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Azathoth posted:Isn't immortality like the whole reason that liches become liches in the first place? Like, they're already super-powerful spellcasters but the only way in D&D to live forever (for various definitions of "living") is to become a lich. I figure Reincarnation is for spellcasters attuned to nature, so Wizards can't take that path
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May 9, 2021 19:30
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Azathoth posted:Isn't immortality like the whole reason that liches become liches in the first place? Like, they're already super-powerful spellcasters but the only way in D&D to live forever (for various definitions of "living") is to become a lich. I think with liches it's not just about immortality, but transcendence. Liches are inherently magical beings in a way most things aren't. Liches probably have higher potentials than most living archmages. Like, Vecna became a god.
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May 9, 2021 19:31
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I wasn't counting options that require you to be a specific class/race, and Wish requires relying on DM fiat (reducing age isn't one of the specifically listed effects). But fair point on True Polymorph...which for some reason is not a druid spell Isn't True Polymorph concentration with duration of an hour? Also if you get knocked out you revert. Edit: Oh if you concentrate for the full hour its permanent.
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May 9, 2021 19:33
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If you stay polymorphed for that hour you remain that way forever(until dispelled)
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May 9, 2021 19:35
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Mr. Lobe posted:Like, if you want to talk about the political economy of a place like Faerun, this is an unindustrialized society for the most part. Magic can substitute for industrialism to a degree in small ways in urban contexts, but most food production is going to be peasants in the dirt, and in the absence of industrialized agriculture, that's where most of society's manpower and thus population is placed. Isn't there an entire area dedicated to druids using magic to grow food at a ridiculous production rate?
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May 9, 2021 20:50
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Arthil posted:Isn't there an entire area dedicated to druids using magic to grow food at a ridiculous production rate? Iirc in Forgotten Realms, druids don't have a high opinion of agriculture. At the very least, Silvanus, god of nature and a favorite of druids that bother with gods instead of the "old faith", hates it. Clerics of Chauntea, on the other hand, encourages sustainable agricultural practices such as replanting trees and crop rotation, but I haven't read anything to suggest any of the above have an outsized effect on crop yields.
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May 9, 2021 21:14
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The cool thing about Eberron is that its very active creator answers “wait the rules of 5e make no sense in world” questions all the time as they apply to the setting.
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May 9, 2021 21:56
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Reveilled posted:Sure, but rural and unindustrialised doesn't necessarily mean feudal. My general impression (and I could be wrong here) of FR is that lots of villages seem to have mayors or elders rather than barons or lords, and we also know that the populations of the cities of the Sword Coast especially sort of "breathe", swelling up to huge sizes once a year before contracting, which implies that at least a significant population of the rural areas are not serfs. Taken together, to me that sort of implies that the trend outside of the cities is more towards free farmers organised around villages and hamlets with leaders who don't necessarily have a feudal relationship with the farmers. So if you went up to your average farmer and asked them who owned the land they were farming, they'd be much more likely to say "me" or "my village" than "the lord in the castle up yonder, I am but a tenant". Not that such lords don't exist, I can certainly think of a few examples, but it just doesn't seem wildly more common than the non-feudal rural communities, is my take. There was actually a sort of guide to daily life in the Realms that actually went into some of the details, and yeah, it's actually mostly free folk except apparently Tethyr and Calimshan (and it claims the "bondsmen" there don't have quite the same duties/rules as real world serfs did), although apart from the (actually uncommon) slave nations like Thay there aren't apparently fixed castes even if there are definitely social classes. Nobles tend to have more wealth by inheritance (they often do have free peasants as "crofters"/sharecroppers on all the land they own) and also favoritism under the law in most places, but they don't seem to have quite the same de jure power of life and death over their lessers as the real world (even if the higher wealth and structural legal advantages give them that de facto, they generally can't just haul off and slaughter a peasant in the streets for disrespect). Actually crossing into the nobility is kind of impossible in most places (at least hereditary; they might give you some vague life title like "Hero of the Realm" if you pull typical save-the-kingdom adventurer shenanigans), but there's kind of a running theme about the power of the nobility clashing with the rising power of the merchant class in a lot of places since trade is getting lots of merchants the same or higher economic power now. Especially since there's less monopoly on violence by the nobility, in particular merchants having a readily available source of purchasable violence i.e. adventurers. The feudal kingdoms in FR are not about "king owns everything and graciously lets folks use the land", but a service for protection deal, which is why the nobles tend to push back against the king a lot more. Hell, Cormyr has the War Wizards as not-so-secret police (to use the guide's term) and they're still up to their butts in scheming and plotting nobility.
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May 9, 2021 22:38
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So if I who have little to no experience were going to start playing with a group of mixed familiarity with the game, what class should I start looking into rolling? Personally, I have been thinking of either fighter or cleric, but I am open to suggestions for a more beginner friendly class.
