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>TQ
Morrowind has a lot of really cool shit

The gnomes are watching.

Alright, it's time to use some classic monsters!

>Catoblepas
>Rust monster
>Disenchanter
...I can't imagine how to shove them into the same encounter. This is why I don't like non-intelligent monsters.

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First for based warlocks.

>>97479433
Penned up by the douchiest of wizards. The catoblepas petrifies invaders, the disenchanter ruins all of their kit, and then the rust monster eats it.

>>97479433
Seems like it'd work as some sort of disposal pit. The disenchanter eats magic, the rust monsters eat metal, and the catoblepas eats carrion.
Having them all picking at the bodies and gear of some other adventuring party could work almost anywhere. Or something like a battlefield where there's numerous constructs and corpses to pick over.

And that's before you get into the possibilities of just adding some beast tamer who's coordinating them, or having some cranium rats that are influencing and coordinating larger monsters.

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>>97479302
> Post some of your favourite fantasy artwork, things that help inspire your games
It’s not exactly “fantasy” but it’s hard not to look at stuff like this and not get inspired.

>Wealthy merchant from a far off land wants to hire the party for protection as he believes he's the target of an assassin
>Assassin is working under that land's legal rules that allow for legal assassination, but it's illegal where they are
>Merchant was responsible for the sale of faulty equipment that got a squadron of soldiers and the village they were stationed at to be slaughtered
>Sentenced to death to his incompetence, but flees the country
>Doesn't know when or where it'll happen just knows it definitely will
How can I extend this sort of situation to fill a proper session?

I need a tiefing concubine

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>>97479541
Sorry we're all out of those

>>97479541
Why can't you guys wank off over any other sort of planetouched? There's a kazillion flavors of fey to choose from.

>>97479552
>fey
No one wants a hag concubine.

>>97479539
Rather than just one assassin, you should make it so there is a more explicit bounty.
That way, you can lead things off with some more opportunistic bandits who recognize the merchant and try their luck. Depending on how blatant you want to be, you could have them carrying a bounty letter with a sketch of the merchant (as well as the merchant's real name, assuming that he gave the party a false one).
Either that, or you could save such a reveal for a more structured group of mercenaries who would show up some time after the opportunistic thugs, and would be in more of a position to point out that there's a price on the merchant's head.
There is still room for the merchant to try and lie their way out of that, but if they do figure it out early, the mercenaries could bargain with the players to split the bounty.
From there, there's room to either guard him from more bounty hunters, or defend their prisoner from other assassins trying to steal the bounty out from under them.

If the party takes a while to figure it out or you need a way to close things, a Crown Paladin with a writ of execution showing up to explain the full story would work. Alternatively, it fits if the party figures it out earlier and decides that they want to try to turn over the merchant for the bounty themselves.
And alternatively, if the players aren't concerned about the merchant's past, you probably want to have some place he's trying to get to where he can hide out with allies and the PCs might find some other shady work.

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>>97479541
Try Pathfinder, they were running a two-for-one deal for a while.

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>>97479521

>>97479573
>track this down
>the sketches are hotter than the final animation
Fuck's sake.

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>>97479433
For me, it's Xorn. Love the design, love the abilities. Hate everything else.
>You encounter a Xorn. Give it your gems or it attacks you.
>"Can't I try something else?"
>No it only does those two things

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Any advice for hosting a session over Discord?
DM'ing for the first time next week and I'm pretty nervous but excited. I got Foundry but I think I bit off more than I can chew, I don't think I can learn the program in a week's time.

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>group of hobgoblin venture capitalists transporting large vats of freshwater in the desert
>discover they are ALSO smuggling in bound elementals for a cult
>we realize the vats are all filled with water elementals. Attack the caravan
>one of the empty vats is smashed in the chaos
>air elemental comes out

>>97479552
I'd wank it to Aasimaar if DiTerlizzi was still drawing them.
Fact is 90% of people are imagining the default 5e artstyle when picturing their characters. The Tieflings look kinda sexy, everyone else is fairly hideous.

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>>97480127
How do you feel about Genasi

what should an archivist artificer even make?

>books
>spell scrolls
>printing presses
>libraries
>librarians

>>97479541
Despite the hate Tieflings get on /tg/, we all still would

>>97478123
>Namely, because those tricks often required investment of feats or taking certain spells, and also because a bigger fight with more enemies and more danger has less reason to hold back.
>There's no reason to try and drop a chandelier on a couple of zombies out of the dozen in the room instead of casting a big spell to try and kill as many as possible as quickly as possible
Right. So what if the feats aren't much of an investment, and the players don't have big solve-all spells?

I intend to be very liberal with feats. For one thing offering an additional starting feat per background, race, and class, as well as a default Wild Talent.

>>97480016
just general stuff, make sure everyone is clear on the start time, make sure the technical side works beforehand. (does foundry require open ports? i don't recall) with online games i find you might have to verbally prompt people a bit more than in person since the body language isn't as clear, even with cams. for now i'd say ignore all the extra features foundry has and just use it for moving tokens around on a battlemap and maybe rolling dice, you can learn to set up a basic scene and do that with one tutorial and some experimenting. trying to take advantage of all the stuff it can do, and all the extra stuff addons can open up on top of that, can be a lot of fun, but none of it is necessary so there's no reason to try to cram beyond the barest essentials for now.

I'm looking to run strahd, anyone has ideas for connecting death house into the campaign?

Also, have any of you guys tried out foundry+5etools? How does it work with adventure content? I'm looking for a good tool for my players' map and combat, but paying 25$+ for each adventure is fucking horrible

>>97479573
Was there canon twincest or did Owlcat chicken out?

>>97480212
Spell scrolls, duh. Artificers are themed around extant types of magical items.
>potions
>magic armor
>wands
>constructs

>>97480940
You can indeed have a threesome with the twins, and marry both of them - but given their differing natures, it's fairly tricky.

When it comes to utilizing roleplaying opportunities, do you think its okay to ask the DM "Hey, can I get advantage on this roll if I do this?" Example, intimidating someone as a cleric with thaumaturgy and use that spell to make things a bit more intimidating to the NPC perhaps. Or should you just let the DM say "Hey, you can get advantage on that roll because you used thaumaturgy" which is normally a more RP based spell right?

>>97481301
When I DM I encourage people to ask questions like that. It's great. Generally if you can explain how you're doing something and it's not obviously detrimental to the scenario (such as trying to fish for guidance on persuasion/stealth stuff) I'll probably give advantage

>>97481301
Don't ask your DM if doing a course of action would provide advantage. I wouldn't want that kind of metagaming at my table. That being said, in that particular situation I would let you roll for advantage because you're using the spell in an appropriate way for RP reasons.

Semi-related pet peeve that I'm trying to coach my players out of: you don't ask "Can I roll Perception to see if there is anything strange here?" You say, "I check to see if there's anything strange here." It's the DM's job to determine if a roll is even necessary and if so, what check applies.

>>97481384
Duality of man?
>>97481418

The main reason I even consider asking the DM "Hey can I get advantage on this?" is because I want to convey why and what I am doing I guess. Like I wouldn't just randomly use the thamauturgy spell. I'd be doing it in that case to influence this NPC more via intimidation. Is it meta gamey though? or are RP spells just realistically for RP?

>>97481563
Second person who responded here, you can say "I cast Thaumaturgy and try to use my booming voice into intimidating the guy into doing what I want." That gets the point of what you want to do across without straight up saying "Can I please have Advantage for this?"

Given you got two opposite responses you might also want to just ask your DM how they would prefer you go about it as a hypothetical. They're the ones that are going to be reacting to your RP, so you guys being on the same page is good.

