/5eg/ - Fifth Edition General:

Speaking of Japan, I plan on adding a shonen hero as a major antagonist in a future game, using the Warlord statblock as a jumping-off point.

Asking again: is a single classed hexblade warlock viable as a melee combatant? I know it's not going to beat out, say, a paladin, but would it be comparable to a rogue?

how to best be a secret necromancer

Like with all mages, play Kabal Lackey, Arcanologist and Kirin-Tor Mage. Amongst the secrets themselves, Potion of Polymorph is one of the funniest ones.

Grave Cleric, Necromancer Wizard, or Undying Warlock (with the right spell selection). Take the Charlatan background for the secret part, since it has an out-of-the-box secret identity.

how do I keep it a secret from the rest of my party, I guess is the actual question

Don't let them see your sheet and learn spells other than necromancy. But one must ask what the point of this is? Why have an army of skeletons if you don't want them trudging at your enemies like the inescapable march of time itself?

My party thinks I'm stupid OP using a glaive with charisma, while also being able to social encounter and cc with spells.they of course never pick cleric, wizard, bard or paladin so I guess that could have something to do with it

Hexblade is definitely viable. It does some things better than the paladin, too, even if purely damage-wise you'll be inferior. Why wouldn't it be?

>Full caster, earlier access to high-level spells
>All spells are cast at max level
>Can use magic stat for melee attacks unlike Paladin who's more MAD
>Same access to feats like GWM/PAM, at level 3 you can use two-handed pact weapons with your casting stat
>Similar smite options
>Possibly lower absolute damage but Darkness+Devil's Sight makes you harder to hit and gives you advantage on basically anything

You may be a bit lacking at levels 1 and 2 but after that you'll be a pretty good melee class.

well I want to be a necromancer but I feel like my party will disagree with my life choices

Character help.
I'm making this paranoid deposed young noble type character, someone who has been on the run, sleeping in wilderness one eye open, emaciated due to eating little since he's afraid the food might have been poisoned. He's a Cavalier Fighter.
Do I put a score of 8 in INT(since he was forced to flee before attaining education/having been disconnected from society) or in CON(due to being a sickly youngster without food or clean surroundings)?

>Having dump stats

Good to know. I was thinking of going sword and board rather than GWM/PAM so my damage will be lacking in that regard, and I was planning on using Shadows of Moil rather than Darkness and Devil's Sight for advantage shenanigans. When it comes to smiting, is it worth it to drop your other concentration options to use the smite spells, or are we just talking about the eldritch smite invocation?

Thoughts on this character: Oath of Vengeance Paladin Fallen Asimaar who seeks to slay his patron for masquerading as an angel and drove him to commit some heinous act

I think it's worded in such a way to give DMs some leeway with such a random ability
As in they can have you rolling always for hijinks, have you roll only when you cast "a taxing spell" or however the DM fluffs it
Or you know just ignore the whole rule

Edgy, but in a way I've not seen before. I'd allow it.

DM gets to decide essentially. It's in order to make it so that the sorc's wild magic rolls don't lag down combat and the DM can time the rolls for theatrical purpose

If I True Polymorph a snake in to a human but with super low int, would they move like this?

The fey refluffed as Yokai. That's actually how I play my fey more or less.

>If I True Polymorph a snake in to a human but with super low int
I'm not sure it's possible.

What about feebleminding it afterwards?

I don't believe you can choose it's int.
That being said it doesn't magically obtain knowledge upon transforming so it's probably far too stupid to realise it was polymporphed

Well sword and board will always be lacking in damage compared to GWM/PAM but you'll get more mileage out of Eldritch Smite. At level 5 you're doing 4d8 bonus damage and probably giving the next attack against the creature advantage since you knock it prone with no save, which is already far better than the Battlemaster's trip attack (although you can use it less often per rest).

Shadow of Moil is pretty good but of course it comes later than Darkness. I'm not sure if you still need Devil's Sight though, probably darkvision alone does the trick so you basically get an extra invocation.

By my reading of Shadows of Moil, the heavily obscured effect is completely separate from the light-lowering effect, and that second effect doesn't specify anything about darkvision, leading me to believe it's just bog-standard darkness. The 2d8 retaliatory damage as an extra deterrent is icing.

