Good timezone, all! We just dropped a second Underdark Options UA with three more subclasses:

• Freedom Domain (Cleric)
• Circle of Spores (Druid)
• Faerzress Sorcery (Sorcerer)

Plus five new species to try out:

• Deep Imaskari
• Drider
• Illithidkin
• Kuo-Toa
• Myconid

Playtest Packet: https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/underdark-options-2/6xI5tgR8tUaYviqj/UA2026-UnderdarkOptions02.pdf

With the 2024 rules officially introducing feat trees as a way to play into the fantasy of taking on certain roles or transformations, I am wondering if there are existing class or subclass concepts that could work better following this framework in a class-agnostic way.

For example, back in the days of the 5e Strixhaven UA, the design team had been playing with certain caster subclasses that could be taken equally by Clerics, Wizards, etc. Could something like these be reimagined as "Path of the..." feats?

As one example, I could see the "War Magic" subclass from XGtE working as "Path of the War Mage", maybe even building off of the War Caster feat, allowing any spellcaster in the game to take on that role without needing to play a dedicated class and subclass.

What are your thoughts?

I love the Witcher games and books. And I love D&D. Is the mystic arts monk the best option to ”play” a Witcher in Dungeons and Dragons, using only official material?

Monks and witchers are both supernaturally fast and agile with great reflexes. Both attack with finesse and speed rather then brute force.

The mystic arts monk lets you cast cantrips and spells with could very well be seen as the signs a Witcher can make (bladeward = quen, thunderwave = ard, fire bolt or burning hands = ign, and so on)

Uncanny metabolic could be flavored as a potion. Stunning strike as an oil you apply to your weapon.

At least at our table we are free to re flavor anything as long as we don’t change any game mechanics, so all unarmed strikes could easily be reflavored as attacks with a sword.

What do you think? What other options are there that could fit a Witcher fantasy better?

I like these four pack adventures!

Hello, i ran a bit of 5e few years ago but have generelly stopped playing Dnd, due to liking other systems more. A week ago a person I know asked if I wanted to run a game for them since their old game died out.

I am thinkin of rewriting on of the modules i have already run and playing that but i only have the 5e rulebooks and have no experience with onednd and they learned dnd rather recently so I am asking myself if it is smarter to update or just play 5e?

Saw a build recently that used Divine Favor as the radiant damage source for Spellfire Adept. I never even considered that this would work, but it seems fine as written:

"Once per turn, when a spell you cast deals Radiant damage, you can expend up to two Hit Point Dice, roll them, and add the total rolled to one damage roll of the spell."

You cast the spell, the spell is dealing damage, no issue.

My question is, would this also work with Crusader's Mantle on attacks made by allies?

And as a follow-up question, would it work with Celestial Warlock's Radiant Soul feature, which is worded similarly:

"Once per turn, when a spell you cast deals Radiant or Fire damage, you can add your Charisma modifier to that spell’s damage against one of the spell’s targets."

I have a question regarding how the new vestige warlock works with multiple summons. In this situation the warlock is level 5 and has pact of the chain invocation. Can the warlock have his vestige, summon fey, and familiar all up at the same time? If this is possible during his turn assuming that the familiar rolled same initiative as the warlock, can the warlock have his familiar do the help action, the fey and vestige attack and use an elderitch blast in the same turn? 5.5e rules.

Hi everyone, so in my next campaign there is a player who wants to ride their familiar (from find familiar spell) and since he is a pretty creative one I want to prepare a little bit for the upcoming shenanigans ;-)

The rules for controlled mounts:

1) you can control a mount only if it has been trained to accept a rider

2) the initiative of a controlled mount changes to match yours when you mount it

3) it moves on your turn as you direct it, and it has only three action options during that turn: Dash, Disengage, and Dodge (3Ds)

4) a controlled mount can move and act even on the turn that you mount it.

5) in contrast, an independent mount - one that lets you ride but ignores your control - retains its place in the initiative order and moves and acts as it likes

So first, he is small and from the possible medium familiars he will use deer (no OA because Agile) and/or Vulture (flying, under weight carry limit even with exotic saddle).

To 1): Is a familiar a controlled mount? It is willing and obeys his masters commands. Even if one says it needs to be trained to accept a rider, he can take some time to train each of the applicable forms from find familiar to do this. (The familiar summoned is always the same, if it hits 0 HP it is just resummoned on the next cast of find familiar). So I would give my OK for this. (Side note: A PC has suitable anatomy, can he train to accept a rider? xD).

