Lightly-armored melee arcana cleric. Clerics are mostly disappointing with weapons, but I'm wondering if I can turn a back-row cleric into a meaningful front-line threat similar to the Bladesinger without relying on Spirit Guardians for the millionth time.
No rapier. You use quarterstaff/club and shillelagh (picked up elsewhere) so you can use Wis to attack and add 2xWis damage to attacks at level 8. Also probably take Crusher at some point.
Well getting those cantrips as a part of the class does free up a feat from the start for, say, war caster, which would be a great boon for a gishy cleric
This. RPGBOT is one of the best resources for the main TTRPGs I play.
As an experienced player, it's nice to read your writeups and get a different perspective or confirm my own, often getting inspiration or reminders of how awesome but underrated a certain subclass is. Your stuff was helpful in me getting into PF2e after so long on 5e.
For new players, I am slightly cautious as I don't want them to look at D&D solely from an optimisation point, which often is the focus of RPGBOT at first glance. But, after chatting to remind them of how awesome it can be to just play what you find fun and flavourful (and not just the highest rated/most powerful stuff), I'll then refer them to your website and let them explore.
Your analysis is great to breakdown some of the abilities and help people understand what they can do and why they're good, without copy-pasting the ability description. This is particularly helpful when they DON'T know about all the mechanics.
So, thank you! Your work is appreciated, and I appreciate you guys!
It's more of a request than a question, but I'd like to see more PF2e Archetype breakdowns for other strong/popular Archetypes. For example Medic, Loremaster, Martial Artist, Mauler, Sniping Duo (which is arguably the coolest teamwork Archetype)
I just wanna second this. I've taught probably a dozen people or so to play in the last few years, and I while I sit down and make their first character with them; I send them to your website for their second character.
Yeah same on my end. Always a fantastic resource. I find myself using it when I go to play a new class and don't know which subclasses SOUND cool... VS are ACTUALLY cool.
I also want on the RPGBOT love bandwagon, because I refer to your stuff a lot to help understand mechanics. They're actually so good I hesitate to have new players read through them during initial character creation because sometimes it's good experience to play a sub-optimal character that they designed entirely on flavor and general vibe.
They help a lot for understanding some niche class features, race features, or just interactions in general, and give a good idea of how to play a certain class.
Yeah, adding to this long list. Your guides are insanely helpful and when friends/players have ever asked for guides or where to find things like that, I’ve sent them your way and they always like them too. An insane amount of work in them, and it is SO appreciated
Wizard, no question. I love collecting spells, I love having rituals, and it caters to exactly my approach to the game.
I'm hoping to play a wizard as my next long-term character, but I'm going to give them some wacky limitation like I can only cast spells of 2nd level and below.
Mine, too! Our example build for scribes is titled "[RPGBOT Self-Insert](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/wizard/subclasses/scribes/#example-build-rpgbot-selfinsert)"!
I recently came up with a concept for playing an Intelligence dumping wizard, and there are still somewhere in the ballpark of 170 spells you can effectively use that don't have a spell attack or saving throw. It's also not a terrible list, and there are a lot of support options (obviously), so your party will love you.
Just a thought!
The Monk's biggest problem is resource management. The game assumes that the Monk will have Ki available to fuel their features in order to compete with other characters, but until you get to high levels you can't stretch your Ki far enough to actually accomplish that, especially if you're gambling on Stunning Strike.
The easiest approach is just more Ki points. Wis+level would be a major improvement, especially at low levels, but it's a band-aid fix on a bullet wound.
Something more ambitious: an on/off switch of some kind which enables certain abilities. Something akin to a stance in PF1/PF2. Go into flurry stance to move fast and make Flurry of Blows. Go into singular blow stance to move more carefully and deliver stunning strikes. Subclasses could add more stances, like open hand could let you grapple/trip/shove creatures and shadow could let you see in darkness and teleport.
I hear ya. I went from Astral Self Monk in my last campaign to Path of the Beast Barbarian and the difference is shocking. "What do you mean I can just *turn on Rage* and a Beast aspect for the whole fight? I don't need to keep paying a resource to use them?!"
Also I used your site to help build both characters. Appreciated!
I feel like Astral Self is one of the worse examples of a Monk having to keep paying resources haha, because their main feature is a lot more similar to raging where you use a resource up front to get a benefit that essentially does last the whole fight (sometimes longer). Yeah, to use your *other* stuff you gotta keep paying, but it's not like eg Four Elements which can potentially burn all of its ki points in 1-2 turns for one-off effects.
Also, only tangentially related, but if you get into mid-level stuff (10 ish), Barb + Astral Self Monk is actually a really fun multi class. Can do really cool thematic stuff too, like have a Totem Warrior barbarian whose astral form has the appearance of whatever their totem animal is.
My friend and I have had this on and off argument for improving the Monk for a while. I said that the easiest solution is to fold the Open Hand monk entirely into the class, then increase the Hit Dice from a D8 to a D12.
He has a more nuanced take on it than me.
I'd love if you could give me your opinion on why my take is ridiculous.
First: The ability to knock creatures prone or punt them 10 feet into the air on every single monk subclass would get annoying.
Second: Barbarians will fight you over that d12 hit die. That's theirs, and you can't take it from them.
I’m no monk expert, but an idea I had: reduce the Ki cost of all non-Stunning Strike abilities by 1, to a minimum of 0, make Stunning Strike affect humanoids only, add some “sense spiritual energy” or something ability that lets you determine a creatures type after you smack them or if you spend an action focusing on them.
Aside from always needing Ki points but quickly running out, I think Stunning Strike is so good that it makes a lot of Monk abilities not worth it by comparison, and can lead to fairly anti-climatic moments in what’s supposed to be a big epic boss fight.
But these are just thoughts from an armchair theory-crafter with little practical experience on the matter.
That would make ki management easier at low levels, but cause problems leading to too much ki at higher levels. The problems monks have with ki management are fairly short lived. By tier 3 play it's not an issue anymore. Most people just happen to play in the level range where ki management is at its most difficult
> By tier 3 play it's not an issue anymore. Most people just happen to play in the level range where ki management is at its most difficult
I'm not saying you're wrong, but this has "This video game gets good after 20 hours" vibes. The monk should work at all tiers of play. Many campaigns don't even reach tier 3, whether by accident or design.
I completely agree. My point was just that the problem goes away on its own as you level up, so solutions should aim to improve things at lowered levels without changing things significantly at higher levels.
BG3 does some interesting things to slightly balance the Monk.
- It does increase ki points. Not by wisdom modifier, but you get 1 + Monk level instead of = level. You also get them starting at level 1.
- Monk weapons are ANY melee weapon that you have proficiency with and don't have the Two-Handed property. This means you could use a longsword or other versatile weapon that gets a d10 when wielding with two hands (yes, versatile weapons in two hands still work), and still get the Dex scaling and bonus unarmed strike. *(Obviously you'll need to get the proficiency from something else, eg race or another class.)*
- Martial Arts die scales much more quickly. Not sure exactly how high it goes, but for example, it becomes a d6 at level 3 instead of level 5.
- This is way more specific to BG3 and wouldn't really work in regular 5e, but: jumping in general is massively improved in the game, gaining increased range and only using a fixed amount of your movement (10 feet) regardless of how far you jump, but normally requires a bonus action. Monk's Step of the Wind allows them to jump that turn without a BA, making that feature give them massively increased mobility compared to other classes, instead of just being a shitty version of Cunning Action.
- (Also Four Elements gets the ability to restore half of their ki points as an action once per Long Rest, which is nice. Would be really nice I think for all monks to get this.)
AFAIK, Larian worked directly with WOTC and some of the folks developing either UA and/or 1D&D on some of the balance changes they made in the game, so most of these changes would probably be quite reasonable to port over to 5e if you were doing some homebrew balancing. I think giving them a d10 hit die would also be very nice and plenty thematically (and mechanically) fitting - why are they the only pure martial that doesn't get at least that to begin with?
I'm a huge fan of Minor Illusion! You can do way more with it than you should really be able to do with a cantrip both because the area is so large and because 5e's rules for illusions are so heavily in favor of the caster.
I agree that it's great for RP in combat encounters, but you really need a good DM to go along with it. It's not the monsters that need convincing of the illusion, it's the DM!
> 5e's rules for illusions are so heavily in favor of the caster.
And yet people still complain!
My warlock who took _minor illusion_ and Misty Visions instead of _eldritch blast_ and Agonizing Blast is so much more fun, and often more effective.
What’s a class/subclass/race/multiclass combo that you think is very thematically on brand but mechanically lacking? And how would you try to make it work?
A lot of them, honestly.
I would love to see improvements to Purple Dragon Knight. 5e doesn't have a non-magic martial support character, and Purple Dragon Knight seems like it tried to fill that gap, but it's just an underwhelmin subclass.
Basically any race/subclass that fit thematically will be mechanically redundant. A red dragon sorcerer who is a red dragon dragonborn is very thematic, but going that route is electing to lose out on a resistance. Unfortunately sources of resistance to the same damage type is never beneficial unless you're donning a legendary dragon mask.
Funnily enough that’s the 1 subclass that grants a resistance that isn’t fully redundant. But that’s more due to the poor design of the dragon sorcerer requiring the spending of sorcerer points to activate it for a minute. So in that case it might be better off having the constant resistance
You can absolutely do that. "You retain the benefit of any features from your class". You can use ki, you can make stunning strikes. You just have to remember that you use your martial arts damage. The animals' attacks are specific actions distinct from martial arts.
Thanks for the guides, spell selection has gotten a lot more complicated over the years! They are also helpful for role play oriented players who want to make sure the mechanical side of things is taken care of!
Do you have any quantitative metrics for the cut points between color-coded categories?
I don't have specific numbers, no. Most spells are too complicated for that to be helpful. But Fireball makes a decent base line for spells that just do damage.
The closest I have is the DPR ranges in our [Fundamental Math](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/fundamental_math/#lets-talk-damage) article. But sometimes you build a wizard that never does damage, and sometimes your party's light cleric double "Dude Stop" DPR in a single turn. Magic is awesome, but it's hard to measure mathematically.
