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Messages - Surreal

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1
D&D 5e / Re: advice for two builds: paladin and barbarian
« on: October 10, 2022, 10:36:41 PM »
Talking to myself...

For build 2 maybe I'm trying to do too much. Beast 6/Echo 4/Twilight 1/Gloom 4/Arcane Trickster 5 has lots of neat pieces, but do I really need the utility arcane casting that late in the game? Maybe I should take Gloom 9 or even Gloom 10 and drop the Twilight because Gloom 3 does get darkvision (albeit only 60' vs the Twilight 300'). Advantage of more Gloom is some more skills, a bit more speed and WIS save proficiency which is super good. Downside is that wasted level 5 extra attack which sucks.

I could also just go Twilight 10. Yeah I can't cast spells or concentrate while raging, but Twilight 6 does get me non-spell flight which is decent and that channel divinity is superb.

Or a silly option would be shadow monk. Monk unarmored defence is a waste because my barbarian con is higher, but I get some ki for pseudo rogue cunning action, +10 speed, I can cast 4 second level spells without spell slots, probably stop at level 4 because level 5 extra attack is wasted and stunning strike is probably useless, and level 6 shadow step is nice but my echo can already do the same thing. Level 7 does get me evasion and stillness of mind, but that's not worth two virtually dead levels.

2
D&D 5e / Re: My first 5e Build: Tactical Assault Bear
« on: October 10, 2022, 10:10:04 PM »
trying it as a slightly more serious class wifout the Paladin levels:

Race:Kalashtar
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 9 (point buy), asi added in
First 5 Levels in Fighter (Echo Knight), Fighting Style (Superior Technique: Menacing Attack), +2 Con
Next 3 levels in Barbarian (Totem Warrior: Bear)
Next 6 Levels in Druid (Circle of the Moon), Sentinel Feat
Next 6 Levels in Fighter, +2 Str, +2 Wis

Mild necro, but wanted to toss some thoughts on here.

An alternative to going Kalashtar Bear Totem is to spend a feat on Gift of the Chromatic Dragon which gives you a non-spell Absorb Elements a few times a day meaning it's useable while raging. It's not quite as good as Beat totem, but it covers a very good range. That opens you up to more interesting totem options, or Ancestral Guardians, or Beast claws for a blitzful of attacks with action surge.

Your Echo doesn't have a time limit, so pop one out during any downtime and you won't have to spend the bonus action in battle for it.

Druid overall is a bit of a trap for barbarians despite what people say. Moon Druid barbarian doesn't really work despite people online gushing over it. Maybe it's because those who do only play tier 1 where yeah ok your attack stats are nice, but into tier 2 it's lousy until you can tough it out until you get elemental forms in tier 3... but combined with your barbarian levels you're already behind the curve by the time you get those anyways so you're going from being really sucky to slightly less suck. Some utility forms are ok though, like Moorbounder for the high speed. Other druid subclasses aren't much better unless you're going for the utility. Spores druid is always a trap because the main feature eats up an entire action. Stars druid with the archer form gives you a ranged attack, but chances are you'll be pulling sneaky teleport shenanigans with your echo every turn anyways which kinda mitigates the need for ranged attacks. Oddball tech though, if you're running Ancestral Guardian barbarian then the archer form could proc your ancestral protectors. Wildfire Druid gives you the bonus action teleport too, with the added benefit that it can bring someone other than you along for the ride which can be very much worth it depending on your party composition.

In one of my current games, I'm a Beast barbarian taking levels into Echo, and possibly Gloom Stalker ranger in the late game. The plan is for a first strike action surge for 10 attacks (using the first two for rage advantaged shove to prone then grapple so my followup attacks will have advantage without needing to reckless), and I can either do that from my echo or use the echo to protect me from others that approach. Late stage feats that I'm considering are Gift of the Chromatic Dragon (for pseudo absorb elements), gift of the Metallic Dragon (for pseudo Shield), or Slasher to for the stat bump, decreased enemy speed, and giving them disadvantage after I crit which is fairly consistent with my high number of attacks.


3
D&D 5e / advice for two builds: paladin and barbarian
« on: October 02, 2022, 01:33:25 PM »
I'm playing in two games and would just like to hear some opinions on directions to take my builds (and maybe boost a little 5e discussion on this board). Both games have some homebrew or unofficial content.

