/5eg/ D&D 5th Edition General

You can, but I think you'd be better off talking about it with the group itself. I've had plenty of ideas of fun groups but in the end you really have to have every players on board with it beforehand.

Like meeting in a bar and just brainstorming a fun group.
That's how I ended up with my last dwarf party and it was pretty fucking cool. 2 Wizards, 1 Knowledge Cleric, 1 noble Battlemaster.

Hobgoblins need three subraces
+2 Con for all hobgoblins
Remove that stupid save face

+1 STR or +1 DEX for soldier breed
weapon and armor prof like dwarves

+1 Wis for Iron shadow candidate
prof stealth
+1 Int for devastator candidate
prof arcana

...Why?
Do you really need another reason for the melee combatants to be relegated to carrying torches while the wizard and cleric do everything?

Is that really such a big deal?

Aren't the subraces of Hobgoblins... bugbears and goblins?

What about

> Damage immunities: any magic damage, any magical or silvered weapon

:^)

That sounds like a really nice way to tell your melee players that you hate them and they should have played a magic user.

There are probably ways you can tie elk dude in. Maybe the party passes by a child telling their mother about the magic deer he saw, something like that? A drunken hunter saying he wants to snag that big old elk and a local shushing him, saying he'll bring about bad luck from Blackie?

If the town has open shrines (and the players are likely to actually pass through the town), you could straight up have an item left on a shrine call to her. Or an arrangement of items on a shrine to Melora/equivalent actually be a coded druidic message, either indicating the weird tree or the location of a gift to aid any answering the call.

You could technically peasant railgun beyond the speed of light if you had enough people to grapple you and move you, or transferring you between enough mounts.

You could travel around the world in under 6 seconds.

It's not a huge deal but I tend to min max, so having less damaging spells, only having an 18 by level 8, being able to prepare fewer spells as a wizard, etc, just feels really constricting to the character. At least I'll have a rocking con score.

I'm the proud owner of a Dwarf Diviner and I tell you: wizards don't even need 16 INT to be awesome.
Magic missiles all the way to the TOP

That sounds like a really nice way to tell your magic players that you hate them and they should have played a mundane melee character.

The only way a player would get a +3 weapon is if the DM handed them one, making the whole point of a DM making such a creature totally moot.

I'll keep that in mind! I'm planning to play a illusionist so it's going to impact by save DCs but oh well I guess. An undersea illusionist just seems like a cool and flavorful build.

It's meant to represent the stats for a god's avatar, specifically for a greater god tier avatar. I forget what Tiamat gets but I could possibly use her stats for inspiration instead.

Trying to come up with animal motifs for some PCs. What class and archetype would you assign the following:

>bull
>boar
>bear
>hawk
>wolf

Not really, I had a player who would constantly grab my DMG while I was distracted and give himself and the party magical items.

>Cheating at an RPG

Some people.

The thing will have limited magic immunity and be immune to level 6 or 7 spells.

>Give himself magical weapons
...Fucking no, what?

Hm. Food for thoughts! Thanks a lot for these ideas, I like them all.

I was thinking the sign/command was the reason for the character's trip to such a remote & boring hamlet though. But maybe I can make the sign/command vague at first, and then clearer once they come to the Chauntea's altar.

Thanks a lot anyway, I'm open to anything else you got!

Minotaur Totem Barbarian
Orc Totem Barbarian
Bugbear Totem Barbarian
Goliath Totem Barbarian 14/Open Hand Monk 4/Rogue 2
Human Druid/Sex Pervert

>Goliath Totem Barbarian 14/Open Hand Monk 4/Rogue 2
Is that suppose to be for the hawk? You might need to elaborate your reasoning for me user.

Yeah, I know, I could just use some critique on the concepts I got so far. But maybe I should leave it, at least until next thread - real life's reared its ugly head, so I can't talk proper-like on here.

nope

>Grab opponent
>Fly 300 feet into the air
>Pile Drive

Aside from just saying Totem barbarian for everything...

>Bull

Fighter, Battlemaster, dual weidling longswords for the 'horns' so to speak. Focus on charging in, shoving people around, that sort of thing.

>Boar

Frenzy Barbarian, focusing on as much health as possible.

>Bear

Grappler Barbarian. Probably Totem here, might need a level in rogue for Athletics expertise.

>Hawk
Beastmaster Ranger with a Hawk companion. Focus on Archery and just have the Hawk grant advantage with Bonus action Help

>Wolf

Melee rogue to rush in and gang up on enemies with advantage for adjacent allies, probably athletics to help trip them.

He has the DMG, user... the source of the DM's power?

Do you even play 5e

If the player needs a reason to travel there you could just remix the hunter idea, with a far-traveling hunter showing off a huge-ass pair of antlers, having slain the guardian. Alternately have them fall ill or die, having been cursed for slaying the beast; the hunter's widow/child/brother tries to sell the antlers or pelt to the players for a ridiculously low price.

