/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General: Druid Edition

How do I roleplay? I've been interested in it for some 15 years, but I found any kind of acting just never came naturally for me. I wasn't bad at coming up with character backstories, but they were usually things that happened to characters and never things they did.

Maybe this isn't the right place to ask but a question like this doesn't deserve its own thread.

Do you guys have any experience in running adventures for the Adventurer’s League? I’m looking for a short, straightforward adventure that doesn’t require much improvisation for my first time as a DM.

Also, do I really need the DM’s guide or should I be able to make it work with just the basic rules and a PDF on my phone for emergencies? And is there anything else I should get?

AL adventures vary widely in quality, but most aren't that great.

Just run Lost Mine of Phandelver. It's a bit longer than you might want but it's a great start for players and DMs.

No, user, that is EXACTLY the kind of question that deserves it's own thread. It isn't specific to any game or system.

>Playing with new group
>DM tells us we're just travelling on a cart and see a town under attack
>Playing neutral rogue
>"Hmm should we be involved in this?"
>Group of Dragonfurry Paladins and Lawful Good Clerics look at me dumbfounded and charge forward
>Stay behind to talk to the coach driver
>"So whats the situation, what town is this, do we know any history?"
>DM is terrible at roleplaying basically tells me to follow everyone else
>Forced into defending the town
>Make it to the keep
>Save the local Lord and he gives us a new quest to go track down the attackers
>Ask him for some treasure or at least payment for our hours of hard work saving his shit village
>"You can have some rations, doing the right thing is the only reward you need"
>Fast forward a few hours
>In a cave, tracked the enemies down, kill the boss, find a treasure chest
>Being the rogue I unlock it, DM decides it was trapped and I take 6d6 acid dmg knocking me out
>Whilst I'm out the Lawful Good party loot the chest and decide to tell my character it was empty
>mfw these edgy cunts
>They decide to give all the treasure back to the village
>Never played with them again

>being the neutral dick rogue in a LG group
You only have your own damn self to blame for not realizing sooner that you weren't going to get along with that group.

Lesson learned, I hope.

So, you made a character completely contrary to the entire group, then did your best to avoid actually participating in the game.

I've always wondered how That Guys managed to be That Guy, I guess it's simply because they are oblivious to their own actions.

Nah there was an actual evil necromancer and another warlock in the group.

A neutral human fits in any group.

I learnt to never play with LG characters. Too much virginity

Druids are very popular among new players (especially female) and they've kinda ruined it for me.

I find they're pretty difficult to integrate in a regular party, as they usually have very different kind of goals. It's usually a bit of extra work where I have to very clearly weave them into the scenario, or they end up feeling bored / not engaged.

Which is pretty fucking unfair considering they're not actually doing their part as players, since they're new.

>Nah there was an actual evil necromancer and another warlock in the group.

You said it was LG clerics and paladins. the Evil necromancer and the warlock did all this LG shit too?

>a neutral human fits in any group

Depends on the player. In your case, obviously not.

Don't get me wrong, lawful stupid is just as bad as "My character is neutral convince me to actually play the game I came here to play :^)" or Chaotic Edgy bullshit

>Druids are very popular among new players (especially female) and they've kinda ruined it for me.

I have to say this is my personal experience as well.

I've played with like 6 different girls in my time in 5e, out of the like 20~ different people I've played with in 5e, and iirc like four of them were druids.

All of them were small races, either dwarves or halflings or gnomes. I dunno man.

Another new player thing that I've found with dudes is Dragonborn. New players who don't know shit about RP or D&D or whatever always gravitate towards Dragonborn.

>Evil necromancer and the warlock did all this LG shit too

Yep. The problem was they were all new players.

I know they all stopped playing after one more session.

sorry for posting where it doesn't belong

>How do you like your druids, /5eg/?
Non-powergamey.
Moon druids are pretty bad at that.

I've had players complain to me about the other moon druid player because they were basically hogging all the roles.

