>>97557769
>What homebrew rules do you use?
1s hit, but backlash for the same damage.

What's the sexiest class?

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>What homebrew rules do you use?
There is no player-accessible resurrection magic available to any character in my worlds, outside of stuff set incredibly far in the past

>>97557832
Bard, they're literally a charisma class with "seduce" who else would it be?

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Clubs are underrated, what weapon is cooler than a big stick?

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>>97557877
>what weapon is cooler than a big stick?
An even bigger stick

>>97557877
Truly, all of history has been about showing the world that you have the biggest stick

>>97557888
Okay, you beat me.

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>>97557769
>Namefag OP

>>97557868
Counterpoint: nobody actually considers the class clown to be hot

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>>97557877
>>97557896
Classics never die.

Was the genie pact updated for 5.5?

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>>97557877
a sharp stick
spear>club

>>97558049
Its in the Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun Book

Bros I hate when people equate DnD paladins with christian templars.

>>97557769
What's with her tits staring at My eyes like that

I know many joke about the current writing of D&D NPCs in personality and story but a lot haven't actually read the old plots and character stuff either.

Outside of the variety of races, and modern nonsense outliers like a friendly beholder or crippled lesbians, are the character descriptions and personalities really that different to how they used to be?

Would a character like Astarion in BG3 fit in with an older AD&D tier adventure for instance?

>>97558084
Charlemagnes Paladins are literally the exemplary of Templar though

>>97558143
edgelord vampire spawn who hates his master who uses his charm to bait vulnerable people into bad situations ?

pretty reasonable

>>97558143
>Would a character like Astarion in BG3 fit in with an older AD&D tier adventure for instance?
Probably
Cleric as a class only exists because one of Gygax's players was a vampire

>>97558151
nothing in your post is d&d related

>>97558151
The Twelve Peers weren't Knights Templar, anon, they were simply the most trusted and capable knights in the court of Charlemagne. Hell, the Templars weren't even founded until the 1100s, some three hundred years after Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor - and they were founded in Jerusalem, not Francia.

>>97558173
And was a massive douche about it, if I recall. So yeah, Astarion would absolutely fit in to such a table.

>>97557832
The entire concept of Sorcerers is that they won the genetic lottery and they're high CHA by default, so gonna go with that.

>>97557838
You can choose to make skill checks with any skill you want without having to justify it, but to do so you must first beat the DM in a fistfight.

>>97558239
I was talking about the stories about them, which was also written 1100s

>>97558143
>giving a shit about "official" NPCs in any way
Do people really? You are just creating your own setting and characters for your players, right?

>>97558173
>>97558269
I meant like as an NPC in the world fiction, not a PC

>>97558303
>>I meant like as an NPC in the world fiction, not a PC
>Would a fliry sassy vampire NPC work in d&d
lol yes

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>>97557769
>Decide to surprise the Warlock with some Winged Boots
>Present the boots to them
>"I don't want this"

The DM made these cost 400 gold and they aren't in my characters size

>>97558502
>they aren't in my characters size
Magic items resize to fit the wearer.

>>97558502
Why is the greentext from the DM's perspective but you then talk about "my character"?

>>97558969
he's saying his character bought the boots for the warlock as a surprise

im doing a one shot dungeon set in a dark ages inspired setting. im gonna give a cockatrice the bodak's death stare as well as the petrifying bite and make it the "dungeon boss." thoughts? i think the idea of a boss with 27 hp and 11 ac with a death glare is pretty funny, and its not the only monster in the dungeok, just a complicating factor

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I only like her because she's a sassy evil elemental sugar mama and twice my size, I swear I'm not actually into eels.

Anyone try running sidekicks under 2024 rules? Is there anything appreciably different between the rulesets that I need to consider or can I run them as written in Tasha's?

>>97559575
Sidekicks are too damn weak

>>97559596
I'm running a duo game with my roommate and we thought it might be easier to run a sidekick each than it would be to try to scale the campaign down to a party of two. We're running an Assassin Rogue and Valor Bard, so I figured having a Defender Warrior and a Prodigy Spellcaster would round us out while keeping things relatively simple.

>>97559573
Pharyngeal jaws

After seeing how 5E fucked my favorite 3.X class, the Binder, I have to ask: in what ways has 5E fucked my favorite 3.X campaign setting, Eberron?

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>>97559573

>>97559941
you're like 20 years late my dude

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>>97559941
Binders are lame and gay.

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>>97559573
Well someone on the D&D art team likes eels.

>>97559979
>bringing up third-party nonsense in a complaint about WotC

There's a reason nobody ever accuses you of being intelligent.

