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Messages - sambojin

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1
D&D 5e / Re: Unearthed Arcana: Still Alive (more revised subclasses)
« on: June 06, 2017, 03:06:26 AM »
Druid: well, ummm, that's quite a lot of healing, especially when summons are included. Or just a nice one target version of Faerie Fire that you bonus action onto whoever you want, but that is 100% reliable. The capstone can probably be triggered by team-mates too. Also, getting reduced to 0 hitpoints when in wildshape is just one of those things you do as a druid. Especially a non-moon druid. Even if they're not your "real" hitpoints, you still got reduced to 0 as you get bumped out of wildshape, so should get the freebie summons. Precisely how useful 4x CR2 summons at level 14 are is another story entirely, but they're non-concentration, so WS bump-out for them anyway :)

Ooooo, they gave cavalier a +d8 AC shield spell. For him OR an ally within 5'. Four times a short rest at lvl3. This is very, very good. It's a one attack/turn thing, so not as good as lots of actual spells, but still fairly nice.

Pally: that's a lot of potential lockdown. I can't help but mention Mystic "big me" discipline as a combo, to extend the fear lockdown range a bit on a grid. Or just any scary spell/discipline to glue things nicely in place for a good smiting.

The warlock seems very nice, coz it opens lots of combos. I'll edit this post later with some (and yes, mixing UA and other UA or core stuff too). Eldritch Blast pulling things towards you seems like it would be incredibly useful for lots of things as well. Far better than pushing in many cases (making blobs of monsters is usually better than dispersing them for the party. On a grid, but especially in theatre, where stuff bumps into other stuff less, but they're now all within fireball radius).

2
Either dip would probably be ok, but probably not both. It leaves you too far behind on spell levels.

The cleric level is nice for Guidance (and Bless) and rounds out your cantrips well. You don't really need them, but it fits the bard playstyle very well.

I'm not a huge fan of the rogue dip, because it always kills spell slots and levels. But the SA die can be handy once in a while.

I'd just stick to the cleric dip or stay mono. Either is good to play.

3
D&D 5e / Re: Adventurer's League Bladesinger
« on: May 15, 2017, 02:09:24 PM »
Will you be able to use a bladesinger in AL? I thought most UA material was off the boards, and even DMG stuff. They may have changed this ruling though, since AL is the perfect place to to test this sort of stuff out.

4
The dumbest one I can find so far is: Casting Hex on yourself if you have the Lucky feat to ping off "super advantage" on an ability check.

But there's probably plenty of others that are more obscure, as I'm pretty sure others thought of this one ages ago.

5
I wonder if this brings any more interesting interactions in of things that were considered "for others", but are now definitely "or you as well"?

*Ally* tends to mean others, not you (which is a big difference from PF rules), but there might be some other things that are now a bit better that have squeaked by us.

Huzzah for Rules Lawyering!

6
D&D 5e / Re: Tasked with doing everything on a 5e artificer
« on: May 01, 2017, 11:24:20 PM »
If multiclassing is allowed, I'd really want a level of Mystic. Artificers aren't tanky, in fact, I'm having a harder time with a good cohesive character concept as a skill monkey than I am with just looking up some magic items.

A level of Nomad gives you a tonne of flexibility in skills, Immortal is a nice stock standard, and there's plenty of disciplines that will help you as an Artificer (Mastery of Fire to boost your bombs, Bestial Form is just plain good, etc)

Your DM might not let you though. Which is fair enough. If I come up with something I consider particularly good, I'll post it. Artificer just isn't a very strong class, especially without multiclassing. You'll get by, and do some damage, but there's better skillmonkey options IMO.


7
Ancestral Guardian's Spirit Shield really does imply that it means "not you", but you ARE a creature within 30' of yourself and you can usually see you, so...... It's a fairly nice whack of damage reduction for other party members anyway, but it's especially nice if you can have it work on yourself (especially in combination with Vengeful Ancestors).

8
D&D 5e / Re: Need Some Help With A Character
« on: May 01, 2017, 02:28:13 AM »
If you DO want to go magic heavy on a Sorcadin, Pally (2)/Mystic (1)/Sorc (6) really isn't a bad build either. Cantrippy smites and attacks, less use for Giant Growth (kind of, sub some other discipline in most likely), but +1AC all the time from Iron Durability + Bestial Transformation for +2AC is a lot better than most spells for "basic" pally stuff.

