/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

What are some good ideas for a Wiz/Sor build?
I'm making a new character and I can't decide if getting more spells as a Wizard is better than getting better ones sooner as a Sorcerer.

How can I make myself powerful without being in danger of dying in every fight?

My character is more of a rapier or bow kind of person.

Huh, hadn't thought of that. I'm multiclassed with Warlock myself so I could do it anyway.

If only I could Pact Blade a lockpick.

Depends what your stats are. Always worth amping up Dex early on. Feats aren't so important for Rogues.

Please tell me they're a novice DM.

>this is what people who were taught about lockpicking by mechanisms believe
Even amateur lockpickers don't break their picks like this. They're metal--thin metal, but metal still. You have to be really trying to break a pick when using it for picking.

Tell the DM to go on YouTube and check out some lockpicking videos. I don't do it myself but it is pretty fascinating.

Ask your DM if you can refluff it as a shitty dagger.
Become the lockpick.

>mechanisms
video games* Fuck. I'm tired.

I reccommended the Whip-Spell sniper combo cause it's realativley safe and won't gimp you at early levels.

Just max Dex first then.

To be fair, she is. She's also ruined the local oil economy in order to prevent cheap explosives for the party, summoned dragons to prevent forest fires caused by the party, and rarely, if ever, gets us to roll for persuasion, rendering proficiency in the skill more or less pointless.

Off topic, but I didn't know about the artist of the thread's image until now.

Nice.

>better ones sooner
>Sorcerer
Sorc is a worse wizard except a couple of tricks, unless you're willing to gimp yourself for rp reasons wizard is basically always the best choice. If you want to not die, getting medium/heavy armor from 2 levels of fighter or cleric is better than sorcerer (both of which have same or better hp/level than draconic sorc), though playing smart, positioning well, being careful and always having a get-away (misty step is great) are more important than being tanky honestly, initiative matters a lot too.

Or mending

>and rarely, if ever, gets us to roll for persuasion, rendering proficiency in the skill more or less pointless.

sounds like a good thing to me
>make a request of an npc why they should assist us
>completely logical and well thought out
>DM: okay now roll persuasion
>roll a 4
>DM: you speak like a retard and drool everywhere, he doesn't comply

>Play sorcerer
>Use quickened spell every turn
>Use main action to dodge and force disadvantage on all attack rolls

Still die super easy because there is no such thing as a tanky arcane caster

But it negatively affects anyone who promoted the skill above others.

Remember that the idea of the game is that you're able to do things that you wouldn't in real life. Being bad at persuasion in roleplaying shouldn't prevent you from persuading people if your character is supposed to be good at it, any more than being unable to use magic in real life should stop your character.

DM fiat applies of course, and roleplay is important, but it renders social characters less useful than they should be.

It's a nice image.
It beautifully done fantasy art, but I can also jerk off to it.
Truly the mark of a great artist.

in my experience, 99% of casters don't take cantrips or don't prepare it until AFTER shit like this happens.

Every wizard/warlock/sorcerer has prestidigitation. Every single one.

Here's how I prefer it to be done:
If the player makes their case wonderfully and leaves the NPC literally no reason to not comply, there's no need to roll. If, despite having a well thought out argument and making a great point, this NPC would still have whatever reason to refuse, roll Persuasion with advantage.
If you're trying to convince them and don't put much effort role play-wise, normal Persuasion check. That also goes for people who are uncomfortable with role-playing or can't think of what to say, despite having a charismatic character. In this last case I might give them disadvantage or just ask for a straight Charisma check.

Why not do it the other way? Roll and then use that as a basis for how well you give your speech?

>Stone sorcerrer

That's the hallmark of bad DMing. If the guy has a good reason to help you, you wouldn't really need to roll; or at least you'd do it with advantage, and the DC would be lower. Same goes for the contrary: if helping you is obviously against his interests, he dislikes you etc persuading him would be much harder. In extreme cases it would be impossible given normal charisma. (DC30)
And it all has to make sense. You can't change someone's worldview in a single sentence. Sometimes you might fail a roll, but you'll get a minor success, or vice-versa.

E.G. asking the king for help and succeeding on the roll doesn't mean that he's going to dispatch his entire army, you might get a squad of soldiers. Conversely, asking him to send soldiers to one of his towns that's under attack by barbarians and failing the roll might mean that he underestimates the threat and sends less soldiers than he should, but he's going to send at least a few soldiers.

