/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General - Dragonborns' Edition

Stop being a bitch and DM this isn't the school play ffs it's just fun.

Prospector
Skills: Nature, Investigation
Proficiencies: Miner's tools (new) and one game kit
Equipment: Miner's tools, shovel, sledgehammer, pickaxe, a set of traveler's clothes, an iron pan, a basic map of the local area, and a belt pouch containing 5gp
Feature: i dunno but you should be able to find ores and pull gp out of cave walls or some shit. also you're good at maps and claim-staking i guess

>tfw spent a few hours designing a kit for a character who doesn't even have a backstory

Might as well post it since I'll probably never actually play them.

UA Ranger, however the pet is a Dire Wolf used as a mount.

HIS WIFE WAS KILLED BY A MAN IN BLACK
HE WANDERS FROM TOWN TO TOWN, SEEKING REVENGE

OR HIS BROTHER OR FATHER, WHO KNOWS
MAN IN BLACK CONVENIENTLY IN EMPLOY OF BBEG
keep your lovin' __________ happy

We're playing LMoP and the PCs want to stop by Neverwinter to sell stuff, buy horses, find whorehouse, tavern etc.

How do I keep them engaged? Any small scale plot hooks you guys have? I don't want them to spend too much time there though.

Base it on whatever thing they want to do. They're not going to give a shit about a bounty on rats in the sewers or scheming nobles or anything like that. So if they want whores, have the whorehouses close too early because they're all afraid of a new mysterious serial killer in town dropping whores left and right. If they want to go shopping, have the greatest dwarven weaponsmith in the city consumed by a fey mood and refusing to do any mundane work until he can find some weird obscure ingredients for his passion project.

I think if you don't want your players to spend "too much time" in a city like Neverwinter, you have to make it boring. Any plothook in a city like this will turn your session (and probably the 3 next) into a "city session".

My advice is:
- Prepare a shit ton of descriptions for the numerous impressive momuments/sights. Keep em short but put an emphasis on the fact that it's gorgeous.
- They'll leave relatively quickly because nothing seems to be out of order.
- Then the next time they go to Neverwinter, you'll introduce a contrast. Anything you wish to be different. And they'll notice.

Anons? I want to convert a magical weapon (type) from 4e to 5e, and I could use some help.

It's called the Flesh Grinder, and basically it's a magical equivalent of Warhammer's chainsword/chainaxe/chainscythe/chainhammer/etc sphere of weapons.

In 4e, it came in +1 to +6 enchantment levels, inflicted +1d10 damage per plus on a critical hit, and 1/day could target Fortitude instead of AC, doing a bonus +d6 (per tier) damage if that hit landed.

Any ideas on how to make this work in 5e?

In case it's confusing: in 4e, weapons did additional damage determined by their type on a critical hit (hence the +1d10 above) and Fort/Ref/Will were static defences like AC rather than active saves. So, that means a Flesh Grinder +6 would inflict +6D10 points of damage on a critical hit.

Hey, anons? I was flicking through Volo's Guide, remembered that Chitins had at least one PC writeup back in AD&D, so I wanted to ask: how overpowered are these PC writeups?

Chitine
+2 Dex, +1 Con
Small
Darkvison
Base speed 30 feet, Climb 30 feet
Fey Ancestry: Advantange on saves vs. Charm, Immune to Magical Sleep
Sunlight Sensitivity: Disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) when in direct sunlight
Web Sense: Can detect the presence of any other creature touching the same web as the chitine
Web Walker: Ignores movement restriction caused by webbing

Cholodrith
+2 Wis, +1 Dex
Medium
Darkvison
Base speed 30 feet, Climb 30 feet
Fey Ancestry: Advantange on saves vs. Charm, Immune to Magical Sleep
Sunlight Sensitivity: Disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) when in direct sunlight
Web Sense: Can detect the presence of any other creature touching the same web as the chitine
Web Walker: Ignores movement restriction caused by webbing
Spider Climb: Does not need to make ability checks to climb difficult surfaces, including upside down

So its whole thing is that it deals more damage on a critical hit?

