/5eg/ Fifth Edition General:

Also just realized slow fall != Cleric 1/Warlock 1
I'm fine with mads and not optimizing- there are 7 in the party so someone else can carry
Point taken though, how about help with rationalizing why I'm using warlock powers as a LG war cleric? Am a follower of God and currently trying to decide between "Using evil to fight evil" and "God says its okay"

Which god?

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

Actually more on the Big Catholic G, but they're interchangeable I guess

>Ancient Rome + Xuanhuan

Does this seem like a good setting for a D&D campaign?

Spell attack cantrips or saving throw cantrips? Which are better?

"Using evil to fight evil" only works when evil means are more effective than good ones, which is not the case for you. You are much better at being a cleric, than a warlock.

Depends on the setting

I've got a question for all the DMs: is it ok to make (sparing) use of NPCs your players just can't kill or convince?

I'm running a game of 7 people, and we're 4 sessions deep. The party is showing a complete disregard for any NPC that comes their way. It hasn't really been a problem until now -- picking fights with low level thugs, being rude to NPCs, basic, manageable stuff -- but last session something happened and I'm not sure if I handled it correctly.

I introduced a character who is supposed to be an infamous black market trader. He approached the party looking to hire them after the aforementioned thug-beating. He needed them to find something for a client of his, and that he'd be willing to pay for their services. This is where my question comes into play: completely unprompted, the barbarian of the party picks up the merchant and threatens him. Now, I imagined this character as having a sort of lazy confidence about him, and he also can't go revealing the identities of his clients so despite the barbarian rolling a 19 on her intimidate, the merchant remained calm, just saying he can't tell them that information. Luckily, the players didn't mind it or even question it.

Did I respond correctly in your opinion? Furthermore, I can see things like this escalating in the future, with the barbarian, later in that session getting thrown in jail for punching on honest merchant in the middle of the busiest district of a large city. Is it ok to make NPCs that the party can't kill/can kill the party?

Just pretend he had a bonus against intimidate/it was a difficult skill check. Also if he does end up dying, make his second take over or contact them with a rival trader

(OP here) That's a very cool idea, but could I also just give him class levels so he could defend himself if they do try to kill him? I want to start to create the idea that, at level 1, there are much bigger fish in the world and that they shouldn't become over-confident. I figure someone who regularly has dealings with the underbelly of a major city knows how to wield a knife.

Don't rely on NPC stats for target numbers, what you did is fine by making it DC20 (very difficult).

As far as NPCs the party can't kill, bring in a dozen guards and a more veteran officer. Like 8-10 guards and a gladiator. Make it clear this is an arrest of the one character, if they resist it will be considered a villainous act against the kingdom.

Even if it's not related to threatening the powerful merchant, he'll be blamed but his influence will be expanded in their minds. It's also fair for a city to bring out the big guns for adventurers since there's no set "we have 7 Xth level players running around" knowledge for the NPCs.

Rad

You could just rp and stuff, don't need to shit your char.

Usually spell attack, unless you know the enemy stats and use a cantrip that targets a weak save.
Like being a mystic and using mind thrust on everything ever, because everyone is dumb.

I'm running Curse of Strahd for a party of "around" six people

Composition is as follows

>Human Paladin
>Half Elf Bard
>Dragon Born Monk
>Halfling Thief
>Tiefling Fiendlock
>Human Battlemaster

But I'm struggling to tie these people's personal story lines to the world around them. Some of them I've worked out

> Dragonborn and Argynvost, obviously
>Tiefling and the Wachters, and maybe also Bonegrinder
>Paladins don't need shit for Curse of Strahd,
>Half Elf Bard is a female, and the Dusk Elves are right over there

But the other two are giving me the run around.. I'm thinking, werewolf the Human, and have the halfling be the latest incarnation of an adventurer who has tried and died horribly a thousand times to kill Strahd

What is your experience with this?

I'm having him be the last ghost out of the parade of the dead

Could always rogue him up if you're worried, then eventually turn him into a midboss / main antagonist for a few sessions.
Might just be better for him to hire bodyguards because of the barbarian, then have him start running when the fighting starts. If they do end up catching him, try to trick them towards treasure in a smuggler's lair or something

Use something from the MM like Veteran or Master Thief from Volo's, make him be accompanied by a couple of Thugs as well. The party will learn to behave right quick.

