/5eg/ D&D 5th Edition General

Depends on the table and the players, really. Some tables have character sessions where the table sits down just to create characters. Sometimes, the DM (or together with the party) implores everyone to roll for stats, or maybe makes it Point Buy only or offers both options and such and asks each player how they want it. Just ask the DM what are the houserules for character creation for the campaign if he has any.

>This also extends to the starting gold system and the background personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws.

Same deal. Ask the DM if he has some houserules if he restricts character creation for the campaign regarding starting wealth vs starting equipment from class and background. If there are none, go nuts. Like I said it depends on the table. Sometimes they do it together, or sometimes they do it independently depedning how they want it (Take Adventures League organized play for example, the forgo class Starting equipment and allow players to but their equipment with starting gold).

As for , traits, ideals, flaws, while you do need to round out the character with a background (for the added proficiencies, and possible equipment), they are ways for DMs to gauge how much one deserves Inspiration. It also helps the DM with the fluff side of things when he runs the story. Like if he sees the character's bond is the Greataxe she uses since it is a family heirloom, the DM can formulate a social encounter where an NPC asks for the greataxe in exchange for information regarding a serial killer (the same serial killer she searches for because they killed her parents) offering some thought provoking choices for the player. That kind of shit. For me, I usually don't let my players fill those up when we start (unless one of them reaally thought one up beforehand) but as sessions go, I encourage to start thinking up their traits, bonds, flaws, ideals and goals when they start feeling up for it.

So tl;dr: depends on the table.

That looks totally fine.

>So, you are on fire with your character, rolling good ones to perform great skill checks and hitting those attacks, nailing those saving throws, but what was the Nat 1 that ruined your momentum?
Was mixing up a large batch of black powder. Had a few powder-horns worth when I Nat 1'd an Alchemist Tools check.

Hey 5eg, I need some advice.
I'm about to finalize my Adventure League character, but I'm not sure how to approach it.

She's currently a Halfling Battlemaster Fighter / Swashbuckler Rogue hybrid, and she's hitting level 5 (so no take-backsies after this). I currently have her as Rogue 1 / Fighter 4 to get maximum skills, maneuvers, and +2 Dexterity. However, I'm also considering R4/F1, R3/F2, and R2/F3 as well. The most compelling reason to lean more in rogue is that there are 2 fighters already (though neither are dex based) and no rogue.

Personally, how would you tackle this? Is this the best way to proceed?

Continue with current levels, begin taking rogue levels.

Getting the extra attack sooner than later is probably the right call. After that I'd say whatever works

Giving the party an opportunity to pull a heist on a prominent noble in a large city. They love heists, definitely won't pass it up. Anyone have any maps of palaces/mansions/etc. for inspiration?

i beg of u

I wouldn't buff it up without changing the limits, otherwise characters become too jack-of-all-tradesy.

Decreasing the points seems a little unnecessary. You can get, at most, 15/15/15/8/8/8 and if you're a half-elf boost to 17(Cha)/16/16/8/8/8. So, for those sacrifices, they've managed to get +3 in three skills and -1 in the others.

I wouldn't call that awfully crazy.
It then takes them until level 8 before they can even max out a stat without any feats for most classes.
Many people will take feats instead, and I kind of figure it's even more discouraging to use fun feats if they have to take a long time levelling up their stats.

The other problem with lowering stats is it really sucks for MAD classes. Monks are heavily dependent on their stats for damage and armour. Paladins and barbarians are up there too, but not quite as badly.

I certainly like to see lower-powered characters and having less +3 stats sounds nice, but it kinda buffs single-stat classes in comparison to multi-stat classes and heavily discourages going extra MAD.

>heist
maybe look up some payday heists, those usually have maps

And DMs out there get driven crazy by players who always try to min/max their characters?

I let them if they want to, but god it's so boring seeing cookie cutter characters all the time.

Any* Sorry, it's late.

