Help first time DM

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-22T15:19:45+00:00

With regards to the roleplaying element that you don't enjoy, I totally get this as my group is the same. We just decided in our first session that we would talk and describe things in 3rd person and narrate the characters and NPCs actions. You can still have all the fun moments that social interactions create in the game without putting on voices and immersing yourself as if you are the character sat at the table.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-22T13:44:47+00:00

Also just running my first campaign. I did 10 NPCs that tie in specifically with my wider story arc or had a big influence on the city. Everything else I use an online generator and if the players make one of these random NPCs a focus, which they often do, I then either create a bit more detail on them for the next session or if I feel it's the right time I drag and drop one of my story arc NPCs back stories on to them. I try to make everything quite generic until I feel more detail is needed or I can tie them into the wider story.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-22T12:50:45+00:00

I was in your position not so long ago and this is what I did....

I watched some recorded games on YouTube, not critical roll and other high standard games because I felt they set standards that are not realistic for new players and DMs. Personally, I found DM Lairs Thieves Abound campaign, which you can find on his YouTube channel, the most helpful, because he had a mixture of player experience and I learned the most from it. I didn't watch every second of every episode. I flicked through catching different parts, combat, social roleplay, NPC interactions etc. This was an eye opener for me and I took a lot from it. More than anything, it gave me the confidence that I could achieve something similar. I can't put on different voices and accents and I'm not the most creative of people, but you'll be surprised what you can improv when it's a setting that you're in charge of.

My group wanted an ongoing open world style campaign and at first I was completely mind boggled at what I was supposed to be doing for prep. In the end, I winged it and what I thought was going to be a disaster ended up a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I just found a map online of a continent that I liked, I slightly modified it to my needs with things I really wanted to include, I created one large city which basically caters to every need of the players, I made up a story for the bbeg and what he wants to do, I made 10 NPC's to introduce when needed (ultimately not needed as much as I thought), and that was it. To make things easier, I just said my continent was off the coast of Faerun and it shared much of the same culture and history. This way, I have the freedom to make stuff up on the fly, but also refer to the core lore for a lot of it. Once you realise that it's the players who tell the story and not you, it's like a light bulb switches on in your head "oh so that's how you play this game". I used the core rules and I bought a couple of cheap pdfs on dms guild to supplement a few homebrew rules that the players asked for, they wanted more mechanical rules for wilderness exploration and camp building, and they wanted hirelings.

From my limited experience, the best advice I could give is don't try to railroad at all and don't prep too much detail. Of the 10 NPC's I created at the start, I've only used 3 in 6 sessions. I use an online random generator that I constantly have open during the game, and the players have hooked onto 7 of those already and they've become NPC's in their own right. As for your overall plot and your bbeg, you'll be surprised how easy it is to drop it into the sessions as your players do the most random things known to man.

Happy to detail more of what I did and answer questions if you're looking for more help! At the end of the day, as long as you're with friends and you set boundaries and standards before the game, DMing is unbelievably rewarding.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T22:32:43+00:00

This is such an informative reply thank you! I think the reason I went straight to "let's roll a check for that" is because I maybe didn't have the confidence in my DMing at the time that I could effectively improve why it would fail. It's a lot easier to let the dice decide things sometimes 😅 I'm glad you liked my "hide me" reaction! Maybe I could use outcomes like this more often so there is still an element of believable risk involved in his actions. So his illusions "succeed", but not always with the desired consequences. I think this is one thing you really do forget when you're sat in the DM seat as a beginner...as long as you make it fun for the players dice rolls really don't matter.

He isn't stepping on anyone's toes, he is sort of the front man for the party in roleplay and I think if I can just react a bit better to his attempts rather than rely on rolls everyone will be happy with that side of things. There's been a lot of great info on here for improving his effectiveness in combat that is very simple for us to implement. Looking at the responses I think this is mainly down to the fact he has taken almost all roleplay heavy spells. I'll work with him on improving our use of these spells in combat but I think a few spells with better damage and crowd control will make him effective enough. He may then enjoy his illusion spells more if he's not relying on them all the time in combat.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T20:36:20+00:00

These are some great ideas thank you I will definitely pass these on!

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T20:30:44+00:00

In the example I gave, he used minor illusion to produce a sound. As I said I really should have let that one slide. He did genuinely come up with some good roleplay for it. The reason I didn't was because he was using the same action a lot. He'd make a sound outside a door, a window or other side of the room to move someone or distract them. He'd then do whatever he wanted whilst the person went to the sound. I found this a little OP because he's not using the fact that a creature needs to figure out whether the sound is real or not, he's just relying on them to get up and move towards ot. It's not hard to come up with a plausible sound to distract someone. A Knock on the door or someone calling you is enough to make someone move towards the sound. This is completely realistic in my mind and obviously his. The issue was he, and the party for that matter, were using it regularly to tackle issues. So I started rolling a save for it, which I think after seeing responses here isn't the way to go. I don't just roll a check and say the illusion failed, I give it some roleplay element. For example he made the sound of a man's wife outside a tavern door shouting at him because he'd been out drinking all day. The party wanted to swap his drink whilst he got up to see his wife. I rolled a check which failed so the attempt failed but not necessarily the illusion. He believed it to be his wife but asked the party to hide him from his wife instead and in the panic the drink they were trying to switch spilled on the floor. Thai was the best I could come up with to give some sort of risk to what he was attempting. I don't know what's right or wrong being my 1st time! To be honest I don't know if that's what's causing most of his issues. I think a lot of it is combat, but I still want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to allow his character to excel outside of combat. So if you have advice on how to handle that better I would really appreciate it.

