/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General

At level 1, with a greatsword, assuming 16 STR, if the ennemy as more than 14 AC you are better of not using the -5/+10

>but there is the bonus attack
True but you need to compare that to the benefit of other feats

What I don't enjoy:
- endless pointless rolls
- riddles that are solved by player skill

What I enjoy:
- environmental puzzles that have many potential ways around them

For example, a room with a series of pillars. Certain paths between the pillars cause iron bars to fall and form a cage. You're trying to find a path between the pillars, but maybe you activate a trap and maybe you can try to roll out of the way just in time. Maybe someone already got caught and you're looking for a switch to lift the bars or just lift them with raw strength. But now non-corporeal enemies appear - and they can move through the cages, so even if you teleport out, they can follow you unhindered. It is so on that things have now become very much like donkey kong.

HA
Reminds me of that time I had a circle of chests in a cave that were used by thieves to hide their loot, and some of them were trapped.
The wizard accidentally put himself within fireball range while trying to open one with Mage hand- thankfully, they had gotten all the loot and he made his save.

Would you mind showing your math? I'm curious how you came to 14 AC.

That's wrong.
Enemy AC 16 would make it so the -5 to hit is detrimental, assuming you have a greatsword and GWF (instead of +1 AC or something)
AC 15 and lower, the +10 damage would help. Not to mention, it's even better if you get advantage or something.

Now, let's say you were a fighter with a hand crossbow instead at level 1 (Though I admit you couldn't get crossbow mastery and sharpshooter at the same time)
The enemy's AC would have to be 20 for it to be detrimental.
Fucking 20.
Enemy AC 19 or below at level one and the hand crossbow wielding fighter with sharpshooter is actually better off with the +10 damage.
Hand crossbow would only normally do 1d6+3 damage, and the archery fighting style gives +2 to hit.

Alright, just ran through the mathematics (I already had a table with this on it, I just wanted to put it in an understandable format)

GWF Greatsword:
8.33 dice damage (doubled on crit) + 3 damage mod

Target AC: 15
Attack Modifier: 5
Chance to hit: 0.50 (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
Chance to crit: 0.05 (20)

(Chance to crit)*8.33 + ((Chance to hit + Chance to crit)-(GWF -5 to hit))*(8.33+3+(GWM +10 to damage))
(0.05)*8.33 + ((0.55)-(0.25))*(21.33)
= 6.8155

Ordinary damage:
(0.05)*8.33 + ((0.55))*(8.33+3)
=6.648

Therefore, at level 1 with GWF, 16 strength and a greatsword, the +10 damage is more effective against creatures with an AC of 15 or lower.

my bad, not that familiar with ua paladin. i don't think is broken, just 1/rest more than likely turn a miss into a hit. thats no that much.

Prof bonus +2, STR +3 = +5 to hit
Odds to hit at +5 on target AC 14: 60%
Damage on hit: 6.50+3 = 9.50
>Expected damage: 0.60*9.50 = 5.7
Odds to hit at +5-5 = +0 to hit on target AC 14: 35%
Damage on hit: 6.50+3+10 = 19.50
>Expected damage: 0.35*19.50 = 6.825

Odds to hit at +5 on target AC 15: 55%
Damage on hit: 6.50+3 = 9.50
>Expected damage: 0.55*9.50 = 5.225
Odds to hit at +5-5 = +0 to hit on target AC 15: 30%
Damage on hit: 6.50+3+10 = 19.50
>Expected damage: 0.30*19.50 = 5.85

Yeah it's still more with GWM at AC 15

>and should haven't an enjoyable holiday producing it.

Wait it's better to sharpshooter with a longbow than a hand crossbow right?

no
but its fine to do either
hand crossbow is just the best long range weapon period because you can bonus action attack with it if your dm is cool with it. unless you need that longbow range.

Hand crossbow with crossbow mastery allows you to make an extra bonus attack with a potential +10 damage on it.

Also, if you had to choose between granting a 1d8 attack and a 1d6 attack GWM/sharpshooter's benefit, you should choose the 1d6 damage attack. The -5 effectively decreases the to-hit multiplier and thus reduces overall damage, meaning that +1 damage is worth less when using GWM/Sharpshooter.

Yeah I made a mistake it's higher than 15 not higher than 14.

So 16 AC and above : don't use
14/15/16 AC : roughly +1 to damage
(This take the bonus attack into account
11/12/13 AC and below : roughly +2

Now compare that to other feats.

>advantage
That's a big pro for GWM.

