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It sounds like there is going to be another spell list, just like any other caster class, but that only Psychic classes can access it, except for the cantrips? Also the Mystic can use it. But uh the current version of Mystic we saw has no "spells" and it would be a pretty big change for it to gain actual "spells" at this point. Which would mean all the playtests would probably be ignored/wasted. Also this implies other psychic classes. I am really hoping that we get some playtest material or UA article or something on Monday or Tuesday. Instead of just dropping this confusing mess of a teaser. But I am not optimistic from what Mearls is saying.
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May 27, 2018 18:32
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Cleric bought bagpipes with his adventure money. He's not proficient. It's going to be a long 250 days of learning... for the rest of the party. And a lot of failed Stealth rolls because he takes them with him everywhere.
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May 27, 2018 18:39
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Razorwired posted:Mearls is a poo poo designer but a brilliant Twitter Troll: Did Mike Mearls congratulate himself for designing a 'new' class by loving palette swapping an old one
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May 28, 2018 08:43
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Darwinism posted:Did Mike Mearls congratulate himself for designing a 'new'
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May 28, 2018 08:47
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Darwinism posted:Did Mike Mearls congratulate himself for designing a 'new' class by loving palette swapping an old one Yes, he is the designer for Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition
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May 28, 2018 08:55
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I'm going to have a go at DMing for once since my usual DM ca't do so over the summer. Is there a good rule of thumb for what stats enemies should have? The idea is that the party gets hired by a spyring that have uncovered a plot by a warlock who is experimenting on the demonic genome which can't be allowed to happen under any circumstances, but when they get to the end of the deungeon they find out that he's actually created a demonic gnome and the spy is bad at reading missives from his agents. I picture it as being a huge monstrosity, and i've been looking at the gnome racials for inspiration. Like Speak with small beasts turns into him having demonic squirrels that run into your armor and bite you if you fail a check and Natural Illusionist turns into demonic illusions that frighten people. How do i balance the stat and damage numbers for say a party of 4-5 level 5s? Also what was the name of that site/programm that let you make 5E styled stat blocks?
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May 28, 2018 13:01
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CJ posted:I'm going to have a go at DMing for once since my usual DM ca't do so over the summer. Is there a good rule of thumb for what stats enemies should have? The idea is that the party gets hired by a spyring that have uncovered a plot by a warlock who is experimenting on the demonic genome which can't be allowed to happen under any circumstances, but when they get to the end of the deungeon they find out that he's actually created a demonic gnome and the spy is bad at reading missives from his agents. Creating a cool encounter: https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/encounter-design-have-ways-of-attacking-different-player-defenses/ Stats for a cool encounter: https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/improved-monster-stats-table-for-dd-5th-edition/ Advice on running a cool encounter: https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/telegraph-your-monsters-attacks/
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May 28, 2018 14:26
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Kibner posted:Creating a cool encounter: https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/encounter-design-have-ways-of-attacking-different-player-defenses/ Seconding this. It takes a ridiculous amount of work out of creating and running encounters. No rolling tons of damage dice for every monster, and you know each encounter will be mostly balanced.
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May 28, 2018 16:02
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Kibner posted:Creating a cool encounter: https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/encounter-design-have-ways-of-attacking-different-player-defenses/ If i use that table how do i convert the CR of a monster manual monster to the CR that table uses (which makes much more sense given that encounters are very rarely 4v1 against a single monster, especially since most of the time the groups I play in aren't 4 players strong)?
