Thread 96506691

Page of Pentacles Edition

>"New" Apocalyptic Subclasses UA: https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/apocalyptic-subclasses/KKvJvHGmsJiNaafX/UA2025-ApocalypticSubclasses.pdf
>Survey: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/8435327/D-D-UA-2025-Apocalyptic-Subclasses

>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
>>96485177

>TQ
If you were to start a new campaign, either as a player or DM, would you rather play 5e or 5.5e? Why/why not?

5e because there are half-elves and half-orcs a core part of D&D lore.

>TQ
5e because I'm autistic and don't like change
especially not changes to Divine Smite fuck you

>TQ
5.5 because one thing that keeps my players coming back is testing new stuff like UAs, so i have to accommodate them

How do the modules made for 2024 compare to the modules of 2014?

>>96506776
From the DM side 5.5e is very similar so they're interchangeable. The starter set for 5.5e is kind of it's own board game and simplified. I haven't read it, the artwork put me off.

>>96506691 (OP)
>TQ
5e, because 2024 5.5e was a cash-grab that fixes less of the game than my group's own homebrew. Also fuck supporting modern WotC is any way.

>>96506655
Listen her you fucking cunt. A fighter does not equal a warlord. I do not give a fuck. Their abilities are different and a few subclass powers does not make a fighter into warlord.

>>96506691 (OP)
>TQ
I’ve already swapped to 5.5, it’s nice to have less bloat and a good start place for rules

>>96507547
>Less bloat
Anon, 5e is perhaps the single most anemic edition in the history of the game.

>>96506694
Firstly, it's just that they don't have unique mechanical options for those specific mixed-ancestry species. But also, why does that matter? I'm running a 2024 game and there are plenty of half-elves.

>>96507555
nta but bloat isn't a measure of absolute rule quantity but how much of the content is useful or well designed. A system can be high crunch with minimal bloat or bloated despite being less complex.

>>96507573
I wasn't talking about rule quantity, I was talking about how 5e has less content than any other edition in D&D.

>>96506691 (OP)
>If you were to start a new campaign, either as a player or DM, would you rather play 5e or 5.5e? Why/why not?
5e. Half the changes I don't give a shit about, the others are markedly stupid. I already have my own houserules for 5e and the existence of 5.5 alone makes me want to stop running nu-dnd completely because it shits up my search results.

Do you have any preferred sources for scenery artwork?
I am struggling to choose something for the theatre-of-the-mind trap-avoiding sequence that occurs on the Goblin Trail.

The image I am using for The Triboar Trail is AI generated and The High Road is half AI. I already feel like I am using too much.

>it's another people shit on 5.5 because it's new and not listing any actual inferior changes
yawn

I have two character ideas and I'd like to hear which you'd prefer in your party and any ideas to improve upon the concept.

Egg Nog, the Goblin Warlock named after the drink his mother was drunk upon while giving birth. Spent his life as a thief stealing from nearby villages, made a pact with a Great Old One thinking it would help his thievery. Regrets it and wants to buy back his soul. It'll never happen, but his goal is to steal enough shit to buy his soul back. Illusion/Enchantment focus, great old one patron.

The weaver: Snobby NE aristocrat known for amazing tailoring skills and disdain for most people. Turns out he's just a Druid using wild shape to produce silk as a spider. Actively being blackmailed by the party and is going along with shit to maintain his enterprise

>>96508212
I hate it because it's a transparent excuse to reprint slightly-altered 5e character options at a glacial pace over the next few years instead of actually making new ones. Some of the Barbarian buffs are kind of nice, though.

>>96508101
This is what I am currently going with.

>>96508101
I steal from old videogames mainly.

>>96508101
i make ai in the blurry / soft focus / impressionist style so it's just a general mood and no details are present

What's your idea for a new spell?

>>96506691 (OP)
>TQ
5e because 5.5 is just a bunch of homebrew on top of 5e, which is what I already run except mine is tailored to my players and campaign.

>>96508267
Hard to decide with how terrible both are, but I think the second one is worse with the way it automatically creates a hostile work relationship with your party and asserts your character as someone who is for some reason desirable despite having every reason to betray your comrades.
By elimination, the unimaginative-yet-edgey goblin I assume you will roleplay in a manner that will be detrimental to your game and table seems to be the ticket.

>>96508267
I don't think GOOs are interested in goblin souls. It's below their paygrade.

>>96506691 (OP)
>TQ

A mixture of both so for whatever shlub who wants to play a Martial Class doesn't end up being the most useless member of the team

>>96509059
Port Chariot of Sustarre

>>96506691 (OP)
>If you were to start a new campaign, either as a player or DM, would you rather play 5e or 5.5e? Why/why not?
Op... I just started playing DND a few months ago and I'm only familiar with 5.5e.
If you asked me if I'd want to play in 5e 2014 next time... I'd say no, because I'm just starting to understand the 2024 version and the last thing I want is for the rules to start getting mixed up.

>TQ
I am starting a 5.5e campaign next week.
A "trapped in a VR mmorpg" campaign with all the terrible and fun tropes from that genre.
My online pals are very excited to play in it, as we are all mmorpg burnouts from the early 2000s.

Using this as the setting map btw.

>>96507487
>noooo I can't have 15 different copies of the same ability like in 4e where I shift an ally 10 feet and pretend it's epic gameplay in a system with no flanking rules
Warlord fags are insufferable holy shit. They cannot cope with the fact that not everyone liked their stupid-ass "shouting the severed arm back on" abilities and pointlessly shuffling people around out of turn and giving them attacks out of turn. There should have been more abilities like that in general if that was what people wanted. Be happy they put that shit in 5e at all. Adding your charisma to some ally's attack is fucking moronic. You idiots really need to stop overestimating the power of Charisma just because you all have an 8 charisma IRL, you cannot "inspire" someone to suddenly become proficient with a sword. inb4 "momma bear lifts car off her baby with insane strength" bullshit. Guess what? No matter how handsome you are, you're not making her wet enough to do that. That's reserved for maternal instinct only, you fucking incel freak. Seriously, you warlord players are fucking insufferable. You micromanage the entire table and screech like a little bitch when people don't utilize your buffs the exact way you would. It's like a constant pressure cooker especially because a lot of warlord players have anger issues from losing constantly at RTS games. That's why they play TTRPGs, because they're easy mode where you have to try to lose instead of try to win. As a result you can just sit there and give your abilities out and tell people NO MOVE THERE or NO ATTACK THIS GUY and half the time you don't even know how other peoples' powers work. Yeah, fuck yeah am I glad they didn't include Warlord class in 5e. You guys were fucking insufferable cunts and they probably didn't want the normgroid infestation they planned to herald in with 5e D&D to be repulsed by your sweaty tryhardness. I cannot think of a more tryhard class, a more söy class than fucking warlord. Good. Fucking. Riddance.

