/5eg/

I want to make a 'Witch' style character with a focus on very high wisdom. I thought of reskinning a druid, but it doesn't feel right. Any suggestions?

What doesn't feel right about it exactly. Morrigan could be replicated pretty accurately by a druid, for example.

raven queen warlock

thought that was douchegier von doucheric for a sec

I 2nd the Raven Queen Warlock. Even the pact makes sense.

- Shapeshift from Sculptor of Flesh
- Raven form & Companion
- "Magic"
- No real need to explain origins
- Take Pact of Tome for book to get spells and rituals.

- Pretend to be a Sorc/Wizard.

What's wrong with this? If you can somehow prevent metagaming from your party, you can pull this off easily. Just hand the DM paper slips whenever you cast a warlock oriented spell or cantrip.

> I cast a spell
> *Hands DM a spellcard
> *DM Nods and hands spellcard back
> Players have to roll Arcane against you if they really want to figure it out. But since you aren't making V/S gestures it's at a disadvantage.

I've got a Wizard who sits at my table to does this with our DM, since he doesn't want us to know his Spells/Items. Our Rogue also hands the DM slips of paper when he wants to do shady shit without announcing it.

I guess primarily the fact that I have little experience with druids in general. I want to focus more on spellcasting too, and I'm not sure how to properly incorporate my shapeshifting into it.

I won't rule this out!

Is there some reason why the Yawning Portal isn't constantly getting invaded by underdark denizens? Or even just is there like any rule preventing them from coming up? Seems weird to me that there's just a big hole in waterdeep with mind flayers and drow at the bottom of it and it doesn't really cause any issues, but I haven't read up extensively on the lore

Yeah what's the issue here? Witch and druid magic seem extremely similar, I'd definitely go with that. I guess a fey tomepact warlock could work

Too many strong spellcasters in Waterdeep. Blackstaff and his tower of Snowflakes being one of them.

Not to mention the "Well" has been warded by Elminster and various other Spellcasters. Including some ancient elf bitch that runs another tavern nearby.

Waterdeep is Lulz if you really dig into it, the fact that anything happens in the City is outrageous itself.

Nobody wants to fuck with that.

Just go with a caster focused druid and only use wild shape for like scouting, escaping from things etc

Also, to add, the Yawning Portal Drops down into Undermountain, not truly the underdark.

Undermountain. Halastar. Dungeon.

Nobody wants to fuck with that.

You'd have to go through Undermountain to get up to the Yawning Portal and visa-versa.

Nobody wants that. Trust me.

Huh, so nothing can even come up legitimately? That's disappointing. I'd have thought there'd be a few suspiciously hooded figures passing in and out with their shopping at least, maybe some low-level shenanigans that don't attract too much attention. Ah well

Well whatever is directly below surely there's some sentient beings hanging around down there already, just wondered why they never sneak up or loot enough dead adventurers to pay for passage, but if it's warded I guess that's fair enough

Undermountain is too dangerous to just "stroll through" like that. You'd be better off risking Teleportation straight from the Underdark (suicide by all standards).

Look at the picture I'm posting, underdark really aint towards the bottom there.

That's a REAL mans dungeon friend.
Nobody goes there.

It's utter suicide.

I've been invited to a game of pathfinder. Reviewing it, it is rather refreshing exactly how much content there is. I know you morons are going to quip back at me with "muh trap options", but speaking as a DM for 5e for nearly 3 years now, and 4e, VotM, 3.5, and Mouseguard, for many years before that, there are no trap options in any system if your DM is willing to work with you.

I'm honestly kind of bored of 5e. XGE was good, but since they were all UA that I was allowing my players to run anyways, it didn't really add anything new. How do we solve the lack of options in 5e? Is dmsguild the only solution?

...

Do a little reading on where that Well leads, you'll understand it all. Plenty of loot down there, from all of those dead adventurers and trespassers.

Is it seen as a dick move to betray your party if your character, logically, would absolutely betray his party in his current situation?

