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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I'm gonna be playing Tomb of Annihilation. My group is most of the way through the campaign (we enter level 4 of the Tomb itself tomorrow night) and I’d say a ranger is probably the most flavorful class choice available (our ranger is RPing the hell out of a Teddy Roosevelt-style big-game hunter and loving it). Without giving too much away, you’ll be doing a lot of traipsing through dense jungle, and having a competent forager and scout can possibly allow you to hand-wave away a lot of troublesome logistics. A cleric would also have a lot of utility (the jungles of Chult are lousy with undead), and our monk seems to have had a good time. Whatever you do, do not rely on heavy armor—exhaustion is literally killer out there. I’m playing a thief type, and feel my talents are mostly wasted outside the brief stints in Port Nyanzaro. Apropos of nothing: our warlock has been slowly building up a cult of the local Battiri goblins and has been having a blast with it. Farg posted:big game hunter ranger This guy knows what’s up vvvv tgacon fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jan 28, 2019 |
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Jan 28, 2019 06:27
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I'm gonna be playing Tomb of Annihilation. big game hunter ranger
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Jan 28, 2019 06:27
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I'm gonna be playing Tomb of Annihilation. I did the adventure last year as a Grave Domain cleric. I took a single level of Barbarian at 1 for the str/con save proficiencies and unarmored defense (because we were using the armor=exhaustion rules in the adventure). Hill Dwarf for Con/Wis starting stats and bonus HP at level up (effectively makes you equivalent to a D10 hit die class like Ranger or Fighter). You get 30ft ranged Spare the Dying cantrip. You can change criticals against you/your party that you can see into normal hits. You can curse creatures to make them vulnerable to the next hit against them (coordinate with the rogue or paladin just before they nova to 1 shot most things). Plus, if you choose to worship someone like Kelemvor, you've got a real good reason to be going down to Chult.
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Jan 28, 2019 06:30
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I'm gonna be playing Tomb of Annihilation. Hexblade warlock is pretty good for that. Been playing one in CoS. Downside is that most of your buffs are Concentration.
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Jan 28, 2019 07:51
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Sun Soul monk. Radiant damage and your Goku levels increase significantly every level. ... I need to make a character that's Vegeta. gently caress. I can do the voice.
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Jan 28, 2019 07:52
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I'm gonna be playing Tomb of Annihilation. Cleric with a heavy armor domain? There's Spirit Guardians for crowd control, Magic Initiate to pick up -Blade cantrips and Find Familiar (ask your DM if the totally rad flying snake is an acceptable pet), and general cleric utility, before getting into domain-specific bonuses. Storm is a pretty well-known powerhouse, among others, but Order also has a really nice set of abilities and bonus spells. Someone mentioned armor-related exhaustion penalties, though, so maybe this isn't actually a great idea. Mostly I'm just gushing about how much I want to play a cleric for my next PC.
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Jan 28, 2019 09:25
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I like roll20’s dynamic lighting and fog of war setup. What’s a good way to mimic this on an actual tabletop? Sticky notes? Pieces of paper? Transparency paper cut into circles?
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Jan 28, 2019 16:35
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Trying to play D&D again for the first time in a long time. Since it's topical, I figured I'd ask. I went Hill Dwarf Cleic in the Life Domain as the only other person who can heal is a Ranger. My plan was to wear heavy armor, a shield, and wade into combat doing a combo of melee, casting, and healing. Is that not a viable thing? Went Hill Dwarf so I've got the Warhammer. When I played ages ago I was a War Cleric and that seemed to be okay. Also it sounds like I can generally put my spell focus on my shield to cast with it equipped? And then at level 4 pick up war casting so I don't have to unequip it to do the somatic portions? Does that all sound about right? Should I clear that with my DM if we're getting into annoying power gaming territory?
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Jan 28, 2019 16:55
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Internet Explorer posted:Trying to play D&D again for the first time in a long time. Since it's topical, I figured I'd ask. I went Hill Dwarf Cleic in the Life Domain as the only other person who can heal is a Ranger. My plan was to wear heavy armor, a shield, and wade into combat doing a combo of melee, casting, and healing. Is that not a viable thing? Went Hill Dwarf so I've got the Warhammer. When I played ages ago I was a War Cleric and that seemed to be okay. Per the spellcsstimg section of the PHB, the hand you use to hold your component, (here your shield as a holy symbol) can be the same hand used to perform somatic components, so you don't need war caster for that. Even if for some reason you couldn't use your shield hand, you could stow your weapon with your free item interaction and cast a spell using that free hand, since you only ever need one for somatic components. As for being a melee life cleric, totally viable. Life clerics are proficient in heavy armor, and with a warhammer you'll be doing some decent smashing. Just remember that spiritual weapon is non concentration, so there's almost never a reason not to have it up during combat. Unless you're hurting for spell slots.
