/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

Previous Thread

casters>martials
Martials can make for the distance with a small dip in monk for bag of rat shenanigans

Halloween on Tuesday, what sort of spooky adventures are you up to?

Remember THAC0/BAB?

I'm really glad that's no longer a mechanic.

What's the best multiclass combination for a monk/life cleric? I want to be able to do some miracles like heal people and cure blindless but also karate chop motherfuckers whenever I need to.

monk 1/cleric 1/wizard 18

>wizard 18
>karate chopping motherfuckers

that's what bigby's hand is for

It's a requirement that I smack them with the hand of God, not the hand of Bigby

Assuming open hand, 6 or 8 into cleric. 6 gets you monk's super saving throws, 8 gets you cleric's Divine strike for an extra d8. Either way, your Martial Arts die will be d8.

If you just want to dip, make it 3 or less so you can still get Quivering palm

Do you want to primarily karate chop motherfuckers and heal/cast spells as an afterthought or do you want to primarily heal/cast spells and karate chop if they get too close?

Are you using AL, or is there any reason you don't want to use Tranquility Monk?

Play a Tranquility Monk

>implying bigby isn't a god
I don't see your man Jesus with any spells named after him.

My man Jesus may not have any spells named after him, but he can create magma with his chicken enchiladas.

I don't think that's canon to the bible

Yeah but have you tasted Bigby's Queso Dip?

Tranquility only gets healing, though I do think the diplomacy ability they get is rather fitting for the character concept. I also try and avoid UA material if I'm multiclassing.
I want to karate chop shit and mostly just have my spells for backup utility/heals. I just like the idea of playing a super humble cleric with no armor and a walking stick but then turns around and karate kicks evil.
This seems like a reasonably good idea. In what order should I take the levels?

Is Artificer any good yet?

What about Mystic?

Best melee character with 8 CON?

Wizard

>Is Artificer any good yet?
Not yet
>What about Mystic?
Was it ever bad?

Considering there haven't been any updates to them yet, no.

Rogue, probably, if you can focus more on never being in range to be hit.

>Mystic
You mean the most overpowered special snowflake class in the game? Yeah it's alright.

>not Loremaster Wizard

non have been updated in like a year, but as someone who's played an artificer for 4 months now, it's underpowered as shit, and has no direction. Why does it get 2nd level spells later than any other class even when it's actual spell list is tiny as shit, and you can only learn a small number from that spell list?

What’s the most powerful monster?

Man

>What’s the most powerful monster?
Love

Either a rogue who fucks off and hides between every attack or an Eldritch Knight for maximum AC with heavy armor + defense fighting style + shield + Shield.

This is a very rough draft of a sorcerer idea I had, with the wild magic bloodline tweaked to be in line with it. The idea here is that as you spend your sorcery points (or accumulate strain in this version), your bloodline begins to exert more influence on your physique or environment. This is in line with how playtest sorcerers were.

The idea is very rough, but I'm open to feed back. I won't respond to any directly, because I have to go to work in 7 hours, but I will take note of it in the morning.

Regret

My dad's alcoholism.

>Overpowered
Outside of one or two overpowered disciplines Mystic's a jack of all trades. Better power economy thanks to psi points, but their power peaks well before standard casters do. Versatility is a mystic's strong point, but advantage on checks (which is most of the power of focuses) is neither as reliable nor as effective in scope as Bard or Rogue expertise.

Remove or rework some of the more ridiculous disciplines (Nomadic Mind, Animate Weapon, Bestial Form) and make it harder to just swap focuses and it'd be fine.

A goblin with 20 levels in every class.

Pretty much this.
A lot of complaints about Mystic come from people who don't play them and imagine a table where long rests grow on fucking trees. They're just sitting around theorycrafting the perfect Mystic with these specific disciplines doing the cheesiest shit every round forever because they get infinite PP somehow.

The DM

A regretful Tarrasque with 20 levels in every class who's trying to save the Tarrasquette he loves. Also he's your alcoholic father.

Rolled 19, 12, 20, 19, 8, 4, 2 = 84 (7d20)

My tiefling warlock. 7d20 down the line, from str to level

You'd make a really good (and really smart) barbarian

My dad's jumper cables

FUCK

I thought the issue wasn't they can do everything, just that they can pick literally any role and do it as well or better than a class that can only do that thing

The vampire at the centre of the Gulthias Tree in Sunless Citadel was burned along with the rest of the tree.

It's been at least a thousand years since he was staked there (a fucking tree grew out of the stake). He obviously turns to Mist Form, but if he doesn't have a 'resting place', is he just dead?

>that STR, CON, and INT

The aliens simulating our entire universe in a petri dish experiment

A corpse.