5egmegaanon.github.io/5etools/items.html#Vicious Longsword

5egmegaanon.github.io/5etools/items.html#Longsword of Sharpness

5egmegaanon.github.io/5etools/items.html#Vorpal Longsword

Take those and refluff.

Oops, forgot to add this to the Cholodrith:

Webbing: Once per short rest, can launch webbing as a ranged weapon attack with a range of 30/60 feet, targeting one Large or small creature. On a hit, target is Restrained until it ca bass a DC 11 Strength check. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10, 5 HP, Vulnerability Fire, Immunity Bludgeoning/Poison/Psychic).

I'd say 'just fucking don't', but I'm one of the people who prefers an oldschool version of doing things where you don't give everybody in the pary magic items like it's required to have fun, and magic items hold more importance than 'you deal more damage!'

If you were to put it in, you'd put it as either +1/+2/+3 depending on how powerful you want it to be and say 'you roll an extra weapon die on a crit'.
Once a long rest, replacing one of your attacks as part of an attack action, you can make a special attack. A target within 5ft must make a con save, DC equal to 8+your strength modifier+your proficiency modifier. If they fail the save, they take the usual damage plus an additional weapon damage die.

Of course, that's horribly, horribly boring for a weapon. It's literally just a ball of 'You deal more damage, and conditionally deal more damage!'

>+1,2,3 magic weapon
>+1,2,3 d10 on crit
>Once per day you can make an attack vs. your opponent's constitution save. The DC = 8 + prof + your strength modifier. Your opponent has disadvantage on this save. If this attack lands it hits for an additional 1,2,3 d6.

There aren't very good mechanics for converting fortitude attacks. Might want to maks it ignore armor value instead (10+Dex would be the new AC).

Why did it target fortitude not reflex?

____
Flesh Grinder
>Weapon (morningstar), rare (requires attunement)
> You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
While you are attuned to this weapon, when you make an attack with this weapon on your turn, you can decide to unlock the weapon's special power. If you do so, you do not need to make an attack roll for this attack. Instead, your target must succeed a Strength or a Constitution saving throw (the target chooses the ability to use) or take the damage you rolled for the attack.
____

You can just add the +d10 on crit if you want to make it better.

Rather than getting hung up on the crunch, which is unsalvageable, consider what's happening in the game world and how you'd use rules to capture that. Chainsaws aren't the best weapons, but they are traditionally good for tearing through zombies and other soft targets. Maybe just have each hit deal an extra die or two of slashing damage when you hit a target with lower than a certain AC, maybe the 10-13 range.

Also, magic weapons in 5e no longer have to have a "plus." A lot of powerful magic weapons, like the Flame Tongue, add no bonus to attack or damage rolls but still count as magical for bypassing monster damage reduction.

Oh yeah DC is 8+prof+strength obviously.
And refreshes on long rest. Obviously.

Woops.

>something that always has advantage or disadvantage

Advantage/disadvantage exists as a conditional modifier, not a variable modifier.

I don't understand what you're critiquing.

Are the Zhentarim necessarily evil, or are they more unscrupulous, amoral consortium of businessmen?

The extra damage on a critical hit is just 4e noise. All magic weapons in 4e did extra damage dice on a critical hit so that the player would still have something to roll (crits used to deal maximized damage in 4e rather than doubling damage or adding dice)

Read a bit of their lore and form your own opinion. Or ignore it all and rule your shit.

I think they're pretty fucking evil but that might be because i deeply believe the people must seize the means of production

Hmm... good point. What about a passive trait of "damage type changes to slashing, damage dice increase by +1" and an active power of "once per short rest, you can use the lower of a target's AC or Constitution score when making an attack roll"?

Or is that too complicated? Maybe just make it have the passive trait of "damage type is slashing, weapon gains the Heavy trait, use target's Con score instead of AC score when making attack rolls" and that's all it does?

If you designed a spell, you would never make a spell that says 'The enemy must save with disadvantage.'
Only
'The enemy must save with disadvantage if they are a plant/are not on their home plane/wearing the colour blue'.

