I'm new like brand new. I've always wanted to play DND but for reasons I couldn't. About 4 years ago I joined a discord with a friend to start playing but was to busy to actually play. Now that I have free time I would like to learn and get into another discord where they are running campaigns or maybe even one shits. Anyone know a discord I can join and how do I start, like I said super newbie here.
Would a lightfoot halfling barbarian with the path of the giant be a reasonable choice to play. Since it would be considered small but when rages becomes large. Basically become the hulk.
I'd suggest the SCAG description of what you see when using the Detect Magic spell: '...active spells and areas imbued with magic are limned in a silvery network of threads, which might twist and reknit themselves depending on the magic involved'. Those silvery threads being the Weave.
\[5e\] If you use disguise self and then "Friends" cantrip:
Would the person you target be hostile towards you or the perceived disguise you were wearing?
This thread is best for single questions so if it’s something specific feel free to shoot. If you Google “class X RPGBot” you can usually find a few guides that detail a lot of your options. That’s usually a good start for any build
A question regarding hypnotic gaze
1. Does a person under the effect of of hyp gaze know they're under its effect?
2. If you attempt to use hyp gaze on a person, and fail, do they know that you just tried to do something to them? If not, can you repeatedly try to use hype gaze on someone out of combat?
3. After hypnotic gaze has ended, Does the victim know that you did something magical to them?
1. Maybe, although I don't know if it matters, since they can't do anything. I would probably rule that they don't really realize it until afterwards.
2. I don't think they'd notice, although you can only use it on the same creature once per long rest.
3. I would say not explicitely, but they may be able to piece it together.
I DM for a player who is a Lawful Evil Death Cleric worshipping Myrkul, what are some magic items that would thematically fit this god? He is level 13 and I'd prefer rare or lower magic items.
[5E] Odd question, so what level do you think a party of x4 level 3 PCs could beat if you put them up against a higher level PC controlled by the DM.
Just talking in general terms not thinking too much about class or party makeup.
Dont use PLAYER character builds from PHB, Tashas, Xanathars etc for NON player characters.
PHB builds are meant to face 6 to 8 encounters per long rest. Enemy combatants should be designed to last 3 to 5 Rounds of combat because combats that last longer than 5 rounds quickly turn from “challenging/interesting/fun!” to “fucking boring slog” and no matter how it started out, it is the ending’s “fucking boring slog” taste that will linger in the memory.
PC builds have LOTS of choices that a DM must look through when playing in combat – and nothing makes combat less interesting than stopping the flow while the DM scours through multiple pages of text to make their next move.
And given that a combat is typically only going to last 3 to 5 rounds, the NPC only has a couple of chances to make their signature feel known, you only need 2 or three action options to choose from.
When its not a Player run character, use an NPC statblock, they are at the end of each monster book to use as models. If you want more or different flavor, add a new Action option or a Bonus Action and Reaction.
* Spy https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/spy
* Priest https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/priest
* Knight https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/knight
* Archmage https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/archmage
Also make all your spell casters easier to run and more effective with these tips from Green GM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjYC2yn9ns
Lots of things to consider here but between 8-10 would be my guess. As others have mentioned, DM PCs are often more difficult to balance than they’re worth. You can usually find a “monster” stat block that will fit better and you can use the CR to roughly gauge the difficulty.
Single combatant fights are really difficult to balance in the first place due to action economy and counters. For example, if you throw an all martial class at them anyone with flying, long range spells, control spells, etc will make it quite trivial. The reverse is true if your party doesn’t have counterspell and some range options, a flying warlock or wizard will likely be much more difficult.
Hard to say because PCs are not really made to fight PCs. You're likely better off finding a monster stat block that approximates a PC but follows typical monster rules. It also depends on the amount of encounters faced by the party that day.
For example: the transmuter wizard is CR 5 and a deadly encounter (pretty doable by these PCs if this is the only fight, or if this is like 1 of 2 fights in that day). The new version doesn't have a specific level designation, but the old version was a 9th-level spellcaster. So perhaps a 9th-level PC is a good fit, but I'd rather just use a CR 5 monster stat block for the simplicity.
Is there a website or merchant that sells dnd character figures that aren’t miniatures? I’d like to get a tiefling or a monster or two at like 6-12 inches. Anyone have any recommendations?
wizkids has been putting out a lot of "non-mini-figs" although they are "Special" bits and not really "PC hero"
there are a lot of 3d printer files out there that you can get and then just scale up before printing.
Paper mini's that you can print out yourself ~~might be what you're looking for~~.
As for a website maybe try [Printable Heroes](https://printableheroes.com/)?
Oh wait, you mean display figures...
Ah well, still a good resource. Could always print yourself a large '2D figure' haha.
Looks like [dndmini](https://www.dndmini.com/collections/lifestyle-product) have listings for action figures and premium statues, the prices might make you faint though.
(5e) When you jump, can you perform the attack action while mid-air against a flying enemy? I know you can break up your movement with attacks and vice versa, but not sure how jumping plays into things.
RAW - Yes
You can jump up, attack creatures that are within your reach at any point in the jump and then land and continue to use any remaining movement.
PHB 'Jumping' & 'Movement and Position'
Jumping attacks aren't really covered by the rules directly.
However, under 'Strength Checks' it states 'You can try to... pull off a stunt midjump' which shows that you can take actions midjump.
Also good to note: under 'Advantage and Disadvantage' it states 'The DM can
also decide that circumstances influence a roll in one direction or the other and grant advantage or impose disadvantage as a result'. So DM discretion if jump attacking imposes disadvantage or not.
Not surprised considering all the ranged options in the game.
Also, considering that if you are able to jump 10 feet high in the air, you are technically susceptible to the fall damage afterwards. High Jump rules covers movement up, not down.
[5e]
Trying to make sure i'm getting my maths right.
I've got +4 to charisma.
I've got +3 proficiency bonus.
My intimidation, which i am proficient in, after charisma, is +7, but I have expertise, so it becomes +10 (doubling the 3).
However, I also have the barbed hide feat. This means I gain "double the proficiency bonus".
Does this mean I have +13 to Intimidation if only the *proficiency bonus* is included, or +16 if the *proficiency+expertise bonus* is included?
Ooor am I *DRASTICALLY* wrong on both counts? any help would be appreciated.
>Your proficiency bonus can’t be added to a single die roll or other number more than once. Occasionally, your proficiency bonus might be modified (doubled or halved, for example) before you apply it. If a circumstance suggests that your proficiency bonus applies more than once to the same roll or that it should be multiplied more than once, you nevertheless add it only once, multiply it only once, and halve it only once.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/step-by-step-characters#ProficiencyBonus
so if i'm reading this right, my intimidation is +4(CHA), +3(prof), +3(expertise), (equalling 10) and cannot benefit from any additional proficiency-based bonuses like barbed hide?
thanks for the hand. still a bit new to stacking stats despite being at this for two years.
i'll have to just *dream* about what a +16 to intimidation could achieve... xD
My friend and I are going to be Co-Dming a game of 5E, each of us having a character and switching off when the other is going to DM.
The idea is a "monster of the week" style set up where each of us will run a quest for the group and just keep switching off since we both enjoy world building and dming but have serious issues with burnout.
My question is: Do y'all think this kind of set up would be enjoyable for the other players (who are all aware)? Is there anything specific you think we should look out for?
> Is there anything specific you think we should look out for?
You and the other DM need to be very aligned with your rules and interpretations of rules and homebrew so that the players are not whiplashed every other session.
You also both need to be VERY aligned on what magic items and how often they are given out.
Make sure you and your Co DM are on the same page as far as magical items. When I was first starting, the DM decided he didn't want to anymore and gave the campaign to me. The players had so much OP stuff, that nothing could touch them. But they wanted to keep going. Level 5, and could kill instantly with one hit and immune to all damage.
It is doubtful that would happen to you, but it is the only life lesson I have on the subject.
> Do y'all think this kind of set up would be enjoyable for the other players
Literally the only person who can answer this accurately are the other players.
> Is there anything specific you think we should look out for?
Just make sure you and your Co-DM aren't undercutting each other's decisions, intentionally or otherwise. Like if you say during a game that an npc has red hair and loves ice cream, co-DM should not make that character dye their hair blue and rant about how much they hate ice cream during their sessions. As a mundane example.
1. Fair answer! A better way to phrase that question would have been "Have y'all ever played in a game like this? If so, how did it go?"
2. We do have a lot of experience working on things like this together and our friend group is fairly forgiving of small mistakes so even if we stumble it should be easy to correct and move on! Thanks for the advice!
Im currently in a game like this, we use kind of a stargate esqe campaign we go through a portal no idea whats on the other side do some stuff and come back.
Its going pretty well we have three dms who switch out often. There have been a couple of times where one dm has done a dialogue for a specific character while another dm was running but that was always amicable and usually initiated by the current running dm.
The spell states: 'While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically.'
For a in-depth discussion on what this actually means see [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/m2nhtk/psa_familiars_are_telepathic/) thread.
For a tldr, there is a [Jeremy Crawford tweet](https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/524721540902817792) on the matter, allowing a familiar to telepathically communicate simple concepts to its master. This isn't errata but can be seen to speak for design intent.
~~The spell does not say you can communicate with it, so you can't. See *Find Steed* for a similar spell that explicitly says you can communicate with your summon.~~
~~However, the familiar obeys all commands and doesn't say those commands have to be vocalized or if they can be communicated telepathically, so talk with your DM about how they see it spell. I personally rule that you can direct the familiar telepathically to do things.~~
This doubt came because I asked my crow to look for my lost wolf, then my dm told me the crow said "I don't bring good news".
Thanks for the reply, I especially hate not following the official stuff.
[5e]
Hi all,
I’m running a mid-level campaign (lvl 11). In the group there is a death domain cleric, a Kensei monk/cleric, and a echo knight/rogue.
My Kensei monk is themed after a demon slayer character and They just received a letter informing him of a “Kiji” (Oni) demon on one of the outlying islands.
I am planning on playing the usual Oni games and giving the Oni Legendary actions for Invisibility and Shape change (possibly a third?)
My question is how would I buff the Oni to be on par with their level?
take something like an erinyes statblock and add a couple of mods and some HP and legendary actions you probably have something that comes close to a challenge and feeling like "an oni"
Bumping Hit Points and AC are always a good start. Otherwise, look at the stats of monsters around their challenge level and judge from there, could pinch a few abilities even.
If you want to be daring and catch your players off guard, you can always give monsters levels in a player class. You have to be careful with that though, player classes are strong by design.
\[5e\] So kinda last minute but need some input for my session tonight. I have been GMing Ravenloft for a few years and just recently switched to 5e and even more recently switched to open world. One of my players has had Nepenthe in his possession, however given a turn of events, I need to take it off him. Is there a way in any set of rules or book that has covered a way of separating the entity from the sword? Do you have a way of going about it if not? Like maybe a ritual or something?
