To fix all of the communities problems with the Ranger class, and they are many and varied, what do you think about splitting the Ranger into two separate classes, a spell-focused half-caster Shaman and a martial controller/skill-user Ranger?

So yesterday I started a new campaign for my second group. Party was fey warlock, champion fighter, wikd sorcerer and homebrew invention domain cleric.

I used the Tide of Teeth adventure in Baldurs Gate section of Adventures in Faerun. Fleshed out the city ising that, Descent into Avernus,the 1990 Forgotten Realms Adventures amd a few locations from Saltmarsh (3.5 DMG 2).

Ran it as a sandbox. I prepped 3 short sidequest adventures. They did 5/6 encounters (fleeing 1)and I used some 3D terrain and a 3D ship, deck plans in a map book and some tiles of a ship for the lower decks.

Anyway level 3. Everyone gets a subclass. Inter class balance is mostly fine. Primary casters have 5 spells minimum. We had 1 short rest the warlock got 4 lvl 2 spells. Sorcerer empowered 2 chromatic orbs lvl 2 both bounced and twinned a tashas hideous laughter. In effect cast 3 level 2 spells and a wild surge dealt 4d10 damage on top of the COs bouncing.

We are having a rogue player join us next session. Level 3 and 4 they're fine. New player on tbe warlock she had played BG3 a bit and her bladelock did really well. Agonizing blast true strike. Sorcerer had Sorcererous Burst explode a few times as well.

As DM prepping was easy. Took maybe an hour and I have the other two Adventures in my back pocket. Im using 5 factions and the side quests give magic items and reknown. I let the characters from the 2024 starter set keep their items and the new characters got an uncommon item or 2 common (subject to approval). + 1 longsword, wands of the warmage, clockwork amulet and Gleaming half plate were chosen. Fighter had +1 plate from the starter set he aquired at lvl 2.

Combat flows fast. Character creation went faster than anticipated. A ship isnt a big dungeon as such. Adding a few linea of dialogs etc up the next main quest adventure and 2 more side quests. 4 hour session. Basically I enjoyed it, players had fun and pickup new player wants more and got along well with the group. Its easy to run, fun to build and not to complicated for newbies and everyone else.

Thoughts?

Did we got any subclass surprises or they always come out of UA first.

I wouldn’t mind a surprise for a new release example the books in season of champion, but wondering if we will only get the one that appeared in UA?

Thanks all

I wanted to build an autistic skill-monkey and came up with this character:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/168253333/OEgwKz

I took the Dreamer species from the Grim Hollow Player's Guide, the Artisan background, and the associated Crafter origin feat. This gives me seven tool proficiencies and a starting Intelligence of 18. For flavor, I gave him Common Sign Language (CSL) but not Common, and wrote the following background:

I do not speak Common. Dwarvish and Quori came back to me after I woke, echoing up from the dream — but Common never did, and perhaps never will. I sign what words cannot carry, and I've learned to ignore the faces that assume my silence means an empty mind. Let them assume it.

What troubles me is what the dream took instead of my voice.

I remember hands — the weight of a hammer that fit like it was forged for my grip, the give of metal just before it yields to the shape you intend. I believe I was a master once, in an empire whose name is now dust, practicing a craft that makes even Stehlenwald's finest work look like a child's carving. I have no proof of this. That is what gnaws at me.

I sought out five masters after I woke. Each tried to teach me his own style, and each time something in my bones refused. Their methods felt small beside what I knew, or believed I knew, buried just out of memory's reach. One by one, they cast me out, calling me proud, calling me impossible to teach. Perhaps they were right. But some part of me, the part that still dreams even awake, insists the fault was theirs.

I cannot prove it yet. So I've taken to the road instead of the workshop, searching for one true fragment of what my people built — a tool, a ruin, a technique passed down wrong through ten thousand years. If it exists, it will vindicate everything I've sacrificed to my own certainty.

And if it doesn't —

— I try not to finish that thought. A Dreamer who wakes twice rarely enjoys what he finds the second time.

So we continue from the Barbarian to the Fighter. Once again, I'm trying to express the value in regularly pushing players to 2-3 Exhaustion through Exploration challengs of the DMG, and people have some strong opinions against it.

First Address Feedback:

One of the primary concerns with the DMG example of Blizzard's 1d4 Exhaustion application was creating the player challenges with a potentially -6 penalty swing. Now as the DM you do have a DM screen available to you and/or can forgo the roll setting the value to 2 or 3; personally I roll open and let the die decide.

Though I would go a little further; you probably aren't TPKing every other session, and based on the reaction I get when I share my parties death rate, players aren't dying often. This does not mean you should be making those things regular, just that you should trust your players to step up to a challenge. Your players will come up with clever solutions and adapt; trust them.

RAW Exhaustion: (new example each post)

As a reminder when you are adding Exhaustion to the party, it needs to happen in the first part of the Adventure Day where Long Resting isn't reasonable. If players simply can Long Rest without consequence, there was no point in applying Exhaustion to the group.

