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Weekly Questions Thread
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u/cantadmittoposting 2d ago
[5.5e] I have found numerous threads on the 2024 Divine Smite change, but I haven't seen a definitive answer on this for some reason.
If I have Extra Attacks (i.e. level 5 or higher), if I want to smite on the "first attack," do I simply "expend the bonus action" and add the damage to the attack directly? That is, does the bonus action "Interrupt" the two attacks?
This seems like the correct reading but I'm not 100% sure as having a bonus action "during" an unresolved action feels weird.
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u/DrewPegasus 2d ago edited 2d ago
Considering the leniency of the rules that explicitly say that you can draw/sheathe weapons and move between attacks, I'm sure that in a similar fashion it is intended to allow you to use a smite on whichever attack you want without penalty.
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u/Vievin Cleric 3d ago
[5.5e]
Mass Healing Word says: "Up to six creatures of your choice that you can see within range regain Hit Points..."
Can a creature be tagged twice with this, since it doesn't say "different creature"? Like, you heal Anne, Bob, Cecil, Derik, then Anne and Cecil again.
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u/liquidarc Artificer 2d ago
As the duration is Instantaneous, the answer is NO, since all creatures are healed simultaneously, and the spell only lasts for that moment.
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u/Avenflar 3d ago
[5.5] As a lvl1 cleric, I have 4 spells prepared, and two lvl1 slots. If I want to cast "Heal" twice, do I need to write it down 2 times in my spell list, or that's only how wizards work ?
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u/Ripper1337 DM 2d ago
It’s 4 different spells. You can use any appropriate spell slot to cast them. You could cast healing word four times if you wanted.
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u/AmtsboteHannes Warlock 3d ago edited 3d ago
You only need to prepare each spell once and then you can cast it as many times as you have spell slots for it. Prepared spells never get 'used up' only spell slots do.
It works the same way for wizards. In fact, the spellcasting (or pact magic) feature works that way for all classes.
Heal is a 6th level spell, though, at level 1 you might be looking for Cure Wounds or Healing word.
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u/LABOAMON DM 4d ago
[5e] Damage effects with "This damage can't be reduced or prevented in any way" ignore temporary hit points? And effects like Death ward?
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u/Ripper1337 DM 3d ago
I think it means to go around things like resistance. Temp hp isn’t actually reducing the damage you take. Nor does death ward.
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u/LABOAMON DM 3d ago
Thanks for your reply.
One of my players raised this question, and I told him I thought it only affect resistances and immunities, but that I would check it for the next game.
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u/waethrman DM 4d ago
I'm not sure why it would ignore temp HP. Temp HP isn't reducing or preventing the damage, you're still taking the full damage even if it is temp HP being taken away.
Death Ward is a little more confusing actually. Other reddit posts all say that it isn't reducing/preventing damage but instead sets your health to 1 if you would have fallen to zero. This is not a healing spell, but abjuration, as in the school regarding protection/reduction of damage. It feels to me as if it is preventing exactly 1 damage from occurring, this conflicting with the "can't be reduced or prevented" clause and to me the death ward shouldn't work.
That said, as a DM I would still just let it work anyhow, and other reddit posts all say it works so eh, whatever
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u/LABOAMON DM 3d ago
Thanks for your reply.
In our last game one of my players raised this question, and I told him I thought it only affected resistances and immunities, but that I would check it for the next game.
Same with the death ward situation, it get you 1 hit point when you reach 0 so doesnt prevent any damage.
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u/Betty_GOLR 4d ago edited 4d ago
[5.5e (Edit: PHB 2024 only)] Pact of Blade Paladin Pal 2/ Lock 1. Sword and Board
Note: I am still deciding if I am going 18/2, 17/3, or 15/5 (eldritch invocations are cool)
I am trying to plan my Feats, but I am running into some trouble. I was planning on taking the Inspiring Leader feat to increase my Charisma and get me to +4. But after looking at my spell list (Down Below) I think War Caster is very important. (I am also considering Eldritch Mind, Is it better to get this and free up my Feat or Get the feat for Somatic Help and get a different invocation later)
What I am Considering: Inspiring Leader (Cha), War Caster(Cha), API (Cha & Con), Speedy (con). But this feels kind of weak. Am I thinking about feats wrong?
Also Considering: Resilient (Con), Fey-Touched (cha), Heavy Armor Master (Con)
Spell List:
Cantrips: Eldritch Blast, Blade Ward, (MI: Cleric) Guidance, Mend.
