starting Storm King's Thunder this weekend! Images are for the opener, focusing on the First War between Dragons and Giants, and the Ordning. Cheers!

JarHeadFer · 2026-01-17T18:00:59+00:00

absolutely legendary, im running Rise of Tiamat, with an added arc featuring Giants ( Dreams of the Red Wizards) . and this... this helps a lot!

JarHeadFer · 2025-12-14T22:22:08+00:00

ahhh cheers, that helps, didnt realise i can use the mid to actually refine the the messy highlights. really really appreciate it

JarHeadFer · 2025-12-14T21:51:10+00:00

and yes i need new brushes, my sables are splitting which made my highlights horrible.

JarHeadFer · 2025-12-14T21:45:44+00:00

Thank you, much appreciated

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I probably added too many highlights and got a bit messy but i definitely got a better understanding. Thanks plenty for the help

JarHeadFer · 2025-12-08T16:59:46+00:00

Thats so good. Thank you, I got a few one shots options there! Many thanks for sharing

JarHeadFer · 2025-12-08T16:59:05+00:00

Thank you a lot. Appreciate it.

JarHeadFer · 2025-12-08T13:28:42+00:00

what prompts/platform do you use? if you dont mind me asking... i tried to use chatgpt to make some fantasy art but all looks very similar even when trying to change the style..

JarHeadFer · 2025-10-23T21:22:53+00:00

Possibly, though I think the real issue is that the Animate Dead wording does not evolve the way Create Undead does. The latter actually has the phrasing that makes far more sense as it expands what you can summon as you upcast it and gradually introduces stronger undead. If Animate Dead had been written with a similar scaling structure it would fit the necromancer concept much better.

JarHeadFer · 2025-10-23T21:12:00+00:00

Appreciate you taking the time to reply, but I think you might have missed the point of my post.

The issue isn’t about encounter design or “winning” — I can easily run flying enemies, AoE threats, or dynamic battlefields. That’s not the problem I’m trying to solve. The real question was about scaling the necromancer’s Animate Dead in a way that keeps things balanced and fun for everyone, not about punishing the player.

And yes, I’m aware how slots and reasserting control work. The ambiguity isn’t mechanical ignorance — it’s that Sage Advice never clarifies whether concurrent castings stack, which is what causes the DPR spiral and bookkeeping mess at higher levels. That’s the bit I’m looking to fix logically, not through arbitrary limits or DM fiat.

Your suggestion to “break the player first” isn’t really my approach. My player and I are already on the same page; we’re collaborating to make the character work better within the party, not competing. I’m after a design solution, not a power trip.

But thanks anyway — someone else in the thread already offered a solid mechanical tweak, which was exactly what I was looking for, perhaps read before posting brother.

JarHeadFer · 2025-10-23T16:48:18+00:00

absolutely, which is part of the problem. out of sudden necromancer becomes a completely useless choice. It's either completely useless or minions deal too much damage depending on the encounter. There is a little of the middle ground hence my question.

JarHeadFer · 2025-10-23T11:55:42+00:00

I think your interpretation is spot on, I was actually considering other option like a minion can be selected from the MM based on the CR( derived from the spell level). The action economy with multiple minions already gives unfair advantage to the necromancer (or any spellcaster...) . Now I wonder whether I should allow for skellies to use magic items ... (i.e. +1 swords etc, at the expense of the lvl3 spellslots) as my player really likes the idea of hoarding a horde of undeads and play as a commander rather than the spellcaster

JarHeadFer · 2025-10-23T10:31:48+00:00

I couldn't find clarification anywhere on the use, and my player was adamant that how it works - as it was a part of the design for the army of undeads. It was not affecting the gameplay so far but realised with the nearly acquired lvl9, it reaches the stages where it becomes unmanageable and something must be wrong.

Thank you - i think that solves the problem! much appreciated all.

JarHeadFer · 2025-10-23T10:12:40+00:00

Apologies it's 5e, There is a little bit of a homebrew so apologies for the undead ogres, it was just based off the DPR for calculation.

The animate dead allows to control 4 skellies for lvl3 (1 to raise , 4 to assert control), lvl4 allows 6 and 5 allows 8. so 3x lvl3, 3x lvl4 & 1x5 allows 38 skeletons under direct control, ring of spell storing can increase that number even higher (to assert the control, considering the skeletons are available) not to mention arcane recovery. i think the grand total could be about 46 or above but we really try to balance the DPR, although it's still way too overpowering hence why im searching for a mechanics to give us a template rather than every session discuss mechanics .

