/tg/ - Traditional Games

>>211243

Welcome to /tg/ then.

I suppose we don't have a general. Just a few edition war threads and such, so this is fine.

I'm currently running a 5e game and I'm rather enjoying what they've done with the system.

The magic item's section of the DMG is amazing, but it's all the random roll tables that make me really like this edition far more than 3.5e or 4e.

>>211252

Your Gnome was a prosecuting attorney, in the finest gnomish traditions of the profession, for 30 years. Putting bad guys away with wit, logic and subtle courtroom drama, you were regarded as one of the best. He was living the life, and going through a sexy gnomish intern every other week, but something changed.

The one thing that hounded him was the corruption within the system. His self-preservation instinct kept him from kicking up too much of a fuss, but a gnome can only take so many cases of a jury clearly bribed, a judge being blackmailed, or a town watch's evidence room quietly burgled before he starts to think it's all hopeless.

One day, immediately following the acquittal of a crime lord despite mountains of evidence and six eyewitnesses, you handed in your papers and gave up to try your hand at defense for once, and being jaded against city folk for so many years the only client you thought worthy of your valuable time was nature herself.

>>211254

Kek anon this is brilliant. Love this board already

1E, 2E, OD&D, and similar oldschool derivatives are the best editions.

5 is ok.

3.5 is meh.

Pathfinder a shit.

4E a bigger shit.

There you go.

>>211292

I'm playing a 5e game. It isn't bad, but holy fuck are the designers inept when it comes to numbers. I don't mind less character options if it means things are going to be more balanced, but if you take away all the character options and shit out things like the PHB ranger and Moon Druids, you're a hack.

Also, enjoy having to play human if you want any interesting combat decisions before like third level.

I want to use one of the new backgrounds from the Sword Coast book. How would a Valor Bard with the City Watch background work? Personality and roleplay wise, I mean. I'm trying to think of examples of cops or investigators who would be Bard-like. They seem to clash in my mind.

Dubs decides my partys' team name

>>213392

An Ill-Advised Alliance

>>213399

kek

>>211299

They tried balance, the players didn't want it, so they avoid balance.

>>213439

The players were shit nerds then.

>>213444

You didn't buy enough of the games, so they went back to what the people spending money wanted. This is your fault.

>>213450

if you are defending 4th then you are no better.

>>213441

most save or suck spells have been massively nerfed and allow you a save every round to break the effect, so it isn't that big of a deal outside of a few spells.

>>213549

>allow you a save every round to break the effect

Is that how they did it in 5e? I've always loved this design.

>>213722

That's how it worked in 4e.

Does anyone else find the fluff wank about the differences between demon lords, dukes of hell, demigods, gods and warlock patrons kind of stupid?

Personally, I think that a "god" should just refer to any being capable of granting divine spells and that there should be many such "gods."

I actually think that there should be things like level 5 Kobold "gods" who grant spells to their followers (but limited to appropriate level spells though obviously.)

>>213450

It's the maker's choice to sing Justin Bieber or Pavarotti, money being irrelevant.

>>213943

I always figured that above a certain level of power, the assorted keywords are little more than accessories, and the powerful beings simply are.

Though in any case, divine abilities seem based more in belief and dedication than a particular patron; it's shown in nearly every edition that clerics can worship damn near anything and as long as they're relatively genuine they get powers, and increases are based on what they can channel.

Currently running a 5e game.

Our Party consists of a Bard, a Druid, and a Fighter.

The fighter has the highest AC and does a decent amount of damage, but I'm feeling the effects of caster supremacy, especially when the Druid keeps turning into a bear and out-damaging and out-tanking the Dwarf.

The Druid and the Bard seem to have something interesting to do every round, but the Fighter is still stuck doing the "I walk up and attack it." routine, which seems to be boring that player to death.

>>214175

Did you notice the part where the druid has temporary HP whenever he's wildshaped? Or that his Conjure Woodland Beings spell can make 8 pixies to polymorph everything around with?

5E is just a streamlined and better balanced 3.5. But it's still not good because it brought back caster supremacy, because of bad martial options, etc. It's just better than 3.5, except for the dearth of material.

>>214182

Yeah, the fact that there's no penalty for being knocked out of wildshape is pretty ridiculous. They only get a few morphs between short rests, but still.. That bear form has more HP than the fighter, even though it has worse AC.

Even if I put them up against a strong enemy who can knock them out of that form, it's one turn before they are back in and up to full bear HP again.

>>214182

Martials have feats to do what they want. Druids are on the powerful side, but the majority of caster supremacy is nullified by things like Concentration, and the Legendary Resistance a lot of monsters have.

>>214182

Martial characters have the highest damage in the game.

>>214234

No they don't. Summoning a horde of monsters and beating enemies senseless with 'em is typically better. Polymorphs also give stupidly high damage. In this party the Druid is higher damage. There's also a bunch of other spellcaster shenanigans I can't be fucked with atm.

>>214259

A druid is not going to beat a GWF fighter than can attack multiple times a turn with maneuvers and power attack. Archers do slightly less damage but they do it at range. They also have action surge, which allows for 8 attacks in a turn at level 20 (theorycrafting around level 20 is kinda stupid anyway). Druids are extremely hard to kill, but the damage isn't better than a fighter

You'll have to show me math on summoning because I don't see how you're getting anything better than a martial character

>>214265

It requires a specific interpretation of the Summon Woodland Beings spell, in which the player chooses what he summons instead of the DM. If the player chooses, he can get 8 pixies or some shit that can spamcast spells like Polymorph and invisibility.

STORY TIME

this is a long one, grab a bag of popcorn and sit down.

fourth game of D&D, not that good as a mage or a supportive role, went a barbarian axe wielding badass that ended up half humanity fuck yeah half retarded brute. i called him Dimm (for his low int roll ). with me was a group of a cleric and a mage, two hardcore D&D players, an elf assassin who liked bows (the dude barely spoke) and the mandatory paladin played by the DM's G.F (she was alright, got really into the roll play which was really good) DM was a this guy (not a that guy) made the best exposition and detailed hits on deaths and hits.

the campaign had reached its 4th month and we had all been given specific homebrew style abilities the DM chose for us from watching us play most of mine were increasing roll to hits and upping damage output, i even got an enchanted bracer that gave me an attack of opportunity every time i took damage my axe gave me ==6== extra attacks and combined with rage, reckless attack and relentless rage i was able to turn big guys into mulch. with this i was a wall of idiot that only listened to the mage and the paladin (this lead to some really poor decisions on the DM's part because his Gf almost ruined the campaign 3 times)

we were all stuck in a maze built by mad demon worshippers for some magic-based demon (think it was Fraz-Urb'luu), the maze shifted constantly and monsters and traps appeared out of no where, i just walked through it, springing traps, beating up shit that came my way and finally we were going down a straight, narrow corridor to light, i was at the back, mage at the front casting light to see.

