/5eg/ Fifth Edition General: Druid backstory edition

Depends on the setting. Self Actualized individuals don't play official DnD settings except planescape.

Posted this like 3 threads ago, I guess its not unusual but I'll share anyway.

>Homebrew setting. Its not the holy grail, its the "Maiden's Grail,"
>Maiden is the goddess my character worships, who basically values chivalry above all else.
>Was a squire to a knight who knighted me on his deathbed but no witnesses.
>I am now a hedge knight that carries a letter from him legitimizing my knighthood
>I have to be a landed knight to be accepted into Maiden's paladin order
>Also have a love interest who I will never be able to marry thanks to my non-noble background and lack of lands/prospects. Carry with me a token of her favor that I also use as my spellcasting focus. It is currently tied to my halberd.
>Embark on quest for Maiden's holy grail to win the favor of my order, my love interest's father, and Maiden herself

Basically the idea is for other nobles and knights to laugh in my face and jokingly call me the "Grail Knight," then if I ever find it I'll still be the Grail Knight but it won't be a pejorative title.

Well said, brother.
inb4 some faggot shows up and posts either of those two ebin good necromancer greentexts.

"good" and "evil" in the official DnD settings are alien entities, as unrelated to what is actually Good and what is actually Evil as Cthulu is to your mother.

>Redeemers know that undead, demons, devils, and other supernatural threats can be inherently evil.

>can be
Which means that not all undead are inherently evil.

Way ahead of you.

Actually I was just thinking of a good backstory for my future character. Warlock Fey Patron/Ranger Horizon Walker.

Quasi-Tldr:

>knight is selected to go on a major quest to prevent another kingdom from winning the war
>character is a squire who follows knight on quest, along with many others
>more than half of the people going decide the mission is too tough and so they give up, squire, the knight, and 3 more decide to keep going
>finish mission, come back
>the previous people who dropped show up, waiting for them
>squire is a little upset, but thinks they can just move on and celebrate the completion of mission, runs off to get sticks for a campfire
>by the time he comes back, the knight and the others were slaughtered
>the betrayers turn their sights on the squire
>they tell him no one must know they gave up, and thanked him and the others for completing the mission
>stabbing, slicing, and pelting him with arrows
>he falls into a fast moving river, swept off as they assumed he died
>dumped into the domain of the fae, they take pity on him and heal him up
>decide to grant him the powers for revenge, drama is fun for them
>by the time he's fully healed up and gets out of their realm, 20 or so years have passed
>granted the ability to see in the dark and never require sleep, he sets off for revenge

The real tldr: My character was betrayed, his friends killed, and was given patronage by bored fae to go on a mission of vengeance.

>Necromancy is actually good! It's science, progress and freedom from superstition!
>It's those evil, bigoted, stupid adventurers who are evil!
>Paladins are ESPECIALLY evil!

Planescape's barely a setting at all other than the barmy berks of Sigil, and for the most part is the same cosmology as everything but FR.

Yes. That was the point. Good Job.

Oh look, a retarded 3e screencapture that stumbled its way into a 5e thread. I wonder why?

My moon druid is a wrestler

Undead are confirmed evil. "Other supernatural threats" are the ones that CAN be evil.

My players want to try out dungeon crawling and have combed the town for hints of a dungeon nearby. They ended up getting wind of an abandoned mine which was left away due to miners unearthing old dwarven ruins within a month ago. Black pudding poured out of it so now no one wants to enter. My players are all ready to get in and see what's in these ruins.

Now, I'm pretty new to DMing but I'm not sure how does one DM a dungeon crawl. I mean, I've done Lost Mines but my players are looking for something more old-school where they whack every inch with 10-foot pole. Do I just tell them that? Like they go "we walk 10 feet forward!" and I describe the next set of tiles are trapped/not trapped/oh look a wandering monster! and some shit? I have to admit, I'm kinda anxious with this cause I don't want to bore my players.

You're going to need a different source as evidence then.

Ask them what precautions they're taking and that will determine how fast they can progress through the dungeon, as well as wandering monsters (I prefer taking roughly 1 per 10 minutes rather than 10% per 1 minute, etc).

Have a pendulum break their pole then use passive and active perception to describe fishy looking tiles or plates in the wall or arrow holes or grooves and that shit

I want to give my party a treasure map leading to a future adventure. On the back of the map there will be a number cipher they will need to read in order to find out where the treasure is hidden. What skill could they use to do this?