>How do you play druids and rangers?

My current Druid is a condescending jackass when it comes to nature. He understands that nature is fucking insane and exists only to breed and consume resources and spread. Left unchecked, "nature" will overrun whatever it can, and while a little nature is good, unchecked nature is dangerous. And right now most places are just overrun with nature. His role that of a gardener, to trim and guide and cut away at the dead, diseased, and unkempt. Nature can survive a little (or a lot) of guidance. You can put it in a box and make it look pretty (aka a garden). Want to hack a path through the forest to build a road? My druid will enthusiastically show you how the fuck it's done. If some idiot wants to chain themselves to a tree along the way, you just cut that asshole down with the tree.

>tfw you're playing CoS and you're pretty sure the GM has story hooks for everyone but you

I don't know if I should talk to him or wait and hope to be pleasantly surprised

That doesn't sound much like a condescending jackass, that sounds pretty reasonable.

Talking about rangers, is there any reason not to ise UA's ranger that was greatly improved? I feel the main issue with that one is that it makes the beast enclave way more appealing than the others.

How is that being condescending or a jackass?

Well what are you playing?

It's OP as a level 1 dip

I got invited to a game starting in a few weeks and I've been thinking of what class to roll.
I've only really played 3.5/Pathfinder, so this is my first foray into 5e.

Samurai and Way of the Kensei monk have caught my eye and seem pretty fun.
I don't wanna be useless, so do they hold up in combat?

You shouldn't have asked to play a Tabaxi Monk of the Four Elements then.

If this is your first time with 5e I recommend going with a proper published class/archetype over some unfinished playtest UA stuff.

Sorry, I meant he's a condescending jackass to other people about nature. When the topic strikes he's a bit into lecturing and making others feel small. His ability to survive nature is a point of pride (his only point of pride, really).

Wood Elf Land Druid (Arctic)
It's a replacement character so there's no written backstory, just whatever I've invented in session. I'm new to the group so I'm not sure how to handle it

My GM is a big meany and said no Volo's. He was actually a bit offput that no one's playing a human, but that's because our one THAT GUY made "Orc Hitler" who wants to exterminate humans... in a campaign filled with humans. FML.

Aaah, I gotcha.
How are Barbarians?

So he must be invited to elvish dinner parties all the time! :D

Well if it's a replacement and no written backstory there's your problem. Make a back story

Totem is good, Berserker is a bit tricky

REMOVE ELVES
REEEEEEEEEE

I really like barbarian.

Barbarians are good

Or, at least, Totem barbarians are good, Berserker barbarians are decent with the exception of their frenzy, which is generally useless

Gotcha, gotcha.
I dunno, I'm looking for something that's just flat out a lot of fun to play.
And not paladin, I've done that already.

Battlemaster fighter is also good and fun.

...

>I dunno, I'm looking for something that's just flat out a lot of fun to play.
Sure. There are very few trap builds in 5e though, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Focus on layering depth on your character and the "fun" will fall out of it naturally. Even suboptimal characters can be hugely entertaining if they're well-storied. Sometimes spitballing in /5eg/ is a good way to flesh out a character.

>tfw you're macking on a fat-chested Elf honey
>tfw she's got a penis

GOD DAMMIT WOTC! I BLAME YOU!

Are there rules for firearms in 5e? If not has anyone homebrewed any? I feel like it should be more damage than a heavy crossbow, shorter range (no rifling), with a reload rule and some sort of unreliability built in as well.

So like 1d12 martial, 80/160 range, reload, unreliable. Unreliable being roll 1d8, on a 1 fail to fire, a reload allows another shot.

wizards.com/dnd/files/Valoreign.pdf

DMG has firearms.
Renaissance, modern and sci-fi

>completely unprompted, the barbarian of the party picks up the merchant and threatens him
Typical, and no you were right. I wouldn't let them do that or kill random NPCs without punishing them after a certain point.

That doesn't too bad actually. Does he act differently toward people who actually want to learn from him or is it every time and he doesn't hesitate in being smug?

Is there a status condition for being drunk?

can you give me a page number on that?

268

Mere words can not describe the hate I have for this spell.

