/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

Are physical classes supposed to be super human nor not? Whenever I see the caster vs martial meme brought up, people always say that the "martials" are supposed to be mythological figures like hercules and stuff.

But the rules don't really support this. So what are they supposed to be?

A fighter who uses his action surge to sprint as fast as he can can only get to about half the speed of the current record holder. And then he has to catch his breath for an hour to do it again.

The long jump rules are also pretty bad. If you aren't a barbarian or monk, it's impossible to jump farther than the current record because you need a 10 foot running start, and the current record is something like 29 feet. Combined, they would take you past your ability to move in the round, which is a hard limit, even if the DM would let you roll to ignore the strength requirements.

Even the number of attacks martials gets seems low. Look at fencing matches. These guys feint, attack, bluff, block, and move, and get it all done in a second. And then they do it again, and again and again, and again. In an extended fight against multiple opponents, they could do it several times in a 6 second round, not just 4 (at 20th, I'm-a-demigod levels)

Look at the latest UA. It has a monk feature where you can redirect attacks, but after you do it, you need to catch your breath for an hour to do it again. Then look up aikido master fights. Hell, look up a steven segall movie. the latest monk UA isn't even at the power level of a steven segall character, let alone supernatural beyond the peak of human development.

So those who think that martials are supposed to be supernatural warriors out of myth, how do you reconcile the complete failure of the rules to implement this in any way? I'm really curious, because I'm struggling to run the game in a fair but fun way for the one guy playing a martial in my group.

Rolled 3, 3, 5, 2, 1, 4, 2, 6, 6, 3, 6, 5 = 46 (12d6)

>12 / 10 / 9 / 12 / 11 / 12
So what kind of build is this going to work for desu
Also again for comparison.

Because if they aren't supposed to be superhuman in some form then there is utterly no excuse for being able to survive a fireball. The idea is that casters are completely superhuman in their feats, so martials, who are similar in stature or supposed to be, should be similarly superhuman.

All mythological figures are refluff caster or mystic.

>Even the number of attacks martials gets seems low.

I'm with you for the rest, but "number of attacks" is more like "number of chances you have to decrease HP". An attack roll is an entire exchange of blows, not a single swing with a sword.

>Look at the latest UA. It has a monk feature where you can redirect attacks, but after you do it, you need to catch your breath for an hour to do it again.

The monk can redirect the club of a fuckhuge giant into another fuckhuge giant. It has no upper limit, as per the rules.

>12 / 10 / 9 / 12 / 11 / 12
>12 / 13 / 11 / 14 / 15 / 17
ayy

>run the game in a fair but fun way for the one guy playing a martial in my group.
Run 6-8 encounters per day, with 2 short rests in between.
5e, played fair, is attacks and cantrips, with concentration spells acting as 'passive' effects.

Deflect missile also doesn't has an upper limit. You can deflect giant boulder thrower at you.

>I'm with you for the rest, but "number of attacks" is more like "number of chances you have to decrease HP". An attack roll is an entire exchange of blows, not a single swing with a sword.
This is why I mentioned fencing matches. A fencing round is an entire exchange of blows, ending in a touch. It features everything you would think happens in an attack action, and it takes place in a second or less.

There is a mild problem with the book referring to "opportunity to decrease HP actions" as "attack actions" though. It sends the wrong message to players and DMs.

Think about everything that happen during 6 second period dude.

Exchanging blow is just part of that 6 seconds. They spend the rest of time moving, dodging dragon's breath, turn around 360'' to parry another attack in the back and stuff.

I'm confused. Even if you're rolling 3d6 per stat instead of 4d6 drop lowest, that'd be 18 not 12. How are you getting these 'totals'?

2d6+6
>3d6 per stat
>wanting 3 STR players who can barely breathe without overexerting themselves

6+2d6 would be my guess. You can't get lower than 8 this way.

Ah, I see. I wonder how much this throws off the distribution compared to 4d6 drop lowest.

To be honest when I make players roll for stats I let them roll twice and choose one (entire) distribution
Way less chance of a 3 / 6 / 10 / 14 / 7 / 7 and a 16 / 17 / 15 / 18 / 14 / 16 in the same party.

How the hell do I roll like the above?

Rolled 95 (1d100)

Read the sticky newfag

he keeps his furries around

Watch a fencing match in slow motion dude. They do a lot in those 1 second intervals.

