>>98509165
>TQ
I don't like it but as a DM it makes whiny bitch players whose characters always die because they don't know how to play properly easier to handle.

They're pretty inseparable from a large chunk of the playerbase. I don't think you could cut them and retain a large chunk of the audience.

I know I'd leave.

>>98509266
In 3.5 I used to force players to have cohorts so if one of their characters died they could still participate in the session.

>>98509165
>Are resurrection spells good for the game or would you prefer if they weren't in your games and death was permanent?
It's good but I wish it were more flavorful, like requiring the caster to risk his own life in a gamble with death or something, to explain why they don't just true-resurrect every time a king gets assassinated or something.

That said I did ruin a writing project once by having a character get resurrected from the dead. It was done by his daughter finding an ancient pool of nanites in the ruins of an ancient advanced civilization, and instead of bringing it to her scientists to study, she just chucked her dad in there instead and resurrected him, screwing billions of people out of potential resurrection / immortality tech. It was a cool story moment, but after that it just made the whole story feel like a joke.

>>98509394
>Kings
>D&D
Pick one and only one the world is ruled by wizards and clerics.

>>98509165
>Are resurrection spells good for the game or would you prefer if they weren't in your games and death was permanent?
If you didn't have it, you end up with players who either refuse to do anything out of fear, or who simply create a new character while putting even less effort into them. By comparison, being able to dangle diamonds as rewards in order to coax them into actually taking risks is serviceable enough.

It would likely improve things if resurrection spells had more of a lasting consequence though. Reincarnation is the only one that's likely to throw a wrench into things.

>>98509408
>Pick one and only one the world is ruled by wizards and clerics.
Only because of caster supremacy ruining the game with cheat code spells, which is why D&D is for faggots.

Spells that should be OBJECTIVELY banned as they ruin campaigns:
>antimagic field
>clone
>contingency
>teleport
>scrying
>zone of truth
>raise dead / resurrection / true resurrection
>teleportation circle
>polymorph
>true polymorph
>scrying
And anyone who says UHHH JUST GIT GUD misses the point. It's not about being able to counter those spells being used in your game, it's about the fact that they destroy adventure opportunities with perfectly-tuned cheat codes that take away from what is possible to be an engaging challenge in the game.

>>98509442
My favorite in 3.5 was having my wizard prepare Summon Monster 3 and summon a Celestial Bisons. They hit way harder than the party's fighter and can cast cure moderate wounds three times per day. Made half the party irrelevant.

>>98509442
Teleportation circle is fine.

Teleport I dislike.

>>98509165
The concept of resurrection magic is fine but the idea that anything short of a TPK death comes to lack stakes, and in particular where coming back to life becomes commodified, is the lame part to me. The existence of resurrection shouldn't prompt the players or characters to ever say, "Don't worry," or "It's fine."
In my games I tell players that Revivify works as you expect, while higher level spells are mechanically unchanged but involve souls crossing over and back, which permanently degrades them. A resurrected soul will have a worse eternity. Additionally, dying grants a perspective where the majority of souls would not choose resurrection. The choice to do so marks someone as truly obsessed or otherwise exceptional, which a player is free to decide applies to their PC, but which would be almost no NPC.

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Yuan-Ti are for smooching

>>98509165
>Are resurrection spells good for the game or would you prefer if they weren't in your games and death was permanent?
This is a game where the life of a character you've played for thousands of hours can be decided by a literal coinflip.

Resurrection spells are good for the game. Hardcore resurrection rules like adding DCs are poor mechanics, because in effect all resurrection is already gatekept by the degree of injury suffered upon death.

If someone has their heart skewered out, they can't be saved with anything less than an actual Resurrection spell, which requires money, and levels. But if they're Gentle Repose'd, it is possible to do it regardless of the time it takes to do so. This is good, because in a lot of campaigns, one character (player or npc) dying can easily hardlock the narrative.

Oh, you're questing in a noble's homeland, dealing with political machinations, but your noble party member died to a random boar encounter? You're kind of fucked then, go do something else. It's just not satisfying.

>TQ
I'm neutral towards it. If I don't want resurrection magic to work, it doesn't, that's just part of the setting. Same with death saves. Resurrection does make a world feel more epic so I don't understand people who are vehemently apposed to it.

>>98509165
Resurrection would be fine if it actually had a cost
>"but resurrection spells cost money!"
LOL
M
A
O

>>98509165
Having exhaustion levels when you get revived to rectify whack-a-mole situations should be a core rule
>>98509442
Words genuinely cannot come close to describe just how much i fucking hate every single campaign eventually saying "fuck the world, just show up on the other side of the planet cause i wanna be done with this shit already" with teleport spells like it's GoT season 8

>>98510740
>Having exhaustion levels when you get revived to rectify whack-a-mole situations should be a core rule
This. I have never played in a game that doesn’t have this houserule.

For both resurrection and teleport spells I think it really depends on the kind of game you’re going for. All of my campaigns are in my own kind of connected universe. Often old PCs show up as deities in future games centuries or Millenia in the future. The universe started as a planescape game with a detective agency in Sigil using 3.5 rules. They had access to planeshift, teleport, resurrection magic etc. So for me it’s been established this is what high level games look like.

But if a DM decided to ban those spells I would understand why. They trivialise travel and death. Teleport in particular is good combined with scry so you can see the place first.

teleport being restricted to 13th level full casters should be enough of a restriction gate. if magic that powerful in your setting exists not taking advantage of it would be rather foolish

>>98509408
Wizard kings

If this general hates Dungeons and Dragons so much, why doesn't it try playing literally anything else instead of complaining about staples of D&D?

>>98511133
These generals are a group therapy session for people who can't convince their groups to play anything else

>>98511169
>>98511133
Most people here have tried not playing D&D. We can still enjoy a system while criticising it and discussing what we personally prefer. Having a restricted spell list is perfectly normal.

