/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General:

>Ford Galanodel, elf wizard trying to return overdue library books
Great fucking idea for a wizards character. I give you or the player mad props

Is he searching for a time travel spell so he can go back and dodge the overdue fine?

baet

Ha! Since it's an elf I hope those books are something like 200 years overdue.

At this point I'm starting to miss shadfag. At least the non shad shit he posted was cute usually.

>Is he searching for a time travel spell so he can go back and dodge the overdue fine?
even better. I had a Goliath Figher in my game once who just wanted to open he's own inn and be the cook. but shit kept preventing him from he's dream.

>Rolling for stats
>Unarmed gnome monk
that monk is going to either have to accept his character will be shit or be prepared to cry.

I've been working on something to make the first few levels more manageable, and encourage my players to really go for getting inspiration with roleplay etc. I thought about giving each class a small power they could activate, either as a bonus action or reaction in order to remind my players to use it. (Since advantage on attack rolls is fairly meh, and people tend to forget it.)

Ranger- Activate as a bonus action, reroll one attack made by you or a pet
Mage- Change one level 1 spell slot as a bonus action
Cleric- As a bonus action, heal one ally d6
Paladin- As a reaction, force a reroll of one attack
Sorceror- Allows your next spell to be a spell you do not know.
Warlock- Reroll on damage die on the next attack
Rogue- As a bonus action, no enemy will target you for one round.
Bard- Give bardic Inspiration to 2 people instead of one.
Fighter- Gain +2 to hit on attacks this round as a bonus action
Monk- As a bonus action, impose disadvantage on an enemy you hit this round for one round
Barbarian- Gain the effects of a level 1 rage for one round.
Druid- Regain 1 hitpoint a round for 5 rounds. Increase to 2 hitpoints a round at level 6

And since I forgot to type the question...

Any ideas on how to improve it? Any balance issues people can see

Don't let wizards be even MORE versatile. The prepared-spells system exists for a reason.

>Level scaling
That sounds like a great way to destroy any remaining suspension of disbelief. Having the party conveniently run into encounters appropriate for their level is already a bit suspect, but easy to not get caught up on. Faceless Joe the town guard who's done nothing new since the party was level 1 but he still goes toe-to-toe with them at level 10 stands out like a sore thumb.

The DM said my WARHAMMER OF HIT THE MONSTER REEEEEEEAL GOOD +100 wasn't a valid item. What do?

They all seem like they scale poorly into the lategame, or some characters might not even use them at all (i.e. a wizard might have hardly any level 1s prepared and instead be relying on rituals)
Fighter, however, gets something that can apply maybe eight or nine or ten or even eleven fucking times and synergizes with feats like sharpshooter and GWM.
Bard's is real weak on lore bard, and almost as weak on the other sorts of bards. Very niche.

Really, you shouldn't be looking to make overly complicated houserules and you shouldn't try to make inspiration too mechanical. The current 'you can twist fate by rerolling a d20' is more than enough.
Often there's even a pretty border and all that shit around the inspiration box to make it a collectible.

It's only level 1 spells and most are rituals or weak in the late game. That's hardly making wizards powerful.

get a noose of +10 to hanging yourself and use it

It should be a valid item as a super macguffin. I've said this before where just because a +100 weapon can be used in a game without making everything un-fun (It still has a number of limitations) doesn't mean that it's a good idea, though.

The point is that they scale poorly into late game, and the fighter bonus is small so as to not be overpowering. My issue is that my players often forget they have inspiration, so by giving them something to use it on that seems part of their class, (something more shiny than advantage) I hope they'll use it more.

>and since I forgot to type the question

are you me from ?

I'm going to give some advice I have NO room whatsoever to give. I won't bore you with how likely this advice is to be not useful/inappropriate.

I'm not clear on why you're doing this. "encourage my players to really go for getting inspiration with roleplay". and "Advantage on attack rolls is fairly meh, and people tend to forget it."

It seems difficult to balance, but ranger seems to have a "consume bonus action for advantage". meanwhile an "early level" (quotations because idk what level you're thinking), mage gets to use two spells in one turn? Are paladins getting luck (legitimate question that sounds like luck im not sure).

I guess the question is what your goal is exactly. I feel there are enough systems in the game that a less system-changing weak magic item could provide similar, if not more varied benefits. You could basically take really weak items ie boots, armor, swords, and give them interesting effects that will be outshone by the AC, stats, and whatever else granted by later items.

