/5eg/ D&D Fifth Edition General: Raven Queen Edition

Most of the adventures take place on this map, focused on the Sword Coast. This is mostly a region of influential city-states with the most popular ones being Neverwinter and Waterdeep. Baldur's Gate gets some attention from having video games set in it and Luskan's a more scummy, edgy city-state.

In short, it's a fantasy kitchen sink. If any part of the map interests you, feel free to ask. This is only like, a quarter of the continent that FR takes place in but it's the most relevant quarter.

I was lucky that none of my players knew anything about Baldur's Gate first time I ran a game for them.

I just stole most of the side quests and edited the main story a little, was a good time.

I'm playing a High Elf Rogue con man, currently the Mastermind archetype (though my DM said I can switch it since most of its features I get from my background) at level 4. I'm thinking of multi classing after the next into a spell casting class. Which has the most synergy with a Rogue?

I would really like to know whether Witch Bolt can be made into a good spell with only the published rules, and UA stuff. Barring any hax with Op combos and the like (looking at you lore wiz and twilight drood).
My experience has been that it is a terrible spell, thus far. I am holding out hope though that the /tg community can make this good, somehow someway.
My drunken thanks in advance.

>No new ones tho right?
What do you mean?

Witch Bolt is actually damn good at low levels. If your wizzyman has to choose between dealing 3d4+3 damage right now and then 1d6 damage every other round with his shitty shortbow or dealing 1d12 for the rest of the battle, it's not a hard choice.

Not sure if this was in the last thread, but this was shared by D&D Facebook

Collected UA's put into a PDF that is in PHB format

drive.google.com/file/d/0B4jAv0Wgv9taQ29RZUJiekRXMWc/view

>3d4+3
That's not how damage for Magic Missile works. You roll 1d4+1 and each dart deals the same amount of damage.

when is the friggggggin mystic

Witch Bolt is a terrible spell. Its damage scaling is fucked and its continued damage is pointless.

Suggests that both work:
- The 1d12 on future turns takes no action on your party to proc, you only need to maintain concentration.
- The damage on future turns scales like the initial damage, but you must use your action to continue dealing that damage and maintaining the spell.

Why would a wizard use a shortbow when there are plenty of damaging cantrips?

Which elf is the most "Spooky Fey" kind of Elf? Pic related.

The actual background lore of the setting is unknown to 99.99999999% of even dedicated scholars. It will never come up in play. There's nothing, therefore, for PCs or players to really have to know to understand what's going on.

For example:
Orcs are from another dimension. So are Dwarves. Literally no one knows this.
Humans are pretty much the oldest race in existence, far older than even Elves, but they did fuck-all for just about all of recorded history.
Elves are descended from extraplanar creatures, not extra-planetary/dimensional ones like Orcs and Dwarves. People DO kind of know this.
There are entire continents that are never touched on. One of them is full of the winged monkeys from the Wizard of Oz. Despite all the wizards who can fly forever or visit other planes, taking a 1,000 mile trip across the ocean to check out Continent Where Everything Is Dragons is just a no-go, I guess.
Dragons used to be stupid, wingless, magicless sea serpents, until a bunch of fucking bird people got their feathers on them.
The Sun was once eaten and destroyed. They made a new one. Actually, I think it may have been eaten twice.
Every magic user is filling out invisible forms to use energy trapped inside a reservoir that the goddess of magic is guarding, but it's not strictly necessary that people do this. It's just a good idea because before this system was in place, everyone blew themselves up repeatedly.

And all of this is before you even get to 4E, which introduces such bizarre concepts as:
A giant frog bitch dropped a comet in the middle of the continent.
Super-God was so upset by this that he copy-pasted the planet and put half of the god-like beings on one and half of them got to stay where they were. Sometimes the SVN gets fouled up and parts of the Faerun-2 gets merged with Faerun-1.
The grain goddess is literally the planet.
All the elemental planes were condensed into one, then back again.

Moon Elf version of High Elf, if you're going with Forgotten Realms.

In the forgotten realms can Monks draw their powers straight from a god, like some kind of martial Cleric?

I'm thinking of making a Kensai and I much prefer the Divine flavor over Ki.

Nobody but power gay men care.

Which are still worse than a witch bolt's d12.

The point is that if your low level caster has a 1st level slot and a bunch of fukken nothing after that, it's better to spend those actions on witch bolt then on other attacks.

>Warforged in 3e
Tons of exclusive goodie.
>Warforged 4e
Some support
>Warforged in 5e
Gets throw in the weakest UA of the bunch and forgotten forever.

All is forgiven if they bring Psiforged options next week but I'm not holding my breath.

I feel that its a terrible spell. In all games i've played or DM'd its been shit.

