There needs to be an isekai like that… the main person is so pumped up, and so sure everyone loves them, then they realize they or even their power is basically That Guy, that no matter what they are the That Guy, maybe sometimes it can be in a good way rarely, but normally its just the nobody actually likes, or wants, or cant stand strangling you That Guy. Lol, and he uses the powers from the epic story of heroes type of That Guy to deal with the problems of the other side, that or deals with them with only the powers of the scummy That guy… maybe the villain is the good version of the That Guy… and he has to face the normally considered superior powers and personality and stuff with his joke abilities and hated stuff.
"An evil act would be chopping their nipples off." "That is oddly specific,' A reminder that JoCat made this video _way_ before the _Death and Debts_ campaign where this actually happens. A lot.
This also nearly happens in the stage play "The Lieutenant of Inishmore". Where the antagonist of the play, an Irish terrorist named Padraic, was in the middle of torturing a drug dealer, and asking him which nipple is his favourite, and that he'll cut off the other, before getting interrupted by a phone call. It's a fun read.
This! this right here! you nailed it buddy, far as im concerned you wiin the internet today. also DMs may like to add something knowing what and how to mess with your character and these help build up things as well as allow for said messing with.
@Alexander Ph and can help with your character's character development.. i.e you can make you once lawful evil character to a lawful good character though slowly changing your goals and bonds ideals
It's useless to me because I much prefer to show a character's personality in roleplay, and find it boring to write it down. Also, I've found that I create my character's personalities through roleplay, so I almost never have it set in stone at the beginning of the game.
I'm playing a Lawful Evil character in a party with two LG players, three CG characters, two NG characters, and one CN. He is the leader's right hand man. He acts like everyone's demanding but well-meaning stepdad. He constantly tries to get everyone to mind their manners, do their chores, repairs the ever-deteriorating wagon and sews their clothing. He sees his place in life as making sure things run as smoothly as possible for his people. He recently got everyone a bag with a 500 gp diamond and some odd and ends to wear around their neck so that they may be resurrected easier. He also conducted a highly illegal abduction/torture session on a slaver, shot a man in front of his family for dishonoring the character's dead parents, and has taken contracts on relatively innocent people for money. He's intimidated witnesses, used wounded enemies as bait, and has no compunctions at all about using violence on anyone or anything provided they're between the party and it's goals.
In regards to the ‘Can is use a wand inside a sword’ question, as with most things in DnD, consult your DM. The rules as written are more like suggestions to have a balanced game.
Our DM is complicated (doesn't help we have three DM's bouncing ideas off each other to see who can pull the biggest stunt on the party while remaining in a theoretically possible state).
I don’t know about putting wands inside of swords, but I do know that a warlock with the pact of the blade can use the eldritch invocation “Improved pact weapon” to allow them to use their pact weapon as an arcane focus. This means that they could cast spells from their pact weapon as if it was a wand. This means that a warlock could point their sword at an enemy as if it was a gun, and shoot eldritch blast out of the tip. Not only that, but thanks to some other eldritch invocations that buff eldritch blast, you could essentially turn your sword into an eldritch blast sniper rifle.
Artificers can also infuse spells from their spell list into a simple or martial weapon, said spells being able to be used a number of times equal to the Artificer's INT mod doubled (minimum of two) So you can just infuse Fire Bolt into a Longsword, point it at an enemy like a gun, and boom
@@ShankMugen Either way, they still get other leveled damage spells, and if sub-class spells count as artificer spell list (I don't think they do but yeah) you could technically just put Fireball in if you're an artillerist I'm pretty sure
@@apossiblyhereticalalphaleg3595 Subclass Spells specifically say they count as Class Spells for you if they are not already your Class Spells, for all Classes, so they can be Infused, and no you cannot put Fireball because the Spell Storing Item only allows 1st and 2nd Level Spells, and Fireball is 3rd Level
There is in fact a Feat called Spell Sniper, so combining that with Eldritch Spear would give you a 600 foot attack range, while ignoring half and three-fourth cover.
'A barbarian with a bow?' Some of these videos do reference The Unexpectables & Borky is a barbarian with a bow now... admittedly he does forget because it's simpler to just suplex and use the big magic talking sword instead.
When I saw the bard in a fur suit I just imagined my rogue character awkwardly walking up to some guards *roll charisma nat 20* "me am guard" and the they like "ok he gotta be I mean he said so"
Concerning the personality traits, flaws and bonds, I always considered it something meant more for the DM than the user of the character. A bond is a powerful tool for a DM to exploit and pull a player character in a certain direction, while personality traits are used to offer opportunities for the players to easily earn inspiration upon following through with the trait when the DM attempts to railroad characters in a certain situation. Flaws I personally think is a good reminder that your character isn't perfect and that you can't always play for the most meta option, but have to deal with certain things that differ between you and your character. Unless, of course, you share a flaw with your character.
@@jackthorton10 Ya, delegating some of the note taking (specifically for the PC's own characters) is a good way to help out a DM. Some DM's don't need that, just like some players don't need notes on their own character. It's as useful as the group needs it to be.
1. "OMG! I'm THAT guy" Well, realizing it is a step in the right direction, right? 2. "Personality, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws just take up space." ...oh, wow, you're THAT guy.
I don't know about putting a wand inside a sword, but in one of our current campaigns, the DM gave my druid a homebrewed staff called the Angels Tear that acts as essentially a spell sniper rifle where it allows me to cast touch spells at a range of 15 ft. and increase the range of all other spells by 1.5x.
in the Star Wars expanded universe, there was a Jedi who made a sniper rifle that used lightsabers as ammo; it had an interplanetary range but only managed a handful of shots before the lightsaber was burnt out and completely unusable; the Jedi Council excommunicated them for treating lightsabers like that
@@CorvusCorone68 Considering that most personal 'armor' in star wars is about as effective as butter, that seems needlessly complex for anything other that starship.
The ideals bonds and flaws can be very helpful but it depends, mostly it seems to me to be for when you build a character from their backstory up instead of from their class up
Sword Wand/Staff/Spell Casting Focus: Short answer: depends on DM for most classes. Long(er) answer: when making a character you can choose to have either a casting focus [wand/staff/gem/book/etc.] Or spell components [Bat Sh*t & Sulphur]. Most classss specifically say you can use certain items as your focus [Wizard: spell book, Cleric/Paladin: holy symbol], but depending on your DM you can have say a stick be your focus. As for the sword, the Bard Subclass "College of Swords" has a specific feature that let's you use your weapon as your focus, meaning you'll now be able to use your Scimitar as a wand or a short sword as seen in the Video. And Now you know how to use a sword as a spell gun; you're welcome.
Two ways to do the Sword thing that I know of: - See if the DM will let you make/buy a wand/staff in the shape of a Sword, just make sure to tell the DM it’s a cosmetic option and won’t be used as a melee weapon. Then it’s just down to the DM to see if they’ll let it through. - Become a class that can use weapons as spellcasting focuses. These usually need a subclass to do so but once gotten, you can use a (usually) melee weapon as your wand/staff. The plus side here is that going into these abilities means you’ll be given some extra abilities on top to make sure you don’t die so easily as a spellcaster with a Longsword.
The character traits and alignment chart are really for the players who actually roleplay in a roleplaying game. Sometimes they develop or change over time, usually gradually or suddenly if a serious event changed you. For example by Tabaxi Monk/Cleric "Plate of Copper (Copper)" wasn't initially enamored by magic, and especially magic *fire* until shortly after the campaign began and used kobold grenades and then later his fireball necklace.
Also I didn't know what feline trait to give him, but slowly I realised how I behaved when things were trying to run away and I realised that one of his key traits and potentially flaw is he cannot resist the urge to give chase (or at least the first attempt). From the fleeing survivor from an orc ambush to kobolds retreating to alert their allies to a metal man running from the scene of a crime, if it's running away you can be certain Copper *will* chase it.
I describe my character as a mixture of Agent Smith from the Matrix and Grand Moff Tarkin and the party somehow decides I'm the one to be consulted on moral matters.