I guess try to reward more innovative styles of play or thinking.
I'm probably that GM, but if my players try to min-max way too hard, then I just ramp up the encounters with min-maxed npc style characters to even the playing field. Usually ends in a blood bath.

that's why I prefer to play with my normie friends who don't know shit. They just play whatever seems fun

I had a character named Lando Firepuker

The dude was a sexy half elf chaos sorcerer who was named for his ability as a babe to spit up elemental fire. Mother must have been so proud.

Anyway I commonly made checks for practically anything charisma related. Except for combat or life and limb scenarios.

I convinced an older lady to practically give me a magic fire dagger just from on night of passion, but for some reason continuously rolled ones causing some ill effects (4th edition). For example I once knocked nearly every guy on our boat overboard trying to cast a lighting spell to kill a pirate ship.

I had a pathfinder Druid and one game I rolled 7 1s on a twenty sided in a row, not including the other ones from the week before. We figured that because of the odds the die must have been faulty somehow.

instead of 'always land on their feet', it should be more like 'They don't fall prone from taking fall damage, and take half damage from falls' or something.

The city Felau thing is odd, because failing a persuasion check will not always anger someone. And the DCs are already fairly flexible on that.
Something like 'Once per day, you may re-do a persuasion check, even if you've already failed.' Not to change fate, but to steel your catty resolve and try one last time to convince someone of something when normally the DM will tell you that you can't try again.

On that note, I do think it needs a slight buff overall. City and Feral are fairly well balanced with regards to each other because the unarmed attacks aren't always so useful but hunter's mark is generally more useful than charm person. ... So as long as the city feature is changed from 'you don't anger someone' to something a bit less dependent on the DM's NPCs, I think that balances out.

I still think a little bit of an 'instinctive quick action' on initiative roll would be nice for them. It's just right now if you compare to wood elf, I think wood elf has the same +perception skill +2 dex + 1 wis +5ft speed and then their other features outweight the features that're unique to the kitty girls here.

This game I'm in has this player who is min/maxing the FUCK out of his monk while we're all making characters with fun, interesting backstories. He's just taking builds online and pasting it into his character screen. Drives me bonkers.

They're bad at min-maxing.

The key to min-maxing is firstly knowing how to REALLY min-max, and then how to not min-max on the small things that don't matter and instead give your character... Character, like languages and tool proficiencies and such.

Usually even the experienced 5e players seem to play what they think are cool gimmicks that would totally be overpowered, even if they're actually still pretty fair in the end.
Less experienced people just play whatever looks cool.

What about a free move action whenever you roll initiative

Is there any mirror of dnd-spells.com? It seems to be down.

I like adding lots of real world challenges in with the general theme of the adventure.

I feel encounters oft need more than just "You hit him, he hits you." More environmental challenges like weather, lighting, humidity, temperature. Stuff like that can make a really powerful combat focused character have a really bad day and make the jack of all trades or guy for the job shine.

I'm pretty forgiving for character creation but after a time at age 11 when I made a overpowered rule breaking piece of shit I feel that you need those weak spots to actually have a character.

>be a martial
>have some gold, slowly built up after months of sessions, not about to blow it
>browse the selection of items to buy
>alchemist fire, does less damage than weapons, costs a LOT per use, high chance of just missing, might as well swing a sword
>caltrops/ball bearings, useful for a Thief I guess, and they're cheap so might as well
>Plate Armor, literally just a money sink for martials, they probably made it like that because they knew there was barely anything else to buy
>health potions, our party has a cleric, fights are easy anyway
>I could buy a horse but it would just get stolen or die maybe a donkey instead, those are cheap
>Acid/Holy Water, just cheap enough to be affordable as a single use item, but flat 2d6 is still worse than swinging a sword-
wait just a fucking minute here
>alchemist fire is an improvised weapon attack with a special effect, meaning 1d4+str followed by ignition (you wouldn't say that hitting someone with an empty bottle does 0 damage would you?)
>acid/holy water damage can also be considered an additional on-hit effect to the bottle throw
>therefore they actually do 1d4+str+2d6 per hit
>more than just swinging a sword
HOLY SHIT THERE'S ACTUALLY A PURPOSE FOR THESE
TAVERN BRAWLER BUILD HERE WE GO

I want to have restrictions on PC race selection in my OC donut steel setting. Dragonborn don't exist and tieflings are classified as fiends similar to cambions.

