5e announced!

[Sorti]

At 3rd level they can use the rogue bonus action to use an object, and at 13th they ignore class, level and race restrictions on the use of magic items. BTW, are wands even restricted to casters? it doesn't say so in the item description and they don't require attunement

[alhoon]

Rise of Tiamat supplement out!
(and it validates Sotri's fears since there's a wand of fear; throw two in and your rogue can issue commands 12 times/day or practically every round)

https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tablet ... ise-tiamat

Now, Ankhepot: Default mummy lord + extras or even more advanced?
The default mummylord seems to fit Ankhepot well enough as it is. Powerful blows, 6th lvl spells, sand powers... add 5th magnitude mummy invulnerabilities and you're set.

[Sorti]

Also the average damage of the monster increased a lot, right? a mummy is CR 3 (which would be the equivalent of a CR 7 in 3e) and deals 5d6+3+mummy rot with a fist...

[alhoon]

Not really. CR 3 = challenge for 3rd lvl party. Well, that lvl 3 party will probably get a sound beating.
However: 5d6+3 in the couple of hits the mummy would land aren't that much*. A 3rd lvl cleric heals 15 hp with a bonus action. A 3rd lvl cleric I think can cure mummy rot and the chance to get it isn't that high. A 3rd lvl fighter with 14 con has a +5 to avoid it.
*Mummy rot complicates matters a lot though since it stops healing.

Now: my big, big problem:
Why I have to peruse through 3 different PDFs for monsters and magic items?
The mummy lord is in the RoTiamat supplement, but not on the basic. The wand of fear the same. I bet the spells too, although (I hope) all of them are in the full PHB.

Why not just make a bigger basic DMG that has all of the monsters and magic items given out of free?
I'll cough up the 50$ to buy MManual to avoid this hustle... (And to see the beholder and the rest of the dragons and giants).


I'm also deeply concerned that the full book PDFs are not for sale. Should I carry my MManual and PHB with me when traveling? The lack of the PDFs is the reason I mainly use the basic PHB.

[alhoon]

Continuing of the method I developed before, I made an easy to use table for everyone that wants to dabble in simple monster making.
All you have to do is calculate the normalized hp and normalized damage of your monster using the 2nd table and then check how much XP your creation is worth in the first table.
Remember that while CR2 = 450 XP there's variations in it. Not all CR2 monsters are equally tough. So, a monster you make that's worth say 380 XP, should still be considered CR2.

Adding abilities is tougher. Monster with "simple" abilities, like flight or pounce or the bugbear's extra damage and stealth are worth about +10%XP. More exotic abilities need intuition to figure how much they're worth.

[Jester of the FoS]

Now: my big, big problem:
Why I have to peruse through 3 different PDFs for monsters and magic items?
The mummy lord is in the RoTiamat supplement, but not on the basic. The wand of fear the same. I bet the spells too, although (I hope) all of them are in the full PHB.

Why not just make a bigger basic DMG that has all of the monsters and magic items given out of free?

They supposedly added quite a bit of Hoard of the Dragon Queen content to the DM Basic, so I imagine it's just a matter of time.
The others exist so you have a single document with all of what you need and nothing you don't.

[alhoon]

The others exist so you have a single document with all of what you need and nothing you don't.

And how would WotC know what I don't need? IMO I need everything that's free, mummy lords included. OK, I could do with less animals. But I don't want them removed from the basic.

[Jester of the FoS]

The others exist so you have a single document with all of what you need and nothing you don't.

And how would WotC know what I don't need? IMO I need everything that's free, mummy lords included. OK, I could do with less animals. But I don't want them removed from the basic.

Everything you need to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen or Rise of Tiamat. If there are no mummies in either you don't *need* those monsters in a document.

The DM document is something else and should have *everything* released in the above that isn't a named NPC. Eventually.

[alhoon]

The DM document is something else and should have *everything* released in the above that isn't a named NPC. Eventually.

So, eventually the basic MManual would have all the monsters and magic items in RoT too? Good to know.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

4e's eladrin are back in 5e.

http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/DMG_286.pdf

[alhoon]

Well, not really. They're an example of making a race.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Ravenloft (as a demiplane and a campaign setting, the first after 2e) mentioned in the "Multiverse" section of the DMG:

http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads ... _67_68.pdf

[alhoon]

Certainly interesting.

About the rest:
- Can't say I liked how "An angel and a fiend may be found in a tavern arguing over fine wine"... it doesn't fit at all with my concept of Angels and fiends. The way I see it, an angel wouldn't rest with a fiend nearby and a fiend wouldn't tolerate an angel's presence. Angels IMC are perfect beings and Fiends are ... the opposite of perfect. No fallen angels or Lawful Neutral succubi.
- Outlands are pretty small... and I don't like them anyways for the reason mentioned above. In Sigil at least there's a reason why Demons and Devils and angels don't level the city with a war.
- Iuz is still around... so Vecna wasn't in Ravenloft (or is still there).
- On Krynn we're still at "Tiam... I mean Takhisis rising".
- Birthright receives a mention which I find interesting
- On Mystara there are "Warring empires" so Alphatia hasn't sunk to the bottom of the sea (or came out), nor Thyatis has been irrevocably trashed by the immortals who are now, nearly divine status instead of all powerful Gods.

I so wish for an accessory that gives 9-10 pages to all those settings bringing them up to speed chronologically, gives a couple of good maps and adds a few rules like Power Checks and curses for Ravenloft, Defilers and preservers for Darksun, Immortals for Mystara, bloodlines for Birthright etc.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Hrmm..... maybe I'm reading too much into a tiny mention, but while I'm happy the setting is mentioned at all, I don't like the implication that Barovia is alone in the demiplane. Seems like a hint that isolated domains of dread (a la the Shadowfell) are the default, rather than a connected Core. I hope I'm wrong.

[Skyrock]

Given the general modularity idea of 5e, I'd expect them to make a 5e version of Ravenloft modular as well, with the DM deciding which domains are core lands, which are clusters, which are just islands and which don't exist at all. Possibly with a timeline with pre-selected setting for those who want to run the official version at the time of RoT / DoD / 3.x / (possible 5e default version).

That may actually be the best way to make fans of each iteration of the setting happy, as well as tinkering GMs who want to make RL their own.

Not that I expect an official Ravenloft soon. I guess it will be Forgotten Realms first, then FR second, then FR third, then some more FR, then some Forgotten Realms adventures to make Realms-fans not feel neglected, and then and only then possibly something other than FR.