Could even drop either one of them and muck around with floating skill proficiencies from Nomad if you wanted.

Anyway, a 1 level Mystic dip makes a good build even better. Seriously. That level of AC with a few other options will ensure your DM almost HAS to single you out with bigger threats sometimes. It wouldn't be fair on everyone else otherwise.

9
D&D 5e / Re: Need Some Help With A Character
« on: May 01, 2017, 01:32:31 AM »
Since you've mentioned a bit of UA stuff and a pally/sorc build and a like of melee, there's absolutely no reason not to throw a Mystic (Immortal) level in there as well with a lvl9 start.

Pally (6)/ Sorc (2)/ Mystic (1)

Bestial form - Tough Hide for +2AC for an hour x2 daily (and some other stuff), Giant Growth so you can smite with a bit of reach when you want or just spread your extra attack around just by thinking about it, and anything else you want to mess around with.

Iron Durability is good if you want +1AC instead of +5' reach at any time (+3AC with Bestial Transformation for 2 hours? Yes please!), Mastery of Wind for some resistance and an occasional vision blocker, Mantle of Command for some reactive party movement. Anything really.

Yes, you'll be 1 level behind on Sorc spells and smite slots, but it's a really nice toolkit you get for that one level. All non-concentration for basic tanking, and really easy to understand, and stackable with magic if you want it. You don't want to know how high your AC can go. Grab whatever talent you want, it's just a "thingy".

The Sorcadin guide was written WAY before mystic UAs came out, and even just Bestial Transformation is spell-slot loss worthy, but you get other stuff with it too. Without feeling like a wizard, or going magic heavy. A 1 level dip that is worthy as hell for a pally build. Sorc levels the rest of the way, whether you want to use it magically or smitey, it's up to you. You'll be a powerhouse, with lots of nice luxuries slowly coming online as you want them. Or to just hit stuff harder, while being hard as balls yourself.

10
D&D 5e / Re: Tasked with doing everything on a 5e artificer
« on: April 25, 2017, 10:15:47 PM »
But Gem of 50x Blinding as a blueprint, or Robe of Useless Crap? Considering Aritificers can't use the potential Robe spell scrolls for free spell research? I'd go for the "useful now" option, rather than the "gaming like the game ain't played" option, considering they're both consumable and you're not likely to get many more than 1-2 per campaign ever anyway (DM's choice).

If you *could* make as many as you wanted to, I'd still want a shit-tonne of blind spells for me and my party.


Serpent Staffs for everybody (with the Warlock's help)? I mean, at least you can put it away when you want to, so it doesn't necessarily have to slow down play.


"A Wizard's staff has a knob on the end....."
"An Artficer's is a snake, big with a bend....."
"An Alchemist's is wood, unless you want to spend...."
"But the Wizard's knob is bigger....."  x2

11
D&D 5e / Re: Tasked with doing everything on a 5e artificer
« on: April 25, 2017, 05:27:58 PM »
Yes, but when you've only got one of them, it's not exactly a lot of gold. Handy, but not amazing at level 4, though a few extra items can't hurt.


Here's a few others not mentioned:

Boots of Leaping and Springing (permanent jump spell, surprisingly useful for a short ranged attacker. 30' jumps/9' high from most things on the array. Not great, but something to consider)

Cloak of Elvenkind (stealth advantage and visual perception disadvantage against you, nice)

Cloak of Protection (boring, but who doesn't want better AC and saves as a corpse/tank?)

