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The DMG is mostly useful for its magic item lists, tbh. The additional rules offered in the DMG aren't very helpful or fun mechanics, in my opinion. The only time (aside from looking up magic items) I've wanted to check the DMG was for chase rules, and they were far too tedious to use. The rest of the content is random rolling tables (useful, but easily found online) and game running tips.
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Nov 12, 2015 02:36
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Yes, definitely don't plop down the cash for a DMG until you've had a chance to look through it and see if there's anything you think you'll find useful. The PHB and MM will be all you need to run most published adventures, and they aren't that much more daunting than the Lost Mines of Phandelver.
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Nov 12, 2015 02:42
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Typh posted:If anybody has any tips or resources, they'd be appreciated. If you're going to run pre-existing material, such as published adventures, make sure to switch things up a bit. It's almost a given that at least one of your players has read the material and will make decisions for their PCs based upon it. Sometimes they'll out themselves by getting mad when you deviate from the material, which is a hoot.
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Nov 12, 2015 03:44
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Hello Sailor posted:If you're going to run pre-existing material, such as published adventures, make sure to switch things up a bit. It's almost a given that at least one of your players has read the material and will make decisions for their PCs based upon it. Sometimes they'll out themselves by getting mad when you deviate from the material, which is a hoot.
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Nov 12, 2015 04:48
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Seconding how the MM is more important than the DMG if you're running modules and/or aren't particularly ambitious when it comes to running something homebrewed. There's more than enough generic world-building advice floating around in the internet for free (including this very forum!)
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Nov 12, 2015 05:47
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Typh posted:First time player here (and first time DM). My group just finished the Starter Set, which was actually pretty great at holding my hand. Maybe too great, in fact, because now I have zero idea on what happens next. I'm not terribly creative, so I'd like to depend on existing material, but I can't seem to find a clear answer on where to go next, considering I now have a party of 5th level heroes. I do have access to the DM guide/Monster Manual, but I'm unclear on whether or not those are even required with pre-built campaigns. If anybody has any tips or resources, they'd be appreciated. I've spent a bunch of time searching and I'm coming up empty. If you want a module you can go into after lost mines. Princes of the Apoaclypse is pretty good for that. It even has info on how to continue from Lost Mines as the locations they take place at are very close. As your characters will be Level 5 they will be ready on the spot for the main story line. Quick note that the Adventurer is fairly sandboxy and the majority of the Adventure takes place in a single huge dungeon. (That the party should ideally retreat from once in a while because their resources are being grinded down and there are not many places you can rest safely in or near the place.)
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Nov 12, 2015 06:34
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A copy of the MM is actually required for any published adventures beyond the Starter Set's Mines of Phandelver - Not enough stat blocks are included to run each adventure as published.
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Nov 12, 2015 07:09
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CaPensiPraxis posted:A copy of the MM is actually required for any published adventures beyond the Starter Set's Mines of Phandelver - Not enough stat blocks are included to run each adventure as published. Actually you can. HotDQ Supplement http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/HoardDragonQueen_Supplement_v0.3.pdf RoT Supplement http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/RiseTiamatSupplementv0.2_Printer.pdf RoT Council Scorecard http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/RiseTiamat_CouncilScorecard.pdf PotA Supplement http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/PrincesApocalypse_AdvSupplementv1.0_PrinterFriendly.pdf All the needed statblocks, spells and magic items are in these pdfs. The only things not included are spells, monsters and magic items in the basic rules.
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Nov 12, 2015 07:39
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MonsterEnvy posted:If you want a module you can go into after lost mines. Princes of the Apoaclypse is pretty good for that. It even has info on how to continue from Lost Mines as the locations they take place at are very close. As your characters will be Level 5 they will be ready on the spot for the main story line.
