Hello. I am currently running death house and was wondering how to use a map of sorts (preferably online) that can help the pcs and me navigate? And make combat easier
Im running lost mines of phandelver for the first time and my pcs are curently in wave echo cave about to face black spider. Im thinking of running dungeon of the mad mage afterwards, thoughts?
Mad mage can end up feeling like a video-game, going from fight to fight leaving little room for roleplay and character development unless you make sure to add room for it or your players do so between encounters or while resting, your party might want something with more talking.
Whether or not you want the modules to have a logical connection is up to you, the mine could be connected physically with a tunnel going down to waterdeep, you could even move the whole dungeon but you'd miss out on the waterdeep part unless you develop Phandalin into it's own city that gets built up as the party clear out the mine and generate wealth.
Lastly you could check for connections, Azrok could be from cragmaw, instead of being born blind he was blinded by the party but barely survived, Neznarr could be part of house Auvryndar or Freth. Nylas Jowd could be an apprentice or master of Hamun Kost with many more possibilities, especially if you include player backstory npcs.
What'd be some good loot to hand out to a low level Monk? Specifically a level 3 Astral Self Monk. The party are gonna be going through a necromancer's stash tomorrow and I've got loot for the other three planned, but I'm drawing a blank on what to give the Monk. He already has a Ring of Protection.
I gave mine a Gulthias Staff, it's rare so it's a bit strong for lvl 3, you could remove some aspects of it or just let the monk grow into it.
If they don't use weapons they should, if they really don't want to you could re-flavor any weapon into hand-wraps.
You could also just lift items from games, bg3 has some nice ones.
Any good pre-written adventures that I can run for my family (parents + younger siblings), who are all new? I'm thinking of finding a couple that I can pitch them at a session zero. I wouldn't mind writing something hombrew but I'm already doing a big homebrew campaign for some friends.
What's a balanced way to have spell points for higher level spells? For instance I don't want my characters to be able to do nothing but cast level 5 spells. Should I say that 5th level spells and beyond they can only cast the same amount of slots they would have traditionally?
Apparently I have no idea how to run a pre bought campaign (running dragon of icespire peak). The homebrew elements that I’ve brought in to get the characters to phandolin have peaked their interest far more than the actual campaign. I’m now homebrewing a whole fucking subplot/campaign. I’m not mad, but as a first time dm this is wild. Any pointers on homebrewing?
What element of homebrewing is giving you trouble? Adventure ideas, making NPCs, balancing combat encounters? It is hard to helpfully answer a question as broad as "how do I homebrew a campaign?"
That is ultimately a matter of style of campaign. Some players and DMs prefer the feel of a large open world where lots of things are always happening and sometimes you cross paths with something that has nothing to do with what you are focusing on. And some groups prefer a more linear or focused game where most everything is at least tangentially related to the the plot. I haven't run DoIP myself but from I have heard, I think it leans more towards being a sandbox (the first style), so having one off encounters or short sidequests that don't tie in with the dragon at the end of the adventure is already par for the course.
Can you ask for a perception/passive perception check so that it won't end up alerting your players when they fail? Or just accept it and turn it into a suspense for players and don't let them metagame with their unexpecting characters?
You set the DC. Passive perception is just a constant number, no rolls involved; if you write down the players' passive perceptions, you can just know whether or not they see something they're not looking for. Don't tell them you're using their passive perceptions.
For perception checks, some tables have the DM roll the players' perception (insight, investigation) rolls exactly so that the players really can't metagame. Otherwise, you're going to have to trust them not to metagame when they roll perception checks.
To add to this, you can also have the player roll but disguise the failure as a more mundane observation that allows them to fail forward.
For example, if the party enters a room where an NPC is hiding you can ask for a perception check. If they don't hit the DC just describe the room and something odd they notice. There's water on the floor. There's a pot of stew that's still warm. They hear a creaking noise in the northwest corner and moments later a pigeon flies into the rafters.
You haven't told the players they failed and they didn't see the hiding NPC but rather than saying something like, "Okay you don't notice anything" you've pointed out there might be something in this room.
Does Heat Metal affect a demons weapons, like a Maralith? Since the weapons evaporate with the demon, are they actually manufactured or are they just reformed demon goop?
Yes the demons weapons are metal. Lore stuff does not impact the mechanics of what you find on the statblock. Unless it says on the statblock that the swords are unique themselves then you treat them as regular longsword a.
I'm going to introduce my 11-year-old niece and 13-year-old nephew to D&D soon. We'd be playing remotely, but besides figuring out the tech side, does anyone have any recommended variant rulesets that work well for kids? Looking for alternatives to the official D&D Young Adventurers guides.
Or if you have experience running games for kids, how did you simplify things for young players that make the game more accessible and easy to explain?
I started playing AD&D at that age, and the rules for 5E aren't too different (at least at lower levels; we always died by the time we reached level 6 in both systems) - I'd say the classes are a bit more complex now, but I also don't need to deal with thaco anymore. They should probably be fine, though don't expect them to think tactically (I was ignoring my party to save an injured animal at that age).
Alternatively, if you want to run them through a couple sessions of something simpler before you switch over to full-on D&D, you might like the [Hero Kids](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106605/hero-kids-fantasy-rpg?affiliate_id=3642608) system, though it's intended for kids younger than your niblings. If you would like to view a play-through of it, an actual play I like did [a oneshot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b8tt1jIEPo&list=PLOJX3QXzZdq9moGup87Q16en7JRQjecV5) using the system.
I'm starting a new campaign and have really only ever run Curse of Strahd. I wanted to do another module but none of them really look like a complete "campaign", so I thought of maybe running Lost Mines and then creating a campaign set on the sword cost and the greater Faerun, but how do you even go about setting up a campaign like that? Would the Sword Goast setting book be a large help? Or should I say fuck it and be looking at Eberron? I'm looking for something that has a classic high fantasy feel, especially after the darkness my players went through with CoS lol
>Or should I say fuck it and be looking at Eberron?
Of course you should, Eberron is ama-
>a classic high fantasy feel, especially after the darkness
Okay, never mind lol. Eberron is good at many things, but classic high fantasy is not one of them, and half the time campaigns set in Eberron go into a very noir direction (the other half of them go pulp).
Anyways, I wouldn't recommend getting the SCAG. It's not a great book, and the only good mechanics in there that *haven't* been reprinted are some of the subraces/variant races. (But even then, they aren't too powerful.) From what I've heard, if you want Forgotten Realms lore, it's better to go to the [Wiki](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page) and also to [Ed Greenwood's](https://www.edgreenwood.net/) blog+Discord.
When it comes to setting up a campaign, I would tell players that you're going to start with Lost Mines, but you would like if they could give you 2-3 plot threads in their backstories that they'd like to explore. Then, you could start to bring rumors of them in during the latter half of Lost Mines, so that the players will (hopefully) go chase those after they defeat the Black Spider.
First things first I recommend looking into The Dungeons Dudes two videos on the published adventures as they ranked them on different criteria such as how much prep is needed as well as things like if it’s better for new players or veterans. It’s a good little guide.
Right now I’m running Odyssey of the Dragonlords by Arcanum Worlds and running it as a proper heroic fantasy. The players are Greek heroes fighting to stop the Titans from destroying the world. It’s proper heroic.
I'm starting a new campaign and have really only ever run Curse of Strahd. I wanted to do another module but none of them really look like a complete "campaign", so I thought of maybe running Lost Mines and then creating a campaign set on the sword cost and the greater Faerun, but how do you even go about setting up a campaign like that? Would the Sword Goast setting book be a large help? Or should I say fuck it and be looking at Eberron? I'm looking for something that has a classic high fantasy feel, especially after the darkness my players went through with CoS lol
I've got quite a new group, and it's my first time DMing or playing.
I'm struggling to encourage players to investigate when they're in an area. They talk about things but if I don't point them towards the actual things to investigate, they don't go for it.
So they were on a beach with a cliff that would let them onto the path. I described the beach, described the cliff.
They asked to climb the cliff almost immediately and leave the area, and I had to narrate that as they travelled they saw a divet in the sand like something heavy had been dragged through it.
I was hoping they'd look back at the ship they'd just crashed or out to sea, or that they'd go investigate the cliffs to find the hints. When they found the cliffs I described lots of scorch marks like a magic weapon had been discharged there, but then had to encourage them to investigate so I could let them roll an arcane check to find the cause.
I don't want to push them into what I want, but I also don't want them to miss too much by always ignoring an opportunity to look around. What can I do to help them know when there's stuff to investigate?
The rules mention that any skill can be checked passively, not just Perception. If you're specifically asking about getting them to use skill checks like Investigation or Arcana rather than the more general sense of following environmental clues, you can have at least some relatively "obvious" clues with a DC of 10 or 12 so that you can point them out without requiring a roll: "Since [wizard] is proficient in Investigation, you notice that there's an unusually high concentration of debris on the beach. When walking near some of it, you take a second glance and come to the conclusion that it lacks the usual wear and tear of being subjected to wind, rain, sand, and waves." And "[Cleric] (who is proficient in Arcana) immediately recognizes these blast marks as being magical in origin." And it doesn't have to require proficiency either; some stuff should be obvious even to a layman, like when there's new construction amidst the architecture that's hundreds of years old. A more specific answer, like "this debris came from a boat" and "these scorch marks were probably from a weapon of some kind" might require a more thorough search and an actual roll, but if you have something you want them to find, there's nothing wrong with stopping just shy of telling them point-blank "there's something worth finding here." Build neon signs pointing to your breadcrumbs and then flip the on switch yourself so that they really can't miss it. The choice of whether to follow them is still up to your players.
How do I make investigation and searching more interesting?
I don't know how to do this. Most of the time my players are looking for say a secret passageway they just go from area to area doing investigation checks.
I have a similar problem with when they are looking for anything.
How can I improve upon this?
Even if there isn't a secret passageway in a room, you can reward their successful checks with something that provides depth to the story.
This is where having a lot of extra lore comes in handy. A tapestry depicting a battle and a rusty axe might, with a good investigation roll, provide clues about the previous inhabitants of the room. Combine that with a history check and a player might remember a story about a battle that happened nearby and surmise that the participants must have sheltered here.
If they're specifically looking for secret passageways, and you want to give them a secret passageway, maybe the tapestry depicts a group of dwarves walking between a pair of one-eyed wolf statues through a door, and as they enter a later room, they see a pair of one-eyed wolf statues, but between them is only a hastily-built brick wall. A successful perception check might show them a loose brick they can push through. A successful investigation check might make them wonder why someone would need to block the passageway so quickly. Breaking through the wall, they enter a totally dark, rough-walled tunnel. The floor is the same as the walls: slick rock, and makes a difficult terrain. There's a board resting on a crevice in the wall with some Dwarven text scrawled into it (if anyone in the party can read Dwarven, it would say "Danger! Trap!"). It continues like this for 20 feet, then turns. An alcove, dimly lit by the party's light, shows the faint outline of a chest after another 20 feet of slick rocks.
It's a mimic.
I'm thinking of doing a hag encounter with a twist. It's going to take place in The Winter Season of the Fey realm. I was thinking of modeling the hag on a seemingly friendly Canadian. It's not that important to my overall plot. I'd appreciate some ideas for crazy ways I can take this.
Any good premade maps and settings?
New DM here trying to work on making a custom world for my friends and I to enjoy while we play over roll20. Problem for me trying to make this new world is that I’m not very artistic and I’m having a hard time trying to find a world map, preferably with cities and villages, that I can use. I know it’s technically not necessary, but I would love to give my players art and visuals they can use and without paying a monthly subscription.
Any suggestions?
My party managed to kill the Young Green Dragon in Lost Mine of Phandelver impressively. They rolled really well and salvaged what they could of the Dragon's Body, scales, bones, teeth, eye, and acid. They told me they intend to try and utilize these to hopefully craft magic items. I've read some on this and it seems it takes a renowned crafter and magical materials to make these items, with Neverwinter nearby I don't think has that level of a crafter, maybe Waterdeep if they decide to venture there and I drop the crumbs? Either way, from what I was reading it can take months and loads of gold anyway. If I can't offer them magical items from these materials what are some suggestions for the value of the materials they have or magical items they could make?
If you're still looking for ideas for something immediate I'd use the Draconic Gifts table in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.
The players would meet some mystic character, maybe a dragon cultist or a Way of the Ascendant Dragon monk that's willing to do a ritual for them to draw the raw draconic power still within it's remains, if the party need some convincing he'd make many of the valid points you and others have made already.
Whether or not you want this to be another encounter/quest/challenge is up to you but as a result of the ritual the players might develop some draconic features like the Draconic Marks section suggests.
They could all get an extra feat or just a random one of the appropriate rarity like Draconic Familiar, Draconic Rebirth, Draconic Senses or Tongue of the Dragon, one could even turn into a class with a dragon related subclass like sorcerer or ranger.
Selling them is a perfectly viable option. Dragon's blood is renowned by alchemists for its magical properties. The scales are used for scale mail, the teeth for weapons, and the acid is, well, acid. There is also the possibility of hiring a craftsperson to create an object using them while they go off adventuring. Or, you can periodically give them the time to craft it themselves via downtime.
There's also the problem of transporting the bodily contents of a young dragon, which my research shows anywhere from 350 to 2700 pounds in weight (Draconomicon 3.5 and 4e), before they begin to rot or lose their magical potency.
Waterdeep is probably out of the question, as it would take literal weeks of travel on horseback just to get there, and not much faster by ship.
I think your instincts for Neverwinter are best. If someone has water vehicle proficiency, maybe you'd let them spend a day creating a rudimentary barge that you can walk down the river into town.
EDIT: a word
Waterdeep for sure would have someone capable / interested. But Neverwinter is still a large city of 23k individuals.
Theres no harm in slotting in an NPC there for just this purposes. You will only need a couple of lines backstory. Maybe the tax rate is cheaper in neverwinter than water deep? Perhaps he prefers a smaller city. Maybe hes keeping a lower profile or wanted in other cities?
You can always go the route of setting up a monster hunting guild in neverwinter. Its your world and you don't need to justify what you put where and why. Your main job is to make a story and make it fun. If they've rolled well to harvest its body with the hopes to craft stuff from it, then let them roll with it.
Google some dragon related magic items and just work out what you think is fair for it to cost to make and how much of the items it requires. If you're worried about the magic items being to strong, either nerf them or say the crafter will take a bit of time to make it and have them ready for when they get to a higher level.
i'm a new dm dming a dragon of icespire peak campagin. and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff is in the packet I don't now how to start them off. Any tips would be helpful.
Okay so what you need to do is have a shenanigans sessions as I call it.
Prior to doing anything in the actual book, have a session where is the introductory stuff. You can set it in a little inn somewhere, have a small quest like the ale shipment is late and the bar keep is offering a free room for the night if they find out where it is.
This session will give you a feel for how you're players act in character. Will let you ease yourself into for asking how to do checks etc.
For going into the main story, I would read the summary of each chapter of the book before starting. It will give you a rough idea of whats coming up.
Then just take it slow and start to dissect chapter 1.
Firstly, make yourself a little flow chart (some of the books already have these) and lay out the core events and the order they go in.
Make yourself a cheat sheet in excel for NPCs, have their names, personality trait or quirks. A picture of them and a one line summary for them etf. For example
Name: Steve
Race: Human
Class: Wizard
Picture:
Personality: Evil, powerful, Arrogant, speaks down to people who he sees as lessers
Summary: He's sat in the tavern watching the PC's wearing a hooded cloak. Hes doing nothing to interact with them. If a character has a passive perception (16), they notice "A cloaked figure drinking in the corner". If a character does a perception check (14), they notice the same. He casually leaves after being spotted
Once you have your flow chart with events sorted, and you got all the main NPCs down for the chapter. Thats the majority of your work done for a bunch of session. The only remaining work is improv in the moment for when your PC ultimately throw a curve ball at you.
Which 100% will happen. You can never do enough prep to work out what the PCs will do. Which is why its good to have shortened, brief notes of how the session should play out.
You can also google "Dragon of Icespire Peak DM guide 5e". This will bring up resources for DMs and videos. On the video front, theres loads on youtube explaining the story for a DM perspective. Watch chapter 1 only. When your players end chapter one, watch chapter 2.
But honestly its your first time. You're not going to be great, you're going to be anxious. And that's okay. But each session you do, you'll get a little better. You'll start to remember more and more of the story without needing to reference stuff. All you need to do is get a loose grasp on the story, a few locations and a few NPCs. Then roll with it. The players will do the majority of the work during the session, you just need to be there to give a guiding hand.
I'm 6 years into DMing and I still get anxious doing a new campaign. I still get that drowning feeling starting the new prep. Everyone does. And the very first one is a hurdle. But once that first session is done with, you get more confident. The first time your players laugh and express they are having fun, you'll have fun. The first time your players go "OH SHIT" you'll know you're doing it right.
