/5eg/ Fifth Edition General:

How does one build a twf strength battlemaster without it sucking. All UA allowed.

Help me design a battle master Veeky Forums I was thinking of going with a Goliath. What weapons should I go with? What are the best maneuvers? Any feats I should look out for?

It'll miss out on a few features, but far from screwed. There many an NPC out there that can be leveraged for assistance

I suppose you're going to say Backgrounds are shit as well.

Daylight spell does not provide Sunlight

No, backgrounds are awesome, but you of course should be fine-tuning them to fit your character. If you've been living on the streets for your entire life, having some street smarts makes perfect sense.

1. Pick Fighter Battlemaster
2. Put your highest stat in Strength
3. Get TWF fighting style
4. Get TWF feat

Done.

my LGS lets you have one free re roll per session if you buy a drink or something. Everybody loves it.

Is this Virtue cantrip strong for early levels, or is it just me?

So I'm putting together a "trial and prosecution/defence" quest for my players after one of their favourite NPCs was murdered.

The person on trial is a spy, but he's being framed for the murder in order to provoke a war. I want there to be lots of evidence that he did do it, but enough evidence that it's a setup that the players will really be concerned that it's not as it appears.

However, so far most of my evidence just makes it really clear that it's all a ruse.

Can anyone suggest additional "clues" to his guilt I could add? Notes so far:

Marquetta has been killed, and Henentius Wit, a human who's lived in the city for years, has been accused of her murder, as he was the only one who stayed late at the Judge's Thrust that night, and was found with blood on his hands.

A search of his house revealed that he was a spy for Stromness, and the current charge is that Marquetta discovered his secret, and he killed her to silence her, before collapsing due to a poison she'd hit him with before perishing.

Guilty:
>Known to get rowdy when drunk - even if he weren't accused of being a spy, guards could believe that he would fight with someone.
>There's also a "witness", a bard who was in the bar most of the evening, and who left his lute in the Thrust by mistake. He was heading back to get it, when he heard Marquetta screaming "Henentius!" at which point he ran away to fetch the guards, who found him collapsed there with blood on his hands, and her with her neck broken and bleeding.

Not guilty clues to follow-

Not Guilty:
>If he's questioned, he'll deny all knowledge of having done anything, though he'll reluctantly admit that he did wake up with blood on his hands. The last thing he remembers was discussing music with Marquetta after everyone else had left.

>If the locals are questioned, they'll say that everyone knew he was a spy, as he would say anything once he had a few drinks down him. Most treated him as a cheerful grandfather figure who sometimes needed help getting home. They express disbelief that he would murder anyone, and he was apparently on good terms with Marquetta as he put a lot of money into her business over the years.

>His house is old and creaky, with spiderwebs hanging about the place, and dusty wooden floors. Searching his "diary", which details his suspicion that Marquetta might be onto him, in increasing intensity, with the final entry noting that he'd have to deal with her. Insight reveals that the entire book was written at once, as the writing is all equally faded.

>Searching will reveal a loose board to the floor, beneath which is a series of letters and notes giving him his orders - almost exclusively from a "C", though there are one or two from an "A". One note is signed by him, dated a few days prior, giving a report on how "our friend" was getting increasingly aggressive with his tactics. Insight (if they don't work it out on their own) reveals that the handwriting isn't the same as in the diary.

Add context clues, and motive.

Let the hard say that he sounded furious calling out for her, and that she had been hosting adventurers that openly bragged about killing his countrymen

Cheers bros, I'll try to nudge my friends into playing at least one of those classes, up to them though.

Are these rogues doing it right?

I'm stupid. Say if a PC knows Giant, can they read Giant, or do they need to also know the Dwarvish script to read it? Obviously it's not written in Dwarvish, but in Sunless Citadel it says characters who know Goblin can read the graffiti on pillars only after translating the letters from Dwarvish.