Sometimes the dice go against you, and it will kinda suck because you failed at doing what you wanted. That's why we roll dice in the first place, so there's a possibility of failure. However, that failure has to be meaningful and make sense.

I just use the dice to represent randomness in the world. They're talking to a clearly defined hardboiled npc they've met and interacted with before? No, they can't intimidate them to lick your boots. They're hitting on a barmaid you just came up with and you have no idea how she responds? Roll for it, DC dependent on the gender, roleplaying and looks of the player/PC. The barbarian doesn't roll to bust down wooden doors, but if it's a randomly generated dungeon that door might have some reinforcements behind it or maybe it's made of metal.

Not him, but well said, user.
Kudos.

How do you guys deal with sleeping enemies?

>Party manages to sneak into a bandit camp
>creep into the tents with daggers ready

now do they just automatically kill them or are they still rolling damage and hoping they kill them in one hit?

I'd make it an auto kill. If they have the ability to sneak up on someone completely defenceless I see no reason they'd fail to kill them.

Grapple check to shut the bandits mouths or the shadow monk casts silence.

Then they simply slit their throats.

Insta-kills. Common sense should always come before rules-lawyer'ing.

I have them roll a collective stealth and attack roll. If they do well on both of them, I let them gank whoever they had planned on ganking in the particular scene.

If they fail the stealth, they're seen before they get to them. If they fail the attack, they don't automatically kill the guy and they struggle for a little bit (how so in detail depends on how they were trying to kill them), and combat resumes as normal after some narration.

how about something stronger or bigger than a bandit?

an ogre?
a giant?
a dragon?

Does anyone have any creative ideas on making a legitimate spellbook if I become a Wizard? I want to impress my DM and be creative, and making a spellbook IRL seems practical and would also help me get in character better I think.

I don't think I can afford to buy a leatherbound tome of empty pages, even if I could find a place that sold it.

Could a lucky attack kill it in normal combat? Then yes.

If not it's advantage.

I'm (), and in that case I offer the same mechanics if they can describe how they're doing it in a way that would actually work out.

If they go "I'm a high enough level that it should work," or something like that, I say "you're a high enough level to face them in head-to-head combat and wear them down, not insta-gib them when they're standing guard unless you can get creative."

Nice, that's a good way of doing it.

Glue plain cardboard to the outside of a normal book or just tear off the top layer of the book's cover, then draw runes and magic looking shit all over it.

Maybe print/cut out some runes/symbols and glue them on, maybe a few of the same in the one spot, so that it's got a 3D thing going on.
After all, a spellbook isn't a spellbook unless its something you wouldn't confuse with a normal book.

Ideally, get one with more pages than average.
Spellbooks tend to be THICC

I kind of feel like using cardboard would make it look shoddy and amateurish, I want something that looks like it was professionally done but with materials that aren't too expensive.

Get a normal binder, buy some leather or whatever material you desire, cover the outside of the binder in the material and make sure the ends wrap around the binder. Staple or otherwise fix the ends of the leather to the inside of the binder. Decorate the outside as you see fit.

I've never done anything like it, but this is how I'd do it.

Get some thing chipboard then.
Hard enough, weighted but not heavy and you can cut/sand the edge into neat shapes then use said shapes to, if you want, cut the pages so the book is uniform in design.

Chipboard is cheap as chips, mate.

I own one of these. Haven't used it for anything because it's so elaborate it seems like writing anything basic in it would ruin it, but it only cost about £15 and would look awesome as a spellbook.

thin chipboard*
Fuck me.

That looks sick as fuck, where you get it? I'm not in the UK unfortunately.

How do you get your players to roleplay? Is roleplaying necessary?

Case in point, one of my players was trying to get a powerful fairy to help the party defeat the BBEG. The player, said "My character explains to the fairy that the BBEG will kill him if not defeated, that the BBEG is evil, and that the BBEG is hurting nature"

I asked him to do all that in character, and he said he would prefer not to. This is a common theme with this player in particular if he's playing a charisma based character. Otherwise he just stays in the background in NPC interactions offering tips to the face, but actually playing within the game. The other three players, while not incredible actors by any means, all attempt to say things in character.

