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Nehru the Damaja posted:I've been putting sheets together for a few characters I might run -- this one game has a lot of people not sure what they want to pick so I figured I'd come ready to fill in any gaps. (I know you don't have to, but I like to find a niche that isn't taken so I have time to shine.) 3rd level when you can cast Twinned Hold Person twice per day (or 7d8 Sleep 4 times per day), while having better AC and Concentration checks than any other full caster. And at level 5 you can cast Twinned Haste...
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Mar 12, 2017 03:49
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As a storm sorcerer I wouldn't have that better AC but maybe Draconic is just the way to go.
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Mar 12, 2017 10:14
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What's some stuff I could do with a bard to shine at being combat-buff-guy? I did a halfassed valour bard a while back for a one shot and it worked OK but I've got an upcoming game starting at 4th or maybe 5th level and I think I'm gonna have to optimise a bit to keep up with everyone else. I want to hold my own at fighting but primarily make everyone else better. Probably won't go past 7th-8th level, if that matters. Lazylord type shenanigans would definitely be OK, but I can't really find anything that seems great for that.
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Mar 12, 2017 11:55
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AlphaDog posted:What's some stuff I could do with a bard to shine at being combat-buff-guy? I did a halfassed valour bard a while back for a one shot and it worked OK but I've got an upcoming game starting at 4th or maybe 5th level and I think I'm gonna have to optimise a bit to keep up with everyone else. I want to hold my own at fighting but primarily make everyone else better. Probably won't go past 7th-8th level, if that matters. Lazylord type shenanigans would definitely be OK, but I can't really find anything that seems great for that. If your party is heavy melee, they will love a STR Bard with Shield Master going around knocking enemies prone and optionally grappling them so they can't get back up. Valor gives you the shield and armor proficiency you need to do that, and at 6th you get extra attack for an extra shove attempt per turn., plus you get Enhance Ability as part of your class progression for Advantage on the Athletic checks involved. Otherwise Lore is more supportive, focusing on CHA for more Bardic Inspiration (mainly Cutting Words) die and better DCs on your spells, with Magical Secret as you progress to poach nifty spells from other classes. That'd play mostly as a backrow caster but you've got options between dipping fighter for better AC and Constitution proficiency, and taking Shillelagh at 6th so your weapon/arcane focus keys off your casting stat for attacks. Either way, single class Bard isn't really much of a combat buffer character in terms of actions, instead focusing on control/debuff and out-of-combat utility. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Mar 12, 2017 |
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Mar 12, 2017 12:23
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Three years after the fact, Wizards has gotten Curse! to release online tools for 5e. And by "release" I mean "announce a 'summer' release and allow you to sign up for the beta but really you're just signing up for a mailing list." https://www.dndbeyond.com/
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Mar 12, 2017 19:20
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Speaking of limited resources, I've been playing a control/support wizard for a while now, and have been doing a pretty decent job at it. I reliably shut down encounters and/or keep the party buffed, but what am I supposed to actually be doing on turns when I'm already concentrating on something? Fireball seems like a good way to blow through mid-level spell slots, so I've been either plinking away with cantrips or occasional going ham with an upscaled Chromatic Orb when absolutely needed, but this doesn't seem super effective. Should I be content with making sure my entire party has advantage all the time or isn't being sniped by archers from range?
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Mar 12, 2017 22:22
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Polymorph your fighter into a flying t-rex.
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Mar 12, 2017 22:31
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That's always the correct answer.
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Mar 12, 2017 23:28
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Unless they were already a t-rex.
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Mar 12, 2017 23:36
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Kibner posted:Polymorph your fighter into a flying t-rex. Flying Hasted T-rex
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Mar 12, 2017 23:49
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Gotta go fast!
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Mar 13, 2017 00:01
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The real value of fighters: being the platform for three different spellcasters to stack concentration buffs on.
