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>Previous thread
We all know about standard race-class combos. Half-orc barbarian, dwarf cleric, tiefling bard. But what's your experience with non-standard combinations? Have you ever seen, say, a half-orc wizard? What about dwarven rogue? A tiefling cleric?

First for ffffffffuck magic items for the sake of magic items. Creative and/or non-arbitrary magic items that actually fit into and have relevance to the story only.

I'd really hate to be a fighter in your games.

players are getting deck of illusions and bag of tricks

Bag of tricks says a player can pull a fuzzy object of the bag and throw it, 3 times a day. Does it gain back the charges at dawn?

I know deck of illusions has a finite number of cards. For deck of many things - aside from two cards, they reappear in the deck. So it has infinite uses? Can a player just say, I want to draw 50 cards? Can a player say, I want to draw 1 card at a time?

>Reposting question for ease

Running a japanese-themed campaign.

Lots of japanese mythology, the players are all Hengeyokai(Animals that take the form of people) and there's a lot of spookiness going on.

A plague is infecting the land like Armello's rot (Power in exchange for sanity, and soul devouring, monster making necrotic effect) and this is an enemy that plays into one of my PC's backgrounds that's a major henchman for the Big bad shogun. Does this fit CR? What level should they encounter this if it included like 4-8 wolf warriors(gnoll-sheet.)

I am giving them a decent number of magic items. First time running a campaign so feedback would help.

How to make the Sleep spell less underwhelming? Currently only able to malice a few weak goblins, it hardly feels worth the slot at first level, nevermind any increase.

It's meant to be used against weak goblins.

Reposting because I need help.

So can anyone who has used this class in their campaign or playtested it or is a GM for it can tell me if this is too strong or not.

>Crystal Longsword, Legendary Item

Requires Attunement by an Arcane Order Magus

>Sonic Wave.
This ability channels the spellcaster's arcane history and allows the weapon to fire an arcane thunderous wave at a target 60ft. away. The booming wave requires a melee attack. The wave deals 3d6 points of thunder damage you can expend spell slots to increase the damage upwards to 6d6 points of thunder damage. This can only be used once per short rest.

>Thunderus Enspell.
When you use the enspell feature on this weapon instead of force you may choose to instead deal thunder damage and your Arcane Enspell ability increases the push on a failed saving throw to 20 ft. and deals an additional 1d8 thunder or force damage based on the enspell feature granted.

>Thunderus Aegis.
When you use the arcane aegis feature you may teleport up to 60 ft. and make one weapon attack against the creature.

I gave the party a Deck of Many Things.

It only had one card left.

They kept it in a sleeve, hoping to draw it in their most desperate hour.

Then the guy holding it got trampled to death and left to rot in the woods, so THAT's never gonna show up again.

I worded it poorly. It's fine to have a jug of alchemy or something even if it isn't relevant, but if you're throwing +2 items around that are just there as 'I guess it's bonus treasure or something' then fuck that.

>Needing a +Whatever weapon that doesn't actually have any relevance to what you're doing aside from the fact is does more damage to have fun
I don't know, if you find going on a quest to kill a mighty dragon and having the legendary dragonslaying sword more boring than going on a quest to kill a mighty dragon and having a random legendary item that you just kinda found in a lich tomb somewhere that's effective on everything, then I'd say you're a boring person.

> Gish class
It's shit.

>calls gish class shit
>paladin exists
No, You're shit.

> Oh, user, you want a magic sword? Cool, you need to go on this epic adventure and kill all those demons, and...
> But I want the magic weapon BECAUSE I'm struggling to kill any demons at all! They all have resistances to physical damage, if not immunities!
> Well, tough shit.
I've had DMs like you, and they were fucking terrible.

I gave one of my players in a high magic campaign the ability to forge demonic weapons from the essences of creatures he's slain.

Has to be something notable, and the quality of the essence needs to be high(Acquired through a nature check to identify and survival to harvest.) Or in the case of buying power, there's a merchant that always shows up that sells things like that as well. Not cheap, and she often overcharges, and she's actually a princess of hell, but I'm still waiting out how he deals with it.

