for the record, I think the superior reach of a spear is in fact better than a sword in one on one combat
but if you are getting rushed by more than one guy that same spear, in an actual life or death fight, could get stuck on the first person you beat leaving you open for the second person
an equally skilled sword weilder would likely have at least a slightly better chance in that scenario
The video title is "Spears are better than swords," but that isn't really what it shows. It's more like what you're saying.
In 1v1 situations, spear beat sword without shields, but sword+shield beat spear+shield, and if only one person had a shield, weapon didn't matter, the person with the shield just won.
In the group bouts, spears won head-to-head engagements, but swords won if they were allowed to break formation and come from the sides.
It's a good video but the title is pretty misleading.
@KorvinStarmast - Yeah I am playing a Ranger. 5 sessions in, Level 3, and pretty fun so far. DM has decided to use the UA rules for my Animal Companion as well so he performs Actions independently in combat rather than using mine, I reckon this is much better too.
@nitsua60 I have a battle master who is using a spear, and he's got the polearm master feat. I'll let you know how it goes, so far he's doing OK, now that the errata to PAM includes spears (as it always should have if the q staff was involved ...)
Oh hey Korvin. So I was wondering if a caster polymorphed themself into a beast, like say a Tyrannosaurus, to fight in combat, would they need to make concentration saves to maintain the form each time they're hit, or does the monster's hp "protect" them?
A wizard uses polymorph to become a Giant Ape. The ape takes damage, but the damage does not spill over into the wizard's hit points. Can this damage break concentration (if they fail the DC 10 or half-damage constitution saving throw)?
My 2 cents re: swords vs spears - HEMA guy here for those who don't know. Advantages of the spear (cost, ease of use, range etc.) are well-known in HEMA community, the video above is more of a trial of how much this common knowledge holds up in testing.
Anyway, my point is that almost everyone wears a sword - a messer, a seax, a dussack, whatever they can afford, but people who carry spears mean it. Swords were so popular because you could wear them much like a pistol in a holster and do other things and it was socially acceptable. Spears? Not so much. You can't work or attend a banquet or go to the shops with it. Swords are overrepresented for their non-martial qualities.
@eimyr I'm honestly not sure what it is. It could be that or it could be a simple rules question. Until OP comes back and clarifies it is not clear to me what it is.
I read it as "I read multiclassing has limitations and would X houserule help in a hypothetical situation I'm not expressing because I am not aware what it should be in the first place"
I'd frame challenge and say something along the lines of "you will likely never reach lvl 21 multiclassing or not. Game doesn't support progression beyond 20 as written, but it's not really a concern in regular campaigns. Some players like the idea of their characters reaching the super-special ultimate ability that each class unlocks at lvl20 and for them, multiclassing is a drawback, if they expect the characters to stop progressing once they reach 20."
@eimyr I mean you could though. If you rewrote the rules to say that chracter level is not the sum of all your class levels then you could technically make it work, but it would involve some reworking of a lot of mechanics
Definitely would not be on board with making such a change though personally and definitely not for OP who seems very new to things.
Not to mention that the ungodly amount of time that you would need to get a character to level 20 in three different classes in unlikely to ever occur at the table.
I mean, the only thing you need to do to support >Level 20 characters is come up with XP thresholds for each value, and corresponding XP values for CR31+ creatures.
It fits the curve for existing Cantrips, which are 1st level up to level 4 (11 / 6 == 1.83333), 2nd level from 5 to 10 (2-2.8333) 3rd level from 11 to 16 (3-3.8333) and level 4 after that.
@goodguy5 My group has been playing much longer than that though which is why I think that is a good minimum. Many sessions we have only involve RP and no XP gains at all lol
@Rubiksmoose yeah, if their true interest is in high-power play, D&D 3.x is actually better suited at that (yes, with all its breakages) than D&D 5e, which tends to avoid letting you get to those power levels to begin with
It gets tricky when doing a prewritten campaign if you start awarding XP for things other than the stuff specified. Especially non-battle stuff that has nothing to do with overcoming the obstacles you would get XP for. Then you have to decide how much XP for this or that thing.
And how to adjust the battles going forward for the increased level
@goodguy5 This website has a chart showing encounters/level, assuming a single CR appropriate monster in each encounter. It makes less sense than you'd think.
@KorvinStarmast It was the tabulation at the end of the video I linked a while back of how many duels/bouts were won by each "side".
@GMNoob Here's the tweet: "Level 10 - 11 XP: It's by design. Data shows campaigns stop at 10, we're trying to speed up 10+ a bit so groups can reach 20 in a campaign" (Mike Mearls) So the the dip and the flattening both serve the purpose of accelerating the final climb to 20. — SevenSidedDie ♦May 21 '15 at 18:44
@goodguy5 Chosen manually, with a reason behind them--not a crapshoot.
And it's this curve that drove the monster XP-CR values, not the other way around.
@nitsua60 While Lloyd is often right and he does his homework, there are certain things that should not be treated as gospel. Particularly I take exception to some of his claims about HEMA - he's a passionate reenactor and historian, but when it comes to historical combat he can be a bit misguided and his discussions superficial.
@nitsua60 Matt Easton and Dave Rawlings are great when it comes to historically accurate combat. You will also eventually stumble upon Skallagrim and he's also very good, but squint and seek other sources whenever he says something "wouldn't do much damage"
@nitsua60 Lloyd is not a HEMA instructor and he seems to underappreciate the length to which scholarly research goes on techniques. Also, he presents certain theories or claims as extraordinary and original, when they are not at all groundbreaking or common knowledge. Finally, he's about 15 years behind RPG trends.
