D&D NEXT Advice Thread: Newbies Click This

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MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Hey Lizards have a genital sheathe. You should not have been able to see Lizard dicks.

(Ironically I learned this in a D&D related comic.)

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Feb 14, 2015

# ¿ Feb 14, 2015 00:02

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 05:14

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

DalaranJ posted:

How do the monster stat blocks from the basic pdf compare to those in the MM? Is there a significant difference between the stat blocks in the MM and the results of creature creation using the DMG rules?

I think the monsters are same between the two. The basic rules just does not have too many interesting monsters in it compared to the MM.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2015 01:52

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

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?

My advice would be to just use the encounter building guidelines as is. CR has next to nothing to do with building encounters. The rule of it is just supposed to be If your party's level is equal to or greater then the CR of this monster it is ok to use them in normal everyday encounters. XP value is what actually matters for building encounters.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2015 08:21

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

gradenko_2000 posted:

Right - as long as you stay away from the Champion Fighter*, 5E at least pays some lip-service to giving martial characters some mechanical abilities beyond just "full attacks".

* The Assassin Rogue, the Path of the Berserker Barbarian and the Beastmaster Ranger are also kind of bad

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.

Champion Fighter is rather boring but it still at least does it's job.

koreban posted:

Just asking because I'm playing my first D&D and picked the shape shifting Druid over the extra spells when in terrain types if I fall into the same *bad* category?

See above for my opinion on the bad subclasses. But Most people think that the Moon Druid is too powerful.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2015 08:27

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

AlphaDog posted:

A monster's CR is the thing (the only thing) that defines what its XP value is (Page 275 of the DMG "Experience points by challenge rating").

Telling someone who wants a fixed encounter building system that they don't need one because CR isn't the number you use for encounter building is disingenuous and misleading, since fixing the CR system would necessarily involve recalculating the xp values, which in turn would mean rewriting the encounter building system.

It still does not matter. If you are building an encounter and say you are going to make a 5000 xp encounter. It does not matter what CR of monsters you use in that and generally as long as their CR does exceed the Level of the party they are fine to use in building that 5000 XP encounter.

I am completely serious that the system works the way it currently is. It is not broken or useless. It does what it says it is supposed to do.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 00:12

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

QuarkJets posted:

Berserker Barbarian: I like the roleplay possibilities of using Intimidating Presence out of combat, and Retaliation basically has no downside and is awesome. But stacking exhaustion from Frenzy is so loving debilitating that it's a feature that you'll probably only be able to use for the final encounter before a long rest (8 hours). It's probably better than taking the Bear Path, but I would argue that Eagle Path offers better roleplaying opportunities and better in-combat positioning capabilities (because you can dash forever), and the Wolf Path's later in-combat capabilities are so good that it probably actually beats the Berserker Barbarian, even if you're fighting alone (because you can knock up to a Large opponent prone every turn as a bonus action so long as you've hit them with an attack that turn)

I mentioned you would generally only be able to use it's full power once every long rest.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 00:16

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

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.

Make medium to difficult fights using the guidelines. Unless your players are unlucky the guidlines do work well.

Here this program is useful as hell. http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder for making encounters in 5e.

AlphaDog posted:

The encounter building system in the monster manual does let you make encounters that are significantly easier or harder than it indicates. You can avoid that in all sorts of ways, none of which involve using the system as-is.

There is no encounter building system in the monster manual. It's in the Basic rules and DMG. Could you give an example of this system.

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Feb 18, 2015

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 02:11

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

AlphaDog posted:

The rules don't produce well balanced encounters all the time, which is the whole point.

Show me an unbalanced one that does not involve an intellect devourer. Lets assume party of 4 and that they are level 5.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 02:20

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

AlphaDog posted:

That's what I said, yes. The rules don't produce well balanced encounters all the time, which is the whole point. Thanks for finally agreeing.

I don't think it needs to be fixed still. One thing especially as minor as the Intellect Devourer does not ruin the whole it is made of.

Anyway all that matters is how Apollodorus feels about it for his game. The site I linked is still very helpful for any 5e game.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 02:38

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

AlphaDog posted:

"The system always produces well balanced results if you ignore the times when it doesn't" is a statement that I could agree with, sure.

