/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

I will.

The Cleric is played by a new player, and she's an absolutely adorable character. A white-skinned Tiefling qt with little ram horns.

My Half-Orc shall defend her with his life.

>Tiefling qt
>not smiting ALL the evil
Disgusting.

Do you do special quests or "character arcs" for your players? Tell us about them.

As a general rule I don't, I'm a bit less about the sandbox and a bit more about the main story of the campaign.
I find that letting players stray too far from the main story can cause a campaign to drag out, and that players in a sandbox often get overwhelmed.
What I do like to do is to have the characters be rooted in the events which the game revolves around, rather than playing disparate characters who all met randomly and stumbled into an adventure.
As a result of this the character arcs of the characters is the campaign itself, and their convictions will live and die by the main story of the campaign.

>You will never have a Bara Half-Orc Spellsword defend you.
>You will never take a level into Fighter or Wizard to show your admiration for his acts.

Why live?

What is the big draw of War Wizard? It seems like total trap to me. The extra force damage is almost nothing. The Initiative bonus is pretty okay I guess, but what puts it over Diviner or Abjuror in any conceivable way?

The free shield spell and durable magic. Power Surge is easily one of their most situational abilities (They really should have gotten Counterspell or Dispel Magic for free here), but everything else is pretty good.

They also make great EK multiclasses.

What do you guys think of a half-elf hexblade warlock with Pact of the Chain?
A bit of his backstory
> He found a way to make a pact his favorite ancestor once did to be like him
> At the last moment he decided to carve his own path and so he always hides his face fully.
> Has Voice of the Chain master and Mask of Many Faces to pretend to be someone else (currently a Tiefling).

I'm currently deciding on a familiar that will suit this character. Or should he change it with different personas he gets through his Mask?

And generally what do you think of this character?

But durable magic comes in so late, and the Sheild spell gimps you pretty hard

>decided to carve his own path and so he always hides his face fully
I don't get the connection between these two things.
Why would wanting to do his own thing cause him to also want to hide his face?

>lvl 5 Human Champion uses Greatsword with Savage Attacker and GWM
>Fighting drow
>Fucking Drider comes in
>Whittled down by my Rogue and the Wizard's cantrips.
>He rolls to attack, gets two 19s
>Gets a third bonus attack that hits.
>Does max damage on bonus thanks to savage attacks
>The two crits are rolled no lower than 3 on any of the d6s
>Drider dies in first round
>Didn't even get to hit us
>our fw

>ever taking Savage Attacker

Now I'm curious, what should he have gotten instead?

For College of Swords, which do you prefer, dueling or two-weapon fighting?

Tough, Heavy Armor Master, anything besides "Increase your average damage per round by 2 maximum and that's LITERALLY it": The Feat

He is a noble and has an uncanny resemblance to that hero (that reinforced his childish obsession with his grand-...-grandfather) so he decided to be a new person. And hiding his face in addition to mask (that is an illusion) simply is a part of his new obsession.

Dueling!

How would you best make the EK/War Wizard anyway? V Human? High Elf?

Any specific feats?

Haven't given it much thought since the campaign has yet to start, but probably two weapon fighting, because she's a dancer wielding bladed fans.

>Do you do special quests or "character arcs" for your players? Tell us about them.
No, I'm not a storyfag. Everything is generated randomly

So all his life, he's wanted to be like this ancestor, including making a warlock pact to do so, then immediately decides he doesn't want to be like the ancestor at all, even going so far as disguising himself so no one notices his resemblance to the ancestor, but he still wants to be a warlock like his ancestor was?
It doesn't really make sense to me.

The "suddenly decide not to be like his ancestor" thing could work as a story justification for taking a level of hexblade and then immediately going another class, as the character regrets their pact after realizing that exactly following their ancestor's footsteps was dumb, but going warlock because you want to be like your ancestor followed by disguising yourself because you don't want to be like your ancestor, but still being a warlock like your ancestor, doesn't make sense to me.

>AT/Bladesinger of some sort, possibly a similar split.
that sounds awesome I'd like to see someone elaborate on what they could do

Either works, unfortunately, because you start at level 1 with the fighter you can't get the War caster or Spell Sniper feat out the gate with Variant Human. So you would have to find something else and get one of those later.

absolutely disgusting, I bet your campaigns are nothing but complete incoherent nonsense. Like lore in a Dwarf Fortress world.

Heh, you have to see players' face when they pick PAM but I never roll a magic polearm on DMG tables

2 minutes every short rest of crazy AC, I guess.