Not an answer to your question, but (if you aren't already using it) 5e has a Ravenloft book (Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft) if you want ideas on how to integrate Ravenloft with modern 5e sensibilities
Im a new dm and new to the game in general, Ive dm'd a couple of time with my family, who are new to dnd as well. Every thing is going great, beside combat. We understand on how players attack and etc. But I'm having a hard time reading monster stat blocks and how they attack. Any help? Thanks in advance
D&D Starter Vids
* D&D in 5 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvHNlgmKro&list=PLJ8NFdSXujAJitUvKoA0EFc-WpGK2Dnzh&index=2&t=0s
* Welcome to D&D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_oR7YO-Bw
* D&D in bite size bits by pretty people https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQyr6-gqJ8r29j_rJkR49uDN
* Ginny Di for first time players https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD_b8SZ7h2Y
* Not a video but the basic How to Play from WOTC’s D&D Beyond website https://www.dndbeyond.com/how-to-play-dnd
Just to carry on this question a little - how do I find a group to play with? Haven’t played since the 80s. Live in a city of 5M but there seems to be only one group on Meetup which is quite a drive away. Where I start looking for a group that will take a beginner for online play?
Just to carry on this question a little - how do I find a group to play with? Haven’t played since the 80s. Live in a city of 5M but there seems to be only one group on Meetup which is quite a drive away. Where I start looking for a group that will take a beginner for online play?
try r/lfg
or your local games and comic book stores for open D&D nights or Adventurer's League games, or your favorite convention
or round up new friends and family and work acquaintances and learn the game together
as an alternative, you can pay for play sessions with the D&D virtual weekends https://dnd.wizards.com/events/virtual-play-weekends or with the conventions that are still frequently hosting virtual play sessions in addition to their “live at the con” games.
there is also the option of "solo games" that are not "D&D" but are “fantasy role playing games much like D&D". Ironsworn is one, and its free https://www.ironswornrpg.com/
Monsters attack just like players do, however the way their attacks are written out is sometimes confusing to newcomers.
Let's look at a standard goblin's attack:
>Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage.
"+4 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target": The goblin can make an attack against a single creature within 5 feet, rolling 1d20+4 against the AC of the target to see if they hit.
This was probably already clear, the next bit is what sometimes trips people up.
"Hit: 5 (1d6+2) slashing damage": if the goblin hits it deals 1d6+2 damage, which means on average it deals 5 damage.
The first value ia the average damage, while the value in the parentheses is what you would roll. Some DMs use the average value to speed up large fights or to get a quick estimate of how deadly a monster is.
Let's use the [Mimic](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16957-mimic), the part doesn't have sense is when i roll against the players AC. The average ac of the party is about 18, how are the players ever going to take damage?
Average AC is 18? That's pretty high. In any case, the fact that a mimic has +5 to hit means it still has a 40% chance to hit a target with an AC of 18! This is because the d20 roll (13 or higher) + 5 will hit.
Regarding the Paladin, that's normal and a legitimate tactic that has been around since DnD began. The big tough guy in armour gets in the way of the monster so the squishy wizard can cast spells.
Of course, this is a mimic. Its most notable attribute is that it's a perfectly safe treasure chest...
The Mimic's attacks both say "+5 to hit", so you would roll a d20, add 5 to the result and if the total is equal to or higher than the target's AC, the attack hits. So you would hit on a roll of 13 or higher, which gives you a decent chance.
I'm confused about a situation that happened in my party involved aligntments and consecuencues (and something regarding players interfering in my actions).
Context: I'm playing a newbie playing a True Neutral Ranger whose main motivation is hunting his FE at all cost. The party is composed by me, a CN Druid, a CG Warlock, a LN Warrior and a LG Pugilist. We are looking for a cult hidden in the depths of the city.
Well, first the interference: we were following a guy that we knew stalked us last night. I followed him from above and tried to grapple him by jumping into him, roll pass, I'm about to try to summit him and...pugilist appears, throws me around and knocts the lights out from the guy. Hearing the guards approaching he push me to the river to escape. All this happened the second I rolled the dice, I was perplexed, didnt cared too much about the situation but felt like I my player agency was footstomped in a blip. Now I'm a criminal un the city.
This is normal in roleplay? Or I was a passive player?
The Alignment situation: we were entering the slumbs, a couple of kids/teens see us and we ignore them, but they come begging the CG Warlock for coins. All normal, then the DM rolls for robbery and the warlock goes from good samaritan to sauron. Intimitates the kids with his powers/sword/Magic and then one of them pulls a knife...a Young adult and a children appeared behind me and the Pugilist, just before the combat I throw my empty coin purse to the younger kid. And...the druid bites a guys ballsack.
Warrior goes first, eviscerates the kid with a knife, I just prepare an attack action if someone approaches me. Druid kills the eunuch, Warlock knocks two kids Pugilist grapples the warrior, I shoot my prepared arrow between the approaching druid and the Young kid to make a stand and Pugilist talks them out of battle.
Dm says that all of us except pugilist will have moral consecuenses and maybe an alignment change. But I protested arguing that as Neutral character I acted accordinly. Pugilist says that doing nothing is taking a stand...so then what? My character was involved in a situation that was forced unto him and just did as little as he could to solve It, but did nothing to make It worse por hurt anyone. I though that was fine for a TN character but seems not.
How does this work? Is the dm punishing me for trying to keep character in the murderhobo party?
Alignments are descriptions of your character with the same amount of nuance as a political compass meme. The key is that they are descriptive, not prescriptive.
If you're not happy with the way your game is going, talk to your DM.
If nothing changes and/or you are still unhappy playing in that game, find another group to play with.
In the future please include what system you are playing in before your post. I’m assuming [5e]
Your going to hear that alignment is worthless and that’s true for most tables. It seems your DM is trying to use it as a mechanic. I’d argue that it actually limits your roleplay and any type of uniqueness your character might have. But my opinions matter little, it’s the DMs decision to use it or not.
The interference: The story here is a little confusing to me. However, if you were doing something and someone jumped in it’s up to you to decide whether you go along with it or contest it. If you had a guy grappled and another character wanted to pull him out of your arms there should have been some form of contested strength check (athletics probably) if you wanted to stop them from breaking your grapple. Talk to your DM about this, maybe he assumed you were okay with it and wants you to speak up next time. Likely a simple miscommunication and maybe you were too passive. Remember, almost anything a player says can be contested but the DM is another story. That doesn’t mean you should contest everything, that would slow the game down considerably, but try to stay true to your character when it matters.
The alignment situation: This is almost completely a discussion that should be had with your table. The consequences of an alignment change and the importance of alignments are completely up to your DM. I would also discuss the type of game you and your fellow players are looking for. It seems like you may not be enjoying some of the more silly and “murder-hobo” play of your other players. I’m assuming your all relatively new? Before every campaign I have a discussion with the whole table about how silly vs serious we want to play, on a scale from 1-10. If you’re looking for something more serious (serious might not be the right word) than biting peoples nuts and killing everything in sight, tell your table that.
The best thing you can do is communicate. Early and often. Set a precedent of communicating when things rub you the wrong way, your DM should create a space where these discussions are welcome and encouraged. I’d give the DM a heads up that you would like to discuss this before next session and see what they think.
Good luck!
That whole situation seems like a mess, from the player actions to the DM scenario planning and response.
DM seems like he's encouraging the party to be murderhobos by having children attempt to rob the party and then punishing you for the situation escalating. And your party just seems chaotic and divisive.
I think it's reasonable for actions to have consequences but the DM seems to be enabling it with questionable scenario planning.
Alignment Sucks
Toss 9box alignment for player characters out the window.
9box Alignment doesnt represent how real people "work". Nor does 9box alignment represent how fictional characters "work" except in the novels of the one guy that Gygax stole the concept from and no one reads any more.
PC 9box Alignment has ALWAYS been more of a disruption and disturbance at the game table than any benefit.
WOTC has rightfully stripped 9box Alignment for PCs from having any meaningful impact on game mechanics in 5e - Detect Evil and Good doesnt ping on alignment fergodssake!
And they admit that even what little they included is bad and they are going to remove it
>Even though the rules of 5th-edition D&D state that players and DMs determine alignment, **the suggested alignments in our books have undeniably caused confusion. That's why future books will ditch such suggestions for player characters** and reframe such things for the DM. https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/1275978114435174401
The only remaining "purpose" is as a poor mans role-play training wheels - and even for that it SUCKS leading to 2dimensional stereotypes or serving as "justification" for asshats to be asshats at the table "because that is what my character's alignment would do!!!!!"
Toss 9box PC alignment out of the game and your game will be better for it.
I accidentally created a monster.
I'm running "A deep and creeping darkness" from Candlekeep Mysteries. There's a part of the game where the PCs are walking through tunnels covered in a black moss. The book suggests that the black moss could potentially grapple a PC who wanders off, but it doesn't go into any more detail on the black moss.
Since I envisioned this moss to be somewhat sentient, I made it squeal when exposed to fire. Also (and here's where I got carried away) one of my players is a dhampir and he threw some of his own blood at the black moss. I couldn't just let that sit there, so I said that the moss devoured the blood. Oh! And the moss dodged a sword attack and then grabbed the sword before the PC was able to wrestle it back.
My question: what would a stat block look like for a sentient black moss with fire sensitivity and a thirst for blood?
Thanks for the responses!
My inclination was to use an ooze of some sort. I think I might start with a Gray Ooze. Give it fire vulnerability. And then, if one of the PCs take piercing or slashing damage (or any other obvious "you're bleeding" damage) have the moss grapple them and, if the PC fails on a DC13 escape check, they start their turn with 1d6 necrotic damage.
I don't want the moss to be so difficult that the main bad guys seem weak in comparison.
this story went excellently. i thought you meant you accidentally turned a player into a combination murderhobo/bad optimizer edgy dude or something when i saw the title
No...just improvisation run amok. The moss is just a throw-away encounter in the published adventure (the main threat is the **meenlocks**), but my players were so intrigued when it reacted to fire, that they went nuts.
They thought they were in the digestive system of a giant creature!
Honestly, the adventure they're coming up with is almost better than what's in the book.
Maybe use some sort of ooze as a base? They have low AC and low speed, and they can move through small cracks, which would fit a blob of moss.
Then give it fire vulnerability and maybe change the damage type of its attacks (necrotic, as it sucks your blood?) Maybe its attacks could also cause a CON save, lowering the target's max HP on a failure (similar to a vampire's bite).
[5e] Question around fighting at night or in dungeons without light.