Can I get away with it or am I likely to run into problems? It's not an online game and I'm likely to mostly have newer players.

The original suggestion I made before was 'half move speed at some point' or something.

I think 'move action at half your move speed (rounded down to the nearest 5ft) works just fine without being a bit too much.

You don't have to take that idea, but I think anything that can boost it up a little to contend with
>mask of the wild
>trance
>charm resistance/sleep immunity
>elven weapon training
Versus
>hunter's mark
>feline grace
>on the hunt
>feline claws
..
Hm. I don't think it's actually that imbalanced if you compare feral to wood elf.
For some characters having hunter's mark alone as if from a MI would sort of sell it, but hunter's mark does eat up quite a few bonus actions.

Thus, I think a full move action is a bit too strong and a bit too fast considering it's right at the start of initiative.
Also, it wouldn't trigger when surprised.

So yes, I think half move speed (usually 15ft movement to start with) on intiative is fair enough.

But, I don't know, it's already quite balanced if you're playing someone that would really love hunter's mark (like a dex fighter). Maybe less so for someone who wants their bonus action for other things and makes less attacks, like a rogue.

Two-weapon barbarian+Brawler+half orc+rage= Every chair is a warhammer you can sit on.

THEY FUCKING LOWERED THE WAGES AT THE ALCHEMY FACTORY?
FUCK THIS, IT'S BRAWL TIME THESE CAPITALIST PIGS ARE GOING TO GET IT
>and so sets off Mr. McPotionBrawler with a backpack full of bottles, burn scars down his arms, holy water staining his work pants and a maddened, drunken rage showing in his twitchy eye, fuelled on ten years of mercury exposure.

What's a good secondary weapon when your main weapon is a Halberd? Should you actually care to get a bludgeoning weapon or just take whatever?

For a d&d 3.5 and Pathfinder kind of guy how is 5e? My friends and I are curious about it. Is it any better?

...

I like Javelins or slings. Glaive, two axes and javelins are what my Barbarian uses.

It feels like a combo of everything good from those but without the complexity and more options and focus on character background

Wait a second.

Great Weapon Fighter Rogue is possible.

>equip light crossbow. Heavy crossbow if proficient.
>whack people over the head with it.
>you are making attacks with a ranged weapon, even if it is a melee attack.

Now I'm trying to think of a use for this.

Honestly the only way to use it I can think of is if you're a barbarian5 or fighter5 multiclassed into rogue.

Alright. The GWF fighting style doesn't apply, but the feat applies if it's a heavy crossbow (proficiency gained from fighter or barbarian).

I don't know, it actually sounds pretty viable.

I'm running a one on one game for a friend of mine, and I've run into the problem of him, being rather alone, being rather squishy. Now, I could just give him some NPC helpers, and I have thought of that, but it feels like it'd reduce his overall importance.

What are some ways I can make him stronger and better able to solo adventure?

Honestly there won't be a great way of solving that. 5e wasn't made to be played one-on-one, it's meant to be played by a group.

Give him combat control of NPCs. It'd be more like one of those.... However you categorise 'fire emblem' or something.

Have him fight one or two enemies at a time instead of entire groups. Does every enemy in an area of Dark Souls rush you down at once and kill you? The answer is yes, but a player who knows what he's doing will aggro them one at a time.

It's a group game unfortunately.

Your best bet is either raising his level/stats/magic items to compensate or having him fight vastly weaker enemies, likely you need to do both.

I mean consider 2 Orcs is meant to be a medium challenge for a group of 4 level 1 players and you get an idea. One on one the Orc is going to win a lot of the time.

Beyond that just make killing things a side thing and make the focus of the game exploration\roleplaying\ investigation.

