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AlphaDog posted:When did that change? When they moved to the Feywild. Arborea is now mainly just Drunken Revelers it seems.
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Sep 13, 2017 01:15
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I honestly might just black out the spoilers on the legend and just use the foldout map and keep a normal sized dm's map close at hand. The print is nice and glossy plus it folds up perfectly into my DM Binder so I can live with not having a legend on it. A DM map that big is kinda useless anyways since I can't keep it out behind the screen due to it's size and I can't hold it up since it's double sided with spoilers on both.
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Sep 13, 2017 01:21
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Feywilde vs Arborea is a great way of remembering that the Great Wheel is some stupid bullshit based around the kinda nerds who visit TV Tropes religiously, and the 4e cosmology was made by rad people who went with genre expectations, thematic works, and in-game opportunities.
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Sep 13, 2017 04:36
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cheetah7071 posted:I'm actually a little confused what the demographic for Eladrin is given that High Elf already exists and Eladrin was just a fantasy word alternate name for High Elf in 4e It's my understanding that the Eladrin was a gameplay conceit first. Dragonborn: STR and CHA Dwarf: CON and WIS Elf: DEX and WIS Half-Elf: CON and CHA Halfling: DEX and CHA Tiefling: INT and CHA and you get to Eladrin, which get bonuses to DEX and INT, which makes them ideal Wizards.
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Sep 13, 2017 04:38
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Eladrin were always planned for 4e for fluff reasons. 3.x had a bajillion goddamn different kinds of elves, and most of them were almost completely identical to one another, so 4e said "know what gently caress it, there's three elves. Woodsy Bow Legolases, Magic Sword Elronds*, and Drow, Which We Used To Straight Up Call Black Elves, Then Realized Wait Hold Up, But Didn't Realize It Enough. 5e largely copied that, until now, which is hilarious, because holy poo poo they're both not actually disciplined enough to keep to their own thing of Only Three Elves, but they're also too lazy to go full blown All The Elves. They succeed at nothing. * Yes I know he was a half elf in-universe, doesn't matter, he's an elvish archtype now.
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Sep 13, 2017 05:12
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ProfessorCirno posted:Eladrin were always planned for 4e for fluff reasons. 3.x had a bajillion goddamn different kinds of elves, and most of them were almost completely identical to one another, so 4e said "know what gently caress it, there's three elves. Woodsy Bow Legolases, Magic Sword Elronds*, and Drow, Which We Used To Straight Up Call Black Elves, Then Realized Wait Hold Up, But Didn't Realize It Enough. Nah, you're pretty much right actually. Elrond and his twin were both "Half-Elves" but each had to pick whether to be all Human or all Elf. Elrond went all Elf, his brother went all Human and is therefore long dead by the time of LotR. Elrond, thus, has no particular human traits at all, unlike a D&D Half-Elf.
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Sep 13, 2017 05:20
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excuse me elrond is actually 9/16 elven and furthermore
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Sep 13, 2017 05:20
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ProfessorCirno posted:Feywilde vs Arborea is a great way of remembering that the Great Wheel is some stupid bullshit based around the kinda nerds who visit TV Tropes religiously, and the 4e cosmology was made by rad people who went with genre expectations, thematic works, and in-game opportunities. 
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Sep 13, 2017 05:30
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Wait, they've kept the Feywild? And it coexists with the great wheel? Where does the seelie court hang out now?
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Sep 13, 2017 08:58
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Enola Gay-For-Pay posted:Is it me or do githyanki kind of suck for anything you might want to do with one So, mountain dwarves? Seriously, Mearls couldn't help himself and he made that again??