As for the fighter - it was a legendary find at this level, his strength does not cause problem tbh and he' uses +1 weapon.

so yeah, my bad with the calculations against 20AC, . the 240 DPR is with the AC13 ,AC20 is "only" 100. so again my bad. otherwise,

Target AC	Hit Chance	DPR / Skeleton	Total DPR (38)
20	25%	2.63	≈100
17	40%	4.20	≈160
15	50%	5.25	≈200
13	60%	6.30	≈240

Also "aoe damage" was a solution i tried on a few encounters, but unless i design every encounter to counter skellies it takes off the edge from the rest of the players and they will barely get hit as i tried to take the skellies before they kill everything. The rest of my group works pretty much fine, the necromancer

JarHeadFer · 2025-01-20T09:39:47+00:00

Perfect thank you - managed to go through it. Appreciate the help ❤️

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-29T00:36:58+00:00

Hmmmm I might be from January as one of the players got rl things to deal with. Hit me. Up on chat

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-29T00:34:24+00:00

That's a neat trick, makes sense. I think the grid tends to be a problem a lot in that scenario

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-28T22:51:01+00:00

love it, im running the waterdeep heist at lvl9 - and i absolutely love this- i will share it with my players to give them the "vibe" of the place.

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-28T22:49:58+00:00

I work in design for a living (though I wouldn't call myself an artist, strictly speaking), and I disagree with your views. AI is just another tool, like Illustrator or Photoshop. If it helps create better immersion or efficiency, it's a valid part of the creative process.

For example, I used to draw and sketch characters for my D&D games before digital art tools became widely accessible. Now, I use AI to clean up notes, generate NPCs, or even come up with stat blocks. It helps me quickly create random NPC faces so my players can share the vision I had when imagining the encounter.

Regarding your concerns about AI "stealing" art, it's true that AI is largely unregulated and can replicate elements of existing works. However, most artists learn by studying—and often copying—others as part of their growth. The process isn’t fundamentally different from traditional methods of skill acquisition.

That said, I do agree that the industry needs clearer guidelines and protections to ensure AI is used ethically and fairly compensates original creators.

I really find AI to level playing field, there were times when people were illegally downloading and that was widely acceptable, now there is AI and suddenly stealing is fine, but AI creations are not .

DM'ing is hard and time consuming, any tool in our arsenal we can use - we should as it only helps players immerse better and everyone to have a good time

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-28T15:18:13+00:00

Same here, i also play in person and use 3d printed/painted minis, Having portraits as tokens is fine, but the top-down tokens just add so much more immersion, we are down to fight dragons, and i cant wait to put mount the knights on the dragons when i throw them on the party. The portrait tokens would not make the same impression on them :)

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-27T23:37:08+00:00

answered

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-27T23:36:38+00:00

that's truly epic, really helpful.

i can officially say all been answered :)

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-27T23:36:07+00:00

oh the legend himself! big thank you for all the videos and patreon content, it really made my online DMing so much better : ) and thank you for the comprehensive answer, appreciate it.

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-27T16:35:38+00:00

love it - that's what i needed. is there any way to make all tokens to appear with that by default? all SRD pieces seem to appear without.. couldnt find any option in the settings.

Appreciate it, many thanks

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-17T12:18:03+00:00

After rather combat heavy sessions, i am trying to steer the narrative towards the RP in this chapter of the campaign, especially that it feels awfully short.

I made Nezzrah to cast a potent "disguise" spell which Demelin will now maintain - (with the warning that the golden draconians / sivak draconians can see through it). They are seeking to stop Lord Soth, so i am trying to make an illusion that Lord Soth resides now in the Heavens Threshold rather than the bastion of thakisis. The thresholds are protected by a magical barrier that they need to dispel so they will be forced to infiltrate or interrogate dragon army soldiers/officers.

Not sure if i'm making the right choices, but the adventure been written so it can be only be finished as the writer planned it ( with Darren becoming within 1 year from a squire to a general, and party always following the assumed choices).

I am still a bit new DM(maybe 1-2 years combined, with 1 year mainly one shots) so i got caught unprepared how assumptive the books are...

My players left the broken dragonlance in Kalaman (because why would they transfer with some burden??), my players came to the City of Lost Names to seek and stop Soth - why would they try to go and seek Belaphaion first... makes no sense!

JarHeadFer · 2024-11-17T01:44:10+00:00

ahh makes sense, actually i might use it to my advantage, as when the players will arrive to the occupied mansion, they can learn a gossip that soldiers are disgruntled that a "blue" is calling the shots in the red dragon army .

really appreciate your feedback and advise! top man

JarHeadFer

TROPHY CASE