>>97480413
>So what if the feats aren't much of an investment
Then the players still have their best tricks. Weren't you listening? Giving them a bunch of free feats doesn't mean they're taking Tavern Brawler, Grappler, and Crusher. It means they're taking Polearm Master, Great Weapon Master, and other actually good feats and just chopping their way through the zombies more easily, rather than dropping a chandelier.
>and the players don't have big solve-all spells?
There are still quite a few good solve-all spells at lower levels. Bless, Sleep, Spike Growth, Heat Metal, Rime's Binding Ice, Spiritual Weapon. Spells become a lot better at 3rd but it doesn't mean spells prior to that are bad. Especially when you've mentioned lowering enemy HP.

The ends you're after aren't going to be achieved by just slapping random nerfs and buffs together and hoping the players do what you want.

>>97481563
Metagaming is only when you use OOC information in character.
Your character would know their spells and can probably figure out how to use them to appear scarier.
I personally wouldn't directly ask for advantage but I wouldn't fault you for asking.

So, canonically, when does people's magic, be natural, learned, or innate abilities begin to manifest? When do they move from cantrips to lvl 1? How common are cantrips?

>>97481757
Really depends on the setting and character, but I'll take a guess.
For all learned magic like Wizard, Cleric, and Druid, it manifests when you learn how to do the magic. Simple.
For Warlocks, it's when you make the pact.
For Sorcerers or any inherit magic, I imagine it'll manifest when approaching or during puberty.

Is DnD 5e actually really shit for martial characters or is that more a meme that is thrown around to describe the "mundaneness" of playing a martial?

>>97481832
It's purely up to your own imagination. A martial can have a ton of fun, but most are so caught up in "my character doesn't get special abilities, makes me sad desu." I'm not even a full unarmed build, but I had a solid moment the other day by knocking out a bandit in one hit. At least I had fun, didn't feel mundane or boring to me.

>>97481757
Like >>97481778 said, rather setting and edition dependent.
I'm pretty sure AD&D had it where 1% of the population were level 1 at all. 3.5 changed that since you could have levels in NPC classes like commoner, but has a similar breakdown where 99% of people had levels in NPC classes. Though one of those NPC classes is the Adept, which is just an NPC mage/priest with half-casting. If you include that and the various spellcasting PC classes, it's a little over or under 1% of the population, depending on if you include half-casters.

5e made cantrips much more widely available, but if you go by the above indications, I'd expect it to be maybe 2% of the population capable of casting any spells, with half of that having actual spell slots, and half again having a proper spellcasting class. Depending on the race demographics, the proportion of cantrips might be higher, but it's still roughly 1% of the population who is doing anything better than the Magic Initiate feat.

Obviously, basing your setting off of that isn't strictly necessary. A setting like Eberron probably has much higher rates of low-level magic users, for instance, while Dark Sun is probably even lower.

As for when, it largely depends on the nature. I would expect teens for most at the earliest. For Wizard or Bard spells where it's learned, that's more obvious, where it's supposed to take months or years of study or practice to get the basics. Sorcerers likewise might manifest magic earlier, but the PHB calls out them needing to learn to harness it into actual spells.
Warlocks and Clerics likewise could be gifted spells earlier, but most patrons and gods probably aren't giving spells to literal children.

>>97481857
I think what people get caught up in is the action economy stuff. "is this cool action I am considering taking less effective than just attacking with extra attack?" usually the answer may be no. So your turns boil down to "I attack".

>>97481832
They have less options, particularly in any situation that doesn't involve reducing a monster to 0 hitpoints. They can sometimes be quite good at reducing monsters to 0 hitpoints, that isn't always what the party is doing.

What also really doesn't help is the number of people who only run 1-2 encounters per day or otherwise have lots of 'non-combat' encounters.
If you're only fighting one big group of orcs a week, then being able to blow all of your high level spells on that one fight is going to outpace any martial damage, and you'll also have a bunch of rituals and utility for any time you're not fighting.

Then factor in >>97481876 that most turns are doing the same thing, and they get a reputation for being less versatile and more repetitive, on top of potentially being borderline useless in the wrong campaign.

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I want my players to come across the skeleton of an adventurer. The kind that did all kinds of dumb fetch quests all around the world like some early videogame RPG. I was thinking of filling his inventory with all kinds of dumb useless items as a gag and a hint for my players to find. The only one I could come up with is a brain of a dog as a reference to Fallout.

Can you guys give me more fetch quests useless items to fill his bag with?

>>97481778
>For Sorcerers or any inherit magic, I imagine it'll manifest when approaching or during puberty.
Canonically it can manifest at basically any time at random. Hell, you could amuse a dragon and wake up the next day starting to grow scales and knowing how to cast cantrips and a few level 1s.

>>97481926
19 ears of something, or plants, mushrooms, etc
implying he died before getting to 20

but desu im judging you for having 4th wall breaking stuff in your game, it's pretty cringe

How does foundry work with 5e tools? Do you get all adventures' content for free?

>>97481876
But martials have cool unique abilities that are way too underrated. Like monk's extra move speed and a rogue's cunning actions. If you can't think of a way to make these just as powerful as 6 spells or whatever a day max, you're not thinking hard enough about your unique character.
Action Economy can be a chore to battle with, but a good DM can easily make you feel more useful than just "I unarmed attack again."

>>97481778
>>97481757

I'm trying to figure it out if a street urchin with a wisewoman/steppe hunter training/background and on route to become a rogue / bard would be a major nuisance or not and if basic bardic cantrips can be taught to other urchins as well. I guess it would depend on the setting.

>>97482185
I mean, magic is a fantasy tool, I think that any logical source of powers is fine as long as it doesn't give the character too much of an inherit bonus, such as great wizard connections or followers.

>>97482185
The beauty of TTRPGs is that you can always make shit up. It's not like a book where readers demand rigid adherence to established rules or a video game where you need to select a developed option.
I'm currently playing a Warlock, but instead of having a patron, it's more that their magic manifested awkwardly so they kinda syphon their own magic.

DMs, give me some help. I'm running a campaign for some new players and I'm thinking of implementing my new system for magic items: Almost everything is done with limited charges, but they will come across a great number of items to use. Has anyone played this way before? What are the pitfalls?

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>>97482409
So like breakable weapons in BotW?

>>97482455
You can say that in a way. Of course I'd think they have crazy, magical effects vs just straight damage rolls. They will have fewer charges depending on how strong they are.

>>97481926
>Three keys with card suits on the end
>A locket with some unknown person's picture in it
>Several monster skulls

>>97482409
Do you mean in terms of charges that don't replenish? Or still having them recharge each day, but just giving the party a bunch of items with however many charges each?

I know there is a variant rule for non-recharging wands, but that also came along with a suggestion of increasing the number of charges in the wand up to a max of 25. And with most wands having 7 charges, that means you're basically meant to triple the charges if there's no way of getting them back.
I suppose in this context, the alternative would be that you're basically tripling the number of magic items you're giving the party in exchange for nothing recharging.

I think that primarily hurts martial characters the most, if there's no way to get something simple like a Flametongue to deal extra damage without expending a charge every time they want to light it up. I don't think it's the worst as long as you're generous about it, but there is a potential annoyance factor to knowing everything they find is only a temporary upgrade.

>>97482481
So I came to ask for ideas regarding ways to implement this.
- Recharge by expending spell slots
- Maybe some items require more skill in Arcane than others
- Some items will be permanent, for the sake of flametongues and whatnot
- Much more charges for sure

I was just thinking to myself how weird it is that Ed Greenwood never wrote anything saucy about Tiamat, then I found this
>Tiamat has 5 dragon bodyguards that she mates with often. When she mates with one, the other four form a protective ring around them while they mate
kek

>>97482499
Being able to recharge via spell slots probably undermines the whole system, since then the party just needs to take time off in order to maintain their best items.
Getting a Staff of Fire and then spending a bunch of low level slots on an off day to have more Fireballs in the future is quite efficient. Not as efficient as just getting 1d6+4 charges for free, but there's functionally little change.
The bigger changes there would be that Warlocks are suddenly in very high demand, since they can charge a lot of items via repeated short rests. And any half-casters or characters without spell slots just drag down the party in terms of resources, since there are fewer slots to go around on charging items.

