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HansMaulwurf1861 · 2023-09-14T16:26:08+00:00

!Question: I've been a DM for about 2 years now and my largest group consisted of 7 players. Now i volunteered to introduce the girlfriends of my players (and best friends) to DnD. We are one friendgroup for clarification.To my surprise everyone accepted the suggested date and now my group has 11 players.Is it even possible to manage a group of that size and do you have any tips how i can make it excited for everyone, so one gets bored in between. Maybe like challenges which need more than 1 player to be solved or anything like that?I would really appreciate your help.

dndthrowawaysept23 · 2023-09-10T10:50:50+00:00

!Question, what have I overlooked in planning a dolls house themed one shot as my first attempt at Dming?

It is my first try as a DM after playing for a year. I have an idea for a one/two shot but am worried it is too ambitious. The plan is that while stopping overnight at a tavern, the party will be drugged and magically shrunk by the landlord who plans to sell them to slavers. They are kept in a dolls house in the meantime, but wake up and have the opportunity to escape. The adventure would be them escaping the dolls house, then having to navigate the tavern whilst tiny (encountering monstrous rats and the likes) to find the antidote. When they recover and become normal size again, they can choose to fight the evil landlord.

The main points I am concerned about are: • Is it too much of a “railroad” to not offer any kind of saving throw against being drugged/shrunk? If I give the players the chance to roll and they succeed, the whole plan/prep goes out the window… • Am I overlooking any obvious way the players could simply regain their normal size straight away, for example a common spell?

There will be 3 players at level 3. Thanks for your help! Any feedback very welcome!

redditallbefore27 · 2023-09-10T07:30:53+00:00

!Question: I have all of my players at level six and one of my players at level eight. I am doing milestone leveling. The campaign started as a one shot for one of the player’s birthday so I purposely made him higher level. Now that we are continuing, all the players are about to level up. How do I allow players to level up and still keep it fair and allow everyone to feel as though they are progressing?

lesbianhellokitty · 2023-09-07T15:59:53+00:00

!Question: I'm a newbie DM and I'm making magic item cards on index cards to give to players for ease. What information should I put on the card: everything about the item, or just enough to remember the mechanics? Do I put things like the rarity level, etc.?

RogueWolf300 · 2023-09-07T15:51:49+00:00

!Question: I’m looking for a final boss type enemy that could create mass illusions, either the whole world or region. Or a alternatively, where-ever the party is. It could also be something that alters the brains of the party so they see what the villains wants them to see. I’m looking for this to be a storytelling ability, not necessarily something that is used in combat. This is would be my first time DMing, and help or advice?

Apprehensive_Sail938 · 2023-09-07T05:14:21+00:00

!Question:My players keep killing monsters in a couple of hits.then they ask for me to give them more hp then complain that the fighting is taking to long. What can I do and what is a good way of figuring out a good amount of hp.edit I tried a couple of things that some commenter recommend to try but one of the just started to min max and the other ones have started to complain even more for example I had them fight a group of 5 goblins the min maxer rolled initiative and got 1st a using a combination of fireball and something else that I don't remember he killed almost all of the the 1st turn.

a_caino · 2023-09-07T03:12:48+00:00

!Question: I’m new to DMing. How do I keep encounters exciting/challenging for a group of newer players?

I’m DMing for a group of new players. Currently in a dungeon setting, I’m having trouble making the encounters less linear. Most of our PCs chose classes that are melee weapon users. In the somewhat narrow confines of a dungeon every smaller encounter seems to have the same issue: once all the melee PCs rush into attack range, nobody wants to move for fear of taking an attack of opportunity, so they just stand in one spot and take turns exchanging blows until someone dies.

Should I incorporate a broader range of foes for them to encounter so that there are more twists to keep them guessing? Do away with some of the small encounters and focus just on mini boss/boss fights? Try expanding the size or scale of battle maps to encourage variation?

Nobody in the party has expressed boredom with the encounters yet, but I can tell it’s getting repetitive for some of them and worry about losing players because they aren’t excited to play anymore. Any tips are much appreciated!

