@trogdor I think it actually changes on your account.

oh no! XD

lol

Sup dudes

It's not wednesday

screams

Took a leap there... glad you were there to catch me :P

Heh

I need a name for my LN Death Domain Cleric who's a human

Also I have made 6 characters in the past 2-3 days

You tried that fantasy name generator?

Or are you looking for more thematic names?

Yeah, it's not my favorite. Not sure about thematic.

@LukeSommers I've been looking through the dndbeyond list of homebrew classes and archetypes. Lots of blood-themed stuff. You may want to peek there for some ideas.

Frumpy Bumpkin

Nathan

Bartimaeus

Blood Arcana looks good

Have people looked at the UA Mystic?

There you go. Nathaniel.

That could work

He was a character in a Modern-day wizard series called "The Bartimaeus Trilogy", where Wizards were the Upper-Class society. He proved his power by summoning and controlling a powerful Djinni called Bartimaeus

Nathaniel Vosa

Cool

Very good series btw. Highly recommend.

Gotcha

goodreads.com/series/40838-bartimaeus

@LukeSommers There are now 3 versions of the mystic, all UA. Which one are you referring to?

@JoshuaAslanSmith hiya! Good to seeya.

@JoshuaAslanSmith If my wife liked RPG, we'd do GenCon every year. As it is, she's not gonna burn vacation time for that. So it goes, life. :(

@KorvinStarmast Save up your hubby points and cash them in for one year haha

@Ben I thought that was a variant rule system

It is... it's a little homebrewed

I dunno. That was weak lol

I wonder if the Ceremony spell could lead to the accumulation of hubby points

@MikeQ The Ceremony (spell) begins the accrual of "honey do" points; the list just keeps getting added to. ;)

@kviiri You started the 7th sea campaign yesterday right? How did it go?

@HenryWLee1066 Hello, have you come to ask about the bard question?

Yes. Is this the best place, or should I start a room. Never done this before.

Asking in this room is fine, there is very little activity at the moment

(And even if there was, it would probably still be ok)

@Sdjz We didn't get past character creation yet. It went quite well, although I'm not exactly convinced they created Heroes :P

It is early. So, what do I do between concentration spells? Later on I'll have fore slots for non concentration disables or things like shatter. Is vicious mockery enough? Or do I need to find a way to put out some solid damage? 5e lore bard.

What race are you? And what's your wisdom score like?

Actually, full stats would be helpful.

@HenryWLee1066 Lore bard is pretty flexible, because you can use Magical Secrets to unlock some direct damage spells. Bard's own selection of those is quite bad.

But Vicious Mockery is quite good, you've got a bonus action for Bardic Inspiration and reaction for Cutting Words... those are pretty strong.

I kinda feel your pain though, I played a Lore Bard myself and found it rather hard to enjoy because of the difficulty of spell picks...

@miniman Half-elf, stats after modifier: cha 16, con 14, dex 14, wis 13, int 11, str 8. I plan to take Knowledge Cleric for armor & more skills.

@kviiri Interesting characters then?

@Sdjz I hope! :)

So uh

We have an Ussuran retired cavalryman, who's working as a fixer for a "normie" bureaucrat (neither Hero nor a Villain, somewhat corrupt but has a heart)

An Inish fisherman who dreams of becoming an explorer and hopes to find true love one day

@HenryWLee1066 You may want to use a crossbow the first few levels for a bit of more damage than the mockery cantrip

A Vesten spy who's also got shamanistic training and who wants to restore the glory of the Allfather

And a middle-aged Castillian priest who wants to help science survive the Inquisition's oppression.

@kviiri How do they all get together? (or don't they, I don't know how 7th sea works)

The explorer and the priest seem like genuinely noble and Heroic people - the other two not as much x)

@Sdjz but it sounds like I should just be ok with what's there. If I play my cards right, I'll complement the team well. Sound right?

@Sdjz They were unofficially imprisoned as a part of an Inquisition sting operation... or more like, a sledgehammer operation, where the patrons of an entire tavern were interred. Later, the Brotherhood of the Coast ("good pirates", at least on pirate scale...) rescued them. This bit made a lot more sense when one of the characters was actually a member, but we decided it doesn't need to be changed x)

@HenryWLee1066 sure starting at 16 cha is solid and you have the stats for multiclassing as well

@HenryWLee1066 Yeah, that's why I asked about Wisdom. Hmmm...if you were really looking to invest, you could take 2 levels of warlock, using Hexblade to get the armor profs knowledge cleric would've given you, and using Eldritch Blast + Agonizing Blast as your go-to damage.