I'm still in a state where I think things like the "help" action, and the damage of falling objects is very interesting

I think advantage is kind of cool, if only because it's so universally applicable, and quick to deal with.

are these only usable in combat? otherwise, a cleric would be able to get his entire team to full hp after every encounter

>attempt to hang yourself
>roll a 1 on each die
>become biologically immortal

It's an interesting idea but ultimately complicated compared to its intended function (the death sentence of almost every homebrew and house rule I consider making.) Inspiration already seemed intended to be fairly minor as a method of encouragement, and I rarely remember it exists, let alone give it out.

That said, just because I don't do something doesn't mean you shouldn't. Depends on the players more than anything.

>every NPC realizes that they can achieve immortality by trying to kill themselves and failing.
>world becomes run by immortal suicide survivors within the century.

Honestly... you have no idea how the game works or is balanced and should probably just stick to rules-as-written because this is some shit-tier homebrew.

I’m kinda trying the same thing, gave every class some extra goodies, like bards get a few local instruments as extra proficiencies, barbarians get a set of tatooing tools that they’re proficient at, monks have proficiency in improvised weapons, fighters get a couple of tool proficiencies, and so on.
The riskiest one I’ve cooked up is Warlocks getting the choice of taking an invocation that lets them mimick one racial feature of a different race for one minute per rest with some limitations. It’s probably going to be bullshit but I wanna see how it goes.

But some scale properly into the late game and some don't
>Druid
Free get up every turn without death save
>Rogue
Not being attackable is nice if the enemies are cornering you and only you, especially since rogues have strong reaction attacks
>Sorcerer
Allows you to dip one level sorcerer and cast wish if you have level 9 spell slots, or otherwise allows sorcerers to cast any spell, which is absurdly strong, but I guess it is sorcerer. Especially because they can metamagic these spells they don't know.
And the others don't scale well.

jesus that spacing looked better when the box was tiny, but my monitor its literally one line per paragraph, sorry. I'll also take the opportunity to hijack my shitty answer to your question and ask: How can I make a vengeance paladin story that isnt angsty or involve parents/family members in an overly cliche way. I've been trying to think of a backstory, I like the idea of being a half elf who became a soldier, and has a bit more of a human-upbringing. But I can't decide what would make them have an oath of vengeance that isnt extremely cliche.

Also "oaths". Is there a lot of room in this for interpretation? Should I have an actual oath my character swore at some point? is it to a god? to themselves? I'm trying to figure this stuff out so I don't keep fill in the gaps with weird self-inserty backstories or mechanics from other fantasy works.

Tooting my own horn, I gave my players little goodies based on ideas of their characters upon creation. It's likely personal bias, but that strikes me as more interesting than tinkering with the classes themselves.

My issue is my players do roleplay, and I want to reward it. However, the reward in usually inspiration. After I've given it once, I can't give it again till they use it, and they have an unfortunate habit of forgetting they have it. Therefore, by making a small power that uses inspiration, they are more likely to use it. Advantage is less useful that it appears. A level 3 barbarian in a party can give advantage to everyone next to him on attack rolls (Wolf Totem), and rerolls are better than advantage, since it allows you to see the result you rolled before spending it.
A cleric would need inspiration to do the heal. So basically only once in combat, and not replacing a cast of a spell.
And that why I am doing this. Because players forget it, and Im trying to get them to use it more.
Whoops, forgot to mention Im limiting the Sorceror ones to level 1 slots. Also, with the druid, its useful, but is actually less than some spells give. Or even minor magic items. And the rogue one is meant to be that way

Ahh I forgot I changed the bard one. Its Inspiration as a reaction, not doubled. So you can bump up a near miss when needed if you gave inspiration to someone else.

I'm currently trying to run a front line damage build as a Warlock at 9th level to assist my party

What would be the best build to do so?

To play a paladin instead

but we already have two, user

Do you want to tank hits? Or just have high utility?

What's the best way to simulate a Vietnam era fighter plane?
I want to play an Aarakocra that specializes in dropping hot loads of fire and thunder magic while also being able to shoot things with a crossbow.

just a regular blaster sorc taking all the AOE spells you can get

You say that like there is something wrong with rolling with palabros

Our party currently has next to no utility, so utility would be a high priority

If we're going by PHB stuff, Fiendlock is best by far, since Fey and GOO are built more around tricks and utility.

If XGE is allowed, take Divine Warlock, Pact of the Chain, and Gift of the Ever Living Ones (maximized rolls on all self-healing) and just HP-tank everything with your Lay-on-Hands ripoff ability. It's incredibly cancerous in a game where you get long rests, you're hitting Barbarian levels of HP, even if you have to spend a Bonus action to use it.

if a first time player makes an unarmed monk, it's usually because he doesn't realize how much of a difference there is between an unarmed hit and a quarterstaff hit

Unnamed, not unarmed. Though I suppose they could be both.