Game 1: Triton Paladin 9 (Open Seas) /Sorcerer 1 (Sea UA)
- Sea sorcerer basically adds some extra bonuses to cold/lightning cantrips or forced movement, and I was able to change booming blade/green flame blade to those elements
- I have an in-game feat that lets me make extra attack like bladesinger to mix in a cantrip with my regular attack
- fighting style: tunnel fighter (UA) which uses my bonus action and reaction, but it rarely comes up so maybe I should retrain to interception/protection instead
- I took Paladin 9 because I wanted 3rd level paladin spells (which also gets call lightning from Open Seas)
- my main role is tank, I have an AC of 23, I used to be the primary melee damage dealer but we had a dual wielding barbarian rune knight join recently who outdamages me unless I'm crit-smiting
- fear is relatively rare, but it has come up in a couple big fights
- my most frequent buff/concentration is Protection from Evil as we encounter a lot of undead, elementals and fiends
- currently halfway through Rime of the Frostmaiden, we are into the chapter after Auril descending into the magic city, which also seems full of undead so far
- If I keep pushing paladin, I get the aura of courage (10), improved divine smite (11), ASI (12), then 4th level spells for find greater steed(13);
- if I keep going sorcerer, I'll gain slots for smiting faster, but I won't gain 4th level spells until level 16, vs 14 if I went more paladin, but metamagic would likely be quicken to let me do something with my bonus action
- or maybe I could consider Bard or Warlock? bard would give me a good use for my bonus actions every round and shore up some skills; Hexblade for crit smite fishing is appealing, though I also like Form of Dread from undead warlock for inducing fear. I could also take Warlock to 3 for pact of the blade because I have a Sunblade, and this way I can never lose it (or do the same with Eldritch Knight 3)
- party roleplay = ok; party optimization = medium; party aptitude = good
- party composition: paladin (me), druid (moon), druid (stars), necromancer, rune knight/wild magic barbarian


Game 2: modified dragonborn beast barbarian 6/Fighter 1 (planning Echo Knight 4)
- modified race to be more primitive, large size, no hands (no somatic casting, very difficult to do anything on my own), but massive boosted Str/Con, breath weapon like the new Dragonborn who can use it as part of the attack action
- story wise I have a second dragon soul embedded inside, which I will flavour as the echo manifestation
- I took the feat aberrant dragonmark to boost my con and get feather fall, the cantrip doesn't matter because I can't cast it yet (feather fall because my teammates are idiots and they have an airship with no arcane caster in the party)
- the next feat at Echo4 that I plan to take is a homebrew one that allows non-somatic casting and grants mage hand and +1 to casting stat (which because I took Aberrant Dragonmark, technically I'm boosting Con  :D )
- Beyond this my fuzzy plan is dip Twilight cleric 1 for darkvision and a couple utility spells (and I want to pull a Ralph (from Simpsons) shouting "I'm helping" and somehow actually helping with guidance but not realizing how it's happening), then Gloom Stalker 4 and/or Arcane Trickster 5. Gloom because of nova ability and general nice features, arcane trickster because I think a sneaky stealthy triceratops with a climb speed dropping from the ceiling is hilarious, and bonus action mage hand legerdemain is also funny. Sadly my DM won't let me apply sneak with my claws, but at that point I just want the skills/expertise and features from Arcane Trickster. Plus some utility casting never hurts (though a find familiar and non-concentration Longstrinder/gift of alacrity are nice too)
- I have a background trait that lets me do a one-level dip into a class even if I don't meet the prerequisites; I do have Wis 13 but Cha 9
- party roleplay = high but ADHD (large group 7-9 each week); party optimization =  none; party aptitude = Leroy Jenkins
- party composition = beast barbarian (me), ancestral guardian barbarian, cleric dipped fighter, fighter dipper cleric (low attendance), rogue scout, druid dipped rogue, draconic sorcerer (low attendance), paladin
- my role: damage and more damage; I do more than everyone else combined, and somehow I have a higher AC than the paladin because she forgets to buy armour  :banghead
- I don't mind going more barbarian as the subclass features are alright and my DM likes to run fairly dangerous encounters so Relentless Rage may come in handy, but the Twilight/Gloom/ArcaneTrickster route felt more interesting and offered lots of utility magic
- or maybe there's a different route I should consider? I'm not married to any particular build for flavour reasons other than Echo 4; with such a large group we hardly get to roleplay individually anyways and I'm behind the scenes helping to manage some stuff on roll20 anyways because my DM is not very computer literate

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D&D 5e / Re: Fun Finds: 5e Edition
« on: September 25, 2022, 01:13:31 PM »

Rolling 9 times, you have an (approximately) 18/20, or 90%, chance to score a critical hit each turn, which you choose to apply your sneak attack damage to. Feel free to take the other 12 levels in rogue, and just crit it very hard.