>>96508101
I got tired of ending up on page 12 of Google Images trying to find art that matched the vibe I was going for, ended up subscribing to Midjourney; it does a pretty good job, sometimes I have to tweak the prompt a few times but it generally gives me something usable

Also, that screenshot looks like you're using Foundry, I find the "Share Media" module extremely handy - you can share images out of Journals and stuff, so that you don't have to manage a shitload of scenes + constantly moving the players

(Pic is the share controls, I have a GM-only journal named "Artbook" where I put characters/locations/etc descriptions and images, and with Share Media you can show the images to players without giving them permissions on the journal)

>>96509620
Godspeed, anon. Hope you all have a good time.

I'm populating this battlemap as described in chapter 1 of Phandelver...
Doesn't this seem pretty hard? I'm not too sure, as this is my first time DMing.
It's for 5 player characters of level 1.

>>96508585
Nice image.

>>96509702
Thanks I'll give the module a look. I don't really know what is and isn't easy because I am prepping for my firs time DMing.
I'll give midjourney a try. The 2 AI images I am using so far I made with ChatGPT.

Where do you go for character and environment art that isn't full of mediocre ai garbage

>>96510130
LMoP&B is surprisingly hard.

>>96510130
Yeah, but it's fun. And the dragon makes you really enjoy having dwarves on the team.

If i have to instances of resistance to something do they stack?
If my raging dwarf bear totem barbarian gets poison gassed by a green dragon will the double poison resistance stack?

>>96510350
No

>>96510130
That map doesn't seem so bad to me as long as the players have at least one Druid/Ranger/Cleric to revive people that get knocked unconscious

I imagine the flow will look something like pic related; the players will probably skip the bears (unless someone has Speak with Animals or something, or they stomp the first encounter so you decide to make the bears immediately hostile). So you'll have 3 back-to-back encounters. Probably rough but totally doable, especially if they get at least a short rest afterward.

(I haven't run the module so take my thoughts with a grain of salt)

The best subclasses for a writing-focused character are Bard Lore, and Valor, right? In 5E 2024, so far.

>>96510544
what about those rogue subclasses?

>>96510130
>my first time DMing.
dont do video game shit
all this time you're wasting being a literal engineer curating a video game experience with fully mapped dungeon is time taken away from actual dming
describe things and ask players what they're doing

>>96510563
NTA

I was LITERALLY writing a post about this exact thing. My players during the zero session weeks ago were completely adamant on being interested in RP and world-building and exploration and such, all the cool stuff that P&P lets you do that video games don't do very well but in my last few sessions we haven't had combat, and I've noticed that literally everyone has been checking out, playing on their phones and it seems like they're losing interest and focus. I tried asking all of them individually (away from the table) and they all tried to deny it, but I can feel this slight sense of apathy from them growing and I want to know what steps I can take to nip it in the bud before it results in absences and other shit that leads to the dissolution of a campaign

>>96510553
When I say a writing-focused character, I mean a character who... likes to write in a book.

>>96510172
Glad my intuition was okay.

>>96510300
I think it's fun. My players are all roleplaying game first-timers, I'm worried I'll scare them off.

>>96510470
>bears
Yeah, I better change that token. Those are meant to be wolves.
And they are rather easily avoided.

It's also possible to avoid the creatures in the south-western room being drawn in to the pool-room fight.
I think adjusting this encounter to be the optimal difficulty on the fly won't be too hard.

>>96510563
The encounter before this is entirely in the mind's eye.
This session should have a little of everything to try:
>roleplaying dialogue
>methodical exploration
>grid combat
>theature of the mind

>>96510703
haha them being wolves makes a lot more sense, I was like "man this module must have some custom low CR enemies or something, how are level 1s gonna kill all these bears"

>>96510643
>assassins can't keep meticulous and detailed notes on the close acquaintances of their mark as to better assimilate themselves into their life as they close in to make the kill
>masterminds in the service of their lord don't have entire catalogue of documentation regarding every rival barony, viscounty, and other lesser (or greater) land owners within their vicinity, tracking wealth and/or military power, not to mention all of the various administrative duties a position like this might entail that would require a strong pen hand
>scouts ranging ahead of their party wouldn't have a detailed log of all the various passers-by and a good record on meteorological knowledge, even if its primitive or uncertain

if you literally mean a novelist, i genuinely don't think that has literally any bearing whatsoever on what class someone is. an arcane archer could theoretically write a swathe of pulp romance novella just as well as a college of eloquence, or valor, or lore, or whatever bard. for christ's sake, wizards are literally lugging around a damn spell book everywhere they go. hell, even battle master fighters have potential for being among the most well-educated of all the subclasses in terms of pure academia, it's just hyper-specialized toward the fields of tactics and martiality, and all that entails.

>>96510625
>Last few sessions of no combat
You want a healthy mix of combat, exploration, and social encounters. You roleplay during all of them. Combat in particular grabs players’ attention. Start your next session with a combat to grab their attention back.

>>96510801
Yes, you're right about that. I'll think about it.
Although I think I mentioned lore and valor because they have aspects (like historical literary themes and the compilation of ancient epic stories) that attract me.
Lore: chroniclers and collectors of traditions and magic.
Value: They keep the memory of ancient heroes alive by learning their epics and then retelling them.

>>96510703
>>grid combat
I keep seeing this when you guys post module maps with rooms that are 2x3 or 5x6 literal whiterooms and no features. There is nothing interesting about it. The grid serves no purpose. You have not seen it because you say first time DM so let me tell you what's gonna happen: after 1 round everyone is in melee and stops moving. Then you have bored players staring at a grid you spent hours setting up. There is absolutely no value to it. I understand the books and modules make you think there is some point to having a gridded dungeon but there is absolutely none

Now if you make some 30x30+ grid with a bunch of different locations, features, hazards, etc, and more importantly OBJECTIVES besides killing shit yes, that can be interesting. The players make choices, etc.

>>96510625
If you have experienced players they will make their own choices and decisions and drive the game. This is however extremely rare because experienced players are in games, not starting with new dms.

If you have new players that you need to prod along with hooks and quests and events, maintaining focus is about mixing high and low intensity moments, and always starting sessions on high intensity ones.

Example:
start session: caravan is ambushed. this is a high excitement moment
slowdown moment: party assesses losses and is tasked by caravan to rescue captives, follows tracks into swamp, finds strange ruins, hears loud noise
tension moment: a patrol of 20 bullywugs walks by, the party has to decide to engage, hide, ambush, etc

if you keep mixing these, players stay engaged. I think one of the main things to understand is that people will get bored by anything if it lasts too long, it's not about combat being exciting or the opposite, it's about constant combat or constant slowdown or constant whatever. Learn to mix moods, feelings, safety/risk, "ride-along"/"make a choice", etc

>>96509448
The fuck, this is cool as hell, why didn't this one stick around?

Please give me something unique and fun to play in combat for a one shot.

imo, the only reason to have a gridded out dungeon is if there will be combat happening throughout the dungeon which is a ton of work. Pic related in thge left is a what is great when you use >>96510563
>describe things and ask players what they're doing
Because chances are, your players don't have a map of a fucking dungeon so they have no reason to know what the layout is.

>you're in a room [description] with [materials], [treasure], and [clues] and you see several door ways to your left, and two more ahead of you etc.

