Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The real problem with 5e skills is that by waffling on what skills can actually be used for, it places that much more work on the DM.
Dungeons and Dragons Megathread
- Thread starter Havocfett
- Start date
Reveen
Castro-Trudeauist
Honestly I think character background is a solution to a lot of DnD's issues but as it stands the concept is severely undercooked. I would go as far to say that background should represent a kind of soft multi-class that allows for customization without fucking up the actual class progression.
Like if I want my mage to also be a former theive all I get is a couple skills and the right to use thieves tools. Why not an expertise? Why not sneak attack? Why not a feat or an ability bonus? Like I'm not even talking about giving the failed wizard apprentice fighter the full monte of cantrip picks, one would suffice.
It's a frustrating thing because I do believe that 5E is well situated for a lot of versatility to characters in a relatively straightforward way. Like in a more straightforward way than Pathfinder 2 with it's more granular array of character trait choices that make things a bit of a mess.
But at every turn it seems to work against that by making every possible mold-breaking option into a half-measure or band-aid solution. Even with classes themselves the game can be a miser about giving you meaningful choices over your character.
Like if I want my mage to also be a former theive all I get is a couple skills and the right to use thieves tools. Why not an expertise? Why not sneak attack? Why not a feat or an ability bonus? Like I'm not even talking about giving the failed wizard apprentice fighter the full monte of cantrip picks, one would suffice.
It's a frustrating thing because I do believe that 5E is well situated for a lot of versatility to characters in a relatively straightforward way. Like in a more straightforward way than Pathfinder 2 with it's more granular array of character trait choices that make things a bit of a mess.
But at every turn it seems to work against that by making every possible mold-breaking option into a half-measure or band-aid solution. Even with classes themselves the game can be a miser about giving you meaningful choices over your character.
Last edited:
- Location
- Drachyench on Discord
The Trait system as it was is something of a mess as a lot of it lead to min-maxing and could be integral for making certain classes / builds work. As said above by @Reveen Backgrounds in 5E are sorely undercooked by being slightly more important than any one individual Trait and having some nice thematic hooks / draw to them... but being only so meaningful: Some literally have as the defining feature "You don't even need skills to not starve if tossed in a random city naked". Which is a bit of a throw away when others are the only source in CharGen for certain Skills / Proficiencies or others give unique options like being able to support multiple people indefinitely in 1+ environmental type without needing to roll Survival. 5.5's solution to make Species significantly less fixed in bonuses is alright, but runs into the same issues mentioned above of it being so limited in what is generally provided. Giving people Feats vaguely works but runs into the issue that 5.5 is taking seven steps backwards to what 3.5's are [see: Trees within trees, Level Requirements, smaller individual effects] which just means instead of one extremely watered down background you get two and "Look at that you reinvented the pro's and con's of the Traits system again".
FaeGlade Plural
Semper Legens
- Location
- Land of Bureaucracy
- Pronouns
- Plural/They
This, except Background should provide exclusively Non-Combat/Utility features, and thos features should include Spells.
So something like the Thief background should get Stealth abilities and Thieves Tools, yes.
But they should also get something like Minor Illusion, and spells like Detect Magic, Feather Fall, Illusory Script, or Jump, and at higher levels spells like Invisiblity, Passwall, Telepathic Bond, or Teleport or Time Stop.
Because those all make sense for the activities of Thieving, and if you asked a Thief what sort of spells they'd love to have to be better at stealing things, those would be among them.
On the other hand, they shouldn't geat Sneak Attack, because that's clearly a Combat Feature. You can leave that, and Cunning Action, Evasion, and so on to the Rogue.
You could of course play a Rogue with the Criminal/Thief background to get a classic Rogue.
Or you could play a Rogue with a Nature-y background, or a Fighter with the Criminal background and be straight-forward in your fighting while being sneaky otherwise.
- Location
- Drachyench on Discord
While 100% on board for powers I would similarly be 100% against them explicitly being spells because D&D already has too much of a vocal minority rattling at the cage of "The solution to everything is Spellcasting". Which is rough because obviously everything being condensed into "Spells" simplifies the rules dramatically [see: WHFB eventually solidifying how magic worked for everyone instead of Ogres, Orcs, Tomb Kings, and such having their own rules]. But I'll readily admit I'm 100% on board to spite the "You want to play a martial? Okay so first you want to take five levels in Wizard / Cleric and decide which Archetype of martial you want to dip a few levels in to get the obligatory level tax for their thing" crowd and live to see people seethe that a Barbarian being able to turn into a Werewolf or a Fighter being able to use the Cutting Arts is something for them.
- Location
- Virginia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I was in a game where we had a player whom believed that spells were the solution to everything. In that game I ended up using skills a lot.
- Pronouns
- He
Bird's the word and the word was pain.
As a druid, I was flying over a bandit camp to see how many were down there. One of them was in the habit of shooting at woodland creatures to relieve his boredom. And what do you know? He hit a crow. Who hit the ground, turned into a woman and called down a lightning strike on him.