>i hear something behind me

>no one else hears it

>i stop, they

>keep moving

>wall appears in front of me, blocking me from rest of the party.

it was at this moment that i realised the DM is trying to kill me, as a wall opens up and screaming of lesser demons can be heard, i hulk out, necking every potion and daily i could find on my sheet, prayed to at least 4 gods before they became visible and then charged the horde, my ac was in the 30's i stopped calculating because when i said 28 my DM's face dropped, i could take an attack of opportunity every time one of them took a swing, i had 8 attacks due to how many potions of swiftness i got, i knew most of these were minions and my rolls to hit were so high due to the damage boost all i had to do was point at one and kill it i didn't even use my axe, i tore multiple demons apart crushing skulls, tearing spines, one had the balls to stab me with a crud sword, i used his own sword to cut his head off and throw it to pulverise another's skulls, after a literal hour of demons rolling, failing getting torn in half, repeat i was covered in blood, there was body parts everywhere, i started to eat what i could because i was worried about my hunger, gabbing any non bolted down metal weapon and pocketing it for later, then a rumble was heard. A greater demon, squeezing into to tight corridor was at the other end, a flaming axe and a bracer with skulls hanging off of it were on him, we charged at each other and fought for 2 whole 3 hour sessions the other guys got so bored that we stopped the fighting during main sessions and whenever we could we just kept rolling, each time the attacks were only minor to dent the ac of either demon or me and the hits were usually negated to only 5 or 6 points of damage, but soon enough, in a fitting manor, we were both on down to the last point, we both rolled and finally i won, it was a 19 vs a natural 20 i kill him, next session, i arrived early and hide in another room, guys arrive and question what happens (during this they have been trying to find a way to go back and save me) DM says its over, gasps can be heard, DM opens the wall to find corpses of old demons, torn in half, crushed, eaten, sliced, all types of death, paladin looks shocked and goes to run ahead but then stays with the party after what happened last time they eventually see a large body, head missing, covered in blood, so many cuts and wounds its impossible to tell what type of creature it was, elf licks blood, spits it out as it is a rancid concoction of demon and human, my bracer was next to the body, cracked and broken in places, party conclude that this is my body and wonder where the creature that did this is.

RIGHT HERE

i shout from the other room DM gives massive grand entrance of a barbarian with cut all across his body but with a demons skull on his new bracer and brandishing two axes one of them on fire.

the end

So this guy in my dorm is running a D&D game tomorrow.

I've been starved for a game since I got to uni so I jumped at the opportunity without realizing what I've gotten myself into.

He described it as a "story-based mix of 4e and 5e". Apparently he hasn't even read more than ~50 pages of the books. Not 50 per book, but 50 in total. To top it all off, a decent chunk of the story is going to be about politics, specifically bashing der Trumpenfurher.

How fucked am I? Should I even bother going, or is it just going to be a giant shitfest?

>>214463

You should only go if you love /tg/ so much that you want to storytime a horrorshow.

>>214464

That's a tempting offer, but I really am not sure I could get through it with my sanity intact.

I've been a DM for the better part of four years now. Very rarely been a player. I don't know how well I could handle someone mis-handling my favourite part of this hobby with no grasp on rules and a godawful story.

I still don't even know how the hell I'm going to build my character. He told everyone else to just use a pre-made, but from what edition? I'm not terribly familiar with 4e, but I'm pretty damn sure it's mechanically non-compatible with 5e.

It's just going to be gigantic clusterfuck.

I was wondering, I was hoping to discuss some 5e homebrewing conversion - there's some Pathfinder races and a few AD&D kits/3rd ed variant classes I was hoping to rework for use in my 5e games. Would I better served posting here about it or starting my own topic for it?

Alright, /tg/.

What external materials do you use?

My DM allows damn near anything in our 3.5 game. Dungeon/Dragon Magazines, Paizo, the Tomes, Book of Erotic Fantasy, Iron Kingdoms, and probably something or other I haven't remembered.

My favorite is probably the Tomes, which I've mentioned in some other threads. Hyperconscious is really good too, because I'm a sucker for neat monsters and it introduced a bevy of them.

>>214512

There's a thread about homebrew somewhere in the catalog, has a pdf as its OP file.

I've decided to run a Pathfinder campaign for my younger sister and her friend. I decided to keep it simple to start, wizard at the top of the mountain who is evil but also has untold riches.

The plot twist is the Wizard is going to be super strong and send them into a parallel universe and they're going to have to go dimension hopping to return home.

>>214514

Im a new DM I only have stuff from 3.5e DM guide, players handbook and 1st monster manual.

Plz no bully. It's hard to play within just those rules we are all so new

>>214551

Sounds like a good time. Have fun, anon.

>>214463

>>214466

Welp, game didn't work out.

Me and the DM were literally the only two people to show up. Not even the person who tried to set this up in the first place came.

I ended up showing him Risus, figure'd it'd be more up his alley if he's into less reading/number-crunching and more into a story focused game. Though judging by his disappointment at no-one showing up, I doubt he's gonna try DMing again any time soon.

It's a bit of a shame, I was almost looking forward to seeing how he'd describe Trump in D&D.

I'm making a Human Totem Barbarian for a 5E game, and I'm kind of torn between two "builds" that both synergize really well with the Barbarian class and the role of "tank."

As far as I'm concerned, only Humans, Rogues, Fighters, Druids, and Monks have ANY Feats to play around with. Every other class needs 4 ASIs and Resilient, so consider that the level 1 Feat is the only Feat I will be taking.

Great Weapon Master

Would use Barbarian's Reckless Attack almost all the time to be able to use GWM's -5/+10 for a massive damage increase. Increased damage and advantage on attack rolls will mean more crits/kills to trigger Brutal Crit and GWM's bonus action attack. Would tank via high HP pool, resistance to everything. Would encourage enemies to attack by being a threat with damage output, and granting them advantage on their attacks.

Shield Master

Much better defenses, but much lower damage output. Advantage on the contested Str check to knock enemies prone, and then advantage on attacks against them, but again… much lower damage output on those attacks. Higher "tanky" defense, but lower "threat" or incentive to get enemies to attack. Against anything larger than Large, I would lose a huge amount of effectiveness.

I am pretty good at estimating how these two builds work on paper, but has anyone actually played or seen both of these in play? Thoughts/Observations? 5E seems to encourage quick/brutal combats generally.

>>214881

Looks like my post from this morning didn't come through. Your analysis is correct, but you might also consider Polearm Master

>Lets you use a weapon with reach

>Opportunity attacks when people ENTER your reach, way more common than when they leave

>Bonus action pommel strike. Sure it's 1d4, but your rage + str bonus will make them great anyway.

I disagree with your assessment re: feats and ASIs - good feat choices can be far more useful than increasing a modifier. Polearm Master goes great with Sentinel and Great Weapon Master too. I assume you want Resilient(DEX), right? Mostly depends on the campaign.

>>215031

No, not DEX, Resilient WIS. Without Res WIS, a Barb won't even be able to fight high level Dragons, casters, or creatures with similar effects. He'll spend his time cowering or Held or whathaveyou. WIS saves take you out of the fight, and nothing is worse in this game than passing turns with your thumb up your ass.

I think that almost every class needs a 20 in its attack stat, its AC stat if uses one, and/or its casting stat if it uses one. Every class except 2/3 Fighters, 1/2 Druids, and 2/3 Rogues need two of those. CON and WIS are so important (WIS for anyone who doesn't have it, and CON for any caster), that you need need them to continue doing your job. WIS to not get taken out of the fight, CON for casters who want their spells to stay. Every class except Monk needs Resilient in one of those.

Even the best Feats just don't compare to overall effectiveness at your class as having 20s in your necessary stats in actual game play. It's cool to have an armored mage or whatever, but it's not cool to miss attacks or have enemies shrug off your spells. Especially with how short fights are.

The math to get 20/20 and 13 + Resilient in whichever of those two saves your class needs to be effective works out so perfectly that I have to assume it was designed on purpose. Obviously it's a little different if you're rolling stats. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with building a character for flavor or theme instead of absolute maximum effectiveness.

Polearm Master is cute, and if I had free feats or really wanted the feel of a polearm user I -might- take it, but 1) it's better on Fighters than on Barbs or Paladins who only have one free Feat and who have uses for their bonus action anyway, and 2) I have never aesthetically liked polearms.

>>215031

>>215044

Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as spergy or argumentative. I was just explaining my experiences and conclusions.

>>215045

>>215044

No worries anon, I like your reasoning.

I guess I'm coming from a position of having played in two parties with Paladins now, and they generally give pretty significant save buffs (and immunity to frightened a bit later on).

I'm currently in a party with a Polearm Master / GWM /Sentinel Paladin5/Sorc3 and he is obscene with damage. Casts Bless to start off, then gets 3 attacks per round to smite with. He finished up a fight against an Oni a few weeks ago, dealing 100 damage exactly in the final round of combat.

