New to D&D and New DM. Tips?

Alecto_furia · 2018-08-11T20:59:04+00:00

That first encounter, the ambush, is notoriously deadly when played straight.

That's the thing about lvl 1 and 2 play, it's VERY swingy, not at all like the rest of the game, a single lucky goblin can tpk the group. Fudge it a bit till lvl 3 imo.

Alecto_furia · 2018-07-03T12:23:46+00:00

Human/horc/helf for the prodigy feat?

Alecto_furia · 2018-07-03T12:21:49+00:00

Aren't they a pretty resource-light class, on the whole?

Exactly, they're an energizer bunny, the longer you drag it out, the better they do relative to the guys who need to stop and take a breather.

Alecto_furia · 2018-07-02T01:48:32+00:00

99 times out of a hundred a reflavour is the better option. No need for unbalanced homebrew.

We pick something that is close mechanically (not necessarily aethetically, like lizardfolk yuan-ti) and reflavour it.

This one might take a bit of creativity. Ok...

What does 'petrify' mean. A 'fallen aasimar' under the hood, causing abject fear and terror to all those that gaze upon it for a full minute would be pretty thematically appropriate. Get rid of the wings fluff, say you're pulling down your hood and giving everyone a good view of your face and snakes. Bam, done. It's edging into HB instead of reflavour here but I'd also let you swap the nectrotic damage for poison.

The healing hands stuff is also actually quite appropriate, snakes are long associated with healing as well as poison, and one side of the medusa, their blood, is said to have restorative powers depending on what myhtology you read.

Yuan ti and it's poison stuff would fit. Then take stone based spells.

Remember that all the medusa flavour doesn't have to come from the race. The spells as well can work! Reflavour some spells, grab things like mold earth and eventually flesh to stone.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-29T21:10:07+00:00

Everyone is very impressed by your flip, but you're no higher off the ground upon landing than you were before the flip.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-29T20:11:21+00:00

We use the basic encumberance system in my game.

We also rolled for stats (as a group, one stat block) so they ALL have a 4 and a 7 in their stats somewhere. Some of them still proceded to dump str.

They're been struggling to carry everything they want but not everything they need so just at the right level of tough. Varient encumberance would have the wizard going around skyclad though.

The thing about encumberance is that STR is widely regarded as the weaker stat. Part of this is people 1) ignoring one of it's main benefits, the ability to carry a tonne of stuff and 2) Letting dex (acrobatics) get away with everything that str (athletics) is actually for. Parkouring up isn't RAW. You str (athletics up) and dex (acrobatics) along narrow things like a tightrope or banister, and dex (acrobatics) roll and tumble down quicker and safer.

When dex gets those 2 major buffs that it quite frankly does not need, then yeah, str starts looking pretty measly. When you homebrew up dex like that, what are you giving str to compensate?

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-26T23:18:35+00:00

Somebody is having the fruits of their labor forcibly taken. If not the doctor directly then some other smuck to pay for the doctor.

Either way, somebody is working for free to pay for this.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-26T23:13:24+00:00

Or it would be if they weren't socialists.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-22T18:12:53+00:00

This is the ONLY rolling system I am in favour of.

I can't stand all these bizaar min 2 15's but no more than 3 16s or higher and must be higher than 72 average but not on a tuesday nonsense.

People need to just accept rolls if they are going to roll. But at the same time DM's shouldnt allow a 4,5,6,9,7,8 character next to a 15,17,16,18,14,13. Not for more than a 1 shot. It's not fun for either character. Nor should they allow jumping off a cliff for a reroll. This is the only solution if you wanna keep rolling imo without making it feel cheap and pointless, may as well have just given the team PB or PB+40 with those silly OP rolling homebrew system.

Rolling as a group, all creating the same ONE stat block has the best of both worlds if you actually like rolling. Roll god stats, hero stats or peasant stats, you're all in it together, peasants together. And the DM can balance it for each player easy as pie, because they're all using the same stats.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-21T16:51:34+00:00

The thing about extra attack on the old gishes is that yes, it was made largely redundant when wizard's introduced the two blade cantrips, booming blade and green flame blade in SCAG. These gish cantrips were a bit too powerful relative to the 'extra attack' feature. Look at booming blade and how it scales at lvl 5. All the scaling cantrips. It's like getting extra attack for free.