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May 9, 2021 23:46
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I think that a very friendly class for beginners is the monk. As it uses a basic attack action and a bonus attack action. The only resource you'd be juggling is Ki points (Which if you're going monk I invite you to have something like poker chips or something similar to help you visualize them) and a lot of their sub classes just improve on those basic things. Yes you'll have to check on Ki uses but in my experience either flurrying or stunning are great for control (And if you go open hand monk you can flurry AND stun + other goodies at level 3)
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May 10, 2021 00:04
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Zil posted:So if I who have little to no experience were going to start playing with a group of mixed familiarity with the game, what class should I start looking into rolling? Personally, I have been thinking of either fighter or cleric, but I am open to suggestions for a more beginner friendly class. Have you played computer rpgs or modern boardgames before, or are you totally new to this whole style of gaming? 2nd question: are you gonna get bored with your character if it does the same thing every round of combat? If yes to the 1st, play anything that sounds cool to you. If no to the first and yes to the 2nd, cleric is a decent choice but so are other things.
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May 10, 2021 00:09
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Battle master fighter is a good choice. Champion can get kind of boring but Battle Master gets a limited pool of "spells" at level 3 that can let you do some fun things without being overly complicated.
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May 10, 2021 00:09
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Have you played computer rpgs or modern boardgames before, or are you totally new to this whole style of gaming? Have dabbled in Bauldars Gate as of late, but mmorpgs have been my poison of choice for years.
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May 10, 2021 00:45
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Cleric is one of the most complicated classes, to be honest, with a ton of fiddly spell options and a lot of not-useful spells that will waste your time. Same with Druid and Wizard. You need a lot of system mastery to make them fun. Battle Master Fighters are pretty mechanically easy to grasp and powerful in combat, but can be boring out of combat if you're trying to do social and storytelling stuff, since they don't have a lot of noncombat options. Some of the newer Fighters like Rune Knight and Echo Knight are also cool, but a little weird, as far as characterization. Barbarians are also pretty mechanically easy to grasp and powerful, with some good built-in spotlight time, but have some cool noncombat stuff to do that might be more of a niche to make it easy to roleplay. Warlocks are probably the most mechanically easy to grasp spellcasters, if you get a little help picking your spells from a more experienced player. You can easily be effective in combat, and you're not going to waste all your resources accidentally because they recharge so quickly. And Charisma is a fun stat for spotlight time, if you enjoy roleplaying social situations, probably more than Strength, Intelligence, or Wisdom. Monk is also solid, as mentioned before, but you might miss out on being a cool dude with a cool weapon in cool armor, if classic fantasy stuff appeals to you. If you're apprehensive about the mechanics being too much to keep track of/understand, I think Barbarian is a perfect starting class. Warlock would be my second suggestion, or first if you love the idea of doing magic stuff. Both are good in combat, which is a cornerstone of the game, but will also give you some good time to shine outside of combat, which is where I think a lot of people have the most fun.
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May 10, 2021 00:54
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:While Reincarnate does say "new body", there's a strong argument to be made that RAI the new body has the same age as the old one. Revivify (3rd level) and Resurrect (7th level) both do not restore youth. Clone is an 8th level spell and specifically allows you to make the clone be a younger version of the original creature. I very much doubt that the intent was "Reincarnate is like Clone except it's 3 levels lower, costs 1/3rd as much in reagents, doesn't take 120 days of prep time, and doesn't let you control the race you get." It actually says "new adult body". That certainly implies it's young to me. And it's definitely a different age than the old one if cast on a child, so it would be really weird if the only change to age would be to increase it. Older editions explicitly said the new body was young, and changing that by just removing the word "young" but still specifying the body was an adult one would be downright bizarre. There's a RAW argument to be made, but there's no way that what you're saying is the RAI. Also Clone is cast before death, which is a huge difference. Extending your natural lifespan isn't actually the primary use of those spells for PCs, anyway.
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May 10, 2021 00:57
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Infinite Karma posted:
Agree with all of this but Tasha's added more maneuvers, including social and stealth-related choices
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May 10, 2021 00:58
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Would me deciding to play lawful neutral affect any of these choices?
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May 10, 2021 01:01
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Zil posted:Would me deciding to play lawful neutral affect any of these choices? Nope, alignment is totally fluff and independent of all class stuff. You could be a chaotic evil paladin if you so chose
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May 10, 2021 01:03
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I would say that any class is fine to start, just with the caveat that if you play a spellcaster, have someone with experience help you pick your spells. Simple fact is, a lot of the spells in any given class list are just not worth picking relative to other spells on the list. Sometimes you can see that (this AoE spell does 2d6 damage but this other one does 2d8) but a lot of times it's much less obvious, so having someone around to check your choices is a good idea. That said, if you want recommendations, I'd agree that it's hard to go wrong with a Barbarian if you want a melee class. Good power level, easy to pick up, lots of fun customization options as you level up, easy RP hooks if you want. Same for Warlock, really. However, if you read over a class description and it speaks to you, don't be afraid to go for it. There's no class that is so mechanically complex that a first timer couldn't pick it up. Worst case, if you're nervous about playing "wrong", there's a bunch of guides online for any class that will give you spell lists and what to do at every level. Wouldn't recommend starting there, but they do exist.
