Thread 96349673

Ten of Cups edition

>"New" Arcane Subclasses UA: https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/arcane-subclasses/zepvK7DBkeSt6dqv/UA2025-ArcaneSubclasses.pdf

>2024 PHB Scan (No more fingers edition)
https://files.catbox.moe/g8oo9h.pdf

>Cropped and rotated, but more artifacty
MjAyNCBQSEIsIE5vIFRodW1icywgT0NSZWQsIEFub24ncyBCb29rbWFya3MgdHJhbnNmZXJyZWQgb3Zlci4gCgpodHRwczovL2Vhc3l1cGxvYWQuaW8vd2Fvcm9h

>2024 DMG
https://files.catbox.moe/fd04pq.pdf

>2024 Monster Manual
https://files.catbox.moe/atd38s.pdf (D&D beyond version)
https://pomf2.lain.la/f/1en5qwum.pdf (scan, use at your own risk)

>2024 Official free rules
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/free-rules
>2014 Official Free Rules
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/basic-rules-2014

>2024 UA
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/ua

>2014 Errata
https://dnd.wizards.com/dndstudioblog/sage-advice-book-updates

>5etools (2024)
http://5e.tools
>5etools (2014)
https://2014.5e.tools/

>Trove
The Trove Vault (seed, please!): mega(dot)nz/folder/uktzzTAI#KfV-EWdhd15FhHNn5HndHg

>Resources:
https://pastebin.com/X1TFNxck

Previous thread
>>96303218

>TQ
What part of D&D brings you the most joy? If it's playing the game what do you enjoy the most e.g. combat, roleplaying, exploration, just spending time with friends?

>>96349673 (OP)
>TQ
For me it's strangely preparing the session. I used to think about it as a chore but then I realised it's part of the game. Now I find a lot of enjoyment in planning dungeons, thinking about what the party might do, and creating custom monsters. Playing the game is great too especially because no plan survives the players and they always surprise me. Which is delightful. Pic related is a map I'm working on right now. A pretty linear dungeon but they should have to deal with 4-6 encounters one after the other.

>>96349716
The file was too big

>>96349673 (OP)
>TQ
I enjoy making the character a lot. I enjoy making up the backstory where the stats, class, and race all come together to make a character.

I find it interesting to see what everyone else came up with.

Would it make sense for another entity to "rebel" against the Raven Queen and come to the Material Plane to try to conquer parts of it to have its own dominion? Thinking something like the soil spirit The Dearth from Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo for an idea. I just don't know why someone would do this necessarily. Or basically, just in general, what goals/reasons would entities from the Shadowfell have, to try to conquer parts of the Material Plane?

Trying to come up with some further backstory for space clowns in the Spelljammer game I'm running. According to their monster entry, they were corrupted by drinking an elixir that contained demon ichor, which they became addicted to and eventually turned them into cannibalistic fiends who travel the stars, searching for humanoid flesh to consume. Are there any particular demon lords that would be fitting as the one behind this plot to corrupt these people who originally had a religion of happiness and joy? Which demon lord corruption would lead to insanity and cannibalistic tendencies?

>>96350239
Yeenoghu fiits in well as the Demon Lord of Butchery, plus gnolls and hyenas are always laughing so they make a perfect pair for clowns.

>>96350239
Graz’zt maybe. He’s kind of the dnd version of slaanesh. All about that pleasure. Maybe the clowns actually believe they’re spreading true joy.

I screwed up my stats and got my Wis higher than my Dex as a barb, damn it.

>>96350635
how?

>>96350667
idk this is my first character and after several weeks I finally realize that my wis shouldn't be at 15 and my dex is very low at 12.

>>96350239
Demons in general get up to some bullshit, but if it's related to eating, Nalfeshnee kidnap humanoids from the prime material plane and eat them. The clowns could've been one group of such kidnappees who turned the tables on their captors and are going to make it everyone else's dramatic irony.

>>96350681
could you ask your DM if you could change it?

>>96349449
From a mechanical standpoint, it's probably fine.
however, there's literally zero support. they even gave us strixhaven instead of neo-kamigawa as the planeshift book, so there's not even that.

Honestly, I'd play Everything Without Numbers for that, just all 4 books at once. All the old TSR Greyhawk stuff is even already directly compatible no conversions because it's OSR based. You've got high magic and elves and dwarves and shit. You've got post-apocalyptic. You've got cyberpunk and space-age tech. Should be all you need for Greyhawk 2000.

>>96349581
That's part of why when I rewrote it, I made it effectively not nerfed at all, except in the weird abuse cases.

Same reason when I rewrote smite I made it more or less identical to a Hexblade's smite. A normal paladin basically will not even feel being limited to 2, 3 if they provoke smites a rounds. That's normal gameplay. The only problem comes in when you do triple-multiclassing for slamming out 7 in one round.

>>96350690
I could try, although it seems a bit much to ask.
But if the GM says no, any ideas to minimize my mistake? im at lvl 5 with tough feat, barb
Str 18 (+4), Dex 12 (+1), Con 15 (+2), Int 8 (-1), Wis 15 (+1), Cha 10 (0)

>>96350730
Own it and multiclass in druid like a chad

>>96350730
that's not ideal but its not terrible. its just a minus one to your AC/Initative, and barbs get adv on initiative at lv 7 and Barbs get hit all the time b/c of reckless attacking

>>96350771
mmm well... I'm a berserker (2024 dnd) too. So I expect to get hit a lot and I don't really care much about initiative.
And the origin feat Tough helps me with con.
I think I should go full Str to maximize damage.

>>96350914
what other feat do you have? (lv 4)

>>96350929
GWM.

>>96350730
A high wisdom isn’t the end of the world. It might give you that extra 5% chance you need to avoid a key spell, or to perception to notice an ambush. I’d just keep it, maybe even take the feat that gives you proficiency on wisdom saves to take it up to 16 once you have 20 strength.

>>96350730
There are worse ways to fuck up, grab resilient (WIS)

>>96350745
fucking based

>>96351106
>>96351280
This is one of those things that is very DM dependent. I’ve been in games where the DM never has NPCs cast spells so wisdom saves don’t matter much. When I run games I very often use NPCs with spells because it feels cool. There are abilities that target wisdom from monsters but not nearly as much as spells. If it’s worth taking the feat for wisdom saving throws really depends on the game you’re playing.

>>96351499
>I’ve been in games where the DM never has NPCs cast spells

>>96349673 (OP)
> “an Intelligence of 8 is IQ 80”
Is this accurate?

>>96352865
5e doesn’t use an iq system so I have no idea

>>96352865
Close enough, if 10 int=100iq

>>96351499
>I’ve been in games where the DM never has NPCs cast spells
Are only fighting Beasts or something?

>>96352865
Old editions had a conversion chart.

But an easy way to know is to convert 3d6 statistical probability, which is what nonPCs (and PCs that aren't born heroes and have to survive a funnel for proper PC status)

So for instance about 16% of 3d6 has a 14 or higher. IQ bell curve, that's roughly a 115.
17 is roughly 2% as is 130, which is also the start of genius level (inversely 4 and 70 being the start of true mental retardation.)

>>96354254
Speaking of mental retardation, God I hate this fucking AI autocorrect that keeps deleting, malconjugating, and replacing my words. I just want a basic spell check.

Not a "basically" spell check. Not a basic "splash ." Not a damn emoji. I am literally typing correctly spelled words in on my keyboard, DO NOT TOUCH THEM. Just put a little red line and if it's actually wrong I will personally fix it. Jesus Christ.

>>96354254
>Are only fighting Beasts or something?
It was Sunless citadel. So wave after wave of gobbos.

Do you guys have recommendations for affordable battle mats and miniatures? I'm a DM who focuses more on dungeon crawling and am used to my own grid paper layouts with coins, pins, dice, or whatever I have on hand to represent creatures and players. Has anyone used the GSM 4 pack dry erase battle mats? I was thinking about trying those out. I am not crazy about minis but I am looking for a general collection of creatures and whatever can be used for PCs. Thoughts on the path gaming 50 piece set from Amazon? I'm not looking for elaborate minis, just something for general use.

I would appreciate any direction, thank you.

>>96355518
I found dry erase mats to be always pain somehow, though sometimes it worked well enough. Maybe I never got a really good dry erase mat. My favorite for irl games is having thin different sized pieces of cardboard or plastic or wood (as thin as the thinnest lego tiles, but of varied lengths), and I just line them up to form walls and such. You could straight up use lego for it as well if you have some spare bricks lying around.

>>96355471
There’s like 2 spell casters in that module, it’s pretty short though and aimed an intro play

>>96355579
We didn’t finish it so must have stopped before then.

>>96355605
Yeah, it’s near the end. You guys start something else ?

>>96355518
https://youtu.be/LBZPi4oKlCQ?si=UntgyRGDWXPPn7xw

I used this to make tokens and they look genuinely pretty damn cool. You can use whatever art you want, google image stuff, monster manual artwork, even AI sloppa.

If you want something more like a standee arcknight and skinny minis make some decent ones. Will be a lot more expensive though.

>>96355578
That sounds like a good idea. I have been using different size cuts of index cards to make walls. I thought maybe the quality of the battle mat would affect how cumbersome they are, so I figure I'd ask.

>>96355623
That campaign was a long time ago. The DM moved to Germany. We’ve had many other games since then, Dark Sun, Genesys, Dark Heresy, right now we’re playing a 5e campaign of my own creation.