Disadvantage/advantage is always conditional. 'You make somebody make a save' is not a condition, it is the thing that causes the save in the first place.

Of course, you might want to say 'the save is made with disadvantage' to make the ability less conditional and better, but that's besides the point. The order of ways to make a save more powerful in 5e:
>Best
>1. Just don't.
>2. Save is fixed to a DC. Say, DC 17.
>3. Conditional disadvantage. (While nice, this dosen't increase the save's power but instead makes it conditionally more powerful)
>4. Save still has an effect on failure.
>5. Save is not 8+VARIABLES but 10+VARIABLES - a flat modifier has been applied.
>6. Save always has advantage/disadvantage
>Worst

This isn't a balance issue or whatever. It's an issue of the way 5e works and goddamnit I will go to war if somebody tries to homebrew a class that uses the 'spellcasting' feature wrong.

If a communist thinks they're evil, I want to join them.

Did you not just say the same thing in two different ways? Amoral people are evil. Nobody goes out trying to do evil because it's evil; they're evil because they don't care about moral concerns.

While they're out and about, mention how large the crowd is on a given street, and how difficult it is to move around with all these people. Put a few things on the street that can attract the characters' attention, like an illusion act, an argument between citizens, a rabblerouser getting arrested and spitting venom all over the place.

Roll a die and ignore whatever it says. Then, have a hooded fellow with very distinctive features (a man with a handlebar mustache and beard that ends in a twirl; a woman absolutely covered in freckles) SLAM into the party member who matches the most of these criteria: biggest, most heavily-armored, least stealthy, most Goodie-Good. They apologize profusely, blame it on being shoved by someone else in the crowd, and move on. If the party suspects something sinister (like a cutpurse), the person will do whatever is necessary to mollify them so they can get away.

Later on in the adventuring day, the Neverwinter Fuzz busts down a door and SWAT surrounds the character who was bumped. They have been implicated in a murder of a local noble and demand the character submit to a search. A caster apprentice of some stripe with the guards waves around a little wand, and it glows when held near the suspected character, indicating the presence of "irrefutable evidence"--a signet ring of obvious value has somehow been slipped onto their person.

It is exceedingly likely that the party has an alibi for the time of the murder (say, that time they were all gathered together in the potion shop or where ever else; shopkeeps will vouch for them unless the party were jackasses) and the local investigator is somewhat accommodating. If the party will submit to some Zone of Truthing provided by the local church of _____________ and comes up clean, they can head on their way.

But ideally they'll make the connection between the easily-recognizable hooded figure's bump and run off on a merry FUCK YOU YOU FRAMED US adventure and solve a murder

Do tieflings have any cities or nations of their own, or are they more small minorities of cursed bloodlines in major cities? This is for default 5e lore.

lol nerd alert

In Forgotten Realms they don't. Literally they were just anybody with a little bit of fiendish blood in their ancestry, and they came in a wide variety of forms, but then Asmodeus was like "hey, you guys are cool, you all work for me now," and made most of them look like 4e tieflings. So the closest thing they have to a nation is the church of Asmodeus.

In 4e, Bael Turath is the Tiefling (former) empire.

I mean they're not actively evil. They don't kidnap and sacrifice people, just smuggle illicit goods and other such nefarious activities.

This is generally how my characters begin. I start with a design and then piece their personality and story together around it. No wrong way to do it, user, some ways just take a little longer.

He's a cowboy, isn't he?
youtube.com/watch?v=EpHWDFyNF-s
Steal inspiration from all the cowboy shit you like.

It depends on the race.
I've taken a liking to trying to get as many points in total as I can without gimping something, while still having a minimum of +2 in my main stat(s). Obviously, 14 and 15 each cost 1 extra to reach. For this reason, I tend to point buy to 13 or 14 and let the racial bonuses push the stat to 14 or 16. I avoid hanging stats at odd numbers without having a plan to increase it with a feat later (like leaving Dex at 15 and taking it to 16 through Resilient.)

