/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

What if I'm already 4 deep into Paladin?

Go Pal 5, Warlock 2, Sorc x

>chompy dingus
ahahahahahaha so funneh ahahahaha XDXDXDXDXDXD

Paladin 4/Warlock 2/Sorcerer X

Why not grab extra attack?

If you think extra attack is worth delaying your spell progression a bit then go for it. You're multiclassing 2 casters so I was under the impression you wanted casting more than melee

Simple yet effective concept. Always the best way to make magic.

>Thread Question:
I've been enjoying going Rogue into Ranger. Or fighter into ranger.

Although if I want better spellcasters, I like the concept of paladin and warlock and I'm going to be playing that guy soon.

Alright so for my group and I's next campaign we're doing either the ToA or something that has elements of it such as everything but the story may be different. I'm thinking of doing a necro (I know how stupid that sounds but whatever) with a war forged as my race any suggestions for how I got to that point as a back story I'm thinking either something went wrong in trying to be a lich or something to do with magic jar. Thoughts?

Reposting for more advice/criticism on my homebrew initiative; thanks to the prior user who critiqued it (I'm recording all of the issues and questions to be adressed in a revised version).

For those who haven't looked through this, can you give me your opinions on it? I'm trying to make it the best I can.
1st page: basic rules and explanation
2nd page: DM options with the system
3rd/4th page: highly detailed calculations for those who wish to critique how this system was made

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it!

Rogue/Fighter
or
Sorceror/Warlock
I prefer my multiclasses always having narrative ties so it could always change depending on flavor. Warlocks make for some fun options.

>playing a Whip Barbarian in CoS
>make my first whip attack of the session and it kills the shambling mound
youtube.com/watch?v=0AZ5XZHIDh0
it's fuckin' time

So how DO you guys feel about the Unexpectables?

> be me
> run supposedly closed game within meetup group
> have to keep kicking rsvps out
> delete 5 seats, overbooked by 5 people
> people still rsvp
> pm them all "don't come"
> shut down rsvps
> totally random guy still shows up joined meetup while I was driving, no RSVP "can I play?"

Maddening as fack

I never undestood Paladin multiclass without Extra Attack, what is the focus of it?
I thought people went for Smite4Life, but with only one attack it feels strange, even though high level slots make up for it.

Someone explain sorcadin to me. Is it just to get more/higher level spell slots for smiting? The big draw of paladins seem like the aura effects.

With paladin in there 4 levels and so much multiclassing, you probably want to smite a lot.

Yeah, it's a trade off.

Plate armor on a squishy caster.

Would a stock Volo's Guide To Monster bard statblock work for more of a norse skald NPC? Or is there something else I should consider?

So how does 5e handle moving through combat, disengaging in battle, moving past an enemy square?

I did pretty good with advantage/disadvantage, prone and a few other things but somebody moved away from a giant rat and I couldn't for the life of me remember what happened. Then someone moved between two rats (square between). I mean I did pack tactics right and everything else but I'm still drawing a blank for basically just walking away during a fight.

make your own stat blocks

Ok do any of you have the 5e druid wild shape sheet? I need to get a print out of that for tomorrow TOA

Then why not fighter or cleric?

Read the description of the Disengage action and attacks of opportunity.

What oath/pact? Always been a fan of ancients/fey narratively, but with the Pal 2/War X build I suppose the oath doesn't even come up.

Some reasons...
Rogue/Fighter
>Fighting Style for increased defense/damage/Tunnel Fighter
>Shield for more AC
>Action Surge for increasing odds of multiple Sneak Attacks per round.
>Battle Master Maneuvers grant fancy tricks and riposte can make it so you get two sneak attacks per round.
>Champion increases crit rate for your attacks and Sneak Attacks.
>UA ones also can be pretty solid options such as Arcane Archer and Sharpshooter for archer/sniper skills

>Sorceror/Warlock
>Spellcasting and Flexible casting blend perfectly.
>Quicken Spell Eldritch Blast
>Twin Spell Booming/Green Flame Blade
>So much flavor options

I'd say to give it some College of Valor features.
Give it a shield and a longsword. Maybe a second attack too.

Spellcasting stats. Even low level Paladin spells can be useful if you cast them with your high level slots and they keep CHA casting, which mixes well with Bard, Warlock and Sorcerer.

If you go Fighter you slow down your spell progression.

