/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General:

I'm looking over my session notes for tomorrow's D&D game and I'm starting to panic. It's a game where half the players are newbies and half the players are veterans - I've run a short campaign before, so I have my head around the rules, and I figured I'd use the notes from my first campaign as the basis of running this one since I don't want to spring anything too complicated on the newbies.

But now I'm realizing that my first session is basically "Party gets accosted by bandits on the side of the road, goes to a town, gets sent to a tomb, fights some goblins" and if that's not the most by-the-numbers generic way to kick off a game of D&D I don't know what is.

The experienced players are going to think I'm a fucking hack, aren't they? Or am I being too paranoid?

bank security measures. Surely you didn't think the only thing keeping you from the gold was the vault door, right?

Have the vault be filled with loadsa money but its locked
Maybe large chandaliers that the party could cause to fall on large groups of zombies
Grand wizards

Post a map of the tomb

>What's the best wizard school, /5eg/?
Hogwarts

What's your favorite class / archetype to play? What's a class you've wanted to try?

Mearls has ALWAYS been shit at balance, and poor Crawford does his best to hold him back.

Unfortunately they both have raging boners for wizards and end up giving them wayyy too much as a class with every new piece of content released.

MEANWHILE ON BIZARRO Veeky Forums...

Ilvermorny would like a word with you.

You're just getting some pregame nerves, relax. If your veteran players start to seem bored with the task, just throw a curveball at them further down the road. Let all this cliche you've built up just set the stage for something completely different. Maybe those bandits from before are actually the higher ups in a secret cult? Maybe the goblins are another party of adventurers that were polymorphed? Play with expectations of your veteran players, and the newbies will be wowed just as much.

Cliches aren't bad, user, and originality isn't necessary good. Shitting on the dinner table is original and uncommon.
Your job is not to make an original game, it's to make a fun one.

SotS has been on a roll this year, jesus. 3 fucking setting sourcebooks already and January isn't even done yet

What kind of security measures? Traps, magic protectors?

>Go to FUCKING GAMESTOP to trade in my PS4 for a Mon. Hunter PS4 Pro
>10/10 qt Gamestop Girl making small talk while the other guy does everything
>The whole time Marisha Ray and some guy are shilling games on GS TV
>They get to Funko Pops, Marisha looks fucking dead inside but is trying her best
>Make a comment that she is really trying to care
>Girl says "Don't worry, we all hate her anyway"

Kek, even normies dislike Marisha
I would too if I had to hear her voice for 8hr/day 5days/week

Why bother when you are already on a successful show AND the Creative Director of Geek and Sundry

Asking again
what, if any, traveling merchants has your group encountered?
What did they sell and when did they show up?

Any type of rogue or a multiclass with rogue. Want to try a valor bard, but I'm currently in a long game so that isn't happening any time soon unless I die

Playing the new Gunslinger and Arcanomorph classes has been super fun too. I'm so glad we didn't just get a bunch of lore shit books last year.

Speaking as someone who has done a fair bit of homebrew, making high quality, balanced content for 5e is super hard

Traps, Wards, Guardians, etc

Bonus, anything you add could be used against the zombies if your players aren't retarded

I respect your opinions

Paladin/ Oath of Ancients just barely above Oath of Devotion
Wizard

I think pathfinder players are okay people

I start every campaign that way, and my players don't seem to care. It's normal for a campaign to start off cliché and generic before developing its own unique flavour and themes over time. I wouldn't worry about it.

Traveling merchants either need to have an entourage to discourage bandits, or be powerful in their own right, usually a caster class, in order to handle themselves while carrying supplies. If you use the Loot Table appendix, you can have a traveling merchant carrying magic items using a hoard table 1 challenge rating group lower than a hoard the party would find in a dungeon, using the value of gold the hoard would have as the value for mundane items and adventuring gear the merchant would be carrying, with all of the items costing 50% more than what they would be offered in a city since the merchant needs mark-up.

One I havne't already played rather than still liking the thing after I've played it.

I'm going to echo and say that the problem with Sorcerer isn't the Sorcerer, it's the Wizard. If there was no Wizard, then no one would complain about the Sorcerer.

Because she is the least successful of the critical roll group so she wants to become more of a thing to heal her ego

The class didn't have proper playtest and WotC does not want to rewrite the PHB to fix past mistakes

I just wish they'd tone down their militant hatred for anything anime.

Not true. When you compare their list of spells know to the amount of spells other classes can prepare or know, sorcerers just seem laughable in comparison. Not to mention their absolutely god awful spell list (worst in the game, easily)

>legacy Captcha is dead
Now where am I supposed to get my character names from?

The class is badly designed, as its design goes against the philosophy of 5e

So...how do you explain the Revised Ranger, then?

Tranquility monk is fun. And it is a blessing that Crawford didn't include it in XGE because you just know that Crawford would have ruined it.

But the thing is that without wizards they would have exclusive access to a large number of arcane spells.

