/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

Akko should be reading Mage here

You see an alien figure.

kek

"Hark! A half-cthulu writhes and approaches you, wiggling his tendrils and craving your brains!"

A humanoid figure with purplish skin, a distended cranium and a face covered in wriggling tendrils.

I need some good sad boss fight music

Pick something from the souls games.

the fucked up thing is if you watch the showrunners talk about the show with the cast, they just admit that they were looking up cool shit from D&D to name the new monster after.

whats the context?
what kind of sad?
like are we talkin Gwyn or Asgore something else?

Naruto music
youtube.com/watch?v=T4seJYrnick

>Mind Flayers!
Can't get enough of that show.

Could you guys help me with making a half-dryad fighter? Possibly with a self generated birch shield and sword if that's feasible. I feel like I have a fun idea for her and everything, I just want help with creating a half dryad as a race.

Xanathar when?!

That's retarded as a concept.
Just refluff a wood elf, and play a Primeval Guardian ranger which lets you turn into a giant tree.
November 21 you mong.

I'm going to be returning to an older campaign, my groups first, which ended at level 11 at the end of an arc, where we decided to do a premade campaign bc I was burnt out. That premade is nearly over, however, and I'm planning on returning to the original, but I'm kind of at a loss for what to use as the target.
Theres going to be a downtime, for the characters to do whatever, then when they reunite, they are met with someone who is essentially framing them, and places a MASSIVE bounty on them (I'm thinking a couple hundred thousand EACH). I want the BBEG to basically just be a regular guy, surrounded by powerful people that do his work for them, where he just escapes from every encounter. Does this work, or is it just incredibly unsatisfying when he would eventually just die in a single hit?

In terms of abilities I don't think a half-dryad would be all that different from a wood elf

>Moon Bow
>Prerequisite: The Archfey patron, Pact of the Blade feature
>You can create a longbow using your Pact of the Blade feature. When you draw back its string and fire, it creates an arrow of white wood, which vanishes after 1 minute. You have advantage on attack rolls against lycanthropes with the bow. When you hit a creature with it, you can expend a spell slot to deal an additional 2d8 radiant damage to the target per spell level.
Is this gimmick from the warlock A good enough to replace eldritch blast, assuming you go full tilt with the relevant blade pact invocations? What if you take this at level 2 and then multiclass as a ranger or paladin?

I mean sure it's retarded but so am I.
So should I just refluff a wood elf? I specifically want a sword and board fighter from it though.

A guy who always gets "lucky" and nothing else would be annoying as hell. He needs to develop real defenses that keep a lucky 20 from taking him out. Even if he isn't any kind of threat otherwise there has to be a there, there.

Just ask for ironwood weapons or something. Why would you go out of your way to make shit more complicated than it needs to be?

>November 21 you mong.
Unless it leaks you cunt.

I wouldn't go for half-dryad. An option might be variant human with Magic Initiate for a bit of druid magic. Take stuff like Thorn Whip, Druidcraft, or Shillelagh if you want to use a club and have it fluffed as a bit of dryad blood in her ancestry.

Not necessarily lucky, a business man, who surrounds himself with paid fighters and powerful wizards, but by himself is actually just a coward. Maybe some defensive magic items, but on the whole not a threat alone. The idea is that he's more of a political rival, setting up the PCs demise

Mostly because I enjoy making weird shit that hopefully doesn't go into magical realm territory with an affinity for making my characters insanely weak to fire all the fucking time.

It's pretty shit, in general avoid invocations that use up spell slots because you're spending a character creation resource and a short-rest resource and they just don't do enough for the cost.

Take the agonizing blast invocation instead and do force damage all day long. Save your spell slots for cool shit.

sounds like you just take the plunge into your realm and burn yourself alive

Just don't let him get into a situation where he only escapes because the plot demands it. If he (you) fucks up he should be die.

youtu.be/GbYGXYmOF8k
youtu.be/FlUaJ3goJ5c
youtu.be/nnoZG6iCbjU

youtu.be/Z9dNrmGD7mU

the creature seemed more like a Warlock patron, I was supposed they didn't go that route with Will.

>that hopefully doesn't go into magical realm territory
Now here's an unexpected red flag.
Anyway what you're saying is you basically want your "dryad tree" to be your own weapon. That seems kind of flawed to make a feature of a race as that seems more like a self destructive personal decision. You should just ask your DM for a free magic weapon in exchange for permanent fire vulnerability or something along those lines. Building that into a race's stats doesn't really make much sense to me

whats a fun class to play? has lots of options and is somewhat useful?

Just give the race a magical staff that's an automatic shillelagh weapon. Boom, done.

Bard can do literally everything.

>youtube.com/watch?v=l6eSksEp27U
>youtube.com/watch?v=eoTB0AVayKM
>youtube.com/watch?v=MODCm4OlChg
>youtube.com/watch?v=DQ_MRcPtQx4

That's pretty great actually and they fucking achieved it. When I saw Mind Flayer as the name of an episode I got fucking stoked

Rogue and Bard are pretty good starts. Rogue is easy to play and build, and Bard helps you explore the utility side of spellcasting instead of straight fireballs.