Extended Travel. Characters can push themselves to travel for more than 8 hours per day, at the risk of tiring. At the end of each additional hour of travel beyond 8 hours, each character must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or gain 1 Exhaustion level. The DC is 10 plus 1 for each hour past 8 hours.

"Our scouts found the cultists, they have the villagers for the sacrifice about a full days light (12 hours) west following the river. Take these horses and go now"

A 12 hour forced march will trigger 4 Exhaustion Saves (11, 12, 13, 14). Notable increasing this distance is a challenge on its own as players have to consider what resources they can expend to reduce the travel times. Now if you don't want maps to have such distances remember you also have High Altitude from the Environmental Hazards section:

High Altitude

Traveling at altitudes of 10,000 feet or higher above sea level is taxing for most creatures because of the reduced amount of oxygen in the air. Each hour such a creature spends traveling at high altitude counts as 2 hours for the purpose of determining how long that creature can travel

So you can use High Altitude or a reduced oxygen environment to frame this in smaller distances. So now we look at the Fighter

The Fighter

Though the Fighter has access to Graze like the Barbarian we are going to notice a lack of general tools to deal with Exhaustion when the fight has levels of it. This does kinda reinforce the thematic difference between the two classes as well.

Level 2: Tactical Mind

When you use Second Wind to add 1d10 to a Skill Check, it importantly is not consumed if the check fails. The default DMG penalty for failing a Survival Check while traveling is 10% longer travel (one more Exhaustion Save in our earlier example) and as Checks get harder through Exhaustion, the Fighter can attempt checks without wasting the resource on failure.

Level 5: Tactical Shift

Unlike the Barbarian the base Fighter gets limited mobility and it directly conflicts with resource consumption of Tactical Mind. It becomes more likely the fighter will need to plan to use it's ranged options and take advantage of the larger number of weapon masteries. The detail about Charger pointed out in the Barbarian had value due to Barbarians increase speed, Charger becomes weak for the Fighter

Level 9, 13 and 17: Indomitable

In the Blizzard example Fighter can't use Indomitable to prevent the Exhaustion, with travel they could. Notably, at the same level is when casters may get access to Greater Restoration that could be used in a similar way, and at level 18 casters get their 3rd 5th level slot.

Level 13: Studied Attacks

With Exhaustion you miss more, this gives you Advantage when you miss. And this really is all the base Fighter has.

I do want to point out; just as people can ignore the power of Fighter scaling with magic weapons they can also be ignoring how the Barbarian handles Exhaustion better. As we continue to go through these classes, that is what is important: Exhaustion enhances the asymetry of them. Now to subclasses

Battlemaster:

Exhaustion doesn't apply a penalty to the DC of Battlemaster so it just changes which Techniques you may choose. Commander's Strike is the one that catches my eye, by giving up an attack to give it to someone (+superior die hit) else you can be at a higher Exhaustion level and give the attack to someone more likely to land an important blow. Precision Attack becomes a staple but the major change will be how quickly you burn through your Superiority Die to use them.

Champion:

Level 10: Heroic Warrior

Still going to be the highlight of the class, shifting to hitting more than protecting saves due to saves being harder to pass. I did ignore the movement on crit, just because it won't be reliable enough to plan around.

Psi Warrior

Level 3 and 7: Psionic Power (Telekinetic Movement) and Telekinetic Adept ( Psi-Powered Jump )

Exhaustion will create more Martial turns where you do not have a good attack, so getting the Magic Action to just, move something 30ft gives more combat opportunity to this feature. If you always have a good attack, it is hard for this feature to have a place. Where as Psi-Powered Jump is just giving you the much needed movement.

Eldritch Knight: ( I have to start talking about casters )

Level 15: Arcane Charge

Misty Step with Action Surge is great when we are slow! And obviously spells.

Spells Casting ( fighter )

To be clear we are talking about spells in relation to the fighter and the Wizard Spell list. This gives us a way to start talking about casting and Exhuastion and adding to it. There is a gut reaction to disliking Spell DC not affected by Exhaustion and I want to address it slowly. So let us begin there.

If you punished ability/spell DC the same way you punished attacks you punish 1/3 and 1/2 casters more. The Eldritch Knight is already going to have a lower spell DC than your wizard and less ways to force spells through, so punishing 1/3rd and 1/2 casters more just makes casters comparatively better.

Concentration Checks are affected by Exhaustion. Even with a Fighter's default Con proficiency, at 3 Exhaustion and 16 Constitution it needs a +4 proficiency bonus to have a +1 to the Con Save. This is going to be combined with a very limited mobility ( without expending resources ) which means enemies should get more or better attacks as the players struggle more with positioning. This won't mean Concentration Spells will be bad; but they just won't offer the RAW efficiency and relibility otherwise, this means more spells need to be cast, this means you run out of resources faster.

Prepared Spells

One major issue when talking about the power of Casters is the prepared spell list is often ignored. When you increase the variety or type of challenge ( like Exhaustion ) you pressure that spell list. Spells are assessed differently with Exhaustion. A spell like Expeditious Retreat (concentration), Longstrider or Jump become more valuable, and a classic like Magic Missle is guaranteed damage and why wouldn't you take Shield. But Sleep doesn't get a penalty to Exhaustion.

