/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General:

Reminder that it is GAY to take feats

>What's your favorite monster?
The player's characters.

Need a good background for a half-elf hexblade. His mother was an elf bard and father a human blacksmith. I'm leaning towards soldier who became an officer, lost a significant battle and most of his soldiers, and was left with an 8 STR score as a result of his injuries. Upon escaping the battlefield, he came to a river with three raven haired women washing bloodied clothes in it. They offered him a bargain, granting him back his ability to fight and powers of death, winter, and fate in return for obliging their commands when the times come. Also thinking about going with a criminal background along the same vein, but with him fleeing justice instead of an enemy army.

>What's your favorite monster?
Rakshasa

reminder that it is honestly pretty gay to play 5e at all when both 4e and 3.5e are strictly superior.

Not yet in this edition, user.

Ethergaunts.

Critical Role Q&A is on`

Reminder that it is GAY to play Dungeons & Dragons.

Any good MC options for AT?

warlock or wizard. for dips to get awesome low level features, such as at will silent image, or conjuring things for your mage hand to use.

4e and 3.5e are strictly better at sucking huge amounts of ass.

sessions, so I promised him a solo session. I thought that I would make it so his absence was due to him striking out on his own to discover the guy who orchestrated his betrayal, with two dudes being possible culprits (kinda like Niko in GTA4 if anyone played it). Apart from that, I have no idea how to structure this session, only that it will end with a confrontation with the traitor. I'm afraid combat will be boring though, seeing as he's level 2 and hasn't got his archetype yet. Does anyone have any ideas for how to make this session?

My second question is about the items in the game. Both of our martials (a Paladin and the aforementioned Fighter) use GWF, with the Paladin sometimes switching to shield+mace. Would it be a problem to make the magic weapons (Talon, Lightbringer) a greatsword and maul, respectively?

Thirdly, I've now given my players ample time and opportunities to respond to the Redbrand threat (ran the ruffian encounter twice, gave warnings from townspeople) yet they almost tried to ignore it and venture forth to Cragmaw castle (not really a problem in and of itself, but I'm kind of autismal when it comes to sequence of events) and keep returning to the inn to heal for no reason (they barely expend any resources). I plan on making the Redbrands attack in the night, killing the woodworker (who is supposed to be dead before the start of the adventure) and kidnapping his wife, as well as burning down their house and the inn and smashing the shops (except the miner's exchange).

Something went wrong, reposting:

Running LMoP with my group, 4/5 of them first timers. We're currently in Phandalin, they're level 2 and getting ready to deal with the Redbrands.

First question is about one of the players, a Fighter whose backstory is that he was left for dead by his mercenary group, the Red Talons. I saw the opportunity to fluff the Redbrands as originating from them, and give him a chance at vengeance. Now he hasn't been able to show up to two sessions, so I promised him a solo session. I thought that I would make it so his absence was due to him striking out on his own to discover the guy who orchestrated his betrayal, with two dudes being possible culprits (kinda like Niko in GTA4 if anyone played it). Apart from that, I have no idea how to structure this session, only that it will end with a confrontation with the traitor. I'm afraid combat will be boring though, seeing as he's level 2 and hasn't got his archetype yet. Does anyone have any ideas for how to make this session?

My second question is about the items in the game. Both of our martials (a Paladin and the aforementioned Fighter) use GWF, with the Paladin sometimes switching to shield+mace. Would it be a problem to make the magic weapons (Talon, Lightbringer) a greatsword and maul, respectively?

Thirdly, I've now given my players ample time and opportunities to respond to the Redbrand threat (ran the ruffian encounter twice, gave warnings from townspeople) yet they almost tried to ignore it and venture forth to Cragmaw castle (not really a problem in and of itself, but I'm kind of autismal when it comes to sequence of events) and keep returning to the inn to heal for no reason (they barely expend any resources). I plan on making the Redbrands attack in the night, killing the woodworker (who is supposed to be dead before but eh) and kidnapping his wife, as well as burning down their house and the inn and smashing the shops (except the miner's exchange).

how do you explain their patron? do you need to write a special snowflake story for them to get patron now?

Even when it's cool character choices?
My party's got an Eldritch Knight fighter and he's going to MC into Paladin after meeting one of the sun gods of my setting.
On the flipside the Cleric took a level of Wild Magic Sorc and screwed the party out of important 7th level Cleric spells.

