>>94740819
I try to design encounters where some manner of target priority matters. Like a mage maintaining a buff spell on multiple enemies, or a weak monster with a buff aura. Warlord-style leaders/officers that give their actions to their minions. I've even experimented with mashup monsters and the two-headed, two-tailed, two-bodied snake

Boss Monster Psionic Bag Jelly
Medium Ooze, Unaligned
Armor Class 9
Hit Points 40/40/40
Speed 20 ft., climb 10 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
13 (+1) 9 (-1) 19 (+4) 2(-4) 14 (+2) 2 (-4)
Damage Resistances acid, fire, bludgeoning
Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
Senses blindsight 60 ft. (can't see beyond this radius), passive Perception 12
Languages —
Challenge 4 (200 XP) Proficiency Bonus +2
Amorphous. The bag jelly can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing.
Boss: Acts on Initiative 15, 10, and 5. Lose 1 action per lost HP block
Ruptured Organelle: when an HP block is lost, the Jelly releases all grappled foes and casts Armor of Agathys as a reaction.
Spellcasting (DC 12, +4 atk)
At will: Mind Sliver (7 dmg)
3/day: Arms of Hadar (8 dmg), Armor of Agathys (5hp), Crown of Madness
Actions
Multiattack. The bag jelly makes two Pseudopod attacks or Mind Sliver and one pseudopod.
Pseudopod. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d6 + 1) acid damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it has the grappled condition (escape DC 11). Ability checks made to escape this grapple have disadvantage.

>>94740819
I like to give my major encounters some kind of core mechanic that doesn't necessarily have to be SOLVED, but can be interacted with in order to simplify the encounter or conserve resources. Whether it's that the mage's barrier can be brought down by destroying his summoned minions next to it or even just a greater emphasis on keeping certain NPCs safe, there's a reason to care about what's going on in the encounter beyond just how big your numbers are.

On the other hand, if they find a way to cheese something and stymie an enemy such that they CAN just keep throwing damage at him because they've radically altered his priority list, I stick to that as a point of honor. They're allowed to outwit and outmaneuver enemies, even if it means I have to scramble to make the rest of the session interesting. They've earned it.

>>94740819
>tq
Stagger combatant entrances

If I'm invisible, as per One With Shadows, what happens to things I pick up?

Items?
How about a pet dog (willing creature)?
How about another PC (willing, sentient creature)?

Thanks. Trying to figure out if I can pack a PC around stealthily as a caster with Powerful Build. Have an idea for a character who's whole bit is search and rescue and was wondering how the rules work in this situation.

>>94741393
Creatures aren't objects, but corpses are. Do with that as you will.

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For using two Hand Crossbows, is Two-Weapon Fighting or Archery better?

I'm mainly a melee character, but I'm going to end up with two Fighting Styles and I'm not sure which to go with. My main will be Dueling, but I can't decide on the second.

The Hand Crossbow will be for triggering Swordsbard Mobile Flourish to close the distance quickly, so I'm wondering if the +2 from Archery will be worth that, or if I should shift into two Hand Crossbows for ranged combat, or if I should go for something else like Defense.

With the weapon switching rules, can you have a single Hand Crossbow on you, shoot, move, and then stow it and draw a sword on the same turn?

>>94741462
I like yer thinkin'.

Don't really help me much (I have a severe case of the dumb) though. So, no invisible piggyback/princess carry then?

>>94741626
Sure you can, just kill them first and resurrect them later.

>>94741667
And if they're alive?

>>94741693
creatures aren't objects

How to challenge a party around level 10 in a low magic setting? When they can fly, rearrange walls of dungeons etc a lot of conventional obstacles / exploration is trivially sidestepped.

>>94741792
Don't let them do those things in a low magic setting

>>94741792
>low magic setting
>can fly, rearrange walls of dungeons, etc
You don't have a low magic setting anymore, and you haven't had one for at least 4 levels.

You need to actually introduce houserules and homebrew to create a low magic setting within 5e from the start of the campaign. You can't just say it's low magic and expect everything to fall into place.

>>94741803
>>94741799
Yeah well I fucked up didn't I. Let's assume I'm retconning it into a higher magic setting. How do you stop that stuff then beyond the module approach of "the walls of this dungeon cannot be rearranged" style copouts. What are legitimate challenges at that level?

>>94741792
>>94741844
Introduce antagonists who secretly hunt down all magic users who exceed a certain level of proficiency, and make them so retardedly OP that a single one can counterspell every turn and almost beat a party of five.

>>94741844
>Let's assume I'm retconning it into a higher magic setting.
Unironically look into cultivation stories for an idea of how to do that (somewhat) organically. Most people live in the mundane, low-magic world, but those who attain a certain level of power find themselves drawn into the higher-magic world the next level up. There, they interact with people more suitable to their newfound abilities.

Normally, I wouldn't recommend that kind of dreck, but it seems like the best way to square this particular circle.

>>94741975
Wouldn't that make gishes OP?

>>94741979
Only if the DM makes them OP

>>94741844
Flight should be easy at that level. There are plenty of dangerous flying and magical enemies at that point.
Beyond that, simply make larger and more sprawling dungeons. They only have so many uses of Stone Shape, Passwall, Transmute Rock, Move Earth, etc. and if their destination has more rooms between them and it, then it's going to be harder to get there even if they take shortcuts.

On top of that, you can also implement fancier traps that cause problems when the walls are broken through. If they've in an active volcano, then hitting a gas pocket or a lava flow is a valid concern.
Conversely, you can also avoid it by making the dungeon out of something else. A giant beehive isn't made of stone. A glacier fortress isn't made of stone. A necromancer's bone castle isn't made of stone. A coral undersea palace isn't made of stone.

Ultimately I'm happy if the players are deciding to spend some of their highest level spell slots on trying to make shortcuts, because it usually means they're actually engaged and thinking about the dungeon's layout, and those spells aren't going towards trivializing other matters.

And to touch on flight, you mainly want other triggers for traps aside from just tripwires and pressure plates. Alarm spells, Glyph of Warding, Hallow. Guards and Wards is a pretty good one, and that can be made permanent.
Having living guards around to trigger the traps is also helpful, or otherwise just putting enemies alongside your physical obstacles. Flying over a river of lava isn't as easy when some salamanders slither out and start shooting fireballs, and salamanders are more fun to fight if there's a bunch of fire traps in the room that are easier to step on in the confusion.

The Tough origin feat basically turns a d8 on level up hitpoint class into a d12 one, right? If you're like a Monk or a Rogue you start to build health like a Barbarian.

>>94742141
On levelup, yes. Still can't get those extra 2 from 1st level, but also you're only getting Barb health with Barb con.

>>94742259
NTA, but the feat says you get extra HP immediately equal to 2 x your character level.
That still only takes you from 8 to 10 to start, but you still get the extra 2 right away.

>>94740819
>What do you like to do to make encounters more complex than "whale on the big monster for half an hour",

a few from current campaigns im running
>fight in alchemy room where they have to create an alchemical solution while fighting off endless oozes spawning, all the while any aoe or attack miss causes a random roll on alchemy mishap table, which has both positive or negative effects
>fight in demonic shrine where statue with treasure in its open mouth slowly closes, players have to choose between retrieve more loot/gold with their action or fighting the enemies
>fight on shipwreck beach where giant hermit crabs use the pieces of hulls as shells, scavenging for new ones when destroyed
>fight in botanical garden overtaken by bodytaker plant, with pods of clones being grown that pop every round with random npc classes/abilities. the fire protection system can be activated by starting a fire, summoning water elementals that attempt to whelm anything that is on fire
>fight against gnolls raiding a village and setting fire to homes, party must rescue people trapped in houses or dispatch the gnolls
>fight in asteroid hurling through the void, endless hordes of star spawn crawl from underneath to overwhelm the party, while a great old one warlock teleports around harrying them with voidspells. the smaller rocks orbitting the asteroid spin and change position on the battlefield every round, changing the environment but also knocking over whoever is in the way

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>>94740819
What do you guys think? Different enough from Summon Undead (Ghost) or still too samey?

How do you handle bigger combat scenarios with lots of npcs? Not talking about a war, something smaller than that, like a robbery. My last session was almost entirely combat, lasting like 5+ hours irl, and for a HUGE portion of it nobody got to do anything except for the DM who was having npcs fight. Rounds took forever and half the party was immobilized an enemy types attack.
Going to be DMing a game soon and I need some advice.

>>94742741
Absolutely do not have NPCs fight other NPCs, unless if there's ones on the PCs side and even then keep them focused on support. The players have enough resources to impact things and the players trying to impact the scenario and vice versa is enough to make turn by turn engaging. When literally only the DM is doing anything in an encounter it's a dogshit time.
What you can do to run scenarios with many NPCs:
>group the same type together in initiative. all bandits act at 8, the two guards act at 11, etc.
>know exactly what the NPCs want and can do, typically by keeping most entities simple enough, while being open to the sway of battle. if someone casts fireball on a dance floor, the crowd isn't going to just hang around
>if you must have different factions at play, some on the PCs side, don't run them as full entities in combat; abstract them as either legendary/lair actions and give them a "morale HP" of some kind to flee if they're attacked enough

>>94742741
Don't roll anything for NPC parties fighting other NPC parties. In the case of a robbery, do something like this:
>3 guard attacks and a robber dies
>5 robber attacks or 2 robber attacks with sneak attack available and a guard dies
Adjust as appropriate for how good your guards are and how good your robbers are.

>>94740819
>TQ
Lair actions, legendary actions, interesting terrain features, paragon creatures from AngryDM, and enemy casters for a few ideas. You should have slightly less enemies than players for an ideal number. Paragon creatures that change shape depending on health pools also works particularly well. A single monster with no extra actions versus the party will be boring and shit. For some reason every 5e game I’ve played in has had like one combat per day which is also shit because you can just spam abilities instead of having to conserve resources.

>>94742967
>are in the main base of the main antagonist of the campaign
>he knows we are a threat and are coming eventually
>trick a guard on entry by disguising as the BBEG, wich will obviously be discovered if he himself shows up
>our only healer eats a scary crit wich causes me to dump my "on short rest" nova bullshit (ban echo knights on your table) and kill the miniboss in 1 turn
>boss to go, scary since our recources are pretty low
>warlock wants to do shortrest
>i say we are in the enemy base, with a guaranteed big threat waiting for us ahead and if we rest we are also going to be surrounded by all enemy forces available to the BBEG
>DM says there will be consequences if we rest
>rest anyway because warlock insists
>there are no consequences at all, we just walk in on a sleeping BBEG
weirdest end to a campaign. honestly felt the DM just wanted to be done with it.

