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I too would very much like to see a Spelljammer book. That would be a must-get item for me.
 
Amazon have leaked the title - Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Another setting book, this one apparently based on Critical Roll's online game. The setting allegedly has more Eastern European flavour to it, which makes WotC saying they will be visiting cultures they don't normally seem rather disappointing to be honest.


Hard pass from me on that one.
Oh well. I probably wasn't going to be buying anything they release anyway.
 
There's an almost accidental reference to Spelljammer in Dungeon of the Mad Mage, in level 16.

In the map of Stardock, there is shown the gravity plane, just like in Spelljammer ship maps. Edit - I forgot, in level 19 there is an actual spelljamming ship, from which Halaster has stolen the spelljamming helm and stores it somewhere lower in his dungeon.

Not accidental at all I’d say! Believe a giant hamster even appears!
 
Never watched Critical Role. Could care less.

Even within the risk-averse world of corporate decision-making, where plotting Critical Role’s audience numbers over time on a PowerPoint slide floods suits’ brains with dopamine and shelves Dark Sun for another year, this is weak sauce.

People in my gaming group mentioned that Eberron outsold Ravnica and Acquisitions, Inc., which makes me suspect the decision-makers at WotC/Hasbro might be underestimating the appeal of actual campaign settings.
 
Curious, looking at what's on the shelves at my local bookstore it looks like the majority of 5E books are adventures. What campaign setting qua campaign setting books has WotC released?

Given what I've seen in what I've looked for it looks like they're not going nuts ramping up power levels with every other new release the way they did in the 3/3.5E era. I don't know about the 4E era as I only ever got the core books for it and never looked so can't say if it suffered from the same sort of supplement power escalation. I'm glad to see 5E seems to be avoiding it so far as it gives me some hope that WotC intends to keep 5E the current edition for some time and I'm hoping eventually they'll finally revisit classic campaign settings.
 
So, you care, Butcher? I don't. Couldn't care less.

You jest, but yes, I suppose I do, a little — even if, strictly speaking, I shouldn’t.

I suspect I really just hope one of these classic settings comes out for D&D5 and galvanizes the folks running D&D5 in my group to run them.

Someone was saying good things about Ravnica today — didn’t really read the book — but it’s probably the least “vanilla” setting published for this edition, and for a fleeting moment I was tempted to run D&D5 after all, in this crazy Mievillean fantasy ecumenopolis.

Luckily the temptation subsided and I’m back on track to running ACKS.

Or am I? :devil:
 
Never watched Critical Role. Could care less.

Even within the risk-averse world of corporate decision-making, where plotting Critical Role’s audience numbers over time on a PowerPoint slide floods suits’ brains with dopamine and shelves Dark Sun for another year, this is weak sauce.

People in my gaming group mentioned that Eberron outsold Ravnica and Acquisitions, Inc., which makes me suspect the decision-makers at WotC/Hasbro might be underestimating the appeal of actual campaign settings.

The little teases mentioned Birthright in their last survey which immediately got my hopes up, only to be dashed against the reality of some bloody streamed show getting its own official book. Very odd to me, but then again i'm old.
 
Curious, looking at what's on the shelves at my local bookstore it looks like the majority of 5E books are adventures. What campaign setting qua campaign setting books has WotC released?

The only pure setting books:
Sword Coast section of FR
Eberron
Ravnica

Others, such as Tomb of Annihilation have settings for areas important for the adventure - I don't have many of them so I can't detail how much.

Ravnica is interesting because the available races is quite different from standard D&D, with minotaurs, elephant dudes, and blue people. Plus it's all about guilds.
Eberron is pretty well done if you like the setting, though the final dragonmark rules are a tad weak.

A few of the other mtg settings have free pdf settings for D&D, of varying length and quality.
 
The little teases mentioned Birthright in their last survey which immediately got my hopes up, only to be dashed against the reality of some bloody streamed show getting its own official book. Very odd to me, but then again i'm old.
I think part of what gets published is determined by who they can strike deals with for co-production as they seem to have a small design team now and don't push out a ton by themselves. The newest book has Matt Mercer as the lead creator so it's less work for them.
 
I think ToA is actually a detailed part of FR, if I remember correctly. Indeed, I think all of those are set in the FR. Its a pretty big place.

the elephant dudes are available now as an option on Heroforge. someone likes them.
 
The official WotC announcement has a tiny bit more info. 304 pages and...Players and DMs will find new character options available for play in any campaign, like the Echo Knight fighter subclass, spells of dunamancy, numerous new monsters, and more!
 
