D&D 5E Tasha’s cauldron character thread

[clearstream]

My world is magic aware - if they saw someone casting hex they would know right away - but it is not psionic aware.

My world is magic aware in what one might describe as more strongly (not meaning better).

Creatures are sensitive to the effects of spells, which I consider to be a matter of mortal concern i.e. natural selection will have responded to it.

So counsel would be mindful of impairments likely caused by magical interference. They would not rely on the evidence of their eyes alone.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

My world is magic aware in what one might describe as more strongly (not meaning better).

Creatures are sensitive to the effects of spells, which I consider to be a matter of mortal concern i.e. natural selection will have responded to it.

So counsel would be mindful of impairments likely caused by magical interference. They would not rely on the evidence of their eyes alone.

If people in your world are inclined to blame magic whenever they feel ill, or tired, or drop a catch, or stumble over their words, I would call them extremely superstitious, not "magically aware".

 

[FitzTheRuke]

If people in your world are inclined to blame magic whenever they feel ill, or tired, or drop a catch, or stumble over their words, I would call them extremely superstitious, not "magically aware".

Well, some of them might be superstitious about it, but I expect that a lot of them would work hard to learn to be aware of the difference.

(It's not my world, I'm just being devil's advocate.)

I think honestly a lot of this discussion regarding magic awareness is a bit moot when the game has a perfectly reasonable method of determining whether one knows if they've had a spell cast on them or not: Wisdom (Insight) vs Charisma (Deception). (Or Wis (Insight) vs Spell DC; or Spell Attack vs Passive Insight; etc)

Or whatever the DM feels like, based on the enjoyment of the group. (And yes, the DM is part of the group. A big part.)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Whatever he says he is.

A Human with an elven ancestor a few generations back maybe, or one that was touched by the Feywild.

Or just a nimble human who was raised with a bow, made to practice daily, with ever increasing draw strength, causing their mind and body to develop to accommodate archery.

 

[JPL]

How about an awakened gazer sidekick? 1000 pounds of egomaniacal abomination, squeezed into an eight-inch sphere.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Gotta say, the more time goes by, the more appealing it is to me to play a goblin swarmkeeper ranger (spiders and beetles). He has a habit of subconsciously picking a bug off him to eat.

 

[NotAYakk]

I felt like 4e got it right with 5 minute short rests. You cannot refresh the abilities the middle of a combat, but it gave a clear delineation between times when you completely put adventuring on hold and when you just catch a breather. I've seen too many tables where short rest characters are literally nerfed to death because of the new paradigm.

I'd go even further.

Many "short rest" resources are perfectly balanced if they refresh by spending an action.

An action costs doing nothing for a turn in combat, which is large. If a BM could refresh some or all of their dice for an action, for example, it wouldn't break anything.

If you wanted to avoid abuse:

Recover: If you haven't yet moved on your turn, as an action, you can expend a HD, roll it, and regain that many HP. Then, your speed is reduced to 0 and until the start of your next turn, you also grant advantage on all attacks and skill checks on you, and you have disadvantage on all saving throws.

That is our basic "short rest" resource mechanism.

A class or subclass can say "instead of expending a HD to regain HP when you recover, you can regain a superiority die" for example. Or, "instead of regaining HP from the HD you expend when you recover, you can regain a Warlock spell slot".

 

[clearstream]

If people in your world are inclined to blame magic whenever they feel ill, or tired, or drop a catch, or stumble over their words, I would call them extremely superstitious, not "magically aware".

Being that they live in that world, they can tell the difference.

Counsel, who was feeling perfectly well this morning and had summarised articulately only moments before, finds herself stumbling over her words, her tongue cleaving to the roof of her mouth... or whatever. Her high Int and proficiency Arcana can represent in game terms her in-world knowledge - or intuition - of such things. For me, that picture seems more reasonable than a court that proceeds in ignorance: it seems a weak jurisprudence indeed that would be so prone to magical subversion.

I cast it there negatively only so as to reemphasise the point I made earlier - it is a hard case to argue for one set of RP choices over another.

 

[jgsugden]

I'm trying to plot out an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer.

1.) Variant Human Courtier Aberrant Mind - (Persuasion, Intimidation, Perception, Insight, Deception), Metamagic Adept (Quicken, Subtle), [Sleep, Shield, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Light, Minor Illusion] [Mind Sliver, Arms of Hadar, Dissonant Whispers]
2.) Magic Missile, [Remove Arms of Hadar, add Hex] (Hex plus Crossbow for his at will attacking pleasure)
3.) (Distant Spell, Heighten Spell)(Calm Emotions, Detect Thoughts)(Phantasmal Force)(Remove Sleep, add Misty Step)(Remove Dissonant Whispers, add Sleep)
4.) (Mending, Mirror Image)(Remove Calm Emotions, Add Suggestion)(Charisma +2)
5.) (Hunger of Hadar, Sending)(Fireball)(Detect Thoughts->See Invisible)
6.) (Hunger of Hadar-> Tongues), (Major Image)(Hex->Detect Magic)
7.) (Black Tentacles, Summon Aberration)(Polymorph)
8.) (Black Tentacles->Charm Monster),(Invisibility)(Charisma +2)
9.) (Telepathic Bond, Telekenisis)(Bigby's Hand)
10.) [Empower Spell](Synaptic Static, Firebolt)
11.) Disintegrate
12.) Warcaster
13.) Finger of Death (Remove Sleep, Add Planeshift)
14.) N/A
15.) Dominate Monster
16.) Lucky
17.) Wish, Extended Spell
18 to 20.) Some combination of Sorcerer, Bard, Cleric, Druid and Warlock levels.

 

[cbwjm]

Being that they live in that world, they can tell the difference.

Counsel, who was feeling perfectly well this morning and had summarised articulately only moments before, finds herself stumbling over her words, her tongue cleaving to the roof of her mouth... or whatever. Her high Int and proficiency Arcana can represent in game terms her in-world knowledge - or intuition - of such things. For me, that picture seems more reasonable than a court that proceeds in ignorance: it seems a weak jurisprudence indeed that would be so prone to magical subversion.

I cast it there negatively only so as to reemphasise the point I made earlier - it is a hard case to argue for one set of RP choices over another.

Considering identify exists for these sorts of things, I wouldn't be surprised that anyone in power has someone able to quickly cast identify nearby.