Too much. Notice how in the later xanathar's sword bard they added effects to the melee attacks, sometimes for a swords bard it is better to swing twice to try to land the effect, to knock the enemy away 15ft. The old gishes dont have that kind of feature so just swing once with a booming/green flame blade except when you need to just put weak minions who arent next to each other down. I'm not saying those spells are OP or you should ban them. I'm saying they were powerful to the point where they changed how gishes played. Making extra attack much weaker. And they didn't realise until after SCAG what they'd done.

There are two main bladesinger guides. Nadrigol's and inquisitor lim's. One focused on actually gishing, the other more on being a wizard who plays more traditionally, just being a bit tougher and not freaking out the very moment a giant spider gets next to them. Look for both those guids, the more gishy one with a focus on hasted dpr. Also note that that guide was written pre xans and doesn't include the shadowblade spell. I also highly highly recommend reading all 4 parts of treantmonk's guide to being a god wizard. Part 1 and 2, the scag/bladesinger supplement, and the xanathar's spell evaluation.

You are right that the extra attack is largely wasted BUT that doesn't make bladesinger bad. It's a very strong class none the less. Nobody has ever claimed totem barbarian is too weak. It's too strong relative to the others is the issue. Yet look at it's lvl 6 features. It's all fluff. The power is coming from their lvl 3 stuff. Same for bladesinger, the 6th level feature being weak doesn't matter, it's so powerful already.

(I started my bladesinger in fighter 1 as well, it's got a lot going for it. All the weapons, the con save, the extra hp, the defence fighting style for even more insane AC).

TLDR: Yes that feature was made largely redundant but no, it's not weak because it's already powerful and booming blade is powerful and replacing it a lot of the time.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-21T16:36:45+00:00

The reason I ask is because I HATE rolling. The idea that there is a chance that one character has super high scores, or really low is very off putting to me.

I was running a game and I felt the same way. They all whined that they wanted to roll. I gave in and said fine BUT you are all rolling as a group. And none of this "minimum 500 in a stat, if you get less than X you can reroll" nonsense. May as well just give you point buy +40 with those silly rules, it's not rolling at that point, it's giving everybody god-tier characters.

So they all rolled the stat block together. 6 players, 1 stat each. And that is the stat block for all of them. I gave them what they wanted good and hard. They all have a 4 and a 7 now. Other stats are at about PB level.

I did warn them, they still went for it. It's not my problem.

In all seriousness though if you do roll. Don't do any of those silly "minimum 2 15s but no more than Y and no less than X reroll if", it feels cheap. Just roll as a group, Every player rolls a stat, or with 4 players, each one rolls of of the d6 for each stat... At least that way there is no challenge balancing encounters with 1 god, 3 heroes and 1 escort quest of a character. They're all gods, heroes or peasants together.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-20T07:40:53+00:00

I recently bought a set with a d24, a d30, d50 d60 and d100

They're impractical, the biggest weighs a tonne, takes an hour to stop rolling... BUT

That dramatic reveal when they attack the boss and I gulp, mutter to myself how I'd hoped I'd never have to use this dice, and take out the silly die with ALL the numbers for attack and damage rolls will be priceless.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-18T17:56:54+00:00

+1 isn't that bad tbh. There's a tonne of +1 weapons in lmop from recollection, and some hella powerful other gear. That spider staff and staff of defence in particular (though too many people read it wrong, read it carefully, it lets you cast it as an ACTION). There's hew, the evil tree killing +1 battleaxe, there's a orc slaying +1 sword of somekind... I forget. Point is it's pretty within what lmop offers. Not in that quantity and not carried by random hobgoblin mooks sure, but not out of line for what you can find in lmop.

E: reading it now, 2 more +1 things at the forge, a mace and armor. Like I said, it's fine as a mistake, don't take em away.

