/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

I feel like a good-aligned Paladin of Conquest is pushing it, but would it be possible to be a LN Oath of Conquest Paladin?

I ran a dragon dogfight as part of the finale for Rise of Tiamat. It happened a mile up, so fall damage wasn't a concern, but Silver Dragon Paralysis Breath was a real asskick with all the falling.

(I ignored the legendary actions and resistances of the dragons because I didn't want to deal with 12 fucking creatures with those traits, the power of paralysis breath would have been different if I left that in)

That said it's pretty hard to force a dragon to engage even with your own dragons, as the dash action can get them out of breath weapon range quickly and keep them out of range.

In my experience it's a game of strategically choosing to fall, and a fair amount of maneuvering based on if your breath weapon is up. There's very little in the way of melee attacks.

It was kind of cool but probably not something I would want to make routine.

Maybe not what you were looking for, but hey.

Yeah, i certainly would not allow someone to be thrown 60 feet straight up. Id start with the strength score as a base distance of feet to throw and allow a throw with disadvantage to see how much further.

Yes, but RAW?

RAW you cannot push or throw someone more than 5', unless you use the variant giant move Fling from Storm King's Thunder, which allows you to throw someone 60' horizontally.

Incoming blogpost, pls ignore
It should be, but I've been telling stories to myself since I was a kid. I had a lonely childhood, so I would tell stories to myself to pass the time and feign social interaction. Some were stories that I'd read, and some I would make up as I went along. Regardless, telling a story by myself became something private and I'm fine, if a little shy, when I'm playing with 3 or 4 people because it's just like real conversation where I can just fade into the background for a bit and keep from getting too attached, but if it's just me and one other person there's nowhere for me to go that's out of the spotlight, and I'll be sharing a story with a single other person. It will be my story, but also theirs. I don't know, it's just... intimate to me. You know?

I'm asking if you can use a Creature for an Improvised Weapon Attack

RAW no. There's nothing that implies you can.

However it's one of those grey areas where it comes down to how the DM rules it on the spot.

Basically no rules out side of what mentions, but ofcourse limiting player options is not cricket so if you're the DM figure out a houserule and if youre a player speak to your DM about it and figure out something reasonable

Sure. You're an extension of your king/queen/lord/lady's will, and their word is the law.

>Basically no rules outside of some autistic kid talking to himself
Got it

Id say anything two sizes smaller than you once grappled counts as an improvised weapon

Hey /5eg/ I've made a puzzle for my players and I want to see if it's not too complex. Its a 3 stage puzzle that includes 2 ciphers anyone want to give it a go?

My answer is already that it's just going to halt progress in your game and that you shouldn't do it. That being said, continue. I love puzzles.

Sure

Which Patron is best for a lock2monk+?

You are tasked with finding a Key. You've been given the following information prior: 41-14-10-12-49-6-29-53-45

When you arrive at the location theres a plaque with the following:
Once Left Alone on the Seas a man must test his fortitude
He must cast Aside all notions of Cowardice To brave any storms
Yet he may remain Envious of those with a god given Right to land for their Sons and Grandsons
But fret not dear sailor For come Port you shall be Royalty too
May the Star guide a man whose Blood and brawn bring his bow ever Starboard

"Wqtk mls ewp iz aai pukv wl aai fyv gqtutgzy, ae bnl kywhk fv zox asmlvzt zbhs"

Use everything above to decode the text in quotes and find where the key is

GOO

Going to be playing a Tabaxi Ranger soon. Is it worth taking a single level in Monk for the bonus action attack?

Hexblade. Prof to damage on a flurry of blows sounds painful.

Awakened Mind is hands down my favorite feature in the entire game

Make that a lock3 for Chain or Tome. Can you flurry after Shocking Grasp?

Artificer Revised, anyone have any criticisms for this?

What would be the best build for a meteor hammer Monk? Two flails and Way of the Kensei? Is it worth dipping into Fighter for Two-Weapon Fighting Style?

