Ask a d&d 5e DM anything

Ask a d&d 5e DM anything.
I know AMA threads are cancer but this worked out last time so here we go again

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Do you think we will ever get a Dark Sun setting reboot for 5th ed? How about Planescape?
Also, don't forget that /tg/ is a thing. Don't Know what kind of responses you will get here.

What is the easiest way to make a broken sorcerer?

As someone who has no fucking clue what d&d is, explain it easily and best you can. Is it a board game?

Setting is up to DM GM, and with some slight tweaks you can make anything. As for where to post, the Sup Forumsro here were pretty into last time

Make a dragonic sorcerer. They are OP as is. Take the feat element specialist or something like that and spam fireball. Youll win D and D

It's an acting game where you pretend to be an adventurer that does extraordinary things. All you require is the rules, a character sheet, and dice. If you choose to, you can add on things to enhance the game like maps, grids, miniatures, and other things to add flavor.

D and d is what ever your Dm Gm makes it. It can be a board game. With battle maps and grids. I can be an epic story of fantasy, present day, or future exploits. Its can be stage to act out your ambitons. It really depends on what you want from it and what your Dm Gm can offer

Interesting... I'm a shadow sorcerer (campaign consists of characters with high school archetypes, I'm the punk/goth/emo kid) so I can't quite snag draconic...

Also, neat idea, it would be fun to acid splash and burn stuff

As long as you're DM allows it I would definitely take a look into feats to increase your damage. Like spell sniper and magic initiate

Bump

I've just replayed nwn2 and all expansion packs. Any good similar games that you enjoyed? In b4 Baldur's gate and nwn

Holy crap! Spell sniper sounds tits! I could not only avoid most cover, but get Eldritch Blast without multicasting! Thanks dude

It really depends on what you want out of "broken". Based on how your DM plays and what challenges you face in a campaign, the definition of "OP" can change. For instance, in a campaign where every single encounter is against a mage with Counterspell, you'll have a lot less power as a Sorc. In a campaign that takes place mostly in cities with a lost of persuasion and politics, you can't just throw fireballs.

In general I think that a "broken" character is one with a lot of options available to them and safe yet consistent damage output in fights.

When it comes to damage, the rule of thumb is that fire spells do more damage but more enemies are resistant / immune to fire. Half the monster manual is resistant to fire, but fire averages a d10 whereas other elements average a d8 (talking base-level cantrip scaling here, but the same idea is carried through spells like Scorching Ray and Fireball)

As a sorc, I'd recommend getting the Spell Sniper feat. Couple that with your lengthened spell cantrip and you can start shooting fire bolts at 480 feet. At that range even a long bow has disadvantage trying to shoot you, so you can pick enemies off safely from a distance.

If you're willing to break out of your sorc habit, though, there's some fun bullshit you can pull with Warlocks or Wizards.

Warlocks get Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast at level 2 for the highest damage cantrip in the game. Wizards, on the other hand, get Potent Cantrip at level 6 so that their DC spells always deal damage - even on a save. This means that you can use something like Toll the Dead (Xanather's Guide) for a guaranteed d6 (assuming the enemy has taken 1 damage already) or a d12 if they fail their save -- beating out the damage on most other cantrips and with zero chance of missing.

Honestly you're going to be disappointed with everything. I'm not going to pretend like you'll find something like that. So lower your standards and play something that you'll know your enjoy sorry man

Awesome, thanks man!

Op here, this guy knows bis shit

I'm a fairly new dm and i don't really play with all of the rules since i can't manage them all, how did you start of?
and how do you manage to battles? do you make combat fluid detailing every act they make?

