Dungeons and Dragons Megathread

[Q99]

Pattern I notice-

Almost every play by post D&D game I see says, "Looking for dedicated players, able to post at least 1x day, more is preferable."

DMs soon fall into posting once every day tops, players often don't have an in-game reason to post 1x except when conversations between players are occurring.

 

[KingseekerFreyr]

I need to join a game when my Fighter for 5th edition is complete.

 

[Walker of the Yellow Path]

So I was considering adding firearms to my D&D 5e game, and I came up with the following statlines for them.

Their Statlines are based on Hand and Heavy Crossbows with one up damage dice, reduced range, and my custom Loud property.

Pistol (Simple): 1d8 Piercing
Properties: Ammunition (range 20/100), Loading, Loud
Rifle (Martial): 1d12 Piercing
Properties: Ammunition (range 80/320), Loading, Loud, Two-Handed

Loud: Attacking with this weapon creates an incredibly loud sound that will alert every character within a mile of the attacker's position.

 

[AuraTwilight]

Hey, if anyone wants to help me convert a 3.5 homebrew class into OSR, get in touch with me. I'm under a time constraint.

 

[Muhkat Lomorki]

Spoiler: Bane of the Serpent

Mongoose
Tiny beast, unaligned
HP: 9 (2d4+4) AC: 11 Speed: 15 ft
Ability Scores
STR: 8 DEX:12 CON: 14 INT: 2 WIS: 12 CHA: 6
Stealth+3, Perception+3
Condition Immunities: Poisoned
Damage Immunities: Poison
Senses: PP11, Darkvision 60 ft
CR: 1/4 (50 XP)
Keen Smell: Roll at advantage on smell checks.
Snake-slayer: The Mongoose rolls at advantage on stealth checks and attacks against snakes and snake-like creatures.
Snake Sense: Can automatically detect any snake or snake-like creatures within 60 ft.
Actions
Multi-attack: Makes two claw attacks and one bite attack.
Bite:+1, 3 (d6-1) piercing damage plus 2(d4) poison damage.
Claw:+3, 3 (d4+1) slashing damage.

Dire Mongoose
Medium beast, unaligned
HP: 17 (2d8+8) AC: 15(Natural Armor) Speed: 30 ft
Ability Scores
STR: 12 DEX:16 CON: 18 INT: 2 WIS: 12 CHA: 6
Stealth+6, Perception+3
Condition Immunities: Poisoned
Damage Immunities: Poison
Senses: PP11, Darkvision 60 ft
CR: 1 (200 XP)
Keen Smell: Roll at advantage on smell checks.
Snake-slayer: The Mongoose rolls at advantage on stealth checks and attacks against snakes and snake-like creatures.
Snake Sense: Can automatically detect any snake or snake-like creatures within 60 ft.
Actions
Multi-attack: Makes two claw attacks and one bite attack.
Bite:+3, 9 (2d6+2) piercing damage plus 5 (2d4) poison damage.
Claw:+5, 11 (2d4+6) slashing damage.

How could this be improved?

 

[Scia]

Spoiler: Bane of the Serpent

Mongoose
Tiny beast, unaligned
HP: 9 (2d4+4) AC: 11 Speed: 15 ft
Ability Scores
STR: 8 DEX:12 CON: 14 INT: 2 WIS: 12 CHA: 6
Stealth+3, Perception+3
Condition Immunities: Poisoned
Damage Immunities: Poison
Senses: PP11, Darkvision 60 ft
CR: 1/4 (50 XP)
Keen Smell: Roll at advantage on smell checks.
Snake-slayer: The Mongoose rolls at advantage on stealth checks and attacks against snakes and snake-like creatures.
Snake Sense: Can automatically detect any snake or snake-like creatures within 60 ft.
Actions
Multi-attack: Makes two claw attacks and one bite attack.
Bite:+1, 3 (d6-1) piercing damage plus 2(d4) poison damage.
Claw:+3, 3 (d4+1) slashing damage.

Dire Mongoose
Medium beast, unaligned
HP: 17 (2d8+8) AC: 15(Natural Armor) Speed: 30 ft
Ability Scores
STR: 12 DEX:16 CON: 18 INT: 2 WIS: 12 CHA: 6
Stealth+6, Perception+3
Condition Immunities: Poisoned
Damage Immunities: Poison
Senses: PP11, Darkvision 60 ft
CR: 1 (200 XP)
Keen Smell: Roll at advantage on smell checks.
Snake-slayer: The Mongoose rolls at advantage on stealth checks and attacks against snakes and snake-like creatures.
Snake Sense: Can automatically detect any snake or snake-like creatures within 60 ft.
Actions
Multi-attack: Makes two claw attacks and one bite attack.
Bite:+3, 9 (2d6+2) piercing damage plus 5 (2d4) poison damage.
Claw:+5, 11 (2d4+6) slashing damage.

