/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

Thanks for the helpful advice, really.

Not really.

>having dedicated specialists even roll for their specialty in most scenarios

RAW you only call for a skill check when there is either a meaningful consequence for failure or a degree of uncertainty about a character's ability to perform the task.

Honestly, what did you expect? You come to a new game's thread and shit on it, and you expect politeness?
The skills work exactly as intended. Proficiency always helps, and more so as you gain levels; it eventually gives more than your ability modifier can.

Split party. So far the Monk, Bard, Druid and Rogue have all had solo fights, but me? The martial frontliner tank? Done literally nothing but talk to NPCs. Thankfully the last session ended with the lead up to me heading off to trash some bandits, so next session I finally get to see what combat's like.

For most of the game it DOESN'T help though. The margin of success a proficient character has over a non-proficient character is only 10-20% at low-mid levels. It almost doesn't matter at all until the really late game, by which point you've got enough spells and magic items to deal with problems anyway.

It just feels like being proficient should mean a bit more that a throwaway bonus. In 3.PF there were feats that gave +6s to skills, thats tha absolute max you can get in 5e at level 20 and that sucks.

So I'm joining a campaign sometime in the next month.
*Party is level 5
*Consists of two ranged attackers and a rogue assassin
*No healer or caster

So I'm thinking
*Human variant
*Zeal Cleric from PSA
*Magic Initiate for booming blade, could take Hex too for some extra damage plus a utility cantrip

Is this good or shit? Will the knockback affect the rogue when I'm at 6? Thunderous smite to knock people prone will fuck with the rangers if they don't have other targets.

Alternately I could take shileagh as a cantrip and not have to worry about my str, but I do like warhammers.

When all players want to do a lot of things at the same time like talking(that takes some seconds or minutes) or doing interactions wiht objects or things that need a skill check

how do you manage this? using turns?

That's because of bounded accuracy and it works a treat. Your expectations of powergaming need to change if you want to run a game of 5e well.

It's a good method. If the order they do things matters, use initiative.

go full dex party

be a band of thieves

...

>Indirect killing doesn't count as killing
Read the RAI that using sacred guardians alongside sanctuary isn't allowed because it's clearly harmful even if you're only concentrating on something else that hurts the enemy instead of doing the damage yourself.
If we assume that the same sorts of spells that sanctuary wouldn't allow you to cast as 'harmful' as the same sorts of spells that it would allow people to cast on you are harmful, a 'harmful spell' =/= 'a spell that deals damage'

I never said dex was good, but roleplay potential is there. Once played a group where everyone was retarded str users. No healer or casters. Lots of fun

I know, I was just meme'ing.

The amount of salt this has generated has been great. Kinda sad that they're stepping back the rules a bit.

I'd recommend a moon druid
>Has pass without trace to ensure the entire party can stealth
>Can wildshape for bags of HP to defend the party
>Has spells that can hinder the approach of enemies or push them away
>Can heal

Cleric can work too but you don't really need to be some sort of special faggot Cleric you can just go from the PHB. Don't forget you can use a ranged weapon as well.

Your party does not need a front line, they need someone who can stop the monsters from reaching the back line. There's a difference.

>10-20%
This is wrong, and I've explained why so many times I'm tired of it.
+1 is NOT a 5% higher chance to succeed. EVER. If one person needs 11+ to succeed, and another person has a +1 over them and needs 10+... that's a 10% increase in accuracy. And the increase is more significant the harder a task is, meaning at high DCs, every point matters a lot more.

Wouldn't that only be true for opposed rolls? Or am I missing something? I agree that it's rarely as simple as only being a +5% since various other factors could come into play after you get that plus one like advantage, a spell, or expertise, other people, or whatever; but in the purest sense of needing to meet a DC that is possible to reach isn't a +1 with no extenuating factors a 5% change?

>'harmful spell' =/= 'a spell that deals damage'
But Spirit Guardians deals damage you fucking retard

Theoretically an alchemist artificer can fling alchemical items from within a sanctuary spell, right? They're not attack rolls and they cause checks but aren't spells.

It would be a difference of 5 in the percent chance, which is different from a 5 percent increased chance. Does that make sense?