>>211243

I have a question

I'm trying to put together a character generator program for D&D 3(.5)

what am I not allowed to put in it by default

I know I can't put shit into it directly because wizard are jews but I'm making it so that you can create your own tables and upload them into the generator to use

so again, what can I NOT put into the program?

In 5th edition, if I have the Tavern Brawler feat is making Improvised Attacks with the Net straight up better than just attacking with it normally?

>>216834

You can't use a net as an improvised weapon by RAW.

>>216859

>Improvised Weapons

>Sometimes characters don't have their weapons and have to attack with whatever is at hand. An improvised weapon includes any object you can wield in one or two hands, such as broken glass, a table leg, a frying pan, a wagon wheel, or a dead goblin.

>Often, an improvised weapon is similar to an actual weapon and can be treated as such. For example, a table leg is akin to a club. At the DM's option, a character proficient with a weapon can use a similar object as if it were that weapon and use his or her proficiency bonus.

>An object that bears no resemblance to a weapon deals 1d4 damage (the DM assigns a damage type appropriate to the object). If a character uses a ranged weapon to make a melee attack, or throws a melee weapon that does not have the thrown property, it also deals 1d4 damage. An improvised thrown weapon has a normal rnage of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet

Page 147, Players Handbook

Improvised weapons include any object wieldable in one or two hands which includes nets. The rules for damage and effects are then straightforward.

I'm thinking about the following house rule (possibly as just a class feature or feat but maybe to everybody.)

After an opponent fails to hit you with an attack you can take a five foot step away as a reaction.

>>216976

Your DM might rule otherwise but I'd say nets can't be improvised weapons because they have an entry in the weapons table.

>>216976

Any DM worth their salt is going to shut your munchkin ass down. Literally splitting hairs by RAW to squeeze out a few points of DPS.

Shamefur dispray.

>>216976

>Improvised weapons include any object wieldable in one or two hands which includes nets.

This might be true if not for the second sentence you quoted from the book:

>Often, an improvised weapon is similar to an actual weapon and can be treated as such.

A Net is fits the broadest definition of an improvised weapon, sure, but because it's so similar to a weapon described in the weapons table (Nets are Nets, you dummy!), it can just be treated like one.

If you can pull the wool over your DM's eyes and convince him that your warped view of the text is correct, then more power to you. I personally feel like the net is a weak option, because you can't throw one on someone and then shove them over with your two attacks as a 5th-level fighter or whatever. You could probably convince the DM that it's OK to treat it as two-weapon fighting though, using your bonus action 'offhand' attack to throw the net.

>>217432

Though I will follow up and say yeah, you could bundle a net up and throw it for the full range of an improvised weapon and even deal the 1d4 damage, but an Improvised Weapon doesn't get to carry any weapon attributes (such as the restraining effect of the net)

>>217435

>>217432

Wait a minute, doesn't not having proficiency in something just mean you can't add your proficiency bonus? I'm pretty sure anyone can at least use a weapon they're not trained in…at least with swords and such. They just won't be very good at it, but a person can still swing a weapon or throw a net.

>>217447

Yes, that's right - your attack roll with a melee or thrown weapon that you're not proficient with is d20 + STR mod (optionally DEX mod if it's got finesse). If you're proficient, you add your proficiency bonus (+2 to +6 depending on total character level) to the roll as well.

You're not proficient with improvised weapons unless you get a feat or class feature that grants it, though.

>>217423

The other benefits are being able to hit people with nets in close range (with melee attacks) without getting that one feat and also being able to throw the net up to 20ft instead of up to 15ft.

Given that movement is so abstracted in the Ethereal what's to stop a Wizard using the Ethereal to travel to the moon or outer space?

>>217683

The Shadow plane with the Shadow Walk spell might also work.

>>217683

Breathing when one gets there, mostly. You also need to know your way around the Ethereal Plane.

>>217691

That's true. I guess some sort of magical compass might be required?

The spell "Find the Path" works but I want this to be as low level as possible.

Still, Shadow Walk is a 6th level spell in the first place anyway though.

I wonder what sort of knowledge check would be used for navigating to another planet through the Ethereal or the Shadow plane?

>>217698

I think within an order of magnitude the price for a ship that does this would be about 100,000gp.

OK, so I'm finalizing my campaign plan right now and the BBEG wants to completely kill magic in the material plane. He's got a fuel source made from concentrated magic, and I figure it could react with some kind of anti-magic substance.

If there was some substance that would react with pure magic to cause an annihilation of part of the weave, what would it be?

>>214618

Just as well, you dodged a bullet. Sounds like a 'DM' with a big Dunning-Kruger case who thinks skimming over the books is enough to figure out the game, or just expected to basically freeform everything with the character sheets as a loose guide.

>>221156

You're terrible but the visual you've given me has made me laugh.

>>221217

It could be that the DM is of sorts railroading it in your session. You can choose where to travel around the underdark although a lot of times it is sort of makes the most sense to go to the closest city since food and traveling is a thing in this campaign. I'm sort of starting off in the campaign only getting to the first Kuo-Toa town. I think our campaign might be best to be railroaded as there is an absurd amount of children playing in it.

5e best.

Me personally…I always play a Rogue. Always.

>>221361

Not him, but I played 3rd from the day the DMG came out til a while after 3.5 hit. My longest run campaign and many others were in it, some of my fondest memories were 3rd ed games.

But I just like 5th ed more, and can see myself playing it even longer. It's so much closer in feel to 2nd ed, where I started, and the current lack of over abundance of supplements is a nice change of pace after 4th ed (which I only ever tried to run twice, and just couldn't get into).

>>221385

I'm normally a Paladin player more than most classes, but I have a 12th level rogue that I fucking love playing as. I have a cloak of displacement, so that, uncanny dodge and evasion I get through a fair amount of straight up fights unscathed.

>>221388

I started with 3.5 with a Rogue and I never stop using Rogues ever since.

>>221391

Ya know, now that I think about it, my first character was a Paladin. I wonder if most people have a soft spot for their first class.

I was pissed that the last Paladin I made was for a game that fell apart right as she hit 3rd level. I was going to work taking my Paladin oath into a declaration of challenge I was going to deliver at some monsters that had us trapped in a house, so it would actually happen in game.

Too bad that DM is a complete asshat who can't keep focused on shit. It was actually his "second game" and he expected me and my buddy to make new characters for his "horror game". We said "these characters are fine" and just kept them.

Pro-tip: if a DM is unproven, and he suddenly wants to run a Ravenloft ripoff idea, he will fail 95% of the time.

>>221395

OK…noted.

>>221395

I am however interested in playing a Paladin..so, any pointers?

>>221401

Just don't be Jake Dagger and you'll be fine.

>>221401

Never give up, no matter the odds!

On an unrelated note, most of my paladins have died horrible deaths.

Other than that, you can sometimes be the primary martial fighter with some support, but you don't really ever want to be the primary source of healing. At least having someone who also has some secondary healing is good if no one wants to be a cleric. As far as rules go, I don't have much, as I only got to play the one paladin in 5th ed so far. But whatever you consider important to the character should probably always be worth fighting or dying for. That way, even if you have to roll up a new character, you know you played that one as hard as possibly could. But maybe that's just me.

>>221403

Jake Dagger?

>>221420

also are bards good?

>>221420

Half-Elves? They are like humans, good at everything.

>>221436

I'll go first, since I asked this shit

>Fav class

Paladin

>Fav race

Tiefling

>Fav class/race combo if different

>Fav setting

Planescape

>Editions played

1st - 5th

>Editions run

2, 3, 4, 5

>First edition you played

2nd

>Fav D&D arcade character

Thief

>Fav D&D cartoon character

Mutha fucking Eric!

>Adventure you always wanted to play in or run, but never got to

I want to run City Beyond the Gate

>>221436

>Fav class

Warlock. They have so much potential. I played magical girls, a cultist, a battle dancer, some guy whose patron was a dracolich. Nice stuff.

