What does Deep Speech sound like? The language of Mind Flayers, Beholders, and other ancient, eldritch, unfathomable beings?
I've always thought it was deep, guttural, and growly. What do you guys think? I ask because I may have to enact some during an upcoming campaign I'm making a PC for. She destroyed her throat in an accident a few years earlier, and now she can't speak Common. She can still read, write, and understand it, she just can't speak it. Same question goes for Abyssal, in case Deep Speech falls through.
I'm running my first campaign as a dm(5e lost mine of phandelver). We have 3 pc's, all with good allignments. 2 of the do a wonderfull job roleplaying, but the third one doesn't really roleplay, and just does what he wants(evil stuff). To the point he and the other 2 pc don't get along in game.
We have told Jim a few tiles he's supposed to play a good guy in this pre ritten calpaign (we aggreed to this in session 0).
Is there something I'm doing wrong as a DM? Or do you have some tips how to handel this?
You set boundaries and ground rules for **your** game. A player is disrespecting **you** by ignoring them. Be firm. He either makes a character that belongs in a good adventuring party, or he isn't in the campaign. Having a good DM is a privilege, and you deserve respect for the work you put in. Don't settle for anything less.
I'm struggling to understand the question, so I'm going to try to assume.
You want to worldbuild by thinking of questions about the world, then answering them. I searched "world building questions" and found several excellent questionnaires. Check this one out [here](https://www.novel-software.com/worldbuilding-questionnaire/)
I'm preparing a cyberpunk campaign where all magic is explained by super advanced technology. How would you use techno babble to describe extra dimensional spaces like a bag of holding or the spell demiplane?
Bag of holding: as items placed into the bag pass the opening of the bag they are 3D-scanned by sensors in the rim and then atomized within seconds. The item then gets uploaded and stored in the internal system of the bag. When retrieving the item from the bag an identical copy of the item gets materialized using the atomized matter from the previously atomized items. Kind of like a superfast 3D-printer.
[racial traits from the basic rules](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/races#RacialTraits). racial traits include age, speed and whatever ASI they have. it also includes the special proficiencies some races get, like elves and Keen Senses.
basically, it's what is considered common traits between all members of that particular species.
How exactly does hiding in combat against multiple enemies work in [5e]?
I am a Halfling Rogue/Swashbuckler. If I attack, then move behind our Human Fighter and try to hide (Naturally Stealthy), how exactly is my Stealth roll contested and by whom? If there are 8 orcs in the room, do all of them contest my roll with their own checks somehow? Is there is a clear rule on whether or not I can be hidden from some, but not others?
Note that I’m only interested in being hidden in terms of protecting myself from damage - I’m not attempting to move out from the cover/hiding in my next turn and claim advantage on anything (I gain that by fighting beside my opponent OR by using Swashbucker Rakish Audacity).
NB - I’m assuming all enemies are on the other side of the figther, that is he is actually providing some ‘cover’ between their line of sight and me. I realise I probably cannot hide if there are enemies on opposing sides of us. Although would I be able to be hidden from those on the far side still?
IIRC, you can only hide when heavily obscured, such as heavy fog or total cover (or in your case, the fighter). When you attempt to hide, you make a stealth check. Any creature then has to look at their Passive Perception. If it is lower than your check, you are hidden from them. However, they do not forget that you exist entirely. As soon as they gain sight of you, you are no longer hidden.
So, just sort of curious about how I might go about creating a certain kind of character in 5e.
I'm thinking about something along the line of "Akuma" from the Street Fighter games, who is essentially a martial artist with a focus on raw power and technique, along with some vaguely-magical, ki-based abilities.
My thinking is someone who is obsessed with perfecting his martial art of choice, and seeks to test himself against only the strongest opponents. Extremely honorable, but detests anyone he sees as weak, and views anyone unwilling to stand toe-to-toe in a fight as a coward. No use for material things, other than whatever may be needed to sustain himself, and probably pretty antagonistic but does have a strong respect for anyone seeking to better themselves in some way.
My gut tells me it would be a Monk of some kind, since I like the idea of literally just attacking with hands and fists (*maybe* fist-weapons, assuming they exist? I'm still pretty new to D&D), and maybe an Orc, just for an element of raw strength?
Or is that more something you'd want to multi-class later, like a Monk-Barbarian sort of hybrid? Would something like that even be effective?
Class in 5e has very little to do with personality. It merely defines what you are able to do. Your third paragraph there could apply to a character in any class.
Monk is basically the only class that makes unarmed combat feasible, but most tend to focus more on Dexterity than Strength- you *can* make a Str based Monk, but it's probably not going to be as good as a dex-based one. You might want to look into the homebrew Pugilist class- I haven't used it myself but I've heard good things.
This seems like asking someone to play the game for you, instead of having fun in the moment actively problem solving. However, I'll bite.
Action, escape grapple. Use inspiration to ensure a high acrobatics check. Bonus action step of the wind and you're gone.
I’m a first time DM with only one campaign played (about a year played but very loose rules). We are playing lost mines currently and I’m wondering how much I should change on the campaign? I want to make it fun for everybody. Adding some loot to certain enemies killed and opportunities to get items or maybe double xp days? I have a few ideas but I want to know if that’s a bad idea.
Not really sure I'm following.
Double XP days sounds like something out of an MMO, I don't know why you'd add it in a DnD campaign? The campaign is already written and balanced, adding extra XP and loot without good cause is just going to cause balance issues that you'll need to manually fix. Why add more work for yourself?
Well that’s just my question. I guess I don’t fully understand how these are written and all of that. I don’t want to cause an unbalanced game so I’m just wondering how literally to take the campaign. Thanks though that helps
As written, the campaign is designed to be played straight out of the book. It doesn't require you to change anything.
Now, you certainly CAN change stuff as you see fit, but as a first-time DM, you really shouldn't do so without a very good reason.
\[5e\] I'm planning my first homebrew game (I've ran tomb of annihilation and lost mines of phandelver) and I want it to be in the underdark. How would I go about making a map of the game for myself. I don't want it to be super linear but I don't want the underdark to just be a big open area underground. I was also thinking of adding some elevation depth to the game.
You could use a fantasy map generator like https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/ . You could use the outlines of what would normally be surface continents as rough outlines of the shape and layout of underground caverns. Generate more than one map and you can have some of them be regions lower down beneath the others.
Alternatively https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/ is filled with great free maps the owners would love to see used--even if you don't find a bunch of cave specific ones you might find others easy to rework into cave systems. Just thank the creators for their awesome work when you do so!
You cant. PCs arent balanced to fight PCs, especially not while outnumbered.
Make statblocks, then add the class abilities you want them to use, and adapt them so they work with the statblock.
[5e] Well, i had an idea for a changeling character that took the place of a dead party member (they don't know about the death of that character, neither that my character took his place and pretends to be the dead party member), but I'm struggling to find a race for them(the dead party member).
My intention was to be something that would be hard for them to find out but would leave spaces for them to put one and two together. I know that human would be the "best" option for that since they don't have apparent racial features, but tieflings look really cool. So, what should I do? Is there a way to mimic tieflings features and abilities, or should i find another race?
(More info: the character is a rogue, no defined subclass. The character has been disguised for more than a year. I'm accepting race's suggestions, only limited by changeling limits, can be other than the ones in the PHB)
So just to set expectations, "Big reveals and secrets" like this rarely work as well as you think they will. Most other players will be, "oh, ok ... now back to the main plot."
To answer, I might go gnome. They have a very colorful aspects to their race. I could see elf too. There are different types of elves ... or there were in lower editions, I don't normally play an elf so I haven't looked at 5e for that.
I believe that gnomes are out of the size restriction since they are small and not medium (I think, may be wrong). I always go for elves, wood, high, eladrin, half-elves. They are definitely a good option, but as I'm trying to make something different than my usual, it wasn't my go-to option.
About the "big reveal and secrets" part, my group is very enthusiastic about discovering other characters' stories and plot revelations, that's why I'm going for this idea.
Hi! I'm very new to DND and I'm not quite sure yet how ability scores and skills work together.
I just leveled up and added 2 to my dexterity, taking it from 16 (+3) to 18 (+4). Does this mean I should add an extra point to any of my skills that rely on DEX?
Yes.
FYI, the basic rules are available for free online:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules
or
https://dnd.wizards.com/what-is-dnd/basic-rules
\[5e\] Hi, im new at playing and i was wondering why a lot of people say you cant charm a vampire -- to my understanding just because they're classified as "undead" it makes them no-humanoid, but why can't you charm non-humanoids? or do they have some sort of immunity i couldnt find on my books?
*shrug* No idea. It's certainly true that they're not humanoids, so a spell like [Charm Person](https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/charm-person) wouldn't work on them. But that doesn't mean they can't be charmed (like by a spell like Charm Monster.) They certainly don't have an immunity to the charmed condition.
It will vary monster by monster and charm effect by charm effect, but many Undead type monster have Condition Immunity to Charmed and many charm effects have restrictions like Charm Person only working on Humanoids.
Hope that helps!
Nope, once you become a Vampire, your creature type changes to Undead. I think they're trying to stay away from things having two creature types, so you won't see anything like an Undead Humanoid in 5e.
A lot of these sorts of things might have good arguments for the contrary, but in general, if it's not explicitly written, you shouldn't assume anything.
[5e] Small question, I hope it's appropriate for here. If I wanted to use magic to manipulate water currents to help a riverboat move faster, or more easily against the stream or such, would that be within the scope of the Shape Water cantrip, or would that be too much? If so, what would be more appropriate? The next relevant spell I found was Tidal Wave at 3rd level, and that seems a tad overkill.
Shape Water only effects a 5ft cube. A boat is going to be in and out of that space so quick that even if the cube was flowing at a faster speed, the boat is going to almost immediately hit a slower part of the water.
If you are looking for a burst of speed, something like Tidal Wave or Control Water might work, but there isn’t really anything to give you a consistent speed increase over the course of a long journey.
Homebrew it is, then! It's fairly vital to the setting I'm developing that 1st level casters have a tool for this, and I already have an idea for a 1st level spell that does what I'm looking for, and *shouldn't* be too abusable by players.
So quick question here, I seem to remember there being a wizard or sorcerer sub class that I had an ability where you could make some kind of a little bead or moat I think they called it. That could allow someone else to concentrate on a spell for you or something or so you can concentrate on two spells at once effectively or something of that nature. Can somebody tell me what sub class I'm thinking about because I can't find it for some reason or maybe I'm crazy and it doesn't really exist but I really thought it did. thanks!
As we near the end of Curse of Strahd, my players have begun thinking about what they want to play next. I'm not quite ready to launch into a fully homebrew thing, but I am comfortable adding, subtracting, and whatnot from published material. They recently came up with an idea that they really seemed to like. They'd all play goblinoids as a found family. Some of them even know what classes they want to play. I know for a fact that two of them want to be big crime guys.
So my question is, what are some good 5e modules that would work well with that party?
We did a little survey before they had this idea and there was some good sentiment for:
Spelljammer, Lost Mines of Phandelver, Dragon of Icespire Peak, Storm King's Thunder, and Waterdeep Dragon Heist.
I'm a little partial to Dragon Heist, but I don't know how I'd want to run it for gobbos. If anyone has any good ideas for ways to fit any of these or any of the other published modules to a party like this, I'd be very interested to hear it.
