The General D&D thread

I've been on a Zelda kick recently thanks to Breath of the Wild, so in the past two weeks I've homebrewed up some Zelda races for 5e, and I'm interested to know if there's anything that could be improved about them. Here's the document on Google Drive.

Move actions do not exist in 5e.

Sorry, knee-jerk reaction.

EDIT: Size should mention whether Scrubs are Small or Medium. Sounds like Small; DMG has a chart thing.

EDIT 2: Deku Scrub kinda reminds me of this other homebrew race that I've used. Could look at that for other options on how to word things.

• I dunno about rooting replacing sleep; eating, I can see. Also, if it's meant to require rooting in order to take a long rest, that may be a bit harsh if the party is currently somewhere without fertile soil.
• In my opinion, stuff like Shrub Disguise should just say "While you are doing X and remaining motionless, you are indistinguishable from a regular Y/It takes a DC Z Int check to realize you're a creature," but that's just me.
• Spit Nut ain't bad, and Glide is cool but slightly questionable as far as balance.
• As far as Surprise Attack, you can only have one first turn per combat, so the second sentence is redundant. The subraces sound pretty good though in general, though, at least on the first go-around.

May look at the other races in that later.

edited 21st Mar '17 4:34:32 PM by Knowlessman

Move actions don't exist in 5E; however, they sort of do, because there are things that "cost movement" or "set your movement speed to 0" or whatever.

ACTUAL (Way too long) POST

So, no one cares about the v3 version of the Mystic? Here's the key takeaways:

Takeaway 1: The 11th level+ progression is awful, but who cares because no one plays at those levels anyway. It is pretty funny that a 20th level Wu Jen can basically walk through a sea of arrows however due to the ability to gain immunity to piercing damage (or slashing damage, or whatever) at the cost of a reaction and some Psi.

Takeaway 2: Speaking of the Wu Jen, the Psion is dead, and the Wu Jen killed it. The Mystic is psionics with a more D&D genre compatible face; if you look at the Mystic for what it is, instead of as "5E's take of earlier psion classes," it fits in well with the lore. It also is a really good presentation of the Ardent and the Psychic Warrior (though I'd probably have made those 1/2 level caster classes instead of full casters ... that peak at 10th level). But the actual Psion class (well, "force" type psions) from editions class is dead.

The reason being is that there are two things that are true about the Wu Jen:

1.) The mechanics of it take up the same design spot.

2.) Those mechanics are represented in ways that really do not play to the Psion's design.

Now, Mastery of Force is an interesting discipline that very much plays how you would expect a traditional telekinesis user to work. In fact, the Grasp power is pretty similar to the Telekinesis power. If you want to use a telekinetic barrage type attack, there are a few other disciplines for that (though they're not really that efficient for your build).

But if you want to use "forced movement" (under the 4E definition), you're mostly out of luck. Mastery of Force's forced movement is absolute crap, costing huge amounts of Psi for small amounts of movement, and it's all single target and, in the case of the Force Grasp Move, takes two rounds to set up.

If you take other disciplines though, the Mystic has access to some absolutely ridiculous forced movement aspects. The Mastery of Weather ability has a 20' radius 2 psi power that deals 1d6 damage and moves everyone that fails their fortitude save to any space in that radius. This means you could plausibly move someone 40' at the cost equivalence of a 1st level spell.

What's even more interesting is that Wu Jen are also the best Mystic build that can really capitalize on forced movement. Now, if there are cliffs or pit traps, anyone could benefit, but in the old design space (4E anyway), the best usage of FM was "zone based damage." Mystics have two zone based damage effects and one of them doesn't deal damage on entrance, and the other costs 6 psi (equivalence of a 4th level spell). To be frank, Mastery of Weather (Whirlwind) + Mastery of Weather (Thunderwall) is probably stronger than even some mid to high level Wizard spells (it burns through Psi pretty fast, but I'm guessing you could top Maelstrom for both DPS and control); the whirlwind knocks enemies into a wall, the wall then deals damage, throws the enemy even further away, and then knocks them prone. Alternatively, the Wu Jen-and only the Wu Jen-gains access to Wizard spells (though only of levels 1-3). From my own research, the only spell that really synergizes with this forced movement effect is Cloud of Daggers; you can force an enemy into the space, meaning they take damage initially and then again on their turn. On further reflection though, Thunder Wall deals more damage (6d6 vs 8d4), but Wall of Thunder allows a saving throw to negate the damage, and on a failed save, the target is moved away from the wall (thus avoiding double procs).