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Nov 12, 2015 22:50
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Dipping and Multiclassing So when you're working on your build, it's important to know what things are decided by your starting class:
Other than this stuff, you gain all of a class' features when you multiclass into them. Rogue and Fighter tend to be popular dip classes, so let's examine why: Rogue, taken at level 1 grants the following: Hit Points: 8 + CON Armor: Light Weapons: Simple, hand crossbow, longsword, rapier, shortsword Tools: Thieves' tools Saving Throws: DEX, INT Skills: choose 4 from one of the longer lists available Class Features Expertise: double your prof on 2 skills, or 1 skill and your Thieves' tools Sneak Attack: +1d6 damage per turn with finesse or ranged weapons when your target has an enemy within 5ft (and you don't have disadvantage) or you have advantage on the attack roll. Thieves' Cant: fluff 2nd level Features Cunning Action: hide, dash, or disengage as a bonus action Fighter, taken at level 1 grants the following: Hit Points: 10 + CON (2nd only to Barbarian) Armor: all armor, shields Weapons: Simple, Martial Tools: none Saving Throws: STR, CON Skills: choose 2 from a pretty short list Class Features Fighting Style: a big boost for anyone wanting to use any kind of weapon, or if you wear armor Second Wind: bonus action heal on yourself, recharges on any rest 2nd level Features Action Surge: take an extra action, recharges on any rest So broadly, Rogue is the choice if you want to have a skillful character, Fighter is largely for having your pick of any equipment in the game and particularly if you plan to specialize with a certain weapon. Multiclassing requirements In order to MC you need to meet the minimum ability score requirements (13 in whichever score.) Notably, Wizard is the only class that requires INT, but you'll also want INT if you go for the Arcane Trickster rogue or Eldritch Knight fighter. Classes basically fall onto a couple of axes, based on this. STR/CHA requirements
DEX/WIS requirements
Depending on your secondary stats, you can kinda branch out, but it's generally very hard to bump both a weapon ability and a spellcasting ability, so keep that in mind when planning characters. You need to decide fairly early on whether your Actions will be primarily spent attacking with weapons or casting spells. Another thing to remember is that you must meet the requirements for all classes you MC into; if you don't MC, you can even ignore the requirements for your solo class. It's worth noting that Paladins and Rangers get Fighting Style at 2nd level, so if you start as a Fighter and can meet the requirements for either of those classes, you can end up with 2 Fighting Styles by level 3. Defense fighting style fits with any other style, while Dueling and Protection can also pair up well. Similarly, Bard gains Expertise at 2nd level, and certain Cleric domains give skill profs or Expertise, so consider those classes if you are making a skillful character with a Rogue as its base. P.d0t fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Nov 18, 2015 |
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Nov 18, 2015 21:18
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http://merricb.com/2014/08/03/the-great-list-of-dungeons-dragons-5e-adventures/ A big list of all published* 5th edition adventure modules. * there is no official license AFAIK, so most of these are wink wink nudge nudge compatible
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Nov 20, 2015 07:00
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I'm going to create a new level 9 character for an adventure with a total of 3 party members (me, a sorcerer and possibly a monk) and after previously playing a Bard I'm leaning towards a [Barbarian (Path of the Totem). Glancing over the features the Totem path gets I'm getting the impression that I can sort of emulate the "Defender" path from 4E (Hit me and not my friends), especially if I grab the Sentinel feat (an opportunity attack if a target hits an ally within 5 feet, OA even if the enemy uses an disengage and if the OA hits they are immobilized). Is this viable in 5E, or since our party has no supportive character, is it a really bad idea? Building a bit on that, I'm curious if a agile Barbarian (Dex, Shield + Finesse weapon) is as useful as a strong barbarian (Str, Greataxe)? While the class features at level 18 and 20 are strength focused, they're very far off.
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Nov 25, 2015 19:00
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Lamquin posted:I'm curious if a agile Barbarian (Dex, Shield + Finesse weapon) is as useful as a strong barbarian (Str, Greataxe)? While the class features at level 18 and 20 are strength focused, they're very far off. None of your features function off attacks using anything but Strength. Reread Rage and Reckless Attack.
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Nov 25, 2015 19:05
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Generic Octopus posted:None of your features function off attacks using anything but Strength. Reread Rage and Reckless Attack. Crud, you're correct - didn't read those closely enough. While it's not the end of the world to miss out on Reckless attack, losing the scaling damage (+3 at lvl9 while raging) is a bit of a deal breaker. Thanks for clearing that up. 
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Nov 25, 2015 19:39
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Keep in mind, the Advantage from Reckless Attack can be used to make low-STR more viable, but even then you usually want to pump CON rather than DEX; Barbarians effectively get AC and HP from pumping CON so it's a good investment.
