> Fudge logic. When using the Overcome action in a debate, you get +1 for each dessert in the scene. (You do not need to invoke their aspects to get this bonus.)
Fudge: Lodge It. In any social scene you can immediately take a narrative hard-right as someone starts to choke on a bon-bon. (Don't worry, they're okay.)
> Fudge Illogic. Once per scene, if you did not already have fudge, you suddenly have fudge. The remainder of the scene becomes a discussion of possible explanations for how and when you obtained the fudge.
> A scene is a unit of game time lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour or more, during which the players try to achieve a goal or otherwise accomplish something significant in a scenario. Taken together, the collection of scenes you play through make up a whole session of play, and by extension, also make up your scenarios, arcs, and campaigns. So you can look at it as the foundational unit of game time, and you probably already have a good idea of what one looks like. It’s not all that different from a scene in a movie, a television show, or a novel—the main characters are doi…
> Once the action shifts to a new goal, moves to a new place related to that goal, or jumps in time, you’re in the next scene.
@Zachiel I've just read a guide about making custom classes and I just found that a class can't have disadvantages who discourage the player to play the class, can't have passive healing nor at will healing, can't play with the Hit Dice economy and a few more things... my brother understood that we need to make a massive rework to our vampire... because it's too OP. I haven't finished reading the other games, so I am not sure about the change of "game engine".
Maybe the passive healing could end turning into just a improved Fighter's Healing Surge, or a limit to half max Hp healing, like the survival 20th level ability (not sure if Fighter or Barbarian)
(The change will have to be done since he just said me he doesn't want to change of game... :()
Well. I've got to sleep, I've school tomorrow. Bye! Or like we say in Python SE Chat: Rhubarb!
@EnderLook Yeah... disadvantages to "balance out" advantages tend not to work too well. Either they're easy to work around (so don't achieve their aim) or they're not (and just frustrate the player who's not getting to use their cool thing).
If I've followed along correctly it sounds like you-all are hoping to play a vampire-game in 5e. Have you looked at either the MM's sidebar on vampire PCs or the Revenant template from UA:Gothic Whatever?
I'm not saying it's exactly a solved problem, but at least some groundwork's been done for you already.
@EnderLook Yeah, definitely make it an ability with some kind of economy. Any sort of regen has always been really powerful. Even buffing someone with fast healing 1 in 3.5e was a 1st-level spell at minimum, IIRC.
5e, as a general rule with only the occasional exception, treats hit points as a daily resource --- you need a Long Rest to recover an arbitrary amount of them.
Resources that can be converted to hit points are generally limited: spellcasting consumes slots that recharge only at Long Rest, hit dice recharge only at Long Rest, potions and alike are of course finite in number.
The big exception that I know of is Celestial Warlock, and some cheesy joke builds otherwise usually involving Warlock multiclassing.
In 4e, vampires had a kind of fast healing that could only ever bring them up to half health.
They had very very few healing surges (the daily resource that you spend for almost all healing between long rests), but could create a few during combat that went away at the end of combat, and could use other players' healing surges to heal during short rests.
On paper they look pretty balanced. In practice they were boring, extremely limited in customization, and all the cool stuff you could get from a single multiclass feat anyway.
And they had an undead race, and a half-undead race which had you pick which race you'd been when alive.
And of course there's also "my soul has been reincarnated into a new body," "I'm the result of an alien soul forcibly merged with a local body," and "the Shadowfell has infused me with death magic."
And they required a lot more buy-in from the other players than any other race.
(Because if you didn't manage your resources VERY carefully during a fight, you'd need to use someone else's limited healing resources to top off between scenes.)
(Although, they did make it a lot more efficient than normal.)
If you survived combat with at least 1 hp (which wasn't always likely; vampires are melee combatants with some fun tricks but limited burst healing ability), then a short rest automatically brought you up to half health, and using another character's healing surge would restore half your maximum hit points instead of the usual 1/4 maximum.
