/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

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Don't tell the other cancerous thread

Have you ever been in a duel?

What the hell is this? These aren't even questions. We made a new thread for this shit?

> fixing ranger

Bring back hunters quarry or something similar. Give the ranger the ability to use knowledge checks to get bonus damage. Give him useful abilities. Remove the shitty low-tier utility spellcasting that has been a bad idea since 3.5.

> barbarian is boring

I don't even know what the fuck that means, you need to actually elaborate on your goddamn opinions. New feats would help diversify the barbarian. Alternate class features as well.

> how to be smart wizard

Have a high intelligence like literally every wizard ever??? the fuck? Is that even a question?

The /4eg/ has actual mechanical and lore discussion because the questions are longer than five words and contain actual content to discuss. Can we stop memeing and have real discussion?

How about:

> how to do a Walking-Dead-style game in D&D 5e, always wanted to do a zombie apocalypse in medieval fantasy, with infectious bites. How to stat these zombies? I want them to be arrow sponges, slow moving, and infect in one bite, without overly punishing melee characters.

Can't say I have, though the character I play would probably just shoot the other guy as soon as he turned his back, then complain the rules weren't clear enough

>> how to do a Walking-Dead-style game in D&D 5e, always wanted to do a zombie apocalypse in medieval fantasy, with infectious bites. How to stat these zombies? I want them to be arrow sponges, slow moving, and infect in one bite, without overly punishing melee characters.

You dont need to change anything. Zombies in d&d and pretty dangeorous and due to bounded accurancy you can overwhelm a group of pc with a mass of them pretty easily. Also you have a bunch of undeads at your disposal to play with what the npc would know of their foes. For example revenants: these fuckers have 100 hp each, their soul return to the nearest corpse after being killed and rise again one day after to hunt the players, are intelligent and also cannot be turned by a cleric.

What i would recomend is not saying things like "in front of you there is a mummy" os some shit like that, but put the things vage and give more information referencing some obscure legend rater than giving the name of the monster if they pass a religion check.

You dont have zombies that dont die unles the fail a CD check, your players have killed a group of dirty brigands in a foggy swap, and all the sudden they have risen again.

Take the zombie stat sheet and make a few changes.
>Arrow sponges
Give them resistance against piercing damage, to make the point you gotta cut or smash them.
>Slow moving
They already have a speed of 20ft, you may want to drop it further to 10ft or 15ft.
>Infect in one bite, without overly punishing melee characters.
There are many ways to go about this. You could base it off of vampire bites: With their slam attack, they can choose to grapple (escape DC 11) instead of doing damage. Then either they have to wait a round to bite or you can have them be able to bite as a bonus action, I think the first is better because other zombies could still try to bite with their actions, and you'll normally have a big number of zombies anyway. The additional action would read:
Bite: +3 to hit, 5ft reach, one creature that is grappled, incapacitated, or restrained. On a hit, 1d4+1 piercing damage, and the creature must make a DC 13 Constitution saving throw against disease. On a failure, they become poisoned, can't regain hit points, and both their current hit points and hit point maximum are reduced by (some amount, maybe 1d10) every hour that elapses. If their hit point maximum is reduced to 0, the creature dies and rises as a zombie after (1d4 hours? 1d10 minutes? Up to you) unless its brain is destroyed.

Of course, having a paladin or a 3rd level cleric kind of makes all of this invalid, but I guess that's kind of their point.

Anyone know a good way of statting Varl from Banner Saga as either a player race or monster?

As a race, probably would either use Goliath with some tweaks like maybe a version of the UA Minotaur's charge? Probably some sort of resistance to cold damage.

For monsters, Storm King's Thunder stats for giants might be too much for their size, besides maybe hill giants I'd think.

