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Sounds like my jam. I'm okay with fluff that stands on its own, like creature habits and habitats (or how intelligent monsters choose to organize their societies), but I couldn't care less about the Forgotten Realms as a specific, consistent place, nor any of its major power players, events, or concepts. D&D to me is just a kitchen sink fantasy grab bag for me to pull out the stuff I want and discard the rest.
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Feb 19, 2017 05:13
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Fir bolg's innate Detect Magic/Disguise Self ability still costs a spell slot right?
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Feb 19, 2017 05:28
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Bad Seafood posted:Sounds like my jam. Then yes Volo is for you. Despite having an FR character in it's name it is a generic D&D book. Everything in Volo's fluff wise falls into the habits and habitats stuff. Reposting the Table of Contents on the new page. 
MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Feb 19, 2017 |
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Feb 19, 2017 05:29
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Fir bolg's innate Detect Magic/Disguise Self ability still costs a spell slot right? I don't think so. But let me check. Edit: No they do not cost a spell slot. They are just once a rest.
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Feb 19, 2017 05:30
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I do like Volo's interpretation of Asimars, and if I ever find my way into a 5e game again I'll probably be playing Asimar Light warlock.
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Feb 19, 2017 07:28
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Kurieg posted:I do like Volo's interpretation of Asimars, and if I ever find my way into a 5e game again I'll probably be playing Asimar Light warlock. isn't "Light warlock" just straight-up trolling at this point?
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Feb 19, 2017 08:09
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I'm a veteran DM coming into 5ed blind (as in I haven't played it as a player). Is there anything I need to know or watch out for before I hop in? Are there any rules outside the core that are 'must haves'?
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Feb 19, 2017 08:22
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Two Headed Calf posted:I'm a veteran DM coming into 5ed blind (as in I haven't played it as a player). Is there anything I need to know or watch out for before I hop in? Are there any rules outside the core that are 'must haves'? Don't. It's bad. Whatever you liked playing before will be more fun and a better game.
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Feb 19, 2017 08:23
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Two Headed Calf posted:I'm a veteran DM coming into 5ed blind (as in I haven't played it as a player). Is there anything I need to know or watch out for before I hop in? Are there any rules outside the core that are 'must haves'? Late game class balance is bad and monster CR is only a rough suggestion especially at low levels. Beyond that you'll figure it out before it becomes an issue.
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Feb 19, 2017 08:30
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Consider giving players extra HP at level 1, or not starting at level 1. Suggestions range from +10 base HP to raw Constitution score. Remember that groups are expected to have a Short Rest roughly once every 2 combat encounters. Remember to award Inspiration. Consider converting hit dice healing into a 1 to 1 point based system. Be generous with letting non casters pass skill checks automatically if it's within their narrative wheelhouse, even if the feat isn't strictly grounded in physical reality.
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Feb 19, 2017 08:41
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AlphaDog posted:The RC has a skill system. I thought it was somewhere in the BECMI books too but I guess my memory's playing tricks on me. Or else I just can't spot it this morning. Yeah, this is what I was referring to: I tend to use BECMI and RC interchangeably, although I realize it can easily lead to confusion. To my knowledge the system that made it into RC premiered in one of the Gazetteers, with further Gazetteers adding new skills, and RC basically compiled the skill system along with most of the skills from the Gazetteers (and probably some new ones).
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Feb 19, 2017 09:03
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P.d0t posted:isn't "Light warlock" just straight-up trolling at this point? In the sense that it's a contradiction or in the sense that it's super powerful?
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Feb 19, 2017 09:08
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Tir McDohl posted:What are good monsters thematically to pair with a green hag? Did D&D ever do winged primates?
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Feb 19, 2017 09:41
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Kurieg posted:In the sense that it's a contradiction or in the sense that it's super powerful? The latter. On another topic, I was looking at the Ranger/Rogue UA again just now, and goddamn is that lv17 Scout feature a useless piece of poo poo. UA posted:"If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can make one additional attack as a bonus action. This attack can benefit from your Sneak Attack even if you have already used it this turn, but only if the attack is the only one you make against the target this turn" So basically you can can use a single rapier to do 1d8+stat+[Sneak Attack] to two dudes, but not twice on the same guy. Also, the lv3 ability "Skirmisher" is great except it's a reaction, so only once per round. Much the same problem of monsters conga-lining past the Fighter after the first OA. At level 13 you can use a bonus action to grant your allies a +5 to initiative? How in the gently caress is this even supposed to be useful, unless you're rolling initiative every round? If you only roll once per combat, and you're last on initiative, does it effectively do nothing? WTF? P.d0t fucked around with this message at 09:58 on Feb 19, 2017 |
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Feb 19, 2017 09:49
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I would assume it changes your Initiative roll and thus the order everyone goes.
