Fun Finds: 5e Edition

[TenaciousJ]

So if you're creating a 20th level build and want to slap some Legendary items on them. Do it. Essentially people like Nunkuruji are jumping in this threads to rain on your good fun because they A) Assume all DMs are dicks. B) Quests to not give out rewards (horde of the dragon queen gives 3 before the party even hits lv8) and C) All games ever will be below WotC's standard. So by all means, list the Legendary items you wish in your level 20 build suggestions and just ignore the naysayers like they deserve.

They probably say that due to experience.  That description above is every single DM I've ever met in real life ever.

Wow I feel bad for you there.  I'm going out of my way as DM to pick items that are good for my players.  I've been converting some 3.5 enhancements up to 5th just so magic weapons feel a bit more meaningful.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

[not quite a tangent]

I'm liking Rogue Thief 13 UMD more and more.
Consider the elchealpo rate of adding spells,
each separate Wiz specialty does. 
UMD can do all of them. 
And the Ritual goodies from Book'lock.

If a DM is handing out the DMG listed treasure
there "should" be some random magic items
up in the Very Rares and Legendaries, that
are NOT usable by anyone in a party ... except UMD.

Say you get the 6 VR's and 4 Lej's, why would
they all be direct hand outs to a specific class?
It's hard to sell a VR and get your moneys worth.
UMD handles this instead.  You can't sell Lej's,
so the UMD guy makes do with a yes/no situation.

Throw in that early game In-combat healing,
and I'm liking the Rogue Thief.

[sambojin]

For the evilest way to kill a BBEG: Disable him (even a grapple by someone else would work), wildshape into a Rot Grub, then eat him from the inside out.

It's a CR1 beast from Against the Slave Lords. Sure, you've only got 1 HP. Sure, you only move 5 feet. But you've got blindsight. Oh, and this:

Melee Attack—Bite: +1 to hit (reach 0 ft.; one living creature). Hit: By the start of the grub’s next turn, it burrows under the host’s skin. Any missed attack against the grub during this time Strikes the host. A creature can use a single Melee Attack against up to five grubs that have yet to burrow Into one host by also damaging the host with the attack. If a grub burrows Into a host, at the start of each hour, the creature’s hit point maximum is reduced by 5. Any effect that cures disease kills the burrowing grubs.


You might have to have plenty of aid actions to help you hit him, or you might have to completely incapacitate the BBEG before you turn into the grub, but this is made of Win. The best thing is, if he slaps you as you attack, you just unwildshape. You may even be able to unwildshape from inside your host if you take damage after you've burrowed. So if you get in, they're dead. Slowly, or quickly (you could wildshape again into a giant eagle or plesiosaur from inside their skull if you wanted).

You may even be able to take a short or long rest inside your victim to regain spells. And as a level 18 druid, you could actually cast spells from their innards. Lightning bolt out the jacksie? Literal heart burn? Witch Bolt someone's testies from the inside? You've got blindsight. You'll find them eventually.

I can't believe no one has mentioned this before. Hell, get Fly cast on you, cast Invisibility on yourself as a Grasslands Druid, then wildshape into your silent death form. They have exactly 1 attack-chance to survive if you hit them.

[8wGremlin]

The Aarakocra (easy find) Flight 50' at 1st level.

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf (page 3)

Dex + 2, Wis +1

Flight. You have a flying speed of 50 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor.

Talons. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.

Language. You can speak, read, and write Common, Aarakocra, and Auran.

[sambojin]

Whirlwind: the ultimate item stealing and party annoyance tool. Sweep up everything before anyone else has a chance to claim it. Then they have to decide if the chance of death is worth it for that +3 sword.

Not bad for those times when you have to protect an item or area either.

But hoovering up the items that you want is way better than its actual damage potential. It's like mage hand for REAL men.

[8wGremlin]

Just some quick crunch for benchmarks. Assumes starting 15 primary (typically strength) with applied ABIs, no Race or Magical Items factored, very few Feats (if any, and noted when used). Just to give you a vague idea on things.