I guess at this point I feel like 5e was designed by someone who had no idea what the peak of human fitness looked like, and had no desire to learn. The consequence is that parties only really work out if the players are all supernatural magic guys throwing fireballs around, or all slightly above average teenagers practicing for high school track and field.

Credit where credit is due though: The carrying and encumbrance rules do result in superhuman feats of strength overtime. which has so far been exploited in my party by treating the fighter as a highly efficient packmule.

>A fighter who uses his action surge to sprint as fast as he can can only get to about half the speed of the current record holder.
Yeah, but he can do it in fucking full plate. I guess it depends on your definition of "superhuman", but I'd count things like being able to take a fireball to the face and shrug it off as beyond normal human capability. (Casters can do that too of course, but usually not as well.) If you don't want casters to outshine martials, don't give them 1-hour adventuring days. Or have everyone play mystics.

It's just shit in general though
Do what I do - change all units to metric and watch the feats soar.

weight your dice

Have him use the polymorph spell to turn himself into a bronze shadow dragon. This also functions as a buffer of extra health.

Interdasting.

Rolled 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 2 = 9 (6d2)

Ah, thanks.

That ties into another meme war: plot armor points vs meat points.

What is happening in your games when a fighter fails his save against a fireball vs what happens when he succeeds?

Heh. That's a nice fix: all martial classes now use the metric system.

>flipping coins

Try 4d8 drop 1.

I wonder what the distribution would be if you used 3d6 Drop Lowest + 6? Probably more suited for a high fantasy game, but if I'm gming and I've seen a player roll godlike stats, i usually get them to take some lower stats, because I personally find having negatives in some stats interesting to play with.

Flipping coins can be a nice way of adding some randomness to the standard array in a way that can't totally screw someone over.

Take the standard array. You can choose up to 3 stats to gamble for an increase. For each stat you choose to gamble, you have to choose another stat to gamble for a decrease.

You can't gamble the same stat more than once.

To gamble for an increase: flip a coin. On a tails, nothing happens. On a heads, the stat increases by 1.

To gamble for a decrease: flip a coin. On a heads, nothing happens. On a tails, that stat decreases by 1.

anydice.com/
>output [highest 3 of 4d6]

>It has a monk feature where you can redirect attacks, but after you do it, you need to catch your breath for an hour to do it again
Thought this, too. Sounded like a fun feature when I was reading it, then came to the limitation.

Why doesn't it just eat Ki points or something? A single use means it's either going to barely ever be used, "Just in case," or, if used as often as allowed, will have little meaningful impact. It's basically a free attack if an enemy misses you. A single melee attack is nothing in the vast majority of combats.

Fencing matches are nothing like real fights. For starters, you don't have to be as cautious because you don't die.

Neither are D&D fights. D&D fights are more like action movies, with lots of theatrical sword swinging about.

That's what I'm saying. DnD fights aren't like real fights. They're fights with nerf swords.

They are fights with real swords vs things that are made of iron.

Or like shooting a gun at Bruce Willis in Die Hard.

Can wizards be doctors?

>tfw players recruit the giant guests in the Storm giant hold
>tfw I don't have to use generic storm giants in final battle and can now use characters the players know
One of the players also mentioned how upset they were that Harshnag was dead, so they should be pretty happy when he shows up too

Whats a good name for a set of seven stones/artifacts imbued with the spirit of a practically dead illithid god?

Seven heads of (What's his name). Or Seven Eyes.

Psi-stones?

That's the obvious enough one anyway.

Have him use polymorph spells to deal with unruly party members.
Someone got the sun blade? Polymorph them into a duck and all their gear morphs into their new form.
If you want to be a real dick he could then grab them and fly off, to deal with them alone. If you want to be a REAL real dick, a strict interpretation of RAW means that if he used his bite to reduce the max health of a polymorphed character to zero, they'd die outright before reverting back to their true form, the same as with disintegrate and power word: kill.

The Chaos Emeralds

The seven tendrils of [name]

Or this

The Eptascatotauria Stones.

Forever DM gets to play; what do I make? I usually hate furfag shit, but Tabaxi seem neat? What's a concept for not!Khajiit that's fun?

I was also thinking half-elf stone sorcerer from that UA. I usually play Wizards or Bards on the rare times I do get to play stuff, and wanna branch out.

