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Laphroaig posted:Hey King of the Thread, No need to be snarky dude. I just meant that a lot of new players aren't going to be able to wrap their heads around the higher end things yet since they are just learning the basics.
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Feb 18, 2015 17:17
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Naw, don't really have a reason to multiclass, just pondering ideas. Last session a villian was monologuing and I stood in a belltower and pelted him with crossbow bolts to punctuate his sentences, it was pretty fun.
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Feb 18, 2015 17:42
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Elendil004 posted:Naw, don't really have a reason to multiclass, just pondering ideas. "Tough crowd."
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Feb 18, 2015 18:28
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Elendil004 posted:So my Paladin just hit 5, any reason to multiclass into something else? Any cool combos to consider? Definitely get to level 6 for Aura of Courage. Taking 3 levels of Barbarian would let you Rage 3 times per day & take half damage while raging from everything but psychic damage, so that's neat for a tanky route (the first level would be kinda dead since presumably you're in heavy armor, but the Bear feature doesn't preclude that). Barbarian 11 would get you Relentless Rage, which if have Con proficiency and Aura of Courage, would make you drat near unkillable. But yea, you'd need to be level 17 overall for that so it's a ways off probably. 2 or 3 levels in Fighter would net you Second Wind (kinda meh since you already have Lay on Hands), Action Surge, another Fighting Style, and some Battlemaster stuff if you go for the third level. 3 levels in Ranger would get you another Fighting Style and another 1d8 of damage per turn from Colossus Slayer in the Hunter archetype. Dipping in some of the spell casters can get you some neat stuff.
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Feb 18, 2015 18:54
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Trast posted:"Tough crowd." I missed the first shot, so it went like this "Redwall! Send our your champion!" *thunk-miss* "Is that all you got!" *critical hit* "Ow" Then the villain closed to melee range, I jumped off the tower, and he neglected to take into account my Polearm reach and the fact that I can take opportunity attacks within the full range, thus he impaled himself quite finally on my halberd.
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Feb 18, 2015 19:06
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30.5 Days posted:
The rest of your post is all good advice. But this first point you made has a few mistakes. Cone of Cold is a 5th level spell and Spined Devils resist cold and non magical weapons not immune. They can still be hurt by them it's just not as effective. Pretty much if you lack the means of getting past it's damage resist treat it's hp as being twice as high. Also yes I was rather stupid for asking for an example. I am sorry for causing that mess back there. Elendil004 posted:Naw, don't really have a reason to multiclass, just pondering ideas. 3 levels of fighter champion can be rather useful. 2nd wind as mentioned is not too useful, but Action surge is just good, The Improved Crit range for a Paladin can be really useful however. With Paladins you don't have to smite until your hit lands. Which means if you crit you can always choose to smite on one. (Well if you still have uses left.) I would only recommend this path if you are ok with relying on luck. Going Pure Paladin is still probably a better choice. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Feb 18, 2015 |
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Feb 18, 2015 19:33
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So with all the C&Ds going around for character builders, it doesn't look like This one has been hit yet. It's really solid, and slick for what it does. Paying 3 bucks unlocks higher levels, etc. It's only a matter of time before it gets nuked, so I'd snag soon it if you're interested. I don't even play 5e, but went ahead anyway. Only downside is it doesn't seem to have an integrated roller. Oh, and it doesn't track what spells you have prepared. That's a big deal, I suppose. Still, $3. dwarf74 fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Feb 18, 2015 |
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Feb 18, 2015 19:40
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PurpleXVI posted:Giving the PC's "tokens" to help define when they want rests is actually kind of a cool idea, though it might take some serious effort to fluff in some cases(perhaps an adrenaline surge after the first fight in a chain restores some HP and limited-use powers?), and I don't think it'd be unfair to say the DM is allowed to go: "Hey, PC's, explain to me how you manage to rest/recover here." rather than just making it an entirely free thing to use. Though the GM shouldn't be too aggressive about analyzing their rest-justification, he should just push them to come up with something cool rather than taking it as an instant heal effect. The way I did something like this in my 4e hack/homebrew was basically that short rests were a Character resource, rather than a Party resource, keyed off an ability mod. So you had like 3-5 per day, or whatever, and each one fully restored your Encounter powers and your HP. it'd be harder to wrangle that into 5e since it doesn't have 4e's Power or Healing Surge structure..