5e Fighter question:

Which Fighting Style do you think is the best? By best, I mean a solid boost, good statistical advantage and cool practicality.

Context: I'm about to join an Adventures in Middle Earth campaign (it already started, and I asked the GM what "roles" are still needed in the group). To round out the team, I decided to be a Fighter Warrior, which they lacked (the rest of the party has a rogue, bard and scholar).

I'm leaning toward the Duelist style, which would allow me to always have my damage bonus regardless of what I have in the other hand (as long as it is not a weapon); a shield, a torch, the reins of my horse etc... It seems the most practical of all choices so far.

Cheers!
 
5e Fighter question:

Which Fighting Style do you think is the best? By best, I mean a solid boost, good statistical advantage and cool practicality.

Context: I'm about to join an Adventures in Middle Earth campaign (it already started, and I asked the GM what "roles" are still needed in the group). To round out the team, I decided to be a Fighter Warrior, which they lacked (the rest of the party has a rogue, bard and scholar).

I'm leaning toward the Duelist style, which would allow me to always have my damage bonus regardless of what I have in the other hand (as long as it is not a weapon); a shield, a torch, the reins of my horse etc... It seems the most practical of all choices so far.

Cheers!

They're all pretty good depending on what sort of fighter you want to play. The 'best' from a mechanical advantage is probably Great Weapon Fighting as you can potentially deal 8 or 9 more damage than you originally rolled. However, you have to sacrifice your armour class for that as you can't use a shield.
 
5e Fighter question:

Which Fighting Style do you think is the best? By best, I mean a solid boost, good statistical advantage and cool practicality.

Context: I'm about to join an Adventures in Middle Earth campaign (it already started, and I asked the GM what "roles" are still needed in the group). To round out the team, I decided to be a Fighter Warrior, which they lacked (the rest of the party has a rogue, bard and scholar).

I'm leaning toward the Duelist style, which would allow me to always have my damage bonus regardless of what I have in the other hand (as long as it is not a weapon); a shield, a torch, the reins of my horse etc... It seems the most practical of all choices so far.

Cheers!

Not much of a character optimizer, but whenever I roll a new one, I look up one of these “character class guides” — most of them seem to be posted over at ENWorld and Giant In The Playground — and there seems to be a consensus that, even if you want to use a shield, Dueling is better than Defense or Protection.

Big fan of tanky, none-shall-pass, sword-and-board Fighters and Paladins here. I usually go for the Sentinel and Shield Master festa as soon as possible. If I’m going with a variant human, Heavy Armor Master at 1st level. (I know Polearm Master is supposedly THE tanking Feat, but I never built a tank PC before the official ruling that it can be used with one-handed spear and shield. I’ll have to try this some day!)
 
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For just the Fighting style fighter ability (not the overall build), dueling is a solid choice. I've used protection as it matched the character personality and it's cool but you have to be next to an ally and they have to get attacked for it to come up - often but not every turn. Duelling does +2 to every hit.

The best damage machine for a fighter is great weapon fighting with great weapon master feat. But your AC is lower so it evens out.
 
For just the Fighting style fighter ability (not the overall build), dueling is a solid choice. I've used protection as it matched the character personality and it's cool but you have to be next to an ally and they have to get attacked for it to come up - often but not every turn. Duelling does +2 to every hit.

Protection is cool but if you pick up the Sentinel feat, you have two actions — shielding an ally or attacking a foe — competing for your reaction when an ally is attacked. I don’t think having options is bad but this is why most guides don’t recommend it. (I still think it’s fun to have choices, and protecting an ally can be so much more important situationally than getting another blow in.)

The best damage machine for a fighter is great weapon fighting with great weapon master feat. But your AC is lower so it evens out.

Spot on! I’ve wanted to play a Half-Orc Champion Fighter with a greatsword and Great Weapon Fighting Style for a while now.

The fighting style perk works better with the greatsword’s (or maul’s) 2d6 than the greataxe’s 1d12, and the Champion improved critical ability synergizes with the half-orc’s additional critical damage racial ability. The Great Weapon Master feat rounds out the build and all you need now is to dump these ability score increases in STR and CON.

As for AC, I have never run the numbers myself, but the character optimization stuff I read tends to downplay the importance of AC compared to HP, in that D&D5 fights tend to drag on for a bit and HP often end up being more decisive for character survivability than AC. But I really like playing an ironclad stalwart.
 
5e Fighter question:

Which Fighting Style do you think is the best? By best, I mean a solid boost, good statistical advantage and cool practicality.