Is all you need, they tell you what they want to do, and you play it out. If some of the rooms have combat, you can just make a map for that room. keep it simple. Even more fun, a player might try to map out a dungeon based off the clues and descriptions you give which is another way to keep players engaged. You can use secret doors and hidden rooms as otehr ways to have players involved

>>96511589
>no level parameters
>no story parameters
>not even whether it's 5 or 5.5

>>96510846
>start your next session with a combat
it can and certainly shall absolutely feature a combat, but there isn't an argonian's chance in the comonna tong that I can start it off with one. They straight-up just returned to the keep from a recon mission for the duke confirming that every single one of the orc raiding parties are moving south towards the sacrificial bait caravan that the party themselves created. i mean, I can certainly make up an asspull, but I feel like it would just make the issue worse, having a high chance of backfiring terribly. i suppose i could explore something like an orcish scout (or maybe a ranger??) tracking them and counter-spying or something, but eh. it would feel too contrived now. an attack within the keep itself is virtually out of the question, unless someone itt is a genius

something I neglected to mention here is that my players are unfortunately very good at avoiding combat, but I'm starting to think it's to their own detriment, in some aspects. they all have solid dex (+2 or better) and are naturally decent at stealth. i don't want them to be punished (or punish themselves) for being sneaky, but i also don't want them to bore themselves because they rely on only a single playstyle, while also seeming like a dictator railroading them like "NO YOU CANT STEALTH FAG"

>>96511348
>always starting sessions on high intensity moments
I am admittedly very bad about this. i've only pulled it off once and it was relatively low stakes. i personally just dislike it, and i think that makes me very biased against it. to me personally, it doesn't feel interesting, it feels overwhelming, like someone woke me up by tipping my off my bed into a swimming pool

>>96511611
What did you use to make the left map.

>>96511631
Probably should have said, yeah, I'm a bit retarded.
5.5
Level 3
Not much story, we're looking for someone who went missing in a frozen wasteland

>>96510130
The goblin ambush in LMoP is infamous deadly, and the cave has been known to wipe partys with both the trap and King Klarg. Last couple of times I've ran it I've leveled up the party to two after the ambush and before the cave.

>>96511201
I personally dislike totm in 5e because the game is trying to be precise enough in scale that the grid matters for stuff like aoe spells and movement
Theater of the mind results in every bit of distance related objectives turning into yes, no, yes but, no but. "Can I hit them all with fireball? No but you can hit 4/5 of them" and everyone has their own idea of what the fight is like
Totm works in less combat heavy systems like the pbta systems (awful) or anything with much more abstract distances of "X is in close/medium/far and you can target up to medium with that"

>>96511642
Symbiote Druid
1st round cast Krails Maggot and transform. Cackle madly as you slowly chest burst the enemy and sling spells with your main action

>>96511686
Symbiote Druid, that's a homebrew? I don't recall seeing that one, what's it from?

>>96511635
https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon

but you can literally just use graph paper and draw it out your self.,

>>96508308
To be fair, 5.14's character design space was fucked and Tasha's was a band-aid. Basically every class had 1 good subclass and 1 that was shit, plus a bunch of trap options. Versus 5.24 having 4 good subclasses for each class in the PHB. Plus on balance classes mostly getting improvements (aside from a few like the Smites).

>>96511686
It's from CBT (Cock and Ball Torture). It's Partnered content, which basically makes it homebrew with official recognition for sale alongside other WotC products.

>>96507487
What power do you want that Battlemaster doesn't cover?

>>96506691 (OP)
TQ
5e because I learned those rules and there’s enough minor annoyances about 5.5 that I don’t care to learn it.
Fucking with when subclasses come into effect was a big one

>>96509702
Share media is a good tool, but I wouldn't use it in place of a scene for an area that we're spending multiple minutes in. I'd just organise my scenes well in folders.
>>96510130
Consider making the tokens invisible and then revealing them as you describe them.
Also, ignore this guy:
>>96510563
>>96511201
He has nothing worthwhile to share.

>>96511789
The poster didn't say homebrew was allowed though.

>>96512021
>negative inference
Please don't respond if you're going to contribute literally nothing to the world.

I use pretty detailed maps with a grid. It helps to at least know where everything is. Even if it turns into just a melee in the center it helps set the scene to know what it all looks like.

>>96511850
They didn't even go the right direction.
Level 1 subclass choice for all classes would have at least allowed for the divine vessel classes to still make fucking sense, and would be an easy way to make level 1 gameplay viable.
Wizards is, as always, double retarded

>>96512104
Somewhere the designers said they recommend starting at level 3 anyways. I'm pretty sure most campaigns start at level 1 from my experience.

>>96512115
Even Gygax started at level 3. The only reason to start before that is for a tutorial for new players or dms.

>>96512104
You wouldn't even need to frontload that much power--your 1st level subclass features could mostly be ribbons that reinforce the flavor of the subclass without doing much mechanical lifting. That's what I went with in my revision, and it's worked pretty well thus far.

>>96512095
this map could be pretty good for an escape scenario where the party has to run away and limited visibility and they have to pick a side etc

would be a waste to use it just to have a dumb whiteroom melee though

It fascinates me that people take something with infinite possibilities like Dnd and reduce it to the most boring, featureless, objective-less, braindead combat encounters, and THEN force players to stare at a board while running it as if moving 2 tiles to the right or left had any impact and was not a completely pointless choice

Does this look like it'd be a fun endgame fight? What would some good ideas be for githyanki and ultimately Vlaakith as villains?

>>96511654
>I personally dislike totm in 5e because the game is trying to be precise enough in scale that the grid matters for stuff like aoe spells and movement

I am not saying that's not true in some circumstances, just that in the vast majority of shit I see posted here that is not the case, and it just serves to present the player with meaningless choices.

When you're fighting 3 kobolds in a 5x5 room, using a grid means you give a player 25 different choices of where to move. But literally none of those matter because the kobolds are gonna get in melee range no matter where they go. It and the vast majority of fights do not warrant the grid precision because they have no meaningful choices or enough scale to even include them. Presenting players with meaningless choices is a good to get your players disengaged.

>>96513085
Your no games is showing.

>>96511648
The way I interpret the module, losing the goblin ambush isn't supposed to wipe the party. It's supposed to get them captured and imprisoned with Sildar.

>>96511201
>hazards
Flood mechanic.
Gravel slip.
>objectives
Rescue Sildar Hallwinter.
Help a Goblin Boss overthrow the Bugbear.
>other interesting things
Encounter with chained-up dogs.
Natural chimney.
Goblins hidden in bushes.

If there is one thing we can be certain Phandelver is not, it's boring.

>>96513434
Can't do non-lethal with non-melee attacks, and honestly there isn't a reason for the goblins to go into melee range. I typically have 1 goblin per PC, so like 4 or 5, and maybe an extra one if there's a paladin/fighter/barb in the group. You're still going to be rolling 8-12 times for the fight, and one crit is enough to bring a PC down. I've killed a PC in that fight, I've played with PCs that have died there, and I'd rather wait till thundertree or cragmaw before I start killing characters.