So anyway, I was wrong: Wu Jen didn't kill Psion, Mastery of Weather did. The discipline single handedly does forced movement better than anything else in 5E and, actually, probably better than anything in 4E due to just how cheaply and easily mass battlefield control is. But Psions (force Psions anyway) were never supposed to be about mastering the weather; while you can certainly reflavor things, Mastery of Weather explicitly deals bludgeoning, thunder, and lightning damage, not force damage, which has some weird implications with other potential synergies.

The Psion (Telepath) is alive and well, in the form of the Awakened. The Awakened feels more like a Dr. Strange character than it does an actual Telepath, but that's what 5E is going for, and can be fixed with reskinning. I take issue with Awakened's 14th level feature, because I feel it should be an ability available to all (high level) Mystics (it's basically Astral Projection).

Probably the scariest thing about telepath types is the ability to *mass dominate* and *mass stun* enemies starting at 9th level. This is an ability that can't be matched with Wizard spells at that level (or... I think any level come to think of it). While Telepath types don't have any long-term domination (like high level wizards do), they get much earlier access to burst control. What's more, because of the nature of Psi, when Psionic Mastery is included (it's a garbage feature, but at least it gives more Psi per day), a Mystic can use a 9 psi discipline (eg a 5th level spell) 12 times per day. Comparatively, Wizards get 9 spells of 5th level or higher per day (though obviously, those 8th and 9th level spells are going to make Mystic powers look like toys). So one can argue that Mystics have better longevity.

Of course, a 20th level Great Old One Warlock gets Dominate Person and Telekinesis both as spell options, and can use each of those 4 times per short rest, so assume 3 short rest days, that's 16 times per day, not including their 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th level spells (for a total of 20 "useful things.") But again, Warlocks don't have anything approaching AOE domination or AOE stun.

It's funny: people complained in 4E that psionics was Far Realm based. Now, Far Realm Warlocks have the abilities that model classical older era psionics, and official psionics aren't Far Realm based anymore.

edited 22nd Mar '17 10:54:48 AM by TheyCallMeTomu

Pretty sure the only things that cost movement involve moving. Standing up takes half your speed, but I don't think anything else uses it as a cost that doesn't involve literally moving your figure.

In general in 5e, anything that you do on your turn that isn't an action, movement, or part of another event like a die roll uses a bonus action. I'm not sure there are any things that you do on your turn that forfeit your ability to move on that turn and that don't also use an action or bonus action or whathaveyou.

edited 22nd Mar '17 11:06:44 AM by Knowlessman

@Knowless: Took a minute to edit the Deku Scrub based on your feedback. Made sure to specify their size (also checked to see if I forgot the sizes for any other race, had to write to sizes for the Gerudo, Gorons and Hylians too lol), revised move actions to just actions, and made rooting replace just eating. Also, here's the new wording for Shrub Disguise:

As for Glide, I mostly just converted Pathfinder's gliding mechanics to 5e. Any suggestions on how to improve, or should I just remove it entirely?

As for Surprise Attack, don't blame me, that's how it's written as a bugbear racial trait in Volo's Guide!

The 5E Mystic has one or more abilities that work differently at the cost of movement, if I recall.

Likewise, standing up from prone uses up 1/2 of your movement.

All things do technically involve moving, but not always yourself.

Goddamn I can't wait for my warlock to get plane shift. Once per day I'm gonna be throwing random monsters/people into other dimensions for fun and profit. Dryad being snooty to us? Enjoy the plane of fire! Bandit trying to rob us? Off to the plane of water with you! And I will laugh maniacally as I throw people and things through space and time.

