Hey guys I've been playing D&D for bit and my group of friends want to start a epic campaign but now one wants to dm. So I am taking the regins. Here is a link to one of my players homebrew character for lvl one, what do you think
I think either that player is making a lot of mistakes, if not outright trying to cheat, or there are a bunch of house rules that you're going to have to fill me in on before I can make any kind of evaluation as to what I think about the result.
Thinks that seem to be errors or house-rules not yet detailed for us:
Ability scores all 15+
One more skill proficiency than expected
breath weapon
change shape
natural armor
Draconic language redundantly selected (sheet says both "draconic" and "chromatic dragons" under languages)
Favored enemy selection more limited that in has to be (the book lists "dragons" as a choice, meaning all dragon type creatures, you don't have to choose something like "chromatic dragons")
number of languages/tool proficiencies the character has appears to be 1 too many even after getting rid of the redundant and non-existent "chromatic dragons" language
Way more money than a starting 1st level character normally has
As you are a new and reluctant DM, my advice would be to steer clear of any homebrew/house rules until you are comfortable running the campaign. The RAW are adequate for running EPIC CAMPAIGNS (Brian Blessed voice :) ) If D&D were a computer game, it would be boasting of the nearly endless variety of character choices..(9 races X 12 Classes = 108 options just from the PHB, and that is before you start thinking about feats, weapon choice, armour worn, spells selections.......)
The standard rules allow everybody to have the same broad expectations of what can be done. They also highlight when characters have broken free of them, and allow such events to be viewed as epic. If all Dark Elves were like Drizzt, he wouldn't be a hero, he would be a militia man or a farmer.
Good post by Aaron above, showing where the player has deviated from the rules. If all the starting characters are on a par with that one (and if they are not, there are going to be complaints from the other players) then you may have an "epic level" campaign, with characters slaying three dragons before breakfast, but that could become mundane fairly quickly.
You can only really enjoy the low level, wide eyed expectations once. Those kids grow up so fast.......
Ultimately though, if you feel that starting with Druss, Conan, Cuthbert, and El'mister (Spanish wizard) is going to set a D&D hook so deep into your players that they never wriggle off, then feel free to ignore all advice to the contrary. Maybe read some David Dalglish.
Thanks for the tips, he swears he rolled those stats wither he did or not or rolled inncorectly who knows. He says the only time he will morph is if really needed or if I back him into corner. The gold says that you roll 5d4×10 for his starting gold. And he does fit into the story well as we will be playing to stop the summoning/battle the summoned tiamat. (Long term goal of campaign when lvl16+) and everything he looked up for says when brewing a dragon blend just add dragon stats onto base elf brew
...he swears he rolled those stats wither he did or not or rolled inncorectly who knows...
If he rolled, he definitely rolled incorrectly, or there are racial ability score modifiers that aren't lining up with the actual rules.
A wood elf gets +2 dexterity, and +1 wisdom. The methods of rolling ability scores result in numbers that range from 3 to 18 before racial modifiers are applied. That means the 20 strength and 19 charisma aren't just highly unlikely (rolling an 18 with the standard 4d6, discard lowest, method has a 1.62% chance of happening), they are actually impossible.
Though it really does seem like there are house-rules at play here that we aren't aware of the details of, so all we can comment is "this ain't by the book."
Ah okay I see. Ya I talked with him and we are going to work on his sheet together to make it more balanced and correct these issues thank you for your input!
That many is very unlikely but with my warlock who is a half elf I rolled a 18 and with my +2 chrisama I'm at 20 so it's not that impossible but ya all is other stats are at 16. So to have that many high rolls is off but one or two i could believe
I make it a firm rule that all stats have to be rolled in presence of the DM. I've seen more than one player that has fudged the dice on that.
And, even if it was the absolute truth that he rolled high completely naturally? I'd still require a re-roll, because that can very quickly become unbalanced with the rest of the group. Once, in another game, I rolled super high for all my stats (paladin type), and another player rolled on the lower side (ranger type); it ended up where I could basically be a better ranger when it wasn't even my focus than the group's dedicated ranger. That's ended up being rather messed up.
The only game balance that actually matters is the balance between PCs, so that you can spotlight share. Outshining others is generally not the best.
I know that dice rolling for stats is a long standing tradition of the game, but these days I vastly prefer to use points buy system (or standard array) for one reason alone - it means the player characters are balanced.
One particular campaign made my mind up on this - I wanted to play a fighter and my highest stat was a 16, so I put that into strength, then like a 14 con and 13 dex or so.
The cleric rolled 3 18s.
Sure, we can discuss how unlikely that is as much as we want, but it happened and we all saw it.
So he went 18 wisdom, 18 con and 18 strength.
So now the defining stat for my fighter is his strength, but he's weaker than the cleric and thus nowhere near as good at, you know, fighting.