>>97559979
That isn't even the writer's barely disguised fetish anymore
What a retarded book lol

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>>97557769
i have A brilliant idea... a magic fire sword that shoots fireballs!!!

Can a Warlock have more than one patron? I've got a couple ideas for future character concepts that rely on it.

>>97560573
Hypothetically yes. I'm pretty sure the PH even mentions that a patron can be a group of entities. And I suppose you could roleplay that the PC makes limited transactions with any one patron and let yourself cycle through a number of them. However, there are no additional rules for having multiple patrons at once or switching from one patron to another, so if you want that then you'd have to homebrew. Ultimately it comes down to what your DM will allow.

>>97560623
Aight thanks. I had two ideas mainly, a warlock who serves a group of patrons that are like a council of sorts, deciding on how to influence the world through their agent; and then a warlock who doesn't have one sole defined patron (or maybe the patron was only powerful enough to give the first few levels of warlock) and now roams the world looking for a variety of supernatural entities that will give him new powers/levels in exchange of one time favors, never wanting to get too bound to a single one.

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>>97560561
So, Quietus?

>>97560573
>Can a Warlock have more than one patron?
idk, ask your fucking dm?

>>97560573
I'm pretty sure a Hag coven is brought up as an example of a patron. Nothing really forbids it, depending on what the concept is.

Oath of Harem Paladin

>>97557769
>>97557769
> TQ

Ehh… not homebrew specifically, but there were some published mechanics I was thinking of implementing, to create interesting scenarios:

> comfort
From “The Survivalist’s guide to Spelunking”, a 3rd party publication, the mechanic, if I recall correctly, in summary, is that the more miserable and uncomfortable the party’s surroundings are when they take a long rest, the less effective that long rest will be. Mostly by affecting health restoration, normally a full rest restores the PC to full health, but the more comfort penalties there are, the more HP short of full health the long rest restores; like “slept on the bare ground, no blanket or bedroll? Restores to full health -1, skipped the meal? Restored to full health -3, etc… and it stacks, so if the PCs really set themselves up for a truly miserable experience, they may not get any health restored from their long rest. But there’s also ways to counterbalance negative penalties: “slept through your watch? +1 comfort, slept in a soft bed? +2, etc…. Might make players think about where they set up camp and maybe push them to do things that their characters wouldn’t otherwise do

> money has weight
This is a PF1e port, and it’s exactly what it says on the tin. Coins are not weightless, they don’t have a lot of weight, but they have some, and it adds up (100 coins of any value or combination = 1lb). Thought it might encourage things like separating everyone’s share so the weight is spread out among the party, carrying higher denominations of currency around to keep weight down, or encourage them to, at some point, squirreling away caches so they aren’t weighed down, at the cost of not having it physically on them to spend right away. Stuff that could create new plot hooks later… I’m on the fence on this one admittedly.

I tried to make a small 5e supplement and abandoned it roughly halfway done. Here's the thing if you want to use it for something.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m7YSCJuJHPswtu544yem-98v31Izy45YoXihyBNKzMs/edit?usp=drivesdk

>>97561354
I've never liked a weight system because I feel like it's tedious to keep track of numbers of pounds and everyone just doesn't actually do it.

One time I experimented with the "slot" system from Giffyglyph's Darker Dungeons. I didn't think it was perfect but it was better than infinite storage.

>>97561316
Is that a Paladin that has a harem, or a Paladin that's part of a harem?

>>97561408
Obviously harem haver, including otome harem if the paladin is a woman (and straight).

>>97560573
As in subclass, no. You can't be both celestial and fiend, i know that's probably what your little edgelord heart hoped for, but you can't multiclass the same class, not even 2014 with 2024 version of the same class.

As in your patron is actually a council of individuals? Absolutely yes. A sea hag coven is explicitly an example of a Fathomless patron. And in fact Archfey's 2024 description mentions you might be calling on a large network of smaller fey's web of debts and favors.
And of course Great Old Ones are by definition weird as fuck and can "be" damn near anything. Dreaming incredibly powerful aliens, a mad god chained in the abyss, a titan older than all of existence that refuses to die even when it's killed, a 30ft tall former mortal composed of a humanoid loose pile of maggot and worms that represents the decay of all life and the inevitable end, wandering sentient evil stars, a corrupting color that shouldn't be...
If you wanted to say your patron was a hivemind-ed swarm of Cranium Rats the size of the population of the new york sewer system, living in one big John Calhoun style rat utopia, a mindflayer surveillance campaign that gained independence and merged when their overseers were killed by adventurers, that's completely legit and kind of kino.

