/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

Would it be fair to assume that an Oathbreaker in the PC Party would have their Aura of Hate only on creatures they choose, or is it intentional that it could fuck them over?

Would you let a PC Oathbreaker use a modified version, such as-

"Aura of Hate"
Starting at 7th level, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet
of you gain a bonus to melee weapon damage rolls equal to your
Charisma modifier (minimum of +1). A creature can
benefit from this feature from only one paladin at a time.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Like this it functions the same as other Paladin auras, but might be too strong. I feel like since the Oathbreaker is in the DMG it wasn't designed to be used by players as much so they worded it a bit poorly.

>Up to +5 on every melee attack
Seems waay too strong. Could be better if it was Proficiency/2 and mayb applied to damage too, but I'm not sure.

i think its just not really written with normal pcs in mind

Yeah it'd probably have to be changed for a PC character.

Kinda hoping the Pally UA has a PC Oathbreaker with some changes to it, but it'd probably be for the best if it wasn't since I wouldn't want it to take the place of something actually new.

Going to play a utility/support/RP heavy spells wizard that doesn't have much in the way of damaging spells. Might grab a single damaging 1st level spell but beyond that I doubt I'll grab much else. What are some must haves and what are some trap spells that I should avoid? First time playing a caster in 5e.

What interesting use of timestop did your party come up with ?

Aight, it should be fixed now, moved it to using a library that actually is meant to do that stuff instead of some hacked-together regex. You can find CR 1 and 2 (without any 1Xs or 2Xs) by putting a space after them.

Good shit user, this will be useful.

Only other thing I can think to add would be the ability to also filter by type, as of now you can't search "CR 1 Beast" or "CR 1 Type:Beast".

Help were having a break now but i havent thought of the rest of the story. Were in a plagued town and i know how to resplove this but i dont knoe where to take the story next. My pcs are still lvl 1, 2 encouters and only 3 hours and we're looking to play 4 hours more

What school? This would help decisions

You can google "wizard spells 5e guide" and find at least as good advice as you will here

It's pretty easy to tell which noncombat spells are good though

Why the fuck is cunning action worded so weirdly? Is it actually an extra action you can use to make a Hide/Dash/disengage or does it just let you use those as a bonus action? It literally says " this action CAN ONLY be used for a dash,disengage, or hide action." That's worded like it's similar to a haste that can only be used for those actions instead of using up your bonus action like I thought it was.
What I want to know is can you attack with 2 weapons then disengage?

Make sure you grab one ranged damage cantrip just in case. You can save your spell slots for utility if you can still hit shit with cantrips when you don't have the right spell for the situation. Minor Illusion is a cantrip that you might also use effectively in combat.

For spells of lvl1+:

Sleep
Grease
Fog Cloud (C)
Charm Person
Arcane Lock (you can just nope out of a room and lock the monsters in there)
Enlarge/Reduce (C)
Gust of Wind (C)

(C) = concentration. Be very aware of which of your spells require concentration, particularly as a utility caster, because you can only have one concentration spell active at a time.

As for defensive options, shocking grasp + shield is my favoured combo. In case someone gets in your face, you can just shield their attack, then zap them and move away without eating an opportunity attack.

No you can't do that, it uses up your bonus action for that turn

It's worded that way because you don't *always* have a bonus action, and Cunning Action gives you one with which you can hide, dash, or disengage.

So yes, it lets you use those as a bonus action, functionally.

No. You only get one bonus action per turn. But the bonus action from cunning action can only be used for specific things.

That's how I thought it works, it's just worded really badly. Like, why can't it just say you can use those as a bonus action instead of saying "you have a bonus action that can only do these things" when you can use it for other things, such as a second attack, as well?

Because "bonus action" is a painfully awkward term to use in a game that requires tight language, and they didn't think through it at all

I realise now that haste says "additional action" so it is worded differently, but they could have simplified cunning action by saying "You can hide, Dash or disengage as a bonus action"

I guess they just wanted to avoid minor/major/lesser/greater action terminology from older games

I don't really know what a better alternative. But it's kind of weird they also use the term hit dice for two different things, and still talk about spell slots even though you no longer slot spells into them

Does anyone have tips for a new gm? Im a fair few sessions in, we've gone from 1-5 so far (all new), and while everyone's been having fun I just want to be a great dm. Homebrew setting, a lot is made up as I go along, I haven't had the time to flesh out massive sections but nobody has noticed yet. My pcs don't roleplay a huge amount, through I basically just take most of what they say as in character and have npcs react to their discussion and stuff. I just would like to know general tips you wish you knew when you started gming.