@Miniman I should've mentioned - PHB only. I really want to do Hexblade, but DM says no. I thought of warlock then moderately armored. It's not like I'd be hurting for skills.

@kviiri So then they are going to help this Brotherhood in return?

@Sdjz Nah, it was originally meant as a pro bono operation --- the Brotherhood has some of its own inside, and decides to bust everyone out to generate goodwill. So the earlier PC draft was still there with them, just not as a PC anymore .P

@Miniman if I dipped warlock, should I wait until char lvl 6? That seems to be when agonizing eb really starts taking off.

@Sdjz (and since the whole interment deal was done by mercenaries without any official paperwork, the Inquisition is left with no records of who was actually captured - meaning the players don't need to worry about being tailed right away)

@HenryWLee1066 hey agonizing eb is great from lvl 2

@HenryWLee1066 One option for a Lore Bard is to swipe Ranger spells and become a magical archer of sorts

@kviiri That works better for Valor, though.

@kviiri Still promising for some trouble later if someone recognizes them

@Sdjz sure is, but it's not that much better than a crossbow until the second beam kicks in, right?

I think the armor will be important because we're kinda squishy.

@HenryWLee1066 Depends - if you're planning on using the invocation that gives skills (you get two remember), you probably don't want to wait that long.

@Miniman well, I'd either have to postpone armor or blast. Sounds like you'd be inclined to postpone armor.

@HenryWLee1066 Well it's 1d8+2 vs 1d10+3 (and +1 to hit) with the eb, that's an average of 6.5 vs 8.5 damage so yeah maybe not that much of a difference

@Sdjz Yeah, but remember it was a rather large scale operation... the party wasn't isolated - the mercenaries emptied a beer hall full of people

In hopes some of them are heretics, pirates or smugglers. And many of them obviously were :)

@kviiri Oh so mercenaries take them but they escape before the inquisition has a chance to actually get to interrogating them?

Yeah

The mercenaries are a band of Eisen Vaticine veterans who are building up coin and support in Castille to attack their homeland and make it Vaticine again.

(they're the only Villain I have in so far)

@kviiri Why isn't the inquisition a villain too?

Oh, I actually expressed myself wrong... the mercenaries aren't the Villain, their leader is.

The Inquisition's leader would also be a candidate but I think he's currently a bit above the PCs' paygrade

Villains are a rather interesting deal in this game, they're basically, in addition to stronger-than-usual enemies, finite banks of "nasty tricks to throw at player characters".

They can complete schemes to increase their Influence, which is the resource they spend to throw stuff at the PCs.

@kviiri This does sound interesting. Excuse me while I go read up on this :)

@kviiri From my understanding this should make villains far more interactive than the usual big bad hiding in their lair. Also makes stopping minor villain schemes more important overall as ignoring what the villains are doing makes them accumulate influence. This sounds great!

@Sdjz Yeah, although there's quite a lot to run there. PC stories, GM stories, villain schemes...

@kviiri Sounds excellent! Did it play out nicely?

@Anaphory That was actually not played - I just presented it to the players as an idea on "how you all met and bonded" and they thought it was cool.

@kviiri Ah, okay. I thought it was going to be your session ½.

@trogdor Your whim? Didn't we agreed you would only use Derpy's approved pony images? ^_^

@Anaphory I kinda hoped we could've started playing, but everything took longer than expected, plus we started the session almost an hour late :P

Everyone was late. Finland's been struck by an unusual heat wave and everyone was moving kinda slow and taking an extra shower before the game and whatnot.

I went on a cycling trip before the game to deliver some lost-and-found items from our cabin trip last week, took me about three times as long as I expected because the heat drained my stamina way faster than I thought

It's similar over here. I don't think I've ever been as happy about rain as yesterday evening, and even that didn't really help to cool anything down by any margin.