Alternately a humanoid enemy could be bearing something made from the bark of this bizarre tree. A makeshift shield or an amulet - enough to make the players pause and maybe wonder where the npc got it.

Rumours of a cult are also useful for drawing attention. Some folks at a tavern hear the folk over in town X do dark rituals to dark powers, your druid player can recognize a trait/action in said 'dark rituals' as a simple, common, druidic practice. (You could further involve some mention of other adventurers already dispatched to kill these 'evil cultists' if you want a sense of urgency).

You know your group and players best so I'm just tossing random ideas hoping they'll spark something. Glad to help out!

Just because he has the DMG doesn't mean he can just change the rules or what his character does or does not have.
Obviously.
Please be a joke.

>glorious dubs

What? Did he think it wouldn't be noticable if the fighter suddenly did extra fire damage or the rogue could somehow into a bat or something? I don't see how you can do shit like that secretly. (Or why you'd want to)

If firearms exist in your setting do you use special rules or reskinned crossbow?

Reskinned crossbows, bump the damage die one tier, ammo is usually also a bit more expensive than bolts.

>Bull
Champion Fighter with either an axe or double swords like user posted

>Boar
Berserker Barbarian and make him an orc like user posted

>Bear
Moon druid

>Wolf
Rogue since wolves hunt in the dark or a moon druid and make him or her a werewolf

>Hawk
This one's tricky since the whole hawkeye can lend him to be an archer such as ranger or fighter. Yet, the term war hawk can lead it to be a classic sword and armor fighter. You can even make him some type of knight due to falconry being associated with the noble class.

last time i used them, most mobs used reskinned crossbows, but for my player that wanted to use them, i had him carry and account for his gunpowder and bullets. and as the dmg tells, he couldn't reuse his bullets but dealt a little bit more damage.

Either or, dude.

For Hawk I'd suggest a facey caster, Chain Lock, Bard, Storm Sorc

Storm sorcerer sounds like a good fit for Hawk.

Name one NPC sexier than Apprentice Wiard

Someone give me a decent lizardfolk cleric character hook to write a backstory off. I'm drawing a blank.

because of a Thunderbird motif?

Liardfolk healed by kindly itinerant cleric, travels and learns from him, and then sets off on his own journey to spread the light

That, and due to the various wind powers, along with the sort of more frail agile thing going on.

Maybe add in a couple levels of monk for unarmored defense and some extra speed.

Lizardfolk warrior working in some evil mercenary band, had an epiphany from a god of honorable combat, and set out to fight for more just causes.

You were eating a dead adventurer when your tooth caught on a book they carried, titled "Book of [your god here]". You worked your way through the book after finishing your meal, then decided to return the book to [your god here], who is probably its owner and may appreciate its return.

In the course of your journey you encountered followers of [your god here], who gave you advice on 'finding' [your god here]. You still haven't found [your god here], but you are following the 'path' the followers told you to and it seems to be going well.

Redpill me on Commander's strike

It's great for other melee classes that deal more damage per swing compared to a Fighter. Give the Rogue another chance to sneak attack, the Paladin another smite, even the Barbarian might do more with another Rage smack.

Fighter damage comes from the sheer number of attacks, so giving one up to someone whose damage comes from adding a bunch of stuff to fewer attacks can be nice.

Godd if you have a rogue because they can get more sneak attacks, not very good otherwise.

its good if you have a rogue because its more damage than anyone else can get from one attack. Maybe a polymorphed something can do more, but I don't see that happening as often as a rogue being able to attack

best classes levels 1 through 4?
i've acknowledged that non of my campaigns will ever get past lv5 and accepted it.
my current bard is feeling iffy and i might need a new character for out of the abyss, eventually.

Barbarian, UA ranger, Fighter, Moon Druid, and Paladin are all pretty solid.

Moon druid
Paladin or fighter in heavy armour with the damage reduction feat and AC as high as they can get it

Moon Druid
Variant human revised ranger hunter with Sharpshooter and hoard breaker
Variant human barbarian with Great Weapon Master

I'm about to DM a new group next weekend, but for the life of me I don't want to do the whole tavern opening railroad. What are some unique-ish, different ways you've seen a adventure start?

"You're in the mayor's office. The mayor is lying on his desk, dead with a knife in his back. You hear the guards pounding at the door to open up."

Does anyone play on Skype? How do you handle dice rolling now the API is deprecated?

I've moved all my games to Discord, with Roll20 for rolls, maps, etc.

"you are all dead and dying, in the middle of a battleground, with your last breath you see your life flash in front of you, how did you even get here?"

flashback to the main quest and eventually reach the battleground, some deus ex machina or mcguffin saves the group after the fight, proceed to complete the quest.