>>96355518
>>96355631
>even AI sloppa.
theres like 30 years of mtg cards that have fine art you cna use before evne havign to use slop

>>96355787
I use AI stuff when I want something specific. I could look through the tens of thousands of mtg cards for what I want but that can take ages. That being said AI is more of a last resort for me. Real artwork is always superior.

>>96355907
Yup. Yugioh has some nice art too if you want some less reslistic cart as well.

Don't click unless you want a spook.

last one for a minute.

Angels are great.

>>96355787
the reason to use slop is if you need something hyper specific and also have a budget of 0.

which dragon would make a home in the plane of air?

>>96355787
>>96356152
Imagine how fluffy their wings would be

>>96355952
I shouldn't have looked. 2spooky5me

>>96356712
the vibe i initially think of is either vast spaces, like a desert so like Brass / Blue, then maybe hills or mountains where things are high up in the air, so Reds / Silvers

>>96356712
Bronze and blue are the storm dragons with lightning breath. Silver dragons love being high in mountains. Time dragons could probably be anywhere.

>>96356925
>>96356945
hmm when I think plane of air I think floating islands, but there might be an aspect of desert wind to it, like an endless sirocco

googling the border of air and fire it's actually a thing in lore!
>The region of the Plane of Air nearest the Great Conflagration is called the Sirocco Straits. Hot, dry winds scour the earth motes in this area to dry and barren chunks of rock. Gargoyles and their allies from the Plane of Earth gather here to launch raids into the realm of Aaqa.
>Between the Sea of Fire (on the Plane of Fire) and the Sirocco Straits is a towering firestorm called the Great Conflagration, sometimes called the Plane of Ash. Howling winds from the Plane of Air mix with the cinder storms and lava of the Plane of Fire to create an endless storm front — a wall of flames, smoke, and ash. The thick ash obscures sight beyond a few dozen feet, and the battering winds make travel difficult. Here and there, ash clusters into floating realms where outlaws and fugitives take shelter.

I think a blue dragon living in a perpetual sandstorm might fit

>>96349673 (OP)
You may not like it, but this is peak human male Fighter physique.
>CAPTCHA: DAP0P

>>96356152
That they are.

Having a problem with one of my players. They're playing a fighter and keep killing the bosses and out shining everyone in combat. I want to nerf them but I'm not sure how.

The above was an AI post.


Do not respond to it.

Below is an AI post.

Do not respond to it.

Anyways, my barbarian player wants a elf giantess wife. What quests should I send him off to earn one?

>>96357971
>Nerfing fighter

>>96357971

if you ever wonder if you should nerf a martial, that's a sign that you're a fucking iidiot

>>96357971
a fighter should be good in combat
he should be kinda helpless in solving a murder mystery, solving a diplomatic crisis, or navigating a maze
if you are only doing combat then that's on you

>>96358123
>>96358354
>>96358380
Are you guys fucking retarded? Why even respond to low-tier bait like that? Nothing good will come from it.

>>96358385
>Are you guys fucking retarded?
Maybe.

>>96358385
Not sure if you noticed. This general is dead as fuck. Even low tier baits bring a modicum of life to this wasteland.

>>96358563
My weekly sessions are good. Our party is looking for a beholder lair. Pretty cool stuff soon.

>>96358606
My weekly session is delayed until the 3rd. Which has been a bummer. It’s some of the only time I have for myself. Oh well, I’ll prep in the meantime.

Sleeping general

So I'm new to 5e and am engaging in a fool's errand of attempting to port a class from another game into it without having a complete grasp on the design/balance landscape.

Everyone gets a pool of Hit Dice that they can roll on short rests to recover an amount of HP, and this pool recharges daily. Are there any official (or excellent homebrew) classes/feats/races/anything that utilize this recharging pool of points for anything else?

One day I want to see the DNDNext Fighter in action and his gimmick of “Recharging at End of Round” Superiority dice that are used to perform any “fancy moves”, from resisting spells, to throwing his sword, to hitting harder to sliding down banisters, etc. I want, one day, to see the “anti-Bounded Accuracy Class” in the flesh

>>96361895
Durable let’s you spend them as a bonus action.

Also that sounds like 4e potentially. Most classes / subs get their own resource to manage if they need to use things

>>96361923
>Dndnext fighter
It’s been over a decade, you should let it go my friend

>>96361932
The class I'm trying to port is actually from Pathfinder 1e.

Its thing is shuffling around soul energy from defeated enemies to do things like steal/copy their attacks, heal themselves, or with certain feats convert the stored energy into elemental attacks or one-time bonuses to skills or saves. It has a meter it's supposed to fill with the HD value of fallen foes, and at some point I realized that everyone in 5e has an "HD meter" by default and maybe I'd be better off just working off that instead of having two HD meters. The class is notable in that this meter does not recharge itself under any circumstances though, while 5e dice do, so there'd be some balance consideration there. I was just curious if anyone else had done something like this, officially or otherwise.

>>96361941
He wouldn’t want that.

What good homebrew pure martials exist? Preferably zero explicitly supernatural stuff, but if it can be handwaved away, that's fine.

DM said our new game is going to start in a couple of weeks using the 2024 phb. Talked to a couple of the other players a d one of them is going to be a halfling thief rogue and the other is planning on a dwarf life cleric. Looks like I'm going human champion fighter, and we'll bully the last guy to play an elven wizard. What weapon masteries should I grab? Longsword is a given, and I was going to grab a spear but it's the same thing. Anybody got some recommendations? Might grab battleaxe and shortsword.

>>96354341
You can turn it off. Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Autocorrect (switch) on iPhone.

>>96363129
Javelins, warhammer if your DM uses environmental hazards, battleaxe for topple is good too. I found myself changing weapons regularly when I played psi warrior, depending on what I was fighting.

>>96363225
Warhammer/push looks fun with crusher, was also thinking of a greatsword. Graze is guaranteed damage, which could come in handy.

>>96361973
Why not just play either version of Pathfinder, then?

>>96364021
Because my friends and family are scared of having to record individual skill points and prefer Proficiency.

>>96364266
Doesn't PF2e have tiered proficiency or something?

>>96364266
So play PF2E.

>>96363365
Carry around a big bag of weapons if you want. That’s the fun of weapon masteries. You can change them on a long rest too.

>>96364283
>>96364284
I hear what you're saying, and it makes total sense, but the ship has sailed. They're full on the 5e train and have been for a while in spite of my whining. But the DM is quite relaxed and letting me port the class I like to 5e, so I'm trying to roll with it.

>>96364283
Yep, anything that uses a derived stat uses Training levels. If you can do a Skill Action untrained, it's just the Ability score. If you're trained in it, to Trained - Expert - Master Legendary you add Level plus 2/4/6/8 to it.

>>96364295
Sounds like it’ll be a broken mess. What is this shitty class called? I’ll find someone else who’s ported it. The biggest strength of 5e is the abundance of community content.

>>96364286
>You can change them on a long rest too.
Oh, nice! Thanks for the heads-up, anon.

>>96364301
NTA, but probably this one: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/s-z/souldrinker-pzo9239/

>>96364348
It’s one per long rest so you need to do a little planning. But yeah it’s easily changed so don’t feel it’s set in stone.

>>96364355
>Turning a prestige class into a normal class
Jesus christ. I wish the pathfinder faggots would stay in their own thread. Here's what I found
>https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDHomebrew/comments/qkh9o1/sorcerous_origin_soul_drinker/
>https://www.dmsguild.com/product/215402 nfi if it's 5e doesn't say

If I was the DM I'd say just play a normal class and stop being a retard.

>>96364442
>>https://www.dmsguild.com/product/215402 nfi if it's 5e doesn't say
It's not, you can see in the preview it mentions Skill Points at each level if you zoom in real close.

>>96364488
Oh well, the other one looks like the best we're going to find. The levels might not line up with 5.5e but moving those around is a lot easier than creating an entirely unique class to mimic a prestige class.

How's your campaign going, /5eg/?

I’m the only melee in my group, any advice to avoid dying?

>>96365213
Get a ranged weapon, you'll be wanting to use it.

>>96365197
Quite well so far. Party is just about at the 3/4ths point I would say.

>>96365218
Hmm, I’ve got some handaxes.
Maybe I should start the fights by attacking from a distance first, and then switch to melee when they get closer

>>96365236
If you're the only melee in the group, you're just putting yourself at a disadvantage by spending your actions trying to saunter into range. You can't "hold aggro" or anything, and if there's more than one enemy you can't even reliably stop them from walking past you. Just get a gun, or a bow if your DM is lame.

>>96365213
Stack AC and get the shield spell somehow.

>>96365241
Maybe in a white room. Often there are things you can do to get in the way if it’s a tight corridor etc. The sentinel feat helps too. If they ignore you hopefully your allies are far enough away that they’ll waste their turn with a dash or something. Even if they’re right on top of you if there’s room you only get a single reaction a turn.

>>96365213
What class?

>>96365300
>>96365291
>>96365241
barb berserk

>>96365197
In my homebrew sandbox campaign we have a session left to wrap up a side arc I intended as a future plot hook but the PCs sank their teeth into immediately and left me scrambling a bit.
Very pleased with how everything turned out and how everything I prepped worked at the table really effectively. Also despite being a new location and a mostly self-contained mystery and characters I nonetheless found ways to work in connections to all PCs, whether backstory-wise or more thematically. Also introduced a faction they've heard mentioned and will see and hear more of later along with other bits of setting lore.

