/5eg/ Fifth Edition General: "Disappointing arcana" edition

Is it bad that I mostly feel a L1 game only really works if the characters are still really young; apprentices, students, street kids and members of the minor orders. They've probably seen some shit but not so much that they can fill much of a backstory.

Forgot pic

Something with planes would be cool. Maybe they'll provide an easy way to traverse them without needing to know magic, like some kind of caster-run public transport that costs money to use.

It's not healing, it's recovering from mental exhaustion, duh. That sword didn't damage me, it just shook me up real bad.

Work magic into the setting.

Heat Metal is used for most mainstay metalworking, Clerics are often creating food for the poor, etc.

I do not expect Spelljamming rules, but damn do I wish it was it.

no martials

The poor can feed themselves.

Oh shit, wrong pic. Meant to post this.

Best spells for the Wu Jen to dabble in?

so I'm fairly new to DMing and one of my more experienced players wants to use the Runeseeker vecna homebrew.
Is there anything I should watch out for with this, balance wise? It seems like a fighter and wizard with a bunch of passives rolled up in to one.

>Psionics, in terms of monsters alone, have added to the setting more than monks ever will.
You mean the other way round, of course?
Mind flayers weren't even initially psionic, their brain powers were attributed to their unique metabolism, not some special kind of non-magic/meditation techniques. The psionic variant came later.
Also I've never really debated which powers got more exposure during the whole life of D&D as a board game, but conceptually Ki IS more defined and has more ties to the already existing cosmology than the psionics.

My players have taken over a flying island with a large castle. It's in pretty good shape apart from the walls and the rest of the exterior. They however need some way to make money to actually maintain and fix the thing.
It belonged to giants so they would also need to make some modifications, like build some extra walls inside and maybe halve the rooms height-wise to double or quadruple the room count so walking across a bedroom doesn't take 10 seconds.
Any good ways to make money to get them started? Business ideas?
If it was a regular castle they could collect taxes or something from nearby villages but I doubt birds have much gold. The island can move 3 miles per hour so the location can be changed.

How do you make a good setting?

You don't run every UA through a Anti-Mearls session?

The only non-psionic version of the Mind Flayer were the version that was published in Mags before OD&D was fully compiled, and the first run 2e version that appeared before Complete Psionics was finished writing (and that was corrected in a later reprint)

legalize gambling and turn that motherfucker into Gold Saucer

strawpoll.me/12527550

Don't lease it out as apartments. Rent it out as a weapon. At a speed faster than an army can move, it can fly in and squash any fortification.

Can always have them go in on existing businesses in the world, like if they have a favorite Smith or Magic shop they always go to, he might offer a take of the business for trying to negotiate new locations and such. Another thing is have them start a Merc company selling out low level services and completing the big jobs themselves.

We call it session 0 and we symbolically break a pair of glasses.

Are there any homebrew/3rd party conversions of the 3.5 Ardent to 5e available?

Nomad is more flavorful, Wu Jen is one of the things I'd consider if I was to ban Wizard and Sorc at my table.

>Mind flayers weren't even initially psionic

Wrong. Got The Strategic Review, vol.1 open, PSI from the getgo. Doubt there's an earlier source.

>not some special kind of ... meditation

Move dem goalposts yo!

>The psionic variant came later

Honest question: Are you intentionally spinning a yarn or do you honestly not know better?

>Also I've never really debated which powers got more exposure during the whole life of D&D as a board game

How many ki monsters or ki encounter tables have you ran into?

Yes it's called use the Avatar disciplines.

offer local kingdoms the glory of using it as a mobile staging point for sieges. You could float it over castles and have your armies fastrope inside the walls. Alternatively they could use it to ship massive amounts of trade goods to turn a profit.

>Got The Strategic Review, vol.1 open, PSI from the getgo. Doubt there's an earlier source.
Huh, I thought the strategic review version had no psionics.

The entire Mystic schtick.

Completely didn't consider the idea of using it like an airship for trade. That's not a bad idea

Where can I find more about this? Sorry I don't keep up with 5e stuff very well.

I kind of agree desu.
>"I have dedicated half my natural life to the arcane, now feel the power of my 1st level magic missile you goblin scum!"

