Alternatively you could use starting equipment and go to a shop/smith to straight up buy needles. Blowgun needles cost 0,02 gp so spending 1 out of your 10 starting gold will net you 50 shots. This method works even if your DM won't allow you to spend your starting gold per-campaign.
Honestly I see no reason to not just allow characters to buy ammunition before the game starts, provided the required cost (in this case 1gp per 50 needles) is paid.
The blowgun itself is mainly outside of combat if you want to do stuff like use a Drow Poison to knock someone unconscious for 1 hour. For characters without proficiency in martial weapons it'll deal 1 damage while still applying the poison.
Useful for infiltrating a compound with guards that you'd consider neutral or allied. Wouldn't want to add Murder to the list of crimes you are committing...
And if your DM allows you could apply potions like a poison. It'd be quite fun to run a character that goes around shooting a blowgun at his allies to heal for 1d4. Or to enlarge an ally trough a potion of growth.
I'd definitely enjoy an alchemist artificer that fires a blowgun to apply a reduced effect of an Experimental Elixir. With the poisoner feat you could use a bonus action to apply a specific elixir to a dart and use your attack action to buff allies.
Healing Dart. The target regains a number of hit points equal to 1d4+your Intelligence modifier divided by 4. (4 charges)
Swiftness Dart. The target’s walking speed increases by 10 feet for half a minute. (4 charges)
Resilience Dart. The target gains a +1 bonus to AC for half a minute. (4 charges)
Boldness Dart. The target can roll a d4 and add the number rolled to every attack roll and saving throw they make for the next round. (4 charges)
Flight Dart. The target gains a flying speed of 10 feet for half a minute. (4 charges)
Transformation Dart. The target’s body is transformed as if by the alter self spell. The target determines the transformation caused by the spell, the effects of which last for half a minute.(4 charges)
(just an example. Numbers and times are not intended to be balanced, they are just provided as a concept)
You wouldn't give a starting character ammo for a weapon they chose. Why would anybody think you'd bend the rules to allow a non-class weapon?
Choices should have consequences. Say someone's class, like paladin, allows for choosing to begin with two martial weapons. Normally, they'd pick melee weapons because the class leans towards Strength. They're certainly allowed to pick a heavy crossbow, but I wouldn't recommend it. Still, the decision is not one made in ignorance. Everything they need to know is staring them in the face. In short, they knew what they were getting into. Hence my invocation of caveat emptor. "Let the buyer beware."
That said, there are creative ways around this RAW limitation. A fighter could choose to start with a heavy crossbow as one of their martial weapons, and then choose the light crossbow with 20 bolts. They could then sell off a surplus crossbow. And if someone wanted to play a halfling ranger, I'm not going to force them to start with a longbow. I allow for the purchasing and selling of equipment before play. They can sell it off for a shortbow and have a few gold pieces left over. Or turn right around and spend those on something else.
If someone really wants to throw a hissy fit, then I'll talk with them about it. I do give out some things for free, purely for logistical reasons. If your kit comes with a ranged weapon and ammunition, I make sure you have a container for said ammunition. I don't know why D&D Beyond doesn't do that when Roll20 does, but here we are. DDB also doesn't give out the standard pouch for coins that...I can't think of a background off the top of my head that doesn't give at least a few coins. But there's probably one. Maybe the Haunted One.
And this brings us back to your dig at me; which borders on a personal attack. Don't do it again.
Backgrounds are customizable, and at least one (Gladiator, and I wish they'd fix it in the Character Builder) allows the character to start with, "an inexpensive but unusual weapon, such as a trident or net." So, as part of a character's background, which is what you were responding to, it's certainly negotiable.
And, as has already been pointed out, a person can always just choose to roll for starting gold and buy whatever they darn well can afford. Make your choice and live with it.
I know the rules have changed, but Paladins should not use ranged weapons. Not honorable. Ranged weapons are the realm of the sneak and trickster.
In regards to a blow gun, they only do 1 damage so their best use is with poison. Strictly against Paladin Code
There's nothing dishonorable about using ranged weapons or ranged attacks. It's a natural part of warfare. Historically, knights would use crossbows. And paladins can even start with 5 javelins.
Blowguns basically just exist as a flavor thing. They could work for a rogue (who cares if it only does 1 damage if you are just using it to convey a sneak attack?) but are never optimal.
If Im DMing though, I would allow for a blowgun to be used for an attack without breaking out of hiding. That would be a neat trade off, that you are hidden within 25ft to use the advantage, but enemies have to hunt around to find you.
I know the rules have changed, but Paladins should not use ranged weapons. Not honorable. Ranged weapons are the realm of the sneak and trickster.
In regards to a blow gun, they only do 1 damage so their best use is with poison. Strictly against Paladin Code
Which one of the paladin tenets disallows poison?