Any character with a natural weapon attack could learn to have all their natural weapon attacks inflict negative levels (-1 to all rolls, -5 hp, -1 level for all level-based calculations, if you have negative levels equal to your HD you die). A Soul Eater who had dealt a negative level like this got temp hp, and for the next 24 hours also got +2 to all skill checks, +4 Constitution and Dexterity, and +2 to the difficulty of all its saves.
At max level, each natural attack inflicts negative levels.
I made a minotaur Soul Eater, for two slam attacks and a gore attack as a full-round action.
Vampires are a player race who, unlike living races, don't have to eat (and are incapable of it). They instead grow a thirst for blood over time --- being more thirsty gives them bonuses and penalties that emphasize their undead nature, while being satiated with blood makes them more alive --- they regenerate faster and can benefit from potions.
(Oh, and if a Soul Eater kills someone with negative levels, they can take on that creature's appearance AND the creature becomes an undead under their control.)
@kviiri Nice. I've seen a few variations on that in different novels.
Bloodless vampires become notably more stealthy, gain resistances to negative energy and can transmute into a bat at will, but regenerate slowly or not at all if they're completely bloodless. The last bit is so important that most vampires want to secure at least some backup source of blood
When I wanted to play a vampire, I ended up with that half vampire race with the multiclass feat because full vampire, mechanically, was too bloated and ridiculous
And I went with a psionic class because it seemed appropriate
That multiclass feat was definitely way better than the class,... Which is kinda sad
Requesting help with this question because I don't know what else to do to help here and OP is a new user that seems invested in trying to make it work
@Carcer Yeah it does that. Chat flags get shown site-wide once you have the rep to see them. The fun ones are the one from the russian SE or other foreign language SEs.
You regain all of your Warlock spell slots on short rest as soon as you get a Warlock level. It's not like you have a number of spell slots, and you can choose to regain X per short rest. And then you're a higher level Warlock, you can choose to regain Y per short rest.
Yeah, Warlocks get spell slots that regenerate on a Short Rest, but it's only 2 slots until level 11, and only ever a maximum of 4 at 17. By which point, you haven't really dipped into Warlock for cheesiness, you've made a Warlock that incidentally has a few levels in something else.
Yeah. And as a 15 warlock: it's a rare day where pact magic doesn't just feel like I get less spells per day than another full caster. The 6-encounter-2-short-rest 'adventuring day' is not actually that common. The trade off is that my consistent damage is on par with a martial user due to agonizing blast and eldritch blast.
@CTWind Warlock in a party with other casters is indeed something that needs careful balancing from the GM. We for instance have been playing mostly adventuring days with hardly any short rests (you know, one to three big encounters and then long rest with everything expended)
So it looks like this question only needs one more close vote to close. I outline my reasons for thinking it should be closed (as too broad) here. If anybody agrees feel free to vote on it.
Fun fact of the day: according to my calculations, a level 19/20 rogue has a 1-in-2.3999x10^18 chance of dealing their maximum possible damage, 141 damage, in a single hit.
(assuming a non-magical rapier, at 20DEX)
(also assuming they're using their Bonus Action to Hide, granting advantage on the roll)
@kviiri I'm currently playing in a 5e campaign where magic is rare and dangerous. That's a use case for Warlock, it's one of the few full caster classes (Wild magic Sorcerer is another one) we are allowed. Paladins are the other main source of magic.
… why is my avatar blue again, I thought I had finally fixed that.
@kviiri Glorious! Regular irregular games on Monday (next Monday might be D&D for once, a friend playtesting a self-written adventure for our club's Organized Play), the conference I'm helping organize has sooooo many abstracts that I have to fear whether my own abstracts are good enough, and other academic stuff is also making progress. Playing D&D this weekend in that low-magic campaign, too.
Oh, and I finally saw a glacier. Kind-of. I wanted to see one in May in Norway before coming to Helsinki, but didn't manage; the one in Austria had a lot of snow and skiers on top, so it was hard to see where the usual snow stopped and the glacier started.
