/5eg/ Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition General: Dungeon Master Edition

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Dungeon Masters, what have you got planned for your next session?
Are you running homebrew or an official module?
What is your favorite aspect of being a Dungeon Master?

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How can I be the face while being a fighter?

Have a high CHA, and be proficient in persuasion. Or be a Paladin.

Skilled Feat
Half-Elf
Background

>Half-elf
>Charisma as your tertiary stat
>This possibly allows you to multiclass into Blade-warlock or Paladin later
>Everyone's Friend feat from Unearthed Arcana

>Dungeon Masters, what have you got planned for your next session?
Players making landfall on an island
Some goblin attacks
Characters learning what goblins actually are, since they've never seen them
Goblin genocide
>Are you running homebrew or an official module?
Homebrew, setting that is basically not fleshed out at all, other than the island about a month of sailing time away from the mainland
>What is your favorite aspect of being a Dungeon Master?
Fuck if I know, never DM'd for a good group before
Well I haven't really told my players it's their decisions that will shape the mainland and shit, I'll just take their character choices, decisions etc. and use them as baseline for races/subraces.

Don't even worry about it, i've got 8 CHA and i've been out-facing the bard for the whole campaign.
>Always roll high with CHA checks
>Roll garbage on the stuff i'm supposed to actually be good at

What classes, if any, are actually worth taking to level 20?

The ones you enjoy playing user

In one of the last fights, Wizard died. Rest of characters made a dark deal to try to reincarnate her. It's her first character, so like most people's first character, it's basically her in fantasy form. Shes looking to expand her RP, which I can respect. She says her character will probably finish arc, then will retire. She's interested in playing valor bard.

Here's my problem:

Characters are Ranger, Cleric with level or two in rogue, fighter (weeb samurai UA class), and now a valor bard. They're ALL going to be high dex.

I'm torn how to feel about this. One one hand I encourage my players to make whoever they want, and play whatever they want. It's not a totally serious game so composition doesn't matter much.
On the other hand, Dex is a such a god stat in 5e, so I was thinking of nerfing initiative, and making it Wisdom based. They can already go toe to toe in a battle, so them being able to focus down a squishy mage in a fight seems bullshit.

Am I going about this the wrong way? Should I be buffing encounters or nerfing dex? I don't want them to get too strong and then the game ends sooner. Obviously I'll get their input before next session but I'm curious what more experienced DM's think.

I enjoy playing optimized characters

I have a party of 6 level 6 characters and a NPC friend. They are playing Forge of Fury. Forge of Fury was designed for levels 3-5.

The party have made it through the first area, one character has died, the spellcasters are almost spent and most are nearly out of hit dice.

My players suck.

Try Purple Dragon Knight. It sucks so use my fix

It really doesn't matter

>Dungeon Masters, what have you got planned for your next session?
Gonna start a new campaign where all the characters attend the funeral for a mutual friend, having never met each other, and are each left a bequest that begins the on their adventure.

>Are you running homebrew or an official module?
Everything official, except one of my players homebrewed a fisherman background that's pretty safe.

>What is your favorite aspect of being a Dungeon Master?
Nothing. I only do it because nobody else in my group is willing to try.

>image
Hnng

>Dungeon Masters, what have you got planned for your next session?
Players finishing the dungeon. Might be amusing because threats might overpower them and retreat will be difficult. Despair ahead.
>Are you running homebrew or an official module?
Homebrew, secretly inspired by some vidya games but changed up enough that nobody will ever know.
>What is your favorite aspect of being a Dungeon Master?
Designing dungeons is my fetish, it's like creating Heroes maps or Doom wads, except faster because all I need to do is think things up. So basically it's my creative outlet.

Should I retrain fiendish vigor into repelling blast? I intend to be in melee a lot.

Full casters, as anything less cuts into your precious cheat-code slots, I mean spell-slots.

Are hexblades good for being in the thick of it or are they still just EB turrets?

They're warlocks.
That means they're EB turrets.

Play a Paladin or Eldritch Knight if you wana gish, goddamn, that's what the classes exist for. Stop trying to make Warlock into EVERYTHING.

They're fun.

Depends how you build it - you can go sword and board and have a decent tank with some spell options (but warcaster is relatively necessary if your DM doesn't ignore somatic component requirements in battle like my group always has).

