r/dndnext

Mike mearls posted this on his YouTube channel and I was curious about community's opinion. Just wanted to open up the discussion.

Sneak Attack Alternative: Skillful Strike

The option below improves a rogue’s overall combat performance. It trades the swingy nature of Sneak Attack with a steadier flow of damage. It allows a baseline damage bonus on all attacks, with more dice added if an attack has advantage. It grants the rogue a second attack, with the bonus damage then applying to two attacks per turn.

Use this option if…

• You noticed that your rogue’s damage lags other characters’ damage.

• You are frustrated by the feast or famine nature of Sneak Attack.

• You want a rogue with a more combat-oriented set of features.

Level 1: Skillful Strike

Rogues are shifty, tricky combatants. They use their mastery of skills to outwit and outfight their opponents. Once per turn you can add your Skillful Strike dice to one weapon damage roll you make. Pick one of the attack’s weapon damage types to use for the Skillful Strike dice. If a class feature, feat, or other rule allows you to reduce your Sneak Attack damage by a number of dice to gain a benefit, you can apply that feature to your Skillful Strike dice. You cannot use an option that would reduce your dice to less than zero.You can also apply any benefit that applies to Sneak Attack to a Skillful Strike. If you have advantage on the attack, or if a creature friendly to you is within 5 feet of the target, you use the dice listed on the Boosted column of the Skillful Strike table.

Skillful Strike Dice

Level Base Boosted

1 – 2 1d6 2d6

3 – 4 2d6 3d6

5 – 10 2d8 3d8

11 – 13 3d10 5d10

14 – 19 4d10 6d10

20 6d10 9d10

Level 5: Skillful Flurry

You can attack twice when you use an Attack action on your turn. You can apply your Skillful Attack dice to up to two attacks each.

Amongst other things they are hoping to get:

• Wages that reflect their work and defined career progression,
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• Full ownership of the work they create outside of the office,
• And additional needs outlined in their individual units’ goals.

If you would like to read more about this, here is their announcement post: https://unitedwizardsofthecoast.com/news/dnd-studiox-join-uwotc-cwa

They have also asked the fans of D&D, Magic, and more to sign their petition here as a show of support for the union: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcpetition/

I'm trying to understand what actually trips up new D&D players.

For those of you who've played a while: what was the hardest part to get your head around at the start? The rules, the dice, the character sheet, knowing what to say at the table?

And what finally made it click for you?

Edit: this is for a free beginner D&D app I'm building (no ads). Your answers are great, thank you. If you'd like to test the early iOS build, send me a message.

4 isn't unusual and is more common than 2, but in terms of actual, practical gameplay the average seems to hover just above 3. Anecdotally, that matches my own experience going back beyond even 5e, there are always exceptions, some days have one or none and some days have lots. But overall, 3 or so matches what I've seen.

So where is the 6-8 per day thing coming from? They know very few people play like that, and it would be absurd to expect people to randomly change their narrative style to double the number of fights. So like... why is that number treated as being relevant, by anyone?

I am a dragonborn Samurai fighter lvl 6 wielding a greatsword. My role in the group is an offtank/bruiser like one. My group is using the 2024 rulebook (expect that my dm allowed me to use an older subclass). Initally, I just wanted to level as high as possible in the fighter class, but lately others in my group started multiclassing, which made me start thinking about my char. I cant really tell if this is a valid option for my samurai. What are good options for multiclassing and at which lvl should i start and how many level should i put in the other class?
Thx for the help already :)

Here I come with a question that I never thought I’d have to ask:

What is better, a free Feat or a free Very Rare Wondrous Item?

For context, my GM yesterday had a NPC offer our party of level 12 characters a choice drinking some wine that tastes horrendous, but would reveal talents we wouldn’t have pursued otherwise (a free Feat), or pick from his collection of high quality magical items, 100% safe (we get to pick a Very Rare Magic Item from an official source).

I, as a Lore Bard, am having a hard time choosing, because Feats are good, but Very Rare Items are not something I often get, let alone get to choose.

So, players and GMs of Reddit, what do you think is more interesting between a Feat or a Very Rare Magic Item?

As added relevant context, my Charisma's at 22, I already have an Amulet of Health, an armour that scales off of both Charisma and Dexterity, and an instrument that gives me +2 to spell attack and DC and allows me to give Bardic Inspiration when I teleport as an Astral Elf. Also, if I take any Feat that would increase a stat, I don't get the stat increase.

EDIT: My GM tells me I wouldn't have time to benefit from the Tome of Leadership and Influence, as I thought. The campaign pretty much ends in two or three in-game days.

EDIT 2: Because someone seems to have changed the flair of my post, I'll specify here: This is a 5E game, no 5.5E items or feats.

Hey everyone, so my DM is testing a one-shot he designed for level 14 characters. It’s 5 of us, and we’re gently debating about whether or not to give magic items. My only experience with one-shots up until this point has been level 20 one-shots, where we got very nice toys, but level 14 is sort of a weird position. Because on the one hand it would make sense to have magic items, but on the other it makes testing maybe skewed. None of us really have an opinion on it yet because most of us haven’t played a one-shot, and out of the ones who have they’ve been level 20 one-shots where we had our pick of magic items. On top of that, this is a testing environment, so if he released it with the expectation that players were given x magic items and we didn’t test it with that, it might be skewed that way, too. I dont want to ask him for magic items if it doesn’t make sense, but I would like magic items if it does. If we should be allowed magic items, how many and what rarity?

I’ve always thought manticores were one of the more underrated monsters in D&D.
They’re intelligent, cruel, can fly, and have a nasty habit of hunting people for sport. But I feel like they usually get thrown into encounters as just another monster to kill.
Which seems like a missed opportunity.
I could totally see a manticore terrorizing a small village, stalking travelers, and slowly becoming this terrifying local legend that the party has to deal with.
Has anyone actually built an adventure around one as the main villain?
I’d love to hear how you ran it, especially if you leaned into its intelligence and personality rather than just making it another combat encounter.

a little context, as of now we have a party of 6 level 4's, consisting of 2 rogues, a paladin, a druid, a sorcerer and a bard. in a session or 2 we'll not only be leveling up but we'll be introducing a new player to the game, a barbarian/artificer. it feels like if i throw anything at the party they'll just one-shot it or it will destroy them.

is there any tips anyone has on how to ideally balance encounters like this? i know i can add minions and such, but i havent played enough with this size of a party to know how much is too much

Hi! I'm planning to make a wood elf type sorcerer who can use finger of death. I'm planning to use the finger of death to commit a small genocide and make myself an undead army. I also want the ability to use shadow blade and proficiency with daggers and use sneak or invisiblity in the dark. However I'm kinda new to 5e and dont know how I can make that happen. Any ideas?

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