How could this be improved?

Click to shrink...

The tiny one feels a bit to strong and durable considering that it has a reasonable chance to win a fight with a wolf but the stats look CR appropriate .
The direction version feels a bit to strong for its cr considering that it can deal 31 damage in a turn more then most animals and that it basically trades in 20 hp for 2-3 points of AC. It has a very good chance to kill CR 3 animals and and with it to high attack bonus will be a killer against the party or in the hands of a druid. I meant it's more likely to kill a part member then a Oger.
Also the poison is acting like a acid with the lack of a saving throw and all that.

 

[Morphic Tide]

So, I just found a very weird 3rd party thing for Pathfinder. It has defined sets of stuff for semi-generic archetypes to swap out from a class. One of the things that comes across as bizarre for me is that the only thing they define for Summoner is the casting. Just the casting, nothing else.

This is problematic because it means the only option for Summoners to get these semi-generic archetypes is to give up their casting. And nothing else. Which cripples what the Summoner usually does, namely buffing people. But the point of these is to trade out stuff not important to the core function of the class.

Witches trade out their Hexes, Wizards trade out Arcane School and Arcane Bond, Fighter stops counting as a Fighter for feats and loses Weapon training, Cleric loses Domains and so on. Like having Barbarians trade literally everything Rage related, rather than everything not Rage related. Bards choose between their spellcasting and their bardic music.

Like, did the people deciding what class features defined the class's playstyle not actually play the classes? Because they went with stuff that's actually quite important to the class's actual function. Summoner has Summon Monster on the spell list, and a bundle of Eidolon related abilities that aren't needed for the Eidolon to stay useful. So why not remove the Summon Monster stuff, or the pile of auxiliary Eidolon class features, possibly including the Eidolon? Why make them have to remove their spellcasting to get these semi-generic archetypes?

I mean, they hit the mark on a few things, like having Alchemist get Mutagen stuff and Bomb stuff as things to trade out for the semi-generic archetypes, but most of them are weird setups that screw over the class's normal functions. Like, some of these things are directly requiring features traded away to work.

One of these abilities is Spelldrive, which adds 1d4 weapon damage per spell level expended when making an attack. At level 6, the damage goes up to d6. At level 20, the damage is d12s. Being additional weapon damage, it stacks with Vital Strike, so you can get very crazy damage. But it's literally impossible to use for Summoner, because Summoner has to trade their spellcasting to get one of these archetypes.

 

[Drachyench]

So I was considering adding firearms to my D&D 5e game, and I came up with the following statlines for them.

Their Statlines are based on Hand and Heavy Crossbows with one up damage dice, reduced range, and my custom Loud property.

Pistol (Simple): 1d8 Piercing
Properties: Ammunition (range 20/100), Loading, Loud
Rifle (Martial): 1d12 Piercing
Properties: Ammunition (range 80/320), Loading, Loud, Two-Handed

Loud: Attacking with this weapon creates an incredibly loud sound that will alert every character within a mile of the attacker's position.

Click to shrink...

Bear in mind a couple of things re:5E

1st) Attacking with a ranged weapon, whether you hit or miss, already alerts everyone in an encounter unless you have the Skulker Feat (at which point only hitting will alert combatants involved)

2) Attacker's position is alarmingly exact. Unless you intend it to be this way, someone a mile away could pinpoint the shooter's precise point on a 5'x5' grid map from over 500 squares away solely based off sound.

3) 5E standard for reference is creature, not character. Minor, but it might be best to cut off rules lawyering attempts by players early on.

 

[Muhkat Lomorki]

The tiny one feels a bit to strong and durable considering that it has a reasonable chance to win a fight with a wolf but the stats look CR appropriate .
The direction version feels a bit to strong for its cr considering that it can deal 31 damage in a turn more then most animals and that it basically trades in 20 hp for 2-3 points of AC. It has a very good chance to kill CR 3 animals and and with it to high attack bonus will be a killer against the party or in the hands of a druid. I meant it's more likely to kill a part member then a Oger.
Also the poison is acting like a acid with the lack of a saving throw and all that.

Click to shrink...

Point. How would it be if the poison damage wasn't there?

 

[SinisterPorpoise]

Could someone here familiar with Mythic Pathfinder look this over?
Pathfinder: Mythic Solars Playtest, actually playable - Onyx Path Forums

 

[FaeGlade Plural]

Could someone here familiar with Mythic Pathfinder look this over?
Pathfinder: Mythic Solars Playtest, actually playable - Onyx Path Forums

Click to shrink...

