Tag: dnd

dnd 5e – Does being “paralyzed” grant the effects of a rest

To begin with, we must understand that the 10-hour paralysis is a homebrewed effect, and such a condition was decisively not in view when the rules for resting were written, but we can try to surmise the interaction between the written rules and this homebrewed effect.

On the surface, the rules for long rests make no mention of the paralyzed or incapacitated conditions. So in the strictest RAW sense, there isn’t a reason why you wouldn’t benefit from a long rest.

But we can make some inferences from the description of long rests to rule the other way:

If the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity — at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity — the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.

I would argue that suffering from a particularly potent paralysis poison for ten hours is going to fall somewhere in this category of “strenuous activity”, but maybe that depends on how your DM wants the poison to paralyze you. Do you simply lose nerve function in your body and can’t move, or does the poison violently lock up your muscles?

To determine if this paralysis falls under strenuous activity, you would have to ask the one who invented it.

dnd 5e – Is the “Way of the Astral Self” Monk’s extra punch useless?

No, they are not useless

You’re missing a paragraph right above that:

The arms are monk weapons and have a reach of 10 feet. The arms deal radiant or necrotic damage (your choice). When you attack with the arms, you can use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls.

So you get extra reach, you can deal your choice of necrotic or radiant damage instead of bludgeoning and you can use wisdom for attack and damage. Now these aren’t all going to be useful in all circumstances, but for example radiant damage is good against zombies, reach can be useful if you’re dealing with multiple targets and are out of movement, and using wisdom for your attack is good if you prioritised wisdom over dexterity (and Way of the Astral Self wants you to prioritise Wisdom even more than other subclasses).

It is not a very strong feature compared to what other Monk subclasses get IMHO, but that’s true of the whole class in general aside from its 17th level features.

To address the comparison with Flurry of Blows and Martial Arts:

Martial Arts is always available. Flurry Of Blows is always available as long as you spend a Ki point, which you might be out of or conserving for another reason. The bonus action attacks you get from Arms Of The Astral Self require you to to spend 2 Ki points and a Bonus Action in a prior turn – you can not use them the turn that you summon them on (one of the primary weaknesses in this subclass actually), so realistically unless you face only one big encounter per day (not unusual, but not necessarily a situation the rules are optimised for) you’ll still sometimes use Martial Arts or Flurry just because they’re more convenient even if your astral arms are technically more powerful. Keep in mind that even at level 11 once you can perform 2 extra attacks with your Astral Arms, you you still only break even in terms of total attacks done on your second turn vs. a monk that just uses Martial Arts every turn. Only at the third turn and up do you actually start dealing more damage. Vs. someone who just uses Flurry two times you’re actually still going to be behind in damage for the same amount of Ki points spent, and you can’t catch up in terms of damage to a Monk that Flurry’s every turn – you only get to deal comparable amounts of damage for less Ki points essentially. This often isn’t ideal because many smaller encounters barely last 3 turns.

As such, if your goal is to deal the maximum amount of damage in a useful way you should actually not use your Astral Arms at all unless you can prepare them before the fight starts. The Astral arms are mostly useful for their non-damage benefits, and if you’re not going to be making use of those you’re better off without them until level 17.

dnd 5e – Is this homebrewed shield weapon balanced?

Relatively new player here who likes to theorycraft. Currently playing a homebrew campaign, and I’m thinking of making a backup character for if my current one (a Ranger, who AFAIK are known to be squishy) dies. My DM is fairly lenient, and I want to make a custom weapon for this character. I like the idea of a gung-ho sword and board Battlemaster Fighter, who excels at crowd controlling large groups of enemies (planning on going Vuman and taking Mobile). The intention is to give the character more options when going sword and board, having the versatility to use Maneuvers at melee or at range by using the Throwing Shield (see below).

Throwing Shield
melee weapon (martial, shield)
AC: +2
Category: Items
Damage: 1d6
Damage Type: Bludgeoning
Item Rarity: Standard
Properties: Range, Thrown, Special, Light
Range: 20/60
Weight: 6

Special: Auto unequips (doffs) when used as a thrown attack as part of the Attack action. When used as a thrown attack, returns to the user if the last target it hit is within 60ft of the user. Auto re-equips (dons) when it returns this way. Also gives the user +2 AC when equipped. Manually donning or doffing this shield requires one Action.

Some points I need to make:

  • Usually, standard sword and board using any weapon is legal because a shield isn’t counted as a weapon, it’s a shield, therefore there’s no requirement that the weapon you hold in the other hand needs to be a Light weapon.
  • However, in this case, RAW, since it’s counted as a weapon, the other weapon that you hold in the other hand needs to have a Light property for you to use the Throwing Shield as a weapon.
  • Using the Throwing Shield as a weapon (be it ranged or melee) follows the basic rule of two weapon fighting (not the fighting style).
  • Not viable for the Dueling fighting style when going sword and board.
  • Following that, you can still use it as a shield (i.e. granted the bonus AC when equipped) even when you’re not using a Light weapon on the other hand.
  • Can’t use it as a weapon as long as you’re attacking using a weapon without the Light property with the other hand.
  • Manually donning and doffing this shield still requires one Action. Unless a feat overrides this rule (such as Dual Wielder feat).
  • If a +1/+2/+3 magic version of this shield exists, the bonus would apply to AC, attack rolls, and damage made by this weapon.
  • Variant: 1d8 damage but doesn’t have the Light property. Can go Captain America style. Couples well with the Dual Wielder feat.

For simplicity’s sake, think of it as a weapon that gives bonus AC, instead of a shield. I actually have a few questions, for both the standard and the variant Throwing Shield, but for the purpose of making it less convoluted, I’ll just boil it down to these:
Is this balanced? Are there any weird interactions with feats I’m not aware of?

