Nothing cheesy but I thought the interaction between Portal Jumper and Booming Blade seems pretty good for the early game and I hadn't seen anyone talk about it. Against enemies without ranged attacks, they're forced to chase after you and trigger the extra damage. Best if there aren't many front-liners so they won't have another option but to move.

I'm DMing for a party of 3, the 3 being a fighter, a cleric and a wizard.

We're playing a combat heavy game, with about 4 fights per long rest, and i'm pretty chill with short rests, pretty much allowing it to happen after each combat.

The wizard had summoned a battle familiar for the first encounter and it survived, but it was a pretty taxing encounter and everyone needed a short rest.

The cleric used prayer of healing, so they could short rest in 10 minutes and keep the familiar, saving them from the tough choice. It proved to be the right call, since the battle familiar went on to kick major butt in the next encounters, finally being defeated in the final encounter.

I know it is a simple interaction that exists since the beggining of 5e 2024 (with other 1 hour summon spells), but i had'nt seem it or thought about it before, and thought it was pretty cool.

Also made me see the valeu of Magic Conoisseur (prayer of healing) for a summon focused charachter, if you don't have a cleric in the party.

My Rogue player feels like the Rogue is weak damage wise but doesn't like the direct damage boosting solutions that are popular nowadays. They don't like using d8s because they have already bought lots of d6s and they like to make d6 towers that plummet onto the BBEG mini. And they don't like altering the Sneak Attack progression, because the original one is easy to remember. Just ask your fellow wizard what level spells they can cast, and that's your amount of Sneak Attack Dice.

So I made this for them, and they enjoy it. Maybe you will too.

Uncanny Ambush

Rogue Level 6 Feature

If you are Invisible and a creature you can see misses an attack roll, you can take a Reaction to make a weapon attack against the attacked creature.

If you like this, feel free to use it. If you don't, it's fine. Okay, have fun, bye!

EDIT: better wording as suggested by comments

Because now any spellcaster can gain Fireball via that feat?

Evocation Adept has (deservedly) been getting a lot of attention since Arcana Unleashed dropped, but Conjuration Adept has flown under the radar despite containing several massive benefits that have far bigger implications than every caster gaining access to Fireball and Wall of Force.

Aside from eliminating most of the downside to armor dipping since it grants 3rd Lvl spells that you can use with the typically unusable slots you'd gain at Lvl 5 when multiclassing, this feat arguably makes taking Warcaster suboptimal for "persistent damage" reliant casters using Conjuration magic, notably the Cleric. Builds with CON proficiency or that gain subclass buffs to their concentration, benefit heavily from this too. This is a huge buff to Draconic Sorcerer (or Sorcerers that dip into Paladin) in particular since it can now freely blast away with Chromatic Orb while dealing damage with Conjure Animals, which you get for free. Extended Spell combined with this feat means Warcaster is definitely not a feat any Sorcerer (or Spirit Guardians... shoutout to Divine Soul Sorcerer) truly needs.

The Conjure Animals spell also grants half/third casters a needed mid/late game damage bump. Artificers with this spell, Mind Sharpener, and Flash of Genius will never drop it unless incapacitated. It is a tool they sorely need.

I know Conjure Animals isn't as good as Spirit Guardians for several obvious reasons, but the damage still scales the same, can be applied at range, and offers many classes that never got a passive damage buff this strong an entirely new way to play. There's way more build paths opened by this feat that have a bigger impact in all facets of the game and come online earlier. It has significantly altered the multiclassing meta. Arguably much more than Evocation Adept due to how quickly the benefits manifest and how well they synergize with certain build combinations.

EDIT: I accidentally copied an older draft that talked about Hex, which obviously isn't Conjuration. Although it does merit a similar post comncerning Enchantment Adept. I edited it out.

With arcana unleashed out and reading up on the new transmutation wizard, one of the features that stuck out to me was that at level 3, alter self’s unarmed strike option deals 2d6 damage, on top of having a free use of it per day. That makes your attack as strong as a great sword, but without multi attack it’s still a bit underwhelming.

