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Bhodi posted:As a front line tanky paladin, having to roll concentration every time I take a blow really slows the game down and 'casters op' aside that's probably my biggest gripe with it. It's fantastic on enemies but on players It's bad enough that we're probably going to house rule it just to speed things up. That might be a problem at very low level. Hit L6 and your check should be 1d20+Con+Cha, meaning that unless you get hit really hard, you'll need to roll maybe a "4" on that d20 to make the check. As for the "slows the game down," I suppose any time anything happens it can slow the game down. When my GM tells me my character got hit and I have a concentration spell running, I roll the d20 as I'm being given the damage. Takes maybe two extra seconds.
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Feb 11, 2019 01:33
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The Gate posted:3-4d6 healing for one slot is better than most healing at that level, and that's like worst case scenario. I agree that it's your best conversion of spell slots to healing volume by a landslide, I just think sometimes that's not going to be a great trade regardless. At low levels it really will often be close to 4d6 if it's your only out of combat healing. Defeatist Elitist fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 11, 2019 01:52
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The Gate posted:Depends. At times Disc was heavily damage > healing with a side of shields, other times it's been mostly shields, or even just direct healing with a bit of damage. Yeah the game has changed so much over the years I should have specifically said atonement healing.
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Feb 11, 2019 01:59
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lightrook posted:The bigger issue has to do with the way D&D combat is designed. Damage in MMOs tends to be steady and consistent, but damage in D&D tends to be irregular and spiky, since enemies can only attack and deal damage once per initiative order. If you imagine a very simple ability like "once per turn, if you dealt radiant or necrotic damage, heal any nearby ally for a small flat value," you'll have a hard time getting much value from it, in terms of getting over hits-to-kill thresholds. At low levels, anybody without heavy armor might get completely chunked out by an unlucky hit, and healing them for 1 or 2 hp isn't going to increase the number of Orc Warrior Ax-hits they survive. For small, regular healing to be worthwhile in D&D, the game needs to have small, regular damage as well, and I'm not really sure how to remedy it without up and leaving for another game system. I'd like to see rules that suggest a vaguely bell-shaped expected damage table, for example, but I don't see how that'd be possible without overhauling all the math. That is also what makes combat in MMOs boring and repetitive. Having higher highs and lower lows helps keep the game social. Everyone gets excited over a huge crit and shocked over a miss on something that needs to land. MMOs may involve more button pressing than Everquest, but they're largely still stuck in the rut of slowly grinding down HP bars on fights where the players are assured a victory.
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Feb 11, 2019 02:18
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Bhodi posted:As a front line tanky paladin, having to roll concentration every time I take a blow really slows the game down and 'casters op' aside that's probably my biggest gripe with it. It's fantastic on enemies but on players It's bad enough that we're probably going to house rule it just to speed things up. 95% of the time it's a binary DC10 check and the remaining 5% it's an easily player-side calculable number (damage you took / 2), so if it's slowing the game down the problem is the players need to be proactive with a very simple mechanic instead of being reminded they need to roll.
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Feb 11, 2019 03:19
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If you really want to get around Concentration limitations: Bards, Clerics, and Wizards get the third level spell Glyph of Warding. Left alone, it just does 5d8 elemental damage of your choice in a 20 ft radius sphere when triggered. But if you choose the "spell glyph" option, you can put any spell you know in it cast at third level (or higher if you cast it higher). So if you "concentrate" your power in your home or whatever, you could just spend a week or so (and 200 GP a pop) stacking up permanent options on innocuous objects. Because concentration duration spells just continue for their full duration once triggered on whoever activates the glyph. Now, technically, RAW it says "you inscribe a glyph that harms other creatures", but that's probably just referring to the Explosive Runes option. If I'm DMing, anyone that's willing to drop 200 GP per item that can be used for a buff or whatever later but can't be moved more than 10 feet from initial enchantment? That's fine. --- 3rd Edition Spell Glyph clarifies "any harmful spell of 3rd level or lower that you know" but it was specifically a Cleric spell. 5th Edition Spell Glyph clarifies "a prepared spell of 3rd level or lower" but you have to cast it alongside Glyph of Warding. Well anyway regardless of ruling: if someone wants to cast it for a home defense sort of situation since they have immunity or resistance to one of the elemental damage types it's still useful. By default Explosive Runes only affects creatures. Doesn't matter if it's Acid, Fire, or Thunder, inanimate objects are unharmed. --- Haste is a harmful spell for intruders stringless fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 11, 2019 05:11
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Playing in a campaign that's intended to be long-term: 1-20. Then our characters eventually go NPC and we start new ones. High hopes! We did sessions 0 and 1 but we're skipping a week so we're skipping from level 1 to 3 (an outlier in the leveling system but also we're about to get into our second huge combat). I started level 1 Very Human Paladin, rolled stats finalized at 18 10 14 9 12 16 with Heavy Armor Master. I'm going to go Storm Soul Sorcerer eventually. It's what my character was written to be born to do. Should I go P2/S1 for (defense) fighting style and cantrip utility or P3 (Devotion) for glowy +3 to attack? But then it's P4 for War Caster, P5 for extra attack, P6 for +3 to friendly regional saves? But I don't really want to end up stuck on Paladin. I kind of want to wait until the DM can make it relevant to start leveling in Storm Soul but also it's already fine if I'm suddenly struck by a lightning bolt during this level-up. I am open to suggestions. Even Paladin 1/Sorcerer 1/Bard 1 for 6 cantrips and 10 level one spells known/prepared (and still just three level one spell slots). Padlock is out of the question, one of the other players is doing that. Combat isn't going to be super important until it's suddenly super important, as far as play style. Thoughts?
