/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

the Giant race. Hill, Storm, Fire, Cloud, Ice and Stone Giants.

Hey Veeky Forums, I'm looking for some advice.

I'm DMing for a large group (7, 8 on some days). For more than half the group, this is their first D&D experience. A problem I'm facing is that the players (even the "experienced" one) are acting very unrealistically. They curse at random townsfolk, the chaotic neutral barbarian (I know, huge red flag) assaulted a merchant in front of a guard, they expect every NPC has something to hide from them, etc. Ultimately, what my question is, is: is it ok to humble my party with a crazy powerful encounter? So far, the barbarian beat the shit out of a random street thug. The party is still level 1, would it be ok for that thug to hire a bunch of stronger thugs and just stomp the party? I plan to use it to set up another side quest, but I guess I'm wondering about people's opinions on encounters that the player's have no hope of winning, but also no hope of avoiding. It sounds like poor DMing to me, but I need some way to instill in my players a sense of danger and humility. Right now, they think they're on god mode.

Thank you, it was just a big oversight.

This has probably been asked a thousand times but what's everyone's thoughts on the Mystic?
(Thanks to the guy who responded in the last thread)

Breaking his leg seems harsh and would impede his ability to even get to the starting town. Putting him in debt presumably from travel expenses seems like a decent compromise. I might just wait until we meet and ask the other two if they're alright with there being a small power gap. Although, depending on how their characters end up, it might just balance itself out.

Put your homebrew caps on. The obvious things should be:
>size Large or bigger
>adequate stat bumps (probably going to be higher than a simple +2/+1, especially when it comes to Strength and Constitution)
>a reason for a society like giants to come together, especially since different kinds of giants are among the most stratified

Was asked by a player if there was any class or feats that would give you bonuses to hit or damage as you lost HP, but I can't think of any. Is there even a feat or class feature like that in 5e? I figured he was more used to playing 4e so he wanted something similar to how some monsters would get bonuses when bloodied.

>Is there even a feat or class feature like that in 5e?
afaik no

There are not. If you intend to let him have a bonus like that, you'll have to homebrew it. If I were you, I'd ask what he has in mind and how it makes sense for his character.

What would happen if you modified the wording of abilities to include disadvantage? Ie, it must make a DC saving throw, with disadvantage, or x happens.

What about classes? I won't really feel confortable with hill giant wizards running around.

Thanks, was afraid I had missed something but I guess it just doesn't really exist in the rules at this point. I'll talk to him about making something that could work but its gonna be hard to balance it just right. He wants to be a feral attacker type, you know the cornered animal will strike wildly and such. Works maybe as an extra barbarian feature.

It's non-standard format to say that a creature always does something with advantage or disadvantage, but you can if you really want to do that. Normally advantage/disadvantage is a conditional thing, like 'Enemy has disadvantage if they're a plant'.

No, but no reason you can't make up your own feats if you want to go against what's written.

>Works maybe as an extra barbarian feature.
Like Frenzy?

There are not. Make a feat, maybe +1 to hit and +2 damage to weapon attacks when you're bellow half your hp max, and +2 to hit and +4 damage for when you're bellow 10%

No more than Half-orc wizards, in my opinion. However, having class restrictions for the different breeds would be something you lay out to the players.

No, it isn't okay. Are they having fun? If the answer is yes, then it's okay that they play the game 'wrong'.

Let them find an adventure, and let the adventure be fun and exciting, then have someone die.

Would it mean the ability would be too overpowered?

Punish them, you fucking pussy. Are you the Dungeon Master or are you just a fanfic writer? Take control of those fuckwits or they'll never learn.

You probably want to specify things just a bit more with that third part in Warding Hand. Are you choosing from all spell lists, or just the Warden's? Touch spells only?

lol well put, I think this was the kick in the pants I needed.

Good man, now go put the fear of You in those goddamn heathens.
Kick their asses and make them need the townsfolk they were just fucking with, and then have the townspeople shut them down until the party gets its act together.

Thank you, added "on the target" like in the description for Dispel Magic.

Do you not understand? In his backstory. You're upset that you gave him 125gp; just take it away.

Ranger or Fighter, as they have access to the two weapon fighting style, although you could easily grab it for another class if you just put one level in fighter. The College of Swords UA for bards also good for duel wielding, as they get this style at level 3.

That's not to say you couldn't do it with other classes though, these ones just get the biggest bonus TWF wants fairly early.

Its true that this game is supposed to be fun and, as DM, sometimes you just have to let them be stupid, violent pricks.

