/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

Holy shit this illustration is fucking evil

>Only a couple more weeks until Volo's Guide to Monsters.
Or for those who buy it at WPN stores or Roll20, four days.

More Gnolls

Hey, that's pretty awesome actually. Are any kind anons going to be great and take phone pics of the races for us?

Are Hobgoblins getting a PC stat block in Volo's?

I want to get tactical.

We can only hope, friend.

Barghest

So Tiamat is a thing. What other gods' avatars (from any setting) would people like to see?

We don't know yet, but
>Firbolgs: pg 106-107
>Goliaths: pg 108-109
>Lizardfolk: pg 111-112
There's a 1-2 page discrepancy they might fit on.

Bane

As much as I would love to play as a hobgoblin, I would love more that it would be kobolds. But hey, both H and K could fit between Goliaths and Lizardfolk.

Making a level 6 High Elf wizard. Help me try to decide between abjuration, divination, and illusion schools. Also whether to get a feat or asi

Also here's a kobold inventor

max INT
if your game is going at least to 14 illusionist wizards are probably the strongest (and most fun) battlefield controllers in the whole game

Here's some lore about Goblins

Actually now that I think about it, if it's in alphabetical order, goblin (or goblinoid, or something) should be between firbolgs and goliaths. So I've got no idea how they're organizing it if it's not alphabetical.

Hey, here's a Nilbog for some reason

You give me hope that both Hobgoblins and Kobolds will be available.

Last time I'll post it until like Friday or we post a new episode:

My group decided to start podcasting our sessions, calling it
Bards & Nobles

We're on most social media sites by that name, you can go straight to the website though at

www.bardsandnobles.com to check it out.

After we get done laughing the event is just retconned away so as not to piss off the players who DIDN'T decide to be ok with killing themselves.
Which, once again, begs the question of why they would let it cast fireball instead of self-immolation.
Spontaneous combustion even SOUNDS like a wild magic effect damnit.
Personal suggestion, the Catapult spell. Magic Initiate can grab it, and i can't see a good reason that damaging the object WOULDN'T work for alchemists fire or acid.

Maybe:
Goblinoids (Goblins, Hobgoblins)
Half-Giants (Firbolgs, Goliaths)
Kobolds
Lizardfolk

Playing my first wizard, what interesting/fun spells can i take? Not looking to blast, and the character won't use fire due to backstory.

Starter sessions got us to 3, but i'm allowed to play around with my 2nd and 3rd level spells gained until next session.

Twinned spell and phantasmal force.

Can I make two creatures believe each other is me, then silent image myself and make them fight each other?

Shield and absorb elements are amazing spells for sheer power-for-spellslot 1st level spells.
Levitate, invisibility, detect thoughts, misty step are all great second level spells that never really fall off too hard.

WAIT A SECOND

You can do a lot with invisibility as an RP tool. Trick someone into giving you something, and run away invisible. Dick around in the inn spooking people.

>greatly suppressed gag reflex
>servicing their dragon masters

if your illusion fits within a 10-foot cube it's game
silent image is concentration and so is phantasmal force - you can't use both simultaneously

The "lore you know" on gnolls made me rethink them. They are a lot more monstrous than I realized.

you and I weren't reading the same monster manuals then

Volo's looking fucking excellent. I'm hyped as fuck for that first part. What we've seen of the Illithids is really intriguing and what i've read about Gnolls makes me think of hundreds of encounter and even adventure ideas...quality work, do want.

Of course I'm sure all of this was already said in supplements of yore, but I'm sure Volo's will be the perfect supplement for both new DM and "experienced" DMs who missed the golden age of D&D.

>the golden age of D&D
user, you're *in* the golden age of D&D.

>popularity is surging
>acceptance of it as a hobby is at an all-time high
>more accessible to learn, play, and run than it ever has been
>content put out by first-party publisher is top-notch with a few notable exceptions
>content is being put out by third-party publishers regularly, including super-high-quality stuff like Tome of Beasts

>goblin jester
So doing that.

