TLDR: should an archer with longbow grab great weapon master

In a week I'll be starting a long lasting campaign and I've decided to be an archer. The class really doesn't matter at this point, I'm thinking about it constantly. The thing I need help with is our dm generously gifted us all a free general feat and I wonder If I should pickup great weapon master as an archer character with a long bow. Should I? Or do you guys have any other feat recommendations?

Building a character who is a dragonborn veteran of the nearby Tethyrian military. Loved the thought of doing a "Battlemage" playstyle after looking at the war domain. Taking protector for heavy armor and wading into the fray with spirit guardians and spiritual weapon going whilst swinging away with weapon attacks seems cool and thematic.

My problem is this: The War Domain seems to HEAVILY want you to be using weapons, and weapons are simply less effective than spells for the cleric. They never get extra attack, and just using toll the dead for non-spell-slot damage will scale quicker than weapon attacks ever will. Plus their main stat would be WIS, not STR or DEX. Also at lvl 7, potent spellcasting takes cantrip effectiveness even further, since with WIS 20 the +5 is better than the 4.5avg of divine strike.

Maybe using true strike would allow you to double up on the WIS mod extra damage and do this playstyle still? But then the lvl 3 feature War Priest would require weapon attacks for BA without using the cantrip and they would always suck.

The subclass seems to be doing too much with BA, the spell list would have always been prepared anyways, and the reliance on weapon attacks competes with the base classes main playstyle. All this combined makes me think a better/easier "Battlemage" would just be a Light Domain, heavy armor, spiritual weapon for BA attacks, spamming toll the dead, plus some juicy extra blasty-ness from the fiery spell list.

TL;DR On paper the War Domain Subclass seems ill-suited to the playstyle of the base cleric class to the point of being un-playable, and it is pushing me away from the subclass that makes the most narrative sense for my character. Does anyone else feel the same about War Domain? Anyone played it that can alleviate my anxiety, or suggest how to better build it to make it effective?

If a player has repelling blast, does every beam of eldritch blast mandatorily push the target back or does the player get to decide if that's the case or not? The wording "you can push the creature up to 10 feet straight away from you" makes it sound like a choice.

I’m playing an aberrant mind sorcerer and have realized just how incredibly limiting the fewer spells I can actively choose is. I like this challenge and my way of working with it is to try to give myself more spells through feats and such. I can’t get more through my race because chose the race for story reasons, and the subclass happened to give me plenty of always prepared spells and fit the character for story reasons, I chose the Rune Carver background and it gave me the Rune Shaper feat. I quite like the extra spells I’ve gotten from all of that, but there are feats that could give me more, unfortunately I’m a bit overwhelmed with the amount of feats that grant spells to chose from. Which ones give the most spells, which ones do you use most often?

I like the fishy aspect but there seems to be alot of routes I can go, more dex into his spears and pikes, maybe glaives if I can get a good enough modifier from a class bc he doesn't seem str based he seems like a MAD DEX+INT. I love the magic without a transmutation circle so lots of spells that don't need long rituals, I love the earthcrafting/lithomancy too. There is more the alchemy vibe but I want less potions as I want to get close to fma, combat spells and fun utility spells to flavor investigating or exploration. I can use any 5.5e plus like unearthed arcana content.

Hey all, it has been a while since I posted here!

A bunch of you liked the old DPRcalc dice calculator because it let you model out DPR without needing a DDB character sheet, but it didn't let you model things like "smite on crit" or bouncing attacks, or more complex builds.

So… I spent a few months rewriting the engine with a few goals:

1. Accurately represent any and all legal D&D rounds. Previously it was just the basics.
2. Make the interface faster and easier to enter data, streamlining the common use cases.
3. Make all features in DPRcalc use the same engine. Previously the analyzer had a bunch of bespoke functionality not present in the dice library or exposed on the dice calculator page
4. Make the underlying dice library open source and easy to use.

Try it at https://dprcalc.com/dice, it's ad-free and free to use as always.