Decanter of Endless Water (long ranged trip attack, low DC, but handy for when people are mobbing an enemy with melee and a bomb will hit them. Or just to help out meleers)

Elemental Gem (1 use only, but an early elemental can be a combat monster in lvl4 encounters. Your panic button)

Eversmoking Bottle (want an engagement of basic melee attackers or shooters to turn into treacle? Heavily obscure everything and run away. Unlimited uses, RP compatible, and darkvision isn't IR, so the smoke cuts most vision, but you can still see enough to do stuff. I like this one as a choice. RAW everyone being blind is "normal" combat (advantage + disadvantage to hit), but most DMs rule it as disadvantage to all. Except you, who's hitting via static DC Dex saves, not AC rolls)

Gem of Brightness (50 blind charges. Count 'em. 50! That's a lot of BFC for one item, at a fairly reasonable DC. Very good, I'd probably recommend this as a pick for your character if you don't go the bottle. It'll eventually be worthless, but good until it isn't)

Headband of Intellect (you need Int. This gives you lots of it. Really good for an uncommon item. Stat dumps ahoy! The array looks rather nice all of a sudden. Another top pick. Until your DM takes it away from you and your character is virtually useless)

Helm of Telepathy (it's fiddly, but 1/day Suggestion is great. You lack spell slots and known spells, this gives you a good (potentially overpowered), useful (can suggest anything) spell. Nice)

Pearl of Power (more spell slots. Why not? Everyone needs more spell slots, especially you. Kinda of levels up with you, because you won't have level 3 spells for a very long time)

Pipes of Haunting (DC15 AoE fear vs Wis save. This is very nice as a defensive item for a ranged attacker. Recharges a bit each day, so always good. Needs wind instrument proficiency, but grab it from background or downtime train it in)

Slippers of Spiderclimbing (unlimited spiderclimb, and not veto'd by your DM. Stand on a wall or ceiling and lob bombs at things safely. Not quite flying, but not far off it in some scenarios)

Staff of the Adder (ok, you can't attune to it RAW, but your DM might let you. A very nice melee weapon for people that usually don't do that)

Staff of the Python (reusable summon. Your corpse in a stick. Again, unattunable RAW. If you can use it, you can do far worse than a 60HP corpse that can melee and restrain a little. Just make sure you re-stick him before he's dead, or he's gone forever. Will make a great tag-team partner for your Mechanical Servant at lvl6. Note that the snake is Huge in size, so can't be counter-grappled easily by many things, while still being able to hit-grapple-restrain damn near anything. Surely your Warlock friend can help you attune to it, and it can easily be reskinned as your prior experimentation on the road to your servant. Another very good pick)

Stone of Good Luck (+1 saves and skills. You do stuff, this helps you do stuff)

Wand of Magic Missiles (for when attack rolls and AoE aren't your thing. Pew Pew Pew)


Any of these are way better than a Robe of Money. Unless of course you meant "I can craft two more artificer items before we start" in which case I've kind of wasted my time writing this :)


12
D&D 5e / Re: 1st time 5e pala needs a feat. Some advice welcome.
« on: April 25, 2017, 03:56:59 PM »
+2 Strength. As a pally, your primary job is to hit things with bits of metal, so you want to be able to do it as hard and a regularly as possible.

There's other options, such as using the Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade cantrips for your melee attacks (from Sword Coast Adventurers Guide, SCAG), so Magical Initiate can be worth a look at with your high Charisma, but as a first time player it's often easier to just go the simple route. Hit stuff, smite stuff, learn to use a few other combat options and how to protect your team members, do a bit of healing sometimes.

The other feats you mentioned are good too, but Strength is your primary stat, so boosting it all the way to 20 eventually can't hurt. More hits, with an extra attack coming soon, is good.

Rounding out Con can happen a bit later, as can Sentinel (others might have a different view on this, but as a first timer, I'm keeping it simple).

Do you have any experience with other versions of DnD? Your post count suggests at least a little.

13
D&D 5e / Re: Unearthed Arcana: Feats for Races
« on: April 24, 2017, 08:38:18 PM »
Woodelf Magic looks great. Pass without Trace is one of the better utility spells, lasts a good while, affects large groups, and is a big flat bonus. You might not always need stealth or the ability to hide, but this means that you and your entire party are all of a sudden very good at it, regardless of stats, skills or classes. A free druid cantrip is also good, because there's quite a few nice ones these days. Just a very nice feat overall for what it gives, even with Longstrider being a "meh" spell (except for stupid druid tricks, who have it already). You'll usually only need PwT once per day for non-combat use anyway, and this gives you exactly that, with a free cantrip to boot.

