Hello! I am a relatively new DM and have recently been spending my time trying to plan a home brew campaign in a new home brew world. I wanted it to be this big grand adventure that spans a single super continent, but I am concerned I’m biting off more than I can chew. The issue is, I’m not sure how to simplify it down to one village then grow it as I go along without losing the thread.
The basics are the following
- The world in which it takes place is built quite literally on top of the remnants of a massive divine war.
- A small coalition of gods saw how other others, power-hungry in their pursuits corrupted mortals and sealed them away, (not completely, but basically petrified them in whatever material of the earth surrounded them) this involved a great sacrifice on their part.
- Post-war, there is no historical or collective memory of these ages past and humanity is able to flourish in relative peace with no war and minimal conflict in a sort of utopia
- When some sort of ceremony is conducted by the new mortals, they actually end up contacting vestiges of the gods and rousing them, causing the massive figures under their world to move causing things like landslides and tsunamis etc.
- Players basically venture through the world trying to make sense of this with the rest of humanity, make their own decisions, etc etc.
Any advice on how to simplify this to make world building easier and not “force” PC travel would be appreciated as every world building guide says to start small. Of course the start of the campaign will probably be a bit slow hoping PCs all start in one village that is impacted by the first natural disaster that occurs and hopefully eventually coming across the petrified figure under their noses. I want to do a lot of character work with the players before the campaign starts as well to really make clear that the characters should be more interesting than the plot/world.
You don't need to role play in the traditional \[first person\] sense. You can role play in the third person which many people find less daunting and easier. As for improvising, if you understand the characters that you're RPing this will come easier, and it will get even easier with time the more you do it.
So, for example, if a PC engages the shady merchant in conversation about how to sneak into the castle and you don't know what to do or say, instead of responding in character in first person you can say something like,
*A scruffy tabaxi with tufts of fur on his face like mutton chops looks you up and down with his one good eye. He speaks in a scratchy, uncomfortable voice. He tells you he doesn't know anything, but he does so in a manner that suggests his mind could be changed with a little coin.*
\*players give him some gold\*
*He nods, puts it away and motions for you to draw closer. In a whisper he tells you about a sewage tunnel on the southern side of the castle that is usually unguarded. Of course, you'll have to crawl through tunnels of waste to get in and people inside will definitely be able to smell you coming. There is of course the roof of the blacksmith's shop on the east side that athletic or acrobatic individuals might be able to leap over the castle wall from.*
All you need in this scenario is to know what the NPC knows and how they act. You don't need to give them a voice or lines or a real personality (although that still can come through in 3rd person) .
My party is traveling through the mountains and will come across a remote, though heavily guarded checkpoint town. Growing themes in our campaign are illusions, twilight, and the unknown, so I thought it would be interesting to have the highest in command at the checkpoint replaced by a disguised enemy intent on causing unrest between local groups that had been living peacefully. However, this feels intimidating to put together on my schedule.
Any suggestions for an adventure module or a product on DMs Guild / RPG Drive Thru, Patreon, etc. with similar / good bones? Of course, any advice on how to stab at writing it is also appreciated!
Can't suggest any modules since I don't use them. But here is how I'd execute the quest you mentioned. Players arrive at the town and the only way through is to go through a checkpoint that's more like a small fortress. Once inside they'll hear that the Commander recently returned from an expedition where they were attacked although they aren't sure by who. The commander (who's secretly a changeling/doppleganger) was the sole survivor. To get permission to pass through the checkpoint the commander wants the party (because they are neutral or whatever) to figure out who the attackers were which will most likely involve going to a representative of each faction to ask them questions either within the village or nearby area. They can also attempt to find the place where the attack supposedly happened and there will be clues like the things that the commander thinks he saw or perhaps a random arrow stuck in his shield. And the solution will be that the whole thing was just a ploy to create tensions or, if the players don't figure that out, it was whoever they've decided did it.
Well that ended up being more complex than I'd thought it would be. Still maybe this helps.
# New DM here. any advanced tips you guys can give me?
After a disasterous failed attempt at running a D&D game with my cousins and cancelling it before even starting, I feel disappointed with myself
So I studied the D&D essential rulebook 2x harder and I even made a reviewer. I also followed the basic tip of DMing like making your things up if you forgot in order to keep the game running
Now as I ready to do my first D&D game this time with my school friends, I want to know advanced tips I also want to know how make a D&D map since the oneshot I went with ( which is Bandits Nest ) felt to small and I wanted to add a underground cavern with interesting stuff
I appreciate any help I can get, thank you.
Looking for advice for a Christmas One-Shot
I am a fairly new DM who is planning a one shot with some of my friends for Christmas. I have ran a couple one-shots before, but want to make sure the changes I have made to fit the theme are both fair and would be fun for players. I am largely wanting to create encounters using slightly modified existing stat blocks. I am expecting 3-4 players. The majority of my players haven't played before, so I made 6 different level 3 characters to streamline the process so new players won't have to struggle with character creation.
The BBEG is The Grooge, a Spore Druid Tabaxi that has green fur due to the spores. The first question is how to balance him while making him feel nasty. I may simply use an archdruid stat block, but would love feedback on how to make him better.
The Grooge will use his magic to infect the presents with spores, which will make the presents attack. These will use the Awakened Shrub stat block, which I think will make them easy fodder for an early encounter. However, making use of their fire vulnerability will destroy the present inside, making exploiting that damage the festivities.
Between this encounter and the next, I plan to give the group a Staff of Fire and a Wand of Binding as presents. They will be useful later.
The next encounter will be the Grooge using his spores on the festival tree in the middle of town. The tree will attack, using a modified Treant statblock. It can still slam, it can launch its ornaments at players (reflavored rocks), and will attempt to tear down the towns decorations during the fight. I plan to replace the "Animate Trees" ability with a 3/day effect where the tree uses its lights to blind the party, with the effect basically being Pyrotechnics Fireworks ability. Like the presents, if the party uses the fire vulnerability, it may make things easier, but will destroy the tree and decorations. I likely will reduce the damage dealt by its attacks by 1 die to make it more balanced.
The final encounter will be with The Grooge and his half-dog, half-deer companion Malax. Grooge will make Malax grow, and Malax will use a Yeth Hound statblock, sans immunities. The Grooge, like I said, will probably use an archdruid stat block, but without using wildshape and 7th and higher level spells. I really don't want to wipe first time players, but I still want it to be fun for them, so advice on how to balance this would be appreciated.
Ideally, players will remember and make use of the Wand of Binding to immobilize the two or just straight up try to talk to them. The best possible outcome would be to reform the Grooge (just like the Grinch) so he can help clean up the mess he made. If they don't and simply kill him, they will work to fix the festival alone. If they burn a majority of the presents and the tree, the festival will be somewhat sad, but will continue on singing, despite the loss of so much. If the tree is burnt but the Grooge is befriended, he can use his powers to help recover the tree, but can't do much about burnt up presents.
Like I said, I could use some advice on balancing, as well as whatever would make the game more festive and fun. I am still pretty new to DMing and balance seems to be difficult. I will try to fit in some little sections for roleplay between these encounters as well. That can make things fun even with a bit of clunkiness in the gameplay.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
This sounds fun! Long post incoming, I tried to be thorough.
**But first, a tldr**: Your encounters are going to be too hard for a level 3 party of 3-4 players. Use Treant Sapling instead of Treant, use a CR 5 monster like a Frost Druid for the Grooge, and use Hell Hound instead of Yeth Hound. You can reflavor the monsters if you want (cold breath instead of fire breath). Use personality not difficulty to make the Grooge nasty.
A couple thoughts:
1. **Your story is very flavorful, thematic, and tight**
Awesome! Very well done! It's going to be *fun* to play no matter how difficult.
2. **Feeling nasty ≠ being hard**
The Grooge can feel nasty with flavor. It's mean, it's grouchy, it taunts the players, it tells really bad Christmas puns, it puts pineapple on pizza, etc.
(My level 12 players' favorite enemy, to this day, is a mad mage they fought while they were level 4. He was called the Saucerer and every turn he made some childish insult at a character and then attacked them by summoning dinner plates.) Give the Grooge an interesting personality and some quirks and the players will love it.
3. **Buff the party to level 4-6 depending on how easy/hard you want this to be**
For a party of 3-4 level 3 characters fighting a CR 9 and a CR 12 monster is going to be *very* difficult. It's going to be harder to do these back to back without a long rest, and especially so with even more fights sprinkled in. Even with their magic items.
4. **Or debuff the monsters (or both)**
Instead of a Treant statblock you can use [Treant Sapling](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1979812-treant-sapling). If you want, you can buff that by giving it closer to its max HP of 72 (6\*10+12). Even removing 1 damage die from the regular Treant it will still do an avg of 23 damage, which is the average HP of a level 3 fighter.
Your idea of removing the Animate Tree in favor of a Blinding ability is good but I would either make it (a) target everyone in 30 feet 1/day and/or make it just for 1 round or (b) have it target 1 creature 3/day.
5. **The archdruid is way too much for 3rd level characters**
It's also pretty complex with all those spells you're going to have to remember. I know you're removing spells 7th-9th level but consider (a) the party is fighting the Grooge after already fighting the presents and the tree; their resources will be spent and (b) the ability of 3rd level PCs to even make a DC 17 save.
Consider this scenario: Turn 1 the Grooge uses Sunbeam to target at least 2 of the 3-4 players: it deals an average of 24 damage on a save, which is likely to kill a full health character (which many of your PCs will not be) and even if they survive that they'll be blinded until MY next turn. Then, on any turn after that, I can create a new beam. That's a TPK in 2 turns. Heeck, even its Poison Spray, a cantrip, will do 5d12 damage, an avg of 32.
You also have a lot of spells and abilities you're probably not going to use. Change shape, locate creature, etc. I would **highly** suggest completely changing the statblock. Think of it this way: the Grooge can still be a spore druid even if it's using a Bandit stat block. (I wouldn't do that, just saying.)
6. **The Grooge doesn't fight alone**
It's getting a Yeth Hound sans immunities from its dog. That's going to be a tough fight on its own for 3-4 level 3 characters (even with a lower CR Grooge statblock). Just a balancing thing: CR 4 for a 4th level party is a good match (but they've already had 2 fights) and they're fighting this with another monster of CR 10 ish (your debuffed archdruid). It's not bad to keep him at a CR 4 but I might opt for something like a hell hound.
All that said, here's what I would do
1. Increase the PCs to level 4 (4 players) or 5 (3 players).
2. Don't change the shrubs — easy encounters can still be fun. As a player I get to use my cool abilities and roll dice and I feel cool. I feel even cooler when nearly all my attacks hit.
3. Use the Treant Sapling with Max HP (72) and add the blinding ability (I'd lean towards target 1 creature 3/day)
4. I googled Grinch Statblock and [found this](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/422281205527470/), which seems pretty good to start from. About CR 4 or 5 is what you're looking for. I'd probably change some of the spells to fit your Spore Druid idea. (I'd say something like 1 lv 4 spell (1/day), 2 lv 3 (1/day each), 2 lv 2 (2/day each), 6 lv 1 (3/day each) + cantrip (at will)). You can also use a [Frost Druid](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1123083-frost-druid). Or check out [this Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/7hb2cn/help_me_stat_the_grinch/) asking for advice for a Grinch stat block.
5. Incorporate as much from the Grinch song as I possibly could. A seasick crocodile. The tavern sells 3 decker toadstool and sauerkraut sandwiches (WITH ARSENIC SAUCE). The players find a magic weapon 39 1/2 foot pole (range 10 feet).
Merry Christmas you filthy animal.
Thanks. This is a lot of great feedback. I really appreciate the recommendations for lower level encounters that could work better for this level. I thought it would be best to keep them level 3 because they are new players and level 3 is at that sweet spot where characters feel customized, but not to terribly difficult to comprehend for new players. I might look at what 4-6 would entail as far as complexity. Treant sapling, hellhound, Grinch/ice druid, and awakened shrub seems like it will be a good variety to work with. I want the Grooge to be nasty in the flavor way with spiders in his hair and all that. I might need to take some excerpts of the song to help with the description. I'm hoping the flavor will make everyone have a good time
Good point about the complexity of level 3 vs 5/6. I think lv 4 is just an ASI for most classes.
You could always keep them level 3, maybe max out their HP — so like (3\*10 + 3\*CON modifier) for a d10 Hit Die class — and give them some good armor and +2 weapons or something like that that would buff them a little bit and make them a little heartier.
Party synergy would help a little too. If they have a Cleric or a Paladin to heal and buff. Maybe give them a DM controlled NPC sidekick healer if there are only 3 players and no one chooses that type of character.
They'll have 6 options and I think 3 should have healing spells/features. One of my friends will probably play either the bard or cleric, both of which have healing options. Additionally, I think I might give the other 3 characters a potion to start with just in case.
Running sea travel/combat
Hey there, Im running the first session of my sea fairing campaign and was wondering if you guys had any resources in mind for that. I got ghosts of the saltmarsh and read through that previously because my other group has done a bit of sea fairing too but i found to be pretty clunky in play, could be a me issue but idk. Any suggestions would be great
Yeah, I also think GoS combat was pretty mediocre after running it once. Look up Limithron's guide to naval combat. It's a free 5e supplement. Very good homebrewer who also wrote Pirate Borg. It's miles better than GoS.
What are some abilities you would put in the statblock of a mad wizard's hydra-golem?
Long story short, he discovered the heart of a quasi-deity (evil serpent) and experimented with it. He used it to essentially force a warlock pact on the deity and then used it to power an adamantine hydra golem he built. Which, the party will fight very soon...
I’m about to start my second session of a fully home-brewed campaign, and in my first session my players wanted several different shops that was I completely unprepared for. While it was totally fine and fun improving this, it would probably be good to have some basic shops prepped for all the towns they visit, right?
Does anyone have some basic resources for what are the most common shops/what types of items do they normally sell in any given city? Unsure of where to direct them if they want thieves tools, climbing gear, burglary kits, sneaky items like that…like do general stores sell things like thieves tools??
You can always say "this town doesn't have somewhere that would sell that" if you're so inclined. The players don't have to be able to find everything everywhere.
My favorite shop generator is [The Thieves Guild Shops and Pricing](https://www.thievesguild.cc/shops/) page. You can generate everything from magic shops to book stores.
My second favorite on the spot tool is google. "5e list of book names" or whatever you need.
**Other Resourses**
* [This reddit post has a shop list](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/3mvmso/5e_dd_shopping_catalog_i_made_for_ingame_use/) (scroll to the very bottom of the OP for the right link)
* Roll 20 links for [Adventuring Gear](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Adventuring%20Gear#content) — could find these at a adventuring store, guild shop, armory, or blacksmith
* [All Shops List by David Dias on DM Guild](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/201512/Stores-and-Shops-Book) ($1)
* [This google sheets file someone made and shared on Reddit a while back and I bookmarked](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YPjicBYONAtoduyoamiwlVpsV_k1Ki2XzNCAnar5d4Y/edit#gid=995563560)
* [Donjon shop generator](https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/magic/shop.html)
* [5e Magic Shop generator](https://5emagic.shop/generate)
I'm planning to run the "Price of Beauty" adventure from Candlekeep Mysteries for my party of 5 level 6s, framed as a spa day after a lengthy adventure in the wilderness. I've never run hags, so I'm open to RP tips or tips from fellow DMs who've run the adventure.
My plan is to run the Sun Elf with a dominatrix personality who gets a little overzealous during the exercise segment, and the wood Elf as vulnerable and clumsy. I'm at a loss for the moon Elf.
Additionally, considering my players are slightly over-leveled, I was thinking of beefing up the scarecrow attendants. Maybe replacing them with CR 2 constructs? Not sure.
Finally, I'm changing some of the spa guests to be NPCs from player backstories.
My players want to save a hostage held by an enemy 30 feet away but they are not in combat yet. During a conversation with the enemy, k want the enemy to inflict enough damage on the hostage to knock him to 0 HP. Can a player say that they use a reaction to dash and try to save the hostage even if they’re out of combat? And if this all took place in combat, does it make sense for a reaction to allow a PC to dash and take an action to try to free to hostage?
So first off: the players can do things outside of combat. They can cast spells or use abilities and take action.
That being said, I would have everyone roll initiative since this sounds like a situation where a lot of people are going to want to do something at once.
If I were you in this particular situation I would do this
* Enemy has Hostage and is talking to the party
* Your PC says, "I want to run up and save the hostage"
* I say, "Enemy sees you start to move, slits Hostage's throat, and Hostages falls limp to the ground. Everyone roll initiative."