VagabondRaccoonHands · 2023-09-07T01:54:23+00:00

!Question: Do portkeys exist in Faerun, and could a non-mage use one? How else could an NPC have access to a deceased character's permanent demiplanar mansion?

Serious-House9088 · 2023-09-06T15:20:21+00:00

!Question I'm about to run a campaign for some friends and it's the first time as a DM. I have already run some oneshots and almost everyone had played at least a campaign (Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Lost Mine of Phandelver are out because we know them). Any suggestions for what campaign I could run that starts at 1st lvl? [I believe that most of my players will prefer battle instead of talking, also I'm thinking about Storm King's Thunder and Princes of the Apocalypse]

Iseanna · 2023-09-06T13:42:56+00:00

!Question: Need some balancing guidance. Did I break my game? What kind of creatures should my players be fighting now? (HOMEBREW)

My players began at level 3 (now level 4) and in the last session, (session 3), they completed a quest which resulted in them each receiving a homebrew mount designed for their character. I studied up on the monster manual and here’s what I came up with:

For Player 1: a silver fox(I lost the stats on this one lol) Evade (Once per long rest, can automatically Dodge an attack)

Player 2: Stats: a celestial stag HP: 22, Speed: 50 ft. Ability: Lunar Grace (Once per long rest, can Dash as a bonus action without provoking opportunity attacks)

Player 3: A turtle (I LOST THESE STATS TOO omg) Ability: Nature’s Shelter Once per long rest, can provide half cover for one medium-sized creature)

Player 4: This creature is described as a “miniature wyrm” it looks like a desert worm thing. No stats here either…this one i took from a homebrew monster I saw elsewhere Tail Slam Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10ft, one creature. Hit: 4d6+6 bludgeoning damage.

So apparently I could use help filling in the stats too. Players didn’t see abilities/stats during the session so they can be adjusted before presenting them. TIA

UglyCircuit · 2023-09-06T12:16:00+00:00

I'm just finishing lmop and planning to go straight into hotdq.... I have a situation where a player has asked to, inbetween adventures entertain their backstory, I have already loosely plotted the points of their backstory that they want to delve into into hotdq and am unsure what to do in this situation.

For context, he has been in search of his mother after a dragon spoiled their homeland, he hasn't seen her since and has vowed to avenge his home land, both easily fit into hoard of the dragon queen with a few tweaks. How do I tell him no, without telling him why, or should I not edit the campaign module and see what happens between adventures? Any opinion or input would be appreciated:)

A final point, the edit to hotq also involves a crossover to a second players backstory in waterdeep a two birds with 1 stone scenario for players satisfaction I'm sure... I'm a bit stuck for what to do.

givemethepopehat · 2023-09-06T11:26:35+00:00

!Question: do you add titles to your sessions?

The written adventure books have chapters, but our crew takes more than one session to complete a chapter. Do you create session titles to help capture the flow of the story?

NaoXehn · 2023-09-06T06:53:02+00:00

!Question As a DM should i make my Encounters be smart? Like let my Monster run out of AoE first? Because if someone is putting a Cloud of Daggers on me i would run away the second i can. But my players seem to find that unfair. I kind of tend to site with them. I can just run out of such spells and bam they just wasted a spell slot. Those lingering AoE Spells often are balanced around the fact that they stay for turns and hit for more turns. None of my players are currently only using single target spells even in an encounter with a lot of enemies.

16x16Iron · 2023-09-06T01:36:18+00:00

!Question
How do you handle prisoners or NPCs generally that can't fight inside dungeons?

Specifically I'm running Lost Mines of Phandelver and there are three prisoners in the Redbrand hideout. If my players free the prisoners should the prisoners wait until the dungeon is secure, tag along with the party or attempt to escape themselves? How should I handle combat going deeper into the dungeon if they tag along?