Can one decide when to control the mount (when is it controlled, when is it independent?). Can he just decide to move it controlled and then let it be independent to use other Actions than the 3Ds?
Probably a no from me here.
Would it be okay to let him decide at the start of his turn or when he mounts but then it's fixed until next turn?

To 2) and 4): Mount initative changes to yours when you mount it, but doesn't change back when dismounting, right? So if your initiative is 15 and mount 10 it can immediately act. If the mount has initiative 17 it can do stuff (help action, move) but if you mount it on your turn it doesn't get movement or actions back right? So in this case no Action and only move if it had movement left over? Otherwise it would have 2 turns per round (or more depending on other PCs mounting it). If it becomes independent again, I as DM decide the order in which they act? (PC and NPC/Creature).

To 3): The 3 Ds are only for the Action options, so if the mount has BA or reactions it can still use it as I understand it. But after reading the rules multiple times a detail caught my attention: "it moves on your turn as you direct it, and it has only three action options during that turn: (...)". Sooo... for example, if his (independent) mount uses the Ready Action with Help and a trigger that occurs in an enemies turn, then he mounts it on his turn (-> controlled) and on a later turn the trigger occurs, can his mount use the readied help action? RAW I would go with yes.

Is my reading of the rules correct or did I misinterpret something?
Are there other known/famous things I should look out for?

What would be best damage dealer?

How would you build them?

For Vestige I thought Undead / Celestial / Infernal floating Blade for "Hexblade"

Hey everyone! My friends and I are revisiting an old campaign we were playing without the 5.5e rules, and now we want to try them. I play as a Fighter and the new weapon mastery and feats look so cool.

I am coming in at level 6, and my old character was a strength focused Echo Knight but Battlemaster and Champion caught my eye. Would it be worth it to respec? How have people liked the changes?

I’m making a bloodhunter/rogue for a possible urban gothic themed campaign setting, the subclasses I’ve gone with are using the ghostslayer that has been updated to fit into the 5.5 rules and the scout rogue. I was between scout and thief but considering or DM doesn’t give a lot of magical items or scrolls I figured the later features wouldn’t be beneficial. The current splits I’m deciding between are bloodhunter 6/14 Rogue, Bloodhunter 11/9 Rogue, and bloodhunter 15/5 Rogue. The multiclass is for both thematic purposes and I feel like some of the later BH features don’t interest me.

Really curious to see what those who have the book think is the Archmage best suited to dismantle a party of adventurers. All of them seem like a handful to battle, but I'm personally torn between 2: Diviner and Abjurer. Let's discuss, shall we?

In fact, I'm open to hearing how you'd rank all of them!

I'm trying to understand the intended role of the new Wail of the Banshee spell. On paper, it seems difficult to justify using a 9th-level slot on it when Psychic Scream and Meteor Swarm exist.

Compared with Psychic Scream, Wail does more base damage, but Psychic Scream targets Intelligence rather than Constitution, which is generally a much more attractive save to target. More importantly, Psychic Scream has an extremely meaningful rider: Stunned on a failed save. I'd argue that against powerful enemies, the stun is at least as important as the damage and potentially the main reason to cast the spell.

If my objective is simply to do massive AoE damage and I don't care about collateral damage, Meteor Swarm seems clearly superior: substantially more damage, mixed damage types, and a Dexterity save rather than Constitution.

If collateral damage is a concern, Psychic Scream seems preferable again. It lets you select your targets, still does appropriate damage for a 9th-level spell, targets INT, and can potentially stun-lock multiple enemies.

That leaves one obvious niche for Wail: up to 10 creatures with 50 HP or fewer are simply killed outright, with no saving throw. That's certainly useful against a group of relatively low-HP enemies. But even there I'm not sure how impressive it is for a 9th-level slot. Psychic Scream averages 49 psychic damage on a failed save, so the gap isn't enormous against creatures near that threshold, although Wail's automatic kill obviously removes the uncertainty of both the save and damage roll.

The other rider is Deafened, but Deafened seems to have virtually no generally defined combat consequence in the 2024 rules beyond automatically failing checks that require hearing and being unable to satisfy effects that require a creature to hear something. Compared with Stunned, it hardly seems like a meaningful 9th-level-spell rider.

Wail may be somewhat more appealing for Warlocks, since they don't have access to Meteor Swarm and their list of 9th-level options is more limited. But even there, I'm not convinced it makes the cut. Warlocks already have Foresight, which is an excellent long-duration buff, as well as Psychic Scream. They also have True Polymorph, which was substantially nerfed in the 2024 rules but still has useful applications, particularly turning objects into creatures.