Fiend would be unlikely, they don't like to share or cooperate (then again, Lilliana Vess. maybe they don't know you fractional reserve banking'd your own soul.)
Celestial technically could, but feels equally unlikely. Alignment outsiders still like to take their credit. Is there any with at least multiple heads?
Hexblade, sure why the fuck not. Have a whole armory of Deathscythes.
Genie is no, a genie is 1 genie. An elemental weaker than a genie simply isn't a genie.
Undead... theoretically it's possible but short of like, Deep Rot, Undying Court, or Obzedat, I'm not sure how that would work. Weaker undead tend to be nonsentient. Strong undead tend to be loners (lich, mummy lord, vampire lord).

>>97560573
>>97561309
Archfey subclass specifically says that it might be to one or a broad array of contracts among them as well.

How would you rule this in 5e?
>>97561371

>>97561354
OH! Actually I did have an idea for a homebrew mechanic to utilize a setting feature!

So the setting has things called Writwrits, little magical constructs that look like canaries that will deliver small messages to whoever the inscriber of the note wants. The spell to summon a writwrit is so minor and commonly known that literal children and non-magic users know it innately.

So I was thinking to bring a pad of post it notes with me to sessions and if the Players want to send a message via writwrit to either an NPC, or to other PCs not present in the scene, they have to fit the message onto a post it note (to represent that writwrits are not very big and as such can’t carry large documents)

>>97559596
my brother, that's the point.
if they were good, they would overshadow the party.

that said, an easier execution that would have still let them be a little better would be to just make them PCs with no subclass.
But I know they also didn't want them to have resources to keep track of except spell slots.
In fact, i'm surprised they even gave them spell slots instead of spell uses per day like NPC bestiary entries.

>>97559744
that's not a bad idea. just remember that's still weaker than a real party of 4.

>>97561538
depends if you're using gridded movement.
for gridded movement, you only pay move to enter a square. you fell into the difficult terrain, leaving it, however unintuitive, is not penalized provided the new square you're entering is not also difficult terrain.

no grid, moving in difficult terrain is 1:2. you have to move 5ft until you are no longer in it, ergo you have to spend 10 to leave.

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>>97557832
Sorcerer

>>97561641
>In fact, i'm surprised they even gave them spell slots instead of spell uses per day like NPC bestiary entries.
NTA, but the sidekick rules were made back when monsters also still used spell slots in their statblocks.

With them being half-casters anyway, I could see making them more similar to a Warlock, Give them just 1 or 2 slots of the highest available level, but then make them recharge often. Maybe even just get them back when rolling initiative as well as on a short rest. Then it's barely even something the players need to track, since it'd just be regained so easily.

>>97561557
>so addicted to the internet he needed to add texting to his game world.

Message, Animal Messenger, AND Sending all exist. As does Animal Friendship, Find Familiar, Animate Dead, Homunculus Servant, Tiny Servant, so on and so forth if you'd like to deliver a literal written note.

Not to mention earrings of message, sending stones, and silver raven.

>>97557832
On a guy? Paladin. With Barbarian as runner-up.
On a girl? Yeah, Sorceress. Rogue as runner-up. Or maybe Druid?

>>97561685
thicc

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A homebrew Green Dragon themed version of the Cube of Force.

>Ring of Radiant Resistance
Is this the most useless 'useful' magic item? What the actual fuck

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>>97562063
2014 Vicious Weapons were pretty terrible. 7 Extra Damage only on a 20 is horrid. A +1 weapon is better, a +2 is even better!
Ring of Radiant Resistance could actually be useful in some radiant damage-focused campaigns or adventures. Like a Ring of Fire Resistance isn't useful in a fight where fire isn't used, but it is useful against a Red Dragon. Same with the Ring of Radiant Resistance, not useful where Radiant damage isn't used, but is useful against a Solar Dragon.

Is there an archive of all the 2014 UA somewhere?

>TQ
Inspired by BG3, Short Rests in my games are only 15 minutes long but you can only take two per Long Rest, and your HP regeneration is capped at 50% of your total max HP per rest.

Oh! Remind me, how is a GM meant to determine how much xp to give out for non-combat encounters?

I remember reading that, at least for social encounters, as long as some kind of skill check was required, the PCs are rewarded the same xp from the encounter as if they had resolved it violently.

But I feel it gets a little abstract when there’s no opposing NPC/monster, like navigating some obstacle or hazard, or dealing with booby traps (be it by disarming it or letting it explode in your face). Is there a set rubric that’s supposed to be followed? Or is it a “just go with what feels right” stupid bullshit?

Because I’m noticing the disproportionately large volume of combat encounters I have and feel like I need to spice it up a bit.