>>96513902
I think it's more an opportunity to resolve it narratively.
>as the second PC goes down, they demand your surrender
>you are bound and blindfolded and your unconscious companion is stabilised

What spells and features work well with Spirit Guardians? Some apparently obvious ones like Command and Lightning Lure don't seem to work, since Command can't make someone enter dangerous terrain and Lightning Lure has only 15ft reach, and therefore can't pull anyone across the threshold to proc it an additional time this round.

In particular I was looking into a Sorcadin multiclass (Divine Soul to actually get SG) because Paladin gives tons of survivability with heavy armor and the aura + warcaster to maintain concentration. Sorlock gets access to Eldritch Blast + Grasp of Hadar, but lacks the survivability, and three classes seems like overkill when you probably want at least 8 levels of Paladin for the oath aura and an additional ASI.

>>96514195
Plant Growth + SG checkmates a lot of enemies at 5th level and it's very funny, but it's more of a team combo and less something you're going to do yourself.
>Stand 10' away from something in SG
>They need 20' of movement to move 1 square, but only have 15' since they're in SG, so their only option without reach/ranged weapons is to dash 1 square.
>Move 1 square so they're 10' away again
It's still effective at higher levels but as enemies are more likely to have ranged attacks or reach or more than 30' speed, it stops being a complete shutout.

>>96514195
Thorn Whip

Look at the shit my player wants as his token!

>>96514276
TW is nice, but not on the Paladin, Sorcerer or Cleric spell lists, so you need a feat or a multiclass to get it.

>>96514195
Clerics can get heavy armor too my guy

Any good Runesmith homebrews? I know there's a few subclasses but I'm curious if anyone's seen a good full class for it.

>>96514824
But requires different roleplay than what a sorcadin offers.

>>96514270
That is an interesting one. Not so much about maxing damage but more about immobilizing enemies. Could presumably also combine it with Command + Grovel (does that count as an obviously harmful action if you're already inside?) to further minimize movement.

>>96514824
This is true, but I've played a Cleric before and their melee capacities really just boil down to casting SG and then dodging for the rest of the combat. They also don't get the blade cantrips or Extra Attack so their direct damage is worse (which is fine for Clerics but I also want to hit things with my sword).

>>96512014
>I wouldn't use it in place of a scene for an area that we're spending multiple minutes in
It probably depends on how significant you consider the area. Normally I use Share Media or just paste an image in chat for transitional areas, like "you're visiting a shop in town". So the players stay on the Town scene, and I just pop up an image of the interior of the shop (or maybe a picture of the shopkeep if they're plot-relevant, so they have a face they can recognize.)

It's probably a side-effect of how much you rely on player tokens; my groups always have a token for their character on the active scene, and use it to track where they are in town/the dungeon/whatever. So for our playstyle, scenes which you wouldn't put your token on just get reduced to a shared image.

How do you fix the Hunter's Mark problem? It's probably too strong without concentration right?

>>96515955
* Remove concentration but still require concentration checks to maintain (since otherwise there's not pressure on their spell slots)
* Make it only allowed to proc once per turn (like Fey Wanderer's Dreadful Strikes feature)

Probably also need to scale the damage like a cantrip or something since making it only proc once causes it to lose a lot of damage (since with multi-attack you're getting it to trigger multiple times).

I think it'd be interesting to change it to "a creature you can see" instead of 90ft range, so that the tracking functionality could come up more often. (Since needing to be within 90ft to put it on a creature means you already had to... be within 90ft of them, i.e., the tracking part is done.) Not sure how that would impact its use in combat though.

>>96515955
the best ranger homebrew class already fixes it

>>96516791
>higher level requirement, worse damage type, requires a higher wisdom mod, doesn’t move for free, deals less damage early on, can’t up cast, but doesn’t take concentration (which spells are you competing with outside of like pass without trace which isn’t useful in combat but just before or conjure spells), maybe doesn’t work with beastmaster or hunter

>>96517433
it's part of a bigger package, b
https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M7iu19Af89SH2G_5RGa

>>96514283
Where'd you get this portrait of my dad?

>>96516791
>gives a bonus to tracking, but you have to see the target to mark them in the first place

They always fuck this part up.

>>96518129
What's the alternative? Some sort of tracking-themed Scrying requirements?

>>96518206
Would it be a problem if you could just slap your mark on anyone, anywhere? IMO it's something you should be able to do with nothing more than a "dead or alive" bounty poster.

>>96509621
Not sure if this is copy pasta or not. Either way, this is a quality post.

If something casts hunter's mark on you, do you know that there has been a magical effect placed on you?

>>96518571
Not inherently, no.

>fix Hunter's Mark
>when it ain't broken

>>96518703
The only thing about it that needs to be fixed is it's overall utilization.

Fix the class to better utilize Hunter's Mark by having additional options that come into play against a marked target.

>>96518727
Like what?

We already have:
>always prepared and get free casts
>Hunter's know resistance, immunity, vulnerability
>Hunter can deal mark damage to another creature
>Beast Master's companion does extra damage to marked
>Can't break Concentration
>Adv to attack
>Higher damage die

Why is Suggestion considered a charm effect but Command isn't?

>>96518703
Tying a class's whole identity to a single spell is fucking lame. They went out of their way to give Warlock more options and make things besides Eldritch Blast a viable option, but for some reason they doubled down on Ranger being the Hunter's Mark machine. It reduces the overall complexity and choice progression of the class.

>>96518997
Because Suggestion is affecting the target mentally, influencing their natural decision-making to do your bidding. You are subverting their will and making them think that your will is their own desire.
Command is compelling them to physically act against their will. You force a command on them that animates them in the way you command. The target doesn't think of the command as their own will. They know they are being forced to act.
One affects the mind while the other affects the body.

>>96518997
Cause Command is really potent control- they don't even need to hear or understand you to be affected by it. You basically just will a person to what you want!
Command a person to 'flee' making them autodefenestrate or jump down a 300+ foot pit/cliff! Or 'grovel' making them fall out of the sky! Command them to 'drop' making them drop the person or item or thing they are protecting!

>>96519121
>One affects the mind while the other affects the body.
Makes sense, thanks for the answer

>>96509621
>They cannot cope with the fact that not everyone liked their stupid-ass "shouting the severed arm back on" abilities
as opposed to "sleeping the severed arm back on," the thing that happens every single time you take a long rest in 5e?

>>96501464
Since nobody gave an actual answer, KibblesTasty and Laserllama's Warlords are the top two recs I've seen, though haven't used either:

Kibbles: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e7eab9fcc76e2321541f8b3/t/67368605f7c163502c235b74/1731626506167/WarlordV1.6-compressed.pdf

Llama: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-MrUNf61qoDb0Csw8a9r

>>96519178
Thank you. I think my buddy will go with KibblesTasty's version, but I will show him Llamas as well.

I have another question for the thread-

Does Heliana's guide for collecting monster parts/crafting feel worth it? I like the idea of it, but I don't want to bog down the table if it is unrewarding.

I'm starting an open world pirate game next month. Where is the best place to find players? Also, my pirate colony is an anarcho-capitalist reputation based society where they all bank in a temple vault and exchange cash via a ledger-system like a blockchain (I don't know what that is.) I'm making them level via treasure item sales. I want to make some kind of insurance system for when one of them dies, to give them an option for a resurrect. Thoughts?

