D&D 5th Edition General Discussion
>New Unearthed Arcana: Traps Revisited
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>Give feedback on the previous Unearthed Arcana:
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>New Plane Shift: Kaladesh
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Question: Who was a PC of another player in one of your games that you loved? Why?
Here's the poll for druids.
And for anyone interested in the last few:
strawpoll.me
strawpoll.me
strawpoll.me
I'm going to start DMing a new campaign next month, and I have almost nothing prepared. I could smush together a story, and a scenario, but I really don't want to do that this time. I want to run a totally sandbox game driven by the players.
What are the bare bones things I should have prepared in spite of this? A map? A list of gods, and religions? A list of random NPC names to be pulled out of a hat?
And how should I get the group to get together, and stay together in the least intrusive manner?
Reposting from the last thread because I came late.
Pile of questions.
What are some fun uses for tavern brawler? I feel like the feat is fun and a good excuse for a +1 strength as a human. I want to think of ways to use the grapple and the improvised weapons in fun ways.
Are there rules for bashing someone in the face with a shield? Like not pushing with shield master just hitting someone with it? If there aren't would it be an improvised weapon (see: tavern brawler)? And either way would you keep or lose your shield bonus doing so?
Does your hand need to be free when you make the attack to benefit from tavern brawler to make the grapple? E.g. lets say you're using a weapon and a shield and you replace an attack with a kick or healthy headbutt that hits, can you then drop your weapon and grapple as a bonus action? Ideally if the above conditions are met then start beating them in the face with your shield or your "unarmed" helmeted head?
What are some things you can do with a net, particularly getting it to actually hit? It seems like there's no way to use it without disadvantage without the sharpshooter or crossbow master feat? (or using it on a helpless person I guess which isn't as useful I feel)
I...I want to play a really filthy fighter.
A setting, so
>map
>scenario incl. political conditions and problems that might lead to quests
>religions and gods
>names, cultures, races
>some form of rudimentary history
>some pictures for your setting to use as backgrounds
You need a free hand to grapple someone, so yes. I'm not sure what kind of action dropping an item is if anything.
Presumably a shield is the same as any improvised weapon.
And all you need to use net w/o disadvantage, is to gain advantage from another source.
Optimization question: I'd like to make a character centered around Armor of Agathys. I don't want to go wild with the multiclassing though, I was thinking Warlock3/Valor Bard rest of the way, but I could also see Sorclock working out. What do you guys think?
Guys, I need your help in making stats for my robo character that I just got drawn. Now that he has been drawn I have to play as him, the character on the bottom is my friend's half elf witch so that means the robot is canon now. Help me Veeky Forums, you're my only hope.
>optimization
>uselessness of agathys
Its crazy to see such an incredible spell for the first ten levels become absolute garbage, but hey. About all you can do is maybe get heavy armor mastery and a source of nonmagical resistance to spread out the temp hp a little more.
The first time I ever played the game, as well as that of all my players. I was running out of the Starter Set, still freshly released. One of them played the prebuilt noble human fighter as Reginald Obermarle, a haughty and righteous warrior with the full power and gravitas that comes with noblesse oblige. Thing is, that guy had the knack for portraying that character right off the bat. It's been years and I've yet to see anyone play an archetypal leader of a fighter or paladin since.
On a different note, let's bring up the old shitshow of racial flight again. I've got a moth-race for the setting I'm working on, and I'm trying to decide how I want it to work. Usable only while wearing light or no armor or, in my games since I use encumbrance, not encumbered. So, anything as long as not carrying more than 5*Str score.Also, only in most of the world, in the race's homeland there are regions of magic/magnetic flux that allow them much easier flight
Of course, that's flight right from the get-go. I could limit it to a number of rounds based on level or Con mod, with exhaustion for pushing further. Maybe then becoming unlimited at level 5. But is that really necessary?