If you go Cleric you get WIS casting. Druid and Monk don't want to wear plate so those multicasses are out, ranger/cleric multiclass might work? I don't know never built one.

Paladin gives armor and weapons, smite, and a channel divinity power in the first three levels, then you go for 4 to pick up your ASI and spellcasting progression since it only counts for half you want an even number. That's why you end up with so many Sorcadins and Pallocks and such.

I'm a player not a DM and I read through about half of that and I have to say two things. First I don't know if making it "more complicated" is a good thing seeing as there is already a lot to take into consideration when playing the game "this is also coming from someone who's only been in one campaign so take my opions with a grain of salt. Secondly, I do like how you've moved away from it being dex. focused it takes a way a bit of the power from the dex stat in general and I believe makes it more balanced while also keeping in mind what each class is supposed to do and keeping it more even in the playing field.

I'm taking the Fiend pact and oath of Devotion. The flavor is that the dude has sworn his life to an entity that saved him in exchange for servitude without thinking that it was an evil entity. He truly believes that he is serving good, truth, and justice doled out by an angel.

The charisma synergizes well and when I take the tome, I can grab shillelagh and only have to focus on Charisma.

Homebrewery? If I dared doing that, I wouldn't be asking on /5eg/...

Yeah that works pretty well. Good show.

Just, write things down like a normal person my dude. You're the DM, you don't show that shit to your players, get a piece of paper.

No need to reinvent the wheel, look at existing blocks and swap a thing or two to fit the narrative.

Hey, anons? Since I managed to get my Elf-Orc hybrid race pretty balanced, can I get some feedback on this Dwarf-Elf race?

Dwelf
Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, +1 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision 60 feet
Fey Ancestry: You have Advantage on saving throws against the Charmed effect are are Immune to Magical Sleep effects.
Dwarven Lineage: You are treated as being a Dwarf for effects that tie specifically into race. Among other things, this allows you to use magic items normally restricted to dwarves, but also makes you vulnerable to spells specifically crafted against dwarves.
Dwarven Resilience: You have Advantage on saving throws against Poison, and are Resistant to Poison damage.
Keen Senses: You have Proficiency in the Perception skill.
Trance: Instead of sleeping for 8 hours to make a long rest, you only need to enter a meditative trance for 4 hours, during which you remain aware of your surroundings.

>fiend pact paladin
>not taking hexblade pact
Hexblade gives sticky tanking, Paladin gives DPS.

Yeah, I wanted to make a shillelagh build on my own. I see loads of stuff online about what's optimal and what's not, so I wanted to try and do it by myself without outside influence.

Since then I've asked around and figured out that Magic Initiate Arcana Cleric is generally the better choice, but I've got something pretty dang good.

Smites recharging on short rests is going to be fun, and once I get one of the devotion features that adds my charisma modifier, that's pretty much GWM without the penalty to hit.

>Ability Score Modifiers: +1 Dexterity, +1 Constitution, +1 Charisma
Ouch. Remember most race options have +2 to something for a reason. Humans are shittier for this.

>Dwarven Lineage:
What not just "mixed lineage"? It's not much of a balance issue to be counted as an elf as well.

Sometimes you take things because they fit thematically, not just for how effective they are.

Speaking of which, I fucking hate Hexblade's fluff. It's the fucking worst.

Give them an Elf Lineage too and nerf trance so it feels watered down?

while good, I usually carry around daggers which isn't a problem because I just say they're tools

It also helps to also carry other tools that aren't as handy for murder.

Hmm, good point on the Lineage thing. And is Trance really that big a deal?

In honesty, I'm a little unsure of what to do here. We've got a lot of different dwarven and elven subraces, and they all could offer something to the race.

Maybe try for a subrace approach? Where different subraces offer different aspects of dwarven or elven heritage? That'd be an easy way to pull off the logical "Drow/Duergar variant" as well...

Honestly it looks like you just jammed the two races together. Which I get, but take some of the things out. It looks like you're trying to do too much without actually knowing what you're aiming to do.

If you want them to be treated as Dwarves for stuff, consider making them as slow as a Dwarf. You can have Trance or Fey Ancestry, but having both kind of makes them like an Elf with extra stuff.

As pointed out, maybe give either +2 CON and +1 DEX or vice versa?

You could take out Dwarven resilience or trance and put in their weapon specialty instead. Or the Keen Senses thing

I think the monsters could and should be greatly simplified, I seriously doubt enough are going to fit as nicely as medusas (gee d8 or d8 how apt) to justify what's a rather vague and subjective process.