Tumbling Fool
At 3rd level, you master a variety of acrobatic techniques that allow you to evade danger. As a bonus action, you can tumble. When you tumble, you gain the following benefits for the rest of your turn:

You gain the benefits of taking the Dash and Disengage actions.
You gain a climbing speed equal to your current speed.
You take half damage from falling.

how the fuck does this work
do you get free dash and disangage while using tumble in a bonus action?

*hits you in the face with a pie*

this man knows

Any ideas how to build an alchemist-style character who throws potions that send out poison clouds and acid and stuff like that? Is anything like that supported in 5E?

>two extra actions as a bonus action with no drawbacks or limitations
this is why we don't like homebrew

Alchemist is a subclass of the Artificer, and can do such things.

Alternately, any class that learns the Catapult spell, and a lot of money to make/buy such things.

Benefits should really be tied to a Performance roll, with the stipulation that you MUST move at least 5 feet when you tumble.
DC 5 - Nothing.
DC 10 - Half damage from falling.
DC 15 - Add the climbing speed effect.
DC 20 - Acts like a Dash as well.
DC 25 - Acts like a Disengage as well.

The thick, broad strokes give me an impression of movement, but his pose gives me an impression of stillness. Pretty good, but I'm getting mixed messages here.

Not that I know anything about art, either way.

Better?

I might actually get a chance to play soon.

Stat him/help me make him please.

Not him but I like a lot better than this one

So is half-elf hexblade warlock with chain pact the new meme build?

Have people been making it a lot? I don't think I've seen posts about it other than the one guy in this thread.

Two to three posts in every thread

>Alchemist is a subclass of the Artificer, and can do such things.
Huh, so this is a playtest material class? Doesn't seem like they added it to Xanthar's. Shame.

Strength

I thought it was coffee-lock

So how have you guys thought of fixing Wotfe monk? I love the flavour and the disciplines idea but I want something that's somewhat useable.

My fixes:
>Elemental attunement: mimic the effects of Control Flames, Mould Earth, Shape Water and Gust at a time as well as other shit
>Your unarmed strikes can deal fire, cold or lightning damage instead of bludgeoning. (maybe acid could represent earth?)

Elemental Disciplines:
>You can actually use your Martial Arts after this (i.e, after you've used it you can spend your bonus action to punch some dudes or Flurry of Blows)
>All disciplines that don't cost 1 ki point have their cost reduced by 1 (better economy of ki points.)
>Get two disciplines and Elemental Attune when you enter, not 1.

What do you guys think about these changes? Should I add more?

How do you all feel about the paralysis condition affecting your characters?

I would feel sad.

It's a stun but makes attacks hit you harder.
Can deal with it if it's not too often though skipping turns without much else you're allowed to do to distract yourself with could be painful.

My players are all new and I think they find combat boring (partially their fault because it takes so long for them to roll etc). How can I make it more interesting?

A timer.

More dynamic combat environment / shit to interact with in combat.

And a timer.

The lack of control is shit, yeah. What if the paralysis was also coming from legendary actions?

If there was some clear way to prevent it, maybe, other than just lesser restoration or something. I guess fog cloud might work.

Are Yuan-Ti purebloods only played by That Guy?

Rate my forge clerics.

You aren't this user, are you?

It's a condition caused by players and enemies alike, there shouldn't be anyone that has an issue with it..

...

Yes, I let my players know that I'll take any suggestions for things to put in the game, whether it be an entirely new race and civilization sprouting up out of nowhere that might be where a player hails from, or a bunch of questhooks surrounding one or more of the players' backstories that might become a full-fledged main-quest. I DM the way I would want to be DMed for, and I think a quest with personal elements can be very compelling. However, my players never give me anything, so I who haven't a single creative bone in my body steal settings and plots directly from whatever last book, movie, or game I saw for each of my campaigns, and my players can never tell, even if I directly tell them where I'm stealing from.

I'll bite. It's not homebrew, bud. At least in the "random user online posting his homebrew" sense, this comes from WotC

I slowly seeded encounters with special enemies against the players that specifically aligned against specific members (i.e. a rogue-like bounty hunter that's after the Arcane Trickster because he has an absurd price on his head, the villainous orc gladiator whose sword the Paladin looted wasn't actually killed [he got death saves and passed them], a dark wizard that the party maimed who seeks to steal power from the Warlock's Pact, etc.)

My plan was to play on their backstories with a specific antagonist and then have all of them band together and become a "rival" party.