However…Monks get bonus action attacks with unarmed strikes and multi attack later on.

At level 8 with monk 5 and wizard 3, you can do, in theory, 6d6 a turn with alter self, 8d6 with flurry of blows, or even if you use your action to cast spells, you still have your bonus action to punch a 2d6-4d6.
Alter self still takes up concentration so that does take up uses of other concentration spells, but you are still free to switch up strategies.

At level 4 with monk 1 and wizard 3 you can still do 4d6 a turn in theory.

It may not be the most optimal, but it sounds pretty fun.

Dhampir’s ability to heal from your piercing unarmed strike seems pretty nice too.

What I’m wondering, are there any feats or methods to further optimize this build path? Is going monk 5 even worth it for the extra attack?

So a half question cause the raw does not say it cannot be a thing.

Casting goodberry spell which create 10 berries. Yes, you take 1 bonus action to eat ONE berry, BUT you can combine with the CHEF feat to make a better usage of the spell!

Replenishing Meal. As part of a Short Rest, you can cook special food if you have ingredients and Cook's Utensils on hand. You can prepare enough of this food for a number of creatures equal to 4 plus your Proficiency Bonus. At the end of the Short Rest, any creature who eats the food and spends one or more Hit Dice to regain Hit Points regains an extra 1d8 Hit Points.
Bolstering Treats. With 1 hour of work or when you finish a Long Rest, you can cook a number of treats equal to your Proficiency Bonus if you have ingredients and Cook's Utensils on hand. These special treats last 8 hours after being made. A creature can use a Bonus Action to eat one of those treats to gain a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to your Proficiency Bonus.

So based by this; i can use all 10 berries as ingredients to create 1 treat/meal (or divide anyways up to your pb), and make into a single bonus action healing "potion"!

So bolstering treats would heal back 10hp + give PB temp hp right?
And replenishing meal the same way; 10hp+1d8 extra hp.

And if yes, then bolstering treats would be a much better usage, because you can use up all remained spell slot on goodberries to make much stronger healing treats! (if wanna limit a bit, then can use only 10 berries in a treat...)

When people post builds on YouTube or homebrew or house rules a common comment or complaint or feedback is that the suggested build, brew or rule is broken and could break the game.

Maybe I’m just lucky at my two different tables but I’ve never experienced anything that broke the game for either of my groups.

I’m curious, what broke your game?

¿Alguien conoce alguna forma de optimizar el nigromante del arcana unleash?

Creo que uno de los principales problemas que tiene es la alta dependencia con los no-muertos pues tienen una vida bastante baja.

No conozco una opción realista para reemplazarlos por otra cosa que sea más potente a niveles altos y tiene poca sinergia con el propio mago.

Which is the best to cast when wanting to max out damage? I’ve got a party of 6, four of them martials with extra attack and then myself (war cleric so functionally getting extra attack with war priest) and a caster. So could be 10 potential melee attacks per round. Not sure which would be better to cast and in what situation.

Yes it’s a tired argument.
Yes I’m going to make it anyway.

The fundamental problem the infamous ‘Martial/Caster Divide’ is that casters have a system that allows for endless new content, that can be as weak or as powerful as they like, and cover any conceivable situation:

Every player focused book adds a litany of new spells.

Martials have no such system. At most they might see some new fighting styles, and potentially weapon masteries, but not all martials even have access to those, and getting them as a caster requires a 1 level dip in fighter to get the full suite, whereas there’s no way for martials to do the opposite to acquire a specific set of spells beyond some cantrips and 1st-level ones (and they’ll be limited by slots, unlike a caster getting a fighting style or weapon mastery). It’s a one way street.

There’s no room for expansion across the martial classes, while we increasingly see not only more content for casters, but more content that emulates the roles of the martials for the mere cost of a spellslot- see Arcana Unleashed, where casters can now cast spells to gain the effects of Evasion and Reliable Talent, normally exclusive to rogues/monks

This is the biggest flaw of 5.5, an edition in otherwise gracious of, but one that is very difficult to remedy now that it’s published. They desperately need a system that allows all martials to make meaningful choices on how to specialise themselves beyond class/subclass, and that further allow them to make meaningful choices in and out of combat, just as casters can.

