Should Player Buy The 5e Dmg

Sep 09, 2017  You've claimed multiple times that a +1 is unimportant in 5e. But, that ignores bounded accuracy. When the vast majority of checks should be about DC 10-15, a +1 is a HUGE benefit. This isn't 3e or 4e where a single +1 doesn't matter. This is a system where a single +1 is all you get. Nov 11, 2014  Mention should be made in such an essay of the 'humanocentric' nature of D&D.that Humans are the baseline for, well, everything. In the 1st edition DMG, there was a small one-page essay on the 'monsters as player characters', page 21 IIRC, that rang like thunder to my 11 year old brain when I. Ive been playing D&D for 35 years now and Ive learned one thing above all others when it comes to stat and whats written on the character sheet. It doesnt matter. Lets get down to brass tacks. Essentially, that 2 extra points of dex gives him a 1. Oct 15, 2018  Do I have to buy DMG, PHB, MM? Which includes a number of rulesets adapted for use in Fantasy Grounds. In the case of 5E this includes the basic rules and SRD data. Additional resources are not required for the 5E ruleset, but are definitely recommended as illustrated in the post linked above. So as player you need none of those books. Which 5e book should I buy? 5th Edition submitted 3 years ago by AlexTuesday I currently only have about $40 to spend and won't have much extra money for the foreseeable future, so I can only buy one book for myself at the moment.

The D&D Dungeon Masters Guide is out now, and it’s a very cool resource filled with lots of new rules for treasure, magic items, world building, new downtime activities, and optional rules! Also, my name is in the play-tester credits, so that’s pretty fun :).

Dec 07, 2014  The player should not stay away from the DMG. The player can read whatever he wants. PHB, MM, or DMG. And the player can assume that the core rules of the DMG are core rules. Including rule 0 (I assume that there is a rule 0 in 5E). This means that the player can assume DMG default core rules, but the DM is free to change them without telling.

Anyway, instead of doing something ridiculous, like review an entire book, I’d like to focus on one specific element I found interesting, the rules for running a business during your downtime!

The idea of running a business and making extra money during downtime is pretty appealing. It’s a great way to engage with the campaign world, a fun “simulationist” way to make money, and it opens up some cool adventure hooks for the DM. For example, maybe some mysterious cloaked figures show up at your Inn, clearly wounded and seeking shelter for the night, OR maybe a group of bumbling first level adventures meet up for the first time, planning a raid on a dragon lair that will surely result in their deaths! Dmg mori seiki nhx 5000.

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However, running a business is a tricky mechanic to get right. You probably don’t want it to be TOO profitable, or else your PCs will be scratching their heads, wondering why they ever go on adventures. Conversely, if it doesn’t really make you any money, why even bother? Sure, running an Inn sounds cool, but if it’s not profitable, maybe you’re better off spending your character’s time elsewhere.

The folks at Wizards of the Coast gave running a business a decent shot that may work for casual play, but unfortunately it suffers from a few serious flaws when you dig into it:

  • Running a big business is less profitable than running a small business: If you look at the table for running a business, you’ll see that lower results penalize you by forcing you to pay some percentage of your upkeep every day you spent running a business. Your upkeep can range from 5SP a day for a farm to 10GP a day for a trading post. That makes sense. If your business does poorly, you still have to pay your workers and keep your property in shape. What is pretty counter-intuitive, however, is that if you roll higher on the table, you roll a set amount of dice to determine your profit. This profit is in the same range no matter the size of your business. So a small farm makes the same profit as a large inn, but since the large inn has an upkeep that is 20 times larger, you’ll end up making a lot less money overall since it will hurt a lot more when you roll poorly and need to pay that upkeep.
  • You make more money per day if you run a business for one day compared to 30 days: You get a bonus to your roll for every day you spend running a business. If you spend one day running a business, you get a +1% to your roll, where as if you spend 30 days running a business, you get a +30% to your roll. So on the surface, running a business for 30 days seems like it gives you a big advantage. However, if you crunch the numbers, you’ll find that it is vastly more profitable for your time to run a business for one day compared to 30 days. Sure, you make more money, but not enough to justify all the extra time spent. For example, if you spend one day running an Inn, you should expect to make about 13GP on average. If you run that same Inn for 30 days, you should expect to make about 26GP on average. So you’ve about doubled your profit for 30X the work! Clearly any player who can get away with it will try to game the system by making a roll every day for running a business.
  • You pay upkeep on your business while you are away: On the surface, this isn’t too surprising. The property still needs to be maintained, and you’re going to need staff to keep everything running, but having this requirement means that for most campaigns, owning a business is a money losing proposition. Imagine a campaign where the PCs spend half their time in downtime and half their time traveling and going on adventures. That doesn’t seem too unusual. In such a campaign, the PC would spend 10GP on upkeep for every day spent adventuring and would make about 13GP for every day spent running their Inn. So technically, they are making a profit, but it is pretty thin, especially since they are probably spending 1GP to cover their lifestyle expenses every day they run their Inn. Now, imagine a campaign where the DM is constantly putting challenges in front of the PCs, forcing them to adventure frequently and travel across the world fighting evil. Now, they are only spending 1 day out of every 4 in downtime. Suddenly, the PC is losing A LOT of money running that Inn. For every 13GP they make on average, they are losing 30GP!

