/5eg/ D&D 5e General

DnD 5e is the simplest system I've learned that wasn't explicitly designed to be rules-light. Everything you need to understand the game is laid out easily in Chapters 7, 8 and 9 of the PHB, then Chapter 10 to understand how spellcasting works and Chapter 5 for what kind of gear there is, then you can go through standard character creation to get a firm idea of what a player goes through.

And for encounter design you've got the DMG.

Here's the thing. If you have an understanding party, you don't have to read every facet of the rules. In fact, nobody does. You get a general understanding of the rules, then look up details as you go along in the book, as needed.

Write a story, make it have some multiple choices for flavour, run your party along some simple encounters. Do a small session first, once you have the basic premise down and are interested, get a little larger. Then again, if you want. Or fuck, keep it small, if that's comfortable. It's a game you make man, it's all according to your designs.

>I don't know if it's really too complicated for me or if its just because I'm not intimate with them
It's probably just because you're not familiar with them. 5e is a pretty simple system, particularly compared to previous editions.

Watching videos about 5e would be a good primer, and I'd also suggest checking out Lost Mines of Phandelver from the Starter Set. It was a pretty decent guide for me when I was starting out.

Is it weird that aside from the Mystic stuff so honestly hoped it would be about food and provisions in D&D?
I dig learning about food and stuff.

Mantle of Command, Pillar of Confidence, Aura of Victory and Mend Wounds all benefit a Necromancer. Note that the benefits start going away after 5 or 6 allies.

yes. yes it is weird. they'd have to be pretty fucking creative with the food to keep from provoking the tardrage.

Monk's role is dubious only if you don't read the class abilities. With high mobility and many (weak) attacks that he can ride effects on, he's clearly meant to run interference and bumrush problematic ranged enemies.

It's not hard at all to build whatsoever, again, if you read the class abilities. Like, alright, I get your point - comparatively speaking, it's easier to make a bad monk than it is to make a bad character of other classes because of their MADness, but again this would only happen if you don't read the class abilities, and Unarmored Defense and Martial Arts are *the* monks thing. There's no helping someone who can't read the basic rules of the game.

Getting past that 'hurdle', though, and you've got the easiest class to build because you've got practically no options.

Kinda right on simplicity as monks always play the same way in every single fight - your calls are mostly a choice of what to target first and when to spend your one resource, which every other class already does by default - and they get many more options usually.

I am missing it...

the joke for the last few OP's is that the new UA was gonna be something shitty like food because of the traps that was got before this new UA.

>Write a story, make it have some multiple choices for flavour,

>Tabletop game
>Write a story

Food? shitty?! That would not be shitty! You need to be taught better manners and good taste in vittles! *removes glove and slaps user across the face* You, sir, are nothing but an uncouth blackguard! *Slaps once once more, then turns on his heel and walks away*

it's a new DM who is unsure about how to play. I'm sure the players can give him some leeway for one session, carl.

alright i'm going to ignore the fedora in that sentence and tell you that while I appreciate food immensely, Unearthed Arcana is not for food.

>someone considers this shit to be good DMing advice
Do you want to breed an entire generation of shitty games?

You could see I was fucking with you, right? You're wrong anyway, UA's are for whatever Wizards decides to put out in them, whether be it food and provisions, how to dig a goddamned latrine, or even fucking mechanics for Elf erogenous zones, whatever they give is whatever we get.

Well, all of their undead have to hop around everywhere, so there's that.

Reminder that a Immortal or Wu Jen Mystic can have 22 AC at level 1.

To be fair, if you do it well, players will never know the difference between a railroad and their own fucking choices.

Do you know how learning is done? You get first a basic understanding, then add to it.

It will be nerfed, nobody, who is not an autist, actually gives a damn.

>Binder would not fit 5e
Bro, Binder would basically be
>add medium armor
>change disciplines to be Vestiges and have more varied effects within a discipline
>focuses are always active
>no PP, powers have cooldowns instead
>you pick 1-3 Vestiges at the end of every long rest
The rest is just RP shit.

Explain

Yeah, they only need two stats at 20, or one stat at 20 and shield proficiency somehow.
Meanwhile my Fighter has 21 AC the moment he finds full plate.

Would it be reasonable to request a Star Elf as High Elf with Cha instead of Int?

Trying to figure out whether to go with that or just use Actor to get that 16.