I play AL so I can't really do a campaign. I also want to start with a one-off because I don't know how much I'll like it yet.

Do you guys ever bring characters back or play a different one every single time? What if they have died in a previous campaign?

Moon Druid is fine past level 3 compared to other classes. The issue is Land Druids being shit in comparison

Where the shit are you people finding women who play druids? The only druid players I've ever had were a literal autist botanist who grew up playing 2e with his dad's friends, a neckbeard hippie i met in college, and Joe.

For reference, Joe is a 32 year old white man who works as an accountant, drives a toyota that's older than his son, drinks shitty coffee, and uses game night as an excuse to get away from his wife on saturdays.

when you're not asperger it's easier to find players that aren't autists as well

Can someone explain adventurer's league for me, I've started D&D a few months ago, googling adventurer's league didn't give a satisfying answer.

Explain like I'm autistic, please.

>Play a land druid
>It's like playing any other spell caster
>Except your spells are shit
>and you get awful archetype bonuses
Wild shape is nice though, even if you are limited so much by being land

Yeah i get this as well.

To me, you have the choice between being a shitty wizard and casting meh spells, or being a druid and shaping into stuff.

Not much of a choice at all.
That's why the UA could shake things up pretty nicely.

Playing a Land-druid here.

Totally regret it. Misty step is cool and I like the coastal theme but fuck, I could have done that as a moon druid and transformed into an octopus. My only benefit to spellcasting is literally natural recovery which is pretty much one extra spell a day. My wildshape sucks, spending an action to change form is fucking crippling, because not only are you entering shitty 20-30hp forms at level 8+ you have to pray you survive the turn to actually use your new form. If I need to wildshape in combat I'm now used to ready-action wildshape just before my turn starts because otherwise I waste a turn shifting and often get bamfed before I can use the new form.

Heck I'd be happy if the UA was just "Land druids but each terrain type gets its own features like a cleric domain would" Like arctic druids maybe getting resistance to cold, or coastal druids getting some swimming/water breathing benefits

Some people don't have regular groups, whether they're new to the game or just too shit to have one. So they go to their local game store and take part in Adventurers League, 5e's official organized play setup. There are stricter rules on character creation and progression that must be followed than a home game, and you're not guaranteed to play with the same characters or people two weeks in a row. There are also set adventures that are run, with about 10 or so for each "season" centered around each new adventure module.

I like to use druids as clerics of feral religions.

Would be nice to have a reason to pick up my swamp druid again. Although circle of the swarm could also work for that

In different games with different players? Sure. I even keep the characters more based on personalities than specific roles so if I go into a new group and, say, Paladin's already taken, my preferred character could fill the Fighter or even Ranger role with ease.
But if the DM is starting a new campaign at the end of a previous one, even if the character lived through it, I'd be trying something else for the sake of variety.

> Fungi growing out of her flesh
It's time to PURGE.

>Explain like I'm autistic
What does this even mean?

To the user who has that unbalanced party, rebalance them all to the same level or don't play.
That fucker is being a That Guy asshole.

Explain it with clear, concise terms, without using exaggeration, metaphor, or idioms.

Normie, reeeeeeeeee.

Is Sword Coast Legends at all any good?

>group is entirely PHB only
>new guy joins, gm lets him use busted ass homebrew garbage

Can we exterminate all homebrew please

I feel like bad homebrew is worse in 5e. Like so few homebrewers for 5e have seemed to have read the phb. Shit like d10 fullcasters are everywhere

I played it for fifteen minutes and crashed, uninstalled

Its not even d&d man. Character creation/class stuff is fucking retarded, its like skyrim tier "bick a berk :DDDD"

Heh, think it's meant to appeal to casuals and those just wanting to play a quick game. I can't argue with that though, as long as the game plays good.

Some homebrew is undeniably good, but a good heap is complete and utter horseshit, with no sense of design quality or balance. It's literally diarrhea on the page.
This is why Wizards should put out new content.