>want to study magic
>choose some senile old fart as your mentor
>read books, do chores
>after a few years, become the greatest class (closely followed by clerics and druids)

>want to study magic
>choose an inherently magical and potent entity as your mentor
>delve into forgotten ruins, perform strange rituals
>after a few years, become a heavy crossbow

Why is that

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>>94741792
Well, there must be a reason why a low magic setting stays low when individuals like the PC exists. I like >>94741867 approach. Let the players have their power trip, but their hubris will attract their anti-magic enemy.
The nature of this enemy is up to your setting, an ancient demon, an organization or thinning the line between reality and the fucked-up dimension.

>>94743643
cause u touch urself at night and ur patron doesn't like what it sees
get a bigger cock and moan loud and he will give u the power u crave
4 real tho with the amount of free gibs warlock patrons give with features and invocations you should at least give them a free onlycult sub

>>94743711
>get a bigger cock
how do i do that

>>94742741
What the previous posts said, plus my take on it:
1. Glue them together into a squad and treat them like a single entity, using swarm and pack tactics features where appropriate. Heroes' retinue of sidekicks aiding them in a large battle (though i usually try to send them off on behind the screen missions on heroes' behalf); town guard aiding party against the dragon, large mobs of minor enemies, and so on.
2. Treat them by their significance to the party.
a. Favored sidekick gets a full turn, asking players for a suggestions for what should he do.
b. Town guard and waves of minions they are holding off at the edge of battlemap get to stare at each other and go down whenever i feel like it without getting a turn. Unless party fireballs a couple of minion waves and suddenly they get themselves an allied squad entity.
c. Anything in between stuck fighting each other gets to fight for an eyeballed amount of rounds without proper turns, the winning side then joins the initiative or flees.
d. Proper minions surrounding the party's tank get "Handling Mobs" DMG p250 treatment. Usually I pre-calculate how often given amount of given minions get to hit the tank.

That should significantly reduce the time on DM side of things. On players' side after each turn i give announcement like "Its Player A's turn now. Player B, at the ready after him. Player C, start thinking about your turn".

What do you think about more monsters that use on-crit effects or "if the attack roll exceeds the targets AC by 5 or more" attack add-on mechanics? They're not really a big part of 5e monster design but they could be. Even just stuff like a 1-3 on a d6, or triggering when damage dice roll maximum, can be a neat modifier to make on-hit status effects less annoying predictable, and thus give you flexibility to use more powerful effects you usually wouldn't attach to a monsters attacks.

>>94743809
>prosthetic to enhance and customize cock
>enspell alter self to a cock ring
>myriad forms invocation to permanently increase cock size
>soul jar into a being with a bigger cock
these are some of the options available to you
you might gain more mileage with your DM, however the options presented above will cause the least amount of tension

Did 2024 rules change readied action+multiple attacks interaction in any way?

Requesting weird/cool ideas for a Reborn Cleric.

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>>94744557
Nope. You still cannot ready an action to make multiple attacks via Extra Attack nor Multiattack.
>>94744074
2024 DMG does talk about degrees of success- I do feel it should be a more common thing.

>>94741543
Twf is free from the feat. So pick archery for style.

>>94744808
Campaign setting(s)?

>>94744808
I've had an idea kicking around for a Cleric of Life dying and being resurrected as a Cleric of Death.
Old god hates him because he is an abomination to the natural order, new god is just toying with him for shits and giggles since he is the enemy of the Life god.
Cleric is just sad and confused because he got neither a happy afterlife or the bare minimum of a peaceful nothingness in eternal slumber, also really doesn't want to die again and risk whatever hell being cast out by life and death could throw him in.

In '24 are paladin smites still multiplicative with crits and other damage bonuses or are they just flat extra dice again?

Are there any good modules made by other people that any of you really like?
It would be fun to write a bunch down and copy things from down the line

>>94746014
>PHB'24 p364 A Critical Hit lets you roll extra dice for the attack's damage against the target. Roll all of the attack's damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers.
>PHB'24 p27 When you score a Critical Hit, you deal extra damage. Roll the attack's damage dice twice, add them together, and add any relevant modifiers as normal. For example, if you score a Critical Hit with a Dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage rather than 1d4, and add your relevant ability modifier. If the attack involves other damage dice, such as from the Rogue's Sneak Attack feature, you also roll those dice twice.
>PHB'24 p128 Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack roll if you have Advantage on the roll and the attack uses a Finesse or a Ranged weapon.
>PHB'24 p265 The target takes an extra 2d8 Radiant damage from the attack. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is a Fiend or an Undead.
While they aren't worded the same, neither of them specifies they're added to the damage dice but to the attack itself, while Sneak Attack is specifically called out as being a type that is doubled, so it appears as though Divine Smite would double on a crit. The playtest material was very specifically worded so it avoided that.
>UA2023 - Druid and Paladin p11 Immediately after you hit a target with an attack roll using a weapon or an Unarmed Strike, you can expend one Spell Slot to deal Radiant damage to the target.
Because it wasn't connected to the attack, it was never capable of getting doubled by crits. But that much at least doesn't seem to be the case.

Rate this item: druidic focus that can be used to cast "Protection from poison" (3 charges, 1d3 restored per day). What rarity should it be?
I also want to add some direct poison-related shit to it, like being able to cast Poison Spray as a bonus action for one charge (if the item is not powerful), what should I do?

>>94746343
Probably rare at the absolute most, some spells are worth more meat than others and I typically like packaging the lesser meaty ones in items like this. I wouldn't even cost a charge to cast poison spray as a bonus action, it's such a bad cantrip as it is.

>>94746405
So it's okay for a low level party reward?

>>94746343
Replace Poison Spray with Infestation from XGtE without charge cost (since it's cantrip) as fun little fuck you mechanic because of forced randomwalk if con save fails.

>>94746522
It's alright yes. I've given tier 1 PCs a 1/day Speak with Dead item and a 3/day Identify item. Exposition spells are especially good for offloading to equipment, and protection from poison is alright as a defense buff, but it's still niche.

What do you think of cursed material components? Like a Scrying focus that lets someone else Scry after you, or Augury tools that always give inverted results.

>>94746809
It'd be funny as a one off or maybe the central puzzle of a dungeon but consistently fucking up a spell for no discernible reason would get really annoying.

any new psionic martial class homebrew?

>>94747069
MCDM has a decent one.
"Talent and Psionics" on 5etools in the homebrew section

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>>94744808
Ancient caveman cleric

>>94744808
Be a Love Cleric.
https://youtu.be/ehnBl1PgWZE

>>94746343
Assuming it doesn't take up attunement I would put it at uncommon, even if you gave it a +1 spell attacks. Neither of those spells are particularly good and it has too little charges to be really good.

Do you adhere more closely to medieval or modern culture/morality in DnD? For instance, in the medieval ages, romantic love was considered a temptation/bad thing. If you and your childhood friend fell for each other, but her father married her off to an asshole who beat and abused her, then the Good act would be to just accept, get over it, and walk into your own loveless relationship. An Evil action would be to confront the abusive husband and/or pursue the relationship further (which is why countless stories from the period portrayed romantic love as leading to the destruction of kingdoms). While an abusive relationship was considered bad as well, the ideal partnership would be a loveless one of mutual benefit. Another case of medieval morality would be the judicial duel. If you won the duel, it would not matter how guilty you were, you were absolved in the eyes of God and thus Good. Conversely, it would not matter how innocent you were if you lost the duel, God clearly did not support you and you were evil.

>>94747945
Are you using some weird definition of "medieval" that has a cutoff before the twelfth century? Or are you just completely ignorant of Capellanus and the context in which he was writing?

>>94747945
Fuck you, chivalric romances of courtly love were all the fucking rage in the day. Sure, a lot of it was couched in quasi-religious language that makes the whole thing come off as more spiritual than sexual, but devotion in the face of unattainability was very much in vogue. And trial by combat was only an alternative to trial by jury, and was not always offered depending on the circumstances of the accused, the crime, and the manner in which the accused was arrested.

What are some custom magic item concepts that could reward more levels in Ranger? I have two Ranger players in separate campaigns (2014 Tasha's Hunter and 2024 Beast Master) and I'd like them to feel good about taking the class past level 6.

>>94748077
Actually, most of that was made up by the Victorians.

>>94744808
you're a dead martyr who subjected to some cruel or unusual death but are still mostly in one piece

>>94745626
TWF is free from what feat?

>>94748655
So, yes, you've never even heard of Capellanus or De Amore.

>>94748655
Almost everything >>94747945 said was also made up by Victorians.
If trial by combat was that simple, then killing someone's abusive husband and then winning a duel to validate it as Good would also be an option.

Not that medieval morality is particularly relevant to D&D, when most settings lack a Catholic church and have a variety of gods and magical abilities which would should send cultural development onto a very different course.
"Romantic love is Evil" isn't going to hold up very well when there's a Chaotic Good goddess of Love in the world.

>>94748917
Yep, all the rules of chivalry had to do with conduct in war, and who it was OK to brutally kill and who it was better to take hostage and ransom back to their family.

>>94748805
>The meaning of De Amore has been debated over the centuries. In the years immediately following its release many people took Andreas' opinions concerning Courtly Love seriously. In more recent times, however, scholars have come to view the priest's work as satirical. Many scholars now agree that Andreas was commenting on the materialistic, superficial nature of medieval nobles. Andreas seems to have been warning young Walter, his protégé, about love in the Middle Ages.

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>>94740819
>>2024 DMG
>https://easyupload.io/2kvpen
dead

new
https://easyupload.io/6uc1e2
pw: the other/real/species name for a mindflayer. singular, all lowercase

>>94748772
crossbow expert, the one you need to let you fire more than once a turn anyways.

>24: Dual Wielding. When you make the extra attack of the Light property, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the extra attack if that attack is with a crossbow that has the Light property and you aren't already adding that modifier to the damage.

>14: When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding.

Either version of the game you're playing, it gives you bonus action attack with stat, and it's an obligatory pick unless you're a rogue

>>94748165

>>94747945
Remember that while D&D is TECH LEVEL mostly medieval outside of those with access to the relatively rare and expensive magic, CULTURALLY D&D is considerably more pagan. Literally no world has Christian morals as such, the closest is probably Krynn, which should tell you just how far they are. They're all pagan af.
"Romance/Lust is temptation" is a very christian concept. Not to say that only christians have ever felt this way, the ancient greeks also felt that romantic passion weakened ones ability to reason clearly. But including it just because the European Feudal Period was very Christian, when you can even look to other countries' feudal periods and find it missing because they weren't christian, is kind of shitty worldbuilding.

>>94747142
Firekeeper is broken.
Hold up, let me just make 60 5ft cube bonfires in an hour and have all of them last 7-8 hours.
Maximum impenetrable wall of 480 bonfires.

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Do you miss any of the oldschool D&D artstyles?