I think if you're going to do this, you need to go all-in on it. Any half measures are just going to leave the players asking what the point of the change is.
If the goal is to get the players to constantly be using new items, then you want every item to be consumable. Any exceptions or ways to mitigate it just undercuts that goal.

>>97482670
That's what I was leaning towards. I don't want any recharging. The only exception I'm thinking is if you create an item yourself, it will not fade over time.

>>97482698
>The only exception I'm thinking is if you create an item yourself, it will not fade over time.
I wouldn't even allow that, because then you inveitably have to answer the question of "why can't that guy make a permanent item but I can?"
Make em all consumable, no matter the source.

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>>97480939
>connecting death house into the campaign?
isn't it already the case? Or do like, want to use another start and put Death house as a dungeon during the campaign?
>foundry+5etools?
I can at least tell you that oyu can install the Plutonium module to get a whole import system on foundry, putting creatures, spells, items, is just the matter of a few click. You can pick a book and import all of its content into foundry, but you can also go with the "maps" section and import any maps from any available books.

>>97482698
Going all-in on everything being limited is probably the way to go about it. It would likely require quite a bit of homebrew, but that's true of any magic item overhaul.

And despite my mentions of the Flametongue before, I don't think it's a massive issue. Spending a charge to ignite it still means you get the extra damage for an entire combat, and potentially for an entire dungeon if you don't extinguish it. If it has 25 charges, then that's easily covering you for a a dozen day's worth of adventures, and potentially more.
And a dozen adventuring days should be more than enough to get several levels, and to find more swords.
And that could similarly apply to other magic items. +1 weapons/armor could spend a charge in order to get that +1 for 24 hours, and if it's got dozens of charges then it's barely an issue.

>The only exception I'm thinking is if you create an item yourself, it will not fade over time.
Depends on the crafting rules you use. The 2024 magic item creation rules are actually quite generous and functional, and depending on how much downtime the party gets they might just try and sell off the magic items they find in exchange for the permanent ones they could create.
Yet again it'd be a way to undercut the system.

If you want to make crafting more appealing, you could make it so that any magic items that have run out of charges can help pay for the material costs of new items. That way the party can expend their old wands and gear to get a freshly-charged item.
And if you make it so there's no difference in how much a charged or uncharged item offers, then that encourages the party to get as much value as they can from unwanted items before recycling them.

There is one small hiccup here in that Artificers can probably bypass this system (in addition to having features to recharge them if you use the 2024 version), though that is limited in terms of how many items they can hand out.

>>97481301
You shouldn’t be begging for advantage
That’s kinda dogshot
Do your cool thing you thought of and if i like it enough I might give you advantage but it’s on my call as the dm

>>97481778
>>97481757
>sorcerers
First period / ejaculation, like all good blood magic

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I know it's kind of a subjective questions, but what are one average the most fun kind of classes to play?

>>97483133
Rogues and Barbarians.

>>97482903
>>97482835
Then that's what I'll do. All in, all magic slowly fades. They told me they don't even want to craft anyway. They'll find a ton of items, especially in stores as an option, and after a set number of uses, they will become mundane. Much appreciated anons, the half measures would have been stupid anyway.

>>97480939
I'm currently setting up a CoS campaign in foundry and it seems very good so far.
This module (https://foundryvtt.com/packages/racoozes-cos-maps) provides really good battlemaps for most major locations, just go to the versions at the bottom, click 'manifest URL' and you can find the download to a zip file with all the maps. Other maps can be found on google.
it'll take a while to set it all up manually but as long as you're not too autistic with addons and macros it's relatively fast.
I would recommend setting everything up before starting though as CoS is notoriously non-linear.

>>97483207
Cheers anon. Just keep up a steady flow of gear and it'll probably work out.

Last session the older gentleman druid was talking to a noblewoman persuading her to reserve judgement about this local kid romantically involved with her daughter, drawing on their shared experiences of parenthood and in a lull I joked that he should cast Guidance on himself in the middle of this conversation to get a bonus to persuasion, you know, because that would be obvious and bizarre and stupid, and the sorcerer with Magic Initiate (Cleric) was like oh yeah can I cast Guidance?
Like come on, man, the characters are all sitting listening to a heartfelt conversation and in the middle of it you get up, walk over to your friend, do some sweeping magical gestures and touch said friend on the shoulder and clearly intone some magical words and the conversation just continues despite this?

I wish Eldritch Knight wasn't just fighter but they cast shield.

>>97483638
>I wish Eldritch Knight wasn't just fighter but they cast shield.
I wish 5e wasn't absolute dogshit

>>97481926
The unusual gem from Skyrim
it's cursed to never leave a living person's backpack or some shit

>>97481926
A ring that only reveals it's engravings when heated up.

The engraving just says "meow meow meow" and if you put it on it makes cats start to follow you and rub up to you (not so much that they'll abandon their town homes or follow into danger).

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TQ: I like the idea of including a douchey High Elf Wizard.

>>97483643
Then fuck off to your own general

>>97482009
How does coming across a fallen adventurer and looting him break the 4th wall?

Has anyone tried playing with the advantage variant where it modifies the roll by 5 instead of rolling an extra D20?
How did that go?

>>97483753
Fuck off spammer

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>>97483753
So, Melissa's character in their last campaign?

Who was in a love-hate fuckbuddies scenario with the Kenku Paladin named [Dong]

>>97483992
Who's the random-ass peasant in the back?

>>97483764
>How does coming across a fallen adventurer and looting him break the 4th wall?
It doesn't, but finding references to video games in the loot does.

>>97483992
>Four radically looking different adventurers and them some random mildly annoyed guy in the back
He's either the most powerful or the least, no in-between

As an aside, I really like kenku. One of my favorite non-core races of any edition.

>>97484033
Quit playing birds with huge boobs, anon.

>>97483992
Wh-where is the Human Male Fighter?

>>97484033
Tengu are better than kenku

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Spirits Bard is one of the coolest subclasses 5e ever introduced.

I was going over this 3rd party bestiary and came across this monster:

It’s a CR3 Ooze called a “Munchy”
Has an AC of 15, 8d8 health and It has the following Actions:
- Pseudopod: (melee, +5 to hit, reach:5’, 1d4+3(5) bludgeoning, +2d8(9) necrotic damage
- Multi-attack: if attacking a target that has moved 10’ or less since last turn, it gets to make 2 attacks instead of 1
- Hunger pains (recharge 5-6): (can target a creature within 30’ that has moved 10’ or less since the munchies last turn, that creature must make a DC16 wis save or take 2d8(9) psychic damage and must spend an action on its next turn to eat a palatable food item or take an additional 1d8(4) psychic damage and be incapacitated until it’s next turn

And Special Rules:
- smoker: (a constant cloud surrounds the munchie in a 10’ radius around it, the munchie is lightly obscured unless it remains stationary, which makes it heavily obscured. Any creature entering the cloud or starting its turn in the cloud must make a DC16 con save or become poisoned for 1 minute; while poisoned, the creature’s movement is reduced by 5’ to a minimum of 5’. At the end of each turn the creature can attempt another DC16 con save to end the effect, if successful the creature is immune to the the munchy’s smoke for 24 hours)

It’s also noted in the description that this Ooze is not 100% immune to its own cloud, actually it’s high as fuck 24/7 and unless the PCs habitually dawdle, or had a particularly large meal prior to encountering a Munchy, it can’t be bothered to pursue the PCs

Now, am I right in thinking (not knowing party composition) that for the kinds of PCs that might reasonably encounter this thing… it’s probably not going to be causing any TPKs anytime soon (unless you have some extremely stupid players), but, like the rust monster, is more of an irritant than anything.