It comes a few levels later, but you can always grab darkness and devils sight earlier and then swap them out as you go.

>snake is polymorphed into a human
>doesn't realize it's originally a snake, believes it's been human all its life
>immediately fucks off and starts growing crops or something
>gets a qt human wife, she's kinda dumb so she thinks he's just got a speech impediment that makes him elongate all his 'S' sounds

Pretty cool.

Can anyone offer their helpful thoughts, unlike this faggot here?These are the stats I rolled and the ones my DM has set in stone, so just "not having one" doesn't work

It's a question with an easy answer. Do you want to be (A) a Fighter who's not very smart but is otherwise pretty good at fighting or (B) a Fighter who takes a HP penalty every level and dies more easily to almost anything?

Never dump CON. If you dump CON you probably have low INT irl.

Well from a purely mechanical standpoint, low Int hampers some scholarly skills and a saving throw that's used like 5 times in all printed material for the game, while having low Con directly contributes to everything that ever tries to kill you having an easier time of it. I vote for dumping int.

What's the biggest character/class inconsistency you've seen?
>Huge ginger human in a fur coat
>Looks like a mix of Brian Blessed and Jack Sparrow
>Is a Knight-Errant
Is actually a Kensei.

Thanks, I asked with narrative more in mind, but having not received education having lived in wilds for many years 8 int fits fine

... where's the inconsistency?

Damage wise it's comparable, but Rogue have dex saving proficiency, high dex and Uncanny Dodge. Melee Warlock will be grappled/pushed prone most of the time.

I'm banking on the 'you can't grapple what you can't hit' theory of melee combat. we'll see how much mileage I get out of it.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youxia

>Full caster
>Warlock
Access to a 9th level spell (not even a slot, just 1 spell you cannot change ever) is not a full caster.

trying to come up with some early magical gear for my PCs is an Iron shortsword with -1 to damage but +2 to attack roles okay?

super boring

Magical gear shouldn't be primarily stat-focused. It should give the players something to do that's more than just more of the same. Like an iron sphere you can throw that always rolls back to you, defying gravity and such to do so. People can come up with crazy stuff to used that with.

I've never made any before, any tips?

Warlock is a wierd 3/4 caster. Extremely limited spells of level 6 and higher, but you get spells up to level 5 on-par with other full casters. Paladins don't get access to 5th level spells until level 17, while warlocks are throwing them around at level 9.

Give them a name and a history (randomly generating these is a fine idea as long as the end result makes sense). And don't be afraid to forgo numerical bonuses in favor of weird, esoteric effects (think Sting glowing in the presence of orcs and goblins). It's still capable of piercing resistance to nonmagical damage if it doesn't give a +1 to anything.

Here are some I've come up with.

A bow that wraps spidersilk around the arrows it fires, leaving them connected to bow.

A sword that turns the people it kills into a fine bourbon, and also intoxicates those it wounds.

Tailored it with your player class. Like for Mastermind Rogue, a chess piece that can be enlarged into Animated Armor & shrink back as an action.

>Blade of Honour
>longsword
>As a reaction, choose a target
>For the next 10 minutes, every time you or the target direct an attacker each other, you strike with neither advantage or disadvantage, regardless of how these are granted.

>Dagger of Retribution
>This dagger has the word retribution on marked on the blade
>Attacking a target who hit you after the end of your last turn, will cause the weapon to glow, as count as a +3 weapon. The damage die changes to a d10. This can only happen once every 24 hours per target

>Trick Bow
>This bow has illusion magic enchanted on it, making the arrows fired from it appear ethereal and difficult to track
>Arrows fired from this bow ignores any dodge action taken by the target.
>Whenever you miss a target, pick another target in a cone behind your original target. If your original attack roll is enough to hit the new target, it is automatically hit instead.

>Blade of honour
This seems to fuck with some classes needless hard. RIP barbarians.

>Dagger of Retribution
This seems overly powerful for a Rogue. I honestly can't imagine bothering with anything else. I guess offhand this +rapier if you have long fights, I just don't see a lot of enemies surviving more than 3 turns at most, and the difference between a d4 and d8 isn't that much.

>Trick bow
This seems stupidly overpowered without any restrictions. Squishy backline targets will get demolished by this.

They're full casters because their spell levels advance at the same rate as Wizards and Sorcerers though. Amount of spells doesn't matter.