However

You should always give them consequence. If they commited a crime in front of a guard then the guard should be on his signal whistle and mustering the rest of the town guard. The townsmen should have told others about the event and the whole town becomes unfriendly toward the party. Remember that townsfolk are friends and neighbors to one another and not just static NPCs. Mothers should be guiding chdren away from them. Shop keepers, especially, should be refusing service.

The party chooses their adventure but if they commit overt crimes then the adventure they are choosing is outlaws and criminals.

Seems cool, I like the whole build your own ability list thing they got going on, seems like you could have a party of mystics and they would all be different. That said it needs tweaks and balances, but other than that looks solid.

college of swords is shit for dual wielding in it's latest incarnation

you can't use blade flourish and TWF at the same time

It's pretty good. At my table we took away one of the bonus disciplines at first level (so you start with two, rather than three) and lowered the damage of everything over d6 by a step.

Does a lot to stop Mystics from outshining other classes in their preferred areas. They're still very versatile but they can't perform two or three roles at once while pumping out more damage than the Paladin or Rogue.

Mind answering what Mystics do in your game? The disciplines they have, and what they tend to use, and to what effect?

Are dao poweful creatures or nah senpai?

We've got a full Immortal who has Psychic Weapon, the Air Wu Jen thing, and Celerity. He hits things and doesn't give a fuck, and occasionally we all hide behind his cloud wall and bonk enemies who stumble through.

Our Paladin MCed into Mystic for Mantle of Command and some Nomad shit for teleporting all over.

>18 AC, ~200 HP, 2x +10 4d6+6 attacks, wall spells, summoning elementals, phantasmal killer, pass wall
>rich as fuck
Yeah, they could wreck a low level party if you played 'em smart.

user's high powered growing magic item Quest Continues!

>homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/S1m7nEU8eZ

>Loreweaver
(Anyone have a better idea for a final form improvement instead of the dice size increase?)

>Deceit
Changed the critical hit charm effect to a sanctuary like ability.

>Distract & Deceit
Clarified the wording on the magic bonus to the weapons.

How would you make a custom background for a slave?

What about a higher level party?

Depends on the type of slave.

Anything is shit against a med-to-high party if it comes in alone.

Dao are rich, powerful, important and sought-after by other rich, powerful, and important people. You'll never encounter them alone.

Your choices are farmer, peasant farmer, beggar, child bearer.
You die of the plague.

>Proficiencies: Sleight of Hand and one other depending on the type of slave (like Athletics for manual labor or Deception for concubine)
>Tools: Thieves' Tools?
>Language: One bonus language tied to whatever the captors spoke
>Feature: Can draw a tool or improvised weapon out of your bum once per long rest, or maybe something like the Rogue's "Thieves Cant" ability except used for slaves

BLOOD AND GLORY FOR THE SORCERER-KING

Honestly I'd say a Kensai multiclass. Take 2 levels in Ranger with TWF and then you're basically a normal Monk except a bit better damage on your offhand.

Yeah, I (who you are replying to) agree with this.

Depends on the ability, but usually yes, permanent disadvantage is rather strong. There's a reason it's conditional.

You start with a wooden shield (barrel lid), and a club (wooden stick). You have proficiency in drums and dice to pass the time. You have a set of wooden dice. You have proficiency in Athletics, and Survival.

This really needs to be changed, legendary actions notwithstanding. Challenging solo enemies should be a thing.

I'm thinking of the type of slave being determined by table, like the criminal or charlatan backgrounds.

I don't quite know what skills would work for them, but a language proficency and a single other tool proficiency could work, like those of guild artisans, or an instrument, or a gaming set.

This should be a background for either former or current slaves.

Alright, my Wizard finally met his rest while trying to play Fighter on the front lines. d6 hit dice make it pretty hard to survive on the front lines, even with 23AC.

My two back up characters are both really tempting to me and I really can't decide.

First is a Lizardfolk Light Cleric. Likely full Aztec style worship except more civilized.

Second is an Elven Mountain Druid who is basically going to be refluffed in some aspects to make a character with basically the same powers of Nahiri from mtg. Stone shaping and lithomancy basically. My DM's already said that he'll allow weapon and armour to be made with Stone Shape so that's cool.

What would you rather have in your party?

(original poster here)

Well put. The barbarian did get caught and thrown in jail for assaulting the merchant. I'm currently debating how long they should sit in there and if there should be any consequences beyond the jail sentence. She's been playing chaotic random, so I kind of want to demonstrate that there is a limit to how "random" you can be in certain situations.