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>>94749487

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>>94749497

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>>94749487
not particularly, I just hate most of the new stuff

>>94749190
>crossbow expert, the one you need to let you fire more than once a turn anyways.
I never said I was getting Crossbow Expert. You can use TWF without Crossbow Expert too.
>Fire Hand Crossbow 1 with attack 1
>Fire Hand Crossbow 2 with extra attack
>Fire Hand Crossbow 1 or 2 (doesn't matter) as a Light Bonus Action attack

The Loading property only means that you can't use the same weapon to make more than one attack as part of one action. If you have Extra Extra Attack for example, this falls apart because both Hand Crossbows have already made one attack as part of the Attack action, and can't make another. But either of them can be used with the Light property to make a Bonus Action attack, since that is part of a different Action and the Loading property doesn't apply. If you think that the Loading property requires a free hand to load the bolt due to Crossbow Expert's wording (despite the Loading property itself not saying that), you can just stow one of the Hand Crossbows to make the Bonus attack.

Like I said in my first post, I'm not even sure about using two Hand Crossbows. Normally I'll have a shield, so doffing/donning to use the second Hand Crossbow could be too awkward. In that case, the Hand Crossbow would almost exclusively be for triggering Mobile Flourish to get into melee range. If so, should I just pick a different Fighting Style than Archery?

>>94749487
>bolt-sweeping the female Drow warrior
That's a whippin'.

>>94749566
It's no worse than his daily cock flaying tbbbq

If anyone's played the various melee casters, how does the damage ramp from cantrips like True Strike and Booming Blade compare to the second attack most of the subclass get but if I'm reading actions right can't be used for a second cantrip?

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>>94749967
>how does the damage ramp from cantrips like True Strike and Booming Blade compare to the second attack most of the subclass get but if I'm reading actions right can't be used for a second cantrip?
>implying

>>94749986
Can you use true strike twice with double attacks per action?

>>94749992
You can with Valor Bard, you can't with Thirsting Blade Warlock. No other full-casters get Extra Attack unless you're using 2014 subclasses.

>>94750021
Battlesmith and Armourer Artificer and Druidic fighting Ranger.

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i need help with a list of good ice themed spells for a homebrew warlock inspired by asoiaf white walkers
original plan by the player was to go the goolock route with a versions of psychic spells but cold dmg/flavor instead but i said that would be lazy and would comeback to him with an alternative that isn't cheap ice eldritch blast, any ideas?

sidenote: i was trying to find a nice accompanying pic on google to give an idea of what he wants for the character, but google images has become ai slopfest so have an ice king instead

>>94750021
>can cast one of your cantrips that has a casting time of an action in place of one of those attacks

>>94749967
for bladelocks, even with agonizing blast buffing BB/GFB, lifedrinker still outscales it
the best option if you want to attack + attack cantrip is, surprise surprise, eldritch knight

>>94750041
Half-casters aren't casters, they're martials with some seasoning.

>>94750062
Correct, that's why Valor Bard can. Warlock does not get that.

>>94750085
>Half-casters aren't casters
That literally does not change the bearing on the question I ask.

>>94750085
>Can you use true strike twice
>you can ... in place of one of those attacks

>>94749190
isnt Ilmater basically Christ with all his martyrdom bullshit?

>>94749992
No, only once.

If you're a Champion with Elven Accuracy and consistently have advantage, can you get up to like 70% crit chance?

>>94740819
>What do you like to do to make encounters more complex than "whale on the big monster for half an hour", /5eg/? Have you played through any with elements that you found impressive?
Any engaging combat always begins by not having the win condition be "kill all the dudes." For example, my party was venturing into a magically created storm to help a guy make a magic circle around the eye of the storm to contain its magical power because its existence kept fucking over the local port. Unbeknownst to them the storm itself was sentient with its own avatar, and didn't want to be contained.

I designed the map to be this very claustrophobic combat space, because most of the map is covered in this huge hurricane storm which provides disadvantage to attacks and projectiles get fucked, and occasionally players have to make dex saves or get hit with flying debris. Entering or leaving the eye of the storm zaps the PCs with a Lightning Bolt, and the avatar of the storm spawned a lot of enemies with forced movement, themed as these air elementals wielding massive gusts of wind. The players had to deal with being bouncy-housed all over the map and risk taking big lightning damage to protect this guy drawing the circle in the middle. Killing the enemies would only protect them so much because the avatar - this big flying serpent - would also strafe the party. The party really liked it

>>94750055
wouldnt white walkers be primo Undying patron material? Winter fey, as well.

>>94750055
Chill Touch, Frostbite, Ray of Frost, Armor of Agathys, Frost Fingers, Ice Knife, Rime's Binding Ice, Snilloc's Snowball Swarm, Sleet Storm, Fire Shield, Ice Storm, Cone of Cold, Investiture of Ice, Otiluke's Freezing Sphere, Wall of Ice, Control Weather.

>>94750321
i said so, as well
i suggested bundling up undying's 6th level feature on the 3rd level, and giving the 6th level feature of the hexblade to him, since it would be perfect for the flavor and the undying is such a weak specialization it wouldn't be op, he considered taking undead instead, since he thought "going ice super sayan would be cool"
>>94750407
is this an actual good spell list or just a pile of ice spells? i don't know spells much sorry

>>94750433
Fey is another extremely good choice for winter stuff, Mab's title is the queen of air and darkness, and a Warlock empowered by her would necessarily be ice-themed. In fact, white walkers themselves are arguably fey creations since the children of the forest were explicitly not human. the 2024 edition is really good, too. You will want to replace some of the spells in the archfey bonus spell list, but its not difficult to do those swaps to something more ice-inclined.

>>94750433
That's just every ice spell, more or less. A bunch of them are quite good.

Personally, I'm in a campaign where my Warlock patron is Kiaransalee, and I'm also having trouble picking my subclass.

>Hexblade has the vengeance/curse angle, summons an undead, and synergizes well with my melee build, and two Pacts of the Blade might work out
>But I already started as a Paladin, so it's not like I benefit from it's proficiencies, and it has the old style spell list where you don't get them prepped, you just get to choose them

>Undead and Undying are A+ on theme, Undead's Form of Dread is just perfect
>They both not only have old style spell lists but bad ones at that, and neither class is very good, especially Undying. Even if you put all their features and spells into one subclass it still might suck

>Fiend is clearly the best of the lot, the only one with a modern spell list and a great one at that, and both really cool and really good features all the way
>It's justifiable but kind of weaker on theme, and while it's features up to 10 are all great for survivability, I won't have the straight classed levels to get it's coolest feature, Hurl Through Hell at 14

I'm leaning Fiend, but Form of Dread and Hexblade's Curse+2Pact makes me second guess it. And I don't want to be "that guy" who asks for some homebrew subclass variant or whatever.

>>94750145
You gonna do the math yourself FAGGOT?

>>94749310
Sir, it ends when you cast the spell again.
>If you maintain concentration on the spell for its full duration, the bonfire remains for 8 hours (no concentration required), or until you cast the spell again.

>>94750055
Include "-ai" in Google searches to remove ai images. (Without the quotation marks)

>>94744122
Best post in this sub rn fr

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Does this mean that clerics never lose the ability to cast wish since it's baked into a class feature?

>>94751751
No they can still lose the ability to cast Wish, because they are casting Wish and nothing in that ability stops the sickness/possibility of losing Wish. I personally think this ability kinda sucks because of that. The opportunity cost for a 20th(!) level cleric to cast Wish without a spell slot- is to not be able to use it again for 2-8 days and also not be able to use Divine Intervention (Prayer of Healing, Hallow, or Planar Binding) all of which you could be doing once a day over Wish. Not to mention using it to do anything that’s not replicating a 8th level or lower spell means you have a 33% chance of losing your capstone forever.
Bards, Wizards, and Sorcerers got this at level 17.

Maybe you could cheese this with Simulacrum + Wish + Greater Divine Intervention if you were a Arcana Cleric?

im finally going to be running my game, but im not sure how i should go about introducing everything. do i just dump a preliminary lore dump document on the players? im on the fence about that one, but it feels like the best option at times

>>94752249
nah, the players are village heroes at best at the start of the game
do exposition when it matters, keep it brief and they will ask for more if they find it cool or relevant
>"ooo heroes save my cow from the evil dire bear"
>bear is covered in runes
>corrupted by a druid follower of Evil the McFuckFace
>"who the fuck"
>tell them
>"i want more"
>intelligence check
>"ooooo great shepherds thanks you for saving my cow the king of Cumalotinhoes will reward you"
>tell them theyre in the kingdom
>"who the fuck is the king"
>....
the lore should be on a need to know basis, if they want give them relevant bits that might or might not help in the game
>the king bloodline is milk intolerant yet is always showered in gifts of cheese on his birthday
>the evil druid is a follower of the Old Milk God that was top gun before the king arrived
>there is a renowned cave that massively stinks of cheese in the south side of the kingdom

>>94752392
i was thinking more in terms of the stuff that everyone in the setting would know, such as major deities and the like. i can probably get away with just the basics of that stuff for now and do what you said later. i appreciate the tips

>>94750085
>Half-casters aren't casters, they're martials with some seasoning.
They're crippled casters with a really strong cantrip called "sword."

Kind of like Warlock. Probably why they tried to make warlock a half caster in the playtest.

>>94749992
No. Even Valor Bard and Bladesinger and EK can only replace ONE attack a turn with a cantrip.

>>94750021
False.

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>>94749487
Yes, but much further back than that.

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>>94752946
>>94752954
No one has even tried to answer the original question, just quibbled about the minutia of classes.

What's a good place to find satyr character art? Character art thread is cool and all, but it's a little slow and I need a pic by tomorrow

>>94753001
>No one has even tried to answer the original question, just quibbled about the minutia of classes.
>>94752954
>>94752954
>>94752954

Bitch-ass nigga, not only can you not read the PHB you can't even read spoon-feeding comments.

>>94753157
>can't even read spoon-feeding comments.
Incredibly ironic, I was refering to >>94749967 which again, you nor anyone else has actually commented on other than 'well these class can do both (actually it's only half)'

>>94753102
Just use hearthstone art, there are a dozen or so satyr characters you can pull from.

>>94753102
What kind of satyr you looking for? Male, female, strong, weak, cute, ugly, what?

>>94752392
>>94752424
anon for god's sake don't listen to 'mystery box worldbuilding' anon - he's confused setting details for plot hooks

also very clearly has a fart fetish he's trying not-so-subtly to introduce into your magical realm

give the players what you think they'd need to know (lore dump documents, as long as they aren't like novel length, are fine - just give an overview of things, and save the DETAILS for the campaign).

don't worry about them ignoring it or forgetting it, either - if and when it comes up, you can always just point them to the part of the setting that's relevant if it's important to move things along (it's something the characters should know - or, if they wouldn't know, but it's taking the characters too long to find out and you're kinda spinning your wheels, it's fine to force the issue when that happens).

