/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

There's a clear conflict between your morality and lifestyle. It might be a good idea to explore that. Will your character reject his patron and stay on the path of good? Or will you decide that power is all that matters and sell your soul to the devil?

That's a pretty good way to go about it.
I think I'll talk to my DM about exploring that hopefully. And maybe about what the consequences of breaking their contract would be.

looking at bladesinger, it doesnt really offer you anything you dont already get from EK except the wizard chassis. warmage gives a bonus to initiative and an at will AC boost that doesnt spend a spell slot

Yeah, if you want to dip bladesinger, you are better off with Rogue.

What harmless tricks can a Cloud Giant Smiling One play on a party without it pissing them off?

Talking to your DM about stuff you'd like to explore is important. If you have a good DM, they'll definitely work with you.

How do you deal with not rolling well at the table? I've had two attacks land out of 8 in my last session and all my initiative rolls have been crap despite having 20 Dex and it's kinda getting to me.

Okay, before your next session, go to the nearest orphanage and kidnap a child.
Then you gotta sacrifice it to the Dice Gods.

Enjoy your natural 20s.

Get better dice.

RNG is gonna be RNG.

You could look into games that aren't D20 based, but mentioning that around here is heresy.

not this guy but I saw your post from the index. My last SR game had a player roll two zeros on 12 dice pools. Some people are just doomed to failure.

Is it possible to run the official adventures with the same character, though with higher levels?

If you want that character to be kind of fucked up, sure.

What's gonna fuck them up if we play our leveled characters in a different campaign? I imagine level 1-5 in other campaigns shouldn't matter much as far as story progression goes.

So I want to drop an Aboleth at the bottom of Lake Zarovich.

The idea being that the Aboleth is an escapee from the Amber Temple, and it and Mordenkeinen are locked in a stale mated battle. Mordenkeinen is more powerful than it, but it has successfully fucked with his head and is now slowly getting its Thrall Bluto to drop tribute like the Vistani Arabelle in order to feed it enough power to tip the battle over.

What I'm lacking now is substance. If I want the party to venture to the enormous underwater lake, I'll have to design about four subaquatic encounters there, and I've never done one before. (the idea being that at the bottom of the lake they'd find the Sun Sword or something, that Strahd would never take because Running Water

How do you go about revealing the properties of a magic or cursed items to players?
I was going to have a little quest that would reward a cursed ring of spell storing that casts bestow curse if my party completes it.

>have 20 DEX
>still consistently go last on initiative rolls
>next ASI, take Alert feat
>next combat, end up rolling 30 initiative
>second highest was like 17

>30 Initiative

I already asked last thread but I could use soms more input.

Can anyone give me a good reason for my druid to leave his forest? I was thinking about following a young rare kidnapped animal for it's mother. What sort of animal should I go with? Setting is FR.

Rogue 11 / Bard 2 with Alert

Never roll below 22.

Initiative really is just very random otherwise.

Or just Bard 14. Add Jack of All Trades and Inspiration to your initiative if you need it, cutting words on the enemie's initiative, and play the most fun class in the game in the meanwhile

If my DM bans lore wizard what should I pick apart from Divination?
[spoiler/]Necromancy is unsuitable for the setting for reasons[spoiler/]

>major image

Horses they try to climb onto won't be there, objects they try to pick up vanish, that hot chick that seemed really into you suddenly has the head of a pig. Lots of ways right there.

>Change Shape, Disguise Self
Could try sexing every character with the party, only revealing itself afterwards each time it knocks one off the list.
Pretends to be authority figure and gets the party in mild trouble or scares them.
Pretends to be other members of the party.
Turns into a bird, shits on the party repeatedly.
Turns into a cat, pals around with the party, gets cat hair over everything, turns back, laughs, leaves.

>Suggestion
Oh boy. I mean, do you really need ideas for this?

Abjuration is pretty amazing. Bonuses to dispel magic, advantage on saves against magic, and resistant to magic damage are all 11/10, and the ward you get is a solid 9/10 even with it's low starting HP.

If your DM lets you, keep in mind Alarm is a ritual, and doesn't use a spell slot when cast as a ritual, and thus can be used to charge your ward infinitely during a short rest, if you're not using the short rest for other activities.

If you just wana blow stuff up, Evocation is nice for avoiding friendly fire.

Illusion and Enchanting are both pretty meh until their level 14 feature comes online.

Conjuration kinda sucks unless you enjoy the "Pokemon Master" style of gameplay.

Transmutation is a meme that people severely over-rate.

Necromancy is just pure garbage.

If your DM allows UA content, you could also look into Theurge and grab the Life Domain spells, which gives you some superb healing support utility, although most DMs consider Theurge to be on the "overpowered" side.