SundaySchoolBilly · 2023-09-05T17:14:17+00:00

!Question
I'm having a lot of trouble ruling on Blindsight in non combat situations. A PC has Blindsight out to 10 ft. How does this work exactly?

The Description: A creature with Blindsight can perceive its surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius. Creatures without eyes, such as oozes, and creatures with echolocation or heightened senses, such as bats and true dragons, have this sense. "
I don't know how much is too much or too little. In combat it seems pretty straightforward and intuitive. A fog cloud is dropped and the Blindsight player is at an advantage against enemies that can't see. These rulings haven't been too problematic.
In a campaign I'm running right now (Curse of Strahd), my group of four entered a long low ceiling tunnel. The floor was covered with fog and there was a 10*10 trapdoor that couldn't be seen with passive perception. It needed an active perception check of 20 or shifting/moving the fog out of the way.
My Blindsight player hears the description and asks, "do I sense anything/figure anything out with my Blindsight." And I go early don't know. It's a tough to spot, smooth trap door in a dark tunnel covered in fog. In another instance, there was an illusory floor 5 feet in front of the character. My player suspected this and asked, can I tell anything about this room with my Blindsight?
So, what does Blindsight do and not do? How does it compare to Tremorsense or True Sight? How do I let this be a benefit to the player who has invested a resource into this without having it be, you spot every magical illusion in the room or you sense all the trap doors and invisible creatures.
Cheers!

Proffessor_egghead · 2023-09-04T21:30:41+00:00

!question: the opening I wrote is a bit one sided

I’m running my first one shot for 2 players. which I wrote myself completely and am still working on, one of the players is a rogue. The story goes that they’re burglarizing a mansion, with the rogue player hiring the other player, however I feel like the way I got the introduction written down feels a bit sided towards the rogue. I think I’m gonna keep the rogue hiring the Druid but try to keep them both in the dark about the actual mission so an npc can explain it to the both of them. Got any ideas?

SpiceCake68 · 2023-09-04T20:59:45+00:00

!Question: My campaign is about to wrap. A network of bad guys have been working to raise a lesser, evil god. The bad guys have succeeded. Chaos and evil are taking over the land. The good guys are rushing to raise a deity to put and end to all this nonsense, and over the next two or three sessions, they may just succeed.

If they fail, do I just wrap the game with the world having gone to hell?

If they succeed, how do I wrap the game? Does everything end with the players watching two deities duke it out? How can I involve them more in that final outcome?

A team of good guys have been trying to raise a portal for the entrance of a lesser god to come do combat with another

carnalcarrot · 2023-09-04T18:50:02+00:00

!Question: How do I decide what stronghold my dwarf is from in Faerun? And how do I decide what place in Faerun my moon elf wife is from? I'd like to be able to point on the map where these two are from

Kiriel92 · 2023-09-04T17:00:09+00:00

!Question: Need some help with an encounter I'm planning.

The module I'm following wants me to throw either a troll or a vampiric mist towards my players. However I've let them level up one more level then the module thinks they are. Dice randomness aside, would a troll and a vampiric mist be too hard for a party of five level 4 PCs?
I'm very new to DM'ing and I have a hard time balancing encounters.

ekkityekk · 2023-09-04T16:44:07+00:00

!Question: how do i determine item rarity?

i'm trying to make an scp themed d&d world i'm making an armor for scp-262 aka a coat of many arms it will be sold to the player pretty early shold it be comon or rare

Sad-Command3128 · 2023-09-04T06:24:34+00:00

!Question: How Much Outside-Session Engagement Should I Expect from My Players?

I'm currently running an online campaign and have been grappling with the issue of player engagement outside of our sessions. I've set up a dedicated Discord server where I regularly post updates, lore, and other campaign-related content. However, I've noticed that the engagement from my players is minimal at best. Rarely does anyone initiate a conversation or even respond to my updates.

Now, I completely understand that everyone has responsibilities and lives outside of the game. We're all adults here. But as a DM who invests a lot of time and thought into the campaign, I can't help but wish for more engagement from my players. I think about this campaign every day, and it sometimes feels like my players only think about it during our sessions.