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Feb 11, 2019 05:41
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Paladin 2 rest Sorc. Defense is good. War Caster at Sorc 4 so you can cast Shield with a shield equipped. Heavy Armor Master is a bad pick past the very early levels, though, particularly since you're going for a build with very high AC (and therefore gets hit less). Not terrible, but overall underwhelming. Storm Sorcerer otoh is really bad and I'd suggest you just go Draconic instead. Blue/Bronze if you want buffed Lightning Bolts but either way you'll still get archetype features you will actually use. Ask for a refluff if typing DRAGON in the character sheet bothers you.
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Feb 11, 2019 06:03
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FFT posted:Playing in a campaign that's intended to be long-term: 1-20. Then our characters eventually go NPC and we start new ones. High hopes! We did sessions 0 and 1 but we're skipping a week so we're skipping from level 1 to 3 (an outlier in the leveling system but also we're about to get into our second huge combat). The two main cutoffs for Sorcadins are PLD 2/SOR 18 and PLD 6/SOR 14; the first one is the bare minimum, and gets you the maximum amount of spells, and the second gets you extra attack and the save bonus, as you mentioned. I think if you already have another Padlock on the team, I'd cut paladin levels and go hard into sorcerer in a 2/18 split, because spells are fun. I'm assuming you used Heavy Armor Master to round out your STR stat to 18? Usually I see that feat in competition with Resilient (CON), but that also assumes point buy. I'm personally not a fan of it, but in this specific case, it's probably one of the better half-feats for STR you can get. Defense is a fine fighting style, but I'm not a huge fan of most Channel Divinity effects since they take an entire action. Anyways, if you expect more talking than fighting, then having faster spell progression could open some more options for you. The downside is losing Extra Attack, but the -Blade cantrips (Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade) and their cantrip scaling partially make up for it. The other issue is you won't get Warcaster until level 6, which makes it a little awkward to sword-and-board and still cast VSM spells. You can either use a two-handed weapon so you'll always have a free hand, or you can use your object interaction to stow your weapon on turns you want to cast, and draw on turns you want to swing. This inconvenience only applies to VSM spells, so check your spell book carefully.
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Feb 11, 2019 06:08
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lightrook posted:You can either use a two-handed weapon so you'll always have a free hand I mean, I get how it works, but I'd really like to see someone reading that sentence who doesn't already know about D&D
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Feb 11, 2019 06:20
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Conspiratiorist posted:Storm Sorcerer otoh is really bad lightrook posted:I'm assuming you used Heavy Armor Master to round out your STR stat to 18? Also there are guns in this campaign so HAM is going to be helpful. re: Devotion's Channel Divinity effect: this is the sort of game that I'll be able to engage it before combat starts so costing an action isn't much of a problem. re: the wait until War Caster, I'm kind of modeling this after Norse Mythology Thor (red hair and all) so while I do possess a shield, I'm using a warhammer so casting isn't a big problem especially early since I've only got a small number of spell slots better spent on Smites in combat. The Defense fighting style counts as half a shield anyway. I'm almost certainly going PAL 2/SOR X I'm just interested to see what other people think. Gharbad the Weak posted:I mean, I get how it works, but I'd really like to see someone reading that sentence who doesn't already know about D&D
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Feb 11, 2019 10:01
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FFT posted:Counterpoint: Thundering Smite followed by getting in the big bad's face to say "Hello, there!" 2 extra damage at level six. FFT posted:re: the wait until War Caster, I'm kind of modeling this after Norse Mythology Thor (red hair and all) so while I do possess a shield, I'm using a warhammer so casting isn't a big problem especially early since I've only got a small number of spell slots better spent on Smites in combat. The Defense fighting style counts as half a shield anyway. If you don't plan on using a shield then you should've gotten Resilient [Constitution]. You should get it anyway, really.
