werecorpse
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werecorpse, in my experience paladins have not felt overpowered, and while the aura is awesome it's as much of a buff for allies that do melee as the paladin themselves if they allies are close (which does cause other issues). Of course that's just one person's perspective and it may not apply to your game, but my rogue/fighter never felt "jealous" of the paladin. Yes, every once in a while they went nova but we never knew how many fights we were going to have so they ended up being fairly conservative. In addition, don't underestimate the ability of feats to balance things out. At different levels different PCs will feel more powerful but in my experience it balanced out over time. I'd recommend chatting with your players and see what they think before you start making changes. The thing is that there's never going to be perfect balance in D&D. At some levels, certain PCs are going to be more powerful. If you verify that it is an issue, try throwing more encounters per day and limi...

There are some nice ideas in there @werecorpse. So it seems that your table's take on Cure Wounds is that general combat-related open wounds knit close and stop the bleeding etc but the deeper trauma to the body remains - hence the lingering injury. Which could also help explaining why some people in a magical world don't fully recover (Sir Isteval walks with a limp) because they don't have access to the Regenerate spell or higher level magic. Your simple healing potions and healings spells are just not enough.

City of Brass 0 Free City of Greyhawk 6 werecorpse and I can share the kill, as we posted at the same time. :)

@werecorpse I have bled the timelines of the Sundering (MiBG and LotCS) into ToD. This accomplishes a few things 1. Elminster primarily concerned with assisting Mystra's return and the Weave's safety of the weave which explains his absence from ToD. 2. A division in the Lord's Alliance with Sir Isteval and Ulder Ravenguard on the one side versus the rest over what is of primary importance - for Isteval its the Chosen, for Ulder it is trying to save Baldur's Gate, while the rest are concerned with the ToD storyline. 3. The Emerald enclave is concerned over the growing cold and disturbances in the Icewind Dale. Bleeding LMoP into ToD The Spider is essentially a Cultist. The Wave Echo Cave was perhaps one of the hidden locations of the Dragonmasks. Bleeding SKT in ToD At the first Council Meeting it is suggested an alliance with the Giants (this also depends on the party's interaction with Blagothkus and if you intend running Frozen Castle) would be helpful. This gets to the Cult's ears which l...

ElderElementalEye missed werecorpse. Fixed. Bigby 31 Bucknard 21 Gord 25 Heward 23 Keoghtom 17 Leomund 25 Melf 28 Mordenkainen 30 Nolzur 15 Nystul 22 Otiluke 23 Rary 9 Robilar 16 Serten 21 Tasha 27 Tenser 22

...ronghold of the Aboleth where the PCs have to destroy multiple magical towers by overloading them with spells. That means that non-casters really don’t get to do anything at that point in the game other than watch the spellcasters have fun. That’s also not to mention the fact that the PCs have to pump a whole lot of spells into the towers. I am looking for alternative ways for the PC's to destroy the magical spheres in the Aboleth towers in D&D 5e? Here is a link to our Night Below Wiki site (http://wardsshed.wikidot.com/) if you fancy mining it for you own needs. Thanks in advance for any ideas/help. I was running a 5e Night Below / OOtA mashup for my home game, on hiatus now. We didn't get anywhere near that far before we all got too busy with life, but I remember reading that part about the raid on Great Shaboath and thinking "dang, I'd need to change up these magical towers and the spheres inside, they'e too boring, and too dependent on spellcasters!" I agree with werecorpse that the whole towers/spheres section needs a serious re-design.

That would go against the general theme of 5e. I don't think many people are wanting to go back to the days of 40 specific weapon types with varying degrees of effectiveness against different armor. Finesse melee weapons should be d6; let the player choose how it looks or if it's s/b/p. Making one such weapon a d8 just means that's the obvious best and only choice. If you make more d8 finesse weapons for the sake of choice, what's the purpose of the d6 versions? All you did increase the typical damage of the category and rendered the existing d6 options even more useless. What werecorpse said is what I would have said, too. Also, my gnome battlemaster uses one of those d6 finesse weapons.

