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Last thread: Fantastic Landscapes Edition

So, anons, do you like adding fantastical terrain features like floating castles/islands, rivers that rain upside down, walking forests and singing streams to your setting? Or does it have to be as realistic as possible for you?

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>fantastical terrain
FUCK YES.
Gimme more of that shit

Never apologize preemptively, user. Hesitance invites criticism. Confidence dares them.

It depends where in reality you are. If you're in the "natural" world, or the Center, no, things should be realistic because they should feel familiar to the players.
But the closer you get to Chaos in the gradually-shifting cosmology, the weirder things become. Near Chaos just has oddities, like the occasional floating rock, purple rivers, and dwarves. But it only gets weirder from then on, all the way to Far Chaos where matter and energy don't feel any obligation to the natural laws that supposedly hold them together. If it rains upside down, the rain is probably made of sound bursts.

cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/157339657594601472/259092718385364992/bestiary.html

Some user made this last thread, it's currently the best resource I've seen for looking up monster stats quickly. It has monster stat blocks from every official book, including Volo's Guide to Monsters. This thing is right up there with Kobold Fight Club in terms of utility. How do we get this into the pastebin?

I actually do have a few more pics I can share, if that's desireable...

FUCK DOUBLE YES

Somebody's been reading the Amber series.

Personally, I quite like having fantastical terrains. I grew up on the D&D cartoon and stuff like Dino-Boy in the Lost Valley, so... yeah. Plus, I quite like high fantasy. ;)

Yes, please, but not too many, if you wouldn't mind.

Somebody's been reading the SHIT out of the Amber series. But I've thoroughly mixed it up with 4e cosmology to arrive at something I greatly enjoy.

Problem with fantastical terrain is what do you do with the Feywild and Shadowfell if the regular world gets too super fantastic?

Has anybody tried using speed factor initiative? How did it work out for you?

Something I brought up in the last thread... I'm working on a bunch of "Wastelander" Genasi subraces, inspired by the Athasian Genasi in 4e and some of the Paraelemental/Quasielemental Genasi in 3e. Would this be a place to talk about them?

What are some good plot lines for an ocean themed campaign? I'd love to do a pirate/coastal/seafarer/underwater campaign but no idea how to go about it.

Thank you to the kind user who made this.

I like fantastical underwater terrain so campaigns I run tend to include stories that take the players to underwater locations.

With lots of gears.

What does Veeky Forums think about the concept of narrative resting? I've noticed some suggestions to change the required rest time to compensate for slower pacing, but what if you changed a rest from a time requirement to a location requirement, or even general plot stuff like gaining the favor of the gods? For example, you can only take a long rest by going to towns or finding special oases.

I've noticed that many games I've played virtually do this already ("no, you can't rest now- if you do you'll be attacked 100%" or "sure you can rest now, 100% safe from interruption). Also many DMs seem to unconsciously limit combat to once per day because that makes more sense to them than fighting wave after wave of enemies with 1-hour breaks in between every other wave.

The aim is to clarify resting as a milestone, rather than something the PCs can attempt at any time in theory but not in practice. It lets the PCs know the restrictions ahead of time so they can plan around it.

tl;dr Make resting like a "save point": y/n

So I may be joining a 5e game after a long while away. I have very limited D&D experience, I moved on to other systems quickly, but this particular group of friends still loves 5e.

>Is the Shadow bloodline Sorcerer good? Too good? Seems closest to what I'm looking for.
>What do I need to keep in mind, coming back from GURPS/Dark Heresy/etc that's a major paradigm shift?
>Any advice?

Ignore them because they both suck major shit

have you heard about the super pirate treasure

WAIT GUYS THIS IS IMPORTANT

The PCs are druids, tasked with saving the porpoise population, dying out due to low birth rates and global warming.

The problem with SF initiative is that everyone must declare their action at the top of the round, and that's not really the flow of the modern D&D combat.

This is the place to get yelled at until they're balanced. Although judging from your first submission there will be very little yelling because you actually care about balance.

Gee, this is a reprint of the initiative system of AD&D.

Guess who gets fucked over most by it?

Not the martials.

why was this not in the OP

Makes sense to me. If you're constantly tense and twitching at every shadow, you're not really resting. Conversely, that magical fountain sure is refreshing and oh would you look at that I'm all rested up!