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Sep 13, 2017 09:28
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P.d0t posted:So, mountain dwarves? With an Int bonus
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Sep 13, 2017 11:45
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ProfessorCirno posted:Feywilde vs Arborea is a great way of remembering that the Great Wheel is some stupid bullshit based around the kinda nerds who visit TV Tropes religiously, and the 4e cosmology was made by rad people who went with genre expectations, thematic works, and in-game opportunities. Planescape was rad and weird spherical 3d maps are much cooler than the lovely compass map 
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Sep 13, 2017 13:12
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Elves suck
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Sep 13, 2017 14:57
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ProfessorCirno posted:Feywilde vs Arborea is a great way of remembering that the Great Wheel is some stupid bullshit based around the kinda nerds who visit TV Tropes religiously, and the 4e cosmology was made by rad people who went with genre expectations, thematic works, and in-game opportunities. gradenko_2000 posted:It's my understanding that the Eladrin was a gameplay conceit first. The Eladrin were 2e Outisiders first. And sort of resembled Elves, and 4e changed them into elves and playable characters. AlphaDog posted:Wait, they've kept the Feywild? And it coexists with the great wheel? Where does the seelie court hang out now? In the Feywild like I said earlier. Did you not read the end of the Players Handbook or the planes section of the DMG? Here is the planer map from the end of the PHB. 
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Sep 13, 2017 17:36
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So I'm starting in a new 5e game and have no idea what class I should play. I'm looking for a high cha/social character, so something like Paladin or Bard, but I'd also like something fun mechanically and have interesting options in and out of combat. Maybe a multiclass character, or a character that uses magic to persuade/intimidate. Just...something fun to play. Alternatively, the pugilist homebrew someone posted earlier, if all else fails.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:13
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User0015 posted:So I'm starting in a new 5e game and have no idea what class I should play. Warlock's got CHA based powers, the whole "servant of a higher/darker power" thing, and some decent non-combat stuff if you pick your invocations wisely.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:15
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User0015 posted:So I'm starting in a new 5e game and have no idea what class I should play. Agreed with jng2058. A Warlock can both cast from CHA and has good non-combat proficiencies (deception, intimidation, investigation), so they're fairly optimized both in and out of combat at least in terms of ability score usage. The Guild Merchant background will get you Persuasion and Insight skill proficiencies to finish off the big set. They're just loaded with plot hooks, and the Invocations list gives you a lot of options.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:21
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User0015 posted:So I'm starting in a new 5e game and have no idea what class I should play. A druid can pick up charm person, and turning into a bear is pretty interesting mechanically. It's only slightly playing out of optimal to put points into charisma. My druid has 12 for example. I made a bard who tells stories and I limited my spells to things that could theoretically be extensions of just spinning a good yarn. Like fireball is eventually going to be hard to explain but hold person is just me turning a folding chair around backwards, turning my hat backwards, sitting down and saying now hold on, young bandit, let's rap. Sleep is just a real boring story that goes nowhere. Bards can do basically anything, is what I'm saying, and if you can think of a theme and pick your spells around it, it's more than enough interesting options in and out of combat.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:25
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Bards were probably my go to. All the skills, plus a lot of helpful Wizard Bullshit to throw around. I don't know anything about Warlocks. I was under the impression Warlocks throw down Hex and spam eldritch blast all day every day until the end of time and little else. Warlock player's can enlighten me on how they really play, if that's not the case.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:33
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User0015 posted:Bards were probably my go to. All the skills, plus a lot of helpful Wizard Bullshit to throw around. Here's the basic pitch: They do have a "basic attack" in Eldritch Blast, which works well enough, but that's no different from any other person using a sword or other cantrip for reliable damage. It's not particularly exciting, but it's not a downside either. However, they also have high-power damaging spells for hairy moments, invisibility, Charm Person, hold Person, Misty Step, Fly, whatever, with spell slots regenerating on a short rest. While most casters have to treat their spells like daily abilities, Warlocks can blow everything in an encounter or two and regenerate. Out of combat, the Pact of the Tome has a huge ability to get any and every ritual spell with the Book of Secrets invocation, so you're highly versatile. Tome also gives you any three additional cantrips from any class. Invocations can get at-will Detect Magic if you want SPECIAL EYES, at-will Disguise Self if you never want to use clothes again, and many other options. In short, you get a lot of extra options at all levels.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:46
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You open combat with a disable/buff (ie Hypnotic Pattern, Hold Person, Darkness, etc) or Hex, or carrying Hex over from a previous combat since duration scales with spell slots, and the rest of the encounter you're a damage dealer through Eldritch Blast or some other instant spells, yes. Out of combat your spell slots and invocations are utility. Chain gets an amazing familiar, and Tome can cast any ritual in the game that they've had time to add to their book.