>I mean consider 2 Orcs is meant to be a medium challenge for a group of 4 level 1 players and you get an idea
what
Four level ones would kill a pair of orcs before they could move.

I'm looking at converting a pathfinder module or two over to 5th edition to run for a group of friends. Any suggestions for streamlining this process? I've got the monsters worked out but the villainous NPCs seem like they are going to be a problem, and so do magical items.

Polearm Master doesn't work with the lance. Why is that I wonder? I wish it did.

Nvm. I just realized why. I'm an idiot.

The secondary butt attack. Wouldn't make sense.

Do you even CR?

Orcs are worth 100 XP each , a medium challenge for a level 1 group is 200 XP ergo 2 Orcs is a medium challenge.

That's without the multiplier for extra monsters which actually makes 2 Orcs a hard challenge.

I mean consider Orcs have 15 HP, 13 AC ( not trivial at first level) and hit for 9 damage on average (1d12+3) with +5 to hit which is enough to knock down most characters on average in 1 hit. They can also essentially get a charge action making them difficult to fight from a distance but can lob a javelin for 6 damage if it comes to that. They're really almost as good as the party fighter...

Your group might be hot shit or something but for the average group that can be hard.

why mess with setting and ruin dnd for newbies

I am currently making a mounted paladin for an adventure and am having some troubles making sense of some of it.

1. I know the steed can't attack when I'm on it, but why can't it attack if I'm off of it? One of the big guys said on Twitter that it can't attack yet it's an intelligent, loyal companion that can take orders. Is it really unreasonable to make the warhorse gain the ability to use its stampede attack when I'm not on it?

2. The warhorse comes with no saddle or armor. But could I armor it with armor I've bought? Is it unreasonable to assume anything I equipped on the warhorse would keep it between casts?

Essentially: Would DMs out there find it unreasonable if I approached them and asked these questions? Would you allow a player to do this?

Well, tbqh monks gotta be pretty minmaxed to not be a weight on the party's backs. No reason for not sticking a decent story to that DEX16/WIS16 template though.

God I hate paizo's art direction.

>healing is uncommon an generally avoided

>Level 10 paladin can give someone 50 HP as an action.

God why. Something more like Warlock's fiendish vigor would be nice.

Get with the times Grandad. If your fantasy world doesn't let your players be Kitsune-giant-demons with dragonbreath you're literally destroying their fun with your boring and old Tolkeinesque world with its rich history and detail that nobody cares about.

>15 HP 13 AC
That's pathetic, and they have a disadvantage in both numbers and capabilities. A single spell from the wizard or a couple guys with dual weapons and it would be over in the first round.
It's basically a match of rocket tag where the players have more actions, more targets that need to be tagged, higher AC, better attacks, more initiative rolls meaning more chances to win initiative, and MUCH more capabilities through spells and things like the barbarian's level 1 rage and the fighter's second wind.
The orcs would be completely fucked. That isn't hard.

Orcs have very high damage don't forget. They can deal 15 at max damage so they are actually capable of downing any PC (except a hill dwarf barb with 16 con) in one hit.

>The orcs would be completely fucked

It's all up to the dice, fucker.

Someone please tell me what actions are possible in combat?

Standard, Move, Bonus, Swift and free action

PHB Page 192 and 193 are your friend.

First of all, there is no such thing as a Standard action, Move action, Swift action, or Free action in 5e.

There are actions, bonus actions, and reactions. That's it. Movement is no longer a distinct action, it's just something you can do freely throughout your turn up to your movement speed.

Secondly, the correct answer to user's questions would be: Attack, Cast a Spell, Dash, Disengage, Dodge, Help, Hide, Ready an Action, Search, or Use an Object.

Okay I'm starting to think you are either baiting me or have no idea how this game works. Have you DM'd before? Read the DM guide? Even played ?

A medium or even hard challenge isn't meant to kill the party. The game is designed so players fight through 6-8 encounters per day with some short rests but no long rests. This includes a mix of easy, medium and hard encounters.

These words are simply what the game defines each encounter as.