The Styes is set in a port town. I wonder if it will be in Saltmarsh or if the book will give two towns along the coast? A slasher mystery in Saltmarsh either means it'll be a very easy mystery or Saltmarsh is going to be larger, like it was in DMG2. Having it be set in a nearby full-sized city makes more sense, but yeah, that raises setting issues. (I may do it anyway, since I'll be putting a renamed Saltmarsh near Ptolus, which is a port city.)

- published by WOTC doesn’t always mean adequately playtested by WOTC as is demonstrated by numerous corner case questions that arise. This is particular true of UA material. Yes they label it as playtest so we can't say we've not been warned, but some of it is much better thought through than others. In some cases, UA material is pretty much ready to go. In others it's borderline daft or ripe for abuse.

Beginners set - Lost Mine of PhandelverA surprisingly excellent adventure. I've used it on multiple occasions to introduce players to 5E, including 3E players, 4E players, and total newbs. Assuming you don't want to run this one, I'd suggest something simple, such as Keep on the Borderlands (which was partially reprinted for the playtest, if you can find it), Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (1E), or the Secret of Bone Hill (1E). Death House (from Curse of Strahd) is also pretty good for a one-shot. Ghost of Dragonspear Castle (from the end of the playtest) is pretty good, but requires jumping levels to complete (4 adventures take characters from level 1-10).

Thematically I prefer a less crowded world than this appears to be. More exploring the wildernes than battling street gangs. I do like new monsters though. I’m supportive of steps that are taken to enhance viability of D&D like growing the supporter base by trying to lure in Magic the gathering players. As someone who DMs and not at my house I really do wish they would publish products that were more traditionally streamlined. Having to carry Volos and Mordenkainens books to a game just to be able to use the 1/3 that are monsters sucks - adding another 1/3 monster book will likewise suck. I would love a compiled monster book or PDFs....sorry got off track. If Ravnica is like the card game there will be a wilderness component in parks and gardens and druids and even antelopes. But not a sprawling wilderness. I'm glad they are trying to get new D&D players as well. But a lot of existing D&D players are looking forward to it too. Like me.:) As far as rulebooks go, story is a big p...

[QUOTE=werecorpse;7491219]Burroughs, Edgar Rice 13 Carter, Lin 12 Dunsany, Lord 15 Leiber, Fritz 10 Merritt, A. 8 Offutt, Andrew J. 4-2=2 Tolkien, J.R.R. 12+1=13 Wellman, Manley Wade 10 Williamson, Jack 14 Zelazny, Roger 13

Nothing wrong with audiobooks. It's the same book, just in a different form. Not my cup of tea, but I know lots of folks who swear by them. In reality I could care less, but there is still a fair bit of nose-looking-down directed toward audiobooks. To be fair, I still find dramatized versions a bit hard to take seriously and early on they were more common. Fixing for the happy hermit (I think) Yeah, I really made a mess of that. The problem with audiobooks is you can't skim read or easily skip ahead. There are some perfectly good books with dull or repetitive sections (the later Pratchetts for example, when the Alzheimer's started to take effect). Well, depending on your player it should be easy to skip ahead, or you can adjust the speed. A good player will of course bookmark where you left off, finding your place when you accidentally left it playing can be significantly less fun.

Also those who want Tolkien to make it to the last few why not pick off the low numbers. Thin the herd as it were. I've been trying, but I don't seem to have much company.

Bellairs, John 13 Burroughs, Edgar Rice 19 Carter, Lin 16 - 2 = 14 de Camp & Pratt 15 Dunsany, Lord 17 Fox, Gardner 17 Leiber, Fritz 19 Merritt, A. 18 Offutt, Andrew J. 14 Pratt, Fletcher 12 St. Clair, Margaret 15 Tolkien, J.R.R. 12 + 1 = 13 Weinbaum, Stanley 6 Wellman, Manley Wade 16 Williamson, Jack 18 Zelazny, Roger 20 Yep some fans have strong opinions and they can rub the wrong way. Don’t get too invested in this vote it’s a self evidently NOT a way of determining who is most popular or whatever - just the one who survives. If you want to set up a most popular poll I’m sure you could do it. In this being popular is like wearing a target in your back. The popular options get hammered because someone is sick of them. (Edit: or more often sick of their fans and conflates the author with the fans) It’s the system. Yes it is just the system and it is just an opinion and everyone is entitled to them. But the rhetoric and use of words like hate against someone who just happens to have a dif...

