Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

I can't help but feel that you're tripping yourself up with verbiage. The whole Appendage interlude feels unnecessary. Why not something like:

Red Right Hand
Beginning at 3rd level, your form begins to express its true power, causing you to undergo a dreadful bodily transformation while raging. In this state, you may use a bonus action to grapple or shove a creature within 10 feet. This does not occupy either of your hands, but is down to the fruits of your warped form, such as writhing tentacles, a prehensile tail, or a grossly oversized arm. If you successfully grapple your target, you may immediately bring them up to 5 feet closer to you.
On second thought, you're right.

This is easily explained by Appendage being an artifact of an earlier design, when this was the I Can't Believe It's Not Tokyo Ghoul path, and Appendage was a useful term because successive features built up on it and expanded It's function.

But, this has no point anymore. So, changing it.
 
Havocfett Homebrew: Vaxammar's Old Irregular
Vaxammar's Old Irregular
Very Rare, Requires Attunement

Vaxammar's Old Irregular
is a +1 Heavy Crossbow that resembles a large, bulky heavy crossbow with no limbs and two internal chambers, one that stores up to 24 crossbow bolts and one that stores up to six specialized flasks or potions. Reloading either chamber is a bonus action. If a Wielder is unattuned, they gain no additional benefits.

If a Wielder attunes to Vaxammar's Old Irregular they gain the ability to activate the following modes as an item interaction. Activating one mode de-activates the other. Vaxammar's Old Irregular has 4 charges, and recharges 1d4 charges each day, at dawn.

Assault:

In Assault mode Vaxammar's Old Irregular does not have the Loading Trait. If you hit a target with two or more attacks, and only attack that target this turn, you may spend a charge and use a bonus action to deal 2d10+2+twice your dex bonus damage to that target.

Siege:

In Siege mode Vaxammar's Old Irregular can fire a specially designed elemental flask instead of a crossbow bolt with the attack action. The Flask has a range of sixty feet and targets all creatures and unattended objects in a ten foot cube, with attacks rolled separately against each of them. The sharpshooter feat cannot apply to this attack. Each flask costs fifty gold and deals 3d6 damage (Thunder, Fire, Cold, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, or Acid. Chosen when purchased) on hit. A potion may be fired instead of a flask, affecting one target (Firing on a willing target does not require an attack roll). As an Action, the user can expend two charges to cast fireball as a fifth level spell with a DC of (User's Dex Bonus + Proficiency Bonus + 8).
 
Havocfett Homebrew: Storm Ruler
@ZerbanDaGreat requested a Berserk-esque sword, and I deliver.

Storm Ruler
Rare Magic Item, Requires Attunement

A large greatsword with a sheath that is less a sheath and more a titanic brick of metal. Unattuned, it is a mundane Greatsword.

If a Wielder attunes to Storm Ruler they gain the ability to activate the following modes as an item interaction. Activating one mode de-activates the other. Storm Ruler has 4 charges, and recharges 1d4 charges each day, at dawn.

Zephyr:

In Zephyr mode all Attacks of Opportunity against the wielder have disadvantage. In addition, they may spend one charge to cast Spiderclimb on themself as a bonus action. A Spiderclimb cast in this way ends if switched to Breaker mode.

Breaker:

In Breaker mode Storm Ruler has the Loading and Reach traits, deals an additional 2d6 bludgeoning damage on hit, and provides half cover against ranged attacks. In addition, when attacking its wielder may spend one charge to attack all enemies adjacent to the target and within 10 feet of the wielder. It is treated as a magical weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage resistance or immunity.
 
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You know, I want to see a Barbarian or Bezerker who uses the Int as their chief stat. I'm not sure how, but it would be funny to play a Smart Barbarian. It'd be at least different then usual dumb barbarian.
 
You know, I want to see a Barbarian or Bezerker who uses the Int as their chief stat. I'm not sure how, but it would be funny to play a Smart Barbarian. It'd be at least different then usual dumb barbarian.

That's probably ore of a roleplay issue than a mechanic issue, Barbarians have a decent number of skill points, and INT is as much education as actual intelligence. There's a but-ton of class kits and whatnt available.
Hell, it's one of the things I like about the Cavalier of the... Order of the Tome if I remember correctly, you get some pretty crappy pseudo wizardry scroll skills but it's so fluffy and suited for adventuring. "I cannot into magic, but I get the gist of it, mostly."
 
So, just out of curiosity, which edition of D&D is your favorite? I'm not trying to start an edition war, I only want to gauge the opinion of this board.

Personally, I don't have a particular favorite. Each edition has their own merits.

OD&D and Basic have that nice old-school simple feeling, AD&D 1e is also old-school but in a different way, AD&D 2e is cool due to the plethora of published settings (Ravenloft being my all-time favorite), 3e/3.5 was a good overhaul and has a lot of nostalgia value for me since it was my first experience with D&D and RPG's in general, and 5e is a good system that has the best elements of all the previous editions in balance.

The only edition I didn't like was Fourth. It wasn't bad per se, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I did like the Eladrin race though.
 
I don't have a lot of experience with other editions, my group plays Pathfinder and are pretty loose and casual so it works.

Pathfinder is good, especially when played loose and casual. That's pretty much how I do it. I always play fast and loose with the rules, rarely doing things 100% by the book. It's easier for me that way.
 
Woe-Striker
When you enter this Path at 3rd level, your maddened disregard for your own welfare reaches beyond mere anger. While raging, you can choose to enter a despairing frenzy that lasts a number of turns equal to your Constitution modifier, often accompanied by hallucinations of all you've lost. In this state, you can use your bonus action to make a single reckless attack on your turn.