>sharpshooter
It's different due to the archery fighting style +2 to hit.

I'm sorry, but my ability to translate anime is limited to "smug anime girl" = "I concede the argument"

So I must ask. What did he mean by this?

>How often do your "brilliant plans" actually work?
I gotta say often. I played a thief that never did anything in our last campaign except come up with kind of off the wall ideas on how to save the parties asses from various encounters and challenges.
I won't go into detail because I've posted the story before, but we just finished PotA and I came up with plans to knock off 3 of the 4 elemental cults without playing fair. And thats about all I did. Rolled horribly every time I wanted to sneak around, open a lock, or do any other stuff, but my DM was willing to indulge my dumb ideas for how to stop elemental princes.

concede what argument you retard? i just think its funny that he said should haven't an enjoyable holiday.

>Clerics and Paladins are different classes
>Castymystics will be their own class while Fightymystics will be an archetype
For what purpose

You both forget the damage from the bonus attack in case of a crit (though it doesn't change the breakpoint)

It's a contextual thing, but apparently if you're arguing with someone, and you post a smug anime girl, it means you concede. But if they respond to your smug anime girl, they lose.

I'm starting up a new game on new year's eve, but I'm having trouble nailing down a bit with my character idea. General idea is a half elf monk raised in a temple dedicated to Eilistraee. The temple is devoted to protecting the surrounding villages and such from the wandering monsters and the occasional Drow raid while also trying to convince said Drow to turn from Lolth and follow Eilistraee. I've got the classes narrowed down to 4 Monk (Way of the Shadows), but I was trying to figure out if I could spin one of the warlock patrons to basically be a deity. Think it would be to far of a stretch as one of Eilistraee's domains is Light for him to have a contact with her via the Undying Light patron from UA?

>reading comprehension, you retard
He said very plainly that his only ability to translate smug anime posting is the shitpost that concedes and argument, and thus he was asking for clarification on the relevance of your smug anime post.

>Wizards will be their own class while Fighterwizards and roguewizards will be archetypes
Really fires the neurons, doesn't it?

ok fine i made a gaff using a picture of anime girls since that has context that i didn't mean to use. my bad.
i still think saying should haven't is funny, and i don't even mean that in a mean way since i'm sure it was a typo.

Mearls didn't like a fightyguy having lots of mechanical options so he decided he would make it a fighter archetype instead to dumb it down for fighterguy enthusiasts.

r8 edgy robot backstory rough draft.

>Wizard gettin' up there in years has the usual "holy shit I don't want to die" epiphany
>Spends a while making a bitchin' robot body to house his soul
>During the ritual to transfer his soul over something goes wrong
>Ends up nuking his lair, destroying his original body and all his stuff
>The imperfect transfer resulted in a bunch of missing memories, and the body is linked to "shadowy bullshit" instead of the intended "arcane bullshit", and is generally unstable
>Wizard, now Sorcerer, has to completely relearn how to control his body and how to cast spells since his robot body doesn't work properly with the usual magic casting stuff
>Without a home or any cash, he begins wandering in search of a way to "finish" his body so it's not a constantly leaking Shadow mannequin and actually has it's full power, as he intended originally
>Plot twist everyone probably sees coming: the Warforged/Golem/Construct isn't the original wizard at all, rather just an empty vessel that got most of the Wizard's memories, cue existential drama

I think you're missing the point. He was saying all he understands is smug anime girls, which your picture was not, so he didn't know what you meant. You confirmed that you just thought the typo was funny and posted a picture accordingly. So I think that's the end of it.

You responded to someone make a genuine question as to the nature of your smug anime girl post with leaping straight to "you retard." You might want to calm down, user, or go kill a prostitute. You seem tense.

Fuck, disregard that last post, I meant to type:

Instead of wands and orbs, wizards must use a component pouch when casting a spell with noncostly material components. Roll a 1d20 when doing so. On a 1, you run out of that material. You cannot cast the spell again until you either scavenge or gather the material, or purchase some in a settlement.

I like it. Reminds me of FMAB.

Does anyone know of any 5e resources related to whaling? I want to run a whaling campaign with the ultimate goal of using these skills to kill a giant fey monster.

>adding unnecessary rolls and bookkeeping to occasionally frustrate players
Shit for much of the same reasons critical fumbles are shit, but for casters this time. Buff martials' utility instead--always balance upward, it'll make people that play happier.