>>94753212
Male & not particularly young are the main things I'm going for. Clothed and/or civilised would be a plus but that's antithetical to the point of 99% of satyr art so I won't beg and choose at the same time.
>>94753187
I'll try that. I tried using MtG which had a few I liked, but those ones were too low res to use as tokens

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>>94753294
How's this?

>add effects to monsters
>make them do things not in their RAW stat block
>give them extra abilities
>all players think my monsters are fun
>one player is always that guy that says "well actually, that's not in the stat block"
or
>"is that actually in the stat block?"
>He'll do a powerful ability in front of the monster
>monster targets him
>"Now I'm fucked and there's nothing I can do"
He's my friend. How do I have the conversation that he's being a baby without calling him a baby to his face?
He deserves so many points https://youtube.com/shorts/19LwrKZ5EII?si=Btho_0IFCH_6l6b8

Meanwhile, another player has been paralyzed through three fights and only had like two turns in those three combats. He also got two-shot by a monster and had his death ward popped (put on by an NPC before this undertaking). He's always happy and NEVER complains. He'll fail a low DC save with advantage and go "No way!" in surprise that that was mathematically unlikely, but then he moves on immediately and gracefully. I spoke to him privately and said I appreciate that he's always upbeat, even when his character is in a literal life or death situation. He said he just thinks its funny at this point.

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Here's your incubus/succubus, bro

>>94753317
Honestly works perfectly, cheers anon.

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>>94749487
I couldn't really say that I "miss" them considering I was born far too late to be nostalgic for them, but I do think most older editions had better art.

>>94753544
The cosmic censorship

>>94749487
I really like DiTerlizzi's art and which we still received highly stylised pieces, but other than that I think the "ahh this modern art has a bright party I'm going insane" thing is really overblown. Not to say 5e doesn't have some really bad pieces (phb gnome lmao), but that those pieces are bad because they're badly drawn, not because they're modern.

With some exceptions. MoTMM Minotaurs are quite frankly fucking abhorrent and definitely feeds a "retvrn to tradition" sentiment.

>>94753544
Aren't those Theros monsters? They've got the whole Nyxborn starry skies in place of skin going on.

>>94753445
I know this feeling. I'm like your good friend, I try to just roll with whatever happens even if I spend entire sessions watching everyone else talk and then miss all my attacks in combat. I'll come up with goofy results after whiffing and then use that as roleplay inspiration for the rest of combat, but the people that invited me to play dnd with them, it's another story!
Since they talk over me and do all the in-town decision making, I get to do a lot of people watching and the second we get into combat and they miss ONE attack it's "Well I guess I'm dead. I literally can't do anything."
It's pretty annoying to have a whole table bitch nonstop and then at the end of the night thank each other for playing and get excited for next week. I usually leave dnd night and wonder if anyone actually enjoys playing.

>>94752249
I would do a brief description of the setting to help get the players in the head space and start imagining things and only exposit when the players are directly asking about details or are confronted with said details.
In every session I've played with a DM that gives a huge speech and explains all the lore for minutes, no one writes that down and forgets all the locations and names because we're all more eager to start playing.
"The land of Dwibble was calm and rustic before the blood-thirsty gob-nobs ambushed your village and began slaughtering them in the night. The stars look down in anguish at the bloodshed. In the chaos the party grabs their weapons. What do you do?" Something like that is all I'd do. Keep it simple and get into the swing of things asap, THEN slow it down.

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What the fuck is wrong with Jeremy's hand?

>>94754047
Candle wax, skin condition or he got cursed by blood plague for stealing a sacred artifact.

Finished our WBtW campaign with a That Guy was just respectful and unintentional enough that the DM couldn't justify to himself kicking him out but who won't be invited back for future games. Future is looking bright.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkhrLfyVmFA

They appear to have significantly buffed monsters all around. For example, archmages now have AC 17 before shield and 170 hit points, in addition to Arcane Blast, while liches now have initiative modifier +17, AC 20 before shield, and 315 hit points.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16789-archmage
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16943-lich

>>94754188
specify that guy

>>94754188
How did you like the module? Wasn't a fan of it myself, even if I thought "true" Iggwilv was pretty fun.

Any tips for running a play-by-post game? A couple good friends of mine are open to playing, but we never worked out a schedule so this is how it'll go for the time being. What sorts of things should I expect?

>>94753001
His answer was correct. Unless you can True Strike as a Bonus Action or Reaction, there's no way to do it more than once a turn, because either it's your entire Magic Action to cast once, or it replaces one and only one attack from an Attack Action.

Not even having multiple sources of extra attack that let you replace an attack as a cantrips works, because extra attack features don't stack they replace.

>>94754559
see >>94753168

>>94754593
Anon I understand your original question relates to how the cantrip attacks compare to a second attack, but it should be intuitively clear that this comparison has too many variables to reach a conclusion easily. It depends heavily on what your weapon is, what your build is, how many modifiers are affecting your attack, special attack effects which might be incompatible with taking the magic action over the attack action, etc.

For example, I'm making a build that stacks attack effects, and many of them won't work with a cantrip, while other spell modifying effects could work instead.

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>>94754397

Force damage instead of magic weapons seems to be continuing on into the 2025 Monster Manual, so barbarian damage resistances (especially bear barbarians) are still worse off, and Brooches of Shielding are still stronger.

I have been concerned about this for a long time. Barbarians are in a weird state wherein more supernatural monsters can simply ignore rage resistances, and bear barbarians are nowhere near what they previously were. Instead, what is rewarded is raw DPR thanks to the Path of the Berserker and its Frenzy d6s.

>>94754397
>Video about Dungeons & Dragons
>"The meta has completely changed!"
I hate minmaxshitters like you wouldn't believe.

>>94754675
I don’t get where the force damage change is even coming from. If they thought resistance to BPS was too widespread, they could have just cut down on how readily they handed it out. As it is, they’ve reduced it to more or less just a ribbon feature.

>>94754630
>>94754593
>Can anyone with experience playing a build of these respond with how that build turned out
>Not a single answer related
>One person that is actually playing it
>Well obviously it's just too complex to even try to write down.
Damn nigga's
2 attack rolls for 2d10 + 10 on average at level 5 vs one attack roll for 2d8 +5 + ~1-8 (gfb or bb added effects) on average.
At most levels regular attacks will outstrip the cantrips because of flat damage mods stacking multiple times.
>But at level 20
No one fucking plays past level 13.

>>94754698
You don't know what any of those buzzwords you just used actually mean

>>94754715
I could see it in the context of making things easier to understand, where instead of having to keep track of silvered nonmagical slashing damage or whatever, it can be a lot more clear-cut.

But Barbarians missing out is a massive oversight, and pretty much ruins one of the few things the class had going for it.

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>players will be finding their first cursed item next session

>>94754188
I wish our That Guy would fuck off too.
>obvious aspergers
>first character betrayed the party, took our few magic items with them when they left
>new character is minmaxed emotionless fetishbait

>>94755290
I played with a whole group of That Guys once. I've added every single one of them to my Do Not DM For list. It's getting extremely long at this point.

>>94755290
>played evil character convincingly, didn't jump through hoops to try to give himself a metagame advantage out of his actions
>now playing a character that he obviously want to contribute to the part with in the long haul
Like he probably didn't have personal experience with what's wrong with interparty conflicts but it sounds like the bitch here is you, teebeyatch

>>94755260
Is it a devious one?

Anyone here ever run a game/session with a focus on, or just a lot of, mounted combat?

I'm thinking of running a small pc who rides on a medium animal and plays on a sort of mounted archer theme. I just worry it's just going to lead to a headache for the gm trying to make encounters work around a pc who can move 80ft a turn and shoot at the same time, OR it's going to mean I have to fork out 30gp every session to buy a new mount every time I get hit with an aoe.
Magical mounts are a solution for that last point but they come way later and I want to be as low-magic as possible.

>>94753544
>lack of necks/collarbones breaks the poses and makes them look like floaty faces
>teletubbies baby ass design
i believe those aren't succubi, they're actually both incubi (they split incubi and succubi into two different things, each with both genders, despite incubi and succubi previously just referring to "male [whatever singular name one might give incubi+succubi]" and "female [whatever singular name one might give incubi+succubi]" respectively)

incubi have become the dream thief succubi archetype, succubi are still the sexual temptation one

there was no real need to do this, and it's probably going to confuse a lot of people

>>94753670
yeah that looks very Theros. always liked the design. not sure about these, though

heads too floaty

>>94754517
I guess it boils down to not being a cooperative player, like talking over others and acting like a protagonist instead of a party member. Plus his two PCs (the first one got crit by the middle hag and died while the party was split) are obnoxious and he takes no care to play them in a way that's fun with others. It's mostly unintentional, but that doesn't change the result.
His second character also betrayed the party (which I was fine with, as it was in character), but then he wanted to have his cake and eat it too and not engage with the consequences of this at all while feeling victimised that we succeeded some insight rolls against him and discussed trying to stop his character. This was wrapped up in some pretty egregious metagaming.
Throughout all of this he was polite and friendly. We did raise some of these issues and he seemed receptive, but relapsed pretty soon. I don't hate the guy; it's just that playing D&D is slightly or significantly worse with him than without him in 90% of our sessions.
>>94754537
I didn't connect all that closely with the story, but the adventure structure and a lot of the NPC setpieces were at least fun with a lot of creative ideas. Not very challenging except for that random quickling fight, which downed my low-AC bard in one turn and gave the whole level 3 party a tough time. I could not have cared less about the rival adventuring parties except with how the DM connected my PC's backstory to the good guys, and even then it was mostly my grandfather the retired member rather than any of the current guys. Standout for me was the hags as antagonists, particularly the way our DM ran them. The original statblocks are a bit pathetic, but in lore and personality they're lots of fun. I'm remixing large chunks of the adventure into my homebrew game and am enjoying planning out how I'll use them, as well as how I can power them up to challenge my level 8 party.

>>94755622
gnome or halfing battlesmith is what you're looking for

We got attacked by a swarm of bugs in my last session and it made me wonder a few things.
Should I be in questioning HOW we're fighting a swarm of wasps? I think I tend to push more into the roleplay side of combat and complicate it. Are we just swinging into the swarm and hoping we knock down a few? What happens when a friend joins in while the swarm is occupying the same space as me?
I was thinking about using a swarm of bats in my cave session coming up and got stuck thinking about this. Obviously I could just look at it like a video game and go "you hit them for 3 dmg" "they hit you for 2 dmg". Oh and another thing, if a swarm of something occupies your space to attack you and you move away, does that trigger an attack of opportunity? (new dm/player)

other than eladrin, what's the most bipolar monster?

>>94755418
Yes.
It's designed to make them not want to take it off, both in roleplay and mechanics.

>>94756114
Kuo-Toa, they'll try their damn hardest to kill you for their god, but if you kill their god they become your best friend and offer to kill people for you, their god.