>>96365213
Good, although I wish the fights were more varied than just non-magical humanoid enemies with weapons. So far we've only faced one caster (who was the final boss of a dungeon)
Maybe its because we're low and few (3).
Although it's a minor complaint, I'm enjoying it so far.

>>96365197
Good, although I wish the fights were more varied than just non-magical humanoid enemies with weapons. So far we've only faced one caster (who was the final boss of a dungeon)
Maybe its because we're low and few (3).
Although it's a minor complaint, I'm enjoying it so far.

I've got a level 8 Paladrin. For (back)story reasons he's getting features from the Summer Eladrin statblock in exchange for sacrificing all of his magic items except for his Sun Blade.
Negotiating with my DM, pic related is what we ended up with. But thinking it over, I'm not sure if it's worth it.
The fire resistance is (nice but) going to be useless for a quite some time. And the Magic Resistance is limited (for now) and doesn't give advantage on effects (yet). Addition features might be added later as he levels up, but that's if he lives that long because the campaign is pretty tough.
One of the PCs got kidnapped so we're temporarily down to 3 (whilst we're looking to escape a dangerous situation and meet up with his replacement character) and the other two are casters. I was thinking of bringing it up, thought I'd get some opinions here first.

>>96365434
I think your DM gave you way too much AC and is trying to walk it back.

>>96365460
I was the one who suggested giving up all my magic items. That's how I tried to balance getting some of those features from the statblock.

>>96365396
I use casters pretty often but at low levels a single hold person or burning hands can mean a death or even tpk. Best used somewhat sparingly imo. They’re also more of a pain to add because you need to know all their spells or make a custom enemy.

>>96365434
Why the hell do you have a legendary ring at 8th level?

No, obviously nothing you are gettign is worth it.

>>96365434
>All AC items are negatives
THAC0?

Pretty crazy items you have. In my experience most DMs in 5e are terrified to even give out potions. They really should have made clear treasure guidelines or released a book with them like they did with the magic item compendium.

>>96365460
25 is the target number for frontliners. 20 AC is for scrubs.

>>96365680
>In my experience most DMs in 5e are terrified to even give out potions.
Probably comes from one of the books (not sure if it's the PHB or DMG) saying the game assumes magic items are very rare. I don't like that, but that's probably where it comes from. A DM reads that and thinks a few magic items will break everything.

>>96365680
>THAC0?
They're saying that the removal of these items means the loss of an AC bonus... probably.

>>96365957
Fortunately the game doesn't need magic items, not if you're just doing medium encounters. But they're fun.

>>96365656
We fought against a beholder and it was on one of its eyestalks

>>96365680
>>96365984
Yeah, the #s represent the loss of their respective AC bonus

>>96366020
>Lose -1 to AC
It's a double negative. I was excited for a moment someone out there houseruled THAC0 into 5e. I guess it wouldn't be hard to do, just weird.

>>96366032
Ah, I see where you're coming from. Maybe a goof on my part. I figured since it's a loss to my AC it's going in the "things I'm losing" side.

>>96366001
Yeah. I like being able to buy them from magic shops, too, although apparently that's kind of taboo for some reason, even among people who like magic items in general.

>>96366184
It cheapens them. I don’t mind having magic items for sale particularly scrolls and potions. But for more esoteric stuff you better be prepared to go to some weird shops, ex adventurers, witches etc

Is there any way to make interacting with illusions interesting, in an open-ended puzzle situation? If a span of a wall is covered by an illusion, how do you make discovering it / interacting with it actually interesting? You could resolve it by a simple Intelligence check, but then, does that mean that illusions can only be used to gate "side" content?

What you think of my base building elements for a party stuck at lvl 3?

>>96366686
You could have it so there’s an issue with symmetry in the dungeon and they could notice the only path forward has a strange wall instead of their expected hallway/ door.

Then from there, it could be issues with what is being written on the wall instead of the illusion (if it’s a writing) presents incorrect information or something that makes your players go “that’s not right”

The issue is that you want to be difficult enough so they just don’t walk through it but easy enough that you’re not spending the next five sessions on solving it.

Trying to find a couple of books I don't see in Trove. Anyone have Vecna: Eve or Ruin and Quests from the Infinite Staircase

>>96367067
Don’t like the tools?

>>96366686
>Is there any way to make interacting with illusions interesting, in an open-ended puzzle situation? If a span of a wall is covered by an illusion, how do you make discovering it / interacting with it actually interesting? You could resolve it by a simple Intelligence check, but then, does that mean that illusions can only be used to gate "side" content?
just like anything hidden, you put it where players actually look for, so they are rewarded for doing it, even though they aren't checking exactly the precise spot you had planned. If there's 3 walls and they check one, it's the one with an illusion. Also make sure there are hints

>>96365197
Not great. We've been spinning our wheels for weeks and the DM's idea of combat design mostly consists of putting a bunch of the same enemy in one location for us to fight, so it gets very monotonous. We give him shit for it every time it happens, but he usually just laughs it off and does it again. I'm convinced he just can't come up with interesting combat scenarios for shit and can't run them any better than he designs them.

>>96367358
This. In Dark Souls architectural hints betray illusory walls, like having two arched doorways and a third arch with a blind wall. Places are not designed with illusions in mind, illusions get added to existing places

>>96366911
I think the description of the warehouse card is throwing me off.
Do you have any larger mechanics tied to each location or to how they are able to improve the building? It's a neat idea and I like there seem to be some kind of positional placement going on, but does it actually come up much?

>>96366911
>for a party stuck at lvl 3
What do you mean by this? That sounds like it would get incredibly boring.

>>96365291
No white room assumptions at all, unless the corridor is a single 5 foot hallway, you're not going to stop enemies from walking past you. Sentinel isn't making the difference here because you only have one reaction per round, and even terrain can't help you if your DM decided to port Tumble/Overrun from OG5E.

>>96367565
Players have kids and can’t always show up.
Leveling through xp pulled the power levels apart between players, and leveling through milestones gave absentee players compound homework.

Leveling the base was the alternative we came up with.


>>96367520
I got some homebrew encumbrance rules that run with item slots, and replaced the death saving throws by conditions from Mask ttrpg

Interestingly, 5e is going to be the main game of campaign 4 for crit role. Odd especially after they pushed out their competitor game w/ daggerheart

>>96367680
>I got some homebrew encumbrance rules that run with item slots
Curious how that works, Knave/Mausritter-like?
> replaced the death saving throws by conditions from Mask ttrpg
Very smart if that's what I think it is. Are the conditions the same? How did you map all of them to D&D effects? Simple disadvantage or actual flat minus?

>>96367791
>Interestingly
i dont think u know what that word means

>>96367840
Any comment on crit role using 5e instead of their in house designed game for their main campaign or just looking to examine the language used to pose the question?

>>96367804
>encumberance
I googled for one. It’s basically a list with slots you can write items on, so you can carry 10+str modifier worth of item slots without detriment. Some items can be bundled into one slot, some take up multiple slots.
I hope to cut back on administration and hoarding this way.
>conditions
We playtested with minuses. The minuses got forgotten, but players did enjoy acting out the conditions. Roleplay finally got rewarded, and being near death carried consequences. In the current iteration they only have three conditions available: anger, scared, insecure, and the character retires if all of them are met. They can only lift conditions by acting out during combat or in other harmful ways, and otherwise carry them over into future adventures.

It was fun to have the players rant at each other in character after a near-fatal encounter.

We also run combat at action speeds like in Shadow of the Demon Lord. Every round players can act fast (move & action) or slow (move or action). Fast players go first, followed by fast enemies, then slow players, and finally slow enemies.
It seems unintuitive when you first try it, but it really makes the players work together and coordinate their moves like they’re in X-com.

Are you supposed to be able to sneak behind targets in the open and backstab them or are you only hidden if you stay behind the cover where you rolled your stealth check?

>>96367989
Correction: fast (move or action), slow (move and action)

We don’t often have time to play, so I try to modify the game to make more use of the time we have. Streamlined combat, limited inventory, and conditions at death’s edge are attempts at this.

>>96368081
>>96367989
Sounds good, thanks for the write up

>>96368024
If you’re only hidden when you’re behind cover/out of line of sight then the mechanics behind attacking people while hidden (or invisible) make no sense

>>96367791
Why would anyone want to play their dnd-like game if they're signalling that they don't want to play it over dnd themselves, wut.

>>96366441
>It cheapens them.
I don't agree, though I can see why people feel that way. But if I know exactly what I want, it's good to be able to just buy it. Up to a point, of course. Artifacts and legendary items should still be gotten from quests.

>fighter:great weapon fighting, Battle master:riposte,Precision,?
>Great weapon master, Heavy armor master,?
What other manuever and feat should i grab since im not yet decided what to take.
Expecialy if i had to fight a caster.
I should also be able to grab more manuever at level 7 and new feat at 8

>>96368155
This is what I've assumed, but the text doesn't do a good job of defining things. It's like it's super detailed (to a fault) in everything except that area.

>>96368233
Mage Slayer?

>>96368024
this game is so garbage that it cannot simulate satisfying rules for sneaking up behind a guard and sliting his throat, so the dm has to take over

>>96368405
Yeah, it’s call a stealth role then telling your dm your plan.

What do you want, metal gear style line of sight cones for enemies?