And yes I intend to collect the different tuning forks.

edited 23rd Mar '17 11:15:34 AM by MarkVonLewis

Huh. Plane-shifting abilities tend to stress out the DM (at least, they stress me out), because at any time the PCs can decide to screw the current adventure and setting and hare off to the Astral Plane (or whatever), which I don't have any material prepared for.

Players can ditch the plot at any time anyway.

But they're planning on just offensive usage, rather than plane-hopping themselves, so it's easier.

edited 23rd Mar '17 11:44:40 AM by Adannor

Gives the DM potential fodder for a whole team of NPC's

The dryad and the bandit-turned-pirate and whoever else meet up in the border plane and form a quest to get revenge on Mr Tuning-Fork-Happy

Instant Recurring Boss/Goldfish Poop Gang

edited 23rd Mar '17 12:05:50 PM by Knowlessman

See? My deranged, unhinged madness provides adventure fodder.

To be fair, I'm only gonna start playing my warlock in a deranged, unhinged manner at higher levels, and in a way that's not obnoxious or stupid.

edited 24th Mar '17 10:45:42 AM by MarkVonLewis

oh joy.... it seems my D&D game ain't gonna happen as the DM hasn't been heard from in weeks....

Sounds fun. Last week we weren't able to do my Pathfinder session because one of the players managed to get stranded in Niagara Falls^note He was helping his sister babysit and they picked up a new car his sister bought which broke down, and then the next day when I thought we were going to be able to, the dipshit spent four and a half cooking dinner. To say me and one of the other players was pissed would be a gross understatement

Saw the 2000 Dungeons & Dragons movie for the first time yesterday. Good god.

For all its shortcomings, it actually gave me an idea for an NPC character to include in my games: a trolling lich. A malicious ancient wizard sitting on his crypt, crafting new magic items to pass the time, only to hand those terribly powerful artifacts to the first unlucky sod who happens to explore the dungeon.

"A peasant traveler with absolutely no experience with magic? Here's a Sphere of Annihilation for you, go nuts."

Horribad movies are great DM inspiration.

So I witnessed my first PC death today (outside of a "Mines of Madness" one-shot). The player's dragonborn warlock happened upon an opposing warlock on a balcony outside a high-class dwarven party. The enemy warlock had been posing as an ambassador to the dwarves. The dragonborn stumbled upon him as he was casting a crown of madness on an elf inside with the rest of us. The elf ended up killing the dwarven king.Then the bad guy jumped off the balcony, a 150-ft. drop, and levitated down. The dragonborn began spiderclimbing down the cliff-side and they engaged in a small battle, ending up with the dragonborn dropping to 0 HP, and thus losing concentration. The fall didn't kill her outright, but he got two death-saving throws immediately after taking the fall damage.

Once we found the body, the cleric cast gentle repose on her just in case. Then we stuffed the body into our bag of holding. Now our adventure next session is to find a way to revive her, since, while she's an abrasive ex-criminal thug whom our characters only associate with due to us all being a special military team, we all know something's up, and she died mysteriously, so we know she knows something important.

edited 25th Mar '17 10:47:16 PM by Braincogs

I and another character in our party in an Adventurer's League Out of the Abyss campaign died in... I think, in our first session. Instakilled by a Cloudkill. We did get resurrected by Wild Magic almost immediately though, and get two levels (We started a couple sessions in, and are still a bit behind the others I think) for "escaping" the priestess who cast it.

Not sure I can remember any other PC deaths myself, though, other than vaguely recalling that my first session was a TPK (4e, Encounters, only had one other player, and used pregens anyway).

So, the 5e campaign that I'm running on Roll20 (and Discord, sort of) has room for one more player.
Disclaimers: I am still a pretty green DM, and we're not using voice at the present time, so stuff kinda happens pretty slowly.
Most of the party is currently at 6th level, though I'll probably start a new player at 3rd and have them level up each long rest until they catch up; I don't use exp at present except for building combat encounters, and hand out new levels every three "sessions" or so (bearing in mind that combats sometimes go on for more than one actual meeting, though I'm using Discord to try and fix that by having people take turns between sessions in a play-by-post fashion, and it seems to be working okay; last combat that we had finished before the next session's start).