The consequences of this will be higher prices or unwillingness to trade, and the townsfolk, especially the townmaster getting angry because the PCs "stirred up trouble". Is this an okay idea or is it a bit much?

My fourth question is about the loot, namely magic items. There are only two weapons, one or two staves, and a breasplate in the whole adventure. This is barely enough for the Fighter and Paladin, but there is also a rogue, a bard and a sorcerer. Should I try and include some magic items for them as well, ones not included in the adventure?

I would also like to give other players their own short sidequests. The paladin has had his, the fighter is gonna have his, I still need one for the Rogue (dunno much about him so I don't know what to do with him), sorcerer (a thief posing as a noble, very protective of her friends), and the bard (an evil, perfection obsessed jeweler and musician).

Thanks for the answers!

He's going infernal pact, and they've been fighting devils, so I honestly don't know exactly. He has his own idea of it, but it's likely to be just an aspect of hell. I plan on offering him the chance to betray his party for some ultimate power, but if he takes it it will just bind him in to hell and make him roll a new character.

I don't understand multiclassing IN to Sorceror. It's in your blood, you need to be born with it.

your innate powers finally manifested

You spend time exploring your heritage and something triggers your latent, inherent magic.

Should sorcerors have double the ammount of sorcery points and 3 choices to start? I feel like they are too limited

Well just because it's in you doesn't mean it's innate the minute you start adventuring.
In the player's case he justified it as a mixture of his mixed tiefling blood and the fact that he'd recently died, got brought back as a revenant and THEN forcibly ressurected, and all those traumas just awoke some chaos magic in him.

>I can't imagine
Typical of a /5eg/ poster

The problem with multi-classing is that you only ever see two types. You can have the twink build that makes no god damn sense but cherry picks strong abilities to break the power curve, or you can have the roleplay build that picks classes for in-character reasons at the cost of gimping their own power.

If a middle ground exists, I've never seen an example of it. Multi-classing is trying to introduce free form class customization into a system that just plain doesn't support it well. If that's what you want then you're better off playing GURPS or M&M or something.

More like
>I don't want to think of bullshit reasons for me to min/max

Got a dragon who's a Cleric and I'm considering upping its Wisdom so it's not as gimped (As much as being a fucking dragon can be anyway.). Does this sound reasonable or bullshit?

?

Sounds reasonable, although for the sake of balance you could lower some other attributes in its place.

You're on some kind of mission, man.

Sorcery is in your blood, but it still takes training and practice; a lot of it. Prior to now, you didn't invest energy in utilizing your magic.

>The Ethergaunts served the daelkyr, their creators, ten thousand years ago, during the Daelkyr War. When the gates to Xoriat were closed by the Gatekeeper Druids, the ethergaunts fled to the Ethereal Plane. After the fall of the Dhakaani Empire, human settlers from Sarlona came to Khorvaire. The humans became food for a race of fey known as Joystealers. The Ethergaunts began taking the Joystealers as slaves.

hoo boy

Since we are getting 4 books when do you think the next one will be announced?

Today.

>we are getting 4 books
phb
mm
dmg
volos
sword coast
xge

One, Fuck you OP for the Pickle-glick.

Flumphs. They are a neat way to keep the underdark from being so grim.

Can someone "okay" these monsters for me?
Does this one have too many abilities? I want to convert it to a race as well, someone gave me good ideas for ability modifiers but also that the race could get abilities at higher levels. How do you reconcile a monster having abilities but the PC version of that mosnter not having them due to balance?

Really excited to play a warlock.
Pact of the Chain.
Not sure which patron yet.
Leaning toward GOO, but I'm open to suggestions.

Firenewt!

and this one?
I'd like to post them on my faggot blog soon, I just want to make sure I haven't badly misworded anythig.

Guys srlsy helap pls.

GOO is cool, and telepathy is super useful. Try to get your DM to allow a cute gazer familiar, because it's more thematic than an imp.

I love using these guys.
It's a great way to throw a wrench into the party's bog-standard strategies and force them to actually think about the fight.