>Now here's an unexpected red flag.
Didn't mean anything by it. Most of my characters are 'generic' human fighters/wizards and I wanted to real step out of the norm with something different. I have a guy in my party going full MR(and completely fucked us over with his bullshit last session) so I know what to look out for.
If the whole arm thing doesn't work out it's whatever I guess, but if that's the case I might as well go wood elf. What I was trying to get at was like pic related

m.youtube.com/watch?v=--2h1541hy0

>Oh my God none of this is real.

>like the Germans.

>You summon an undead army because they uh don’t have brains and because the uh mindflayer he likes brains....it’s just a game.

Litterally Stranger Kino.

Yeah, that's fair, I was going to build him to be extremely slippery, like he will have with him at all times a wizard whos job it is to keep him safe.

I had an interesting idea for his introduction, it doesn't really work within the games normal rules but if he approached the players, he wouldn't do it in person, but what if he did it by illusion on top of a dominated peasant? so if they attack him, they just killed a random peasant, adding to the whole "he's framing you" thing. Unsure of how that would work though

Alright, I need a feat for my VHuman Soul-Knife. I'm expecting to wind up in the front lines a LOT. Should I get Magic Initiate (Wizard) with some cantrips (For a ranged attack) and Mage Armor, or Tough?

...

Hollow Knight Music
Dark Souls Music

Give the wizard a custom two person misty step, he's not going to be paid to let himself get killed.

You mean Dimension Door?

When you're around that level, sure. Sounded like the encounters would start a little earlier than when you want wizards with 4th level spells messing around.

Inertial Armor is a straight upgrade to mage armor. Tough or Mobile (so you can disengage after you attack with your knives) are better options.

Its resuming an old campaign, the PCs are level 11

Dimension door, teleportation circle (or teleport if i make him strong enough), invisibility, counterspell, etc. Basically, he's not dieing unless the PCs outplay, or corner him, or get really lucky. (also the wizard will be an elf so he doesnt even need to sleep)
My main question is, is this a satisfying enough BBEG? Will the satisfaction of finally catching him, revealing him as the coward he truly is, outweigh the frustration of every other encounter with him? I was going to make him very smug, talking down to the PCs.

My basic idea, which im still working on because this isnt going to be for at least a month or two, is that he's started an "adventurers guild" during the PCs downtime. The PCs arent a part of this, and their fame at the moment is a threat to his credibility, so he frames them and places a massive bounty on them. Also, the "adventurers guild" has a hidden sinister purpose (that I haven't fully figured out yet)

I've just noticed the Yklwa from Tomb of Annihilation is a 1d8 simple melee weapon.

Isn't this the best basic simple weapon now?
Its already straight up better than a war pick, which is a martial weapon.

I'm thinking about getting one for my forge cleric.

I have an idea for “spell-less” sorcerers, clerics, and wizards but I’m not sure what the interest is. On the same note, I have an idea for a fighting-man with some narrative powers - especially at high levels. I might get away with a fighter archetype on that one but it is pretty packed.

Basically, it would be core classes that had a shifted focus from the core 5e classes without changing the system rules at all. There’s some stuff from other games that could add a lot as classes in 5e, but I would never change the system itself.

Anyways, the basics are a Fighting-man using Mythras combat effects and a few worthwhile Star Wars EotE abilities. A Sorcerer using RuneQuest 6 Sorcery metamagic applied to simple generic effects fueled by point cost. A “spell-less” wizard with more generic wizard-y abilities and fuzzy but restrained magic based on a great PbtA playbook. And a miracle worker class that prepares a small pool of divine spells on a short or long rest that is sort of like a divine warlock.

Probably going to put these together anyways but thought I’d test the waters with ge ideas alone here.

So my setting is based on Medieval/Renaissance Italy and its warring city states antics, just cranked up to 11.

The main factions are the various human nobles, and about 4 factions of dwarves who mostly are content to sell the humans weapons. One of the plot hooks I have is that one city state is deeply in debt to the dwarves, but I'm not sure exactly where I want to take that. I could just have them lose without the PC's intervening in some form, which would mean a massive shift in the balance of power on the peninsula if one of the major players is taken out. Could lead to a Unification Conquest in the coming years.

But assuming my players intervene, but decide they wanna try to intervene against the dwarves rather than get their hands dirty with fighting. What would be a good way to go about that? Being tasked with recovering a Legendary Dwarf artifact? What could I fluff as the reason the Dwarves couldn't get it in the first place but the PC's could?

>What could I fluff as the reason the Dwarves couldn't get it in the first place but the PC's could?

It's on a high shelf

Dude, Helm of Teleportation.

It's fantastic if you go warlock 3/bard x. Valour Bard gives you extra attack, and you get a load of spell slots for smiting. Pick up swift quiver with your magical secrets at 10th level bard and make 4 attacks a turn.

That's a good idea, though I'll still have a high level wizard bodyguard for him.

