/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

>favourite
Most kinds of fey
>least
almost everything from the underdark

what's the differences between the Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms settings? all i've seen is that Greyhawk is less detailed and more open, while Forgotten Realms is a very fleshed-out setting

The early Faerunian cosmology and creation myth WERE explained. I don't care if you aren't aware of it, that doesn't mean it never existed.
While it was a good way to explain the Abeir part of Abeir-Toril, a better one is the one Ed Greenwood himself gave on Candlekeep's forums; when writing the FR Encyclopedia TSR wanted Toril to be the first alphabetical entry so he changed it to Abeir-Toril, though it was referred to as just "Toril" still by almost everything written for the setting ever since.

The planes redo WAS retarded.
4E's development mindset was "thought is hard, depth is boring, make everything as homogenous as possible".
That's so close to the writing guidelines for FR4e adventures folks were given that it's almost absurd.

Favs: truly unexpected mimics, creative troll encounters, killing kobolds when party members have kobold-boners

Least favs: rust monsters, invisible motherfuckers

Question: Do you guys use the firearm rules in the DMG? Either they are overcosted or underpowered. A musket has a fraction of the range of a heavy crossbow, and costs 450 gp more, all just for 1d12 piercing damage instead of 1d10. Rules as written even require an action spent reloading. None of the PHB weapons have this attribute, even crossbows, which doesn't really make sense.

You are both correct and incorrect.
Faerun has more "ground-level" detail in it's cultures then Greyhawk, but was designed by Greenwood to have lots of "empty space" for you to fill out yourself.
That's why the original box sex opens with the words "make these Realms thine own" way back before I (and likely you) were even born yet.

Greyhawk has less detail in SOME parts but actually has a very extensive history much like FR does.
The only reason it stopped going into detail was because basically who "owned" Greyhawk between Gygax and TSR was kinda in dispute (there were all kinds of legal problems back then with D&D), so they slowly shifted focus to the setting that TSR for sure 100% owner, namely FR.

That said, FR shares much of the cosmological framework of Greyhawk.

I'm aware of it, but it was fucking boring in comparison. And that's still with just about everything about the God-Primordial conflict glossed over, so it was even more snooze-worthy.

>Favorite Monster?
Liches. They get bitches. And they're all around 'fuck you' style of wizards.

>Least Favorite Monster?
Depends if you count humanoid NPCs as monsters. If so, cultists. If not, intellect devourers.

cool, thanks for the info. i'm starting a new campaign and wanted to be able to explain the setting (if they ask)

Wood Elf (female) Ranger, seventh level. Has no other magical items.

The other notable thing that happened to the character during this (rather hard, near TPK) fight was that she got caught up in close combat, had to drop her bow and take up her two short swords. Taking the bow back up to make the shot on the Drow Priest after melee combat cleared out.

Spent a lot of time below 1/3 hp during the fight - as everyone did.

Oathbow just seems a little powerful...and punitive. Though I really like the idea of being tied to killing the target. That sort of fits the character. Maybe a lesser version?

Would 1d6 etra damage instead? Maybe make it -1 to hit instead of disadvantage against others? The disadvantage just seems a bit heavy if it lasts for 7 days because a bad guy escapes.

Other suggestions?

Dex-based Eldritch Knight. 16dex/14con/14int/12wis/10str/8cha.
We're starting at level 1, and I'm going with variant human.

Lucky seems to be one of the strongest feats I could take at level 1. I'm considering taking the magic initiate feat to get two warlock cantrips and hex, the cantrips won't rely on charisma. Level 4 feat is going to be warcaster of course.

Is there anything I'm doing wrong, besides playing eldritch knight?

If they've played even ONE traditional fantasy RPG video game then they know FR by default since a lot of them copy D&D, which was most popular in the 1980's which was exactly when D&D started getting hugely popular and they started pushing FR over Greyhawk.

The Realms has (had, I guess) a LOT of tiny details about the history and cultures, but most of the people in the Realms don't know fuck-all about it. They know about some really common basic ideas but not about the details, and even the basic details they tend to get my pretty wrong a lot of the time.

are you Duel wield or Sword 'n' Board?

Eldritch Knight is fine, just more defensively oriented than the other fighter paths. If you want to be near-untouchable EK is the way to go. That said, Lucky is always a strong feat but you might consider going High Elf instead for a free cantrip and great stat synergy if you're going to be a dex knight.

>Maybe a lesser version?
If you want.
I prefer to walk in straight lines myself, but if you want to redesign the thing then go right ahead; it IS your campaign.

What is a good feat for a Human Illusionist? The only thing I can see would be Resilient (CON) and that's no fun.