You're going to have to find a way to manage most of them whether it's on your own or with the help of the players. Combat is a vital part of most games. Depending on each player's action in combat you really only need a few lines of description. Such as the spell hits him and leaves burn marks on bis armor. Or you smash your accent to him and leave a gaping wound he is very bloody by the attack. Watch other DM's play like Matt Colvile or critical role or anyone who post their Antics online. You will learn from them. The most important thing is to just have fun with your friends

Accent is Axe into.... fucking voice to text

Which I should stress having fun is the most important part of this game

Looking for some critiques on a build I'm working on. It's still in development so it's not 100% decided, but here's the gist of it (it assumes some extra materials are allowed in the campaign):

>Asimir (Fallen)
For the addition of your level to damage once per round for 1 minute (reset on long rest) and resistance to necrotic and radiant damage

>pump CHA, dump INT. I mean like -- 6 INT, if possible. 20 CHA if possible.
You'll see why later

>Warlock 2 (Raven Queen)
For Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast as your primary damage cantrip ("swing your sword", spellcaster version) and a free familiar. Second invocation is Misty Visions, the use of which will be apparently shortly
EB + AB + Hex + Asimir = 4d10 + 4d6 + 20 + 20 damage per round at level 20
That's a DPR at level 4 of 18
DPR at level 10 of 38
DPR at level 16 of 58
DPR at level 20 of 76
(loosely matching a Fighter of Barbarian in raw DPR, but doing it at a 120 foot range)

>Wizard X (Illusion)
At early levels you depend mostly on your cantrips for survival and basic utility spells.
By level 6 (of wizard) you have access to 3rd level illusion magic and can change its form. This means you can cast Invisibility while your whole party is holding hands and for the next hour you can switch which person is invisible (this qualifies as changing the parameters of the illusion). Or you can change the perceived damage type of phantasmal force.
At 14th level (of wizard, 16th total) you go full cheese. With Misty Visions you can cast Silent Image infinite times per day without using a spell slot, effectively summoning into being any item that would fit within a 15x15 foot cube. Using Illusory Reality you then make it real. The PHB description mentions making a bridge real, so this doesn't seem limited to something like "a single piece of wood" -- you can literally spawn a car into existence. You become the Green Lantern

(to be continued -- out of characters)

Thanks, I've watched some DnD plays but not enough to get accustomed to all the rules.
Most players i deal with have been the "pick up and play" sort, they don't really want to read any rules, except for one annoying dude that, although he does remind me of some stuff, is never fun to play with.
He's really hyped about the Xanathos Guide, is it any good?

I'm not familiar with all of it but that is definitely something to check with your DM before trying because that can be easily shut down. It doesn't seem out of balance Eldritch blast is the magic users version of swing a sword but depending on your DM they may want more effort from you than just i cast Hex and Eldritch blast. Warlocks are my least favorite class and Asimir my least favorite race, so like i said im not that familiar with them. I would suggest not making a built to level 20 because I have never seen the campaign go from Level 1 to 20. I would say just like life make your character live like each level is his last

>100% utility spells
We have shitty INT, so for: Expeditious Retreat, Enlarge, Haste, Feather Fall, Shield, Alarm, Identify, etc. Pick every spell in the game that DOESN'T use INT
This is a surprisingly large amount of bonus action and reaction spells, meaning you're always able to cast spell

>At level 18 Wizard (level 20 total) you get mastery of two spells (can be cast infinite times per day). Pick Shield (level 1) and Misty Step (level 2). You now have permanent +5 to AC, can never be grappled, have a +30 to move speed, and can teleport around out of combat for the lulz like an interplanar god

Now for the REAL cheese:

>Keen Mind
You can recall EXACTLY anything you've seen in the last month, including the shape of keys, the text of books, etc. Combined with your ability to Green Lantern anything into existence, this means your wizard spellbook is always at your side, you can create any key to any lock if you've seen it once, you can create an illusory duplicate of anyone you've seen in the past month, you can mimic anyone's handwriting, etc

>Ritual Caster (Cleric)

This, combined with standard Wizard rituals, gives you access to the largest ritual spellbook in the game short of Warlock's invocation. The only spells you can't learn are Animal Messenger, Beast Sense, Commune with Nature, Locate Animals, and Wild Cunning. You DO have access to Forbiddance now, which is nice.

and finally, my favorite cheese:

>Magic Jar

Read the text of Magic Jar carefully. If you're inhabiting someone's body and you (their body) die, make a charisma save against your own spell save DC. We have 6 INT and 20 CHA. It's a +11 (with proficiency) versus a DC of 12 (8+6-2). You can't fail. Even on a roll of 1 you get a 12 and pass. You now can't die. If you die, you return to your magic jar and wait for another unsuspecting victim to wander in range so you can possess their body and let the cheese continue.