Immortal Unarmored Defense (20 Dex + 20 Con) for 20 AC, Tough Hide for +2 for an hour.
The thing about Wu Jen doesn't make sense because user is a FUCKING RETARD WHO THINKS DISCIPLINES ARE LIMITED BY ORDER, so anyone can pick up the Totally-Not-Mage-Armor power that grants 14+Dex AC, then Tough Skin, and I don't know where he intends to get the other 1 AC unless he's actually an Ardent, who gets Shields proficiency (so 23 AC).

Honestly, Inertial Barrier should be 13+Dex like Mage Armor, and Tough Skin could probably use some restriction or a shorter duration (it's an hour).

If you want to learn about foods, go read Grain Into Gold.

>20 dex and 20 con at level 1
You're a fucking moron

Actually, neither Ardent or Wu Jen could hit 22 AC at level one.

Wu Jen lacks Shield proficiency and Ardent can't have both an Immortal discipline (Tough Hide) and Wu Jen discipline (Inertial Barrier) at first level.

So you're Var Humaning for Shields (is there even a feat that gives shield proficiency?) or maxing two stats.

Ah, thought there was something hidden in the food I wasn't seeing. Cheers!

Well he's not doing that at level 1 he's probably counting the incraesed at afaint 1 attack as a reaction shit

I had a similar problem. Resolution: play a game at a beginner's table. You pick up the rules really quickly, save for the fiddly bits like grapples and RAW crossbows.

user, I'm not the guy claiming that's reasonable.

Variant Human (Moderately Armored) for shield proficiency, 16 Dex, and either Force Master, Wood/Earth Master and Bestial Form for Wu Jen, or Force Master, Bestial Form and Iron Durability for Immortal.

14 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 22 AC.

So mystics are monks right?

Also any advice on how to rename and de-easternize all the new classes? Eastern themes are not a thing in my game and setting.

Get your head out of your ass and remember that you are playing a game where wizards piss lightning out their gigantic schlongs, just like in my Chinese historical novels.

>Doesn't play as expected
Well, yes, it makes sense that he runs fast and does stuns and doesn't do as much damage, but that's less intuitive than a barbarian.
Barbarian - 'You're tough and hit things hard, grapple things around and that's it really nothing to worry about'
Monk - 'You're not exactly great at grappling, you're not exactly tanky until later levels, you're only mildly stealthy unless you're a shadow monk, you don't do a lot of damage but you're fast and your main focus is stunning enemies'
Monk is a specialist. They have a one trick pony and they go fast. Barbarian has a more general role. Same with wizard - the wizard can blast, move through walls, make illusions, et cetera. They have a wide range of wizardy things.
Honestly it's just a 'Monks are specialists and thus it throws people off if they expect to play something that monks aren't specialised for'

>Hard to build
The hard part of building the monk is that you just have to accept what monk is. Most people don't. They want to take cool feats, do this or that or play something that isn't +2 dex +1 wis.

Anyone can copy 'how to build X' off of the internet
The hard part is accepting that there's so little you can do.

>Boringly simple
Not every martial has to be boringly simple. The best approach is really fighter's: Champion is boringly simple. Battlemaster and EK step it up to make it more complicated.
But at its heart every monk turns down to 'stun shit lots'.

It's fantasy. You can literally justify it any way you want. But honestly, if "eastern themes" (read: countries that aren't fake Europe, or travelers from same) aren't in your setting, why would you bother justifying those classes? The aversion to the idea of cultures meeting in D&D is one I may never understand, unless the reasons really are the shallow "but anime" they seem to be half the time.

Yeah, like implied here I should have worded it like
'Monks have very limited options, which causes:
1. Players to not play what the expect to play
2. Makes it easy to build poorly
3. Makes them very simple'

And this is why I hate stunning fist, because it's where 85% of your ki should be going.

My current campaign is gonna be converted to 5e (from 4e).
I'm overjoyed the Mystic came out since I play Psion (another player as well).
I would like some advices for the conversion.
Minor thing: the race of the char is Kalashtar, I used it because I wanted telepathy, the race itself doesn't exist in the setting (not!Ravnica),
I used the excuse that it was a modified human, point that my DM used as a plot hook for the initial part of the campaign (2 and a half year of irl sessions).
I can just use Human at this point, since telepathy is given to Mystics.
The important feature I'd like to recreate is my Psion Focus from 4e, the Shaping Focus. Summarized, I could create from thin air nonmagical objects that would vanish shortly after (combat encounter or 5 minutes if not in combat) and I could create a spectral image of my char that could move, perceive, communicate and use Psionics powers as if I were there. After briefly reading the Psionic Disciplines nothing seems to fit with these description. Are there any multiclassing I can do to recreate these effects? Thanks in advance

>So mystics are monks right?
Fluff on the original UA mystics was that contact with the far realm expanded their mind or some shit. The far realm connection seems to be gone, though, for some reason, so I guess they do seem a little monk-y.

