Backstory: my BBEG is an Artificer with the end goal of ascending to The Shattered Moon to try to make himself into a Space Dragon, and is using a Moonshard he found to create technical wonders. Some of those wonders are golems capable of going back in time Terminator style that will give the party no end of trouble, and one is about to pop out of time next to the tavern they're staying at to get that plot rolling.

They're currently about level 4, and this won't happen until they actually are. One of them will be chasing them down as a persistent enemy, they'll eventually find the exact same model before it's hostile and sent back in time, and they shut down the time machine after that one gets through.

Sorry, wanted to ask this quickly before the blackout happens

Edit: oh, duh; the Lunarch Golems will just be using a modified Revenant statblock, only thing I'm changing is resistances

Recently I've gone through quite a few discussions about martials in 5e being less competent and useful to party than summons. Although I definitely don't agree with that statement completely and I understand that some of the arguments are too exaggerated due to flimsy rules interpretation or just for comic effect, I do acknowledge that the gap itself exists.

Currently I'm running a pretty gritty campaign with 7 days long rest, very scarce magic items and around 3-4 encounters per week, and my players are loving it so far. Especially fighter and warlock. For now they were just having fun from the challenge and didn't know about the gap before I brought it up after the internet discussion. We agreed that despite subjective fun it may be a good Idea to give non-spellcasters something to add some variety and a buff. So at the last session I introduced the "Mighty deed" to my martials. So far it goes great although such murky boundaries are somewhat a drawback.

Right now (as if right now. I literally have the document open) I'm writing a homebrew that aims mostly for the martials. I already came up with one mechanic ( if I can call it that) . It is pretty simple in its Idea and basically just gives a few free new feats in and out of combat. And now I'm in the middle of reworking weapon proficiency which now will gradually grant you passive buffs and active maneuvers for the weapon you use. But I can’t say that I’m fully satisfied with my solutions.

Today I've seen a little discussion involving forcecage and sickening radiance. I know that dnd isn't a solo or, god forbid, a pvp game, but combinations like this make me think, what can you give to a human that just swings a pointy stick to overcome that? I mean within something that can fit within your fantasy warrior virtues (or maybe even some anime swordsman abilities) and technically still won't count as magic.

I know the easy answers for all of my questions here are: 1) Give them magic items or 2) Try the new system.

But 1) magic items are fully rely on the dm's discretion, you still should give them to casters too and they don't feel like personal power (unless you are an artificer). Even the books say that everyone is balanced without them in mind.

2. My party and I are pretty pleased and comfy in 5e, we barely use any homebrew and even one I'm writing now is mostly for myself. (Also for some reason sorcerer and his wife are really against pathfinder).

I'm just curious what Ideas are there in the air about solving this problem and not just discussing its existence. What step should the next edition take to solve it? And what I may be missing here? You know, just to spur a friendly discussion.

Oh and I can't deny going on reddit and reading how weak and useless my player's beloved character should feel just due to them being martials is giving me... a guilt that I don't do something about it as a DM.

TL;DR Sorry, I tend to be wordy. Main question is in the title. And the second optional question is "What can be homebrewed for a man with a pointy stick that won't feel as magic and allow him to go on par with a bladesinger who has forcecage/sick radiance or other high level spells/combinations?".

Artificer says it’s humunculus servant can deliver a spell with a range of touch in a reaction, by multiclassing a barbarian with artificer, or any other spell with a familiar, can a barbarian practically be casting spells while raging?

So their abilities include these can be either from class or magic items but i would prefer the class levels also race ideas would be appreciated im thinking aasimar because they are both divine-ish the most important abilities are bolded :)

Healing

Telepathy

Blinding light

magic negation (so magic circle and/or counterspell)

Telekinesis (though this can be any movement altering abilities e.g. maximiliians earthen grasp)

Localisation (like locate object or person)

Teleportation

"Smiting" (though more just touch spells that deal a lot of damage or actual divine smite)

Martial skills so swords and other weapons (hopefully extra attack but not required)

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In my experience I have often found the healing that Cure Wounds provides is almost never worth the spell slot, and the fact that it's a touch spell means it can be awkward to use in combat.

Healing Word however I think is a fantastic low level healing option, given that it's a bonus action and ranged. Yes it's a lower amount of healing on average, but if a character falls unconscious it's so easy to bring them back.

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Also how do I chose which spells to give him?

I know this topic has been done to death, but I am curious about this specifically. I am running a game of Out of Abyss, and was floating some buffs for martials in and out of combat. When speaking to a dungeon master they felt it was relatively balanced.