I don't believe in reaching for 17 at level 1 unless it's supposed to be a really narrowly focused character (like a Mountain Dwarf Barbarian who is into bodybuilding). I like characters to be able to afford 12 or 14 in "unused" stats and get those +1's or +2's so they can appear to be all-around competent individuals. I'm also friendly towards taking skill proficiencies in things that aren't tied to my main stat if it's something that helps develop the character's themes.

What do you guys think about the UA Cleric Domains? Right now I'm considering running either a Grave or Protection cleric, just because I want a little bit of a healing buff, but not full-ass Life Healbot mode

>This is not a balance issue
Then why did you list 5 ways you thought it could be handled better? They each have objectively different average outcomes.

>Heightened spell (sorcerer metamagic option.) When you cast a spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw to resist it's effects, you can spend 3 sorcery points to give one target of the spell disadvantage on its first saving throw against the spell.

Explain how this is different from the way I described the save working in my post.

The thing where you hit something other than their AC should just be thrown out entirely. It never made sense from either the attacker's or defender's point of view. It's a chainsaw; it's not especially accurate.

Maybe instead of that, have a thing where you can keep sawing away at someone you've already hit, like a melee version of Witch Bolt. Something like "if you start your turn adjacent to a creature that you hit with this weapon during your last turn, you may use your action to deal 3d10 (or whatever) slashing damage to that creature."

Go Forge Cleric.
If your allies start whining just cauterize whatever holes that are bothering them and go back to smashing.

>formed by an EVIL WIZARD
>also known as the BLACK Network
>symbol at various points has involved a SKULL or a BLACK WYRM
>full of mercenaries who run PROTECTION RACKETS on poor townsfolk
>runs around CONQUERING POOR CITY-STATES in the Moonsea region
>leadership positions taken up by a BEHOLDER, a PIT FIEND, and an EXARCH OF BANE
>turns to widespread WORSHIP OF CYRIC after FUCKING BANE dies
>goes back to widespread WORSHIP OF BANE after he comes back to life and the aforementioned EXARCH OF FUCKING BANE murders the EVIL WIZARD who founded them
>EVIL WIZARD was a fucker who abused Simulacrum and comes back with an ARMY OF SKELLINGTONS and takes the whole organization back by killing pretty much everyone and now comprise the majority of their standing forces
gee user i don't know
they seem like legitimate businessmen to me

They kill when it benefits them. Maybe stealing benefits them much more often than killing does, but that's still evil.

War clerics are objectively the most fun and you should feel foolish for considering anything else.

There is a condition to that.
1. You must be a sorcerer.
2. You must take the metamagic feat.
3. You must spend 3 sorcerery points each time.

That's 3 different conditions.

Another reason why disadvantage/advantage is conditional (aside from it being the entire point of advantage/disadvantage, something an ability or DM can say 'oh, since you're jumping from a ledge and attacking you get advantage on this attack') is that it's also designed so you can't stack it. So, by giving something always disadvantage, it means that roll can never be made with advantage and can never gain the benefits of a different disadvantage.

Or rather "a creature you damaged with this weapon," so you can saw many turns in a row

i mean someone has to do it

They seem ready to receive a just paladin's smite, I tell you what.

I see. I guess my bard is a member of the Harpers then. Was just trying to be a little creative.

>Tempest also gets heavy armor and martial weapons
>no one cares about attacks as a bonus action when Spiritual Hammer exists
>exploits two damage types, one of which nothing really resists
>gets to send people flying all day long and straight-up electromurder niggas who hit them

>not being an Emerald Enclave Bard who runs around strumming a lute with "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS" carved into it

I might consider War Cleric if the healing is still competent. Tempest would be cool, but we already got a Storm Sorc. Also a Zealot Barb, and a Lore Bard.

I'd do this in a heartbeat if I wasn't sure this is more of an exploratory campaign

Doesn't work well for a tiefling bard motivated by loot, ancient knowledge, and more loot.