5e's design philosophy is to give players a base to work with and for DMs to refluff the shit out of the mechanics given without any issue. That, and it's extremely easy to create new content and mod the existing content in different ways without breaking anything because you have plenty of guidelines to go by.

I've been playing Pathfinder a lot and I can't stand it, it's the very definition of overdesigned. I agree that 5e has a major lack of content and I don't really defend the "do it yourself" philosophy, but that's kinda how it works - you only need to know how to make the most of it.

The best way to resolve party betrayal is to avoid character deaths if possible, hand over the character to the GM and re-roll. D&D is a co-operative game.

This The moment you betray your party is the moment you stop being a part of it. Explain it to your DM and make him an NPC, because "drama" among party members by actively shitting on them is a major dick move and never, EVER done well.

You can always just retire your character if that fits in character, without betrayal, if the character would be better off without them.

continuing the thought, we could solve the lack of UA by supplementing it with dmsguild.

Since WotC seems too lazy to do anything like the class push of last year, and they're too incompetent to actually make it good (last year had a lot of potential, but nothing really clicked, even with the XGE edits), they could do a weekly UA where they simply take willing author's work from the dmsguild and put it in a testing phase with the survey infrastructure they've set up.

Eventually, these could even be ported into the next supplement if they prove popular enough. This would increase the amount of content, and make some dmsguild material semi-official.

That really depends on the party. Talk to them about it like adults. If you can't talk to them about it because they aren't even mature enough for that, then you are going to run into trouble betraying them.

Refluffing isn't as fun to me as having actual mechanical changes, and it makes things even more of a game of mother-may-I with the DM. If that is the central philosophy of 5e, I would treat it as a fundamental flaw.

Disagree. You can get amazing character arcs out of party betrayal. You just need to have good players. If you want to keep playing the character, then you just need to ask your DM to set up a plot where the party needs to team up with their former traitor in order to get things done.

>It's what my character would do!
I want you to very carefully read the next line of this post, and then read it again.
Don't make a fucking character that's designed to have a trait that infringes on other people's fun.
It's really not hard. If your group is okay with inter-party conflict and betrayal and have told you as such, then go for it. If they aren't then re-write your character.

>You just need to have good players

A better question, if the party of 5 has 3 Evil PC's and 2 Good ones, is it a dick move to kill the Lawful Good Cleric of Lathander and try to make the Paladin fall?

Because that LG Lathander Cleric is really shitting up our Necromancer, Goolock & Assassins plans.

Really... just want to kill him ... because we can't let him "go"... He knows too much to be an NPC.

Do you not? Why play? No game is better than a game with autismos. Wait, are you the autismo?

Well, maybe you're not part of the target audience of 5e. Don't force yourself to like or dislike things, user - specially if a game's core philosophy doesnt appeal to you. Pathfinder has plenty of content for those willing to shift through its sluggish combat and feat chaining, mostly among things that should be baseline rules. I don't, and prefer to create new content myself or refluff existing one. But that doesn't mean you should share my vision or seek validation from others in this thread, only that you should do what's fun for you.

>Wait, are you the autismo?

>3 Evil PC's and 2 Good ones
Do what you want, this was fucked from the start and anyone who thought otherwise is a fucking idiot.

Doesn't that preclude quite a lot of characters with evil alignments?
You can't get more basic evil than "will throw others under bus to achieve life goals."

Well, I am here, asking for ways to make 5e better. Mostly I'm looking for a fair way to decide what dmsguild content to allow my players, while thinking of ways that wizards could take official actions to make it better.

And, I kind of am forced. 5e is 95% of the market today, mostly by virtue of being the official DnD game (which to most normies doesn't actually mean the brand Dungeons and Dragons, but rather roleplaying games as a whole).

>Doesn't that preclude quite a lot of characters with evil alignments?
No, it doesn't. Read the post again.

Literally what Guards and Wards is for. Hallow, too.

So how do I suck it up and have fun DM'ing? I don't really want to, but the only chance I have to play irl is with my 3 normie friends and I know none of them will be interested in being a DM.

I guess I have some good ideas for plots, and I've DM'd before successfully for one-shots. I just feel like it's not really something I'm all that good at or interested in.

