/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General

>What is Evard's Black Tentacles?

You can usually fluff spell appearances without too much resistance from DMs. If you want everything to be tentacle related, go for it.

Does anyone have Schleyscapes to share?
prints.mikeschley.com/p153402849

A character with 2 attacks, is it better to use a heavy crossbow or a hand crossbow?

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

Neither unless they have xbowxpert.

Lucky for you, all my setting has is exiled hill dwarves (lol goodbye mountainhomes 300y ago) and Half-Dwarves which when described honestly sound like a person with down's syndrome.

They just can't carry that much.

Easiest way to balance them both:

1) You need strength for ALL armor.

Heavy Armor has the same STR requirements, and then
>Ring Mail 12
-Medium-
>Half Plate 12
>Breastplate 11
>Scale Mail 11
>Chain Shirt 10
>Hide 10
-Light-
>Stud's Leather Armor 9
>Leather Armor 8
>Padded Armor 6
-Shield-
>Shield 12
>Buckler (Unearthed Arcana +1 AC only, 3 lbs) 10

2) You need a minimum intellect to communicate certain concepts between characters.
12+ = can read and understand any written material, for every point above 2, the reading difficulty of the book is reduced.
10 and above = can communicate anything, can understand most books of lore.
8-9 = pleb who can't understand complicated magics and mechanics.
6-7 = speaks like a simpleton, can only understand basic written material.
4-5 = caveman talk, "me ooga, you booga"
less than 4 = cannot speak any of the languages your character knows.

Am I gonna get hired by Wizards of the coast?

>xbowxpert
Please cease this.

What are you going to do about it, fuccboi.

3.5 called and they want their dwarf back. Here's reimbursement.

Constitution > Dexterity, Wisdom > Charisma, Intellect = Strength. Other relationships are ok.

>con>dex
Nigga are you high or just retarded? Being a meatsack means nothing if you get hit every round.

So does anyone have any experience using demon talismans in their games?

why is that?

and what if they did?

What's wrong with Exbow Crosspert? It's a good feat.

Easiest way to balance Dexterity is to make it only affect the +to hit of Finesse weapons.

All weapons use Strength for +to damage.

Crossbows have the Loading property which means one shot per turn regardless of how many attacks the character has. They can ignore that loading property with xbowxpert.

New player question here. Are feats generally more or less useful than ability increases? It seems like a lot of feats just do what an ability increase would do.

With CBE, the heavy crossbow gets two attacks while the hand crossbow gets three if you use your bonus action. It depends on what you prefer.

One of my players fell in love with the concept of the Reach dwarves. He's playing a Beastmaster Ranger using my variant (which is just Revised +companion changes) and is riding a Reach Raptor (utahraptor) and has a Ripper as his small companion (microraptor).

Let's be honest, it's pretty much required to play a crossbow-wielding character.

Crossbow expert and polearm master were a mistake.
inb4 crying about martials

what is good about polearm expert?

Depends on the class. xbowxpert+sharpshooter or GWM+PAM border on required for martials, but most of the others are situational at best.

Wis=Dex>Con>Cha>Int>Str.
Wis saving throw is very common and perception check is essential.

Some feats are crazy good when paired with other abilities. GWM/PAM is one and CBE/SS is another. Then you have feats like Alert which is ALWAYS useful for that +5 initiative and ability to ignore surprise attacks or Lucky which practically negates 1s or Mobile which makes monks or rogues even more of an annoyance on the battlefield.

Higher dex doesn't help you avoid damage as much as higher con helps you not die from everything that can kill you. More classes want high con than want high dex. Constitution saves are more common and more important than dexterity saves. They might at best be equal, since you can't kill anything with your constitution.

Don't fill newfags' heads with your stupid memes and lies.

This. Literally 100% of the times I played with a Vuman Fighter or Paladin, he had Polearm Mastery.

Literally free attacks.

I'm not complaining about crossbow expert, I'm complaining that he called it "xbowxpert".

Feats are supposed to give your character new features and abilities, like crossbow expert for example gets rid of disadvantage on ranged attack rolls while enemies are within 5 feet, and you don't have to load your bows.

Also keep in mind that feats are a variant rule, and your DM may or may not allow them.

But I want muh Set to Receive back.
First strike against an approaching target, not much else. Bonus strike for a blunt d4 isn't all that much unless you use it to burn another superiority die.

No dinosaurs in my game yet but I heard someone was allowed to roll a lizardman as a backup so the hope still lives.

What's the rules for suicide and self-harm? Besides player stupidity such as "I jump off a cliff to dive into the water." If I were to attack my legs with an axe, do I even roll for the attack? Would I get an advantage on the attack because I'm my own target and would have trouble missing, or would I have disadvantage because the body doesn't want to hurt itself? Or would that latter phenomena be covered by a will save?