>>94756100
Swarms of things you wouldn't normally fight one of are weird. Especially with something like a ranged weapon attack.
>two people fire their crossbows into a swarm of insects
>one rolls 4 damage
>the other crits for 21
I could see an argument for swarms having an opportunity attack on every turn of combat honestly.

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Is Scorching Ray underrated?

>>94756458
For Fiend Warlock it's probably better than Fireball.

>>94756458
I'd rather just upcast magic missile

>>94756527
Magic missile is lame. It's the gold investment of wizard offensive magic.

>>94756566
Nothing is lamer than rolling two misses on your attack roll that uses a second level slot you could used for heat metal or hold person instead.

>>94756243
that's not bipolar, that's just pragmatic
also being a kuo-toa god would genuinely empower you

i feel kinda sorry for Blibdoolpoolp, though. she very clearly did not ask to exist and is generally having a bad time of it

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Any tips for playing strixhaven for the first time with a first time DM? I heard you have to play a magical class or you fuck things over.

>>94756458
It's out-preformed at base level by a sub-classless featless martial swinging a greatsword twice. You can up-cast, but at that point why not just fireball? It's the same damage vs a single target but saves for half instead of misses for none.

>>94756950
strixhaven is a harry potter harem sim, so just lean into that

>>94757122
>It's out-preformed at base level by a sub-classless featless martial swinging a greatsword twice.
>4d6>6d6
???

>>94757148
Where are you getting 6d6 from?

>>94757211
nta but Scorching Ray is 3x2d6

>>94757142
pre-pubescent asexual tortle way of mercy monk fascinated with how the flow of life works within bodies and how they stop by autopsying bodies?

What should I play next? Firbolg Trickery Cleric or Triton Drunken Master Monk?

>>94754047
he beat an intern to death before shooting for getting almond milk in his late instead of oat milk

>>94757276
trickery cleric. playing a drunken master monk is asking to be worthless

>>94757325
I get that it isn't the best monk subclass, but with the changes to the base monk class, it seems like it could be fun. Being able to deflect attacks that hit you and redirect the ones that miss, being able to flurry of blows to grab 2 dudes and disengage for free and run away with them at full movement speed with the grappler feat seems pretty useful, especially for bringing ranged backline enemies up front to the rest of the martial characters.

Is it really that useless?

My favorite classes are lore bard, life cleric, and divination wizard. I like helping allies do stuff. If I had to choose an overall favorite, I'd say wizard.

>>94757148
4d6+8>6d6

>>94756950
Do you mean just in general, or the module specifically?

In general, two recommendations I'd make is playing a Bard and figuring out some way to make money that isn't a Job.
For Bard, Expertise and Jack of All trades should make you better at studying and exams, on top of just helping out the party with skill checks in general. There's a lot more skill checks than spellcasting, though obviously you don't want to miss out on spellcasting, and so Bard is the obvious choice.
As for money, a campus job makes 5 gp per week, which is terrible, and can easily be outdone by getting Herbalism kit proficiency and scraping together 25 gold to start crafting Healing potions. Even if you only make and sell one per week, you're still coming out ahead.

If you mean the module itself, it's trivial. There's a good amount of magic items to find, and you'll often be well rested with all of your spells, and also often within spitting distance of a professor.
I might even suggest a Ranger for the module itself, since you get three skills, can take Deft Explorer for expertise, and sources of damage other than spellcasting are surprisingly valuable.

>>94757443
Well we played Strad and a generic 5e campaign. Both of which lasted years. I just know absolutely nothing of MTG and they indicated this was going to be heavily magic focused so picking a martial may not be the way to go. Still wanted to see if a mercy monk, with their fixation on life energy and healing/harming through CHI (fuckyounuwotc) would mesh in or I really need something with spell slots.

>>94757247
sure, it's not the gayest thing that has been played in a strixhaven game

>>94757493
Strictly speaking, nothing RAW about the setting book requires that your character has spell slots or any spellcasting ability.
A Mercy Monk could theoretically fit in just fine as a Witherbloom student with the blend of healing and necrotic damage.
Though I'd also note that the Witherbloom background by itself pretty much lets you play any spellcaster as that 'life and death' researcher type. Unless you expect to be beating up a lot of other students for their lunch money, being a Monk doesn't really do anything from a flavor perspective.

How well Mercy Monk itself holds up entirely depends on if your DM is playing things pretty close to what the book says though, and might fall apart entirely if he actually places more of a focus on spellcasting over letting you slide by with skill checks and some minor healing abilities.
And ultimately that's a question only your DM can answer.

>I just know absolutely nothing of MTG
You and the writers of the Strixhaven book have that in common, believe me.

>>94757651
Perhaps a dip into life or grave cleric will give them some wiggle room? It is their first time DMing so do not want to make things harder. It is simple enough to make up a spell caster from scratch. I just have a running theme of my first PC appearing and disappearing and turning up again across other campaigns. He is on a long journey. All my one shots and online games I default to him.

>>94757651
Even the MtG Strixhaven designers don't know shit about MtG

>>94757662
>It is their first time DMing so do not want to make things harder.
That's fair. Strixhaven isn't exactly an easy place for a DM to start.
A level in Cleric does help offer some flexibility, since it means your character could use scrolls and have ritual casting.
I will note that the Strixhaven Initiate feat (which comes with each of the backgrounds that come with the Strixhaven book) does allow you to grab a couple cantrips and a 1st-level spell, so that's a potential avenue.

My gut instinct is that Mercy Monk should be fine. I simply have no way to predict how your DM is actually going to run things. If he's familiar with 5e, then I should hope the concept of a character that has magic but not spell slots isn't something that will be totally unexpected.
I would prep a backup character just in case though, so that you can bring in a new student if you flunk out.

>>94757670
Also true.

>>94757442
>a sub-classless featless martial
>+8

For Scion of the Outer Planes, is Agent of Order or Baleful Scion better? Basically the choice is between Force resistance+1d8 damage+the Restrained condition on a Wis save, versus Necrotic resistance+1d6+proficiency bonus damage+healing off that attack.
I'd be getting it late, like level 14, so is 1d6+5 damage and healing better than 1d8 and Restraining an enemy for advantage on follow-up attacks?

>>94758001
Yes, 4d6+8 is what you do if you hit 2d6+4 twice.

>>94758062
Why does he have +4?

>>94758076
Because he's at level 5 for EA and doesn't have any feats.

>>94758130
Yeah, so where is he getting the +4 from?

Nevermind that at 5th level a spellcaster can upcast Scorching Ray to be 8d6.

>>94758164
>Nevermind that at 5th level a spellcaster can upcast Scorching Ray to be 8d6.
Yeah or they could not be retarded and cast fireball instead.

>Yeah, so where is he getting the +4 from?
You know exactly where they're getting the +4 from stop being an ass.

>>94758001
Ability Score Increase is what you take a feat instead of, at least in 90-plus percent of 5e's lifetime.

Is every spell a cleric casts a direct blessing from the deity in response to a prayer, or do they just get to use a bit of the holy power without any conscious effort from their benefactor?

If I want to make a campy wuxia setting where moving up in level is directly equivalent to all the "i have reached the golden heavenly scorpion realm while you fools are merely mewling imps in the divine jade monkey realm", what should be the PC level limit where everyone's still normal dudes before they start encountering arrogant young masters and smug grandpas?

>>94758306
Somewhere around level 5. Possibly a bit lower.
A CR 3 Knight is roughly in the same ballpark as a level 5 Fighter, and would also be close to what you could expect a 'normal' warrior to achieve.
Level 4 would be closer to what the game dictates of still being in 'apprentice' tier, and might work better as a cutoff before spellcasters start to Fly and shoot Fireballs.

>>94758344
>>94758306
Only level 1 is normal human tier. The Apprentice Wizard statblock is a Level 2 caster. That man has been cultivating for 500 years and is able to cast cantrips which are unlimited free magic forever and can include fire bolt or shocking grasp. Those cantrips can kill a regular commoner 99% of the time. You are like frogs in a well who think themselves dragons.

>>94758362
>Those cantrips can kill a regular commoner 99% of the time.
When used by a level 2 caster? Not even remotely. Any random town guard can survive a Firebolt pretty easily, assuming it even hits, and the same sort of statistics apply to a heavy crossbow.
It only starts to be more threatening than that at level 5.

And if you're using Commoners as the metric for a 'normal human', then there isn't a single level 1 PC that is a normal human.

>>94758404
>commoner
>guard
those are two different npcs

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>>94755680
We already know the stats of the new succubi/incubi. One can still shapeshift into the other, but the two forms have different stats now.

>>94758452
Let me try and simplify it.

Firebolt from a level 2 spellcaster doesn't even deal enough damage to kill a commoner 30% of the time assuming it hits, and it isn't always going to hit. Identical to a heavy crossbow.
But even simpler than that, let's just restrict the discussion purely to commoners, and for the sake of argument accept your premise that a Firebolt kills a commoner 99% of the time.
That still means level 1 isn't normal human tier, because level 1 PCs either have cantrips of their own, or have at least twice as many hitpoints as a commoner.

Meanwhile, unless you're classifying ordinary town guards as superhuman, them surviving the 1d10 damage of a Firebolt is an indication that normal people can survive cantrips, and so merely having a cantrip does not introduce a meaningful change in one's tier of power.
And to reiterate, if you are classifying guards as beyond normal humans, then the same applies to level 1 PCs.

Does that clear things up, or are you still confused?

>>94758571
Junior you dare? kowtow one thousand times and I might leave your corpse intact.

Does homebrew rot players brains? I had a player get mad at me for suggesting we use stat blocks from the monster manual because it was too vanilla. I've always used the stat blocks from the monster manuals and they've never said anything about it before.

>>94758584
You've left me no choice

动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想 反共 反革命 抗議 運動 騷亂 暴亂 騷擾 擾亂 抗暴 平反 維權 示威游行 李洪志 法輪大法 大法弟子 強制斷種 強制堕胎 民族淨化 人體實驗 肅清 胡耀邦 趙紫陽 魏京生 王丹 還政於民 和平演變 激流中國 北京之春 大紀元時報 九評論共産黨 獨裁 專制 壓制 統一 監視 鎮壓 迫害 侵略 掠奪 破壞 拷問 屠殺 活摘器官 誘拐 買賣人口 遊進 走私 毒品 賣淫 春畫 賭博 六合彩 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Winnie the Pooh 劉曉波动态网自由门

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>>94758594

>>94758571
The only thing I'm confused by is why you think commoners and guards are the same statblock.

>>94758750
This made me belly laugh; thank you, anon.

>>94759205
This.
Guards imply a level of physical training that a regular person would rarely have. Commoners are not Yeomen in D&D.

>>94759245
It's not even an implication. Guards are explicitly better than a commoner, commoners don't even have a skill proficiency ffs. When 90% or more of the people in the world are Commoners than yes, that is the base line of what a common person is. I'm not going to defend anons cantrip claim, it's just idiotic to think that commoners aren't the literal baseline for "normal 'human'", and that guard and commoner are interchangeable.