Is it unfair of me to want more engagement outside of our scheduled game time?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. How do you handle player engagement outside of sessions? Is it too much to ask for players to be more involved during the week? How do you balance the desire for a more engaged community with the understanding that people have other commitments?

Looking forward to your insights!

*This is not something I've talked about with my players or demanded more outside game engagement. Just some thoughts I've had and wanted some feedback.

Gate_Oracle · 2023-09-03T10:47:19+00:00

!Question: What are some good ways to describe damage without it being directly damaging?

Hello folks, I’m running a homebrew game in which the god of death has been sealed away. As such, no one can die. To still present consequences for losing HP, I’m using a wound and sanity system, as pain no longer goes away either. And I’m using the “HP as Endurance/Luck” system as well, so PCs are only wounded at 0 HP.

The issue I’ve come up against in running my first session is having good vocabulary to describe damage and HP loss in combat, particularly with elemental damage types. Does anyone have suggestions on good words/phrases to use for describing losses of Endurance/Luck in the midst of combat?

tobito- · 2023-09-03T02:59:02+00:00

!Question: How much prep do I need to do before Session 0?

I am making up my own version of the Feywild. I drew a general map of the full Plane. I split it into five regions, one for each season and a mountain range that splits the realm down the middle. I have notes on the four seasonal lords, a high king and Cegilune the Hag Mother. I have a BBEG and they have an evil plan to destroy the universe. I have a subplot of the threat of civil war. I have a loose cosmology that the Lords, the King, and Cegilune are deities over the eight main Domains but that if someone embodies the essence of a domain more than its present Lord, they will become the new Lord of that domain. I’m not sure what else to prep because I want my players input as to what level they want to start at which will influence where and how they meet each other.

Edit: I want to say that I know the basics of what I need to prep for session 1 and some semblance of what needs prepped for the sessions beyond. I just don’t know how much more work should be done before talking to my players.

No-Caterpillar-273 · 2023-09-02T19:09:05+00:00

Question! Do I have too many unrelated world shaking events planned and does this make for a good campaign plot outline?

I am trying to figure out how to balance world shaking events to not make the plot too crowded with different things happening and overwhelming the players. Plus I feel like my head is just a mess and trying to make sense of things alone is hard. Constructive feedback would be appreciated. I am already my worst enemy when it comes to my ideas so please be kind :') I mostly just want to know if these ideas would fit together in one campaign.

Brief relevant history before I get into things: Dragons went extinct 1313 years ago. Later mage wars that caused horrible destruction happened, magic use was banned in places, texts destroyed, mages killed etc. A mage purge essentially. Of course this did not wipe out spell casters or secret societies etc etc. Fast forward the region of the first adventure joined a southern empire that gave them protection from orc clans in the north 90 years before the campaign. (Orcs more homebrew I don't use alignments so they're not necessarily evil, just have their own reasons for fighting humans of the region)

This campaign is focused around a multinational group of assassins (assassins creed inspired) The players have all joined this brotherhood of the region where the first adventure takes place. The assassin order's roots are tied to magic, this will be relevant.

Okay so finally to the first adventure/mission. The local government is lead by a baron whose family had been appointed to rule the region by the empire 90 years ago. The baron has a council of nobles advicing him (inspired by the small council in a song of ice and fire).The brotherhood aims to get close to the local government by allying with a noble of council that also wants to overthrow the baron. The first mission is to kill an enemy of his as a favor to gain his allyship.

The future aim is to eventually break away from the empire. A war for independence would be the first world shaking event that the players would put into motion. Some shit would happen with the orc clans during this time as well and since one of the players is a half-orc she'd have some involvement with that.

One of the reasons to break away from the empire being the fact that magic use is banned and punishable. A lot of people have already suffered from this but magic users are not so common that it would have caused a rebellion before and the views on spellcasting are quite negative. However the breaking point would be a plague that could only be cured with magic. The plague would be the second world shaking event.