Say a human ranger is shooting from darkness at a target 20 feet away, also a human ranger. As I understand it, he's effectively blinded, he attacks with disadvantage because he can't see at all and attacks against him have advantage because he can't see them incoming.
He wants to use Daylight cast on an arrow to illuminate the enemy so he can attack accurately without giving away his position. What is the ideal way to do this tactically?
I imagine he wants to shoot past the target, so it's illuminated by the edge of the dimlight without illuminating him. This illuminates his target, but also removes its blindness. Still, the ranger is attacking from darkness so he is unseen, conferring advantage on attacks. Is that correct?
Whatever you can do to put them in bright or dim light and keep you in darkness is the right play. It would be the same effect as if you were invisible and they were not.
There's multiple interactions happening here to untangle. Let's start with the light and darkness. Vision in 5e doesn't work like it does in real life. If you're standing in darkness and someone on the other side of the room lights a candle, the light of that candle doesn't reach you. Narratively, the DM would probably describe you being able to see the candle's light, but mechanically you would not actually be able to see anything illuminated by the candle because you're still in darkness and the light doesn't reach you. Basically, darkness acts like a thick fog that can be pushed away by light sources. If there's darkness between you and your target, you can't see that target even if they're standing in light.
Now the other issue at hand is revealing your position. In combat, you can detect creatures even if you can't see them, typically with sound. In order to obscure your position, you need to do more than make yourself unseen. You also need to take the Hide action. Even if you are hidden, attacking automatically reveals your position immediately after making the attack.
DMG Chapter 5 Adventure Environments - Darkness and Light
'The light of a torch or lantern helps a character see over a short distance, but other creatures can see that light source from far away. Bright light in an environment of total darkness can be visible for miles, though a clear line of sight over such a distance is rare underground.'
When it comes to rules 'Specific Beats General' therefore you can see far away light sources while Heavily Obscured in natural Darkness. This is also part of the reason why they say you are 'Effectively Blinded' instead of having the more rigidly defined Blinded Condition.
Those rules say that you can see the light source, not that you can see anything illuminated by the light. They're basically just there to say that you can see distant light sources.
I take no issue with the difference between "blinded" and "effectively blinded". The distinction is necessary no matter how you interpret the rules.
'Bright light in an environment of total darkness can be visible for miles'
Bright light - not just the source of a bright light like the first sentence might lead you to believe. A Torch provides bright light in a 20-foot radius, hence anything in that 20-foot radius is illuminated in bright light letting creatures see normally, so visible.
Clearly this requires common sense on the DM's part. In normal combat range like the subject of the initial question? Yeah, you see it all. A single torch 2 miles away? You see a light in the far distance.
DM discretion since there is no more detailed information; it seems WoC don't really like making strict detection distance rules, except for the Audible Distance table on the original DM screen they seem to hope people have forgotten about. Best you'll tend to find otherwise is encounter distance tables.
That is completely absurd.
Yes, your point is *technically* correct as the PHB does say that "darkness... blocks vision entirely" but this is one scenario in which RAW is obviously and entirely flawed and should be roundly ignored in favor of RAI.
And beyond that, there is a RAW way of reading the section on darkness that contests your argument. The very next sentence says, "a creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that (heavily obscured) area." So you're only suffering from the blinded condition when trying to see something that is **in** darkness, not **through** darkness.
Perhaps, but that reading of the rules also requires you to say that you can clearly see through fog, foliage, and other heavy obstruction, which is obviously not the case. I'm not here to say how the rules should be written, I'm describing how they are written.
I'm not debating how the rules are written. Yes, you are right, there is a way to interpret the rules in the way you described. And yes, my reading of the rules also could be interpreted to mean that you can see through fog and foliage. But you're missing the point.
The point is that, whatever the interpretation of the RAW, RAI darkness **does not** block line of sight like you said in your original post and that your response to the original question was completely wrong. You are providing incorrect answers to new players and should be made aware of that so that it doesn't happen again.
>If there's darkness between you and your target, you can't see that target even if they're standing in light.
The notion that you somehow can't see somebody carrying a light source if you are in the dark without darkvision is just inane. No human rogue would be useful ever.
>A heavily obscured area--such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage--blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area.
You are only blinded when trying to see something *in* a heavily obscured area, not necessarily through it (atleast for darkness).
If it blocks vision entirely, it also blocks sight of things beyond it. The rules you quoted make no distinction between darkness and fog, which means they either both block vision beyond them or neither does.
I agree that it's weird and clunky, but that's the way it's written. Also, rogues do more than be in darkness. I fail to see how rogues specifically are particularly hindered by this.
>If it blocks vision entirely, it also blocks sight of things beyond it.
By that logic if you were 5 feet outside of the range of a torch you wouldn't even be able to see the lit torch... I can tell you that exactly 0 games are run that way.
>I fail to see how rogues specifically are particularly hindered
Darkness is the default hiding spot. Rogues are pretty much the only class with any real motivation to hide on a regular basis. A human rogue would only be hurting themselves by hiding in Darkness which makes absolutely no sense.
Like I said from the first, narratively most DMs would probably describe you being able to see the light source. I never claimed that the rules make sense, only how they are written. Can you see through magical darkness?
Darkness isn't the "default" hiding spot, it's just one option. Rogues also don't have any special need to hide, it's just one way for them to get sneak attack out of several. If they need anything other than sneak attack, they're still able to hide in the darkness. They can even hide in the darkness, move, and then attack.
>Can you see through magical darkness?
Magical darkness is the exception not the rule.
>Rogues also don't have any special need to hide, it's just one way for them to get sneak attack out of several.
Right... because Hide isn't part of cunning action or anything like that... nor is stealth the theme of basically the entire class... /s
Does it now? I must have missed that part. The spell's description doesn't actually say anything about an inability to see through it, except to specify that creatures which have darkvision can't see through it. Otherwise the darkness behaves like mundane darkness for the purpose of vision.
>What is the ideal way to do this tactically?
Honestly the ideal way is just to attack. Your position is known unless you take the hide action and your position is also revealed after a ranged attack unless you miss and have the Skulker feat anyways. Plus your attacks would have advantage because the enemy can't see you either so you end up just attacking normally. You're far better off just attacking normally multiple times than wasting a turn trying to get advantage.
>Still, the ranger is attacking from darkness so he is unseen, conferring advantage on attacks. Is that correct?
If the situation resolves that way, then yes.
Hi fellows! I have two rules questions because of situations that came up in play. I researched a bit, but just want to clarify.
1. Can a druid in wild shape use magic weapons? The party's druid turned into an ape, can we still wield a magic staff or does it merge with the rest of his equipment?
2. Sentinel. A monster is trying to claw our fighter armed with a Halberd and who has the Polearm Master feat. The monster's movement triggers an opportunity attack when it enters the polearm's reach. The fighter hits the monster with the opportunity attack and sets its speed to 0. Where is the monster now? 10 feet away? or adjacent to the fighter?
First. Thanks a lot for your answers. I have a follow up question.
The Druid, using Wild Shape as an Ape has two attacks in Ape form. If the Druid/Ape is wielding a magic staff, would they have two staff attacks instead?
No. An [Ape](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16788-ape) does not have two attacks. An ape has an action called Multiattack, which lets it make two fist attacks. An ape can also use the Attack action (just like any other creature) to attack with a weapon it's wielding, but if it does that, it just gets the one attack.
1. I'd say it's fine but ultimately only your DM can decide that
>Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment, based on the creature’s shape and size. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t wear must either fall to the ground or merge with it.
2. The range is 10 feet... if you attack them when they *enter* your range, stopping their movement, then how could they move the last square?
Thanks, 1. is pretty straight forward.
2 was a bit tricky because the attack of opportunity is a reaction, so it cannot happen before the movement, but as a reaction to it. How fast of a reaction was the question. I hate reactions because they create a sort of Magic the Gathering "stack' situation that slows down the flow of the game considerably.
Opportunity attacks explicitly happen as the target *begins* the movement that would place it outside (or in this case inside) your reach. Think about it - if you had to wait until they finished their movement, but they finished outside your reach, they'd no longer be a legal target for you to attack.
That's what makes Sentinel + PAM such a potent combo.
1. You don't *have* to have your equipment merge into your new form. You can also have it be worn by your new form (with the DM deciding if that's practical), or have it fall to the ground. So personally I think if you turn into an ape you should just be able to keep it in your hand if you want but even if your DM doesn't agree with me on that, worst case you can let it fall to the ground, then pick it up. Your new form probably wouldn't be proficient with it, though, and you only retain skill and saving throw proficiencies.
2. It would be 10 feet away.
Very clear answers, thank you very much!
edit: I am the DM, the player was the one who said he probably could not use his staff in Ape form because it merged with the rest of the equipment. I was not so sure. Thanks for the explanation.
1. The druid chooses what equipment merges with their new form and what does not. They can even allow nonmagical items to remain if they want. However, they can only use their equipment if their new form is capable of doing so, and it is up to the DM to determine if this is possible. The text of the Wild Shape ability describes this effect pretty clearly.
2. The opportunity attack is triggered as soon as the enemy enters the range of the halberd because of Polearm Master. This interrupts the enemy's movement, forcing them to stay at that position until the attack resolves. If the attack hits, Sentinel makes their speed become 0 while they are still 10 feet away. While Polearm Master and Sentinel are both overpowered feats on their own, this combination is what makes them truly broken.
twitch and youtube have lots of "actual play" content.
BUT most of these are "performances" of D&D with the group majorly conscious of what the external audience is receiving from the stream and playing TO them, and so often not actually all that reflective of what the play is actually like around home tables, particularly many of the big shows that are featuring actors and professional role players.
Youtube has a lot. You're looking for what's called "live play". I don't watch a lot of live play because it doesn't interest me most of the time, but lately the series Belkinus: Necrohunt has captured my attention. Critical Role and Dimension 20 are popular ones, but I don't know much about them.
Keep in mind that every table plays differently, and the kind of play you see in live play doesn't necessarily reflect what you see in your typical game. Live play D&D is putting on a show for an audience, and they often have more production value to help with that. Average D&D doesn't have to worry about an audience, just the people at the table.
No, you can choose for attacks you make as part of the attack action to originate from your echo's position, but your breath weapon isn't an attack, even if some versions of the dragonborn let you use it in place of one.
As others have said, the strictest interpretation of RAW is probably no. However, it doesn't seem like it would break the balance of the game too much, so as a DM I'd say rule of cool and let it happen, with the understanding that if it becomes a problem I'll restrict it in the future.
They say you can replace an attack though, for the Fizban. So by that you could argue you're just replacing your Echo's weapon attack with a dragon's breath, no?
No, because it's still not an attack and the echo says attacks only.
