Kalashtar truly sounds like the perfect species, with their link with Quoris and dreams in general, but all their attributes become redundant throughout the levels as you dive deeper into the GOOlock path

A level 9+ sorcerer can convert sorcery points into 5th level spells at a cost of 7 sorcery points and convert spell slots to sorcery points 1:1.

As a divination wizard at level 6, when you cast a divination spell you can regain a lower level spell slot max 5th level.

Now in Arcana Unleashed there is a divination spell called Mordenkainen Lucubation.

This allows you to regain 2 second level slots. Because it is a divination spell you can also regain a 4th level spell.

This means you can use a 5th level spell to make 8 spell levels. If these are converted to sorcery points you get 1 additional sorcery point.

This means that at the start of the day you can turn 1 forth and 2 second level slots into sorcery points, turn these into a 5th level spell, cast Lucubation and repeat. For every 7 times you do this you gain an extra 5th level spell slot.

Since Lucubation takes an action, turning spells into points takes no action and turning points into spell slots costs a bonus action so this means that every 8 rounds you can get a 5th level slot more than when you started. That's 48 seconds. So in one hour you can make 75 spell 5th level spell slots.

As an elf you can do a long rest in 4 hours leaving you 4 hours to make new spell slots. You can easily get 300 spell slots using this method without touching your other spell slots.

Stats:

STR: 17

DEX: 14

CON: 17

INT: 8

WIS: 13

CHA: 9

(Great Weapon Master Feat) A maul is my weapon of choice

I'm currently level 1

I was reading this origin feat from Astarion's Book of Hungers and got appalled by the wording:

"When an ally you can see within 60 feet of yourself expends Heroic Inspiration, you can gain Heroic Inspiration if you lack it. You can use this benefit a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Short or Long Rest."

If I read this right, this would allow for a situation where if we have two PCs (A and B), both with Tireless Reveler, and A were to use a heroic inspiration while B has none, B gets an action-free, mid combat inspiration reload. As soon as B uses theirs then, A gets another one back as well. This back and forth can go up to PB times per short rest, per PC.

Am I paranoic for seeing this as a potentially VERY VERY strong combo?

e? If we both roll initiative at the same time, isn't it theoretically possible to "brute force" a positive result with up to 4 rolls per short rest at level 1?

The order would be:

1. Both A and B roll for initiative [both's first roll], B doesn't have HI
2. A gets a low roll and uses HI [A's second roll], and gets a bad roll again
3. B gets HI from A's reroll [B's second roll]
4. A, who spent his HI, gets it back and spends it immediately again on initiative [A's third roll]

...and so on for as long as we have TR charges.

The only thing I can see stopping this combo is interpreting this bit from the HI's PhB description that says "[...]and you must use the new roll." as "Whatever number comes from the reroll is the final result period".

I went and looked back at Silvery Barbs, which states again "[...] and (the creature) must use the new roll" and looked at interpretations of it. Casting SB on another SB doesn't work because one of it's prerequisites are the result (success/failure) of the roll, not because it's prevented to reroll an already rerolled roll, and using lucky (2014 rules) wasn't possible, again, because lucky had to be used before knowing the result of the roll. HOWEVER it was possible to use SB on lucky to re-reroll a d20 test.

To further support this position, it's possible to force a portent die result on a rerolled roll from either lucky or SB, meaning that only THAT is absolutely definitive of what's allowed and what's not.

I thought of initiative being a very good way of using this thing because initiative priority is a very powerful thing to have, it likely happens a few times per short rest, and the probability of multiple characters rolling it at the same time is basically 100%. Paired with the alert feat and/or a decent Dex score this is easily a very powerful team synergy for regular combat.

This could also be used with multiple-target shutdown effects, like Hypnotic pattern/Slow etc...

Edit:

Two notes I feel are appropriate after reading some comments.

1 - I'm not arguing whether this exploit should be allowed or not by the DM. As a DM I'm never allowing something like this for multiple reasons I'm not gonna disclose here.

2 - If (a) we rule that RAW (I don't care abt RAI rn) this doesn't work, we're ruling that if anything is decided to happen between two potential steps in a chain of contemporary events that doesn't directly impact the final result of that chain, the latter step of said chain cannot take place anymore because it's arriving "late". Otherwise, (b) as long as things happen at the same time in-game, anything is technically fair play (prerequisites allowing).

I'm inclined to believe that this kind of problem already came out in the past, and I'm likely to assume it ended up in favour of (b), but I admit I don't know of any proper example.

