/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

My group has a hard on for poisons because Poison = Edgy = Cool. I don't know where they came up with this, but because of their absolute retard fawning over poisons I refuse to let them have them in game. Is it No_Fun.jpg? Yes, but it also means I don't have to listen to them nerdgasm over how great poisons are. I hope this is just a phase for the group.

How old are they?

Aright... Posting something that happened last night

>4 party group, little experience, I'm DM
>fat woman in group wants to be a fat elf fighter, Dips one into warlock
>fat woman is a friend of my friends gf
>her character does alot of grappling
>fighters story is that she was an exiled noble for being fat and a glutton and she wants to return to being a noble
>wants to do a mini campaign with me after work with her characters story
>I like fatgirls, maybe can Bork irl
>her character eventually confronts a powerful sorceress for hire
>using her OOG patron backstory, she swallows the sorceress whole and absorbs her ala majin fucking buu
>"my character gets their modifier as bonus ability scores as long as they are apart of me"
>things start taking a weird and sexual turn
>tell her that there really no way to bring this to the main game
>"it's just for me and you, for fun"
>it is now relevant to reveal she is not ugly and has a huge ass
>thanks me for playing with her, same time next week
>bends over in front me, then looks and winks
>"you really need to improve your initiative "

I'm weirded out, turned on and I feel cucked

Poisons have always been weaker in D&D than in real life and treated merely as an option for DMs to allow rather than part of the core rules, so there's a lot of precedent for banning poison. Your players are probably excited about poisons because they see it as a way to skip large portions of an adventure and/or make it much easier than it should be. You know, the feeling you get in Mario World when you realize you can fly over the whole level with a cape. That's fun once, but not more than once. So go ahead and continue to keep the poisons in the DMG out of players' hands, or, if you want to allow them, make sure that the enemies are using them as well. There are also countless monsters who are immune to poison, so make good use of those.

Nah, 25 = 35. And go from there.

Unborn get special privileges, actually. Greenwood was asked about it once.

Simple-minded go to I think Ilmater.

Never learning about gods is... well, it's basically impossible in FR. It's like an ancient Greek not knowing who Zeus is. ALL cultures have gods. The "Elminster's Forgotten Realms" book mentions some stuff on it the matter:

>The average Faerunian lives long enough to worship (or serve through one's actions) one deity above all others - though in many cases, which deity a given person has served most might not be clear to a dying mortal or anyone else. If a mortal dies before finishing a mission or a task for a particular deity and it's a matter he felt strongly about in life, he could be sent back by that deity, reborn as another mortal, to try to complete that task. Otherwise, he ends up in the afterlife serving the deity most appropriate to his moral and ethical outlook. Only those who repudiate the gods (or who as a result of their actions are renounced by their gods), despoil altars and frustrate the aims of any deity, or never pray or engage in any form of deliberate worship will qualify as either Faithless or False.

You have to do some incredibly serious shit to get Faithless or False. You have to tip that fedora like nobody has EVER tipped their fedora in the entire history of tipping fedoras, and even then odds are good you wound up following one by accident and end up in the appropriate afterlife anyway.

Throw out a single minor "please Mystra let this spell work" in a heated moment? Or "Sune, let me score tonight with that hot barmaid" while you get dressed up? Those very easily count, simply because you wind up serving through action (furthering magic for Mystra, beautifying things for Sune).

I think the answer to this situation is obvious.

Of course you need to let them have poisons. It's most resisted type of damage in the game, why wouldn't you?

Just put the hours in.

In order to be able to craft poisons, you need to A) Have proficiency in the Alchemyst's kit and maybe B) Have proficiency in Poisoner's kit in order to do anything with it

If they want to harvest the ingredients for poison they also need C) Proficiency in Herbalism/ Survival / Animal Handling, whatever is necessary depending on the type of ingredient, and D) The formula for the specific poison, which are enviously guarded by any high ranking members of a guild of alchemists, or such and such, partying with a copy of it only as payment for a significant quest, that shall have repercussions should their rivals, the Neighbourhood Watch, learn of it. Repercussions will also ensue if they decide to flood the market with it, or use it in ways that may allow it to be traced back to them.

They may be able however, should they gather all the prerequisites, to craft a formula for poison of their own.

A Formula is at least One step of rarity higher than the poison, and it can be crafted at a pace of 20 gold pieces worth of work per diem, plus another five gold pieces worth of work per point on the Investigation Skill.