Give them unlimited flight. When you homebrew for yourself you can bake checks and balanced into your game where if you published your homebrew it could easily be OP since it doesn't come with those stipulations.
the balancing factor that flying races SHOULD use is that it requires Concentration to fly, so that you can shoot people out of the air and they can't be flying inviz faggots as easily
Nuclear Druid is fun!
Lets get in on the ground floor this time. Still looking for opinions/help with my Warlord homebrew.
Mostly wondering if any of the features seem over/underpowered, and what to do for each archetype at later levels, as well as the capstone. I THINK it should be balanced for play.
Give me your stories of times you fucked up as a GM in 5e.
>party is instructed to clear the dinosaurs out of a temple to be used later, and place supersonic beacons that project a frequency to keep future dinosaurs away
>what I'm picturing happening: party goes through temple, killing groups of dinosaurs or else herding them out, carefully going room to room and looking at stuff
>what actually happens: two members of the party enter in, turn on the beacons, the rest hold the doors closed
>big herd of peaceful plant eaters living in the temple freak the fuck out, trampling the lone guy and each other, jumping out windows, etc until their brains melt from the sound
>rest of the temple is the party going through and looting, going "huh, interesting" and the corpses of what should have been interesting encounters
Also, in that same session
>pipe organ in the temple
>one person hits an extremely low note
>hear answering calls from outside- t-rexes think their territory is being invaded
>leave obvious switch to open big as doors and let t-rexes in, thinking party will have great fight against tough enemies, jumping on their backs from elevated seating
>nope
>two of them (level 5) go out ALONE, other two go in raptor basement
>funnily enough, the t-rexes are defeated, the other two get their asses kicked by raptors
Bonus, setting myself up for failure
>next session, plan on giving the party a chunk of orange chalk wrapped in twine as part of some other mundane loot
>one player has an int 6 barb
>hoping during downtime they use the chalk to teach the barb to write his name, and carefully steer as many party members to write their names as I can. I think one besides the barb is illiterate, too
>later on, have them get summoned dark souls style to help an NPC fight a specially created boss fight
A lot of assumptions on my part. I know it sounds far-fetched, but honestly knowing my group I think it'll go similar to how I'm picturing it. If not, I can use the boss later
By making stats you mean what, allocating points into attributes for a certain class? Coming up with a robot race?
>group's DM and characters cycle again
>make a fighter named Durnhelm
>no one's figured out he's a woman yet
Anyone know where I can see a scan of the deluxe DM's screen? Seems to be the only official material not in the trove. Can't find it in Da Archive, either.
what's the plan for when they do/you tell them?
So my DM's allowing me to choose what creatures I summon with conjure animals. I have to roll a die to see how man I get though, so if I choose one CR 2 creature I will defiantly get it, if I want to summon and army of wolves though I could end up with 8 or only get 1. Is this a good way to do the spell?
Chris Perkins has a banner of modrons on his twitter, does this mean something involving Planescape is confirmed?
I like presence as a name for the archetypes.
>don't like the new style. I think having some other payment to give your ally advantage would sit with me better, something like hit with an attack up to (cha mod) enemies, allies get advantage
>invigorating dice, I assume have the same progression as maneuver dice
>capstone- get another attack? Allowing another opportunity to command allies
>inspiring presence-13th level, allies get a bonus action attack if they kill one of your targets. 17th level, allies get advantage on some saves (frightened, charmed)
>ravager is debuff archetype? Lvl 13, give disadvantage to a targets saves. Lvl 17, cause fear to all targets in 30 ft (wis save)
>other archetype, allies within 5 ft get advantage at 13th, at 17th their damage gets a bonus equal to cha mod
Keep in mind, I pulled these out of my ass and I'm drunk
>don't like the new style. I think having some other payment to give your ally advantage would sit with me better, something like hit with an attack up to (cha mod) enemies, allies get advantage
Maybe make it so you have to hit with disadvantage?
>invigorating dice, I assume have the same progression as maneuver dice
Currently the size doesn't increase, but you get another die every 4 levels (so 2 dice at 6, 3 at 10, and so on).