So by the time your party has reached the 6th pair of Orcs they are out of spells , low on hit points and hit dice as well as abilities like rage and so on and each fight is meant to slowly tax and drain them. ( Because secretly D&D is just a resource management game )

A deadly encounter is one where a party member has a good chance of dying. This would be about 4 Orcs (400 XP) for a level 1 party and odds say that ends up with at least one PC dead. Hence why deadly encounters are generally a bad idea unless you are that guy DM.

What exactly do you consider a medium or hard encounter for an average group of four level 1 players ?

Obviously CR is only a guide and different groups have different strengths and weaknesses which the GM can adjust to but as a general rule of thumb it works.

My original point to another poster was that it's hard to balance the game around one player as all the balance is designed around a party. Although it seems you have no idea how to balance a game for a regular party.

Better question.

How do you get players to actually use these actions in combat ? I explain all this to my group and even add the likes of manoeuvres like grappling , disarming , sundering , tripping and shoving and everybody just basic attacks or casts spells.

I've managed to get a character to perform a shove when an enemy was on the edge of a precipes but that's about it and was obvious as fuck.

I was no fan of 4E but those little power buttons sure got players doing more than basic attacks in combat.

>How do I get players to use these actions
Have enemies set an example by using them?

That's not how encounter building works even a little. 4 PCs versus 2 orcs is considered a hard encounter.

200XP * 1.5 = 300/4 = 75 per player = hard encounter at 1st level

Often those rules are they way they are because otherwise, they would infringe on the special abilities of other classes. It might be trivial for you to have an "animal companion" warhorse if an equivalently leveled ranger has a much stronger companion. On the other hand letting you have an intelligent warhorse companion would be way overpowered if you were low level and the party ranger had a dire weasel.

Basic attacks and casting spells are just better than all of those if they want to kill an enemy 90% of the time.
Have them fight on an uneven surface=trip and shove become good
Trip already=melee advantage so have an incredibly strong melee enemy that they can't seem to defeat, but hint that it's legs look weak to the most perceptive player.
Dash= have a 2+ rogue kite the melee with bonus action dashes and ranged attacks, or put them in a situation where they have to run to survive(Fuse set to explode ship they are on, etc.)
Disengage is good if you have an enemy grappler
Dodge is good if you have a large group of small enemies focus one character
Help will be used if you put them in a situation where the only escape is something one character is good at, but the entire party has to do it one by one to escape(other than stealth)
Ready is literally amazing, if your party isn't using it then I don't know what to tell you... unless all your battles are "surprise! you are on a flat plane with like 5 dudes, go!"
Hide is if you send your players on a stealth mission(if all casters with invisibility you fucked though)
Search will be used if you put your characters in a situation where they have to find something quickly/fight invisible enemies
Use an Object is again so versatile, just give them cool shit to use or have cool shit in the environment that can be used(I.E. alchemical/magical items, boulders, crates, etc)
Grappling is honestly situational so just use an enemy grappler or put them in a situation where they wouldn't have weapons but the enemy would
Disarming is terrible beyond fucking belief in 5e unless you build for it usually, so just have an enemy with an obvious cool item(magic or otherwise) so your party will have someone disarm them while someone else has readied to grab the item and run.
Sundering is similar to above, but you could just have characters with fragile weapons/armour(maybe skeletons or something) and say they look rusty.

What is the most powerful spell in the game, and why is it counterspell?

Because it allows you to say "no" to any spell you can perceive being cast, and if you've got the arcana bonus for it, it'll never cost you more than a 3rd level slot.

Sadly it is still defeated by subtle metamagic.

Hint: wish contains all spells below ninth level, including counterspell.

But you can counterspell wish. Counterspell win every time

Not reliably. So no, it literally doesn't win everytime.

Thanks heaps, brahs!

So I'm planning to DM for the first time this weekend, I very new to DnD and I've been reading about the Underdark and it sounds fucking awesome. I've opted to go with 'Out of the Abyss' as our groups adventure and I bought a couple of the Drizzt books for inspiration.