Or you can go Cursebringer and do decent damage, but you gotta go full MAD.

Or you can do what I've done and just go for versatile longsword and just have fun playing up to it.

Considering my patron is the Sword of Kas, I might pick up Dual Wielder and have a pact weapon in one hand and the Sword in the other.

They're the best EB turrets.

Pretty much this. All the options that are SUPPOSED to help them in melee only serve to make them more durable platforms for spamming eldritch blast. There are few situations in which attacking with your melee is going to be more beneficial than knocking enemies around with repelling blast and stacking on the damage with hex and agonizing blast.

A warlock trying to use melee is just a shitty Paladin with fewer smite options, weaker hit dice, no healing options, and lower armor proficiency. Hope all that's worth it just to have your spell slots recharge on short-rest. Have fun resting for an hour after every single fight, since you've only got 2 of those slots until level 10 anyway.

Better than other patron warlocks? Why?

I'm guessing all that just depends on your invocations?

Wizards and Bards for good spell memes, and Paladins for good character memes. Thief Rogue, Champion Fighter, and Barbarian are OK.

Medium armor for extra resilience, hex curse is pretty great, hound can help with cover. All their abilities directly make EB-focused warlock better, except for maybe melee weapon boons, but these are also handy at sub-5, because you can whip out a longsword and all you lose out on using melee is d10->d8 damage. It's the most combat-oriented patron of all I think.

Free medium armor proficiency, hexblade curse doesn't require melee to work, shadowhound doesn't require melee to work (and denies the target the use of cover), and armor of hexes, again, doesn't require melee combat to be beneficial.

Hexblade Warlock is the most durable Eldritch Blast turret, and Shadow Hounds makes for good targeting software.

Which bit? Invocations will up your pact weapon and are necessary for Cursebringer, and will give you the abilities that tie in best with the Hexblade's actual hex, but they're not actually needed to complete the rest of the build.

It's advisable to pick up ones that offer more tanky options, though.

Assuming that the class plays decently at any level + a capstone that makes it worth it:
Wizard (especially bladesinger)
Barbarian
Paladin (ancients, then avenger)
Cleric if your DM isn't a dick
Fighter

Forgot druid, unlimited wildshape is great

Play a Bannerette/Purple Dragon Knight.

People whine that it supposedly sucks, but they don't actually play it so they really don't realize how hard it is to suck at anything in 5e.

Easy way to make Oath of Conquest Paladin work with party? Make him focused on conquering his clan first (dragonborn), so I can try to enforce law where I can, but that's not my primary goal (Clan first, then THE WORLD)?

Guys, I want Vasilka to play a larger role in Curse of Strahd Long story short my Paladin player died and the abbot has secretly scavenged her parts to make a flesh golem

Van Richten's Guide to the Created speaks of how flesh golem have a zertgeber, a mental Trigger related the obsessive task their creator made them to do.
For example, someone who creates a flesh golem to replace their lost child, might have the flesh golem throw a frenzy or become paralyzed when someone sings a familiar lullaby

But I'm having a hard time coming up with one. I mean, I can come up with plenty, but none that I like. Can any of you workshop this with me?

I'm not too familiar with the revised conquest Paladin, is it still a one trick pony that causes everyone that hits him to get the frightened Condition?

>Homebrew, setting that is basically not fleshed out at all, other than the island about a month of sailing time away from the mainland

damn, sounds exactly like my first homebrew

How stupid is it to have a half dragon PC?

media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/June5UA_RevisedClassOptv1.pdf
I'm mostly interested in Tenets part, since that's what my RP will be based of.

Avoiding a lawful stupid leaning is easy as you don't have to worry about morals, just go for a standard lawful neutral approach. It doesn't mean you need to smite anyone who so much as commits a misdemeanor, but you don't have to worry about whether the act is good or bad so long as the person is following the rules/laws you value

What are the reasons for conquering his clan, the motivations? And once that's the case, what makes him want to move on to taking over the world? Answering those questions will help you flesh out your character more and fix some problems you may have.

So, how hard would I be gimping myself if i went shield+whip instead of a maul for my paladin with an oath of vengeance?

Call it a Dragonborn and you'll be fine.