>>97562239
Noncombat Challenges p49

You decide whether to award XP to characters for overcoming challenges outside combat. If the adventurers complete a tense negotiation with a baron, forge a trade agreement with a guild of surly smiths, or safely navigate the Chasm of Doom, you might decide the characters deserve XP.

As a starting point, use the rules for building combat encounters in chapter 4 to gauge the difficulty of the challenge. Then award the characters XP as if it had been a combat encounter of the same difficulty.

>Combat Encounters p114

I'm not going to paste that chapter, its quite a bit longer.


>Difficulty Class p29

>from the 2024 dmg

>>97560573
>he watched the youtube short

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SAnbDGrC8iE

>>97562357
That's funny, but no, I actually got inspired by a different video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLzxuIfD9rU&list=RDBLzxuIfD9rU&start_radio=1

The idea being, normal guy stumbles upon/gets chosen by council of eldritch beings that have a responsibility to keep reality stable, but since they can't interact with the world directly mostly just spend their time chilling and partying and reveal universal truths to the warlock through catchy musical numbers.

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>>97560573
>>97562396
>"Great Old One Patron"
>Unearth Forbidden Lore of Ineffable Beings
>When you choose this subclass, you might bind yourself to an unspeakable being from the Far Realm or an elder god—a being such as Tharizdun, the Chained God; Zargon, the Returner; Hadar, the Dark Hunger; or Great Cthulhu. Or you might invoke several entities without yoking yourself to one. The motives of these beings are incomprehensible, and the Great Old One might be indifferent to your existence. But the secrets you've learned nevertheless allow you to draw strange magic from it.

>>97562063
veterans cane is the most useless imho

a cane that, exactly once, turns into a shortsword.
it's obviously a magic item so still going to probably get checked at the door, and costs more than a shortsword.

There's also a couple items that are literally just a mundane item with a spell cast on it (adventurers ring, everbright lantern, cracked driftglobe)

Emerald Pen's pretty bad too. i barely even see the spell used period, and the spell is already a ritual, so all it really does it let you use it as 1 minute cast instead of 11, and forgo the 10gp cost.

>>97562578
>they fixed veterans cane in 2024
>all magic item light sources pierce magical darkness
>illusory script can be used to sell fake spell scrolls that hold up to nonmagical scrutiny

>>97562239
>Or is it a “just go with what feels right” stupid bullshit?
Pretty much. You can try and put a square peg into a round hole by working backwards from the 'Monster Statistics by CR' table, using the damage per round and then doubling that to give you a rough idea of the "CR" of a given trap.

>>97562595
>>all magic item light sources pierce magical darkness
yeah, but why buy something you can cast yourself? also, only if their spell level outranks the magical darkness source.
continual flame is in fact DISPELLED in Darkness.

>>97561358
I don't get the sense you want to be a passionate advocate for whatever you've created, but this post gives no reason even someone who might be interested should look at it.

>>97562661
i did look at it and still aren't.
i can see why anon abandoned it

>>97562773
From a quick glance there's a shit ton of spelling errors. The document title is even misspelled.

Content looked super boring.

Anon, I'm hoping you're in HS.

entire internet is just ESLs learning english from other ESLs. plus ai slop.

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>>97562796

>>97562630
>why buy something you can cast yourself
and here we have one of the problems that make the new edition so different in appeal

Previously the thought was
>Why take a spell when an item can do it?

Now people just take having access to magic for granted and assume everyone has it

>>97562837
magic items cost time and money to hunt down. you can only acquire so many, best reserve those "slots" for ones you can't replace with spells.
Because spells are basically free unless you're a bard or sorcerer where you can't swap out on a daily basis.
even then you could just buy a scroll and cast it once for cheaper and faster than buying the item, no?

>>97562796
EFLs aren't much better at english these days.

can I get an opinion on an idea?

>domains are separate from cleric subs (which include shit like exorcist, ascetic, theologist, etc), but contain only the level 1-3 features and one spell per level
>clerics gain 1 domain at 3
>at 5, they choose two others they can swap between when they long rest
>at 10 they can have two domains at once

>>97562998
do they still get their subclasses and this is just a pf2e field of study on top of it?

would you require your clerics to be dedicated towards a specific deity?

>two casters, 1 rogue
The GM says it will be fine, but I think the fights might be a bit difficult to make

>>97563075
The fights are going to be the most boring they've ever been, especially if the rogue is a fight from range kind of rogue and not a fight up close kind of rogue.

>>97563119
>fight up close kind of rogue
weird way to say about dead rogue but yeah

>>97563125
your rogues don't use their bonus actions to move away from enemies?