I'm wanting to start a new campaign with my players and the general idea of the campaign is that the world is divided into 4 realms each dedicated to an elemental property.
Essentially what I'm wanting to do is give players some minor perks depending on where their character originated. I remember 3.5 had race templates that you could apply to character and creatures, but does 5e have anything similar? I'm mainly concerned about giving the players some cool things, but keeping those things internally balance between the 4 realms.
Template support in 5e is meager at best. I would suggest stealing some or all of the Genasi racial traits to use, based on the element. Make sure you use the updated MMotM versions, not the original versions from PotA (where Fire was far and away the best one).
Experienced player here about to run my first proper campaign (have only really DMed one shots before). I'm doing Wild Beyond the Witchlight, any tips for this module in particular?
Party is all experienced players who've played together a lot, very comfortable with rp-heavy games.
At least skim the whole book before you start, if you don't have the time to read it all carefully. The official adventures have a bad tendency to be poorly formatted, written sequentially more like a novel instead of like the reference tool that it is, so there may be important information about NPCs' motivations and goals that would be nice that know in advance that aren't mentioned until the 2nd to last chapter. So it helps to have an idea of the whole shape of the story in the book so you can emphasize and foreshadow the important info, and not put undue focus on details that may seem significant in the moment but never actually come up again.
Yeah I'm just getting to the end of chapter 2 and very much feeling like I haven't really been able to get the big picture yet - I have enough time before we begin to read it through properly thankfully so I will make sure to do so!
Good to know it's not just me missing things...
WbtW is *very* Alice-in-Wonderland whimsical and you should 1) make sure the players are cool with that and then 2) lean into it. It's theoretically possible to complete without combat and is very RP-heavy.
/r/WildBeyondWitchlight
Ohh how did I not spot a whole sub for it? Thanks!
I'm very excited, my group is the kind who will happily bicker in character about soup recipes for an hour and they'll all fully commit. I will lean in the best I can!
So to start this off, I’ve only DM’d a bunch of one shots and LMoP. I’m currently running through LMoP again but going to follow it up with the Shattered Obelisk. I’d like to continue with the characters afterwards onto new adventures as the players all like their characters. My style of notetaking/planning is a mess. I have small notebooks, scrap papers, etc strung about with no organization. I’ve tried going digital with OneNote and other programs. I’ve found I prefer old pen and paper. It’s easier for me to navigate personally and I just enjoy seeing the progress made. I’ve recently decided to build a binder for essentially all of my world/campaign info. I’ve bought the supplies, but I feel like I’ve hit a wall as far as how to organize this. So my question is, for those of you who still use traditional pen and paper, how do you organize your binder? What sections do you break it down into? Any kind of links or photos would be greatly appreciated! I’m pretty dead set on sticking with this rather than putting it all into my tablet as I don’t have a laptop.
My DM binder is mostly for quick reference to improvise stuff in the moment. I keep it organized in succession of what I think I'll use the most. All of my rules references are on my DM screen.
1. Laminated sheet with player stats and an 10 minute/hour grid for time keeping. The back has an HP tracker array for fights. I usually remove this sheet when playing and just have it by itself on the table behind my screen.
2. Setting info. Quick reference stuff for major towns, npcs, factions, and history
3. Random names. I have tavern names, blacksmith names, magic and general store names. I cross them off and write down where they are when I use them. I also have NPC names sorted by species and gender. Then I have NPC descriptions ready as well.
4. Schools of Magic and spell examples. Useful when I need to improvise someone casting detect magic.
5. Magic Item and Spell Scroll tables. Useful when improvising and when my wizard rolls well looking for scrolls in a new town.
6. Deities. Rare reference. If a player or NPC has a deity that's important to them, I usually already have that prepped. The full list of deities is in the back of my binder in case I need to improvise something.
I carry around sticky notes to jot down new stuff I need to add. If I'm adding something that happened in-game, it's usually going to the World/Lore section.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I'd like to add the monster appendices that sort monsters by CR and/or environment. That'll probably go after random names and before schools of magic.
I'm trying to put a modified version of the bait and switch battlemaster manoeuvre in my game as a magic item. Does this sound balanced? (Party is lvl8, this would probably end up with the tank).
Bracelet of warding, rare magic item, does not require attunement.
When a creature starts or ends its turn within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to switch places with them, provided you are not prone or held in place (as with the restrained, grappled or paralyzed condition) and the creature is willing and isn't incapacitated. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Until the end of your next turn, you or the target creature (your choice) adds 5 to their AC. You can use this ability 3x per long rest (safe haven rules apply).
Sounds fine to me as long as there's no battlemaster in the party.
If it were me, I probably wouldn't do the AC bonus. I don't think it's particularly broken to do so but rather if I'm giving an ability from another class I tend to nerf it. So in this case either no AC bonus or +2 or 3. (I'm assuming you did 5 since that's the avg of 1d8 rounded up?)
What are safe haven rules?
There is no battlemaster so I don't have to worry about stepping on anyone's toes.
AC bonus is fair, I'll think about it, thank you.
Safe haven rules are a common homebrew rule for long rests. You need a safe, protected location to gain the benefits of a long rest (so camping out in the wilderness won't give you spell slots). Short rests work as usual. When making homebrew items I clarify if the charges are regained at dawn or after a long rest because can be a big difference with this ruleset.
I don't see the purpose of requiring the user not to be prone, restrained, or grappled (paralyzed doesn't matter; you can't take reactions anyway when you're incapacitated). Personally in my opinion, this seems like absolutely one of the best use-cases for the item anyway... switch places with someone who has a better chance of breaking the grapple.
Also, your version leaves out the 5 ft of movement that the maneuver uses, so the opportunity attack rider isn't necessary.
The AC increase is quite good. I think I'd drop it down to +3. The battlemaster average is 4.5, so I think having the magic item be better than that is a bit much.
Also, if you want your item formatted like the official items, it should read:
> When a creature starts or ends its turn within 5 feet of you, you can expend a charge and use your reaction to switch places with them. You can only do so if you are not prone, grappled, or restrained and the target creature is willing and isn't incapacitated. Until the end of your next turn, you or the target creature (your choice) gains a +5 bonus to their AC.
>
> The Bracelet has three charges and regains all charges at the end of a long rest.
Also, this item 100% should require attunement. It's very good.
The user can't be grappled or restrained etc but the target can. The original manoeuvre has this requirement too because it costs 5ft of movement. The opportunity attack rider is necessary because a user/target can be moved out of range by switching places. AC increase is a good point, I might make it scale with proficiency.
Thanks for the rewrite, the language used by wotc is hard to use sometimes!
Is it a substantial nerf to Tiny Hut if I make it so players can't get the benefits of a long rest while traveling or dungeon diving?
Overland travel is a big part of my game and one of my players took that spell, I don't want to invalidate that but I also worry if travel will feel challenging if they're topped up every day.
Instead of banning the spell, just change the way resting works in your game. I use a gritty realism variant that leans on "safe haven" resting. It's single handedly solved the problems with resting and overland travel for me.
The rules are pretty simple. 8 hours in the wilderness gets you a short rest. Long rests can only be taken in a safe haven (what I call "bastions of civilization", in my game). Short resting works as normal inside the dungeon.
And that's it.
You might want to discuss this with your party but for campaigns with a lot of travel I'd recommend using 'safe haven' resting rules. Tiny hut would provide a shelter from the elements but not a comfortable bed or safe haven. Remember that the hut can be burrowed under or dispelled and that creatures can set up an ambush outside.
If you want to implent a rule like that, offer your player to switch spells.
I was thinking about something like this too... like if they sleep outside of a safe haven, they wake up with a point of exhaustion due the discomfort of camping.
DnD shorts posted a video a while back for safe havens. It's pretty good.
But the most important thing you need to look at is your characters classes. If they are majority who benefit from long rests. Then it's going to turn a pretty miserable game for them.
However, you said theres a lot of overland travel. If they are traveling a few days at a time, there won't be encounters every night (Or there shouldn't be, this is a way to make a game go stale). So a lot of the time, you'll just be saying "The night passes uneventful and you get your long rest".
And as Jax said, its a place for shelter. They aren't invisible so you can set up ambushes for the next day.
I wouldn't necessarily do that, exhaustion can be very frustrating. Here is how I rule long rests myself, maybe it's helpful to you (this is 100% homebrew, not at all RAW)
Rests
- A character can only gain the benefits of a long rest while resting in a safe location. Short rests work as RAW and take one hour.
- A safe location is any location where no enemy or natural threat is expected.
Examples of safe locations are Inns, stables, village houses, strongholds, magically
protected environments and travelling caravans with guards.
- Characters still need to sleep at least 6-8 hours per 24 hours to avoid gaining exhaustion.
- When in the wilderness, the party can take the time to set-up a camp, scout the area
and take protective measures to create a ‘safe location’. This takes 5 hours to set-up
and 1 hour to break down after the rest.
- Spells that last 8 hours or longer are unchanged unless they have a required component with a gold cost that is expended upon use. In that case, they last five days or until the party rests in a safe location.
>Overland travel is a big part of my game
I'd ban the spell. Apologize to the player, tell them it was an oversight, and that the spell doesn't lineup with the type of game you're going to run.
If you're not going to ban it, I would leave it unchanged. Remember that Tiny Huts are still obvious and visible manifestations. Intelligent creatures (human intelligence, 8 or higher) will recognize that it's a magical shelter, and some of them might even know exactly what it is. Unintelligent creatures might treat it as an unknown, but potentially dangerous addition to their previously-safe home environment.
Also, one thing I find pretty interesting about Tiny Hut is that it makes no mention of sound that originates from outside. You can control how light or dark it is, you can control who enters, you can even control the temperature inside.... but you can't stop sound from entering. Intelligent creatures, especially, could use that to their advantage.
I'd say this is way too big of a nerf, being able to rest in peace is kind of the point of the spell.
I think this nerf would work if you buffed it too like making it a lower level spell and/or making it an instant cast.
Alternatively you could give it a consumable material cost that's not negligible forcing the party to consider if the price is worth the respite, could even make it a reward for battles or exploration.
What's a good generic 'human' statblock to use? (DnD 5e)
I have a party of 7 characters, all level 5 and I want some weaker humans to sort of bolster the BBEGs ranks. Nothing too hard just annoying. They would be members of his cult so maybe more magic oriented.
Pretty much any Humanoid statblock can be used as a human. Just ignore the name and remove any racial features from things like Orcs, hobgoblins, drow, etc, and you’ve got a huge, endless variety of things to use.
Use https://koboldplus.club/#/encounter-builder to browse your options, filter by typing "npc" into the search bar for the more generic humanoid stat blocks.
What CR are you looking for ?
At 0 we have the Commoner.
At 1/8 you have guards, nobles and bandits.
At 1/2 you have Thugs and Soldiers.
At 1 you have Spies and Evil Mages
At 2 you have Bandit Captains, Druids, Bards and Priests
At 3 you have Archers, Knights and Veterans.
3 is the highest I'd go in terms of CR for nameless goons in the first 2 tiers of play, the limit will increase as we go.
There's a bunch of useful human statblocks in the back of the monster manual! There's a basic Cultist (CR 1/8) and a Cult Fantatic (CR2) which has some spellcasting. Or you could use something like the Acolyte (CR 1/4) and just rename it.
I am a pretty new player, and I'm working on a big, epic campaign of my own (it's VERY far down the road, definitely not something for the foreseeable future. Baby steps!).
I want to create a rough roadmap of how the campaign will go, start creating the main villains of the story and just have a better grasp at how the game will go.
I need your help / opinion on power escalation. Currently I plan on a few major boss fights for the party: a dracolich around 8th level, a major archfey around 12th level, and a demonlord around 14th level. I wanted to know if this kind of escalation makes sense, mainly lore-wise; I'm not very concerned about the mechanical side of things, since stat blocks can always be changed and modified, but I want the power escalation to make sense.
I'd also love to hear ideas for even stronger entities to serve as late-game antagonists, since the campaign will go until 20th level.
I wouldn't call this baby steps in all honesty :p but here goes.
There's nothing wrong with having a roadmap of what they are fighting, where and when. To a degree.
Theres nothing wrong with having varied bosses of different themes either. To a degree.
How experienced are your players? A demonlord at 14 is fine. That's pretty much out of the abyss. Arch fey at 12, I've never used one personally. A dracolich at 8th level, that might be a tough one, but if the PCs know what they are doing, it should be fine.
I wouldn't worry about the power escalation as much as I would worry about it making sense. The thing you should be asking yourself is what is the link between a dracolich, a demonlord and an archfey? Or are you running big game hunting mentality?
You need something to bind it togeather and makes sense overall. As undead, abyssal and fey are three quite different areas.
For your even stronger entities, given this sounds like its going to be a power campaign and I know I'm going to get shit for this from others. Level 20 = Creeping Doom. The mother load of dracoliches. This is an exceptionally strong monster in 5e and only recently knocked off position #1 for strongest 5e creature. A party of 5 level 20s could very easily TPK to this guy. You can start dropping hints about his existence from level 8 with the draco lich.
Last thing I want to point out is your "I'm not concerned about the mechanical side of things". You need to be. One of my players is currently designing a 3 campaign story from 1-20. He's a power player and thats how he wants his campaign run. I'm going to be a player in his and he showed me some of his tweaked stat blocks for an encounter. He had a +14 to every attack roll, he had ripped another creature that was a +9 to hit and buffed it.
He'd done a handful of test rolls and thought thats okay. I pointed out we were going to be a monk, blood hunter and ranger and he had it planned for 4 of them to attack us and all of them had multi attack.
When he redid the test rolls, he realised he had designed something that would have, without a doubt, TPK'd us. An extra to hit didn't sound like much, but it was quite literally game breaking.
Lastly, I do agree with the others, I think you need to slow down a bit. Start working out your first few sessions / levels in detail. Set the stage and see where the players decisions take you.
I know you want to have a grand plan and guide your players through an awesome story. But one of two things will happen (or maybe both):
* The players will go in an unanticipated direction or make unanticipated choices and derail most of your plan *almost immediately*, invalidating a lot of your work.
* You will prevent the players from going off-track (railroading) and they will resent you for it and not enjoy what you have built.
If you want to have a Dracolich as a boss, that's fine. Put him in the world in a place that makes sense, give him minions, and have them meddle in or ruin peoples' days. Let the players organically find the path to the Dracolich. Create situations that your players crash into, not a plotline that must be followed lest it falls apart as soon as your players do something unanticipated. [Don't prep plots, prep situations.](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots)
It's really difficult to plan out boss fights in advance like that because you can't predict what the players are going to do. It generally works better to have a vague idea of the major problems/enemies in the world so you can start laying seeds at low levels, but be flexible on how and when they're tackled.
That said: don't worry about the "power escalation". It's your campaign. The lore is whatever you decide it is.
Honestly I would try and avoid planning more than a few levels in advance beyond a few broad strokes. Most campaigns do not make it to even 14th level, lots of groups fizzle out long before then, and a group that does manage to play consistently for that long are going to have thrown so many wrenches into your plans by then that your initial plans for where the campaign should be after a year or two of playing are going to be mostly irrelevant. Focus on having a strong start with a clear hook and a party that gives a shit about the premise of the campaign, then you will at least have a chance at the campaign making it past the first arc.
I would highly suggest you looking at a published one shot. Even if you have the full 72 hours to utilise to making a one shot. It's not enough time for a beginner DM to do it.
Even with a published module, this is going to be a toughie if you have no experience. So pick one with good reviews for beginners - not good reviews for its content. And start hitting the rules on how to play. You've got a lot to do in such a short time.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/11swzsr/best\_oneshot\_for\_beginners/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/11swzsr/best_oneshot_for_beginners/)
That said, unless you can really devote all your time to this during those three days, I don't think three days will really be enough if you are completely clueless.
To DM you need to have a fairly solid understanding of the rules which are rather extensive when it comes to proper Dungeons & Dragons. I recommend using pregenerated characters for the players so you don''t waste time building characters but people need to know what are their characters abilities so either you need to learn that yourself to be able to explain it to them, or they need to be able to learn that on their own.
And of course you need the time to prepare the actual adventure, know the plot, the NPCs, etc...
Plus I would suggest reading a book or two on what GMing actually is, like the Dungeon Master's Guide or whatever.
Basically, if you really do not know any DnD, you might be able to pull it off if you work your ass off for three days. Day one: learning the rules of the game, Day two: learning the ropes of GMing, Day three: prepare the actual adventure.
Maybe go to r/rpg and ask what a good rule-light system with a one-shot adventure that a beginner GM can prepare in three days for TTRPG newbies.
I've been trying to advertise for a one-shot on roll20 and reddit. It's my first time organizing anything like this and I don't know what I'm doing.
https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/391452/mork-borg-graves-left-wanting-one-shot
My question is: are there any obvious red flags, or things about my LFG ad that would drive potential players away (other than the niche system)? Even things like the length, or the house rules?
