/5eg/ Fifth Edition General - Revivify Edition

Half-high elf swaps Skill Versatility for 1 wizard cantrip.

gonna do a grappler monk detective for a campaign, how do I not cock up the build? anything mandatory that I might overlook? multiclassing preferences/dips?

Alternatively pick deadly nightshade berries. The healing magic loses potency after 24 hours but not the poison.

Your typical grappling builds include rogue/bard for expertise in athletics, they also include points in fighter for more attacks. Tavern Brawler and Grappler feat are a must.

My advice though is don't do it cause it takes so many levels to get where it needs to be. 2 feats plus 18 strength with an Adventurer's league character means you are a human variant with 8 levels in ONE class. Taking any other race means you get that at level 12, and if you want to try and grapple the 25 strength giant go right ahead, but there are options with less crying.

And to top it off, there are two things that can just shut down your build harder than any other build. Rolling 2-5s, and the Freedom of Movement spell. Even if you have +12 cause of expertise it still will not be enough if the the elf twink you are trying to grapple rolls a 13, and you end up doing nothing that turn other than martial arts punching which is nothing to write home about with the build you are making.

Then the Freedom of Movement spell literally makes it so they can just walk out of your grapples. And with being so invested in grappling, you are gonna feel like you are worthless, cause you almost are.

Wanna grapple? Be a Lore Bard, it's simply the best.

It's a shame that the cantrip you swap to is int based, not cha based

Doesn't matter for Booming Blade.

true, although the guy seemed to imply he wasn't a melee bard.

Got to play 5e for the first time last weekend at a con. Rolled up a tiefling monk, which was pretty cool until he died and got resurrected by some spooky Ravenloft shit. Now he's all smelly. I guess it was some kind of official play thing, but I didn't get any details.

Yeah dark gifts are a bitch. I'd say you got off easy.

I neither read the books nor watched the movies. I dislike watching movies and I have a certainsort of memory that makes it hard for me to comprehend plain story books.

I suppose if you have DCs of 20+ on something this would be a good simulation. A group of orphans is almost gauranteed to do the best they could, but they'd never hit any high DCs.

Bards are support characters with their base list. It's not meant to be a damaging list, it's meant to help the other people in the party do their damage more easily.

Attacks have advantage on blinded and hypnotized creatures. Suggest a tough monster go home and be a family man.

There was one that would have made him a blind monk and I thought that would be super cool. On the bright side, I think he's resistant to poison now.

Protip: Don't name your character after a number. The bits are great, but every time my turn came up I didn't realize it because I just heard a number.

Also when using dissonant whispers, cast it on things engaged in melee combat with your allied melee combatants. The particular wording of dissonant whispers causes opportunity attacks when they run.

Actually, spada longa makes no sense; there's no way of triggering an opportunity attack and simultaneously moving adjacent to the opponent, since you only trigger it by leaving their threatened area.

>you could have any spell
>and you want fireball

well im taking counterspell because it's perfect for a lore bard and I thought fireball so I actually have some damage

considering im the only full caster in the party I thought it would be a good idea. You have any other suggestions?

>using meme arrows this badly

Also, don't you dare diss the majesty of the fireball spell. It is perfect in every way.

It's not a bad idea.
If you've got counterspell as well, you're doing perfectly fine.

It just brings up memories of all the wizards who decided to forego the 'Run around flinging fireballs' idea and win through pure crowd control.

If nobody has any AoE, that's probably fine.

You're right, thanks for the catch.

Good 3rd level spells for wizards? Was thinking hypnotic pattern and counterspell. We have a sorcerer that I'm 99% sure will take fireball, so I think I will be fine waiting till 6 to take that

I have a store in my area that sells both used minis and the random boxes of minis. They have a solid mix of d&d and pathfinder minis.

Tbh for your idea I want to suggest the pathfinder alchemist mini. It's a little expensive but imo it's worth the price.

No, I mean Sherlock literally hires out work to a bunch of orphans that he calls the "Baker St Irregulars" because he can afford to hire enough of them that their sheer numbers make them better suited certain forms of detective work than his singular expertise.

It's a reasonable mix-up, considering the whole pdf is so evocative of past editions. And not in a good way, at that; I think it detracts from 5e's simplicity. 5e allows for extra content, but not necessarily of this sort.

Hypnotic Pattern doesn't always mesh with a fireball-happy character, but Stinking Cloud can.

Stinking Cloud
+effect doesn't break on damage
+still has an effect on a passed save and lingers on the battlefield to control an area after the initial pass/fail
-doesn't stop creatures from moving out of it
-sucks against poison immunity

And that's exactly what I expected.