The given case was that a party must scale a cliff side, and the Fighter must attempt skill checks while the Wizard simply casts Fly. Her answer seemed reasonable at the time, the Fighter can attempt the climb, but in all likelihood for the Wizard that was the only option. They would have next to no chance to pass the DC, and are forced to burn a spell slot. It seems good, but keeps bugging me as it felt very DM reliant?

For example, this DM had the Bloodhunter to scale alone, they failed once, but after passing could stick pitons and rope all the way up. This let everyone else climb up at no risk. They paid in HP, but saved other resources.

In another game, with another DM, he allowed the same, but those climbing the rope still had to make Athletics checks at a much lower DC. Due to the nature of group rolls however, someone did plummet and get knocked unconscious.

In yet another game, with another DM, they did not allow an Athletics check to scale a wall due to it being 200FT tall. It removed the option for skill checks entirely, and had to be circumvented through other means.

Now I know DMs can just say fuck magic users, and place anti-magic fields everywhere but I feel most would immediately see that as adversarial. But it seems with skill checks it matters on what the player and DM see as reasonable.

“No, a Fighter cannot leap a 10FT gap from a standing position because that isn’t realistic.”

“Yes, a Fighter can jump 200FT into the air and cleave the giant eagle in Twain, they’re a level 15 Fighter!”

So if you intend to be liberal with what is possible at high modifiers, is there a reason to give additional features or other out of combat buffs?

By that I mean that default settings tend to assume that, in a world of magic of varying degrees of accessibility, people would build a society that functions close to identically to 1300s England. But actual people are smarter than that, history is full of people taking the limited tools and resources they had access to exploiting them in very creative ways. That applies to tools and methods, too. If it takes a long period of nonproductivity to train someone to be able to reduce labour - say, wizardry and cantrips like prestidigitation and control water - then a society made of actual people rather than unimaginative npcs will shape itself to provide for that period.

A decanter of endless water costs 500gp and can provide 1.64 million litres of water a day, enough to supply hundreds of acres of farmland even in arid conditions. If people can figure out how to make them once they'll figure it out again and standardise it, now that you can supply a moving army or distant keep with fresh, clean water. By doing so you've just cut disease - the primary source of casualties in warfare - by an enormous margin. A single ring of spell storing and a level 10 bard gets you 730 pegasi a year for the kingdom's finest warriors, and considering warhorses are worth 400 gold that will pay for itself in a fortnight. The mold earth cantrip alone makes mining and large scale construction ridiculously easier - clear loose earth, have others remove obstructions (so much easier if you can just magically remove 20 cubic feet of dirt around it per second), repeat. Hell depending on your kingdom's demographics you might have a dozen bards past ten, in which case your ten thousand per year pegasus supply is going to outstrip the military's needs and you can have them airlift your rocks away. As I type, scratch that, I realise they'd be much more useful providing aerial transport of personnel and goods.

Point is I'm just one person, and what I can think of will never match what an entire society could. Give me a hundred years and I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't have invented a water mill to grind grain into flour or a lateen sail to allow a ship to sail against the wind. Which is why background societies in novels etc often don't do that kind of thinking, it's hard for a single author to contain the creativity of thousands. So - given the rules as presented to us, what would real people who are collectively a very inventive group end up doing?

A player wants to play a Changeling (AT, bard or sorcerer) in our next game and I was thinking of giving them Glamerweave clothing (fabric with illusory magic woven into it that can change appearance) at level one to give them a boost to their abilities.

Would it be overpowering? Should it be something to be earned (the game won't be set in Eberron)? If so what would be an appropriate level?

Oh, and would it be okay to not limit the shapes of the Glamerweave to a set number of forms?

Inspired by the spell sunbeam, but I wanted to make a spell that I will use for the majority of campaign. My current draft is:

1st level evocation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 120 feet

Target: A creature of your choice within range

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 2d6 radiant damage. You can make another spell attack as your action on any turn until the spell ends.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 1st.

I tried to balance it to 50% of the power of an equal level damage spell and is a spell attack. So at level 1 for example 2d6 vs 4d6 of guiding bolt, at level 2 it is 3d6 vs 6d6 of scorching ray, and then it just follows half of the scorching ray damage progression of higher levels. At level 6 when it catches up to sunbeam it deals 7d6 vs sunbeam 8d6, at which point sunbeam will be better in most situations since it is AoE and can blind.

Thoughts?

So I have a story idea for a paladin based on a series of (in my opinion not well written) books where the protagonist was actually called a paladin. In the stories gods (even Christianity, Buddhism etc.) were based on extraplaner parasitic entities that fed on worship. Later entities had to settle for being angels or spirits. They bred magic into humans to help exploit that feeding. Paladins were the rare people who had no magic and were able to use a sword of pure thought that burned magic out, making people unable to be food and the sword hurt the entities too.