Hello! I have a player who wants to create a melee warlock. He plans to make this an Undead or Fiend Warlock but flavor it so his Patron is Hadar who provides him with shadowy powers. Conceptually, he really likes Arms of Hadar and I can agree the visuals of the attack sounds really cool with shadowy tendrils erupting!

Issue is, I feel like Arms of Hadar is a bit odd. The damage seems good enough early on, but doesn't scale well. The utility for turning off reactions seems to add some mobility, but overall not exceptional. The utility seems like it would actually scale better later when it can turn off an enemy caster's counterspell or shield. So I just feel conflicted about the spell.

I want to spice up Arms of Hadar to make it more worthwhile longer term. Since he's playing a melee lock, I was considering 2 possible custom invocations to keep up with the scaling.

1. Hadar's Embrace - Prerequisite: Warlock level 2+

- You always have the Arms of Hadar spell prepared. You may cast this spell using your current pact spell level once per day without expending a spell slot. This refreshes after completing a long rest.

1. Hadar's Consumption - Prerequisite: Warlock level 5+, Hadar's Embrace

- The cast range of Arms of Hadar is increased to a 20-foot (up from 10-foot) emanation around the caster and you can designate targets of this attack. In addition, half of all damage dealt (rounded up) by this spell is converted into Temporary Hit Points.

My thought process is that since he's trying to play a melee lock, this will provide him with more uses of Arms of Hadar while also increasing survivability. However, providing temp HP could possibly be a big burst of temp HP as at level 5, that would be ~14dmg per target on average which (assuming failed save) means 7 temp HP per target hit. So scaling might be a bit too strong for a level 5 invocation. Another option I was considering is instead of providing Temporary Hit Points, failed STR saves instead cause enemies to roll 1d6 and subtract that number from any attack rolls. This would give him even more party utility with the spell.

Has anyone else put together some customization options for Arms of Hadar? Curious to hear, because the spell is cool thematically

(IMPORTANT!!! Your post will not be considered if all you have to say is that it is "cringe". I'm not looking for unreasonable criticism; I'm looking for a chance to discuss and have people talk about what a character from a different medium would look like in terms of D&D Mechanics.)

I wanted to ask what you all mechanically thought about a character and perhaps adapting it into D&D. I'm aware that anime or games cannot be adapted perfectly due to a difference in medium, but I also feel like there's no harm in a bit of speculation and sharing of ideas.

The character in specific is named Jingran. I consider him to be a sort of monk/fighter type character who can use a limited amount of magic. He can summon some type of a cat (so abilities that summon something, like Astral Self, might work). He also has heavy Ash/Fire aesthetics since he uses a staff with a lamp (he is a sort of "guide to the underworld") attached to it and that element is the one he is designated to in game.

Alright, now with the criteria set, please give me recommendation and/or ideas for what classes/subclasses work. Subclasses from 5e included, as long as they are not present in 5.5e (what I'm trying to say is just use the updated version if it exists).

I'm switching from Artificer: Reanimator to Cartographer in TOA. Keeping the same flavor by getting the Familiar Friend and Elemental Familiar feats.

The DM loved some of my suggestions for changes to the Cartographer. We didn't discuss 15th level because he says we probably won't get that far. I switched out Call Lightning with Thunderstep, which I'm excited about. 9th level, any spell I have that reveals the location of a creature or object will reveal it on everyone's maps with the same targeting rules. That means that concentrating on Faerie Fire at 9th level becomes worth it, at least in my book.

For 5th level, instead of Guided Precision (+Int damage if I hit someone affected by my Faerie Fire with an attack roll or if I use one of my Cartographer spells), I pitched Triangulation:

• When an ally bearing one of your maps does damage to a target affected by your Faerie Fire, you can use your reaction to expend a spell slot to add damage to that enemy. The damage equals 2d8 for a 1st level spell slot and 1d8 for each level above 1st.

He REALLY loved that one. He said I'd probably do less damage overall than Guided Precision and would expend more resources to do so (both a reaction AND a spell slot), but that it was much cooler and would be epic tagged onto a critical hit by our Paladin (who has Elven Accuracy) or Arcane Trickster.

He had another idea which he pitched that he thought might be better than Triangulation and I'd like your input on it:

• When an ally bearing one of your maps makes an attack roll against an enemy affected by your Faerie Fire, you can use your reaction to expend a spell slot to add and amount equal to the spell slot expended to the attack roll. This can be used to make an attack that would have failed succeed or to turn the attack into a critical success if the overall number equals 20.
• Additionally, you can use your reaction to expend a spell slot to reduce the saving throw of one enemy by an amount equal to the spell slot expended.
  