Mammon 2-2=dead. Another one for my trophy room. The vault has been breached and coins flow like rivers https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/seeker-of-thrones-10-143/ I hope you like hyperinflation.... Now apologize! https://killsixbilliondemons.com/comic/seeker-of-thrones-9-109/

Here's some stuff I tend to use when I expect the party to run. Everyone makes mistakes - players and GM's - and I would rather my players did stuff and got it wrong than were super cautious 1) have the enemy be not just too powerful but way way way too powerful. So 3 fire giants v a 7th level party they might think it's a winnable fight. They may not be clear as to the power of the enemy. I have used a beholder v a 2nd level party, a lich v a 4th level party. 2) have the bad guys not take the fight seriously or have a goal other than kill the players: the beholder and its Minotaur servant wanted to take an NPC prisoner, the lich wanted an old spellbook. Have one of the fire Giants say loudly in common "I bet you a silver groat you can't hit the fat blue one with your eyes closed" then one of the others throws a rock with disadvantage at the PC wizard while the other two laugh. Have one giant scoop up the most obstreperous PC and toss him into a stream 300 feet away and then shout "nailed it, 3...

So they each do 33 damage as a standard. Then the fighter action surges and does 66(+25) for 91. The paladin recklessly burns 3 3rd level slots for +54 total 87. I agree the fighter using all their abilities in one round does beat the paladin, by 4 Next round the fighter does 33 the paladin burns 3x2nd doing +38.5 : paladin wins by 38 And the paladin doesn't care if the fighters got an extra 11 hit points. He can cure 55hp vs self cure 16. But also note the paladin has +3 to all saves, maybe takes half damage from spells and can't be frightened. So maybe a fighter can nearly match the paladin in combat. The paladin has a whole bucket of other fruit compared to the fighters reroll 1 save. He far surpasses the fighter in other ways - that is the issue. I made a math error actually, it is 36 DPR for the Paladin vs 39 for the fighter (average) with no other abilities. Round 1 going all out with all hits action surge and a hit on a bonus attack and using all his battlemaster dice the fighter does...

So they each do 33 damage as a standard. Then the fighter action surges and does 66(+25) for 91. The paladin recklessly burns 3 3rd level slots for +54 total 87. I agree the fighter using all their abilities in one round does beat the paladin, by 4 Next round the fighter does 33 the paladin burns 3x2nd doing +38.5 : paladin wins by 38 And the paladin doesn't care if the fighters got an extra 11 hit points. He can cure 55hp vs self cure 16. But also note the paladin has +3 to all saves, maybe takes half damage from spells and can't be frightened. So maybe a fighter can nearly match the paladin in combat. The paladin has a whole bucket of other fruit compared to the fighters reroll 1 save. He far surpasses the fighter in other ways - that is the issue. Which all depends on a lot of assumptions. Like they have the same number of feats, the same strength, the same constitution. The paladin only gets that +3 to saves because they've made other choices in addition to having fewer feats an...

Does anyone know the clerics name? No idea, but it would be funny and keeping with the times if it was something like Kime Rarc.

Oofta, Always interested in hearing what works for other groups - fine if what works is RAW. If you don't mind, what level is your group and how many characters in the party ? I always talk to my players about this stuff, possibly too much as they usually have the attitude "you just work out what's reasonable and we'll play that." In my very slow advance group (so expected to be a long campaign) at 5th the player of the eldritch knight character has dumped him and replaced it with a paladin of the ancients and the barbarian player is the only other player contemplating changing characters. I also am running a normal advance XP group which is at 4th ATM and just had a tpk so all new characters. One of the players is going to try playing a heavily nerfed paladin to see how it goes. I have removed everything gained from the oath replaced it with giving a channel divinity at 3rd which is identical to the cleric one based on their religion, reduced smite to useable only 1/short rest and chang...

