/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

Eldritch Shield
Prerequisite: Pact of the Blade feature
While you are wielding your pact weapon in one hand and an arcane implement in the other, you project a shield of force that grants you a +2 bonus to your Armor Class.

Twofold Blade
Prerequisite: 7th level, Pact of the Blade feature
When you create a pact weapon, you can choose to create a pair of light weapons. These weapons are identical in every way. If you have a magic light weapon bound to you as a pact weapon, you can create a copy of it when you summon it; this weapon has no abilities beyond those of a basic pact weapon. Any feature that requires your pact weapon to be on your person instead requires both of these weapons to be on your person.

>They should nerf it
mfw

I don't know what this means.

Messenger of the Planes
Prerequisite Level 5

You may cast sending using a warlock spell slot.

Make it without a spell slot, and once per long rest.

Would love for some of you to check out my parties podcast on www.soundcloud.com/bardsandnobles. Literally just started, and each episode is only going to be about an hour long so not a huge investment. New episodes will be up on Monday. The first one is kind of a two parter, so be sure to check it out when you get a chance.

www.bardsandnobles.com

Would love some feedback, and tell me how to recover after fucking up some rulings in the future. Also taking suggestions for where to take the story, what to fight, etc. etc.

Wolf in Sheeps Clothes
Prerequisite Pact of the Chain

Your familiar gains the ability to shapeshift to appear as a humanoid creature. You choose the appearance of your familiar, but their stats do not change. His familiar can take on the form of a character race, but does not gain racial abilities such as dwarven resilience, or breath weapon. f the new form does not allow for a certain ability, such as a lack of claws, wings, or stinger, they cannot use this ability.

Circle of power has a limited range, doesn't buff attack to-hit and for people with already very high saves +2.5 is actually better than advantage.
Some characters such as barbarians may already have advantage.
Finally, rogues/shieldmasters don't need damage negation on sabes, and if you're an ancients paladin everybody will already be taking fuckall damage, probably.

Bless is still limited by number of people unless you upcast it and doesn't last as long.

However, Paladins only get circle of power at the very late levels, anyway. Bless is brilliant if you have GWM/Sharpshooter users on your team, though.

Kinky.

>barbarians
>already have advantage against all saving throws against magic
TIP
JEK

Barbarians have advantage against practically a third of all saves.

There are other sources of advantage, too.

Flat + bonuses can never be made redundant.

>less than a third
>"Some characters such as barbarians may already have advantage"
KIJ
TEP

Hey guys i'm finally playing for the first time in forever as one of my players decided he was going to try DMing

I'm thinking of making a Dwarf Wizard as I've never had any player at my table playing Wizard. I'm pretty sure they're a lot of fun, but I wouldn't really know how to go about it.

I was thinking going melee Wizard for a laugh, using
>16 STR (+2)
>12 DEX
>16 CON (+2)
>14 INT
>08 WIS
>10 CHA

I'm pretty sure with Green-Flame Blade it'd be OK at least for the first levels. I was thinking going Divination and playing the character as a Shaman, taking the best rituals.
Abjuration & Conjuration would be great but wouldn't fit this theme as well I think.

I think it makes for a pretty solid character. Still need to refine his background, his goals and all.

> However, I need help with spells.
Are there must-have 1st level spells?
Is Find Familiar absolutely necessary?
Is Identify worth taking early on?
Grease and Fog Cloud seem to me a lot better than any AoE damage spells. Am i retarded?

Thanks for your input.

Man, looking at the Paladin spell list I realized just how badly a lore bard could break a Strahd campaign.

Level 6 lore bard.
Steal aura of vitality.
Take one level in life cleric.
Make this face.

Yep, pretty much. Alternatively, take Aura of vitality AND crusader's mantle. 1d6 radiant damage on every attack your party makes? that's free flametongues for everyone basically. At level fucking 6.