I'm sorry but the silk road is a far too fantastical concept that I cannot abide. Everyone knows ancient cultural borders were defended with 200 feet tall walls all around.

>Mystic level 11 ability

I would want to see the mystic in play, but there are a lot of things I'm worried about.
What red flags among the various abilities pop up for you guys? Lets make a list.

For me:
>level 11 ability getting more uses a day, up to 4
Needs to be less imo, at most two I think

>Massive, uneven jumps in psi points
Why?

>Two additional disciplines based on your order instead of just one
Calm the fuck down yo, that is already two at first level, three at third. How many options do you fucking need? Except Soul knives, for some reason?

Gotta crash, so I have to stop before the disciplines

>The far realm connection seems to be gone
I figure because it's hard to make darksun with that setting element. Darksun has no extraplanar connections.

Sorry, that 1. should probably be explained as
'Sure, you might play monks expecting to be fast and disruptive, but maybe some people see monks as being tough and unyielding and they aren't like that until the higher levels. Or some people see monks as wise visionaries, when a wizard is much, much better at divining. Or some people see it like elemental benders, and WOT4E just fucking sucks and you'd be better off using stunning fist. And some see them as weapon masters, able to hit critical points of an enemy (basically a rogue)'

This is retarded. But whatever. Say some other race created them, like halflings were the first monks as farmers who had to learn to fight with their farm implements, or a group of elves who shun magic discovered the ability to wield their inner powers.

you know western monks, the kind that live in an abbey and brew beer, are a thing right? Why not make one of those.

What' the purpose of Psionic Mastery when nothing goes above 7 points?

So if I play a Mystic but try not to break the game will I throw anything outta wack? I want to remake my 4e Ardent and so I'm mostly going to be taking the Mantles.

First draft for the open mind monk (name pending).

Shit is so hard to get right tho.

The non-martial cleric domains already fit what western monk used to be in OD&D.

They really shouldn't have gotten rid of it, it at least tied them in some way to the cosmology and made sense of their abilities.
Now it's just more Sci-Fi power-of-the-mind crap, but oh well.

>being this triggered by keeping them as they've been since OD&D
Psionics are closer to conan magic than wizards

so? you don't HAVE to use those archetypes. Maybe you have a western monk who learned from an eastern monk in a cultural exchange and decided to go adventuring with his newfound power in order to help people, using the fighting style of the east to spread the teachings of the monastery of the west. Maybe it doesn't have to have anything to do with the east, and the monk is just part of an order who figured out how to fight unarmed and got good at it, and passed down his teachings so they could be improved, and that's how it started instead. The possibilities are endless.

seriously, why do they have it?

I mean sure. For what it's worth I like monk in western settings as a way to represent NPC hedge magic, both 4e and Shadow.

In an early modern setting I would be very tempting to give groups like the jesuits a few shadow monks as trained spies.

Would it fuck up the game too much to remove the cleric and transfer some of their spells to wizards and/or magic item effects (like healing exclusive to potions?)

>being this triggered by keeping them as they've been since OD&D
There were many things wrong with OD&D.
Them borrowing shit from sci-fi was just a result of lack of creativity.
>Psionics are closer to conan magic than wizards
That's pretty farfetched, and noone even mentioned wizards.

>New Unearthed Arcana: Food and Provisions
>mysticfags btfo AGAIN

Don't move it to wizards. Give it to sorcs, they need a power boost.

>That's pretty farfetched
It really isn't. Magic duels in Conan are pretty much purely "sci-fi mind powers"

Also you're one of those idiots who think D&D should be Tolkien and Agincourt all day everyday, right?

I assume your setting doesn't have divine powers?
Refluff Theurge as a light magic school tradition or something, should cover most of that.

>giving wizards more spell options
>removing clerics but not wizards
If you're going to buff a caster, make it sorc or lock.

Also give mass healing word to bard and druid.

Not that user but don't forget Vance.

My party of 5 just had 3 players asked to be killed off so they could play mystics. This is going to be a fun Friday night.