Here is what is new in the 2.0 engine:

• Drastically Simplified UI: The minimum amount of data entry required has been heavily reduced. Infrequently used options are now hidden by default to declutter the workspace, and the system handles things like auto-dice-doubling for critical hits automatically.
• Menu-Driven Scaling: Instead of manually entering damage dice and modifiers, you can now add attacks, spells, and damage riders directly from a dropdown menu. These come with sensible defaults that automatically scale with your character level.
• Targeted Damage Riders: You can specify exactly how and when riders apply. For example, you can set Sneak Attack to only apply if a hit actually lands, and you can explicitly check boxes to dictate which specific attacks (e.g., Dagger Attacks but not the Flurry of Blows) can trigger it.
• Advanced Conditional Effects: It is now trivial to model optimization staples like "Smite on crit", attacks that explode on a max roll (Sorcerous Burst) or bounce to a new target on a matching roll (Chaos Bolt or the updated Chromatic Orb).
• Action Dependencies: What happens if that "Smite on crit" doesn't trigger? You can now model dependencies, such as setting up a different Bonus Action attack to only occur if the first condition fails.
• Attack Frequency: Similar to the analyze page, you can now specify certain attacks to only happen a specific percentage of the time (perfect for modeling Great Weapon Master's Cleave, Hew, or an average Attack of Opportunity rate).
• Complex Pre-Built Examples: The update includes numerous examples showing exactly how to model mechanics like Bless, Hunter's Mark, Graze, and even an absurd Rogue/Paladin/Monk/Ranger multiclass that combines and tracks a massive stack of separate features in a single round.

You can read the a breakdown of the engine rewrite on Patreon if that's your thing. For the developers and coding-inclined optimizers out there, the underlying dice library running the math is completely open source so you can use it for your own projects.

Drop any bugs, feedback, or feature requests in the comments - or come over to our Discord to hang out and chat with other theory crafters and optimizers!

Oh and if you like data visualization or math, here is a little thing I made showing how the math all works: https://yipe.github.io/dice

Hi y'all, I'm playing in a westmarches where area control and stealth are rare but magic items are aplenty. I'm planning a build that goes from levels 5 to 20 and have various monk ideas that I'd like to run through you all experts. I'd like honest opinions and I'm willing to make the necessary changes to make this combat viable without hyperoptimisation. Out of the following combos, which would you rather? It's Theater of The Mind so a lot of enemies can be fit in 5ft areas. SRs are common enough.

STATS (unassigned) 9/14/14/14/16/17 + starting feat

Regular monk:
Elf/ Half elf with Eadv. Seeking to stack 'to-hit' bonuses (wraps, belts etc) and get gloves of soul stealing in tier 3/4 to chain advantage on every hit.

- Shadow 14/Gloomstalker Ranger 3/ X 3: Looking to darkness game and chain adv as of level 9 ( M5/GS3/M6)

- Drunken Master 17/X: Flurry at high levels is 5 attacks, at lower levels we're looking at dancing in and out of mele to improve survivability and draw aggro

Monk with a Polearm (Maki from JJK is just too cool):
Any race, we lose out on martial arts dice scaling on the weapon and dedicated weapon etc. PAM + Sentinel + GWM can compensate, and we can still flurry with normal monk dice

- Shadow 14/Gloomstalker 3/X (for proficiency etc): Same as above, getting adv from darkness and proccing GWM slaps. PAM+Sentinel for extra damage on reactions, Focused aim can counter the +3

- Sun soul 14/Fighter 1-3/X: Fighter subclass unsure. No shadow adv but AoE as a BA and the possibility of having discount fireball is interesting. If taken to monk 17, dealing damage when hit could be interesting

Armor Monk:
we only lose out on the extra speed, chances to up AC and dedicated weapon/BA strikes. BA will be used to either dash or dodge to add mobility or defense. Greatsword with GWM for powerful slaps.

- Shadow 14/Cleric or fighter X: Unsure on what subclass to take, could be swapped for fighter. The idea is to use shadows for adv to offset GWM

- Sun 14/Cleric or fighter X: Same as above, open to subclass ideas, Fireball is always good to have as a backup.