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May 28, 2018 16:25
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CJ posted:If i use that table how do i convert the CR of a monster manual monster to the CR that table uses (which makes much more sense given that encounters are very rarely 4v1 against a single monster, especially since most of the time the groups I play in aren't 4 players strong)? If you want to use the MM / the CR system, try this instead: https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2017/06/01/building-an-average-encounter-in-5th-edition-dd/
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May 28, 2018 16:46
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CJ posted:If i use that table how do i convert the CR of a monster manual monster to the CR that table uses (which makes much more sense given that encounters are very rarely 4v1 against a single monster, especially since most of the time the groups I play in aren't 4 players strong)? Iirc, a CR of 1 means it should be a "medium difficulty" encounter for a four-person level one group. That table creates a monster that is also "medium difficulty" for single person group of equivalent level. So, a CR 4 monster would be equivalent to a monster with 4x the hp and dpr (damage per round) of a fourth level character on that revised monster math chart. If you make a big monster like that instead of multiple smaller ones, cool things to do are to treat it like a raid boss in an mmo. Give it phases with different attacks, some adds that come out when it gets chain cc'd, environmental interactivity, alternate goals different than reducing monster to zero health, etc. E; the post above mine is from the author of that blog I linked so take his advice if it conflicts with mine Kibner fucked around with this message at 16:59 on May 28, 2018 |
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May 28, 2018 16:55
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Is it just me, or do Mephits have way too much HP for their role? I figure a small swarm of them can be a fun threat for players around level 3 to 4, but they each have HP that seems to require a solid 3-4 hits despite low stats, an on-death debuff ability, and having not very threatening attacks. Would it be better to err on the side of caution and halve their HP, or are they fine as is?
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May 28, 2018 20:11
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The Bee posted:Is it just me, or do Mephits have way too much HP for their role? I figure a small swarm of them can be a fun threat for players around level 3 to 4, but they each have HP that seems to require a solid 3-4 hits despite low stats, an on-death debuff ability, and having not very threatening attacks. Would it be better to err on the side of caution and halve their HP, or are they fine as is? A level 4 player hits for ~10 hp damage assuming no particular optimization, so they only take 3 hits, tops.
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May 28, 2018 20:33
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The Bee posted:Is it just me, or do Mephits have way too much HP for their role? I figure a small swarm of them can be a fun threat for players around level 3 to 4, but they each have HP that seems to require a solid 3-4 hits despite low stats, an on-death debuff ability, and having not very threatening attacks. Would it be better to err on the side of caution and halve their HP, or are they fine as is? CJ posted:If i use that table how do i convert the CR of a monster manual monster to the CR that table uses (which makes much more sense given that encounters are very rarely 4v1 against a single monster, especially since most of the time the groups I play in aren't 4 players strong)? For sticking with the normal system Kobold Fight Club is really helpful https://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder Another way sticking with the official stuff is Xanathar's Guide to everything's encounter building. Which bases stuff on ratios that work pretty well from what I have heard. It's more or less a reprint of this Unearthed Arcana https://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/Encounter_Building.pdf If I recall there are a few differences, but they are minor. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 20:52 on May 28, 2018 |
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May 28, 2018 20:34
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Are there any decent druid subclasses outside of the two in the phb?
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May 28, 2018 21:20
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MonsterEnvy posted:Mephits are not super dangerous but they can overwhelm in large numbers. Despite what they look like, they are not just weak little imps. They are about on par with a Hobgoblin, Orc or Gnoll. That link suggests 2 CR 2 enemies for a party of 4 level 5s, so i looked up Cult Fanatic which has AC 13, 33 hp, saving throws of +1/+2, and 8 damage per round. The table people posted earlier suggested 4 enemies with AC 14, 45 hp, saving throws of +7/+4/+2 and 11 damage per round. That's a pretty huge delta so which should i go with?
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May 28, 2018 22:08
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CJ posted:That link suggests 2 CR 2 enemies for a party of 4 level 5s, so i looked up Cult Fanatic which has AC 13, 33 hp, saving throws of +1/+2, and 8 damage per round. I would go with the newer UA one myself. As Kobold Fight Club does not take into account one of the things the DMG says. Which is to ignore the multipliers if the Enemies are much weaker then the party. According to the Xanathar's encounter building a Level 5 Character is the equivalent of a CR 2. So 4 enemies would work. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 22:21 on May 28, 2018 |
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May 28, 2018 22:16
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A friend of mine who plays alot of MTG has decided to run some of us through the Ixalan adventure. Has anyone else played this and what should I expect?
