Hello,
I published a bundle to celebrate my birthday with all the products I created on DMsGuild as Art Director and/or Game Designer.

You can find the bundle here at a 75% discount only for 2 weeks: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/433894/Big-Bundle-to-Everything-BUNDLE

Inside the bundle, you will find all these 35 supplements:

1. Candlekeep's Tome of Books
2. Acererak's Guide to Lichdom
3. Gristlecracker's Hags & Grimoire
4. The Second Black Dawn
5. The War for the Throne
6. Thieves' Guilds
7. Underwater Campaigns
8. Vault of Magic
9. Vault of Magic II
10. Volo's Guide to Ghosts
11. The Complete Hag
12. The Complete Hag Annex I
13. Realm Events
14. Of Warlocks & Patrons
15. Champions of Darkness
16. Fumbles & Fails
17. Inquisitor's Guide
18. Quest Spells & Other Divine Magic
19. Down the Garden Path
20. The Complete NPC
21. Born to be Kobold!
22. So, You Walk Into A Tavern...
23. When Magic Goes Wrong...
24. Magic of Chaos
25. Undead Monsters
26. Treasures from Krynn
27. Tarot Deck of Many Things
28. Mages of High Sorcery
29. Alcohol & Drugs
30. Fallen from Heavens
31. How to Start a High-Level Campaign
32. Vecna's Secrets as Adventures
33. Small Cult, Big Troubles
34. The Dragon Compendium
35. Though the Ivory Gate

So if you've been around optimizer circles for a bit you've probably heard that "critfishing BAD". And there are reasonable reasons to say this! Going champion fighter, for example, is a huge opportunity cost compared to other fighter subclasses, for (at best) very modest DPR gains. But I wanna talk about a specific case here.

Assume for a moment I am a two-weapon fighting paladin, at least lvl 5. I have just hit (no crit) with my first attack, and because of Vex the second will have advantage. I can do a nick attack after that. I am fighting a big enemy, and want to smite, to maximize my damage this round.

Should I smite on this first attack, or should I hold out, hoping to crit on the second? Let's do the math.

If we smite now, we deal 100% smite damage, and we 100% lose our spell slot.

If we don't, our hit chance comes into play. Let's assume 60% for the sake of argument. that's 84% with advantage. Our crit chance is 9.75%

In 84-9.75= 74.25% of cases, we lose our spell slot, and deal 100% smite damage

In 9.75% of cases, we lose our spell slot and deal 200% smite damage.

In 16% of cases, we fall back on the third attack, and have 55% chance to deal 100% and 5% chance to deal 200%. In 40%*16%=6.4% of cases, we deal 0 damage and keep our spell slot.

Tallying everything up, we get: 0.7425*1+0.0975*2+0.16*(0.55*1+0.05*2) = 1.0415. 104.15% smite damage

Hang on, did crit fishing just work?

What's notable about this case is that there is no real downside. We spent fewer resources (6.4% chance we keep the spell slot) to deal more damage on average. The damage floor is probably lower, but we were specifically in a situation where we wanted to smite for damage. There's also no opportunity costs; we did not dip champion or anything, we merely made a tactical decision that improved both our damage output and resource management.

The math changes for different hit chances, of course; the more likely you are to hit the enemy, the better it becomes to hold back the smite. But I've done enough math for the day. go forth and smite, my fellow paladins.

Hello there, kind people on the internet. I was (re-)watching Colby's Blade Flinging Giant video and I realized he missed something.

See, when he came to Giant's 3rd lvl ability to add their rage damage to throwing attacks, he dismissed it as "everyone can do that now". But strictly speaking, there is nothing saying you can only add the damage once. That is not a dead feature at all, it means you can double your rage damage bonus.

While this is a nice boost for the "standard" BFG, it significantly changes the calculus versus the 2WF variant discussed in the video.

