/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

Why is xp distribution in 5e so shit, and how to fix it?

As a peacekeeping officer, he ensures the law is upheld and wants to see his city prosper as its society grows.

I didn't have a clue what birthright is until we started this campaign either, I've only ever played 3, 3,5 and 5

We're playing 5E

>What does drives your character forward?
>Half-Orc Paladin
To undo his crime of being born

Milestone leveling.

That's a cop out, i like xp.

He's looking for a cure to a magical disease that has afflicted his mother.

Remove XP and switch to milestones.

Unrelated, but how would I make a character similar to Raphtalia? Would Urchin or slave work better as a background? I'm leaning towards Paladin with a bit of cleric levels, but I feel like Paladin will overall better fit mechanically.

What's wrong with it?

By not using XP in the first place.

Anyway, could you elaborate what exactly you don't like?

He cracked the shits for a bit when he realised it but honestly I think he overblew it. I laughed when I read through the class description due to the misfortune but it's honestly not all bad. He's not gonna be the gishiest gish to exist, he can't memorise a huge number of spells, his DC won't be all that great and he might have to spend his attribute increases on building it up but hey it's a method for RP character development and we already have three other classes.

I think he's going to DC into something else anyway. Hopefully not a Bard.

So -2 for everyone's saving throws? that might go down badly.

Reposting from the other thread:
Quick question, you are supposed to use Lore bard's Cutting Word after enemy rolls, is the DM supposed to let you see that roll or do you just have to blindly use that ability when you really don't want to get hit?

>-2 for everyone's saving throws?
Fortunately it has a minimum of +1
>Starting at 6th level, whenever you or a friendly creature within 10 feet of you must make a saving throw, the creature gains a bonus to the saving throw equal to your Charisma modifier (with a minimum bonus of +1). You must be conscious to grant this bonus.

Decided to run White Plume Mountain. The party's only martial is a STR Ranger. I'm thinking of letting him keep Blackrazor, but I'm thinking that people might seek to take it from him. Would that be fair, given that they're level 8 (the level the dungeon is meant for)?

You should know what they rolled.

Mearls talks a bit about the content of MToF in the new D&D Beyond interview.
CR 10+ enemies, writeups on classic Law/Chaos/ and Good/Evil struggles, and a few more things besides. Mearls says it's also meant to serve as a introduction of the cosmology for new DMs.
youtube.com/watch?v=r93sKXCvXQ4

...

I think straight fighter makes more sense, I know she gets a bit of magic but her main thing is just being a fucking good at stabbing shit with maybe a few cantrips when the writer remembers she can do that.

I knew he was being melodramatic. The only thing he loses out on is broad access to priest powers and a miserable starting DC. The DM was even willing to waive the CHA malus on his DC which would bring him to 10 and he still wasn't happy even with the druid's spell DC at 11. The Oath powers look a lot better than the starting spells anyway.

Sounds like an Eldritch Knight based off of that description.

Are Ixalan races legal in “official” play? Do sirens exist in Faerûn at all?

Unrelated, but should I try to convert party members if I play a Zealot Barbarian or would that get old quick?

Thanks

well she's a slave at the start of the story soooooo...........

What race would make most sense? Variant Human?

Honestly I'd go slave, unless it wouldn't sit well with be party in general, also no she's more of a Fighter that took magic initiate.

The PHB and the DMG already do a good job of introducing the cosmology. What we need is to go full Planescape.

Nope!
As for your second question, it's like converting someone in real life- do you want to be someone they can aspire to, or do you want to pull them up to your level?

If you follow the XP values of creatures to a T characters are going to level up very quickly.

I'd almost say champion with that feat that lets you get a couple spells. Her whole concept is that she is the sword that the protag cannot wield himself, she's his champion in every sense. But i get it if you just don't want to go champion because it is admittedly one of the more boring classes, paladin or EK would both make sense too.
That or mayyyybe tiefling? Or whatever 10% furry bullshit is in some splatbook. It depends on what you're going for. You could definitely just have her be human with the caveat that she's got raccoon ears and tail but no real stat difference.

>Are Ixalan races legal in “official” play?
Nope. While the Planeshift supplements are by WotC, they're not by the D&D. Official for M:tG, unofficial for D&D.
Those sirens aren't a Forgotten Realms thing either, but it's not like you'd break anything by throwing them in the mix.

