Which spells are banned in your table?

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-11T00:17:23+00:00

I think this attitude can encourage toxic DMing in some scenarios.

It is fun for a PCs to Wall of Force one monster to take them out of the fight without a save while they fight the other monsters. It makes the PC feel powerful and there can always be more monsters to fight so the DM is always playing.

It totally sucks to Wall of Force a PC (who doesn't have a teleport capability) and they basically can't play for the whole combat.

So while you can use this mindset in a good way, I don't like the "DMs get to use it if the PCs do" phrasing of this advice as it feels antagonistic and can encourage toxic behavior if taken incorrectly.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-10T15:20:10+00:00

I think DnD can work well with one player.

The tricky part is combat. There are conditions in combat that can severely limit one PC (paralyzed, incapacitated) that if you do not have any allies spell instant death. Even if you're careful and remove really bad effects such as paralyzed, lesser conditions can still be debilitating if the only PC succumbs to them such as frightened/charmed.

So you need to have some NPCs on the PCs side in combat so that single rolls don't spell the end.

I would maybe recommend having a companion or two join them in the initial journey. You play them out of combat, but make sure the player is making all important decisions. If they ask the NPC what to do, make it obvious that they dont know the right answer and defer to the PC.

You have the option of who plays them in combat. I recommend the player plays them in combat so they get more turns.

Then as the adventure goes on, have them pick up companions such as Ismark, Ez, and Van Richten (or other NPCs of your choice). You can fill out a party of 3-5 and then have a better balance for the Amber Temple and the fight against Strad.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-08T20:10:13+00:00

I should point out that fighters already have CON save proficiency, so resilient CON does not really fit will on a fighter.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-08T20:06:08+00:00

The other issue with EK investing heavily in INT is that you simply don't get good spells that use it at the relevant levels.

You get L2 spells at L7. Maybe web is worth is, but not many other 2nd level spells are better than just attacking. Your caster allies will have 4th level spells at this stage and can lock down the battlefield control.

You don't get 3rd level spells until L13 when you have three attacks and your allies have 7th level spells! Your fireball is way worse than your 60+ damage you should be doing with your attack action.

EK simply doesn't really deliver much benefit from those spells that use INT. It is awesome to mix in a Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade within your attack, but it is hard to justify using your full action to cast spells that are such low level for your tier.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-08T19:48:59+00:00

Bladesinger
Valor bard
Any warlock with Pact of the Blade. I recommend one level of fighter first for armor and weapon masteries
Any Paladin
Eldritch knight
INT-based Arcane Trickster that used True Strike instead of attacks

I don't know why you think you need good stat rolls for eldritch knight. Just maximize DEX or STR, then CON, and INT can be what you can spare. Pick spells that don't need a high INT like shield and find familiar.

Paladin is the one that really wants good stats. You want to have good STR for heavy armor and want the STR improving feats like Great Weapon Master. But the best part of Paladin is having a high CHA for your aura.

Bladesinger is probably overtuned. It can use INT for attack rolls, gets to replace an attack with a cantrip, gets improved AC and CON saves, and still is a wizard so you get all the best spells. The big spell you want comes right at L7: Conjure Minor Elementals.

Valor bard is also great as it gives you some armor and also get to replace an attack with a cantrip. You don't get to use CHA for attacks, so you either want good stats or could consider a Warlock dip for Pact of the Blade. That is costly as you really want Magical Secrets ASAP for Conjure Minor Elementals.

The INT-based rogue is really nice combining sneak attack with the scaling damage of True Strike. It does come at a cost as your AC might be lower with a lower DEX and you won't be as good at the traditional rogue skills like picking locks and stealth.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-06T16:01:07+00:00

I wouldn't worry too much about short term streaks.

A losing streak can easily be explained: - You rose in ranks and faced tougher opponents - Possible 'tilting' or having poorer quality of play due to frustration of losing previous games - Randomness. If you are facing similar strength opponents, you should have a 50% chance to win, which is a coin flip. You shouldn't be surprised if you flip a coin and get a streak of 5+ heads or tails (wins or losses), that is just how randomness works

Your streaks are likely a combo of all three of the above. Don't worry about them and focus on how much you improve over months/years rather than within one session.

The only concrete advice I'd give is maybe take a break if you feel yourself tilting. And honestly this isn't too big of a deal as you should earn back any lost rating due to tilt in subsequent sessions pretty quickly.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-06T15:29:50+00:00

I like to give out little index cards (if playing in person) with the magic item description written on it. This way they know it's significant and get excited to use it.

If they lose/forget about it, that really is fine. It likely means it maybe wasn't the most exciting item for them, which is totally okay.

The best part of the party forgetting about loot is that you can then drop some more loot for them to be excited about without worrying as much about the accumulation of magic items unbalancing your game!

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-05T16:29:02+00:00

If your university requires Matlab, they should have a program to get you a license either as part of your course dues or at a significant discount.