Just bear in mind that a 19, or even a 25, is meaningless in the face of a DC 30 check. Adjust accordingly.

Thanks

Why?

I'd definitely go down the 'Multiple NPCs' route rather than mary sue NPC route. Numbers are much stronger than one guy with mary sue stats and they speak better than 'Oh, his head's on fire, that makes him really strong!'

>Comes way too late
>Is way too weak for it's level
>Prohibitive cost
>The only way to undo "Save or lose" effect of petrification

is 100g really a prohibitive cost to a 9th level character?

Sweet.
What I've been told so far is that I need to have angered a powerful person in some fashion.
So I can add organizations and such as I see fit.
Maybe something like a vampire hunter that is hunting down a sect of vampires that killed/turned someone close to him?
Hunting down members maybe has angered the big boss vampire.

Another idea I was spitballing was my character found out about a future event that is putting a city in danger, so he starts buying up as much of the city property as he can to fortify it and defend it, since no one believes him. This angers rival businesses, so his company might get forcibly taken over and his fortune lost. Now maybe he's searching for another way to defend the city.

Ah, that's reasonable then. I thought you were gonna be one of those DMs who are all like "you get this awful curse/disease/status/whatever that-" "I cast Greater Restoration" "NO IT DOESN'T WORK!"

Hate that shit.

Depends on a DM. I'm level 5, and I'm yet to see a single dime.

>. Does he act differently toward people who actually want to learn from him or is it every time and he doesn't hesitate in being smug?
Actually, if someone genuinely wanted to listen to him I think he'd be pretty happy to teach what he knows. It hasn't happened yet though. I think part of his arc will involve being validated in the eyes of others somehow. So far he's just been the slightly unhinged elf who yells at animals, rants about mother nature being a crazy bitch, and makes vague threats about natural disasters. He made a small child cry once by describing what a tornado would do to their village (I got "fired" as a babysitter after that). He's been a fun character so far.

>Not looting enemies for scrap/furs/meat/whatever for copper pieces of profit

Do you even hobolife?

y tho

you should be able to shake the corpses of goblins for loose change, at least.

>Reddit spacing
Because it is part of how 5e absolutely babies players. 5e is for pussies almost as much as 4e, which was the ultimate pussified hugbox of a game.

5e removes
>Save or die spells
>Coupe de grace
> -10 Hp kills (admittedly for semi-good reason)
>ability drain
>poison (that bullshit extra damage type is not poison)
>curses such as cockatrice and basilisk turn-to-stone abilities, which are pussified as well

The game is meant to be a hugbox for normalfags who cannot cope with a real roleplaying game with real consequences. They are too used to Dark Scrolls or Skyrim where they can just push a button to respawn, and as a result the game has to be dumbed down to be safe for them. No longer are any of these monsters scary because all they do is reduce your hitpoints so you just have to make sure you don't run out of hitpoints. If you do run out of hit points you have a minimum of 3 turns to be healed anyway so as long as you have a cleric who isn't a fucking idiot there is basically no way you can die past level 1 unless you are fucking retarded.

Pathfinder also has this problem, where now you have to go to -Con to die from damage. This is part of pandering to a weaker-minded generation who gets asshurt when their special snowflake assassin Khaleesi Doomblade gets killed. Wizards of the Coast is designing around nothing but money now. Fewer rules (which is good to some degree as the 5e rules are quite streamlined) but also a dumbed down hugbox of a system that is only worth playing if you play D&D to have your worthless tiny ego stroked until you reach level 20 without any sort of rigor or effort involved.

...

>reddit spacing

I'm not from reddit, I'm just an autist from 06.

Virt, just because you didn't write "Merals" in your post, it doesn't mean we don't know it's you.

>poison (that bullshit extra damage type is not poison)

That still exists. Plenty of poisons have rider effects while you're suffering from the poisoned condition. You can make them as vicious as older edition poisons if you want and they already have a mechanic for you to frame them with.

Also, fuck off Virt.

Coupe de grace?

If I remember correctly not really, but I play it as if you're drunk attacks and skill checks, aside from maybe charisma based, are at disadvantage.

Poisoned, since alcohol is a poison to most bodies.