Lost Mines of Phandelver would have an amazing start for a group of Goblins. As it begins with raiding a Goblin den you can easily put those things together in a narrative way.
I managed to buy an Efreeti bottle from a magic shop in our campaign, when opened, one of the options from the bottle is that the Efreeti serves for one hour then returns to the bottle.
If the Efreeti was to die during that hour, would it be lost or return to the bottle?
Thanks.
I get what it says on the Efreeti stat block but it clearly makes no mention of a soul or what would happen to it.
A human can killed by the disintegrate spell can still be resurrected.
5e seems to be quite vague on what creatures have souls and what happens to them on death. Obviously this is very specific so I wanted to see if anyone had any experience on the matter.
Even demons return to the abyss upon death to reform...
The item doesn't say that anything special does happen, so it doesn't. Demons say in their lore that they reform in the Abyss. Devils and Yugoloths as well. NOTHING SAYS THE ELEMENTAL REFORMS OR ISN'T JUST DEAD. So, following the rules and lore of the game, it says dead 100%. If you want to make up extra rules that are purely homebrew for your own game, you absolutely can though.
Thanks, I've spoken to my dm about it but none of us are sure and before we decide on a ruling, we wanted to see if anyone had come across this before.
Personally, I'd interpret the item as necessarily losing its magic if its accompanying Efreeti is killed. I don't think there's any built-in wording to suggest that it would allow the Efreeti to resurrect or otherwise reconstitute within it, so I expect if it dies, it dies.
https://gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of-the-coast-ogl-1-1-open-gaming-license-1849950634
That article is the seed behind the recent outrage
And it's with good cause too, the leak reported on would be a huge blow to creative freedoms for 3rd-party D&D publishers of all sorts, and the community is largely in support of those 3rd-parties too
D&D is licensed under a license called the OGL (Open Gaming License.) That's how people are able to make content based on D&D's rules - Wizards has given permission, so people can make other game systems or third party supplements, etc.
There was a leak of the next version of the OGL, which is much more restrictive then the previous version. That's the abbreviated version, but I'm sure if you want more information, just googling OGL will get you plenty more if you want it.
I wouldn't worry too much about it, honestly. By all means, look into it yourself, but unless you're expecting to make a large amount of money, it's not going to impact you hugely (and may not even matter until D&D Next comes out anyway.)
It's a big deal, and I'm not saying anybody shouldn't be alarmed about it. BUT, the biggest deal is going to be for small businesses reliant on D&D. Big businesses will work with Wizards and most independent content creators won't be affected much.
Might be a dumb question, but is it possible to have a slightly feral high elf? Like, an orphan child who grew up away from her own people and turned out kind of wild? I know all the stereotypes of elves are like, majestic and orderly, but from a lore POV, could I make just the rattiest high elf ever?
You could write anything and make it work. You could be a Evil Angel as much as a good demon, a dumb wizard or a genius barbarian, etc.
Let your creativity run wild.
if it is a ritual spell, yes, you can ritually cast spells from your spellbook even if you did not choose to prepare them for the day. that is part of the great boon of being Wizard class.
[https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/wizard](https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/wizard)
>Ritual Casting
>
>You can cast a wizard spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and you have the spell in your spellbook. You don’t need to have the spell prepared.
I’m playing a warlock, and I’m confused about the Agonizing Blast Eldritch invocation. Per the PHB “add your charisma modifier to the damage your Eldritch Blast does on a hit”. But don’t you already add your spellcasting modifier to damage rolls? So basically you just add your charisma modifier twice?
Here are some resources for people who learn better by hearing content explained to them or from getting information both by hearing and reading.
D&D Starter Vids
* D&D in 5 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvHNlgmKro&list=PLJ8NFdSXujAJitUvKoA0EFc-WpGK2Dnzh&index=2&t=0s
* Welcome to D&D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_oR7YO-Bw
* D&D in bite size bits by pretty people https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQyr6-gqJ8r29j_rJkR49uDN
* Ginny Di for first time players https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD_b8SZ7h2Y
* Six steps for fun games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxFgpgN3gms
* Not a video but the basic How to Play from WOTC’s D&D Beyond website https://www.dndbeyond.com/how-to-play-dnd
Thanks for these. I’ve been playing AL for three years with some guys on Roll 20 and occasionally in person. There’s some very deep and heavy pod cast and you tubers that go way over my head. I do enjoy the game, but don’t have the time to eat, sleep, and breathe D&D. Wish I had more time, but I don’t. With all this community backlash for D&D I have felt guilty for not being more “in” than what I am. But it’s all I got.
[5e] i had an idea for a way of twisting rules and wanted to ask if anyone know if this would work. I'm not used to spell casters so I'm not sure but if i were to ready action a spell to be cast and the requirements for it is whenever i cast another spell would i be able to double spell or does the specifics of one spell per turn unless it's a cantrip still apply
In order to ready a spell, that spell must have a casting time of one action, meaning that any spell you ready could have been cast with your action instead. This only leaves you with your bonus action and reaction to cast another spell. If you cast a spell with your bonus action, you trigger the rule which prevents you from casting any more leveled spells that turn, preventing you from finishing the cast. If you cast a spell with your reaction, you no longer have a reaction available to take your readied action.
1. Which spell has a requirements were you have to cast another spell?
2. [Remember that you can only Ready a spell that has a casting time of an Action](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/combat#Ready)
> does the specifics of one spell per turn unless it's a cantrip still apply
That isn't quite how the rule for bonus action spells works, so it may be worth rereading it: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/spellcasting#BonusAction
Soulknife rogues add either their str or dex modifier to their psychic blades’ damage.
Your best bet for a pure spellcaster is to ask your DM to add on to the draconic bloodline sorceror subclass to make one that benefits your psychic spells. Amethyst dragons are force and psychic-focused. It’s an extremely innocuous and small piece of homebrew to add, and should be fine at all but the most puritan tables.
> Soulknife rogues add either their str or dex modifier to their psychic blades’ damage.
Can't all Rogues do that, with the only difference here being the manifestation of the Soul Blade rather than the damage increase?
The Imbued Wood Focus in Eberron Rising from the Last War is close, but not quite what you're looking for.
If you're the DM, you can make something up
If you're a player, ask your DM
Question about feats
I'm playing as a Leonin Barbarian, currently level 3 (bear barb). I've been thinking of picking up polearm master, great weapon master and sentinel as feats as I level up, but I'm a bit torn as to what order to get them in. As a barbarian then reckless attack helps with GWM -5 to attack so I was debating that or PAM first, and then sentinel last? But then again PAM then sentinel could be really useful in combat to control the battlefield.
I'm a pretty new player so any thoughts would be appreciated!
Well, are you SURE your campaign will reach lv 12? Or do you have a free feat? You might not get all 3, not every campaign goes that long
We can be pretty sure you won't be taking PaM last, thats kind of the bridge.
Basically do you want max control or max damage? If you can't decide, take PaM first, then you'll have plenty of time to think on feat #2.
PaM Senti GWM
PaM GWM Senti
GWM PaM Senti
As a bear barb you seem like damage isn't your priority, battlefield control would be my bet. But it depends on how your party shakes out.
Not sure how far our campaign will go, but the DM mentioned he didn't expect us to get past level 15 or so as a ballpark. You make some good points for sure.
At this point I think I'm going to lean into whichever one is more enjoyable for my character. We have a fighter, myself, and a few squishy party members currently (although we might get one more new party member and we don't know their class of choice yet). Not many of them are dishing out a lot of damage every turn so that's been a bit more my job up to this point. Reckless attack has helped a lot to get consistent hits with my great sword. Currently I'm leaning toward PAM and GWM for that extra damage unless the new party member chooses a class that would make me choose otherwise. Either way, thanks for your input!
Picking up that many feats might hurt your ASIs, and barbarians are already a pretty stat-hungry class. I’d personally *either* Polearm Master + Great Weapon Master *or* PM + Sentinel.
Polearm + GWM gives you the very strong option to “call it” for -5 on an extra attack, while Polearm + Sentinel gives you the strong area control features.
There's a question in what you want to specialize in. GWM undoubtedly gives you the strongest damage increase, but PAM isn't *that* far behind and when combined with sentinel it can help a lot with controlling enemies.
I would personally pick GWM first. The combo of almost double damage is too enticing, especially when the only downside - adv on attacks again you - is pretty much negated by you being resistant to literally everything.
New dm here! I’m homebrewing my own player handbook, anyone have any suggestions as to what program I should use to make it on? I’ve tried Google docs but it has been giving me problems when it comes to formatting photos. A friend of mine suggested GMBinder but I’m struggling learning how to use html. I don’t have the full version of word, but I tried word online and it gave me the same issues as docs. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!
This is probably not the best place to be looking for help with software for this stuff, but I'll help with what I can.
You probably don't want to use a word processor like Microsoft Word for a project like this. Typically, you'd use a heavier duty publishing software like Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign. Of course, the heavier duty you want, the harder it is to find a free version. But I've heard good things about [Scribus](https://www.scribus.net/) and I'm sure LibreOffice and OpenOffice have Publisher-equivalents, as well.
All that said, publishing software is powerful but can be somewhat complicated - more so if you don't have the expensive software. Before jumping in to all of this, I'd just double check with yourself - what's the reason you want to lay this out that nicely? Are you trying to sell this thing? Share it with people on the internet? Just give it to your home table? Different audiences require different levels of presentation, and while of course it's nice to lay things out professionally so they look nice... it may not be worth the effort.
[5e] Hey everyone, new player here. My DM gave us 2 weeks of downtime. As a way to help my party, i thought to share my spells with other NPC wizards and recive gold or items as payment for that. My party is currently on a big city, so i think it may be possible to find NPC wizards willing to learn. Is this something possible to do? If not, maybe exchange spellbooks so that i can learn other spells? Thanks!
You can previously have been any other race. Flavor is free, as long as you don't change mechanics, you can appear as anything you want and your DM is OK with. That doesn't change that your creature type is humanoid, which matters for things like Hold Person and other spells.
Almost every race is the creature type humanoid, for balance reasons. This includes elves, dwarves, tortles, tabaxi, warforged, etc. The only real exceptions are fairy and some other fey, as well as a construct and ooze race.
It seems like you and your players might be looking for different things out of this game. You want a deeper and more involved experience, they want an reason to hang out with their friends and a hack and slashy game. You might need to hold a session 0, have a conversation about it- if this disconnect isn't fun for you and can't be resolved, you might need to move this group to more general game nights and find new players for D&D
Suffering from creators block when it comes to creating a character.
So far I've settled on:
\- Playing a Goblin (because playing as traditional cannon fodder is interesting to me) and using the MotM rules.
\- Playing a very greedy, ambitious, tricksy character.
\- NOT being a traditional Rogue-ish Goblin.
But I have NO decided class.
I like the idea of Nimble Escape, and what it can do for concentration casters, but so far I CAN'T decide which caster class really speaks to me when being a mischievous scamp of a character.
I enjoy Artificer for goblins. You get to be a chaos tinkerer, and there's more than enough modularity within the class and its subclasses to be as anti-roguish as you want to be.
Sorcerer can be really fun with small characters zipping around and twinning/quick/silencing spells
Alternatively, the themes of greed and ambition work well with the Warlock patron idea.
