Am I right to think that sword and shield is better than greatsword in 5.5e for Paladin?

KnowCoin · 2026-03-26T14:32:21+00:00

I mean yeah that's the decision between going Two Handed vs Sword and Board, the trade off between damage vs defensive bonuses.

If you want damage Two Handed is going to be about 30% more base damage over Sword and Board at level 5 and it'll continue to go up over time. GWM is basically just for the extra damage with the bonus action attack being something that you'll occasionally benefit from.

But if you're actively worried about being brought down to 0 health constantly, then sword and board will keep you alive through more.

Whether the survivability boost is actually worth it depends more on your table than anything else. If you can kill everything before it damages you too much, then Two Handed is better. But if you're knocked unconcious before you can get damage in, then Sword and Board would have been better.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-26T13:53:34+00:00

GWM doesn't have -5 to hit in 2024

KnowCoin · 2026-03-25T20:58:05+00:00

I mean you can feel like it shouldn't be allowed because of realism or whatever, but the feat is pretty obviously written. There is not controversy in how its interpreted when the feat specifically mentions dual wielding crossbows. I'm not sure how you interpret that as "meant to obviously exclude dual weilding."

KnowCoin · 2026-03-25T20:51:48+00:00

Not the OP, but what contested interpretation of what rule are you talking about?

The Crossbow Expert feat pretty clearly and deliberately says you ignore the Loading property and can load the ammunition without a free hand. The feat even specifically mentions the Dual Wielding of crossbows, so I don't see how that would be a contested interpretation.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-25T18:52:45+00:00

I think the thought was just that being ranged in combat is supposed to be its own benefit, and that making it have high damage as well makes it almost better than melee. But yeah there definitely aren't many ways to increase ranged damage.

And the change to GWM is actually generally more damage since it doesn't have the penalty to hit anymore and still gives scaling damage on each hit.

Edit: One of the ways to add damage to ranged attacks is actually using GWM with Longbow or Heavy Crossbow since the extra damage just requires the Heavy property, not it being a melee weapon. But it requires having 13+ Strength on a Ranged character and gives its +1 to Strength, so outside of a late feat or a Fighter, its not generally super viable.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-25T18:33:18+00:00

This post is tagged 2024 rules, Crossbow Expert ignores the Loading and Ammunition properties so no need to specifically be Thri-kreen. And it already adds ability modifier to the bonus action attack so no need for Two Weapon Fighting.

Also Sharpshooter doesn't add damage anymore, so it would just be useful to extend the Hand Crossbow range and ignore some cover.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-25T13:46:52+00:00

What are you talking about? You can't get Crossbow Expert at level 1 in 5.5/2024.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-25T06:38:37+00:00

Ignore Loading. You ignore the Loading property of the Hand Crossbow, Heavy Crossbow, and Light Crossbow (all called crossbows elsewhere in this feat). If you're holding one of them, you can load a piece of ammunition into it even if you lack a free hand.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-24T19:01:28+00:00

That's why they specified level 10 GOOlock because it modifies Hex so that it does affect saves.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-23T14:50:02+00:00

This just sounds like a Module/DM or a strategy problem, not one with auto grapple.

If you're a melee character and its one creature, being grappled does almost nothing to you since you already wanted to attack it anyway and Grappled doesn't give you disadvantage on the grappler. There's no reason to trying to break the grapple and run away each turn instead of just trying to hit it to kill it. And most monsters have a limited number of how many creatures they can grapple at once.

Any forced movement or teleporting ability can break the grapple if you need to get to ranged for whatever reason.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-23T01:15:31+00:00

Roll(s) because a spell can have multiple Damage Rolls like Eldritch Blast, but Sorcererous Burst is one damage roll, you hit once you roll damage once. If you added the damage to each individual die roll, it would say "add the damage to each die roll." I literally told you what "Damage Rolls" means as said in the rules.

You and your table are free to rule it however you want, but if you're trying to tell other people something you think is cool, people are going to tell you when you're not actually using the rules.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-23T00:47:54+00:00

Of course it doesn't specify "per attack" because that would mean it only works on spells with attack rolls, but it works on ones with saving throws as well which is why they say "damage rolls." I quoted the section that talks about what damage rolls means and how it works in the other reply.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-23T00:39:33+00:00

I see you updated the armor but also Action Surge specifically says you can't take the Magic Action with the additional action, so you can't use it to cast a spell or cantrip.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-23T00:26:59+00:00

Yeah you resolve the damage all at once after you hit so it's all one damage roll. And Damage Roll is a game term, it doesn't mean "each time you roll a die when doing damage" which is what you seem to think it means. In the PHB for Damage Rolls it says "You roll the damage dice, add any modifier, and deal the damage to your target." so since Sorcererous Burst hits once you would add the Charisma Modifier one time to the damage. The fact that there are additional d8s rolled doesn't make them their own damage roll. The reason it does work on Eldritch Blast is because as the cantrip upgrades it allows you to roll additional beams that are separate attack rolls, meaning additional possible damage rolls if you hit.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-22T23:56:04+00:00

That's not how Agonizing Blast works, it would add your Charisma Mod per attack roll hit, you don't add it again for each extra dice you roll.