Evil is also much more powerful in Greyhawk then FR. Half the map is controlled by evil forces. An evil Demigod rules an empire just across a small sea from the City of Greyhawk.

Actor or Observant.

interesting i'll have to check out the maps

Of course. Just looking for additional input/suggestions. I really appreciate the idea.

How about something for a barbarian who took down a (lesser) fey noble with his great axe?

>Question: Do you guys use the firearm rules in the DMG?

I do. Actually, in my campaign I pretty much just replaced crossbows entirely with firearms, and made a Firearms Mastery feat that does the same thing as Crossbow Mastery. But my campaign is set in a time period similar to the 1700's, so crossbows are more or less obsolete except unless they're being used for stealth.

Also, by RAW early firearms like muskets don't require an action to reload. The Loading property just means they can only be used once per round.

Sword and board. AC17 at level 1 which is OK.
I did consider high elf, especially since it would grant me access to the bladesinger class.

I feel that my role is going to be tanking, which is fine, one thing I'm on the fence about is whether to take the fighting style that gives +2 damage or the one that lets me impose disadvantage on an enemy attack roll with my reaction.

Yeah, Iuz was basically Sauron, while most threats in FR tend to come from power-hungry people of different races.

Greenwood and Gygax were interested in different sorts of things; Greenwood was obviously much more into cultures and people and the things they do, while Gygax was into big cosmological stories and Good vs Evil vs Neutrality type stuff and so you see a lot of major demons and shit in his world.

Amusingly, both had mysterious collectives of secretive evil scarlet-robed Wizards in the East, which tells you a bit about the era in which both settings were made, heh.

>Question: Do you guys use the firearm rules in the DMG? Either they are overcosted or underpowered. A musket has a fraction of the range of a heavy crossbow, and costs 450 gp more, all just for 1d12 piercing damage instead of 1d10. Rules as written even require an action spent reloading. None of the PHB weapons have this attribute, even crossbows, which doesn't really make sense.

>an action spent reloading
Really? As far as the DMG RENAISSANCE firearms go, they have the loading attribute like crossbows do, so there's no 'action spent reloading', you're just limited to a single attack on a turn. You're thinking of modern+ weapons which have a Reload attribute.

I think muskets aren't a great adventuring weapon, but if they enter the campaign, they'd be a preferred weapon of groups or factions, as it takes little training to point and shoot.

I don't know about any ownership disputes, but Greyhawk was made the default setting for 3.5. As the default, they took out a lot of the details, streamlining it to make it function as more a framework that you could use as a starting point for your own setting. They did the same thing with the points of light/nentir vale setting that was the new default for 4e.

The elf requirement is just a fluffy thing, not a mechanical guard. A EK/Bladesinger gish can get the highest AC in the game pretty much at high levels.

Here a small section of the map.

>Greyhawk was made the default setting for 3.5
And look how that turned out, ho ho.

And now we're seeing the detail removal in 5E's FR because they sure as fuck haven't described anything outside of the Sword Coast, and even there they barely skim the books of established lore from editions past. This is a setting where you should never be at a loss for what's going on where and at what point, but if you're a player who is new to D&D you're simply not going to find this shit without Google. It's not in any of the 5E books and they don't even point you at old texts like Faiths and Avatars.

Do the Furries live in Furyondy?

It's slightly outdated as iuz conquered the Shield Lands.

hehe that helps

No it's just the main good guy kingdom.

There is so much stuff out there for FR though. Just a mountain from 2e alone.

Personally I don't think we need any setting books for the major settings. Just stuff that gives rules for those settings, races and classes sort of thing.

Just let people buy stuff from previous editions until the publishers can catch up with the rules stuff. Heck, I'd rather the adventures be as generically located as possible anyhow.

>And look how that turned out, ho ho.
I don't really know what you mean?

You don't really need an entire planet for adventures, user. And the old books are there if you want them. And there's been no detail removal, they simply haven't filled in all the details yet. FR is not actually the default setting of 5e. The PHB and DMG talk about a default cosmology, the D&D multiverse, but the world is not specific. It's pretty much how it was in AD&D. There are no default gods, just a bunch of example pantheons with no details. the adventures have a setting, because adventures need to have a setting, though it only really needs to be big enough for the adventure to happen in. Indeed, the first D&D settings grew out of adventure modules. Mystara evolved out all the Basic D&D adventures, Greyhawk out of the AD&D adventures.

It wouldn't kill them to devote 20 pages in something to a BRIEF overview of all the countries and deities.

