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Nehru the Damaja posted:I've been putting sheets together for a few characters I might run -- this one game has a lot of people not sure what they want to pick so I figured I'd come ready to fill in any gaps. (I know you don't have to, but I like to find a niche that isn't taken so I have time to shine.) 3rd level when you can cast Twinned Hold Person twice per day (or 7d8 Sleep 4 times per day), while having better AC and Concentration checks than any other full caster. And at level 5 you can cast Twinned Haste...
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Mar 12, 2017 03:49
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AlphaDog posted:What's some stuff I could do with a bard to shine at being combat-buff-guy? I did a halfassed valour bard a while back for a one shot and it worked OK but I've got an upcoming game starting at 4th or maybe 5th level and I think I'm gonna have to optimise a bit to keep up with everyone else. I want to hold my own at fighting but primarily make everyone else better. Probably won't go past 7th-8th level, if that matters. Lazylord type shenanigans would definitely be OK, but I can't really find anything that seems great for that. If your party is heavy melee, they will love a STR Bard with Shield Master going around knocking enemies prone and optionally grappling them so they can't get back up. Valor gives you the shield and armor proficiency you need to do that, and at 6th you get extra attack for an extra shove attempt per turn., plus you get Enhance Ability as part of your class progression for Advantage on the Athletic checks involved. Otherwise Lore is more supportive, focusing on CHA for more Bardic Inspiration (mainly Cutting Words) die and better DCs on your spells, with Magical Secret as you progress to poach nifty spells from other classes. That'd play mostly as a backrow caster but you've got options between dipping fighter for better AC and Constitution proficiency, and taking Shillelagh at 6th so your weapon/arcane focus keys off your casting stat for attacks. Either way, single class Bard isn't really much of a combat buffer character in terms of actions, instead focusing on control/debuff and out-of-combat utility. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Mar 12, 2017 |
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Mar 12, 2017 12:23
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That sounds much more uncomfortable than the classic burying a lockpick/shiv under your skin.
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Mar 13, 2017 07:46
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Nehru the Damaja posted:A group I'm joining might be in dire need of a tanky pointman. I like being in the thick of things and having to think about my movement in ways that a ranged attacker doesn't, but I don't really like "swing til they're dead" types. Is there anything especially fun that isn't evident at first glance about Tempest, Grave, or Nature clerics? Nature lets you take Shillelagh, which allows you to use your casting stat as your attack stat with a quarterstaff, which you can use with the Polearm Master feat to get AoOs on enemies that get within 5' of you, plus an extra attack you can use with your bonus action, and it's one-handed so you can sword&board with it. Add Sentinel and you can be very good at running interference while remaining a full caster. All clerics and rangers can do this with Magic Initiate, mind you, Nature domain just spares you the feat.
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Mar 13, 2017 09:43
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With 14 DEX medium armor is almost as good as heavy armor  But yes, dwarfs are cool and good and better than every other race.
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Mar 13, 2017 10:56
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ProfessorCirno posted:There has been a LOT of math made up that literally proves that the Champion archtype is worse then the Battlemaster, period, forever, the end. It doesn't matter. Hey, isn't the Champion better when you've got a good source of extra damage die like Sneak Attack or Divine Smite that you can apply on-hit when a critical is rolled?
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Mar 14, 2017 14:51
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Majkol posted:Some great advice, thanks y'all. You don't need high CHA if you're just taking Warlock for the passives, no-save spells like Hex, Sleep or Darkness, and the stat independent abilities like at-will Mage Armor or whatnot. 3-5 levels of Fighter sets you up nicely for ranged (though, hand crossbow is much better than bows because of reasons), then three levels of Warlock gives you your pact (Tome for utility, Chain for having a strong familiar without burning an invocation for it, Blade if you get a magic weapon and UA invocations are allowed) and then you can go either direction. Well, if you wanted to go full (ranged) hexblade it'd probably be better to just do 1 level of Fighter and the rest Warlock. Fighter+Rogue also works and in a similar fashion, with 5 levels of Fighter to get extra attack then the rest Rogue for all the goodies. Less magical stuff than Warlock but you'll be proficient at some more skills, and in the absence of a Bard or another Rogue, you'll be "the guy" when it comes to your chosen Expertise skills. So in short, play UA Revised Ranger Hunter 6 and the rest Rogue Thief/Assassin.
