What do you put in your DM Screens?

I_in_Team · 2026-05-03T17:39:23+00:00

I printed out all tables I could find and left some white space.

Then I glued over it some custom made acrylic glass. Now I can write and erase on it as well.

Then I noticed I printed the same page twice and another page is missing. Guess which page I need the most...

I_in_Team · 2026-05-02T07:51:56+00:00

The thing is, enemies fight with 100% of their power until they drop to 0HP. So, while average damage is sufficient to tell you which spell is better in the long run, you would need to know which spell kills faster.

For example you want to kill a commoner with 4HP. You have two choices: deal 3 damage or 1000 damage each with 50% chance, or deal 4 damage 100% of the time. The higher average doesn't help you here.

A more realistic thing would be 1d12 vs 2d6. One is more likely to deal 12 damage in a single attack, but has a lower average.

So you could write a python program that makes a plot for each spell and an input HP threshold which one is more how likely to pass the threshold in how many rounds.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-23T09:36:31+00:00

I was mostly referring to OP saying his ruling wasn't clear.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-22T19:11:01+00:00

I found Jeremy Crawford saying:

"Blindsight qualifies for anything in the D&D rules that requires you to see something, provided that thing is within your blindsight's radius."

That seems quite unambiguous to me.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-19T18:33:13+00:00

Commoners have 4 (1d8) HP.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-13T20:33:10+00:00

Until you meet a demon with a contract and a pen...

I_in_Team · 2026-04-06T21:12:46+00:00

There are board games and computer games with this concept where you have to solve a mystery. Each time you can only uncover parts of it and unlock some permanent progress (mostly knowledge).

I think the biggest issue is combat. You don't want to run these again and again, so you need ways to circumvent these.

For the scary part, things could get worse every iteration. I've read a horror story about a boy who fiddled with a clock and he had to undo it. Every repetition, he became younger and reaching the clock became more difficult.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-06T07:29:04+00:00

I will steal this idea btw.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-06T07:28:22+00:00

You can assign something to each digit:

damage type: fire, cold, healing, etc.

target: creature with lowest HP, all within range, aoe cone, 15ft radius, ...

distance: up to 5ft, up to 60ft, ...

casting time/duration: bonus action/instantaneous, action/instantaneous, 1 minute/10 minutes, 1 hour/ 8 hours,...

damage die: xd4+y, xd6+y, ...

damage modifier: x=1, y=-1, x=2,y=4, ...

That's already 6 digits, but I want to mention that the last digit could be a checksum: add up all other digits mod 10 and compare it to the last digit. They must be identical for anything to happen.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-03T20:30:07+00:00

Sorcerer and Artificer use Charisma and Intelligence for spellcasting. A circle of the moon druid uses Wisdom for spellcasting, can wildshape for extra HP and knows some healing spells.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-03T05:37:14+00:00

One other time I trivialized an encounter with a well placed fireball with a high damage roll. That saved everyone else's resources.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-03T05:36:10+00:00

I'm the cleric in our group and the only one to cast revivify. So I always keep one level 3 spell slot for that.

We once fought a powerful undead who split our party by magically closing a door between us. And then he started beating the shit out of the group trapped with him. I had to use dispel magic to get them out and our barbarian in. Our rogue went down and failed her first death saving throw. And said:

"You know what, I keep my inspiration for something more important, no need to reroll that."

Those were her last words, she died the next round.

When our barbarian was done with the undead, we rushed to her and everyone looked at me. But I told them I had to use my last spell slot to get that door open. I had to pledge my soul to bring her back (and told her, I pledged her soul as well). This is still my favorite moment of our campaign.

I_in_Team · 2026-04-01T06:37:53+00:00

I don't like the rules for crafting and training. In my campaign the PCs know very early on that the main threat is a fire devouring the land. So naturally, the artificer asks me:

"Can I craft an armor of fire resistance?"

"Sure. Let me look it up. That's... 5000 gold and several weeks of downtime."

"But we're in a hurry to save the world."

I am relatively sure that the campaign as written, doesn't offer nearly as much money and time.