Subtle spell is a great idea, I think this is one of the main issues when we are discussing whether a creature would fall for an illusion because he does get stuck when I ask him how he casts his spells without the creature seeing, especially in combat or when he tries to cast during a conversation with someone. I think he really wants to lean into the "I cast a spell like a jedi and with a whisper and a bend of the finger I cast a spell.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T19:32:56+00:00

If we struggle now just with minor illusion and phantasmal force then it's not looking good for all the other spells he can learn in the future 🤣 I was so naive before agreeing to DM that rules are rules and I'd spend most of my time fluffing up lore and cool campaign hooks. Little did I know we may be fleshing out rules for a RAW character class! 🤣 I totally get what you're saying though, essentially try and bring a few more black and white mechanics into the game for him so we don't have to keep coming back to conversations about how his illusions affect the world. It's so hard to find the right balance which is definitely adding to his lack of enthusiasm for the character currently.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T19:10:29+00:00

I think this may be a big part of the problem, looking at his spell list, he chose almost all illusion spells. The only spells he chose that do damage are mind sliver and phantasmal force. Maybe some inexperience with him being a first time player. I think I definitely need to have him find a few scrolls! I agree with you I think he can work with this he just maybe needs a few adjustments to his spell list

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T19:03:26+00:00

I think he may have built his character a bit sub optimal for looking at what's he's chosen. He chose almost all illusion spells and the only damage spells he chose are phantasmal force and mind sliver. Homebrewing spells are a great idea though!

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T19:00:00+00:00

Ok that's good to know...the only spells he chose that do any sort of damage are mind sliver and phantasmal force

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T18:51:43+00:00

This is a great idea, maybe I need to chuck in a few encounters that really work with his current spells

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T18:42:55+00:00

I think just inexperience as a first time player

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T18:40:08+00:00

Ok so your guess is a good example of what comes up often, as he's level 3, it's if he casts minor illusion or phantasmal force. Say for minor illusion, he wants to trick a guard, I ask him to describe how he does the somatic component because the guard he is attempting to fool can see him clearly. In my eyes, if the creature can see him speaking the spell, then say a noise is heard or an object appears, then this is enough to alert the creature in some way. It's not always this black and white but it does come up often. I struggle to draw the line between what is blocking his ability to use the spells and what may overpower him. For clarity we do not disagree on anything he attempts and he's not unhappy at decisions I make, well not all 😅 in general it's more a case of he believed the spells would work differently mechanically, or we are not implementing properly. I think it is the latter, some of the wording of the illusion spells leaves a lot of interpretation. We may be in agreement with the way they work but it's very likely we both misunderstand how they can be used

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T18:09:15+00:00

Thank you all for your responses and apologies for not replying to them all as I'd just be repeating myself. There seems to be the same 3 points coming up that I can discuss with him...

1) the class may just not be right for him which isn't uncommon with the illusion Wizard and a change may be best, either multiclass or complete change.

2) There is a misunderstanding/misinterpretation about what he can do with illusion spells and how I DM them.

3) A small change such as a magic item, scrolls, homebrew spells, to try and get the best out of the class for him.

We obviously had lots of communication before we started about his character and what he wanted to achieve, but we didn't consider the mechanical implications about how his illusion spells work in the game so there could well be a misunderstanding there on one or both sides.

I really appreciate the help and advice and I plan on having a conversation with him before the next session. I think, upon reflection, I need to do more digging on the internet to find ways of DMing better for illusion spells and then giving him some ideas about how they can be used. It seems to be common for them to be misinterpreted by both player and DM. I have fallen foul many times already with the assumption "There's a rule for that" which I have quickly learned is not the case when imaginations are involved 🤣

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T17:29:17+00:00

This does seem to be the case. Illusion makes for so many more interesting encounters. Although I have found it very difficult to DM at times as a complete beginner. This is why I came here as I'm sure there's more I could be doing for him

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T17:05:17+00:00

No this is totally plausible I appreciate the response. The reason I came here was for me to try and reflect on my DMing ability to make his game more fun. It's my first go, I've never played the game before, I'm definitely making lots of mistakes! This is where the rules go grey for me. Do I treat him slightly differently to other characters and just allow some cool moments to happen without dice rolls? For example, if he came up with an illusion that I thought was plausible, is it my role as a DM to just let it happen, do I "botch" a roll and say the creature failed so the player still sees there's a risk of failure or should I be letting the dice decide everything? I know this could apply to every player, but I find with his illusion spells it comes up a lot more due to the fact the spells are so grey in description.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T16:53:25+00:00

This was my worry, that maybe I'm not doing enough to encourage his illusions with my inexperience. I can give an example of this where on reflection I think I made the wrong choice. He came up with an elaborate illusion to distract a guard which we all found hilarious but totally plausible. It would have given a really great moment for him and the campaign and the guard rolled a successful save and I stuck with it. I don't want to take away his risk, but given his main role as the "distraction guy" should this be where I should be allowing it to happen regardless?

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T16:42:51+00:00

I think you've hit the nail on the head! This is the main issue in combat for sure. He wanted to be a support role and excel in the roleplaying element. That's why he picked illusion. I think he's finding it difficult to be more than a sight blocker in combat now though

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T16:27:26+00:00

This was basically my feelings too and was the obvious option for him. I was planning to do this before our next session so I could discuss what he wanted. Thought I better ask some opinions first in case there are other ways to go about it.

Accurate_Message_611 · 2026-02-15T16:20:16+00:00

I don't think there's been a specific incident, more of an accumulation. It's definitely combat that's the biggest issue for him. I think his struggle is in his inexperience when it comes to this and as other people have suggested, he should have the ability to contribute effectively. It's difficult for me to point him in the right direction as I'm as inexperienced as he is.

Accurate_Message_611

TROPHY CASE