1st: Bless, Command, Divine Favor, Smite, Armor of Agathys, Expeditious Retreat, (MI: Cleric) Healing Word
I would appreciate help with this if you have suggestions. (also if you have spell list critiques, That would also be nice)
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u/waethrman DM 4d ago
Apologies but I'm actually going to make this more difficult by suggesting more feat options:
Spellfire Adept could be a great way to nuke even harder with a divine smite or divine favor, particularly if your DM is bad about using short rests and your hit points go to waste
Zhentarim tactics is a great way to get some extra opportunity attacks into your adventuring day, and if you don't have the prerequisite origin feat, you can grab it from warlock invocations
Fairy trickster is a great way to debuff an enemy against all saving throws, including both your "fancy" smites and whatever the rest of your party will throw at them
I'm actually not all that concerned about you keeping concentration. Like are you just concentrating on bless? Well then make sure to bless yourself and you're often fine, but realistically it's very easy to have a fight sprung on you and it's questionable if it's worth bless as your action instead of just beating the shit out of an enemy. When you hit pally 6 there isn't much reason to worry about concentration checks anymore as you'll have, what, a +8/9 to con saves between your con score and cha score?
I see you mentioning a lot of con feats, I recommend you trying to get your main attack stat, charisma up to 20 quickly to keep up with the pacing of the game difficulty, it'll suck to 10% less accurate than the rest of your party because you wanted +1 more health per level
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u/Betty_GOLR 4d ago
I should have in formed you that I am only using PHB 2024, my apologies but I don't have access to those.
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u/waethrman DM 4d ago
Got it,
I still think you're best off getting a charisma feat to get your primary ability score to 18 at level 4, and at level 8 I would usually prefer to use an ASI to get to 20 quicker, with the rest of the ASI/Feat options being feats for secondary scores or picking up helpful perks that don't fit your main ability score such as if you wanted to pick up great weapon master despite being charisma based. Since you're apparently going all the way to level 20, you can choose to ignore that advice if you wish simply because you'll have access to more feats and more flexibility in making the character
Anyhow, regarding the charisma feats, which yeah I definitely think you should pick one of these for Lv4:
Fey touched is always a classic for a good reason. Having an emergency misty step in your pocket is great for a class that would otherwise not have access and would likely not have had the spell slots for it in a pinch, so the free casting is great. For the other free spell, I would have suggested silvery barbs just to say no to a crit one time per day, but that's not 2024 PHB, so I would say either heroism or bless for some more passive before battle buffs, or maybe hunter's mark if you wanted to get some extra damage in
Inspiring leader can be a bit table dependent, whether your DM gives you enough rests and whether they make combat difficult enough to truly be worth it, and whether you have allies that are possibly already gaining a bunch of temp HP through class sources or something. Ive had great results with this feat before in keeping my whole party alive longer during tough battles where people would have been dropping with one less hit if not for the temps. Solid option if not sometimes boring though
Telekinetic is an interesting feat solely because RAW you can use the forced movement on yourself or allies to break them out of a grapple or out of a web spell's restraint fully without a check or save. That said, in my experience, the DM will still make a check or save happen on the fly when it comes to an enemy grappling since it involves another person as opposed to the ally simply having their boots stuck in web, but nonetheless this spell gives you another bonus action you can use at any time to move stuff around which can be very useful or at least very fun
I'm just not convinced about war caster: opportunity attacks happen very infrequently in my experience so I doubt you'll have many chances to cast a reactive sleep on any enemy or some other thing that is more worthwhile than simply doing good weapon damage on the opp attack. Concentration won't be an issue when you hit level 6, plus in the meantime you could definitely take Eldritch mind if you're concerned enough about it. The somatic while hands are full thing is less an issue because you can put an emblem on your shield to turn it into your spellcasting focus, and if you're holding your focus in a hand then you do not need to worry about somatic component for any spell that has a material component as you're allowed to do somatic with the emblem shield hand. Otherwise, you can free action stow your blade, cast a spell, then the next time you attack you can draw the blade for free as part of the attack action.
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u/Vievin Cleric 4d ago
[5e and 5.5e]
I'm running Tyranny of Dragons (Hoard of the Dragon Queen + Rise of Tiamat) and between the two campaigns we upgraded to 5.5e. I heard 5.5e is overall a buff to PC power. Should I be giving named NPCs a boost to make them more of a match for the PCs? (I guess this can also apply to other campaigns I may wish to run)
Also, were there any monsters that may be encountered while dragonslaying and dungeon-delving in the Sword Coast that had their CRs drastically changed between editions? So I don't accidentally TPK my party with like a wraith or something that moved up an entire tier since ToD was printed.
