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[D&D 5E] Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

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  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    You'd have to fiddle with the timeline. Dragonlance was my introduction too, and I love it dearly. But they'd have to make the default timeline before or after the events of the core books.

    Adventuring during the War of the Lance felt....wrong. Tanis Half-Elven (and his friends) save the world, damnit. Not your stupid Mountain Dew swilling, pretzel eating, glory stealing PC.

    Peronally, I like the idea of adventuring after. Not right after. But after they "fixed" the setting the horrible dragons from beyond shit. Give me my ruined world, in need of heroes to put it back together, and pleases give me my Knights of Takhisis. They ruled.

  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Further ideas for using primal spirits in D&D 5E:

    - Natural or ritualistic environmental features that replicate a druid or ranger spell (a monolith that conjures animals or elementals to help its defenders fight, a pre-existing use of the Druid Grove spell, a single-use item that enables Speak with Plants, etc).
    - Listening to the river carefully reveals a message in garbled Primordial about events taking place upstream.
    - A farm's crops won't grow because the local earth elemental spirit is bothered by a hidden demon portal nearby. Closing the portal causes the grateful elemental to enact a Plant Growth spell effect.
    - Choose appropriate regional effects from the Monster Manual and say the source is a local guardian spirit instead of a creature.

    You don't really need to create any new monsters or spells to communicate the idea of a world full of hidden spirits. It's as simple as having your players find out from the local druid that they can say "lend us your aid, Stone Brother" to the boulder near town to have it cast Earthbind at a high DC one time for them on the approaching dragon.

    Animistic take on magic items: When an item is made the spiritual energies of its component materials bind together and become stilled, waiting for the item to be used so the new spirit knows what its purpose is. If the item is kept in good condition over generations its spirit becomes so in-tune with its corporeal anchor's purpose that it develops magical traits to aid in its purpose, without any external source of enchantment. Who knows, maybe when someone creates a brand new magic item they are unknowingly calling forth the spirit of an item that developed the enchantment over time back into a new vessel? That is, they're not so much making a new magic item as reincarnating it in a new form.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • SleepSleep Registered User regular
    Sleep wrote: »
    Aldo wrote: »
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)

    I decided to stick with the classic archetypes since I hadn’t played in a while, so I went with a Human (variant) Fighter. Greatsword wielder. Took the Heavy Armor Mastery feat, and he ended up surprisingly tough for lvl 2. At the end of the session we got leveled to 3 so I went with Battle Master, so now I get a few things to do in combat beside ‘cleave it with a giant sword.’

    His name is Dal (which is short for something), a teenage runaway who hooked up with a Dwarven mercenary company. There he learned the ways of fighting, drinking, smithing, and gambling. He’s got more than a little dna from Conan of Cimmeria in him, but hell, originality is overrated anyway.

    My only disappointment so far is that I was planning on grabbing a lvl or 2 of Rogue to show him growing as a burglar and generally sneaky sum’ bitch. But the rules say Sneak Attack only works with finesse and ranged weapons. So sadly my idea of sneak attack with a greatsword using the maneuver that gives advantage and the extra damage from Great Weapon Master is not to be.
    You can work around those limitations by picking a feat and/or background that makes you a bit of a burglar. It would mostly be for non-combat situations, but in my limited experience that's where the actual roleplaying only happens anyway.

    Yeah I'd definitely still suggest the dip into rogue for the skills and expertise. Think of the sneak attack as the backup plan should you ever find yourself separated from your giant sword

    I'm still considering it. Our group doesn't have a rogue, so the prof with thieves tools would be handy. And if I go 2 lvls Cunning Action is always good.

    And cunning action on a great weapon fighter is pretty dope. You're not looking to two weapon fight. You often wouldn't have a use for your bonus, outside second wind. Being able to Disengage or Dash every round would be some killer mobility.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    You'd have to fiddle with the timeline. Dragonlance was my introduction too, and I love it dearly. But they'd have to make the default timeline before or after the events of the core books.
    Adventuring during the War of the Lance felt....wrong. Tanis Half-Elven (and his friends) save the world, damnit. Not your stupid Mountain Dew swilling, pretzel eating, glory stealing PC.
    Peronally, I like the idea of adventuring after. Not right after. But after they "fixed" the setting the horrible dragons from beyond shit. Give me my ruined world, in need of heroes to put it back together, and pleases give me my Knights of Takhisis. They ruled.
    I can see how it would feel off. It's a common problem anytime my group tries to play in any kind of established setting. Someone always asks "Well, where's (legendary god tier character from the novels that should be here doing stuff" to take care of this? Seems like he'd have a lot easier time of it then a group of scrubs like us...". And it's only sometimes me asking that.
    Though, going on a parallel adventure to the novels, where a DM might drop some vague reference to events in the books, but as something that happened far away can be fun. I'm sure that the Tanis and crew weren't the only band of stalwart adventurers out wondering where the fuck draconians came from.
    Knights of Takhisis were a cool idea. Probably one of my first exposures to any "Bad guys that don't turn on each other at the drop of a hat" kind of thing.


    I have a Cleric question for you guys. At Lvl 8 you get a Domain Feature which is either Divine Strike or Potent Caster depending on your domain (at least, I don't think I've seen a third option). Both add damage, either to Melee attacks adding 1d8 of a thematically appropriate element or adding the Wisdom modifier to the damage for Cleric cantrips.
    Would you for see any problem with a player who wanted to swap one for the other? Could that change gimp a character, or risk otherwise unbalancing the class?
    For example if they wanted to play a Grave Domain cleric, but take Divine Strike with necrotic damage instead? Or a Life domain that wanted to add a bit of juice to their cantrips instead of being all smashy?