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May 28, 2018 23:51
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I played in a campaign tonight that had a DM known for being a character grinder. Last week, 3 of the PCs died, and they refused to reroll and keep playing, so there was only 2 players/characters left - a ... shadow? ninja? monk who was tearing people up and a 4 rogue/1 wizard. I made a pretty boy cleric of Sune with the Criminal background and met up with the party after about 40 minutes... then stumbled almost instantly into a combat with 12+ creatures including a miniboss with multi-attack. DM kept rolling crits all night. So anyway, rolled a 1 on my Death Save. Next round, rolled a 2. The DM looked disappointed... we really liked that character.  I pitched two ideas when I joined though, but he tells me later he is wrestling with the idea of fudging it and letting my Cleric live just for group stability.  Just sharing, I guess. It was a fun session. I love jumping into games and getting briefed almost like a special guest npc or something. I got a bunch of info piled on including some reveal like "oh yeah my gang did X", which was something the remaining 2 PCs had to deal with like 4 sessions ago. They reacted appropriately and I'm sure the DM got a kick out of that. I also got to jump in an play a level 5 cleric, which I've never had the chance to do. Life domain. He's strong as hell, and having the freedom to pick different cleric spells besides heals is fantastic. The DM groaned when I used Spirit Guardian, and then made all 12 of them attack my guy. 18 AC, and it took around 2 full rounds before the multi-attack miniboss got a crit on me. Firstborn fucked around with this message at 06:12 on May 29, 2018 |
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May 29, 2018 06:09
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One of our characters in my curse of Strahd game just bit it. Luckily for him, they were in the middle of completely a quest were the stated reward was that guy was willing to cast Raise Dead up to three times on their behalf. So he was probbaly out of commission for an hour or so before they finished up the quest and got him raised. Plus the fact we had NPC's traveling with us means I could just let him play one of the NPC's until he was raised.
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May 29, 2018 07:25
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Hey ya'll! I'm DMing my first homebrewed campaign and trying my best to tailor the encounters so they're challenging and interesting. A for the discussion upthread, I've found that CR is almost always a poor measure for actual challenge level, at least with a well-balanced party of experienced DnDers. Something I've picked up on is how much action economy really evens things out and just throwing a handful of 1/4 or 1/2 CR monsters in with a couple monsters with higher CRs helps keep things lively and not have the players wail on one unfortunate monster. I have a similar question though. Two of my players put a lot of thought into their characters, a Paladin and a Forge Cleric, and they both go into combat with ACs of 19 and 20 with their abilities, basically making them nigh unhittable by early level monsters. I don't really want to punish them for rolling strong defensive characters but I do want to give them a feeling of *some* challenge in combat. Whats the best way to do that? Lots more enemies that use magic and particularly saving throw type spells?
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May 29, 2018 20:53
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Why would you want to move the goalposts on your players who crafted their characters to be tough? There's this weird thing where it's like "after a certain AC, your DM will stop attacking you" and that's bullshit.
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May 29, 2018 21:19
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Well they're level 1 and 2 and basically can't take damage
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May 29, 2018 21:40
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RC Cola posted:Are there any decent druid subclasses outside of the two in the phb? If you're into summoning, the Circle of the Shepherd in XGtE is quite solid. Features include always-on Speak With Animals, group-wide temp HP 1/short rest (or two other slightly less useful options if your group has someone else to fill that niche), improved survivability for summons, and the ability for said summons' attacks to count as magical (this is the biggie), and dropping bears on the battlefield if you get KO'd or incapacitated. Also the picture of the druid playing with two baby wolves is  If UA is available at your table, the Circle of Spores offers some alternate uses of your reaction and Wild Shape charges that you might find interesting, though I think it's somewhat hobbled by its reliance on the oft-resisted poison damage type.