Does it effect allies though?
That could be a problem.

You could easily check yourself, but the wording is "each creature that is completely within the cloud at the start of its turn." So yes, it affects allies.

But then again, hypnotic pattern also affects allies, so it's not a disadvantage for stinking cloud.

Does your DM let you flavor spells to fit your character?

We had a moment at our last session where our bard wanted to cast silence by shouting really loudly for everyone to shut up, and the DM wouldn't allow it, saying it was a spell and that's not how spells work.

Making a loud sound is kinda weird for many applications of silence. Self defeating, yanno. But generally reflavoring is a fine idea, if you want to change a color or something.

I would allow certain kinds of flavoring - I always thought every class shouldn't do the same magical chanting and gesturing as wizards.

Since the Silence spell calls for a somatic component, it might as well be a shout. Lots of bardic buffs would make sense as shouts, too, if you want a skald flavor.

In regards to allies, Hypnotic pattern has the advantage of being an instant effect. You cast it, some enemies can't do anything for a minute, and your melee are now safe to run in and deal damage, unlike a cloud, which means they can't see and might fail a save.
Stinking cloud has always felt like more of a forced movement for ranged enemies than shutting enemies down.

Fucking hell. Variant Human is just so damn good. Wish all races got a feat instead of this bogus.

Something like Healing Word is a raven flying into the wound, healing it. Cure Wounds is channeling the essence of the raven into the wounded. Stuff like that. My patron deity may be the Raven Queen...

Variant human is only better than standard human under certain circumstances. If you value stats above feats and have more than 2 stats to care about (paladins, some rangers, etc.) then regular human might actually be better for you, with its overall +6 to stats.

Take magic initiate and get find familiar. Use your raven familiar to cast Cure Wounds

>Most elves already have a feat built in plus more
>tieflings have better spells than any feat could hope to give
>Dwarves can literally use heavy armor and not be fucked over despite having 8 STR if you wanted
>Aaronka can fucking fly
>Half Orc and Goliath can reduce if not negate damage
It isn't better than most racial things, but the sheer swing capability of just getting a feat makes it viable.

If anyone here is interested we just started a D&D 5E podcast. Bi-weekly, original story. Check it out if you want.

Link: www.bearsanddragons.com

You can get three 16's as a variant, plus an extra skill

I'll give it a listen, but your audio quality better not be shit.

I hope it's good enough.

One in particular was Violet-Ice Blade. Just GFB, but ice-themed. Also, I've got a laundry list of spells that are basically just buffs reflavored to Ice. Time Stop might be freezing time itself, Hold Monster could be freezing them in place, Booming Blade encases the enemy in ice that can be easily broken, but damages the enemy when they do so.

What has been your most useful animal form?

okay sorry

I HAVE AUTISM

I'm a wizard too, so no need ;)

I'm also working with my DM on a homebrew cantrip that is basically commending a soul to the Raven Queen (so they die if it drops them to 0).

>cat race

I nearly turned it off there

A player of mine and myself are actually trying to come up with a racial trait for humans that isn't "free feat". Something similar, in a mechanical and flavour sense, to things like Stone's Endurance or Fey Ancestry (only for humans).
Going off an user's ideas, we're using half-elf as the basis (+1 in two ability scores, but +2 Con not Cha), with a skill proficiency, a language and then this racial trait.

Sick! He just wants to be Monster hunter Feylines. I dunno. It pretty much has not affected anything

>new guy joins group
>is playing a gnome
>gets introduced to the party
>one of our party members is a very stuck up high elf noble lady, my human character had to save an elven forest before I even got her to talk to me
>refuses to be caught dead in unsatisfactory conditions
>party always has to spend extra gold to get a room at the nicest inn in town so she is happy
>gnome walks up and says ''Howdy all, I am the great wizard Boppizo the bashful and I-''
>High elf ''Shut the fuck up you stupid fucking midget''

Was she in the right? Should Gnomes be bullied?

I kept watching because you guys explained it well enough

Yeah i think that's good roleplay

I need to come up with a boss encounter for a mid-high level party. Because the dungeon involves the Far Realms, it can be nearly anything. Any ideas?

Kraken with mind-fuckery. Drive them mad and feast on their entrails.

That's good. I was legitimately concerned about crafting that race. I hope it comes across well enough.