Human Determination seems nice too. Plenty to do with it in lots of builds. Sure, it's only 1/rest, but it's essentially a free actionless non-concentration spell on standby for anything you could possibly need to do, and do right the first time. Great feat. Lucky might be better in some ways (disadvantage into "super advantage", declaring use after the roll and not before it), but this does give you "proper" advantage (not just another die to roll, so it works with Sneak Attacks, etc), and having more advantage on-call is rather tasty no matter what you do with your character.

Flames of Plegithos + UA Lore Master arcane tradition is nice. All the fire, all the time, reroll ones. Of course, mixing that much UA at once may lead to unexpected rocks from ceilings. YMMV.

Gnome's Fade Away is probably abusable somehow, making it better than it seems (it's already rather good). Contested skill checks not breaking your invis, etc. I'll think of something useful and check that it's actually legit. There's also the difference between taking an attack "action", and actually attacking something (there were a few options in last week's skill feats UA, but none are applicable here).



((I know block and tackle doesn't actually work like this, but a lvl8 moon druid could wildshape into a giant eagle and use himself as the attachment point of a rock gnome's Lifter. With the Brawny feat from last week, you're looking at a 5700 pound lift capacity (about 2 1/2 tonnes). So not quit a heavy airlift chinook, but not bad either. Because, screw physics or logic, this is DnD))

14
D&D 5e / Re: Unearthed Arcana: I herd u liek feet 2
« on: April 18, 2017, 01:00:46 AM »
From a druidic viewpoint:

Animal Handling looks nice for odd stat-point druids. You don't have much use for bonus actions in combat wildshape, so why not double the bear to share? You could have a full time friend with this, saving the odd summoning, and animals don't need paying (other than food or goodberries).

Firbolg + Brawny = the little packmule that could. Or the medium sized packmule with the huge carrying capacity anyway. As a lvl6 Moon Druid WS'd into a Giant Elk, you can start hauling some serious loads with that build. Why? Who knows when you'll need a siege engine or boat? In any case, you're about as big as you can reliably get for powerlifting. 4560 pounds of basic lifting capacity at one size category larger than gargantuan and 19 Strength, so about 2 tonnes of brickabrac all merged into your majestic elkish form. Carry the team, regardless of all those Strength stat dumpers, while actually being one yourself. Yes, literally carry them, and a boat, cart, forge, and whatever else. Even in your normal form at 10 Strength with point buy (8PB, +1 from Firbolg, +1 from Brawny), you can carry 600 pounds as a huge sized lifter (while still being medium actual size). Maybe the size increases don't stack, even though they're from different sources, but they might......

Menacing and Silver Tongued are great for any multi-attackers. Which includes Moon Druids in many commonly used wildshapes, dropping your worst attack, whereby losing comparatively less than most other multi-attackers for the fear or advantage effects. Might help even things out a bit as magic weapons become greater than claws and you can't hit as often.



(Mystic's Blindspot talent and Diplomat may be a silly/dumb combo too. Keep disappearing, keep talking (into their brain, so silently), and make friends. You'll never see a single guard in your campaign again. Although, ten contested rolls isn't exactly reliable, even though it is resourceless)

15
D&D 5e / Re: Unearthed Arcana: Downtime & Beyond
« on: April 10, 2017, 10:47:44 PM »
The mantle of joy discipline can give you more or less permanent Charisma (Persuasion) advantage when you focus on it, which is all you really need to buy or sell things fairly reliably. Lucky feat to get rid of duff rolls (because it affects the roll, not how long that particular roll was in play RP-wise).

Then maybe nab Guidance from somewhere (it's a cantrip, so there's no reason it can't be in effect for 7 days straight), and maybe double proficiency from somewhere as well.

With reasonable charisma and Persuasion proficiency, you should be able to buy or sell whatever you want. Or the best of anyone in the group, because all the stuff you're utilizing for the roll is either inherent to your character or is resourceless, so can be played as being always on. Thus, you're the party shopper and seller. A merchant.

There's actually a tonne of things you can do with good persuasion in downtime in this.



I still like that the average lvl3 moon druid with stealth proficiency has a natural 22 stealth score when wildshaped as a giant spider and under Pass without Trace. Before any roll is made, so a minimum of 23 on a roll of 1. If magic and wildshape is allowed (they're fairly long duration things), you'll always pass the first crime check at DC20, and almost always at DC25, so even if you don't get the loot, you'll never go to prison for trying. At least, not from those particular rolls. You'll end up with some foils pretty quickly though.