The most glaring solution to this lies in the somewhat tired battlemaster manuevers argument, but that’s the clear solve.
Add an optional rule to martial classes that states each time they gain an Ability Score Improvement, they ALSO can take a Fighting Style (straight buff, but I’m sure there are alternatives here), alternatively, they can FORGO the Fighting Style and instead choose two maneuvers from the Battlemaster list, and gain two D6 superiority dice.
Done.

Now they can add as many new and interesting maneuvers as they like, and all martials can access and play with them as they wish, and Battlemasters still stand out by getting bar far the most maneuvers and dice (with bigger dice size too) to play with. And best of all, it need not confuse new players with too many options as they can simply pick a Fighting Style with an easy passive like Protection and keep happily swinging away.

SOLVED! Thanks for the help everyone. I’ve just decided to play a straight cleric instead.

I am set on playing a rogue and cleric multiclass. The campaign will stop around level 8 or so. I plan to start a rogue then go straight to cleric 3 at character level 4. War domain. I was wanting to use war priest and held action to sneak attack twice per round. The question I have is for tier 2, should I try to do a rogue 5/cleric 3 split for more sneak attack damage, or a rogue 3/cleric 5 split to pick up spirit guardians at the cost of less sneak attack damage. What would you do?

It seems that a regular critique of rangers is that "they're the only martial that doesn't get a second feature at level 5"

However this fails to recognise that spellcasting progression is in itself a feature. I'm sure if rangers instead got an ability that read, "Twice per short rest you can touch a creature and use an action to restore 20 hit points" these people would be happy.

I'm interested to see, if when forced to fully acknowledge what rangers do get at level 5, if they'd be willing to give these features up for what other martials get.

Is anyone else on dnd beyond seeing that Pseudodragons perception is meant to be a +5 but on dndbeyond when added as a summoned creature through extras, it, although is uses the 5.5 statblock with the sting being different and the like, it only has a +3 to perception.

Or is mine just being strange?.

The number of Hit Dice in a monster's stat block always seemed somewhat useless. Its only purpose is for determining HP, which often feels pick at random and don't fit all types of monsters because they must be of "equal value".

Of course there is the basic "use them for recover health at short rest, like a player would", but I think the is potential to use them as a Power Resource, similar to how some new player power does it.

I imagine, for example, Legendary Resistance & Recharge abilities being tied to them, like a "spend 5 hit dice to use your LegRes or to instantly recharge your special ability"

Could go even further and make abilities that becomes empowered the more Hit Dice you spend, like a death burst that deal damage around based on Hit Dice remaining or that was spent, a support monster that spend their own Hit Dice to heal others, a multi hit attack that increases the number of targets per Hit Dice spent, so on and so forth

This would be Paladin, Ranger, Artificer, Eldritch Knight, and Arcane Trickster. Obviously concentration is important, but this is mostly about if it is worth it to go out of your way to get war caster or con save proficiencies. They get less spells, so I imagine the concentration is more important since losing it is more painful but also I don’t see people do multiclasses of these too much aside from Paladin/Warlock or Artificer/Wizard, though I am aware of Sorcerer/Paladin.

I'm playing a Warlock and I'm disappointed how few exclusive spells the Warlock gets as well as how many of the spooky spells are available to wizards and sorcerers at large instead of their spooky sublcasses.

It really undermines the idea that the eldritch magic of Warlocks is different and apart from the rest besides just getting less casts with faster recharges.

I get it that Wizards are the casters, but maybe they could just have access to like 60% of spells instead of like 80-90%

Oath of the Ebon Blade (Paladin → Death Knight). Death Coil replaces Lay on Hands and can either deal damage or heal Undead. Rune Strike swaps in for Divine Smite and deals Necrotic damage. You pick a Blood, Frost, or Unholy rune for your weapon, and your steed can be Undead and pass through solid objects.