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    see317 wrote: »
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    You'd have to fiddle with the timeline. Dragonlance was my introduction too, and I love it dearly. But they'd have to make the default timeline before or after the events of the core books.
    Adventuring during the War of the Lance felt....wrong. Tanis Half-Elven (and his friends) save the world, damnit. Not your stupid Mountain Dew swilling, pretzel eating, glory stealing PC.
    Peronally, I like the idea of adventuring after. Not right after. But after they "fixed" the setting the horrible dragons from beyond shit. Give me my ruined world, in need of heroes to put it back together, and pleases give me my Knights of Takhisis. They ruled.
    I can see how it would feel off. It's a common problem anytime my group tries to play in any kind of established setting. Someone always asks "Well, where's (legendary god tier character from the novels that should be here doing stuff" to take care of this? Seems like he'd have a lot easier time of it then a group of scrubs like us...". And it's only sometimes me asking that.
    Though, going on a parallel adventure to the novels, where a DM might drop some vague reference to events in the books, but as something that happened far away can be fun. I'm sure that the Tanis and crew weren't the only band of stalwart adventurers out wondering where the fuck draconians came from.
    Knights of Takhisis were a cool idea. Probably one of my first exposures to any "Bad guys that don't turn on each other at the drop of a hat" kind of thing.

    It's also reverence for the fantastic setting and characters that Weis and Hickman gave us. I don't want to sully their epic quest with my party's meddling.

    I can cross paths with Drizzt any day and show him how it's done. Sturm Brightblade deserves better. :)

    Steelhawk on
  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    see317 wrote: »
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    You'd have to fiddle with the timeline. Dragonlance was my introduction too, and I love it dearly. But they'd have to make the default timeline before or after the events of the core books.
    Adventuring during the War of the Lance felt....wrong. Tanis Half-Elven (and his friends) save the world, damnit. Not your stupid Mountain Dew swilling, pretzel eating, glory stealing PC.
    Peronally, I like the idea of adventuring after. Not right after. But after they "fixed" the setting the horrible dragons from beyond shit. Give me my ruined world, in need of heroes to put it back together, and pleases give me my Knights of Takhisis. They ruled.
    I can see how it would feel off. It's a common problem anytime my group tries to play in any kind of established setting. Someone always asks "Well, where's (legendary god tier character from the novels that should be here doing stuff" to take care of this? Seems like he'd have a lot easier time of it then a group of scrubs like us...". And it's only sometimes me asking that.

    I like the implied answer the 4E Dawn War setting gave to questions like this: whether you know it or not tnere are countless evil plots in motion at any given time that need thwarting, and the most powerful and devious villains are prepared with dozens of back up plans and contingencies. The mundane evil that happens every now and then may be partial victories for the Hells or minor elements of another plot of Graz'zt's. Even when a villain isn't the mastermind there could be a problem of cosmic significance like "the divine force that puts souls in the correct afterlife isn't working the way it should" that needs fixing.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)

    I decided to stick with the classic archetypes since I hadn’t played in a while, so I went with a Human (variant) Fighter. Greatsword wielder. Took the Heavy Armor Mastery feat, and he ended up surprisingly tough for lvl 2. At the end of the session we got leveled to 3 so I went with Battle Master, so now I get a few things to do in combat beside ‘cleave it with a giant sword.’

    His name is Dal (which is short for something), a teenage runaway who hooked up with a Dwarven mercenary company. There he learned the ways of fighting, drinking, smithing, and gambling. He’s got more than a little dna from Conan of Cimmeria in him, but hell, originality is overrated anyway.

    My only disappointment so far is that I was planning on grabbing a lvl or 2 of Rogue to show him growing as a burglar and generally sneaky sum’ bitch. But the rules say Sneak Attack only works with finesse and ranged weapons. So sadly my idea of sneak attack with a greatsword using the maneuver that gives advantage and the extra damage from Great Weapon Master is not to be.

    @Snake Gandhi

    Well the bad news is that sneak attack and GWM are anti-synergistic. GWM scales on increased weapon attacks and Sneak attack only scales on increased weapon attacks if you make the extra attacks not on your turn.

    The good news is that Fighter/Rogue does work and Battle Master/Rogue has great synergy and the second part of the good news is that there is a weapon which can be wielded two handed and also uses finesse. Which means that it should not be too far out of range for your DM to let you have scaled down version of it.

    The method in question is simply

    Fighter 5 or 6 -> Rogue rest of the way.(mix and match early levels as you see fit) Fighter 5 gets you an extra sneak attack die and an extra attack. The extra attack makes you super likely to inflict sneak on your turn and doesn't decrease your average damage because 1d8+5 = 9.5 avg damage. While 2d6 = 3.5 sneak. Fighter 6 gets you an extra ASI but loses you a sneak attack die. Which may or may not be worth it.

    The Battle Master ability you're looking for is Riposte. As a reaction when a creature misses you you may make a make melee attack against them and add superiority die to damage. Because you may make a sneak attack once per turn and not once per round so long as this doesn't occur on your turn you can get [superiority die] extra sneaks per short rest.

    Arcane Trickster is the best Rogue for this because they can get Booming Blade for extra punishment damage, though you may want to stop at fighter 3 or 4 if you're planning that because Booming Blade does not work with extra attack. The also eventually get the ability to bonus action advantage (which is better and faster for the fighter but still)

    Sentinel, War-Caster, and Mage Slayer (setting dependent) are great feats to compliment your rogue. Sentinel is the most important key ability. If an adjacent enemy attacks your ally or attempts to move... you get to attack them because of Sentinel and that applies sneak attack damage. If an adjacent enemy attacks you and misses (which is likely if you're a fighter)... you get to attack them with riposte.

