OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
I thought that didn't pan out or something. Clerics of National Ideals that is.
Dungeons and Dragons Megathread
- Thread starter Havocfett
- Start date
I thought that didn't pan out or something. Clerics of National Ideals that is.
It turns out that Politicians and Rulers don't represent the entirety of their Countries.
Kylar
In Training Forever
- Location
- Canada
Uh, no. They are explicitly called out as not a thing. Forge of War talks about attempts to develop them, and those attempts failing.
How divine magic in Eberron works is fuzzy, but its more then simple belief. I think what is being talked about is that sincere, true belief, ei the thing that allows you to access divine magic to start with, causes you to register as your religions alignment as opposed to your true one- which is part of the problems the Church of the Silver Flame is having.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yes, I forgot to mention that they are a thing in the sense of "an attempted thing" instead of "an actual thing", because they failed.
Dakkaface
Extra Shooty Wordsmith
Out of curiosity, because my 5e experience is nonexistent, has anyone attempted to homebrew or stumbled across a good stab at a Warden as it existed in 4e?
Warden was my favorite 4e class, and it has no real mirror in 5e. The Oath of Ancients Paladin borrows some of it's features - the capstone transformation ability and some of the battlefield control abilities, but doesn't really have the same sort of nature-powered facebeating protector feel. I feel like I could try to build it but I wouldn't be able to feel like a Warden until Level 8+, after getting Polearm Fighter, Magic Initiate and Sentinel. Alternately, multiclass Druid and Eldritch Knight to get access to Thorn Whip, and lose out on transformation & the thematic features that it's borrowed, but gain some serious MAD issues since I'd need Wis.
I'm not really liking either option, and I'm about ready to give up and just roll a Druid.
Warden was my favorite 4e class, and it has no real mirror in 5e. The Oath of Ancients Paladin borrows some of it's features - the capstone transformation ability and some of the battlefield control abilities, but doesn't really have the same sort of nature-powered facebeating protector feel. I feel like I could try to build it but I wouldn't be able to feel like a Warden until Level 8+, after getting Polearm Fighter, Magic Initiate and Sentinel. Alternately, multiclass Druid and Eldritch Knight to get access to Thorn Whip, and lose out on transformation & the thematic features that it's borrowed, but gain some serious MAD issues since I'd need Wis.
I'm not really liking either option, and I'm about ready to give up and just roll a Druid.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Homebrewery Link for the new version of the Path of the Doom-Seeker.
The issue I now face is that Barbarians are massive tanks, but while this subclass has two whole features dedicated to pulling aggro, it doesn't actually have anything that keeps you alive. The temporary hit points in the final feature were a last-minute addition, and even they only help against creatures other than the one(s) you're actually fighting. In a solo encounter they're particularly useless, which is a shame considering the inspiration for this class just loves taking on massive monsters.
I feel like I ought to bake the 2d4 target upgrade directly into Star-Chaser, and dedicate the final feature to something that'll keep the Barbarian alive... I don't know, maybe the ability to spend a limited number of hit dice after passing a Relentless Rage roll, so you get back up with some buffer hp? Fluffed as your lost ones shoving you out of the afterlife because your work isn't done? I don't know. Tricky.
Any thoughts, or do you think it's fine as it stands?
-----------------------------------
Path of the Doom-Seeker
"My honour is my life and without it I am nothing. I shall seek redemption in the eyes of my ancestors. I shall become as death to my enemies, until I face he that takes my life and my shame."
The barbarian lays about themselves on the battlefield in a mad frenzy, dismissing mortal blows and shattering shields with a strike. Some embody the ferocity of primal totems, or endure a maddening curse passed through their bloodline, or drive themselves into a deliberate martial fury with warchants and venoms.
Others are simply… broken.
These warriors have lost something fundamental; a home, a family, a name. Unable to ever mend their wounds, they walk a path of self-destruction, strewn with bloody rivers of collateral damage. Their dreams are haunted by the wails of those they failed, and though they may seem normal, even jovial, when the rage comes upon them it does so as the foam atop a tidal wave of grief, crashing down on their enemies with the weeping, snarling force of a warrior bereaved.
Some who walk the path of the doom-seeker die heroes, renowned for bravery by a history that failed to recognize the true nature of their reckless daring. Others are less feted in their falling, but it matters little. They found what they were looking for, regardless.
Woe-Striker
When you enter this Path at 3rd level, your maddened disregard for your own welfare allows you to launch a despairing flurry of attacks, as you hack at hallucinations of all you've lost. While raging, you can use your action to make a number of reckless attacks no greater than your Constitution modifier. Starting at 5th level, you may instead do so as a bonus action. You cannot take an action or move on your next turn after you use this feature, nor can you use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Foe-Finder
Also at 3rd level, you develop a morbid homing instinct for a glorious death. You have advantage on any Wisdom or Intelligence roll to estimate another creature's capabilities. In addition, while you are in combat the DM must inform you which enemy creature you can see has the highest CR.