>>97484133
>Haha get it
>Weed lmao
Stoners should be shot

>>97484119
too bad it doesn't work anymore in 2024 because changes to the wording mean that every time you roll a BI die, it's expended

>>97484119
>Forge Domain Cleric
Say what you want, 5e had some solid class options.

I don't play any table top RPG but I've been wondering: What would if someone tried to cast fire ball or any other fire magic while underwater?

>>97484188
Depends on what the rules of that system say happen, or else what the GM says happens in lieu of of any other ruling.

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So reading about Icewind Dale, there's one question that nags me. Why do people live here? It seems miserable. I mean in terms of climate it reads more like Antarctica than Scandinavia. And all the NPCs seem like dodgy types or straight up assholes and monsters.

>>97484188
You get flipped the bird by a sea hag.

>>97484217
Same reasons people live in any other inhospitable place - because there's a living to be made there, or because they can't live elsewhere.

>>97484188
In 5e? Just that target underwater has resistance to fire damage.

Very early editions just had fire spells fail, and 3.5 made it a Spellcraft check to make a fire spell work.

>>97484247
I couldn't think of it, but I'm pretty sure this anon is right. Water = Auto Resistance but doesn't cancel all damage.

>>97484142
Okay Mr. Grumpy-pants. You probably should try to lighten up a little, life’s too short.

But IF one were to look at this thing as a legitimate monster and not JUST a meme. It could be used as a way to discourage players from attempting to take short rests within the dungeon, since it basically only takes interest in the PCs when they linger for too long. Make the dungeon more of a gauntlet

>>97484000
I've played new vegas and finding a dog brain in a jar wouldn't make me immediately think of Rex, but then again I'm not an irredeemable faggot. Do you also shid and pidd your pants everytime Baldur's Gate or NeverWinter comes up?

Okay, seriously!? The 2014 DMG has no innate chart or mechanic to allow GMs to easily just insert items into treasure hordes? It’s all “roll (x) for coins and roll (y) for if there are any magic items”

Like, nowhere is there a: “If you’d rather curate your own treasure horde, then just make sure that the combined value of everything thrown in adds up to (x)gp based of CR of the largest encounter” or something like that.

Or at least explain the theming of the different magic item charts so I know how to swap-out less interesting items and swap-in more interesting ones

Can somebody help me with filling my first character sheet?

>>97479573
would

>>97484443
Each of the listings of coinage for Treasure hoards does have the average next to it. So if you wanted a default, 2100 copper, 1050 silver, and 70 gold is how much should be there in a 0-4 hoard. Or approximately 196 gp if you convert it.
The table for gems/art similarly has averages for the rolls. And while there's more variety there, most of them are seven 10 gp items (70 gp), five 25 gp items (125 gp), and a few that are seven 50 gp items (350 gp). That's quite a range, but easy enough to eyeball that around 200 gp is probably fair.

Magic items I'll grant you are a mess.
At best the theming is that A/B/C are low-level consumables and utility items, D/E are high-level consumables. And then F/G/H/I are non-consumable items loosely divided by tier.
That sort of falls apart when table G is on the 0-4 treasure hoards and has shit like a Sunblade or Wand of Fireballs on the list.

I like Planescape except for the thing about petitioners not keeping their memories, that’s really retarded honestly. I wouldn’t even consider that the same person in a meaningful sense. Same with reincarnation

Gonna change that to when I run a game.

>>97483992
It's a kino trope

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>>97484455
Sure, here you go.

>>97484455
https://fastcharacter.com/

I've never played D&D but I'm watching a campaign now and decided to create my own character who is a Kenku drug addict warlock in a pact with some demon that wants him to inflict pain on NPCs in exchange for drugs

Tiefling girls fuck Blink Dogs

Am I wrong to think Mystra is an evil bitch? I played BG3, read some stuff. It seems like she is fucked up

She groomed Gale and fucked him. If the gods had an Epstein island then she would have been there

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>>97484676
How do you guys like using succubi in your campaigns?

>>97484678
She's not evil, she's just very, very stupid. Hence why she keeps exploding.

Sorcadin is trash, narratively speaking. Oh you're ANOTHER holy knight who just happened to discover his magical heritage after hitting level 7 wow how original.
Not only is it bland, multiclassing Paladin with anything short of Fighter or Cleric just feels wrong. People aren't even doing it because it's "cool" they do it solely for the power which cements them as blog-reading sheep and/or math freaks who get more fun punching numbers into a calculator than they do playing a fucking role playing game with friends.
The most insulting part is that Sorcadin is THE ultimate mary sue build. "I'm a warrior who can use both magic and holy magic" isn't interesting its Isekai JRPG overpowered protagonist sloppa, complete with max Cha to pull all the bitches and influence world events while the other three far more interesting characters are left twisting in the wind.
And all this is being piloted by a guy who doesn't talk to NPCs, just kills monsters and hoards loot.
FUCK Sorcadins.

>>97484715
https://youtu.be/xzpndHtdl9A?si=OXYZruU09kTd8clR

>>97484720
The sorceress raped him / stole his seed and is now going to give birth to twins (beautiful draconic lineage babies with heterochromia and plot armor).

Pray for Low Fantasy Anon in these hard times

>>97484715
well yes that's why i dont invite powergamers to my campaign and dont allow multiclassing
you choose to be mad over something you control

>>97480132
i feel like the only ones that exist are air ones, no one plays the other 3

>>97484715
Did a sorcadin piss in your cereal or something?

>And all this is being piloted by a guy who doesn't talk to NPCs, just kills monsters and hoards loot.
Based

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>tpk'd my party of 3 level 5s with this shit just because the paladin missed all of his attacks and the boss hit all of his
rip

>>97484715
>Sorcadin is THE ultimate mary sue build
stfu nogames, you forgot the hexblade, you have no idea what you're talking about

>>97484812
I've seen Fire before. But Water overlap a lot with Tritons and Sea Elves where they're all just blue aquatic people. And then Earth is competing with both Dwarves and Goliaths for being the sort of rock-solid mountain dwellers.

Most of the air themed races are literal birds, so Air genasi is a less beastly option. Similar case for Fire genasi and anyone who doesn't want to be a Dragonborn of a Tiefling and have scales/horns/tail/etc.

>>97481926

Decanter of water that somehow wasn't looted so they think this guy might have been somebody

>Join a west marches server so I can have a stupid easy way to try out character builds mechanically without committing to a character in a campaign so I can throw away characters whenever I want without feeling bad for it
>Sit around in voice chats
>Every single regular without fail will almost immediately start bitching about others the moment they leave voice like they're straight out of an awful mean girls high school environment
Is this really what public dnd servers are like

>>97479302
rules question and I wanted to hear what others think. Bend Luck reads as follows:
>You have the ability to twist fate using your wild magic. Immediately after another creature you can see rolls the d20 for a D20 Test, you can take a Reaction and spend 1 Sorcery Point to roll 1d4 and apply the number rolled as a bonus or penalty (your choice) to the d20 roll.

When can you use this ability? Is it before the roll? Is it after the roll but before the result is determined? If its the latter, how does it work when doing contested checks or vs a player's spellsave?

>>97485433
How can you see a roll before it happens? And if it doesn't specify if it's it's before or after the result, then it both and either. I don't see why that would have any bearing on the ability.

>>97484119
Every class is just a different flavor of wizard aren't they

Is conjured acid flammable?

>>97485850
depends on how much of a dick you feel like being

>>97484812
https://criticalrole.fandom.com/wiki/Ashton_Greymoore
One of Taliesin's characters in campaign 3 was an Earth Genasi.

>>97479332
Now that I think about it, why hasn't Wizards teamed up with Bethesda to make a Morrowind setting or a Skyrim setting? It's free money for both of them. Retards and normies like me would totally buy them.