Our games' hit a bit of a snag because we had to postpone our (hopefully actually very definitely) final session of CoS and we haven't scheduled a replacement yet
This is the one I considered dropping entirely because I found the style of the campaign (or the way it was run?) rather unpalatable at one point while everyone else seemed to at least tolerate it
@Anaphory I've been waiting for this one to end for quite a while but it just keeeeeeps draaaggging on :P we've spent four sessions in Castle Ravenloft alone
@Xirema I mean it forces you to need surprise. Also some races and feats boost damage (Brutal critical half-orc or goblin fury of the small) / (sharpshooter and/or battle master)
new PHB errata is out: http://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf looks like this DNDBeyond forum post summarizes the changes: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/rules-game-mechanics/8760-official-wizards-of-the-coast-errata#c11
the confusing last sentence of Improved Divine Smite got removed (it was meant to say that IDS doesn't count against the max damage limit of Divine Smite, but everyone misunderstood it)
DS also clarified that the extra 1d8 damage against undead doesn't count against the limit (i.e. it increases the limit by 1d8)
@Xirema Best guess: to avoid fishy stuff where multiclassing gave you lots of unintended power by using X class feature on Y spell that only class Z gets
As of the November 2018 PHB Errata, the Barbarian Dies
The new wording is as follows:
“The target is disintegrated if this damage leaves it with 0 hit points.”
My original answer will remain below, despite being disputed by other answers as well as by Crawford.
Yes
In the rules for tak...
"When you have advantage or disadvantage and something in the game, such as the halfling's Lucky trait, lets you reroll or replace the d20, you can reroll or replace only one of the dice. You choose which one."
"reroll" became "reroll or replace"
they fixed the weird wording of climbing/swimming speeds canceling the extra cost of movement even when not being used
Here are the rules on underwater movement:
While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement
costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless
a creature has a climbing or swimming speed.
I have a question related to the highlighted passage: if a creature has a swimming spe...
> Combining Magical Effects (p. 205). In the first paragraph, the following sentence has been added to the first paragraph: “Or the most recent effect applies if the castings are equally potent and their durations overlap.”
@Rubiksmoose I think if it did, it would also kill the ability for any multiclass spellcaster to mix/match their spells/spell slots. Most of those changes are in the sections describing how spell slots apply to spells.
@MikeQ I think a previous version of the errata already caught that.
@MikeQ There is a specific entry for ensuring that Wizards can only copy new spells of a level they are able to prepare, but it's not marked [new], so I think it comes from an earlier version.
> When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a spell level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
The "if it is of a spell level you can prepare" part is the catch.
So even though multiclassing would give 5th level spell slots (in either class), they're still limited to 1st level wizard spells? That seems intended but I can't find an explicit clarification.
@Xirema Lets say - Levitate. Level 2 wizard spell. It is a wizard spell of 1st level or higher. It is of a level you can prepare. You can spare the time.
A cleric 8/wizard 1 can copy it into his wizard spellbook right?
@SirCinnamon But as a Wizard, you can't prepare it. There's a lot of unstated-yet-implied "for your class level" addendums to a lot of features like this. Many features, like Paladin Auras, say "When you reach 18th level, the aura expands in range to 30ft", and we know it intends to say "when you reach 18th Paladin level", but it doesn't say that explicitly.
(Or it didn't originally, not sure if they errata'd that or not)
If the spellcasting feature says something along the lines of "your class's spellcasting table determines the highest level spell of that class you can prepare/cast" then that would resolve this
@SirCinnamon No, the difference between RAW and RAI is stuff that's "inferred", not stuff that's "implied". There's text in the Multiclassing rules that usually clarifies stuff like that.
Stuff like "You prepare spells for each class as though you only have levels in that class, and don't take into consideration levels from other classes".
@SirCinnamon TBH, the argument that you can copy higher Wizard spells into your spell book might hold water if you are a high enough level in another class to prepare it. i.e. you might be able to copy Banishment into your spellbook as a Cleric8/Wizard1, since Banishment is a Wizard Spell, and you can prepare it... just not as a Wizard. But of course that goes back to the implied "you prepare spells as a single-classed spellcaster for each class", which probably negates it.
Even if you did allow that though, you'd still be unable to prepare it as a wizard spell though.