I could use some help on figuring out an end game for my 5e tempest cleric. so far the other characters are working on empire building, becoming a king, establishing a nights watch esque order and rejuvenation of the eleven race. Im trying to not go with the generic godhood or anything and im finding it hard to become inspired

pic related its how it feels playing right now

You're referring to the use an item action right? The spell doesn't say "attack action" or "attack roll", and instead just says "attack". I'd say it's entering an arguable territory (but not with a very strong argument), but it's so clearly against intent that I wouldn't expect anyone to actually allow throwing acid at someone to not require a save when sanctuary is up

Becoming a Saint.

The alchemist artificer gets alchemical items it can use with actions as its bread-and-butter damage dealers, but IIRC it's not a "use an item action" anymore than drawing an arrow as part of attacking with a bow is.

As an
action, you
can
reach
into
your Alchemist
’
s Satchel,
pull out
a vial
of
volatile liqu
id
, and
hurl
the vial
at a
creature,
object, or
surface
within 30 feet of you
(the vial
and its contents disappear
if you don’t hurl the
vial by the end of the current turn
)
.
On impact,
the vial
detonates in a 5
-
foot radius. Any
creature in t
hat area must
succeed on
a Dexterity
saving throw
or
take 1d6 fire damage

how would that work exactly considering the pantheon of gods? would it be to just be a saint to the one I currently follow or a saint of the pantheon as a whole?

All great stories are based on conflict. Find something challenging for your cleric to overcome.

Try to spread the religion of your god or something?
Build temples and shit, become a missionary.

Depends on the setting really, probably look at being a Chosen on the God if it's Forgotten Realms or anything similar to it.

Another option to look at would be to become an Exarch, which would basically mean you'd be your god's right hand man. That's something you can't really work towards technically but if you ask the DM then something would probably be reasonable to work out.

The quality of the game aside, if you want some ideas maybe look at 4e's epic destinies? I'm pretty sure there were class specific ones for Clerics that might be nice.

picking umberlee was probably a bad idea for that

Be overcome with apathy that you do not feel a particular calling to some greater cause like your comrades. Talk to your DM so that your prayers are constantly falling silent. Create inter-party drama as nobody understands what it's like when something as important as your god will not answer you any more. Make the last arc of your campaign about finding the mysterious answer to the disappearance of your god.

That's what I did.

So in my next DnD session there's the SMALL possibility that the players will be sent, briefly, we're talking seconds, to the moon.

Is there anything special physically about the moon in the forgotten realms universe? Or does it just look like a rock?

jesus that is pretty neat

you know sometimes it feels chaotic, i think that making it turn by turn works on dangerous situations and leaing them be on normal ones

With fantasy settings there's usually a 50% chance there's elves on the moon. No idea for forgotten realms though

>"Umberlee had worshipers among krakens, sahuagin and other evil sea creatures."
Release it, user, become the next BBEG.

It's called Selûne and is basically a rock, though it also works as a giant orbital canon for the goddess aptly named Selûne.

I don't know anything else about it but I guess chances are she might have something religious up there? Maybe even a temple where her Clerics can go to?

Have a big ass moon-beast run at them and send them back right before it fucks em up.

youtu.be/usyYqJf0rfk?t=569

Describe to the players that they appear in a sprase, dry rocky plain that stretches on as far as the eye can see. The night sky is luminescent with stars and an unbelievably bright light. The moon shines a pale blue in the sky as you look upon it, hanging larger over them than it ever has before. It's around this point they'll realize they are choking and unable to breathe. The chalky white dust below poofs up into their faces, onto their clothes and into their hair as they panic around, gagging and wheezing, even though they can't hear themselves doing so. They get a better look at the moon above and see that it is no moon at all - continents, blue oceans and faint lights of bright metropolises shine on the night side of the body. They're not looking at the moon - they are ON the moon...!

And then they come back.
Play the portal 2 soundtrack from link related timed with said description.

Also, as far as I know, the moon is just like ours in the Forgotten Realms. Have fun.

>The spell doesn't say "attack action" or "attack roll", and instead just says "attack"
In 5e, an attack is solely something that makes an attack roll. If it invokes a saving throw, it is not an attack.

the DM has this thing that raise's an undead army which is supposed to help stop the apoc event and im seriously considering unleashing it

Also, considering that Sanctuary explicitly states that area effects such as Fireball do not trigger it, it's pretty clear that an Alchemist's flasks do not trigger Sanctuary.