I've always thought the golden age was 2e or 1e on their peak, even with the satanic panic, a lot of classic modules and setting came into being.

>popularity is surging

This is likely because of those videos that capture e-celeb sessions.

The ones I've see are often "funny" and "random" games that contribute to an overall lower level of play. Personally I loathe this type of game, and prefer more serious and down to earth games. But to each their own, and it's good if money is being put into the tabletop genre.

Same, I feel those old adventures and books captures a certain spirit of wonder and mystery that I don't feel when I read newer books.

So last night, my players finished hour 6 or 7 of a 6 or 7 hour combat.

>Players have a macguffin
>macguffin is a gateway to an extradimensional prison. It's also an extradimensional prism. Significant things that happen to you in the prison, usually happen to every version of yourself outside of it.
>Long ago, a golden dragon used this prison to convert every version of himself to evil. He then allied with those versions of himself across the multiverse to take over the multiverse. Every decision ever made across the vastness of possibility creates a new universe, with a new golden dragon, that is just as allied to him as every other golden dragon. They're all magical beings capable of the most potent spells, and they're slowly and methodically taking over the multiverse.
>the players are in a corner of the multiverse that is just starting to be taken over.
>after fighting and stealing and becoming heretics to the church, they have the prison, and they want to use it on the dragon to kill him, and all versions of himself.
>the only problem is that the prison is currently host to the most vile heretics of the true church of their God of Capitalism (whom they still believe in), and if they put the dragon in, they'll take the heretics out.
>so their big plan is to enter the prison as guards, and kill the heretics first, freeing up the prison crowding issue, and letting them safely imprison the dragon without unleashing the worst form of heresy imaginable: Communism.

honestly i have no idea why d&d hasn't exploded to fuck to in popularity. other tg has gone crazy but d&d is still having "steady growth" but if yugioh can become fuckoff massive and be twice as shit as before, how come d&d can't?

Isn't Volo's guide supposed to be in stores by now? A little surprised there aren't leaks yet.

2e was peak "classic" DnD. Today it's more popular but very different in style.

Hey hivemind, what are some good ways I as a DM can use minor illusion to screw with players?

Ghosts. Lots and lots and lots of ghosts, and one very territorial old wizard.

>a long time ago, when we were doing the world building collectively for this setting, somebody suggested a race of bird like beings that were so good at drawing "anime girls come to life".
>Everyone laughed, but the idea of drawings coming to life was pretty cool, so the race gets put in.
>in trying to figure out just what the fuck was going on in the world after the players and myself took turns playing god ruining it in world building, I came up with the following narrative
>society of artists lives in a holy city, blessed by the god of capitalism.
>unfortunately, one member of that society, was corrupted by a great evil: the notion of "from each according to his ability, to each according to their need"
>this member was extremely influential, and corrupted 4 others, a Judge, the most prominent Musician, An Academic, and the Minister of Finance.
>together, they were able to corrupt the entire society.
>soon, blood rituals were being conducted to transfer spiritual power among them, and like all communist societies, the elite benefited the most. The 5 fingers of the hand of communism as they were later called gained great spiritual power while leaving their companions in revolution spiritually bankrupt.
>the god of capitalism saw this and struck down their floating city, before imprisoning all 5 of the fingers into the extradimensional prison the players now have. He used their presence in the orb to blackmail the alternate versions of themselves, and keep communism in check across the multiverse in a cold war. If they acted up, he would send some paladins in to kill them, which would kill every version of themselves.
>trapped in the orb, the fingers meditated on their spiritual power, and were eventually able to manifest them into selectively corporeal beings with incredibly potent magical abilities.

All this is just to explain why the players found themselves fighting bird like beings who could summon stands based on anime girls.

Footsteps behind them

Sounds of moving machinery triggering when they walk over something.

Screams in the distance luring them into traps
Illusory gold that sits on a trap, or just plain nothing
Sounds that rebound in an endless echo chamber that keeps getting louder and the party can't escape, as you're playing earrape on your speakers/mic.