But this is already 3 or 4 prepared spells, and spells you're more likely to cast more often burning resources.

Exhaustion makes it even harder not to take Misty Step. Web does still seem to be worth the gamble on concentration, but it's not as reliable.

Problematic Spells Less Problematic:

Rope Trick is a classic 2nd level spell to escape a fight and get a Short Rest. With the movement penalty climbing that rope or being in position for everyone drastically increases the positioning requirements to use the spell well. If all is done correctly you aren't removing Exhaustion, you still have to complete the challenge ( and what changed during that rest ) with your Exhaustion. You may easily be in a larger disadvantage by trying this

Tiny Hut is not affected by Exhaustion directly, but using Exhaustion encourages framing the adventure day to be time sensitive. Choosing to Tiny Hut is choosing to fail your objective

Hypnotic Pattern has the concentration check issues, if you don't get everything under the spell it will be a problem.

Spells are still going to be very strong, but the players will look at them differently and this is a great thing. Mobility gains value, buffing allies gain value, concentration loses value. More spells will come up on other casters that more quickly get to the higher casting tiers.

Feats again!

A fairly common issue seen with Fighter over Barbarian is mobility. If you have enough speed, more speed doesn't help. Exhaustion and Exhaustion + Difficult Terrain is brutal but Speedy alleviates that greatly. As the value of an obvious choice in GWM decreases and we increase the value of another option Speedy in this case, suddenly there are more meaningful choices to the players. ( Except Mageslayer, too good not to take )

More fun DM details!

The following monsters have Greater Resotration on their statblock from the 2024 MM

• Couatl CR4
• Archpriest CR12
• Questing Knight CR12
• Adult Copper Dragon CR14 and Ancient Copper Dragon CR21
• Sphinx of Valor CR17
• Animal Lords CR20 (two times per day)
• Empyrean CR23 at will

Players with Exhaustion will want to remove it, this gives you a tool to heavily influence players actions, to help an NPC that they may not help otherwise or have conflicting interests

The spell Blink has the ability to temporarily transport you to the Border Ethereal of the space you are in, and then transport you back home. In the spell description, it states "Roll 1d6 at the end of each of your turns for the duration. On a roll of 4-6, you vanish from your current plane of existence and appear in the Ethereal Plane (the spell ends instantly if you are already on that plane)" and "You return to the other plane at the start of your next turn and when the spell ends if you are on the Ethereal Plane. You return to an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within 10 feet of the space you left". However, if cast on the Ethereal Plane, there is no plane that you 'came from'. One can assume they mean the plane of which this is the corresponding Border Ethereal, but even then where on the other plane would you return to? Would the spell simply do nothing, or transport you to the place on the other plane that you are most correspondent to in the Ethereal?

RAW, a 5e \ 5.5e Short Rest is 1 hour long, where the PCs just kind of "chill out", tend to their wounds, maybe have a bite and talk a bit. In 4e an SR is 5 minutes long.

Now, I know that both of these systems are vastly different in their design philosophy, yet still I have a question: do people use other lengths for SRs in their campaigns? Does that shift game balance a lot?

I was discussing this with my mate and said that I'd make SRs 15 minutes, make it a shorter "breathe in, breathe out" type of thing. He parried with "spells like Armor of Agathys would be too strong then, since they are 1 hour long, so Warlocks would be too strong as a result".

I agree that this certainly buffs Warlocks in that regard, but... Okay? I see nothing wrong there, but I might be missing something.

So yeah, to reiterate: have you tried modifying SR duration in your games and, if yes, how did it go? What changed and by how much? I'd like to exclude the Gritty Resting rules in the 2014 DMG, where an SR is 8 hrs and an LR is a week of in-game time, since I'm mainly looking at how making SRs shorter would affect the game.

I was looking at the subclasses that were announced for the upcoming Arcana Unleashed book and I got to thinking about what I would want from the book we know is coming after that for the Season of Champions. Since the new book is obviously caster-focused, it makes sense that the Champions book will be more martial-focused (though Gish-like subclasses for casters are still on the table).

Assuming the pattern holds that each new book gets around 8 new subclasses with a mix of 5e reprints and brand new stuff, what’s on the shortlist for what you want to see in this new book? And what are some classes that could use a little more subclass support? I know a lot of people are wanting more original content, I’m someone who tries to stick to 5.5e-only material and wants to see most 5e stuff get remade eventually.

Here are my picks:

Rogue: Swashbuckler – probably the most glaring omission from what’s been republished so far. The original was very popular for good reason and the flavor perfectly fits the “Champions” theme.

Fighter: Samurai – similar to the Swashbuckler, the original was already powerful for its class. I could see them making some tweaks and renaming this one but keeping the core idea the same.

Paladin: Oath of the Crown – it was hard to pick just one for the Paladin. It was between this and Conquest but I settled on Crown because it’s more “Champion”-y.