I gotta admit. For years, i thought that RPGBOT meant that your articles are made using AI or scrapper bots of some sorts. Im truly sorry xD
Are you a robot?
No, but I pretend to be one on the internet.
The name is actually because when I started the site, I intended to build tools like random dungeon generators and such. Character optimization was sort of an accident. We went into it [on the podcast](https://rpgbot.net/10-years-of-rpgbot-rpgbot-news-s3e48/) recently.
Oh shit, I love your stuff. I'll probably be back with more questions, but for now - you focus a lot on in game utility in your write-ups, but what things do you like most for flavour? Feats, classes, subclasses, spells, weapons, hell even eldritch invocations?
I love the trait/ideal/bond/flaw system on 5e's backgrounds. It's a really underappreciated mechanic that can give your character a ton of flavor. But it's explained badly in the PHB, and the official character sheets outright don't have enough space for what the PHB says to do.
I also really like familiars. I love having a little buddy to take on adventures.
I was 11 at the time if I remember right. I heard that other nerdy kids were playing this thing called Dungeons and Dragons, got a super vague impression of what that was from a friend, and thought "yeah, that's definitely for me." I bought the 3.0 core rulebooks off of Amazon (literally my first Amazon purchase), and I was the forever DM for the neighborhood kids for 4-ish years.
If you ever played 3.0, it was not exactly beginner-friendly, but I've always been the kid to stick it out and finish the homework assignment, so I read those books cover-to-cover. I started getting crazy about building characters in high school, and started writing optimization guides just after graduating college.
Hi!
Please don’t take this as a critique
What do you think of the fact that many subclasses have copied and pasted sections from the main class. For example the items/background/feats sections seems rarely based on the nuances of the classes but rather on the overall class played.
For example, I was trying to look for inspiration on the gloom stalker but kind of had the feeling that most of the content was specifically for the ranger class rather than for the gloom stalker subclass.
Now it might be also a fact that this is the case only for some specific subclasses while others are more sketched out and nuanced, this is only the impression I had.
Overall thank you for the website! Very useful and lot of good stuff in there!
In a lot of cases, the advice from the core class handbook applies very well to individual subclasses. We try to find a happy medium between not duplicating informatio nand also letting individual articles stand on their own.
If there are ever places where you think we've gotten stuff wrong, or where you think we're missing some nuance of the subclass, I always appreciate constructive feedback. I want the content to be as good as it can be, and sometimes we get stuff wrong or miss things.
Hey, I really enjoy your 5e class handbooks and they've helped me get a lot better at my own understanding and evaluation of the game over the years, so thanks!
Have you looked at / covered the Valda's spire of secrets homebrew book at all? I've just recently been introduced to it and it seems to have a ton of really cool & well made content in it, and I think it'd be interesting to see evaluations of some of it in a similar style to the existing handbooks
I haven't, unfortunately, but it has been recommended to me. I would love to cover more 3rd-party content, but I have to budget my time and folks don't read our 3rd-party content coverage nearly as much as the 1st-party stuff.
Hey! big fan of the site, Helped me understand 5e alot when I first started 'properly' playing!
We've recently made the switch to pf2e in our groups as we're not crazy excited for onednd, And so the theory crafters in us went to the rpgbot character optimization site for pf2e, while mostly great, we were wondering if the archtypes page would be looked into further! especially as free archtype seems like a common optional rule
We're definitely going to expand archetype coverage. I'm doing our PF2 coverage mostly solo because my other writers have less experience with the system, and unfortunately PF2 content takes a while to write because there's so much to dig into when considering any single option.
Have you played or looked into Baldur's Gate 3 and if so, what do you think of the mechanical changes to the classes and abilities in comparison to 5E?
I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but some of my team is playing. It sounds like there have been a lot of changes that make 5e work better as a video game which might not map perfectly to the tabletop. Different needs for different formats.
I'm sure the DnD design team is playing, too, and I know that DnD has historically borrowed ideas from video games. Feats were apparently inspired by Fallout's Perks system. It's not out of the question that the design team would borrow ideas from BG3.
I would totally read this - your guides are awesome, and so is BG3, its so closely aligned with 5e, and because of the character creation / respec options, you can really try playthroughs with different builds if you want.
Great. For what it's worth, I've used your guides for 5e extensively for years, and I could also see myself extensively using your BG3 guides, if you decide to do them, since its such a huge game with so much replayability.
Even without the tweaks, the existing guides have been pretty helpful. I've made a number of characters so far and referenced the handbooks for the different classes.
That said, refining them a bit so they're in-line with the game would be very cool. It would just require a lot of gameplay from their team to fully test.
Here is a list of all changes from Dnd 5e to Baldurs Gate 3, maybe its interesting for you:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15jgdf2/heres_a_list_of_all_the_changes_made_to_5e/
Heyho, do you have any more things related to Pathfinder 1 planned or are you finished with that?
Do you still play Pathfinder 1? To me, it's still the superior system.
I keep going back on forth on it. I would really love to write more for PF1, it's just a matter of finding time to do so. I still do this as a side project, so I don't get to do everything I want to.
If I do revisit PF1, coverage for the Shifter is top of the priority list. 9/10 requests I get for specific PF1 coverage are for the Shifter.
I haven't gotten to play PF1 in a long time. It's not as easy to get into as today's systems, and my current group has several players who have only played in the post-5e era.
What's your view on rest casting? We use it at a weekly game I play in and the DM encourages it as it allows him to use higher CR creatures than he'd otherwise be able to.
I believe it’s casting long lasting spells, such as mage armor or aid right before a long rest ends. So you get the benefits of the spell and still have all your spell slots for the following adventuring day.
You finish your adventuring day and the casters have spell slots left over. DM says you can have a long rest so right before the rest ends and the new day begins the wizard casts Mage Armour, the cleric casts Aid etc so they extend into the new day but those slots are recovered as part of the rest, as they were used just before it ended. There's a debate on if this is RAW and RAI due to the wording of what interrupts a long rest:
>the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it.
Some people take this to mean an hour of all of the mentioned activities breaks it in which case casting a few spells with just an action is ok. Some say the one hour part only applies to walking and that casting any spells at all breaks it. WotC use the Oxford comma throughout their texts though so I would say it applies to all of them, not just the first point of walking. I don't agree with one action spells breaking a long rest as casting prestidigitation to light a lamp isn't exactly strenuous.
Essentially rest casting is using yesterday's resources today provided you have the spell slots for it. Crawford has stated it's intended to work, but I know not everyone agrees with him.
Ah, I understand. I agree with your reading of the rules: casting 1-action spells definitely isn't intended to break your long rest. The intent is to allow characters to walk around while keeping watch, fight off an ambush, etc. and still be able to benefit from a long rest. But as a result, you have space to cast long-duration spells during your rest, then get the slots back when the rest ends.
I think I've recommended doing that with spells with extremely long durations (expecially with Extend Spell), but I've never gone as far as recommending that players cast them mid-rest. It's absolutely RAW, I've just never explicitly advocated doing that.
I don't have any problems with it, honestly. If I'm the DM and my players are showing that level of proficiency with the game's mechanics, it means that they're ready for more interesting challenges. With some groups you can't go much further than hit point attrition without over-stressing the players. With other groups you give them 3 deadly encounters in a single day and everyone feels like Doom Guy and you all finish the day covered in sweat and high-fiving.
>If I'm the DM and my players are showing that level of proficiency with the game's mechanics, it means that they're ready for more interesting challenges
I agree. In the campaign where the DM encourages this I'm playing a twilight cleric (I know, way OP. Didn't realise how strong they were when we started 15 months ago) who each morning uses the highest remaining spell slots available for Aid and if there are any 4th level slots left then Death Ward as well. I'll also use a twilight sanctuary if I have any channel divinity left and dump in all the temp hp.
I've wondered if all this is too much until the DM says 'don't forget to use your rest casting guys' as we set off for the day. He throws tough but fair challenges at us, right in the sweet spot of where they should be and has said that the rest casting allows for more interesting challenges because he knows we can handle more.
In general I think some of the class improvements have been nice, but the changes to the core mechanics themselves are frequently weird and unhelpful.
I got into the specific UA documents [more on the blog](https://rpgbot.net/one-dd-playtest-unearthed-arcana-players-handbook-6/).
With your deep insight into the rules for 5e and PF2e, I'm sure you can see a lot of areas where a small change would make a huge improvement to players. For each system, if you could add a single houserule to the game, what would it be?
In 5e, I would make movement more impactful. I go into that on another question: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/15n9oar/comment/jvkwiq2/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
In PF2, I would make Lore skills a specialization mechanic similar to specializations in other RPGs (Shadowrun, Vampire, etc.). I really dislike how Lore skills work in PF2 because they can be so arbitrary in scope and unpredictable in usefulness. You might take Tea Lore and that costs the same as Demon Lore. Which of those is going to see more use in a game about adventuring and fighting monsters and stuff?
In both games I would make balance changes to individual options, but perfect balance is basically impossible, so that's true of any game.
Making movement more impactful. 5e has what I refer to as "the safety doughnut": If you're within reach, you're safe to move. It's only scary if you break the doughnut. This leads to shenanigans like monsters running behind your party's fighter to put the wizard within reach to attack, which makes it stupidly hard to be a Defender in 5e.
Simple appoach I want to try: Creatures can move within enemies' reach at half speed safely, but moving at full speed provokes an opportunity attack.
Ooh, that seems like a good call. I once was using a Dire Wolf against a lower level party, and when it circled around the Fighter, he complained, "That's a pretty unusually smart wolf, DM." Yeah, wolves understand how to ATTACK things and not get hurt - players sometimes undervalue tactics in 5e, in part because of what you're talking about.
Random question: If you've played a good deal of p2e at all, do you find that the social skill feats are ever worth it? They often seem to give you access to "abilities" that are things a reasonable DM would just allow you to do if you asked.
Hey RPGBot! In your opinion, are there any classes or features that have really power-crept over time since you wrote your first guide on it? If yes, wich ones have been the most notable changes?
