|
AlphaDog posted:There was talk of merging STR and CON into one stat, but that sounds like it will massively boost classes that want a casting stat and then melee stats (bear druids and valor bards, off the top of my head) instead of just fighters. I can't think of much off my head that CON is used for besides HP, so you probably could just ditch it and just make hp a function of class pretty much like you say (Fighters get X, Rogues get Y, etc.) while rolling the other functions into STR.
|
#
¿
Feb 8, 2015 16:28
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 22:11 |
|
|
Dick Burglar posted:Warlocks who use the Pact of the Blade and make melee attacks with their pact weapons still use the normal STR or DEX (for Finesse weapons) score to make attacks, right? So the only time they make attacks with CHA is when they use Eldritch Blast or other spells/cantrips/incantations/whateverthefuckelse mechanics Warlocks have that are spell-like? Yup yup. It's pmuch just a weapon you can always have on hand that counts as magical for purposes of monster resistance/immunity.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2015 18:05
|
|
|
Cephas posted:I'm having my first 5e session in the near future, and my boyfriend wants to port over a character he really enjoyed from Pathfinder. The character is a Tiefling Ranger who dual-wields and has an otherworldly animal companion (just a devilish reskin of a normal animal). The thing is, Tieflings in 5e lose out on their dexterity bonus, and their intelligence boost isn't as useful as it used to be, where it provided additional skill points. I know he's going to care more about the character's personality than about maximizing his character's power, but I want to make sure he doesn't set himself up for a bad time by having a really underpowered character. A pretty common houserule I've seen is to free up racial ability bumps so players can just pick whatever. Stats cap at 20 anyway so your bf wouldn't be super screwed if your table is strict RAW though. Hunter is definitely better than Beastmaster feature-wise but it's not a big deal really, basically he'd miss out on an extra d8 of damage per turn and the whirlwind attack thing. You don't really get much from Beastmaster in terms of actual ability/power but if he just wants a pet it's not the end of the world. Important to note that since attacking with your off hand takes your bonus action he'll pretty much never use the level 7 feature. Honestly there's not a lot to optimize since classes are pretty rigid so if your bf is set on "Tiefling," "Ranger," and "Beastmaster" that's about it since the major build customization features are race, class, & archetype at this point in 5e. Take TWF at level 2 and get the Dual Wielding feat when possible. Is multiclassing a thing he's keen on? Because that's a whole other thing.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2015 19:42
|
|
|
Dick Burglar posted:He could also play a Hunter Ranger and just have the animal companion as a non-combat pet flavor type of thing. Or a weak combat pet like an attack dog from the DMG or whatever. Rangers are lousy enough mechanically that it probably wouldn't break the game even if he played a Hunter with a decent pet. This too. I didn't really address it but Ranger is pretty bad compared to most other classes so giving them extra stuff isn't that big a deal.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 11, 2015 19:48
|
|
|
There's basically never a reason to pick Berserker Barb or Champion Fighter. Everyone is better off by pretending those paths don't exist.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 15, 2015 22:45
|
|
|
Kitchner posted:the Eldritch Knight Fighter spec which would also do what you're on about, especially as at higher levels they get abilities to cast spells and attack on the same turn. To add to this, casting a spell + attack doesn't come completely online until level 18 (before then you can only do cantrip + 1 attack), and even then it's only 1 attack as a bonus action so you don't even benefit from Extra Attack(s). Plus your spells cap out at spell level 4...there's really no reason to use E. Knight instead of multiclass Sorcerer with Quickened Spell metamagic if you have access to the PHB (unless for some reason multiclassing is banned, in which case you're still better off as Battlemaster if you're sticking with Fighter or playing a Bard of Valor instead if you want good spells/spellcasting).