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Sep 13, 2017 18:47
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The utility of a warlock varies wildly depending on how broadly your DM interprets short rests. The Fighter has the same problem. Warlocks get all their spells back after a forty-five minute breather. This is either huge (allowing you to case 6 or 8 spells per day) or completely useless (if your DM makes short rests about as common as long rests, defeating the whole point).
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Sep 13, 2017 19:42
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Zomborgon posted:Here's the basic pitch: Your pitch is pretty solid. I know Warlocks have severely limited spell selection, so how do you deal around that?
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Sep 13, 2017 19:45
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User0015 posted:Your pitch is pretty solid. I know Warlocks have severely limited spell selection, so how do you deal around that? The same way all casters do: you pick the most generally useful spells.
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Sep 13, 2017 19:47
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My main is a tomelock. He's level 12 and he's been the most fun class I've played. The bread and butter is the hex/eldritch blast combo, which does fantastic damage, but the hook is that it's free. You don't need to worry about slots really. Hex lasts 24 hours at this point. The rest of your spells are utility. Arcane Gate is amazing getting your entire party across some goofy trapped walkway, or right beside a dragon/demigod/whatever. Your invocations let you see nearly everything, read everything, be everything. All your spells cast at your max spell level. Banishment at level 5 with DC17 is pretty nice. With a Rod of the Pact keeper you can get another spell slot which is huge. So is counterspell. The spells you get after level 10 dont take away from your spell slots, they're one use per day, so you get a bit more flexible. Roleplaying a warlock is pretty easy, too. It seems sort of hohum on the surface, but they're not. Damage is given to you, no need to think about it. You focus on everything else. My spells slots are only used for utility, or when the poo poo hits the fan. I almost always end an adventure with one or more slots never used. Adventurers at this level all have cloak of displacements, or some pally/wiz build that can make their AC in the high 20s at will. But just in case things go south, you can step in and say: No. DM finally got that Monk that was stunning everything down to 10 hit points? He's now a Giant Ape with 150ish hit points. Have fun with that. Get ready to misty step when the DM comes after you. Philthy fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 20:11
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Mendrian posted:The utility of a warlock varies wildly depending on how broadly your DM interprets short rests. The Fighter has the same problem. That is one major limiting factor, yeah. The DMG says that 2 short rests are reasonable for an "adventuring day," so one could leverage that. A short rest is "at least 1 hour long, ... nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking reading, and tending to wounds." This is unfortunate if you're dealing with someone who will throw monsters at you during a rest. If you're in a dangerous, enclosed environment that's filled with monsters (like a freakin' DUNGEON), ensuring an uninterrupted 1-hour rest would require some serious set-up. Blocking off entrances with rubble, wards and alarms, snares, those sorts of precautions. If your DM mandates the 1-hour rule, you're going to have problems. I run it as more like a 10-minute break, combined with the relatively non-strenuous time spent moving unhindered up until the next event. There is an "epic heroism" rest modifier in the DMG for 5-minute short rests and 1-hour long rests. If your elfgame adventure doesn't qualify as epic heroism, my personal opinion is that you're wasting your time anyway. However, it's perhaps not a good idea to point out that page to a stubborn GM, as they might inadvertently see the "gritty realism" modifier below, which instead uses 8-hour short rests and 1-week long rests. Ah yes, it is indeed gritty and realistic for me to take 1 week to figure out my spells, thank you WOTC.
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Sep 13, 2017 20:11
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For a >5th level Tome Warlock, a safe short rest is 10 minutes away using Leomund's Tiny Hut.