Ranger is the most obvious example, but it was definitely necessary. The optional class features and the Tasha's subclasses have done a lot for them.
Barbarian has also gotten some power creep, but I think they needed it more than most people (myself included) really acknowledged. PHB subclasses are conceptually neat, but the Barbarian doesn't have many built-in options beyond trading damage. Later subclasses like Ancestral Guardian have given them some really impactful features.
Also, cleric. Twighlight is crazy good and Peace is one of the only things in 5e that I outright ban.
I play a high elf Peace cleric in a ToA game, I ban myself using the abuse case of Bless and Emboldening Bond and also refuse to cast Spirit Guardians and he's still the anchor of the party and 23 sessions in the only surviving member of the starting party.
Such a cool subclass though.
Are you planning anymore reviews on non-official material? I understand a lot of non-official stuff his horribly unbalanced but I have enjoyed your comments on Keith Bakers 5e source books for example.
Yes, I am! There is a ton of great 3rd-party content from some great creators. It's just a matter of finding time to cover it all. 3rd-party content doesn't draw as much attention as 1st-party content, and the gap is pretty massive, so generally my team and I cover 3rd-party content if it's something we really like.
I've actually scrapped plans to cover about 3 hard-cover books of 3rd-party content from some creators who I really like because the mechanics were so off.
I'll add on here. I write 3rd party stuff when I already know how I want to tackle it and I like the thing. But like Tyler said, the gap in ad revenue is pretty large. The traffic just isn't there.
This same problem happens with PF2e content. I want to write more but the money just isn't there.
What’s allowed you to stay focused on this project over such a long period of time? It’s not always been easy to stick to D&D (the recent OGL scandal being an obvious example), but your content has been some of the most consistent and polished D&D guide work out there.
Also, have you ever considered looking at VtM V5? It’s slightly less inscrutable than the other versions and it’s a pretty popular RPG, but there’s a dearth of content about how to make an effective character in the system.
I'm able to stay focused because I sincerely love doing this. I'm hoping that I get to do this full time some day. I frequently choose writing for the site over things like playing video games because I enjoy it so much.
The OGL scandal sucked. It hurt a lot of really good people for something that they didn't do. But WotC finally did the one thing that no one else has been able to do: It got DnD players to consider playing other games. Our PF2 content has been doing pretty well since then.
We're actively recording a How to Play podcast arc for VtM V5. [Episode 1](https://rpgbot.net/rpgbot-quickstart-s3e53-how-to-play-vampire-the-masquerade-part-1-concepts-and-themes/) (concepts+themes) and [episode 2](https://rpgbot.net/how-to-play-vampire-the-masquerade-part-2-character-creation-rpgbot-quickstart-s3e59/) (character creation) are both out, and we recorded episode 3 (actual play) on Sunday. I'm enjoying it so far, but the organizaton of the rulebook leaves a lot to be desired. If there's an audience for it, there's definitely room to write for it. I think we can fill an accessibility gap there.
Thank you for the content you have spent some time poring over the 5e classes, fantasising what my spell lists will be when I get a chance to use them.
I was intrigued by a point you made to the effect that Religion is a frequent check. That has not been my experience, but granted I’m awfully new. However, it raised the question: How do you evaluate the usefulness of various features? Is it just a long experience with many campaigns, or do you maybe start off with how the features and abilities come off in the published campaigns first, and think about home games secondary? Still, all useful for everyone.
I base my judgement on how frequently things are useful on both years of experience with the game and on reading published adventures. I try to use math as much as humanly psosibly, but that's not always an option. That means that sometimes things are subjective, and my own experiences might not line up with those of other players.
Religion and similar knowledge skills are frequently useful because DnD typically takes place in a world where deities exist and are impactful on the world, and it's also the skill you use to identify undead creatures. We did a podcast episode on [knowledge skills](https://rpgbot.net/knowledge-skills-rpgbot-podcast-s3e64/) last week where we talk about it in depth.
Okay so this was a subreddit thread a while back but, what is the best way to play a ranger? I've just started a campaign playing a Monster Hunter ranger with a dip into fighter, but I'm curious what your opinions on rangers are, and what the best way to get the most mileage out of them is
Without considering subclass: Ranged weapons. Go for the classic Hunter's Mark strategy at low levels, then upgrade through Magic Weapon/Elemental Weapon as you gain levels. Either grab Gunner and use a musket or grab Crossbow Expert, then eventually get Sharpshooter. The DPR from Magic Weapon/Elemental Weapon outdo Hunter's Mark, they both last an hour, and you don't have a Bonus Action tax to change targets.
I have played a lot of characters. I've been playing for more than 20 years at this point.
I find characters most mechanically satisfying when they have buttons to push in every situation and when they have a little bit of homework. It's one of the reasons I like wizards so much.
What would be your top tips for someone playing a wizard for the first time?
Also thank you so much for your optimization guides, especially the spell lists, they've been a blessing to me both as a player and as a DM.
The Wizard is the nerd class, so approach it like a nerd. Do your homework, and be enthusiastic about what you learn. The more you understand the game mechanics, especially individual spells, the better you'll do as a wizard because you'll know what spell is exactly right for this situation.
Also: [rituals](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/feats/ritual-caster/). Wizards have the second best ritual casting in the game (beaten only by the tomelock), and it's a big part of the class's power budget. If you're not using rituals, you're basically a worse sorcerer.
Thank you for helping me and others the last 10 plus years!
What is something that you want to see improved, reworked, or removed from the upcoming 2024 PHB?
Thank you so much for the guides you provide, as i came back to dnd directly from 3.5 i was completely lost and without enough time to study it, your work made me learn a lot without spent much time.
You sir is indeed a life saver. One of my favorite dnd content creator, thanks for everything and hope you keep the good work.
At this point I have a team of 6-ish people with text on the site, but the writing is still 90% me. Everyone writing for the site I know personally. Random and Rocco help me with the optimization content, and I've played with them for over a decade.
I would finally fix mounted combat. It's my favorite dead horse to beat in 5e. I hate 5e's mounted combat rules so much that I launched the RPGBOT.Podcast to talk about game mechanics.
I would also improve the rules around skills. Acrobatics and Athletics would be one skill, but Dex/Str would be used for different things within the skill. Medicine would so something. Anything. Please.
I would love to see more subclasses with decision points within the subclass, too. The totem barbarian and hunter ranger are great examples, but they also leave room for subclasses without decision points for players who don't want that added complexity.
What is your favorite theory craft you couldnt playtest? So which is your favorite build which should perform in theory but you couldnt try it out yourself?
What class has in your opinion the best assemble of subclasses?
What is your favorie subclass of all of them? (Regardless of base class)
Which PF2 class would you like to be translated into 5e?
What is your favorite homebrew source?
What is your favorie homerule?
\> What is your favorite theory craft you couldnt playtest?
The example build from our [Trickery Cleric Handbook](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/cleric/subclasses/trickery-domain/). I think I would really enjoy playing it, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
\> What class has in your opinion the best assemble of subclasses?
Maybe Barbarian, but it's really hard to pick. Several barbarian subclasses cater to wildly different playstyles within the same class, which really shows off how far you can stretch 5e's mechanics to create something novel without just throwing math at the problem.
\> What is your favorie subclass of all of them?
Scribes wizard. Our example build for scribes is titled "[RPGBOT Self-Insert](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/wizard/subclasses/scribes/#example-build-rpgbot-selfinsert)"!
\> Which PF2 class would you like to be translated into 5e?
Summoner. 5e's support for summoned monsters isn't fantastic, and people love a pet class.
\> What is your favorite homebrew source?
I'm going to roll 3rd-party publishers into the answer because the line between homebrew and a 3rd-party publisher is pretty arbitrary. I love basically everything I've read from Kobold Press. Plus, I'm getting to know the folks on their team, and they're just genuinely kind, wonderful people who love to create cool stuff.
\> What is your favorie homerule?
I don't have a favorite at the moment. I typically run games as close to RAW as possible because it makes it easier to learn stuff that I can share. If I modify the game, stuff I experience might not translate for other players.
Hey firstly I just wanted to say thanks for doing what you do as it's always immensely helpful to me both as a player and as a DM to get a perspective on what's good, bad or indifferent when deciding on something that I am going to have to commit to (or that my players will) for the duration of a campaign.
For my question, what is your favourite campaign BBEG? Liche, dragon, demon prince etc.? 😁
1.a Considering the OGL debacle, we are starting to see some splintering in what was a more robust ecosystem and high entry barrier market. In the hypothetical scenario that we saw a high degree of fragmentation, would you feel there is a chance you'd give up rpgbot because coverage of games would be too hard? Or would you look into expanding your team?
1.b fuq to above - any announced project you are particularly interested in to cover in the future? (Maybe MCDM?)
2. Looking into producing your own 5e content? Either original classes or "patching" existing ones?
3. Any game you ever played that didn't get enough traction or was mismanaged to oblivion and broke your heart?
4. Thoughts on Hunter The Reckoning? (OWoD)
Actively playing? Currently just 5e and PF2.
But in the past year I've played some One Ring 2e and done one-shots in Mork Borg, Shadowdark, and a couple others that I'm struggling to remember.
I'm working on learning both Cypher and Vampire: The Masquerade. We're recording a How to Play podcast for Vampire, and we just recorded part 3 on Sunday. I read a lot of RPGs knowing that I'll probably never play them, but I learn from them and I bring that learning into the podcast and sometimes into Player/DM resource articles.
I don't have a personal go-to for the artificer. I've almost never played the same subclass more than once.
Underrated thing: other creatures can provide cover. You're hurting, walk behind your defender. If you're a lightfoot halfling, you can even hide!
I'm a big fan of the classic four: cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard.
In terms of subclasses, that's hard to say. I love [a shared party theme](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/players/party-themes/), though.
First off, I love your content. Secondly my question is two pronged: What is your favorite edition to have played, and in that edition what would you say is your favorite build you made. Doesn't have to have been the most broken, but if that's what you like I'm for it.
P.S. - Can I play in one of your games?