The "target Fortitude" thing in 4e was to represent jamming it up in a solid bit and just sawing through the meat, Ash Williams or DoomGuy style. Still, that's maybe a good idea - I do think continuing damage is probably the best way to represent the "armor & flesh torn away" angle of the enchantment in fluff.

There are 3 conditions to the magic item.
1. You must be able to hold it.
2. You must be attuned to it.
3. You have to use the power granted by it.

Less than 10 abilities in the whole game give advantage or disadvantage to constitution saving throws, its really not an issue and will probably never come up.

What is your point?

Having a Storm Sorcerer is MORE of a reason to be Tempest, not less. You can be thunderbros. Team up and RIDE THE LIGHTNING together.

BLOOD AND THUNDER! VICTORY AT SEA!

>Can finally play a kenku
>Talk about next years games online
>No Kenku
kill me

Oh, also
Condition 4 & 5
4. The target may not already have disadvantage (There's no point to using it in this case)
5. You must not have used another metamagic on the spell.

Those are conditions to use the ability, not the conditions for disadvantage or advantage.
You do not need to use the metamagic in order to use a spell.

If you really want to disagree with how they've made advantage/disadvantage, you can go talk it up with the rules designer. I'm just saying it as it is, and at least to me it makes sense.
Advantage/disadvantage is completely unnecessary if you want to simply boost the power of a save. There's barely any reason to do it instead of just making the save DC higher, which isn't exactly the best option but it's better.

Yes, it is slightly different if you say 'well, disadvantage is roughly worth -4 or -5, so the save DC is now 14+STRMOD+proficiency' instead, but at least you're not having to roll extra dice for no real reason.

No, this isn't a major issue but understanding this is part of understanding how to design things in 5e's terms.

youtube.com/watch?v=7M1k1tgq87g

Looking to build a melee combatant who can essentially cast two spells, as much as possible: Haste and Shield.

Shield I can grab through magic initiate feat, so no problem there.

After having a look around it seems like my options are:

>Vengeance Paladin
>Eldritch Knight & Wizard (with only a few levels of Wizard enough to grab Haste)
>Eldritch Knight & Sorcerer (again to grab haste)
>Blade Singer

Is there anything I've missed? And which of these options do you think is most durable and fun.

...

Your only real option is EK-Wiz but you're going to be a shit Fighter most of the time since. Why Haste yourself for an extra attack that you can get by actually hitting Fighter 5?

Just convince the biggest dope in your group to play a Sorcerer instead and Twin Haste on you and some other fucker.

Favoured soul sorcerer.

Treachery Paladin.

Paladin/sorcerer multiclass. Sorcerer can twin haste and also has con saves, so hey.

Arcane Trickster.

Valor Bard (If you're really willing to multiclass a level of wizard or spend a magical secret on that.)

Your best bet is probably paladin 2 or fighter 1 into sorcerer 5. You get shield and haste reasonably early and you can use heavy armor with a polearm.
If you're going paladin you can at level 7 twin cast haste to get the buff+ give it to someone else.
Your average turn will look something like this. Twinned booming blade>smite if you want to>attack>extra attack with polearm master. In total you can do 4 attacks in a turn while also getting access to both the spells you want.

You can also do something like this build by only going draconic sorcerer and variant half elf for shortsword proficiency, using dex as your main stat.

youtube.com/watch?v=MKF5R8doqDE
youtube.com/watch?v=T9Ika-PNmHg
youtube.com/watch?v=RYzYo-XJfUI
youtube.com/watch?v=Xc7S0y5Xyt8
youtube.com/watch?v=PYDpM7ljMHk
youtube.com/watch?v=v2AC41dglnM
youtube.com/watch?v=5wQYdsF2vKY
youtube.com/watch?v=yPNFVj-pISU
youtube.com/watch?v=TnLAC5AJPuM

I had a thought last night but lack the mathematical ability to find out the answer.

Obviously the answer is variable as it depends on the attacker. But is there a "tipping point"

The premise being that at some point, granting an enemy disadvantage on attacks is more valuable than increasing your AC.

>eg disadvantage against AC16 is actually harder to hit than pure AC18-20

Is this right? And if so, at what point does it take effect.

