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They're probably assuming you're showered in advantage rolls which is not always realistic and I'd rather have consistent damage at low to golden levels before power attacking.
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Mar 2, 2018 18:40
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So I'm running SKT and so far the party has been able to deal with fighting Giants quite well, the party size is quite big and everyone knows what they're doing. As they're getting further and further into Giant territory having especially difficult encounters, instead of just adding more Giants I'm looking to improve the base Giants by adding classes to them. Giving them Fighter Class stuff like Action Surge or Paladin Smites or Wizard spells, etc. I'd rather do this than add a bunch more giants to the fights because then to really scale it, I have to keep adding more and more which doesn't fit the theme I'm trying to go for in that a few Giants SHOULD be powerful and approached with caution. The problem I'm coming up with is trying to describe how these different Giants with classes would look so that the players know that this isn't just another one of those other chump Giant's they've fought before. Should be easy enough with a Wizard, Paladins/Clerics could have some distinguishing holy symbols. But for Fighters/Barbarians that's kind of what they already look like. I need some way to describe that this "Fighter" Fire Giant is gonna be a hell of a lot tougher than the usual Fire Giant they're used too. Any thoughts or ideas?
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Mar 2, 2018 18:48
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Just describe him as looking more competent with his weapon. Maybe there’s a smoother, more graceful appearance to his movements.
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Mar 2, 2018 18:57
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Conspiratiorist posted:The book is ambiguous because ~natural language~ but it's the common sense reading and confirmed by the design team in tweets etc. OK, cool. I'll find the language in the PHB and the tweets in case my DM isn't sure. Thanks a lot for your patient explanations.
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Mar 2, 2018 19:25
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I'm trying a 5e session with some friends in April, and I wanna make a Bard. I wanna be powerful and useful (even though I've notice there doesn't seem to be much room for charop in 5e...); I already picked out a Lightfoot Halfling, but are there any other particularly good/powerful choices I can make in my character's development?
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Mar 3, 2018 04:51
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ZZT the Fifth posted:(even though I've notice there doesn't seem to be much room for charop in 5e...) Bahahahahahahahahaha! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
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Mar 3, 2018 04:57
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You are correct that there is not much room for charop, in that there are only a handful of possible builds they are actually good and everything else is either weak by comparison or just straight-up garbage. Hope you like quarterstaves.
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Mar 3, 2018 05:08
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ZZT the Fifth posted:I'm trying a 5e session with some friends in April, and I wanna make a Bard. I wanna be powerful and useful (even though I've notice there doesn't seem to be much room for charop in 5e...); I already picked out a Lightfoot Halfling, but are there any other particularly good/powerful choices I can make in my character's development? Well you picked a Bard so just go Lore and your CharOp is done.
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Mar 3, 2018 05:12
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mango sentinel posted:Well you picked a Bard so just go Lore and your CharOp is done. More specifically, pick Lore and steal spells from Ranger and Paladin because their 3rd and 5th level spells aren't balanced around them getting them earlier than 15th level. Did you know Banishing Smite works just fine on ranged attacks? 
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Mar 3, 2018 05:56
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ZZT the Fifth posted:I'm trying a 5e session with some friends in April, and I wanna make a Bard. I wanna be powerful and useful (even though I've notice there doesn't seem to be much room for charop in 5e...); I already picked out a Lightfoot Halfling, but are there any other particularly good/powerful choices I can make in my character's development? Lore Bard is maybe the strongest class in the game. If you want to be The Absolute Best At All Costs, Half-Elf is probably better (and the Half-Drow Variant is fuckin bonkers) but Lightfoot Halfling is still a great pick. The single trickiest thing about building a Lore Bard is picking spells because a lot of your stuff is going to use Concentration, and you need to make sure you don't clog your spell list with too many spells competing for that. Same with your bonus actions and reactions. Put one of your Expertise picks into Perception. You'll want to pick up Counterspell with your first round of Magical Secrets because with Jack of All Trades, you're the best caster of Counterspell in the game other than a level 10+ Abjuration Wizard. (Yes, Jack of All Trades adds to your Counterspell roll. Also to Initiative!) Your other spell should focus on meeting the needs of the group. Fireball, Haste, and Aura of Vitality are popular here. Honestly picking your spells so that you don't overwhelm your resources of concentration and action economy are the hardest part. After that, enjoy playing an outrageously strong and rewarding character. Also, if your group is reasonably high on DC casters, consider Bane more strongly than you normally would. I don't typically pick it but if your group has, say, a druid and a cleric, you'll be glad you did. Nehru the Damaja fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Mar 3, 2018 |
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Mar 3, 2018 06:05
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DarkAvenger211 posted:So I'm running SKT and so far the party has been able to deal with fighting Giants quite well, the party size is quite big and everyone knows what they're doing. As they're getting further and further into Giant territory having especially difficult encounters, instead of just adding more Giants I'm looking to improve the base Giants by adding classes to them. Giving them Fighter Class stuff like Action Surge or Paladin Smites or Wizard spells, etc. I'd rather do this than add a bunch more giants to the fights because then to really scale it, I have to keep adding more and more which doesn't fit the theme I'm trying to go for in that a few Giants SHOULD be powerful and approached with caution. For fighter giants, pick the PC most likely to know about melee combat training, the fighter if you've got one otherwise whoever's closest. Just tell them 'you're highly trained, you spot the giant actually in a trained fighting stance immediately.' - add Princess Bride style schools of fencing etc to recognise if you like. For a barbarian giant, just add more froth and yelling.
