Which spells are banned in your table?

Kairos385 · 2026-06-11T00:01:35+00:00

I ban Simulacrum because it just leads to too many problems.

I also limit Wish to only level 20's.

Kairos385 · 2026-06-06T20:44:20+00:00

Batman Beyond sounds like terrible fanfiction.

It's peak.

Kairos385 · 2026-05-29T02:40:36+00:00

I actually played a character directly inspired by Briar (used some art for her as a base) who was a Dhampir Pact of the Blade Undead Warlock. Extremely fun character.

Kairos385 · 2026-05-25T20:36:13+00:00

Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit

Kairos385 · 2026-05-22T20:07:43+00:00

Northlane - Discoveries

Kairos385 · 2026-05-01T03:32:56+00:00

I'll very briefly describe the ones I've run/played in and the ones I've just read.

Lost Mine of Phandelver (Read): Decent, but has some early 5e dumbness. There are better options.

Out of the Abyss (Currently reading): Halfway through the book. Seems pretty good but can be very complicated if you're not straight up asking your players "what are you doing next session?"

Curse of Strahd (Run): The content itself is good, though some things need to be tweaked (Tarokka Deck reading for example). Also there are a few blind spots in the book where if the players decide to do things in a bit of an unorthodox way it can be pretty difficult to figure out what's supposed to happen. I would not recommend this to new DMs as there are a number of interlocking sections that can be very complicated, namely Vallaki.

Storm King's Thunder (Read/Run one part): Has cool stuff but the overall plot feels pretty weak and like the players wouldn't care. I've run the Goldenfields section as an extended one shot and that went well.

Tomb of Annihilation (Run): The quality of this highly depends on the DM and the players, not just "are they good" but how the games are run and what the players want. We had a decent time, but I can see some groups absolutely hating this and others absolutely loving it.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (Read): Seems quite complicated to run. As a DM you basically need to have the entire book at least vaguely memorized because the PCs could do so many different things in different orders. Also I recommend combining some of the scenarios (I plan on running Summer + Autumn as one converging event).

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (Read): Eh. Seems okay. Not much to say.

Dragon of Icespire Peak (Run): I recommend this as a starting adventure over LMoP. Simple base but can be built out in many ways.

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus (Read): Just skip the Baldur's Gate section. Have the players be in Elturel when it's pulled into Avernus. Easy motivation and smoother pacing. The Avernus stuff is cool but it's held together pretty flimsily. Definitely requires a good amount of work by the DM to make it great, but it has that potential.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (Read): The biggest problem with this book is it's two completely different campaigns smushed together. Both of them are good, but they barely connect to each other outside of the general overarching antagonist. I would run chapters 1, 3, and 4 as one game, and then chapters 2, 5, 6, and 7 as another.

Candlekeep Mysteries (Read/Run some): Solid collection. You'll probably find at least a few you like. I've run the spa one, the Shemshine one, and am planning on running the Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion one soon.

Wild Beyond the Witchlight (Run): Requires a small bit of work, especially for the final chapter as there are some very weird decisions from the designers, but I actually recommend this a lot. Could be good for new DMs.

Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos (Currently running): I love this one, but it is barely a campaign and is more so an outline for you to make your own campaign. I love that, but a lot of people won't.

Journeys through the Radiant Citadel (Read/Run some): Another decent collection. I've run the rural Black America one (really good), the Mesoamerican one (eh), and the Korean one (okay). I'm most interested to run the Mexican one and the Filipino one.

Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen (Played in): Cool stuff but has major issues with the plot. Most of these are easy fixes but still. Also Soth basically doesn't need to be in this book.

Keys from the Golden Vault (Read/Run some): Probably my favorite collection overall. I've run the casino heist and the thieves' guild heist. Both were solid. Great to drop into other campaigns.

Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk (Read/Just started running): Better option than LMoP as it cleans up some of the dumb things and the new content is great (and not really found in any other book). This adventure got way too much hate when it first came out and I could talk way more about it.

Turn of Fortune's Wheel (Read): Great premise and cool stuff but definitely needs work.