I got it in a Christmas market a couple of years ago, but it looks like they're available on eBay and similar at a higher cost. Not sure what your upper range is.

ebay.com/itm/SCARFED-3D-WOMEN-FACE-SMALL-HANDMADE-LEATHER-JOURNAL-NOTEBOOK-1-/271255315359

Or Google "3D leather notebook" and have a skim through the results, there's similar-but-not-the-same options with animal faces, masks, etc.

you cant force people to roleplay
also at least he actually came up with a argument instead of treating a cha roll as mind control

if you really cant deal with him not speaking character then kick him out of the group.

It's part of the game, but bear in mind the sort of people D&D draws. Socially-awkward nerds who don't like talking up too much and feel self-conscious in these situations.

I'd say if he's offering something, just run it on rolls. It's not his fault he's not dramatic. You wouldn't ask someone in a wheelchair to roleplay climbing over dangerous terrain.

Instead of asking him to "say it in character", ask him "How exactly do you explain all of that to the fairy?" And obviously, roleplay the fairy during the entire exchange. Usually when you adress them as the NPC they might get more comfortable with role-playing, since they're not the only ones making a fool of themselves. Make silly voices and impressions, go all out.

Take the player aside and ask them why they're not comfortable with role-playing, and what could you do to help with that.

Talk to him outside the game, there are many things to be gotten from rpgs and he may not enjoy roleplaying at all and prefers to just describe what his character says. If that's the kind of play he wants and you aren't willing to gm that then the only real solution is to find a new player; otherwise, one of you must compromise or change.

>You wouldn't ask someone in a wheelchair to roleplay climbing over dangerous terrain.
I hate it when people use these kinds of examples, they don't compare at all. No fucking one roleplays physical shit at the table unless they're LARPing. On the other hand, communication is a major part of D&D, it is after all a social game. If all you wanted is the mechanics, you could very well go play a videogame. Now, I understand many people are shy and feel awkward role-playing, but that DOES NOT compare to asking someone in a wheelchair to climb.

Anyone has some useful information about how the economy would work in a magical medieval setting? The players have acquired a business and I'm out of my depth. I'm sure there must be a pdf about that somewhere but I cannot find it

There are simple rules for that in the DMG. Look for Downtime Activities.

Why not?

>communication is a major part of D&D
Yeah, communication as a player with other players, and communicating your actions. That's what the player in question was doing.

You can craft a world and plot without roleplaying directly. How is it fair or reasonable to ask someone who stutters through words and goes quiet when asked to assume the role of a character to play their high Charisma creation?

Especially when you consider that they may have made this character as a form of escapism from their own failings.

Weird story bur I need a character who can kick other characters asses in the most humiliating ways possible.

Some kind of non-magical grappler would be fantastic.

>character who can kick other character's asses in the most humiliating ways possible

Okay, sure, how about ---

>non-magical

oh, nevermind then, you've already discounted the most effective ways to humiliate people.

Sounds to me like you want this for PvP. If your game is involving PvP you might as well quit already.

Needs to be something physical. If it could have a magical focus it'd be easy as piss to make a Loremaster Wizard to shit all over everyone.

Kinda.

It's for an ERP game, and my Boyfriends fetish is general roughhousing and physical humiliation.

Player says "don't bother rolling the save he can't pass the save with his -5 STR" to the DM about an enemy creature on the first turn of combat against a create he has never fought. DM ended up changing the stats but the nerve of looking it up by default is just vile.

You're playing the wrong system. Every class is magic in dnd.

Have you tried FATAL, oh ye sodomite?

Magic's fine. Just not a guy in robes slinging spells at the back lines.

Tried playing it once while very drunk and high. I got lost around the nipple size chart.

>How DARE a player exploit an enemy weakness
>now enjoy fighting those trolls, and remember, if you use fire its meta gaming

@51833383
>(You)

...

This. Speaking in third person is completely ok for me. So is delivering average speeches. As long as you're trying, and convey what's actually going on, it's fine.

>inb4 turboautists who demand everyone stay IC AT ALL TIMES BECAUSE MUH IMMURSION

As dm it sucks to roleplay a character and not get roleplay back.

Psshh, you still are just as much as an autist as him
>roleplaying

my games are 100% dungeon crawls, no NPCs, no dialogue at all, the way the game was meant to be played

>exploiting an enemy's weakness
>knowing an enemy has -5 to its save
Clear difference here. I kind of struggle with that as well, one of my players is a diviner wizard (with 1 level in cleric) and he DMs as well, so he constantly goes for the monsters weaknesses and avoids resistances. If a monster resists elemental damage, he immediately resorts to using Sacred Flame and Guiding Bolt.