It's easy:
you give the creature multiple initiatives.

If it has multi-attack, it can only take one swing (or whatever) per initiative. If it has spells, no back-to-back casting, but something with four initiatives would manage two spells in the round (and with three initiatives, it'd alternate one, two, one, two).
Its per-round movement can be parceled out over however many initiatives you like.
Effects which say a creature can save to end on its turn can be saved against every initiative.
Remove one of its initiatives when the creature reaches some health threshold to simulate it being worn down (or add one if it's going into some desperate frenzy).

Why did you do that? Go to the front lines and pretend to be a fighter?

I spent time, feats and spells to give myself a high AC and defence because the rest of the party is melee.

I just wanted to hang out with the cool kids.

A Cultist of Talos's Lightning Bolt is what killed me in case you're wondering.

Any tips or things I can do to make map-making easier?

I play on roll20, and doing the maps are always a giant pain in the ass.

Likewise, running the Sunless Citadel for a bunch of nearly new players. Anything I should know about the story? I hear it's really good for baby-tier players, so I figure it'll be perfect for them.

Better characters

Care to at least offer a suggestion?

If you weren't a bladesinger you probably shouldn't have done that, especially because you're so much squishier than a dedicated martial.

How the hell are you supposed to run the giant invasion at the end of the second chapter of SKT?

Yeah, I learnt a valuable lesson. First time playing 5e and I came from mostly classless systems, so I didn't expect the gap in the ability to take hits to be as big as it was.

Though thinking about it even if I cowered at the back the Lightning Bolt would've likely killed me. I was kinda getting bored of Wizard anyway so no big loss.

>map-making
There are no good battle map makers. None. They're all shit for different reasons. You can't use one for every situation, the clashing art styles (even within one) will drive you mad, and all the tools aren't there to do what you want to do.

Just draw basic frames and shit in roll20 or paint and theatre of mind the rest, nigga. Yeah, here's a temple, this is the carpet, here's the throne, these are the pillars, there's two doors over there. What else is in the room? Whatever the fuck you want, party. Yeah, sure, braziers, there's one within reach of you, go nuts. Some kind of ceremonial goat head on a stick? You know it, go ahead and Chingachgook that motherfucker with it. Something to swing from? Of course there's tattered tapestries hanging all over the place.

For my games I usually just snipe a bunch of the flipmats and map packs from the /pfg/ archives, convert the PDFs to jpgs, then upload them to Roll20. Gets a little trickier if you're trying to splice a bunch of elements together because the sizes aren't always consistent, but if you have a grid overlay with your image editing software of choice it makes it easier to line up the boxes.

Well the wizards and the other arcane spellslingers are meant to be more about area damage or battlefield control or utility and shit like that.

How are you finding 5e?

The party picks one to go and stop. You can't be everywhere. Hopefully the rest of the world has their shit together.

I like it, it seems very "Classic Tabletop". Like what people who know a bit about games would first think of. Exploring, tense fights, social stuff and enough options to keep things interesting.

Also the system makes it easy as fuck to just hand-wave and improvise actions instead of looking in Rulebook 2C chapter 5 to find out if I can spin around in a circle without making a check. I love rules light after some of the games I came from.

I was never big on D&D growing up so I'm wondering, what are the main roles that Clerics and Druids fill?

My friend wants to play a Hexblade.

Obviously he doesn't start with the Sentient Weapon, but how on earth can I use it as a plot device for him?

I mean what would a sentient weapon even want him to do? Other than "come wield me nigga"

Take revenge on the villain that slew its former wielder. which may or may not be the former wielder himself after turning into a baddie and getting disowned by the weapon

Fighting. It's the obvious one but a weapon's reason to be is to fight, it's reasonable that this thing just wants to watch him murderfuck awesome stuff and fight.

The weapon could be the anicent weapon of someone. A saint's sword, a warlord's spear or anything like that. It would effectivally be a regular patron except in weapon form then.

A giant death weapon. Secret self-destruct the gods made or an orbital death laser that's going to pull a sci-fi thing into the plot.

Could even be a mighty sword trying to make martial superiority a thing even if it needs magic to do it. The sword's likely retarded.

Ask the group. Do they want to break her out? Tell them explicitly they'll be outlaws if they do.

If they don't, it's bye-bye barbarian. Tell the player to roll a new character.

From a certain point of view.

I was thinking it might be a good sentient weapon that is just trying to guide him down the path to wielding it.