Also you call wisdom willpower and then suggest wisdom is learned, practiced and studied which is lazy at best retarded at worst.

What I really don't understand is the point though. Do you not want the rogue to always be first anymore? All this complexity boils down to the same style turn order just flattening the bonuses. Seems like if you're going to over complicate things it should do more than just let the fighter go first slightly more often, like make it harder to get the jump on a lot of monsters, ensure the initative is more distributed, have a more complex system one everyone is in order or whatever.

It seems like you're just making it harder to put the same 7 popsicle sticks in almost the same order.

>Disengage
Thanks I didn't know what to call it.

I have yet to multiclass. Is it worth not getting the max level for a class to dip into another? Some of the class abilities that are for level 20 seems good.

> inb4 Dorcs

Anyone got decent playable Goblins?

I could totally just refluff Gnomes since they're not even in my setting but maybe there's something more
yknow
goblinoid

A Oath of the Crown paladin taking their first level in hexblade warlock:
youtube.com/watch?v=fO_3EO-Vd5o

What's wrong with the ones from Volo's Guide?

Goblin race from Volo's. There are also a bunch of magic the gathering versions from UA.

Wait where the fuck is that
I've only seen Volo's lore shit on goblins, but didn't seem them with the other playable races

Thanks though

I never understood optimising a level X unless you were starting there or are just hypothetically playing instead of actually playing- who wants 19 campaign levels of sub par multiclass just to get to something interesting or op?

Nobody actually ever plays at level 20. A lot of those abilities are cool but 90% of them never see play. Multiclasses often do interesting stuff in the level 6-12 range where most games will end.

You'll find them in the monstrous races section along with Hobgoblins, Bugbears, and the like; I believe they're right after the Triton entry.

Anyone here ever play level 20 one-offs?

No wonder I didn't find Kobolds either, they're right here
Thanks, user

I do wonder why they didn't get formatted like the other races though, why keep their traits separated from their lore?

That makes more sense I can understand why it's much more popular now.

Nope, but it seems like it'd be fun.

Fluff is the easiest thing to change. Hexblade Warlock could work just as well for the One And Future King who has drawn the sword from the stone like in , or for magical girls who have made contracts with magical gemstones that transform into magic weapons like in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

I haven't tried it yet, but I really want to roll a bard/warlock for the "sold his soul for blues fame and now is condemned to collect souls" route. Not sure of the ideal progression path/level split though.

Of course.

Yeah it may seem overly complicated through how I formatted the pages, it's a lot of specificities that aren't immediately necessary for all players (like how multiclassing works and DM options with the system); in layman's terms it's
D10+D?+Movement Speed Modifier
versus
D20+Dexterity modifier

Not difficult in practice, but visually overwhelming it seems; thanks for the second regard it's the first positive remark ive received so far :(

I'll edit its presentation to seem more reader-friendly, thanks!

Ran a level 17 oneshot. Had a Rogue crit for absurd damage and nearly killed the boss I had set up in one hit.

I also want to play this character now

A player hasn't been around for two sessions in a row. That's completely fine and he had good reasons. The thing is, his buddy is playing his character for him. Should I award experience to the character, even though the real player isn't there?

Yes, because when he comes back he's going to be less useful and less invested in the game due to it. Just keep him at the same level as everyone else.

Hexblade, but the blade also turns into a bitchin saxophone.

Sounds like you need more high level experience. I would less trust the MM in that range.

It seems wrong for the other players who did show up and went through a whole world of shit (they did a lot in two sessions, surprisingly) while the guy who skipped two sessions in a row gets the same rewards without doing anything. Is this the wrong way to look at things?

I really wanna play some dark fantasy.

