/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

hello anons

I DM'd for the first time in my life today.
I think my players hand fun, they seemed eager to play again, mostly to acquire more riches though.
They haven't taken the story hook yet, partly because they think they're too weak to delve into the dungeon.
I also messed up a few rules and now I'm beating myself up over it.

can you give some advice to a noob DM?

I'm building up a Forgotten Realms campaign in the Moonshae Isles, a natural progression for my players (but with new characters) that have trekked through most of the modules for 5e.

I have resources like a Dungeon Magazine, Forgotten Realms wiki, and one of the FR novels set in the place, which are all decent, but perhaps there is more?

So, are the leaks for Xanathar put yet?

We need you Scanbro

it's really that videogamey
it's a trash module.

Sad that there not much support for spear thrower like the spear sling.

read the PHB and the DMG a hundred times.
DM's who don't actually absorb the DMG are really just players in control of NPCs

SCAG, Volo's, are a must. The AD&D books are pretty good too.

I Think it fit more as 4e than 5e.

not sure if serious or being sarcastic

Have any of you done a trail scene? How'd it go? was the party guilty?

>a trail scene
Just had my characters go on a road trip to visit every temple of Beregun, the god of clear water.

Have you played an Artificer before? How was that experience? What were your combat options? It sounds like a fun class.

My DM is mad because i'm about to identify the cursed item that he wanted to troll the party with.

Identify does not tell you if an item is cursed or not.

life hack:

Build your level with white (NOT transparent) rectangles with black borders on the map layer

after you're done building, turn the background black in the page settings tab

fucking dyslexia
*trial

Aw fuck, you're right. He thought it did.

It is not. It is really, really underpowered - to the point when you're essentially a really garbage wizard with 1/100 of his power and options - and lacking, especially the alchemist. He has like three different "cantrips", but they all target dexterity. You meet somebody with a high dex save? Good luck, you'll need it.

If I am reading this properly, does this Invocation allow me to make a Sword of Wounding or Sword of Lifestealing or even a Flame Tongue a +1 item if it's my Pact Weapon?

>Improved Pact Weapon
>You can use any weapon you summon with your Pact of the Blade feature as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells. In addition, the weapon gains a +1 bonus to its attack and damage rolls, unless it is a magic weapon that already has a bonus to those rolls. Finally, the weapon you conjure can be a shortbow, longbow, light crossbow, or heavy crossbow.

Why would anyone play a EK instead of bladesinger?

I'm being serious. The DMG is the trove of knowledge one needs to start being a functional DM. There's a lot more to it than just choosing what exists, having final say on the rules, and rolling dice from creature statblocks. It's explained in the book:
>Master of Worlds
the DM needs to be an expert on the nature of the Divine, Planar travel and the multiverse, magic, styles of government and law, civilization and culture, commerce, history, and languages. A DM without these talents is incapable of providing a functional world for the adventurers to actually adventure in.
>Master of Adventure
pages 71 to 227 need to be virtually memorized or things will fall apart. It's a travesty the amount of DMs that seem to be incapable of knowing about or following the tables on pages 82 and 84 in particular

Oh yes. I once made my then girlfriend play a trial session named "The Cave of Adventurers". It's a sort of exam that anyone that wants to be an adventurer needs to pass.
Basically it's a very short, very simple dungeon.
easy enough for women

So there's straight up no way RAW to detect a curse on an item, right? That's pretty nutty.

Correct.

Welp guys, RIP Arcane Archer, nerf batted to death.

I'm so tired of all the classes with good flavor turning out to be shit.

I would multiclass EK/Wizard. Or something else on this list.

wew.
not the boost of confidence i was looking for.

does Veeky Forums as a whole agree or is this guy just a rule stickler?

How do you know that?

Yeah, pretty much not without attuning to it and getting cursed.

Awesome!

Did you make guys do it?

What? No, please no.

I disagree. Never needed DMG in my life, other than magic items.
Now Monster Manual, that's a whole other business.

>does Veeky Forums as a whole agree or is this guy just a rule stickler?

If you're running a first session, you need to know these things:

>what the dungeon looks like
>what monsters are in it, and what their stats are
>how combat and skill rolling works

that's it. As you develop a campaign, you'll naturally learn more. Knowing about diving shit and whatever is totally unnecessary.

youtu.be/jpm85cZbyJI

He's an autistic rules stickler. Especially the "82 and 84" thing which is XP. Hell, as a DM you don't even have to use XP, you could do milestone leveling.

The DMG is nice but not important.

If you're a first time DM all you need is the starter pack and the mines of phan and you are good to go.

Not really no.
I ran a "light" version of it for a friend of mine who just wanted to take a quick look at it.
So we went out to the pub and did it there, no rulebook, no character sheet, just two die and a piece of paper.
For the first half an hour I asked him what he wanted to be, what his character did before, why he wanted to become an adventurer.
Based on that I explained to him that he was better at this or that and not as good at the other thing.
We kept on going for that for about 3 hours until he got his diploma. He had a great deal of fun and joined the campaign I was running when he had the time.