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Mar 13, 2017 01:48
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Some pickup group last night, one person had a character that was a 3-year-old Dragonborn (which PHB compares to like a 10-year-old child.) Not the way I'd do it but whatever, it's a random game to smash bad guys and roll dice. We fight some various spooky poo poo, she rolls a 1 on a save against something and gets magically aged 20 years, being plucked straight out of gimmickhood and into the status of being randos like us. "What the gently caress, am I going to be 23 forever?" "Nah, you'll be 24 next year."
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Mar 13, 2017 04:42
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Some pickup group last night, one person had a character that was a 3-year-old Dragonborn (which PHB compares to like a 10-year-old child.) Not the way I'd do it but whatever, it's a random game to smash bad guys and roll dice. This is fantastic.
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Mar 13, 2017 05:37
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What spells does a paladin's holy symbol remove the material component for? All of them? Are holy symbols specifically for DMs who don't want people counting out their 25 gp of silver and praying on some water for an hour and carrying a leaf to purify some food and kicking over a small silver mirror to sanctuary the mage or why even have material components? (Can I bless without holy water, but with a holy symbol?) Krinkle fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Mar 13, 2017 06:26
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Krinkle posted:What spells does a paladin's holy symbol remove the material component for? All of them? Are holy symbols specifically for DMs who don't want people counting out their 25 gp of silver and praying on some water for an hour and carrying a leaf to purify some food and kicking over a small silver mirror to sanctuary the mage or why even have material components? Holy Symbols, like any Spell Focus, lets you skip the Material Components of any spell where the Component doesn't have a gold piece cost. So you can indeed Bless without the sprinkling of Holy Water (no cost listed) but cannot Raise Dead without the 500+gp diamond that spell requires. Same goes for a Wizard's Wand, Druid's Totem, and what have you.
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Mar 13, 2017 06:36
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IIRC a holy symbol works just about the same as an arcane focus in that it's a substitute for component casting (unless the components required have a specific price attached to them). Components are mostly fluff, though apparently several of them originated as jokes, but on the other hand it gives you the option to pursue component casting over waving a wand if that's your bag - or materials to scrounge for should you forfeit your wand. Most people are just gonna be content with waving around a staff though, including me. So yes, you can cast Bless without holy water.
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Mar 13, 2017 06:37
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It's a big part of the old "you've been captured/exiled/escaped with no equipment" special scenario. Especially if you're trapped in a limited environment where you can't just buy a new wand easily. I first recall running into that in the old "In the Dungeon of the Slave Lords" first edition module where you get tossed into a cave system with nothing but rags on, and they make a point of listing every bit of moss and what-not that your party wizard can use for a spell component. Otherwise, yeah, it's mostly fluff. Except, of course, for the big expensive spells like Raise Dead and the like where' its meant to make things a bit harder so you don't set up "Cleric Billy's House of Dead Raising" and completely break the fear of death.
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Mar 13, 2017 06:44
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I imagine it's also pretty good for preparing for such a scenario in advance, slipping some mistletoe or what have you into your shoes or the lapels of your jacket, confident the guards won't frisk you for it. Every rogue I've ever rolled up swallows a lockpick tied to a thread tied around one of their teeth, just in case.
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Mar 13, 2017 07:07
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That sounds much more uncomfortable than the classic burying a lockpick/shiv under your skin.
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Mar 13, 2017 07:46
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Conspiratiorist posted:That sounds much more uncomfortable than the classic burying a lockpick/shiv under your skin. Both sound equally horrifyingly uncomfortable.
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Mar 13, 2017 07:47
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NachtSieger posted:Both sound equally horrifyingly uncomfortable. modern locks can be picked with like tinfoil i'm sure a professional lockpick can easily figure something out.