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Feb 11, 2019 10:18
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Conspiratiorist posted:2 extra damage at level six. What are you talking about. It's 3 at minimum. quote:Heart of the Storm It's free damage so not going to complain. The Sorcerer is also a pretty strong base class, so anything it gets is really just extras.
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Feb 11, 2019 11:31
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MonsterEnvy posted:What are you talking about. It's 3 at minimum. Oh right it's 6th so 3 damage at level 8. You're never using Thunderous Smite at that level anyway.
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Feb 11, 2019 11:43
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It is my personal opinion that everything but combat should be complex. The character build and angle can be as complicated as you like, but when it comes to rolling the dice it should be easy.
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Feb 11, 2019 12:48
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Sorry, Thunderous Smite: (1st, bonus action, V, concentration 1 minute) The first time you hit with a melee weapon attack, your weapon makes a thunderous boom that spans 300 feet from you. The attack deals an extra 2d6 thunder damage. Additionally, if the target is a creature, it must succeed on a Strength save or be pushed 10 feet away from you and knocked prone. It doesn't benefit from being up cast, but eh Paladin spells are easy to switch out. And specifically the 10 ft bonus movement when casting a 1+ level spell from Storm Soul level 1 stringless fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Feb 11, 2019 |
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Feb 11, 2019 21:31
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Had a pretty cool experience last night. In a previous session a month or so ago, my Swashbuckler had a perfect round in a sewer battle against a crowd of giant rats: natural 20 on both short sword attacks and all 6's on the d6 damage rolls, massively overkilling two of them. The party starts to sarcastically call me the "Ratslayer" and it sticks, to the point my character starts using it in intimidation dialogue. Fast forward to yesterday's session, the party camps during travel at an abandoned farm and we decide to clear the barn before resting for the night. We tear through a group of giant rats in the barn, hamming up the Ratslayer persona, raging through the rats as the DM describes the entrails, tails, eyeballs, etc of the rat corpses hanging off my armor and beard. After the last rat drops, the DM asks what we want to do and I cheekily suggest we look in their wallets. He says "You find this" and tosses a box of Triscuits to me. I catch it, open it up, and inside is a custom embroidered dice bag with a rat skull on a d20 and "Ratslayer" embroidered below it. I think I'll keep this group
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Feb 12, 2019 01:32
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Ginger Beer Belly posted:Had a pretty cool experience last night. You should post this in the notable experience thread, too! Your DM rules
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Feb 12, 2019 01:43
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Toshimo posted:Hit Dice take an hour and can low roll. Healing Spirit tops everyone off in 1 minute. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've used Prayer of Healing in much the same fashion (as recently as last session); I'm just saying using spells for healing should only be done because of a time pressure (typically, while in combat, but also for any situation of not being able to rest.) If you are able to take a short rest, why would you not be using Hit Dice as your primary healing, and [everything else] as the backup for a) when you roll badly, or; b) one or more people are all out of HD, but you need to still continue on? Honestly I run into more people demanding healing out of a combination of panic, bad HP management, and/or not having either a strong enough grasp of the rules or enough patience to just chill and take a short rest. It's the same problem I encounter with people still trying to operate under the "15-minute adventuring day" because they have no sense of self-restraint, and constantly overspend their spell slots.
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Feb 12, 2019 04:03
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Ginger Beer Belly posted:Had a pretty cool experience last night. Your DM sounds amazing and I want to read more about this group
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Feb 12, 2019 06:00
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bare bottom pancakes posted:Your DM sounds amazing and I want to read more about this group Sounds great, but did he receive any actual Triscuits?