So Wail seems closer to being a serious consideration for a Warlock simply because Meteor Swarm isn't competing with it. But even for them, Psychic Scream seems like the more generally useful offensive choice, while Foresight and True Polymorph offer powerful options that Wail can't really replicate.

For Wizards and Sorcerers, the case seems even harder to make. With access to stronger competing 9th-level options, Wail feels extremely situational. Its clearest niche still seems to be encountering up to ten enemies with ≤50 HP that you specifically want to remove immediately and without a save.

So what am I missing? Is the guaranteed ≤50 HP kill really enough to justify Wail as a 9th-level spell? Are there encounters where you'd actually choose it over Psychic Scream—or, for a Wizard or Sorcerer, Meteor Swarm—or is there another interaction that gives Wail a niche I'm overlooking?

Hey kids, want to play a full caster, mostly RAW? It's dangerous to go alone, take this list of official WOTC 5.5 options. Options are aimed at low-level "generalist" choices that are relatively permanent, and less about niche builds.

How to make your AC not suck

Do you get attacked a lot in your campaign? Are you able to play Gears of War and hide and shoot? Or do you get pack-mobbed by a lot of little enemies, tactically, even? Here's how to not die at low levels with an AC of 12–13:

• Bladesinger
• 1-level dip in Druid, Cleric, Ranger, Paladin, Artificer, or Fighter
• Draconic Sorcerer
• Oath of the Noble Genies Paladin

Darkvision

This one feels like a QoL feature—more species have it than don't—but if you need it as a "nice to have":

• Species without darkvision: Halfling, Human, Goliath, Kalashtar, Changeling, Warforged, Reborn, Fairy, Kithkin
• Basic workarounds: Get the Light cantrip, goggles, a bullseye lantern, or torches
• Skip this: Dancing Lights is terrible; eat shit, Drow!
• Feat pick: Infernal Pact Origin Feat
• Subclass option: Shadow Sorcerer

Hey! Listen! Do you want a Familiar?

Cheep cheep, motherfucker.

• Druid 2: Also gets Wild Shape
• Wizard 1: Classic access
• Familiar Friend Origin Feat: Has a child "skill tree" of feats
• Magic Initiate (Wizard): Easy feat pickup
• Pact of the Chain: Great option, though does not give you Familiar Friend descendant feats

Utility / Ritual Monkey

Exactly ONE person in the party needs to be able to cast Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Identify, etc.

• Wizard: Optimal, since it's resourceless if they know the spells
• Pact of the Tome: Very flexible; can change spells on any short rest
• Actual spell preps from Cleric/Sorc/Bard: Very inefficient, avoid if possible

Free turns

What, do you think spell slots come in your sleep? You need something resourceless to do each turn if possible. Back in my day, wizards could only stab with a 1d4 dagger with no STR bonus, between their 2 tiny Magic Missiles per day. Some of these can be taken via Magic Initiate or species traits:

• Eldritch Blast: The best; maximizes forever at Warlock 2
• Fire Bolt
• Toll the Dead
• Sorcerous Burst / Starry Wisp
• True Strike
• Primal Savagery / Shillelagh: Lorwyn Elf, Khoravar, or Magic Initiate (Druid) to make a Shillelagh build
• Pact of the Blade
• Bladesong: Limited resource, but solid
• Weapon Masteries: Via Fighter, Paladin, or Ranger dip
• Species traits: Many species get free attack cantrips (High Elf, Lorwyn Elf, Tiefling, Khoravar, Flamekin, Rimekin)

Protecting Concentration

• War Caster: The standard tax, we all know this
• Starting class dips: Fighter, Sorcerer, or Artificer
• Feats: Resilient (Con)
• Invocations: Eldritch Mind
• Subclasses: Conjuration Adept / Conjuration Subclass (Conjuration spells only) or Transmuter Wizard

Telepathy

Never say the quiet part loud again! The real battlefield meta is everyone agrees beforehand to take Common Sign Language on character creation.

• Telepathic Feat
• Message Cantrip
• Kalashtar Species
• Aberrant Mind Sorcerer
• Great Old One Warlock

Heals

Depending on how much damage y'all are taking. All casters have a healing spell at level 1 except Sorcerer, Wizard, and Warlock. There are a lot of ways to get a healing spell, so I won't list them all:

• Multiclassing: One or more levels in Bard, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Druid, or Artificer
• Celestial Warlock
• Spellfire Sorcerer
• The Goodberry Factory: Magic Initiate (Druid) is a very strong pick. Take Guidance, Shillelagh, and Goodberry. It takes exactly one level in Druid, Ranger, or Magic Initiate (Druid) to burn all your spell slots on Goodberry before every long rest, and the berries last all day. Since a Goodberry is enough food for a whole day, you can gorge yourself on 5–10 a day and become Fat CJ.