Sure.
Ability Score Increases, Mythic Feats, Surge, Hard to Kill, Amazing Initiative, Recuperation, Mythic Saving Throws, Force of Will, Unstoppable and Legendary Hero are just 1:1 copies of the mythic rules.
The Personal Essence Pool is just a renamed version of Mythic Power.
Anima Banners are basically strong light-spells, including daylight, which is mostly alright.

But HOLY SHIT Peripheral Essence!
A second-tier Solar has more Essence than a tenth-tier Mythic character has mythic. That's just blatant, utter, devastating power creep.
Just....just no. Nope nope nope nope nope forevereverever.
Just....just being able to spend that much mythic power on surges, initiative and recuperation is utterly broken. The only way this can be maybe-sorta justified is if you make damn sure you can't ever take any normal mythic abilities with this, only dominion abilities, and if you're prepared to deal with that amount of surges.

Okay, at this point you basically have to assess all the Dominion abilities.
And there's a lot of them. Most of them seem to cost several motes, so the concern of "holy shit so much mythic power" might be alleviated. Except there's still surges, some mythic feats, and mythic spellcasting - so the resource allocation there will still be blown out of the water. This could be fixed by turning "personal motes" back into mythic power, and only allowing these things to be fueled by mythic power.

That'd be a lot of work, but the balance there seems to be all over the place.
For example, Dawns get +tier to Intimidate and swift-action multi-intimidate. Twilights get....to not spend a spell slot on mage armor, wohoo!

So can this work? Right now it mostly seems like "mythic, except more complicated and powerful". Which...isn't really a good thing, considering how powerful mythic already gets.

 

[SinisterPorpoise]

But HOLY SHIT Peripheral Essence!
A second-tier Solar has more Essence than a tenth-tier Mythic character has mythic. That's just blatant, utter, devastating power creep.
Just....just no. Nope nope nope nope nope forevereverever.
Just....just being able to spend that much mythic power on surges, initiative and recuperation is utterly broken. The only way this can be maybe-sorta justified is if you make damn sure you can't ever take any normal mythic abilities with this, only dominion abilities, and if you're prepared to deal with that amount of surges.

Click to shrink...

Well, I think they said something about that?

The things an Exalt can accomplish by spending three motes (in the above build, not in Exalted proper) should be roughly equivalent to what a mythic hero can accomplish with one use of mythic power, by the way.

Click to shrink...

 

[FaeGlade Plural]

Right, overlooked that surges cost 3 motes. That makes things a bit better. It'll still be cheaper on feats and mythic spells, since there's no 3:1 trade there.
With that main concern alleviated, you'd have to look over what you can actually do with it. I've spotted some staple abilities you can get, such as Fleet Charge (but with added prerequisites for some reason).

 

[Scia]

Point. How would it be if the poison damage wasn't there?

Click to shrink...

I think it would then work out or if you give it a con 12 or so save . The main problem is that it is even without the poison still quite able to zerg someone down but one of the others might have a better feel there , reduce the per turn damage by 2-4 points for the bigger one and 1-2 points for the other one and give em a few more HP and they are set I think.

And now for something completely different @Serafina @chloe and a number of others one of my campaigns restarted onto a PF one that allows DSP I wish to inquire into non meele coolness with it like psions violins etc. The downside is that we start reign of fire at level 1 so a build that is also interesting below level 10 would be nice.

 

[FaeGlade Plural]

Too busy right now, but there's a good number of non-melee options in Path of War. You can also get some interesting stuff from Veilshaping, and of course there are psionic options such as the marksman.

 

[Chloe Sullivan]

I think it would then work out or if you give it a con 12 or so save . The main problem is that it is even without the poison still quite able to zerg someone down but one of the others might have a better feel there , reduce the per turn damage by 2-4 points for the bigger one and 1-2 points for the other one and give em a few more HP and they are set I think.

And now for something completely different @Serafina @chloe and a number of others one of my campaigns restarted onto a PF one that allows DSP I wish to inquire into non meele coolness with it like psions violins etc. The downside is that we start reign of fire at level 1 so a build that is also interesting below level 10 would be nice.

Click to shrink...

Psionic Violins?

Vitalist and Tactician both work well as backline buff characters, though the vitalist is mostly heal focused at first - you may need expanded knowledge to pick up more buff powers. (Intercessor vitalist gets a pseudo inspire courage, but it honestly scales too slow IMO) The fun of tactician is using your strategies to give people gambits and tempbuffs, and you get unique powers that let people share traits - vision modes, skills, feats and attributes.

I'm either case you absolutely want the feat that lets you use personal range powers on allies.

 

[Scia]

Psionic Violins?

Vitalist and Tactician both work well as backline buff characters, though the vitalist is mostly heal focused at first - you may need expanded knowledge to pick up more buff powers. (Intercessor vitalist gets a pseudo inspire courage, but it honestly scales too slow IMO) The fun of tactician is using your strategies to give people gambits and tempbuffs, and you get unique powers that let people share traits - vision modes, skills, feats and attributes.