>>97563052
>do they still get their subclasses

yes, but like I said, they aren't tied to domains. they're things like exorcists (who get abilities to banish otherworldly creatures), ascetics (who are monk-like gishes), theologists (who get a spellbook), and so on

>would you require your clerics to be dedicated towards a specific deity?
I thought about that, but no. I would not. Forced flavor sucks, and it raises too many issues for DMs that don't want gods to be a direct part of the setting

>>97563139
No. Every rogue I've played with in 5e had to have been reminded they could to that. Usually they tried to get an extra attack in for some reason. Right now the rogue I'm playing with as a spear and shield champion fighter is ranged, and every time he tries to get in melee combat he ends up going down.
going down lol

>>97563151
Oh, your developing a subsystem entirely that's setting agnostic. That's interesting.

How's that different to the Divine Order of Protector v Thaumaturge in the 2024 rules (have you checked it out?) and how are you going to make your exorcist more unique when Banishment is a universal cleric spell?

Are you doing a complete cleric revision?


>>97563159
that's why they've got the disengage cunning action though, what's he doing?

>>97563139
then that's not up close anymore is it.

Also means dead caster. If there's not someone with threatened area and AC18+/d10+HD to block enemy

Think of wizards as quarterbacks that basically double as an end zone. Skirmish Rogues are a halfback. You need a lineman.

>>97563159
>Every rogue I've played with in 5e had to have been reminded they could to that. Usually they tried to get an extra attack in for some reason. Right now the rogue I'm playing with as a spear and shield champion fighter is ranged, and every time he tries to get in melee combat he ends up going down.
Rogues suffer from the same overcommittal problem as monks.
The only reason monks have a worse reputation for it is they're semi-obligatory melee (though even this is part of the same lack of braincells, monks should still carry throwing weapons and shortbow, even if you can't flurry at range sometimes a gorillion speed still isn't quite enough to reach or sometimes you're too drained to skirmish safely might as well stay alive and ping for slightly less than die like a bitch), and no Uncanny Dodge, only Deflect Missiles, which notably does jack dick all for parking your twink ass in melee. Though 24 did fix the deflect missiles to any attack, melee included.

>>97563186
>that's why they've got the disengage cunning action though, what's he doing?
probably TWF with his bonus action for an extra chance to sneak if the first missed, and then parking his ass on the front line to take everybody's attacks, on the hopes somebody provokes an opportunity sneak attack, instead of sacrificing being swung at once so he's not in slapping range of 3 enemy beefwalls armed to the teeth when their turns come around.

>>97563280
weapon mastery 'nick' allows you to free up your bonus action, so the rogue can still walk away without taking any attacks if they want.

>>97563186
>what's he doing
Trying to get an extra attack in because rogue players are retards.
>>97563280
>monk comparison
Holy shit, this anon gets it.

>>97563186
>How's that different to the Divine Order of Protector v Thaumaturge in the 2024 rules (have you checked it out?)

basically, those are being expanded into subclasses of their own.

>how are you going to make your exorcist more unique when Banishment is a universal cleric spell?

some ideas I have planned ar
- enemies that fail a save against one of your spells can't charm or frighten until the spell ends on them (minimum of 1 round).
- You are immune to curses, possession, and the charmed conditon
- You can banish creatures you turn with turn undead
- You can permanently break curses on magic items

>Are you doing a complete cleric revision?

that's the plan, but probably not

Is there any way to make templates work in 5e? I really want to convert some 3.5e templates over. But it seems like the only ones that exist are half-dragon.

>>97563336
there are others in the 2014 monster manual, including dracolich, shadow dragon, spore servant, and lycanthrope. The DMG also notes features you can add to monsters and how much they affect its CR

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How many short rests does your party take between long rests?
I always hear that people don't take them often, but my party takes one pretty much anytime they have a quiet hour of travel or are waiting for another event to pop off.
We do run into situations where there are several urgent events that need to be done quickly which tightens the timeline too much to shortrest, but most of the time even those are bookmarked between short rests.

What has your experience been?

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>>97563336
>>97563350
There is also the list of NPC features in the DMG. Some of which are just races, but you've also got things like Zombie and Skeleton on there to make undead versions of existing monsters.

If you mean templates that PCs can feasibly use, that gets trickier.

>>97563125
>>97563159
Going down is exactly how the rogue should be tanking stuff. That said it's not nearly as dire as you say, studded leather can be had at first level and gives 16 AC with 18 dex

I don't play table top games or know anything about D&D but what is "Min/maxing?" I've heard that phrase before in RPG settings but don't know what it means. Can someone please explain it to me?