Make the following changes:
>Flaming Aura
should death the damage when a creature starts its turn within 5' or moves into the area.
>Sand Form
If it can't fly, it can't move at all. Gaseous Form can only fly. So change something there.
>Kukri
Include the 1d6 fire damage from Flaming Aura in the damage.
>Sand Pulse
Creatures should not make Dex save versus blinding, it should probably be a Con save, since it's not "how quickly can you close your eyes", it's "can you tough it out." Also, creatures should be able to save at the end of each of their turns.

>is it okay for me to change a module to fit my game?
This is literally the question you are asking.
It all depends if you like status quo or hard objective unbiased way of DMing. Or, in another light, if you prefer narrative or gamist/simulationist play. Neither is wrong, and don't let the stupid brainlet faggots in this thread go "LOL D&D ISNT SIMULATIONIST HOW DARE YOU BRING UP REALISM."

For point 3, I see nothing wrong with that course of action, but keep in mind that killing an NPC for cheap drama should be done cautiously (from a narrative standpoint). From a realistic standpoint, if it makse sense for them to do it, they should do it. Why wouldn't they? I mean as long as it makes sense for the people killing him to target him, go for it.

True, I suppose my only real question has to do with how to structure the personal quests for all the characters, which is hard to answer when I didn't provide much information. I'll try and think something up myself. Thank you for your answer.

We are getting 4 books this year.

>Include the 1d6 fire damage from Flaming Aura in the damage.
I actually forgot to do that, and it's in the original stat block.
I am ashame.
I'll make the other changes, thanks.

Well as for the fighter I wouldn't bother with that traitor confrontation thing. Personally I am not a fan of solo sessions for a character as a split-off from the rest of the group because it normally feels boring. I ran a 1-on-1 campaign to level 6 for my dad and that was fine, but that was because the dynamic was established early on (plus he played 2 characters). Whereas splitting off from a group feels kind of weird and awkward. If your player is missing sessions, and you try to tie that up with solo sessions, you're going to be restricting his freedom, because he needs to rejoin the party by the end of that solo session. Therefore, he has less freedom. A GM can't orchestrate the actions of many separate players that well without the game becoming a note-passing nightmare, and separate sessions are going to force metagaming on the player's part, since they are a one-time session.

That said, there is no reason why the traitor shouldn't be made known to him at some point, and him being a part of the enemy force in a later battle who specifically calls out the fighter and they can have their own 1-on-1 fight within the larger battle. Use some clever foreshadowing and you can pull this off. Example: let some men they capture recognize the fighter, and say "oh you're the one X betrayed." "X?" "X, the one with the scar on his eyebrow." Except don't make it that forced and obvious

Does Magic Resistance give advantage against being turned? Is Turn Undead/Turn the Unholy/etc a magical effect?

how is this?

What options do I have to pump up the damage on a Swashbuckler Rogue around endgame? Current theoretical build (level 20) is dual-wield rapiers, the first one doing 1d8+10d6+11, second one doing 1d8+11. 60dpr isn't terrible but it really doesn't scratch some of the higher burst damages.

I'd give 'em half points back every SR

>Current theoretical build (level 20)
stopped reading there

>someone here made a thread about a Mega Man campaign and how it would work when Mega Man 11 was announced
>Got me thinking of what that would be like
>want to set it in Mega Man X setting
>ask my DM if once we finish up this campaign, I can do the Mega Man campaign for a few weeks
>he says it's cool, but it's a lot of work to do since you have to convert all the systems of DnD to fit Mega Man
The only problem I have is how to fit magic and healing stuff into the world. Could I maybe change healing to like, a service robot, who mainly provides repairs, and magic could just be a specific weapon the players use?

How does War Wizard stack up to Abjurer and Evoker?

>daelkyr
Sweet Vecna do I hate Eberron.
"Daelkyr did it" is the explanation for every aberration

How the fuck you get +11?

How does power word kill effect a wildshaped Druid? Let's say the druid has 101 HP normally, but his wildshape only has 99. What would happen if he was targeted by PWK?

>How does War Wizard stack up to Abjurer and Evoker?
It seems pretty shit to me honestly. The extra force damage is pretty pathetic. The bonus to initiative is nice, but the class overall is meh at best, especially at low levels

DM's stated intent is to run a fast-leveling game and finish at level cap.