Since the PHB gives very excact rules to how to give xp for fights but explicitly states to "wing it" for non combat encounters or tasks, it being shit is a common misconception (even though i am not saying it is perfect the way it is). If you would tell us what you dislike maybe we can give some useful advice on what to change so it works better for you?

>Whip wielding cowboy (girl) British noble BM/AT
She's out to build a cute girl harem, with a few casters for Polymorph/True Polymorph so she can produce heirs for her line and avoid having to go along with her family's arranged marriage. She's also trying to track down her uncle who stole the family's namesake weapon and retrieve it.
>PTSD Life Cleric
He's trying to find the druid girl he served alongside in the military (and fell in love with) and make up for his failures as a healer by going ALL IN on protecting and healing those he's responsible for. Every night, he walks the streets and heals the sick and injured with whatever spells he has left.
>OoA Paladin
He's just trying to keep all of his fellow paladins from fighting each other over which oath is best. Also, he's trying to woo the Dryad of his dreams by finding rare flower and plant seeds from all over the world to gift her.
>Firbolg Druid
Wants to track down the dragon that burned down his clan's forest and force-feed the fucker his own cock. Also, loves insects and uses Giant Insect ALL THE TIME. Rides a Giant Scorpion he befriended and cuddles with it at night, to the party's horror.

So don't? They researched the XP curve pretty heavily to try and make it fun but if you disagree adjust it or adjust the XP. That doesn't imply exp is broken/unfun though, just another rule that's not perfect for everyone, like everything in DnD.

I can't be bothered to count XPs, but it seems to be they give you level about each 2-3 sessions. Which doesn't seem that bad.

But sure, it is relatively fast. DM can choke the stream of xp pretty easily, though.

>Are Ixalan races legal in “official” play?
If by "official" you mean Adventurer's League, then no.
>Do sirens exist in Faerûn at all?
They're not in any of the FR campaigns or Monster Manual yet, but they might exist as the typical fey monster instead of something like the Ixalan race. Of course, a DM can decide to change that. Image is the stats for the siren in the Tomb of Horrors from Tales From The Yawning Portal

If by "very quickly" you mean about 2-3 sessions for every level over 4 and less before you are doing it right in terms of the DMG. If that is to fast for you just introduce a constant factor between 0 and 1 and multiply all xp with it. If your characters are leveling a little or a lot faster maybe study the rules in the DMG again, maybe you are doing something in an other way than intended and you can make adjustments to either your way of giving out xp or again, a factor.

So this is for 3.5 technically but I skimmed the board and couldn't find a thread related to/didn't want to make one

I have a party of 4. 3 of them have been with it from the start and their characters are already pretty well acquainted. The 4th is a recent addition and has only canonically met one of the characters briefly.

I have a mesoamerican island setting that I'm using where one character is currently being forced to fight in an arena/coliseum thing, and he has another party member shapeshifted as a seagull who can help him.

The other two had a brief encounter on the opposite side of the island, but it ended with one of them going through the island to find the rest of the party and the 4th one takes off with his ship and crew.

The problem is, how to I handle the motivation for the 4th party member to come back to the rest of the party? He's a pirate captain thematically so maybe something involving treasure?

(I'm looking for ideas because I'm an overworked student and unoriginal DM)

>bard
Now that he’s cleared his family name, he’s in it for the Justice, and his comrades are the greatest friends he’s ever known so he wants it to keep happening
>Barb
He wants to perfect his craft and get enough cash to buy that burned out empty lot he has a weird feeling about and open his own establishment

His crew mutiny and throw him overboard.
He washes up ashore, unconscious.
Next thing he knows, he's in shackles and has to fight in the arena to win his freedom.

Thanks bros

if you want to go the railroad route: deus ex machina, he has a dream, or a prophecy tells him to meet the people again. If you are not inclined to do so, let them find each other again "by chance", maybe even let a few weeks pass ingame (tell a short story) and give them a motive that needs them to work together. Maybe talk about it with the 4th player, what he thinks, his character would do in the situation you are proposing, or maybe he has a good idea how to solve your problem on his own?

The pursuit of knowledge, but really how to use his knowledge and intellect to help people and improve society.

On that note, how do I deal with a party member being a cowardly non-interventionist bitch? I mean I'm not about to put the party in jeopardy for every peasant we see the guards rough up, but I'd like to at least try and get the boot off their necks, you know? Whereas the pussy bard just thinks positive vibes from his songs will solve everyone's problems.

Lads, my party is soon going to be fighting an ancient green dracolich. What do you think their odds of survival might be?