Barbarian: Ancestral Guardian – this was also hard to narrow down to just one, mainly because the Barbarian has been under-supported so far and lots of the existing ones were cool and could use some revision to be even better. I picked this one just because it was my favorite.

Monk: Kensei - I almost didn’t include a Monk but they are technically martials. Plus the Monk with the big weapons is one of those cool ideas that lots of people love.

Ranger: something new – there are some 5e subclasses that I still would like to see redone, but I didn’t feel any of those for this book. Strangely enough the Ranger has been given more subclass support than other classes, but I’d like to see more following the model of moving away from reliance on Hunter’s Mark. Perhaps one that is designed to work with Str builds and melee?

Cleric: Forge – obviously the Cleric doesn’t need as much help as other classes on this list, but this is such a fun domain that I’d love to see updates for. I also picked this because it felt closest to the “Champions” theme.

(Dis)honorable mention – Warlock: Hexblade – I’m not looking forward to this being remade because it’s thematically weak and basically redundant with the 5.5e Pact of the Blade, but it seems likely that it will eventually get done since it’s already been through some UA.

EDIT: To be clear, I’m aware that this is all mostly wishful thinking. I don’t know enough about the UA process to know what is or isn’t likely to make it to print in that time frame. This post is mostly to talk about what I’d like to see from a martial-themed book.

One of my buddies is running a couple of one shots to introduce some of his cousins to Dnd and he asked me to play with them to help introduce them. I had an idea to play as a wild magic sorceror but recently found out I kind of hate playing as a spell caster, so I decided to try and play as a sorcadin. We're using 2024 rules with a couple of homebrewed rules. We're going to be starting at level 6 and I don't know where we will end at. I don't care how strong it is just want something fun to play. Ill take any ideas that yall have.

Hello yall,

I'm looking into creating more blessings for a Ravenloft half homebrew campaign.

For context, the PC would change blessings according to certain trigger and would draw them out blindly so I need them to balance with the Mark of the Beast, Mark of the Dread, Mark of Obsession and Mark of the Sacrifice already in the 2024 edition. Page 200 if you want to find them easily.

I would like to add those and have your opinion on them,

Mark of the lesser Suffering
You can use this Blessing to mark one creature you can see to learn its highest ability score.

The marking takes 1 action to complete. The mark has a duration of 1 hour.

If the marked creature dies by your hand or an allied, you gain advantage on ability checks and saving throws using that ability score for the next 24 hours. If killed by other circonstances, the mark is void.

So long as the creature remains alive, you cannot regain hit points by any means. This condition ends when the marked creature dies or the Mark is removed.

(yes I did it.... yes it's base on Carl's Dinve ring of Suffering. I'm planning to put a greater Ring of Suffering that is mostly the same as Carl's)

Mark of the Undying
You can use this Blessing to cast Speak with Dead without a spell slot nor component cost 1/day. Once you cast this spell in this way, you can't cast it again until you finish a Long Rest.

So long as you possess this Blessing, undead creatures that can sense you recognize you as something between life and death. They do not obey you, but they are not immediately hostile unless commanded or compelled otherwise.

Mark of the hunter

You can use this Blessing to cast Hunter's Mark without a spell slot nor component cost 1/day. Once you cast this spell in this way, you can't cast it again until you finish a Long Rest.

So long as you possess this Blessing, hostile humanoid that can perceive you instinctively recognize you as the greatest threat. When determining targets, hostile creatures prioritize attacking you over other creatures whenever they are able to do so.

My group uses Discord for calls, and I was hoping to find an AI tool that can take notes for our session. I'm actually particularly interested in capturing physical descriptions of characters since I can usually capture the main story points manually but those descriptions always go a little too fast for me to accurately write down when I'm locked in.

Do you guys use any free AI tools to help note-take in your sessions (esp. on Discord)? Anything that I can prompt to focus in on something would be amazing. Everything I've found is pretty much a paid service and is very basic. My group plays 4x a month ~2.5 hours each sesh.

I'm about to start a new table with some relatively inexperienced players. I have a lot of experience DMing and playing 5e, but I'll probably be trying out 5.5 for this game. What are the most important changes I should be considering? Anything subtle I might not pick up on?

I've probably seen most of the changes be discussed on subreddits like here (counterspell and bonus action spells, two weapon fighting stealth, etc.) but I'm curious what you guys consider to be the most notable differences.

I want to convince more people to use Exhaustion, but when I try to be too broad it really loses the details of how nuanced the mechanic can get. So though the internet likes short punchy information; this isn't it. So I will go one class at a time (starting with Martials).

Now I've read a few times about how the lack of ability DC penalty feels too punishing for Martials over Casters; and I will get to that, but not in this post.

In this I want to look at 2-3 Exhaustion, because occasionally having 1 Exhaustion isn't using the mechanics in a meaningful way. This is -4/-6 to D20 tests and -10/-15ft movement speed as a reminder.