>Fav race

Variant human. Come on now.

>Fav setting

Whatever the GM comes up with.

>>221433

I think Gurney is definitely an archetype, but I'm struggling to think of other examples.

>quiet, gruff seeming man that's ugly as sin and covered in scars

>is a sensitive, musical type

>is also artistic in killing people

Can a Goliath Ranger work?

>>221452

Something with a burrowing speed if you can find it.

>>221444

Could work, you could make a grapple-focused build. I don't recall if Goliaths are Large size or not, but if they are they should give you an advantage in making grapple checks, and I believe the Hunter archetype of the ranger has some grapple-based abilities.

>>221473

Goliaths are typically Medium but with racial features that let them act as Large for the benefits thereof.

>>221420

>>221421

Half-Elves make great bards with their CHA bonus and skill versatility. Bards are arguably one of the most powerful classes right now. Aside from Bards, Half-Elves are best suited to any class that requires CHA and has the potential to be MAD.

>>221452

As a Druid, your two main roles are going to be tanking through your multiple HP pools, and providing utility through many possible forms. Always keep a straight-up combat form with a lot of HP earmarked, such as a bear. For your other choices look for things with climb/burrow/etc. speeds, maybe something that grapples or gives other status effects.

>>221436

>>Fav class

Wizard, mostly because I like playing smart fucks

>>Fav race

Dwarves, though usually I pick whatever race is best for my class

>>Fav class/race combo if different

No clue, see above. I'll just say Half-Elf/Sorcerer/Wizard because that's my favorite character of those I've made.

>>Fav setting

Greyhawk

>>Editions played

4th and 5th

>>Editions run

5th

>>First edition you played

4th

>>Fav D&D arcade character

>>Fav D&D cartoon character

No idea what those are

>>Adventure you always wanted to play in or run, but never got to

Once played in a full-on murderhobo campaign, no real plot, just the PCs fulfilling their various goals. Had a whole plan lined up for starting a school for all arcane magic (not just wizards), and a few other things. Unfortunately, a little over half the players went off to uni and the game fizzled out.

Is there any kind of official NPC building guidelines for 5e? Because the Monster Manual is nice, but it doesn't really offer any insight into scaling and upgrading certain types of creatures to make them appropriately challenging.

>>221436

>Fav class

Always the Rogue..with Swordsage and Factotum being 2nd and third pick

>Fav race

Human all the way

>Fav setting

Anything really

>Editions played

3.5 but a friend of mine is letting me play a Thief in an upcoming 2e campaign

>Editions run

None at the moment

>First edition played

3.5

>Fav D&D arcade character

Definitely the Thief

>>221480

Not NPCs specifically, but the DMG has a guide on building monsters and other enemies, including calculating CR.

>>221486

Alright, I'm going to have to look that up, because I need to concoct a quartet of anti-heroes to challenge the party with and I don't see the point in trying to fudge the stats of a Bandit Captain or whatever.

>>221493

Even if they're supposed to be a recurring party of villains, don't fall into the trap of using the PC generation rules. PC resources such as spells are balanced around rationing those resources out throughout the day, whereas monsters and NPCs are balanced around dumping everything they have in a single encounter.

>>221496

That's a really good point that I hadn't considered.. Thanks for the advice.

>>221577

>do people play bards as melee characters or ranged?

For the physical weapons the rapier is preferred, as you can handle ranged with spells and cantrips pretty well.

>>221577

I'm responding because I like butts.

Even if you're dungeon-delving, the number of encounters, the resources you have, and the speed at which fights are won or lost make it so that the Valor bard gives up a lot sweet toys in order to get a little boost to "hit them with the weapon" skills that they will usually not need or want to use. Lore bards are real strong IMO.

>>221577

>>221582

>>221588

Make your instrument your voice and play sword+shield.

Battle Bards ftw.

>>221627

Sword+sword, abandon all defense. Go naked and never carry anything so you can move like a foot faster. You must become the most offensive thing this universe has ever witnessed and forsake all defense.

>>221217

DMing it right now. It's fun so far, the party starting to get on edge about their insanities and the NPCs that joined them in their flight from Velkynelve.

So far, good.

>>221436

>Fav class

Cleric

>Fav race

Human

>Fav class/race combo if different

Dark Elf Rogue

>Fav setting

Established? Mystara. Prefer homebrew though

>Editions played

1 and 2 AD&D, 3.P, 4 and 5. Trying to get a BECMI/RC going…

>Editions run

3.P, 4 and 5

>First edition you played

3

>Fav D&D arcade character

Elf

>Fav D&D cartoon character

the chick with the invisibility cloak

>Adventure you always wanted to play in or run, but never got to

Becoming actual pirates…

>>221395

I first played a fighter… I took learning psionics even before magic as a challenge and I pretty much did, I didn't even crack the game over my leg with them despite the GMs inexperience with Psionics and sicne then I've loved using raw mind bs instead of magic.

I started in 3.5 and all my crazy stories come from that edition, I'm even DMing that edition currently however I fucked up because I decided to give the party over sized gems and well rather than taking to my logic of just 10x the normal GP equivalent, the super genius applied real world math to find the estimated carat measurement of the gems based on the description and calculate the Gp value from the current dollar value of such stones since US dollar to generic D&D gold piece apparently exists somewhere.

TL;DR I accidentally gave the party 16-million GP and they ahev all agreed if I DM fiat it away they will all quit.

>>221671

Then don't..instead…make it a cursed item.

>>221671

>3.5e players

>>221671

Items that are worth $16 million might be a hard thing to sell. Who even has that much money in their "Giant gem" budget? Maybe you can make it into a quest hook, traveling to distant lands to find a buyer, or as soon as they reveal what they have, they're a target for a ring of inter-planar thief guild.

>>221672

Unfortunately the context is kinda past to make them cursed… especially since it's 12 fist sized diamonds, a pink spinel bigger than the average human head, and several palm sized rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. Then again they will not be able to cash it all in for awhile and they'll be potentially level 12 or hgiher by the time they can so if I play it right it will be what they'll NEED for end game items.

>>221674

I actually suggested since they're caught up in Xorvintaal, the massive game dragons play with people and even nations as pawns (It's in the 5th monster manual), they should keep the gems as a bargaining tool or decoy to help their dragon potentially control each other dragons hordes to become the "ultimate" victor.

>>221675

>>221674

>>221676

Those sound like great quest hooks.

Nasty twist would be that while big, they're low quality and not worth half of what they'd think. Or there's simply no one willing to pay that much for them- but plenty of people willing to try and kill the party to get them.

Also, Xorvintaal may lend itself to some interesting treasures. I can picture dragons rolling giant dice made out of precious metals or geodes.

>>221687

That's a great idea. I just don't want to railroad it too much since I have a story about how I tried to fight autism with autism and well it wasn't a success despite the character turning out great and getting raped out of a good ending. Wanna hear about it?

I'm in the early part of a 5e campaign. I've not played enough to form an opinion yet, but I'm really missing 3.5 at times.

>>221744

Well, give them an out if they really want it; they can offload the gems for a ton of money that's still a lot less than they're really worth, but it gets them money and gets the gems off their hands.

But otherwise, make getting the value for those gems an adventure in itself.

And if you have a story just post the bloody thing.

>>221824

I'm going to warn you if there's gaps, that's because this shit moved so fast there was little between.

>My friend decides to run a campaign.

>He can't decide what sort of shtick

>eventually decides to do an oceanic-ish One Piece inspired world.

>First red flag: He states we must choose one weapon we are proficient in, all others get to nope the fuck away.

>Has alot of emphasis on homebrew powers that are based on what his sister made; it boils down to an overly expanded "The Last Airbender" bending system on steroids.

>We don't start as his version of benders which he calls flat out "elementals" (what a confusing name, eh?).