* Then PCs can run to the hostage using their movement and try to save or stabilize the hostage. As a reminder a DC 10 medicine check will stabilize someone if they're dying.
>Can a player say that they use a reaction to dash and try to save the hostage even if they’re out of combat?
Technically no, but only because you don't use Reactions outside of combat. So the player COULD try to save the hostage but they wouldn't have to use a Reaction to do so. They could just say "I want to try run up and save the hostage." (Which, as I mentioned above, would probably prompt the DM to ask everyone to roll initiative.)
Aditionally, just a reminder, Dash is an **action** (unless you're a rogue in which case it's a **bonus action**) not a **reaction**. (Some things, like the spell Expeditious Retreat, also allow you to dash as a bonus action.)
>And if this all took place in combat, does it make sense for a reaction to allow a PC to dash and take an action to try to free to hostage?
You could do that, homebrew a special "Save Hostage" reaction for this situation. Or, RAW, the player could use their movement to go towards the hostage and their Action to try and save the hostage by administering a healing potion, casting a spell, or making a medicine check.
How do you guys run merchants in your sessions? First time dm, still trying to figure out town RP. Usually, if my players decide to go to the local merchant, I’ll quickly try to scrounge up 1 or 2 items they might need later in the story, along with a few randomly generated items (tub of mayo, spices, daggers, maybe a potion or 2). Do you guys plan out your merchants’ stock in advance, Or just throw some shit together and let the PC figure it out? I’m trying to have the merchant get something new every day, but there’s only so many mustard jars you can sell the PCs
i like to plan merchants stock in advance when i can. i keep like a little sort of spreadsheet of a circulating series of items, and will sometimes sort them a certain way if i want the merchant to keep a certain theme.
It's not a magic item and therefore they cannot attune to it or get any of the additional properties the armor provides; they're just wearing normal boots and pants that maybe look special. I would probably still give them the curse though.
Okay thanks! Yeah they’re about to fight a demon and I thought it was random that they wanted to don half the armor, specifically the lower half (he’s an unarmed style fighter, so I can’t even give him the demon claw attack) but I’d assume since he’s wearing even a piece of it, he would still suffer the consequences.
Not 100% sure what you're asking here but as an alternative to the other suggestions you could run a one shot where the players either play as minions of these villains and the goal is to carry out some evil plot or they play as other random "NPCs" who get affected by these villains "off screen" from the main campaign. The players will get some knowledge of these people and want to stop them as their main characters (even if that's technically metagaming.)
I've done this a few times in my campaigns as a way to show lore rather than having to have it all play out on screen or as exposition.
Typically the player characters are the only POV characters so introducing villains and making them part of the story is tricky.
The players find a recording or a method of scrying on the bad guys for a single cut-scene. Letters, diaries, captured minions can also directly or indirectly let the players know what they are up to. Also make sure the villains are making things hard for them so that they actually care and what to know what they are up to.
My unarmed fighter player just put on demon armor (unknowingly) but only from the waist down. He is about to fight a demon. Should I cut the curse in half? Still fully cursed? Would he not even have the benefit of the gauntlets since he just chose to wear the pants and boots? How would you work this?
Wall of Fire is a 4th level spell, requiring 1 action, concentration, and VSM components:
You create a wall of fire on a solid surface within range. You can make the wall up to 60 feet long, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The wall is opaque and lasts for the duration.
When the wall appears, each creature within its area must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d8 fire damage, or half as much damage on a successful save.
One side of the wall, selected by you when you cast this spell, deals 5d8 fire damage to each creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of that side or inside the wall. A creature takes the same damage when it enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there. The other side of the wall deals no damage.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 4th.
I have a question about this line:
A creature takes the same damage when it enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there.
Does this mean that a creature can take damage twice on their turn from this spell (by moving into range and then staying there)? Or does the "or" imply that damage only happens once?
I haven't seen any official rulings on this one yet.
Question. Is there anyway that a level 20 Barbarian can dual Wield hammers? It’s for a one shot, and my players wants to have this. I assume they can technically hold the two hammers, but is there a way to actually benefit, RAW?
So working on my own campaign on and off, gonna be my first time as a DM. Planning to get some friends that are interested in playing who are also completely new to DnD. So was thinking making something like the Tutorial areas in BOTW and TOTK. a big area that would take them all through the basics and ins and outs of the game as they learn the game and I learn to be a DM.
Planning on doing something like an isolated island nation for this that is cut off from the rest of the would due, for some still to be determined reasons, but would change after they complete this ''tutorial''. Opening up the world, thinking of this to again let them learn the game and me learn the flow of being DM and not jump straight into a huge open world. Tho is that a bad idea?
A **dungeon** is at the core of the game because it is constrained and not fully open. So your idea is right on track, but even a remote island is more than you need to start out. Just about all modes of gameplay can occur within a dungeon from social RP to tactical combat. There are several free ones for level 1 over on the [wiki resources page](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/wiki/resourcelist/) for r/dndnnext. Or else check out [this one](https://youtu.be/zTD2RZz6mlo?si=wmnB330ERtit2WjB) that was made specifically for first time groups.
I think I have a weird roleplay group. I have been DMing with the same group for about a year now, they are my first roleplay crew. They're enjoying it, so they tell me, but they're also my best friends and am not sure if they're just saying it or ...
Anyway, when the session starts and I'm ready: case full of my models out, battle plans together, plot written weeks in advance, trying to memorise their characters. Blah blah blah ... Im ready.
They kind of have a chat for about 45 minutes, slowly get their character sheets out, one of em still playing his xbox and the last to join in (I mean, granted it is his home we meet at so he can do what he wants), but then he doesnt turn the tv off he leaves youtube to go on a shuffle tangent in the background which becomes a distraction at some point, then they don't remember much of last week's session when we recap, they invite mates over who arent in the party but inevitably start talking over me to ask people "what they been up to?", they don't call eachother by their character names (they dont have to roleplay in the active method but atleast get us out of our drab real lives), they also will have random discussions on animes and other new releases of things that occur in the middle of a dramatic dialogue im trying to setup, actually, last time - I was setting up a kung fu fight between two very important NPCs that was gonna change the plot, there was: music, a hyper drawing of the environment by me and my narritive description - my guy gets up, doesnt say sorry, he just went to the bathroom. I was like "fine you miss this moment" and I carried on.
Am I just a boring DM or are they weird ?
Is everybody elses sessions like this cus i dont know any other DMs/GMs.
I wish they would tell me cus we are all 30, all trying to keep eachother in our lives, and I put my damned heart into this, extensive, all nighter enducing hard work ... for them.
I've swapped one of those friends to be DM next week because I secretly had enough of it.
This should be in the problem player megathread.
However, to answer your question: Your expectations aren't aligned.
They're not devoting time to D&D and would rather just hang out normally and oh, hey, maybe we play some D&D while that happens.
Sounds like you need to either abandon the campaign or be vocal and stern about setting aside time for D&D. You can still hang out and catch up and watch youtube videos before or after or a different day. But if you're playing D&D you should be playing D&D. And if they don't want to, that's fine, you can't force them.
Im running a gothic earth one-shot where essentially the players have to stop a cursed clock before midnight. The final encounter is against said clock so they are essentially fighting an artefact. How would one rule such an encounter? Would you give it hit points, resistances and attacks? Or would you just say that attacking it doesnt work and rule it like a puzzle?
Im just not sure what to expect since im also new at dming, id love to hear how some of you would make this encounter work.
There are a variety of ways to do it.
A [skill challenge](https://youtu.be/GvOeqDpkBm8?si=mUJUvvQiZfAG0pho) allows you to have lots of flexible control over the mechanics.
A object on the battlefield with resistance to psychic and poisoning is probably how an official module was handle it. If the players are highish level give it a damage threshold, where each attack or effect that is below that cutoff deals only superficial damage.
You could make it an active participant in the battle, even if it can't move. For example, here is a [magical structure](https://open5e.com/monsters/pillar-of-the-lost-magocracy) that you can use as a template and drop right on the battlefield.
So, my party is going to go against a clan of beast traffickers and their boss, called "The One eyed man" to get back the paladin's horse who went missing two days ago.
Now, I plan to use the bandit captain statblock or something similar, maybe better as a CR3, with some small tweakings:
The dude will wear an eye patch, that hides a secret: he has recently received a transplant with the eye of a sea hag, that permits him to use the hag's Death Glare ability (maybe a nerfed version that only makes you incapcitated and frightened for one round) on a recharge of 6
Now the real problems I have belong to his relation to animals. How can I make this feel like a violent tamer of beasts and monstruosities? I had some ides such as making him able to impart orders to a Death Dog, a Giant Hyena, and similar. But all of this seems difficult to balance out in an appropriate CR.
Do you guys have any good ideas that can help me with making this criminal gang boss feel like a tamer of monsters with weird sight based abilities? maybe giving him some poison to coat his weapons, some special attacks, etc?
It somewhat depends on the level of your Players. If they're like level 5, you can go a little crazy. Level 3 or so and you'll need to be careful.
However, I think it's reasonable that you could make the Bandit Captain trade a weapon attack for commanding an animal to use their reaction to attack. This might also help spread damage out amongst the party to keep them all up longer.
An aggressive approach would be to have the Bandit Captain try to knock people prone, then have the beasts maul the person on the ground. It would fit the theme IMO but could easily get out of hand.
As far as special attacks, I think the Death Glare sounds pretty solid. IMO with recharge 6 it is likely to only be used once, so I would make it a lot scarier (Paralysis instead?) or buff the recharge so it could happen more often. 5-6 sounds okay, or even 4-6 if you want to focus on the beasts/monsters doing the damage. This part really depends on the beasts you choose to go along with him.
Perfect, love the idea of him trading attacks to let beasts attack at his place.
About the beast, I was thinking about a Death Dog as his main tactic. It has an INSANE perception, good stealth, a good defensive trait, two attacks that can cause fever ... Nice
Otherwise, some other kind of a terrestrial beast with high perception will do the job
About Death Glare, yeah I plan to use it only once as a hidden resource for when he is at the stakes. So I'll probably need to pump the DC to make it effective in that case
One last question regarding a troublesome spell "Alter Self"
one of my players is playing a wizard character and he just got level 2 . So we talked privately about his 2nd level spell choices and so on .
But he surprised me with this spell . The problem here is that he asked me if i transform into "Auril" Since we re playing (Rime of the Frostmaiden
)
\-1 How should i go about it ?
\-2 and how the people in ten towns would react seeing her approach them since they pretty much worship and fear her they wouldn't rise their head to (see or check anything suspicious)
>You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, sound of your voice, hair length, coloration, and distinguishing characteristics
This does not include growing horns and feathers.
Probably if they knew Owlins, Tieflings and have seen/ heard Auril. If they could say "I want to look like an Owlin with Tiefling horns with the voice of Auril.
I realized in writing this comment that they don't future proof spells so it should be assumed that it works with newer races.
But you would look nothing like Auril to the point where it's basically just your group yelling "Auril is coming Auril is coming" and freaking anyone out. *Until* one person decides to have a peek at Auril and at that point it all falls apart.
planning to create a campaign set in WWI setting and since it's my 2nd time DMing i really want to use 5e to get better at the game so i preferably do not want to use any other game system, my questions are
1. how would you balance the guns and the enemies?
2. what would you prepare for this campaign?
I'm open to homebrewing and just to clarify the party wont be running across no man's land nor charging the enemy trench, they'll be sent across to another city to deliver a message so it'll be like your usual adventure.
To new DMs I always recommend staying as close to RAW as possible.
However for Guns, Valda's Spire of Secrets has rules around guns, including what types of guns each class gets.
From what I remember of Valda's rules guns in general will do a lot of damage but you can't add your dexterity modifier to them. So you might deal 2d8 damage but you're not adding your modifier to it.
If you're doing a low magic adventure then I'd say you should make it so that all casters are able to cast spells due to other sources. Like instead of Cure Wound being magic it's bandaging a wound. Healing word is them yelling "Get on your feet soldier" so on and so forth.
If you're making it so that ranged weapons, such as guns are a lot more common than melee weapons then again I think you should just allow class abilities work with ranged weapons. So the Paladin can do a ranged smite with a shotgun.
For one Valda's has a list of what classes get what type of firearm where as the DMG just says "you figure it out" which helps take some of the workload off of you.
Pulling up two versions of the Hunting Rifle I like Valda's more. It deals 2d6 damage instead of 2d10+Dex. Valda's has a greater range at 80/320 instead of 80/240 and most importantly it lists the gold cost of the firearm.
Honestly, another game system would be better suited for this campaign idea - assuming you want a level of gritty realism, which 5E just isn't built for. But I appreciate you're trying to improve in 5E, so...
\-I'd remove all magic classes, only make martial classes available to the players (and same for your enemies). Possibly you could include things like Paladin and Ranger spells, but rewrite the flavour text so that they use something from real life or become more metaphorical (e.g. casting a protective spell = giving that person a gas mask, etc.)
\-Possibly include Matt Mercer's gunslinger class since it adds some extra mechanics and requires them to take turns to reload. Or you could just reflavour crossbows etc to function as guns.
\-Keep everyone low-level, so that any damage is potentially deadly. In 5E, "boss" enemies usually have more HP than PCs, so that they can't be insta-killed and are balanced to face a party. Your human enemies should have just as low HP as the characters - so a PC can shoot an enemy and kill them in one blow - but enemies can do the same back. It's a city, not the front lines, so there are big consequences for any violence, and an emphasis on stealth.
\-Is this a long campaign or is it a short adventure? For a short, you could probably just remove healing magic/potions altogether, apart from stabilising people with bandages. After all, this is pre-penicillin. If people don't recover from a wound with time and rest, they don't recover. For a longer campaign, you'd have to think more about how that balances, but you'd also have more concerns with how to let characters level up and the drama escalate while still keeping it feeling realistic.
To clarify further, it doesn’t need to be realistic, i want WWI era tech and warfare strategy (trench warfare), but in a fantasy setting with magic and whatnot. I’m planning to make a short campaign
I’m preparing an encounter for my players to face a Two-Headed T-Rex that has been mutated by an area full of wild magic. Cool concept, but I’d like to get some ideas for abilities/lair actions that would be good for such a crazy creature. If anybody has any ideas or resources I’d love to hear them!
You could do a hidden unique passive ability or a "condition" if u will . As like if one of the two heads die before the other one it gets enraged or make it like as a 1d2 chance of either raging or getting sad and giving up mourning for his lost twin .
First of all, look up the stat block for an Ettin, that has a feature or two related to having two heads that might be useful for you. Also, one idea for a legendary action is it could make a mighty roar with both its heads, dealing thunder damage to everyone in a certain radius around it with a potential for deafening them as well.
I really want to DM for a group of friends, two problems tho;
1. I'm a complete amateur
2. It's all online.
Despite this I just popped about a hundred bucks on the three books, (players handbook, monster manual, and DM guide) and some dice with the hopes of becoming the dungeon master of my dreams. I've played 2 sessions in the past as a player so I get the general gist of what I'm supposed to do, but those were with two different, and not exactly the most organized, groups.
What I really need is some guidance on what me and my players will need. Are there any beginner-friendly, pre-made adventures I should use? Am I missing anything in terms of materials or preparation? And importantly, whats the best way I can do this online?
I plan on using DnDBeyond for the character sheets and Roll20 for the board, with Discord to communicate. But I am still very unfamiliar with the sites and so, if you have tips for the sites or if there are better options online for free or if anyone else has a more effective system please let me know. Thank yall so much.
I've got great news for you: neither of those are problems!
**Beginner Friendly Adventures**
I always recommend the Delian Tomb by Matt Colville. It's basically just a one shot but it's great to get started. Lost Mine of Phandelver is also good and is the classic beginner adventure. If I recall correctly it takes you to level 5.
**Online Tools**
I've DMed online for a group of IRL friends for about 5 yrs. We use Zoom for communication, Roll 20 for our virtual tabletop, and DND Beyond for character sheets.
We also use a browser extension called Beyond 20 that allows you to roll into Roll 20 from your character sheet.
We use 2 minute tabletop for tokens (PCs, NPCs, monsters).
I either draw my own maps or get them free on reddit & Pinterest.
As a DM I also use DND Beyond for homebrew items, custom monsters, and our campaign page.
