D&D 5E Discussion

[Akratus]

Do you guys think this is overpowered?

Are you and your party having fun? If so, who cares. The DM can always throw more monsters at you.

Our sessions are fucking gold imho. I don't know why I asked if it's overpowered because it certainly hasn't been in our campaign so far. In fact, last session our first bout of combat started with me trying to move the halfling of our party aside so I could walk past him, for which I rolled a 1, making me fall over backwards and go prone until the next round. I think I got one hit in before the fighting was over. But solo-ing a big vine golem type guy the next bout more than made up for it.

But yeah, of course roleplaying and having fun is more important than combat balance. Unless you die of course. I'm wondering if our 14 hp monk will survive the deeper parts of the mine. . .

 

[Morblot]

14 hp monk

At level 3? Holy shit :D

Brought back memories of a monk played by a guy I used to know back in the 3.5 days. The monk was supposed to be a bad motherfucker, but I never got to see that, as usually he just hid behind the bard's back and pew-pewed the enemies with his shitty sling... What an embarrassment.

 

[Akratus]

I want to make a monk sometime. The path of the drunken master!

 

[Dzupakazul]

Brought back memories of a monk played by a guy I used to know back in the 3.5 days. The monk was supposed to be a bad motherfucker, but I never got to see that, as usually he just hid behind the bard's back and pew-pewed the enemies with his shitty sling... What an embarrassment.

To be honest, 3.5 monk is notorious for being considered pretty much the worst class in the Player's Handbook. Never really gets to be an impressive damage dealer or a tank, all of its strengths and niches are working counterproductively towards one another, and contrary to popular opinion he absolutely can't be a solid mage-killer or whatever the reputation is. Maybe he just ended up falling back on the defensive after getting whooped too much...

Pretty okay in 5e, though, finally gets to fit the role of a stunbot / melee controller.

 

[Morblot]

To be honest, 3.5 monk is notorious for being considered pretty much the worst class in the Player's Handbook. [...] Maybe he just ended up falling back on the defensive after getting whooped too much...

I agree with your monk analysis, but trust me on this, the player was just a fucking coward. None of his other characters were anything to write home about either.

 

[Wayward Son]

UnMonk in Pathfinder is really good, as are the archetypes it gets. Plain Monk is not that great of a class however.

 

[nikolokolus]

1e monk or go home.

 

[J1M]

Brought back memories of a monk played by a guy I used to know back in the 3.5 days. The monk was supposed to be a bad motherfucker, but I never got to see that, as usually he just hid behind the bard's back and pew-pewed the enemies with his shitty sling... What an embarrassment.

To be honest, 3.5 monk is notorious for being considered pretty much the worst class in the Player's Handbook. Never really gets to be an impressive damage dealer or a tank, all of its strengths and niches are working counterproductively towards one another, and contrary to popular opinion he absolutely can't be a solid mage-killer or whatever the reputation is. Maybe he just ended up falling back on the defensive after getting whooped too much...

Pretty okay in 5e, though, finally gets to fit the role of a stunbot / melee controller.

Most people try to build a DEX monk. STR ones are better, and the primary stat you are looking for is the ability to increase your damage die. Obviously not going to compete with a cleric, but people tend to compare properly built characters from other classes to poorly built monks.

 

[Dzupakazul]

Most people try to build a DEX monk. STR ones are better, and the primary stat you are looking for is the ability to increase your damage die. Obviously not going to compete with a cleric, but people tend to compare properly built characters from other classes to poorly built monks.

Frankly, due to the other issues with the class in 3.5 (actually deceptively high reliance on magical items in spite of the design being supposed to be thriving without items, e.g. Monk's Belt; schizophrenic design where the monk has high movement speed that begs for a "hit'n'run" playstyle, but on the other hand having Flurry of Blows relegated to only work under a full attack action; mountains upon mountains of special abilities that are basically shitty versions of what other classes get ("Slow Fall" is downright insulting as both an insufficient power fantasy and a terribly situational skill in its own right; "Ki Strike" is basically letting monks catch up to a fighter with a magical weapon) I think that a competently built monk still doesn't hold a candle to a fighter or barbarian. Fighters are much simpler to optimize, really - give them a two-hander, a full plate, and start Power Attacking. Also, Flurry of Blows is pretty counter-intuitive for a class without full BAB. Lack of BAB also means Monks have trouble fulfilling the supposed niche of an excellent grappler.