So these days I strongly advise anyone playing to use points buy or standard array - not because the DM can't handle OP characters (that's easy) but due to imbalance between characters on the party.
Also, if this is your first time as DM - I concur with the above advice - avoid homebrew entirely!
You're the dm and you can allow whatever you like. Just remember this, if you allow the players to go to these lengths then you must let the mobs and monsters to do the same. No monster that would normally challenge a 1st level party has a bloody chance against this guy. So if the 1st level elf pc can have a 20 Str, my 1st level horde of bullywug barbarians all have a 20 Dex and a 20 Con for an unarmored AC 20 and 17 HP. Or you can up the numbers. So you're an uber-draco-elf who can eat 6 zombies for an appetizer. How about 12, or 20 or 50. Allow anything you like, just adapt from the other side to keep balance!
Allow anything you like, just adapt from the other side to keep balance!
Though really, with some things it is more efficient to realize that if your goal is to just "move zero" (a phrase I use to refer to the process of letting a player have a +7 to-hit instead of a +5 but also making the AC they roll against 17 instead of 15, and other similar adjustments that get counter-adjustments made for them, so the odds stay the same as they would have been without changing anything about the game) that you can achieve the same effect by changing names instead of changing numbers all over the place. For example, using the stat block for goblins but referring to the creatures encounter as something more intimidating-sounding like hobgoblins, instead of ramping up the characters' stats so that they can take on hobgoblin stat blocks but defeat them as easily as standard-rules characters would defeat goblins.
Saves a lot of work, and as a result has less opportunities to introduce undesired results, and doesn't give the players mixed signals (which raising their character's capabilities and also using tougher opposition does, because the former says "I want your characters to feel more powerful" and the later says "I want your characters to feel challenged" and those two things are opposites in context).
Allow anything you like, just adapt from the other side to keep balance!
Though really, with some things it is more efficient to realize that if your goal is to just "move zero" (a phrase I use to refer to the process of letting a player have a +7 to-hit instead of a +5 but also making the AC they roll against 17 instead of 15, and other similar adjustments that get counter-adjustments made for them, so the odds stay the same as they would have been without changing anything about the game) that you can achieve the same effect by changing names instead of changing numbers all over the place. For example, using the stat block for goblins but referring to the creatures encounter as something more intimidating-sounding like hobgoblins, instead of ramping up the characters' stats so that they can take on hobgoblin stat blocks but defeat them as easily as standard-rules characters would defeat goblins.
Saves a lot of work, and as a result has less opportunities to introduce undesired results, and doesn't give the players mixed signals (which raising their character's capabilities and also using tougher opposition does, because the former says "I want your characters to feel more powerful" and the later says "I want your characters to feel challenged" and those two things are opposites in context).
I have two reactions to that.
Unless they know the system well enough to be able to tell the difference between a goblin and a hobgoblin just by fighting them. Unless you tell them you aren't using the hobgoblin stat block for the hobgoblins, and why would you do that?
Or maybe it says, "I want your characters to be more powerful." Which I usually do.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Unless they know the system well enough to be able to tell the difference between a goblin and a hobgoblin just by fighting them. Unless you tell them you aren't using the hobgoblin stat block for the hobgoblins, and why would you do that?
Or maybe it says, "I want your characters to be more powerful." Which I usually do.
To 1, I will point out that if a player knows the system well enough to tell apart a couple of stat blocks while the DM is obscuring them via description, they are also more likely to see the I have a +7 instead of a +5 but need to hit a 17 instead of a 15 as the "either way, I have to get at least a 10 on the die" that they are. And a 55% chance of success is a 55% chance of success, and feels like a 55% chance of success, no matter how big or small the other numbers involved happen to be.
And to 2, I ask this: What is the point of being more powerful if you don't also feel more powerful? How is it that two characters with equal chances of success in their relevant actions (all the "you are more powerful" given to the player characters having been equalized with "your opposition is more powerful" given to the encounter/challenge design side of the game) are not being considered of equal power relative to their given opposition?
I mean, yeah, Heracles is stronger than your average warrior, but isn't that irrelevant to the tone of the story if the only times he puts his strength to use are when he is struggling just like an average warrior would struggle with a lesser obstacle? But if he faced the same obstacles that an average warrior would face, and can engage with them differently on account of his strength, then it has changed the tone of the story.
When I saw that character sheet my mind immediately concluded that you have the compulsive liar type in your group. The kind that can't even tell that it's 100% obvious he's cheating. It's is impossible to roll those stats, not just improbable. That shit is just screams of "I want to be super powerful and the super coolest center of attention badass" 13 year old attitude. Watch out for that guy. Always make them roll in the open from now on or this will just continue and he'll be slowly starting to average 18 on his rolls. Unrelated to this guy, stats should always be rolled in front of the DM. Or at least in some other verifiable way.