But ultimately it's semantics. I don't think there's an official definition of 'full caster' so it depends on who you ask.

Alright, the they are full casters who are worse casters than Paladins.

Warlocks are actually not considered casters at all for the purpose of multi-classing.

can anyone help me undesrtand how the artificer's mechanical servant actually works?

>"it can look however you like, as long as its form is appropriate for its statistics"
does this mean, if it has a gore attack, it needs to have horns? or teeth if it has a bite attack?

does it keep its multiattack action if the beast had one?
can it still use something like keen smell if the beast had it?

is pic related the best "base" for the mechanical servant?

>does this mean, if it has a gore attack, it needs to have horns? or teeth if it has a bite attack?
Yes.
>does it keep its multiattack action if the beast had one?
Maybe
>can it still use something like keen smell if the beast had it?
Does a robot have a sense of smell?

Inexperienced brainlet here.

I'll be starting a new DnD campaign soon and would like to play a magical librarian with a focus on support.

Is human bard taking the loremaster college at level 3 my best bet? For fluff reasons I'd like the magic to derive from something other than music, as I don't like the idea of music based magic, or traditional bards for that matter.

Yes.

Talk to your GM about the fluff. It doesn't have to be music. Take ritual caster (wizard) for more rituals hat help support, more fluff for the bookish librarian type, and ask to fluff your spell more like a wizard would.

try on the lore mastery wizard from unearthed arcana (if your gm allows it) if you dont like the music flavor
but beware, lots of complexity

You might be better off going with a different class.

Your thoughts about master mind sublcass?

Some varieties of Cleric (Life, Light, or Forge from Xanathar's Guide) or Wizard (Transmuter) might suit your needs if you don't want a musical caster. You'll be a bit lighter on support, but still able to buff and help (and heal as a cleric) without the music. The Sage background is also recommended for a magical librarian.

>Take ritual caster (wizard) for more rituals hat help support

Are you referring to multi-classing here, alongside the base Bard class? That sounds cool. I'll do some reading.

good in a game where social encounters pop out a lot, otherwise, with some lack of cooperation with your teammate, you may end up wasting up 75% of the class features

probably he was referring to the feat ritual caster, to get access to ritual spells (which normally bards dont have access to, unlike druids and wizards)

Don't fucking take lore master wizard. It is no more a bookish librarian support style caster than a regular wizard. It is just straight up overpowered compared to any other archetype, and any GM that allows it is a retard.

Yep.
If you pick Variant Human, you get a feat at level 1. Take the feat Ritual Caster, and you gain a Ritual book linked to a certain type of caster of your choosing. Wizard has the best utility rituals, and it scales off of your level /2, so any wizard spell with the ritual tag can be copied for permanent usage as a ritual. It is stupidly good, and doesn't even really require intelligence to make good use of.

Guys, what are the best resources for building good monsters and enemy NPCs, in your opinion?

The best base is arguably Giant Eagle/Giant Vulture
>CR 1, so fits the criteria
>has high enough INT to use your Infuse Magic items
>can fly, meaning they can cast your infuse magic spells while up there too
>pretty strong as-is.

unfortunately there aren't any CR 2 fliers who can use the infuse magic. Also a giant robot bird is sick as fuck.

5etools.com/crcalculator.html

What are the most rolled skills and what skills are least rolled?
>Strength
Athletics
>Dexterity
Acrobatics
Sleight of Hand
Stealth
>Intelligence
Arcana
History
Investigation
Nature
Religion
>Wisdom
Animal Handling
Insight
Medicine
Perception
Survival
>Charisma
Deception
Intimidation
Performance
Persuasion

Here's what I do. Mileage may vary
>think about what I'd like for a monster
>find something in the monster manual that does something similar
>reword some of it
>find something else in the monster manual that does something different that you want this monster to do
>add them together
>adjust numbers until it's reasonable

And then if it's a broken pile of garbage, fix it on the fly. Your players will never know.

Athletics, Stealth, Perception and Investigation come up a lot, for obvious reasons. My players almost never roll anything Intelligence related (bar investigation) unless I tell them to.
That said, I'm fairly certain my players have actually rolled every single skill at least once except for Performance in our current game. No bards, and no reason to perform, so ...

depends on whats going on your game desu, but stealth, athletics/acrobatics (grapples), and some combination of the charisma skills depending on approach are likely at the top.