    This means that, so long as you can coordinate with an ally or have some other way of gaining advantage... you basically get two sneaks per round.

    The weapon in question is a Sun Blade. The sunblade is basically a lightsaber. It costs a bonus action to draw (boo) but is +2 to attack/damage, sheds light, does radiant damage(plus extra to undead) and is a longsword that has the finesse property. Which means you can wield it 2 handed for 1d10+dex damage. It should not be too hard to convince your DM that you might be able to have a +0/regular damage version of this weapon. (Sun Blades are Rare)


    wbBv3fj.png
  • Snake GandhiSnake Gandhi Des Moines, IARegistered User regular
    Goumindong wrote: »
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)

    I decided to stick with the classic archetypes since I hadn’t played in a while, so I went with a Human (variant) Fighter. Greatsword wielder. Took the Heavy Armor Mastery feat, and he ended up surprisingly tough for lvl 2. At the end of the session we got leveled to 3 so I went with Battle Master, so now I get a few things to do in combat beside ‘cleave it with a giant sword.’

    His name is Dal (which is short for something), a teenage runaway who hooked up with a Dwarven mercenary company. There he learned the ways of fighting, drinking, smithing, and gambling. He’s got more than a little dna from Conan of Cimmeria in him, but hell, originality is overrated anyway.

    My only disappointment so far is that I was planning on grabbing a lvl or 2 of Rogue to show him growing as a burglar and generally sneaky sum’ bitch. But the rules say Sneak Attack only works with finesse and ranged weapons. So sadly my idea of sneak attack with a greatsword using the maneuver that gives advantage and the extra damage from Great Weapon Master is not to be.

    @Snake Gandhi

    Well the bad news is that sneak attack and GWM are anti-synergistic. GWM scales on increased weapon attacks and Sneak attack only scales on increased weapon attacks if you make the extra attacks not on your turn.

    The good news is that Fighter/Rogue does work and Battle Master/Rogue has great synergy and the second part of the good news is that there is a weapon which can be wielded two handed and also uses finesse. Which means that it should not be too far out of range for your DM to let you have scaled down version of it.

    The method in question is simply

    Fighter 5 or 6 -> Rogue rest of the way.(mix and match early levels as you see fit) Fighter 5 gets you an extra sneak attack die and an extra attack. The extra attack makes you super likely to inflict sneak on your turn and doesn't decrease your average damage because 1d8+5 = 9.5 avg damage. While 2d6 = 3.5 sneak. Fighter 6 gets you an extra ASI but loses you a sneak attack die. Which may or may not be worth it.

    The Battle Master ability you're looking for is Riposte. As a reaction when a creature misses you you may make a make melee attack against them and add superiority die to damage. Because you may make a sneak attack once per turn and not once per round so long as this doesn't occur on your turn you can get [superiority die] extra sneaks per short rest.

    Arcane Trickster is the best Rogue for this because they can get Booming Blade for extra punishment damage, though you may want to stop at fighter 3 or 4 if you're planning that because Booming Blade does not work with extra attack. The also eventually get the ability to bonus action advantage (which is better and faster for the fighter but still)

    Sentinel, War-Caster, and Mage Slayer (setting dependent) are great feats to compliment your rogue. Sentinel is the most important key ability. If an adjacent enemy attacks your ally or attempts to move... you get to attack them because of Sentinel and that applies sneak attack damage. If an adjacent enemy attacks you and misses (which is likely if you're a fighter)... you get to attack them with riposte.

    This means that, so long as you can coordinate with an ally or have some other way of gaining advantage... you basically get two sneaks per round.

    The weapon in question is a Sun Blade. The sunblade is basically a lightsaber. It costs a bonus action to draw (boo) but is +2 to attack/damage, sheds light, does radiant damage(plus extra to undead) and is a longsword that has the finesse property. Which means you can wield it 2 handed for 1d10+dex damage. It should not be too hard to convince your DM that you might be able to have a +0/regular damage version of this weapon. (Sun Blades are Rare)


    I appreciate the info. Sadly my guy's dex is mediocre (14) and I've grown quite fond of the greatsword. So much so that the first bit of downtime we get I'm gonna have him craft his own greatsword. (one of the lessons the dwarves taught him was that wielding a weapon you've made with your own two hands is good luck). Plus, mechanically the Great Weapon Fighting style letting me reroll 1's and 2's on 2d6 is really nice.

    Still, 2 lvls or Rogue sounds like it'll fit nicely.

  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Goumindong wrote: »
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)

    I decided to stick with the classic archetypes since I hadn’t played in a while, so I went with a Human (variant) Fighter. Greatsword wielder. Took the Heavy Armor Mastery feat, and he ended up surprisingly tough for lvl 2. At the end of the session we got leveled to 3 so I went with Battle Master, so now I get a few things to do in combat beside ‘cleave it with a giant sword.’

    His name is Dal (which is short for something), a teenage runaway who hooked up with a Dwarven mercenary company. There he learned the ways of fighting, drinking, smithing, and gambling. He’s got more than a little dna from Conan of Cimmeria in him, but hell, originality is overrated anyway.

    My only disappointment so far is that I was planning on grabbing a lvl or 2 of Rogue to show him growing as a burglar and generally sneaky sum’ bitch. But the rules say Sneak Attack only works with finesse and ranged weapons. So sadly my idea of sneak attack with a greatsword using the maneuver that gives advantage and the extra damage from Great Weapon Master is not to be.


    Well the bad news is that sneak attack and GWM are anti-synergistic. GWM scales on increased weapon attacks and Sneak attack only scales on increased weapon attacks if you make the extra attacks not on your turn.