Hey guys, what's up?
youtu.be/cAJRyZ-MYN8

It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have 6 intelligence and opposed everything that isn't "the lights will".

He threatens to stop the Goolocks personal quests goals and to destroy the Necromancers undead almost every session. It's becoming a nuisance.

It depends if you get validation from people exploring your creations. If that doesn't apply, you might have difficulties. See if there's anything you like creating - plots, or worlds, or items - and make that the core of what you do.

Why do you keep him and the Paladin around, then? For that matter, why did you even join forces?

It's one thing to have a group of diverse adventurers who are all out for their own objectives, but that's a party of convenience. When it stops being convenient, such a party will find other party members pretty quickly. If you have some grand reason (being THE CHOSEN ONES or something), then collectively everyone needs to put their big boy pants on and make sacrifices for the greater good. If that means putting off personal quests, sure, but that ALSO means getting the stick out of the ass on the Cleric's part.

For me, the fun comes in setting up a premise, and creating scenarios that the players overcome with awesome exploits.

So my best advice would be to say "screw the rules, that's cool", once or twice a session.

I can't tell what you mean by "designed to infringe on other peoples' fun." Do you mean like, "don't murder people for kicks" or "don't create a character who could ever conceivably be willing to betray his party"?
If you have an evil character whose ultimate goal is to obtain some macguffin for himself, and he finds himself in the room with it, and the only barrier to him getting it is a knife in his party's back, doesn't it make perfect sense for him to take that option? The character wasn't necessarily designed to infringe on the other players' fun, but in that specific situation does it not make sense for him to? Even if control is handed over to the DM and he's made an NPC enemy, I think it would be the most faithful play for such a character.

DM a module and change it to how you want to run it by tying your players backstories and goals. I'm a new DM running ToA and I've introduced a great deal of things.
It's been a blast for all of us.

Make sure to have fun though.

Is the trove still down?

He means "don't be a piece of shit autist and ruin other people's fun". Don't annoy others, don't be a dick to others.
C'mon, this shouldn't be difficult to understand.

Pencil and paper

Tomorrow I'm gonna have another party and we have a wizard, magus and a rogue. We start as lvl5.
Looks like I'll have to take a paladin or cleric to save them (our DM is known for hardships one has to endure to survive).
I've been thinking about Grave domain Cleric, human variant or wood elf, posssibly with heavily armored feat for AC.

Can anyone give some advices or guides to help? (I've already read a few guides)

Don't DM a module. They build bad habits (especially regarding encounter design), and are usually less fun than just coming up with everything off the top of your head.

Mind flayers in my D&D?

Fuck off with your shitty pasta.

What are some good bard feats? The DM allows anything published by WotC.

wtf is a magus

>since he doesn't want us to know his Spells/Items.

y tho

like an anus but magical

He's planning a betrayal soon and wants every advantage possible so that he can wipe the party and loot everyone before leaving.

That doesn't even make sense.

neither does the term magus

What's a Magus user? Is that a homebrew class?

You jest, but some people, GMs and players alike, really should remember how effective a pen and some paper can be.

It's called a portmanteau user.

Inspiring leader is always nice. Might seem like it would fall off, but on average 15 to 20 free temporary HP per day to every single party member is not bad at all.

Actor is also great if you are going for that angle, it can do wonders when you are trying to talk your way through your problems.

I don't think he'll be able to do it

War Caster, Inspiring Leader, Magic Initiate (For attack cantrips like Booming Blade), and Actor come to mind.

How are you not using V/S unless you're actually a sorcerer with Subtle Spell? Sure, the number of spells that are easily identifiable as Warlock spells is pretty low (11 that aren't also Sorcerer or Wizard), and half of those are crap (Magic Stone? Hellish Rebuke?).

But I feel like any actual spellcaster will quickly discover your ruse, and it'll all be relatively for naught. Your cantrips (Eldritch Blast) and first level spells (Hex, Armor of Agathys) are identified with Intelligence (Arcana) at DC 15 and 16, which a 1st level Wizard with 16 Intelligence beats ~50% of the time.