>>94758590
There's too many players who automatically think official content is bad even though they've never played it.

>>94756114
Kender

>>94759301
The problem with official content is not the content, but that it is public.
It's just like watching a rerun of Soldier for the 20th time. It's a great movie, but I'm not gonna watch it again with anything but passing interest while we gripe about politics at Thanksgiving dinner.

>>94759408
I believe that for modules, but it’s a bit rich when applied to monster statblocks. The way you use them can differ so radically from context to context that, quite frankly, I often consider the statblock to be among the least important parts of an encounter.

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Which insignia works for a Succubus Queen's empire?

>>94759682
One that doesn’t in any way indicate that she’s a succubus. Deception is part of their whole thing.

>>94759682
Take the one in the middle, remove the heart, but position the two wings so that they vaguely resemble a heart.

Anything mechanically cool about going Tortle Celestial Warlock? Wanting to do a healer/support guy, something weird but not gimmicky.

>>94758170
>You know exactly where they're getting the +4 from stop being an ass
No, what are they getting it from?

>>94753544
>>94755680
>>94758520
>the difference between a succubus an incubus used to be purely visual
>now each sex has a different stat block
erm, BASED???

Does Cloak of Elvenkind allow you to take the Hide action without full cover?

>>94758520
>Nightmare Touch
What the fuck, WotC? Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get groups to take short rests as it is?

>>94760169
good idea

>>94760448
No because effects that do that specify so, usually with something like "can hide while lightly obscured." It's an annoying solution to ruling questions, but at least it's simple.

>>94760599
It's actually one of the most insane design mechanics I have ever seen-
>how difficult it is
Who the fuck has difficulty taking or getting PCs to take short rests?? Skill issue.

>>94761079
I have the opposite problem, the party is a high enough level to have become a strike force that finds a place to explore or dungeon with a guy to kill, gets into one fight, then either short rests in the wilderness and gets no random encounters or just teleports out of the dungeon to rest wherever they damn well please in town. The Fighter gets to recharge all of his Maneuver Smites, the Wizard gets to Arcane Recovery the one spell slot he used, and the Cleric gets to get back his Channel Divinity that he always uses to maximize the damage on some thunder/lighting AoE spell. Hell, one time they used Locate Creature to find the leader, the dwarf cleric dug out a tunnel into his room with Shatters on the ground and the Wizard's Mold Earth, set off the trap that alerts the entire dungeon, barricaded themselves behind a Wall of Force with the bossman so he couldn't escape, then dropped the wall to AoE all the undead mooks that had come in to try to surround the party and had a part 2 fight against the weaker leaders.
Which is why I'm partly glad that the next three mission options are going to more or less require them to commit to decently-long stays in places with either regular patrols, a horrendously volatile political equilibrium, or just plain being an expedition into the Lower Planes where leaving will reset their progress. They're playing it intelligently by trying to gain what information that they can, but you can tell that the Fighter and Cleric are aching to get back to the action.

>>94759245
>>94759289
>Guards are explicitly better than a commoner
I've never said otherwise. Somehow me bringing up Guards as an example of how cantrips weren't anything special ended up getting twisted into some weird strawman.

So to make it perfectly clear: Commoners are not Guards.

Keep in mind, the question wasn't what qualifies as a baseline human, it's what was the upper cap for a human to still be considered 'normal' in the context of a wuxia setting full of power cultivation.
We aren't looking for the floor, we're looking for the ceiling.

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>>94761282
Commoner has 4hp as medium creature (1d8 hit die)
Therefore shit lifestyle (malnutrition?)= reduced hp regardless of CON mod
Stands to reason the opposite is also true. My table uses the picrel autism table based on the above conjecture
Ignore the prices they're tied to other autism

>>94761282
God bless your patience, anon, whatever autist has misinterpreted you is just being a fucking attention whore and if it were me in your shoes I'd have called them lots of epithets by the point you're at.

>>94760599
>or until the incubus dies

>>94761392
Malnutrition is a good way to explain it from the flavor side, though mechanically it's just that NPCs have to take the average or roll even for their first hit die, unlike PCs which get the max.
I like the table though. Neat way to reward the players for not living like hobos.

>>94761478
I appreciate the sentiment.

>>94761681
So two reasons the ability will never come up.

>>94761282
>So to make it perfectly clear: Commoners are not Guards
So any particular reason you felt like arguing with me about that? Did you
feel like pretending to be retarded was a good strategy? I also notice you didn't address the fact that commoners are the baseline for "normal 'human'". You gonna argue about that only to immediately just repeat what I said?
>>94761478
Based retard encouraging other retards to post more retard things. You're helping keep these threads alive.

>>94762093
>So any particular reason you felt like arguing with me about that?
I didn't. You've been raging against something I never said.
>I also notice you didn't address the fact that commoners are the baseline for "normal 'human'"
Commoners are normal humans. This discussion isn't about the baseline.

>You gonna argue about that only to immediately just repeat what I said?
Are you going to continue to argue with a strawman instead of actually listening?

>>94762610
It seems like this moron you're replying to believes that statblocks are baked into everyone in a 5e world and not just a mechanical representation available if simulating a completely ordinary person becomes necessary (evidenced by marking them as lacking skill proficiencies). As if physics run on the 5e mechanics universally and not exclusively when PCs are involved for mechanical resolution. What a dumbass.
To your original point: level 1 PCs are already leagues above the normal person, yes.

>>94762697
>virgin armchair DM: NPCs use NPC statblocks!
>chad DM that runs games: NPCs don't have stats unless they need to make a roll for something, it surprises the Players when the old homeless guy that's a retired mercenary leader rolls a +10 to something

>>94762610
>I never used commoners and guard interchangeably
Yes, you did >>94758404
>commoners are normal humans
correct, don't know why you bothered trying to argue they aren't
>strawman
You don't know what that means. You are also just repeating the same things I have said. I see you are continuing to merely pretend.
>projecting his seething meltdown
lmao
>>94762697
Hey man, if you want to use demilich stats blocks for commoners go for it. Commoners have the commoner statblock in actual games though, so just be warned that you're homebrew doesn't apply anywhepretending. Unless you want to say that the commoners statblock is not actually the commoners statblock, but only an absolute retard would say that. Oh wait. You just said that commoners don't have the commoners statblock. Based retard anon encouraging other retards to post retard thing to keep the thread alive.

Fact: Commoners and guards are two different things. Commoners are also the baseline line for normal people. Both of you are arguing with me, while also saying that I'm right. I'm not sure why you two are so angry about this.

>>94762920
>commoners have the commoner statblock in actual games though
Actually, commoners have this thing I call "no agency or bearing on the scenario in any way and thus have no need for a statblock." I know that's hard to comprehend, but game mechanics in TTRPGs only exist when there is a need for them.
>you just said that commoners don't have the commoners statblock.
Source: your inability to comprehend basic sentences.
>fact: something nobody every argued against before
Oh, two can play this game. Fact: you are a colossal, terminal autist.

>>94762920
>Yes, I am going to continue to argue with a strawman instead of actually listening
Okay, have fun with that then

>>94762961
>>94762962
>seething this hard they thought commoners and guards were the same thing
>seething this hard that commoners are the baseline for "normal 'humans'"
>seething they don't know what a strawman is
Oh, so you guys are just shitposting at this point. Is this supposed to be a discord raid or something?

>>94758362
Level 1 PCs aren't Commoners.
Why are you claiming that these are interchangeable?

>>94762979
>still can't understand why someone would possibly use a term that could be a normal word or a game term and only assumes game terms are being used at all times
>thinking that the game term "commoners" is somehow equivalent to a universal template that all people fall under as if mechanics are ever universally applied
This is "I like trains and have no job" level autism, bro, I wouldn't be so proud of it if I were you.

>>94763005
>doesn't know what the words he is using means
>doesn't know basic rules if the game
Understanding the rules to 5e isn't autism anon, it's the sign of having two functioning braincells. The fact that you're this angry about commoners and guards being two different things and commoners being the baseline for normal people, while also saying those exact things leads me to question your mental capabilities. Either that or you're just blatantly shitposting at this point.

>>94763045
>still getting this hung up on "THEY USED THE WRONG WORD IN A COLLOQUIAL WAY WHEN THEY CAN ONLY USE IT MECHANICALLY"
No anon, THAT'S the autism. You're still thinking everyone should speak and communicate how you do. Consider how someone else, who isn't alt-tabbed and jacking off to Sonic porn, might describe people who aren't exceptional. Maybe "commoner" is a word or term someone could use colloquially without conflating exact mechanical significance to it, and uses the term "guard" to refer to "someone who is more likely to be targeted by a fire bolt than any random person". This crazy thing called language, I know, but try and imagine for a second how another person said something in a way you personally don't like is valid, and then have some nuggies to calm down.

>>94763100
Oh damn, you really are boiling. Yes, in a game system when two different words mean two different things, they mean two different things. And no guard and commoner have never been colloquially the same thing. Guards guard the commoners. That why they are called guards. They are also unironically built differently. They have more health, strength and training. That's why they exist. The fact that you're still seething about this 14 hours later is hilarious.

>>94763139
I'm not the original poster, anon, I'm just someone who can parse the arcane cryptograms written by the neurotypical and not immediately assume every term that could be a game term is used exclusively as a game term.

>>94763100
>>94763176
Your mistake is assuming that he has the ability to read and understand words.

>>94763176
Game terms are game terms. That is why they are game terms. You're on your first step to being able to understand hiw games work.
>>94763179
True, I am assuming that people in this threads aren't retards and know that guards and commoners are two different things, and that commoners are the baseline for normal people. Don't know why anon is in such a tizzy about learning this info, but hey we all hard to start somewhere.

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Whats the best way to build an unarmed Open Hand Monk?

>>94758344
Thanks anon, I suppose any "commoner" (type, not statblock) within a certain realm can easily just be handwaived as having better statblocks but maybe not cultivated enough to be superheroic. Like a CR12 Warlord having a retinue of CR3 Veterans. That being said, for the pacing of a campy power fantasy like this, would 1 level per session fit the theme of the setting?

>>94763889
What's a type?

>>94763927
Commoner as in lowborn, not nobility, for the purposes of a wuxia campaign someone who's a mundane cultivator not part of a sect or a special bloodline and all that

>>94763935
Do they have any specific training?

Any of yous have have any advice on how to convert from 2e to 5e, specifically wizard spells?

Or to be more honest to convert from Palladium to 5e?

>>94763974
>Palladium to 5e
That's like cooking a kobe steak well done and eating it with ketchup

>>94764004
Considering the very MENTION of Palladium FRP has sent the average person either laughing or screaming and running away I'm not sure of the accuracy of your statement.

>>94763851
Have a high Dexterity score.