>>96368405
>he needs his hand held beyond making a stealth check
lmao

>>96368629
>>96368475
well yes, that's what im saying, the raw combat rules dont allow for a satisfying simulation of this very common scenario, so you have to switch to just a basic skill check

if you use combat rules, at least on 2024 the guard can roll first initiative even if you are hidden/invisible or whatever non sense they call stealth now

>>96368752
It’s the same shit w/ how it used to be in 2014 except it’s less likely to happen as if they’re surprised they roll disadvantage on their initiative

>>96368752
why would the combat rules satisfyingly simulate something that isnt combat? you're looking for murder rules, which in deference to your point dnd also doesnt have

>>96368233
Disarm, fukken hit their witch-ass orb outta them wizza hands, use your second wind to throw either the orb or the caster down a cliff.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/ua/apocalyptic-subclasses
Dark Sun book incoming

>>96369159
>Genocide
>Slavery
>Muls
I bet all three of these things will be extremely toned down. Instead it’ll focus on being Captain Planet or some shit. Fuck modern WoTC they can’t even get psionics right how are they going to do Dark Sun?

>>96369159
>Gladiator
Neat ideas.
>Brutaility
Should probably be 1+Cha, its a teritary or even a quaternary stat.
>combat theatrics
Should be performance + one of the listed skills.
>floursh parry
Actually kino. But it should also recharge on a short rest.
>boulder brutatilities
fine.
>brutal resurgence
Pretty cool. Glad they didn't go the boring route of "when you roll initative" for class
>mutilate
wow, this is awe-
>1/day
throw it in the trash.

I actually like this more than superiroity dice for all martials because tis not a direct damage increase. probably worth just stealing it giving parts away to martials, and saving some as feats.
With all that said, this seems like baby stuff and isn't brutal enough for darksun. I bet they turn darksun into some "freedom fighters" bullshit.

>>96367840
The word was used correctly ESL kun

>>96367791
It is interesting, perhaps they realised not playing D&D would hurt their views. D&D for normies is a lifestyle brand now. If it doesn’t have the brand they’re watching an indie ttrpg. Which is just too nerdy for the Stacies who want to pretend they’re oh so cute and quirky nerds.

>>96369159
They did reference halflings being different in dark sun in the 2024 phb, but let’s see how far they take it

>>96369159
please no

>>96369159
>caster subclasses can steal someone's life to power a spell slot or give a bunch of people 1d4+lvl temp hp
>fighter subclass can uhhh, at most 5/day use two weapon mastery effects
bravo, wotc

>>96369417
>I bet they turn darksun into some "freedom fighters" bullshit.
Yeah and they'll probably make Magic into a woke pollution allegory too, fucking woke cucks turning my Dark Sun into what it was back in 1991.

>>96369159
I wonder how they're going to handle Aasimar since Aasimar is in the PHB now.

>>96369926
Easy if its a dark sun module, not a dark sun setting splat

>>96368752
I've wanted rules or some guidance on how to deal with taking out sentries and takedown kills for ages now. Trying some infiltration stuff/ambushes is so common it happens like half the time if not more so you run up to this problem constantly where it feels janky and artificial as fuck to not be able to take out a guard in one go since they're almost always enemies with more hp than that since you're likely adventuring around mobs that are balanced to your level of play and not the basic guard statblock who you might resaonably take out in one turn.

Putting this on the dm to fix or come up with a solution for themselves is a big oversight for a combat-centric game.

>>96369936
>>96368752
Why do you two retards want rules for one-hit kill sequences? It's really not "putting it on the DM' to adjudicate scenes like that. In fact that's kinda what the DM is there for.

>>96369936
running away has this problem too. they really should have added some simple rules for when enemies are fleeing the map that doesn't handwave it all away like "yeah yeah, you've won the battle you manage to kill them all befor ethey escape" even though they plausibly could have esaped and neither makes it into a slog cleanup thing with a ton more turns and chasing enemies outside of the grid map or a long skill challenge.

>>96369946
because every class has very specific abiltiies and limitations on how much hp they can drain from an enemy and how they can affect them, it's where you really lean on the ruleset in this game. To suddenly hand out a free 100 to 0 kill to a player with something the dm made up on the spot feels like the dm suddenly made up a whole thing for combat that might happen all the time, not just a once per campaign whacky scenario, and that just doesn't sit well with me, it's like an obvious oversight from the core combat rules. It becomes especially glaring when you have classes like assassin with how your homebrew rule would interact with their stuff and how it would likely just step all over them.

>>96368185
Its hardly dnd-like my dude. But I agree it's strange to not do a full campaign with the system

>>96370022
Every single class has the ability to stab someone in the back with a dagger. They're just not limited in the ability to kill someone in this instance. And lest we forget, hit points aren't a representation of physical damage but rather how hard it is to kill or destroy something. Another way of understanding that description of hit points is that they are supposed to be relative to the scenario involved. So yeah it's perfectly fine for a sentry to have 5 hit points so your rogue can kill them by sneaking by. It's not even that far off from the RAW guard stat block, which has 11.

>>96369946
because you're an idiot who has only played 5e so you dont know that things like "coup de grace" exist and it's perfectly normal for systems to want to model extremely common situations in a satisfying closed manner

but the answer of 5e apologists is always "just make your own" ok then what the fuck is the book for?

>>96370104
>I need the book to tell me that if you slit a sleeping man's throat, they die
Life must suck ass for you.

>>96367307
Searching for a friend. I dont usually play D&D. But I can usually track down PDF of obscure books. At least, I did in the past. Tbh, I dont know what tools you're referring to.

>>96370127
5e.tools

>>96370119
It's probably the same guy who was complaining that skill checks were too complicated for his group to understand a while back.

>>96370073
high fantasy game centered on killing monsters and building characters with race/class combos, with the same type of archetypes for classes as dnd. It seems 90% dnd.

>>96370104
>coup de grace
you mean the rules pertaining to hitting an unconscious person?

most people (a commoner) will get one tapped even by a lv 1 rogue with a strong chance of killing a guard (especially if you roll low on the monster's hp)

>>96370127
check the OP and look for the 5etools, there's a link to a website that's quite helpful

>>96370119
>>I need the book to tell me that if you slit a sleeping man's throat, they die
ok so the CR 20 archmage also dies?
or do you just arbitrarely decide who does and who doesnt?
that's fine, but then what's the book for?

>>96370178
>ok so the CR 20 archmage also dies?
You tell us

>>96370178
Personally, if the rogue got into the archmage's bedchambers undetected by all the magical bullshit I would give an archmage's living arrangement, I'm very inclined to give it to him.

>>96370190
>Personally, if the rogue got into the archmage's bedchambers undetected by all the magical bullshit I would give an archmage's living arrangement, I'm very inclined to give it to him.
Ok
What if the villain does it to the PC?

>>96370190
But anon, that would mean having a PC that is good at something be good at the thing they're good at!
>>96370197
Same thing, retard.

>>96370199
>Same thing, retard.
Ok so a cr1/4 goblin can just succeed at a stealth check and insta kill your lvl20 PC by stabbing them in the neck while they sleep. I have no further questions

>>96370178
>ok so the CR 20 archmage also dies?
If you can sneak up on a sleeping CR 20 archmage MM archmage is CR 12 by the way they fucking deserve to get one-shot, so yeah absolutely.

>>96370204
>Not having a lookout
100% deserved
>But I'm leve-
Complacency is death at any level.

>>96370204
Absolutely, and that would be 100% on the players.

>>96370104
>>96369936
>coup de grace
>melee 5 ft only
>con save 10 or half damage dealt (like concentration) or die
>dm determines who is coup de graceable, just like they determine who is surprised

this is actually pretty easy to port into 5e, imma do it

>>96370264
>dm determines
Then what is the book for?

>>96370216
>>96370244
Hmm, maybe they should have some rule in place in case this potentially very upsetting and divisive, but not entirely unlikely scenario comes u-No, wait wait, they don't want that, stop, abort abort. Just make some shit up, it's better, my bad.

>>96370274
Retard.

>>96370119
>>96370092
The more likely scenario is a guard standing around on sentry duty. Now you want to go slit his throat. Now you have no rules for this, and you have to square this sudden instant kill you're going to hand out to your player and that anyone can do with the fact that you have a rogue with the asssassin subclass. Is the assassin just equal in performing this task now then and their class feature is overriden and only applies after combat has started?

>>96370320
personally, i would just default to the combat rules and let the would be assassin test their luck w/ a high ini and a good attack roll. most likely they'll win, but sometimes you step on a twig and alert the sentry and he's able to shout for help

>>96370277
Rules for what? PC death? There are rules for that. Rules for sneaking into a camp? There are rules for that. Rules for how much damage you do? There are rules for that. You just want extra rules to do exactly what people here are saying is a no-brainer. See >>96370119.

>>96370264
Is this from pathfinder? This rule is kind of what I've been rolling with already when just making shit up. I might make it a bit harder for when someone is sniping someone with a ranged weapon in a lookout tower or something, maybe a higher con dc?

>>96370343
sleeping guy is more of a no-brainer. Unaware but concious guard on lookout less so. The con-save thing floated itt is the closest thing to something that makes sense but it really is an asspull that should be in the rules for how common it is and how much of a gamechanger it could be to the central activity of the game, namely killing bad guys.