So, beyond Tempest and Knowledge, what're some fun Cleric domains? I exclude them since I've played them before. My preference is a Potent Spellcasting domain, but I'm up for whatever.

Our simple fix was to give them elemental cantrips and the ability to cast as a bonus action.

Light is a fun blaster. Arcane gets a bunch more spells, which is nice.

Should you ever go Dex as a EK or just Str for heavy armor and max AC?

Are you multiclassing into something that uses dex? If not probably strength, unless I'm going for a dexterous swordsman with spells.

Why doesn't counterspell have any saving throw? Wouldn't it be more hype if it did?

There's a lot of shit that fucks up or uses up reactions that can mess with it. Also it's burning slots not doing your own cool spells

>Why isn't counterspell useless? Wouldn't it be more hype if it was?

It just seems like legendary defense but for player characters to me, which seems lame.

Anyone tried the Dawnforgedcast Alchemist?

>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? The party is high level and very powerful, so even with all of this a TPK is unlikely.

Your counterspell can be counterspelled

If the party is going to have very little access to magic weapons, then go dueling, but if you are going to be able to accumulate more than one magic weapon at any point, then duel wielding all the way

That was one of my things as well. Looking over another 4e I can see a way to build flavour. I would do it something like this:
>Disciplines: 2 per level, can martial arts after using a discipline. Disciplines not already at 1 ki point cost have their cost reduced by 1.
>3rd level: As well as the two you get Elemental Attunement: first, cast absorb elements up to wis modifier times per short rest. Also, choose from gust, control flames, shape water or mould earth. At higher levels, you can either gain another of these cantrips or an attack cantrip from your original choice (e.g, firebolt or gfb, ice knife, shocking grasp or lightning lure, magic stone).

>6th: Elemental weaving: as part of ki empowered strikes, your unarmed strikes can deal fire, cold, lightning or acid damage.

EK is best as an archer, so you should always go DEX

Depends on if the Barb has hit level 7 yet or not (Feral Instinct making ambushes less of a big deal). Still only an average of like 30 damage a round which needs to put him within range of Barb's reckless attack, and assumedly the rest of the party's Dispel Magics and Hold Persons, so it's not that unfair.

Can't say that I am, we must have similar situations.
I just don't get why people get so hung up on status conditions affecting their characters or anything affecting their characters.

Not by the same creature though, one of its buddies would need to use its reaction to countercounter, at which point you're just cheaply giving every enemy caster counterspell. Would have been better if they made you roll every time, even for an equal or lower level spell.

>Not by the same creature though
Yes it can

Counterspell is useless unless you need your reactions for something other than spellcasting.

How much thought should go into a D&D campaign to make it good? I've ran about four campaigns and three out of those four have failed pretty badly. I understand that my DM skills are bad and need improving, or maybe even stop DMing at all.

You can't cast more than one non-cantrip spell on your turn, so if you fireball and then they counter your fireball you can't counter their counter

Wrong. You can cast more than one non-cantrip spell a turn. Is says nothing of the sort.

Bonus actions, however...

If there was a ranged Booming Blade/Green Flame blade, I'd agree, but because those don't exist I'd prefer GWM so Greatswords or Glaives work best imo.

>failed
Meaning what? People stopped coming? People said they didn't like it? You felt they were shit?

5e is finally starting to undergo the transition all editions eventually went and finally understanding official materials are not intrinsically better than homebrew

I thought EK was mostly about being a tank though?

Isn't it only worth using melee cantrips as an EK at levels 7-10?

I thought they clarified that the intent was 1 non-cantrip spell per turn when they were addressing action surge or something

If you cast a spell with your action, you can't cast spells with your bonus action

If you cast a spell with your bonus action, you can't cast spells with your action

Nothing stops with from casting two spells with your actions if you use Action Surge or cast one more spell with your reaction

People began to be less and less interested as the campaigns went on. We had to replace those people with new players and disinterest soared. Eventually, players stopped caring at all, even if I set specific dates for us to play. The last campaign I ran only had two good roleplayers out of the five. The only notable complaint I've heard about a game I've ran is the railroad-like nature of them. When I ask for criticism of a game from the players and ask how it could be better, no one answers. Maybe its both parties faults, from GM to Player, but I just want to run a fun game and enjoy it without feeling like wasting anyone's time.

The EK really is terrible at nudging the player to use spells. I have no idea why they haven't rebalanced them yet, especially now for Xanathar's. I mean really? In melee at certain levels it's more useful to cast cantrips but it's only brief. Ranged is even worse, there it will always be more beneficial to just shoot.