Because while everyone *technically* has a bonus action existing in the rules ether, they can't access it unless they have a specific ability/conditional to tap it i.e. cunning action, using an offhand melee weapon, or a bonus action casted spell.

Is Matthew Mercer's Gunslinger archetype for fighters shit? How does it compare to crossbows or other ranged weapons?

It's shit because gunpowder in fantasy settings is gay final fantasy shit

But mechanically it seems acceptable

Honestly the only thing I wish I had done is play one of the published adventures to get an idea of how things are meant to be set up. The starter set adventure (lost mines of phandelver) has some good tips for new DMs and I'm enjoying DMing it more than anything I've made myself. It might not be as useful if you're the type to make up stuff as you go, but I still recommend giving it a look when you find a stopping point for this campaign.

Conversely, my only other advice is try not to get bored of campaigns too quickly. Nothing stagnates a group more than starting a new game every few sessions, to the point where they don't even expect their characters to last very long.

Is "raised by flumphs" an acceptable background for a Mystic?

I'd probably limit the bonus to undead under the Oathbreaker's control and Fiends that are either under the Oathbreaker's control or control the Oathbreaker somehow.

>playing a Wizard
>enemies all bunch up close to our melee people
>everyone is like "oh boy here comes the fireball on us"
>fighter disengages out of melee range
>paladin literally uses his action to drag the monk out of the fight and willingly takes an attack of opportunity to do so
>suddenly it's my turn and everyone has already decided I absolutely must use fireball on the bunched up enemies
Why do they bully me like this?
I didn't want to use fireball, doing 20-30 damage to them would not be of much help in that situation, I'd much prefer to have used Hypnotic Pattern to put them all to sleep and dramatically reduce their damage output on us
But at that point I was basically forced to just do a fireball

Be more assertive. No one wants to hook up with some pushover loser.

The scattergun, "bad news", and hand mortar seem decent, I'm not sure if there's much of a point to the other guns when crossbows exist though.

>gunpowder in fantasy settings is gay final fantasy shit

Ah yes, a shining example of the average DnD player.

How about don't do a fireball next time and tell them to wait for your character's signal in future

Should have just busted out a cantrip and asked what the hell they were moving away for.

If you cast upside down, does Leomund's Tiny Hut not have a roof, instead of no "floor"?

>why do they bully me
Because bullying you is apparently a good way of getting you to do what they want. Put your dog damn foot down.

I don't care that gunpowder existed in real history simultaneous with knights, smugcunt. Guns are boring, I don't want to deal with them in my games about swords, bows and spells. I want Excalibur, Conan, Lord of the Rings, not Kitchen Sink.

How come Succubi have Thunderous Stomp?
Is that what they use on foot fetishists?

Some questions regarding grapple rules:
>You Auto succeed a grapple if the one trying to grappl you is smaller than you, right? What about attacks that Auto grapple ie Kuo toa whips? Can they grapple you, you just succeed automatically if you try and break it?
> What if you Wild shape while grappled? Would that break it if you went up a size?

Leomund's Tiny Hut makes a dome of force above you, i.e. upwards from you relative to the ground. If you're lying down or doing a headstand it still makes a dome of force over you.
>but what if I'm on a plane with no gravity and there's no up or down
Then you have bigger things to worry about than which direction your Tiny Hut is pointing.

Why even have that garbage spell prepared at all? Don't put it on your daily list if spells.

It's okay if you want to roll around in your generic fantasy shit plebanon, it doesn't affect me.

>>You Auto succeed a grapple if the one trying to grappl you is smaller than you, right?
Why do you think that's the case?

Ball breaking.

Cons:
It's a straight buff to casters, which might be a problem as casters are already really good. Warlocks and Sorcerers don't benefit from it much (it's basically stealing the Sorc's thing of having flexible spell slots) and they are arguably the weakest casters already so that doesn't help either.
Pros:
It feels better since you have more control of your resources and most likely won't be wasting as many slots per day.
It's easier to keep track of once you learn the system (if you know the point costs it's just about subtracting that from a relatively low score, no complex maths, while slots force you to keep track of up to 9 different numbers).

Personally I allow sorcerers to use it, fits with their whole "made of magic" shtick and doesn't cause any large imbalances.

That line about Auto succeeding? I think it might be 2 sizes above. Regardless, what about changing size mid grapple?

There are no rules that let you 'auto-succeed' grappling, it's just not even possible in the first place for a creature to grapple another creature more than one size larger than it. Attacks that automatically grapple always specify the largest size of creature they work on - the Kuo Toa pincer staff, for example, specifically says 'If the target is Medium or smaller [etc.]'