However, one cannot simply progress out of nowhere. Unless you're making a gold based poison, these 20 GP daily costs, will have to be paid for, in the form of ingredients for said poison, in order to experiment through trial and error.

The bonus gained from the investigation skill, as well as any bonuses gained from other sources, such as non consumable assisting literature (alchemy books in the value of the money in which they are assisting for example) do not need to be paid for

So let's say you want to make a caster with constitution as their casting stat. A Gish I feel would be too strong as they have their health and weapon stat raising. What are some ideas? My first thought is blood magic, but that's pretty edgy and not likely to make it to the final cut at least not as the primary reason.

I feel like it would have to have its own spells like psionic in the unearthed arcana.

Maybe the good and merciful gods, or the evil ones with an interest in strengthening the Lower Planes, claim souls who didn't worship them and the souls go along with it because it beats being in a wall.

What would best fit Talona?
Death or Trickery? or maybe even nature?

This way, you even have a little team work. You need a rogue to administer the poisons, a wizard to do the research, and a face to go around doing the shopping

It'll be fun, for a while, but in time, they'll be such notorious individuals, that their signature poison will begin to be notorious. Antidotes synthesized from all the dead bodies they've carelessly left lying around will have begun to pop up everywhere, until every significant character in the world will begin to go around building up tolerances to it, or taking a jug of "fuck off" milk in the morning with it's Wheaties, and the party will adapt.

Something like a verminlord or cancer mage. You grow creepy-crawlies in your body and send them out one at a time. The equivalent of prepared spells/spell slots would be mature creatures inside you ready to emerge. So like how casters in previous editions would prepare three fireballs, you'd grow three explosive maggots in your stomach, and instead of casting them you belch them forth.

Actually, that's the baatezu. They canonically send representatives to the Fugue Plain to try and convince souls to enter into deals, which allows them to take said souls back to Hell. Faithless, False, even faithful ones who are uncertain if their god will really take them.

Versus demons, who raid the place. Kelemvor's faithful (and outsider servants) often fight against raiding parties filled with demons.

I'm trying to design a magic item for a sorcerer that will let him damage himself in exchange for casting a spell in a higher slot. It won't let him cast more spells per day, just cast them using a higher slot (if the spell allows it). Any ideas how much hp this should cost to be balanced?

I don't know if it would really work as an equivalency, but the Bladesinger kit has the Song of Defense feature that allows you to nullify damage up to 5x the spell level expended.

You could do that, except in reverse.

In addition, it would make sense if sometimes a god was like "Okay, this guy never worshipped me, but he doesn't deserve this shit, so I'm claiming him." Or else "This guy was a False servant of my enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I'm claiming him."

Have them use up hit die to boost spell slots, maybe taking (hit die - con) damage or just loosing them for their next short rest

posting again

7 Int 4 wisn12 cha dwarf barb

I'm pretty much going to speak Asa normal dwarf would, just unable to understand long words and I make extremely poor decisions.

10 int is average intelligence and 5 is retardation so I wouldn't be talking like a caveman

False also tends to really, REALLY require you be a hypocritical asshole. Generally 'Claiming to serve a god while wiping your ass with their tenants'. Like going around and throwing acid in the face of ugly people as a Sune worshipper under the logic that 'Ugly people don't deserve to live'

>In addition, it would make sense if sometimes a god was like "Okay, this guy never worshipped me, but he doesn't deserve this shit, so I'm claiming him."

Generally that falls under greenwood's 'though in many cases, which deity a given person has served most might not be clear to a dying mortal or anyone else'. You were a generally nice guy who helped the poor and fed the hungry? The Crying God will call you one of his own as you served his goals unless he's unable to because you actively denied him as your patron.

That sounds abusable. Make it hurt (at least "moderate" damage for a PC of a high enough level to have the improved spell slots) and more importantly, make it variable. Make it damage dice, so he doesn't know if he'll be fine or if it will knock him out or kill him. Also maybe consider limiting its use to sorcerers, because if it were my party I'd give it to the life cleric; he's the one keeping everyone's HP in balance anyway.

Not the guy you're replying to, but I would probably limit that to 5x how many levels you're increasing the spell by. So a fireball at level 9 takes 30 unmitigated damage, while magic missile makes you take 40.

Have you ever played a paladin that was directly at odds with their Oath? I'm considering playing an ex-criminal Oath of the Crown, with flaws that directly tempt the character to bend or break the oath.

My Oath of Devotion was prideful, and constantly fought against showing mercy to a personal foe.