By the time it was over, six bandits were dead, all at my hand. Three were captured and two more had run far, far away. The other two players took a single attack each but we split the bounties three ways.
As a druid, I was flying over a bandit camp to see how many were down there. One of them was in the habit of shooting at woodland creatures to relieve his boredom. And what do you know? He hit a crow. Who hit the ground, turned into a woman and called down a lightning strike on him.
By the time it was over, six bandits were dead, all at my hand. Three were captured and two more had run far, far away. The other two players took a single attack each but we split the bounties three ways.
- Location
- some computer lab
Okay, I've recently been conscripted to DM for a group of friends, and we're playing 5E. I've got a good idea of what I want the first adventure to be, but I've also DMed enough 5e to know that some monsters are grotesquely overpowered for their CR.
Can anyone tell me if Satyrs are one of those? I'm sorry for asking here but all the reddit results are complaining about a player option in a book none of us own.
Can anyone tell me if Satyrs are one of those? I'm sorry for asking here but all the reddit results are complaining about a player option in a book none of us own.
Strunkriidiisk
THE LEGEND
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The main thing I'm noticing is that they're magic-resistant, so any characters that rely on forcing saves (clerics and bards principally, but most spellcasters have at least a few) might have an annoying time.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
the biggest issue is the pipes; multi-target save-or-suck attacks are often a tpk waiting to happen, especially in 5th ed where PCs have dogshit for saving throws.
otherwise they're basically like goblins, in that you need to play them like they've got tofu where their brains should be unless you want a tpk; satyrs have +6 to stealth (so spotting them once they've hidden is a cointoss for characters with good wis and perception proficiency, and worse than a toss for anyone without both of those) and they've got higher-than-average movement speed and bows, so they can just kite PCs while peppering them with arrows.
the actual problem is that the first two levels of 5th ed are, like, DCC-character-funnel-style meatgrinders if you don't fudge like mad.
- Location
- Drachyench on Discord
I'll note that multiple class options have ways to deal with above-average speed (Rogues can dash as a Bonus Action, Fighters get their Action Surge to ideally rush 'em somewhere they can be pinned, Monk & Barb have their own boosts to speed) and if the Satyr is doing things like playing the pipes they probably aren't getting the Stealth effect anymore since 5E lacks the whole "You can roll to hide in the open while shooting somebody in the face if the target's Perception is shit enough".
- Pronouns
- She/Her
actually, they don't have ways to deal with above-average speed at first level (and the poor stupid barbarian doesn't get it until fifth level), because the only thing separating a first-level 5th ed character from Dirtfarmer #1 is 5 hit points, 100 gp worth of gear, and a thousand-word backstory.
and just getting the jump is good enough if you've got a multi-target save-or-suck.
- Location
- Somewhere
No one should ever play D&D below 5th level. I know I don't play or run anything below that in any edition.
- Pronouns
- He
Saw some D&D mimics minis for sale today and not a one of them had an elf mage half-buried inside and wiggling around to get free. 0/10, completely unbuyable.
- Location
- Michigan
With WOTC getting into the worst monetization schemes that video game companies use, will 1 and 3 even be true anymore?
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
Well, thankfully, they haven't yet found a way to make you pay them real money to get in-game gold, so your character can still get rich.
asdx
Superior Sword Fairy
- Location
- Texas.
3rd Level is a perfectly fine start.
HoratioVonBecker
Imperfectly Aligned
I expect 1st level is a fine place to start if you're doing an oldschool heist game - the kind that treats actually getting in combat as something of a failstate.
- Location
- Somewhere
Part of why I say 5th is that that's traditionally when everyone first gets the stuff that will be their roll. fifth level is when proper condition removal spells become available to the cleric, when AOE becomes usable for the wizard, etc….
Gotta say, nothing about the new edition has really made me want to purchase it over other options. Especially considering that Hasbro has done everything in its power to push me away from DnD. At this point I'll play a game if someone is running it, but I am not spending a cent on this revision as it is.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
Yeah, I've got no interest in this. It sounds like it's mostly the same as 5E, so I doubt it's fixed any of my gripes about that edition. Abuse-enabler Mike Mearls might be gone (which is a big maybe, because he's supposedly been gone before and then been brought back), but the business practices are still very exploitative. And I've got PF2E for when I want a D&D-esque experience, and it's doing a better job of it than just about anything that we've had thus far.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
He was Hired by Chaosium in May.
So no worries, he won't be abusing power in WotC anymore. He'll be doing it at Chaosium instead.
Fuck Chaosium, they have been added to my "never give money to" list.
Honestly, aside from the operations that were just one guy and associates and never really went fully corporate, all the old, mainline RPG publishers have the same basic problem. They're a fucking good old boys club. Oooh, no a white man of my set had consequences catch up with him!? Old shitheels network to the rescue!
-_-
If you want something 5e and don't want to give money to WotC you also have Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press. It's open source rules include a guide on porting 5e subclasses. Also their settings are pretty sweet - the Labyrinth supplement scratches the Planescape itch without being too derivative.