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Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

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Kylar said:
Though honestly, I have to wonder if the tactical simplicity of the Fighter is part of the draw for some people. I mean, a lot of the ways for increasing options also increases the amount of management you need to do, makes building character more complicated, and the system mastery required to get best usage out of those abilities increases pretty drastically. Personally, I'm at a happy medium with my Stalker, in that I have lots of options, but their limited enough that Its pretty easy to track it all, unlike most of the Tier 1 Casters who will bury you under the number of spells you have access to.
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For me, this is it entirely. As a fighter (in 2e, no less), I'm well aware of my limitations. I hit things. That's it. And past low level, I don't even hit things particularly hard. At 14th level, assuming I never acquire a magical sword to enhance my damage, my current character will be attacking medium sized opponents four times per round for 2d10+11 points of damage per strike. That's Grand Weapon Mastery with the single most broken weapon in the game. Meanwhile, a 14th level Wizard has options like Delayed Blast Fireball, Finger of Death, and Prismatic Spray.

I'll never outdo a Wizard for versatility. I'll never outdo any other class for versatility. And at 14th level, barring better gear, I've basically topped out for damage. But I'm okay with that, because that's the character I want to play. Fuck tiers.
 
Fuck optimizing anyway.

Current party completely lacks dedicated spellslingers and the rogue just dipped in fighter because there was some really shiny and useful loot (Shadowed agile breastplate, a funky sword*) and she really felt she needed a bit more stand-up hitting power.
I suppose walking around with a +2 Bastard sword that basically, rather than using STR or DEX to hit just flat out says this: (modifiers STR+DEX+INT+WIS/CHA)/2. Also, It's +2 now but +3 after Lvl 10 etc.

She took a really long time to decide whether to dip or stay pure, though arguably in the Rogue's case, it's not so much an upgrade as a sidegrade; you gain some you lose some, yeah she doesn't get the no-flnking part yet, on the other hand she is walking around with an AC of 22 right now, which is pretty much more than anyone but the dorf walking around in a tank. She isn't too sure of when she is going back to rogue, she's currently 7 so she will want that 8th level eventually :')
 
Optimizing REALLY doesn't mean "go for the most powerful character possible", because then the answer would simply be "play T1 spellcasters".
Optimizing means "optimize this character concept". Which can be any character concept. Including a classic sword&board fighter.

Fighter 12 with no archetypes
Dwarf, because they get extra bonuses to saves against spells.
Advanced Armor Training: Armor Specialization (+3 AC), Armored Juggernaut (DR 6/- in Heavy Adamantine Armor), Steel Headbut (1 extra attack at -5, doing 1D4+(1/2 Strength) damage)
Advanced Weapon Training: Abundant Tactics, Armed Bravery, Fighters Reflexes
Feats: (6 + 7 Bonus Feats) Inspiring Bravery, Courage in a Bottle, Advanced Weapon Training x2, Barroom Brawler, Shatterspell, Steel Soul, Improved Shield Bash, Two-Weapon Fighting, Shield Slam, Bashing Finish, Toppling Shield, Power Attack)
Equipment: Gloves of Dueling, Heavy Adamantine Armor, Heavy Adamantine Shield, Sash of the War Champion, enchanted helmet with some nice passive bonuses

End Result: Really though Fighter. +12/12/14 saves before ability scores and equipment. AC of ~31, DR 6/-. Grants allies in 30 feet +6 to Will-saves. Currently no good direct means of protecting others, that might need fixing according to taste. Attack routine includes five attacks before haste, with a +4 attack/damage bonus and thus good damage when using power attack. Can use magic items really well, emulating the old "intelligent items for fighters", see above.
 
My problem with the huge gap in power is how easy it is for new players to fall into those traps. My first 3.0 campaign was me GMing for a fighter, a rogue, a druid, and a wizard. The wizard and the druid accidentally made the rogue and fighter irrelevant, I had to absolutely throw magical items at the fighter and rogue to bring them up to something approximating the same league.
 
Hmm, I guess I should actually try to replicate the classic Fighter/Rogue/Cleric/Mage group using T3 classes.

"Fighter": It might just be possible with a Fighter/Brawler build. Maybe going for good mobility via Outslug Style/Step Up/Cleave Through, or maybe a more shield-focussed build, and definitely using some of the recent fighter-tricks including the item mastery one.
Or we could go for Bloodrager, or maybe Avenger Vigilante. Really not sure yet. Getting this to T3 isn't easy.

"Rogue": This will probably use a nifty Eldritch Scoundrel build - more than just sneak attack, but also up to 6th-level spells and all the ninja-tricks.

"Cleric": Use Warpriest instead. To go for the classic "Healbot", throw in Life Oracle Variant Multiclass, go for Life Link, enjoy action-economy friendly healing.