Star-Chaser
Beginning at 6th level, your looming destiny draws in rivals like a devil's lighthouse guiding ships onto the rocks. You may cast compelled duel at will, without requiring a spell slot. The resulting Wisdom save is DC 15, but the target suffers disadvantage on their saving throw if they are the highest CR enemy creature involved in the encounter.
You may cast this spell even if you are raging, and it does not require a bonus action if you began raging that turn.
Fate-Knower
At 10th level, you hammer home the eagerness with which you await your fate. You become immune to being frightened, and ignore any effect that would cause you to flee from an enemy or danger, such as the terror inflicted by dissonant whispers.
World-Facer
Starting at 14th level, you may use compelled duel to simultaneously target up to 3d4 creatures within range, calling all of them to face you at once. You must complete a short rest before you can do so again.
In addition, while you are engaged in a compelled duel, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier at the start of each of your turns. These temporary hit points are ignored by attacks from creatures you are dueling.
The issue I now face is that Barbarians are massive tanks, but while this subclass has two whole features dedicated to pulling aggro, it doesn't actually have anything that keeps you alive. The temporary hit points in the final feature were a last-minute addition, and even they only help against creatures other than the one(s) you're actually fighting. In a solo encounter they're particularly useless, which is a shame considering the inspiration for this class just loves taking on massive monsters.
I feel like I ought to bake the 2d4 target upgrade directly into Star-Chaser, and dedicate the final feature to something that'll keep the Barbarian alive... I don't know, maybe the ability to spend a limited number of hit dice after passing a Relentless Rage roll, so you get back up with some buffer hp? Fluffed as your lost ones shoving you out of the afterlife because your work isn't done? I don't know. Tricky.
Any thoughts, or do you think it's fine as it stands?
-----------------------------------
Path of the Doom-Seeker
"My honour is my life and without it I am nothing. I shall seek redemption in the eyes of my ancestors. I shall become as death to my enemies, until I face he that takes my life and my shame."
The barbarian lays about themselves on the battlefield in a mad frenzy, dismissing mortal blows and shattering shields with a strike. Some embody the ferocity of primal totems, or endure a maddening curse passed through their bloodline, or drive themselves into a deliberate martial fury with warchants and venoms.
Others are simply… broken.
These warriors have lost something fundamental; a home, a family, a name. Unable to ever mend their wounds, they walk a path of self-destruction, strewn with bloody rivers of collateral damage. Their dreams are haunted by the wails of those they failed, and though they may seem normal, even jovial, when the rage comes upon them it does so as the foam atop a tidal wave of grief, crashing down on their enemies with the weeping, snarling force of a warrior bereaved.
Some who walk the path of the doom-seeker die heroes, renowned for bravery by a history that failed to recognize the true nature of their reckless daring. Others are less feted in their falling, but it matters little. They found what they were looking for, regardless.
Woe-Striker
When you enter this Path at 3rd level, your maddened disregard for your own welfare allows you to launch a despairing flurry of attacks, as you hack at hallucinations of all you've lost. While raging, you can use your action to make a number of reckless attacks no greater than your Constitution modifier. Starting at 5th level, you may instead do so as a bonus action. You cannot take an action or move on your next turn after you use this feature, nor can you use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Foe-Finder
Also at 3rd level, you develop a morbid homing instinct for a glorious death. You have advantage on any Wisdom or Intelligence roll to estimate another creature's capabilities. In addition, while you are in combat the DM must inform you which enemy creature you can see has the highest CR.
Star-Chaser
Beginning at 6th level, your looming destiny draws in rivals like a devil's lighthouse guiding ships onto the rocks. You may cast compelled duel at will, without requiring a spell slot. The resulting Wisdom save is DC 15, but the target suffers disadvantage on their saving throw if they are the highest CR enemy creature involved in the encounter.
You may cast this spell even if you are raging, and it does not require a bonus action if you began raging that turn.
Fate-Knower
At 10th level, you hammer home the eagerness with which you await your fate. You become immune to being frightened, and ignore any effect that would cause you to flee from an enemy or danger, such as the terror inflicted by dissonant whispers.
World-Facer
Starting at 14th level, you may use compelled duel to simultaneously target up to 3d4 creatures within range, calling all of them to face you at once. You must complete a short rest before you can do so again.
In addition, while you are engaged in a compelled duel, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier at the start of each of your turns. These temporary hit points are ignored by attacks from creatures you are dueling.