>What's the best wizard school, /5eg/?
Evocation

Mearls all but confirmed it's dead

You mean most other casters getting 1 spell per level and sorcerers topping at 15?

Again, if Wizards didn't exist, sorcerers would have the most versatile and varied spell list in the game, so them getting less spells makes sense.

Unfortunately, wizards have an even MORE versatile spell list... and a fuckton more spells known and prepared than EVERY OTHER CASTER IN THE GAME.

Fuck wizards.

Think of them yourself

This man gets it, as time goes on you realize why.

Warlock / Blaster

Where? When?

We have the same issue, try defending that martials should be allowed to do some of the things heros in legend did and watch casters loose their shit.

They probably only care that they have a DM. A good DM with a predictable setting will still provide a fun game. As has been pointed out, originality does not equal quality, especially if the DM is also bad.

I'm the ForeverDM, and man, I'd love to fight some gobbos in a fucking cave some day.

If you want to be That Guy and generally ruin the game for your DM, Divination Wizard.

If you're not That Guy, Abjuration because your ward buys you something to absorb hits that would otherwise break your concentration. You can essentially start fights and KNOW you can maintain concentration on your opening move for at least a couple of turns.

If you're an absolute faggot, Lore Wizard or Theurge, because they were purely made to cuck Sorcerers and Clerics even harder than they already do.

Never going to be on the PHB, they already said this

I'd wish my players were less well-groomed, it takes attention away from my own impeccable hygiene.

dont forget invention wizard, aka wild sorcerer 2.0

I really really like women

>If you want to be That Guy and generally ruin the game FOR EVERYONE ELSE, Divination Wizard.

What're some good items to be made from flail snails? There's the robe of scintillating colours, the antimagic shields and what else?

But they never claimed that it would be anyway. They said it would be in "a future D&D sourcebook", not the PHB. I can understand not wanting to print it in the PHB - the last thing you need is two people at a table with two different PHBs that have two different versions of the Ranger and the confusion that might cause.

BUFF WIZARDS YOU KEKS freaking Martials that Boast

Sam bigheart is an orc raised among hobbits, large and powerful his body is covered in scars from protecting his community. he knows not the way of his true people, and learned only recently he was not a Halfling himself, . he was raised at the side of two girls who were born some years after he was taken in. one of which he grew to fancy upon learning they were not siblings. Unbeknownst to him, his real parents had died in battle, protecting his older sister as she brought him to the hobbit holes.

his adoptive family lived modestly, in a small house, and wary of his horrid temper, but grew to love him as a son and protector nonetheless, he had even made some friends in the village who loved to ride upon his shoulders. the devotion to the ones who raised him had caused a great rage to thunder from within when they were in peril, as many unfortunate beasts had learned. he had even been taken on his uncle's hunting trips throughout his youth due to this. on one hunt in particular, his vast raged had failed him, and cornered he was by a great bear some say the size of a mountain. But then, a feint light from the sun shone in the beast's eyes, blinding it for an instant as Sam lopped off a leg. and brought home enough to feed his village for months, since that day he seeks out what twisted fate in such a way for him to survive.

made this from the XGTE tables

I've really been wanting to play a Celestial Warlock Spell Sniper on a team with a Paladin, Cleric and Monster Hunter Ranger. Just roaming around spreading the love of our God/Goddess, protecting the innocent from the vicious undead beast and devilish fiends in the dark places of the world.

>Have a divination wizard in my campaign
>He often gets a seriously bad roll on his divination dice
>Always uses it to screw my encounter over in a hilariously significant way

He had his wizard Misty Step up to a Champion, grab their weapon, wrench it from their grip, and toss it out to sea.

The Champion got a reroll (which I suspect angered him slightly), but still failed. His wizard rolled a 22 on Athletics, as opposed to my 19. Yes, his wizard is proficient in Athletics for some reason.

He still nearly died but it made for a great, desperate encounter. They failed to take the Champion down but they did blast him nearly point-blank with cannon fire, which more or less injured him to the point where he couldn't stand.

Goblins/Dwarves/whoever the jew race is in your setting cleared out the bank years ago and the vault has been secretly empty with no material currency actually supporting the kingdom.

How so?

Is there anything actually fun involved in trying to play Oath of Redemption Paladin or will it just piss the rest of your group off by trying to even attempt to play it?

>Champion got a reroll
how and why

Indomitable probably.

Champion monster in Volo's Guide gets to reroll a failed saving throw. Can do so twice per day. At least that's how I read it.

While i agree Invention wizards is stepping into sorcerer's territory, they also seem really shity. Am i wrong?

Flails of Slowing?

That only works on saves, not on anti-disarm rolls as per DMG unless it's against battlemaster's disarm or something.

However, the wizard can't throw the weapon very far the same turn either without some other ability supporting it or a teammate doing it, so the champion could just rip it back on his turn.

The bank's vault is filled with coins that form together into a Treasure Golem!

I had a friend who joked about playing an evil oath of redemption trying to make up for good deeds.