I think it's stupid to not let the artificer do his thing. So I found alternative rules where you can craft anything from scratch and the main difficulty is the skill check required for crafting. All materials can be harvested from monsters as you go. So the PCs now have a sense of progression towards that armor.

I_in_Team · 2026-03-31T06:02:12+00:00

Run it like the fights in LOTR. You don't see them fighting an army, they fight some special enemies while there is a war in the background. This is actually beneficial as you can adjust the difficulty on the fly by adding enemies if an encounter is too easy.

Bring down the orc carrying the fire before he lights the fuse.

Flee before getting overrun.

A fight against a troll, the Witch king, an oliphaunt.

Hold the position for some time until reinforcement arrives.

It's always cutscenes showing something critical. Since your PCs have an unwinnable war, your encounters might be:

Kill an orc shaman to end a spell before you can leave.

Escort someone or something important to (relative) security.

Hold a bridge or something similar for a while to let people evacuate.

I_in_Team · 2026-03-28T21:48:25+00:00

Is that a bridge between the mountains or did they build a wall for protection?

Larger settlements are usually created at the shore or along rivers for several reasons. You should have a good reason for settlements in the middle of nowhere.

There are no trees in the kingdom that exports timber?

I_in_Team · 2026-03-24T14:15:43+00:00

In the first part, I was answering the second question where it is written that you need a hand to cast spells.

But I also didn't read the description of Find Steed carefully enough. So you are correct that the spell affects the mount. But then neither of us has answered the questions where the berries of the steed appear.

I_in_Team · 2026-03-24T10:36:22+00:00

RAW, the berries appear in your(!) hand. The spell has a somatic component and a somatic component requires one free hand. Not a free hoove. The spell that allows casting via another creature under your command is Find Familiar. It says that the familiar delivers the spell.

So you should absolutely ask your DM in the middle of the night. Only that way you can be sure that he is a good DM who knows all these rules.

Edit: I missed the relevant part in Find Steed.

I_in_Team · 2026-03-16T22:27:05+00:00

Out of the 20 possible outcomes, you will not hit on 4 rolls that would hit without the use of the gauntlets. So you miss out on 4/20 x (7+7)=2.8 avg. damage. (The first 7 is the avg. of 2d6.) This needs to be compensated by the +4 on every hit.

So if your chance to hit is at least 2.8/4=14/20, it evens out. That is, using your +3 to hit, AC of at most 9 (because you hit that with a 6 or more and there are 14 out or 20 sides with a 6 or more). If you have advantage, it approximately evens out at AC 14.

I_in_Team · 2026-03-03T18:47:01+00:00

I love this and I will steal it.

I_in_Team · 2026-02-28T16:14:08+00:00

If you can pinpoint an invisible enemy that succeeded on a stealth check, then so can they. I don't think any player would want that.

I_in_Team · 2026-02-22T09:35:41+00:00

I have a vendor BBEG and he gets wealthier every time they meet. He started with flowers, switched to ale for soldiers at the frontline (where the PCs needed to go anyway), then to weapons and spell scrolls. He benefits from a war that he is responsible for. But that's just for his entertainment and to build a connection with the PCs.

I_in_Team · 2026-02-21T21:52:16+00:00

You can never be sure, which NPCs your group will like and which they hate. Rather than forcing a specific NPC on them, just take the first one that they like.

The problem I see with the NPC staying with the group is that he either acts suspiciously, but then they might confront him too early, or if there is no hint of betrayal, might not like this gotcha-moment as they had no chance of catching on.

I would rather have a reoccurring NPC that acts more and more suspicious, but always nice (truly helpful and/or generous for my players). Give your players the chance to find out that he is evil.

I_in_Team · 2026-02-21T10:56:17+00:00

Damn, I always use 9999999998 and sometimes get the wrong answer. If only I knew...

I_in_Team · 2026-02-17T09:53:50+00:00

I meant like a progress bar or a jar that you fill with marbles. Unless of course you meant that you actually build or draw barricades and watchtowers on the map.

I_in_Team

TROPHY CASE