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- Location
- Drachyench on Discord
Almost everyone agrees that the Path of the Berserker subclass of the Barbarian in the 5E PHB… well, sucks. Terribly. Which is a shame because the overall premise / what they were aiming for isn't that bad, and the Mindless Rage feature shows that they do have at least some inkling of what they're doing. As such, how does this sound to people as a quick "fix" to the Primal Path / Subclass?
Frenzy: As-is (Optional Rage state, grants a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action)… but does not cause a level of exhaustion upon rage's completion.
Mindless Rage: As-is (Immunity to Charm & Frightening when Raging, suspends active Charm / Frightened effects when entering Rage).
Intimidating Presence: As a bonus action, choose one creature within 30' that can either see or hear you. It must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + Proficiency Bonus + your Strength modifier) or be frightened until the end of your next turn. If the creature succeeds on its saving throw you can't use this feature again on that creature for 24 hours.
Retaliation: When you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you may immediately (not as a reaction) make a melee weapon attack against that creature if you are not incapacitated.
This fix keeps almost everything granted to Berserkers the same, and as such it's not quite as powerful as things such as Battlemasters. At the same time, it makes several features actually viable: Frenzy no longer becomes a once / Long Rest ability, Intimidating Presence is neither competing against two attacks nor expecting you to dump Attribute points into a fourth ability score (Str, Dex, and Con all seeing uses for Barbarians), and Retaliation doesn't eat up your valuable Reaction solely to make a situational AoO. I'm tempted to boost Intimidating Presence even further to the point of being comparable to Fear or Turning (the target needing to use both its full movement and Dash action to move away from you by the safest route, in addition to becoming frightened), but while useful for negating actions I know it's also highly inconvenient for a melee class to effectively chase someone 60+ feet away from them in a single turn if they plan on killing them later.
Frenzy doesn't scale spectacularly in many regards, no (A Barbarian focused on using either two single-handed weapons or with Polearm Mastery literally gains nothing, and one with Great Weapon Mastery will sometimes find the bonus redundant), but an extra attack is an extra attack (especially on a class with very little uses for Bonus Actions), and it's not like it can't be improved at a higher level to do something like confer a Bear's resistance to non-Psychic damage types or add an additional +1 to Rage damage or something.
Sound good? Keep in mind, once more, that this is to make Path of the Berserker Barbarian functional and viable with their abilities. Not to turn them into a Battlemaster or UA Ranger equivalent (though the upgraded version of Intimidating Presence, bonus-to-Rage & resistance-at-higher-levels Frenzy version could probably come vaguely close).
Frenzy: As-is (Optional Rage state, grants a single melee weapon attack as a bonus action)… but does not cause a level of exhaustion upon rage's completion.
Mindless Rage: As-is (Immunity to Charm & Frightening when Raging, suspends active Charm / Frightened effects when entering Rage).
Intimidating Presence: As a bonus action, choose one creature within 30' that can either see or hear you. It must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC equal to 8 + Proficiency Bonus + your Strength modifier) or be frightened until the end of your next turn. If the creature succeeds on its saving throw you can't use this feature again on that creature for 24 hours.
Retaliation: When you take damage from a creature that is within 5 feet of you, you may immediately (not as a reaction) make a melee weapon attack against that creature if you are not incapacitated.
This fix keeps almost everything granted to Berserkers the same, and as such it's not quite as powerful as things such as Battlemasters. At the same time, it makes several features actually viable: Frenzy no longer becomes a once / Long Rest ability, Intimidating Presence is neither competing against two attacks nor expecting you to dump Attribute points into a fourth ability score (Str, Dex, and Con all seeing uses for Barbarians), and Retaliation doesn't eat up your valuable Reaction solely to make a situational AoO. I'm tempted to boost Intimidating Presence even further to the point of being comparable to Fear or Turning (the target needing to use both its full movement and Dash action to move away from you by the safest route, in addition to becoming frightened), but while useful for negating actions I know it's also highly inconvenient for a melee class to effectively chase someone 60+ feet away from them in a single turn if they plan on killing them later.
Frenzy doesn't scale spectacularly in many regards, no (A Barbarian focused on using either two single-handed weapons or with Polearm Mastery literally gains nothing, and one with Great Weapon Mastery will sometimes find the bonus redundant), but an extra attack is an extra attack (especially on a class with very little uses for Bonus Actions), and it's not like it can't be improved at a higher level to do something like confer a Bear's resistance to non-Psychic damage types or add an additional +1 to Rage damage or something.
Sound good? Keep in mind, once more, that this is to make Path of the Berserker Barbarian functional and viable with their abilities. Not to turn them into a Battlemaster or UA Ranger equivalent (though the upgraded version of Intimidating Presence, bonus-to-Rage & resistance-at-higher-levels Frenzy version could probably come vaguely close).