It's the UA linked in the fucking OP you goddamn retard

Look up the UA on the official website

Step 1) Make a setting
Step 2) Improve it

This is pretty much the reason I usually double or triple commoner HP unless it's intended to be a kid. Yes they'll still die from a bad sword hit (especially crits), but they won't get killed by a fucking house cat that gets feisty.

>At level 1, you can cast a level 3 spell through your runic weapon because lol minor properties
>Or +1 AC I guess or resistance to a damage type (These are sensible because as long as you don't allow them to multiclass they can't stack it with the +1 AC fighting style)
Though
>The weapon is indestructible
Gee, giving level 1s indestructible items. A wizard's spellbook can be destroyed. A blade pact's pact weapon can be destroyed. Why not this one?

Also it seems kind of stupid to have a weapon act as a spellbook. Why not just give them a fucking spellbook instead of a weapon that has some mystical spellbook hidden in it?

>Elemental burst
Literally divine smite but better.

>Extra attunement
Gee whizz another ability we never needed to see printed, ever.

>Eyes of the rune keeper
You put this in there because it had 'rune' on it, right? Well, I suppose it's okay. The warlock can pick something else.

an-

You know what?

Tell your player to just go hexblade or something instead, seriously. Actual official (playtest) material, UA warlock.

He wanted to get his doctorate before he started putting his wizardry to practical use

It predates psionics as a thing, but Mind Blast is noted as a wave of PSI force, a Helm of Telepathy allows an early version of psychic counterattack (if you pass your save, the mind flayer is stunned instead), and the table for the effects of Mind Blast greatly resembles the DMG table of psionic combat, with death, comas, stunning, sleeping, feebleminding, etc.

>the 5e psionic mind flayer variant doesn't have feeblemind

Why would they do such a thing?

>you goddamn retard
>it's linked as a joke UA specifically to fuck with people
I think it is you that is the goddamn retard here.

Steal shit from other good settings, and then tweak it all until it fits.

...

Its free and in the link. You could probably argue that 5e psionics are now primarily a conversion of the 3e ardent and also greatly resemble the 3e binder.

Anti what, now?

I am DMing for the first time for a group of 5 completely new people. We just finished LMoP and the dragonborn fiend pact warlock politely asked if I would allow changing pacts.
I obliged, under the requirement that it make sense in the narrative.
Any ideas on how to change the pact of a fiend warlock with the chain pact to pact of the tome?
I was thinking I would give him a bit of solo-time in a dream sequence to battle the familiar or have him sacrifice the familiar itself like he used to sacrifice chickens for the summoning ritual.

Oh jeez, I apologize; I'm so sorry. I didn't realize you couldn't read. It says UAmystic3.pdf

You'd think the studying for a wizard doctorate would get you at least a few levels

...

I'm the retard.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll tell them to the players as examples of what they could do and see what they decide.
We wouldn't even have this whole money problem if they players didn't burn the five airships (airships are 20k per ship) that came to the island with them, but they hated the captains because they were pirates so they thought mass murder and arson would be sensible options.

Skin the familiar for a damn leatherbound tome.

I know it's a joke but I kind of want to homebrew some supplies and provisions now, things like variant rules on using them and special food items that provide minor buffs.

The good thing about that sentiment is it's completely true. The poor that can't feed themselves become the dead. And the ones remaining are able to feed themselves.

The orc scores a critical blow on you, slashing his sword clean through your resolve to live!

Congratulations

At least you're self aware, and maybe the monthly stipend is nice

> The entire campaign is about cooking and feasting

Have you been to college

Aaaw Shit man of course.
That makes so much sense.

Thanks m8s

I read the title, not the filename. Could you find it on your heart to forgive me?

I once played an elderly gnome librarian who just went and picked up wizardry for shits and giggles.

I have a special type of honey in my campaign that's healing plus a full meal.

"Good" is a very vague word. You must consciously choose a standard to evaluate your setting by, and the one that makes the most sense is how enjoyable it is for the players. Other standards, like some clever idea you had that you think will really deconstruct other medieval fantasy settings, aren't as important. Save that kind of shit for a novel.