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Mar 13, 2017 08:14
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When I think of fantasy keys that unlock a dungeon I'm not thinking of a tiny schlage pin and tumbler lock. I'm thinking a huge goddamn iron key thicker than my pinky that makes a satisfying clunk as it rotates. I honestly am not sure how locks were made back in medieval times or why every fantasy game like skyrim has huge keys but tiny lockpicks but my gut feeling is that lock picking them required a huge goddamn iron nail as near as sturdy as that imagined huge iron key. I can pick
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Mar 13, 2017 08:41
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See, I'm imagining a little pocket lockpick with the pick snapped off the handle (cause you ain't swallowing the handle). Some fantasy locks are huge, some are small. A little pick isn't for busting out of or into the big places, it's for the little emergencies you find yourself in when the town guards throw you in a cell, or some two-bit bounty hunters working for the bad guy have you in chains. If you're trapped in one of those bigger places, you've got bigger problems than just the lock anyhow.
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Mar 13, 2017 08:49
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A group I'm joining might be in dire need of a tanky pointman. I like being in the thick of things and having to think about my movement in ways that a ranged attacker doesn't, but I don't really like "swing til they're dead" types. Is there anything especially fun that isn't evident at first glance about Tempest, Grave, or Nature clerics?
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Mar 13, 2017 08:52
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Nehru the Damaja posted:A group I'm joining might be in dire need of a tanky pointman. I like being in the thick of things and having to think about my movement in ways that a ranged attacker doesn't, but I don't really like "swing til they're dead" types. Is there anything especially fun that isn't evident at first glance about Tempest, Grave, or Nature clerics? Nature lets you take Shillelagh, which allows you to use your casting stat as your attack stat with a quarterstaff, which you can use with the Polearm Master feat to get AoOs on enemies that get within 5' of you, plus an extra attack you can use with your bonus action, and it's one-handed so you can sword&board with it. Add Sentinel and you can be very good at running interference while remaining a full caster. All clerics and rangers can do this with Magic Initiate, mind you, Nature domain just spares you the feat.
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Mar 13, 2017 09:43
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It's kind of funny how much better that fits a dwarf than a Firbolg. A dwarf won't need to worry about low STR when wearing heavy armor, so they can milk the benefits of the armor and still hit hard with Shillelagh. Meanwhile the Fir Bolg has to have high STR if he wants to make use of that heavy armor which makes the shillelagh kind of redundant. My love of sad bastard characters I think is making me make a Firbolg Tempest cleric separated from his tribe by a terrible storm and unable to find his way home. All my favorite characters so far have been sadboys.
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Mar 13, 2017 10:22
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With 14 DEX medium armor is almost as good as heavy armor  But yes, dwarfs are cool and good and better than every other race.
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Mar 13, 2017 10:56
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I think I just like the weirder races because it's a lot easier to look at them and think about why they do things they way they do. Their personalities can be just as cut-and-paste as the typical dwarf, but they feel newer and more personal to me because those personalities don't feel as well worn. If you wanna roleplay against the typical role for a dwarf of being a screaming battle-hardened smiter or stoic stone-faced badass and you don't want it to feel like a cheap gimmick, it takes a lot more work.
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Mar 13, 2017 11:24
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Krinkle posted:When I think of fantasy keys that unlock a dungeon I'm not thinking of a tiny schlage pin and tumbler lock. I'm thinking a huge goddamn iron key thicker than my pinky that makes a satisfying clunk as it rotates. I honestly am not sure how locks were made back in medieval times or why every fantasy game like skyrim has huge keys but tiny lockpicks but my gut feeling is that lock picking them required a huge goddamn iron nail as near as sturdy as that imagined huge iron key. I can pick whatever happened to Bobby pins in your hair.
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Mar 13, 2017 11:58
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Kommando posted:whatever happened to Bobby pins in your hair. Big fuckin' iron bobby pins, ideally.
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Mar 13, 2017 12:24
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Nehru the Damaja posted:A group I'm joining might be in dire need of a tanky pointman. I like being in the thick of things and having to think about my movement in ways that a ranged attacker doesn't, but I don't really like "swing til they're dead" types. Is there anything especially fun that isn't evident at first glance about Tempest, Grave, or Nature clerics? Tempest clerics are incredibly good blasters, due to having a "Maximize" that can be used once per short rest and a domain spell list with powerful AOE effects. If you're explicitly looking for a character that doesn't have good ranged options, I would pick one of the other two.