@@Malroth00Returns lol nice. Mine I'd describe as a mixture of Nico Machiavelli and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Unfortunately the rest of my party went full murderhobo so opportunities to do political machinations to manipulate friends into fighting enemies and my weaker enemies into fighting my stronger enemies were few and far between
A living person can be a random, meme-y weirdo but as the game goes it should be expected for them to change. if they stay the same person the party will get sick of the bit and the character will realized they have nothing but the jokes
Personality, ideals, bond and flaws are good to specify your alignment cuz without it it's very vague. Ok you're Lawful, but lawful to what? Authority? Your family? Your clan? Your guild? These can go to things like ideals or your bonds, like "I'll do anything to get the approval of my clan and I'll never break our code" for an ideal. It helps people get a glance of your sheet and immediately understand your character beyond just the vague alignment. But anyone plays DnD how they want, personally I think that part of the sheet is essential so people don't get confused when you make something they'd consider "chaotic" like disobeying an authority because they insulted your noble family and someone is like "wait weren't you lawful good?" "yeah, I am, to my family and ancestors, I ain't taking shit from someone who insults my bloodline." and that's why principally ideals and bonds are useful (to me at least)
You neglect Flaws? They put spice in your campaign! I had a Wizard who's Flaw was "gain knowledge no matter what", she got gifted a Necronomicon by a 'friend' of the Party, she them MC'd to GOOlock.
30:43 Weird idea I had, but what if you were a strong spellcaster and taped your wand to a sword so you could smack people with it but also point it at people and use the wand attached? Xd
Best part is watching Air get personally attacked over and over and realize he is the bad guy. 29:30. The look of dawning realization his face is so adorable. Also at 4:54 for a single frame he slipped in another disclaimer about not taking it seriously.
Scoping with your wand(gigity) is flavor. When you make an attack or cast a spell, you describe how ever you like it to happen, hit or miss, succed or fail. Have fun with the results of your roll.
30:00 Heya, Dungeon Master here. I would absolutely allow you to do this, if you can modify a sword to attach a wand to it. There's just a couple things to keep in mind. First and foremost, attunement. If the wand requires attunement then you may have trouble justifying your ability to properly wield it if you're not in direct contact with it when you try to use any of it's effects. If it's just a wand that anyone can use then no problem. Second, this will not give you additional actions per turn. Using an object counts as taking an action, and you (normally) get one action per turn in combat. So you will not be able to swing the sword (attack action) and use the wand (use item action) in the same turn.
Here’s how I make a D&D character: I choose from one of my OCs to become the poor soul under my D&D Beyond wrath (because I’m too lazy to write this all on paper) and then start researching what type of character they should be (the only exception is my first D&D character, Leaf-I didn’t know what an essential kit was so I just trusted all my knowledge to Jocat’s crap guides without research since I was a lazy shmuck 😀)
I had a pact of the tome warlock who had the shillelagh cantrip, his club looked like a combination of a cricket bat and LOTR elf sword, with a slot in the back for his tome. The tome had a slot in the spine for a wand of the war mage, which acted as a scope for his ELDRITCH BLAST.
Don't know anything about wand covering, but there is the Ruby of the War Mage, a common magic item that allows you to turn a weapon into a spellcasting focus.
36:34 I think it’s more of a way to display to the DM how you are going to RP them and give something the DM to use. Plus, it helps flesh out the concept of the character when you are making them, helps you work out how you want to RP them when you first start out, and creates a stronger bond between you and your character since the more you design an character, the more attached you get.
As far as I know, the only creatures with a stat higher than 24 (which is the max STR for level 20 barbars) are indeed high-end monsters like the Tarrasque, Tiamat's Avatar, Ancient Dragons, some Adult Dragons and certain Giants
Players can get their hands on special books that increase certain stats and that's stat's cap by 2. Granted after being read the book takes 100 years to recharge, so you will need to find multiples, or play a very long lived race/class.
@@Ashtari Oh yeah I forgot about those books, so theoretically a Gnome could probably get 30 in a stat if they have a book from a very early age, as an example since Gnomes are one of the most long-lived races
Concerning the question at 30:30. No, you could totally do that if you wanted to. You'd have to okay it with the DM, but there's no hard rule saying you can't try to conceal a wand. You could also use illusions if you wanted.
Ranger here, got one word: Magic. Seriously there's so much you can do with the kit, especially now. For sure the vanilla PHB version was lackluster, but that's old news. I'm tempted to say Gloomstalkers, Swarmkeepers and the new Beastmasters can overthrow most Fighter builds and a bunch of Rogue builds fairly simply. Also, as for your hidden wand pondering... technically you kind of have to be wielding it in the first place, BUT as most D&D problems can be handled, talk to your DM, maybe you guys can make it work, maybe you won't but at least you have better odds if you talk things out.
What no one ever recognizes, because the core abilities are lackluster, is that rangers, even the phb ones, are mechanically better than pretty much any non caster and have advantages over some other classes which are mechanically better, such as paladin. Like the fact that their abilities tend to work both with ranged and melee builds, even though ranged is usually the better option, for example.
@@josh-mf7lt I can't say for sure how general that would be, but the fact alone that at my table, even when players pick a caster, they play them very martial. Like the Cleric will only really cast Shield of Faith, the Paladin refuses to cast any spell (like dude, you got Hold Person, I guess you don't like auto crit smites?). Warlock can ONLY cast Eldritch Blast and so on. It would be one thing to say play for the memes, but it's like when they get upset that the Ranger is actually outpacing them... like sorry bud. The party pitied me at first and gave me a free Wolf (thematically it makes sense I guess) and even joked about making it a Dire Wolf... next session they were asking me to leave it behind (and actually got him killed themselves) cuz we were ripping through like like 4 orcs and an ogre on our own while the rest of the party was struggling to just stay standing. But then of course they'd value critting on a 19 and Action Surge once every now and then when 95% of their actions are "I hit with the sword"
When my fellow DMs and I set out to make our own gaming system for our homebrew campaign setting we based it on AD&D 2nd Edition... First thing we did was chuck alignment straight out the window. LoL :)
If you want to shoot magic out of a weapon you should take the warcaster feat. Normally when you cast a spell you need one hand free to hold some kind of spell focus and the other hand to do somatic the component of the spell (AKA fancy magical hand movements). This is why most spell casters can not cast spells and hold weapons or shields at the same time. However if you have the warcaster feat you can do the somatic component (fancy magical hand movements), even with a weapon or shield in your hand. Basically this feat will free up one of your hands to hold other stuff like a weapon or a shield or whatever. It has a couple more really good effects, but I’m not talking about those right now. Plus if your spell doesn’t need a focus even better now you got two free hands to wield a shield AND a weapon, or even join the legendary buff-guys-only club and use a TWO-HANDED weapon! This way you can effectively shoot magic out of your weapons. This is because you can really choose to shoot magic out of any part of your body or things your holding, but now, with this feat, you can also shoot magic from the weapon you can now hold in your newly freed hand if you want. The warcaster feat is great for castors that use a lot of somatic and focus related spells who also want to get in on that weapon action. Also a must-have for eldritch knights (I used this feat along with the spell sniper feat to turn my greatsword into an incredibly effective 240ft range magical sniper rifle). Hope that made sense! I don’t know about putting a focus into a sleeve or imbedding it into a weapon. It sounds cool but I think you might have to be touching the focus in order to be attuned or use it. I think it’s really up to your DM to determine if, and how that could work.
Concerning covering a magical focus, I believe there are weapons that come with a slot for magical foci in place, so you can place a wand inside of a real sword.
To your wand question, as DM I say it depends on the make, if you're clever, and if the 'holder' has an 'exit' for the spell. Otherwise you're blowing your own spell up inside the cover. My two requirements would be One you must have an area where your hand touches the original item. And the place where the magic bits comes out exposed. Otherwise you'll either not be able to fire it, or blow it up in your hands.
30:10 The War Caster feat allows you to cast spells when your hands are otherwise occupied (by a sword or shield) and there's some class options (cleric, paladin, druid and hexblade warlock) who can cast through a shield or weapon.
Actually Rangers just got a whole new overhaul of abilities and stuff haven't read what they've done to The Beastmaster skill yet but can't wait to read it 😎👍
your spirit beast choises now dont die as fast and the damage is consistant. basicaly much much better at combat and adaptability in terrain cause you can change form, at the cost of utility and pasives that your chosen beast companion could have. still weak if dm just focuses your pet
30:20 the ruby of the warmage item lets you designate one weapon to use as a wand, and the Improved Pact Weapon eldritch invocation does the same automatically for any weapon summoned with the warlock's Pact Of The Blade pact boon.
that's kinda how I've thought about it. But then I usually view alignment as an internal metric as opposed to some of the other people I've played with who view it as how everyone else should view the character.
