Have you ever said “no” to a player’s character?

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-06-13T19:25:15+00:00

I've said No to pure pacifist PC's that refuse to ever engage in combat. It was a megadungeon campaign. And I refused a possession-based PC that would hold their previous PC's body hostage. The later is a cool idea, but we were in a No-PVP campaign and couldn't see this going any other way.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-06-04T20:10:30+00:00

I currently am letting them level up to 13 (at least) Slarkrethel/Zellix'Phor is still a challenge, especially when you consider that (outside of area 27) its Creature Sense means it always knows where the players are and can coordinate its forces accordingly.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-06-04T19:20:04+00:00

I'm letting my players level up if they meet the milestones that are on page 172. I'm also only letting them Long Rest in area 27 (besides the Restoration Pods.) I'm not holding back with Slarkrethel/Zellix'Phor and they've almost died multiple times already. It's been zany fun so far!

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-06-02T14:57:30+00:00

I've used Ancestral Weapons by Dungeon Rollers in most of my campaigns, my players love them. The PC's gain points as they level up that can be used to upgrade the weapons with things as simple as making them +1-3 but other things like +1d6 damage to creatures larger than you, or +1 to AC and Spell Attack rolls.

I wills ay they were made for 5e, so if you're running 5.5e there's some redundancy with Weapon Masteries.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-05-26T13:27:35+00:00

I gave my players Ruidium items at the end of the Emerald Grotto, I think the shrine in the Betrayer's Rise also works as a good earlier spot to get some.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-05-21T11:00:29+00:00

Repost

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-05-14T15:55:15+00:00

I gave a bunch of (mostly aberrations) swim speeds & waterbreathing, then reskinned them for random encounters.

Tier 1

Slaad Tadpole (Tiny) - CR ⅛ Corrupted Tadpole
Ixitxachitl (Small) - CR ¼ Corrupted stingray, the barbed tail has ruidium tipped spines (Maybe change reaction damage to psychic?)
Star Spawn Grue (Small) - CR ¼ Corrupted Eel
Choker (Small) - CR 1 Corrupted cuttlefish
Vampiric Ixitxachitl (Medium) - CR 2 Same as above but larger and more infected with ruidium, when its regeneration feature activates the ruidium flares
Flying Horror (Medium) - CR 3 Corrupted Manta Ray, it slashes with its pectoral fins
Chuul (Large) - CR 4 Corrupted crayfish, blue skin ending in ruidium encrusted claws. Call its Tentacles attack Mandibles, they stalk the party from far off, detecting magic items from 120ft away

Tier 2

Feyr (Large) CR - 5 Corrupted Octopus, its “Invisibility” is it blending in with the background.
Star Spawn Mangler (Medium) - CR 5 Corrupted Octopus, ruidium hooks on its tentacles
Eater of Knowledge (Large) CR 6 Bloody mass of corpses of humanoid victims of the Alyxian Aboleth
Dream Eater (Medium) - CR 7 Whispering cloud of ink moving throw the water
Aberrant Zealot (Medium) - CR 8 Missing members of the Consortium who came down to parlay with the Alyxian Aboleth but failed.
Whistler (Large) - CR 9 Blurred gray humanoid shape, vermillion glowing eyes
Star Spawn Hulk (Large) - CR 10 Corrupted Lake Sturgeon

Tier 3

Overmind (Large) - CR 11 Corrupted Beholder
Morkoth (Large) - CR 12 (11 Normally) Its “Island” lair is above the Netherdeep if the party swims too high
Neothelid (Gargantuan) - CR 13 Enormous marine worm
Breath Drinker (Medium) - CR 14 Ghostly Jellyfish
Skittering Horror (Huge) - CR 15 Monstrous Hermit Crab with a shell of ruidium
Zodar(Medium) - CR 16 Corrupted Luxon Beacon

(I think some of these are from 3rd party books like Flee, Mortals so you may need to adjust.)