Instead, we've got a single page that just says
>Lathander, god of birth and renewal, symbol is a road leading into a sunrise
Which is really skipping over the Amaunator connection, his whole deal with joy / athleticism / THE SUN, or his monastic and knightly orders.
Some of the other gods who get mentioned in later books get even less description to them
>Kossuth, god of fire, symbol is fire
This doesn't tell you that he's an elemental or rules from the Plane of Fire or that Thay is his #1 fan, that his symbol is actually a flame twining around itself (seriously, they have an enormous blank space on that line where they could have elaborated on the historical symbol, but left it as "fire" or "flame" or some shit), or his whole schtick about suffering and self-improvement.

This leaves a lot of space for players and DMs to insert whatever they want, sure, but it also provides much fewer ideas (and a lot of people need that help) and makes the setting look barebones. And it's not like players need a LACK of information as permission to do whatever they want with something. Pulling this out of my ass, I'd say the majority of players and DMs have an understanding of established realmlore that goes against what is, you know, established, or at least play outside of that because they like their own version better.

>I don't really know what you mean?
They made Greyhawk the default setting and then stamped FORGOTTEN REALMS on everything. Ask someone who got into the hobby in 3X what the major setting of the edition was and they'll tell you it's FR, because that's overwhelmingly what they dealt with.

scanbros got dat Storm King's Thunder yet? it's been out for 12 hours ffs and no one even talkin bout it

i mean im not gonna run it but i will enjoy laughing at the shitawful writing and adventure design

I just got kicked out of d&d.

You missed out, shit for it was posted last thread. Search the net harder

>If a wizard casts a spell like fireball during a surprise round, do the enemies get disadvantage on their saving throw?
>Being surprised has no effect on saves. If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends (PH, 189).
dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-answers-july-2016

If you can't move how can you succeed on a dexterity saving throw?

That'll learn you for playing a CN Elven Rogue/Bard.

>Trying to argue semantics
Just deal with it.

"Move", as in moving feet of distance, and "reaction" as in the "reaction (action)" are distinct from waving your arms and legs around or gasping in surprise (which is a reaction).

If creatures were literally paralyzed or stuck in time during a surprise round, how would anyone ever fail to hit them short of rolling a 1 and missing themselves?
>5% chance for trained swordsman to swing over an immobilized halfling's head while he's in no danger

>his whole schtick about suffering and self-improvement

I ran an NPC for my group once that was basically this guy but with Kossuth instead of his own setting's fire deity.

Nope,I was a half orc fighter

How do you go about giving your characters magic items? Do they find it in a pile of loot or does their weapon sort of take on properties as they do things with them?

Well, storytime you fuck

How'd you fuck that up?

Sorry honored fiends, but the DMG firearms DO NOT have the loading property, they have the much stupider, DMG-exclusive *reload* property:

"A limited number of shots can be made with a weapon that has the reload property. A character must then reload it using an action or a bonus action (the character's choice)."

No, the pistol and musket have Loading.

Read that page again friendo, unless you've got a different DMG from me.

What is a good premise for an adventure set in Icewind Dale? If possible, i'd like to leave out any mention to the Crystal Shard.

Bonus points if it involves Giants, you know, to set the scene for STK...

>Favs: truly unexpected mimics
>my PC's once came across an empty room with a chest in the middle - a ray of light shining down on it from the ceiling.
>the players deliberate for a few minutes, talking deciding whether or not they should avoid it in case it's a mimic. the sorcerer wants nothing to do with this chest, doesn't want to chance it, goes for the exit door
>paladin says fuck it and opens the chest
>some health potions and a magical flail
>everythingwentbetterthanexpected.jpg
>sorcerer gets mauled by the door as soon as he grabs the handle

there better be kobold PC write up rules in the Volo guide or i'll be pissed

10/10

A group of my friends is pressuring me to DM a roll20 campaign for them, the problem is I'm in the middle of a RL campaign with a different group of friends.

I'm considering buying The Storm King's Thunder on roll20 as an easy campaign to run, with all the work done for me (more or less).

Does anyone have any experience with the official WotC adventures on roll20? Anyone have any opinions on Storm King's Thunder as of yet? I know there are a few early copies floating around out there...

Copies are basically out now. I haven't read through it since I'm trying to avoid spoilers though it does have a pretty rad artifact your players can get. Looks solid enough and should be a fun adventure for your friends. Otherwise run Strahd.

I wanna run a quick little game with someone who's never played before. Basically he arrives to a scarcely populated little town at the border of a "grass-sea" a region overgrown with this tall as fuck, sharp as fuck grass in which you need to ride this little sailboat type thing mounted on a big wheel to cross to where he needs to go. I just need some suggestions on which kind of creatures would leave in this place, only thing I have so far is giant snakes with thick hides. Much appreciated if you have any ideas.