Gonna DM my first campaign this weekend. Really nervous, but also really excited. Any words of wisdom from you DMs out there?

nice, I was going to go illusion but I doubt we're going past lvl12.

characters have hit lvl 7 and they are very powerful. many of them multiclassed or are already magic casters. they are too powerful at the moment and im looking to introduce some items or creatures that are in the possession of the the evil minions and that produce an anti magic field.... any ideas ? some sort of grenade type things that the creatures can throw on the ground at the start of the battle that just negates the casting ability. Or any monster that emits such a field ?

I you're not going past 12, pick Abjuration for an all-around wizard, or Evocation for an AOE blaster, as they both get substantial early-level abilities. Transmutation is also feasible if you REALLY need Darkvision or an element resistance for some reason... but there are usually easier ways to get those than Transmuter's Stone.

Theurge with Life Domain is also absurdly good at low levels, but again, most DMs don't allow Theurge, as it basically makes Wizards "Clerics but better".

what you should look at doing is run them through more regular encounters per day, because 1 encounter/day favors spellcasters who blow their load and 6/day favors barbarians or martials who have lots of staying power.

If you want a blaster just cut off the middle man, and pick a Human Draconic Sorcerer with the Fire Elemental Adept feat

The Wizard's "Sculpt Spells" feature is generally better than the Sorcerer's "Careful Spell" ability and the wizzard gets more spells learned...

But you're not completely wrong if you want a character who does explosions and nothing else.

Is there a better Find Steed mount than warhorse?

Today we fought a wyvern. It was 10 ft in the air and our Goliath fighter was directly underneath it, and he reasoned that since he was 8 ft tall and wielding a greatsword, he'd be able to reach it. I don't think this was in line with the rules because he was two squares away from the wyvern, assuming the five foot squares work the same vertically. The table and DM agreed with the Goliath player though.

Is there a problem with that ruling that I don't see? It seems like the five foot squares mechanic falls apart with flying creatures.

it lacks the alchemist archetype, apothecary is close but it's very much a defensive type, it lacks the mad bomber archetype.

Your players are going to fuck you. Hard.

Let them. Yes, you're there to tell a story, but you're also there to provide entertainment for a handful of hours.

Grids are optional to begin with, so it's really up to the DM to decide how to enforce them. The conceit that every medium creature is exactly 5 feet tall and every non-reach weapon is a little less than 5 feet long is obviously an abstraction, but sometimes abstraction is what you need.

I'd still let him jump to attack or grab the wyvern, though.

Out of the choices, no.
If your DM allows you to select something else, yeah

Anyone have that UA PDF that has most/everything put out so far? Not the Consolidated List, its more like a book.

Okay, so here it goes

Do they have water breathing and swimming speed? If this is Curse of Strahd then likely not.
>Social encounter #1, bargain with the dusk elves, the druids or Victor Vallakovich or a Sea Hag or whatever to get that for you.
Now, social encounters need stakes too. The severity of the favor owed for example hangs in the balance, or alternatively the promise of a fierce new enemy

Now with this detour there's a likelihood that you're SOL for time. Arabella drowns in minutes, but preparing for an underwater adventure when you ain't got a druid on the job can take out hours or days.
>Combat Encounter #1 Underwater cultists are about to sacrifice Arabella!
They were waiting on the right trigger and now they had it.

So if you want to battle the Aboleth and have that as encounter 2, this let's you space out some things.

I recommend one more social encounter tops, maybe a mad Goolock who thinks surely the players will want nothing but to cooperate with their master and leads them around the lair, and finally, your exploration encounter which will be the the under water lair.
Can't help you with that, but remember, underwater is very 3 dimensional. A straight grid will hardly do

It is. Imo you should take the chance to make new characters tho.

Evocation wizard, considered a pretty bad wizard school, is still a better blaster than the best of sorcerers. Sorcerer has better nova with quicken, and can twin concentration buffs, but that's their only selling points and anything else they do IIRC is overshadowed by wizards.

you should make new characters because having a break from your main is nice.

Double casting Fire Bolt for sustained damage.
Subtle spell under casting impediments (ie Silence) and social situations.
The Sorlock.

Just make them cubes, in which case 10 ft. in the air means two full cubes above ground. Fighting in smaller spaces, or here outside your effective range (but still in a context where you should be able to fight) is normally disadvantage IIRC, or I mean, he could just jump. Strength 16 he can jump 5 feet, meaning he can jump up to attack it 3 times or so, assuming he has to jump for each attack.

Best maneuvers for ranged battle masters?
Already got pushing, precision and menacing, but what should I get next?