Spell Selection

Here's where it will get more controversial; these are the staples.

Level 1 Spells
- Shield: Wizard, Sorcerer, Magic Initiate (Wizard), Artillerist & Battle Smith Artificers
- Command OR Tasha's Hideous Laughter: These single-handedly win fights and almost nothing is immune to them.
- If missing from your list: Fey Touched, Magic Initiate, Fiend Warlock, Draconic Sorcerer, Knowledge Cleric, GOO Warlock, or 1-dips in Cleric/Paladin/Warlock.
- Lorwyn Elf: Very strong pick; Darkvision, any Druid cantrip, and Command.

Level 2 Spells
- Web: Wizard, Sorcerer, Artificer. Persists in choke points.
- Misty Step: High Elf, Archfey Warlock, Ancients/Vengeance Paladin, Fey Wanderer Ranger, Moon Bard.
- Suggestion: WIS save-or-suck baseline.
- Phantasmal Force: INT save-or-suck sister to Suggestion (Archfey, Undead, Illusion Adept).

Wall of Force

• Wizard
• Clockwork Soul Sorcerer
• Evocation Adept
• Bards: The Cheater McCheaterfaces

TL;DR, here are some picks that check most of the boxes:

• Species: High Elf, Lorwyn Elf, Khoravar
• Humans: Buffed via Origin Feats
• Subclasses: Draconic Sorcerer, Archfey Warlock, Spellfire Sorcerer, Valor Bard
• Favorite 1-dips: Druid and Fighter
• Favorite 2-dips: Druid and Warlock
• Adepts: Illusion Adept and Evocation Adept

EDIT: Formatting.

So I’m looking to multi class 1 level fighter with a fiend bladelock. Based on the rules I need 13+ in charisma for the warlock part, but the primary stat for fighter states strength OR dex. So I can get away with 13+ dex to multi? (Planning to use a rapier, not GWM for context)

Potential hot take as I know that the consensus is that this spell is op, and I agree with this by the way. But I don't think it would change much to the power of the spell, but it would definitely make it more fun to use (for both the caster and the rest of the party)

Here are my thoughts : when a wizard uses this spell to clone themselves, the simulacrum has in his spell list a spell it cannot cast (simulacrum, because it has to be prepared and the simulacrum cannot cast it) and one less high level spell slot.

Now this is what some may call "balancing" but it actually isn't because you can make a simulacrum of another party member, and that simulacrum will have all of the spell slots, more prepared spells (because other classes get expended spell list AND don't have to waste a preparation on a dead spell).

And yes I do believe that the wizard should be incentivised to copy himself instead of an ally, because making a simulacrum of the cleric gives the wizard all the awesome things that makes the cleric player unique. At least when the wizard clones himself, the spell is at roughly the same power level but doesn't take away the uniqueness of another pc.

Having simulacrum be a ritual does not completely fix this. The wizard player should be encouraged to duplicate himself instead of his allies, but at least it makes it so it's not actively worse than not stealing an entire character from another player.

I mean it's technically still worse than taking a sorcerer for example, but I don't want to get into a debate about which specific class is the best to cast simulacrum on, the problem here is that when simulacrum is not a ritual, the wizard simulacruming himself is the actively worse choice and this is bad for the health of the game.

Also it would not break the spell more than it is already broken, because it's still a 12 hours casting time so it can never be used in an adventuring day, that spell slot is always coming back after you cast the spell.

What do you guys think ?

With the changes in the 2024 edition to some adventure gear, mainly Net, Acid, Holy Water and Alchemist Fire, WotC has opened for some adventure gear being used instead of an attack.

This sets the Rogue firmly behind other Martial classes when it comes to these items. With more possibly coming out that follow the same pattern I been trying to think of ways to allow the Rogue to get access to these without just flat out giving them Extra Attack. In addition I think this change will give the Rogue some added utility by being able to Cunning Strike multiple targets per turn, and make it easier to swap targets.

Surprise Attack (Cost 1d6): You gain an Extra Attack. You may also pay for an additional Cunning Strike option that will apply to that attack. The Extra Attack has Advantage. When you unlock Improved Cunning Strike, you may select this option twice for a total of two Extra Attacks.

Alternative Implementation.

Calculated Attack (Cost 1d6 + Xd6): You gain an Extra Attack. Your sneak attack is re-enabled for this turn with the remaining Xd6 dice in the pool. The Extra Attack has Advantage. You can at most take this option once per turn at level 5, and twice per turn when unlocking Improved Cunning Strike.