Your trying to make an Anthill into a Mountain here. Thats why I asked for an example no including the Intellect Devourer. I have never said the System always produces well balanced results ether. I just said that generally the system works. I and many others that understand it have not had any trouble using it. It's not perfect but it does not need to be fixed.

gradenko_2000 posted:

To easily create encounters using the in-game rules, use this: http://donjon.bin.sh/5e/random/#encounter

I like Kobold FIght Club better still http://kobold.club/fight/#/encounter-builder.

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Feb 18, 2015

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 02:51

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

AlphaDog posted:

So let me get this clear:

You know that it's an imperfect system that doesn't always produce well balanced results [i]and[/i] you feel that there's no need to fix or improve it. Right?

I guess we agree on the first part then?

The second part is your opinion, which I'm not going to argue with.

Your making it sound worse then it is, but yes this is correct.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 04:18

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

AlphaDog posted:

"How bad it is" is the opinion part, yes. You don't think the imperfections or poorly balanced results are bad enough or frequent enough that the system needs to be fixed. That's fine, and I'm not arguing with you because to you it's true. You don't think the system needs to be fixed. You're not going to fix the system. That's OK.

Since you've acknowledged that it is an imperfect system that doesn't always produce well balanced results, can you please stop interjecting with variations of "but it's not even broken" when people who do think it's bad enough to warrant a fix are discussing how to fix it?

I just dislike all that talk you did. An OK would suffice.

On another topic as we understand each other.

Kitchner posted:

I haven't seen one yet but I assume there are also anti magic monsters?

The closest I would say is probably the Rakshasa with it's limited Magic Immunity. Golem's are anti magic in way that they are immune to a lot of stuff but it's fairly easy to get around. Helmed Horrors are Immune to 3 Spells that are chosen by it's creator. (Aka the DM can pick 3 spells it is immune to.) Monsters with Legendary Resistance are kinda sorta anti magic. There are lots of monsters that can fight casters well but it is still not a focus on them.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 06:12

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

30.5 Days posted:

- Watch the immunities. If you're level 2 and your wizard took cone of cold and nobody has magic weapons yet, don't use the Spined Devil, who has immunities to non-magical weapons and cold.

The rest of your post is all good advice. But this first point you made has a few mistakes. Cone of Cold is a 5th level spell and Spined Devils resist cold and non magical weapons not immune. They can still be hurt by them it's just not as effective. Pretty much if you lack the means of getting past it's damage resist treat it's hp as being twice as high.

Also yes I was rather stupid for asking for an example. I am sorry for causing that mess back there.

Elendil004 posted:

Naw, don't really have a reason to multiclass, just pondering ideas.

3 levels of fighter champion can be rather useful. 2nd wind as mentioned is not too useful, but Action surge is just good, The Improved Crit range for a Paladin can be really useful however. With Paladins you don't have to smite until your hit lands. Which means if you crit you can always choose to smite on one. (Well if you still have uses left.) I would only recommend this path if you are ok with relying on luck.

Going Pure Paladin is still probably a better choice.

MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Feb 18, 2015

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 19:33

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Ratpick posted:

Well, I've heard that Valor Bards are pretty much one of the best class options in the game, and dwarves are obviously the best race. Valor Bard also seems like a good fit for a dwarf. If you go Mountain Dwarf, you can enjoy the benefits of a high Strength and Constitution, medium armor proficiency as well as having access to the coolest, dwarfiest weapons. (Although I'm not sure of the Bard's proficiencies and whether there's some overlap between the Mountain Dwarf's weapon and armor proficiencies and those.)

I'd caution against dumping Wisdom entirely: someone posted a synopsis of the amount of save-dependent effects in the game in the other thread a while back, and Wisdom saves are very prolific in 5e.

Indeed I would never go for a negative in Wisdom. Still most of the wisdom saves are from spells, so unless you know you are going to fight casters you should be safe not putting too much into wisdom.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 21:55

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Xelkelvos posted:

Well spells and monster abilities that reference spells.

