/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

Is this still the best route or is War Wizard actually useful?

Zealot barbarian

Then don't go to a D&D thread?

I don't 100% get it. You get a Patron, Pact, Invocations, and spells. The Pact sorta is the main thing choosing your playstyle and Invocations choose your abilities. I've never seen people actually discussing the differences of the Patrons.
My main issue is that 2 levels of Warlock make you a better archer than a full fighter Archer. 1d10+Cha+1d6(hex) is consistently stronger than 1d8+Dex

I mean, if you plan on being in the front lines as a wizard then sure. But otherwise, no.

Do a college of swords bard. Maybe they are a circus performer? Maybe a snobby noble trained as a duelist? Either way take Shadow Blade at 10th level and now you have insane dps. I suggest resilient Con around then as well

they are supposed to take eldritch blast at level 1, then Agonizing Blast at level 2, then constantly spam that for the next 18 levels.

and that's it. NOTHING else about the class matters

Anyone play through new Tomb of Annihilation? How is it? Compared to old? Likes/Dislikes?

>relevant
unlike your comment?

>ignoring out of combat utility invocations

Warlocks get more utility features than pretty much every other class combined.

But CBE and SS exist

Thank you for proving my point. In order to catch up you need to use an optional rule that is super cheesy and has a -3 to hit. As a DM I don't allow SS to affect crossbows and visa versa because that's retarded

The level 2 power is pretty nice out of combat, which sounds odd until you consider how often you're going to make Con saves vs disease or Wis vs mind control, at which point it sounds odd for a different reason. +4 to everything when you're not tracking combat time is neat, if you're into the Invincibility Power Fantasy. That's what the entire War Magic path is, it ties into that desire to be invincible rather than the desire to destroy everything in front of you. Slightly different power fantasies. Some people don't find that version appealing. Personally, I do.

can i have some feedback on these monsters? I am converting a bunch from 3.5 and I have a good bit of practice now but I just want to avoid committing too many "faux pas" type mistakes, doing stuff that really isn't in the theme of 5e, etc.. Also formatting help would be amazing. Nothing is too nitpicky for me.

any help with the wording or structure of the special abilities would be a godsend to me. I am particularly worried about this monster.

I'm trying to recreate the atropus elder evils adventure, and hopefully father llymic and some other elder evils, because I really like them.

I know the roper had reel as a separate action but I wanted this creature to be a bit faster, especially as it doesn't have much staying power

Rate my level 6 Warlock build
>Tiefling
>Hexblade Patron
>Pact of Chain
>Agonizing Blast, Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, Maddening Hex

I have literally dozens of monsters to post but I will stop for now cause I don't want to shit up the thread. I bookmarked my posts so I can check back for feedback, ANYTHING is appreciated.

I don't know if WotC ever brought up something like this but how do any of the Gith feel about Mindflayers who incredibly rarely retain who they were before they got turned? Mindflayers have a legend where they're called the Adversary. Because I've got an interesting campaign idea from that but I want to know if there's some basis to it.

I'm making a super flashy Arcane Trickster High Elf, do I go with 17 DEX and snag a +1 DEX feat, or just leave my stats more 'balanced'? I admittedly don't have expertise in any of my DEX skills.

why are you bothering with combat effectiveness beyond agonizing blast as a hexblade?

yeah, you would think gays are cute

Because maddening hex let's you tag on AoE damage at will as a bonus action each turn. Damage is nice, but have you ever tried dealing even more damage?

>My main issue is that 2 levels of Warlock make you a better archer than a full fighter Archer. 1d10+Cha+1d6(hex) is consistently stronger than 1d8+Dex

What invocation would you suggest grabbing instead?

The more I prep for HotDQ the more I realize this module is a mess, and, other than the good guys, none of the NPC's motivations or plans make any fucking sense.

Wat do?

Don't
Seriously the module is shit, I'd rather take the concept and some characters and remake the story

Fuck. It was a Christmas gift and I feel obligated to run the thing.