>Hating on faeries
Next you'll be telling me your dwarves are actually Lawful Good

>I don't like LG Dwarves
I would settle for greedy asshole dwarves everywhere if that also meant elves were persona non grata in civilized lands

I'd say shadow sorcerer is a bit too good, but it's just about allowable if the player has the restriction of NO multiclasses allowed. Sorcerer is already a bit weaker than wizard unless you can really abuse metamagic (Say, sorlock or something, so you need multiclass to unlock that potential). Shadow sorcerer is also ridiculously good as a one, maybe even two level dip (So, again, no multiclass there). Once you can't multiclass, compared to a wizard, I'd say it's balanced enough. You get cheap, super-darkness. You get a much-upgraded version of the barbarian's ability (though not a direct upgrade). You get an almost direct upgrade to heightened spell (disadvantage hound). You get a pretty much upgraded shadow monk key feature (leap through shadows 60ft, except now it's 120ft because fuck you) and you get sorcerer bear edgy rage(tm) for resistance to almost everything for only 3 sorcerery points for a minute.

I'd allow things like undying light warlock (That's mostly fine for multiclassing though) and shadow sorcerer and UA revised ranger because if you don't abuse them with multiclasses, the class itself is not exactly tier-1 and will still be balanced with the party.

Because no one is telling me how to put it into the pastebin. It's easily the coolest shit I've seen. Last week I ran an encounter with a hobgoblin captain, a devastator, and six soldiers. I had to flip between two books and continually look back and forth on every single turn.

Basically I love this because it gives me more time to use flowery language to describe combat rather than looking up stats.

Did I not just say I like my elves fucked up? I'll allow one merchant caravan per month. Otherwise, they can stay right the fuck away from my castles, thank you very much.
Although my dwarves tend to be more complex than pulpy greedsters, but at least with them you sort of know what you're getting in trade.

Let's see, there's stopping pirate raids, battling to become the pirate king, stopping cultists of some aquatic horror (aboleth, kraken or full-fledged Lovecraftian monster), a war against underwater conquerors like sahuagin or reavers (from Ravenloft; basically chaotic evil Creatures from the Black Lagoon), sailing to new colonies/undiscovered lands if you want to add some more traditional dungeon-crawling to it, finding a lost sunken city... any of these help you? This is all off the top of my head.

Thanks, but even though I do care about balance, it doesn't always work out so good. For comparison, this is the Sun Genasi subrace I did in a nutshell:

+1 Cha
Immune to sun-glare
Advantage on Con saves vs. blindness
Spell-like abilities: Light at will, Searing Ray (Radiant damage Fire Bolt) at will, 1st level Cure Wounds 1/day at third level, 2nd level Blazing Rays (Radiant damage Scorching Ray) 1/day at fifth level
Resistance to Radiant Damage
Acclimatized to high temperatures

Quick, list all of the factions that are actively interacting with the adventurers in your campaign. I'm curious how many you guys are using and what they are.

>Adventuring Guild
>Fey Folk
>Biopunk monks
>Assorted goblinoid tribes
>Horned Beast cultists

>he doesn't screenshot PDFs, paste cropped statblocks into Paint, and print them in grayscale for a handy one page reference
>or make shorthand notations of notable stats on a piece of paper if using physical books
I mean, it's great that we don't have to now, but it's not like book-flipping should ever have been something a prepared DM needed to do

>The problem with SF initiative is that everyone must declare their action at the top of the round, and that's not really the flow of the modern D&D combat.
How is that a problem, though? I get that it differs from "the flow of modern D&D combat," but in what way, and why is that a "problem"? That's what I'm asking about in the first place.

If it means my players won't get bored waiting for their turns, I don't give a damn about "modern flow." Priorities, I guess.

So do you think of it as a worthwhile fucking-over, or an excessive one?

I feel like refusing to relegate fairies to the sidelines by confining them to seperate realms doesn't really indicate that people dislike them. It might even mean the opposite, e.g. if they wanted fairies to be more involved in the regular world they might not need or want a feywild

The Lawful Empire is battling to try and wrest control over the High Seas, while the Chaotic Pirate Emirates and the Neutral smaller countries are trying to maintain parity or tip the balance in favor of the pirates.