- Long death 14/Cleric or fighter X: Getting temp hp on kills and having a free death ward goes hard with a GWM.

Any thoughts? Any suggestions on how to mix and match? I know this won't beat your standard crunchy xbe gloomsurger, but one can dream.

I'm going to be starting a CoS campaign and have recently really been getting into Moon Knight comics from Marvel and I'd love to make a similar character class wise. The class that immediately jumps out to me is Warlock (considering he literally made a pact with Khonshu) but Warlock misses the martial aspect that Moon Knight has. The one way around that is Hexblade but that really isn't how Moon Knight works. I was wondering if anyone had done anything similar or had some ideas that could help me out regarding Warlock Patron and/or multiclasses?

After rolling some really good stats I decided to play a Path of the Beast barbarian in a 2024 D&D campaign. I really would like to play the shifter species from Eberron Forge of the Artificer to make a "wolverine" type character but I am struggling with the "subspecies". Beasthide seems good thanks to the +1 ac however I think the +1d6 temp hp will quickly become obsolete at higher levels. Longtooth seems excellent since I'd get 4 attacks by level 5 while raging (Attack with claws, extra attack, additional attack from beast subclass, and the bite bonus action) which is always great for a barbarian. Lastly, Wildhunt seems to be a simple fix for the reckless attack issue + advantage on perception outside of combat is always nice.

I was hoping I could get some advice on the matter.

Hi!

My party is approaching level 4 and I am a bit uncertain on what feat should I choose.
We play from level 3-12 and for lore/flavor reasons my character will be 4 College of Swords+8 Battle Master, I started with the bard. The character is a warforged.
I went with two-weapon fighting and his ability scores are:
str 8, dex 17, con 13, int 8, wis 12, char 16
2014 rules only, all official books allowed except for Strixhaven, Bigby and Dragonlance. No homebrew.

Thanks!

Hello! Long story short, I have a question about how a certain interaction would work when it comes to the Genie Oath's Channel Divinity.

This specifically isn't asking about narrative or balance suggestions or opinions - if it is supported by the rules than it is fair game no matter what in the question I'm asking. What I'm curious about is if there are any rules or text interactions that I'm missing when I'm about this whole affair.

'Dao’s Crush - Earth rises up around the target of your Divine Smite. The target has the Grappled condition (escape DC equal to your spell save DC). While Grappled, the target has the Restrained condition.'

And

'Escaping a Grapple - A Grappled creature can use its action to make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the grapple’s escape DC, ending the condition on itself on a success. The condition also ends if the grappler has the Incapacitated condition -

- or if the distance between the Grappled target and the grappler exceeds the grapple’s range'.

Does this interact with the effect created by Dao's Crush at all? If yes, then in what way?

We know that apparently the 'earth' is considered the one doing the grapple according to https://www.reddit.com/r/onednd/s/30M7wkDgzD - (no clue how to embed a link in text).

But what is the range of this 'earth'? Assuming one enemy of the Paladin tries to end the effect on another enemy of the Paladin by using Shove on the trapped enemy, the same way it would do to end a regular grapple done with a hand.

How much would the distance need to be to break the effect? Just 5 feet away from the spot the Smite happened? Is the 'earth's' range only affecting the space the effect was originally applied in and any distance from it ends the effect?

What if the enemy creature being Shoved away is of Large size? Does it need to leave all 4 on the initial squares it occupied when the Smite happened? Is leaving only some of them sufficient to break the effect?

Like, we already know that the 'earth that rises' doesn't need to physically connect at all times to the literal ground, as there is no text restricting you from conjuring the needed earth around the target 100 feet or more in the air to apply the effect after you Smite.

*Alternatively*

The other option that makes sense to me. The 'earth' isn't similar to a Bigby's Hand or the vine of Grasping Vine, as in - it doesn't create an entity that grapples - but it is instead similar to the 'vines' of Ensnaring Strike, or the Manacles or Net from the Adventuring Gear.

