/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

Need help...

I have a Bard player who is about to uncover a Instrument of the Bards

It has been a longer quest to find it. Unfortunately, I haven't looked them up. Only now do I figure out it is all Harps, lutes and lyres.

She cannot use those. She can play Flutes, pianos and tamborins.

Could I just refluff one of them as something else?

best adventure from Yawning Portal to use with a group of mixed veteran and first time players?

I would say definitely do this

A nearby witch has been luring people into a marsh with an illusion/apparition of a beautiful woman. When men follow to meet the woman, they are suddenly pulled into the black water, never to be seen again.
Also this isn't spooky in the traditional sense, but the idea of getting sucked out by a riptide always freaked me out.
As a last resort, there are always dolphin rape caves.

If its a seaside spooky village, it has to be "everyone is secretly fishpeople and the adventurers will be sacrified"

Use sea spawn, kraken priests and a summoning which makes a kraken tentacles attack the sea shore. The pcs have to stop the ritual to send the kraken back to the depths

Spooky fog rolls in sometimes. Fishing boats go in boats full of lifeless skeletons come out

Of course, they are not so unique you can't just refluff them.

Undead pirates spooking everyone for their booty and taking captives to become more crew.

Alright.

Hoping I dont step on the toes of the purist in the group, I just dont feel like it makes sense to punish the Bard for not picking a lute or harp.

what level you want fampai?

probably Sunless Citadel or Forge of Fury

That didn't really answer my question.

People dont normally seen to think they are broken or anything, so I kinda assumed it wasn't a problem.

And it is not just Lore bards. All bards have access to magical secrets, even if Lore are worse in this regard.

dragonborn, halfling, goliath, etc.

Go to game store and find someone willing to take a newfag in to play

don't want to confuse the new players too much with 'complicated' character sheets, so most likely gonna run Forge of Fury, thanks

The only PHB races that should have Darkvision are Dwarves, Drow and MAYBE Tieflings.

That is the wrong expression to use

Elves and shit should be able to see up to 60 feet fine in Dim Light.

Dwarves and Underdark races should be able to see fine in Dim Light and 60 feet in Darkness.

imgur.com/gallery/j32bm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelpie

He almost pissed himself with rage because I described a drow with a "wrong" shade of black, so I believe my concern is appropriate.

THE DEAD WALK

>I described a drow with a "wrong" shade of black
How do you describe a race with blackish skin that comes in a few different shades wrong?

> want to seperate low-light vision and darkvision again

Please go back to /pfg/. We don't need another 10 minute discussion and reminder of who see what during the session, everytime we go into dungeon.

We could use that time to actually having fun.

Does anybody have digital maps for Tales from the Yawning Portal?

Because darkvision is a useless ability.
A simple lanten fix it.

I like this idea, and will take it.

>there are always dolphin rape caves.
AINT NOBODY STEPPING INTO MY MAGICAL REALMS

>"everyone is secretly fishpeople and the adventurers will be sacrified"
nah. technically the party is inheriting control of the county. I'd like to avoid having all their constituency turn out bad.

>kraken priests and a summoning which makes a kraken tentacles attack the sea shore.
perhaps late in the section...

perhaps I can tie this to I'll need some preponderance to make this work.

I'm less familiar with the Gaelic mythic creatures. got any more?

this reminds me.
There's a Hawaiian myth about sand walkers or night walkers(don't remember the name).

don't whistle and don't look up lest you catch their eye and are forced to march with them for ever...

How do I git gud at DMing?

My current problems:

* I don't know how to drop hints. I either completely forget to mention something or explain the entire plot.
* I don't know how to roleplay an NPC not being convinced by a player's persuasion. I either let the player get away with way too much or just say "he's not convinced". This is especially difficult when a player casts charm.

I didn't know Pathfinder had it. I've only played 5e and a few other games like Shadowrun.

Personally I find little things like that easy to get my head around and more fun to have to work with. I have played with people who I had to just ignore light penalties completely because they didn't understand though. So I know what you mean.

No, no. To "step on someones toes" means to upset them because you are entering their realm of responsibility. Like, if a waitress started making the food at a restaurant she would be stepping on the chef's toes.

I described it as a black colour like that of coal, for the 1 drow they met, and he flipped his shit.

Something something obsidian, something something ree

Not even sure what he said, he just went off.

Thankfully he is not the Bard, and with a bit of luck he doesn't know what the instruments are supposed to be.

rolled 13 str, 12 dex, 10 con, 12 int, 11 wis, 14 cha, robe of stars as random starting item. paladin? bard? really slutty wizard?

pic unrelated

no help from me on the latter

but on the former I recommend printed notes

even if you know by heart every word on them.

because then you can HIGHLIGHT pieces as reminders and plan your hints better.