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May 29, 2018 21:47
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Mike N Eich posted:Two of my players put a lot of thought into their characters, a Paladin and a Forge Cleric, and they both go into combat with ACs of 19 and 20 with their abilities, basically making them nigh unhittable by early level monsters. I don't really want to punish them for rolling strong defensive characters but I do want to give them a feeling of *some* challenge in combat. Whats the best way to do that? Lots more enemies that use magic and particularly saving throw type spells? Yes. https://songoftheblade.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/encounter-design-have-ways-of-attacking-different-player-defenses/
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May 29, 2018 21:48
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Because goblins are smart enough to go for more lightly armored targets first? (Perhaps they even figured out that they should shoot the guy with the wizard hat first!) But yeah, you should definitely have attacks in each encounter that target at least two different things. So like, AC and wisdom saves would be fine. Gradenko wrote an article about this somewhere.
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May 29, 2018 21:48
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Mike N Eich posted:Well they're level 1 and 2 and basically can't take damage I mean, it may feel like that, but that is seriously not the case. One to two solid hits drops them right now, and the odds are good that hits are gonna slip through even if there is only a relatively small chance of them landing. One thing to keep in mind as a DM is that you aren't trying to balance each fight to test them to the limits, you are balancing the whole adventuring day to test them. And, from experience as playing a level 1 in scale with a shield, the odds get to you and it doesn't take too many kobold spears before you're completely out of the fight and maybe the rest of the game.
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May 29, 2018 21:49
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The first person to go down in my game was the 19 AC Fighter, so it's never a sure thing even at that level. Nobody made a healer, either, so he had to depend on his luck.
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May 29, 2018 22:04
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Has anyone played some good homebrew classes? I'm in a new game where the party is fairly large and the DM is not shy about killing (My bard would have died had I not rolled 2 20's on death saves last session). Since I'll probably die at some point and most classes I like are already represented in the party, I was looking around at some homebrew classes. I found one called the Wind Blade which is a nice mix of martial skills and magic enhancements to movement and whatnot, but I want to see whats out there. Anyone have any recommendations?
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May 29, 2018 23:18
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Hmm did anything happen about that Psionics talk Mearls was throwing out where he kept mentioning Tuesday?
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May 30, 2018 00:25
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The 19 AC tank wading through pig iron shortswords and untipped wooden arrows is the Fighter version of knocking out a whole encounter with Sleep. loving with the martials' cool things because they're numbers staring you in the face rather than paragraphs hidden in a spell list is a bad DM habit to get into. Unless of course, you also wanna make every other thing magic immune to challenge the Wizard.
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May 30, 2018 00:42
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Razorwired posted:The 19 AC tank wading through pig iron shortswords and untipped wooden arrows is the Fighter version of knocking out a whole encounter with Sleep. loving with the martials' cool things because they're numbers staring you in the face rather than paragraphs hidden in a spell list is a bad DM habit to get into. Unless of course, you also wanna make every other thing magic immune to challenge the Wizard. This guy gets it. This thread shits on the treatment of Fighters, then suggests creatures with Resistance: Fighter.  (this is a joke, don't get mad) E: not joking, still dont get mad
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May 30, 2018 00:48
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Darwinism posted:I mean, it may feel like that, but that is seriously not the case. One to two solid hits drops them right now, and the odds are good that hits are gonna slip through even if there is only a relatively small chance of them landing. Shortly after the game was released, I decided to play a high AC tanky fighter. AC 18, 12hp. First session I didn't take a hit for the first 4 or 5 encounters, then I got hit by an orc, which dropped me in one shot. The cleric bounced me up same round, but next round before I got my turn I got hit by the orc again, which insta-killed me. And before anyone talks about not throwing orcs at a level 1 party... obviously we figured that out. But the game was new and per the rules in the DMG 2 orcs is a hard encounter which you should be facing ~6 of per day. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 01:57 on May 30, 2018 |
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May 30, 2018 01:45
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Razorwired posted:The 19 AC tank wading through pig iron shortswords and untipped wooden arrows is the Fighter version of knocking out a whole encounter with Sleep. loving with the martials' cool things because they're numbers staring you in the face rather than paragraphs hidden in a spell list is a bad DM habit to get into. Unless of course, you also wanna make every other thing magic immune to challenge the Wizard. I actually never thought of it that way.