I also don't envy my UK friends playing LARP starting in a few hours…

@Derpy oh no you found out

XD

I haven't slept indoors in two weeks, save for the cabin trip and Pori Jazz

o/

\o

/o\

\o/

the mirror universes of waving

or a trapeze act

Oh, that's awkward. I was just trying to catch a cab....

too late

this is your life now

waving forever,... I guess

Highly relevant, about 4 minutes ^^

@trogdor or this one ^

or that yeah wow

@trogdor you saw it?

@Derpy Don't stand on the sky, clouds are a pain to clean up if they get dirty

@Derpy no just,.. that picture is very much something that looks similar

@nitsua60 this was neat thanks

the list of anime I have seen that aren't just Studio Ghibli movies is,... short

I'm not sure what to do with this question.

shorter if you only count the ones I have finished

Right now I think the question's core is answerable but right now the question is couched in language that is POB. I think the question could do with a rephrasing and trim. But I'm not sure...

howdy howdy

@NautArch hey :)

@Rubiksmoose I'm not quite sure how this isn't opinion-based.

@NautArch Or “have you talked to your players”. Which in this context is nearly the same.

so what's the process if I think my comments have been incorrectly shuffled away

@Carcer I think it's Meta?

@Carcer Comments are always swept away. If they could be edits instead, edit; if they couldn't be, get on with something else? That's the general consensus I get so far.

as a general rule it seems to be bad form to edit beyond improving grammar/spelling/readability/conciseness

my comment was pointing out a minor factual inaccuracy which should be corrected to improve the answer, but I've got the impression that just editing directly would be rude, as it is changing the meaning of what was written rather than just the form

I would be totally okay with the comment being deleted (and I often delete my own comments!) after the answer had been appropriately updated, but it's been called "extended discussion" and shuffled to chat

the thing is there were a couple of comments on the answer that were chatty and it made sense for them to be removed, but everything gets lumped in

@Carcer Ah if it was pointing out something that makes the answer "wrong" and the answerer disagrees you can always make your own answer

no

it was a minor factual inaccuracy but wasn't related to the main point of the answer

can you link to the answer in question? Maybe it's easier to see then

Edit the answer then. Original author can still roll back, etc.

chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/80760/…

the answerer couldn't have disagreed because they haven't been on the site since I posted the comment

but I can just edit

I think I'm being salty because it's way too hot

fwiw, often when the mods see (or perceive) that comments are getting into discussion territory they will often just sweep all of them away indiscriminately.

yeah, I've noticed.

it's a bit annoying but I understand that volunteers may not have the time to actually go through and read everything (and there's presumably a button that just dumps the whole thing which is simple to press)

it's sometimes that we have gone through it all, but when we'd be finished removing the comments that need to go, the ones that remained wouldn't make any sense, so we clear those out too.

if there's some stuff that ought to be undeleted i can take a look

definitely not the case that time, my comments stood alone

but it doesn't really matter, I've edited the answer now so ben can revert or fix it up as he wishes

thanks anyway, I feel less grouchy for having vented a bit

gotcha :)

@Rubiksmoose You'll take your downvotes and like them!

@NautArch hahaha. Bring 'em.

I think I know why people might be downvoting, this answer seems trivial and easy no? Especially if you don't read the body of the question. That is what I thought too, but also the source for my confusion.

@Rubiksmoose It may be as simple as folks don't like the idea that overlapping damage spells might not stack.

I don't know if it's a real trend or not, but I have a gut feeling that questions that consider giving PCs more than they really have tend to get upvoted while questions that limit can get downvotes.

@NautArch I've noticed this as well. In answers to to some extent. But perception bias is a thing so who knows.

@Rubiksmoose Yup, that's why I"m not sure if it's actual - but I definitely get that feeling.

@NautArch What do you think about the question out of curiosity?

@Rubiksmoose Nathan's answer sums up my thoughts on it. I never even considered overlapping attacks to be at risk and am a bit surprised at Adam's answer.

@NautArch Yeah I'm certainly leaning that way. I hadn't considered it either until an answer on the superbomb question brought it up. The thing is, having simultaneous instantaneous spells take effect is and would be a very rare occurrence. (if it can even technically happen at all.)

@Rubiksmoose I suspect that that might be one of the reasons for downvotes too (personally I upvoted). People don't always like questions that they perceive as overly rules-lawyery (rightly or wrongly) and that create a problem from an unlikely circumstance where they'd previously seen none.

@Rubiksmoose I think people sometimes respond badly to questions that they think should be solved with RACS even if they seem to contradict RAW.