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Feb 18, 2015 20:35
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Hey gradenko, I was looking at your table for monster creation from the other thread and I just had 2 questions I was hoping you (or anyone else really) could clarify for me. If I'm understanding correctly, your numbers are meant to create a single monster that's a fair fight for a single character correct? So for example if I had a party of 4 players who are all level 2, a group of 4 level 2 monsters using your table should be a match for them correct? Deriving from that, if I wanted to create a solo monster/boss type fight, what would your recommendations be? Thanks for any help.
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Feb 18, 2015 21:04
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I'm going through character creation right now for a new campaign, and I'm toying with the idea of a Dwarven Bard. While my group isn't that much into power gaming, I still don't want to be crippled at later levels just because I took a weird class/race combo. Are there any pitfalls or obvious things I should avoid? Is having Wisdom be the dump stat a terrible, terrible idea?
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Feb 18, 2015 21:37
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Squifferific posted:I'm going through character creation right now for a new campaign, and I'm toying with the idea of a Dwarven Bard. While my group isn't that much into power gaming, I still don't want to be crippled at later levels just because I took a weird class/race combo. Are there any pitfalls or obvious things I should avoid? Is having Wisdom be the dump stat a terrible, terrible idea? Well, I've heard that Valor Bards are pretty much one of the best class options in the game, and dwarves are obviously the best race. Valor Bard also seems like a good fit for a dwarf. If you go Mountain Dwarf, you can enjoy the benefits of a high Strength and Constitution, medium armor proficiency as well as having access to the coolest, dwarfiest weapons. (Although I'm not sure of the Bard's proficiencies and whether there's some overlap between the Mountain Dwarf's weapon and armor proficiencies and those.) I'd caution against dumping Wisdom entirely: someone posted a synopsis of the amount of save-dependent effects in the game in the other thread a while back, and Wisdom saves are very prolific in 5e.
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Feb 18, 2015 21:48
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Squifferific posted:I'm going through character creation right now for a new campaign, and I'm toying with the idea of a Dwarven Bard. While my group isn't that much into power gaming, I still don't want to be crippled at later levels just because I took a weird class/race combo. Are there any pitfalls or obvious things I should avoid? Is having Wisdom be the dump stat a terrible, terrible idea? Dwarf doesn't really get you much mechanically, Valor Bards get the armor proficiencies at level 3 anyway. That said Bards are basically the best class in the game so it shouldn't matter much what your race is; it'd be nice to get a bonus to Cha but you can cap it out later. Don't dump Wis if you can avoid it, it's an important save.
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Feb 18, 2015 21:55
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Ratpick posted:Well, I've heard that Valor Bards are pretty much one of the best class options in the game, and dwarves are obviously the best race. Valor Bard also seems like a good fit for a dwarf. If you go Mountain Dwarf, you can enjoy the benefits of a high Strength and Constitution, medium armor proficiency as well as having access to the coolest, dwarfiest weapons. (Although I'm not sure of the Bard's proficiencies and whether there's some overlap between the Mountain Dwarf's weapon and armor proficiencies and those.) Indeed I would never go for a negative in Wisdom. Still most of the wisdom saves are from spells, so unless you know you are going to fight casters you should be safe not putting too much into wisdom.
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Feb 18, 2015 21:55
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Generic Octopus posted:Dwarf doesn't really get you much mechanically, Valor Bards get the armor proficiencies at level 3 anyway. That said Bards are basically the best class in the game so it shouldn't matter much what your race is; it'd be nice to get a bonus to Cha but you can cap it out later. Don't dump Wis if you can avoid it, it's an important save. The upside of going Mountain Dwarf however is that you won't have to wait for those proficiencies until 3rd level. 1st and 2nd level are when I'd imagine you'd need the heaviest possible armor the most as a Bard.
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Feb 18, 2015 21:59
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MonsterEnvy posted:Indeed I would never go for a negative in Wisdom. Still most of the wisdom saves are from spells, so unless you know you are going to fight casters you should be safe not putting too much into wisdom. Well spells and monster abilities that reference spells.