>Play a character
>Accidentally get character married to a DMPC because I was young and stupid
>DMPC is a poorly roleplayed crazy bitch because DM was new to DMing
>DM decides to step out, I take his place
>Quietly write out my character and his formerly DMPC waifu
>Feel like shit because I think my storytelling is awful, but I needed to get rid of them
>Hide the in-story justification from players for actual years

>Eventually long-running player decides he wants to play a new character
>I make a joke that he could play a kid of my old character and the waifu
>His curiosity is piqued, eventually thinks the same
>Guiltily describe what happened with the characters, expecting him to laugh because I think it's almost fanfic tier
>He actually likes the idea of playing one of their children
>We eventually decide said character hates the waifu (her mother) because said waifu is actually an awful mother and person

>tfw I'm witnessing a multigenerational campaign and a player helped me redeem one of my worst characters

There's no feel like it.

How would I go about playing an Invoker from 4e?

How many uses do kits have and what thing do they contain?

also rolling initial gold is good?

By playing 4e

Nice story GRANDPA

Favored Soul sorcerer
Alternatively, cleric/sorcerer multiclass

Not an option because I hate the mechanics of it.

I thought about Favored Soul but honestly the biggest thing making me hesitate is their lack of spells per level. Would a Favored Soul/Cleric just for more spells be dumb?

>>Creature isn't warded against things that aren't targeting him like a Fireball
>>That must mean that Alchemist items ignore sanctuary!
>>pic related

Alchemist items are saving throws, not attacks or spells. They explicitly are not affected by Sanctuary.
Are you too autistic to actually read?

Excluding S5 and S6 was the right move though, you don't want to screw over half the players during a campaign.

I'm kinda sad none of my characters died before though, the race against the clock would have been pretty cool.

You'd know more spells as a multiclass but you'll delay or prevent learning of higher-level spells. I'd recommend sticking with Favored Soul - it's not like Invokers were known for a wider variety of spells than other classes in 4e (because everybody had the same).

Not a spell, but uses a saving throw? RAW you're probably right (except for the fact that alchemists don't exist and therefore that's completely irrelevant), but RAI I'd say you're completely off-track here.

>Not a spell, but uses a saving throw?
Yes. Many magical effects are not spells, and Sanctuary only protects against attacks (which require you to make an attack roll) and non-area damaging spells.

I'd still say the writer probably just didn't think about it and the RAI would almost definitely include any targeted effects.

How does stabilizing a character works? that ogre just shanked a player and players roll the die and the character is good again

They've been pretty consistent with "attack = attack roll" and "spell means it's in the spell list" though

Stabilized just means the character is still at 0 hp but no longer has to make death saving throws. After being stable for an hour, you regain 1 hit point. If you take damage while stable and unconscious, you become unstable and have to start making death saves again.

If you've think you've found a loophole in sanctuary, it doesn't work.
Sanctuary has many loopholes, but the RAI is that all these loopholes are against the clear intended use of sanctuary and don't work.

I understand that, but when writing the particular description of Sanctuary they probably whiffed. Either way, it would make no sense for a direct and targeted offensive action to be allowed when attacks aren't. As a DM I wouldn't allow it.

yeah but in roleplay, what do the pc do? ban aid?

Minor Illusion or Mage Hand?

If they don't have a healer's kit they probably rip clothing off of themself to use as cloth and that sort of thing to bandage the person up and do whatever quick treatments.
If they use a healer's kit they don't need to roll at all.
If they use magical healing the players gets up immediately.

Basically
Remove the arrow, apply pressure, tear off a piece of shirt to stop bleeding, that kind of stuff.

Why not both?

So I would like some opinions, I use the Story-Based-Advancement System for my game, but I have characters at varying levels in my party. (1 level 9 who has been alive since the beginning and 5 level 8's who have died/ joined in at varying times.)

What should I do? Should I try and keep everyone on about the same leveling scale or keep them at different leveling scales? What about when someone dies and they make a new character? Should they come back at the same level or one level lower? Should there be a limit as to how far down they could go?
What if a new player joins the game should they be at the same level as the party or less?

there's no good solution to that. Best to let them be, maybe give the higher level(s) some alternate reward option while they catch up.

>What about when someone dies and they make a new character? Should they come back at the same level or one level lower? What if a new player joins the game should they be at the same level as the party or less?
For everyone's sake, same level.
For them because death already sucks, coming back one level behind sucks even more.
For you because now you have to make encounters weaker for them (1 level might not be that much, but still) or you might risk a domino effect where other players start dying and coming back weaker.
For new player because they'll start behind everyone and, unless there's other way to level up, they'll be behind forever.