Limiting the power of wizards shouldn't be a 'no fun allowed' thing. Just give them less spell slots or less spells prepared each day if it's that big of a deal. Agreed with the other user - just make martials better somehow.

fightyguy mystic is kinda boring in practice. Played as one for 10 levels (then 3 more in rogue)

Whaling isn't PC, so I doubt we'd ever get anything official or on the dmsguild. You'd want to search reddit/dmsguild for more naval oriented stuff. I know there's a lot there, and it should be generally applicable.

+1 or +2 damage is kind of a big deal on a fighter, when they can attack 1, 2 (level 5), 3 (level 11), 4 (level 20) times, with an additional 1 (level 2), 2 (level 5), 3 (level 11), 4 (level 20) times a short rest using action surge, or twice a short rest (level 17), not to mention possibly having haste cast on them for +1 attack (level 13, or a caster level 5), a bonus attack for +1 attack (GWM, PAM or any other way to grant it) and +1 attack from reactions (PAM, ordinary attacks of opportunity).

Fighters capitalize on hitting a fucking load of times along with having a lot of ASIs for feats and such, and every extra bit of damage is multiplied by the number of times they hit.

Sharpshooter is different not just because of +2 to hit, but the fact the weapon used itself deals less damage and thus the +10 is an even bigger benefit.

Plot twist at the end is too cliche and sucks, rest seems solid. Playing characters with memory loss is pretty difficult.

Shit, that sucks. Thanks for the tip.

But what if I want the feel of the world to include "wizards are pretty rare and generally weird people".

I wouldn't frustrate players without telling them upfront. This would be for a new campaign, not imposed in the middle of one. So wouldn't it discourage players from wizard unless they are the kind who is willing to roleplay scrounging for bat shit. And thus have the intended effect of a) making them rare b) making them more flavourful

oh. yeah for sure
i'm hyped up on coffee. also i guess we've determined that I'M the retard.

still trying to come up with a weaker telekenisis spell.

Telekinetic force push/pull ability, thoughts?
For up to 1 min, you can make a shove, grapple or disarm action against any foe within 100 ft. You must have line of sig ht to the target. When actually resolving the opposed c heck, however , substitute your proficiency + your spellcasting ability modifier for your Strength(Athletics) check.

i think its weird to add the disarm variant as part of the ability...

>Mearls
I don't buy that for a second. This has Crawford's stink all over it, he just has Mearls be the bitchboi who reports it so someone else can take all the flak.

>Clerics are their own class
>Fightyclerics are also their own class

>B i g b y ’s H a n d
>5th-level evocation
>Casting Time: 1 action
>Range: 120 feet
>Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
>You create a Large hand of shimmering, translucent force in an unoccupied space that you can see within range. The hand lasts for the spell’s duration
...
>It has a Strength of 26 (+8) and a Dexterity o f 10 (+0). The hand doesn’t fill its space. When you cast the spell and as a bonus action on your subsequent turns, you can move the hand up to 60 feet and then cause one o f the following effects with it.
...
>Forceful Hand. The hand attempts to push a creature within 5 feet of it in a direction you choose. Make a check with the hand’s Strength contested by the Strength (Athletics) check of the target. If the target is Medium or smaller, you have advantage on the check. If you succeed, the hand pushes the target up to 5 feet plus a number of feet equal to five times your spellcasting ability modifier. The hand moves with the target to remain within 5 feet of it.

Yeah I'm still undecided on if I want him to actually be "him" or follow the cliche. I think I'll just leave it ambiguous.

And it's not a lot of memory loss, more just things like exactly how to cast high level spells or other really complex things to justify why they don't remember exactly how to do things like make robot bodies.

Wizards can be rare without changing any of the mechanics. Player characters are exceptional by their very nature, so them being a wizard in a setting where wizards are rare doesn't change the world-feel at all. Just make sure NPCs react to magic appropriately, magic services are rare or nonexistent, and so on.

>One is a full caster that gets their powers from a deity and serves as their agent upon the material plane
>One is an oathbond warrior who is personally empowered by their oath to do battle against the forces of evil

Yeah, why are these two separate classes? It's not like the arcane caster who gets their power from an outside entity and the one whose power in an inherit power within their blood get separate clas-- Oh wait, the warlock and the sorcerer are different classes... Oooh.

Paladins can be evil, and can still be warriors of God.

Hey guys - I'm gonna be starting up a 5e Game pretty soon. I heard that the Beastmaster Ranger and the Elementalist Monk are pretty much useless - is that true? Are there any good fixes for them around?

And are there any other problems I should be aware of, balance-wise?