>>97563432
basically, making your character strong. the term refers to "minimizing your weaknesses/maximizing your strengths"

some people rteally hate it becuase they're too stupid to understand how to make an attack roll, let alone build a strong character

>>97563316
>>monk comparison
>Holy shit, this anon gets it.
Of course I do. I'm the monk/rogue player who's been hogging the single brain cell shared between us since early 2022.
I got so sick of jobbing I have fucking spreadsheets on this shit.

>>97563369
in practice, 1, occasionally none.
system as designed, it's explicitly supposed to be at least 2 a day, about every 3rd of a day's XP.
That's why they put a 1/long rest quick shortrest on warlock and monk, made Prayer of Healing into Catnap, and made a bunch of other things long rest but +1 regained on short rest.

>>97563409
>Going down is exactly how the rogue should be tanking stuff.
you're thinking of bards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ohk5Swy-04

>>97563432
Absolutely mathematically optimizing your character's stats/abilities to perfectly do one specific thing with the goal of using that to powergame and succeed at everything, without any regard to making your character into an actual character with more to them than "wins combat".

You min(inimize) stats that don't directly tie into your character's main combat abilities and max(imize) the ones that do.

>>97563453
>I got so sick of jobbing I have fucking spreadsheets on this shit.
i've also do this, how does your rogue compare to the group?

>>97563446
nice chatgpt answer but it's wrong.

the minimizing part is dumping things you aren't good at for more budget strengthening the things you are.
As opposed to being more well-rounded.
related term: "munchkinning," because some systems had things like flaws you could take, like being a midget, that gave you bonus points to spend. You take a bunch of flaws you don't care about then make yourself superhuman at the things you

So for instance, a minmaxer who was a barbarian and wanted to be big on heavy weapon use using pointbuy would probably max strength and con, put some in dex, and then dump everything else, and only ever take feats based on making his greatsword attacks better.
Someone who isn't minmaxing would probably still prioritize those same features, BUT wouldn't do so at the expense of balance. So he wouldn't be quite such a god at big sword, BUT, he wouldn't be as vulnerable to things other than his HP and AC being targetted, and he'd have things to contribute when it isn't big sword time.

There's also the implication that all of the character creation choices were made exclusively for mechanical power, and thus they're hardly a character at all, just a statblock. But this is known as the Stormwind Fallacy, technically speaking, mechanics-up optimized PCs, be they balanced or minmaxed, can have as rich a narrative aspect to them as a concept-down. Emphasis "technically can," the stereotype exists for a reason.

>>97563432
>what is "Min/maxing?"
you're baiting but it means making a build instead of a character

>>97563453
Hot take, if the DM isn't running the adventure day's pace to allow for two short rests, regardless of if the party takes them as rests, then they are a bad DM.

>>97563490
>the minimizing part is dumping things you aren't good at
It often shows up that way, because certain classes are set up to be able to easily dump stats that they don't really need.
A spellcaster doesn't really need Strength, because Strength saving throws aren't very threatening and the stat doesn't do much else. By simply selecting a class that doesn't need strength, the player has minimized their weaknesses.

>a minmaxer who was a barbarian and wanted to be big on heavy weapon use using pointbuy would probably max strength and con, put some in dex, and then dump everything else
A minxmaxer is someone who would pick a class other than Barbarian that doesn't have a crippling weakness to mental saves.
Also, dumping mental saves as a Barbarian just makes you worse at swinging a sword. High con doesn't help you swing a sword. Not losing your turn to a failed Wis save does. You maximize your sword ability by minimizing the weakness.

>>97563490
>the minimizing part is dumping things you aren't good at for more budget strengthening the things you are.
>As opposed to being more well-rounded.

flat out wrong, but ok.

>So for instance, a minmaxer who was a barbarian and wanted to be big on heavy weapon use using pointbuy would probably max strength and con, put some in dex, and then dump everything else, and only ever take feats based on making his greatsword attacks better.
Someone who isn't minmaxing would probably still prioritize those same features, BUT wouldn't do so at the expense of balance. So he wouldn't be quite such a god at big sword, BUT, he wouldn't be as vulnerable to things other than his HP and AC being targetted, and he'd have things to contribute when it isn't big sword time.

an actual minmaxer wouldn't play a barbarian, because barbarians are the bottom of the barrel dogshit class, and arguably even worse than rogues

>>97563119
>The fights are going to be the most boring they've ever been
why?

>>97563476
I haven't played a 5e monk since I made the sheet. Just before the OGL scandal, A friend tried to make a 5e adjacent homebrew system he was hoping to publish, and i did play a monk in playtest for that. But the action economy was entirely different. Nevertheless some of the theorizing did carry over.

