/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

Manshoon has also accomplished looking more swag then the entire drow civilization, can't forget that.

Vhaeraun has nothing on Lolth in terms of style.

Ancients paladin could find any reason to "preserve the light" I suppose. Granting mercy to someone who shows promise of redemption would count for that. And devotion is as likely as any classic paladin to do so.

If you're into unpleasant and irresponsible doms I guess.
But then why not worship the actual deity of unpleasant and irresponsible doms, Loviatar?

look what I found

this is exactly what I needed. anyone have anything else like this?

>If you're into unpleasant and irresponsible doms I guess.
No, man, just in general. Lolth is the perfect god for Drow. And she's always been good! She's been good from being a creepy elf head on a fat-ass giant spider, through to having an evil spider mech to unleash on the PCs, through to being a sadistic elementary kid with her own underground ant farm.

Even in homebrew setting, wherever I have Drow I have Lolth.

I like her as a villain, yes. She's just kind of a shitty deity in terms of personality.
Hell, if I recall she even fucked Gruumsh once to manipulate him.

Gruumsh is arguably one of the few worse deities in terms of personality, to be fair.

Did she get pregnant?

this is good
thank you for this

His personality is "BREAK ALL THE THINGS", so yes.
Hey, at least he has it better then Lolth; all this time and she is STILL stuck as a greater demon lord in the Abyss (albeit one with deific powers) while her two kids are still full deities.
Pretty sure deities only want to get pregnant if they want to.
She also did the deed with Malar after Gruumsh, in both cases so they could distract the Seladrine while she plotted to overthrow Corellon.

Vhaeraun would be improved if he'd had to eat his 799 spider-godling brothers to get where he is today, just saiyan.

yeah that's rad thanks

Hey, in Vhaeraun's defense as a true deity he can go all over the multiverse whenever he wants while Lolth is stuck in the Demonweb Pits unless someone opens a portal to the Abyss or summons her directly somehow.

I mean, since he's banished and has no divine realm of his own he HAS to travel all over the multiverse, but you know.
It's something!

>she is STILL stuck as a greater demon lord in the Abyss (albeit one with deific powers) while her two kids are still full deities.
How does that jive with her still dwarfing the power of her kids?

How do I create depth to my long death monk? What kind of interesting goals could a guy who think death is inevitable have?
I want to play him as a jolly and amiable guy who's fascinated by death but I feel he's a bit one dimensional atm.

That probably has a lot to do with how you measure power; a human wizard can move across planes with relative ease, but Lolth can't, and she's certainly the more powerful, right?

She can be an immensely powerful entity but still not able to attain that which she desires (namely to get the fuck out of the Abyss).

I guess. I was reasoning that godliness just needs a certain power level, worshipper wise. Being bound to hell would be a different issue.

But eh, metaphysical semantics and all.

play him like pic related, come up with the craziest schemes and be down for everything.

>I mean, since he's banished and has no divine realm of his own he HAS to travel all over the multiverse, but you know.
That's fine actually. I remember a few gods in D&D like that and it works well for them.

People tend to shit on D&D's settings but if you take like, just the individual elements, there's good shit there. The aforementioned Lolth has the aforementioned bags of style. Vhaeraun has some interesting stuff with his manifestations. And there are just some total wild gods out there, like that weird nuclear family insect goddess, the /k/ innawoods god of elves and the giant evil blind mole gnomes worship.

I would go in an opposing way: he's lost the ability to feel pleasure and joy but he has this cold hard desire to get it back, and he's constantly forcing it. Can't think of a decent way for it to be something that was forced upon him rather than the usual long death fluff, though.

Vengeance is more about "cleaning up" I think. You go kill the greater evil and then you help whoever's been ruined or negatively affected by that greater evil because in a way it's your fault they're like that because you didn't kill the greater evil fast enough (or perhaps while killing him some shit went wrong; you're responsible for that too and you gotta get aid these people however you can).

Even at it's worst Vengeance is still about serving the greater good I guess.

I imagine if Lolth literally fucks anything it's to get something out of them.

Something I'm unclear on in regards to Eilistraee: for what reason did she choose to go into exile? I mean, I don't see how not choosing that would prevent her from being the good feel goddess of the drow in opposition to her mother.

Please note my reaseach info comes merely from a number of wikis.

What said.
Demon Princes and Infernal Dukes have power and cults on par with many gods, but UNLIKE gods unless specific circumstances are met they are permanently stuck in their layer of the Abyss.
Ever notice how seemingly every fiendish cult's end goal revolves around summoning their patron to the Material Plane?