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Mar 13, 2017 12:55
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Does anyone have any recommendations for adventure modules to run? Quick and fun would be my main requirement, present edition preferably (though past would also work if I could easily convert it to or just run it with 5th ed rules). I'm GMing for a group of 5 players who are now about level 4. We're kind of just having fun with it, running our own kind of setting and just making up the world as we go along, logging the details, I've mostly just run dungeons and wilderness adventures that I've made up myself, and we've also spent quite some time just doing what you could call social adventures in an urban setting that's revolved around buying and operating a tavern (that happened to be built over a ghouls' nest and a shrine to an evil trickster god) as well as interacting with real estate moghuls, guilds, street thugs as well as religious politics with the local main temple and interacting with the supremely unhelpful professors in a local university that does magical research. But yeah, anyway, setting and actual content isn't that important in an adventure as we have basically just been adding and making stuff up as it has become necessary for the game. Basically what I want is what I said, some relatively quick to run advneture modules, the reason being that I'm somewhat more busy these days than I'd like and having somehting already set up mgiht be helpful for me as it would save time on planning and thinking of backstory and dungeon layout and such.
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Mar 13, 2017 13:31
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I've been dming so no characters for me, but I like the idea of a lizardfolk outlander character. A ranger class, or the Matt Mercer blood hunter class. Living off the land with a pretty neutral moral compass. Can bite a motha fukka and be semi savage.
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Mar 13, 2017 14:04
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Is there anything especially fun that isn't evident at first glance about Tempest, Grave, or Nature clerics? Tempest eventually gets the option to deal 10' knockback on any lightning damage, which can be used with the retributive strike. However, if you use Magic Initiate or multiclassing to pick up Shocking Grasp, then every combat can turn into that scene from the Sherlock Holmes movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t1a4anQxBA). Grabbing Find Familiar lets you use your owl to blast enemies in directions the DM isn't always prepared for.
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Mar 13, 2017 16:24
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Kibner posted:Polymorph your fighter into a flying t-rex. I chose Sculptor of Flesh (Polymorph once per long rest using spell slot) for my Warlock and it's the absolute best poo poo ever. It is used every single session. It works as a ghetto heal/save when someone is about to die. Dragon just breathed on the guy in front of him and is about to die? *bamph* You're a 136hp T-Rex doing 4d12+7 on one attack, 3d8+7 on a second attack. Everyone fell off the boat and they're missing their saves and are drowning? You're now a Giant Octopus life saving machine with 60 movement and 15ft reach. Just happen to be in the back row pretty safe but eldritch blast just isn't cutting it? Turn into a Giant Ape and throw huge rear end rocks for 7d6+6 each round. Or just cast it on someone else and they can be front line or ranged with 3d10 multi-attack damage with +9 to hit and 157 hit points. This poo poo is rad and everyone gets a kick out of it. Especially when someone is on the back of a dragon at the time. Have fun with that. Philthy fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Mar 13, 2017 18:06
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Slippery42 posted:The real value of fighters: being the platform for three different spellcasters to stack concentration buffs on. *Two casters and a Simulacrum.
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Mar 14, 2017 00:02
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They put up mystic http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/mystic-class
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Mar 14, 2017 00:56
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Nehru the Damaja posted:They put up mystic That looks cool at first glance and it's nice they put so much effort into it since the last iteration, but drat that's a lot of poo poo to keep track of at higher levels. I'm glad int is the primary stat because the cognitive load of playing a mystic will be pretty high.
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Mar 14, 2017 01:49
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It all feels pretty overtuned, from hour-long no-concentration flight available at level 5 to innate small heals with every expenditure of psi points to the just bonkers flexibility and scaling that each discipline presents. I also can't imagine a DM that would want to deal with the nightmare of concentration tracking. Even if your players are honest to a fault, it's easy to make errors in your own favor and the insane amount of concentration abilities demands a level of trust I don't think most would want to take up.
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Mar 14, 2017 02:24
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