Official announced release date is the 15th.

Right, that's the official release date but they ship beforehand.

But WPN stores release it on the 4th

Same, I feel those old adventures and books captures a certain spirit of wonder and mystery that I don't feel when I read newer books.

I think this sense of wonder still exists, but not in the fuckton of supplements and splatbooks both 3e and 4e broughts, some newer books that actually surprised me were Elminster's Forgotten Realms and the Sword Coast Adventurers' Guide, though the last one's focus on character options instead of just the setting's lore made me a bit unhappy.

So the players enter this prison, and decide to take on the first commie monk they can see. Unfortunately for them, they chose to take on the most cowardly, the leader of the commies, Madoka.
>Madoka fled, and raised the alarm.
>Every other commie monk was too proud to actually ask for help from any of the others (and they were all sick of each other's bullshit after thousands of years being stuck together in a prison.
>Every one of these monks was statted out to be a challenge all their own for the party, and together, they would prove insurmountable.
>The party finds themselves fighting just two of them at the same time, The Financial Minister, Holo, and the Academic, whose name I've already forgotten, but is from some stupid show about magical railguns.
>I don't actually like most anime.
>During the next three hours, the party fights against holo and the Academic, who are forced to reveal their stands.
>Holo and the Academic fight hard, summoning a wolf and a lightning storm through their spirtual powers, but eventually the party kills the Academic, and Holo retreats severely wounded.
>This buys the party enough time to cast Leomund's Tiny Hut, and regroup.
>we call it quits for that night, and come back the next week.

As tempted as I am, I preordered mine from Amazon...I can't justify spending extra. Just too cheap.

>The party realizes they're fucked if they try to take all four on.
>One of the members, a Warlock who just wants to know secrets sneaks out of the hut wearing an invisibility cloak, and observes some discord amongst the monks.
>siezing his moment, he casts mass suggestion on the monks, who due to some extremely unlucky rolls on my part, fail all of their saves except for the leader.
>He suggests to them to turn against their leader.
>And they do, in their own way. They lock madoka out of the decision making process, and invite the players to participate in a grand tourney. A gauntlet of fights where the players all fight against one opponent at a time.
>unknown to the party, tourney gauntlets like this were common practice in their society before their corruption to communism and subsequent fall.
>and so the party agrees. leomund's tiny hut is banned per the rules of the tournament. It's a gentleman's agreement, but if the party had broken the rules, the monks would have united again, and that was just going to make things harder.
>so the party fights the artist first, who falls after revealing her stand, the main character from K-On, which my friends inexplicably like. Seriously, this show is trash, and I don't understand it's appeal. But whatever, muh references.
>They next challenge Saber, the Judge, and through some incredibly awesome Spiritual Hammers from the cleric (he was a crit machine), a proliferation of flying, they are able to best the Judge.
>Holo falls next, but is the most difficult fight so far, because the party is finally able to figure out what all those platinum coins the stand summons do. Holo can use them to heal, or cast powerful magic. regardless, the sorcerer's twinned polymorph saves the party (the warlock was about to die before it received 157 hitpoints from a polymorph), and bested holo.
>Finally, comes Madoka, the leader of the commies.

He'll be a big guy.

My DM wants me to make a short character sheet for my special familiar (Pact of the chain: sprite) and I'm mulling familiar ideas. Since I'm Patroned by a Fey, I figure a sprite would work best, but I also want him/her to be a bit unctuous, maybe we don't get along or they see it as a real drag to be following my orders but then we gradually warm up after a time, buddy cop style. Any ideas on familiar personalities?

Also, my DM is open to familiars outside the main 4, but they have to be found in the monster manual and have to fit the Fey theme (he's willing to let me have the imp or quasit, but says it'd be stupid to give me another non-thematic creature) and be at or below CR 1. Anything spring to mind?

