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By picking wizard you are already pretty optimized. Treatmonk's guide is a good overview and there are more specific ones for necromancy or abjuration. (Phone posting from a hotel or I'd give links, sorry.) Illusion is a pretty strong school but it depends on your DM playing along with what you're doing so it might not effectively "gently caress with him." Don't go for direct damage but focus on controlling or abjuration or skeleton economy and you'll be fine after a few levels. Also try to get an imp familiar to cum on all your allies' weapons at will.
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Oct 11, 2015 04:09
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St0rmD posted:I'm finally going to be playing in a 5E campaign (runing OotA) for the first time and it's time for me to get even with the DM for all the insane shenanigans he's pulled on me over the years, playing in campaigns I've run. I keep seeing references in this thread about Necromancers with legions of skeletons, but reading through the PHB, it looks like the Necromancy school is kind of thin beyond Animate Dead and Create Undead, and I'm wondering if I might be better off making another sort of rear end in a top hat Wizard. Where can I find some reasonably good guides on how to properly optimize this class in this edition? Is it really just as simple as sacrificing all spell utility past 5th level and hoarding hordes of horrors? Divination Wizard. Twice a day pick up any d20 and replace it with one of the ones you rolled. Big bad made his save? Nah, he rolled that '3'. You really need to make a save? Guess what, there's that '17' you rolled. When combined with the Lucky Feat and aggressive use of Inspiration, you can maneuver the dice in your favor when you need it nearly all the time. Oh, and by the by, you're still a WIZARD.
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Oct 11, 2015 08:46
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Is Death Cleric any good?
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Oct 11, 2015 08:48
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jng2058 posted:Divination Wizard. Twice a day pick up any d20 and replace it with one of the ones you rolled. Big bad made his save? Nah, he rolled that '3'. You really need to make a save? Guess what, there's that '17' you rolled. When combined with the Lucky Feat and aggressive use of Inspiration, you can maneuver the dice in your favor when you need it nearly all the time. That isn't how portent works regarding the bolded part, you have to declare you're using the saved result before the roll, you can't wait to see if they make the save or roll to see if you hit and then use it. quote:You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these foretelling rolls. You must choose to do so before the roll, and you can replace a roll in this way only once per turn. It's still ridiculously good especially when combined with Lucky though. 
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Oct 11, 2015 08:56
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The three-PC group I've been playing with is just finishing up the Lost Mine of Phandelver, and I'll be switching to DM the next part of the campaign. Since I'll also be DMing a DIFFERENT 5e game that I'm completely writing and homebrewing, I'd love to use a pre-written adventure/module for this one. I'm a pretty new DM, but I'm down to try whatever. The party is an Elf Ranger, a Human War Cleric, and the third guy (now DM, switching to PC) is leaning towards a Dwarf Druid, I think. All 5th level after Phandelver. We've been kind of enjoying playing a kind of "weak" party with little magic access, as it's kept things really exciting. I was contemplating Princes of the Apocalypse or Out of the Abyss and wondered if anybody here had experience with either. I'm not deep enough into the P&P/D&D world to know much about modules by smaller publishers, so if there are some of those that are TOTALLY AWESOME, I'd be happy to hear about them, too.
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Oct 11, 2015 17:43
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Princes of the Apocalypse has ended up sounding really loving awful. Too much rail-roady crap and whatnot. You'd probably get more excitement reading the book to yourself.
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Oct 11, 2015 17:54
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:Princes of the Apocalypse has ended up sounding really loving awful. Too much rail-roady crap and whatnot. You'd probably get more excitement reading the book to yourself. It does definitely expect the PCs to do things in a certain order and colour inside the lines. And one of the introductory combats is pretty tough if you do it first, when you're under-levelled. Other than that, the adventure itself isn't aggressively bad, or anything.
