/5eg/ Fifth Edition General

Well... there ISN'T an official shaman class. Soooo...

Meh, it lumps physical aliments like hunger/thirst/excessive heat/cold under exhaustion. Also not really, best you get is a mediocre magic item crafting guideline in DMG.

user, I...

I guess you could be an archer paladin? Longbows fuckin' hurt, brah.

Well, fart.

>what's a cooler replacement spell?
Pyrotechnics makes sense to me

Rapier, decide on either shield in off hand or TWF if you want to go full duelist with a dueling dagger. Also Dex paladin is far from shit it's just you can't abuse certain feats like GWM or PAM for the DPR that build autists like to whack it to.

I homebrewed an official Shaman class.

>Tell about the times someone played, or you played, a paladin.

Last time i played a pally, she and the ranger got bit and turned by Strahd while the dumbass rogue, druid and wizard fought over treasure.

Yeah, he just doesn't get to use his smites ever. Read the book before giving advice.

Sounds hot

I know Wouldn't mind something in the future however that's all I'm saying.

>Tell about the times someone played, or you played, a paladin
I played a warlock who was motivated by the death of our party cleric(who had been trying to turn me away from my dark pact) and multiclassed into paladin, becoming a far better man in her name.

Kind of hard to make a Paladin shit, dex or no.

Wont lie, it kind of was.

Both are still having issues coping, though after feeding for the first she's kind of coming around to it. Halfling ranger bullied her into it (like she did every other poor Barovian life's decision)

Have you tried refluffing a Bard or something?

oh okay cool, when i've asked before i've gotten shit on for no great weapon lol

>Tell about the times someone played, or you played, a paladin.
One time, long before I visited Veeky Forums, I led a succubus to seek redemption. She immediately tried to stab me when I walked away so I smote that bitch eight ways to Sunday.
That was a fun character, it was the first time some of my group had encountered a PC willing to spare the enemy in favor of teaching them the error of their ways.

Why is the Great Weapon Master feat allowed to exist? You get -25% to your damage, in return for +10 damage when you do hit. So unless you are dealing 40+ damage per hit already, GWM is the best option, all the time every time, unless it's something with an insanely-high AC. GWM is literally a game changer for a party, and it just shits on two-weapon fighting and sword-and-board even more. You would think these fuckwits would learn their lesson after Power Attack was pretty much non-optional in 3.5 for fighters, but instead they brought it back. They so carefully balanced the math, they so carefully set up the game so that more than one fighting style would be viable, and instead they have created the same Hobson's Choice of martial characters where a +2 to AC or the fun of an extra attack cannot possibly compare to dealing out an extra +10 damage per hit. It just can't. And if you mix it with barbarian's Reckless Attack.... heh. Well, say good bye to anything resembling a challenge to the PCs that doesn't fly or do mind control or foil melee fighters in some other way.

Eighteen years since Third Edition was released, and Wizards of the Coast has still not learned a goddamn thing about balancing the game.

>Have you tried refluffing a Bard or something?
So fucking stupid.
Every time someone wants a new class or something of the like, the first reply is always "have you tried refluffing X" as though the arbitrary selection of content included in Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition is somehow a comprehensive collection of all desirable game mechanic content. Fuck off. A bard is not a shaman. A minotaur is not a space marine. Enough of this "lol you don't need those cool monsters from X book you used to like, just refluff Y and stop being entitled, Wizards of the Coast can do no wrong." Do you even understand how fucking stupid you sound? No, a bard is not a shaman. It does not fill the niche of a shaman class. The singing has fuck-all to do with it, as does the inspiration, that is not what shamans are. They are mystics. They are primal casters. Bards have a completely different set of class features. I mean if you'd said warlock or sorcerer I could almost understand, but that leaves the issue of your hateboner for them adding any new classes to the game, even though half the classes already in the game are fucking stupid (like monk, sorcerer, and warlock) and the rest are arbitrary selections of what the game designers decided to include. It has no value. None at all. Their phobia of releasing new character options is based on laziness, not fear of balance. Look at it this way: people figure out pretty quickly when something isn't balanced. Hell with the UA they usually figure it out within the fucking hour that the thing is released. They could easily playtest these new options to be all but bulletproof. But they won't, because they are lazy twats.