Bonus question: does lacking the Dueling fighting style makes the sword and board build (specifically this one) considerably less viable?

dnd 5e – Is it possible to raise undead versions of animals (or other creatures)?

Are there any ways to make undead animals in D&D 5e?

What other types of creatures can be raised from the dead except humanoids, and how can this be achieved?

I’m interested in ways to do so, both as a player and as a DM. Spells are preferred, as they are more easily available, but any kind of way to do this is OK. Both temporary and permanent solutions are acceptable.

dnd 5e – Do opportunity attacks have disadvantage if I use my action to Dodge and then move out of melee range?

I am currently playing a multi-class Cleric 5 / Rogue 2 and at times I have managed to kite melee mobs successfully using my Cunning Action to Disengage, then my movement and then using a ranged attack, which has worked fine for most of the time. Sometimes though I get pounced on by several melee mobs at once (3-5), especially when we face tactical mobs. In this case I have ended up in a loop where they catch up with me each time because I am having to use my Cunning Action to Disengage, instead of Dash.

Sometimes, I just want to get away quite far by using Dash instead, without getting pummeled by the opportunity attacks in the process. I want to get more distance between me and the mobs so they cannot catch up with me in their next move.

Basically, I want to be able to use Dodge as my Action so that when I move out of melee range from the 3-5 mobs there is less of a chance the mobs will hit me in the process, with 3-5 opportunity attacks.
We’ve not tried this in our campaign yet, so I want some confirmation about how this works and whether the 3-5 melee mobs who are right next to me would get disadvantage on their opportunity attacks as I try to dash off?

I especially appreciate answers that contain play-tested experience from DMs who have managed this situation or players who have actually played as a Rogue.

dnd 5e – Are there any options to make undead animals in D&D 5e?

Two examples would be Negative Energy Flood and Danse Macabre.

Negative Energy Flood will create a zombie version of any creature it kills. Danse Macabre will raise up to 5 small or medium creatures as either zombies or skeletons (your choice).

Note that in both cases, the stats of the undead creatures are those of zombies/skeletons.

dnd 5e – Can a Gelatinous Cube’s Engulf be stoppend by sentinel?

The first part of the Gelatinous Cube’s Engulf reads:

Engulf. The cube moves up to its speed. While doing so, it can enter Large or smaller creatures’ spaces. Whenever the cube enters a creature’s space, the creature must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw.
On a successful save, the creature can choose to be pushed 5 feet back or to the side of the cube. A creature that chooses not to be pushed suffers the consequences of a failed saving throw.

The first benefit of sentinel reads:

Whenever you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, its speed drops to 0 for the rest of the turn. This stops any movement they may have been taking.

Now, normally, a player character cannot make an opportunity attack against an engulfing cube: The normal 5 feet attack reach means they must be in the engulf line; if they fail the saving throw, they’re engulfed; otherwise they are pushed out of the attack reach.

However, using a long weapon (10 feet reach) means that they can potentially get an attack of opportunity without ever being in the line, or after the character has been pushed.

Making a successful opportunity attack will definitely drop the cube’s speed to zero. I am also pretty sure that engulfing counts as willingly moving out of reach (correct me if this assumption is wrong), however, will sentinel stop the engulfing? The wording of sentinel seems to imply there be a connection between the speed reduction and stopping movement being taken and I am unsure if engulf counts for this.

Clarification:I am asking about the general possibility of stopping the cube, not specifically to avoid being engulfed. It seems however, that if stopping the cube like this works, that polearm master would make it possible to avoid being engulfed.

dnd 5e – Can a changeling increase their Charisma by +3 at character creation?

In Eberron: Rising from the Last War, the changeling race says the following (p. 18):

Ability Score Improvement. Your Charisma score increases by 2. In addition, one ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Is there anything stopping you from choosing Charisma again for your additional +1? It seems a bit cheeky to me, since no other race can have a +3 at character creation, but on the other hand, the two sentences do seem to be rather deliberately disjointed. It’s not like the wording of the half-elf’s ability score improvement, as this Q&A explains, so does that mean that gaining a +3 to Charisma is a legitimate choice?

Obviously this is assuming that a DM doesn’t insist otherwise, and we are also assuming that this won’t allow an ability score to go above 20

dnd 3.5e – Are there any non-epic methods of time travel (years/decades/centuries) in third edition?

Are there any non-epic methods of time travel (years/decades/centuries, not smaller than a year) in third edition?

I’m not looking at short duration tricks, nor am I looking for anything that is a one-way trip. Please exclude theoretical optimization tricks.

I am looking for a way to travel a large temporal distance, and back again, preferably affecting the destination in question. Forwards or backwards in time is fine.

dnd 5e – Does a creature under the effect of Motivational Speech still get advantage on their next attack if the spell ends for them?

The spell motivational speech (Acquisitions Incorporated, pg. 77) says:

For the duration, each affected creature gains 5 temporary hit points and has advantage on Wisdom saving throws. If an affected creature is hit by an attack, it has advantage on the next attack roll it makes. Once an affected creature loses the temporary hit points granted by this spell, the spell ends for that creature.

So when the effected creature is hit by an attack, the spell grants the creature advantage on their next attack. But getting hit by an attack is going to be accompanied by damage – and 5 points seems like it will very often be gone with a single attack.

Does a creature hit by an attack still get advantage on its next attack if that attack dealt 5 or more damage? Or does the spell end for them immediately and they do not get advantage on the next attack?

It just seems like this effect is going to be self-defeating a lot of the time – the thing that grants the advantage is the thing that takes it away. Am I missing something?

Note, temporary hitpoints are always lost first, so no holding on to them while subtracting damage from your standard hitpoint pool. Sorry Jim, it was a clever thought.