>Another idea I was spitballing was my character found out about a future event that is putting a city in danger, so he starts buying up as much of the city property as he can to fortify it and defend it, since no one believes him. This angers rival businesses, so his company might get forcibly taken over and his fortune lost. Now maybe he's searching for another way to defend the city.
As a Barbarian? Totally pic related.

Just be careful mixing a CE character with any Lawful Stupid's in your group.

That's one of the odd things my group found out about diseases in 5e: There is no such thing as a 'magical' disease. As such, Lycanthropy goes from "oh noes, we need to do something quick" to "Let's find a lvl 1 paladin or a lvl 3 divine caster and get rid of this shit. Oh wait, we already have one? Neat."

Admittedly, it wasn't super hard to get rid of in 3.5 but all the magical instant fixes were 5th level or higher and were conditional.

Not necessarily a barbarian, but yeah

>Not mentioning how death saves are shit for hardercore games encouraging 'Oh, you only die if the DM arbitrarily decides to have the monster target you while you're down'
Your post is shit desu

3.5 diseases worked on such a time scale they were never a threat to PCs anyway. For all intents and purposes, those rules exist to describe what would happen to commoners exposed to a disease since even 1st level spellcasting is not assumed to be common or attainable for peasants.

Any smart monster would do exactly that, not our fault your DM assumes a group of evil wizards won't know they'd better ensure a guy is dead before going after the others

>spelling error
>therefore entire post is wrong

Flawless logic.

>You can make them as vicious as older edition poisons if you want and they already have a mechanic for you to frame them with.

Yeah but that's not in the core book and if you use it your players will consider you a jackass. Poison has zero function in 5e, it cannot kill you, all it does is deal damage like everything else. Status effects are basically irrelevant, that's why all the best builds are DPS and nothing else.

That wasn't an attempt at invalidating your points, I was making fun of you for spelling something wrong.

>Any smart monster would do exactly that

No, it's better to finish off all your allies than waste a round pounding a dead opponent. Unless you are working in concert with other groups and you know you are a sacrifice so you might as well do some lasting damage. But from a selfish point of view, there is no reason to do that.

Anyone else use "The Mercer Scale" for awarding RP experience?

Every time a character does something cool or very in character you make a tally mark next to their name. Afterwards, either during a break or at the end of the session you add the tally x 15 x their level.

My characters are currently lvl 4 so # of characters tallys x 15 x 4

I tried tracking it in previous games but kept dropping the ball. This time I allotted RP XP at the end and they all seemed quite appreciative of it

>Mfw a player went down while fighting "mindless" monsters
>No one expected them to act like monsters and start trying to drag the body away and start eating
>They decided to carry the chewed up corpse back to town and find a healer to revive
>It barely worked

My players are far more careful now, smart enemies target caster and healer first if possible(only if they know in game they are a caster or healer), while mindless ones will try and drag away their kill and eat.

>As such, Lycanthropy goes from "oh noes, we need to do something quick" to "Let's find a lvl 1 paladin or a lvl 3 divine caster and get rid of this shit. Oh wait, we already have one? Neat."

But that spell cannot affect Lycanthropy. Lycanthropy can only be cured by wolfsbane which is meant to be quite rare. Unless 5e nipped that in the bud too because it might get a woman's character killed off in an adventurer's league game and that would be misogynist.

>No, it's better to finish off all your allies than waste a round pounding a dead opponent.

That depends on the NPC's knowledge of the PCs. If NPCs see someone using healing magic, it's not unreasonable for them to start double-tapping if they're intent on fucking you up.

I hate keeping track of individual experience almost as much as I hate tracking group experience.

Did the monster do continued damage to the player resulting in forced failed death saves?

Because that's a bridge to far for me.

Depends on the situation. If someone is bleeding out on the floor, and none of their friends are healing him, why should I worry about him?

In addition to
I was kind of thinking that the character would do whatever it takes to save this city, no matter what.
All his actions would be for the greater good

So if you don't have a cleric, there's no reason for monsters to ever attack you when you're down other than them being stupid?

If monsters were smart, 9/10 encounters would not happen given how overwhelmingly the adventurers always win

They would all gang up and you'd have one encounter per day, but it'd be an extremely hellish encounter.

Why actually keep track of experience?
Is there any benefit?