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Oct 11, 2015 18:09
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Skellybones posted:Is Death Cleric any good? Death Cleric is fantastic at what it does (blasting things with necrotic damage at close range), and even better under certain conditions. Pick up two levels of necromancer wizard and you become nigh impossible to kill, as killing things with necromancy spells (a primary focus of the death cleric) starts filling your HP back up. Make your death cleric evil and spirit guardians deals necrotic damage instead of radiant. The character wades into melee combat murdering everything, and anything that tries to get close enough to kill you starts dying from proximity alone and healing you as a result. Against a single target, you can spend a high-level spell slot on inflict wounds with your channel divinity to very likely one-shot it. It's probably broken. Another member of the group I'm in right now is very combat-minded, and he's having a lot of fun playing that character. He took Magic Initiate: Druid for shillelagh and thorn whip, it's hilarious. Vanguard Warden fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Oct 11, 2015 |
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Oct 11, 2015 18:32
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firebad57 posted:I was contemplating Princes of the Apocalypse or Out of the Abyss and wondered if anybody here had experience with either. I'm not deep enough into the P&P/D&D world to know much about modules by smaller publishers, so if there are some of those that are TOTALLY AWESOME, I'd be happy to hear about them, too. OotA has been a lot of fun so far. Only a few levels in but it seems like a lot of different pieces you can put together in different or random orders with a few big events and plot points to hit. I'm not reading ahead of our DM to avoid spoilers but maybe someone else can fill in the later level details.
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Oct 11, 2015 21:15
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Kaysette posted:By picking wizard you are already pretty optimized. Treatmonk's guide is a good overview and there are more specific ones for necromancy or abjuration. (Phone posting from a hotel or I'd give links, sorry.) Illusion is a pretty strong school but it depends on your DM playing along with what you're doing so it might not effectively "gently caress with him." Don't go for direct damage but focus on controlling or abjuration or skeleton economy and you'll be fine after a few levels. I rolled up my wizard as a variant human. Should my free feat go into Warcaster or Resilient (con)? I'm planning to dip 2 levels of fighter early on for the Armor, Shields, and Action surge, so both should be very useful. Also, should I prioritize getting the other of these two before or after bumping Int up to 20? It seems like waiting till level 12 (14 actually, due to the dip) is a long time, but it also seems like not getting that Int up might be a mistake...
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Oct 12, 2015 05:49
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If your first class level is in fighter, you will start with proficiency in constitution saving throws (and heavy armor, for what it's worth), so that's the ideal solution. Multiclassing into fighter gets you less than starting as one does, while multiclassing into wizard gets you everything you'll want from wizard.
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Oct 12, 2015 06:25
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St0rmD posted:I rolled up my wizard as a variant human. Should my free feat go into Warcaster or Resilient (con)? I'm planning to dip 2 levels of fighter early on for the Armor, Shields, and Action surge, so both should be very useful. Also, should I prioritize getting the other of these two before or after bumping Int up to 20? It seems like waiting till level 12 (14 actually, due to the dip) is a long time, but it also seems like not getting that Int up might be a mistake... It's probably not worth taking that fighter dip. Fighter 2/Wizard 18 may be better than wizard 20, but being a level of spells behind is really bad, and I doubt better AC and Action Surge are really worth it. Don't do it unless you're starting at quite a high level.
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Oct 12, 2015 07:41
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Dire Wombat posted:It's probably not worth taking that fighter dip. Fighter 2/Wizard 18 may be better than wizard 20, but being a level of spells behind is really bad, and I doubt better AC and Action Surge are really worth it. Don't do it unless you're starting at quite a high level. Going Cleric instead is a popular idea; you miss out on Action Surge, but you get Shields, the right domain(s) can give you Heavy Armor, and you maintain full slot progression for your spellcasting. Like, it's basically Fifth Edition 101, at this point.
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Oct 12, 2015 07:51
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P.d0t posted:Going Cleric instead is a popular idea; you miss out on Action Surge, but you get Shields, the right domain(s) can give you Heavy Armor, and you maintain full slot progression for your spellcasting.
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Oct 12, 2015 09:26
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Crasical posted:This whole scenario is giving me flashbacks to the warnings in the World's Largest Dungeon 3.5 module that you shouldn't play a druid, because the whole thing is underground and there won't be nature poo poo to nature at. Nature DC15: Rapidly hegemonizing ursine swarms live in caves
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Oct 12, 2015 13:18
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mango sentinel posted:I am a level 1 Tempest Cleric with high strength and middling stats otherwise. How do I not be bad? Every time I've played a Tempest cleric I've considered actual weapon attacks to be an emergency last resort. Otherwise I just played as a slightly more durable wizard. Though my DM at the time prefered a combat model of only one combat per long rest against a single really powerful monster so I'm not sure Tempest was the best domain for that style. Still, I'd buff wisdom first to make you spells more powerful and take War Caster somewhere along the line.