Just curious, what do people think about the content in Volo's Guide to Monsters? Such as the new races, the new lore, and the new monsters in it.

I like the new player races and the new monster stats, but I hate the lore. A lot of it relies on "because gods" and a lot of it I find can just curb creativity from the DM and players.

I mean the sheer amount of new racial stat blocks are so tied down to "because gods" it's almost like a parody.
Could the Orc Blade Of Whatchamacallim or the Orc Shadow Of Whatshisface not just be an Orc Swordmaster and Orc Assassin?

Bugbear and yaun ti are cancer, meme race for meme builds and op bullshit respectively

Triton tabaxi aasimar goliath and firbolg are solid additions to the race roster. Lizardman kinda I guess, feel a bit unneeded besides for fetishists I guess.

Monsterous PCs are dumb and probably will be disallowed at most tables. This will not stop fetishists however. Nothing will stop the fetishists

Firbolgs got the worst art, and their revamp isn't terribly good.
I mean how do you go from what's essentially the giants from Frank Frazetta's The Frost Giants painting to the unholy lovechild of Joe Fixit and Shaggy Rogers, anyway?

yea some of the art is really fucking bad, like the hobgoblin female monk thing

That thing was fucking horrifying, not in an intimidating way but in a completely fucking fugly way.

I am basically right with you on that, I tend to use my own lore for games anyway. Most other DMs probably do the same thing. The naming of the new Orc goons was pretty bad, Pathfinder did better with things like Thug, Warchief, and War Drummer.
I actually really like the lizardfolk race, has a kind of savage monster hunter feel to it. Monsterous PCs would probably be all or none in most cases, I think.

Can you set up character sheets to be imported to roll20?

Seeing how the 'canon' changes made to FR in 4e were reverted with 5e, would WotC ever try something like that again?

Like what would happen if Maglubiyet and his goblinoid host in Archeon did conquer Gruumsh and the other orcish gods. How would that effect FR? Or even any of the other settings that use those gods, seeing as monster gods seem to cross the multiverse.

You know it's a mask right?

Maglubyet, while the superior god, is only intermediate compared to Gruumsh's greater god status. He wouldn't be able go unless he assembles allies.

Despite being written of on equal footing in novels, Corellon as statted in 3e will completely rekt Gruumsh.

for the love of god please enlighten me because as it is i dont know how that abomination got past qc

The art is still terrible.

You mean this thing?

Devils are more aesthetic than that.

It's a meh-tier branded Diablo clone. The best thing about it is the "dm's tools" level editor.

Is it worth 10 bucks on?

NWN Diamond on GOG for 3.69, why even.

Yeah, they should have gone for some weaboo Oni mask or something instead of a power rangers mook.

Have you seen an Ice Devil? It's a fucking bug bro.

Yeah, if you were going with an environment where devils basically look like the red horned hooved tailed devils, it'd do the trick, but D&D clearly doesn't subscribe to that idea.
Perhaps saying they're "fiendish" masks would work better, but it's still pretty uncreative.

Alright guys, my players are going to be going through a swamp to try to hunt down a hag coven. How do I wear them down physically, spiritually and emotionally, and really make them feel the awfulness of the swamp, while still making sure that they feel like they're having fun?
Also, I want the hag coven to actually be a challenge, not just a bunch of old ladies that they take down without any effort. Any advice there?

...

Nah, NWN isn't for me, 'sides I already have the Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale II and Planescape Torment.

One important aspect? Atmosphere. Emphasize how nasty and foul the swamp is. Make it all difficult terrain even if you have a ranger with swamp as a favored terrain. Don't even say it's because it's "magic". Talk about how they feel incessantly watched, even if they see nothing. Make them feel so exhausted they need to rest for a bit as they slowly plod along.
As for the hags being a challenge. That means minions. Undeads are always a good go-to bit. Depending on the party's level you can use things like zombies, ghouls, wights, shadows, wraiths and so forth.

Wish they could've gotten DiTerlizzi to do the artwork.