>>96370343
it's not a fucking no-brainer you disingenuous retard. There are a million scenarios where it's entirely up in the air weather or not the PCs should be able to 1-hit kill something. Not all guards are common humanoids. There are combat rules to determine exactly how easy it is to kill a gnoll and a demon and a ghost because it's not obvious, and that's what rules are for, but the rules fail to properly consider surprise, helplessness, and a myriad other extremely common circumstances, and instead lump everything into "advantage".
No, not only assassins should benefit from sneaking behind a guard to slit his throat. They should obviously be better at it
But no, it's not as simple as saying that PCs automatically 1-hit kill anything they sneak up to.

Why the fuck am I arguing with a brainlet anyway?

>>96370347
the pf/3.5 is actually DC of 10+ damage dealt, which obviously doesnt scale with 5e's bound stuff, so reusing the concentration math is my take at making it more like 5e

>>96370418
>surprise
adv/disadv on initiative

>helplessness
restrained or unconscious or perhaps incapacitated?

is there a Critical Roll or Dimension 20 or just a ttrpg actual play general thread on this board? /tv/ doesn't ever want to talk about Dimension 20 or anything

>>96370418
Glad someone itt is making some sense. Disingenous really is the word for this whole discussion.

>>96370473
there was a general for Crit role, called CRG, but its been pretty slow for a while. it might pop up again when campaign 4 shows up again, or you could make it youself.

>>96370418
>million scenarios where it's entirely up in the air weather or not the PCs should be able to 1-hit kill something
Not if you read the rules, but I can see why that would be too complicated for you to understand. And you really shouldn't be arguing with yourself, it's not healthy.

>>96370496
I agree. Only a disingenuous retard would say there aren't rules to sneak up on someone and attack them.

>>96370607
like a surprise round of combat before initiative?

>>96370615
>surprise round
not in my 5e

>>96370640
Funnily enough, I remember seeing the term "surprise round" in some official D&D module I was looking at recently.

>>96370640
huh, I thought it was an official thing in 5e RAW

>>96370648
maybe, modules have lots of weird stuff to be stolen.

>>96370657
2014, surprised enemies get a 'surprised' condition in which they can't act on the first round of combat. (potentially very swinging)

2024 the surprised enemy gets to roll at disadvantage, the surprising hero gets to roll at adv, for initiative. (strong, but doesnt mean the encounter is over after the first rolls)

>>96370607
I'm sure that when they wrote the assassinate feature for auto crit for the assassin they were really thinking "but hey if people want to just have the guy die automatically, then all they need is to use the rules already in the book and ignore this feature, it makes so much sense, no confusion or disagreement could possibly occur here, our rules on this are so clear and obvious".

>>96370104
It’s not a problem exclusive to 5e. Other d20 games have similar issues.

If the enemy is really that much of a mook they won’t have much hp and can be killed by sneak attack damage. If you’re the assassin subclass this is especially true.

Lastly you’re welcome to go to your own general rather than shitting up ours.

>>96370675
>2014, surprised enemies get a 'surprised' condition in which they can't act on the first round of combat. (potentially very swinging)
that's what I was thinking of, I guess calling it a surprise round was more of a colloquial term for the mechanic

>>96370680
I'm sure they were thinking "hey let's give this subclass something that will deal a fuckton of damage". Not sure about the other shit you're sperging out about, but the HP mechanic doesn't contradict that.

>>96370694
yeah, its just me being a nitpick, its commonly known as the surprise round by literally everyone

>>96370694
>>96370714
That, plus other systems (prior editions of D&D?) do have something mechanically similar actually called a "surprise round".

>>96370700
if you're the guy who talks about relative hp then no, that shit is not obvious and you know it. Even if you had thought of this whole thing beforehand, if you presented the idea to a player that 'achually, the enemy in front of you has a new minimum arbitrary hp because I made that up, and those are the rules" no tables would be thinking you were citing rules, they'd be thinking you were just pulling things out of your ass, just as an assassin player would be wondering why the fuck the scrawny wizard can insta-kill just as well as him no matter his damage and assassinate feature unless we're talking about a monster that the dm arbitrarily decides can't be insta-killed and so the assassinate damage would now matter. It's just plainly obvious that there needs to a coup de grace rule that clearly states the rules and clearly states where the interpretation is left up to the dm.

>>96370831
>'achually, the enemy in front of you has a new minimum arbitrary hp because I made that up, and those are the rules' no tables would be thinking you were citing rules
"What the DM says, goes" is THE foundational rule of D&D you fucking permaplayer

>>96370831
>relative hp
The fuck are you talking about?
>assassin player would be wondering why the fuck the scrawny wizard can insta-kill just as well as him
What the fuck are you talking about?
>plainly obvious that there needs to a coup de grace rule
What the actual fuck are you talking about? The rule to 1-shot kill someone in 5e is "did you deal enough damage to kill them in 1 shot?".
>clearly states the rules
Yeah, it's called damage and HP
>the interpretation is left up to the dm.
The entire premise of the hobby is that the rules are up to DM interpretation. Good groups extend that to how the players also interpret as well.

if you use the rules of combat for those scenarios, you could end up rolling lower initiative than the guard you 35 stealth snuck up on, or you could end up doing 7 damage on your dagger unconscious auto crit on the sleeping archmage

if you use DM handwave great yes you auto kill the thing, then where the fuck do you set the line between what's a 1-hit killable enemy in his sleep and what isnt, and how the fuck do you explain to the PCs when it happens to them?

rules exist for a reason, to remove arbitrariness and judge common scenarios. if there is a rule for making a forgery and baking cookies which is not the most common scenario there should be rules for the extremely common scenario of sneaking up on someone to slit their throat that fill the gap between doing just 1/100th of their hp and straight insta killing them

>>96370904
They should have just nuked all higher-level features and then made new ones and slot them into levels 1-10 in the filler levels and just remade the game into a 10 level system. Now that would actually give 5.5 some justification for existing and actually be based and we would actually see thieves with use any item in action.

>>96369936
Funny, I had the same problem.
It's janky but (if your dm isn't lame) you can in theory choke out people if you can hold a grapple check for as many rounds as their con mod+1
(Assuming your dm is cool)

>>96329588
I actually got to play for the first time today, I didn't role play as I was kinda nervous to butt-in when others were talking and everyone else already said alot of the stuff I was anyways, combat went alright, DM and other players were great did voices and everything and we beat the one shot. I don't think I'm ready for a full campaign now but I'm looking forward to more one-shots or short adventures.

>>96370148
I moreso meant mechanically but sure

>>96370904
I had a level 30 game in 4e

>>96370274
Go play world of Warcraft if you dont want to arbitrate

>>96370939
>tfw the solution to my problems was just to remember the basic of cqc

>>96370921
>rules exist for a reason, to remove arbitrariness and judge common scenarios
How often are your players trying to infiltrate a guarded institution and stealth-kill the night watch that you think that's a common scenario?

>>96370921
>If you use the rules for combat when there isn't combat, things don't make sense
No shit
>how the fuck do you explain to the PCs when it happens to them?
Same way you explain to them that bag of holding bombs are available to everyone if they introduce them into the game. So you use your words like an adult.
>rules exist for a reason, to remove arbitrariness
Rules are inherently arbitrary
>there should be rules for my made up scenario
Why should there be rules to help out someone who can't even make an effective assassin rogue?

>>96370980
The silent takedown is the best takedown. I pulled that math from the rules on drowning btw.
My players didn't bother trying it and just started blasting instead so hopefully others can try it out

>>96370921
>if you use DM handwave great yes you auto kill the thing, then where the fuck do you set the line between what's a 1-hit killable enemy in his sleep and what isnt, and how the fuck do you explain to the PCs when it happens to them?
If you're referring to the Pathfinder coup de grace rule, then I think it's probably the closest you can get to something reasonable, even if it's dm fiat of what gets insta-killed and doesn't. As long as you tell the players ahead of time that "knowing these guys physique, you don't think you could confidently take them out in one fell swoop" it really shouldn't be that much of a problem.

>>96370982
not him but, sneaking up on goblin camps or other humanoids and ambushing them is super common, as is infiltrating evil bad guy's fortress and so on, and it's also my favorite part of this type of game, so to see some good guide for rulings on it is important to my gaming experience.

>>96370998
if you do it outside of combat and can let a few rounds pass it's good, in combat it would take an entire fight to choke someone out though on average, not great, so if they start blasting right after you start choking, it ain't all that.

>>96371027
Or you get the raging barbarian to grapple choke the big guy while the others assist/kill the chaff.
But yeah, more for taking out sentries quietly and clearing a path for the tin can paladin before opening up on things

>been cooking a character for a while that disguises himself as enemies during combat and talks to enemies as a free action giving them detrimental orders while subtle-casting spells as their action
>realize they defined new actions during combat where "influence" ie making conversation which involves deception checks now counts as making an action
We're basically playing 5.5 now, but I'm just going to ignore that one and hope the dm doesn't notice, and if he does then I'll cry about how it ruins the entire character and ask him to ignore it.

Was anyone really asking for that change? Were tables really having problems with players trying to say shit during combat? God fobid something a bit unexpected and flavorful happens in addition to the attacks and spells. I wonder what motivates these changes that just seem like change for the change of it to motviate a new edition, so the ruleset needs to be different, I dunno. I'm butthurt.