So I was thinking about a anti-religious paladin, where the deities are no better than any other high end magic wielding entity that exploits mortals. So my question is what subclass and race would best fit?

I was thinking Oath of the Watchers for the anti god thing or Oath of Ancients for anti-magic/nature is the only good type of magic for subclass. Simic Hybrid, Warforged, or Yuan Ti as someone constructed or warped by an uncaring god, or just Satyr for the magic resistance i.e. it is hard to stick to me.

So I'm playing a warforged armorer artificer and our dm had decided to give us a free feat.

Now I've already decided a couple things on the build, I'm planning on staying in gaurdian form and playing as a very high AC tank. I also want a homunculous and that means I have a consistent way to use my bonus action so the dual weider feat isn't the best option plus a shield is a no brainer on armorers.

So the main feats that I'm looking at is magic initiate on cleric or wizard for mainly more cantrips and some 1st level spells like shield of faith boosting AC even higher.

Mobile is a huge option, getting more movement while in melee is really nice its just denying oppurtunity attacks might be a bad thing because my AC is going to be so fucking stupid that burning reactions is a good thing.

Now with optional firearm profiency I can take fighting initiate and take either +1 AC or dueling, although I'm not sure If dueling works cause I'm technically holding my other thunder gauntlet in my other hand even though im holding a shield ontop of it.

I can't really think of any other feats like there's some half feats like chef that might give more value.

So I'm a DM running Lost Mines and once we complete the module I plan on giving them a guild hall style base to work out of. I also plan on running the Game in a West Marches style and have it be player driven with a few world events and rumors provided by the DM for adventure hooks but other than that they vote as a group on what quest to do.

My main question though, is that a few players want to DM and I would also like to be a player for a few sessions here and there or even an entire adventure arc. What kind of things should I prepare before I do this? And how should we as a group best run this? Also any extra ideas that would be cool for it would be greatly appreciated.

For example. I like playing Wise and Smart characters because I like fulfilling that fantasy. Me as a player, however am dumb as a rock. I could have 6 in all my mental stats, literally.

Meanwhile I have in my team the Rogue player and the Paladin player that are way smarter players than me. They follow better the plot. They resolve puzzles. They make strategic plans outside of combat. Yet this isn't translated well into their stat because number wise they have less point in INT than my characters.

How is it that the smart players I meet never play high INT characters. The reverse is also true: How is it that I find Artificers that put 8 in charisma but roleplay it like if they had 18?

For those super smart players that play high int characters, I've never met one of you in my games but I know you exist.

Just wanted to clarify that this is only my anecdotal experience and I don't want to generalize. I just wanted tell you my story.

My wife and I have been playing DND for some time now and have recently joined a new campaign. My wife wants to put her skill points into charisma.

Our new DM has stated that it is "in the player's handbook" to sexualize charisma. He went on to say that if my wife's charisma stat is high she absolutely MUST be hot. Furthermore, comments have been made that players with high charisma will be sexually harassed and possibly assaulted often for the purpose of progressing the plot.

All players have told him firmly on multiple accounts that it will not be tolerated however the DM is adamant that it isn't negotiable as sexualizing charisma stats are in the rules and normal.

Have any of you ever experienced anything similar along these lines? Is it "normal"? How would you feel? I disagree that this component of the plot is too important to do without, personally.

UPDATE: Our table has since disbanded, and sexual deviance had not been eluded to prior to session one. Rather, discussions throughout had devolved to said points.

I saw a table that had various DC's by level where it stated that for one set difficulty the PC had about an 80% chance to succeed on the check. And there's another table that showed an offensive CR and Defensive CR to find a monsters actual CR, does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Edit: both tables were homebrewed that I found online

This build works with any race, but if you don't plan on going pact of the blade then drow is best, since you get a martial weapon proficiency (rapier) and boots to your two most important stats.

The idea is simple: you activate cloak of flies, walk up to a creature, then hit them with booming blade. They are not left with a lot of options if the attack connects:

• Option 1: run away. This will trigger both booming blade and an opportunity attack form you, so you win.
• Option 2: stay put. This means they keep taking cha mod posion damage from your cloak of flies every round, and you get to keep shanking them with that rapier, so you win again. (at first this may seem preferable for your target over option 1, but keep in mind that it will keep taking the poison and shank damage every round, whereas it only has to worry about the booming blade/AoO damage once. unless you walk back up to them, of course)
• Option 3: take the disengage action. this may seem like an easy out for your enemy, but keep in mind that they'll still trigger the booming blade damage, and also that you succeeded on getting an enemy to waste their turn on the disengage action (unless of course your target is one that can disengage as a bonus action, but even then they'll still take the booming blade damage). yet again, you win.