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Feb 19, 2017 09:57
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Admiral Joeslop posted:I would assume it changes your Initiative roll and thus the order everyone goes. I mean, we're talking about the rules for surprise rounds in 5e, so  but I was using the assumption that "your turn in the first round" (as per the text) would be after everyone has rolled initiative, and combat turns have started. Unless you can for some reason take bonus actions out of combat...? Can enemies even be surprised if combat/initiative hasn't started?
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Feb 19, 2017 10:04
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You can also shoot arrows at two separate targets. Everything about the Scout's kit screams archer to me, so I don't see the problem with something that effectively doubles their damage output in any combat with more than one target. The +5 initiative feature's value is entirely based on how well the rogue rolls on initiative, and since they don't have a feature to boost their chances to roll well, it's all up to luck. If the rogue does roll well, however, it can let the party benefit from the rocket tagginess of 5e and let them wipe out/lock down a good chunk of team baddie before they get to act.Two Headed Calf posted:I'm a veteran DM coming into 5ed blind (as in I haven't played it as a player). Is there anything I need to know or watch out for before I hop in? Are there any rules outside the core that are 'must haves'? As for outside core rules, it's mostly optional stuff for character building. The Elemental Evil pdf (free) gives a few additional races, plus a pile of additional spell options for the casters. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide ($$) has a few more of each of these along with additional archetypes for some classes. Unearthed Arcana (free) gives players a ton of extra potential options, but it's playtest material which means the quality and balance is all over the place. None of these are must-haves. On things to watch out for, gradenko_2000 covered most of the general stuff. I'm a bit more conservative with the extra HP at level 1 by giving out +5. If you play starting HP rules-as-written, however, the players will feel pressured to turn every encounter into fantasy-Vietnam. Two hits from just about anything a level 1 party will likely encounter can drop them which can easily snowball into a TPK, so they'll spend tons of time trying to set up ambushes to avoid the risk. As for encounter building, be sure to read the guidelines carefully, particularly the part about encounter multipliers. Four CR 1/4 creatures vs. a level 1 party doesn't make a normal-difficulty encounter, but rather one right at the deadly threshold. Regarding balance problems that you may encounter, at early levels, the biggest issue is how moon druids turn into giant damage sponges who can still outdamage basically anyone else at almost no cost. At mid levels, things like summon and polymorph abuse can allow parties to breeze through encounters well past the deadly threshold. At high levels, a notable problem is that 2/3 of most players' saving throws bonuses don't scale at all, so they can be facing an 80-90% chance of failure against effects likely to either take them out of the fight or kill them. Finally, most posters here prefer standard array/point buy to rolling for starting stats for a number of very good reasons. If you are dead-set on rolling, however, give everyone a pocket 15 so that at least their primary stat is on-target with what the game expects. Slippery42 fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Feb 19, 2017 |
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Feb 19, 2017 10:25
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Slippery42 posted:As for encounter building, be sure to read the guidelines carefully, particularly the part about encounter multipliers. Four CR 1/4 creatures vs. a level 1 party doesn't make a normal-difficulty encounter, but rather one right at the deadly threshold. Reposting this two-parter analysis on by-the-book encounter creation: Part 1 Part 2 Level 1 characters should only be facing CR 1/8 opponents for the most part, but even then, that still includes Giant Rats with 1d4+2 damage, Giant Weasels with 1d4+3 damage, and Kobolds with 1d4+2 damage + Pack Tactics.
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Feb 19, 2017 10:35
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AlphaDog posted:The RC has a skill system. I thought it was somewhere in the BECMI books too but I guess my memory's playing tricks on me. Or else I just can't spot it this morning.
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Feb 19, 2017 10:53
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Tir McDohl posted:What are good monsters thematically to pair with a green hag? At least in 3e (and probably before them) hags were conceptually tied to giants on some level: the goddess of hags was explicitly part of the giant pantheon. So, ogres, trolls, or merrows would probably fit thematically with a green hag.
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Feb 19, 2017 11:37
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Just had a level 15 Warlock / Sorcerer / fighter do 191 damage in 1 turn.
