Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition General /5eg/

Oh, and in case that phrasing is ambiguous, I'm wondering what CR I should be looking up in the MM to use as a PC surrogate, not what the CR of a 6th-level PC could be calculated as

I don't know specifics about the game you've got but I still use all the shit from the D&D board games from 3rd edition.
Basically, if it looks like this you're good.

Hey guys, I'm totally new to DnD, but I have the Starter Set. I'm going to be running some friends through it in a week or so and I'm really excited to do so. But I'm now wondering, of the three books (DM book, Players handbook and monster manual), is the latter the most optional? I'm going to ask my girlfriend to get me the books for Christmas, but wee're settling on a £50 limi, and that amounts to two books. I figure most monsters could be statted up of my own accord? The two rulebooks seem a little more important.

Was taking a break from DMing. None of my mates who DM in the meantime can get the rules right.

Players forgetting stuff I can tolerate no matter how bad it is, too used to it. But DM telling a guy to apply proficiency for his Con save because the character has Athletics is too much. I've explained the difference between ability checks and saves like four times.

The killing blow was making a guy roll d12 for the saving throw because "DC 12" looked like dice-something to DM, dice choice, I don't fucking know. It's just beyond the autism level I can handle.

Wouldn't do it like that. WotC has a few pregens up to level 10. Seems like the tool for the job.

Yes. The minis are unpainted, but they're the same scale as all other D&D minis. The game will come with some pre-made adventures and instructions on how to run them, and of course you can do roleplaying bits before, during, and after.

Are you playing with a bunch of morons

I would suggest buying the DM guide and MM. let your players buy the PHB, you won't really use it much as the DM except to look up wording, but that's really on your players and you make a ruling

UA is today right? What time do they normally release it?

Yeah, its more or less the same, except with a 9 square dragon and a bunch of cards with spells and moves.
The cards probably should have clued me in that its not exactly dnd.

If you like the way it runs, you can even use the same parts from Wrath of Ashardalon in all the other D&D board games (Legend of Drizzt, Castle Ravenloft, and Temple of Elemental Evil.) They're designed to be kind of modular and use each other's rules.

Tell your personal tips to someone who's gonna be a DM for the first time!

TAKE NOTES!

Don't be afraid to improve.

It is okay for something to not work out like you hoped/planned it would, go with the flow.

> What was your favorite PC? Either the one you enjoyed playing as the most, or one you enjoyed playing WITH the most
He was a wanna be dark lord. He wasn't actually especially powerful (a wizard academy dropout), and he wasn't actually really evil (just a poser). His dark horse was stolen from the local stables, and his attempts to threaten people with his non-existing evil legions were laughable.
He ended up meeting the actual villains (us), who realized that he's a fake within minutes... But they've decided that playing along and making him their leader would be too fucking funny of an opportunity to pass up.
There was even a rivalry between two female evil PCs over who gets to be his dark mistress.

>Bullying Butters
For what purpose?
That sounds really fun game,user

They're just quintessensial casuals, I guess. Except one guy who's also the only good DM of the bunch.

If you run a published module, do it and then realise you can prepare stuff like that quicker and better. The game plus your imagination won't let you down.

Know the rules. Just the essentials for now, but knowing your stuff is important in the long run and helps to make consistent rulings on the fly even if you've forgotten something.

Be brief and evocative in your descriptions. You don't get a lot of time before players' attention span starts to fade away. Describe something, then let them ask questions, answer them. When the conversation is dynamic, it's engaging.

>Rolling a d12 for a DC 12 save.
No one is this stupid.

>tfw you could nova with monk back in playtests

Wouldn't believe myself if I didn't see it.

Which playtest? Because monks didn't get flurry of blows until the very last one, and that lets you spend 1 ki point to make an extra attack, with the RAI being very clear that you can't just dump all of them at once.

>Which playtest?
All from summer and fall 2013

Please let the next UA be the Mystic

99% sure its gonna be cleric. Mystic, as much as I want one, will probably be end of December.

:(

You can download and look at them, they're in the Mega.

Summer 2013 has no flurry at all, and ki was extremely limited because it was only used for the subclass abilities.

Fall 2013 has flurry, but it was only 1 extra attack with the Attack action. Dumping any more than 1 ki on a single turn is purposely misinterpreting what the rule says.