@Tiggerous Yeah that certainly seems likely as well. Oh well I'm not concerned about it really. I was a bit concerned at first only because it was even votes at 0 and was worried that I had missed something stupid and that it was going to go negative.

@Tiggerous Yeah I've noticed that as well. I mean I would have scoffed at reading the title myself (before reading the body).

@Rubiksmoose Maybe it's just trigger finger voting.

@Tiggerous Also a plausible theory.

I was tempted to make a note if you use Xanathar's rules, simultaneous effects are resolved in the order chosen by whoever's turn it currently is in the initiative, so you probably get to choose which fireball hits you first if you set off a double fireball trap

@Carcer That thought had actually crossed my mind as well. Interesting thought though not much help to the poor creature getting fireballed lol

suspect it's a good one for throwing at crawford, anyway. Adam's answer is consistent with one way of reading the rules but I feel pretty certain that was not the intended meaning

@Carcer Although Nathan's answer of effects is another good RAW reading.

But just the idea that two casters holding Cast Fireball for when in range and they both go off and only one actually works is pretty underwhelming.

oh yeah definitely

"they both take effect" is clearly the sensible ruling, and a justification that "instantaneous effects can't be simultaneous unless they explicitly interrupt each other, because you'd resolve them atomically and they'd never actually be overlapping" would be my RAW justification if I had to argue it

@MikeQ The most recently updated Mystic, I believe

@NautArch I would argue that readying an action would not be the same actually since they take place sequentially and not technically at the same time. Although I guess that is arguable.

"Readied actions that have the same trigger take place at the same time" seems like a sane thing to say to me

but I'd also use Xanathar's rules that say when things happen at the same time choose which order to actually resolve them in

@Carcer True, but then you do get weird cases where the effects of one readied action might effect the other if they are taken in sequence. For example, if one readies a shove and the other readies an attack and the shove goes first. Does the shove happen and the attack take place in the new location? Or do you resolve all the readied actions before any effects are actually resolved?

(which could mean that you end up attacking something that would have died with only the first attack for example).

I could use some advice for using one of the modules for a new group. I'm trying to decide which one to use, and what each one does best. The options I have are Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Mines of Phandelver, Curse of Strahd, and Storm King's Thunder. Does anyone have experience with these?

Rubiksmoose: sequentially. Whoever's turn it is decides, and I think it's fine for one readied action to make another invalid

say in your example, if whoever's controlling the turn has the shove go first, it might shove the target out of range of the attack, in which case the attack fails

@Carcer Sure but that does mean that they don't happen simultaneously then.

@DanielZastoupil I've played through Mines of Phandelver, and ran a bit of it (wasn't great at it though)

yes

@LukeSommers What did you think about it?

when things would happens simultaneously, someone chooses an order to resolve them in, instead

@Carcer ah yeah, I see what you are saying. Fwiw, I am not disagreeing at all.

@DanielZastoupil It was fun! I'm not exactly sure when the actual campaign stopped, our DM made his own follow ups after it was done

I understand

@DanielZastoupil Have played all and run some. Talk about your group a bit?

Curse of Strahd's a very different tone to the others, I think?

@nitsua60 I just took a look at the AL Season 8 changes, and must confess that I am scratching my head a bit on what's going on. Huh?

(not that I've played any of them, just the impressions I have from seeing other talk)

@LukeSommers That's good, Did it seem fluid enough, or railroaded? Is it possible to implement PC's backgrounds into the story without too much awkwardness?

Oh yeah, played a bit of CoS. That was fun.

@nitsua60 I don't know, actually. New group completely. Will be having a session 0 soon.

@DanielZastoupil It's fairly fluid, I believe. Backgrounds shouldn't be to hard.

[possibly CoS spoilery] twitter.com/StrahdVonZ/status/1020012438089973760

@nitsua60 Two newbies, one pro who's uncomfortable with 5e (came from Pathfinder), one casual player.

I've played a little bit of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and it did seem a little railroad-y. You can't stray off the beaten path very much, from what I remember.

@DanielZastoupil I mean, do you know the people?

@DanielZastoupil Phandelver comes with premade sheets, are you using those by chance?

@nitsua60 Not well.

@LukeSommers I am not, but likely will if that's the one that seems best.