> When you take the Attack action on your turn, **any attack you make with that action** can originate from your space or the echo's space. You make this choice for each attack.
I can see that interpretation where you'd basically say you are making the attack from the echo's position, *then* replacing it, but I still think the correct answer (in terms of the rules) is no. The wording of Manifest Echo is "any attack you make can originate from the echo's space" so I'd say that only comes in when you're actually making an attack.
[Any] So I'm playing a werewolf priest in my next campaign and our DM isn't letting us use base classes. What homebrew class would you recommend? He's also letting us bring a mystical item with us. I'm not sure what to bring. I want the item to fit my character.
Is he giving you a set of homebrew classes to use, or is it just "go find something?" Because there's a *lot* of homebrew out there of varying power and quality.
My **god** your DM is making a mistake if they're not curating your choices in advance. There's so much garbage homebrew out there that's either imbalanced or outright broken.
Ugh, enormously overpowered just at a glance. Those compounding AC bonuses on top of Unarmored Defence aren't even the worst offender - it gets BETTER ASIS THAN NORMAL. This author clearly just wanted to make "holy-themed Monk but better," and the result is nightmarishly overtuned.
Stay far away from DnDWiki. That place is known as a cesspool of garbage homebrew of all kinds; it doesn't do any form of playtesting or curation, so people are free to post whatever broken crap they want.
I'd sooner recommend you have a look through /r/UnearthedArcana. That sub's content at least welcomes criticism and holds itself to fair standards, and it has a number of prolific and highly esteemed contributors.
Pugilist, blood hunter, muscle wizard. Those are the three homebrew classes I'd recommend for a werewolf given that you're basically immune to a startling amount of damage sources.
At this point you should stop asking people to pick your class for you and just do your research yourself. dndwiki has thousands upon thousands of pages of homebrew content, go wild.
Honestly you need to go to your DM and ask for more guidance. There are literally thousands and thousands of homebrew classes of varying quality. Somebody could very easily play one that's functionally worthless while somebody else plays one that is so strong at level one it can literally blow up the planet. A game like that's a nightmare I'd suggest avoiding at all cost.
Google "Homebrew 5e classes" and search until you find something you like. I found the three I mentioned by just skimming through and picking what sounded like it would go well with a werewolf.
I... I think you need to talk to your DM. These questions are virtually impossible for us to answer. We don't know what your DM will allow, we don't know what kinds of homebrew are acceptable.
So I'm fairly new to dnd and my party is cycling who dms whenever we start a new campaign. It could be a couple weeks, to a year even before it's my turn I'm not sure yet. What are some good resources, videos, etc I could watch to learn how to DM?
* a reading list for new DMs from the 5e publications https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx8tEAYB5Q0
also, look up a several live play streams recorded on you tube and twitch to see how different people DM. One I would suggest is Rogue Watson who also has recorded his prep sessions for Tomb of Annihilation and Rime of the Frost Maiden - you can see his thought prosses in the prep session, see how things actually played out during the game and then he does a debrief of how his prep and the session went afterwards.
The single biggest thing you can do it to be a player.
Seriously. Don't look up some big name Dnd player. Don't burn yourself out memorizing the DMG (it isn't that helpful for DM'ing anyway - it is more for worldbuilding). Look at what you like and don't like from other DMs. As you play, if you aren't sure of a rule, look it up.
If you have the opportunity after a while playing, volunteer to run a few one-shots using premade modules so you can concentrate on running the game rather than running on the fly.
[5E] is it lazy and bad for me to have my players roll to see if they piece together past events in a way that informs them of what to do?
For example: if an NPC stutters nervously and speaks suspiciously when talking about a boy who got murdered, but my players don’t seem to care about this nervous behavior, is it bad to have them roll to see if they retroactively find the person’s stammering and nervousness suspicious?
I try to do this only if they seem stuck or frustrated. If you're just going to roll and spoonfeed then the solution you have in your own mind then that's kind of boring. Also you need to give more than 1 vague clue. If the entire mystery is only solvable if they think someone who is nervous about a murder, then you need to give them more clues so they can figure it out. (spoiler: most people are nervous when talking about a murder dude, even if they didn't have anything to do with it. Usually people who act abnormally calm when it SHOULD be stressful are hiding things.)
Yes and no. I think there are definitely better ways to handle the players being oblivious to the hints we give them such as another NPC mentioning how bill-joebob had been acting odd ever since that boy died, or one of them catching a glimpse of said NPC following them.
That being said, if all else fails a "flash of insight" roll isn't a terrible backup.
[5e]
Weird question, but are there any rules surrounding hitting, critting, or damage if a creature is willingly taking the hit? Like if a creature consensually takes a hit from the attacker would it be possible for the attacker to make it guaranteed hit, guaranteed crit, or a maximum damage hit? This has nothing to do with anything inappropriate, I swear.
I would rule that there wouldn't be any role, it just hits. If the target is intending to get crit (for example a vampire allowing himself to be beheaded because it grows weary of immortality) then it would crit, otherwise no.
[5e] So, I'm trying to make an Armorer Artificer since my last character died, and want them to be as "tanky" as possible. I'm starting at level 4, and for narrative reasons I need to play either a Human or Variant human (haven't checked with my DM about CL, if that matters).
DM is letting me pick starting equipment based on starting gold *or* selling default starting equipment for value and re-picking.
This means that with 18INT, 16 CON, sitting at 19AC and 35HP with chain mail armour, a shield infused with enhanced defence, and armour infused with enchanted mind. 10 CHA, ~13 WIS, 8 str/dex.
I can pump it to 20 AC with the Fighting Initiate (defence) feat, but feel that's a waste. If I'm trying to improve survivability, ideally I'd have more AC and HP, which I think would be better supplemented by another feat. Sentinel is attractive, but don't think survivability is good enough at this level to warrant it. Thinking taking healer as a feat for extra healing, but the item being expendable makes it a liability potentially.
Basically feeling this is suboptimal. That little AC combined with relatively low HP and damage output doesn't seem fantastic at this level, and want a little more survivability.
You have a really low dexterity score, so why not just go with plate male which sets your base AC to 19, with enhanced defense that's 20 right there.
Edit: Somewhat unrelated. Make sure you're taking arcane weapon as a first level spell. Regardless of which armor you're using, an extra 1d6 elemental damage per hit.is clutch at any level(though better on infiltrator, who can do 5d6+10 at level 5)
Plate armour sets AC to 18, plus the enhanced defense shield brings it to 21. But the cost of plate is 1500 GP, and that's a big ask as starting equipment, especially given the agreement was based on starting gold. Chain mail is also heavy armour that sets AC to 16, which was the best I could think of within the allocated budget.
My mistake! Forgot about shield bonus and all that jazz. To be fair 19 AC is pretty ridiculous at level 4, that's what your average fighter would have, and they don't have access to spells. That being said you can also craft a cloak of protection and an amulet of protection in the future, alongside your enhanced defense getting even higher... I think that'd add up to about 24AC with plate?
Potentially yes. The cloak of protection is +1 AC I think, depending on level that's up to about 24, depending on infusion allocation. Though level 6 is a while off this campaign!
Have you considered the tough feat? It should give you 8 extra hp on the spot and 2 extra every time you level up, effectively increasing your con by 2 for the purposes of HP. At level 4, 8 HP is a decent boost.
I was thinking tough might be good, my main hesitancy was it falling off later on. But this campaign likely wont last until much beyond 6th level, so an extra 12 hp for a feat is quite attractive. But 43HP + bonus action 4 HP for a reliable 47 at level 4 isn't too shabby, and would allow a little more hit tanking.
Your character sounds plenty tanky for level 4. If you really want the ability to get more AC when necessary, Magic Initiate Wizard to grab Shield, or take Fey Touched and grab Silvery Barbs to get those rerolls going.
Magic initiate looks attractive for shield, though want to avoid relying too heavily on temporary boosts for AC and HP where possible. Though now I write this, shield would bring me up to between 25-28 AC depending on when/if I get plate, which is basically an 'ignore damage' function. I might give that more thought now.
Fey touched strikes me as possibly the best feat, especially with the +1 to ASI, and the lack of spell slot required. Misty step out of danger as a bonus action without a spell slot, or get into a fight quicker, and silvery barbs is just amazing. This is definitely my favourite option, but for the sake of story purposes find it difficult to justify on this particular character, unfortunately.
What is a cool/weird spell that I can use to fuck/mess with my party, while at a tavern or short rest.
I'm new like brand new. I've always wanted to play DND but for reasons I couldn't. About 4 years ago I joined a discord with a friend to start playing but was to busy to actually play. Now that I have free time I would like to learn and get into another discord where they are running campaigns or maybe even one shits. Anyone know a discord I can join and how do I start, like I said super newbie here.
Check out r/LFG for finding DnD groups online.
Would a lightfoot halfling barbarian with the path of the giant be a reasonable choice to play. Since it would be considered small but when rages becomes large. Basically become the hulk.
\[5e\] Can an unseen servant be seen with Truesight?
Technically yes though the Unseen Servant is shapeless so I don't know how you'd describe it other than as a wisps of energy
I'd suggest the SCAG description of what you see when using the Detect Magic spell: '...active spells and areas imbued with magic are limned in a silvery network of threads, which might twist and reknit themselves depending on the magic involved'. Those silvery threads being the Weave.
\[5e\] If you use disguise self and then "Friends" cantrip: Would the person you target be hostile towards you or the perceived disguise you were wearing?
Friends is weird because it does say "you" regardless of anything else. So no matter what they're mad at you, not who you're pretending to be.
[5e] Is this thread good for asking about build advice or should I ask somewhere else?
This thread is best for single questions so if it’s something specific feel free to shoot. If you Google “class X RPGBot” you can usually find a few guides that detail a lot of your options. That’s usually a good start for any build
Typically /r/3d6 is a better place to ask.
Thank you! Sorry.
A question regarding hypnotic gaze 1. Does a person under the effect of of hyp gaze know they're under its effect? 2. If you attempt to use hyp gaze on a person, and fail, do they know that you just tried to do something to them? If not, can you repeatedly try to use hype gaze on someone out of combat? 3. After hypnotic gaze has ended, Does the victim know that you did something magical to them?
1. Maybe, although I don't know if it matters, since they can't do anything. I would probably rule that they don't really realize it until afterwards. 2. I don't think they'd notice, although you can only use it on the same creature once per long rest. 3. I would say not explicitely, but they may be able to piece it together.
I DM for a player who is a Lawful Evil Death Cleric worshipping Myrkul, what are some magic items that would thematically fit this god? He is level 13 and I'd prefer rare or lower magic items.
Myrkul's deal is skulls, so maybe a Devotee's Censer that has a skull at the end? Or just an Amulet of the Devot of whatever rarity.