Context: I'm about to join an Adventures in Middle Earth campaign (it already started, and I asked the GM what "roles" are still needed in the group). To round out the team, I decided to be a Fighter Warrior, which they lacked (the rest of the party has a rogue, bard and scholar).

I'm leaning toward the Duelist style, which would allow me to always have my damage bonus regardless of what I have in the other hand (as long as it is not a weapon); a shield, a torch, the reins of my horse etc... It seems the most practical of all choices so far.

Cheers!
The most versatile is the one you mentioned. In fact, you can add a shield and get both the damage bonus AND the AC bonus. Add that to the Shield Mastery feat and you suddenly have a decent, hard hitting defensive character. And Sentinel turns you into wall. A spiky painful wall.

Two Weapon has the advantage of extra chance to hit, so it's good decent for steady damage. Add that to Dual Wielder and suddenly, you've got half a shield bonus AND you can pick up heavier weapons in each hand.

Great Weapon Fighter/Master is for Alpha Strikes. When you want to come in and hit HARD for massive (comparatively) damage. The fact that you can reroll both 1s on 2d6 makes Great Swords and Mauls the weapons of choice for that build.
 
You jest, but yes, I suppose I do, a little — even if, strictly speaking, I shouldn’t.

I suspect I really just hope one of these classic settings comes out for D&D5 and galvanizes the folks running D&D5 in my group to run them.

Someone was saying good things about Ravnica today — didn’t really read the book — but it’s probably the least “vanilla” setting published for this edition, and for a fleeting moment I was tempted to run D&D5 after all, in this crazy Mievillean fantasy ecumenopolis.

Luckily the temptation subsided and I’m back on track to running ACKS.

Or am I? :devil:

Acquisitions Inc. isn't really vanilla either, definitely a weirder, more humourous take on D&D that I have to say is pretty distinctive and interesting.
 
Thanks for the answers, folks, on Fighting Styles.

I checked out a few of those 'Class Guides' that have color coded headings and such, and what you;ve all written cements my views.

Cheers,
 
Two Weapon has the advantage of extra chance to hit, so it's good decent for steady damage. Add that to Dual Wielder and suddenly, you've got half a shield bonus AND you can pick up heavier weapons in each hand.

I find 2 weapon is best for characters that have something that trigger on a hit (but max 1/turn), such as sneak attack. There are quite a few ways to go with fighter/rogue multiclass.

But really, all the main paths are close enough in overall power that you can play whatever style you want without worrying about being suboptimal. For martials, it's helpful to have a build that that gives you something to do with your bonus action and your reaction, to increase your total output and to just be more fun to play with your options.
 
Never played this character, but for a cowardly goblin fighter that I dreamed up that would specialize in archery (lowish Str and Con), I chose the Defense fighting style for the flavor and the AC bonus that he'd lose for using a two-handed ranged weapon. But that's not an optimized build.
 
Brilliant. Every subscriber of Critical Role will want one whether they are gamer or watcher. At least they’re doing a new setting every season. WotC has been fucking the corpse of Ed Greenwood‘s horse for 20 years.
 
Brilliant. Every subscriber of Critical Role will want one whether they are gamer or watcher. At least they’re doing a new setting every season. WotC has been fucking the corpse of Ed Greenwood‘s horse for 20 years.
Because it's been profitable? I mean, there's a reason they keep using the setting. If it didn't sell, they wouldn't sell it. It's a corporation and it needs money to run. May not like it, but that's the only reason they would do it...
 
As much as I loved the 2E settings, I find I'm sick of 21st century cultures inability to make new things and just constantly rehashing old one.

Plus looking at the options: Dark Sun (I can't see 5E ever working well for), Planescape (I don't need anything new to run Planescape) and Birthright (Does anyone really think that WOTC would get domain rules right?).

So I'd be glad they're releasing something new - but I couldn't run it without actually watching umpteen hours of streamed game sessions (I have players who watch it), so that's that - no use to me.
 
RE: Defensive Style.

Somewhat counter-intuitively, It's probably better for a Great Weapon Master than for a Sword and Board. It's not worth giving up Duellst Style for, but it may be worth giving up Great Weapon Fighting for. The latter is not such a huge boost in damage overall and the Great Weapon Fighter has a comparratively lower starting point for AC.
 
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I find 2 weapon is best for characters that have something that trigger on a hit (but max 1/turn), such as sneak attack. There are quite a few ways to go with fighter/rogue multiclass.
Yes, that's what I mean by guaranteed damage, the chance to hit on a level appropriate creature is about 75%, rather than the 50%. You're more likely to hit and trigger an effect. For the Fighter, it means adding the strength/dexterity bonus to damage.
 
