/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

Chilled touch, fire bolt, or ray of frost?

Divination, if you mean subclass

Ray of Frost

UA samurai vs UA knight, which one wins?

>Monks are balanced

>If a melee attack hits you can spend a single ki point to attempt a stunning strike that last until the end of your next turn

>The end of your next turn

No actions, reactions, movement, all attacks have advantage against the creature, automatically fails strength and dex saves. and you can just do the same thing the next round.

Oh and you can attack twice

I did and thank you.

I guess Portent is that good.

>putting goblinoids and orcs in the same category
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

But if your goal of adventuring is to get loot and gold, then wouldn't it make sense you progress through that?

You see, if you were to run 5e in a more OSR-styled way, the idea is that you're not supposed to beat up everything you see unless there's a good reason. OSR promotes the idea of 'everything is potentially deadly, don't get into a fight if you don't need to and only do it if it furthers your goal (Which may be to get loot).

Yes, not every party is going to be loot-swilling greedhogs and it does encourage greed, but CR XP has its own problems and good points which make it suited for different things, such a campaign more focused on monster-hunting.

Milestones or roleplay/quest/achievement XP would be better suited to a campaign that's not about loot or monsters, but other stuff.

But, I don't know, I'm only in this argument because people are trying to tell me otherwise.

What are some good spells or other effects to subject enemies to while they auto-fail Dex and Strength?

Is Variant Human Paladin of Devotion with Polearm Master the True Path of Justice?

The true path of justice requires a whip user

Disintegrate? 10d6+40, instakill if dropped to 0

What are some good spells that will actually be seen in play*

I think we're all confused why you're playing an OSR game in 5e when 5e suscribes to assumptions from 3e and 4e, where the characters beat up monsters and take their lunch money.

You'd better off running OSR for that.

Mystics seem fine to me.

You seem like the kind of person who also hates monks because they don't feel like fantasy.
Just depends on what kind of setting you want to run. But it's all fantasy.

As said, disintegrate has no halved effect on a successful save, so it needs to work.

If the target isn't already prone, grease will make it automatically fall prone whenever it enters the area of grease or ends its turn there. Sleet storm too.

Otiluke's Resilient Sphere does something.

Prismatic spray may blind or restrain a target and start incurring wisdom saves.

Web restrains.

I believe 'bones of the earth' can potentially put somebody on a big pillar up somewhere.

Evard's black tentacles.

Earthquake for a creature near a building.

It doesn't necessarily have to be full-on OSR, but rather have OSR themes.
5e actually has a number of callings back to OSR, I believe, where it encourages DMs to improvise on certain aspects and is designed more for creative thought than numbers like 3e and 4e were.

And a Bugbear?

What's the best way to play a hand-to-hand fighter that doesn't have the philosophy of a monk? Are there any archetypes? I'm not terribly familiar with 5e.

lightningbolt, sphere fuckery

>2d10 attacks or 2d8 attacks

thats some hokuto no kenshin shit right there

Ensaring Strike. Restrains an enemy for a full minute (Concentration), meaning even once they're out of the stun they still have disadvantage on their attacks, grant advantage to all attackers, can't move anywhere, are taking (pitiful) damage each round, and have to use an action (wasting yet another turn) to do anything useful. And they now have disadvantage on Dex, so you can keep blowing them up.
Entangle and Maximilian's Earthen Grasp work similarly.

Transmute Rock can easily let you sink a target into mud and solidify it again.

>hokuto no kenshin

Psions always seemed like another variation of Caster to me and that irked me. I'd like to see something new and original and unfortunately I can't conceive of anything of that sort.

What is the best pet I can get to help with tracking?

Level 4 Fighter have pretty shit investigation want a way to cover for my shit tracking.

Was thinking of just getting a Mastiff but don't know if there is something better out there.

Tracking should be survival, investigation is more like detective work and the such, of which animals have like

Based on RAW?
I'd probably go barbarian with tavern brawler feat.

But if you're still looking to do dex, go monk but ignore the philosophy. Look at MMA dudes irl. They train in martial arts but they aren't all subscribed to mysticism.