I didn't...is that really the case? Because that changes a lot for me.... I feel like I've been raped honestly.

I've tried homebrew stuff... I'm just wondering if there is a published solution somewhere.

I'm so happy I've only ever stolen parts of the setting for my own. This sounds even more retarded then 99% of homebrew.

>enemy moves out of range
>spell immediately ends
wow it's fucking nothing

5e FR goes out of its way to reverse 95% of the changes made by 4e, though.

Like, to the point where almost all of the destroyed nations and gods have suddenly started existing again for mysterious reasons, except for a handful of exceptions.

Can anyone answer my question about Lord Soth?

Basically, the BBEG in the game I'm running, assuming the players fuck up and let him complete the ritual, will end up summoning this guy. As someone who's only familiar with the basic lore of Soth, can someone please inform me of how he would act in typical situations (confronting the party, what he does off screen, etc), so that I can roleplay him correctly if it comes down to it?

Just about the only big thing I think anyone should really know about Forgotten Realms is the Time of Troubles and how all of that and god-stuff works now.

Gods are actually hugely important in FR. They are pretty much never touched on in adventures and most players kind of ignore them unless they're Clerics, but all the setting details beat you over the head with how important religion is to everyone, how people are constantly making offerings to shitloads of gods (even good people to evil gods, mostly just to buy them off from killing them), and so on. There's some shit about a Wall of Fuck You Atheists, but that's pretty dumb and 99% of PCs should have no reason to even know this is a thing.

The Time of Troubles, though, was very much public knowledge, and was recent enough in the past that even human PCs could have been alive for it.

Real quick, the Gods were all dicks amassing power but not giving out anything in return to the people or watching after them / the planet. Ao, Super-God, thinks that's gay and makes all but five of them mortal to teach them a lesson. A lot of them run around and kill each other, some mortals find out how to become gods, everyone learns a thing or two, and Ao reinstates their Godliness with a new catch: your power is based on the faith of your worshippers, so if you're a dick or bad at your job, your worshippers will fuck off and you'll get less powerful and some other asshole God will kill you and take all your stuff.

This also gives PCs a vested interest in faith, because you directly make Evil (or Good) shittier just by praying to the Gods of the opposition. Also, the Gods are supposed to be responsive and proactive. This is more of a DM thing, which a lot of players completely skip over, but religious PCs who aren't even Clerics or Paladins should be getting shit from their God out of nowhere if they're devout enough and the situation is dire.

>enemy attacks you and hits
>character immediately ends
Wow it's fucking low level play

Advise one shot three - four hours for a party of three characters 8 levels. Today suddenly DM the game.

Fallback three hours zombie siege in the tavern.

All that pre-4E stuff was like, super-deep lore shit from the setting creators' personal notes, not anything ever collected in an official book that was printed for sale. You can go leaf through PHBs from AD&D on, Races of Stone, and Dwarves Deep and the most any of them go into Dwarves being from another dimension/planet is "Dwarves think they were born of the rock. People say that's stupid, but no one really knows where they're from, because they showed up one day and there's nothing about them in any recorded history before that."

It's not really unprecedented because something that IS known re: "alien" races is that the Mulhorandi are literally actually really 100% Egyptians from ancient our-fucking-Earth that got sucked through a portal Asheron's Call-style by a bunch of dickass wizards for slave labor.

This is actually kinda cool. Wonder if it plans to be updated consistently though as more UA's come out.

Where is it stated that Dwarves and Orcs are from another Dimension? In fact where is any of that shit stated? I have never seen any of it referenced anywhere in any Faerun book? Except for the Abeir-Toril being split into Abeir and Toril thing I've never heard any of that shit.

I am having trouble locating the information for this subrace. Can you post a link?

I'm wanting to play a paladin that fell because he forsook the king that he had pledged himself to. The king had become a tyrant and he could no longer sit by as he hurt innocents unjustly. Would this be oathbreaker? It says in the PHB that those can only be evil.

SCAG.

>This is more of a DM thing, which a lot of players completely skip over, but religious PCs who aren't even Clerics or Paladins should be getting shit from their God out of nowhere if they're devout enough and the situation is dire.
2E's Faiths & Avatars has many deities whose descriptions explain how they routinely aid their followers.

One guy possesses Dwarves in the middle of combat for one round at a time and gets them bestial claws and strength. He'll hop from Dwarf to Dwarf within the same battle this way. His entire day is pretty much teleporting in and out of Dwarves no matter where they are, so long as they're fighting justly or for survival.

I believe it's Helm and some other Dwarven deity that both wake up their followers if they're about to be ambushed while they sleep and burn symbols into their armor in the process.

