/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

>Wizards are mainly for buffing / debuffing, damage should be left to martial classes, especially against encounters will less people than the party you're playing with.

Lack of complexity and ease of use aside, what does 5e have that PF/3.5 doesn't?

The ability to play without reading like 15 books just to make your character

Non-insane playerbase.

hi guys

can you recommend a module to play after LMoP?
I read that PotA and Rise and Hoard are pretty good, what would Veeky Forums say?

Also: Is there any place I can get those as pdfs online?

>What's your usual go-to enemy type?
Goblinoids and Orcs

Bought 5eg PHB tonight from my local shop.

>used to play a lot of descent 2
>not sure what you all think of descent but it was pretty fun as a dungeon crawler

looking to get into the real game now though! I have previously read through the starter set.

Question...

In the prewritten quests, what do I read out to the players as a DM?

>First part of the intro
>background
>dragonmasks
>Not the secrets
>cult organization?
>then not the oveview

Yes, you can get them in the trove
Personally I like SKT but I don't think many people agree with me on that

>What's your usual go-to enemy type?
Bandits. For some reason, teaching 6 bandits about grouping with a well placed Fireball and watching the others scurry away in terror is one of life's simple pleasures that never seems to get old for my players. It's also a decent way for the players to garner information about new places they travel to (provided some bandits are left alive to talk), as well as offering the players a way to build reputation with the locals to boot (bounties are icing on the cake).

Every 5eg thread is full of autists screeching

>Tyranny of the Dragons
Sorry to tell you that you've made a shitty purchase, but you've made a shitty purchase. Tyranny of the Dragons/Rise of Tiamat are fucking SHIT.

>Wizards are mainly for buffing / debuffing, damage should be left to martial classes, especially against encounters will less people than the party you're playing with.
>unpopular opinion
what?

Whats a good prewritten adventure I can start with a group?

Not Mines of Phandelver however, as two of the players has done that to death.

What's the spookiest martial weapon a character can weild? I'm making a hexblade and I want to play up the Halloween/Shadowfell vibes. Also, what are the spookiest spells and invocations I can grab?

Generally there will be boxes of text of stuff you should read; however you should familiarize yourself with most of the information in the module and be prepared to dispense that information if the players find a reasonable avenue to access it.

The section marked "Cult Organization", for example, might be directly relevant if one of your players wants to read up at the library about the weird robed dudes they've been fighting, or cults in general.

I always suggest new DMs cultivate your own voice rather than read the text directly-- it will help you get comfortable speaking in exposition and frame information in a way both you and the players can easily digest.

I'm going to be playing in Tomb of Annihilation soon, and I don't really want any spoilers, but I wanted to run my character concept by you guys first.
I want to play a Monster Slayer ranger (my DM has agreed to allowing XGtE classes) with the Great Weapon fighting style which means I need at least 1 level in fighter. I was wondering if I should go fighter 1/ranger 4 for the ASI/feat or if I should go with fighter 2/ranger 3 so that I can pick up action surge. If it goes on long enough, I was thinking of picking up Champion fighter.
Race-wise I was planning on Half Orc (or maybe a Hill Dwarf). Does this all work out how I want? Am I gimping myself by accident? Should I go with my back up idea of a duel-wielding crossbow expert fighter (or rogue or ranger)?

Curse of Strahd is usually thrown around. You might want to scale down the starting dungeon a little (Death's House, as the name suggests, is absurdly lethal), but the rest of the adventure is great.

Storm King's Thunder has a lot to recommend it. Especially for a new DM, it has a very helpful structure that you won't have to fight against.

>What's the spookiest martial weapon a character can weild?
A flail. But instead of the spiked ball, it's a metal skull.

I might be in the minority here, but I don't think Curse of Strahd is good for beginniners.

It is a good module. But it is of a drastically different tone and balance than is easy to handle-- on top of the randomized mad-libs plot points it asks you to incorporate.