>>96519893
Killing Floor servers. That's where I got my group.

>>96519893
>Also, my pirate colony is an anarcho-capitalist reputation based society where they all bank in a temple vault and exchange cash via a ledger-system like a blockchain (I don't know what that is.)
Is this a joke? Why would you inject this retardation into a fun pirate adventure?

I play with friends so don’t have any recommended sites. I will say don’t ever recruit on 4chan. There are good players and DMs here but they aren’t the ones joining games on this Mongolian basket weaving forum.

>>96519893
I find the blockchain namedrop interesting because it implies there's more than one participant in the distributed ledger, and none of the participants trust each other. (Since a blockchain is a distributed ledger where majority consensus is required to add changes.) Like that there's these competing vaults spread out around the player-accessible world that are in a cold war with each other over business interests, but forced to transact with each other to keep the system from collapsing.

Riffing on that, you could have different vaults offer insurance policies with strings attached? And so if the players resurrect, they get given a job that puts them in the bad graces of one of the other vaults? Like a letter of marques or something? If the players have worked with both vaults that could put them at odds with former friends and allies for some drama.

>>96515955
Hunter's mark is fine, it's a spell. Favored terrain is what makes ranger unique and needs to make a big comeback. Deft exploorer and roving are good but they're so watered down.

The other thing the ranger needs is more utility spells. Paladins have smites, rangers have...a strange list of offensive spells. I won't deny that most are good or cool, but what a ranger needs to provide is support, and increasing their personal spell list is one of the easier ways to do so.

>>96509140
Having only played two campaigns and each only as far as level 5 I can't claim to be good at character design but I didn't think the ideas were both so terrible. I suppose it is difficult to justify either being recruited by a party, I just thought the roleplaying aspects would be fun. Neither were intended to be played as characters who would be "that guy" creating chaos. The goblin would use minor illusion to hide by creating the illusion of a crate around him were he attacked. The weaver was supposed to be an arrogant character who would take charge and end up tanking in fights through arrogance rather than intent. I would honestly like to improve upon both characters if you have any tips, but I know without meeting the DM it's difficult to know what will work.

>>96509183
Fair enough. I did think Hexblade would work better and would make more sense, I just like the idea of a GOO Warlock

>>96520021
ranger is already fixed thanks to based laserllama

Is this build cringe?
Circle of Spore Druid that has Scribe/Wizard Initiate background such that at level 8 the character would deal 1d10 + Wis (Shillelagh) + 1d8 (Booming Blade) + 1d8 (Elemental Fury) + 1d6 (Symbiotic Entity) every turn with only Wild Shape being the resource used.

>>96520084
>cringe
No? If you want to wade into melee as a druid, more power to you. You're optimizing something suboptimal. That's the best way to play dnd. Just go have fun.

>>96520084
flavor wise that seems really gay

>>96520132
The issue is it could get more optimized. 14 Dex, a shield & Warden from Primal Order will get this character's AC to 19. The Wizard Initiate background feat can give this character shield. It seems wicked ham fisted to me.
>>96520187
That's my fear

>>96520084
>Is this build cringe?
>optimizing the combat efficiency a character by picking abilities that are ill-fitting to its theme in a roleplaying game controlled by a human that adapts the difficulty on the fly anyway and in which combat is just one of the 3 pillars
idk you tell me

>>96520251
What's the theme of his pc, anon?

>>96520073
I've read it its pretty good. It's leagues above the regular ranger in terms of strength which is already strong but stuff just feels overtuned. His homemade fighting styles are on par with whole 2014 feats and are optimized in a way to lead you into using studded leather armor (which is the optimal armor for dex users). Knacks are cool and feel like invocations, but are more like feats in terms of strength.

>30-ft swim speed and hold your breath for an hour
>arcane recovery, a whole class feature
>trapper I think this one is hella cool but way stronger than a warlock invocation

It just feels like a lot, but probably makes a lot more sense and balanced when used with his other class reworks, but doesn't work when dropped into a normal 5e campaign with normal 5e classes.

Here are some spells.

>>96520404
yeah some of the knacks are way overtuned, but it's nice for my party since our ranger is technically incompetent

The age old question of- "Does a Warlock lose their power if their Patron is killed or if they break their Pact?" is one determined by that very Pact/Deal.
>If the Pact explicitly states that if the Patron is killed/dead all of the Warlocks abilities are gone- then that's what happens.
>If the Pact explicitly states that in the event of the Patron's death/killing the Pact will persist and continue to give power as long as the Warlock continues to uphold the stipulations- then that's what happens.
>If the Pact explicitly states that if the Warlock breaks their Pact all of their Warlock abilities are gone- then that's what happens.
>If the Pact explicitly states that if the Warlock breaks their Pact the Warlock can no longer gain new Warlock abilities, but retain what they have- then that's what happens.
>If the Pact explicitly states that if the Warlock makes the Patron angry or breaks rules within the Pact- the Warlock will suffer some consequences but that consequence cannot be the loss or ability to gain power- then that's what happens.
The Pact doesn't have to be a physical thing- it could be a metaphysical force that exists beyond the life and death of the Patron and Warlock- the key here is knowing what the Pact/Deal requires of both parties and knowing the existence of consequences from said pact/deal.

>>96522040
it's determined by the dm along with the player when workshopping the character and can change over the course of the campaign

>>96522040
I agree with >>96522347, unless the details of the Pact are literally hashed out in-character at the table, what happens is just player/DM fiat. Good mechanism for explaining away the "erm how come Wesley the Warlock still has his powers?" in-character though. I do like the idea that the Patron can die and the Pact is still valid, gives a very Lovecraftian "even dead gods dream" vibe, which gels with the idea the character's power derives from some eldritch/unfathomable source.

>>96522347
>>96522448
This is all assumed that the DM and player discuss this of course. The entire pact/deal is determined by the DM and Player when the character was made/discussed.

Hot off the 5e dot tools Discord.

>>96515955
There are no mechanical problems with Hunter's Mark. The problem is purely a matter of bad telegraphing to the player. It's mentally anti-ergonomic.

It's intended purpose is to be an always applicable, dirt cheap fallback for when none of the Ranger's much stronger but more situational spells apply.

Entangle? Spike Growth? They're flying.
Fog Cloud? Silence? It'd hinder our casters more than theirs, or they don't have any.
Conjure Woodland? Too far away.
Okay fuck it, I guess I'll just use one of my free shitty damage boosts. Damage always solves, as they say, and every little bit helps.

The improvements at previously dead levels are just there to make it stay baseline useful instead of falling behind, and also because 5.5 specifically tries to not have dead levels ever, even if it makes the goal of the class seem skewed when everything else stays identical (e.g. the common complaint that the new druid was "all about wildshape" when it was largely identical other than the side grade one large nerf and small compensating buffs broken over several levels to wild shape.)