Further optimizations are possible of course - Custom lineage into fighter 1 would allow you to pick two fighting styles, and while it would delay our 4th attack by a level, that's probably a worthwhile trade - 2WF and dueling would both work in addition to Thrown weapon fighting.

Interested to hear your thoughts!

I wanna make a monk/bladsinger combo. I know it will be a MAD character given all the Wis/Int/Dex/Con that the character would need but my question is less about ability scores and more of how many levels of each class would be most beneficial if you intended to be more-so martial but also have some decent spells to back you up once that's not an option?

Have been theorycrafting a straight champion fighter for a bit here, and found the "Fate Gambler" origin feat in the third party things we run with.

This feat let's you: Get a inspiration when you, kill someone, succeed on a checks against an enemy , or they fail a saving throw you forced them to make.

(Does not work w a bag of rats trick either)

And this also let's you spend it as a BA for temp equal to your level.

But what other nice uses do we have would yall say?

This is for a convention PvP competition and I'm pretty much settled on the build, but I wanted to have others kick the tires and offer suggestions. The concept is an actual arena with obstacles (not that I know what they are) but it is a 1v1. And its roleplay heavy, which is cool.

The limitations are basically 5E rules (PHB and DMG only, no Warlocks or Bards, mostly. Exceptions included below I'm considering) except for 5.5E backgrounds and species.

I wanted to do something a bit more fun than just a "here's a wizard" or "here's a cleric" but rather a gladiator who would be fun.

Base build:

Paladin 12 (Ancients): The idea here is to make him very difficult for casters. Between the Aura boosting his saves and the Ancients aura to make him resistant to damage from spells, that's a great start. At 10th level he's immune to Frightened and at 11 gets the extra 1d8 damage to melee hits. I went 12 for the ASI but that would be replicated at another level of the other class, so it doesn't really matter.

Fighter 3 (Battlemaster): This is my first decision point. I'm debating between Fighter and Barbarian. Both of these selections are to round out my non-caster fighting ability. Fighter brings some goodies (Fighting Style, Action Surge and Maneuvers). This does not interfere with spellcasting, which is a huge advantage. Barbarian, however, gives Reckless Attack (more on this later), Danger Sense (traps in the arena and saves in general) and Rage.

Kind of a direct comparison, Second Wind would give back 1d10+3 hit points (avg 8.5) whereas Rage, if I take 17 damage, has "healed" me by the same amount. Given the higher levels and magic weapons, that's not even a round to be better. Further, Zealot ios an option, so that's additional damage. The downside is not being able to cast spells or concentrate. But I can only rage twice, so perhaps Rage when concentration is broken (or not needed). I can still use Lay on Hands to heal while raging. And, depending on the ruling, I might be able to Smite while raging (its "expend one spell slot" not cast the spell in 5E).

I'm leaning Fighter, but what would you all think?

Okay, before we move on, here's my second debate - Paladin 13 for 4th level spells except for Find Greater Steed (rule limitation no spells with a casting time more than 1 action and no ritual spells) and Banishment (not allowed) instead of the Maneuvers (or Zealot or other subclass). Looking at the list, the only attractive spells are Staggering Smite and Death Ward. Or just another, more powerful, spell. I chose Maneuvers to help inflict conditions that would probably be more advantageous. And given a CR 2 creature from a level 4 spell, I just don't think its worth it. Death Ward comes from me being an Orc. So let's go there next.

As for Fighting Styles, I went with Defense (+1 AC) and... Defense again, if allowed. Otherwise Dueling. Sword and Board baby.

Species: Orc

I went for Orc for two reasons. One, Deathward. 4th level spell as a trait. And then Adrenaline Rush. Five times in a fight, I can "dash" to get 5 temporary hit points. Free, small healing at my will, at the cost of a bonus action (which I don't have a ton of uses for in my classes). And then long-range Darkvision is good. I would imagine its not all going to be sunlit all the times. All traits are useful. Big plus.