That would be why.
She's more powerful then her kids but is basically stuck sitting in her fat spider ass in the Abyss working only through intermediaries, even though in terms of raw might she likely outclasses many lesser gods.
D&D's cosmology and an interlinked universes are quite entertaining in a comic bookey kind of way, and settings like Faerun have a really wonderful amount of detail on things that normally get overlooked.
Probably.
Because she basically wanted to share the suffering of her people.
From a more practical standpoint, her divine domain would be with the rest of the Dark Seldarine in the Demonweb Pits, and there Lolth would have complete control over them and likely just kill them both outright just to be rid of them.

Vhaeraun and Elistraee may be "vagrant" deities now, but they are also free to actively oppose Lolth despite being underlings in her own pantheon.

>Vhaeraun and Elistraee may be "vagrant" deities now, but they are also free to actively oppose Lolth despite being underlings in her own pantheon.

It's also a kind of metaphor for their own position; both are the deities of smaller, weaker powers compared to Lolth, but like Lolth's worshippers just sit underground and stew while being crazy just as Lolth herself does the same her kid's religions are more flexible and asymmetric, going onto the surface and enacting plans regular drow could never really catch wind of at any point.

Does anyone have the player's handbook PDF? The link I used to use is dead now.

>Vhaeraun and Elistraee may be "vagrant" deities now, but they are also free to actively oppose Lolth despite being underlings in her own pantheon.

I heard Greenwood say that they're like kinda chummy as of 5e actually.

>fucking familiars
>daily reminder many this general thinks it's perfectly fine to go pact of the chain, obtain familiar, fly it 5ft above an enemy and by RAW make it use the help action every single turn with 9/10 enemies not even knowing it's there, and only being able to hit it in an AoE if they also target their friends

Killing the familiars of players that abuse them as weapons would be so much more satisfying if the familiar ritual took longer than an hour.

Fuck that smug quasit

They are, though that took some doing.
Vhaeraun tried to backstab Eliastraee during the Silence of Lolth (a plan where she withdrew all of her power from her priests to separate the Demonweb Pits from the Abyss), but Elistraee kilt him and took his portfolio before getting killed by Lolth herself during the Spellplague thing.

After the Retcon Beam undid all of that, Greenwood said Vhaeraun and Elistraee are basically frenemies now, having opposing agendas but quietly working together against Lolth until she's finally gone for good.

So I'm making a Sorcerer archetype based off of the Red Mage from Final Fantasy. Can I get some of /5eg/'s opinion on it?

RED MAGE

As a Red Mage, you may know up to two more spells and two cantrips with which you have the spell slots to cast chosen from the Cleric's spell list. These spells do not count against the number of spells you can know, and they are considered to be Sorcerer spells for you. Your Cleric spells known increases to 3 at the 4th level, 4 at the 8th level,5 at the 12th level, and 6 at the 20th level. You may not choose Cleric spells that require slots over the 5th level.

BONUS PROFICIENCIES

At 1st level, you gain proficiency in light armor and three simple or martial melee weapons of your choice.

EXTRA ATTACK

Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

CRIMSON AURA

At the 14th level, all who look upon you are enamored with your talent, which radiates like a beacon when you wear the color of your namesake. When you are wearing plainly visible clothes or armor that is primarily colored red, you gain advantage on Persuassion, Intimidation, and Deception checks, but have disadvantage on Stealth checks. Both effects do not apply when you are not wearing red.

DOUBLECAST

Starting at the 18th level you learn how conserve your pool of Sorcery Points for when you need them the most. Your Twinned Spell Metamagic now costs 0 points for cantrips of the Evocation and Conjuration schools.

1/2

>After the Retcon Beam undid all of that,
Goddamn, I bet that was frustrating as fuck to Lolth.

>Be a major divine power, stuck in one stupid layer of the Abyss.
>Struggle against your bonds for millennia.
>Finally enact a long-term plan that gives you your own divine realm separate from the Abyss, turning you into a proper deity again.
>Kill your rebellious kids and finally claim absolute unchallenged mastery over your space race.
>Less then a century later some unexplained bullshit that has nothing to do with you happens and you're stuck right back where you were again.
>Even your fucking kids come back to life and now they're okay with working together against you.

