/5eg/ Fifth Edition General: Ranger Edition

Yes, this. Do this.

Doing things like giving advantage for being drunk is like saying 'I don't like you, here's a penalty.'

It's honestly better to say 'okay, you're seriously annoying' than to say 'I don't like you, nerf.'

Any powerful being that can't stand him might feasibly burn his bagpipes and send him out, however. If you don't want to ask the player to stop, your best option is to handle it in a social way considering that nobody else in society will want to put up with this gnome.

I'm thinking of playing as a nature cleric with shillelagh is it stupid to take a one level dip into monk to get unarmored defense?

Extra Attack with Sneak Attack and Hex. Enough said.

But not if it requires, say, a petrified newt eye? Just monetary cost?

Thanks, that one's in response to my last post anyway, missed it in the thread transfer.

Yeah, as long as it doesn't specify a gold cost in the spell description.

>DM autokilling you then forcing you to spend your levels to multiclass into weird things

Essentially, we were 'allies' with this evil magic queen, she had an evil mirror, I tried to make a deal with the mirror to betray her, then the next day the mirror told her and my character was dragged through the city by an invisible, untouchable (because we had no magic weapons/useful casts) force, when party members tried to hold onto me, it just caused me damage.

Then I was put into a torture chamber, they tried to bargain for my life using a favour we'd earned, they weren't allowed (nor got to roll). Queen cut off one of my balls, then decided I was to be sacrificed.

Party could have tried to fight the entire city off to save me, but ended up just being at the sacrifice instead.

>You could actually go pact of the blade.
Been reading up on Warlocks since the session and this is what I'm leaning towards. It looks cool for flavour as well. One thing I don't understand is:
>going two levels for eldritch blast
Isn't eldritch blast a cantrip? Can't I have that at first level? I don't know much about magic classes, but that's what I'm understanding from rereading the manual.

>taking Devil's Sight and Darkness
I'm a drow so I get Darkness anyway. This is feeling positive.

So do I want to just pile in on Warlock for Blade Pact, Thirsting Blade, Devil's Sight, pick up Darkness as Drow ability at 5th level?

I've currently got notes of
Cantrips:
>Eldritch Blast
>Prestidigitation
Spells:
>Dissonant Whispers (Cause I like it)
>Hellish Rebuke

Have I made any errors so far?

Cool stuff, thanks.

Most of the not high GP costing material components listed are meant to be used for flavor reasons. Arcane focus basically means that you ignore any material cost below a certain amount (probably around 5gp).

2-3 levels of Warlock can be pretty strong, because of Invocations to help with roleplay stuff, combat stuff (Darkness + Devil's Sight, Hex), and the third level gets you either Pact of the Blade for you to never be unarmed, or Pact of the Tome for some other utility spells.

I don't think I'd go much further into Warlock for the early levels though, and focus back onto Rogue. Probably something like:

> Rogue 3
> Warlock 2-3
> Rogue's 7th level (for Evasion)
> Warlock's 5th level (for 3rd level spells and another Invocation)
> rest in Rogue

By the end, that would have you be Rogue 15/Warlock 5, with a fair bit of DPS thanks to so much Sneak Attack die and some utility via Warlock's Invocations. Rogue 15 also gives you proficiency with Wisdom saving throws, meaning you get good resists at high end levels.

But again, that's a pie in the sky level 20 character, and I don't know how your campaign will go.

If your charisma's low, consider some spells that don't rely on it, like:
>Armor of Agathys
>Hex

Blade Pact has its uses, especially if you want to be a stealthy assassin. As a rogue, you may wish to pick up Greenflame Blade/ Booming Blade (assuming the SCAG cantrips are allowed).

It's really up to your DM, but I would say no.

Thieves cant isn't necessarily a language. It's using gestures or arranging words of a different language in a certain way so that there would be a second meaning to anyone else who can understand thieves can't.

Its like during the american civil war where southerners against slavery would tug on their ears and whatnot while talking with another southerner to convey secrets such as safe spaces for escaping slaves and other tidbits they wouldn't want the knowledge of in the general public's hands.