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Sep 13, 2017 20:25
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It's good to see positive warlockchat. I'm playing an archfey tomelock-to-be who uses a light crossbow for damage instead of Eldritch Blast, and will be focusing on crowd control in combat rather than damage anyway. Tome cantrips will be Ray of Frost, Thorn Whip, and Vicious Mockery, and I'll take Repelling Blast too 
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Sep 13, 2017 21:00
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I'm also starting a 5th edition game soon and I've got some questions. I am playing with this group for the first time and so I'm going to be flexible rather then just walking in with a character and refusing to change, filling in for healer/skill monkey/meatshield (who has no ability to actually meatshield)/spell caster if we don't have one of those roles. Is the UA Ranger good as a primary fighting man? I know the PHB Ranger is Real Bad and the Fighter honestly bores me to tears. Zikan fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Sep 13, 2017 |
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Sep 13, 2017 21:40
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Zikan posted:I'm also starting a 5th edition game soon and I've got some questions. I playing with this group for the first time and so I'm going to be flexible rather then just walking in with a character and refusing to change, filling in for healer/skill monkey/meatshield (who has no ability to actually meatshield)/spell caster if we don't have one of those roles. Honestly yeah the UA ranger can serve as a pretty decent front liner.
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Sep 13, 2017 22:06
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MonsterEnvy posted:In the Feywild like I said earlier. Did you not read the end of the Players Handbook or the planes section of the DMG? I skimmed over them, but they haven't been relevant to any game I've been in so I never actually read them through. I honestly never even read the map, just quickly glanced at it and made the (wrong) assumption that if the great wheel was back, then the 4e-ish stuff was gonna be gone. Seems weird to do both, but hey, Planescape was my favorite 2e setting and I also like the feywild/shadowfell thing a lot, so it's cool that both are still there.
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Sep 13, 2017 22:53
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User0015 posted:Bards were probably my go to. All the skills, plus a lot of helpful Wizard Bullshit to throw around. How they play depends heavily on your Patron and Pact, as those make a huge difference as to what you're capable of. Archfey adds a number of support and AoE debuff spells to the Warlock list, Fiend ends up as mostly a combat-oriented nuker, and GOO has a lot of single-target disables. Tome pact gives you a fairly massive utility toolkit by opening up every ritual to you. If there's no Wizard in the group, that ritual book frees up other casters' spells known/prepared that they might otherwise have to dedicate to things like Detect Magic. Blade is comparatively useless based on the PHB alone, but some of the UA invocations did a good job fixing it, imo, by turning it into a short rest Paladin with divine smite-equivalents. Chain's benefits are a bit hard to catch on your first read, but an invisible, flying familiar that can often take more than one hit, has no range limitation on transmitting its senses to you, is intelligent, and has hands to manipulate objects all makes for a strong stealth and exploration toolkit. Warlocks can be built to do just about anything, but an individual Warlock can't do everything. I play a Fiend/Chain Warlock as my Adventurers' League character and have a great time with it. I typically only Eldritch Blast when an encounter is too trivial to justify a leveled spell, when a baddie gets into an allied spellcaster's face and needs to be shoved away, or when I'm out of slots. My familiar acts as a scout/disposable trap magnet, and whenever a paladin or rogue is in the party, they appreciate the Help actions it can provide, and if anyone goes down, it can also force feed healing potions without burning my own action.
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Sep 13, 2017 23:30
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VROOM VROOM posted:It's good to see positive warlockchat. I'm playing an archfey tomelock-to-be who uses a light crossbow for damage instead of Eldritch Blast, and will be focusing on crowd control in combat rather than damage anyway. Tome cantrips will be Ray of Frost, Thorn Whip, and Vicious Mockery, and I'll take Repelling Blast too This is like playing a Cleric that focuses on healing.
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Sep 14, 2017 06:54
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I've probably been reading too many "optimization guides" that have left me with the impression I should cast Hex and then Agonizing Blast every turn forever at risk of bringing shame to my family.
