/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

Welcome to the D&D 5th Ed. General Discussion Thread

>Xanathar's Guide Table of Contents
web.archive.org/web/20171016180500/https://www.dndbeyond.com/members/BadEye/articles

>Forge Cleric - Xanathar's Guide
media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/DnDXL2017_Forge.pdf

Unearthed Arcana: Fiendish Options
media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/UA_FiendishOptions.pdf

>Trove
rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons & Dragons/D&D 5th Edition/

>5etools
astranauta.github.io/5etools.html

>Resources
pastebin.com/X1TFNxck

>Previously, on /5eg/...

Has anyone played this? An user made it for /5eg/ last Halloween I think.

Does your campaign have a dog? is he a good boy?

It has a Kobold. Does that count?

How exactly does alchemy work?

Are there any crafting rules in place? What does an herbalism kit do?

Same. My players just talked to a dragon, and now one of her kobolds basically worships them. They named her Dave and kept the name when they found out she wasnt a dude, and now they take her around with them everywhere.

Wait for XGE to come out, it will have more rules for crafting and tools.

Why are spellswords so appealing, Veeky Forums?
What are some must-have spells for a Fighter/Wizard to approximate a 4e Swordmage?

Does a bladelock even need eldritch blast? I know it's still useful, but can I get by without it if I'm not going to take agonizing blast or anything like that?

How would I build this guy?

You play Pathfinder instead.

Summoning is pretty ass in 5e, unfortunately.

Summoning's good, just it's mostly the Druid's area of expertise and no one else can even compare to them.

What should I play? I feel like trying something new so no Paladins, Fighters, Rangers, Warlocks, Wizards or Druids.

Right now I'm thinking Long Death Monk, Thief Rogue or Forge Cleric. Open to fun ideas though.

Fiend Chainlock maybe?

Wizards might catch up with xge. They are getting some new conjuration spells

I think the best approximation is a level 7 EK mixed with 6 levels of Abjuration Wizard. That gives you a proper Ward you can use to protect allies, along with allowing easy ways to mix the various melee-oriented cantrips with weapon attacks.

In our campaign our Warlock a pet wolf. It ate a fireball and got wasted. The Warlock tried to use a scroll of revivify on it but the rest of the party knicked it a few days ago because the bitch was hogging all the treasure. Cue gratuitous player whining after he found out.

True, I remember seeing somewhere that Druids, Sorcerers and Wizards are all getting some new Conjurations. So we'll have to see how they turn out. Also if Chaos Bolt is a sign, maybe Sorcerer will be getting more unique spells.

How does everybody manage int players?

Is identifying monsters (aka meta-gaming, not the magical kind) an action?

I was thinking about letting max int player half the time it take to become proficient in a tool.

Maybe even use the int mod as a multiplier, multiplying the amount of time you spend studying to become proficient in a tool, like 1 is 1, 2 is 1.2, 3 is 1.3, 4 is 1.4 and 5 is just straight doubles the amount of "studying" you can do.

Tools take a ridiculous amount of time to become proficient in.

Thoughts? Too OP?

world of kensei monk

Y'know, someone posted some workshopped rules for spellbook management here a long time ago that were something like wizards only being able to flip X number of pages in their spellbook at once and rolling die to try and go beyond that and still be accurate. So if you spent turn 1 casting Aganazzar's Scorcher, it was unlikely you'd be able to get to Melf's Minute Meteors. IIRC you also needed a physical spellbook at the table, spells of certain levels and casting times took up so many pages, and whatever order you scribed them in was set, so you should probably leave lots of gaps between spells so you can put all the important stuff (when you learn it) right up front and spread the rest out.

I think it also had spellbooks for every casting class and they were required to cast, not just to memorize spells at a rest.

forgot to add kits would also apply to this rule.

Now I want to build Demi-fiend too, but I never get to play. Foreverdm is suffering

make him an antagonist

Cheer up, user. I'm sure you'll get an opportunity someday.

...

Lore Bard? And also take a bunch of utility spells, like fucking Tiny Hut and Speak with Animals/Identify. Be relentlessly useful, and also steal Fireball from other class spell lists for when you need to just nuke something from orbit.
Alternatively, Shadow Monk, and be the ninja.