That's what I mean by casters. There are not too many caster monsters in the MM. So Dex and Con saves are going to be more likely.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2015 22:03

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

QuarkJets posted:

The worst offender has to be Grappler. Having advantage on attack rolls against creatures with which you are grappling is great, but you can use a Push action to get the same benefit. Restrained is just weird, since you're also inflicting the condition on yourself, so it's really only good if you're going 1v1 (in which case you can still just Push them). The third effect actually does nothing, since you can already grapple with creatures one size larger than you

Well sense also dictates that if you push someone your grappling you are no long grappling them, because you pushed them. Restrained is fine you have allies to take advantage of it and no opponents to take advantage of you having the same condition.

But yeah the feat needs work.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2015 03:44

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

QuarkJets posted:

Not going by a literal reading of the rules; shove either knocks a creature prone or moves it away from you, not both. But even if you want to rule it that way, you can Shove an enemy prone and then Grapple them in the same turn. Once you've got them Prone and Grappled, they're basically stuck that way until they can break your Grapple. This is basically the same as Pinning but you don't have to give up 2 ability points to do it.

That why I said sense dictates it. It's not really covered in the rules. But I don't think you can shove an enemy prone and grapple them in the same turn. They both cost an action don't they?

# ¿ Feb 28, 2015 04:41

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

Frush posted:

Encouraging roleplay is tough, since people can be embarrassed or simply not all that into it. Try to make an obvious roleplay encounter once in a while, and reward anyone who participates a bit.

Put extra effort into room descriptions if you can, since that's where players pull their ideas and inspirations from sometimes. Have bad guys and villains talk to them or to other monsters for a chance at interactions. Or better yet, fold some encounter design into it. Instead of saying "there are five goblins in the room", why not try something along the lines of " The room is covered in mouldy furs and splintered furniture. Four goblins sit clustered around a brazier using pieces of chairs for firewood while a fifth naps in a dark corner." Now, if they catch the goblins off guard, the goblins don't run for their weapons, they grab their pokers or sticks from the fire and use them as improvised weapons that deal additional 1d4 (or appropriate) fire dmamge, ongoing 2 with save ends if you feel particularly vicious. If a player grabs a stick? Same deal. Wizard wants to toss a surprise firebolt into the brazier causing it to flare and deal area-of-effect to all four? Sure. Goblin drops a weapon or the brazier spills? Room starts on fire. If they sneak in? Rogue gets an opportunity to sneak and coup de gras the sleeping goblin and knock one out early. Dont get hung up writing novels about details, but even one little detail tells the players something about the picture of the room in your head that they can work with.

Let them use their character traits. One of my favorite things about this campaign so far is the fighter who took dice proficiency. In the Redbrand hideout in the module, there's a group of guys playing a dice game. When getting ready to burst in the room, they listen at the door and I give the fighter advantage since he's hearing the sounds of dice rattling and people cheering or groaning, etc. They end up having the rest of the party hide, while the fighter puts on a stolen red cloak and just walks in, poses as a new guy and asks to join the game. At this point I play an actual dice game with the player (a bluffing game adapted from a drinking game we have) and essentially roll to modulate how good the gang members are bluffing by making better or worse bluffs in this little minigame. He manages to win all the gold at the table and sees these guys are getting angry, so he offers them all their gold back if they go 'take his patrol shift in town' that starts in a few minutes. They guys all grumble, but grab their gold and file away out of the hideout, clearing the room without the sounds of combat alerting the next room.

I also make use of the inspiration optional rule and its worked great. Basically, if someone does particularly good roleplay or has a good idea, I give them an 'inspiration point' which they can us at any time to get advantage on a roll. It helps them pull off clutch rolls or big attacks, which feels good to them as a player. I also try to actively discourage meta-gaming and number crunching beyond a reasonable level, and will give out disadvantage on rolls that are particularly disingenuous, such as trying to roll for the same thing multiple times without a good reason. Unless it's a skill check of some kind, you don't just get to hammer away at something until you roll a 20.

From this and your other story you sound like a really good DM.

I want to read how this ends when it does.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2015 22:57

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

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.)

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 06:34

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 05:14

MonsterEnvy: Feb 4, 2012; Shocked I tell you

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.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 07:39

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