Default Ranger (it's pretty much the paladin minus the d8 so let's do TWF style)
1: +4 (1d6+2) & +4 (1d6) = 8
5: +6/+6/+6 (1d6+3) = 19.5
10: +8/+8/+8 (1d6+4) = 22.5
15: +10/+10/+10 (1d6+5) = 25.5
20: +11/+11/+11 (1d8+5) = 28.5 with the dual wielder feat
Hunter: gets +1d8 per round means up to 42 dmg before hunter's mark.
Beast Master: panther, @lv3 14 then 27/31/35/43 before hunter's mark.

Default Barbarian (using a greatsword)


I think I may do Spellcasters as well, Cantrip-level only.

SorO_Lost, did you ever do this for spellcasters

[SorO_Lost]

I got distracted but I can.

[sambojin]

Warlock with +char damage comes out about the same at lvl 20 with eldritch blast.

4x(1d10+5)=42'ish average.

More if you hex a single target. More for all sorts of reasons (splitting blast attacks so you don't waste damage, giving other characters AoOs from repelling, whatever), but the basic figures work pretty similarly across a wide range of classes if all the attacks hit and you're optioning for damage with your "basic attack" form in a single class, without feats or gubbins.

[majicwalrus]

EB with repelling is awesome.  With 4 rays you can easily control a field over a couple of rounds.

[SorO_Lost]

Meh, 5th isn't 3rd.

You can freely move up to your Speed before, in between, or after your movement. It's like "Agonizing/Repelling Blast is awesome, I'm level 2 and watch me solo this CR 1/2 bear that just popped out under the bush! AAAWWWWWW GOD MY FACE whyisheeatingmyface!" Trivial fact, the MM is full of monsters that are faster than PC races, and many of them have their own ranged attacks meaning you need a massive empty field and lots of time to try and shove them to the limits of your range (and assume their range is shorter).

You also have the problem that Repelling Blast isn't awesome to begin with. Even if you are at the tip of your range hitting your opponent, you have three friends. What if even one of them wanted to play melee? You either hog single-opponent encounters or shoving your opponents outside of your party's melee range. Well, if you're level 20, and by that time everyone has cooler tricks than "push only 40ft". But anyway, it's either trivial for your opponent not to care or detrimental to the party unless the entire party is also hit-and-run is the point. It's also worthless if your raining death from above by using the current master-race with flight which leads into the point that the Eldritch Spear has a more consistent mechanical advantage than Repelling if you really are into optimization.

Repelling blast is not "awesome", it's "useful" and when I say useful I mean "not even as good as 4th's Slide" seeing how you cannot zig-zag them in and out of long area effects for extra damage. Please don't go full WotC on us.

[Nunkuruji]

Sounds like teamwork is required 

[Halinn]

Repelling blast is awesome if your DM is into dramatic cliff-side battles.

[sambojin]

It's awesome. Nice to shove monsters away from you and often at other PCs, thus helping Mêléer's, it boosts the amount of AoO's your party gets each round which ups DPR by a nice amount (it gets silly when your doom-stacked swarm that just attacked from Conjure Animals all get an extra attack in against an enemy each round due to AoOs), with the best part being that it's optional. I can choose to just leave blast as a damage cantrip if I want, or just push once or twice, or go the whole hog and be super-Mr-knockback.

Sure, you won't use repelling every round. But do you use every feat/cantrip/spell or invocation every round anyway?

It's also occasionally handy in BFC situations, for keeping things in difficult terrain or spell effects.

I'd be inclined to say it's a mêlée characters best friend. Everything a monster can do, they can do as well, move/attack/move/etc. But you regularly give them extra AoOs by knocking people out of their 5' zone, from almost anywhere on the battlefield. The monster moved, not them, so they get the AoO. Mêlée characters adore the invocation.

Trying to keep things out of range is one one of its least used abilities. But it's multifaceted enough that it gets used regularly, to good effect, and gives a party quite a bit more flexibility when desired. It's a good invocation, to be used optionally, whenever you want.