He has everyone change their characters so often I make the character that would become my recurring character and threaten to leave the game if I have to change any more shit.

>Can't be a Psionic class despite all other supplements still allowed.

>>221882

I have to explain some of my friend's tendencies. He is a lazy fuck, like insufferably lazy. I gave him all the 3.x D&D pdfs, he has them on a laptop, doesn't use laptop for anything other than watching some web show called "Far From Subtle" (He incessantly references the main host of the show and how he plays games; he is almost a second DarksidePhil). Furthermore, he keeps spewing this "core only" philosophy despite the fact I am literally marking references on my sheet and he has the PDFs on the Laptop.

I just say fuck it and put all the books on my garishly huge Galaxy S and amongst all of his "complexity shaming" I shame him back by being faster to look up shit than him.

To elaborate this "Core Only" thing is mostly becasue he says he likes to be "simple" yet he tries to shove his homebrew in above all and even has trouble keepign that a fixed system, he's almost normalfag territory of gamer who'd probably throw a fit that he has to explain how he does something in a ruleslite system and moreso if the Gm of said system said that didn't make sense.

He also has a tendency for some weird counter-logical thinking where he tries to be brilliant but it swings all the way back around and becomes retarded… this will become apparent as the story goes on

>>221882

>>221883

ALSO I forgot I may have told this story before however there's much less spelling errors. Once I'm done I can go into this character I amde in depth if you wish.

>>221883

>>221894

>>221882

This sounds vaguely familiar, but then again I think this kind of behaviour isn't uncommon; wannabe DMs who like the idea of DMing but don't want to do any of the actual work and don't understand the system, usually because of Dunning-Kruger effect.

>>221904

I was playing with one of those type a year ago. These days I'm back to running games, and reading and rereading adventures before altering them to fit the homebrewed world better. I don't see how some people think they can run a game with no planning at all if they just started out. I've been at this for years and I still spend hours prepping for a session, because I know how much it helps.

>>221894

>>221904

The Galaxy S reverence gives it away, this was definitely posted in one of the recent That Guy threads. But continue.

where do you guys find home brew adventures?

im DMing and my group wants an evil campaign and i have not found anything online

any tips?

>>221978

A lot of times you can run a regular adventure and just change the motivation to "doing this gets you more power/closer to your goal" instead of "you're helping people". Of the evil games I've played in, one was us serving an all but forgotten god that wanted us to amass followers and destroy followers of enemies. We basically took on a standard dungeon, the only real difference was we were evil.

Another adventure was just us as an evil group starting shit in the first adventure of Dragonlance. We killed all the heroes for some series of stupid reasons. I think where was even some charming by one player to have sex with the priestess character (I forget the names of everyone in Dragonlance), before I roasted of them with a lightning bolt when they weren't looking. That was more your stereotypical "just be dicks" adventure though, and there was no follow ups to it.

Basically, I'd suggest giving the characters an evil organization to be a part of, be it a guild or as big as a nation. Their overall goal is to raise in ranks, and in early levels that will be about building their renown by doing various jobs. Change fortresses full of goblins into fortresses full of good-aligned humans, or an abandoned dwarven mine into an active one full of dwarves and gold. If you want to keep things extra interesting, make sure everyone has some sort of moral thing they hold dear, no matter how evil they are. Maybe the assassin has a soft spot for kids or puppies, and the dark knight will never knowingly hurt a mother, the rogue is taking jobs on the side that the main organization wouldn't approve of, just little things. The main organization also gives them reasons to take on threats to it or investigate any monsters living too close to home base. Other evil groups are just as much a problem for the group as a strike force of paladins, you never have to run out of people for them to fight. And once they're infamous enough, they won't need the organization anymore, people will want them dead for all their actions that lead them to the top.

If you have a particular adventure in mind, maybe we can suggest ways to "evil it up"

>>221986

thanks for all the info that helped me knowing good points in populating the world

and i did have an adventure in mind it was rise of taimat (second adventure in 5e) i guess i can make it so that the humans keep finding the masks before them and they need to retrieve them or something?

hat is the general consensus on 5e prestige classes? I ant to make a prestige class to buff the ranger beastmaster that can also work as a stand alone to add to my setting.

>>221987

im going to sleep now and check back in the morning

>>221988

Don't really see the point when we have archetypes, to be honest. PRC power creep was one of the reasons 3.5 a shit. Just modify the Beast master class to hit the power level you want.

>>221993

The problem with that is that I cant if I want to release it, as beastmaster is not part of the OGL, the same reason why I could not blatantly copy it just for a few improvements.

>>222003

Actually, Copyright only covers the exact wording of a text and not the rules themselves. So you're perfectly free to copy the rule mechanics as long as you don't use the exact wording and don't use the same fluff.

>>221988

The mechanics of the prestige classes I've seen (official and homebrew) have been fairly sound - A beastmaster prestige class seems like it might be a decent option for Rangers who are willing to give up some spell progression and martial prowess in exchange for more beast abilities. The archetype is pretty weak at the moment though, and if you're making a prestige class whose requirement is "Ranger with Beastmaster Archetype", then you might be better off buffing the base archetype and maybe writing a few spells to appropriately buff your beast.

>>222023

The way I´m doing it is more free, so anyone can make one, it just becomes stronger if you are a beastmaster or a chan warlock as the base creature is naturaly stronger and have all those other advantages.

I´m still deep into development and as I´m quite usless as anything else I will try to release it to earn some bucks, still after I´m confident in how it looks I´ll post it here so anons can destroy it.

>>222020

I know, but still I really prefer to avoid it and stay as far away as I can from copyright things, in fact I almost have to copy the beastmaster first ability to give the the caracter with the prestige class and that in itself is a pain.

>>222026

Before posting it on DMG for bux, get on the Unearthed Arcana subreddit and look up the style guide, there's tools to make it look close to the PHB style pretty easily. You'll probably make more sales.

Hey /tg/, I'm also a beginner as well and since this is the general I supposed this would be the correct thread to ask for this.

So I was invited to a game by some friends on E5 and, after watching several tutorials and reading the manual I managed to get my way trough the character chart and I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Is there some place I can play a few training sessions?

is there a /tg/ dedicated roll20 server?

>>222027

Thanks anon, I have all that material and I´m constantly comparing it with all kind of sources, The only thing I lack is playtesters, as I can hardly run a game as I am right now.

>>222030

I probably should state that I've never played a tabletop RPG before.

>>222030

It's just easier to say you're new and get some people to explain it as you go, rather than drag your crew through hell because you can't remember how advantage works and are too nervous to ask, or arguing rules (Unless you have a good reason to argue it, typically the DM's word is final). If the DM is any good at accommodating players, they'll just remind you of what to do.

Bring a draft of your character sheet and ensure it looks right to them, or even ask for help constructing one that you want. Your party will be glad to have a good composition of various types if you play well with others.

Personal caveat though, avoid spellcasting characters if you're in any way new to 5e. It's a mess to figure out as each spell functions differently, and not forgetting the difference between prepared and known spells (which is explained horribly in the PHB, look it up on google). You can throw caution to the wind and do so, but each spell fundamentally has a different resolution and there's no standardized method to test a given spell cast. Just be ready to read over the spell and consult with the DM over it.

Any tips for a new DM?

>>222175

>Keep it simple at first

>Avoid cliches twists like "the guy helping you was the big bad all along"

>Keep drama as far away from the table as possible

>Roleplaying should be more fun than rolling dice

>Set up ground rules like no phones, no eating at the table, etc.

>>222200

quads+dubs confirms, KISS anon. Also, noob DM (even if you're an experienced player)+noob players isn't the best of combinations, unless you don't mind the game proceeding at snail's pace.