Gnomes are bad, but Elves are really the true scum. Elves are never in the right

A fair number of races do look down upon gnomes, but usually are never so harsh about it. With that said, a noble high elf with a superiority complex would most definitely be an asshole to pretty much every non elf and non human race. High elves are massive dicks like that.

My short time wild shaping as a Druid included a warhorse to travel a distance quickly. I was a land Druid though so I was more blasty than anything

Well, depends on the setting.

In Forgotten Realms, both Halflings and Gnomes are races that kind of fade-out in the background of civilized life...but they are actually those who turn the wheels...Halflings run errands, do the laundry, find information or people, etc; while Gnomes assemble useful contraptions, make mouse-traps, deal with pests, etc...

You'd say they don't do much, but that's just because you take them for granted.

+2 Con would imply that humans are far hardier, on average, than any other race, and comparable to dwarfs. That takes away one of the reasons to be a dwarf - being solid and tough. I wouldn't put it on a human.

The problem with giving humans a "flavor" feature is that their whole point (in RPGs) is variety. So unless you're talking about very setting-specific humans that aren't too numerous (e.g. WarCraft) you should make them as generic and open-ended as you can.

>Should gnomes be bullied?
No. However,
>Should high elves be racist jackasses?
Yes, but their less-racist companions should call them out on it and expect them to shed the attitude over years of adventuring with non-elves.

Make it a beholder, a classic DnD enemy that I never see used.

Yes, use a beholder. And have Belle's soul trapped in his eye. :^)

>his
What, just because he has 11 eyes you just assume he's male? Don't go misgendering Beholders you fucking bigot.

>Beholder
Why the hell didn't I think of this sooner? Literally perfect material for an aberration-themed dungeon. Thanks user!

I checked the first couple minutes and the audio's fine. I'll give it a listen.

>the beholder's anti--magic ability works against their own rays

I love things like this, and I don't see things like this used enough.

Great abilities that have flaws.

While the core books tend to be like this, DMs themselves often fail to put things like this in when they brew something up themselves.

>spirit guardians
>yes, you can tell the guardians not to attack some people, but if a friendly woman jumps out of the bushes you haven't seen before they'll still be hurt by it
>fireball, you straight up get hurt by it
>bear barbarians.. Still takes psychic damage atfull

Though I also hate a lot of non-cursed magical items for this reason, and DMs typically just gift out non-cursed magical items.

Boots of flying are a prime example.
>they have limited flying time! They can only let you fly for HOURS ON END.
>they then prevent fall damage
Sure, a wizard carefully designed these boots to remove the flaws, but it should at least be a rare item.

Cursed yet useful items are just the best, providing you don't just handwave and say 'remove curse!' and everything's all fine.

Currently preparing to DM Curse of Strahd, just drew for the destined NPC ally and got Vasilka the flesh golem.
I'm trying to figure out how that would work with her being bound to the Abbot's will and all. Any suggestions on how to incorporate her as a party member?

And also, how should I justify a nonthinking construct as a significant enemy of Strahd's?

Do they have to be non-thinking?

They could have been a creation of Strahd or one of Strahd's dogs that retained some of the memories of a couple of parts or something that would cause them to hate Strahd.

I mean, uhhh...
You don't have to do it exactly to the letter. If you don't think something works, you can always change it to make it work, as long as you're careful that it doesn't interfere with something.

A question for you lot. How do you justify a Death Cleric or Blackguard as being part of a party with Good people in it, even a Paladin?

A greater evil?

So I was originally going to choose the pact of tome for my warlock, but I was looking at a lot of the rituals and I realized that having a sentient and invisible flying servant that doesn't have to sleep can replecate most of the non "commune with..." rituals you get with tome. And the chain pact invocations are way more useful than the other two pacts'. Why do some many people seem think that chain is the weakest pact?

boy it sure would be a shame if one of those souls of drawn adventurers got trapped somewhere

because with stealth rolls, and some familiars "logical stealth" (a cat in a town, a rat in a sewer) invisibility isn't massively useful. alot of the bonuses from chains familiar can be somewhat to a lesser extent, mimicked by tome anyway.
yes though, hold monster is useful, especially since it doesn't consume a slot, but three cantrips, a normal familiar, and another junk utility spell at level 2, is better than 1 spell at level 15

no one says chain is the weakest though, the meme is blade is weakest

To be honest, it requires a lot of hand-waving and metagaming to work. While 5e paladins aren't as restricted in their associations as their pre-4e counterparts, a LG holy warrior should probably refuse to cooperate with a servant of literal evil without a MUCH greater evil facing them.

