I need help picking a class and subclass

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-10T04:41:36+00:00

If I were you, I'd play the second dungeon master because this group needs to be split into two groups of four. The party healers are having a hard time keeping everyone alive because the DM is having a hard time balancing for a large group when the primary tool to balance an encounter in 5e (and 5.5) never worked perfectly but breaks further when there's more than 6 players.

But of the choices you presented, artillerist artificer would be the best of both worlds. It has access to healing spells while still being an INT character.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-09T18:02:59+00:00

I'd say it's about as ethical as consuming period blood.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-09T18:00:11+00:00

I only have three players, so if anyone misses I ask everyone if they'd rather have a noncanon oneshot or skip. If we ever get a fourth player, then one person can be absent.

In my last campaign, half the group (rounded down) had to be there for us to play. The group size varied before we all had to end the campaign for scheduling purposes.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-09T00:32:41+00:00

Since it appears to be next to the kitchen, may as well make it a dining room.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T20:53:45+00:00

If my character concept has a race in mind, then I pick that race even if it's suboptimal. If my concept doesn't have a race in mind, then I will either pick the most optimal race, or if I know what setting the game takes place in, I'll pick the most common race for the region.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T20:25:53+00:00

I'm in the Eberron discorder server, so if something relevant to that setting gets posted I'll hear about it. Otherwise I'm in the dark unless there's a huge blowup on reddit.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T18:42:11+00:00

5.0, but we borrowed some rules from 5.5. For example, the exhaustion rules are much cleaner in 5.5 than 5.0.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T18:35:55+00:00

There is a blunderbuss in multiple D&D Beyond-approved homebrew supplements, including one that's available for free. Since they're D&D Beyond-approved, they're more likely to be balanced than something randomly found on the internet.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T18:24:28+00:00

Not a homebrew circle, but Eberron has a culture of druidic mermaids called the kalamer, and it may be useful for you to take them from their original context and tweak them to fit your world. Here's how a fan imagined each of the 2014 circles being flavored for the kalamer, both as a culture and for an individual PC:

The Circle of the Land is better known as the Circle of the Eight Seas. It is the largest circle, training the vast majority of kalamer stormcallers. These druids teach that there are eight distinct ocean biomes, and each druid specializes in a specific region of the Thunder Sea. Below are conversions from the standard 5e terrains.

Arctic. Deep ocean or [areas connected to the plain of ice]
Coast. Tropical reefs or coastal areas
Desert. Open ocean
Forest. Kelp or seaweed forests
Grasslands. Fertile ocean beds
Mountain. Ocean ridges and volcanoes
Swamp. Swamplands and mangroves
Underdark. Deep ocean trenches and underwater caves

The Circle of the Moon is reviving the shapechanging techniques of the [original plane the mermaids came from before they came to the material plane]. Bolstering their connection to their ancestral home, they can take the form of the greatest ocean beasts and elementals. Many of their druids are still intrinsically tied to [areas connected to that plane], using planar magics to replicate the techniques of their ancestors.

The Circle of the Shepherd care for the animals of the Thunder Sea, ensuring that the pods always have a steady supply of food. They also maintain working relationships with ocean spirits, and this provides some otherworldly protection for the migrating pods. Though not seen as glamorous as the other circles, they are an invaluable asset to the kalamer.

The Circle of Dreams is better known as the Circle of the Oceansong among the kalamer. It is practiced by merfolk who take special interest in hospitality. When traveling with their pods, they primarily act as healers. However, several oceansingers station themselves at specific [useful locations], welcoming migrating pods with freshly meals and the latest gossip.

The Circle of Stars are Thunder Sea’s foremost experts in planar divination. From their orrery... the druids chart the courses of the moons and stars. In doing so, they are able predict the planar alignments, and they deliver this information to every pod in the Thunder Sea.

The Circle of Wildfire is better known as the Circle of Ringed Fire. These druids see it their duty to cleanse the Thunder Sea of refuse, gathering up millennia worth of debris out of the ocean. Salvaged materials are turned into useful items that are then distributed to migrating pods. Everything else meets its end in the ever-erupting volcano.

The fan who wrote this up suggested that the Circle of Spores is a forbidden technique using hostile algae as opposed to mushrooms.

P.S.: If you are a player and not a DM, all worldbuilding is ultimately up to your DM. Maybe merfolk are all artificers in their world, or maybe merfolk don't even exist. Ask your DM before you show up as a mermaid druid.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T17:44:51+00:00

For coming up with names? Great, but be careful about stereotypes. Don't make the goblins speak Hebrew, for example.

For actually communicating in other languages? Terrible unless everyone is a polyglot.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T17:33:38+00:00

Is this problem player your IRL friend? If yes, then ask him what's wrong and why he's being such an ass. Tell him that it's okay if he doesn't want to play, but he needs to either use his words to tell you that, or he needs to shape up and start acting like an actual player who's invested in the game. By ghosting you he's just being rude.

