/5eg/ D&D 5th Edition General

>run first session of LMoP
>4 players
>two of them almost die to the first set of goblins
>huh, that shouldn't be a hard encounter, what gives?
>realise I gave them average HP at 1st level instead of max roll
Whoops.
I only even noticed when after I leveled them up to 2 a bit later and saw the "HP at first level" box again.

They still shouldn't have had a problem, is the entire party fighters?

Wow, that's nuts.
Any specific domain?

The main reason for sorc over wiz/clr is RP. I see what y'all mean, though.

I'm planning on having my monk genasi use his passive shape earth ability to create darts from dirt/mud for flavor, heh.

MONK OBVIOUSLY! But really, Sorc/Rogues are a classic. You could also do a paladin with some awesome sorc-esque deity and go finesse rapier-style, or something. Duelist who blasts shit.

Highest HP dude was a Paladin.
The they had a Bard, a Rogue, and a Monk.
The Paladin and Rogue got hit by a few too many goblin arrows and almost went out of commission.
I should note these guys are all new and aren't exactly built optimally - most of them chose to not dump several mental stats as many players do for the sake of their character.

Oh, and one of them (the rogue) had no CON bonus (they maxed their dex and had decent mental scores) so had 5 HP and was instantly knocked out in one shot.
Now I've fixed them they're doing great, they're really getting into combat tactics and also ways around combat - a party with three charismatic characters will do that.

Hopefully you've informed them about crossbows and their uses.

Why is making a character so fucking easier in this edition?
Holy shit it's glorious.

Crazily enough the rogue was using their shortbow at the time, hiding in a tree (which I gave the attacks against them disadvantage for).
But yes, when they reached the Redbrand armory everyone without a long-ranged weapon (the monk and paladin had darts and javelins already) picked up a crossbow and a case of bolts.

Don't worry, you get bored of the lack of mechanical and character depth pretty quickly, but that's when homebrew starts coming in.

Speaking of, what are good homebrew options/inclusions?

>lack of character depth
>a mechanical problem

Matt Mercer's stuff gets generally recommended.
Personally I like some of Middlefinger of Vecna's stuff but a lot of people say it's broken / shitty / whatever.

>His DM allows homebrew

>His DM doesn't allow Unearthed Arcana

I've only looked at Mercer's Gunslinger class, but I'm not a fan. It feels much more of a 3.x era class than a 5e one.

3.5 Babby detected.

>3.5
>crunch
newfag detected.

The production values on Curse of Strahd is really nice, wish all other supplements from other companies also involved such quality.

That's because it's an adaptation of a Pathfinder class.
Take a look at his Bard College and Blood Hunter class (a lot of people recommended this was used to replace Ranger before the big rework) and see what you think of those.

>my system has more autistic number crunching so it's better
Okay.

Now that the revised ranger has been released, is there any reason to take his blood hunter class? (apart from evoking that Bloodborne flavor)

Well, that's one reason.
I guess if you really look at it the flavour and mechanics are actually very different to even Hunters or Deep Stalkers, so if you prefer the BH then that's reason enough to take it.
Some people say it has Witcher vibes (I don't know anything about the series though).
Personally it reminds me a bit of the DA Grey Wardens.

I'm just saying only people new to the hobby think 3.5 was crunchy, not that it's better.

It's all relative.
Crunchy peanut butter is crunchy compared to smooth peanut butter, but not when you compare it to a fistful of dry autumn leaves.
I'm taking shitty food metaphors above and beyond, this is an art form.

Actually I never mentoned "crunch". I am implying that faglords who want to "optimize" with a homebrew class/race, or better yet, a homebrew multiclass, are 3.5 turbo-autists who don't grasp what makes a character fun or memorable for regular people.

I could care less if you want to fiddle around with convoluted mechanics in your theory-craft non-campaign.

>I was introduced to D&D through critical roll
The post.

I've had a look at Blood Hunter and I like the idea of spending hit dice for benefits - it's design space that official 5e stuff hasn't really tapped yet - but the class is messy and I wouldn't use it without adjustment.

I think it's intended to invoke all of those things.

What are you smoking?

I remember seeing a 4 Elements quick-fix, the general gist was "reduce all ki costs for the subclass by 1".
However it had a specific note on Fangs of the Fire Snake, which has a two-part cost of 1 point two times.
IIRC they made 1 part (damage or reach?) free and you pay 1 ki to do the other effect.
Anyone know which way round it was?

>3.autism player upset there isn't a million skill ranks/feats to juggle

it was fun back in the day, at first. Now I never want to see that level of innane min maxing ever again.