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Mar 16, 2017 09:29
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Rip_Van_Winkle posted:Option 1: certain spells need to just go away or be reduced in effectiveness because they're just too good at breaking narratives wide open. This shows up in video game implementations of D&D all the time - they remove spells that the game just cannot account for. They have no way of meaningfully interacting with most divination spells because they're too open-ended. Long-distance teleportation spells are limited to plot contrivances. Terrain-modifying spells and physical stuff often just don't exist, so no phasing through walls or reshaping dungeon corridors or any of that. Mind-controlling spells are temporary and mostly just make people fight for you. High-level summoning spells like Planar Binding are limited to simple effects that help that just get extra dudes to kill stuff for you instead of completely changing the way you approach challenges. Plus, in combat, all the bookkeeping is done by the computer, so having extra creatures around doesn't slow things down as much. It's time consuming, but that's basically the way to do it. Go through the spell list and remove/alter the spells that allow casters to play a completely different game that doesn't involve rolling dice - which barring early game nukes like Sleep, it's like half the spell list 4th level and above.
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Mar 17, 2017 02:01
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P.d0t posted:Rules Question: Right on the multiclassing rules: each spell you know and prepare is associated with a class, for which you use the appropriate spellcasting ability, and a spellcasting focus can only be used for the spells of the class associated with said focus.
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Mar 19, 2017 20:03
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mango sentinel posted:IIRC Blade Pact DPR isn't actually that bad but the lack of anything else in the class (vampiric is too little too late) to facilitate being in melee makes it a tough sell compared to blast sniping. You mean stuff like temp HP sources and melee-range damage reflect abilities?
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Mar 20, 2017 15:27
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mango sentinel posted:You need AC, DR, evasion, or ways to move in and out. Warlocks have a little bit of these but they're not enough, conditional, or at an opportunity cost. 1 level fighter dip, AC issue solved.
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Mar 20, 2017 16:54
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Nehru the Damaja posted:What's an acceptably polite way to give advice on tactics in a bigger picture? I don't want to be that guy who bosses everyone around but holy moly this group I'm in makes some bad choices. I feel like the bardly poo poo I'm doing is getting way less value when people are focus-firing the guy who has disadvantage on attacks while the faerie fired target next to him gets to keep making attacks because nobody focus fires the guy. (I know there are situations where that's called for but just assume they're roughly equal value mooks.) So we're prolonging fights by splashing damage around, not focusing down lit up targets, we're negating the value of some of our (my) effects by beating down the enemies least likely to hit us, and the lack of focus also means I'm holding concentration a lot longer, which lowers my spell throughput. "I don't mean to quarterback, but you have advantage on the guys hit with Faerie Fire so you should kill them first since that means less enemies faster, and frees up my Concentration to cast other things."
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Mar 22, 2017 17:34
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I'm a Warlock. - We get maybe 2 encounters per long rest. - Almost all our combats have been in melee range. One was specifically a shadow monster ambushing my character solo, and causing STR damage with every hit. Guess what stat I have an 8 in. - The one that was in an open space involved a third of a group of 10 fast zombies splitting off to chase down my character. - Almost all our combats have been against undead immune to sleep and necrotic damage, and/or enemies with Dex saves high enough that I'm lucky to catch 2 out of 4-5 with a Faerie Fire. - The rest of the party (melee) gets advantage on flanking, further rendering me casting Faerie Fire kind of moot. I recently hit level 3 and got an owl familiar to give advantage to my one EB shot per turn, but GM didn't like how easy that was so next combat we faced enemies that my familiar wouldn't get close to because they're made of fire/shadows/evil. I think next combat is going to be in a storm so my familiar won't be able to fly. - On topic, the GM loves out-of-rules improvisation and such. I don't get to do that because my actions in combat are to cast and maybe maintain one spell, and shoot Eldritch Blast. I don't have the spells or stats or abilities or opportunity to try other things for the next few levels. I think this is all balanced by my character being party face (everyone else dumped Charisma and took no social skills) so she handles the social/political aspect of the campaign almost entirely by herself while the rest of the group takes a 15 minute smoke break? Plus Caster Supremacy. That is all, thanks for reading.