2/2
ORIGIN FLUFF

A faint glow from a scarred chest, barely visible through light clothing marks the bearer of a Red Mage. A Red Mage is unlike any typical sorcerer. While most of them stumble upon their powers by chance, a Red Mage is one who seeks it out. With no desire to be bound to a patron like a Warlock or stuck in a musty library like a Wizard, the Red Mage chooses to undertake in a bloody ritual wherein they cut out their own heart and replace it with a carefully construted arcane stone. This stone serves as the engine of not only their body, but their spellcasting as well.

>the bearer of a Red Mage.
Red Heart*

pls respond

read the OP

As a DM, I had my players familiar get mad at him and refuse to put itself in danger. He had to buy it a 200 gold collar before it would actually go into harms way, and he started carrying half-size rations for it.

4shared.com/office/wAbPelNwce/DnD_5e_Players_Handbook.html
Shit copy with no color and some page number issued but here you go.

It's in the OP under rulebooks > core

thanks m80s

Pact of the Tome all day. Free ritual cast identify and Comprehend Language with the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation.

and don't forget you can get a regular familiar

>

Crimson Aura is... ungood

What do you reccomend in its place that can be as good as the dragon sorc's wings?

Quick correction. Lolth and other Demon lords can move freely through the Abyss. They mainly stay in their domains as they are at their strongest there. But Lolth can move around the Abyss (And the outer planes for that matter.) with no issue. The Material Plane is off limits to them however unless they are summoned or something special happens.

idk. Does it have to be charisma based?

The best familiar is an imp. Invisibility shape shifting, and he won't leave you because he got bored.

What's a not gay way to make the fate of the world directly tied to the actions/alignment of the players?

I was thinking something like Morrowind, where the players are a group of people that have all been determined, through vaguely alluded to divinations, to be likely candidates for some prophecy. Maybe they can all mantle the roll, or maybe only one can. Maybe one or all of them actually are the right person, but regardless their actions will determine if the plot progresses in a demon friendly or angel friendly way.

Is there a better way?

Honestly I avoid familiars at every turn. I just don't find them enjoyable as a mechanic. I know they can be super useful, but I'm not a fan.

High level play they can directly influence the world at large by killing gods and shit. Lower level, either make it so more powerful entities or forces are influenced by them (easy one is GOOs) or what you said.

I was thinking just a standard campaign starting at first or third level. My current idea is that there is a sort of god king that they are alleged to be descended from, and as such their actions will influence it's behavior. i.e. Them being nice would make the world a happy/safe place and them being dicks would make the world a sad/dangerous place.

I want to do a Fable-esque kind of thing where evil actions are incentive, but have bad outcome for the characters themselves I may even go full blown and make it hard/bad to make entirely good choices. (a pacifist godking isn't great in a D&D cosmology)

How could player actions influence GOOs?

I mean GOOs can be literally anything, maybe time itself fell in love with one of the PCs and will transform the world around them as it thinks they want from their actions. Even entities without direct power, like someone controlling dreams, can still influence big stuff and alter how people think or act.

Sometimes, at lower levels, even a smaller thing can scale into something much larger.

>party go through portal to strange land to investigate
>find possible source of portal problems, kill evil things
>portal closed
>have to quest to open it again if they ever want to make it back
>go off to do favours while asking some guy to fix it
>guy ultimately ends up making a permanent connection, getting in contact with major nations to broker deals, party gets free access through
>the party has now ended up causing a portal between many nations that probably didn't even know each other existed before and a whole load of diplomatic and tension scenarios
>also needing to defend the portal foci from more of the angry, ancient creatures seeking to close it

Like that example, at lower levels every player's action doesn't have to be massive, but it can snowball somewhat with help.
At later levels, the party's strong enough to do crazy shit and get away with it anyway.
"Lol, fate" always seems really bland.

I like this. Makes me think of Che Colour of Magic. Maybe the prophecy is that the god king is going to take a spouse.

Yeah, 'lol fate' is what I was trying to avoid. That's why a like morrowind because through the whole game no one really knows if you are the nerevarine or you are just doing the things the nerevarine as supposed to do because everyone keeps telling you to do them.

I don't want to do a snowball efect though. I don't want it to be like 'oh we fucked up' at level 10. I want it to be like 'maybe we are fucking up' when lemures start to roam, showing early evidence of a gate opening.

In the example I'd shown, the players have plenty of power to go "Okay, this isn't okay." and try to instigate the monsters to take it back, and 'hope' that that leaves things more peaceful.

If they want to get more social, they could try to establish themselves as sort of diplomat-heroes.

Or, they could just do the boring and obvious thing of helping them clear out the monsters and keeping things running.