Mask.

for you

>Madoka moves first, and nearly punches the Sorcerer to death. He successfully traps her in a hypnotic pattern however, which buys the party a minute to plan.
>The party figures now is the time to cheat, since all the others are dead, and they cast Leomund's Tiny Hut.
>madoka wakes up from the pattern, sees what's happening, and activates her stand, which gives her the power to resurrect the dead, reversing the entropy in their systems, and grant wishes.
>She begins resurrecting her companions, and the party debates and plans and schemes harder than they ever have before.
>One wants to just give up, and take the long rest, thinking they've already lost and can try again next time with more accurate information.
>Inside I'm screaming to myself "NO" because this is bordering on hour 7 of this shit and I'm sick of anime, combat, and tiny huts. His point was reasonable though, and might have been the wisest thing to do.
>Luckily for me, the other two players, who are probably sick of this combat too, vote to try to interrupt Madoka in the resurrection process.
>So the party dominates her successfully, and gets it to wish they had full health.
>They get a full heal, and at this point, Madoka reveals stage 2 of her stand, which allows her to manipulate time (yes I know this is a bastardization of the anime, and yes I actually watched this one).
>Madoka from a minute in the future, after the domination, summons herself from the past, preventing any more wishes from being granted.
>The spiritual manifestation of that energy remains behind though, as an anchor against paradox (since the energy is actually the one doing it, there are no causal issues).
>Madoka wasn't the brightest light bulb in the crayon box in the anime, so I play the spiritual energy as helpful but stupid. it informs the party how its abilities work, but refuses to grant any wishes not made by the summoner.
>and then The cleric gets the brilliant idea to cause a time paradox.

>The cleric goes right up to the spiritual manifestation of madoka, and waits for the time that the monk is meant to come back.
>Right before that time, he casts Anti-Magic Field.
>The stands are magical, so they're banished when affected by it
>this causes a time paradox, since madoka was no longer around to summon the monk from the past
>I have no idea what happens when a time paradox happens. So I just go with hole in reality that sucks every thing nearby in it unless resisted.
>The cleric is right on top of the hole, and fails his strength save to resist being pulled in. He is grabbing the edge of the hole, looking straight into the formless, timeless nothingness that lies behind all reality.
>the sorcerer grabs his arm
>the sorcerer fails his strength check.
>the sorcerer is now holding onto the edge of the abyss, the cleric is holding onto him.
>the warlock grabs his rope, and ties it to a tree, and them, giving the two people some precious few seconds before they are ripped from reality and cast into an endless trip through nothing.
>the sorcerer grabs his climbing tools out of his backpack. now is his time!
>he rolls a 1, and the climbing tools fall out of his hands, knock themselves onto the cleric's head, who loses his shield as it's ripped from his back.
>finally, the cleric, desparate, ends his anti-magic field.
>this resolves the paradox, and reality sorts itself out by assuming the monk summoned himself a little later in the future than was originally thought.
>the monk is lying on the ground, breathing hard, it's feathers singed from exposure to the great chaotic void.
>the cleric, the sorcerer, and the warlock all pick themselves up, stand around the monk, and let loose. Eldritch Blasts and Hammers finish him, and by extension, the threat of communism across the multiverse.
>

Couldn't we give them disadvantage on strength checks against larger creatures?

For a first-time player, should I go with the default equipment for the Sorcerer, or should I try for something unique?

Go with the default equipment regardless of class. You'll be able to pick up extra shit soon enough and you're usually better off with that than with rolling for starting gold.

Equipment matters very little for sorcerers. You will always have adequate cantrip damage to fall back on. so experiment with the items DnD has to offer. Pickup interesting sounding things, like grappeling hooks, or ball bearings, etc.

Really, the starting equipment for the sorcerer is fine. If you want to be more interesting or flavorful, get an arcane focus instead of a component pouch. A dude with a wand, orb, staff, or rod is way more interesting than a dude with a little satchel of plot convenience tied to his waist.

The starting gold won't buy you much better, you'll want a focus and adventuring shit and that takes up the majority of your cash anyway.