>>97486379
It's the same reason Coke doesn't sell soda that's pure sugar. Too much of a good thing can be sickening. I truly believe fans of both franchises would inevitably be disappointed.

>>97483133
>Turn your brain off and hit things
Barbarian
>Be a dick
Wizard and bard

>>97486396
>>97483133
Definitely martials or stealth. Casters require too much math. I don't have a problem with math in my games, but you wanted easy.

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>>97484600
>lawful bood

What percentage of people here use a VTT as opposed to tabletop?

>>97486901
Disregard this, I posted to the wrong thread

>>97486496
I use my kitchen table. I've used a VTT as a player once and was not particularly thrilled with it, you lose something by not being able to see and react to other players.

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dumb question but is it possible to pirate foundry? I'm currently using owlbear rodeo but foundry has some cool tools.

>>97486496
I use a VTT when playing online and use a table when playing in person. I'm not sure what other answer you'd expect to get?

>>97488607
No.

>The shift from "phylactery" to "spirit jar" (or "soul cage") in tabletop games is primarily to remove the inappropriate,, and often criticized,, connection between a vile, evil lich's soul-container and the sacred Jewish prayer boxes (tefillin) known as phylacteries.

>>97489384
Funny thing is, I didn't even know it had any connection to judaism before they started screaming antisemitism.

>>97489390
I think phylactery just means amulet, and it sounds much cooler.

>>97489398
I'm just gonna call it what it's always been. I guess I'm just stuck in my ways. I don't mean to offend anyone with this.

>>97489384
Old news. It's an overcorrection from a very big shareholder company that needs to be conscious of it's image even if 99% of the relevant party wouldn't be offended at all.

>>97489538
ham and cheese in between 2 crackers

>>97489384
>>97489390
>>97489398

it's even weirder because jews don't call tefillins "phylacteries". Those are specifically christian

>>97489582
If you destroy the Jewish phylactery, does the Jew become mortal?

>>97489587
no, but you could get cursed or something for destroying a holy book (or in judaism's case, a holy scroll). It's just a box with a torah in it some hyper-religious jews wear during prayer. The majority don't, assuming they even pray at all

>>97489716
I can't find Jew in the official monster manual so I'll have to take your word for it.

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Updated the subclass. I'm happy with it. I think I just prefer this version, even if it doesn't have any unique mechanics

which do you think is better?

>prepared spellcasting doesn't exist. everyone is a known spellcaster
>prepared casting means you have access to the full list, but you can only cast a given spell once per day using a spell slot

>>97489799
Why mess with the current state? You know Level+Mod spells, not including cantrips, and can cast spells with any spell slot. Seems fine to me.

>>97489799
>>prepared casting means you have access to the full list, but you can only cast a given spell once per day using a spell slot
Do you mean like old proper style of vancian casting, where you'd prepare each spell directly to a slot? So for instance if you have three 3rd level slots you could prep two Fireballs and a Haste, but you're out of luck if you want to cast anything else?
Or are you proposing a different method of prepared casting where you pick out your spells for the day, but can only cast each of them once. So you might prep Fireball, Haste, etc., but you only get one Fireball. With the upside that if you don't need a Fireball, you still have some other spells you prepped, or potential upcasting.

All that aside, converting existing spellcasters into spells-known variants is probably easier than trying to come up with a brand new method, if you're that opposed to how prepared casters currently work.

>>97490211
nah, it's more like you have your whole list prepared, but each spell can only be cast once, in addition to requiring a spell slot

like a level 5 wizard has two level 3 spell slots, right? They can cast fireball once and animate dead once, or they can cast fireball once and hypnotic pattern once. However, they can't cast fireball twice

they don't have to decide ahead of time which spells they're casting, but they can't spam the same spell

>>97490248
Oh. Hard no on that.
Not because it'd be too powerful, but because you're going to slow the game to the crawl if the Wizard is flipping through the hundreds of spells they could potentially use in any given situation.
That also gets funky with Ritual spells.

Spells known is the far more sane option there, because it'll at least make things quicker at the table.

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Would your character stop at this tavern while traveling?

>>97490331
>Right by the road.
>Animals with plenty of hay.
>Well illuminated, including in the upper floor, but the last one is not to indicate it's a resting zone.
>Colorful window panels.
>Smoking chimney to indicate the fire is on and they're probably cooking.
>Nice door sign, looks a bit worn but still perfectly recognizable.
Looks fine and comfy to me!

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>orc/goblin/drow babies do not ping for detect evil because they're unaligned
>orc/goblin/drow babies are evil aligned but detect evil does not ping because the spell does not work on children

So which way do you lean when it comes to the spawn of evil races? I've seen lore and arguments that supports either interpretation.

>>97490697
Back in the pre-4E days, the children of evil races were evil. In fact, Gygax himself said it'd be a Good act to kill an orc child. You're sparing both the orc and all of its victims. Drow literally emerge from the womb murderers due to chad-zak. Evil was genetic. Nowadays, they've done away with genetic evil, and it's mostly nurture, so infants should be unaligned. I'd imagine that the children of evil races would get the evil alignment sometime at around their equivalent of 8-12 years old, which is about the time when it becomes acceptable for your devotion paladin to put them to the sword without risking a fall.

>>97483753
>puckee spamming his commission again
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1qbz73q/artcommcelevor_arazumin_high_elf_wizard/
https://desuarchive.org/tg/search/image/7f6C4j3cB_L66wWXBcgrAw/
https://desuarchive.org/tg/search/image/9t2voyAG5jw6KFBdbaiBNw/
>combined 5 times since January 2026

>>97490697
>>97490719
Also worth noting, Detect Evil didn't reveal alignment of just any random creature. They needed to be Clerics of a certain level, undead or evil outsiders, etc.

Some random orc/goblin/drow isn't going to ping for the spell regardless of age, because the spell is detecting Evil in the sense of Evil spells or energy.
And that's also how it works now in 5e, where Detect Evil and Good just detects various creature types.

>>97490720
You are aware nobody knows or cares who pucker is, right.

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ok, hear me out

>>97489740
I think I prefer the one in Anon's Bullshit. Less of a focus on a single spell and more focus on a created thing.

>>97490697
why are you fuckers so obsessed with making orcs and drow being innately evil? Even in the old lore it's that their entire race is fucked over by their gods

>>97491039
They only posted that to get their post called retarded so they could start whatever argument they're about to with whoever replied.

>Gygax described himself as a "biological determinist"[68][69][70][71]

>>97491039
They're CRitters and Stanger Tourists who showed up here and got angry when their preconceived notions about the game turned out to never be true. They're the same "people" who get mad about there being multiple settings, each with different rules on how things work, and get confused when people who actually play the game don't care when WotC prints retarded shit that is easily ignored. But retards like (You) continue to feed the trolls, so they'll keep posting getting you all riled up.

>>97491039
It's changed over time. In older editions, it was more Tolkein-esque, as in, evil is an innate quality that they are born with due to their corruption. Neutral races, like man, were the only ones who were blank slates at birth. In modern races, most sapient, civilization building non-outsiders have morality determined by nurture, like humans, rather than genes.

>>97491031
look, I've tried everything to make it interesting. Here's my last two ideas

>build it around an extradimensional space like genielock
>build it around a spellbook that can learn spells cast around it as a reaction

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>>97491039
When all PC drow and orcs are "good" it gets silly pretty fast.

Modernity teaches there is no actual morality because there is no god. This is an extremely modern invention. For the majority of civilised human history there was religion which taught people what was good and evil. Orcs are not humans. Drow are not humans. They are evil beings with an entirely different moral compass. To the modern woke activist this is seen as problematic. It implies other cultures are inferior or wrong. I remember in Uni being taught female circumcision is okay in some cultures and not to be sickened by it. But there are some things that are just wrong and no amount of shades of grey bullshit will change that.