    The good news is that Fighter/Rogue does work and Battle Master/Rogue has great synergy and the second part of the good news is that there is a weapon which can be wielded two handed and also uses finesse. Which means that it should not be too far out of range for your DM to let you have scaled down version of it.

    The method in question is simply

    Fighter 5 or 6 -> Rogue rest of the way.(mix and match early levels as you see fit) Fighter 5 gets you an extra sneak attack die and an extra attack. The extra attack makes you super likely to inflict sneak on your turn and doesn't decrease your average damage because 1d8+5 = 9.5 avg damage. While 2d6 = 3.5 sneak. Fighter 6 gets you an extra ASI but loses you a sneak attack die. Which may or may not be worth it.

    The Battle Master ability you're looking for is Riposte. As a reaction when a creature misses you you may make a make melee attack against them and add superiority die to damage. Because you may make a sneak attack once per turn and not once per round so long as this doesn't occur on your turn you can get [superiority die] extra sneaks per short rest.

    Arcane Trickster is the best Rogue for this because they can get Booming Blade for extra punishment damage, though you may want to stop at fighter 3 or 4 if you're planning that because Booming Blade does not work with extra attack. The also eventually get the ability to bonus action advantage (which is better and faster for the fighter but still)

    Sentinel, War-Caster, and Mage Slayer (setting dependent) are great feats to compliment your rogue. Sentinel is the most important key ability. If an adjacent enemy attacks your ally or attempts to move... you get to attack them because of Sentinel and that applies sneak attack damage. If an adjacent enemy attacks you and misses (which is likely if you're a fighter)... you get to attack them with riposte.

    This means that, so long as you can coordinate with an ally or have some other way of gaining advantage... you basically get two sneaks per round.

    The weapon in question is a Sun Blade. The sunblade is basically a lightsaber. It costs a bonus action to draw (boo) but is +2 to attack/damage, sheds light, does radiant damage(plus extra to undead) and is a longsword that has the finesse property. Which means you can wield it 2 handed for 1d10+dex damage. It should not be too hard to convince your DM that you might be able to have a +0/regular damage version of this weapon. (Sun Blades are Rare)


    I appreciate the info. Sadly my guy's dex is mediocre (14) and I've grown quite fond of the greatsword. So much so that the first bit of downtime we get I'm gonna have him craft his own greatsword. (one of the lessons the dwarves taught him was that wielding a weapon you've made with your own two hands is good luck). Plus, mechanically the Great Weapon Fighting style letting me reroll 1's and 2's on 2d6 is really nice.

    Still, 2 lvls or Rogue sounds like it'll fit nicely.

    Ahh well i had assumed your guy was a dex rogue... but fear not

    Sneak attack only requires that the weapon be a finesse weapon it does not require that you attack with dexterity.

    wbBv3fj.png
  • override367override367 ALL minions Registered User regular
    DarkPrimus wrote: »
    We finished the Tomb of Annihilation last night.

    Have you ever been working on a project for so incredibly long, and when you get done with it, rather than a feeling of accomplishment, you just have this big emptiness inside?

    That's just the soul monger

    unfortunately you didn't finish the campaign in time and Acererak destroyed your soul

  • JustTeeJustTee Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)
    snip

    I appreciate the info. Sadly my guy's dex is mediocre (14) and I've grown quite fond of the greatsword. So much so that the first bit of downtime we get I'm gonna have him craft his own greatsword. (one of the lessons the dwarves taught him was that wielding a weapon you've made with your own two hands is good luck). Plus, mechanically the Great Weapon Fighting style letting me reroll 1's and 2's on 2d6 is really nice.

    Still, 2 lvls or Rogue sounds like it'll fit nicely.

    Ahh well i had assumed your guy was a dex rogue... but fear not

    Sneak attack only requires that the weapon be a finesse weapon it does not require that you attack with dexterity.

    I have a plan for a Half Orc Rogue who thinks he's really good at rogue'ing but realistically he has a dex of 10 and a strength of (as high as I can get it) and mechanically when he says "I pick the lock" what I really mean is, he will rip the lock off the hinges / smash the door open.

    He wields a rapier that looks like a tooth pick in his hand, and thinks he is precisely striking foes, but mostly he's just pounding them into oblivion.

    He might also, to foes he thinks are weaker than him, grapple them, and then proceed with the pummeling.

    His name would be Silent and Never Ever Arrested Killer, but you can call him Sneak.

    JustTee on
    Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    JustTee wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)
    snip

    I appreciate the info. Sadly my guy's dex is mediocre (14) and I've grown quite fond of the greatsword. So much so that the first bit of downtime we get I'm gonna have him craft his own greatsword. (one of the lessons the dwarves taught him was that wielding a weapon you've made with your own two hands is good luck). Plus, mechanically the Great Weapon Fighting style letting me reroll 1's and 2's on 2d6 is really nice.

    Still, 2 lvls or Rogue sounds like it'll fit nicely.

    Ahh well i had assumed your guy was a dex rogue... but fear not

    Sneak attack only requires that the weapon be a finesse weapon it does not require that you attack with dexterity.

    I have a plan for a Half Orc Rogue who thinks he's really good at rogue'ing but realistically he has a dex of 10 and a strength of (as high as I can get it) and mechanically when he says "I pick the lock" what I really mean is, he will rip the lock off the hinges / smash the door open.

    He wields a rapier that looks like a tooth pick in his hand, and thinks he is precisely striking foes, but mostly he's just pounding them into oblivion.

    He might also, to foes he thinks are weaker than him, grapple them, and then proceed with the pummeling.

    His name would be Silent and Never Ever Arrested Killer, but you can call him Sneak.