Maybe I can rip it apart and glue the bits back together.

Pretty shit, mechanic forces people to either engage at range or die. Makes the enemy either a ranged slugfest or a "haha eat shit martialfag" encounter.

the designer of that module, after release, wrote what his intentions were, and why some things are such a mess, I suggest you go search for it, it does help for some of the failings.

Are you obliged to run it without changing anything? You could just tinker a bit with what you don't like

Mind linking it, I can't find it

Is it just me or are moon druids forms after second level shit?

Thanks, I managed to find a summary of the thread (since the original was on the now defunct WotC forums), I'll read it over.

Oh, I can change whatever I like. But the module has some rather extensive issues. One of which is that the BBEG wanders the length of the sword coast for no goddamn reason and winds up nearly where the module starts.

enworld.org/forum/content.php?1909-HOARD-OF-THE-DRAGON-QUEEN-Author-Steve-Winter-Clarifies-A-Few-Points!

Yeah, why is that module so shit?

Mind linking it? How could a designer shit something like that out?

>Mind linking it? How could a designer shit something like that out?
links above, but basically, he was rushed into finishing the module BEFORE the game was finished, so he ended up making some encounters feature monsters that then later got buffed in the monster manual.

Gotta suck it man, become the greatest DM ever

Thoughts?

Thanks, dude. Wasn't there controversy involving Winter and spamming out shit designs?
Kobold Press isn't great. The adventure by Wolfgang Baur was also lame and shithouse.

Imagine that, 5e was almost killed off by an excruciable adventure.

Dungeon runs with various aspects inside them from social encounters to combats. Overworld encounters, not so much.

I want to be a dragonborn lycanthrope. Can I do this or am I in thatguy territory?

Shit, AC is supposed to be 13....

you are firmly in thatguy territory.

It's called Dungeon and Dragons after all

Not if you're a werefish.

Yeah. Looks like I don't have a choice. Time to ride or die.

>Overworld encounters, not so much.

Overworld works fine for me, what am I doing wrong that it's working so well?

What do you all feel about granting your players unique items that helps explain meta functions, like when players agree to plans discussed OOC their ICC know about what they are going to do or how to explain people popping in and out of games if they cannot make it or any of the other meta things that come up?

>One of which is that the BBEG wanders the length of the sword coast for no goddamn reason and winds up nearly where the module starts.

I always try to nearly step on the party with a frost giant or something WAY WAY out of their fucking league, you know give them a taste of the fact that the world is way bigger and way more powerful than them. Maybe that was the idea.

I feel like that's a DM and a group that probably is so autistic they cannot function in the real world.

>wand of chet is banging his gf tonight
>sword of tims mom won't let him play
>potion of DM is going to be late
>elven cloak of just going to step out and suck two dicks between rounds this combat

Well, it's fine, but it's not like the system supports it well.
>Classes invalidate tracking, getting lost etc aspects
>Food and water tracking is just a chore that asks someone to take outlander background and scrounge it up, if you don't just goodberry and create water
>If you're lost in wilderness for extended periods of time, you can't get shit like spell components on levelling up, not that levelling up without downtime made sense anyway
>Have to give players a reason to not just rest after every combat by having time pressure all the time, otherwise players can just blow it out all over whatever random encounter on the road they find
>Much harder to simulate shit like traps and stuff on the road without just saying 'Oh, after 5 hours of nothing you find nothing, but it's a very suspicious nothing. Do you want to just keep moving along?' or 'you trigger trap or ambush, roll shit.'
>Vast distances and open areas lend well to annoying kiting tactics, ranged superiority or you make all characters blind after 60ft
>Road encounters often end up tying in with mostly irrelevant things, like there's a rat group taking over the plains but you're just passing by so who cares

You can definitely still do campaigns overworld, it's just usually they tend to be more lighthearted than hardcore. If you want hardcore, do dungeons.