>Fall 2013 has flurry, but it was only 1 extra attack with the Attack action
Read the 8th level feature.

Also In my country september is still summer.

I, too, am a sad panda. I would love to have a semi-official Mystic. Hopefully it won't be shit.

>What was your favorite PC?

See, the issue I have is that the thread question is openly asking me to talk about Iliira, but if I do you'll all jump down my throat.

As for the other question, I haven't DM'd a 5e game yet, and so can't answer it. I guess I could talk about the 3e games I DM'd for, but that's, well, 3e, not 5e.

>muh special snowflake
That question is bait, no one actually wants to hear about characters, only arguing about rules.

I'm sorry, but weren't psionics cancer? I've never played with them, but literally every story I hear is about them being awful.

Also Wizards did say they were working on psionic rules. So you might get your wish.

How can they be cancer when they always were the most balanced "caster" ever? is this bait?

They may or may not fit in a fantasy setting, depending on subjective matters, but they were pretty fucking well done, their casting was clear and fair without vanician bullshit and broken spells

Okay, two extra attacks, putting them up to 4... which is what flurry gives 5e monks anyway once they have Flurry of Blows.

Most people who bitch about psionics have never used them, always citing "muh pure European fantasy."

They were only awful/a-problem in like 3.pf if you didn't read the rules and let them put all their points ever into a single attack and do tons of damage (as if damage-causing is the problem in 3.pf...) Otherwise they largely had a lot of "refluffed" wizard spells and some other side stuff.

In 4e they were just a bit different than the other classes and like a lot of things, didn't get a ton of support (and were still basically outclassed by Wizards). They weren't terrible, though, and were kind of interesting.

2e psionics were stupidly overpowered and kind of gave a bad rep to all subsequent psionics.

3e psionics was more balanced than the Vancian spellcasting system it was an alternative to. You'd still be shitting all over fighters or rogues, but a Wizard or Cleric did that anyway.

4e psionics was probably balanced, as were most things in 4e; but also uninteresting and samey compared to other power sources, as were most things in 4e. But I never played with 4e psionics, so I'm not certain on that.

5e Mystic looks like it'll be really, really fun and neat, but not overpowered based on what's been published so far. And of course 5e is the edition wherein R&D is working overtime at trying to maintain balance without cramping style an is doing a fairly good job, at least as compared to 2e, 3e, or 4e.

>two extra attacks, putting them up to 4...
It doesn't have a limit, user, sure, RAI might be like the limit is 4, but nova monk was never shunned by devs (they mentioned it wasn't very effective but never said it was broken). Eventually we got bonus action that limits this stuff.

Side note, the 5e Mystic seems to be approaching psionics less from a "Professor X" standpoint and more from a "Indian yogi who's all about the chakras and meditation" angle, which allows it to fit into standard fantasy settings better.

>2e psionics were stupidly overpowered
They also had like 3 different systems and I don't believe all of them were overpowered

>muh pure European fantasy
I hate these faggots so much, D&D was never that, never

It's not like this phrase even means anything

New UA when?

What it really means is "Tolkien's Middle Earth during the Third Age, and ripoffs thereof".

I am preparing a backup character that will be a infiltrator Warlock making good use of Mask of Many Faces and the Actor feat. However as I want to play a race that doesn't get any bonus proficiency (Yuan-ti Pureblood) it feels like I have to start him out as a Rogue and then multiclass into Warlock. Would be bringing the character into a 7-8th level game (currently).
How useful would the Rogue's Cunning Action feature be for such a character? It looks really neat (Disengage and knock them back with EB when you're out of melee), but I don't want to delay the Warlock-y stuff for too long (Thought Shield is a key feature for the concept, I think).

As for the proficiency issue (and why I'm looking at a Rogue splash), the character will need to be able to perform scouting/trap-disarming/social stealth; Deception, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Stealth. Fifth skill would probably be Persuasion (depends on how the DM will let me twist Deception usage).

Playing a rogue right now, 12th level. Cunning Action is the most consistently useful class feature I have simply due to the Dash option, nevermind the others.

Gonna play my first rp soon,thinking of rolling a monk.
The dm said he's gonna roll 5e,any tips for a beginner?