It honestly depends on the enemy's bonuses to hit. Say if they have a +0 mod to hit, it's definitely better to have disadvantage, but if it's like +10, it's better to up AC.

Pretty much it works out to the second the attacker needs to roll an 11 instead of a 10 to hit you that disadvantage becomes better

One day I'll play a thunder thrower. Every chance I get to, the party ends up needing something else

It depends on the AB of the creature rolling.

Assuming a +5 to hit, you're going to have as much trouble hitting an AC 17 guy (you need 12) with Disadvantage as someone with +0 and no disadvantage would.

Sheer probability of rolling a given result.
You must factor in ACs and ABs yourself.

Yeah if I understood math better i'd figure it out myself.

My thinking is that against something that has 50% chance of hitting, +2AC equates to reducing it to 40%.

Whereas disadvantage reduces it to 25% or 33%

But I don't know if thats correct or how to justify it.

The answer is "play a Shield Master in full plate with Defense, have 21 AC and shove every enemy to the ground"

Hey! youre the folding glaive guy. I like where it went to. keep it up

Has WoTC announced their next adventure? I am curious what they are putting out next.

We'll probably get an announcement either next month or the month after with an April release date.

I'm fucking loving SKT as a DM.
Chapter 3 is gorgeous.

Players got caught up in the "Womford Bat" mystery for an entire session. Became vampire hunting sleuths and with heroic levels of preparation took it out.

Wizard's 5e is really coming together beautifully for me as a DM. A combination effect: Faerun/Sword Coast/The North with plenty of written adventure material that you can just let them free roam into locations with encounters, and let them care/not care about plot as they will.
Bounded Accuracy lets you just toss whatever makes sense for the location at the party after they get some levels.
The DMG actually looks better and better the more I use it, improvising traps/encounters, raising up temporary villians and other NPCs on the fly, and more.
Then these elements come together and the party spends 3 sessions just getting into trouble in Waterdeep, (almost) completely unrelated to Giants and the like. My players have been so thrilled.

>every damage build takes the -5/+10 feat
>only alternative is paladin crit fishing
>All full casters inevitably turn into "L.O.L. look at this CC also counterspell"
>grappling, darkness, invisibility, mounts, all of it does next to fucking nothing to change combat flow
I'm so fucking tired of this system

>I'm so fucking tired of this system
ok

Bladesinger does not work as a melee combatant, simply because your melee options will never be near as good as your spells

How/why is it good as adventure?
How's 5e for improv on the fly creations or decisions?

So it's a shit system overall or just in parts?

All of these are fine, I've had players run all of these combinations.
Blade Singer was actually the most fun and impressive, because he made no sacrifices to get high level spells in the long run but could still run the relevant martial-like AC and DPR the rest of the time.

>durable
You will seem very durable for a time, and then you run out of spell slots for shield. The rest of your party will be calling bullshit while if you have a good DM he will hide his grin while he throws junk at the party eating up your spell slots

>message from player late at night
>"can I make a blind swordsman with high luck to compensate?"

wtf no. 16 with disadvantage is tougher than 18 normally

I'd say it's a shit system overall because after playing it for a year (purely because my group is the kind of autists who takes Adventure League seriously) I can say that every combat begins to feel the same very quickly and you can really notice the difference between a good damage build and a bad one.

I've played defensive characters, full on damage, the most supporty support ever, everything comes out feeling the same.

>tfw I'm an invisible grappler

>mfw I just continue to full attack you through disadvantage and not give a shit

>Sure, but every attack you ever do has disadvantage until you pick up Blindsense.

>knock them over with shield master
>no disadvantage on skill checks
>once they're prone, advantage cancels out disadvantage

>mfw you're punching me for 1+Str since your weapon is on the other side of the room except you don't even have Str because you're a Dex build memer

Good luck getting into range for shield master when you can't see

>monsters don't have natural weapons
>you'll never fight a caster
>str based enemies with weapons don't die in one round to a real group

user, what part of "DISARM" makes you think it only knocks rapiers and greataxes away?