/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

Dragqueens.

>fanservice shit

user, I feel like you don't get a lot of love in your life and that makes me sad. If I can give you some solace that somewhere someone in the world cares for you and wants you to be a happier person no matter what you think about them or their interest, that would be great. I'd give you a hug if I could, but sadly there is no way to pass one through the internet. So the best I can do is tell you good luck and keep your chin up.

One of my friends tried to aim an arrow to shoot into the locking mechanism of an animal cage, to prevent it from opening. I gave him inspiration for it.

At first I thought it was some forced fanservice shit but the more I read the more I liked it...

When did your retard wrangles know you were loose?

He succeeded.
Rule of cool is much better than strictly RAW.

are you serious? without even a super hard check? the game is gonna get pretty trivial if you allow something to auto succeed as long as it's ridiculous and unlikely but cool; anyone can say they want to do something ridiculously contrived that might have the intended result but they should actually have to do it

Kind of makes sense-channeling large quantities of energy through your body gives off heat. Trying to wear heavy armor is going to make that heat very difficult to bear.

>It's a I'm not shitting up the thread by reeing about badwrongfun they just are badwrongfun and shouldn't post or play D&D episode

fpbp

Personally I don't mind rule of cool used here and there. It's when every other thing someone does is rule of cooled that it becomes less a reward and more of a standard.

running around swinging a sword twice the size of you is what is retarded

Might be nice if someone reported this moron for spamming. Just saying.

So for Christmas I'm getting myself the 5e Starter Kit and the Player's Handbook. I've played a handful of Pathfinder oneshots online and have started the Enemy Within Warhammer Campaign as a player with one of my irl friends DMing so I don't have much RPG experience but I am planning to read up on more of the rules once my player's guide and starter set arrive and have watched some simple videos online detailing basic DMing principles and rules. I am planning to try out the adventure that comes with the starter set (Lost Mines of Phandelver iirc) with a few friends who have never played an RPG of their lives after my shit comes in the mail. Any tips on running that adventure and/or explaining and beginning to play D&D with a group of newfags?

Nah, he succeeded against the check with a high enough roll. Where did you get the impression he autosuceeded? I didn't make him autosucceed, the game'll pointless without dice rolling in some parts.

I've run LMoP about 5 times now,I can try to give you a rundown when I'm home in 15 minutes.

1) runon sentences hurt my brain
2) man, just tell your bros that its all for fun and make sure they remember its a cooperative storytelling game, the goal isn't to "win"

>someone disagrees with me
HURRRRR REPORT THEM

Not him but you are being a cunt and spamming about anime and how it's bad and doesn't belong in D&D m8.

>One of the PCs is a bastard looking for his father
>Suddenly realize that if one of the villains turns out to be his father, it would be great
>For example, he would have killed both of his brothers
My best ideas always come to me mid-campaign.

Father part I can get but don't be a dick and make it a "haha you were killing the family you searched so long for!"

He's looking for his father to kill him.

Well, not kill, more like beat the shit out of for being a deadbeat dad.

Depends on the class.

Bards for example know bits and pieces of the language of creation that the gods used in the construction of the world and because of this can create sentences and rhymes that affect the world around them. Unfortunately it sometimes can slip out in normal conversation when they don't mean it to.

Sure. Would like to know kinda what it's like. Also wondering if I should let them create their own characters or just let them choose from the premade. They'll only be 4 people.

>twice
More like 20 times really.

Depends on the class.

Bards for example know bits and pieces of the language of creation that the gods used in the construction of the world and because of this can create sentences and rhymes that affect the world around them. Unfortunately it sometimes can slip out in normal conversation when they don't mean it to.

In an adventure I'm working on for my group, an organization is slowly brainwashing a town with a new type of drink infused with enchantment magic.
The main tavern has a large storeroom where they keep the casks of beverages bought from the organization. What hints could I put in the storeroom that something about these drinks is off?