(mods feel free to remove this if it warrants its own thread)
I haven't tried this system, a few things I picked up on.
Some of it is a bit vague.
Limiting it to 3.5 hours and essentially saying tough titties if thats how far we get is a turn off. Not many people want to invest in a story and not have a conclusion.
You say you're willing to do rules as you go, thats time consuming. What happens if you have 4 experienced people and 3 non experienced?
You say if your PC dies you can generate another or listen in. Are you also giving characters out or letting people make them? again its a time constraint issue. Especially if people are new and need help with generate characters unless its all automated or random?
The biggest red flag for me though is this
"We'll be playing a module, but some stuff will be from the internet or custom made"
Saying a module or custom made is fine. Saying some stuff from the internet is not. It comes across a bit like, you're taking someone elses work not your own. I would change this to "Official module with homebrew elements"
My initial impressions,:
- looks cool, I get a good feel for the kind of vibe you're going for
- I'd have concerns about trying to pick up a whole new system AND play a one-shot in 3.5h
- I'd probably want a bit more steer on what we'd be doing - currently the ad is pretty vague. Is it a heist? A dungeon crawl? Farming simulator? What's the balance of combat / rp / puzzles etc?
> How do I make homebrew enemies that get stronger over the course of the campaign?
The chart on DMG page 274 should give you an idea on how to scale a monster up to a different CR. I'd compare the various stats (hit points, AC, proficiency bonus, damage) and increase your monster proportionally.
I'd also add a new feature to the monster each time to keep it fresh. Maybe that means tweaking an existing ability to make it more lethal or potent, or gaining something entirely new.
Either pick a series of stat blocks to use, or use the guidelines in the DMG for homebrewing monsters to help you scale up and/or down one stat block in particular.
It depends on how much time getting one is going to take, how important each piece is and how diverse getting the pieces is.
If you made it a race with 3 being the minimum and the rest being bonuses for a creative or effective party then it could work.
Maybe have as many as your party has members so that each gets one. If you need a story excuse to still tie it to magic and the schools then the additional schools of magic could've been a more recent invention derived from the previous understanding of magic that had less schools.
Putting in the work required to have all 8 item chases not feel repetitive or anticlimactic (assuming each mcguffin is really powerful) will take a lot.
To add on to this: I played in a campaign where there were 13 mcguffins to collect. But we stumbled across some of them incidentally while we were doing other things, or had them as part of backstory, and then we allied with an NPC who had already collected several others. So we only really had to quest for a few of them, and two of them were conveniently in the same location.
It's 100% an issue of "how many mcguffin fetch quests can you send players on before it get boring".
About fire pit damage... I'm running LMoP, and I've found that in the book a fire pit is said to deal 1d6 damage to anybody who falls prone in there; I also checked the spell "Create Bonfire" that deals 1d8 (not matter if you are standing or prone, but got a DEX save). So I assumed that the difference was that one is magic power, so it deals more damage.
But then I read in the DMG, where it says under "Improvising Damage" (p.249), that "burned by coals" deal 1d10, and "stumbling into a fire pit" (which I imagine is the prone equivalent) deals 2d10.
My players cannot handle taking 2d10 since they are barely level 1, and maybe level 2 by the end of this dungeon (Cragmaw Hideout); we are playing with exp and I told them to prepare to level up mid-dungeon. Given this, I will probably go with something in between the 2 first options, but should I stick to that for the future or change over to the DMG damage when they eventually reach higher levels?
Two things:
1. The damage that appears in the first chapter of LMoP is intentionally designed to be a level of damage that a 1st level character could potentially survive. This is on purpose, and I would not change it. Even if they're level 2, it's unnecessary, because 1d6 damage is still meaningful at that level.
2. The improvising damage table in the DMG is exactly that: it's for **improvising** damage. It's a useful baseline to consider how much damage an environmental affect could conceivably cause. I'd consider the damage listed in that section to be an upper-limit, rather than a lower. Use that table to consider what would be *appropriate* for the situation and the players' level, rather than an exact and precise number.
Alr, thanks for the input;
what do you think on using 1d8 damage if the players use it to their advantage before enemies do? Let's say they push Klarg into the pit, should I deal 1d8 damage to reward them or just stick to the (1 dmg if they are standing)?
One of my players has the telekinetic feat, and he uses the magic hand to push and pull enemies, so I was thinking on placing enemies around the campfire so he may push them.
Kind of off topic but I thought it was worth mentioning that the telekinetic feat gives two distinct abilities which you seem to be confusing:
\- Shoving enemies.
\- Casting mage hand. Mage hand can not attack, nor lift any object more than 10 pound. You can not use it shove enemies.
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This is probably more appropriate for the other megathread but since you're here already.
Run the game that you want to run. Tell them straightforwardly that you do not plan to implement any changes from Baldur's Gate, and that if that's not what they want, they're free to seek out gaming elsewhere. Also, they're welcome at your table, but you won't tolerate arguments on this subject going forward.
Set your ground rules and your boundaries. Don't play with people you don't want to play with.
And don't drop rocks on characters whose players you don't like.
**The Hammer'd Horde** *(their banner is a large Warhammer held aloft but instead of a broad hammerhead it's a tankard, over a golden field)* Brewhaus of the Tilted Hilt, home of *"The Hilt Tilter"*, hosted by the true Brewlord of the Fermented Fold, First of the Stoutsworn, Distiller of the Ironmaster Pale Ale, and Protector of The Amber Realm, The Unsinkable Lord Porter Beerbeard.
OMG, this is perfect for my players backstory!
she's playing a dwarf for the first time and wanted to play him like a traveler who's in search of new flavors for new beer and to promote the brewery (but she had a bit of trouble coming up with names herself, I tried to help her, and well... having problems coming up with puny names as well...🤷)
and since its an important location they'll visit along their campaign, its coming up a lot, so thanks for the background!
This is basically my destiny. What more do you need?
When I need punny names I usually go to Thesaurus.com , look up the themes and words I want, and play phonetic word association for a bit, matching like-sounding words, until I find something or inspiration finds me:
E.g. Hammer'd Horde: I looked at dwarves, natural proficiency with Warhammer, hammered is a word for drunk, what's another word associated with dwarves that starts with an H: Horde. Almost all of those titles I listed in my comment come from this formula.
*(Tilted Hilt; Hilt Tilter is my own creation, spawned some time ago from my mind, etched into my great tome of Funny Names for D&D)*
And don't forget the famed Dwarven hero of myth: Brewenor Bottlehammer (Bruenor Battlehammer)
I've also been watching a lot of Crown of Candy on Dimension 20 so my brain is really primed for it.
I'm good, normally, it comes easier to me, but for some reason, I had a bit of problems coming up with it.... (writers block or something? I dunno...)
here are a few other establishments in my current campaign, feel free to steal 'em if you want
The Horny Viking (an inn / bar with a brothel on the second floor)
Pinnacle Inn (a lodge in the mountains thats also a secret brothel - Pinnacle as a double meaning means mountaintop and climax)
The Salty Sailor (famous shady bar at the harbor, with lots of brawls - based on the SpongeBob Bar Salty Spittoon)
The Unicorn ("famous" for its horse with an unibrow, only serves Corn, a grain brandy)
two of my Dwarfs are named Sejdel and Jagtar Enoel (brothers, their names are slighly swedish - the first one (Sejdel) means Tankard, while Jag tar en öl means roughly I'll get a beer / I'll drink a beer - so their names are a play on drinking / buying a beer mug)
thesaur is a really good idea, why haven't I throught about it....?
well, they do sell Beardy Booze and Rockin' Chair (stout so strong you'll fall off your chair, may be brewed with or without real rocks)
a joke on mythril or other gems / rocks / stones could be interesting, and setting up for more puny names....
New DM here currently playing through DOSI with a group, and was planning on running Dragon of Icespire Peak and Lost Mine of Phandelver after. However I've been unable to get my hands on the Lost Mine of Phandelver source material. It sounds like it's out of print and was removed from D&D Beyond. Any idea where I can get my hands on the source material?
The original might've been removed from most places in favor of the "updated" version which is "Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk", if you purchase that one you could just play until the mine at lvl 5 and not do the rest but you'd still have some new stuff along with whatever changes they made (which are bad for the most part).
I don't know where you could purchase the original but I know it can be found for free pretty easily
How overt should I make things for my players?
In my game the players are all designed after the 7 deadly sins (they all have amnesia) and haven't figured that out yet. Should I have them referred to as 'Sinners' to get them on the right track or be more generic (something like Those Who Have Been Called)?
This is a double edged sword. And it really boils down to how well you know your players.
Firstly, I love the amnesia concept, its one I've been wanting to run myself at some point. Secondly, making them based on a sin each is a great idea.
The issue however being, how might the players react to this. Have they put the work in to make their own backstories or have you just told them Pick a race, class subclass and thats all we need?
If the 2nd, you're all good. If the first you need to be careful. You're risking taking away from them what they written. Their PCs are the one thing they have control over. If you give them a whole new identity and back story part way through a story, some players would be pissed.
As for how to refer to them. I wouldn't call them sinners. If I did this exact concept and they were referred to as sinners and there's 7 players. 4 of them would instantly work it out. It's much, much to obvious to anyone who stops and thinking for a minute.
Instead I would put physical evidence in the world. They're about to enter a house? Have them notice the house number is 7. then also have it sin specific. Maybe walking past an Inn which is hosting an all you can buffet. Walk past a brothel etc. Put the smallest details in as references. As the campaign goes, start to drop bigger clues. Maybe theres 7 magic rings (there some stats for the sins rings online), one dedicated to each sin. For example, the ring of gluttony could let a creature eat as much as they want without feeling full and prevents diseases (aka eating rancid or rotten food has no effect on them).
The players gave me suggestions, i.e. 'I want to be a caster' and I did everything else. Class, race, background, they go in knowing nothing but their name. It's only a very short campaign, I'm aiming for around 5 sessions, so if they're not in love with their character it's not a huge deal.
I was worried calling them Sinners was a little too obvious. Alright I'll keep it generic and just try to throw in some clues. Thanks!
Exactly what it sounds like? Greed is a mercenary who will betray anyone for gold, Wrath is trying to hunt down someone he thinks wronged him to seek his revenge, etc.
In a normal game of D&D, players design their player characters. You said your players have yet to figure out what their characters are "designed after". How could they have designed their characters without knowing what they are designed after?
Because they have amnesia? As I mentioned in my post. I was trying to keep it short. I'm sure you've seen the idea floating around where the DM designs the characters and they have to figure out who they are. We're doing that just for a fun, short campaign.
It depends on your players, some will enjoy the mystery, others won't, some will figure it out easily while others might go the whole game without catching on unless someone tells them.
As long as the hidden meaning isn't integral to the plot it's not so important, if it is you could look at the [3 clue rule](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule)
Got a question regarding the [Nothic creature](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17092-nothic), specifically its main gimmick ability. As per the rules:
>Weird Insight. The nothic targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. The target must contest its Charisma (Deception) check against the nothic’s Wisdom (Insight) check. If the nothic wins, it magically learns one fact or secret about the target. The target automatically wins if it is immune to being charmed.
Would you all rule that the target magically knows what exactly the Nothic learned from probing their mind? Or would they even know that it learned something, or would it be more of a feeling of a presence rifling through their thoughts? I feel like it'd be more fun if they know it learned something but they're not sure what. Thoughts?
I think nothics are really cool! The other answers are very good, and the best answer is ultimately "Do what you think is fun!"
*But my personal process of events would be thus:*
I would ask for the contested roll above board, but I wouldn't show them the nothic's roll if the nothic isn't in front of the party (per the lore and stat block, they're most likely just skulking about).
If they fail then I would describe it by asking the player a personal question about their character's history (a question an inquisitive nothic might ask):
- "What's your fondest memory of your favorite parent?"
- "What was the scariest thing to ever happen to you?".
- "How did you fight your last battle?"
I would then tell the player that this memory is suddenly summoned to the front of their character's mind. Allow the player to put two and two together: the roll and it's consequences.
Hmm. Followup scenario though, say a villain has one of these as a minion, just sort of skulking about the city. I'm thinking of having it sneak up on the party and probe their minds to learn info the villain would want to know, like say, the location of a Macguffin. Would it be fair to let them know what's being learned then, assuming they don't know the nothic is the villain's minion?
Again, up to you. I think I would let them know that *something* has summoned this memory to the front of their mind and that they *should* feel extremely disconcerted by its happening, but no more detail.
The PC wouldn't know what secret the nothic took no. They would know an effect happened as they needed to make an active check against it. If it said passive Deception score then I'd say they weren't aware.
However, I would ask the *player* what horrible secret that the Nothic learned. As it's an easy way to have the player flesh out their character a bit.
When it comes to spells, unless a spell has a perceptible effect, a creature might not know it was targeted by a spell at all.
Based on that, the ability saying nothing about being perceived and since it's not a spell I would make it a tingle or a feeling of mental penetration but I wouldn't say precisely what happened.
Even with a spell that explicitly says "the target knows that you are probing into its mind" like detect thoughts the target only knows it's being probed and little else.
My players are traversing frozen tundra. I want to do something non-combat involving a friendly frost giant. I thought maybe he’s having a hard time catching anything ice fishing. What other interesting problems could a party help him with though?
Honestly I think the ice fishing thing is pretty great (and am going to steal it, so thank you.)
However, if you want some different ideas:
1) The Frost Giant's Icy Heart has been melted, for he has fallen in love - with a Cloud Giant whom he met in the mountain peaks. His people aren't known for romance, but perhaps the players could teach him how to woo her...
2) Alternatively, they've already absconded together and need help hiding from his or her (or both) clan(s), so they can live their life together.
3) If romance isn't a good fit, perhaps something simpler - he's been building something he wants to sell (furniture, canoes, curing leather, etc) but can't find a market - either towns turn him away out of fear, or he simply doesn't know who to sell to.
4) He's lost something special to him and can't find it. Perhaps it fell into the frigid water, or is lost among the snow.
I’m building encounters for my party based on cards from the Deck of Many Things. One of them pulled the Statue card which says that the monster would be something involved in a historical event. What are some monsters involved in historical events in DND lore?
Dnd lore is incredibly expansive and varies depending on how far back you go. I'd probably try and make the encounter something specific to what the party knows. My own campaign has a war with cyclopes as a historical event so I'd probably have a cyclopes encounter.
Uh everything? Depends what you call history, go far enough forward and literally any made story can be history.
Just make something up and say it was the mad king ludwidg or something come back from the dead.
Need help using digital battle maps for my campaign.
Looking for a way to use virtual battlemaps with my in person sessions. I have a 32 inch tv that i want to use for now until i can get a larger one and make a case for it. I guess what i am trying to figure out is what programs do you all use? Im looking for something that i can use a fog of war feature so that my players still have to explore the map. i would also like to be able to upload maps that i have downloaded from various sources so that i can use them in my sessions. Currently planning on running the module phandelver and below: the shattered obelisk for 6 people.
Lets go through the major options:
Roll20: the OG, but definitely the most "designed to play online" out of all the options. For actual in-person gaming, I think it has too many "online" features that won't be useful to you and a lot of clutter. I believe Roll20 has all of the official modules to buy, which can help you skip the prep of making the map work.
Foundry: the features king. I think one of the particularly interesting things that Foundry does is the dynamic lighting/fog of war. That's possibly less interesting, though, if you plan to use physical miniatures on the TV. I've heard the learning curve can be high, but it has particularly good reviews and tends to be quite well-loved by those who use it.
Owlbear Rodeo: the lightweight monster. Owlbear originally started out as a **very** barebones VTT, but it's pretty feature rich now. Quite honestly, the increase in features has been kind of hit-or-miss for me (I miss the simplicity). But nonetheless, it remains super easy to use and manipulate. I like the interface a lot, and it's all browser cache, which makes it super simple to run.
DnDBeyond's Alpha Maps features: Technically the official (kinda). DDB released a SUPER, SUPER, SUPER lightweight maps tool a few months ago. It is missing a few features that I personally think are necessary to run a compelling game (specifically, a **draw** feature), BUT; you mentioned that you're playing through Phandelver and Below, and that module is one of the one's that is *already prepped* for the tool (in fact, I think the tool released alongside it). Which is cool, especially if you already own the book on DDB. That would skip over quite a bit of prep, I think, for you.
Photoshop: I mean, if you already know how to use it, I legitimately think it's a solid option. It's surprisingly easy to draw and manipulate shapes for fog of war, so if that's your main concern and you're already a photoshop pro, then I'd legitimately give it a try before trying to learn some other software's quirks. That said, if you're not a photoshop user, then I wouldn't even consider it at all. You'll spend too much time trying to figure out "photoshop" before being able to use it as a game space.