To be clear my players love puzzles
Solution:

1)
blue 1 left
yellow 2 right
Green 3 right
Purple 2 left
Red 1 right
2)
Replace letters with Letter Number cipher
3)
41-14-10-12-49-6-29-53-45
each number is all numbers in the column added up to in corresponding letter
This should spell out RIGHTEOUS
4)
Use Vigenere Cipher to decode "Wqtk mls ewp iz aai pukv wl aai fyv gqtutgzy, ae bnl kywhk fv zox asmlvzt zbhs" with the passphrase: RIGHTEOUS
5)
"Find the key at the base of the red pinnacle, in the ruins on the western side"

You're fucking insane if you think this would fly in literally any game other than a hardcore puzzle game. That being said you know your players better than we do, so if it's something they would enjoy then do it.

You know you could just check your PHB or DMG and you'd see that he is correct, why just spring into insults? It doesn't make people want to help you, so id recommend learning to either do your own research or just be a nicer person.

Don't Monks have like zero bonus action economy from level 1?

They really dislike fighting and love to do puzzles but everything has been "too easy" for them so far. So ya... I've been devising this for a while, a real challenge. Do you think this follows some modicum of logic? Our party has done ciphers before.

I'm the poster you were replying to, but I wasn't any part of the post chain before that. I just made a joke because someone misquoted.

I apologize, i was the one who misquoted intended to quote . Sorry mate my bad, from my perspective it seemed to be malicious but i see it was all in good fun.

For a game a friend is running soon, I'd like to play a Warlock. I've never played a Warlock and need one resource I'm not finding on the OP. I was given, a long time ago, a list of spells, listed by level with full description for Bard, and I'd love one for Warlock. I might be just missing something, but I'd love this for Warlock and it'd be a huge help.

Also, what do you guys think of the Pact of the Tome? I like it, thematically, but in the concrete, it only gives me three cantrips and two 1st-level rituals. It seems pretty underpowered, comparatively, especially in a game where Hexblade is an option.

>Attached is Bard list in question

I'm not much a fan of cryptology, I prefer word problems and logic puzzles. As such, I wouldn't be able to tell you if this is a good puzzle for someone who actually follows that train of logic often, but I can tell you that it will almost certainly take up a good chunk of the session. I normally recommend against going for puzzles that take any outside knowledge or ciphers to solve, especially in TTRPGS where time is limited for the players (not to start the "challenge the characters not the players" debate), but if it's something you honestly think your group would enjoy doing other than other things then I can't really say anything to stop you.

Thoughts?
>Monk wearing heavy armor on a quest to [plot related objective determined by DM]
>They never take it off
>If anyone asks wearing the armor and completing their quest is the final step of their training, removing even part of it means they fail the test
>They're an undead/construct under their armor and use that as an excuse to not reveal it

>Warforged Hexblade 3/Shadow Monk 6
>Statline- 12 14 14 10 13 13, bump WIS and CHA to 14 at Monk 4
>Half Plate, never removed, and a shield/rapier
>Cannot drink potions due to mask on helmet
>Mitigates shit statline by spamming Advantage whenever possible, via *teleports behind u*-ing at people each turn or sitting in Darkness
>Cantrips- Lightning Lure to drag people into Darkness, EB for ranged option
>Invocations- Devil's Sight, Agonizing Blast

Homebrew question:

If I would like to make a pact boon that gives a warlock a musical instrument ( or maybe a tool), how would I go about it that doesn't step on bard toes and keep the design philosophy that pact boons don't auto-scale at all, but still remain relevant?

I could only figure out that pact boons are not resources, don't scale by themselves but are always useful in any stage of the game. And that makes it very difficult to design a new pact boon.

Could just wear a cloak and say their Warforged face is a mask, you'd limit your monk abilities less that way especially dat AC climb

Tome is great. Three cantrips from any list and the ability to collect all possible rituals is one helluva utility. Hexblade is a patron anyway, so you can go Hexblade+Tome no problem.

Its basically like my Boss Puzzle instead of boss monster. The whole campaign so far has basically been a scavenger hunt of RP hijinx and puzzles, so I'm optimistic.