"Wizard": Another one where I'm not sure yet. The main goal is to be mostly a blaster.
Magus doesn't get too high-level spells, and Eldritch Archer is almost a classic Arcane Archer, especially as an Elf.
Cabbalist Vigilantes can apparently make good blasters too.
Maybe there's some Bard/Skald options for blasting, which would be nice because then we have one each of Int/Wis/Cha-based casting.
 
I know 3.5 had a caster that was limited almost completely to blaster style spells and was one of the lowest tier full casters as a result.
 
AuraTwilight said:
Is there any reason the Blood Hunter on DMsGuild doesn't work? It's homebrew, but it's really good homebrew.
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Finally took a look at this, and I rather like it! Some of the choices seem a little odd – I can't call up the Bloodborne-themed curse in my blood to make my weapon poisonous, but I can make it... very loud? – but it's overall a cool class that suits the flavour. Thanks for the tip!

Incidentally, I was looking over the Ranger Class for just this purpose, and, well... am I missing something, or are they a bit crap? A lot of their stuff seems to be Fighter or Rogue tech showing up to the party late and missing a shoe, with Druid spells tacked on at the end.

Probably their most signature (or signature-looking) ability, the whole Favoured Enemy thing, is:
a) Really underutilized
b) Only good if you know what you're fighting

It's like the whole "wizards are best if you know what situation to prepare for" idea, except that you get to prepare once, at chargen.

Also it seems like Intelligence is a dump stat for the class, but it's also the stat used for Nature checks (which Rangers should obviously have), and there's no class-based way of, say, using Wisdom for it.
 
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Conundrum said:
Favourite enemy is something you generally talk to your GM about before the game.
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Yeah, but setting aside whether or not that's a bad sign, even communication with the GM is meaningless when you're facing:
a) long campaigns that are not Lord of the Rings-tier limited in their choice of enemies
b) short campaigns with a lot of variety
c) literally any random encounter

It seems like the only situation where Favoured Enemy/Terrain would be really useful is where you are fighting/exploring one category of enemy/terrain almost exclusively, in a context where you'd normally have real trouble tracking them down/navigating/finding food. In, say, an Underdark campaign you could pick Favoured Terrain: Caves and just totally trivialise the entire challenge of traversing the Underdark… at which point it looks campaign-ruining.

If it's either crap or overpowered depending on the phase of the moon, it's probably not a great feature, no? You can't just buff its effects, because that only makes the problem worse – it needs to be less powerful but more, y'know, usable. Three options that come to mind would be:
a) let Rangers acquire a "Favoured Enemy" by spending a long rest-period studying spore and tracks and slain examples. Then they get a permanent, free Favoured Enemy at certain level intervals, on top of that.
b) just somehow fuse the fucking thing together with Hunter's Mark, which already straddles its actual effects and looks to me like a class feature pretending to be a level 1 spell.
c) keep the current "Favoured Enemy" intervals, but just make them standardised, universally-applicable effects. If you pick Favoured Enemy: Dragons you can track monsters using treasure and get a stackable bonus against both Large and Flying monsters. Favoured Enemy: Undead you get Necrotic Resistance or Turn Undead or something, etc.

If it seems like I'm zeroing in on Favoured Enemy/Terrain and Hunter's Mark, that's because it seems to be the only Ranger feature (other than beasts, which look like they have their own problems with class feature synergy and not-getting-squished) that actually looks distinctive. Otherwise the whole class looks a lot like someone just multi classed badly. It feels like the current Ranger could be represented pretty well - or even better - as an archetype for Rogues, Warriors or Druids.
 
Revlid said:
Finally took a look at this, and I rather like it! Some of the choices seem a little odd – I can't call up the Bloodborne-themed curse in my blood to make my weapon poisonous, but I can make it... very loud? – but it's overall a cool class that suits the flavour. Thanks for the tip!

Incidentally, I was looking over the Ranger Class for just this purpose, and, well... am I missing something, or are they a bit crap? A lot of their stuff seems to be Fighter or Rogue tech showing up to the party late and missing a shoe, with Druid spells tacked on at the end.

Probably their most signature (or signature-looking) ability, the whole Favoured Enemy thing, is:
a) Really underutilized
b) Only good if you know what you're fighting

It's like the whole "wizards are best if you know what situation to prepare for" idea, except that you get to prepare once, at chargen.

Also it seems like Intelligence is a dump stat for the class, but it's also the stat used for Nature checks (which Rangers should obviously have), and there's no class-based way of, say, using Wisdom for it.
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Yeaaaaa.... Suffice to say every homebrewer and their mother has a 5E Ranger fix. It's pretty much seem as the biggest problem in the game.
 
