/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

That sounds much cooler.

If your setting has an Asian expy you can use one of these and introduce the concept of the harmonica to the rest of the setting: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheng_(instrument)

Also curious on this, friend asked me to come play with a group and we are literally running session 1 tomorrow with a group of people I never met.

I heard it's pretty hard so I am kinda nervous as he said they try real hard but blow at combat

I'm preparing to run it at the moment.
Seems really cool, i'm very excited. My opinion might change by the time I finish of course but after a single go over it seems great.
Also giants are my favorite monster so my opinion might be a bit skewed.

>DM'ing Tomb of Annihilation for people at our local game shop (The owner pays me to run sessions there as he rents the space to players, so essentially by renting the space they are paying me/him to play)
>Make it CLEAR at the start this is a very hard module, and that I will be instituting the "If a character dies you immediately confiscate their character sheet and destroy it" rule. Include this (even bolded) in the "contract" they sign. (It's mostly table rules/game rules so I can hold people accountable if they do something and then claim ignorance)
>Everyone is fine with it
>Take a cast iron plate and paint it/pretty it up to make it look like a pyre. Owner gives me the OK to burn the character sheets on it
>3rd Session someone gets wrecked by a Wright
>Ask for his character sheet and he refuses
>Finish combat, ask for it again, still refuses
>Tell him if he doesn't give me the sheet he is gone
>Packs his shit and goes and complains to the owner
>"It's literally what you signed up for, look here (Points at contract I made them sign)
>He leaves in tears and leaves us a nasty review on Facebook

I have the most wicked set of blue balls right now. I just want to burn a sheet (They are going to try and assassinate Shago while he is in Fort Beluarian so I am pretty sure someones gonna die)

homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/Hy7RhiOk_M
Here's what I have so far. Please no bully, I'm new to all this homebrew stuff and I just want one of my players' Alchemist to not suck.

Those are some fairly rad doodles, especially the village.

I don't understand why you'd absolutely need to burn a sheet (I personally like to keep 'em in a binder somewhere so I can look back at the memories), but yeah, sorry to hear user. If he wasn't OK with the idea, the dickbag should have brought it up.

>Roll an Aasimar Paladin of the Ancients
>Spend most of my time using the Protection fighting style, making sure all the others are protected from attacks
>DM gets smart, tries to throw a spellcaster at us
>Finds himself stymied by the Aura of Warding, granting resistance to all damage from spells, along with Aura of Protection giving them a bonus to their saving throws
>Tries to target me exclusively
>Start using my turn to Dodge, all saves from spells and magic granted advantage because of the Angelic Protection feat and the aforementioned Aura of Protection
>Gleefully destroys my shield with a vial of acid
>Sigh heavily, acknowledge that it's probably destroyed, and erase the "(x2)" from the shield listed in my inventory
>"I pull out my other shield and continue to dodge while providing advantage to the others with my Protection fighting style."
>End up the MVP, despite never swinging a sword

God help him if he makes me hit someone. I think the Divine Smite might just make him have an aneurysm, not to mention the fact that I've also had a level in Hexblade the whole time.

>Angelic Protection feat
The what now?

Xanathar's Guide to Everything expanded feat list.

>DMsguild
Nah, frig off.

What are the best weapons to turn to Kensei weapons for Kensei monk?

Longsword
Longbow
Whip

what else?

>Angelic Projection
>Aasimar
>Hexblade dip
>Expanded feat list
>Homebrew crap by Beyond team
user, I would kick you for just being that guy alone.

Suit yourself, works at my table.

>Urd Wings
I know what I'm going to make for my next campaign now. Kobold ranged Gloom Stalker.

Glaive?

Blowgun

Mostly it's to symbolize the Death Curse, but it's to add to the tension. ToA is supposed to be super anxiety-inducing (We are playing Meatgrinder) and depressing. I figured that burning the sheet would be a kind of neat little gimmick for destroying them and symbolizing the finality of death under the death curse.

Since they keep their character sheets at the shop I had photocopied backups of all of them, and planned to gift them to them if they managed to destroy the Soul-Monger. I don't tell any of them this because I wanted it to be a surprise.