Give it to me straight, Veeky Forums

Currently looking at building a wizard, and holy fuck does Portent seem OP. Is the lackluster other abilities compensated by Portent, or is there a generally "Better" arcane tradition than Divination? I don't want to let my party down

You just have bad opinions all round, but you are right about people hating talking about mechanics on here because almost any other site is better at 5e mechanics than Veeky Forums because you can only find shitposters with rose-tinted glasses.

For a zombie game you just need deadlier rules. Shrink HP pools, keep standing at 0 HP instead of going unconscious, bites can only "infect" when against someone with 0 HP.

Keep HP low by either having HP by class only (remove CON/level) or Constitution score + class (Constitution + class scales better if you want higher level play). Do the same for NPCs.

Go halfing to get lucky so you can avoid nat 1's
Get lucky feat at level 4
Go diviner wizard

Enjoy bending the game to your will

This pleases me greatly. I think I will do that.

Everything I heard suggests that Portent is, indeed, a very powerful ability.

Divination is very solid, but it's not the only good option for wizard schools. Abjuration is my personal favorite, basically being a free pool of temporary HP that you can recharge. As well as improving your counter spell, dispel magic, and overall resistance to magic. It's especially powerful when combined with deep gnome and their racial feat.

Knight School

Lackluster? Expert Divination is amazing and greatly increases the number of spells you can cast per day. At a high enough level, if you have already expended at least one slot per slot level, for the price of one True Seeing cast you can also get Scrying, Arcane Eye, Tongues, Detect Thoughts and Identify for free, or any combination of divination spells. And The Third Eye is a neat buff that you can have pretty much always on.

If I got rid of feats and rolled their ideas into the core system, what would be some good rules to take from feats?

>-5 penalty to attack +10 to damage
>+1 AC with two weapons
>large shields give +2 to Dexterity saves and bonus action, others give a bonus action shove
>unarmed strikes deal 1d4 damage and allow a bonus action grapple
>improvised weapons are martial weapons
>weapons can be arcane focii under X condition
>additional weapon properties
>Mark works like sentinel
>second grapple pins

It seems like the best of feats are just better built into the system.

Is it okay for a Sorcerer or Warlock to dip a single level of Bard for Cure Wound?

Sorcerer, maybe, because the spell slots stack. Warlock, not really, because you're not going to have enough spell slots to waste them on healing.

Next Mystic UA what do you want to see?

I just want to see the base class up to 20 and see what crazy shit they can do at higher levels, and if they adjusted some of the already-crazy-shit to be more reasonable.

I just want it to be finally finished. There's really no excuse at this point.

But I also want the Order of the Immortal to be a separate class. Right now, the Mystic is going to be several different classes that share a basic mechanic, instead of several expressions of the same class.

rate my first character build, Veeky Forums

Rogue 1
Fighter 1 (Archery)
Rogue 5 (Thief, Assassin would probably be better for damage)
Wizard 2 (Diviner)
Rogue 17 (yay)

Take the lucky feat and essentially always have advantage, and when don't I can just reroll or replace the number as I see fit.

Fighter - Proficiencies, a garbage self heal, +2 shootan (probably unnecessary, but I don't like crossbows)

Wizard for some first level spells, cantrips, and rituals. Diviner for Portent because it's awesome.

I chose rogue because I like the idea of two sneak attacks a round, I won't need to reload because of using a regular bow, the extra abilities are useful sometimes. Assassin is a nice damage boost probably, but I'm playing a good guy character.

Also went soldier as my background. also I can fly

Currently level 8 so just got Portent.

>two sneak attacks a round
How do you plan on accomplishing this? You can only do one sneak attack per turn. The only way to do two sneak attacks per round is to do one of them with your reaction.

Thief rogues can take 2 turns a round @ level 17.