Earnestly, that was my thought, but sell me on the Ritual bit. I've only ever had it be so useful before, and if I go Hexblade the Pact of the Blade seems tailor-made to wreck everything.

Cantrips, for that matter, too. Three extra cantrips don't feel like they'd do much past like 5th level. Maybe I've just been playing the wrong way to see the benefits of either, but I'm curious.

Id recommend putting a few simple hints or the traces of previous attempts at deciphering, scrawls on the wall perhaps make them in a specific language to reward the player with the least spoken language in his repertoire

That ends up being 20 AC versus 17 even if I put every single point into DEX/WIS, (10, 16(asi) 12, 8, 16(asi), 13, which makes them weaker overall due to the 12 CON. (Plus the theme of a Monk wearing armor as a test of skill is kinda neat, that part is true even if it's being used as an excuse to hide their body)

Considering the only things I lose with armor are Marital Arts, and I'll already have a Bonus Action for every turn, and fast movement, which I'll be able to mostly make up for with the edgy teleport. Eventually I'd plan to put enough ASIs in that they can shed the armor and start going fast, but early game that's not really the plan.

Rituals don't expend spell slots so it helps warlocks get by their limited spells and further cements them as a spell spammer. Not only that you have acess to druid and cleric rituals like Tiny Hut and Commune. Floating disk and other rituals from the wizard list is really good. Plus Find Familiar is a ritual so you're a budget version of chainlock. Except you also have more cantrips and rituals.

Cantrip-wise, you have access to Guidance, Vicious Mockery, Thornwhip, Druidstick or even Shocking Grasp. The utility to use any tool you might need is out there.

It depends whether you want to do be shenenigans batman or an attack dog who is only geared to attack.

Different guy, but those three cantrips can include powerful utility spells like guidance, class specific spells like vicious mockery, etc. As is the warlock gets very few cantrips, so the three extra are huge. You could even grab Shillelagh if you want to mix it up in melee.

Looks like you got a nice character worked out man, kinda like a piccolo with his weighted armor schtick, i like it

So, concept time. A character consuming or obtaining a divine spark, whether in large measure or small. Should this character have to make checks when obtaining it to see if they can handle it? If so, what sort of checks come to mind?

>seems pretty underpowered, comparatively, especially in a game where Hexblade is an option.
Remember that BoAS gets you access to ANY ritual spells from ANY class' list, provided you can find them. If you have any casters in the party besides the wizard, it's completely worth it. Even if you don't think that adding up to 30 spells to your repertoire is cool, your party will love you for it, as everyone other than a wizard has to have a spell known or prepared to cast it as a ritual, and having you have all of them at once frees up their slots for other things.
If you ask me, opening up your spell list to Alarm, Detect Magic, Identify, Silence, Tiny Hut, Phantom Steed, Water Breathing, Divination, Telepathic Bond, and Instant Summon, as well as saving your known slots for spells other than Comprehend Languages and Unseen Servant is fucking great. You just need a little cooperation from the rest of your party.

Wisdom because there's no willpower stat
Or maybe Con, all depends on whether it's mental or physical injury

ok guys i need help with Strahd
Some things got winged and improvised, now Strahd has all our good equipment, as in a bag of holding with the sun sword and the holy symbol of ravenloft, but we don't think he actually knows they are in there, but that's a hunch as we put them in there specifically so he wouldn't see them on us.

So the question is, where would he keep this bag of holding with these items in his castle? At first we thought he took it with him (he got the bag from richten/ezmerelda in a fight with them after they got the bag from us). So, we went to his actual tomb and got into a fight with him, but fought his brides first which were easy actually at our levels of 7 and 8. Strahd though was a pain and ezmerelda pulls a self sacrifice deal and teleportation circles her, strahd, and richten out of the whole place. So they are likely dead, however we see that the items are not in his tomb, nor were they on him when we fought him.

The question becomes, where should we look?