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Nov 25, 2015 20:07
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Uh where the hell is the "optional rule" for feats? The PHB mentions it on p165 but while the gist of it is explained it doesn't get a sidebar or anything, and the DMG index doesn't have any references to feats in the index. My players chose some weirdass class/race combos and basically I'm thinking I'm just going to give them a free feat where appropriate every few levels to counteract their suboptimal areas. Ex. "Okay so you're spending all of your time in this big city at the library studying old tomes? Take either Linguist or Mage Initiate. You spent a month training in a cave with world-renowned grappling wrestler Valdash the Bald? Take grappl---err never mind, take Athlete." Is that a reasonable thing to do or am I going to invoke the unholy wrath of Gygax? Normally I wouldn't care at all but I haven't really played D&D in like seven years and want to run 5th as close to RAW as possible at least to start so I don't end up breaking it inadvertently. Also is SCAG any good if I have no intention of actually running poo poo in the FR?
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Nov 27, 2015 07:38
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Chapter 6, Customization Options, page 165:quote:A feat represents a talent or an area of expertise that gives a character special capabilities. It embodies training, experience, and abilities beyond what a class provides.
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Nov 27, 2015 07:49
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Yeah, I mentioned that with the page number, it just references "the" rule there which made me think it was outlined in detail elsewhere. You seem to have done a bunch of thinking (and math) regarding 5E balance, is what I said above doable? e: forget "doable", is that what feats are meant to be if you don't use the variant?
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Nov 27, 2015 07:53
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Ryoshi posted:You seem to have done a bunch of thinking (and math) regarding 5E balance, is what I said above doable? I'm of the "yes" opinion. Particularly if you're doing stuff to give characters more breadth, rather than just unlocking stuff along some degenerate feat-chain.
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Nov 27, 2015 07:58
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The entirety of chapter six is the sidebar you're looking for  , both feats and multi-classing are the optional rules. It's weirdly worded but the sentence is referring to itself basically.
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Nov 27, 2015 07:59
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There's a bunch of feats that are so poo poo from a mechanical basis that it'd behoove you to let the players earn them as part of narrative character development, such as in your examples, and basically anything that also provides a +1 stat as an acknowledgement by the designers themselves that Linguist is too piss-weak to ever be worth an ASI by itself. There are others though, such as Sharpshooter or War Caster, that are powerful enough to be worth the ASI, though it's really up to you whether you want to let the players "earn" these anyway. One special mention would be something like Crossbow Expert: if you have a player that likes crossbows, and you're not playing with feats, and they're a class that has the Extra Attack feature, every bone in your DMing body should tell you that yes, let the player have the Crossbow Expert benefit at some point, even if you have to make it part of a quest or something.
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Nov 27, 2015 08:01
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Are there any feats actually worth bothering with for a Lore Bard, or is it all about the ASIs?
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Nov 27, 2015 17:51
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Without knowing your character or the rest of the party at all and in order of probably usefulness: Resilient (Con), Alert, Lucky, War Caster, Ritual Caster (free spells known), and maybe Magic Initiate after the Sage ruling or whatever that lets you treat the level 1 spell as a spell known if you picked from your own class's list, or for Hex and Eldritch Blast if you're some weird nuke bard.
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Nov 27, 2015 18:17
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It's relatively safe to just take ASIs as a lore bard, you can take Observant if you want to have a hilariously broken passive perception after factoring in a perception expertise, if your GM goes like "The enemy jumps from the bushes and attacks you, surprise round!" you just shake your head and point at the 24 passive perception score on your sheet. Actor can be used for some pretty insidious purposes especially if you dip warlock and gain the ability to cast disguise self at will, just kill off the leader of a city after observing them for a while and then perfectly take over their life, bonus points if you have the background that lets you perfectly mimic someone's writing style allowing you to accurately make trade deals in the former mayor's hand .
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Nov 27, 2015 18:31
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thespaceinvader posted:Are there any feats actually worth bothering with for a Lore Bard, or is it all about the ASIs? It's basically been answered already, but the broad generalization on feats is that they fall into a few categories:
Feats kind of have the same problem as Maneuvers; you have a limited number of picks, but you get more as you level and they're all in one big pool, so you end up taking the best ones early, and then (contextually) the lovely ones start to seem ok (or still just as-lovely) except that in those cases the ASI starts to look pretty good, if it didn't already.