16
D&D 5e / Re: Unearthed Arcana: Downtime & Beyond
« on: April 10, 2017, 02:53:15 PM »
Totally been proofred. "Error! Bookmark not found." Fortunately its just down the UA a bit.

Anyway, the Magic Mart is now open! Aspiring Mystics with Persuasion advantage welcome!

Crafting is in too. But it takes a while and you need to fight stuff. So, protect our goblinite! The only natural resource that truly matters to the aspiring adventurer (ie: gear hoarding sob). Well, maybe not goblinite. But I can't help but think that some encounters will get tagged and avoided to be used in downtime magic item creation. "A chimera? No sir! That's actually the +1 broadsword you've been wanting. Nature is a wonder to behold. Lets come back later....."
I know the DM is meant to create these mini-quests for the prospective crafter. But sometimes its hard to find the right CR worth of monsters. Especially if you already know where one is.

While I know downtime activities are meant to represent longer periods of doing stuff, how much magic do you think can be thrown at them? Or even class skills? Because druid's make great crime lords if you can. PwT for +10 stealth, animal affinity for advantage on Dex rolls, and pretty high Wis usually too. Might seem like a lot of work,  but 200gp-1000gp a week isn't a terrible use of your time.

They make rather good pit fighters too, if you can cast a decent spell and wildshape into the appropriate form before the checks.


There's actually plenty of good uses for the "softer" stat based spells and abilities in this. Druids and Mystics seem very good, due to their spell list and focuses available for a lot of the things you'll be rolling against. Since discipline focuses can last all day if wanted, they'd almost certainly be allowed to be used (and it's bonus action switch with no hand waving, so could probably be changed for multi-roll activities without problems too).

The new Aristocrat/Merchant class might be a decently levelled Mystic with the Lucky feat and the right disciplines. All the advantage, and super advantage when needed.


Not really that good, but because they're kinda silly: Goodberry scrolls. All the storable healing and food you'll ever need. Never eat trail rations again!

17
D&D 5e / Re: Unearthed Arcana: A touch of (more) magic
« on: April 03, 2017, 05:55:07 PM »
I don't know. Ceremony looks REALLY good, depending on your reading of "can only benefit from this once" is.



So, state that you really, really like Zog the Half Orc. Because it's +2 AC and saves all day long. He makes you really hard :P
(also, you can do group marriages. It doesn't say two people, just the people you touch. Seriously one of the best pre-BBEG buffs ever. As long as you can deal with the consequences)

Investiture is a nice way of handing out Hex to people that are mono classed if you're a Cleric/Lock. Great for shooters and extra attack meleers. Only lasts an hour, and takes an hour to do, but still a nice ability to have. It has to be properly prepared, but there's ways of doing that (MI Hex is prepared for instance, while normal Lock slots aren't).

Or just give someone +d4 on ability checks for the next day. This includes initiative checks too.

Seems really good for 25gp and an hour of your time. Sure, you'll have to faff about setting up camp a bit longer, but 24hr non-concentration buffs are pretty rare.


So is it just non-stacking? Or can they only use the listed benefit once during that time period? Or can they only have the spell cast on them with that benefit once in their entire lifetime? All readings are reasonable. I'm pretty sure it's the last one though. Kind of like you don't usually marry the same person twice, it's actually "the thing it says is happening", not just a spell. You are now married, on the cheap, by a priest you know. And you've only got one foreskin, so use it wisely (note: that's not a coming of age thing anywhere really, it happens way earlier. Maybe in tribal Africa?). But by the time you've all come of age, gotten married to each other, and dedicated yourselves to religion, that's about a 2-3 week campaign gone at one casting a day. Then you just never prepare the spell again.

Who says I can't have three wives, two husbands and a pantheistic approach to religion? Elves are weird, and don't seem to consummate enough anyway. Which suits Zog fine.


(you could probably re-fluff the marriage thing as becoming "lifelong battle-brothers" or something if you wanted. It still can only be done once, but it saves Zog wearing a dress. It wouldn't be white anyway......)