I get that fire bolt twinning/quickening is quite nice, but when you're playing a non-warlock blaster, the main measure of your ability to fill that role should be AoE spells. Generally martials do best single target (exception being rangers, kind of) and casters do the best AoE/multi target (exception being warlock), so saying sorc is better at blasting because they have higher single target damage is kind of moot. With more spell slots, I'm sure wizard would outdamage it by using those extra slots on damage spells.
Subtle spell is situationally quite useful, though it's hard to compare power of such abilities and wizard gets rituals and way more utility from their spells.
Sorlock is a multiclass and obviously a more capable single target blaster than sorcerer.

A new player joined the group (acquaintance of a current player).
I ask for some info on their character for potential story hooks.

>Drow who left the underdark due to differences with his clan
Oh no...
>Chaotic Neutral
Oh no!
>Viol wielding Bard
Oh?
>Sailor background (pirate)
Oh kay...?

I'm anticipating a poorly done Jack Sparrow but hoping for a Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

1) The description for druids says that they cannot, or refuse, to use armor made of metal or inorganic material. If I acquire a heavy armor proficiency through my race or a second class, will I suffer any penalties for wearing it anyway?

2) Can Shillelegh ONLY be used on a club, greatclub, or quarterstaff? What about a scmitar with a wooden handle?

i can't fuckin wait for hologram tech to come to tabletops

Can we have a discussion about how awful Clerics, Rangers, Rogues, Sorcerers, and Warlocks (bar hexblade) are?

It is seriously ruining my fun in 5e that I can't play as half the roster without being overshadowed constantly and being a drain on the party.

Goading attack is good to make someone have disadvantage on all their attacks, distracting can be nice depending on the party, commander's strike only if you have a rogue.

A druid will not wear armour made of metal. Therefore even if you are proficient with it, you simply will not wear it because you are a druid.

Yes, it can only be used on a club or a quarterstaff.

I wanna make a Megaman Warforged. How do? Just Evocation wizard?

What's wrong with Clerics?

1) Ask your gm, it's a fluff restriction and has no mechanical downside RAW.

2) Only club and quarterstaff, it's spelled out in the spell description.

New ranger is fine, rogue just relies on gm fiat to be decent though maybe it should be "with unfavorable gm you are not very good, with a very favorable one you're really good" instead of "with an unfavorable gm you're shit and with a very favorable one you work as intended". Cleric is fine except maybe a couple of domains. Sorcs I give spell points and origin spells a la domain spells, and with 5 minute short rests warlocks are fine.

>Clerics
>Bad

Trickery, Death, and Nature aren't very good; they're a underwhelming at best. But the others are all perfectly fine if not excellent, like hell, Tempest Cleric is one of my favorite things to play and Forge Cleric was one of the most popular UA ever. oo

They are a spellcaster with mostly bad spells, their main use is revivify which they get 1 level before a bard can just take it anyway.

What's wrong with nature? Channel divinities are too niche as they are only useful against plants and undead?

I honestly don't see the appeal of forge. Looking at it, the only thing they seem to get is gaining or giving a +1 here and there and taking less damage.
Is it the channel divinity?

Here's what I do for trickery, though I haven't found a good way to buff nature.

>Blessings of the Trickster
Can be used on yourself.
>new level 1 feature
At 1st level, you gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand or Stealth. You don't suffer penalties to skill checks like perception and athletics for being underwater.
>Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity
Lasts 1 hour.
>Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows
Lasts 1 minute.
>Divine Strike
Deals psychic damage instead of poison.

>mostly bad spells
rofl, clerics have the most consistently good spells of any class. Wizard has tons of useless shit that are basically trap options, but you could random your cleric spells and still end up with mostly good stuff. And you can prepare different ones every day too. I don't see how it's worse than druid.

>Light
Discount Wizard
>Tempest
Discount Druid /w side of Ultra-Discount Pally
>War
Ultra-Discount Paladin
>Forge Cleric
They are very cool, but what do they actually do? Give a +1 item, ability to cut keys, +1 AC, resistance to fire damage? None of this is particularly good.

It's early Channel Divinities are just pretty redundant next to its domain spells, is all. I feel like they could have been more creative.

Its damage dealing/resisting features are good, though.

>mostly bad spells

I am a DM and Im butthurt over long rests. Wouldn't it at least be a little fun if yesterdays troubles subsisted today?

They're full casters with good hp, armor, weapons, and channel divinity on top of it. Idk how you can be a discount paladin as a full caster, do you want clerics to just heal and anything that doesn't boost healing means it's just a worse version of another class that does what the archetype lets you do better? That's some flawed logic in that case.

You are right, Clerics have a higher % of useful spells than Wizards, but that is because they have a tiny little spell list compared to a Wizard.

The druid list is no better, but druids have wild shape which outclasses anything the cleric has.

>if yesterdays troubles subsisted today
Before I ask you to kill yourself, can you clarify what did you mean by this?