They are all level 16, and their classes are as follows:

Bard
Sorcerer
Cleric
Barbarian
Wizard

Can you take the oath of vengeance without being a total dick? Can it be about personal vengeance?

That's a lot of magic to throw at something with resistance to magic and immunity to all the shit it's low wis save might make it actually get hit by.

>Half-Orc Bard/Fighter
To find his adoptive father, an adventuring Paladin who saved him when his tribe was destroyed and has since gone missing.

>Dwarf Tempest Cleric
To claim an unknown coast for Umberlee so she can remove his curse that took away his ability to taste booze, since he was a shitty priest who only joined up for the communion wine.

>Half-Elf OoA Paladin
To join up with the lord who defeated his father and brother in battle in order to reclaim his family's keep which is now held by his evil sorceress (or maybe Warlock?) mother.

To your second point, easily. There's a reason it says 'Vengeance' and not 'Justice'.

What are some good one-shots for one player?

>Paladin
Not really sure. He's not the smartest and just sort of allows everyone else to decide things. He probably wants to be a paragon of strength and virtue, a role model, but is error-prone and has a poor attention span.

>Rogue
Wants to be mad rich and live the easy life, but is currently stuck babysitting a so-called legendary hero.

Convince the orc chieftain to allow her eldest son to marry the young queen to seal their alliance. Now you have some bad-ass orc barbarians as part of your military. Problem solved.

Thats a fair point, I will admit I didn't notice the magic immunity feat.

I might include some way to reduce his magic resistance by completing some task within his lair.

>Tiefling Lore Bard
Mainly he wants fame and renown, but he would also like to find out what happened to his uncle (the man who raised him). Maybe meet up with his parents for the first time since he was born if he gets the chance. Even if they don't want to have anything to do with him.

I don't see why not. Nothing's stopping you from being as nice as you want to be between smitings.

Yes you can easily play it as any other paladin, you just happen to go full Deus Vult against a certain enemy.

what are you talking about?

i would never run it without swapping blackrazor for something else but if you did then yes it is absolutely fair

>Dwarf Ancestral Guardian Barbarian
Got visions from his mostly dead clan about impending doom (from the bottom of a pint of ale) and hopes to earn enough fame to cement his family's legacy one last time.

>Aasimar Crown Paladin
Do some good and then go back home to his family's farm.

>Bugbear Conquest Paladin
In the sound mind of a bugbear, if he kills Strahd, he'll be the baddest and greatest thing around. About to rue becoming a wereraven for the ability to fly.

I've been coming to these threads for at least 3 years but I've never so much as made a character in D&D because it's something that doesn't get played in my city except by the absolute dregs of society.

I'd probably just make a boring human character anyway.

Anyone here know of any good 5e Naval rules? Looking for ship stats and combat.

Good because I'm running OotA and I made one the prisoners my DMPC (our group is really small) and I already did Ancients

My bard is a huge nerd who grew up reading stories of great heroes. After getting into a few fights while on one of his jobs (he worked as a spy to support himself) he discovered that he has the potential to be a great hero as well. He adventures in hopes of one day becoming one of the heroes that he grew up reading about.

>usually roll like shit
>roll really well last week
Feels fuckin good.

They can't use Whelm or Wave at all, so I was figuring that letting the party at least leave with ONE thing they can use would be nice.

>most of my players roll really well this session
>one of them rolls like shit, only landing one hit and breaking a cage this session

what kind of response were you hoping for to this post?

>One player always tends to roll poorly, rest of the party rolls average
>He misses the first session in a year of playing
>Suddenly everyone else is rolling incredibly well

I wasn't really hoping for one. I was just posting a thought that occurred to me as I read the thread.

i'd still swap it for something customised to be less fucking busted but if you think they can handle it and it won't fuck the balance go nuts

I usually roll well on rolls that don't matter. But last week, I was killing it on important rolls

>this hobby has existed for generations
>people still believe "rolling well" and "rolling poorly" exist other than their imaginations and cognitive bias

Oh boy that is the opposite of our group last session. Hardly anyone rolled above a 10 in anything they were proficient at, we triggered a trap (because our Rogue with expertise in Sleight of Hand rolled a 3) and almost TPK'd because everyone failed their save (including two nat 1s). The only good rolls all night were initiative so at least we got to run away fast.