I would just give wot4e monks an additional 1 ki point per monk level, but those could only be used on the wot4e spell things and not any other ki feature (but you could still spend normal Ki on those wot4e spell things)

Call it "Elemental Ki" points or something.

tell me if that's retarded, I think it'd work. wot4e needs some love

?

Minmaxing in 5e isn't any better just different, people discovered the most optimal builds within weeks.

What are the most optimal builds in 5e?

How are folks finding 5e?
How is it turning out in your eyes?

if you think there is anywhere near as much potential or need to min-max in 5e as there was in 3.splatbook you're retarded senpai

It's the best edition of D&D and my favorite RPG overall.

Tried the starter set, a week later I ordered the DMG and the PHB.

The big thing about 5e and optimization is how little it matters. The most minmax optimal build for a given class, isn't that much more powerful than an average 'theme' build for that given class.

Not to mention that most min/max silliness is handled by not allowing multi-classing, or at least restricting it to story driven changes rather than power build planning.

He's a bit short of a paladin multiclass without burning 3 ASIs.

I would recommend rogue or warlock. The Tome/Book of Shadows would give you a fair bit of nifty rituals for utility, and the Chain's super familiar also comes with a fair bit of fun.

Rogue would turn you into a bit more of a sneaky skillmonkey, but wouldn't be too shabby.

I mean you don't actually play 5e right? because we just discussed in this very same thread a ability that effectively lets you always succeed save-or-die spells at level 2.

Could you go further into that?

Why is based Mosley the OP, lad?

Any got good advice on how to play a warlock/rogue crossing pact of the blade and arcane trickster?
AC17 and 64 HP, but I didn't want to be a basic blast-chucker. So I'm currently relying on combining Armor of Agathya with Dark One's Blessing, as well as Vampiric Touch to keep my health up. Thirsting Blade for two attacks, with sneak attack on one of those attacks. Mire of the Mind for crowd control; One with Shadows for escape key. Also have Mirror Image, Sleep and Disguise to keep out of direct combat focus. Feasible? Recommendations?

As I have said before, it plays like I remember 2e playing back in the day.

I really like it. I miss the 'kits' from 2e, and that is really about it. Easily my favorite edition, though I likely still have more time playing 2e.

Running a 5e campaign now, mostly newish players. Runs smooth, no problems from them.

Have your players ever faced a lamia? How did it go?

There's a fey lamia with Magic Resistance that my players might choose to destroy, they're five with levels 3-4.

>How is it turning out in your eyes?
Quality capsized after Wotc laid of half their D&D department, at this rate Mike Mearl will be the only person left working on D&D material by 2018.

Did they fix the Ranger?

I'm starting a game this coming weekend, but I've never actually played 5e before. What classes actually have fun mechanics?

The rework looks better than the PHB version to be sure, but there's some issues with the beast companion. Namely the fact that any class can take a 3-level dip in ranger and get a pet fighter that scales with your character level, not class level. It's fair to assume that, while your proficiency bonus and ASIs are shared by your companion, the bonus hit points per level were meant to be your Ranger level. Do this and it seems balanced enough.

Your implying Mearls works on anything at all. He seems mostly to steal ideas from reddit, throw them at the player base for playtesting and in UA and puts his name on it.

Seriously, what the actual fuck is with some of the shit in UA?

>The big thing about 5e and optimization is how little it matters
>Namely the fact that any class can take a 3-level dip in ranger and get a pet fighter that scales with your character level, not class level

UA is for player feedback so they can try to determine what players want and like then allegedly they apply this to future released content. Who da fuck asked for a book of queer monsters(Volo)??

That's because Mercer is most comfortable with 3.pf games. The show itself is not run very much like a 5e game ala Chris Perkins.

dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/july-survey

>The next most popular tier of races includes catfolk, devas, githyanki, githzerai, gnolls, half-giants, hobgoblins, kender, kobolds, lizardfolk, pixies, and revenants.

Name five crunchier systems.

So /5eg/, I have a problem.
I really, desperately want to play a purple dragon knight. my character is already a statesman focused on keeping his fellow party members alive. my dm has resonable leeway with house rules, so I was wondering how you would fix it? as it stands battle master is just more interesting to play.

>save or die
Kek

FATAL
Shadowrun
GURPS
HERO
Phoenix Command

So why is OPs picture of a fascist leader?

The art preview for Volo looks like they were drawn at a gay pride parade in Brazil.

Palladium
GURPS
Shadowrun
Traveller
Exalted

That was fun.

FATAL is a meme, and GURPS isn't crunchier.

you understand it is a playtest/ua thing, right?