I'm already running Strahd with the other group, so in order to mix things up a bit (and not confuse myself between each game) I figured I'd run something different.

Last night a guy was posting some images from his early copy. He mainly posted magic items and there was some cool shit in there.

Bulettes

Large ground dwelling birds that nest on trampled down sections of the plains. (Giant eagles with altered fluff)

>+1 bow

And then any number of below with attunement:
>1/short rest dispels magical darkness as an action by shooting and arrow into it
>doesn't require ammo
>deals and extra 1d8 damage to spiders and worshippers of Lolth
>1/short rest true strike as a bonus action
>fires arrows that shed light like the light cantrip
>lets you magically travel to the area the arrow strikes
>creatures slain by the bow can speak to its weilder for 24 hours

I like the idea of a tele-bow that doesn't require ammo, it just fires nearly intangible arrows that allow the user to teleport to them at will. Maybe have a max of 3 active at once, requires line of sight or they dissipate.

First time DM here

I'm getting ready to run my first campaign. I'm going to set it loosely in the Forgotten Realms, but I want to learn as much about the important parts of the world (major events, factions, places, the magic system, the pantheon, etc) as possible before I do. Is there a Forgotten Realms 101 resource or something I can cram?

forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Underrated suggestion.

Their armored hides make it easy for them to traverse the sharp grass. They regularly hunt these sailboats with wheels. Other than that I'm not sure. Seems pretty uninhabitable.

I´m new to this conversation, but do note that the disadvantage isn´t against other targets, it´s if she attacks with other weapons. And 1d6 extra damage would be too little to be compensate for a possible drawback. Consider just adding 1d6 of some other sort of damage instead, to all her attacks. Maybe even poison, since they were fighting drow? It´s a small bonus, even more considering poison is one of the most resisted damages, but if she has no magical items she will probably appreciate it anyhow.

Weirdly enough, the oathbow is the only magical bow I can find in the DMG. Huh. Maybe you could spend some time to brew up a unique bow for her? Consider giving it charges to cast some low level spell, and/or once per day she can make one of the arrows fired into an Arrow of Slaying. Tie it to her Favored Enemies. If she choose big, powerful enemies, make it a once per day arrow of (favored enemy) slaying, if she choose humanoid races, make it a once per day arrow volley in a large area.

Maybe give her both options, but she can only do one each day.

Honestly I think your players will like it. Doesn't seem that awful from what I do know about it. Lots of giants, ancient burial grounds, a tale of ancient wars, traveling around the country. Good adventure that feels like an epic D&D crawl.

The Crystal Shard literally happened a 120 years ago as of modern D&D edition, so it's pretty easy to forget.
Especially since you consider how it was basically treated in-universe as "oh, it was that thing that happened that one time" and life went on regardless.

>so it's pretty easy to forget
>not even middle age for some races

How do you guys feel about accessories at the table like cards, tokens, etc.?

I like to have everything laid out neatly in front of me when I'm running encounters, so being able to condense a monster group's stats and gear down to a small set of playing cards really appeals to me. Item cards are another fun addon I like to play with. It might just be a description of the item and a name, maybe even a picture, but it gives you something physical to hand to the player and say "Here's that Artifact your character picked up" rather than just have them write a line on their sheet.

Monster, character, and trap tokens are just nice because they're dirt cheap compared to minis, and I've got bills to pay.

Ankhegs. Purple worms. Just about anything that's armored and can dig.

Roll20 GMs, any tips you can give me?

How to filter out bad players from good players etc, things you've learned about the UI and stuff from GMing etc

gonna GM on Roll20 soonish and while I got most stuff figured out, some advice would be appreciated.

Main thing I'm nervous about is players. Played enough on Roll20 to know that 70% of the people there suck.

Okay; if you're one of the older dwarves living in the Icewind Dale, you might remember or have fought in it.
But actually the most recent thing to have happened to Icewind Dale (like, less then 20 years ago) was that the Chosen of Auril (the Ice goddess) invaded with a shitload of Giants and stuff off the Great Glacier.

That situation lasted all of 4e and didn't happen over the course of like five days like Crystal Shard did.

Leveling up a 19th Level Rogue. I find that I'm generally a hard pick for monsters but am always forced to save CON. So do I use this feat/ASI defensively or offensively

+2 to CON (slightly better save, +40 HP)
Resiliant for Constitution (add +7 proficiency to Con save)
Lucky (Rerolls when I inevitably fail)
Inspiring Leader (Boosts temp HP at least?)

Same user.

Termites the size of baseballs that feed on the grass and create giant mounds and clear sections in the grass.

