/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

New DM here. Help.

The DMG insists that the average "Adventuring Day" is supposed to consist of 6-8 encounters with two short rests one-third and two-thirds of the way through. The whole game is allegedly balanced around this assumption.

Does game balance dictate that I'm actually supposed to be running 6-8 combats every dungeon, or is there some other definition of an encounter I'm missing somewhere? Only combat encounters seem to have actual rules for awarding XP, but the game's XP system is similarly based around the game's assumption about "Adventuring Days."

Seven fights a day seems excessive.

>A civil war
>Between two countries

This sounds super fucking boring for DnD. It's not a system for espionage, or political drama.

I meant one civil war, and one ordinary war.

my setting takes place 80 years after a nearly avoided demon apocalypse. The land has been reshaped in places and the former capitol of the Kingdom of Sorial has begun sending out small bands of explorers (The Founders League) to remap the region, make contact with other surviving settlements and reclaim territory under the flag of Sorial.

That was what they were supposed to be doing but my players have turned Libertarian and are currently fighting for Confederate autonomy from Sorial rule.

I had a castle that survived the demon hoards and converted to a fortress trade town that established and protected several settlements in the years after the apocalypse that felt that they should not have to swear fealty to a line of kings that failed them so long ago, and my players agreed.

the peaceful and stable comes at a price
a complete tyrant king with a dark and mysterious advisor
beneath the capital city and several locations around the country are dungeons and hidden secrets
but the question is, will you destablise a nation for the search of truth and 'justice'?

It doesn't have to be in a dungeon, and it doesn't have to be combats. An "encounter" is anything that makes the party burn resources. It could be fights, traps, RP encounters, or anything else that you have in mind.

See
DnD can. E a system for anything as long as you are good at writing.

Wait so there are two nations, one is in a civil war and the other is in a war with who, the one that's in the civil war?

And there's a peaceful nation somewhere in the mix?

more deadly encounters = less encounters. honestly it is super excessive since combat drags on a shitload

ignore that shit and play around to see what works for your group. give em easy encounters at first and ramp it up to challenge them as you get more comfortable with it

just invent some turmoil that is popping up in the stable kingdom, not that hard user

I have a question pertaining to an imminent rules calling: according to the PHB, resurrection requires a body that:
>has been dead for no more than a century, that didn't die of old age, and that isn't Undead.
>If its soul is free and willing, the target returns to life with all its hit points.

Specific focus on the "isn't Undead" and "if the soul is free and willing" parts. Two questions:
>If a body has been raised as a zombie (an Undead) and is then killed by the players, does the body now count as "dead" for the sake of game rulings? E.g., is a zombie corpse just a regular corpse again, or is it still Undead?
>If a creature has been killed and its spirit is raised as a specter (an Undead creature) and then that specter is defeated, is the soul now "free and willing," or has defeating the specter destroyed the creature's soul?

Okay, quick rundown.
1) Nation that's going through a civil war. In this nation, there's a relatively peaceful region where we are playing.
2) Two nations at a full scale war with each other.
3) A kingdom that I think isn't at war, but there's nothing interesting there either.
4) The only real choice left

The country currently in civil war gets invaded by the stable country. To make it more interesting, they are searching for a specific resource you will not disclose to the players. Make the leader into a overly righteous and charismatic person who gets celebrated back home. Keep the character for an optional BBEG. Depending on how they play, make either the resource or the power schemes more important. If they go off rails, just let them and adapt the setting.

Boom, done.

an "encounter" can be a puzzle/devious trap, or interacting with important NPCs, and also not every group of monsters must be fought. It sounds crazy to new/modern players but there was a time when monsters were a thing to be avoided and that was the encounter (by stealth or by chase).

It really depends, I know most DMs I've played with, along with what I do, can and will give xp for certain social encounters, or even completely bypassing combat if you're clever. I would hope WoTC had also considered things outside of combat encounters since you can use spells in these situations. However I haven't been in, or ran, a campaign that met the 6-8 encounters a day either way.

Mostly the impact you'll see is if you have PCs that rely on short rests to stay helpful to the party beyond being an extra set of arms and hit points.

>sageadvice.eu/2016/08/31/how-resurrection-works-on-a-dead-zombie/
Perkins is rather low on the chain, but it's something to wortk with.

whatever you want it to be, you're the DM.