Traveler isn't crunchier either.

GURPS can become incredibly crunchy outside of the "default" rules (basically nobody uses the default magic system for instance).

The creature is not even 1/4 of a fighter, and is pandering to cancerous Ranger fags who are never happy their class isn't ridiculously strong enough and complains about it being too strong at the same time.

Have you ever played 3.5? It has rules for everything such that a DM can reach for the associated splat and use a series of terrible rules that are typically convoluted.

There's no arguing 3.5 is in the top 1-3% of games in terms of crunch.

Even 5e is in the top 30-50%.

That's a pretty useless made up statistic user, Monte Cuck releases a new rules lite system every 6 months.

Really? Haven't seen that. Can you link me to it?

>>Volo's Guide to Monster's Preview
>media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/VoloPreviews.zip

What are some motifs or themes an insect druid's subclass should have?

I'm brainstorming here, and so far I've decided to add more insect monster blocks, and at a certain level allow the druid to transform into swarms.

Something with poison seems appropriate.

Nah, go weirder. Play up the hivemind angle - telepathy like a GOO Warlock, but also affecting vermin.

All the rules and shit in the splat are options. The biggest problem is that most DMs are huge fucking pussies now and don't limit book sources or tell the players "No".

What do those have to with queer whatsoever? The flail snail sounds fun, at least.

The style is highly flamboyant. If you like that shit go ahead. I won't be buying the book. I'll download a PDF and use the stats but fuck the shittier art than what they already use.

Something like Beastmaster, but with a swarm companion?

Stop projecting. The art is pretty tame.

I would have said 'fabulous', but yeah.

>be me, the DM
>players are a Pali, a Eldritch Knight and a Barbarian
>players are in a dungeon
>need to escape
>find a sentient sword that evolves with the user and unlocks more powers
>Barb: "Fuck it, I don't wanna"
>Pali: "Meh..."
>EK: "..."
>put the sword in a bag
>escape the dungeon
>go to nearest village.
>NPC inspect the bag
>NPC: "I will pay you for this sword"
>Pali: "Nop, I don't sell it"
>NPC: "800gp"
>Pali; "Fuck off man""
>proceeds to kill the NPC

I should I even stay awake to prepare this sword.

Hey there, anons. Race-building guy back again repeating his inevitable request for criticisms and suggestions as to which race to tackle next.

docs.google.com/document/d/1XovWm65MSmIzQWSMDMXo0_aIpZgq9YSa2KkpO3kThS4/edit#

For those who'd rather not poke around and try to figure it out, here's the direct list of races I need to get written up:
Pterran
Bladeling
Githyanki
Githzerai
Fey'ri
Rogue Modron
Hamadryad
Satyr
Huldra
Dust Genasi
Rain Genasi
Magma Genasi
Blight Genasi
Smoke Genasi
Tanuki
Mujina
Kawauso
Bakeneko
Itachi
Tengu
Spellscale
Vyrloka

Criticisms brought up in the last thread:
* Racial feats are near-universally overpowered; need help toning those down.

* Many races are either bland, underpowered or both - need help boosting them up. Finding more "fluffy" racial traits and switching out the boring "free proficiency" skills is definitely on the list.

As an aside, could really use help figuring out where to go with the Spellscale and Yokai races. The former in particular... I wonder...

Maybe go for a subrace mechanic based on Draconic Ancestry, and give 'em damage resistance, spell-like abilities and possibly other features based on canon dragons? Because, honestly, the old Blood Quickening mechanic probably wouldn't work in 5e and was kind of bland back then anyway?

That seems arbitrary. Not liking art isn't a very good excuse to pirate something you would otherwise buy.

Which makes me think you wouldn't have bought it anyways. So why are your acting like your crappy opinion is a loss for wotc?

It's okay to be gay, user. Don't project your self-hate on to standard fantasy art.

I learned the hard way, never try to tailor custom loot for the pcs. They'll gladly toss everything you give them aside, and focus on a set of fishing hooks instead.

>Second Image is a gold Kirin
Hype as fuck, just concerned about what its type is. Are Kirin considered Dragons, or Celestials?

>Pali; "Fuck off man""
>proceeds to kill the NPC
Which oath was the pali? I'm generally a very liberal DM, but that shit sounds very fall-worthy.

Is there an easy way to convert monsters from 3.5 to 5e? I want to use inevitables in the campaign I'm running.

I thought you already took care of Vryloka?

Anyway, Both Gith races please. I need my dragon-riding space pirates.

if you get a good conversion, I could use those too