>>94763851
Rogue 3 (any) Open Hand 17. At Monk level 11 you can Dash twice for the price of one Bonus Action, because Cunnung Action Dash and Step of the Wind Dash are two different features.

Then just take Grappler and go to town.

>>94764020
Sounds like a skill issue on their part desu senpai

>>94763889
Per 1-3 sessions is already quite quick, every session might be a little too fast.

>>94763205
>nobody is allowed to use a word that is a game term unless they're referring to the game! then I can treat everyone as being stupid when they use the words wrong!!

>>94764078
If you're doing a 20th level 2024 monk build I would not give up their capstone. Boon of Speed also gives you a second BA Dash and +30 movement speed, which you miss if you take 2 levels in Rogue.

Has anyone actually played with the gritty 1 week variant of long rest? From a campaign design perspective I'm just concerned about:
>how would I feel as a player if I feel like I shouldn't pursue an objective because I'm running out of resources but the objective is right there? What if we encountered a particularly bad ambush, used up our slots, but find a bandit camp? Do we just say fuck it and go? Do we just hang back for 1 week? What if by the time we get back the enemies replenished and are possibly stronger?
>on the other hand, I feel like functionally this would be no different from 8 hour long rests, just a longer time frame. Like how in normal you just go "okay let me roll a d20 if something happens in the dungeon while you long rest" now becomes "let me roll a d20 for the week if something happens in town while you all rest" so did anything really change?

>>94764078
>Rogue 3 (any) Open Hand 17. At Monk level 11 you can Dash twice for the price of one Bonus Action, because Cunnung Action Dash and Step of the Wind Dash are two different features.
Huh! Clever, but I think that's a waste. I don't think its worth losing the Monk's Capstone Body and Mind for the double Bonus Action dash. That is a neat thing though, I wonder if there's another way to do that without multiclassing.

>>94764214
>BA Dash
>Escape Artist. As a Bonus Action, you can take the Disengage action, which also ends the Grappled condition on you.
Boon of Speed doesn't give you a BA dash but it does give you a BA Disengage, so you could BA Disengage + Dash without a Focus Point. And math wise
>30 Movement + 30 Unarmored Movement + 30 Boon of Speed = 90. BA Dash 90 + 90 = 180 Ft of Movement
>30 Movement + 30 Unarmored Movement = 60 ft. Double Dash = 60 + 60 + 60 = 180 fft of Movement
They end with the same amount of movement speed. You could maybe get the Epic Boon feat at character level 19 with the Rogue 3 multiclass by getting the ASI at level 16 Monk- that is assuming you can get an Epic Boon with a regular ASI assuming you meet the pre-req. I don't think it s worth it though- movement's nice but 180 is plenty already.

>>94764255
Wait, i'm dumb Patient Defense already gives you the BA Disengage so you're really just getting this for the movement.

>>94764214
>If you're doing a 20th level 2024 monk build I would not give up their capstone.
+4 Dex and Wis is obviously amazing, but it's reasonable to dodge it for multiclassing.
>Boon of Speed also gives you a second BA Dash and +30 movement speed, which you miss if you take 2 levels in Rogue.
You can still get an Epic Boon if Monk 16 and 17 are your last two levels, because 16 is an ASI.

>>94763974
In general, keep things accurate, then worry about whether or not it still fits the spell level or its range is too absurd. Try to cut through the spell description's flavor and pull out the mechanics, then translate them into 5e lingo. I suggest looking at Fireball and Lightning Bolt as a sort of Rosetta's Stone.
Beyond that, maybe look at any available casting number to see if it can be a bonus action if the spell itself feels too weak for the level it's at. I can't help much more without knowing specific spells.
As an example, I've converted Backblast as a Death Ward-esque trigger buff
>Backblast (2e Wizard's Spell Compendium #1)
>3rd-level abjuration
>Casting Time: 1 action
>Range: Self
>Components: V
>Duration: 1 minute or until triggered
>Classes: Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
>An invisible aura shrouds you, primed to deflect elemental magic back onto an attacker. Choose acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison. This spell is triggered when a spell causes you to take damage of the chosen type. The spell has no effect on you and instead targets the caster; using the slot level, spell save DC, attack bonus, and spellcasting ability of the caster.
>Once the spell is triggered, its effects last until the start of your next turn, potentially allowing multiple spells to be deflected.

>>94764219
>I don't think its worth losing the Monk's Capstone Body and Mind for the double Bonus Action dash.
More speed is Monk's actual broken ability, and +110 Speed is frankly just insane. The real strength here is that you have uncontested battlefield control - Just pick up your allies and even your enemies and reposition them wherever they want to be.

Sometimes you also get a situational 20d6 damage on an enemy, which is nice.

>>94764349
180 Feet of movement is plenty for that, you can get that with 20 levels into Monk and the Boon of Speed. You do also have to remember you've only got two hands to grab and move people (3 maybe with Step of The Wind) with if you're using your BA to run more.

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>>94764210
Yes anon, that is the point of having generals for specific games, each with their own rules and terms. Welcome to /5eg/ newfriend, be sure to read the books!

>>94764215
>on the other hand, I feel like functionally this would be no different from 8 hour long rests, just a longer time frame
Pretty much this. The most prominent change is that certain spells become worse, and food/supplies start to become more of a concern.
For example, a Goodberry spell is now only good as emergency rations, because it's two days worth of food with a week to regain it. Likewise, some spells that might normally last for the 6+ encounters you have in one day instead aren't as useful when those encounters are spread out across the week.

Beyond that, wilderness and random encounters start to matter more. Like you alluded to, resting 8 hours outside the dungeon is something that you can get away with, but resting for a week usually entails heading back to town.
Similarly, getting into an ambush on the road and having less resources for further encounters down the road is part of it. It's no different than having a bad encounter early in a dungeon.

I have seen it go poorly when a DM doesn't really account for the change, and just runs a similar number of wilderness encounters alongside full-length dungeons and is wondering why the 12+ encounters per long rest ends up bleeding the party dry.

Has anyone designed a good, condensed/abbreviated character sheet? Every time my friends hand me one, there's so much shit that I can't quickly find the info I need and there's also no space to actually write anything down.

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>>94763851
Mobile feat on a monk is really nice. It allows you to go anywhere and also you can punch a bunch of people then disengage. If your speed is greater then theirs and they lack a ranged option, they actually can't hit you.
If you can get a longsword as a dedicated weapon, you'll be a punch above too in terms of damage.

If you know a way to knock a enemy prone reliably, elven accuracy can ensure triple advantage.
If DM allows fists with sneak attack, what >>94764078 really shines. Depending on how the grappling mechanics work (new or old) the ability to grapple someone, knock them prone, then pummel away when they're unable to get back up is a really good trick.

Also, if I may push it, an alternative to stunning strike for monk.
Dazing Strike: Same Con save, but the target takes 1d6+Wisdom extra damage plus if they fail the con save on the creature's next turn it must choose whether it gets a move, an action, or a bonus action (aka, Tasha's mind whip effect). So it becomes a mini smite+ Mind whip
Also that picture is really pretty. Good Taste

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>>94763851
>Species: Human
>Origin Feat: Tavern Brawler
>Versatile Feat: Tough
>Class: Monk (Warrior of the Open Hand)
>Starting Stats
>STR: 8
>DEX: 17
>CON: 14
>INT: 10
>WIS: 16
>CHA: 8
>ASIs & Feats: Grappler (+1 DEX), +2 DEX, +2 WIS, +2 WIS, Epic Boon (Boon of Fortitude or Boon of Speed)
Grappling, punching, kicking, high movement, all with some good HP for taking punches.

>>94764579
I miss my loud monkey wife...

>>94764581
>Grappler
>With 8 STR
That seems like a poor choice.

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>>94764582
>A finger curls on the monkey's paw

>>94764592
That's using 2024 D&D rules. Grappler is REALLY good on '24 Monks.

>>94763889
I think it's fine to have high level/CR martial characters as being cultivated. A CR 12 warlord can be some warrior who has gained such a following and renown for that reason. He's got over 200 HP and regeneration, after all.
His CR 3 Veterans are more ordinary soldiers who just got to their rank without any special or superheroic training. Having an extra attack or 3rd level spells serves as an pretty good limit or cutoff.

As for pacing, if you want something more open-ended, you might just use exp so that the party is encouraged to search for strong opponents. Per-session milestones is a really breakneck pace.

>>94764579
>if DM allows fists with sneak attack
Why on earth would they allow that?

>>94764642
Dex Weapon = Sneak attack.
It's really a ranged or finesse weapon that qualifies for Sneak. I could see an argument for a player trying to push it, especially if they were playing a weaker monk and needed a power boost. Also, since Sneak is just once a turn, it's not that big of an addition. Shortsword for action attack can get the same result for the most part

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>>94764581
Honorable mention to Crusher. Crusher (Push) + Tavern Brawler (Push) can push a Large or smaller creature 10 feet up into the air making them fall and take fall damage + fall Prone. There is no save for this either, you just have to deal bludgeoning damage to them. Only reason I didn't suggest it was because Crusher doesn't give a +1 DEX like Grappler does. However it does give a +1 CON so if you wanted to have a starting CON of 15 that goes to 16 with Crusher, you could do that. It'll just take a longer time for your DEX to hit 18 and 20.

>>94764581
Tavern Brawler is almost useless on a Monk, only rerolling 1s and maybe the odd push would make it useful at all. Lucky, Alert, or Magic Initiate would be far better.
>three raw ASI levels
Gross.

>>94764579
Monk is probably best with a Fighter dip to get weapon proficiencies/masteries so they can go TWF. That way they can get up to six attacks per turn, where otherwise the only Monk that can do that is Astral at 17.

Missing the +4s at 20 sounds horrible until you realize that you're probably going to be playing for like a year or two before you hit 20, and once you get to 20 the campaign will probably be over. You're trading a lot for theory, in other words.

>>94764769
>Only rerolling 1s and maybe the odd push would make it useful at all.
That's why I suggest it, no save and damage reroll is nice. Lucky, Alert, and Musician are all fantastic too but I'm looking to boost the unarmed stuff which is the focus.
>Raw asi levels
We want those 20s in DEX & WIS for the eventual 24 DEX & WIS. A +7 Mod for Dex and Wis is really good.

>>94764789
>no save
No save and no size restriction push is helpful*

>>94742741
dm should just put npc enemies that fight npc allies in the background
im playing tales of the yawning portal and during a ship battle with sahaugin, he said that there were plenty more than those we were fighting but that the crew of the ship were busy with them throughout the ship
saves time for you and the dm, combat is long enough already

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>>94764769
2024 monk? I suppose they could dual wield and use that New light attack to get an additional attack, then either drop one or be allowed to kick an enemy (if the DM allows). 2014 monk's martial arts BA negates the need for a TWF BA.

Action surge is always good, and a subclass like Battle Master, EK, or Rune Knight is always useful. But that's an investment and you always need your ki points.

