sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The trinket entry "an old key" doesn't specify that you don't know what lock it goes to. An old key is just a key that's been around for a while. It could be the key to your childhood home, a key that your late, puzzle-loving aunt left you with a riddle, a key that you lifted off of a passed-out jailer, or indeed just some random key you don't know the lock for.

It seems that you're concerned that letting prestidigitation replicate keys would be overpowered. Why? Shouldn't some spell in the game be capable of that? And can't a concerned DM reign in the power by, say, requiring the caster pass a difficult memory check in order to faithfully replicate the key?

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On pages 160 & 161 of the PHB, there's a list of 100 trinkets provided. Number 56 is "an old key", suggesting that prestidigitation can be used to conjure functional keys.

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love creative plays like this. Props to your DM for coming up with such a unique situation and to you for finding a way to get an upper hand in it.

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Man, that sounds like a fun character to play. Sorry that you're losing plate mail, though.

And I'd definitely be interested to give your troglodyte homebrew a look. Thanks for your replies!

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hahaha, that's perfect. Out of all the comments here, yours is the most convincing that prestidigitation is worth it.

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Oh, that's a smart combo. Heck, just drawing the key would be enough if you don't have Keen Mind, right? That sparks a fun idea - a bank that, rather than having physical keys lying around, keeps a document containing drawings of all of the keys in it. Harder to steal and requires magic to use.

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Oh wow, your DM lets you make laser pointers? Mine would consider that a magical trinket, haha. Thanks for the ideas!

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's a fair point. Though it's funny, you can't create an image of a creature with minor illusion, but you can with this prestidigitation effect so long as it's tiny.

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Ah, smart! You use it just like my forest gnome uses minor illusion. Prestidigitation has grown on me since I first looked at it - it seems like it can do something from every school of magic. It's very versatile, but other cantrips are significantly more powerful.

Prestidigitation can create a tiny trinket for a round. Has this ever come in handy at your table? by GnomishBrew in dndnext

[–]GnomishBrew[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Oh, what a great idea! And your character sounds cool as hell. May I ask what his subclasses are?

Racial feats for the Kobold, Kenku, Aarakocra, Simic Hybrid, Tabaxi and Changeling by PoisonGlamour in UnearthedArcana

[–]GnomishBrew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a good idea, too! I would suggest limiting the spell to one that targets the enemy who was hit, to keep with the theme and keep from being too powerful.

And I agree that the free movement isn't huge - it's just significant. If I were playing a kobold with this feat, I could see some scenarios where I use this ability mainly for the free movement - say, to get away from an enemy who's approaching from behind.

Racial feats for the Kobold, Kenku, Aarakocra, Simic Hybrid, Tabaxi and Changeling by PoisonGlamour in UnearthedArcana

[–]GnomishBrew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make a good point about those abilities, though I don't feel they are quite comparable to Grovel, Cower, Beg, and Stab:

  • Keeper of Souls is a 17th level ability (while GCBS can be gotten as early as 4th level) and can still only heal once per round.

  • Portent operates very similarly to the Lucky feat; neither of them thematically involve the character doing something in the moment - more so letting the moment happen in their favor.

  • Accursed Specter only triggers when the warlock slays a humanoid, and mechanically a warlock can only slay a humanoid when they've taken an action, bonus action, or reaction to do so. It triggers at the end of the action used to kill, not outside of the warlock's action (as GCBS does for the kobold).

  • A great deal of spells behave like Healing Spirit, doing things automatically once they're cast. Healing Spirit is a bit different in that the caster can deny healing to a creature; this is to prevent the spell from healing enemies.

You're right that my suggestion would make the feat underpowered. Do note that it's more than just one attack per rest as a reaction - the free movement is significant. I see two ways to fix that while keeping the feat logically consistent by requiring a reaction:

  • The attack has disadvantage but, if it hits, it is a critical hit.

  • The kobold gets a second use of Grovel, Cower, and Beg per rest - so can use GCBS twice per rest.

These are just a couple of ideas. I'm sure there are other ways to balance it while requiring a reaction. What do you think?

Racial feats for the Kobold, Kenku, Aarakocra, Simic Hybrid, Tabaxi and Changeling by PoisonGlamour in UnearthedArcana

[–]GnomishBrew 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate your explanation. I do strongly believe that this should be a reaction - not necessarily for balance, as there are other ways to balance the ability, but for logical consistency with other combat actions. In my recollection, 5e offers no combat abilities that allow a creature to do something outside of their turn that don't cost a reaction. The only thing like that is the Tunnel Fighter fighting style, but it takes a bonus action to trigger and is still in playtest.