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Feb 19, 2017 12:13
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mastershakeman posted:heck, that's not far off from the weremonster from the recent x-files season The "just do whatever the gently caress" approach in the early days of D&D led to a lot of neat iconic monsters that probably wouldn't exist with a more formalised approach (gelatinous cubes, beholders), but an important part of an evolutionary design system is culling or reworking dead lines and the vocal parts of the playerbase are really, really opposed to that.
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Feb 19, 2017 12:54
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P.d0t posted:I mean, we're talking about the rules for surprise rounds in 5e, so Bonus actions would work a lot better if that was the design ethos behind them. Give everyone a boring but kind of useful thing to spend them on most rounds ("Spend a bonus action to add 1d6 to damage" or something), and then add in a bunch of niche but awesome when applicable alternatives (+5 to initiative etc). Or if they had a design ethos at all tbh.
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Feb 19, 2017 13:08
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Two Headed Calf posted:I'm a veteran DM coming into 5ed blind (as in I haven't played it as a player). Is there anything I need to know or watch out for before I hop in? Are there any rules outside the core that are 'must haves'? Volo's is probably the best book to get outside of the core. Extra Monsters tend to be cool. Arvia's profile text about the starter set is also a fairly solid starting point. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Feb 19, 2017 |
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Feb 19, 2017 17:26
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Two Headed Calf posted:I'm a veteran DM coming into 5ed blind (as in I haven't played it as a player). Is there anything I need to know or watch out for before I hop in? Are there any rules outside the core that are 'must haves'? Low levels are as swingy and dangerous as they typically are for most D&D. Start at third level or give your players an extra starting HD.
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Feb 19, 2017 17:28
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It occurs to me that when my Fir Bolg goes into cities under Disguise Self to do shopping, he's gonna have to be all "actually do you have that armor in a sextuple-XL? ..... It's for a friend"
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Feb 19, 2017 19:38
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Two Headed Calf posted:I'm a veteran DM coming into 5ed blind (as in I haven't played it as a player). Is there anything I need to know or watch out for before I hop in? Are there any rules outside the core that are 'must haves'? The CR system is garbage, if you use it as written then "level appropriate" fights will vary between cakewalks and guaranteed TPKs without warning.
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Feb 19, 2017 20:09
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Thanks for all the responses! It seems like CR is hosed and early levels are swingy (when hasn't either of these have been true) and that HP at 1st level is kinda janky. Can anyone clarify a bit more on the 1st level HP thing? Does it make it so combat is hopeless for the PCs at first level? I have no problem with killing PCs (particularity 1st level ones) and coming from a background of older D&D I'm more used to 'combat as the fail state' but I am not looking for a DCC style 0th level funnel. Arivia posted:Don't. It's bad. Whatever you liked playing before will be more fun and a better game. Can you elaborate? Everyone I have talked to has rated it from 'Best D&D' to 'Good, with some flaws.' Agent355 posted:Late game class balance is bad and monster CR is only a rough suggestion especially at low levels. Beyond that you'll figure it out before it becomes an issue. I don't like high level play so hopefully this will not be an issue. About what level does the class balance begin to break apart? gradenko_2000 posted:Remember that groups are expected to have a Short Rest roughly once every 2 combat encounters. I like the idea of the Short Rest. I always used to use a rule (especially when the party didn't have a cleric), of "consume a ration, take an hours rest, heal d6 HP" and it sounds a lot like it. I really like Inspiration, it was one of the things that I first picked up on when reading the rules. Can you explain the hit dice healing thing to me? Is it more than just the short rest rule? I handwave a lot of skill checks, if its in character you pass. (Not that I let the players know that!) Slippery42 posted:As for outside core rules, it's mostly optional stuff for character building. The Elemental Evil pdf (free) gives a few additional races, plus a pile of additional spell options for the casters. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide ($$) has a few more of each of these along with additional archetypes for some classes. Unearthed Arcana (free) gives players a ton of extra potential options, but it's playtest material which means the quality and balance is all over the place. None of these are must-haves. Unearthed Arcana is what I'm worried about (some of my players keep bringing up stuff from it). While some of it sounds great, a lot of it feels like early 3.pf bloat. It is also a bit too much for me to go through and ok. I haven't had a chance to go through the Sword Coast Adventure Guide yet (I have a bad feeling its that Sword Coast from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of May Sues, so I'm hoping its not totally bound to that setting.) I have heard a bit about the Moon Druid from others and I think I am most likely going to nix it as it sounds like it has a bunch of problems. I've always done '3d6 as they lay' for stats, and it sounds like that might not work with 5ed. What is the 'expected' states for 5ed? MonsterEnvy posted:Volo's is probably the best book to get outside of the core. Extra Monsters tend to be cool. I had a chance to check out Volo's and man was that a great book! It was basically everything I wanted out of a book about monsters.
