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Any D&D/D20

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[scriver]

Call it the wizard killer. Mage murderer. Sage slayer.

[Cruxador]

Yeah, the great distances afforded by sniping allow you to trivialize many enemies in 5e, provided your DM is letting you snipe from across a great distance and they have no recourse (such as go inside) other than to run at you. Pretty rare in most games, but when it does happen it's a strong point in favor of bows.

[Kadzar]

So, I'm a little bit enamored with the concept of a war priest with a bow. If we're allowing feats, a variant human with 16 dex would be able to, at level 2, shoot something 600 feet away for 1d8+13 damage with +10 tohit.

I mean, sure, it's once per short rest... But that's still kinda funky fresh, I'd say.

If you're playing in Eberron, that's a pretty good concept for a cleric of the Silver Flame, since they're pretty big into bows.

Yeah, the great distances afforded by sniping allow you to trivialize many enemies in 5e, provided your DM is letting you snipe from across a great distance and they have no recourse (such as go inside) other than to run at you. Pretty rare in most games, but when it does happen it's a strong point in favor of bows.

Yeah, I sometimes see people talking about how significant attack ranges like this are overpowered, and it makes me think they don't really play or never go into dungeons, because, in my experience, most fights happen in rooms that are within the normal range of a shortbow, or at the very least the normal range of a longbow. And even if you are outside, you can probably at least find some cover or something.

[MrRoboto75]

Call it the wizard killer. Mage murderer. Sage slayer.

Call it Greg

[Persus13]

Silver Flame War Cleric with a bow is something I've wanted to do for awhile now too.

It can be pretty fun surprising cocky players with bows who think that they can't get hit by anything, especially if they have a Broom of Flying. My favorite story of that is a villain being attacked by a party with the party's archer 500 feet away, and the villain using dimension door to jump right next to the archer.

[Grim Portent]

As often happens when I look through the D&D PHB and see the trade goods and wagons and so forth I've found myself wanting to play a character who's defined by being a non-combatant. This time it's a merchant I have in my head. Great persuader, insightful, knowledgeable and so on, but damn near useless if a fight breaks out.

I have this mental image of a well off trader travelling with a caravan of a few wagons of goods, a bunch of hirelings and so forth having a bunch of wild eyed adventurers land in his lap during a trip and getting dragged along for the ride with him trying to negotiate his way out of being eaten by dragons or ogres while the actual adventurers are stealing stuff or setting up an ambush and them scrambling away like his arse is on fire when it comes to blows.

Plus I'd like to deal with the baggage train management aspect of things at least once. Enough of this four people sleeping in a shabby tent and trekking on foot through vague wilderness while mostly ignoring encumbrance. I want to bring some damn luggage for once. Y'know I've never met anyone else who bothers to bring manacles and chains on any adventures, or climbing gear, or wants to bring a wagon and horses.

[Superdorf]

Sounds like good fun! My only suggestion would be that you clear it with your fellow players first, lest they resent you for being a deadweight in combat.

[Kagus]

And even if you are outside, you can probably at least find some cover or something.

That's why the Sharpshooter feat is kinda silly... Not only does it let you utilize the full range of the weapon without disadvantage, it also lets you ignore half and 3/4 cover. So... Basically anything that isn't full cover, and full cover prevents the enemy from seeing or interacting with you as well.

Y'know I've never met anyone else who bothers to bring manacles and chains on any adventures, or climbing gear, or wants to bring a wagon and horses.

One of the very few and very short-lived campaigns I've actually played via IRC, someone played a character that basically amounted to "The dwarf with the wagon"... Which, in their mind, earned them more than a double share of the loot. Despite never having stepped foot inside the dungeon or contributed to the interactions in any way.

This person was not very popular with the other players.

[IcyTea31]

Y'know I've never met anyone else who  -- wants to bring a wagon and horses.

Well, in a game I played in there was a character who insisted on bringing a a cart full of bags of beans instead of standard trail rations, as well as enough gunpowder and lead ball to outfit an army. The others brought food and ammo for ten days, not ten weeks. We returned to town two days later.

And in another, the GM even started the one-shot with "you left your mules outside and stepped into the dungeon", even though none of the character sheets mentioned pack animals. To him, it was unthinkable for anyone to go out adventuring without something to carry the loot, so he didn't even ask if we wanted any.

[MrRoboto75]

Carts and draft animals become rather pointless as most DMs really don't bother tracking and auditing encumbrance, much less the physical bulk of most items.

Then also the handy haversack, portable hole, or bag o' holding are also very popular loot that don't really make the party that much stronger.

[Grim Portent]

Well, in a game I played in there was a character who insisted on bringing a a cart full of bags of beans instead of standard trail rations, as well as enough gunpowder and lead ball to outfit an army. The others brought food and ammo for ten days, not ten weeks. We returned to town two days later.

And in another, the GM even started the one-shot with "you left your mules outside and stepped into the dungeon", even though none of the character sheets mentioned pack animals. To him, it was unthinkable for anyone to go out adventuring without something to carry the loot, so he didn't even ask if we wanted any.

Why beans of all things? 



I'm going through and working out costs/weights of a weeks supplies for a new character atm with a wagon and 2 draft horses pus various tools like chains, pitons, tent, papers, oil and so on. 10 days of feed for 2 horses weighs 200 pounds, but they can pull over 2000 pounds together and that allows for an insane amount of equipment, most of which can be fit into one chest and a few sacks. Unless I want to buy half a tonne in barrels of lamp oil I doubt I can come near the capacity of a wagon without having far more rope and chains than even my characters can reasonably use.

EDIT: Part of it also comes down to travel times being really short in the d&d games I've been in. On foot travel between the capitals of two separate races being like a week each way at most kind of short. As someone who does like the details of travelling/eating to be important for the ability to have those pinch moments when something went wrong and you wind up low on food or racing time to get back somewhere.

[MrRoboto75]

Unless I want to buy half a tonne in barrels of lamp oil I doubt I can come near the capacity of a wagon without having far more rope and chains than even my characters can reasonably use.

Bombs?

[Grim Portent]

Sadly lamp oil doesn't explode, but it could be used to light 2880 5 foot squares on fire for two rounds. Or keep a lantern lit for 480 6 hour nights. If you can't see in the dark you actually need a lot of oil to keep lanterns going.

EDIT: Scratch that, brain done thunked wrong.

Each pint is 6 hours in a lantern, it's enough to keep a camp lit with 6 hooded lanterns for 480 nights for 6 hours at a time, 30 foot radius of bright light around each lantern, plus 30 more feet of dim light. Throw in a pair of bullseye lanterns to use if a disturbance happens and light's more or less done and dusted as a problem at night.

[IcyTea31]

Why beans of all things? 

Dried beans are extremely dense in nutrition. A bag of beans feeds you longer than a bag of hardtack and keeps malnutrition away better.

[Grim Portent]

Why beans of all things? 

Dried beans are extremely dense in nutrition. A bag of beans feeds you longer than a bag of hardtack and keeps malnutrition away better.

Did they do that to save money or purely because it seemed more sensible to them? It seems like an odd thing to do compared to just checking off one ration a day, which is how it's usually handled. The actual contents of the long lasting food pretty much never matters as long as it's there.