If you're trying to justify the tenets as passably good to typical good-leaning party members, you aren't really going to be able to. Because the law is blind, it still has the propensity to be "evil" (which is why sometimes vigilantism is considered good when it is illegal). Of course, certain situations can make the tenets seem not just good, but necessary to the prolonging of good. But if you want to play a "good" Conquest paladin, you're better of taking Oath of the Crown.

Yeah, I'll most likely lean on the lawful part, as in neither good neither evil.
Now that you mention it, it doesn't really say anywhere that I have to conquer MORE. I could want to rule the clan, but sounds like I can be the enforcer of law just as easily. Just need to make up the laws themselves.
"Douse the Fallen of Hope. It is not enough to merely defeat an enemy in battle. Your victory must be so overwhelming that your enemies will to fight is shattered forever. A blade can end a life. Fear can end an empire.
Rule with an Iron Fist. Once you have conquered, tolerate no dissent. Your word is law. Those who obey it shall be favored. Those who defy it shall be punished as an example to all who might follow.
Strength Above All. You shall rule until a stronger one arises. Then you must grow mightier and meet the challenge, or fall to your own ruin."
Nah, there are other options for LG, like you say.

>Dungeon Masters, what have you got planned for your next session?
Man, the queen of the Winter Court has a problem. Her prisoner, Carmelie the Satyr Bard has escaped her icy prison, and in his absconcion has sown chaos and disaster in his wake.
She would Smite this dastardly ass hole from the face of the multiverse, only she can't, as Carmelie is a citizen of the Summer Court, and doing so would force Titania her counterpart to deploy her Faerie nukes by ancient law.
Mab may win as it is winter solstice eve, but then the whole Feywild becomes a glassed winter asshole, and then what?
So instead she must rely on a team of powerful yet discreet and independent assholes with whom she has some leverage on to save the day, and save it fast, because if Carmelie makes it to the Winter King before the end of the solstice, he's entitled to a single casting of Wish, and then things get real fucked.
>Are you running homebrew or an official module?
Homebrew but clearly a huge rip off of Dresden files
>What is your favorite aspect of being a Dungeon Master?
When players come up with with an even more kickass story than I did, and I get to pretend it was my plan ALL ALONG, and we all congratulate one another for being so damned smart

You'll be gimping yourself rather hard in overall damage, going from the most to the least average damage, but Reach + 2 AC when paired with Sentinel could be decent. That said, you can still smite for damage and it doesn't impede your ability to crit, so go for it if it's flavourful or fun.

Wanting a silver dragon as your dad a bit too much?

Please respond.

Yeah you can Role-play any Paladin any way you want. I had a treachery Paladin of Loki who was actually a really nice guy who was sent by his order to solved fucked up war conflicts in a sort of "clean up the righteous jerks mess"

Crown Paladins are great for mass battles against non undead, while Conquest are for "Sit your ass down" strategies

I thought you meant from a mechanical perspective, sorry. And yeah, some might consider having your old man be a dragon to be rather snowflakey and honestly a little tropey, but if you're a good person it won't be nearly as shitty as it can.

Honestly, the best way to do this is to not have anyone know that you're a dragon's child, and just being evasive about the whole deal if it ever comes up. Then wait until mid-level at which point the DM reveals it by having him come in as an NPC and he's just constantly embarrassing you with shitty dad-jokes and other wholesome memes.

>Dungeon Masters, what have you got planned for your next session?

Right before last session ended, 2 Umber Hulks and an Assassin are gonna go against my 6-man party (five of them are Lvl-6 while one is Lvl-5) with a couple of NPC companions. Might add an invisibility factor to them.

If the laws you enforce with an iron fist are 'good' then it would still check out. Might end with alignment fuckery if you have strongly chaotic good partymembers, though.

Best MC options for a lore bard?

What kind of Lore Bard are you going for?
Warlock for more blasting power?
Paladin for some melee?
Rogue more even more skill and expertise?

More lore bard

But for real, it depends on what you want. What levels, what role do you want to fulfill? If you want a little versatility, then sorcerer works pretty well. If you want to gish, then paladin gives you solid things to grab (though starting paladin and taking some bard levels would be a bit better). Finally, warlock for 2 levels for the best damage cantrip, though your actions are better used serving another purpose like your spells and such.

I had planned the character with a greatsword or maul, but after the first session, it turned out that we have a rogue, a barbarian and a sorcerer for damage.