I'm not amazing at statistics, so someone fact check this for me, but 9 rolls fishing for a 19+ is only a 61% chance, right?

Mild necro, but the math teacher in me has to step up. Trying to calculate a crit chance across 9 rolls is awkward because you have to account for the 1 or 2 or 3... up to 9 crits scenarios. It's easier to calculate the no crits chance then subtract that from 1.

So with hexblade each roll is a 0.9 chance of not getting a crit. Across nine rolls, you take that to the power of 9 to get 0.38742 chance of not getting a crit at all through your mad amount of dice. Subtract that from 1 to get 0.61258, or 61.258% chance of getting at least one crit.

Trying to calculate your chances of getting two or more crits gets ugly, because our rolls are lumped into groups of three so if you rolls a 19 and a 20 within one group of elven advantage, it only counts as a single crit. I leave this exercise up to the reader, unless you really want to dive into the deeper math of it (but uh, I only show up here like twice a year).

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Hey guys, I'm chiming back in after a month. I wanted to say thanks for all the help you offered. Unfortunately, life sometimes goes sideways on you and I'm now at a new job that's no longer work-from-home and I find my leisure time has reduced dramatically, which means adding one more game into the rotation is no longer feasible  :(

6
Wow, you're like a walking encyclopedia.
I enjoy optimizing a number of silly builds and because I ran the tier list as well another list on the best archetypes for every class I'm familiar with a large host of tricks for every class.

Yeah, that was me back in the day with 3.5 waaaaay back on the original WoTC optimization boards. Sadly my old "handy links" compilation threads are all gone; that document was literally longer than my MSc thesis. I think all that remains of my legacy now is this title of "former librarian" and my "lists of stuff" from my sig (which is also longer than my thesis lol).

7
Wow, you're like a walking encyclopedia.

The game is likely going to be low level, so let's not even plan for things like Music Beyond the Spheres. I think it's going to be fairly low loot as well without chance for crafting, so that nixes a lot of the goodies.
I think I can start with anything that I can afford as a typical level 4, so that would be 6000 gp.

I will probably shy away from summons, because that always bogs the game down and it's not nice to overshadow other players.

Randomly looking at long range planning (as unlikely as it maybe), could I do something like start Cleric-Evangelist, PrC into Argent Dramaturge, then PrC into Evangelist and use that to progress Argent Dramaturge features? Seems kinda cheesy... and if that works, wouldn't everyone take Evangelist?

I like the idea of an animal companion, but I feel like that's going to eat up feats to buff my companion, and there's enough players that focusing on things like Flag Bearer and Lingering Performance may be better.

Looking at the current party lineup, there's no divine casting so that makes me think leaning Cleric/evangelist would shore up any gaps in party capability.

Buuuuut, am I just selling myself short by sticking to Evangelist without capitalizing on summons?
What are other good party buffing options beyond bardic performance?

Notes from the Strange Aeons campaign:
- Lovecraftian horror
- starts in an asylum with amnesia
- lots of fear and negative effects, PCs who can remove negative conditions are valuable
- psychic casters have a greater chance to encounter more fear/emotion effects
- predominantly takes place inside estates, libraries, laboratories, etc; mounts or large animal companions not recommended
- good favoured enemy choices: aberrations, humanoids (human), outsiders (evil), undead, magical beast, ooze

8
Ooh, thanks for all that. I'm going to assume that we won't get to cherry pick items, or really have much for loot at our current level, but bard was certainly one option I was looking at.