>were easy actually at our levels of 7 and 8

You are already dead

Check the flooded room and maybe the heart tower, the castle is crazy and there's places to keep them. You're alright if he never thought to look through the bags, which is possible . Where did you check in the castle since, or have you not been back yet?

If you ask me, simply getting put into a situation where you have a divine spark available to be obtained/consumed is enough of a difficulty without adding a check to the mix. But if I had to put a check to it, I would say Charisma. To me it's not the force of your body or your mind that's keeping the divine power under your influence, it's ability of your very soul to convince the awesome power of the divine to allow you to use it. Kind of like a test to see if you can convince someone that you're pure of heart.

On the topic of Warlocks...
Which Mystic Arcanum are the trap options? Obviously Create Undead to get one ghoul at the cost of your 6th level spell slot is a bad choice, along with Astral Projection when Planar Shift is an option. Are there others?

What are some good /fun ideas for a character who is anti magic and specializes in killing spell casters? Both mechanically and from a story view point

I understand you and like the idea, but every spell in the BoS costs 50 GP per level. That's not generally how my DM's run money. That's tons for one spell, unless there's ways around it.

I'll gladly take it over blade if I can figure out the cost aspect, but at that point I'm already three levels, an unchangeable pact boon, and an invocation deep. 50gp is a lot.

Eyebite sucks if you ask me. You're right about Astral Projection, it's the second worst 9th level spell in the game, barely treading behind the complete shitshow that is Storm of Vengeance.

oh we're still in the castle, i got teleported into a crypt trying to escape the fight and so did the bard (i'm a kobold artificer), we got out of the crypt and the fight just ended since we killed the remaining wights that strahd summoned, and remember he's gone for the time being away from the castle.

And since we just learned of the missing items, the tomb was the first place we checked. Oh and some dining hall like on the 2nd floor and such behind a really artsy door because thats where the fight where strahd grabbed the bag took place. We found out, then hauled ass.

we do happen to know that our card means we will fight strahd at the father's tomb, but meta-gaming we know because of what just happened with him fighting ezmerelda/richten somewhere else, he won't be there, so this is our one free time to actually check the father's tomb so we'll do that, and maybe recheck sergei's since we're down here.

Check Father's tomb, check everywhere you can while he's gone. Do you know how long he'll be gone? Definitely check the towers. You aren't in a great place right now.

Soul Cage is the new king of the Six Level Mystic Arcanum choices. All that tasty duration with no concentration and those options of what to use the soul for, not to mention the awesome flavor.

Does user use art for their characters? Post your favorites or current one!

no we don't know, we're assuming ezma and richten will continue fighting him or run wherever they all teleported to

Maybe a cleric/paladin who believes power like that belongs only to those who serve the divine. A bear totem barbarian who thinks that arcane wizards upset the balance of nature. Or as alternative you can have the backstory be that they were the prisoner or slave of a wizard and uses their pilfered spell-tomes to escape and basically kill every other arcane spell-caster to gain their knowledge and spells to use in their anti arcane crusade (nice hypocritical flavour good for rp)

Think of it this way, what the fuck else are you going to use your money on as a Warlock, full plate? Furthermore, 500g should be easy enough to gather at 5th level (when you get 3rd level spells). 500g alone would get you Alarm, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Find Familiar, Identify, Silence, and Tiny Hut. Even if your DM decides to give you less than that individually (which he shouldn't because that's base recommended gold for a level 5 character fresh out of chargen, not even counting extra rolled gold), it's easy enough to ask your party members for a little extra gold so that they can free up a spell prepared/known. And that's just at level 5. Anything after that and 50g per spell level shouldn't be a concern. Anything before that and the cantrips and two free rituals you get are completely worth it.

There's already a character art thread over at But I like sharing art so whatever

Well, let's say I have a stingy DM on loot, start early, and we're doing Tomb of Annihilation, so we're off in the fucking jungle so I can't necessarily get the rare inks with 50gp. Is there worth there or a way I can work it, or no?