>being wielded out and feeling cucked by a girl hitting on you
How does this happen?

Nothing in 5e goes above 30. Anything above 30 means it is unknowable and just happens as the DM says it does.

Out of curiosity, my character has 18 strength

How powerful is that? What could he bench press?

>In addition, it would make sense if sometimes a god was like "Okay, this guy never worshipped me, but he doesn't deserve this shit, so I'm claiming him."
That can easily happen with serving through action, like what said.

>Or else "This guy was a False servant of my enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I'm claiming him."
That, on the other hand, ain't happening. If Kelemvor declares you False, then your fate is sealed. That's his job, to decide who is Faithless and who is False. Once he decides you're one of the two, only a baatezu deal or tanar'ri raid will get you out of it, the other gods have to respect his judgement because that's what he does: judges fairly and without bias (nowadays, anyway - when he first ascended there were some teething issues).

People make a big deal out of Faithless and False, but usually I don't think they quite realise just how far you have to go to get branded with that. We're talking doing things like spending your entire life running around blowing up or otherwise utterly desecrating ALL the shrines you can find, purely out of spite. And even THAT might not be enough, because Cyric might just make an argument to Kelemvor for claiming you should you not destroy any of his shrines in the process. (He likes the insane ones.)

Or doing something so colossally foul that no god wants to go near you, the sort of thing that has even Bane and Myrkul and Shar collectively cringing in disgust while Asmodeus goes "the fuck is with this dipshit?!" from his throne.

The Nameless One in Planescape Torment? He would count as Faithless/False in FR, because every single Power renounced him (which is why he can't be a cleric).

Paladins literally derive their powers from their convictions. If you're constantly tempted (not just occasionally/situationally as in ), you literally couldn't use paladin class features.

20 is basically human perfection/Captain America tier. 18 is a serious athlete, near-Olympic level. Like, football-lineman-strong. You could probably bench 300-400 lbs.

20 is twice the amount of ten

So think of how strong an average person is and double it.

PHB p176

you can carry around 18 x 15 = 270lbs and lift/push/drag twice that

Would it be too far-fetched for Loviatar to have the hots for Ilmater? I mean, of course he sees her as his greatest enemy, but from her point of view they're the perfect match. She loves hurting and he loves being hurt.

DMs, what's the worst session you've ever ran? Either because the players made it difficult or you really just fucked up that day, let's hear some DM horror stories

>4d6 drop 1
>have 16 in 4 stats
>DM causes my character to die before the game starts

I'm a bit skeptical about this. Why would 20 be exactly as strong as 10? Ignoring modifiers for a second, what's the basic logic here? It's clear you can't apply this logic to other stats (you can't double "average dexteritiy"), so why would it apply to strength?

One of my players has 17 strength and 17 con, with 15 dex on a fighter. The other 4 have fairly weak characters and are ranged though. Do I just kind of rig the game against the fighter so he doesn't steam roll?

17 strength is the only really relevant stat here. 17 con isn't a problem because he's a tank, and 15 dex really only lets him wear medium armor and still have a lower AC than full plate.

Unless the other characters all have a primary attacking stat of less than 14, there's no need to do anything.

Also, and I can't believe this still needs to be said in ((current year)), NEVER RIG THE GAME AGAINST A SINGLE PLAYER. If a character is that much of a problem, resolve it out-of-game. Nobody likes being picked on by the DM, and a reasonable player would rather tone down his character so this isn't necessary. Remember: it's your job to make sure everyone has fun.

Create encounters where your fighter can't just run up and smash everything to death. Mages, something that flies, terrain that's not just a flat open field, etc.

Long story short: my players took what was supposed to be 5 individual boss fights against anime characters (very long story), rounded them all up and basically challenged them as a group. We played 3 hours last week, and they only managed to kill one of them.

I haven't had combat that long since my very first session, when the players took 4 hours to kill a pack of 4 wolves.

was in response to:

> against anime characters
Please consider drinking bleach.

drinking bleach is an ineffective method of suicide. In most cases, the body will involuntarily vomit it up, meaning the only damage you do is to your throat and stomach. This causes intense pain, lasting for quite a while, but will not usually result in death.

Help me figure out a deity for my character, noble friends of /5eg/.