Considering he practically fumes when I talk about the lore, it almost sounds like he made it, and finds it a personal offense when I get it wrong.

But alright, English it my third language, and the equivalent sentence in my primary language means something entirely different.

little help please.

they are the in the mega you dolt

Check the DMG pp. 244 Social Interaction. An NPC can be convinced by a player, but still not want to take any kind of risk for them

Like
>"I agree with you, but I still don't want to poison the kings wine"

Tell him he is autistic
It's always slutty wizard. Unless its slutty sorceress, which is even better.

The spells are balanced to their spell slot, even if only higher level characters can normally get them, so don't worry about that so much. As for your paladin and ranger being annoyed that the Bard gets the spells before them, talk to the bard player and see if he would be willing to pick spells that those players aren't going to learn later. He might really feel these spells fit the character he is going for, and in that case it's fine, but otherwise you might be able to convince him to pick something else. Otherwise the ranger and the paladin are going to have to get over it. They are half casters, they are better at using weapons than the bard is, so he gets better magic.

You'd be surprised how dense people tend to be. Sometimes saying, "Fuck off, I don't believe you" leaves people wondering.

Never bet on hints working. Also, they tend not to be fun. Player's need direct knowledge, otherwise they never tend to pick up what is going on.

Now, if the hint is more of a foreshadow, those tend to work fine whether people guess right or not. People are going missing? Good job foreshadowing the Mindflayers/Vampires/Ghosts etc. A good hint is one that can be misinterpreted and still be fun to play through.

>Three old women shuffle into the room
>Their skin is icy blue and they have withered almost hideous features
>Lank white hair hangs halfway down their back and upon closer inspection seems to be entwined with bone
>Each one of them clasps a gnarled oaken branch they use to support themselves as they walk
>Around their neck they each wear a necklace of ears
>Paladin interrupts
>"THEY'RE HAGS AND THEY'RE IN A COVEN QUICK SEPARATE THEM TO WEAKEN THEM"

I'm sorry. I didn't check the trove, it wasn't up there yesterday. Thank you whoever updated it. you're the best.

>Good aligned hags that use ghoul ears
>Want to sell the party potions, to aid their quest
>Each hag sells a different type of potion
>They warn the PCs not to mix them
>In addition to gold they ask for something odd
>The memory of a full moon
>On the next sabbath, find a cat and give it milk
>Back rubs

>A young fishwife made a pact with a sea hag and now she's coming to collect
>Kuo-toa in the sea caves
>A ghost ship has been spotted lurking on the horizon
>The villagers are in league with sea spawn and a deep scion
>The fishermen have been catching freakish-looking fish
>All kinds of sea creatures are beaching themselves on shore
>The corpse of an enormous globster washes up
>A seagull cries out a PC's name
>The shoreline has been retreating and an underwater ruin is slowly being exposed
>Crabs with shells shaped like human faces
>A strange idol was recently found on shore and the sahuagin want it back

Encounter a pristine white beach encircled by some mossy hills. Beach is glimmering with bits of precious metal and jewels. Area is otherwise very drab and foggy.

Upon closer inspection the precious metals and stones are horrible maimed and twisted and the "sand" is chalky. Few bits of gold turn out to be gold teeth and the sand is actually pulverized bone.

Once party is actually on the "beach" near the water the hill(s) lurch towards them in a pincer movement.

Roll initiative, hulking crab(s) Inc.

Give me your best martial memevrews and 3rd party

The village is a one-horse town

>His name is Ed
>During the day he is kept tied up in the center square
>Children feed him hay
>Everyone in town remembers when they fed Ed
There has only ever been one Ed

>A young fishwife made a pact with a sea hag and now she's coming to collect
quest initiated by her banging upon the manor-door

>Kuo-toa in the sea caves
I've pulled them before, BUT it's been long enough that I can do it again and not seem repetative

>A ghost ship has been spotted lurking on the horizon
the resident pirate ship is called the Demons Reach

but how could I use the phantoms?

>The villagers are in league with sea spawn and a deep scion
they are, a mostly benevolent one in my case though.

>The fishermen have been catching freakish-looking fish
I'll have to work out the why and the how.

>All kinds of sea creatures are beaching themselves on shore
what do they fear enough to chase them free of the sea?

>The corpse of an enormous globster washes up
globster?