Just scale your world so that anyone getting to 9th level or higher falls under “figures of legends” and the issues with resurrection magic disappear. It isn’t cheap or commodified because it isn’t widely available.

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How exactly do I play a fighter well? My fighter currently is a bit weird. I have a good STR and CON but a poor dexterity. Still learning the ropes but DEX seems to influence a lot of stuff. Whereas STR has like one skill associated with it I guess. So I normally roll pretty shitty for initiatives etc. Also, because I don't use a shield, I do feel less durable but I do have a plate armor now. What should I be aware of when playing a fighter with poor dexterity? I guess my mental stat saves aren't great either. Worried about things bypassing my armor and just fucking me with a spell or something. Basically my armor and my HP are the only things that protect me.

>>98510683
It makes certain story tropes not viable. Personally I don't care but I've met DMs that are trying to write a novel instead of making a game and they can't use the tropes they want because magic and D&D allows players to bypass those types of challenges easily.

>>98510683
>Resurrection does make a world feel more epic
What? It makes the world feel like a children's cartoon, literally nothing matters.

>>98511500
STR is the worst, most useless stat in the game and does nothing outside of damage rolls for non finesse weapons

>>98511513
Can't you ask the DM to let you use your STR roll in places where it might make sense? Like instead of using CHA for intimidation, you use STR? Or is that getting into a situation of DM begging?

>>98511519
It's DM begging but honestly as a DM you should have situations where STR rolls apply because the game as written is balanced by a bunch of retarded subhuman californians

>>98511513
>>98511520
I never understood why STR had only one skill associated with it. But I guess maybe it makes sense somehow. What other thing would STR do besides athletics? I guess it is related to climb and jump right? But I guess there are a million different ways to handle climbing and jumping.

>>98511500
For a Fighter using a two-handed weapon, grabbing Defense style tends to be better than taking Great Weapon Fighting, since it shores up defense rather than being a marginal increase in damage.
Heavy weapons tend to provide enough damage as-is once you start getting feats.

And also generally speaking, sinking all your points into Strength/Con is pretty terrible for a lot of characters. Even a Barbarian which has ways to scale off of Con directly tends to benefit more from just wearing armor and putting more points elsewhere, because as you've sumized just having high AC and HP doesn't actually protect you that much when you're trying to avoid a Fireball or a Wisdom save.

>What should I be aware of when playing a fighter with poor dexterity? I guess my mental stat saves aren't great either.
You might consider packing more Javelins if you haven't already, as a way to potentially mess with a spellcaster's concentration from a distance. Otherwise, you're pretty limited on ways to make yourself less vulnerable to non-weapon attacks.

>>98511500
what fighter subclass are you, btw?

>>98511523
We are talking about the same game that decided Wizards should be infinitely more skilled at Religion checks over Clerics, there was no thought built into making 5e and i say this as someone who likes playing it

>>98511500
What weapon do you use? If you're using a one handed one you have no reason ro not have a shield

>>98511554
I chose champion because I am a bit newer. I do like my character and I like learning the game. Maybe in the future I'd play / make a character a little differently but I guess this is fine for now. I just want to feel useful to the team.

>>98511575
Well normally I'd be using a greataxe or something. However, I found a +1 longsword and started using that with two hands because it has the versatile trait and would still let my two hand fighting style apply to it right? I guess my question about shields, can you wear a shield and two hand a weapon? probably not right? Also, what is the action economy like if I am using a shield and 1 handed weapon but suddenly lets say I now want to two hand wield my versatile weapon. What would the flow actions be like to do that?

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>>98511586
Champions fine. Honestly you might feel a bit wank for a while, but you should basically do exactly what you're doing. slap dudes and try and get advantage on every single attack to fish for crits. At level 7, I think, you can also add that bonus to your initative since it's a dex check technically.

> +1 longsword
ehh use whatever feels good. Normally i'd say stick with the greataxe for the crit damage but if you're using it two handed it's close enough.


even outside of combat, playing fighter can just feel kind of bad since your main stats are not really interaction focused and Champion lacks some of the other tools fighter subclasses can get (Rune Knight, my beloved.) But i'd say just stick with it for a while, if you're really not jelling with it or if you're struggling to feel useful see if you can switch over to battlemaster or one of ther other subclasses.

5e does kinda sideline fighters, unfortunately. they're fine and some of the subclasses are really good but it can feel a bit shit to just "I attack that dude" every 20 minutes and then miss your one, or both attacks while people are fireballing cunts.

>>98511598
>would still let my two hand fighting style apply to it right?
Yeah cause it has the Versatile trait.
>question about shields, can you wear a shield and two hand a weapon?
No, there's a magic item that's a flying shield you don't have to hold specifically to around this
>Also, what is the action economy like if I am using a shield and 1 handed weapon but suddenly lets say I now want to two hand wield my versatile weapon. What would the flow actions be like to do that?
Taking off a shield costs an action

>>98511598
>>98511644
Being able to more consistently hit with the longsword is far better than the chance of slightly more extra damage on a crit.

Versatile itself isn't that good to use compared to a shield, though does get a bit better with GWF.
And trying to swap from using a shield to not using one mid-fight is rarely worth it. You typically want to pick one and stick with it as much as possible.

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Can a Rakshasa theoretically hurt itself enough to bleed with it's own claws? Or does it's immunity to any physical damage that isn't magical block it?

>>98511570
If it's your own religion, you shouldn't need to make a check. Or you might get advantage if being a cleric somehow helps you. If it's some other religion, you might be outdone by someone who has studied them.

>>98511654
Ah so using a shield occupies that hand etc. Got it.