I don't disagree with you. If a player really can't deal with role-playing, I will do my best to accommodate them, but I will still talk to them and offer any kind of help I could. Pretty much just trying to show them that D&D can be much more fun when you really engage with your character and immerse yourself in the experience. And then I'd give them time to warm up to the idea, all the while encouraging the whole party to not only engage in conversation with NPCs (which most players usually do) but also with the other PCs (which in my experience is both much less common and much more immersive).

I have a nice human only (or at least 95% human) setting worked out and was thinking of changing base human stats a bit.

Humans can still take a feat (variant) but they also get the following effects:

No pick your own skill, one of two cultural tied skills. You may also pick both and then only take one from your background.

+1 to any two, one additional +1 based on your culture group. Can forgo a feat to take +1 to all and +2 to one.

Varying starting gold / equipment ranges based on culture.

Is this a meaningful choice or enough of one to sweeten the deal? Or is it just a bunch of nothing?

just let them take any other races features they want.

>live in the same world where this monster exists
>presumably literate
>have heard of said monster and know it has very low strength

How does and I unconacious character roll against a grapple contest

Allright get this.
Living beings will struggle out of reflex especially during the process of dying.

What will you do when they make noise and wake up the others.

Thus a grapple check to keep their mouths shut and keep them from making a rucckuss.

I was thinking of maybe using something like this as a sort of spellbook for my Wizard. Any thoughts? It's cheap and its "leather" and has weird little charms on it, but on the off hand it only has 85 pages. I was thinking of writing in the information about each spell I have and maybe some d&d-esque science-y stuff like mini sketches and diagrams to make it look like an intelligent wizard did it, something along the lines of pic related.

Any thoughts? I'm getting very excited about doing something but my lack of drawing skills and my shitty handwriting is making me feel like it'd be silly...

You'd be surprised how little people would know about the outside world when pretty much everything is either a supernatural creature designed to kill people or a regular animal with "dire" slapped on the front of it just to let you know it's triple the size and hungers for manflesh. Now if you said "hey that thing is clearly an atrophied corpse, maybe if I try to pin it down" or "gee that wild animal probably isn't very smart" that'd be cool. Just don't pull the "I read it in a book once" shit in a world without the printing press unless you actually make a knowledge roll.

>lack of drawing skills and my shitty handwriting
Wizards don't have time to learn how to draw well or write well, they're focusing on learning spells, nigga.
Having shitty non-essential skills makes it more authentic.

Besides, that's cool as fuck.

I guess that's true, but I'll still be insecure about it.
Fuck though, I just found an even better one that is outside my price range. It looks gorgeous though.

Arcana TODAY hype.

>my games are 100% dungeon crawls, no NPCs, no dialogue at all, the way the game was meant to be played

Considering the original goal is to amass wealth, and not kill monsters, to progress you're flat out wrong as you would likely have to converse with monsters.

It's a start but I was looking for something a bit more extensive and indepth

>my games are 100% dungeon crawls, no NPCs, no dialogue at all, the way the game was meant to be played

>Brûler les mains
more like Mains Brûlantes

>Devoilier arcana tous presents
kek I hadn't read left page

Where did you get those from ?

Wow, that really is gorgeous.
If you really want it, just save up for it.

I hate hearing "outside my price range".
Sure, if something is several thousand dollars, I can understand that, but come on, user.

Would it unbalance anything major if I let Monks grapple with a Dexterity (Athletics) Check?

The thing I really hate about these books, is how they have all this lovely binding and cover and shit, but the paper is straight up Printer White

Oh shit I have that miniature

I'm pretty sure they're all different flavors of Fighter.

Peacekeeper might have taken a dip in Rogue though.

I love this.

I meant as NPCs/monsters, if I wanted to throw them against my players for funsies. You can find so many pictures of fan-made stat-blocks, I was just surprised these haven't been made yet.

This Masked Killer is pretty much dead-on for Peacekeeper, I think. For example. Though if someone wanted to just build them as PCs and make a pretty picture of that instead of doing custom NPC/monster stuff, that makes sense.

>blocked by a thing sheet of lead
Turns out that magic was just radiation all this time.