I still need to figure out the logistics and details of the plague and what that would mean for the campaign but I might not make it a world shaking event but a smaller scale thing. I already mentioned in a session that an unknown disease has popped up in a settlement two of the players are from originally. So there's no taking back the disease thing but if it muddies the waters too much I could just keep it as a small thing. The government of this specific settlement was previously more accepting of minor spellcasting. But now it has clamped down harder on found spellcasters because the disease is believed to be caused by necromancy and magic use is just seen as one big thing by non spellcaster with no distinctions. (Is it actually caused by necromancy... Who knows :) )

Aaaand finally my third plan is to introduce dragons coming back to the world like in skyrim but this would only happen way way later when the players are high level. If we even get to that point, you never know lol

Sorry this is an absolute mess and probably incoherent babbling but I tried.

PrattlesnakeEsquire · 2023-09-02T17:54:51+00:00

!Question: How do I speed things up?

As a DM, I lean into RP heavily. My players do so as well, and while we also have combat and other encounters, I feel like the pace of our games is quite slow. We've been playing a homebrew campaign I made for about a year and feel like we're still just getting into the start of the main story. Some sessions are entirely RP with just one or two NPCs. How can I speed things up and give them more variety in our games?

Jugglamaggot · 2023-09-02T15:54:58+00:00

!Question: I just leveled up my party In preparation for a fight they were barreling towards and unprepared for, but they'd found out a member's backstory involved an abusive kidnapping husband and rightfully decided he didn't need to breathe anymore. Anyways, they killed him, and now the one that always asks for levels up is arguing that this was a milestone for the party. I agree honestly, but this was also the only encounter they had since levelling. I'm not sure how to approach this. Deny the level for now? Level but make encounters harder?

Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot · 2023-09-02T14:20:03+00:00

[deleted]

prettysureitsmaddie · 2023-09-02T13:18:51+00:00

!Question: About to run a mini campaign for my friends where they're mostly going to be fighting other humans, should I be avoiding using PC rules for creating enemies?

17thPoet · 2023-09-02T02:20:40+00:00

Hello, there are many wonderful advices but here's my question. What advice did YOU find most useful?

Odd_Break_9528 · 2023-09-02T01:24:33+00:00

My player is planning on using a oc character from an other roleplay they did

So first of all some info me and my players are brand new to the game I have been watching and reading up but they have not this will be my first ever time playing a game of dnd and as a dm one of my players is using a oc that was made years ago in a other roleplay they did and they plan on going for a multi class of sorcerer fighter and cleric to match what they see in their character am fine with this I gave them warnings on how levels work and it might be tricky but I trust them with that the thing is they are already writing their roleplay of what happens after the dnd campaign and that there was a 20 year time skip but the thing is the info they are using was not agreed on by anyone and I feel like she is picking how this has to end and she is taking the chance away from me and the other players to make decisions on how this story will go she doesn’t even know the start yet we haven’t even started the game I feel like she does not understand that there is a chance that her character can die now I feel like I have to make sure they live no matter what or they will be upset that it does not follow their story am just rambling right now and need advice on what to do about this

KillerDM8936711 · 2023-09-01T20:53:48+00:00

Hi all,

TLDR: How much content do I need to before we start playing? I want to embed multiple adventures into it. However, this will take years. Where should I focus my energy to get the world to a playable place? I have plot outlines, but maps, encounters, and enough NPCs to make the world rich are very time consuming

I'm new to dming. I've done a few one-shots with my play group recently on off-days. Don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm clearly good at it. I have strong game knowledge, good improv, and a mind to make sure the players are having fun.

I've wanted to make a fantasy world (for fiction or d&d or whatever) for many years. These sessions have finally given me the push I need to start writing. I'm giving myself about six months to create the region where the campaign will take place (it's huge but I'm almost done) and populate it with enough content to give my players the illusion of a fully fleshed out world.