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Jan 28, 2019 17:10
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Raar_Im_A_Dinosaur posted:Per the spellcsstimg section of the PHB, the hand you use to hold your component, (here your shield as a holy symbol) can be the same hand used to perform somatic components, so you don't need war caster for that. Even if for some reason you couldn't use your shield hand, you could stow your weapon with your free item interaction and cast a spell using that free hand, since you only ever need one for somatic components.  Thank you. I had no idea a "free item interaction" even existed. And yeah, I do remember Spiritual Weapon always being really strong, and I have been watching Critical Role so I see it's pretty much just as strong as ever. I'm assuming the focus on the shield bit is a given since you didn't mention it. Thanks a lot for the insight!
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Jan 28, 2019 17:21
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Just remember that you still have to do the somatic bits even if your shield is the focus. So, be sure to describe how you're waving your bigass shield around in funky patterns and praying to your God! It owns.
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Jan 28, 2019 17:28
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Toshimo posted:Just remember that you still have to do the somatic bits even if your shield is the focus. Having a strong Tokusatsu background helps.
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Jan 28, 2019 17:47
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mango sentinel posted:Having a strong Tokusatsu background helps. ya its important to eat lots of fried chicken to get your shield arm strong
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Jan 28, 2019 17:54
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Melee can work at early levels but your cantrips will out perform it by level 5, and that won't require splitting your ability scores all awkwardly. In fact, as a Hill Dwarf, you don't even need 15 str to wear heavy armor without drawbacks, giving you all the more reason to focus on wisdom and con. (It's early and I traditionally gently caress up things like this in morning posts so point out if I got it wrong.) I personally don't like Life Domain either but that's more a matter of preference.
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Jan 28, 2019 17:56
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Melee can work at early levels but your cantrips will out perform it by level 5, and that won't require splitting your ability scores all awkwardly. Is the bit about Hill Dwarf (or Dwarfs in general) and Str true? I see that you don't get slowed down by heavy armor, but I am not seeing the bit about not getting drawbacks for low Str, but again I am new to this.
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Jan 28, 2019 18:37
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Internet Explorer posted:Is the bit about Hill Dwarf (or Dwarfs in general) and Str true? I see that you don't get slowed down by heavy armor, but I am not seeing the bit about not getting drawbacks for low Str, but again I am new to this. Heavy armor now has a minimum strength requirement, and you'll eat a penalty to movement if you fail to meet it. Ignoring strength means more points to spend elsewhere, although if you're using either an array or point buy there's not a huge advantage to needing only 2 key stats instead of 3. If you like bashing people over the head and want to continue to do so at higher levels, you can look into the Magic Initiate feat to pick up the Blade cantrips from the wizard list, along with Find Familiar, so you won't have the issue of cantrips outpacing weapon attacks if your cantrips are your weapon attacks.
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Jan 28, 2019 20:44
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Internet Explorer posted:Is the bit about Hill Dwarf (or Dwarfs in general) and Str true? I see that you don't get slowed down by heavy armor, but I am not seeing the bit about not getting drawbacks for low Str, but again I am new to this. In the section on Dwarf speed it specifically calls out that their speed is never reduced by armor. So while they are slower than most races they don't get any slower even when wearing heavy armor and not meeting the Strength requirement. So yes if you want to wear heavy armor and not have high Strength then Dwarf is good for that. On the other hand the Cleric archetypes that get heavy armor also usually, but not always, get extra damage to one weapon attack per turn at 8th level. Instead of the +Wis mod to cantrip damage feature some archetypes get at level 8. And yeah any class that is only making a single attack per round would benefit from Magic Initiate and one of the Blade cantrips.
