D&D 5E Advice for a newish 5E gamemaster

[BoldItalic]

You can make a Warlock that uses Int instead of Cha if you like, it won't break anything. It will feel different in terms of fluff and your story may play out differently, but in terms of mechanical crunch it's harmless.

When you create your Warlock character, you usually put you best ability score into your spell-casting ability and that determines your Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Modifier. It doesn't matter what that ability actually is, the outcome is the same. An Intlock with an Int of 15 has the same spell-casting punch as a Charlock with a Cha of 15. You could even make a Strelock with a Str of 15 and it would be the same. Because if the DM homebrews the class, you respond by switching the scores around when you build your character.

Where it does make a difference is in saving throws and skill checks.

The Intlock has better Int saves and the Charlock has better Cha saves, both because of proficiency bonus and because you have likely switched the ability scores around. But if the scenario is balanced and the DM is fair, there will likely as many occasions where you need one as the other so you will be equally successful overall, but maybe at different points in the story.

It makes a difference to which skills you would likely choose but, again, if things are balanced, it will even out. The Intlock who takes Investigation might be the guy who finds the phoney silver goblet while the Charlock who chooses Deception might be the one who gets a good price for it from the merchant. Things like that.

So it doesn't make any difference to how successful the character is in the long term, it makes a difference to the way the character is successful. It changes the story.

And that's great

 

[tuxedoraptor]

Few more things I PLAN ON MODIFYING I will never use these for new players unless they are absolutely okay with it.
Remarkable athlete is terrible, I trashed it and gave the champion a better ability called unstoppable juggernaut
The champion adds half his proficency bonus to his damage rolls and int roll.

defense style and protection style have been rolled together as there is no reason to ever take protection style.

Short rests and long rests were modified slightly for a better idea of what they actually are;

Short rest is eight hours long, reflecting setting up camp and ending the day, you regain no health unless someone rolls a wisdom(medicine) check, the number rolled is how much health everyone gets back+con mod, healers kit gives advantage on this check

Long rest is 24 hours of general recovery, characters regain health as they would in a normal short rest, by rolling hit dice. Characters do not regain spent hit dice until they spend at least a week of downtime not adventuring.

Thoughts? Ideas? Insults?

 

[BoldItalic]

Interesting ideas. You should bounce them off the Houserules forum. People there might have already tried them out and found out if there are any problems with them.

 

[Hussar]

Few more things I PLAN ON MODIFYING I will never use these for new players unless they are absolutely okay with it.
Remarkable athlete is terrible, I trashed it and gave the champion a better ability called unstoppable juggernaut
The champion adds half his proficency bonus to his damage rolls and int roll.

defense style and protection style have been rolled together as there is no reason to ever take protection style.

Short rests and long rests were modified slightly for a better idea of what they actually are;

Short rest is eight hours long, reflecting setting up camp and ending the day, you regain no health unless someone rolls a wisdom(medicine) check, the number rolled is how much health everyone gets back+con mod, healers kit gives advantage on this check

Long rest is 24 hours of general recovery, characters regain health as they would in a normal short rest, by rolling hit dice. Characters do not regain spent hit dice until they spend at least a week of downtime not adventuring.

Thoughts? Ideas? Insults?

Heh. Funnily enough, the two fighter types in my current campaign - a paladin and a champion fighter, both have protection style. We find it very effective.

Although, to be fair, we did modify it to be a reaction. You only use it after something has hit, so, it's never wasted. It might not work (the reroll could also hit after all) but, it does mean that if the two characters are side by side, they will basically never be critted.

 

[S'mon]

A Paizo dry-erase blank mat is very useful for sketching stuff even if you never use minis. You can also just use minis for the PCs to show relative positioning, with dice, coins etc for the monsters.

 

[S'mon]

Remarkable athlete is terrible, I trashed it and gave the champion a better ability called unstoppable juggernaut
The champion adds half his proficency bonus to his damage rolls and int roll.

I give the RA half Prof bonus to all the STR DEX CON ability checks, whether Proficient or not - that works well. By RAW it already applies to Init.

 

[Beleriphon]

Well, if you don't have more dice than you can ever use (yet), there's a good investment. Amazon has a few sellers of "pound of dice" (with at least 1 matching 7-piece set for around $20. Then of course with lots of dice you'll want a cool dice bag or three. Iirc you were under 21? So obtaining an iconic Crown Royal bag the traditional way may be out.

I bought a bottle of Crown Royal just for the bag. Mind you I like the stuff, but the fact that it came with the bag was too awesome to pass up.

 

[tuxedoraptor]

yeah, im gonna let my relatives buy me dice as they are cheap and useful. I don't have money on my amazon account currently.