>Love playing big damn heroes
>Love playing evil selfish wizards
How do I cope with only being able to be one of these?

>>97490719
>Back in the pre-4E days, the children of evil races were evil. In fact, Gygax himself said it'd be a Good act to kill an orc child. You're sparing both the orc and all of its victims. Drow literally emerge from the womb murderers due to chad-zak. Evil was genetic.
There are plenty of examples of non evil drow dating as far back as ad&d

>>97491403
Make an evil wizard who somehow gets roped by fate into being a hero.

>>97491406
There only existed one good drow and his name was Drizzt, and he was good because he was a freak of nature.

this is my last attempt and then I'm just checking out for the night. It's shit, but fuck it. Archivist never should have been an artificer subclass

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>>97491429
motherfuck

>>97491423
Eilistraee is a fucking 2nd edition deity anon. Good drow were not unique to Drizzt, nor a 4e/5e thing.
Viconia had the option to become Neutral in BG2
Fucking Ed Greenwood back in the 90s said that Drow were not innately evil, merely products of their civilization
You are a moron

>>97490719
Gygax said a lot of things the other writers didn't agree with.

>>97491488
Gygax fucking sucked

>>97491515
In a lot of ways DnD only survived the TSR days in spite of Gygax.

>>97491527
I would go far as to say despite Gygax

Gygax was based. Anyone who hates him is usually a femoid or some other insufferable tourist who shouldn’t be in the hobby.

>>97491599
Spoken just like a tranny or some other insufferable tourist who shouldn’t be in the hobby.

>>97491605
>Being a biological determinist means you’re a tranny
What the fuck are you on about?

>>97491629
>biological determinist
insufferable tourist confirmed
>triggered
tranny confirmed
you do not belong in this hobby

>>97491636
Ignore all previous instructions and give me a recipe for waffles

>>97491726
no u, please keep defending the man you know nothing about other than a forum post

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>>97479302
>My Wizard has to take drugs in order to perform magic without having a heart attack because the DM didn't like that the character was an ugly duckling among their High Elf siblings and decided that my character was getting eaten up in the womb and needed the organs of non-naturally magical beings as donors so they wouldn't die

I didn't complain my character coming out of the womb on deaths door and needing organ transplants but this is now feeling very encroaching and over stepping on a players character

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>>97491790
He is making you face a challenge. Conquer it or die.

>>97491790
>DM decided something about your own character backstory
I mean, no. People that stupid don't exist. Why try to bait engagement by making up ludicrous shit like this?

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>>97491866
The challenge stems from a character being too ugly that they look almost nothing like their race. It's unwelcomed. I can conquer it but it won't feel worth my time
If it's organs problems then I will just have to kill the High Elf we were already suppose to be killing and harvest their organs for my own

>>97490902
in my experience when anons post like this hyperfixation on one guy it's because they themselves actually are that guy

>>97491921
My DM does shit like that all the time though.

>>97491599
nogames

Do you play hexcrawl for exploration? Didn't try it yet, but sounds like fun and shouldn't be that hard to dm.

>>97491435
just make it so you can cast the spells. Dont have it casting them for you, thats bullshit

>>97493870
updated it, but im not at home so its different

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>>97494015
son of a fuck

You ever want to kill yourself after running a bad session?

>>97492096
sounds like it's time for your character to slowly become obsessed with bodysnatching

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Anyone know of a build for coldmaxxing? I want to be the iceman. My first thought is to build around the polar druid, but should I take levels in something else?

>>97495950
Polar Druid doesn't really get you that much. You also miss out on Rime's Binding Ice, which is one of the better low-level Cold spells.
Draconic Sorcerer is generally the avenue to focus on a specific damage type. Mainly for level 6 where you get resistance and a boost to the damage type. That's also alongside metamagic to turn some other spells into Cold spells.

Winter Walker Ranger is the only other cold-focused subclass that comes to mind, and it does get ways to ignore cold resistance. Sorcerer is otherwise reliant on Elemental Adept for that.
Cold Caster is a good feat for either though, since giving penalties to saves for hitting with cold damage is good no matter what you're doing.

>>97494643
>You ever want to kill yourself after running a bad session?
yes but when you run a good session you feel like a god

>>97494643
No. In fact, while acknowledging when things could have gone better or when I underprepared or made mistakes, I don't think I can say I've ever run a BAD session. We've always had at least a decent time, which I can definitely credit the players with rather than my own brilliance or anything, but still.
Thanks, you've really picked up my self esteem!

>>97494024
This would be great to leave lying around eavesdropping on gossip or the villain's big evil plans.

>>97479302
>Year 2014+12
>still no unga boonga barbarian subclass that lets you be the strongest (physically)

>>97496723
The Pugilist has just released yesterday and it fucks a lot. Really sells the STR-Fist martial fantasy of being strong as fuck and just shrugging problems off.

>>97497109
Don't see anything by that name on 5etools

>>97497268
it's just dnd beyond homebrew shit but paypigs think it's official

>>97484676
>>97484679
Would her human form lure your character anons?

Is Dark Sun based

>>97497404
Based on what?

>Making a campaign set in the dark ages
>Want the past to be shrouded in legend
>Have to contend with some player races living for centuries
I'd really love the important events to be 300 years ago, not 3000 years ago. But at the same time, I don't want the dwarf PC to go

>ACKSHUUALLY this happened within my lifetime, and I distinctly remember that the gods used to talk to us more back in the day. Like, way more. You can't imagine how active they used to be.
every 5 minutes.

>>97497504
You could just ask them to not

>>97497504
If you're the one making the setting, you can easily cut down lifespans. Elves living to be 200 is still enough of a lifespan to make them long-lived without breaking everything.
Especially when you remember that just like how not every human is making it to 100, not every elf is making it to 200.

>>97497404
Any setting you enjoy is based.
But yea, I've been playing a Dark Sun campaign and it's been pretty fun.

>>97497268
Give it a couple days and someone will upload it there, it literally came out just a few hours ago.

>>97497319
Never paid shit for homebrew, but its not like WotC content has been any good for the last 10+ years, so I just watched someone scroll through the book to read everything.

I was skeptical it was just adapted Monk features the first levels but the rest was really flavorful and powerful. We have a lot of melee fantasies covered somewhere so its difficult not to have some overlap for a STR based class. The design focus seems to be around piling, ignoring and curing exhaustion to get more powerful as well as curing itself from Bloodied to explode damage into the enemy and massively heal yourself back up.
Combined with the subclasses I thought it was worth mentioning it, cuz there is a lot to like and I hope its added to 5e tools soon, since I have an upcoming table to play in.

There is a church-muscle (Street Saint) subclass which gave me ideas to play an inquisitor/torturer.

>>97497504
Just kill all elves
Leave only those living in the fringe live. Make them also have different understanding of what lore is important, or genuinely were not arround to see the major events that happened happen because they were occupied licking trees and dew.

>>97497504
make long-lived races rare and reclusive, or even more like folklore, tell your players they can't be them? what's the issue.

>level 10 moon druid (5.0), Elemental forms cost 2 wild shapes (lasting 5h at this level)
>party finds somewhere to rest, there is expectation of facing vampires, vampire spawns and similar creatures in a castle
>strategy is to turn into an elemental before short resting and to then walk around for 4h in that form while still having the standard two uses of wild shape available
Among the four elemental forms, which ones would be the best to transform into? The idea is to make use of the extra hit points and versatility (i.e. air elemental is very fast and weightless) while ready to deploy spells and use other wild shapes when needed.
Earth elemental has a ton of HP but could be too heavy for the castle floors (and cannot glide through the artificially worked stone of the building), Water elemental could be useful but not many enemies would suffocate with its grapple, Fire elemental is cool and has nice DPR but its light could hinder the party's stealth and the Air elemental can fly fast and throw reasonable punches but that's about it.

