/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

Several levels, maybe. One is stupid.

Fair, but recording spells beyond 1st level with only 1 level in wizard would not really benefit you. One level is just a waste either way.

>Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a level for which you have spell slots and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
Seems to me that EK should be able to copy any spells he might be able to cast.

Explain?

And what good would that do to you?

Do you think that when your character takes a level of wizard, a spellbook just falls out of the fucking sky, man? You'd better be able to justify your character's discovery or acquisition of a spellbook in-game.

I fucking hate multiclassers who drop these radical departures on their characters out of nowhere with no explanation for how their character actually got these skills or knowledge.

How do you guys handle dopplegangers in your group? Running a Halloween one shot and there's gonna be a change for a person to get swapped out. It'll be obvious if u start telling the group what the PC starts to do. Was thinking I might tell the specific player and give him objectives.

Everyone's always complaining about EK's limitation in spell selection, but now suddenly opening up his options isn't useful?

I dunno. Dual wielding doesn't necessarily need to be best choice for every class. It surely isn't for Fighters, but i dualwield regulary on my rogue and barbarian. Hell, i think it would work very well on paladin!

>as thinking I might tell the specific player and give him objectives.

That's the best way to do it, but make sure you pick the best roleplayer.

In my pure EK I get the ritual caster(wizard) feat, did wonders.

>opening up his options
How? You can only write down spells you already can cast. You can write down 3rd spells you have gained levelling up, not 3rd level wizard spells in general. You're still limited to your wizard level for that.

It's going to be a cursed mirror that when you look into it, you get swapped with the monster/person inside. Just luck of the draw.

All of my players suck equally at rp so it won't matter anyways.

>ritual caster(wizard) feat
That's basically a mandatory feat selection. It's both extremely flavourful and extremely effective.

>mfw playing a martial with 20 str at level one
boy i may fall off later but feels good doing like 12 damage average a hit

You could copy spells that an EK would know.

But your spell slots can only be used to cast a spell that each class would be able to cast.

For example, if you are a level 2 wizard, and a level 6 eldritch knight,
your total spell slots are that of a fourth level wizard. (4x 1st, 3x 2nd)

A 6th level EK only knows 1st level spells, as does a 2nd level Wizard.

But once you know 2nd level spells? Well....

Multiclassing rules state the following on P. 164 :
>You determine what spells you know and can prepare for each class individually, as if you were a single-classed member of
that class.

This means if you continued in EK to get higher slots, you would never be able to prepare higher level spells using your spellbook. Why? Because you can still only prepare spells that are of a level your wizard class can cast.

>But can't I record them and then cast them as my EK level since they don't need to prepare spells?
No. That's not how EK spellcasting works either. They don't read a spell from a book to begin with, spells are committed to memory on levelup.

the fuck kind of minmaxing did you do to get that? or is your dm letting you go full retard on point buy

You mean getting every level 1 ritual out there, and getting to prepare every level 1 spell that isn't evocation and abjuration?

Rolling 18 is not that uncommon.

Dragonborn often have dreadlock-like tendrils behind their heads. Dragonborn actually don't usually come in dragon colors; the vast majority of them are a muddy red-brown or yellow ocre regardless of what their breath weapon is. Lizardfolk are usually green. Dragonborn have four fingers and lizardfolk have five.

the ol roll for stats my dude
sometimes you just get 18 16 15 13 12 12, go variant human, and get heavy armor master

>Rolling stats

>not rolling 4d6 discard lowest for 3 stats/discard highest for 3 stats

>never got an 18
>Got a 3 twice
I wish my dm did point buy

Hey /5eg/, I'm going to be running some brand new players through their first time soon. The playes have the usual mix of some experience with LotR fantasy settings and WoW/Skyrim game experience.

The thing is, I know that they will hate any railroading, and while I've used LMoP to teach 5e basics before, I'm worried that they'll try to jump from the story as soon as they reach town. So to compensate I want to have some backup prebuilts ready to spin them into if need be.

So the question: what prebuilts besides LMoP would work best a party of complete noobs?

>inb4 strahd

Rolled 4, 2, 6, 5, 3, 6, 5, 5, 3, 2, 4, 3, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 2, 2, 6, 4, 4, 5, 4 = 89 (24d6)

Fuck it might as well test it

ToA

I agree, it is barbaric practice. Hopefully it will disappear soon, though i have my doubts about it.

I do not see anything in under the spell book rules that suggests that this is the case. Is it a rule in the multiclassing section?

discard lowest
(4,2,6,5)=15
(3,6,5,5)=16
(3,2,4,3)=10
discard highest
(2,2,2,4)=6
(4,2,2,6)=8
(4,4,5,4)=12

Sunless Citadel

Sorry didn't include in reply.

It is

Ah, thank you for clearing that up.

going full strahd is going to end poorly but if they insist on getting lost in the woods, you could pull out death house...

Sure np. Be careful with that multiclassing trap for spell slots, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

>discard highest
What?
Why would you discard highest? I've never seen anyone do that and i wonder what the purpose of it might be.