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Functionally equivalent to Extra Attack, but at 3rd level, and stacks with the Extra Attack you get at 5th level.
My first draft of the Doom-Seeker basically pinched Frenzy, and balanced ditching the exhaustion by including a temporary cost and further limiting the number of turns it applied. Eventually I decided to balance that feature against Action Surge, instead. This version is... busted. Why would you not enter Frenzy with every rage?
Fine in theory, in practice screwed over by the need to balance it against... not just murdering the creature with that extra attack you get as a bonus action. I'd consider just allowing the Barbarian to cast Fear once per short rest, even if raging, with either a flat DC or the one you listed there.
Retaliation's always been fine, to be honest.
- Location
- Drachyench on Discord
True, if being kept optional there likely should be a consequence to Frenzy besides "You can't use the Attack bonus action on the first round of your Frenzy". If trying to keep things simple, possibly disable Danger Sense during Frenzy? So you sacrifice Advantage on Dexterity saving throws against effects you can see, but effectively gain +1 Melee Weapon Attack per round. Sound good?
Keep in mind that Frenzy only applies while Raging, and Intimidating Presence can be done at any time. Frenzy (as a Rage) also eats up one your daily rages, but Intimidating Presence is unlimited use. Keeping in mind your consideration of turning it into Fear, either turn it into such an ability instead (probably becoming an Action as a result) or go with the "Single-target single-round Fear" version highlighted above to keep it competitive?
Were it granted earlier in the hierarchy, I'd agree. But it's a Level 14 ability, and as such I feel like it is a bit underwhelming and competes with one's (typically) vastly increased Reaction options by that point.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Hm. An interesting setting on Kickstarter from the creators of Erfworld.
Salt In Wounds is just the sort of setting element I like to see in Exalted, actually. Might back.
Salt In Wounds is just the sort of setting element I like to see in Exalted, actually. Might back.
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- Location
- Drachyench on Discord
It's 3.5? The Kickstarter says 5E or Pathfinder.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Whoops, chalk that up to a misreading.
- Location
- Drachyench on Discord
Understandable: Pathfinder and 3.5 are done much more frequently than Pathfinder and 5E.
Dakkaface
Extra Shooty Wordsmith
Would be amusing, but on reflection the wizard spells I'd be gaining from the Eldritch Knight side would be a bit out of theme. I found this version of the Warden on DM's Guild to be the best match for theme and power.
Now I'm wondering how a Staff Magus with a Druid spell list would work.
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Haha. Somebody actually decided to profit off it.
[Necro, Staff Pick][D&Dish] The city built around the tarrasque.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
It could be the guy who did the original idea. Otherwise that's sketchy.
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
All I'm saying is that if he has tombs full of insane ghouls of the ultra-rich that are easy to get into but almost impossible to escape I want my cut.
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
It's not, according to the Kickstarter. And, well, I guess it's kind of telling that the question's made it into the KS FAQ.
Salt in Wounds Kickstarter said:
- Location
- mariana trench
The elves with Brooklyn accents sort of happened in my last campaign. My DM deiced that since I have strong Queens/Long Island accent, all Drow speak like that
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Heh, I'm Danish but I speak English with an Australian accent, and I DM for an english-speaking group, meaning that dwarves speak with a hilariously overdone Danish accent.
EDIT: To try this at home, stick a potato in your mouth and try to speak english while pronouncing everything as flat as possible, hilarity is guaranteed.
EDIT: To try this at home, stick a potato in your mouth and try to speak english while pronouncing everything as flat as possible, hilarity is guaranteed.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
hmm...quick question.
you know all the "turn into a dragon" spells?
how are they usually portrayed? poof of spoke and BAM! dragon?
or ?
both have pros and cons...
smoke might be faster, and conceil you, but it also blinds you and might show where you are.
the second one is slower, but presumably can be performed more covertly...
you know all the "turn into a dragon" spells?
how are they usually portrayed? poof of spoke and BAM! dragon?
or ?
both have pros and cons...
smoke might be faster, and conceil you, but it also blinds you and might show where you are.
the second one is slower, but presumably can be performed more covertly...
Revlid
blob of bugs
- Location
- England
Hm, so – what happens to the game (5e) if a character has a feature which allows them to stay active past 0hp? That is to say, they still take Death Saves and suffer from overflow damage as normal, but they can keep on moving and acting even while they're "dying"?
Does that break anything, in principle? Assume they're not allowed to stabilize themselves or able to cast healing magic.
Does that break anything, in principle? Assume they're not allowed to stabilize themselves or able to cast healing magic.