The only thing I would allow is some sort of telepathy earring for each member of the team that allows them to talk to all other members of the team, to explain in-character chatter. It still wouldn't explain OOC knowledge, though, and I wouldn't try and justify it.

Is there any homebrew of a shapeshifting ranger conclave?

>I always try to nearly step on the party with a frost giant or something WAY WAY out of their fucking league, you know give them a taste of the fact that the world is way bigger and way more powerful than them. Maybe that was the idea.

Nah, that's already baked in to the first chapter (twice, even). The PCs are supposed to feel in way over their heads for about half the campaign. Wandering all over the Sword Coast does nothing but provide room/time for the module to play out. If BBEG was sane they'd just march over to their goal and shit would be over in a week instead of 8 months, and the campaign would just start with Rise of Tiamat.

yeah, it's called Druid.

>If BBEG was sane they'd just march over to their goal and shit would be over in a week instead of 8 months

and like all of Hollywood there wouldn't be a show.

Yeah don't know if it's any good though. Give them Extra Attack at level 5.

Otherwise, play a Moon Druid.

>everything is casters v.s. martials
Wow.

What are Rust monsters? Or Ropers?

OK so there is a traitor NPC with the party.

Song of Rest says "you or any friendly" I'm going to assume that means "creatures the bard thinks are friendly".

Also can the bard then be a dick and be like, the warlock fag can suck it, my song of rest doesn't work for him.

If not what is to stop your friendly local kobold from soaking up the tunes through his bolt hole?

Ok, but what if it's a werewolf dragonborn necromancer? What if I punch the skeletons out of people and control them?

How would you guys make wielding a one handed weapon with nothing in the offhand viable?

Me and my buddy created a feat
Fencer:
-When wielding a melee weapon in one hand and nothing in your other hand you have +1 to AC and +1 to melee weapon attack rolls
-As a bonus action you can assume an offensive style of combat, until the beginning of yoir next turn you gain an additional +1 to melee weapon attack rolls as well as advantage on attacks of opportunity
-As a bonus action you can assume a defensive style of combat, until the beginning of your next turn you gain an additional +1 to AC and attacks of opportunity against you are made with disadvantage

nah you're fine

you're fine. do it

>How would you guys make wielding a one handed weapon with nothing in the offhand viable?

you hold a one handed weapon in one hand
you hold nothing in the other hand

there you go, you're welcome. thanks for playing 5e.

>Movement ties into the length of time torches burn which ties into how often random encounters happen, etc. There's a very tight action economy when it comes to moving and taking actions outside of combat that I haven't seen in any of the later editions. The time management is integrated into the resource management extremely well and is more important to the game than in 5e ime.
You still have those rules. Is there any reason they can't be used in a 5e game?

Shit, unbalanced encounters that target people who already got the short end of the stick

>just accept that your damage is reduced by 20-80% or your AC is reduced by 2 from better builds
Great solution. Thanks for the help

D&D is an unbalanced game, especially at high levels. It's about fun, are you having fun?

what happened to the discord server in the OP?

Currently creating a campaign for my characters. Starting off with them coming across a rather decent sized city. They quickly learn there is something very off about the largest tavern in the city.

Any bard that begins to play a song after a song will generally sing a song about someone in the town. Either something interesting that could be the start of a quest. A murderer within the city etc.

Pretty much most of my players love music and don't mind a good drink and a sing along. So I am trying to go for a more of a Musical type setting. In the end they will be up against an evil bard who is controlling the town without them really realizing it.

Looking for ideas on good songs to have thrown in. They pretty much should mention nothing to do with the modern day of course. A lot of folk songs and such seem good. I have a couple of starting songs that I would have the characters all sing along to, to get an idea on what is up with the tavern.

The first quest song they will hear will be the Crane wife by the Decemberists.

I have a couple of others in mind but would love to hear ideas for the setting itself Or a few songs that might be good to throw in.

