sentinel btw.

I agree with this man. Polearm master is fucking amazing.

Your class abilities should be maxed out, with some exceptions (like, if you're an arcane trickster, it pays off to get Ritual Spellcaster as soon as gnomishly possible)

Then, it's up to you really. You've level enough to get a feel for what works best for your character

A goblin watchtower on a hill.

The goblins have cover, up to three-quarters-cover even.
The goblins can potentially lie down or hide behind walls.
If the goblins lie down, ranged attacks will have disadvantage.

There will be traps that create obstructions that will delay the party even further.
Shieldwalls are a thing. The shield wall would be effectively using the 'dodge' action every turn until the enemy gets too close, and then the party might risk taking damage from a polearm master like feat the goblins would have.

A single goblin mage would provide some weak but tactically wonderful spells.

Perhaps the goblins have a back entrance they sneak through if things get bad, and then the upper structure can collapse on the people once the goblins get out.

Of course, doesn't have to be goblins. I suggest a lawful evil sort of race.
A lawful evil colony will likely call on more and more guards.
If you stay there, you'll fight more and more until you're overwhelmed.
Grab what you can and run, and avoid detection until then.

Lawful evils or neutral evils fit tactical fighting much better than chaotic evils.

What sheet is this?

Pact of the blade is mostly fun rather than viable, but so is pact of the tome if you go booming blade /green flame blade with shillelagh.
Pact of thechain gives you some nice scouting options.
Pact of the tome won't really provide more damage all so much, but I suppose you could pick up some things like sacred flame.
Still, don't worry too much about which you choose. The pacts aren't awfully strong, though pact of the tome withbook of ancient secrets can be good if you don't have a wizard for rituals.

>chaotic wizard sun elf
P U R G E

it's that chris guy from Grey Force

They've been previewing Storm King's Thunder over at the Nerdist youtube channel

>implying elves are anything but chaotic

Nice meme understanding of moral alignments you got there

>Blade is fine if you want to play like that. The other day someone pointed out the average damage is like 4 less than EB at high levels.

more importantly, a bladelock has enough invocations to go full EB build AND full blade build. You don't actually have to choose between them.

So I just hit lvl 4 with my fighter and i was thinking about about rerolling as a paladin when he dies. Is smite good? Also. Would it be better to just multiclass into paladin instead?

>implying this changes the fact they should be PURGED

>Is smite good?
Yes, Quite.

>Would it be better to just multiclass into paladin instead?
BETTER? Not if you want to smite. Smites rely on you having spell slots, fighter levels dont give you those.

But this is all based solely on mechanics. A fighter/Paladin would still be quite good and possibly full of RP opportunities,