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May 10, 2021 01:11
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Samurai fighter could be something to look at if you want less complexity than Battle Master. Gives you an ability to use that combos well with Action Surge(as well as the Great Weapon Master feat) and you can get Persuasion or Insight as a useful bonus prof. I would agree with the poster that said to avoid Druid and Wizard, and I'd probably toss Bard into that camp as well just due to their spell list being a little tricky to navigate, plus you have to keep track of your Bardic Inspiration. If you're looking to play a super supporty character they might be a good choice, however. Overall I'd say Fighter or Barbarian are both good choices for a character that can be easy to play while still having some moments to shine, with Barbarian having a little more RP potential since you can describe your rage in fun ways, especially based on your archtype(one of them makes you grow bestial features, one sets off a burst of random magic, etc.)
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May 10, 2021 04:35
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Honestly, I feel like cleric/druid are probably the least newbie-friendly full casters, because you can access the entire class spell list every time you full rest, to re-jigger your prepared spells. Wizards get access to a bigger spell list, but can only make use of a relatively small portion of it each rest, so you can generally decide on what spells to learn in-between sessions, and easily change your prepared spells as needed during sessions. Wizards also don't generally have to worry about what to do during fights: either cast a big spell or cast a cantrip. You're not getting into melee or doing anything with bonus actions (unless a spell gives you a bonus action to use). It's certainly possible to hobble your wizard character by choosing the wrong spells though. Especially, a lot of the level-1 spells either scale horribly or are just straight-up not very useful, which isn't great when those spells are going to be ones you want to be able to fall back on regularly throughout your career.
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May 10, 2021 04:45
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if you want to have fun playing dnd look at what classes seem cool to you and pick the one that seems the most interesting unless its beastmaster ranger or four elements monk
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May 10, 2021 04:47
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pog boyfriend posted:if you want to have fun playing dnd look at what classes seem cool to you and pick the one that seems the most interesting unless its pre-tashas beastmaster ranger or FTFY
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May 10, 2021 04:59
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Madmarker posted:FTFY Astral self monk rules, sorry. Shadow is okay too Edit: the mercy monk and new dragon UA both seem pretty cool as well change my name fucked around with this message at 05:06 on May 10, 2021 |
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May 10, 2021 05:01
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How has nobody said Paladin? It's the no-duh newbie class. You're tough, you do weapons, you're a half caster so you can dip your toe into spellcasting right away, but Paladins Should Always Be Smiting so even if it takes you awhile to figure out spellcasting (or decide that it's not for you) you're using your spell slots on smiting anyway so you're not any less effective, and your Oath provides a built in roleplay hook without getting tangled in the giant drag of alignment shenanigans because 5e did away with alignment restrictions entirely. Seriously, play a Paladin.
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May 10, 2021 07:51
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So in our campaign our character's just reached level 14 and I'm a divination wizard. I'm having a hard time deciding what my 2 free spells are that I want to take. I have most of what I want and some things I've never cast a single time. These are my current spells known and I was wondering if anyone had some good suggestions. 1:alarm, charm person, detect magic, find familiar, fog cloud, identify, mage armor, magic missile, shield, silent image, tasha's hideous laughter 2:invisibility, levitate, mirror image, misty step, suggestion, web 3:counterspell, fear, fireball, fly, hypnotic pattern, leomund's tiny hut, slow 4:banishment, dimension door, otiluke's resilient sphere, summon greater demon, 5:bigby's hand, synaptic static, telekinesis, wall of force 6:chain lightning, disintegrate, mental prison, true seeing, contingency 7:crown of stars, Force Cage, finger of death, mordenkainen's magnificent mansion, plane shift, simulacrum, teleport. I was thinking maybe some of the divination spells like scrying or contact other plane would be really useful. cheesetriangles fucked around with this message at 12:42 on May 10, 2021 |
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May 10, 2021 08:41
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On a flavor level, it would be absurd to be a diviner without scrying. It is also useful
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May 10, 2021 08:56
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I think every class in 5e is approachable to new players tbh, and it really depends more on how much of a dick the gm is
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May 10, 2021 09:01
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Mr. Lobe posted:On a flavor level, it would be absurd to be a diviner without scrying. It is also useful To add onto this, since the wizard has teleport, scrying can be used to teleport you to anyone you can see with scrying using the "very familiar" rolling table, which includes things you can see.