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Oct 12, 2015 17:20
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I played a level 3 Tempest Cleric in a one shot once. Summon Astral Weapon or whatever basically made our fighter obsolete by giving me an additional 1d8+Wis damage attack per round, and I always got good mileage out of Shatter no matter what kind of caster I played. And you still have room for heal spells if you really need them, but with the action economy the way it is, you're better off just attacking that round. But, again, you've got good offensive spells even at an early level and can always fall back on your hammer if need be. But, yeah, definitely pump Wisdom when you can.
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Oct 12, 2015 17:45
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Are there any weird unintended or unusual consequences in letting a warlock Blade Pact power (summoning the magical weapon from anywhere) also apply to that warlock's armor? My DM was cool with it because it's probably the mechanically weakest pact option anyway, and I asked for it because it meant my Ftr1/Warlock3 was no longer a total liability in stealthy scenarios (which doesn't matter too much with a cleric and paladin hanging around anyway), and everyone enjoys me playing the Sailor Moon theme from my phone when combat starts and extending my arcane implement wand into a big halberd, but I'm just wondering if there's anything being overlooked. Besides that I can't be permanently disarmed in a party getting captured scenario, but that's not really a huge concern beyond just that now it's both me and the monk player that are all geared up in that case, instead of just me. Actually, after all that, I'm a little disappointed fluffwise that I went Infernal Pact and have a specific backstory with it that may or may not involve demons/devils, because if I went Star Pact I could have literally gone "In the name of the Stars, I will punish you!"
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Oct 13, 2015 05:19
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mango sentinel posted:I am a level 1 Tempest Cleric with high strength and middling stats otherwise. How do I not be bad? Soylent Pudding posted:Every time I've played a Tempest cleric I've considered actual weapon attacks to be an emergency last resort. Otherwise I just played as a slightly more durable wizard. Though my DM at the time prefered a combat model of only one combat per long rest against a single really powerful monster so I'm not sure Tempest was the best domain for that style. Still, I'd buff wisdom first to make you spells more powerful and take War Caster somewhere along the line. Pretty much this; weapons are basically for when you can't be bothered spending slots to make things die. Magic Initiate[Druid] feat is popular for Shillelagh hijinx (alternately, go Nature cleric. Or MC Druid, but miss out on metal armor.) Like, ok... General advice: If you have Medium Armor as a caster -> 14 DEX, pick up some sort of finesse weapon and/or maybe a ranged weapon. If you have Heavy Armor as a caster -> 14 STR, pick up whatever melee and/or thrown weapon. The +2 mod for attack and damage ain't gonna blow anyone's doors off, particularly past the first few levels, but if you're using spells (with any frequency) that use your spellcasting mod or spell attack or call for a save, just be pumping your spellcasting mod whenever you can. Edit: (to add) You'll be a lot happier doing [die+mod] damage with a weapon than doing [die] damage with cantrips, at least until 5th level when the damage scales up. It's possible to play casters as mostly support (i.e. use any spells that buff your allies and/or don't ever in any way use your spellcasting ability or call for saves) and then just pump the poo poo out of whichever weapon mod fits with your armor (STR for Heavy, DEX for other) and always be stabbing/arrowing people if/when you're spending your turn inflicting damage. If you've got light armor (Lore Bard, Warlock, or Draconic Sorcerer which is actually better than light armor) you can conceivably max your DEX and play like a hybrid, in this manner; you'll probably wanna consider being Elf for the better Finesse/Ranged weapon profs. If you're a spellcaster stuck with no armor... well, basically you have to use spells or class features in survival situations (Shield, Counter-spell, Minor Illusion fuckery, Invisibility, w/e, etc.) Or, like the point of this discussion, just dip a class that gives you some drat armor
P.d0t fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Oct 13, 2015 |
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Oct 13, 2015 07:08
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So, currently playing a dex-based paladin, with stats of Str 10, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 12, and Cha 14. At some point, I'd like to pick up Resilient (Con), so as to get my con saves up. My current thinking is to raise Dex at level 4, then get resilient at level 8, then bump charisma at 12, and if we make it that far, dex again at 16. Does this plan make sense?
