/5eg/ - D&D Fifth Edition General

>The monster manual with that atrociously balanced scarecrow
Yeah no

I'm partial to the shaman on the DM's Guild, but I have no idea whether or not it would meet your standards.

dmsguild.com/product/170851/Shaman-Class-5e

Orium dragons are the best dragons

>be a big panther dragon
>live in jungles
>refurbish ancient temples
>breathe acid snakes

How can I tell if my players liked a session or if they're just being nice?

>Kobold Press monster manual expansion
has anyone got the pdf of it?

What triggers an Opportunity Attack?

It's in the trove.

if you don't know, it was shit.

my standards are pretty much "do more fa/tg/uys vouch for it than shit on it?"

So right now it's passing!

not reading the book.

If you're having doubts it's probably because the session was bad and you know it in your gut

Do they talk about it even a little without prompting? Do they have a favorite bit without prompting? Did they not pay attention to time during? Did they pay attention to what was happening in the game?

These are all things that suggest they liked the game, but the absence doesn't necessarily mean much. In reality, it's pretty hard to tell.

A monster or creature leaving someone's attack melee attack range without disengaging, or the Sentinel feat

5e's a system that encourages homebrew and unofficial content, surely it's not all shit.

>5e's a system that encourages homebrew and unofficial content, surely it's not all shit.
oh you sweet, sweet child.

>Thanks for getting me out of that burning town Mr Red Dragon
>No problem buddy, don't puke on my claws

>not sure about a rule
>decide to wing it rather than slow the game to a halt
>suddenly a man in furs hits me in the face with a greatclub while screaming

>5e's a system that encourages homebrew and unofficial content
What the actual fuck gave you this impression

So you have no actual idea of how long threads will hover around the lower range this late at night. It's common courtesy to wait till seven fag stick, lurk more.

Those Path of Da Rules barbs are pretty mean.

Ok, that's what I thought. I'm used to the mission things that trigger in 3.5.

5e is a system that's light enough that it encourages you to homebrew a setting or a campaign, but it's not the modular system you're treating it as.

I'll remember that. Also, I'm probably too scared to ever start a general again. for the best I suppose

>decide to wing it rather than slow the game to a halt
>decide to not even bother glancing at the appendix
>decide it would be better to ask an online forum with a chance of people ignoring my question all together instead of spending 5 fucking seconds to look at the back of the book.

The world is a harsah place.

Monsters are easy to balance since they're stuff the players get rid of. but how innovative the monster designs are is -
I don't know, but it's hard to make a truly 'shit' monster.

True.

Homebrewing magic items is also a good idea, yes, but that's not really something that needs balancing usually.

Stuff that actually need balancing is the stuff that's almost always shit. Especially full classes, where either they're just a shittier version of an alrready existing class/multiclass or they're so far out there that none of it makes sense / it's completely broken

Even if it is the issue is most publishers, like kobold press, and hombrewers know fuck all about the actual balance of 5e. They make shit that's balanced around a completely different edition then try and slap it into 5e

Okay, holy shit, Jesus Christ, fine, all the homebrew classes and feats are shit and don't understand how the game is supposed to work. Just give me some cool original monsters or magic items then, I don't fucking care, I'm just looking for some extra content for my games.

>tfw newguy, want to play campaign
>no tabletop events near me
>roll20 schedules are shit for me
>just want to zap people and cook monsters

No.

No.

>Look up the MM for previous editions in the trove
>Learn how to convert them over to 5e
>????
>Profit

>As the Dungeon Master, you aren't limited by the rules in the Player's Handbook, the guidelines in this book, or the selection of monsters in the Monster Manual. You can let your imagination run wild. This chapter contains optional rules that you can use to customize your campaign, as well as guidelines on creating your own material, such as monsters and magic items.
Sadly people often forget about the following paragraphs:
>The options in this chapter relate to many different parts of the game. [...] Consider trying no more than one or two of the options at a time so you can clearly assess their effects on your campaign before adding other options.
>Before you add a new rule to your campaign, ask yourself two questions: Will the rule improve the game? Will my players like it?