Strahd seems fun and very open-ended, but doesn't seem well versed for new players.

@DanielZastoupil They have details and such that are related to the campaign, as well as goals that have to do with it.

@LukeSommers I remember reading about that.

I haven't actually looked at them, though, to see what the sheets actually have, though.

@DanielZastoupil You can probably find them

media.wizards.com/downloads/dnd/StarterSet_Characters.pdf

Is Phandelver fairly open-ended?

There ya go

@LukeSommers Thanks!

As far as I know, but again, DM made his own plot after it was done

From what I remember reading, it's officially supposed to end around level 10.

What's Storm King's Thunder about/like?

Haven't played it, sorry.

@DanielZastoupil Phandelver? End at 4 or 5.

@nitsua60 Thanks, I don't know why I thought it was for 1-10.

@nitsua60 Really? That's it?

@DanielZastoupil Giants are getting aggressive and starting to roll all over "the smallfolk." Do some little help-quests and eventually you'll learn a bit about what might be going on.

Maybe because we leveled up by achievement rather than XP...

Dig in to that, figure out who upset the Giants' social structure, take care of it.

I liked SKT quite a bit.

@nitsua60 Anything specific about it?

@DanielZastoupil I have a frame challenge here: why not just run a short adventure (like an Adventurer's League one) and use that to introduce people to the system and test out what they might like to do explore?

Long, though. Ten months of weekly play. I wouldn't commit to that with a group I'd not played with =)

Our group actually stopped playing because our DM got a job at the store we played at

@Rubiksmoose That's an excellent idea!

@DanielZastoupil It's fun to go up against giants. They hit hard and fall hard. Good storyline behind it.

yeah, that seems better than committing to a longer campaign that might turn out to be a terrible fit for the group

Does STK rely heavily on combat?

Compared to other modules?

@DanielZastoupil If you have an idea of a campaign you might like to do you can even choose one from an AL season that ties into that Campaign (if there is one).

@Rubiksmoose Solid idea.

@DanielZastoupil Compared to others? No. On the other hand, it meanders all over the western part of the continent, so it's a little tough to make recurring connections with NPCs. (Which is a thing I like.)

What do you guys think the best feat for a variant human is? Personally, I like War Caster (If they can cast) or Magic Initiate (If they can't).

@nitsua60 I agree with that sentiment.

@LukeSommers Shield Master.

@LukeSommers What class?

@LukeSommers It really depends on the build.

But it was fun to laminate a printed copy of the campaign map and scribble all over it. (Rumors, quest hooks, "completed" bosses....)

@LukeSommers Shield Master was good before Crawford tried to kill it. I still like Alert.

@Rubiksmoose this.

@Rubiksmoose How So?

For example, War Caster's horrible if one wants to build a ranged striker.

@KorvinStarmast Alert is nice.

Actor is pretty bad as a tank choice.

@nitsua60 It runs from 1-10, right? Would be a good way to implement a late game campaign by making them known heroes throughout the realm.

@LukeSommers What @nitsua60 said

@nitsua60 Actor for Warlock, taking Disguise Self at will invocation is REALLY NICE.

@LukeSommers Sharpshooter can be very good, but if you are not able to set up ranged attacks, it can get aggravating to not use it.

@nitsua60 However, if you have a wizard who wants some melee protection... dual wielding daggers is nice

@DanielZastoupil Sure, my point is just that no few feats are just "good" or "bad" in a vacuum. They're gooder or badder at supporting a concept.

Average 7 damage, min 4, max 10, if you have +2 dex

@DanielZastoupil This might get a bit spoilery, so I'm going to pop over to The Back Room

I still like Shield Master. Tanks generally don't have a use for bonus actions, and their dexterity saves suck, so it covers some major weakpoints. Give a Barbarian that feat and watch him wreck face.

@nitsua60 FWIW, I have built a rough idea for who Hal's sponsor is (the "sir" from the back story) and I'll forward that.

@KorvinStarmast Cool!

@DanielZastoupil Whenever you are talking about something that is the "best" it is heavily context dependent. In 5e especially there is really nothing that is vastly more powerful than any other option for every build. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Hmm... shifters all seem to draw on mammalian totems. This puts a dent in my Spider-man build.