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Mar 3, 2018 06:25
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bewilderment posted:More specifically, pick Lore and steal spells from Ranger and Paladin because their 3rd and 5th level spells aren't balanced around them getting them earlier than 15th level. Or just grab animate dead and spam skeleton archers on everyone. You don't get the necromancer damage bonus, but with enough skeletons you don't really care.
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Mar 3, 2018 08:27
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DarkAvenger211 posted:So I'm running SKT and so far the party has been able to deal with fighting Giants quite well, the party size is quite big and everyone knows what they're doing. As they're getting further and further into Giant territory having especially difficult encounters, instead of just adding more Giants I'm looking to improve the base Giants by adding classes to them. Giving them Fighter Class stuff like Action Surge or Paladin Smites or Wizard spells, etc. I'd rather do this than add a bunch more giants to the fights because then to really scale it, I have to keep adding more and more which doesn't fit the theme I'm trying to go for in that a few Giants SHOULD be powerful and approached with caution. You might get a fun 'oh poo poo' moment out of *not* explicitly distinguishing the tougher one. Just looks like another Giant, maybe a nicer weapon if they're really paying attention. Then in the first couple rounds of combat they bust out a couple of tricks the PCs aren't used to seeing from the Giants they've fought before and have to reconsider and readjust on the fly.
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Mar 3, 2018 18:16
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DarkAvenger211 posted:So I'm running SKT and so far the party has been able to deal with fighting Giants quite well, the party size is quite big and everyone knows what they're doing. As they're getting further and further into Giant territory having especially difficult encounters, instead of just adding more Giants I'm looking to improve the base Giants by adding classes to them. Giving them Fighter Class stuff like Action Surge or Paladin Smites or Wizard spells, etc. I'd rather do this than add a bunch more giants to the fights because then to really scale it, I have to keep adding more and more which doesn't fit the theme I'm trying to go for in that a few Giants SHOULD be powerful and approached with caution. fighter giants have weapons that have been cared for, if other giants have swords describe the nicked blades with rust spots on them. fighter giants caught unaware can be in the middle of polishing their swords barbarians look like they've been beaten alot their hands are more gnarled their faces more lumpy
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Mar 3, 2018 18:25
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evenworse username posted:You might get a fun 'oh poo poo' moment out of *not* explicitly distinguishing the tougher one. Just looks like another Giant, maybe a nicer weapon if they're really paying attention. Then in the first couple rounds of combat they bust out a couple of tricks the PCs aren't used to seeing from the Giants they've fought before and have to reconsider and readjust on the fly. I'd be careful about this. Someone's going to take it poorly when they suddenly get hit way harder with no real warning. I mean, if they charge in without looking, sure, surprise the heck out of them (let them know the giants are skilled by the way they fight, to give them a heads up that they just ran into A Bad Situation). But if they take the time to observe, give them a heads up.
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Mar 3, 2018 18:48
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Gharbad the Weak posted:I'd be careful about this. Someone's going to take it poorly when they suddenly get hit way harder with no real warning. I mean, if they charge in without looking, sure, surprise the heck out of them (let them know the giants are skilled by the way they fight, to give them a heads up that they just ran into A Bad Situation). But if they take the time to observe, give them a heads up. Yeah don't be stingy with giving the players non-numerical heads up. Everybody in your player group is playing seasoned warriors that can probably tell with a bit of time, whether or not enemies seem harder than normal or if their gear is well cared for. I find it pretty frustrating when you, as a party, take time and effort to scout out enemies before hand and you get some vague description then go into combat and find out that one guy is suddenly tremendously powerful only after he has hit a guy for 3/4 HP in one round. The comparison I use is physical sports like boxing or MMA. Even a casual follower of the sport can generally sense whether or not a guy is in shape or not. I also apply it to combat too as you can tell how close your opponent is to death. Non-numerically of course but if an enemy is one or two standard hits away from death/collapse your party can tell. Like boxing or MMA you can see when somebody is staggered or almost completely out of gas.