Devotion Paladin with a single dip in Undying Warlock can nearly carry the team
And atuning to holy symbol of Ravenkind, Sunsword and Rod of the Pact Keeper is not too shabby at all

great sword with great weapon fighting has the best damage ouptut. You can re roll either of your 2d6 damage dies which is significant

Personally i like to do dueling with a versatile weapon because i'm a huge fan of grappling

I pick up the Magic Initiate feat for Hex. extra d6 damage per attack and they get disadvantage on being grappled. Synergizes very nicely with the trip maneuver, first attack trip, second attack grapple, and now you have them locked down in a prone position. They can't stand because they have 0 movement because they're grappled, and everyone gets adv against them, and they have dis adv to break free. I Dip 1 lvl of barbarian as well since the rage gives you advantage on strength checks as well. Plus Rage is awesome. Half damage from normal weapons makes you tanky af. Plus you get un armored defense, but honestly heavy armor is usually just better. Grappling is the best. so much battlefield control

As for maneuvers, Trip and Riposte are musts imo, trip for the grappling synergy and Riposte for the action economy. Then whatever you like. I think the Precision strike is pretty good, Goading strike is nice too if you need to peel for your team mates.

Does a Goliath's "you count as a large creature when lifting or pushing" feature count for knocking creatures prone with shield master?

Well obviously. I'm more thinking of how to meaningfully compete with Sharpshooter/GWM. Got a player at my table who really wants to play DW but is sad they feel useless, and I can't really think of a decent build. Which feats would be good?

Absolutely, fuck anyone that says otherwise in the anus hole.

A bloody leather glove belonging to the guilty guy.

And put an obvious hole in his alibi that they can prove is bullshit (he can be lying about what he was really doing for another reason) Like he says he went to hear a famous musician perform, but the musician had to cancel last minute, and hes lying because he was actually having an affair or something like that

language proficiency implies the ability to speak read and write in that language.

i dont think so. A shove is a specialized attack. Pushing or lifting i believe is referring to just moving things around.

Get a horse TWF with lances

What is the drug of choice for each class?

Would a ranger/warlock volley+eldritch smite build work or does it take to much to be worthwhile, do i need 3 or 5 levels in warlock to take the new eldritch smite if i already have 11 in ranger?

Polearm Master, Max STR, Great Weapon Master

Use a Glaive.

Both GWF and Defense fighting styles work.

Maneuvers you want:
Precision
Riposte
Trip

Rest up to you but those are the best.

No frills, tried and true optimized PAM Battle Master. Consider multiclassing into something else after 12 but you don't have to.

I mean, he already has both motive listed (she was about to find out he was a spy) and literal blood on his hands while he was definitively and by his own admission at the crime scene, but thanks.

on the subject of battlemaster, could i green flame blade with sweep? and the end result?

How does the dark stalker ranger compare to the scout rogue?

Giant is an interesting example, as Volo's Guide talks about how most of their writing is done in mural form, rather than written. A player should be able to read either of those.

As for the Sunless Citadel, the same applies. The writers were just trying to emphasize that Goblin is written in the Dwarvish script, so from a distance a dwarf might see some graffiti written on a pillar, but then he gets up close and its gibberish to him.

Nothing. All Sweep does is deal supdie damage to a nearby creature if your attack roll would beat their AC. It's not a hit or an attack in itself.

While it's always possible for a character to say they "only know spoken _______", having a language implies the ability to read and write it. With languages based on Dethek (the Dwarven script's name), like Giant, this means they can read Dethek runes.

It doesn't mean that they can speak Dwarven, though. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch--they all use the Latin script, but there are a few uncommon characters and the only way you'll recognize a word in one language without prior experience is if it's linguistically related to yours, which Dwarven and Giant aren't beyond sharing a script. It would be like being able to read Japanese kanji or Cyrillic letters and say its words out loud, but having no idea what the fuck they mean.

Here's a brain tickler for you:
Giants are an ancient race in Forgotten Realms. They had a powerful civilization and warred with other races for thousands of years before the birth of any significant human nation. What the fuck were they doing for language before Dwarves showed up? They just popped into existence one day, relatively recently in the planet's lifespan.

>how to meaningfully compete with Sharpshooter/GWM
That's close to impossible, those two feats are king dick of damage. Hell, the PAM bonus action attack is a better "two-handed" option than TWF because you don't need to take the fighting style can can take another instead.

Depending on how close to RAW you run your game, you can houserule a modification to the fighting style, as I'm sure your player has taken it. When they hit 11th level, they can make two attacks with the bonus action, provided they follow all the same rules.