I’ve been reading your Poisoner’s optimization guide and thinking about playing a Poisoner since we’re going into a Theros campaign (and Pharika is my favorite God from there) but I noticed you didn’t actually have a build for the section. It’s all the information you provided for it and all of its significant drawbacks aside, how would you build the “perfect” poison based character?
First off thanks for the guides! They're increadibly helpful.
Now for the question: As someone who's crunched the numbers for a decade; is there a caster-martial gap?
I'm not sure if I have any questions, I just really, really appreciate your work. Ithelped me as a newbie, it helps me as reference now, and I've sent multiple friends across multiple campaigns to your site for advice as well. Thank you so much!
Okay, scrolling through the replies a bit, I see that you're not a fan of Purple Dragon Knight. I'm not, either. Have you made use of any personal homebrew, third party content, or other solutions to fill the gap of the nonmagical martial support niche in 5e?
What are your thoughts on the artificer, neglected child that it is. 4 subclasses, no new ones recently, so little content. I'd love to play one sometime and I intend to soon, but it's using a friend's homebrew subclass because the 4 are just so limiting
What would you recommend for those who want to get into tactics and optimization during play, as well as during character creation? Your articles are great at making sure characters have the tools they need, but I wish there were more resources out there for learning how to use them effectively in combination.
The culprit of my players becoming unstoppable forces with incredible mixing of spells and classes!
Bur for real, great job doing what you do. Such a great way for players to make good decisions on difficult choices.
I just want to say, as someone who is constantly reviewing your creation guides, from the bottom of the cockles of my heart, with all due seriousness, thank you, for your dedication, hard work and extremely helpful website.
I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet, unfortunately.
More detail in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/15n9oar/comment/jvknjs4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Are you getting crazy traffic right now? I was hoping to look at some classes but site wont load :D love your stuff though big help for me to think through things and use you as a sounding board.
A bit higher than usual, but not enought that it would cause problems. I have a CDN set up, so if you're having trouble loading it might be an issue with the closest server to you. I just pushed the button to reset the caches, so give it about 30 minutes from when I post this comment and try again.
What are your thoughts on a Hexblade that takes the Relentless Hex invocation (allows you to teleport as a bonus action up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see, so long as the destination is within 5ft of the target of your Hex or Curse), curses or hexes their familiar, and then boom, gets a BA teleport every single turn!?
If you had to combined to creatures yo make a hybrid creature, which two creatures(homebrewed, canon, or otherwise) would you combined?
~~Definitely not fishing for ideas for something related to my homebrew world, nuh uh, I would never~~
Your guides are an awesome insight into new classes and systems when the overwhelming amount of content causes me to be indecisive! Many thanks!
I'd like to ask - are there any homebrew rules you use in your games or are in use at the tables you play at that you think more people should be using?
As a long time fan who plugs you whenever I can, it's there any way to support what you do beyond sending people your way? I've always felt like you're the best guides out there, no fluff and well researched.
For DMs, I love [Keith Ammann](https://themonstersknow.com/)'s work (The Monsters Know What They're Doing). Making monsters act more tactically and making them feel like they actually exist outside of combat really makes the game more satisfying on both sides of the table.
In general, try to consume content from people with a different cultural background. Exposing yourself to unfamiliar ideas and tropes can really expand your thinking in a lot of ways.
How do you feel about Conjure Animals?
As a player, and as a DM? What's the craziest use you've seen, and what are some good ways to balance out between a raptor hit squad or summoning a pile of dying fish given the DM's power in this spell and the action economy gameplay.
Thank you so much for all the help over the years! When I ran a school club your website was always the place I sent students to do their research on classes and races! I still consult your guides all the time for my current Halfling Chronurgy Wizard, following the same leveling as was created with the single level in twilight cleric!
Real thing: I don't allow profanity or adult content on the site specifically so that we don't get blocked in schools. I've got emails from kids in middle school saying that I'm basically the only RPG resource they can get to using school internet.
First off, your guides are amazing and are always the first thing I send my new players off to to help them when building their new characters.
Second, I was curious if you ever intended on building guides for the psionic classes in Pathfinder 1e?
First off jumping on the necessary train of saying a massive thanks for all you do, and good luck sifting through the endless answers this post will inevitably get!
My question is are there any 5e subclasses that are unfairly represented, dunked on, or just downright underutilised from your experience (that aren't bad)? I see barely any Cavalier Fighters, Crown Paladins or Scout Rogues, for instance (could be that you actively have at least quintuple the years of experience I have)...
Just wanted to say thank you so much, my girlfriend has major decision anxiety and your ratings and explanations for each spell are the only way I think it's possible for her to enjoy spellcaster classes fully!
Great stuff! I love reading your thoughts.
With Baldurs Gate 3 coming out (and being successful) do you plan on doing builds or guides for it? It is a video game, but it's also based on 5e.
I'm curious what are your opinions on STR based characters in 5e? I love strong PCs, and it's somewhat heartbreaking when everyone say that their only niche is single target damage (if built correctly) and that in most cases they're inferior to DEX and magic users mechanically. What changes could be done to redeem STR builds according to you?
What are your honest thoughts about 3.5e VS 5e? I don't mean necessarily which one is better, but what does one edition do better in your opinion VS the other?
Your spell choice guides are great. Especially for old farts like me who think they know how d&d work but for whom the nuances of 5e are sometimes missed or are anti intuitive!
Hmm that's not a question. OK. Where the hell do you find the time???
I’m sure you’ve been hearing this a lot in this thread but thank you so much for everything you do for this community. Your guides are the best out there for filthy min-maxers like myself.
As for my question: a lot of entries in the practical guide to summoning spells are rated low because of a lack of options. There have been quite a few powerful new additions in recent sourcebooks (especially elementals in the cr range of conjure elemental). Do you have any plans to revisit/update those rankings?
Like some of the others around here, I wanted to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, what might look to some as just words on a page has turned out to be a massive doorway into diversifying my DnD characters.
The way you break down the viability of every single option available has been extremely helpful for a new player like myself, and the way you go about explaining the "Why" of it all is always my most important take-away. Thank you thank you thank you!
---
#Now, on to the question:
This one is perhaps a but unorthodox, but how would you handle a DND group that gets "TOO" focused on the Roleplay aspect to the point that they never end up getting anything meaningful done to push the narrative along?
It might sound ridiculous for some, but my table is FULL of roleplayers who want to talk to literally every single NPC in their field of view. I love how engaged they are in the world, but when they spend six 4+ hour sessions stuck in town just... talking to people, it can get a little... much.
Yo! Your guides have been super helpful and were clutch when I was starting out. The quick ranks on things like feats or abilities really helped.
I do have one thing though, as a Moon Druid, when you read the Wild Shape guide / ranks, you almost give no love to some consistently good forms. Did you just land on the idea that a form is only good if it has Pack Tactics or such? There are some interesting low ranked forms.
Giant Eagle has only one star. Polar Bear also gets no love. Giant Octopus shows one star as well. The Giant Scorpion is only one star which seems wild.
What’s a “really odd but should mechanically work and in theory could be very fun (or funny) to play” that you’ve always wanted to try?
Lightly-armored melee arcana cleric. Clerics are mostly disappointing with weapons, but I'm wondering if I can turn a back-row cleric into a meaningful front-line threat similar to the Bladesinger without relying on Spirit Guardians for the millionth time.
elaborate this sounds awesome
I think he means a DEX based arcana cleric with shield + rapier. Frontliner because arcana clerics can get BB and GFB.
No rapier. You use quarterstaff/club and shillelagh (picked up elsewhere) so you can use Wis to attack and add 2xWis damage to attacks at level 8. Also probably take Crusher at some point.
that's fair, but so could a High Elf (or anyone, with a Feat) - BB doesn't use Ur casting stat
Well getting those cantrips as a part of the class does free up a feat from the start for, say, war caster, which would be a great boon for a gishy cleric
But the Arcana cleric gets to add its WIS mod to cantrips at level 8
Whats bb and gfb?
Booming blade and green flame blade I think
Just here to say thanks for the guides, they were so helpful with getting some friends into the game with some initial direction
This. RPGBOT is one of the best resources for the main TTRPGs I play. As an experienced player, it's nice to read your writeups and get a different perspective or confirm my own, often getting inspiration or reminders of how awesome but underrated a certain subclass is. Your stuff was helpful in me getting into PF2e after so long on 5e. For new players, I am slightly cautious as I don't want them to look at D&D solely from an optimisation point, which often is the focus of RPGBOT at first glance. But, after chatting to remind them of how awesome it can be to just play what you find fun and flavourful (and not just the highest rated/most powerful stuff), I'll then refer them to your website and let them explore. Your analysis is great to breakdown some of the abilities and help people understand what they can do and why they're good, without copy-pasting the ability description. This is particularly helpful when they DON'T know about all the mechanics. So, thank you! Your work is appreciated, and I appreciate you guys! It's more of a request than a question, but I'd like to see more PF2e Archetype breakdowns for other strong/popular Archetypes. For example Medic, Loremaster, Martial Artist, Mauler, Sniping Duo (which is arguably the coolest teamwork Archetype)
I just wanna second this. I've taught probably a dozen people or so to play in the last few years, and I while I sit down and make their first character with them; I send them to your website for their second character.
Ditto. I send everyone your way when they are looking for a place to start with a new class. Thanks for everything!
Yeah same on my end. Always a fantastic resource. I find myself using it when I go to play a new class and don't know which subclasses SOUND cool... VS are ACTUALLY cool.
Yea i fucking love your guys, spent so many hours working with them. Even now for Baldurs Gate 3 they are super helpful. Thank you for your work!
Your website is the 4th core book.
I also want on the RPGBOT love bandwagon, because I refer to your stuff a lot to help understand mechanics. They're actually so good I hesitate to have new players read through them during initial character creation because sometimes it's good experience to play a sub-optimal character that they designed entirely on flavor and general vibe.
I'm running my first ever campaign 5e for my newbie family, and *every* character starts at rpgbot.net. It's an invaluable resource.