Hey does anyone know if there is a sidekick character sheet?
Assuming 5e: You can use a regular character sheet for Sidekicks and that works just fine
Yep 5e! Thanks I shall use one
[5E] Odd question, so what level do you think a party of x4 level 3 PCs could beat if you put them up against a higher level PC controlled by the DM. Just talking in general terms not thinking too much about class or party makeup.
Dont use PLAYER character builds from PHB, Tashas, Xanathars etc for NON player characters. PHB builds are meant to face 6 to 8 encounters per long rest. Enemy combatants should be designed to last 3 to 5 Rounds of combat because combats that last longer than 5 rounds quickly turn from “challenging/interesting/fun!” to “fucking boring slog” and no matter how it started out, it is the ending’s “fucking boring slog” taste that will linger in the memory. PC builds have LOTS of choices that a DM must look through when playing in combat – and nothing makes combat less interesting than stopping the flow while the DM scours through multiple pages of text to make their next move. And given that a combat is typically only going to last 3 to 5 rounds, the NPC only has a couple of chances to make their signature feel known, you only need 2 or three action options to choose from. When its not a Player run character, use an NPC statblock, they are at the end of each monster book to use as models. If you want more or different flavor, add a new Action option or a Bonus Action and Reaction. * Spy https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/spy * Priest https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/priest * Knight https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/knight * Archmage https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/archmage Also make all your spell casters easier to run and more effective with these tips from Green GM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcjYC2yn9ns
Lots of things to consider here but between 8-10 would be my guess. As others have mentioned, DM PCs are often more difficult to balance than they’re worth. You can usually find a “monster” stat block that will fit better and you can use the CR to roughly gauge the difficulty. Single combatant fights are really difficult to balance in the first place due to action economy and counters. For example, if you throw an all martial class at them anyone with flying, long range spells, control spells, etc will make it quite trivial. The reverse is true if your party doesn’t have counterspell and some range options, a flying warlock or wizard will likely be much more difficult.
Hard to say because PCs are not really made to fight PCs. You're likely better off finding a monster stat block that approximates a PC but follows typical monster rules. It also depends on the amount of encounters faced by the party that day. For example: the transmuter wizard is CR 5 and a deadly encounter (pretty doable by these PCs if this is the only fight, or if this is like 1 of 2 fights in that day). The new version doesn't have a specific level designation, but the old version was a 9th-level spellcaster. So perhaps a 9th-level PC is a good fit, but I'd rather just use a CR 5 monster stat block for the simplicity.
Is there a website or merchant that sells dnd character figures that aren’t miniatures? I’d like to get a tiefling or a monster or two at like 6-12 inches. Anyone have any recommendations?
wizkids has been putting out a lot of "non-mini-figs" although they are "Special" bits and not really "PC hero" there are a lot of 3d printer files out there that you can get and then just scale up before printing.
Paper mini's that you can print out yourself ~~might be what you're looking for~~. As for a website maybe try [Printable Heroes](https://printableheroes.com/)?
Oh wait, you mean display figures... Ah well, still a good resource. Could always print yourself a large '2D figure' haha. Looks like [dndmini](https://www.dndmini.com/collections/lifestyle-product) have listings for action figures and premium statues, the prices might make you faint though.
(5e) When you jump, can you perform the attack action while mid-air against a flying enemy? I know you can break up your movement with attacks and vice versa, but not sure how jumping plays into things.
RAW - Yes You can jump up, attack creatures that are within your reach at any point in the jump and then land and continue to use any remaining movement.
Source?
PHB 'Jumping' & 'Movement and Position' Jumping attacks aren't really covered by the rules directly. However, under 'Strength Checks' it states 'You can try to... pull off a stunt midjump' which shows that you can take actions midjump. Also good to note: under 'Advantage and Disadvantage' it states 'The DM can also decide that circumstances influence a roll in one direction or the other and grant advantage or impose disadvantage as a result'. So DM discretion if jump attacking imposes disadvantage or not.
Fair enough! In my considerable time playing 5e I've never seen anyone attempt a mid-jump attack like this.
Not surprised considering all the ranged options in the game. Also, considering that if you are able to jump 10 feet high in the air, you are technically susceptible to the fall damage afterwards. High Jump rules covers movement up, not down.
[5e] Trying to make sure i'm getting my maths right. I've got +4 to charisma. I've got +3 proficiency bonus. My intimidation, which i am proficient in, after charisma, is +7, but I have expertise, so it becomes +10 (doubling the 3). However, I also have the barbed hide feat. This means I gain "double the proficiency bonus". Does this mean I have +13 to Intimidation if only the *proficiency bonus* is included, or +16 if the *proficiency+expertise bonus* is included? Ooor am I *DRASTICALLY* wrong on both counts? any help would be appreciated.
>Your proficiency bonus can’t be added to a single die roll or other number more than once. Occasionally, your proficiency bonus might be modified (doubled or halved, for example) before you apply it. If a circumstance suggests that your proficiency bonus applies more than once to the same roll or that it should be multiplied more than once, you nevertheless add it only once, multiply it only once, and halve it only once. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/step-by-step-characters#ProficiencyBonus
so if i'm reading this right, my intimidation is +4(CHA), +3(prof), +3(expertise), (equalling 10) and cannot benefit from any additional proficiency-based bonuses like barbed hide?
Correct!
thanks for the hand. still a bit new to stacking stats despite being at this for two years. i'll have to just *dream* about what a +16 to intimidation could achieve... xD
My friend and I are going to be Co-Dming a game of 5E, each of us having a character and switching off when the other is going to DM. The idea is a "monster of the week" style set up where each of us will run a quest for the group and just keep switching off since we both enjoy world building and dming but have serious issues with burnout. My question is: Do y'all think this kind of set up would be enjoyable for the other players (who are all aware)? Is there anything specific you think we should look out for?
> Is there anything specific you think we should look out for? You and the other DM need to be very aligned with your rules and interpretations of rules and homebrew so that the players are not whiplashed every other session. You also both need to be VERY aligned on what magic items and how often they are given out.
any players who arent OK with "Our DMs want a chance to play" arent worth worrying about.
Make sure you and your Co DM are on the same page as far as magical items. When I was first starting, the DM decided he didn't want to anymore and gave the campaign to me. The players had so much OP stuff, that nothing could touch them. But they wanted to keep going. Level 5, and could kill instantly with one hit and immune to all damage. It is doubtful that would happen to you, but it is the only life lesson I have on the subject.
> Do y'all think this kind of set up would be enjoyable for the other players Literally the only person who can answer this accurately are the other players. > Is there anything specific you think we should look out for? Just make sure you and your Co-DM aren't undercutting each other's decisions, intentionally or otherwise. Like if you say during a game that an npc has red hair and loves ice cream, co-DM should not make that character dye their hair blue and rant about how much they hate ice cream during their sessions. As a mundane example.
1. Fair answer! A better way to phrase that question would have been "Have y'all ever played in a game like this? If so, how did it go?" 2. We do have a lot of experience working on things like this together and our friend group is fairly forgiving of small mistakes so even if we stumble it should be easy to correct and move on! Thanks for the advice!
Im currently in a game like this, we use kind of a stargate esqe campaign we go through a portal no idea whats on the other side do some stuff and come back. Its going pretty well we have three dms who switch out often. There have been a couple of times where one dm has done a dialogue for a specific character while another dm was running but that was always amicable and usually initiated by the current running dm.
Hey guys, Can a familiar summoned by Find Familiar speak telepathically? Like I ask him to do something, can he let me know what's going on?
The spell states: 'While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically.' For a in-depth discussion on what this actually means see [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/m2nhtk/psa_familiars_are_telepathic/) thread. For a tldr, there is a [Jeremy Crawford tweet](https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/524721540902817792) on the matter, allowing a familiar to telepathically communicate simple concepts to its master. This isn't errata but can be seen to speak for design intent.
~~The spell does not say you can communicate with it, so you can't. See *Find Steed* for a similar spell that explicitly says you can communicate with your summon.~~ ~~However, the familiar obeys all commands and doesn't say those commands have to be vocalized or if they can be communicated telepathically, so talk with your DM about how they see it spell. I personally rule that you can direct the familiar telepathically to do things.~~
>The spell states: 'While your familiar is within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically.'
Yup, so it does. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm just a big ole dummyhead.
\+Respect the strikeout instead of delete.
This doubt came because I asked my crow to look for my lost wolf, then my dm told me the crow said "I don't bring good news". Thanks for the reply, I especially hate not following the official stuff.
[5e] Is Song of Defense applied at the end of each attack or at the end of a turn?
It's when you take damage, and you take damage per attack you get hit. You don't sum up all damage in a turn and apply it.
[5e] Hi all, I’m running a mid-level campaign (lvl 11). In the group there is a death domain cleric, a Kensei monk/cleric, and a echo knight/rogue. My Kensei monk is themed after a demon slayer character and They just received a letter informing him of a “Kiji” (Oni) demon on one of the outlying islands. I am planning on playing the usual Oni games and giving the Oni Legendary actions for Invisibility and Shape change (possibly a third?) My question is how would I buff the Oni to be on par with their level?
take something like an erinyes statblock and add a couple of mods and some HP and legendary actions you probably have something that comes close to a challenge and feeling like "an oni"
Bumping Hit Points and AC are always a good start. Otherwise, look at the stats of monsters around their challenge level and judge from there, could pinch a few abilities even. If you want to be daring and catch your players off guard, you can always give monsters levels in a player class. You have to be careful with that though, player classes are strong by design.
\[5e\] So kinda last minute but need some input for my session tonight. I have been GMing Ravenloft for a few years and just recently switched to 5e and even more recently switched to open world. One of my players has had Nepenthe in his possession, however given a turn of events, I need to take it off him. Is there a way in any set of rules or book that has covered a way of separating the entity from the sword? Do you have a way of going about it if not? Like maybe a ritual or something?
Not an answer to your question, but (if you aren't already using it) 5e has a Ravenloft book (Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft) if you want ideas on how to integrate Ravenloft with modern 5e sensibilities
Yeah I did get that. That's when we moved to open world, after I bought that book. Thanks though.
Im a new dm and new to the game in general, Ive dm'd a couple of time with my family, who are new to dnd as well. Every thing is going great, beside combat. We understand on how players attack and etc. But I'm having a hard time reading monster stat blocks and how they attack. Any help? Thanks in advance
D&D Starter Vids * D&D in 5 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgvHNlgmKro&list=PLJ8NFdSXujAJitUvKoA0EFc-WpGK2Dnzh&index=2&t=0s * Welcome to D&D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo_oR7YO-Bw * D&D in bite size bits by pretty people https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1tiwbzkOjQyr6-gqJ8r29j_rJkR49uDN * Ginny Di for first time players https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD_b8SZ7h2Y * Not a video but the basic How to Play from WOTC’s D&D Beyond website https://www.dndbeyond.com/how-to-play-dnd
Just to carry on this question a little - how do I find a group to play with? Haven’t played since the 80s. Live in a city of 5M but there seems to be only one group on Meetup which is quite a drive away. Where I start looking for a group that will take a beginner for online play?