>>96371015
The original argument started because someone was infiltrating something more heavily defended than an unimproved camp. In your scenario there's not really any time between ambush and the main attack, but even so any time your DM did this sort of scene and it worked, he was probably adjusting the HP of a lot of those creatures to enable the stealth kills. The rulings are really easy, though:
>Baseline patrols have very little health
>Getting within 5 feet of them while they are unaware will let you kill them
>Once you kill a few of them, stealth checks get harder
>Once a body is discovered, it's on like donkey kong

I've been in a campaign on roll20 for a year and am going to start my own, online only. What's the best vtt for someone who doesn't want to pay for all the content?

>>96354341
Just stop being a dumb phoneposter.

>>96366911
>whorehouse
Nice.

>>96371061
the fug is dis shi

>>96371061
it's just formalizing things in case it's needed for rawtards who have to do everything by the book, and for VTT closed garden they are making all their money plans on

it's not saying anything new, unless you expected your "talking in combat" to have a mechanical effect

>>96371280
Guess people got tired of whole-ass anime conversations happening during six-second rounds.

>>96371323
it was my understanding that talking didn't require an action in 5e, but now it does in 5.5 if it results in an ability check like deception. Meaning by 5e's rules you could have a character tell enemies stuff like "check the corner over there" as a free action while they're disguised as an enemy and then also cast spells or do other things on the same turn. With the new rules you'd need to use your entire action to talk to them, making that build utter shit.

>>96371376
not even theater kid central critical role does that so I can't imagine anyone else does either. Captcha: GAY T4

>>96371398
>>96371405
> Your Turn (Page 23) Communicating. You can communicate however you are able—through brief utterances and gestures—as you take your turn. Doing so uses neither your action nor your move.

>>96371398
that interpretation is far more retarded than the 2024 clarification, because then every optimal turn would consist of doing normal things and then trying to "deceive" a monster into walking into the lava. For every character and every class and every build.

>>96371423
Yeah, but then right under it:
Extended communication, such as a detailed explanation of something or an attempt to persuade a foe, requires an action. The Influence action is the main way you try to influence a monster.

"or an attempt to persuade a foe, requires an action."

Not sure if you can rules lawyer it to work for brief trickery, like "You three, cover the east side" without using an action, even if the dm calls for a deception roll. Is that skirting the rules?

>>96371444
well yeah, it is optimal, but people don't do it because it's not going to work unless you're really clever, have some specific circumstance that would make them listen to you or, in this case, have a disguise of some sort so they actually would listen to you. As it stands you can try and persuade the goblin to jump into the lava, but unless your dm is shit he's not going to call for a a roll for that.

>>96371444
It's always been optimal to try shit like that.

>>96369159
>Gladiator
Man I was hoping for a revamped brute. I want a dice to my death saves!

>>96371482
>You three, cover the east side" without using an action, even if the dm calls for a deception roll. Is that skirting the rules?
the dm suddenly demanding that it would take an action because of the content of the words demand a deception check to be called even though it would take just as long to say as a non-influence utterance seems really dumb. Doesn't seem rai.

>>96370347
It's from 3rd edition. If you rendered an opponent helpless (which was strictly defined as things like unconscious and sleeping or completely paralyzed) you could spend a full-round action to coup de grace them. This meant you couldn't move more than five feet before doing it, with the idea being it's literally an execution like slitting a sleeping person's throat or cutting off their head with a greatsword, not regular combat moves attacking opportunistically.

Somebody who got coup'd was automatically hit and automatically suffered a critical hit on top, and then had to make a fort saves of 10+damage dealt or instantly die even if they had enough hit points to survive the crit. In 5e with bounded accuracy you would probably treat this like concentration where it's half damage but same result. Performing a coup de grace also provoked an attack of opportunity from everyone in range, since you're not defending yourself and are just focusing on 100% killing the Defenseless person in front of you

It allows for some granularity in situations that otherwise are prone to starting arguments, a high level barbarian might actually be jacked enough he survived somebody trying to slit his throat because he's got a sky high fortitude save, for example. And it's why Ghouls are considered so terrifying and why elves being immune to ghoul paralysis was important at low levels for many years (carried over from chainmail even) because a Paralyzed opponent was vulnerable to coup de graces, so they could paralyze you and eat you alive while you stood helpless to resist if your party wasn't nearby to protect you and interrupt .

both 5e and even main competitors like PF2E have gotten rid of this so being paralyzed is a minor inconvenience compared to what it used to be. In PF2E you don't even fail reflex saves when paralyzed, you can still save against fireballs without any penalty.

What houserules would you introduce to make martials as good as casters? Preferably by buffing martials rather than nerfing casters.

>Athletic Flair
How many things can you use your CHA modifier for at this point?

>>96371075
Do you want to pay for anything? I would say buy Foundry – one-time purchase – and pirate everything using Plutonium, the 5e tools module for Foundry.

>>96371680
The coup de grace rules got partially folded into the status effect Unconscious (automatic Crit) and the con save thing is kinda dumb

>>96371705
Back before we switched to the '24 phb, we had a bunch of subclass features be part of the main class.

>>96371705
>Add 1/2 level to damage
>Weapons have per encounter abilities in addition to weapon masteries
>Convert tome of battle classes so martials have scaling powers instead of the battlemaster shit
>Steal 3.5’s power attack, can take negatives up to proficiency bonus
Just a few ideas off the top of my head. I usually tell players to be relatively vanilla with their classes myself, they’ve already given fighter more stuff in 5.5e so the imbalance isn’t that bad.

>>96371705
I like the ‘24 buffs.
Weapon masteries and whatever’s going on with unarmed strikes help a lot i.e. melee attacks inflict damage as well as some effects on the target.
Tripping up opponents, slowing them down, pushing / pulling them around or breaking their focus are the expected side effects of being beaten by a trained man with a pointy stick.

Perhaps the easiest way to get this in is by giving all martials access to a selection of maneuvers, like through weapon masteries.

>>96370119
>table 1
You slit his throat, he's dead, Jim.
>table 2
Alright, you get a surprise round, roll your attack....A dagger? Ok, thats 2d4+4 damage, he's still alive, it's his turn.
>table 3
Ok, roll initiative
>table 4
umm...is there a rule for that? Uh, ok let me google it...ok, I don't see any rules for it in 5e, how about like, you crit and the guy makes a con save and if he passes the DC, he lives and if he doesn't, he dies...the DC is...8+whatever the damage is...huh? 3.5 has a rule like that? Yea, let's just use that.
>table 5
No, when you walk by him, he wakes up and immediately calls for the guards, then casts mage armor
>Starts playing www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lr749W8CEE

I think people want consistency that rules provide. We all know how action surge works. We all know how cure wounds works. We all know how stealth wor-

>>96372232
Why should each table be the same? Because it makes you feel good? You're not sat at any of them!

>>96372232
>multiple tables
must suck getting kicked from all those games

>>96372232
>We all know how stealth wor-
we do all know, its written

>>96369159
Pdf link please? I'm not making a beyond account.

>>96369159
They’ve kept Templars as a Warlock pact from 4E.
I suspect the various media articles will ignore this and just compare it to the Clerics in 2E.

I think they only made Defilers as Sorcerers because “Sorcerer”-King.
Making Preservers as a strictly Druid option sucks as well.
There should always be a choice about whether to pump the numbers with Defiling at a cost to the setting.

Though 2E did split Defiler/Preservist into classes, they also didn’t have Druids and regular MU.

Gladiators are inferior to Battlemasters which still are inferior choices to any Sorcerer with equivalent CHA.
WotC remains a disappointment.

Ah well. When the inferior book comes out and everyone complains. We have three other editions with their own takes in it.

>>96372551
open the link, idiot

>>96372551
https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/apocalyptic-subclasses/KKvJvHGmsJiNaafX/UA2025-ApocalypticSubclasses.pdf

>>96372580
If you don't have D&D beyond you can't you fucking fuckwit cunt

>>96372582
Thank you anon. It's a shame such RETARDS lurk /5eg/

>>96372575
Plus a couple of serviceable 5e brews. And honestly just grab what you like from the new book and ignore everything else, just like everything else when running a Dark Sun game.

Which flavor or theme would you use to dress up a combat encounter for which the mechanic is killing enemies in pairs, ie if you kill A1 and then B1, A1 rezes, you gotta kill A2 first. Like the card game concentration

>>96372580
I said I'm not making a damn account, Ayoub.

>>96372582
Based anon delivering.

>>96372585
Of course you can. WotC doesn't whitelist only the IPs of people with D&D Beyond accounts :^)

>>96371747
except critical hits are massively neutered in 5e since your damage scaling for both players and monsters is getting more attacks, your actual damage with a single attack barely increases from 1-20 for everyone who's not a rogue. a dual wielding fighter goes from 1d8+3 to 1d8+5. Critical hits also only impact dice, they don't even affect modifiers and there's far fewer flat bonuses to damage. Even a level 4 character is basically guaranteed to survive an individual critical hit from even a level 20 character because it's so little extra damage. Oh no 2d8+5 instead of 1d8+5......it's not remotely comparable to actually slitting somebody's throat, and the moment your first attack hits they're awake and you're just rolling the rest of your attacks normally.

The difference between fighting someone in active battle moves cutting their throat while they sleep shouldn't be just an extra five damage.

>>96371705
If you're familiar with 1e Pathfinder there's an alternate rule system for it called Spheres of Power and Might designed to provide character options that don't rely on vancian casting or just standing still full attacking for casters and martials and to make them comparable in power at higher levels. It's probably the best received and most popular third party material for Pathfinder 1E besides Path of War which is basically Tome of Battle stuff made for Pathfinder instead of 3E.