What I have so far is:
>Humans, Dwarves and Elves
>Conflict between gods has arisen in prior centuries
>Aasimar and Tiefling fighting each other, locked forever and ever and ev-
>Gods kill each other
>Aasimar and Tiefling are stuck on the world as mortals
>Faith is on shreds, clerics and paladins on suicide watch but still cling to their faith and are able to pull some shit
>A bunch of other shit goes down due to the gods dying
>The sun is locked in a constant eclipse that slowly drains everyone but not really
>Beasts, Shadows and the Undead start showing up worse than ever
>The sun's death causes dwarves to fuck off back into the mountains and surface elves to die out
>Gold somehow disappears because it was a gift to Men from one of the gods, leaves Silver as the main currency and causes a paradigm shift in nobility and commerce
>Kingdoms die out, leaving behind a bunch of disorganized and anarchic city-states and very dangerous no-longer-guarded roads
>Headhunters and Beast hunters become almost the norm, unless you're a bandit
>Drow start living with humans because there's no reason for them to be exiled anymore
>Aasimar and Tiefling start living with humans, but vilified for taking part in the divine war
>Firbolgs come to civilization too, as their homeland is no longer hospitable
>Goblins are thrilled to see civilization die from the inside and join the fun too

all this over the span of like 30-50 years since the main event went down
i can't help but feel at least a bit self-conscious that this is fucking terrible but i can't stop

how else can i make this setting depressing?

No, but if the guy had legitimate IRL issues that could not be avoided, he shouldn't be punished because he had to go do them.

So getting magic initiate. Getting boom blade for tempest, not sure what else to get. Friend telling me to get shillelagh, but unsure if I want to. Hoping you blokes can assist me.

Question about the rope of climbing - can it move 10ft in any direction regardless of wether it defies gravity? I assume so but the description is vague on that point

Fair enough, you're right. I'll have to come up with something so that this doesn't become a problem in the future and others exploit it.

See, I was thinking pact of the chain for an imp that smokes fantasy cigars and is functionally your agent, but also there to keep an eye on you for your patron.

What would you do as a level progression though?

Do what sounds like fun nibba

So Pillars of Eternity with Bannerlord?

It was an AL adventure.

>Water sources get sparser
>Carriages get faster
>...
>Mad Max

Anyone remember the Dark Sun Revised Campaign Setting from AD&D? Because I've been trying to convert the Pterran from it, and I could use opinions on how it looks. It's a little problematic because both its 2e and 3e statblocks are pretty shit.

Pterran
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Wisdom, +1 Strength
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Normal
Armored Scales: When not wearing armor, your AC is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Claws: You have a Climb speed of 15 feet and can use your claws as natural weapons when making an unarmed strike. A claw attack inflicts 1d4 + Str modifier Slashing damage instead of the normal Bludgeoning damage for an unarmed strike.
Honor the Earth Mother: You have Proficiency in Nature and can use your Wisdom score for Nature checks. Additionally, you can cast the Druidcraft cantrip, using Wisdom as your spellcasting ability score.
Patagia: You have Advantage on Acrobatics checks made whilst jumping. Additionally, if you are not wearing medium or heavy armor, or encumbered, you use a bonus action to negate all damage you would take from falling.

>monsters
I agree with that, I used the medusa as an example because it was similar enough as a humanoid to be compared to a PC's class; I will probably simplify all monsters to use the d20 for brevity's sake
>the semantics
That is simply me messing up flavor text when I shouldn't, thanks for pointing that out
>the point
I made this to assign non-random reasons for someone's initiative besides a simple dex modifier and a d20 (hence the classes and speed being used through dice and modifiers), where slower characters directly translate to slower initiatives and likewise to fast ones.
It does better distribute initiative letting the faster characters go first and the slower ones later instead of a mess of random d20 rolls; essentially classes and speed better organize the order in initiative compared to the random nature of standard initiative

Thanks for the critique!

haven't played either but i know the names
and if things with names i know have done it, i'm probably going in the right direction

kek

>shillelagh

Well you already use martial weapons so the 1d8 isn't worth it. I assume your STR is not that bad so you don't need the Wisdom for attacks. Only thing I can think of is that you want the magical property.

Why would the humans accept the Drow?

Probably because Lolth died.

>You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC.
No. Armored Scales is fine if you limit it to the first sentence. Everything else either falls outside how 5e works or how it words things.
>A shield's benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
Unnecessary.
>Patagia
Lol no. Patagia is fucked. Adv on Acrobatics while jumping never comes up, so it may as well be worthless. Just give them Acrobatics proficiency, or allow them to make a Dex save (DC10+1 per every 10ft they fall) to resist or negate fall damage.

So it's been months now and I can definitively say Greyhawk Initiative Variant Rules are the best thing to come out for this edition. Anyone who read them and seemed skeptical, I implore you to try them, they are extremely fun.

>Exploit it
If they think they can 'win' by not playing then they're not in it for the game in the first place.