I'm either case you absolutely want the feat that lets you use personal range powers on allies.

Click to shrink...

Argh somehow the autocorrect turned veils into violins because so far the vizier while nice did not have the feel of doing good at low levels.

 

[Chloe Sullivan]

Argh somehow the autocorrect turned veils into violins because so far the vizier while nice did not have the feel of doing good at low levels.

Click to shrink...

While Akasha is a bit different from Incarnum, my experience has been that Incarnum is actually REALLY GOOD at level 1-4, and then falls off from there and does not keep up well.

I think Akasha does fine at low levels. At level 1, a vizier can take Riven Darts and have a short ranged but decent force damage attack. By level 6, he can have what is effectively a gaze attack and a light spear that has 15 ft reach.

The issue with Akasha is that it doesn't have very strong defensive options. Offensively, it's rather stronger than Incarnum.

Overall, I would say Akasha is best for multiclass or gestalt builds, whee you can cover it's weaknesses and let it's strengths shine through.

Something like Diviner1/Vizier3/Warden16, preferably using the Soul Weaver archetype for wizard if radiance house is allowed. ignore your paltry allocation of spells (or use them to charger a staff of a level 1 spell you actually want to use) and instead enjoy having a familiar that make attacks (you can use a spirit with a vestigial companion to get a familiar while also having some side benefits if going soul weaver), and thanks to Warden's high hitdie, will eventually be fairly beefy. Loyal Paladin's Spear of Light is a perfect weapon for a Warden (20 ft reach spear at level 18, not counting the warden's additional reach bonuses!), and with the initiating trait, you have full IL.

 

[Muhkat Lomorki]

Hey, so, been listening to the Adventure Zone (a D&D podcast) lately and it's about to end.

Anyone here who watches it, what is your favorite arc, and which Grand Relic is the most overpowered?

 

[Q99]

New try at an online game recruitment

Them- "We're looking for two more characters to fill our elf-only game..."

Me- "Ok, what classes are you looking for? I could do a cleric or sorcerer, or maybe a Vigilante, they're fun."

Them- "Vigilante wouldn't work at all. We're looking for another caster, but we're doing a special ops no-profile thing, someone who can operate in secret. And multi-classing is fine, we don't need a pure caster."

Me- "Uhh....".

 

[The Imperator]

New try at an online game recruitment

Them- "We're looking for two more characters to fill our elf-only game..."

Me- "Ok, what classes are you looking for? I could do a cleric or sorcerer, or maybe a Vigilante, they're fun."

Them- "Vigilante wouldn't work at all. We're looking for another caster, but we're doing a special ops no-profile thing, someone who can operate in secret. And multi-classing is fine, we don't need a pure caster."

Me- "Uhh....".

Click to shrink...

So Vigilante is perfect, then?

 

[AuraTwilight]

New try at an online game recruitment

Them- "We're looking for two more characters to fill our elf-only game..."

Me- "Ok, what classes are you looking for? I could do a cleric or sorcerer, or maybe a Vigilante, they're fun."

Them- "Vigilante wouldn't work at all. We're looking for another caster, but we're doing a special ops no-profile thing, someone who can operate in secret. And multi-classing is fine, we don't need a pure caster."

Me- "Uhh....".

Click to shrink...

"No, no, not a CLERIC, you idiot, we're looking for someone who gets magical powers form their devotion to a higher power!"

 

[Q99]

So Vigilante is perfect, then?

Click to shrink...

Yea, it's like, they described a Vigilante, or at least the spellcasting archetypes, perfectly. Though I think they didn't realize you can cast out of vigilante form and don't even need to use vigilante form...

Also one of the players suggested playing a blasty sorcerer....

I don't think I'm gonna go with this one, they're kinda odd ^^

 

[SinisterPorpoise]

"No, no, not a CLERIC, you idiot, we're looking for someone who gets magical powers form their devotion to a higher power!"

Click to shrink...

To be fair that also describes Druids, Oracles, Witches, and Warlocks.

 

[Chloe Sullivan]

New try at an online game recruitment

Them- "We're looking for two more characters to fill our elf-only game..."

Me- "Ok, what classes are you looking for? I could do a cleric or sorcerer, or maybe a Vigilante, they're fun."

Them- "Vigilante wouldn't work at all. We're looking for another caster, but we're doing a special ops no-profile thing, someone who can operate in secret. And multi-classing is fine, we don't need a pure caster."

Me- "Uhh....".

Click to shrink...

to be fair, with so many archetypes proliferating, often one class name can refer to multiple classes.... Vigilante is a stalker archetype, for example, and i've seen two different classes/archtypes for Myrmidon, Occultist, and Warlord.