Anyways, the same company made a 5e equivalent of Spheres of Power and Might which does basically the same thing. If your players dislike vancian casting or you want martial combat that's not just Attack->Extra Attack that's what I'd use. Idk if the share thread has them but they're both best sellers on drivethrurpg so you can probably find a pirated copy pretty easy

>>96372698
>spheres of shit

>>96372698
The 5e version does interest me. I wouldn’t call 5e’s spell system true vancian casting though. Not in the same sense as 3.5 et al. You don’t choose spell slots for example if you want to cast fire ball more than once you used to need to prepare it multiple times. Instead now you pick it once and can use as many spell slots as you want including up-casting for fireballs.

How is the spheres system different? Do the spheres give specific spells, or is it like other games where you can create custom spells depending on what you want to do?

>>96372775
Your character gains access to given "spheres" (hence the name) like Destruction or Protection(as Powers examples, the "magic" spheres) or Duelist/Leadership/Wrestling for Might (the combat spheres), spheres have abilities everyone with that sphere gets access to and then talents within them you can take and can be combined in various ways to build abilities, there's a decent amount of customization involved, for example the Conjuration sphere is about using a summoned companion to fight, Destruction is about blasting with magical force and the talents influence what energy type, shape or area of effect, and additional effects besides damage. I haven't played 5e spheres but since 5e is a lower power game than 3rd/PF1E I imagine the spheres will work mostly the same but be toned down in effect and simplified to work with bounded accuracy and such.

There's not spell slots or specific spells in spheres, magical spheres with resource expenditure use a spell point system for stuff you can't do infinitely but many spheres and talents are at-will abilities.

a level 2 spell that came to mind while wondering why fire is so much more common than all the others

>level 2 lightning spell
>make an attack roll against a target for 2d8 lightning damage
>"you point at a target and a spark of lightning and a loud thunderous boom emanates"
>5-foot sphere from target, including the target, CON save take 2d6 thunder damage or half on a passed save
>increase lightning damage by 1d8 and thunder by 1d6 for each additional spell slot used

>>96372853
I like the cut of this Lightning Knife's gib.

>>96372853
excellent work, anon

>>96372863
>tfw you forgot about ice knife in its entirety
>also forgot spells only scale on one source of damage instead of 2
guess it should deal 3d8 on its single damage instead, with 1d8 on its thunder splash, for consistency with other spells
increasing the lightning damage by 1d8 for each additional spell level

thunder damage doesnt scale, but maybe it can knock people prone on a failed save

>>96373051
Eh, the scaling is fine. It's less damage than Lightning Bolt, but different types. The trade-off is the point of the spell, right?

>>96373179
>>96372904
turns out witch bolt did exactly what i had in mind for a level 1 spell (re-apply lightning damage every turn for emperor palpatine UNLIMITED POWER)

>>96373142
my thought process basically started and ended with "after lightning, should come thunder"
but yeah, it does seem inconsistent as to how spells scale, just found that flame strike does increase 2 sources of damage at the same time, so dual scaling should be fine

>level 4 super shocking grasp
>1 minute, concentration
>"you grab your target and unleash a surging electrical current against it for as long as you can hold on"
>make a melee spell attack against a target, on a successful hit, it takes 8d8 lightning damage, its speed is reduced to 0, and it cant take actions or reactions
>at the start of your turn as long as you are touching the creature with your hands (no metal poles), the creature makes a DEX save or it takes another 8d8 damage and another turn of not being able to take action, reactions, or movement
>basically just want to do that supervillain-style execution where you grab someones head and zap them until they start to smoke

After a considerable blowout by our GM (for playing our band of kinda-misanthropes as kinda-misanthropes and not heroic paragons*, among other, dumber, reasons**), we were trying to "reboot" the campaign into a more freeform rp format, while still using 5e for combat and dungeons whenever those happened, taking the parts we liked and implementing ideas that had been shot down initially.
Things started fine, we wrote down a basic structure of the first couple story beats, I got to establishing the lore and progression of my character, we discussed group dynamics and how they could evolve, etc, but a couple days ago one of them told me that he hated the combat part of dnd (too rigid, he has to cater spells to the party or else his in-character choices leave him a sitting duck during battle) and that high fantasy and all its trappings, aesthetic and narrative, bore him terribly.
He's a good friend, and I don't want to rock the boat too much (because I have more or less the same "aversion" to scifi/cyberpunk), but now it feels like nothing I write for this matters because one day he's gonna show up like "hey guys I'm not invested in this anymore, bye" and we're going to lose not only a player but an entire part of narrative connective tissue, and with it, most likely, the whole campaign.
Is there anything I can do? other than take it in stride if it collapses...

*we would help others if they asked us, but if it was more convenient for us to, for example, leave a couple of guards to die so we could keep their horses, we would. The characters had been approved by the GM, this wasn't a late-game swerve.
**such as not wanting to pay 5k gold to live in a set of ruins with a bunch of strangers, finding an NPC annoying, and having theories and ideas about the story and where it could go (said it made him feel insecure when we got it right or close enough, we were not allowed them to share them with the gm or to talk about them when we were all in call)

>>96371482
>>96371593
Anyone ITT knows the answer to this?

Does a brief utterance that involves some deception, like being disguised as a goblin then telling other goblins "take cover over there" stay a free action since it's a brief utterance even if the dm calls for a deception roll.

Or does the very fact that it's deceptive override the fact that it's a brief utterance and it turns into costing an action as per
>Extended communication, such as a detailed explanation of something or an attempt to persuade a foe, requires an action.

>>96372232
kek, excellent post.

>GM canceled the game again
I'm done, just bury me

the fact that meteor swarm is the only level 9 evocation spell hurts my soul

>megaflash
>level 9 evocation
>"a massive lightning bolt is called down from the sky to blast your target"
>a point you can see is struck by a massive lightning bolt
>everything within a 10-foot wide, 500 foot tall cylinder makes a Dexterity Saving throw or take 12d12 lightning damage, half that damage on a successful throw
>any material except adamantine, similiarly durable material, or magically protected at the DMs discretion between the target and the top of the cylinder is vaporized as the lightning bolt travels through it
>the target is still hit regardless if the material is destroyed or not
>anything flying creature that fails its save is knocked prone and begins falling
>everyone other than the caster within 1000ft who can see the bolt must make a DEX saving throw or else be blinded
>the lightning bolt creates a massive explosion, the target and anything else within a 50-ft hemisphere from it must make a DEX saving throw or take 10d12 bludgeoning damage on a failed throw and half that on a success, creatures that failed the first saving throw automatically fail this one

>comparable damage to meteor swarm, with higher single target than meteor swarm
>hits a far smaller area than meteor swarm
>can create a handy escape hatch above the target
>mass blinding is funny
>who plays at level 20?
>who plays at level 9?

>>96373867
If you asked at my table,

I'd keep your initial disguise check/roll and use that for something short like that. If you were trying to give more detailed or specific directions, or saying something suspicious it would probly require a roll/action at that point.

What are some way to spice up a final battle with a Lich?
Not trying to make it an unbeatable slugfest, but want combat to be more than just "Hit the overhyped skeleton"

>>96374265
Where and why they fighting the lich?

>>96372679
Yeah, your DM can adjudicate that scenario as is their fucking role.

>>96374265
Lich into demilich as his body is destroyed, phase 2 with his head rising up after they thought they won

>>96374455
In his ancestral lair deep in the dungeons. The fight will likely be in his personal laboratory/chambers
>>96374498
I love phases so I might incorporate that, but I meant more as in things to do in combat besides just attacking the Lich

>>96374558
The Lich has a bunch of apparatuses that he can activate as a legendary action, and the players have to scramble around the battle map to turn them off. Give him a giant Frankenstein-esque flesh golem that he can summon if he uses the "Flip the Switch!" legendary action twice

>>96374558
>In his ancestral lair deep in the dungeons. The fight will likely be in his personal laboratory/chambers

Could incorporate lair actions, or have some experiments activate or come alive and join the fight if the players don't do a thing or do a thing.

>>96374041
>or specific directions, or saying something suspicious it would probly require a roll/action at that point.
Are those examples assuming that the talking is longer or still short but specific, where the specificness turns it into an action even if it takes just as long to say? Basically is it the length of the things said or the specificity of them that would play into it?

>>96374265
The lich's motivations seem evil to the feeble mortal mind. He opens up his portals to the far realms that he has studied that has revealed the true eldritch nature of the universe free from petty moral morality. Peering into the realms requires sanity checks or similar or getting temporary debuffs like blindness or inability to tell friend from foe. Other portals to hells or whatever let out demons or other creatures to fight. If this is some end to campaign shit and you're going all out, bring them into the portals and have htem spend what feels like decades inside of it before coming out aged and fucked up.

>>96374701
>Basically is it the length of the things said or the specificity of them that would play into it?

Moreso the specificity, if you're making small talk with the goblins while disguise self is active or whatever i don't see a need for a roll, if you're feeding them false intel to bait them into a trap you're rolling deception.

Malding daily till they bring back swords bard

I admit defensive flourish was a bit too good tho. If I'm being honest I would be fine with a valor bard with fighting style and weapon mastery. We are level 8, it worth getting those with feats instead of ability score improvements?

