Dirk the Average posted:

Die, swap to a spellcaster, proceed to automatically succeed on things without rolling.

There's not a hell of a lot you can do to ameliorate poor dice rolling, though lucky will help somewhat. Just be sure to actually use lucky if you take it; don't save it up "just in case" and then never actually activate it.

gradenko_2000 posted:

There's also busting your rear end/slipping the DM :tenbux: to gain Inspiration, and the Hero Points variant rule.

AlphaDog posted:

Ryuujin posted:

If they don't do Unearthed Arcana then the question would be, what do they do?

gradenko_2000 posted:

A player starts with 5 Hero Points.

FRINGE posted:

How is the madness thing(s) anyway? Is it any good? I always wanted to come up with an actual system of subtle chaos/demon effects on prime people but never got around to it.

gradenko_2000 posted:

The madness rules are copy-pasted from d20 Call of Cthulhu.

quote:

01–10 Character performs compulsive rituals (washing hands constantly, praying, walking in a particular rhythm, never stepping on cracks, constantly checking to see if crossbow is loaded, and so on)
11–20 Character has hallucinations or delusions (details at the discretion of the DM)
21–30 Character becomes paranoid
31–40 Character gripped with severe phobia (refuses to approach object of phobia except on successful DC 20 Will save)
41–45 Character has aberrant sexual desires (exhibitionism, nymphomania or satyriasis, teratophilia, necrophilia, and so on)
46–55 Character develops an attachment to a “lucky charm” (embraces object, type of object, or person as a safety blanket) and cannot function without it
56–65 Character develops psychosomatic blindness, deafness, or the loss of the use of a limb or limbs
66–75 Character has uncontrollable tics or tremors (–4 penalty on all attack rolls, checks, and saves, except those purely mental in nature)
76–85 Character has amnesia (memories of intimates usually lost first; Knowledge skills useless)
86–90 Character has bouts of reactive psychosis (incoherence, delusions, aberrant behavior, and/or hallucinations)
91–95 Character loses ability to communicate via speech or writing
96–100 Character becomes catatonic (can stand but has no will or interest; may be led or forced into simple actions but takes no independent action)

quote:

01-10 The character feels compelled to repeat a specific activity over and over, such as washing hands, touching things, praying, or counting coins
11-20 The character experiences vivid hallucinations and has disadvantage on ability checks
21-30 The character suffers extreme paranoia. The character has disadvantage on Wisdom and Charisma checks
31-40 The character regards something (usually the source of madness) with intense revulsion, as if affected by the antipathy effect of the antipathy/sympathy spell
41-45 The character experiences a powerful delusion. Choose a potion. The character imagines that he or she is under its effects
46-55 The character becomes attached to a "lucky charm," such as a person or an object, and has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws while more than 30 feet from it
56-65 The character is blinded (25%) or deafened (75%)
66-75 The character experiences uncontrollable tremors or tics, which impose disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws that involve Strength or Dexterity
76-85 The character suffers from partial amnesia. The character knows who he or she is and retains racial traits and class features, but doesn't recognize other people or remember anything that happened before the madness took effect
86-90 Whenever the character takes damage, he or she must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be affected as though he or she failed a saving throw against the confusion spell. The confusion effect lasts for 1 minute
91-95 The character loses the ability to speak
96-100 The character falls unconscious. No amount of jostling or damage can wake the character

quote:

Contact Other Plane: When using the Sanity variant, characters casting this spell risk a lost of Sanity instead of Intelligence and Charisma.

Symbol of Insanity: Instead of experiencing this spell’s normal effect, characters who fail the saving throw to resist the symbol become permanently insane as described in this variant (but suffer no Sanity loss).

A character suffering from temporary insanity remains in this state for either a number of rounds or a number of hours; roll d% and consult Table 6–8: Duration of Temporary Insanity to see whether the insanity is short-term or long-term. After determining the duration of the insanity, roll d% and consult either Table 6–9 or 6–10 to identify the specific effect of the insanity.

Table 6–8: Duration of Temporary Insanity

pre:

d%        Temporary Insanity Type     Duration
01–80          Short-term           1d10+4 rounds
81–100         Long-term            1d10×10 hours

If a character loses 20% (one-fifth) or more of her current Sanity points in the space of 1 hour, she goes indefinitely insane.

quote:

Various magical effects can inflict madness on an otherwise stable mind. Certain spells, such as contact other plane and symbol, can cause insanity, and you can use the madness rules here instead of the spell effects in the Player 's Handbook. Diseases, poisons, and planar effects such as psychic wind or the howling winds of Pandemonium can all inflict madness. Some artifacts can also break the psyche of a character who uses or becomes attuned to them.