Advice for playing an alchemist character? Going outlander monk for the herbalism kit + alchemist tools proficiencies. Guessing alot of my turns will be spent scavenging for ingredients.

>an "encounter" can be a puzzle/devious trap, or interacting with important NPCs, and also not every group of monsters must be fought.
I understand this, the DMG even describes potential non-combat encounters, but the book only provides rules for building encounters based on XP and the only thing XP seems to be awarded for is encounters with monsters.

Is there somewhere I can find trap DCs by level, or the amount of XP I should be awarding players for avoiding a trap?

1. Its only Undead so long as it's re-animated. If you kill it a second time and it's no longer animated, it's just dead.

2. If the soul is still there, chances are if you've defeated a spectre the soul was freed and allowed to pass on to another plane.

How strictly do you guys (or your DMs) follow up on material components for spells?

Do you or your DMs make a big point of encumbrance? Or do you normally get a bag of holding early on?

>Current DM doesn't use material components
>No micromanaging of encumbrance unless someone gets too loot happy and has like 15 longswords.

That's making a lot of assumptions and favoring the die to always roll average, or does this happen in your games often?

Whiteroom theorizing is useless and irrelevant precisely because it doesn't reflect actual play at all, maybe you should try it.

>How strictly do you guys (or your DMs) follow up on material components for spells?
Unless it says it is consumed by the spell I normally hand wave that the person has it or has gotten it when in town at some point.

>Do you or your DMs make a big point of encumbrance? Or do you normally get a bag of holding early on?
Entirely depends on the campaign I'm running, if I'm going for big damn heros then I don't normally worry too much about it within reason. If I'm going for more a survival/wilderness campaign then I have people keep track of that. Also depends on the rolls for loot can't use a certain set of d100s because it gave the party two bags of holding within four levels. Stuck with it because I'm a man of my word and that's what the dice rolled.

>That's making a lot of assumptions and favoring the die to always roll average
You don't know how averages work, do you?

it's up to your DM what is allowed as the PHB and DM's guide don't give solid crafting rules. As for my midwife/researcher character I scavenge parts from monsters when I can as well as collect the random herb when nothing is going on. I try not to derail the adventure with my collecting.

I go on the adventure with the other players and whenever we stop for a short rest I ask if there is anything of interest to pick up (lichen on the walls, any plants or whatever) and then we move on.

Yes. The DMG has tables for traps at page 120 and categorizes them as "setback", "dangerous" and "deadly". If you want to translate to exp, I suggest you go to the encounter thresholds for your party's current level and just start at deadly equals deadly and go down from there. I'd also consider if the traps is a threat for the whole party or just one person.

If they have a component pouch, the pouch is automatically assumed to contain all no-cost materials. This is directly stated in the rules.

As for for-cost materials, it depends. If it's something easily attainable, i'm fine with just teleporting the gold out of their inventory with the assumption they bought it the last time they were in town. If it's something that wouldn't be reasonably purchasable in any town, they have to actually have obtained it at some point.

Do you know how averages work?
A PC always rolling average isn't always true.

THAT QUESTION'S BORING BECAUSE IT AIN'T GOT NO DOG

NEW QUESTION: DOES YOUR CAMPAIGN HAVE A DOG? IS HE A GOOD BOY?

Have you actually tried playing or do you just make a lot of baseless assumptions? Does this happen in your games often?

Do you know where it states this in the players handbook?

my group just got the blink dog they befriended killed by a displacer beast because they were throwing rocks at bubbling swamp water

>A PC always rolling average isn't always true.
no, but it can be assumed to be true, because over a large enough length of time and results, the average is...well...average.

>Have you actually tried playing or do you just make a lot of baseless assumptions? Does this happen in your games often?
Do average results happen often? On average...yeah.

>NEW QUESTION: DOES YOUR CAMPAIGN HAVE A DOG? IS HE A GOOD BOY?
Your question is redundant good sir, A dog is a good boy, so if there is a dog, he is a good boy.

I would kill of my character out of shame for getting doggo killed. Poor doggo

Have you tried reading the entry for "Component Pouch"?

My party has a mastiff named Mike who carries stuff
he's a very good boy

they nearly died to some vegepygmies ten minutes later

Actually averages appear in mathematics because higher rolls and lower roles balance out, not specifically because people roll the actual average.

sageadvice.eu/2017/06/16/is-the-intent-behind-a-component-pouch-that-you-reach-into/

No-cost components can also be ignored if the caster is using a casting focus.