Lord's Alliance (Mythril Hall, Waterdeep, Silverymoon in particular)
Harpers
Emerald Enclave
Zhentarim
Cult of the Dragon
all four PotA elemental cults
some pirate/sea cult that is not related to PotA's water guys
Spooky Star God
Hill Giants we have convinced to stop being assholes
No Order of the Gauntlet yet unless you count its founder's estranged lich brother
Dwarves, who are always a faction unto themselves regardless of their other allegiances
weird gambling riverboat (in the ocean) with magical gaming tokens run by a secret mafia or something

My setting is a floating island, but my players don't know it, as they haven't explored that far.

Well, at least you try. Assorted barbarian tribes of Dok
>The Shaman Council of Dok
>Assorted Denevan nobles
>The Court of Winter
>The Court of Summer
>The Gloaming Court
>The Wild Court
>The Church of the Raven Queen
>>The secret intelligence branch of the Church of the Raven Queen
>The Gray Knights of the Raven Queen
>The dwarven fanatics of Gutri-Khum
>Heian the Demigod and his assorted minions
>The Four Knights of Heian (including those presumed deceased)
>BANE, GOD OF WAR and his assorted minions

To be fair, this was during the endgame. But it doesn't include many factions along the way.

>everyone must declare their action at the top of the round
Uh, isn't a more elegant solution (if you must use speed factor) to simply shift initiatives up/down based on the actions of the last combat round? No one has to declare anything in advance, the extra (or less) time they took last round is simply catching up to them now.

Since you need to rewrite numbers on your initiative tracker every time, you may as well just make a new one as turns occur in a round, and you'll have it all ready to go for the next one.

>So, anons, do you like adding fantastical terrain features like floating castles/islands, rivers that rain upside down, walking forests and singing streams to your setting? Or does it have to be as realistic as possible for you?
I just realized that I forgot to write anything cool like that into my homebrew setting. The best I got is the humies having giant rotating buildings that direct trains to different tracks and the elves living in large walled cities made completely of crystal that grows like crabgrass when exposed to magic. Maybe I should save that physics-defying stuff the different planes.

A version of this in the Mega as well, under Extras.

Speaking of my homebrewing efforts and balance... I've been trying to figure out how to do up a Tallfellow (elf-blooded) halfling subrace based on their AD&D arrival, and also a "Strongheart" (human-blooded) halfling subrace. Can I get some feedback on how I did? I'm really worried that they're both extremely overpowered.

Halfling Subrace: Tallfellow
+1 Wisdom
Darkvison
Fey Ancestry
Keen Senses
Fleet-Footed: Increase your base walking speed to 30 feet.

Halfling Subrace: Strongheart
+1 Strength, +1 Intelligence
Schooling: You gain Proficiency with either 1 skill of your choice or one martial melee weapon of your choice.

I wanna have bird people in my setting as a playable race.

Should I make that race Tengu or Aarakocra? What're the differences?

Your players won't get bored waiting for their turn (although they shouldn't anyway), but they'll have to spend even more time deciding what to do because they'll have to account for unpredictable contingencies.
For example, do I choose to cast fire bolt at this archer without knowing whether or not he'll have time to get to cover? Do I choose the dash option without knowing whether or not enemies will close in with me before I get to move?
You end up with quite the clusterfuck unless you're willing to let people change their actions somewhat when their turn comes around, and at that point you might as well just roll initiative and follow turn order.
Interesting idea, actually. I might try it out to see how it goes.

>Not needing the feywild for faeries
That's actually fair. But when someone says the feywild is shit I assume they mean they don't like its concept and atmosphere, which you have to maintain to a degree even if you relocate it to deep forests in the regular world.

Must be a big fucking island if nobody's ever brought back news of the edge.

Aarakocra are bird people from the elemental plane of air. They are dedicated to the plane of air and can fly.

Kenku are specifically ravens/crows, a race whose god long ago stole their wings and voice. They can only speak in mimicry, at which they are very adept.

Kenku are way more flavorful, imo.

My group has quite a few people who like to try out different systems for things like initiative, so in 5e we've gone through a few.