Just the standard 'lolwizards' fuckery, then.
Why DMs always involve players too low a level to oppose with ridiculously high level magic casters I'll never know. At least make the players feel like they have options.

Oh, right. Yes, you get eldritch blast at level 1, but it's only really great at level 2 when you can add charisma to the damage with an invocation.

Personally I'd recommend taking agonizing blast as an invocation at level 3 and using it once you reach level 3 warlock, because you'll make two attacks with it. Once you reach level 5 warlock, switch the agonizing blast invocation with extra attack and in the future you can use a hand crossbow or something if you need ranged attacks.

play a lizardfolk if you aren't bent on playing another race, they get racial unarmored defense

As long as you can get a reason why a lizard folk would be a cleric anyways

The idea behind going 2 levels of Warlock is to grab Agonizing Blast Invocation for Eldritch Blast, letting you get your CHA mod. to damage rolls. That's part of the benefit behind the "sorclock" build; 2 level dip into Warlock for more damage on EB, then just grab whatever spells you want from Sorcerer.

Other useful Invocations to get via a 2 level dip into Warlock:

Devil's Sight (might not be as useful because you're a Drow)
Eldritch Sight (infinite Detect Magic is useful, helps free up a slot for your other arcane caster)
Mask of Many Faces (never reveal your true face to anyone ever again)

If you get to 5th level in Warlock for the third Invocation, and you do end up going Pact of the Blade, then you basically have to grab Thirsting Blade for the Extra Attack option, giving you two chances to hit with Sneak Attack.

Unfortunately I doubt lizardfolk would be allowed in this campaign and I don't have the official stats for them

The whole thing's sort of irritating at this level because I'm forced to make a call between the Assassin/Alert route I had planned (and thus giving up on all the cool Warlock stuff for quite a while) or the Warlock stuff (which would tie me in for a while unless I live with suboptimal setup).

Do you think I can get by with 14 Charisma if I commit to Warlock until R2/W5 and then go only rogue levels? I'm leaning towards it because it seems cool for flavour and the higher level Warlock stuff interests me, but I don't know if it'll just make me dead weight.

What does Darkness do mechanically?

Causes blindness:
>A heavily obscured area—such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature in a heavily obscured area effectively suffers from the blinded condition… Darkness creates a heavily obscured area.

Which offers:
>A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
>Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.

And potentially unseen attackers:
>When you attack a target you can't see, you have disadvantage on the attack roll. This is true whether you're guessing the target's location or you're targeting a creature you can hear but not see. If the target isn't in the location you targeted, you automatically miss, but the DM typically just says that the attack missed, not whether you guessed the target's location correctly.
>When a creature can't see you, you have advantage on attack rolls against it.
If you are hidden—both unseen and unheard—when you make an attack, you give away your location when the attack hits or misses.

tl;dr:
>blinds everyone, including you, but Devil's Sight means it doesn't blind you, so you get advantage against it and it fails any sight-based checks.

> tfw no arcana next week

Belt of pants? Like regular belt to hold up pants?
"Here have ye a mighty magical item. Seems like a regular belt, buy alas no. Because when wearing this item your pants won't fall to your knees. And your dignity and honour shall remain for ever!"

I don't know, you're perfectly fine if you adopt a run-and-gun sort of tactic.

I mean, you have cunning action. You can cast eldritch blast, bonus action dash and get the fuck away.
Warlock's main selling point is ranged combat.

The main issue is fitting this in with the party, but at least until warlock gives you extra attack at level 5 where you might want to try something else it opens up a rather interesting strategy, if only you have the space and the freedom to use it.

You can hide in the darkness as an action (Bonus action for rogues, some rangers) to make it so your position is unknown. Otherwise, your position is known.

If you do not have devil's sight, blindsight etc. then pretty much nothing happens.
You cannot use spells and abilities which require line of sight of the target, others cannot do this to you.
If you have devil's sight, you gain advantage on attacks and enemies have disadvantage to hit you with attacks.

Im debt free now which means that i have tons of disposable income. Im looking at buying miniature booster packs but i dont know which line is the best for maybe getting awesome iconic monsters. They have a line for each of the published adventure paths plus two "Monster Menagerie" lines. Which is best?