With all that in mind, I put together the following house rules:

  • Every week, you make a roll to see how much money your business makes (or loses). You make this roll regardless of whether you are spending your downtime running the business or not. One of the NPCs on your staff is assumed to be managing the business if your PC is not available. The DM may elect to make this roll in secret and inform you of the results when you return from adventuring. Absent other factors, the DM determines how trustworthy the NPC is, so PCs are advised to hire NPCs they already trust to run their business for them to avoid embezzlement.
  • Replace the 61-80, 81-90 and 91+ results with the following:
    61-80: You cover your upkeep and make 100% of your upkeep each day in profits (since businesses make a roll every week, you are multiplying your upkeep times 7).
    81-90: You cover your upkeep and make 200% of your upkeep each day in profits.
    91+: You cover your upkeep and make 300% of your upkeep each day in profits.
  • If you spend a week of downtime running your business, you get a +10 bonus on your roll that week. If you only spend a few days running the business during the week, you get a +1% bonus for every day you spent running the business (so it’s much more efficient to dedicate an entire week).
  • As per normal rules, if you roll poorly and are required to pay upkeep but elect not to do so, subsequent rolls take a -10 penalty until you pay your debt. This effect is cumulative, so if you fail to pay your upkeep two times, you take a -20 on the roll, and so on. A PC may elect to leave funds behind to pay their debts if the business loses money while they are away; again if the NPC managing your business is not trustworthy, the DM may determine that they abscond with the money (tracking down an unscrupulous NPC could be an adventure in itself!).
  • The DM may grant other temporary or permanent bonuses or penalties to these rolls as makes sense for the story. For example, perhaps one week there is an important festival in the town, and so the DM grants a +10 bonus. Or maybe a plague hits the town, and so the DM gives a -10 penalty. Alternatively, if an important rival is eliminated or a lucrative trade deal is established, the DM may grant a +5 or +10 bonus to rolls as long as that bonus remains in effect (which could be indefinitely).

If you crunch the numbers on these house rules, you’ll find that, absent any other factors, all businesses are profitable even without direct management. A farm makes about 1GP a week on average absent any management, and a rural Inn makes between 15-20GP a week on average. Of course, one wrong turn can send a business spiraling into the red. A single -10 modifier from an unpaid debt or unfortunate turn of events (perhaps goblins are attacking nearby trade routes) will turn a marginally profitable business into an unprofitable one, so PCs must remain vigilant to protect against any threats that arise through the course of play (or the DM’s whim).

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If PCs are buying their businesses outright instead of, say, inheriting an Inn, they’ll find that absent direct management, they’ll recoup their investment within 4-5 years, which feels about right and isn’t too far from what you’d expect running a 7-11 in the real world! If they run the business non-stop or secure bonuses in other ways (such as lucrative trade deals), they can easily cut this time in half. In D&D terms, this may seem rather slow, but hey, there is SOME prestige to owning your own Inn or Trade-post, and you can always sell the property at a later date to get your money back (assuming you can find a buyer).

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These rules can also be applied to running a barony or even an entire kingdom. As long as the manors and castles the PCs build or acquire come with the lands and rights to taxation appropriate to their station, you can factor in their upkeep and treat them like running any other business. Obviously, this doesn’t mean the PCs can spend 500K GP to build a palace in the wilderness and suddenly expect to start raking in the cash, but if the PCs are granted land or spend much of the campaign carving out their own little kingdom, I think it would be quite appropriate and a lot of fun. Bonuses and penalties to rolls take on a new meaning at this scale; suddenly a -10 negative represents a blight across the land or a war with a powerful kingdom that is taking its toll on the populace. A +10 bonus might represent a recent discovery of gold in mountains within the kingdom’s domain or a recent trade agreement with an exotic and faraway land.

This system is quite abstract, but I think it gives most DMs and Players the flexibility they need to fit it to a variety of different businesses and situations, including plenty of room for game events and PC actions to affect the development of the business. It’s also quite easy to manage, requiring one roll per game week and keeping track of a handful of modifiers (at most) and the current profit or debt of the business. I’m really excited to try it out in my campaign. I’d love to hear how it works for you, dear reader!