Seconded

>usually plays wizards and bards
>wants to branch out
>chooses the wizard-lite CHA caster
why

You're a forever DM, you get to play whatever the fuck you want. You could play an atheist Halfling fighter that uses a samurai sword and has a neckbeard/trenchcoat/fedora combo and not a single one of those fuckers would be allowed to complain.

>Tabaxi seems neat?

Cardinal Sins? Each stone is imbued with the part of the god's spirit attributed to either lust, pride, greed, etc.

Shit. You may have a point.

Go full dungeon rogue.

Should have mentioned in my post that I've already planned the theme - I decided to go with some of the classic faculties of mind (imagination, language, memory, reasoning, etc).

I was going to go smite town with their weird spell list, and play him like an earth bending swordsman a la Metalcrafters from Codex Alera.

Tabaxi are for furfags. Do it if you want, but do not delude yourself.

What do you want, guishing? Pal 2 / Sorc X (smite erry day), or Hexblade. Or Paladin + Tomelock.

Well there you go then. Seven Facets of (God's name) Facets are both aspects of something (in your case, the mind) and also a word for a flat shape on a gem.

Just call them mind stones or something
Brain tumours

Give him a sword that ups his damage instead of a claw attack.

Roll a d6 and in that many turns (not rounds), summon 1d4 Death Dogs to aid him.

Repeat this process henceforth on Strahd's turn

Memoro de la Ŝtono

The Eptascatotauric Lithonoumens of (Insert god name)

I am playing a Fighter but I want a free hand to grapple, throw javelins and nets, etc.

If I forgo my shield for this, and take Tavern Brawler as my human feat, am I entering dangerously unoptimized territory or will I be fine?

The campaign will most likely be Curse of Strahd.

>Angels chained by a beast locked in slumber
>Sin washed away by the swift flow of time

>I may know the answers
>Journeys over snow and sand
>What twist of fate has brought us
>To tread upon this land?

I should really plan out a campaign based on ffxi. I was already planning on designing dungeons/lairs after Crawler's Nest/Castle Oztroja/Castle Zvahl/Garlaige Citadel/etc after all.

No need for a free hand: you can sheathe and unsheathe weapon as part of your attack, so if you want to throw javelins you can put away your sword and throw as many as you have available, and if you want to grapple you can use one of your attacks for the Athletics check to shove prone, if successful then put away your sword and attack at advantage with your whatever before using the bonus action for the check to grapple so they stay down.

Foregoing a shield is so that you can grapple *and* keep hitting them with your sword while they're down. If that's not your goal and you just want the disable option, then Shield Master works as an alternative to Tavern Brawler; 1d4 less damage on subsequent rounds, but doesn't force you to make an unarmed attack in order to apply a part of the shove+grapple combo with a bonus action, plus defensive abilities.

Dueling fighting style is fairly solid with or without a shield.

Unarmed strikes don't count as weapons.

Yes your AC will be slightly lower than a true sword and board type but if you take something like heavy armor mastery the damage reduction is very nice at low levels.

However keep in mind that heavy armor mastery would preempt tavern brawler and it has a somewhat limited shelf life. It's awesome at low levels but loses out as damage dealing capacity increases.

I really don't know why it didn't use ki points.

Speaking of:

>Monks can restore all ki points by concentrating on peaceful meditation for ten minutes.

Thoughts?

For what purpose? Monks are already insanely good if your GM forces a lot of short rests (aka 2-3, as per the DMG) instead of allowing wizards to sleep for 8 hours, fight for 1 hour, and then sleep another 8 fucking hours.

Any GM worth his salt will drain any wizard of spell slots long before he can take a long rest.
>Rope trick
Shit GM not forcing a time limit.

>so if you want to throw javelins you can put away your sword and throw as many as you have available
Doesn't it cost you your bonus action to sheathe a weapon, and then it would cost another bonus action to draw another one?
>Foregoing a shield is so that you can grapple *and* keep hitting them with your sword while they're down.
Plus I do kind of want to do that.
Thanks, this is some helpful advice.
I think you are right about Heavy Armor Master, should I get Tavern Brawler at all do you think?
If so, then what Ability Score Improvement should I replace. I would want to get Tavern Brawler ASAP but I feel like I would need the Ability Score Improvement the most at 4th level, wait till 6th?
Also have to consider the flavor aspect, Tavern Brawler was more a choice to reflect my character's Bounty Hunter background, so it would be a bit weird to not start with it.

The Pearls of Wisdom.

