/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

I've heard people here say that 4e monks were the only time monks were good. Is there any particular property that had that made them so, and would it be possible to port to 5e?

eh, sure? it's going to be useless for the main function of familiars; scouting

every class in 5e is playable and fine.

monks are not bad in 5e. You're hearing that from minmaxing autists with a pathfinder/3.splatbook mentality

>Is there any particular property that had that made them so, and would it be possible to port to 5e?
Not MAD, high mobility, decent utility and control, absolutely great for pummeling multiple faces at once. They weren't the best at dealing huge single target damage, but throw them into a crowd and they're Jackie Chan with a ladder.

Yes.

Monks are pretty solid now. They're not A+++ top tier but you aren't handicapping yourself by taking one (the exception being 99% of elemental monks). They'll do fine just leave them as is.

I really like the volcano idea, though you may want some more trees and different terrain cutting into the volcano a bit. Make it choppier and star like rather than blobby like it is now. It'd look more interesting.

By the way, what'd you make that map in? Looks simple and nice.

I may need to know where to get a cute spider bag like that.
Could you please inform me of its origins?

What do you mean, miss?
The fuck happened while I was away being an adult?
Is Esh-Esh okay?

>Alignment is an essential part of the nature of celestials and fiends. A devil does not choose to be lawful evil, and it doesn’t tend toward lawful evil, but rather it is lawful evil in its essence. If it somehow ceased to be lawful evil, it would cease to be a devil.
Does that mean putting a helm of opposite alignment on a devil would:
>Destroy it.
>Transform it into a celestial.
>Do something else?

Some program I found online called Hexographer. There's a free version (which I used) and one you can pay for that has more terrain features.

It depends on the setting a bit, I suppose, but in general I'd just rule that a helm like that would work as Confusion until removed on a lesser devil, or would be utterly ineffective on a middling or strong one.
The way I see it, the helmet doesn't outright mind control you--it just brings out the best or worst version of you that is already in you.
If there's no good in a devil, the helm can't bring it out, so it's instructions would mess with a lesser being and be ignored by a stronger one.

It'd become a gelatinous cube.

Depends on GM interpretation, but I'd rule:

>Weak fiends transform into weak celestials
>Moderate fiends are destroyed as a large chunk of their essence inverts
>Strong fiends are somewhat weakened as a part of them tears away, though it will return in time
>Archfiends destroy the helm as it touches their head.

Hexographer is an okay base, but you gotta go into photoshop to give it the juice.

Hey /teeg/, my friend invited me to a 5e game his friend is going to run sometime in the future.

I've never played 5e, but I've got experience with 2e and 3.5, so I'm not totally clueless. More to the point, looking through the classes, what catches my eye is the Paladin of Vengeance.

The idea of a marauding, relentless crusader who vanquishes evil at any cost appeals to me, but is there anything I need to know about the class? Any weird ticks or trap choices that I should be aware of?

It doesn't transform a person's essence, though. It just brings new facets of a personality out.

Haven't seen her around at all, I know she moved to Florida to get married and then vanished.

Vengeance Paladin is basically The Punisher, so use dirty tricks. Poison is a good first look, but there really isn't any tactic beneath you as long as you're using it to stomp on the necks of villains.

The best way to put it is that a Paladin of Vengeance is a Paladin that is focused on guilt, in a very unhealthy way.
If someone is hurt, it's because you failed to prevent it.
If an evildoer gets away alive, it's because you failed to put it down when you had the chance--the blood of it's future victims are on your hands.
And so on, and so forth.

Paladin of Vengeance doesn't lift up the downtrodden--they cut the legs off the ones doing the trodding.

Bear in mind that doesn't mean you need to be an edgelord.
It just means you don't compromise with assholes. Vengeance doesn't do mercy.

If you reach level 4 or start as a variant human I'd urge you to take the Resilient(CON) feat; It makes it almost impossible for you to loose concentration on your hunter's mark.

Usually it goes:
>4 elements monks suck
>monks always sucked
>4e monks were good.

Looking into it, there seemed to be 5 archetypes in 4e: Centred Breath, Stone Fist, Iron Soul, Eternal Tide, and Desert Wind. Are any of these applicable/extensible to 5e?

I found it on etsy. Was considering trying to make something like it.

etsy.com/listing/241100330/monster-dice-bag-dungeons-and-dragons

That's the impression I had. It sounds really fun to play. I don't (intentionally!) make edgelord characters, so hopefully that won't be a problem.

Alright. Human is always a consideration, but I'm not sure what race they'll be yet.

Which is what I did; used Hexographer to make the NW, N, NE, W, center, and E sections of the map, then fused them as best I could in Photoshop.

Are there any good 5e artificer homebrews?