If I use the Archmage stats, whats a fair 9th level spell? Or should I ditch the 9th slot. The only ones I can think of would be time stop (useless), prismatic wall (no way they ever make it through this) or foresight, which would work to use on the BBEG, but might be a bit spicy

Mobile won't be much of an option, I can't rely on open spaces, or for there being other melee-users around there. Odd, AL-esque group.
I didn't even know about Inertial Armor, but I'd probably only use the one thing and might be focusing on Iron Durability anyhow, so would it be worth?

what are some good 1 level dips to go with bard?

Paladin (but for 2 levels)

Planning to play a awakened mystic with the investigator background low charisma since he just brute forces his way into someones mind to find what he needs.

Is psionic weapon worth it for a backup opinion if I'm forced to fight in melee? Also what are good feats for a mystic to take?

That reminds me, what the hell is a level 1-2 paladin even about, if they don't have an oath? Is there some open ended unstated oath that they start off with?

Oaths should really come in at 1st level.

>(you) in charge of reading comprehension

>fun class
Depends on you, PCs are only as fun/boring as the player playing them.
I'm currently playing an aarakocra barb and having the time of my life desu

Yeah yeah, you plan ahead character wise. That doesn't explain the power they already have at that point. The Pal 2/??? X multiclassing is especially weird.

Bravo

Is there any way to lose experience other than dieing?

Memory loss, body weakened heavily after awhile depending on the class. DM being a dick is usually one.

The Fool card from the deck of many things

To be fair, they didn't fought anything close to Demogorgon on Season 1 either.

Color Spray and Prismatic Spray used to be two of my favorite spells. Really disappointed with how nerfed they are in 5e.

>wizards get summoning back in UA

FUCK YEAH

Dying doesn't normally cause XP loss, that's some houserules your DM is applying. Not that it's terrible or anything.

Have you tried reading the book? specifically the part about what paladins get at level two? Might be a good place to start friendo. :^)

Just read the fucking book.

Sorry if "meditation and prayer" doesn't settle my autism.

Anyway I'm done bitching about it. Apologies for the noise.

I'm struggling to come up with ideas for a Hexblade. What's a good way to have a character grow from making a Pact with a powerful sentient weapon?

Give the weapon a personality, first, then figure out a way that it could guide you or at least cause a response. Trying to be inspired by a completely nondescript weapon won't get you anywhere.

I remember from a previous thread someone mentioned the idea of making a pact with a sentient, extra-dimensional cannon. I like the idea, maybe it's a warmachine from the future, that needs servants to help it time travel into the past to obliterate all of civilization or something cool.

What makes the mystic overpowered?

Maybe your character has made a pact with a time-travelling nuclear missile. The nuke has decided it needs to travel back into time in order to end war from the start of time, through nuclear terror.

pic related, cool 'peacekeeper' uniform from the US air force.

just gonna post this too, some kind of tank with jet engines mounted on it. I forget wtf it was supposed to do, I guess the russians had spare jet engines.

A player succeeded in their saving throw against a charm spell. The player than request for the charm spell to take hold, asking if they could break free of it anytime they like. The player hoped to get some information via the magical link.

Assuming your fluffing it as something that isn't Shadowfell related which you should do, figure out (with your DM):
>what is the weapon (not just "sword" or "rapier", but literally what is the purpose of it being a weapon as opposed to any of the other patrons?
>what's the weapon's personality like?
>what does it want?
>why does it want to use you over some other schmuck?

Answer all those questions and you should have something like pic related half the time.

this. I played a gnome barbarian for a oneshot, which I didnt think I would enjoy at all but in the end it became an iconic thing in our group with me climbing down chimneys.
Gnome santa, just like regular santa but instead of presents he brings pain. A player playing bard in our regular campaign even made up a short song about it

Hurm. I almost think they could just pretend it worked, but I have no idea if a caster would know if it did or not inherently. Allowing it to "work" seems problematic.

I think an Aboleth would have been a better fit than a Mindflayer.

just reading through some high level spells, why the hell is Mordenkainen's Sword so fucking bad holy shit

haven't looked at the 5e version, but it was never a very good spell in previous editions either.

Agreed and it would largely fit especially given that the thing can't survive long term in our world without radically changing it like aboleths can't really survive long term outside of water.

the fact that he's a jack of all trades master of all. Better at some stuff than the class that is supposed to be the master of it while still having incredible versatility. Virtually no weakness.

I always skipped over reading that. It's like a 7th level spell that's basically on par with flaming sphere. Force damage is nice and all, but it's pretty shit

comparing it (7th level) to Spiritual Weapon (2nd level)

>both do Force damage
>3d10 with no mod vs d8+ casting mod
>Mord's Sword takes an action to cast, while Spiritual Weapon is only a bonus action
>Mord's sword takes concentration and Spiritual Weapon doesn't
>Mord's Sword has material components with an actual cost; Spiritual Weapon has no material component

It wins on damage, loses in almost every other way. But if you cast Spiritual Weapon at 6th level, it wins on damage too, completely outclassing this level 7 spell