30:30 - Not sure about rules for newer editions but, I've been a DM for over 30 years and I'd say it depends on the spell. Any spell where effects just happen to a target would be fine. But for spells where a power is released from the casting source, the "target" would be whatever is covering your wand. Spells like fireball could be particularly devastating to the group. Really, it also depends on what kind of DM you have too. All of my old DMs I had as a kid would say "Your character doesn't know" if asked this question. So you'd be forced to trial and error your way to an answer. x_x
Ive actually played a Lawful Evil character before. Was one of my more fun ones. Was part of an assassin order, and tended more towards "lack of empathy," over "active menace," for flavor of Evil. Played her as a bit of an indoctrinated young idealist who kinda believed she and the order were doing necessary work ("necessary," for a sort of balance. Not necessarily "greater good.") Eventually she started slowly shifting away from the Evil side of things, but she was fun as hell to play, considering i rarely stray from genuinely good/caring characters.
he said fursuit; as in a costume made to look like an animal, specifically referring to the ones "furries" wear, furries being people who are sexually attracted to anthropomorphized animals, animals with human characteristics
@@CorvusCorone68 Furries always have overly cartoonish designs out of Disney and Looney Tunes while fantasy and sci-fi races that happens to be hyper evolved animals tend to have a more 'grounded/realistic' design.
I use that chart as a DM (ideals/flaws, etc.) To guide giving inspiration out. Since players, cant bother and tend to meta, however shortly after forcing the players to think that way, all the meme'ing and murder hobo stopped.
I have been roleplaying for 3 years and it has been best time ever. I personally just love being DM, because that's a great way to use my creativity. Please try it if you want, because all the viral 5e rule books are free to get as digital versions by now. You just have to teach some smart friends to play, print some character sheets and get something that you can use as figures.
@@Guywithaname199hey! Just starting dnd with my best friends but I have to dm because I’m the one introducing them to it, never played before, do you have any tips? I’m on a budget and don’t have figurines, a mat, dm screen, the books, anything but im living off google, a dream, and the hope that my friends are really smart. I can work on making figures with clay but everything else is a struggle. I am borrowing the dice set from my brother who plays Magic The Gathering.
The only true way to be chaotic is to be chaotic neutral and roll for everything. Are you going to enter the tavern? Flip a coin. What are you going to that turn? Roll a dice
21:40 You can get up to 30 on monsters, via certain magic items (namely books), and barbarians at level 20 get their STR and CON bumped up by 4 and the max up to 24. Which can still be boosted by the aforementioned books
Eldrich knight uses a sword with spells, but cannot use a spellcasting focus, instead requiring a hand free to grab materials. Xanathar's has a magic item called "Ruby of the War Mage" that can be added to a weapon and allows Eldrich knight and arcane tricksters to use it as a casting focus despite not normally being allowed. So you can get the ruby, affix it to a sword and then aim it as you wish... Another idea would be having a wand of (insert spell) made to be a sword hilt grip panel, then having it put onto a custom sword xD
As for the covered wand thing. Ask your DM! But generally I'd figure the spell in the wand goes off inside inside covering unless the spell has a specified target (and isn't an attack), so not a good Idea.
The Proficiency Bonus part is part of why JoCat hyped up Bard with Jack-of-All-Trades and Expertise, as Proficiency is the "I know what I'm doing, genuinely' bonus to anything you're skilled at doing. Just to break it down and give you an idea: - Jack of all trades (which is at lv2) adds half your proficiency bonus to anything you don't have proficiency in already, so right at lv2, that's +1 to everything that's not already getting +2 - Expertise (at lv3, then again at lv10) lets you pick two skills you're proficient with and double the proficiency bonus, so at lv3 that's two skills going from +2 to +4 instantly, and 4 skills with a whopping +8 at lv10 (assuming your base modifier would be at least +0 before that) - With College of Lore (lv3) you can pick 3 skills to become proficient with, meaning you can gain 3 new proficiencies and immediately super-charge two of them with Expertise. - With College of Eloquence (Silver Tongue, lv3), any Persuasion or Deception check made with Charisma treats any rolls of 9 or below as a 10.
I like the alignment chart, but only because my first exposure to DnD was from the MMO, where your alignment was like a pokemon type and let you use some nifty equipment.
In older editions there were a lot more direct interactions with alignment. Like instead of “Detect Good and Evil”, which just gives a vague sense of alignment and only for INHERENTLY good or evil creatures like demons and angels, old-school clerics had spells like “Know alignment” which did exactly what it says on the tin, without doubt, for anyone it was cast on. And a lot more artifacts and beings explicitly cared about your alignment and would react differently to differently-aligned characters. I didn’t play enough DDO to remember whether it was more or less important there than in the tabletop edition (3.5) it was based on, but it was much more important even on the tabletop back then. 5e’s design team decided that it was too easy for the party murder hobo to say “okay, I’ll wait to kill them all *until* you check their alignment and prove that they deserve it” to avoid real moral dilemmas, so they toned it down significantly.
Currently playing a lvl 4 Devotion Paladin myself. Been playing her for months and I'm still figuring out some features of the roll20 character sheet. I also haven't used the whole bonds, flaws and other trait stuff.
Okay, regarding the rules about covering wands question at 30:12 ish, so long as you can hold the focus (as in make physical contact with it) it can still be used as a focus. Placing a wand inside a sword is technically possible without bending or breaking the rules, but it has to be incorporated into the sword in such a way that you can still touch it. For example, replacing the hilt and grip of the sword with the wand so that holding the sword is also holding the wand. Regarding staffs, it is important to remember that those are fairly sizable, so they would probably work better as a polearm than a sword. Keep in mind that the GM can still refuse to allow it though as the GM is allowed to alter, remove, or make new rules as he/she sees fit and has the final say in the matter. Oh, and noting your reaction to both stat scores and proficiency bonuses, first off, the attribute numbers (strength, dex, con, int, wis, cha, not modifiers) set you on a scale by which to determine your strength relative to specific benchmarks, where the easiest to set in stone is 10, which is where an average human sits for that stat. Secondly, player characters and monsters can both get to 30 in their attributes or in exceedingly rare instances higher over the course of the game. Obviously, this is very difficult for a player character to do requiring a lot of applications of magic items and typically the only things you will ever bump into beyond 30 in a stat are gods (or god equivalents). Proficiency is similar to that, except it can go above the limit because level 20 isn't the hard cap of dnd, it just doesn't have the material and balancing set up to go beyond it, and so the decision to go beyond level 20 is up to the GM. Final note, CR is somewhat busted this edition, so don't worry as much about what CR the enemy is. The secret is thinking outside the box. Have fun.
Further into the video now, regarding alignment and Personality boxes, you'll still want to keep track. Alignment still has some uses that won't usually be apparent to the player until it's already too late, and the personality boxes are both to remind you and the gm and both change over the course of the game... with the exception of Madnesses. If you don't know what madness does, especially while in the Nine Hells (I think you said the Nine Hells, right?), effectively it attacks your character from the Roleplaying aspect of the game. A madness is a personality trait that is forced upon your character under certain conditions (Such as direct exposure to a Arch Devil or Demon Prince, or spending too long in the Shadowfell) that can only be removed under specific conditions and must be acted out. Additionally, most people don't realize that if those boxes are ever left blank for any reason, the GM is allowed to fill them however they see fit which the player will have to follow through on because the GM often needs those boxes to determine how you fit into the world and how you will be perceived. Same thing with the backstory in fact. Note though that the GM is the one who will tell you if your alignment has changed, while you control changes to personality boxes aside from madnesses.
regarding the 30 min covered wand thing, if you become a hexbalde warlock and take pact of the blade you can use your sword as the wand (you can use your pact weapon as your spell focas)
I know 2 years too late. But to answer your question. 30:00 - Yes and No. It probably wouldn't work exactly as your thinking, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't re-flavor your wand so it's embeded in sheath, as long as you understand that you have to still treat your sword and wand as they normally would.