We don't have a dog but we do have a golem and a crocodile who are both good boys. Does that count?

Thanks

Is it just me or does Jeremy seem like an annoyed girlfriend in these tweets?

>We do have a golem and crocodile
Come on the Goliath can't be that ugly and I doubt the lizardman would appreciate being called a crocodile

you would too when the answer is clearly stated in the book people refuse to read before asking such questions.

>implying golems are ugly
Their features are literally chiseled user

He's a massive faggot, both literally and metaphorically.

I am running Curse of Strahd. *lots* of canines. Very few are good.

Because I'm also running Barber of Silverymoon in Curse of Strahd (where Patrina plays the role of Annis Hag) one of my werewolves who got magical hair becomes a lightning wolf, capable of some crackling shit as long as he never gets wet.

He's a good guy. A complicated guy at least. Wolf Path barbarian in his pc stats in case any of my players ever die and want to go on as him

>Golem
>As in LotR
I get they aren't side the same but come on man

Said*
Fucking phone

Why?

>playing rogue
>dm has this dumb houserule for crits
>instead of doubling the damage dice, you add a maximized die to the roll
>*a* maximized die
>my sneak attack crits do an entire extra 6 damage instead of an extra 3d6
>talk to the dm about it
>"Hey, had to tone you down somehow"
>he thinks rogues are overpowered
>I'm not even playing an assassin

Does he allow MCing? If so roll up a sorcadin and show him what overpowered means.

ABORT! ABORT!
Your DM is too retarded. You need to get the fuck out.

Please explain further about what makes sorcerer paladins good. It sounds interesting as fuck since I like both.

>comparing that thing to a goliath
Golem is like 3ft tall you can't blame me for getting confused

>dm that houserules in hard as fuck nerfs to PCs
>not even a particularly strong class either
>not just buffing up encounters to compensate
Abandon ship with all due haste.

It's the ugliness that was meant to be the comparison. It wasn't the best joke I'll admit

>Be Paladin
>Be able to smite using spell slots
>Be Sorc
>Be having a shitload of spell slots
>Be having sorcery points to into spell slots

the problem lies with them not being anywhere close to the same creature, also not pronounced the same, also not spelled the same.

There's also becoming indestructible by gaining the ability to cast Shield

Which bard cantrips do you guys prefer the most? I'm having a hard time deciding between friends, mage hand, minor illusion, and prestidigitation.
Also any fun ideas for what one can do with any of them?

>Dming AL for my FLGS

>store has been garnering some dosh from board games and mtg, so the owner hired a part timer to schedule events and help with stuff

>they give me free reign to organize, treat it like it's a project, printing ad source material from WotC, helping spread the word on FB, store makes a fb group specifically for AL

>everyone including store workers super hyped for ToA release and first adventure

>decide to run every other Saturday because "weds wtf were they thinking?!"

>players post their ideas for characters for the event; first I see "Lizardfolk ranger" then "Tabaxi monk"...am A little rustled but fuck me I'm DM my judgement is in game not character selection and AL rules state they can do these characters as long as they stick to a faction and the PHB +1 rules.

>run my first game this past Saturday went super well. Ran "A Thousand Tiny Deaths" and players were mega-ultra polite. Only one was sperging a moderate amount (the tabaxi) but the user's friend (lizard) kept whispering for him to chill.

>2 other players showed up, a grognard father and his high school aged son. I put away my awkwardness and was super welcoming and friendly and they turned out to be shy roleplayers but were very eager to learn and play. They were a pirate cleric and a high elf wizard (pregen)

Forget the exact spread but pretty much take a few levels of Paladin and then spec into sorcerer, all spell points converted into slots for more smites. Mix in GWM with a greatsword or great axe and start pumping out damage.

A none mc way to be ridiculous, if you can use feats, play valor bard with a hand crossbow, grab QBE, sharpshooter and at level ten swift quiver.

Didn't you post this weeks/months ago?
Just quit, it's the only sensible choice.

Any paladin who doesn't use find steed to summon a 6 intelligence mastiff is a faggot

>cont.

>the other was a dragonborn sorcerer, a guy whose only experience with d&d was using his MtG cards to create an "encounter deck" for his players. He said it was freeform mostly, but he enjoyed making epic narratives from it and said his players loved it. I will admit I that I was charmed by him

>charmed by the whole group actually. I was very surprised that everything went better than expected!