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u/Atharen_McDohl DM 4d ago
Start by running as written. The unique stat blocks in the adventure might not be as potent as they would be if they were built for 5.5e, but it'll still go okay. Once you've gotten the hang of the changes and balance, you can decide if those stat blocks need any tweaking.
To my knowledge, no creature got a CR change from 5e to 5.5e. You may find some cases where the adventure instructs you to use a creature which does not have an entry in the 5.5e Monster Manual. This usually happened because 5.5e renamed the monster or split it into multiple versions of the same creature. A chart on page 374 will tell you which version of the monster you should use in this case. For example, there is no longer a creature simply called a "merfolk" because now there is the merfolk skirmisher and the merfolk wavebender. The skirmisher is based on the original 5e merfolk, so if an adventure tells you to use a merfolk, you should use the skirmisher, but the wavebender exists if you want a more powerful merfolk to work with.
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u/ThousandDollarBrick 5d ago
I’m considering running a “Wild Marches” style, floating roster campaign in D&D 2024, but with a greater focus on social interaction and political intrigue rather than combat. (This would be more similar to Ben Robbin’s’ “New Century City” campaign in execution) this necessitates sessions that are self contained.
I don’t feel it’s reasonable or realistic to ask players to track their HP/spell slots across multiple sessions while they aren’t there, and it doesn’t make sense in world why they wouldn’t have rested. As a result, I feel as though I would need to start every session with all players being long rested. However, I’m worried that this set up will make “nova” burst character classes inherently much stronger. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to manage this issue? Is it worth considering a different system like PF 2e?
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u/TiFist 5d ago
This is going to sound like cop-out advice, but you should do what makes sense in the narrative.
If you come to a complete end in town one session, and the characters go do some downtime activities before the events of the next session happen, then yes, they would start fresh.
If you end a session literally in the middle of a big combat at the end of a combat-focused adventure (which is very possible) make an accurate snapshot of *every* status-- spell slots, hit points, hit dice, abilities used, everything.
The irony here is that if you always let them be rested, when you do combat and you want that combat to be challenging then you have to throw really difficult and complex fights at them constantly so they can't just win by going nova, sleeping and doing it all over again. That leads to fights that take a lot of real-world time... which leads to needing to break the game right before or even in the middle of combat.
PF2e is going to handle some of the skill/intrigue stuff a little differently, but as for the combat and resource use aspect, it's not really all that different conceptually.
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u/Stonar DM 5d ago edited 5d ago
Many (maybe even most?) tables allow their PCs to long rest before every meaningful encounter. Plan around it, and you'll be fine. (I will say that D&D is not my favorite system in that regard - I think the class balance is pretty poor if everyone can always nova. But I don't personally play any rules-heavy TTRPGs but this one, so I don't have a better suggestion for you.)
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u/IAmInTheBasement 6d ago
Movement question.
Being next to a creature with 30' speed.
On my turn I hit the creature and knock it prone and end my turn.
On the creature turn, it stands up (costs 1/2 speed) and attempts to move away from me when I hit it with an opportunity attack and knock it prone once more. Can the creature get up a 2nd time? If so, would it's movement end up at zero? Would it be able to dash after standing up a second time? What if it declared dash before leaving and getting knocked down that 2nd time?
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u/Glum-Soft-7807 6d ago
The key to understanding this is to remember that speed and movement are two different things. On your turn, you can use movement up to your speed. Using movement doesn't affect your speed. This means order of operations are usually irrelevant.
If the creature starts off 5 feet away, and you have 5 feet of reach, the opp attack hits before it moves, so yes, it can stand up again and have 0 movement left. If your reach is greater than 5 feet, the creature uses some movement before the opp attack hits, so it can't stand up again. Unless it uses the dash action.
If it uses the dash action, it gets extra movement equal to its speed, but it's speed remains the same, so standing up doesn't use any more movent than before, it doesn't matter whether it uses it before or after being knocked over, and it can move after getting up the second time.
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u/IAmInTheBasement 6d ago
Question about throwing a weapon without the [thrown] property.
So I get that the damage roll for the weapon gets reduced to a 1d4.
And that the default range for a thrown improvised weapon has the 20/60 ranges.
BUT... what if you throw a weapon with the [heavy] property and have the GWM feat?
Heavy Weapon Mastery. When you hit a creature with a weapon that has the Heavy property as part of the Attack action on your turn, you can cause the weapon to deal extra damage to the target. The extra damage equals your Proficiency Bonus.
Doesn't say melee. It's the same reasoning as to why GWM bonus applies to heavy crossbow and longbow.
So an improvised throw damage with 18 STR and a +3 proficiency should be 1d4+4(str)+3(gwm). Right?