At level 4, would evangelist cleric work reasonably well in this role as well? Or is that a trap because a cleric should be spending his actions on something else? Though I feel like this could get cheesy with a bunch of summoned monsters

9
Hey guys, it's been forever and a day since I've been around these parts.

I've been invited to join a Strange Aeons Pathfinder game coming up. I barely remember anything from my 3.5 days (though play in a couple 5e games right now), and have never looked at Pathfinder so I find the range of options at even the base classes staggering. Now normally I'd dig right into it and start researching, but being an adult these days means there's precious little time left so I thought I'd come to y'all for advice. Not looking for down to the nitty-gitty, but some starting points would be nice so I can try to mitigate the amount of rabbit-holing I do when I start reading.

In my other 5e games I'm already a heavy damage dealer (super tank Triton Paladin/Sorc, homebrew race Beast Barbarian, Yuan-ti Hexblade Warlock archer (I know, I know)), so for this upcoming PF game I'd like to take on a more passive role and just enhance everybody around me, though with the potential to explode in not-quite-game-breaking-ways is always fun. A concept I've kinda wanted to play would be one that does almost no rolling for himself, just enhances his team or debuffs enemies, emits auras, etc. I'm not totally married to the idea though.

Current party was 6 people but they lost two recently. One more coming in other than me.
Starting level 4.
GM has suggested a support and skills role would be useful to the party. I do not know the current party lineup (will update if I find out).

Other notes from the GM:
Background skills enabled
include the world is square/elephant in the room rules
2 normal traits plus one free trait from strange aeons campaign set
25 point buy
anything Paizo is ok
Dreamscarred Press Ultimate Psionics is ok
anything from the d20pfsrd.com

edit: got more info about the current party
half-elf slayer, heavy ranged damage
human(?) sorcerer, ranged damage
half-elf investigator, moderate support/skill and tanky, but respeccing for more support and healing due to healer leaving
human soulknife, tanky psychic frontline damage - player left
dromite psychic Vitalist healer - player left
lizardfolk dread, new player, aiming to be a tank/damage

my friend who plays the investigator thinks we need more healing and/or tank

10
D&D 5e / Re: Getting into Min-Maxing
« on: April 10, 2021, 01:08:40 AM »
A very important skill to keep in mind for combat is also making use of your action economy and maintaining options as the situations develop. You have a move/action/bonus every turn, sometimes more depending on class abilities or buffs. Using each of those, even if minor, adds something that wasn't there before. Keep in mind things like buffs vs output. Sometimes spending a turn to power up (spells, potions, whatever) is going to be less effective than straight up attacking from the first turn.

Mobility is also often neglected. If you're a melee grunt, having options that get you into the thick of it on the first turn is crucial. Using a bonus action to misty step next to an enemy so you can unload your attack action is not a bad use of resources.

Ultimately, this is a game of resource management when it comes to combat. Your (and your team's) time and actions are arguably more important than your hp. If you're a support character, then all your resources are spent to elevate your team and deplete the opponent's resources faster than they can reduce yours. A fireball sure does a lot of damage, but if the enemy mooks don't actually die from that fireball then they are unloading their full resources on you their next turn unless you've coordinated that blast with your teammates to actually down a few of them. Hit them with a slow or hypnotic pattern instead, they're still at full hp, but their output is now reduced to less than half and their threat level drops significantly, and now your teammates have a wider range of options which means their output has actually increased. Chopping down enemy hp is almost academic at that point.

A lot of people get overly focused on the min/max of cool moves, and they miss the forest for the trees.

11
D&D 5e / Re: Sage advice on 5e
« on: April 01, 2021, 11:19:14 PM »
Straight cleric is always very party friendly, and your team is lacking divine magic. Any of the subclasses in Tasha's are fantastic.
Order: heavy armor, and spam a healing word every turn to buff anyone else in the frontline and give them an extra attack which is a massive boost in the early levels
Twilight: also gets heavy armour, and your channel divinity is arguably the best in the game to make the entire party tanky
Peace: you can effectively bless your entire team (or double bless half of them) and everybody will love you

You can go sword & board with any of those, and you can dip into an arcane class (or use a feat) for booming blade/green-flame blade if you really want to up your melee damage. Add Spiritual Weapon if you want to focus on more damage and use your bonus action every turn (it doesn't take concentration, so you can still have a buff like Bless going). At level 5 you're a tank walking around (maybe dodging) with spirit guardians and sanctuary if you just want to sweep the field while helping allies.