>
Isn't Glaive a heavy weapon?

Pls don't be mad just because the forces of Good aren't just letting the forces of Evil dick the forces of Mortality without getting in on that action.

They're not just better at it than your silly devils. They're Good at it.

Lance.

Don't just hit people. Hit them from the back of a fucking horse.

doesn't that have the special property?

I should also add I would have just torn it up but he was against destroying it at all.

I made it completely clear this was a gimmick for this campaign and everyone was seemingly on board. There was a Lost Mines game starting up in the same time slot a week later if he had a problem

Oh right, they changed it to no heavy weapons, didn't they?

Any suggestions for horror-themed scenarios?

I'm running a horror campaign in a month and I've been digging through Call of Cthulhu/horror modules from other P&P and while there's a lot of good material to work with, I'd appreciate any suggestions.

...

Curse of Strahd is campy Universal Horror if you're into that.

Thanks, already reading the titles actually motivated me for a few other scenarios I can use to torture my players.

Would you think it possible to remove the camp from Curse of Strahd or is it integral to the experience?

...

Welp. I'd completely forgotten about that being verboten for the Kensai. Kind of a shame, really, I'd have liked to see a motherfucker throw a net and deal damage, not to mention throwing armloads of them with a Flurry Of Blows.

Sure, anything's possible with the right DM. Just be aware that it's written in the style of ghosts, and vampires, and werewolf stories. Less paranormal, more supernatural if that makes sense.

Making a vengeance level 5 paladin with GWM, we're not likely to level up much after that so playing for that level. I was thinking either Aasimar or Variant Human. If v.Human, what are some good options to pick up as my second feat? I was looking at warcaster to maybe make sure the hunter's mark keeps going but maybe it's overkill.

How good would Alert, Charger or Heavy Armor Master be?

Lucky. Reroll your cares away.

Ok guys I need some input on Dragonborn.

Do any of you particularly "like" dragonborn? are you neutral towards them or do you dislike them? I been battling with putting them in my homebrew or not. I think part of my hate comes from the majority of their art being that wierd dragonesque looking things with the wierd ass tendril/tentacle hair. Meanwhile dragonborn to me should look like Draconians. Yeah I can just reflavor them to look like that but it still bugs me.

not allowed at the table

Neutral to dislike. Too close to dragons for me, and i'd rather have a kind of Lizardfolk that aren't primitve savages instead.

>and then everyone stood up and clapped

Playing a Triton sorcerer tempted to go Shadow. How is the subclass?

They exist in my setting but are not available as a PC race. They are sworn to protect specific locations and take their oaths extremely seriously.

If someone wants to play a draconic PC, they can play a Draconian as they're a purpose-bred off-shoot meant to travel the world in the name of their clan's oaths.

>The response for a story that probably didn't happen
>For a story where a guy didn't even roll a die and no natural twenties were even mentioned

mobile.twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/933438322537504768?ref_src=twsrc^tfw&ref_url=https://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/12/26/why-a-spell-with-only-m-components-is-perceivable/

>Handling or displaying a material component is part of an M-component spell. It's a visible part of the spell's casting. #DnD

Some people were complaining about subtle spell being useless because of this, but he doesn't seem to mention arcane focus? Wouldn't a sorc with arcane focus thus have no V, S, or M component, thus not visible spellcasting?

I didn't realize EK couldn't use sword-and-board or two-weapon fighting until I saw that spellcasting focus was an ability EK didn't get at all.

And I can't seem to find any ruling on whether an arcane focus needs to be held or if it can simply be worn. There's a crystal type arcane focus which should be small enough to wear as a pendant or something. But how war caster + spellcasting focus works with busy hands is still a mystery to me.

never ever pick charger

>I didn't realize EK couldn't use sword-and-board or two-weapon fighting until I saw that spellcasting focus was an ability EK didn't get at all.
>GFB you only need V and a weapon
>Shield is V, S and absorb elements is S so you're a-ok with war caster
Those 3 are 90% of the spells you'd want as an EK in combat.