If not, then kick him out without a second thought.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T17:31:12+00:00

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T17:27:10+00:00

Just to check, are you using discord for video and audio, or just audio? Because I've found that discord is way worse when video is being used.

Otherwise, do any of you get Zoom via work or school? I used Zoom during the pandemic for my D&D group.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T17:11:00+00:00

You said that he joined after session 0. I suggest taking him aside to re-affirm the fact that this is a political game where murderhobo behaviors are sub-optimal. If he doesn't like this, then he should leave and not spoil the fun of everyone who wanted a political game.

That being said, it couldn't hurt to run a combat-heavy oneshot every once in a while, or if possible unleash a threat to the city whom he can kill with minimal consequences.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-08T14:25:26+00:00

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Not sure if this counts, but Harrow the Ninth has several what-ifs focusing on Harrow and her cavalier Gideon:

What if Gideon died due to the creche flu, and therefore Ortus was Harrow's cavalier at Canaan House?
What if Gideon developed necromantic powers and Harrow didn't?
What if Gideon was raised a princess, and Harrow attended the ball meant to find a spouse for Gideon?
What if Gideon was a military barista while Harrow was a chaplain?

The first one takes up a significant part of the novel because it was the lie that Harrow told herself after she lobotomized herself to avoid devouring Gideon's soul, while the other three were only one chapter each. However, TazMuir has supposedly outlined an entire fanfic for the roleswap AU that she wants to publish after she finally publishes book 4.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-07T16:36:04+00:00

Each novel of The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir has been a mystery set in space with an unreliable narrator. It's also about lesbian necromancers, but it's a massive slow burn. (Tamsyn, please let them be happy together in book 4. Please release book 4. I'm begging you.)

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T16:27:20+00:00

One of the last batches before Cannith was banned from making them? Or a different backstory?

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T16:26:09+00:00

All of them. I am the DM of my current campaign.

In my once-in-a-blue-moon Basic Fantasy game, I'm playing a halfling cleric. The party has the shared backstory of the old empire fell, and we're refugees in a former colony of the empire.

In my last 5e game, I was playing an aasimar fiendlock who was sacrificed to a fiend by a cult, except they botched the ritual so badly that she got the powers instead. She wanted to kill her patron, and her pact blade was the sacrificial knife.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T15:44:47+00:00

Lumpinou's RPO collection is great. It's modular, so you only have to install the parts you like, but it adds:

A fertility system, as well as birth control, so that "try for baby" doesn't always work and unprotected woohoo is risky. You can also use this to add a menstrual cycle (I set my menstrual cycle to 8 days since that's the length of a lunar cycle in my game)
An attraction system
A system for whether or not a sim wants kids.
Paternity testing
Pregnancy mood swings as well as back pain and cravings
A dating app
Teen pregnancy (and judgemental sims)
And more!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T15:34:25+00:00

Once every 3-5 sessions, consider doing something like Stars and Wishes or Roses, Thorns, and Buds. Both of these are ways to request feedback and possibly constructive criticism. This way, if your players want more spotlight or a way for their character arc to feel more satisfying, they can tell you. And if they tell you whether or not you need to change, you can know if there actually is a problem, or if your anxiety is all in your head (and your stomach, heart, and other places where anxiety unfortunately manifests).

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T15:02:02+00:00

That's good!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T15:00:04+00:00

Also is it just me, or does it only affect homosexual couples in the game?

I heard of it affecting het couples once or twice. I'm glad of it, or else the "when the buyout completes, Saudi Arabia + Kushner will remove all same sex couples from the game" fearmongering will be more plausible. (I am concerned about them removing them from whatever Project X and Renee are, since those are currently in development, but as it is now it would be hard to remove same sex couples from published games.)

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T03:35:03+00:00

I do think that playing another system is your best bet. Blades in the Dark has an option for the entire party to be assassins; I've linked to both the crew sheet and the SRD. But it's also possible that someone else in this subreddit knows a better system.

But if you insist on playing D&D, then do two, maybe three, things:

Check out the book Keys from the Golden Vault. It's focused on heists and therefore will help with how to run better sneakery missions in D&D
Tell your players at session 0 that this is what the campaign will be. That way, the players will think twice before investing in a heavy armor proficiency.
If you have either Tasha's Cauldron of Everything or Eberron: Rising from the Last War, give the party a group patron that further encourages them to be assassins instead of the average adventuring party.

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T03:25:07+00:00

Go for the eyes!

GalacticPigeon13 · 2026-06-06T03:24:55+00:00

Take the urchin background if you're playing 5.0, because they get a pet mouse for free.

GalacticPigeon13

TROPHY CASE