Must admit that this does sound pretty cool...

Echo Knight - alternate reality echoes of yourself to use as allies.
 
Adventures in Middle Earth. Holy cow they buffed Fighters.

My PC took Great Weapon fighting style, which, in this game, is extended to Versatile weapons, not just 2-handers.

At level 3, Warriors using this style get advantage on attacks against foes the same size or larger than them.

In all the games of AiME I've played, 90% of foes are humanoids. Rarely do we fight a Troll or whatever.

Fascinating.
 
This week, in our weekly face-to-face game of 5e, my goblin witchdoctor (cursed to resemble a halfling barbarian) got killmurdered by a couple of green slimes... it was GREAT!
In all my days of playing RPGs I've never been killed by any sort of slime, pudding, mold or fungous. I was so happy.

Our group is running Hommlet/ToEE... which has grown fuzzy enough in its details that I can't metagame... and our GM runs it fairly old school. So those frogs out front of the moathouse are still terrifying.
 
Adventures in Middle Earth. Holy cow they buffed Fighters.

My PC took Great Weapon fighting style, which, in this game, is extended to Versatile weapons, not just 2-handers.
Wait what? GWF applies to Versatile weapons in base 5e, as long as they're held in both hands. Or are you saying it it applies to them being one handed as well?
 
Wait what? GWF applies to Versatile weapons in base 5e, as long as they're held in both hands. Or are you saying it it applies to them being one handed as well?
Ah nope, two-handed. I didn’t realize that versatile weapons were included in core 5e. That’s good to know!!
 
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Running some Ravenloft in 5e, and I've come to appreciate how perfectly the warlock class fits into this setting that was designed before its introduction.

You see, being a wizard, even a necromancer, requires intelligence, discipline and effort. However, any charming idiot can be a warlock by just selling her soul. Of course she'll rationalize that she knows what she's doing, that she didn't really cut a deal with the devil, that she'll use her powers for justice, that she'll wriggle out of her payment, blah blah blah. Damnation awaits all the same, hidden and smiling.

I've decided that from now on most of the NPC spellcasters in Ravenloft are warlocks, and the majority of them actually do deserve to be caught red-handed and burned at the stake. They may also think they've made deals with something non-fiendish, like the archfey or the great old one or whatever, but actually those are all just masks for fiendish patrons. Most warlocks dump the Intelligence stat, so of course they didn't really understand the fine print.

Another benefit here is that genuine wizards can be rare in the setting and have a very good reason to look down on warlocks.
 
One of the things I am surprised people do not do more of is selectively curate (what a 2010s word...) which classes (& races, archetypes, backgrounds, etc.) to use for their campaigns, settings, etc. I think Warlocks as one of the predominant -- or only -- spellcasters in Ravenloft is a lovely bit of aesthetic composition. I find the "Everything On" style of GM world building a wasted opportunity, and you have articulated a great reason why. :thumbsup::heart:
 
One of the things I am surprised people do not do more of is selectively curate (what a 2010s word...) which classes (& races, archetypes, backgrounds, etc.) to use for their campaigns, settings, etc. I think Warlocks as one of the predominant -- or only -- spellcasters in Ravenloft is a lovely bit of aesthetic composition. I find the "Everything On" style of GM world building a wasted opportunity, and you have articulated a great reason why. :thumbsup::heart:
Agreed. I’ve always looked at D&D as a toolkit. Remember the “green” historical setting books?

Even in the DMG it offers some suggestions.

You could use DnD as anything, really, a world populated only by Aaracockra and serpent people, with only 2 gods (law and chaos) and the only spellcasters are Bards.

lots of possibilities.
 
One of the things I am surprised people do not do more of is selectively curate (what a 2010s word...) which classes (& races, archetypes, backgrounds, etc.) to use for their campaigns, settings, etc. I think Warlocks as one of the predominant -- or only -- spellcasters in Ravenloft is a lovely bit of aesthetic composition. I find the "Everything On" style of GM world building a wasted opportunity, and you have articulated a great reason why. :thumbsup::heart:

There are certainly classes and races that would be better left out of worlds they don't fit in. But, if over done, it leads to a game world with few surprises for both the DM and the players; dungeons turn into monster suburbia.
 
Goodness, i'm old. Pre-orders for the new setting book are apparently higher than anything since the 5e core books. Before they announced it I had never heard of it.

 
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