BUT, like I just alluded to, the way it's written having so much named feature page space, makes it seem like it's super important to the Ranger class to always have on, and thus feels like you're actually punished with a damage debuff whenever you're using a good spell, nevermind that the good spell is adding like 50% DPR to your whole team or completely shutting down half the enemy combatants.

There's a similar problem with Smite, albeit it's less free. And that one playtest version of Warlock and Hex. Players just generally drastically overvalue shitty bonus damage over tide-turning party buffs and mass CC, ESPECIALLY if there's any class features improving them.

(Cont.)

>>96523605
(Cont.)
I'm not pro-designer, but if I HAD to try and fix it I would do the following.
>Combine all Favored Foe upgrades into the same initial entry so it's obvious that it's just upgrades to keep pace rather than importance.
>Since they're both at lvl 1 now, list it AFTER spellcasting, so that the player is primed with "spell slots and concentration is for spellcasting" and then introduced to the idea of "but if you're not using those, you can use them on this instead."
>Possibly don't even make it a spell just a concentration magic effect like tashas did, then lay it on thick in the flavor blurb that it's the ranger's magic manifesting in another way when they're not using it.

>>96519105
See, like this guy. He thinks rangers are supposed to be casting hunters mark all the time. He thinks it's their entire identity, when the actual core identity is the same as it always has been, "Basic martial chassis with access to druid CC and utility instead of any martial gubbins." He doesn't even notice that Ranger had both it's martial aspects got improved with weapon masteries, or it's druidic casting EXTREMELY improved with prep casting, going from the least spells known in the game even less than eldritch knight in the game to equal to paladin before domain, got several of its signature spells improved, and you know, actually got druidic focus access allowing it to staff + shield.
He sees "4 features related to hunter's mark, so it's the hunters mark class" just completely ignore half of his class, it's primary source of strength, because the backup option got some buffs.
It kind of like the same mistake people make about monk where they never buy any weapons because "it's the punch class" when okay yes they get a lot of buffs to punching because it normally sucks hard ass, but nevertheless optimally monks should always carry a shortbow, a fuckton of throwing daggers, and a handaxe, and a spear, the spear because versatile it outdamages main Attack fists for several levels especially in 2014, for full BSP coverage, and for medium and long range options. Does the monk lose martial arts wielding the shortbow? Sure. But you're still proficient, it's already dex, and you couldn't BA punch them from 80-320ft away, so you lose nothing from it turning off temporarily.

People just don't think to nose-to-tail use the whole animal, they only see the obvious bonuses.
Same reason so many newbie DMs think rogue has busted damage when it's literally the worst performing martial at full tilt (well, arguably late levels 2014 monk, but that's ignoring all stun DPS bumps to allies.)

>>96516220
You're basically describing one of Hunter's Mark's playtest builds.

Daily reminder that vampires always turn to ash/mist when they die unless your setting sucks, so they should all have the trait "relentless endurance" and should all fall over and play possum because everyone knows vampires are dick backs. when playing possum, they can

>regenerate health for a few rounds
>run away to live to fight another day
>stand back up and back stab an unspecting NPC or player who thought the coast was clear.
>allow them a second round of monologuing after someone with a high medicine skill figures out they aren't dead, or someone else realzies that they should be dust and not a corpse.

>>96525097
unless someone **

>>96522040
I would assume !clerics like Warlock also just get permanent connection to their magic the same way regular clerics do. Anything else is something done by the DM.

>>96525095
>doesn't even notice that Ranger had both it's martial aspects got improved
Now don't put words in my mouth.
I am not "ignoring half of the class." They deliberately placed additional emphasis instead of giving the Ranger more interesting options. Saying they got more robust core casting changes little about this. Casting improvements and the addition of weapon masteries on their own are merely power increases. I'm talking about flavor. Take my example of Warlock. They diversified the options available for their cantrip-based abilities whereas they made it clearer that Hunter's Mark is a core part of Ranger. They sign post you wanting to have Hunter's Mark on the mind during play even if it's just a thing you do while not concentrating on a more useful spell, but I do not think that is compelling design.
"Single spell as a class feature" is just kind of lame to begin with.
>oh, they aren't the Hunter's Mark class, they're a Druidic caster with fighting skills
Isn't the gotcha you think it is. To begin with, Ranger already has strained identity because they can't decide exactly what they want to do with it.
Do not mistake disagreement with misunderstanding.

>>96522448
>I do like the idea that the Patron can die and the Pact is still valid, gives a very Lovecraftian "even dead gods dream" vibe, which gels with the idea the character's power derives from some eldritch/unfathomable source.
My first thought was like a Celestial that knows its about to die or go into some grand war for the heavens where it won't survive- as its penultimate act it forges a Pact with a mortal and the pact would have a ton of rules (Commandments if you will) and tasks that the mortal would have to upkeep. The Warlock won't lose their powers unless they do something really bad- but will be punished when they don't follow the rules and uphold their tasks and rewarded for going further beyond.

Crooked Moon by the Legends of Avantris looks really fun. Anyone ran it? Read it?

>>96525430
Is that out yet?

>>96525454
the pdf is, some peoples books are arriving

so they raped Spiritual Weapon while i wasn't looking then.

>>96525477
clerics were already and still are the best class in the game, but i suppose there's a reason to pick war outside of RP reasons

We had the first fight with a miniboss and one of the players fell unconscious (although he was healed afterward). I'm a little scared because the GM isn't afraid to kill us. I really don't want my barbarian to die since his family would be left in poverty.

>>96525509
Having one member of a party go down during a tough fight is not unusual. But going down is a far cry from permadeath, and even if you actually die there are ways to bring you back. Depends on what the GM decides, however usually character death stuff is talked about at the beginning of a game. Some people like games to not be lethal for story/narrative purposes, some people like super lethal games which is more old school style. However, even if your character dies and there are consequences for the people around him, that's part of the game too and I don't think you should be afraid of that.

>>96525509
>Playing the class with innate damage resistance
>Being afraid to die
Your ancestors are laughing at you.

>>96525586
My PC was having a great day decapitating lesser enemies. Until we encountered the miniboss, a magic user. And then my apparent invincibility went.
the miniboss only used cantrips, but they always hit me because of my reckless and low ac, and since it was magic damage, I got all of the damage.
I wouldn't be lying if I said his offensive cantrip was tearing me to pieces. Although I managed to land a huge crit that left him on the verge of death. then the little druid, with very little strength, finished him off with a swing from her stick.

>>96525652
Consider looking into the Totem/Wild Heart Barbarian. Self Survival is kinda their thing!

If I wanted to play a Kalashtar GOOlock, would the quori spirit fused with them be powerful enough to be a patron? If something low CR like a Unicorn can be a Celestial Patron, I'd think a Quori would be strong enough to serve as a GOO.

If not, what Eberron setting specific entities would be a good fit?

how do you play seelie/unseelie
something besides good-evil
whats the best book on it?

>>96526130
Benevolent vs Malevolent, but both are sociopaths, trying to understand fey morality is retarded. Seelie will justify their cruelty, while the unseelie will just enjoy it.

>>96526130
In one of my games we treat the Summer Court as Chaotic Good/Neutral Good/Chaotic Neutral and Winter Court as Lawful Good/Lawful Neutral/Lawful Evil/True Neutral.