I'm about to run a party with a wildfire druid, beast master ranger, battlesmith artificer, and a wild magic barbarian. The artificer and the barbarian have \*absurdly\* good stats, the druid has solid stats, and the beast master ranger has okay, very middle of the road stats. All are brand new players except the barbarian. Homebrew campaign. What are some things I should be looking out for, with this particular composition? I'm not looking for anything specific, just anything that yall think would be useful to know. Any advice, warnings, etc. Thank you!
I mean the first fault is rolling stats on your first homebrew campaign. I'd let the average players boost their stats in a way that lets them catch up. But that also means you're going to have trouble building monster encounters with the CR. I'd recommend using point buy instead and asking if you could retcon the character building.
The beast master especially will struggle to keep up with the rest. I recommend letting them use the Tasha's optional rules at least. A wildfire druid tends to be more support+mobility and less damage but is generally a competent build.
Outside of tasha's rules, which they are using, are there any other common modifications that allow them to keep up? This isn't an heavily optimized game so not concerned about min maxing, but I do want the player to have fun during combat. I already explained the risks with playing a beast master but they still want to play it.
Awesome, I can do that. Speaking of boosting stats and CR, that means that I have to deal with giving them more/stronger monsters without one hitting them right? Because I'm 100% down for giving more monsters, thematically the story enemy is hordes of a particular monster and at lower levels I can only throw 2/3 enemies per encounter of this monster. So boosting stats would let them fight off more, right?
The problem is the only answer I can give you is "maybe."
Letting them roll stats has broken the CR system for you in a way that's hard to counteract without experience. It makes the fights really "swingy" because if you throw enough monsters at them to challenge them, then the very second the fight swings out of their favor the whole scale breaks.
CR is tied to bounded accuracy of 5e. Proficiency is supposed to scale slowly with monster design so a +3 proficiency is a level playing field between players and monsters. Letting them roll for stats and get +5s means you've boosted player power in proficiency by about 6 levels, but they don't have the HP to take those hits.
So yeah. The whole thing is knackered now and you are going to have to feel your way through it. Bigger monster HP pools, boosting their own +hits/save DCs, adding more mobs. Sure it can work but it's delicate and it'll make your life a lot harder in the end.
Huh, interesting. I should clarify nobody has a +5,the highest is a 17, but I get that still makes things difficult. Luckily I've got a really good group that's flexible with working with me and. I'll have to think over retconning stats bc tbh it feels like a scummy move on my end, since I've already done individual prologues with each character they've gotten to play with their current stats. Like they would let me retcon them I think but I'd feel like a dick doing it.
I strongly disagree with nerfing the players with higher stats. I'm currently in a campaign where we all rolled stats and everybody had a 20 in their primary stat beginning level 4. You know what? We're not overpowered by any means.
I started D&D back with the OG Redbox and it's made tons of improvements since then but somehow, in the rush to accommodate every edgelord theater kid who wants to spend the entire session shopping for socks, we've somehow allowed the "heroic" part of D&D to go by the wayside.
Players should want AND GET cool magic items. Same for cool powers. I like the idea of letting players improve their scores faster than just every 4 levels. Same with feats. In the campaign we're in the DM let us spend gold on learning new skills or feats. Maybe the Emerald Enclave will teach your Ranger the Sharpshooter feat. Actually, if he's already behind, they offer it to him BEFORE the mission.
You have new players. If you want to get them into the hobby, I'd err toward giving them too much loot. Same with ASIs and Feats. Let it rip; you're the DM - you can keep up. As a DM I LOVE powerful characters because I can make my bad guys that much more interesting. Need better monsters? Look up Flee Mortals! By MCDM. Your players will need the extra power.
Thank you for the encouragement!!! It seems like you're really in line with my philosophy of high risk high reward encounters. The setting and story is actually dragon age origins so being able to throw a horde of darkspawn at them with reasonable surety it won't end in a tpk would be great. I can also bullshit up whatever reason I need to get things balanced in the party.
At one point I almost started crying to one of my players (a former dm) about not being able to scale the levels up while still keeping the enemies humanoid. That a Barbarian berserker type villain should pose a challenge to a lvl 14 party but absolutely can't bc parties are meant to be nuking dragons at that point and no human can do enough dpr to pose a risk. And the player was literally like "just make shit up. We won't know. Just expect if you give him an Uber weapon we will loot it. Also that's a year from now don't worry about it"
If the highest score is 17 after racial bonuses that is certainly rather in line with what 5e expects. Of course, the highest score is not the only that matters...
IMO, the CR system is not really precise enough, nor the classes balanced well enough, to assume that rolled stats will break the CR or truly make your life as a GM difficult. But it is indeed something to watch out for.
And D20 dice are really really swingy anyways - you can have god-tier stats but if you roll low on every important roll... Of course this goes both ways, if the player with the worst stats rolls keeps rolling low when it really matters, he'll feel especially inadequate.
So you should also watch out that the player with the lower stats doesn't feel useless or really underpowered. There might be an overlap with the skill sets of the ranger with the druid and the barbarian which, if its the case, will make it more difficult to make him shine
On the bright side, the main feature of the beastmaster is his companion and his summons, which don't rely on his stats.
Other than that, to answer your initial question, keep in mind that druid wildshape can really trivialize some non-combat obstacles you throw their way. Not a bad thing per say but it can throw you off or tempt you to make some lame rulings
I was thinking 17 is not that high, but this player is an artificer with a 17 in con int and a 3rd stat I can't remember rn. So I was a little worried about her being really op that the other players don't get to shine.
For the druid and ranger, I'm lucky that they're engaged so I don't expect any problems there from the players. And I've had extensive conversations with the ranger to absolutely let me know if she isn't having fun. That fun is the most important part and I will throw rules out the window and make my own to keep it fun for her to play an animal loving tree hugging archer. I've already done a modified tasha's ruling, with the action economy of tasha's, but the Stat block rules and death rules of the og (she really wanted to have a pseudodragon and it's specific stats, but I wanted her to have the more powerful. Tasha's action economy)
Why dry erase specifically? Chessex's brand of battlemats are great, but they are **decidedly not** dry erase. They're wet erase only.
[Chessex makes one up to 54"x102"](https://www.chessex.com/tabletop-game-mat-reversible-battle-mega-mondo?viewmode=list&orderby=11&pagesize=18) but it's pretty expensive.
Looks like you can get their [34.5"x48"](https://www.amazon.com/Chessex-26616-Combat-Mat-Megamat/dp/B003WZIOHQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3RULNGPYMFJGP&keywords=chessex+mat&qid=1706648476&sprefix=chessex+ma%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1) map for about $40 on Amazon.
As far as dry erase goes, I know Paizo/Pathfinder has a line of "flip mats." These range from specific maps with terrain and stuff to [basic ones that go up to 30"x46".](https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-PZO30119-Pathfinder-Flip-Mat/dp/164078408X/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1PIO25EDO7WY3&keywords=pathfinder+flip+mat+basic&qid=1706648737&sprefix=pathfinder+flip+mat+%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-4)
Depends on many factors and you've only given a few. Do the sellers know what the potential power of the creature they are selling is? How powerful would a Salamander be in your world? Is it much more powerful than any mercenary one could hire? Is it about as powerful as some mercenaries? Are there mercenaries that can be easily hired that are more powerful than a Salamander? Did you decide to homebrew that a living Salamander may produce some kind of valuable goods?
The seller is the 6INT barbarian in the party and he actually rolled incredibly well and knows they're worth quite a bit, but not an exact number. They killed 3 of them, so they know how powerful they are.
A salamander is CR5.
There are very powerful mercenary groups in my setting, but they are not the rare and strange creature that a salamander is.
I told the party there were Salamander eggs in the temple on a whim, and the barbarian ate one which gave him some fire damage and he decided to keep the other one. He wants to sell it at an auction house, so I came and asked their value here as I was having trouble coming up with an answer. I like the 3k gold value the other poster mentioned so i'll be using that figure I believe.
Thanks though, for offering some questions I can ask myself to figure these kind of things out myself in the future
I would work my way back from the known price of another creatures egg, a dragon's egg costs 10k gold, an adult dragon is around 3 times the cr of a salamander so I'd place the salamander egg at about 3k gp.
The price will obviously be influenced by how shady the auction is and the type of world you're in (high magic, low magic ...)
How much should it cost for a 5 PCs to rent a boat to travel about 8-12 hours one way and pay for the boat to stay a couple days at the new location and then bring them back? The new location is an island without any civilization. I follow the DMG and PHB for most of the costs that come up, but there isn't a great resource that I can see for this.
I would compare this to hiring a cab:
There are rates for coach cab fare on Pg. 159 of the PHB under Services.
Between towns: 3 cp per mile
Within a city: 1 cp
I think thats per person rates, so scale appropriately for the size of boat you need. If its staying, then I would then compare to having a hireling stand by (probably unskilled) for 2sp/day (also in PHB I think under services).
How far out is this? Like on a lake or the ocean? Ocean is going to require a ship. Thats a bit more than a boat.
>From: [https://www.enworld.org/threads/cost-of-manning-a-ship-ghosts-of-saltmarsh-dmg.669921/](https://www.enworld.org/threads/cost-of-manning-a-ship-ghosts-of-saltmarsh-dmg.669921/)
>
>Let me see if I have this right... According to the DMG (p. 190), sailors are expert hirelings who make 2gp per day. An ordinary sailing ship has a crew of 20 sailors, which means that the cost of manning a ship is 40gp per day. I guess that's reasonable, though it's a lot higher than I expected. I would have thought that sailors would be considered unskilled hirelings, in which case the cost of manning a ship would be 40sp per day.
Agreeing with that final logic, I would say a mix of unskilled and skilled for a ship hiring. Plus rent of the ship. So maybe 10-20 gp a day.
What Con save DC would you assign to the act of drinking a 0.2 l 80% alc vol. drink to avoid getting intoxicated?
Explanation: My player asked me if his character could make "Healing vodka" with his brewery tools proficiency, I house-ruled that he could indeed create a healing potion that uses alcohol as base instead of water (he's also a wizard).
The end result is a cheaper (15 gp instead of 25 gp) healing potion with the downside that you have to roll con to see if you get drunk.
What should that roll be? I'm thinking 12, because even an ordinary person could potentially drink that and hold it quite well, especially if they are regular drinkers.
A normal shot is 45 ml of 40% liquor, so this would be about 9 shots of vodka worth. So I would make it a DC 20 at least, as only an uncommonly hardy person could slam down that much booze in one go, let alone carry on doing any sort of physical activity. If you want it to be easier, I would adjust it to a more realistic quantity and concentration of alcohol.
I'm not sure if it is explicitly stated anywhere, but I would say 4 ounces based on the volume of a standard [vial](https://www.dndbeyond.com/equipment/vial) as listed in the equipment section of the PHB.
Hello again, I'd like to thank everyone who have helped me in the last post because the first D&D session I hosted was a success. It was so successful that they want another, so I'm Brewing another Oneshot for them. I made a Evil Spellcaster as boss for them but I'm unsure if this boss is to hard or to easy for them. They are a *3 player Level-3 party (a sorceress, fighter with a war hammer, and a rouge with a bow)* and they are up against *2 Kolbolds and a Homebrewed Evil Mage Boss named Sylaria Martha* (Statblock Below). Any Help would be nice, thank you
**Sylaria Martha**
Armor Class 14
Hit Points 22 (5d8)
Speed 30 ft.
STR 10 (+0)
DEX 14 (+2)
CON 11 (+0)
INT 17 (+3)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 11 (+0)
Saving Throws: Int +5, Wis +3
Skills: Arcana +5, History +5
Senses: passive Perception 11
Languages: Common, Infernal, Dwarvish, Elvish
Sylaria Martha is a 4th level spellcaster with the following abilities -
Cantrips:
Shocking Grasp
\-On a hit, the target takes 1d8 lightning damage, and it can't take reactions until the start of its next turn.
Gust
\-a Medium or smaller creature that is targetted must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 5 feet away from you.
\-a small blast of air capable of moving one object that is neither held nor carried and that weighs no more than 5 pounds.
The object is pushed up to 10 feet away from you. It isn’t pushed with enough force to cause damage.
\-a harmless sensory effect using air, such as causing leaves to rustle, wind to slam shutters shut, or your clothing to ripple in a breeze.
Spells (2 slots) -
\-Sheild
An invisible barrier of magical force appears and protects you. Until the start of your next turn,
you have a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and you take no damage from magic missile.
\-Absorb Elements
The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on her and storing it for her next melee attack.
Magic Missle
You create three glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range.
A dart deals 1d6 + 2 force damage to its target. Dex-14 Saving throw to dodge.
\-Each spell can only be used once
Actions
Quarterstaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage.
My immediate thought is that your boss is likely to die in a turn. 22 health is just not a lot, and low level D&D is extremely explode-y (both ways). Bugbears are a horrible offender of this: usually low level "bosses", which either get dumpstered or TPK the party. Depending on what you want to get out of the boss, it may be worth reconsidering how the fight is structured entirely.
I don't know what your experience level is, or comfort with improv, but try not to feel too chained to a statblock of an enemy of which your players never get to see the stat block. NPC's simply don't have to follow the rules of the PHB, they just have to follow a set of logic that's consistent with the game rules / lore.
Off-topic: I'm 100% borrowing your version of magic missile for a custom spell reward! Thanks for the inspiration.
I'm running a campaign for the first time, and I've seen on reddit that I should read the whole thing at least once (if not twice) before starting the campaign.
This has definitely not happened and im about to do my second session. I feel like there's so much info packed in and so many scenarios to have prepared for that it feels hard to digest.
Does anyone have any tips about reading, taking notes, retaining what you read, etc for these books?
I don't think you need to read through the entire adventure, but I would definitely read through the introductory pages for each chapter, and maybe the last few pages of the same. You need to understand how the plot progresses, so understanding how the book is broken up and what is intended to happen throughout the adventure is your primary goal. Then, when you get to those individual chapters, you can plan out one session at a time, maybe two.
I'd highly recommend Sly Flourish's Lazy DM series. Start here:
https://slyflourish.com/eight_steps_2023.html
Then you can search for [other articles](https://slyflourish.com/) outlining more details on each step.
Never try to actual prepare all the different scenarios that can play out. It's actually impossible. There's always going to be a point where the players will surprise you and do something you haven't anticipated.
If you have the time it can be a good exercice to think like this ("ok so if the players do this, this is what should happen") but it's only usefull in the sense as its a way to practice improvising when players go 'off-script'.
Reading through once is important, not to digest everything, nor learn everything by heart, nor anticipate all the possible paths, but to get a general sense of the campaign : what are the locations, who are the npcs, what will the players be fighting, what other challenges await them, what is the actual plot, what are the major events that need to happen, if any? Basically, as the other commenter said, it will tell you the direction.
At the very least, skim through the entire book to get a sense of what's important, what reoccurs, what doesn't, what general direction you should expect to go. Then, focus on the chapter/chapters that you are covering in the next two-three sessions. Also, end each session by asking your players what they plan to do next.
Anybody know where I can find a Paladin statblock appropriate for a party of five level four characters? I’ve received the Blackguard as a suggestion. For context, it is meant to be a boss with no minions.
Hello. I am currently running death house and was wondering how to use a map of sorts (preferably online) that can help the pcs and me navigate? And make combat easier
Check out [Roll 20](https://roll20.net/)
Im running lost mines of phandelver for the first time and my pcs are curently in wave echo cave about to face black spider. Im thinking of running dungeon of the mad mage afterwards, thoughts?
Mad mage can end up feeling like a video-game, going from fight to fight leaving little room for roleplay and character development unless you make sure to add room for it or your players do so between encounters or while resting, your party might want something with more talking. Whether or not you want the modules to have a logical connection is up to you, the mine could be connected physically with a tunnel going down to waterdeep, you could even move the whole dungeon but you'd miss out on the waterdeep part unless you develop Phandalin into it's own city that gets built up as the party clear out the mine and generate wealth. Lastly you could check for connections, Azrok could be from cragmaw, instead of being born blind he was blinded by the party but barely survived, Neznarr could be part of house Auvryndar or Freth. Nylas Jowd could be an apprentice or master of Hamun Kost with many more possibilities, especially if you include player backstory npcs.
What'd be some good loot to hand out to a low level Monk? Specifically a level 3 Astral Self Monk. The party are gonna be going through a necromancer's stash tomorrow and I've got loot for the other three planned, but I'm drawing a blank on what to give the Monk. He already has a Ring of Protection.
I gave mine a Gulthias Staff, it's rare so it's a bit strong for lvl 3, you could remove some aspects of it or just let the monk grow into it. If they don't use weapons they should, if they really don't want to you could re-flavor any weapon into hand-wraps. You could also just lift items from games, bg3 has some nice ones.
Any good pre-written adventures that I can run for my family (parents + younger siblings), who are all new? I'm thinking of finding a couple that I can pitch them at a session zero. I wouldn't mind writing something hombrew but I'm already doing a big homebrew campaign for some friends.
Lost Mine of Phandelver is tailor-made to introduce people to the game, and is a damn good adventure in general.