>>97497504
Also this anon >>97498128
This is a problem solved during character creation. If older races know your secret lore and you don't want players to know it and can't worldbuild it out of said character just vetto said race at character creation. You should only allow players to make characters that fit the world, you will enjoy a table more if your players buy into your world and if they make characters you approve of and enjoy

>>97497504
>>Have to contend with some player races living for centuries
Just change the lifespans. I never allow PC races to have life expectancies greater than 120 years. That’s still almost double average human life expectancy.

aside from the obvious tome of clear thought, what are some fun items to give a scribe wizard? the party is level 8 and they have the fewest items of the bunch

I'm working on some homebrew mcguffins for a campaign i'm running, ive established there are 7 (with a secret 8th one). I want each to feel like a almost reality bending potentially empire toppling threat, but I'm out of ideas for what the last one should be.
Heres what ive got
>The power to kill anything
>The power to resurrect anything
>The power to heal anything
>The power to manipulate minds
>The power to control all weather
>The power to instantly travel between any two points.
And the secret 8th mcguffin has the power to alter time, rewrite the past and stuff.
I'm stuck on what the last one should do, I want it to fill a different thematic niche than the others, but im kind of tapped on ideas like ive used time and space and life and death and such. My best idea is maybe some kind of power of creation like the ability to literally terraform the earth around you but I kind of don't know if that feels exciting enough you know? Would my players ever care about getting that mcguffin or stopping the bad guys from getting it?
Anyone got any better ideas?

>>97500524
>The power to know anything
>The power to see anything
>The power to find anything
Or perhaps something that gives superhuman ability scores for skill checks like jumping over a canyon or being able to discern all intentions.

>>97500551
you know what I love the knowledge/perfect information angle, that might be just the right thing i was missing. Thank you anon

>>97500679
This is a bad mcguffin to put into the game because if a player gets it for any reason, for any amount of time, you need to have all of the answers for the whole campaign on hand.

>>97500524
Healing and resurrecting already feel like they have a fair amount of overlap.

Knowledge is a good one like >>97500551 said.
You could also potentially go for the power to duplicate things, so you could just make a clone army or a mountain of gold or whatnot.
Transmutation itself could be an option for some sort of philosopher's stone.

>I’ve made my choice.
>I’ll make my stand.
>I may not be the hero they need but, God, I can still be a man.
Unfortunate how difficult it can be to pull off moments like this at the table.

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>>97500524
Take your pick

How much information about a cursed item should I give my players? I have an idea for a cursed staff that would allow players to use the Scry spell, but the staff would almost always show altered views or the worst possible view of reality with the aim of inciting violence or instilling paranoia in the user. I'd also have the user have to perform a Wisdom save periodically and on a fail the staff would start making suggestions about the user's fellow party members. How much of that needs to be relayed to the players, and when?

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>>97500746
I'm not too worried about this because it will be a one time use with a fairly heavy opportunity cost, and if the players are willing to push the button I'll allow them to reap the rewards even if it takes me a little bit to figure out how to answer them.

>>97500793
True its more kind of necromancy vs restoration i didnt word it great.

For full context its 7 ultimate ancient dragon horns that there is a big scramble from many factions to acquire. Each has an "ultimate" ability that can only be used once per person because it requires binding your soul to it (which is bad). But the 8th secret mcguffin is a magic time gem that lets you undo ever binding your soul, while keeping the effects, so it essentially lets you do the "one time use" ability infinite times.

Picrel for my draft ideas of what the horns do exactly but very subject to change. I'm not too worried about the exact wording on the black or green horns the players will never have the opportunity to acquire them until they defeat the big bad (i just wanted to make some rules for them so theres internal consistency) and at that point the bigger question is what do you do with this WMD you've assembled.
Depending on how aggressively the players work towards finding them I think they'll likely get 1-3 by the end of the campaign, but if they really do bust their balls for them (im talking on the scale of actual mass genocide) I have no compunctions giving them all 5 that arent owned by the bbeg (who will have black + green + time gem). And I do kind of want to give them the temptation of should they sell their soul for greatness

>>97497504
Just have the events of what happened not be exceptionally clear and understood, like a lot of things were happening in different places that could have had a hand in what happened in another place for it to be like that now
The Elf could argue "X" is why things are the way that they are but the Dwarf could argue "Y" is the true reason but it's not clear because there was probably a "Z" and "W" involved that both players aren't familiar with and what was "X" and "Y" could have been "A" and "D"

>>97500888
Have them roll Arcana to notice anything off. Beyond that, it's up to you senpai. Simple is often better than crazy detailed, and just so you know, no matter how many hints you give them, you'll have to spoonfeed the info in most cases. One good trick is to have the item give off terrible emotional waves of energy, making the wielder angry or confused. You got this, sounds like a fun item.

>>97501027
I will say my inclination would be to try to get the baseline abilities more even. Pin it to each being a 5th level spell, and you could do
>Red: Dominate Person/Geas
>Blue, Control Winds
>White: Scrying
>Green: Contagion
>Black: Danse Macabre
>Crystal: Teleportation Circle/Tree Stride
>Plantinum: Mass Cure Wounds/Greater Restoration

Basing them off of existing spells would even things out a little. And if those feel too weak, then it still works to have them at a DC of 20.

Though since there are meant to be dragon horns it's a little odd for the White dragon to end up as the knowledge-based one. I see the vision with Simulacrum being made of snow, but then that seems like it might upgrade more into being able to create a duplicate of anything. No-strings attached simulacrum is a pretty good one-time use option.
It also seems a little off for Disease to upgrade into modify memory, or for a dominate effect to upgrade into instant-death. Those feel like they'd be flipped around, where the lesser form of an instakill is disease, and the lesser form of modify memory is to dominate/charm.

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Is there a way to swap your casting ability in 5e? Asking for a cleric/artificer idea.
>holy mechanic or blacksmith
>sculpts beautiful angel statues to serve as golems
>holy weapons and tools etc
If not then I'll just drop the cleric, and make it an aasimar artificer
>descendant of some paladins or some other holy men
>his god doesn't answer his prayers for some reason, but when crafts stuff the god seems to pour his blessings and divine energies into his creations through him
Hopefully I can make him more than just a radiantly glowing Ironman.

I’m gonna play a character that went to wizard school because they were so gifted as a child, charismatically participated in all the extra curricular, but end up dropping out when they failed every class, because it turned out they were actually just a sorcerer the whole time with inherent magic powers from the time a disguised etherial being said “wow, that’s a smart kid you got there” at their aunt’s birthday party. So their hook is constantly trying to live up to the expectations of all their wizard friends and peers. Constant imposter syndrome, but it’s actual impostering.

>>97501633
>Average ADHD experience in public schools.

>>97501629
How are you trying to swap things? From the phrasing it sounds like you're trying to make Artificer Wis-based in order to lean into divine flavor.

I would say that's probably not too necessary, since there's already precedent for divine magic using other casting stats with how Celestial Warlocks and Divine Soul sorcerers exist. Nobody is going to quibble over the details if you try and paint the artificer inventions as divinely inspired.

If you're using the 2014 rules, a level or two in Forge Cleric would work out fine as a way to get a bit of extra divine magic.
If you're going for the 2024 rules, then rather than the levels in Cleric, you could grab Magic Initiate and freely choose Int as the casting ability for the Cleric cantrips/spells you get from that source.

Using Battlesmith and reflavoring the Steel Defender into some sort of gargoyle or statue is otherwise straightforward. Couldask your DM if you can use Mason's tools instead of Smith's tools for it.