If you change to a larger size category than a creature grappling you would be allowed to grapple, then the grapple ends immediately - e.g. if you were a human (Medium) being grappled by a goblin (Small) and then you wildshaped into a brown bear (Large) you would immediately stop being grappled. Likewise, if you were a bear (Large) grappling an elephant (Huge) and your wildshape ended turning you back into a human (Medium) your grapple would immediately end.

The third line of Grappler is a holdover from the old grappling rules and doesn't do anything any more. It was errata'd out later.

It also means that Grappler goes from 'terrible' tier to 'never take this' tier.

Yo is this dumb idea?

I want to introduce "cath-a-breath rest". 10 to 15 minutes of rest that serves as short rest but adds one exhaustion level

DMfag here.

If one of my Sorcerer players used Catapult on a flaming log, like one from a burn pile, should I convert any damage to fire damage or potentially add fire damage?

Must of missed that part, my bad, Thanks

Add one point of fire damage and possibly make the enemy suffer 1d6 fire damage if he ends his turn in the same tile as the flaming log.

Getting brushed with a flame for a split second isn't going to catch him on fire or anything, but prolonged exposure to a flaming log at his feet might.

Yeah I wanted to take grappler but I had to change it so that it was worth anything at all. I added in a trip move using another grapple check to knock a grappled creature prone and a throw move to hurl enemies 10ft away and deal damage if they fail a dexterity check. Also allows them to add their proficiency bonus to all grapple/pin/trip/throw checks.

Unless contact is maintained, passing through a flame near instantly is fairly harmless. Try putting out a lighter with your finger, if you just tap it down, you won't even notice.

Getting hit by a big flaming chunk of wood is only different to getting hit by a big non-flaming chunk of wood if it stays near you long enough to start burning you. I'd have the Catapult spell itself do its regular bludgeoning damage, and then probably steal the effects of another spell for what happens next - if I felt like the log would maybe break apart into embers or else cause more fire, I'd make it effectively cast Create Bonfire in the space of the creature it hit, lasting for the full duration no concentration required. If I thought it would be in one piece, just slightly on fire, all I'd have it do is set fire to other flammable things in the area - which could then later function as 'created bonfires'.

Are you all too overwhelmed by my amazing idea to respond?

My players are newcomers who only know the really classic DnD monsters, so whenever they encounter a new one I just give a description and then get them to roll Nature (or Arcana or Religion or History) checks to see if they can ID it.

What kind of DC do you guys think the checks should have for different monsters? Post examples please.

I like it.

When I DM, it really ranges.

Cockatrices are common in my world, so identifying those? Not much at all, might even just straight up tell them what they are as their characters would just know.

A Banshee? Rarely do people come back from them to tell, so like a 17 Nature DC.

A Firenewt? They aren't common, but they certainly aren't mythical beings. 12~ Nature DC.

I disagree, I think being able to pin a creature and thereby permanently remove it from combat until a time of your choosing, with no further opportunities for escape, is really sort of OP.

Except you're not just removing IT from combat, you're removing YOU from combat, and a PC is always worth more than a single enemy unless it's a boss, and good fucking luck grappling anything remotely bosslike

It's incredibly subjective and based entirely on your setting, your character's background and what kind of experiences they've had before. Plus it's not just a matter of ID or not ID, you can get them to roll a check and then pick and choose exactly how much they know based on how high their roll is.

For example, say they encounter a flumph. You'd want to take into account how much time they've spent in the Underdark, how familiar they are with aberrations, how common flumphs are in the setting, and so on and so on. Off the top of my head I'd suggest a DC of 10 just to look at the thing and say "Oh right, that's a flumph." Roll a little lower and maybe they're just able to recognise that it's an aberration. Less than five, say, and they can't grok anything about it at all.

Now say they roll above that 10. Maybe a 12 would tell them that flumphs are inherently good, because if you know what a flumph is you're also fairly likely to know that about them, what with the overall rarity of good aberrations. Roll a 15 and the character knows that flumphs are telepathic creatures, who can shroud their thoughts from others but are nonetheless vulnerable to psychic damage. Roll a 20 and you can basically read out the thing's whole stat block.

That's how I run it, anyway.

Why pin, when you can use the shove action instead, which has the added bonus of not restraining you?

It's not that unlikely, it's just two consecutive ability checks. Three if they try to escape. And if you succeed on a boss, it's an auto-victory. Throw in variants like that altered Grappler feat that that guy just posted and it's a downright viable strategic approach, or a fairly robust choice for a last ditch attempt.

What do you think... shove... does?

Thanks for the tips.

Pin, as per the grappler feat option, restrains both the pinner and the one being pinned. This is objectively worse than the shove action while grappling.