All is forgiven

Be vigilant user, you never know when something might happen or if you have a LGS you could try talking g them into letting you try and organize games there. It's be a long term investment to eventually, maybe, get to play but it worked out better for me than expected.

I'm the guy that posted that repository, and I'm with Just lemme get some pdfs full of cool monsters that I didn't think about

So, I'm running Elemental Evil for the first time for a few friends of mine. It's their first time playing, my first time DM'ing.
I figured the Red Larch start would be enough of a draw to get them to take it somewhat seriously, but still give them enough space to screw around with the sandbox.
I've tweaked a lot of the NPCs to make finding the Tomb of Moving Stones early its own little mystery/quest, and I've fucked around with giving them rewards/consequences for how much attention they draw (for example, the Blades of Woe may not even show up if they manage to uncover the truth without alerting the Believers)
Is this a terrible idea? Should I just run it straight and scrap the rewards? I figured I would just keep note of who they speak to and what they do in their investigation, and then mess with the Tomb based on their notoriety
I thought maybe I'd even throw some hired thugs at them if the Believers feel they're getting too close to the truth, so that they get the hint they're on the right trail

Sell me on a Sorlock origin Veeky Forums, UA is a go (newest revisions). Kinda torn between Draconic and FS, also worth noting I'm currently the main source of damage in the party, probably for the entire campaign.

My cleric now uses some sort of "mana" system. Level 1 spells cost one, 2 costs two, etc. How is this much different than regular spell casting? Only benefit I can see is that instead of upcasting cure wounds to heal one injured target for 2d8+wis I can instead do 2d8+2wis

Anons, do you think all campaigns have to have some larger foe you're working again? Currently in my campaign my party is the remnants of a long forgotten mercenary company looking to restore it's good name in the aftermath of a planar collision. I'm hoping to combine the tone of the Black Company with sprinkling bits of the tone of Wind Waker. Currently they don't really have a foe other than surviving (we're 2 sessions in), but I have a few smaller villains looking to consolidate power in the aftermath of the planar collision.
What are some cool villains to throw in here? Locations? Cool settings / vidya / books to steal from? I'm currently reading Sabriel and thinking of stealing the bells, but I think it might be too much of a leap for the tone.
Alternatively, brag to me about something in your campaign setting that you think I should steal. Basically what I'm having trouble coming up with something equivalent to Stephen King's fog clouds in his novels, something that the players are always looking to and thinking about while on their missions.

Just use the spell points system in the DMG.

There's already a spellpoint variant in the DMG.

How is the UA spear mastery feat? I like me some spears.

>Meanwhile on other boards
>4 new threads up
>old one is 10~20+ posts from bump limit, let alone off of page 1 or 2
The disparity between some places is rather impressive sometimes.

Not all campaigns need one bad guy to work against. There just needs to be something to push the players forward and give them a reason to play and care about continuing. A bad guy just does that easily and creates a conflict to overcome. Without that the game would be boring as shit (not all conflict needs to be fighting, ya could do a free form campaign based around solving puzzles if ya wanted). But the goal is to give the players a reason to go on and obstacles. Ya got that? Then as long as you are catering to what kind of obstacles your players like, there's no real issue.

Just make sure you don't end up with no conflicts and sitting around wondering what they are even playing for.

I should also mention my players don't really have a campaign they wanted other than enjoying the social aspect of getting together to play, so I don't really have much direction I'm forced to go in. The freedom of that is kind of tugging at me to commit to one thing, which might lead to kitchen sink fantasy.
1) How does one avoid kitchen sink fantasy and
2) How does ones fully commit to a tone?

There's dungeons I've made and there's conflict between peoples, but I have trouble coming up with NPCs, or at least playing them, as evil enough that the players don't feel dickish for killing them.
So for example I've got a 'Republic of the Small' which is a confederation of mousefolk mouseholes and faeries (the tinkerbell type) against the forces against them, but currently there is nothing in the game that makes the players go "Ok, time to cut off that dude's head". I don't really know what type of obstacles I'd put in the area for them to overcome.