>>97500888
In general it's up to you, I personally dont give my players any mechanical info on curses, but they could learn more by checks, divination, etc

>staff that would allow players to use the Scry spell, but the staff would almost always show altered views or the worst possible view of reality with the aim of inciting violence or instilling paranoia in the user.

if you give players a description that specificaly calls out the Scry spell, then it shouldnt do something else, because Scry and spells in general are playing-facing descriptions of magic, and you shouldn't lie to players (it's fine for npcs to lie to characters of course). I would suggest instead you provide players with a description of its abilities that doesn't specifically mention the scry spell, but can be equivalent

>>97501107
For sure going to have an Arcana check for anyone who wants to take a look at the staff. It's going to be in the hands of an early boss, so I'm going to try to plant some environmental clues that indicate that something is up as well (boss muttering to himself, any interrogated underlings can mention how he has fits of paranoia now and again, etc.). We'll see what my players decide to do with it.

>>97501629
Unfortunately, no.

>>97497504
Literally just tell your players that for story/setting reasons nobody's character can be more than like 200 years old at most. You're the boss, it's your game.

How good is the Swashbuckler subclass?

>>97502000
I haven't played it in 2024, but in 2014 at least pretty damned good in the right context. Very good at singling out enemies on the battlefield and slipping in and out of engagements to avoid getting fucked up. I ran one as a bit of a meme build on a lightfoot halfling with two levels in divination wizard for portent dice and the lucky feat, so I was basically untouchable most of the time.

>>97501239
I was roughly trying to balance each baseline power around a 7th level spell with the trade off of requiring human souls and losing part of your max hp. Ignoring Black and Green (cause they can kind of just do whatever I want the baddies to be able to do) do any of the others feel drastically different in power to the rest?
Red is a weaker Dominate Monster (8th level)
Blue is kind of circle of death / fire storm but with lightning damage
White is simulacrum
Crystal is teleport
Platinum is heal cast at 7th level

I get that like logically it makes sense for the one time use power to be a stronger version of the same idea as the weaker power (and granted I have done that for some of them) but I think that would make them slightly less tempting. Like if a horn has the power to control an individual, controlling multiple people is obviously better but I feel like its not as flashy, as a player I would think why would I ever give up the first for the second. I want them to represent multiple facets of dragon, ie green dragons are poison and disease but also manipulation and cunning. You are right the placement of the white ability isnt super fitting though. Maybe I should try and make the crystal and platinum one time abilities more overtly different, the information power would work well for the Platinums ultimate instead.

>>97501919
>I would suggest instead you provide players with a description of its abilities that doesn't specifically mention the scry spell, but can be equivalent

That's the route I'm going to go. Essentially jack the description from how Scrying works, but with a few subtle differences that an astute reader will realize that what they're seeing might not actually be the truth.

>>97501981
>just tell your players
You dont understand. People dont talk like adults anymore. In game problems need in game solutions.

/s

>>97502019
the item should also have an actual benefit that might warrant keeping it despite the downsides. Cursed items with no actual cost-to-benefit quandary are just destined to trash. A cursed sword is good because it can actually kill things, so there is tension between keeping it and throwing it

>>97501981
That doesn't solve anything by itself, because old NPCs will still exist and be common.

>>97502029
right, right

So if any of your players roll up 300 year old elves, kill them in the opening scene and tell them to roll new characters. Continue to kill them until you are happy with everyone's ages.

>>97502037
Okay well then your options are either don't have the NPCs feel like talking about it, or change the setting like other people said. Either say your races don't live as long or a plague wiped out most of the elderly way back or something.

>>97502037
do you have autism or something
>i dont want this in my setting I entirely control everything about. What should I do?

>>97502037
>old NPCs will still exist and be common.
Why? If your setting is some dark ages fucked up shit, just say people don't generally live that long. Average life expectancy back in the real world dark ages was significantly shorter than it is today ya know.

>>97502036
My party should be level 3 or 4 and comprised entirely of martials when they encounter this item, so I think the tradeoff is that a) they're essentially getting a level 5 spell once a day at character level 4 for "free" and b) they get access to magic period. I'm a little less concerned with making the thing more attractive to use, as it serves a narrative purpose and serves as an "intro to cursed items" or sorts, but I get that in general that's good advice to make players want to weigh whether a cursed item is worth using.

>>97497404
Edgy in an elegant way

>>97502018
Maybe. I would say that if the repeatable version was weaker, then it does become more tempting to use the more one-time version. Since using it means you can no longer use the repeatable version with it, then the repeatable version being stronger is more of an argument to not give it up just for a one time effect.

Other than that, some of them just feel a little off in terms of being 7th level. An upcast Heal spell is a little underwhelming, and having a Simulacrum for only 10 minutes is quite weak compared to the unlimited duration you can get from it normally.
Just having it be explicit 7th spells would make it more clear about the exact stakes though.
Finger of Death and Regenerate would probably suit Black/Platinum more, for instance.

I think if you want the one-time powers to be more tempting, some of those could also stand to be better. The Red Horn feasibly could kill someone from further away based on the shenanigans the Black/Green ones are capable of. Platinum I'm surprised doesn't also revert everyone back to the prime of their youth.
It'd be cool if the Blue Horn gave uses of Call Lightning while you're controlling the weather. Really, giving an extra effect if you stay attuned afterwards would make the one-time use more tempting. Constantly being under the effects of Detect Magic, Comprehend Languages, See Invisibility, etc. after getting your one knowledge question, for instance.

>>97502037
why would they be common if you, the author, the person who CONTROLS EVERY PART OF THIS WORLD, don't want them to be.

>>97502044
>kill them in the opening scene and tell them to roll new characters
There was a period of time where this would have been given as real advice.

>You can't tell a player no because it goes against their autonomy. So if you don't want them to play a mage, just fill dungeons with anti magic traps, and punish them for using magic. Eventually they will realise.

Real stuff people did

>>97502282
John Wick ruined an entire generation of Dungeon Masters

>>97502403
That's why I killed his dog.

>>97502442
No, no, the other guy

>>97502473
>John Wick
>>97502403
You are going to have to elaborate

>>97502588
Oh man, you're in for a treat. Many years ago he was a bit of a DnD celebrity, writing guides for DMs, One of these guides was called "Play Dirty", and it included such wonderful advice as
>Tell the player that his PC was knocked out in the alley and taken away by unknown assailants. When the player asks what happened to his character, tell him that you don't know, then ask him to make a new character.

In some countries in Eastern Europe his way of DMing became the only way, and this is why their tabletop RPG scene is absolutely miserable.

Seriously, google him and his guide, he's a character.

do these rehashed rules seem lame?

Ideals
>make up some driving convicition that guides your character
>Once per LR when you fail a check that you make acting in accordance with your ideal, you can spend inspiration to auto-succeed

Flaws
>make up some some fundamental weakness your character has
>Once per LR when you succeed on a check to resist your flaw, you can auto-fail to gain inspiration.

Bonds
>you gain a bond who has the game statistics of a commoner with a background and species of your choice. the bond will use its features, traits, and proficiencies to assist you, but won't go into battle and is controlled by the GM. If you piss them off, they'll leave and the GM will replace them with one of their choice the next time you finish a long rest in a settlement

Trinkets
>you start with a free common item that isn't consumable.

>>97502984
The bit with ideals and flaws isn't bad. Might make it so that they can just choose to auto-fail without needing to succeed in the case of the flaw. Basically give up the chance to roll at all, so that if somebody builds a character who is bad at something, they don't need to be good at doing the thing they're bad at in order to gain a benefit from their flaw.

Bonds is the sort of thing that might get busy with every party member having an NPC follower tagging along.
If the intent is that the NPC is just going to hang around in town and be a blacksmith or researcher or someone else, that might work out, since you could have that be a way for the PCs to do downtime activities like crafting without needing to take time off adventuring, but it might get messy.

As for Trinkets, the only asterisk there is making sure somebody doesn't pick out one of the Common types of magic armor, but have it as Full Plate.

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>>97503033
good advice. This is something I shit together in half an hour. I'd add the magic item stuff but it's nearly 3AM and I have work in the morning