A butthurt martial. No seriously, imagine you're some hired merc out on a job and some dickbat in a bathrobe sets fire to your whole group and teleports away. Four months later, you "willingly" give away half your life's savings because you stepped on some old man's toe and he Suggested it to you. A year down the line, some guy puts your brother out of business because his tavern can't flavor food better than Prestidigitation.
After all this, you dedicate your fighting style to being able to reassemble the spine of anyone who even so much as whispers bibbitybobbityboo.

Well if you have proficiency with a herbalist kit i would allow you to make the inks from native plantlife, especially a jungle known for its vibrant and eclectic pigments

>we're doing Tomb of Annihilation
Oh fuck nevermind. Tomelock is king in everyday adventuring and utility, not dungeon crawling and combat. I'm not perfectly familiar with ToA's plot, but if the majority of the game is set in a combat heavy dungeon then there's no point in building yourself to be a swiss army knife.

Shadow monks fuck casters pretty hard. Take mage slayer too

Most of it is exploring a jungle, but there's a pretty nasty dungeon at the end.

Anyone have a character sheet on Excel?

Monster Slayer. You could reflavor his ranger spells to not be magic and half his abilities are "fuck you for trying to cast spells on me". Just get mage slayer and beat the shit out of them then if they try to teleport you ruin it

But that is a Crown paladin

glibness really doesn't seem like 8th level spell material

You aint seen nothing

I think this is dope as fuck my dude, what was the inspiration?

I also just got a warning for calling out blatant shitposting wew, what a time to be alive

I like the idea that the other user posted, of being a guy that go so god damn fed up with magic users that he decided to become one so he can destroy all others.

That's 2nd level and a ritual. I'll give it a pass.

That's kind of handy but super situational: it lets you communicate a message to EVERYONE who can see the sky you're standing beneath. That's a lot of broadcasting power. But again yeah, very situational.

why tf isn't there a potions table?

I mean I assumed there would be some random treasure > roll 1d4+1 on potions table but there is no such thing as a potions table

RRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEE

seriously wtf am I missing? I found one online midgame on my phone (thank christ none of the subtext notes were rolled) but seriously I assumed it would just be in the DMG. or at least xanthars ffs.

I'm imagining some kid getting embarrassed by his wizard mom using skywrite to tell him something else she wants from the store while he's out shopping, letting the whole world know.

It's a concentration-free hour of pretty much invalidating social encounters. It's an iffy choice for a Warlock, but a Bard? If they Expertise a Charisma skill and max Charisma to 20, that's an entire hour of guaranteed 30 with no way to magically detect that you're lying. Imagine what you could do with an entire hour of nearly impossible to decipher lies (that are shown to be the truth with magic), or nearly impossible to refute persuasion.

Right? It boggles the mind.

>date a wizard
>break up
>she and her friends leave Skywrite messages above town talking about how small your dick is

Because different potions are different levels of rarity. Putting a potion of healing in the same chart as a potion of flying would be dumb

>>date a wizard
You've already fucked up

Magic item tables A-E in the DMG mostly only have consumables of various rarities. You could roll on one of those depending on the players' level and reroll if it's not a potion maybe. Not great but it's something.

Can I have some feedback on these monsters? Specifically wording Trample ability since I can't find another monster in 5e with Trample?

Also guaranteed counterspells

Not sure what CR this should be, and how much its adhesive ability affects its ability to fight, and how the adhesive ability should be worded.

Also this one, is it okay as is or should I make it work like the Roper where it has Reel as a special ability? I like the idea that it is resolved instantaneously but I am not sure maybe there is a reason the roper is the way that it is? Maybe because it gives character a chance to escape, and only lets the Roper draw in one target at a time for balance reasons?

Currently playing a GOO warlock with pact of the chain. Considered going tome thematically but as you said, less useful in practice than on paper. If you like utility and can get the rituals, do it, but remember you can only cast them as rituals with the feature, nil combat utility. It's worth checking the abilities of chain pacts familiars as well, they replicate cantrips in many ways as well.

Do you know how big of magic glyph you can make with that and fuck with detect magic.