/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

According to the PHB fluff, you cannot be a druid and hate nature. But you can be a druid without a tree fetish.

Druids of the forests are overdone anyway, nature isn't just forests. You can think of other biomes. Tundra, mountains, oceans and deserts can have druids and are less tree-centric.

There should be more focused Druid types like how the Wizards have schools, Plants, Animals, Diseases, Fungi, etc.

>the "magic" necessary for a Paladin to smite something is sourced from the deity they worship.
It's like you don't know the difference between clerics and paladins

Paladins weren't even powered by gods in 2e

I miss divine magic spheres :/

Yeah I agree.

Would be cool to be able to grow a house out of mushrooms telvanni style

There's a pretty nifty fungus themed druid on the DMs Guild. As I recall, it didn't have any obvious balance issues, and the abilities seemed pretty fun.

>ask for a physical description of new player's character, an elf warlock
>eyes: elven

What the fuck does this mean, Veeky Forums?

sort of a shimmery grey

Eleven eyes man

Soulless, bestial, slinted.

Gay

It's actually possible a Paladin passively generates magic. It's not well defined enough to know for sure.

They might passively generate it over time from whatever mysterious oath source gives them power.

The difference to monks is it's not their body, but their force of will or something instrinsic to their charisma or the universe that drives their magical power.

Maybe should try asking your player instead of anonymous neckbeards on /5eg/.

So shadow sorcerers. Anyone have cool ideas on where their powers came from?

So here's what I can find in the PHB:

>Whether calling on the elemental forces of nature or emulating the creatures of the animal world, druids are an embodiment of nature's resilience, cunning, and fury. They claim no mastery over nature. Instead. they see themselves as extensions of nature's indomitable will.

>Druids revere nature above all, gaining their spells and other magical powers either from the force of nature itself or from a nature deity. Many druids pursue a mystic spirituality of transcendent union with nature rather than devotion to a divine entity, while others serve gods of wild nature, animals, or elemental forces. The ancient druidic traditions are sometimes called the Old Faith, in contrast to the worship of gods in temples and shrines.

>Druid spells are oriented toward nature and animals— the power of tooth and claw, of sun and moon, of fire and storm. Druids also gain the ability to take on animal forms, and some druids make a particular study of this practice, even to the point where they prefer animal form to their natural form.

I can't find anything like what Paladins have where they have to obey specific commandments or behave in some way.

It says they gain their powers from "nature" or a "nature deity" so if you pick a deity as your source I could see having to grovel/like nature but if you pick nature itself I feel like since "nature" is more of a concept or a neutral force it can't really tell your intentions when you use it.

I was thinking of a character raised by Druids who learned their secrets but decides to use what he's learned to exploit nature instead of serve/protect it.

They've got parents on the other side.

youtube.com/watch?v=yZAY-78zhmw

The Shadowfell
Next question

Because if you want to do something other than Wild Shape play a Cleric.

Almond shaped with prominent cheekbones. Like the Finnish people elves are based on.

>Desert Druid
>Tundra Druid
>Mountain Druid
>Ocean Druid
All of those actually sound pretty cool.

Right? Nature is complex and varied but "druids" generally seem pretty stuck with the forest motif.

I know it's because of their real world origins but since it's a fantasy game it'd be neat if they took it to the next level and made more variety to people who are supposed to connect with nature.

I would make a Desert druid who admonishes abundance of life. Only the strong should survive and all these little things living everywhere is a waste of resources.

And what about hexblades?

I do wonder about that. Do druids do a lot with inorganic nature? Silica, sand, etc?

I mean it's technically still "nature" but I usually think about druids liking living things like plants and animals.

Intelligent Weapons
Next question

I like this comic, but it gets one thing wrong. Nature isn't cruel - it's INDIFFERENT.
Your druid can be every bit as callous as a hurricane.

Traditionally, it's a tree-hugging fertility religion. So I'd say keeping an organic theme is preferrable.

Technically, wouldn't Desert and Tundra druids be the same thing?

Thinking about it, it might be a bit hard to do the others because they're in different environments- You'll probably visit more forests than deserts. Or so I would think. But at the same time it would be nice to have the options.

At least a rainforest druid would be interesting.

>Druid isn't anything like Swampthing

I guess you could also mean "cruel" in a heartless way?

Because they (or some of them) are ruthless in ensuring their survival vs the survival of others.

I think cruel could bring thoughts of needless cruelty but I think it can also mean heartlessness where a being doesn't have empathy for other creatures.

So it's like they aren't twirling mustaches and going out of their way to be harmful but they are violent and heartless in their means of taking what they want.