Ohh got it my Survival is not as bad as investigation but still lacking. Got any pet ideas for survival?

>90ft jump
>Cast jump before wildshaping
>270ft horizontal jump

fukken yes

I always liked the idea of Psions.

The idea of telepathy and telekinesis is cool but how can you make it interesting?

Say what you will about WotC, but holy fuck are they based.

>5e is arguably the best, most RP-oriented edition to date
>Even if you don't like core, they release almost monthly free, official expansions
>It's all quality

>it's all quality

I dunno about that, senpai.
I do like 5e though, it's pretty good.

They're finally based.

But yeah, they're doing not a bad job. But we need more options though.

Barb with Tavern Brawler will give me 1d4+str mod for damage, right? I'd definitely prefer to use strength over dex, and was definitely considering barbarian.

>play Monk
>don't use the philosophy of a Monk

I'd of thought Mastiff or wolf, though they only have +1 Wis and no proficiency. Should you be in the market for a pet though if your DM is cool with it you could ask if you could specifically buy a hunting dog, which was an actual thing, using mastiff stats but with proficiency in survival when it comes to tracking, possibly even giving advantage if you have something to give their scent like their clothing or something.
Up to your DM, though animals tend to have average wisdom, i'd easily allow that if youd be willing to pay extra for a trained dog.

Yes. And while you're raging you get a damage bonus applied to your melee attacks.

It's certainly not the most "optimal" build. But it's definitely fun. Also you can smash people with chairs and shit too.

...

Does anyone have a pdf for the Fifth Edition Options they'd be willing to share?

Yeah I don't mind the extra cash. I'll talk to him about it he should be cool with it.

Most creative uses for Awakened Mind ?

Do you have animal handling to make pet do what you want though

The ability says 90 feet so it's 90 feet.
>Overly-literal dick DM.

Fuck it, I'd allow it. Costs them a spell slot to do it, and how useful is that much jump in 99% of scenarios?

Drider legs weren't built for anything more than 90 ft. The rest will cause them to take fall damage.

If he does and buys a trained hunting dog, I'd say he probable wouldn't have to, seeing as how it's already trained, or at least it would be a fairly low DC.

Expand your mind, man.

Jump 270ft into a group of enemies, sticky leg their leader and then jump back out.

Bam hostage

Samurai for weeb fighting spirit

> be a moon druid
> bonus action to wild shape into female steeder
> action to use sticky leg to grapple ord chieftain
> jump 90ft straight up and release him
> he still survive
> crash landing on him since I ran out of movement mid-air
> kill him and end up only took 2 damage in my human form.

It was fun doing 9d6 damage at level 3.

How to implement a Lovecraft theme to my Wizard?

>5e is arguably the best, most RP-oriented edition to date
I think that depends on the DM. Most of the class features are combat oriented. And admittedly I think 4e's Powers gave more flavor to combat because it gave more of a base to describe what your character's attacks are like. Which is something I only ever did in 4e. Though maybe I am just uncreative and can't think of a cool way to describe how I swing my sword without there being a secondary effect to build off of.

I will say, i hope in future editions they make classes like they did Revised Ranger, because the Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer Features are fantastic non-combat features.
I want more non-combat features, and I think these features are relegated to exploration, because Social is all down to the player's wit and creativity.
Admittedly, i would boil it down further to "more features to get information about the world". Battle Master's "Know Your Enemy" feature is something in this vain. Obviously spellcasters need this far less than martial classes. Might be better to relegate it to an Archetype to allow for people who want to play combat focused campaigns vs people who want to play roleplaying focused campaigns. A good example of this is playing a Divination Wizard vs playing an Evocation Wizard.

GoO patron after your multiclass into warlock.
He came across a manuscript he really shouldn't have.

>Multiclass into a warlock.

Why would I do that?

Samurai. Knight is great at crowd control (especially at higher levels) but has no particular advantage in one-on-one battles outside of maybe mounted combat. Samurai is a more effective direct tank.

Because you've discovered an eldritch being.

Let's me check PHB.
It seems like all the mount and animals in 5e come already trained. So he wouldn't need to make check for it to do mundane easy stuff.