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Feb 18, 2015 22:02
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Xelkelvos posted:Well spells and monster abilities that reference spells. That's what I mean by casters. There are not too many caster monsters in the MM. So Dex and Con saves are going to be more likely.
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Feb 18, 2015 22:03
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MonsterEnvy posted:Indeed I would never go for a negative in Wisdom. To expand on this, as a general D&Dism, I CON: everyone needs it for HP, casters need it for Concentration, and it's a common save DEX: everyone needs it for Initiative, non-heavy armor users need it for AC, and it's a common save WIS: everyone needs it for (passive) Perception, it's the spellcasting stat for some casters and some important skills are associated with it, and it's a common save On the flipside, the rare saves: STR: only has one skill associated with it, mostly used for heavier/two-handed weapons or thrown weapons (you can get by using DEX instead, with finesse and/or ranged weapons) INT: only Wizard and Eldritch Knight need it, has a bunch of skills though CHA: if it isn't your spellcasting stat (Sorcerer, Warlock, Paladin, Bard), it's just there for social skills P.d0t fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Feb 18, 2015 |
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Feb 18, 2015 22:10
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P.d0t posted:To expand on this, as a general D&Dism, I Thanks, this is super helpful. I've been going back and forth on these drat ability scores all day.
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Feb 18, 2015 22:42
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P.d0t posted:To expand on this, as a general D&Dism, I Yeah this is the way I've always viewed abilities, but hadn't seen a good short summary like this before.
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Feb 18, 2015 22:52
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One other consideration I might throw in there is that DEX can be a little more valuable if the whole party goes in on having good Stealth. It's one of those rare skills in that regard; a lot of the time you can basically get by with having one "expert" on each skill, within the party.
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Feb 18, 2015 23:11
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BattleCake posted:Hey gradenko, I was looking at your table for monster creation from the other thread and I just had 2 questions I was hoping you (or anyone else really) could clarify for me. If I'm understanding correctly, your numbers are meant to create a single monster that's a fair fight for a single character correct? So for example if I had a party of 4 players who are all level 2, a group of 4 level 2 monsters using your table should be a match for them correct? 1. Yes, if you have four level 2 players, a Medium fight would be four level 2 monsters. 2. A solo boss monster would still have the AC, attack bonus and saving throws of a same-level monster, but multiply the HP against the number of players. If you have four players, the boss should have 4x the HP, or ~120 HP for a level 2 monster. The idea is that it's going to absorb the attacks of the entire party, so it has to have the hit points to match. That said, keep the following in mind: - you cannot directly multiply the damage-per-round by 4, or you're going to one-shot the players. Try to come up with abilities that hit different players, or abilities that are clearly telegraphed but are otherwise avoidable. Think MMO bosses with a loudly announced nova. - a single monster can potentially be rendered helpless if the party throws all their "crowd-control" abilities against it. That's the reason behind 5th Edition implementing "Lair Actions" so that the boss always has abilities that it can activate and damage the players with no matter what, as well as "Legendary Actions" to simply let the boss pass the first x number of saving throws. There's no particularly clever way to get around this, but drawing on MMO design again, it is in fact true that you can't just stunlock the big dragon or cast Polymorph on it, and it does have multi-hitting abilities, but completely subverting the way your player's spells work might not feel good. Tread carefully. - alternatively, distribute the additional DPR across the boss' minions. Think MMO bosses that summon "adds"
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Feb 19, 2015 03:20
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P.d0t posted:To expand on this, as a general D&Dism, I That is a really nice breakdown to have, thank you.
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Feb 19, 2015 04:21
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gradenko_2000 posted:1. Yes, if you have four level 2 players, a Medium fight would be four level 2 monsters. This is all great advice that more than answers my question, thank you very much. The MMO design comparison works well for me since I come from a mostly video game background.
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Feb 19, 2015 06:41
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With polearm mastery, do enemies who are already within my sphere of influence, but move around (not disengaging) provoke attacks?
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Feb 19, 2015 18:17
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Elendil004 posted:With polearm mastery, do enemies who are already within my sphere of influence, but move around (not disengaging) provoke attacks? Nope. Basically once an enemy is within your reach, they don't provoke from you unless they leave your reach.