Only skill monkey and utility roles, and even then a Bard or Rogue will be more reliable in the former. What Mystics really shit on are Wizards, who previously would use spells to replicate the abilities of other classes or circumvent the need for those class' features to accomplish their job; the Mystic just has a better power selection, so they can go deeper than the Wizard in a given field.

A Bearbarian is still a much better tank than a Mystic, an EK is arguably better, and no Mystic is ever going to be the kind of autoattacker that any martial (even non-Fighters) or Warlock could be. Mystics also lack good blasting capability.

>lack good blasting capability
Maybe AOE damage, but wasn't there some combo Mystics could do with throwing weapons that did a shitton of damage? You kinda blew your whole load at once, but it fuckin hurt

What's the best WotC-made adventure?

Animate Weapon + Lethal Strike + Knock Back. But that's their Smiting mode, and honestly, a DM can shut that down if they want to read the powers a certain way, outside of the usual "no because I said no".

Tomb of Annihilation and Curse of Strahd are generally regarded as the best.

I don't quite agree, Wizards once they have a large enough spellbook can tailor their spells quite specifically. Mystics learn Disciplines as groups of abilities, so they are more limited in their selection. What their advantage is is that they can use focuses where Wizards have to resort to spells outside of the limited amount of rituals they know. At the same time, their power falls off after level 10 once they reach their psi limit, while a Wizard keeps on gaining power.

Princes of the Apocalypse.
You're not some kind of faggot who's afraid of dungeons, are you?

What's the best refluffing of a class/ability/whatever you've ever seen?

Nothing exists past level 11, but Mystics still gain PP. It's just in a really weird way.

My fighter would fluff his "longsword" to "fist" and his extra attack to "smite". If he "action surged" he would fluff the entire "attack" "action" into "fireball" because he wanted to "play" a "monk" who also shot "fireballs" but "there" was no class option to "support that" so he just "fluffed" it all.

Made me realize we really don't need more than one class beyond fighter, and we could just fluff everything based off that.

Why are you still playing a system with resource management as a central mechanic, /5eg/?

Does Tales from the Yawning Portal count?

I like resource management

Because you clearly have some spicy opinion on resource management, but don't want to post it unprompted.

All of this could be avoided if he'd just do like the rest of us and search Tumblr or Reddit for a post that kinda-sorta does something we dislike, post it here for ridicule (or in faux support, as a parody designed to attract ridicule), then pretend to be an entirely different person responding to that with how absolutely wrong it is and our way is clearly correct.

Would it possible to use phantasmal force to make an unnaturally sticky ball of mud cling to the target's face, making them blind? Likewise could you pin them with an illusionary boulder or restrain them with illusionary manacles? My DM allows for this kinda stuff but I wanna know if it's official or just a change he made.

What's better to run for newbies? Princes of the Apocalypse or Tomb of Annihilation?

That's all legit.
But if you don't want it to be COMPLETELY overpowered, you really should be allowing repeated Intelligence checks (automatically) at the end of the afflicted creature's turn if your use of the spell is imposing a condition, like Blind or Restrain. Ordinarily, Phantasmal Force lasts for your whole concentration unless a target blows their whole action to examine the illusion that they don't think is an illusion, so using it to CC things is a little busted when just about every other CC spell has repeated saves baked in.

Tomb of Annihilation

>sandbox adventures in 2E vs. timed "sandbox" adventures in FUCKYOUREROLL
I don't know that I'd say PotA is particularly friendly to newbies given how much of it involves sizable dungeons that beg for an old school approach, but it's definitely less punishing than ToA.

Have you considered Lost Mines of Phandelver?

Tomb of Annihilation. Make sure to rush them out into the jungle as soon as possible.

Lol neither. The first is a sandbox with tons of dungeon crawls, and the latter is an open w orld hex-based adventure with some super tough fights.

I would recommend Lost Mines of Phandelver first.

Phantasmal Force doesn't seem to have any real restrictions on how it can affect the target besides instances of direct damage, so if your DM gives you the thumbs up then sure whatever.

I've already run LMoP as a DM twice and as a player. I'm sick of the fucking thing, not redoing it for another group.

So ToA is actually punishing and hard? I didn't see any reviews for it because I wasn't sure if I'd DM or play it.

As for PotA, is a dungeon crawl really that bad for a new group? I guess I find old school dungeons really fun an interesting but it might not be the best way to get them started.

Well other then that I don't like the whole theme of CoS, SKT seems like a really meh sandbox to me and even I know HotDQ is terrible. Are there any other premades?

ToA is pretty bad for newbies because they'll make their super cool OC donut steel only to have them die on the first combat encounter in the jungle.