>underwhelming
Sleep is fucking AMAZING at lower levels, and whenever you fight a bunch of weak enemies. No save, no attack roll, they just fall asleep and are out of the fight. Of course after level 5 it becomes very situational, but prior to that it's a must have.

I introduce a lot of NPCs that the party meets repeatedly/hangs out with, one of them is a half-orc diviner who became a wizard largely because everyone told him he couldn't. His life's goal is to find the ingredients to brew the perfect ale. The PCs enjoy what he provides, mostly his scrying and drinks.

I've got a DM like you.
Being forced to fight endless amounts of vampires and werewolves without magic weapons or even silvered ones is great fun.

Fuck you for fucking people over.

Hey does anyone have a pdf of the tome of beasts from kobold press?

>Adamant, Sword of
>Longsword, Requires Attunement
>+2 magical sword
>You learn Greenflame Blade and Booming Blade if you didn't already
>Once per Long Rest you may cast Misty Step. You have Advantage on your next attack with this weapon
>All fiends have Vulnerability to this weapon's damage

Stop making this so complicated. Just say you want a weeaboo sword.

What a sad time we live in, when people are too lazy to even read the OP.

>fiends
Aaand just realized I mixed up two posts. Sorry to drag you into this

Thank god.
Get that thing out of here, it's probably one of the worst things unless you modify it to balance it out.

That's not how I roll. Magic items are usually a bonus rather than something you quest for. Then, things that are resistant to martials might as well be resistant to a number of spells - Gaseous creature? It'll likely resist physical damage AND a lot of spells, but area effect spells (fireball) or specially designed weapons might affect it, though the wizard might not consider casting fireballs on it at first since it's a single lonely creature. Just because some holy wizard made your weapon doesn't make it automatically hit everything incorporeal.
Similarly, devils probably won't have non-magical weapon resistance unless they actually have something that confers it, they don't get it 'for being an otherworldly being' because fuck that, I can give them more health if I want to do that.

Some people get butthurt if you don't follow the MM exactly, though.

Yes. Sad times.

Anyone got a pdf of the PHB? Or maybe the MM?

>Thank god.
>Get that thing out of here, it's probably one of the worst things unless you modify it to balance it out.
I had them draw the card when we started, but not look at it. I actually still have it, and I'm the only one who knows what they drew.

2 of Spades.

My bad, am retarded, didn't see the third party folder

Anyone know of any good official or non-official campaigns that are set around the events of baldurs gate 1 & 2?

I have a party that pretty much is obsessed with the game, and that's the only reason they want to do D&D at all

How many hitpoints do a lot of enemies have at low levels for the games you're in? The weakest foes I'm facing tend to have double digits, and with an average roll of the 5d8, that doesn't result in a whole lot of effectiveness.

> I want to shut down entire encounters with a single 1 level spell that's not even a concentration
Dat caster entitlement.

Its literally nothing but ways to remove employees

Ah no problem, desu I did consider giving the sword the GFB and Booming Blade Cantrips as the class has War Magic, and the player who's using it wants it to be the most weeb sword ever so i could give it misty step... maybe in its completed form... idk seems like a bit much tho.

bump

It's effectively a 5d8 damage that rolls over to other targets if there's too much of it, or 7d8 if cast at level 2. It has NO save and NO attack roll. Also good range.

Compared to chromatic orb which is 3d8 (up to 4d8 as a level 2 spell) that can miss.

The only issue is if enemies are sleep immune or wake each other up like they know what's going on.

>tiefling bard
user...

So what you are saying is that you are so incredibly adamant to never do magic weapons that you instead modify monsters to avoid them having resistances?

Who hurt you, user?

It took me two seconds on google, don't waste space in a general with a pointless bump.

Use out of combat. Most townfolks have low hp.

No, it's 'There is no catch-all magical weapon category'.

'Resistance to non-magical weapons' is not a thing, not because magical weapons don't exist, but because every magical weapon does not beat every problem.