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Jan 28, 2019 22:04
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Specifically, Booming Blade uses your weapon attack and does fixed extra damage. Green Flame Blade damage is going to key partially off your magic initiate caster stat (so INT or CHA). The only way to really justify both imo is taking them as Arcana Cleric and delivering them via Shillelagh. That makes you less dependent on other attributes (you'll want 14 dex, but wis is the only one that truly needs 16+)
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Jan 28, 2019 22:08
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Ryuujin posted:In the section on Dwarf speed it specifically calls out that their speed is never reduced by armor. So while they are slower than most races they don't get any slower even when wearing heavy armor and not meeting the Strength requirement. So yes if you want to wear heavy armor and not have high Strength then Dwarf is good for that. On the other hand the Cleric archetypes that get heavy armor also usually, but not always, get extra damage to one weapon attack per turn at 8th level. Instead of the +Wis mod to cantrip damage feature some archetypes get at level 8. Can't you not cast spells if you're wearing armor you aren't proficient in?
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Jan 28, 2019 22:23
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Thanks everyone for the info. It's much appreciated! I feel like I'm generally good at putting a character together but with having not played in forever this is all great advice. [Edit: I'll probably keep my current Str. We've already rolled (I chose to stat buy) and I feel like my big 3 stats are fine as-is.]
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Jan 28, 2019 22:23
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Pendent posted:Can't you not cast spells if you're wearing armor you aren't proficient in? The Cleric domains in question ARE proficient. The issue isn't using it, it's the movement penalty at less than 15 STR, which dwarves ignore.
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Jan 28, 2019 22:50
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Pendent posted:Can't you not cast spells if you're wearing armor you aren't proficient in? You can't cast spells while wearing armor/shields if you're not proficient in them, no. Internet Explorer posted:Trying to play D&D again for the first time in a long time. Since it's topical, I figured I'd ask. I went Hill Dwarf Cleic in the Life Domain as the only other person who can heal is a Ranger. My plan was to wear heavy armor, a shield, and wade into combat doing a combo of melee, casting, and healing. Is that not a viable thing? Went Hill Dwarf so I've got the Warhammer. When I played ages ago I was a War Cleric and that seemed to be okay. Clerics in 5e are absolutely meant to be short-range, face-wrecking off-tanks, the issue is Concentration: if you're in melee you're liable to get hit, and if you get hit you will need to be rolling Constitution saves to not lose Spirit Guardians or whatever else you have up. It's not super critical early when all you have worth maintaining is Bless, but from an optimization perspective you definitely want to grab either War Caster or Resilient [Constitution] so you don't waste your spells (and in the latter case, CON saves are the most common in the system, so that helps with staying on your feet). Also note, as mentioned by others, that Clerics (and Paladins) are explicitly called out as being able to cast S+M spells without issues using their equipped shields as Holy Symbols. They were meant to do this. Resilient is thus a better pick than War Caster, particularly if you have an uneven CON score so you get to round it up. But what are your attribute scores? Chances are that, even if you want to be melee, by level 5 either Sacred Flame or Toll the Dead are going to be better basic attack actions than swinging your hammer. And yeah, the powergame move with Dwarf Clerics is to put like a 10 in STR (shifting tertiary points to the more useful DEX stat) and equip Heavy Armor anyway.
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Jan 28, 2019 23:02
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Toshimo posted:Just lol if you don't neatly place the Lightning Bolt scroll on the ground and then cast the Fireball scroll on it. Lol he's right just lol
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Jan 29, 2019 00:56
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Glory to Italia!
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I would hesitate to apply modern secular attitudes to a universe where gods and souls 100% exist and everybody knows it. “It’s just some bones bruh” isn’t going to fly when your using my grandmothers corspe as a pack mule and in doing so may be affecting her afterlife in some way. Necromancy would have to be seriously hated and cremation would probably be near universal. Even if you were just doing it to monsters out in the wild people would still wonder if you were digging up humans when they weren’t looking. Same goes for mind control but like 10x more.