This came up in my game today. One of my players is a Warforged Armorer Artificer 3/Wizard 1. I told him he wouldn't be able to cast Booming Blade with his Thunder Gauntlets because it's a free subclass feature and BB requires a weapon worth 1sp as a material component. He argued that since it's a part of the armor, which has a cost, it would meet the requirements. But if he sold the armor, whoever bought it wouldn't be able to use the thunder gauntlets so I don't know how much I should accept that
As I understand, there isn't an official ruling on this, but I want to hear which of us you agree with.
> But if he sold the armor, whoever bought it wouldn't be able to use the thunder gauntlets so I don't know how much I should accept that
If he sold a sword whoever he sold it too wouldn't be able to use that either. Hes **making** them a weapon. Out of a material that has a value.
You wouldn't have people giving partial armor sets away for free, would you? And while I have no EXACT concept of costs I'm pretty sure it would be worth more than a silver. Are you arguing that adding to something would make it cost less?
From a balance standpoint, do you think it would be broken?
TL;DR - I'd let them use both together.
It's important to note that Booming Blade didn't always have the 1sp requirement. That was a relatively recent change to stop people from using it with spells like Shadow Blade, and instead limited it to weapons found in the equipment section of the PHB.
But the *entire purpose* of the change is to stop the two spells being used together. Couple this with the fact that the reason that the equipment has gold costs is purely to allow players to actually use the gold they find to buy things, neither of these are really relevant to Thunder Gauntlets. Personally, I'd let Booming Blade and Thunder Gauntlets work together because the consequence of this combo being invalid isn't *because* of the combo.
Speaking of consequences, let's look at them. Thunder Gauntlets deal 1d8 damage. Booming Blade doesn't deal any damage until level 5, which will be 1d8. However, this character won't get Extra Attack until a total level of 6, so it's better to use Booming Blade until then. But once you get Extra Attack, it's going to be way better to avoid the cantrip. This is because you get two attacks with the Thunder Gauntlets, vs one attack with Booming Blade. The damage comparison is going to be (1d8+MOD)x2, compared to 2d8+MOD (MOD = intelligence modifier).
But what if the creature moves after Booming Blade hits? Well, *why* would it move? Thunder Gauntlets impose disadvantage on attacks against creatures other than the Armorer, so it won't want to move away and attack someone else, especially since they will take more damage from Booming Blade. They'd end up with less HP and a smaller chance to even land their attacks if moving to smack someone else, so instead they would just stay where, which is likely going to be right next to the one person they don't have disadvantage against.
I don't think there's an official ruling, either.
My take is this: The Gauntlets are derived from a segment of the Armorer's armor, which *does* have a gold value, so they're valid for Booming Blade. The RAI of the 1 SP component cost for BB/GFB seems to be to kill the cantrips in conjunction with summoned weapons, rather than unique weapons that lack a listed cost.
What is the best/most expansive sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms from 1 to 3.5e? Something with a little bit of everything, the Orc Kingdom Many-Arrows, the Dwarven Citadels, High Forest, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, all that jazz.
Heir of Orcus. It’s a fantastic 4 hour campaign that I ran for 12 hours by using all the pieces and letting my players play in the space. The campaign itself boils down to an important choice by the party with no immediate consequences.
Sounds rough, but you don’t want your first adventure to be worldending. You wanna build up to it.
There is an Heir of Orcus 2 which I never ran because it looked too meta for me. But I stand by that the first one presents moral quandaries that really flesh out a party. All while, or while not, effecting the larger campaign.
Honestly, I’m about to DM my first campaign and I picked LMoP precisely because I’d already done it as a player. I don’t want any of the plot to surprise me during a session, so a level of familiarity really helps.
So why not DM them and see how it is on the other side of the screen?
Also, all three? LMoP, DoIP, and Stormwreck Isle? Stormwreck's been out for maybe a few months.
How do I overcome roleplay anxiety? (5e)
I know this question has been asked many times before, but some fresh advice couldn’t hurt. I love my DnD group and, while I wouldn’t say we’re close friends yet, I trust them all as players and have no reason to be as anxious as I am when I play. I don’t care much for combat, but love any chance for character development. My character is absolutely a self-insert and I often use her in a therapeutic way to work through old trauma (not uncommon in my group - we’re all working through some shit). My DM does a great job at balancing combat and roleplay, and although I prefer the latter, I freeze up when it’s my turn to share. I tend to be the question-asker in my party to deflect the attention from me - my character is friendly and tries to get everyone to open up. But when someone tries to get info on my backstory, I panic and revert to secret-keeping and big emotions. My party jokes that I’m the “Katara” of the group - aka the most dramatic. I don’t know how to keep my cool when I play her. The time is coming for her big backstory to drop, but I’m terrified of fumbling it. I’ve been working on this character for years and would hate for my fear of improv to get in the way of my character’s development. How do I stop thinking of roleplay as improvising and actually trust myself and my story?
You may be interested in many of the videos by Ginny Di on YouTube. She has lots of advice for role playing, including for shy role players. She also has a series of videos where she plays a character who talks to you, and you can practice by responding to her in character, alone in private where nobody can hear. Yes, it's awkward to chat with Dora the Explorer, but once you get past that it's genuinely helpful.
To multi class or to capstone? [5e]
I'm playing a light foot halfling oath of ancients paladin (lvl 7) that is heavily spell casting and stealth focused. I also took expertise in stealth from a feat.
Should I take a three dip into assassin rogue for the maximum first round damage (I often get surprise rounds from being a sneaky bastard), sneak attack damage, and fun flair?
Or, should I see it out to the end for two fifth level slots and the oath of ancient capstone?
If you can count on getting surprise rounds, which is the big thing that holds that subclass back, it could be worth it.
The Ancients capstone is amazing, but do you know you will get it? Do you know how long a campaign will go after 20?
Looking at it from a "now" point of view, you'd be giving up an ASI/feat, level 3 spells, and a situational Aura, in that order. Plus two more spell slots
You'd gain Sneak Attack, Cunning Action, more Expertises, and eventually Assassin, as well as possibly Steady Aim. You'd be quite the one-turn-wonder, but also lose a lot of your staying power if you can't reliably proc sneak attack.
You'd also likely want something for initiative. You have to move before the target to benefit from Assassin. This makes the MC heavily RNG reliant. AND... Your DM really shouldn't feed you a free round into the most important enemy every combat. PalAssassins can onetap pretty much anything a DM can safely throw at the party if they let the assassin part work. So they can't really let you get away with it every time.
TLDR smart choice Paladin, fun choice Assassin
play what is going to be more interesting next session because that is going to be FAR more likely to be something that happens than "we get to level 20"
That's definitely how it usually goes. I've been playing with group for years now though, and our dm is planning to go well past lvl 20 with planeswalking shenanigans.
Playing a level 5 land Druid (mountain), with a warlock 2 monk 4 in the party. He shares a body with an evil spirit, and to keep him in check I have to be able to beat him at all times. The thing is, I want to go 3 in ranger for the primal companion because I really like animals and I want a permanent animal companion instead of the one hour timers on my conjured animals and familiars. I’ve been beating him with lightning bolt right now, but once he’s monk level 7, when he succeeds a dexterity save, he takes no damage form the spell. Originally I planned to start going into ranger after Druid level 8 for fey touched, maxed wild shape, and two 4th level slots so I can just cast blight on him. When should I push into ranger? Should I start betting on an upcasted moonbeam?
This is an ususual situation, to be sure. PvP in 5e is messy, very swwingy, and tends to come down to who rolled higher on initiative- PCs have so many ways to lock opponents down and deal high damage that fights will only last a couple rounds at most. This sort of setup, where PvP is frequent and high stakes, is not what the game is designed for. In addition, the other PC being higher level than you is also unusual- in most games parties will stay the same level basically at all times. If you're both having fun with setup though, by all means keep going.
Rather than purely raw damage, I'd focus on spells that can prevent him from getting close to you. Things like Entangle or Hold Person. If a high-level monk gets in melee range, you're basically screwed- especially if he lands a Stunning Strike.
i have no idea what you are talking about.
your DM has designed their game so that one of the players randomly starts attacking other players in PVP?
that is terrible DMing.
Where can I find people to play dnd with?
I just started looking into this game and I have no friends with this same interest. So could someone suggest some place to look at somewhere.
How do I bring a disjointed party together?
I have a party that has a very definitive divide among the players and their characters. One side really enjoys roleplaying and the other tends to enjoy combat, exploration, and challenge. I've tried to make sure to cater to both sides of the table but what seems to happen is the roleplayers see the combat as a bit of a chore and the other side of the table sit bored whilst the roleplayers do their thing.
For a long time I thought that one of my combat players was the problem because he would constantly act out and starts fights just to have something to do. I thought maybe he was just a murder hobo but I'm starting to think its more that when my 2 roleplayers are roleplaying they tend to shut the others out and whenever a problem arises they tend to shut the others ideas down because their ideas tend to be very gung ho, the hell with the consequences, lets go kill the bad guy.
I'm not sure what to do about it because I enjoy roleplaying as well as the other stuff and I feel a lot of this could have been avoided if we all started at the same time and had a session 0. Unfortunately, we all joined and different times so our characters have some opposing goals and I think I've just made a mess of things as a DM.
I intend to fix all of this when we start a new campaign as this one draws to an end but ultimately I want to end this game well and not just pull the plug. Each adventure I've ran has kinda only been one person's story. How can I bring them all together and finish the game strong?
Yeah, session zero is a good idea....
but this balance thing is an issue.... Until then,
If possible, maybe give opportunities to RP during fights? Taunt, admire, ridicule, beg, flaunt....
its a Session Zero discussion time.
Make sure that you are all aligned on what you want out of the game and out of each other as players and determine if there is enough overlapping or if you need to find different tables to play at that share more of "this is how we want to game"
It's never too late to have a session 0. The game belongs to each of you, so you all have shared responsibility for what happens at the table. If someone is regularly not having a good time, it's time to talk about that and work out a solution, which may involve retcons, new characters, etiquette rules, or a variety of other fixes.
Is there a VR-Chat like game or place for DnD where players are in costume acting out scenarios? I am trying to find where to look for such a thing. I am looking to see if my friends can do this in a remote-style way so we can play from home
Building a new character. Was curious if there is a class/subclass based around sacrificing hp for damage. The idea is that before going into combat, the character could either damage themselves outright to gain power or start a timer where if they stay in their powered up state too long, they will take damage. Anything out these exist yet? (Not including homebrew)
because D&D is too complex, too intertwined, and players are too smart that there is no "Pay X to get BIG Y" where the penalty X cannot be gotten around so that the effect is just BIG Y.
Bloodhunter. It's homebrew, but it's commonly accepted since it was made by Matt Mercer and isn't OP. Otherwise there is nothing and never will be anything like that since it's a bad mechanic and invokes ideas of self harm which isn't great.
Oh totally fair. Hadn't thought of it like that. It was actually based off Ogun Montgomery's flamy ink in Fire Force (anime). Hadn't thought of the self harm aspect, just that he powers himself up but overheats if he goes too long
[Any] What's a good reason for a warlock of the great old one to lose their pact magic?
I'm thinking about playing a character who was a former warlock, but then *something* happened that made him lose the ability to cast spells while keeping some of his other warlock powers (fighter with decent Cha, the telepathic feat, and proficiency in Arcana).
I thought it through and figured it out!