I fucking suck at dialogue though and I'm not sure what to do. the players start in a pen with 9 NPCs and while I could always get rid of a few of em, I'd rather keep them in. I just worry that a player will ask an NPC a question and I'm just going to freeze up and be like "Uhh..."

How do you guys handle dialogue for NPCs? I think I could make up situations for my players on the fly but I'm not so confident about dialogue.

AFAICT this works:

1) Cast Leomund's Tiny Hut as a ritual
2) Move to the edge of the dome
3) Go to 1

Thereby moving safely, albeit at 50 feet an hour. Am I missing something?

Counterspell requires you to see the target casting, and Wish has no somatic component.

If need be you can just do something along the lines of "The dwarf introduces himself as Theodin. And tells you 'insert plot info here' "

You don't need to put on voices or do actual dialogue. It's fun, but it'll come with time probably. I'm still fiddling with dialogue myself atm.

You can see their lips moving.

If players tried this in my game every surface would suddenly be a natural sulfur deposit that dealt 3d6 every minute due to stinkiness in confined areas and caused nausea. However dispelling the hut allowed circulation of air and prevented this danger.

I Counterspell your counterspell.

From the spell:

>The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside.

Do people like the combat in 5e?

It's pretty good

Sure, but according to the international union of adventurers and bbeg regulations, the players need to move at least 300 feet an hour to qualify as nemeses of the bbegs. If they aren't a nemeses group to the bbeg, he doesn't have to wait at the final step of his master plan to give the players the customary offer to join him and rule. Instead, the bbeg is permitted to proceed directly to taking over, destroy, or reshaping the world without player intervention.

Of course, if the bbeg is attempting to merge all sentients together into a gestalt consciousness, union rules mandate a final battle of wills between the bbeg and someone. If that's the case, player speed doesn't really matter.

I have no issue with it.

It's pretty basic, but also highly functional. With a bit of DM-side homebrewing it really shines.

I want to complete a character sheet because I'm bored and have nothing to do.
Give me a character you'd like to see.

Like what for example?

What can you say about this character with only her picture to go on?

One man band using pact of the chain and the new beast master. And bard.

Rolf Shepherson.
Human Barbarian
Far Traveler, from Old Country.

Forgot to say a char sheet for a level 1 character.

You masturbate to it.

Okay.

Having DMed with standard 5E in my own setting, I started recently getting really spergy with homebrewing like crazy (was originally shopping around for possible other systems, but I'm pretty married to DnD currently.) Changes are mostly flavor for setting and personal preference, but will include some balancing.

So my question is this- in your experience, are there any personal gripes with mechanics you feel need addressing, wonky mathematics that bog things down, etc? Similarly, any existing alt rules ideas you enjoy? While I'm putting together this abomination with the 5e skeleton, it seems like a good chance to get in some mechanical fixes on the ground floor.

Unrelated pic from misc. inspiration folder

It's another shit-tier anime waifu.

>Rolf Shepherdson
>Old Country
Life has many doors, yes?

My biggest gripe with 5e is that martials currently lack things to outside of combat, especially when compared to casters. Personally i think all martials should get 1 or 2 extra skill proficiencies, or a crafting type proficiency.

Also the crafting rules suck.

Specific class issues
Rangers are shit. The latest rework is pretty good though.

Berserker barbarians, and battlerage barbarians are both completely shit.
Way of the four elements is fun and flavorful, but mechanically shit. Look at the crowd sourced remake.

Warlocks are too good at dipping, and lack late game features to make them better worthwhile to max. Basically, warlocks need to have invocations reworked, and more added.

Sorcerer bloodlines need to add spells to their spell lists. Wild magic should add random spells, which may or may not change.

>GM doen't inform you how the campaign is going to be
>When you ask he just replies "spoilers"
>Be guild artisan
>Can't go back to civilization in more than a month
>"you lose your background benefits lol!"
>Can I regain them?
>"No, kek"
Strike 1 and 2, you have one last chance