>dm let you roll
>dm let you roll 3d6 instead of 3d4+4

Basically 4d6 discard lowest all the way is boring and will most often give you better stats than average
If you're forced to discard highest dice on 3 of your rolls it'll actually give you some shittier stats, like that 6 and 8.

Opinions on the Samurai Fighter archetype?

Only if the dm lets you roll up ability scores at home. That's just an open invitation to cheat.

I wish it wasn't called "the samurai" because I feel like it's going to send the message that anyone wanting to play a samurai-inspired character MUST be a fighter with the samurai archetype.

Bland archetype with cool name to make weeboos happier

>having players that would cheat in the first place
?

Agreed, samurai for me works more with paladins or even barbarians

I'm playing a regular Medieval European knight using the Samurai archetype and thematically he's nothing like a samurai, I just thought the Fighting Spirit ability sounded fun.

Actually it's kind of OP in combat somewhat, at least for me.

I will say one more thing. One level actually wouldn't be bad in wizard just so you have the ability to cast rituals of level 1 spells.

There's a lot to record, and having a familiar is actually pretty strong. A one level dip is not that bad of an idea for EK/Wiz hybrid.

Just don't count on it letting you use more varied and powerful spells later on.

>will most often give you better stats than average
Yes, that's the point, isn't it?

If you want more balanced stats, why not just roll 3d6 like we used to do in AD&D?

Because I enjoy seeing the reaction in my player's eyes when they're forced to discard a 6 and are left with a 2,3,2

Jokes aside, Strahd is probably a good choice. Barovia has a lot of locations they can head to, but it's still confined so you don't have to worry about them walking off from the plot.

Either that or like, SKT I guess.

I hate you.

>mfw playing Monk with 20 Dex and 16 Dex at level 1
>DM crits all the fucking time so it doesn't matter
Still deciding what character to make after he finally finishes the job and kills this one. I'm thinking some sort of spellcaster, but the party already has a Cleric and a Wizard.

You're not the first person to say that to me desu

>36 dex at level one
wew

*16 Wis

my problem with strahd proper is the whole "the mists won't let you leave until you deal with strahd" thing, which will reek of railroading when these spastics want to go back to dick around thundertree or something

Yeah, gonna second CoS.

I'm with you guys. A class should be more flexible than a character concept.

Class or archetype dictates playstyle, the way you interact with the mechanics. But a character concept, even one as general as a social role, isn't tied to specific game mechanics. Your character is a priest? Cool! Your class options are cleric, druid, bard, sorcerer, rogue (if they're full of shit,) paladin (if they're decidedly not,) barbarian (if you're a priest of KROM!!!,) etc. Got a good idea for a pirate? Maybe you're a rogue, sure. Maybe you're a ranger. Maybe you're a crazy-ass druid who calls up wrecking storms and believes the hungry sea must have her share.

So, samurai archetype is missing the point a bit. Fun mechanics, though, works for lots of character concepts.

Paladin?

Does Paladin get a decent number of spell slots compared to something like Bard?

It's a half-caster, and most of its spells are smites—but it gets tremendous aura affects that can be a boon for the party. I recommended it on the grounds that it might strongly complement your party.

What domain is your cleric? It could lead to some great interactions.

Not sure, they said they like fire and they cast inflict wounds a lot.

>Class or archetype dictates playstyle, the way you interact with the mechanics. But a character concept, even one as general as a social role, isn't tied to specific game mechanics.
I absolutely agree with this. I fucking hate it when people call me out for using the bard class to play 'low-power' adventure-y wizards (more in older editions than 5e, to avoid campaign-breaking power levels) or druid class to play rural priests (because fuck you, if I wanted full plate holy bruisers I'd play paladin, and I'm too autistic not to optimize).

Probably Light domain then. Could be neat if you go Oath of Ancients who's also all about Light, but in a metaphorical sense rather than all 'fire and brimstone'

I'll look into it, thanks for the advice!

Tell them to fuck of and play the module.

What would be the point of lowering enemy initiative with cutting words? In simpler terms, does it matter that enemies have low initiative?

Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger is pretty good, you have a high AC and lots of spell slots.

8 Eldritch Knight/ 12 Bladesinger preferably.

The party infiltrated the enemy's fortress without any plan for what to do after they were inside. They got chased out by the big bad and his forces, barely making it out with their lives. Then some of them were pissed because the big bad didn't fight "fair."

should i get cause fear or charm person as my second warlock spell at level 1? my first spell is armor of agathys, playing hexblade

>playing hexblade
>doesn't have hex

I'd go Hex and Shield

Since I'm gonna play cursebringer I don't want a billion bonus action things, and I have heavy armor master so agathys is super value

>Bladesinger
>Ever
And you might as well go eldritch knight 7 / rogue 13 or wizard 20. One is better at being a fighter, the other is better at being a wizard rather than trying to strike some confused balance that does overall less in each turn.

Opinions on Theurgy Wizard?

It looks interesting but it feels like the Cleric Domain features are hit/miss or even mixed for a Wizard.