    I've talked about this character before but I ran a Dragonborn Rogue Swashbuckler with expertise in Athletics.

    Run up to mob. Grapple mob. +11 to Athletics checks. Hold mob still. Engage Sneak Attack damage because advantage from grapple.

    It was fun. Probably not for a campaign though.

  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    joshgotro wrote: »
    JustTee wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)
    snip

    I appreciate the info. Sadly my guy's dex is mediocre (14) and I've grown quite fond of the greatsword. So much so that the first bit of downtime we get I'm gonna have him craft his own greatsword. (one of the lessons the dwarves taught him was that wielding a weapon you've made with your own two hands is good luck). Plus, mechanically the Great Weapon Fighting style letting me reroll 1's and 2's on 2d6 is really nice.

    Still, 2 lvls or Rogue sounds like it'll fit nicely.

    Ahh well i had assumed your guy was a dex rogue... but fear not

    Sneak attack only requires that the weapon be a finesse weapon it does not require that you attack with dexterity.

    I have a plan for a Half Orc Rogue who thinks he's really good at rogue'ing but realistically he has a dex of 10 and a strength of (as high as I can get it) and mechanically when he says "I pick the lock" what I really mean is, he will rip the lock off the hinges / smash the door open.

    He wields a rapier that looks like a tooth pick in his hand, and thinks he is precisely striking foes, but mostly he's just pounding them into oblivion.

    He might also, to foes he thinks are weaker than him, grapple them, and then proceed with the pummeling.

    His name would be Silent and Never Ever Arrested Killer, but you can call him Sneak.

    I've talked about this character before but I ran a Dragonborn Rogue Swashbuckler with expertise in Athletics.

    Run up to mob. Grapple mob. +11 to Athletics checks. Hold mob still. Engage Sneak Attack damage because advantage from grapple.

    It was fun. Probably not for a campaign though.

    But you don't get Advantage from Grapple, not in 5th Ed anyway.

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    edited August 2018
    joshgotro wrote: »
    JustTee wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    Goumindong wrote: »
    I finally got to join a 5E campaign. I played my second session Sunday and finished the intro dungeon our DM was running to get the group used to the game. (They’d played few sessions before I joined)
    snip

    I appreciate the info. Sadly my guy's dex is mediocre (14) and I've grown quite fond of the greatsword. So much so that the first bit of downtime we get I'm gonna have him craft his own greatsword. (one of the lessons the dwarves taught him was that wielding a weapon you've made with your own two hands is good luck). Plus, mechanically the Great Weapon Fighting style letting me reroll 1's and 2's on 2d6 is really nice.

    Still, 2 lvls or Rogue sounds like it'll fit nicely.

    Ahh well i had assumed your guy was a dex rogue... but fear not

    Sneak attack only requires that the weapon be a finesse weapon it does not require that you attack with dexterity.

    I have a plan for a Half Orc Rogue who thinks he's really good at rogue'ing but realistically he has a dex of 10 and a strength of (as high as I can get it) and mechanically when he says "I pick the lock" what I really mean is, he will rip the lock off the hinges / smash the door open.

    He wields a rapier that looks like a tooth pick in his hand, and thinks he is precisely striking foes, but mostly he's just pounding them into oblivion.

    He might also, to foes he thinks are weaker than him, grapple them, and then proceed with the pummeling.

    His name would be Silent and Never Ever Arrested Killer, but you can call him Sneak.

    I've talked about this character before but I ran a Dragonborn Rogue Swashbuckler with expertise in Athletics.

    Run up to mob. Grapple mob. +11 to Athletics checks. Hold mob still. Engage Sneak Attack damage because advantage from grapple.

    It was fun. Probably not for a campaign though.

    But you don't get Advantage from Grapple, not in 5th Ed anyway.

    Oops. Yeah. Sorry. Advantage was triggered via one of the Swashbuckler abilities.

    Edit: Rakish Audacity.

    I'd pull the mob away from everyone and stab it to death.

    joshgotro on
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    One of the advantages of Fighter 5 for the second attack is that you can grapple and still attack in the same turn. You lose some damage but because you're a rogue/fighter its really easy to acquire feats...

    like Grappler, which gives you advantage on anything you grapple. And since you're also a rogue and your athletics score is expert it is therefor bonkers.

    So as a fighter 5 rogue x. First attack = grapple at Str+ 2x proficiency . -> second attack has advantage.

    This works with anything that gets 2 attacks/round though it works best with fighter because you can also battle-master riposte. Paladin/Warlock are the best two options besides fighter

    Goumindong on
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  • PowerpuppiesPowerpuppies drinking coffee in the mountain cabinRegistered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Shield bash can also be very nice for fighter/strength rogues. Make your own advantage, and your front line friends enjoy it too!

    Powerpuppies on
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  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    Hexmage-PA wrote: »
    see317 wrote: »
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    You'd have to fiddle with the timeline. Dragonlance was my introduction too, and I love it dearly. But they'd have to make the default timeline before or after the events of the core books.
    Adventuring during the War of the Lance felt....wrong. Tanis Half-Elven (and his friends) save the world, damnit. Not your stupid Mountain Dew swilling, pretzel eating, glory stealing PC.
    Peronally, I like the idea of adventuring after. Not right after. But after they "fixed" the setting the horrible dragons from beyond shit. Give me my ruined world, in need of heroes to put it back together, and pleases give me my Knights of Takhisis. They ruled.
    I can see how it would feel off. It's a common problem anytime my group tries to play in any kind of established setting. Someone always asks "Well, where's (legendary god tier character from the novels that should be here doing stuff" to take care of this? Seems like he'd have a lot easier time of it then a group of scrubs like us...". And it's only sometimes me asking that.