He said this would likely be used less but would be more impactful, especially the saving throw part. There's also a Wizard and an Arcane Trickster in the group, so I'll be able to make everyone else a LOT more effective at what they do, which is kind of what this subclass is all about and what I enjoy.

As an aside, he also offered me the option to switch out Mind Spike with Pass Without Trace, but does Mind Spike become better with that 9th level feature? I mean, it does, but surely we'll use Pass Without Trace MUCH more often, right?

DM'ing for a group of 4, an Open Hand Monk is the only Martial in the party, I run a 5.5e campaign that leans towards the harsh/challenging side with 4-6 encounters per Long Rest. Starting around level 6 the Monk character began struggling with their party role, if they jump into melee they get swarmed and Deflect Attacks only helps against one attack while at this level more enemies are starting to gain multi-attack, and if they skirmish away then the spellcasters are forced into defensive spells and simple fights drag to depletion. The Monk has a +1AC ring but I was hesitant to offer something like more +AC items as it would likely be distributed among the rest of the party and I would have to flood them with these items till the Monk gets a pick. I tried the gimmick of making enemies more spread out and them making dumber decisions but the group called me out on it, I also temporarily added a Martial NPC to the party and the group didn't vibe with it either. I decided a homebrew buff was going to be the only way, the Thief/Monk from BG3 lives rent free in my head and so I wanted to incorporate something similar without it being as abjectly broken:

Level 7: Enhanced Reflexes
  At the start of your turn, you can expend 1 Focus Point to gain an additional Bonus Action on your turn and an additional Reaction until the start of your next turn. You cannot use two of the same Bonus Action abilities on the same turn or use Deflect Attacks more than once a round. You can only do this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

My original intention was to allow double Deflect Attacks but that turned out to be overtuned and it got nerfed to this current state, I left the double Reactions because it still allows for shenanigans with Slow Fall and friendly Opportunity Shoves without compromising defense. Focus Point usage definitely became harder to manage for the Monk, my initial solution was to refund the Focus Point if a turn was ended with an unexpended Bonus Action or Reaction, but that made the whole feature feel cheap like gaining a free Bonus Action at no cost.... I asked the player to come up with a solution and they actually came up with something fun and interesting with decent tradeoffs:

Level 4: Anchored Focus
  During combat, when you end your turn without spending any of your movement, you can use this feature to regain 1 expended Focus Point at the start of your next turn. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

The version the player suggested was something a lot more exploitable than what's above and so I had to limit its uses and make sure that it only triggered during combat, this helped massively and the party is now level 9 and encounters are challenging enough while not dragging out like before and everyone is having a good time. If the campaign continues into tier 4 I plan to remove the Bonus Action restriction on Enhanced Reflexes at level 17, as far as I can tell unrestricted it looks roughly in-line with what a Fighter of the same level is capable of.

I'd love some feedback on my changes, it is intentionally strong but maybe I'm missing something completely broken for later levels. Was there a completely different route I could have taken to this? Also I'm open to DM advice on how to deal with nudging items to a specific player when multiple other players could want the item.

Update: a lot of people have misunderstood the dilemma, the spellcasters are not the issue, they are all experienced players and opted in to the harsh campaign setting, the setting forces them to be conservative with spell slots and they take full advantage of control options. The Monk player is the least experienced of the group and their class and subclass choice clashes with the tank-style they're attempting to play.

a lot of feedback seems to boil down to "tell them to play better" but in my personal experience as a player, I had the most fun in campaigns where the DM makes changes that allows player to better fit the role they're attempting to fill, the published classes are not perfectly balanced gospel and there's inherent imbalance thats up to the DM address situationally.

I probably worded my question wrong, but I was looking for alternate solutions to help this Monk tank better, I'm more partial to class/subclass changes than just throwing magical items at the problem.