You know what other edition of D&D had an excellent monk, absolute delight to play? 4E.

EDIT: On the other hand, in a casual environment where the players mostly know the Monk class from cRPGs, and the DM employs strategies characteristic of video game enemies (lots of meatbags with token caster support swarming around the one frontliner rather than the rest of the party), you could definitely make a Monk shine in that environment. The reality of NWN where you get to dual epically enchanted Kamas to Cleave the shit out of everything while dealing with a massively overbloated WPL guideline, massacring everything in your way, is hard to replicate on tabletop, though. And I still maintain that a really basic Fighter/Barbarian will still be stronger.

 

[Incendax]

3.5 Monk was absolutely miserable (especially with Vow).
Unchained Monk was nice, but PF powercreep was pretty nasty.
4E Monk was fun as hell.
5E Monk takes too long to feel good.

 

[Elex]

3.5 Monk was absolutely miserable (especially with Vow).
Unchained Monk was nice, but PF powercreep was pretty nasty.
4E Monk was fun as hell.
5E Monk takes too long to feel good.

just stun stuff with 5e monk.

 

[Incendax]

Just stun stuff with 5e monk.

You don't get that until Level 5, and being a stunbot is one of the least interesting ways to play a monk.

 

[Raghar]

3.5 Monk was absolutely miserable (especially with Vow).
Unchained Monk was nice, but PF powercreep was pretty nasty.
4E Monk was fun as hell.
5E Monk takes too long to feel good.

just stun stuff with 5e monk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byva0hOj8CU&index=2&list=PL7atuZxmT955Cw-fFS-_3IQvaCpQgDzWA

There you have a 5E monk. I was always missing when she didn't did something brutal or absurd, and didn't say but monks in the monastery did worse to me... Followed by an example.
That would be properly played monk - elementalist. Well, she's using stun monk. So I guess, she'd be boring until level 8. (Combined with street urchin background instead of hermit, she sounds primitive. As everyone who played Japaneses RPG knows, angsty teenager is boring.)

Another MASSIVE problem is that flat proficiency 5E uses. There is no difference between two monks, either they have proficiency, or not.

 

[fobia]

It's not a massive problem. There are differences in choice of skills, backgrounds and... roleplay.

Critical role is also not a prime example of how people play D&D. It's massively homebrewed, rules and lore, and characters are designed to be interesting for an audience.

 

[Elex]

Just stun stuff with 5e monk.

You don't get that until Level 5, and being a stunbot is one of the least interesting ways to play a monk.

"way of the boring stun" should be a subclass.

 

[Siveon]

Is the Tomb of Horrors for 5e any good? I wanted to run some modules but the people I know only really know about 5e.

Just as well, how is Tales of the Yawning Portal in general?

 

[Fairfax]

Is the Tomb of Horrors for 5e any good?

No. The Tomb itself is not too different, but some traps now have saves, and 5E's mechanics make it far too easy compared to the original.

 

[Siveon]

Is the Tomb of Horrors for 5e any good?

No. The Tomb itself is not too different, but some traps now have saves, and 5E's mechanics make it far too easy compared to the original.

Fair enough, I'll probably go for something someone recommended to me and is native to 5e. Modules like Lost Mine of Phandelver or Tomb of Annihilation. Later on I'll just play Tomb of Horrors in native AD&D then!

Question still stands for the other conversions (White Plume Mountain, Against the Giants, The Sunless Citadel) , though I imagine they might have similar problems.

 

[Fairfax]

Fair enough, I'll probably go for something someone recommended to me and is native to 5e. Modules like Lost Mine of Phandelver or Tomb of Annihilation.

LMoP is a good module, great introduction for both players and DM. Haven't played ToA, but I read parts of the book. I'd recommend playing LMoP (which has a little bit of everything) and then asking your players what aspects of the game they like the most. ToA looks fun, but it's focused on combat and challening exploration. If your players aren't into that (or perhaps they don't like the jungle+dungeons setting), it doesn't have much else to offer. If they're interested, you can start the adventure with level 5 characters, so you could run it right after LMoP.

