Surprise Edition>2024 PHB Scanhttps://files.catbox.moe/g8oo9h.pdf>Cropped and rotated, but more artifactyMjAyNCBQSEIsIE5vIFRodW1icywgT0NSZWQsIEFub24ncyBCb29rbWFya3MgdHJhbnNmZXJyZWQgb3Zlci4gCgpodHRwczovL2Vhc3l1cGxvYWQuaW8vd2Fvcm9h>2024 DMGhttps://files.catbox.moe/fd04pq.pdf>2024 Monster Manualhttps://files.catbox.moe/atd38s.pdf (D&D beyond version)https://pomf2.lain.la/f/1en5qwum.pdf (scan)>2024 Official free ruleshttps://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/free-rules>2014 Official Free Ruleshttps://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/basic-rules-2014>2024 UAhttps://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/ua>2014 Erratahttps://dnd.wizards.com/dndstudioblog/sage-advice-book-updates>5etools (2024)http://5e.tools>5etools (2014)https://2014.5e.tools/>TroveThe Trove Vault (seed, please!): mega(dot)nz/folder/uktzzTAI#KfV-EWdhd15FhHNn5HndHg>Resources:https://pastebin.com/X1TFNxckPrevious thread: >>97176049>TQHow do you like to handle surprise attacks? Do you just use the disadvantage on initiative or your own houserules?>BTQHow do you encourage teamwork?
>CELESTIALS —Rob Heinsoo (4e)>If you’re a long-time D&D fan, odds are that you’ve already noticed that the tieflings’ promotion to first-rank player character race has left another race behind: the race that was the tieflings’ light-side counterpart, a race of golden humans descended from angels—the aasimar.>Even now I struggle to type that word without spelling it like buttocks.>I’m one of the designers who argued that we should stop using the word “aasimar.” In the aasimar’s place, you’ll meet a race of celestials who have plunged through the same transforming fires as the tieflings.>I won’t lie: making Good-associated creatures as exciting as their Evil-curious counterparts is a challenge. I call the challenge the “Ave Maria” problem, a reference to Walt Disney’s original Fantasia, a wonderful animated film that ended with musical meditations on Evil and Good. Evil got Night on Bald Mountain, accompanied by an evil-storm orchestrated by a whip-wielding demon. Good followed up with barely animated candle-bearing keepers of the faith proceeding across the screen singing Ave Maria. It’s a sweet piece of music, and it certainly speaks to the possibilities of Good, but the animation just didn’t hold a candle to lightning storms on Bald Mountain.>So now you know our mission: celestials who sizzle bright enough to hold their own against Bald Mountain lightning storms. We’re working on it!Was Heinsoo right in the end?
The gnomes are watching.
>>97215825I'd say the bigger part that makes Tieflings more popular is that they come pre-baked with backstory hooks. Being some misbegotten hellspawn has more potential, while Aasimar often just ends up as 'nepo-baby Paladin'. Leaning into that even harder with Devas made them more distinct, because they had their own sort of alien weirdness with reincarnation cycles. They just spring into existence as a blank slate, which is the exact opposite of the Tiefling niche, which have all of the extra baggage of a cursed upbringing.
>>97215875They can watch all they like, we're on to them.
>>97215814>TQI'm running Phandelver as a newbie DM and waffled on how I was going to handle the initial goblin ambush. What ended up happening was that my players scanned the treeline after stumbling upon the dead horses. One of them passed the Perception check, I had the goblins notice them looking for them, and they launched a volley without advantage on the attack but all of my party except the one person who noticed them then rolled initiative with disadvantage.
>>97215825Yes Assimar is an Ass name but look at what they did with Assimars and Tieflings for 5e24Assimars get a bunch of racial abilities while Tieflings are stuck being some jackasses with some cantrips and spells with some damage resistance depending on the legacy. Assimars have more flavorWotC just has to put more effort into expanding on the Celestials to get people interested in them. As it stands the Fiends are far more expanded upon with easily identifiable characters that even a casual player would know about while the same can't be exact for Celestials
I may be a snob but nothing deflates my interest in a potential new player more than when I ask them about character ideas and they start talking to me about mechanics or builds. Fucking yawn
>>97215825It really is hard to make blessed nepo babies more interesting than cursed underdogs.>>97215880That and the fact that Tieflings can be more interesting visually (also hotter) and being an underdog makes for a more interesting character.>>97215901I'm not sure what lore can make them more interesting.
