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View Full Version : 5e DMs: 3 questions, point buy, necromancer stuff



Vos
July 13th, 2019, 20:01
I see standard array used in a LOT of games here.
with point buy I can get 15, 15, 14, 10, 08, 08.
A varient human would get two 16's outa that. A half elf could get THREE 16s. ~~is this considered Cheesy?
Further do any DMs allow for a point buy?

necromancers. a wizard player character. I always wanted to play one but they were pariah's in the game world.it was a villain only class. Have things changed in 5e? The rules are in the PH.
Players (paladins especially), would you adventure with a necromancer, especially if he was not evil but was just another nice mage?

Lastly, I have a totally silly question for DMs. Would you let me summon a crawling claw with the familiar spell? It wouldn't look like in the MM. It would look more like Thing on the Adams family. It could perch on my shoulder, give me head massages, and occasionally flip off bad guys. I just think it is a cool visual.

LordEntrails
July 13th, 2019, 20:21
Personally, I'm not a fan of point buy, but sometimes it's not a big deal to me. For one-shots I always do standard array, for in person games I usually do 4d6-L. But, imp, 5E is pretty insensitive to ability scores. As long as all the characters use compatible methods, doesn't matter to me.

Necromancers, never bothered me as long as the character backstory and personality are appropriate. And that the players understand their are consequences for their character selection in the game world. It all depends upon the campaign and the characters.

Crawling claw? That's all up to the specific DM. Asking what other DMs would allow is not really a good thing to do. Cuz now are you going to go to your DM and say something like; "some random person on the internet would allow me to do it, you should too!"

Really, if you are looking at these things for a specific campaign with a DM, the only answers that matter are theirs. Discuss it with them, ask them. And if they are not comfortable with it, then come up with another character concept. I'm sure you can come up with a few dozen interesting character concepts. If you keep playing, you'll eventually get a chance to play lots of different characters, even a necromancer :)

Zacchaeus
July 13th, 2019, 21:46
Mostly as LE says this is all up to the DM and I agree that 5e isn't as sensitive to stats as say AD&D was where you didn't step outside without at least three scores of 18.

Some of my players use point buy and others use the standard array and at the end of the day it hasn't mattered at all. I have one character that started with three 16's and three 8's and he's not fairing any better or worse than any of the other characters.

Casters who have tons of minions are a PITA in general; not just necromancers but anything that can cast summoning of a mass of creatures. It's probably fun for the player having a dozen skeletons wiping out everything before them but for the other players waiting for their turn to come about it's tedious. Also for the DM too who has to set things up so that the player can control their hordes. So this one is very much down to the DM who has to think about their other players as well.

The Find Familiar spell specifies the creatures that you can use and Crawling Claw isn't one of them. However I can see the allure of such a familiar to a Necromancer and, assuming that I allowed a necromancer, I'd allow it for the amusement value.