Sessions are usually on Saturdays at 7-10ish/11ish PM (EST), but we do sometimes do it on Friday if it works better. EDIT: It has happened before that circumstances force us to skip more than one week in a row, but given that I consider three party members enough for a session (...I dunno, most sessions) and we currently have four, I'm hopeful that we won't have to do that too often.
I am big on homebrew and compulsively try to talk new players into trying out one of my homebrew races; hasn't worked yet, but maybe someday. I will consider, and probably tweak/nerf/whatever, other homebrew content if the player has something they want to try.
Having any of the 5e books yourself is not mandatory, nor is having much experience with 5e.

edited 30th Mar '17 9:24:18 AM by Knowlessman

I guess it's not that big a deal due to the expedited level up progression, but what's the purpose of starting the new PC off at 3rd level instead of at the same level as the other P Cs?

... :/ Not sure, really.

Uhhh, DMG p236: "When a new player joins the group, allow the new player to create a character of a level equal to the lowest-level member of the party. The only exception to this guideline is when the new player is completely unfamiliar with the D&D game. In that case, have that player start with a 1st-level character. If the rest of the party is significantly higher in level, consider taking a short break from the campaign and having everyone play a 1st-level character for a few sessions while the new player learns the ropes."

I guess starting lower is a kinda compromise between the two; most of my players are not too experienced with the game or 5e, so starting at a lower level means fewer class features to pick, and means that as they catch up in level, they're picking new ones based on some kind of experience with how their character works and what they might want.

There's been craziness in my campaign. It's customary for somebody to cause a really massive explosion at some point. In previous campaigns:

• The players decoupled every car on a freight train that was rigged with a bomb and racing toward The Kingdom...you know, instead of stopping the train or uncoupling the engine. So each bomb went off and destroyed miles of rail across the countryside, instead of a single devastated train-length of tracks.
• Another game, a player had a crazy idea to destroy a zombie horde. I warned him of leaky gas pipes in the area, they were obstacles in the urban maze, and he fired an incendiary round at the gas main. He basically blew up a city with a rifle...and caused a nuclear meltdown when the gas explosions reached the power plant.

Finally, we have the session a few weeks back. They managed to infiltrate an orc kingdom with only a single fight, bullying and bribing their way past guards and patrols. They reached the source of their recent problems—an ancient armory filled with World War 1-era munitions that the orcs were arming themselves with; weapons that drive dwarves insane because of an ancient curse.

So, of course, they blew the whole thing up. Including the hydrogen-filled zeppelin in storage. Several hundred (thousands?) of tons of explosives going off in an underground bunker complex, everything from pistol rounds, to grenades, to 150mm cannon shells.

Once that was done, off to their ship to escape the kingdom. Along the way they fought dragonborn that are mutating into cannibal chromatic/metallic psuedonatural dragons. And nightmare monks that can phase through walls and have a habit of being torn apart while phasing in an out—hack off an arm and watch it fly through the paladin and splatter on the cleric behind him. And now they've found that the Barony's new colony has a severe tiger problem—tigers with chameleon fur and decay into nothing within seconds after being killed.

My world is a little messed up.

"I blew up a city and caused a nuclear meltdown with ONE. BULLET." is something only a PC would ever brag about.

But damn, they'll brag about it.

Having different players be at different levels is just a hotbutton issue to me; I dislike it conceptually and don't see any value in it.

The DMG says to start people off at 1st level because, I dunno, apparently they think newbies are idiots (1st level characters aren't really that much less complicated than 3rd level characters)

Well the DMG presumes that you would easily have characters of differing levels, so starting them at the lowest among the party does make sense.

But level 1 is just bull.

I personally prefer starting new players from level one. Gives them time to get accustomed to the game without overwhelming them with all the class abilities, which some classes start stacking rather quickly.

And I don't really see a problem with different level characters, either. If one character is level 9 while the others are level 11, the difference in power is rather small. Besides, if you play the game in a way where you actually count the XP, the character is going to catch up sooner or later.