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Jan 29, 2019 03:08
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Conspiratiorist posted:You can't cast spells while wearing armor/shields if you're not proficient in them, no. 14 Str, 10 Dex, 3 Con [Edit: 16 Con], 8 Int, 16 Wis, 10 Cha. I did point buy, so if it make sense I guess I'll ask the DM if I can rebuy. We haven't actually started yet and are scheduled to have a "Session 0" soon. Thanks for the thoughts on shields and holy symbols, also on Resilent and War Caster. I think I was assuming there was still Attack of Opportunity on casters in melee range, but I see that's been taken out and now you just have disadvantage if you cast a ranged spell with an attack roll (not just DC). And it looks like that is on any ranged target, not just the dude in melee range. Won't get Toll the Dead as I'm a Life Cleric, but I see what you're saying and should be able to use Sacred Flame. One question on the Booming Blade / Green Blade. It looks like those are in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, which I am not sure we're playing with. We are going to be in Faerun, specifically doing the Storm King's Thunder, but I am not sure we are playing with additional books. Does that change anything? Or should I talk my DM into allowing them, not for my powergaming purposes, but just more in general? Thanks again all for the info. Internet Explorer fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jan 29, 2019 |
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Jan 29, 2019 03:23
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I asked this in the board games thread, and maybe I should ask it here too. Are there any board games you might recommend to see if people could be interested in D&D? I know wizards makes a D&D adventure system game, but having never played it, I don't know if it could serve as a light intro to dungeon crawling. I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. I have a group of people who semi regularly get together for a game night and I would like to try to run D&D, but i'm not sure that they would like it. Really looking for like a halfway point.
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Jan 29, 2019 03:31
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Internet Explorer posted:14 Str, 10 Dex, 3 Con, 8 Int, 16 Wis, 10 Cha. I did point buy NANI?!?
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Jan 29, 2019 03:32
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Zev posted:I asked this in the board games thread, and maybe I should ask it here too. Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate It’s the Betrayal at the House on the Hill system, but D&D-ized. My regular group plays it on break nights and it’s been quite fun for what it is.
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Jan 29, 2019 03:35
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Zev posted:I asked this in the board games thread, and maybe I should ask it here too. Descent will give you a feel for the dungeon crawl and combat.
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Jan 29, 2019 03:40
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Zev posted:I asked this in the board games thread, and maybe I should ask it here too. Descent or Gloomhaven?
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Jan 29, 2019 03:40
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I may be the only person in this thread who likes Forgotten Realms, but are there any books or supplements that talk about changes in cosmology in FR from 4th to 5th edition, especially in regards to the changes in how magic worked? I'm familiar with some of the lore both from this transition and also the shift from 3rd edition to 4th, but I have this slightly sarcastic fondness for watching how they shoehorn changes in cannon in order to justify commercially-motivated changes in edition in order to sell more crap.
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Jan 29, 2019 04:15
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JustJeff88 posted:I may be the only person in this thread who likes Forgotten Realms, but are there any books or supplements that talk about changes in cosmology in FR from 4th to 5th edition, especially in regards to the changes in how magic worked? I'm familiar with some of the lore both from this transition and also the shift from 3rd edition to 4th, but I have this slightly sarcastic fondness for watching how they shoehorn changes in cannon in order to justify commercially-motivated changes in edition in order to sell more crap. The Sundering series of separate novels covered the changes from 4th to 5th Edition. In particular you likely want Ed Greenwood’s The Herald, which has an incredibly fun long term lore payoff. Mystra pulls out her “in case of emergency break glass button” and it’s not at all what you’d think it is. Larloch is a Chosen of Mystra. Larloch! And all of Warlock’s Crypt doing his bidding to save her.
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Jan 29, 2019 04:37
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Gonna go sun soul monk or grave cleric for ToA unless the GM wants to stick to phb only. Thanks! I've started the module 2 times before and filled in for a session that was in the tomb itself where I just played someone else's character in a 3 hour long fight scene. Without too many spoilers, is there anything module-specific that I shouldn't do that might not be obvious? Apart from heavy armor loving things up if the group uses that rule? Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Jan 29, 2019 |
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Jan 29, 2019 06:13
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Toshimo posted:NANI?!? I don't know what that means but I assume that's in response to the 3 Con. Sorry, I typed it and then Chrome ate my post and had to retype. 16, 3 is the modifier. Internet Explorer fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jan 29, 2019 |
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Jan 29, 2019 06:36
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Numlock posted:I would hesitate to apply modern secular attitudes to a universe where gods and souls 100% exist and everybody knows it. “It’s just some bones bruh” isn’t going to fly when your using my grandmothers corspe as a pack mule and in doing so may be affecting her afterlife in some way. Necromancy would have to be seriously hated and cremation would probably be near universal. except speak with dead exists and you can ask your granny if her afterlife is being impacted