They are labeled as beer, but don't smell like beer at all.

That changes nothing about what I said, I'm all for the "your dad was the villian all along" just not the "oh btw he had other kids and you killed your brothers"

Alright as promised I will only post this in a single condensed picture as to avoid spamming the thread. I made some adjustments what do you guys think?

Suspiciously large amount of dead rodents laying around

Nah, not really. It is pretty good in what it claims to do. The thing is, lot of people use it for things they shouldn't and since it is most popular RPG ever, it is 'default' system for most people - even for a lot of people who would rather play something else (if they were able to find like-minded group).

All barrels are labeled with strange chalk markings. Literally nothing else is labeled this way.

A character sees a hooded figure in the alley next to the tavern handing over suspiciously marked kegs to the patron/someone who works at the tavern and watch the patron/person who works at the tavern put them in the back room.

>I prefer using RAW and RAI.
Caster have much more options to creatively use their abilities and they already have much greater utility and versatility.

>How to make marials less boring
More RP. Seriously - if you are not actively engaging the mechanics of the system, it's imbalances won't come out. I think this is approach developers has taken as well and said 'fuck it' to trying to perfectly balance system - because that is probably impossible.

my players are on the cust of finishing the lost mines and I'm gonna send them into the hoard of the dragon queen next. I found a site that suggests starting with chapter 4, and one that suggests chapter 5. chapter 5 I like because waterdeep isn't far from phandelin. so far i have an idea that sildar and/or daran have heard from their factions about what the cult is up to, and to go investigate in Waterdeep. not 100% sure if/how to include the monk Leosin and the paladin Ontharr. maybe i can move that encounter from Eturel to Waterdeep. also, janma is easy enough, the characters can meet her when they sign up to guard the supply train.

apart from that the only stuff from the first few episodes looks to be of any importance is the eggs and Cyanwrath. i guess i could have the monk dude have already dealt with the eggs, or i can just leave them there and have the hatchlings show up later, idk.

Alright, I'll do my best to answer your questions.

To start, if you want some good media to listen to in terms of getting in the GM headspace, I recommend Matthew Colville on YouTube. He's got some really good primers on the game in general, and some nice tips on GMing. He recommends using rolled stats though, which I would advise against. Here's a link to a video series I think is for the most part useful: youtube.com/watch?v=zTD2RZz6mlo&list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_&index=2 (sorry, the guy can be kind of annoying, but the content is mostly sound).

Another thing I recommend doing is listening to the first few episodes of The Adventure Zone: it's a podcast where three brothers play D&D for the first time, and I think it does a great job of capturing the feel of the game (plus, it's funny as shit. They get a little bit loose with the rules though, which is fine in moderation).

Tips for explaining to your friends/getting them started: make sure they know that D&D is a co-operative game. It's not about you, it's about the team. Play your character, but remember that your character is part of a team. Would Legolas steal money from Aragorn's backpack? Would Chewie stab Han in the back? No.

In terms of explaining how to actually play, my general approach is presenting the following formula:
1.) Describe what your character does, or wants to do.
2.) If failing the task would have bad consequences, you have to make a roll to see if you succeed.
3.) As much as you can, act in character, but don't feel like you have to be a slave to what you have written down.

If your players are still unsure of what exactly to do, or how things work, that's okay! Most of the learning in D&D takes place while you play, and that's part of the fun.

Next, I'll give some general GM advice.

Wizards study and affect the world around them by manipulating the weave from a precise and scientific standpoint. Sorcerers innately have this ability and can simply do but it is not as precise as the above. Bards, wether they realize it or not, do so through the power of song and story plucking at the threads to create the effects they desire. Rangers grow close to the nature around them over time, eventually being able to produce some results even if they don't 100% understand how. Druid are somewhat the same but focus more into connecting with nature purposefully and use rituals and the like to help them tap into the weave until they are familiar enough to do more. Paladins use their force of personality, will, their convictions and beliefs in their Oaths as a way to impose their own will on to the weave.