My first ever D&D5 character is about to level to 5 and I need to pick a new spell, possibly 2 by swapping a existing one. My only concern staying alive after casting Heat Metal on the boss' armor and everyone targeting me until I lose concentration/die (which happened in 2 turns by being perforated by arrows). If there are not many good options for level 5, what can I get at lv6? When I get "ADDITIONAL MAGICAL SECRETS"

All I need is a spell that makes me hard as balls to kill and don't require concentration, even if I only can use my bonus action each turn.

Also, can an Unseen servant carry a pack of bombs that had invisibility cast on them previously, and then when it is near an boss (during the pre-battle dialogue), have them blow up with Heat Metal(some metal pin on the wick)?

>>222290

Mirror Image is a nice self-defense spell that doesn't use concentration. Dunno if Bards get it, if they don't you'll have to use a Magical Secrets slot on it.

>can an Unseen servant carry a pack of bombs that had invisibility cast on them previously, and then when it is near an boss (during the pre-battle dialogue), have them blow up with Heat Metal(some metal pin on the wick)?

Should be fine, but using Heat Metal to do that is a waste of a spell slot. The servant is able to perform simple tasks, and starting fires is explicitly called out as one of them. Just spend a bonus action to command your servant to light the bomb.

>>222293

I just occurred to me that the servant should be able to yell allahu akbar if he is the one setting the bomb himself, too bad I'd still have to cast invisibility on it, otherwise a flying bomb is not all that stealthy

5E: If a Dragon bites you for 13 Piercing and 17 Fire (one attack roll, no save for the extra damage), do you make two DC10 Concentration Saves, or one DC15 Concentration Save?

If you were a Raging Bear Totem Barbarian, would you take 15 total damage, or 14?

>>222290

>Heat Metal

I think I've maybe seen that successfully cast once. The enemies we come across are always either beasts or thieves and thugs in leather and rags. The boss is always an arcane magic user of some kind.

>a spell that makes me hard as balls to kill and don't require concentration

>no concentration

Not easy as a Bard. I second Mirror Image when you can get it (it is not on your spell list). You do have access to Hypnotic Pattern, which can drastically swing or end a fight. You will need concentration for this.

>even if I only can use my bonus action each turn.

Well, there's the Blade Ward cantrip. It will give you resistance to weapon attacks. You could use Minor Illusion to put yourself in a 5 foot cube box. You'll have total cover until they determine it's an illusion.

>a pack of bombs that had invisibility cast on them

Heat Metal requires that you can see the target when first casting it.

>>222301

The book specifies sources of damage, not types of damage. If both came from the same attack, it's one save.

>>222336

Exuberance and Enterprise

The Thalassians are an optimistic people, who approach life with vigorous gusto. The natural bounty of the sea allows Thalassians to lead relatively labor free lives with plenty of free time for arts, athletics, magic, business, and leisure. Many devote their extra hours to all manner of professions to distinguish themselves in the eyes of others, to complete for prestige, and simply for the enjoyment of them. Thalassians are the gatekeepers to the waterways, and this gives them a position at the center of commerce. Thalassian culture has a heavy emphasis on merchantile activity, and all merfolk develop skill for negotiation. Thalassians’ highly engaged and individualistic personalities often make them competitive and prideful, which normally manifests as friendly rivalries. It can escalate into antagonism, but their natural charisma is usually enough to restrain any excesses.

Most thalassians are individualistic and unbound by traditions. They are open to new ideas and constantly on lookout for opportunities. They are gregarious and love conversation with new people. They freely discuss all manner of topics with strangers, but become hesitant and stoic if the conversation turns to internal thalassian affairs.

1/?

>>222337

Sunken Sanctuaries and Coastal Cosmopolitans

Thalassians live in and along the coasts of lakes, estuaries, islands and shallow seas where they farm aquatic plants and livestock. The highly productive aquatic biomes support very dense cities that can tower from the sea floor all the way to the surface, sometimes reaching 200 meters tall. Their vertical cities are constructed out of many materials such as stone, coral, whale bones, giant seashells, hydraulic concrete, or even living giant sponges. Some houses are woven out of living kelp with different rooms suspended along the plant like a string of pearls. Almost all thalassian settlements have a port district that is above water, either built on top of other buildings, floating on rafts, or on the shoreline. These areas are the most important part of the city because they serve as harbors and market places that connect the city to the outside world. Here, terrestrial races of all types reside with thalassians where they live and do business freely.

The highly populous cities usually control the area around them for many miles. These city-states form the chief political unit of thalassian culture. These city-states are relatively small but fiercely independent. Neighboring city-states jockey with each other for position and power, but usually cooperate in the face of large threats.

Opportunity in the Great Unknown

More than the other races, Thalassians adventure for their own personal benefit. Their individualistic and competitive culture drives many to test themselves in a heroic life. Thalassian adventurers seek to bring home vast treasures and secrets, or to earn glory and respect. Thalassian cities have a unique institutional motivation for adventuring. Merchant shipping companies offer contracts to any who will map vast frontiers and forbidden seas to secure trade routes to foreign civilizations. Most importantly, Thalassian adventurers seek to satisfy a restless craving for exploration, discovery, and the great unknown.

So I just came out of my first game. And I got to say, I'm liking this game a lot:

>We gathered together at my DM's house, guy's a pretty chill guy, one of those HEMA hobbyists, so his play room is decorated with all sorts of replicas.

>He decided to add a new rule, halfswording: You can ditch your shield and either use a longsword as a dagger (doing d6 piercing damage) or flip it over and do d8 bludgeoning damage. This was the first time he ever did such a thing, so it was fair for everyone that we didn't know how it worked.

>at a given moment we encounter a skellington and at the moment I was equiped with a spear, a longsword and a shield. So I ditched my shield and decided to flip my sword over and use it as a mace, and end up pommeling the bitch to death with it

>friend goes "that wouldn't be possible on real life, you would cut yourself"

>another friend says "yeah, but he's using gauntlets"

>DM looses his shit, tells us to stop for a while and tells us to go with him to the backyard

>he sets up like a foam roll on a pole and grabs one of the reproductions

>cuts it a little bit with it to show it's sharp, then flips it over and bashes it with the guard (he wasn't using globes)

>leaves the sword and shows us his hands to demonstrate they're not cut at all

>"You both lost your inspiration for being retards"

I love this game.

>>222350

gloves*

>>222350

Hahah, shit. Your DM is a bit of an overreacting autist but half-swording is cool and a practical demonstration is easily the best way to make retards believe. Taking their inspiration for out of game stupidity is a really dick move though

>>222350

What's HEMA anyways?

>>222355

Historical European Martial Arts.

>>222356

You mean he's into European style fencing? Man, that is cool. I'm always interested in fencing styles, Eastern or Western.

>>222315

Can you give me more specifics on how the book states that Heat Metal can work? Of course my DM can override that, but I still want to know more details on how to abuse it. My dm have about 6-10 characters that he made but can't use since he is not a player, so he is sending them as bosses at the end of the quest (they are part of some random faction that want to fuck shit up, the main baddies of the campaign). So far they escaped every time they were about to die, I want to make sure it does not happen next time. Sometimes it feels like he is 'competing' with us with those faggot characters, so I want to make sure that he loses next time

As I've read on the book, it states that:

* For casting the first time, I need to be at 60ft of the target and can see it.

* There is no save if I use it on the armor, and if it's a half plate/full plate the spell ends long before the enemy can remove it.

* So long my concentration remains, I can use a bonus action to re-apply the damage, up to 10 turns

* After being cast, the enemy could travel to another plane and I still would be able to re-heat the metal (there are no range/vision restrictions on the spell as usually there are, for instance, Unseen Servant specifically states that it will dissipate if it goes further than 60ft from me, however, Heat Metal puts no such constraints on re-heating).