35:43 The weird thing is, I found a D&D character creation app, that actually has you use both the alignment and characteristics charts. So it wasn’t until Jocat’s video that I found out that one was replaced by the other.
The reason we use both saves and modifiers on the sheet is three-fold: First, Saves can get Proficiency Bonus, but the base Stat Modifiers can't. Second is that some things (skills, spells, Feats, etc), can add permanent or temporary bonuses to saving throws, but not stat modifiers. Third, stats (and thus, modifiers) have an effect on literally ANYTHING you want to do, whereas saving throws are mostly for those 'oh s&!%, move!' emergency moments. The short answer is that the modifier is the most-important and least-altered number (at least in a round-to-round basis), so it gets its own top billing on the character sheet.
25:00 "Do they double up?" I actually had to look this up when I was genning a few days ago. No they do not. However, if your class and background do give you a double proficiency in something, you get to swap one of them out for a proficiency in something else. It has to be the same kind of proficiency, though- EG if you got a double skill proficiency, you have to choose another skill, you can't pick, say, a tool proficiency.
Nope, there's special manuals that if you read them (takes 48 hours of reading spread over 8 days) you will get a +2 in the stat that the book is for AND your maximum stat possibility also increases by 2. My DM rewarded my rogue with one after a tournament arc so my rogue has a dex of 22. That being said, to get another increase she'll either have to find another manual or wait 100 years for the book to recharge. That being said..she's a high elf so not impossible.
@@Ashtari The Tomes and Manuals only get your score max to 22, and from what I understand you can only gain the benefit of each once. The Book of Exulted Deeds can get you to 24, but beyond that a combination of magic items is the only way to get to 30, and it's Strength only.
@@leonielson7138 Odd, it doesn't mention that in the item description I've read. And I didn't know about the Book of Exalted deeds. That sounds like a pretty cool item.
@@Ashtari It's elsewhere in the DMG. I'm not completely sure it applies to the Manuals and Tomes, but you can't attune to items with the same name - you can't dual wield sun swords or rods of the pact keeper.
30:15 There were rules for it 3.5. Honestly, you could customize your melee weapons to put your wand right in a sword in some of the supplements. Not sure how 5e does it sadly.
This is making me think of something I want brought back in 5E, my favorite class from a 3.5 Kingdoms of Kalamar splatbook: Cleric of Merciful Fate. Comparison between regular clerics. Cons: CoMF cannot use piercing or slashing weapons, they cannot coup de grace, they can’t use medium armor or heavy shields, and they have D6 hit die. Pros: Can use any “Conjuration(Healing)” spells 1Spell level lower than normal. Using Cure Light Wounds as a Cantrip/Orison/Level 0 Spell, use Neutralize Poison as a Level 3 Spell, etc. Domain and unique feat add more to how much a CoMF will heal with Cure spells/healing spells in general. Alternate Channeling: Feat allows a use of “Turn Undead” to be used in a religion specific way. CoMF AC: All allies in 30ft add the CoMF Charisma Modifier to ALL Saves and Skill Checks for 15 minutes. The first is the most important, because in 3.5, it actually makes it reasonable to use Metamagic as a Cleric, because otherwise it’s too expensive. I was able to be EFFECTIVE in battles (my goddamn dice hate me) by becoming LAZER JESUS.
I'd suggest using D&D Beyond to help you make your character sheet if it’s something you have trouble with. It performs the calculations for a lot of stuff automatically and has a ton of other helpful features
30:31 Speaking as a DM, I'd allow it since it's more of a fancier way of casting or using a wand and basically the functionality won't really change if you just cover it with a sheath or a blanket, I would rule that, depending on what the exact effects of the wand/staff, the sheath or whatever is covering it would be destroyed. Let's say you have a wand of lighting bolt and you're trying to cast it while it's covered by a sheath, the lighting would basically shatter the sheath into pieces and be cast as normally. I imagine a scenario like this would be you're trying to assassinate someone without them knowing you have a stick that can blast lighting. Ruling like these are very situational and moreso depends on your particular DMs ruling since D&D by nature is a game where you can do whatever the hell you want with the Player's handbook and Dungeon Masters guide acting as set guidelines on how basic mechanics in the game works while its the DMs job to work with players actions and decide if its it makes or breaks those mechanics. Everything else is rule of cool (at least with my table)
in this video our protagonist realizes he's actually a That Guy
hey, at least he realized it.
if only you said that man, I could make a sol badguy joke.
Hopefully he fixes that and stuff
There needs to be an isekai like that… the main person is so pumped up, and so sure everyone loves them, then they realize they or even their power is basically That Guy, that no matter what they are the That Guy, maybe sometimes it can be in a good way rarely, but normally its just the nobody actually likes, or wants, or cant stand strangling you That Guy. Lol, and he uses the powers from the epic story of heroes type of That Guy to deal with the problems of the other side, that or deals with them with only the powers of the scummy That guy… maybe the villain is the good version of the That Guy… and he has to face the normally considered superior powers and personality and stuff with his joke abilities and hated stuff.
@@ConnorSinclairCavin ...shield hero?
"An evil act would be chopping their nipples off."
"That is oddly specific,'
A reminder that JoCat made this video _way_ before the _Death and Debts_ campaign where this actually happens. A lot.
And it did happen in the Unexpectables. Because they wanted to trade their Kenku's nipple flowers.
No I will not explain.
Was that the first one with Vtubers?
@@BreakerX42 _The Fall of Arcadum_.
@@citizen_grub4171 i think the issues with him came up in the second all-vtuber campain
This also nearly happens in the stage play "The Lieutenant of Inishmore".
Where the antagonist of the play, an Irish terrorist named Padraic, was in the middle of torturing a drug dealer, and asking him which nipple is his favourite, and that he'll cut off the other, before getting interrupted by a phone call.
It's a fun read.
Just to shed light on it: JoCat is the animator and Twitch Streamer, while JoCrap is the character he plays in his Crap Guides.
No your thinking of jocats monster, jocat is the scientist
Also the character in the crap guides is based off an armor set from monster hunter. the hed is the wiggler head
+10 stat modifiers: For when you actually want to TRY to give Tiamat a swirly.
Or ANY God or Goddess really. Good luck shoving Thor in his locker.
"that is a lot of plus" 😆
Epic boons say hello
@@RedwoodTheElf But Tiamat specifically because five heads.
Don't forget that proficiency is added. So at level 14 (the literal end of Rise of Tiamat), it's +15
i mean personality, ideal, bond, and flaw section isn't that useless if your character is more than just a one dimensional murder hobo meme character
Hello, police? I'd like to report a murder!
This! this right here! you nailed it buddy, far as im concerned you wiin the internet today. also DMs may like to add something knowing what and how to mess with your character and these help build up things as well as allow for said messing with.
@Alexander Ph
and can help with your character's character development..
i.e you can make you once lawful evil character to a lawful good character
though slowly changing your goals and bonds ideals
It's useless to me because I much prefer to show a character's personality in roleplay, and find it boring to write it down. Also, I've found that I create my character's personalities through roleplay, so I almost never have it set in stone at the beginning of the game.
@@PlayerZeroStart It's not there for gameplay purposes. It's there for a quick reference while roleplaying. They're cliffnotes for your character.
Step #1 is admitting it, Airier.
Also, Level 20 Barbarian can break the 20 limit on Strength and Constitution stats. With their new limit being 24.
@@thegloriouswizard5270 my god
I'm playing a Lawful Evil character in a party with two LG players, three CG characters, two NG characters, and one CN. He is the leader's right hand man. He acts like everyone's demanding but well-meaning stepdad. He constantly tries to get everyone to mind their manners, do their chores, repairs the ever-deteriorating wagon and sews their clothing. He sees his place in life as making sure things run as smoothly as possible for his people. He recently got everyone a bag with a 500 gp diamond and some odd and ends to wear around their neck so that they may be resurrected easier.
He also conducted a highly illegal abduction/torture session on a slaver, shot a man in front of his family for dishonoring the character's dead parents, and has taken contracts on relatively innocent people for money. He's intimidated witnesses, used wounded enemies as bait, and has no compunctions at all about using violence on anyone or anything provided they're between the party and it's goals.
That is an awesome character.