A simple longsword with a black steel blade. The cross-guard and grip are molded to look like a crucified woman in pain; rumor has it that the woman was sacrificed to create sword.

At least we aren't screeching about kitsune lolis and ERP

What song should i use for strahd introduction and first fight with him?

Fuck man, I've read a lot of shit in my life, but TheAngryGM is truly just awful at writing. His good points and ideas are buried in prolixic, verbose redundant loquacious sea of useless crap, and he even censors his own fucking swearing to boot. Fucking hell, what an idiot.

He has a good point in an article I was referred to, but (and I checked) he wrote 3.144 words (that's 17.339 characters) before getting to the article's main idea. That's fucking insane!

Seriously, have you guys tried slogging through his ten kilometer long articles?

I always used this as Strahd's theme song. Every time I started playing it, the players had this "Oh shit" look on their faces.
youtu.be/ho9rZjlsyYY

>Seriously, have you guys tried slogging through his ten kilometer long articles?
No, because I value my time.

Thanks, will have a look at Storm King's Thunder.

great insight thanks.

>spookiest martial weapon
A man with little creativity would say "A scythe."
I am a man with little creativity

>>UA shouldn't get level 1 options
Could you please elaborate?

Glaive refluffed as scythe.

>XGE ranger's arn't "edgy" in any way

did anyone say they were?

>SKT
Can you integrate that into the ending of LM?
I forgot to mention that in the original post, they want to keep playing with the same characters

Fluff rescythed as a glaive

The writing style annoys me to much to bother reading it. I get it's just a bit, but it's awful

Absotively. It has a section about how to do that and at what point in the module you should insert them.

>scythe reglaived as a fluff

Yeah, it reccomends you skip a couple chapters if you do it, and I think theres more advice in the book

>glaive scythefluffed as a REEEEE

Time keeping in dungeons:

Interacting with a room reasonably takes 10 in-game minutes at least. Doing extra stuff, like carefully searching, might extend time spent a bit.

For every 10 minutes spent, place one d6 on the table for the players to see. When six d6 are placed, one hour has passed. The six d6 are an abstract concept; one d6 might represent 20 minutes, another just 5 minutes, but the grand total is one hour. The players are supposed to feel at least some sense of urgency.

Ideas for improving, or other input? Time will be important in the next dungeon I am planning.

(This time keeping idea isn't my own, I'm just looking to discuss and improve it as it's the best I have right now).

>REEEEE
Psionics.

Only article ive ever read was pretty good, about the 7 or so types of things players desire out of a game
But holy fuck it was a pain to read
Like, just cut out the "angry" part and he'd be actually fairly eloquent

So did Hexblades get any decent buffs in Xanathars guide or no?

Could anyone please help with it? I just want to know if I should grab 1 level in fighter or 2

>spookiest martial weapon
A warhammer, if fluffed right. Swords are elegant and the edgy ones are too edgy. Scythes are overdone. Etc.

But if you get a grim-faced man with a warhammer, who doesn't put any finesse into it, doesn't wield it with any style, who just walks into the fight and crushes the other man's skull, then kicks the body off the end of his weapon, and walks on, that's scary as shit.

Oh yeah, baby

Thanks guys! I'll probably do SKT then.
For a 200+ page module like this, is it important to read the entire thing before playing or is it enough to just read the current chapter to know what to expect?

Quite a few of the pages are just locations across the world, but there a helpful guide to running it free on the DMs guild

I can't seem to find it, do you perhaps have a link handy?

>implying /pfg/ doesn't have the same thing

>DM for LGS as the one table that runs non-AL
>bunch of strangers show up
>all their characters are wizards and hexblades
>it's their first time playing 5e
>try to push for a more diverse group
>"i read up that we don't need a diverse group, wizard and hexblade is op!"
>start getting worried
>begin with a simple premise to ease them into the game
>they go full murder hobo
>plot is non-existent as they have no interest in role-playing
>try to push for plot but they said that's boring
>talked about how they can't wait to murderhobo in AL
>explain AL has restrictions
>start complaining to LGS owner about me ruining their fun and it isn't like Critical Role
>get up and leave

>my players want a game where they roll dice, kill npcs and collect loot
>I dont
>so I left
Good on you. Way to stick to your guns.