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Sep 14, 2017 07:10
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VROOM VROOM posted:I've probably been reading too many "optimization guides" that have left me with the impression I should cast Hex and then Agonizing Blast every turn forever at risk of bringing shame to my family. That's the damage option. Damage option is always a good choice. Not always the best, but always decent since Warlocks are good at it. And even if you want to crowd control, you only maintain concentration on one spell. Hypnotic Pattern, for example, can be incredibly powerful. Fire it off round 1, keep it up until the fight is over - and what else do you during the fight? Damage, probably, because you're good at it, and other actions have an opportunity cost against it. So let's look at all those other cantrips you mentioned: Ray of Frost: you have Eldritch Blast + Repelling Blast, you don't need it. Reducing a single enemy's speed won't do you much more good than pushing it 10 feet with each EB hit. Thorn Whip: similar, plus it's both very short ranged and extremely unlikely you'll want to pull enemies towards you. You work best at range. Vicious Mockery: this one is actually pretty decent, but the damage is pathetic, and the disadvantage effect only works against one attack so it'll lose effectiveness as multi-attack pops up more and more. Generally, it's the scariest enemies that have multi-attack, and against weaker enemies, well, you just want to mow them down quickly. And here's what these "crowd control" cantrips are competing against: Guidance: 1d4 on any important check. Practically mandatory if you don't already have someone capable of casting it. Spare the Dying: automatically stabilize downed allies, and works off your Familiar. Practically mandatory if you don't have more than one character capable of healing, and the party is not of mind to carry health potions on everyone for this kind of eventuality. Chill Touch: blocks regeneration. Invaluable against enemies that heal themselves, particularly if your party doesn't have high burst potential. Sacred Flame: save-based attack for enemies under cover or that you'd get disadvantage on ranged attacks against, in a damage type that is rarely resisted. I'm assuming you're already getting most of the good stuff in your list (EB, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Friends, Mage Hand).
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Sep 14, 2017 07:56
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I should note that this is for a LMoP run where it's half the players' first time playing D&D. Optimization is not the goal.
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Sep 14, 2017 08:17
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VROOM VROOM posted:I should note that this is for a LMoP run where it's half the players' first time playing D&D. Optimization is not the goal. Guise of many faces will let u have a lot of fun as a warlock
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Sep 14, 2017 12:03
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IMHO Warlocks are fantastic utility casters not because they're particularly versatile, but because they can spam one cool gimmick forever. I mean, you only get like 2 or 3 spells per short rest, so you don't need 3 damage spells. I make sure I have one damage, one disable, and then everything else is utility - flight, invisibility, darkness, whatever, you might as well go for it. Warlocks are thought experiments in streamlined casting.
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Sep 14, 2017 20:53
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Can someone give me a really basic rundown of what prepared spells are and how exactly spell slots work? I think we have the general idea and it works well enough, but I'm pretty sure we're doing something wrong because we have never once mentioned prepared spells.
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Sep 14, 2017 21:23
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tweet my meat posted:Can someone give me a really basic rundown of what prepared spells are and how exactly spell slots work? I think we have the general idea and it works well enough, but I'm pretty sure we're doing something wrong because we have never once mentioned prepared spells. The Cleric, Druid, Paladin, and Wizard classes all must prepare spells in order to cast any non-Cantrip spells. Of their non-Cantrip spell list, they can only have up to a limited number of spells prepared, usually the spellcasting ability modifier (INT for wizards) plus some portion of their spellcasting class level (all in the Wizard's case, half rounded down for the Paladin, etc.) Spell preparation occurs during a long rest. The prepared spells are prepared for the duration between rests- they never become un-prepared until a new list is chosen during the next rest. All spellcasters with anything above cantrips use spell slots. Spell slots represent how many uses of spells one has per long rest, and they regenerate after a long rest (short rest for Warlocks). A spell slot of an equal or higher level must be expended ("filled") to cast a spell. Some spells gain extra power when cast through a higher-level spell slot. Say I want to cast Locate Object, a 2nd-level spell, and I have one slot each of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level remaining. I can cast Locate Object twice, so long as I prepared it that day. If I had more spell slots of 2nd-level or higher, I could cast it more so long as I have unused spell slots, but I can never use it in the 1st-level slot. e: grammar Zomborgon fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Sep 14, 2017 |
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Sep 14, 2017 21:41
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