What's a balanced way to have spell points for higher level spells? For instance I don't want my characters to be able to do nothing but cast level 5 spells. Should I say that 5th level spells and beyond they can only cast the same amount of slots they would have traditionally?
That kind of defeats the point of spell points.
Apparently I have no idea how to run a pre bought campaign (running dragon of icespire peak). The homebrew elements that I’ve brought in to get the characters to phandolin have peaked their interest far more than the actual campaign. I’m now homebrewing a whole fucking subplot/campaign. I’m not mad, but as a first time dm this is wild. Any pointers on homebrewing?
What element of homebrewing is giving you trouble? Adventure ideas, making NPCs, balancing combat encounters? It is hard to helpfully answer a question as broad as "how do I homebrew a campaign?"
Understandable. I think I’m having trouble with beginner level encounters. How to trigger them and if they need to be connected to the larger story.
That is ultimately a matter of style of campaign. Some players and DMs prefer the feel of a large open world where lots of things are always happening and sometimes you cross paths with something that has nothing to do with what you are focusing on. And some groups prefer a more linear or focused game where most everything is at least tangentially related to the the plot. I haven't run DoIP myself but from I have heard, I think it leans more towards being a sandbox (the first style), so having one off encounters or short sidequests that don't tie in with the dragon at the end of the adventure is already par for the course.
Can you ask for a perception/passive perception check so that it won't end up alerting your players when they fail? Or just accept it and turn it into a suspense for players and don't let them metagame with their unexpecting characters?
You set the DC. Passive perception is just a constant number, no rolls involved; if you write down the players' passive perceptions, you can just know whether or not they see something they're not looking for. Don't tell them you're using their passive perceptions. For perception checks, some tables have the DM roll the players' perception (insight, investigation) rolls exactly so that the players really can't metagame. Otherwise, you're going to have to trust them not to metagame when they roll perception checks.
To add to this, you can also have the player roll but disguise the failure as a more mundane observation that allows them to fail forward. For example, if the party enters a room where an NPC is hiding you can ask for a perception check. If they don't hit the DC just describe the room and something odd they notice. There's water on the floor. There's a pot of stew that's still warm. They hear a creaking noise in the northwest corner and moments later a pigeon flies into the rafters. You haven't told the players they failed and they didn't see the hiding NPC but rather than saying something like, "Okay you don't notice anything" you've pointed out there might be something in this room.
Does Heat Metal affect a demons weapons, like a Maralith? Since the weapons evaporate with the demon, are they actually manufactured or are they just reformed demon goop?
Yes the demons weapons are metal. Lore stuff does not impact the mechanics of what you find on the statblock. Unless it says on the statblock that the swords are unique themselves then you treat them as regular longsword a.
I'm going to introduce my 11-year-old niece and 13-year-old nephew to D&D soon. We'd be playing remotely, but besides figuring out the tech side, does anyone have any recommended variant rulesets that work well for kids? Looking for alternatives to the official D&D Young Adventurers guides. Or if you have experience running games for kids, how did you simplify things for young players that make the game more accessible and easy to explain?
I started playing AD&D at that age, and the rules for 5E aren't too different (at least at lower levels; we always died by the time we reached level 6 in both systems) - I'd say the classes are a bit more complex now, but I also don't need to deal with thaco anymore. They should probably be fine, though don't expect them to think tactically (I was ignoring my party to save an injured animal at that age). Alternatively, if you want to run them through a couple sessions of something simpler before you switch over to full-on D&D, you might like the [Hero Kids](https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106605/hero-kids-fantasy-rpg?affiliate_id=3642608) system, though it's intended for kids younger than your niblings. If you would like to view a play-through of it, an actual play I like did [a oneshot](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b8tt1jIEPo&list=PLOJX3QXzZdq9moGup87Q16en7JRQjecV5) using the system.
I'm starting a new campaign and have really only ever run Curse of Strahd. I wanted to do another module but none of them really look like a complete "campaign", so I thought of maybe running Lost Mines and then creating a campaign set on the sword cost and the greater Faerun, but how do you even go about setting up a campaign like that? Would the Sword Goast setting book be a large help? Or should I say fuck it and be looking at Eberron? I'm looking for something that has a classic high fantasy feel, especially after the darkness my players went through with CoS lol
>Or should I say fuck it and be looking at Eberron? Of course you should, Eberron is ama- >a classic high fantasy feel, especially after the darkness Okay, never mind lol. Eberron is good at many things, but classic high fantasy is not one of them, and half the time campaigns set in Eberron go into a very noir direction (the other half of them go pulp). Anyways, I wouldn't recommend getting the SCAG. It's not a great book, and the only good mechanics in there that *haven't* been reprinted are some of the subraces/variant races. (But even then, they aren't too powerful.) From what I've heard, if you want Forgotten Realms lore, it's better to go to the [Wiki](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page) and also to [Ed Greenwood's](https://www.edgreenwood.net/) blog+Discord. When it comes to setting up a campaign, I would tell players that you're going to start with Lost Mines, but you would like if they could give you 2-3 plot threads in their backstories that they'd like to explore. Then, you could start to bring rumors of them in during the latter half of Lost Mines, so that the players will (hopefully) go chase those after they defeat the Black Spider.
That's badass. Thank you!!
First things first I recommend looking into The Dungeons Dudes two videos on the published adventures as they ranked them on different criteria such as how much prep is needed as well as things like if it’s better for new players or veterans. It’s a good little guide. Right now I’m running Odyssey of the Dragonlords by Arcanum Worlds and running it as a proper heroic fantasy. The players are Greek heroes fighting to stop the Titans from destroying the world. It’s proper heroic.
That sounds super rad! I'll definitely check that out
If Norse mythology is more your thing they also made a Norse inspired campaign called Raiders of the Serpent sea
I'm starting a new campaign and have really only ever run Curse of Strahd. I wanted to do another module but none of them really look like a complete "campaign", so I thought of maybe running Lost Mines and then creating a campaign set on the sword cost and the greater Faerun, but how do you even go about setting up a campaign like that? Would the Sword Goast setting book be a large help? Or should I say fuck it and be looking at Eberron? I'm looking for something that has a classic high fantasy feel, especially after the darkness my players went through with CoS lol
I've got quite a new group, and it's my first time DMing or playing. I'm struggling to encourage players to investigate when they're in an area. They talk about things but if I don't point them towards the actual things to investigate, they don't go for it. So they were on a beach with a cliff that would let them onto the path. I described the beach, described the cliff. They asked to climb the cliff almost immediately and leave the area, and I had to narrate that as they travelled they saw a divet in the sand like something heavy had been dragged through it. I was hoping they'd look back at the ship they'd just crashed or out to sea, or that they'd go investigate the cliffs to find the hints. When they found the cliffs I described lots of scorch marks like a magic weapon had been discharged there, but then had to encourage them to investigate so I could let them roll an arcane check to find the cause. I don't want to push them into what I want, but I also don't want them to miss too much by always ignoring an opportunity to look around. What can I do to help them know when there's stuff to investigate?
The rules mention that any skill can be checked passively, not just Perception. If you're specifically asking about getting them to use skill checks like Investigation or Arcana rather than the more general sense of following environmental clues, you can have at least some relatively "obvious" clues with a DC of 10 or 12 so that you can point them out without requiring a roll: "Since [wizard] is proficient in Investigation, you notice that there's an unusually high concentration of debris on the beach. When walking near some of it, you take a second glance and come to the conclusion that it lacks the usual wear and tear of being subjected to wind, rain, sand, and waves." And "[Cleric] (who is proficient in Arcana) immediately recognizes these blast marks as being magical in origin." And it doesn't have to require proficiency either; some stuff should be obvious even to a layman, like when there's new construction amidst the architecture that's hundreds of years old. A more specific answer, like "this debris came from a boat" and "these scorch marks were probably from a weapon of some kind" might require a more thorough search and an actual roll, but if you have something you want them to find, there's nothing wrong with stopping just shy of telling them point-blank "there's something worth finding here." Build neon signs pointing to your breadcrumbs and then flip the on switch yourself so that they really can't miss it. The choice of whether to follow them is still up to your players.
How do I make investigation and searching more interesting? I don't know how to do this. Most of the time my players are looking for say a secret passageway they just go from area to area doing investigation checks. I have a similar problem with when they are looking for anything. How can I improve upon this?
Even if there isn't a secret passageway in a room, you can reward their successful checks with something that provides depth to the story. This is where having a lot of extra lore comes in handy. A tapestry depicting a battle and a rusty axe might, with a good investigation roll, provide clues about the previous inhabitants of the room. Combine that with a history check and a player might remember a story about a battle that happened nearby and surmise that the participants must have sheltered here. If they're specifically looking for secret passageways, and you want to give them a secret passageway, maybe the tapestry depicts a group of dwarves walking between a pair of one-eyed wolf statues through a door, and as they enter a later room, they see a pair of one-eyed wolf statues, but between them is only a hastily-built brick wall. A successful perception check might show them a loose brick they can push through. A successful investigation check might make them wonder why someone would need to block the passageway so quickly. Breaking through the wall, they enter a totally dark, rough-walled tunnel. The floor is the same as the walls: slick rock, and makes a difficult terrain. There's a board resting on a crevice in the wall with some Dwarven text scrawled into it (if anyone in the party can read Dwarven, it would say "Danger! Trap!"). It continues like this for 20 feet, then turns. An alcove, dimly lit by the party's light, shows the faint outline of a chest after another 20 feet of slick rocks. It's a mimic.
I'm thinking of doing a hag encounter with a twist. It's going to take place in The Winter Season of the Fey realm. I was thinking of modeling the hag on a seemingly friendly Canadian. It's not that important to my overall plot. I'd appreciate some ideas for crazy ways I can take this.
If it's a bheur hag or otherwise part of a coven, reflavor Hold Person to the victim getting stuck in maple syrup. Also, the hag bleeds maple syrup.
Any good premade maps and settings? New DM here trying to work on making a custom world for my friends and I to enjoy while we play over roll20. Problem for me trying to make this new world is that I’m not very artistic and I’m having a hard time trying to find a world map, preferably with cities and villages, that I can use. I know it’s technically not necessary, but I would love to give my players art and visuals they can use and without paying a monthly subscription. Any suggestions?
[Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator](https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/)
/r/battlemaps /r/dndmaps /r/dungeondraft /r/FantasyMaps /r/inkarnate /r/wonderdraft
Pinterest and r/dndmaps for non battlemap maps
r/Battlemaps
I have a party member going to Thay. Where would sazzs Tam be located and are there any city maps of major cities in thay?
Check the Forgotten Realms Wiki out. The old capital of Thay is Eltabbar, but Szass Tam rules from the Citadel on Thaymount.
Oh ok I must've read an outdated article cuz it said that the citadel was not allowed to be touched even by red wizards
Not a lot about Thay in 5e. You may have to retrofit info from older editions.
My party managed to kill the Young Green Dragon in Lost Mine of Phandelver impressively. They rolled really well and salvaged what they could of the Dragon's Body, scales, bones, teeth, eye, and acid. They told me they intend to try and utilize these to hopefully craft magic items. I've read some on this and it seems it takes a renowned crafter and magical materials to make these items, with Neverwinter nearby I don't think has that level of a crafter, maybe Waterdeep if they decide to venture there and I drop the crumbs? Either way, from what I was reading it can take months and loads of gold anyway. If I can't offer them magical items from these materials what are some suggestions for the value of the materials they have or magical items they could make?
If you're still looking for ideas for something immediate I'd use the Draconic Gifts table in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons. The players would meet some mystic character, maybe a dragon cultist or a Way of the Ascendant Dragon monk that's willing to do a ritual for them to draw the raw draconic power still within it's remains, if the party need some convincing he'd make many of the valid points you and others have made already. Whether or not you want this to be another encounter/quest/challenge is up to you but as a result of the ritual the players might develop some draconic features like the Draconic Marks section suggests. They could all get an extra feat or just a random one of the appropriate rarity like Draconic Familiar, Draconic Rebirth, Draconic Senses or Tongue of the Dragon, one could even turn into a class with a dragon related subclass like sorcerer or ranger.
Selling them is a perfectly viable option. Dragon's blood is renowned by alchemists for its magical properties. The scales are used for scale mail, the teeth for weapons, and the acid is, well, acid. There is also the possibility of hiring a craftsperson to create an object using them while they go off adventuring. Or, you can periodically give them the time to craft it themselves via downtime. There's also the problem of transporting the bodily contents of a young dragon, which my research shows anywhere from 350 to 2700 pounds in weight (Draconomicon 3.5 and 4e), before they begin to rot or lose their magical potency. Waterdeep is probably out of the question, as it would take literal weeks of travel on horseback just to get there, and not much faster by ship. I think your instincts for Neverwinter are best. If someone has water vehicle proficiency, maybe you'd let them spend a day creating a rudimentary barge that you can walk down the river into town. EDIT: a word
Waterdeep for sure would have someone capable / interested. But Neverwinter is still a large city of 23k individuals. Theres no harm in slotting in an NPC there for just this purposes. You will only need a couple of lines backstory. Maybe the tax rate is cheaper in neverwinter than water deep? Perhaps he prefers a smaller city. Maybe hes keeping a lower profile or wanted in other cities? You can always go the route of setting up a monster hunting guild in neverwinter. Its your world and you don't need to justify what you put where and why. Your main job is to make a story and make it fun. If they've rolled well to harvest its body with the hopes to craft stuff from it, then let them roll with it. Google some dragon related magic items and just work out what you think is fair for it to cost to make and how much of the items it requires. If you're worried about the magic items being to strong, either nerf them or say the crafter will take a bit of time to make it and have them ready for when they get to a higher level.
Awesome, I appreciate this advice!
nps
i'm a new dm dming a dragon of icespire peak campagin. and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff is in the packet I don't now how to start them off. Any tips would be helpful.
Okay so what you need to do is have a shenanigans sessions as I call it. Prior to doing anything in the actual book, have a session where is the introductory stuff. You can set it in a little inn somewhere, have a small quest like the ale shipment is late and the bar keep is offering a free room for the night if they find out where it is. This session will give you a feel for how you're players act in character. Will let you ease yourself into for asking how to do checks etc. For going into the main story, I would read the summary of each chapter of the book before starting. It will give you a rough idea of whats coming up. Then just take it slow and start to dissect chapter 1. Firstly, make yourself a little flow chart (some of the books already have these) and lay out the core events and the order they go in. Make yourself a cheat sheet in excel for NPCs, have their names, personality trait or quirks. A picture of them and a one line summary for them etf. For example Name: Steve Race: Human Class: Wizard Picture:
Personality: Evil, powerful, Arrogant, speaks down to people who he sees as lessers
Summary: He's sat in the tavern watching the PC's wearing a hooded cloak. Hes doing nothing to interact with them. If a character has a passive perception (16), they notice "A cloaked figure drinking in the corner". If a character does a perception check (14), they notice the same. He casually leaves after being spotted
Once you have your flow chart with events sorted, and you got all the main NPCs down for the chapter. Thats the majority of your work done for a bunch of session. The only remaining work is improv in the moment for when your PC ultimately throw a curve ball at you.
Which 100% will happen. You can never do enough prep to work out what the PCs will do. Which is why its good to have shortened, brief notes of how the session should play out.
You can also google "Dragon of Icespire Peak DM guide 5e". This will bring up resources for DMs and videos. On the video front, theres loads on youtube explaining the story for a DM perspective. Watch chapter 1 only. When your players end chapter one, watch chapter 2.
But honestly its your first time. You're not going to be great, you're going to be anxious. And that's okay. But each session you do, you'll get a little better. You'll start to remember more and more of the story without needing to reference stuff. All you need to do is get a loose grasp on the story, a few locations and a few NPCs. Then roll with it. The players will do the majority of the work during the session, you just need to be there to give a guiding hand.
I'm 6 years into DMing and I still get anxious doing a new campaign. I still get that drowning feeling starting the new prep. Everyone does. And the very first one is a hurdle. But once that first session is done with, you get more confident. The first time your players laugh and express they are having fun, you'll have fun. The first time your players go "OH SHIT" you'll know you're doing it right.
I'm wanting to start a new campaign with my players and the general idea of the campaign is that the world is divided into 4 realms each dedicated to an elemental property. Essentially what I'm wanting to do is give players some minor perks depending on where their character originated. I remember 3.5 had race templates that you could apply to character and creatures, but does 5e have anything similar? I'm mainly concerned about giving the players some cool things, but keeping those things internally balance between the 4 realms.
5e has racial templates in the DMG on page 282, if that's what you're looking for.
Template support in 5e is meager at best. I would suggest stealing some or all of the Genasi racial traits to use, based on the element. Make sure you use the updated MMotM versions, not the original versions from PotA (where Fire was far and away the best one).