The really bad players are obvious, from mentally ill furfags to maximum edge they're easy to spot. Talk with people, ask about what kind of player they are or what they want out of the game, what kind of interest they have in TRPGs/D&D, what other hobbies they have and what they like about/in those hobbies (good to know what kind of entertainment they like to make the game more enjoyable, and it can help detect problems of course). As long as you have enough applicants you should always do quite detailed questionnaires/interviews (if using voice, do the interviews in voice so you know if you should expect bad mic quality etc).

A good mindset to keep when trying to make your 5e campaign fun is not to match your PCs to the challenge, but rather to match the challenge to the PCs.

If you're worried that something is overpowered give it to them and make them fight more numerous or powerful enemies. Don't gimp cool shit, let your players feel like they came up on some amazing treasure.

Make a lengthy advertisement for your game, and end it with "And add X to your application so I know you've read through it in full" and recruit only newbies.
It's how I got a most enjoyable group, even if there is a trans in it.

See these guys?
Avoid these guys.

I'm doing all that

going to interview a few potentials here soon.

I just don't wanna end up with the guy who's breathing heavily into his mic and doesn't understand the concept of "push-to-talk", or the dude who talks over everyone, the dude who only talks in combat etc

I guess the voice interview will do alot to weed those people out.

on the topic of mimics

>PCs in a dungeon with will saves every few hours
>See things, hear things
>not sure if failures cause hallucinations, or successes allow you to see invisible enemies
>Characters are getting paranoid
>We're not even sure if our xp totals are accurate any more
>find two chests inna comfy room, complete with fireplace and bookshelves
>in the middle of a fucking cave
>also a gibbering mouther
>ambient music is a bunch of zombie sounds from various games piled together
>it slowly gets louder and more ridiculous
>players laugh
>sounds continues to grow and multiply
>gibbering mouther blinds and deafens half the party
>players are no longer laughing
>mouther is finally put down down by a point-blank shot of the dorf's pilfered shotgun
>flamboyant (pyromaniac) elf bard demands that fighter (who doesn't know how to use guns) turn the shotgun over to the bard (because he does know firearms)
"Get yer mitts off it!"
"But its VALubleeee!"
"I found it - those chests might be - and it's mine - mimics!"
>dimwitted but loyal paladin reloads his crossbow and aims at the chests
"Should I shoot it?"
>GM gets up to remove miniatures from this fight and previous, draws in more debris
>Druid heals those that were hurt
>will saves
>paladin and druid see one chest wiggle ever so slightly
>Dorf and bard continue to argue over the shotgun
"You're wasting the ammunition!"
"Ya cannae even spell ammunition, ya nancy git!"
"M-maybe I should shoot the chest, just to be sure."
>This back-and-forth continues for a long while
>a while too long, in someone's opinion
>GM casually nudges one of the chests
"FOCKIN! ELVES!"
"Hey GM, you bumped the one chest."
"You're hurting meeeee!"
"Oh, no. The chest is ten feet closer."
>...
"I shoot the chest! I SHOOT THE FUCKING CHEST!"

Sounds like a good time

Bullettes, large worms, anything with a tough hide. Technically a dinosaur could live in it, but I don't know if your setting allows for one.

Personally I like them, but I would only use it as a player to keep easy track of spells available to me, or as a DM when I give out magic items. Otherwise I print it on either basic paper or a decent card stock and cut it out myself.

>Total Cost per Day. The cost includes everything it takes to maintain the property
and keep things running smoothly, including the salaries of hirelings. If the property earns money that can offset maintenance costs (by charging fees, collecting tithes or donations, or selling goods), that is taken into account in the table.

Am I understanding this correctly and every property is a huge money pit? Shops lose 2 gold per day?

I think you're paying 2gp for the property and having 1 person work at the shop. It says in parenthesis that the shop can offset the costs by selling goods meaning you'd probably be making gold for owning a shop that is successful.

It's probably adjusted for 'adventurer coin' and assumes that any property PCs run is probably relatively nice because they can afford it. An NPC shop might only have a fraction of the underlings they need to keep it spic and span and those they do have are all untrained.

Look in the Adventurers League Players Guide(free on WotC website). In the back around P. 20 they list books from previous editions they recommend to bone up on Forgotten Realms. Inside SCAG they have a list of source materials used in writing that book.

I want to play as a bard who isn't music-based. I want to be a painter, and channel my magic through my paint and brushes. Think Okami.

Any suggestions?

If your GM allows the concept to work just make literally any regular Bard.
Because basically you're just fluffing musical inspiration as art instead and otherwise nothing else changes based on your description.