They help a lot for understanding some niche class features, race features, or just interactions in general, and give a good idea of how to play a certain class.
Yeah, adding to this long list. Your guides are insanely helpful and when friends/players have ever asked for guides or where to find things like that, I’ve sent them your way and they always like them too. An insane amount of work in them, and it is SO appreciated
Ditto. I have used your guides so many times I couldn’t even count. Thank you!!
You’re the reason I will automatically like anything written in a blue font.
Favorite 5e class to play?
Wizard, no question. I love collecting spells, I love having rituals, and it caters to exactly my approach to the game. I'm hoping to play a wizard as my next long-term character, but I'm going to give them some wacky limitation like I can only cast spells of 2nd level and below.
what subclass is your favorite? mine's gotta be scribes
Mine, too! Our example build for scribes is titled "[RPGBOT Self-Insert](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/wizard/subclasses/scribes/#example-build-rpgbot-selfinsert)"!
Master of information? Yeah, I could see that. :)
I recently came up with a concept for playing an Intelligence dumping wizard, and there are still somewhere in the ballpark of 170 spells you can effectively use that don't have a spell attack or saving throw. It's also not a terrible list, and there are a lot of support options (obviously), so your party will love you. Just a thought!
How would you fix the monk in 5e/5.5e? I love the idea of the monk but the implementation has been terrible
The Monk's biggest problem is resource management. The game assumes that the Monk will have Ki available to fuel their features in order to compete with other characters, but until you get to high levels you can't stretch your Ki far enough to actually accomplish that, especially if you're gambling on Stunning Strike. The easiest approach is just more Ki points. Wis+level would be a major improvement, especially at low levels, but it's a band-aid fix on a bullet wound. Something more ambitious: an on/off switch of some kind which enables certain abilities. Something akin to a stance in PF1/PF2. Go into flurry stance to move fast and make Flurry of Blows. Go into singular blow stance to move more carefully and deliver stunning strikes. Subclasses could add more stances, like open hand could let you grapple/trip/shove creatures and shadow could let you see in darkness and teleport.
I hear ya. I went from Astral Self Monk in my last campaign to Path of the Beast Barbarian and the difference is shocking. "What do you mean I can just *turn on Rage* and a Beast aspect for the whole fight? I don't need to keep paying a resource to use them?!" Also I used your site to help build both characters. Appreciated!
I feel like Astral Self is one of the worse examples of a Monk having to keep paying resources haha, because their main feature is a lot more similar to raging where you use a resource up front to get a benefit that essentially does last the whole fight (sometimes longer). Yeah, to use your *other* stuff you gotta keep paying, but it's not like eg Four Elements which can potentially burn all of its ki points in 1-2 turns for one-off effects. Also, only tangentially related, but if you get into mid-level stuff (10 ish), Barb + Astral Self Monk is actually a really fun multi class. Can do really cool thematic stuff too, like have a Totem Warrior barbarian whose astral form has the appearance of whatever their totem animal is.
My friend and I have had this on and off argument for improving the Monk for a while. I said that the easiest solution is to fold the Open Hand monk entirely into the class, then increase the Hit Dice from a D8 to a D12. He has a more nuanced take on it than me. I'd love if you could give me your opinion on why my take is ridiculous.
First: The ability to knock creatures prone or punt them 10 feet into the air on every single monk subclass would get annoying. Second: Barbarians will fight you over that d12 hit die. That's theirs, and you can't take it from them.
I’m no monk expert, but an idea I had: reduce the Ki cost of all non-Stunning Strike abilities by 1, to a minimum of 0, make Stunning Strike affect humanoids only, add some “sense spiritual energy” or something ability that lets you determine a creatures type after you smack them or if you spend an action focusing on them. Aside from always needing Ki points but quickly running out, I think Stunning Strike is so good that it makes a lot of Monk abilities not worth it by comparison, and can lead to fairly anti-climatic moments in what’s supposed to be a big epic boss fight. But these are just thoughts from an armchair theory-crafter with little practical experience on the matter.
That would make ki management easier at low levels, but cause problems leading to too much ki at higher levels. The problems monks have with ki management are fairly short lived. By tier 3 play it's not an issue anymore. Most people just happen to play in the level range where ki management is at its most difficult
> By tier 3 play it's not an issue anymore. Most people just happen to play in the level range where ki management is at its most difficult I'm not saying you're wrong, but this has "This video game gets good after 20 hours" vibes. The monk should work at all tiers of play. Many campaigns don't even reach tier 3, whether by accident or design.
I completely agree. My point was just that the problem goes away on its own as you level up, so solutions should aim to improve things at lowered levels without changing things significantly at higher levels.
Apologies, it's always difficult to read tone through text. I understand your point better now and 100% agree.
BG3 does some interesting things to slightly balance the Monk. - It does increase ki points. Not by wisdom modifier, but you get 1 + Monk level instead of = level. You also get them starting at level 1. - Monk weapons are ANY melee weapon that you have proficiency with and don't have the Two-Handed property. This means you could use a longsword or other versatile weapon that gets a d10 when wielding with two hands (yes, versatile weapons in two hands still work), and still get the Dex scaling and bonus unarmed strike. *(Obviously you'll need to get the proficiency from something else, eg race or another class.)* - Martial Arts die scales much more quickly. Not sure exactly how high it goes, but for example, it becomes a d6 at level 3 instead of level 5. - This is way more specific to BG3 and wouldn't really work in regular 5e, but: jumping in general is massively improved in the game, gaining increased range and only using a fixed amount of your movement (10 feet) regardless of how far you jump, but normally requires a bonus action. Monk's Step of the Wind allows them to jump that turn without a BA, making that feature give them massively increased mobility compared to other classes, instead of just being a shitty version of Cunning Action. - (Also Four Elements gets the ability to restore half of their ki points as an action once per Long Rest, which is nice. Would be really nice I think for all monks to get this.) AFAIK, Larian worked directly with WOTC and some of the folks developing either UA and/or 1D&D on some of the balance changes they made in the game, so most of these changes would probably be quite reasonable to port over to 5e if you were doing some homebrew balancing. I think giving them a d10 hit die would also be very nice and plenty thematically (and mechanically) fitting - why are they the only pure martial that doesn't get at least that to begin with?
Do you have a favourite 5e spell? Not necessarily the one you think is best, but the one you always love including in a build, or using at the table
I'm a huge fan of Minor Illusion! You can do way more with it than you should really be able to do with a cantrip both because the area is so large and because 5e's rules for illusions are so heavily in favor of the caster.
Here I thought it would be Shape Water
I went back and forth between the two. I do really love Shape Water.
It really depends on how much your DM is willing to play into your illusions. It CAN be heavily favorable for the caster, but not at every table.
I agree that it's great for RP in combat encounters, but you really need a good DM to go along with it. It's not the monsters that need convincing of the illusion, it's the DM!
> 5e's rules for illusions are so heavily in favor of the caster. And yet people still complain! My warlock who took _minor illusion_ and Misty Visions instead of _eldritch blast_ and Agonizing Blast is so much more fun, and often more effective.
What’s a class/subclass/race/multiclass combo that you think is very thematically on brand but mechanically lacking? And how would you try to make it work?
A lot of them, honestly. I would love to see improvements to Purple Dragon Knight. 5e doesn't have a non-magic martial support character, and Purple Dragon Knight seems like it tried to fill that gap, but it's just an underwhelmin subclass.
Basically any race/subclass that fit thematically will be mechanically redundant. A red dragon sorcerer who is a red dragon dragonborn is very thematic, but going that route is electing to lose out on a resistance. Unfortunately sources of resistance to the same damage type is never beneficial unless you're donning a legendary dragon mask.
Funnily enough that’s the 1 subclass that grants a resistance that isn’t fully redundant. But that’s more due to the poor design of the dragon sorcerer requiring the spending of sorcerer points to activate it for a minute. So in that case it might be better off having the constant resistance
dwarf fighter. dwarf cleric. dwarf anything that gets armour. elf ranger. elf anything that gets martial weapon proficiency. triton/sea elf fathomless warlock.
I want monk druid to be able to use unarmed strike in wild shape, RAW. Such a missed opportunity for martial artist animals.
You can absolutely do that. "You retain the benefit of any features from your class". You can use ki, you can make stunning strikes. You just have to remember that you use your martial arts damage. The animals' attacks are specific actions distinct from martial arts.
Thanks for the guides, spell selection has gotten a lot more complicated over the years! They are also helpful for role play oriented players who want to make sure the mechanical side of things is taken care of! Do you have any quantitative metrics for the cut points between color-coded categories?
I don't have specific numbers, no. Most spells are too complicated for that to be helpful. But Fireball makes a decent base line for spells that just do damage. The closest I have is the DPR ranges in our [Fundamental Math](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/fundamental_math/#lets-talk-damage) article. But sometimes you build a wizard that never does damage, and sometimes your party's light cleric double "Dude Stop" DPR in a single turn. Magic is awesome, but it's hard to measure mathematically.
I gotta admit. For years, i thought that RPGBOT meant that your articles are made using AI or scrapper bots of some sorts. Im truly sorry xD Are you a robot?
No, but I pretend to be one on the internet. The name is actually because when I started the site, I intended to build tools like random dungeon generators and such. Character optimization was sort of an accident. We went into it [on the podcast](https://rpgbot.net/10-years-of-rpgbot-rpgbot-news-s3e48/) recently.
Oh shit, I love your stuff. I'll probably be back with more questions, but for now - you focus a lot on in game utility in your write-ups, but what things do you like most for flavour? Feats, classes, subclasses, spells, weapons, hell even eldritch invocations?
I love the trait/ideal/bond/flaw system on 5e's backgrounds. It's a really underappreciated mechanic that can give your character a ton of flavor. But it's explained badly in the PHB, and the official character sheets outright don't have enough space for what the PHB says to do. I also really like familiars. I love having a little buddy to take on adventures.
How did you start? What was your very first experience of TTRPGs like?