Speed Factor stuff seems so cumbersome that it doesn't feel at all like the rest of 5e's minimalistic approach to things. We tried a couple variants back when 5e first kicked up and dropped it not longer afterwards.

So far, my group's favorite initiative system is a bit of a toss-up between classic initiative and The Angry GM's popcorn initiative. That one works in that at the start of the first round everyone rolls like normal and the person who got highest goes first. Then, at the end of their turn, they declare who goes next (anyone in combat) until everyone has had a chance to go. Then, whoever went last picks who starts off the next round. They can select themself if they so desire.

It also works really well with new players because it's REALLY easy to understand, lets people combo with Ready actions and keeps everyone's attention focused because they could be up at any moment. A few newbies to D&D even got more into the action because they piped up with their combat plans asking to go next, and people actually talked about stuff more than they do during normal combat.

It's worth trying out for a single session if you get a chance.

user, those are both already in the PHB.
>Lightfoot
>As a lightfoot halfling, you can easily hide from notice, even using other people as cover. (...) In the world of Greyhawk, these halflings are called hairfeet or tallfellows.

>Stout
>As a stout halfling, you're hardier than average and have some resistance to poison. (...) In the Forgotten Realms, these halflings are called stronghearts.

>Tallfellow
Seems reasonable, if it does pack too much for a halfling subrace. I would drop Keen Senses - they already have a bonus to wisdom and will probably pick up perception anyway.

>Strongheart
Flat out drop the intelligence bonus and you're fine. Also, martial weapon instead of a skill is a bit of a trap option.

Nah, I understand user. The PHB helps you refluff the existing subraces, but many people want to separate hairfeet and tallfellows, or have subraces that more resemble Tolkienian hobbits, or what have you.

>proficiency with any martial weapon
>trap option
Not all halflings have to be rogues and bards, you know.

>skinny, wacky bird races that squawk all the time
Neither. Make beefy birdmen. None of these races are ever very good at flight and it's always stupid when they are, so abandon all pretense of winged shit and just make burly owl people or something.

>Your players won't get bored waiting for their turn (although they shouldn't anyway
And what if they do? That was my problem with my last group and it drives me nuts because I can't figure out how to fix it. I'm fine with things taking more time as long as people don't get bored during that time, which is why I'm considering this as a solution.
I suggested popcorn initiative to the group that kept getting bored during combats but they kept insisting they weren't bored and that they wanted initiative to stay the same. I'm talking about a new group, here, though, so maybe they'll be more amenable to the change.

>beefy birdmen
It's important to remember birds are just dinosaurs.
Add feathers to lizardmen and there you go.

Aarakocra are flight-capable winged bird-people originally from he Elemental Plane of Air. They have a strong mystical streak and long-lasting ties with powers native to that plane, including shamans who speak as equals with air elementals and a history of aiding benevolent immortals from that plane.

Kenku are cursed, flightless crow-folk who yearn to fly but are incapable of doing so. They are traditionally expert thieves and mimics, and 5e amps this up by making them incapable of speaking directly - they have to mimic sounds they've heard other people making, including language.

Oh, I know what the PHB says, but, really, Lightfoots don't match the Tallfellows of old, who were basically halflings with all of the elven advantages and implied to have elven blood, much like Stouts are rumored to have dwarf blood.

Strongheart, meanwhile, was my attempt to name a hypothetical "presumably human-blooded" counterpart to the Stout and Tallfellow; I forgot it was a real 5e halfling name.

Thanks for the critique.

I mostly went with Keen Senses because Tallfellows in AD&D had the same "detect hidden doors" ability as elves, so I figured it was flavorful. If you'd recommend dropping it, that's okay with me.

With Stronghearts, I wanted to present them as the more ambitious and aggressive of halflings, so they tend to be either well-learned (bonus skill option) or trained to fight (bonus weapon option). So... yeah, I'm not sure what to do.

You'd definitely advocate just giving them +1 Str? Mountain Dwarves get +2 Con and +2 Str because their subraces abilities otherwise only amount to some free armor training.

>Wants to fix a problem
>Suggests a change to the group
>They decline because they don't see it as a problem
I mean, I understand where you're coming from, but if your players don't see it as a problem even after you've pointed it out then there's another problem besides 'initiative is boring' at play here. You need to figure out what your players want out of combat and remedy a problem if there is one.