>>98511644
I mean it is jelling with me. I like being a character that isn't really borrowing power so to speak. So we have a warlock and a cleric in our group and I just feel like those classes basically have to suck off their deities for power. So from a lore / back story point of view, I like being a fighter. I just want to make full use of the class though and potentially go beyond "I attack this guy" when possible. Sometimes "I attack this guy" is probably the best available thing to do. I did want to sort of dabble in grappling but again, grappling is weird to me because you obviously need a hand free and if I grapple someone that means I can't two hand my weapon.

>>98511665
I think a lot of confusion for me is stemming from what you can and can't do while wielding a shield. So if you have a shield, that occupies that hand right? So for example, could you no longer climb effectively? If you want to drink a potion, would you need to drop your weapon to free up a hand or does that just sort of happen? Also, lets say I do go with a shield, that means my fighting style great weapon thing would go to waste right? I think it is possible to swap that though. I think I just like the versatility that comes with having a free hand when needed.

>>98511689
>If you want to drink a potion, would you need to drop your weapon to free up a hand or does that just sort of happen?
You have both hands occupied so you'd have to sheathe your weapon which is a free object interaction

>>98511519
There's no situation in which Str (Intimidate) makes sense.

>>98511689
>So if you have a shield, that occupies that hand right?
Correct
>So for example, could you no longer climb effectively?
RAW, no. Nothing about the climbing rules states how many hands you need in order to climb. This is the sort of thing that can end up as DM dependent though, where they might reasonably rule that only having one hand is a disadvantage.
>If you want to drink a potion, would you need to drop your weapon to free up a hand or does that just sort of happen?
Strictly speaking, yes. You'd need to drop the weapon, use your item interaction to take out the potion, drink the potion as an action, and then technically wait until the next turn to have another item interaction to pick up the sword again.
A lot of GMs will sometimes handwave parts of that process, but RAW it's pretty annoying. I think the 2024 rules may have changed some parts of this process to make it simpler though.
>Also, lets say I do go with a shield, that means my fighting style great weapon thing would go to waste right?
Correct, though that's also part of why I personally recommend against the great weapon fighting style, precisely because it does lock you into a very specific weapon type for a fairly minor upside.
>I think it is possible to swap that though.
If you're playing the 2014 version of the rules, that's dependent on your DM. With the 2024 rules, you can explicitly swap whenever you gain a Fighter level.

>I think I just like the versatility that comes with having a free hand when needed.
Entirely fair. This is all largely a factor of you getting your hands on a +1 Longsword. Which is better than using the greataxe, but GWF itself is only adding around 0.8 damage on average for either weapon.

>>98511689
>Also, lets say I do go with a shield, that means my fighting style great weapon thing would go to waste right?
Are you playing on the 2024 rules or the 2014 rules? If it's 2024, you can swap out your fighting style when you level up. Duelist adds +2 damage on sword and shield which is very nice, that makes your longsword do equivalent average damage to a great axe. Protection lets you use a reaction with a shield to force all attacks against an an adjacent ally to be made at disadvantage, which is fantastic for tanking. Protection's much weaker in the 2014 rules, but those rules don't let you re-train your fighting style anyway so it's kind of moot.

>>98512337
I only play 4e, is fighters having nothing to fucking do above level 6 still a thing in 5e?

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>>98509442
>you come across a muuuuuurderrrrrrrrrrr~
>I cast Raise Dead
>oh, uh, the victim refuses to come back because you haven't tried to solve their murder yet

>>98512749
Think about how reductive and stupid what you just said is. If they come back you can tell the person who murdered you.

>>98512749
>"Who killed you?"
>"I didin't see"

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>>98511288
I don't know why it took so long to post this. D&D worlds with hundreds or thousands of high level characters are dumb, cause constant plot holes, and make the setting make no sense. 2E/3E were retarded for making it canon, and 5E narrativizing it into approximate world influence was a great idea. I've been world building a setting with some friends and our vague demography per large kingdom is
>Level 1-2: Thousands
>Level 3-4: Hundreds
>Level 5-10: Dozens
>Level 11-16: Single digits
>Level 17-20: Heroes of Old/single digits globally

In the kingdom we're currently in there is between 0 and 1 characters capable of casting Raise Dead.

>>98512873
I always had that problem with the forgotten realms. There was literally no reason why NPCs weren't able to solve their own problems when every town had multiple people capable of casting level 5 spells.

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>>98512878
In AD&D there is a concept called Name Level, which is Ninth Level or higher. Its the level a Fighter acquires a fief, Clerics establish temples, and Magic Users built towers. According to the Domain rules, the minimum size of a fief is 3 miles in diameter. According to the Demographic guidelines (which broadly match the Monster Manual #Appearing guidelines) there is 1 Name Level character per 5000 people. Assuming a territory and population the size of medieval France, there are 3800 Name Level characters or 1 Name Level every 7.5 miles. Meaning every 30 mile map hex has 4 such heroes on it, or a full party of Level 9 heroes in every hex in addition to the far more numerous lower level characters. There is always a Name Level without a day's journey or less of your location, no matter where you are. There's barely enough space for every named Fighter to possess a fief [2700~ fiefdoms vs 1500~ Name Level Fighting Men]. The land should literally be half fiefs and I suppose half wilderness.

Its an odd case where on one hand the demography rules are presently consistently enough they were clearly given a lot of thought, but also simultaneously make zero narrative sense and break the game's logic in half if you actually think about these people existing outside the purpose of random encounters.

>>98512979
I really hate it when DM's ignore this kind of thing.

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i'm an illustion wizard, I get a choice of illusion spells as a free part of the subclass. Could someone explain wtf this spell is, and what sort of things a player would ever use it for?

>>98513088
Seems straightforward to me. You can take a mundane item and give it a false Aura and try to sell it to a merchant thinking it's a valuable magic item.

>>98513088
You could slap someone's ass, call them a succubus and sic a paladin on them

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Currently planning on doing some short adventures as a level 6 wizard girl with a level 6 half-orc paladin. Thinking of fun uses for my magic and ended up coming up with this idea for our daily campsite I felt like sharing.