For feats/ASI's, maybe Warcaster if you're wading into the thick of it and so you don't lose concentration, or one of the feats that gives you more spells/cantrips (Magic Initiate/Fey-Touched/Shadow-Touched/Wood Elf Magic) if you want more versatility or to focus on your melee output. Otherwise pump up Wis/Con/Str.

You could even grab Shillelagh if you wanted to focus on wisdom exclusively (it'll need Nature Cleric, or Magic Initiate, or Wood Elf Magic).

12
Do you think you could swing a half-elf and get the extra feat?

Given the max damage ruling, I'd lean towards the triple advantage crit fishing build with Sharpshooter and the archery fighting style to partially negate the -5 from Sharpshooter. Stick straight class so you get your second attack as soon as possible. Since you're not going high level, you'll need to be a Champion fighter to get the feats in.

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D&D 5e / Re: Elven Necromancy focused Warlock
« on: January 01, 2020, 12:04:16 PM »
Oh "whippersnapper" eh?
You might not know about my kitty avatar's Tail ... (you might not Want to know about ... )


Warlock 11 / Sorc 2 , slices up the slots into 4 level 3 Animate Deads per Short.
Course that's over-emphasizing the skele HORDE part.


Warlock (still) feels a little same-y above level 5 to me.
Ravnica's pile of spells option helps quite a bit.

Well if you're going Sorcerer with Warlock/Pact of the Moon... then you're just one step away from Coffeelock shenanigans. Only ever short rest, chop up rechargeable warlock slots and convert to sorcery points, repeat until the DM bonks you over the head because you essentially have an infinite battery.

14
D&D 5e / Re: Elven Necromancy focused Warlock
« on: December 27, 2019, 10:37:26 PM »
Necromancy

Emperor Palpatine !

Surreal !!

X-mas  :love
sweeet

I haven't been around in a while, though just recently started getting my feet wet with 5e. I may not be able to minmax like I used to, but I feel like the Ravnica backgrounds were a nice obscure knowledge drop so I could flex on you whippersnappers  :P

15
D&D 5e / Re: Elven Necromancy focused Warlock
« on: December 24, 2019, 03:31:22 PM »
Another non-UA method to get Animate Dead is from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, and as a background choose the Golgari Guild. There are a lot of very nice spell options available from the various backgrounds.

If you have access to Xanathar's Guide to Everything, then Pact of the Tome along with the Aspect of the Moon invocation means you never have to sleep again.

16
Min/Max 3.x / Re: Lists of Stuff
« on: May 29, 2018, 08:31:19 PM »
Heh, I remember quite adamantly arguing about this back in the day that the feat does not allow you to cherry pick the vigor aura... but meh, maybe that's because I felt like that was the barely redeeming quality of the Dragon Shaman class and didn't like to see it obliviated by a single feat.

17
Hey guys, yet another long time no see.

So I was sorting through some old hard drives and wonder-of-wonders I actually found my old polymorph spreadsheet! I've uploaded to google sheets here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oRFfvHAYSBQ5sy39mmhqQOoRlGIYtWjVfmk3EPu0GqU

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Min/Max 3.x / Re: [Practical Opt] Eberron Sovereign Crusader
« on: November 06, 2017, 12:51:27 AM »
I wonder if wrangling in turning for divine metamagic is too feat intensive for this build.

19
Min/Max 3.x / Re: [Practical Opt] Eberron Sovereign Crusader
« on: October 20, 2017, 07:32:38 PM »
Maybe my CO rust is showing... but how about the oft forgotten Dragon Disciple? You need one more single level PrC dip to advance your Divine Crusader to 9th level spells, but then using two levels at the end with Dragon Disciple nets you two L9 spells rather than using a PrC to net one L8 and one L9. Duskblade would be the easiest entry and flavourwise you've all all the dragon schtuff happening.

edit: or actually, use a PrC for two more casting levels to max out Divine Crusader casting, then for your last level take Dragon Disciple to nab one more 9th level spell.

20
Min/Max 3.x / Re: A Min/Max Challenge
« on: October 15, 2017, 11:25:34 PM »
Is there really much of a difference, in the end? :P

The vampire gets Dominate Person. With enough energy drains and circumstance modifiers, you start willingly failing those saving throws until that clause that protects you from self-harm doesn't apply anymore.

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