Only the Thief archetype, and only on the first round of combat. Not that that's weak by any means, but it's not a permanent two sneak attacks per round.

oh, sorry, just during the first round

If you're going wizard already, consider instead Wizard 5 so you can Haste. Haste yourself and you can sneak attack twice for up to 10 rounds (Haste action to attack, normal action to Ready an attack, then reaction to attack). You can use your normal action to read a Booming Blade or Green-Flame Blade as well, for even more damage, and bonus action disengage + your speed boost makes you basically untouchable.

holy shit im gonna fucking pop
i wanted to get into D&D after seeing it pop off on tumblr and after loving The Avdenture Zone. so i offered to DM for my brother and two of his freinds because their last DM was both terrible and and flake and apparently just dropped them
so i read up on the DMG and MM and the PG and i leared Roll20 and made a first adventure and a hub town full of NPCs and have a second adventure all planned out just need to put it on Roll20 and another in the planning stages as well as an over arching storyline
AND WE'VE PLAYED ONLY ONE SESSION IN FOUR WEEKS
i just want to play D&D but after making characters and going though setting up the first adventure its been fucking nothing, someone always has a reason to not play or is tired, or literally asleep.
i just want to play D&D...
i worked really hard on the setting...

welcome to the club, faggot
at least you're not permaDM

You suck and everyone hates listening to you speak.

Anyone who has or is familiar with Storm King's Thunder, I have questions.

Questions about the Hill Giant Lord, Chief Guh.

Who is she, what is her primary motivation, and how does she compare to your standard Hill Giant as a MM entry?

Your DM will fucking despise you, and unless the rest of your group are munchkins you will look like an asshole.

but its a text based medium

Try reading the adventure, champ

Would Bladesinger 2 / Arcane Trickster 18 work?

I just want a whip and good AC. Also is it worth starting with Rogue for 1 more skill proficiency and better HP? Wizard get a proficiency in Wisdom saving throw though...

Can we discuss minor conjuration rulings again?

Make the miniature sun!

The Sun of Faêrun is magic hot fire. So it can't be copied.

>look at the sun so you can "see" it to conjure it
>become permanently blinded

I'm about to join a game, and the GM is using the variant encumbrance rules. I rolled up a Dwarf Paladin, but noticed with my starting gear alone I'm encumbered, and my character is no slouch on the strength front (it's 19). What kind of crap is this, is it just a poorly implemented rule?

Drop your backpack full of extra shit before wading into combat.

Encumber is optional rule for a reason. WotC know people don't like calculator: the game

how the fuck your starting gear weights more than 95lb?

Chain mail is 55lbs, my weapons total to about 24lbs, and the Paladin stuff plus the Explorer's pack (Which my GM really wants us to take) is 50~60lbs.

I've read that a common rule change is that Dwarves ignore the first 10ft penalty to move speed due to encumbrance or armor.

Is there a name for this kind of sword?
Not the name of the sword in mythology, but the kind of sword that it is.
Some sort of longsword, I guess?

Well it's just referred to as a 'seven branched sword' or perhaps a 'ceremonial sword'

Literally, when the Japanese talked about it in historical texts, I'm like 85% certain they called it "a seven-branched sword" which is pretty telling for what they considered it to be.

Ignoring the first level of encumbrance is better than ignoring heavy armor speed penalties, but that is the easiest way to do that. I personally double the thresholds, so it's mostly a limiter for low strength people and loot, even with 8 STR you'll get 80 pounds which is enough for a pack and some other stuff.

So, I'm starting a new campaign in my own custom setting and I want to give out a pdf to my player with fluff stuff + rules.

When it's too much or too little? My thing is gonna be 3 pages, 2 of fluff 1 of mechanics.

well for fluff it'd probably behoove you to include it in the game itself though exposition and shit

Start up front with basic concepts like what kind of government it is, what kind of religion it has, race presences, etc. as bullet points, then mechanics, then more fluff in the back.

Also post here for us to look at.

Probably better to go rogue. they get proficiency on Wis saves at level 15, I know it's high but it's there. If you start with wizard, rogue 15 will be an empty level for ya. Besides, Dex saves are pretty important to not die.

The +1 AC when wielding two weapons is a big part of the reason to take the dual wielder feat for me. Without it I would probably just not bother and rock dual scimitars instead.
The Charger feat could simply be built right into the system, though.