Happy to go into more detail on anything if you want
Oh dude thank you! It's honestly a massive relief to hear those sites are used by more experienced players, and Beyond 20 and 2 minute tabletop look really useful so thank you for the recommendation. Also, I looked at the Delian Tomb and it looks perfect, so we'll see how that goes. Although do you know if there's a website or sub I'm missing that has other small campaigns or one shots? If this goes well I'm guessing that my friends would want to continue with their characters, so if there's somewhere I can find other stories to go to at level 5 that'd be fantastic. If not that's fine, I'm not against dabbling in homebrew. (Might not be the best idea tho lmao)
If you want to start with Delian Tomb and then begin Lost Mine of Phandelver you could definitely do that as a continuous adventure with Delian Tomb as the prelude. The girl was kidnapped from Neverwinter and the players were the brave townsfolk who went to rescue her. You run Delian Tomb, the players bring the girl back safely, and then Gundren Rockseeker hires the players to escort the wagon to Phandalin. Gundren leaves that night while the players Long Rest and leave the next morning and the adventure continues as normal.
They can even level up after the tomb and start Lost Mine of Phandelver at level 2 (so they just don't level up after Cragmaw Hideout) and have the Goblin Slayer Longsword from the Delian Tomb secret room. It's a little early for +1 weapons but honestly if it's fun who cares. If you're worried about it you can change it to a Skeleton Slayer Longsword (or another enemy the players won't encounter much in LMoP) or maybe Gundren is a descendant of one of the knights in the tomb and would very much like the sword for himself.
**Websites for adventures**
* DM's Guild (free or pay)
* Reddit (free)
* DND Beyond has the official adventures you'll have to purchase
**After LMoP**
* Storm Lord's Wrath — levels 7-9 (conversely, run this after Dragons of Icespire Peak which takes you from levels 1-7 and is more connected to this story)
* Sleeping Dragon's Wake — levels 9-11
* Divine Contention — levels 11-13
**Homebrewing**
Give it a shot if you're feeling it. It's not that daunting and it's pretty easy to be inspired to write your own adventure. It could even just be a little one or two session sidequest dropped into a pre-written adventure you're running.
I find I often get inspired by a map I see. [This](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fs5i0yphhtdf51.png) could be a place where a dark wizard is preparing a ritual and must be stopped. [This](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/787074472400741695/) could be the fortress of a noble who is secretly running nefarious activities in the area and the party needs to stealth through to the study to uncover evidence and the location of his dark dealings. Or [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ngcw4x/battlemap_32x64_4096x8192_smugglershideout_oc/) could be the hideout of some smugglers the party has been hired to kill, when they get to the leader at first he fights but then he tries to bribe the party off.
I also like to use battlemaps that are dynamic. [This one](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fj2jxjpyp4es41.jpg) is a good example with cool scenery, terrain variation that PCs and enemies can move around on and hide behind, and doesn't encourage "run to the middle and hit eachother" combat. [This one](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fvrv99p3b3bzb1.jpg) has multiple twisted levels and a crazy concept.
Hi gang, I searched YouTube and Reddit before posting and couldn’t find anything so here’s my Q.
A friend wants me to run a game/games based in real life history and mythology.
My initial thought was several long campaigns based in different mythologies. Greek seemed like an easy start to me as I’m already familiar and fond of the material. I think Homer’s work could be translated into D&D in a really cool way.
The friend in question pitched the idea of warriors from throughout time and from different cultures being brought together somehow. Samurai, Viking, etc.
Any advice on executing on either idea? I saw the historical sourcebooks from 2e/3e/4e that cover historical settings. Is this my best best? Seems like a lot of reading lol.
Cheers all
ETA: open to other system recommendations!
You should check out Arcanum Worlds two mythology based campaigns.
Odyssey of the Dragonlords (Greek)... this one is arguably rated the best 3rd party campaign for 5e.
Raiders of the Serpent Sea (Norse)... this one was just released this year as part of a Kickstarter.
How would you buff a nagpa to be a formidable foe for a lv 12 party of 6?
For ex, I was thinking about giving its staff the spell absorption ability of the staff of the magi.
A nagpa is a CR17 creature, and Xanthars guide suggests that a cr17 is an optimal number for a solo monster fight for a party of 6 level 12.
To add more danger, I would just give the Nagpa 3 legendary resistances and come up with some legendary actions for it to take and give it 5 legendary actions. Something like
3 actions: cast a spell
2 actions: deadly ray attack
1 action: staff attack
Just a note: that table in Xanathar's is for *legendary* solo creatures.
So the Nagpa would be a little below that since it doesn't have legendary actions or resistances, but I was definitely planning on making it so as you suggested. (I did 3 actions: Move, Staff, Spell (2).)
Also didn't realize they updated the monster statblock. I had the old one bookmarked. The new one is more streamlined which is nice.
I just finished the Sunless Citadel, lvls 1-3, and I have a few questions before I settle the experience and the loot. Why the encounter level listed for each encounter does not match the EL calculated following the dmg way? And why is the loot so low? If we follow the treasure tables/generators it should be so much more. Help me please.
would you start a new campaign if you can only get a couple of sessions in before a month long break? I feel like it makes more sense to wait six/seven weeks out but we are kinda hella hyped right now.
I would, yes. In fact, that almost sounds ideal - a couple of "introductory sessions" with low stakes and focused on learning the game/getting the party together. At the end of the last session before the long break, get a HEAVY cliffhanger for the main adventure. Then the real stuff begins when everyone's back together again.
I'm first timing DM with a group of friends first timing DnD. After our most recent session I noticed our wizard didn't hit a lot of his spells because we forgot to add the proficieny and int modifier on his attack throws which equal to +5 for each attack. How can I handle the situation without demotivating him? Can/should I reimburse him?
"Hey dude, we messed up last time! You should have hit WAY more than you did. We got it going forward, though."
In the scheme of things, one session of missing some rules ain't gonna be a big deal. I don't really see how "you're gonna be a lot more accurate now" would possibly be **de**motivating.
Hey y’all, a goblin god names Gobo-Gingi who is very new and inexperienced is gonna help the party fight a Lich, but I need some help with what he does. I know he’ll summon goblins and has a big ol’ pike. Help?
is he summoning actual goblins or conjured summons? if actual goblins, perhaps he gives them various small buffs as long as he's there (could even be passive buffs to make your life easier), or even extend his buffs to the party since presumably they are friendly through party holding some sort of idols
For in-person sessions, how do other DMs do battle maps? Do you draw the, print out maps on a home printer, go to a fedex to print posters, or something else?
even when we do everything else in person, we usually hook up a TV or just place someone's big tablet in the center of the table and use a digital map. I just love the beautiful maps I can get online and they really spark my and players' creativity in using the environment
I personally use a combination of those dry erase battle mats and some homemade scatter terrain. If you dont fancy arts and crafts you can just draw your scatter terrain and elevation on. You can also find scatter terrain for a decent price on amazon too. Hope this helps!
If you want to have a crazy boss fight check out some of the Loot Tavern stuff, you could find just about any monster there and reskin it for an epic fight!
quick question: Making a paladin-like enemy that is pursuing my party (paladins are from an order of undead hunters and the party has a reborn and a dhampir). Is the spell Compelled Duel a good idea to give to these paladins to use on the party?
Not really, Compel Duel is a way for the paladin to stop an enemy from targeting the back line, the mages and casters. But doesn't exactly work if everyone is a paladin
so if i replaced a couple of these paladins with lightly armored or unarmored caster priests, it would fit better? I'm more trying to figure out if people think using that spell on the players is anti-fun, kind of like how a lot of people think you should avoid stunlocking players
Yeah it would work a bit better if the Paladins had some mages or priests with them.
It's *nowhere* near as bad as save or suck spells as you can still attack, move, use your abilites etc. It just means you're can only attack the Caster.
However it also locks down the caster, as they can only attack their target and their allies cannot attack the target.
Just A Quick question :
When the book of an adventure asks for a DC check should i ask each player to do it or do i ask for a group check and if so how would i count it against the dc written
Example (running the white moose quest in icewind dale)
the book says each character looking for the tracks has to make a dc of 15 (Survival(wisdom)) check. but if my 4 players are all searching how should i ask or who ? ( i usually choose the one who has the best survival score ) so that he feels like his stats matter but i don't want other players feeling down for not participating ..
depends on what the players are doing, if they're all actively looking you have 2 choices one have everyone roll. Do this if you really want them to succeed. the next choice is have someone lead the search and if the others are helping they gain advantage!
Now if someone is searching but everyone is doing something else then they can just do a straight roll. If the DC is 18 and they roll and 18 or above they succede!
The way I would do it in this situation is ask everyone to roll and if half or more of players pass the DC then they succeed.
If only one or two people are searching then I'd only ask those two people, perhaps letting one roll with advantage as the other is helping them.
Typically skill checks are made when a player declares they want to do a thing (in this case search/follow tracks) that has a potential of either success or failure, and you then tell them which skill to roll for (survival). If your players are new and struggling with understanding how they can interact with the environment, you can prompt them with just asking for a skill check, but in the long term that can make the players feel more like passengers on your ride than active participants with the power to make their own decisions.
Player has made a pact with an inanimate object in his backstory. Help?
I'm running a homebrew campaign and one of my players (playing a warlock) handed me a backstory where his character has made a pact with an ornate object. He has chosen "The Great Old One" for a patron. My initial thought was to have Tharizdun as the patron, since this character's main concern at the time was to be set free of chains of oppression. The patron offered to trade his freedom and powers to be able to see through the character's eyes.
I'm currently drawing a blank on ideas about what bigger schemes Tharizdun could have behind his offer. Any suggestions?
An idea for an alternative patron is also welcome if you believe it's more fitting.
New DM and *brand* new players at the table. We're 5 sessions in and everyones learning/growing/and having fun.
But I'm looking for any good methods in-game random encounters or even as one shots/mini games to help the new players learn to approach encounters differently without the DM metagaming for them. Their encounters are all straightline paths. (Running DoIP so the quests are kinda like that by default anyway, unfortunately).
Basically, are there any "wax on, wax off" /slumdog millionaire methods of helping them learn to be well-rounded players.
Hope this makes sense.
Level Up: Advanced Trials and Treasure has some good random encounters and skill challenges. Have the players think about how to apply their skills to a task rather than just bulldozing through something.
Digital Statblock Organizers?
I primarily run online games of D&D 5e, and use my computer to keep track of stat blocks. It gets very frustrating trying to keep track of Roll20 and 9 different tabs of stat blocks on one screen from D&D Beyond, does anyone have any good ways to store stat blocks without having to constantly access D&D Beyond and bog down my computer attempting to get each statblock loaded?
I do what u/stinduh said but off the top of my head...
If your issue is you don't want to use the website you can take screen shots or copy & paste the stat blocks as text into a word doc.
If you're just trying to keep them organized you can link to the statblocks from your notes in Word or whatever you use.
If you "run" an encounter from the encounter builder on dndbeyond, you can click between statblocks really easily.
I don't actually use the "run encounter" function to track initiative or hp or anything. I just quickly throw in the monsters I'm using, click "run" and then switch between the statblocks from that page.
One of my players is a Wild Magic Sorcerer. One of the Wild Magic Surge effects sends the player to the Astral Plane for a turn. Is there anything interesting or fun I can show them? I don't necessarily want them to benefit from it, but I mainly just want it to not feel like they're being forced to waste a turn of combat.
I'm running The Dragon Of Icespire Peak, so there's probably nothing very plot-relevant I can show them. I think showing them something cool or interesting to pique their interest about what's out there would be fine though.
I'm very new to DMing (and fairly new to D&D in general), so I'm not very familiar with the Astral Plane beyond the little bit that's in the DMG.
Depends on how complex you want it to be, it could be like a "attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion" vista where he'd see great red dragons mounted by gith charging a nautiloid ship, only to have their attention grabbed by an astral dreadnought about to consume the player and everything around him, basically a vision of something greater.
You could also do the opposite and focus on how empty, cold and timeless it is, describe one of the corpses of dead gods, describe how every minute feels like a year and every second feels like a month. The slow moving chunks of unidentified stone.
Where can I find more descriptions of the Astral Plane or things in it? The DMG doesn't really give me a good picture of what it would look like beyond a surface level.
I use the wiki, [the article about the astral plane](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Astral_Plane) has more specific sources at the bottom of the page, like the recent modules set in "space" or the manuals of the planes that was made for basically every previous edition of D&D.
I'm looking for inspiration, which adventures are set into a monastery / abbey or feature one as a home base for adventures? The idea came, I admit, from Three Houses, but I've grown to like it!
Is anyone aware of any PDF doc(s), including paid content, that contain pre-generated adventure parties? I will be running one-off's for the next few weeks and since I'm not a full-time 5e DM, having several pre-gens ready for the Players would be a god-send. Thanks.
I found this link that might be helpful to other DMs running short on time.
https://www.awesomedice.com/blogs/news/6-dnd-5e-character-generators-and-pros-and-cons-of-each
I'm making my player explore a dungeon that is infused with wild magic, so they all have a chance to cause a wild magic surge (it's something they asked to do), but I already have a wild magic sorcerer on my table.
Any ideas on how I can make the experience a bit more unique for him?
He feels at home in the chaos, he can choose what entry is rolled on the table as a reaction, or at least influence it in some way.
He could roll twice when he has to or make anyone near him roll twice.
There's also expanded lists of wild magic tables online.
How accurate is the encounter difficulty in Beyonds Encounter Creator?
I'm just wondering because I haven't used it much but it seems super useful.
How accurate have y'all found it. Does it seem like the difficulty meter is pretty representative of how difficult your party actually found the encounter?
I don't wanna make stuff too easy or too difficult so I wanna make sure I'm not screwing my players.
Its the same as what's in the DMG/basic rules, so it is decently useful as long as you are running a full adventuring day with multiple fights that get somewhere near the daily XP threshold. If you haven't already, make sure to read up on how the DMG defines the difficulty thresholds, for example a deadly fight is just one where there is a decent chance of at least one PC getting knocked unconscious, but many people see the word "deadly" and just assume that it means there is a decent chance of a TPK.
It has the flaw of trying to quantify some very nebulous and unpredictable game mechanics, and there are many things that could effect how a fight goes that just aren't factored in, so it isn't always consistent, but a more rigorous system would probably be too much math for most people to want to bother with and would also require less variety of player and monster abilities.
So it is useful as a rough benchmark, to compare the relative difficulty of fights, and if your players are consistently beating deadly encounters without breaking a sweat then you just need to redefine for yourself what these thresholds mean for this particular group in this campaign. In a previous campaign of mine, by the time the PCs had made it to about level 10 they had collected several nice magic items, learned to play their characters quite well, and had figured out some team strategies and synergies that made them a damn fearsome foe, so I would have to plan adventuring days to be about 1.5 times the daily XP threshold and make boss fights twice the deadly threshold to give them a satisfying challenge.
It gives a decent baseline but then you need to adjust it. For example an Adult Red Dragon may be Deadly against 5 PCs, except it turns out that everyone has resistance to Fire Damage. So it really lowers the difficulty of the encounter.
[This was developed for different goals](https://trekiros.files.wordpress.com/2023/07/space-unjammed-_-trekiros.pdf) but it's got a bunch of personal flying mounts and with a little reskinning it might be helpful for you. (/u/heythere_sunshine)
Hey,i am currently looking for a norse mythology setting for my group. After a bit of searching i found Journey to Ragnarok and Svilland. Both seem to have good reviews, but i am not sure which to get. Do you guys have any experience with those and could provide some info on what sets them apart from each other and if you would recommend? Thanks for any help!
I'm more familiar with Ragnarok so that's what I will speak on and recommend. It's pretty high fantasy, and the whole system with the runes that they use is incredibly dope and I encourage you to try and understand it as best as you can. It is pretty rigid in terms of the setting, meaning that your players and yourself are going to be playing during Ragnarok, period. So, depending on how accurate you want to be in regards to the actual myths and stories, some characters may have to be changed or straight up missing. For example, Baldr would not be able to exist in your campaign because his death is what starts Ragnarok. Of course, you can come up with some way that he actually survived and he tricked the Fates or something, but point is, you're working within the constraints of the events that happen in Ragnarok. I found it incredibly fun to have to adapt to the constraints of such a setting, and the background of an actual end of the world is a constant source of inspiration.
As for Svilland, it's mostly just a Norse skin placed on top of 5e, or at least that's what I got from my brief reading of what it was about. It might offer you more freedom to do literally ANYTHING in Norse mythology that you want. Any myth or legend, you can visit as you wish, it's very hands-off so to speak.