Is this pasta?

Shaman poster here who posted
Though I get your point I like sorcerers and warlocks.

Offer advice together with your criticism. All you did was belch out a useless, snarky comment.

You are aware Bards don't have to sing or use music to cast spells, right?

You guys are so fucking buttmad over trivial stuff. Why don't we get angry at the UA instead.

What was the 4e shaman's angle? How different is it than something like the Circle of the Shepherd druid?

...

Is command a useful spell or just at low levels?

Anyone?

>They so carefully balanced the math

LOL

Waaah the melee dude gets to do damage. Man up and throw more monsters at the party solely for the purpose of it taking longer for the guy who's picking the shittiest stat in the game, strength, to cleave through.

Last year I DM'd a party full of non casters but one. He enjoyed commanding "Get prone" so that the rest of the group could advantage them to death.

Hunter rangers get a feature which is basically that sort of multishot.
Otherwise, you could always just fluff Extra Attack as that.

Have you gents have good luck playing over online video chat or Roll20? New to D&D and there are no groups within an hour's drive of me.

Played like a warlord in 4ed but with primal magic, with some spirit creature summoning and couldn't be in combat more effectively without relying on shape shifting.

1d4chan.org/wiki/Shaman

Currently my games are all online, via roll20, but also with friends and friends of friends, rather than total strangers.

It's been pretty fun, though in my experience roll20's got some seriously diminishing returns on how much effort you put into it. Try to manage everything with its tools and you'll actually start to slow things down.

So a mix between Totem Barbarian and Druid?

>could be in combat

Reading this, I think that's what they were aiming to represent with the Shepherd druid (but like any 4e-5e comparison it's a way more low-and-slow approach to the power curve).

forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Shaman
Yep with cleric type abilities as well oh they could also eventually turn into elementals. But their abilities came from a almost lock like pact with spirits.

Mearls did say in a AMA thread he said wouldn't mind doing a primal magic class based on primal spirits or could see the Shaman being a more primal magic based warlock pact.

How does bow minimum range work?

Agreed. Changes need to be mechanically rigorous. I have the same issue when I post about monsters. No, I don't want to just reskin something else, I want to mechanically support it.

Yeah, there's definitely a lot of fun design space you could play with for a naturalist Warlock. Maybe take an Animist approach. Even give it a choice between offensive or support focus as part of choosing the pact.

So long as the target is within the first range band you attack normally. If it's past that but less than the maximum range you're attacking at long range, and make attack with disadvantage.

Thanks for some reason our group assumed the first range was to close and you were at disadvantage for trying to shoot.
That didn't feel right at all.

The only too close is melee range, and that can be offset by taking Crossbow Expert (this part of this feat applies to all ranged weapons and spell attacks)

is melee range based on reach? or just the stand 1 square (5 feet or whatever.)

He did offer advice. The advice was "read the book".

> a caster that never learns spells higher than 3rd level, but that can cast two (maybe 3 at 20) spells per action

Too broken? I think that it would be a nice niche for some caster to fill

Just 5ft, lewdly touchin squares and shit.

Im DMing a group where the players are going around solving mysteries. The BBE is a Rakshasa, though the group hasn't discovered his identity yet (they don't even know it's a shapeshifter yet even). What are some shinanigans I could use with this? I appreciate any kind of ideas

Should I petition my DM to let me swap some spells on my Tempest cleric for others with a lightning/storm theme, like Shocking Grasp to replace Sacred Flame and Lightning Bolt to replace Call Lightning? Would that be too much, what with the knockback on lightning spells and ability to max out the damage on lightning spells with Channel Divinity, as well as the martial weapons and heavy armour proficiency?

Thanks again, that helps clear it up. Our poor ranger in our one shot should have questioned it.

Changing the spells could be a bit strong. Why not ask if you can refluff the spells you already have? Like sacred flame having the same mechanics but dealing lightning damage instead.