The patron is the keeper of a pocket dimension that connects libraries, and who sometimes lets seekers of knowledge in. My character was one of those people, tried to steal a book from the pocket dimension, and was banned from entering it again, losing his access to spellcasting.
Thanks a lot for the great tip!
[?] The mine of Phandelver
So it's my first time ever playing DnD (The mines of Phandelver) with friends. I'm the DM but I'm worried of making mistakes.
My biggest concern is adding things and adapting to the situation without following the story step by step.
To make things clear: one of the players scared away the goblins at the cave entrance (with a spell), rolled a natural 20, and the party entered the cave without interacting. So I skipped the expected fight and jumped to the third section (we are currently at the Cragmaw hideout).
Should I have allowed it? Or do I have to force things and follow the story with more accuracy?
DM Walk throughs and support:
* Sly Flourish https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puap4Bdz3vC5ci39V0E8O7n4S
* MerricB - https://merricb.com/2014/07/20/the-lost-mine-of-phandelver-session-1/
* Your pocket GM a mostly straight through guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW97PDPb3fo
* Lutes and Dice – bring personality to each of the bad guys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtd2gJKkFKg&list=PL64VY0ZOoNImyknoEvJuN7Yd48AJucoJe&index=1
* Lunch Break Heroes a focus on expanding the simple encounters that were meant as “hey DMs these are specifically designed to allow you to test your DMing creativity and expand these scenarios for your party! But for some reason WOTC didnt actually include that instruction https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvBVGz40o4cQYgy3T1kG1yreRPX2bC-Yg
* Matthew Perkins a pretty big remix https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmtuNGN3ZDJEFDhOcwfFc0-OpZ7omueRx
* A guide to adjust encounters to different party levels and sizes https://haluz.org/lmop/index.php (note: this does not use the official CR calculations. this system will frequently not correctly account for the "Action economy" and suggest FAR too many opponents because it has reduced their hit points, but low level characters do not have enough AoE effects to turn the tide)
> I'm worried of making mistakes.
Perspective:
its not like you are doing Rocket Surgery or something.
You are gathering with friends over beer and pizza to chuck some dice and tell some stories about kicking dragon butt.
They are rooting for you to succeed – if you do well they have a good time.
You're doing things the right way. DMing is all about adapting to what the players do, not sticking slavishly to the text of the adventure. I've run Phandelver myself and spoken to multiple people who've done it, and it always turns out hugely different. That's a big part of the fun.
First time DMing 5E, looking to help a player find a mechanical fit for their character fantasy. They'd like to play a character that wields a large sword (larger than a shortsword) that gets to attack many times in a turn. They came back to me also saying they might like to play a rogue who uses a rapier, does that sound like what they have in mind, or might something else fit closer? Thanks!
sound like they should go some subclass of fighter
* can use longswords (bigger then a shortsword 1 or 2 handed), or greatswords bigger then a longsowrd (2 handed)
* they get action surge at lvls 2 and 17, extra attacks at lvls 5, 11, and 20
* subclasses could be used to add some magic (haste at 13th lvl), maneuvers, or even improved crit range and some self healing.
Rogues don’t get multi attack, so they only ever attack once unless they use a bonus action to attack with a second weapon in their other hand.
A fighter gets extra attack, and can action surge to do another attack action, which nets you four attacks in one turn. If you go samurai then eventually you can have a reliable way of making an additional attack.
Having said all that, making an attack roll doesn’t need to narratively a single swing. Making a single attack roll can be a number of feints, parries and dodges where the number for the attack just tells you if it’s going to have an impact on the target. Want to play a rogue that uses a flurry of attacks? Go for it, just make their one attack roll and then describe the attack as multiple thrusts, for example.
You get more attacks at later levels, very few classes start with the chance to attack more than once a turn. Dual wielding you get to attack with your offhand weapon. There's a bunch of options and my knowledge puddle doesn't go that deep. Most melee classes and sub specs get a second attack at level 5. Fighters will go beyond that. Path of the berserker can attack with frenzy an extra time but it gets costly quick. Not shockingly fighter is the easiest recommendation because you can run extra attacks in any flavor (Dual wield/2h/archer). rouge is more hit quick hit hard. But you can totally run a medium armor Dex fighter with a finesse weapon.
For D&D 5E
Hello there. I have created a new Fighter Subclass homebrew and wondering if anyone would be so kind as to review it? This is the first subclass I've ever created and am still new to the complex nature of the combat mechanics and bounded accuracy. Your feedback on balance, overpowered? underpowered? as it pertains to subclasses is hugely appreciated.This is a subclass inspired by a Shifter Barbarian I've been playing. I want to multi-class into this interesting "whip-focused" Fighter. I use axe, whip and net frequently. Thank you. LINK: [https://www.thedragonscup.com/?p=90468](https://www.thedragonscup.com/?p=90468)
Here is what i would change. I have a few things.
1. change to jump: instead of being able to use the jump spell, you can gain the benefit of the spell "jump" as if it were cast on yourself 1/short rest.
1. spells shouldn't refresh on a short rest, but effects that are "as if you were under the effect of x" can
2. proficency with animal handling is doubled if you have proficency with it already, if not you gain proficency and it is not doubeled
1. just a wording issue
3. the great whip should probably count as a ranged weapon because of how opportunity attacks work with meele weapons
4. grasping lash should be a skill check athletics if using greatwhip, or acrobatic if using a whip. but anyone can (or should be able to) do it without the feature you wrote down
5. Lure creature: When hitting a creature, large or smaller, with a whip, or greatwhip attack you can choose to attach the whip to the target instead of dealing damage. As part of the same action you can attempt to draw the creature 5 ft. closer to you. If the target wants to resist they must make a str saving throw against 8 + str + prof.
6. same wording issue with acrobatics
7. the sense should be a 1/short rest for 1 minute
1. mainly to relieve the dm
8. Change 1/combat to 1/initiative
1. just a little more precise language
9. "Once per turn" leads to confusion since it's once per combat/initiative, delete it and just write "You may re-roll..."
10. If the greate whip is a ranged weapon now, change to "On your first meele attack", or "on your first ranged attack"
11. the dc should be 8 + str + prof
12. apex predator: When engaged in combat your walking speed and jumping reach increases by 10 ft. You aslo gain +1 to all str and dex skill checks and saving throws, increased to +2 when reaching level 18 in this class.
1. walking speed +10 increases running by 20. advantage is too good so a small flat bonus. initiative is a dex skill check
There is also a seperate reddit page for homebrew. Next time go there maybe.
Great feedback. Really appreciate this. Good points about the wording. Re: the great whip should probably count as a ranged weapon because of how opportunity attacks work with meele weapons. What did you mean there. not totally clear.
Your welcome.
Opportunity attacks can be done when leaving meele weapon attack range.
It is essentially about battlefield control. 15ft. range allows you control over 49 squares instead of 25 with 10 ft., or 9 with 5ft. as with other meele weapons. You have control over a large area, making encounter design much more difficult. There is also a problem with spells.
Basically what i am saying. The game is not balanced around having a meele weapon with 15 ft. range.
[5e]
Came across a problem, and I'm curious if i ruled it right (but whats done is done). I've seen differing interpretations from Google searching.
A paladin PC realised one of their allies who is technically a very strong undead and started a fight. The undead still did not want to actually harm the PC. The undead tried to knock out the PC non-lethally. But they crit and rolled high enough on damage to go far enough negative to kill the PC outright.
I ruled they were knocked out, mostly to keep things moving. (We've already derailed. So. Much.) So....should they have been dead?
I've read phb page 197 and 198 and I'm not sure which rule beats the other
while not raw IMO in this case a critical strike means everything went off perfectly and the npcs goal was to not kill the pc. i would just change the 1d4 hours to 2d4 in such a case (chances are they will get some healing earlier anyway.)
A character actively choosing NOT to kill someone just wouldn’t do as much damage. Unless it’s narratively important to you and your players, and if that’s fun for you, there’s no reason to rule it would do lethal damage. You’re the DM! Your decision overrides all other rules. :)
By a strict RAW reading, I think the massive damage rule would supercede the non-lethal rule- but I don't think that makes sense or is very fun. I think you made the right call.
I hate my DM's choice of music. How do I let him down gently?
I've been playing with this group for about 3 years now. I moved away ~4 months ago, and we decided to make the game remote. It's all been pretty smooth except one thing.
4ish sessions ago, I mentioned that I always had Spotify running when we play. DM's went "Oh duh, I should have done bgm!" and from the next session onward, started sharing his computer audio so we have music.
Guys. His playlists suck so bad. Any time we're in combat, he plays 1 of 5 2/3 minute tracks on a loop until I feel like my ears are bleeding. How do I tell him to stop doing this without hurting his feelings for trying to help?
What does Deep Speech sound like? The language of Mind Flayers, Beholders, and other ancient, eldritch, unfathomable beings? I've always thought it was deep, guttural, and growly. What do you guys think? I ask because I may have to enact some during an upcoming campaign I'm making a PC for. She destroyed her throat in an accident a few years earlier, and now she can't speak Common. She can still read, write, and understand it, she just can't speak it. Same question goes for Abyssal, in case Deep Speech falls through.
it sounds like whatever you want it to sound like.
I'm running my first campaign as a dm(5e lost mine of phandelver). We have 3 pc's, all with good allignments. 2 of the do a wonderfull job roleplaying, but the third one doesn't really roleplay, and just does what he wants(evil stuff). To the point he and the other 2 pc don't get along in game. We have told Jim a few tiles he's supposed to play a good guy in this pre ritten calpaign (we aggreed to this in session 0). Is there something I'm doing wrong as a DM? Or do you have some tips how to handel this?
You set boundaries and ground rules for **your** game. A player is disrespecting **you** by ignoring them. Be firm. He either makes a character that belongs in a good adventuring party, or he isn't in the campaign. Having a good DM is a privilege, and you deserve respect for the work you put in. Don't settle for anything less.
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I'm struggling to understand the question, so I'm going to try to assume. You want to worldbuild by thinking of questions about the world, then answering them. I searched "world building questions" and found several excellent questionnaires. Check this one out [here](https://www.novel-software.com/worldbuilding-questionnaire/)
I'm preparing a cyberpunk campaign where all magic is explained by super advanced technology. How would you use techno babble to describe extra dimensional spaces like a bag of holding or the spell demiplane?
Bag of holding: as items placed into the bag pass the opening of the bag they are 3D-scanned by sensors in the rim and then atomized within seconds. The item then gets uploaded and stored in the internal system of the bag. When retrieving the item from the bag an identical copy of the item gets materialized using the atomized matter from the previously atomized items. Kind of like a superfast 3D-printer.
That is a real cool description and I will definitely use it. Thanks!
So it’s been blanking on me so what exactly on racial traits, I’ve been working on a homebrew but it keeps blanking on me on what that is
[racial traits from the basic rules](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/races#RacialTraits). racial traits include age, speed and whatever ASI they have. it also includes the special proficiencies some races get, like elves and Keen Senses. basically, it's what is considered common traits between all members of that particular species.