Several deities will drop healing doodads into the hands of their faithful mid-fight, or surround them with a nimbus of light that does this or that, and so on.

It really needs to be done more. Gods understand that not everyone can be a Cleric, but that doesn't mean they aren't just as faithful or useful to the religion or the world.

Thanks! :D

Treachery or Vengeance I'd go with.

I once played the same character but he became a Fighter. Which explained why he was this elite soldier who was now a level 2 adventurer.

Hey Veeky Forums, got a question about Lore Master ability to change spell damage types.

With Witch Bolt, if I hit someone with it, I can change the lightning damage to whatever? Say...force because why not have an amazing amount of force rippling through your body?

Now, since it hit, I can keep it up for subsequent turns. Can I change it to different damage types every time I do the automatic damage? Cause I want to hit someone with a Cold Witch Bolt, then warm them up with a Fire Witch Bolt, and then electrocute them, and so on and so forth.

If your DM's letting you play a Loremaster, he should just make your spell do 5d12 damage of each element and not require concentration.

There's hints all over prior to this, but this is Races of Faerun from the 3.5 launch.

One of the Creator Races (aaraea [bird race; made aarakocra, kenku, and other bird races, who then made dragons], fey [from another dimension themselves, some of whom became elves], sarrukh [lizard race; made naga and lizardmen], batrachti [frog race; made bullywugs, kuo-toa, and arguably slaad], and humans [who did fucking nothing]), likely the batrachti, made a portal way up in the north before it was covered by glaciers and tried to gate in some slave races. They got the Orcs.

Dwarves are rumored to have come by similarly, or have gated in on their own from elsewhere, but they're never explained.

Elves are just an evolution of fey resulting from their being out of their home plane for so long and/or intermixing with other non-magical species.

Giants and dragons, two races that are ostensibly old as shit, are actually historical newborns in the very, very expanded history of Faerun. This is all information for DMs, basically, it's not anything that even NPC scholars would necessarily know. It's there if you want to run a sweet campaign where the party discovers the true history of dragons or something.

That would be dope, but I think I'd like it, thematically, where some enemy takes damage, and then every few seconds a new ripple of different energy rips through their body.

That actually sounds pretty neat. I've had both Bahamut and Ehlonna interfere, when in dreams, the other with a sacred ancient tree which bore magical fruit, but the worshipping players were both cleric and paladin anyway.

How would Mystra and Torm aid their followers like you mentioned?

Warforged Subraces.

Really want the following.

Psiforged
Scouts
Baseline
Adamantine

Definitely will do. Thanks buddy.

The Orcs one I believe but the two or three different suns thing. Dwarves coming from another plane though seems unlikely they as far as I know just popped up out of the ground at some point and started interacting with other civilizations.

Thinking of multiclassing a Life Cleric of Ilmater with a one or two level dip in Monk. Would I get to apply Divine Strike on all my unarmed attacks?

>raven queen
fork this general

He's going to make a wall and make the faithless pay for it.

A wall of the faithless warlock is a great idea.

This is partly why I'm not a fan of the cleric class. In ancient cultures gods were a part of everyone's life and not just the clerics.

>This is partly why I'm not a fan of the cleric class. In ancient cultures gods were a part of everyone's life and not just the clerics.
But not everyone pledged full devotion

I kinda want to homebrew a specific Wall of the Faithless Warlock who gains access to making Barriers and some free casting of Wall Spells with invocations.

It's a shame I'm lazy as shit.

I'm looking for good minions that grapple and are under CR 1 or 2 at the highest that fit with an aird possibly undead locale

Any suggestions?

The adventure paths also give you the tools to set it in other settings.

Basically Darth Vader

Not really any new mummy/yuanti stuff though, right?

The Sword Coast book says quite plainly that most people know the gods torture everyone when they die, cuz they're dicks.

Oathbreaker is very dope, I'd go with it.

Lawful Evil people can behave indistinguishably from Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Good people, 5e alignment is basically nothing like that of prior editions.

Does he have any sense of honor, or would he be willing to stoop to dishonorable tactics to combat the PCs? It's stuff like that which I'm worried about.

>In ancient cultures gods were a part of everyone's life and not just the clerics.

What does that have to do with the cleric class?

Cleric class = God gives you powers, and sometimes messages.

Clerics are not necessarily priests, and they are not necessarily any more faithful than your average Joe.

Depends on whether you want the creature to be GOOD at grappling, almost any creature can grapple.
Skeleton dogpile is an okay option.
Zombies are probably going to be your best bet since they have better strength than the skeletons.
There is also Ogre zombies and Mino skeletons at cr 2, other than that, there isn't really much enemies that are good at grappling.
But remember that multiple grapple attempts will usually work pretty well.