> fast forward to today. My player's have told their friends about the adventurer's league and the Facebook group is blowing up. The store is also told me that they're willing to give me discounts on anything I might need in order to run on my game like Miniatures dice and other supplements. This includes books. I told them that that's not necessary really what I would like to do is try to start a little program to get people interested in learning how to dm.

> if there's a downside to the story it's that for one I'm not getting paid to do this, which would be awesome because that would be my dream job. The other downside is that all of these new players want to play Firbolgs, goblin shamans, and bugbears...which makes me cringe a lot inside but...what can you do it's their fun. Oh and I forgot to mention that the store owner is helping me DM in case we get lots of people.

You'd be surprised how many people still pronounce them close enough, or the same, also the gray skin.

Prestidigitation and Minor Illusion to give yourself all the 80s concert and anime sfx you need for your performances and social interactions. Glam up your team mates too.

I would abandon if not for the fact that he's the only dm I know
Yeah, someone suggested I talk to my dm about it, but that didn't help

Sounds like fun, why cringe at the racial choices? Also what country? Or state if US?

>Literally
He's gay.

>Metaphorically
He's also kind of a douche bag.

I still cannot believe this man put a literal gay quota on the books

I want to make feats equal in strenght to get more diversity, instead of everyone picking the very strong ones. So I decided to make a list of feats I allow to be used in my games, the list also includes changes to feats from the [PHB] and [UA], Erratas are mostly changes, if something is kicked out I note it, if the entire feat is changed I put it in its entirety. Anons from last thread helped, I'm gratefull. Open for new ideas/balances, cuz let's face it Mike Mearls won't make the game better, he was the cunt behind 4E after all.

Link :
docs.google.com/document/d/1FOG_SWangULGjS-X-uI8U5BKth5b2gg5xypQHO_SkTA/edit?usp=sharing

USA, Ohio.

I cringe because it bores me. I understand every player wants to be original and interesting so they pick really outlandish races because they are special and different than humans. The only one who roleplay their character very well was the lizard-folk and I'm pretty sure that the player himself is probably a DM.

For me I fantasize of parties full of dwarves taking down the tomb of Horrors. I think that how you play a character has less to do about superficial things like classes and races and more about personality, characteristics and flaws. So really it's just a matter of taste.

>I think that how you play a character has less to do about superficial things like classes and races and more about personality, characteristics and flaws.
I understand this feel all too well.

If you don't got Vicious Mockery, I refuse to call you a Bard on principle

>Party sneak is a halfling
>Has a dog
>named him warhorse
>claims he owns a warhorse
>derpiest fucking dog. Not even a war dog
>Still a good boy

No it really can't, because that doesn't actually reflect actual play. The dice are too random, the d20 is too incredibly swingy. You realize you're playing a game of chance, don't you?

Have you actually played?

What kind of a faggot does not include vicious mockery, you insult someone and they get a head ache, most bard thing ever. You can also use it in social interaction, seriously what a faggot.

>Tfw killed at least three people with vicious mockery when I played a bard

That is some glorious fuckery, and I want to hear all about it.

I haven't played in a while and I'm rolling up a paladin for a game I've found myself signing up for. Any ideas lads?

Play as war profiteers. Avoid putting them in mass combat, but instead both stealing from and setting up supply lines and fencing groups.
You could also have them be able to grab their "fair share" of the war spoils or even actively break into a vault during a siege to get there first.

THIS. An encounter is not only combat. It's traps, puzzles, exploration, negotiation, all of the fun parts of D&D. 6-8 combats in one session is insane. 2-4 is the sweet spot

>I would abandon if not for the fact that he's the only dm I know
no game is better than a bad game.

And here I am with a GM who thinks that "fascinate" counts as hostile action.

"Hey kids, want to see a cool trick ?"

"GUARDS ! SEIZE THAT MAN !"

When I said I was having a hard time choosing between those four, its because I only have one slot left after vicious mockery.

>Paladin/Rogue OR Paladin/Monk of Shadow
>Chaotic Good
>Paladin of wealth redistribution
>Literally steal from the rich to give to the poor
>Oath of vengeance with a heavy emphasis on restitution
>Background as a criminal

Take it again you very friendly person on the internetTHAT I WILLbe nice to because I'm not a fag-bard but instead a kind Monk