I feel it might be worthwhile for me to give up some damage for more utility. plus as you said, a critical smite will hurt no matter how you slice it.

Plus, I do find the idea of a shield and whip wielding dragonborn to be... amusing and FUN!!.

Well then go for it my dude. You can also have it go into a DEX-based build since you have a shield, and focus on upping your CHA so that you have better spells for more utility.

Yeah, a bit tough to pull it off.

I was thinking that dragon-dad never revealed his true self to me, character's appearance and features were explained as "draconic heritage flaring up".

Dad worked is an historian and actively tutored on the subject but, showed more martial prowress so didn't pursue a career in it but became a little hobby instead.

Wellspoken and charismatic, two traits that allowed him to compensate for his appearance (a bit sappy with the "don't judge a book by the cover" thing?)

Became a city-guard for the love of city he was raised in and some natural inclination, his service was cut short due to sentiment against him changing and being kicked out. After this became a personal goal to do good through out the land and hopefully for preconseptions and prejudice to change.

I demand more of these edits.

just play around their high dex. don't nerf anything. have them feel powerful from time to time. if classic encounters do not challenge them, slowly shift to complex ones that give them no advantages for being the first in the round. use a lot more covers. actually use the rules. use smart enemies that ambush them frequently if your party isn't 100% careful. keep in mind that higher challenge should also mean higher reward. if they play smart, be generous.

Is Arcana Cleric good if I have an urge to play gish character?

Well my party atm is a tempest cleric, monk (undecided), Archfey warlock and rogue (gonna go arcane trickster) so I'm thinking having some Frontline capabilities in case i get rushed might be a good idea? I wanted to play a spy type character but our party is a bit lacking in roles.

So the PHB says you can refluff your totem animal, and gives vulture and hawk as alternatives to eagle.
What could be some bear alternatives?

Hippo, Polar Bear, Ox, Gorilla?

Gorilla? Bull moose?

Any animal that's tough enough to have damage resistance, big enough to have double carrying capacity, and scary enough.

How does having multiple types of speed (walking, flying, etc) work?
Let's say you have 30ft waking speed and 20ft flying speed. Does that mean you can "switch" up to 20ft of walking speed for flying speed, but only have a maximum of 30ft total speed?

Then Paladin for STR build or Draconic Sorcerer for DEX build.

So I guess mammoth could work

>Draconic sorcerer
What does that offer for Dex? Also, how many levels should i take?

Definitely! Even give your barbarian some small tusks for flavor.

What about viking related animals? Maybe a boar?

I'd say bear is as viking as it gets, but boar could also work.

It gives you Draconic Resilience, which is 13+DEX for unarmoured AC, on top of 1 HP for every level of Sorcerer you take. This works for DEX builds because that's essentially a free Chain shirt that isn't capped to +2 from DEX. Not to mention it doesn't fuck with your spell slot progression.

For levels, it's entirely up to you. You might want to dedicate at least 6 to Bard for Magical Secrets.

You have all of them at once, so you can move up to 50ft in a round, but 30ft of it has to be walking, and the other 20ft has to be flying. You *technically* can't walk 50ft, but you *can* walk 30ft then fly 20ft at an altitude of 5cm or something for the same effect.

Basically I would say you can "trade down" your movement speed. So you can use your 20ft flying to walk 20ft, because flying is a strictly superior alternative to walking. I hope that makes sense.

I had to fudge a whole puzzle solution to not TPK my party in the most frustrating and grindy way possible. I have no problems with characters dying or TPKs but when it is from a boring drawn out frustrating encounter I guess I had to do it.

I don't know, I thought the solution was trivial and that a group of post-grad engineers would get it right away but I guess it was too autistic.

I feel like I cheated my world somehow by changing the solution of the puzzle to a retarded thing that didnt make sense.

I feel bad fellow DMs.

What's the easiest way to make a digital map with moveable figures? I already have the map itself.

I need to keep track of a war map in my campaign and where units are (in each hex, and map their stats) but I can't think of anything more practical than a Photoshop image with lots of layers.

Wait nope, disregard everything I said, the explanation for it is worded strangely and I had to re-read it a few times to understand it.

A Hairy delicious bara dude.

No. You can retrain fiendish vigor when you have another source of temp hp though.