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Mar 23, 2017 18:40
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Has anyone played something like a 3 Warlock 17 Fighter as an archer battlemaster? It'd take til level 8 to really get things online but with UA you could make a longbow with arrow smites your pact weapon, have Hex, have a big strong Mage Armor via invocation, and Warlock could fill in for the missing extra attack while you delay Fighter 5 because Eldritch Blast would keep scaling. You only get two smites per short rest, that eat on your valuable spell slots (for Hex, Darkness, or anything else) for 4d8 extra damage each (avg 18). It's alright for flavor reasons and you don't have to worry about ammo or non-magical resistance, but it's strictly worse than using a Hand Crossbow from a numbers perspective. An always-on bonus attack with Sharpshooter is just that strong. Either way, I'd recommend starting Fighter for the CON saves and switching to Warlock at 5 after you get your Extra Attack, or Fighter 1 then Warlock till 5 to get Extra Attack through your Invocation before switching back to Fighter. You likely want 6 (ASI)/7 (+1 sup die)/11 (Extra Attack 2) levels of Fighter and the rest in Warlock, also.
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Mar 25, 2017 07:02
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I must be missing something about the hand crossbow. What puts that over a longbow? 1. Crossbow Expert feat lets you make an attack with a Bonus Action if you're wielding a Hand Crossbow. The damage die difference between ranged weapons matters little when the bulk of your damage output comes from Sharpshooter, so as I said, an always available bonus action attack is very strong. 2. As written you can make any magical weapon your pact weapon. Moonbow *creates* its own specific piece of equipment, though; you can't smite with a magical bow you picked up and made into your pact weapon.
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Mar 25, 2017 15:25
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Caphi posted:After a game last night, I was talking with the barbarian, who is doing absurd (compared to most current enemies) damage at level 6 using Great Weapon Mastery. I've done some light calculation in the past and it seems like fighters and rogues have a fairly nice damage curve that the barbarian is already near the end of - but also that the barbarian is going to gain fairly little damage beyond that between now and 20, and very little in the way of other "pillar" stuff on the side. In the meantime the GM is starting to inflate enemy HP to compensate but that just makes it one of those situations where if the barbarian goes out (or, god forbid, gets charmed), the rest of us will probably take a loss. What's the rest of your party, for context?
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Mar 25, 2017 18:38
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Caphi posted:The rest of the party was me, a bard of lore focused on support and skills, and an Old One Tome Warlock with a penchant for control mainly using hunger of Hadar and Forceful Blast. We have just gained an Ancients paladin but we haven't really got to see how they fit in yet. At least one of GWM, PAM and Sharpshooter are the feats most martials are expected to take when they want to poo poo out damage. It's just how they work. Barbarians are tanky beatsticks, yeah they get the most of their damage early and the rest of their career is becoming tankier + some party support, but in the 5e world of bounded accuracy that's just how things kind of work - most classes get their extra attack at 5th level, which along with their ASI is their big "I'm good at this hitting people with sticks" break point, and the rest of their career finds some other way to gradually scale their output. Paladins get more and bigger spell slots to smite with, Fighters get another extra attack at 11th, Warlocks get more Eldritch Blast bolts... Rogue is the one who gets a smoother curve out of gradually increasing sneak attack die. As for your party composition concerns, you have a Warlock. Warlocks can deal a lot of damage with Hex+Agonizing Blast - they can keep up if needed. Paladins likewise through judicious use of Divine Smite, while covering the Barbarian's weakness of weak saves through their Aura of Protection. The frontline damage dealer going down in a three man party situation is of course going to be problematic (minding that Barbarians are notoriously tough to put down), but with 4 party members you should be fine. And as Bard you can do whatever's needed between buffs like Haste, Countercharm if Wisdom saves are an issue, Inspiration die/cutting words, throw a fireball, bring people back up with a bonus action through Healing Word, etc.
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Mar 26, 2017 05:49
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I know my group would try to weaponize it.
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Mar 26, 2017 21:04
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Scyther posted:I'd just have the sword summon an evil duplicate of whoever picks it up and avoid both the pvp and the taking the wheel from players, while still having something of a memorable gimmick fight. Add to that, the PC who grabbed the sword can't drop it; hidden win condition that if the sword is knocked out of their hand (disarm, incapacitation + kicking it away) the doppelgänger disappears.
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Mar 26, 2017 21:15
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Help me make sure I understand this right -- If you're a full caster + Warlock multiclass, you just bolt your Pact Magic slots onto your other caster slots and either can be used for casting any of your spells? Also, is there any credible reason to slap Undying Light Warlock into Light Cleric other than double-dipping on WIS + CHA modifiers to your spell damage? I figure lock probably isn't worth it but it's neat. Yes and UA classes aren't meant to multiclass, but if allowed and you rolled really high Charisma it might be worth??
