the influencer embargo on discussions for the new book is over and this guy and he has made a spreadsheet with every player option in the new book.

A lot of spell for Paladin (Death Knight), Ranger (Hunter), Druid and Sorcerer

I especially like that Sorcerer get healing spell and unique spell. I still hope that the new Draconic Sorcery variation for Devastation/Preservation/Augmentation will make those spell shine a little more.

Metamorphosis and Demon Spikes seem very good for ranger.

Fairly related to 5e because it really explains why they made 5e the way it is.

But it's also a very interesting reminder that the discussions we have here and the complaints here are very much NOT reflective of the majority. And just because we care about something in the game it may not be the norm.

Combo Strikes. When you deal damage to a creature with an Unarmed Strike, you gain a +1 bonus to the damage roll for each time you previously hit that creature with a melee attack roll in the same turn.

I wonder do this +1 bonus stack? Is it like +0+1+2+3 or +0+1+1+1?

Spell Focus and Spell Components

Hi everyone, sorry if these questions have come up multiple times already. I’m a new DM and looking for help. We’re playing D&D 5.5.

At my table, we have a paladin and a druid. The paladin uses an amulet as a spellfocus, and the druid uses a quarterstaff. According to the rules, both can cast spells with material components as long as they use their spellfocus. That’s no problem for the druid—he has the staff equipped. But what about the paladin? Does he have to sheathe his weapon so he can touch his amulet, or can he just cast it as is (he’s carrying a shield and a sword)? And what if the spell requires ONLY somatic components? In this case, it’s clear—the paladin must sheathe his sword. But what about the druid? Does he have to sheathe his quarterstaff as well? And finally, what if a spell requires BOTH material and somatic components? How should the paladin hold the amulet and the druid hold the quarterstaff so they can cast the spell?

I’d really appreciate answers on how this is handled according to the core rules, as well as how you, as experienced DMs, handle it. I want it to be fair and consistent.

Thanks a lot in advance!

What house rules did people adopt or abandon for enhance gameplay?

Hey all, I'm planning to make a bladelock that starts with a dip in fighter for a fighting style and con saves, along with weapon masteries. My ability scores are: 13 STR (increases to 14 with great weapon master), 14 DEX, 17 CON (+1 from background), 10 INT, 12 WIS, and 17 CHA (+2 from background). We start at lvl 4. Trying to do Fighter 1 / Warlock X

My background is either going to be Flaming Fist Mercenary for tough or Inquisitive for Alert, still not sure which to take. I've never built a bladelock before and I'm kinda stuck between the fiend for basically unlimited temp HP or the new Vestige patron which looks very fun as well. Also which cleric subclass spells should I take?

I'm just kinda lost and I'm looking for some advice from folks who know more than I do. Thanks! (Also please leave a comment if you need more information at all)

I’m looking to make a gunslinger character and I’m torn between taking the gunslinger class and the white hat subclass that eventually gets a couple battle master levels, or a updated gunslinger fighter that has been allowed to have a few revisions made to the subclass in terms of reloading and how to address jams.

So I'm looking for different and unique ideas for the form a Vestige Companion could take (Warlock Vestige Patron, Arcana Unleashed). Some of the suggestions from the book are an oversize floating skull etched with sigils, a circle of glowing runes, or a constantly shifting abstract shape.

I made one (Celestial) with the form of one interpretation of biblical angels, wheels covered in countless eyes (which totally doesn't fit with their 11 Passive Perception).

But looking for other creative ideas.

Thanks in advance for positive suggestions.

I've got a Halloween adventure coming soon and one player wants to play the new necromancer. Does anyone have minion management tips?

I want them to enjoy their "undead horde" fantasy without grinding combat to a halt.

We play pen and paper mostly, but not opposed to digital tools either to keep things moving.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hey everyone,

This is another post of mine to help my brain calm down from its ADHD-stroke:

Right now I’m torn between playing an eldritch knight fighter and a hollow warden ranger for my next character. The species would be dragonborn for backstory-related reasons. For the hollow warden I would use two-weapon fighting + dual wielder with scimitars, for the fighter I would lean into using a glaive with with great weapon master + polearm master.

I’m mainly interested in damage, survivability, and overall gameplay experience. I want to try out melee-focused characters, but I also want to play something that feels fun and engaging. The campaign will most likely be Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frosmaiden.

Which do you think is stronger overall? What are their main strengths and weaknesses, and which would you personally recommend?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you’ve played either with either of them.