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fjnoCiYUCOcrMxffWNwppHfuUDlY1Ae0HQ4t-XCaiPA/edit#gid=0 here is a quick reference for what each race gets. hope it helps.

I didn't really play much of 4E and never saw the monk so I can't really say for sure someone else here will probably know better than me. That said taking blind stabs in the dark at the names:

>Centred Breath

Open Hand monks. Generally what you think of when you say 'monk' get kung fu super powers on their flurry of blows and a touch of death among other things.

>Stone Fist

Can't guess what that did, maybe hit really hard? None of the monks in 5E are really like that.

>Iron Soul

Monks of the long death are super tough. Lots of temp HP if they start killing enemies and the fabled one inch punch.

>Eternal Tide

No clue.

>Desert Wind

Sounds like any monk with the mobility feat. Mobility turns monks into high damage skirmishers who can run from half a dungeon away, hit the enemy, and then disappear.

This helps a lot actually.

How edgy would it be to have them be an Abyssal Tiefling?

Abyssal Tieflings are just as edgy as Infernal ones, but have way better traits for paladin-ing you can find them in the Old Black Magic UA.

Centered Breath monks knock enemies around in combat, moving them into prime flanking positions or shoving them away from fragile allies. Easier access to staff feats for better defenses. DEX/WIS, mind like a steel trap.

Stone Fist are all smash, all the time. They don't do much in the way of fancy martial arts maneuvers, instead running, jumping or outright flying across the battlefield to punch shit (or hit it with a club) and stomp the ground so hard they can knock enemies down. Also the go-to option for grappling. DEX/STR, loves getting huge.

Iron Soul are monks that specialize in weapons, rather than using them as an option. They get better AC and options that make it harder for enemies to move out of melee. DEX/CON, can really take a beating.

Eternal Tide are punchy waterbenders, using overt magical abilities to push and pull enemies around or freeze them in place. DEX/STR, so also good for grappling.

Desert Wind are basically firebenders. Their flurry of blows deals fire damage, they can get a burning aura, have their attacks deal extra fire damage, that sort of shit. DEX/CHA, so they're like a sorcerer-monk in a way. Least support and the weakest monk option in 4e, but still viable.

I'd also be fun to pick up deception if your want to play up the demon rule bender angle.

Iron Soul also gets Wuxia: The Paragon Path in the form of Soaring Blade. TL;DR: Jump all over the place, avoid falling damage, wield a longsword and empower it with fire, ice or lightning magic.

I have absolutely no idea if any of those are represented in 5e, as I've not gotten to them yet. I'm up to Bard at the moment.

Strength or dexterity for an eldritch knight?

depends what you want to do. Most of the time running Str and using your spells to tank is the best option, but a Dex knight can deal out huge chunks of ranged damage.

I go with how PST did it. Their personal moral and ethial tendencies do not matter in the grand scheme, the pull of the outer planes is too big to register as anything else.

Dex. EK is a tank first and everything else second.
Studded Leather with Shield and max DEX gives you 19 ac. On top you can stak the Shield spell for +5 and get Mirror Image which is 4 out of 5 chance of attack to not hit you. The Mirror Images also have AC of 10+ your DEX so even more pros. Lastly with high DEX you will always get good initiative and get on to tanking.

I think a better way to make an Iron Soul might be Barbarian 1/Battlemaster X.

Hey any fellow 5e DMs. I'm new to DMing.. and my last session had practically 4 hrs of dungeon exploring, puzzle solving and basically solving slight mysteries before they finally made it to a Hard-lvl fight encounter. When configuring xp it turned out after a 5-hour session they each only got about 150xp.

I was considering giving some xp for all the traps and puzzles they solved even though there is nothing about xp for traps... was thinking of adding 120xp per person (altogether, for 6 traps/puzzles). Does that seem reasonable? It's a party of four - each are lvl 2. and they're escorting an NPC.

Abandon exp and go for milestones.
Otherwise give exp for role playing and for completing quest. From lvl 1-3 it should take a session to lvl.

Monks in 5e don't have longsword proficiency.

The class is pretty much fine with the exception of being unable to boost their unarmed strikes without a very generous DM because you can't enchant your fists.

I usually homebrew two things for this:

Ki enhanced strikes (the lvl 5 or 6 feature that makes you able to punch ghosts and ignore resistance to non-magic attacks) - "In addition you gain a scaling bonus to your unarmed strikes equal to a fifth of your monk level rounded down."

Feat:

Body enchantment rituals (requires either 13 Int or Wis):
"You may apply a magical effect to your body.
Said magical effect lasts for 8 hours.
The scale of the effect raises as your character levels up (lvl 1-5 = 1minor magic effect , lvl 6-10 = 1 minor and 1 common magic effect, lvl 11-15 = 1 minor, 1 common and one rare effect, lvl 16-20 =1 minor, 1 common, 1 rare and one epic magic effect).
Use the magic effect table from the magic item creation guide in the DMG.
To learn an enchantment you need to spend 10 hours studying an enchanted item and breaking it appart which destroys it.
Be carefull with the Body enchantment feat tho.
Players will love to become an endless supply of "tap water" to a thirsty dessert town or similar crap.