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Oct 13, 2015 17:20
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Keep in mind at level 6, you get to add your CHA mod to all of your saves; the most common CON save you'll be making should (hypothetically) be concentration checks to maintain your smite spells, and even that only matters if you whiff on the turn you cast it. If you're going with TWF for the extra swing, and mixing in either Sacred Weapon (Devotion) or Vow of Enmity (Vengeance), you probably will be sticking your smite spells exactly when you intend to, so concentration won't matter much. Also, if you ever want to MC out of paladin, you need 13 STR and 13 CHA, which is basically the only weakness of a DEX build. I mean, all in all, your thinking is fairly sound. It's just a matter of how much you think you'll need that prof on your CON saves vs. how much you want the +1 to hit vs. how much you want the +1 to the save DC of your smite riders, and in what order.
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Oct 13, 2015 19:03
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bewilderment posted:Are there any weird unintended or unusual consequences in letting a warlock Blade Pact power (summoning the magical weapon from anywhere) also apply to that warlock's armor? Not really. It'd just be one more point in favor of casters.
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Oct 13, 2015 20:01
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Not really. Warlocks can take a mage armor invocation already (Armor of Shadows), so you could just refluff it as "technically, the mage armor spell has been active since my last rest, but it only materializes when I summon my pact weapon."
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Oct 13, 2015 21:40
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Partly, it was concentration saves for things like bless and haste. Partly, it was because from what I've seen, Con and Wisdom are the big "don't fail these saves" effects. Thanks for answering. I was afraid there might be some big piece of logic somewhere I was missing. I think I'll probably stick with the plan for now, though if I decide I need the charisma boost sooner, I may switch the two. And yeah, not being able to dip something else does kind of suck. But at least I can be a sneaky spy-paladin. I like playing things that break normal roles for a class, so long as it remains fairly viable.
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Oct 13, 2015 21:50
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Dick Burglar posted:Not really. Warlocks can take a mage armor invocation already (Armor of Shadows), so you could just refluff it as "technically, the mage armor spell has been active since my last rest, but it only materializes when I summon my pact weapon." That's dependent on having Dex worth anything and takes an invocation slot; summoning armor via Pact of the Blade let's him have plate for free and no stat dependency.
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Oct 13, 2015 21:51
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Generic Octopus posted:That's dependent on having Dex worth anything and takes an invocation slot; summoning armor via Pact of the Blade let's him have plate for free and no stat dependency. Pretty much - except not for free, since it's agreed that I need to actually at least pay for the initial armor and meet all requirements to wear it. So basically it just turns it into "does anything break if my pact also lets me instantly with an Action don, disrobe, or summon my armor the same way I do my weapon."
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Oct 13, 2015 22:29
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JackMann posted:Partly, it was concentration saves for things like bless and haste. Partly, it was because from what I've seen, Con and Wisdom are the big "don't fail these saves" effects. Thanks for answering. I was afraid there might be some big piece of logic somewhere I was missing. I think I'll probably stick with the plan for now, though if I decide I need the charisma boost sooner, I may switch the two. Yeah, I've played this basic character as a Cleric and as a Paladin. My take on it is that high-DEX is viable for basically any weapon-using class (or build) aside from Barbarian where they arbitrarily made the class use STR -- even then it's still probably viable, you're just going against the grain, a lot. The important thing to remember is that Light Armor is basically just about as good as any other w/r/t AC, so long as you're maxing DEX. And Medium Armor Master is basically a trap feat; this is partly because of the cost of feats, but largely because any class with access to Medium Armor is either gonna want to max DEX anyway (or you can do without it, i.e. Barbarians), or they're a caster who can't afford to split focus between DEX and spellcasting ability, thus the feat tax is too high.
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Oct 14, 2015 07:46
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bewilderment posted:"does anything break if my pact also lets me instantly with an Action don, disrobe, or summon my armor the same way I do my weapon." I really can't think of anywhere you'd get a big advantage from the ability, given that it takes an action to use.
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Oct 14, 2015 08:17
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8sofbfpjysa3qs/Witch%20Hunter%20Class.pdf That's the Witch Hunter class that Matt Mercer of The Nerdist designed for Vin Diesel when he played with them.       
gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 09:59
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That is an incredibly boring design other than the third option for archetype (mutagens). There's just no gameplay to it whatsoever. Here's the executive summary:
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Oct 14, 2015 10:49
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Speaking of homebrews, can anyone recommend a good inventor type of class? Once we wrap our current module my DM is going to launch a campaign that's a hodgepodge of custom poo poo he's picked up here or there and is based around monster hunting for hire. He's letting us go custom with it so i think we're going to have some gunslinger and 5e psionic types, and i was envisioning a gnome who took a more indirect role in combat by providing weapons and bombs or something along those lines.