Regarding party power balance, in my experience everyone doesn't have to to have that point buy exact balance, as long as the PCs aren't stepping on each others toes. It is fine to have strong frontline fighter as long as you're the best at wizarding, or nature checks or whatever. Everyone should have their role that they are the best at. If they roll up two sorcerers and one has 14 cha and one has 20, that's a lot more problematic.
Well, I'm guessing that wood elf isn't the right race, given that we have dragon breath and bronze scales mentioned - more likely, we're looking at someone that changed their mind about the race and forgot to update the line to bronze dragonborn. The stats become merely improbable then instead of impossible.
Well, I'm guessing that wood elf isn't the right race, given that we have dragon breath and bronze scales mentioned - more likely, we're looking at someone that changed their mind about the race and forgot to update the line to bronze dragonborn. The stats become merely improbable then instead of impossible.
The character has a 19 dexterity, which would be impossible for a dragonborn character of 1st level.
From context provided by this bit, "...everything he looked up for says when brewing a dragon blend just add dragon stats onto base elf brew..." of one of the later posts in the thread, it seems that what has been done is at least in part to take all the wood elf racial traits, then add choice bits from the dragonborn racial traits (by which I mean everything but resistance, but maybe that is there and I can't find it because of the organization of the character sheet being used), and add the AC feature of the draconic sorcerous origin.
But yes, once you determine that the ability modifiers being used are +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +1 Wisdom, and +1 Charisma, the remaining ability score rolls are no longer impossible, just a wildly improbable set of three 18s (1.62% chance of each), two 17s (4.17% chance of each), and a 15 (10.11% chance). (Random note from the anydice.com calculator: asking it what the chances are of rolling a total of 103, which is the characters total ability score rolls, on the 18 highest of 24 dice, which is actually more favorable to high results than having six independent sets of 4 dice since rolling 5 on all 4 dice results in a score of 15 and an unused 5, produces a result that rounds to 0.00%. Just to get a rough feeling for how improbable the set of rolled stats actually is.)
Though it is statistically possible to roll 5 18's and a 15 (which is the easiest way to explain the spread after modifiers), it is HIGHLY improbable. That kid should buy a lottery ticket immediately. If the entire party has scores that high it really isn't that big of a problem, it would just take a bit of work to re-balance everything. If players aren't challenged they tend to lose interest fairly quickly ... succeeding on nearly every roll becomes old real quick. And as @Mephista mentioned, there seem to be some residual Dragon/Dragonborn characteristics present, maybe part of the homebrew rules.
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Hey guys I've been playing D&D for bit and my group of friends want to start a epic campaign but now one wants to dm. So I am taking the regins. Here is a link to one of my players homebrew character for lvl one, what do you think
https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/b96b1375-588e-4595-9cdd-8168e11291be
I think either that player is making a lot of mistakes, if not outright trying to cheat, or there are a bunch of house rules that you're going to have to fill me in on before I can make any kind of evaluation as to what I think about the result.
Thinks that seem to be errors or house-rules not yet detailed for us:
As you are a new and reluctant DM, my advice would be to steer clear of any homebrew/house rules until you are comfortable running the campaign.
The RAW are adequate for running EPIC CAMPAIGNS (Brian Blessed voice :) )
If D&D were a computer game, it would be boasting of the nearly endless variety of character choices..(9 races X 12 Classes = 108 options just from the PHB, and that is before you start thinking about feats, weapon choice, armour worn, spells selections.......)
The standard rules allow everybody to have the same broad expectations of what can be done. They also highlight when characters have broken free of them, and allow such events to be viewed as epic. If all Dark Elves were like Drizzt, he wouldn't be a hero, he would be a militia man or a farmer.
Good post by Aaron above, showing where the player has deviated from the rules. If all the starting characters are on a par with that one (and if they are not, there are going to be complaints from the other players) then you may have an "epic level" campaign, with characters slaying three dragons before breakfast, but that could become mundane fairly quickly.
You can only really enjoy the low level, wide eyed expectations once. Those kids grow up so fast.......
Ultimately though, if you feel that starting with Druss, Conan, Cuthbert, and El'mister (Spanish wizard) is going to set a D&D hook so deep into your players that they never wriggle off, then feel free to ignore all advice to the contrary. Maybe read some David Dalglish.
Good luck. Have Fun.
Roleplaying since Runequest.
Thanks for the tips, he swears he rolled those stats wither he did or not or rolled inncorectly who knows. He says the only time he will morph is if really needed or if I back him into corner. The gold says that you roll 5d4×10 for his starting gold. And he does fit into the story well as we will be playing to stop the summoning/battle the summoned tiamat. (Long term goal of campaign when lvl16+) and everything he looked up for says when brewing a dragon blend just add dragon stats onto base elf brew
The 5d4×10 is if you start without your classes starting equipment otherwise the starting gold would be closer to 10-15
If he rolled, he definitely rolled incorrectly, or there are racial ability score modifiers that aren't lining up with the actual rules.