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Feb 19, 2017 20:32
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Turtlicious posted:Just had a level 15 Warlock / Sorcerer / fighter do 191 damage in 1 turn. Was this from EB spam? If so, I'm curious how this happened. Average damage on EB + hex is 13 damage per bolt. You'd get 3 by default (39 damage), 3 more with quickened spell (78), and 3 more with action surge (117). Even if every bolt hit and you rolled max damage, you'd be looking at 189 damage.
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Feb 19, 2017 20:33
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Saw those CR swings myself last night. I had some level 3s fight in separate combats a CR2 Carrion Crawler and a CR2 Gelatinous Cube. The first fight was an easy joke but the cube can do 6D6...
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Feb 19, 2017 20:38
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Slippery42 posted:Was this from EB spam? If so, I'm curious how this happened. Average damage on EB + hex is 13 damage per bolt. You'd get 3 by default (39 damage), 3 more with quickened spell (78), and 3 more with action surge (117). Even if every bolt hit and you rolled max damage, you'd be looking at 189 damage. Your per-bolt calculations look like you're basing them on a Charisma of 18 (5.5 EB + 3.5 Hex + 4 Cha). Having a 20 or higher at level 15 isn't at all out of the question, so the max damage roll would be 198 in that case. It still requires every bolt to hit and near max damage rolls, but it's possible.
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Feb 19, 2017 20:39
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Two Headed Calf posted:Can you elaborate? Everyone I have talked to has rated it from 'Best D&D' to 'Good, with some flaws.'
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Feb 19, 2017 20:49
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FRINGE posted:If you want to be able to read the 5e thread, there are a couple of people you will need to put on ignore. Ha ha. The thing is 5e doesn't have anything to set it apart from other editions besides being the current edition of D&D. It's a mess, but not in any new or inventive ways. Class balance is a mirage, encounter design is a mess, the actual math of the game doesn't work. These are all problems prior editions of D&D have struggled with. 5e has poo poo responses to all this, with "ask your DM" as disavowal for dealing with any actual problems, and its have it your way mess of options-but-not-really. Now, this isn't any different from prior editions which again brings up why play 5e instead of what you've played before and are familiar with, like, and know how to run. Two Headed Calf has said he's a veteran DM. He's familiar with retroclones and his play style matches those. He likely already has a favorite. So why not play something he already likes and knows? (For example, if he likes combat as failure state play, 5e doesn't support gold as XP, the other half of that style.) If production values are important, the new printing of Swords & Wizardry is gorgeous.
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Feb 19, 2017 21:13
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Two Headed Calf posted:Thanks for all the responses! It seems like CR is hosed and early levels are swingy (when hasn't either of these have been true) and that HP at 1st level is kinda janky. Can anyone clarify a bit more on the 1st level HP thing? Does it make it so combat is hopeless for the PCs at first level? I have no problem with killing PCs (particularity 1st level ones) and coming from a background of older D&D I'm more used to 'combat as the fail state' but I am not looking for a DCC style 0th level funnel. CR isn't hosed by itself, but combined with most published creatures being heavily skewed to the offense-focused side of the spectrum, low level PCs having little in the way of survivability, and the detail about encounter multipliers being easily missed, it can be far more lethal than DMs intend and players want. Level 1 isn't hopeless, but definitely note that players have the stamina for only 1-3 fights before a long rest rather than the DMG-recommended 6. As for how lethal you want your campaign to be, that's up to you. Speaking for myself, though, I'm not fond of the idea of writing a modestly elaborate backstory or spending an hour sketching my character or ordering a custom mini from heroforge only to be chumped by a nameless goblin's crit in the first round of combat. Two Headed Calf posted:Can you elaborate? Everyone I have talked to has rated it from 'Best D&D' to 'Good, with some flaws.' I'm in the "good with some flaws" camp, but I'm also relatively new to D&D and missed 4e. Many of the criticisms of 5e I see here are that it walked back improvements 4e made (and even parts of 3.5) just for the sake of not being 4e. Two Headed Calf posted:I don't like high level play so hopefully this will not be an issue. About what level does the class balance begin to break apart? It depends on what specific thing your players want to abuse. I played a session last night with my level 9 party. We were able to breeze through an encounter rated at double the "deadly" xp threshold because we had fire support from a dozen of our necromancer's skeletons, and my monk was polymorphed into a CR8 t-rex. Combined, the party spent maybe 2-3 long-rest spells. I'd say 5th level is the peak of balance, and it's reasonably solid between levels 3-11 outside of the corner cases. Early levels are boring and deadly. Late