Well more then 2 archetypes for the druid would also be nice but at least both of them are workable.
On that note, how powerfull are people considering the warforged trait to evade breathing diseases etc if I would want to slot that in to replace another races trait?
One of my player wants a caster undead so just taking the warforged did not quite work out, even if the easiest way would simply to replace the abbility score adjustments for them.
 
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Havock said:
That's why I love the Slayer, Studied Target is amazing and hasmore use than just "I am gud at shooting Orcs!"
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Looking it up – yeah, that and Hunter's Mark is pretty much exactly what I'm thinking of. I mean, hell, just something like:
Hunter's Mark
Starting at 1st level, you may use a bonus action to apply a Hunter's Mark to a single creature you can perceive within 100 feet. This mystic mark remains in place for one hour or until the target is reduced to 0 hit points. Whenever you hit a marked target with a weapon attack, your intense concentration lets you deal an extra 1d6 damage. You also have advantage on Wisdom and Intelligence checks to track, notice, study, investigate and recall information about a marked target. You cannot remove the mark early, and cannot maintain more than one mark.

At 6th level your mark lasts for 8 hours, and you may remove it early after a minimum duration of one hour. At 13th level, this maximum duration increases to 24 hours. At 17th level, it increases to one week.

Favoured Prey
You have spent your life hunting, studying and even living alongside a particular type of prey, granting great familiarity with their habits. Choose a type of creature (such as undead, beasts or dragons), up to two races of humanoid (such as gnolls and humans) or a background (such as criminals, nobles, or cultists) to become your favoured prey. At 1st level, you learn one language spoken by your favoured prey. If they do not speak any language, or you already know it, you may instead learn a language common to those who study and hunt them. You also receive advantage on certain checks as though all examples of your favoured prey bore your Hunter's Mark. You receive an additional type of favoured prey at 6th, 13th and 17th level.

Seems like it'd be a marked improvement, and it's a bandaid that's not even necessarily what I'd want. At this point I feel like the Ranger ought to drop spells in favour of more unique and focused Class Features, and gain access (limited, sure) to Druid spells purely as part of an archetype.
 
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Studied Target also works on social stuff, so you can be the face and the "hush hush it will all be over soon"-character.

Then again, I love characters that can do more than sneak-sneak, chop-chop or cast-cast.
 
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Though it should be noted that UA is basically playtest material, and the Ranger in that article is generally seen as not fixing the problem.
 
Conundrum said:
I know 3.5 had a caster that was limited almost completely to blaster style spells and was one of the lowest tier full casters as a result.
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The Warmage is the prefered "here newbie play this" class, for people who still play 3.5 it's low tier but damage is almost always relevant and newbies usually feel important when they get to roll lots-o-dice

It always makes me laugh when people say the fighter is simple. Picking feats is not simple, and actually getting good synergy out of them is hard.

And if you're going to frontload your hard thinking, you can prepick all your sorceror spells too, and really have no more option overload than the fighter.

If you want an easy character, get a warlock and just eldritch blast every turn.
 
When I played a fighter in Midnight and had the Pureblood lineage I had so. Many. Fucking. Feats.
Every level was feat level, 19 at level 12 or something like that, utter bullshit.
 
Chloe Sullivan said:
The Warmage is the prefered "here newbie play this" class, for people who still play 3.5 it's low tier but damage is almost always relevant and newbies usually feel important when they get to roll lots-o-dice

It always makes me laugh when people say the fighter is simple. Picking feats is not simple, and actually getting good synergy out of them is hard.

And if you're going to frontload your hard thinking, you can prepick all your sorceror spells too, and really have no more option overload than the fighter.

If you want an easy character, get a warlock and just eldritch blast every turn.
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Yea, I tend to give the Warlock as the easy newbie character, because Invocations are basically always on or at-will and it's always an issue to explain "Sorry, you can only shoot a missile two times a day."

Not as much of a problem in 5E, but you know.
 
I refuse to play a fighter in 3.X and ignore them as an option for NPC enemies as well because I just do not like dealing with feat trees or the more advanced feat pyramids.

This is compounded by so many feats being absolute trash so you have to wade through them to find that one decent feat you want from a book so in three levels you can get a good feat. My favorite example of an absolute trash feat: Helpless Prisoner - Pathfinder_OGC

In my current pathfinder campaign I needed a lieutenant type character to lead mooks. Now I could go through and get the 4 feats for a level 2 human fighter, or just make a warder and pick some basic maneuvers.
Myth-Weavers Online Character Sheets
 
Conundrum said:
This is compounded by so many feats being absolute trash so you have to wade through them to find that one decent feat you want from a book so in three levels you can get a good feat. My favorite example of an absolute trash feat: Helpless Prisoner - Pathfinder_OGC
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Huh... why is that a feat rather than a perfectly ordinary skill usage? Actually considering the 'bonus if they know you're dangerous,' probably worse than normal...
 
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