Beastmaster Ranger that doesn't really care about protecting or being one with nature or any of that hippy dippy shit. She just lives in the woods with her dogs, trying to be as self-sufficient as possible. She took up adventuring just for the variety.
>Redeemers know that undead, demons, devils, and other supernatural threats can be inherently evil.
>"Other supernatural threats" are the ones that CAN be evil.
That is the most retarded way to parse that sentence.

My group HATES feeling "Railroaded" in anyway. They want "free form exploration". The problem is this is pretty impossible to prepare for as a DM.

what the hell am I suppose to do?

Ignore me, I'm retarded. I didn't notice the investigation skill.

Yeah you're right. I misread it.

>undead are confirmed evil
The MM would like a word with you since the ghost and revenant aren't evil. It does say that zombies are raised using dark necrotic energy but they are mindless so they don't truly have an alignment anyway, they are simply given NE because they attack anything living.

If they had no alignment they would have been "unaligned". Lot's of MM entries have that.

Prepare setpieces. Use those regardless of what they do and change them up on the fly so they fit the situation. They won't notice anyway

Hex map!

Isn't it funny then that necromancers never create ghosts or revenants? They only create explicitly evil undead?

How do I play a monk without it seeming out of place in a medieval setting? I was thinking about playing a peasant that was taught how to fight with his body by a celestial beast.

let them think they can free roam, but make every destination have the same ending.
>"DM we want to go south along the river"
>"the party travels south along the river for 4 hours before coming to an abandoned church"
if they say that want ot go north and into the desert, have them come to the same location. just throw in a random encounter that makes sense. They travel along a river boom they meet a beached trade ship. They travel in the desert, boom, they find two groups fighting over an oasis. Railroad them, but dont make it obvious by saying you can only go "in this one direction"

Most of the time I just wind up making the entire session up off the top of my head. It's worked thus far but it's obviously really hard. Setpieces are a good idea I'll have to try my hand at this.

The problem is they will literally do the most unexpected shit at all time. They rarely engage in any form of "main story" and have no desire to do much beyond their own whims. Don't get me wrong, this isn't me complaining but you know how it is sometimes.

I've thought of this but they'll just as quickly want to leave the region and go someplace new then they will explore it. I blame TES for this!

That background seems much more out of place than a an Asian guy.

maybe an enslaved tournament fighter or something. Like Conan.

Maybe prepare a list of encounters (fights, npcs, treasure) and select a few each session. Have them be marked as places of interest on the map if they overhear a npc talking about it in a town. make it so they have several at a time and are all marked by a little token on the map. Your choice if they know which is which encounter

I understand that. But the MM clearly states they are mindless. Regardless, the entry does clearly say the magic used to reanimate corpses is evil. But I would DM it to being the alignment of whomever cast the spell

>I've thought of this but they'll just as quickly want to leave the region and go someplace new then they will explore it. I blame TES for this!
In that case, say this:
>Fuck you. I've done a lot of work, and either you're adventuring on this hex map, or you find another DM.

Do my method:

>prepare at least 1 town with features and storylines in it
>describe PCs being outside of town

Now if they decide to test the open world (A lot of PCs like to do this), they will call out and go "Let's go to next town!" while here do the following:

>random encounters like say a bandit attacking a wagon trading goods between your towns
>a dead messenger

These can be used to lead to the other towns of your choice. When they reach to the next town, they'll think they're in a new town but in reality it's still the same town you set them up earlier at the start. Just under a different name. From here you can even hint on the previous town having some hooks here and there to hint for next session where you prepare that town.

Start small and go big as they explore.

As mentioned use interchangeable setpieces. If you have already placed a location in the hook for a setpiece then have the event happen while they are away and use a more mundane encounter for the session but they hear word of what happened at the setpiece location. That way they'll understand the purpose of hooks

I've never understood the reason why players want to go off the rails and ignore obvoius plothooks. They are achieving nothing but running away from the "fun" the DM prepared for them, and are shitting all over his work. In the end they will experience roughly the same (but most of the time worse) because the DM has to recycle the content he had prepared but under new circumstances.

I'm totaly not against freedom, but why can't they say "hey lets go to town X next session", thus the DM can prepare and it was still their choice on how to proceed with the adventure?