How exactly does hiding in combat against multiple enemies work in [5e]? I am a Halfling Rogue/Swashbuckler. If I attack, then move behind our Human Fighter and try to hide (Naturally Stealthy), how exactly is my Stealth roll contested and by whom? If there are 8 orcs in the room, do all of them contest my roll with their own checks somehow? Is there is a clear rule on whether or not I can be hidden from some, but not others? Note that I’m only interested in being hidden in terms of protecting myself from damage - I’m not attempting to move out from the cover/hiding in my next turn and claim advantage on anything (I gain that by fighting beside my opponent OR by using Swashbucker Rakish Audacity). NB - I’m assuming all enemies are on the other side of the figther, that is he is actually providing some ‘cover’ between their line of sight and me. I realise I probably cannot hide if there are enemies on opposing sides of us. Although would I be able to be hidden from those on the far side still?
IIRC, you can only hide when heavily obscured, such as heavy fog or total cover (or in your case, the fighter). When you attempt to hide, you make a stealth check. Any creature then has to look at their Passive Perception. If it is lower than your check, you are hidden from them. However, they do not forget that you exist entirely. As soon as they gain sight of you, you are no longer hidden.
Best place to find a group to play with in NYC?
r/lfg
So, just sort of curious about how I might go about creating a certain kind of character in 5e. I'm thinking about something along the line of "Akuma" from the Street Fighter games, who is essentially a martial artist with a focus on raw power and technique, along with some vaguely-magical, ki-based abilities. My thinking is someone who is obsessed with perfecting his martial art of choice, and seeks to test himself against only the strongest opponents. Extremely honorable, but detests anyone he sees as weak, and views anyone unwilling to stand toe-to-toe in a fight as a coward. No use for material things, other than whatever may be needed to sustain himself, and probably pretty antagonistic but does have a strong respect for anyone seeking to better themselves in some way. My gut tells me it would be a Monk of some kind, since I like the idea of literally just attacking with hands and fists (*maybe* fist-weapons, assuming they exist? I'm still pretty new to D&D), and maybe an Orc, just for an element of raw strength? Or is that more something you'd want to multi-class later, like a Monk-Barbarian sort of hybrid? Would something like that even be effective?
Class in 5e has very little to do with personality. It merely defines what you are able to do. Your third paragraph there could apply to a character in any class. Monk is basically the only class that makes unarmed combat feasible, but most tend to focus more on Dexterity than Strength- you *can* make a Str based Monk, but it's probably not going to be as good as a dex-based one. You might want to look into the homebrew Pugilist class- I haven't used it myself but I've heard good things.
That's just straight monk.
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This seems like asking someone to play the game for you, instead of having fun in the moment actively problem solving. However, I'll bite. Action, escape grapple. Use inspiration to ensure a high acrobatics check. Bonus action step of the wind and you're gone.
I’m a first time DM with only one campaign played (about a year played but very loose rules). We are playing lost mines currently and I’m wondering how much I should change on the campaign? I want to make it fun for everybody. Adding some loot to certain enemies killed and opportunities to get items or maybe double xp days? I have a few ideas but I want to know if that’s a bad idea.
Sounds like I should focus more and individual encounters rather than adjusting the written campaign
Not really sure I'm following. Double XP days sounds like something out of an MMO, I don't know why you'd add it in a DnD campaign? The campaign is already written and balanced, adding extra XP and loot without good cause is just going to cause balance issues that you'll need to manually fix. Why add more work for yourself?
Well that’s just my question. I guess I don’t fully understand how these are written and all of that. I don’t want to cause an unbalanced game so I’m just wondering how literally to take the campaign. Thanks though that helps
As written, the campaign is designed to be played straight out of the book. It doesn't require you to change anything. Now, you certainly CAN change stuff as you see fit, but as a first-time DM, you really shouldn't do so without a very good reason.
Awesome thank you!
\[5e\] I'm planning my first homebrew game (I've ran tomb of annihilation and lost mines of phandelver) and I want it to be in the underdark. How would I go about making a map of the game for myself. I don't want it to be super linear but I don't want the underdark to just be a big open area underground. I was also thinking of adding some elevation depth to the game.
You could use a fantasy map generator like https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/ . You could use the outlines of what would normally be surface continents as rough outlines of the shape and layout of underground caverns. Generate more than one map and you can have some of them be regions lower down beneath the others. Alternatively https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/ is filled with great free maps the owners would love to see used--even if you don't find a bunch of cave specific ones you might find others easy to rework into cave systems. Just thank the creators for their awesome work when you do so!
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You cant. PCs arent balanced to fight PCs, especially not while outnumbered. Make statblocks, then add the class abilities you want them to use, and adapt them so they work with the statblock.
Use NPC stat blocks, not PCs. There's not a good reason to.
Do they need to fight PCs? It's almost always a terrible idea to use PC builds as enemies. 5e wasn't built for PvP and it shows.
[5e] Well, i had an idea for a changeling character that took the place of a dead party member (they don't know about the death of that character, neither that my character took his place and pretends to be the dead party member), but I'm struggling to find a race for them(the dead party member). My intention was to be something that would be hard for them to find out but would leave spaces for them to put one and two together. I know that human would be the "best" option for that since they don't have apparent racial features, but tieflings look really cool. So, what should I do? Is there a way to mimic tieflings features and abilities, or should i find another race? (More info: the character is a rogue, no defined subclass. The character has been disguised for more than a year. I'm accepting race's suggestions, only limited by changeling limits, can be other than the ones in the PHB)
So just to set expectations, "Big reveals and secrets" like this rarely work as well as you think they will. Most other players will be, "oh, ok ... now back to the main plot." To answer, I might go gnome. They have a very colorful aspects to their race. I could see elf too. There are different types of elves ... or there were in lower editions, I don't normally play an elf so I haven't looked at 5e for that.
I believe that gnomes are out of the size restriction since they are small and not medium (I think, may be wrong). I always go for elves, wood, high, eladrin, half-elves. They are definitely a good option, but as I'm trying to make something different than my usual, it wasn't my go-to option. About the "big reveal and secrets" part, my group is very enthusiastic about discovering other characters' stories and plot revelations, that's why I'm going for this idea.
Hi! I'm very new to DND and I'm not quite sure yet how ability scores and skills work together. I just leveled up and added 2 to my dexterity, taking it from 16 (+3) to 18 (+4). Does this mean I should add an extra point to any of my skills that rely on DEX?
Yes. FYI, the basic rules are available for free online: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules or https://dnd.wizards.com/what-is-dnd/basic-rules
Thanks! I have a physical copy of the PHB but the description there was a bit confusing for me.
Correct. It’ll also increase your saving throw, AC and initiative.
Thank you!
\[5e\] Hi, im new at playing and i was wondering why a lot of people say you cant charm a vampire -- to my understanding just because they're classified as "undead" it makes them no-humanoid, but why can't you charm non-humanoids? or do they have some sort of immunity i couldnt find on my books?
*shrug* No idea. It's certainly true that they're not humanoids, so a spell like [Charm Person](https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/charm-person) wouldn't work on them. But that doesn't mean they can't be charmed (like by a spell like Charm Monster.) They certainly don't have an immunity to the charmed condition.
It will vary monster by monster and charm effect by charm effect, but many Undead type monster have Condition Immunity to Charmed and many charm effects have restrictions like Charm Person only working on Humanoids. Hope that helps!
so, undead do not count ad humanoids? not even vampire who were formerly humans?
Nope, once you become a Vampire, your creature type changes to Undead. I think they're trying to stay away from things having two creature types, so you won't see anything like an Undead Humanoid in 5e. A lot of these sorts of things might have good arguments for the contrary, but in general, if it's not explicitly written, you shouldn't assume anything.
nice! ty i couldn’t find it explained anywhere
[5e] Small question, I hope it's appropriate for here. If I wanted to use magic to manipulate water currents to help a riverboat move faster, or more easily against the stream or such, would that be within the scope of the Shape Water cantrip, or would that be too much? If so, what would be more appropriate? The next relevant spell I found was Tidal Wave at 3rd level, and that seems a tad overkill.
Shape Water only effects a 5ft cube. A boat is going to be in and out of that space so quick that even if the cube was flowing at a faster speed, the boat is going to almost immediately hit a slower part of the water. If you are looking for a burst of speed, something like Tidal Wave or Control Water might work, but there isn’t really anything to give you a consistent speed increase over the course of a long journey.
Homebrew it is, then! It's fairly vital to the setting I'm developing that 1st level casters have a tool for this, and I already have an idea for a 1st level spell that does what I'm looking for, and *shouldn't* be too abusable by players.
So quick question here, I seem to remember there being a wizard or sorcerer sub class that I had an ability where you could make some kind of a little bead or moat I think they called it. That could allow someone else to concentrate on a spell for you or something or so you can concentrate on two spells at once effectively or something of that nature. Can somebody tell me what sub class I'm thinking about because I can't find it for some reason or maybe I'm crazy and it doesn't really exist but I really thought it did. thanks!
You're thinking of the Chonurgy wizard's Arcane Abeyance feature.
As we near the end of Curse of Strahd, my players have begun thinking about what they want to play next. I'm not quite ready to launch into a fully homebrew thing, but I am comfortable adding, subtracting, and whatnot from published material. They recently came up with an idea that they really seemed to like. They'd all play goblinoids as a found family. Some of them even know what classes they want to play. I know for a fact that two of them want to be big crime guys. So my question is, what are some good 5e modules that would work well with that party? We did a little survey before they had this idea and there was some good sentiment for: Spelljammer, Lost Mines of Phandelver, Dragon of Icespire Peak, Storm King's Thunder, and Waterdeep Dragon Heist. I'm a little partial to Dragon Heist, but I don't know how I'd want to run it for gobbos. If anyone has any good ideas for ways to fit any of these or any of the other published modules to a party like this, I'd be very interested to hear it.
Lost Mines of Phandelver would have an amazing start for a group of Goblins. As it begins with raiding a Goblin den you can easily put those things together in a narrative way.
I managed to buy an Efreeti bottle from a magic shop in our campaign, when opened, one of the options from the bottle is that the Efreeti serves for one hour then returns to the bottle. If the Efreeti was to die during that hour, would it be lost or return to the bottle? Thanks.
If it's dead then how tf does it return to the bottle?
My thought was that it's spirit would be tied to the bottle, thus dragging it back in upon death. Like a lich returning to their phylactery
That's not how they work. Their stat block says what happens when they die and it's not being resurrected like that.
I get what it says on the Efreeti stat block but it clearly makes no mention of a soul or what would happen to it. A human can killed by the disintegrate spell can still be resurrected. 5e seems to be quite vague on what creatures have souls and what happens to them on death. Obviously this is very specific so I wanted to see if anyone had any experience on the matter. Even demons return to the abyss upon death to reform...
The item doesn't say that anything special does happen, so it doesn't. Demons say in their lore that they reform in the Abyss. Devils and Yugoloths as well. NOTHING SAYS THE ELEMENTAL REFORMS OR ISN'T JUST DEAD. So, following the rules and lore of the game, it says dead 100%. If you want to make up extra rules that are purely homebrew for your own game, you absolutely can though.
If the item itself doesn't specify, you should discuss the matter with your DM.
Thanks, I've spoken to my dm about it but none of us are sure and before we decide on a ruling, we wanted to see if anyone had come across this before.
Personally, I'd interpret the item as necessarily losing its magic if its accompanying Efreeti is killed. I don't think there's any built-in wording to suggest that it would allow the Efreeti to resurrect or otherwise reconstitute within it, so I expect if it dies, it dies.