>capstone- get another attack? Allowing another opportunity to command allies
Seems both underwhelming and stepping on the fighter's toes to be honest.
>inspiring presence-13th level, allies get a bonus action attack if they kill one of your targets. 17th level, allies get advantage on some saves (frightened, charmed)
Inspiring is designed to be more of a healer archetype, though I like the save thing.
>ravager is debuff archetype? Lvl 13, give disadvantage to a targets saves. Lvl 17, cause fear to all targets in 30 ft (wis save)
I like both of those.
>other archetype, allies within 5 ft get advantage at 13th, at 17th their damage gets a bonus equal to cha mod
It's be Int mod, since Tactician is int-secondary, but it could work.
>Martial leader able to enable and heal their allies.
>heal their allies
>No proficiency in Medicine
I see a problem.
. . . fug.
Reposting from a previous thread since I didn't see a response:
What's a good creature of the CN variety that might hitch a ride with some Slaad as they travel through the planes?
That sounds pretty funny, and weird.
>Maybe make it so you have to hit with disadvantage?
It's the disadvantage thing that I don't like, but I get that you want to have a style with a trade-off in it. If you want to keep disadvantage in, just making an attack would be better than requiring a hit I think.
>Currently the size doesn't increase, but you get another die every 4 levels (so 2 dice at 6, 3 at 10, and so on).
In that case...
>Seems both underwhelming and stepping on the fighter's toes to be honest.
Invigorating die turn into d10s? Alternately, all rolls made by allies during the first turn of combat have advantage
>Inspiring is designed to be more of a healer archetype, though I like the save thing
13th level, allies gain temp hp equal to your warlord level/2 rounded down after each long rest. Or, grant allies temp AC equal to your cha/int, once per short rest.
>It's be Int mod, since Tactician is int-secondary, but it could work.
I must have missed that. Other mechanics that occur to me but I don't know where they'd fit-
>next attack, do extra damage equal to your int/cha mod
>use an action to heal equal to your warlord level
>if an ally has advantage, you could instead roll an invigorating die and add it to their to hit/damage (damage is probably better, everybody thinks they're gonna get crits when they have advantage)
>one archetype has bonus action movement, maybe they can add invigorating die to that movement in certain situations
>gain proficiency in another save
>advantage on personality checks when dealing with affluent people (persuadion, intimidation, etc) I think the UA samurai has something similar
>something something gain retainers/low level npc companions
>cause an enemy with a damage immunity/resistance to take damage normally
Obvious answer is chaos beast, you got no replies since there's nothing relevant in the MM.
Is Ritual Caster (Wizard) worth taking on a Druid? I'm a variant Human and I thought it might be useful for out of combat.
Anyone have that pic of the differing cat folk as advetures? It also had some rat folk on it. I believe it may be from a dragon+ article but the one I found on the wizards site is not it...
Thanks in advance
Don't worry I won't make fun of you. I appreciate it.
>that srd entry
Jesus; I forgot about that.
My players liked it, and ultimately that's all I can really ask for. As for the dark souls stuff, if they do it right I know they'll like that, too. I'm lucky to have a group that meshes fairly well together playstyle-wise, we all really enjoy story stuff just as much if not more than combat stuff, so even in combat heavy games like dnd we can end up playing entire sessions that are nothing but talking.
Any of the frog type guys. Bullywugs, the rainfrogs from volos, frogemoth (maybe their last ditch weapon, kept in a cage)
>It's the disadvantage thing that I don't like, but I get that you want to have a style with a trade-off in it. If you want to keep disadvantage in, just making an attack would be better than requiring a hit I think.
The idea is that you make an attack that's intentionally easy to see coming. Foe avoids it, and dodges right into your allies.
>Invigorating die turn into d10s? Alternately, all rolls made by allies during the first turn of combat have advantage
Hmmm, maybe. The capstone is actually the least of my concerns because >level 20
13th level, allies gain temp hp equal to your warlord level/2 rounded down after each long rest. Or, grant allies temp AC equal to your cha/int, once per short rest.