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Mar 3, 2018 20:01
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DarkAvenger211 posted:So I'm running SKT and so far the party has been able to deal with fighting Giants quite well, the party size is quite big and everyone knows what they're doing. As they're getting further and further into Giant territory having especially difficult encounters, instead of just adding more Giants I'm looking to improve the base Giants by adding classes to them. Giving them Fighter Class stuff like Action Surge or Paladin Smites or Wizard spells, etc. I'd rather do this than add a bunch more giants to the fights because then to really scale it, I have to keep adding more and more which doesn't fit the theme I'm trying to go for in that a few Giants SHOULD be powerful and approached with caution. Be careful with this. First of all, just making standard enemies slightly harder doesn't not always have the desired effect on large groups. The most powerful thing in D&D is the action economy, the thing you use to do more stuff; so if the PCs outnumber the giants, the PCs will usually clown the NPCs even with a few +numbers attached. If you want a small number of enemy combatants to challenge a large number of PC combatants, give them more actions rather than just bigger numbers. I've seen too many DMs weep (figuratively) for the awesome monsters who were ultimately still dunked mercilessly by the PCs. As for Fighters, giants aren't usually heavily armored and don't typically favor multiple sorts of weapons - this alone could give you the fluff you need. As for Barbarians, usually players will get the hint when they rage out.
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Mar 3, 2018 21:04
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Is there a reason to not take two levels of Fighter if you're playing a Hexblade? Additionally, I'm assuming that you want to take it after you take five levels of Warlock but that might not be correct; is there a more optimal or generally agreed upon place to take the dip or is that a good place for it?
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Mar 3, 2018 22:14
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Sampatrick posted:Is there a reason to not take two levels of Fighter if you're playing a Hexblade? Additionally, I'm assuming that you want to take it after you take five levels of Warlock but that might not be correct; is there a more optimal or generally agreed upon place to take the dip or is that a good place for it? It delays your level 12. That said, constitution save proficiency (fighter first) and and fighting style are very good.
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Mar 3, 2018 23:17
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Also, Plate.
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Mar 4, 2018 00:36
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Elysiume posted:14 in cha, 15 in str/dex and half-elf gets you there. 14 in str, 15 in cha gets you there on dragonborn. 14 in dex, 15 in cha gets you there on drow, tabaxi, or lightfoot halfling.
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Mar 4, 2018 00:57
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What are some good early feat options for a human Life Cleric. Learning towards Magic Initiate(Druid) for Shillelagh, plus maybe Guidance(If I want to free up a Cleric cantrip spot, maybe Thorn Whip otherwise) and Goodberry (since I think Life domain makes each berry 4 instead of one?).
Evrart Claire fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Mar 4, 2018 |
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Mar 4, 2018 10:30
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War Caster is always a really nice choice if you've built yourself more as a support person.
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Mar 4, 2018 11:37
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Goodberries are supposed to work with Disciple of Life, but as always check with your DM when you run into ambiguous wording scenarios. Along with Shillelagh it's a really solid combo. Resilient [Constitution] and War Caster are good too, making you better at maintaining important concentration spells; I prefer Resilient since it helps with all Constitution saves and Clerics can already use their shields as divine focus.
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Mar 4, 2018 17:17
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Yeah, several people told me to get War Caster with my Tempest Cleric and it's Nehru the Damaja fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Mar 4, 2018 |
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Mar 4, 2018 17:23
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We can math it out! These are the chances of a given attribute/feat combination passing the typical DC 10 concentration check: 16 CON w/ War Caster = 91% 14 CON w/ War Caster = 87.75% 15 CON w/ Resilient = 90% (levels 9-12) 15 CON w/ Resilient = 85% (levels 5-8) Then, strictly speaking, if all we cared about was to pass concentration, then 16 CON out of chargen with War Caster is the way to go. However, 15 CON plus Resilient (Constitution) is easier on the attribute points, almost as good once you're past 8 (better at 13+), and as I mentioned earlier it helps with all CON saves, which is pretty significant given it's the most common type of save in the MM.
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Mar 4, 2018 17:56
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I've been meaning to ask about the hard math between the two so I'm glad this came up.
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Mar 4, 2018 18:19
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God I hate the natural language approach on Shape Water. Water that "fits" within a 5-foot cube could either be a big open puddle of up to 125 cubic feet of water or it could be the 5x5x.00000000001 volume of water in one square depending on how you interpret that.