>Rule of cool is much better than strictly RAW
i interpeted this as you let him do it rather than using the RAW to make it a difficult check but clearly i was wrong, apologies. the way you did it is totally correct

No worries, I should have made it clearer that the rule of cool also meant succeeding on a dice roll and shouldn't just happen. My mistake.

For the Kensai monk would Dart be the best choice for ranged weapon?

Is there any worthwhile spells in Xanathar’s for a level 8 fire dragon sorc? I’m already a haste bot

Is it just me or is The Cavalier straight better than the Battle Master?

Contd. from Now for some general GM advice:
1.) Avoid saying flat, unconditional "no"s. Being shut down doesn't feel good, and it also can grind the game to a halt as you debate back and forth over why or why not. Better responses are things like "yes, and," "yes, but," or "no, but." They might not be able to do the thing they want to do, but giving them alternate or modified options keeps things moving, and saying yes to things you didn't think of can lead to unexpected fun and opportunities!

2.) Don't be a slave to your notes/the written adventure. Sometimes, your players will do things that your notes don't account for, or you'll want to change things about your adventure on the fly. This is good! Pre-written adventures are good guidelines, but don't treat them as gospel on how to run a good adventure. At the same time, you should let your players know that their focus should be on generally following the adventure: going 90 degrees off the road and doing something completely random *sounds* fun, but it really isn't in the long term.

3.) Don't obsess over learning every inch of the rules, or even following them all of the time. A lot of the most fun and memorable moments in D&D happen when your players (or you!) try to do something not covered by the rules, or something that is in contradiction to the usual rules. Let it happen, within reason! Your rogue wants to slide through someone's legs and do an AT-AT maneuver? Your druid wants to cast entangle on a wall to provide handholds for climbing? Go for it!

In terms of characters, what I would do at the start is: ask your players what class, race and background they would like to be, and then build their characters for them. Then, when it comes to game time, ask if they want to make any changes. It'll give them the opportunity of customization, but skips the weirdness of making a character for a game you don't know how to play.

I'll talk about LMoP next.

This was a great exchange to watch, thanks for bringing a positive attitude to the thread guys.

i mean if you're comparing the two in the same role then yeah it is, but a battlemaster makes a better archer and there's probably other niches for it

Explain haven't had a chance to really look at the new subclasses. Mostly because it will just make me sad at more characters I'll never get to play being a forever DM.

thanks for spoilering pham

>Mostly because it will just make me sad at more characters I'll never get to play being a forever DM.

this. fucking this.

also is Fighter Champeen ok or should I tell my player to do something interesting

What do youn think of the starting characters? Should I rather just let them pick between the 5 that come in the starter set (it'll be a party of 4 so one character will be left out) or should I let them make their own?

Depends, ask him what he's looking for out of the game and explain what Champion can do.

Contd. from (You)

Now I'll talk about the Lost Mine of Phandelver. Spoilers ahead.

It's a great beginner adventure, but it can be deadly at the beginning. Level 1 characters are very flimsy. Don't be afraid to play the goblins as cowards and idiots: they're goblins! They're dumb.

If there's an opportunity to notice something important (like an ambush, trap, hidden treasure) and your players don't try to look for stuff, call for a Perception check. Eventually, your players will learn to start checking on their own.

Make sure your players know that sometimes there are solutions that don't require combat! They can sneak their way past enemies, negotiate with them, or otherwise trick them! Generally if your players try to treat with things, you should at least give them a chance to speak (even if failure is certain!).

There are a lot of adventure hooks once you reach Phandalin proper. Unless you want to do a bunch of sidequests, I recommend limiting these at the start, or repositioning them so that they're on the way to the party's main objectives. (I had a group spend 4 sessions doing side quests while the party's benefactor was being held hostage).