Monks are excellent in 5e, the elemental archetype is abysmal though

I just allow monks to get enchanted handwraps, arm tattoos, shoes, kneepads... really whatever appendage they use a lot you can think of the best enchant.

What are the other archetypes?

No one seems to be aware of the Necklace of Claws from HotDQ. There's clearly a precedent for enhancing unarmed strikes.

Way of the Open Hand: Typical martial artist monk, resilient and powerful in direct combat

Way of Shadow: Stealth monk, shadowstep and darkness. Shadowdancer from 3.5, Ninja style

>Open Hand
Extra stuff for pushing people around on flurry of blows, minor self heal, the only save or die left in the game (Quivering Palm)

>Shadow
Casts some spells with ki points that make it stealthier that have some creative application too, teleports between shadows, can stand still and turn invisible in dim light, gets reaction attacks when allies hit enemies

>Long Death
Temp HP on kills, fear aura, spend ki points to prevent going to 0 HP, can spend ki points for a big burst of necrotic damage

>Sun Soul
Shoots ki to deal damage, can cast and pump up burning hands after attacks, gets a radiant fireball, gets a light aura that does damage to attackers.

Insignia of Claws, not necklace

4 Elements isn't great but there is a pretty good (if a bit too powerful, I've heard) fixed version out there.
It's pretty hard making them balanced, to be honest, when you think of the concept in itself.

You probably can find the PDF online with "Way of the 4 Elements Remastered" but I can upload it if you want. The latest version has light beige background.

Truth told, we don't know. It's suggestive that they have an idea in mind but aren't saying yet, possibly for future use.

I'm working on this for my personal game and I'm torn on two options. I kinda want to reveal that all alignment-dependent entities are one big species, the Alignmental, and when their alignment shits their form shifts with it, so a "risen" fiend just becomes a celestial.

On the other hand, I kinda like the idea that their specific types wouldn't change they'd just pick up a template that represents a profound shift in who they are and what they do. A risen chain devil, for example, might become some sort of heavenly bounty-hunter equipped with the ability to supernaturally calm its targets, using its abilities to to heal and restore but not fundamentally changing the nature of those abilites. Sort of an "on the side of the angels, but not one of them" thing.

They're both really cool ideas and I don't know which one I like better. :/

Are there greatshields in this game?

I like the idea of the alignment shift fundamentally changing the fiend/celestial, but not necessarily into an existing celestial/fiend. The classic example of this is the fallen angel.

there is a pdf containing expanded combat rules that includes an option for greatshields, iirc it gives a +3 ac bonus but reduces player movement speed as a penatly? not sure, i cant seem to find my copy maybe someone has it on hand and can post it?

Nvm, i found it.
Wasn't in my typical folder i put this stuff in.

This ?

As a DM I have a simple rule set for great/tower shields
Grants AC as if it were 3/4 cover, disadvantages stealth, and requires 14 strength to use.
You can use it if you can use heavy armor

~uguu

>Shoots ki to deal damage, can cast and pump up burning hands after attacks, gets a radiant fireball, gets a light aura that does damage to attackers.
Ooh, I like that. Especially if I could reflavor it to lightning.

Wonderful, thanks for sharing

Hopefully my DM would allow this

That one usually catches people's attention the most, though in actual play I've seen the open hand monk be most effective.

The range on sun soul is nice but the biggest burst damage from it is two attacks made close enough to follow up with a maximum ki point burning hands as a bonus action.

Also keep in mind after getting the burning hands feature at level 6, the archetype qualifies for the Spell Sniper feat, which applies to the ki-shooting feature to increase its range and ignore some cover.

Warlocks are the best

Quick question, would a move action like this to flank typically require a disengage even if they're still technically "engaged" with the enemy?

As long as red's reach is 10ft then it'd be fine afaik.

Death questions:

Player A: Drops to 0 HP and begins making saving throws.
Player B: Stabilizes Player A (unconscious at 0 HP).

Player A: Takes AOE damage.

Does it unstabilize them again and start over on saving throws?

Do players in general just start their saving throws over if they go unconscious, stabilize and/or heal up, and then fall again?

We had a fight last night where a number of players just kept falling and popping back up.

AoO's occur when you leave an enemies reach. You remain within 5 feet of them throughout that entire move so no
doesn't need to be 10 feet

thanks

An unconscious player that takes any damage while unconscious suffers one death saving throw fail (two if it is a critical).