levels give spellcasters access to their campaign-editor spells while martials just continue hitting things little better than they could since level 5. Two Headed Calf posted:Can you explain the hit dice healing thing to me? Is it more than just the short rest rule? They're a resource every character has that can be spent during short rests to heal. You spend one, roll it, and recover HP equal to the number rolled + con mod. You can roll anywhere between 1 and your total number of them during the short rest. The criticism here is that you can be screwed if you roll poorly, so it's difficult for a DM to plan around this when designing encounters. This is compounded by the fact that you only recover half of your maximum number of hit dice during a long rest. Two Headed Calf posted:Unearthed Arcana is what I'm worried about (some of my players keep bringing up stuff from it). While some of it sounds great, a lot of it feels like early 3.pf bloat. It is also a bit too much for me to go through and ok. I haven't had a chance to go through the Sword Coast Adventure Guide yet (I have a bad feeling its that Sword Coast from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of May Sues, so I'm hoping its not totally bound to that setting.) SCAG is only bound to the setting if the DM insists it is. We're playing a homebrew campaign, and our Rogue used the swashbuckler archetype from that book. There's some speculation that the pile o' UA stuff is a rough draft for what would go in a PHB2. Some of it is good (revised ranger, knight). Some of it is poorly-written (kensei). Some of it makes you wish they designed every class that way (warlock). Some of it is absurdly imbalanced (loremaster wizard). Expected stats for 5e are the standard array of 15/14/13/12/10/8 (or 27 point-buy). The PHB's recommended rolling method is 4d6, drop lowest. We're not fond of rolling for stats, because a player can get stuck being a chump sidekick in a game that runs for over a year. If you do 3d6 as they lay with today's ttrpg sensibilities, expect a lot of players to say "my character jumps under a bus" as the first thing they do so they can reroll something that isn't crap. Or expect them to exploit the weaker points of the system and decide to play a moon druid where stats don't matter  blastron posted:Your per-bolt calculations look like you're basing them on a Charisma of 18 (5.5 EB + 3.5 Hex + 4 Cha). Having a 20 or higher at level 15 isn't at all out of the question, so the max damage roll would be 198 in that case. It still requires every bolt to hit and near max damage rolls, but it's possible. Doh, you're right. I plugged 4.5 instead of 5.5 into my calculator as the average d10 roll. And yeah, possible, but highly improbable. Slippery42 fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Feb 19, 2017 |
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Feb 19, 2017 21:21
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As a player (not a GM) gonna chime in and recommend tossing some extra HP at your players if they're starting at first level. Been playing through Storm King's Thunder and every combat encounter ends with at least two of us bleeding to death in the gutter. I mean, cool if you're into the grittiness, but it gets kind of annoying when the adventure pits you against twenty-two loving orcs and you can take maybe three hits at most. edit: also the proficiency system is sort of annoying to get a handle on, especially if your players are new to RPGs (I'm not, but several of the other players find it annoying to remember what to add to a given roll).
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Feb 19, 2017 21:25
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Arivia posted:Ha ha.
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Feb 19, 2017 21:28
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FRINGE posted:I enjoy your FR views, but posting several times a page how you hate 5e in the 5e thread isnt great. Tough dude. You'll just have to deal.
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Feb 19, 2017 21:35
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Arivia posted:Tough dude. You'll just have to deal. We know does not change that it is old at this point and annoying.
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Feb 19, 2017 21:43
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Didn't we just do this and get the thread locked?
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Feb 19, 2017 21:49
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Two Headed Calf posted:Unearthed Arcana is what I'm worried about (some of my players keep bringing up stuff from it). While some of it sounds great, a lot of it feels like early 3.pf bloat. It is also a bit too much for me to go through and ok. I haven't had a chance to go through the Sword Coast Adventure Guide yet (I have a bad feeling its that Sword Coast from the Quasi-Elemental Plane of May Sues, so I'm hoping its not totally bound to that setting.) Two Headed Calf posted:Can you elaborate? Everyone I have talked to has rated it from 'Best D&D' to 'Good, with some flaws.' None of this describes actual rules problems with the game, the reason I'm bringing it up is that the consequences of this design process and followup support hit pretty much every aspect of the game. Naming individual issues to explain why the game is bad is like describing a forest by pointing out individual leaves. It's just... not very good.
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Feb 19, 2017 21:52
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