I see why they removed the Superior and Ultimate Pact Weapon Eldritch Invocations now.

You are tasked with coming up with a campaign - or at least an adventure - that features NONE of the monsters from Monster Manual, and no homebrew. Only Volo's Guide to Monsters allowed.
Can you do it?

That seems actually pretty cool

Look at DMG. page 25. The DMG is written exactly for you, when you're starting new and with knowledge of the common missteps new DMs take.

>Creating a Campaign:
the very first bold line
>Start Small

You can learn as you DM. Rule fast and loose with a tendency to say "Yes" when player's try to do things, improvise and incorporate it, but you get to reserve the power to revoke a thing in the future.

You'll often have to do research between sessions to figure out if how you ruled things previously were really the best call: How flammable is an old-timey ship anyway? At what alcohol percentage do spirits actually become flammable?

You also learn what to plan, and what not to plan. Okay, you've included airships- it's important to know how they fly- are they powered by ensorcelled elemental beings, fantastical techno-magic, or just some really good engineering and lots of hot air?

What not to plan: the large and exact backstory and inching plot of the guy on that airship, as he died in the fiery crash into the ground after the adventurers ruined whatever mechanism that kept that airship aloft. Instead, you'll learn to plan generalized encounters that can be thrown in improvisationally after whatever direction the players take.

Yes because I'm amazing.

never thought of that, looks 10x better than a plain white background, thanks user!

Yeah I probably could, what's the level range?

1-10, the usual adventure stuff. 1-15 if you want.

these are bad DMs and the reason why most people have ugly sessions. The DMG is critical to understanding how 5e is meant to be played. It's the other half of the PHB- the mechanisms in the PHB are only balanced in a scale against the DMG.

Easy enough. A mindflayer campaign would be GOAT.

Yeah probably Volo's got a pretty good selection of stuff.

>bad dms
>thinks dmg is necessary

Got a wee bit of the retard in ya, eh?

But you're not allowed to use actual mind flayers. Just alhoons, elder brains and stuff like that. How will you even do something like that?

Elder brain lost its normal mind flayers and has controlled other creatures to guard it while it rebuilds.

Ah yes, the rules in the phb that was released 3 months before the dmg work only in conjuction with the latter, of course.
Wizards even say themselves that the dmg provides "inspiration and guidance"
go bait in pfg

If anyone's patient, there's this "flipping through" video for XGE: youtube.com/watch?v=jpm85cZbyJI

>It's the other half of the PHB- the mechanisms in the PHB are only balanced in a scale against the DMG.

Can you provide any real-life examples at all?

>implying he's ever played D&D

Agonizing Blast might as well be an invocation tax, and Repelling Blast is up there if you want combat shenanigans

He's a stickler. DMG is a loot list with bonus helpful creative ideas. Monster CR Guidelines are also helpful, but anything below a "Deadly" encounter should be survivable.

No. But it should.

Sage advice says no, but they also admit the wording is funky.

dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/rules-answers-september-2015

An EK is a Fighter that can cast spells sometimes.
A Bladesinger is a Wizard that can fight sometimes.
If you want to be an EK who relies on spells more you want to multiclass.
If you want to be a Bladesinger who relies on physical combat more you want to multiclass.

>flat condemnation every thread for days
I'll sooner take off my own hand at the wrist than take the word of an user for gospel. If you want to talk about it then talk about it instead of just talking AT strangers online.

>Divine Soul is a Super Saiyan
I'm ok with this.

DMG is only more useful if you're not running modules, which as a beginner DM you probably aren't anyways

If anything, read through the DMG Index just to see what topics are addressed. If any of those tickle your fancy or might mesh well with your campaign, take a look

Xanathar's ->
HEX WARRIOR

At 1st level, you acquire the training to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with medium armor, shields and martial weapons.

The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that Lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest.If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon's type.

It's not party vs DM or players vs each other. Remind the rowdy ones of that indirectly if it ever feels like you have someone trying to be a loot or glory hound.

Shy players usually have the most interesting ideas. Try to get NPCs to directly engage them if it ever seems like they're being left behind.

Draft scenarios tailored specifically to what your players seem to be into.

Don't bully players and don't let others do so to other characters.

If someone seems uncomfortable with something you introduced OOC take note and modify your campaign with that in mind.

Female players are there to play the game, not to get hit on. If someone wants to play a character who's LGBT, don't punish them for it. I know this seems like such a stupid thing to bring up but I've seen this tear groups apart.

If a player wants to do something within reason, find a way to let it happen. EG: the kingdom has a squadron of dragon riders. X player wants to join their order and fly wyverns or whatever. Don't tell them no. Make it an opportunity to give the party a side quest to prove them worthy.