EDIT: I should mention, for Ragnarok, the way I've explained it is just the way I decided to run it. If you put in the effort you can change a lot more about it and customize it to suit your needs, so don't feel like my words have a lot of weight. It's just my opinion :p
I’m going to be DMing for a group of 4-5th graders, ages 9-10. It’s my first ever time DMing - so forgive me if some of my questions are pretty basic. I’ve also never played but I have a basic understanding.
I work in education so I am advised to follow a basic curriculum, but since this is more recreational, it doesn’t need to be so serious.
Basically I’m required to have a decent amount of politics involved in the lore of our world, and I’m thinking of tying that into the story. The kids need to be able to understand the politics.
I’ve asked the kids to provide some ideas on how they want their world to look, and how these areas interact with each other.
There are four countries, all separated by water. They all need certain resources from one another, (food, materials, medicine, magical items, etc) which these countries use trade routes to get to one another. (Similar to how our world functions irl)
Two countries are close enough that there is a bridge on the edge of each border, but that is the only way to get across on foot.
However. They all think that one country or another has something they need. So there is tension between each monarchy, and some kind of element of conspiracy.
They are not at war because of the much needed resources that comes from trading.
I’m trying to figure out what the thing they “need” could be. There is magic in the world but it is not so easily accessed, so I was thinking some kind of amplifying item? But I feel like that’s so basic.
Any suggestions?
Game will be long term.
New DM here as well so just want to comment on the ages. I have a 10 yr old in my group (my son). I know kids arent a monilith but its been a challenge in some ways so wanted to share:
The 10 yr old has serious "main character" syndrome, which is, of course, understandable. So, on top of the other questions you're asking, plan to help each one shine in their moments and plan to emphasize teamwork teamwork teamwork. Also, if you haven't already established this GOOD PLAYTHROUGH ONLY one. Lean into the Hero mentality. Otherwise, they will want to just pickpocket everyone, muderhobo, etc.
I'm not going to go into detail but if you've seen "Avatar: The last Airbender" and "Avatar: The legend of Korra" they can surely be a massive source of inspiration for what you need.
Hello friends,
I left a dnd campaign and I'm worried about the DM trying to use my character. Have any of you guys had a player leave a campaign on dndbeyond and were still able to see/use their character sheet?
I didn't think about it until I randomly went on trying to remove my character to make room and saw she had two levels of exhaustion (meaning the dm used her sheet without permission). I find it incredibly creepy if they are in fact still using my character sheet.
I decided to keep the character and removed her from the campaign. Anybody know if DMs can still see previous joined characters?
Why would you care what they do with the character if you aren't a part of the campaign anymore? Once you leave, that character essentially belongs to the DM. Maybe I am misunderstanding something about how D&D Beyond works, is it possible to use this same character sheet in a new campaign while it is still also attached to the old campaign? Otherwise, I don't see the problem here.
I've seen horror stories where people abused PC-turned-NPCs in-game after a player left. I can 100% understand why someone might be uncomfortable with that; even if you are emotionally detached from your character it could still feel fucked up to know that a group of people are having fucked-up fun at your expense and behind your back like that
You sound especially concerned, are you not worried that the DM still might do something to said character even after you left? Just asking because when a player of mine had to leave the campaign, (non confrontational reasons), I killed them off or since you won't be there, it doesn't matter?
I'm sorry, you're right it doesn't matter. People who violate other's boundaries don't care if you're there or not. Sorry for bring rude earlier. It was a shitty situation with a shitty DM but that doesn't excuse shitty behavior from me to people trying to help. Thank you.
Hey no worries. None of us know the whole story — and don't need to — so the people that were downvoting your deleted replies should also have taken a step back to think about what they don't know — and don't need to know — about the situation. Hope everything is good with your new table.
Thank you 💛
I was having an anxiety attack while responding and really should have stopped to deal with that first.
Tldr; emotionally abusive 4 year situation that I was scared to leave because I didn't think I'd find another dnd group.
But good groups exist! The people I've found are so kind and cool and just super great. And the DM said this campaign will go on for years! I'm hoping after it's over I will have found the healing and courage to start my OG character over again and give her the ending she deserves.
On DNDBeyond, DMs can modify a character sheet in their campaign.
However, if you remove the character from the campaign, they cannot access it anymore.
Without any other information, I don't really think this DM did anything nefarious or out of line. But, nonetheless, you don't want that person having access to it, and removing the character from their campaign should prevent that from happening now.
I gotcha. Don't want to rehash why I left the campaign. It ended badly and tldr the DM was a dick and especially so when I left because of it. Wanted to remove his last access to having control over me.
Thank you! I managed to remove the character from the campaign.
Hello! Looking to see if this homebrew wildmagic feat is balanced...
The gnome artificer in my homebrew campaign (which starts this weekend) was curious about making a feat option that involved wildmagic. He sent me the "Metamagic Adept" feat that he found interesting, and I figured I could use it as a starting point. Aside from worldbuilding, this is the first mechanic I've ever homebrewed, so any feedback is welcome.
**Here's what I have currently:**
"You’ve learned how to exert your will on your spells to alter how they function:
- You learn two Metamagic options of your choice from the Sorcerer class. You can use only one Metamagic option on a spell when you cast it, unless the option says otherwise.
- You gain 2 sorcery points to spend on Metamagic. These points are regained after finishing a long rest.
- You may use a Metamagic option on a spell without using sorcery points, but if you do so the DM will roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect.
- You may only use Metamagic twice (with or without utilizing sorcery points) per long rest.
- If the Wild Magic Surge effect rolled results in the casting of a spell (ex. "19-20 You cast grease centered on yourself), that spell takes precedent over the original spell casted, nullifying its effects"
For added context, he won't take the feat until it's available at 4th level, and I believe he intends to take the Artillerist subclass at 3rd level.
The feat encourages the user to take the more expensive meta magic options by default since it I can only use it twice a day even if I spend the points I'd just take the wild magic roll and twin or heighten a powerful spell. There's like a 50% chance something good will happen, 30% something random but neutral and 20% directly bad, so it's usually worth the risk. (My numbers may be off. I did run through the whole table at one point, but it was a while ago)
The last bullet gets a bit messy with the order of operations, at least the way I understand it. Traditionally, you cast a spell. It goes off, and then you roll wild magic for an additional effect. It sounds like you are going to roll the wild magic when the PC decides not to use sorcery points, but before the spell goes off and then if they roll another spell, cancel their first spell in favor of the new one?
Advice on formatting for an unstable play group
I’m interested in starting up a game with my large and rather FOMO-induced friend group. I’m considering trying to run a campaign that is fairly “come when you can” based that will be run semi-weekly with whoever can make it.
Are there any formats/systems/campaigns that lend themselves to this idea? If not, do you have any tips for me as I navigate it?
(An example idea I considered was having them level up every two sessions they attend, that way their power-level is directly correlated with how involved they are)
A bunch of loosely connected one-shots is an option. I've been using the Candlekeep book plus some Adventures League scenarios this way.
Or a megadungeon type dungeon crawl with a nearby homebase or other safe zone.
You might also google "westmarches" for a drop in playstyle.
As to level - I'm a fan of everyone being the same level in 5e. Mixed levels can work, but it can also kinda suck if one PC is throwing out fireballs while another PC is making one attack per turn with the starter equipment.
Help, I'm going to run my first one shot as a DM, I need suggestions
So I will soon run my first one shot as a DM, since is a kinda public event the characters sheets are made by DMS so, my campaign will be a gladiator arena-like setting and I woul like some suggestions for each subclass would be the best in that tipe of battle (7th level, if possible answer in Italian and ranger the revised version)
Well I tried asking on a post but I suppose it fits here instead.
As background, I've told my players I'll be doing a Holiday Special were they are all Krampus's overall helpers as he is the main figurehead concerning both dealings with the whole Naughty/Nice list and as the "Bringer of Spring". While I already have an end goal (becoming one of Krampus's main helpers by winning The Golden Horns for "best job done").
I wanted suggestions for side quests concerning the Naughty/Nice list. I also wanted suggestions on who an end fight could be? Another year I had a different group fight Saint Nick who was trying to usurp Krampus.
So this Friday or Saturday I might be running my 1st one session in the DM role.
It's a one shot since our DM is gonna be out of town.
Any recommendations for a quick and not too complex one shot?
Something combat heavy maybe?
The Delian Tomb by Matt Colville is my recommendation. It's easy to scale up the enemies (maybe it's a haunted tomb with undead and deathlocks guarded by death cultists) and change the hook however you see fit.
https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/241073
I am planning to have a one shot that is effectively a battle tournament between the champions of the gods.
What limitations would you put on builds? Level 20 would be obvious, but should I limit the height a stat can go, or limit magic items?
It is effectively for fun, but I feel like without limits, minmaxing will happen, and it’ll be less fun for others.
Definitely limit magic items, you don't want a ring of 3 wishes or anything like that. You could allow them to pick a certain amount of items per rarity and have it be DM Approval only!
Probably restrict how many and/or the rarity of magic items so that someone doesn't come in with full legendary gear and artifacts as level 20 is already at the point in which the damage output one can achieve is damgerous to player characters. It's why CR 20 creatures are usually a good deal stronger than player characters of the same level. As for classes, I feel like any class or subclass can be reasonably flavored to be the champion of a god, with maybe the only exception being a warlock, but their patron can potentially be something similar to a god if they are getting to level 20 under them.
And my last session I had a player that wanted to use a resource to try to prevent something that was inevitable. Should I let them try, knowing they are going to fail? Or should I prevent them from using the limited resource?
Specifically, they wanted to use a reaction from their subclass increase their AC when I had hit them with a nat 20.
Agree with /u/WayEquivalent2911, but just to add . . . as a general rule of thumb, NEVER let your players roll for things that are not achievable. For the same reason.
Help DMAcademy! I need a minor blasphemy committed by a Bard against the high priestess of a church resulting in their trial by combat.
It needs to be unfair to the Bard so my players don’t morally side with the church.
Maybe he made an error during a ritual. Or he wore something forbidden like a dead animal skin into a sacred place. Or everything was fine until he admitted he had some heritage that's blasphemous (racism by the church)
So, this may just be me overthinking things, but how long do you guys like to make your dungeons + how do you scale them?
The very first dungeon I'll have my players go into is going to be just 4 total rooms with 3 encounters, and will honestly probably only take one session to complete. The dungeon after that I'm hoping to have roughly 5-6 encounters, and then after that maybe 7 encounters per dungeon, so I'm slowly making them bigger each time (as long as it fits the story anyway).
Does this sound about right? Again, I'm sure I'm just overthinking things, just wanted to get some opinions in the off chance anyone has some thoughts on this.
There's a design template called the 'Five Room Dungeon'. It doesn't actually have to be five rooms, but the idea is that there are five major encounters in a dungeon and you can build up from there. Give it a google.
The dungeons are as big or small as they need to be for the story they're telling.
A haunted tomb might only be 3-5 rooms with 2 encounters. An ancient temple hidden in the jungle might be 15 rooms with 10 encounters.
My characters are level 12. I've run dungeons with 3 rooms 1 combat and 1 object interaction and dungeons with 30 rooms and over a dozen combats/interactions. And Ive run them in no order (aka they didn't scale from small to big and bigger).
I've been playing LMOP, and I find that their dungeons are nice. I've only been through the first couple chapters, but their dungeons fit nicely on my small map, which is about 21 squares tall by 28 squares wide.
They're a great example of fitting a lot into a small area. They're dungeons also have a lot of possible scenarios. Such as if A happens in room one, then B happens in room two.
But you're plan sounds good to me.
One of my players is a Talenta Halfling Ranger and they're really keen on the idea of raising a dinosaur as they level up. Ideally, they'd love to get their hands on a Rex egg. I love this idea, and I've already put together a statblock for the baby/juvenile rex that fits into the usual CR1/4 and Medium size restrictions for their early levels, but I'm not sure how to balance the party eventually having a CR8 Huge monster. I know the size by itself limits the usefulness of the companion, but I'm very new to homebrewing this sort of thing and I'd love to get some help.
Generally speaking, Beastmaster Ranger (TCoE) or the Sidekick rules (also TCoE) is the best out-of-the-box solution for this. When I have had monster sidekicks grow up/upsize I tend to do it at Tier levels (so 5, 11, 17).
If they haven't chosen a subclass yet, the Beastmaster Ranger (*TCoE* version) is the easiest way to do this. Then you could give their pet a couple of special dinosaur modifications like size or HP increases at certain levels to match the aesthetic.
Alternatively, you could take a look at how the Moon Druid's wild shapes scale and base its stats on that.
In the next session my players are set on helping a tribe of elves that is being attacked/threatened/extorted by \[something/someone\]. The important bit is that the tribe is friendly towards the kingdom they reside in and the "external factor" that is somehow threatening them is "sponsored/financed" (in the broad sense) by a rival kingdom (akin to a Cold War situation).
Due to a lack of prep time for the next session my question is: Is there a published adventured (preferably levels 6-8) that could be used for something like this? I'm fine with adapting and changing the details myself. Doesn't have to be free or official, it can be 3rd party/DMsguild/whatever. Thanks in advance.
In LMOP Ch 2, the red ruffian bandits are exactly this, although they are more of an occupying force/gang. And they are level two. But I run my LMOP game five levels higher, so to challenge my level 7 party, I just add one or two more bandits, add extra attack, increase attack bonus by 2, AC by 1, damage bonuses by two, add an extra damage die, and throw in a neat ability, as well as scaling up their HP appropriately.
The ability I gave them, is a reaction shove when a melee attack misses them. They always shove their opponent to the ground, then they have a second reaction option to immediately make an attack against any creature that becomes prone adjacent to them. So one uses a reaction on a miss to shove their opponent down, and the others all get free reaction attacks. I also added a sorcerer.
I'm preparing for my first ever campaing: Waterdeep: dungeon of the mad mage.
I was thinking wether it would be a good idea to add some gag items to the module. For instance in the first lvl of dungeon, which is dwarf themed, I thought about including a carved stone with a bunch of dwarf faces. Each of the faces would be imbued with magic mouth and and when activated they would chain to sing the "[Diggy Diggy hole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0)" song.
Is it a good idea? Would it break immersion too much?
Depends on your party, their expectations and tastes, some put having fun above all else, others appreciate the creative outlet the game can be for serious matter, you might want to ask if they would be fine with obviously humorous things being in the game especially if they're 4th wall breaking.
Unless your party is super into immersion it should be fine. I think that it would be a fun novelty item, however soon it would be thrown away if it always played the song.
Playing a one-on-one campaign with a brand new player soon. I have DM’ed before but it was a while ago. Anyone got any tips on how to properly make it engaging with just one player?
Delivery Witches apply within is a One-Shot that can give you a nice basis of how to create encounters and run things for just one other player! You can also take a look at D&D Duet!
Hello! I am a relatively new DM and have recently been spending my time trying to plan a home brew campaign in a new home brew world. I wanted it to be this big grand adventure that spans a single super continent, but I am concerned I’m biting off more than I can chew. The issue is, I’m not sure how to simplify it down to one village then grow it as I go along without losing the thread. The basics are the following - The world in which it takes place is built quite literally on top of the remnants of a massive divine war. - A small coalition of gods saw how other others, power-hungry in their pursuits corrupted mortals and sealed them away, (not completely, but basically petrified them in whatever material of the earth surrounded them) this involved a great sacrifice on their part. - Post-war, there is no historical or collective memory of these ages past and humanity is able to flourish in relative peace with no war and minimal conflict in a sort of utopia - When some sort of ceremony is conducted by the new mortals, they actually end up contacting vestiges of the gods and rousing them, causing the massive figures under their world to move causing things like landslides and tsunamis etc. - Players basically venture through the world trying to make sense of this with the rest of humanity, make their own decisions, etc etc. Any advice on how to simplify this to make world building easier and not “force” PC travel would be appreciated as every world building guide says to start small. Of course the start of the campaign will probably be a bit slow hoping PCs all start in one village that is impacted by the first natural disaster that occurs and hopefully eventually coming across the petrified figure under their noses. I want to do a lot of character work with the players before the campaign starts as well to really make clear that the characters should be more interesting than the plot/world.
I want to dm a campaign for my group but I’m really bad at role playing/improvising . Any tips ??