A character afflicted with short-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Short-Term Madness table for 1d10 minutes.
A character afflicted with long-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Long-Term Madness table for 1d10 x 10 hours.
A character afflicted with indefinite madness gains a new character flaw from the Indefinite Madness table that lasts until cured.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Yes, it was in 3.5

As far as I can tell, it's just because it was in d20 CoC, which in turn copied it from the Chaosium Call of Cthulhu games, as that exact description also shows up in CoC 6th Edition (2005) and 5th Edition (1999)

Esser-Z posted:

Can't copyright rules text!

blastron posted:

I've decided that I am definitely getting into Expeditions. I want to play a sneaky wizard with a troubled past; should I dip into Rogue at all or will sticking with pure Wizard (plus the Criminal background for stealth proficiency) be better?

Father Wendigo posted:

As a brief aside to this, please remember that Alchemist's Fire, weak molotovs, and saucy fire beetles can drop a low level party without much effort - or any effort if you roll well on damage and they can't/don't immediately put themselves out. Also, you may want a grid for this unless you enjoy arguing Schrodinger's Theater of the Mind Party Layout every time a blast goes off.

Also, let the party get some of whatever ordinance you're throwing at them at the end (or middle!) of the encounter. Explosions are always fun!

quote:

Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one paladin spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend.

Skellybones posted:

Can you dual-wield fists?

gradenko_2000 posted:

It's my understanding that they errata'd Unarmed Strikes from "a weapon" to "not a weapon, but can exceptionally be used for melee weapon attacks" that if you are wielding a sword in one hand and nothing in the other, you cannot claim that you get +1 AC from the Dual-Wielder feat from having two weapons armed/drawn.

Since Unarmed Strikes are not weapons, and their special exception does not grant them the Light property, you cannot dual-wield them.

quote:

Weapons (p. 149). Unarmed strike
doesn’t belong on the Weapons table

Elemental Weapon posted:

A nonmagical weapon you touch becomes a magic
weapon.

quote:

Melee Attacks (p. 195). The rule on
unarmed strikes should read as follows:
“Instead of using a weapon to make a
melee weapon attack, you can use an unarmed
strike: a punch, kick, head-butt, or
similar forceful blow (none of which count
as weapons). On a hit, an unarmed strike
deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1 +
your Strength modifier. You are proficient
with your unarmed strikes.”

quote:

S t u n n i n g S t r i k e
Starting at 5th level, you can interfere with the flow of
ki in an opponent’s body. When you hit another creature
with a melee w eapon attack, you can spend 1 ki point to
attempt a stunning strike. The target must succeed on a
Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of
your next turn.

Toshimo posted:

They had to do this:

So you couldn't do things like cast Elemental Weapon on your goddamn hands:

But they had to add this:

So that stuff like this would still work:

But that broke resistances since the resistances were only to Weapon Types, not Weapon Attack Damage.

So, an Unarmed Strike would go right through Bludgeoning Weapon Resistance.

But then they ruled that separately, to be fixed in the MM or something.

Skellybones posted:

What does this mean for my plans of an unarmed wrestler Barbarian/Fighter?

dwarf74 posted:

This is absolutely marvelous.

Was this an actual exploit they were trying to patch, or did they just hate the idea of someone's fists getting wreathed in fire?

dwarf74 posted:

This is absolutely marvelous.

Was this an actual exploit they were trying to patch, or did they just hate the idea of someone's fists getting wreathed in fire?

gradenko_2000 posted:

@JeremyECrawford What specifically does "Melee Weapon Attack" mean: A melee attack with a weapon, or an attack with a melee weapon?

A melee weapon attack is a melee attack with a weapon.

@JeremyECrawford @ApocalypticTwit since unarmed strikes are no longer considered weapons, they cannot be used for melee weapon attacks?

@undrhil @ApocalypticTwit The rule on unarmed strikes is an exception: they can be used for melee weapon attacks, despite not being weapons.

@jeremyecrawford Not to be confused with: an attack with a melee weapon

@sebkha That's correct, since an attack with a melee weapon can be a ranged attack if you throw it.

===

This descent into solipsism was brought to you by Divine Smite:


He's saying that throwing a spear and melee-attacking with a spear both fall under "attack with a melee weapon", but only melee-attacking with a spear falls under "a melee weapon attack", and so only melee-attacking with a spear can trigger Divine Smite.

quote:

Smite Evil (Su): Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack.

Toshimo posted:

BTW, I don't see the issue with this. Smites need a solid connection between you and your foe, an a weapon can act as a conductor, but not a transport.

AlphaDog posted:

What about a harpoon?