D&D 5E a couple of noob rules questions

[Luchador]

Hi everybody,

We played our first 5e game over the weekend (Lost Mine of Phandelver is great!) and I have just a couple of noob questions.

1. shooting missile weapon/spell into melee: When a friendly is fighting a bad guy and other players want to target the bad guy, what is the penalty? I can't find this any where.
2. How do Warlocks prepare/choose their spells? Does a warlock have to pick what spells he/she has prepared at the start of the day, like a Wizard?

Those are the only two things I couldn't sort out.

 

[Bitbrain]

1) I'm pretty sure that there is no penalty. I don't see anything in my PHB.
2) warlocks use known spells. You basically look at the warlock spell list and pick out a number of them determined by you class level. You regain expended slots after a short or long rest, but you don't get to change out your actual spells until you reach the next level.

 

[KahlessNestor]

The only penalty that would apply in shooting into melee is if someone was between you and your target. Then it's -2. Otherwise just move off to the side for a clear shot and you're golden. The cover penalty is why Archery Fighting Style gets +2.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[Ath-kethin]

1) I'm pretty sure that there is no penalty. I don't see anything in my PHB.
2) warlocks use known spells. You basically look at the warlock spell list and pick out a number of them determined by you class level. You regain expended slots after a short or long rest, but you don't get to change out your actual spells until you reach the next level.

All of this, exactly as written.

 

[Luchador]

Thanks all!

 

[BoldItalic]

1. There is no penalty, unless cover is involved.
2. Warlocks do not need to "prepare" spells the way Wizards do. All the spells they know are automatically "prepared" all the time. They are just limited by spell slots as to how many spells they can cast between rests.

(edit - typing too slow, other people have already given good answers)

 

[robus]

Hi everybody,

We played our first 5e game over the weekend (Lost Mine of Phandelver is great!) and I have just a couple of noob questions.

1. shooting missile weapon/spell into melee: When a friendly is fighting a bad guy and other players want to target the bad guy, what is the penalty? I can't find this any where.
2. How do Warlocks prepare/choose their spells? Does a warlock have to pick what spells he/she has prepared at the start of the day, like a Wizard?

Those are the only two things I couldn't sort out.

Well if the spell has an area of effect then your ally would also receive damage.

And interesting variation I like to use with spell casters in tricky situations like this is to have them roll an ability check (depending on their spellcasting type) in order to "guide" the spell accurately to avoid their ally - typically DC 15. If they succeed then they miss their ally.

 

[Harzel]

Well if the spell has an area of effect then your ally would also receive damage.

And interesting variation I like to use with spell casters in tricky situations like this is to have them roll an ability check (depending on their spellcasting type) in order to "guide" the spell accurately to avoid their ally - typically DC 15. If they succeed then they miss their ally.

I assume you are talking about spells that require an attack roll. If so, then if you are going to do anything, it seems like a cover penalty would be more appropriate. An additional DC 15 ability check is more or less equivalent to disadvantage.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Evocation Wizards also get a feat to prevent allies from being damaged by AoE spells.

There's no penalty from shooting into melee by default. If the opponent is covered to at least 50% by an obstacle, then the cover rules apply.
Spells are only affected by the cover rules if they require you to do an attack roll. Spells like Magic Missile always hit their target.
Many spells requires you to see the target, so if it's obscured 100%, you couldn't target it.

 

[Ketser]

A Warlock related piece of advice, that a lot people are still getting wrong: The Patron expanded spells aren't added to your spells known, they are added to the spells you can pick from.