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Nov 27, 2015 20:31
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Lucky is awesome because it lets you reroll 1s and other low but critical rolls AND it's not actually advantage so you can use it when the odds are against you (or use it WITH advantage if you roll two 3s or something).
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Nov 27, 2015 20:35
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Yeah, since they clarified that Lucky basically turns disadvantage on your roll into advantage (or vice versa on attacks against you) it became even more obviously the best way to stay alive when everything has gone to hell.
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Nov 27, 2015 21:20
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So currently in my party we have the charismatic Sorcerer, the dexterous sneaky Monk and me, the strong Barbarian. We're fairly even in combat, but I'm in need of some advice what I can bring outside of it. The obvious thing mentioned in the Players handbook is "You can lift a heavy object!", but I don't expect that scenario to come up a lot. Any advice or outside the box thinking on what I can do with my 20 strength? I don't need anything detailed, but some pointers in the right direction would be lovely. 
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Dec 20, 2015 05:48
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Lamquin posted:So currently in my party we have the charismatic Sorcerer, the dexterous sneaky Monk and me, the strong Barbarian. We're fairly even in combat, but I'm in need of some advice what I can bring outside of it. The obvious thing mentioned in the Players handbook is "You can lift a heavy object!", but I don't expect that scenario to come up a lot. Any advice or outside the box thinking on what I can do with my 20 strength? I don't need anything detailed, but some pointers in the right direction would be lovely. grapple with people. at level 6 bear totem gives you advantage on strength checks to break things, grapple a guy and ask your DM if you can roll a strength contest to horribly break his limbs
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Dec 20, 2015 05:57
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EvanSchenck posted:grapple with people. at level 6 bear totem gives you advantage on strength checks to break things, grapple a guy and ask your DM if you can roll a strength contest to horribly break his limbs That's actually... a great idea, not only for out of combat but also combat. I completely blanked on grapple being a thing, and this guide someone has written seems to explain it really well. Thanks for the tip!
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Dec 20, 2015 06:42
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Lamquin posted:That's actually... a great idea, not only for out of combat but also combat. I completely blanked on grapple being a thing, and this guide someone has written seems to explain it really well. Thanks for the tip! Whoops, didn't notice you were looking specifically for out-of-combat stuff. Barbarians honestly aren't given a lot to work with. Pretty much all your class features are explicitly combat related and if you knew what you were doing at character creation you dumped your stats that relate to social skills and knowledge. You're really good at breaking objects!  I would definitely suggest negotiating with your DM on some things. For example, ask if you can use strength instead of charisma on intimidation or performance checks. Impress villagers by bending iron bars and picking up a whole wagon over your head.
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Dec 21, 2015 18:28
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It's also to the muscle guy's benefit to synergies with the Charisma caster in a lot of social skill settings. As a player it's usually fun to do the whole thing where the Barbarian is Andre the Giant and the Bard/Lock/Sorc is the dude that holds your belt. Have them draw the crowd so you can bend iron rods and bench press 8 ladies. It's also fun to go into a tavern, challenge people to literal wrestling matches, and have the Face act as your bet handler. Question: I haven't played a Ranger yet and am toying with the whole Halfling Outrider concept. Is it a bad idea to go Beastmaster so I can ride around and soften up targets with arrows before riding my boar in for a charge? Is the whole "small mounted archer" thing viable? I'm not looking to outpace a Hunter, I'm more concerned with being a l drag on the party.
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Mar 9, 2016 18:47
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Apparently the concept of "Halfling with a Druid mount" is space that has been explored (and it owns). Mounted Combatant feat lets you do some fun stuff like never be hit ever again, or something.
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Mar 9, 2016 20:48
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Let's say I don't want to cast spells. What is my build to keep up with the rest of the party?
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Mar 9, 2016 21:15
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For high damage and always being able to target the enemy, Sharpshooter with either Ranger or Fighter (for Archery Fighting Style), then mix in Rogue.
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Mar 9, 2016 21:18
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