I always liked the idea of stories where there's another, related plane with entirely different people or races that the party learn about more and more through interactions before eventually having to encounter them directly (Final Fantasy 5, Homestuck). The world in your fantasy underwent a planar collision, so that could be a possible idea, though "planar collision" can mean a lot of different things so I'm not sure what exactly you mean by it.

Nobody talking about the UA?

dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/fiendish-options

boring

Just edit content yourself if you understand how it should work, idiot.

I want wotc to stop pushing tiefling options onto us. They're a race that edgelords and faggots always gravitate to and I want them to go away.

What kind of people are the party? If they're idealist/lawful types, you could have conflict come from the party trying to give the people hope and trust against a breakdown of society and a "looking out for numero uno" approach. Maybe even make some interesting contrasts against the backdrop of being mercenaries, where they have to balance their need to make money from whoever's willing to pay against their desire to see the world rebuild.

Being my first campaign, I haven't made shit as batshit crazy as some of the thoughts I had as making the land all ground and there being water pillars to the Element of Water above.
Mainly it's turned environments bonkers, upturned political / nationalist ties as locations were ripped up and moved so people have to figure out how to live with their new neighbors, and the people restrained by tradition now have a chance at a power grab.

I've got two players each with two characters of which they focus on RPing only one. One dude is playing a sniper duo who are in it to make money and generally are the definition of True Neutral, and the other dude is playing a slothful yet inquisitive ranger and a hedonistic but honor bound Valkyrie Paladin.
The players don't seem that interested in political intrigue and were confused when I had two different NPCs wanting them to take on the quest for a different reason. Not confused as in what's happening, but how do we react and consolidate this.

So I like a lot of the Stone Sorceror's features and really want to see it in Xanathar's, but I feel like it could be a great class for the Duskblade/Magus crowd so with that in mind...

Do your worst.

>Do your worst
Looks like you already did

You have something better?

Unfortunately this usually rings true.
I don't have anything against those options or a player choosing them. However, it's just such an immediate red flag whenever that's the first thing they jump on.

>new guy joins
>wants to be a drow
>wants to be a tiefling
oh joy

media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/26_UASorcererUA020617s.pdf
is pretty good

Hmm... I have an idea, but it's kind of weird. In Dwarf Fortress, there are these randomly generated monsters called Titans. They basically either take the form of giant blobs or giant animals/humanoids with weird twisted features like three eyes or extra wings or unnatural trunks. They have weird-ass attacks, sometimes with strange sicknesses they cause, and are tied (and related to) the biomes they're from.

Those could possibly be used as some powerful yet vague and incomprehensible threat. Let's say... the Titans showed up as a result of the collision, and are related to the especially fucked parts of the environments, and they have a tendency to really make a mess of things if they want to. But they're not actively trying to attack anyone, and no one can seem to understand their movements or what they want. They just wander the world near the areas they're associated with, sometimes creating headaches of various scales.

Not him, but
>can you do any better
isn't very convincing as an argument. Not that they gave you any reasons why it was bad in the first place.

For the expanded spell list you should take a look at how it's presented in the warlock class as a template. I just mean the wording and presentation, mostly.

For that matter
>Wants to be a gnome
has this ever been a good sign either?

Would magic gauntlets that gave my fighter 1d6 unarmed attacks and let him ignore grapple immunity be overly broken? He's been grappling since we started, and complains that his unarmed strikes are only d4's (tavern brawler) after getting plate mail.

Never had an issue with a gnome player.
What kind of person does this attract at your tables?

Agreed it is pretty great, that's why I did not change much. All I did was change the Stone's Edge feature.

Sure I'll fix up the table, as well as I can.

I'm hearing Shadow of the Colossus. I like SotC.
Thank you fren.

That channel shit is retarded. Bigby's Hand? Scorching Ray?

Scorching Ray would work Bigby would not due to the hand being the thing making the attack. Would you prefer for it to cost more?

Now I'll confess that this is mostly prejudice from my Pathfinder days, but I have a knee jerk reaction to Gnomes thanks to them being written and played as the go-to wacky race in Pathfinder games.

I haven't actually had a gnome player since starting 5e last year so I can't attest to if it's any different with you guys.