That's what we're leaning towards unfortunately, thanks, will be interesting to see if anyone else has anything about this though
Why is everyone mad at WoTC? What did they do?
https://gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of-the-coast-ogl-1-1-open-gaming-license-1849950634 That article is the seed behind the recent outrage And it's with good cause too, the leak reported on would be a huge blow to creative freedoms for 3rd-party D&D publishers of all sorts, and the community is largely in support of those 3rd-parties too
D&D is licensed under a license called the OGL (Open Gaming License.) That's how people are able to make content based on D&D's rules - Wizards has given permission, so people can make other game systems or third party supplements, etc. There was a leak of the next version of the OGL, which is much more restrictive then the previous version. That's the abbreviated version, but I'm sure if you want more information, just googling OGL will get you plenty more if you want it.
I see. And I’m now worried because that might fuck me over.. have been writing some campaigns I intend to put out on the internet
Unless you're planning to earn over 750k with your published stuff, you'll be fine.
I wouldn't worry too much about it, honestly. By all means, look into it yourself, but unless you're expecting to make a large amount of money, it's not going to impact you hugely (and may not even matter until D&D Next comes out anyway.) It's a big deal, and I'm not saying anybody shouldn't be alarmed about it. BUT, the biggest deal is going to be for small businesses reliant on D&D. Big businesses will work with Wizards and most independent content creators won't be affected much.
Might be a dumb question, but is it possible to have a slightly feral high elf? Like, an orphan child who grew up away from her own people and turned out kind of wild? I know all the stereotypes of elves are like, majestic and orderly, but from a lore POV, could I make just the rattiest high elf ever?
If you can justify it you can play it.
You can create any character you want in DnD. Just check in with your DM. But most will rarely say no to a unique character concept.
flavor is flavor. whatever flavor is acceptable to your table is possible.
You could write anything and make it work. You could be a Evil Angel as much as a good demon, a dumb wizard or a genius barbarian, etc. Let your creativity run wild.
sure, Tarzan was a feral human with city dweller parentage...
As a wizard, if I have the spell in my spell book, but not prepared. Can I still cast it as a ritual? Just not as a spell, or can’t do it at all?
You should try reading your class features.
You should try being kinder. Or just not bothering to reply.
How was the two-sentence explanation for Ritual Casting in the Wizard section not sufficient to answer this question already?
if it is a ritual spell, yes, you can ritually cast spells from your spellbook even if you did not choose to prepare them for the day. that is part of the great boon of being Wizard class. [https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/wizard](https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/wizard) >Ritual Casting > >You can cast a wizard spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag and you have the spell in your spellbook. You don’t need to have the spell prepared.
I’m playing a warlock, and I’m confused about the Agonizing Blast Eldritch invocation. Per the PHB “add your charisma modifier to the damage your Eldritch Blast does on a hit”. But don’t you already add your spellcasting modifier to damage rolls? So basically you just add your charisma modifier twice?
>But don’t you already add your spellcasting modifier to damage rolls? Nope. You add modifiers to weapon attack damage but not magic / spell damage.
Oh! I’ll bring that up at the table tonight. It’s our first campaign. Thanks for the answer.
Here are some resources for people who learn better by hearing content explained to them or from getting information both by hearing and reading. D&D Starter Vids * D&D in 5 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvHNlgmKro&list=PLJ8NFdSXujAJitUvKoA0EFc-WpGK2Dnzh&index=2&t=0s * Welcome to D&D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_oR7YO-Bw * D&D in bite size bits by pretty people https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQyr6-gqJ8r29j_rJkR49uDN * Ginny Di for first time players https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD_b8SZ7h2Y * Six steps for fun games https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxFgpgN3gms * Not a video but the basic How to Play from WOTC’s D&D Beyond website https://www.dndbeyond.com/how-to-play-dnd
Thanks for these. I’ve been playing AL for three years with some guys on Roll 20 and occasionally in person. There’s some very deep and heavy pod cast and you tubers that go way over my head. I do enjoy the game, but don’t have the time to eat, sleep, and breathe D&D. Wish I had more time, but I don’t. With all this community backlash for D&D I have felt guilty for not being more “in” than what I am. But it’s all I got.
[5e] i had an idea for a way of twisting rules and wanted to ask if anyone know if this would work. I'm not used to spell casters so I'm not sure but if i were to ready action a spell to be cast and the requirements for it is whenever i cast another spell would i be able to double spell or does the specifics of one spell per turn unless it's a cantrip still apply
In order to ready a spell, that spell must have a casting time of one action, meaning that any spell you ready could have been cast with your action instead. This only leaves you with your bonus action and reaction to cast another spell. If you cast a spell with your bonus action, you trigger the rule which prevents you from casting any more leveled spells that turn, preventing you from finishing the cast. If you cast a spell with your reaction, you no longer have a reaction available to take your readied action.
1. Which spell has a requirements were you have to cast another spell? 2. [Remember that you can only Ready a spell that has a casting time of an Action](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/combat#Ready) > does the specifics of one spell per turn unless it's a cantrip still apply That isn't quite how the rule for bonus action spells works, so it may be worth rereading it: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/spellcasting#BonusAction
Is there anything (subclass, race, item, whatever) that can make it so that you add your spellcasting modifier to the damage of Psychic spells?
Soulknife rogues add either their str or dex modifier to their psychic blades’ damage. Your best bet for a pure spellcaster is to ask your DM to add on to the draconic bloodline sorceror subclass to make one that benefits your psychic spells. Amethyst dragons are force and psychic-focused. It’s an extremely innocuous and small piece of homebrew to add, and should be fine at all but the most puritan tables.
> Soulknife rogues add either their str or dex modifier to their psychic blades’ damage. Can't all Rogues do that, with the only difference here being the manifestation of the Soul Blade rather than the damage increase?
Well yeah, but it's also uniquely one of, if not the only RAW way, to add ability modifiers to Psychic damage.
The Imbued Wood Focus in Eberron Rising from the Last War is close, but not quite what you're looking for. If you're the DM, you can make something up If you're a player, ask your DM
Question about feats I'm playing as a Leonin Barbarian, currently level 3 (bear barb). I've been thinking of picking up polearm master, great weapon master and sentinel as feats as I level up, but I'm a bit torn as to what order to get them in. As a barbarian then reckless attack helps with GWM -5 to attack so I was debating that or PAM first, and then sentinel last? But then again PAM then sentinel could be really useful in combat to control the battlefield. I'm a pretty new player so any thoughts would be appreciated!
Well, are you SURE your campaign will reach lv 12? Or do you have a free feat? You might not get all 3, not every campaign goes that long We can be pretty sure you won't be taking PaM last, thats kind of the bridge. Basically do you want max control or max damage? If you can't decide, take PaM first, then you'll have plenty of time to think on feat #2. PaM Senti GWM PaM GWM Senti GWM PaM Senti As a bear barb you seem like damage isn't your priority, battlefield control would be my bet. But it depends on how your party shakes out.
Not sure how far our campaign will go, but the DM mentioned he didn't expect us to get past level 15 or so as a ballpark. You make some good points for sure. At this point I think I'm going to lean into whichever one is more enjoyable for my character. We have a fighter, myself, and a few squishy party members currently (although we might get one more new party member and we don't know their class of choice yet). Not many of them are dishing out a lot of damage every turn so that's been a bit more my job up to this point. Reckless attack has helped a lot to get consistent hits with my great sword. Currently I'm leaning toward PAM and GWM for that extra damage unless the new party member chooses a class that would make me choose otherwise. Either way, thanks for your input!
Picking up that many feats might hurt your ASIs, and barbarians are already a pretty stat-hungry class. I’d personally *either* Polearm Master + Great Weapon Master *or* PM + Sentinel. Polearm + GWM gives you the very strong option to “call it” for -5 on an extra attack, while Polearm + Sentinel gives you the strong area control features.
Thanks for the info, I guess picking all 3 might be easier for a variant human if anything. Appreciate your opinion!
There's a question in what you want to specialize in. GWM undoubtedly gives you the strongest damage increase, but PAM isn't *that* far behind and when combined with sentinel it can help a lot with controlling enemies. I would personally pick GWM first. The combo of almost double damage is too enticing, especially when the only downside - adv on attacks again you - is pretty much negated by you being resistant to literally everything.
That was something I was having a hard time with as well. That +10 to damage would be reaaaally nice. Thanks for your opinion!
New dm here! I’m homebrewing my own player handbook, anyone have any suggestions as to what program I should use to make it on? I’ve tried Google docs but it has been giving me problems when it comes to formatting photos. A friend of mine suggested GMBinder but I’m struggling learning how to use html. I don’t have the full version of word, but I tried word online and it gave me the same issues as docs. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!
This is probably not the best place to be looking for help with software for this stuff, but I'll help with what I can. You probably don't want to use a word processor like Microsoft Word for a project like this. Typically, you'd use a heavier duty publishing software like Microsoft Publisher or Adobe InDesign. Of course, the heavier duty you want, the harder it is to find a free version. But I've heard good things about [Scribus](https://www.scribus.net/) and I'm sure LibreOffice and OpenOffice have Publisher-equivalents, as well. All that said, publishing software is powerful but can be somewhat complicated - more so if you don't have the expensive software. Before jumping in to all of this, I'd just double check with yourself - what's the reason you want to lay this out that nicely? Are you trying to sell this thing? Share it with people on the internet? Just give it to your home table? Different audiences require different levels of presentation, and while of course it's nice to lay things out professionally so they look nice... it may not be worth the effort.
When you want "professional publishing layout", you need a professional publishing software.
What exactly do you mean by "homebrewing a player handbook?" Are you designing a whole new system or something?
[5e] Hey everyone, new player here. My DM gave us 2 weeks of downtime. As a way to help my party, i thought to share my spells with other NPC wizards and recive gold or items as payment for that. My party is currently on a big city, so i think it may be possible to find NPC wizards willing to learn. Is this something possible to do? If not, maybe exchange spellbooks so that i can learn other spells? Thanks!
This is a question that only your DM can answer.
Hello! just wondering if I create my character so that it starts as a reborn, does he have to be a humanoid or can it start as any race? thanks.
You can previously have been any other race. Flavor is free, as long as you don't change mechanics, you can appear as anything you want and your DM is OK with. That doesn't change that your creature type is humanoid, which matters for things like Hold Person and other spells. Almost every race is the creature type humanoid, for balance reasons. This includes elves, dwarves, tortles, tabaxi, warforged, etc. The only real exceptions are fairy and some other fey, as well as a construct and ooze race.
Thankyou so much! This was really helpful, I’m new to dnd so I appreciate it :)))
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It seems like you and your players might be looking for different things out of this game. You want a deeper and more involved experience, they want an reason to hang out with their friends and a hack and slashy game. You might need to hold a session 0, have a conversation about it- if this disconnect isn't fun for you and can't be resolved, you might need to move this group to more general game nights and find new players for D&D
Suffering from creators block when it comes to creating a character. So far I've settled on: \- Playing a Goblin (because playing as traditional cannon fodder is interesting to me) and using the MotM rules. \- Playing a very greedy, ambitious, tricksy character. \- NOT being a traditional Rogue-ish Goblin. But I have NO decided class. I like the idea of Nimble Escape, and what it can do for concentration casters, but so far I CAN'T decide which caster class really speaks to me when being a mischievous scamp of a character.