Same, a warlock that is helping the good party because the current BBEG wants to destroy the world and that does not fit into my plans.
I had planned something like that and the DM went "nooouuuuuu! You can't play an evil character in a good-leaning group!"
@@Merrsharr Your DM needs to watch 007 movies, because even though James Bond is one of the Good Guys, he is not a Good Guy.
I always just translated LE as "evil but not immoral" meaning they'll do some truly despicable things but they have lines or people they won't cross.
In regards to the ‘Can is use a wand inside a sword’ question, as with most things in DnD, consult your DM. The rules as written are more like suggestions to have a balanced game.
You could on 3.5e, just had to pay more gold for a special sword for it
Well, you could use a sword as a spellcasting focus if you have the Warcaster feat.
AirierGames: Are i the Baddies?
Rest of his party: YES!
also there are a TON of ways players have mounted wands into other things over the years
I really really hate these people that don't give any consistency on a character.
@@ianesgrecia8568 what is consistency
@@tpxt-rexpredatorxenomorph9200 regularity; smoothness; repetition; reliability
22:00 I've never went from "Wow, your DM hates you" to "Wow, your DM loves you guys." This quickly
Our DM is complicated (doesn't help we have three DM's bouncing ideas off each other to see who can pull the biggest stunt on the party while remaining in a theoretically possible state).
@@Airier who knew your dm is literally a hydra
airier: "am i the bad guy?"
me: YES! He said the thing!!!
I don’t know about putting wands inside of swords, but I do know that a warlock with the pact of the blade can use the eldritch invocation “Improved pact weapon” to allow them to use their pact weapon as an arcane focus. This means that they could cast spells from their pact weapon as if it was a wand. This means that a warlock could point their sword at an enemy as if it was a gun, and shoot eldritch blast out of the tip. Not only that, but thanks to some other eldritch invocations that buff eldritch blast, you could essentially turn your sword into an eldritch blast sniper rifle.
Artificers can also infuse spells from their spell list into a simple or martial weapon, said spells being able to be used a number of times equal to the Artificer's INT mod doubled (minimum of two)
So you can just infuse Fire Bolt into a Longsword, point it at an enemy like a gun, and boom
@@apossiblyhereticalalphaleg3595 Cantrips cannot be Infused RAW
@@ShankMugen Either way, they still get other leveled damage spells, and if sub-class spells count as artificer spell list (I don't think they do but yeah) you could technically just put Fireball in if you're an artillerist I'm pretty sure
@@apossiblyhereticalalphaleg3595 Subclass Spells specifically say they count as Class Spells for you if they are not already your Class Spells, for all Classes, so they can be Infused, and no you cannot put Fireball because the Spell Storing Item only allows 1st and 2nd Level Spells, and Fireball is 3rd Level
There is in fact a Feat called Spell Sniper, so combining that with Eldritch Spear would give you a 600 foot attack range, while ignoring half and three-fourth cover.
'A barbarian with a bow?'
Some of these videos do reference The Unexpectables & Borky is a barbarian with a bow now... admittedly he does forget because it's simpler to just suplex and use the big magic talking sword instead.
Dont forget our lord and savior gripples
I am still three years behind on that show
it's time ....
When I saw the bard in a fur suit I just imagined my rogue character awkwardly walking up to some guards *roll charisma nat 20* "me am guard" and the they like "ok he gotta be I mean he said so"
As long as everybody has fun, who cares how you play. As long as your memes don't actively cause other players discomfort, you do you.
Concerning the personality traits, flaws and bonds, I always considered it something meant more for the DM than the user of the character. A bond is a powerful tool for a DM to exploit and pull a player character in a certain direction, while personality traits are used to offer opportunities for the players to easily earn inspiration upon following through with the trait when the DM attempts to railroad characters in a certain situation. Flaws I personally think is a good reminder that your character isn't perfect and that you can't always play for the most meta option, but have to deal with certain things that differ between you and your character. Unless, of course, you share a flaw with your character.
So again it is useless... way to go 5th edition
@@jackthorton10 It's cliff notes for the DM that don't get buried in all the other notes that a DM has.
@@leadpaintchips9461 Oh.... my bad
@@jackthorton10 Ya, delegating some of the note taking (specifically for the PC's own characters) is a good way to help out a DM.
Some DM's don't need that, just like some players don't need notes on their own character. It's as useful as the group needs it to be.
@@leadpaintchips9461 I see
Fun Fact: Originally Alignment was just lawful vs chaotic, good and evil where added later.
More specifically; it was originally Good and Evil, but they called it "Law" and "Chaos" to riff off of Moorcock.
@@JohnRaines why does that somehow sound better than fourth edition method
@@empireyouth5791 Because 4th's was literally just "Good, Evil, Super Good, Super Evil, and None Of The Above"
@@JohnRaines Fairpoint
These were also the times when Elf, Dwarf, and Halfling were classes.
1. "OMG! I'm THAT guy"
Well, realizing it is a step in the right direction, right?
2. "Personality, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws just take up space."
...oh, wow, you're THAT guy.
I don't know about putting a wand inside a sword, but in one of our current campaigns, the DM gave my druid a homebrewed staff called the Angels Tear that acts as essentially a spell sniper rifle where it allows me to cast touch spells at a range of 15 ft. and increase the range of all other spells by 1.5x.
in the Star Wars expanded universe, there was a Jedi who made a sniper rifle that used lightsabers as ammo; it had an interplanetary range but only managed a handful of shots before the lightsaber was burnt out and completely unusable; the Jedi Council excommunicated them for treating lightsabers like that
@@CorvusCorone68 Considering that most personal 'armor' in star wars is about as effective as butter, that seems needlessly complex for anything other that starship.
@@linkblade0 i think that librarian Jedi tried to use it to snipe the Emperor, only to be defeated by Vader
The ideals bonds and flaws can be very helpful but it depends, mostly it seems to me to be for when you build a character from their backstory up instead of from their class up
Yeah, it helps me turn concepts for my character into actual characters.
30:15 that's called a Ruby of a War Mage. Stick it to a weapon and it becomes your casting tool.
Or just be an artificer and attach a GUN to your melle weapon...
Mosquette strat.
Sword Wand/Staff/Spell Casting Focus:
Short answer: depends on DM for most classes.
Long(er) answer: when making a character you can choose to have either a casting focus [wand/staff/gem/book/etc.] Or spell components [Bat Sh*t & Sulphur].
Most classss specifically say you can use certain items as your focus [Wizard: spell book, Cleric/Paladin: holy symbol], but depending on your DM you can have say a stick be your focus.
As for the sword, the Bard Subclass "College of Swords" has a specific feature that let's you use your weapon as your focus, meaning you'll now be able to use your Scimitar as a wand or a short sword as seen in the Video.
And Now you know how to use a sword as a spell gun; you're welcome.
Yup the DM in the end is the person who actually makes the rules
Or you can be an artificer artillerist who literally creates gun wands in game as a spell focus.
@@DndBirb8659 You mean like Constanze from Little Witch Academia?
Two ways to do the Sword thing that I know of:
- See if the DM will let you make/buy a wand/staff in the shape of a Sword, just make sure to tell the DM it’s a cosmetic option and won’t be used as a melee weapon. Then it’s just down to the DM to see if they’ll let it through.
- Become a class that can use weapons as spellcasting focuses. These usually need a subclass to do so but once gotten, you can use a (usually) melee weapon as your wand/staff. The plus side here is that going into these abilities means you’ll be given some extra abilities on top to make sure you don’t die so easily as a spellcaster with a Longsword.
I know in some editions of D&D there are magic items called Songblades, which Bards csn use as spell focuses.
Yes! Airier said Gobbo!
ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US
The character traits and alignment chart are really for the players who actually roleplay in a roleplaying game.
Sometimes they develop or change over time, usually gradually or suddenly if a serious event changed you. For example by Tabaxi Monk/Cleric "Plate of Copper (Copper)" wasn't initially enamored by magic, and especially magic *fire* until shortly after the campaign began and used kobold grenades and then later his fireball necklace.
Also I didn't know what feline trait to give him, but slowly I realised how I behaved when things were trying to run away and I realised that one of his key traits and potentially flaw is he cannot resist the urge to give chase (or at least the first attempt). From the fleeing survivor from an orc ambush to kobolds retreating to alert their allies to a metal man running from the scene of a crime, if it's running away you can be certain Copper *will* chase it.
