Background - 2e conversion + house rules = befuddled new 5e player
Specifics - Specialty priest of Denier, Forgotten Realms God of Knowledge etc - - from Kara Tur - - previously it was decided that he could possibly learn wizard spells from scrolls/spell books and use those in place of, not in addition to, cleric spells. He used an old mechanic of bards to implement the idea but used a different stat for the roll - - in addition to that, he has a "tattooed monk" kit (not levels in monk) to use a series of tattoos that allowed a spell like effect, one per every other level and only once per rest (in 5e that translates, we decided, into a short rest) - - - those were a haste effect, bat sonar, and an increase to hit bonus/damage - - -
What are your suggestions toward making this guy "fit 5e"? I don't want to lose the flavor he has but I also realized pretty quickly the mechanics for spell casting and such are not as clean in the character builder for dndbeyond.
SO as i'm sand boxing this whole thing - I can use his 1st level and 4th level feat -
Magic initiate Wizard and Ritual Caster Wizard - - this helps get me to what I was looking for/somewhat - but I also still need a workaround for the tattoos.
You might want to look at the Arcana Domain, from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, which gives you various ways of attaining Wizard spells as a cleric. Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster are both good paths as well, especially sine you can copy spells from scrolls with Ritual Caster. I'm not entirely sure what the concept is with the tattoos that you described, but you would probably want to look around the magical tattoos listed described in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Yes! So I already had in 2e : the tattoos are granted/transferred marks of Denier's favor - He has: a bat (sonar), a lion (+4 to attack/damage), and a wasp (haste spell)
- - so he gains one new one every other level so his 7th level is on the horizon; I'm thinking something that gives him better movement (wall climbing/misty step/jumping and striding
or a divination type thing to help him discern texts/knowledge area - - I think the DM would be more amenable to this :))
great thinking on your part - I appreciate your answer.
I second the Arcana cleric domain. Knowledge domain might also fit.
For the tattoo aspect, two things that come to mind are the Dragonmarked race options from Eberron (and the Aberrant Dragonmark feat), and the various magic tattoo items from Tasha's.
Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, and Telepathic feats from Tahsa's grant some additional spells. The "gift of the ___ dragon" feats from Fizban's also have some spell-like effects.
Yes! So I already had in 2e : the tattoos are granted/transferred marks of Denier's favor - He has: a bat (sonar), a lion (+4 to attack/damage), and a wasp (haste spell)
- - so he gains one new one every other level so his 7th level is on the horizon; I'm thinking something that gives him better movement (wall climbing/misty step/jumping and striding
or a divination type thing to help him discern texts/knowledge area - - I think the DM would be more amenable to this :))
great thinking on your part - I appreciate your answer.
Just a quick comment but the abilities you mention from 2e do not scale into 5e.
The maximum bonus on legendary weapons and related items for spellcasting in 5e is +3 to hit and damage. So, your DM would have to rewrite some of that for 5e since +4 is actually too much. In addition, 5e doesn't in general have stacking bonuses. For example, I don't think there is a magic item that would provide a bonus to hit and damage that would stack with the bonus from a magic weapon (previous versions had gloves and other magic items that could do this, as far as I know 5e does not).
One other change to be aware of is "attunement" which limits the number of magic items that a character can equip. Some magic items require a character to be "attuned" to the item in order to receive its magical benefits. A character can only have 3 - so choosing which magic items to attune (assuming the party even finds a number of magic items) becomes another aspect of character creation.
Finally, I think the arcana cleric in 5e from the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide likely fits the description of your character best. They can't swap out all of their clerical spells at will for wizard ones but they do get a limited list of wizard spells from level 1->5 and when they reach level 17 they can pick four more wizard spells - one from each of 6,7,8 and 9th level - so if the game goes that high then the cleric could have Wish :)
In addition, depending on your DM, you might be able to convince them to swap out some of the wizard bonus spells in the Arcana cleric list with ones that fit your character better - but that is between you and the DM.
Greetings warlords, pickpockets, and scions -
Background - 2e conversion + house rules = befuddled new 5e player
Specifics - Specialty priest of Denier, Forgotten Realms God of Knowledge etc - - from Kara Tur - - previously it was decided that he could possibly learn wizard spells from scrolls/spell books and use those in place of, not in addition to, cleric spells. He used an old mechanic of bards to implement the idea but used a different stat for the roll - - in addition to that, he has a "tattooed monk" kit (not levels in monk) to use a series of tattoos that allowed a spell like effect, one per every other level and only once per rest (in 5e that translates, we decided, into a short rest) - - - those were a haste effect, bat sonar, and an increase to hit bonus/damage - - -
What are your suggestions toward making this guy "fit 5e"? I don't want to lose the flavor he has but I also realized pretty quickly the mechanics for spell casting and such are not as clean in the character builder for dndbeyond.
feel free to discord me too, Halifax16#6499
thanks all,
SO as i'm sand boxing this whole thing - I can use his 1st level and 4th level feat -
Magic initiate Wizard and Ritual Caster Wizard - - this helps get me to what I was looking for/somewhat - but I also still need a workaround for the tattoos.
You might want to look at the Arcana Domain, from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, which gives you various ways of attaining Wizard spells as a cleric. Magic Initiate and Ritual Caster are both good paths as well, especially sine you can copy spells from scrolls with Ritual Caster. I'm not entirely sure what the concept is with the tattoos that you described, but you would probably want to look around the magical tattoos listed described in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
Yes! So I already had in 2e : the tattoos are granted/transferred marks of Denier's favor - He has: a bat (sonar), a lion (+4 to attack/damage), and a wasp (haste spell)
- - so he gains one new one every other level so his 7th level is on the horizon; I'm thinking something that gives him better movement (wall climbing/misty step/jumping and striding
or a divination type thing to help him discern texts/knowledge area - - I think the DM would be more amenable to this :))
great thinking on your part - I appreciate your answer.
I second the Arcana cleric domain. Knowledge domain might also fit.
For the tattoo aspect, two things that come to mind are the Dragonmarked race options from Eberron (and the Aberrant Dragonmark feat), and the various magic tattoo items from Tasha's.
Fey Touched, Shadow Touched, and Telepathic feats from Tahsa's grant some additional spells. The "gift of the ___ dragon" feats from Fizban's also have some spell-like effects.
Just a quick comment but the abilities you mention from 2e do not scale into 5e.
The maximum bonus on legendary weapons and related items for spellcasting in 5e is +3 to hit and damage. So, your DM would have to rewrite some of that for 5e since +4 is actually too much. In addition, 5e doesn't in general have stacking bonuses. For example, I don't think there is a magic item that would provide a bonus to hit and damage that would stack with the bonus from a magic weapon (previous versions had gloves and other magic items that could do this, as far as I know 5e does not).
One other change to be aware of is "attunement" which limits the number of magic items that a character can equip. Some magic items require a character to be "attuned" to the item in order to receive its magical benefits. A character can only have 3 - so choosing which magic items to attune (assuming the party even finds a number of magic items) becomes another aspect of character creation.
Finally, I think the arcana cleric in 5e from the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide likely fits the description of your character best. They can't swap out all of their clerical spells at will for wizard ones but they do get a limited list of wizard spells from level 1->5 and when they reach level 17 they can pick four more wizard spells - one from each of 6,7,8 and 9th level - so if the game goes that high then the cleric could have Wish :)
In addition, depending on your DM, you might be able to convince them to swap out some of the wizard bonus spells in the Arcana cleric list with ones that fit your character better - but that is between you and the DM.