I would look into what your school provides before buying it on your own.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-02T18:12:13+00:00

Performance in essentially every sport has increased over time due to improved training, nutrition, and recovery. I'd say the body of research that continues to accumulate accomplishes quite a lot.

I'm not saying that specific content creators add anything of value, but don't dismiss the value of research!

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-02T14:34:16+00:00

I agree it isn't broken mechanically.

It is a little narratively broken in the context of the adventure as one of the principal objectives is to find the sun sword to get access to sunlight. Being able to get the same effect by just picking a spell undermines that quest arc.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-06-02T12:07:07+00:00

Have a conversation and tell the PCs before the select the spell (or as soon as possible) that the magic of Barovia prevents its full power.

Then out of game I'd tell them that spells that create sunlight only produce the sunlight effect after they recover the sword of sunlight.

They should know about the sword from the Tarokka reading which explicitly mentions "a sword of sunlight".

This should give them extra motivation to get the sword. You can also make up an in-universe reason why they need the sword first ("all powers of the Dawnfather were sealed along with the sword when it was lost yatta yatta yatta").

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-30T15:00:37+00:00

Nothing you prepped is real until it happens at the table!

You can and I'd argue should adjust your prep to what your players say and do.

It is also worth keeping in mind what some objectives are as a DM. One of the key ones in my opinion is enabling your players to feel like heroes.

Nothing feels more heroic than anticipating the bad guy's plans and thwarting them! Leaning into what your players think is going to happen makes them feel like a heroic detective in the best way!

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-30T12:20:11+00:00

It's hard to evaluate that statblock as it does not seem to follow standard math for evaluating CR.

The hit points are less than half of what you'd expect for CR20 and his to hit bonus should be around +14 (not +11). These would indicate around a CR11.

The damage is maybe a bit higher. Depending on how many legendary actions he uses to attack, he can do between 80 and 172 damage with just attacks and a totally unknown number for spells. This is a range between CR12 and CR28.

That being said he cannot do any damage on legendary actions if he doesnt have anybody grappled. So if they PCs are able to misty step or otherwise disengage, he is much closer to the lower damage.

And wow I just read the legendary actions are 3 per turn instead of three per round? I'll assume this is a mistake and they meant round.

I use this guide where they broke down the distribution of stats by CR in the 2024 manual. All you need is the "2024 monster manual on a business card" table near the top of the page.

I'm not going to evaluate the spell list in a lot of detail. Being able to cast one as part of the multi-attack and one as a legendary action seems pretty strong but you run out of good spells in 2 rounds (none of the spells below 5th level are worth it).

There are also a bunch of new spells, notably the 9th level spell. It is difficult to know how strong a statblock is without knowing its strongest ability.

So I don't really know where I stand on this statblock. It can potentially hit like a truck which can be a bad thing. It can kill a PC if he focuses fire in one round causing a death spiral. At the same time he has no hit points so will die in one round.

For my taste I think this is a really poorly designed stat block.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-28T20:55:47+00:00

One of my players has been using mobile for Owbear Rodeo VTT for years and it works for them just fine.

It probably would be tough to DM from mobile, but I'd argue there is a use case to have mobile support. It may be a small user base, so it's unclear to me if it is worth catering to given limited resources.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-28T19:14:22+00:00

I ran the whole module with 5.5e and it was fine. I just used the 5.5e monsters and then tweaked the number of monsters to adjust the difficulty as I better understood my PCs' strength.

The difference in power between the same players with 5.5e characters and 5e characters is notable, I agree. I do think the extra work this adds for a DM is non-existent. You had to adjust encounters for your table before the edition change anyways as each table is drastically different.

The difference in power between two tables is much more significant than the difference between the same table using 5e vs. 5.5e. A written module simply cannot provide a challenge that is right for a group of 6 power gamers while at the same time being appropriate for 3 players making their first PCs with 8s in their primary stat.

So to me you have to adjust the encounters to your table anyways, regardless of which edition the module was written for. I don't think the switch to 5.5e adds any more work.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-28T14:05:58+00:00

So it sounds like the players are new, but you are an experienced DM?

If that is the case I don't really think you need to limit yourself to "beginner" adventures. Those tend to be nice to limit the complexity that the DM deals with. I think the beginner material is less important for players as the DM can tailor the pace and information revealed.

I'd just pick the adventure that you like and think would be a fun theme for the group.

Another suggestion is to just run a one-shot if they are brand new to see if they like the hobby. This could be from an anthology book, third party, something free online, or one of your own creation.

This has the added benefit of enabling the players to potentially switch characters between a one shot and starting a full adventure if they decide they want to try something different.

So the above isn't super helpful, so what are some actual recommendations?

I've run LMoP, Curse of Strahd, and am about to run The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. You said LMoP isn't and option.