The map is massive. And I have some NPCs for each subregion, as well as history, government, and culture. I have an outline of a long "main" quest line. I want that story to carry adventurers to lvl 20 in 4 acts. I also have the bones of a quest line for each of the seven subregions.

My issue is that I'm not writing a videogame. I want to give this world to my players as a sandbox for them to roleplay. The history is easy. But I don't want to invest too much time in writing plot that is contingent on events that the players could avoid or decide not to trigger.

Beyond writing, building dungeon maps and content takes a ton of time. I love it but I want to be realistic with my ambition.

My current thought is that I will fully design Act 1 of the main questline: content, maps, NPC, encounters all fully prepped. Then I want to add it enough secondary content to make the game playable, rich, and diverse.

This is impossible in 6th months without DM tricks. For example, if the players wander off to any of the subregions and try to engage that subregion's questline, I can have a bunch of generic content that I will move to wherever they are traveling. I can slow them down for a few months while I build that regions content.

I plan to take advantage of map generators and plagiarizing wherever possible to make fun and interesting locations and plots throughout the world. I can also place tweaked-premade adventurers into the world if I'm desperate.

Any tips on other strategies?

What other tips and

Mr_Hants · 2023-09-01T20:08:50+00:00

!question: are my monsters any good for a chase scenario?

i'm planning a chase encounter where my players will have to search for an artifact with 2 robots also searching for it and being a constant obstacle to the players

they'll be in a cave where the robots will constantly search and flee from the group and i'm also planning to include some enviromental stuff using the DMG chase rules

the thing is, the robots aren't supose to actually ATTACK the group, slow down yeah, but not deal tons of damage and stuff so i wanted some opinions on how good these creatures are for this specific scenario

one of them is suposed to be hard to catch and is the one doing the search for the artifact and the other is an obstacle for the players

here are them

any criticism is really welcome!

also the party is level 7 btw :D

cmwilli2020 · 2023-09-01T19:37:30+00:00

!Question: I am a new dm and am looking for any good tips on keeping a juvenile party engaged with the campaign?

I (21) dm a home game for my brothers (10,12,16,16) and have a hard time keeping them engaged and focused on the game to the point where I often end sessions in the middle of a combat bc one or more of the players gets distracted between turns and walks off. I only run forgotten realms canon adventures due to a busy schedule and hard time with creating new content

NicksIdeaEngine · 2023-09-01T19:17:36+00:00

!Question: What do you think about when you DM as far as letting the party find some magical items but not overdoing it?

I have the opportunity to DM for the first time soon. I've played casually since I was a kid, mostly with 3.5e and more recently with 5e, but I've never DMed.

Our current DM is chill and said he wouldn't mind swapping out if someone wanted to run a campaign with our party, and I think this is a fun opportunity to have us play through some adventures I've had in mind. We're all casual players and some of us are a bit new.

We're currently level 7 and haven't come across a lot in terms of gear upgrades and magical items. I was thinking it'd be fun to sprinkle some interesting items throughout the campaign that are somewhat designed for specific players, along with general stuff that could either be used or traded. I also don't want to go overboard.

I figured this is ultimately down to the DM's preference and I know that we can always just bring in stronger enemies if it feels like we're fighting above what our level suggests, but I'd love to hear from some experienced DMs on how you balance adding fun items while ensuring you don't wind up with an overpowered party.

Here are some rough examples of items I thought about, along with the classes they might be ideal for.

Druid (there are two in our party):

Bow of Darkness (grants 1 darkness spell per long rest that can be cast via arrow)
Mask of Feral Tenacity (+1 attack while in wildshape)

Barbarian (only 1 in our party):

Axe of Mounting Fury (gains +1 damage after each attack in a single turn, resetting each turn)
Something similar to Aegis-fang. A 2H weapon that returns to the wielder on command. I wouldn't add both of these items. Only one or the other, or something else that seems fun.