The temp HP thing is fitting but largely invalidates the inspiring leader feat. The temp AC thing could get really crazy.
My own current thoughts are: level 13: Allies within (radius) either get advantage on saves vs. fear and charm, or add your charisma bonus to said saves. Level 17: Whenever you invigorate an ally, they also gain temp HP equal to 1/2 level + Cha.
>next attack, do extra damage equal to your int/cha mod
+Int mod to damage could work with Tactician.
>advantage on personality checks when dealing with affluent people (persuadion, intimidation, etc) I think the UA samurai has something similar
Eh, I imagine someone wanting to play up the Great General angle would get Persuasion expertise at level 7.
>something something gain retainers/low level npc companions
It fits, but I'd really rather not. Leadership is a can of worms best left unopened.
>cause an enemy with a damage immunity/resistance to take damage normally
This is a perfect fit for Ravager, though.
Not exclusively related to 5E, but does anyone have any recommendations for good tablet apps for DMs?
Is that Beholder piece's ressemblance to Caravaggio's Medusa deliberate?
So are nets useful for players in any way at all? I stumbled across the net rules in an adventure and the effect seems interesting enough. How would you use/abuse nets?
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PDF reader and/or web browser depending on how good your system's SRD is
Decompressing from tonight's session of SKT with my wednesday store group.
We just too on The Morkoth.
We had stolen the Sword of the Vonindod from Iron Slag and we traveled by airship. With liberal use of clairvoyance to scout and staying above the cloud layer, we dropped the damn thing into the bow of the ship to open the combat as the rest of us performed a High Altitude Low Featherfall jump to rescue the Storm King.
So I mostly play in the adventurer's league and my level 9 wizard has, totally legitimately, ended up with a Staff of Power AND a Staff of the Magi. I'll be doing Tier 3 (11-16) adventures at a con next month, what is the best way to abuse this rarest and most broken of magic item combos other than spamming fireball all the livelong day? My wizard basically has unlimited spell slots at this point, and is nearly immune to enemy spellcasters. Other magic items are a Robe of Eyes and Broom of Flying.
I did that the other day. The motherfucker banished me, that prick.
>The idea is that you make an attack that's intentionally easy to see coming. Foe avoids it, and dodges right into your allies.
Ah, got it. I think usually in that case I'd say forgo the roll and just give up an attack to let an ally gain advantage but I like how there's still a chance to do damage, especially at higher levels one last suggestion for replacement however, once per round when you hit with an attack, you can move that enemy five feet.
>The temp HP thing is fitting but largely invalidates the inspiring leader feat. The temp AC thing could get really crazy.
A lot of feats are meant to give characters subdued versions of class features. Maybe you could be retroactively making the class feature that the feat represents...? But I understand the hesitation.
13th level feature sounds good, I'd go with advantage because from looking at the MM most things relating to saves give advantages rather than bonuses, but I don't think a bonus is entirely out of place. Might keep advantage from seeming redundant from being in so many places.
>Eh, I imagine someone wanting to play up the Great General angle would get Persuasion expertise at level 7.
It fits, but I'd really rather not. Leadership is a can of worms best left unopened.
It occurs to me, you could have four archetypes, one of which being a more social character that focuses on acquiring backing and NPC help, but again I understand your hesitation on something like this
The Storm King, the enemy caster, or that which rose from beneath?
Laugh as you make everyone else worthless.
The caster. We flew away from the spoiler. the SK helped us (and I cast enlarge on him for the laughs)
I kinda wanna keep this poll going a little while longer, sorry if I'm spamming
What's your favorite adventure and why?
What was the most memorable moment?
Share your thoughts friends
How do I make "dungeons" more interesting, or make better set piece encounters?
I thought my last session was going to be awesome, but it turned into a tedious slog where my players were never threatened (until the very end) and the combat was boring.