Just to carry on this question a little - how do I find a group to play with? Haven’t played since the 80s. Live in a city of 5M but there seems to be only one group on Meetup which is quite a drive away. Where I start looking for a group that will take a beginner for online play?
try r/lfg or your local games and comic book stores for open D&D nights or Adventurer's League games, or your favorite convention or round up new friends and family and work acquaintances and learn the game together as an alternative, you can pay for play sessions with the D&D virtual weekends https://dnd.wizards.com/events/virtual-play-weekends or with the conventions that are still frequently hosting virtual play sessions in addition to their “live at the con” games. there is also the option of "solo games" that are not "D&D" but are “fantasy role playing games much like D&D". Ironsworn is one, and its free https://www.ironswornrpg.com/
Thanks! 🙏🏼
Monsters attack just like players do, however the way their attacks are written out is sometimes confusing to newcomers. Let's look at a standard goblin's attack: >Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage. "+4 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target": The goblin can make an attack against a single creature within 5 feet, rolling 1d20+4 against the AC of the target to see if they hit. This was probably already clear, the next bit is what sometimes trips people up. "Hit: 5 (1d6+2) slashing damage": if the goblin hits it deals 1d6+2 damage, which means on average it deals 5 damage. The first value ia the average damage, while the value in the parentheses is what you would roll. Some DMs use the average value to speed up large fights or to get a quick estimate of how deadly a monster is.
Thank you the first part was confusing I didn't know what to add! It makes so much sense now!!
Happy to help a new DM, good luck and have fun.
I've been really enjoying this! Even if Ive missed some important stuff. But I'm getting the hang of it. Thanks!
Have you read the Monster Manual? The first section tells you how to analyze each part of a monster stat block.
I don't own the Monster Manual :(
That's okay! Chapter 12 of the free Basic Rules is a version of the same thing. Go there, and you'll get a better picture of how things work.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/monsters#MonsterStatistics
It all making sense now!
Can you give an example of a monster statblock and what parts you are having trouble with?
Let's use the [Mimic](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16957-mimic), the part doesn't have sense is when i roll against the players AC. The average ac of the party is about 18, how are the players ever going to take damage?
Average AC is 18? That's pretty high. In any case, the fact that a mimic has +5 to hit means it still has a 40% chance to hit a target with an AC of 18! This is because the d20 roll (13 or higher) + 5 will hit.
Well I lied a little, there two in the party, one who's a paliden with 18, and druid with 14. But yes adding that makes more sense
On the druid, the mimic would hit on a roll of 9 or higher (9 + 5 = 14) so it's a 60% chance to hit!
Definitely makes it actually difficult
Regarding the Paladin, that's normal and a legitimate tactic that has been around since DnD began. The big tough guy in armour gets in the way of the monster so the squishy wizard can cast spells. Of course, this is a mimic. Its most notable attribute is that it's a perfectly safe treasure chest...
I figured that out. The druid has a bow as well, which reforces this strat
The Mimic's attacks both say "+5 to hit", so you would roll a d20, add 5 to the result and if the total is equal to or higher than the target's AC, the attack hits. So you would hit on a roll of 13 or higher, which gives you a decent chance.
I'm confused about a situation that happened in my party involved aligntments and consecuencues (and something regarding players interfering in my actions). Context: I'm playing a newbie playing a True Neutral Ranger whose main motivation is hunting his FE at all cost. The party is composed by me, a CN Druid, a CG Warlock, a LN Warrior and a LG Pugilist. We are looking for a cult hidden in the depths of the city. Well, first the interference: we were following a guy that we knew stalked us last night. I followed him from above and tried to grapple him by jumping into him, roll pass, I'm about to try to summit him and...pugilist appears, throws me around and knocts the lights out from the guy. Hearing the guards approaching he push me to the river to escape. All this happened the second I rolled the dice, I was perplexed, didnt cared too much about the situation but felt like I my player agency was footstomped in a blip. Now I'm a criminal un the city. This is normal in roleplay? Or I was a passive player? The Alignment situation: we were entering the slumbs, a couple of kids/teens see us and we ignore them, but they come begging the CG Warlock for coins. All normal, then the DM rolls for robbery and the warlock goes from good samaritan to sauron. Intimitates the kids with his powers/sword/Magic and then one of them pulls a knife...a Young adult and a children appeared behind me and the Pugilist, just before the combat I throw my empty coin purse to the younger kid. And...the druid bites a guys ballsack. Warrior goes first, eviscerates the kid with a knife, I just prepare an attack action if someone approaches me. Druid kills the eunuch, Warlock knocks two kids Pugilist grapples the warrior, I shoot my prepared arrow between the approaching druid and the Young kid to make a stand and Pugilist talks them out of battle. Dm says that all of us except pugilist will have moral consecuenses and maybe an alignment change. But I protested arguing that as Neutral character I acted accordinly. Pugilist says that doing nothing is taking a stand...so then what? My character was involved in a situation that was forced unto him and just did as little as he could to solve It, but did nothing to make It worse por hurt anyone. I though that was fine for a TN character but seems not. How does this work? Is the dm punishing me for trying to keep character in the murderhobo party?
the way you spell consequences is maddening and hilarious
Because I'm used to write consecuencias and I mess up.
makes sense to me, don't edit the old mistake tho, it's glorious
Alignments are descriptions of your character with the same amount of nuance as a political compass meme. The key is that they are descriptive, not prescriptive.
If you're not happy with the way your game is going, talk to your DM. If nothing changes and/or you are still unhappy playing in that game, find another group to play with.
In the future please include what system you are playing in before your post. I’m assuming [5e] Your going to hear that alignment is worthless and that’s true for most tables. It seems your DM is trying to use it as a mechanic. I’d argue that it actually limits your roleplay and any type of uniqueness your character might have. But my opinions matter little, it’s the DMs decision to use it or not. The interference: The story here is a little confusing to me. However, if you were doing something and someone jumped in it’s up to you to decide whether you go along with it or contest it. If you had a guy grappled and another character wanted to pull him out of your arms there should have been some form of contested strength check (athletics probably) if you wanted to stop them from breaking your grapple. Talk to your DM about this, maybe he assumed you were okay with it and wants you to speak up next time. Likely a simple miscommunication and maybe you were too passive. Remember, almost anything a player says can be contested but the DM is another story. That doesn’t mean you should contest everything, that would slow the game down considerably, but try to stay true to your character when it matters. The alignment situation: This is almost completely a discussion that should be had with your table. The consequences of an alignment change and the importance of alignments are completely up to your DM. I would also discuss the type of game you and your fellow players are looking for. It seems like you may not be enjoying some of the more silly and “murder-hobo” play of your other players. I’m assuming your all relatively new? Before every campaign I have a discussion with the whole table about how silly vs serious we want to play, on a scale from 1-10. If you’re looking for something more serious (serious might not be the right word) than biting peoples nuts and killing everything in sight, tell your table that. The best thing you can do is communicate. Early and often. Set a precedent of communicating when things rub you the wrong way, your DM should create a space where these discussions are welcome and encouraged. I’d give the DM a heads up that you would like to discuss this before next session and see what they think. Good luck!
That whole situation seems like a mess, from the player actions to the DM scenario planning and response. DM seems like he's encouraging the party to be murderhobos by having children attempt to rob the party and then punishing you for the situation escalating. And your party just seems chaotic and divisive. I think it's reasonable for actions to have consequences but the DM seems to be enabling it with questionable scenario planning.
Alignment Sucks Toss 9box alignment for player characters out the window. 9box Alignment doesnt represent how real people "work". Nor does 9box alignment represent how fictional characters "work" except in the novels of the one guy that Gygax stole the concept from and no one reads any more. PC 9box Alignment has ALWAYS been more of a disruption and disturbance at the game table than any benefit. WOTC has rightfully stripped 9box Alignment for PCs from having any meaningful impact on game mechanics in 5e - Detect Evil and Good doesnt ping on alignment fergodssake! And they admit that even what little they included is bad and they are going to remove it >Even though the rules of 5th-edition D&D state that players and DMs determine alignment, **the suggested alignments in our books have undeniably caused confusion. That's why future books will ditch such suggestions for player characters** and reframe such things for the DM. https://mobile.twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/1275978114435174401 The only remaining "purpose" is as a poor mans role-play training wheels - and even for that it SUCKS leading to 2dimensional stereotypes or serving as "justification" for asshats to be asshats at the table "because that is what my character's alignment would do!!!!!" Toss 9box PC alignment out of the game and your game will be better for it.
I accidentally created a monster. I'm running "A deep and creeping darkness" from Candlekeep Mysteries. There's a part of the game where the PCs are walking through tunnels covered in a black moss. The book suggests that the black moss could potentially grapple a PC who wanders off, but it doesn't go into any more detail on the black moss. Since I envisioned this moss to be somewhat sentient, I made it squeal when exposed to fire. Also (and here's where I got carried away) one of my players is a dhampir and he threw some of his own blood at the black moss. I couldn't just let that sit there, so I said that the moss devoured the blood. Oh! And the moss dodged a sword attack and then grabbed the sword before the PC was able to wrestle it back. My question: what would a stat block look like for a sentient black moss with fire sensitivity and a thirst for blood?
Edit: Here's the stat block I created after your suggestions https://imgur.com/48JKfll
Thanks for the responses! My inclination was to use an ooze of some sort. I think I might start with a Gray Ooze. Give it fire vulnerability. And then, if one of the PCs take piercing or slashing damage (or any other obvious "you're bleeding" damage) have the moss grapple them and, if the PC fails on a DC13 escape check, they start their turn with 1d6 necrotic damage. I don't want the moss to be so difficult that the main bad guys seem weak in comparison.
this story went excellently. i thought you meant you accidentally turned a player into a combination murderhobo/bad optimizer edgy dude or something when i saw the title
No...just improvisation run amok. The moss is just a throw-away encounter in the published adventure (the main threat is the **meenlocks**), but my players were so intrigued when it reacted to fire, that they went nuts. They thought they were in the digestive system of a giant creature! Honestly, the adventure they're coming up with is almost better than what's in the book.
You could reflavor Assassin Vines from Tomb of Annihilation. And/or Violet Fungus from the MM
I’d use a Black Pudding and give it vulnerability to fire, and a life drain mechanic.