He is an Oath of the Ancients paladin, devoted to light and beauty and all that is good. He sincerely believes that if everybody spent 5 more minutes on grooming each morning, the world would be a genuinely better place.
He always compliments anybody who makes an effort and has a soft spot for ugly people who nonetheless try to look their best.
At parties, he usually hooks up with either the hottest person or the ugly chick who came with her friends but bought a cute new dress. He wants to make everyone feel good about themselves.
Recognizing that beauty is far more than skin-deep, he always tries to judge people's character as well. He detests inner ugliness and tries to help people be morally upstanding, though he never coerces anybody like a Lawful Stupid Oath of Devotion paladin might. If the hottest person at the party was a total bitch, he'd still hook up with her but try to compliment anything nice she does, and make her feel good about being nicer.

Deities from either the PHB or FR are allowed. I'm thinking Sune might be a fairly good fit; any other/better suggestions?

I think it's because the book pretty much only gives Strength a mathematical progression (being able to lift an amount directly proportional to the score, i.e. 15*STR lbs). Therefore, someone with 20 STR can lift twice the amount as someone with 10 STR.

Honestly it's just that autismo-kun up there doesn't realize that it's better to look at the stats of real-world animals such as brown bears or elephants in D&D (19 STR and 22 STR respectively). You can tell that the progression isn't linear, as an elephant is vastly stronger than a bear.

Titania, The Summer Queen.

Another way of looking at it is that human strength in the real world isn't linear either.

What we do know is that 10 strength is average human, and 20 strength is bordering on the mythic. Heracles is the best example of a 20 strength human.

I think the god you're looking for is Thor

I'd argue Heracles has above-human-maximum strength, similar to a 20th-level barbarian. It's not humanly possible to do some of what he did.

How does Thor make sense here? (Sir Alan would give you the benefit of the doubt rather than assume you were shitposting)

I'm thinking of taking a very 40k approach to my next setting:

magic is feared and generally outlawed because using it attracts the attention of angels, demons, fey, and old ones (collectively outsiders), which tempt, drive mad, or inspire mages to commit great acts of societal disruption.

I like the idea of magic being socially unacceptable, placing a severe limit on its use. Any suggestions, or reasons I shouldn't do this?

Magic is pretty integral to D&D.
Why not play WHFRP or something?

Players insist on not learning a new system, so I've got to fix this. One balancing act between martials and mages IMO is making it so magic use has consequences.

Dark Sun did something similar; could be fun, although I'd not enjoy doing the whole space thing in D&D; would rather play Dark Heresy if we're going that route.

Does anyone know how much a burglar's pack weighs...?

well I saw this in roll20 with a setting that generally divine magic like cleric pally and druid are accepted cause gods and what not whiles arcane magic are the ones look down upon

while you are at maybe make a rule that after using a spellslot, player must a % roll. if the charac fail the roll ( pass/fail depend on DM/Spell slot level), then it take a penalty on their casting stats

Lliira, goddess of joy and parties

Depends on how successful the burglar is

I can definitely see him worshiping Sune in general and her minor-deity buddy Liira in a slightly more limited context (probably saying a prayer to her before performing at an inn). Thanks for the idea!

Oh, I wouldn't be doing space. it'll be mostly taking place in a low tech fantasy setting. The big thing is the magic stuff.

I was thinking of adopting insanity rules for magic, with the checks made during long rests while the magic users are sleeping.

The checks would be made based on how much magic was used.

Yep, as said, 20 is considered the peak of human capabilities.

Oh, then good. I'd enjoy that, probably. I like settings that are a bit dark.

No matter how much you think magic-users are unbalanced (and they're really not nearly as bad as they used to be), you should still never penalize a player for using his class features.

Nice, you quoted (me) to (me). Feels good, man.

Backpack (5 lbs)
1000 ball bearings (2 lbs)
10 feet of string (no weight)
a bell (no weight)
5 candles (no weight)
crowbar (5 lbs)
hammer (3 lbs)
10 pitons (1/4 lb each, 2.5 lbs total)
hooded lantern (2 lbs)
2 flasks of oil (2 lbs)
5 days rations (10 lbs)
tinderbox (1 lb)
waterskin (5 lbs full)
50 feet of hempen rope (10 lbs)

Total weight of Burglar's Pack: 47.5 lbs.

P.S. if your DM makes you guys play with Encumbrance variant rules he's a shitter.

>Nice, you quoted (me) to (me). Feels good, man.
kek

Hmm.

Thinking about it, I disagree with that absolute. Adding costs or risks to abilities is a fine game design tactic, and this is just a cost players will have to consider when they use magic.