    I like the implied answer the 4E Dawn War setting gave to questions like this: whether you know it or not tnere are countless evil plots in motion at any given time that need thwarting, and the most powerful and devious villains are prepared with dozens of back up plans and contingencies. The mundane evil that happens every now and then may be partial victories for the Hells or minor elements of another plot of Graz'zt's. Even when a villain isn't the mastermind there could be a problem of cosmic significance like "the divine force that puts souls in the correct afterlife isn't working the way it should" that needs fixing.

    The short answer is "no". The long answer is that you cannot both have an established narrative with player characters in the same age because no explanation will be sufficient to explain why one aspect of the world did not show up in one of the narratives. If there are countless evil plots in motion why didn't the heroes of the fiction stumble upon them? If there were dozens of back up plans and contingencies why didn't any of them trigger when they did something? If your heroes get big enough to be important why cant you interact and change the world with what the fictional characters are doing.

    There has never been a way to square the circle within the same time period because the structures are fundamentally incompatible.

    Rather the established fiction of the setting should take place years(preferably thousands or hundreds) before the players interact with the world. Rather than a shared present it needs to be a shared history. This way players can interact with the story of the fictional characters without creating a paradox. You could find Elminsters hat and have a quest about digging up his laboratory or whatever. But you wouldn't be able to meet him.

    Fundamentally, in any setting, the more powerful the entity the more opposed to the players goals it should be. Playing in the FR as an evil party is just fine because you don't have to ask where the heroes are as you're probably trying to avoid them. Playing as a good party is a lot harder.

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  • Hexmage-PAHexmage-PA Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Goumindong wrote: »
    If there are countless evil plots in motion why didn't the heroes of the fiction stumble upon them? If there were dozens of back up plans and contingencies why didn't any of them trigger when they did something? If your heroes get big enough to be important why cant you interact and change the world with what the fictional characters are doing.

    Well, one of my ideas for my campaign is that every now and then the heroes will stumble upon another plot in progress. For example, another group of adventurers could be trying and failing to fend off giants that attacked them while they tried to rest after defeating monsters in a now-cleared dungeon. Later, the heroes might eventually travel to a lich's tower in the Shadowfell to get a magic item only to find another group of warriors is already there preparing to defeat cultists working for the lich.

    I personally am a fan of details that make the world seem lived in, which is why I also have a number of historical adventurers in my setting's past (most, but not all, cribbed from 4E supplements): Lady Bradaman, Golden Lion, the Wolf Morash, etc. There are also landmarks like a field of boulders left behind after a battle between human and giant armies, or a mountain with a gash left in its side by a colossal axe wielded by an ancient primordial.

    Hexmage-PA on
  • Ken OKen O Registered User regular
    So if my Bard wanted to pass himself off as a specific person, which spell/spells would be best? I might need to be a certain vampire lord for a couple of minutes.

    http://www.fingmonkey.com/
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  • NarbusNarbus Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Disguise Self, for the appearance, and Minor Illusion, for the voice, at a minimum. I'd also consider either Spider Climb or Fly, to add the creepy factor, and to keep anyone from getting close enough to see through your Disguise magic. Thaumaturgy might be useful to add to the mysterious aura that would surround a vampire lord.

    Are there any spells that chill a room? That'd be helpful.

    Narbus on
  • SchadenfreudeSchadenfreude Mean Mister Mustard Registered User regular
    The Actor feat would help immeasurably too.

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe
  • GoumindongGoumindong Registered User regular
    stacking those all at once will be difficult as many of them are concentration spells.

    Disguise Self for the appearance is probably best. Minor Illusion isn't concentration so you can probably use that for a bit of fog... but you have to recast it if your time runs out. Rely on normal deception to mimic the voice

    Hope you don't have the climb any walls or fly because that isn't happening without dropping the disguise

    wbBv3fj.png
  • Virgil_Leads_YouVirgil_Leads_You Proud Father House GardenerRegistered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Was gonna roll up a character for a one shot in Dungeons and Dragons 5e, and god...
    the difference in the character creation system process is night and day with something like Dungeon World.
    (I'm probably just salty over D&D killing OrcPub again + that the DM has a reduced point buy system)

    I'm def not going to rebuy the D&D books on D&D Beyond or even bother setting up another online account.
    My desire to play D&D has plummeted.

    Virgil_Leads_You on
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  • LindLind Registered User regular
    The Barbarian in the group I GM for is turning out to be an unstopable juggernaut. Whenever they gain a level he always rolls for hit points and lo and behold, its a crit again! He almost has twice the hp of the others in the group. It does create a bit of a problem if I want combat to be hard since he can take damage pretty damn good as a Barbarian even without a massive hp pool and the others are more squichy. Anyone else had a situtation like this?

  • SmrtnikSmrtnik job boli zub Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Lind wrote: »
    The Barbarian in the group I GM for is turning out to be an unstopable juggernaut. Whenever they gain a level he always rolls for hit points and lo and behold, its a crit again! He almost has twice the hp of the others in the group. It does create a bit of a problem if I want combat to be hard since he can take damage pretty damn good as a Barbarian even without a massive hp pool and the others are more squichy. Anyone else had a situtation like this?

    No because no 5e have I've played or DMd do do players roll for stats or HP, precisely because of this sort of situation.

    Stats: point buy
    Hp: die average (as specified in the book for the class) + con

    Smrtnik on
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  • iguanacusiguanacus Desert PlanetRegistered User regular
    Was gonna roll up a character for a one shot in Dungeons and Dragons 5e, and god...
    the difference in the character creation system process is night and day with something like Dungeon World.
    (I'm probably just salty over D&D killing OrcPub again + that the DM has a reduced point buy system)

    I'm def not going to rebuy the D&D books on D&D Beyond or even bother setting up another online account.
    My desire to play D&D has plummeted.