>5 damage once
>super value

I'd still say Hex.

I think it does work pretty well.

I feel like I'm the only one who follows raw and makes people pick a race and class before they roll for stats, when I let them roll for stats.

>Level 20 build
You're instantly fucking wrong because you don't have wish.

It's like saying 'I could have been a demigod, but I decided to take levels of fighter instead'.

?
As long as I have the temp hp, they take 5 cold damage each time they hit me. Since I have 3 dr it's gonna last a lot longer. But if you think hex is so good I'll pick it up as my second spell.

Hideous.

At 20 you're better off just being Wizard even if it restricts your melee. You can always buff yourself and enter the fray if needed.

That seems interesting.
For a one-shot.
Maybe.
Probably not.

If you want wish then yes go full wizard, if you want to be a more spell-focused EK then yes add some wizard levels to the mix.

Unless they don't attack you in melee.
It's nice if you cast it at higher levels and it's nice because you can cast it before battles, so I wouldn't say it's a bad choice. It works best if you get damage reduction like that in various ways such as bear barbarian, abjuration wizard, heavy armour master (though heavy armour master has rather specific requirements of being hit by a non-magical weapon I believe which sometimes doesn't realy apply since some things aren't weapons) and maybe playing any class with a load of high level spell slots.

Why is Cleric 1/Wizard x better than full Wizard in every way?

Played my first game of D&D yesterday. It was fun, but incredibly hectic.I have a shitty memory of what exactly happened last night, but I'll do my best to explain what happened.

>Be tiefling bard with stats in dex and charisma so that he's basically an assassin
>Friend plays as a human bard who's main instrument is the kazoo
>Friend actually brings kazoo to game session and plays it when his character does
>Both of our bards are made to be super fucking edgy
>There's also a gnome mad scientist who takes blood samples from everyone and injects random people with FEVs
>There's six people, including the DM, in total and all our characters meet on the path to some huge city
>Injured man suddenly comes stumbling out of the forest, telling of something awful happening in a clearing
>Gnome injects the man with FEV, the man dies, and then he takes a blood sample
>Go to clearing and we find a huge bloody battle between blue cloaked guys and black cloaked guys
>Suddenly, a green sorcerer does some magic shit and we all wake up in the middle of the battlefield
>One of the black guys tries to kill one of us, but is killed by a blue cloaked elf
>The battle is turning in the black guys' favor, so the army retreats to a cave
>The elf is the leader of a group called the titans who is resisting the "shadoweyes" (the black guys)
>We all go to his office (yes there's an office in the cave, probably because it's their main base or something) and the elf explains the conflict between the titans and the shadoweyes
>After explaining this, the elf goes to look out the window, and some huge guy who looks like Guts from Berserk comes out from under the carpet and rams the elf out the window, killing him
>Tank gnome (different from scientist gnome) tries to shove Guts out the window. Doesn't work
>The Guts looking guy turns to us and 8 shadoweyes come in through the door
The shadoweyes are ordered to seize us, but Alistare Graveshadow (edgy kazoo bard) plays them a song for his freedom

tbc

Bless is always strong and healing on a Wizard isn't terrible, but you already have a lot of options and Bless requires concentration.
Could be useful at higher levels considering it doesn't gain much from being heightened.

You likely won't get much more from spells, but Tempest does have some nice features, especially the flying and maximized damage.
Knowledge gets you bonus proficiencies and languages which is always good, but nothing major.

I'd do what that other person said. Take ritual caster (wizard) and you have access to a load of classic wizard spells just like that. You can then continue to level fighter and get higher levels spells from that. Both EK8/Wizard12 and EK20 gain knowledge of level 3 spells at the same level - level 13. Considering most games don't go beyond that (And if they do go beyond that why the fuck aren't you a full wizard?) then maybe it starts to show some level of difference than having more spell slots to cast 'shield' with.

Also bladesinger is just a shit design. It's not necessarily bad, but it's fucking shit. It's an AC stacking meme with little incentive to melee other than 'melee is slightly stronger than a cantrip now' and otherwise gives you no features other than an effectively permanent +10ft speed, +AC and better concentration in combat (because twice a short rest for a minute is practically all relevant encounters).

>hit level 17
>Full wizard is casting Wish every day
>Full Arcana cleric is casting Wish every day
>Wizard/cleric is casting level 8 spells at level 9 like some pleb

As long as it isn't magical, heavy armor master reduces all slashing/piercing/bludgeoning attack damage, and considering I've had it since level 1, it's really effective.
I figured I'd just be smiting most of the time with my spell slots, so I really only wanted a buff spell, not something like hex when I already have my hexblade curse. Hex also doesn't scale like agathys and smites, so it doesn't seem that good to me.

>heavy armor master reduces all slashing/piercing/bludgeoning attack damage,
No, it doesn't.
Bite is a natural weapon. It is a weapon.
Rocks falling on you isn't a weapon.
It covers most attacks, but there are definitely exceptions which confuses the whole thing, which I believe includes a monk's fist.

The elf's office is in a cave
A cave
And it has a window