I'm having a crisis of faith 5eg.
My character is currently a druid in a first level campaign, but because we're so low-leveled the DM is allowing a respec if we'd like.
I'm planning on going Land druid, but I also really want to try trickery cleric, and had to just drop a campaign I was going cleric in due to time constraints.

Please help. I like both classes, and the character fits well for both.

>and the character fits well for both.
So uhh... tell us about the character?

Child found on a weird stone altar in the middle of nowhere at birth, raised by an ancient order of world protectors, and has an odd connection with the material world itself. He was eventually essentially kicked out in part of not quite understanding the full connection of spirit of the cause, and in part of being a total smartass pain in the dick. Lived as a wanderer to sort of find his cause, winds up getting mauled by an owlbear half to death, and found by the party ranger in a ditch on the side of the road.

I feel like point buy should be 32 instead of 27. 32's closer to the average you'd get from rolling 3 highest of 4d6.

One of my players chose to DM a new campaign in one of our campaign slots (the campaign I was running in that slot just ended) and told us to bring characters we made with point buy.

Since it was my first time playing since I've been foreverDM since 2011 I went with my favorite class. The paladin. We started at 3rd, so I went Oath of the Ancients. Nobody communicated about our characters until last night. Nobody.

DM describes the location we're in and then hands it off to us to describe our characters. One by one we each describe our.....paladins. Six fucking paladins. These motherfuckers haven't played a single paladin in my campaigns (maybe because they know I love paladins and are scared of playing one poorly) but the second someone else takes over, they all jump in on it.

So we've got one Oath of Devotion, one Oath of Conquest, two Oath of Vengeance, myself as Oath of the Ancients and an Oath of the Crown. Something tells me this campaign is going to be fantastic.

>Players don't discuss their characters with eachother while creating them.

I wasn't going to step on his toes. I normally sit down 1on1 when building characters with my players. He wanted to try something different. Now he has to figure out how to handle six paladins out to engage in jolly cooperation.

It's a learning experience for him.

In my opinion, ask one of the Vengance fellas to switch to Zealot Barb, if only so there isn't total class overlap between them but they still have the same flavor.

He's considering an oath from Xanathar. Redemption I think it's called? I haven't bought it yet.

Sounds super fucking fun. Smite the titties off of everything evil. If the campaign doesn't end with a Crusade into the Abyss, your DM has fucked up.

Redemption is... Weird. But Hey. shield and Counterspell on a Paladin.

What classes work best with Goblin? I've got an itch to play one.

Rogue, two weapon barbarian, ranger. Artificer if your DM allows it.

Anything, stop optimizing and build a character.

Actually, if you reroll results outside the valid stat range for point buy (8 to 15), the average point buy value of a 4d6 drop lowest is slightly less than 27.

Just rush 20 charisma and the disguise self invocation and you beat every social encounter. Pact of the chain warlock for infinite range invisible scouting. Take shit like read any language, talk to dead / animals for more utility until you get at will hold monster and at will invisibility at ~15. Celestial is a better patron for chain lock if you don't care about slightly more damage from eldritch blast.

Our backstories are pretty varied but I'm seeing a lot of demons/undead in our future.

My paladin's a middle-aged farmer who was saved after his family was almost entirely killed (his daughter is off apprenticing under a wizard) by a dryad who took him to heal with an old hermit paladin.

Devotion is hunting for his uncle who disgraced the family name by raising the dead in the catacombs of the city they're nobility of.

Vengeance1 is a Firbolg who's just out to fucking wreck some demons after they ate/raped/murdered his entire tribe. (Potentially changing to Redemption)

Vengeance2 is a Goliath who just wants to kill a dragon that wiped out his tribe.

Crown is on a quest from his bannerlord to track down the bannerlord's daughter who ran off with a young wizard (suspected necromancer).

Conquest is a hobgoblin and the last of his order (technically still a squire) who's carrying the weight of their mission (the killing of a pair of balor who've preyed on the goblinoid empire for decades).

>Land Druid ever
Might as well play the trickster cleric.

Doesn't rogue have too much redundancy with the racial features?

I like having access to instant damage spells that aren't erupting earth, user.
And I don't like having my main class feature being a different character sheet.

Figured I'd try something like pic related with crossbow expert for a V. Human Fighter and wanted to know if my action economy is correct.

With the Dual-Wielder feat, I can draw/stow two weapons per turn instead of just one.