It's past 11, so I'm going to bed. Happy Halloween /5eg/, don't stay up too late.

equipment is basically irrelevant for sorcerers
as long as you have your arcane focus at least
component pouches are for fags

enjoy storing the components for spells that you actually need to track up your arsehole

wew lad

Well, duly-noted, everyone.

Holy shit, 5mind is the 3aboo or 4ry we needed.

They nerfed the fuck out of nilbogs.

Shit. I was planning on converting one as a boss in my campaign but with this shit, I don't want them thinking I'm just making up the damage gives life and you have to kill it with heal spells abilities.

WOTC didn't even try making a proper conversion.

5mind, I like it.

First time DM, currently running through LMoP, thinking of doing another prewritten adventure from WotCs after with the same group. Which module is the easiest to transition into and how early should I start fading the two together? The party just started Redbrand Hideout so we have a good few sessions until I'm out of LMoP material.

Complete noob to roleplaying games here. I've been gaining interest in d&d, and have tried to get together a group of friends to play with - but none of them seem very interested in the way I do. I tried looking for clubs at my college, no luck. I tried asking my brother if he had any players in his circle of friends, still nothing. I'd really like to play d&d in person, with paper and pencil, and maybe little minis, but I'm having a hard time finding players. I feel like playing online might be my only options, with no irl friends wanting to play, in addition to schedule conflicts with d&d sessions at nearby game stores. Do you think any of the 'magic' is lost playing online, with strangers? Any new suggestions on how to find a group irl?

sorry for the off-topic, I didn't want to fill up the catalog with my blogposting

Do you guys think that when they finally put out psionics rules they're still playtesting in a paperback product that it'll also have fighter and rogue subclass options? Much like how there are arcane subclasses for both classes?

If a person under a Geas walks into an antimagic field, what happens to it?

I don't know why people force a distinction between psionics and other magic

it ceases to function while in the amf

I believe that the geas is suspended while in the field, returning when they leave the field.

I like the 5e nilbog better, honestly.

Anyone who attacks them has to make a (often low-bonus) save or waste their turn praising them, and they can only die if two people hit it solid in the same turn, otherwise it's basically up to full HP.

Throw in their ability to cast confusion and it'll be a ridiculous, fun, and *dangerous* encounter.

The player turns back into the geese they originally were before a wizard put a geas on them.

I hope it'll have similar options for them, but there's no promise of that so far. They might save something like that for an even further-off product, maybe something setting-specific for Eberron or Dark Sun.

Nah nigga, nilbog's were the ultimate anti-murder hobo monster. Now they're some shitty goblin sorcerer.

Video related.
youtube.com/watch?v=Y782ynKRa5k

I'm just excited for Mindflayers. God, mindflayers are so cool.

Do you think they'd bother ceremorphising a spectator? Like I dunno, a tadpole really needs a host and they've got nothing else. A mini Mindwitness. A Mindwatcher? Mindlooker. 2 tentacles and 2 eyestalks. It'd be cute in a creep sort of way.

*NERFED*?

The actual creature is absolutely unkillible at the levels you fight the creatures they possess. You could make an entire level 1-5 campaign about killing one of these fuckers that decides it has a greater goal to accomplish.

cover it with oil
make an oil trail from somewhere else to it
light the end of the oil trail
do this twice
dead nilbog - environmental damage isn't dealt by a creature

Did you miss the part where the Nilbog is actually an unkillable spirit possessing the goblin that cannot be attacked?

>fight it alone on an empty plane with 400 skeletons, it doesn't stand a chance

if you're complaining about that part then you're complaining about rakshasas and aboleths and nagas and all manner of shit that infinitely respawns

Would be funny if geas wasn't pronounced completely different from how you think it is, retard.

Except it doesn't go to another plane of existence it remains right in front of you and the next round that goblin you fought is now a Nilbog.

If Aboleths return to the plane of water on death and regenerate, what would happen if a Mindflayer ceremorphised one? Could they even do it?

Im seriously fucking loving these.

Volo's is shaping up to be amazing.

Good enough to get in dead tree format?