    MPMB's Character Sheet is my go to for all my 5e needs

    It's bare-bones because of D&D Beyond but the reddit page has the scripts for adding everything back in

  • LindLind Registered User regular
    Smrtnik wrote: »
    Lind wrote: »
    The Barbarian in the group I GM for is turning out to be an unstopable juggernaut. Whenever they gain a level he always rolls for hit points and lo and behold, its a crit again! He almost has twice the hp of the others in the group. It does create a bit of a problem if I want combat to be hard since he can take damage pretty damn good as a Barbarian even without a massive hp pool and the others are more squichy. Anyone else had a situtation like this?

    No because no 5e have I've played or DMd do do players roll for stats or HP, precisely because of this sort of situation.

    Stats: point buy
    Hp: die average (as specified in the book for the class) + con

    Ah well live and learn I guess. Next campaign point buy and die average than.

  • KhildithKhildith Registered User regular
    I'm running SKT which can get CRAZY so I let my players roll and everyone took the best array. Everyone is pretty powerful but when you're fighting Giants those extra stats won't matter all that much! Everyone takes average HP though.

    I've found myself super inspired the last few days and wish I could be playing D&D every day! I have more ideas than I could ever use.

  • joshgotrojoshgotro Deviled Egg The Land of REAL CHILIRegistered User regular
    Was gonna roll up a character for a one shot in Dungeons and Dragons 5e, and god...
    the difference in the character creation system process is night and day with something like Dungeon World.
    (I'm probably just salty over D&D killing OrcPub again + that the DM has a reduced point buy system)

    I'm def not going to rebuy the D&D books on D&D Beyond or even bother setting up another online account.
    My desire to play D&D has plummeted.

    I wish 5E had playbooks.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    I need an app to make a D&D character, it’s not awful but it’s just on the cusp of too much effort.

    Also for no particular reason have two quick races to play as the insect characters from the game “Hollow Knight”.
    @Lind
    I suppose you could try to salvage the balance by giving one member a HP boosting item, another some good armour, and so on, then give the barbarian a useful, fun item that doesn’t effect their stats so they’re not left out.

    Oh and make sure those items have clauses that would stop the barbarian from using them; classic stuff like it only works for elves, need X in skill or ability score, or whatever the barbarian doesn’t have.

    Once everyone is up in HP or has a damage negating thing, you can add a bit more damage to their enemies and play again as usual.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • AbbalahAbbalah Registered User regular
    .
    Lind wrote: »
    Smrtnik wrote: »
    Lind wrote: »
    The Barbarian in the group I GM for is turning out to be an unstopable juggernaut. Whenever they gain a level he always rolls for hit points and lo and behold, its a crit again! He almost has twice the hp of the others in the group. It does create a bit of a problem if I want combat to be hard since he can take damage pretty damn good as a Barbarian even without a massive hp pool and the others are more squichy. Anyone else had a situtation like this?

    No because no 5e have I've played or DMd do do players roll for stats or HP, precisely because of this sort of situation.

    Stats: point buy
    Hp: die average (as specified in the book for the class) + con

    Ah well live and learn I guess. Next campaign point buy and die average than.

    Some options to consider, depending on the level of tinkering you want to do to make difficult combats:

    Enemy casters with CC spells; as a barbarian, his WIS save probably isn't great and Hold Person doesn't give a shit how much HP you have. Having an enemy caster sideline him for a couple rounds while the monsters beat up the squishier characters will make a fight challenging in a hurry (and having them just stab the paralyzed barbarian will deplete his huge HP pool pretty quickly as well, if you want to go that route, since all their attacks will crit). Downside is that it's not especially fun for the barb who's skipping his turns, so probably use sparingly.

    Focus the other characters; 5e doesn't have a lot of actual tanking mechanics forcing you to attack the barb, and an intelligent monster might reasonably conclude that it's smarter to ignore the giant mountain-man until the wizard standing behind him is dead. Pressuring the low-HP characters will make a fight feel tense for the party even if you never actually threaten the barbarian directly.

    If you're custom-building monsters, there's nothing stopping you from giving them attacks or abilities that deal damage based on the target's max HP. It's not something that appears on any standard monsters off the top of my head, but something like 'deal damage equal to half the target's maximum hit points' will ablate his HP advantage and let you threaten him without gibbing your squishy characters.

    Life-drain effects could let you temporarily bring his HP down to normal levels to create some pressure; monsters like Wraiths have abilities that can temporarily reduce a character's maximum HP. They're normally CON saves (which he'll be very good at) and normally only last until the next long rest, but if you can get one or two to land on him you can create some tension for a day - alternately, you could homebrew a more potent version that lasts until he gets a Restoration spell or something cast on him, which would create some longer-term pressure. You'll eventually want to give his HP back, though.

    Use magic items to level the field; stuff like the Amulet of Health or magic heavy armor could boost the survivability of the other characters in a way a barbarian would struggle to take advantage of. Once you've got everyone on a (higher) level playing field, you can just start throwing more threatening encounters at them.

    Definitely second using static HP increases in the future, though - rolled stats are a silly holdover from when DnD bore more of a resemblance to a roguelike and your characters weren't necessarily expected to live very long. They don't work well when everyone is stuck managing the results of an outlier die roll for the duration of an entire campaign.

  • Ken OKen O Registered User regular
    We do point buy for attributes but for HP we kinda roll. If the new hit die roll is lower than the die average, then take the average. Our DM likes to throw handfuls of damage dice at us, so this way everyone at least has average hit points.