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Feb 12, 2019 16:53
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My party is hitting level 10 next session and wrapping up a long-running arc as part of that. I want to give them each a cool magic item that they'll want to use for the rest of the campaign, so I'd appreciate help giving them cool effects. My ideas so far, based on what they're looking for from magic items: Ranger: weapon: sentient +2 longbow, deals extra 1d8 thunder damage if the wielder is below 50% HP (maybe add a 1/day spell or charges for various spells?) Moon druid: beneficial in both forms: headband that gives resistance to psychic damage and advantage on charm saves in and out of Wild Shape, 1/rest cast Wrathful Smite? Warlock: shield: nerfed Shield of the Uven Rune: 1/day cast Bane, react to melee hits with 2d8 necrotic damage Paladin: plot tool: necklace that can, once, replace a third failed death save with a 1d8 heal and reducing another target to 0 HP on failed save, half remaining HP on success. It should probably have charges for other spells otherwise, but I don't have great ideas yet. Light cleric: weapon: Mace of Disruption plus a 1/day effect? Divine sorcerer: ?: I'm really stuck on this one. Maybe Cape of the Mountebank plus a minor effect? These are all up for changing and tweaking.
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Feb 12, 2019 17:29
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Can anyone give a quick rundown on sorcerer options for sorcadins? I just hit 6 with a GWM paladin and it's finally time to decide which sorc to go. I'm leaning towards divine soul for the +hit,.
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Feb 12, 2019 19:17
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Free Triangle posted:Can anyone give a quick rundown on sorcerer options for sorcadins? I just hit 6 with a GWM paladin and it's finally time to decide which sorc to go. I'm leaning towards divine soul for the +hit,. I'm a fan of Draconic origin. It's not as high impact as some other options, but the benefits are very consistent. The extra health per level effectively gives you a d8 hit die, and the level 6 ability adds damage to at least one of your Blade cantrips, although that might be less useful for builds with Extra Attack. Otherwise, yeah, Divine Soul is pretty great, while a lot of other origins are pretty unimpressive.
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Feb 12, 2019 20:12
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I think Shadow sorcery is pretty strong for a gish build. The Darkness ability is effectively advantage for you and disadvantage for everyone attacking you, with the caveat that you can blind your teammates if you're careless (but the advantage and disadvantage technically cancels out and they make normal attacks). It's a pretty great option to min-max with. Strength of the Grave is a nice bonus too, obviously, if you're trying to tank. The Hound is basically an enhanced version of Spiritual Weapon, on top of essentially being a heighten spell metamagic. Shadow Walk is going to come at a stupid high level, but is just cool, and unlimited use.
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Feb 12, 2019 20:30
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Infinite Karma posted:The Darkness ability is effectively advantage for you and disadvantage for everyone attacking you, with the caveat that you can blind your teammates if you're careless (but the advantage and disadvantage technically cancels out and they make normal attacks). It's a pretty great option to min-max with. This is mostly true, but there are a couple of caveats: It fucks rogues out of sneak attacks completely, since they have disadvantage. It also hurts Barbarians since they can't use Reckless attacks to get advantage. In general, anything that gives your party advantage on attacks or disadvantage on defense gets turned off. For some groups this won't matter, for some it's a huge deal. It also turns off opportunity attacks for everyone else, which again, can be a big deal depending on party composition. Basically, use this combo sparingly, unless you have a party that doesn't need LoS to function most of the time.
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Feb 12, 2019 21:41
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The Gate posted:This is mostly true, but there are a couple of caveats: True. It only really works perfectly if you're fighting multiple enemies, and the darkness-user "solos" his portion, or has buddies who don't rely on advantage/disadvantage. With sort of a fringe benefit of area denial. It's still beastly when you actually can use it, especially compared to the other level 1 class features.
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Feb 12, 2019 22:17
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Convince someone in your party to be a Hexblade warlock with Devil's Sight and you can dance in the darkness together
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Feb 12, 2019 22:55
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I'd like some character advice, if possible. This is my first D&D character. Playing Rise of Tiamat as an Oath of the Ancients Paladin, just hit level 12. Our party started in Hoard of the Dragon Queen with just a Paladin, Rogue and Monk, but now we have a Paladin, Rogue, Monk, Warlock and Bard. Problem is the Bard took zero healing spells so I'm both the party "tank" and healer, while also having to do decent damage. My current stats are 20 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 14 Constitution, 10 Intelligence, 12 Wisdom and 20 Charisma, so I think I'm good on ability scores. Because of that, I'm looking into what feats would be worth taking. I have a +1 longsword and a shield with no other backup weapons besides a silvered Lance. Dueling Fighting Style. Seems we're fighting a lot of Dragons recently, so I was thinking maybe Resilient for the proficiency in Dex saves or Shield Master for the evasion-lite. I liked the idea of knocking creatures prone before attacking them too, but apparently Jeremy Crawford said you can't do it that way. Are either of these good or should I maybe look into something else?