>>94764642
I mean I'm banning monks from my campaign unless they want to play a catholic brother, but I don't see why I wouldn't let anyone take a sneak attack if they were properly set up for it

>>94764789
It's relatively hard to buff Unarmed through feats, I just don't know if Tavern Brawler is the way to go. For example if you went Magic Initiate, you could grab a ranged damage cantrip like Toll the Dead, a nice defensive tool to concentrate on like Blade Ward, and then something like Shield. You could even take Jump or Expeditious Retreat to do super-movement shenanigans.

If you want to buff your mods, you're better off working to get certain magic items. Unlike other martials who usually have to pick and choose their buffed magic weapons, Monk can actually equip and use like four or five (since several aren't even attunement) unarmed strikes buffing items at once. If your DM allows magic item crafting, you'll get a couple of rares and even very rares way before you ever get close to level 20.

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>>94764814
>2024 monk? I suppose they could dual wield and use that New light attack to get an additional attack, then either drop one or be allowed to kick an enemy (if the DM allows). 2014 monk's martial arts BA negates the need for a TWF BA.
With a Nick attack, you can get two (then three at level 5) attacks as part of your Attack action, and then also use your Unarmed bonus action attacks on top of that. RAW you really don't need to have free hands to make Unarmed Strikes either, though you can't grapple with both hands full.

It sounds a little boring, but Champion might actually be the best way to go. For example if you were an Open Palm Elf, you could Topple the enemy with your first attack with Flurry of Blows, making them Prone. Then all your further attacks have advantage.

Assuming you were up to level 10 Monk, you would be making 5 more attacks after that, all with advantage. If you picked up Elven Accuracy, you'd be rolling for each of those 5 attacks 3 times each, which means that your probability of critting on a 19-20 for all of those rolls at least once is fucking 80%.

In that case taking Tavern Brawler might make it worse, since if you were to roll a 1 on any of those rolls, you'd have to roll again once and use whatever that roll would be, even if you rolled a 19-20 on another die.

>>94764934
Oh wait, Tavern Brawler is damage die not attack rolls. In that case it's actually really good with crit fishing to pump up your damage from unlucky rolls.

Is there a Druid subclass that's all in on terrain effects? Dumping massive plots of vines, spiderwebs and pools of acid everywhere making it absolute hell for the Fighter to actually fight?

>>94764974
thats more of a spell list thing than a subclass thing

>>94764982
trve but subclasses can help support a playstyle. Like Evocation Wizard being able to dump Fireballs in the middle of the party without hurting anyone.

>>94764990
I mean specifically for druid its more of a spell list thing. if you're playing 2024, sea druids can spawn a thing around you which knocks things away from you. if you're playing 2014 then spores druid can huck a ball of spores at a point and make an extra field for enemies to get fucked by, but only at 10th level or better

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I should ask this...>>94763851
What's the system, Old or New 5e?

>>94764863
Arcana proficiency and learning the shield spell means the player can both craft and use spell scrolls of shield. Shield on a martial is amazing and gives them a really good ability to tank. (Monk... less so since they have evasion and deflect missiles but...still super good)
One level of divine soul could give bless, absorb elements and shield and that plus Favor of the gods is absolutely amazing. Absorb Elements allows you to soak up most big elemental hits, and silvery barbs is always good crit protection.
If you're going 2024 and need 3 levels of sorcerer I mean, it sucks I suppose instead take Quandrix Strixhaven Initiate (Mage Hand, Guidance, Shield) Aberrant Dragonmark (Con +1, Con Sorc Spell and SR Shield), or go boring MI for what you need. like ya said.

>>94764934
Champion is good and basic, new champion is an actually decent version of it. That whole way to knock them over, if you took elven accuracy expanded crit range + triple advantage is just brutal. (If you take New-Tav-Brawler, go take Crusher as well for double pushing. And also mobile allows for free disengages, so you can just become completely inescapable + you can hit and run if they can't range attack you)

>>94764974
>>94764990
Land is the most obvious, because like >>94764982 said, it's a spell list thing. And Land gives you a wider spell list and extra spells over the course of the day.

Shepherd would be a close second, if you consider clogging up the battlefield with Constrictor Snakes as a terrain effect.

>>94765021
>That whole way to knock them over, if you took elven accuracy expanded crit range + triple advantage is just brutal. (If you take New-Tav-Brawler, go take Crusher as well for double pushing. And also mobile allows for free disengages, so you can just become completely inescapable + you can hit and run if they can't range attack you)
I wouldn't take Crusher. If you have Grappler you can get advantage without using Topple (though you may as well, I guess), and then drag them wherever you want. But if you Push them away then you can't have them Grappled.

Of course fucking their speed with Topple and then pushing them away is a super fuck you if they're a big melee enemy.

>>94765112
I will add any DM worth their salt will start giving their enemies some ranged attacks if you do that enough. (but Deflect Attacks!)
It depends on what strat you're going at. If you want to push enemies around that option is open, if you wanna knock over and grapple that's another, if you wanna play keep-a-away

If Dragonborn can be a race then I want Gorgonborn so I can petrify enemies with a stone gaze.

My group and I were having a debate, so I'd like some opinions from people who have more experience with the '24 rules to weigh in and provide some insight.
We were talking about the pros and cons of conversion as far as classes go, but I'd like to know what people consider the better version of each class. Are there any hard winners and losers from '14 to '24? Do you have preferences based on changed class features or class requirements? I've seen arguments for things like '24 Monk and Barb, but I've seen weirdness like Cleric and Warlock. Plus, the loss of so many subclass options is a real shame, but if the basic options are solid enough then it can potentially be overlooked.

>>94765304
>hard winners
Most all of them. Wizards and Rogues haven't changed all that much. Assassin is a bit weaker and I'm sure there are other subclasses that are a bit of a downgrade, either in features or in being pushed back to level 3. Paladin and Ranger are a sidegrade in some aspects but there are definitely no hard losers.

>>94765304
Practically every class is better. The only issues are the occasional redundant feature from older subclasses that was baked into the main class features (Cleric Divine Strikes, or Monk's Deflect Energy), and more notably the move of all subclasses to level 3, which limits some multiclassing strategies and makes some older subclasses a little weird.

Even with this though, they're overall much improved.
>Plus, the loss of so many subclass options
None of the older subclasses are disallowed in the new rules, they're all available as long as it's not one which has been reprinted.

>>94765304
>the loss of so many subclass options
Oh yeah, I missed this, but as the other anon said this isn't the case. In the 2024 game I'm running 3 players chose 24PHB subclasses while the last is a Hexblade warlock.

Roll20 seems hard to find good people to run games with, its difficult worming your way into already-established great groups

What do you guys recommend when looking for groups?

>>94765447
I found a group here. Otherwise I've been checking on Foundry and 5etools discords, and occasionally StartPlaying.

Frankly the deluge of pay-for-play games being advertised disgusts me, so I limit anything I'm searching for to free games.

>>94765447
Unironically my game group started on the cartoon horse board as a 3.PF campaign. Predictably the DM was an absolute tool, but he kicked himself out of the group when his trolling didn't land, the players picked up the pieces and invited our own guys from IRL or tg. While not everyone can fit to a schedule, overall we're still playing after what, 12-13 years? Pretty good for dregs I'd say.

>>94765454
How do you find people/groups here? I imagine it'd be pretty hit or miss, but I think a slightly serious game with a little banter would be fun.

I'm trying to make a battlesmith artificer that mounts his steel defender and throws Lances with the Thrown Arms Master and Dual Wielder feats, but then I realized I could only infuse ONE of the Lances with Returning Weapon. Are there any magic weapons that return to your hand after you throw them that AREN'T very rare or higher?

>>94765615
Oh wait, the Arcane Propulsion Arm will work just fine! Unfortunately it's locked behind level 14.

Tell me some cool shit I can do with a Divine Soul Sorcerer or other Sorcerer subclass from Xanathar's/Tasha's
I need to expand my perception of Sorcerer

since the thread has monk talk, i was wondering if there is any reason to use monk weapons instead of unarmed strikes
the main issue that i see is every subclass in 24 is inherently focused on unarmed strikes, with no consideration for monk weapons, aside from the outlier of Shadow
even the level 6 feature only covers unarmed strikes for force damage instead of monk weapons, yet stunning strike includes them?

i dont know man, seems like some bullshit to me
even kensei was fucking wonky to use, might as well just remove the monk weapon shit
the only reason its included apparently is to give a weapon ranged option, but why use it if you can just dash, jump and grapple onto whatever the fuck is in the air
though a ranged stunning strike is kinda cool

>>94765615
is this 2014 or 2024 version, why do you need dual wielder?
boomerang shield from bmt is uncommon

Does this all work?
>Paladin
>access to Dragonlance feats
>Take Adept of the Black Robes
>Attack
>Crit
>Wrathful Smite
>Enemy fails his Wis save
>Since Smites are now spells you cast, and they deal damage, they're applicable for the Life Channel effect
>Expend all my d10 hit die at once for extra damage
>Because this was the result of an attack made with my Greatsword and I have Savage Attacker and Great Weapon Fighting, I can reroll all the damage and every 1 or 2 becomes a 3
>Because it was a crit, I roll double the damage dice for the attack
>All the damage dice for the attack
>Including all my hit dice
>Do like 300 damage with one attack
Does that check out by the rules?

>>94765725
If you do a little multiclassing, you can get an extra attack with Nick, bringing you up to 6 attacks by level 11. Monk weapons also scale off your Martial Arts die, so they turn from piddly d6s to d10s and d12s even when you're using light weapons.

>>94765765
no

>>94765790
I realized that you only expend hit die up to the level of the spellslot used, so it would only be 5d10 at most. But is there any other part that doesn't add up?

>>94765770
yeah i get that part with weapon mastery and pure damage stacking
im just bothered by the fact that features disincentivise you from actually using monk weapons, even with nick

maybe im just greedy or powergamey, but its a damn shame since i wanted to used a greatclub monk and theres not quite enough oomph over unarmed strikes

>>94765818
You can use a greatclub and unarmed strikes at the same time. You don't need to drop the club to make them.

>>94765729
Dual wielder so I can TWF and throw the second lance as a bonus action. Unfortunately, Boomerang Shield counts as a Shield and not a Simple or Martial weapon, so RAW it doesn't work.

>>94765706
extend aura of vitality for one single sorc point to make it heal twice as much (20d6>40d6)
take a two level dip with tempest cleric and use chromatic orb as your bread and butter, once per short rest max the damage which is 40 or 80 with a crit using a third level spell slot
warlocks can use fifth level synaptic static 2 times in a combat at level 9
aberrant mind sorc can do it 10 times if they turn all other spell slots into sorc points

>>94765765
it doesnt deal damage based on a save

If I want some Conan-esque sword & sorcery quests/ideas, are old school modules a decent place to look?