Also thank you for this idea. If I ever run 5e I may do this.

>The Charger feat could simply be built right into the system, though.
I've played a game with it like that. Everyone just endlessly back up and charges enemies, it gets old fast.

alright /5eg/ I'm going out for my run

I'll be back in 40~ minutes, and by the time I'm back I want you guys to choose my next character race/class/

No Sorcerers or Rogues, currently playing them. Multi-classing is allowed.

I want Order of the Invisible Hand and telekinesis disciplines that will satisfy me, but my expectations for a satisfying telekinesis in this game are absolute zero. In the best case scenario it will be
>you have a psychic equivalent of Mage Hand
>you can cast the Telekinesis and Flight spells by spending PP
>you can throw shit at people maybe and the damage is always X no matter what you throw
But I would like it to be
>lifting/dragging capacity of int*30 out to a certain range, can't target creatures or worn/carried objects
>damage table for thrown objects by size/weight (this would help barbarians too)
>PP for aforementioned spells
>a note that you can only attack once when throwing a very high size/weight object, same as the Net item (also applies to barb)

Ghostwise Halfling Mystic. Put him in a trenchcoat, dress him up like Professor Layton, make him hard boiled but cute.
>what happens when after I reach 10th level?
don't worry about that lol

Aarakocra oath of vengeance paladin whose had his wings clipped by bbeg of your choice and is gonna make some mother fuckers pay.

Thank you for your opinion!
It's nothing special and I'm too embarrassed to post it here, as it's my first experiment.

Now that I think of it, can someone give me some tips on how to represent mechanically some kind of "flesh warforged"?

anyone got the newish middle-earth pdf?

I'd avoid the "Lucky" feat, it is retard cheese wheras as a Halfling Diviner you're only avoiding Nat 1's and got a couple Portents to dish out.

I love Portent because it makes the "Save and Nothing happens" spells not a massive liability to cast.

I guess check the Flesh Golem in the MM and consider what traits from that you can pare down in order to be suitable for a player character,

It's in the Mega, under Third Party

oh thanks

Using the "Catapult" spell to throw Vials of Acid. Y/N?

What's an average session length for you guys? I have a story for you and I want to know if I'm right or not.

A guy in our group, who is undoubtedly the single most excited person to play, decides that he wants to stop after three hours, because he's bored with all the "talking" we're doing in character as opposed to just straight up murdering everything in sight. I call him on it, wondering why someone as excited as him wants to call it quits after 3 hours to go play video games or something, and he gets mad at me, claiming that his free time is his to control and that I shouldn't be giving him lip. He goes on to say that I "ruined his whole day" and tells me to kill myself before quitting the campaign.

tl;dr our most excited player wanted to quit after 3 hours, I got frustrated with him because this and last session were our shortest ones ever, he rages and quits for no real reason.

What should I do about a fellow player using an ability wrong?

Long-Death Monk, who generally uses a shortbow or some form of throwing weapon, is using Touch of Death to get temp HP from enemies he's killing from far beyond 5ft.

I don't know if he just doesn't understand it or is abusing it but the name of the ability is literally TOUCH of death.

it's not a huge deal but it's pretty fucking silly because the DM allows the temp HP to stack and it doesn't go away until a rest, so the dude's generally got way more HP than our Paladin.

For whatever reason the DM really loves throwing hordes of weaker enemies at us to try to swarm us, so it's way worse than if we were fighting a couple stronger enemies. The monk had like 30+ temp HP by the end of last session.

He sounds like a child and y'all are better off
Show the DM the PHB entry on temp hp

Honestly if he gets that mad over a simple question he's probably better off outside the group.

Remember, excited =/= good.

3 hours a session is a pretty reasonable amount of time desu.