That is to say, the earth is simply a continuous phenomenon/non-entity that is attached to the target (like some sort of blanket wrapped around it) after the Smite, and would move with it if Shoved, applying the effect until the DC is beat.

This is my other interpretation, and in essence the one that is far simpler since the Channel Divinity doesn't mention it interacts with a space, so I don't need to assume anything else about its properties.

So, any concrete rules or text supporting or not supporting any one of the two interpretations that anyone can think of from the top of their head?

Or even another interpretation that I didn't think of?

We started a 2024 run a few weeks ago.

Friend used witch bolt. 2d12, even if you miss, next turn you can bonus action to do another 1d12. Sure concentration.

Meanwhile inflict wounds went from 3d10 to 2d10. Is a saving throws and a Con one??? Oh and touch.

Like honestly I gotta go wtf. Like witch bolt is fine, just wonder what inflict wounds did to get butchered like that. Suee 3d10 is a lot for a first level but even a flat 2d10 made it worse than witch bolt in damage.

Hi Hi! I am looking for some help with an idea for my Air Genasi Ranger right now. We're only level 4 but flavor wise, he has essentially a swarm of air spirits/wisps that when fully formed, take the shape of a cloud as his swarm. His stats are 16 Str, 14 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 13 Wis and 8 Cha. Rn I have him using the dueling fighting style and wielding a shield with some breastplate so he has 18 AC.

The idea that is the most fitting for his character in my head right now is Barbarian and probably going Storm Herald for like a scorching winds kind of vibe for him. I am just wondering what else I can do with that multiclass in general to make these two synergize as much as possible! I don't really wanna go cleric because he's not like a religious character and while I could go rogue, there's another character in the party kind of leaning into that direction and since this is their first time playing DND, I don't wanna step on their toes and do some overlap since their arc rn is pretty cool and interesting.

I did take the Tough Feat because I am the party's only martial character (we have two druids, a sorcerer and a warlock besides my character) so I was just planning on being tanky overall lol

Any ideas and insight help as I have never done a barbarian/ranger multiclass and I'm really digging it as a concept right now but want it to land as well as possible!

Hello,

A few months ago I asked for advice on my current 5.5 character, who ended up being a Thri Kreen Battle master fighter. So far I've been having a blast with the character, we've been level 3 or a quick minute so far. Suddenly I had a realization. Below are my stats.

STR 12

DEX 18

CON 14

INT 13

WIS 16

CHA 16

In my last post some mentioned going a single level of Ranger to grab another fighting style and for hunters mark. Back then we had thought we were only going to either levels 6 or 7, but now the max absolute latest would be level 8.

My idea is to take 3 levels of Fey wanderer ranger after level 5, to get hunters mark along with getting a ridiculous persuasion bonus (I believe it would be +12 with all the bonuses) and getting that extra 1d4. The fighting style is extra gravy on top, if I use my revolver more then I go for archery, if not then defense.

For more details, I plan on taking dual wielder at 4 but idk what other feats to get. I have an extra perk of being able to communicate with all creature types except for humanoids (becusse I can already talk to humanoids). I end up doing a lot of talking, so the bonus to my charisma rolls would be pretty sweet. Another thing to know is that currently I don't have any magic weapons, but I know the DM is looking to give me one somewhat soon.

Would it be worth it to do 5/3 battlemaster fey wanderer, or do another mix, or none at all?

So my DM is starting our 5E/5.5E campaign with our characters all getting a magical item of uncommon or common rarity. I want an item that fits my characters backstory and idk what to go with.

My character is a noble who was part of a knight guard group on Silverymoon, in the forgotten realms setting. He is a Sorrow Knight fighter (loving the new subclass). His plot is that he was sent along with his other knights to hunt down a necromancer. Said necromancer hit him with a spell that turned him into a skeleton. He can’t return to his family like this, as the ensuing scandal would threaten their status and potentially cause their downfall.

The campaign is very mystery themed, but the usability of the item should be secondary to the how well it fits my character.

Any suggestions are very welcome, thanks!