And paladins do an exceptional number of dirty tricks. Is turning things, unable to retaliate as the paladin mows them down, honorable? How about inflicting debilitating magical terror in your foes? For all of those cavalier paladins, is running things on foot down on a mount honorable? How about the "bane spell" that weakens foes? Honorable? Some would call into question just how honorable the total subjugation and crushing of wills involved with oath of conquest is. Are the paladins such as oath of ancients or conquest who have movement control spells acting with honor when they act to debilitate their foes ability to move?
Anyway, ranged weapon attacks are fine, or else they wouldn't be able to literally start with thrown weapons. There is no tenet against poison or thrown weapons anywhere, in fact, conquest has "cloudkill" as an oath spell, which deals poison damage. Moreover, there is more than one type of paladin who gets spell attacks that are able to be used from longer ranges, such as Watcher's and Ancient's moonbeam, flame strike from devotion, conquest's cloudkill and spiritual weapon, etc.
I know the rules have changed, but Paladins should not use ranged weapons. Not honorable. Ranged weapons are the realm of the sneak and trickster.
In regards to a blow gun, they only do 1 damage so their best use is with poison. Strictly against Paladin Code
There's nothing dishonorable about using ranged weapons or ranged attacks. It's a natural part of warfare. Historically, knights would use crossbows. And paladins can even start with 5 javelins.
This exactly. I'd also argue that Elven Paladins favor poking holes in their enemies at range rather than get their hands dirty.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
I know the rules have changed, but Paladins should not use ranged weapons. Not honorable. Ranged weapons are the realm of the sneak and trickster.
In regards to a blow gun, they only do 1 damage so their best use is with poison. Strictly against Paladin Code
While the rules have changed in terms of the alignments that an paladin can have and the fact that there is now no single paladin oath but rather several, no poison use and no ranged weapons was never part of the paladin's oath, while the 3e paladin can just like the 5e paladin only use their smite abillity with melee attacks, paladins have always been proficient with ranged weapons, or have always been able to choose ranged weapon proficiency in 2e, poison is only considered a nonlawful act in places where poison happens to be illegal, and is only an evil act when it is used to evil ends, so it would not break the alignment restriction. The only restrictions the 2e paladin talked about was donating to church, avoiding associating with evil party members (although thieves are fine if they are of good alignment and trying to reform), stealth only to be attempted as a last resort, i do not see what rule you are refering to
plus nowadays not all paladins serve the same oath, obiously
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Blowguns are great for kensei monk fun! Obviously not the *best* option out there, especially early on but still viable if that's the theme/style you're going for.
Too bad rogues don't get proficiency in blowguns.
If you worked it into your backstory, the DM would most likely let you have it
Enjoy my magic items, spells, monsters, my race, and a few feats. And GIVE ME FEEDBACK... or else.
Like what I say?
⬐ Just press this little guy right here.
A GM like Jounichi1983 would not.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Not necesarilly. And that's a low blow.
You know each other?
Enjoy my magic items, spells, monsters, my race, and a few feats. And GIVE ME FEEDBACK... or else.
Like what I say?
⬐ Just press this little guy right here.
No, they're just misstating something I said on the previous page.
You wouldn't give a starting character ammo for a weapon they chose. Why would anybody think you'd bend the rules to allow a non-class weapon?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I really feel the whole ammunition thing is a non-issue. The rules allow you to forgo starting equipment and just straight up purchase what you need. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/phb/equipment#StartingEquipment
Alternatively you could use starting equipment and go to a shop/smith to straight up buy needles. Blowgun needles cost 0,02 gp so spending 1 out of your 10 starting gold will net you 50 shots. This method works even if your DM won't allow you to spend your starting gold per-campaign.
Honestly I see no reason to not just allow characters to buy ammunition before the game starts, provided the required cost (in this case 1gp per 50 needles) is paid.
The blowgun itself is mainly outside of combat if you want to do stuff like use a Drow Poison to knock someone unconscious for 1 hour. For characters without proficiency in martial weapons it'll deal 1 damage while still applying the poison.
Useful for infiltrating a compound with guards that you'd consider neutral or allied. Wouldn't want to add Murder to the list of crimes you are committing...
The standard poison(injury) options are pretty limited: https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/running-the-game#Poisons
However if creativity is allowed you could make poisons give all kinds of effects from the conditions list. https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/appendix-a-conditions#AppendixAConditions
A poison that charms or frightens the target could be useful out of combat.
And if your DM allows you could apply potions like a poison. It'd be quite fun to run a character that goes around shooting a blowgun at his allies to heal for 1d4. Or to enlarge an ally trough a potion of growth.
I'd definitely enjoy an alchemist artificer that fires a blowgun to apply a reduced effect of an Experimental Elixir. With the poisoner feat you could use a bonus action to apply a specific elixir to a dart and use your attack action to buff allies.