We weren't really "in" combat yet, and it was a creative enough idea I simply allowed it. Even if she only threw the greatsword ten feet into the sea, the Bard successfully cast Enemies Abound on an Ettin right next to the Champion, so he had bigger problems to deal with. Took him four turns of beating on his own minion before the Ettin made a successful save against it.

>hobbits
Whats a hobbit user?

>While i agree Invention wizards is stepping into sorcerer's territory, they also seem really shity. Am i wrong?
they aren't great, but Wild Sorc is also a giant sack of shit. At least Invention Wizards don't have to suck off their DM's to use their abilities

>install swype variant
>spaghetti on keyboard
>Trotskyism Sherbrooke's Christensen's arguendo Caroline Sheboygan
etc

Or name all your characters Bus from now on.

you know full well i meant halflings.

Maybe i did maybe I didn't
I'll never tell

You can easily play Redemption by remembering that intelligent creatures in the bestiary that are naturally evil will remain evil, and as such there's no point in trying to offer diplomacy to hostile orcs or goblins, for example, unless the DM specifically sets up a conversation between your group and them. In that case, it's your responsibility to stay as diplomatic as possible, which means you MUST be the party leader, and you must be willing to use your Channel even on your party members when it comes to maintaining the peace. As for any creatures that are intelligent and unaligned or are capable of being any alignment, then once again you have to try and prevent conflict. Think of yourself as less of a martial, and more of a gimped cleric oozing charisma, and you'll have set up your RP well. The only time this isn't worth playing is if anyone in your party isn't good; just one neutral character will make playing Redemption a pain in the ass. Also, if your DM doesn't give the party experience for AVOIDING the fight, then you have no reason to be one.

whatever the case, other than allowing any trace of tolkiens work show in by background and thus commiting the greatest D&D sin

what do you think?

>While i agree Invention wizards is stepping into sorcerer's territory, they also seem really shity. Am i wrong?
level 6 they can use a level 1 slot to change damage types, a level two slot adds 2d10 force to one target of a spell
level 10, bonus action swap a prepared spell, short rest recharge.

I'd say those two abilities alone beat wild magic sorcerer

I feel like Spore druid was Mearls' idea, the wording has that "Mearls" feel to it where the intention of how something works seems clear, but not enough mechanical detail is given, or the wording is unclear, creating a scenario where the RAW clearly doesn't reflect the actual intent.

An example of this was his Lolth warlock that could turn into a spider, but no mechanics were ever given on what turned you back to human form, leading to the joke that the subclass permanently turned you into a spider.

This can be seen in parts of the Spore druid where the Zombies can only be created if they die specifically to the spore damage, which is something that's incredibly hard to pull off.

>adventure for 35 years
>never actually seen a full blooded Ling

feels bad man

full blooded Lings are very tiny.

Did anyone who's played or ran Out of the Abyss do anything crazy during the opening prison break? I'm considering trying to steal one of the two magic items the NPC's have on their person when my group makes their escape this week.

Where the fuck do I go to make a map for roll20, seriously, everything I've found for map making is either some janky mapmaker with a handfull of tilesets that are universally shit or some public repository with a shitty tool tacked on so you spend an hour looking for a single tree or some monumental document longer than the dungeon master's guide that serves as an "introduction tutorial" for making maps in photoshop.
Seriously, how is there not some reasonably user-friendly solution to this? Even the paid software looks dodgy at best.

most people do all the crazy things. being handcuffed and feeling helpless makes them want to break the system.

I honestly think that's the point

I wasted multiple rages trying to break those fucking cuffs

What the fuck are lings?

Skip to 1:13
youtube.com/watch?v=IXzurVPSrmM

I'd tell you but I'd end up owing thousands to the Tolkein estate.

We left off with Jorlan (whatever his name is, the jilted drow male) about to come and unlock the prison doors for us. I've managed to unlock mine, and most of the other prisoner's cuffs. I have two plans, a very good one to help everybody escape, and a very very bad one for my character to get some petty revenge for being imprisoned. I would normally never attempt the latter, but I'm trying to role-play outside my comfort zone and this character is absolutely one who, if the opportunity is right, would risk cutting off his nose to spite his face.

You guys want to hear my good and very very bad plans?

(pic semi-related. I hope Stool makes it out alive and grows up big and strong)

Flails of slowing are a sweet idea. Thanks, bro!
So they basically function as also casting the slow spell?

How Kafkaesque...

My players are having the time of their lives in Chult :3, how are your games going?

I'm going to start Curse of Strahd in 3 weeks with my group. They're newbies and we just finished LMoP.

I've done Death House once as a one-shot in a different group, and it took a long time. 10 hours play, and we didn't even do the escape scene! I'm thinking of reducing the House itself to just 2 floors, and then have them do the cellar. Would that work? I'm also tempted to just have them start at lvl 3, but since it'll be the first time they're making their own characters, I feel like starting at level 1 would make more sense for them. To get the "whole" experience as it were.