Rewards are used to incentivize behaviour you want. If you want players to kill monsters, give them xp for that. If you want them to play to their flaws, give them inspiration for that. Even if they would do it anyway, which isn't even guaranteed especially with new players.

Maneuvers require that you make an attack, not that you take the Attack action.
Greenflame Blade is a spell cast that uses an attack as its somatic component, so you could attach a maneuver to it.
Sweeping GFB doesn't spread the fire around any more than usual. It's just another chunk of damage equal to your superiority die's roll to some secondary (or tertiary) target. It's really not a good maneuver unless your DM uses 4E-styled mooks.

I allow UA on a case by case basis, and I use third party monsters. I try to stay as RAW as possible because I have some people who are filthy powergamers and anything too strong would just overshadow everything else. I've heard that two attacks houserule, and IIRC it maths out decently. Only thing I am worried about is that it might then overshadow the monk. Do I then give 3 attacks with Flurry of Blows and 2 with Martial Arts? Perhaps I shouldn't worry about it too much.

>tfw DM never punishes ranged characters
>Never even tries to make them lose concentration, just constantly hits anyone in melee

>have my DM
>have to roll for stats
>have to roll for background
>have to roll for personality traits
>have to roll for physical traits
>end up with a 24yo street urchin with 4 WIS and 8 CON, who would've normally frozen to death or gotten suckered into an organ harvesting scheme before the age of ten

>tfw our Wizard eats a giant-thrown boulder twice every fight

Fighter/barbarian-coke
Rogue-escasty
Warlock-Meth
Druid- DUDE. WEED.
Beyond that harder to say desu

I hate DMs like that, it's not really fun to play useless characters, I only get to play once a month, I don't wanna play a walking RNG.

Wizard is clearly something like Adderall.

I agree. Minmaxing isn't fun either but being forced to play a melee character because your only stat above 12 is Strength isn't fun for anyone.

Bard - Yes please

Barbs do opiates. How do you think their damage resistance functions? They're just dinged out of their minds on painkillers.

Min-Maxing can be fun if you're playing with strict limits, like Adventurer's League rules.

Min-Maxing + rolled stats is just asking for it.

It's a mindset fit for OSR meatgrinder games, I love playing an inferior character for half a session before they die because they have -2 CON, but 5e very rarely does that kind of game.

Barb- PCP. A gallon of it.

Clearly dwarves actually use the Giant alphabet but it's referred to as the Dwarvern alphabet because they're a more widespread and common race
Tldr dwarf colonialism

You realize that if you're trying to replicate older games under OSR, especially D&D, you're emulating a system where character stats WEREN'T as important, right? You could have fun with a Fighter whose highest stat is 14 all the way to level 10 or beyond, but good luck doing that in 3E-5E.

But we know that's crap because Giants have kanji and Dwarves don't know what the fuck it means. The Giant-specific runes, like the Ise and Blud shit you'll find in SKT, aren't of Dwarven origin or this supposed Dwarven theft.
>giants are just fucking weebs

Why is there such an aversion from playing characters past level 12? Do player characters really get so strong its not fun to play anymore?

Yeah hence why I said 5e rarely does that kind of game, i.e. it's barely able to do it with the perfect gm and houserules.

Barbarian: PCP or bath salts
Bard: Molly
Wizard: meth
Warlock: DMT
Druid: weed or ayahuasca
Sorceror: acid

A...a whole gallon, huh?

Why are we comparing classes to degenerate substances?

...

>Bard: Molly
>Wizard: meth
>Warlock: DMT
>Druid: weed or ayahuasca
>Sorceror: acid

See

Wizards become campaign breaking after 12 if allowed to freely pick and use >6th level spells, but other than that there's no problem with playing past 12. Some classes get a bit boring if they don't multiclass I guess.

Any mention you see disparaging higher levels has more to do with the "campaigns don't get that far" meme than people actively avoiding them.

Modern players are unfortunately entitled shit bags and need in game bonuses to do things like roleplay.

Thanks amigo, what would you suggest MCing into?

I was hoping it was something like that. Thanks for the reply.