1d4 bruh

it's essentially mass divine favor

What sorts of cosmologies have you used for your games? What do you think about the One World cosmology?

>less than a third
I can see you've clearly been doing your homework.
Can you please submit your paper on the number of hostile magical effects that are dex-based?

imagine a gnome barbarian. advantage on almost every saving throw against magic

So my friend is about to run a one shot, Horror/fun campaign for my Birthday tomorrow. We start at level 1 with a standard array. What's a good fun class to play for 6 hours of one shot goodness?

Including the monster manual and it's effects (which, given you're an adventurer fighting against *monsters*, factors in), there are more CON saves that are actually against a magical effect than dex ones ;)

>Is Find Familiar absolutely necessary?
I don't see any reason NOT to take it, there are literally only advantages coming from it. Sometimes literally.
>Is Identify worth taking early on?
It is good, depnding on the setting. Don't dismiss it in low magic campaigns though, because that one time you come around a magic item where none use to be, you can be sure that the next person able to identify it will be at least to the other side of the continent.
>Grease and Fog Cloud seem to me a lot better than any AoE damage spells. Am i retarded?
As a general rule, control is better than direct damage. The only thing more useless than a level one wizard is a level one wizard who can only blast. This said, Grease is amazing and will never stop being useful up to level 20; Fog Cloud is not as good but still has plenty of use.

My current homebrew game has a pseudo-orrery where the planes are all in their own "orbits," including the various material planes. Baator is in a very close "orbit" and is using that to try to usurp the setting's material plane for its own purposes.

And I'll soon be running a game in Eberron, which is a proper orrery, with each of the twelve major planes as "moons" around the material plane.

>I was thinking going melee Wizard for a laugh
Ask your DM about Bladesinger, maybe. It's supposed to be elf-only, but a Dwarven Skald heading into battle singing songs about dismembering goblins while actually dismembering goblins might be cool.

>Dwarven Skald heading into battle singing songs about dismembering goblins while actually dismembering goblins
AKA a valor bard?

Well yes, but he already picked the class.

Rogue, fighter, and barbarian are the most solid classes for level 1-3.

Moon Druid would like a word

Level 1 druid sucks dick. He said he starts at level 1 in a 6-hour one shot. He need not even level for it.

Should I have Jimjar bet one of the PCs that they can't steal the Drow Priestess' panties?

>drow priestess
>undergarments
He'd lose by sheer virtue of no such thing existing.

The user I replied to specified 1-3

>The froghemoth makes two attacks with its tentacles. It can also use its tongue or bite.
Does that mean it gets 3 attacks? Or does it replace one tentacle attack with one of the others?

I am that user - my reply was to the man talking about his one-shot, which may not even go beyond level 1. A level 3 human barbarian also beats a level 3 moon druid in a straight combat.

3 attacks

>www.bardsandnobles.com
Reasonably entertaining. Do you play over voice chat or are you live in a room? Nobody is particularly obnoxious and everyone seems to have a good attitude about it.

Is taking 6 charisma a good approximation of having your character be a Quasimodo hunchback, or does 5e still stringently separate charisma and comeliness.

It doesn't have to be. Cha is like your force of will, and how much other people like you. Low cha could mean you're beautiful with a bad personality, too trapped in your head analyzing everything, don't "get" people even though you think you do, or you just project an aura of being a serial killer even though you're LG. Or you could be straight up fugly.

I will only listen is it's on iTunes and I can download it easily

Does being knocked prone count as forced movement for the purpose of breaking grapple if the source isn't the person grappling you?

Say, the barbarian is grappling the kobold, and the monk knocks the kobold prone with Water Whip, is the Barbarian still grappling the kobold?

If you're knocked prone but knocked away, you're still in the grappler's reach, so no, the grappling isn't broken.

phrased that way it sorta sounds like a zen koan

but not knocked away*

What are the most important things to know about making a tough frontline warrior guy in 5E? Should I be going fighter or Barb? Am I doomed to irrelevance at higher levels?