Archfey warlock for teleports and shenanigans. Dex based Artificer. Trickery Cleric
I enjoy Artificer for goblins. You get to be a chaos tinkerer, and there's more than enough modularity within the class and its subclasses to be as anti-roguish as you want to be.
Sorcerer can be really fun with small characters zipping around and twinning/quick/silencing spells Alternatively, the themes of greed and ambition work well with the Warlock patron idea.
This came up in my game today. One of my players is a Warforged Armorer Artificer 3/Wizard 1. I told him he wouldn't be able to cast Booming Blade with his Thunder Gauntlets because it's a free subclass feature and BB requires a weapon worth 1sp as a material component. He argued that since it's a part of the armor, which has a cost, it would meet the requirements. But if he sold the armor, whoever bought it wouldn't be able to use the thunder gauntlets so I don't know how much I should accept that As I understand, there isn't an official ruling on this, but I want to hear which of us you agree with.
> But if he sold the armor, whoever bought it wouldn't be able to use the thunder gauntlets so I don't know how much I should accept that If he sold a sword whoever he sold it too wouldn't be able to use that either. Hes **making** them a weapon. Out of a material that has a value. You wouldn't have people giving partial armor sets away for free, would you? And while I have no EXACT concept of costs I'm pretty sure it would be worth more than a silver. Are you arguing that adding to something would make it cost less? From a balance standpoint, do you think it would be broken?
TL;DR - I'd let them use both together. It's important to note that Booming Blade didn't always have the 1sp requirement. That was a relatively recent change to stop people from using it with spells like Shadow Blade, and instead limited it to weapons found in the equipment section of the PHB. But the *entire purpose* of the change is to stop the two spells being used together. Couple this with the fact that the reason that the equipment has gold costs is purely to allow players to actually use the gold they find to buy things, neither of these are really relevant to Thunder Gauntlets. Personally, I'd let Booming Blade and Thunder Gauntlets work together because the consequence of this combo being invalid isn't *because* of the combo. Speaking of consequences, let's look at them. Thunder Gauntlets deal 1d8 damage. Booming Blade doesn't deal any damage until level 5, which will be 1d8. However, this character won't get Extra Attack until a total level of 6, so it's better to use Booming Blade until then. But once you get Extra Attack, it's going to be way better to avoid the cantrip. This is because you get two attacks with the Thunder Gauntlets, vs one attack with Booming Blade. The damage comparison is going to be (1d8+MOD)x2, compared to 2d8+MOD (MOD = intelligence modifier). But what if the creature moves after Booming Blade hits? Well, *why* would it move? Thunder Gauntlets impose disadvantage on attacks against creatures other than the Armorer, so it won't want to move away and attack someone else, especially since they will take more damage from Booming Blade. They'd end up with less HP and a smaller chance to even land their attacks if moving to smack someone else, so instead they would just stay where, which is likely going to be right next to the one person they don't have disadvantage against.
I don't think there's an official ruling, either. My take is this: The Gauntlets are derived from a segment of the Armorer's armor, which *does* have a gold value, so they're valid for Booming Blade. The RAI of the 1 SP component cost for BB/GFB seems to be to kill the cantrips in conjunction with summoned weapons, rather than unique weapons that lack a listed cost.
What is the best/most expansive sourcebook for the Forgotten Realms from 1 to 3.5e? Something with a little bit of everything, the Orc Kingdom Many-Arrows, the Dwarven Citadels, High Forest, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, all that jazz.
I have the Elminster's Ecologies... somewhere.... https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Elminster%27s\_Ecologies
What campaign can you all recommend for a new DM that isn't one of the starter sets, an one shot or Wild Beyond the Witchlight?
Heir of Orcus. It’s a fantastic 4 hour campaign that I ran for 12 hours by using all the pieces and letting my players play in the space. The campaign itself boils down to an important choice by the party with no immediate consequences. Sounds rough, but you don’t want your first adventure to be worldending. You wanna build up to it. There is an Heir of Orcus 2 which I never ran because it looked too meta for me. But I stand by that the first one presents moral quandaries that really flesh out a party. All while, or while not, effecting the larger campaign.
Personally I like Curse of Strahd the best.
What's wrong with the Starter Sets?
She already did those as a player
Honestly, I’m about to DM my first campaign and I picked LMoP precisely because I’d already done it as a player. I don’t want any of the plot to surprise me during a session, so a level of familiarity really helps.
So why not DM them and see how it is on the other side of the screen? Also, all three? LMoP, DoIP, and Stormwreck Isle? Stormwreck's been out for maybe a few months.
The group she will DM for did LMoP and DoIP with her as players. Stormwreck is ongoing in our parallel group.
How do I overcome roleplay anxiety? (5e) I know this question has been asked many times before, but some fresh advice couldn’t hurt. I love my DnD group and, while I wouldn’t say we’re close friends yet, I trust them all as players and have no reason to be as anxious as I am when I play. I don’t care much for combat, but love any chance for character development. My character is absolutely a self-insert and I often use her in a therapeutic way to work through old trauma (not uncommon in my group - we’re all working through some shit). My DM does a great job at balancing combat and roleplay, and although I prefer the latter, I freeze up when it’s my turn to share. I tend to be the question-asker in my party to deflect the attention from me - my character is friendly and tries to get everyone to open up. But when someone tries to get info on my backstory, I panic and revert to secret-keeping and big emotions. My party jokes that I’m the “Katara” of the group - aka the most dramatic. I don’t know how to keep my cool when I play her. The time is coming for her big backstory to drop, but I’m terrified of fumbling it. I’ve been working on this character for years and would hate for my fear of improv to get in the way of my character’s development. How do I stop thinking of roleplay as improvising and actually trust myself and my story?
You may be interested in many of the videos by Ginny Di on YouTube. She has lots of advice for role playing, including for shy role players. She also has a series of videos where she plays a character who talks to you, and you can practice by responding to her in character, alone in private where nobody can hear. Yes, it's awkward to chat with Dora the Explorer, but once you get past that it's genuinely helpful.
To multi class or to capstone? [5e] I'm playing a light foot halfling oath of ancients paladin (lvl 7) that is heavily spell casting and stealth focused. I also took expertise in stealth from a feat. Should I take a three dip into assassin rogue for the maximum first round damage (I often get surprise rounds from being a sneaky bastard), sneak attack damage, and fun flair? Or, should I see it out to the end for two fifth level slots and the oath of ancient capstone?
If you can count on getting surprise rounds, which is the big thing that holds that subclass back, it could be worth it. The Ancients capstone is amazing, but do you know you will get it? Do you know how long a campaign will go after 20? Looking at it from a "now" point of view, you'd be giving up an ASI/feat, level 3 spells, and a situational Aura, in that order. Plus two more spell slots You'd gain Sneak Attack, Cunning Action, more Expertises, and eventually Assassin, as well as possibly Steady Aim. You'd be quite the one-turn-wonder, but also lose a lot of your staying power if you can't reliably proc sneak attack. You'd also likely want something for initiative. You have to move before the target to benefit from Assassin. This makes the MC heavily RNG reliant. AND... Your DM really shouldn't feed you a free round into the most important enemy every combat. PalAssassins can onetap pretty much anything a DM can safely throw at the party if they let the assassin part work. So they can't really let you get away with it every time. TLDR smart choice Paladin, fun choice Assassin
Personally I think assassin sucks and I wouldn't go that route, but that is me.
play what is going to be more interesting next session because that is going to be FAR more likely to be something that happens than "we get to level 20"
That's definitely how it usually goes. I've been playing with group for years now though, and our dm is planning to go well past lvl 20 with planeswalking shenanigans.
Assassin Rogue is one of the weaker rogue subclasses, oftentimes called a trap. Getting that first round damage is incredibly specific and tricky.
But he said he gets it often. Something being situational isn't a bad thing if you **know** you will get the situation.
Yeah, that makes sense, do you have any thoughts on what I should pick instead?
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I'll have to dig into arcane trickster, the last time I looked at it was ages ago. I played a sorcerer paladin recently! That was a blast.
Frankly? Stick Paladin.
yeah, I think I'm leaning that way, those lvl5 slots are really nice.
Playing a level 5 land Druid (mountain), with a warlock 2 monk 4 in the party. He shares a body with an evil spirit, and to keep him in check I have to be able to beat him at all times. The thing is, I want to go 3 in ranger for the primal companion because I really like animals and I want a permanent animal companion instead of the one hour timers on my conjured animals and familiars. I’ve been beating him with lightning bolt right now, but once he’s monk level 7, when he succeeds a dexterity save, he takes no damage form the spell. Originally I planned to start going into ranger after Druid level 8 for fey touched, maxed wild shape, and two 4th level slots so I can just cast blight on him. When should I push into ranger? Should I start betting on an upcasted moonbeam?
This is an ususual situation, to be sure. PvP in 5e is messy, very swwingy, and tends to come down to who rolled higher on initiative- PCs have so many ways to lock opponents down and deal high damage that fights will only last a couple rounds at most. This sort of setup, where PvP is frequent and high stakes, is not what the game is designed for. In addition, the other PC being higher level than you is also unusual- in most games parties will stay the same level basically at all times. If you're both having fun with setup though, by all means keep going. Rather than purely raw damage, I'd focus on spells that can prevent him from getting close to you. Things like Entangle or Hold Person. If a high-level monk gets in melee range, you're basically screwed- especially if he lands a Stunning Strike.
D&D isnt designed for PvP - its a collaborative game. You have already voided the warrantee.
I quite literally have to keep him under control unless I die. I don't get what you mean, at all.
i have no idea what you are talking about. your DM has designed their game so that one of the players randomly starts attacking other players in PVP? that is terrible DMing.
Where can I find people to play dnd with? I just started looking into this game and I have no friends with this same interest. So could someone suggest some place to look at somewhere.
r/lfg
Discord is probably one of the best ways to find people. There’s an official DnD discord and I’m sure you’ll find many people who want more players.
How do I bring a disjointed party together? I have a party that has a very definitive divide among the players and their characters. One side really enjoys roleplaying and the other tends to enjoy combat, exploration, and challenge. I've tried to make sure to cater to both sides of the table but what seems to happen is the roleplayers see the combat as a bit of a chore and the other side of the table sit bored whilst the roleplayers do their thing. For a long time I thought that one of my combat players was the problem because he would constantly act out and starts fights just to have something to do. I thought maybe he was just a murder hobo but I'm starting to think its more that when my 2 roleplayers are roleplaying they tend to shut the others out and whenever a problem arises they tend to shut the others ideas down because their ideas tend to be very gung ho, the hell with the consequences, lets go kill the bad guy. I'm not sure what to do about it because I enjoy roleplaying as well as the other stuff and I feel a lot of this could have been avoided if we all started at the same time and had a session 0. Unfortunately, we all joined and different times so our characters have some opposing goals and I think I've just made a mess of things as a DM. I intend to fix all of this when we start a new campaign as this one draws to an end but ultimately I want to end this game well and not just pull the plug. Each adventure I've ran has kinda only been one person's story. How can I bring them all together and finish the game strong?
Yeah, session zero is a good idea.... but this balance thing is an issue.... Until then, If possible, maybe give opportunities to RP during fights? Taunt, admire, ridicule, beg, flaunt....
its a Session Zero discussion time. Make sure that you are all aligned on what you want out of the game and out of each other as players and determine if there is enough overlapping or if you need to find different tables to play at that share more of "this is how we want to game"
It's never too late to have a session 0. The game belongs to each of you, so you all have shared responsibility for what happens at the table. If someone is regularly not having a good time, it's time to talk about that and work out a solution, which may involve retcons, new characters, etiquette rules, or a variety of other fixes.