Additionally, any damage taken while stable with make them unstable and they have to start saving again.

Yes the saving throws start over again, going unconscious and popping back up is how 5e combat generally goes. The mechanics encourage using small heals to bring players back to low HP rather than using big heals to heal them up to full. The exception to this is if there are creatures that can hit for their entire healthpool in one hit and creatures that focus unconscious players (don't do this one very often)

I came so close to TPKing all my players last night. Out of 6, 5 of them went unconscious during that fight, no spell slots, etc. But I played logically, the bad guy prioritized saving her own skin instead of fighting to the death, and the druid was able to keep the pressure on them while the team was recuoperating. It was a slug fest, but in the end the BBEG ran away (but sealed them inside a mine by caving in the entrances on the way out.

The players all agreed it was an intense battle (lasted 3 sessions for a collective 10 hours). In game everyone's kinda hanging their head because overall it was a loss and they didn't accomplish anything because of it.

Personally, I'm disappointed because I truly thought I was going to hit a reset button and start something new after this session (been in the same campaign for 2 years now). How do I deal?

I dont understand your dilema

I was getting ready to end this campaign, the dice told me I wasn't.

Just kinda dealing with the aftermath, because I didn't really have much else planned after this huge encounter.

>two if it is a critical
Which is always the case if the attacker is within 5 feet. Just adding this.

I don't understand. You wanted either to TPK or to kill the BBEG, and neither happened, right ?
That's kinda on you for making the enemy flee. She should have a reason to stand her ground 'til the end.

You could hit a reset button though. Maybe the BBEG just isn't seen or heard from for a long, long while. Just how long depends on what kind of reset you really want.

Maybe she'll come back as a Lich for the next generation of adventurers to face, for instance.

Isn't he 10ft away when he's on the corner considering a medium creature can't attack someone a diagonal space away?
I'm probably wrong feel free to ignore me

Tell the players you want to run something else, have an epilogue to wrap up the campaign, and run something else.

This is not a difficult concept.

That's older edition spacing. 5e doesn't treat diagonals differently.

I really want to play a campaign in Eberron. Shame it might as well not exist until real 5e content (lol) comes out for it.

That's a beautiful dungeon user do you have more?

Variant humans are OP and it's incorrect to allow them. There is no mechanical reason to pick any other race if they are allowed.

Huh. So you can attack diagonally now?
Sweet. Good to know.

Wrong.

Half-elves though?

I wish I was skilled enough to draw like this. It's not even mind blowing but it'd be enough for me to be content.

So no, sorry, it's not mine. I've got a few saved though.

onepagedungeon.info/2016/

Click on PDF archives.

Also, change the year in the address for more (goes back to 2012 I think).

Closest thing to a worthwhile alternative. A feat will always be better though.

>the monk is missing the next session literally to be in a gay pride parade
How do I quit a D&D group gracefully?

I feel like you'd do a lot for the game by making it so everyone gets a feat at 1st level.

But then you have to change the base Human benefits because they suck a lot.
I was thinking of a way to grab another racial feature from other races, but not all features are equal and it becomes tedious to think of a way to "legalize" it.

What could be good human features?
I'd like a racial feature that plays with our (supposed) greater adaptability.

Just give them another showdown. Maybe give them a few levels before it.

And if you want it to end on a happy ending just fudge the rolls behind the screen.

Adding to this real quick, I like what Numenera did with the Jack. Basically, at the start of every day (long rest I suppose), you can pick a skill and you're proficient with it.

It'd be powerful but, then again, a lot of racial features are pretty powerful, and depending on what you'd do with bonus to ability scores, it's probably salvageable.
I don't know if it'd translate very well in 5e...

Maybe humans gain expertise in a skill? Just a random thought.

I agree with everyone gets a feat at first level and to buff humans a lot though, otherwise there's just no point. Regular human is the worst race by far.

Recover from Exhaustion on Short rest?
>Persistence Hunting

Con bonus on recovering hit points via short rest or healing in general?
>Survivability / recuperation

Reroll one Charisma save per day?
>Fuck Yeah Humanity!

Can communicate simple ideas (Yes, No, here, there, etc) with friendly creatures even if they don't share a language?
> Sign language, interspecies friendliness, etc.

Fake your death

I think the last one is one of those things where it introduces problems by adding a requirement where there shouldn't be one.
People should already be able to do that and giving it a racial requirement just means it's annoying to have a human around making the DM bring up those specific rules (see how a lot of people feel about certain ranger skills).

>But then you have to change the base Human benefits because they suck a lot.

+1 to every stat does not suck in my experience, particularly not if you roll a lot of odd numbers when rolling your ability scores.

>I'd like a racial feature that plays with our (supposed) greater adaptability.

Bonus trained skill at 1st level.