I need help, I have a rouge in my party I'm dming. He's going range stealth and I don't know how to deal with him, he's eather stealthed all the time and shooting from range Into combat then ducking behind somthing going stealth and repeat, or just walks around stealthed the hole time. I can't every attack him beucase he argues about, well I'm stealthing, then he ducks around and rolls a fucking 10+ stealth.

Statistically you'll be average but if you don't believe that there are nights where the party hits consistently higher or lower numbers than usual, you don't play.

>Usually roll fine
>Unless it's something that is going to fuck me over completely, then I fail
Died 3 times to critical fails on a death saving throws

Include enemy with blindsight or super perception. Either that or throw traps in those far away spots he hides in.

Don't give him so much shit to hide behind.
Target him with more AoEs/disables/etc. Send enemies with higher AC so he misses more. You're the DM dude.

what? if you roll a load of low numbers you are rolling poorly, how is this even debateable? do you mean good and bad luck doesn't exist? 'cos then yeah sure

Yep, that sounds like something i'd expect when playing rogue. How is that an issue?

give the enemies higher perception scores, ready actions for when he steps out of stealth and fires, and hit him with AoEs? or restrict the combat areas so he can't be so far away and send enemies after him so he can't easily hide behind shit

Because he hits for almost 25 dmg every stealth hit

I'm not going to let that happen because my character is planning to marry the Queen himself.

But we actually have a sorta sidequest, some really rich guy wants to find husbands for his two absolutely hideous daughters.

Maybe an orc will do. But he wants the husbands to be blooded too, ideally.

If the chieftain is blooded, so will be her sons.

Just hope it's not Azrai.

Making a new character for a new campaign soon. Need help deciding

>A barbarian king who tried pulling out a legendary sword from a stone that only the true ruler of the land can claim
>Pulled out the sword with the stone still attached to act like a refluffed warhammer
>First reaction is to intimidate/persuade others to join his cause to establish his kingly influence, with his second reaction being to kill
>High tendency to grapple larger creatures and monsters just to show off his superiority

>A lore bard only known as the king of games
>Human variant with the tavern brawler feat
>Tries to resolve conflict with children's card games (based on rolling opposed performance)
>In combat, only fights with thrown tradingcards and creative uses of the environment and other items
>Once he gets to high level, will focus mostly on conjuration/enchantment spells as he summons the creatures from his cards to the field
Spiritual weapon(2nd level, 1d8) + Find greater steed(4th level peryton 1d8+2d4) + Mordenkainen's faithful hound(4th level 4d8) + Awakening (find a huge tree for the awakened tree stats 5th level 3d6) = 2d4 + 6d8 in non-concentration damage. With as many summon demon+planar bindings and a conjure elemental to take up your concentration.
>Might be funner, but most likely more disruptive

Why did he dump Cha anyway? Wouldn't the DM allow him to change his attributes around?

>I can't every attack him beucase he argues about, well I'm stealthing
So he's telling you you can't attack him? Who's the DM here? If they're relocating between attacks, using cunning action to hide, there's sufficient cover to do so, and somehow all of these hiding spots are a decent vantage point to aim at their desired target, then whatever. Chances are, though, that this is not always the case and you're being too generous about when/where they can hide.

Post your favorite and/or least favorite race/class/background combo tropes.

>Tiefling Bard abandoned by his/her parents.
>

5e Spelljammer halfling fighter.
Used to be a thespian, got a fan letter from a girl after a show one night. He wifed her, then she died so he decided to go be the kind of hero she fell in love with. He's out to save people until he dies, and then he gets to spend eternity with her. He rushes directly into combat and starts pulling crazy acrobatics. The rest of the party has no idea, just thinks he's a cocky bastard who is positive he won't die.

>Every D&D session consists of a statistically significant number of rolls and outliers don't exsist.

Autism.

First off go read the hide rules in the PHB "stealth" is not a condition in 5e.
Secondly, if a monster beats his stealth with their perception or is looking at him when he attempts to hide, they'll know where he is and can watch for him to move out of cover to attack him. Thirdly, you don't need to attack the rogue ever. If you're having a hard time with it just act like the party has one less member and kill everyone else first.

25 damage per round isn't that high. You may just have a low damage party, in which case them having someone to deal a lot of damage is probably good.

This got me thinking. If I made (not!)SEto Kaiba what would be a good monster to make his waifu? Preferably one that he can summon.

And what 5e spells could be used as yugioh cards?

>Crown of Madness = Change of heart
>Geas/Banishment = A duel where the loser is sent to the shadow realm

How did you find your group?