I Very much Suggest Checking out his "Crap Guide to Dungeon Master"
Tis Beautiful
It is a work of art, and a very ambitious cross-over on the scale of Endgame.
Soon, my friend, soon
NOBODY CARES, MATT MERCER!
“ aww man... “
@@TheUnholyHandGrenade even made him drop his pool noodles...
I'm currently playing a LE character... and I'm also the moral compass and leader of the group
....'-' well
... I see nothing bad happening with that at all. 🤣
I describe my character as a mixture of Agent Smith from the Matrix and Grand Moff Tarkin and the party somehow decides I'm the one to be consulted on moral matters.
@@Malroth00Returns lol nice. Mine I'd describe as a mixture of Nico Machiavelli and Grand Admiral Thrawn. Unfortunately the rest of my party went full murderhobo so opportunities to do political machinations to manipulate friends into fighting enemies and my weaker enemies into fighting my stronger enemies were few and far between
Ranger became playable faster than Airier became self aware.
Hello again, I'm going to support you somehow and you can't stop me.
You madman
A living person can be a random, meme-y weirdo but as the game goes it should be expected for them to change. if they stay the same person the party will get sick of the bit and the character will realized they have nothing but the jokes
Personality, ideals, bond and flaws are good to specify your alignment cuz without it it's very vague.
Ok you're Lawful, but lawful to what? Authority? Your family? Your clan? Your guild? These can go to things like ideals or your bonds, like "I'll do anything to get the approval of my clan and I'll never break our code" for an ideal.
It helps people get a glance of your sheet and immediately understand your character beyond just the vague alignment.
But anyone plays DnD how they want, personally I think that part of the sheet is essential so people don't get confused when you make something they'd consider "chaotic" like disobeying an authority because they insulted your noble family and someone is like "wait weren't you lawful good?" "yeah, I am, to my family and ancestors, I ain't taking shit from someone who insults my bloodline." and that's why principally ideals and bonds are useful (to me at least)
LE is one of my favorite to play honestly; the classic mob boss archetype is REALLY fun to play with a mostly Neutral or Good party lol
You neglect Flaws?
They put spice in your campaign!
I had a Wizard who's Flaw was "gain knowledge no matter what", she got gifted a Necronomicon by a 'friend' of the Party, she them MC'd to GOOlock.
30:43
Weird idea I had, but what if you were a strong spellcaster and taped your wand to a sword so you could smack people with it but also point it at people and use the wand attached? Xd
Best part is watching Air get personally attacked over and over and realize he is the bad guy. 29:30. The look of dawning realization his face is so adorable. Also at 4:54 for a single frame he slipped in another disclaimer about not taking it seriously.
Scoping with your wand(gigity) is flavor. When you make an attack or cast a spell, you describe how ever you like it to happen, hit or miss, succed or fail.
Have fun with the results of your roll.
30:00
Heya, Dungeon Master here.
I would absolutely allow you to do this, if you can modify a sword to attach a wand to it. There's just a couple things to keep in mind.
First and foremost, attunement.
If the wand requires attunement then you may have trouble justifying your ability to properly wield it if you're not in direct contact with it when you try to use any of it's effects. If it's just a wand that anyone can use then no problem.
Second, this will not give you additional actions per turn.
Using an object counts as taking an action, and you (normally) get one action per turn in combat. So you will not be able to swing the sword (attack action) and use the wand (use item action) in the same turn.
5:18 yes! it’s Grabuljean, the nocturnal giant toad! *don’t steal!*
Airier the Paladin is just vaguely disappointed in her wife dw.
Here’s how I make a D&D character:
I choose from one of my OCs to become the poor soul under my D&D Beyond wrath (because I’m too lazy to write this all on paper) and then start researching what type of character they should be (the only exception is my first D&D character, Leaf-I didn’t know what an essential kit was so I just trusted all my knowledge to Jocat’s crap guides without research since I was a lazy shmuck 😀)
I had a pact of the tome warlock who had the shillelagh cantrip, his club looked like a combination of a cricket bat and LOTR elf sword, with a slot in the back for his tome. The tome had a slot in the spine for a wand of the war mage, which acted as a scope for his ELDRITCH BLAST.
JoCrap would be an epic drill sergeant
You are in for a wild ride with JoCat's DM video
I think the wand idea works so long as you find a way to be holding it at the bottom of it. Maybe integrating it into the grip or the hilt.
Don't know anything about wand covering, but there is the Ruby of the War Mage, a common magic item that allows you to turn a weapon into a spellcasting focus.
36:34 I think it’s more of a way to display to the DM how you are going to RP them and give something the DM to use. Plus, it helps flesh out the concept of the character when you are making them, helps you work out how you want to RP them when you first start out, and creates a stronger bond between you and your character since the more you design an character, the more attached you get.
As far as I know, the only creatures with a stat higher than 24 (which is the max STR for level 20 barbars) are indeed high-end monsters like the Tarrasque, Tiamat's Avatar, Ancient Dragons, some Adult Dragons and certain Giants
Players can get their hands on special books that increase certain stats and that's stat's cap by 2. Granted after being read the book takes 100 years to recharge, so you will need to find multiples, or play a very long lived race/class.
@@Ashtari Oh yeah I forgot about those books, so theoretically a Gnome could probably get 30 in a stat if they have a book from a very early age, as an example since Gnomes are one of the most long-lived races
Concerning the question at 30:30. No, you could totally do that if you wanted to. You'd have to okay it with the DM, but there's no hard rule saying you can't try to conceal a wand. You could also use illusions if you wanted.
Airier's 'Learning Face' is cool to look at lol
People's "Learning Face" is the whole reason I want to be a Teacher.
“That is a level of fetish I am not okay with comprehending”
Sounds about right
Ranger here, got one word: Magic.
Seriously there's so much you can do with the kit, especially now. For sure the vanilla PHB version was lackluster, but that's old news. I'm tempted to say Gloomstalkers, Swarmkeepers and the new Beastmasters can overthrow most Fighter builds and a bunch of Rogue builds fairly simply.
Also, as for your hidden wand pondering... technically you kind of have to be wielding it in the first place, BUT as most D&D problems can be handled, talk to your DM, maybe you guys can make it work, maybe you won't but at least you have better odds if you talk things out.
What no one ever recognizes, because the core abilities are lackluster, is that rangers, even the phb ones, are mechanically better than pretty much any non caster and have advantages over some other classes which are mechanically better, such as paladin. Like the fact that their abilities tend to work both with ranged and melee builds, even though ranged is usually the better option, for example.
@@josh-mf7lt I can't say for sure how general that would be, but the fact alone that at my table, even when players pick a caster, they play them very martial. Like the Cleric will only really cast Shield of Faith, the Paladin refuses to cast any spell (like dude, you got Hold Person, I guess you don't like auto crit smites?). Warlock can ONLY cast Eldritch Blast and so on. It would be one thing to say play for the memes, but it's like when they get upset that the Ranger is actually outpacing them... like sorry bud.
The party pitied me at first and gave me a free Wolf (thematically it makes sense I guess) and even joked about making it a Dire Wolf... next session they were asking me to leave it behind (and actually got him killed themselves) cuz we were ripping through like like 4 orcs and an ogre on our own while the rest of the party was struggling to just stay standing.
But then of course they'd value critting on a 19 and Action Surge once every now and then when 95% of their actions are "I hit with the sword"
When my fellow DMs and I set out to make our own gaming system for our homebrew campaign setting we based it on AD&D 2nd Edition... First thing we did was chuck alignment straight out the window. LoL :)
If you want to shoot magic out of a weapon you should take the warcaster feat. Normally when you cast a spell you need one hand free to hold some kind of spell focus and the other hand to do somatic the component of the spell (AKA fancy magical hand movements). This is why most spell casters can not cast spells and hold weapons or shields at the same time. However if you have the warcaster feat you can do the somatic component (fancy magical hand movements), even with a weapon or shield in your hand. Basically this feat will free up one of your hands to hold other stuff like a weapon or a shield or whatever. It has a couple more really good effects, but I’m not talking about those right now. Plus if your spell doesn’t need a focus even better now you got two free hands to wield a shield AND a weapon, or even join the legendary buff-guys-only club and use a TWO-HANDED weapon! This way you can effectively shoot magic out of your weapons. This is because you can really choose to shoot magic out of any part of your body or things your holding, but now, with this feat, you can also shoot magic from the weapon you can now hold in your newly freed hand if you want. The warcaster feat is great for castors that use a lot of somatic and focus related spells who also want to get in on that weapon action. Also a must-have for eldritch knights (I used this feat along with the spell sniper feat to turn my greatsword into an incredibly effective 240ft range magical sniper rifle).