>A seagull cries out a PC's name
adding to the occurrence page

>The shoreline has been retreating and an underwater ruin is slowly being exposed
perhaps the offshore mound upon which the local lighthouse sits is a leftover from an elder mage(whose apprentice they pissed off a couple of months ago after his interment)

>Crabs with shells shaped like human faces
adding to the spoopy shit page

>A strange idol was recently found on shore and the sahuagin want it back
a winged dragon with a cephalopod head you say?

>immortal horse
I'll probably have him have been traded for a century or two...

Man I have a player who does something similar but instead he has a knack for "jokingly" spoiling my plots. Either my stuff is way too obvious or we somehow are on the same wavelength when it comes to storytelling, but when I'm describing something halfway through he'll blurt out what he thinks is going to happen and he usually is correct. Of course I won't have my ideas cucked and so I have to immediately come up with another course of action.

>As you're walking down the main trade district, you see two very fancily dressed women off to the side
>You overhear one bragging to the other about this extremely expensive ring her husband just gave her
>"Oh just look at it dahhling, isn't it gorgeous? And so expensive, too! My husband truly loves me."
>Shortly after passing by the two women, you hear a sudden scream
>"Aaaah! My ring! Where did it go? It was just on my finger and in the blink of an eye it's gone!"
>Player interrupts
>"HAHAH IT'S GOING TO BE IN ONE OF OUR POCKETS"
And so, instead I had to play it off like the Quickling hid the ring in her friend's hairpiece. It just pisses me off when he cucks me and steals my thunder like that.
I guess the joke's on him though, because I was going to use my original plan to develop more story on that player character's love interest, HAHA FAG. MAYBE NEXT TIME IF YOU CAN KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.

Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh
youtube.com/watch?v=0_C2HJvtRDY

>but how could I use the phantoms?
They're looking for treasure they buried but did not properly mark.

>I'll have to work out the why and the how.
There's a portal to an ocean on some other plane at the bottom of the bay.

>what do they fear enough to chase them free of the sea?
Perhaps something much bigger than a fish came through that portal.

>globster?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globster

Ever given a weapon a name? Was one of your tools ever so special to you, or ever helped you achieve a feat so great, you had to christen it with something?
>pre-CoS ravenloft
>get attacked in the church, protecting the priest there from bats/wolves
>cut through some pews with my greatsword to make a nice path to the critters
>greatsword subsequently becomes the pew-hewer, is later used to smash up Strahd's throne
Not exciting. Somebody show me up.

I remember in the Curse of Strahd game I'm running I had described a large amount of bear traps in the area of the woods the players were in. Then gave the description of a humanoid 'thing' following them from a great distance, that they lose track of over their travel.

One character gets caught in a trap and screams, which causes something to draw in close.
At this point they're all freaking out, thinking its Strahd (had an encounter earlier, got their asses kicked) and are getting desperate.

So foreshadowing that thing appearing lead to them being way more scared of the encounter than if I had just sprung the monster on them right away.

tldr foreshadowing is great.
The monster was Actual Cannibal Shia Labeouf

Pre or post hwndu?

>They're looking for treasure they buried but did not properly mark.
perhaps I can link it to a local pirate ship and its lesser arc

>There's a portal to an ocean on some other plane at the bottom of the bay.
sing it with me campers!

there's a hole in the bottom of the sea!(clap clap)

but what comes from the hole that has stats I wonder...

Is the MEGA not working for anyone else? can't download shit from it

Mega's been having issues for people without accounts for awhile now, and not just the 5e mega.

I loved playing CoS as a player and read the book after we finished the campaign. It does what its goal is very well (filling a party with worry and dread) but damn did I feel like my character never progressed at all. By the end of the campaign I was still wearing my starter gear and even though we made -enough- money it sucked that the prices of everything were jacked through the roof.

One part of me finds it's frustrating that I can't build or equip my character with stuff I want cause that's always part of the fun of it for me, watching my char and others progress on to better things. On the other than CoS isn't suppose to be a campaign of convenience, everything is intentionally hard and you are suppose to pick your battles wisely.

>sorcerer

good call, completely forgot sorc existed somehow. 14 cha should be plenty

hwndu? I don't know what that means.

Is Shadow Sorcerer as good as it looks? I'm thinking I'll either be a Human, Halfling or Changeling to get use out of the Darkvision I get.

I just have a crap ton of players that make things easier for them. I'm an inexperienced DM, so I'm still working on encounter scaling for bigger parties. They got it easy, but I could really see them wince when it came to buying armour and ammo, they all had to pool resources. They have one magic weapon (+1 Rapier), from a loot table I decided to roll after they killed the shambling mound but thats it.

Can't wait to see their realization that past the plot important items, they aren't really going to get much more.