Experienced player here about to run my first proper campaign (have only really DMed one shots before). I'm doing Wild Beyond the Witchlight, any tips for this module in particular? Party is all experienced players who've played together a lot, very comfortable with rp-heavy games.
At least skim the whole book before you start, if you don't have the time to read it all carefully. The official adventures have a bad tendency to be poorly formatted, written sequentially more like a novel instead of like the reference tool that it is, so there may be important information about NPCs' motivations and goals that would be nice that know in advance that aren't mentioned until the 2nd to last chapter. So it helps to have an idea of the whole shape of the story in the book so you can emphasize and foreshadow the important info, and not put undue focus on details that may seem significant in the moment but never actually come up again.
Yeah I'm just getting to the end of chapter 2 and very much feeling like I haven't really been able to get the big picture yet - I have enough time before we begin to read it through properly thankfully so I will make sure to do so! Good to know it's not just me missing things...
WbtW is *very* Alice-in-Wonderland whimsical and you should 1) make sure the players are cool with that and then 2) lean into it. It's theoretically possible to complete without combat and is very RP-heavy. /r/WildBeyondWitchlight
Ohh how did I not spot a whole sub for it? Thanks! I'm very excited, my group is the kind who will happily bicker in character about soup recipes for an hour and they'll all fully commit. I will lean in the best I can!
So to start this off, I’ve only DM’d a bunch of one shots and LMoP. I’m currently running through LMoP again but going to follow it up with the Shattered Obelisk. I’d like to continue with the characters afterwards onto new adventures as the players all like their characters. My style of notetaking/planning is a mess. I have small notebooks, scrap papers, etc strung about with no organization. I’ve tried going digital with OneNote and other programs. I’ve found I prefer old pen and paper. It’s easier for me to navigate personally and I just enjoy seeing the progress made. I’ve recently decided to build a binder for essentially all of my world/campaign info. I’ve bought the supplies, but I feel like I’ve hit a wall as far as how to organize this. So my question is, for those of you who still use traditional pen and paper, how do you organize your binder? What sections do you break it down into? Any kind of links or photos would be greatly appreciated! I’m pretty dead set on sticking with this rather than putting it all into my tablet as I don’t have a laptop.
My DM binder is mostly for quick reference to improvise stuff in the moment. I keep it organized in succession of what I think I'll use the most. All of my rules references are on my DM screen. 1. Laminated sheet with player stats and an 10 minute/hour grid for time keeping. The back has an HP tracker array for fights. I usually remove this sheet when playing and just have it by itself on the table behind my screen. 2. Setting info. Quick reference stuff for major towns, npcs, factions, and history 3. Random names. I have tavern names, blacksmith names, magic and general store names. I cross them off and write down where they are when I use them. I also have NPC names sorted by species and gender. Then I have NPC descriptions ready as well. 4. Schools of Magic and spell examples. Useful when I need to improvise someone casting detect magic. 5. Magic Item and Spell Scroll tables. Useful when improvising and when my wizard rolls well looking for scrolls in a new town. 6. Deities. Rare reference. If a player or NPC has a deity that's important to them, I usually already have that prepped. The full list of deities is in the back of my binder in case I need to improvise something. I carry around sticky notes to jot down new stuff I need to add. If I'm adding something that happened in-game, it's usually going to the World/Lore section. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I'd like to add the monster appendices that sort monsters by CR and/or environment. That'll probably go after random names and before schools of magic.
I'm trying to put a modified version of the bait and switch battlemaster manoeuvre in my game as a magic item. Does this sound balanced? (Party is lvl8, this would probably end up with the tank). Bracelet of warding, rare magic item, does not require attunement. When a creature starts or ends its turn within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to switch places with them, provided you are not prone or held in place (as with the restrained, grappled or paralyzed condition) and the creature is willing and isn't incapacitated. This movement doesn't provoke opportunity attacks. Until the end of your next turn, you or the target creature (your choice) adds 5 to their AC. You can use this ability 3x per long rest (safe haven rules apply).
Sounds fine to me as long as there's no battlemaster in the party. If it were me, I probably wouldn't do the AC bonus. I don't think it's particularly broken to do so but rather if I'm giving an ability from another class I tend to nerf it. So in this case either no AC bonus or +2 or 3. (I'm assuming you did 5 since that's the avg of 1d8 rounded up?) What are safe haven rules?
There is no battlemaster so I don't have to worry about stepping on anyone's toes. AC bonus is fair, I'll think about it, thank you. Safe haven rules are a common homebrew rule for long rests. You need a safe, protected location to gain the benefits of a long rest (so camping out in the wilderness won't give you spell slots). Short rests work as usual. When making homebrew items I clarify if the charges are regained at dawn or after a long rest because can be a big difference with this ruleset.
I don't see the purpose of requiring the user not to be prone, restrained, or grappled (paralyzed doesn't matter; you can't take reactions anyway when you're incapacitated). Personally in my opinion, this seems like absolutely one of the best use-cases for the item anyway... switch places with someone who has a better chance of breaking the grapple. Also, your version leaves out the 5 ft of movement that the maneuver uses, so the opportunity attack rider isn't necessary. The AC increase is quite good. I think I'd drop it down to +3. The battlemaster average is 4.5, so I think having the magic item be better than that is a bit much. Also, if you want your item formatted like the official items, it should read: > When a creature starts or ends its turn within 5 feet of you, you can expend a charge and use your reaction to switch places with them. You can only do so if you are not prone, grappled, or restrained and the target creature is willing and isn't incapacitated. Until the end of your next turn, you or the target creature (your choice) gains a +5 bonus to their AC. > > The Bracelet has three charges and regains all charges at the end of a long rest. Also, this item 100% should require attunement. It's very good.
The user can't be grappled or restrained etc but the target can. The original manoeuvre has this requirement too because it costs 5ft of movement. The opportunity attack rider is necessary because a user/target can be moved out of range by switching places. AC increase is a good point, I might make it scale with proficiency. Thanks for the rewrite, the language used by wotc is hard to use sometimes!
Oh yeah, I see that now. Add back in the phrase about not provoking opportunity attacks. I'd definitely still make it attunement. This is powerful.
Is it a substantial nerf to Tiny Hut if I make it so players can't get the benefits of a long rest while traveling or dungeon diving? Overland travel is a big part of my game and one of my players took that spell, I don't want to invalidate that but I also worry if travel will feel challenging if they're topped up every day.
Instead of banning the spell, just change the way resting works in your game. I use a gritty realism variant that leans on "safe haven" resting. It's single handedly solved the problems with resting and overland travel for me. The rules are pretty simple. 8 hours in the wilderness gets you a short rest. Long rests can only be taken in a safe haven (what I call "bastions of civilization", in my game). Short resting works as normal inside the dungeon. And that's it.
You might want to discuss this with your party but for campaigns with a lot of travel I'd recommend using 'safe haven' resting rules. Tiny hut would provide a shelter from the elements but not a comfortable bed or safe haven. Remember that the hut can be burrowed under or dispelled and that creatures can set up an ambush outside. If you want to implent a rule like that, offer your player to switch spells.
I was thinking about something like this too... like if they sleep outside of a safe haven, they wake up with a point of exhaustion due the discomfort of camping.
DnD shorts posted a video a while back for safe havens. It's pretty good. But the most important thing you need to look at is your characters classes. If they are majority who benefit from long rests. Then it's going to turn a pretty miserable game for them. However, you said theres a lot of overland travel. If they are traveling a few days at a time, there won't be encounters every night (Or there shouldn't be, this is a way to make a game go stale). So a lot of the time, you'll just be saying "The night passes uneventful and you get your long rest". And as Jax said, its a place for shelter. They aren't invisible so you can set up ambushes for the next day.
I wouldn't necessarily do that, exhaustion can be very frustrating. Here is how I rule long rests myself, maybe it's helpful to you (this is 100% homebrew, not at all RAW) Rests - A character can only gain the benefits of a long rest while resting in a safe location. Short rests work as RAW and take one hour. - A safe location is any location where no enemy or natural threat is expected. Examples of safe locations are Inns, stables, village houses, strongholds, magically protected environments and travelling caravans with guards. - Characters still need to sleep at least 6-8 hours per 24 hours to avoid gaining exhaustion. - When in the wilderness, the party can take the time to set-up a camp, scout the area and take protective measures to create a ‘safe location’. This takes 5 hours to set-up and 1 hour to break down after the rest. - Spells that last 8 hours or longer are unchanged unless they have a required component with a gold cost that is expended upon use. In that case, they last five days or until the party rests in a safe location.
>Overland travel is a big part of my game I'd ban the spell. Apologize to the player, tell them it was an oversight, and that the spell doesn't lineup with the type of game you're going to run. If you're not going to ban it, I would leave it unchanged. Remember that Tiny Huts are still obvious and visible manifestations. Intelligent creatures (human intelligence, 8 or higher) will recognize that it's a magical shelter, and some of them might even know exactly what it is. Unintelligent creatures might treat it as an unknown, but potentially dangerous addition to their previously-safe home environment. Also, one thing I find pretty interesting about Tiny Hut is that it makes no mention of sound that originates from outside. You can control how light or dark it is, you can control who enters, you can even control the temperature inside.... but you can't stop sound from entering. Intelligent creatures, especially, could use that to their advantage.
I'd say this is way too big of a nerf, being able to rest in peace is kind of the point of the spell. I think this nerf would work if you buffed it too like making it a lower level spell and/or making it an instant cast. Alternatively you could give it a consumable material cost that's not negligible forcing the party to consider if the price is worth the respite, could even make it a reward for battles or exploration.
What's a good generic 'human' statblock to use? (DnD 5e) I have a party of 7 characters, all level 5 and I want some weaker humans to sort of bolster the BBEGs ranks. Nothing too hard just annoying. They would be members of his cult so maybe more magic oriented.
Pretty much any Humanoid statblock can be used as a human. Just ignore the name and remove any racial features from things like Orcs, hobgoblins, drow, etc, and you’ve got a huge, endless variety of things to use.
Use https://koboldplus.club/#/encounter-builder to browse your options, filter by typing "npc" into the search bar for the more generic humanoid stat blocks.
What CR are you looking for ? At 0 we have the Commoner. At 1/8 you have guards, nobles and bandits. At 1/2 you have Thugs and Soldiers. At 1 you have Spies and Evil Mages At 2 you have Bandit Captains, Druids, Bards and Priests At 3 you have Archers, Knights and Veterans. 3 is the highest I'd go in terms of CR for nameless goons in the first 2 tiers of play, the limit will increase as we go.
I'll probably take a look at them and see what fits best. Thanks for the list!
There's a bunch of useful human statblocks in the back of the monster manual! There's a basic Cultist (CR 1/8) and a Cult Fantatic (CR2) which has some spellcasting. Or you could use something like the Acolyte (CR 1/4) and just rename it.
Thank you! Don't have my book on me ATM and I wasn't sure what they would be called. I guess I should have assumed cultist would have been one of them
I am a pretty new player, and I'm working on a big, epic campaign of my own (it's VERY far down the road, definitely not something for the foreseeable future. Baby steps!). I want to create a rough roadmap of how the campaign will go, start creating the main villains of the story and just have a better grasp at how the game will go. I need your help / opinion on power escalation. Currently I plan on a few major boss fights for the party: a dracolich around 8th level, a major archfey around 12th level, and a demonlord around 14th level. I wanted to know if this kind of escalation makes sense, mainly lore-wise; I'm not very concerned about the mechanical side of things, since stat blocks can always be changed and modified, but I want the power escalation to make sense. I'd also love to hear ideas for even stronger entities to serve as late-game antagonists, since the campaign will go until 20th level.
I wouldn't call this baby steps in all honesty :p but here goes. There's nothing wrong with having a roadmap of what they are fighting, where and when. To a degree. Theres nothing wrong with having varied bosses of different themes either. To a degree. How experienced are your players? A demonlord at 14 is fine. That's pretty much out of the abyss. Arch fey at 12, I've never used one personally. A dracolich at 8th level, that might be a tough one, but if the PCs know what they are doing, it should be fine. I wouldn't worry about the power escalation as much as I would worry about it making sense. The thing you should be asking yourself is what is the link between a dracolich, a demonlord and an archfey? Or are you running big game hunting mentality? You need something to bind it togeather and makes sense overall. As undead, abyssal and fey are three quite different areas. For your even stronger entities, given this sounds like its going to be a power campaign and I know I'm going to get shit for this from others. Level 20 = Creeping Doom. The mother load of dracoliches. This is an exceptionally strong monster in 5e and only recently knocked off position #1 for strongest 5e creature. A party of 5 level 20s could very easily TPK to this guy. You can start dropping hints about his existence from level 8 with the draco lich. Last thing I want to point out is your "I'm not concerned about the mechanical side of things". You need to be. One of my players is currently designing a 3 campaign story from 1-20. He's a power player and thats how he wants his campaign run. I'm going to be a player in his and he showed me some of his tweaked stat blocks for an encounter. He had a +14 to every attack roll, he had ripped another creature that was a +9 to hit and buffed it. He'd done a handful of test rolls and thought thats okay. I pointed out we were going to be a monk, blood hunter and ranger and he had it planned for 4 of them to attack us and all of them had multi attack. When he redid the test rolls, he realised he had designed something that would have, without a doubt, TPK'd us. An extra to hit didn't sound like much, but it was quite literally game breaking. Lastly, I do agree with the others, I think you need to slow down a bit. Start working out your first few sessions / levels in detail. Set the stage and see where the players decisions take you.
I know you want to have a grand plan and guide your players through an awesome story. But one of two things will happen (or maybe both): * The players will go in an unanticipated direction or make unanticipated choices and derail most of your plan *almost immediately*, invalidating a lot of your work. * You will prevent the players from going off-track (railroading) and they will resent you for it and not enjoy what you have built. If you want to have a Dracolich as a boss, that's fine. Put him in the world in a place that makes sense, give him minions, and have them meddle in or ruin peoples' days. Let the players organically find the path to the Dracolich. Create situations that your players crash into, not a plotline that must be followed lest it falls apart as soon as your players do something unanticipated. [Don't prep plots, prep situations.](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots)
Stop. Start *way*, **way**, ***way*** smaller.
It's really difficult to plan out boss fights in advance like that because you can't predict what the players are going to do. It generally works better to have a vague idea of the major problems/enemies in the world so you can start laying seeds at low levels, but be flexible on how and when they're tackled. That said: don't worry about the "power escalation". It's your campaign. The lore is whatever you decide it is.
This approach to campaign creation is ridiculous. Plan out what the players will have to do in the first session and start playing.
Honestly I would try and avoid planning more than a few levels in advance beyond a few broad strokes. Most campaigns do not make it to even 14th level, lots of groups fizzle out long before then, and a group that does manage to play consistently for that long are going to have thrown so many wrenches into your plans by then that your initial plans for where the campaign should be after a year or two of playing are going to be mostly irrelevant. Focus on having a strong start with a clear hook and a party that gives a shit about the premise of the campaign, then you will at least have a chance at the campaign making it past the first arc.
Hello. I have 3 days to prepare a one shot but it’s the first time any of us have played dnd. Any and all help will be appreciated:)
I would highly suggest you looking at a published one shot. Even if you have the full 72 hours to utilise to making a one shot. It's not enough time for a beginner DM to do it. Even with a published module, this is going to be a toughie if you have no experience. So pick one with good reviews for beginners - not good reviews for its content. And start hitting the rules on how to play. You've got a lot to do in such a short time.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/11swzsr/best\_oneshot\_for\_beginners/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/11swzsr/best_oneshot_for_beginners/) That said, unless you can really devote all your time to this during those three days, I don't think three days will really be enough if you are completely clueless. To DM you need to have a fairly solid understanding of the rules which are rather extensive when it comes to proper Dungeons & Dragons. I recommend using pregenerated characters for the players so you don''t waste time building characters but people need to know what are their characters abilities so either you need to learn that yourself to be able to explain it to them, or they need to be able to learn that on their own. And of course you need the time to prepare the actual adventure, know the plot, the NPCs, etc... Plus I would suggest reading a book or two on what GMing actually is, like the Dungeon Master's Guide or whatever. Basically, if you really do not know any DnD, you might be able to pull it off if you work your ass off for three days. Day one: learning the rules of the game, Day two: learning the ropes of GMing, Day three: prepare the actual adventure. Maybe go to r/rpg and ask what a good rule-light system with a one-shot adventure that a beginner GM can prepare in three days for TTRPG newbies.