Demon Hunter (Ranger). Uses an Arcane Focus and has a Fighting Style option for Warlock cantrips. Collects Soul Fragments from slain enemies to fuel spells and a damaging, healing Soul Cleave. Spectral Sight starts as 10 ft of Blindsight and scales up to 30 ft of Truesight.

Warrior of Mystic Brews (Monk). A drunken-master style. You get Performance and Brewer’s Supplies, Patient Defense also grants speed and an Unarmed Strike, and you can redirect missed attacks. You brew potions for resistances, healing, or a cone of fire, and at high level you can combine two recipes.

Oath of the Holy (Paladin). A dedicated healer. Beacon of Light passes extra healing to a marked ally. You refill Lay on Hands by dealing Radiant damage, and your capstone aura sheds sunlight and heals Bloodied allies.

Discipline Domain (Cleric → Priest). Holy Bolt damages a foe and heals an ally at once. Atonement lets your damage heal allies you recently healed, and Luminous Barrier grants Temp HP plus resistance to all damage.

Shadow Domain (Cleric → Priest). Shadowform makes it easier to Hide and boosts Psychic and Necrotic spells. Devouring Plague drains life. Dispersion is a reaction that lets you vanish for a round, then regain HP and fly away.

Swashbuckler (Rogue). Keeps Fancy Footwork and Rakish Audacity. Panache and Dashing Strikes are now built on Cunning Strike options such as goading, charming, and parrying. Master Duelist grants a follow-up attack after Sneak Attack.

Path of the Spiritual Guardian (Barbarian → Shaman). Spirits Distract, Hinder, or Strike on a hit, and you can shield allies. You can cast Divination spells without material components, and your capstone grants an extra attack.

Path of the Elements (Barbarian → Shaman). While raging, you cycle between ice, lava, and lightning, and each element empowers the next damage type. You can spend Rage on utility spells. Players have been debating whether this is a full rework of Storm Herald.

the spell does 6d10 is 30 foot radious and is an individual attack per target (max 5) and tps you to one target

so what chages should it have in dmg and range to lower it to 3 lv? weapon dmg+2d6? 3d10+spell mod? 3d10 flat? is the range fine at 30 or should it be 20 ? in unsure right now and like some help

edit: i forgot to add that i would make it a weapon attack not a spell attack XD, wizards shouldnt be the better users of this spells

rules:

level 10, 5 party members, any class and subclass and no magic items

so far i think hasted paladin (from a wizard) holy weapon (bard magical secrets) crusaders mantle (cleric), paladin cast divine favor and spirit shroud, level 5 elemental weapon (druid)

thats +2 to dmg and attack rolls, 4d4 dmg per hit 2d4 radiant 2d4 elemental dmg (thunder or acid have the less creatures with resistance and inmunity) spirit shroud adds another 1d8 radiant necrotic or cold and finaly 2d8 radiant dmg from holy weapon, and lets not forget 3 attacks

the paladin (with a great sword +4 mod) on a single hit does 2d6+6+3d8(radiant)+2d4(radiant)+2d4(acid), thats 36.5 dmg on average, i knew math i also would calc the dpr but sadly i dont XD

is this the top or could we get much higher?

edit:i mean a full attack on a turn, i didnt realized i wrote 1 attack, yes i'm dumb

I love genre mixing. Barrier peaks has always been one of my favorite DND adventures, so I hope these new universe beyond books are compatible.

Is there any official word on this?

At 6th level ranger, the ONLY thing you get is 10 feet more movement and a climb and swim speed. The climb and swim speed are practically ribbon features, so the 10 feet speed is the only thing you're here for. Barbarians literally get the same thing but alongside extra attack at lvl 5, so clearly WOTC knows it's a low value feature. Why they decided to shaft the ranger yet again despite that is beyond me. A least in 2014 your favored enemy upgraded to a d6 but now you don't even get that.

As it is currently, this is one of the few remaining practically dead levels in the game. I suggest moving tireless to this level alongside roving and figuring out a new feature for lvl 10.

Why does ranger always have to be filled with shitty features and dead levels no matter how many times they update it...