At what level would you consider multiclassing with Barb? I want a level 2 dip in Rogue, maybe level 3 if I can go first often enough to make Assassinate worth it. Barb 3 - Rogue 1 - Barb 5 - Rogue 2 - Barb 7 - Rogue 3 ?

You can take Barbarian to 5 and put the rest of your levels as you get them into Rogue, since the benefits of Barbarian are rather low until you get to rather high levels. Rogue as a class is much more useful in general. What level are you right now?

Start with Rogue for for skills.

I'm just thinking for now, fleshing out some stuff in case I'll need a new character. Also I don't want to be Rogue, I just think it will be nice to have expertise for out-of-combat stuff, more mobility with cunning action and some more neat stuff for both combat and non-combat with assassin.
Oh, that's actually better, thx.

How would you justify a 1 level sorcerer dip in your backstory?

My great granddad was a dragon.

You touched some wild magic and it fucked you up X-Men style, giving you some magical powers.

>Dungeon Masters, what have you got planned for your next session?

I want to start a new campaign with my usual group. I am trying the adventure in the starter pack.

>Are you running homebrew or an official module?
All official to avoid overwhelming the group. Except I am letting the ranger use the revised version.
>What is your favorite aspect of being a Dungeon Master?
I've never done it before but I am looking to give two of my friends who are forever DMs a chance to play characters.

I'm if this gets asked every thread but what pre-made adventures do people like?
I am planning to go starter > elemental evil.

You leveled up and your blood quickened because that's how Sorcerers work?

Isn't it written in the PHB that some people just suddenly awake to latent magical potential? I've always considered it the easiest multiclass to handwave

thats odd, because my cousin said the exact oposite yesterday

I live, eat and breathe Curse of Strahd.
Most people here think this makes me an edgy mall goth, but the truth is the whole Victorian horror just breathes with tragedy and metaphor.

That flesh golem is the final product of a mad doctor who lost their child and never forgave himself for his own failures.

Those poor elves are also some pretty fucked up folks who fucking stoned a woman to death for being romantically prolific

And most of all Van Richten and the Vistani mutually cursing each other. Him have all his friends and allies befallen to monstrous tragedy, and the Vistani to be seized upon by the undead.

This might make you think that I'm an edgy doom and gloomy faggot but that's not it at all. I just make it as emotionally dreadful as possible, but all these problems can somehow be patch, and the catharsltic release is that much sweeter when the players when through psychological hell to get through it.

When my players first realized how little they'd be allowed to roll a d20, and how fucking huge every roll would be, so they better gather and make every advantage count, I popped a mast.

Is there any correlation between the kind of character someones play and his personality?

So far I've noticed this among my long time RPGs players.

>Guy A always play some sort of hippie, either a druid, nature cleric or something refluff to make a class a nature man
He is a vegan IRL who keeps relapsing back into omni

>My girlfriend: always like to play attractive busty characters, she always maxes charisma and wants to talk herself out of every combat
She is one of those girls who want bigger boobs even though they already have big boobs (shes a 32F but she tells me she'd love to be a J or K cup), she hates violence including fantasy one but likes to play pretend so she likes D&D.

It seems like most people make their character what they want to be IRL.

Fantasy and escapism is what this is all about

There's a reason why all the anime and drzzt clones all look the same

Have you considered that your cousin may be retarded?

>It seems like most people make their character what they want to be IRL.
Welcome to 40 years ago, user.

Bare minimum requirements to justify multiclassing in my games

Fighter: 8 months drill instruction to be proficient in EVERY weapon
Barbarian: 15 years turning the Wheel of Pain
Monk: 1 year in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber

And you have to have your Master's before I let you play Wizard

BECause they are clones user
Yah, he dropped out of college and has the typical leftist college student attitude

It doesn't say specifically that it can happen, but how sorcerers develop their powers is left intentionally vague.
>Some sorcerers can't name the origin of their power

My overpowered Paladin player wanted to dip a level in Sorcerer because he wanted that wild magic meme build, the bloody hack

So I allowed him the dip and had Madam Eva reveal that his chaos magic was the reason why his whole tragic backstory was so fucked up the ass. He had been sucking up every one else's luck around him in order to keep himself alive.

>dipping a level in sorc
>not going 6/14 for the best build in the game
utterly disgusting

>Level 20 builds

I expressly told everyone the campaign caps at 13