Anyone got this?

Lord Soth does have some honor, especially when its something he can afford to be honorable about. However, if you push him he can become unpredictable. He gets what he wants. And what he wants is to play video games 24/7.

Hercules, Theseus and 90% of Greek heroes don't fit the Cleric template but were favoured by the gods and given messages.

Now that we have the Psion, the Artificer, and the Hexblade, the only 3.5 classes I want that haven't been added yet are the Marshal and the Factotum.
What old classes do you all want to see in 5e?

I'm starting a one shot at level 5 and the DM is giving us two common magical items (which there seem to be only like 4 of, or an uncommon magical item. Any suggestions for a bard? It's probably gonna be some sort of arena competition.

Alright so correct me if I'm wrong here.

A Valor Bard at level 10 can learn the Cantrip Magic Stone with their secrets to attack for 1d4+CHA damage with a sling. Then use Swift Quiver which never specifies arrows to make 4 attacks for 1d4+CHA+Sharpshooter damage.

If this works does it mean Bard's the best option if I want to use a Sling?

also be a halfling

Shit wait. Magic Stone makes it 1d6 which is even better.

Why else would I be using a sling?

Oh good I'm not the only one who did this

Like stuff from Volo's? No, Rise of Tiamat was released WAY before that, but you can easily add those in. There is however a mummy lord that can cast wizard spell.

It's a solid campaign and the side quests are fun.

I loved pulling the guy in the tavern who rants about how adventures destabilise the economy and the guard captain with the cursed sword that makes people berserk.

ripping off crpgs that your friends haven't played is a time honored traditions of first time DMs

Related, but I ran phandelvar for some coworkers and just made the black spider him into Jon Irenicus, even did the poncy affectation

I once ran a game for my players that ripped off the original final fantasy game entirely

Even the part where half the spells were bugged and did nothing?

Well, it was a 3.0 game so yes

Hercules would unquestionably fit as a cleric, actually. Only problem 5e clerics aren't particularly ME CRUSH PUNY THINGS: THE CLASS anymore.

>but were favoured by the gods and given messages.

Can't think of any that are even the tiniest stretch of being a cleric, other than that, of course, most divine favor is subtler than BlowingShitUp. But in D&D terms, especially 5e, still fits perfectly as cleric.

Toushay.

What are you even saying? Hercules whole thing was being strong as fuck, not being wise and healing people. He'd be some kind of barbarian or fighter.

Were the only permitted classes fighter, wizard, cleric, bard, rogue, and monk?

Flavor wise, he fits perfectly as a 5e cleric.
Mechanically, he fits perfectly as a strength cleric in 3e or 4e.

Fighters in other games and editions doesn't necessarily map well with 3.x's incredibly gimmicky, non traditional fighters -- 3.x fighters are more goofy weirdos who run around with spiked chains than sword and board heroes.

I once ripped off the entire opening dungeon of Planescape Torment, like room for room. Including Morte.

Oh I remember, believe you me. The first TPK I DM'd involved a spiked chain fighter as an enemy.

Enjoy a map for your collections.

Alright, thanks for the help.

Disregard last map, I posted the wrong version. This one is better.

This was added into the AD&D setting for two reasons

1- The blackhearted bitch that stole the company had a bug up her ass about how PCs couldfight gods in 1st Ed since it offended her good Christian sensibilities so they made all gods all powerful and impossible to challenge while everyone had to worship them

2-IAll powerful impossible to challenge gods meant the faggot in charge of the FR setting got to railroad you in every adventure so you always had to buy the next book/novel and his own self insert character would get shoved down your throat

then the company went bankrupt

Good times

It can be whatever you want it to be, hopefully (I'm not your DM)
Given his oath was to a king I'm guessing he was originally Oath Of The Crown?
Given that the king became a tyrant perhaps your Pally swears a new oath to some god of justice like Tyr or whatever your campaign world has, and become a Vengeance or Devotion paladin.
Vengeance might fit especially well if he's going up against the tyrant king.

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'm trying to find things that synergize with exhaustion's ability check's disadvantage. Anything grappley / illusiony / skill save imposing low cr minions would be great for this.

Nice. I had it but its a crinkly piece of crap.

Would anyone happen to know what's Mystra's stance on necromancy? And especially, on raising undead?

What would you require for a character to be proficient with all Artisan's Tools?

Its legitimate magic. She even had a Chosen Necromancer, Sammaster, although the fact that he sperged the fuck out on her will probably cause her to get bad memories and be creeped out by a necromancer.

Then again, what is this, the fourth Mystra? Why is she alive again?

If you want casting just switch your subclass to arcane trickster. You get what you need there.