I definitely recommend nudging your party towards Redbrand Hideout as a way of finding Cragmaw Castle: there's dope treasure and lots of fun encounters that they might otherwise miss.

Perhaps the biggest: tailor the magic items scattered in the adventure to suit your party! The magic longsword in Redbrand Hideout is useless if no one in your party uses martial weapons; feel free to change items around so that your party can have fun using them!

There's probably more to say about LMoP, but those were the few things that I wish had known when I first ran it.

Is there anything else you'd like to know? I'll try my best to help.[/spoilers]

Oh shit I'm sorry, I fixed it. fortunately I don't think I spoiled any major plot stuff but still, I should be more careful.

>What do youn think of the starting characters? Should I rather just let them pick between the 5 that come in the starter set (it'll be a party of 4 so one character will be left out) or should I let them make their own?

i mean it's boring but if he's fine with that it's not terrible, especially if it's part of a crit fishing build

I deleted the post because it had spoilers.

I actually don't know what the starting characters are, but what I tend to do in my starter games are:

If I have time, I'll sit down with each player and walk them through building a character. If not, I ask my players what they want to do, what race they want to be, and what their background is, and then build them characters based on that. It gets around the awkwardness of building a character for a game you don't know how to play yet.

If you do take the second option, make sure to let your players know they can alter their characters as they see fit.

For example, my one friend said "I want to be an elf, like, a knight. A snake knight, with snake powers." So I made him a wood elf Oath of Ancients paladin.

What should I do to make these characters more interesting?

I am OK with Derendil and Jimjar but the rest are lackluster

ront and sarith are pointless but the rest can be played plenty interesting if they actually act on their traits and motivations

How do you handle players trying to call shots, such as "I attack his ring finger, hoping to slice the magic ring of control off him!"?
My response has pretty much been
>Roll that crit, faggot.

Ok. I think that's good. Do you know if the adventure is cut up into parts because my group said that they didnt want it to be too long. Does maybe a bit more than an hour or so for the adventure and like 30minutes to make their characters/explain the rules sounds reasonable? I will plan out more than an hour's worth of content in case they decide they want to play some more.

an hour is not enough time, in my opinion, for neither completing the whole adventure, nor for a session. i would recommend about 3 hours for a session at least.
The whole adventure would take about 20 hours i believe. Let your players know this, and that you guys can see at that point how they like D nD and if they and you want to continue to play.
at this point you could even ask if they want to make their characters(since they will know the game a lot more).

I give them disadvantage on the attack, but if they break the AC, then it probably won't deal significant damage considering they're cutting off the ring finger. However, I would have the ring come off because he doesn't have the ring finger anymore

The Battle Master's whole schtick, the Martial Dice, while early on is pretty great, is actually pretty underpowered, and isn't very versatile. Most of the cool stuff you can do is actually kind of limited.

The Cavalier gets marking instead and it leaves you with more you can do in the long run and better at controlling a battlefield. It also gets what is basically the Sentinel feat as a class feature.

Disadvantage or a - to hit depending on what they are trying to hit/do.

Champion is okay, especially if your players doesn't want to think too much and just fuck shit up. He can also get a second fighting-style eventually. Other than that, the Champion doesn't do much.

yeah i make a raised functional AC for the target based on the difficulty of the shot, a finger would have to be like a 25 at least, maybe with disadvantage if it was flailing about

If you're working on time constraints, I'd premake their characters: in my experience it takes 10-20 minutes per character.

The adventure is split up into 4 segments:
The first part is investigating the disappearance of your employer and his bodyguard, tracking them to a goblin cave. Depending on how quick your players move, it takes 1 to 3 hours.
The second part is a bit more nebulous, involves digging up clues in town to find your actual employer, has a whole bunch of possible hooks.
Part three is rescuing your employer from a goblin castle.
Part four is going to the Lost Mine itself and facing off with the mastermind of all fo your troubles.