Thanks in advance!

so far i think inmutable form so no polymorph shenanigans, a range attack with at least 500 ft range or making Thunderous Bellow a 600 foot cone instead of 150, maybe rengen 40 that can only be stopped by wish or by artifacts, its swallow does 8d6 in acid and 8d6 in force (so no clay golem chesse) and maybe giving it earquake if you want it to destroy a cities in the story.

i think that all it needs but maybe i leaving something out?

Im starting in a new campaign in a week. We start at lvl3. I decided on a sorcerer and want to play a bit more controlling than just blasting. Most interesting subclasses for me are Shadow or Aberrant (also flairwise). Which one is better. Not big payoff in a specific scenario but consistent payoff.

Human and background Bejeweled Conclave Spy.

Dnd 5.5

Hello i would like to ask if the dex modifier can be added in both attacks at lvl5 and at both in flurry of blows or i need to choose one attack of all to add it?

I’m getting ready to run an Arcana Unleashed: Deadfall campaign using Beyond’s Maps VTT. Characters will start level 11.

What class features and spells translate the worst into online play? For example we hated enlarge/reduce spell back when tokens were harder to re-size. I’m just trying to prepare for sore spots and maybe discourage building around those mechanics.

I’m not really satisfied with brutal strike on the 2024 barbarian and was thinking about what could replace it.
What if instead of an at-will feature, barbarians got access to stronger abilities with limited uses per short rest? Maybe a number of uses equal to your rage damage bonus.
The idea would be to give these abilities a higher power budget, allowing for more interesting and powerful effects. Could be AoE attacks, crowd control or just other cool combat options.
And just to clarify, I’m not really interested in debating why I dislike brutal strike. If you enjoy it, that’s totally fine. I’m just curious about what alternatives could look like.
What do you guys think? What kind of abilities would you like to see as a replacement for brutal strike? And how powerful could they reasonably be if they were limited to a few uses per short rest?

TLDR The Attack action is the only action that mentions the ability to separately equip or unequip (specifically weapons) as part of that action, where something like the Magic action mentions nothing of the sort. The Utilize action, however, mentions "you normally interact with an object as part of doing something else." Which leaves me to assume you either are intended to equip items for free from your inventory as part of the action you perform with them, or you have to use use your free object interaction to first unequip something, then potentially use the Utilize action to equip something else, before you are able to use another item in your inventory for an action. Some items mention needing to be held first in order to take an action with them, which seems to imply some sort of restriction on not being able to simply take an action with it and equip it for free, but others, like Healing Potions don't, making it unclear to me whether equipping an item is just always assumed to be part of the action, whether or not you need to unequip something first if your hands are already full, or if you are required to use the Utilize action to equip the other item.

In the section in Chapter 1 of the PHB on combat, it says, "You can interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe. If you want to interact with a second object, you need to take the Utilize action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions."

It isn't completely clear to me whether an "object or feature of the environment" means it constitutes only objects and features that are specifically part of the environment, or if it means any object OR any environmental feature. The only listed examples of the free object interactions are opening a door, and later on it mentions requiring the Utilize action to do more involved things like opening a stuck door, or turning a crank to lower a drawbridge. All of these examples are specifically environmental features, not items in the players' inventory or hands. It's also unclear whether or not a free hand is required, or if it's assumed that you free up one of your hands as part of the free interaction. When I brought this up to my players, they interpreted it to mean any object, and that seems to be the consensus of people in forums and stuff online, so I've operated on that interpretation, in which you could use the free action to take an item out of your inventory, or to stow one, but I'm still not completely sure if equipping an item first requires unequipping the one that is already in that hand.

Under the Attack Action in the rules glossary it mentions, "You can either equip or unequip one weapon when you make an attack as part of this action. You do so either before or after the attack. If you equip a weapon before an attack, you don’t need to use it for that attack. Equipping a weapon includes drawing it from a sheath or picking it up. Unequipping a weapon includes sheathing, stowing, or dropping it." This seems to be in place to help with using multiple weapons with different Mastery properties while using Extra Attack, and that's nice, but since this is the only place in the rules equipping and unequipping weapons is mentioned as far as I've found, it leaves me to assume that, similarly to when taking the Attack action, equipping and unequipping are both respectively their own object interaction. So one interaction per turn is free, so you can unequip once for free, and the second costs a Utilize action, so equipping something else afterward would cost an Action. The Utilize action in the glossary, however, mentions that normally you "equip or unequip while doing something else", just like the earlier description of a free interaction. This seems to imply that maybe using something from your inventory, such as drinking a potion with your bonus action, includes removing it from your inventory and putting it in your hand or similar to drink it. Whether or not you're meant to be able to do this while your hands are already holding other items is unclear to me.