Later on I'll just play Tomb of Horrors in native AD&D then!

One advice: if you've never played it, make sure to have your players roll multiple characters. Even if you don't let them use more than one at once, they will need backups.

Question still stands for the other conversions (White Plume Mountain, Against the Giants, The Sunless Citadel) , though I imagine they might have similar problems.

Sunless Citadel was considered a great introductory module for 3E, and the 5E response seems pretty similar. You might want to give it a read and see if you'd rather run that one instead of LMoP.

As for the other conversions, I haven't played them in 5E, but I'd guess "roughly the same but much less challenging" is less of a problem for them than it is for Tomb of Horrors.

 

[Siveon]

LMoP is a good module, great introduction for both players and DM. Haven't played ToA, but I read parts of the book. I'd recommend playing LMoP (which has a little bit of everything) and then asking your players what aspects of the game they like the most. ToA looks fun, but it's focused on combat and challening exploration. If your players aren't into that (or perhaps they don't like the jungle+dungeons setting), it doesn't have much else to offer. If they're interested, you can start the adventure with level 5 characters, so you could run it right after LMoP

That was the plan actually! Well that or Storm King. It's mostly for me as a DM, these guys aren't 10 year old vets but they're somewhat acclimated to D&D.

Sunless Citadel was considered a great introductory module for 3E, and the 5E response seems pretty similar. You might want to give it a read and see if you'd rather run that one instead of LMoP.

As for the other conversions, I haven't played them in 5E, but I'd guess "roughly the same but much less challenging" is less of a problem for them than it is for Tomb of Horrors.

Noted! That actually makes me feel glad since I already have the book on me.

 

[Fairfax]

That was the plan actually! Well that or Storm King. It's mostly for me as a DM, these guys aren't 10 year old vets but they're somewhat acclimated to D&D.

I'm currently running Storm King's Thunder. It's a good module, but it's very long, so I'd recommend making sure everyone (especially yourself) know what it's like beforehand. It's very flexible, and there's a bunch of changes you can make to improve it. If you end up playing it, I could share suggestions and the problems I found in the book.

 

[Lhynn]

Only good monks in 5e are the following in this exact order:
Way of the long death: The tanking potential of this subclass is off the charts, probably the best subclass in the entire game.
30 feet frightened effect as an action is just insane, the duration is also good, because it ends on your turn, not the enemys turn, meaning you can force them to save with a disadvantage on their off turns.
Frightened is a fucking strong condition that puts disadvantage into everyone on ability checks (meaning skill checks, and saving throws) and attack rolls. Disadvantage is the equivalent of roughly a -5 to all their skills. Add to that that the monks AC isnt too shabby and you probably wont be getting hit at all. This allows you to just run into the enemys formation and wreck them while your party thanks you safely away, your CCers will love you.
Mastery of death is just ridonk, you basically become unkillable. 1 ki point to negate any damage done is just amazing.

Way of the shadow:
Its all good, ultimate scout really. With some cunning you can be unstoppable.

Way of the open hand:
Knocking enemies prone as a free action is just great, its free advantage for everyone in melee. especially those heavy, hard to hit enemies or those abjuration wizards.
Wholeness of the body is just another way of saying you gain 3 extra hp per level. Which isnt bad at all.
Quivering palm is, i think, one of the few save or die skills in the game, its not that big of a deal unless you multi with divination wizard tho. Then it becomes stupid.

All the others are utter shit. Youd be about as well served by not actually having them.

Way of the shadow is by far the most fun. But Way of the long death lets you play an unstoppable badass, it rewards risky gameplay.
Also Monk is a 14 level class. Maybe 18 if you are in the way of the shadow. But you can get a lot more out of multiclassing.

 

[Spectacle]

And here's the latest D&D designer hired by WotC: Dan Dillon!

Dat nu-male face...

 

[Dzupakazul]

He literally looks like white Pravin Lal, so I don't see what your problem in particular is.

 

[Cael]

He literally looks like white Pravin Lal, so I don't see what your problem in particular is.

And Lal's got the kind of face that is: