D&D 5E (2014) Does anyone who got an mm at Gencon want to offer up spoilers to us?

[WitchyD]

Flipping through it, there is very little rules info for PCs. There's a good amount of lore. There are plenty of allies and villains.

There is some stuff, though. It's just hard to tease out without knowing it's there:

• Half-dragon (I didn't notice a half-demon/devil)
• Quasits as familiars
• PC vampires.
• More I'm sure, but they don't have their own section.

Thaumaturge.

PC Vampires? I've a player who wants to play one -- do they have an LA, or something else that might keep us from throwing one into the party?

 

[Thaumaturge]

PC Vampires? I've a player who wants to play one -- do they have an LA, or something else that might keep us from throwing one into the party?

There's no LA adjustment. This is definitely "vampirism as terrible curse". Part of the template is the PC's alignment becomes lawful evil, with the option the DM controls the PC until he is cured. I don't think it would be particularly balanced alongside standard characters.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

My guess about the change in name of the classic D&D Titans to Empyreans, has to do with the fact that those Titans were generally good in alignment, and at odds with the Titans of Greek Mythology who were often evil (Gaea being the exception) and all God-level in terms of power.

And I guess they want to have Titan replace the Abomination type.

 

[Roger]

Do we get the flinds / super-gnolls to kick around again? Sounds like something this MM would do.

 

[SkidAce]

So a bunch of attacks that are all the same +4 to hit and 1d6+2 damage, and they can hold their breath, same old school type monster that is just a sack of hit points. I would love to see a racial ability like a gnashing bite that grabs you, or a tail slap that trips, maybe different types of lizard folk that spit venom, or have chameleon skin.

great ideas...I think I''ll do them for my world.

 

[WitchyD]

There's no LA adjustment. This is definitely "vampirism as terrible curse". Part of the template is the PC's alignment becomes lawful evil, with the option the DM controls the PC until he is cured. I don't think it would be particularly balanced alongside standard characters.

Thaumaturge.

All right, thanks! I'd give some XP if I didn't need to spread some around.

 

[SkidAce]

According to Mike Mearls the Empyreans aka Titans, will be more like the AD&D titans, so I was unfamilar with them and did some research.

They have magic resistance, they're over 25 feet tall, spell like abilities, most are Chaotic Good, massive intelligence to got with thier size, and each has a special attack and a special ability, and they are emotionally unstable. This is the ad&d Titan, so the 5e Empyrean (Titan) is likely to be simularly designed, but in 5e terms, like resistance to magic spells and maybe advantage on saving throughs. Could be a Giant or Celestial type, probably Giant.

Just guesses on my part.

Dang it...first 3rd edition steals all my Far Realm ideas and makes them boring (oh you use the Far Realm...how boring..I'll find another campaign sorry), then they steal my Titans from AD&D from me (see forum posts on pantheons and creation history somewhere on this site).

Stop spying on me....Ptah and the titans of creation (magnetics, ligihtning, gravity, space, time, etc) demand it!

 

[Thaumaturge]

Do we get the flinds / super-gnolls to kick around again? Sounds like something this MM would do.

Surprisingly, no. There are gnolls, gnoll pack lords, and gnoll fangs of Yeenoghu. They kept the demonic background to gnolls, and those last are a pretty good flind. They're CR4 instead of CR1/2, and they don't have any spells or anything.

Thaumaturge.

 

[jamesmanhattan]

there are Thri-Kreen in the book.

The templates are majorly simple.
I think Half-Dragon was two things: breath weapon, and Damage type Resistance, and little else.

I didn't see any monsster "leveling-up" rules, or difficulty editing.

I was also a little disappointed that there is a sidebar on how Demons can Gate in other Demons, and they give tables of the chances and which demons can summon which others. There was no XP adjustment for those. I would think that Demons who can summon more demons might make the difficulty much harder and require an XP adjustment no?

Another big spoiler: Shadows (the undead creature) do Strength Damage. Each time you are hit you take 1d4 Strength reduction. I thought they were going to get rid of that. The reduction goes away after short rest, but you will have to make adjustments to attack and damage on the fly, just like old-school.

 

[SigmaOne]

All right, thanks! I'd give some XP if I didn't need to spread some around.

I gotcha covered.