(Unless it's Drizzt. If that's the case then Hal dies tomorrow. cc: @NautArch @Shalvenay @MikeQ @trogdor)

[This] (rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php) is good for figuring out average damage and stuff

yeah, when it comes to balance the only real thing you need to know is that rangers are garbage

@Carcer I keep hearing that a lot, but why?

and beast master rangers are the puddle of disgusting fluid at the bottom of the garbage

they just turned out as being generally being the least powerful class in 5e core

and beast master was especially bad because the mechanics used for the animal companion are just unfun

the UA revised ranger is way better

I'm starting to hear people say that the revised ranger is too swingy.

@Carcer Have you had any experience yet with the Xanathar's Rangers?

@Yuuki I prefer my rangers to be twangy and/or stringy.

that's better than universally underwhelming

They're a good NPC.

But give them their due: they're a really good solo PC class. If I'm running a duet ranger is one of my top recommendations.

If games were balanced to allow players to separate for stealth missions, I think they'd do a lot better.

Yeah Rangers really have an identity/class role problem

@nitsua60 core beast master rangers actually share their master's initiative and the master has to use their own action to command the animal to do anything useful, so they don't actually split spotlight time at all

@nitsua60 lol, same conclusion.

I've made a Bard, Wizard, Warlock, Rogue, and Cleric. What should I make next?

IIRC, Xanathar's ranger subclasses are balanced under the core ranger chassis rather than the revised ranger chassis.

@Carcer Maybe not in terms of actions, but in terms of real table time they do. Because it takes time to do their thing, looks up their stats etc.

the revised ranger version has the companion go on its own initiative with own actions so does double the spotlight time

@Carcer I disagree. The player spends time saying "I'm going to move here, and... can my dog see the foo? Then he'll go over there and attack it. I'm going to use a bonus action to attack with my second weapon." "You can't do that." "Oh, then maybe I'll attack...."

okay, fair enough - that's really a problem with "the mechanics are complicated and stupid so it takes longer to resolve the turn", sure

@LukeSommers Vengeance Paladin.

@DanielZastoupil That could be fun. That's XGtE?

@LukeSommers Nope, standard PHB

@DanielZastoupil in all honesty I've not actually played D&D for yonks and all my 5e experience is secondhand. I'm just obsessive for reading manuals to understand how things work

Oh, I was thinking Conquest, heh.

@LukeSommers Focuses around targeting specific enemies and punishes them for running away, and punishes other enemies for getting in the way.

I am, on paper, preparing to run a 5e game for my husband and as yet unspecified others, but somehow the target date for that keeps receding into the distance...

"I see that mage. Imma kill it."

Oh, they get subclasses at 3rd level, forgot.

@Carcer Complicated to no benefit. I mean, a battle master's more complicated than a champion, but you get something for that.

@nitsua60 I think that's implied by "complicated and stupid"

Fairy 'nuff.

@LukeSommers Some classes get subclass benefits at 1st level, I thought?

@Yuuki Mostly Clerics.

Oh, we're talking about Paladins in particular.

Clerics get it at level 1, Druids level 2, Everyone else is level 3.

@Yuuki Yeah, but not Paladin. Warlock and Cleric are the ones I remember

@LukeSommers Warlocks I guess get choices at 1 and 3.

Warlocks are weird cause they have sub-subclasses

Wizards choose arcane tradition at 2nd, too

@Carcer Yup, you're right. Missed that.

I think the Fiend patron is probably my favorite, and definitely a good one to choose if you're, say, a fighter who's multiclassing.

GOO is also a fun option.

@LukeSommers I mean fighters, ranger, and paladins technically also have other selectors. I wouldn't call those sub-subclasses. Just other choices (like spells). A subsubclass is like the totem animals of Path of the Totem Warrior

@Yuuki I suppose

@DavidCoffron Gotcha.

@LukeSommers I would REALLY recommend the Hexblade over Fiend for fighter multiclassing.

I like Hexblade but I want them to change it. I don't know how but I'm not a great fan of its current design.

@DanielZastoupil Hexblade forces you so hard into charisma, I like making high Strength warlocks myself

Hexblade spells don't scale as much for Charisma, benefit a fighter's playstyle, and regain health.

"You gain a bonus to damage rolls against the cursed target. The bonus equals your proficiency bonus"

Also... they don't get Hex as an automatic thing? That always confuses me.