As a DM, I find you idea very creative and I would had rewarded it. 6d4 for a swarm of spiders is excessive. Dick DM,

I'm pissed because I have a new campaign starting and wanted to play a sorcerer. Now I'll only have Shadow one available for being overpowered.

Swarms are bullshit anyways, why would a bunch of vermin be a threat unless it's like hornets or something?

Hey, I'm in a group and my character is supposed to be a Silver Flame veteran that got stranded in the middle of an evil country and spent years fighting evil on the edge of civilization. How do I make a Silver Flame ranger work?

Get 100 doses of a minor poison and it becomes a serious poison

London rats will eat through your fucking femur, imagining 20 of them is terrifying

Wait, for real?

yep, Sorcerer on 30th

>The main issue is fitting this in with the party

We're sort of an in-and-out group, real world - there's 2-3 of us who've showed up every week, but it's not just friends and stuff, it's a meetup, and we lose most of our party each week and get another set of 2-3 new people.

This week we had 0 casters, which didn't work out so well. Last week we had about 4 casters, when we could really have used some fighters.

I think ultimately, anyone who's a higher level will be important, regardless of the build.

>Warlock's main selling point is ranged combat.

The way it's building up in my mind, I'm thinking I'm going to end up a suboptimal roguelock (I'm not too worried about minmaxing, just don't want to be dead weight).

Warlock to 5 for the blade pact and extra attack, then go back to Rogue for the sneak attack rolls again. By that time I'll have Darkness and Devil's Sight, which essentially guarantees sneak attack every round.

The only real downside is losing out on the sneak attack dice until later on, but I think it'll be worth it for the RP involvements and the increased utility of having spells alongside Rogue build.

> Implying it will be sorcerer
> Implying it won't be joint arcana for sorcerer, warlock and wizard
> One subclass for each

So, we're looking are Sorcerer, Warlock and Wizard sub-classes in the upcoming UAs. Anyone got any ideas what kinds of sub-classes we might see when WoTC finally shares them?

So long as they make bladelock not a fucking joke.

> Fey bloodline sorcerer, undead slayer bloodline sorcerer
> Seelie court wizard, anti-necromancer wizard
> Warlock gets shafted
Screencap this.

For warlocks, will they be giving us new patrons or new pacts?

Bladelock is not a subclass, you fucking mong, just like tomelock and chainlock isn't. It's just a single class feature. You're not supposed to become supergood at both magic and using sword because of a single class feature.

Our revised ranger dominates fights. It's pretty wild.

Maybe both?

What're they missing, patron-wise? We've got a good one now, but that feels like a one-off. Maybe a neutral patron? Might get a true neutral patron.

When you consider extra attack, you've more than made up for the lost sneak attack dice.

It's an extra 1d8+5 potential damage with an extra chance to get your sneak attack. Compared to 2.5d6 it makes up for it.

Maybe we'll get Death and be able to do a good necrolock.

I don't want to be super good, but I do want to be viable.

None, I want Theurge classes based on the FR belief that "arcane" magic is all basically the same thing just from different sources

A single archetype that varies depending on the class you are that loses some stuff and emulates the other two

>Select a Greatsword as your pact weapon.
>Can summon it from nothing at any moment.
>No down side.

It's actually not bad if you make a beefy warlock but it could do with a bit more support.

Then play a class actually designed for melee combat. Like hellknight paladin they've recently released.

Patrons I could personally see would be:
* Angelic Patron
* Some kind of healer patron
* "Dark Mother" Patron ala Lamashtu or Shub-Niggurath
* "Beast Lord" Patron ala Jhebbel-Sag
* "Doomspeaker" Patron out to usher in the apocalypse
* Elemental/Primordial Patron
* Sha'ir and/or Wu Jen Subclass

Cool shit. There's even a sword I want to get because it'd be a great pact weapon.

Only downside is it currently belongs to the evil magic queen who killed me and caused this whole mess. In theory, she sacrificed me to her patron and I'm now his servant, so we're on the same side. I don't know to what extent I can get away with betraying her AGAIN...

Apocalypse Warlock would be pretty good, but how would they avoid making it look like "Fire and Brimstone" and just making another Fiend pact.