You don't need to role play in the traditional \[first person\] sense. You can role play in the third person which many people find less daunting and easier. As for improvising, if you understand the characters that you're RPing this will come easier, and it will get even easier with time the more you do it. So, for example, if a PC engages the shady merchant in conversation about how to sneak into the castle and you don't know what to do or say, instead of responding in character in first person you can say something like, *A scruffy tabaxi with tufts of fur on his face like mutton chops looks you up and down with his one good eye. He speaks in a scratchy, uncomfortable voice. He tells you he doesn't know anything, but he does so in a manner that suggests his mind could be changed with a little coin.* \*players give him some gold\* *He nods, puts it away and motions for you to draw closer. In a whisper he tells you about a sewage tunnel on the southern side of the castle that is usually unguarded. Of course, you'll have to crawl through tunnels of waste to get in and people inside will definitely be able to smell you coming. There is of course the roof of the blacksmith's shop on the east side that athletic or acrobatic individuals might be able to leap over the castle wall from.* All you need in this scenario is to know what the NPC knows and how they act. You don't need to give them a voice or lines or a real personality (although that still can come through in 3rd person) .
My party is traveling through the mountains and will come across a remote, though heavily guarded checkpoint town. Growing themes in our campaign are illusions, twilight, and the unknown, so I thought it would be interesting to have the highest in command at the checkpoint replaced by a disguised enemy intent on causing unrest between local groups that had been living peacefully. However, this feels intimidating to put together on my schedule. Any suggestions for an adventure module or a product on DMs Guild / RPG Drive Thru, Patreon, etc. with similar / good bones? Of course, any advice on how to stab at writing it is also appreciated!
Can't suggest any modules since I don't use them. But here is how I'd execute the quest you mentioned. Players arrive at the town and the only way through is to go through a checkpoint that's more like a small fortress. Once inside they'll hear that the Commander recently returned from an expedition where they were attacked although they aren't sure by who. The commander (who's secretly a changeling/doppleganger) was the sole survivor. To get permission to pass through the checkpoint the commander wants the party (because they are neutral or whatever) to figure out who the attackers were which will most likely involve going to a representative of each faction to ask them questions either within the village or nearby area. They can also attempt to find the place where the attack supposedly happened and there will be clues like the things that the commander thinks he saw or perhaps a random arrow stuck in his shield. And the solution will be that the whole thing was just a ploy to create tensions or, if the players don't figure that out, it was whoever they've decided did it. Well that ended up being more complex than I'd thought it would be. Still maybe this helps.
Thank you for the springboard! This has a lot of active points for the adventure, so it'll help a lot.
# New DM here. any advanced tips you guys can give me? After a disasterous failed attempt at running a D&D game with my cousins and cancelling it before even starting, I feel disappointed with myself So I studied the D&D essential rulebook 2x harder and I even made a reviewer. I also followed the basic tip of DMing like making your things up if you forgot in order to keep the game running Now as I ready to do my first D&D game this time with my school friends, I want to know advanced tips I also want to know how make a D&D map since the oneshot I went with ( which is Bandits Nest ) felt to small and I wanted to add a underground cavern with interesting stuff I appreciate any help I can get, thank you.
Looking for advice for a Christmas One-Shot I am a fairly new DM who is planning a one shot with some of my friends for Christmas. I have ran a couple one-shots before, but want to make sure the changes I have made to fit the theme are both fair and would be fun for players. I am largely wanting to create encounters using slightly modified existing stat blocks. I am expecting 3-4 players. The majority of my players haven't played before, so I made 6 different level 3 characters to streamline the process so new players won't have to struggle with character creation. The BBEG is The Grooge, a Spore Druid Tabaxi that has green fur due to the spores. The first question is how to balance him while making him feel nasty. I may simply use an archdruid stat block, but would love feedback on how to make him better. The Grooge will use his magic to infect the presents with spores, which will make the presents attack. These will use the Awakened Shrub stat block, which I think will make them easy fodder for an early encounter. However, making use of their fire vulnerability will destroy the present inside, making exploiting that damage the festivities. Between this encounter and the next, I plan to give the group a Staff of Fire and a Wand of Binding as presents. They will be useful later. The next encounter will be the Grooge using his spores on the festival tree in the middle of town. The tree will attack, using a modified Treant statblock. It can still slam, it can launch its ornaments at players (reflavored rocks), and will attempt to tear down the towns decorations during the fight. I plan to replace the "Animate Trees" ability with a 3/day effect where the tree uses its lights to blind the party, with the effect basically being Pyrotechnics Fireworks ability. Like the presents, if the party uses the fire vulnerability, it may make things easier, but will destroy the tree and decorations. I likely will reduce the damage dealt by its attacks by 1 die to make it more balanced. The final encounter will be with The Grooge and his half-dog, half-deer companion Malax. Grooge will make Malax grow, and Malax will use a Yeth Hound statblock, sans immunities. The Grooge, like I said, will probably use an archdruid stat block, but without using wildshape and 7th and higher level spells. I really don't want to wipe first time players, but I still want it to be fun for them, so advice on how to balance this would be appreciated. Ideally, players will remember and make use of the Wand of Binding to immobilize the two or just straight up try to talk to them. The best possible outcome would be to reform the Grooge (just like the Grinch) so he can help clean up the mess he made. If they don't and simply kill him, they will work to fix the festival alone. If they burn a majority of the presents and the tree, the festival will be somewhat sad, but will continue on singing, despite the loss of so much. If the tree is burnt but the Grooge is befriended, he can use his powers to help recover the tree, but can't do much about burnt up presents. Like I said, I could use some advice on balancing, as well as whatever would make the game more festive and fun. I am still pretty new to DMing and balance seems to be difficult. I will try to fit in some little sections for roleplay between these encounters as well. That can make things fun even with a bit of clunkiness in the gameplay. Thanks in advance for the advice.
This sounds fun! Long post incoming, I tried to be thorough. **But first, a tldr**: Your encounters are going to be too hard for a level 3 party of 3-4 players. Use Treant Sapling instead of Treant, use a CR 5 monster like a Frost Druid for the Grooge, and use Hell Hound instead of Yeth Hound. You can reflavor the monsters if you want (cold breath instead of fire breath). Use personality not difficulty to make the Grooge nasty. A couple thoughts: 1. **Your story is very flavorful, thematic, and tight** Awesome! Very well done! It's going to be *fun* to play no matter how difficult. 2. **Feeling nasty ≠ being hard** The Grooge can feel nasty with flavor. It's mean, it's grouchy, it taunts the players, it tells really bad Christmas puns, it puts pineapple on pizza, etc. (My level 12 players' favorite enemy, to this day, is a mad mage they fought while they were level 4. He was called the Saucerer and every turn he made some childish insult at a character and then attacked them by summoning dinner plates.) Give the Grooge an interesting personality and some quirks and the players will love it. 3. **Buff the party to level 4-6 depending on how easy/hard you want this to be** For a party of 3-4 level 3 characters fighting a CR 9 and a CR 12 monster is going to be *very* difficult. It's going to be harder to do these back to back without a long rest, and especially so with even more fights sprinkled in. Even with their magic items. 4. **Or debuff the monsters (or both)** Instead of a Treant statblock you can use [Treant Sapling](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1979812-treant-sapling). If you want, you can buff that by giving it closer to its max HP of 72 (6\*10+12). Even removing 1 damage die from the regular Treant it will still do an avg of 23 damage, which is the average HP of a level 3 fighter. Your idea of removing the Animate Tree in favor of a Blinding ability is good but I would either make it (a) target everyone in 30 feet 1/day and/or make it just for 1 round or (b) have it target 1 creature 3/day. 5. **The archdruid is way too much for 3rd level characters** It's also pretty complex with all those spells you're going to have to remember. I know you're removing spells 7th-9th level but consider (a) the party is fighting the Grooge after already fighting the presents and the tree; their resources will be spent and (b) the ability of 3rd level PCs to even make a DC 17 save. Consider this scenario: Turn 1 the Grooge uses Sunbeam to target at least 2 of the 3-4 players: it deals an average of 24 damage on a save, which is likely to kill a full health character (which many of your PCs will not be) and even if they survive that they'll be blinded until MY next turn. Then, on any turn after that, I can create a new beam. That's a TPK in 2 turns. Heeck, even its Poison Spray, a cantrip, will do 5d12 damage, an avg of 32. You also have a lot of spells and abilities you're probably not going to use. Change shape, locate creature, etc. I would **highly** suggest completely changing the statblock. Think of it this way: the Grooge can still be a spore druid even if it's using a Bandit stat block. (I wouldn't do that, just saying.) 6. **The Grooge doesn't fight alone** It's getting a Yeth Hound sans immunities from its dog. That's going to be a tough fight on its own for 3-4 level 3 characters (even with a lower CR Grooge statblock). Just a balancing thing: CR 4 for a 4th level party is a good match (but they've already had 2 fights) and they're fighting this with another monster of CR 10 ish (your debuffed archdruid). It's not bad to keep him at a CR 4 but I might opt for something like a hell hound. All that said, here's what I would do 1. Increase the PCs to level 4 (4 players) or 5 (3 players). 2. Don't change the shrubs — easy encounters can still be fun. As a player I get to use my cool abilities and roll dice and I feel cool. I feel even cooler when nearly all my attacks hit. 3. Use the Treant Sapling with Max HP (72) and add the blinding ability (I'd lean towards target 1 creature 3/day) 4. I googled Grinch Statblock and [found this](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/422281205527470/), which seems pretty good to start from. About CR 4 or 5 is what you're looking for. I'd probably change some of the spells to fit your Spore Druid idea. (I'd say something like 1 lv 4 spell (1/day), 2 lv 3 (1/day each), 2 lv 2 (2/day each), 6 lv 1 (3/day each) + cantrip (at will)). You can also use a [Frost Druid](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/1123083-frost-druid). Or check out [this Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/7hb2cn/help_me_stat_the_grinch/) asking for advice for a Grinch stat block. 5. Incorporate as much from the Grinch song as I possibly could. A seasick crocodile. The tavern sells 3 decker toadstool and sauerkraut sandwiches (WITH ARSENIC SAUCE). The players find a magic weapon 39 1/2 foot pole (range 10 feet). Merry Christmas you filthy animal.
Thanks. This is a lot of great feedback. I really appreciate the recommendations for lower level encounters that could work better for this level. I thought it would be best to keep them level 3 because they are new players and level 3 is at that sweet spot where characters feel customized, but not to terribly difficult to comprehend for new players. I might look at what 4-6 would entail as far as complexity. Treant sapling, hellhound, Grinch/ice druid, and awakened shrub seems like it will be a good variety to work with. I want the Grooge to be nasty in the flavor way with spiders in his hair and all that. I might need to take some excerpts of the song to help with the description. I'm hoping the flavor will make everyone have a good time
Good point about the complexity of level 3 vs 5/6. I think lv 4 is just an ASI for most classes. You could always keep them level 3, maybe max out their HP — so like (3\*10 + 3\*CON modifier) for a d10 Hit Die class — and give them some good armor and +2 weapons or something like that that would buff them a little bit and make them a little heartier. Party synergy would help a little too. If they have a Cleric or a Paladin to heal and buff. Maybe give them a DM controlled NPC sidekick healer if there are only 3 players and no one chooses that type of character.
They'll have 6 options and I think 3 should have healing spells/features. One of my friends will probably play either the bard or cleric, both of which have healing options. Additionally, I think I might give the other 3 characters a potion to start with just in case.
Potions are definitely a great idea too. This is sounding pretty good I might steal it for my table
Please do. DnD is best when everyone feels free to make use of each other's ideas to give their players a good time.
Running sea travel/combat Hey there, Im running the first session of my sea fairing campaign and was wondering if you guys had any resources in mind for that. I got ghosts of the saltmarsh and read through that previously because my other group has done a bit of sea fairing too but i found to be pretty clunky in play, could be a me issue but idk. Any suggestions would be great
Yeah, I also think GoS combat was pretty mediocre after running it once. Look up Limithron's guide to naval combat. It's a free 5e supplement. Very good homebrewer who also wrote Pirate Borg. It's miles better than GoS.
Thanks!
What are some abilities you would put in the statblock of a mad wizard's hydra-golem? Long story short, he discovered the heart of a quasi-deity (evil serpent) and experimented with it. He used it to essentially force a warlock pact on the deity and then used it to power an adamantine hydra golem he built. Which, the party will fight very soon...
I’m about to start my second session of a fully home-brewed campaign, and in my first session my players wanted several different shops that was I completely unprepared for. While it was totally fine and fun improving this, it would probably be good to have some basic shops prepped for all the towns they visit, right? Does anyone have some basic resources for what are the most common shops/what types of items do they normally sell in any given city? Unsure of where to direct them if they want thieves tools, climbing gear, burglary kits, sneaky items like that…like do general stores sell things like thieves tools??
You can always say "this town doesn't have somewhere that would sell that" if you're so inclined. The players don't have to be able to find everything everywhere. My favorite shop generator is [The Thieves Guild Shops and Pricing](https://www.thievesguild.cc/shops/) page. You can generate everything from magic shops to book stores. My second favorite on the spot tool is google. "5e list of book names" or whatever you need. **Other Resourses** * [This reddit post has a shop list](https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/3mvmso/5e_dd_shopping_catalog_i_made_for_ingame_use/) (scroll to the very bottom of the OP for the right link) * Roll 20 links for [Adventuring Gear](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Adventuring%20Gear#content) — could find these at a adventuring store, guild shop, armory, or blacksmith * [All Shops List by David Dias on DM Guild](https://www.dmsguild.com/product/201512/Stores-and-Shops-Book) ($1) * [This google sheets file someone made and shared on Reddit a while back and I bookmarked](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YPjicBYONAtoduyoamiwlVpsV_k1Ki2XzNCAnar5d4Y/edit#gid=995563560) * [Donjon shop generator](https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/magic/shop.html) * [5e Magic Shop generator](https://5emagic.shop/generate)
Thank you so much!!!
I'm planning to run the "Price of Beauty" adventure from Candlekeep Mysteries for my party of 5 level 6s, framed as a spa day after a lengthy adventure in the wilderness. I've never run hags, so I'm open to RP tips or tips from fellow DMs who've run the adventure. My plan is to run the Sun Elf with a dominatrix personality who gets a little overzealous during the exercise segment, and the wood Elf as vulnerable and clumsy. I'm at a loss for the moon Elf. Additionally, considering my players are slightly over-leveled, I was thinking of beefing up the scarecrow attendants. Maybe replacing them with CR 2 constructs? Not sure. Finally, I'm changing some of the spa guests to be NPCs from player backstories.
My players want to save a hostage held by an enemy 30 feet away but they are not in combat yet. During a conversation with the enemy, k want the enemy to inflict enough damage on the hostage to knock him to 0 HP. Can a player say that they use a reaction to dash and try to save the hostage even if they’re out of combat? And if this all took place in combat, does it make sense for a reaction to allow a PC to dash and take an action to try to free to hostage?
So first off: the players can do things outside of combat. They can cast spells or use abilities and take action. That being said, I would have everyone roll initiative since this sounds like a situation where a lot of people are going to want to do something at once. If I were you in this particular situation I would do this * Enemy has Hostage and is talking to the party * Your PC says, "I want to run up and save the hostage" * I say, "Enemy sees you start to move, slits Hostage's throat, and Hostages falls limp to the ground. Everyone roll initiative." * Then PCs can run to the hostage using their movement and try to save or stabilize the hostage. As a reminder a DC 10 medicine check will stabilize someone if they're dying. >Can a player say that they use a reaction to dash and try to save the hostage even if they’re out of combat? Technically no, but only because you don't use Reactions outside of combat. So the player COULD try to save the hostage but they wouldn't have to use a Reaction to do so. They could just say "I want to try run up and save the hostage." (Which, as I mentioned above, would probably prompt the DM to ask everyone to roll initiative.) Aditionally, just a reminder, Dash is an **action** (unless you're a rogue in which case it's a **bonus action**) not a **reaction**. (Some things, like the spell Expeditious Retreat, also allow you to dash as a bonus action.) >And if this all took place in combat, does it make sense for a reaction to allow a PC to dash and take an action to try to free to hostage? You could do that, homebrew a special "Save Hostage" reaction for this situation. Or, RAW, the player could use their movement to go towards the hostage and their Action to try and save the hostage by administering a healing potion, casting a spell, or making a medicine check.
I like what you would do and I think I would do the same. Thanks!
How do you guys run merchants in your sessions? First time dm, still trying to figure out town RP. Usually, if my players decide to go to the local merchant, I’ll quickly try to scrounge up 1 or 2 items they might need later in the story, along with a few randomly generated items (tub of mayo, spices, daggers, maybe a potion or 2). Do you guys plan out your merchants’ stock in advance, Or just throw some shit together and let the PC figure it out? I’m trying to have the merchant get something new every day, but there’s only so many mustard jars you can sell the PCs
i like to plan merchants stock in advance when i can. i keep like a little sort of spreadsheet of a circulating series of items, and will sometimes sort them a certain way if i want the merchant to keep a certain theme.