Hey there all of ya. Currently making a backup character for a campaign I'm in. We're level 5 right now, may soon be up to 6. Using a hybrid ruleset with 5e as the base and 5.5e replacing a few things like spells. The campaign will likely go until level 10-12

A simple run down of this character before I go into specifics:

Race: Warforged

Background: Faceless.

Class/Multiclass: Fighter/Bard.

Dm gave us starting feats.

Stat rolls (unassigned): 15, 14. 14, 13, 10.

Now onto specifics, I'm in a party with two other characters. An Air Ganasi (Mordekeinan) Tempest Cleric and a Firbolg (Also Mordekeinan) Blade Wizard who might go into Sorceror or Artificer.

I want a character who fits a multi role type, an emergency fireman to patch holes where they form. I don't aim to focus on one lane, combining front-lining with mid or backlining support. The best way to describe my character would be: "Getting into a barfight but you're the jukebox".

My character is a Warforged that has been made of parts from various engineers, being a patchwork. And his persona is a lighter hearted jokester type, underneath it he's secretly jealous of those around him, being made of metal rather than flesh. Constantly belittled and called "Soulless" by others. For these reasons I've picked the Faceless background.

I wish to reflect this in his class and subclasses. I've been reading on Bard and Valor or Sword interest me, though I don't have a great idea of what Fighter subclass would fit or where the stats should go. One thing is that I primarily play Dex rather than Str so something that complements that would be great.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Abjurer Wizard tank in my current campaign so I wanted to see if the wise people can share more ideas similar to that one to have a true tanking experience, since this was so crazy idk if just high ac fighters can compare any more lol

Will be playing a campaign starting at level 9 soon. I plan on playing a Paladin/Warlock/Sorcerer;

• The levels in warlock and paladin stays as I've already come up with a cool backstory for it alongside the GM. I'm willing to not go through with the levels in sorcerer if it's unnecessary.
• I plan on taking Warlock to level 3 and taking the Archfey patron (re-flavoured). Willing to budge on this if someone has a better idea.

Now, my big question is: is it better to be a watchers paladin or a noble genies paladin?

• Watchers paladin seems very, very attractive just because that level 7 aura is huge for my whole party and I, Watcher's Will should come in useful, and the spell seems good to me.
• On the other hand the noble genies paladin seems quite fun and also quite strong because of the channel divinity options, it'll also synergise quite nicely with a magic item the GM has given me where I can store a smite spell into it beforehand
  • the downside is everything else seems passable, I'll have to ignore the AC part of Genie's Splendour due to multi-classing, and the spell list doesn't seem particularly great to me, less usable than Watcher's as far as I can tell.

Are the genie's channel divinity options are strong enough that it'll make up for everything else and also be more interesting than what Watchers offers? Am I perhaps underestimating its spell list?

When I build a necromancer, I create a thematic sheet for it

So i dont like mixing summons aberration with summon undead etc

For narrative reasons I am starting with 3 warlock undead patron. I am considering mixing in 6 levels of valor bard for extra attack at some point, but I wonder if it’s viable to do x undead / 6 valor bard or if it’s better to do it differently? Also, where do I take the split?

EDIT: I have forgotten about thirsting blade! T.T but hey if you have advice or pointers still feel free to help out

I am gonna be playing a villain party for a friend's campaign and I want some diabolical combos.

It's going to be composed of 3 level 11 characters.

I havent played Dnd in about 20 years and I am looking to create my character. I am thinking of a Light Domain Cleric. What are your thoughts and suggestions. Game breakdown below:

The party (level 1, 2024 rules)

• Tiefling Warlock
• Human Paladin
• Elf Wizard
• Human Ranger

The game: Gm is going to run a gritty, hard, rough-and-ready game in a homebrew parallel Greyhawk,Magic is unregulated, and characters start with 0 gold. Expect investigation and roleplay first, and fights dangerous enough that running or talking is often the smart call. It runs weekly.

So, new Pipes of Haunting text dropped the "You must be proficient with wind instrument" part. So no need for instrument prof?