I could do that, and eldritch blast spam would still be a better option.

Wouldn't a dexlock be better than a strlock?

>Party composition is nebulous at best
>consistency is the more important factor

That might be the reason you were forced into Warlock. You'll need that gish utility if you're one consistently showing up.

I figured an Entropy focus; lot of Necrotic Damage and Debuffs. At least, that's what the version of the Doomspeaker I wanna try and write is going to be like.

>EB

don't bother with EB. Take 2 levels to get some neato stuff but your charisma is too low to make any of the Attack roll or saving throw spells worth it. Rogue will get you more sneak attack dice anyways.

I don't think she's thinking that far ahead. She was fully banking on having me roll a new character until I asked if I could spend my inspiration persuading the guy I was sacrificed to to let me come alive again.

I'm having fun, but it's her first time DMing and she has a tendency towards strong-arming players into things. Not railroading, exactly, just making them not do things that would be hard to work around.

We've had:
>dragon comes and kills a guy without any rolls or anything (though he was level 1) because he wanted to burn the plot-central forest down
>same guy gets revived because he apologised and said he wouldn't do it again
>guy making too many real world jokes instead of playing so she drops him in a pit, no rolls (though it led onto RP)
>my guy getting dragged through a city by an unseen force with no way to resist
>evil magic queen knows my character's religious beliefs, fears, and desires without any clear reason why
>evil magic queen is a character DM played in a different campaign

>evil magic queen knows my character's religious beliefs, fears, and desires without any clear reason why
>evil magic queen is a character DM played in a different campaign
Run.

>Working on a homebrew
>It's OP as fuck
>The only way I can think to trim it down further would be to remove class proficiencies and add a "you can't multiclass with this archetype" clause

On a scale of 1-10 how shit an idea is that?

Making a Barbarian/Monk hybrid, was thinking of removing martial weapon and armor proficiencies to make up for the fact that it's got too many features for an archetype.

I've thought about it, but I joined a group meetup and got assigned to this game, and I don't really want to swap to another meetup.

I'm hoping time softens the edges. Alternatively, once I have the rules fully in my understanding, I might start DMing instead. Done so for other games.

Tell her that being a DM isn't playing god or getting to blow up the party just because she feels like it.

Assuming 10 is the most shit, about a 45

Have you read why the guys going bladelock? He's not at much of a choice here

Detect Thoughts, one of the most basic mid-level social spells.

Why on earth would you go Chainlock when Tomelock gets Find Familiar anyway as a ritual?

>DM forces player to make their character Bob take a level in a class they don't want
Simple solution: Bob commits suicide, next sessions the party is introduced to Bob II, who is the build the player actually wanted to play.

Become a better brewmaster and make it work

Chainlock gets better familiars. Invisibility at will, ho!

But a target know when it's under Detect thoughts, and from what I can tell the DM did not tell him that.

I've been trimming it down to the point where it's only "overpowered as fuck" instead of "what the fuck were you thinking" tier.

Might actually get it somewhere usable in a bit.

Need some homebrew advice. The biggest problem I have when homebrewing is narrowing down the focus of a concept, so this has taken a while for me to define satisfactorily to myself.

I am trying to make a class that mechanically fills the "Intelligent-Half-Caster" niche I feel exists alongside the Ranger (wisdom half caster) and Paladin (charisma half caster).

Thematically, I want to make something that feels like a Good-aligned Warlock. A spellcaster that seeks out the forbidden and lost lore of the world, empowering themselves by cheating at the magic game. Knights who invoke powerful Runes to enchant their gear. Witch Doctors who bind demonic and other spirits to work their will. Scholars who bend Truenames in order to steal magic from the cosmos.

A friend mentioned that I seem to want a Sherlock Holmes + Indiana Jones hybrid with half-casting added on top.

How do I narrow this down more? Is there anything here that leaps out to any of you as a full concept?

Well, 4e had:

Fiend Pact
Fey Pact
Star Pact
Vestige Pact
Sorcerer-King Pact
Elemental Pact

I would say the last 4 deserve some sort of representation. I know people say GOO = Star, but I think they represent different things mechanically. GOO seems more mind influence/control, while Star was more divination and subversion of natural laws.