>>98512873
>>98512878
I always got the impression that a lot of people basically want a version of D&D that stops at level 10, if not even earlier.

>>98513139
This is why I only play 4e.

>>98513139
There's a good reason for that. The game, both due to its math, its worldbuilding, its balance and even its basic overhead complexity breaks down more and more in the double digit levels. I lean on practically treating double digits as epic levels because frankly a kingdom the size of France with double digits of level 15 characters makes no sense unless it looks like Eberron (which, ironically, is one of the few published D&D settings to explicitly not have this kind of logic).

>>98513132
Poor Shagohod has to move beds and furniture around whenever the tower decides to spawn a new floor

>>98512873
No DnD setting actually makes any sense because it's mechanics are inherently anti-writing

>>98513139
>a version of D&D that stops at level 10
That's just called Dungeons and Dragons cause most campaigns stop at around level 10

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>>98513159
Shagohad did not choose this life. He's a paladin from a society where birth order dictates social role and as a second born noble he was given to the faith of his homeland. He detests being a paladin but is too dutiful to even think about abandoning his oaths or given purpose even if he hates it.

>>98513139
I always thought they ought to release two PHBs, one for 1-10 and one for 10-20, the former aimed toward gritty dungeon crawling and resource management and the latter aimed toward dick waving high fantasy adventures. The rules would be adjusted for the different levels of play and martials would be relatively mundane adventurers in PHB1 and mythical heroes with superpowers in PHB2.

>>98513170
I start my campaigns at level 7 and they generally last until level 14.

>>98513088
Theoretical munchkin shit because of magic jar
I assume it's actual intended use is to let shapeshifted devils not be immediately found out by a level 1 paladin

>>98513173
>I always thought they ought to release two PHBs, one for 1-10 and one for 10-20
This would fry the brain of their intended audience.

>>98513139
Level 10 is also the last level where a dragon is actually dangerous as opposed to being a glorified pidgeon with pepper spray so that's a good cut-off point

>>98513173
>>98513202
Simplest way to do it would be to lock the high levels to 'prestige classes' and stick them in the DMG alongside high level spells.

>>98513227
Why does everyone in this argument always say it's the casters that need to be nerfed instead of people saying the martials need to be buffed?

>>98510442
Enjoy your salmonella poisoning.

>>98513230
Because allowing a 10 level fighter to split a mountain like your favourite anime or some other gay shit like that would fix absolutely none of the game's inherent problems that stem from the bullshit that wizards can pull off without breaking a sweat

>>98513230
High Levels aren't just a problem due to martial-caster balance. There's other issues.

1) The game tends to add features with levels so the overhead on the DM goes up the higher the level. There's more to keep track of.

2) The game math is fairly bad and doesn't scale well.

3) The world-building becomes increasingly stupid, to the point it undermines the basic pitch of 'heroes in a fantasy Renaissance/medieval setting', the more common and more powerful high level characters become.

None of these are insoluble problems but no edition so far has really solved them.

>>98513248
If the problem is verisimilitude the DM just needs to learn that this isn't where he's going to write his novel. Yes high Ievel magic makes certain narrative tropes impossible. You just need a DM willing to read the fucking rules thoroughly, create a plot that is realistic given the context and accept he's not in a creative writing class.

>>98513230
Where did I say that?
Logically, if you're dividing the classes into 1-10 and 11-20, the high level spells wouldn't show up until the spellcasters were at 11-20.
If the Wizard in the PHB only went from level 1-10, and you then go to the DMG to prestige into Archmage or whatever from 11-20, then obviously the level 6+ spells don't need to be in the PHB.

The martial buffs would come in the form of the new 11-20 'prestige classes' which would avoid any need to be simple/mundane/beginner friendly.

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5e still has no answer to the question of "why the fuck would you ever become a Lich" when this spell exists

>>98513265
Some of us don't DM by writing predetermined plots. I DM by fleshing out locations and populating them with characters and factions and letting things go from there. Having a world that is sensible and having a general idea of the powers that be isn't optional for how I run games.

>>98513265
The plot that's realistic given the context is that the town holds a celebration the first time the party kills a dragon, and then a paranoid wizard nukes the inn they're staying at before they can grow powerful enough to threaten him.

The main trope that high level magic renders impossible is the heroes living long enough to actually challenge an ancient dragon, lich, or demon prince.

>>98513297
As someone who runs World of Darkness primarily, I cannot underline enough how right you are and how carefully you have to understand the logistics and limitations of powerful beings and groups to allow room for low level characters to exist without popping GTA stars every time they shit on someone's lawn.

>>98513265
Verisimillitude is the least of the problems of high level play because DnD is actively hostile to the very idea of it, after all we know how when Beowulf and the dragon fought the latter was also followed by 5 ogre underlings so it wouldn't be raped to death by the action economy in one turn

>>98513297
You think that's bad, back in 3.5 I ran a campaign where the party was all Psions. Every one of them knew ectoplasmic wall. They just boxed in any ground based enemies and kill them one by one. This was the last campaign I DMed before we started playing FFG 40k RPGs instead.

>>98513297
>>98513309
You say this, but a campaign where the party actually has to fly low and try to remain out of the spotlight because the former high level adventurers and big players of the world aren't keen on sharing the throne sounds way more interesting and fun than becoming worldwide famous superheroes for the 5000th time

>>98513327
Sure, as a campaign its cool. If I didn't like the idea of big conspiracies I wouldn't run WoD. But 'Get loot, level up, gain influence' is the core D&D experience. Its a bit of a problem that you have to actively ignore some of the DMG advice and leave half the levels either on the cutting room floor or locked behind a paywall to keep them from ruining that experience.

>>98513323
The monsters couldn't break down the wall?

>>98513354
Not in less than 10 turns.

>>98513359
Was the problem you couldn't build enemies who could do it faster due to rules BS, or just the fact 'Great now every enemy needs to be a demolition guy or they get scrubbed'?