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Feb 19, 2015 18:44
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Elendil004 posted:With polearm mastery, do enemies who are already within my sphere of influence, but move around (not disengaging) provoke attacks? This is a tricky question. A reach weapon is defined in the PHB as "adds 5 feet to your reach when you attack with it" The implication is that when you are not attacking, your reach is still only 5 feet. That is: * if it's your turn, and you attack, you can attack a dude that's 10 feet away * if it's not your turn, and a dude moves farther, from 10 feet away to 15 feet away, the dude does not provoke an Opportunity Attack, because your reach and therefore your threatened area is only 5 feet, because you were not attacking and thus were not benefitting from the extra 5 feet of reach * if it's not your turn, and a dude moves farther, from 5 feet away to 10 feet away, the dude provokes an OA per normal rules With Polearm Mastery: * if it's not your turn, and a dude moves closer, from 15 feet away 10 feet away, it does not provoke an OA, for the same reason mentioned above * if it's not your turn, and a dude moves closer, from 10 feet away to 5 feet away, the Polearm Mastery clause triggers, and the dude provokes an OA There's no need to think about OAs getting provoked by a dude that's already in your threatened area and moves "deeper" into it, because your threatened area is always only 5 feet anyway, with or without the feat. There's a tweet going around by Jeremy Crawford that says, and I quote verbatim "Yes, OA (an attack) is based on your reach with the weapon you're using.", but as far as I know that does nothing to clear up or change the reading of the text, because the reach of a polearm (and indeed every weapon) is 5 feet. gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Feb 19, 2015 |
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Feb 19, 2015 18:45
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So got to play my first in person game in 10 or 11 years on Tuesday. Played a Bard, had a good time and got set up with a DCI number for Adventurer League. Found one of the players runs another game at another store on Wednesdays. So I made a Half-Elf Chaos Sorcerer, because it sounded like that group might have needed some more ranged spellcasting, though I may have misunderstood. Got there and that group had six people, but another group that usually has more only had four, so I brought my Sorcerer to that group instead. Apparently they had recently fought a dragon, and were trying to deal with some goblins. The stoned druid NPC got carried away and we went to find him. We get to a keep sneak around and spot a half dozen or so goblins, so I try to cast sleep and put only one to sleep, apparently the DM beefed them up. We kill a few, including the big fat goblin that was ordering them around. At which point the rest flee while, uh, thanking us. Also when I woke up the one I put to sleep it apparently decided to follow me. The barbarian takes point and at various points gets hit for like 15 or 12 damage, and I just look on in shock with my 8 hp. Come to find out most of the others are already up to 3rd level, and he brought a 4th level barbarian. Eventually, an hour and a half after the store was supposed to close I think, we finish a fight with four hobgoblins, who hit for 12 damage a pop everytime they hit someone while adjacent to another hobgoblin. I get enough xp to level. I believe I should probably switch out Sleep for something else. I also have Thunderwave. So if I switch out Sleep I can pick two first level Sorcerer spells. Any suggestions? Also before leaving one of the players in that game invited me to a game he runs, Sunday after next. That game however is D&D 1e, which I have never played so that might be interesting.
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Feb 19, 2015 18:48
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They made you bring a 1st-level character to a 3rd/4th-level party?
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Feb 19, 2015 18:51
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It was Adventurer's League, you always start with a 1st level character, and I was going to bring it to a 1st level newbie group that was mostly a bunch of little kids. You can bring the character from game to game, table to table, though.
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Feb 19, 2015 18:53
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They really don't have the 4e Living Forgotten Realms rules for rolling a character at higher levels?
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Feb 19, 2015 19:09
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Not that I have seen, still it is better than the 3rd table which was particularly high level.
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Feb 19, 2015 19:24
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Really Pants posted:They made you bring a 1st-level character to a 3rd/4th-level party? YOU EARN YOUR XP LIKE  Also what's stopping you from having like the same character at multiple levels, so you can play with different level groups?