I guess the problem with 'fate' or 'not sure if fate, but you're doing these things' is that it kind of says to the players that there's already a number of things they're expected to do.
Which is good in a way, because it gives them an end goal.
Also bad in a way, because those characters might not want that end goal, or may want to leave a particular quest to authorities and go handle something else.

Hmm.. If you don't want things to snowball, just emphasise the local impact actions have. You save a village from a bandit raid and train them to fight for themselves, you've got allies for the foreseeable future, and already a small populance that loves you.

What you are describing is just like any other D&D campaign. I really want to emphasize the importance of the players choices as well as the planes corresponding to alignments.

I think I see what you mean about players feeling like they are expected to do something though. I might solve that by making the faction that introduces them a kind of neutral one and/or making the player spread across the alignment spectrum. So the players know that their actions will determine the fate of the world, (which is gonna be bad regardless because a perfectly happy world isn't fun to adventure in, but is easy pickings for evil creatures) but not pressure them into feeling like they need to pick a specific outcome.

Spreading out player alignments might even make for interesting political intrigue... Like maybe the evil member of the party in employed to steer things in an evil direction and vice versa.

Good for you. Too many players just want to play the crunch to the best possible theorycraft and not embrace a roleplay playing style they enjoy.

You'd have to include something then to stop people straight-out killing the evil person if they make it obvious. Something about that fate stuff again.
But then, if they don't kill tem 'because the world depends on it' but that character dies in the adventure anyway, maybe they'd feel a bit rused?

Would be interesting if each character corresponded to a particularl alignment. With four players, perhaps every alignment that doesn't include any neutrality, one for each.

You'd have to think about what'd happen if a player dies and needs replacing, but if you can survive the clicheness which the players probably won't mind then it should be fine.

Tomorrow I am playing D&D for the first time. I'm trying to put together my character sheet and I could use a little help; I've only tried in-game or forum roleplaying before. Can anyone walk me through it on voice chat and google docs, maybe? I have Skype and Discord. So far I have my basic information and attributes down, but I'm kind of overwhelmed by skill selection.

I enjoy having a cute Wizard pet I can buddy up with. It's like having an adorable side kick.

Just as expendable as the real robin too.

in 5e its really hard to fuck your character mechanically. it'll be fine. just pick what you like best.

It's literally the first chapter in the book, user. If it's too much for you, 5e isn't for you.

Yeah I thought about that. I was actually thinking one player for each axis. Like a NG, LN CN, NE so each player represents a side of the field Good Law Chaos and Evil. I don't know about the killing thing. I think a session 0 would be ideal. So they players make characters that will actually work together in spite of their alignments...

After that I feel like it's pretty much understood that either player killing is okay (in which case there is no problem because everyone is on the same page) or it's not. (In which case there is no problem.

I think I might really just make players who die come in as mercenaries or whatever that are supposed to defend the remaining 'nerevarines'.
They could be whatever alignment they want, and they can still steer the events of the world by influencing party choices. I think that would make players not want to die (Cuz who wants to be some smuck?) and if a player did die it would make them realize that maybe this prophecy shit is just BS considering that smuck is effecting the world as much as they are.

If the whole original party died their might be a problem... Perhaps I could make it a 'hardcore' style campaign where the last survivor gets a wifing by the godking... That's kinda anti-climactic though.

It's in the MEGA in the op. Learn to read, shitwit.

Hey guys, I'm going to be in my first 5e (or any D&D) game tomorrow, and I'm still trying to nail down my character. So far I'm thinking a DEX Fighter using a Rapier, going into Eldritch Knight. For Race I'm going Variant Human to get a starting feat of Magic Initiate: Warlock, to get my hands on Hex, Lightning Lure, and Booming Blade early. If it helps my stats as of now are:
STR 8 (8)
DEX 16 (15+1VH)
CON 14 (14)
INT 14 (13+1VH)
WIS 12 (12)
CHA 10 (10)

How reasonable does this all seem? I've also thought of going Archer EK, but is that possible until I get the War Caster feat? Which seems better, Archer or Duelist? Should I scrap it and go STR based? I have no experience with D&D (other than CRPGs), and feel like I'm fumbling in the dark.

I'm struggling a bit to make sure I have all the information together that I need. Racial bonuses, feats, skills, class abilities, etc. I've never done anything like this and I would really like the help of a veteran. I know I'm already going to slow things down since I've never played before. I don't want to hold things up further spending an hour tomorrow making my character... But I have no idea what I'm doing.
I don't own a copy of the book. I was invited to a campaign by some coworkers yesterday so I'm trying to put something together. I've never done this before and I don't want to show up with nothing or something stupid.

if you are going EK then skip the feat, you'll get two out of the three just by virtue of being an EK

Why would you need War Caster? You can hold a bow in one hand while you're not actively shooting it.

book is in the mega in the OP man
>I don't want to hold things up further spending an hour tomorrow making my character.
so make it today.