>Attack with Whip
>Bonus Action Hand Crossbow attack

Next turn
>stow whip
>attack with Hand Crossbow
>draw whip
>bonus action attack with whip

It's feat taxed, but it works, yes?

>doesn’t like shapeshifting
>likes blasting

Might as well play literally any other full caster with a nature backstory. Then you don’t have to waste your subclass plugging holes in a spell list balanced around mechanics you have no interest in.

Land Druids are perfectly fine.

yeah, you're basically losing a feature. Doesn't make the character unplayable, just suboptimal. you don't HAVE to play an optimal character, though, do you user?

Yeah they’re fine in the same way EK is compared to Paladin or Hexblade.

>no rules
The tables I play at have the most autistic rule followers known to man. I'm amazed they play 5e at all.

It's a repost from a troll on /v/

Still a punishment for not doing the stupid thing and rolling stats. On average you will get less with 27 point buy than with rolling because the devs are married to this stupid mechanic they grew up with.

What are some interesting concepts for a warlock that aren't edgy?

Land Druid's list is perfectly serviceable. In fact it has the most bang for its buck for spell slots of any full caster due to the entire spell list being built around being usable in beast form.
There isn't another class that can claim fame with the raw damage applicable with Call Lightning and then short rest to get the slot back.

Considering EK is flatout better than Hexblade, by a pretty large margin, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Hexblade is trash, except for the fact that it eldritch blasts better than a light-armor warlock... but trying to give Warlocks a MELEE option is a joke.

Why would you have to stow/draw the whip on the second turn?

To have a free hand to reload the crossbow

I think they're doing it so they have a free hand to handle ammunition

There are plenty, but what's the point of playing a warlock, if you're not gonna be the Edgelord Supreme?

Because I'm in a good party and all the characters I want to play are naturally inclined toward evil/chaos because of their race.

Celestial Warlock from Xanathar's Guide to Everything is pretty non-edgy.

But honestly, all you really have to do is play a warlock who gets along with their patron, who's patron isn't "evil" per se. People are stupid and fear the unknown, but if they give it a chance there's much to be learned that can help people! What's the difference between a Warlock Patron and those entities that the church calls "gods"?

>Player is a wizard
>Forgets what spells she has prepared
>Wants to halt the game so she can pick spells
>Tell her in interest of time any spell she knows and casts is now added to her prepared list until that list is full
>She tells me she didn't write down what spells she knew and lost her spellcasting sheet months ago
>Apparently she'd been treating the full wizard spell list as known spells
>Rule that if she has no known spells written down, then spell book is lost and she can't prepare new spells
>Give her magic missile, mage hand and minor illusion.
>Cop a shitfit of epic proportions and crying because I'm mean
>Get nasty looks from a few other players

Apparently I'm the badguy now because someone else couldn't organise their shit.
When a different friend played wizard, they had lists of prepared spells for different scenarios like, combat, dungeon, utility.

Hard-boiled private investigator hired by a mysterious patron to complete a job. Payment is either in the form of magic outright or as a side effect- ie: he went blind, Patron says "work for me and I'll give you SUPER EYES (Devil Sight, Detect Magic at will, eyes of the rune keeper, witch sight, etc.)

You can make it work with just about any of the Patrons with some work.

>tfw you will never be your character

any of them really, regardless of your pact your character's behavior is completely up to you. Even the nature of the pact itself is quite open to interpretation, you could be bound to the one nice fiend in hell who wants to make up for the shittiness of his brethren by sponsoring a champion in the material plane who can clean up the messes that other fiends make

Celestial or Fey are the most obvious though, or Great old One if you just want to be kind of a weirdo

senpai noticed you

>haha guise I'm tooootes an old fag
>how do you do fellow kids

It's absolutely the player's responsibility to keep track of their own shit, the DM has plenty else on their mind. If they can't do the bare minimum of keeping track of their own spells they should find a different game

>can't play a character you were really excited to try out because ded campaign

See and Warlocks are basically clerics except their "gods" are the "cool rich kids" with the big churches and throngs of mindless facebook followers.

is monk/wizard the dumbest idea ever?

I'm pretty sure it is but I'm gonna do it anyway

Hexblade that think's they're a paladin.
They see themselves as a people's paladin that gets shit done, rather than a shiny preachy paladin with over the top oaths.
They carry a weapon that was forged in honor of their patron.

I get it but is this the first time they've done this?

How does words of terror, the whisper bards lv 3 feature, normally gets used in game

Just because this has recently been brought to your attention doesn't mean you need to pretend it has anything to do with the here and now. Also stop trying to rile up the autists.

DMs, how often do you sit down with your players to discuss how the game is going?