...

...

Long Death Monk is fun just because you get to be a borderline unkillable crowd-controller.

Half elf tomelock who discovered a vanta black crystal ball, that gets stars within it when used, in his Masters(who went mysteriously went missing) lab locked within the ball is a cuthulu creature of old who looks like an albino emanciated faceless void for anyone who understands that reference (dms choice on my patrons look since I know he loves Lovecraft and it's his world). So now my tome lock is getting his powers while looking for the key to his escape.

Does anyone think this is an unreasonable request?

Is fiend chainlock / Barbarian with tavern brawler viable?

I have a bladelock in my campaign his sword is a made up sentient.

Requiring an action for identifying a monster is usually the case because an ability of some classes is to use bonus action 'search'. So communicate to the INT player that they'll have to use their action to attempt to identify it.
Or do something like "Spend the next 3 consecutive bonus actions to attempt to identify it" then give them info based on their roll. Use the appropriate skill check as well.
>5-10
give them monster type and visible weapons that the monster has
>10-15
give them extra information such as "the monster is known to have a breath attack with 'X' type" and maybe a bit of lore
>15-20
maybe allow them to pick either resistances or vulnerabilities and you give them a single piece of information based on that
>20-25 and above
upto the DM. remember that 20-25 is a very good roll with DC15 considered 'difficult' and DC25 considered 'near impossible'

Skill checks are an action.
Use appropriate skill for monster type, sometimes with multiple options for slightly different information or DC.
Aberrations - Arcana
Beasts - Nature, Survival
Undead/Celestial/Fiends - Arcana, Religion
Humanoid - History

When you say "made up sentient" do you mean its a homebrew sentient item or it's actually not real and in the PCs mind?

I'm pretty new, can someone explain to me how spells known/spell slots/slot levels work?

Like, warlock for example. I know 2 cantrips, 2 spells, I have 1 spell slot, and the slot level is 1st level. What exactly does that mean? That I know two first level spells and I can cast one per day?

What about when I get to 4 spells known and 2nd spell slot level? Does that mean my spells known can be either 1st or 2nd level spells?

I'm very confused.

#
Griswald. No real signifigance, it just seems like a nice name for a greatsword. "This is my most favorite sword in the whole wide world. Well balanced, ergonomic leather grip, an edge so fine you could shave with it, and made from a mixture of cold iron and silver. I call him Griswald." For a small feature maybe make it get hot when close to something specific. Vampires perhaps to tie in with the Strahd angle.

Most spellcasting classes work differently.

For Warlock: You know the two cantrips you picked, and two spells of UP TO first level. You may cast your cantrips as much as you like, and ONE of those spells per short rest. That last part is key: Warlocks get their very limited slots back each short rest, while other classes must take a long rest.

When you get to four spells known, that's how many you know. Three of those will be first level spells, since you can only learn spells of levels which you have slots for, and you only learn one spell on the level when you gain second level spells.

When you cast these spells at Warlock level 4, they will always consume second level spell slots. You no longer have a first level spell slot; all your slots are level two. That means spells which have greater effects if you cast them using a higher level slot, like Burning Hands, will benefit more than a spell that has no up-cast effect. This is different from other casters who have discrete slots for each spell level.

...

This was immensely helpful. Thank you.

Warlock 3/Bard 1, debating between going 7 Warlock/3 Bard (Valor for medium armor and a shield), 3 Warlock/7 Bard (Lore for the additional secrets), or 5 Warlock/5 Bard (giving me 2 3rd level spell slots per short rest and 2 per long rest plus all the 1st and 2nd level spells). 7 Lore Bard seems like the best option but that would put off 3rd level spells until level 8 and Counterspell/Fireball til level 9. Really not sure which route to go and would appreciate some advice.

You would be blind stupid to ignore an integral part of the Warlock's setup
Eldritch Blast is your bread and butter

Do you get tired of posting this every day.

Yes you can know 2 spells, but can only cast 1 per short rest, note that you may cast any number of cantrips. For the second question yes as well, you will be able to learn two new spells of the 1st, or 2nd level. Additionally you can start casting your first level spells at the second level, as a warlock your spell slots are basically always treated as your highest casting level.