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Jan 29, 2019 06:40
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Elfgames posted:except speak with dead exists and you can ask your granny if her afterlife is being impacted Right? "Don't apply modern secular attitudes", sure, but also don't apply what you imagine medieval european religious attitudes to have been (and fuckin' lol at the idea that those were consistently (or even usually) "your remains to be interred in a churchyard and forever undisturbed"). But yeah, I guess some D&D cultures (or other groups) might be real big on the "human remains must be forever undisturbed" thing, but others might not give a single poo poo. Maybe it's just not a big deal because you can literally, while still alive, travel to the afterlife and ask dear old mum her opinion on the matter, and her answer is invariably "who gives a poo poo about what happens to a broken flesh-prison, and when are you coming to stay?" E: Maybe it's not a big deal because it's just not a big deal, you know? Maybe dead bodies are just seen as any other kind of human waste? Maybe it's just usual for your bones to be used later, if they're needed? Maybe it's either that or they just get used for decorating stuff and it's seen as a better thing, in general, for them to stay together walking around than for instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Jan 29, 2019 |
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Jan 29, 2019 06:54
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Elfgames posted:except speak with dead exists and you can ask your granny if her afterlife is being impacted Well, assuming the most benign interpretation of Animate Dead, I guess it's just a matter of cultural perception on whether undead minions are feared or accepted. Devotees of Wee Jas take a very utilitarian approach to Necromancy, but that's hardly the norm by the standards of most settings. If you want to dig into the history and the anthropology of the world, you might even hypothesize that cultures that accept the use of undead have a history of necromancers holding significant amounts of political power, while undead-fearing cultures are typically those that have never developed the study of practical necromancy; a society of magistocrats would find it a powerful tool for strengthening their regime, while a mundane, magic-less king would consider it a threat to their power. Since Animate Dead is on the Cleric and Wizard spell lists, I'd predict that an undead-accepting society would have a well-established class of religious professionals and/or arcane literati, and centralized institutions of higher education to train and support them. A decentralized feudal state, on the other hand, without the centralized bureaucracy or sense of nationhood to fund and maintain a national university, would probably not have a socially-entrenched class of magical professionals; since necromancers are typically rare and foreign, they and their occult practices would reasonably be a subject of fear. On the other end of the spectrum, maybe necromancy in your setting is some Warhammer Fantasy-esque Magic Chaos Radiation, where its very existence is a fundamental affront to the natural order of life and death, and prolonged exposure to necromancy, even from the safe end of an Inflict Wounds spell, will corrupt your fundamental essence and twist you into some kind of horrific radioactive mutant. As an aside, in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, which were based on a d20 system, droids were mechanically analogous to undead, in the sense that the Destroy Droid line of powers were explicitly a Light-side ability, like how Turn Undead was traditionally an ability of Good and Neutral clerics. It does provide a pretty good basis for a society where menial labor is performed by undead, though. I guess it really depends on what kind of world your DM has in mind, but there's definitely a lot of interesting anthropology you can extrapolate from a community's attitudes towards undead.
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Jan 29, 2019 07:08
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Without too many spoilers, is there anything module-specific that I shouldn't do that might not be obvious? Apart from heavy armor loving things up if the group uses that rule? So much of the answer to that is going to depend on your DM and how much they stick to the rules as written. Things you should do: 1. Keep the Lesser Restoration, Create/Destroy Water, and Purify Food and Drink spells permanently memorized. 2. If going Cleric, strongly consider taking your first level in Barbarian for the Unarmored Defense and Constitution saving throw proficiency. It makes a huge difference. (Not required of your DM doesn’t bother with armor exhaustion and/or allows you to use dwarven ability to not get exhausted by armor) 3. If your DM is tracking days closely (the game is meant to be on a time limit), don’t be stingy with spell slots for making water, destroying fog, and/or purifying food. Rest during the day while your party handles travel if need be. 4. If you get a free feat, strongly consider Magic Initiate (Wizard) for Find Familiar, Shocking Grasp (Target can’t take reactions for one round), and Chill Touch (Target has disadvantage to attack you for one round). Cast them as touch spells through your familiar. These save lives.
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Jan 29, 2019 07:27
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Zev posted:I asked this in the board games thread, and maybe I should ask it here too. Settlers of Catan creates interesting table dynamics and deal-making, alliances and betrayals. You can then expand to the more rules heavy Cities and Knights and then some scenario expansions like Explorers and Pirates. I had some people who love Catan but D&D wasn't for them but I think they tried out of enjoying Catan.
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Jan 29, 2019 09:11
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Zev posted:I asked this in the board games thread, and maybe I should ask it here too. Sidibaba has the exploration element of dungeon crawling without the combat, while Last Night on Earth has turn based movement on a grid with dice based combat.
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Jan 29, 2019 10:14
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