Those that aren't either already have proficiency with martial weapons or they don't need it.

I understand your problem, and it's fairly prevalent, but this won't fix it. People will still disengage when they're not acting.

Don't compare them to mountain dwarves, though, because base races pack different amounts of abilities, and that affects what the subraces should have. Halfling gets a ton of stuff in the base race, which is why the subraces are relatively plain. Stouts just get +1 con and poison resistance, and that's fine because they also have Lucky, Brave, and Halfling Nimbleness.

For those interested in critiquing some more of my work, I got some very, very homebrewed gnoll races over in the gnolls thread: But, more fitting for this thread... I really want to make a Serpentfolk race, inspired more or less by Robert Howard's King Kull & Conan stories, but without being always Chaotic Evil. Do you think that this is a viable concept?

Nah, I think intellect bonus is fine.

Strength and intellect combined are the most useless stats. There are very few people who use both.
Barba-ATs, some EKs and some really funky wizard multiclasses.

And then, the fact halfling gives +2 dex means the EK would rather be dexterity EK in the first place.
Oddly though, it makes it easier for a dex EK to wear heavy armour armour without problem, but they'd still end up on 25ft speed.

So my friend is DMing for the first time and is planning on running the Storm Giant adventure. I've heard that there's a bit of nautical material in the adventure and that's inspired me to make a Hemmingway-esque grizzled seaman character (pic related).

However I'm torn on what class to make him. Swashbuckler Rogue seems like a natural choice, but I feel like Storm Sorcerer could also be flavorful. Anyone have any thoughts on what would be more interesting, both flavorfully and mechanically?

If yes, how does this statblock look? Overpowered as the Yuan-ti Pureblood?

:edit: Stupid post limit, had to break it up due to size.

Serpentfolk
Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision
Toxic Spittle: A serpentfolk secretes copious amounts of venom from its fangs, which it can wield in battle. A serpentfolk can either spit venom (treat as a Poison Spray cantrip cast using Charisma) or deliver a toxic bite, turning its Unarmed Strike damage into Poison damage.
Veil of Humanity: All serpentfolk can weave an instinctive glamour about themselves in order to walk amongst humanity. As an action, a serpentfolk can raise its Veil, which causes it to appear as a single human identity chosen a character creation. This disguise only conceals the serpentfolk's race and does not alter its apparel, or its condition, so injuries, etc, carry through. Only magical items of at least Legendary potency can see through this illusion, but a serpentfolk is forced to resume its true form should it hear the phrase, "Ka nama kaa lajerama".
Subrace: Choose between the Fallen Serpentfolk and Pure Serpentfolk subraces.

>The Thousand Hands of the King
Basically police for a 15-year-old king. Mostly pallys, fighters, and clerics. Chasing down the party for causing a ruckus in the city and associating with elves. (The humans really fucking hate elves)
>The Grand Church of Mia
The god that's predominantly worshiped by humans is a CG god of creativity and industry. Basically, they're desperately trying to keep the narrative that their god is still alive and totally wasn't shattered completely during a long-past war of the gods. Currently on a secret holy quest to reclaim the pieces of her soul and revive her. The party just found out that the magic talking sword they picked up houses a piece of her soul. They don't know that the church wants their fucking heads for not giving it to them. The current BBEG is actually a BGGG (big good good guy) who's tracking them the fuck down.
>The Red Hearts
A ragtag group of pseudo-communist cultists that believe the king isn't really the distant grandson of a literal god and searches for the true heir to the throne. They're gaining more support of skeptics by the day. Plot twist: they're dead fucking wrong about the king. They started off with a quest from them looking for the "real" king but pretty much abandoned the group when they found out that the man they were after was just a really powerful dragon sorcerer.

Subrace: Fallen Serpentfolk
Ability Score Increase: +2 Strength
Scaly Armor: A Fallen Serpentfolk's toughened hide means that its unarmored AC is treated as being 12 + Strength modifier.
Rending Claws: A Fallen Serpentfolk's Unarmed Strikes do Slashing damage instead of Bludgeoning damage.
Slavering Maw: A Fallen Serpentfolk's Unarmed Strikes do bonus Poison damage equal to its Strength modifier.
Hunter's Senses: A Fallen Serpentfolk has Advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks.