XG has a lot of extra options. But I would not recommend any of that until you are familiar with core

Depending on the language that the DM uses 20 can be always a success and one can be always a fail. Do you DM?

Yo, is that half orc Barbarian wolf totem unstoppable or what?

There's one more cheesy thing this wizard can do. Major Image, if cast using a 6th level spell slot, is permanent and doesn't require concentration.

Consider the following:

>Create an illusion of a galleon, sitting in the port at town
>Anyone who tries to steal your boat, or even stand on it, falls into the water below
>You use Illusory Reality to make the galleon real and sail off. Once per minute you spend a bonus action to keep the boat real
>When you arrive at your destination, you stop making it real. 1 minute later it becomes an unsteal-able illusion boat again

Even if the DM rules that illusion boats don't use normal physics and won't float in water or be moved by the wind, with Malleable Illusions you can change the parameters, including moving the illusion. And per the spell's description, if you move the spell then you can change its shape while it moves to make the movement appear realistic. So you can use your action to make the boat move from one end of its range to the other -- effectively moving 240 feet per round.

I've DM'd only one campaign. I generally just theory-craft.

It was my understanding that in 5e "critical" only applied to attack rolls. Saves and ability checks can't critically fail or succeed.

Trips
No i feel like its not as good as bear. Knock prone who you want.... now their is a dragon... enjoy full fire damage

How come when I was in high school no one ever invited me to a game? I always wanted cool D&D friends because they were so much smarter than jocks and more interesting than preps, but they never invited me to come/ play. WTF?

DMs can do what ever they want. I make 20 and 1 automatic because no matter what you try these is a 5 percent chance it could work. Makes the game interesting. Also.... but you really wanna wait as a boat for the whole game? I would after listening to this ask you to not come back to my table. It seems like your fun is more important than everybody else. And that's not fair. Everybody's investing an equal amount of time, and the GM is investing even more than that and all you want to do is try to screw a system so that you have an unbeatable character. Maybe if you focus more on role playing than actual statistics you wouldn't have to theorycraft so much and you would be playing more

How come you never bought a D&D book and invited people to play?

Shit I Mis-Remembered. It is the bear.

I play a paladin, and the intention was that I’d be the damage sponge.

At level 5 none of my attacks hit, and Mr. Anger management problems is over there absorbing all of the damage, and wreaking havoc with his retardedly over-powered advantage on attacks and D12.

The Barbarian has made a cuck out of my paladin...

And our DM is a retard, he threatened to neuter the barb, and didn’t realize the wolf totem meant that rage powers extend to fire magic. The rest of the team nearly died, and there goes the fucking orc again, raging away.

Annoying.

In general Bear Totem is the most overpowered in terms of raw combat potential. Taking half damage from all sources means doubling your health pool, and barbarians already have the highest hit die at a d12.

Factor in that most nukes in the game involve either a dexterity or con saving through and you have CON proficiency and make dex throws with advantage and you're taking 1/4th damage from a lot of nukes.

I played a "Bearbarian" in one game -- a Druid 2 (Moon) / Barbarian X (Totem). I was a Dwarf (Hill) for the +1 health per level and grabbed Tough for +2 health per level, with 20 CON (rolled a 16, plus 1 ASI, plus 2 from Dwarf)

By level 10 I had:

>12 (first level = max roll) +
>5 * 2 (take the average on Druid levels) +
>7 * 7 (take the average on additional Barbarian levels) +
>5 * 10 (from CON) +
>1 * 10 (from Hill Dwarf) +
>2 * 10 (from Tough)
> = 151 base health

I could then turn into a Brown Bear twice per short rest for 40 temporary health, meaning I had effectively a 231 health pool to burn through before I died

Then when I was raging this was doubled (since I took half damage)

So I had 462 effective health

NOTHING could kill me. I literally stood in front of vampires and laughed while they beat on me

The bear totem should only be good at absorbing damage. At most even at level 5 he should be doing 2 D 6 + for twice which isn't huge. As far as staying up and taking the brunt of it that's his job. The Paladin isn't a great class but if you get to Paladin level 2 in multi-class as a cleric you can get all those great healing spells and holy spells that you would like and still use Smite to do extra damage

If you read the rules most monsters have their resistances knocked down by magical weapons of the player so too happens to the player if a monster has magical weapons which negates the Bears half damage. If you're DM does not play that way perhaps you may want to suggest something like that or even just talking to your DM about how you feel like your character doesn't matter

Parents were super strict and could never have friends over.