Literally nobody plays that way. It's not even a good or bad dming type of thing. People just don't want to, and 99.99% of narratives won't support it.

I allowed one of my players to pick up a remorhaz egg. They've rolled well on their nature checks and as such have taken good care of the egg.

I'd like for the egg to hatch however I'm not sure if I should just have the remorhaz just attack the party or if they should be given an opportunity to be tamed.

I have a dwarf ranger who will duel wield warpicks when he reaches 4th level

Will he be any good in combat or will he be just another useless ranger

Dem nutz

If frost giants can do it than PCs can do

But I'm pretty sure the frost giant method involves lots of violence are wrestling

There's always exactly seven parts to the Macguffin, isn't there?

>99.99% of narratives won't support it.
The narrative will do whatever the DM wants it to do.
5e is supposed to play like the Shadows of Mystara vidja, not like NWN.
Horde your spells for the boss, do fancy but 'normal' things with the mooks, interact with the environment and use items in the meanwhile.

Frost Giants control them through fear, yeah.
I'd say make them fight it and knock it out, maybe a few times, before they can have it tamed.

Than after it wakes up have them roll an intimidation check with advantage or something

>Doesn't it cost you your bonus action to sheathe a weapon, and then it would cost another bonus action to draw another one?

You can sheathe as part of your move and you draw as part of your attack. It's not like 3.PF where you use your swift action to fiddle with your equipment.

That said:

>Plus I do kind of want to do that.

Then definitely don't take Tavern Brawler. You're essentially spending a feat for an unarmed attack when you grapple - and if it misses you don't get to attempt the Athletics check at all. Just take your attack action and replace your attacks with the checks to grapple and shove prone respectively, then apply any other attacks you have.

I suggest you take a quarterstaff so you can use your bonus action to bash them on the head for resisting.

>I guess at this point I feel like 5e was designed by someone who had no idea what the peak of human fitness looked like, and had no desire to learn.

Try "D&D" was designed that way.
There are some systems out there that try to emulate realistic combat, but D&D was never one of them at any point and never tried to be.

That's not how object interactions work at all
That said as a DM I ignore anything that isn't ridiculous

The fantasy imagination game isn't trying to imitate real life

Would that be too broken to give the party a remorhaz as a pet? They're 7th level.

>You can sheathe as part of your move and you draw as part of your attack
Right, got it.

Very helpful, I didn't consider that I am risking not even getting to attempt a grapple when following up an unarmed strike.

>I suggest you take a quarterstaff so you can use your bonus action to bash them on the head for resisting.
What? Does the quarterstaff have some special quality I am missing?

Maybe have them learn from the frost giants first. Have them face off in a frost giant fighting tournament of some sort in order to win the frost giants favor and learn their ways

>What? Does the quarterstaff have some special quality I am missing?
He's referring to Polearm Master, the extra attack works with glaives, halberds and quarterstaves, even when held one handed.

Top of page 190 user. Drawing weapons is *free*.

You can go hunt the sage advice if you want, as well.

>How have you incorporated Strange settings like Planescape into your games?

The "core" planar mythos is a garbage grab-bag trying to incorporate Christian and Pagan mythology with pure fantasy, the enough Hells and Heavens to be ridiculously redundant.

This is what comes of taking the already simplistically stupid "Alignment Wheel" and trying to make it function on the Macro scale interdimensionally.

No compelling mythological or fantasy setting has a system of Gods as artificial and contrived as Dungeons and Dragons.

Pick some Gods. Have some "Evil" Gods if you must (most real-world polytheistic religions didn't have them, at most they had apocalyptic monsters that opposed the Gods).

Under no circumstances have Set, Odin and a passle of OC Faerunian shit running around together, with several different hostile underworlds filled with redundant fiends.

Ah okay.
I don't like feats that specialize on a particular weapon too much though.

Do you think Alert would be a solid choice? Moving before the enemy could be really useful in the context of grabbing somebody and throwing them off a cliff before they have a chance to cause a problem.

Interaction with one object is free, so yes you can draw as part of your attack as long as it's only one weapon. You only get one of these per turn. You can't sheath as you move and draw as you attack. You have to be a rogue of the thief archtype and use your bonus action as an item interaction to do that.

Yes, you can interact with one object for free during movement or your action. So you can draw and attack, or attack and sheathe. You can't sheathe one weapon, draw another, then attack.

Though you can drop, unsheathe and attack, it should be added.

You can then pick up with your move.