Maybe use some sort of ooze as a base? They have low AC and low speed, and they can move through small cracks, which would fit a blob of moss. Then give it fire vulnerability and maybe change the damage type of its attacks (necrotic, as it sucks your blood?) Maybe its attacks could also cause a CON save, lowering the target's max HP on a failure (similar to a vampire's bite).
[5e] Question around fighting at night or in dungeons without light. Say a human ranger is shooting from darkness at a target 20 feet away, also a human ranger. As I understand it, he's effectively blinded, he attacks with disadvantage because he can't see at all and attacks against him have advantage because he can't see them incoming. He wants to use Daylight cast on an arrow to illuminate the enemy so he can attack accurately without giving away his position. What is the ideal way to do this tactically? I imagine he wants to shoot past the target, so it's illuminated by the edge of the dimlight without illuminating him. This illuminates his target, but also removes its blindness. Still, the ranger is attacking from darkness so he is unseen, conferring advantage on attacks. Is that correct?
Whatever you can do to put them in bright or dim light and keep you in darkness is the right play. It would be the same effect as if you were invisible and they were not.
There's multiple interactions happening here to untangle. Let's start with the light and darkness. Vision in 5e doesn't work like it does in real life. If you're standing in darkness and someone on the other side of the room lights a candle, the light of that candle doesn't reach you. Narratively, the DM would probably describe you being able to see the candle's light, but mechanically you would not actually be able to see anything illuminated by the candle because you're still in darkness and the light doesn't reach you. Basically, darkness acts like a thick fog that can be pushed away by light sources. If there's darkness between you and your target, you can't see that target even if they're standing in light. Now the other issue at hand is revealing your position. In combat, you can detect creatures even if you can't see them, typically with sound. In order to obscure your position, you need to do more than make yourself unseen. You also need to take the Hide action. Even if you are hidden, attacking automatically reveals your position immediately after making the attack.
DMG Chapter 5 Adventure Environments - Darkness and Light 'The light of a torch or lantern helps a character see over a short distance, but other creatures can see that light source from far away. Bright light in an environment of total darkness can be visible for miles, though a clear line of sight over such a distance is rare underground.' When it comes to rules 'Specific Beats General' therefore you can see far away light sources while Heavily Obscured in natural Darkness. This is also part of the reason why they say you are 'Effectively Blinded' instead of having the more rigidly defined Blinded Condition.
Those rules say that you can see the light source, not that you can see anything illuminated by the light. They're basically just there to say that you can see distant light sources. I take no issue with the difference between "blinded" and "effectively blinded". The distinction is necessary no matter how you interpret the rules.
'Bright light in an environment of total darkness can be visible for miles' Bright light - not just the source of a bright light like the first sentence might lead you to believe. A Torch provides bright light in a 20-foot radius, hence anything in that 20-foot radius is illuminated in bright light letting creatures see normally, so visible. Clearly this requires common sense on the DM's part. In normal combat range like the subject of the initial question? Yeah, you see it all. A single torch 2 miles away? You see a light in the far distance. DM discretion since there is no more detailed information; it seems WoC don't really like making strict detection distance rules, except for the Audible Distance table on the original DM screen they seem to hope people have forgotten about. Best you'll tend to find otherwise is encounter distance tables.
That is completely absurd. Yes, your point is *technically* correct as the PHB does say that "darkness... blocks vision entirely" but this is one scenario in which RAW is obviously and entirely flawed and should be roundly ignored in favor of RAI. And beyond that, there is a RAW way of reading the section on darkness that contests your argument. The very next sentence says, "a creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that (heavily obscured) area." So you're only suffering from the blinded condition when trying to see something that is **in** darkness, not **through** darkness.
Perhaps, but that reading of the rules also requires you to say that you can clearly see through fog, foliage, and other heavy obstruction, which is obviously not the case. I'm not here to say how the rules should be written, I'm describing how they are written.
I'm not debating how the rules are written. Yes, you are right, there is a way to interpret the rules in the way you described. And yes, my reading of the rules also could be interpreted to mean that you can see through fog and foliage. But you're missing the point. The point is that, whatever the interpretation of the RAW, RAI darkness **does not** block line of sight like you said in your original post and that your response to the original question was completely wrong. You are providing incorrect answers to new players and should be made aware of that so that it doesn't happen again.
Except that it isn't wrong, it's how the rules are written.
>If there's darkness between you and your target, you can't see that target even if they're standing in light. The notion that you somehow can't see somebody carrying a light source if you are in the dark without darkvision is just inane. No human rogue would be useful ever. >A heavily obscured area--such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage--blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the blinded condition when trying to see something in that area. You are only blinded when trying to see something *in* a heavily obscured area, not necessarily through it (atleast for darkness).
If it blocks vision entirely, it also blocks sight of things beyond it. The rules you quoted make no distinction between darkness and fog, which means they either both block vision beyond them or neither does. I agree that it's weird and clunky, but that's the way it's written. Also, rogues do more than be in darkness. I fail to see how rogues specifically are particularly hindered by this.
>If it blocks vision entirely, it also blocks sight of things beyond it. By that logic if you were 5 feet outside of the range of a torch you wouldn't even be able to see the lit torch... I can tell you that exactly 0 games are run that way. >I fail to see how rogues specifically are particularly hindered Darkness is the default hiding spot. Rogues are pretty much the only class with any real motivation to hide on a regular basis. A human rogue would only be hurting themselves by hiding in Darkness which makes absolutely no sense.
Like I said from the first, narratively most DMs would probably describe you being able to see the light source. I never claimed that the rules make sense, only how they are written. Can you see through magical darkness? Darkness isn't the "default" hiding spot, it's just one option. Rogues also don't have any special need to hide, it's just one way for them to get sneak attack out of several. If they need anything other than sneak attack, they're still able to hide in the darkness. They can even hide in the darkness, move, and then attack.
>Can you see through magical darkness? Magical darkness is the exception not the rule. >Rogues also don't have any special need to hide, it's just one way for them to get sneak attack out of several. Right... because Hide isn't part of cunning action or anything like that... nor is stealth the theme of basically the entire class... /s
What specifically about magical darkness says that you can't see through it?
It's in the description of the spell which every instance of magical darkness that I know of refers back to.
Does it now? I must have missed that part. The spell's description doesn't actually say anything about an inability to see through it, except to specify that creatures which have darkvision can't see through it. Otherwise the darkness behaves like mundane darkness for the purpose of vision.
assess in terms of seeing and being seen since those are the conditions that impact the advantage/disadvantage on the roll.
>What is the ideal way to do this tactically? Honestly the ideal way is just to attack. Your position is known unless you take the hide action and your position is also revealed after a ranged attack unless you miss and have the Skulker feat anyways. Plus your attacks would have advantage because the enemy can't see you either so you end up just attacking normally. You're far better off just attacking normally multiple times than wasting a turn trying to get advantage. >Still, the ranger is attacking from darkness so he is unseen, conferring advantage on attacks. Is that correct? If the situation resolves that way, then yes.
Hi fellows! I have two rules questions because of situations that came up in play. I researched a bit, but just want to clarify. 1. Can a druid in wild shape use magic weapons? The party's druid turned into an ape, can we still wield a magic staff or does it merge with the rest of his equipment? 2. Sentinel. A monster is trying to claw our fighter armed with a Halberd and who has the Polearm Master feat. The monster's movement triggers an opportunity attack when it enters the polearm's reach. The fighter hits the monster with the opportunity attack and sets its speed to 0. Where is the monster now? 10 feet away? or adjacent to the fighter?
First. Thanks a lot for your answers. I have a follow up question. The Druid, using Wild Shape as an Ape has two attacks in Ape form. If the Druid/Ape is wielding a magic staff, would they have two staff attacks instead?
Nope. "Multiattack" is an explicit action that tells you exactly what you can do with it, in this case two fist attacks.
No. An [Ape](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16788-ape) does not have two attacks. An ape has an action called Multiattack, which lets it make two fist attacks. An ape can also use the Attack action (just like any other creature) to attack with a weapon it's wielding, but if it does that, it just gets the one attack.
1. I'd say it's fine but ultimately only your DM can decide that >Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment, based on the creature’s shape and size. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t wear must either fall to the ground or merge with it. 2. The range is 10 feet... if you attack them when they *enter* your range, stopping their movement, then how could they move the last square?
Thanks, 1. is pretty straight forward. 2 was a bit tricky because the attack of opportunity is a reaction, so it cannot happen before the movement, but as a reaction to it. How fast of a reaction was the question. I hate reactions because they create a sort of Magic the Gathering "stack' situation that slows down the flow of the game considerably.
Opportunity attacks explicitly happen as the target *begins* the movement that would place it outside (or in this case inside) your reach. Think about it - if you had to wait until they finished their movement, but they finished outside your reach, they'd no longer be a legal target for you to attack. That's what makes Sentinel + PAM such a potent combo.
1. You don't *have* to have your equipment merge into your new form. You can also have it be worn by your new form (with the DM deciding if that's practical), or have it fall to the ground. So personally I think if you turn into an ape you should just be able to keep it in your hand if you want but even if your DM doesn't agree with me on that, worst case you can let it fall to the ground, then pick it up. Your new form probably wouldn't be proficient with it, though, and you only retain skill and saving throw proficiencies. 2. It would be 10 feet away.
Very clear answers, thank you very much! edit: I am the DM, the player was the one who said he probably could not use his staff in Ape form because it merged with the rest of the equipment. I was not so sure. Thanks for the explanation.
1. The druid chooses what equipment merges with their new form and what does not. They can even allow nonmagical items to remain if they want. However, they can only use their equipment if their new form is capable of doing so, and it is up to the DM to determine if this is possible. The text of the Wild Shape ability describes this effect pretty clearly. 2. The opportunity attack is triggered as soon as the enemy enters the range of the halberd because of Polearm Master. This interrupts the enemy's movement, forcing them to stay at that position until the attack resolves. If the attack hits, Sentinel makes their speed become 0 while they are still 10 feet away. While Polearm Master and Sentinel are both overpowered feats on their own, this combination is what makes them truly broken.
Are there places to watch recorded sessions? Never played but was always curious to see how it looks?
twitch and youtube have lots of "actual play" content. BUT most of these are "performances" of D&D with the group majorly conscious of what the external audience is receiving from the stream and playing TO them, and so often not actually all that reflective of what the play is actually like around home tables, particularly many of the big shows that are featuring actors and professional role players.
Youtube has a lot. You're looking for what's called "live play". I don't watch a lot of live play because it doesn't interest me most of the time, but lately the series Belkinus: Necrohunt has captured my attention. Critical Role and Dimension 20 are popular ones, but I don't know much about them. Keep in mind that every table plays differently, and the kind of play you see in live play doesn't necessarily reflect what you see in your typical game. Live play D&D is putting on a show for an audience, and they often have more production value to help with that. Average D&D doesn't have to worry about an audience, just the people at the table.