Also, our sorcerer have Darkness (and somehow can cast with only one sorcerer point or something). In the last 'boss fight', they had one full-plate halberd faggot that uses that build that attacks when you get in range and stops you, plus a maneuver to push you back, and some elf sniper that was shooting arrows straight at me. Had the sorcerer cast Darkness on our party rather than Shatter on the enemies, would the sniper (that had cast Hunter's Mark on me) be able to still hit me? That was what killed me in two turns and ended Heat Metal I was fucking rolling 18/17 on concentration checks, too bad having 0 HP stops concentration regardless

Yes I am fucking mad

>>222290

With Magical Secrets you can pick up Blink, which puts you in the ethereal plane off your turn half the time, requires no concentration. The magical secrets feature is a really hard choice though, because you can pick some apeshit spells from Paladin or Ranger too. Aura of Life is pretty great for an out-of-combat heal, 20d6 healing across a minute. Spirit Guardians is an incredible damage spell that only clerics get access to normally.

If you did that Heat Metal trick in my game I'd let you do it, sounds fun. Then in future I'd throw bosses in with the ability to see invisible stuff or a room that would make the unseen servant have to do something visible to reach him, so you can't abuse it. Just bundle up the bombs in a sack with a torch in them, and use Thaumaturgy to light it, kaboom. Of course, having all those items invisible might be pushing it a bit.

>>222397

If the ranger knows where you are, it can attack you with disadvantage. The problem is that in combat everyone knows where everyone is provided that they don't attempt to hide or something. Even though you could move into a different square, the ranger knows where you are unless you hide, in which case he would have to make a check to find you again, which Hunter's Mark gives advantage for. You could cast Invisibility and walk around a corner, but unless you take the Hide action everyone still 'knows' where you are, presumably by incredibly precise hearing in the middle of a deadly fight. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense but there you go.

>>222397

Also, what is Charm Person even good for? Once during these 'boss fights', I managed to charm one of them but he just targeted someone else

>>222402

Outside of combat, anon. Charm Person spell gives advantage on the save if they're fighting you or your buddies, and the Charmed condition gives you advantage on social checks with the target - That merchant doesn't want to give up information to foreigners? Charm him and now you're best buds, he'll tell you anything.

I was skimming through the bard lv3 spells and ended at Feign Death. Could I use Suggestion to convince an enemy to be affected by Feign Death? It does not sound too 'obviously bad' as 'slitting your own throat'.

Also, Glyph of Warding. What about the surface of an arrow? It's rather silly the way it's worded. I'd assume that, even though I have chosen an surface, since if it's a surface of an object, it would break on distance. I want fucking arrows of Heat Metal, since it always runs the entire duration, it would deal 20d8, totally worth 200g

Wouldn't the earth rotation move any surface enough to end the spell?

Leomund's Tiny Hut could be used to 'hide us all' instead of making stealth checks? Like making a 'cave colored' dome inside a dark corner of a cave? Also, the spell don't specify it's resistance, is it 100% anything-proof? Besides dispel magic, would it make an invulnerability bubble? Sure 10 turns cast time is too much for combat, but 'right before combat' could be used to 'force a long rest'

Hypnotic Pattern is way too strong if used with 1d8 Cutting Words Although I don't know how 'use your reaction' works

>>222408

>convince an enemy to be affected by Feign Death?

Probably, if you can make a decent argument that it's a good idea. "Hey man, there's an assassin coming to kill you but if we use this spell to pretend you're dead he'll leave forever!"

>Glyph of Warding. What about the surface of an arrow?

The distance thing says there's a range restriction if it's on the inside of an object that can close, like a book, but not for surfaces. You probably couldn't do an arrow but maybe a frisbee. This is mostly up to interpretation though and a DM would likely overrule this poor wording.

>earth rotation

We have a houserule at my table - "Don't bring real physics into the game world"

>Leomund's Tiny Hut

Yes, it's great.

>Cutting Words

Doesn't work for saving throws

>how 'use your reaction' works

A reaction is a special type of action you can use at any time provided you meet the criteria, but you only get to use a reaction once per round of combat.

>>222412

5E's 'ability checks, saving throws and attack rolls' are all fundamentally the same principle - roll a d20, add the relevant ability modifier and proficiency bonus if you're proficient. They're described as separate things specifically for the purpose of making spells like Bless and abilities like Cutting Words not quite so ridiculous. Personally I think the system could be adjusted to simplify it while managing the power levels of features and spells in other ways. A spell such as Bane (I think), Wild Mage's Bend Luck, or Sorcerer's Heightened Spell could certainly make the Hypnotic Pattern way more likely to take effect, though. You could also dip a couple levels into Wizard and choose Divination for Portent dice - at the end of a long rest, roll 2d20 and store the rolled numbers. Whenever anyone rolls an attack, save or check, you can replace their d20 roll with one of those die (as a reaction IIRC), so if you rolled a nat 1 you can just pop some ridiculous spell on him and force him to get a 1 + mods for his save.

>>222414

>specifically for the purpose of making spells like Bless and abilities like Cutting Words not quite so ridiculous

gay shit, better tell my DM, he also don't know and I've been using it to fuck with save rolls

I already had bane though, wish I had more. But considering that I can just save all my 3rd level slots, I can just fucking spam 14DC (does the +1 on my vuvuzela increases the DC to 15?) Hypnotic Patterns on boss fights, then everyone can just fucking surround the nigger and each attack fucking twice before it even wakes up.

I think I will swap a level2 for Hold Person so that my 2d6+4 (minimum of 3 on each dice) hitting warrior party member can get guaranteed crits and attack advantage actually 4 hitting since he have action surge

>>222073

Speaking of which.

How does magic work? I mean I understand you get a number of slots for each level and each time you use one you have to "expend" one of them and regain them when you rest but what's this about the vocal and somantic component.

The way my DM explained it to me is that you need to chant the spell while gesturing, but I don't get how that works.

For example, lets say I'm a paladin lvl 2 and I want to cast bless on someone, I have the holy water and all; do I need to actually move my hands like sprinkling holy water while saying something?

>>222658

What I mean is, it's like an RP factor?

>>222658

>>222659

Your character has to be able to talk (not gagged or silenced) for verbal components, and free to gesture (hands not tied, for example) for somatic. Is you can not do one of the required components of your spell, it's the same as not having the material component: you just can't cast it. It will rarely come up, but you never know when you'll get tied up for in a zone of silence (or just plain not want to make noise and give your position away) so it's important to know what your character has to do to make the spell happen.

>>222664

Oh I understand now.

Thanks

>>222664

>It will rarely come up, but you never know when you'll get tied up

This has happened only once to me, but it was fun thinking of how to make the best of it.

>playing a Wild Sorcerer with no offensive spells

>party checks into an inn in the shady part of town

>gamble with some other patrons

>we win big

>each pay for our own rooms

>GM randomly picks a room that thieves will break into

>it's mine

>wake up to find one thief holding down my legs

>another holding down my arms

>a third covering my mouth

>and a fourth getting ready to gut me

>my backpack is against a dresser on the other side of the room

>frantically look through my spells to see if any can be cast with just verbal components

>just one: Disguise Self

>give the guy covering my mouth a sad, puppy eyes look and indicate that I'd like to say something

>with a successful Deceive roll (using Tides of Chaos), he lifts his hand

>say one word: "BIG"

>original plan: use Disguise Self to look as tall and fat as the spell will let me, just to make it a little harder for the guy to stab me while I struggle and call for help

>not much, but all I had

>however, GM decides to roll on the Wild Surge chart

>I am suddenly Large size

>the bed breaks

>the thieves holding me are thrown against the wall

>Intimidate the other two

>party soon breaks the door of my room down

>cut down two of the thieves and chase the others out of the window

The thieves were actually bodyguards at the inn, and the owner was in on this attack. They even locked us inside our rooms, so I couldn't have escaped that way if I tried. Luckily, the party Barbarian had little trouble forcing his door open. Our Bard killed the owner, and we had to burn the inn down to cover up the murder.

>>222672

Just checked, and Disguise Self does require Somatic components. I forget how I got my hands free. Oh well.