Hey folks. I'm going to be switching out a level 9 character in one of the campaigns I'm in for story reasons, so I need help coming up with a new level 9 character. The character will start with one rare magic item and one uncommon magic item. The party is composed of a wild magic sorcerer, a watcher paladin, an echo knight, a twilight cleric, and an arcane trickster. I'd rather not step on anyone's toes if at all possible, which has made coming up with a new character rather challenging considering we have most niches covered.
Any advice on powerful (but not broken) builds and magic items that fit well with the party would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I've been into DnD for awhile, but only now I started seeing some builds cuz my characters were performing very poorly. I wanted to try out the Undead Warlock x Oath of the Watcher build (Baby's first meta build ik), but lore wise- if a paladin who swore to kill fiends suddenly makes a pact with an undead patron (i.e one of the things they must destroy) wouldnt that result into an oath break? Just a curiosity of mine and would love to hear some opinion about it

Thematically, this feels like it makes a lot of sense but when I looked at what the subclass offered and what the species offered there was a lot of overlap in a bad way. The dragonborn breath weapon feels like its meant to be a move on a martial. Its weaker than what most casters can do with an action and scales with con which I may not be able to prioritize to a +5. The flight is good and I could use both if I needed to fly twice in a day. The resistance is redundant unless I didn't match the elements and got two resistances. (which is clearly the smart thing to do but kinda works against the flavor.) Is there a way to optimize this combination im not seeing or is a dragconic sorcerer ironically better off as another spieces? Does anyone have spieces recommendations?

I know the PROPER way to get into DnD really relies on actually reading the PHB but lets be honest, most people do not when they get invited to a session for the first time.

Rarely does it happen that someone can actually just create a character thats ready to play without any assistance. Im not even talking about a viable one, just a character that follows all the rules of creation.

Also, they would probably not pay for the character creator tool if they are new to DnD.

Which would you pick and why?

I need advice to make this work at least somewhat optimally. I want to be a battle master fighter who uses a great sword. (I'm flavoring this as a samurai who uses an o-datchi in my head) I want the class to either be completely charisma based or at least be built in a way that allows for high charisma for the purposes at being good in social interactions. Please do not suggest to me to be a paladin instead. I want to have maneuvers and not rely on spells to heavily if at all. I am open to multiclassing but the build should be mostly fighter at all tiers of play. Only official dnd 5.5e content and as of now unreprented 5e content is allowed. What are my options?

I'm new to dnd, but most of the people at my table aren't and I don't want to make a character that would feel boring to them.

For whatever reason I've never liked the knight in shiny armor, or the outgoing funny brute. My money was always on the gloomy characters, the cunning shadow mage, the sneaky archer, the death god servant, and so on. Characters that are usually burdened with internal conflicts, philosophical dilemmas, and are close to the concept of death/destruction one way or another.

Now, how do I turn this preference of mine into a character that would fit well at a table?

I already know that:

- my character needs to have a reason to adventure and cooperate

- my character must be able to interact verbally and be able to accept that not everything will go according to his morality

- my character needs to provide hooks for other people

The issue is that idk how to do these things in practice. How do you turn a yuan-ti that never reached full snakeness into a good party rogue? Or a wildfire tiefling outcast into an acceptable druidic figure for other players?

Playing a new wizard and want to lean into the summoning aspect. With the new Arcana Unleashed book coming out soon, I see tons of buffs for familiar summoning and reprinted wizard classes (Conjuration and Necromancy) that work with a summoning feel. Which one do you think is stronger and/or any ideas for playing those classes? (Species, feats, etc.)

Good afternoon, optimizers!

In my current campaign, I am playing an Archfey patron Pact of the Blade Warlock (currently level 4). Our DM is allowing us to change our builds/classes as long as we’re level 5 or below.

I’m looking at picking up the classic Fighter dip (I want to play shield + rapier) for medium armor, shields, Vex, Con save proficiency and another option for Bonus Actions.

However, this campaign is planned to end at level 12, meaning that unless the DM extends the campaign, I wont get a third attack + a third feat.

I think that the fighter dip will feel better for the majority of the campaign, but there’s definitely a power loss for our final level.

I come today to ask the community’s opinion! Would you rather have the dip for most of the campaign, or an extra attack + feat for the end?

I'm trying to make a character that is inspired by the Aztecs and I'm a bit unsure on how exactly I wanna do it. Most of it is just reskinning stuff like the macuahuitl instead of a longsword or greatsword but I'm not sure which weapons or subclass I wanna do. Right now I'm thinking either wild heart or zealot since I feel they both fit well.

Wild heart cause of the animal stuff but zealot because the Aztecs were big on the God's too. When it comes to weapons I'm torn between two handed weapons and dual wielding and race I can't decide between human, shifter and goliath.