Subrace: Pure Serpentfolk
Ability Score Increase: +2 Intelligence
Hypnotic Eyes: A Pure Serpentfolk can cast the Friends Cantrip, Charm Person as a 1st level spell once per long rest at 3rd level, and Enthrall as a 2nd level spell once per long rest at 5th level. Intelligence is its casting ability score when using the spell-like abilities granted by this rat.
Shielded Thoughts: A Pure Serpentfolk has Advantage on Wisdom saving throws caused by spells and magical effects, and is Immune to Charm effects.

Can a party of Level 5 Cleric of Life, Divination Wizard with Lucky and Way of the Open Hand Monk take on an Abominable Yeti?

Too many cantrips on Pure. Fallen would be fine except it gets too much out of strength. Change AC to 12+dex.

Especially with the base race being fairly stacked.

>make a race that can only mimic words
>Forbid creativity

????

This is bizarre to me. Why are kenku forbidden from doing anything creative at all? It's an impossible constraint on players, because arguably everything is now forbidden.

Hmm... I think you both make good points, honestly. Hard to make a choice.

Hm, if I just remove the Friends cantripo from Pure and let it gain access to Charm Person and Enthrall at those higher levels, would that be better?

...Honestly, I'm not sure why Scaly Armor was stacking of off Strength in the first place. Thanks for the catch.

Probably, especially if it's the first or only thing they fight that day.

No, the cold breath does their health on a DC 18 Con save fail, something none of them are proficient in. They have to do something smart like fall damage to kill it.

Friends is a shitty-ass cantrip. I'm more worried about free access to enchantment effects and a +2 bonus to the casting stat. Again, especially considering how much is already in the base race. You should either prune it or the subraces.


Why is the captcha all about Sushi all of a sudden? Has it learned to identify street signs with unerring accuracy? ARE THE ROBOTS LEARNING?

Since this thread is being so helpful to me, I figured I might as well ask... I've been trying to do a kobold PC writeup since before Volo's Guide came out, and seeing it afterwards made me redouble my efforts. I really liked Pathfinder's idea of giving them a lot of variable racial traits, it really emphasized the "draconic mutts" aspect of their fluff, but I'm worried about whether or not that's the right angle to go with.

Could folks take a look at my initial writeup of the kobold and my revamp draft and tell me which one looks better? Due to their size, I'll just share the google doc rather than try and squeeze it into here

docs.google.com/document/d/1XovWm65MSmIzQWSMDMXo0_aIpZgq9YSa2KkpO3kThS4/edit#

I guess I'd make it the only thing they would fight that day.
I tried to make them fight 3 yetis at level 3 and it went miserably though.

The mountain top they would fight it in has giant vents from the forges below, maybe I can help them with this?

Make sure to beat your player who is a divination wizard AND has lucky. I have been playing over a year and I have yet to see someone break the common courtesy of not taking that feat OR that school.

>Cliffside Town Guard
>Cliffside Lord Mayor's Office
>Cliffside's Noble Families
>Cliffside's Crime Syndicates
>Marshall, Carter and Dark
>Church of Abadar
>Goblin Tribes on The Wekarq Archipelago
>Kobolds of Észak-hegy
>Clergy of The One God
>The Saber Sharks, a Gnomish Mercenary Fleet

Several groups are being used as proxies in a Dwarvish Succession Civil War, split between Liberals and Conservatives. The Goblin Tribes owe the PCs some favors, and the Kobolds have named two PCs as Dragon Prophets.

Help me a little. Got a player who wants to play a Kenku bard, 5e obviously. Logic is she can mimic the sounds of instruments. So she actually needn't have an instrument because her bird mimicry does the work. I actually dig this idea and want it to work for her but I'm still a stickler for rules. I don't want to butcher things mechanically.

So, I have to homebrew slightly. I'm think I can just get her to use an arcane focus, like an orb, in place of an instrument. Also, she only gets proficiency for mimicking instruments she's proficient with. That should be sufficient, right? Any problems mechanically that might arise from this?

Also, how does a Kenku learn new spells if they can only mimic the vocal components? Would they have to have heard it to know it?