RAW power word kill would kill the druid outright, Sage Advice confirms it. Personally I think it should just take the druid out of wildshape, but if you're going RAW the druid dies.

Would a Eldritch Knight/War Wizard be decent? I really want to play one but I feel like it'll just be a shitty mix that doesn't live up to either.

Looks fine. I have no idea if the CR is appropriate, but you can consult the DMG for that.

Swashbuckler works really well with Booming Blade. That would mean you're dealing 1d8+3d8+10d6+5 (11?) with a single attack, and a possible extra 4d8 if they move to chase you, which they should since you have Panache. That leaves your bonus action free for dashing, hiding or something like that.

Where did you get the +11 from?

My half Elf Hexblade was a illegitimate child of a wealthy merchant from Hillsfar and a illegal elven indentured servant. He was kept hidden from the human first city but abused by his father.

Other non-humans and criminals were able to escape after a time, killing some affluent citizens on the way out.

Al:RoD background of Hillsfar Smuggler.

>if you're going RAI the druid dies.
FTFY. It's Power Word Kill, not Power Word Onion Peel.

Should my vengeance pally raise his strength to 20 or get Shield Master?

>it should just take the druid out of wildshape

Eh. PWK is a level 9 spell and its entire purpose is to kill. Druids enjoy the benefit of an HP buffer 99% of the time; it's okay to have one or two specific circumstances where it's more of a liability to them.

>Vow of Enmity
>Hunter's Mark
>occasional smite spells
You have lots to do with your bonus action already. Go to 20 STR first.

Also, would no falling damage be okay? There's no falling damage in Mega Man, and I just feel it will work better since they're robots.

How would one theme a Ranger Homebrew around Bears or Wolves without just making it Bearbarian but Ranger flavored?

Reminder that if you READ THE FUCKING BOOK sorcerers don't necessarily get it from their bloodline.

The bloodline has to start somewhere, after all.

Shield Master or PAM is far more important than increasing strength. Would you rather +1 damage or up to two more attacks a round?

+1 damage

Man, aren't we done with edition wars?

Honestly though, I wish they had stuck with some of the design philosophy of 4e and slaughtered more sacred cows rather than try to restore them. Not that I don't enjoy what is essentially a mix and match of 3.5e and 4e design philosophies.

I see, that is a better way of going about it, yeah. Thanks for the advice!

The shitposting earlier inspired me to make a rakshasa patron

This is why your in-game parents abandoned you.

Yeah? That's a pretty minor change overall, shouldnt be an issue.

You just made me realize I've only ever made a character with parents who are in contact once. They got held hostage.

MUH REFERENCES LOL

While I personally find what you're doing distasteful, just do magic as special subroutines or equipment. Or even nanonbots. But seriously, don't do what you're doing. This is a terrible idea. No good ever came from someone trying to rely on nostalgia for a crappy video game series to carry them through their first time DMing

I appreciate you helping me even though you don't like what I'm doing. Also, Mega Man is not crappy. Not sure where you get that impression from.

>bad guys are ambushing the party
>barbarian has the mcguffin, so he's the primary target
>one of the bad guys is an old nemesis of the party
>he has warlock casting and an ability similar to Sneak Attack
>now he also has Shadow Blade and 3rd level slots
>meaning 3d8+Dex+5d6 irresistible psychic damage
>if I want to be a dick, I can throw Green-Flame Blade on top of that
>other ambushers are monsters who can cast Darkness several times
>they also have blindsight
>old nemesis has blindsight too
>Shadow Blade has advantage to attack in darkness

Am I being too evil? Or is this the kind of cunning and tactics that can make a battle really memorable?

Mega man was only good in comparison to other games of its time. You might as well argue that Pong was a good game.

Well, if the party doesn't realize that they can just cast fog cloud to fuck your gimmick over completely then sure.

Actually on second thought, I still haven't been able to check if blindsight does ignore fog cloud or not.

I mean, truesight can't see through a fogcloud.

Hey if I cast Vampiric Touch using a Lore Wizard's Spell Secrets do I still recover half the damage?

>inb4Lorewizard
>inb4usingUA

underrated character bio. would adventure with

But even when they have over 100 HP in their true form? Does that mean Polymorph + PWK is an instant win?

It does ignore fog cloud. You don't rely on your eyes to see, so fog cloud doesn't do shit.