>>98513363
It led me to mainly fighting them with dragons and sorcerers who could fly.

>>98513327
Perhaps. I remember running a low-level bandit game, little more than a one-shot, where the players were going to be able to waylay a few travelers and then face off with some guards/mercenaries.

I dropped a noble for them to rob (after beating up some more elite guards), and as soon as they confirmed it was a noble, one of the players immediately set about burning the corpse, dissolving the bones in acid, destroying any and all jewelry and items the noble had, and working on moving their entire bandit operation to a neighboring country.
Because that's the sort of thing you have to do in order to avoid somebody using Speak with Dead or Locate Object in order to get clues about a murder and robbery.
But that was just for 2nd level spells during a one-shot of all things. I don't think they really had any countermeasures that would have truly prevented someone with higher level magic from tracking them down.

All of which is to say, I'm sure there are some players out there who might find that type of campaign engaging, but I can count on one hand the number of players I've met that seem to enjoy this level of paranoia and espionage.

>>98512873
>D&D worlds with hundreds or thousands of high level characters are dumb, cause constant plot holes
such as?

>>98513377
Oh also Ogre Mages, Can't forget about the squad of ogre Mages that gaseous formed their way into the players base and attacked them in their sleep.

>>98513435
Mainly the need to explain why the world isn't more advanced (or at least more weird) and the need to explain why these characters aren't doing whatever plot you're doing. Its not impossible to write around but it becomes increasingly asspulley the more reasons you have to put down to explain why the land isn't crossed with teleportation circles and magic lighting; and why every single higher level character of your alignment is too busy to help you. This becomes more egregious the bigger your plot is and the higher its stakes. Lord of the Rings had a mostly low to mid level party and the Council of Elrond still went over every notable high level character by name from Glorfindel to Tom Bombadil to explain, specifically, why they shouldn't join the Fellowship. That gets harder when instead of a dozen maiar and elf-lords its two or three hundred such luminaries.

>>98513286
You mean besides more power, getting rid of all those pesky biological needs and no 120 day waiting period between revivals where you're vulnerable to being killed without a backup?

>>98513327
Trouble is that
>because the former high level adventurers and big players of the world aren't keen on sharing the throne
is the basic conceit of most cultivation novels, and yet
>a campaign where the party actually has to fly low and try to remain out of the spotlight
is never what happens.

>>98513230
Both are true. Martials do need to be buffed, but the shit that high-level casters can get up to doesn't make for particularly compelling games or stories when it's part of the main characters' arsenal.

>>98513327
>>98513597
Well, when you go back to appealing to realism, it doesn't make much sense that a group of low-level upstarts would manage to outmaneuver the big players, given that the big players being immortal wizards or monsters that have superhuman intellect (or close to it).

So the DM either has to limit the big players to an unrealistic degree and avoid them using all of their high-level abilities in an intelligent way, or the PCs just lose.

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more NPCs for friend dnd

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for this cultist tiethling just styled her on Anya from mouthwashing

>>98513817
>>98513821
>>98513823
>>98513825
Sovl

>>98509165
What would be a good spell level for a spell that indiscriminately absorbs all spells around it?

>>98513906
5th

>>98513481
>Mainly the need to explain why the world isn't more advanced
i guess i lean into this. not exactly tippyverse or whatever, but my setting is distinctly anachronistic as a result of magic being ever-present, which means i don't have to:
>explain why the land isn't crossed with teleportation circles and magic lighting
because it becomes a thing!

>the need to explain why these characters aren't doing whatever plot you're doing
i mean, you don't have a general doing a grunt's job. it could just as easily be explained that these other characters *are* doing the same plot, just something else in service of the same goal. or they're busy with their own things, or don't care enough to help, or are on the other side, etc.

the next time I make a fighter i'm going to find A Man. This Mans job is going to be to handle a lot of the pernickety 'bits' of the game that as a fighter I struggle with.
>low cha? I send The Man to make connections with the locals while I go off doing adventures. I task him to find me whatever it is i'm looking for.
>Man, I need to find a Hag. ask the locals if they have any crones or magic women while I go stab this wolf den in the face and take their cubs.

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What would you do if you got isekai'd into DnD land? (whatever setting you're playing or Faerun if you're nogames)

>>98514145
Probably die relatively quickly for one of any number of possible reasons

>>98513959
1) I do too but a little goes a long way. I've been writing lands recently for a world where a few lands have ubitious cantrips and the effects it [and other elements of their technology] has had. I've described their magic/tech level as "Not Eberron, but give it 100 years".

2) The issue is again a little goes a long way. If your kingdom is the size of Germany or France. Lets assume there was 1000 'heroes' in France all equidistantly spaced. That's one hero ever 15ish miles. People walk 24 miles a day. Having powerful characters delegate or be busy or semi-retired or so on makes sense when its the dozens, but once it gets into the hundreds or thousands there's like a hero every few hours down the road there's no fucking way they all have a thing that day. You basically limit yourself to very low to the ground mercenary plots that way.

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Has there been any good Japanese or Oriental 3rd party sourcebook or homebrew since the old days of Honor & Devotion and Heroes of the Orient?

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>>98514145
How accurate would this background be to 5eg?

>>98515384
If a player comes to the DM with the backstory of "my character got isekai'd into the world" then the DM is fully within his legal rights to grab the nearest sharp object and jam it in the player's throat.

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>>98515394
I think the background is for games that are explicitly isekai. But yes if someone did that I would tell them where to shove their character sheet. It also has rules for smartphones.

>>98515414
Horrendous, i will never manage to understand the appeal of this stuff besides "SUGOI! An overworked, depressed japanese salary-man with a shitty dead end job like me could finally get run over by a truck and wake up in a magical fantasy world that functions just like my favourite MMOs with tons of scantily clad and barely legal elf girls to legally own and fuck!"