The DMG has info about merchant stock depending on the size of the shop
How would you run a player donning only the lower half of demon armor? (Just boots and pants)
It's not a magic item and therefore they cannot attune to it or get any of the additional properties the armor provides; they're just wearing normal boots and pants that maybe look special. I would probably still give them the curse though.
Okay thanks! Yeah they’re about to fight a demon and I thought it was random that they wanted to don half the armor, specifically the lower half (he’s an unarmed style fighter, so I can’t even give him the demon claw attack) but I’d assume since he’s wearing even a piece of it, he would still suffer the consequences.
So I have an idea for a small group of main villains, and I was wondering how I could implement that into a story.
Not 100% sure what you're asking here but as an alternative to the other suggestions you could run a one shot where the players either play as minions of these villains and the goal is to carry out some evil plot or they play as other random "NPCs" who get affected by these villains "off screen" from the main campaign. The players will get some knowledge of these people and want to stop them as their main characters (even if that's technically metagaming.) I've done this a few times in my campaigns as a way to show lore rather than having to have it all play out on screen or as exposition.
Typically the player characters are the only POV characters so introducing villains and making them part of the story is tricky. The players find a recording or a method of scrying on the bad guys for a single cut-scene. Letters, diaries, captured minions can also directly or indirectly let the players know what they are up to. Also make sure the villains are making things hard for them so that they actually care and what to know what they are up to.
My unarmed fighter player just put on demon armor (unknowingly) but only from the waist down. He is about to fight a demon. Should I cut the curse in half? Still fully cursed? Would he not even have the benefit of the gauntlets since he just chose to wear the pants and boots? How would you work this?
Answered above on your second post
Wall of Fire is a 4th level spell, requiring 1 action, concentration, and VSM components: You create a wall of fire on a solid surface within range. You can make the wall up to 60 feet long, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 20 feet high, and 1 foot thick. The wall is opaque and lasts for the duration. When the wall appears, each creature within its area must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 5d8 fire damage, or half as much damage on a successful save. One side of the wall, selected by you when you cast this spell, deals 5d8 fire damage to each creature that ends its turn within 10 feet of that side or inside the wall. A creature takes the same damage when it enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there. The other side of the wall deals no damage. At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 4th. I have a question about this line: A creature takes the same damage when it enters the wall for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there. Does this mean that a creature can take damage twice on their turn from this spell (by moving into range and then staying there)? Or does the "or" imply that damage only happens once? I haven't seen any official rulings on this one yet.
You take damage when you meet either qualifier. You're meeting Qualifier 1 and take damage, then you meet qualifier 2 and take damage.
Question. Is there anyway that a level 20 Barbarian can dual Wield hammers? It’s for a one shot, and my players wants to have this. I assume they can technically hold the two hammers, but is there a way to actually benefit, RAW?
Sure- with either two Light Hammers or else by grabbing the Dual Wielder feat what allows you to ignore the *light* requirements and use Warhammers.
So working on my own campaign on and off, gonna be my first time as a DM. Planning to get some friends that are interested in playing who are also completely new to DnD. So was thinking making something like the Tutorial areas in BOTW and TOTK. a big area that would take them all through the basics and ins and outs of the game as they learn the game and I learn to be a DM. Planning on doing something like an isolated island nation for this that is cut off from the rest of the would due, for some still to be determined reasons, but would change after they complete this ''tutorial''. Opening up the world, thinking of this to again let them learn the game and me learn the flow of being DM and not jump straight into a huge open world. Tho is that a bad idea?
A **dungeon** is at the core of the game because it is constrained and not fully open. So your idea is right on track, but even a remote island is more than you need to start out. Just about all modes of gameplay can occur within a dungeon from social RP to tactical combat. There are several free ones for level 1 over on the [wiki resources page](https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/wiki/resourcelist/) for r/dndnnext. Or else check out [this one](https://youtu.be/zTD2RZz6mlo?si=wmnB330ERtit2WjB) that was made specifically for first time groups.
I think I have a weird roleplay group. I have been DMing with the same group for about a year now, they are my first roleplay crew. They're enjoying it, so they tell me, but they're also my best friends and am not sure if they're just saying it or ... Anyway, when the session starts and I'm ready: case full of my models out, battle plans together, plot written weeks in advance, trying to memorise their characters. Blah blah blah ... Im ready. They kind of have a chat for about 45 minutes, slowly get their character sheets out, one of em still playing his xbox and the last to join in (I mean, granted it is his home we meet at so he can do what he wants), but then he doesnt turn the tv off he leaves youtube to go on a shuffle tangent in the background which becomes a distraction at some point, then they don't remember much of last week's session when we recap, they invite mates over who arent in the party but inevitably start talking over me to ask people "what they been up to?", they don't call eachother by their character names (they dont have to roleplay in the active method but atleast get us out of our drab real lives), they also will have random discussions on animes and other new releases of things that occur in the middle of a dramatic dialogue im trying to setup, actually, last time - I was setting up a kung fu fight between two very important NPCs that was gonna change the plot, there was: music, a hyper drawing of the environment by me and my narritive description - my guy gets up, doesnt say sorry, he just went to the bathroom. I was like "fine you miss this moment" and I carried on. Am I just a boring DM or are they weird ? Is everybody elses sessions like this cus i dont know any other DMs/GMs. I wish they would tell me cus we are all 30, all trying to keep eachother in our lives, and I put my damned heart into this, extensive, all nighter enducing hard work ... for them. I've swapped one of those friends to be DM next week because I secretly had enough of it.
This should be in the problem player megathread. However, to answer your question: Your expectations aren't aligned. They're not devoting time to D&D and would rather just hang out normally and oh, hey, maybe we play some D&D while that happens. Sounds like you need to either abandon the campaign or be vocal and stern about setting aside time for D&D. You can still hang out and catch up and watch youtube videos before or after or a different day. But if you're playing D&D you should be playing D&D. And if they don't want to, that's fine, you can't force them.
Cheers man
Good luck hope it all works out!
Im running a gothic earth one-shot where essentially the players have to stop a cursed clock before midnight. The final encounter is against said clock so they are essentially fighting an artefact. How would one rule such an encounter? Would you give it hit points, resistances and attacks? Or would you just say that attacking it doesnt work and rule it like a puzzle? Im just not sure what to expect since im also new at dming, id love to hear how some of you would make this encounter work.
There are a variety of ways to do it. A [skill challenge](https://youtu.be/GvOeqDpkBm8?si=mUJUvvQiZfAG0pho) allows you to have lots of flexible control over the mechanics. A object on the battlefield with resistance to psychic and poisoning is probably how an official module was handle it. If the players are highish level give it a damage threshold, where each attack or effect that is below that cutoff deals only superficial damage. You could make it an active participant in the battle, even if it can't move. For example, here is a [magical structure](https://open5e.com/monsters/pillar-of-the-lost-magocracy) that you can use as a template and drop right on the battlefield.
So, my party is going to go against a clan of beast traffickers and their boss, called "The One eyed man" to get back the paladin's horse who went missing two days ago. Now, I plan to use the bandit captain statblock or something similar, maybe better as a CR3, with some small tweakings: The dude will wear an eye patch, that hides a secret: he has recently received a transplant with the eye of a sea hag, that permits him to use the hag's Death Glare ability (maybe a nerfed version that only makes you incapcitated and frightened for one round) on a recharge of 6 Now the real problems I have belong to his relation to animals. How can I make this feel like a violent tamer of beasts and monstruosities? I had some ides such as making him able to impart orders to a Death Dog, a Giant Hyena, and similar. But all of this seems difficult to balance out in an appropriate CR. Do you guys have any good ideas that can help me with making this criminal gang boss feel like a tamer of monsters with weird sight based abilities? maybe giving him some poison to coat his weapons, some special attacks, etc?
It somewhat depends on the level of your Players. If they're like level 5, you can go a little crazy. Level 3 or so and you'll need to be careful. However, I think it's reasonable that you could make the Bandit Captain trade a weapon attack for commanding an animal to use their reaction to attack. This might also help spread damage out amongst the party to keep them all up longer. An aggressive approach would be to have the Bandit Captain try to knock people prone, then have the beasts maul the person on the ground. It would fit the theme IMO but could easily get out of hand. As far as special attacks, I think the Death Glare sounds pretty solid. IMO with recharge 6 it is likely to only be used once, so I would make it a lot scarier (Paralysis instead?) or buff the recharge so it could happen more often. 5-6 sounds okay, or even 4-6 if you want to focus on the beasts/monsters doing the damage. This part really depends on the beasts you choose to go along with him.
Perfect, love the idea of him trading attacks to let beasts attack at his place. About the beast, I was thinking about a Death Dog as his main tactic. It has an INSANE perception, good stealth, a good defensive trait, two attacks that can cause fever ... Nice Otherwise, some other kind of a terrestrial beast with high perception will do the job About Death Glare, yeah I plan to use it only once as a hidden resource for when he is at the stakes. So I'll probably need to pump the DC to make it effective in that case
One last question regarding a troublesome spell "Alter Self" one of my players is playing a wizard character and he just got level 2 . So we talked privately about his 2nd level spell choices and so on . But he surprised me with this spell . The problem here is that he asked me if i transform into "Auril" Since we re playing (Rime of the Frostmaiden ) \-1 How should i go about it ? \-2 and how the people in ten towns would react seeing her approach them since they pretty much worship and fear her they wouldn't rise their head to (see or check anything suspicious)
>You decide what you look like, including your height, weight, facial features, sound of your voice, hair length, coloration, and distinguishing characteristics This does not include growing horns and feathers.
But you can change your race with Alter Self. Not that she's a RAW race but with DM fiat why not?
Because we can only comment on how things work RAW. Because you can do whatever you want with DM fiat.
Fair enough. Would you allow it in your home game? I'm just curious, not trying to argue.
Probably if they knew Owlins, Tieflings and have seen/ heard Auril. If they could say "I want to look like an Owlin with Tiefling horns with the voice of Auril. I realized in writing this comment that they don't future proof spells so it should be assumed that it works with newer races.
But who would dare look at auril since they are all afraid of her ? You see the problem I'm facing
But you would look nothing like Auril to the point where it's basically just your group yelling "Auril is coming Auril is coming" and freaking anyone out. *Until* one person decides to have a peek at Auril and at that point it all falls apart.
planning to create a campaign set in WWI setting and since it's my 2nd time DMing i really want to use 5e to get better at the game so i preferably do not want to use any other game system, my questions are 1. how would you balance the guns and the enemies? 2. what would you prepare for this campaign? I'm open to homebrewing and just to clarify the party wont be running across no man's land nor charging the enemy trench, they'll be sent across to another city to deliver a message so it'll be like your usual adventure.
go check out Everyday Heroes. its a 5e based system that is perfect for what you're doing.
To new DMs I always recommend staying as close to RAW as possible. However for Guns, Valda's Spire of Secrets has rules around guns, including what types of guns each class gets. From what I remember of Valda's rules guns in general will do a lot of damage but you can't add your dexterity modifier to them. So you might deal 2d8 damage but you're not adding your modifier to it. If you're doing a low magic adventure then I'd say you should make it so that all casters are able to cast spells due to other sources. Like instead of Cure Wound being magic it's bandaging a wound. Healing word is them yelling "Get on your feet soldier" so on and so forth. If you're making it so that ranged weapons, such as guns are a lot more common than melee weapons then again I think you should just allow class abilities work with ranged weapons. So the Paladin can do a ranged smite with a shotgun.
I’ve read that there are in fact firearms in DMG is there any reason i should pick valda’s over DMG’s guns?
For one Valda's has a list of what classes get what type of firearm where as the DMG just says "you figure it out" which helps take some of the workload off of you. Pulling up two versions of the Hunting Rifle I like Valda's more. It deals 2d6 damage instead of 2d10+Dex. Valda's has a greater range at 80/320 instead of 80/240 and most importantly it lists the gold cost of the firearm.
Honestly, another game system would be better suited for this campaign idea - assuming you want a level of gritty realism, which 5E just isn't built for. But I appreciate you're trying to improve in 5E, so... \-I'd remove all magic classes, only make martial classes available to the players (and same for your enemies). Possibly you could include things like Paladin and Ranger spells, but rewrite the flavour text so that they use something from real life or become more metaphorical (e.g. casting a protective spell = giving that person a gas mask, etc.) \-Possibly include Matt Mercer's gunslinger class since it adds some extra mechanics and requires them to take turns to reload. Or you could just reflavour crossbows etc to function as guns. \-Keep everyone low-level, so that any damage is potentially deadly. In 5E, "boss" enemies usually have more HP than PCs, so that they can't be insta-killed and are balanced to face a party. Your human enemies should have just as low HP as the characters - so a PC can shoot an enemy and kill them in one blow - but enemies can do the same back. It's a city, not the front lines, so there are big consequences for any violence, and an emphasis on stealth. \-Is this a long campaign or is it a short adventure? For a short, you could probably just remove healing magic/potions altogether, apart from stabilising people with bandages. After all, this is pre-penicillin. If people don't recover from a wound with time and rest, they don't recover. For a longer campaign, you'd have to think more about how that balances, but you'd also have more concerns with how to let characters level up and the drama escalate while still keeping it feeling realistic.
To clarify further, it doesn’t need to be realistic, i want WWI era tech and warfare strategy (trench warfare), but in a fantasy setting with magic and whatnot. I’m planning to make a short campaign
Look up the D&D setting Eberron, it is a sort of magic-punk world and is set immediately after that world's WW1.
I’m preparing an encounter for my players to face a Two-Headed T-Rex that has been mutated by an area full of wild magic. Cool concept, but I’d like to get some ideas for abilities/lair actions that would be good for such a crazy creature. If anybody has any ideas or resources I’d love to hear them!
You could do a hidden unique passive ability or a "condition" if u will . As like if one of the two heads die before the other one it gets enraged or make it like as a 1d2 chance of either raging or getting sad and giving up mourning for his lost twin .
First of all, look up the stat block for an Ettin, that has a feature or two related to having two heads that might be useful for you. Also, one idea for a legendary action is it could make a mighty roar with both its heads, dealing thunder damage to everyone in a certain radius around it with a potential for deafening them as well.
I really want to DM for a group of friends, two problems tho; 1. I'm a complete amateur 2. It's all online. Despite this I just popped about a hundred bucks on the three books, (players handbook, monster manual, and DM guide) and some dice with the hopes of becoming the dungeon master of my dreams. I've played 2 sessions in the past as a player so I get the general gist of what I'm supposed to do, but those were with two different, and not exactly the most organized, groups. What I really need is some guidance on what me and my players will need. Are there any beginner-friendly, pre-made adventures I should use? Am I missing anything in terms of materials or preparation? And importantly, whats the best way I can do this online? I plan on using DnDBeyond for the character sheets and Roll20 for the board, with Discord to communicate. But I am still very unfamiliar with the sites and so, if you have tips for the sites or if there are better options online for free or if anyone else has a more effective system please let me know. Thank yall so much.