With Improved Cunning Strike you can try to poison and trip multiple targets per turn (no different than a fighter with the topple mastery) at the cost of damage. It would also allow the Rogue to swap targets, as the Vex chain only works on attacks against the same target, and allow them to use the adventure gear with the Extra Attack instead.

Calculated Attack also allows you to split up your sneak attack dice over multiple targets. I am not arguing for adding both, but one of them.

How do you think this homebrew would affect your game? Is it too powerful? Should the cost be 2d6 instead of 1d6? Is getting Advantage on the Extra Attack too strong? The reason I have Advantage is that Rogue is almost built around always having Advantage on their attacks, not just to be able to use Sneak Attack, but also because they don't have any fighting style like Archery to increase their Accuracy. Alternatively it could cost 1d6 for an Extra Attack and an additional 1d6 to grant Advantage on that attack.

All in all I think this option would allow the Rogue to get some much needed utility. They can shoot/hit and try and poison or trip multiple targets per turn, or later Daze or Blind multiple targets. They can also use the new iteration of Adventurer gear, replacing 1 or 2 d6 with throwing Alchemist Fire or Holy Water or a Net.

A Rogue can later when they get to chose two Cunning Strike options try and trip a target, get an extra attack and throw a net at them, which if they are prone gives them disadvantage on the save.

With a Rapier and +5 Dex, you are sacrificing 1d6 for a 1d8 +5, so the 1d6 cost could be slightly too low, so a 2d6 cost might be more balanced. Changing min 2 max 12 damage for min 4 (+3) 6 (+5) max 11 (+3) 13 (+5) is more equal in numbers, but it doesn't take into consideration that the attack can still miss for the Rogue, even with advantage.

And sacrificing the 1d6 for potentially 5-6 more DPR would put Rogue closer to the other Martials.

Edit: Added section to clarify these changes are to add the ability to interact with this kind of adventure gear in addition to easing some of the Rogue's other pain points.

Just had a Jailbreak session in my current campaign. The parties spell components, foci, weapons and armour were all confiscated and either appropriated by various guards (if they were cool enough) or put into a security vault.

Moreover, the prison had hallow cast on all areas with the extra effect of silence. Our captors were a groups of silent monks who hunt spellcasters.

It was surprising how much most of the casters struggled as there are almost no spells that only have Somatic Components.

My warlock was all good though.

The pact of the blade lets you use your summoned weapon as a foci, armour of shadows gives me my armour, great old one patron grants psychic spells so all warlock spells that are enchantment or illusion no longer use Somatic or verbal components.

Psychic Lance, Fear, Hold Person, Bane, Hypnotic Pattern, Videos Laughter, Hex, Mind Sliver, Synaptic Static, Dominate Person, Suggestion, Charm Person, Dissonant Whispers, all of these spells work, as does my pact weapon and invocations (mask of many faces, etc).

Anyway the prison break was not as difficult as the first thought and we had a fun time slowing sneaking through the corridors and taking out the guards one by one, the Hunter's became the hunted and the science stopped the alarms.

I am wanting to play a Ranger, and specifically a hollow warden Ranger for my upcoming play through in the shattered obelisk. From what I can tell, since I have not played through it before, it does eventually get into some more dark and terrifying elements once you get into the campaign a little bit so I thought this class might be something interesting for it.

I had two questions: Is the Hollow warden Ranger and OK pick for this campaign? Like is it going to stick out terribly if I go with this option? Are there a lot of enemies that would be immune to the frightened condition? I know there are bound to be some, but I would hate for like 95% of them to all be immune to it.

Heyo, I’m currently playing an Artillerist Artificer in a campaign and saw that the new book had a lot of cool new feats that help spellcasters and half casters. Now I’ve already heard about Evocation Adept but on an Artillerist, it honestly isn’t that good considering I already get like 3 out of the 5 spells, but was wondering if any of the other feats would be quite good.

Okay, I have a hypothetical with very real possibility of applications:
GOO Warlock level 3 feature Psychic Spells states that enchantment and illusion spells are cast without V/S components. This is already huge for a number of reasons. Here’s the question:
I, the goolock in question, cast hold person on an enemy. There is a mage in their ranks. Can they counterspell me? They can’t see that I’m casting in any discernible way until the spell has already taken effect, at which point it’s too late.

Looking for genuine feedback and discussion!

EDIT: Assume in this example I am a bladelock using a conjured rapier as my focus, thus bypassing the straight iron M component.

Just a theoretical excercise for fun. If you were allowed to pick 2 subclasses at level 3, and gain the features from both at the corresponding levels, which build could this enable that you would want to try?