>Playing 5e
>At an LGS
>With randoms
What did you expect user
Long term campaigns in someones home is the best way to play for a reason

>DM for LGS as the one table that runs non-AL
>bunch of strangers show up

You seriously fucked up right there. Imagine advertising a new game on Roll20 and accepting the first people who apply for your game, no questions ask and no filtering process whatsoever. That's what you did. Playing with people face-to-face at your LGS makes no difference.

Is it possible to activate both a battle maneuver and a smite on a single attack? The rules specify you can only do a single one of either, but I can't find anything saying you can't do one of both

You can do both, sure

dmsguild.com/m/product/193601
Its pay what you want, just enter $0

>it isn't like Critical Role

This is bait

>I read that PotA and Rise and Hoard are pretty good, what would Veeky Forums say?

You read wrong.

POTA is a "sandbox" with lots of dungeons and combat. That's it. The book is a mess and the plot fucking reeks. Kill the four elemental bosses to save the world, yay.

Rise / Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a railroad with setpiece boss battles. Yawn.

The good modules are, in ascending order:

Tomb of Annihilation
Curse of Strahd
Out of the Abyss
Storm King's Thunder

Action Surge is very good, but multiclassing delays your Extra Attack on Ranger. Do one level of each first, then get Ranger to 5 for extra attack, then decide. You have plenty of time, unless you're starting at level 5 for some reason.

welcome to Veeky Forums

>yfw someone actually calls them the correct species

What class would you recommend being with a party consisting of:

>Human Samurai
>Half-elf cleric/sorcerer
>Dragonborn revised ranger/barbarian
>half-elf bard.

AT Rogue died & not sure what to go next at level 8.

Anybody have The Lost Kenku PDF??

Human Wizard

Human because there are too many snowflake races in the group

Wizard because no one in the group will have high int

>I'm a fighter attacking a cultist spell caster
>"I want to grapple him and cover his mouth to prevent him from casting anymore spells"
>"Sorry user that's not how grappling works and you can't do that"
>"Ok then I'll disarming strike him and knock away his spell components"
>"Sorry, disarming strike only works on things like weapons and shields"
>"Well what can I do?"
>"Well you can get a reaction attack in if you have mage Slayer :v)"

Is fighting against spell casters supposed to feel this infuriating as a low level martial?

Only if your DM is a dick

not him but
I play AL and I greatly suspect at least half the table was introduced theough CR

You take your big ass sword and cut off his fucking hands, like how a fighter does.

just fucking attack him stop being such a snowflake

See heres where you messed up. You gotta Be Fighter 2/(Cleric/Bard) X
Cast silence, move in and then action surge grapple

Ez

Doing 1d8+3 damage isn't as effective as stopping the boss from casting level 2 spells at the party

I am. My DM says thats where the module starts

If we count all of them as one "type" undead.
I'm a real big fan of everything but basic zombies.

>I still have not, as a player or DM, had a single adventure that had orcs anywhere in it.
huh.

I've noticed so many DMs are undead-happy with their games. Sadly this always pidgeon-holes players into pure damage/blasters since undead are so often immune to charm, diplomacy, status effects etc.

Being a bard in an undead heavy campaign would make anyone want to commit sudoku.

There's literally nothing stopping you from doing anything that you tried to do if your GM wasn't total shit.

I happen to be in PotA and HotDQ games at the moment and i strongly prefer the HotDQ, but it may be just because i like the other DM's style better.

In PotA we went into area WAY above our level and it really sucked. Going anywhere else wasn't really option because we haven't had 'unlocked' the locations nor had any reasons to go there. And frankly, even the plothook for that location was rather weak. The sandboxness of campaign was quite detrimental IMO*.
The difficulty difference between Sacred Stone monastery and Temple of Black Earth without any significant barrier was really... staggering. I suppose it is case for the other dungeons as well.