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Feb 19, 2015 19:58
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Dick Burglar posted:YOU EARN YOUR XP LIKE NO, it has to be as much like a boring MMO as possible: when your character levels that's it, if you want to play lower levels then you have to roll a new character
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Feb 19, 2015 20:15
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Dick Burglar posted:YOU EARN YOUR XP LIKE Not sure if you can have the same character at different levels, but you can have multiple characters. Maybe you have a 1st, a 3rd and a 5th level character. Bring them all with you and use whichever one is closest in level to the group. You just have to earn the xp on each character separately. I now have two characters, from two different games. One is still 1st level and I can't use at other tables because they had me roll for stats instead of use point boy. The other got to 2nd level because he was traveling around with a group of 3rd and 4th levels. Still not sure which spells I should take for him at 2nd though. Which I was hoping to get some suggestions on.
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Feb 19, 2015 21:42
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Ryuujin posted:It was Adventurer's League, you always start with a 1st level character, and I was going to bring it to a 1st level newbie group that was mostly a bunch of little kids. You can bring the character from game to game, table to table, though. Does Adventurer's League really have no League rules for starting a character at higher XP totals? As an FYI, in 4E Living Forgotten Realms the level band was set up such as that: * No PC could be greater than 3 levels apart, so the max you could have would be a level 1 PC in a party of level 4 PCs. * Additionally, the level of the adventure had to obey this rule as well, so a level 1 PC could playing a level 4 Adventure (playing up). Are Adventurer's League adventures level gated? AKA are there adventure tiers? My FLGS is setting up an Adventurer's League, and if its just a set of organized play problems waiting to happen I want to warn them in advance.
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Feb 19, 2015 21:52
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It does seem like adventures might be level gated, or at least the tables were at different levels running different adventures. I think the higher level table might have been running Tyranny of Dragons, possibly Hoard or the follow up. The table I ended up at was running Lost Mines of Phandelver. And the newbie table I almost played at was going through Defiance in Phan.quote:Character Creation
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Feb 19, 2015 22:15
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QuarkJets posted:NO, it has to be as much like a boring MMO as possible: when your character levels that's it, if you want to play lower levels then you have to roll a new character Going to need to sign up for the buddy leveling system or purchase double experience tokens from the game store. 
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Feb 19, 2015 22:18
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I'm starting one of my first D&D games as a wizard noble of modest morality and would appreciate advice on how to best fleece the decent people of Neverwinter of their burdensome coin (one big coin I'd hope, but I'll work with what the DM throws) Obviously high charisma and charm spells would be ideal, but my guy is not so hot with those so I'm looking more for your creative suggestions on how to become a rich doofus without having a hypnotic swinging watch/ deep spiraling eyes, but still having a lot of low level tricks up your billowing sleeves
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Feb 20, 2015 05:59
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Mr. Bitterness posted:I'm starting one of my first D&D games as a wizard noble of modest morality and would appreciate advice on how to best fleece the decent people of Neverwinter of their burdensome coin (one big coin I'd hope, but I'll work with what the DM throws) If you customize your background to give you Performance, you can permanently maintain a Wealthy lifestyle; you could then freely narrate how you're fleecing the populace out of 4gp per day. If you spec into the Conjuration School, you can create replica magical gold statues to sell people. Transmutation can do similar things; convert wood coins to gold which you could then use to con people, even if it's as simple as having shopkeeps make change for your fake currency. Both of these features are gained at level 2.
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Feb 20, 2015 06:24
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Mr. Bitterness posted:I'm starting one of my first D&D games as a wizard noble of modest morality and would appreciate advice on how to best fleece the decent people of Neverwinter of their burdensome coin (one big coin I'd hope, but I'll work with what the DM throws) If you want to be blatently dishonest and probably get run out of town (or worse), pick the school of transmutation and turn worthless wood and rocks into silver to use to buy things. If you want to be a bit more subtle, a divination specialist can use "Portent" to know when you'll get a good persuasion/deception roll and/or tank the scamee's insight roll. Portent can also provide failed saving throws against your charm person (and later, suggestion). Find Familiar can get your eyes and ears to places they normally couldn't get to at level 1. If you want to be more honest, you can sell wizarding as a service. Pick the school of conjuration and let people rent whatever tool they need from you (provided "Minor Conjuration" can make it) for a nominal fee. Identify and Detect Magic for people. Use Tenser's Floating Disc to move cargo around.
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Feb 20, 2015 06:34
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