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>>98515442
>SUGOI! An overworked, depressed japanese salary-man with a shitty dead end job like me could finally get run over by a truck and wake up in a magical fantasy world that functions just like my favourite MMOs with tons of scantily clad and barely legal elf girls to legally own and fuck!

>>98513132
Pretty cool, but...
>10' high, 3' thick earth wall
doesn't work from an engineering stand point. Mold Earth only works with loose dirt, and there's no way that would stand unsupported. You're looking at 45° angle of repose at best, so the wall would have to be at least 20' thick to get 10' height without it collapsing. Not much of an obstacle.

>>98515384
If it's cheat skill magical blessing isekai then sure.
I think John Muggle Everyman would get History for wiki binging fantasy settings and Insight for knowing tropes and reading fanfics, with Dungeon Delver for consuming video games and knowing where traps should be placed with Gaming Set tool proficiency

>>98513487
Is there anything stopping you from having multiple clones on standby to guard against that? Genuine question - I don't into magic.

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>>98510442
I wish Yuan-Ti weren't evil. I would trade them for Tieflings in a heartbeat

>>98509442
I hate teleport spells because they always make the world extremely small

>>98509442
this list is you basically telling on yourself that youre absolutely ass at improv and cant handle when the party does something you didnt plan for.

>>98511133
to be fair, D&D does have the most infrastructure behind it. I cant think of any other tabletop games that have a D&Dbeyond equivalent, even if its as bad.

>>98511513
this is just you announcing you have no creativity

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>>98511758
>being this bad at bait

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We like Orc women right? When was the last time you adventure with an orc woman?

besides MS Paint, whats a good free map making tool for depicting your world building in DnD? I recently started DMing and the thought of running a game in the Forgotten Realms makes me sad, for a number of reasons that have already been highlighted in this Thread.

I need advice on which of these is more balanced:

A magical shortbow that crits on an 18, 19, or 20

OR

A magical shortbow that doubles crit damage (as in, you roll double dice, and then double that number)

Both would be super powerful, but im planning on the item being a reward for a very hard assassination sidequest and dont want to give out an item TOO broken.

What the fuck happened to this board? There used to be a new 5e thread near daily. Now its dead on a weekend. Did that many people lose interest after COVID?

>>98517334
expanded crit range triples your chance of a crit, so it has more value.

>>98517395
Young people don't care about TTRPGs and all the old timers are dying.

Resurrection is considered an affront to the gods because it takes away the soul from the godly domain. The only scroll of Resurrection in the world is guarded by the Not!Vatican in a heavily warded room. The True Resurrection spell scroll is in The possession of an immortal married couple who live in a sanctuary far away from everyone else and since they are immortal the scroll means nothing to them. I made all this up on the spot and I'm adding it to my lore.

should I play as an Eldritch Knight Fighter or World Tree Barbarian in an upcoming lv1-6 campaign? I'll be the only melee frontline, probably.

>>98517502
Play as a Human Fighter

>>98517334
Depends normally I'd say the 18-20 is better but
if used by a champion fighter or assassin then the double on a critical is better.

>>98509408
basically. in a world with this much magic the most powerful rulers would be like shit from fromsoft games, like the golden order from elden ring or dark souls' lordran in its days of glory. of course they would be immortal and full of magic to the point they seem like earthly gods. your average medieval kings that can be assassinated with a simple knife in the back would still exist but they would be shit-tier low level rulers who are probably actively prevented from ammassing too much power

>>98517502
Play a half caster. If the party isn't tanking then why should you?

>>98517502
World Tree Barbarian kinda wants nearby allies in order to pass out extra temp HP.
EK is probably better in that sense, but being the only frontliner is usually not great regardless. For EK you could more reasonably use a longbow primarily, and then just pull out a rapier if enemies close distance.

>>98517502
If youre going to go Barb, go Wild Magic. Shit is the most fun ive had as a martial in years

>>98516649
Well, there's the issue with the soul trying to get into multiple bodies at once. The result depends on the DM, but the canon precedent in the Forgotten Realms is Manshoon, who ended up with multiple clones running around compelled to kill each other so there can be only one.
There are more possible consequences that could make thematic sense. You probably don't want your soul torn to pieces.
There's also the fact that the clone must be mature when you die, you can't have an immature clone and have the soul wait until its ready. More tenatively, there's the rule that multiple instances of the same spell don't stack, which technically shouldn't apply to Clone's instantaneous duration, but eh.

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Was copying some statblocks I made from from Roll20 to the Homebrewery and thought ya'll might like some of my older ones that the party already fought.

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>>98518245

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>>98518260

>>98509165
Newbie here, im learning 5e for the purpose of running a lewd game, Any advice on someone teaching himself the game? should i do core only or is there any supplement thats really good in general?

>>98518292
Modern 5e was all designed by and for gay sex perverts, so you might as well use all of it for your fag game.

>>98516854
Jesus Christ, that tail is way too high. It's an extension of the spine, it needs to emerge from the bottom of the pelvis

>>98518292
https://old.reddit.com/r/LewdCursedClothing/comments/1vpclb8/5e_lewd_handbook_371/

>>98518543
Eh, it's fantasy bullshit, so the idea of the tail splitting off from the main spine higher up isn't really that big of a deal to handwave, I'm more concerned with the fact that it's clearly several inches to the right of her spine.

>>98518673
>a bifurcated notochord isn't that big of a deal to handwave
It really is

>>98518815
>fantasy bullshit

>>98518673
Ignoring realistic biology is fine if it looks good, but this looks dumb.

>>98516854
Just make them not evil
Simple as
Hell, playing as Yuan-Ti gave me more of the "Tiefling" experience because Yuan-Ti are monsterous races instead of tieflings just being treated as fire-resistant fantasy twi'leks

>>98518825
I guess we can ignore anything and everything, then, right?