18
D&D 5e / Re: Need some help with a Mystic character.
« on: March 27, 2017, 07:13:06 PM »
Ok, cool.

Half-elf isn't too shabby either. 6 Str, 16 Dex, 16 Con, 17 Int (+1), 12 Wis (+1), 12 Char (+2). Add two points to Int at your 4th level for a nice 19, but it's still an odd number. Choosing the Observant feat (+1 Int, so 18 Int) instead doesn't actually make you lose anything, and really makes up for crappy Wis at 4th level for any passive perception checks you need to make. Or you could throw that odd point into Str for a tiny bit more carry capacity. Or throw it at Con with the thought of taking the Resilience (Con) or Warcaster feat at 8th-12th level. But I'd go Observant at 4th, and +2 Int at 8th as the best levelling option.

You can skill out if you'd like for stealth (or just grab it from background), take elf weapons (you're a pretty reasonable archer), grab a wizard cantrip to round out character design, or grab Mask of the Wild for alternate stealth options.

Quite durable, can handle dex weapons a bit, good saves for when you change out your Wis proficiency for Dex or Con, and plenty of Int for all the mystical goodness.

Your strength might suck, but you're a pretty well rounded character. Half-elf heritage explains the petty lords' hate of you, having a wizard cantrip is handy, and the character seems pretty playable with that stat array. Not great Wis, but not too terrible with Observant either (passive perception is about all you'll use it for anyway). You can do a lot of Mystic-talky later on, or even just take the Friends cantrip, so low charisma isn't really a problem for you. Lots of options, and they all fit what you've described, all with nice stats to use them with.



I'd still be tempted to go Immortal w/Iron Durabilility, Bestial Form, Nomadic Mind and Psychic Phantoms. Probably with Blind Spot and Energy Beam as talents.

It's a little combat focused, but you'll get another discipline at 5th if you really want something else to do. 17AC without armour when focused on Iron Durability (can boost it a bit when needed), 4 tempHP a turn, and you just talent blast and Distracting Figment all the things when damage is needed (or fire a crossbow at it or use a vs-AC wizard cantrip if you chose one).

There's plenty of other good disciplines, but at lvl4, this is probably all you'll need for RP and to survive fairly easily. At 5th, you can grab something far nicer.

19
D&D 5e / Re: Need some help with a Mystic character.
« on: March 27, 2017, 06:01:30 PM »
Here's a helpful little doc that includes all the stat alterations of all the races in one handy place:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PhQ933l3svEnqREAYwPKwJOlxPFK5R4s1TwwZ4Xem8Y/mobilebasic

and another, slightly more comprehensive one:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzptumctKD_HUmJ3NnFHTFNJQ0k/view


You know I want to say gnome, just for the +Int, but I'm not sure it's needed with that stat array. Firbolg actually seems quite nice for everything "your character does", but whether that fits your background story and gameworld correctly is another thing entirely, and the stats aren't exactly what a mystic needs (although they're not bad). It'd let you dump Str and still carry at least a bit of stuff with the Large size-carry bonus.


When you say no-UA multiclass feats, does this mean no feats at all for a UA character?

20
D&D 5e / Re: Unearthed Arcana: Feeling Mystical!
« on: March 25, 2017, 12:25:44 AM »
Claw, claw, claw, claw, claw, claw, move a bit, claw, claw, claw, claw, move a bit more, claw claw claw claw claw, move, claw claw claw, move, claw claw claw claw.

Ok, we go invisible now :D



I very much doubt that was what was intended, but whether you cap it at psi-limit per turn, or even one use per turn, it's still a good ability in an already useful discipline. Who doesn't want an extra 1d10 melee weapon attack, on call, for 1PP? Well, non-melee people don't, but just another reason to look at it as dip-bait for totally non-magical or melee based classes, whilst still being a fairly good discipline for proper casters, or even on its own as a mono-mystic.



(if Mystic was a class level, at around level 6-7, and you read it as: "You get +1AC because you think you're Durably Ironclad, and can choose to have an extra +2AC for an hour twice a day, or an extra 1d10 slashing melee weapon attack four times a day", you'd think it was the greatest melee class level ever. Except a Mystic level is way better than that)

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