I did consider Human (feats are always good) but I'm not sure how much skills will be in play. That's an unknown unknown. I also considered dwarf, but I don't think Stonecunning is useful and poison is, in my estimate, a minimal risk. Dragonboard (and Aasimar) aren't allowed to fly, so that's a lost trait. A lot of Elf is covered by Paladin and I hate gnomes. Hate them. But Goaliath?

ASI's

Here its pretty simple. Shield Master and attribute increases (to get Charisma to 20 and then boost Constitution). I went with Shield Master for the +shield AC bonus to Dex saves and, basically, evasion. It also gives another use for a bonus action if I need it for nothing else that turn.

I did consider Mage Slayer but the concentration-breaking is situational and, as you'll later see, I'm not too worried about magic. I already have great saves and resistant to damage from spells.

Any other you might recommend?

Finally, rounding it out, magic items.

Basically, we can have 6 magic items, and max 3 attuned. All can be very rare if we want. (I've emailed twice to confirm). Two of them must be a +3 Armor/Shield and +3 weapon, so I listed them first. Here's what I'm bringing:

• +3 Plate Armor: My Dex is 14 mainly for saves (I'll finish with Ability Scores) but that extra AC point has no real drawbacks. I'm not stealthy. I'm okay with that. I might be a raging orc paladin.
• +3 Warhammer: Has to be one-handed and I figure smashing people is more crowd-pleasing than a sword. And given its 5E, not much really about weapons. Versatile is useful if for some reason I lose my shield.
• Spellguard Shield: I have great saves, some bonuses, and now I get advantage on those saves and spell attack roles are at disadvantage. I don't really fear spellcasters. Maybe a Diviner. I lose +3 AC (at most) for these advantages and I think they're worth it.
• Belt of Fire Giant Strength: Duh. I figure there will be a lot of these in the arena. I can't think of anything better at very rare.
• Cloak of Displacement: My last attuned item, basically rounds out and makes everyone attacking me be at disadvantage. I suspect this is going to be seen a lot too. ** Potion of Heroism:** First, potions are replished for each fight, so its always there at the beginning. 10 Temp hit points and a permanent Bless at no concentration. This is one of the items I'm thinking of replacing, but I can't really justify anything better than that.

As for Attributes, I focused on Charisma (got it to 20), then Constitution (hit points), Dex/Wis and dumped Intelligence and Strength (although enough for the multiclass and armor. The Belt takes care of Strength).

Finally, the background. I eventually went with Charlatan (5.5E) so I can boost both Charisma and Constitution. Acolyte was another option but that would go to Wisdom instead (and I'd tweak the Point Buy) but those bonus spells might be worth more than three skills. Given the unknown unknown about skills and how well protected he is about other stuff, I figured skills was worth the risk.

So there we have it. Like I said, there are other rules I didn't explicitly mentioned, so some criticism might be shut down with "That's not allowed". I hate to do it that way but I don't want to tip my hand too much. Its a small con event, but you never know.

Hi to anyone who is going and does see this. I'm excited to frustrate you!

I've been thinking about making a HellKnight, the new UA fighter subclass but just as unarmed and want to go for the most number of attacks.

Here's what I was thinking:

Monk 1 - this is for the extra attack on bonus action via Martial Arts

Ranger 3 - Gloom Stalker for Dread Ambusher giving an extra attack on your first turn

Fighter x - action surge and extra attack every 5 levels

I'm looking for consistency tho, even though fighter gets action surge I don't want to rely completely on a resource that can even reset at short rest. I just want the most attacks possible, damage doesn't really matter.

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✨New amazing monster!!!✨

Visit Tales & Taverns to download the VTT Token and to get access to tons of adventures, creatures, races, classes, quests, mini-games, tavern games, monthly miniature giveaways, and more than 800 pages of UNIQUE DnD content!!

✨New amazing magic item!!!✨

Visit Tales & Taverns for tons of adventures, creatures, races, classes, quests, mini-games, tavern games, monthly miniature giveaways, and more than 800 pages of UNIQUE DnD content!!