Sure but the fact that you should roleplay your character is something common to all characters. Fighters should be roleplayed as well, with personal goals, secrets, codes of conduct or whatever. To the extent the oaths and additional role play obligation is seen as a justification for more mechanical power I don't buy it. Plus in 5e if you break your oath it's an "off screen" event to say whoops and you are golden. So my attitude to this is sure they have an expectation they will be roleplayed in a particular way, same with monks, barbarians, bards, etc that can't possibly still be being used as a justification for their power. In 1e the code existed and was required but the balancing thing was the fact it cost more XP to level up. A mechanical difference And it was rare to roll up a paladin in the first place STR 12 INT 9 (yes Paladin had a minimum INT score) WIS 12 DEX no minimum CON 9 CHA 17 (!) Maybe they could bring that back, say... STR 12/ INT/ 10/ WIS 12/ DEX -/ CON 12/ ...

Paladin starts balanced up to about 4th level but then gets a big bump at 5th (second attack, extra 5hp lay on hands and 1x1st, 2x2nd level spells - fighters just get second attack) then seems to just get incrementally more powerful each level. They end up at 10th+ nigh invulnerable to magic and at 14th they get auto dispels. 5th as above - goes to paladin 6th bonus to all saves & +5LoH vs stat improvement and +1 HP for second wind - pal 7th immunity aura, 2nd level spell, +5LoH vs weakish ability and +1hp saw - pal 8th ability score, +5LoH v ability score and +1 to sw - pal 9th 2x3rdvlevel spells, +5LoH v reroll 1 save and +1 to Sw-pal 10th aura of courage , +5LoH v improved subclass effect - hard to rate - equal, maybe slightly in favour of paladin 11th extra d8 damage per attack, 3rd level spell, 5LoH v extra attack, and 1 sw - pal ----this is the level that people point to to say that fighters are equal to,Paladins because of that extra attack but the paladin gets its improved divine smite...

any other suggestions ? Angels... That "purify" Oathbreakers & their insidious cohorts... OR just have Orcus come to "congratulate" the Paladin (in Roman Mythology, Orcus supposedly punished breakers of Oaths).:devil: Jokes aside... I tend to think that the most effective way to enforce the Oath requirements (or anything else) is through tangible impacts on the story and the world rather than incremental mechanical adjustments. Devils or Demons would want to encourage a Paladin to make more and more egregious transgressions of oath-breaking behavior, because corrupted Paladins are a worthwhile resource to them... Conversely, I think a great way to get the Paladin to walk-the-walk & uphold their Oaths could be to provide them with a Squire NPC that is supposed to learn how to become an appropriate Paladin... or perhaps the Clerics/Paladins have other ways to test their faithful, and ensure that those who have sworn an Oath are able to uphold it... maybe Paladins need to submit themselv...

... To address this without simply permanently removing some of their features ... any ny other suggestions ? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Why remove features when you can remove the class?

I agree. I mean seriously a city adventure chasing a pot of gold in a big independent city linked to a nearby dungeon created by a long missing mad arch mage. Hmmm I reckon I could port that across to a certain large Free city on Oerth and link it to a nearby dungeon created by ..... Wait for it...,,, yes a long missing mad arch mage. Castle Greyhawk?

Not me. From the overall tone of this thread, not many.But it is for me, and I am only speaking for myself. What would you prefer?Not Waterdeep. Not the Sword Coast. Not Forgotten Realms. If I understand correctly the adventure for levels 1-5 and it is 256 pages. They also mentioned new urban environment rules. It seems to me this is as much, if not more, and urban adventure book with a starter adventure thrown in than a proper adventure path. Now that may not be your thing, but it seem to be to a potentially really useful supplement. I know I struggle to handle urabn environments well, and if this can help, I will pick it up regardless of the adventure.Ptolus may not be 5e, but it is probably one of the better D&D books for providing a "guide" for urban adventures. If previous adventures are any precedent, I just don't see much chance of me being inspired by anything from this book.