The General D&D thread

Goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears are all from the same family of monsters, so I would assume they have similar names. Perhaps something more heavy sounding for a bugbear. More o's and u's, rather than e's and i's.

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Here's an idea, a player starts with one of the 'boost stat to 19' magical items to cover up a average or bad score and their character spends the entire game terrified them will lose said item and exposed as a sham.

The items in question are

• Gauntlets of ogre power
• Headband of Intellect
• Amulet of health

Starting the game with a uncommon magic item seems fine to me.

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It really, really depends on what class they are, honestly. A headband of intellect on anyone but a wizard won't be that gamebreaking, same with the gauntlets on a wizard or someone with no business using strength.

Unserious item concept: a sword in a stone that only the true king can draw which grants increased strength to its wielder. The true king is nowhere to be found so someone just carved away most of the stone and wields the sword + remaining stone as a club

I believe that's the origin story for the Kirkhammer in Bloodborne.

You are dazzled by my array of very legal documents.

I think that was also one of the Castlevania games' (I forget which) take on Excalibur (and blending Excalibur with the Sword in the Stone).

Edited by TrashJack on Feb 22nd 2019 at 9:35:45 AM

An idea I'd had in a similar vein, though not as a D&D item: A Clingy MacGuffin sword bound to someone who absolutely doesn't want it, an adventurer takes it but finds it constantly trying to pull itself back to its 'true' owner, so the current user has a fighting style based around maneuvers that take advantage of the fact that the sword is constantly pulling them in a specific direction.

In D&D context, it could mean the weapon swings harder/does more damage if you do it while facing a certain way. Slackening the grip can pull you away from danger faster than an enemy can get an Ao O, or into danger as a kind of charge attack. Fumbling a check will make the sword yank you in its pull direction, and so on. Would probably require a high strength score to use, given you're potentially always fighting its pull.

I'd say the easiest implementation of that would be giving advantage when facing the right direction, disadvantage when facing the opposite, and have the in-between directions be neutral. Goes for attacks and DEX saves.

To keep track of the item's effect you should probably be using battlemats and minis. Probably simplest would be to tie the effects to general directions on the map, no matter where the 'owner' actually is. Easier bookkeeping.

Hell, I might steal that one and drop it in Dungeon of the Mad Mage whenever I get around running that.

Help yourself. Maybe you'll think of something to do with it I didn't. I envisioned this more as a story idea playing with The Unchosen One with an amusing gimmick so I wasn't thinking in D&D terms until just now.

Edited by sgamer82 on Feb 23rd 2019 at 7:08:25 AM

I think the design could lead for some interesting risk-reward gameplay as the wielder gets into more compromising positions in order to attack the enemy from the right angle.

Plotwise my first idea was to make the sword property of someone waiting down on a lower level - someone who probably wants their weapon back. You can either relinquish the weapon and gain and ally or murder the guy with his own weapon in order to gain the attunement of the weapon for yourself.

Question! If you've ever played as or with an Artificer, what role would you say they fill or are supposed to fill within a party? Reading the description of the Unearthed Arcana Artificer makes me think think they fall into a sort of Thief/Mage hybrid in the Fighter, Mage, Thief triangle, leaning more towards the 'Thief' due to their more limited spell pool compared to most other spellcasters, being more focused on utility. Does this sound about right?

"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."

They may have a utility-focused spell list, but they're a 1/3 caster, which tells us that the spells should be treated as a bonus to pull out when you need it, rather than as the focus- the full casters in your party will have picked up most of your tricks a good four levels earlier than you, after all. What it comes down to, really, is that the Alchemist is a healer, and the Gunsmith is a damage-dealer, and both do that job with sprinkling of situational odds-and-ends that your party with appreciate when and if they come in handy.

They are, however, a class that desperately needs a revision before it can be released in non-UA form, though- the level progression is bumpy, and they're severely lacking on the 'okay, but how am I supposed to actually use my turn during combat' front- especially the alchemist.

Edited by Gilphon on Feb 24th 2019 at 12:10:26 PM

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

Here's a /really/ great Homebrew Artificer I found:

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-LAEn6ZdC6lYUKhQ67Qk

"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"

Here's hoping tomorrow's update fixes a lot of those issues.

Right now they feel too much like a Master of None

I played an Eberron Artificer in two campaigns. Their role is, primarily, a utility/booster type of character. The majority of the spells I used were enhancing other players items (such as giving the party extra fire damage) and coming up with nifty one-use items regularly (handing out potions of "shield" or healing). They're not bad, but the class does seem focused on more of an NPC role, ie the guy you take your stuff to so you can take those half-dozen +1 swords and turn them into a single +4.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

The current Artificer class feels like the Ranger in many ways. The class is a bit of a generalist with elements of a damage dealer, a healer, and a skillmonkey, but as said above, it does have a bit of a Master of None problem. I am interested to see how the new Artificer to be released this month will change this.

Personally, I think the mechanical servant should be a third specialization subclass alongside Gunsmith and Alchemist, not a general feature every artificer has.

The next D&D book has been unveiled as a TotYP style adventure anthology focusing on nautical adventures with the Greyhawk port town of Saltmarsh as the unifying framing device.

So I've heard somewhere that the revised Artificer - which I only discovered was a thing because y'all mentioned an update, and by sheer freakish coincidence it's happening mere days after I got the idea to make one - is supposed to be coming out on February 28th. I really want to wait until it's out to see what it's like, but the first session of the game that I'm making this character for is also on February 28th.

Do they usually release Unearthed Arcana material early in the day? I can whip up first-level character sheets pretty quickly (I have far more experience fiddling around with character sheets than I do with actually playing the game, after all :V), but obviously I'd need at least an hour or two, and it doesn't help that I've got other obligations occurring that afternoon, as well.

"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."

the artificer in our party acts as a constant detect magic radar and identifier. does a lot out of combat tinkering on tools and doing all the obsessive academic research. in combat, he's a ranged damage dealer with some good buffs on the gun.

"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." Twitter

Ah, it's the 28th? I knew it was the last week of the month but usually it's posted today. Whoops.

Very excited about the new adventure. I love the idea behind Tales From the Yawning Portal, remastered adventures that can be connected into a campaign. I really wanted to run that for my group to use my homebrew downtime rules between adventures, but this having a sea faring theme intrigues me even more.

The sailor features are finally are of some use.

(Sea travel never came up in any of my campaigns and bad reputation only really works at lower levels or if you are doing a villain campaign but even then only in lower levels.)

Burritos are the most convenient and delicious food in the universe. Change my mind.

I'm definitely going to plunder those seafaring rules for a homebrew Spelljammer game, at least until the official rules are released.

Sorry for sandwich posting but can someone tell me what would be the ability score used for a scythe? My friend wants to build a weird sorcerer/warlock thing that serves death and has repeatedly asked me for help. Any suggestions?

Burritos are the most convenient and delicious food in the universe. Change my mind.

If he's a warlock, he could pick Hexblade as his patron and use Cha for the scythe.

Otherwise, I don't remember if it says Finesse or not, but if it doesn't, it uses Str.

I mean, there is no scythe as per RAW, but it would definitely a two-handed weapon, and there aren't any two handed finesse weapons, so it would almost certainly be Strength.

But if you're a Sorlock who really wants to make melee attacks, then you should really be a Hexblade, because then you attack with Charisma like a Sorlock is supposed to.

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."