Why would I need a big spell list, if I have a small one, filled to the brim with awesome shit? To make it better, I know all of it, and I will never be in the "Oh no, I didn't learn Greater Restoration" situation. Ever.

>Wild shape
Wild shape isn't that great. It's just a bunch of HP that does average damage

>At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points.

*casts spirit guardians*
*casts sanctuary*
*blocks your path*

you only get half your hit dice. If it's been a tough day, with a few deadly-level encounters and such, that will subsist. Making long rests not restore all hp would fuck over martials, particularly those with high hp but low ac like barbarians, and I don't see how it would add anything. If you want consequences for hard fights and going down, lingering injuries is quite good for low level, short games IMO.

So.

When creating humanoid characters with strictly class levels, how many levels in a class should I give the guy to match a certain CR? I assume it's not a 1:1 ratio as 3-5 Level 10 characters can gank the fuck out of a Level 10 enemy.

Would, say forcing 3-5 Level 10s fight a Level 17 be a CR 10 encounter?

Hey guys, what's a good cantrip for a warlock to get?
I'm planning on getting eldritch blast and minor illusion.

> Literally any Cleric being bad.
Even with Trickery, the weakest domain choice (and even then it jas some fantastic domain spells), Cleric never stops being a solid choice. The only really valid arguments you have there are Rangers and Sorcerers, both of which have fantastic solutions through UA, one possessing an entire rework and the other possessing several strong subclass options to keep them rolling.

There's not really a clean-cut conversion, you'll have to figure it ouy level by level, class by class

Eldritch Blast is pretty staple, just make sure you pick up the Agonising Blast Invocation as soon as you can. It goes a long way.

>several strong subclass options to keep them rolling.
Stone sorcery and what else? Storm got the origin spells removed, phoenix is hot garbage, both favored souls were pretty underwhelming IIRC and I don't remember how good the others were.

Seasorc is pretty decent.

What about cantrips other than eldritch blast and minor illusion?

Why pick Cleric over Druid, Paladin, or Wizard?

Rangers UA goes from a shit class to a weird handwavy OP class, and sorcerers become okay once you take some UA subclasses but they are still just a Wizard-Lite.

And you think Rogues and Warlocks are good?

Stone, Sea, Storm, and any of the Favoured Souls (despite my gripes with v3) are all legitimate choices. Phoenix needs a few small tweaks, namely more uses of its rage mode feature, but it's close to being a genuinely good option.

Wild Shape alone has more utility than some classes ever get. Here is a selection of just CR 0 creatures and what they can do:

>Badger: Burrow speed.

>Cat: A common sight in many places, which makes it a useful spying form. It also has climb speed.

>Crab: Amphibious and sporting a swim speed. Also has blindsight.

>Deer, hyena: Fastest ground speeds at this tier, though not as fast as the CR ¼ Riding Horse.

>Frog: Amphibious and a swim speed. Also has darkvision.

>Owl: Excellent flyer, including flyby, darkvision, keen senses and a fast flight speed.

>Tressym (SKT p. 242): Fly and climb speeds, detect invisibility and poison. As a winged cat, they draw rather a lot of attention, which is generally bad.

giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?397940-5e-Druid-Handbook-Land-amp-Moon

That's just CR 0 and every time more beast statblocks are released the druid gets a little better.

Really, there aren't any others that are universally good as those. Mage Hand and Friends are allright I guess, and Boomblade is a staple if you're playing a Bladelocke.

Wait, there are warlock cantrips other than eldritch blast?

In all seriousness, Mage Hand is your other choice. Maybe you could take create bonfire from EE players companion.

Prestidigitation is a solid one. Warlock's a bit starved for good cantrips without going time though. Dancing Lights if you have no darkvision. Maybe just stay away from Blade Ward or True Strike though, and remember force is one of the most reliable damage types so you don't really need any others for reasons other than flavour.

Because Cleric is still a 9th level faster with strong support and offensive options regardless of domain choice..?

UA Ranger isn't handwavy, but it is on the decently strong side for the martial. Rogues and Warlocks are fine though. A bit restricted with options, and Warlock can't bladelock for shit without a lot of help, but other than maybe Assassin and Undying I wouldn't call any of the options notably weak

>Decide on a more uncommon race
>Make the character
>Realise there is little character art for the race+class
this was a mistake

DO NOT build NPCs in the same way as PCs. It will not work. NPCs must be much less complicated (because it's one guy running several of them, and they won't have that many rounds to make their mark on the party) and have much more HP (because they're not surviving more than a round of the party's loving attention without it.) If an NPC is meant to threaten a whole party on its own, it should have some way to bend the action economy, whether that means legendary actions, lair actions, or the ability to do lots of stuff with a single action. Refer to the average monster stats by CR table in the DMG for what an NPC's saves, attack bonuses, HP, average damage per round, and AC should be.