Hope that made sense!
I don’t know about putting a focus into a sleeve or imbedding it into a weapon. It sounds cool but I think you might have to be touching the focus in order to be attuned or use it. I think it’s really up to your DM to determine if, and how that could work.
“Oh god +10”
Me who was allowed to play a class that let me infinitely add asi’s to my str
*LAUGHS IN 32 STR*
Airlier: I'm that guy.
Everyone: You're the baaad guy.....
Duh.
Concerning covering a magical focus, I believe there are weapons that come with a slot for magical foci in place, so you can place a wand inside of a real sword.
30:40
Pathfinder has a spell called Weaponwand that does exactly that. I dunno if it's also in 5e.
I'm glad we had this talk too XD
To your wand question, as DM I say it depends on the make, if you're clever, and if the 'holder' has an 'exit' for the spell. Otherwise you're blowing your own spell up inside the cover.
My two requirements would be One you must have an area where your hand touches the original item. And the place where the magic bits comes out exposed. Otherwise you'll either not be able to fire it, or blow it up in your hands.
30:10 The War Caster feat allows you to cast spells when your hands are otherwise occupied (by a sword or shield) and there's some class options (cleric, paladin, druid and hexblade warlock) who can cast through a shield or weapon.
Actually Rangers just got a whole new overhaul of abilities and stuff haven't read what they've done to The Beastmaster skill yet but can't wait to read it 😎👍
The Beast Master Upgrade is amazing. I play it and it is so much fun
your spirit beast choises now dont die as fast and the damage is consistant. basicaly much much better at combat and adaptability in terrain cause you can change form, at the cost of utility and pasives that your chosen beast companion could have. still weak if dm just focuses your pet
30:20 the ruby of the warmage item lets you designate one weapon to use as a wand, and the Improved Pact Weapon eldritch invocation does the same automatically for any weapon summoned with the warlock's Pact Of The Blade pact boon.
Alignment matters if you want it to matter. Some people feel like your putting your self in a box but it's just setting your characters mind set.
that's kinda how I've thought about it. But then I usually view alignment as an internal metric as opposed to some of the other people I've played with who view it as how everyone else should view the character.
I love how JoCat refers to the ability scores section of the character sheet as a “tower of pimps that dictate everything you do in the game”
30:30 - Not sure about rules for newer editions but, I've been a DM for over 30 years and I'd say it depends on the spell. Any spell where effects just happen to a target would be fine. But for spells where a power is released from the casting source, the "target" would be whatever is covering your wand. Spells like fireball could be particularly devastating to the group.
Really, it also depends on what kind of DM you have too. All of my old DMs I had as a kid would say "Your character doesn't know" if asked this question. So you'd be forced to trial and error your way to an answer. x_x
Ive actually played a Lawful Evil character before. Was one of my more fun ones. Was part of an assassin order, and tended more towards "lack of empathy," over "active menace," for flavor of Evil. Played her as a bit of an indoctrinated young idealist who kinda believed she and the order were doing necessary work ("necessary," for a sort of balance. Not necessarily "greater good.") Eventually she started slowly shifting away from the Evil side of things, but she was fun as hell to play, considering i rarely stray from genuinely good/caring characters.
Usually using an item means holding it in your hand. If dm allows it, then sure, this sword will count as both
"Is the bard hiding inside a furniture owlbear?" It's called disguise you uncultured swine!
Ja of course, I love your content ❤
he said fursuit; as in a costume made to look like an animal, specifically referring to the ones "furries" wear, furries being people who are sexually attracted to anthropomorphized animals, animals with human characteristics
@@CorvusCorone68 Furries always have overly cartoonish designs out of Disney and Looney Tunes while fantasy and sci-fi races that happens to be hyper evolved animals tend to have a more 'grounded/realistic' design.
There has been talk in Viva la Dirt League D&D game of replacing the barbarian with a sound board. "I hit it with my axe" "Rage" Etc...
30:30
It really Really depends on your dm and how they will rule it. (and how you pitch it)
I use that chart as a DM (ideals/flaws, etc.) To guide giving inspiration out. Since players, cant bother and tend to meta, however shortly after forcing the players to think that way, all the meme'ing and murder hobo stopped.
I have been roleplaying for 3 years and it has been best time ever. I personally just love being DM, because that's a great way to use my creativity. Please try it if you want, because all the viral 5e rule books are free to get as digital versions by now. You just have to teach some smart friends to play, print some character sheets and get something that you can use as figures.
Wait, this video is 3 years old🫨
@@Guywithaname199hey! Just starting dnd with my best friends but I have to dm because I’m the one introducing them to it, never played before, do you have any tips?
I’m on a budget and don’t have figurines, a mat, dm screen, the books, anything but im living off google, a dream, and the hope that my friends are really smart. I can work on making figures with clay but everything else is a struggle. I am borrowing the dice set from my brother who plays Magic The Gathering.
The only true way to be chaotic is to be chaotic neutral and roll for everything. Are you going to enter the tavern? Flip a coin. What are you going to that turn? Roll a dice
I'm surprised that Airier didn't catch the mistake he did, that Mage Hand is a cantrip and not a spell at 35:14
21:40 You can get up to 30 on monsters, via certain magic items (namely books), and barbarians at level 20 get their STR and CON bumped up by 4 and the max up to 24. Which can still be boosted by the aforementioned books
They are now called Gobos
Eldrich knight uses a sword with spells, but cannot use a spellcasting focus, instead requiring a hand free to grab materials. Xanathar's has a magic item called "Ruby of the War Mage" that can be added to a weapon and allows Eldrich knight and arcane tricksters to use it as a casting focus despite not normally being allowed. So you can get the ruby, affix it to a sword and then aim it as you wish... Another idea would be having a wand of (insert spell) made to be a sword hilt grip panel, then having it put onto a custom sword xD
As for the covered wand thing. Ask your DM! But generally I'd figure the spell in the wand goes off inside inside covering unless the spell has a specified target (and isn't an attack), so not a good Idea.
The Proficiency Bonus part is part of why JoCat hyped up Bard with Jack-of-All-Trades and Expertise, as Proficiency is the "I know what I'm doing, genuinely' bonus to anything you're skilled at doing.
Just to break it down and give you an idea:
- Jack of all trades (which is at lv2) adds half your proficiency bonus to anything you don't have proficiency in already, so right at lv2, that's +1 to everything that's not already getting +2
- Expertise (at lv3, then again at lv10) lets you pick two skills you're proficient with and double the proficiency bonus, so at lv3 that's two skills going from +2 to +4 instantly, and 4 skills with a whopping +8 at lv10 (assuming your base modifier would be at least +0 before that)
- With College of Lore (lv3) you can pick 3 skills to become proficient with, meaning you can gain 3 new proficiencies and immediately super-charge two of them with Expertise.
- With College of Eloquence (Silver Tongue, lv3), any Persuasion or Deception check made with Charisma treats any rolls of 9 or below as a 10.
I like the alignment chart, but only because my first exposure to DnD was from the MMO, where your alignment was like a pokemon type and let you use some nifty equipment.
In older editions there were a lot more direct interactions with alignment. Like instead of “Detect Good and Evil”, which just gives a vague sense of alignment and only for INHERENTLY good or evil creatures like demons and angels, old-school clerics had spells like “Know alignment” which did exactly what it says on the tin, without doubt, for anyone it was cast on. And a lot more artifacts and beings explicitly cared about your alignment and would react differently to differently-aligned characters. I didn’t play enough DDO to remember whether it was more or less important there than in the tabletop edition (3.5) it was based on, but it was much more important even on the tabletop back then. 5e’s design team decided that it was too easy for the party murder hobo to say “okay, I’ll wait to kill them all *until* you check their alignment and prove that they deserve it” to avoid real moral dilemmas, so they toned it down significantly.