A wood elf gets +2 dexterity, and +1 wisdom. The methods of rolling ability scores result in numbers that range from 3 to 18 before racial modifiers are applied. That means the 20 strength and 19 charisma aren't just highly unlikely (rolling an 18 with the standard 4d6, discard lowest, method has a 1.62% chance of happening), they are actually impossible.
Though it really does seem like there are house-rules at play here that we aren't aware of the details of, so all we can comment is "this ain't by the book."
Ah okay I see. Ya I talked with him and we are going to work on his sheet together to make it more balanced and correct these issues thank you for your input!
That many is very unlikely but with my warlock who is a half elf I rolled a 18 and with my +2 chrisama I'm at 20 so it's not that impossible but ya all is other stats are at 16. So to have that many high rolls is off but one or two i could believe
I make it a firm rule that all stats have to be rolled in presence of the DM. I've seen more than one player that has fudged the dice on that.
And, even if it was the absolute truth that he rolled high completely naturally? I'd still require a re-roll, because that can very quickly become unbalanced with the rest of the group. Once, in another game, I rolled super high for all my stats (paladin type), and another player rolled on the lower side (ranger type); it ended up where I could basically be a better ranger when it wasn't even my focus than the group's dedicated ranger. That's ended up being rather messed up.
The only game balance that actually matters is the balance between PCs, so that you can spotlight share. Outshining others is generally not the best.
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D&D Beyond FoundersI know that dice rolling for stats is a long standing tradition of the game, but these days I vastly prefer to use points buy system (or standard array) for one reason alone - it means the player characters are balanced.
One particular campaign made my mind up on this - I wanted to play a fighter and my highest stat was a 16, so I put that into strength, then like a 14 con and 13 dex or so.
The cleric rolled 3 18s.
Sure, we can discuss how unlikely that is as much as we want, but it happened and we all saw it.
So he went 18 wisdom, 18 con and 18 strength.
So now the defining stat for my fighter is his strength, but he's weaker than the cleric and thus nowhere near as good at, you know, fighting.
So these days I strongly advise anyone playing to use points buy or standard array - not because the DM can't handle OP characters (that's easy) but due to imbalance between characters on the party.
Also, if this is your first time as DM - I concur with the above advice - avoid homebrew entirely!
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If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Omg! This! This so hard!
You're the dm and you can allow whatever you like. Just remember this, if you allow the players to go to these lengths then you must let the mobs and monsters to do the same. No monster that would normally challenge a 1st level party has a bloody chance against this guy. So if the 1st level elf pc can have a 20 Str, my 1st level horde of bullywug barbarians all have a 20 Dex and a 20 Con for an unarmored AC 20 and 17 HP. Or you can up the numbers. So you're an uber-draco-elf who can eat 6 zombies for an appetizer. How about 12, or 20 or 50. Allow anything you like, just adapt from the other side to keep balance!
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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When I saw that character sheet my mind immediately concluded that you have the compulsive liar type in your group. The kind that can't even tell that it's 100% obvious he's cheating. It's is impossible to roll those stats, not just improbable. That shit is just screams of "I want to be super powerful and the super coolest center of attention badass" 13 year old attitude. Watch out for that guy. Always make them roll in the open from now on or this will just continue and he'll be slowly starting to average 18 on his rolls. Unrelated to this guy, stats should always be rolled in front of the DM. Or at least in some other verifiable way.
Regarding party power balance, in my experience everyone doesn't have to to have that point buy exact balance, as long as the PCs aren't stepping on each others toes. It is fine to have strong frontline fighter as long as you're the best at wizarding, or nature checks or whatever. Everyone should have their role that they are the best at. If they roll up two sorcerers and one has 14 cha and one has 20, that's a lot more problematic.
DnDBeyond Tooltip Syntax
Well, I'm guessing that wood elf isn't the right race, given that we have dragon breath and bronze scales mentioned - more likely, we're looking at someone that changed their mind about the race and forgot to update the line to bronze dragonborn. The stats become merely improbable then instead of impossible.
The OP mentioned there was homebrew involved. Using the Wood Elf base seems to be correct.
Though it is statistically possible to roll 5 18's and a 15 (which is the easiest way to explain the spread after modifiers), it is HIGHLY improbable. That kid should buy a lottery ticket immediately. If the entire party has scores that high it really isn't that big of a problem, it would just take a bit of work to re-balance everything.
If players aren't challenged they tend to lose interest fairly quickly ... succeeding on nearly every roll becomes old real quick.
And as @Mephista mentioned, there seem to be some residual Dragon/Dragonborn characteristics present, maybe part of the homebrew rules.