Here's my stupid-ass plan for tonight's session (that I just wrote up, even though it starts in 3 hours, FUCKING KILL ME). Does it sound good?

## Session Plan (big)

Kurtulmak, who the party is personal friends with, sends them a message asking them to free some Kobolds from the oppression of a dragon living in one of the too-snowy-to-access-normally caves nearby.
Cave is heavily trapped and highly difficult to access normally, which the other adventuring party tells them.

If the party is clever, can pretend to sell their Kobold friends to the dragon, who will then disable traps from the inside.
They could, of course, also just fight their way through.

Approximately 1/2 of the Kobolds have Stockholm's and will defend their dragon to the death.
This is a slightly large problem, since they're trying to save the Kobolds.

When the dragon is about to die, it will make a desperate attempt to bargain with the players.
It offers to let the Kobolds go, and to give the players (more specifically, our rogue) information.
If they accept, three things happen:
1. The dragon tells the rogue that his parents were betrayed by their friends, and gives information on where those friends happen to be going
2. The dragon, true to his word, frees the Kobolds
3. A week after the party leaves, he attacks the Rogue's hometown, and kills as many people as he possibly can

I'm trying to balance this magic item. It's a +1 spear that can do the following:

>While attuned, as an action, you can plant it on the ground and cast Beacon of Hope, with a few changes: The duration of the spell becomes "As long as the spear is planted on the ground, up to 1 minute"; during the same duration, the spear's blade sheds bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet; lastly, the spell's effect on healing only works within the bright light's radius, while the advantage on Wisdom saving throws and death saving throws occurs within the dim light's radius. Once you cast this spell in such a way, you can't do it again until the next dawn.

Is it too overcomplicated?

Prone doesn't change where you are in terms of the 5-foot cubes that represent your occupied space. If you're knocked prone, you're still in the same space.

Fighter gives you a better AC, battlemaster maneuvers, and a billion attacks. Barbarian gives you more HP, resistance to fucking everything, and a tanking ability. Both have their ups and downs.

As long as your DM remembers that hordes of mook enemies (like Orcs) are moderately threatening even at high levels, you'll do alright. If they're of the mentality that everything flies and is invisible after level 8, you'll be less relevant - but you'll still be ok if you have a ranged option.

Just be a Mountain Dwarf Barbarian and get 20 Con and Toughness.

Become the meat.

Toughest is Barbarian Bear Totem rage + Rogue Uncanny Dodge (1/4 damage to most attacks).

Use Expertise for Strength(Athletics) and you can pin down single enemies.

>mountain dwarf
You'll get more HP as a hill dwarf senpai.

Yeah that's the one I meant.

Good thing they have proficiency in CON saves and are bound to have high CON.

Great rebuttal ;)

Is Eldritch Knight not a path to go down for this sort of thing?

You forgot the lvl 3 spell from crown paladins:
Spirits guardians, 3d8, half if save in a 15 foot radius.

Thanks friendo ;)

Thanks for spoiling the campaign for me. An anonymous tip: your friends post here, so don't use actual identifiable names for the npcs.

Eldritch Knights make perfectly good frontline characters, they are fighters after all.

It's viable but takes time to come online in terms of power.

Eeeh. I think Bladesinger is about grace and dancing and shit. Don't think it'd be OK with the dwarven theme.

Thanks!
Cantrip-wise... GFB + Minor Illusion + Mage Hand?

EK or Battlemaster, depending on if you want to be based on long rests or short rests. They're both better than Champion.

This is a great start. Thanks anons.

>Dwarven flavor

Heaven help us, it's this guy again.

Eldritch Knights are perfectly fine. Think about it like this:

-Want to soak up damage with your HP? Play Barb.

-Want godlike AC and way to buff your defense for the situation? Play EK (thanks to the shield spell).

-Want more battlefield control and options to manipulate enemies? Do battlemaster.