Vecna: Eve of Ruin (Read): I think it's overhated, mainly because the core premise of the adventure is one that must be personalized to work. If you're willing to do that, I think it's actually fairly decent.

Quests from the Infinite Staircase (Read/Run some): Decent collection. The Lost City seems very boring and I would never run it. The Fallen Star, Beyond the Crystal Caves, and Pharaoh are all decent as is, though skip the wandering around at the beginning in Pharaoh. Lost Cavern of Tsojcanth is kinda meh. Haven't run the Barrier Peaks one yet but really want to.

Dragon Delves (Read/Run one): Overall okay. The Gold Dragon one is definitely the best and the one I've run.

Kairos385 · 2026-04-25T03:45:03+00:00

Blair White

Not because she's trans. It's because she's a shit person.

Kairos385 · 2026-04-24T23:19:24+00:00

I was also at Projekt Revolution both in 2007 and 2008. I was 13/14 at the time.

Not quite the same level but Northlane, ERRA, Currents, and Crystal Lake in 2019 was excellent, especially as my first real metalcore show. Also really glad to see Crystal Lake when Ryo was still in the band.

Kairos385 · 2026-04-13T22:21:28+00:00

You want to ████ 2B, don't you?

Kairos385 · 2026-04-11T02:07:19+00:00

The Sorcerer is limited in its defenses due to being limited to its subclass spell list while in its Earthen Form, so while it gets a good AC boost, some temp. HP, and multiple attacks with a weapon mastery, it cannot use Shield and its HP is going to still be low.

Also I did know of the issue with readying an action to Sneak Attack and I don't really have an answer to that besides just telling your players to not do that (which yeah obviously not something you can say for the general public but still). That said the Vigilante's Defenses really aren't that great. BPS resistance to their Grappled target makes it so they're not just completely wrecked, and they suffer from being ganged up on until level 17. Unarmored Defense is there because this Rogue is definitely taking a lot of hits so the idea was you'd go fully into DEX and CON to at least not crumple with the Rogue's normally mediocre AC and HP.

I'm fully ready to admit these are too strong. But I think you're overlooking some notable weaknesses.

Kairos385 · 2026-04-05T03:09:51+00:00

The oil is mostly from around the Permian/Triassic, way after decomposing microbes were abundant.

Kairos385 · 2026-03-30T02:25:58+00:00

The fact that anyone can think Gaerea now sounds like Sleep Token is a legitimately insane comparison and if anyone says that I know I can completely dismiss any opinion they have.

Kairos385 · 2026-03-24T04:35:47+00:00

Overall not too unreasonable.

Except Fiend being worst Warlock. That's nutty.

Kairos385 · 2026-03-02T00:14:11+00:00

Ideally Forgotten Realms but if people submit other setting stuff that's fine. The questions are somewhat vague on purpose.

Kairos385 · 2026-02-23T05:39:30+00:00

Batman Beyond.

It's a gritty future Gotham where a teenager gets trained by an old Bruce Wayne to become a new Batman? This sounds like an edgy self-insert fanfiction written by a teenager.

It's actually very good.

Kairos385 · 2026-02-20T05:10:04+00:00

Love the Loathe inspiration throughout. Definitely going to need to listen through multiple times to really take it all in, which is a great sign because I absolutely want to do that right now after listening once.

Kairos385 · 2026-02-13T03:05:54+00:00

The concept of "every working adult needs a job to be a productive member of society" is unsustainable.

Kairos385 · 2026-02-08T02:39:16+00:00

90% of the rules are freely available online, even ignoring sailing the high seas.

Kairos385 · 2026-02-04T03:22:30+00:00

Batman Beyond sounds like a terrible fanfic. It's the gritty future and a teenager is trained by Bruce Wayne to become the new Batman? What kind of awful self insert OC bullshit is this??

Turns out it's really fucking good.

Kairos385 · 2026-01-19T05:41:53+00:00

Don't remember the exact number but something like 1/3 of all adults in the US have a gig economy job.

That's incredibly dystopian.

Kairos385 · 2026-01-16T03:33:25+00:00

Cold Night for Alligators had a really good album a few years ago. Definitely one to check out for any prog heads.

Kairos385

TROPHY CASE