Which type? Valor bards want Warcaster pretty desperately, while every caster benefits from Resilient(Con). Elven Accuracy is good for anyone making attack rolls that isn't strength, Prodigy can let you be even better at being the skill master.

Well, as far as I got it is some kind of mix between dex fighter and a wizard, a bit more magic-y than eldricht knight.

Id kick that fucker as a GM.

Fuck off with your "MUH BETRAYEL XD". I would best case take his character sheet the second he announced any hostile action towards another PC. Because now he is no longer part of the group, and the PCs in my games are explicitly part of the group. The second you refuse to be that, you are no longer a PC, and control goes to the GM.

I will never understand why some edgy faggots thinks this is funny. Because you can pretty much never justify it properly, and you are just doing PvP with a build designed for it, to... what, exactly? Stroke your fragile ego in a game of pretend?

>he doesn't want us to know his Spells
So what, he passes a card to the DM and then he starts to fly and you're not supposed to know what fucking spell he cast? Who fucking cares what the names of the spells are, YOU CAN SEE THE FUCKING SPELL EFFECTS 90% OF THE TIME.

So it's a bard, except probably with a better wizard spell list, that also fights harder than the fighting archetypes.
Sounds like standard homewbrew gish garbage,

As RAW, an average Wizard that just learned to cast Fireball (5th level, 18 Int) will fail to recognize an enemy Fireball as the spell Fireball 50% of the time.

The idiot fighter (8 Int, no Proficiency) will only recognize Fireball 10% of the time.

>Players have to roll Arcane against you if they really want to figure it out. But since you aren't making V/S gestures it's at a disadvantage.
>MFW I always play characters with expertise in Arcana
Oh boy, that roll is going to be SO HARD when I have +10 at level 5. Even better on my rogoue when I literally cannot roll below a 10, and has a minimum roll of 20+.

>disadvantage because no v/s
I'd love to know how you manage that on a wizard. Not that I care, I'll still auto succeed on knowing what spells you are casting, I am just very curious.

You can see a person flying, you don't know the specifics of the spell unless you can pass that check. Clearly it let him fly, but was it identical to the "fly" you know? Hard to tell.
The effects don't require a check to notice, just the specifics.
One thing this helps is that it lets NPCs have unique spells without having to explain that fact to the party wizard.

Is it this homebrew?

Wait, I forgot the Wizard gets advantage on that roll. So he'll only fail 25% of the time.

Is there any way to make the creatures created by Tiny Servant dangerous?

You know what spell was CAST, just not name and origin and whatnot.

The common roll is for subtle magic you might not be able to see what is(a lot of the mental/psychic shit), as well as for Counterspell purposes, where you need to know it before the spell is even cast.

There's nothing wrong with a band of misfits who are ready to betray each other at a moment's notice but are forced together by necessity.

I have a party member who's actually an Intellect Devourer working for his hidden masters. It works for him because he wanted to play an evil character having tried to play a good one and failed, and it works for me and the group because I can issue him secret orders and cover over his evilness with giving him directions that help the party "accidentally".

I did a similar thing recently in a campaign that just finished. Similarly four adventurers who were more together from convenience than anything else, and I was the lone Evil character. A lot of my evilness was done via proxy, although a lot of it was pretty fucking obvious (encouraging genocide on more than one occasion) that the party didn't seem to think was an issue. My character ended up being the final boss of the campaign after hijacking a ritual, with a big ass climactic battle.

>How much anime should be allowed at the table?

I don't have too much issue with anime at my table, so as long as it's not a mechanical change and its just fluff is fine.

>Magic Items
Anyone have any tips for balancing these? They are based on Monster Hunter features and I wanted to try and see if they would work in D&D 5e.