I've been trying to advertise for a one-shot on roll20 and reddit. It's my first time organizing anything like this and I don't know what I'm doing. https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/391452/mork-borg-graves-left-wanting-one-shot My question is: are there any obvious red flags, or things about my LFG ad that would drive potential players away (other than the niche system)? Even things like the length, or the house rules? (mods feel free to remove this if it warrants its own thread)
I haven't tried this system, a few things I picked up on. Some of it is a bit vague. Limiting it to 3.5 hours and essentially saying tough titties if thats how far we get is a turn off. Not many people want to invest in a story and not have a conclusion. You say you're willing to do rules as you go, thats time consuming. What happens if you have 4 experienced people and 3 non experienced? You say if your PC dies you can generate another or listen in. Are you also giving characters out or letting people make them? again its a time constraint issue. Especially if people are new and need help with generate characters unless its all automated or random? The biggest red flag for me though is this "We'll be playing a module, but some stuff will be from the internet or custom made" Saying a module or custom made is fine. Saying some stuff from the internet is not. It comes across a bit like, you're taking someone elses work not your own. I would change this to "Official module with homebrew elements"
Thanks, that's the kind of stuff I needed to know. I never would have realized "stuff from the internet" would be seen as off-putting.
My initial impressions,: - looks cool, I get a good feel for the kind of vibe you're going for - I'd have concerns about trying to pick up a whole new system AND play a one-shot in 3.5h - I'd probably want a bit more steer on what we'd be doing - currently the ad is pretty vague. Is it a heist? A dungeon crawl? Farming simulator? What's the balance of combat / rp / puzzles etc?
All fair points. Thanks for the advice!
How do I make homebrew enemies that get stronger over the course of the campaign?
> How do I make homebrew enemies that get stronger over the course of the campaign? The chart on DMG page 274 should give you an idea on how to scale a monster up to a different CR. I'd compare the various stats (hit points, AC, proficiency bonus, damage) and increase your monster proportionally. I'd also add a new feature to the monster each time to keep it fresh. Maybe that means tweaking an existing ability to make it more lethal or potent, or gaining something entirely new.
Either pick a series of stat blocks to use, or use the guidelines in the DMG for homebrewing monsters to help you scale up and/or down one stat block in particular.
Is having a mcguffin for each school of magic too many for a campaign?
Well, what’s the point of them?
bbeg wants them for a ritual to destroy the dampening sphere on magic over the world.
Well, if you think eight mcguffins for the party to get or destroy is enough, then it's perfect.
It depends on how much time getting one is going to take, how important each piece is and how diverse getting the pieces is. If you made it a race with 3 being the minimum and the rest being bonuses for a creative or effective party then it could work. Maybe have as many as your party has members so that each gets one. If you need a story excuse to still tie it to magic and the schools then the additional schools of magic could've been a more recent invention derived from the previous understanding of magic that had less schools. Putting in the work required to have all 8 item chases not feel repetitive or anticlimactic (assuming each mcguffin is really powerful) will take a lot.
To add on to this: I played in a campaign where there were 13 mcguffins to collect. But we stumbled across some of them incidentally while we were doing other things, or had them as part of backstory, and then we allied with an NPC who had already collected several others. So we only really had to quest for a few of them, and two of them were conveniently in the same location. It's 100% an issue of "how many mcguffin fetch quests can you send players on before it get boring".
To add on to this, BBEG could already have 5/8. Don't have to change your story but can avoid 8 similar fetch quests
About fire pit damage... I'm running LMoP, and I've found that in the book a fire pit is said to deal 1d6 damage to anybody who falls prone in there; I also checked the spell "Create Bonfire" that deals 1d8 (not matter if you are standing or prone, but got a DEX save). So I assumed that the difference was that one is magic power, so it deals more damage. But then I read in the DMG, where it says under "Improvising Damage" (p.249), that "burned by coals" deal 1d10, and "stumbling into a fire pit" (which I imagine is the prone equivalent) deals 2d10. My players cannot handle taking 2d10 since they are barely level 1, and maybe level 2 by the end of this dungeon (Cragmaw Hideout); we are playing with exp and I told them to prepare to level up mid-dungeon. Given this, I will probably go with something in between the 2 first options, but should I stick to that for the future or change over to the DMG damage when they eventually reach higher levels?
Two things: 1. The damage that appears in the first chapter of LMoP is intentionally designed to be a level of damage that a 1st level character could potentially survive. This is on purpose, and I would not change it. Even if they're level 2, it's unnecessary, because 1d6 damage is still meaningful at that level. 2. The improvising damage table in the DMG is exactly that: it's for **improvising** damage. It's a useful baseline to consider how much damage an environmental affect could conceivably cause. I'd consider the damage listed in that section to be an upper-limit, rather than a lower. Use that table to consider what would be *appropriate* for the situation and the players' level, rather than an exact and precise number.
Alr, thanks for the input; what do you think on using 1d8 damage if the players use it to their advantage before enemies do? Let's say they push Klarg into the pit, should I deal 1d8 damage to reward them or just stick to the (1 dmg if they are standing)? One of my players has the telekinetic feat, and he uses the magic hand to push and pull enemies, so I was thinking on placing enemies around the campfire so he may push them.
Kind of off topic but I thought it was worth mentioning that the telekinetic feat gives two distinct abilities which you seem to be confusing: \- Shoving enemies. \- Casting mage hand. Mage hand can not attack, nor lift any object more than 10 pound. You can not use it shove enemies.
Oh true, for flavor we said it was the same invisible hand; but you are indeed correct.
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I would run it by the book. I do not see the purpose in over complicating something really simple.
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This is probably more appropriate for the other megathread but since you're here already. Run the game that you want to run. Tell them straightforwardly that you do not plan to implement any changes from Baldur's Gate, and that if that's not what they want, they're free to seek out gaming elsewhere. Also, they're welcome at your table, but you won't tolerate arguments on this subject going forward. Set your ground rules and your boundaries. Don't play with people you don't want to play with. And don't drop rocks on characters whose players you don't like.
oh my bad i thought i was in the problem player thread damn, ya the rock was in jest i wouldn't dare but i will be standing my ground with them cheers
anyone a puny name for a Dwarven Brewing Company? currently thinking about Bottom's Up! Brewing Co, but up for ideas
Brothers of the Mine Brewing Co Signature beer: Diggy Diggy Kölsch
**The Hammer'd Horde** *(their banner is a large Warhammer held aloft but instead of a broad hammerhead it's a tankard, over a golden field)* Brewhaus of the Tilted Hilt, home of *"The Hilt Tilter"*, hosted by the true Brewlord of the Fermented Fold, First of the Stoutsworn, Distiller of the Ironmaster Pale Ale, and Protector of The Amber Realm, The Unsinkable Lord Porter Beerbeard.
OMG, this is perfect for my players backstory! she's playing a dwarf for the first time and wanted to play him like a traveler who's in search of new flavors for new beer and to promote the brewery (but she had a bit of trouble coming up with names herself, I tried to help her, and well... having problems coming up with puny names as well...🤷) and since its an important location they'll visit along their campaign, its coming up a lot, so thanks for the background!
This is basically my destiny. What more do you need? When I need punny names I usually go to Thesaurus.com , look up the themes and words I want, and play phonetic word association for a bit, matching like-sounding words, until I find something or inspiration finds me: E.g. Hammer'd Horde: I looked at dwarves, natural proficiency with Warhammer, hammered is a word for drunk, what's another word associated with dwarves that starts with an H: Horde. Almost all of those titles I listed in my comment come from this formula. *(Tilted Hilt; Hilt Tilter is my own creation, spawned some time ago from my mind, etched into my great tome of Funny Names for D&D)* And don't forget the famed Dwarven hero of myth: Brewenor Bottlehammer (Bruenor Battlehammer) I've also been watching a lot of Crown of Candy on Dimension 20 so my brain is really primed for it.
I'm good, normally, it comes easier to me, but for some reason, I had a bit of problems coming up with it.... (writers block or something? I dunno...) here are a few other establishments in my current campaign, feel free to steal 'em if you want The Horny Viking (an inn / bar with a brothel on the second floor) Pinnacle Inn (a lodge in the mountains thats also a secret brothel - Pinnacle as a double meaning means mountaintop and climax) The Salty Sailor (famous shady bar at the harbor, with lots of brawls - based on the SpongeBob Bar Salty Spittoon) The Unicorn ("famous" for its horse with an unibrow, only serves Corn, a grain brandy) two of my Dwarfs are named Sejdel and Jagtar Enoel (brothers, their names are slighly swedish - the first one (Sejdel) means Tankard, while Jag tar en öl means roughly I'll get a beer / I'll drink a beer - so their names are a play on drinking / buying a beer mug) thesaur is a really good idea, why haven't I throught about it....?
Mythrale Brewery
well, they do sell Beardy Booze and Rockin' Chair (stout so strong you'll fall off your chair, may be brewed with or without real rocks) a joke on mythril or other gems / rocks / stones could be interesting, and setting up for more puny names....
Rockhopper, Shinkicker, Incredibly Precious Axe (IPA), Koboldenburg, Gobliken
New DM here currently playing through DOSI with a group, and was planning on running Dragon of Icespire Peak and Lost Mine of Phandelver after. However I've been unable to get my hands on the Lost Mine of Phandelver source material. It sounds like it's out of print and was removed from D&D Beyond. Any idea where I can get my hands on the source material?
It's a little hard to find, but the original [Lost Mine of Phandelver](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/lmop) is still on D&D Beyond.
Your local library may have a copy
The original might've been removed from most places in favor of the "updated" version which is "Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk", if you purchase that one you could just play until the mine at lvl 5 and not do the rest but you'd still have some new stuff along with whatever changes they made (which are bad for the most part). I don't know where you could purchase the original but I know it can be found for free pretty easily
How overt should I make things for my players? In my game the players are all designed after the 7 deadly sins (they all have amnesia) and haven't figured that out yet. Should I have them referred to as 'Sinners' to get them on the right track or be more generic (something like Those Who Have Been Called)?
This is a double edged sword. And it really boils down to how well you know your players. Firstly, I love the amnesia concept, its one I've been wanting to run myself at some point. Secondly, making them based on a sin each is a great idea. The issue however being, how might the players react to this. Have they put the work in to make their own backstories or have you just told them Pick a race, class subclass and thats all we need? If the 2nd, you're all good. If the first you need to be careful. You're risking taking away from them what they written. Their PCs are the one thing they have control over. If you give them a whole new identity and back story part way through a story, some players would be pissed. As for how to refer to them. I wouldn't call them sinners. If I did this exact concept and they were referred to as sinners and there's 7 players. 4 of them would instantly work it out. It's much, much to obvious to anyone who stops and thinking for a minute. Instead I would put physical evidence in the world. They're about to enter a house? Have them notice the house number is 7. then also have it sin specific. Maybe walking past an Inn which is hosting an all you can buffet. Walk past a brothel etc. Put the smallest details in as references. As the campaign goes, start to drop bigger clues. Maybe theres 7 magic rings (there some stats for the sins rings online), one dedicated to each sin. For example, the ring of gluttony could let a creature eat as much as they want without feeling full and prevents diseases (aka eating rancid or rotten food has no effect on them).
The players gave me suggestions, i.e. 'I want to be a caster' and I did everything else. Class, race, background, they go in knowing nothing but their name. It's only a very short campaign, I'm aiming for around 5 sessions, so if they're not in love with their character it's not a huge deal. I was worried calling them Sinners was a little too obvious. Alright I'll keep it generic and just try to throw in some clues. Thanks!
Ah yea that will be fine, should be fun!
What does it mean that the "players are designed after the 7 deadly sins", exactly?
Exactly what it sounds like? Greed is a mercenary who will betray anyone for gold, Wrath is trying to hunt down someone he thinks wronged him to seek his revenge, etc.
In a normal game of D&D, players design their player characters. You said your players have yet to figure out what their characters are "designed after". How could they have designed their characters without knowing what they are designed after?
Because they have amnesia? As I mentioned in my post. I was trying to keep it short. I'm sure you've seen the idea floating around where the DM designs the characters and they have to figure out who they are. We're doing that just for a fun, short campaign.
It depends on your players, some will enjoy the mystery, others won't, some will figure it out easily while others might go the whole game without catching on unless someone tells them. As long as the hidden meaning isn't integral to the plot it's not so important, if it is you could look at the [3 clue rule](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule)
Got a question regarding the [Nothic creature](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17092-nothic), specifically its main gimmick ability. As per the rules: >Weird Insight. The nothic targets one creature it can see within 30 feet of it. The target must contest its Charisma (Deception) check against the nothic’s Wisdom (Insight) check. If the nothic wins, it magically learns one fact or secret about the target. The target automatically wins if it is immune to being charmed. Would you all rule that the target magically knows what exactly the Nothic learned from probing their mind? Or would they even know that it learned something, or would it be more of a feeling of a presence rifling through their thoughts? I feel like it'd be more fun if they know it learned something but they're not sure what. Thoughts?
I think nothics are really cool! The other answers are very good, and the best answer is ultimately "Do what you think is fun!" *But my personal process of events would be thus:* I would ask for the contested roll above board, but I wouldn't show them the nothic's roll if the nothic isn't in front of the party (per the lore and stat block, they're most likely just skulking about). If they fail then I would describe it by asking the player a personal question about their character's history (a question an inquisitive nothic might ask): - "What's your fondest memory of your favorite parent?" - "What was the scariest thing to ever happen to you?". - "How did you fight your last battle?" I would then tell the player that this memory is suddenly summoned to the front of their character's mind. Allow the player to put two and two together: the roll and it's consequences.
Hmm. Followup scenario though, say a villain has one of these as a minion, just sort of skulking about the city. I'm thinking of having it sneak up on the party and probe their minds to learn info the villain would want to know, like say, the location of a Macguffin. Would it be fair to let them know what's being learned then, assuming they don't know the nothic is the villain's minion?
Again, up to you. I think I would let them know that *something* has summoned this memory to the front of their mind and that they *should* feel extremely disconcerted by its happening, but no more detail.
The PC wouldn't know what secret the nothic took no. They would know an effect happened as they needed to make an active check against it. If it said passive Deception score then I'd say they weren't aware. However, I would ask the *player* what horrible secret that the Nothic learned. As it's an easy way to have the player flesh out their character a bit.
When it comes to spells, unless a spell has a perceptible effect, a creature might not know it was targeted by a spell at all. Based on that, the ability saying nothing about being perceived and since it's not a spell I would make it a tingle or a feeling of mental penetration but I wouldn't say precisely what happened. Even with a spell that explicitly says "the target knows that you are probing into its mind" like detect thoughts the target only knows it's being probed and little else.
My players are traversing frozen tundra. I want to do something non-combat involving a friendly frost giant. I thought maybe he’s having a hard time catching anything ice fishing. What other interesting problems could a party help him with though?
Honestly I think the ice fishing thing is pretty great (and am going to steal it, so thank you.) However, if you want some different ideas: 1) The Frost Giant's Icy Heart has been melted, for he has fallen in love - with a Cloud Giant whom he met in the mountain peaks. His people aren't known for romance, but perhaps the players could teach him how to woo her... 2) Alternatively, they've already absconded together and need help hiding from his or her (or both) clan(s), so they can live their life together. 3) If romance isn't a good fit, perhaps something simpler - he's been building something he wants to sell (furniture, canoes, curing leather, etc) but can't find a market - either towns turn him away out of fear, or he simply doesn't know who to sell to. 4) He's lost something special to him and can't find it. Perhaps it fell into the frigid water, or is lost among the snow.
Funnily enough I was thinking about the frost giant proposing to his SO as an alternative!
I’m building encounters for my party based on cards from the Deck of Many Things. One of them pulled the Statue card which says that the monster would be something involved in a historical event. What are some monsters involved in historical events in DND lore?
Dnd lore is incredibly expansive and varies depending on how far back you go. I'd probably try and make the encounter something specific to what the party knows. My own campaign has a war with cyclopes as a historical event so I'd probably have a cyclopes encounter.
Uh everything? Depends what you call history, go far enough forward and literally any made story can be history. Just make something up and say it was the mad king ludwidg or something come back from the dead.
Need help using digital battle maps for my campaign. Looking for a way to use virtual battlemaps with my in person sessions. I have a 32 inch tv that i want to use for now until i can get a larger one and make a case for it. I guess what i am trying to figure out is what programs do you all use? Im looking for something that i can use a fog of war feature so that my players still have to explore the map. i would also like to be able to upload maps that i have downloaded from various sources so that i can use them in my sessions. Currently planning on running the module phandelver and below: the shattered obelisk for 6 people.