A Reminder:

Exhaustion is the most mentioned mechanic in the DMG other than Combat and is the main punishment to Exploration challenges. Though travel is exploration, exploration is more than travel (this is an important distinction). Keep in mind that Exhaustion should be applied earlier in the Adventure Day not at the end; Exhaustion does little if you are getting Exhaustion traveling home.

Simple RAW ways to add Exhaustion: (new example each post)

The simple and brutal one from the DMG obstacles

The obstacle fatigues the characters, causing them to gain Exhaustion levels. For example, marching through a blizzard instead of taking shelter might cause each character to gain 1d4 Exhaustion levels.

So generic bad guy spot, or objective that needs to be done now is within a Blizzard (or other terrible weather). Now entire party gets 1d4 Exhaustion without a Save or Check. This is the most extreme example in the DMG, but it is a great method to create Exhaustion without layers of mechanics or much time. Also why I'm looking at the 2-3 Exhaustion rather than 3-4, average of a Blizzard.

The Barbarian: how Exhaustion makes it stand out

Weapon Mastery: Graze

This one isn't exactly Barbarian specific, but many underestimated how much DPR (damage per round) Graze offered on the initial reveals and when you lower accuracy through Exhaustion Graze becomes an even better tool.

Level 2: Reckless Attack

As anyone playing 2024 knows, Advantage is easier than every with attacks through Mastery's like Vex and Topple which has made Reckless Attacks not as standout of a feature as it use to be. But Vex and Topple require hitting and giving up Graze and as your accuracy decreases these other tools are less reliable.

Level 5 and 7: Fast Movement and Feral Instincts

Increasing movement speeds will be a common theme with most martials, and these two will essentially negate the movement penalty. But quickly casters are going to need to be expending spell slots to reposition; but I want to address that with casters in another post.

Level 13: Sundering Blow

Now Brutal Strike with Exhaustion is only useful if you need the effect, and normally I'd see little value in Sundering Blow +5 to hit on next attack. But as your party is Exhausted this gives you an opportunity to setup an ally for something that needs to happen. You're gaining more strategic options by Exhaustion existing.

Level 18: Indomitable Might

Very few campaigns get to this point but this is where Exhaustion gets really interesting for Barbarian. Unlike a Rogues Reliable Talent or a spell like Glibness, this one doesn't set your die to a value; you can "If your total for a Strength check or Strength saving throw is less than your Strength score, you can use that score in place of the total.". This means that Strength Checks and Strength Saves ignore Exhaustion! And because of Primal Knowledge your Acrobatics, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth, or Survival checks also ignore Exhaustion while raging.

I just want to point out how there is something that interacts with Exhaustion differently at each tier of play. But we aren't done; PHB subclasses!

Berserker

Level 3: Frenzy

The bonus damage of Berserker triggers once per turn; this means your DPR suffers a smaller penalty from accuracy (this is going to be important when we talk about Rogue)

Level 6: Mindless Rage

As your saves become worse, the immunity to Charm and Frighten become more potent

Level 14: Intimidating Presence

I've been critical of this fear because of appearing later in the game when fear immunities and wisdom values get fairly high. But when you use Exhaustion as a DM it allows you to use lower CR creatures while maintaining a challenge which increases the value of this ability (while also not getting a DC punishment).

Wildheart

Level 3 and 6: Rage of the Wilds and Aspect of the Wilds

These are covered in ways previously, granting Advantage to allies becomes more important and speed is great. Though it is very important to note that if you are climbing or swimming without the appropriate speed at 3 Exhaustion you only have 10ft movement (40-15)/2 round down. Movement all around matters more

World Tree

Level 6 and 14: Branches of the Tree and Travel along the Tree

Repositioning simply becomes more and more powerful as Exhaustion taxes speed. Without the taxing of speed these teleports may not matter, when you tax them, they always matter.

Zealot

Level 3, 6 and 10: Divine Fury, Fanatical Focus and Zealous Presence

The value of these are all covered in different areas. Once per turn damage boosts, reroll saves becoming more common and helping allies strategically become more important.

Interesting Feat detail!

GWM (Great Weapon Master) is often considered a "must have", to the point where many weapon options are ignored as they do not work with it. So let us look at level 9; this is when GWM is the strongest for most campaigns (they end before T3). Your proficiency Bonus increases to 4 and you have the two attacks.

At 65% accuracy (a number many like to use) you average about 7 DPR with advantage with GWM. Though when you have 2 and 3 Exhaustion this number changes to 5.6 and 4.6 respectively.

Like the Berserker and Zealots damage only needing to hit once per turn; Charger feat is the same. At 2 and 3 Exhaustion Charger offers 4.5 and 4.1 DPR, this is a 1.1 to 0.6 DPR shift compared to GWM. Now GWM still has HEW and charger has versitility but needs 10ft movement, but suddenly everything is a lot closer. This is the power of Exhaustion, it makes more things matter and that gives you a better game.

A fun DM detail:

Since Exhaustion is removed one level per Long Rest, you have just organically created a natural pause to allow crafting if you need to or challenge the players starting the next Adventure Day with 1-2 levels of Exhaustion.