Posted it two, three times before without much in the way of replies. I figured worse case scenario no one replies best case I get some help.

Would it be worth taking Agonizing Blast even as a bladelock? Currently I'm looking at Fiendish Vigor and one other invocation as my first two. My DM said UA is okay so I was thinking Improved Pact Weapon, but maybe Agonizing Blast would still be better, I don't know.

Agonizing Blast is always worth it.

How about not being a powergaming piece of shit and stop multiclassing

In that case, would you rather skip Fiendish Vigor or Improved Pact Weapon?

If you're already a Fiend Warlock, you don't need Fiendish Vigor.

It will tell you under the spellcasting area for (which is detailed in every section of each class) how many spells you may know at any given time.

You use this in conjunction with the table that is laid out at the front of each class description. It will say how many slots you have at each level, which is the amount of times you can cast spells of those levels.

The warlock was already explained, but with the Sorcerer it will tell you how many spells you can know at any given time. This is because Sorcerers casting ability comes from within, not memory, or a divine presence like some other classes.

Clerics and druids have a limit on how many spells they can prepare (which is the spells that you can cast in battle) BUT, they can change out any spell any time after a long rest, thus making them able to pull from their entire spell list, and cast that spell as long as it's prepared. In some cases you with these classes you will always have spells prepared depending on what sub-class you take. These do not count against your spells known and area always aviable for you to cast.

Wizard is different. They choose from their spell list at certain times (when they level up) but they have a book that can hold ANY wizard spell, if they spend gold to copy it into their book either through training or a found spell scroll. Obviously this is dependent on the DM, or the module you are playing.

I'm actually a Hexblade, which is why I wanted it.

I'm not powergaming and I've never multiclassed before. I only did it here because it fit the narrative and my DM suggested it.

What's the best way to make a Iop-like character?

>Dumb, strong knights of an order who are sworn to guard over a demon trapped in a weapon that they use

I know it's probably going to be some mix of barbarian/fighter with bladelock/paladin

Ignore him, this place is full of spergs.

after, like, level 5 Fiendish Vigor is going to become less worth it.

There isn't a lot to go on there, a weapon with a backstory and a strong dumb character who can wield it is about all you need.

Can't I just unlearn it once I get to level 5 and then learn a different one instead?

In any case, I guess I'll dump Fiendish Vigor. I have a druid to heal me anyway.

There you go. You're a Warlock, giving a fuck is for lesser classes.

Depending on how high your CHA is, Agonizing Blast can be insane. At level 13 our Warlock outputs a ton of damage each round at range and can separate them by target.

Agreed, ignore him. The resident Warlock says you're not looking at the big picture - you get feats at fourth level - a 7/3 split gives you only one feat by level 10. But before we can give advice, we need a better idea of what you're going for, what your party needs. Melee spellcaster? Ranged spellcaster?

True enough. Thanks for the help, friend.

Explain how it fit your narrative I'll wait.

You're right. Should've reread before posting. What I'm really looking for is "Dumb strong character whose kit focuses around having a buffed-up magic sword and causing damage with reckless abandon(similar to a barbarian's frenzy rage)

Warlocks are a special case, if you want to know how spells work look at something like Wizard first

Spells known: you know X spells. For a wizard this is every spell in his spellbook, for a Cleric it's every cleric spell, for a sorcerer or warlock it's a short list he has to choose.

Spells Prepared: you prepare spells which means you're ready to cast them if needed. Some classes like sorcerer or warlock skip this and effectively have all their known spells prepared at all times.

Spell Slots: how many times you can cast spells per day (or per short rest for warlocks). Pick a prepared spell, use up one of your spell slots, cast the spell. Use a higher level slot to make the spell have more power (see spell description for what this actually does) or because you're a warlock and all your spell slots are max level but sometimes a level 1 spell is more useful.


So yes, a warlock might know 2 level 1 spells and 2 level 2 spell, and cast 2 spells per short rest using 2nd level spell slots.

How do I enjoy playing a completely no spellcasting class? I really want to but whenever I sit down to make a character it feels so bland. Not even sure what I want to make between a Monk, Fighter, Rogue or Barbarian.