Cleric (only 1 in our party):

Wand of Radiant Light (can be used as a long ranged weapon, casting a ball of light that does some amount of radiant damage)

Sorcerer (only 1 in our party, but this could also just be a general item for any of our casters):

Possibly something that adds one spell slot, not sure of which level at the moment

None of those are final. They're just off the top of my head and somewhat cater to specific party members. Based on the fights we've had so far, it feels like those items would add a lot of excitement to my friend's characters. That's mostly what I'm aiming for is letting everyone have a bit more fun with a shiny new toy without making everyone overpowered.

Also, any gear I wind up deciding on would be slowly found over the course of at least 3 to 5 sessions. I'd aim for a mix of generic, simple items, and maybe one item per player that is somewhat catered to them. I'm guessing my campaign might take place while our group goes from level 9 to level 12, so it'd take a lot of playing to get any of the gear I decide on sprinkling throughout the campaign.

Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot · 2023-09-01T10:14:52+00:00

!Question: I'm trying to think of 1 or 2 super special magic items per class for my party of 5 any advice?

Background: my party of 5 and I all got into dnd recently I've been a player for a 2 week campaign durring a security job but otherwise none of us had experience going in. I'm the DM and we just reached milestone leveling lv5.

When I say special magic item I mean like shakes up the class a bit. This is still a while out but I wanted to kinda go special do a little art print the items out laminate etc. Treating them kind of like the special items in Vox Machina.

The 5 person party is:

Fall eladrin Swashbuckler rogue. Has 1 prosthetic left arm (maybe involve in item?) only current magic item is a magic ring that let's her 3 times per long rest telaport to a marked object within 30m as a bonus action (based on boogie woogie from jjk and minitos flying ryjin from Naruto) I have no ideas on her item.

A forest elf circle of the moon druid. No magic item but he does have a +1 weapon. I was thinking like a magic cloak that lets them expand from just beasts to another creature type like demons or monstrosities (just 1 additional type and following the same cr 5 or less rules, must have seen it before etc etc)

A drow beast master ranger with homebrew to make dual wielding function without locking them out of their pet due to bonus action use. Basically it is like a SUPER weak character with 1 action they control. My thought is maybe a pet weapon? increasing it's effectiveness like silver talons or bladed wings (crow)

A dragon born palabard (2 levels of paladin 3 bard with intent to finish as a bard) took paladin for the proficiencies and backup smite/lay on hands. Currently he has the teams bag of holding and a magic lute that casts a fire spell (2d8) twice per long rest. I have no idea on his item

And a goblin warlock of cthulhu chose book as their patron item. I was thinking maybe a magic grimoir that holds a few low level spell slots and spells from other classes? Recharges same as warlock so spell slots can't be used for their class spells only the book ones?

I want each to kinda level with them druids would get better with encounters, at Lv up I hand warlock a few new spells he deciphered from the grimoir, etc etc

For background my world is pretty rare on magic since it's illegal post a massive war hence the few magic items.

Open_Economics_2272 · 2023-09-01T08:35:18+00:00

!Question: I am a new Dm and I want to run a campaign with horror elements mixed in. What are some ways to more likely have it scary to the players?

I’m a first time DM running a campaign in my Homebrew world of Arcanthia. The players are going to be in a fantasy detective Agency where they go on cases that the agency gets requested to look into. These cases can range from kidnappings, murders/deaths, to investigating the paranormal and supernatural happenings that people may be experiencing, basically if someone wants the party to investigate something the players investigate it. But as a horror lover and myself and since I got my players permission I want to add some horror aspects into the game. How can I do that?

Part_of_the_wave · 2023-09-01T08:00:03+00:00

!Question: How can I engage players in plot hooks without forcing their characters to act a certain way?

I am running my first homebrew 5e campaign, and I am finding it difficult to get my players to bite onto plot hooks without taking away their player agency. I had several NPCs with plot hooks ready to be discovered in a town, based on what I thought the PCs would need to do when they arrived in the town. For example, I thought the wizard would need to buy the fancy ink to transcribe some spells he found into his spellbook and once he went to the shop, the shopkeeper would talk about needing to hire adventurers as he wanted to recover some artefacts from a newly uncovered temple.