Because I'm torn between these things, I'm wondering what people here would do and what might be the best choice if I wanna optimize it? I haven't really done much 2024 D&D so I'm unsure what's best.

basically title. I will be introduced later at level 2. My character is a drow, the pact is with Grazz't for story reasons. Fiend Patron.

Initially I was thinking of going Pure warlock and use a Longsword two handed and have Savage Attacker for a bit more damage and some basic defensive invocations. I know Savage attacker is not really optimization.

Now I wonder if I should start with 1 in Fighter or Paladin instead. Paladin would be strenght obviously because multiclass requirements. Whereas for Fighter I would go scimitars and Nick and base it on strenght. Probably Pact of the blade is not even required for this build at low levels. With the multiclass I will take another origin feat instead of Savage Attacker.

Campaign ends according to DM at level 5. He said he wants us to enjoy a tiny bit of level 5 before the campaign actually ends. So maybe there is an incentive for going full warlock.

Oh yeah. I forgot an important part. PARTY COMP. I know this is required by many for suggesting builds.

• Goliath (stone) Fighter, going champion. Pike weapon. Dunno the fighting styles. I think he has Tough as an Origin feat but I'm not sure.

• Druid human going into Land. Right now he's kinda the healer/ faerie fire/entangle

• Half-elf (Khoravar based) Wizard. Dunno the future spec. For now he's focused on damage exclusively because he's new on this class.

• I'll be the fourth. I was suggested to play a martial because we need more frontliners and the fighter is all alone. I don't like full Pure martials. Was undecided between bladelock and Mystic Arts Monk. Went for Bladelock based on vibes mainly. Already played other classes like War Cleric and full Paladin. I dig warlock this time.

Ok what I need is

• whether fighter or paladin (or pure warlock in case is worth)
• which origin feat
• which fighting style if Fighter.
• If shield or not shield considering the other fighter is two handed with Pike
• Which spells for paladin. I kinda dig Wrathful smite and Shield of Faith and reflavor Shield of Faith, but I will use Faerie Fire eventually.

We're currently level one, so I don't even have my subclass at the moment, but what feats should I get to make this already insane character even crazier?

Stats:

STR: 14

DEX: 19

CON: 16

INT: 12

WIS: 18

CHA: 11

This campaign is mines of phandlever and will be going to at least the first half of the module. However, I'm looking for suggestions to at least level 12 since this could transition into a longer campaign.

Open to multiclassing but I really want to go pure monk

Showcase Video

Hello there, D&D players and DMs!

For the past few months, I’ve been developing what I hope is an extremely beginner friendly, nicely packaged character creator and character sheet app.

My goal was pretty simple: make getting into a game of D&D streamlined and easy to understand without constantly needing help from the PHB or your more experienced friends, while still being as rules complete as possible.

I also wanted the actual character sheet to be useful at the table, with things like spell preparation, weapon damage toggles, resource tracking, and other small features that make managing a character easier during play.

The app came about because, when I first got into D&D, I found most of the existing tools, free or paid, to be confusing, outdated looking, missing features I wanted, difficult to use once the character was actually finished, or simply too expensive for what I needed.

So I started building the tool I would have wanted when I was getting started.

It has been quite a journey, but I’m finally at the point where I want to start sharing it openly and see what other players think.

Right now, I’m looking for testers.

Getting access is pretty simple:

iOS

Install TestFlight and open this link:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/yuQKdUSp

You should be able to download the app directly from there.

Android

Unfortunately, I’m a little behind on Google Play’s open testing process, so Android access still requires me to manually add your email.

Fill out this form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-BVTL1hqtvltZL28ZD7JAv3oMB6UUo0h4PsDeLNzlXaui9g/viewform?usp=publish-editor

Once I’ve added your email, you’ll be able to join using this link:

https://play.google.com/apps/internaltest/4701535869193217916

I’ll also notify you once your account has been added.

What do I expect from testers?

Really, I mostly just want you to try the app.

Even simply knowing that people are interested in this kind of tool, and in the idea of a more streamlined, modern D&D character app for mobile, is useful to me.

But if you do want to give feedback, the About section inside the app has my email. You can also just comment down here!

Let me know what you like, what you dislike, what you think should change, what feels confusing, and what pesky bugs are still lurking around.

All feedback is useful. I want to make this as good as I reasonably can before release.

That’s about it. Thanks for reading, and happy dungeon crawling!

I was reading some Bard spells until I found out about Glyph of Warding. I learned how strong a Spell Glyph can be with the correct trigger and spell.

What spells should I use on it? I would like some advice on funny spells and useful ones for this.