@Xirema No, I mean, a Cleric 8 / Wizard 1 would have a spellbook and would have 5th level spell slots from multiclassing. Cloudkill is a 5th level wizard spell. Can they copy it into their spellbook? And if so, can they prepare and cast it?
@MikeQ No. They cannot prepare 5th level spells under any circumstances, regardless of the spell being a Wizard spell or not. So they can neither copy it into their spellbook nor prepare + cast it. They could buy a scroll and (with a successful spellcasting check) cast it that way.
@MikeQ The errata also clarifies it must be of a spell level you can prepare.
> When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a spell level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.
@MikeQ Because their Wizard level does not permit them to prepare a 5th level spell ("prepare spells as though you are a single classed spellcaster in that class"). The fact that they have spell slots up to 5th level doesn't matter.
@Xirema But is that 'single-classed member' of a level equal to your Character level, or equal to your <class> level (is Wizard 1/Cleric 8 treated as a single-classed Wizard of 1st level, or single-classed wizard of 9th level)?
[New] Disintegrate (p. 233). The last sentence of the second paragraph now reads, “The target is disintegrated if this damage leaves it with 0 hit points.”
Appendix A: Conditions [New] Exhaustion (p. 291). The following sentence is appended to the last paragraph: “Also, being raised from the dead reduces a creature’s exhaustion level by 1.”
@Delioth Class level. If you were a cleric 8/wiz 1, you would determine what spells you know/can prepare as if you were just a wiz 1, and wiz 1s can't prepare level 2+ spells.
@Delioth It's your class level. Otherwise, a Wizard1/Warlock1/Cleric1/Bard1/Druid1/Ranger2/Paladin2/Sorcerer11 could prepare literally every spell in the game.
Timing of this effect of Sleet Storm's was clarified: "If a creature starts its turn in the spell's area and is concentrating on a spell, the creature must make a successful Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or lose concentration."
Before it just said "If a creature is concentrating..."
@Xirema Would that actually be a problem, though? Since multiclass characters use a different progression of spell slots and would be low on ASI's (notably, is it spelled out anywhere that your interpretation is the case - otherwise it's RAI and up for interpretation, especially since it's not too blatantly good)
@CTWind Ah, true. Doesn't seem to have been changed, though
Earthquake says:
> The ground in the area becomes difficult terrain. Each creature on the ground that is concentrating must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature's concentration is broken.
@Xirema (Note that I'm not saying you're wrong - I'd use this same interpretation if I liked running 5e. I'm just really curious if either interpretation is provably correct)
Note that the basic rules have not and do not appear to be being updated with this errata, so watch out using the DnDBeyond basic rules. Same goes for the official Basic Rules pdf.
@Delioth Classes like Sorcerers and Druids are explicitly balanced around being unable to prepare the high level spells of another class. Druids can't Raise Dead or Revivify without taking 5-9 levels of Cleric. If a single level of Cleric was enough to gain access to all those spells, then what would be the point of marking any spells with class specific access in the first place? Divine Soul Sorcerers would be pointless if a single level of Cleric would yield all the same benefits anyways.
@Rubiksmoose Do they seem to have an update schedule? Like, in 4e the Online Compendium was always updated with new material a month after publication.
@Delioth It would be problematic. Basically a higher-level caster would get tons of versatility and access to high-level wizard spells by dipping 1 level. Even if their INT is low (and thus wizard spell DCs are low), there are plenty of wizard spells that don't involve DCs or spell modifiers.
@Xirema The text provided is explicit that you calculate as though you were a single-classed member of that class. It is not explicit on whether you are a single classed member of that class [at that class' level] or whether you are a single classed member of that class [at your character level]
As of the November 2018 PHB Errata, the Barbarian Dies
The new wording is as follows:
“The target is disintegrated if this damage leaves it with 0 hit points.”
My original answer will remain below, despite being disputed by other answers as well as by Crawford.
Yes
In the rules for tak...
Here are the rules on underwater movement:
While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement
costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), unless
a creature has a climbing or swimming speed.
I have a question related to the highlighted passage: if a creature has a swimming spe...