Prove me wrong, faggot. A fighter is required to take xbowxpert so he can keep up (with a worse damage type) than a caster can do with EB+AB or Fire Bolt + Elemental Afinity, Empowered Evocation, or Potent Spellcasting and those are just cantrips. Sharpshooter is mandatory because spellcasters also have spells that aren't cantrips.

Talk it over with your GM. Also stop rolling stats and then killing your characters until you roll all 18s.

I run with Intelligence able to substitute for Dexterity for initiative bonuses, granting a bonus language/tool/vehicle/kit proficiency at every odd bonus, and a full skill at every even +

I also run with Strength giving normal hit bonuses and double damage bonus (you have to be careful with monster types at the 1-4 lvl).

Shit's been cash, Attributes much more balanced.

>GWM+PAM

I would assume that's Great Weapon Master and...?

If you honestly think keeping up with the damage of cantrips of all things is an issue without feats then you frankly are not worth talking to.

Polearm Master.

Pam Beesly

...

It also makes the game a bit more quick and dangerous at the mid levels (current party is lvl 9), when the strong/huge monsters become a bit more common.
But slow combats are one of the biggest drags on a game with a great running story anyway.

>warlock with EB+AB
>4(d10+5) force
>fighter with heavy crossbow and no xbowxpert
>d10+5 nonmagical piercing
>fighter with heavy crossbow and xbowxpert
>4(d10+5) nonmagical piercing

>warlock layers on Hex or other upper level spells

Not to mention wizards.

It also makes 2 weapon Str fighters viable.
The party I run for has a 2 weapon barbarian and a sword and board fighter, both of them throw out excellent damage.

So /5eg/, how much would an always on cantrip cost in a magic item? And if you have the item pre-made before enchantment, can you forego tool necessities? What kind of materials would be needed, like a dao's blessing or something?

One of my players wants to make this item:

Earthen Net: This metal(he wants to make it out of either Mithril or Adamantine) net is enchanted with the mold earth cantrip. This grants it the benefit of searching through the ground as if it were water.

The thing is that this would be INCREDIBLY useful in a campaign using sand surfers to sift through a desert created in a high level wizard war.

too obvious

>PAM
It's just PM. And they're not really required. They stand out because they can be leveraged to be better than +2 Strength for some purpose, while many other feats really can't.

>Wis saving throw is very common
Wis saving throw is the least common of the big 3 saves. Often you can counter the effects with preemptive immunity or remove them afterwards with little ill effects.

This is a good description, and doubles too. Nice job.
Sounds like a variant human problem to me. The attacks literally aren't free. They cost actions, bonus actions, reactions, +2 strength, using a weaker two-handed weapon, and having reach which weakens your grip on the movement of nearby enemies.
A fighter needs no feats to keep up, on average, with the damage of a warlock's EB with AB and Hex. Fortunately, if you do want to pick a feat and blow away the warlock's damage, fighters get more ASI than other classes. Wizards aren't even in the competition. Sorcerers can compete, but not truly with cantrips. They use metamagic to burn limited resources.
>Not to mention wizards.
Indeed, don't.

>having reach is a disadvantage
people these days I swear

Situation came up, didn't want to slow game by rules lawyering but do you still add shield AC if unconscious? DM ruled it that you can't use your shield to defend yourself while down and the enemy attacking would obviously not be attacking the shielded arm.

>A fighter needs no feats to keep up, on average, with the damage of a warlock's EB with AB and Hex.
>fighter using a glaive with no feats
>4(d10+5) nonmagical slashing
>warlock with EB+AB+Hex
>4(d10+5) force + 4d6 necrotic

Alright then. Also, no, I hate rolling high all around, actually. I'm looking to play a Barbarian Berserker that saves the rage until after they take damage, and will attack themselves to get there if need be, but I wanted to know the nitty gritty of that before I come to the table to roleplay it and then fucking oneshot myself first encounter.

Is EB always superior to 2 weapon attacks? Is, say, a Valor Bard always better off blasting than using 2 weapon attacks?

No, you don't. You're unconscious so you're unable to defend at all.

>fighter using a glaive with no feats
>fighter with heavy crossbow and no xbowxpert
You keep shooting yourself in the foot and complaining that it's hard to walk. Maybe you should get that looked at.

The Berserker archetype is pure crap.
I tweaked it to work in my campaign (a friend has played to lvl 9 with it) but the default in the PHB is very bad.

I’m DMing and I have a Celestial Warlock in the party.
Can someone explain the difference between a Celestial Warlock and a Cleric/priest to me? Both ask a divine figure for spells using CHA, right? What’s the difference?

When you're knocked unconscious, you drop what you're holding. So you may drop your shield when you get knocked out. That normally takes an action though. Otherwise, you technically still get its AC benefit. Technically. I wouldn't try to argue with a DM over it.

RAW your AC wouldn't change, as silly as that seems.

Berserker fucking sucks. You'll constantly be exhausted if you want that bonus action attack. It's not worth it. Consider Zealot, instead.