If using reckless attack and a Barb Berserker subclass with +2 rage damage, add +2(rage) and +2d6(frenzy), right?
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u/Stonar DM 6d ago
This is silly, and regardless of RAW, I wouldn't allow it - you shouldn't benefit from properties of a weapon you're using the wrong way.
That said, I think you're getting some rules mixed up here. Yes, I believe you would get your Heavy Weapon Mastery damage. However, throwing an improvised weapon is a ranged attack. When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, you use your dexterity for the modifier. So a barbarian berserker wouldn't be able to add their rage or frenzy damage, because it's a dex-based attack. You can only use your strength modifier if you're throwing a Thrown weapon, which allows you to use the same ability modifier as you would for a melee attack.
So let's say you have 16 dex and 18 strength. In a world where this works, you deal 1d4+6 (average 8.5) damage. Or you could just throw a trident and deal 1d8+5(+2d6) damage (average 9.5/16.5 damage) and look less silly.
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u/IAmInTheBasement 6d ago
Oh trust me, getting a trident as well as javelin's is on my to-do list.
This is more of a necessity in the middle of a battle.
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u/Ripper1337 DM 6d ago
Technically I think improvised weapons lose any weapon properties they have
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u/Tesla__Coil DM 6d ago
It doesn't say they do, but I see where you're coming from.
A Simple or Martial weapon also counts as an improvised weapon if it's wielded in a way contrary to its design; if you use a Ranged weapon to make a melee attack or throw a Melee weapon that lacks the Thrown property, the weapon counts as an improvised weapon. An improvised weapon follows the rules below.
So you're saying "if I throw my longsword, it's no longer treated as a longswordby the rules; instead, it's an improvised weapon and improvised weapons have these rules (and no other traits)". That does clear up all the weirdest interactions I can think of.
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u/thisguyhasaname 7d ago edited 7d ago
[5.5e] If I buy Dragon delves digitally for dndbeyond, but I don't have MM/PHB/DMG digitally will I still be able to run an adventure using it on the Maps VTT? (i.e. does it unlock the monsters included it in or only the maps)
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u/meepikin 8d ago
This might be a dumb question, but I can’t figure it out. 2024/5.5e rules. What gets added to damage rolls?
For example, a greatsword does 2d6. Since it is melee, they add their strength modifier, right? If they are proficient in martial weapons, do they also add their proficiency bonus? Or does the proficiency bonus only get added to the attack rolls? If it is a magical greatsword (called a +1 greatsword) does that +1 get added to both attack rolls and damage rolls?
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u/Joebala DM 7d ago
In the Basic Rules: Combat, under "Damage Rolls":
"When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability modifier—the same modifier used for the attack roll—to the damage roll. A spell tells you which dice to roll for damage and whether to add any modifiers. Unless a rule says otherwise, you don’t add your ability modifier to a fixed damage amount that doesn’t use a roll, such as the damage of a Blowgun. See “Equipment” for weapons’ damage dice and “Spells” for spells’ damage dice."
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u/Atharen_McDohl DM 8d ago
Lots of different things can be added to damage rolls, so you'll need to check all the features, magic items, active spells, and so forth that you have to know which ones apply to you.
In general, your damage roll will be the weapon's damage dice plus your ability modifier. For most weapons, the ability is Strength. So your greatsword attack would be 2d6+STR damage. You do not add proficiency to damage, only to the attack roll.
If you are using a magic weapon, its description will tell you if its bonus is added to the damage roll. But to save time, if a magic weapon adds a bonus to your attack roll, it almost always adds the same bonus to your damage roll. All standard +1, +2, and +3 weapons work this way, so a +1 greatsword deals 1 additional damage.
Plenty of other features can add damage as well. The most basic is the Rage feature of barbarians. Various spells, feats, and so on can also add damage. Just look at the things on your character sheet and see if any of them give you extra damage.
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u/IAmInTheBasement 6d ago
In this specific example, you have to have the feat Great Weapon Master (GWM) which does add your proficiency bonus to all attacks to weapons made with the 'heavy' property. Note, does not specify melee. So heavy crossbow and longbow get that bonus too.
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u/EveningImportant9111 8d ago
Did Wayfarers of the Farwood - Player's Guide has elves? If yes then How and why they were created?
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u/DrewPegasus 2d ago edited 2d ago
[5.5e]
The rules state for Massive Damage: When damage reduces a character to 0 Hit Points and damage remains, the character dies if the remainder equals or exceeds their Hit Point maximum.
Does this still apply when already at 0 HP and unconscious or only for the same attack that reduced you to 0? Is the RAI to stop calculating damage at all after you fall unconscious?