There are plenty of examples of costs associated with abilities, such as spell casting components. there are plenty of examples of risks associated with abilities (such as never being able to cast wish again). All of these could be characterized as penalties for using class features. I use my spellcasting feature to resurrect the barbarian, and I'm penalized an expensive gem for example.

thanks. I like the flavor of outsider type beings influencing mortals a lot myself.

I once started making, then got sidetracked on, a setting who's major thing was that people--the common people--have started to figure out how to bind vestiges, small gods, as some people called them. Anyone with the training can do it, so the Churches and the Mage Guilds--that control separately the magic trades in the setting--try to stamp bindings out completely, using their influence to destroy them wherever they can find them, under the guise of "protecting the innocent".

While it probably does have that effect, that isn't the reason.

My DM uses it and it adds to the realism and experience!
I just ignore it, he will never know

Did you also include a binder class?

I mean how I would penalized it by
lv 1 = DC 10 (using d100) failed 1 dmg
2 = DC 15 failed 1d4 dmg

lv 6-9 = dc 35 failed penalty to casting stat

okay.

>6-8 foot tall half orc or goliath.
>18 str
>boots of springing and striding
>grapple

i should be able to jump up into the air and drop my grapply target for around 20 ft of fall damage, yeah?

I was going to, but never got past the embryonic stage. Before I start working on a game, I'll poll my group to see what it is they want out of a game. They were looking for different things than a cold war between the Commoners, the Mage Guilds, and the Churches, so I put it away for the time being.

I did notice that Middle Finger of Vecna did one that I thought was pretty good, on first blush.

Player died last session. Other players recovered the body and we ended the session there.

PC that died already rolled a new character and is excited to play the new one.

Then we all collectively realized we forgot about Relentless Endurance because he's a Half-Orc.

My plan is to have two of the NPC's who got hit by the same creature that killed the half-orc collapse into a coma like state, because apparently the beast also has a really strong poison attached to its attacks.

Is that a big enough reason to handwave the PC death and move forward?

can dwarves do backflips and acrobatics? 15 dex

I use it as a DM; fortunately, my players are more honest than you. I also look at their sheets before the game starts to get an idea of how much they carry, etc. If it's a few pounds off or something, I'm not going to call them on it, but big things or plot things are a different story.

Does that make me a dick DM? Probably. Certainly amuses me when they go, "FUCK! We have too much gold to carry all this loot we just stole!"

Yeah, that's fine, if the player's okay with it.

If you can roll a well enough acrobatics check sure.

He's down. Like, we have a hard rule about backpedaling, and at the time it was a pretty devastating loss for everyone in involved. Just want to come up with a way to rationalize it.

Also when they try to get him resurrected and he refuses that's gon be a biiiitch.

A lot of the Acrobatics skill includes things that don't really count as acrobatics in the common sense of the word, like keeping your balance and wriggling out of restraints.

That said, I don't see why you would ban a dwarf character from doing flips and stuff if he makes a good Acrobatics check and doesn't have too much gear weighing him down.

Technically, but expect a huge social penalty as all dwarves everywhere sense your natural acrobatic ability and shun you as not dwarf like.

You can, but 20ft of fall damage is 2d6, probably less than what you can do just hitting them

Keeping your balance is very dwarflike, and that's covered by the Acrobatics skill.

Signs point to yes, but it looks silly

This desu senpai. I'm all for doing stuff like this, but eventually players get mad that it doesn't do enough damage. Instead, ride them down SPD style, and ask the DM for some sweet bonus damage.

excellent. i am most likely going to use this as a character for a one-shot.

Yes, but I believe the character would also take that falling damage. So...yay?

Ewww, that autocorrects to that? wtf

I think there's a distinction between a cost and a penalty, even if it's a bit fuzzy. A material component cost is fine - a fighter has to buy ammunition, after all. But a penalty to the casting stat? Insanity consequences? That's along the lines of crippling injuries with negative side effects for fighters. It's just not fun, whether or not you think it's balanced or reasonable.

>DC35
That's better be a joke, because no player will ever have better than a +11 on a saving throw. Even DC15 for a level 2 spell is fairly high - an average character at level 3 will have about a 50% chance of making that, which is preposterous. I should take 20% of my hit points in damage for casting Cure Wounds as a 2nd-level spell.

Starting gear for a 5e character usually weighs on the order of 80 lbs (not including armor). To carry this without a penalty you need strength 16. The system is sort of silly that way.

What kind of dumbass adventurer walks around without a pack mule to carry their shit?