In HotDQ we are at the beginning (start of second or third act i think?) and i like it much better. We saw a dragon and i feel much more invested in character, because i don't think it will last three sessions top and because the DM actually gave us several ways to tie our characters with the story.* Slaughtering dozend of kobolds i quite satisfying.

___
*When i play (especially a module) i am usually trying to follow DM's line and not have much distracting motivations for my character, so that may be why i prefer railroading-y campaign compared to sandboxy. Your mileage may vary.

What would you as DM allow to do without invalidating other classes/feats?

It does not, it is meant to be played starting from 1. At 5 you're going to be steamrolling everything but the deadliest encounters in the jungle, which is about 1/3 to 1/2 of the whole campaign. Or he might just be skipping that entire exploration phase and getting you where you need to go. Oh well, to each his own.

Still, Ranger 4/Fighter 1, take Ranger 5 on level up, then take Fighter 2 if you really want Action Surge.

>why can't my character single handedly make an encounter trivial with one attack

What other classes/feats are there that let you do stuff like that? Make it a secondary grapple attempt to silence them or something

the problem with yuan-ti is that if you are using them as yuan-ti they are basically an adventure in and of themselves, so the GM has to be like "I want to use Yuan-ti, time to have the party encounter snake cults."

Why do eyebrows (and sometimes the eyeballs themselves) always seem to be drawn over the hair in this manga anime style? Freaks me out bois

So now that genesys is saving rpgs from the d20 meme, are you abandoning your 5E campaigns or properly wrapping them up?

>genesys
never heard about it

my old players were *super* blaster happy, holy goddamn shit.
I repeatedly poked and prodded them to do things that weren't statblocks.
When someone showed up with a character with the exact same name as they had in 3.5 and *still* no history despite literally participating in an adventure that had plenty of opportunities to be like "oh hey, I'll just steal what the GM is aying" I peaced the fuck out.

When I was finally not forever gm anymore 3.7k miles away, the GM used a lich that never spoke, and could cast 5 spells a turn... at level 11.
This was after running away from the fucking tarrasque underground, at level 9
Wanting anything but people wanting big numbers in 5e is suffering.

Really? You can cover someones mouth to prevent him from speaking? Where is it written in the book?

I agree about disarming focus/component pouch, though.

>Disarming Attack.
>When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend one superiority die to attempt to disarm the target, forcing it to drop one item of your choice that it’s holding. ...

If i read that correctly, RAW it means you can remove his focus if he holds it in hand or one particular component for spell he is currently casting BUT not take component pouch he wears on his belt.

On the other hand i think this is one of few situations where Sleight of Hands might come handy.

Okay so if five mages counterspelled the other four in a circle, would all of these happen in the same round? How fast are a Wizard's reactions anyway?

>Martial covering up a wizards mouth to prevent them from casting level 2 spells is unthinkable

But all of the following are ok for a spell caster to nullify the martial with
>The spell sleep
>The spell suggestion
>The spell invisibility
>The spell hold person
>The spell crown of madness

>where is it written in the book?
Rule Zero, mate. If you have the advantage in a grapple or have your opponent pinned, there's literally no reason why you can't try to cover their mouth. That is clever and I encourage clever and fun thinking from my group. The mage would obviously try and resist every turn, and there's nothing stopping him from casting spells that don't require a vocal component.

Since I know that Superiority Dice are required to strip the caster of his focus, I'd still allow it on a not-Battlemaster; I'd just make it more difficult to justify a Battlemaster using that ability. And if my party happens to not be running a Battlemaster, I don't even need to do that.

Ffg starwars but setting neutral

Alright, thank you!

If I create a hexblade character with a missing hand, is it possible to summon my weapon attached to my hand stump? Or do I need pactblade for that?