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Feb 12, 2019 23:45
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Not sure of the math, but if I'm a Rogue 7/Fighter 1 with 18 Dex and 10 Con (heavy xbow bugbear assassin), would an Amulet of Health to go to 19 Con be a good plan and something worth earmarking an attunement slot for permanently? I was thinking of taking a Glamoured Studded Leather, but I feel like the extra HP and better saves would be a good deal. Also, I'm trying to figure out my Feats as I'll take 20 Dex at the next level up and then I'm gonna be left with ~3 more ASIs to use. I was considering Alert + Sharpshooter and then either Skulker or Skilled (Athletics/Arcana/Performance).
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Feb 13, 2019 00:34
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GoGoGadget posted:I'd like some character advice, if possible. This is my first D&D character. Playing Rise of Tiamat as an Oath of the Ancients Paladin, just hit level 12. Our party started in Hoard of the Dragon Queen with just a Paladin, Rogue and Monk, but now we have a Paladin, Rogue, Monk, Warlock and Bard. Problem is the Bard took zero healing spells so I'm both the party "tank" and healer, while also having to do decent damage. Inspiring Leader is a big chunk of HP. So is Tough. I'd probably take War Caster+Inspiring Leader before anything you have listed, and maybe also Tough.
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Feb 13, 2019 00:38
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CubeTheory posted:Convince someone in your party to be a Hexblade warlock with Devil's Sight and you can dance in the darkness together My Hexblade Warlock with Devil's Sight loves to do just that with the party's Shadow Sorcerer, though the latter is more of a caster. We haven't really run into a fight where it restricts the rest of the party, since the areas we battle in have been pretty big or contain multiple areas. (With two fighters, a ranger, arcane trickster and occasional wizard for reference)
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Feb 13, 2019 00:43
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I'm running an assassin rogue. I'm level 3 going on level 4. 10, 16, 10, 13, 12, 16. I've rolled 1 on hp 3 times including for my 4th level. What do I do to mitigate this, given I'd set up for melee before my 1s.
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Feb 13, 2019 00:55
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Natural 20 posted:
Real answer: Talk to your DM about how bad rolling for health is. Sad Answer: Tough Feat or Amulet of Health.
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Feb 13, 2019 01:02
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Natural 20 posted:I'm running an assassin rogue. Ask your DM to take the average instead of rolling? I get the feeling the people who advocate rolling for HP are the same as the ones who say it's "good roleplaying" to have a character with garbage stats in everything, yet would never play one with a 10' pole if given the chance. But I digress... Is it too late to reallocate your attributes? Because rogues, especially non-Arcane Tricksters, don't get a lot of mileage out of mental stats, and your constitution is kind of low for someone who wants to live in melee. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Short of that, I'm assuming that choosing a different archetype is also off the table, because AT has a lot more options that aren't just stabbing things. If you're really completely unable to rebuild your character in any way, then you could take Sharpshooter and avoid melee entirely; assassin's advantage does a lot to mitigate the attack penalty, for example, so you should be able to get at least one good shot before you're knocked down by a stiff breeze.
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Feb 13, 2019 01:05
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Toshimo posted:Inspiring Leader is a big chunk of HP. So is Tough. I'd probably take War Caster+Inspiring Leader before anything you have listed, and maybe also Tough. Forgot to mention, our DM almost never makes us do concentration checks. We're all learning the game together and I really should point this out to him, but... And I'm not sure what level Rise of Tiamat ends. I think he has us one level above what the module suggests (I think this is because we started with XP in HotDQ and switched to milestone,) and I read it ends at around 15. So I don't think I'll be getting another feat after this one. With that, you still think Inspiring Leader? I had looked at that briefly, I'll give it another look. Thanks!
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Feb 13, 2019 01:06
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Toshimo posted:Real answer: Talk to your DM about how bad rolling for health is. I have and unfortunately the party and him agree that it discourages dumping con.
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Feb 13, 2019 01:11
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GoGoGadget posted:Forgot to mention, our DM almost never makes us do concentration checks. We're all learning the game together and I really should point this out to him, but... At level 12 with 20 Cha, you are giving everyone in your party 17 Temp HP at the start of the day that you can refresh every rest. It's good.
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Feb 13, 2019 01:11
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Natural 20 posted:I have and unfortunately the party and him agree that it discourages dumping con. Who the gently caress dumps Con? Who the gently caress cares if somebody else dumps Con? They get hit, it's their problem, and at least the problem's based on a choice they made instead of on someone getting unlucky with rolls. 
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Feb 13, 2019 01:17
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Natural 20 posted:I have and unfortunately the party and him agree that it discourages dumping con. Get better friends.
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Feb 13, 2019 01:19
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