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2015 15:10
|
|
|
Something to note for skills is that the rules for background customization let you pick any two you want, as well as tool proficiencies & languages. So when picking a bg mainly concern yourself with the feature/flavor you like best since you can edit to taste. Personally I like to take Performance so in case an adventure/campaign goes bad, my character can always fall back on storytelling/songwriting/dancing for a permanent Wealthy lifestyle.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2015 19:27
|
|
|
Apollodorus posted:How would I go about fixing monster CRs to put together more appropriate encounters? Should I just multiply them all by 1.5 or something? Or is there an alternative table somewhere? This is something people are still debating and trying to figure out; there's not gonna be an easy answer/fix. There're a lot of variables at work so at the end of the day you're probably just gonna have to eyeball it and learn/adjust as you play.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2015 21:22
|
|
|
Trast posted:Can anyone speak about the 5e monk? I like what I have read in the PHB so far but had a few questions about them. For instance is the elemental branch (aka Avatar mode) limited to picking four of their ki abilities or can they swap through the sixteen total skills available after a long rest similar to a cleric or other divinely powered character? If it is the former that seems really limiting to be stuck with only four elemental abilities the entire life of the monk. Also did I read right that unarmed damage for them starts at 1d4 and then through the martial arts ability it will ramp up in power as you level? I assume you can dual wield your unarmed attacks like a one-two punch combo and still use your bonus strike. Finally would grappling be to the advantage of a monk with good strength? Being able to clinch up and put an enemy at a disadvantage would be nice to use mechanically and as a role play aspect. Thai clinch knees are murder let me tell you. With the element branch, every time you reach a level where you can add a new power, you can also swap an old one out for something new. That's the extent of it, you don't get to freely swap around at rests, and yea, it's not that great. Way of Four Elements is arguable the weakest path; you can get some impressive burst damage, but their stuff burns so much ki that you would probably have been better off using it for other things instead, notably Stunning Strikes. On-hit stun for 1 ki is amazing and monks get it as a default part of their kit at level 5. Monk's unarmed stuff is basically dual-wielding, but doesn't apply stuff like feats & fighting styles iirc. You can make one attack per Attack action and can use a bonus action to make a second attack. At level 2 you can spend 1 ki to make 2 attacks as a bonus action, for a total of 3 per turn. So by level 5 you make 4 attacks per turn between your regular Attack and Flurry of Blows. The damage of your unarmed attacks scales based on level as shown on the chart; at low levels, use a monk weapon since you can use all your monk goodies with it and have a damage die that isn't awful. All grappling does is reduce the target's speed to 0; basically you're better off stunning them with Stunning Strikes. That said, it's not a huge deal to make a check (it consumes an attack, but as a monk you get a bunch) and if you have the Grappler feat you'll get advantage on attacks against the target. It's an alright option before level 5; after that, if you have ki, stunning is universally better. As for the other paths, Open Hand is notable for the free control effects it grants when using Flurry of Blows and having an outright Save-or-Die effect (and even if they save, it hurts a lot). Way of Shadow gets a lot of good stealth stuff and can make great use of a couple Rogue levels for Cunning Action.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 16, 2015 21:57
|
|
|
MonsterEnvy posted:Assassin Rogue, Berserker Barbarian are still pretty good classes. Assassin has some cool out of combat stuff and if it can get the drop on some one deals fantastic damage. Berserker is just plain powerful. Though there are big downsides to using it's full power more then once every long rest. Berserker is trash, you get to make one attack as a bonus action while raging at the cost of experiencing perhaps the most debilitating status effect in the game. Champion is god awful because the damage bonus from the expanded crit range is outdone by any Battlemaster spamming maneuvers that add damage. It's not just boring, it's mechanically lovely. Frankly all 3 of the Rogue specialties aren't great, but they at least have neat niche things unlike the above.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2015 12:29
|
|
|