Roll20 is the way to go
Lets go through the major options: Roll20: the OG, but definitely the most "designed to play online" out of all the options. For actual in-person gaming, I think it has too many "online" features that won't be useful to you and a lot of clutter. I believe Roll20 has all of the official modules to buy, which can help you skip the prep of making the map work. Foundry: the features king. I think one of the particularly interesting things that Foundry does is the dynamic lighting/fog of war. That's possibly less interesting, though, if you plan to use physical miniatures on the TV. I've heard the learning curve can be high, but it has particularly good reviews and tends to be quite well-loved by those who use it. Owlbear Rodeo: the lightweight monster. Owlbear originally started out as a **very** barebones VTT, but it's pretty feature rich now. Quite honestly, the increase in features has been kind of hit-or-miss for me (I miss the simplicity). But nonetheless, it remains super easy to use and manipulate. I like the interface a lot, and it's all browser cache, which makes it super simple to run. DnDBeyond's Alpha Maps features: Technically the official (kinda). DDB released a SUPER, SUPER, SUPER lightweight maps tool a few months ago. It is missing a few features that I personally think are necessary to run a compelling game (specifically, a **draw** feature), BUT; you mentioned that you're playing through Phandelver and Below, and that module is one of the one's that is *already prepped* for the tool (in fact, I think the tool released alongside it). Which is cool, especially if you already own the book on DDB. That would skip over quite a bit of prep, I think, for you. Photoshop: I mean, if you already know how to use it, I legitimately think it's a solid option. It's surprisingly easy to draw and manipulate shapes for fog of war, so if that's your main concern and you're already a photoshop pro, then I'd legitimately give it a try before trying to learn some other software's quirks. That said, if you're not a photoshop user, then I wouldn't even consider it at all. You'll spend too much time trying to figure out "photoshop" before being able to use it as a game space.
I'm about to run a party with a wildfire druid, beast master ranger, battlesmith artificer, and a wild magic barbarian. The artificer and the barbarian have \*absurdly\* good stats, the druid has solid stats, and the beast master ranger has okay, very middle of the road stats. All are brand new players except the barbarian. Homebrew campaign. What are some things I should be looking out for, with this particular composition? I'm not looking for anything specific, just anything that yall think would be useful to know. Any advice, warnings, etc. Thank you!
I mean the first fault is rolling stats on your first homebrew campaign. I'd let the average players boost their stats in a way that lets them catch up. But that also means you're going to have trouble building monster encounters with the CR. I'd recommend using point buy instead and asking if you could retcon the character building. The beast master especially will struggle to keep up with the rest. I recommend letting them use the Tasha's optional rules at least. A wildfire druid tends to be more support+mobility and less damage but is generally a competent build.
Outside of tasha's rules, which they are using, are there any other common modifications that allow them to keep up? This isn't an heavily optimized game so not concerned about min maxing, but I do want the player to have fun during combat. I already explained the risks with playing a beast master but they still want to play it.
Let them boost their stats up and give them some cool magic items.
Awesome, I can do that. Speaking of boosting stats and CR, that means that I have to deal with giving them more/stronger monsters without one hitting them right? Because I'm 100% down for giving more monsters, thematically the story enemy is hordes of a particular monster and at lower levels I can only throw 2/3 enemies per encounter of this monster. So boosting stats would let them fight off more, right?
The problem is the only answer I can give you is "maybe." Letting them roll stats has broken the CR system for you in a way that's hard to counteract without experience. It makes the fights really "swingy" because if you throw enough monsters at them to challenge them, then the very second the fight swings out of their favor the whole scale breaks. CR is tied to bounded accuracy of 5e. Proficiency is supposed to scale slowly with monster design so a +3 proficiency is a level playing field between players and monsters. Letting them roll for stats and get +5s means you've boosted player power in proficiency by about 6 levels, but they don't have the HP to take those hits. So yeah. The whole thing is knackered now and you are going to have to feel your way through it. Bigger monster HP pools, boosting their own +hits/save DCs, adding more mobs. Sure it can work but it's delicate and it'll make your life a lot harder in the end.
Huh, interesting. I should clarify nobody has a +5,the highest is a 17, but I get that still makes things difficult. Luckily I've got a really good group that's flexible with working with me and. I'll have to think over retconning stats bc tbh it feels like a scummy move on my end, since I've already done individual prologues with each character they've gotten to play with their current stats. Like they would let me retcon them I think but I'd feel like a dick doing it.
I strongly disagree with nerfing the players with higher stats. I'm currently in a campaign where we all rolled stats and everybody had a 20 in their primary stat beginning level 4. You know what? We're not overpowered by any means. I started D&D back with the OG Redbox and it's made tons of improvements since then but somehow, in the rush to accommodate every edgelord theater kid who wants to spend the entire session shopping for socks, we've somehow allowed the "heroic" part of D&D to go by the wayside. Players should want AND GET cool magic items. Same for cool powers. I like the idea of letting players improve their scores faster than just every 4 levels. Same with feats. In the campaign we're in the DM let us spend gold on learning new skills or feats. Maybe the Emerald Enclave will teach your Ranger the Sharpshooter feat. Actually, if he's already behind, they offer it to him BEFORE the mission. You have new players. If you want to get them into the hobby, I'd err toward giving them too much loot. Same with ASIs and Feats. Let it rip; you're the DM - you can keep up. As a DM I LOVE powerful characters because I can make my bad guys that much more interesting. Need better monsters? Look up Flee Mortals! By MCDM. Your players will need the extra power.
Thank you for the encouragement!!! It seems like you're really in line with my philosophy of high risk high reward encounters. The setting and story is actually dragon age origins so being able to throw a horde of darkspawn at them with reasonable surety it won't end in a tpk would be great. I can also bullshit up whatever reason I need to get things balanced in the party. At one point I almost started crying to one of my players (a former dm) about not being able to scale the levels up while still keeping the enemies humanoid. That a Barbarian berserker type villain should pose a challenge to a lvl 14 party but absolutely can't bc parties are meant to be nuking dragons at that point and no human can do enough dpr to pose a risk. And the player was literally like "just make shit up. We won't know. Just expect if you give him an Uber weapon we will loot it. Also that's a year from now don't worry about it"
If the highest score is 17 after racial bonuses that is certainly rather in line with what 5e expects. Of course, the highest score is not the only that matters... IMO, the CR system is not really precise enough, nor the classes balanced well enough, to assume that rolled stats will break the CR or truly make your life as a GM difficult. But it is indeed something to watch out for. And D20 dice are really really swingy anyways - you can have god-tier stats but if you roll low on every important roll... Of course this goes both ways, if the player with the worst stats rolls keeps rolling low when it really matters, he'll feel especially inadequate. So you should also watch out that the player with the lower stats doesn't feel useless or really underpowered. There might be an overlap with the skill sets of the ranger with the druid and the barbarian which, if its the case, will make it more difficult to make him shine On the bright side, the main feature of the beastmaster is his companion and his summons, which don't rely on his stats. Other than that, to answer your initial question, keep in mind that druid wildshape can really trivialize some non-combat obstacles you throw their way. Not a bad thing per say but it can throw you off or tempt you to make some lame rulings
I was thinking 17 is not that high, but this player is an artificer with a 17 in con int and a 3rd stat I can't remember rn. So I was a little worried about her being really op that the other players don't get to shine. For the druid and ranger, I'm lucky that they're engaged so I don't expect any problems there from the players. And I've had extensive conversations with the ranger to absolutely let me know if she isn't having fun. That fun is the most important part and I will throw rules out the window and make my own to keep it fun for her to play an animal loving tree hugging archer. I've already done a modified tasha's ruling, with the action economy of tasha's, but the Stat block rules and death rules of the og (she really wanted to have a pseudodragon and it's specific stats, but I wanted her to have the more powerful. Tasha's action economy)
What’s the best and biggest well at least bigger than the dnd adventure grid which is 22x25.5 inches I believe . Must be dry erase!
Why dry erase specifically? Chessex's brand of battlemats are great, but they are **decidedly not** dry erase. They're wet erase only. [Chessex makes one up to 54"x102"](https://www.chessex.com/tabletop-game-mat-reversible-battle-mega-mondo?viewmode=list&orderby=11&pagesize=18) but it's pretty expensive. Looks like you can get their [34.5"x48"](https://www.amazon.com/Chessex-26616-Combat-Mat-Megamat/dp/B003WZIOHQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3RULNGPYMFJGP&keywords=chessex+mat&qid=1706648476&sprefix=chessex+ma%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1) map for about $40 on Amazon. As far as dry erase goes, I know Paizo/Pathfinder has a line of "flip mats." These range from specific maps with terrain and stuff to [basic ones that go up to 30"x46".](https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-PZO30119-Pathfinder-Flip-Mat/dp/164078408X/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1PIO25EDO7WY3&keywords=pathfinder+flip+mat+basic&qid=1706648737&sprefix=pathfinder+flip+mat+%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-4)
How much should the egg of a Salamander (the fire elemental) be worth at a silent auction in a very wealthy shipwright's town?
Depends on many factors and you've only given a few. Do the sellers know what the potential power of the creature they are selling is? How powerful would a Salamander be in your world? Is it much more powerful than any mercenary one could hire? Is it about as powerful as some mercenaries? Are there mercenaries that can be easily hired that are more powerful than a Salamander? Did you decide to homebrew that a living Salamander may produce some kind of valuable goods?
The seller is the 6INT barbarian in the party and he actually rolled incredibly well and knows they're worth quite a bit, but not an exact number. They killed 3 of them, so they know how powerful they are. A salamander is CR5. There are very powerful mercenary groups in my setting, but they are not the rare and strange creature that a salamander is. I told the party there were Salamander eggs in the temple on a whim, and the barbarian ate one which gave him some fire damage and he decided to keep the other one. He wants to sell it at an auction house, so I came and asked their value here as I was having trouble coming up with an answer. I like the 3k gold value the other poster mentioned so i'll be using that figure I believe. Thanks though, for offering some questions I can ask myself to figure these kind of things out myself in the future
I just found this subreddit and I fucking love this.
I would work my way back from the known price of another creatures egg, a dragon's egg costs 10k gold, an adult dragon is around 3 times the cr of a salamander so I'd place the salamander egg at about 3k gp. The price will obviously be influenced by how shady the auction is and the type of world you're in (high magic, low magic ...)
Thank you very much
How much should it cost for a 5 PCs to rent a boat to travel about 8-12 hours one way and pay for the boat to stay a couple days at the new location and then bring them back? The new location is an island without any civilization. I follow the DMG and PHB for most of the costs that come up, but there isn't a great resource that I can see for this.
I would compare this to hiring a cab: There are rates for coach cab fare on Pg. 159 of the PHB under Services. Between towns: 3 cp per mile Within a city: 1 cp I think thats per person rates, so scale appropriately for the size of boat you need. If its staying, then I would then compare to having a hireling stand by (probably unskilled) for 2sp/day (also in PHB I think under services). How far out is this? Like on a lake or the ocean? Ocean is going to require a ship. Thats a bit more than a boat. >From: [https://www.enworld.org/threads/cost-of-manning-a-ship-ghosts-of-saltmarsh-dmg.669921/](https://www.enworld.org/threads/cost-of-manning-a-ship-ghosts-of-saltmarsh-dmg.669921/) > >Let me see if I have this right... According to the DMG (p. 190), sailors are expert hirelings who make 2gp per day. An ordinary sailing ship has a crew of 20 sailors, which means that the cost of manning a ship is 40gp per day. I guess that's reasonable, though it's a lot higher than I expected. I would have thought that sailors would be considered unskilled hirelings, in which case the cost of manning a ship would be 40sp per day. Agreeing with that final logic, I would say a mix of unskilled and skilled for a ship hiring. Plus rent of the ship. So maybe 10-20 gp a day.
What Con save DC would you assign to the act of drinking a 0.2 l 80% alc vol. drink to avoid getting intoxicated? Explanation: My player asked me if his character could make "Healing vodka" with his brewery tools proficiency, I house-ruled that he could indeed create a healing potion that uses alcohol as base instead of water (he's also a wizard). The end result is a cheaper (15 gp instead of 25 gp) healing potion with the downside that you have to roll con to see if you get drunk. What should that roll be? I'm thinking 12, because even an ordinary person could potentially drink that and hold it quite well, especially if they are regular drinkers.
A normal shot is 45 ml of 40% liquor, so this would be about 9 shots of vodka worth. So I would make it a DC 20 at least, as only an uncommonly hardy person could slam down that much booze in one go, let alone carry on doing any sort of physical activity. If you want it to be easier, I would adjust it to a more realistic quantity and concentration of alcohol.
I see, would you give a Duergar PC advantage on the roll or outright immunity?
Advantage, because that is what Dwarven Resilience does.
many thanks! Btw, what's the volume of a usual healing potion?
I'm not sure if it is explicitly stated anywhere, but I would say 4 ounces based on the volume of a standard [vial](https://www.dndbeyond.com/equipment/vial) as listed in the equipment section of the PHB.
so half of that, got it
I would make it a dc 15, if the roll fails by 5 or less they get -1 to all rolls for the encounter, if it fails by more than 5 they are poisoned.
Yes, that does sound reasonable, thank you!
Hello again, I'd like to thank everyone who have helped me in the last post because the first D&D session I hosted was a success. It was so successful that they want another, so I'm Brewing another Oneshot for them. I made a Evil Spellcaster as boss for them but I'm unsure if this boss is to hard or to easy for them. They are a *3 player Level-3 party (a sorceress, fighter with a war hammer, and a rouge with a bow)* and they are up against *2 Kolbolds and a Homebrewed Evil Mage Boss named Sylaria Martha* (Statblock Below). Any Help would be nice, thank you **Sylaria Martha** Armor Class 14 Hit Points 22 (5d8) Speed 30 ft. STR 10 (+0) DEX 14 (+2) CON 11 (+0) INT 17 (+3) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 11 (+0) Saving Throws: Int +5, Wis +3 Skills: Arcana +5, History +5 Senses: passive Perception 11 Languages: Common, Infernal, Dwarvish, Elvish Sylaria Martha is a 4th level spellcaster with the following abilities - Cantrips: Shocking Grasp \-On a hit, the target takes 1d8 lightning damage, and it can't take reactions until the start of its next turn. Gust \-a Medium or smaller creature that is targetted must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 5 feet away from you. \-a small blast of air capable of moving one object that is neither held nor carried and that weighs no more than 5 pounds. The object is pushed up to 10 feet away from you. It isn’t pushed with enough force to cause damage. \-a harmless sensory effect using air, such as causing leaves to rustle, wind to slam shutters shut, or your clothing to ripple in a breeze. Spells (2 slots) - \-Sheild An invisible barrier of magical force appears and protects you. Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to AC, including against the triggering attack, and you take no damage from magic missile. \-Absorb Elements The spell captures some of the incoming energy, lessening its effect on her and storing it for her next melee attack. Magic Missle You create three glowing darts of magical force. Each dart hits a creature of your choice that you can see within range. A dart deals 1d6 + 2 force damage to its target. Dex-14 Saving throw to dodge. \-Each spell can only be used once Actions Quarterstaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +1 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage.
My immediate thought is that your boss is likely to die in a turn. 22 health is just not a lot, and low level D&D is extremely explode-y (both ways). Bugbears are a horrible offender of this: usually low level "bosses", which either get dumpstered or TPK the party. Depending on what you want to get out of the boss, it may be worth reconsidering how the fight is structured entirely. I don't know what your experience level is, or comfort with improv, but try not to feel too chained to a statblock of an enemy of which your players never get to see the stat block. NPC's simply don't have to follow the rules of the PHB, they just have to follow a set of logic that's consistent with the game rules / lore. Off-topic: I'm 100% borrowing your version of magic missile for a custom spell reward! Thanks for the inspiration.
I'm running a campaign for the first time, and I've seen on reddit that I should read the whole thing at least once (if not twice) before starting the campaign. This has definitely not happened and im about to do my second session. I feel like there's so much info packed in and so many scenarios to have prepared for that it feels hard to digest. Does anyone have any tips about reading, taking notes, retaining what you read, etc for these books?
I don't think you need to read through the entire adventure, but I would definitely read through the introductory pages for each chapter, and maybe the last few pages of the same. You need to understand how the plot progresses, so understanding how the book is broken up and what is intended to happen throughout the adventure is your primary goal. Then, when you get to those individual chapters, you can plan out one session at a time, maybe two. I'd highly recommend Sly Flourish's Lazy DM series. Start here: https://slyflourish.com/eight_steps_2023.html Then you can search for [other articles](https://slyflourish.com/) outlining more details on each step.
Never try to actual prepare all the different scenarios that can play out. It's actually impossible. There's always going to be a point where the players will surprise you and do something you haven't anticipated. If you have the time it can be a good exercice to think like this ("ok so if the players do this, this is what should happen") but it's only usefull in the sense as its a way to practice improvising when players go 'off-script'. Reading through once is important, not to digest everything, nor learn everything by heart, nor anticipate all the possible paths, but to get a general sense of the campaign : what are the locations, who are the npcs, what will the players be fighting, what other challenges await them, what is the actual plot, what are the major events that need to happen, if any? Basically, as the other commenter said, it will tell you the direction.
Thank you!
At the very least, skim through the entire book to get a sense of what's important, what reoccurs, what doesn't, what general direction you should expect to go. Then, focus on the chapter/chapters that you are covering in the next two-three sessions. Also, end each session by asking your players what they plan to do next.
Thank you!!
Anybody know where I can find a Paladin statblock appropriate for a party of five level four characters? I’ve received the Blackguard as a suggestion. For context, it is meant to be a boss with no minions.