I want some of those things he hasn't tried

Most plants are heartless, but there are exceptions, like the artichoke.

Swamp Thing has a top shelf Apex Level waifu

...

how would you remake the shaman for 5e?

>Swamp Thing
What is he up to these days? I haven't read comics in a decade an apparently he has wings or something?

Play a druid or cleric and refluff

Last I heard he defeated the Machine Queen and Anton Arcane or some shit, but that was a few years ago.

There are Five Primordial Aspects or whatever the fuck they call them now.

The Green, the Red, the Rot, the Grey, and motherfucking Roboniggas (the Metal?)

Druid subclass, with a spirit animal companion.

What's your favorite homebrew?

So, I went and reread my PHB, and it turns out that you guys are totally right.

Somewhere along the way, I started describing something incredibly similar to a monk.

Mechanically, it's very different at least. I'm going to have to start my entire fluff over. Fucking kill me, please.

So how exactly does Hexblade/Stonesorc work? I've seen people say it's pretty busted, but I don't really see it being any worse than a normal sorcerer/warlock setup, beyond the con-based AC.

>wouldn't Desert and Tundra druids be the same thing?
yea probably. I think Desert would be more aggresive and Tundra would be more conservative.

Desert
>Only the strong survive, this is such a waste!

Tundra
>Don't waste that! Do you wanna die?!

Shame he can only bang her by possessing Constantine

You admitted you were wrong on Veeky Forums. That's punishment enough.

Literally nature cleric with find familiar

I suppose you could try to model your character around actual Celtic Druids, or at least what very little is known about them.

What monsters would be suitable to:
>Face a level 3 party
>Be sentient enough to have been trained by a hermit squatting in some ancient ruins
?

Can goblinoids be trained?

What's a good way to build a character focused completely around Dragons? I know Dragon Sorcerer's an obvious choice but I wonder if there's anything else.

tools.goblinist.com/5enc

Dragonborn Dragon Sorc of the Dragon

If the Goblinoids recognize the hermit as their Leader, sure.

>shadowrun.jpg

What's a good mechanical servant for an artificer?

So does a Lizardfolk Moon Druid with a dip into Monk for AC and DEX attacks in all forms work?

Giant clockwork owl is pretty cool

Hexblade lets you smite better than a paladin can. Think about it this way: A paladin can exchange one of his precious spell slots for 1d8 per level. A hexblade, with the new invocations, can get 2d8 per spell level, he gets access to higher level spells faster, and they refresh more often. Using the guidelines for adventuring days, a warlock with these invocations can smite more times in a day than a paladin can. And his smites deal more damage. Additionally, pick a ranged weapon to do it, and you can ignore most forms of cover.

A pure hexblade, with +5 to dex and cha, bladelock, and sharpshooter (easily doable with variant human), and the extra attack, moon bow, charisma to damage, and ultimate blade invocations invocation, can deal on average 100 damage in a smite.

But where it gets really crazy is adding sorcerer levels. Because the warlock smite doesn't cap damage like the paladin does, and it has no level requirements.

So take hexblade for double crit range, take it to level 3 to get blade pact, and then 17 levels of sorcerer. You get access to 9th level casting, and can use that 9th level slot to smite for 18d8 in addition to your attack damage.

>hexblade
>dex

>hexblade
>moon bow
read again, asshole

The fluff isn't necessarily bad, user. I mean, fuck, just look at the Arcane Trickster and the Sorcerer- two people that have totally different methods for pulling on the same thing. Nobody says that Monk has to be the only ki-centric class around.

My party is going to be spending the next session manning a ship traveling down the coast. What are some good sea/ship-based encounter ideas that aren't just pirates?

Lizardfolk already get AC on all form, its natural armor isn't a special sense (Dragonborn druid can also use breathe weapon in all form).

Most high tier beast has more STR than DEX. The one with high DEX will attack with DEX already.

>Not waiting until you crit for 36d8 damage

You could have a "storm" consisting of water elementals attacking. Maybe some kind of flock of flying creatures, etc, etc.

Krakens or other sea-beasts, sahaugin, flying half-blue dragon monkeys hell-bent on revenge, pirates but one of them has a pet parrot that is secretly a wizard cursed to look like a parrot

Alright sweet. Need a 3rd level character for tonight and I'm kindadrunk so I didn't know what I was doing with it.

I let my player play a psionic refluffed bard. Fluff is the easiest thing to change.

Hmm.. actually I'm wrong on this.

sageadvice.eu/2016/12/25/do-draconic-ancestry-and-fey-ancestry-stay-in-wild-shape/

If you're going to start at level 3 though... Barkskin will be better than a monk dip. Pass without trace and also give your party a lot of option.

revenge of the titans?