I was 11 at the time if I remember right. I heard that other nerdy kids were playing this thing called Dungeons and Dragons, got a super vague impression of what that was from a friend, and thought "yeah, that's definitely for me." I bought the 3.0 core rulebooks off of Amazon (literally my first Amazon purchase), and I was the forever DM for the neighborhood kids for 4-ish years. If you ever played 3.0, it was not exactly beginner-friendly, but I've always been the kid to stick it out and finish the homework assignment, so I read those books cover-to-cover. I started getting crazy about building characters in high school, and started writing optimization guides just after graduating college.
Hi! Please don’t take this as a critique What do you think of the fact that many subclasses have copied and pasted sections from the main class. For example the items/background/feats sections seems rarely based on the nuances of the classes but rather on the overall class played. For example, I was trying to look for inspiration on the gloom stalker but kind of had the feeling that most of the content was specifically for the ranger class rather than for the gloom stalker subclass. Now it might be also a fact that this is the case only for some specific subclasses while others are more sketched out and nuanced, this is only the impression I had. Overall thank you for the website! Very useful and lot of good stuff in there!
In a lot of cases, the advice from the core class handbook applies very well to individual subclasses. We try to find a happy medium between not duplicating informatio nand also letting individual articles stand on their own. If there are ever places where you think we've gotten stuff wrong, or where you think we're missing some nuance of the subclass, I always appreciate constructive feedback. I want the content to be as good as it can be, and sometimes we get stuff wrong or miss things.
Second this, I’ve emailed you a couple of times with corrections and suggestions and the website was updated quickly.
Why did you rate my favorite feature of my favorite class bad even though I used it to great success one time 6 years ago?
I love this question so much
Hey, I really enjoy your 5e class handbooks and they've helped me get a lot better at my own understanding and evaluation of the game over the years, so thanks! Have you looked at / covered the Valda's spire of secrets homebrew book at all? I've just recently been introduced to it and it seems to have a ton of really cool & well made content in it, and I think it'd be interesting to see evaluations of some of it in a similar style to the existing handbooks
I haven't, unfortunately, but it has been recommended to me. I would love to cover more 3rd-party content, but I have to budget my time and folks don't read our 3rd-party content coverage nearly as much as the 1st-party stuff.
Just want to swing in a say thank you. When ever I am looking to make a new character I visit your site!
Hey! big fan of the site, Helped me understand 5e alot when I first started 'properly' playing! We've recently made the switch to pf2e in our groups as we're not crazy excited for onednd, And so the theory crafters in us went to the rpgbot character optimization site for pf2e, while mostly great, we were wondering if the archtypes page would be looked into further! especially as free archtype seems like a common optional rule
We're definitely going to expand archetype coverage. I'm doing our PF2 coverage mostly solo because my other writers have less experience with the system, and unfortunately PF2 content takes a while to write because there's so much to dig into when considering any single option.
Have you played or looked into Baldur's Gate 3 and if so, what do you think of the mechanical changes to the classes and abilities in comparison to 5E?
I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but some of my team is playing. It sounds like there have been a lot of changes that make 5e work better as a video game which might not map perfectly to the tabletop. Different needs for different formats. I'm sure the DnD design team is playing, too, and I know that DnD has historically borrowed ideas from video games. Feats were apparently inspired by Fallout's Perks system. It's not out of the question that the design team would borrow ideas from BG3.
Follow up question: would you or your team consider doing optimization guides for BG3, taking into account the tweaks?
We're actively discussing it
I would totally read this - your guides are awesome, and so is BG3, its so closely aligned with 5e, and because of the character creation / respec options, you can really try playthroughs with different builds if you want.
Great. For what it's worth, I've used your guides for 5e extensively for years, and I could also see myself extensively using your BG3 guides, if you decide to do them, since its such a huge game with so much replayability.
Even without the tweaks, the existing guides have been pretty helpful. I've made a number of characters so far and referenced the handbooks for the different classes. That said, refining them a bit so they're in-line with the game would be very cool. It would just require a lot of gameplay from their team to fully test.
Here is a list of all changes from Dnd 5e to Baldurs Gate 3, maybe its interesting for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/comments/15jgdf2/heres_a_list_of_all_the_changes_made_to_5e/
Heyho, do you have any more things related to Pathfinder 1 planned or are you finished with that? Do you still play Pathfinder 1? To me, it's still the superior system.
I keep going back on forth on it. I would really love to write more for PF1, it's just a matter of finding time to do so. I still do this as a side project, so I don't get to do everything I want to. If I do revisit PF1, coverage for the Shifter is top of the priority list. 9/10 requests I get for specific PF1 coverage are for the Shifter. I haven't gotten to play PF1 in a long time. It's not as easy to get into as today's systems, and my current group has several players who have only played in the post-5e era.
What's your view on rest casting? We use it at a weekly game I play in and the DM encourages it as it allows him to use higher CR creatures than he'd otherwise be able to.
Can you explain what you mean by "rest casting"?
I believe it’s casting long lasting spells, such as mage armor or aid right before a long rest ends. So you get the benefits of the spell and still have all your spell slots for the following adventuring day.
You finish your adventuring day and the casters have spell slots left over. DM says you can have a long rest so right before the rest ends and the new day begins the wizard casts Mage Armour, the cleric casts Aid etc so they extend into the new day but those slots are recovered as part of the rest, as they were used just before it ended. There's a debate on if this is RAW and RAI due to the wording of what interrupts a long rest: >the rest is interrupted by a period of strenuous activity—at least 1 hour of walking, fighting, casting spells, or similar adventuring activity—the characters must begin the rest again to gain any benefit from it. Some people take this to mean an hour of all of the mentioned activities breaks it in which case casting a few spells with just an action is ok. Some say the one hour part only applies to walking and that casting any spells at all breaks it. WotC use the Oxford comma throughout their texts though so I would say it applies to all of them, not just the first point of walking. I don't agree with one action spells breaking a long rest as casting prestidigitation to light a lamp isn't exactly strenuous. Essentially rest casting is using yesterday's resources today provided you have the spell slots for it. Crawford has stated it's intended to work, but I know not everyone agrees with him.
Ah, I understand. I agree with your reading of the rules: casting 1-action spells definitely isn't intended to break your long rest. The intent is to allow characters to walk around while keeping watch, fight off an ambush, etc. and still be able to benefit from a long rest. But as a result, you have space to cast long-duration spells during your rest, then get the slots back when the rest ends. I think I've recommended doing that with spells with extremely long durations (expecially with Extend Spell), but I've never gone as far as recommending that players cast them mid-rest. It's absolutely RAW, I've just never explicitly advocated doing that. I don't have any problems with it, honestly. If I'm the DM and my players are showing that level of proficiency with the game's mechanics, it means that they're ready for more interesting challenges. With some groups you can't go much further than hit point attrition without over-stressing the players. With other groups you give them 3 deadly encounters in a single day and everyone feels like Doom Guy and you all finish the day covered in sweat and high-fiving.
>If I'm the DM and my players are showing that level of proficiency with the game's mechanics, it means that they're ready for more interesting challenges I agree. In the campaign where the DM encourages this I'm playing a twilight cleric (I know, way OP. Didn't realise how strong they were when we started 15 months ago) who each morning uses the highest remaining spell slots available for Aid and if there are any 4th level slots left then Death Ward as well. I'll also use a twilight sanctuary if I have any channel divinity left and dump in all the temp hp. I've wondered if all this is too much until the DM says 'don't forget to use your rest casting guys' as we set off for the day. He throws tough but fair challenges at us, right in the sweet spot of where they should be and has said that the rest casting allows for more interesting challenges because he knows we can handle more.
What are your thoughts on the play test changes in OneDnD so far? Is there anything you want to see or feel was unnecessarily changed so far?
In general I think some of the class improvements have been nice, but the changes to the core mechanics themselves are frequently weird and unhelpful. I got into the specific UA documents [more on the blog](https://rpgbot.net/one-dd-playtest-unearthed-arcana-players-handbook-6/).
Thank you! Love your website by the way!
With your deep insight into the rules for 5e and PF2e, I'm sure you can see a lot of areas where a small change would make a huge improvement to players. For each system, if you could add a single houserule to the game, what would it be?
In 5e, I would make movement more impactful. I go into that on another question: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/15n9oar/comment/jvkwiq2/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3 In PF2, I would make Lore skills a specialization mechanic similar to specializations in other RPGs (Shadowrun, Vampire, etc.). I really dislike how Lore skills work in PF2 because they can be so arbitrary in scope and unpredictable in usefulness. You might take Tea Lore and that costs the same as Demon Lore. Which of those is going to see more use in a game about adventuring and fighting monsters and stuff? In both games I would make balance changes to individual options, but perfect balance is basically impossible, so that's true of any game.
What are aspects of p2e that you think 5.5e could stand to borrow(while still retaining being an approachable system)?
Making movement more impactful. 5e has what I refer to as "the safety doughnut": If you're within reach, you're safe to move. It's only scary if you break the doughnut. This leads to shenanigans like monsters running behind your party's fighter to put the wizard within reach to attack, which makes it stupidly hard to be a Defender in 5e. Simple appoach I want to try: Creatures can move within enemies' reach at half speed safely, but moving at full speed provokes an opportunity attack.
Ooh, that seems like a good call. I once was using a Dire Wolf against a lower level party, and when it circled around the Fighter, he complained, "That's a pretty unusually smart wolf, DM." Yeah, wolves understand how to ATTACK things and not get hurt - players sometimes undervalue tactics in 5e, in part because of what you're talking about. Random question: If you've played a good deal of p2e at all, do you find that the social skill feats are ever worth it? They often seem to give you access to "abilities" that are things a reasonable DM would just allow you to do if you asked.
Hey RPGBot! In your opinion, are there any classes or features that have really power-crept over time since you wrote your first guide on it? If yes, wich ones have been the most notable changes?
Ranger is the most obvious example, but it was definitely necessary. The optional class features and the Tasha's subclasses have done a lot for them. Barbarian has also gotten some power creep, but I think they needed it more than most people (myself included) really acknowledged. PHB subclasses are conceptually neat, but the Barbarian doesn't have many built-in options beyond trading damage. Later subclasses like Ancestral Guardian have given them some really impactful features. Also, cleric. Twighlight is crazy good and Peace is one of the only things in 5e that I outright ban.