Perfect example: I thought it would be really clever to make a setting where humans aren't the dominant race, where they only live in significant numbers in two of the world's many nations and they're the majority in only one of them: a tiny island chain. Humans would be stereotyped by all the other races as sailors and pirates, and dwarves would be the "normal" race by which all the others are judged. Of course, I thought it was really clever, but it was garbage at the table. Everyone wanted to roll up a human (unless they wanted to roll up a tiefling or a dragonborn, two races I didn't want to include at all,) and they had a tendency to go deep into uncharted territory where no human had ever set foot, have a PC die, and have the player demand to roll up a human rather than any of the races native to the area.

>We wouldn't even have this whole money problem if they players didn't burn the five airships (airships are 20k per ship) that came to the island with them, but they hated the captains because they were pirates so they thought mass murder and arson would be sensible options.

Why would you do that? You could have set up a fucking trade empire with that easily just invite the pirates on land for a victory feast then wipe them. Holy fuck I would hate all of them if I were at that table.

I do too. It'd give some value to the Gourmet feat and cooking tools proficiency, at least.

>We wouldn't even have this whole money problem if they players didn't burn the five airships
Somewhere a gnome wept

>Order of the Nomad is first?

Holy shit. I mean, I was really interested in the flavor of it personally but I didn't figure that it would be Veeky Forums's top archetype as well.

>Burning 100,000 gp because "muh moral dilemma"

I'm actually thinking about doing this. Ban Sorc and Wizard, remove the dividing fluff lines between magic and psionics. Casters are now either beholden to an outside source (Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Warlock) or generate power from some sort of more nebulous innate ability (AT, EK, Mystic, Sorc). Is this a bad idea? I've never liked the Vancian conception of wizards. Mystics as eccentric hermit types with a limited set of unusual abilities falls more in line with my conception of wizard than the Wizard class.

At least they're not spelljammer ships
Which could be worth well damn near a million with the helm and shit

Why ban them, though? Enough people will want to play the Mystic without requiring that you shove it in their face.

How else do you catch subversive Mearlism?

Who or what is Mearl?

Best domains for Theurgy?

Domain of suicide, because if you remotely think that playing a theurge is acceptable, you should fucking kill yourself.

Meralfags are truly the fucking worst.

Post the shit you hate worst about Meralfags.

>martials only able to hit really hard x per day or rest

lol

>throwing two javelins in exactly the same way, with only one sending people flying backwards

lol

>unarmed strikes are not monk weapons

lol!

So, if im reading this right, you have 1 Talent and 1 Discipline at level 1.

So Adaptive Body is the first on the list. If you choose Adaptive Body, that is your 1 Discipline. Then one of the choices under Adaptive Body is your Talent?

Just making sense of this. I'm sick and reading comprehension is fucked rn.

I don't see anything that would make it unacceptable?

Meral is a fucking rainbow pride jew who shits up everything, a modern day Lorraine Williams.

Because the point would be to alter the fluff and tone of the setting by removing normal D&D wizards? Also my players are less flavor of the month oriented than most - one of them will want to play a mystic for sure, but the others aren't gonna jump on it right away. There's tons of other UA stuff they still haven't used. They just aren't the types to quit a character unless the situation warrants it.

thanks. I figured there was some stuff that wasn't right but like I said, fairly new to being on this side of the table.

A Wizard employee who somehow became the head of their D&D department despite having no noteworthy achievements to his name other than a broken d20 variant.

He's also basically Reddit incarnate and manages to make Paizo blush with his college liberal politics.

Oh I see.

Talents are the equivalent of psionic cantrips, you can find them on the last two pages. Don't forget that you also start with two disciplines from your chosen order.

Unless you're a soul knife.

I know I'm gonna get in trouble with this one but...

Basically my group is disappointed about the lack of Sorcerer bloodlines. Would it really be so bad to let them use the pathfinder ones just to keep things fresh and interesting for them?

Ohhh I see. So baseline I took Adaptive Body, i have access to everything within Adaptive Body as long as I have the psi points to cast it?

...

Yep

In which case you get the most overpowered weapons in the game, dip into any class that gets Two Weapon Fighting and you can obliterate any other class in a single round.
Still waiting on a d6 light bludgeoning weapon.

what do you even think this means? like what are you asking?

The core rulebook for DnD 5e only has two Sorc bloodlines.

Why not let players use the Pathfinder ones if they want something different?

Pretty much the only way to play 5e is integrating as much Pathfinder stuff as possible, so yeah go nuts.