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Oct 14, 2015 13:06
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In my Tiefling Bayou campaign I really want to throw the party into an air boat chase scene against a clan of moonshiners. The party so far is on the path where this won't seem too forced, but I'm struggling to make it more exciting than "The pilot makes a navigation check to avoid hitting a tree, meanwhile the casters all throw fireballs at the other guys." Does anyone have advice on making it more mechanically interesting?
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Oct 14, 2015 13:41
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Snakes falling out of trees onto the boat. Garfish jumping out of water onto the boat. Boat runs into thick growth and requires players to get it unstuck while enemies come closer. Herron attacking from above. E: mechanical failures or degradation of performance on the boat that the players have to fix E2: during a thunderstorm or strong winds, nature knocks over trees, blocking off certain routes Kibner fucked around with this message at 13:53 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 13:50
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I was always a fan of chase rules where the "chased" driver picks a maneuver from a list of say, five (EG: Redline, stunt, handbrake turn etc) and the other picks from the "chaser" list (EG: Cut off, ram, etc). Then you do opposed driving checks with modifiers based on what was picked, with results based on what was picked. So if someone chooses to do a stunt and fucks it up, they might crash, but if they succeed they might escape, and so on. Strike and Spycraft had fleshed-out rules like this, don't know if there's a free thing out there you could crib from.
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Oct 14, 2015 13:52
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Put down a strip of paper divided into segments. Use this and a penny/miniature as a visual aid to show how close they are to catching up/the others to getting away. Don't require drive checks, but leave them as an option someone can take to move the party closer to the other boat. Have the swamp "attack" them with tree stumps etc. Hits knock them down the track. Clever ideas and big attacks like fireballs also slow down the other boat as it weaves to dodge. Regular attacks are more effective the closer you are to the other boat. Stat out the other boat as a multi part monster in its own right. Put a mounted harpoon gun on the boat. It's unrelated to the above but everyone loves mounted harpoon guns.
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Oct 14, 2015 13:55
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bewilderment posted:So basically it just turns it into "does anything break if my pact also lets me instantly with an Action don, disrobe, or summon my armor the same way I do my weapon."
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Oct 14, 2015 16:13
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LFK posted:Not really, given that the de facto standard is for gear to be essentially welded onto characters unless explicitly removed. It's kind of silly that gear (especially heavy armor) is expected to be worn while traveling but it definitely isn't expected to be worn while sleeping or whatever.
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Oct 14, 2015 16:47
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I kind of like the Witch Hunter, though I kind of wish the limited True Sight was something the base class had, it would fit the theme.Bluedeanie posted:Speaking of homebrews, can anyone recommend a good inventor type of class? Once we wrap our current module my DM is going to launch a campaign that's a hodgepodge of custom poo poo he's picked up here or there and is based around monster hunting for hire. He's letting us go custom with it so i think we're going to have some gunslinger and 5e psionic types, and i was envisioning a gnome who took a more indirect role in combat by providing weapons and bombs or something along those lines. Well there is the Eberron Artificer someone on the giantitp forums made. I have been playing it in a game on the forums, though at 1st level I can't really do a whole lot. Starts opening up at 2nd level when it gains cantrips and some buff spells, and 3rd level when they get an archetype.
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Oct 14, 2015 18:15
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mastershakeman posted:It's kind of silly that gear (especially heavy armor) is expected to be worn while traveling but it definitely isn't expected to be worn while sleeping or whatever. I put memory foam on the inside of my armor it makes about as good of a bed as a bedroll, also when i take it off my strength shoots way up like an anime character.
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Oct 14, 2015 18:18
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That Witch Hunter is truly awful. I can't imagine that the designer is very familiar with 5e, because it seems more like they just slapped ribbon abilities from the movie onto a class and called it a day. From levels 11 to 20, it gains: advantage against attacks of opportunity--which is less useful for a tanky frontline class--a weaker version of the paladin immunities, the ability to not age--something that is useless in any campaign and the very definition of a ribbon ability--and goes from lowering max hp by 20 to only taking a 20 hp hit, and their damage is increased from an extra d6 to an extra d8. To compare, the core features of the fighter is that they deal twice as much damage because of two extra attacks, triple the effectiveness of Indomitable, and double the effectiveness of action surge. And they get an extra ASI or Feat. The Fighter is one of the weakest classes in 5e, but it is leagues ahead of this class in terms of design and power.
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Oct 14, 2015 18:23
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