>PCs find a Hobgoblin outpost responsible for raiding caravans and a nearby town
>The Hobgoblins have willingly become servants of an Orc horde
>Current Hobgoblin leader manipulated the last one to join the Orcs, and then had all the goblins do a shitty job so the Orcs would get mad and execute the previous leader
>These Hobgoblins are secretly preparing the way for a massive Hobgoblin invasion
>Hobgoblins would eventually take over the Orc horde itself
None of that background or exposition made it out during the session...
>Wizard sends his hawk familiar to get an outline of the fortress
>PCs realize its pretty big and contains likely too many enemies
>PCs realize its made of wood
>PCs end up lighting entrances and sides of the outpost on fire through spells, torches, and oil
>Next 3 hours of session is me figuring out how the Goblins would panic and try exit
>All the encounters are boring and just handfuls of panicked goblins trying to just run away
>Eventually the Hobgoblin leader comes out with a handful of goblins and wolves
>Combat was still pretty boring.
>Absolutely no RP, and players felt as if the whole thing was just arbitrary
In hindsight I should have ran the burning of the outpost as an explicit skill challenge, where each failure resulted in more goblins to fight in a single large encounter with the hobgoblin leader.
But what's even more apparent is that I just made a really boring set piece encounter. It was just a big wooden fortress with Hobgoblins and Goblins.
How would you guys have ran this encounter or changed it to make it more interesting? I wanted my players to move the plot along and learn more about the motivations of the Goblins and the Orcs, and who was manipulating who.
Well that should be easy enough. I'm a Yuan-Ti transmutation wizard with 14 CON so I'm also extremely resilient. Magic resistance, poison immunity, and proficiency in con saves. I'm planning to take resilient (dex) to get +1 AC and neuter the threat of AoE spells (which the magi staff doesn't protect me from) to my wizard.
Congratulations. You won official D&D games, I would suggest showing this to every single person you know and bragging about it at game conventions.
What's your stance on creating a character based off an existing fantasy/otherwise IP?
I've realized I have a very low tolerance for it, I feel like it smacks of a lack of creativity.
I've got a guy in my group who only makes characters based off of roman gladiators/centurions/soldiers who always use two weapon fighting because he's obsessed with the movie Troy. We also have a new guy who just joined who's character is literally Geralt and Nero from DMC's lovechild, down to the fucking demon arm. He named it Zero, for fuck's sake.
Am I wrong in getting mad at these people? I understand making a character or setting inspired by an existing idea, but not something so blatant.
I see literally zero problem with the gladiator/centurion and can't imagine why that'd be a problem.
The demon arm shit is retarded.
Plenty of classes were designed to emulate one person first and foremost, though.
Well it depends on your setting. If you got the 'generic fantasy land woohoo' setting, that sorta stuff will happen all the time.
If you make it impossible for a roman soldier or a cringy demon-armed motherfucker named Zero to exist in your setting, then go with that.
Or just say 'I don't accept these characters, could you make something different?'
Elevation.
All major dungeons and fighting areas need to have multiple levels. That hobgoblin camp? Needed a higher level where scouts and/or artillery could have coordinated against the party.
He's made 3 characters that are all the exact same gladiator/centurion, and when we've asked about his character the only real design he's come up with is "He's like Achilles from Troy". I also just don't like the guy in general, but still.
That's the problem. The DMs are a lot more lenient with that sort of thing, but I know at least 3 other people (the DM included) who are constantly having to stifle groans whenever these chuckle heads are up to bat.
Surprisingly simple and universal advice.
There is no such thing as originality, EVERYTHING is based off something else.
That being said, even if you're taking your inspiration from another source, at least TRY to make it our own instead of just copy-pasting.
Also anime/videogames were a mistake.
At least its a perfectly prosaic character concept.