"Any attack roll you make against the cursed target is a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20"

"If the cursed target dies, you regain hit points equal to your warlock level + your Charisma modifier"

Compared to FIend, which has: " when you reduce a hostile creature to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier + your warlock level "

@DanielZastoupil Hexblade is reallly good if you have 1 bug target but in my games (where I diversify encounters a lot it would be less powerful)

This feels weird because you just said that you recommend Hexblade over Fiend for fighter multiclassing.

I might be parsing things wrong though.

@Yuuki He means that if you want to play a Fighter/Warlock, Hexblade is one of the better options

Hexblade is better than fiend, for those who are dipping into warlock from already being a fighter.

You also get a smite and Shield at level 1.

So if some jerk tries to use Magic Missile to get past your AC (I know I would), then you have a contingency.

@mustardgunner Hi. How are you doing today

They really should get rid of +CHA to hit and damage for Hexblade.

And I think the issue that Bladelocks had wasn't so much damage as being made of rice paper.

@Yuuki It's not a huge deal, it just bottlenecks Warlocks even more than they already are.

@Yuuki I feel like that makes sense though. If you want a tanky arcane gish go Bladesinger, Eldritch Knight, or just dip Cleric for heavy armor and shields

Your choices aren't only rice paper or tank.

@Yuuki Grabbing some armor does not a tank make, it just removes rice paper

As of right now, Warlocks are one of the few melee options that don't have to be combat junkies.

I really like the idea of playing a melee character that can provide out of combat, but making one is a pain.

Rogue?

Don't get any defensive options until level 5.

@DanielZastoupil Rogues, sword/valor bards, trickery clerics, bladesinger/war mage?

Light armor, high dex, uncanny dodge

Even Swashbucker doesn't. It can run away, but everything has 60 speed, so you can't run far.

@mustardgunner Glad to hear!

Dual shortsword-wielding rogue with +3 dex does an average of 10 damage

@DanielZastoupil Running far isn't what makes Swashbucklers good, it is running behind cover or so that the monsters have to provoke OAs to get to you

@LukeSommers I prefer dual hand axe wielding dwarf rogue, but its about the same. Kappa

Although now I want to figure whether the Bladelock's problem was that they couldn't survive in melee or whether they couldn't hit anything because they were MAD.

Take dual wielder and dual wield rapiers

average 12

Add in sneak attack

@Yuuki Bladelocks, without Hexblade, didn't have hardly any defensive options, and had a spellcaster's hit die and armor.

@LukeSommers That's not as good as it should be. You are better off getting an ASI (or any other feat tbh)

And you get a +1 to AC

@LukeSommers You get that from Dex too

@DavidCoffron Ah, ok. Never used it.

@LukeSommers Dual wielder is only ever good if you want to get it for flavour reasons or are already maxxed on ASIs in your main attack stat

Got it. My rogue took magic initiate so they could get eldritch blast and booming blade

A solid strategy I really enjoyed is playing hexblade, get the invocation to see through magical darkness, cast on my sword, dash into combat. Nobody can hit you, you have advantage. if you want to not hinder your party, start dashing towards the enemy archars.

*cast darkness on sword

It was a real pain to DM against. Not much can ignore magical darkness at level 3.

@DanielZastoupil I always found the darkness strategy to be boring after a while

@DavidCoffron Don't take it, take magic initiate instead and dual wield shortswords

@DavidCoffron Yeah, but I also had Actor and Disguise Self at will, so most of my fun was out of combat.

@LukeSommers M.I is so good. Very class has a couple really versatile or strong cantrips

But it was an option to increase survivability, which was what I was aiming to suggest.

@DanielZastoupil Fair enough. My newest character is going hyper-disguise kit/forgery kit (max int rogue) so I'm excited

@DavidCoffron Toll the Dead is really nice

@LukeSommers guidance too

1d4 at will can mean a lot

(especially out of combat)

@DavidCoffron Mhm. My top picks are eldritch blast, Toll the Dead, guidance, and Booming Blade prob

@LukeSommers Chill touch can be good to have in your back pocket to deal with high regen enemies.

Word of Radiance and Frostbite are really dang good.

^ that

Word of Radiance has a range of 5 feet but says every creature you can see

And vicious mockery is great if you want to go bard MI (although bard has very few daily level 1 options that are attractive)

???