(just an example. Numbers and times are not intended to be balanced, they are just provided as a concept)
Choices should have consequences. Say someone's class, like paladin, allows for choosing to begin with two martial weapons. Normally, they'd pick melee weapons because the class leans towards Strength. They're certainly allowed to pick a heavy crossbow, but I wouldn't recommend it. Still, the decision is not one made in ignorance. Everything they need to know is staring them in the face. In short, they knew what they were getting into. Hence my invocation of caveat emptor. "Let the buyer beware."
That said, there are creative ways around this RAW limitation. A fighter could choose to start with a heavy crossbow as one of their martial weapons, and then choose the light crossbow with 20 bolts. They could then sell off a surplus crossbow. And if someone wanted to play a halfling ranger, I'm not going to force them to start with a longbow. I allow for the purchasing and selling of equipment before play. They can sell it off for a shortbow and have a few gold pieces left over. Or turn right around and spend those on something else.
If someone really wants to throw a hissy fit, then I'll talk with them about it. I do give out some things for free, purely for logistical reasons. If your kit comes with a ranged weapon and ammunition, I make sure you have a container for said ammunition. I don't know why D&D Beyond doesn't do that when Roll20 does, but here we are. DDB also doesn't give out the standard pouch for coins that...I can't think of a background off the top of my head that doesn't give at least a few coins. But there's probably one. Maybe the Haunted One.
And this brings us back to your dig at me; which borders on a personal attack. Don't do it again.
Backgrounds are customizable, and at least one (Gladiator, and I wish they'd fix it in the Character Builder) allows the character to start with, "an inexpensive but unusual weapon, such as a trident or net." So, as part of a character's background, which is what you were responding to, it's certainly negotiable.
And, as has already been pointed out, a person can always just choose to roll for starting gold and buy whatever they darn well can afford. Make your choice and live with it.
I know the rules have changed, but Paladins should not use ranged weapons. Not honorable. Ranged weapons are the realm of the sneak and trickster.
In regards to a blow gun, they only do 1 damage so their best use is with poison. Strictly against Paladin Code
There's nothing dishonorable about using ranged weapons or ranged attacks. It's a natural part of warfare. Historically, knights would use crossbows. And paladins can even start with 5 javelins.
Blowguns basically just exist as a flavor thing. They could work for a rogue (who cares if it only does 1 damage if you are just using it to convey a sneak attack?) but are never optimal.
If Im DMing though, I would allow for a blowgun to be used for an attack without breaking out of hiding. That would be a neat trade off, that you are hidden within 25ft to use the advantage, but enemies have to hunt around to find you.
What rules have changed?! Divine smite only works on melee weapon attacks and improved divine smite works on an attack with a melee weapon.
Which one of the paladin tenets disallows poison?
And paladins do an exceptional number of dirty tricks. Is turning things, unable to retaliate as the paladin mows them down, honorable? How about inflicting debilitating magical terror in your foes? For all of those cavalier paladins, is running things on foot down on a mount honorable? How about the "bane spell" that weakens foes? Honorable? Some would call into question just how honorable the total subjugation and crushing of wills involved with oath of conquest is. Are the paladins such as oath of ancients or conquest who have movement control spells acting with honor when they act to debilitate their foes ability to move?
Anyway, ranged weapon attacks are fine, or else they wouldn't be able to literally start with thrown weapons. There is no tenet against poison or thrown weapons anywhere, in fact, conquest has "cloudkill" as an oath spell, which deals poison damage. Moreover, there is more than one type of paladin who gets spell attacks that are able to be used from longer ranges, such as Watcher's and Ancient's moonbeam, flame strike from devotion, conquest's cloudkill and spiritual weapon, etc.
Conquest is another name for murderhobo, so poor example of idealized Paladin.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
This exactly. I'd also argue that Elven Paladins favor poking holes in their enemies at range rather than get their hands dirty.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
While the rules have changed in terms of the alignments that an paladin can have and the fact that there is now no single paladin oath but rather several, no poison use and no ranged weapons was never part of the paladin's oath, while the 3e paladin can just like the 5e paladin only use their smite abillity with melee attacks, paladins have always been proficient with ranged weapons, or have always been able to choose ranged weapon proficiency in 2e, poison is only considered a nonlawful act in places where poison happens to be illegal, and is only an evil act when it is used to evil ends, so it would not break the alignment restriction. The only restrictions the 2e paladin talked about was donating to church, avoiding associating with evil party members (although thieves are fine if they are of good alignment and trying to reform), stealth only to be attempted as a last resort, i do not see what rule you are refering to
plus nowadays not all paladins serve the same oath, obiously
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Blowguns are great for kensei monk fun! Obviously not the *best* option out there, especially early on but still viable if that's the theme/style you're going for.
Something else I just thought of.
As a DM I would totally allow a character to use a blowgun, both loading and firing, while prone. Perhaps that could be a good balancing factor.
You mean you would remove the disadvantage from attacking while prone? Because everyone can attack while prone - they just attack with disadvantage.
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