Maybe I should just admit defeat and play a Favoured Soul.

I've been struggling with this since I discovered 3.5 when I was in the 7th grade. Let me know if you figure it out because I still can't.

If it's like a barbarian, go barbarian.

Best survival tips for Curse of Strahd?

I'd be tempted to say Hexblade, although that doesn't quite give you a very magic sword, and also only works with one-handed weapons.

Blade Pact with a Fiend Patron is probably the better route, since while the sword isn't super magic, you can get temporary HP for killing things and summon the weapon from anywhere. At that point though, it's basically a 1 level Fluff dip for that benefit and maybe the SCAG cantrips for when you aren't Raging. Would probably work better as a Fighter in that case though, possibly Samurai to mimic the Barbarian's more reckless and resistance-heavy Fighting Style without cutting off the Warlock spellcasting options entirely.

It's the definition of a barbarian's rage. I don't recommend Barbarian/Fighter unless the dip is very small because otherwise you're just screwing yourself out of Extra Attacks. In-game there's no mechanic for "losing yourself" to the weapon, though, and barbarian rage is definitely meant to be used a lot more often than the Iop possession is.

Battle Master Fighter. Load up on weapons so you can swap out for a hard-hitting greatsword, a higher AC with the longsword, ranged enemies with a longbow or crossbow, or extra melee range with a halberd.

Fighters can either use their maneuverability dice to spice up combat, use feats, or both. Or you can pick Eldritch Knight.
Thief Rogues can get a whole bunch of skill bonuses and sneakiness. Or you can just pick Arcane Trickster.
Monks? Fuck if I know, maybe pick a shadow monk and be a ninja.
Barbarian? Pick totem barbarian, which gives you spells 'n' shit anyway IIRC. Berserker barbarian is simple as shit.

You can always use Magic Initiate for a tiny dash of spellcasting fun. And remember, martials get all the neat magic weapons.

This is doable, sure, but also the idea is that Blackrazor, while you could indeed hold it in your hands at level one, is a soul devouring sword that has seen decades if not moreso of conflict. The Dwarven Axe, Whlem, artifact weapons in general don't have level requirements. However, it would be very easy generally to say that a player had suffered from this weapon and become changed, they've found a piece of it and agreed to serve in exchange for power, found a weapon of your own design that is unusable, a sword in a stone forever sealed, or anything like it.

Stay Warlock 3. Take the rest in whichever type of Bard you prefer; you sound more into spellcasting so probably Lore.

Either pick something with maneuvers or special abilities of some sort for combat, or focus on being interesting outside of combat.


If you're a fighter never use action surge to hit stuff; always use it to so something cool even if what you do is less effective than hitting stuff.

Is the Medicine skill completely useless? I'd like to take it for roleplaying reasons but I'd rather avoid it if I'll never end up using it.

It's just so, ech. Monk is so far looking the best, between subclasses getting abilities like AoE fear at-will, teleports and cool conditions impossed when Flurrying. While also having some mobility and other cool stuff.

>Battle Master Fighter
I played one once and fucking hated it. All the good maneuvers are shit you can do anyway like tripping people if you're a Shield Master and the most effective one half the time is just precision attack if you're a GWM/SS.

On top of that, it's all they get. You've got some dice, action surge and second wind. That's it. Nothing else fun to play with whats so ever.

Considering Medicine lets you stabilize a downed PC with a DC10 check, it's pretty valuable.

It's been pretty useful for me. Making antidotes for poisons, impromptu healing aids, determining cause of death, the values of certain herbs, etc. etc.
You just have to get creative with it.

It depends on how much you want to make your DM work.

I have a fighter/barbarian with a dip into rogue for expertise in both acrobatics and athletics. I avoid making basic attacks as much as possible and use anything in my environment instead

>I want to grapple the centaur and then mount it to ride it against the rest of it's tribe
>I want to grapple the thug and do a running high jump to do 1d6 fall damage
>I want to dip my sword in oil and then light it before stabbing this ghost
>I want to chain up this gargoyle before I open this door

I wanna make a character whose main form of combat is throwing swords.