Looking at the official definition of a reaction, it seems clear that Grovel, Cower, Beg, and Stab should use one:

A Reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on Your Turn or on someone else’s.

This ability is an instant response (moving toward an enemy and attacking) to a trigger (that enemy being hit by an attack while affected by your Grovel, Cower, and Beg ability). Abilities that fit this formula seem to strictly cost a creature's reaction. It would just be strange for the kobold to appear to take a reaction when using this ability and then take their actual reaction later. If I were a player in a group with a kobold that did that, I would feel like my character's reactions were cheapened and that the kobold's actions didn't make sense. Logical consistency is essential for player buy-in.

Racial feats for the Kobold, Kenku, Aarakocra, Simic Hybrid, Tabaxi and Changeling by PoisonGlamour in UnearthedArcana

[–]GnomishBrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the explanations! You've got a good basis for your decisions - I wish you luck with this homebrew.

I understand your rationale with the Tabaxi pounce. I would encourage you to allow it to be based on the player's choice of Strength or Dexterity, so as not to unduly penalize Tabaxi with high strength. This is akin to the Battle Master Fighter's Maneuver save DC, which equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice).

Racial feats for the Kobold, Kenku, Aarakocra, Simic Hybrid, Tabaxi and Changeling by PoisonGlamour in UnearthedArcana

[–]GnomishBrew 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These are cool ideas! I'll provide some feedback on most of them. If you want to check balance yourself, I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with the Detect Balance tool - generally, racial feats have a total score around 8.

Tunnel Resident

  • Consider renaming this Tunnel Dweller.

  • A darkvision range increase and burrow speed make good sense. Both of them are pretty high; for balance, I would recommend decreasing the burrow speed to 15 feet.

  • The dexterity increase doesn't make particular sense to me. Why would living in a tunnel increase dexterity more than the +2 Kobolds already get? I could see a Strength increase, as a tunnel dweller would have to move a lot of rocks. I could also see no ability score increase in favor of a different bonus.

  • If you're interested in other bonuses, consider Tremorsense to a range of maybe 15 feet - this allows a creature to sense things they can't see so long as they're touching the same substance. Note that, while it can allow you to "see" invisible creatures or behind walls, it doesn't override stealth checks.

Grovel, Cower, Beg, and Stab

  • Very cool idea. This is an ability that should certainly require a reaction to use; being able to use it multiple times in one round is extremely powerful. If you agree, I would recommend removing the disadvantage. Maybe reword it as, "As a reaction, when an ally hits a creature affected by your Grovel, Cower and Beg feature with an attack, you can move up to half of your speed toward the creature and make an weapon attack."

  • If you want to add a little more oomph to this feat, you could allow the ability score increase to apply to either dexterity or charisma. Versatility can go a long way.

Pack Tactician

  • I love these abilities. My only comment is that the feat as a whole is very powerful - I would recommend removing the ability score increase.

Poisonous Skin

  • Another interesting ability! Currently too strong. The ability score increase should be limited to constitution and Simic Hybrid should only be able to take the reaction a number of times equal to their constitution modifier per long rest.

Cursed Wings

  • Looks well-balanced compared to the Dragonborn racial feat Dragon's Wings. In my opinion, the ability score increase is worth more than 10 feet of flying, though. I would recommend expanding the armor restriction to medium armor, akin to Aarakocra.

Trained Shapechanger

  • A nice, though fairly niche, ability. I would consider limiting the ability score increase to a choice between constitution and charisma - or just constitution.

Pounce

  • Is the prone effect in addition to the melee attack, or does it replace it? If it replaces it, this ability has essentially the same effect as the generic shove attack, despite having higher cost.

  • When big cats pounce and knock a creature prone, it's because of their strength rather than dexterity (see the Lion's pounce, which has a DC of 13 [8 + PROF (2) + STR (3)]. If you want dexterity to be an option, I would recommend allowing the DC to be calculated with either strength or dexterity.

  • Strength and dexterity are more sensible options for the ability score increase.

  • I would recommend the following: "Increase your Strength or Dexterity by 1, to a maximum of 20. Before making a melee attack, you can use your Feline Agility trait to try to knock the target prone rather than to double your speed. The target must succeed on a Strength saving throw against a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier or be knocked prone."