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I saw this idea online a while back and had it in my notes. Basically it's a puzzle where the group are cursed and to escape they have to identify each others curses without the ability to say specifically what their own curse is.

Premise A large translucent forcefield with a bluish tint stands in the middle of a room. Inside the forcefield the players can vaguely see a quest item. They are unable to enter the forcefield at first, but after inspecting it, it triggers stones to appear outside of the forcefield (the number of stones = number of players). The stones also glow bluish and require two hands to pick up. There will be some indication to take the stones through the forcefield, which will allow them to pass through. But what they don't know is once they take it in, they can't come back out. They are also imbued with a curse (chosen by DM) with the condition that they can't talk about their own curse.

When each player picks up a stone and goes through the forcefield, they will all be imbued with a different curse. When the group verbally identifies a character's curse, that character can pass back through the barrier and take the quest item.

The fun part is the curses, and this is what I need help on. The curses must be similar to these so that it will somehow impede the way they talk, making it challenging (but not too difficult) and fun to explain things.

Each player gets a different curse

Examples of curses so far:

• Player cannot speak unless someone else is speaking. They are compelled to talk over them.

• Player is unable to use any nouns when they speak. Only pronouns are allowed.

• Three words into each sentence , the player must pause and think about what they are saying. They cant use sentences that are 3 words or shorter.

So yeah, I need more examples of curses similar to this that will make the encounter fun.

So I was flipping through the books today helping one of my PCs out with some prep, when I looked at the Champion fighter and thought to myself "Huh, why don't I remember this existing?" Then I noticed for the first SIX levels you only gain: Crit on 19-20 and nothing else. Then when you get to level 7, you get the miraculous abilities to add half your proficiency bonus to STR DEX and CON Checks, as well as Jump a little better.

Compared to some classes this is absolutely insane and I have no idea how it has apparently made it through 5e's entire life span without any changes or upgrades.

Running a celestial warlock, I currently have 4 levels in it. My party expects me to be/I want to be a support caster (buffing, defending, healing when necessary).

I want to dip into divine soul sorcerer so I can have more low level buff spells to toss around without "wasting" my pact magic slots. Then if we get to a short rest and I haven't used my warlock spells yet, I can convert them into Sorcery points/spell slots.

I know there's coffee lock to abuse never sleeping and all that, but if I ignore that, is turning warlock slots into sorcery points considered OP or power gaming on its own?

If so, what limits should I put on myself to not do that?

My last post was very controversial lol so I’m here to balance the scales😂 I left it up bc it’s kinda funny how I expose myself.

But yea, if you were building a character and wanted to be average in one bit excel in the other, which one would you prefer?

Around what level do casters drastically outshine martials? I am trying to plan out when I want my players to level up (and the level I want them to be at the end of the campaign), and I was wondering when folks felt casters drastically outshined martials.

The party is: Bard, Blood Hunter, Druid, Rogue, and Warlock.

Right now (lvl 11), the Blood Hunter and Rogue seem to be shining as much (and often more) than the casters (Moon Druid has always been a great tank because I allow them to take forms of monstrosities as well). I don't know if maybe the casters aren't using the best spells, or because they are focusing on damage (generally not the best for casters to focus on).

The closest to "game-breaking" was when the druid used heroes' feast right before going to a heavily cursed place (the advantage of wisdom saves carried them so hard), but I feel like since everyone got to share in the "overpowered" part of the spell.

What level spells become too unbalanced and make martials feel too weak? Or if my players don't use many shutdowns, is this not a concern?

I'm more talking about your personal preference. Weather it be for a specific build, in general, or what have you.

PS. I removed the fighting styles that don't work with this weapon at all.

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So one way to lean with calligraphy as a subclass would be a person who specialize in creating ciphers to protect classified information and transmitting that into protective markings and area effects. Or would it be better for it to be a subclass that creates runes that they put on tools.

Hey y'all,

With the API protest coming up on Monday, I thought it'd be a good idea for us to get a quick pulse of the community's feelings on the matter.

As with all polls regarding moderation, this is not a binding resolution (I'm not pulling a Brexit here), but I would like to have an idea of how fired up the community is over this issue.

To be clear: the subreddit will be going private, which means no one will be able to read any posts or comments on the subreddit until we go public again. This means that this thread will be the last chance the community has to give us feedback before we pull the plug.

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