Just a note on running a game, I would set aside three hours for a session at least, especially for a first session. You don't necessarily need to run it that entire time, but I'd say that an hour and a half really isn't enough.

i second this, i've run 2 hour sessions but they don't feel long enough and LMoP took about 18 hours

To add to I was time constrained once to 4 hours, my group was pretty sad once the time finished. Just let your players know ahead of time how long it would take per session so that if they don't want to commit that much time, they can tell you then.

My response is there are no called shots. Even if you crit. That way they stop asking.

Jimjar is a balla and should be played as such. Check the end of the adventure for a suggestion that Jimjar is actually the god or avatar of a god such as Garl Glittergold

I had Jimjar come back from death or being lost a couple of times and it was fun.

I say "Would you like enemies to likewise be able to target your limbs or items?" This makes them stop asking

well that's an unfun take, guess you don't like martials to be able to solve those kinds of situations then? or do you have an alternative?

>encouraging this kind of shit in your games

Good job wankers

2-3 hours for the starting session seems reasonable. I could see them and make their characters before hand aswell so that the start is shorter and that we can jump directly into the story.

I also had another question pertaining more to combat. I don't, really have a gridded map or miniatures for combat. I could just print out some paper and make a grid since I'm more of a visual person and prefer a grid to theatre of the mind. I can also cut out some printed out tokens. How much combat will there be in the first part like mentionned and how big are the fighting areas (approximately if each square is 5ft)

So the College of Swords bard flourishes.

They seem to fit an RDM pretty well.

But so does the ability to twin and quicken spells.

Is a Bard 14/Sorc 6 cheese?

How do you feel about making up custom magic items in your game? For me it's most of the fun.

Bits getting cut off is a different system.

Also hp and damage are not literal wounds, attacks are not 1:1 rolls and again if you want that kind if fun play a different system. My players seem to have plenty of fun without dumb shit like this.

Would a paladin ever be okay grouping with a necromancer?

I'm currently playing with an Elf Cleric, Human Fighter, and Dragon Born Necromancer.

Necromancer is Chaotic good. Believes that using corpses for furthering magic and science is no big deal since the soul is long gone and the body could be put to good use defending the living. He's even used "Speak with Dead" to ask permission to use a dead guy's body as a pincushion for an arrow trap.

Would a lawful good paladin ever be okay with a necromancer like that?

I do it all the time.

Are they balanced? Probably not, since I come from a Pathfinder background.

Are they fun? Yeah.

Are you playing a level 20 campaign? Because if you're not anything you suggest is cheese.

>discouraging fun and creativity in your games
nice one

No

We're currently level 17. I was just trying to decide whether Swords Bard by itself, or multiclassed with Divine Soul for the recreation of Vercure and Dual Casting would be better.

>not allowing players to do fun, whimsical stunts
Glad I'm not in your shit game desoo

Yeah making characters in advance is a good idea. Honestly, in terms of combat, I wouldnt worry too much about a grid or minis. If you really need a map, I'd just sketch it out on paper and do it a bit more freestyle. 5e really doesn't need grids to function all that much, and combat goes faster if you just run things in the theatre of the mind.

In the first part there are I think 5-6 combat encounters, but three of them are really short/small. there are also I think 2 or 3 traps.

Do you guys use grids on roll20? I do, and to be honest, I'm kinda sick of them.

>Encouraging players to do more than just "I attack" or "I cast/use x ability"
>Bad

Champions aren't that bad, desu. Everyone knows crits are fun.

Cutting off fingers is not fun, not creative and not realistic. It's the most stupid and unrealistic solution, starting with its easier to cut off the hand and instead of flailing around hacking randomly why not have one guy grapple his arm (only his arm) and someone else just hack the hand off. Just the arm can't have much str to resist a grapple and we're calling shots so why not?

I expect more from my players I guess because stupid shit like this leads to stupid shit like this.