The Staff of Swarming Insects, for example, has an ability called Insect Cloud in which the activation text reads, "While holding the staff, you can take a Magic action and expend 1 charge to...(cont.)" It specifically mentions "while holding the staff," so it seems that the intent is that you can't simply take the action just by having the staff in your inventory, you need to somehow equip it first.

So let's say, at the start of my turn, I am currently wielding a shield in one hand, a mace in the other, and I have a Staff of Swarming Insects stowed in my inventory. Is it possible to retrieve and hold the staff to use the Insect Cloud ability of that Staff on that very turn, or do I need to essentially plan ahead a turn in advance and leave a hand free to use it for my next turn? The free object interaction is stated to be limited to one object per turn, with additional ones requiring you to take the Utilize action. Would it be one free interaction to stow my mace, then the Utilize action in order to take out the staff, leaving me with no remaining action to use the Insect Cloud ability? Or, since the text explaining the free object interaction doesn't mention anything about free hands, is it assumed that if your hands were full, the free object interaction includes putting away what you were holding in order to interact with the other object? In which case you could put away the mace AND equip the staff with the same free action, then use your still available action to use Insect Cloud?

This also impacts how much is possible when casting spells with Somatic and/or Material components. While the Somatic component description in Chapter 7 does not explicitly state that the hand used for somatic components needs to be free or empty, the War Caster feat granting you the ability to perform Somatic components even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands implies that it's intended to, and maybe just an oversight. So, my good faith interpretation is that it has to be a free hand, and that there is intentionally a limitation on how often you can equip or stow items. For Material components, while it says you may use the same hand as you do for Somatic components, it actually does explicitly state that it must be a free hand, so the ruling is clear there. The free hand requirement for Material components only seems to be bypassed via spellcasting focuses that don't require being held, such as a worn holy symbol requiring no free hand for Material components, opposed to a held wand.

So, without the War Caster feat, if in the same scenario at the start of my turn with a shield and mace in hand, if I need to use my free object interaction to put away my mace in order to cast a spell with somatic components as my action, this means I would have to end my turn with a shield in one hand and nothing in the other, potentially rendering me unable to make Opportunity Attacks with my mace until I later re-equip my mace either as a free object interaction, or as an equip as part of an attack during the Attack action on my next turn. Or, is the Opportunity Attack intended to be also considered as an attack like in the Attack action, allowing me to equip my mace as part of the Opportunity Attack when something leaves my Unarmed reach?

I feel like I'm missing something about these rules. I've even wondered if you're sort of just meant to ignore any restrictions on unequipping and equipping outside of the Attack action, and holding an item is just sometimes mentioned as a sort of flavor text, when it's not really meant to limit the options currently available to you at all. Which seems in direct contradiction with certain feats, which seem to imply that there are meant to be restrictions in place that are alleviated by feats. It feels odd that I can't figure out how such a core mechanic of the game is meant to work, and anyone I've ever brought it up to seems to have a completely different personal interpretation on something that seems like it would be a straightforward and well defined rule.

The new sorrow knight fighter seems really cool, even just the rp aspect makes me really want to plat it. What kind of build you recommend picking for it? Like what feat path would synergize the most. I am tempted to try and find some use for the planar feats due to thematics but have no idea how to or even if i would want to build with them

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Personally, i prefer the first idea, which also Incentivise more original subclasses for new books.

The book could also contain all old feats, eldritch invocations, races, optional rules etc...

I'm trying to understand how the Boon of Magic School Mastery works when your class doesn't have a 1st-level spell from the school you want to master.

The boon has two separate benefits: Rote Casting, which lets you choose a 1st-level spell of your chosen school that appears on your class's spell list, and Signature Arcanum, which lets you choose a spell of 7th level or lower from the same school.

Suppose I choose a school for which my class has no eligible 1st-level spell, but there is a higher-level spell from that school that I want for Signature Arcanum.

Would I:

1. Be unable to choose that school at all because I can't satisfy Rote Casting; or
2. Be able to choose the school, simply get no benefit from Rote Casting, and still select an eligible spell for Signature Arcanum?

In other words, is having an eligible 1st-level spell effectively a prerequisite for using Signature Arcanum, or are the two benefits independent?