>>222674

>>222672

This is why I have Subtle Spell metamagic on my list. If I'm bound and gagged I can still Dimension Door away

How OP would this be:

Orchestra, lv1 bard magic.

Range: 30ft

Cast Time: 1 action

Components: V, S

Duration: Concentration

Sync you and up to one willing creature, you need to own and be proficient on one different instrument per creature synced. The instrument used will float up in the synced creature's head and play the same song you are playing, if not in combat, the creature have double advantage on deception rolls to feign playing the instrument, on failure, the instrument will play 1d20 wrong notes. If on combat, in the beginning of the creature's turn, the creature must succeed 3 of 5 saving throws against the spell DC, one for each attribute, on failure, the creature get desync, If the caster was the creature that failed the rolls, the spell ends. The spell DC starts at 0. The following becomes available:

* Instant Proficiency: All synced creatures are proficient in everything the other creatures also are, this includes instruments, skills and weapon/armor proficiency. If the used instrument doubles as a weapon, it can be used instead of the current equipped weapon as a bonus action until the beginning of the creature's next turn

* Double up: Two or more synced creatures, if they act on consecutive turns and do the same action on the same target(s), can each use up to one ability, spell or class feature that the other is currently using. All creatures must decide what to do on their turns at the same time. For each creature involved, the spell DC increases by one.

* Tune: The caster can spend an action and an Bardic Inspiration to reduce the spell DC by it's current Bardic Inspiration die

* Sync: As a normal action, the caster may sync an additional creature, the synced creature must roll a saving throw for each attribute against the spell DC + 1d8. for each failed roll, the spell DC increases by one

* Swap: If an synced up creature is about to take damage, any adjacent synced up creature can swap places with it, and take the damage instead. Does not work with area of effect abilities if both creatures were in the area, even if one completely negates the effect. The spell DC increases by one per 5 points of damage rounded up.

* Save: As an reaction, If an creature is about to get desync, you can use one Bardic Inspiration instead, if the spell concentration is about to fail, you can desync someone else instead

* Recast: You can reset the spell DC to 0 on your turn as an action, this spends one spell slot. The spell slot used determines how many creatures you can keep synced + 1.

* Conduct: In the beginning of your turn, you can spend it to decrease the number of failed save throws from 3 to 2 for a desync to happen until your next turn.

Regardless of using these effects or not, on the beginning of each synced creature turns, the spell DC increases by 1.

The spell range is 30ft of the next synced creature, starting at the caster and extending.

If any creature leaves the spell range, it gets desync.

If any creature gets desync, the spell DC increases by 3.

When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the number of initial creatures increases by 1 for each slot level above 1st.

>Join a game on roll20 with a pretty good premise without realizing what it was based on

>Spend the week waiting patiently on TS

>Suddenly weaboos

>Game starts

>Quickly realize it's based on the anime GATE, about the japanese defense force going trough a portal to some fantasy world or something

>Change my character on the go

>From a LG fighter of the people to a LE Spess muhreen

>Acquire a sub machinegun and a fireams training manual (giving me prolifency to use it)

>Purge the non-humans

>Purge the heretics

>Purge everything

>Everyone is bitching but the DM

>The DM is having the time of his life

>By the end of the campaign I had 2 hostile kills and 24 friendly NPC's

THE EMPRAH PROTECTS

>>223385

That doesn't sound so bad.

>>222350

I feel like I'm this board's resident Riddle of Steel shill, but seriously, your DM needs to check out.

>>223593

Riddle of Steel? What's that? A Conan RPG?

>>222402

Charm is kind of one of those bullshit "rulings not rules" weakspots in 5E where they don't really give you enough information. As a DM I rule that Charm works like my understanding of what Charm should do, but that's just my DMing, and isn't really supported by the book … however, Charm Person is a great way for high-level Wizards to use low-level slots because at that point even with disadvantage, some targets are still likely to fail and it is a type of debuff/control that doesn't require concentration.

>>223595

No, it's an out of print RPG who's main claim to fame is a fantastic combat system that guys like your DM and myself generally fall in love with.

>>223598

Got a PDF?

>>223599

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/wq2k0r1bqesqt/RPG_Trove#ymz967bwi8yex

>>223597

>"rulings not rules"

Man, I remember that from the hilarious terrible development blog.

Seems rather like "We are afraid any rules we make will piss off one group of our divided fans so we wussed out and left you to do the work".

>>222934

This spell is massively overcomplicated, anon

>succeed 3 of 5 saving throws

>double advantage

>Save DC fluctuating according to situation

>Spend bardic inspiration for various effects

>saving throw for each attribute

>Recast

>First level spell

This shit is bananas, anon. It's more complicated than most mainline class features and it's a spell that can only reasonably be used by bards because it specifically references a class feature (AFAIK no other spell, even class-specific ones, do that).

Two things kind of bug me about this spell that might be overpowered:

1. 'Double Up' ability - This probably lets you pull some serious shenanigans - Drop a high-level spell and then immediately do the same spell again for no cost? That's pretty brutal.

2. So many options for a low level spell. Very few spells give so many mechanically useful abilities. Not sure if this is a big deal, but it adds a hell of a lot of complexity

I kind of like the idea but it's a mess at the moment. Take the core concept of the spell and cut out the fat:

Orchestra

2nd-level enchantment

Range: 30ft

Cast Time: 1 action

Components: V, S, M (a musical instrument for each creature targeted by the spell)

Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes

You begin playing a song of battle in concert with other creatures. The spell may only affect at most two creatures (yourself included) at any time, and if any performing creature other than the caster ends its turn more than 30 feet from another performer, they lose the benefits of this spell. While playing this song, each creature playing along gains the following benefits:

* You can use a bonus action to make a melee weapon attack with your instrument as an improvised weapon

* You can use a bonus action to use the Help action on another performing creature.

* If your turn is immediately after another performing creature, you may duplicate that creature's action for that turn, consuming no resources except material spell components with a cost

* You may stop playing to allow another creature to begin playing - The caster may command a creature to begin performing, as long as the maximum number of performers has not been reached.

* You may use your reaction to take damage in place of another performing creature if you are within 10 feet of that creature

* You can swap places with a willing performing creature within 30 feet

Whenever a performing creature uses one of these benefits or takes damage, they must succeed on a DC10 ability check with the instrument they are playing or lose the benefits of this spell.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the maximum number of performing creatures increases by 1 for each spell slot above 2nd.

What can you do with +15 to Athletics and Acrobatics checks in 5th edition?

One interesting thing is that as the Monk's Slow Fall has been buffed in 5th edition to not require walls it seems plausible to ask the DM to be allowed to use your reaction to slow your fall against walls and stuff with an Acrobatics check even if your not a Monk.

>>226938

You can probably ask your DM to take a reaction to do that kind of stuff, but there's no codified rules for it. +15 Athletics would make you a grapple/shove champion. If you've got two attacks you can grapple and shove a creature, and then they can't stand up and have disadvantage on attack rolls while you bash them with advantage (one-handed weapons only because your other hand is grappling).

>>226938

With such a high Athletics and Acrobatics any feat of physical skill that could be possible is easily within your reach. The upper limit at least in the players handbook for DCs is 30 so with a 15 you can do anything most mortals find difficult with ease and could have a decent chance to pull off shit that would make a god look in awe.

Wanna run up a 15 foot wall and vault to a rooftop opposite it? Done.Tied up in some super strong chains? Not anymore. Balancing on a wire above a fiery chasm as Vrocks swoop at you? Piece of Cake.

Now how far you push this is up to you and your DM. If you pull crazy athletic crap out of you ass every fight or exploration situation the DM, if he is any good, will bring the hammer down on you by boosting DCs or just flat out denying the stupider shit. If they are more relaxed and you do some awesome shit every now and again then you don't really have that worry and can just do awesome stuff.

I'll admit I don't have all that much experience with high level play so I can't say for sure how the balance might work.