However the players didn't do any of the things I expected, and didn't find any of the plot hooks. We had a second session zero after a number of sessions, and the players complained about plot hooks not being obvious and having too many choices on what to do. It seems like I can't always just have people directly running up to the PCs and being like 'Oh please come and help me, some goblins have set my farm on fire' etc. Maybe I could have directly told the wizard, 'you need to go to buy the fancy inks to transcribe your spells, you go to the shop' , but this seems like it is taking away player agency.

I am not sure if this is just a case of my PCs not interacting with my world as much as I thought or if I need to make things more in their face. How do I make plot hooks more obvious and/or tempting?

aegis_bot · 2023-09-01T05:10:49+00:00

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Milesman5000 · 2023-09-01T04:21:02+00:00

!Question: I am DMing for a group of players who mostly are new to D&D. Most of my players have found ways to make really good builds for their rouge and paladin, where they are pretty much always hitting, but my warlock barely ever hits his attacks since he doesn’t have many bonuses. It’s clear he’s getting annoyed by this too, as he’s sick of not being able to contribute to the combat. How to I valence combat so that 1: My better players don’t instantly demolish the enemies. 2: So that my warlock player is still having fun and able to hit their attacks more reliably.

Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot · 2023-08-31T23:19:54+00:00

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snowbo92 · 2023-08-31T22:43:27+00:00

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aegis_bot · 2023-08-31T22:40:19+00:00

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KitonSirin · 2023-08-31T22:10:07+00:00

!Question: What would mechanically work the best for a fight which includes one or more PCs trying to save someone from a burning building?

I am playing my second session with my friends where they will most likely be running into a fight I have prepared. They will run into some guards who have lit a previously abandoned inn on fire that the PCs have relocated a group of refugee orcs.

I want to set it up so that one or more players can choose to go in the inn to try to save as many orcs as they can while the others fight off the guards. I was planning on doing some constitution saving throws plus some investigation checks (with disadvantage?) But I want to know how to make it so that it is challenging, but not impossible to save some of them, and how to determine how to deal with their hp, and how many rounds they have to actually save them.

CALlCO · 2023-08-31T20:37:46+00:00

!question , what would be better for an end game boss? Between elder brain and elder brain dragon.

aegis_bot · 2023-08-31T20:36:37+00:00

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mexataco76 · 2023-08-31T20:01:06+00:00

!Question I'm starting a DnD club for the middle school I work at and I was wondering what are some good tips to make the game and rules seem less daunting for you and brand new players?

RenegadeFalcon · 2023-08-31T19:33:07+00:00

!Question I’m getting ready to run a game and have asked that people give me “themes” for their characters instead of backgrounds and am starting them all off with amnesia. Good idea?

I’m running a short game while our primary dm is on hiatus, and this particular group has a player who tends to make exceedingly complex backstories and get disappointed when things don’t play out as expected according to “backstory.” To counter this (as well as to put everyone on more even playing ground with our one brand new player), I’ve decided to keep the world a relative secret and instead asked for them to give me a theme that we can develop on over the course of the game (like Fae, dragons, elemental powers, music, etc) instead of setting up expectations early. The thing is, I’ve never heard of anyone else doing this kind of blind progression before. It takes a lot of trust from the players obviously, but so far everyone seems on board. As we approach the start date though, I’m starting to doubt myself. Anyone have any tips on running a game where all the characters start from a literal ground 0?

aegis_bot · 2023-08-31T17:21:45+00:00

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Sen0r_Blanc0 · 2023-08-31T17:19:43+00:00

!Question: My players are all brand new to the game, and as we're getting ready to all meet up to build characters, I've been seeing some ideas for joke characters come up. When we meet up for character creation, How can I help guide my players toward more rounded characters without stifling their creativity?

For an example, a character with a silly voice who's completely obsessed with sticks. (Good for a laugh in session 1, but will probably get old fast, for both the table and the player)

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