We took the Faerun "Titania's sister got corrupted by evil magic, then was kicked out of the Summer Court"; the sister is running the Winter Court as a way of getting back at Titania. Since the Summer Court is the largest and best organized of the Fey groups, any Fey who dislike their goals or members gravitates toward the Unseelie.

We also have an angle where the Summer Court rejects ugly/misshapen/monstrous Fey (basically racism), so the Unseelie have an angle where they can be the "good guys" (since otherwise there's very little reason to like them as a player).

In our game the Seelie-aligned Fey tend to prefer emotion-based pranks, and the Unseelie-aligned Fey tend to prefer logic-based pranks. Both could play a trick where you're lost in the forest; the Seelie-Fey laugh because they enjoy seeing you bumble around confused, and the Unseelie-Fey laugh because they're enjoying your slowly growing fear of never finding your way home. Unseelie Fey might challenge you to a game of Dragon Chess where you can't seem to remember where you left your piece last turn, or offer a job where the contract has a hidden loop-hole you'll need to find to escape it.

>>96526221
>the Summer Court rejects ugly/misshapen/monstrous Fey
hm interesting, stealing that

>>96526235
Ye, a seelie fey will bless a human with long life because "her hair was golden like the summer sun shining on a field of wheat, it was so lovely!" and that same fey might scalp another human because its ugly brown hair was too common and one less in the world is a service to beauty.

After what sort of accomplishments do player characters start earning some sort of recognition?

>>96526269
That depends entirely on your setting's power level.

>>96526269
after every accomplishment, it's just the scope of the recognition
lvl 1: a few people / 1 family they helped
lvl 2-3: the sheriff, the whole village
lvl 4-5: a county, a couple villages, a small region
lvl 5-10: a kingdom
lvl 10-15: a continent or hemisphere
lvl 15+: planet or plane
lvl 20: planes

>>96526288
Forgotten Realms, Grey Hawk, Eberron, Ravnica, Dragonlance, Ravenloft etc. Mainline DnD settings, nothing homebrewed. Are they really that divergent from one another in terms of power scaling? I was under the impression that they're all, more-or-less, the same being that they're under created with the same game system in mind.

If they're not, do you have an idea where I can find some examples of how they differ?

>>96526293
So my question is how does this work for a campaign whose PCs start at higher levels than 1, but maybe not higher than 7 or 8. How much of the onus is on the players and DM to justify their levels based off of their achievements prior to the start of the campaign? I'm wanting to really flesh out the renown of my players, as one of their rewards for service, but I get the sense that it could be really hit-or-miss with some of my people. The benefits would be indirect and less "tangible" than something like coinage or powerful equipment

>>96526405
The difference is more to do with what's common in the setting than anything in the game rules. FR infamously has tons of high level characters, so the party would need to do more to be of note in FR than in a setting where that's less common.

>>96509059
Morbid Mannequin
Necromancy
Allows the caster to mentally move and pose a corpse, even making the corpse walk, if it is intact enough . Rigor Mortis sets in at the end of the spell, locking it in place. Attempting to force the limbs to move after this would require a (caster spell DC) strength check.

Obviously it would be lower level than Create Undead, though clearly not a cantrip. I feel it would be a useful utility spell for low level necromancer types

>>96509059
PAWNCH

>>96526405
>I'm wanting to really flesh out the renown of my players, as one of their rewards for service, but I get the sense that it could be really hit-or-miss with some of my people.
Have an informal hangout and shoot the shit about what their accomplishments are. Have everyone make that backstory together. Took down a bandit camp? Thwarted a cult plot? Stopped a group of trolls from ravaging a settlement?

>>96509059
See >>96520404

Post the strongest magic items your party has, I'm looking for inspiration for high level loot.

>>96526405
In my games in my homebrew settings, a level 7-8 party would have like a 50% chance of having done something really famous, so that it could open some doors (i.e. you may have heard of the vampire conspiracy in X town, we were the ones to find it and destroy it). At level 4-6 maybe 10% of that, but 50% of at least having done something to make them recognized locally, but hardly famous enough for the news to spread outside of the immediate region (i.e. saving lots of people from a burning building). Lower level than that and they might at most have built a good reputation with some groups.
Maybe you could do some sort of a point system, per character or per party, 1 point per level and
7 points (whole party must spend): you did something famous enough to spread rumors
4 points (whole party spends): you did something to become minor local heroes
3 points: you did something helpful for a decently powerful group, for example helped the mage's guild retrieve stolen rare components
2 points: you helped somebody useful, like a good weaponsmith or a minor noble
1 point: you helped some literal nobody, i.e. saved a shepherd from wolves.
Then either have everyone decide before the game or alternatively allow them to keep the points and retroactively spend them as necessary.

Are there enough ways to stack jump height + negate fall damage to make a viable build out of the concept of "grapple enemy, leap into the air, piledrive them into the ground"?

Like in theory a Monk+Rogue with Jump, Boots of Striding and Springing, and Step of the Wind can leap around 100 feet in the air, but if he's dealing a decent amount of damage to the enemy for his trouble, his Slow Fall feature isn't going to be negating a whole lot of it until the Monk is very high level.

>>96527255
What does this have to do with D&D 5e?

>5e 2024
When you have someone grappled and you cast a spell at it with a range of touch, is the spell considered autohit since you're already touching the target?
>You also need warcaster or subtle spell to cast while grappling.

>>96527985
>You also need warcaster or subtle spell to cast while grappling
Not true.
War Caster doesn't have any interaction with grappling to begin with, it only mentions having both hands occupied by weapons or a shield.
In typical grappling circumstances, nothing prevents you from casting while grappling. Initiating and/or maintaining a grapple only requires one free hand, and your other hand can be used for somatic components.
Subtle Spell can remove the somatic components, but you don't NEED to do that in order to cast while grappling.

RAW, touch spells do not auto-hit if you're already touching the target, because the spells don't say that that's what they do. They say to make an attack roll, so you make the attack roll.

If you want some flavor to explain the RAW, from what I can find, it doesn't seem to be specified where a spell is actually emitted from a wizard's body. So for a spell which requires somatic components (basically all touch-range spells) you can imagine that the spell gets emitted from the hand that performs the somatic components, which is necessarily not the same hand you're currently using to grapple the enemy.
Hitting the grappled enemy with your free hand's spell attack would then require an attack roll just like hitting a grappled enemy with your sword would require an attack roll.

>>96519902
Based
>>96519916
Sounds faggy but it's actually a great idea. It gives them a believable reputation system and ties together the pirate society. In our world, the pirates aren't a mixed race ethnic hub like Tortuga, they're more like politically refugees ala early America. If it doesn't work we'll just have an invasion and move on.
>>96519932
It is partially true. They don't trust each other, so they all agreed to let in a single temple from the god of order. Tis they use as their bank. Anyone who signs the bank charter is called "Under Mercy" (town is Port Mercy). If you're under mercy, they give you a magic ledger. All pages are blank. You can write someone's name at the top and it will bring up pending legal actions, other world government warrants, officaily Mercy court infractions, and their last ~10 transactions and total gold in vault. You can write their name plus a date, and it will return all their transactions on that date.
The whole point of this is as a basis for a reputation system, and a tool for later RP.