It's the only way to teach them. Character death is a real threat. It's the only way to make it fun.

PotA is quite fine for a new group if you explain a few things before or as they become relevant. Obviously, as DM, you have the power to make the dungeons less of a slog if you choose. New players (and even old players running in this modern era) are likely to expect to clear a whole dungeon in one go, not the in-out-in-out-in-middungeonrest-out-in-middungeonrest style. That's honestly true for most premade adventures in 5E, but PotA does have far more dungeons than the others. Removing a few encounters, toning them down, or simply facilitating resting in the middle of a dungeon can alleviate this. An easy way to do the latter is remind players that Rope Trick exists, rewarding them with some magic item that does similar, or just letting them leave and come back without a full restock of the place; it's not like cults have monster respawners.

There's enough variety in PotA and the time table is loose enough (and can be loosened further) that you can really let newer players spread their wings and try to do a wider range of things that other adventures don't really support. SKT requires a very specific style of dungeon-delving, so it's got all the problems of PotA and 5E dungeons and then some, on top of having some punishing creature types that invalidate many play styles; CoS is a horror game where you're stuck in fuckland; and while all the premades have a time limit of sorts, ToA's is definitely the strictest and puts the players in an inhospitable area with little chance for NPC interaction or non-combat world-shaping. Meanwhile, I've seen a PotA game where the party beat up one cult and started a wagon protection operation to make loads of cash and did that for a few months until the remaining cults got so uppity that someone finally had to do something.

Yeah

>tfw my dream of finding a text-only pbp online group will never come true

What do you mean SKT requires a very specific style of dungeo-delving? Like a certain group, or just looking out for stuff?

I feel your pain, user.

I'm sad

Hey you, what's your favorite class/subclass?
Eldritch Knight is the correct answer

How did you know?

>weak fighter with shitty wizard spells
wow, amazing

you are correct, sir. The swordmage cantrips coupled with the EK is badass and can dish out tons of damage the further you get into the EK abilities.

also, being an armored caster with a sword is just cool.

They can do a lot of damage, but unlike a Paladin they commit resources BEFORE they know if they hit or not, so you can blow your nova load, and fucking miss for 0 damage.

Less meme answer, probably Tiamat in a direct fight, but Grazz't or and Elder Brain or something as general villains.

So is Xanathar coming out to game stores this week?

Totem Barbarian. I like the idea of someone filled with rage finding some serenity in nature

Storm Herald Barbarian
Valor Bard
Light or Tempest Cleric
Moon Druid
Battlemaster Fighter
Way of the Long Death Monk
Devotion Paladin
Primeval Guardian Ranger
Scout Rogue
Storm Sorcerer
Great Old One Warlock
War Wizard

Do you play with any specific fluff for the source of bardic magic? Seems kinda vague as is.

If you go Tranq you probably don't have to multiclass to get to your character concept.

In what way? It's just another method of tapping into the weave, art instead of science.

Stop using animate undead and tell them to jump into the pit. And no, you can not use them to grind exp.

I think it's intentionally supposed to be a bit vague. I think the best way to fluff it is that certain spells happen to work really well lyrically so it's easy for a bard to pick those up without study, as well as picking up some prayers and healing magic from a fitting god of travel or music who they might pay lip service to.

Bards are dabblers by default, so whatever casting they get is basically gonna be a mix of where they learned it from. In some ways it's a bit like a warlock in that you can basically learn it from anywhere as far as sources go, just that you're more likely to learn it from one of the servants of such things teaching you minor tricks rather than a full blown pact.

No.

The new addition to our group rolled his character for when we continue our long term campaign, and he went with a necromancer wizard. I'm worried he really wants to play the summons game, but we talked about his other options, so hopefully it doesn't bog us down. Find familiar to kill his own familiar for HP when in danger seemed to peak his interest.

I've always been a fan of bards mimicking the spellcasting techniques of clerics and wizards, which is how they borrow so many different spells.

Sources of magic are many and varied, but ultimately you need verbal, somatic, and material components to make them work. So I like to think they're mimicking what they see other people do.

Which 5e forum dies he browse?

one of my players was turned undead by a curse.

what kind of wild mixups to his character should this cause?

How would I go about making a PC lich. Not an actual lich, but if I wanted to play some sort of magic-user that was destined to become a lich and acted very lich-like even from level 1?

Good proficiencies besides arcana? I'd imagine most of the intelligence skills would fit since liches are known for their intellect. Maybe persuasion for talking people into their plans?

I kind of imagine them as undead business men and conartists.

/5eg/ obviously how else would that tweet be made?

A pre-lich is just a "no sense of right and wrong" wizard who really wants power and long life and doesn't care if they look like ass.