Trast posted:In regards to the grappling that was just me trying to think of good ways to add flavor to combat. I'm an MMA fan and clinch fighting can be very punishing. Maybe down the road or through suggestions from players they could add mechanics for monk clinch fighting. Though I suppose that doesn't stop me from roleplaying during combat something along the lines of "I grab the orc in a tight clinch, striking his midsection with high knees then breaking away." It sounds more interesting then "I punch the orc." Yeah, totes flavor it however you like. And to address E. Monks again, it's not like they're bad, just wonky compared to the other options Monk has. Open Hand and Shadow are pretty front-loaded, giving you good stuff from the start and then giving you yet more stuff later, while Elemental doles out a handful of effects over the entire progression. Point is though, even as an E. Monk, you're still a Monk, and they're great. Plus with Fangs of the Fire Snake you can nuke poo poo pretty handily, just as I said before, it devours your ki pool to do so.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2015 15:59
|
|
|
The great thing about Totem Barb is you can pick different animals at each decision point to suit your taste or the party's needs.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2015 19:07
|
|
|
Trast posted:Fangs of the Fire Snake does look pretty nasty. Do you think lowering the ki costs or opening up their disciplines to a long rest and prepare from the list style would help them out some? Well that would be more theorycrafting and less newbie advice. At a glance it looks like the ki costs for the elemental disciplines that replicate spells outright were determined by "spell's level +1," which seems arbitrary when Open Hand gets a save-or-die for 3 ki. Since their spell toolbox is so limited it probably wouldn't hurt balance much to standardize the costs to some low value like 2-3 ki. Maybe something like 2 to cast at its lowest level, 3 or 4 to cast the highest available (by that I mean like, at seventh level a fireball could be cast as a level 4 spell, then as a level 5 spell at monk level 9...basically parallel to the levels spellcasters would get those spell levels, which is what the "Spell & Ki Points" table is doing). I dunno, it's tough for me to gauge how much the spells should cost in ki because while it makes sense to try & limit it a bit to avoid abuse/spam, these things are competing with 1 ki stuns & a 3-ki save-or-die & no-cost prones/pushes/etc. Would probably change the Fire Fangs thing to just be 2 ki for the whole effect like the Water Whip & Unbroken Air disciplines, both because I like things standardized and because I want it to be competitive with Stunning Strikes/Quivering Palm. To be perfectly honest I'd rather they just got a suite of their own powers designed around ki like Fire Snake/Water Whip/etc. instead of replicating spells, but eh. Swapping stuff at a long rest is something I'd probably want to be able to do, & again their toolbox is limited so it doesn't strike me as a huge deal.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2015 21:15
|
|
|
Apollodorus posted:All I want to know is how to use the 5E MM to quickly assemble a collection of monsters that won't kill my players' characters but will put up a medium-to-difficult fight. As it is the rugby team I manage as a player-coach gets our butts kicked almost every game; doing the same in my inchoate DM career would prove I am a failure at both sports and dorkdom. I haven't gone over gradenko's stuff, but if it's any good, it's the best you're gonna do. There's enough variance in monster/encounter design (from what I've seen that is; I don't have an MM so my knowledge is mostly gleamed from play, message boards, and talking to my dm) and also PC party composition that it's possible (and probable) that you'll end up missing the mark in terms of difficulty and have to adjust on the fly. Don't worry so much about loving up or whatever, it's just a dice game.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2015 01:40
|
|
|
Elendil004 posted:So my Paladin just hit 5, any reason to multiclass into something else? Any cool combos to consider? Definitely get to level 6 for Aura of Courage. Taking 3 levels of Barbarian would let you Rage 3 times per day & take half damage while raging from everything but psychic damage, so that's neat for a tanky route (the first level would be kinda dead since presumably you're in heavy armor, but the Bear feature doesn't preclude that). Barbarian 11 would get you Relentless Rage, which if have Con proficiency and Aura of Courage, would make you drat near unkillable. But yea, you'd need to be level 17 overall for that so it's a ways off probably. 2 or 3 levels in Fighter would net you Second Wind (kinda meh since you already have Lay on Hands), Action Surge, another Fighting Style, and some Battlemaster stuff if you go for the third level. 3 levels in Ranger would get you another Fighting Style and another 1d8 of damage per turn from Colossus Slayer in the Hunter archetype. Dipping in some of the spell casters can get you some neat stuff.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2015 18:54