What might be found along a haunted coast and haunted lighthouse?

Skeletons running from ghosts.

Old Man Chalmers in a scuba suit made up to look like a monster.

>the skeletons are from the people who died and became ghosts

Use the Banderhobb from Volo's.

Ghosts of vengeful fish

This garnered and audible exhale of air from my nose, well done user.

Nobody in my group asked about playing a Volo race yet.
But they picked up a hapless Kobold as an NPC mascot and they spent a good amount of time asking me to power him up to PC status because they shouldn't have to watch out that the seven hit point Kobold doesn't die under their watch.

hey Veeky Forums i need your help. I just let my party have a nightmare foal. I was inspired by the Baby Bestiary and it seems like a cool idea to use the nightmare for some interesting side quests. Now... I want to make him playable. Like a party member they can control. Can you help me with some stats ? i mean... its still small but i want the nightmare to be capable of hitting back. They all are level 3 in COS.

Ua when?

Well then there's even less point in buying SCL for you.

Like any force of nature, swamp is a thing. It's old, bitter and malicious. It ruins the sense of direction, getting to anything resembling a landmark means difficult terrain: fallen treetrunks, thorns everywhere, black thick mud that looks like it's boiling and somewhere in that noise the actual words are uttered.

Put awful twist on familiar things. Goblins are actual children transformed by the swamp. Once they got lost, it sucked them in and spew them out. There are no bullywigs but frogmen, degenerate tribes of men resembling toads, luring passengers in by imitating various animals and using bound will-o'-wisps as lights.

Hags won't wait for you like a final boss. They split up, constantly watching you through the eyes of spider webs all around the swamp, they send their minions to harass you.

They should also have a specific agenda they're clearly trying to advance. Will that agenda be achieved if at least one of the hags lives? Do they have a significant weakness? It's better if they do, once players get some leverage they can bargain. Bargaining with heroes is absolutely haggish thing.

I'm sick as fuck and gotta keep myself in from uni classes today, so that means writing for my group's next session.

You guys use any sort of homebrew system to make traveling more interesting or dynamic?

5-6 hours probably.

Skill challenges from 4e disguised as narrative to keep the players from realizing they are in a skill challenge.

"aesthetic" is not a fucking adjective*. Reeeeeeee

(*at least not like that)

Memetastic.

This isn't bad.

What can be used for deep ones?
I was thinking of including a scattering of massive, upright eggs the party finds, some have burst open like a flower and some are still intact. There's slithering tracks surrounding the eggs.

The stairs within the lighthouse descend further than should be possible into the deep bowels of the earth. The walls underneath seem fleshy and almost seem to heave.

A small fishing hamlet existed on the small island as the lighthouse, but is now in ramshackle ruins.
Great jutting bones are buried in the earth, their bones have been bleached white but the bones are too large for even the largest whale.

Stop being autistic.

Hmm that could work. I'm sort of sick of just doing random encounters every so many steps along the way.

One of these guys maybe? Transformed by an Aboleth or Kraken and sent to spy on the party/protect the spooky lighthouse.

>This is why Wizards should put out new content.
That's not related. We had terrible homebrew in every edition regardless.

People are even making homebrews of things that already exist.
Sometimes it's just homebrew for the sake of it - which i can get: it's prerty fun.

In this, a D&D thread on an anime board?

Which class makes the best Necromancer?
Wizard, Cleric or Paladin? (i'm allowed to take Death Domain or Oathbreaker if I want)

Wizard seems the most appropriate, desu.

Depends on what you want to do. Cleric of death summons a lot more shit i'm told while wizard is a whole lot of damaging/debilitating spells.

Yeah. Skill challenges are great if done right. Basically have every trip come with some narrative obstacles or hazards, like rocks block the only pass, or the rogue is bit by an unknown insect and is developing alarming symptoms.

If they reach a certain number of failures before a certain number of successes, random encounter.

>tfw you realize displacer beasts cant bite
>tfw no face