It's no fun to be the character who's useless because everyone else in the party is a higher level. Keep characters the same level, or close to it, no matter what. Use milestone leveling instead of EXP.

Being one level lower hardly makes someone useless, but it is kind of a monkey wrench in encounter design. I think generally has the right idea

That's something you fix as a DM
I have it set to where there are two variations to most things, like for example: locks come in various varieties. A simple lock can be attempted by anyone and automatically picked by someone proficient. Where as a good or master craft lock cannot be even attempted by a novice and someone proficient must role to open. This applies to all things. For example a barbarian would have to role to recognize a. Simple spell scroll but a mage would recognize it instantly.

I hope this helps a bit

Mostly true, except around the big power spike levels (5, 11, and 17).
You don't want to be the dude attacking once when everyone else is attacking twice.

As a Bard, can I use Suggestion on a creature for them to keep their armor on no matter what and ignore the Con save on Heat Metal?

listen to this nigger, he's a good one

I'm thinking about putting this up for a vote in my group. I have no problem shifting to a more fitting leveling system that my group would like, but I'm a little worried about abuse of the system.

Milestone Levelling is literally "I'm the DM, I think you all deserve a level after this recent quest". There's not really much of a way to "abuse" it from the players' side of things.

Okay so if I did this, do you propose that the party as of right now be at the same level (I ask the level 8s to go to 9 and make it so new players come in at 9 and new PCs come in at 9) or stay at the current level?

Not him, but I'd say yes, basically it becomes party level.
Everyone goes to 9, every new characters starts at party level.

Easy answers for your players:
>Why?
It makes creating encounters easier for me, I don't have to worry about making weaker encounters to accomodate party members behind (even though 1 level difference isn't that much).

>Why not use normal EXP leveling?
Because I want to drop big/strong encounters without having to worry to level you guys up mid-dungeon, throwing encounter balance off.

>Now I'm can simply die and make a new 9th level char, no fun
Depending on the situation, you'll lose your magic items, wealth, etc. Plus any relationships your current character has.

Can anyone summarize differences between Knowledge Cleric and Lore Bard? Thinking of making charsheet for someone proficiency based (torn between Rogue, Cleric and Bard). Mostly spell lists.

Read the book? There are few similarities.

Okay, this sounds reasonable.

Spells are a bit harder to navigate, compared to features.

Also isn't this Story-Based Advancement not Milestone?

Made a variant of the dying rules, inspired by darkest dungeon. It's so player's can either stay down on the ground, or fight with the last ounce of life they have. Thoughts?

Not him.
Lore Bard has access to all spells in the game (6th, 10th, 14th, 18th). They're the best users of Counterspell/Dispel Magic because of Jack of All Trades.

Clerics have the same spell list between all subclasses but their Domain Spells and that's it.

>You can only use your action to do the following: Attack, cast a spell, or use an object.
You can heal yourself out of DD with spells and potions of healing, too easy imo

I was thinking that was fine because, someone else could just heal you with the regular death rules, if you want to use resources that's fine by me, but when you are out of healing it is quite precarious due to you only having so many failed death saves.

I originally had it be only a single attack or a cantrip, or an object use. Is that maybe more balanced?

Nah, just worried if it wasn't intended or maybe didn't like the death yo-yo, but thiese rules are for a more active death anyway.
Also, what about temporary hit points? Can you gain them?
You can move but can't take Disengage action, you're kinda locked into melee when dying.
Also, being knocked prone and having speed halved means you have probably 5 feet of movement on the first turn.

Not exactly problems, just gotta sanity check everything.

I'm thinking of running Curse of Strahd for my friends soon.

1) Is it as good as it looks and as good as everyone seems to say it is?

2) Should I run Death House as part of it or start with something else and then transition in? Is Lost Mines of Phandelver => Curse of Strahd a good progression if Death House isn't a good start? Or is it better to just start at level 3 and get into the meat of it?

3) When I've asked for advice on running it before, the common thread has been to make sure I handle Strahd himself well. How do I avoid fucking up Strahd?

I grabbed the CoS guide from 4plebs, so at least I have that.

DMing for the first time since I was like 9. I've got two major issues.

First of all, should I prepare the longterm plot before starting? I've got very few good ideas for anything beyond short little adventures and that worries me.

Secondly how do I start? Should I just open with "You're all traveling down X road towards Y town" and tell the players to figure out why themselves? I really just don't know what I'm doing here.