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May 30, 2018 01:46
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Firstborn posted:This guy gets it. This thread shits on the treatment of Fighters, then suggests creatures with Resistance: Fighter. Honestly there isn't a nice universal solution. If your game has wizards and warlocks utterly annihilating everything anyways, maybe let the fighter have what few benefits they've got. If everyone is playing on the same level and managing to not bust the game open, and also somehow the fighter being able to take less damage via AC is completely throwing off your encounter plans and dominating the game, adding a few enemy attacks that target saves is a good solution.
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May 30, 2018 01:48
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So some recent tweets about psionics.@mikemearls posted:May 26 @mikemearls posted:It’s a spell list that you gain access to only if you choose a psionic class. Non-casters pick up and use the cantrips. This class-less spell list can also be used by the mystic. It’s going to be fun diving in on Tuesday. (2/2) @mikemearls posted:Maybe this is clearer - imagine there’s a new school of magic called psionics. As a default, none of those spells appear on any class’s list. You have to choose a psionic subclass, and it tells you that you can now choose spells from that list. Subclasses Mike Mearls has made @mikemearls posted:In between doing psionics stuff, I’m re-reading ancient essays on GNS theory and just boggling at how far we’ve come. I’m happy that the current culture of D&D is based on actual play, individual creativity, and getting to what works for people at the table. quote:Out of curiosity, how much game theory (and GNS Theory, and its successors in particular) was used in the construction of 5e? Was it used more or less than the surveys, etc? @mikemearls posted:We didn’t use anything directly. The keys to success were: @mikemearls posted:I’ve always found physical work is a great way to relax the mind while pondering a problem. Think I found the last piece for psionics while working on the backyard. Tuesday is going to be fun. quote:So where and when is this happy fun hour again? Cause gonna tell ya right now, I am super into psionics! @mikemearls posted:Tuesdays Hmm was looking forward to more Psionics information on Tuesday, but haven't seen any. Maybe it was on this twitch thing? @mikemearls posted:And toughest task of the week - purging any hint of all the stuff we have on tap for 2019, so I can focus on 2018 at Steam of Many Eyes. This is harder than it sounds, since I basically live in 2019 these days. @mikemearls posted:OK everyone, let's settle this (or not) once and for all. Is the psionic class named the mystic or the psion? I certainly hope all the build up to Psionics wasn't just for this one poll.
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May 30, 2018 02:35
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Just got back from a session of Storm Kings, the crew were assaulting a Hill Giant Lair, a bit early and all, but they were into it. They decided to cast invis on everyone in the party, and pretty much had free reign around the bottom of the lair though, making much of my prep senseless. They ascended up to the big boss pretty much unabated, with invis wearing off just before the room. Now however the entire Lair is on alert, and they have to deal with a lot more stuff all at once. Out of curiosity, is there anything I am missing with Invisibility that I should have called on? Invis makes them imperceptible to sight, but they still make noise as they walk. Even with that, having a 0 or worse perception means just about everything in the place couldn't notice anything. The only things I could get to even get a notion of someone being there were animals ( That are in cages ) like Wolves/Boars.
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May 30, 2018 03:18
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including monsters that attack via saving throws isn't "countering the Fighter", it's addressing the fact that, under normal circumstances, you're only ever going to be able to "counter" the spellcaster because so many monsters can only target AC. even if you don't have a high AC defensive character in the party, you'd still want to have the variety of having saving throw targeting monsters. to put it another way, you can't Sleep the undead, but then you also never fight only undead for long periods of time either gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 04:29 on May 30, 2018 |
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May 30, 2018 03:50
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Were they making Stealth checks? If the enemy has any reason to suspect someone is there have them roll Perception instead of just taking the Passive. If they are not making Stealth checks then the enemy knows exactly where they are, they may have disadvantage with attack rolls but they can still attack.
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May 30, 2018 03:58
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gradenko_2000 posted:including monsters that attack via saving throws isn't "countering the Fighter", it's addressing the fact that, under normal circumstances, you're only ever going to be able to "counter" the spellcaster because so many monsters can only target AC. It's a shame that there aren't more save-targeting monsters. I'm not talking about save-or-die or save-or-suck here, just "make a save or take damage". Variety is good.
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May 30, 2018 04:24
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