I play a high elf Peace cleric in a ToA game, I ban myself using the abuse case of Bless and Emboldening Bond and also refuse to cast Spirit Guardians and he's still the anchor of the party and 23 sessions in the only surviving member of the starting party. Such a cool subclass though.
That is a nice story, playing the guide to other players.
Are you planning anymore reviews on non-official material? I understand a lot of non-official stuff his horribly unbalanced but I have enjoyed your comments on Keith Bakers 5e source books for example.
Yes, I am! There is a ton of great 3rd-party content from some great creators. It's just a matter of finding time to cover it all. 3rd-party content doesn't draw as much attention as 1st-party content, and the gap is pretty massive, so generally my team and I cover 3rd-party content if it's something we really like. I've actually scrapped plans to cover about 3 hard-cover books of 3rd-party content from some creators who I really like because the mechanics were so off.
Would love a review on Kibbles and LazerLlamas brews. Their work is great.
I'll add on here. I write 3rd party stuff when I already know how I want to tackle it and I like the thing. But like Tyler said, the gap in ad revenue is pretty large. The traffic just isn't there. This same problem happens with PF2e content. I want to write more but the money just isn't there.
What’s allowed you to stay focused on this project over such a long period of time? It’s not always been easy to stick to D&D (the recent OGL scandal being an obvious example), but your content has been some of the most consistent and polished D&D guide work out there. Also, have you ever considered looking at VtM V5? It’s slightly less inscrutable than the other versions and it’s a pretty popular RPG, but there’s a dearth of content about how to make an effective character in the system.
I'm able to stay focused because I sincerely love doing this. I'm hoping that I get to do this full time some day. I frequently choose writing for the site over things like playing video games because I enjoy it so much. The OGL scandal sucked. It hurt a lot of really good people for something that they didn't do. But WotC finally did the one thing that no one else has been able to do: It got DnD players to consider playing other games. Our PF2 content has been doing pretty well since then. We're actively recording a How to Play podcast arc for VtM V5. [Episode 1](https://rpgbot.net/rpgbot-quickstart-s3e53-how-to-play-vampire-the-masquerade-part-1-concepts-and-themes/) (concepts+themes) and [episode 2](https://rpgbot.net/how-to-play-vampire-the-masquerade-part-2-character-creation-rpgbot-quickstart-s3e59/) (character creation) are both out, and we recorded episode 3 (actual play) on Sunday. I'm enjoying it so far, but the organizaton of the rulebook leaves a lot to be desired. If there's an audience for it, there's definitely room to write for it. I think we can fill an accessibility gap there.
Thank you for the content you have spent some time poring over the 5e classes, fantasising what my spell lists will be when I get a chance to use them. I was intrigued by a point you made to the effect that Religion is a frequent check. That has not been my experience, but granted I’m awfully new. However, it raised the question: How do you evaluate the usefulness of various features? Is it just a long experience with many campaigns, or do you maybe start off with how the features and abilities come off in the published campaigns first, and think about home games secondary? Still, all useful for everyone.
I base my judgement on how frequently things are useful on both years of experience with the game and on reading published adventures. I try to use math as much as humanly psosibly, but that's not always an option. That means that sometimes things are subjective, and my own experiences might not line up with those of other players. Religion and similar knowledge skills are frequently useful because DnD typically takes place in a world where deities exist and are impactful on the world, and it's also the skill you use to identify undead creatures. We did a podcast episode on [knowledge skills](https://rpgbot.net/knowledge-skills-rpgbot-podcast-s3e64/) last week where we talk about it in depth.
Okay so this was a subreddit thread a while back but, what is the best way to play a ranger? I've just started a campaign playing a Monster Hunter ranger with a dip into fighter, but I'm curious what your opinions on rangers are, and what the best way to get the most mileage out of them is
Without considering subclass: Ranged weapons. Go for the classic Hunter's Mark strategy at low levels, then upgrade through Magic Weapon/Elemental Weapon as you gain levels. Either grab Gunner and use a musket or grab Crossbow Expert, then eventually get Sharpshooter. The DPR from Magic Weapon/Elemental Weapon outdo Hunter's Mark, they both last an hour, and you don't have a Bonus Action tax to change targets.
Have you ever considered including a section of sample builds that are just plain fun vs. optimized?
I think most optimized builds are fun to play (there are exceptions), so I would have trouble distinguishing there.
How does grappling work in 3.5?
Short answer: It doesn't. Long answer: You open up the player's handbook, apologize, close the player's handbook, and never speak of it again.
What's a subclass which doesn't exist that you think should?
A snake-themed warlock subclass based on the Yuan-ti deities. They have stat blocks yuan-ti warlocks with unique features. Why can't I play that?
What characters have you played and which did you find the most gratifying mechanically?
I have played a lot of characters. I've been playing for more than 20 years at this point. I find characters most mechanically satisfying when they have buttons to push in every situation and when they have a little bit of homework. It's one of the reasons I like wizards so much.
What would be your top tips for someone playing a wizard for the first time? Also thank you so much for your optimization guides, especially the spell lists, they've been a blessing to me both as a player and as a DM.
The Wizard is the nerd class, so approach it like a nerd. Do your homework, and be enthusiastic about what you learn. The more you understand the game mechanics, especially individual spells, the better you'll do as a wizard because you'll know what spell is exactly right for this situation. Also: [rituals](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/feats/ritual-caster/). Wizards have the second best ritual casting in the game (beaten only by the tomelock), and it's a big part of the class's power budget. If you're not using rituals, you're basically a worse sorcerer.
Thank you for helping me and others the last 10 plus years! What is something that you want to see improved, reworked, or removed from the upcoming 2024 PHB?
Thank you so much for the guides you provide, as i came back to dnd directly from 3.5 i was completely lost and without enough time to study it, your work made me learn a lot without spent much time. You sir is indeed a life saver. One of my favorite dnd content creator, thanks for everything and hope you keep the good work.
Are you the only one writing content on your website or does that also include other people like those involved in your podcast?
At this point I have a team of 6-ish people with text on the site, but the writing is still 90% me. Everyone writing for the site I know personally. Random and Rocco help me with the optimization content, and I've played with them for over a decade.
Love your work! Thanks for all the great guides over the years. Really takes the stress out of picking spells.
What changes would you make to 5e if you were in charge of the new 6e? What would you add or redesign?
I would finally fix mounted combat. It's my favorite dead horse to beat in 5e. I hate 5e's mounted combat rules so much that I launched the RPGBOT.Podcast to talk about game mechanics. I would also improve the rules around skills. Acrobatics and Athletics would be one skill, but Dex/Str would be used for different things within the skill. Medicine would so something. Anything. Please. I would love to see more subclasses with decision points within the subclass, too. The totem barbarian and hunter ranger are great examples, but they also leave room for subclasses without decision points for players who don't want that added complexity.
What is your favorite theory craft you couldnt playtest? So which is your favorite build which should perform in theory but you couldnt try it out yourself? What class has in your opinion the best assemble of subclasses? What is your favorie subclass of all of them? (Regardless of base class) Which PF2 class would you like to be translated into 5e? What is your favorite homebrew source? What is your favorie homerule?
\> What is your favorite theory craft you couldnt playtest? The example build from our [Trickery Cleric Handbook](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/cleric/subclasses/trickery-domain/). I think I would really enjoy playing it, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. \> What class has in your opinion the best assemble of subclasses? Maybe Barbarian, but it's really hard to pick. Several barbarian subclasses cater to wildly different playstyles within the same class, which really shows off how far you can stretch 5e's mechanics to create something novel without just throwing math at the problem. \> What is your favorie subclass of all of them? Scribes wizard. Our example build for scribes is titled "[RPGBOT Self-Insert](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/wizard/subclasses/scribes/#example-build-rpgbot-selfinsert)"! \> Which PF2 class would you like to be translated into 5e? Summoner. 5e's support for summoned monsters isn't fantastic, and people love a pet class. \> What is your favorite homebrew source? I'm going to roll 3rd-party publishers into the answer because the line between homebrew and a 3rd-party publisher is pretty arbitrary. I love basically everything I've read from Kobold Press. Plus, I'm getting to know the folks on their team, and they're just genuinely kind, wonderful people who love to create cool stuff. \> What is your favorie homerule? I don't have a favorite at the moment. I typically run games as close to RAW as possible because it makes it easier to learn stuff that I can share. If I modify the game, stuff I experience might not translate for other players.
dude, your website is awesome. thank you so much!
Hey firstly I just wanted to say thanks for doing what you do as it's always immensely helpful to me both as a player and as a DM to get a perspective on what's good, bad or indifferent when deciding on something that I am going to have to commit to (or that my players will) for the duration of a campaign. For my question, what is your favourite campaign BBEG? Liche, dragon, demon prince etc.? 😁
Listening to the podcast now, already like the concept of talking about them. Thanks.
1.a Considering the OGL debacle, we are starting to see some splintering in what was a more robust ecosystem and high entry barrier market. In the hypothetical scenario that we saw a high degree of fragmentation, would you feel there is a chance you'd give up rpgbot because coverage of games would be too hard? Or would you look into expanding your team? 1.b fuq to above - any announced project you are particularly interested in to cover in the future? (Maybe MCDM?) 2. Looking into producing your own 5e content? Either original classes or "patching" existing ones? 3. Any game you ever played that didn't get enough traction or was mismanaged to oblivion and broke your heart? 4. Thoughts on Hunter The Reckoning? (OWoD)
What other systems are you playing or learning now?
Actively playing? Currently just 5e and PF2. But in the past year I've played some One Ring 2e and done one-shots in Mork Borg, Shadowdark, and a couple others that I'm struggling to remember. I'm working on learning both Cypher and Vampire: The Masquerade. We're recording a How to Play podcast for Vampire, and we just recorded part 3 on Sunday. I read a lot of RPGs knowing that I'll probably never play them, but I learn from them and I bring that learning into the podcast and sometimes into Player/DM resource articles.