|
|
|
Squifferific posted:I'm going through character creation right now for a new campaign, and I'm toying with the idea of a Dwarven Bard. While my group isn't that much into power gaming, I still don't want to be crippled at later levels just because I took a weird class/race combo. Are there any pitfalls or obvious things I should avoid? Is having Wisdom be the dump stat a terrible, terrible idea? Dwarf doesn't really get you much mechanically, Valor Bards get the armor proficiencies at level 3 anyway. That said Bards are basically the best class in the game so it shouldn't matter much what your race is; it'd be nice to get a bonus to Cha but you can cap it out later. Don't dump Wis if you can avoid it, it's an important save.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2015 21:55
|
|
|
Mr. Bitterness posted:I'm starting one of my first D&D games as a wizard noble of modest morality and would appreciate advice on how to best fleece the decent people of Neverwinter of their burdensome coin (one big coin I'd hope, but I'll work with what the DM throws) If you customize your background to give you Performance, you can permanently maintain a Wealthy lifestyle; you could then freely narrate how you're fleecing the populace out of 4gp per day. If you spec into the Conjuration School, you can create replica magical gold statues to sell people. Transmutation can do similar things; convert wood coins to gold which you could then use to con people, even if it's as simple as having shopkeeps make change for your fake currency. Both of these features are gained at level 2.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2015 06:24
|
|
|
P.d0t posted:I was just looking at some MC options, and it says you basically combine all your slots together from your spellcasting classes. Lots of rule elements aren't strictly defined anywhere, so a lot of 5e ends up being dictated by your table's interpretation of RAI rather than strict RAW. Spell slots especially seem to be something you're expected to understand are segregated by class for features like that, and even then you still end up with really poorly written RAW in certain places (like warlock's Pact Magic stating you "regain all spell slots" after a short or long rest...you're more or less supposed to assume it means Warlock slots specifically). So to answer your question, I'd say yea, you could use the slots for Smite, but if I'm being honest it's unclear by what's written in the multiclass rules. Frankly a lot of classes read like they were written before the multiclass rules, which were then kinda stapled on and made to fit, but that's my own speculation.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2015 01:34
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:The wording leads me to believe that the slot you're using for Smite has to hold a spell from the Paladin spells list, which is fine if you're careful about choosing which Sorcerer spells to slot (since there is overlap) Not sure what you mean by a spell slot "holding" a spell.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2015 02:59
|
|
|
Take a level of Fighter and get both. Personally I prefer Protection over either of those, but of those two I'd prefer the AC bonus.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2015 17:49
|
|
|
Vanguard Warden posted:I'm playing a character focusing on grappling and unarmed strike, mixing Totem Barbarian, Open-Hand Monk and Battle-Master Fighter. I don't use weapons and armor due to Monk/Barbarian features. What are some good magic items to support this? Grappling in general is not very good in 5e as all it does is reduce the target's speed to 0, and the Grappler feat causes you to also grant advantage if you use it's pinning feature; you're much better off inflicting Stun with Monk or Frightened with Fighter. For items there's nothing that specifically helps grappling or unarmed, really; Gauntlets of Power make your Str equal 19 which would help if you're finding your stats spread thin and is uncommon, as is the cloak mentioned above. Bracers of Defense are rare however.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 24, 2015 22:23
|
|
|