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Mar 27, 2017 06:49
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AlphaDog posted:Lol, what? Why not? 
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Mar 27, 2017 07:17
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Honestly it looks like I can do a better version of the same poo poo with a single class using a Variant Human Arcana Cleric with Magic Initiate for Druid to pick up Shillelagh. Start out at level 1 with 18 AC (upgradeable to 19 with better med. armor), and swinging Green Flame Blade/Booming Blade with a Shillelagh. 7 drat cantrips at level 1. I've been trying to find a decent gish that can use those spells and this is probably the most encouraging one I've come up with. Paladin 2 / Sorcerer X Quickens and Twins BB and GFB (GFB can't be twinned) in lieu of extra attacks. Paladin + Tomelock 3 takes Shillelagh to key their attacks off CHA plus gaining a good ranged option in Eldritch Blast. Tomelock 3 / Sorcerer X combines both of the above. If you're Undying Light and Draconic, congrats on triple dipping CHA to damage on GFB.
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Mar 27, 2017 08:24
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Skellybones posted:Suggest the Wizard should have their spells be parried too. This. Parrying rules like that are simply a double-slap against martials. It gives you a little bit of extra defense, yes, but it's weighted towards enemies since they are going to be doing multiple attacks against one target, while your ability to deal with multiple targets, already a weak point for martial characters, is further reduced by the fact that they all each get their own parry. Assuming all hits, attack one enemy three times and you'll get 2 hits in. Attack three enemies, and you will get none past parries. It's stupid. Plus it's the kind of stuff that's already abstracted into the AC mechanics: Do you need to roll to defend with your shield? gently caress no, it just adds an always-on bonus to your AC. And ask him what he's trying to achieve with a rule like this anyway. Is it because you're the only martial and are making GBS threads out damage? What's your party, what level are you guys. You say he's not a bad dude. My own experience with my current DM, long-ish time friend, great guy, decent enough at setting up encounters and descriptions and roleplaying. But he makes some on-the-spot rulings or long-term homebrewed rules that I'm sure he has the best intentions in implementing... but need a serious reality check on, and the way he responds to questioning them is the most annoying "If you don't like it, I'm sorry but that's just how I like running my games" that makes me want to punch him in the face. I give him a week or two and a good chat and he realizes he's being dumb. As Arivia said, it's the kind of "make your own fun" navel-gazing many RP systems indulge.
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Mar 30, 2017 14:49
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mango sentinel posted:2 levels of Rogue to disengage freely with Cunning Action Or just play Rogue. If you don't 'abuse' Crossbow Expert, Rogues have about the same damage output as an archer Fighter, so what's even the point of doing a no-utility martial?
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Mar 30, 2017 18:07
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Splicer posted:Battlemaster maneuvers require you to hit vs AC and have your opponent to fail a saving throw. This bumps it up to THREE chances to fail! Maneuvers work fine. You choose to use them after you hit, and they still deal extra damage even if the enemy passes their save.
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Mar 30, 2017 18:53
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Yeah just play a bard.
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Mar 31, 2017 15:07
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Rogues and Bards demonstrate you don't need Intelligence to be Smart.
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Apr 2, 2017 19:04
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Would I find a half-orc stone sorcerer worth running? I dig the idea of focusing on Strength and Con and spells that don't need big CHA modifiers like the SCAG attack cantrips, sleep, haste, shield etc. I feel like an upcoming group might want a tanky guy that can double as a second party face and I'm not super into paladins. It works. Deals out damage between twinned BB and quickened BB/GFB that scales well as you level, decent AC with a shield and CON secondary stat. STR > CON > CHA. Spell choice will make you essentially an utility sorcerer.
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Apr 5, 2017 18:08
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DKWildz posted:How would you guys handle a person wanting a Fighter type but envisioning a spear and shield guy? Reading through the weapon types, feats and such, given that spears are 'simple' versions you would lose out on the bonuses gained from martial/finesse weapons, and after that, the feats that expand on them as well, it seems. I certainly wouldn't want to be thought of trying to min-max my way into a broken setup, but at the same time, wouldn't want to choose things brashly that could end up as a detriment to reasonable effectiveness in a party. I'd just let spears work with Polearm Master, because it works with quarterstaves and the only difference is bludgeoning vs piercing damage, and Thrown. *Maaaaaybe* remove Thrown but a Fighter isn't going to be throwing their main weapon Stick & Board + Dueling Style + PAM, good Fighter, good to go. I personally want to try something like this but with the Hexblade UA.