You cannot take an action or move on your next turn after this state ends, as the limits of your mortal frame make themselves known. You cannot adopt this state again until you complete a short or long rest, and until you do so, you suffer disadvantage on all your ability checks.
Hm. Not sure if it works better for this to offer:
a) one extra attack each turn, for (Constitution mod) turns
b) (Constitution mod) extra attacks right now

The latter is more of a crazy nuke, incentivizes saving it up for one big enemy or a suitable cluster of smaller ones (so, "a worthy death") and basically guarantees the "cannot take an action or move" disadvantage will come into play. The Barbarian in our group has a +4 Constitution modifier, and I think most of the fights we've been in have lasted fewer than 4 turns overall. On the other hand, it also seems harder to balance, somehow – possibly because it's such a nuke as opposed to a dripfeed of extra damage, and it's harder to compare to Haste now.
 
Has anyone here used the spell creation rules in Pathfinder? I really like the Eldritch Researcher story feat, but it seems prohibitively expensive for a PC to use. Is this the case for researching new spells, is it always better to use income on a character to get magic items rather than research a spell?
 
Hm. Not sure if it works better for this to offer:
a) one extra attack each turn, for (Constitution mod) turns
b) (Constitution mod) extra attacks right now

The latter is more of a crazy nuke, incentivizes saving it up for one big enemy or a suitable cluster of smaller ones (so, "a worthy death") and basically guarantees the "cannot take an action or move" disadvantage will come into play. The Barbarian in our group has a +4 Constitution modifier, and I think most of the fights we've been in have lasted fewer than 4 turns overall. On the other hand, it also seems harder to balance, somehow – possibly because it's such a nuke as opposed to a dripfeed of extra damage, and it's harder to compare to Haste now.
Alternatively, you could have it increase damage rather than number of attacks?

Also to consider is Feat interactions. Anything that gives bonus attacks desincentivizes Polearm Mastery, which is a good thing for character diversity given how optimal that feat is. But it also has negative interaction with Great Weapon Mastery, while still leaving the feat optimal: You still want that -5/+10 effect, but every time you crit or kill an enemy while in a desperate frenzy you'll feel like it was a waste.
 
Has anyone ever designed rules for modern weapons in 5e? I know that you can find 3e/3.5e compatible rules via D20 Modern, BESM D20, and the like. But has anyone done such homebrews for 5e?

I ask because I want to do a gonzo crossover RP or Quest with D&D-inspired mechanics and I want options for a modern soldier type of character class, along with other firearms-based classes such as cowboys and pirates. I know the 5e DMG has rules for black powder guns but I can't remember if anything beyond that is covered. I'll have to check my copy of it to make sure.

That way I can decide if my RP or Quest will use 3.5/Pathfinder for its mechanics or 5e instead.
 
I've played 4e and 5e, and found both satisfied different itches for me. I started playing D&D with 4e, and that may be why I look back relatively fondly on it, but it also probably helped that I came fron a strong background of video game RPGs long before I got into pen and paper. I liked the discrete class options 4e offered, both in individual class AEDU powers and in role enforcement; it made character differentiation very concrete and straightforward. The gamist nature of 4e is oft criticized, but it helped my newbie group learn the game well; its gamist insistence on precisely labeling everything was probably a boon for us (e.g., there are three distinct types of actions in a fixed hierarchy, there are four types of powers, four specific class roles, and so on).

5e was definitely a step back in class diversity for me, especially since a fair few classes were reduced to spamming basic attacks, but it still kept strong class identity (at the very least martials had distinct special abilities, even if they all played the same for a chunk of the adventuring day) and was definitely a lot more freeform. Something I appreciated as a GM is that 5e kept the monster math fairly solid with strict expectations for monster stats and then determining CR from there; it was definitely one of the best design choices they kept from 4e.
 
Alternatively, you could have it increase damage rather than number of attacks?
Honestly, I was originally going to do that – but it just felt harder to balance. Extra damage is either a flat number (ouch) or more dice, neither of which mesh particularly well with Barbarian features like Reckless Attack and Brutal Critical. Extra attacks works with these, while letting me just eyeball it more easily compared to similar features. As it stands, assuming every attack hits it averages out to an extra ([1d12 + StrMod + RageMod] x Constitution]) damage, before misses or criticals. So let's assume the StrMod (1-7) and the RageMod (1-4) average out to 6.5, which is what you'd get on a d12. Would you prefer it if activating the feature just added 2d12 to an attack's damage for every pip of Constitution Modifier you had?

Well, that's all assuming you're using a greataxe, anyway.

If anything, changing it to a flurry of (Constitution) attacks helps with Bonus Action glut for Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, Two Weapon Fighting, etc, because you're at most missing out on two turns (flurry and recovery) rather than (Constitution + 1) turns. Though I'll admit I usually don't bother giving too much attention to feats, because they're supposedly optional anyway. In practice they're obviously not, unless Fighters are intended to end up with an 18 in every physical stat and a 13-14 in the others, but still. (same deal for magic items)
 
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To be honest, while I got 4e when it came out, I didn't play too much of it. I kind of dismissed it as "WoW on a table" and didn't like the fact that so much had changed from 3.5, which I had started playing the previous year. Of course, I was barely fifteen when 4e came out and I'm a different man than I was in high school, so maybe I should give 4e a second look. Perhaps it is different from what I remembered.

Granted, all I literally owned was the first Player's Handbook, being a broke high schooler at the time, I couldn't even afford the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master's Guide. I might have to amend that if I am going to give 4e a second chance.
 
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