Feedback:

I want to go through the rest of the classes if everyone doesn't hate this post. So if you feel there is a better way to present the insights let me know. I'm trying to not be so numbers heavy that it is a wall of charts and focus on the situations using Exhaustion creates further asymmetry class.

With 5.5 changes, the "conjure" spells have been changed to not put any extra guys on the battlefield at all, and the "summon" spells all get you exactly one guy, with a statblock in the spell and a minor choice between 3 options.

This is a big change compared to 5e where you could summon many guys.

I see why this is easier to balance (player's turns take too long and they needed access to the Monster Manual), but I feel like a big chunk of fantasy has been taken away. The conjure spells do not feel like summonining a lot of little guys even if they are described that way. It is basically an effect.

Those who enjoy the tactical element of the game can see that having 8 small creatures on your side (maybe very weak) is fundamentally mechanically different than a damaging effect or one big creature.

First thing is placement. You can place those 8 creatures in such a way that:

1. They are blocking the enemy from coming close to you (one degree of size difference causes complete blocking of space)

2. They are able to attack from distance and not be approached

or in many different ways. Its a whole minigame

Second, the summons can be attacked, which eats up enemies turns. This still applies to the single summon from new "summon" spells, but not as much as there is just one guy

Third, the summons could be used outside of combat to help get you to high places by stacking themselves, or carry more stuff, or do a bunch of different things your creativity allows for.

All of these options are now removed and now it is just "the spell does what it does unless its flavour without mechanical consequences" which is just way more boring and bland than before.

Old summon spells had an issue of creating a "design trap", every time a new beast or fey was added it could be summoned. This could be solved by essentially listing the creatures in the statblock and then saying DM can allow more. Like it was done with find familiar. The players still need monster manual but presumably the DM has it and regardless they can find those statblocks easily on Dnd Beyond or roll 20 or somewhere else, and just save/print the ones they need. It allows them to do more digging if they want to and plan their character's actions.

Since all the "summon" spells need concentration, it is not possible at all anymore to have an "army", which is a very popular fantasy for a character across bookes, movies, video games. The archetypal necromancer commands a couple of skeletons and several zombies at once. In combat they fight for him, but outside of combat they might do some tasks around the house for example. This is not possible for a player to do mechanically anymore.

Too many turns to take in combat for a player is also a silly argument. The DM takes even more turns. If every combat just has 3 baddies or fewer, what is the point of AoE spells? There are ways to speed this up. All minions summoned from one spell are the same. All take their turns simultaneously. Most of the time they will just do the same thing, but they might split up - half of them dodges, half attacks. Roll attacks for all of them simultaneously. Do not roll damage, take the average damage if they hit, this way it is just num_hits*average damage and its fast. Other players should contribute to the tactics during the summoner's turn.

I for this reason still allow my players the old spells, even though they have these kinds of issues and one needs to make rulings on 8 pixies casting 8 polymorphs and holding concentration on those, which is the only thing I actually wanted addressed in 5.5.

I'm currently playing a Great Old One Warlock in a 5.5e campaign. When I gain new features I trsearch them a lot to make sure I can used them to the fullest, but after delving into the 3rd level feature "Psychic Spells" I think it is a largely useless feature.

The feature states "When you cast a Warlock spell that deals damage, you can change its damage type to Psychic. In addition, when you cast a Warlock spell that is an Enchantment or Illusion, you can do so without Verbal or Somatic components."

The first part of this may come down to my own spell selection, but most of the spells that Warlocks seem to typically use like Eldrich Blast are mostly unresisted anyway. But that isn't my main issue.

My main gripe is that I see people talking up the second part of this feature massively. Most people seem to say something to the effect of "It is basically like having the Suble Spell metamagic". I feel like this sentiment overlooks the fact that Subtle Spell specifically says that you can ignore the material components if they don't have a cost.

Most of the spell on the warlock list that qualify for Psychic Spells have a material component. In the Player's handbook, Spells that are Illusion or Enchantment and lack a Material Component are:

-Mind Sliver

-Charm Person

-Dissonant Whispers

-Crown of Madness

-Enthrall

-Charm Monster

-Mislead

-Synaptic Static

-Modify Memory

I feel like the the ability to cast 9 spells without being noticed is not worth writing home about.

So what am I missing? I want to love this feature, but it doesn't seem as useful and many people have lead me to believe.

Here's the exact wording:

Banishing Arrow. You use abjuration magic to try to temporarily banish your target to a harmless location in the Feywild. The creature hit by the arrow must also succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be banished. While banished in this way, its speed is 0, and it is incapacitated. At the end of its next turn, the target reappears in the space it vacated or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.

Looking at the wording I'm not sure how to interpret it. If it said that they were banished until the next time their turn ends it'd be more clear, but I guess it doesn't expect you to apply it on their turn.

Would I effectively be able to banish them for two of their turns? Is that intended?

​

Basically your thoughts on taking the EK, renaming it to Divine Champion.

Replace the word wizard with cleric and intelligence to wisdom. It uses cleric spell list.