My brother's group just had two bullettes (land sharks) attack the convoy the other day; they handled it well, but I am not sure what they can harvest from them. Remember anything from older editions? I am DMing this part of the shared world ...
@GreySage Yeah, that looks like a quest that is finally completed in the mid teens, and that allows some advantage to making some magic items during down time ... a campaign level thing.
@KorvinStarmast Indeed, in my current campaign (grown out of LMoP), the dwarves who originally found the place are working to restore it, with the intention that somewhere down the line the party will get some cheap/free magic items.
But that is just how I handled it, I don't see any reasonable metric for rating my version better or worse than the OPs version, which is why I VtC, Opinion based.
In my part of the shared world, my brother's group just had two bulettes (land sharks) attack the convoy the other day; they handled it well, and have some bulette harvesting completed. I am not sure what they can harvest from them for magical formulae: back in A&D there were some recipes ... maybe I am remembering a dragon mag article
What were people making with land shark/bulette eyes, teeth, hearts, scales, etc ... ? Arrgh, my usual quick searches left me empty ..
The way that 5e works, each class has a sub class that dictates a heap of class features. The question here is generally, can a character of a specific class take levels in that same class in order to gain access to the low level features of another sub-class.
The best example of this would eith...
> There is only one known benefit to the existence of the bulette: The large plates behind its head make superb shields, and dwarven smiths can fashion them into shields of +1 to +3 in value. Some also claim that the soil through which a bulette has passed becomes imbued with magical, rock-dissolving properties. Many would argue, however, that these benefits are scarcely worth the price.
^^ from the 2e compendium.
Good cooks in the room: I have a fudge recipe I really like. I want to make PB fudge. Can I just warm some PB and swirl it into the final pan before cooling, or does the PB need actual treatment?
(I mean a PB-swirl fudge, not a fully-incorporated tan PBfudge.)
@Rubiksmoose RP can constitute challenges to be overcome, and thus provide XP per DMG 261: Noncombat Challenges (which requires a meaningful risk of failure)
@JoelHarmon Well, the thing that makes Wizards bursty is by spamming high level spell slots. So let's refine it and say that any [non-cantrip] spells spent are combat-duration concentration spells, like Haste or Bless.
@nitsua60 If you're using a fattier peanut butter, then I'd consider reducing one or two other fatty ingredients by a bit. However, the best approach is to try Science! and do the recipe a few times. 30 is the usual statistical minimum. Also, I volunteer as lab rat for this experiment.
@goodguy5 I've got a Level 7 GWF Fighter with no feats, 18 Strength, unspecified Archetype, against an AC16 target dealing about 15.83333333... DPR. Does that sound about right to you?
(I'm trying to establish baselines, i.e. "What is good, what's bad, what's absurd, and what's useless")
Also, that 15.833 number is calculated by assuming no features are being used. Just Fighting Style, Great Sword, the ASI from level 4, and the Extra Attack.
If a kindly wizard gives them Haste, they go up to 23.450 DPR.
@goodguy5 I'll check, but I think GWF has already been proven to be better than Duelist at all levels of play, the trade-off being that Duelist gives more AC and allows DEX-builds, whereas GWF has lower AC and only works for STR builds.
Can Eldritch Knights replace their level 3 non-Evoc/Abjur spell at level 7? I can't remember if they can or not.
Shadow Blade is an Illusion Spell.
So they might not be able to get the spell until level 8, when they get their non-Evoc/Abjur spell.
I think by the wording you can just have another spellcaster create it, and then very carefully hand it to the Fighter.
(If it is dropped or thrown, it vanishes)
At level 7, their (presumably also level 7) allies would be able to cast the spell, at maximum, at 4th Level, meaning they can create a 3d8 Shadow Blade.
(Or just use a 3rd level spell, since it's the same strength)
So Fighter + 3 Allies, two Wizards and a Cleric. The Cleric casts Bless, one Wizard casts Haste on the fighter, the other casts Shadow Blade and hands it to the fighter.
The Fighter takes Duelist FS and maxes out STR or DEX (Shadow Blade is a Finesse Weapon).
Does the Fighter get to fight in dim light or darkness? That will confer Advantage, due to how Shadow Blade works.
All three combined brings the Fighter to 69.188 DPR (!!)
@JoelHarmon Definitely. But if you are running a hardcover adventure that does not include those, giving XP for overcoming obstacles not key to the story can eventually result in issues. Not to mention the fact that there is little guidance on how much XP to give for what.
The problem is not giving XP for overcoming noncombat obstacles in general, it is giving XP specifically in an adventure that was not designed to give XP for that obstacle (or forsaw that obstacle being there) at all. And then the issue of how much.
@nitsua60 Swirl works but I suggest you swirl it into all else before you put the fudge basics into the pan to bake. Think of the PB as walnuts done differently.
@eimyr yeah I can agree that swords are very,.. over-romanticized, even assuming it's ok to romanticize weapons of war for a minute, there are a lot of weapons that can do things swords can't do, even some that could just about match a sword for what a sword is good for but just didn't get as popular for wtv reason
be it because axes are associated with labor or because a mace, while surprisingly effective, just doesn't look as cool
@JoelHarmon I will definitely science it up a bit =)
@Xirema That 23.45 looks on the top end of good, to my eye. I have a spreadsheet of a dozen or so different builds I was considering once (optimizing for sustained DPR using sharpshooter feat) and they ranged anywhere from 12.2 to 21.6, though that didn't factor in precision dice. (Converting a non-hit to a hit's a pretty big deal!)
A wizard uses polymorph to become a Giant Ape. The ape takes damage, but the damage does not spill over into the wizard's hit points. Can this damage break concentration (if they fail the DC 10 or half-damage constitution saving throw)?