Dumb newbie question coming up

Looking at the pregen characters from WotC, the level 1/2 Halfling Monk.

he has a strength of 8 and dex of 17.

His shortsword and unarmed strike both do 1d#+4 damage, shouldn't this be +5 damage? +3 from dex and +2 from proficiency?

A sense of true freedom is a major selling point for tabletop games, where the only things holding you back from attempting something is the words for it.

Being able to attempt to do what you want is important, and things not going to plan is what makes a campaign interesting.

I encourage my players to do whatever they damn well please, just that their will be reactions to what they do, if they do nothing, the town they like gets wiped off the map, if they kill someone for their items, they lose a future ally. It's that threat of what the fuck is going to happen if I do A, rather than B. That is what keeps my players going.

Who knows. I usually try to make soft designs in three directions near the party then flesh them out as they choose

Post an image showing the character sheet, the attack roll is Dex plus proficiency. The damage roll is d6+Dex, the Dex should be 3 because you need 18 Dex for 4.

>I've never understood the reason why players want to go off the rails
I've had a few players like this, and in my case they were just contrarians. Even when the door on the left was labeled "free candy", they still wanted to go right.

I can understand where you are coming from but
>It's that threat of what the fuck is going to happen if I do A, rather than B. That is what keeps my players going.
Is exactly what one of my players hates. He always feels "forced" because there will be consequences if he doesn't save that town for example. I guess you can't make everyone happy because everyone want something different out of tabletop games

...

>generating a game world by having your players play through Civ 5 to the desired time period (i.e. industrial age)

yay/nay?

I guess focus on not what you are preventing, what you are getting.

Make a character that is going on an expedition, needs some hired guards and if they come, give a huge pay out and the promise of magic items.

They will be more focused on what they get out of this than why they have to do it.

nae nae

It's not right, the damage is supposed to be 3, the dexterity modifier. The attack bonus is correct though.

that shits wrong senpai, should be +5 to attack and +3 to damage

I'd play that, or would love to DM that.

That is very similar to George R.R. Martins he Hedge Knight. My fav stories from him.

Aight thanks. Learning the game so I can teach my group and the very first character I look at from WotC was written wrong. Made me second guess everything I have read~

Sometimes the DM makes some shitty content.

What does the Fantasy Wrestling Federation think of your druid?

Definitely used as an influence. The knight I was a squire to was named Sir Arlan Carrow... I won't tell anyone if you don't. I'd say thats where the similarities end though.

Thanks man! Our wizard just happens to be on a quest for the philosopher's stone and has researched the location of many wondrous artifacts in our setting. He has a journal detailing them all - think the book of Tamrielic Lore from Morrowind and that's what he has.

>make 1 city with all detail in the world into it
>tell my PCs they stand at the outskirts of the city braced for a new adventure
>Rogue goes "nah, let's go to next city LOL"
>they trek across, get no random encounters
>reach next city
>I describe the new city
>party decides to go here instead
>they don't know it's the same city with a different name

every time

Paladins always parse retardedly if it means they get to crush skulls. That's what Lawful #### is all about.

>party randomly decides to trek through the desert
>"Alright you guys do so and find nothing. Anyway..."

>How do I play a monk without it seeming out of place in a medieval setting?
By remembering the Silk Road existed before the medieval setting and so the influence of fantasy-China is totally reasonable, or migrants from a foreign nation would likely show up, even if they're not common (represented in 5e by the Far Traveler Background from SCAG).
Or just ask your DM where a monk would train in his setting.

A Monk who is actually a Noble.
He shirked his family duties and was mostly interested in drinking and whoring until his parents found a Mister Miyagi who trained him in martial arts, at which point he began to shirked his family duties by becoming an adventurer.
He still likes drinking and whoring.

Hell, even remembering that literally every D&D setting absolutely fails at being anything resembling "medieval" anything and just recognizing that in a fantasy universe ANYONE could have discovered the exotic training exercises that give you ki Manipulation abilities, not just Chinese people.

This is actually REALLY easy as long as your GM isn't enforcing "western culture only", which likely they aren't because exactly one of the 28 separate GMs I've met in my life actually knew fuck-all about medieval or even renissance culture and history.

Build a whole realistic world with npcs and languages and it's own social and political dynamics

Wouldn't want to let the group down

Druids

Are

...wait for it...