So they took out Magic Arrow from 3rd level and put it at 7th level...which means you need to actually find magical arrows for 4 levels to be able to even use your trick shots. And now it doesn't give +1 to attack/damage but just bypasses nonmagical resistance?

What the fuck. I realize that the old Magic Arrow is totally overpowered for a 3rd level feature, but this breaks the class from 3-6.

Grave Cleric
Circle of Mortality - Spare the Dying cantrip can be cast with a range of 30 feet for you as a Grave Cleric.

Eyes of the Grave - Changed a lot, 60 feet max, lets you know undead are present but nothing regarding type of undead or strength. Can be used as much as your wisdom modifier. Can be blocked by heavy cover and anything blocks divination magic. Lasts a round.

Path to the Grave - Changed from UA to just give vulnerability full stop. Nothing regarding negating the invulnerabilities.

Sentinel at Death's Door, same as UA but can use as much as Wisdom Modifier rather than just 1/day. Regained after long rest.

Divine Strike was replaced with Potent Spellcasting - Any cantrip you cast you can your Wis modifier to add to the damage rolled.

Timestamp is 3:37 btw

Who let Mearls do the subclasses?
Chain/Tomelock Hexblade is now better than any other Bladelock

already reduced to using the "retard" insult. The 5e DMG is one of the best DMGs released for any RPG tabletop and while is correct that the vast majority of the book is pages full of inspiration, it leads a DM into understanding what he needs to be doing for a functional game.

also shows typical badDM who doesn't want to read and know, just rule and dictate. pages 82 and 84 are the guidelines to not fuckup class and combat balance, awarding XP can still be stylized however you want. XP awarding (and suggested variant styles) is on pages 260 and 261.

yes, christ.
>Trap damage
>Foraging DCs
>Adventuring day XP, 2 short rests a day about 1/3rd and 2/3rds through the day
>wilderness navigation
>consider granting advantage when...

It's basic statistics of why critical fumbles are so god damn stupid.

You are going to roll a natural 1 about every 20 times you toss the d20. Now think about how often most people toss that die during a session. That means everybody is going to look like blithering idiots as they periodically smack each other during a fight like the Three Stooges. Or just flat out hurt themselves or blunder any normal skill check they make often enough to make you wonder if it's supposed to be a farce.

>War Wizard is a mixture of Abjurer and Evoker
Geez was that so hard to say in the video?

6:24, be prepared for the idiots that think every creature's Innate Spellcasting can't be Counterspelled, rather than just Psionics.

The extension to include all pact weapons is only given through the bladepact though.

I mean monks and moon druids get their magical unarmed at level 6

>“melee-weapon attack”
What fuckery is this?

>Play a wood elf outlander
>0 chance to get any points in nature

Customizing a background is 100% default RAW. Swap out one of you background skills for it.

Come on guys leak this shit.

Ok, but imagine that in order for a monk to use a ki point or a druid to wild shape, they needed to use a consumable magic item before getting those features. That's what they did.

Those are all terrible exemplary situations which can either be outright ignored, figured out by a good DM, or never will come up. While yes, it's nice to have some more guidance, none of that is needed, especially for a new DM likely using premade content.

How often does your group forage? Do you really follow the recommended adventuring day that closely?

You must be a terribly uncreative and boring DM.

Fair enough, I just found it funny that at base my tree-hugger that spent their life in a forest couldn't identify a plant for the life of them.

Why would a chain/tome care about weapons?
A Hexblade Tomelock with 14 Dex has 16-19 AC, while a Fiend Bladelock with 14 Dex has 15.

"When you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you gain a +2 bonus to the damage roll. This bonus increases as you level."
Throwing a weapon is a ranged weapon attack with a melee weapon.

You need to understand that the way it works is you seperate [weapon attack] from ranged/melee. A ranged weapon attack does not have to use a [ranged weapon] and a melee weapon attack does not have to use a [melee weapon], instead you make a ranged [weapon attack] or a melee [weapon attack]
However, if you want an example of [ranged weapon] look at the 'archery' fighting style. It requires an attack with a [ranged weapon].

Nobody told me warlock was this much fun, I thought it was just shooting lasers every round. I wish wizards had this much fun flavor, they're so same-y and broadly defined that there's nothing to it but being "virtually every spell"

>Circle of Mortality - Spare the Dying cantrip can be cast with a range of 30 feet for you as a Grave Cleric.
Is this just a change or everything the feature does now?

even if customizing backgrounds wasn't RAW, RAW also states that if your background gives you a proficiency you already have, you may swap it out for a similar one. You would seriously have to TRY to avoid getting a proficiency you wanted.

Rules for sleeping in amror

He's an elf, what do you expect

good thing heavy armor users never need to spend hit dice. /sarcasm

>You must be a terribly uncreative and boring DM.
Not him, but jesus christ, it's you again you severely socially deficient, needlessly screeching retard. Go play with actual people.