Absolutely this. It's what I did for my player that wanted to play dragon sorcerer but not be limited to just fire types. I refluffed fireball as iceball, burning hands and frigid wind, etc. Worked great.

My players are heading to a new city soon, which has a colosseum type setup that is swiftly becoming the main attraction in town (similar to the growth of gladiatorial fights in Rome). The fights are, at this point, until knockout, submission, or serious injury, but not death.

There is an undercurrent of crime and match fixing starting up, involving the gang elements of the city, and the PCs are tasked with rooting out the leader of the main gang in town via the next tournament.

Do you think I need to really lay it on thick that the simplest way in is going to be getting involved in match fixing, risking their imprisonment or execution if they are caught, but being the quickest line to the gang boss?

What other methods could I employ to let them tack a crack at getting immersed in the seedy underworld of crime, in order to do good? It's effectively the russian mafia.

Could I start as a Variant human as a None life domain cleric and take a feat for heavy Armour mastery right out the get go? or am I missing a step?

>friends and i decided to get into dnd
>started the "tutorial campaign" on roll20 to learn the basics
>first session is pretty fun even though we have no idea what we are doing
>one of the group travels to asia the next day for family emergency, won't be back for a month
>still manage to play but we have to have sessions at dumb times, and he always has to leave really early
>month later still on the retarded tutorial campaign
i just want to play fucking dnd oh my god

yes you can

what does 5eg think of gurps

Rate my monk subclass, I don't think any of the features should be out of line except possibly tides of battle. I'm still considering putting a ki point cost on that.

He'd still have spells. It's a thing, but it ain't no thang.

Also here's the updated Oath of the Undying from the other day. You guys gave some good feedback and I changed up the features. I really like this version of Reject the Reaper.

tg what would a wood elf gambeson look like?

average of 11 or 12 melee damage reduction once a round at level 3 is hella strong, and then you add even more gravy on top of it.

Like a normal gambeson but with a really hideous floral pattern.

I intended it to be balanced out by being worse at deflecting missiles since you don't use Dexterity. But the modifier doesn't really account for much of that.

Should I put the Ki point cost on the grasp the blade portion and drop the free attack entirely? I only put the part about grappling because another user pointed out that there wasn't any actual blade grasping going on in the old version.

It's more than -25% to your damage for all but the lowest of ACs, it only breaks even at "normal" ACs, it sucks with disadvantage and is great with advantage. TWF proves lackluster for fighters without needing to bring up feats at all. Yawn.

>Closed Fist Technique
It's a nice refluff to making a Strength monk. I like it, and makes the least useful stat in the game more useful.
>Blade Grasp
This sounds really useful to be honest, however being able to grapple and possibly disarm your oponent at only the cost of a reaction sounds a bit strong. Maybe make the base cost 1 ki and a reaction? Also: when you use the reaction, does the opponent immediately get to roll to see if it escapes? Or until its turn?
>Unrelenting
It could be a bit strong considering the other base effects the Monk class has. Having resistance to basic damage effectively doubles the temp health you get (24 temp health at level 6 if you're facing non magical creatures? whew lad). You could reduce the hitpoints gained, OR reduce the duration.
>Tides of Battle
Fun, but way too situational for a 11th level skill. Maybe could add it a little more.
>Awaken the mountain
Holy shit ain't this a fucking capstone ability. 3 Ki for this baby is just too little ki considering how much they have at that level. Make it a x per rest ability.

Overall, I like it. I know a player of mine who would love to playtest this.

I think there is no homebrew in the game t hat will ever let you make a Strength monk without it being awkward as hell. This is kinda bad because you want dex for the first two levels and then your dex loses a lot of value. Kind of.

Instead of pulling my laptop out and checking pdfs, I'm going to make a bunch of assumptions.

Smoke mephits get an ability that let's them put darkness/magical darkness over an area.

Dancing lights give off light, and can move, allowing the mephit to put light on his targets and avoid the disadvantage from attacking in darkness if it can't see, without carrying a light source itself.

Instead maybe consider faerie fire, which ultimately also negates the disadvantage. Reasons they might have chosen dancing lights over faerie fire:
>faerie fire gives advantage iirc which is a positive effect wasted to negate a negative effect instead of just negating a negative effect. Understand?