That's basically what I do too, but I wanted something a little less duct-taped and hammered on.

Oh nice, thanks!

can someone give me a quick rundown of races that live together? Im trying to build a world and it feels kinda lame to be like "and this is the human realm, and this is the elven one, and this is the halfling, the gnomes etc etc etc

One of my players has merged with an evil sentient item with relatively unknown goals, because it essentially downloaded his consciousness on death and they became a joint character.

They've come to an agreement and the player will play both roles together, but one of the other people in the group has said he is unable to play his character accurately and cooperate with the evil item consciousness.

How do I as DM resolve this situation? We've had lots of character in-fighting and in general I don't mind it as it's a campaign designed with a healthy sense of paranoia between characters, but for the year we've been playing it this is the first time someone's outright said that their character wouldn't find some way to cooperate at all.

Duct-taped and hammered on is half the fun!
If you really want to make a good monster by hand, you can sit there and carefully study its DPR output and how long you expect it to stay alive under the withering gaze of the party, then customise its abilities keeping in mind its AC, how much damage it will be dealing and how this could strengthen or weaken its attacks, then think how much experience you might give for defeating it, or if it will need some sort of items (which will, unless destroyed, become your party's property the instant your carefully crafted critter ceases to live).

Or you could tape two MM entries together and hope for the best.

Optimal list to me
>Athletics
>Acrobatics
>Stealth
>Investigation
>Knowledge of choice
>Insight
>Perception
>Persuasian
Then get expertise in those 8 and reliable from rogue 11.

Based on modules & my memory, Perception>Athletics>Acrobatics>Persuasion>Investigation>Stealth>Others. Certain class can swing the stats though.

It's your world, your rules. There's no reason not to have any combination, and multiple different combinations in different nations at that.

you're fucked.
This is worse than the time I tried to play a necromancer and our edgy grave cleric decided that he hates all forms of undead, because this is entirely your fault for letting a character merge with an evil item.

If it's fucking evil, and you know it's evil, then why would anyone not kill the evil thing if they aren't also evil

Treat it like a madness/curse. Hope there's a good Cleric in party.

Debatable. A level 8 Warlock has 2 short rest slots for level 4 spells, whereas a level 8 Paladin has 3 second level slots and 4 first level slots that recharge on a long rest.

Assuming 2-3 short rests per long rest that means a 8th level Warlock has 4-6 4th level spells per long rest which is far better than 7 1st and 2nd level spells.

Also Warlocks have cantrips, giving them extra utility.

Ability to cast any spell, regardless of source, qualifies you as a spellcaster, which is the only hard term used mechanically.

>2 to 3 short rests
Or long rests, because what is stopping you?

We least have clerics and wizards, and we pretty much never short rest, because why bother? Just long rest to get back to full.

Not going to bother short resting just because it benefits the warlock, when we can istead long rest and recharge the entire party instead.

One per 24 hours and proper game pacing. If your game isn't hitting the encounter guidelines, go to the 8 hour short, 24 hour once a week long.

So are druids good after getting their new spells from XGE?

Wizard, Sorcerer, Warrior, Barbarian, Blood hunter and Warlock.
How do you think they will do and what kind of creatures would you recommend i throw at them?

Druids were always good. Xanathars just gave them a few direct damage spells for the low levels to fill in the action gap.

Because nobody is that narcoleptic.

>because what is stopping you
Plenty of things, when I'm DMing.

>adventure for 30 minutes
>phew i'm beat, let's sleep for 8 hours

Makes no sense from a roleplaying perspective and a good DM punishes too frequent (long) resting by making encounters respawn, bosses flee and enemies call for reinforcements.

If you're dungeon delving or infiltrating an enemy base you're not supposed to be at full everything for every encounter.

>Or long rests, because what is stopping you?

The fuck? If your DM actually allows you to have an uninterrupted 8 hour sleep in enemy territory whenever you want he's doing something very wrong.

Long rest is not sleep, that being said I agree with you guys

At that level, Paladin know twice number spells Warlock know, including much needed ceremony & lesser restoration. One more level and Paladin add 10 more known spells.

What's better for a collector of obscure and recondite spells? Wizard or Warlock? Or a mix thereof?