>>98519038
Sure, if you want to.

>>98518894
It doesn't look dumb because of autistic anatomy reasons though, it looks dumb because the shitty slop generator just glued it on wherever the fuck to the point that it doesn't even look like it's in line with the spine at all.

>>98519068
I agree, but even if the horizontal positioning weren't off it looks too high for a tail.

>>98509165
Weird, a rogue with a heavy crossbow + true strike + steady aim + elve accuracy actually does more damage than a champion fighter with a greatsword + gwm + pm

>>98519172
You dont even need 1 lvl dip in fighter to get proficiency, som elves give it to you as a racial feature
Although archery fighting style and better armor would be a nice bonus ngtl

>>98519085
Eh, it's not where I'd put it, but I don't think it'd be all that insane looking comparatively if it wasn't zero effort slop.

>>98519220
>som elves give it to you as a racial feature
Have any that do that not been updated for 5.5? They moved away from racial weapon proficiencies ages ago.

>>98519236
No, but 5.5e is backward compatible with 5e
It depends on whether your dm allows you to play races that havent been released in 5.5e

>>98519228
It makes it look like a snake just ran into her at high speed, rather than like an actual body part belonging to her.

what's a fun but balanced monster spell I could give one of my sorcerer players as a one-off lvl1 spell

are attack rolls even necessary? Everything that involves an attack roll could just be a dex save

>>98519951
noxious lance. 60 foot range, somatic gesture only. 2d10 poison damage. con save for half. poisoned until end of caster's next turn on fail. it can penetrate up to 1 inch of wood, stone, or metal. (if desired) upcast adds 1d10 but doubles depth of penetration per level

>>98517072
>Hey DM can I pretend that Strength actually does literally anything and flex my muscles to intimidate the guard?
>No

>>98516854
Yuan-Ti being evil is all they have going for them that makes them work, non evil Yuan Ti are about as useless as non evil gnolls

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so with that WoW book coming out, I've heard they're reflavoring classes from WoW to function in DnD.

How would you do them?

warrior: Fury - barbarian(berserker)
Arms/Prot - Fighter(battlemaster)
Priest: Cleric
Paladin: Ret - Paladin - oath of vengeance
Prot - Paladin - oath of Devotion
Holy - Cleric - life domain
Warlock: Affliction - lol.
Demonology - pact of the chain, fiends
Destro - Evoker Wizard
Mage: Wizard(Fire and frost - Evocation, Arcane: Transmutation)
Rogue: Rogue - Combat/outlaw - Swashbuckler,
Assassination - Assassin,
subtlety - Thief
Druid - Feral/Guardian - Circle of the moon Druid
Balance - Circle of the Stars Druid
Resto - Circle of the Stars or Shepherd Druid
Hunter - Beast Mastery - Beast Master Ranger
Survival - Gloom Stalker Ranger
Marksmanship - Arcane Archer Fighter
Shaman - Elemental: storm sorcerer Cleric
Enhancement: Totem warrior or Storm Herald Barbarian
Death Knight: Oathbreaker paladin
Monk: Brewmaster: Drunken Master Monk
Windwalker: Kensei monk
Mistweaver: ???
Demon Hunter: Hexblade Warlock

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>>98513487
>You mean besides more power,
At the cost of your sanity and the prolonged need to kill things to keep your phylactery going.
>getting rid of all those pesky biological needs
You gotta feed the phylactery souls and usually a ton of them. This leads to Liches needing to perform mass casualties to keep their phylactery ticking and you also have to protect it! Its basically your heart that needs souls to survive. Also, you're a skeleton now which could be cool but now you lack a fleshy body forever. Body dysmorphia?
>120 day waiting period between revivals where you're vulnerable to being killed without a backup?
I'd rather have this. Cast clone once every day or so (Better yet use Wish to instantly cast it) and chill for like 4 months. You can have multiple clones growing and when you eventually die (Old age, accident, murder, etc) after the 4 months you spawn back in just one of them of your choice. You can even adjust the age range so you can come back in your late teens or 20s or whatever you want. Then keep up the process as you wish. You can even start putting clones in backup planes and pocket dimensions, so you've got options if something did happen to your initial cache.

Clone/Wish (Clone) doesn't put a massive target on your back like becoming a Lich does. Liches also have to do some secretive but explicitly evil ritual to create their phylactery to become a Lich in the first place. Which again- puts a target on your back. You are the bad guy in many people's stories, heroes will rise up to slay you and in some cases gods actively send soldiers/champions/things to kill you.

Only lich I like was the Archlich, those guys don't put themselves out as enemy #1 for folks. They chill.

>>98515906
We are assuming that 'loose dirt' means any dirt that is not solid stone, and that the spell is in any case perfectly capable of moving dirt so as to pack it. None of this minecraft silliness would be possible if the spell only let you move potting soil around. So we assume mold earth can dig trenches, create ramparts, carve out privies, and so on with the main limitation being the 'can only move up to 5 feet from spell origin' thing making it where going more than 10 feet up or down requires creative use in how you get the earth around.

>wood elf tempest cleric
>changling rogue
Which one and why?

>>98520840
>wood elf tempest cleric
Clerics are chads. Full casters, heavy armor (as tempest clerci), healing, resurrection magic, everyone loves the party cleric. Tempest cleric itself is good offensively and defensively. Decent early level bonus spells, wrath of the storm, a solid subclass on part with others like Life cleric but not reaching the same heights as something like Light cleric.

>Changeling rogue
Changelings are for trannies. Rogues are for cowardly faggots.

>>98520606
>How would you do them?
I would make new classes with each skill tree being a subclass instead of being a bunch of lazy cunts like WoTC.

>>98520846
Won't be using heavy armor as cleric, going dex and wis as main stats.

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>>98520894
Guess you'll be a faggot either way then so it won't make a difference.

>>98520896
You seem to be fixated on faggots, maybe you should stop thinking about other men being together.