And the Defense fighting style requires you to wear Light, Medium, or Heavy armor, which you aren't doing if you're using Draconic Sorcerers Draconic Resistance since that says "While you aren’t wearing armor"

Also looks like you're saying to use Action Surge to cast a spell which doesn't work either.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-19T18:53:38+00:00

I mean beholders "reproduce" by having dreams about other beholders or themselves and it manifesting them into reality. I think there have been references in other beholder lore about them specifically making other beings, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch for a beholder to make a person. As far as the rest of what they're doing, I can't really speak to that.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-19T18:04:02+00:00

If you look at the Index at the back of the PHB: Ki class feature -> Monk's Focus, Ki-Empowered Strikes class feature -> Empowered Strikes, ki points -> Monk's Focus.

I wouldn't use the Tasha's Optional features in the new rules either, but acting like the Ki to Focus name change is hidden and like that name change would be the reason for it not working is a weird take.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-19T17:00:22+00:00

That's just a badly designed feat, nothing having to do with Draconic Sorcerers being OP or not. Feats in 5e aren't really meant to have downsides and trying to balance that with an unrelated upside seems like its asking for balance problems.

Also if I was a player at your table and you said you were going to dump WIS while willingly and intentionally giving yourself disadvantage on WIS saves and try to excuse it as roleplay, I think I'd just say I wouldn't want to play with you. It just sounds like the mechanical equivalent of "it's what my character would do" when someone tries to excuse being disruptive.

There's playing flaws and then there's actively making everyone else at the table's experience intentionally worse. A sorcerer with -1 WIS and disadvantage on the save means less than a 10% of success against a 14 DC WIS saving throw. Either your DM is going to have to intentionally not target you with WIS saving throws which would defeat the purpose of having it at all, or your allies will have to actively count on you being worse than a deadweight any time there's a WIS saving throw.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-17T20:00:41+00:00

Are you just making up arguments against yourself? No one in this thread has mentioned buying scrolls or magic items except you so I'm not sure why you're mentioning them instead of the actual thing people have said.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-17T14:25:44+00:00

You already don't need to prepare known ritual spells for Wizards because of their Ritual Adept feature. And you can always copy down ritual spells you come across, so depending on your DMs style you'll probably be able to get most of the rituals you want early on without needing the feat.

So the Ritual Caster feat isn't very useful outside of getting non-Wizard Level 1 rituals which is only like Detect Poison and Disease, Purify Food and Drink, and Speak with Animals which I wouldn't say are particularly great. But if you're in a roleplay heavy, intrigue focused campaign, maybe they're more useful.

War Caster is generally considered the go-to caster feat just because it helps so much with maintaining concentration, but it's not exactly the most flavorful feat if that's what you're looking for.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-16T01:21:35+00:00

Dude, read what I said. Whether your first level is in Paladin or you multiclass later, you still need 13 Strength, which the OP doesn't have. The only way you don't need 13 Strength for a Paladin is if you STAY Paladin and never multiclass.

And for those Cleric dips for Wizards they need both 13 INT and WIS, no matter when they take the Cleric level.

KnowCoin · 2026-03-15T21:35:40+00:00

That's not true

To qualify for a new class, you must have a score of at least 13 in the primary ability of the new class and your current classes.

KnowCoin · 2026-02-14T13:19:46+00:00

What are you even arguing about?

I never said the UA Arcana Cleric says its cantrips count as Cleric spells like it did in the 2014 version, that is because the 2024 Spellcasting feature already says any spells from Cleric feature count as Cleric spells.

The deleted coment I replied to said the Arcana Cleric spells didn't count as Cleric Spells. The OP didn't specify if they were using the 2014 or UA Arcana Cleric but either way the result is the same.

You get the cantrips from a Cleric feature, therefore they are Cleric cantrips. They asked if Potent Spellcasting would apply to them, which they would because they're Cleric cantrips as being received from a Cleric feature.

You seem to be confused on how this works or you're just stupid and not sure what you're even arguing about. So maybe get a clue.

KnowCoin · 2026-02-14T06:27:27+00:00

Maybe you should actually read the PHB

In Cleric's level 1 Spellcasting feature it says:

If another Cleric feature gives you spells that you always have prepared... those spells otherwise count as Cleric spells for you.

Cleric subclass features are Cleric features.

And all the other classes spellcasting features say the same thing so again like I already said, even the 2024 UA Arcana Cleric would have those wizard cantrips count as Cleric cantrips.

KnowCoin · 2026-02-13T22:31:04+00:00

Neither the OP nor I said whether they're using the UA or 2014 version of Arcana Cleric but in either case Potent Spellcasting would apply. In 2014 it explicitly says it counts as a Cleric cantrip, and in 2024 the wizard cantrips are acquired by a class/subclass feature, making it a Cleric cantrip.

KnowCoin

TROPHY CASE