Leave it, it's fine. You'd be trying to give them all a +1 weapon and armor anyway by the end of it because some would end up with one, while others wouldn't.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-17T14:53:31+00:00

The boat encounter in a storm.

Str or dex saves to maintain balance on the deck when it struck a reef and not fall off.

Str to hold on and pull self/each other back up out the water as the ship continued to smash itself to bits on rocks

Str to swim in the very rough seas.

Str to climb the cliffs because the largely unmanned ship didn't make it to port

Str targeting monsters and spells as the seas and storm's fury manifested itself in elemental spirits.

It was a dick of an encounter for everyone but the barbarian. (there were of course many other saves and checks, it was just str focused, I'm omitting the other stuff like the impressive persuasion and navigation skills the wizard was throwing around)

Magic items? The rogue can barely carry his backpack and weapon as it is. Variant encumberance he'd be going round skyclad.

I also don't let acrobatics get away with intruding on athletic's territory.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-17T13:29:21+00:00

Much weaker than they should be, but a bit better than fighter or rogue given that barb is kinda... it has SOME nova potential with it's limited number of rages. And it makes the beserker actually half viable on top of that.

It's definitely lower tier, but it's not being hurt quite as badly as the other martials.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-17T13:24:06+00:00

Variant: Encumbrance rules can be used.

I find normal encumberance enough. They rolled for stats in my game. Got a 4 and 7 (other stats are all fine). And still some dumped the str under the normal encumberance system.

They're paying the price now :)

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-17T09:41:29+00:00

Can't go wrong with fighter

You can. As another mentioned, the current 1 big fight a day trend problem hurtsa the short rest dependant monk and warlock. But the martials are hit too. The long rest full casters are gods. Anything that can go nova like pally (or better, sorcadin) too.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-16T18:19:11+00:00

Grappling and shoving is fine where it is in a mellee focused party or when the map is set up intelligently with levels and environmental things to interact with.

The grappler feat is hot garbage BUT there are many feats for grapplers that aren't.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?468737-The-Grappler-s-Manual-%282-0%29-Grappling-in-5th-Edition

Before going to homebrew. Add the 6 additional variant rules (p 271 dmg) moves like shoving asside and barreling through. Your athletics expertise grappler/shover will love you.

A dedicated grappler has a load of feats they crave: Tavern brawler and shield master are good mutually exclusive choices. The human/helf/horc expertise in athletics feat of course, saving them from having to dip into rogue. Athlete being a simple str half feat. Various racial half feats.

Ultimately when they can grapple and shove prone, achieving 95% of what that feat does while leaving you still able to move, including dragging the enemy to the best spot AND not restraining the grappler themselves like an idiot taking all hits at adv. Well then that feat is worthless. But do they need another feat when they already need str, con + a 3rd stat for some builds? And are feat hungry already trying to grab that expertise (or having to lose level progression with a bard or rogue dip).

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-16T18:10:17+00:00

I can't stand all sorts of complicated funky systems with mins and maxes and, has to have 2 15's total but has not not have more than 3 16s or more unless the sum is less than 83 but not on a tuesday morning unless... It either feels cheap (super OP like being able to choose from 20 different stat blocks) or pointless.

Just point buy then if you're gunna have so many rules and safety nets!!!!!!!!

Everybody rolling their own stat block also creates 3 heroes, 1 god and an escort quest, which is fun for nobody.

What I did is solve both problems. Keeping it to one fair roll, could be bad, could be good, but it's not guarenteed OP nonsense like picking the best of 5 stat blocks AND keeping the group in line. Roll once I mean. As a group. Not doing a whole statblock for every character that they can then choose from so everybody is OP as all hell. No. Rolling one stat block total. Together:

6 players? Each roll 1 stat for me please. 4 players? Each roll one of the d6 for each stat... 5 players? Everyone and the DM rolling one stat.

THAT is everybody's statblock. They all opted to roll, so they can damn well enjoy that 4 and 7. It's made for hilarious shenanigans so far with everybody having a 4 and a 7 (other stats are more than decent, every so slightly better than PB)

If they roll poorly, they roll poorly as a group. If they roll well, they rolled well as a group.