Just hit level 6 on my lore bard.

What are the best spells to pick up for utility? Find steed seems like a pretty damn good one, but I already have familiar from magic initiate.

>hwndu? I don't know what that means.

He Will Nut Inside Us

The con to that is... it really fucking sucks knowing you really have no equipment yet are expected to survive being ambushed by several werewolves and you're a fighter with no magic weapons.

On the plus side, finding the Sunsword after searching for several weeks worth of sessions and keeping it hidden in my bag as I waited to spring it on Strahd in surprise was so fucking rewarding...

Nah just kidding, as soon as I struck Strahd with it he just cast suggestion of me and told me to throw the sword out the fucking window that was on a 300ft cliff.

I understand Strahd is super intelligent but I think I almost rage quit when the DM pulled that on me.

Darkvision is a cheap thing that buys people into playing a non proper race (human). My GM usually finds a way to make me want to have a non-human character as he is playing the NPCs very smart, if the Hobgoblin sees a fire 120ft away he will have no problem shooting us with arrows because light gives him vision as well.

I feel like SCA did Teiflings better. By default Teiflings should not have Dark Vision. But maybe the race should come with points or a roll system that you can buy demonic traits.

A tail, horns, darkvision, wings, maybe claws... etc.

>I understand Strahd is super intelligent but I think I almost rage quit when the DM pulled that on me.
>I prefer when the intelligent masterminds turn into dumb brutes the moment we enter combat

>Wings
Get out.

if you don't have a druid in the party, i recommend conjure animals
there's no problem that can't be solved by a bear or 8 dogs

That's not what I meant. Strahd commanding my char to toss the sword out a window was something Strahd would do and I don't fault my DM for that. Was just one of those frustrating things cause the plan myself and the party came up with literally went out the window.

It was a memorable fight cause Strahd pulled so many dirty tricks on us and only 2 people out of our 7 man party survived before defeating him.

Then they died too as soon as they tried to cross the bridge out of the castle and were roasted alive by flames.

Suck it fucboi, it's a thing.

>play session today
>could have saved 2 party members from dying had i paid attention
>both of them die and i feel guilty about it

What happened?

I had one of my party members name their sword their "Wight-Light" after the Cleric kept casting Light on it during crypt dungeons

>Racial flying that doesn't require spell concentration
>People actually allow this in their games

I don't play in AL but are they allowed to take it? I guess it can't be any worse then Yuan-Ti which are allowed.

Question about Bigby's Hand. Is it proficient with Athletics? If not, do I get Jack of All Trades, or not since it's using its own Str?

Give your enemies nets, user. Instant falling damage. Good times for all.

we were being attacked by lobstermen (i'm not exactly sure what theyre called in the monster manual)

the bard was split up from the rest of us on the ship we were on, and 1v1ed one of them before getting paralyzed by one and getting incapped. it then jumped off the side of the ship with the bard in tow which is when our ranger dove off the makeshift crow's nest into the water to try and rescue him, but ultimately got paralyzed and took a shitload of hp. the other monk tried to fish them out of the water, and the druid tried killing the lobster with call lightning but failed to. i myself was pretty low and only had 16 hp (half of which was temporary) and i think i could have managed to use the last of my ki to stun it and rescue the bard and ranger. roll20 shit the bed and our dm's internet died momentarily so we took a 5-10 minute break and i ended up forgetting about my plan. instead what i did was leap off the side of the ship and throw a dart that ended up missing.

I never said I allow wings in my game. I just said it's a thing.

Why is yuanti op?

>pulled into side game
>agree to play CoS with no knowledge of the module ahead of time
>only two players total
>Veeky Forums talks about it like it's some rappan athuk-tier pain in the ass

Have you seen what their racials include, user?

Magic Resistance, Immune to one of the more common damage and the Spellcasting are just too much. One of those is enough to be a races main feature but combining all of them makes Snek boys OP.

How difficult is it to buy the equivalent of a magical lightbublb?

Anyone ever make a campaign where the pcs kill their old characters? Old characters are evil, new campaign would be good, seems like it would be fun for them to eventually become strong enough to best their old characters in their lair. I'd like to hint at it but not make it clear until the very end.
>tldr any tips for campaigns where pcs kill their old characters

Cant open tools on phone

why would they turn evil? are they characters from an evil campaign? or are they just evil from the pcs point of view

Evil campaign. Based around them being tricked/betrayed and corrupted by mind flayers due to greed.

A question about spell components from a new person

When, in a spell, it's listed as "V, S, M" does that mean that it needs all 3, or is it "as long as you can do at least one, you can cast it."?

All 3.