>im fairly certain dancing lights gets you multiple targets instead of just one from faerie fire

>different saves: iirc faerie fire is cha and dancing lights has... none? Int?

Better than 5e, not as good as wfrp

Blade Grasp does seem a bit overdone. I'm changing the ki cost to be upfront.

Unrelenting is balanced against Open Hand, which gets 3 times monk level health. So against bludgeoning, slashing, piercing Closed Fist gets effective 4 times health, but against magic Open Hand is better. I made it temp hp though so that it has a more defined drop which means you can do it upfront.

Tides of Battle I'm a little unsure what to do with. Being able to beat a motherfucker with another motherfucker was the main appeal, since it effectively doubles damage output if you have a grappled creature to drag around.

What if I also had it give Proficiency in Athletics, or Double your proficiency if you already have it. Expertise in your grappling skill along with a grapple based ability would be good.

Would Awaken the Mountain be better as long rest or short rest? Remember it has to compete with Quivering Palm which is also 3 ki points and might just kill somebody straight out.

If a player wanted to do that specifically, I'd offer disadvantage on the attack roll in exchange for two damage dice (or probably, a flat bonus to dmg to discourage them from cheesing) though I don't know what the flat dmg would be. Maybe half a die?

Both of them definitely step on the Sorcerer's toes--though now I'm picturing a 'shaman by bloodrights' sort of Sorcerer concept, and that could be pretty damn nice. I wish I had more time, I'd definitely dabble with that.

Or you just start out building a strength monk and then at level 3 take your AC gets a lot better.

>one attack roll == one arrow fired

You know you're in a bad spot when you roll up to the combat encounter with less AC than the wizard. For two levels. And you only deal damage in melee range.

The real answer to this is "let your DM be merciful", "start at level 3", or even "stop trying to make Strength monk a thing".

DMing for my first time next Saturday. Doing LMOP but I want a better hook so my players are a bit more motivated as they're using custom characters. I was thinking having them start out being bailed out ftom jail by gundren rockseeker as cheap work, indebted to him until the job is finished and he signs off on it, else they never return to neverwinter

Any thoughts

If a person or group plane shifts and appears in front of you, what do you see and hear? I imagine a thundering noise and a rift appearing, like the air ripping apart.

Vine-battened treecotton.

If it's not specified, it's typically whatever the DM wants it to be.

Okay so I've got a 1 player dungeon campaign in the works. How do I make vaguely encounters for one lv 1 wizard?

Since Closed Fist technique is just a refluff of Unarmored Defense you would need to ask your DM to let you use it at level 1 if you really want to play a level 1 strength monk. Which I know is not a great solution.

I just wanted to make a grappler monk really. It's weird that monks are bad at grappling when they are the martial arts class.

>two kobolds and a long rest
>repeat

>bbeg
>can shapeshift
The events that lead to the mysteries have witnesses that see the crime, and the perpetrators always look different but act a certain way? Maybe the party thinks it's a cult, but it's one guy who just looks different? Feed them the first part, see what the party latches onto, play that up until they're in the lair of the bbeg until you reveal the truth.

Maybe just try letting them use atheltics with dex.

I know Veeky Forums memes about gish builds, gish homebrew, gish expectations, etc., but what about zerths, in particular psionic monk-types?

0/10 for taking the name of the closed fist in vain. Absolutely unacceptable. Closed Fist are strikers, not grapplers or gently flowing redirect your enemy's strength types. Way of the Open Hand with harsher descriptions works for them.

Mechanically, switching to Str unarmored AC at level 3 is shitty. It just sucks. Blade grasp at level 3 is too early. It's a strong defense that could replace their level 6 feature. Unrelenting is probably fine, but generally a better version of Wholeness of Body from open hand. Boring, maybe out of line. Tides of Battle is niche as fuck and poorly named. Drop it, the subclass needs a social feature. Giant growth is a weird choice too, but basically fine. Needs a lot of work. 3/10. Would not recommend, but not actively carcinogenic.