Alert - Pretty good, you can't be the victim of sneak attacks and you get an incredible +5 to Initiative, which is even better if your Dex is either really high or really shit. If it's high you'll never roll less than 10 on intiative even if you get a 1, and you can potentially hit a 29 (assuming you have 18 DEX at level 5 here, meaning 4 DEX mod + 5 from Alert for a +9 to initiative). If your DEX is shit, say a -1 modifier, you'll be getting +4 anyway so you won't be stuck in last all the time.

-Charger: generally useless. There are better mobility feats and the benefits it grants aren't that great. Skip it.

- Heavy Armor Master: If you intend to make extensive use of Heavy armor and have an odd score in STR then it's great. -3 damage from every martial hit with nonmagical damage and even a few spells that use bludgeoning is pretty good. It's like a slightly shittier Barbarian Rage that's always active.

My advice? HAM if you're going to be tanking, Alert if you're going to focus more on dishing out the hurt instead.

>players genuinely like the villain
It's a good feeling.

>players genuinely like playing in my game.

>get players who had a That DM
>run a mediocre to goodish game
>players think it's amazing
The thinking man's DMing

I've got a dragon emperor who has a nation defended by dragons who have come to his banner in addition to his mixed breed children. Has the other nations nervous, especially those he shares a border with on account of offering protection of dragons patrolling the land.

2 of my players, out of 3, told me that seeing and interacting with a Red/Green hybrid was interesting and something they've never seen before. Felt good.

>Crawford once again purposefully makes shit up in order to fuck Sorcerers in the ass
Color me absolutely astonished. I'd love to hear his "answer" as to why someone can innately tell that I'm casting a Subtle Minor Illusion when I fiddle with the bit of fleece in my pocket, because there's not a single damn line of text in the rulebook that says that material components must be paraded around for all to see.
"Displaying a material component is part of the spell" my ass.

query: what constitutes an arcane component these days? Do you just decide what it is on your own? in 4e the wizard chose between a orb, a staff, and a wand (I think) as his focus, or is it just fluff it how you want?

expeditious retreat and misty step are bonus action to cast.

if you're new to 5e remember not to have two concentration spells up at one time.

invisibility. silence. feign death. spirit guardians. water walk. thunderwave. longstrider. entangle. fog cloud. spike growth. meld into stone. sleet storm. jump. ensnaring strike. disguise self. feather fall. alter self. darkness. levitate. spider climb. web. fly. gaseous form. haste. water breathing. grease. rope trick. phantom steed.

There's tons of ways to escape with spells, but look for non-concentration spells first, like misty step. If your npc caster has concentration spells, make a separate list for them to track them easier.

Okay. Any thoughts on Warcaster?
I was also considering Sentinel.

I asked this the other night but didn't quite get enough information to go off of.

My necromancer is in a party with a tiefling paladin of Torm (Oath of Conquest). What kinds of debates/arguments might my mage bring to the table to persuade the paladin that I'm doing little more than animating discarded parts? I'd like to use as many in-character rationalizations as possible which is why I specifed his oath and chosen deity. DM has told us that in this setting, once someone dies their spirit is whisked away to their afterlife and that my level of mecromancy does not in fact bind/torture souls in any way, so I at least have that going for me.

Additionally, I only animate remains that we find, or remains of non-humanoids, never fallen enemies after a battle and never allies/NPCs.

What do you guys think? Is there anything in Torm's lore I could use to try to have the paladin see my perspective? I already tried the "as a tiefling you should know better than most how harmful stigma can be" but it hasn't quite resonated with him yet.

Thanks.

>Mediocre DM
>Somehow got a reputation for being god-tier
>Only ever seem to run games every year or so
>My junk seems to impress, no matter how poorly I think I did

It's

It's not a good feeling, really.

Love Dragonborn
In My games Dragonborn are created when a dragon egg is hatched without being blessed by a dragon priest

There is a list of spellcasting focus in PHB. The smallest arcane focus seems to be a crystal weighs 1 lb. -- how big would that be?