>>m-mysticfags b-btfo again
>FORTY (40) YEARS AND PSIONIC HATERS ARE STILL THIS ANAL ANNIHILATED
Holy kek Batman, you literally can't make this up. Face the facts faggot, psionics are coming and there's literally NOTHING you can do it about.

Reminder that when munchkins ask for their character to die, they should always be forced to reroll at level 1 and then catch up.

>munchkins
How about players who want to give something new and exciting a try?

you don't have to spend it all on one thing. it's just an ability to give you free psi points.

What I love is how clearly they didn't bother even reading the posts beneath it.
It's like going into a chicken restaurant called "Black Chicken" and shouting that it's racist without bothering to discover that it only serves Asian Silky Chicken who DO in fact only have black meat and skin.

I wish. The one guy is power gamey and cares way too much about his character backstory.

I dont mind being a peripheral character, but I get the feeling that I'm going to have very little influence on the game at this point.

>Would it fuck up the game too much to remove the cleric
No
>and transfer some of their spells to wizards
Technically no but as stated by others, other full casters would be better choices for this
>and/or magic item effects (like healing exclusive to potions?)
No problem with this part though.
Please tell me you're not serious.
>Them borrowing shit from sci-fi was just a result of lack of creativity.
Sci-fi and fantasy aren't all that different. Clarke's Third Law and all that. Plus it's no less uncreative than borrowing from Conan or LotR or whatever.

Those usually ask to sent their characters away for a while, not to their deaths.

No, I just firmly believe that every supernatural effect should have a coherent source of power, because you're factually changing the universe aroung you with those kind of abilities. "Thinking hard" is a bad source of superhuman power in my opinion, because other casters/halfcasters have their abilities and where they came from explained more thoroughly.
How the beastial form discipline got discovered, for example? Did it develop alongside people just jumping off a cliff and thinking REALLY hard about how they wanna grow wings? Is it some kind of weaponized furry autism?
I know sperging over flavour that much is probably not worth it, but there is just no actual flavour. The UA just kind of mentions that they're made the same way as wizards, but they also kinda like to meditate, and that's it.

>Plus it's no less uncreative than borrowing from Conan or LotR or whatever.
No more uncreative I mean.

As a DM, what level do you usually start your campaigns at?

Most of the time 2, sometimes 3. 1 only if I want a serious intro session.

sometimes the excitement makes people forget that. or maybe they just wanted a blank slate, and not to have to worry about two characters at once.

1-3

I'm not a DM, but as a player I'd honestly say that level 3 would be ideal, because it really sucks to be a class that doesn't get the archetype abilities when other players do.
This kind of balancing never made sense to me in this edition.

How much can you change 5e before it is no longer 5e and just a homebrew?

I wanted to keep running 5e for a long time but I don't like a lot of the fantasy stereotypes and tropes in it. As soon as I start reading the rulebook I want to replace Dwarves with sheep people, remove Wizards and use their schools for Sorcerer bloodlines instead, removing and changing various classes and so on.

How much is too much?

>because it really sucks to be a class that doesn't get the archetype abilities when other players do.
Yeah, I really don't get why they gave archetypes to clerics and wizards so early.

I've been tempted to let other classes take proficiencies their archetypes give them at level 1 as well as a fig leaf.

You mean the setting? As much as you fucking like, that's forbidden realms, which isn't necessary for 5e. As for the crunch, you can change an entire class and edit others while still keeping the general shape of the rules, and it'd still be 5e. It'd just quite a bit of homebrew in place. As long as you're not changing the core rules you're not changing 5e.

Psionics come from the Weave, just like magic, in your setting they come from wherever the fuck you like.

Is there seriously a kind of chicken with black meat and skin?

Yes, mostly found in Asia.
With feathers on they look like fluffy rainbow poodle-birds with 80's hair, but their meat and skin beneath is definitely black.

They're actually pretty tasty though.

The call them Crows or Ravens where i come form, lol.

>Psionics come from the Weave
And where did you get that from?

>in your setting they come from wherever the fuck you like.
This is an important thing to consider. No matter what the book fluff says, you can always change it. I know I will (because I would have to rework entire civilisations in my campaign setting to account for the psionics not being far realm related).

That just says they really don't care about the characters they already made.

Makes them sound incredibly petty, only wanting what the newest, coolest, flashiest thing is.

The autists whining about the Mystic are over reacting and don't understand the order serve to specialise. They did it in a more extreme manner from the Cleric but still jo Mystic isn't OP