Backgrounds ARE shit, though. They're an extra layer of bullshit Wizards added to make up for the fact that you can no longer have "cross class" skills. Whereas before you could make your background work by taking skills to match that. Now you have to pick from regenerated backgrounds, or else make up your own, when before it was just a normal part of chargen. But no, wizards had to add them to compensate for shitty design and also to "make" you think more about your characters background which a good player does anyway. So, background is really only a mechanic for shitty players. Sorry.

My group kinda did an E11 type thing where extra levels gained kept giving you your relevant features, but casters didn't learn new spells at 6 or higher. They got more slots as usual and you could upcast, say, Fireball using a level 7 slot, but you never got to cast Time Stop or anything unless it was from an item.

It went well, but probably only because our Wizard and Cleric players are both very uncreative and not keen to abuse things. You can more than derail a campaign with just level 5 spells if you wanted to and the DM doesn't curb their RAW effects.

It's a shame, because some of the later leveled features are very nice for classes. I kinda feel like just giving the 13-19 stuff to PCs at some sub-10 level.

I'm just going to assume this is bait and not engage.

>a bloo bloo I get triggered if I have any stats below 10
>a bloo book a - 10% chance of succeeding ruins the experience for me
>being this butthurt over numbers

Don't lie to yourself, you're a minmaxer, and you can't handle a DM who calls you out on your bullshit. Quit the game you worthless fuck. Maybe if you look really hard you'll find a DM who will let you play your trans-nigger otherkin bisexual kitsune warlock/sorcerer.

>literally a 5% difference in ability score bonuses between 5th edition and OSR games
>"5e doesn't work for this kind of gameplay"

Powergamers, everyone.

Not OP, but honestly a 20th level fighter is still good, 4 attacks is one of the best capstones. One thing you can take is levels in Paladin if you're decent Charisma (for Smites + Aura), Warlock(Armor of Agathys, Hex), Barbarian maybe for at will advantage and Rage, but not as good as Lock...

Cleric can be decent for a 1 level dip (to get Bless & Guidance). War Cleric is decent.

>I can't form a counter argument so I'll ignore what he said

Backgrounds ARE completely redundant and add nothing that you couldn't also do in previous editions of D&D, except also with far more choice than backgrounds allow.

That is the truth. Deal with it.

Daily reminder that Hitler and much of the SS were on meth

I'm talking about meatgrinder games, where you want fast character creation so you often just roll for everything and don't put much thought into the backstory or try to make it cohesive, because they're going to die before the next session anyway. Rolling stats works in 5e, I'm just saying that meatgrinder dungeon crawling OD&D-style campaigns are not really supported by 5e's rules.

You can custom make backgrounds by RAW you retard.

>Don't lie to yourself, you're a minmaxer, and you can't handle a DM who calls you out on your bullshit. Quit the game you worthless fuck. Maybe if you look really hard you'll find a DM who will let you play your trans-nigger otherkin bisexual kitsune warlock/sorcerer.

>Wanting a stat higher than +1 is minmaxy.
Wew lad. I always wanted to play as a useless piece of shit in my games who can't hit anything and gets killed by a small breeze.

You can go Warlock to get some utility, either Tome for more cantrips or Blade for smites with the UA invocation. Warlock also offers the excellent Devil's Sight + Darkness combo.

2 levels of Barbarian gives you Reckless Attack, and 3 gives you Bear Totem, but you can't rage while in Heavy Armor so you'd need 14 DEX to make rage/totem with Medium.

Other classes don't synergize as well, and combine better with Fighter when you're dipping a few into them rather than the other way around.

>meatgrinder dungeon crawling OD&D-style campaigns are not really supported by 5e's rules

Sure they are. How aren't they?

>You can custom make backgrounds by RAW you retard.
This. Change any existing background or make your own entirely. The whole system may as well be "pick any two other skills you want".

Quite new to ttrpg's in general, especially 5e.

I do enjoy playing a character more than the exercising the mechanical aspects of it. If i just want to make a swordsman who is incredibly effective at combat, gets in there and hits hard, would I go Fighter?

If so, what subclass?

>useless piece of shit in my games who can't hit anything and gets killed by a small breeze.