Sun Soul Monk. Be Goku.

It's just after 8 in the morning at Wizards HQ, give them time.

Monk is solid all around, save for 4 Elements Monks; it's fun, but its powers are too expensive to really be considered "amazing".

However, Sun Soul, Open Hand, and Shadow are pretty amazing.

Be prepared to use a weapon at lower levels - it'll likely be better than your fists, damage-wise.
Way of the four elements monk is slightly lame due to limited options and everything taking all your ki ever.
You get your ki back after a short rest (I've seen some people think it's only long rest).

Monk is pretty cool. Sun Soul (a tradition in Sword Coast Adventure Guide) Monk is pretty fun cause you get to shoot blasts of sunlight and stuff.

>Dash
You mean disengage, right?
>Attack with BB
>Disengage
>Move
>Laugh at your enemy

>keep the world contained in a small area, no one likes 50 day walks to get anywhere and it will help you keep the world interesting.
>dont have encounters in open terrain all the time, add terrain features like trees and cliffs.
>avoid traps unless you know what your doing. Bad traps just makes the party paranoid and slows the game to a crawl.
>if your not sure on a rule houserule it and look it up later. Having fun is all that matters and keeping the game going is important.
>dont script encounters, social or combat, learn to improv because things will never go how you expect

>Dice Choice 12

No, I mean Dash. The ability to quickly get into position, or quickly GTFO (which Disengaging enables, but it's still the Dash that accomplishes it) has been utterly invaluable. Plus ever since I took the Mobile feat, Disengage isn't really necessary.

>The killing blow was making a guy roll d12 for the saving throw
Reminds me of my party's newbie cleric. Joins the game when we're level 2. Finally wants to hit something with his crossbow, so he rolls 1d8. Maybe he was looking at its damage, but I assume it's because 1d8 was listed as his "hit" die.

4E psionics were weird in that they didn't fully use AEDU: instead of Encounter powers they had some amount of Power points they could use to boost At-Wills. It wasn't the most well-polished sub-system and I don't think these classes had much support (because Mearls) but it was an interesting experiment. Also, psionic defenders (Warbrains! Combatcraniums!) had pretty cool fluff of people using their psionic ponential to enhance (and slightly transmute, I think) their own body

Also also, 4E monks became Psionic when power source Mystic Orient got cut. Reportedly, they were the most fun 4E class to play but I have no personal experience with them

>pisonics
>cancer
They make int actually slightly relevant again.

I loved the psionic's "'breakdown" of Encs into At-wills
So much more fun than standard Encs, giving your more options and decision points - how many PPs to put in, do you need to put them in, which of your several at-wills should you use...
Shame the class had like no support.

Mystic in 5e seems to be going a similar route of blurring the resource management system into a similar direction (one I prefer), which is part of why I really want to see how they do it.

You do know there's a warlock invocation that gives you two skill proficiencies, right? You need more than 6 skills?

Since the revised ranger allows an animal companion to increase their stats, would you allow them to get feats as well? Some limitations could be in place but savage attacker mobile sentinel they could all benefit in a companion.

Up to the DM. Probably some abusable gimmick shit that Wizards of the Coast didn't intend.

Only Deception and Persuasion, and Persuasion is potentially a waste. So that's one Invocation less that could have been spent on actually good shit.

You want to build a character who specializes in splitting the party, going out alone, and making several different skill checks in succession while the rest of the party just watches. I see two problems with this:

1. That's kind of boring for the rest of the party.
2. If you get caught, you're fucked.

Oh and Deception would be granted from the Criminal:Spy background anyway.

Fuck off and kill yourself.

Speaking of skills

My group is pretty small. Technically there's 4 players but in reality only 2 ever show up. So I was thinking of changing chargen rules slightly so that skills are more available (and so Fighters are less shafted in this regard)

What if each character had 7 proficient skills: 3 from class list, 2 from background, 2 others
They also have expertise in 1 of the 7. Rogues get additional expertise normally
How does it sound?

This simple fix rebalances casters and drives wotc crazy. Find out more!

>everybody gets perception or athletics expertise

>everybody becomes godlike at grappling or almost impossible to ambush
Eh, how about no.