I haven't really played a rogue since I put my thinking cap on for that one, but the results were noticeable in those last few weeks before the campaign ended.

And I started on a thingy for Ranger after I realized I and the rest of the community were probably playing that one wrong too, but i'm not sure i ever cracked that one. I found promising community answers, and believe they have some truth, but

And then I just haven't played 5e at all in like the last 2 years, cause one groups is dead and the other did a bunch of oneshots to try out things that weren't 5e and then.

>>97563522
>>97563540
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/min-max
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinMaxing

Newfags the lot of you. You're confusing minmaxers for optimizers.

>>97563550
*and then swapped to SWN+Lancer.

>>97563554
>You're confusing minmaxers for optimizers.
>>https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MinMaxing
>The art, much beloved of munchkins, of optimizing a character's abilities during creation by maximizing the most important skills and attributes, while minimizing the cost.
>This is done by strategic decrease of stats believed to be less important in game (called "Dump Stats"),

So exactly what I said. A minmaxer picks a class where they can dump Strength, because Strength isn't seen as an important stat. A minmaxer doesn't pick a class where they'll dump Wisdom, because Wisdom is seen as an important stat.
And as your link so helpfully points out, minmaxing is optimizing.

>>97563453
Bards are a charisma class, they never have to go down if they don't want to

>>97563569
Minmaxing is a form of optimization, yes, but you can minmax for goals other than overall generic optimization.
for instance the extreme speed tabaxi. sir bearington. assplomancer. cantripmaxxing.
The greater optimizer community would look at these and think they're horrible and imbecilic. From a win-focused mindset, they definitely are.
BUT they are also minmaxed, in that they have sacrificed things that are unimportant to their primary goal to achieve greater heights in the one or scant handful of things that are. Sir Bearington spent every part of character creation achieving the disguise of "normal human man." Optimized for winning? Not at all, he's largely worthless in most scenarios. Minmaxed as fuck? Objectively, he was minned in everything except the 2 things he was maxxed at, disguise and bluff, which he did at superhuman levels.

>>97563547
No frontline means the class has zero room for error in dealing with threats. Any sort of skirmisher-type encounter where the monsters can engage before they get popped by the casters is going to open up the party's butthole real wide, but its basically the only kind of encounter which can do so.

>>97563569
>Not to be confused with the decision theory strategy of Minimax or Maximin where one tries to maximize their minimum gain or minimize their maximum loss. Employing one of these strategies is more likely to bankrupt your company than make it stronger.
>Related to Disability Superpower, Crippling Overspecialization, Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training. Often the reason for wearing Rainbow Pimp Gear. See Whoring for the Video Game equivalent trope.

>>97563621
Mmm... that really sucks...
Alternatively, I thought about discarding my bard (one of the two casters, the other is a warlock) and playing as an eldritch knight.

>>97563668
well at least they're d8 casters with an armor prof, and not wizard or sorcerer.
Is the bard swords/valor or the warlock 24melee or hexblade?

If it's a rogue and 2 gishes, that's better.

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>>97563453
>>97563611
>Want to play a character that can fulfill the role of a frontline tanky sword and board martial, but also act as the party face.
>But I really just can't take Bards seriously.
>And also fear Paladin roleplay kind of shoehorning my character into the role of someone who doesn't know how to just kick back and relax, or that will inevitably develop main character syndrome.

>>97563684
>>But I really just can't take Bards seriously.
There's ways to bard that aren't gay fop twiddling on a banjo in the middle of a deathbrawl.
For starters, there's always normal component pouch, the only class that can't use it is artificer.
But also if it's under any definition of the word "media," that's bard work. Bards are journalists, historians and archeologists, propagandists and marketers, spies, evangelists and mediums (well, the ones not acting as direct prophets or cultists of real supernatural entities), psychiatrists; Anything whose purpose is to control the information and feelings in people's heads, be that disseminate necessary information, rally hope, plant falsehoods, or smooth over upheaval. Memes, Jack, the DNA of the Soul.

And Ancients Paladin is very kick back and relax, and Redemption and Glory can be.
>main character syndrome
look brother, 4e didn't call support party face "Leader' for nothing. Just like the frontman is the most popular member of a rock band, you're going to be the most well-known member of the party if you're the one doing all the talking.

>>97563678
I’m not really sure what subclass the warlock is, to be honest… I’ll have to ask the GM tomorrow. I don’t know if it helps, but the GM told us to choose classes, subclasses, and basically any options that were released only in the 2024 version of 5e.
Anyway, I’m planning to play a Lore Bard mainly for the aesthetics and roleplay, but your posts are starting to make me doubt that decision…

>>97563747
er no, not psychiatrist, that's enchanter wizard.