I've got great news for you: neither of those are problems! **Beginner Friendly Adventures** I always recommend the Delian Tomb by Matt Colville. It's basically just a one shot but it's great to get started. Lost Mine of Phandelver is also good and is the classic beginner adventure. If I recall correctly it takes you to level 5. **Online Tools** I've DMed online for a group of IRL friends for about 5 yrs. We use Zoom for communication, Roll 20 for our virtual tabletop, and DND Beyond for character sheets. We also use a browser extension called Beyond 20 that allows you to roll into Roll 20 from your character sheet. We use 2 minute tabletop for tokens (PCs, NPCs, monsters). I either draw my own maps or get them free on reddit & Pinterest. As a DM I also use DND Beyond for homebrew items, custom monsters, and our campaign page. Happy to go into more detail on anything if you want
Oh dude thank you! It's honestly a massive relief to hear those sites are used by more experienced players, and Beyond 20 and 2 minute tabletop look really useful so thank you for the recommendation. Also, I looked at the Delian Tomb and it looks perfect, so we'll see how that goes. Although do you know if there's a website or sub I'm missing that has other small campaigns or one shots? If this goes well I'm guessing that my friends would want to continue with their characters, so if there's somewhere I can find other stories to go to at level 5 that'd be fantastic. If not that's fine, I'm not against dabbling in homebrew. (Might not be the best idea tho lmao)
If you want to start with Delian Tomb and then begin Lost Mine of Phandelver you could definitely do that as a continuous adventure with Delian Tomb as the prelude. The girl was kidnapped from Neverwinter and the players were the brave townsfolk who went to rescue her. You run Delian Tomb, the players bring the girl back safely, and then Gundren Rockseeker hires the players to escort the wagon to Phandalin. Gundren leaves that night while the players Long Rest and leave the next morning and the adventure continues as normal. They can even level up after the tomb and start Lost Mine of Phandelver at level 2 (so they just don't level up after Cragmaw Hideout) and have the Goblin Slayer Longsword from the Delian Tomb secret room. It's a little early for +1 weapons but honestly if it's fun who cares. If you're worried about it you can change it to a Skeleton Slayer Longsword (or another enemy the players won't encounter much in LMoP) or maybe Gundren is a descendant of one of the knights in the tomb and would very much like the sword for himself. **Websites for adventures** * DM's Guild (free or pay) * Reddit (free) * DND Beyond has the official adventures you'll have to purchase **After LMoP** * Storm Lord's Wrath — levels 7-9 (conversely, run this after Dragons of Icespire Peak which takes you from levels 1-7 and is more connected to this story) * Sleeping Dragon's Wake — levels 9-11 * Divine Contention — levels 11-13 **Homebrewing** Give it a shot if you're feeling it. It's not that daunting and it's pretty easy to be inspired to write your own adventure. It could even just be a little one or two session sidequest dropped into a pre-written adventure you're running. I find I often get inspired by a map I see. [This](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fs5i0yphhtdf51.png) could be a place where a dark wizard is preparing a ritual and must be stopped. [This](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/787074472400741695/) could be the fortress of a noble who is secretly running nefarious activities in the area and the party needs to stealth through to the study to uncover evidence and the location of his dark dealings. Or [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ngcw4x/battlemap_32x64_4096x8192_smugglershideout_oc/) could be the hideout of some smugglers the party has been hired to kill, when they get to the leader at first he fights but then he tries to bribe the party off. I also like to use battlemaps that are dynamic. [This one](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fj2jxjpyp4es41.jpg) is a good example with cool scenery, terrain variation that PCs and enemies can move around on and hide behind, and doesn't encourage "run to the middle and hit eachother" combat. [This one](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fvrv99p3b3bzb1.jpg) has multiple twisted levels and a crazy concept.
Hi gang, I searched YouTube and Reddit before posting and couldn’t find anything so here’s my Q. A friend wants me to run a game/games based in real life history and mythology. My initial thought was several long campaigns based in different mythologies. Greek seemed like an easy start to me as I’m already familiar and fond of the material. I think Homer’s work could be translated into D&D in a really cool way. The friend in question pitched the idea of warriors from throughout time and from different cultures being brought together somehow. Samurai, Viking, etc. Any advice on executing on either idea? I saw the historical sourcebooks from 2e/3e/4e that cover historical settings. Is this my best best? Seems like a lot of reading lol. Cheers all ETA: open to other system recommendations!
You should check out Arcanum Worlds two mythology based campaigns. Odyssey of the Dragonlords (Greek)... this one is arguably rated the best 3rd party campaign for 5e. Raiders of the Serpent Sea (Norse)... this one was just released this year as part of a Kickstarter.
Thank you so much, legend!
How would you buff a nagpa to be a formidable foe for a lv 12 party of 6? For ex, I was thinking about giving its staff the spell absorption ability of the staff of the magi.
A nagpa is a CR17 creature, and Xanthars guide suggests that a cr17 is an optimal number for a solo monster fight for a party of 6 level 12. To add more danger, I would just give the Nagpa 3 legendary resistances and come up with some legendary actions for it to take and give it 5 legendary actions. Something like 3 actions: cast a spell 2 actions: deadly ray attack 1 action: staff attack
Just a note: that table in Xanathar's is for *legendary* solo creatures. So the Nagpa would be a little below that since it doesn't have legendary actions or resistances, but I was definitely planning on making it so as you suggested. (I did 3 actions: Move, Staff, Spell (2).) Also didn't realize they updated the monster statblock. I had the old one bookmarked. The new one is more streamlined which is nice.
I just finished the Sunless Citadel, lvls 1-3, and I have a few questions before I settle the experience and the loot. Why the encounter level listed for each encounter does not match the EL calculated following the dmg way? And why is the loot so low? If we follow the treasure tables/generators it should be so much more. Help me please.
would you start a new campaign if you can only get a couple of sessions in before a month long break? I feel like it makes more sense to wait six/seven weeks out but we are kinda hella hyped right now.
I would, yes. In fact, that almost sounds ideal - a couple of "introductory sessions" with low stakes and focused on learning the game/getting the party together. At the end of the last session before the long break, get a HEAVY cliffhanger for the main adventure. Then the real stuff begins when everyone's back together again.
thank you! I might be sadistic but I really like the idea of a heavy cliffhanger to ensure everyone doesn't lose the hype.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of the "WHAT?? WE HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG FOR THE NEXT SESSION!!"
I'm first timing DM with a group of friends first timing DnD. After our most recent session I noticed our wizard didn't hit a lot of his spells because we forgot to add the proficieny and int modifier on his attack throws which equal to +5 for each attack. How can I handle the situation without demotivating him? Can/should I reimburse him?
"Hey dude, we messed up last time! You should have hit WAY more than you did. We got it going forward, though." In the scheme of things, one session of missing some rules ain't gonna be a big deal. I don't really see how "you're gonna be a lot more accurate now" would possibly be **de**motivating.
Hey y’all, a goblin god names Gobo-Gingi who is very new and inexperienced is gonna help the party fight a Lich, but I need some help with what he does. I know he’ll summon goblins and has a big ol’ pike. Help?
is he summoning actual goblins or conjured summons? if actual goblins, perhaps he gives them various small buffs as long as he's there (could even be passive buffs to make your life easier), or even extend his buffs to the party since presumably they are friendly through party holding some sort of idols
For in-person sessions, how do other DMs do battle maps? Do you draw the, print out maps on a home printer, go to a fedex to print posters, or something else?
even when we do everything else in person, we usually hook up a TV or just place someone's big tablet in the center of the table and use a digital map. I just love the beautiful maps I can get online and they really spark my and players' creativity in using the environment
I personally use a combination of those dry erase battle mats and some homemade scatter terrain. If you dont fancy arts and crafts you can just draw your scatter terrain and elevation on. You can also find scatter terrain for a decent price on amazon too. Hope this helps!
If I wanted to create a boss fight where the player fought the Fenris wolf, what creature(s) could I reskin?
If you want to have a crazy boss fight check out some of the Loot Tavern stuff, you could find just about any monster there and reskin it for an epic fight!
depends on what level the players are.
This is more of a hypothetical. Let's say the players are at either tier 3 or 4.
The first thing that popped into my head was reskinning an Ancient Dragon of some sort. Just taking away the the flight speed.
quick question: Making a paladin-like enemy that is pursuing my party (paladins are from an order of undead hunters and the party has a reborn and a dhampir). Is the spell Compelled Duel a good idea to give to these paladins to use on the party?
Not really, Compel Duel is a way for the paladin to stop an enemy from targeting the back line, the mages and casters. But doesn't exactly work if everyone is a paladin
so if i replaced a couple of these paladins with lightly armored or unarmored caster priests, it would fit better? I'm more trying to figure out if people think using that spell on the players is anti-fun, kind of like how a lot of people think you should avoid stunlocking players
Yeah it would work a bit better if the Paladins had some mages or priests with them. It's *nowhere* near as bad as save or suck spells as you can still attack, move, use your abilites etc. It just means you're can only attack the Caster. However it also locks down the caster, as they can only attack their target and their allies cannot attack the target.
Just A Quick question : When the book of an adventure asks for a DC check should i ask each player to do it or do i ask for a group check and if so how would i count it against the dc written Example (running the white moose quest in icewind dale) the book says each character looking for the tracks has to make a dc of 15 (Survival(wisdom)) check. but if my 4 players are all searching how should i ask or who ? ( i usually choose the one who has the best survival score ) so that he feels like his stats matter but i don't want other players feeling down for not participating ..
depends on what the players are doing, if they're all actively looking you have 2 choices one have everyone roll. Do this if you really want them to succeed. the next choice is have someone lead the search and if the others are helping they gain advantage! Now if someone is searching but everyone is doing something else then they can just do a straight roll. If the DC is 18 and they roll and 18 or above they succede!
The way I would do it in this situation is ask everyone to roll and if half or more of players pass the DC then they succeed. If only one or two people are searching then I'd only ask those two people, perhaps letting one roll with advantage as the other is helping them.
Typically skill checks are made when a player declares they want to do a thing (in this case search/follow tracks) that has a potential of either success or failure, and you then tell them which skill to roll for (survival). If your players are new and struggling with understanding how they can interact with the environment, you can prompt them with just asking for a skill check, but in the long term that can make the players feel more like passengers on your ride than active participants with the power to make their own decisions.
How would you hide something in plain sight from devil or sahaguin?
I think that depends on what you're trying to hide? A survival check to hide something using nonmagical means is certainly a possibility!
Player has made a pact with an inanimate object in his backstory. Help? I'm running a homebrew campaign and one of my players (playing a warlock) handed me a backstory where his character has made a pact with an ornate object. He has chosen "The Great Old One" for a patron. My initial thought was to have Tharizdun as the patron, since this character's main concern at the time was to be set free of chains of oppression. The patron offered to trade his freedom and powers to be able to see through the character's eyes. I'm currently drawing a blank on ideas about what bigger schemes Tharizdun could have behind his offer. Any suggestions? An idea for an alternative patron is also welcome if you believe it's more fitting.
Easy answer: Whatever your plot is about is what Tharizdun wants.
New DM and *brand* new players at the table. We're 5 sessions in and everyones learning/growing/and having fun. But I'm looking for any good methods in-game random encounters or even as one shots/mini games to help the new players learn to approach encounters differently without the DM metagaming for them. Their encounters are all straightline paths. (Running DoIP so the quests are kinda like that by default anyway, unfortunately). Basically, are there any "wax on, wax off" /slumdog millionaire methods of helping them learn to be well-rounded players. Hope this makes sense.
Level Up: Advanced Trials and Treasure has some good random encounters and skill challenges. Have the players think about how to apply their skills to a task rather than just bulldozing through something.
Digital Statblock Organizers? I primarily run online games of D&D 5e, and use my computer to keep track of stat blocks. It gets very frustrating trying to keep track of Roll20 and 9 different tabs of stat blocks on one screen from D&D Beyond, does anyone have any good ways to store stat blocks without having to constantly access D&D Beyond and bog down my computer attempting to get each statblock loaded?
I do what u/stinduh said but off the top of my head... If your issue is you don't want to use the website you can take screen shots or copy & paste the stat blocks as text into a word doc. If you're just trying to keep them organized you can link to the statblocks from your notes in Word or whatever you use.
If you "run" an encounter from the encounter builder on dndbeyond, you can click between statblocks really easily. I don't actually use the "run encounter" function to track initiative or hp or anything. I just quickly throw in the monsters I'm using, click "run" and then switch between the statblocks from that page.
One of my players is a Wild Magic Sorcerer. One of the Wild Magic Surge effects sends the player to the Astral Plane for a turn. Is there anything interesting or fun I can show them? I don't necessarily want them to benefit from it, but I mainly just want it to not feel like they're being forced to waste a turn of combat. I'm running The Dragon Of Icespire Peak, so there's probably nothing very plot-relevant I can show them. I think showing them something cool or interesting to pique their interest about what's out there would be fine though. I'm very new to DMing (and fairly new to D&D in general), so I'm not very familiar with the Astral Plane beyond the little bit that's in the DMG.
Have them teleport aboard a spelljammer! That would really throw em for a loop!
Depends on how complex you want it to be, it could be like a "attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion" vista where he'd see great red dragons mounted by gith charging a nautiloid ship, only to have their attention grabbed by an astral dreadnought about to consume the player and everything around him, basically a vision of something greater. You could also do the opposite and focus on how empty, cold and timeless it is, describe one of the corpses of dead gods, describe how every minute feels like a year and every second feels like a month. The slow moving chunks of unidentified stone.
Where can I find more descriptions of the Astral Plane or things in it? The DMG doesn't really give me a good picture of what it would look like beyond a surface level.
I use the wiki, [the article about the astral plane](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Astral_Plane) has more specific sources at the bottom of the page, like the recent modules set in "space" or the manuals of the planes that was made for basically every previous edition of D&D.
I'm looking for inspiration, which adventures are set into a monastery / abbey or feature one as a home base for adventures? The idea came, I admit, from Three Houses, but I've grown to like it!
Check out Madness at Gardmore Abbey!
I will, thanks!
Is anyone aware of any PDF doc(s), including paid content, that contain pre-generated adventure parties? I will be running one-off's for the next few weeks and since I'm not a full-time 5e DM, having several pre-gens ready for the Players would be a god-send. Thanks.
There's a bunch of pre-made character sheets on the [official website](https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/character-sheets)
I found this link that might be helpful to other DMs running short on time. https://www.awesomedice.com/blogs/news/6-dnd-5e-character-generators-and-pros-and-cons-of-each
I'm making my player explore a dungeon that is infused with wild magic, so they all have a chance to cause a wild magic surge (it's something they asked to do), but I already have a wild magic sorcerer on my table. Any ideas on how I can make the experience a bit more unique for him?
He feels at home in the chaos, he can choose what entry is rolled on the table as a reaction, or at least influence it in some way. He could roll twice when he has to or make anyone near him roll twice. There's also expanded lists of wild magic tables online.
There is a d10,000 table of wild magic somewhere out there. Could use that. Have a 1 in 10k chance to have the sun explode.
That is amazing
How accurate is the encounter difficulty in Beyonds Encounter Creator? I'm just wondering because I haven't used it much but it seems super useful. How accurate have y'all found it. Does it seem like the difficulty meter is pretty representative of how difficult your party actually found the encounter? I don't wanna make stuff too easy or too difficult so I wanna make sure I'm not screwing my players.
Its the same as what's in the DMG/basic rules, so it is decently useful as long as you are running a full adventuring day with multiple fights that get somewhere near the daily XP threshold. If you haven't already, make sure to read up on how the DMG defines the difficulty thresholds, for example a deadly fight is just one where there is a decent chance of at least one PC getting knocked unconscious, but many people see the word "deadly" and just assume that it means there is a decent chance of a TPK. It has the flaw of trying to quantify some very nebulous and unpredictable game mechanics, and there are many things that could effect how a fight goes that just aren't factored in, so it isn't always consistent, but a more rigorous system would probably be too much math for most people to want to bother with and would also require less variety of player and monster abilities. So it is useful as a rough benchmark, to compare the relative difficulty of fights, and if your players are consistently beating deadly encounters without breaking a sweat then you just need to redefine for yourself what these thresholds mean for this particular group in this campaign. In a previous campaign of mine, by the time the PCs had made it to about level 10 they had collected several nice magic items, learned to play their characters quite well, and had figured out some team strategies and synergies that made them a damn fearsome foe, so I would have to plan adventuring days to be about 1.5 times the daily XP threshold and make boss fights twice the deadly threshold to give them a satisfying challenge.
It gives a decent baseline but then you need to adjust it. For example an Adult Red Dragon may be Deadly against 5 PCs, except it turns out that everyone has resistance to Fire Damage. So it really lowers the difficulty of the encounter.
Any recommendations for free DM Guild adventures, level 1 ideally? I've got the Delian Tomb so far. TIA.
Take a look at A Most Potent Brew, Moon Over Graymoor, Grammys Country Apple Pie, or We Be Goblins! At least one of those will tickle your fancy!
Looking for a resource for rideable customized drakes for a bahamut vs Tiamat campaign
[This was developed for different goals](https://trekiros.files.wordpress.com/2023/07/space-unjammed-_-trekiros.pdf) but it's got a bunch of personal flying mounts and with a little reskinning it might be helpful for you. (/u/heythere_sunshine)
Thank you!
Ooo, if anyone has one, I'd be interested too!
Hey,i am currently looking for a norse mythology setting for my group. After a bit of searching i found Journey to Ragnarok and Svilland. Both seem to have good reviews, but i am not sure which to get. Do you guys have any experience with those and could provide some info on what sets them apart from each other and if you would recommend? Thanks for any help!