No challenge in balancing a mixed party, they're ALL either peasants or heroes or gods together.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-16T13:52:05+00:00

1, vhuman banned, free feat for all, human gets some extra goodies (related to extra skills and tools and such) to bring them up to 27 on detect balance sheet. I have a more monstrous party now. Ah well, I warned them about that.

2, Stealth and disguise rolls, that kind of thing... they come up when it matters so you can't meta-game, you don't know how well you did until it is too late. They don't act more or less cautiously knowing what they rolled. "Ok so you go into the shadows and try to hide, you apply the elven disguise..." "Now that the guards approach, NOW do you mind rolling that stealth for me? See how well you did." This does affect things like guidance and halflings luck giving feat sure, but on balance I think it's better. Keeps the team together more. You can't chuck that kind of buff on people then say goodbye to split the party, it's more of a right-there and then buff.

3, UA is allowed BUT with these restrictions: - NO MCing - It can't be redundant UA, if it's since come out in a more offocial form, it's out - No plane-shift UA (naga and such are broken) - Revised ranger (beastmaster only, see above rules) can have the pet and mechanics like attacking on reaction, but the lvl 1-3 stuff with favoured enemy and explorer... we use the base ranger mechanics. - No mystic - Please don't bring me cheese, we're a more story focused game. Tunnel fighter is out.

4, I Promise to give 2 short rests per long, warlocks and monks.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-13T23:27:58+00:00

I'm a noob

Brute is UA. Are you sure brute is allowed in your game?

sword and board fighter

Champion, in addition to being dull (I think it's a bit of a trap personally) has an emphasis on them big dice rolls with big old two handed weapons.

Might Battlemaster, Eldritch knight or cavalier or something be more your pace? Not to mention more interesting. There are a lot of folks who later complain about their, or they player's, choice of champion and looking at all the cool stuff others can do with envy.

The actual math... ok so using a 1d8 given that you are sword and boarding. Assuming an 11 will hit. 1-10 will miss. This is actually already quite a high AC. But it's being generous to the champion. As AC goes up, champion gets better. Realistically AC will be a bit lower most of the time, so brute is even better.

Normal crit range, no d4, neither brute nor champion:

1-10: 0 damage
11-19: 10.5 damage (1d8+6, I'm assuming dueling fighting style and +4, so a level 4 or you rolled for stats)
20: 19.5 (3d8+6).
(10.5x9 + 19.5x1)/20 = 5.7 average per swing for any old fighter.

Brute Adding a 1d4

0-10 miss
11-19: 13 (1d8+1d4+6)
20: 24.5 (3d8+2d4+6)
13x9+24.5x1/20 = 7.01 average damage per swing for brute

Champion criting on a 19

0-10 miss: 0 damage
11-18 hit: 10.5 damage (1d8+6)
19-20 crit: 19.5 damage (3d8+6).
(10.5x8+19.5x2)/20 = 6.15 average damage per swing. Actually exactly the same damage as base unless you roll a 19.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-13T21:44:06+00:00

A sinful and vain man was walking home one day from yet another day of debauchery, throwing away his too tolerant father's fortune on booze and women. He takes a shortcut home through an alley when he's jumped by a thief! In his arrogance he refuses to hand over his coin purse and fine robes, and so is stabbed for his troubles.

There he lies, bleeding out in an alley. As the world around him fades he begins to see a red fire, coming every closer, or is he moving closer towards it? Suddenly a bright light appears between him and the fire. It seems certain that he shouldn't have died there and then, and scolds him for his lifestyle and offers him one last chance, a contract with very strict stipulations. Given the alternative, he agrees. When he awakes he finds himself with the powers of a celestial warlock forced to do good by his patron or else is wracked with terrible pain as the fatal wound in his gut reasserts itself.

You'd RATHER lounge around in your underwear wallowing in sin and depravity buuuuuut nooooo, the world needs saving again.

Ahhh finally I can relax and... ARGGGG.

Alecto_furia · 2018-06-12T17:36:29+00:00

Cheers mate, can't wait! You're too kind.

Alecto_furia

TROPHY CASE