>>96374579
love that, thanks
>>96374691
also a good idea, thanks

>>96374881
well shit, if that's the common interpretation then the whole point was to try and give detrimental commands to the monsters so they'd occasionaly waste turns and I though that wouldn't be that overpowered since at most you're getting a couple minions or one monster to waste their action once during a combat. But if that takes up an entire action and there's no action left to use subtle spellcasting on as was the plan, then it's a no-go. I can only hope to convince the dm to use 5e's lenient talking rules with no Influence action chart then.

The only other option in such a scenario would be to roll a GoO warlock who can cast many spells without components, and then multiclass as sorcerer to quicken the spell, allowing you to bonus action cast spells and use the action to talk.

Why didn't they nerf Shield? Are they retarded? It's like they had a list of things they could do to make this new edition worth it and really mix up the meta, but then they just didn't want to rock the boat too much, so they just didn't and made a ton of other unnecessary changes no one asked for instead. Consider me buttblasted.

>>96374906
>do I want a 5% power increase in my piss easy pretend game that is automatically adjusted to my powerlevel in difficulty by the dm or do I want something cool that will make me play differently and make me feellmore like the role I'm playing in this roleplaying game

>>96375181
you have to understand some of these poor souls play in adversarial environments where the dm is not trying curate things for everyone to have a good time. They will literally start modules from the start with different characters after tpking, like they're trying to beat a video game

>>96375181
To be fair its not like fighting styles actually make the dramatic difference in gamellay that you are implying

>wow, +2 fucking damage with one-handed weapons
>wow, +1 AC
>wow, +2 to hit with bows
etc.
None of these or others actually make any big fucking difference to increasing your dex by 2. In any case as always I just gonna roleplay well, because 5e is not the kind of game that allows massive character expression from its crunch alone

>>96375152
>shield is too strong
Is it?

>>96375245
By too strong he means always picked/prepared im guessing (not that anon)

>>96375245
instantly makes you more tanky than the martials, it's so good that people won't use their reaction for anything else.
>mfw I used it as blocking only one turn then fading for a year before I discovered how it actually worked since I thought no way could this last for an entire round

>>96375152
because they are retarded and dont care

>>96375239
sure, I was more thinking of weapon mastery. still having a line that says "I'm the guy who's a bit better with throwing weapons" is still cooler than +2 to stat imo.

>>96375129
Seems like an edge case doing this at combat speed, you trying to do this mid fight while still disguised/undercover?
Seems more the realm of the command spell

>>96375339
Idea is something like
Disguise self>teleport behind enemies>pretend to be part of the enemy group and subtle cast spells in their midst without revealing it's you, and then on the same turn tell some guys to go check a corner or something, then potentially rounding that corner and taking them out next turn, then taking on their identity or other shenanigans.

I have a dream to be pretend to be the goblin shaman and hold casting Jump on the goblin pack until it's their turn, then tell them to jump to the ledge or over the chasm and then either lie about the distance jumped so they fall right down to their deaths or drop the spell after one guy jumps so the rest fall of the chasm, shit like that.

Standing in the midst of the goblins, subtle casting enemies abound and yelling traitor! at the guy affected is stuff I think about.

>you can counter-attack once per day
who comes up with this shit? who designs this game? what kind of retard looks at this system and doesnt think "throw it all in the trash and start over"?

>>96375245
>fighter in 1500g plate armor
>AC 18
>Wizard in rags with 14 dex casting a level 1 spell that lasts for an entire round
>AC 17

I dunno anon, you tell me.

>>96375330
Maybe. I still can add that flavor regardless
>pssh, watchout kiddo, they call me the knife flinger...
can be said regardless if you pick the feat or the ASI, since its not like picking either will lock you out of flinging knives

>>96375380
Ahh because you're subtle casting you can't quicken, I see your problem. I wonder if there's some bardic ability that would shift that action cost to a bonus action, or something close enough. You're definitely one foot if not two into 'dm may I?' territory but it sounds cool/fun so personally I'd try to make it work

>>96375558
Yeah it's that double MM on one spell conundrum.
>You're definitely one foot if not two into 'dm may I?' territory
I think it may seem like it's abusing things more than it really does. I think it will mostly just make for a more dynamic battle with fun rp in between, with the only change in action economy is potentially one smaller group of enemies wasting a turn running somewhere instead of attacking the players.

>>96375558
>>96375626
also I will likely have to waste at least one turn getting into position or applying a disguise which in your average 3 round battle is giving up a lot so. If I pitch it like that to the dm I think it will be fine.

>>96375446
you need to take the draw steel pill, set yourself free

>>96375521
And the Wizard spent their leveled spell for the turn being marginally more difficult to hit. It's a limited resource and it cost them being able to do something actually proactive. It's a non-issue and anyone who feels like it's a must-pick are retarded slaves.

>>96375626
>>96375638
Well just a little, my take is by raw you can do one or the other (subtle spell or deceptive order given) and you're trying to do both. Which doesn't seem too action economy breaking but I haven't tested it obv. But like you said its pretty resource intensive so maybe it should break the action economy a bit.

>>96375689
i think you got turn and round confused
casting a levelled spell as a reaction during someone else's turn doesnt stop you from doing something useful on your turn

>Glamoured:
>"Your People are inherntly skilled in Illusions. You know fayish tricks to deceive the mundane senses, both in combat and while traveling. You have a number of Glamour Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus, this represent your internal reserve of whimsical magic. You can spend a Glamour Point to cast the Mirror Image or Disguise Self spells, using Charisma as your Spell Save DC. You regain all your Glamour Points when you finish a Long Rest"

not sure about Iron Vulnerability but I think this works as a racial ability for Dominions Vanir/Partholonians/Jinn

>>96375804
forgot pic

>>96375521
The fighter has that forever
the wizard needs to use a limited spell slot and only lasts for a round

I know there are some people who never actually fucking play the game as intended and they either just whiteroom shit in their head or at most only does a combat per day, but come on

>>96375626
>Yeah it's that double MM on one spell conundrum.
I don't know what level you're at, but level 7 sorcerers can use two metamagics on one spell if their Innate Sorcery feature is active.

>>96371705
More feats. Period. Martials gets feats at every even level, casters get them every 4 levels. In exchange, casters get access to spells above 5th level. Casters get variety and utility from higher level spells. That is what martials need. Superiority dice are nice, but they're just a damage boost and aside from two or three of them, they don't do much out of combat. Buff martial adept to not be shit

+1 STR or DEX
>two maneuvers
>two super dice

There, now leave it as a feat option that you can take more than once for people who want to take the combat maneuver route, while other players make take other options.

>>96375689
You must've thought you were so slick writing this response

>>96373917
Blinded doesn't state duration. If permanent then no fucking way, if 1 round then I'd probably OK it, maaaybe if 1 minute with rerolls each turn. It needs to have less damage though, the meteor swarm having fuckhuge fuck you AoE is actually frequently a drawback, as it's difficult to land it without damaging something you'd rather not damage, and I also like to run it in such a way that meteor swarm just frequently collapses roofs and other such things regardless of the actual damage it does (not to mention the damage it does could disrupt buildings and caves usually) so it's actually not usable everywhere. In fact since there's any blinding involved at all, I'd completely drop all bludgeoning damage.
>who plays at level 20?
Yep, that's me.

>>96376225
Nah

They would make more money if they released books with more feats than races and subclasses.

>>96373917

>aoe blind
>dex

Thats con you ninny.

>>96371280
Not a bad option if you want to make an opponent attack you instead of someone else depending on what the opponent has of course. Like with this you could taunt an archer from shooting the person they were just about to kill to make them change targets on a successful check.

new thread
>>96377486
>>96377486
>>96377486

>>96375855
cool, didn't know this, thanks.

>>96375819
it's a level 1 slot man for an entire round, and combats last 2-3 rounds, so realistically you only need to cast it once per combat on average. it's a negligible cost, even if your dm really runs you dry with several encounters before rest.

>>96376661
>megaflash (revised)
>a lightning bolt strikes down in a 10ft-wide, 500-foot tall cylinder at a point you can see
>creatures caught in the cylinder make a DEX save or take 12d12 lightning damage, half on a pass
>everyone other than the caster within 100ft of the point has to make a CON save or be blinded and deafened for 1 turn
>still destroys everything that isnt tough enough to survive within the cylinder

>>96373629
>Is there anything I can do?
PLAY. SOMETHING. ELSE. There's tons of other systems. What kind of game do you feel like running?

5E is popular, not good.

>>96378445
Why are you in the general for a game you hate? Fuck off cunt

>>96378464
I don't hate it, but it's clearly the wrong system for the game his group wants to play.

>>96377975
Yep, much better. Still probably needs max range (1 mile like meteor swarm sounds reasonable). Could also be tuned up a little by having you be able to decide the cylinder's size to be between 10 and 30 ft. for example. Anyway in this form it's already quite usable and I think I'm gonna pocket it into my notes too, have enemy spellcaster use it sometime and/or drop a scroll of the spell as loot.

Why become a lich when you can just die and go to whatever plane your alignment pulls you and just live forever there?

>>96378483
Really, it's less about the system and more about the distaste for the genre of the story we're trying to tell. I mentioned 5e because that's what we had played in the OG and what we're familiar with, but I don't think it's an issue that would disappear by changing systems (which we are open to, anyway).

In any case, we had a talk yesterday and he was cool with, in the event he lost interest, leaving his character and plot to the rest of us until he felt like coming back, so I don't have to worry about it all dying on me.