There are magic items that count as spellcasting focus, such as a crystal you can fuse to a weapon, can't remember which book its in though.

get your imposter syndrome under control

If you're going to be doing a lot of casting as well as slapping things and you want to use a shield and sword then by all means go for War Caster.

Supposedly this is 1 pound of quartz.

>mediocre DM
>half of my players are otherwise forever DMs
>My game is the only game they get to play in
>They think my shit is great
I can't tell if they're serious or desperate.

Holy shit, that's a fuckton of quartz. What about denser crystals?

If you had it all carved into something like a skull or a star it probably wouldn't seem like as much.

This is apparently 3 pounds. So probably something you'd have to hold in your hand, a necklace would be really pushing it.

New UA comes out.. it's the shitty kraken patron lock.

This one is 1.7 pounds. Seems like it'd be a cool focus.

You might not be using the souls of the bodies being animated, but that doesn't mean you aren't pulling souls from somewhere else to animate them. Isn't the 5e canonical answer that they're undead pulled from the shadowfell?

Also, they go on a rampage when you lose control of them, potentially harming innocents.

5e isn't a great system if you want to be a not-evil necromancer. Or just a necromancer in general. Unless your DM makes some house rules.

>my level of necromancy does not in fact bind/torture souls in any way, so I at least have that going for me.

DM already confirmed this is the way it is in the setting, and (I left this part out) my character only keeps as many undead as they can maintain control over without running out of slots (currently just 1 servant).

Looking to make a Grapple build, but I'm looking for a few bits of advice.

>Barbarian (and later, fighter)
>Goliath
>19/14/20/8/10/8
>Tavern Brawler feat.
Going to take the Brawny feat (UA Feats for Skills) next so that I have expertise in Athletics and more carry/drag/lift/etc. capacity.

>Totem Barbarian (Bear, duh)

When I start taking fighter levels I'm going to see if I can get the Mariner fighting style so that I can start carrying people up cliff faces and King-Konging the shit out of them.

The character should have a base lift/drag/push capacity of around 4,800lbs (dual wielding bears as improvised weapons has never been so achievable!) and if the party actually has a goddamn spellcaster when I play him, then Enlarge can increase that to a smooth 9,800 + the ability to grapple huge creatures.

Is there anything else I'm missing that can increase my carrying capacity further? Without suggesting wacky magic items or impossible multiclasses like Druid.

Additionally, what other feats should I take? Mobile, Alert, Resilient (Dex) and +2 Dex all seem like good options.

>DMs, do you feel threatened by the expectations that come with accurately portraying such a central and formidable creature?
No, but I do think their statblocks are really swingy. You either get your breath weapon once and are stuck with a bunch of lame attacks or you get it all the time (as is the case with my fights, the last one I ran I think I got it back 3 or 4 times) and its actually a fun fight. Lair actions help give some variety and I highly recommend using them if you do have a dragon boss in the right situation.

>or just rush in swords ablazin' because you know the encounter is probably balanced?
Any player that does this in my games is likely going to end up dead. I don't balance encounters to the party level 100% of the time to encourage more clever solutions and I am certainly not the type of limped dick GM that is going to nerf the CR 10+ dragon because the party thought it wise to try to kill it at level 3... Though of course I am also not going to encourage you go to the dragon's lair in the first place.

As a player I had fun but I also felt it covered waaaay too much of the Sword Coast. The GM gave up on random encounters because they bogged the game down and last session literally saw us teleporting between locations because of how much distance the module covers. Still was a fun time and we even claimed our own fortress that the GM made up as part of the Ranger's backstory so that was cool.

I'm starting to suspect that rollfags ask for advice on their builds just as a pretense to show off what they rolled.

Well if so congrats, I hope you're proud of yourself.

Does your party need you to be the tank and to prevent casters from getting splattered? Then go Sentinel. Shield Mastery for dex saves and bonus action shoves is nice, but dunno if it works on paladin, depends if you get any decent bonus action abilities or spells. You probably don't want more than 1 feat so you can max str and cha, unused spells don't matter much since you can smite with em.