He would still need Animal Handling to stop it from getting spook by various thing (combat, dark cave, think of scooby doo). And he certainly need to use Animal Handling to learn what the animal found.

Yes I do I got it cause I am the cart driver

If not that, I'd think of doing lich-like shit in flavor of the Alchemist short story.

Was thinking this

>Whilst researching and studying arcana he discovers beings that have not been seen in many years
>He becomes obsessed with researching and finding about these great old ones
>He trains himself in the art of magic so he can one day find and battle these great beings
>He drives himself made in the search

Anyone have any one-off ideas they've really enjoyed?

Gonna run one for a group of level 1 characters soon and looking for some extra inspiration.

The deal is that 5e gives you room to try and change up your attacks a bit, such as aiming for something in particular and not being held back because 'you need a specific ability to do that'. Although, there are still things like that where you might get told 'you can't get this benefit from charging, you need the charger feat'. Some of the feats are kinda lame.

But I do think it'd fit an OSR style game with less combat. Since you're doing less combat, you don't have to worry so much about there being less combat options, and the DM can take the liberty to make the fewer combats more interesting with props.
But then there's a problem in that if you don't do enough combats, long rest users will come out on top because you rest too often. So I guess you'd have to use the longer short/long rest rules.

However, yes, if your DM isn't the god of DMing and you go into a lot of combats then 4e would offer much better tactical and varied combat, especially for a fighter or something.

That's cool. Still part of why I'd multiclass or go full GoO.

You draw your power from the very thing you want to destroy. Could also be that you've been driven mad by their touch so you want to destroy them.

Make the voices stop.

The best way to do this is to pursue "forbidden" knowledge.

Tell your DM that you want to take your character in that direction. If your DM doesn't know what you want, they can't prepare content with that in-mind.

Everytime you go into a city ask to go to libraries and try and do some social persuasion stuff to gain access to the "back room" to see the books that are not available to the public.

If your DM is decent, they should provide you with opportunities during Adventures to get into Old God and Cosmic Secrets shenanigans.

To add to this user's post, illusion or necromancy could be good schools for you to consider.

Messing with peoples minds is very lovecraft and can be simulated with illusions. Necromancy can be is well, but that fits more into the theme of "forbidden" knowledge. As it's quite taboo.

My only problem is that I don't like the Warlock class compared to a Wizard. I don't want to be a blaster per se. Just someone that taught themselves to find and deal with these horrors

That sounds good. Maybe the more I look into them the more I go crazy. Writing a book covering these horrors.

Necromancy and Illusion seem ideal choices. But what about Divination? That's more focused on finding and seeking knowledge of the unknown.

>5e is arguably the best, most RP-oriented edition to date
HAHAHAHA
>Even if you don't like core, they release almost monthly free, official expansions
UA is alright but most of it is shit.
>It's all quality
HAHAHAHAHA

Divination can also be a fine choice.
Your mind expands and you gain a "third eye."

Portent can be the fate of the cosmos. The stars aligning, etc.

Assume that you can convince you DM to get survival proficiency in animal, why don't you take magic initiate and get an owl familiar?

- only based 10gp
- can fly at 60ft speed, so it can track stuff at 30ft speed
- darkvision
- already proficient stealth

Damn. Thanks a lot you've all helped a ton.

For my background I'm gonna mix Sage and Hermit.

>Used to be a librarian
>Find a book about the old gods
>Become obsessed and go into isolation with even more books trying to unravel the mystery
>Finds out the mystery that everything happens because of the old ones
>Learn magic
>Comes out of hiding to find a party to deal with the horrors but nobody believing him

I guess I just need the DM to go along with it.

>Quoting my post and then posting nothing but "HAHAH"
Not
>An
Argument

>Personally, I know that psionics have been in DnD since forever, but I still don't like them. It doesn't feel like fantasy should feel to me.

I've always liked them, because while it doesn't feel like classic fantasy it DOES feel like D&D to me, which should really be acknowledged as it's own genre of fantasy that has heavily inspired many others.