Make up for it now brah

You read the rules wrong. Every single monster whose resistance is negated by magical weapons (which is most, but not all) explicitly states that they have resistance to:

>Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

The definition of Rage specifically states:

>You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Nothing about nonmagical. Although don't take my word for it:

sageadvice.eu/2016/05/28/does-barbarians-rage-resistance-work-vs-magic-weapons/

Jeremy Crawford (the guy who makes the rules for D&D) said so himself.

"Rage gives you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage--no matter the source of that damage"

The Bear Totem just extends this to elemental damage:

>Bear. While raging you have resistance to all damage except psychic damage. The spirit of the bear makes you tough enough to stand up to any punishment.

The PHB, and DMG also says that the dungeon master makes the final call.

So I did not read the rules wrong I made an interpretation call to make the game see more balanced

The PHB does say that the DM gets final say and can change the rules, but your stated that "if I read the rules" then a monster with a magical weapon negates the Bear's half damage. This isn't the case. It's an exceptional case IF the DM chooses to override the rules as written.

That doesn't meant that DM should arbitrarily start banning things because he thinks they're strong, though. Every "over-powered" strategy in D&D is generally single-use or overly focused on one metric. You get the most damage per round, but you're useless at finding or disarming traps. You have a ton of health, but no mobility or crowd control.

Yes, I couldn't die as a Bearbarian. But I also couldn't take advantage of Extra Attack (because bears don't use the Attack action, they use the Multiattack action) and I couldn't cast spells or in any way contribute to the fight other than "stand there and hope the enemy hits me instead of my friends"

Seeing a big number is no reason to bitch about it and say it should be fixed or the DM should disallow it. That's like people who think Polearm Master + Sentinel + Tunnel Fighter is OP. It's only OP if thousands of mindless drones run into your spear without making ranged attacks or pausing to think or walking around you, and it assumes you NEVER roll a single critical miss.

Tldr

A simple question is if there's no risk to your character why do you play the game?

I also said that if you're DM doesn't play meaning I had ruled it's something different. I didn't try to hide anything I told you what I did

Thank you for your interest. Dm out

If you think there's no risk then you have no creativity. D&D is NOT a game where:

>You hit the monster
>The monster hits you
>Repeat until dead
>Find a new monster and go to step 1

That's boring and stupid. D&D is a game where:

>You hit the monster
>The monster throws you into a portal that transposes you into the Ethereal plane
>A cleric you befriended a month ago is able to bring you back but only at great expense
>You promise to work at the church to repay your debt
>The church is attacked by vampires
>You get bitten and are at risk of turning
>You go on a pilgrimage to find the cure for your disease before your transform
>A hag promises to cure you in exchange for not being able to feel happiness for a solid year

D&D is a bizarre world of magic where anything can happen. That Bearbarian? First one in the party to die. We killed a necromancer and while performing the rites to purify his corpse she failed a wisdom save and was coaxed by a cursed bone ring he was wearing. She put on the ring and in her dreams it whispered into her mind, slowly turning her evil. She began to see the world in black and white: those who followed the natural progression of life, death, and beautiful rebirth... and those who tainted nature by trying to postpone death (clerics, healers, etc). She began to hate healing magic and started secretly plotting to assassinate healers and paladins.

Eventually she started a battle she couldn't win and communed with the deity of her ring (Hunger) to beg for more power. He possessed her, effectively killing her soul and making her body a vessel for his evil deeds. She later became a boss the party had to face and I had to roll a new toon.

Unless your DM allows critical failure spell casting as in the spell back fires

How do I play? I want to do things with my girlfriend while we're long distance

dark sun was that last setting they did in 4th, so i doubt that would be quick. I'd like to see an official Eberron (more than just a Unearthed Arcana article). It might be tough though since SO much of that setting is related to 3.5. Prestige classes everywhere!