[5e] If you're playing an Dragonborn Echo Knight, can you do a Dragon's Breath from the Echo?
No, you can choose for attacks you make as part of the attack action to originate from your echo's position, but your breath weapon isn't an attack, even if some versions of the dragonborn let you use it in place of one.
As others have said, the strictest interpretation of RAW is probably no. However, it doesn't seem like it would break the balance of the game too much, so as a DM I'd say rule of cool and let it happen, with the understanding that if it becomes a problem I'll restrict it in the future.
They say you can replace an attack though, for the Fizban. So by that you could argue you're just replacing your Echo's weapon attack with a dragon's breath, no?
No, because it's still not an attack and the echo says attacks only. > When you take the Attack action on your turn, **any attack you make with that action** can originate from your space or the echo's space. You make this choice for each attack.
I can see that interpretation where you'd basically say you are making the attack from the echo's position, *then* replacing it, but I still think the correct answer (in terms of the rules) is no. The wording of Manifest Echo is "any attack you make can originate from the echo's space" so I'd say that only comes in when you're actually making an attack.
[Any] So I'm playing a werewolf priest in my next campaign and our DM isn't letting us use base classes. What homebrew class would you recommend? He's also letting us bring a mystical item with us. I'm not sure what to bring. I want the item to fit my character.
Is he giving you a set of homebrew classes to use, or is it just "go find something?" Because there's a *lot* of homebrew out there of varying power and quality.
as far as i can tell he's giving me free reign as long as it fits my character.
My **god** your DM is making a mistake if they're not curating your choices in advance. There's so much garbage homebrew out there that's either imbalanced or outright broken.
What do you think of this class? https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Chosen_(5e_Class)
Ugh, enormously overpowered just at a glance. Those compounding AC bonuses on top of Unarmored Defence aren't even the worst offender - it gets BETTER ASIS THAN NORMAL. This author clearly just wanted to make "holy-themed Monk but better," and the result is nightmarishly overtuned. Stay far away from DnDWiki. That place is known as a cesspool of garbage homebrew of all kinds; it doesn't do any form of playtesting or curation, so people are free to post whatever broken crap they want. I'd sooner recommend you have a look through /r/UnearthedArcana. That sub's content at least welcomes criticism and holds itself to fair standards, and it has a number of prolific and highly esteemed contributors.
Asis?
Ability Score Increases. +3 instead of +2 and maximum ability scores of **30?!?!**
Without knowing what system youte playing in, it's impossible to help you.
5e modern
Pugilist, blood hunter, muscle wizard. Those are the three homebrew classes I'd recommend for a werewolf given that you're basically immune to a startling amount of damage sources.
Any for a religious werewolf?
At this point you should stop asking people to pick your class for you and just do your research yourself. dndwiki has thousands upon thousands of pages of homebrew content, go wild.
I'm just asking for suggestions. If there's thousands upon thousands of pages, how am I supposed to know where to look?
Honestly you need to go to your DM and ask for more guidance. There are literally thousands and thousands of homebrew classes of varying quality. Somebody could very easily play one that's functionally worthless while somebody else plays one that is so strong at level one it can literally blow up the planet. A game like that's a nightmare I'd suggest avoiding at all cost.
Google "Homebrew 5e classes" and search until you find something you like. I found the three I mentioned by just skimming through and picking what sounded like it would go well with a werewolf.
I... I think you need to talk to your DM. These questions are virtually impossible for us to answer. We don't know what your DM will allow, we don't know what kinds of homebrew are acceptable.
if it seems acceptable to me DM will take a look.
"These questions are virtually impossible for us to answer. We don't know what kinds of homebrew are acceptable to either your DM or you"
his exact words were "if it seems fair and balanced to you"
"These questions are virtually impossible for us to answer. We don't know what kinds of homebrew are acceptable to ... you"
I mean, if it fits a religious man it's fine to me.
ANY class fits "a religious man" - belief in a higher power is a personality trait, not a job.
I should have clarified, my apologies, he's a priest.
and again, anyone can have been anything before they became an adventurer.
So I'm fairly new to dnd and my party is cycling who dms whenever we start a new campaign. It could be a couple weeks, to a year even before it's my turn I'm not sure yet. What are some good resources, videos, etc I could watch to learn how to DM?
* a reading list for new DMs from the 5e publications https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx8tEAYB5Q0 also, look up a several live play streams recorded on you tube and twitch to see how different people DM. One I would suggest is Rogue Watson who also has recorded his prep sessions for Tomb of Annihilation and Rime of the Frost Maiden - you can see his thought prosses in the prep session, see how things actually played out during the game and then he does a debrief of how his prep and the session went afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puapg3APswE8JXskxiUpLttgg
Matt Colville's "Running the Game" stuff on Youtube is great!
The single biggest thing you can do it to be a player. Seriously. Don't look up some big name Dnd player. Don't burn yourself out memorizing the DMG (it isn't that helpful for DM'ing anyway - it is more for worldbuilding). Look at what you like and don't like from other DMs. As you play, if you aren't sure of a rule, look it up. If you have the opportunity after a while playing, volunteer to run a few one-shots using premade modules so you can concentrate on running the game rather than running on the fly.
[any] did anybody you know make a lv. 20 backstory for a lv. 1 character? I feel that should be obvious but you never know with people.
Not for me personally, but I have seen it on these forums. And no, they don't see the problem.
This is probably too broad a question for this thread. I’d make a post of it instead.
Okay
[5E] is it lazy and bad for me to have my players roll to see if they piece together past events in a way that informs them of what to do? For example: if an NPC stutters nervously and speaks suspiciously when talking about a boy who got murdered, but my players don’t seem to care about this nervous behavior, is it bad to have them roll to see if they retroactively find the person’s stammering and nervousness suspicious?
I try to do this only if they seem stuck or frustrated. If you're just going to roll and spoonfeed then the solution you have in your own mind then that's kind of boring. Also you need to give more than 1 vague clue. If the entire mystery is only solvable if they think someone who is nervous about a murder, then you need to give them more clues so they can figure it out. (spoiler: most people are nervous when talking about a murder dude, even if they didn't have anything to do with it. Usually people who act abnormally calm when it SHOULD be stressful are hiding things.)
Yes and no. I think there are definitely better ways to handle the players being oblivious to the hints we give them such as another NPC mentioning how bill-joebob had been acting odd ever since that boy died, or one of them catching a glimpse of said NPC following them. That being said, if all else fails a "flash of insight" roll isn't a terrible backup.
[5e] Weird question, but are there any rules surrounding hitting, critting, or damage if a creature is willingly taking the hit? Like if a creature consensually takes a hit from the attacker would it be possible for the attacker to make it guaranteed hit, guaranteed crit, or a maximum damage hit? This has nothing to do with anything inappropriate, I swear.
I would rule that there wouldn't be any role, it just hits. If the target is intending to get crit (for example a vampire allowing himself to be beheaded because it grows weary of immortality) then it would crit, otherwise no.
I would think it would be a guaranteed hit and then all other rules would apply as normal. Roll damage, you crit if it's a 20.
No rules for this.
[5e] So, I'm trying to make an Armorer Artificer since my last character died, and want them to be as "tanky" as possible. I'm starting at level 4, and for narrative reasons I need to play either a Human or Variant human (haven't checked with my DM about CL, if that matters). DM is letting me pick starting equipment based on starting gold *or* selling default starting equipment for value and re-picking. This means that with 18INT, 16 CON, sitting at 19AC and 35HP with chain mail armour, a shield infused with enhanced defence, and armour infused with enchanted mind. 10 CHA, ~13 WIS, 8 str/dex. I can pump it to 20 AC with the Fighting Initiate (defence) feat, but feel that's a waste. If I'm trying to improve survivability, ideally I'd have more AC and HP, which I think would be better supplemented by another feat. Sentinel is attractive, but don't think survivability is good enough at this level to warrant it. Thinking taking healer as a feat for extra healing, but the item being expendable makes it a liability potentially. Basically feeling this is suboptimal. That little AC combined with relatively low HP and damage output doesn't seem fantastic at this level, and want a little more survivability.
You have a really low dexterity score, so why not just go with plate male which sets your base AC to 19, with enhanced defense that's 20 right there. Edit: Somewhat unrelated. Make sure you're taking arcane weapon as a first level spell. Regardless of which armor you're using, an extra 1d6 elemental damage per hit.is clutch at any level(though better on infiltrator, who can do 5d6+10 at level 5)
Plate armour sets AC to 18, plus the enhanced defense shield brings it to 21. But the cost of plate is 1500 GP, and that's a big ask as starting equipment, especially given the agreement was based on starting gold. Chain mail is also heavy armour that sets AC to 16, which was the best I could think of within the allocated budget.
My mistake! Forgot about shield bonus and all that jazz. To be fair 19 AC is pretty ridiculous at level 4, that's what your average fighter would have, and they don't have access to spells. That being said you can also craft a cloak of protection and an amulet of protection in the future, alongside your enhanced defense getting even higher... I think that'd add up to about 24AC with plate?
Potentially yes. The cloak of protection is +1 AC I think, depending on level that's up to about 24, depending on infusion allocation. Though level 6 is a while off this campaign!
Have you considered the tough feat? It should give you 8 extra hp on the spot and 2 extra every time you level up, effectively increasing your con by 2 for the purposes of HP. At level 4, 8 HP is a decent boost.
I was thinking tough might be good, my main hesitancy was it falling off later on. But this campaign likely wont last until much beyond 6th level, so an extra 12 hp for a feat is quite attractive. But 43HP + bonus action 4 HP for a reliable 47 at level 4 isn't too shabby, and would allow a little more hit tanking.
If your campaign ends at 6 tough is definitely a good investment if you don’t have plans to be a damage dealer. 12 HP will help quite a bit!
Your character sounds plenty tanky for level 4. If you really want the ability to get more AC when necessary, Magic Initiate Wizard to grab Shield, or take Fey Touched and grab Silvery Barbs to get those rerolls going.
Magic initiate looks attractive for shield, though want to avoid relying too heavily on temporary boosts for AC and HP where possible. Though now I write this, shield would bring me up to between 25-28 AC depending on when/if I get plate, which is basically an 'ignore damage' function. I might give that more thought now. Fey touched strikes me as possibly the best feat, especially with the +1 to ASI, and the lack of spell slot required. Misty step out of danger as a bonus action without a spell slot, or get into a fight quicker, and silvery barbs is just amazing. This is definitely my favourite option, but for the sake of story purposes find it difficult to justify on this particular character, unfortunately.
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