Nobody thinks chain is the weakest pact, that's clearly blade. Tome is good because you can eventually obtain a long list of rituals, but chain is good too. They have different advantages.

Also note that warlock familiars don't actually have their MM stats, which is where a lot of people accidentally make chainlocks overpowered. The PHB has statblocks for the special familiars that are more balanced as adventuring companions.

A death cleric doesn't necessarily have to be evil.

The raven queen is a god of death and fate and such, but is neutral. They're against undeath, which is good on the likes of keeping away demons like Orcus.

If you have things that nobody else has, such as healing, then you're sort of a necessary evil.

If you hide your true nature a lot, people will grow to like you before they immediately hate you.

If you really don't have any excuse, you might want to see if you can talk with your DM at being given something to help stick you in the party. For example, you might be the only person who knows the BBEG's weakness - You could have been in their service previously.

The problem comes when fluff meets crunch. What does Violet-Ice Blade do against a creature that's immune to fire?

I don't think a noble should be cursing like that. Not that nobles shouldn't curse, just not like that.

The same thing a green flame blade does against a creature that's immune to ice.

As long as you don't change to a damage type that's much stronger (e.g. changing fire damage to acid damage) you're not breaking too much.

I know. She curses like a fucking peasant.

not particularly, because there are obvious advantages to just changing things like elements willy nilly

i would note though, your bard could have yelled for everyone to shut the fuck up THEN cast the spell, and it would have given the same effect

Bladelock is basically a crappier version of what eldritch knight gets. Not only that, warlocks aren't intended for melee combat, and you have to get invocations to make it viable.

Pact of the chain is pretty popular, and is regarded as pretty nice overall since it gives you an invisible minion for scouting and pickpocketing and minor things.

Pact of the tome can do the same job as the other two, but usually worse. It's the generalist option. Pact of the tome allows:
>better non-MAD melee fighting with shillelagh
>options aside from eldritch blast such as sacred flame if you're up against a radiant vulnerable creature with high AC. Still, attack cantrips aren't high on the list as eldritch blast is usually the best.
>through book of ancient secrets, 'find familiar' for a lesser familiar and many other rituals
>spells such as guidance and resistance without multiclassing
>vicious mockery, though mostly for a fluff attack so you can hurt people's minds with your words

Book of ancient secrets is best if you do not have a wizard. If you have a wizard, might not be worth bothering with.

And, no, you do not get magic resistance from your pact of the chain familiar.

>The problem comes when fluff meets crunch. What does Violet-Ice Blade do against a creature that's immune to fire?
If it's refluffed to be ice themed, I'd assume the DM would have it do cold damage rather than fire damage. The spell is functionally the same so it's not a big change.

What does your death god want? If it's the killing of things, then my devotion paladin wouldn't get along with you. But if your death god is for the natural order, where everything dies, and everything lives, then I could play it as a true neutral alignment. Maybe a lich is coming to power, and breaking the rules of how everything must die eventually is against everything your cleric stands for.

As said, that's not very good roleplay simply for the choice of words.

Something better would be
>"Good heavens. A gnome of all things thinks they're great. I bet your magic tricks only fool a peasant crowd because you're too small for anyone to even regard you in the first place."

Just flat-out bluntly swearing in such an uncouth manner is something peasantry do. This still applies, even in the 21st century - high class peoples tend to make much less use of slang and blatant swear words.

So how would you react if you find out that a friendly NPC is a fiend? What if the NPC have been helpful not just to the party but also to the nearby city? What if it have children that you also detected are fiends. Oath of the Ancients here and I'm leaning towards my Oath first tenet but there is also the whole training to basically kill creatures like that.
Its hard man

It could be.
If it did thunder damage, for example, thunder is much less often resisted.

However, I think fire and ice are roughly on par as two of the most resisted types of elements, close to lightning. As such, I doubt it'd matter much.

So, we know so far that Volo's Guide is going to give us Orcs, Goblins, Firbolgs, Tritons, Catfolk and Aasimar. Anyone else heard any rumors about races it's going to be packing? Or got specific races they want to see?

Me, I'd kind of like to see kobolds, personally. I don't know if they could pull it off, but FR's Saurials - dinosaur people from AD&D - might be entertaining due to sheer gonzo appeal. I figure Aquatic Elves and/or Avariel (winged elves) are pretty freaking inevitable. Maybe we'll get Tanar'ruks (or however you spell it; tiefling-orcs) and/or Fey'ri (tiefling-elves), too.

What do you think?

Are there any good feats for a chainlock? I was going to play as a variant human but since my build isn't feat dependant, I may just go tiefling.