>some deus ex machina or mcguffin saves the group after the fight
Better if you can set up foreshadowing to show that this losing battle is coming soon, and see if the players come up with some way to save their own asses as the time approaches. It's not a deus ex machina for the cavalry to arrive the players called the cavalry themselves.

Of course you could let them die if they get back to that battlefield and haven't come up with any way to survive.

There's more Ranger stuff in this month's Dragon.

Are any of the old splatbooks worth revisiting? I only started with 5e.

Can a ranger make 2 whirlwind attacks in a turn, or does it replace the entirety of its action?

As a player(and a DM), leave the deus ex machina out of it.

I need advice on dealing with problem players as a player.

I started attending an adventurers league event hosted by the comic shop in my town with my niece to introduce her to the game. The problem is that the DM won't deal with a rampant special snowflake plus murderhobo "I'm being chaotic neutral not evil" look at me! player.

When a couple of us objected in game to his torture of a goblin the DM waved his hand and said "goblins aren't people"

Half the table was visibly frustrated with the bad player.

I'd normally drop the game, but my niece had fun and it is really the only practical way to have her involved.

I don't want to push back too hard for fear of becoming a different sort of that guy

Looks like it's just the revised ranger in article form.

If you have the time and proclivity, you could always try to recruit the decent players to run a game for them and your niece yourself. There are a bunch of AL modules in the OP pastebin that can keep the game AL-legal, I believe.

How to properly play a skelly?

Can you form your own group without the problem player and DM?

Anyone used Aboleths against their players yet? Is an avoidable encounter with one at level 4 doomed to lead to pic deaths?

Thanks everyone! I'm surprised how similar most of the answer were. Only one that seems to have different answers is the hawk...

I decided since hawks are known as "war hawks", I'm going to make the PC a fighter. I'm actually torn between making the PC hawk either an archer or a knight-type fighter.

I would recommend going for more of a skirmisher type. Maybe give the Mobility so they can move fast and get in and out of the fray very quickly.

Make him a dex rapier fighter

my group was a bad roll away from instantly dying to an aboleth's foreshadow.
like, there was no chance for an physical encounter (they couldn't actually reach the aboleth's lair) but they kept pushing and insisting to inspect the source of the mindfucks and trying to interact with the eerie glowing white water that seemed to bleed from the depths of the open tomb.

i was visibly confused but in the end they just ran away when the thing started to fall apart.

i'd just say, try to make sure both your players and their characters, independently understand the risks of any setting they are. if you made an honest effort of letting them know the risks involved, and they fucked it all up, then just let them die.

What is, in your guys opinion, the best adventure book for new characters?

Oathbreaker for aura of fear
Expertise in intimidate
Tool Specialization (Xylophone)
Immunity to word damage
Vulnerability to stick and stone damage

What are the best disposable minions for Aboleths? Cool Kuo-Toa?

So how come Volo is still alive? Isn't he old and feeble as hell before 4e happen?

Sahuagin are a good one.

i had it set up so a number of abandoned illithid fortresses laid on top of even older aboleth prisons, so on the upper levels there were some mind flayed thralls, intellect devourers and some retooled grells, while the lower levels, the original aboleth cities, where full of dormant chuuls.

Time is convoluted.

Slaads can be pretty good

Magic.

the rapier rapist

Magic

It doesn't make sense to give weapon and armor proficiencies to the warriors because they get those anyway from taking classes like fighter or ranger. Likewise giving arcana is useless because they take a level of wizard and give arcana anyway.

As it stands Hobgoblins are basically the 'wizard-only' race because they get intelligence, armor and weapon proficiencies which don't benefit anyone other than wizards. There is no reason to play as any other class other than wizard if you make a hobgoblin.

Pretty much. It only worked for Mountain Dwarf because it had some other decent benefits and gave really nice Fighter stats with +2 strength and +2 con.

The Hobgoblin doesn't offer much of real value to a martial class.

Good ideas. The Aboleths are going to have been sealed below the Earth in a flooded prison city, and they'll basically be running shit as the top shelf jailhouse kingpins down there. I'll probably dump some Sahuagin down there, and maybe a few packs of mutated airgulpers and some trusty chuuls.

does anyone actually like how ability score bonuses are attached to races?

stuff like dragonborn and half-orc seem to be designed to only be able to perform a few rolls, and nothing else.

In my game I've more or less overhauled all of the core races in addition to my homebrew ones to have a small amount of variance in what ASI's they get. A race might have something like +2 to strength or wisdom, but they would also get a +1 to any ability that they choose.

I wish there were a few more races or subraces that got +2 to X and then +1 to a stat of their choice, to represent a racial strength and then an individual strength,