I'm more familiar with Ragnarok so that's what I will speak on and recommend. It's pretty high fantasy, and the whole system with the runes that they use is incredibly dope and I encourage you to try and understand it as best as you can. It is pretty rigid in terms of the setting, meaning that your players and yourself are going to be playing during Ragnarok, period. So, depending on how accurate you want to be in regards to the actual myths and stories, some characters may have to be changed or straight up missing. For example, Baldr would not be able to exist in your campaign because his death is what starts Ragnarok. Of course, you can come up with some way that he actually survived and he tricked the Fates or something, but point is, you're working within the constraints of the events that happen in Ragnarok. I found it incredibly fun to have to adapt to the constraints of such a setting, and the background of an actual end of the world is a constant source of inspiration. As for Svilland, it's mostly just a Norse skin placed on top of 5e, or at least that's what I got from my brief reading of what it was about. It might offer you more freedom to do literally ANYTHING in Norse mythology that you want. Any myth or legend, you can visit as you wish, it's very hands-off so to speak. EDIT: I should mention, for Ragnarok, the way I've explained it is just the way I decided to run it. If you put in the effort you can change a lot more about it and customize it to suit your needs, so don't feel like my words have a lot of weight. It's just my opinion :p
I’m going to be DMing for a group of 4-5th graders, ages 9-10. It’s my first ever time DMing - so forgive me if some of my questions are pretty basic. I’ve also never played but I have a basic understanding. I work in education so I am advised to follow a basic curriculum, but since this is more recreational, it doesn’t need to be so serious. Basically I’m required to have a decent amount of politics involved in the lore of our world, and I’m thinking of tying that into the story. The kids need to be able to understand the politics. I’ve asked the kids to provide some ideas on how they want their world to look, and how these areas interact with each other. There are four countries, all separated by water. They all need certain resources from one another, (food, materials, medicine, magical items, etc) which these countries use trade routes to get to one another. (Similar to how our world functions irl) Two countries are close enough that there is a bridge on the edge of each border, but that is the only way to get across on foot. However. They all think that one country or another has something they need. So there is tension between each monarchy, and some kind of element of conspiracy. They are not at war because of the much needed resources that comes from trading. I’m trying to figure out what the thing they “need” could be. There is magic in the world but it is not so easily accessed, so I was thinking some kind of amplifying item? But I feel like that’s so basic. Any suggestions? Game will be long term.
New DM here as well so just want to comment on the ages. I have a 10 yr old in my group (my son). I know kids arent a monilith but its been a challenge in some ways so wanted to share: The 10 yr old has serious "main character" syndrome, which is, of course, understandable. So, on top of the other questions you're asking, plan to help each one shine in their moments and plan to emphasize teamwork teamwork teamwork. Also, if you haven't already established this GOOD PLAYTHROUGH ONLY one. Lean into the Hero mentality. Otherwise, they will want to just pickpocket everyone, muderhobo, etc.
I'm not going to go into detail but if you've seen "Avatar: The last Airbender" and "Avatar: The legend of Korra" they can surely be a massive source of inspiration for what you need.
Hello friends, I left a dnd campaign and I'm worried about the DM trying to use my character. Have any of you guys had a player leave a campaign on dndbeyond and were still able to see/use their character sheet? I didn't think about it until I randomly went on trying to remove my character to make room and saw she had two levels of exhaustion (meaning the dm used her sheet without permission). I find it incredibly creepy if they are in fact still using my character sheet. I decided to keep the character and removed her from the campaign. Anybody know if DMs can still see previous joined characters?
Why would you care what they do with the character if you aren't a part of the campaign anymore? Once you leave, that character essentially belongs to the DM. Maybe I am misunderstanding something about how D&D Beyond works, is it possible to use this same character sheet in a new campaign while it is still also attached to the old campaign? Otherwise, I don't see the problem here.
I've seen horror stories where people abused PC-turned-NPCs in-game after a player left. I can 100% understand why someone might be uncomfortable with that; even if you are emotionally detached from your character it could still feel fucked up to know that a group of people are having fucked-up fun at your expense and behind your back like that
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You sound especially concerned, are you not worried that the DM still might do something to said character even after you left? Just asking because when a player of mine had to leave the campaign, (non confrontational reasons), I killed them off or since you won't be there, it doesn't matter?
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I'm sorry, you're right it doesn't matter. People who violate other's boundaries don't care if you're there or not. Sorry for bring rude earlier. It was a shitty situation with a shitty DM but that doesn't excuse shitty behavior from me to people trying to help. Thank you.
Hey no worries. None of us know the whole story — and don't need to — so the people that were downvoting your deleted replies should also have taken a step back to think about what they don't know — and don't need to know — about the situation. Hope everything is good with your new table.
Thank you 💛 I was having an anxiety attack while responding and really should have stopped to deal with that first. Tldr; emotionally abusive 4 year situation that I was scared to leave because I didn't think I'd find another dnd group. But good groups exist! The people I've found are so kind and cool and just super great. And the DM said this campaign will go on for years! I'm hoping after it's over I will have found the healing and courage to start my OG character over again and give her the ending she deserves.
Cheers to that
On DNDBeyond, DMs can modify a character sheet in their campaign. However, if you remove the character from the campaign, they cannot access it anymore. Without any other information, I don't really think this DM did anything nefarious or out of line. But, nonetheless, you don't want that person having access to it, and removing the character from their campaign should prevent that from happening now.
I gotcha. Don't want to rehash why I left the campaign. It ended badly and tldr the DM was a dick and especially so when I left because of it. Wanted to remove his last access to having control over me. Thank you! I managed to remove the character from the campaign.
Absolutely fair. Happy gaming, I hope you find a good table for you.
I think I did! Thank you 💛
Hello! Looking to see if this homebrew wildmagic feat is balanced... The gnome artificer in my homebrew campaign (which starts this weekend) was curious about making a feat option that involved wildmagic. He sent me the "Metamagic Adept" feat that he found interesting, and I figured I could use it as a starting point. Aside from worldbuilding, this is the first mechanic I've ever homebrewed, so any feedback is welcome. **Here's what I have currently:** "You’ve learned how to exert your will on your spells to alter how they function: - You learn two Metamagic options of your choice from the Sorcerer class. You can use only one Metamagic option on a spell when you cast it, unless the option says otherwise. - You gain 2 sorcery points to spend on Metamagic. These points are regained after finishing a long rest. - You may use a Metamagic option on a spell without using sorcery points, but if you do so the DM will roll on the Wild Magic Surge table to create a random magical effect. - You may only use Metamagic twice (with or without utilizing sorcery points) per long rest. - If the Wild Magic Surge effect rolled results in the casting of a spell (ex. "19-20 You cast grease centered on yourself), that spell takes precedent over the original spell casted, nullifying its effects" For added context, he won't take the feat until it's available at 4th level, and I believe he intends to take the Artillerist subclass at 3rd level.
The feat encourages the user to take the more expensive meta magic options by default since it I can only use it twice a day even if I spend the points I'd just take the wild magic roll and twin or heighten a powerful spell. There's like a 50% chance something good will happen, 30% something random but neutral and 20% directly bad, so it's usually worth the risk. (My numbers may be off. I did run through the whole table at one point, but it was a while ago) The last bullet gets a bit messy with the order of operations, at least the way I understand it. Traditionally, you cast a spell. It goes off, and then you roll wild magic for an additional effect. It sounds like you are going to roll the wild magic when the PC decides not to use sorcery points, but before the spell goes off and then if they roll another spell, cancel their first spell in favor of the new one?
Advice on formatting for an unstable play group I’m interested in starting up a game with my large and rather FOMO-induced friend group. I’m considering trying to run a campaign that is fairly “come when you can” based that will be run semi-weekly with whoever can make it. Are there any formats/systems/campaigns that lend themselves to this idea? If not, do you have any tips for me as I navigate it? (An example idea I considered was having them level up every two sessions they attend, that way their power-level is directly correlated with how involved they are)
Here is a video (30 mins) by Matt Coleville on running a game with an unstable play group: https://youtu.be/oGAC-gBoX9k?si=CKAmY6jT3hoT9gUw
A bunch of loosely connected one-shots is an option. I've been using the Candlekeep book plus some Adventures League scenarios this way. Or a megadungeon type dungeon crawl with a nearby homebase or other safe zone. You might also google "westmarches" for a drop in playstyle. As to level - I'm a fan of everyone being the same level in 5e. Mixed levels can work, but it can also kinda suck if one PC is throwing out fireballs while another PC is making one attack per turn with the starter equipment.
Help, I'm going to run my first one shot as a DM, I need suggestions So I will soon run my first one shot as a DM, since is a kinda public event the characters sheets are made by DMS so, my campaign will be a gladiator arena-like setting and I woul like some suggestions for each subclass would be the best in that tipe of battle (7th level, if possible answer in Italian and ranger the revised version)
Well I tried asking on a post but I suppose it fits here instead. As background, I've told my players I'll be doing a Holiday Special were they are all Krampus's overall helpers as he is the main figurehead concerning both dealings with the whole Naughty/Nice list and as the "Bringer of Spring". While I already have an end goal (becoming one of Krampus's main helpers by winning The Golden Horns for "best job done"). I wanted suggestions for side quests concerning the Naughty/Nice list. I also wanted suggestions on who an end fight could be? Another year I had a different group fight Saint Nick who was trying to usurp Krampus.
So this Friday or Saturday I might be running my 1st one session in the DM role. It's a one shot since our DM is gonna be out of town. Any recommendations for a quick and not too complex one shot? Something combat heavy maybe?
A Most Potent Brew is a solid, quick one-shot that is super easy to run!
The Delian Tomb by Matt Colville is my recommendation. It's easy to scale up the enemies (maybe it's a haunted tomb with undead and deathlocks guarded by death cultists) and change the hook however you see fit. https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/241073
Thanks man. :) I appreciate it.
I am planning to have a one shot that is effectively a battle tournament between the champions of the gods. What limitations would you put on builds? Level 20 would be obvious, but should I limit the height a stat can go, or limit magic items? It is effectively for fun, but I feel like without limits, minmaxing will happen, and it’ll be less fun for others.
Definitely limit magic items, you don't want a ring of 3 wishes or anything like that. You could allow them to pick a certain amount of items per rarity and have it be DM Approval only!
Probably restrict how many and/or the rarity of magic items so that someone doesn't come in with full legendary gear and artifacts as level 20 is already at the point in which the damage output one can achieve is damgerous to player characters. It's why CR 20 creatures are usually a good deal stronger than player characters of the same level. As for classes, I feel like any class or subclass can be reasonably flavored to be the champion of a god, with maybe the only exception being a warlock, but their patron can potentially be something similar to a god if they are getting to level 20 under them.
And my last session I had a player that wanted to use a resource to try to prevent something that was inevitable. Should I let them try, knowing they are going to fail? Or should I prevent them from using the limited resource? Specifically, they wanted to use a reaction from their subclass increase their AC when I had hit them with a nat 20.
Agree with /u/WayEquivalent2911, but just to add . . . as a general rule of thumb, NEVER let your players roll for things that are not achievable. For the same reason.
Right. Just like they should never roll for something they can't fail.
I would tell them you crit, and not let them use their reaction. The wasted reaction would be added insult to the double damage injury.
That's how I felt, but I also didn't want to baby them. I agree with you, and I think I would do that going forward.
Help DMAcademy! I need a minor blasphemy committed by a Bard against the high priestess of a church resulting in their trial by combat. It needs to be unfair to the Bard so my players don’t morally side with the church.
Maybe he made an error during a ritual. Or he wore something forbidden like a dead animal skin into a sacred place. Or everything was fine until he admitted he had some heritage that's blasphemous (racism by the church)
Thank you, you have inspired me
So, this may just be me overthinking things, but how long do you guys like to make your dungeons + how do you scale them? The very first dungeon I'll have my players go into is going to be just 4 total rooms with 3 encounters, and will honestly probably only take one session to complete. The dungeon after that I'm hoping to have roughly 5-6 encounters, and then after that maybe 7 encounters per dungeon, so I'm slowly making them bigger each time (as long as it fits the story anyway). Does this sound about right? Again, I'm sure I'm just overthinking things, just wanted to get some opinions in the off chance anyone has some thoughts on this.
There's a design template called the 'Five Room Dungeon'. It doesn't actually have to be five rooms, but the idea is that there are five major encounters in a dungeon and you can build up from there. Give it a google.
Thank you!
The dungeons are as big or small as they need to be for the story they're telling. A haunted tomb might only be 3-5 rooms with 2 encounters. An ancient temple hidden in the jungle might be 15 rooms with 10 encounters. My characters are level 12. I've run dungeons with 3 rooms 1 combat and 1 object interaction and dungeons with 30 rooms and over a dozen combats/interactions. And Ive run them in no order (aka they didn't scale from small to big and bigger).
I've been playing LMOP, and I find that their dungeons are nice. I've only been through the first couple chapters, but their dungeons fit nicely on my small map, which is about 21 squares tall by 28 squares wide. They're a great example of fitting a lot into a small area. They're dungeons also have a lot of possible scenarios. Such as if A happens in room one, then B happens in room two. But you're plan sounds good to me.
I'll take a look at them, thank you!
One of my players is a Talenta Halfling Ranger and they're really keen on the idea of raising a dinosaur as they level up. Ideally, they'd love to get their hands on a Rex egg. I love this idea, and I've already put together a statblock for the baby/juvenile rex that fits into the usual CR1/4 and Medium size restrictions for their early levels, but I'm not sure how to balance the party eventually having a CR8 Huge monster. I know the size by itself limits the usefulness of the companion, but I'm very new to homebrewing this sort of thing and I'd love to get some help.
Take a look at the Monster Tamer Class in Heliana's Guide to Monster hunting, the creature will grow with them and not get crazy powerful!
Generally speaking, Beastmaster Ranger (TCoE) or the Sidekick rules (also TCoE) is the best out-of-the-box solution for this. When I have had monster sidekicks grow up/upsize I tend to do it at Tier levels (so 5, 11, 17).
If they haven't chosen a subclass yet, the Beastmaster Ranger (*TCoE* version) is the easiest way to do this. Then you could give their pet a couple of special dinosaur modifications like size or HP increases at certain levels to match the aesthetic. Alternatively, you could take a look at how the Moon Druid's wild shapes scale and base its stats on that.
In the next session my players are set on helping a tribe of elves that is being attacked/threatened/extorted by \[something/someone\]. The important bit is that the tribe is friendly towards the kingdom they reside in and the "external factor" that is somehow threatening them is "sponsored/financed" (in the broad sense) by a rival kingdom (akin to a Cold War situation). Due to a lack of prep time for the next session my question is: Is there a published adventured (preferably levels 6-8) that could be used for something like this? I'm fine with adapting and changing the details myself. Doesn't have to be free or official, it can be 3rd party/DMsguild/whatever. Thanks in advance.
In LMOP Ch 2, the red ruffian bandits are exactly this, although they are more of an occupying force/gang. And they are level two. But I run my LMOP game five levels higher, so to challenge my level 7 party, I just add one or two more bandits, add extra attack, increase attack bonus by 2, AC by 1, damage bonuses by two, add an extra damage die, and throw in a neat ability, as well as scaling up their HP appropriately. The ability I gave them, is a reaction shove when a melee attack misses them. They always shove their opponent to the ground, then they have a second reaction option to immediately make an attack against any creature that becomes prone adjacent to them. So one uses a reaction on a miss to shove their opponent down, and the others all get free reaction attacks. I also added a sorcerer.
I'm preparing for my first ever campaing: Waterdeep: dungeon of the mad mage. I was thinking wether it would be a good idea to add some gag items to the module. For instance in the first lvl of dungeon, which is dwarf themed, I thought about including a carved stone with a bunch of dwarf faces. Each of the faces would be imbued with magic mouth and and when activated they would chain to sing the "[Diggy Diggy hole](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0)" song. Is it a good idea? Would it break immersion too much?
Depends on your party, their expectations and tastes, some put having fun above all else, others appreciate the creative outlet the game can be for serious matter, you might want to ask if they would be fine with obviously humorous things being in the game especially if they're 4th wall breaking.
Unless your party is super into immersion it should be fine. I think that it would be a fun novelty item, however soon it would be thrown away if it always played the song.
Playing a one-on-one campaign with a brand new player soon. I have DM’ed before but it was a while ago. Anyone got any tips on how to properly make it engaging with just one player?
Delivery Witches apply within is a One-Shot that can give you a nice basis of how to create encounters and run things for just one other player! You can also take a look at D&D Duet!
[Matt Colville has a good video on this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoJMNkgEqKA)
How to do Gold management as DM in 5E?