There are many auto-damage spells if your opponent autofails dex saves but here's some others of note:
Bones of the Earth to be lifted or pinned by the spell
Catapult auto hits plus you can use the spell to throw other status causing items (inhaled poisons, acid flasks, etc)
Earth Tremor for auto-damage and knock prone
Earthbind, flyer loses its ability to fly for the spell's duration (con, 1 min)
Evard's Black Testicles for rapey fun.
Immolation for continuous auto-damage
Lightning Lure to move enemy for free
Resilient Sphere to imprison them in a ball of force for a minute
Whirlwind for damage and control

The proficiency was because it was in particular a trained hunting dog. Owl familiar is good, but probably wouldn't have great survival checks, though it would be good for spotting them. If you really want to track stuff down, a hunting dog + an owl would be good.

Can you take more than one background?

No, but you can mix and match certain parts of them to get the background you think fits the best.

See: customizing a background p. 125 PHB

You can customise them. There are rules for it in the PHB

No, then you'd get too many skills.
But you can make your own background.
Or you can can select a skill from your class that's the same as one you get from a background. Then because you doubled up on the same skill you can change that to any skill you like.

No. But you can pick and choose your favorite bits

2 skill proficencies, 2 languages or tool proficiencies, one feature

No, but for a more detailed answer see

Who says Monks are philosophers?
Mine isn't. Taking references from the genre it's inspired by, it's just a skill that requires discipline and training (a different sort of discipline then a Fighter but similar enough), not actual philosophy or even religious focus.

Alright, 5eg, I just ran a session and it went okay.

Most of it was great, and the only problem I have is that my party of 3 players has has turned into a total of 3 PCs and 6 NPCs (A town guard, 4 hunting dogs, and a giant bee.) As a result, combat is very difficult to design, and they just took down a CR5 troll with little difficulty, despite being only 4th level. Any advice on how to manage multiple creatures, or any advice on how to expand the Handle Animal rules?

>Though maybe I am just uncreative and can't think of a cool way to describe how I swing my sword without there being a secondary effect to build off of.

Sorry to say, but it's just you.
Not to say it's a terrible or even terribly uncommon thing, some people just need more help being descriptive and such.

You have fucked up somewhere along the way.

Human train bird to hunt too.

Oh yeah, which I why I'm trying to recover now. Plan A is to bump off a few of the dogs, but I'm looking for a more long-term solution.

I sort of have a contract with my players saying if they don't bog down combat by bringing in mounts and allies, I'm less likely to do something horrible to their mounts and allies.

You should realize that it's very easy in 5e for solo monsters to get absolutely wrecked if they are outnumbered.

This is partially by design and kind of a flaw, but know that action economy is king.
I wouldn't let the dogs do anything the players really say unless they spend an action to direct them in combat. Looking at beast master rangers, they are supposed to be "masters" and that's their entire subclass.

Good stuff, thanks bros. That's actually really good. You're not actually mechanically pigeonholed at all.

I'm guessing they passed a single animal handling roll and now the animals will mindlessly follow them up until their deaths

make the dogs turn on each other, flee in face of danger, turn hostile unless well fed and tamed. get rid of them. especially get rid of the bee which is too stupid to follow orders anyway.

let the player keep one dog as a pet but make him work for it. make it so that he has to spend time every day teaching him to follow orders, feeding him, etc. a random dog you befriend on the streets won't attack a dragon just because you fed him some scraps

The troll should one shot those hunt dogs.
With that many creatures the party appropriate CR is way above CR+1.

Also never use single enemy unless it's CR+5 or CR+6 (for a normal 4 man party).

Also next time split the NPC off or let them refuse to fight or have them take share of loots and gold from PC or even reduce the reward and xp from quest. Train your players not to rely on NPC.

A familiar wouldn't be pre-trained, which i'm no expert but I think it has to be done over its whole life. A hunting falcon would be usable as well, though probably harder to control and would require some animal handling checks, at least thats how I'd probably handle it.

Also remember that customize background isn't even an optional rule (unlike feat and multiclass). Just in case some jerk want to stop you from having fun.