Then it gets really fucking disappointed because he's a Goblin and the weapon didn't know

I feel like it's worth noting that the party is level 1, so I don't think a jailbreak in Waterdeep is very likely. Of course if they want to do that, it is an option lol

(original poster here)
(sorry, responded to the wrong post)

I feel like it's worth noting that the party is level 1, so I don't think a jailbreak in Waterdeep is very likely. Of course if they want to do that, it is an option lol

The weapon is famous in history, like Excalibur, everyone knows it. However it was once known to be wielded by a powerful god, more like Mjolnir. The god of this weapon received all of his power from worship, and praise, but as time went on, his portfolio became more and more obsolete as time times went on, and eventually he faded away into obscurity.

But the weapon had a story much more like Excalibur, a famous weapon that could grant all a man wanted, but one that no man could ever find. The near dead god's consciousness sitting in a metaphysical plane of existence out of desperation decided to inhabit the weapon, and in effect become reliant upon the people's worship, and observation of the story of the !Excalibur. However, he is now barred from ever entering the physical world, as the people believe the weapon can not be found, the rules of godhood prevent him from acting in a manner contrary to what people believe.

Now YOU, the player have been contacted by this God. Your quest: convince the people the weapon can be found, and that you will be the one to wield it.

>Then it gets really fucking disappointed because he's a Goblin and the weapon didn't know
That's golden.

May I ask for any advice for someone with dyslexia and retainment issues that wants to Dungeon Master?

>First is a Lizardfolk Light Cleric. Likely full Aztec style worship except more civilized.
There ain't no such thing as "except more civilized" to Lizardfolk user, and making it so is the pussy route. user, so help me Tonatiuh, you are going to carve something's still-beating heart out with a jagged tooth-dagger and drink/bathe with the contents, and you are going to like it, or you will be sent to your room and never given divine guidance again.

>retainment issues
what

>retainment
Buy a notebook and write shit down. Create a constructive web of things that you can make up shit from as you go a long but try to have a basis for everything, if you forget something or are unsure about an environment, character just go back to your notes.

Information that I learn goes in, but not all of it sticks.

bro that's the human condition

WRITE. DOWN. EVERYTHING.

If you have good players that can roleplay without you staring at them even better, you can write down details as they talk. Never feel embarrassed about having to write stuff down as a DM, it's really what you should always be doing.

Only issue with that is your spelling, but that's something I've always wondered - if you read over your scribbled, spelling mistake filled writing is it perfectly clear for you or do you still struggle?

I think has the right idea, but I've also seen GMs hand out the "notetaker" responsibility to someone else in the group (since he usually has a lot on his plate already). Have someone record the events of the session as you go through it and send the notes to you afterward.

Thanks, I figured as much. I bought myself a swanky leather notebook just for my notes while learning/running a game.

I can usually keep up with spelling/reading if I devote all my energy to it. I've always loved writing despite rather it be good or bad, creative writing. I have a feeling my notebook is going to be filled with the small rules, the number crunching rules too.

Don't let your notes get in the way of your game, the ability to keep being creative is the most important but having a good scaffold doesn't hurt even the people without dyslexia and retainment issues.

What would a 5e version of Legends and Lore look like?

>what are the main roles that Clerics and Druids fill?
Healing and support, mostly. Depending on the archetype, a druid could have a more direct role, as a Moon Druid for example. Also, a lowish-mid level Cleric has one of the best area denial possibilities. Park your Heavy armour + shield-wielding ass in a chokepoint, cast Spirit Guardians, then Dodge and cast Sanctuary the next turn.

Enemy walking in to hit you has to succeed on a WIS save or take 3d8 radiant/necrotic, then has to succeed another WIS save to even hit you. If it doesn't fail that, it now has to hit your 19+ AC at disadvantage. And every turn it starts in your Spirit Guardians radius is another 3d8 damage save.

Are there any big problems with having a large-sized player character race?

Doors and halls made for medium or small creatures could be completely inaccessible. Having the Centaur sit outside the dungeon because the door is small is pretty sucky.

this If the door is medium-sized, you can fudge it by saying they have to get down real low and it's embarrassing and awkward for everyone.

Squeezing for a whole hallway during combat would be extremely unfun for the player if something like that happened.

it makes grappling more powerful. You have trouble going indoors. you have disadvantage with small weapons and large weapons cost a lot to start and are more powerful. 5ft tunnels are an issue for you. Disadvantage on a lot of checks. Not recommended as it gives a lot of combat advantages and makes routine things a pain.

I didn't say it was a perfect solution.