[SorO_Lost]

I'd be inclined to say it's a mêlée characters best friend. Everything a monster can do, they can do as well, move/attack/move/etc. But you regularly give them extra AoOs by knocking people out of their 5' zone, from almost anywhere on the battlefield. The monster moved, not them, so they get the AoO. Mêlée characters adore the invocation.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

You can avoid provoking an opportunity attack by taking the Disengage action. You also don’t provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction. For example, you don’t provoke an opportunity attack if an explosion hurls you out o f a foe’s reach or if gravity causes you to fall past an enemy.

Repelling Blast's movement does not provoke AoOs. So how can you gauge something's worth when you know little about the rules and have been houseruling it to be significantly stronger than what it actually is?

[Wilb]

I'd be inclined to say it's a mêlée characters best friend. Everything a monster can do, they can do as well, move/attack/move/etc. But you regularly give them extra AoOs by knocking people out of their 5' zone, from almost anywhere on the battlefield. The monster moved, not them, so they get the AoO. Mêlée characters adore the invocation.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

You can avoid provoking an opportunity attack by taking the Disengage action. You also don’t provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction. For example, you don’t provoke an opportunity attack if an explosion hurls you out o f a foe’s reach or if gravity causes you to fall past an enemy.

Repelling Blast's movement does not provoke AoOs. So how can you gauge something's worth when you know little about the rules and have been houseruling it to be significantly stronger than what it actually is?

Not even with Polearm master`s weird AO interaction?

[sambojin]

Well, I'll be....

It seemed to good to be true. We've been playing it wrong all this time. My other points stand, but the main reason I've been taking repelling is now pointless. Now it's just an average, but occasionally useful and optional invocation.

I'll have a read up on polearm master this afternoon and ask my DM. Since we've played it wrong to begin with, he'll probably let it work.

[SorO_Lost]

Not even with Polearm master`s weird AO interaction?

5th still uses Specific > General.

Mindful Polearm Master AoOs when they enter your Reach, not exit or move within it.

[Kremlin K.O.A.]

Some things I noticed.
An average human only needs to be fed every 5 days.
PHB 185
Average con  = 10 = +0 con mod
therefore 3 days without food has no ill effect
On day 4, you suffer 1 level of exhaustion
On day 5, feed the peasant. and let them get a good night's sleep. That food and sleep both reset the starvation timer, and heal 1 level of Exhaustion   
Of course if you only want to keep the best peasants you can make working them even cheaper.
To kill off any peasants with Con less than 12, feed them once every 6 days. 
Or feed them once a week to only keep the Con 14+ peasants. 

Thus Lawful Evil societies have a major economic advantage over Good societies. 
What is worse, the 'survival of the fittest' method means that over several generations... The LE society can expect healthier and more resilient soldiers, and conscripts.... by starving them...   

Also, if you spreadsheet out the running a business rules in DMG p129, you will find that the most profit per day, on average, comes from running the business for a day, then taking a day off, then rinse and repeat.
Thus the best profit boosting item any businessperson can have, is a fishing rod. 

[DDchampion]

Thus Lawful Evil societies have a major economic advantage over Good societies. 
What is worse, the 'survival of the fittest' method means that over several generations... The LE society can expect healthier and more resilient soldiers, and conscripts.... by starving them...   

Spartans kinda tried that with their whole "kill weak babies and then keep the youths starving so they'll be forced to steal and mug to ensure their survival, ensuring only the fittest remain."

They ended up running out of population before any significant advantage was gained, simply because not enough of their children were reaching adulthood. Turns out that quantity does have a quality of its own, and a mixed population of weaker and stronger beings has a clearer advantage over a smaller "fittest" population. There's always some kind of task you can give to the weak dudes to make them productive, and due to the funky ways genetics work, "unfit" parents can give birth to "fit" children.

[awaken_D_M_golem]

Niice.
This is the kind of emergent stuff, buried within the rules, that's super entertaining fun horrible dark ages brutality.

And of course this is how all high Con races and economic Royalists developed their cultures.  Duh!