Hey 5eg, I'm a bit stumped on how to roleplay an important NPC. Here's the thing:

>One of my PCs has set out looking for their childhood friend/crush who was kidnapped by this cult the party has been fighting against.
>Unbeknownst to him, she has actually joined the cult and is quite high in the hierarchy, being also a 9th level cleric, while the party is level 6.
>She is devoted to the cult's subject of worship (dragons, specially white ones), but not necessarily to its causes.
>She is willing to strike a deal with the party if that means undermining her rivals within the cult.

Her childhood friend showing up will be completely unexpected to her, though. How should I play her? Totally evil, will just try to take advantage of him once she learns who he is? Capable of conversion, giving them a chance to get her over to their side? Lost and conflicted upon seeing her friend declare himself as an enemy of the cult? Or something else entirely? I'm really worried about fucking this up, since I have never ran a big emotional moment for a PC before.

>What's an average session length for you guys
its session girth that is important, not length

3 hours is OK, sure. Getting mad because people are roleplaying instead of murderhoboing isn't, however,

Sweet jesus

Be glad he left early. That dude's a fucking loon.

I prefer 3-4 hours. anything shorter and not much gets done generally, anything longer leads to fatigue and boredom

>Show the DM the PHB entry on temp hp

Oh sweet babby jesus.

I really don't want to shit on the monk's parade, he's probably my favorite player and our characters are bros. But him stacking temp HP like this is insane

We do ~6hrs weekly
Manipulate to kill off rivals and then turns on them. Her and a young white dragon with some cultists as a boss

>Girth

I feel like you might be in my current campaign.

Don't be a dick about it. Act apologetic when you show the DM

Let him keep using it at range but stacking temp hp is dumb

All previous sessions in the campaign I'm talking about, except this one and the last one, have been at least 7 hours and we've always managed to get a lot done.

Have any of you had experience with players who have played as creatures from the Monster Manual? I played with someone who was a centaur for a while and totally went full fetish-y route with it, but I'm hoping other people have had more positive experiences.

If playing a Circle of the Moon druid has taught me anything, it's that the stats in the MM are not balanced in any way shape or form for player use. The only way i really see it working is by picking a creature then sitting down with the DM and homebrewing something relatively together.

I played Talis as genuinely friendly, understanding and willing to betray the cult because she is salty that the dwarf got picked over her. Of course when she gets the advantage she swoops down and attacks the party, if you're worried about harming the "Relationship/EvilCucking" the PC just have her loudly announce to her minion/dragons "Make sure to take X alive, I want him for myself."

I don't know anything about Banner Saga, but the Vollo's Guide will have a Firbolg player race. Firbolg are 3 metre tall, irish/norse inspired giants so when that comes out it may be what you are looking for.

The hooks look cool, but make the sword 100% useless for chopping people. That's why most historical weapons stick with one or two hooks at the bottom of the blade.

I hope they are legit large, even if they are cripplingly shit. I know Large-races are hard to balance for PCs but so are Flight-Races and they still forced them in anyway.

Firbolg +2Str, +1 Con. Large Size. Advantage on Strength-Checks and Saves. Weapons sized for you deal an additional 1d4 damage over their medium counterparts.

There, Balanced.

Unfortunately, advantage on strength checks will lead to unbelievable grapple cheese.

Which Barbarians get anyway and use to grapple-cheese.

Can't say I wouldn't enjoy plaing a Firbolg with Tavern-Brawler punching people for 2d4+STR and Grabbing folks and throwing my weight a round.

But they have to expend a resource to have it. It doesn't even make sense that a large race should be better at grappling just by being larger. Make it so they only have advantage on grapples against Small or smaller targets and it's fine.

Thanks for the suggestions. I was a bit lost in how to handle it for the most interesting / fun results. Though which would be the moment for her attack? She usually doesn't even follow the party into the castle unless they ask her to, and if she does I'm afraid that'd be a death sentence for the party, because she would turn the moment they threaten to harm Glazhael. And a fight that's already deadly becomes nigh-impossible.

What makes 5e better than Pathfinder?