QuarkJets posted:It's important to remember that in 5e, unlike previous editions, grappling is only inflicted on the target, not yourself. The target's move speed is 0, but you're free to drag them along wherever. The grapple rules are almost a direct port from 4e, and they weren't great there either aside from a niche build of fighter. And as in 4e, it's not so much that "grappling is bad" as it is "everything else you have at your disposal is better, so it's not very good in comparison." If you find yourself needing to grapple/prone something though, better off using Open Hand Technique than Shove so you get some damage. Vanguard Warden posted:EDIT: One situation I have been curious about is how exactly moving something around while grappling works. If I wanted to move a grappled target from one side of my character to the other while not moving myself, would I spend movement to swing the target around? If so, would it cost 15' to move an enemy diagonally twice, or just 10' to move it directly through my own square? The rules don't actually have anything to cover that scenario, so it's up to your table. In 4e when you moved you could slide the target 1 square to a square adjacent to you for every square of movement you took, but not actually pivot/rotate its position like that. Generic Octopus fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Feb 24, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Feb 24, 2015 23:20
|
|
|
Red Metal posted:So are ability score increases tied to character level, and shown on the class tables for convenience like the proficiency bonus? Or are they actually tied to class levels, so 7 X/13 Y gets me fewer ASIs than 8 X/12 Y? Class Level. Different classes get varying amounts of them. So if you're a Fighter 6, you'd get 2 ASIs; a Fighter 4/Warlock 2 would have 1, and a Fighter 3/Warlock 3 would have 0.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2015 00:10
|
|
|
Trast posted:Are there any feats that you guys think are under powered or don't really work as intended? It's tough to say for niche, campaign-dependent stuff like Linguist because they're as useful as they come up. But then there's stuff like Magic Initiate...a single level 1 spell and a pair of cantrips, kinda pathetic. The armor proficiency ones are also kinda lame since it's pretty easy to get the armor/AC you want without using your limited feats. Charger, Savage Attacker, Skulker, Tavern Brawler, and Weapon Master are also tough sells just because they don't really offer much of anything to compete with an ASI or the good/better feats (with Charger it's more because it devours your action economy just to move fast & make 1 attack...narrow combat niche compared to other feats). Grappler is just ugly, it's a trap feat that shouldn't exist.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2015 03:39
|
|
|
slydingdoor posted:Savage Attacker is fine for melee rogues and moon druids with charge forms: characters with single attacks with lots of dice. Especially the latter because stat boosts aren't as important when you just use monster stats anyway. There's a difference between "Weapon's damage dice" and "attack's damage dice" as seen for things like critical hits. It rerolls the 1dX on your weapon, not the whole sneak attack or divine smite or whatever extra damage.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2015 05:09
|
|
|
Ryuujin posted:That is not how critical hits work. Critical hits reroll and add ALL of your dice. This is why the Champion sucks at critical hits. They get the greater threat range but miss out on the extra dice that Battlemasters, Rogues, and Paladins have on occasion. Also attack spells for spellcasters, especially big cantrips like Fire Bolt by 20th level. Also Barbarians when they get the feature to add extra weapon dice on crits. What I was referring to in the second sentence was Savage Attacker, not crits.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2015 05:19
|
|
|
bewilderment posted:That said, I think since there's only one full caster in the group Bards and Clerics are both full casters. Fighters are way underpowered compared to other classes like Monk, Barbarian, Pally, Warlock, and Valor Bard. In the other thread you mentioned wanting to steer clear of "I attack" or "I blast it" style gameplay; fighter is firmly the former, even with Battle Master maneuvers. It's important to note that OAs are once per round, so the Polearm OA thing isn't quite the interesting battlefield-control build you might think it is.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 16, 2015 01:47
|
|
|
Frush posted:I'm not sure which is the right thread either, but in my opinion you're right; you've made it too hard to kill. Resistance to all physical damage types? To make meaningful damage against any player using this you'll have to be doing the type of damage that'll be crippling to any other class, and would one-hit casters. You'll likely end up having to find ways around your own class build, which kind of ruins the point. The regular Rage ability of the barb already does this. At level 3 a Bear barb has resistance to everything but psychic damage while raging. Honestly that derv is probably fine, it's just yet another class/archetype that eclipses the Fighter and Rogue. Generic Octopus fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Aug 12, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2015 23:26
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 16, 2024 22:11 |
|
|
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.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 25, 2015 19:05
|
|