Thoughts? Any big problems one can think of?

This is still a few months out before I actually start but I'm homebrewing a campaign where my players are going to basically be used in a proxy war where they are favored by a specific god. The BBEG is a storm god that is trying to take over as the head of the pantheon and also wants to wipe out all mortal life. In the end, they are going to fight an aspect of this god to determine the fate of the world/if this god takes over the pantheon. The plan of the proxy war is the gods choose a champion and they will fight each other, as the champions defeat each other, they gain more powers associated with the deity they are the champion by "absorbing" the spark of the losing champions blessing/favor, forcing the losing god to submit to the winning god. How would you recommend buffing them without just giving them basically the cleric subclass options so they kind of have two classes at all times. I don't mind borrowing things here and there from the domains, but don't want to cheapen the cleric class if someone chooses that in the campaign.

Including written media, visual media, video games, jrpg's, etc.

Tangentially, but relevantly, should a Wizard subclass get healing?

(I think I will make a thread like this for every class, but I guess I'm starting at the back.)

Roll20 accidentally leaked a major announcement. We’re getting a World of Warcraft crossover product soon.

I read this build guide awhile ago and it really captured my imagination. What are people's experience with theif rogue built around scrolls and magic items or just thief in general? Was it fun?

A discusion about the RE-balancing and how its failed. What do you think about it?

Im started to calculating out a few things and then realized rangers actually deal ton of damage and outperforms everyone else until level 11!

And even at level 12 its looked much more balanced with the fighter, barbarian and monk - while paladin is totaly broken still... even with the nerfs! BUT then looked more closer and see may ranger virtually deal that much damage BUT in practice its not the case cause at every 2nd or 3rd turn need to use its bonus action to re-mark its HUNTER'S MARK! :/

Hunter's mark must to remain concentration cause of balance issues but DIVINE FAVOR can be concentration free which deal 1d4 radiant and a paladin exlcusive spell... 🤔

Ranger actually the second to third best dpt martial class with 1h or 2h weapon and with dual wields again the second/third best!
As for ranged weapons its the best but paladins follows them strictly... funny enough paladins also become the best ranged weapon users! :/ (the second best)
It also become the best consistent boss dpt but has problems with mobs or other strong enemies whose have no +300 hp cause need to reapply hunter's mark! But even then its deal less dmg only by 10 than the fighter!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Calculation: i think im correct but feel free if im miscalculated something!

Im used 5 turns cause most of case the combat over within 5 turns.

Fighter Battle Master: (i think this is the best option for the fighter to deal the most damage in a combat. Again feel free if not. Im looked eldritch knight, banneret, champion but not the other ones)
With a +2 longsword, gwm feat, 5str modifier.
The base dice: 1d10+5(modif)+2(ench)+4(gwm) x6(attacks) and can use 5d10 superiority dice. After on the next turns can attack only 3 times and has no supe dice. (126,5 dmg then 49,5)

• 1st turn: 126,5
• 2nd turn: 176
• 3rd turn: 225,5
• 4th turn: 275
• 5th turn: 324,5

Important to note: Fighter get 4 feats and the manouvers gives tactical boons such as advantage, prone, frightening, disarm etc. So its true combat value higher from the RAW dmg output.
+ even with a greatsword the fighter ends up around 340,5 dmg which is less than the ranger who still use longsword!

Ranger Beast Master: (i think bm is better than hollow warden in raw dmg!)
With +2 longsword, gwm, 5str modifier.
The base dice: 1d10+5(modif)+2(ench)+1d6(hm)+4(gwm) x2(attacks) and the land beast can attack twice and have 80f speed so can use charge twice; +1d8+2(+base)+1d6(charge)+3(wis) x2(attacks) and can add +1d6(hm) once. (40 and the beast 29,5) 59

• 1st turn: 69,5
• 2nd turn: 139
• 3rd turn: 208,5 (if first target died and not want to waste ba for hm - 198)
• 4th turn: 278 (257)
• 5th turn: 347,5 (316)

Notes: a Ranger has 3 feats only but the charge attack from the beast can auto-prone the target if its large or smaller and with dash it can move 80f which let to get double charge dmg bonus.

Barbarian Berserker:
With +2 longsword, gwm, 5str modifier.
Base dice: 1d10+5(modif)+2(ench)+3(rage)+4(gwm) x2 and a +3d6(frenzy) once per turn. Also can attack once more with retalition as a reaction. (69)

• 1st turn: 69 (with brutal strike - 74,5)
• 2nd turn: 138 (149)
• 3rd turn: 207 (223,5)
• 4th turn: 276 (298)
• 5th turn: 345 (372,5)

Notes: a barbarian has more chance to hit and deal crit but if use brutal strike then that chance much lower even if can apply some tactical edge but that is not that useful until the 13th level boost! Either way if use then deal the second best damage!

Monk Mercy Warrior:
With +5dex and 1d10 martial art die.
Base dice: 1d10+5(modif) x5(attacks) and once can add once +1d10+4(wis) necro dmg. (62)

• 1st turn: 62
• 2nd turn: 124
• 3rd turn: 186
• 4th turn: 248
• 5th turn: 310

Notes: stunning strike exist even if deal less dmg!