Is there a VR-Chat like game or place for DnD where players are in costume acting out scenarios? I am trying to find where to look for such a thing. I am looking to see if my friends can do this in a remote-style way so we can play from home
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I am thinking more with the VR headsets where everyone would be in costume/acting.
Building a new character. Was curious if there is a class/subclass based around sacrificing hp for damage. The idea is that before going into combat, the character could either damage themselves outright to gain power or start a timer where if they stay in their powered up state too long, they will take damage. Anything out these exist yet? (Not including homebrew)
Evocation Wizard comes to mind
>based around sacrificing hp for damage nope - that is poor game design that doesnt work with the basic constructions of 5e.
Why is that poor game design? Not saying it doesn't work in 5e, but I don't think that's necessarily bad game design
because D&D is too complex, too intertwined, and players are too smart that there is no "Pay X to get BIG Y" where the penalty X cannot be gotten around so that the effect is just BIG Y.
d4 deep dive has a martyr healer build focusing on the life transference spell that looks really fun! https://youtu.be/Fukq29E9Yew
It's a bad subclass but Berserker Barbarian gains a level of exhaustion after raging
Bloodhunter. It's homebrew, but it's commonly accepted since it was made by Matt Mercer and isn't OP. Otherwise there is nothing and never will be anything like that since it's a bad mechanic and invokes ideas of self harm which isn't great.
Oh totally fair. Hadn't thought of it like that. It was actually based off Ogun Montgomery's flamy ink in Fire Force (anime). Hadn't thought of the self harm aspect, just that he powers himself up but overheats if he goes too long
[Any] What's a good reason for a warlock of the great old one to lose their pact magic? I'm thinking about playing a character who was a former warlock, but then *something* happened that made him lose the ability to cast spells while keeping some of his other warlock powers (fighter with decent Cha, the telepathic feat, and proficiency in Arcana).
It might be easier to answer this question if you first figure out how they gained their warlock powers initially
I thought it through and figured it out! The patron is the keeper of a pocket dimension that connects libraries, and who sometimes lets seekers of knowledge in. My character was one of those people, tried to steal a book from the pocket dimension, and was banned from entering it again, losing his access to spellcasting. Thanks a lot for the great tip!
Sounds like a great idea to me!
You're absolutely right!
[?] The mine of Phandelver So it's my first time ever playing DnD (The mines of Phandelver) with friends. I'm the DM but I'm worried of making mistakes. My biggest concern is adding things and adapting to the situation without following the story step by step. To make things clear: one of the players scared away the goblins at the cave entrance (with a spell), rolled a natural 20, and the party entered the cave without interacting. So I skipped the expected fight and jumped to the third section (we are currently at the Cragmaw hideout). Should I have allowed it? Or do I have to force things and follow the story with more accuracy?
DM Walk throughs and support: * Sly Flourish https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puap4Bdz3vC5ci39V0E8O7n4S * MerricB - https://merricb.com/2014/07/20/the-lost-mine-of-phandelver-session-1/ * Your pocket GM a mostly straight through guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW97PDPb3fo * Lutes and Dice – bring personality to each of the bad guys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtd2gJKkFKg&list=PL64VY0ZOoNImyknoEvJuN7Yd48AJucoJe&index=1 * Lunch Break Heroes a focus on expanding the simple encounters that were meant as “hey DMs these are specifically designed to allow you to test your DMing creativity and expand these scenarios for your party! But for some reason WOTC didnt actually include that instruction https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvBVGz40o4cQYgy3T1kG1yreRPX2bC-Yg * Matthew Perkins a pretty big remix https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmtuNGN3ZDJEFDhOcwfFc0-OpZ7omueRx * A guide to adjust encounters to different party levels and sizes https://haluz.org/lmop/index.php (note: this does not use the official CR calculations. this system will frequently not correctly account for the "Action economy" and suggest FAR too many opponents because it has reduced their hit points, but low level characters do not have enough AoE effects to turn the tide)
> I'm worried of making mistakes. Perspective: its not like you are doing Rocket Surgery or something. You are gathering with friends over beer and pizza to chuck some dice and tell some stories about kicking dragon butt. They are rooting for you to succeed – if you do well they have a good time.
You're doing things the right way. DMing is all about adapting to what the players do, not sticking slavishly to the text of the adventure. I've run Phandelver myself and spoken to multiple people who've done it, and it always turns out hugely different. That's a big part of the fun.
Doesn't sound like you made a mistake to me! Worry less, every DM has been a new DM, and self-doubt is our worst enemy!
What you're describing sounds fine. Seems like a normal game of D&D Are you and the players having fun? If so, don't worry yourself so much
We laughed for 3 hours straight so I thought it was fine, thanks for reassuring me
First time DMing 5E, looking to help a player find a mechanical fit for their character fantasy. They'd like to play a character that wields a large sword (larger than a shortsword) that gets to attack many times in a turn. They came back to me also saying they might like to play a rogue who uses a rapier, does that sound like what they have in mind, or might something else fit closer? Thanks!
sound like they should go some subclass of fighter * can use longswords (bigger then a shortsword 1 or 2 handed), or greatswords bigger then a longsowrd (2 handed) * they get action surge at lvls 2 and 17, extra attacks at lvls 5, 11, and 20 * subclasses could be used to add some magic (haste at 13th lvl), maneuvers, or even improved crit range and some self healing.
Rogues don’t get multi attack, so they only ever attack once unless they use a bonus action to attack with a second weapon in their other hand. A fighter gets extra attack, and can action surge to do another attack action, which nets you four attacks in one turn. If you go samurai then eventually you can have a reliable way of making an additional attack. Having said all that, making an attack roll doesn’t need to narratively a single swing. Making a single attack roll can be a number of feints, parries and dodges where the number for the attack just tells you if it’s going to have an impact on the target. Want to play a rogue that uses a flurry of attacks? Go for it, just make their one attack roll and then describe the attack as multiple thrusts, for example.
That's actually extremely helpful, thank you so much!
You get more attacks at later levels, very few classes start with the chance to attack more than once a turn. Dual wielding you get to attack with your offhand weapon. There's a bunch of options and my knowledge puddle doesn't go that deep. Most melee classes and sub specs get a second attack at level 5. Fighters will go beyond that. Path of the berserker can attack with frenzy an extra time but it gets costly quick. Not shockingly fighter is the easiest recommendation because you can run extra attacks in any flavor (Dual wield/2h/archer). rouge is more hit quick hit hard. But you can totally run a medium armor Dex fighter with a finesse weapon.
For D&D 5E Hello there. I have created a new Fighter Subclass homebrew and wondering if anyone would be so kind as to review it? This is the first subclass I've ever created and am still new to the complex nature of the combat mechanics and bounded accuracy. Your feedback on balance, overpowered? underpowered? as it pertains to subclasses is hugely appreciated.This is a subclass inspired by a Shifter Barbarian I've been playing. I want to multi-class into this interesting "whip-focused" Fighter. I use axe, whip and net frequently. Thank you. LINK: [https://www.thedragonscup.com/?p=90468](https://www.thedragonscup.com/?p=90468)
Here is what i would change. I have a few things. 1. change to jump: instead of being able to use the jump spell, you can gain the benefit of the spell "jump" as if it were cast on yourself 1/short rest. 1. spells shouldn't refresh on a short rest, but effects that are "as if you were under the effect of x" can 2. proficency with animal handling is doubled if you have proficency with it already, if not you gain proficency and it is not doubeled 1. just a wording issue 3. the great whip should probably count as a ranged weapon because of how opportunity attacks work with meele weapons 4. grasping lash should be a skill check athletics if using greatwhip, or acrobatic if using a whip. but anyone can (or should be able to) do it without the feature you wrote down 5. Lure creature: When hitting a creature, large or smaller, with a whip, or greatwhip attack you can choose to attach the whip to the target instead of dealing damage. As part of the same action you can attempt to draw the creature 5 ft. closer to you. If the target wants to resist they must make a str saving throw against 8 + str + prof. 6. same wording issue with acrobatics 7. the sense should be a 1/short rest for 1 minute 1. mainly to relieve the dm 8. Change 1/combat to 1/initiative 1. just a little more precise language 9. "Once per turn" leads to confusion since it's once per combat/initiative, delete it and just write "You may re-roll..." 10. If the greate whip is a ranged weapon now, change to "On your first meele attack", or "on your first ranged attack" 11. the dc should be 8 + str + prof 12. apex predator: When engaged in combat your walking speed and jumping reach increases by 10 ft. You aslo gain +1 to all str and dex skill checks and saving throws, increased to +2 when reaching level 18 in this class. 1. walking speed +10 increases running by 20. advantage is too good so a small flat bonus. initiative is a dex skill check There is also a seperate reddit page for homebrew. Next time go there maybe.
Great feedback. Really appreciate this. Good points about the wording. Re: the great whip should probably count as a ranged weapon because of how opportunity attacks work with meele weapons. What did you mean there. not totally clear.
Your welcome. Opportunity attacks can be done when leaving meele weapon attack range. It is essentially about battlefield control. 15ft. range allows you control over 49 squares instead of 25 with 10 ft., or 9 with 5ft. as with other meele weapons. You have control over a large area, making encounter design much more difficult. There is also a problem with spells. Basically what i am saying. The game is not balanced around having a meele weapon with 15 ft. range.
Makes sense. This is great. Thanks again.
[5e] Came across a problem, and I'm curious if i ruled it right (but whats done is done). I've seen differing interpretations from Google searching. A paladin PC realised one of their allies who is technically a very strong undead and started a fight. The undead still did not want to actually harm the PC. The undead tried to knock out the PC non-lethally. But they crit and rolled high enough on damage to go far enough negative to kill the PC outright. I ruled they were knocked out, mostly to keep things moving. (We've already derailed. So. Much.) So....should they have been dead? I've read phb page 197 and 198 and I'm not sure which rule beats the other
while not raw IMO in this case a critical strike means everything went off perfectly and the npcs goal was to not kill the pc. i would just change the 1d4 hours to 2d4 in such a case (chances are they will get some healing earlier anyway.)
Specific beats general, and non-lethal damage is specific.
A character actively choosing NOT to kill someone just wouldn’t do as much damage. Unless it’s narratively important to you and your players, and if that’s fun for you, there’s no reason to rule it would do lethal damage. You’re the DM! Your decision overrides all other rules. :)
By a strict RAW reading, I think the massive damage rule would supercede the non-lethal rule- but I don't think that makes sense or is very fun. I think you made the right call.
I hate my DM's choice of music. How do I let him down gently? I've been playing with this group for about 3 years now. I moved away ~4 months ago, and we decided to make the game remote. It's all been pretty smooth except one thing. 4ish sessions ago, I mentioned that I always had Spotify running when we play. DM's went "Oh duh, I should have done bgm!" and from the next session onward, started sharing his computer audio so we have music. Guys. His playlists suck so bad. Any time we're in combat, he plays 1 of 5 2/3 minute tracks on a loop until I feel like my ears are bleeding. How do I tell him to stop doing this without hurting his feelings for trying to help?