Check if paladin spells have somatic components, you can get around material with a holy symbol on your shield if youre not going GWF. Try to avoid war caster, delaying ASI is a pain, especially since charisma is so good on paladins and in any game with a minimum of social interaction with NPCs.

>I'm doing little more than animating discarded parts
Unless your DM is altering how undead work in your setting (which is fully within their right to do), this just isn't true.
>The magic animating a zombie imbues it with evil, so left without purpose, it attacks any living creature it encounters.
>When skeletons encounter living creatures, the necromantic energy that drives them compels them to kill unless they are commanded by their masters to refrain from doing so.
They aren't "harmless unless misused" automatons. They're evil by nature.

Wasn't actually rolled, the DM is using a very generous pointbuy system but in exchange the campaign will be brutal with a big ol' B.

user I'm trying to tell you that is exactly what happened, this is the DMs invention of his own setting and all of our characters know it.

I said that in here and again here

Been a few months since I played but picked up a copy of Xanathar
How's Arcane Archer? I always dig that kinda stuff

I heard the giant tag along is TOO neccessary in combat because of how dangerous giants are but that it's still better than say HotDQ

Oh, bro, I totally would if I could.

My gut tells me that it's both.

Sorry, I can't read. Then I don't know why you're asking us for help convincing the Paladin if the DM has made it clear that there isn't anything inherently evil in your setting about creating undead. Seems like it should be pretty straightforward.

I wouldn't even name my character
I know I'd get attached and he'd be first into the meat grinder

He's mostly huffy about it being disrespectful to the memory of the dead.

Longsword but always fluff it as a katana or bastard sword with duel wielding them to really live that Kensei life

>rollfags
>Rolling for stats is the default
>Point-buy and standard array are the variant rules

Wow.

They're serious and desperate. As DMs themselves, they understand that there's a lot of work put into it and I'd say they probably respect - and enjoy - your game and your DMing quite a bit.

clear something up for me guys:

Ignoring the variant encumbrance rules, what happens if a character exceeds their carrying capacity?

>Torm

Didn't he absorb a few thousand of his followers to use their souls for strength?

Just got back from Con Nooga, playing in the epic Peril at the Port.
Some of the ones were fun, but one really pissed me off.
You're supposed to infiltrate the BBEG ship. That's fine. But you have to impersonate a crew. That's also fine. But every player has to write up some bullshit history, then the other players have to remember that bullshit then also remember that ANOTHER player is supposed to be the one with that bullshit history made up on the spot( that a different player wrote ). You're not allowed to take notes, either. And if someone gets it flat out wrong it's basically auto-lose. And if you fail the deception check a character is a step closer to being basically permanently crippled and if you are specialized in 2 handed weapons you might as well just tear your character sheet up, especially if you took sharpshooter or GWM instead of an ASI because you basically lost an entire level.

Really big design blunder, using player ability to test character in game knowledge and ability ( not even so much as an intelligence roll to remember information ). Might as well fucking ask players to deadlift 250 pounds or their character gets crippled near permanently (need a 7th level spell to fix). Almost wish I had keen mind just to see how the DM would respond to it, but knowing AL it wouldn't do anything you would end up with a crippled character with a useless feat. Yes I am salty as fuck, I have terrible memory.

Rolling and standard array are standard, point buy is variant.

Its a known fact that rolling stats is for massive faggots and DMs who probably want their party to despise them.

That's a reasonable hangup. Even in real life you have the spectrum between "throw me in the ditch when I die" and "I'm spending a million dollars on my funeral and grave." All comes down to how much importance you ascribe to a soulless body.
If they even have an issues with non-humanoids, you might ask why they have issue with using the bones of an animal when they presumably have no issue with making use of its meat or hide.

>Starting a new campaign
>Ask my players how they would like to do stats
>they all want to roll
Gambling is fun, dude.

>You generate your character's six ability scores randomly. Roll four 6-sided dice and record the total of the highest three dice on a piece of scratch paper. Do this five more times, so that you have six numbers. If you want to save time or don't like the idea of randomly determining ability scores, you can use the following scores instead: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10.8.

One of these is the default. The other is an alternative, or a variant.