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Since this and other similar questions get asked on a fairly frequent basis I have written up a quick guide which hopefully hits the salient points and which at the same time provides a reasonable synopsis of the position. Do let me know if I've missed anything of value. Assuming you think it's of value I'll sticky it in due course.
License considerations:

If you are a player then all you need is the demo license of Fantasy Grounds provided that the DM has an Ultimate license. If the DM only has a standard license then you will need a standard license too.
If you are a DM then having the Ultimate license will allow all of your players to join your game with only the demo license. If you have only a standard license then all of your players are going to need a standard license too.
The ONLY difference between a Standard and an Ultimate license is that with the latter players can join your game with only a demo license. There is absolutely no difference in the content included with either license. No 5e manuals (PHB, DMG, MM etc) are included in ANY license – they are all separate purchases.
What comes with the license?

With a demo license you can access the 5e SRD and basic rules (as from April 2018). This will allow you to create some basic characters with all of the limits that come with the SRD and basic rules (see below).
With a Standard or Ultimate license you get the 5th edition ruleset built in, the D&D basic rules and the 5e SRD. The ruleset is what allows you to handle a game of 5e D&D. It allows you to handle character creation, combat and a multitude of other things. However it is only a tool – it does not include content such as the PHB etc.
With the Basic Rules and the SRD you can create characters, encounters, treasures and everything else that you would need to play a game of 5e. However these modules are very much cut down versions of the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and Monster Manual. You will not get the following with the SRD; for characters most of the archetypes, backgrounds, race options and almost all of the feats are missing. For NPCs many of them are missing, as well as all of the background information and all of the artwork. For the DMG; many magic items are missing; all of the dungeon creation and alternative rules are missing as well as all of the treasure tables and many other things.
What do I really need to play 5e?

First of all this depends on whether you are a player or a DM. As a player the only thing you need is a demo or Standard license as noted above. You need nothing else, but see the information on the PHB below. Whilst it isn't necessary for you to own this you might want to in order to create characters offline (provided you have at least a standard license).
As a DM this is a more difficult decision. The three core rulebooks – the PHB, DMG and MM have all been written and optimised for Fantasy Grounds. This means that many features in the FG versions are not available in the paper version. So for convenience alone the purchases are worth it. However here’s some further information on how each of the three volumes might, or might not, be for you.
PHB:
Primarily the PHB is concerned with character creation and the rules for actually playing the game. If you own the PHB then you can make it available to your players so that they can create their characters. Full drag and drop functionality means that players can drag a class, race, background and equipment into their character sheet and (almost) everything will be set up for them ready to play.
Note, however, that the character sheet is not a character builder so some manual intervention is required to get the best out of the character.
The drag and drop functionality links sections of the character sheet to the Player’s Handbook so the player (or the DM) can click on these links to open the relevant section. Of all three of the core rulebooks the consensus is that the PHB is pretty much essential for its ease of use and functionality.
MM:
If you are going to be creating your own campaigns (as opposed to purchasing adventures) as a DM then the Monster Manual will be a very desirable module to own. All of the NPCs are in there complete with background information and full colour artwork that can be shared with players. NPCs from the MM can be dropped into encounters and from there onto the Combat Tracker and onto maps. Each will have a token representing the NPC as well as all the statistics, attacks and defences of the NPC. When placed on the CT the NPCs attacks, spells and other abilities will show up on the CT and as DM you will be able to use those by simply double clicking on the attack, ability or effect.
If you plan to use only published adventures then the MM is perhaps less of a necessity since all of the NPCs in those adventures will come with it.
DMG:
The Dungeons Master’s Guide contains information on how to create worlds, dungeons, campaigns, NPCs, treasures and other rewards as well as detailed guidance on running a game and generally how to be a DM. It also contains many pages of magic items and a huge number of tables for rolling up random treasures, dungeons, personalities and a host of other things.
Whether you need any of this might also depend on whether you intend to make up your own adventures or run published ones. However even if you fall into the latter category the lure of those magic items is great – and with a single roll of a dice you can create a treasure parcel down to the smallest detail. If you roll a sword it will tell you what kind of sword; if you roll a scroll it will tell you what scroll you got; or what gem; or what armour or what potion.
Wherever possible the tables in the DMG have been optimised for use in FG like this. You roll once and if the table entry directs you to roll elsewhere then that roll is made too.
In summary then, the three core rulebooks are not essential but depending on how you run your game it could make life a lot easier, give your players a host of options, give you easy access to information and rules as well as cutting prep time by a considerable amount. It is worth mentioning also that if you have the time and inclination you could add all of the information into Fantasy Grounds yourself and create your own modules for personal use.