First, I would have put goblin archers on towers/parapets to potentially spit the PCs/shoot at them. A sentient element to add some risk to the action they chose to take which in your case ended up being basically players vs. Inanimate object. That would have led to some increasing difficulty after they set the first fire, needing better stealth rolls to continue burning without being seen or to avoid the goblins coming out to put out the fire.
Second, put something to hint at the subterfuge between the hobgoblon and the orc. Maybe after the hobgoblin worked his way into the fortress, he routed all the remaining orca and the PCs pass a burning mound of orc corpses, or mass grave, something like that. Also, once the fires were discovered, the hobgoblin would assume is was the orc or one of his subordinates coming to reclaim the fort, and he qoukd attempt to sneak out with a company of goblin guards, carrying a bunch of incriminating documents detailing the handover of power. Should the PCs encounter the hobgoblin (and rhey should, because you should put his secret exit coincidentally right next to where the PCs were at the time) the hobgoblin would declare something like, "hey, you're not (orc's name)! You made me evacuate for nothing!" And then attack the players in anger. Now they've got some strange name to go off of, the orc, to look into plus the documents (letters between the hobgoblin and orc, deeds, etc) to look through and start putting pieces together.
>>Next 3 hours of session is me figuring out how the Goblins would panic and try exit
Jesus man, really? Are you kidding me? I hope you're exaggerating.
I have no issue with people who base a characters backstory off someone, I have an issue when it's a carbon copy.
I had one guy play a Ranger who was basically Garruk from Magic. Raised on a farm, some noble wanted child soldiers and his Father sent him into the forest where he was raised by animals and talked to his Father with a magic artifact. One day the noble killed his father blah blah revenge, took the dead guys helmet and became an adventurer.
Nobody noticed that this new guy just ripped off the first character he thought of because he put some real effort into roleplaying an interesting character. He was pretty great at it as well.
> Veeky Forums here. tfw when I DM I base a shitton of characters and situations off of classic books I've read and most of the times don't even bother to change the names. They still have no idea
>Next 3 hours of session is me figuring out how the Goblins would panic and try exit
Jesus Christ, just say "the goblins panic and flee, many burning to death."
My bad, I wrote that with the impression that you were the DM. Other than that, I got nothing. You'll have to live with them until Zero inevitably gets killed doing something stupid.
Alternatively, you could talk to the Troy guy, IC or OOC and just force him to develop more backstory. Force a situation that's storytime or some shit between PCs.
Are you playing with like... fucking 15 year olds? Like, I've had people use anime or videogame pictures as their character art, but actually copying the character itself is in no way OK.
Who'd win in a fight, a paladin or a FUCKING DOG?
I have one player who makes nothing but Dragonborn Dual Weapon Gishes. It's as awful in all games as it sounds.
Worst part is I know he's not even a furry or a scaly. Just stupid, with one idea.
Homeboy playing Zero walked in to his first session yesterday, wearing a wolf shirt and a witcher medallion. Stereotypical hick neckbeard.
Troy dude is a TOTALLY STRAIGHT guy who isn't compensating for anything because he has so much sex all the time and really cool tattoos he wants to show you. He tried to branch out once, making a caster. It didn't go well, he's sworn off them ever since.
Troy guy wrote a backstory for his character, but it's just bad, everything I've heard/seen from it.
Apparently it's extensive and moderately compelling, so the DM says, but even he doesn't seem to know really what he's doing with it. Nobody at the table seems engaged in what he's doing.
That's a little more forgivable, names are hard sometimes. But typically that sort of stuff is trope-y enough/nobody at the table is well read enough to notice.
>Am I wrong in getting mad at these people?
I'd say yeah, but not wrong enough to say you should feel bad about it. It's small beans.
Take into account the level of experience your players have with these games, and give them a grace period. Or, realize that they just aren't creative enough to come up with an "original idea", meaning they don't hide their inspirations very well. Or, possibly, the setting isn't stimulating them enough to put thought into character creation.