>you don't know the specifics of the spell
I realize that, but you do know the general gist of what the fucker can do with magic. It's not just "oh boy I sure don't know how that wall of stone erupted from the ground, sure can't have anything to do with the wizard shouting and waving his pinky finger." If you see the effects of the spells the wizard casts, it's trivial to deduce the basic mechanics of it even for an idiot (he can make a Ball of Fire), and easy enough to deduce basic limitations (he hasn't made a Ball of Fire that is bigger or smaller than a sphere about 30 to 50 ft across, give or take). For example, I might not know that Fly is a concentration spell that lasts 10 minutes max, but I do know that throwing the fucker off a cliff to kill him won't work because he can fucking fly.
But the real point is that the guy is trying to keep his spells secret OoC, too. Like what, am I not supposed to know that he's obviously casting Leomund's Tiny Hut when a big immobile dome of force springs up around us for the night?

So my DM has an annoying habit of rewarding "solo xp" to party members when they fight something by themselves. When the fighter was granted a 1 on 1 duel he recently got enough xp to put him nearly to the next level, even though he's already a whole level ahead of us.
Whenever i solve a situation without straight combat, or use a spell to end an encounter, i don't get jack shit. Even when i bring it up, all he wants to do is give lower XP period, and give me like an extra 200 "bonus" xp. The most recent example being that i polymorphed an enemy and threw it into a sphere of annihilation that was nearby, and being told i would get "some extra xp, but i'm lowering the CR reward" despite the fact that we let the fighter 1v1 another enemy and he was granted full xp.

What do?

As a PC it's stupid anyway, unless its a character quirk there is no good reason people that trust each other with their lives should hide basic information.
Really, it's only good as a DM tool, for introducing new spells to a game primarily. It's a good way for a DM to introduce the Xanathar's spells, for example, to the world.

How do the other players feel about it? If they are with you, talking to the DM together may get him to change his mind.

One is too new to understand that it's not normal, the other two are likely indifferent, although i haven't actually talked to anyone but the DM.

What are your complaints about it, specifically? Distilling your argument may help.
Do you not like that beating enemies to death is rewarded more heavily than avoiding/outsmarting enemies with cleverness?
Is there an issue with the more fighty classes getting more solo experience and, therefore, powerleveling beyond the rest of the party to the point where encounters are either too easy for them or too difficult for everyone else?
Do you just not like the lack of consistency and predictability in how experience gets handed out?

I'm the least concerned with the level discrepancy, although i admit i wish it wasn't so apparent.
The combo of encouraging murderhobo and the way my contributions are seen as less valued by a notable metric are the ones that get me bothered.

To further expand, my thoughts on the examples i gave specifically.
In my mind, i ended an encounter, which the DM confirmed was of equal CR to the one the fighter ended, he just rolled more dice doing it. Brute force was rewarded, and ingenuity wasn't.
It frustrates me, because if i intentionally split the party, i would be rewarded for it.

Since the murderhobo and personal contributions aspects are subjective unlike the level discrepancy, and the DM has already brushed you off, I would recommend talking to the other players about how the policy makes you feel.
Ask them if they would be alright with backing you up the next time you ask the DM for a change. If all the players ask together, I think the DM is more likely to oblige.

If the players don't care how you feel, or feel differently, then I don't see any options besides dealing with it or leaving.

>I'd love to know how you manage that on a wizard. Not that I care, I'll still auto succeed on knowing what spells you are casting, I am just very curious.
Not possible unless he is being a retarded wizardfag who likes to cheat.

I'd be pissed about the "less exp for non violent methods". A good GM has an encounter give a set amount of exp no matter how the party solved it, whether that is killing them, avoiding then entirely by sneaking or hiding in a crowd, or by talking them out of fighting. But that is a general thing.

I never have a problem with individual exp. I ahve had several campaigns where people have complained about being a full level behind, after they missed 20% of the sessions. Fuck You, if you don't show up, you dont get anything, and the people there will get a bigger reward for overcoming it anyway.

Same if a later decides to sit one out. I'd honestly be pissed if I was put in a 1v1, and I got a quarter of the exp for the fight because the other PCs where jacking off to Stalins guide to everything, and shouldn't feel left out. Fuck off.

+1

I still feel like the guy you responded to has a right to be angry, getting less exp for alternate solutions is retarded, but I otherwise agree.