How do I make sheldon from bazinga, guys?

ok help me out here lads with CoS

>CoS, level 6-7 group mix, at bonegrinder
>ambushed by hags popping out from ethereal, kill one coven hag, the other 2 poof into ethereal again
>DM says there was nothing on the hag (this is important)
>bard and ranger start getting sick and sicker after each long rest
>eventually find out it's same sort of night hag haunt shit they can do to sleeping folk
>we literally can't find any sort of out here, like they are just going to flat out die cause we have no way of combating them or curing the HP damage drain as nobody is high enough for greater res
>afterwards we at least read the stat block
>find out the hags need a heartstone to turn ethereal, something we never found on the first hag, to top it off our leomund's tiny hut should have blocked them from coming in the first night cause it's a dome of force which can block their travel.
Also they were able to scry, which means one of them has a 1,000gp focus somewhere

What should be the course of action? We caught the DM in a fuck-up.

If you just want as many options as possible, I'd say to just go for a ton of dips. 2-3 in Rogue at the start for more skills, expertise, and bonus action options. 3 in fighter for Battlemaster maneuvers. A level or two in Barbarian for a couple of daily rages. And then everything else into open hand monk for as much Ki as possible.

I'm sure that would be a horrible fucking optimized mess, but you'd certainly have a lot of buttons to push.

Just refluff Elminster

I think you may want to describe for me what you find fun, because to me, having all the battle maneuvers is fun. Riposting when an enemy misses, parrying to reduce their damage when they think they've hit really hard, commander's strike when the rogue is in position to give him another sneak attack. I never took GWM because my rolls are shit (Great Weapon fighting style, however, has averted more 1s and 2s than I can count.

One of my players successfully tamed a hellhound by having it eat what was basically 3 disposable wish spells

RAW it's pretty useless, since the only official use is stabilizing creatures and that can be done without a check with a Healer's kit.

Anything past that depends on how often medical analysis or diseases might show up, and what else your DM lets you do with it.

For

Is that... ff3? The one where they pretended to add personalities to the nameless faceless foursome from the NES game?

Why couldn't they just tame it with one of the wishes?

You already are, user, congrats, you did it, you succeeded!

So I decided to make a list of low level spells that I thought best represented the full casters

Bard - Vicious Mockery
Cleric - Bless, Spare the Dying
Druid - Entangle
Sorcerer - None
Warlock -Eldritch Blast
Wizard - Grease

I feel like if most of these characters casted one of these spells, you would absolutely say "yes, this person is that sort of magic user", but is it weird to anyone else that the Wizard is the only spell caster that knows Grease? Does throwing grease on everybody seem like a Wizardly thing to do?

I think my main issue with Battlemaster is the fact every single ability is either hitting them with your stick in a special way, or avoiding them hitting you with a stick in a special way. Monster Hunter seems more my style because it have that save bonus one and the social skills boosting option. Sadly knowing that they scraped the class for the Ranger Monster Hunter my DM probably wouldn't let me pick it.

Knight seems kinda interesting for that de-buff it gives. So maybe I might see what the XGE Cavalier looks like, for now I think I'll either go Monk or maybe Arcane Archer.

>Does throwing grease on everybody seem like a Wizardly thing to do?
DARE YOU ENTER HIS MAGICAL REALM

Also, I like how this implies someone casting no spells at all and generally sucking at magic would be "yep, that's a sorcerer"

What sort of skills would someone who does odd jobs at a church be proficient in? Duties would include gravedigging/tending, helping out with the poor/sick, preaching occasionally, etc.

Not exactly a cleric, more like a volunteer who happens to donate 100% of his time to the church.

Probably Insight and Medicine.

Do you think your DM might let you go for the no-spells variant Ranger with the Monster Hunter subclass? That would give you something mundane with a lot of theoretical options, even if you tracked both sets of superiority die separately.

My criteria was finding the Cantrips/1st level spells that were exclusive to each class, and guess who has two thumbs and no spells of their own? The Sorcerer.

Also Bless is a Cleric and Paladin spell but I feel like it gets a bit more mileage than Spare the Dying so I threw it in anyway.