If you really wanna be a cool guy and make your players cool guys too (I'm assuming you're DM, but I suppose you could just be talking about fellow players) try creating a faction in the setting that the players could be a part of, one that is distinctly not-roman and explicitly does not use two weapons. Give them some NPC interactions with people of those factions to keep them on track. Give them a rival, someone who maybe does that stuff you're tired of seeing but is also a total pick personality-wise so the player will distance themselves from them. Work with the player so they have a personal stake in it, come up with a nation or army and approach them with the opportunity to work out some details, but have the choices you know they'll make and don't want to see already decided so they come up with other stuff. They'll probably want to play a person from that place if they helped build it.
I'm not the DM of these sessions, but I'll definitely mention this to mine. It's a good plan.
It was 3 hours of the goblins burning alive within the fortress, and then groups of them running out, and then my PCs picking them off. I was trying to figure out the logistics of how it would happen realistically and how the NPCs would be reacting to the situation. I didn't want to just throw out ALL of the goblins to my PCs because then that would have been 4 level 3 PCs vs ~ 24+ enemies.
Then culminating in a large battle with the hobgoblin leader + minions.
No wonder the players massively lost interest.
Fuck, I know. It was painful. 3 hours of tedious encounters as they fought goblins running away. I really could have just said that, and then have them fight a single battle.
Jesus man. At a certain point player enjoyment takes precedent over realism. You surely had to realize at some point that this was not fun for your players? Any good DM would have said, at that point:
>the wood fort finally collapses, killing all inside
DON'T LET SLAVISH DEVOTION TO REALISM FUCK THE FUN OF YOUR PLAYERS. ITS NOT WORTH IT.
How would you have ran this? This was only my second set piece encounter I've ever made. The first was great and a wild blast.
>I didn't want to just throw out ALL of the goblins to my PCs because then that would have been 4 level 3 PCs vs ~ 24+ enemies.
Why the fuck would the goblins stay in the fort for the sake of fairness?
I'd have it happen this way:
Fort fire starts:
>First panicked goblins run out (just a few)
>Hobgoblins begin to round up an rally goblins
>They stage a breakout in mass.
Now the goblins have no fort, but the players have to fight them all at once, hopefully from a prepared position.
I also agree with this post
Did you make a decent investment in time in making a battlemap or setting up a diorama or whatever, or was it all theater of the mind? If the latter, I'd have just let them trivialize it totally or do a stealth check (are skill challenges even in 5e?). IF they all go, check goblins perception vs the least stealthiest type. If only the sneaky guys go, if they fail, the goblins ambush the sneaky guy by himself.
My players purposefully burned all the points of exit off so I didn't want to make their creativity seem pointless, and I wanted to emphasis "yeah your actions ended up burning a lot of these fucks alive", but then I still wanted them to fight something.
Thanks for the advice, This was my fourth session as a DM and it was the only one where my PCs were not having a good time.
I've tried to emulate classes from other games that I really liked. Mostly other MMOs.
But never a specific character. That seems dumb. Certain abilities and archetypes will naturally be modeled after other characters that already exist. So I don't mind that at all.
Mah nigga.
If players are smart they'll start realizing the benefits of high ground themselves.
>inb4 goblins scream "you underestimate my power"
My players were tasked with dealing with some bandits making a mess out of some mountain roads. They spent a good deal of time and energy setting up and waiting for the band to pass by and ambushed them. The fight was pretty one sided, but they earned it. And as they had to spend the night camped there waiting there was some good RP moments.
Are there any good fixes for Dual-Weapon fighting? I've thought about giving the extra attack without using up a bonus action if you have the fighting style.
Assuming you have a +4 ability modifier, Dual Weapon averages at 22.5 and Two-Weapon fighting averages at 22 (24.6 with Great Weapon Fighting).
If we have the appropriate feat Two-Weapon fighting would go up to 25.5 and I don't want to do the math but the +10 on Two-Handed is pretty great.