The shove action just pushes a creature away or knocks them prone. The outcome, and the situations that you would use them in, are entirely different.

I might borrow this for my monk, I like the idea of having some aikido techs as well as the usual punching everything.

And because grappling reduces their speed to zero, they can't get up from being prone unless they break the grapple. Meanwhile, you still have a hand free to attack them (with advantage) and can freely drag them around up to half your speed each turn, while also being no easier to hit by other enemies.

>The outcome, and the situations that you would use them in, are entirely different.
Grapple and pin outcome
>speed is 0, attacks against target have adv, disadv on dex saves
>pinner is also suffering all this becoming immobile and easy to hit
Grapple and shove prone outcome
>speed is 0, 5ft attacks against target have adv
>the pinner is not suffering from any of this, and can move the target around

Why would you ever EVER PIN?!

Ah I see, shoving while keeping them grappled.

They can still roll to break free every turn. I can imagine using that but depending on the situation it would often still be better to pin them and totally remove them from combat, even at the expense of doing the same to yourself. Imagine your party of five was up against two or three relatively powerful humanoids, by pinning one to take it out of the equation you're drastically shifting the odds of the battle.

What if you need to apprehend an enemy for interrogation after combat?

>They can still roll to break free every turn
There's nothing stopping them from doing this while pinned as well.

Hi all, cleric player here. I'm a life cleric who became active after a near-death experience in my dwarven mine. I've just started to get 3rd-level spells, and spirit guardians is an absolute hoot. But what would the appropriate forms be for an NG dwarfy life cleric to an underground god of health and safety please? Neither angelic nor fey creatures really seem to fit. Advice would be much appreciated :)

tl;dr what's the patronus of a NG dorf mine god.

Because one you can break out of and one you... can't?

All this talk about what is "objectively better" between two options that can be selected at will based on the circumstances really makes me worry that more people than not in these threads actually take optimisation and DPR wankery as their approach to combat while gaming, and not just as fuel for balance discussion and thought experiments.

Combat in DnD shouldn't be a matter of doing whatever it takes to get the highest numbers you can. It should be open, free-flowing and variable. It should be as much about roleplaying as exploration and social scenes are. Sacricing your character's movement and making them vulnerable to remove a threat from a battle shouldn't be something that is totally incomprehensible to you guys.

For the forceful sex assaults

Yeah that's what I use it for too. As another tip, I allow monks to use their dex modifier instead of str for athletics checks for the purpose of grappling and grapple-based moves (just makes sense to me, aikido and judo and such are as much about dexterity as strength)

Also I don't want to get drawn into the current pin discussion but I also amend it so that pinned opponents have disadvantage on their checks to break free. Otherwise pinning doesn't really seem worthwhile.

Probably the form of will-o-wisp looking things or something carrying lanterns

Tommyknocker

You seem to be misunderstanding - a pinned enemy just has to break your grapple and then they stop being pinned. Given that it takes you two actions worth of grappling checks, can be broken out of just as easily as a regular grapple and does literally nothing that them being prone doesn't do anyway, AND you suffer the same effects. Which means that, ironically, they can attack you as normal because their disadvantage on attack rolls is negated by them getting advantage on attack rolls against you! And all this requiring a feat. So in this instance there's no meaningful choice to make except purposefully gimping yourself, because pinning is just objectively worse than the alternatives.

>Because one you can break out of and one you... can't?
You can break out of both.
The restrain on pin lasts as long as the grapple does.
Restrain does not stop a creature from taking actions.
An action you can take is breaking a grapple.

>DMing
>party of 5 fighting a Banshee
>Orc Monk, Human Fighter, Half-Orc Paladin, Tiefling Cleric, Dragonborn Sorcerer
>Monk is holding off cultists as they swarm in to protect
>other 4 are dealing with the Banshee
>all within 5-10ft of her except the Monk who is at least 70ft
>they get her really low but they are all extremely worn down
>she's at roughly 14 HP
>in a last ditch effort the Banshee goes for her Wail
>3 of them fail the check and drop to 0 instantly
>other one is feared and can only watch in horror
>his turn comes around and all he can do is ready a dodge
>suddenly, right before the Banshee can deal the final blow
>menacing Orc Monk runs up behind her
>startles the Banshee
>uses his Ki points, sets up 4 unarmed strikes
>3 out of 4 fucking crit
>youtube.com/watch?v=NFjE5A4UAJI&t=30s

WILD WEST settings:
Yes / No?

say "no".

How does he move 70ft and then make four attacks?

Mobile.

And apparently also being level 18+? Why the fuck is he fighting a banshee?

Unless, of course, you neglected to mention Step of the Wind.

Step of the wind is a bonus action.

Yes.