    Barbarians are huge meat sacks full of hit points. Years after the fact my group still makes fun of my barbarian who fell down a trap called the meat grinder in an old adventure. He managed to live, but the amount of damage he took in one turn was crazy. Let him take massive amounts of damage, it's what he's good at.

    Like Abbalah said, when you really want to level the playing field start hitting him with things that affect more than his hit points. Sure being hit by Hold Person is boring for the player, but you can do plenty of other things. Got something bigger and stronger then him, grapple! Blind, confuse, etc.. Or when you really want to have fun, Charm. In my monthly game our barbarian was recently Charmed to work against us for part of a combat.

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  • LindLind Registered User regular
    Great input everyone. Thanks.

  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    I kinda like rolling for stats at the table, IRL, but I don't want to start that debate again. Rolling for HP is what we do as well. I think if someone moans at rolling a 1, we shrug and say roll again but if its a 2 then that's just bad luck and they'll do better next time.

    But with Barbarians.... yeah, you should not see high HP in your meat shield as a problem. That's the Barbarians job. And aside from non-HP effecting combat effects (which ARE effective), take joy in the fact that you as DM can pound on that motherfucker all day long. And then smile when he takes it all and comes back for more! High HP is a feature, not a bug.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    I like to roll for HP, then choose if you take the roll or the die average.
    Seems to insure that nobody gets gimped by a that one bad roll, there's always a fair bit of improvement.

    But then, I also like to roll for stats, because rolling dice is fun.

  • FryFry Registered User regular
    edited August 2018
    Abbalah wrote: »
    .
    Lind wrote: »
    Smrtnik wrote: »
    Lind wrote: »
    The Barbarian in the group I GM for is turning out to be an unstopable juggernaut. Whenever they gain a level he always rolls for hit points and lo and behold, its a crit again! He almost has twice the hp of the others in the group. It does create a bit of a problem if I want combat to be hard since he can take damage pretty damn good as a Barbarian even without a massive hp pool and the others are more squichy. Anyone else had a situtation like this?

    No because no 5e have I've played or DMd do do players roll for stats or HP, precisely because of this sort of situation.

    Stats: point buy
    Hp: die average (as specified in the book for the class) + con

    Ah well live and learn I guess. Next campaign point buy and die average than.

    Some options to consider, depending on the level of tinkering you want to do to make difficult combats:

    Focus the other characters; 5e doesn't have a lot of actual tanking mechanics forcing you to attack the barb, and an intelligent monster might reasonably conclude that it's smarter to ignore the giant mountain-man until the wizard standing behind him is dead. Pressuring the low-HP characters will make a fight feel tense for the party even if you never actually threaten the barbarian directly.

    If you're custom-building monsters, there's nothing stopping you from giving them attacks or abilities that deal damage based on the target's max HP. It's not something that appears on any standard monsters off the top of my head, but something like 'deal damage equal to half the target's maximum hit points' will ablate his HP advantage and let you threaten him without gibbing your squishy characters.

    Banshee deals 100% of target's HP, as I've learned the hard way. :X

    I would actually go the opposite direction, and say to include more big dumb monsters that aren't smart enough to shift their focus away from the guy with the giant sack of HP, especially in scenarios with multiple opponents. I haven't been on the DM side of 5E, but in 3.5, a fun opponent for "huge HP + low AC" PCs was creatures that used multiple attacks with Power Attack to trade hit chance for extra damage. Barbarian will feel super badass if he's going toe-to-toe with something that's ostensibly bigger and stronger than him and winning, and the rest of the party will be thankful that those huge hits aren't landing on their relatively low HP.

    Another idea is to try to come up with scenarios where the Barbarian will feel like it's worthwhile to receive some opportunity attacks because there's something more important he needs to be doing elsewhere on the battlefield. If he's just shrugging off OAs with his massive HP pool, that will play up the "juggernaut" feeling.

    Fry on
  • SteelhawkSteelhawk Registered User regular
    I just read yesterday's PvP.... Is this simply nostalgic ball busting from PvP to PA? Or does this foreshadow Binwin coming back for a guest spot on the live Acquisitions Inc. show at PAX?

    If so, can I squee just a little bit? I think I'd like to squee.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    I just read yesterday's PvP.... Is this simply nostalgic ball busting from PvP to PA? Or does this foreshadow Binwin coming back for a guest spot on the live Acquisitions Inc. show at PAX?

    If so, can I squee just a little bit? I think I'd like to squee.

    Looking at today's PvP, I'm feeling like it may be more of the foreshadowing a guest spot on AcqInc.

  • Mongrel IdiotMongrel Idiot Registered User regular
    Last Sunday, a newish friend of mine whose D&D game has too many players to run regularly asked me to run a one-shot for her and her husband. So I roped in two of my go-to guys and set it up for a Saturday coming up. Given that she noted that they were just getting to the point where they consistently remembered what to roll, I reckoned I'd go with some premade characters set up for simplicity's sake. Gonna roll up 6 and let people pick. I want to have some unusual and different characters to spice things up, but nobody who's super complex to play. Gonna write up some spell cards for the casters, too. Last, I'll give out a couple broad-strokes roleplaying notes, just to get people started. Super pumped!

  • AldoAldo Hippo Hooray Registered User regular
    Steelhawk wrote: »
    I just read yesterday's PvP.... Is this simply nostalgic ball busting from PvP to PA? Or does this foreshadow Binwin coming back for a guest spot on the live Acquisitions Inc. show at PAX?

    If so, can I squee just a little bit? I think I'd like to squee.

    He appeared on DnD Beyond's YouTube channel this week, so he is up to something.

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