Eccept In 're you can easily hit those things even with a +1 in your attack t. It's literally a 5 to 10 percent difference. It's not even noticeable until you get to level 3 or so and have played for a while. I bet if you played an entire campaign with your stats hidden from you, you wouldn't even be able to tell the fucking difference.

>You can custom make backgrounds by RAW you retard.

And in older editions I didn't even have to because i could just pick whatever skills I want and have my background be whatever i want instead of having to make up a name for it and shit. Backgrounds add nothing to the game.

What does 5eg think of this homebrew. It seems a little OP, especially with the Daywalker loophole for the Sunlight Sensitivity

Yeah, hitting is fine, but having 3hp per level with a -3 con isn't. Low saves and defences hurt.

>quite new to RPGs
>says things like "I do enjoy playing a character more than the exercising the mechanical aspects of it."

Uhhh

Fighter, barbarian, paladin, monk AND rogue are all valid classes.
Fighter with Battlemaster or Samurai sublcasses is probably a good fit for a blademaster. If samurai isn't weaboo enough for you, there's also Kensei Monk.
Barbarian hits really hard - reckless attack makes for some good synergy with Great Weapon Master. Take that greatsword and decapitate people! Make sure not to take berserker, though, it's crap.
Swashbuckler rogue is also a swordmaster, but an agile kind, with a rapier. With swashbuckler, you don't actually need to do anything sneaky to make a sneak attack, so you'll really fuck people up in duels.

Again with the 5 percent shit. The only valid point you have is with the hit points and that's because d&d's hit dice mechanic is very badly designed. Also you can still run the character you just need to be more cautious. Oh no! Actual danger to my pc so I can't just charge in like a retard with no tactics? Whatever shall I do?

Spells get a very different role, my GM hates it when we can just nullify a puzzle or encounter by using a spell and so if you want the kind of experience lower level play gives, it's not a good fit for that. The disparity between casters and non-casters also becomes more noticeable, as before they just had more options and more utility now they are extremely powerful with reality-bending spells while martials get another attack or similar. Already at level 4-5 spells they are very powerful even if they can't be abused to the same level as clone, magic jar, simalcrum etc.

Once you do get high enough for that stuff, the game kind of breaks and not only do you have very powerful PCs with their spells and maybe certain other features, but there are very few monsters of that level so you have to homebrew/find some sketchy homebrew online (which most don't want to do), and combat works very differently. Especially level ~17+ as far as I know the one who wins initiative pretty much wins the encounter, it's so different and random and doesn't really work well mechanically. A boss fight at that level will likely be anticlimactically weak, dull or near instant TPK. Moon druid level 20 can solo a tarrasque, ancient red dragons and maybe even tiamat and shit. It's just so horribly unbalanced.

Made a Paladin, and my GM pulled a CoS on us. So I have it pretty gud right now.

I am close to 3, and have to pick my Oath soon.

Devotion or Ancients? In general, I feel like the spells look more enticing on ancients, but the channel divinity seems very bad on the ancients - natures wrath allowing strength OR dexterity seems like a massive weakness, and I can't actually see this ever being all that useful.

Magic resistance seems very good, especially when I know Strahd is a caster. Charm immunity doesnt sound half bas either, but as I am an Elf, and has advantage on charm saves, AND a Paladin, by level 6 it will be very difficult to charm me anyway.

Sacred weapon looks really good though, and it almost seems too good to pass up... turn unholy is also useful, where's I don't believe turn the faithless will do me much good.

Thoughts or advise?

Sorry, quoted by accident.

Oh, totally forgot about paladin. Paladin is your noble knight, who hits really, really hard. You see, he can decide whether or not to apply Smites after he sees the results of his attack roll, and his smite dice multiply on crit.
Paladin of vengeance is the most offensive of his oaths, with powerful features and a robust spellbook.

new to tabletops at least, i irl larp, play vidya, and do theater shit

i like getting into character and dont wanna be bogged down heavily with mechanics, so i was directed away from a different edition by a friend.

Devotion is probably better for CoS. There is a LOT of things to turn in this campaign, and while there are spellcasters, they are not that serious of a threat.
Unless your DM massively buffs a certain baddie in Vallaki, like I did.