>>97215825>>97215880Yeah, kinda harder. Some ideas.1) Angels and by extension aasimars aren't necessarily loved by all people - the gods aren't that collaborating2) Aasimars have a tendency to self-immolate for good causes. Theoretically that makes them ascend to being angels and such
>>97215935>I'm not sure what lore can make them more interestingHave Celestials come into conflict with Adventurers more often. Half the time the Party are crossing a thin line between good natured goofs and murderhobo's who will kill if they're slightly inconveniencedAt the end of some campaigns some party members end up becoming so strong that a large Army means nothing to them, if the murderhobo's got into that kind of power it would be bad news for everyone else. Have Celestials be wary of most Adventurers and outright hostile to the more casual-murder types. As a DM acknowledge how callous your Party is and have the Celestials send some grunts to deal with them every so often and perhaps even go to a Celestial Realm to covert assassinate which ever top dog Celestial is trying to halt your progressAlso giving Celestials more designs that aren't just People with Wings and Constructs would probably help. Fiends are interesting because they all have wacky designs
>>97215880You can pull a Sailor Moon easily with the whole divine purpose + handler thing. They exist to be driven towards a story goal (almost always killing the evil). That needs to be the DM's focus, but I guess you could play with the idea of an individual engineered to be the doomslayer having to exist in society.
>>97215979Indirectly calling your players out for playing as bad people causes hurt feelings at the table - that's a cardinal sin that kills games.
>>97215935>That and the fact that Tieflings can be more interesting visually (also hotter) and being an underdog makes for a more interesting character.The visuals are a potential factor, but are ultimately secondary in a tabletop game. But the underdog angle is what really pushes it further than other weird-looking races.>>97215938The point of consideration is how it translates into a player character. People don't really want to play a character who is going to martyr themselves for the first righteous cause they find, because then the character is dead and you're no longer playing.As for a PC not being loved by all...that's really the default for most races, isn't it? But the best case scenario there is that you have NPCs treating the character as if they're stuck-up or privileged. Not exactly a lot to work with.
>>97215999It can go either way, either your Party doesn't like being called out for killing some goon who surrendered after you fireballed his entire team and he wasn't a threat anymore or the Party is totally down to "rise the ranks" and start killing Celestials and looting their corpses
>>97215814I had my players recently be surprised by a Bullete - Land Shark. Which worked well for me, because they'd dismounted from their griffons and all walked up to it's offal pit of a nest. I gave it an attack before initiative, which let it leap and send enough of the party prone to make it's mid initiative roll effective.Took them 4 rounds to figure out how high it could jump and get off the ground. By then they had it bloody and a second showed up.With everyone off the ground though it was only 2 more turns till both Bullete were dead.I think if they didn't get the surprise round it wouldn't have been a difficult encounter.
>>97215991Sure, a DM could enable a divine chosen one sort of thing. But that's going to make it less popular by default if you need the DM on board. Plus part of Sailor Moon's thing is that neither she nor anyone else was actually aware of that status right? Like her parents were unaware that she was princess of the moon or whatever. That's not like an aasimar where it's visibly obvious that they're not a normal human from anything more than a cursory glance.Also in terms of having a handler, I think Celestial Warlock does a better job of that specific stripe of magical girl.Part of this is making me wonder if aasimar wouldn't be improved by having them only gain any hints of divine heritage later in life, so that they aren't seen as blessed from birth.
I'm trying to revise magic stone for 2024. Which would you prefer?version 1>it works similarly to the old version, but was written to clarify how they work>the stones can be used as ranged thrown weapons (20/60), or as sling bullets>creatures attacking with them use your spellcasting ability, but their own proficiency (making them harder to abuse with minionmancy)>their damage can be bludgeoning or radiant (since magic bludgeoning no longer exists)>their damge die increases the same way as the 2024 shillelagh doesversion 2>works more like the 2014 acid splash, but with 3 targets (not broken since 2024 acid splash can have up to 4)>the damage is 1d6 bludgeoning or radiant>its damage scales like a normal cantrip
Post inside jokes from your campaign.
>>97216366
>last name: McDruid>is not a druid
>>97216366>>97216387Also I want zero context to any of these shitposts.
I just played a ranger and had more fun with him than with my barb. Both in and out of combat, it felt more fluid and useful
>>97216361The former, since Magic Stone being the ranged version of Shillelagh is really all it has going for it. Also, Force seems like a more sensible damage type
>>97216366>Exits from closet>SHOUTS FRIENDSHIP>Pulls up zipper
*rat noises* WHATTHEFUCKISTHAAT
>>97216414radiant was chosen because magic stone used to be for killing undead in many previous editions, as well as in pf. bludgeoning and radiant is a good combo, because it does full damage to most undead, and double damage to skeletons and shadows
>>97215814I've been away from D&D for some years.Sell me on your system.
>>97216604don't play it. play literally any other rpg. it's utter dogshit and we're only still playing we're here forever
>>97216366God, I have so many.
>>97216366>>97216615
>>97216604Do you have a group that insists on playing D&D, but can't agree on any other edition? Then 5e works fine.It's also ideal if you want hundreds of homebrew splatbooks to sift through, because it's very easy to homebrew for.