Psychologist. freud and jung and skinner and milgram and zimbardo.

Shrinks, not pill-pushers and lobotomizers.

>>97563684
Samurai Fighter, thank me later.

>>97563758
If he's going Blade Boon, and then Armor of Shadows or ideally planning on grabbing moderately Armored at 4th, then you should be alright.

If it's just 3 light armor no shield d8bois, none of which should ideally ever end their turn in melee range, then all I can really say is, the name of the game is ambushes, walls, kiting, summoning, and hirelings. Do as much as you can to make sure the enemy never gets to you. Your ideal engagement is shooting fish in a barrel. Especially since short of hirelings or summons, the rogue has no one to flank with, he NEEDS advantage, either from steady aim or hiding. A rogue without sneak attack might as well be a wizard in an AMF when it comes to damage output.

Now, as a lore bard, you can adjust what your spell list is.
The way it is right now you have two solidly reliable (provided your rogue can solve the sneak issue) but lackluster damagers.
Rogue has... skill checks. That's about it. Rogue is by far one of the easiest classes to learn because there's not much to keep up with beyond the base mechanics and sneak attack is under normal circumstances more or less a given.
The warlock has mass and single target shutdowns and evasion, plus several summon options. from its invocations it can also get spammable subterfuge utilities.
The bard kit naturally has single shutdowns, minor healing, buffs, and a hodgepodge of druid and wizard utilities. It also has even more skill checks.
Good news, with that much sneakery, hopefully you should actually do pretty well at making sure you're never in a fair fight, provided the DM doesn't get annoyed at "cheese" tactics and deny you it because they have strong opinions about how the game "should" be played then wonders why you TPKed when he locked 3 limp noodles in an cagematch with a bear.

>>97563758
>>97564052
Not taking any subclasses into account, which could vastly alter things, overall, in addition to the lack of defensive wall, you're also going to have some issues hordebreaking because you have no good spread damage or even a single target kobold blender like a monk or fighter. Bards have horrible damage in general, rogue is by definition single target, and the warlock is getting a third of its reliable damage from Hex, which can only move once a turn. Shatter will do alright until 5th. but somebody, somewhere needs fireball. Fiend or fire genie lock, Thief or Arcane Trickster rogue with scrolls or a wand, take it as one of your magical secrets, SOMEBODY.

>>97557807
Interesting idea. Does it appreciably change the flow of combat?

My homebrew is that long rest abilities replenish on a "full rest" instead. A full rest is 24 hours. This is coupled with spells requiring mana to cast on top of slots. The cost is 10 per spell level, and players started with 50 mana. Mana is like ammo for spells, so they have to continually buy more, and upgrading their mana vessels is a good money sink as well.
With these two rules combined, they are encouraged to take them time and weight their options. In combat, magic is a precious resource they can't spend willy-nilly. I also give them a lot of consumables if they scrounge around dungeons and the wilderness. Poisons, explosives, spell scrolls, etc.
I guess a third houserule is that anyone can cast a spell scroll.

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>>97563446
>>97563490
>>97563522
>>97563540
Thanks! these were helpful

>>97563474
Your answer was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.

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This is basically how I imagine your average human male fighter.

>>97564944
That's a Ranger
A Fighter would be in heavier armour with a shield

>>97563747
You know, I have been interested in playing a Glory Paladin with a background in being a gladiator...

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>>97564953
Like this?

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>>97564998
>>97564944
Or this?

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>>97565001
>>97564944
Or this?

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>>97565003
>>97564953
Or this?

>>97565001
Hey this one owes me money.

>>97565032
fite im for it

>>97563125
>he's never played a swashbuckler
sad

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how many encounters do you have per session? how long is the average session at your table?

>>97561641
>that said, an easier execution that would have still let them be a little better would be to just make them PCs with no subclass.

Might decide to go this route for the Prodigy, although I'd want Druid so I can have access to both healing and damage and at the same time my DMPC in another game is already a Druid so I migjt have more fun picking another class (Cleric?). The Warrior is already essentialy a Champion Fighter with some other stuff, so I'm comfortable rolling that as written.

>>97565492
Roughly 4 encounters
Roughly 3-4 hours

>>97561685
Well which class do I as a dude have to play to get a sorceress gf this hot

>>97566125
How many of these encounters are combats?

>>97566166
Best chance:
>Barbarian
>Fighter

Could go either way:
>Bard
>Monk
>Rogue

Tsundere route only:
>Paladin
>Sorcerer
>Warlock

Lolno
>Artificier
>Cleric
>Druid
>Ranger
>Wizard