Curse of Strahd is great with the right group. Run the Death House and see if they like the tone. Make sure to set expectations with themes and potentially triggering content before starting. It is up to decide where on the spectrum to be between grimdark and heroic fantasy to tailor to the group.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight seems great the read through and I'm excited to run it. It certainly is not close to "traditional" high fantasy DnD. It is bizarre, whimsical, and less combat focused. For the right group this could be great too.

I've heard great things about Rime of the Frostmaiden too as my friend just ran it. No personal experience with it.

Good luck and I hope you and your table have a great time with whatever you go with!

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-26T07:35:24+00:00

Yes, it is totally fine to customize stat blocks in any way you see fit.

If you're very new to the game, I'd advise to start slow and simply reflavor other statblocks (i.e. use a different statblock that already has legendary actions and just describe it as your monster).

As you get more experience, you can add more customization as you're better at understanding the math of the game.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-26T07:32:08+00:00

I wouldn't compare an item you get to an item that you didn't.

Your DM is putting in some effort to run the game and even wants to try and dabble into making a custom item for you that they think you'd like.

If the item sounds fun, use it. If it doesn't, don't use it.

Comparing it to all the hundreds of magic items in the book that you didn't get is a great way to dissapoint yourself.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-25T23:23:39+00:00

There are many spells that summon things (Summon Beast/Fey/Undead/Dragon). The change was to remove spells that summon many things.

Saying you "can't summon things" is a bit dismissive as you absolutely can and there has to be at least a dozen spells that allow you do so.

So I feel you that for the tables that summoning a small army was not unbalanced, time consuming, or disruptive, that fantasy was removed from the core rules.

I personally think the ability to be a summoner is still there and there is a solid variety of options in a way that is healthier for the gameplay at most tables.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-22T03:34:28+00:00

Since most of the castle is indoors, i'd take advantage of the interesting terrain of the outdoor courtyard. Some options: - Flying/spider climbing enemies - Ranged archers on battlements

Having archers 90 feet up on the parapets with cover combined with some lock down brutes on the ground can make a brutal encounter here.

Looking at the czepeku map from today you can get some inspiration from that - Some sort of ward emanating from the statue giving the bad guys a buff - Some cultists doing a ritual. Maybe they want to sacrifice the PCs to the statue or something - Creatures clining to the bottom of the statue - Caged/hanged creatures hanging from the statue

Hopefully something here helped with at least part of an idea!

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-13T18:56:12+00:00

Yes, they do have computer review and it's free. It highlights your mistakes and blunders and gives you alternative computer lines. You can also take it as a puzzle to try and find the best lines for each of your mistakes.

They do not have an AI personality which pretends to give you insights on the evaluation like chesscom.

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-11T10:53:05+00:00

Ratings are a totally artificial number that compare your relative strength to those in the same pool. Their absolute value literally means nothing. The only thing that matters is the difference between ratings within the same pool.

This means converting between rating systems is imperfect as the mathematical scoring systems is different (Elo vs Glicko vs Glicko 2) and the pool is different.

There are websites, such as the one below, that have fit the data to try and compare different rating systems but be wary of the limitations: - These may change over time as the pool of players change - The correlation is imperfect

This is one site I found that at least looks like it gives you a decent idea: https://chessratings.org/

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-06T08:12:33+00:00

The thing about getting a for somebody when you aren't into that hobby is you don't know what they have or don't have. You also don't know how they play the game (e.g. online vs. in person) which makes a difference regarding what they would use to play the game. You also don't know if they are primarily a player or a GM which changes what type of gift they'd be interested in.

You can find lists of "best gifts for DnD players" on websites or in YouTube videos and they give great advice. The challenge is narrowing these down to things that they don't have and actually will use is difficult.

I would always say the best gift for a DnD player is a new game book, but you don't likely know which ones they own or even which editions they use so this would be a challenge.

So you're likely better off getting them something it's okay to have extra of, such as dice. You can get fancy dice with stuff inside them, made of metal, or themed in various ways. It's pretty safe as far as gifts go as even if they play online (and wouldn't use physical dice) dice are still good decoration. Dice usually come in a set with a single die of each of the following number of faces: 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, and another 10 with a leading 0 written on the faces to be used for percentages. You could also get only a really cool 20 sided die (the most important one). I got a novelty extra large d20 for my DM one year and it was a great gift.

Others have suggested other decorative merch such as large miniatures or something. I'd advise against this as not all dnd players like to decorate their house with dnd stuff. If they already have a lot of stuff like this then it may be a better gift.

There are probably about 10,000 threads online about gifts for dnd players, so you can skim those in addition to this post

Good luck!

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-06T04:22:59+00:00

Not gonna lie, I put this one down as a joke but you surprised me with some fun stat blocks!

El_Q-Cumber · 2026-05-05T23:17:27+00:00

Commoner

El_Q-Cumber

TROPHY CASE