>+1 or +2 is kind of a big deal
Sure but -3 with heavy armor master is a big deal too early on, sentinel gives you a reaction attack, magic initiate gives you GFB and BB, +1/+2 to damage is great but it's not beyond compare.

>sharpshooter
Good point

So, does anyone here use the story modules? I'm considering running one to try to get down the fundamentals of running a game, but I'd like to know if there are any clunkers I should avoid.

Mechanics implies setting

uhh yeah. you could also link telekinesis but theyre subtly different.

whats your point, here?

Ranger is awful but there's a revised ranger from UA that's very strong.

There's a homebrew fix for Wot4E monks that's solid.

Frenzy barbarians are also shit.

>HAM damage reduction is now equal to prof bonus
Good houserule or bad houserule?

Yeah sounds good

No fix for the monk, but the Revised UA Beastmaster Ranger is bretty gud. Only thing it kind of messes with is if you were planning on using your animal companion as a fighting mount, since it now has its own initiative.

no fix for Wot4E monk unfortunately.

*Barbarians are also shit*

Which is the bigger pile of shit, berserkers or battle ragers?

Yeah they're pretty bad. Also players get disappointed with ranger cause they pick it thinking legolas when it's aragorn

I give berserkers one free frenzy per day without exhaustion

It's fine but honestly HAM is fine as-is. It starts great and against most weapon-using enemies is great even to 20th level.

>And it's not a lot of memory loss, more just things like exactly how to cast high level spells or other really complex things to justify why they don't remember exactly how to do things like make robot bodies.

If I were running him I'd tie it to age. Memories from his youth come through pretty clear, but things get hazier and hazier as you go out further. Eventually you hit a point where its like trying to remember a dream.Thinking about it further, tie the whole transfer thing into the concept of dreaming, which is why all the details, formulas, and equations never made it over. They simply can't be retained in that state.

this

Curse and Storm Kings are both bueno.

>fluff
>fluff only relevant to 5E
They're divine casters with a high degree of martial ability. The Cleric leans more towards casting, the Paladin leans more towards martial, but they're still close.

The fact that these two classes remain distinct in 5E despite their overwhelming similarity mechanics-wise in past editions (and this one--they even share fucking Channel Divinity) while other classes that were even more similar are getting split off into archetypes is ridiculous.

Both EKs and PWs had spellcasting progression closer to their full casting class equivalents, but they're getting their gish gutted and shoved into archetypes of an already-boring class that's only going to use its magical/psychic powers to improve its own durability, not do anything new or interesting.

It's retarded and lazy. Making an archetype is a thousand times easier than making a class capable of two distinct things (or even carve out its own niche), and we've already seen the kind of "amazing" gishes they've come up with so far, and most of their UA archetypes are even more trash.

I'm a fucking martialfaggot and I hate gishes to begin with, but I hate dead weight party members even more, and the blind dicksucking of Paladin that's going on at WotC is pretty shameful in light of their treatment of every other caster/melee hybrid.

I think that could be a little much. I'd say it'd be good if you also remove the +1 stat bonus and then add another minor ability.

>You can comfortably sleep in your armor.

Okay, how is this then?

For the duration of this ability, as a spell attack, you can make a shove, grapple or disarm action against any foe within 100 ft. Substitute your spell attack result for your Strength (Atheletics) check.You must have line of sight to the target.

Gracias.

but can you take a shit in it?

Plot twist: we're all just our memories anyway

What level
What duration, concentration or no?

If you had a wizard PC you've previously played might be cool to make him the wizard and give the robot it's own personality and have then in conflict for control. Ambiguity works too, maybe the wizard is slowly losing more of himself with the shadow stuff that leaks out of the construct body.

concentration, up to 1 min.

level.. shit idk, 3rd? What seems balanced?

Battleragers are subobtimal, but at least they're fun. You won't have fun as a frenzy barb though/

Don't listen to the ranger memes, that class is top tier. Beast master is a little weak but it's still pretty good if you use a wolf pet. Elemental monk is definitely weak but if one of your players wants to play it they probably won't care anyways.

>that class is top tier
So top tier that WotC has been spending the last two years trying to rework it

Or, you just let your monk player have fun.

Was that a puzzle? Was there a riddle attached to determine the untrapped chest?

I think you're trying to fix a problem with casters being un-shut-downable outside of other magic, but going about it the wrong way.

You can knock a martial's weapon away or bind their hands and they're pretty much helpless, but casters don't need in-hand (only in-reach) implements, can operate everything one-handed, and still have things they can do whether they're muted, disarmed, or unable to use their hands.