Thus, the current system of 'Fighters need a magical weapon at some point and then they're golden for life' isn't a thing. Rather, the idea is the party prepares for dangers they have ahead by choosing whether they'll take these repellents that keep insects away or this bomb or that one holy sword that doesn't really like being used on anything that isn't clearly absolutely evil or the caster preparing suitable spells.

Why do you hate martials so much?

Unlike damage, however, it has no effect if it doesn't knock the person out.

>but because every magical weapon does not beat every problem.
Shit mentality that should've died in previous editions.

Wut?

So basically, you're modifying the entirety of the monster manual on the fly because you dislike magical weapons.

Got it. I too yearn to fight werewolves with 600hp.

May I inquire as to why you're trying to make an already simple system even more simple?
Because if nothing has resistance, a party can literally just blow it the fuck up, so the idea of having to "prepare for dangers" goes out the window.

I'd've understood it more if you kept resistances but removed magical items completely, since I'm in a campaign much like that because my DM also fucking hates magical items for some reason.
Every combat turns into a super lethal slog despite stocking up on every type of utility you can, simply because nothing ever dies.

I have a question. I'm playing a Bard, and so far all of my spells that allow a Saving Throw have been saved by basically every single monster we go up against, despite me having my charisma maxed out.

What ways are there to increase Spell Save DC in 5th edition? I know there were the Spell Focus feats in 3.5e, but 5e doesn't have any caster-centric feats aside from War Caster so that's right out. (Oh, and before you say it: I will be dipping Warlock for the extra blasting power and the ability to wield Robes of the Archmagi)

I know that feel, user, and I have bad news - I don't know of any way to increase your spell DC. You can increase your spell attack, however.

What even is the point of having magical weapon resistance other than to say 'you can't have hirelings/guards help you because they have mundane weapons' if you, at some point, go from not ignoring the resistance to ignoring the resistance forevermore?

It's the way it is in 5e because they wanted simplicity that could apply to every game, but some people like having a few different tools to try out.

Oh, wow, I'm giving martials more options because I think it'd be fun. I must hate them.
Not saying that wizards couldn't find some level of specialized gear to use, too. I mean, for example, they have spellbooks and could add in custom spells found in ancient books somewhere.

And that's part of the reason why you use it at levels 1-4.

You're still not understanding.
The system currently is 'Wizards have to choose which type of damage to inflict whereas typically martials only get the one damage and are screwed if it doesn't work. At a certain level, martials are expected to have magical weapons and thus are no longer resisted as often.'

The way I'm suggesting is
'Wizards still have to choose damage type a bit. Martials can also choose somewhat (as, let's face it, bludgeoning/piercing/slashing right now very rarely matters unless it's skeletons or something) with specialized equipment.' which isn't exactly a previously unknown concept for 5e.
So if anything you should be criticising that I'm overcomplicating things.

Well, fuck. Time to beg my DM for custom feats, I guess.

Have you noticed that the entire thread believes that you're an autistic retard? Why do you think that is the case?

What level are you at? Does your DM allow crafting your own magic item? If so, to steal from another campaign, how about a handcone that increases the DC of your spells by 2?

>What even is the point of having magical weapon resistance other than to say 'you can't have hirelings/guards help you because they have mundane weapons' if you, at some point, go from not ignoring the resistance to ignoring the resistance forevermore?
Why is that not a good enough reason?

Portent wizards to make enemies autofail, hoping for a bullshit magical item (the only one in the DMG is warlocks only, though you might find a +2 charisma item), levelling up, becoming something that grants disadvantage on saves sometimes (sorcerer) or just fucking giving up because you're not going to increase spell DC, this is 5e.

Because the only points people have made are completely the opposite of what's going on, I assume it's because nobody understands what I'm saying.

>'Wizards still have to choose damage type a bit. Martials can also choose somewhat (as, let's face it, bludgeoning/piercing/slashing right now very rarely matters unless it's skeletons or something) with specialized equipment.'
So you've removed resistances and gone with even more complicated resistances?
Please enlighten me on how this doesn't fuck martials even more, since wizards can just cast save spells and be completely effective yet martials now have to carry around 3 different damage types?