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May 10, 2021 09:10
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Scrying and Arcane Eye are great divination picks for open world or dungeon adventures respectively. Other standouts I would say are Polymorph and Force Cage, both spells capable of single-handedly ending encounters, especially if you know they're failing a saving throw with Portent.
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May 10, 2021 10:14
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Has there been any Grand Ruling (either WotC or just in general) about Mage Hand fuckery? Could I, for instance, use it to pick up a bolt from an enemy's crossbow as they were about to fire? Or tilt up an arrow's arrowhead just as an archer looses the shot, causing it to fly wildly? Or, would all of that be considered an attack? I play as a bard in my group and so I've gone all-in on being a support character. I try to confer disadvantage, or distract, or really do anything other than spam Vicious Mockery (which misses WAY too often). Trivia fucked around with this message at 11:22 on May 10, 2021 |
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May 10, 2021 11:19
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Trivia posted:Has there been any Grand Ruling (either WotC or just in general) about Mage Hand fuckery? Could I, for instance, use it to pick up a bolt from an enemy's crossbow as they were about to fire? Or tilt up an arrow's arrowhead just as an archer looses the shot, causing it to fly wildly? So far as I know, there is no call from on high about this. For an arcane trickster I'd allow a mage hand sleight of hand check to outright deny them an attack if it succeeds. For a regular wizard, I'd say you can confer disadvantage on their attack by trying to mess with them, but probably lack the precision to take a crossbow bolt. They will see your hand coming, after all, it's not invisible for ordinary wizards, so they'd probably try to avoid it.
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May 10, 2021 11:25
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Personally I would consider that as an Attack action, but I would probably allow it if that's your character's schtick. Like most things in DnD, it comes down to whether your DM would allow it. Edit: Whenever there's a rulings question in relation to 5E's vagueness, I just default onto this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJVBvvS57j0&t=15s Blooming Brilliant fucked around with this message at 11:28 on May 10, 2021 |
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May 10, 2021 11:25
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Further info on the arcane trickster call:quote:Mage Hand Legerdemain I'd say a crossbow bolt in a crossbow counts as an object in a container. So, seems like my intuition of the rules was correct on that point.
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May 10, 2021 11:29
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Good call on the hand being visible to anyone not doing arcane trickster. My DM may allow the move in that case, as I'd have to roll stealth or sleight of hand. Also, the spell doesn't specify how large the hand must be, so why not make it tiny so it's harder to see? Yes, I know I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. Part of the fun is making my fellow tablemates laugh through rules-lawyering (but not abusing it as such).
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May 10, 2021 11:43
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A tiny hand would probably have a hard time applying the leverage needed to disarm a crossbow. they are held in place with some tension and a mage hand is pretty weak already without reducing it in size. I'd also rule that a mage hand is probably either human size, or the size of the caster. I guess if you were a pixie you could have tiny hands?
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May 10, 2021 11:47
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But don't the bolts just rest on the xbow track? And don't nocked arrows simply sit on the archer's thumb (or arrow rest or whatever it's called)? I don't think it'd take much pressure to change the trajectory by even a degree. I know that IRL I've fired a bow, and not keeping the arrow head secure means the drat thing flies or spins in a random direction. Also you look like an rear end in a top hat. Also, it's a magic hand so size doesn't have to correlate to strength!
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May 10, 2021 11:50
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Trivia posted:But don't the bolts just rest on the xbow track? And don't nocked arrows simply sit on the archer's thumb (or arrow rest or whatever it's called)? I don't think it'd take much pressure to change the trajectory by even a degree. You know what, I may be wrong about crossbows, I thought some tension held the bolt in place, but maybe it is just loose on there. Looking at a video online, at least some modern crossbows have the quarrel just sitting on the notch. Anyway, I'd still call for a sleight of hand check even with tiny but still visible hands, because the crossboyer is probably looking down the line of fire, and would be aware of an insect sized thing coming at them if you weren't sneaky about it.
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May 10, 2021 11:53
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Mr. Lobe posted:You know what, I may be wrong about crossbows, I thought some tension held the bolt in place, but maybe it is just loose on there. Looking at a video online, at least some modern crossbows have the quarrel just sitting on the notch. Anyway, I'd still call for a sleight of hand check even with tiny but still visible hands, because the crossboyer is probably looking down the line of fire, and would be aware of an insect sized thing coming at them if you weren't sneaky about it. Awesome. I'll take it. I also demand inspiration for deftly (and obnoxiously) arguing my point.
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May 10, 2021 11:54
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As the DM I’d just flatly rule that the hand looks like a (size matched) ghostly version of the casters, right down to matching jewelry/ a matching sleeve cuff on the disembodied wrist if any.
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