The fix to this is two-pronged:
First, component pouches are fucking gone. You need to have a focus in your hand to cast somatic spells. If that spell also has a GP-cost component, it is MAGICALLY consumed by your focus as you cast, no need for digging around. It goes without saying that the hand holding your focus also qualifies as the hand performing the somatic gestures, whether it be holding your magical orb, an arcane staff, a shield with a holy symbol on it, or fuck it I don't know a rapier with a harmonica in the grip.

This means that if you're disarmed, you've also lost your focus and there's no material-based casting for you. Any character or NPC that wants to shut down someone from casting a good chunk of its spells need only knock the shield/holysymbol/orb/staff out of a creature's hand, not worry about cutting the 10 goddamn component pouches they can reach at any moment.

Second, a new condition: Silenced
Magical effects can apply this, the spell Silence does it in a roundabout way by simply ending all sound, but more importantly, there is now a discrete condition for preventing verbal casting, and alternate means of imposing it. Are you gagged? You're Silenced. Did you fail a Concentration save vs. the Barbarian's Athletics or the Rogue's Acrobatics when they gave up one of his Attacks to karatechop you in the throat / slam the air out of your lungs? You're Silenced for a round. And despite this being a failed Concentration check, there was no damage involved so your Conc-based spell is still running.

So now if you're an Extra Attack class and you want to shut that fucking Wizard NPC up, you start Athletics-ing the shit out of him to slap the magical orb outta his hand and elbow him in the throat. The mechanics for it are in the DMG, everyone can agree that's how this shit works, and there's no bizarre faffing about as people try to figure out exactly what you would roll to gag a creature mid-combat or how long stuffing a sock in their mouth and fixing it in place with a rope takes or whether they get reactions while that's going on.

Really good. Also the most fun sorcerer archetype.

Didn't see a response last thread. How are Shadow sorcerers? Considering making a Tiefling one, though I'm not sure how far you can push the death and shadow theme with sorcs. Not edgy, I swear.

>Second, a new condition: Silenced
Magical effects can apply this, the spell Silence does it in a roundabout way by simply ending all sound, but more importantly, there is now a discrete condition for preventing verbal casting, and alternate means of imposing it. Are you gagged? You're Silenced. Did you fail a Concentration save vs. the Barbarian's Athletics or the Rogue's Acrobatics when they gave up one of his Attacks to karatechop you in the throat / slam the air out of your lungs? You're Silenced for a round. And despite this being a failed Concentration check, there was no damage involved so your Conc-based spell is still running.
I like this.

>they'll never acknowledge that Bladelocks suck

Magic initiate isn't worth it for GFB/BB. If you want that playstyle, you go EK and you go rapier+shield. You'll deal less damage, but you'll be tanky and can up dex instead of str.

If you get advantage or other effects such as bless then GWM becomes even more valuable, and will deal even more than just +1 or +2 damage per hit. You can also use the 'lucky' feat, or battlemaster benefitssuch as feinting attack or precision attack, though those are limited resources.
If your strength increases or you get a magical +1/+2/+3 weapon, overall GWM will be even more valuable due to increased hit chance (even though the increase in damage makes it a little less valuable)

If you get PAM, GWM is even more valuable as you're using lower damage weapons. You also are gauranteed to get a bonus attack and highly likely to get a reaction attack. The bonus attack is only 1d4 unless you trigger GWM's bonus, so it's even better to use +10 damage on that. Either way, more attacks is good.

So, I'd say, get the whole fucking lot. PAM+GWM+Sentinel+Extra Strength+Lucky.
It's a fighter, they can afford to do it.

If you don't want more damage? Fine, go rapier+EK+heavy armour master. That's a different playstyle.

What's the best way to handle having a player actually engage in a game of cards with an NPC? The Rogue in my group used to be a gambler and carries a deck of cards, and I want to have a scene where he actually has to play a game that's more than just an ability check. We're playing over the internet, by the way.

twitter.com/matthewmercer/status/774357425272922112
The first game here might interest you.

not that user, but whoa nice

>not loading up some fucking Yahoo! poker site or some shit and actually playing

Linking it to dreams is a good idea, I rather like the significance of dreams in the TES setting.

I'd agree with you but in most d&d settings "souls" are actual tangible things.

Also not a bad idea, it'd give a bit of a sense of urgency to trying to properly attune the body.

I want to do something like that, but I want to give him the opportunity to cheat as well, with Sleight of Hand and so on.