Why do you hate martials?
Just try to think about this through the eyes of a player. You have to have the right mindset to even be up for having to deal with all that micromanaging and meticulous inventory management just to be moderately effective against damage sponges with increased health because you've "removed resistances" but basically added more resistances if you want to emphasize the availability and usage of slashing/piercing/blunt etc.

All I am seeing, as a current player atleast even though I normally DM, is that we're getting dicked on really fucking hard in the current iteration of that.

It's a good enough reason for base 5e, but I don't like it. 5e already made a movement in the direction of 'you don't need magical items', yet they left this in. I can't help but feel a magical item that's just a +1 weapon that ignores magical weapon resistance is horribly, horribly boring, and exists only really as a stat on somebody's character sheet, and that something much more meaningful would be better. Even if it has a cool effect AND ignores magical resistance, that just feels boring when you're completely ignoring aspects of the game that should be there - You suddenly no longer have to think about things like 'Oh, we're fighting werewolves, maybe we'd be better off if we had the right tools for the job' but 'Oh, we have magical weapons, who cares.'

I don't think he'd let me craft my own magic item, but he is willing to give out custom items. I started out, for instance, with a rapier that lets me use Bardic Inspiration as a free action whenever I attack or cast a cantrip (because the rapier is also a violin bow. That having been said, I really think that's kinda a shitty benefit to give me, considering Bardic Inspiration is already a Bonus Action. But hey, free fluffy magic item)

I am dipping two levels of Warlock, like I said, but if the item you're referring to is Rod of the Pact Keeper then not only is it Warlock-only, it's Warlock-SPELLS-only, thereby shafting multiclassers.

The solution isn't to remove magic weapons, it's to add more interesting magic weapons. A +1 Longsword is boring, sure. But a +1 Longsword of Werewolf Slaying that lets out a catlike hiss in the presence of anything furry? Same functionality, but a lot more fun.

>I can't help but feel a magical item that's just a +1 weapon that ignores magical weapon resistance is horribly, horribly boring, and exists only really as a stat on somebody's character sheet
Well that's just like, your opinion man

>I can't help but feel a magical item that's just a +1 weapon that ignores magical weapon resistance is horribly, horribly boring, and exists only really as a stat on somebody's character sheet, and that something much more meaningful would be better. Even if it has a cool effect AND ignores magical resistance, that just feels boring
There are multiple charts in the DMG that fix that problem.

Players do not HAVE to take the right tools and carry them around all the time. If neither the martials nor the wizards prepare themselves, they'll both have a harder time. There can easily be creatures that have advantage on certain types of saves, so the wizard can't just resort to using save attacks. I can understand an arguement that's 'Well, wizards have so many different spells so their versatility would put them even further about fighters' but I couldn't understand 'Why should a player have more than one way of damaging things?'

Where exactly resistances are changed I haven't clearly defined, so it's completely plausible that creatures are exactly as tough on average before if I balance it correctly, the only difference is that I'm saying martials should have a chance of adapting to the situation just as much as casters.

Again, as a player, finding a magical weapon is a lot more "fuck yeah" than you would seem to think.
Also, you'd just excacerbate the problem with removing all magical items.

Going an entire campaign without finding a single magical item as a martial is probably the worst fucking feeling in the world, because you're watching your wizard friends being insanely fucking good in every combat, yet you're slogging around trying to make yourself useful since combat is the only thing you CAN do as a martial, and you're essentially taking that away.

Newest version of the Zen Archer, for those interested.

Arch all day, be Zen as fuck.

>Phlan got destroyed, captured, and recently finally reclaimed in Adventurers League
>One of the bigger conventions holds a democratic election for Phlan out of the blue
>This snowflake gets elected as Chancellor
just

Alright, new question. What would you say would be a balanced custom feat to increase my Save DCs?

The Resilient feat on page 168.

Yes, making a +1 weapon with an additional effect is more fun, but it could be better if it was more looking at sidegrades - you could have a weapon out that deals more damage to things that're normally vulnerable to silver and makes a noise in the presence of fey creatures, or you could take out your weapon that works a lot better against small, gaseous, swarm or anything like that and has some other utility, or you could take out this other weapon.
Not just 'I have one sword that's the best, so I'll use that all the time.'
And if the player wants to just use the same sword anyway all the time, then sure. They might not be doing as well as if they thought more creatively, but they're not going to die because of it.