You want artificer.

If you probe, yes. You can read surface thoughts without anyone noticing, and over a few minutes things like "I hope we can kill that terrible lich" or "Tiamat save me, this is boring" or "That guy has a nice ass." could reasonable appear.

>I am trying to make a class that mechanically fills the "Intelligent-Half-Caster" niche I feel exists alongside the Ranger (wisdom half caster) and Paladin (charisma half caster).

I mean.. Eldritch Knight is a thing.

Isn't Artificer a tinkerer and crafter?

EK is a quasi-caster. And it's a Fighter first, where I want this to be a mage who specs into fighting.

As is Arcane Trickster rogue, or just plain multiclassing a wizard. Wizard multiclassing is usually reasonable, because they get a lot of useful spells even without investing that many levels in it.

Knowledge Cleric?

Was he born to be wild?

>I want this to be a mage who specs into fighting
Multiclass Bladesinger Wizard with Champion or Battlemaster Fighter. The synergy is pretty decent, if your DM rules that the Extra Attack feature from Bladesinger adds on to the Extra Attack Fighter gets at certain intervals.

Like I said, if you're aiming for 5 levels of warlock, DO bother with EB.

It's 2d10+4 across two attacks with 14 charisma with +5 to hit at level 5 when you can use it at range (and the fact you're fast as fuck with bonus action dash) compared to 2d6+3 +6 to hit, one attack if you used a hand crossbow AND got sneak attack.

As I also said, ditch it once you hit warlock level 5. Once you get extra attack, shortbow is better because you can develop your sneak attack with it.

Ranged options are good.

>where I want this to be a mage who specs into fighting.

Bladesinger.

Aye, very true. EK into wizard or AT into wizard works spectacularly depending on if you want the battlemage flavour or the more agile spellblade flavour.

No. I'm specifically only looking to homebrew. No multiclassing.

I miss star pact. That shit was cool.

Okay, so homebrew your half-caster and have it progress as if it was taking half its levels in Wizard and half its levels in a fighter archetype.

Post it and let the crucible of Veeky Forums help refine it

Yes but he said she knew everything about him. You can't learn everything about someone from surface thoughts.

>Bites.
>Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target in the swarm's space. Hit: 10 (4d4) piercing damage, or 5 (2d4) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.

I guess your DM could claim it was 1 and a half swarm of spiders, but still just having them hit you, that's a dick move. He should have had you roll initiative or something to fight the spiders, or if you expressed your plan to thunderwave the spiders, let you ready that action as you entered the web. The thunderwave plan would have been pretty cool as a solution IMO.

If you want to homebrew, you could theoretically take the paladin chassie and work off of that. Paladin is probably the only properly working gish-class so it would be a decent base to build upon.

>homebrewing an entire class
I hope you know what you're in for, boyo.

Bladesinger is less of a fighting wizard and more of a LOOK AT ALL MY AC wizard. With a bit of fighting.

Who needs detect thoughts when you're a self-insert DMPC godmoder who knows everything because why not?

This was going to be my suggestion. Paladin's probably the most successful gish class, so take that template and style of formatting and go from there.

Aye, I agree, but it's the only wizard that's really close to being able to fight as it does get an extra attack and whatnot.

Not that I understand why you'd want to make a close combat wizard in the first place when they get so many retardedly powerful spells.

Now I read it agaaain...
It's kind of silly, isn't it..?

Why would unintelligent, normal spiders attack a cleeric for casting a speell? Why do they eeven know what a spell iiis?

I would personally go with the monster menagerie ones, those seem the most generic

On further inspection Sprite can turn invisible at will and can shoot opponents for 1 damage and DC 10 Con save or they're poisoned. Sounds okay right? Reading further: if the saving throw result is 5 or lower they fall unconscious... Even high level characters without proficiency in con saves could do that. Keep in mind the Sprite can do that every turn as well.

To go along with the topic of homebrewing a, "Intelligence half-caster" I'll post this thing another user was working on previously.

I do know he was looking to balance it more to the point where it could be usable and not OP, but it could provide some decent ideas for you to do. Or things you should not do.