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Mar 4, 2018 19:45
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Does Life Cleric provide the non-healing aspects of the class well enough? My initial thoughts looking at it was basically "well it already has the healing spells as bonus ones so I can prepare whatever with my actual slots." Trying to decide between Life and Tempest. Also does magic initiate at 1, resilient at 4, Wis after sound good, or do I not want to delay Wis bonuses that long? Evrart Claire fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Mar 4, 2018 |
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Mar 4, 2018 19:49
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I'm more fond of Tempest. The best thing about Life Domain is that it puts a lot of spells you want on always-prepared so you can run more spells. But having bigger numbers on your heals often doesn't matter. You'll almost never be able to outheal the damage coming in so heals are best for picking people up. Tempest "heals" by making it really hard for enemies to hit you. Blast the poo poo out of umpteen goblins and that's umpteen less attacks coming your way. Sleet Storm straight up neutralizes so many enemies too.
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Mar 4, 2018 20:13
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Zerilan posted:Does Life Cleric provide the non-healing aspects of the class well enough? My initial thoughts looking at it was basically "well it already has the healing spells as bonus ones so I can prepare whatever with my actual slots." Trying to decide between Life and Tempest. The decision comes down to whether you want to deal damage or control. Best thing about Life is the solid domain spell list, with things you absolutely want (Bless) for free, opening up your prepared spells for everything else. Except healing word, dont forget that one. I played a life cleric for a while, here is the prepared spells I had at level 8 from an old sheet: 1) healing word, sanctuary, command, detect magic 2) prayer of healing, hold person 3) animate dead, dispel magic, mass healing word, spiritual guardians 4) banishment, freedom of movement Basically a mix of crowd control, healing and utility. With a Tempest cleric, you lean more on damage and might need to prepare the core spells that Life gets for free.
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Mar 4, 2018 20:15
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Zerilan posted:Does Life Cleric provide the non-healing aspects of the class well enough? My initial thoughts looking at it was basically "well it already has the healing spells as bonus ones so I can prepare whatever with my actual slots." Trying to decide between Life and Tempest. They’re both solid. Some people get too focused on the healing part but you can still tear things up like any other cleric. If you’re leaning towards a caster cleric, also give light a glance. making GBS threads radiant damage / fireballs all over enemies while still being able to take hits is very satisfying.
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Mar 4, 2018 20:15
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Zerilan posted:Does Life Cleric provide the non-healing aspects of the class well enough? My initial thoughts looking at it was basically "well it already has the healing spells as bonus ones so I can prepare whatever with my actual slots." Trying to decide between Life and Tempest. Yeah, that's exactly it: almost all of their domain spells are stuff you'd want prepared anyway, which allows more versatility in your prepared list. Combine that with heavy armor and a Channel Divinity that pulls great double duty as both sustain and panic button, and you've got the best Cleric at Cleric-ing. Tempest, on the other hand, is a solid damage dealer Cleric, particularly early on with Thunderwave, Shatter, and their reaction ability. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Mar 4, 2018 |
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Mar 4, 2018 20:16
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I saw light but I wanted the heavy armor life gives since I'll be trying to pull attention away from our rogue a lot.
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Mar 4, 2018 20:18
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Thinking about it, what spells do Clerics get later on that works with the channel divinity. Kind of wondering how each one will scale to the higher levels when Tempest's poo poo applies to a specific damage type. Life seems like it will function really well at all levels at letting my allies get away with being more reckless.
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Mar 4, 2018 22:50
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Zerilan posted:Thinking about it, what spells do Clerics get later on that works with the channel divinity. Thunderwave, Shatter, Call Lightning (but it's a CD per hit so pretty poor), and half of Destructive Wave's damage. That's all.
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Mar 4, 2018 23:02
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Alright, I think I'll go life then. The people I play with are very reckless and keeping them from getting worn down my attrition. Variant Human life cleric, 16/10/13/8/16/8. Resilient at 1 to hit 14 con and save proficiency, then +Wis at 4 and 8.
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Mar 4, 2018 23:05
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You're missing two points there; you could drop Strength to 15 to bring Constitution up to 15+Resilient. 15 10 15 8 16 8
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Mar 4, 2018 23:11
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Is the 15 instead of a 14 just to wear plate? Kind of like having the extra +1 to hit with a weapon but I guess I'm usually blessed anyway if I'm attacking.
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Mar 4, 2018 23:16
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Yeah it's to wear plate without a speed drop. I empathize with trying to get the extra +1 hit/damage, but honestly you won't be swinging your weapon much once you hit level 5+, even with the slight damage bump you get from Divine Strike.
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Mar 4, 2018 23:29
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