Well, the idea isn't to remove all magical items. It's to avoid magical items that have catch-all abilities that mean you have no thought with what you do.

It doesn't close the martial-wizard gap when you have a sword that does one cool thing, but there's no reason to use anything else whereas the wizard has an assortment of spells to choose from because they're all viable.

Planning on running an Adventures in Middle Earth campaign. Any advice?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I already have my spellcasting stat maxed out.

>Yes, making a +1 weapon with an additional effect is more fun, but it could be better if it was more looking at sidegrades - you could have a weapon out that deals more damage to things that're normally vulnerable to silver and makes a noise in the presence of fey creatures, or you could take out your weapon that works a lot better against small, gaseous, swarm or anything like that and has some other utility, or you could take out this other weapon.
If people cared/wanted that, it would be in the DMG already.

Kill Yourself
When you select this feat, you realize that increasing save DCs is overpowered and you should neck yourself. Thus, your character kills themself. You die, and your soul is no longer willing to return to its body, and thus cannot be raised by any means. If forced to be raised, you will immediately try to kill yourself again unless stopped.

Tell your DM to stop being a dick if they have too many creatures with advantage to all saves or whatever.

I actually got a deck of illusions on my warlock.

Question: It says until the card is moved, or dispelled.

The illusion can be 30 ft from the card.

So can I place the card somewhere, say in front of my hideout and keep the bandit illusions sitting in front of it forever?

My main piece of advice for you would be to meddle not in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

>There can easily be creatures that have advantage on certain types of saves
Not unless you actively change monsters yet again.
And that doesn't stop the wizard from just using another spell with a different save.

Again, you're plowing martials without lube and expecting them to like it?
What you are proposing is that the players have to carry around probably around 400lbs of random odds and ends, just to not get brutalized in a random encounter because it can be anything and you've removed the only failsafe card for being semi-useful.

>if I balance it correctly
Yeah, that's not happening. As much as you think it is, it's not.

>the only difference is that I'm saying martials should have a chance of adapting to the situation just as much as casters.
But why. Martials haven't got any real impact outside of combat, and you're making them have a CONSIDERABLY harder and more miserable time TRYING to make an impact in combat, and for what?
Because you think normal magical items are boring?

Meanwhile the wizard is zooming around with his 13 different spells with different saves, being the only useful character in each fight because he has tools for everything, while you are limiting the usefulness of martials.

Martials don't need to be nerfed like that, stop trying to go back to the 3e "Fuck Martials" mindset.

Or well, you can if you want to, but don't expect people to enjoy playing martials in your game.
I currently have a rogue I am playing that hasn't got a magical weapon, and I am completely and utterly useless in every single fight even with the massive toolbag of tricks I have with me.
You meet an undead with resistance?
Tough shit, you can get a flask of holy water for 100gp so you can do a whopping 2d6 damage while the Cleric annihilates them from existance.

Ask the DM if you can apply the +1 elsewhere. There's no balance reason for them to say no.

Then, take the Resilient feat.

>And if the player wants to just use the same sword anyway all the time, then sure. They might not be doing as well as if they thought more creatively, but they're not going to die because of it.

>Elderly paladin, last of his kin is going out for one last adventure in his twilight years
>longsword passed down for 9 generations in his hand.
>he knows this weapon like his own palm, he knows it will never fail him, he knows it is something he can rely upon
LOL JK M8 BETTER THINK CREATIVELY.
HEIRLOOM SWORD? MORE LIKE BADLOOM SWORD KEK BETTER TOSS THAT SHIT CUZ IT'S GARBO

Is it a good idea to have a player's dead character return as an undead minion to a villain?

>It doesn't close the martial-wizard gap when you have a sword that does one cool thing
But it doesn't make the gap worse either, like how you are proposing it should be handled.