GHEYYY!

Unfortunately that won't stop people from pretending and can lead to a worse situation.

>be sitting in your hotel room studying your spellbook
>you keep forgetting your spell because this little wood elf druid keeps shifting into a cat and meowing outside your window
>what would YOU do?

I like it. Green Lord's Gift would pair well with your 'healed by fae' story.

Kill the hippie faggot. Not because he's distracting me, but because fuck elves.

I mean, settings like Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk have a long history of Monks that have nothing to DO with their "China" parts.
The reasons qigong and stuff like that never spread into western culture in real life is for two basic reasons; one, because it's primarily wrapped up around a specific pair of religious beliefs (Chen Buddhism, but mostly Daoism), and two because it DOESN'T WORK so there's no reason for it to travel.

If it DID work you know people would use it in Western cultures just like they liked silk and ended up using paper money too.

pic related but "twig" instead

Wouldn't happen, my con save is too strong.

Why wouldn't all Knights everywhere be using it then?

That's actually really easy to figure out, because all warriors in Eastern stuff about magical kungfu masters don't have that kinda stuff either.
Basically it takes too long for you to easily be able to learn it and training a guy to stab someone with a sword or spear is faster and more efficient then spending years harnessing your ki or whatever; it's not practical on an army-wide scale since it doesn't make them so powerful that sheer numbers can't eventually wear them down and it's slower to train then regular soldiers.

Im planning a necromancer npc that uses his necromancy to research the dead and give locals a chance to say goodbye to their beloved.
Not evil in my book

What a twight?

Would 5e work as a video game?

I mean, ANYTHING can work as a video game if you tweak it enough.
5e video games might be a bit odd though because the Advantage/Disadvantage stuff isn't super useful in a video game format.

I drew this halfling rogue for a new game, I named him Pippin. He's a dirty little bastard. I just felt like sharing it.

your beard is weird and your stache is trash

I don't see how advantage wouldn't work the exact same way.

Without a lot of combat-based variables a lot of tactical situations in the game would be very similar no matter what the visual and situational differences are.

Then again that rarely matters in most modern videogames anyway, so probably not that much of a problem.

Monk with Guild Artisan background and the Gourmand feat.
On the brink of starvation, a bratty child stumbled into a cantankerous old man's restaurant. Out of pity he feeds the boy a 5-star meal, only to tell him he now owes him a veritable mountain of gold pieces and he has to work it off in the restaurant. The boy refuses, the old man kicks his ass because he fights as well as he cooks.
A decade later the boy, now a young man, sets out with the training of both chef and monk, seeking to feed the hungry mouths of the world.

Josh Sawyer did a GDC talk where he briefly shit all over players for not understanding the math in his game as much as they thought they did. So less nuance would be 100% fine

>Says the dwarf

Trying to make a puzzle dungeon and so far I only have two puzzles.

Basically what I wanna do is have one room with 9 doors. One door straight ahead with 8 locks, and 4 doors on each side. 8 plaques in the center of the room that each say a vague solution to the puzzle, but not which puzzle it is for. Once a puzzle is solved, they get a key for the large door.

So far the only puzzles I have are the bell puzzle from Pillars of Eternity with the solution
"My brothers and I sang for the king. My brother on my right sang two verses. My brother to my left sang one verse. Then I sang my verse. I then sang with my brother to my right. The brother to my left sang alone." Basically the room will have 3 golden bells at the end, and a statue of a man in a throne in the center. This is important because they'd have to look at it from the perspective of the bells facing the king. So while they're facing the bells to ring them, what they think is the left bell would be the right bell.

The second puzzle's solution is "Silence is golden"
This room would have a button in the center with a large golden hourglass at the end of the room. They would have to let the hourglass run out without speaking a word. They wouldn't really know what was happening when pressing while the timer is going down.

At this point, I need more solutions that could kinda go with other puzzles and more puzzles. I feel so creatively bankrupt right now

>Druid of the City
>sees it as their duty to slay monsters that they perceive to be outside poachers on the ecosystem of mankind
>totally cool with otyghs and sewer slimes and stuff though, they're a part of the environment

Too stupid?

Yeah, well Josh Sawyer is also trash these days, so maybe he's just salty time forgot him.

layton.wikia.com/wiki/Professor_Layton_and_the_Curious_Village/List_of_puzzles

You might find something here.