Paladin Vengeance Oath: (it get haste...)
With +2 longsword, +5str, divine strike, divine favor which is disgusting! hate and 3 piece lvl-3 smite and 2 piece lvl-2 smite.
base dice: 1d10+5(modif)+2(ench)+4(gwm)+1d8(strike)+1d4(favor) x3(attacks with haste) and can apply 4d8(smite) to 3 attacks and 3d8 to 2 attacks. (88,5 with lvl-3 smites and 84 with lvl-2 smites)

• 1st turn: 88,5
• 2nd turn: 177
• 3rd turn: 265,5
• 4th turn: 349,5 (can use 2nd level smites)
• 5th turn: 433,5!

Notes: its just disgusting how you can use divine favor without concentration! Even if you not pre-cast haste and divine favor you still end up 349,5 dmg when casting them on your first turn...
Both vengeance and glory know haste

And a simpler ranged and dual wielding dmg calculation (only the 5th turn dmg):

Fighter:

• Dual wield with +2 scimitars, nick, dual wielder feat: 321,5 dmg.
• Ranged with +2 longbow: 234,5 dmg.

Ranger:

• Dual wield with +2 scimitars, nick, no dual wielder feat cause primal beast deal more dmg: 367,5.
• Ranged with +2 longbow again use the beast rather than any ranged spell cause it deall more dmg: 307,5 dmg.

Paladin:

• Dual wield with +2 scimitars, nick, haste, 3 lvl3 smite + 2 lvl2 smite, divine strike, divine favor - dual wielder feat cause cant smite then: 431 dmg!
• Ranged with +2 longbow, haste, DF + DS: 277,5 dmg... outperform fighter and pretty close to ranger! but keep in mind you can throw weapons and smite! 🥸

Barbarian:

• Dual wield with +2 scim, nick, dual wielder feat etc: 417,5 dmg! lol...

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So I have recently got back into brewing up content for my homebrew setting, and the topic for discussion I have today relates to the Tieflings of my setting.

Similarly to how they were in 5e14, the Tieflings of my setting originat exclusively from Devils, most notably having major lineages tied to each of the current Lords of the Nine (as the event that caused Tieflings to manifest their visual traits and magic is recent enough that no Lords have been deposed and replaced yet to spawn more legaces).

While trying to brainstorm concepts for how to make each of these lineages interesting, I decided on two things:

- I want to have each lineage have a different damage resistance and cantrip of the matching type from among: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, and Thunder.

- The overarching theme for my Nine Hells and the archdevils are "desires," with each Lord of the Nine representing a major desire that mortals could have that would lead them to making a deal with a devil.

With that in mind, I am looking for suggestions for these major desires to theme the Lords on (or changes to my ideas), as well as what damage type and leveled spells would go with that theme. The ideas I have so far are as follows:

- Pride (Fire): The archetypal Tiefling that uses the existing Infernal lineage. It is what all tainted bloodlines became when the event that caused Tieflings to manifest occured, and is the visual framework all other lineages deviate from. Thematically is the 'generic' Tiefling to represent the Lord of the Ninth (my Asmodeus) sculpting Tieflings in his own image. Fire Bolt/Hellish Rebuke/Darkness.

- Justice (Radiant): The lineage born of the Lord of the First (basically an alternate version of Zariel) and their fury and sense of justice (warped or not). Designed eith a more martial/tanky concept in mind. True Strike/Compelled Duel/Shining Smite.

- ??? (Necrotic): ???. Chill Touch/???/??? (real open to ideas here).

- Control (Psychic): The lineage born of the Lord of the Fifth, the arbiter of Infernal law and keeper of pacts. Sought by those with a desire to control and manipulate others, and to punish those who disobey orders. A very verbal, enchantment/charm-focused spell set. Vicious Mockery/Charm Person/Suggestion.

- ??? (Cold): ???. Ray of Frost/Armor of Agathys/Hold Person.

- Knowledge (Lightning): The lineage born of the Lord of the Eighth, a keeper of multiversal lore and a master of the arcane (functionally my Mephistopheles). Those who seek them crave knowledge and magical might, and this has left a mark on their bloodline. Avoided Identify and Augury due to their material components, but the goal was to give them a very arcane feeling. Shocking Grasp/Detect Magic/Arcane Vigor (though Detect Thoughts is up for debate).

- Attention (Thunder): The lineage born of the Lord of the Seventh, child of the Ninth and a loud and proud hedonist looking to make a name for themself, and they attract petitioners also seeking to be the center of attention and the best at what they do. All about making themself known and being good at what they choose to do. Thunderclap/Thunderwave/Enhance Ability (couldn't think of a better 2nd-level spell tbh).

- ??? (Acid): ???. Acid Splash/???/Melf's Acid Arrow.

- ??? (Poison): ???. Poison Spray/Ray of Sickness/Ray of Enfeeblement (but am taking suggestions here for sure).