I'm not the retard saying fighters can keep up in dmg without feats. Hit me up when they make wizards have to take a feat to use fire spells the same way fighters have to pick a feat to use crossbows.

Reach is good if you're trying to skirmish or have staggered lines. Reach is bad if your enemy is prone or you're trying to hold a position in a more solitary formation. So it's good for a striker, but bad for a defender. Just my opinion, of course.

GMs, what inspiration do you use to get into writing vampires. I’m planning on throwing the players in a Salem’s Lot situation but I can’t just keep reading that book for inspiration

It plus sentinel is fantastic for the defender.

...

>reach is bad if your enemy is prone

Why? You walk up to them and give them a smack just like any other melee character.

Elemental adept is pretty good for fire dragon sorcerer, which was at one time basically the only viable element.

The AC system is designed so that your don't have to recalculate it everytime something happens, this is why you still add your dex bonus to Ac while unconscious as well.

Attackers getting advantage on attacks against unconscious foes is what makes up for this.

I would also like to know

Really the only viable sorcerer period at first.

Fighters don't need a feat to use greatswords or longbows. There's no feat that lets sorcerers deal with fire immunity. Poison is right out. Try harder.

Yes. Bad is maybe the wrong word there. Reach is meaningless in that case, but you're still using a weaker weapon for it.

Clerics are Wisdom based and generally gain their power through devotion to a god. They are generally expected to act within the ideals and morality of their religion.

Celestial warlocks make their pacts directly with a Divine being, usually something on a lower power scale than a god. I tend to think of them as off the books contractors for the Divine.

They don't need a feat, they have 5 other cantrips when they meet something fire immune. The fighter has to beg the DM for a magic weapon or for the wizard to waste his concentration on the spell magic weapon.

It's a lame attempt to shoehorn in another combo of two classes.
A totally unnecessary archetype.

In what way? Most of the reach weapons do pretty good damage.

Imagine a crush. Imagine if you crushed hard, harder than you ever did in high school. The crush is your muse, what you're most eager to see getting up in the morning. You didn't realize how much they loved them until you spend sleepless nights thinking of them, perhaps the day after you last saw it, perhaps decades later, just imagining it by your side, a lukewarm presence that fills you with a wholesome sense of happiness and belonging. Now imagine if your crush was a fluid. No, not turned into one, you fell in love with a literal barrel of the stuff. All the emotions are you feel for it are the same. Imagine smearing the one you love all over your face, licking it off your fingers, bathing in it, enrapturing yourself in the sensations of love and fulfillment that your love gives you.

That's how my vampires feel about blood. That's why they're so seductive; they love something that's inside everyone and everything, with an insatiable, unbridled passion; blood.

If I had a picture of that guy smearing shit all over his face with that look of pure satisfaction, I'd post it just to emphasise.

You drop whatever you have "in hand" when you are unconscious. Thus you'd lose the shield benefit, and if restored to consciousness you'd have to recover both your shield and weapon.

Celestial warlocks get power from things lower down the totem pole.

Me too

All reach weapons deal less damage than similar weapons that don't have reach. Whip Rapier. Glaive Greatsword. About 2 less damage, for a fighter.

...

Maybe but you can also still hit someone from farther away. It isnt any more disadvantageous than using a scimitar or something.

Yep, my players meddled with one. Through various circumstances, they were able to use a devil's true name and command it to help them during dire straits, at the expense of vowing revenge.

A d10 vs a d12 isn't that substantial a difference, and reach weapons have various situational uses, say against caustic creatures that damage melee opponents within 5'.

Newest PC is a half-orc warrior.
>loving father and devoted family man
>47-year-old lifelong adventurer, seen it all before
>acts as a sort of father figure for the other PCs, offering guidance, advice, and comfort
>adores the god Pelor after a long life of devotion, prayer, and aid and wants to spread his good word whenever possible
>genuinely nice guy most of the time, socially well-adjusted and nice to as many people as he can; very patient
>mercilessly efficient in combat and offers no quarter to evil enemies, he takes his orcish heritage and applies it constructively with a greataxe
>PHB and XGE allowed, UA on case-by-case basis.
>point-buy
Zeal cleric, zealot barbarian, devotion paladin, vengeance paladin, or some kind of multiclass with light cleric (fighter2/3/5)? I'm not sure which I should go with for casting big spells and smashing shit instead of spamming cantrips after running out of big spells.

Shields aren't typically held entirely in the hand.

You don't just have your shield in your hand, you have it strapped on. That's why it takes a full action to don/doff instead of it being an incidental like drawing one weapon.

Also zealot barbarian's there mostly for race/class synergy with the flavor, but I'm really really not sure.

How is the newest player going to become the "father figure"?

You should be afraid of vampires, yes. They're degenerates that need to be killed. I give lawful aligned characters, clerics, and paladins small bonuses to attacks and saves against them and other disgusting, vile fiends.

I miss having Buckler/Medium/Large shield.

How'd they go about finding out its true name?