My party disrupted an elemental ritual and in the process of unwinding the energy contained in the circle they're trying to enchant a bunch of stuff with fiery magic. What's an interesting idea for a pair of gloves thusly infused with magic? Don't say fire damage on hit because I already thought of that, and I am NOT giving a monk anything that gives them extra damage dice on hit.

>>96528330
If there is any source of fire within 60 feet, the wearer can, as an action, cast the Burning Hands spell at a level appropriate to the size of the fire source (level 1 for torches and below, level 2 for campfires, level 3 for lit fireplaces, and so on,) with the cone originating from the source of the fire, aimed in whatever direction they like.
The source of fire used for this action is snuffed out in the process.

Which would you rather have in your part; Pacifist cleric of Ilmater or pacifist druid?

>>96528573
Neither- true pacifism is nearly impossible in your standard adventuring party. You are contributing to the harm of others by healing, empowering, and defending your allies/the Party while they continue to fight.
I'd rather you say you play a support Cleirc or Druid. Peace Domain Cleric works well for this. The UA Preservation Druid looks like a fantastic support option as well. Both have Bless- the Druid has mass Temp HP spam to keep the party healthy while the Peace Domain Cleric has healing and Emboldening Bond to buff saves and attacks which combos with Bless.

>>96528330
>I am NOT giving a monk anything that gives them extra damage dice on hit
Why not?

>>96528573
>pacifist druid
>wildshapes to Bailisk
>hey, petrification in not killing

>>96528330
Gloves that let the user cast Wall of Fire? Cone of Cold but Fire Damage? Aganazzar Scorcher for a fire kamehameha? Scorching Ray? Fireball? Loads of Fire spells exist
You could even have it have Summon Elemental [Fire Only] if you wanted...or Conjure Minor Elementals [Fire Only] if you were okay with giving them extra damage that at least requires an Action set up.

>>96529044
NTA, but seconding this question. Why not? We got Dual Wielding + Nick for level 4 PCs attacking 3 Times a turn for no limited resource cost and at level 5 thats 4 Attacks per turn. Would giving them a Vicious Shortsword or Scimitar suddenly break the game?

>>96528330
Let them cast a version of 3e's Shape Metal spell with some kind of usage limitation.

>>96506691 (OP)
>If you were to start a new campaign, either as a player or DM, would you rather play 5e or 5.5e? Why/why not?
2014 with select stuff like Exhaustion backported. Basically make an edited version of the 2024 glossary available as quick reference. Most of the 2024 changes to characters and spells are fine, but just not worth wading through the awful writing.

>>96506691 (OP)
>If you were to start a new campaign, either as a player or DM, would you rather play 5e or 5.5e? Why/why not?

If I were to choose just one, 5.5e just to try it. But if I could only play one and the other was destroyed forever, 5e. And obviously the correct answer is >>96529561, 5e with bits and pieces from 5.5e

>start magical academy campaign
>play paleo obsessed druid outcast who is trying to spread and legitimize his beliefs through higher education
what subclass do I pick in 5.5?

>>96526130
I like the idea of Fey being naturally immortal but that immortality doesn't mean continuity of self.

With that, a fey creature you met years ago and was kind to you could be a complete evil piece of shit and vice versa because their whole being changes after death to the next "season". Best part is they retain all their memories of their prior seasons but experience them from the perspective of someone telling them who they were rather than the connection of having experienced it themselves which may explain why the fey is torturing you and being particularly cruel about it.

If it gets bad enough, just kill them and hope they are not as bad the next time around.

>>96530775
>Best part is they retain all their memories of their prior seasons but experience them from the perspective of someone telling them who they were rather than the connection of having experienced it themselves

That's really fucking weird (based), I don't think I would personally use that for the fey as a whole, but that is a very clever idea. Very cool Anon.

>>96530796
That makes sense. Reserving it for specific types of Fey or what simply constitues the upper castes makes more sense while the lesser ones simply reincarnate with basic memories of whatever their tasks was but can be either nicer or meaner give or take.

Most of this idea came in trying to figure out the fey politics of one group decided to change how the religion of the local mortal population interacted with themselves as a way of consolidating power to counter another force trying to invade which leads to a sort of monothesitic religion with their Human emissary as its focus.

>>96530763
moon druid and ask your dm to turn into dinosaurs

>>96530763
>>96530836

>when you want to learn a new dino, you need 12 hours of research
>when you finish, nature check, DC 15
>Success: get new dino form of your choice
>10-14, get a dino form of 1 CR lower of the DMs choice
>less than 10 is a failure
>subplot: two sneaky elves steals your research notes; one a transmutation wizard, the other a conjuration wizard
>the transmutation wizard combines the ideas in your notes with tree frogs and jelly fish to create monstrosities
>the conjuration wizard devises a way to summon the creatures as disposable soldiers for sale

Sometimes I feel like there's nothing to talk about with 5e. No books to get excited about. The game is 10 years old. Even 5.5e was barely a shake up. You can talk about your own campaign but this isn't a personal blog. When do people think we'll get a real 6e?

>>96532096
2033 at the earliest.

>>96532096
>When do people think we'll get a real 6e?
When people get tired of 5e's bad design and want a serious change.

So never, I guess.

>>96532096
Let's talk about the taste of drow breast milk

>>96532243
Probably tastes like pine sap in an effort to wean drow children as quickly as possible.

>>96529044
>>96529215
Because he already has a source of extra damage dice on hit and I don't want to give him another.

>>96532251
Ed Greenwood weighed in on the topic a while back.

>>96532310
Based old pervert hippie

>>96532310
We also know what color drow nipples are. Easier to imagine. When my wife was lactating you bet I drank that milk straight from the source while we had sex. It made me diamonds.

>>96532522
Can't a woman be kept lactating indefinitely as long as she continues to be milked?

>>96526499
>1d4 damage
>10 foot range

literally the worst cantrip I've ever seen in my life. good fucking god, why are 5e homebrewers allergic to content being usable?

>Sequester
>You can set a condition for the spell to end early. The condition can be anything you choose, but it must occur or be visible within 1 mile of the target. Examples include "after 1,000 years" or "when the tarrasque awakens." This spell also ends if the target takes any damage.
>tarrasque awakers

What if it doesn't awaken within 1 mile?

>>96532932
Looks like the low damage is to offset the push. How about instead

>10ft. range
>1d8 force
>Strength save or be pushed 5 feet for Large or smaller

Gust has a range of 30ft. but only effects Medium or smaller and doesn't do damage. Went for a d8 to keep range low

>>96522040
>am explicit contract like pact with a great old one

dis nigga

>>96532921
Unfortunately she decided to wean the baby off after just a year. It was a big hassle for her to pump or breastfeed regularly so I didn’t feel it would be fair for me to ask her to continue just for my own sexual pleasure. Aside from the lack of sleep it was a very nice year. She pumped the milk too so I put it in my coffees in the morning.