So basically on anyone with Extra Attack there's pretty much no way Dual-Weapon fighting will out damage a Two-Handed weapon by it's self. Also if you have a way to get another attack Two-Handed weapons get even better. So the only thing Dual-Wielding would have even with the attack not costing an action is it can apply on-hit effects more often, which brings it up to about the same level if you build for it.
So is removing the bonus action cost a good idea in other people's opinions?
Quick question to my lorefags. I'm having a hard time finding the origin of the Deck of Many Things.
Do we know who created it/them? Do we know why? Etc.
Just looking for more information regarding that item.
In my opinion dual-weapon fighting is usually a sub-optimal choice. However, if you play something like a battlemaster, it can be better as your maneuvers key off of you being able to land your hit in the first place. So you want as many chances to hit as possible.
Not everything is perfectly balanced. And that's okay.
Dual-weapon fighting is already really powerful. If you have any kind of weapons (or a class feature like Sneak attack) that apply effects on-hit, dual weapons allow you an extra chance to apply that effect. In the case of direct-damage enchantments, you're pretty much applying that extra damage again for free.
it was a generic magic item changed to an artifact in 3e
Yeah that's what I figured. Was wondering if they've expounded on it at all since making it into an artifact. For something to hold such power seems like they would have.
How much do you care about refluffing in your games? When I run I'll allow anything with no mechanical changes but I'm about to message the DM of a game I'm going to, and ask if he cares as I refluff my Quarterstaff as a club or flail for PAM. Just curious if that's taking things a bit far.
Dropping is free, doesnt even take your onject interaction
See, typically i don't mind, but you are asking to turn a statted thing, into another statted thing, and that can cause all kinds of problems down the road. Especially since you are doing it entirely for mechanical benefit.
What happens when he rolls a +1quarterstaff in a loot table? What about a flail? Why can your flail be a spell focus? Why can't MY club be a polearm?
As a DM i'd tell you, fancify your staff all you want, but it needs to resemble a staff more than anything else, otherwise it ISN'T a staff.
Hell, put a chain/ball on the end of the staff, or a morningstar head. Don't expect a magical version to be similar though.
It doesn't really make since to use PAM when you're not using a polearm does it?
So don't be a little bitch and try to nab it.
Why not just use a quarterstaff? A club doesn't have an opposite end with which to whack people.
I guess that's a fair point. I'm playing a Gnoll Ranger and Flail and shield feel like such a Gnoll combo to use, plus I like the idea of using the bonus action attack as my character flipping the hell out and clubbing the shit out of someone.
Though the chain and ball on the end of a quarterstaff works better.
Vhuman for ham
1 level in temptest cleric for heavy armor maybe go to 2 to get the channel divinty to max out lightning/thunder
1level in warlock for armor of agythys
Rest in abj wizard for arcane ward, take lighning bolt when you can to max dmg it 1 per long rest.
You get hit, Ham reduces dmg, ward takes dmg, deal cold
Shield/absorb elements/etc to keep ward up. You are still getting hit to trigger aa but keep the temp hp.
Bonus if you get a cleric/paladin to warding bond you
A few ideas and suggestions: youtube.com
I forgot to mention I'm autistic as hell and like rolling all of the same dice when benefiting from something like Hunter's Mark. I hate having to roll 1d6+1d8 on attacks and at least that stops me from playing a Two-Handed Paladin.
Play a War Cleric! Fucking everything is a d8, and all your nukes are d6.
You could dip into some berserker barb and then you can literally flip the fuck out and bonus action bash people with your flail.
Refluff Shield Master as you flipping the fuck out, mechanically the shove's source is irrelevant.
My last game I was an Arcana Cleric with SCAG cantrips and Magic Initiate for Shillelagh. All d8's there as well. Before that I was an Elven Rogue and only used Short Swords and Short Bows and before that a Paladin with a Longsword. I might actually have OCD or something but I guess my shrink will find out.
Actually forgot about Shield Master and I think I'm gonna take that and use a Spear or Mace. Or maybe I'll just go with a Greatsword.