Free action Bardic Inspiration eh, are you a Valor bard or Lore Bard? You could take advantage of that if you pick up Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade. Hmm... besides the Hand Cone I can't think of any other way besides just getting lucky, or asking your DM if they are using a lot of monsters with advantage on all magic saves.

Oh, and how does this sound for a bard magic item?

An instrument that when used, makes your proficiency bonus becomes the minimum number you can roll on a bardic inspiration die.

volunteered to DM at LGS

they only have 3 pm to 5-530 on sunday

2 hours isn't gonna work is it?

Sounds pretty good.

You could check with the player in question.
OR you could just go for it.

The former option will just make it an okay thing to do, nothing mindblowing since they know about it.
The latter will make them most likely hate the BBEG with the fury of a dying sun.

I've used the latter one and I prefer it vastly.

I'm a Lore Bard, not Valor. The Hand Cone could work, now that I look at it, yeah. The Bard Instrument sounds like crap, though, unless you mistyped it.

Because the minimum number you can roll on a bardic inspiration die is always 1.

Is a Paladin unoptimized if you aren't using PAM and GWF?

If the wizard has the other spell with the other save prepared, that is. And it might not necessarily be a case of 'you need to use a different save', it might be 'Well, the creature has some sort of magical resistance that gives it advantage on saves, but there are things that can take away that resistance for a while if you use them.'
And the case is that you don't allow everyone to take 400 pounds of whatever. Players won't be brutalized completely if they don't have what they need for the occasional encounter that isn't something with more mundane stats, because they neither must fight everything nor will everything just have straight-up immunity to anything that isn't its weakness.

If you run a game that isn't focused on slaughtering literally every monster you see and you know what an overpowered monster looks like, then it doesn't matter if the monsters are a bit unbalanced. Players can run or try to avoid an encounter that seems hard (providing they can identify such a thing, realizing they don't have what they need to effectively take on a monster without wearing themselves out too much for the day and having to rest afterwards).

Stop with the 'martials will have less impact' deal. The fighter is in about the same position as before, with more options if they choose to use it. The wizard is in the same position as before, though they might get more options as well if they're lucky.

I don't think you understand him user, he's saying that any roll of less than your proficiency bonus would instead count as having rolled your proficiency bonus.

>White room logic suggests paladins and bards are the strongest class
>Experience says fighters are fucking ridiculous
What am I doing wrong?

>The fighter is in about the same position as before, with more options if they choose to use it.
>if they choose to use it.
Oh fuck off, you're giving them more options and then forcing them to use them.

And, for holy water, it's not a case of stupidity using the standard rules. It's more of a 'Okay, so this one creature will rise again later unless you spray holy water on it after killing it' case.

If you didn't have holy water, that's fine, just don't take too long or be prepared to fight it again.
If you do have holy water, congratulations, you've made life easier for yourself.

There's even a monster in the book that's like that with holy water, and that's the point. It's not against the intention of the monster manual, it's just developing the 'lol a load of things have resistance to weapons until everyone gets magical damage in which case it no longer matters' into something more interesting that doesn't fuck over characters because they didn't get a catch-all anti-resistance magical weapon.

Repost from yesterday. Need help balancing a homebrew class for one of my players.

He made a pact with a spirit from the Fire Plane, basically the player himself is made of glass but the spirit does the fighting. The player can sacrifice his ability scores to level up the spirit.

Oh! Yeah, okay, I see that now. That's a lot better than what I misread it to say. I like it, it helps reduce the chance of rolling a 1 on that Bardic Inspiration roll.

Nothing. You just haven't seen the glory yet.

Polearm Mastery GWF Oathbreaker Paladins > any other martial

You can go play in a campaign where you play a champion that does nothing other than use the attack action every turn and just hit everything and complain if the DM ever has an enemy that has resistance to all physical damage. I mean, it might be relaxing not having to think.

How does giving martials more options make them worse?

I keep saying, they are not forced to use them, I'm not throwing in werewolves with immunity to everything but silver or some bullshit like that in.
It just might make life harder if you don't have the things, and in that case you can think of a different solution, because I don't believe in there being a single solution for anything.

Paladins aren't "Martials"