I'm playing an EK as a frontline combatant right now and it's going perfectly fine. Between shield and 19AC I'm quite hard to hit.

>Finally hit Monk 6
>DM points out to me that Shadow Step doesn't actually work if you don't have Darkvision
>Human

I just unlocked an extra spell slot for my arcane trickster, what should I take?

Cantrips are booming blade, Mage hand, and mending

Spells are find familiar, disguise self, and sleep.

Thinking about grabbing jump or chromatic orb as my new spell. The party is currently lacking a bit in magic damage right now, so chromatic orb could be cool, but doesn't synergize with my class at all. Jump just seems like another really useful utility spell.

My DM says that I'm allowed to swap spells every time I level up. I feel like my current toolkit is super useful for a variety of situations. Thoughts?

youtube.com/watch?v=KjHclWPVij0

For your EK is it more Dex or Str based?

I like GFB over booming.
Take shield.

Not him, but due to the way AC and such works in 5e, both are viable. Dex is slightly better due to initiative and being able to pull out a longbow if you need ranged damage.

I haven't gotten hit in a single encounter, is shield realty that good of an idea?

Reading though the description, it sounds like I can cast it right before I get hit. Is that true?

Her backstory is as a duelist (and I'm planning to go Bladesinger later for maximum AC nonsense) so I built her as a dex EK. Rapier+shield for weapons.

At 3rd level you gained the ability to cast darkvision for 2 ki points. Darkvision lasts for 8 hours and does not require concentration. You could wake up, cast Darkvision on you and two others of your party, then meditate for an hour while everyone else is having breakfast and be good to go.

Personally I'm mostly for devotion and ancients because I'm a whore for always-on auras.

I don't think you can take any of those, since ATs are restricted to illusion and enchantment, aside from a handful of their picks. Your next free spell is only at level 8, unless you're willing to let go of Find Familiar. I suggest you take Silent Image, or Tasha's Hideous Laughter if your Intelligence is good enough to make the saving throw reliable. Color Spray looks decent if you fight things immune to magical sleep, like undead.

Speaking of which Color Spray says it lasts for 1 round. Does that mean until the start of the end of your next turn?

The way that multiattack works is that it allows them to shove multiple attacks into a single action.

Shield is the highest scaling 1st level spell in the game.
If you want another choice, take absorb elements from elemental evil.

im only saying that because our cleric-of-war's spirit guardian have save the day in our party more times that i can recall.

I would put that spell on par with fireball. And it let you do some dmg while protecting and healing your allies.

>it sounds like I can cast it right before I get hit
Yes, you can.
Same with absorb elements.

Shield is cast as a reaction to getting hit. Meaning:
>Monster hits you
>"I cast Shield!"
>Monster no longer hits you, if the increase in AC was enough to make its attack miss.
And it lasts for a full round, so you have +5 AC against every attack until the monster's next turn.

I know that, I asked because the wording was a bit confusing. It should be something like:
>The froghemoth makes three attacks: two with its tentacles and one with its tongue or bite

Until the start of your next turn, actually. That doesn't really change the effectiveness of the spell.

Just two attacks, the others replace tentacle attacks.

>Close friends have a game
>joining at lvl 4
>roll my character
>18 str, 14 dex, 16 con, 9 int, 14 wis, 9 cha

I feel like I'm cheating, that's including variant human stats and I have 2 feats.

It's certainly a good spell for AoE situations. The problem in comparison to fireball however is the fact it's concentration and can't be used alongside other buffs.

>shield
>on AT
It's actually not bad, but rogues already get Uncanny Dodge. Shield is better and can be used to completely negate multiple attacks, and there aren't very many other good combat options for AT. That said, absorb elements as suggested is pretty good because you can't use uncanny dodge on a fireball, but you can use absorb elements.

>two feats
>not maxing your primary stat with your level 4 ASI
no

I'm a battlemaster with martial adept and great weapon master