I was just recently kicked out of my group. I have mixed feelings.

The saving throw on Lightning Lure is going to be very low since it will be Charisma based from Magic Initiate: Warlock. Pick a cantrip that doesn't rely on your Charisma modifier. Booming Blade is a solid choice in that regard.

Dumping Cha makes more sense than dumping Str. Several monsters force you to make Str saving throws if they hit.

Advantage on concentrations checks is nice if your table remembers them.

An archer EK works just fine delaying that feat until later though. It's not a requirement to be functional, as the poster seemed to imply.

What did you do?

I'd just like some help, someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to make sure I'm doing it right.

well then start by reading the book. THEN you can ask questions on parts you find confusing.

The intent for the MM seems to be that mages have to find and pact with the variant familiars, but keep in mind the special traits some of them have can be overly good at low levels.

Well, I think that all works nicely.

Aside from the 'last one standing gets X' thing.

I guess, instead, they just simply lose the campaign if they all die and either
a) if they like their current characters, go forth to try setting the world right
b) start over in a less ideal world, that world having lost those it relied upon before.

for skills perception is always good. make sure you pick what YOU think your character would be good at (not necessarily what's strong)

In order to explain how I got kicked out. I should mention the campaign a few months back.
>playing as a half orc fighter
>our group was in a local tavern getting drunk
>said tavern had a group of half orc warriors
>our wizard manage to piss off the entire group
> some fucking how, we got 25 orcs inside the tavern because one wasn't enough including the leader
> a bullshit miracle happen where the wizard projected the deity of half orcs and convinced them to go after the thieves guild.
>dm forced me to roll a con saving throw
>failed roll
>End up being possessed by our wizard's false god
>I get thrown into a jail after this battle
> for a whole fucking month real time
>I begged the dm to get me the fuck out of here, this is bullshit

I wasn't sure if I could get away with using a two-hand weapon (like a Longbow), and still cast. What would be the best way to play a EK Archer, spells wise?

that was the means, what was the lead up? Was there tension with your group? Did they explicitly say they wanted you out of the game? Did they talk to you like another reasonable person or adult about an out of game problem with your conduct either on or out of character a t the table?

Pick mostly defensive spells. Shield is solid. Misty Step is a good off-school pick for those levels you're allowed to do that. Take Shocking Grasp as one of your cantrips so you can get out of melee range easily if something gets in your face.

>What would be the best way to play a EK Archer, spells wise?
by being a Ranger, honestly. EK spell selection isn't very suitable for Archery.

False. EK is still better than ranger, valor bard is better than either though

EK is a better archer than a ranger, but the ranger spell selection is superior to the EK's in terms of complimenting archery.

Bard is better than everyone at everything, so it doesn't count.

Cont
>uh ya we should help orc
>took my party a whole month to stop what they were doing to finally get me
>dm makes this jail into a fucking labyrinth underdark bullshit last minute
>copied the fucking piano puzzle in silent hill one
>finally get to me
>i guess that ends our session
> completely mad
>after I finally group up we go through a series of metal doors for this one room
>plenty of other rooms to go through but we figure it was worth going in
> after the druid and wizard break through these doors dm decides to make a series of traps
> manage to get through easily but the people who use spells were almost drained
>dm gives us a boss
>skull knight with a great sword and vainy armor
>this was my first combat session in a long time
>the fucking wizard convinced this skull knight with a nat 20 to give us a long rest
>dm gets pissed and tells us he's gonna call it quits
>"dm,It's my turn for initiative
>????
>I dash over and gave the knight a german suplex with a nat 20
>three people in our group are pissed
>other three were thrilled and joined with me
>ended up killing this fuck
Get a message from group chat saying I dangered the party and that deserves my characer to be killed and any other character I make in the future. What a shit show.

I'll try and help user. What kind of character do you want to play? Do you wanna beat stuff up in close combat, cast magic, be sneaky, or some combo? There's also several free character building apps you can get for your phone. Dick around with one, and use the point buy method when building stats. If you're a caster, you'll have to pick what spells you want on your own, but it should give you an idea of what the process entails.

Alternately, you could just browse the pregenerated characters posted in the OP, and copy/modify one of those.

What level range is Storm king's thunder for anyway?