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Apr 6, 2017 16:26
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Nehru the Damaja posted:How else might LE act when they're still in the "bring me 20 boar's asses" stage of their adventuring career? How "Arthas was right" can you be when the reach of your power is to the end of a shortsword? Law and vow abiding while looking out for #1 and being generally more of a dick than Lawful Neutral. Remember, LN just does what seems fitting in the context of orderly behavior, while a LE is actively malicious and gets off on power tripping and being cruel when they can get away with it. But alignments are stupid anyway.
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Apr 7, 2017 15:56
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Does alignment even matter in 5e?
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Apr 8, 2017 18:39
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Doesn't need to be that large scale; just take any high magic kingdom: screen populace for Evil, those pinged are forbidden from holding public office and face much harsher penalties for committing crimes. Even with evil infiltrators and ambivalent neutrals, imagine the economic and social gains from reduced crime and corruption. And evil foreigners are, of course, forbidden from entering.
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Apr 8, 2017 19:21
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P.d0t posted:I have a broad, interwoven question: You're spot on Monk, sort of, in that there aren't many feats good for them and that they really would just prefer another +2 to DEX/WIS/CON over a feat. They're fine as is but buffing them doesn't break anything. Regarding Barbarians, they end up an ASI behind Fighters in getting their full sequence (usually PAM+GWM or GWM+Sentinel) after maxing out STR, but... Well, I don't think you really break anything by making Barbarians stronger in combat if you have a Battle Master or competent Paladin in the party. This isn't really the issue with Barbarians; they're just... a fundamentally mechanically boring class to play. Like Champion except even worse at dealing damage, which given the lack of aggro mechanics in 5e, is the justification to why enemies would want to attack them rather than going for other PCs.
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Apr 10, 2017 11:44
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Loses it for Hand Crossbow being the best ranged weapon, also through unintended incompetence.
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Apr 10, 2017 12:37
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The Saddest Robot posted:Do your FISTS count as bludgeoning dexterous weapons? Unarmed only keys off DEX if you're a monk.
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Apr 21, 2017 19:53
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mango sentinel posted:Rolling stats is dumb given the rest of the game but the rolling method they provide result in characters with roughly similar stats to the array. It's only similar if at least two of your rolls are 15+, which is what really matters. 14 in every stat has a higher average than array yet is inferior.
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May 9, 2017 12:23
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Warlocks get more uses of their higher level spells than other classes at equivalent levels and they recover on a short rest. People who have a problem with this misunderstand the class as a different flavor of full caster. They're not. Warlocks operate on completely different principles than Wizards/Clerics/Bards - they're more akin to Ranged Battle Masters, with Eldritch Blast as their weapon and Pact Magic as their maneuvers. Invocations offer utility but realistically you'll be spending most of them in combat benefits if you wish to be effective, because warlocks are not tool boxes.They are not wizards. Book of Ancient Secrets is amazing though.
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May 28, 2017 09:07
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Ryuujin posted:No. Yes, they get few spells per day but they get the same or more spells of the higher available slot for full casters. If you only got one short rest bam you have more higher level slots. They lose out on low level slots. That's what it means to be a Warlock - you cast your big spell and the rest of the fight is spent Eldritch Blasting with push back, or advantage if you used Darkness. I'm also not mentioning the Mystic Arcanum because full casters only get one slot of each level above 5 as well anyway. Bards and Sorcerers end their level progression at 18. Warlocks aren't special in this regard either. And nothing compares damage-wise to a Fighter or smiting Paladin so that's a non-argument, but if the martials are getting magic items that boost their effectiveness and you don't thats a DM issue. Same as not getting any short rests at all, which fucks other short-rest resource classes as well.
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May 28, 2017 10:48
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P.d0t posted:
From core (Varian Human) Battle Master with Archery Fighting Style, Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter. Or the classic GWF+PAM+GWM+Sentinel polearm user, but the above is more reliable. Conspiratiorist fucked around with this message at 09:02 on May 29, 2017 |
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May 29, 2017 08:56
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lemme guess, Champion Fighter with Savage Attacker feat? 
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Our Lore Master completely deleted a boss fight by casting Hold Person with a strength save (so all subsequent saves fail under paralysis.) The rest of us were able to keep things off him long enough to finish the fight. Hopefully your DM learned to be more careful with UAs.
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May 31, 2017 07:57
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