But user, a splash of water can ruin a wizards spellbook

easy there Ricky Bobby, just because you aren't in first place doesn't mean you are in last place.

People get upset about it because of drama literally a year ago despite it actually having better discussion than this hellhole of a thread ever has.

discord.me/5eg

Really we tried running this campaign as a group. The DM and the rest of us ended up discussing how poorly written it was. Myself and my gf along with my brother who is the DM also got incredibly sick around the same time. Got some massive flu that was going around that hit us all for around 2 months,

So after that hiatus we just ended up switching modules. I myself am currently running ToA and I am really enjoying that one. Has fucking clear motivations for the characters. Not too big on the "timer" it gives you but that can pretty much be ignored.

My Brother swapped and is running Curse of Strahd which we have also been enjoying.

Play a barbarogue and grapple shit you faggot.

shanking people isn't really a fighting style. Also I was looking for something that would work on any class rather than a specific meme class

>Barbarogue
>Meme
>Wants to play a specific fighting style that doesn't make sense unless they rework the system to make pulling out weapons/stowing them harder but doesn't want to play something very specific for it that already exists

Yeah, I have fun with it in my group. This isn't about fun this is "are these creatures balanced?"

My DM, who has been an RL buddy of mine for a long time, has a mix of our friends and some of his work friends (some of which overlap) asking him to run them through a campaign. There are nine of us in total. So what he decided to do is run two different groups, one on FRI (after work) and one on SAT (at his place, this is our session) and have them be connected.

We've got a shared discord and he has a 'meet-up' in voice chat every week (day varies as of now, mostly on Wednesdays as of now) where we act like we're meeting up with one another and discussing the 'contract' that we seem to share. So far it's going really well, but i'm worrying that he's going to burn himself out. He's been DMing since we were fucking sixteen, but still. Running two groups and connecting them has to be exhausting.

Sometimes, builds don't have to be equal. For the same reason that TWF is objectively inferior to GWF and ranged attacks are as good/better than melee in general, you can't have everyone be equal because it removes meaningful decisions.

Wielding a single sword makes plenty of sense. It is a common element throughout history of melee combat. Wielding two weapons is much more senseless because it does not have a common place in the history of melee combat. I am simply trying to make a real historical style of swordplay be as viable as a fabricated one

Updated the wording for some of them and added charges to them. They should be okay now for some people's games?

You wield a single sword because it's impractical to carry a shield everywhere with you or a two handed weapon or whatever. And don't forget, you're up against things other than level 1 humans in a fantasy world.

Just because something is used in history doesn't mean it's the most effective way to fight the king of the underworld.

Oh, right, but yes, wielding two weapons is pretty eh. It has uses for sure, but TWF is way too powerful on a commoner who does 2d6 with two shortswords instead of 1d6 with one shortsword. But this isn't a game about playing commoners, and on almost everybody (except barbarogues, really) TWF isn't as good as the alternatives.

TWF seems stronger than GWF if you don't allow the optional feat rules. Also O think making greater parity between fighting styles increases meaningful descisions. That is why as a DM I don't allow XBE to work with SS or GWM to work with PAM. That way instead of everyone running around with handcrossbows and halberds there is a greater multitude of viable playstyles

Change the NPCs, motivations, and plans yourself.
Basically...rewrite the module

>One of which is that the BBEG wanders the length of the sword coast for no goddamn reason and winds up nearly where the module starts.

Change the BBEG's plans accordingly to what and where you think they're going to end up

How can i hide being a warlock? Should I say I'm a sorcerer?

Y'all are missing the point. Instead of thinking creatively you'd rather stick your fingers in your ears and whistle

TWF has a feat to improve.
GWM has two
Bows have two
Sword and Board has a feat
Single weapon fighting has none

So I suppose if noone has any suggestions I'm forced to assume my original feat is the best option anyone can come up with. Thanks for the assistance