He's the only one actually trying to play his character properly though.
The Lawful Good Cleric of Life tried to break into the jewelcrafter's home to shit (literally) on his carpet because the jewelcrafter called the guards on him when he used thaumaturgy to try and intimidate him.
Needless to say I made him roll for taking a shit, and since he rolled a 2 he ended up constipated instead.

In case you haven't already written up some rules regarding boat/ship mechanics, I recommend using Nautical Adventures.

olddungeonmaster.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/5e_nautical_adventures.pdf

It's got a super in-depth combat and sailing system and my players are super excited to use it.

What would a staff made out of Behir parts (claws, horns, teeth and leather) be like, if made by a master craftsmen of course?

It takes a hand to use and you are playing music so a focus should work. The Kenku probably hung out outside a bard college and heard ALL of the words for spells, but never the capacity to cast them until now. Maybe she used to poke a head through the window and listen to different songs that cast different spells, that's how she knows now.

Perfect. I love the simplicity. I'll discuss this with her, thanks.

With claws, horns, teeth and leather? Nothing much

Though I might let a choice tibia do something, depending on how much money, time, and enchanting power is invested

My rule of thumb is that your ingredients give you an apropriate host to do something magical which you already can do.

A tuning fork might be an apropriate component, as could be a Maestro Wand (my bard uses a Maestro Wand of Minor Illusion as his arcane focus, to play out the notes)

Right now it seems like the Groundling's Trapmaster stacks with Expertise in Thieve's Tools to disarm. I'd avoid that, since stacking multipliers leads to shenanigans. Maybe keep it to just automatic proficiency in thieve's tools, the perception advantage to find traps, and add advantage to investigation checks to find/understand traps.

For the mystic, probably change the spells to an x per long rest situation, like the errata'd Drow.

Anyone ever done characters that completely disguise their true motivations?

I'm going to be playing a worshiper of Shar (edgy nihilism), disguised as a worshiper of Leira (illusions and lies), and I'm wondering how that'll go. Only me and the DM know.

Should I gradually hint to the party, or save it all for a final, grand reveal?

Sorry, meant quarterstaff, it's for the monk, you see.

It is a big fucking island, also the edge of the island's surrounded by mountains that go higher than the atmosphere, and the entire place is basically a demigod's terrarium.

>Make sure to beat your player
This

Literally nobody cares who you worship, unless it's also tied to an agenda.

where is that from? i recognize that from sonewhere.

Yeah, forgot to mention the end goal is world destruction/consumption by Shar.

Kinda really awfully evil.

Awesome suggestions. The maestro wand can be replaced by an actual wand later, too, which I like.

Playing in the AL tomorrow, and my wizard will be able to get to tier 2 finally. In other words, where all the fun shit actually happens.

>[Ame-Lord] Mozaika 01
Takahashi OVA about not!Darth Vader and his anachronistic fist-shaped doomship and the sword-wielding rebellion. Demons who may or may not be ancient giant robots are involved.

It's 80s D&D as fuck.

>character rolls to shit
you're retarded and your game sounds childish as fuck bro

You sound upset.
Not my fault he didn't eat anything before.
If you force yourself to shit you can give yourself a hernia or even pop a blood vessel, educate yourself son.

>implying you can just shit on demand

i got dubs you didnt, i win

kys faggot

You should have allowed him to shit without a roll, then had the jewelcrafter report it again. The investigating agency uses a ritual to determine the owner of the shit and asks if the jewelcrafter wants to press charges. He declines, then contracts assassins to track down the Cleric; they use the shit to scry on and locate him. They attack him in the night when he's resting without his armor on and stick a literal dragon dildo up his butt.

He got banned from the merchant quarter because he fucking tried to break in someone's home with whom he already had an altercation with.
We lost about 1-2 hours with this shitting debacle, the moral of the story is don't let in people who don't play and keep saying "Ugh, wouldn't it be so funny if totally random and stupid thing?".
And he is supposed to be Lawful Good, I think I'm gonna sick a Rust Monster on him, no, make it a small swarm.

The moral is get better players.

I live in Bumfuck nowhere, I literally have no choice.

>Flowery language
You're a faggot

>Flowery language
what.