I guess they are a little wacky. But in my experience, no more wacky than halfling players.
I think it's more just a byproduct of being the short comedy relief guy.

In fact, I'd say I often have halfling players take up that mantle more often (due to the charisma bonus of lightfoot halflings). With gnomes often opting to be a bit more serious or intellectual.
Now that people are playing artificers, I guess I might expect that to change a bit since wacky gnome alchemist a really common trope.

I'm doing a one-shot for a friend's birthday coming up, I'm short on ideas and time because the person who was running it dropped out. Any good one-shots out and about here? It can be for up to level 3 starting and it'll be about four to five hours.

A gnome killed my entire tribe once. I was hunting him down with a gnome npc and of course it turned out it was him who did it. As a kobold , of course I ate him, after killing him with extreme predjudice.

I've got a dragon and halloween related question. How do y'all n words feel about skeletal dragons? More specifically, tormented haunted skeletal dragons being twisted beyond their control.

...

Ship crew.
Pirate island.
Pirates are after treasure in the ruins.
Pirates try to force players to help them get the treasure.
Pirates don't want to share the treasure.
Treasure room is cursed.
When you take the treasure, skeletons come alive in the ruins.
Any previously killed bad guys in the temple (maybe dead pirates) come back as zombies.
Queue escape scene.
Pirate captain appears outside exit to ruins.
Showdown or run from pirates. Or trick the captain somehow.

A pretty fun backbone that has worked for me multiple times.
Often give the players a bit of a jungle exploration to get to the ruins.
Give them a run in with some pirates standing watch.
Have like 2 or 3 puzzles inside the ruins guarding the treasure. If you solve the puzzle no trap springs. A failure might cause a trap to spring. The final trap will always spring no matter what (the zombie thing) for drama. Have doors closing on them trying to keep them trapped inside but give ample opportunities to escape.

One of the players in my group uses it- I'm not particularly focused on number crunching, but I would say it's valid. Especially if you like spears and wish to do spear-related things. The damage increase isn't huge, but always relevant; the brace for charge mechanic might not always see use but it's nice to have options and I've seen it result in sudden burst damage; and the reach is a nice touch to an already versatile weapon (you threaten things at like a 5/10/20/60ft range.)

>unarmed
>fighter

he knew what he was in for

I'm running about half of my campaign with no particular enemy in mind. It's not a requirement, it's just an easy way to give the players a long-term goal, something satisfying to achieve. Could be anything, but I'm a sucker for a classical powerful dickhead showing up, raising hell, and getting out down.

>I'm gonna go out and slay some monsters!
>But I'm going to do it WITH MY FISTS
>Why isn't this working effectively when I'm a big bulky guy in armour? I should be punching as effectively as a light, nimble guy with magically-enhanced punches and extensive knowledge of martial arts!

>ignore grapple immunity
It's not particularly common, and generally exists for a good reason. It would be better just to let him treat himself as a bigger size for grappling.

They're good, used one in my current campaign. Slapped on stuff from various statblocks, came up with a gimmick for it initially piecing itself together.

I just really like spear weapons with guns attached. There's no gunlances or rifle spears in D&D, but just regular poking is fine anyway. I ESPECIALLY like spear and shield combos, but all the other poke stick weapons are two handed.

Thanks, user. I'll ask my DM about it if my Bard dies.

I know his character concept is a bit stupid but yeah... His justification for wanting d6 punches is that he could have d6 clubs and then drop one or both of them for grapples but that would look even more stupid.

And he's a goliath so he already counts as large

Late night homebrew. Feedback appreciated for, what I hope, will be the final changes.

Anyone knowledgeable as to the origins of this "pointed buying sytem"?

What if I made it cost a number of sorcery points equal to the spell level?

Oh wow, it is literally nothing.

You know what, I honestly like it. GOod job, user.

Spot on.

You can't improve that concept. You can paint shit in a nice colour and use expensive perfume, but it doesn't change the fact that it is, at its core, shit.

Earliest I can find is in the 3e (3e, not 3.5e) DMG.

If I may ask what do you not like about the Stone Sorcerer?