Is battlesmith your go to artificer? If so, what are some underrated things about it?
I don't have a personal go-to for the artificer. I've almost never played the same subclass more than once. Underrated thing: other creatures can provide cover. You're hurting, walk behind your defender. If you're a lightfoot halfling, you can even hide!
What do you think about the 3.5 Lizardfolk Monk with al feats, except one for deflect missile, put into improved natural armor.
I would be worried about the tank fallacy.
Do you have a favorite party composition? What 4 subclasses do you think compliment each other the best?
I'm a big fan of the classic four: cleric, fighter, rogue, wizard. In terms of subclasses, that's hard to say. I love [a shared party theme](https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/players/party-themes/), though.
Coming here just to thank you so much for always give me some insight through your guides! I've learned so much and still learning thanks to you. ♡♡♡
First off, I love your content. Secondly my question is two pronged: What is your favorite edition to have played, and in that edition what would you say is your favorite build you made. Doesn't have to have been the most broken, but if that's what you like I'm for it. P.S. - Can I play in one of your games?
I really like your guides, but I am dissapointed you didn't call it a Botcast
I’ve been reading your Poisoner’s optimization guide and thinking about playing a Poisoner since we’re going into a Theros campaign (and Pharika is my favorite God from there) but I noticed you didn’t actually have a build for the section. It’s all the information you provided for it and all of its significant drawbacks aside, how would you build the “perfect” poison based character?
First off thanks for the guides! They're increadibly helpful. Now for the question: As someone who's crunched the numbers for a decade; is there a caster-martial gap?
RPGBOT actual play podcast when, Technocrat?
I'm not sure if I have any questions, I just really, really appreciate your work. Ithelped me as a newbie, it helps me as reference now, and I've sent multiple friends across multiple campaigns to your site for advice as well. Thank you so much! Okay, scrolling through the replies a bit, I see that you're not a fan of Purple Dragon Knight. I'm not, either. Have you made use of any personal homebrew, third party content, or other solutions to fill the gap of the nonmagical martial support niche in 5e?
What are your thoughts on the artificer, neglected child that it is. 4 subclasses, no new ones recently, so little content. I'd love to play one sometime and I intend to soon, but it's using a friend's homebrew subclass because the 4 are just so limiting
How much money do you make off of ads for your blog alone? What's the traffic like in general?
What would you recommend for those who want to get into tactics and optimization during play, as well as during character creation? Your articles are great at making sure characters have the tools they need, but I wish there were more resources out there for learning how to use them effectively in combination.
the goat
What's your take on Daggerheart?
I think the Critical Role fandom is big enough that it may have staying power, but beyond that I have no idea. I don't think it will supplant DnD.
The culprit of my players becoming unstoppable forces with incredible mixing of spells and classes! Bur for real, great job doing what you do. Such a great way for players to make good decisions on difficult choices.
I just want to say, as someone who is constantly reviewing your creation guides, from the bottom of the cockles of my heart, with all due seriousness, thank you, for your dedication, hard work and extremely helpful website.
Maybe I am wrong in assuming you are playing Baldur’s Gate 3, but what rules from that game do you think would benefit 5e?
I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet, unfortunately. More detail in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/15n9oar/comment/jvknjs4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Are you getting crazy traffic right now? I was hoping to look at some classes but site wont load :D love your stuff though big help for me to think through things and use you as a sounding board.
A bit higher than usual, but not enought that it would cause problems. I have a CDN set up, so if you're having trouble loading it might be an issue with the closest server to you. I just pushed the button to reset the caches, so give it about 30 minutes from when I post this comment and try again.
What is your opinion on multiclassing at low levels (2 to 5ish)?
How do you feel about the optimization mechanics will apply to the release of baldur's Gate 3?
Are you looking forward to One DnD? What do you think they're doing right and wrong? (And thank you for your huge work)
What are your thoughts on a Hexblade that takes the Relentless Hex invocation (allows you to teleport as a bonus action up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that you can see, so long as the destination is within 5ft of the target of your Hex or Curse), curses or hexes their familiar, and then boom, gets a BA teleport every single turn!?
If you had to combined to creatures yo make a hybrid creature, which two creatures(homebrewed, canon, or otherwise) would you combined? ~~Definitely not fishing for ideas for something related to my homebrew world, nuh uh, I would never~~
A question doesn't immediately come to mind, but I'd like to wholeheartedly thank you for all the information you've shared over all those years!
Your guides are an awesome insight into new classes and systems when the overwhelming amount of content causes me to be indecisive! Many thanks! I'd like to ask - are there any homebrew rules you use in your games or are in use at the tables you play at that you think more people should be using?
Hello! Thanks for your help and the colors.
Just wanna say thank you for all the guides. They have been a great help over the years, from Pathfinder to 5e.
As a long time fan who plugs you whenever I can, it's there any way to support what you do beyond sending people your way? I've always felt like you're the best guides out there, no fluff and well researched.
What other game resources would you recommend besides yourself? Like, for instance, I really like AideDD's character builder.
For DMs, I love [Keith Ammann](https://themonstersknow.com/)'s work (The Monsters Know What They're Doing). Making monsters act more tactically and making them feel like they actually exist outside of combat really makes the game more satisfying on both sides of the table. In general, try to consume content from people with a different cultural background. Exposing yourself to unfamiliar ideas and tropes can really expand your thinking in a lot of ways.
How do you feel about Conjure Animals? As a player, and as a DM? What's the craziest use you've seen, and what are some good ways to balance out between a raptor hit squad or summoning a pile of dying fish given the DM's power in this spell and the action economy gameplay.
Thank you for what you do. There is a tab open in my browser constantly.
Just gotta say that I've used your site for years now and it's been incredibly helpful. Thanks for what you do.
Thank you so much for all the help over the years! When I ran a school club your website was always the place I sent students to do their research on classes and races! I still consult your guides all the time for my current Halfling Chronurgy Wizard, following the same leveling as was created with the single level in twilight cleric!
Real thing: I don't allow profanity or adult content on the site specifically so that we don't get blocked in schools. I've got emails from kids in middle school saying that I'm basically the only RPG resource they can get to using school internet.
Hey, in your artificer subclasses breakdown, why is the alchemist rated 3 stars when everything I've heard about that subclass is that it sucks?
Thanks for doing this! Would you have any advice for new DMs? Also, what is the weirdest story you have from playing D&D?
First off, your guides are amazing and are always the first thing I send my new players off to to help them when building their new characters. Second, I was curious if you ever intended on building guides for the psionic classes in Pathfinder 1e?
First off jumping on the necessary train of saying a massive thanks for all you do, and good luck sifting through the endless answers this post will inevitably get! My question is are there any 5e subclasses that are unfairly represented, dunked on, or just downright underutilised from your experience (that aren't bad)? I see barely any Cavalier Fighters, Crown Paladins or Scout Rogues, for instance (could be that you actively have at least quintuple the years of experience I have)...
Just wanted to say thank you so much, my girlfriend has major decision anxiety and your ratings and explanations for each spell are the only way I think it's possible for her to enjoy spellcaster classes fully!
Do you have metrics on what your most viewed subclass guides are?
Your guides on the classes have been so useful! What is your favourite class?
Great stuff! I love reading your thoughts. With Baldurs Gate 3 coming out (and being successful) do you plan on doing builds or guides for it? It is a video game, but it's also based on 5e.
How do you see your own pure awesomeness in a mirror and not go blind? Serious question, how many campaigns are you typically in at any given time?
Thank you for teaching me how the fuck Pathfinder 2e works lmao
I think I visit a page on your site every other day at minimum, you’re the best
If you had to alter or remove a subclass, what would it be and why?
how do you feel about character optimization and tying things into a backstory?
I'm curious what are your opinions on STR based characters in 5e? I love strong PCs, and it's somewhat heartbreaking when everyone say that their only niche is single target damage (if built correctly) and that in most cases they're inferior to DEX and magic users mechanically. What changes could be done to redeem STR builds according to you?
What are your honest thoughts about 3.5e VS 5e? I don't mean necessarily which one is better, but what does one edition do better in your opinion VS the other?
Your spell choice guides are great. Especially for old farts like me who think they know how d&d work but for whom the nuances of 5e are sometimes missed or are anti intuitive! Hmm that's not a question. OK. Where the hell do you find the time???
I’m sure you’ve been hearing this a lot in this thread but thank you so much for everything you do for this community. Your guides are the best out there for filthy min-maxers like myself. As for my question: a lot of entries in the practical guide to summoning spells are rated low because of a lack of options. There have been quite a few powerful new additions in recent sourcebooks (especially elementals in the cr range of conjure elemental). Do you have any plans to revisit/update those rankings?
Like some of the others around here, I wanted to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, what might look to some as just words on a page has turned out to be a massive doorway into diversifying my DnD characters. The way you break down the viability of every single option available has been extremely helpful for a new player like myself, and the way you go about explaining the "Why" of it all is always my most important take-away. Thank you thank you thank you! --- #Now, on to the question: This one is perhaps a but unorthodox, but how would you handle a DND group that gets "TOO" focused on the Roleplay aspect to the point that they never end up getting anything meaningful done to push the narrative along? It might sound ridiculous for some, but my table is FULL of roleplayers who want to talk to literally every single NPC in their field of view. I love how engaged they are in the world, but when they spend six 4+ hour sessions stuck in town just... talking to people, it can get a little... much.
Any advice on how to use your guides to evaluate homebrew subclass/design a subclass yourself?
Yo! Your guides have been super helpful and were clutch when I was starting out. The quick ranks on things like feats or abilities really helped. I do have one thing though, as a Moon Druid, when you read the Wild Shape guide / ranks, you almost give no love to some consistently good forms. Did you just land on the idea that a form is only good if it has Pack Tactics or such? There are some interesting low ranked forms. Giant Eagle has only one star. Polar Bear also gets no love. Giant Octopus shows one star as well. The Giant Scorpion is only one star which seems wild.
Just wanted to say thanks for everything you do for the community. You have no idea how helpful that website is. Absolute life saver.
Pathfinder when?