>delete

Even in this scenario there's a ton of ways to fuck over characters three ways to sunday

My old character was a rogue/warlock with deception expertise, actor feat, charlatan false identity, Mask of many faces invocation, etc.

The whole game was spent slogging through dungeons and when it came time to deal with npcs, the barbarian and necromancer just intimidated them. Never was my character's social gimmick ever important. Just eldrich blasting sewer critters was the best it got, and every session I looked down at my character sheet covered in special class features that I would never get to use and spells I had no reason to ever cast.

Basically, DnD is about combat powers and taking hit points off of monsters. Being able to trick NPCs is a nice little cutscene but it's not what the game is fundamentally about.

That literally sounds like what you want your own character to do.

>I know exactly how your group plays and will prove that with anecdotal evidence

No.

>being able to pretend to be a new character successfully is the same as splitting the party

Rope -> neck.

Isn't that what a monk is for?

>guys how bout this gimmick
>you may not find it to be as fun as you imagine
>uhg, kys shitlord i literally can't even right now

Sounds completely unnecessary. The difference between a trained and untrained check is actually very small, you have a good chance of beating most DCs untrained, and the game just isn't built to account for expertise in the default DCs for things. Also, ability checks are by far the least significant part of the adventuring experience - you could have a party that fails every single ability check and still beats the adventure with flying colors.

The question was about the Rogue splash, I don't give a fuck about your thoughts on anything else.

>Favorite PC
Definitely the one and only, Zalgo the Magnificent! A deranged Varisian nobleman who fell with the adventurers after things went bottom up in the city of his birth. He may or may not have been a serial murderer, but his "decorative arrangement" of corpses post-battle really unnerved the party paladin. And with his Mask of Disguise and the Actor feet, he really went on some long-cons with some of the rest of the party members. Once I was able to actually have my animated puppet garrote people, shooting fools with a Hand Crossbow while Punch strangled them was a very good time. Got just high enough in Marionnetist to be able to toss soul strings on other people, then grabbed Rogue levels to get to Assassin.

The fact he ended up semi-retiring as the tutor/guardian of a young noblewoman confuses and terrifies me to this day.

Good guess, but no!

All spells can be cast as a ritual, by a member of any class.

To learn the ritual, you need an int score equal to the spell level plus 10, and the ritual takes a number of minutes to cast equal to 10 times the level of the spell. If the spell has any material components, you must have them in your inventory, and casting the spell as a ritual consumes those components. Spellcasting pouches don't help with ritual casting.

Now martials actually stand a chance out of combat, and intelligence is useful.

>Improv but with notes
Feel free to give NPCs different personality quirks and habits, but making certain you remember who's who does a wonder for the believably of your world.
>Fight outside of a empty frictionless plane
Having stuff for the party and enemies to interact with in encounters can go a long way. Keep it all situational, but reward players for creative thinking.
>Know the rules, mostly
If you come across something that you aren't 100% on, just make a judgement call and check it later.

>look how little i care about other people's opinion while I post on a message board seeking validation about my idea from other people
Anyway, actually I can suggest the Inquisitive rogue specialization from Gothic Characters UA, which allows you to use your cunning bonus action to make insight and investigation checks to find clues or to enable sneak attacks against a creature. If you just want to be a fluffy non-combat spy, then there's an idea.

>the answer to caster/martial imbalance...
>is to make all characters casters

Is this a 5e homebrew, or submerging for another edition? It sounds interesting.

Isn't that what a refluffed wizard/sorcerer/cleric is for?

maybe

>still pretending that 2e psionics was overpowered because muh disintegrate

I'd much rather have Martial Practices back.

>not overpowered based on whats been published

nigger mystic v2 is literally the most OP UA ever made, even worse than that cleric wizard school.

5d10 damage on every attack? The only save or die spell in all of 5e? cmon now.

>If everyone's a caster...
>No one is.
>syndrome.jpg

5e Homebrew. And prepare for the triggering...
It's Middle Finger of Vecna. As such, there's a typo in the PDF as the puppet's supposed to be able to attack regularly, just with the option of boosting it with Inspiration.

d10 damage on every attack?
where, what

and the Theurgy Tradition for Wizard is OP?

Alright boys weeaboo-calling aside, what would the best way to play a Madara-expy be? Wizard? Monk? Ranger revised?