The fact that you didn't get the lemon tree joke shows your innocence.
Currently playing a lvl 4 Devotion Paladin myself. Been playing her for months and I'm still figuring out some features of the roll20 character sheet. I also haven't used the whole bonds, flaws and other trait stuff.
Okay, regarding the rules about covering wands question at 30:12 ish, so long as you can hold the focus (as in make physical contact with it) it can still be used as a focus. Placing a wand inside a sword is technically possible without bending or breaking the rules, but it has to be incorporated into the sword in such a way that you can still touch it. For example, replacing the hilt and grip of the sword with the wand so that holding the sword is also holding the wand. Regarding staffs, it is important to remember that those are fairly sizable, so they would probably work better as a polearm than a sword. Keep in mind that the GM can still refuse to allow it though as the GM is allowed to alter, remove, or make new rules as he/she sees fit and has the final say in the matter. Oh, and noting your reaction to both stat scores and proficiency bonuses, first off, the attribute numbers (strength, dex, con, int, wis, cha, not modifiers) set you on a scale by which to determine your strength relative to specific benchmarks, where the easiest to set in stone is 10, which is where an average human sits for that stat. Secondly, player characters and monsters can both get to 30 in their attributes or in exceedingly rare instances higher over the course of the game. Obviously, this is very difficult for a player character to do requiring a lot of applications of magic items and typically the only things you will ever bump into beyond 30 in a stat are gods (or god equivalents). Proficiency is similar to that, except it can go above the limit because level 20 isn't the hard cap of dnd, it just doesn't have the material and balancing set up to go beyond it, and so the decision to go beyond level 20 is up to the GM. Final note, CR is somewhat busted this edition, so don't worry as much about what CR the enemy is. The secret is thinking outside the box. Have fun.
Further into the video now, regarding alignment and Personality boxes, you'll still want to keep track. Alignment still has some uses that won't usually be apparent to the player until it's already too late, and the personality boxes are both to remind you and the gm and both change over the course of the game... with the exception of Madnesses. If you don't know what madness does, especially while in the Nine Hells (I think you said the Nine Hells, right?), effectively it attacks your character from the Roleplaying aspect of the game. A madness is a personality trait that is forced upon your character under certain conditions (Such as direct exposure to a Arch Devil or Demon Prince, or spending too long in the Shadowfell) that can only be removed under specific conditions and must be acted out. Additionally, most people don't realize that if those boxes are ever left blank for any reason, the GM is allowed to fill them however they see fit which the player will have to follow through on because the GM often needs those boxes to determine how you fit into the world and how you will be perceived. Same thing with the backstory in fact. Note though that the GM is the one who will tell you if your alignment has changed, while you control changes to personality boxes aside from madnesses.
My favorite part of the charisma caster group image is that, while Pally is face palming you can see her smiling behind her hand.
regarding the 30 min covered wand thing, if you become a hexbalde warlock and take pact of the blade you can use your sword as the wand (you can use your pact weapon as your spell focas)
I know 2 years too late. But to answer your question.
30:00 - Yes and No. It probably wouldn't work exactly as your thinking, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't re-flavor your wand so it's embeded in sheath, as long as you understand that you have to still treat your sword and wand as they normally would.
"are there rules against putting a wand or staff inside of a covering?"
Boy, do I have a spell for you: Shillelagh!
35:43 The weird thing is, I found a D&D character creation app, that actually has you use both the alignment and characteristics charts.
So it wasn’t until Jocat’s video that I found out that one was replaced by the other.
The reason we use both saves and modifiers on the sheet is three-fold:
First, Saves can get Proficiency Bonus, but the base Stat Modifiers can't.
Second is that some things (skills, spells, Feats, etc), can add permanent or temporary bonuses to saving throws, but not stat modifiers.
Third, stats (and thus, modifiers) have an effect on literally ANYTHING you want to do, whereas saving throws are mostly for those 'oh s&!%, move!' emergency moments.
The short answer is that the modifier is the most-important and least-altered number (at least in a round-to-round basis), so it gets its own top billing on the character sheet.
"Nobody will ever pick LE." Meanwhile, I'm actively playing a lawful evil necromancer in my current campaign
Grabuljean, remember from Druid JoCat vid?
"Cool animals, like my OC, Grabuljean, the Nocturnal Giant Toad! DON'T STEAL!"
Airier watching the video: “Maybe I am a Monster”
25:00 "Do they double up?"
I actually had to look this up when I was genning a few days ago. No they do not. However, if your class and background do give you a double proficiency in something, you get to swap one of them out for a proficiency in something else. It has to be the same kind of proficiency, though- EG if you got a double skill proficiency, you have to choose another skill, you can't pick, say, a tool proficiency.
I think JoCat has joined an online campaign being DM'd by Arcadum.
The only way to get a score above 24 is to attune to a belt of giant strength and the hammer of thunderbolts, while wearing gauntlets of ogre power.
Nope, there's special manuals that if you read them (takes 48 hours of reading spread over 8 days) you will get a +2 in the stat that the book is for AND your maximum stat possibility also increases by 2. My DM rewarded my rogue with one after a tournament arc so my rogue has a dex of 22. That being said, to get another increase she'll either have to find another manual or wait 100 years for the book to recharge. That being said..she's a high elf so not impossible.
@@Ashtari The Tomes and Manuals only get your score max to 22, and from what I understand you can only gain the benefit of each once. The Book of Exulted Deeds can get you to 24, but beyond that a combination of magic items is the only way to get to 30, and it's Strength only.
@@leonielson7138 Odd, it doesn't mention that in the item description I've read. And I didn't know about the Book of Exalted deeds. That sounds like a pretty cool item.
@@Ashtari It's elsewhere in the DMG. I'm not completely sure it applies to the Manuals and Tomes, but you can't attune to items with the same name - you can't dual wield sun swords or rods of the pact keeper.
@@leonielson7138 the manuals/tomes aren't attuned so you read them and you're done with them.
30:15 There were rules for it 3.5. Honestly, you could customize your melee weapons to put your wand right in a sword in some of the supplements. Not sure how 5e does it sadly.
This is making me think of something I want brought back in 5E, my favorite class from a 3.5 Kingdoms of Kalamar splatbook: Cleric of Merciful Fate.
Comparison between regular clerics.
Cons: CoMF cannot use piercing or slashing weapons, they cannot coup de grace, they can’t use medium armor or heavy shields, and they have D6 hit die.
Pros: Can use any “Conjuration(Healing)” spells 1Spell level lower than normal. Using Cure Light Wounds as a Cantrip/Orison/Level 0 Spell, use Neutralize Poison as a Level 3 Spell, etc.
Domain and unique feat add more to how much a CoMF will heal with Cure spells/healing spells in general.
Alternate Channeling: Feat allows a use of “Turn Undead” to be used in a religion specific way. CoMF AC: All allies in 30ft add the CoMF Charisma Modifier to ALL Saves and Skill Checks for 15 minutes.
The first is the most important, because in 3.5, it actually makes it reasonable to use Metamagic as a Cleric, because otherwise it’s too expensive. I was able to be EFFECTIVE in battles (my goddamn dice hate me) by becoming LAZER JESUS.
I'd suggest using D&D Beyond to help you make your character sheet if it’s something you have trouble with. It performs the calculations for a lot of stuff automatically and has a ton of other helpful features
They have stats for guns in D@D
30:31 Speaking as a DM, I'd allow it since it's more of a fancier way of casting or using a wand and basically the functionality won't really change if you just cover it with a sheath or a blanket, I would rule that, depending on what the exact effects of the wand/staff, the sheath or whatever is covering it would be destroyed. Let's say you have a wand of lighting bolt and you're trying to cast it while it's covered by a sheath, the lighting would basically shatter the sheath into pieces and be cast as normally. I imagine a scenario like this would be you're trying to assassinate someone without them knowing you have a stick that can blast lighting. Ruling like these are very situational and moreso depends on your particular DMs ruling since D&D by nature is a game where you can do whatever the hell you want with the Player's handbook and Dungeon Masters guide acting as set guidelines on how basic mechanics in the game works while its the DMs job to work with players actions and decide if its it makes or breaks those mechanics. Everything else is rule of cool (at least with my table)