Oh, shoot, I messed up. I forgot the most important thing:

Curse Breaker lets you smite as many times as you hit.

So if you hit twice with your cursebreaker, you can expend two spell slots, and each has double the chance to crit against your target thanks to the hexblade curse.

So, max damage possible I believe:

2 Paladin
5 Warlock
13 Sorcerer

You get the extra attack, curse breaker, and one free invocation (improved pact is probably best). Paladin you get divine smite. Sorcerer you take as stone.

Strength and Con are your attributes.

You attack twice with your greatsword. When you hit, spend the highest level sorcerer slot you can. Since you count as a 14th level spellcaster for multiclassing purposes, you have 1 7th level spellslot, 1 6th, and 2 5s. On the first hit, you spend a 7th level slot for your warlock smite, and a 4th level slot for your paladin smite. On the second hit, spend a 6th level slot for your second warlock smite. All in all, the damage is (assuming +5 in str, and +1 from magic item bonus invocation): 31d8+12, twice as likely to crit. On average, that's 151 damage before crits.

Yeah, I messed up and got the invocations mixed up. It's corrected in the above, and still works, though not at range.

Now she's the Avatar of the Rot. They've still had full-on gross Avatar sex, but it fucks up their bodies and shit.

I've always been partial to MMO characters akin to that of the Warlock in WoW, Summoner in FF11/14 or otherwise casters that are more focused on damage over time and debuffs. If possible, I'd like to work out a caster that relies more on debuffs and poisons and (not necessarily, as there will be a party) a pet. Can I get a few suggestions of a good foundation to work on somewhere around level 10?

paladins can also smite as many times as they hit.

So add another 5d8 into the damage calc.

And if you get to use the stone teleport feature, that's another 15d8 from more warlock smites and paladin smites, as well as 2d10 force, and the damage rolls for the weapons themselves were forgotten (6d6 assuming all three attacks hit), meaning an average burst of 262 damage. Who needs to cast spells anyways? Your character just literally teleports behind them.

Druid or Cleric

Well a lot of older cultures thought seas/volcanos were alive, so maybe you should try looking at it in a different view.
Like how the deserts create mirage, you can base your sand druid as some kind of tarot card reader/omen teller-- except with sand.

> spend many resources
> still can't instant kill Tiamat

Bard with spells like Tasha's hideous laughter, silence, slow, hypnotic pattern, etc.
Viscous Mockery as a standard attack
Go Lore Bard and steal the best spells to suit your flavour.

What's your suggestion then?

Hard Mode: No Nuclear Druid

Right now I'm thinking of playing a character who was the Gardener for the king before there was coup to overthrow him and demolish the city. He was saved from the explosion by animals sent by either the goddess of nature or a fey spirit that rescued him.

Should I make him Nature Cleric, Druid or Fey Warlock?

What other class combination is allowed to spend 22 levels of spells in the same turn, and at such a wonderful exchange rate for damage?

Compare the 7th level Finger of Death, which deals 1d8 per spell slot, instead of 2d8. Also, with the possibility of being saved against.

There's literally no better use for spell slots if you're trying to kill things than the warlock smite options now. The severe multiclassing just lets you spend them the fastest.

How does a city explode

storm giant quintessent. a living storm...

All of those sound like winners. It depends on how dearly and in what light your character holds nature.

Fey Warlock

It's a very high fantasy setting and it was basically a shit load of magic from a possessed Wizard tearing a hole into another dimension.

Basically a disney representation of that one character who loves nature and is very kind.

Blade or tome?

Fey Warlock
Tome

Do you consider Planescape canon no matter the setting you are running, homebrew or not, or you create/choose other planar cosmologies?

Planescape is fucking cool.

Bladelock is sweet as fuck with the new invocations.

I'd say Chain, then Blade.

Lore-wise, how does Oath of Conquest work?
Very new to tabletop RPGs and I want to play an 'angry crusader who seeks to destroy what he views as evil' while remaining at least ostensibly good and being charitable to those he views as good
Would that fit Oath of Conquest? Or more of an Oath of Vengeance?

I like Rand Al Thor, from Wheel of Time as an example of Oath of Conquest principles: He dislikes the necessity of violence, but it is so incredibly necessary that he conquer the world.

When you build a city on top of an ancient vessel with lost, broken technology and some guy with the power to repair broken things spurred on by spirits pretending to be their dead fianceé comes and fixes it and causes it go haywire as they try to abuse it to revive their fianceé.

Or when nuclear tranquility wizard comes along and fucking nukes it.