>>98520840
Why not a Wood Elf Rogue or Changeling Cleric?
I'd go Changeling, simply because I got a soft spot for them ever since I played a Changeling Paladin that I really enjoyed.

>>98520940
I have a vague backstory for each and I'm too lazy to switch them around.

>>98520955
What backstory are those?

>>98520894
Oh so you're going for less of the warpriest aesthetic and more of the "catholic molesting young boys" vibe for your cleric

>>98520606
>Priest: Cleric

Shadow priest is closer to a GOOlock, something with psionic elements.

>subtlety - Thief

Subtlety is the most magical rogue spec with a ninja theme. Way of shadows has all the right stuff but the wrong class. So maybe just phantom rogue or something.

>Mistweaver: ???

Way of mercy monk.

>>98512979
Why doesn't it make sense?

If high numbers of high level characters didn't exist in the world, then wouldn't all the high CR monsters just wreck whatever civilization was present and either reduce it to nothingness or rule themselves?

>>98513407
That does sound super fun.

>>98512979
You just gotta use your imagination for half a second and consider that just because people who've reached that level exist, it doesn't mean that they necessarily succeeded at establishing themselves when they reached that level, or there would certainly be some who establish a fiefdom and subsequently lose it to conflict, politics, or poor decisions.

>>98520606
We literally know what a chunk of them are.
>6 new subclasses: Oath of the Ebon Blade and Oath of the Holy (Paladin), Demon Hunter (Ranger), Shadow Domain and Discipline Domain (Cleric), and Path of the Elements (Barbarian)
>3 updated subclasses: Swashbuckler (Rogue), Path of the Spiritual Guardian (Barbarian), and Warrior of Mystic Brews (Monk)
The one that has me scratching my head most is that Shaman is apparently Barbarian despite being a spellcasting class.

>>98522514
depends on the shaman.
Enhancement shamans are a melee class that channel the elements in order to augment their melee swings.

Similar to Storm or Totem barbarians.

>>98522561
>Path of the Elements
>Path of the Spiritual Guardian
That clearly covers Elemental and Enhancement, in that order.

>>98522572
honestly, both sound like enhancement shamans. Some versions of WoW allow enhancement shamans to also tank.

>>98522579
>both sound like enhancement shamans
Walk me through how "Path of the Elements" sounds more like "Enhancement" than "Elemental".

>>98522596
the fact it's a barbarian subclass and elemental shamans don't engage in melee combat at all.

And again, enhancement shamans use elemental themed attacks. Lava lash, storm strike, skyfury, storm surge, frost shock...

>>98522605
And the fact that there's no other obvious candidate for elemental shaman?

>>98522733
no candidate for resto shamans either.
or warlocks
or mages
or hunters
or druids.

>>98522762
>or warlocks
Literally warlock

>>98522798
and ele shamans are just evocation wizards.

I logged in and people are talking about Shamans
My wow character a resto shaman that collects herbs and makes potions for all his friends (he's a tauren)

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Just reached Lv4 and I was thinking of boosting my Monk's Wisdom because it's 15 while my Dex is 16. Is this a good feat?

>98523854 (You)

>>98515384
>>98515394
>>98515414
I think an isekai character would be ok if the character was isekai'd from a different fantasy setting.

It's basically the same as an amnesia background except your quirk is that you reference people and places that don't necessarily exist in your DM's setting, so you can say stupid shit like, "Why are the orcs grey? Shouldn't they be green?" "Why are these elves so short?" "The dwarves aren't extinct?!?"

>>98515394
>>98524074
Even simpler than that would be to have a character who was flung into the future. Either magical means, Feywild time-fuckery, or getting petrified for centuries.
That gives a similar explanation for how they might be clueless about a lot of parts of the world, but still have an inkling of the fundamentals. They'd lack any friends or support network, and would be culturally out of place.

It also comes with a more concrete character motives than an isekai, where they could aim to return to the past, revive some long-dead loved ones, or otherwise just try and figure out what happened after they died.
It also doesn't completely disconnect them with the setting, where there could be a villain or organization from the past that's continued to be a problem in the present.

>>98524074
>>98524121
Yes this works better. It's internally consistent with the planes or magic in general. Once you bring in the modern world things start to feel off.

>>98522605
Maybe it'll be the Barbarian equivalent of the Sun Soul Monk?

>>98522396
You just answered your own question. There’s really no in-universe difference between a high level PC and a high CR intelligent monster. A world with a ton of either or both would look and play very differently than how most D&D campaigns do. The more top heavy you make a setting the more entrenched it’s status quo is likely to be, the less notable things weaker characters can do, and for D&D the more high magic your world needs to be to be coherent. The number of reasonable plots for level 5 characters shrinks dramatically if there’s a level 16 every three days ride.
>>98522430
The fact there’s almost more heroes who qualify for domains than there is geography for domains isn’t really the point. The point is that the rules suggest a glut of high level characters and abundant magic then they don’t worldbuild to match that. It’s the problem of saying your setting is Third Age Middle Earth when its internal logic demands it be First Age Exalted.

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>>98515394
>>98524074
I had an idea for a PC that would require a particular kind of game but that I thought would be fun. She was a human wizard named Zoralyssandra of Terra, Witch of the Third Rock from Sol, and dresses in a very side-of-van-art wizard way with a wide-brimmed hat and a robe covered in stars. She is the apprentice of Galaxivor Cosmorion the Star Wizard, one of the Great Wizards. Zoralyssandra is a scholar studying the world and its magical inhabitants while practicing the art of magic and doing errands for her master. Her real name is Zora Green, she's a thirty year old American astronaut who got flung across space by one of Galaxivor's experiments gone awry while doing a spacewalk. He promises to get her back promptly but in the mean-time has her running errands as his apprentice. I believe this is still isekai but I think I'm drawing from other sources than japanime.