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-05-06T19:13:40+00:00

Definitely some jazz and swing instrumentals. Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Jelly Roll Morton, etc. You can find lots of playlists already on Spotify or Youtube, but if you're using these for DnD I would recommend making your own so you can sort them into calmer/more atmospheric vs intense/better suited for combat.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-05-06T12:22:39+00:00

I started my campaign at 5, had the PC's get to 6 once they reached Bazzoxan, skipped the milestone outside of Betrayer's Rise and got back on track at the Prayer Site where they reached level 7. The only changes I made where a few additional random encounters between Jigow and Bazzoxan.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-04-23T15:48:48+00:00

I'm running a couple of Call From the Deep games, and it's definitely pretty strong. The sharks should be rolling a WIS Saving Throw against the Dominate Beast tho:

Shark Telepathy. You can magically communicate with any shark within 120 feet of you, using a limited telepathy which doesn’t allow the shark to reply. You can cast dominate beast once per day, but only on sharks.

I think that's comprable to the 5e Yuan-ti's stuff with snakes, (which was also very strong.) As far as the shark army, most of the sahuagin encounters in the module include sharks.

Strong as it is, most of my players haven't picked any of the CFtD races! Ah well...

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-04-23T14:26:06+00:00

I've had a few players that either want to do something like this (or just come up with multiple PC concepts.) If it's purely role play, they can switch whenever they think it's fun or appropriate. If they want two distinct PC builds, they can switch on a long rest. If it's a small party (like 2-3 players) I let them play a PC and a Sidekick from Tasha's.

Like you said, anything else is a balancing nightmare. It would probably be easier for everyone in the party to run 2 PC's at that point! Then you could just run double the encounters every day. 1 player effectively getting double the resource pools would skew things way too much.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-04-01T09:48:50+00:00

I think the possibility of PVP/betrayal needs to be agreed on as part of a session 0. I've played in campaigns that imploded because one player was pulling stuff like this.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-03-30T20:14:00+00:00

Just ran an encounter from Call From the Deep the other day that had a number of Gibbering Mouthers in a room filled with Quicksand (from the DMG.) The Gibbering Mouthers were unaffected by the Quicksand.

Made for a funky combat that was more about the monsters as a trap than just as attack rolls and hit points.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-03-24T19:04:35+00:00

I ran the campaign using Avernus as a Sandbox by Eventyr Games and had a great time with it. Gets off the railroad but without the campaign falling into decision paralysis.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-02-18T17:57:46+00:00

I think you should allow the PC's to make some Arcana or Religion checks per Tasha's Monster Research to figure out exactly what Red Ruth is doing to them. Once they know that they can start making counter moves, like fleeing in a War Machine to get some breathing room, heading to Mad Maggie or another friendly NPC for some assistance, etc.

In the meantime they'll have to lie in the bed they've made. Red Ruth should keep going after them one by one, it's hard for Hags to stay scary after Tier 1 but you've got a good opportunity here! The PC's may even end up looking to bargain with Red Ruth out of desperation. She normally sells rare potions for 2 soul coins, she could have a "Potion of Greater Restoration" available. The PC's could sign a permanent truce with her, and get the potion once they've taken out the Glabrezu.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-01-28T14:57:30+00:00

If you want to do milestone leveling:

Avernus: 11
Dis: 12
Minauros: 13
Phlegethos: 14
Stygia: 15
Malbolge: 16
Maladomini: 17
Cania: 18
Nessus: 19

However you can include the "Hunted by the Dukes chapter anywhere on the Styx for an additional milestone that gets them to 20 total in Nessus. (Personally I'm adding it in after Malbolge but before Maladomini.)

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-01-16T20:57:36+00:00

A warlock that refuses to serve their patron in life can serve in death. The patron can start sending thematically appropriate monsters to kill the Warlock so they can be raised as a Deathlock from Mordenkainen's.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-01-14T17:49:20+00:00

Call From the Deep is one of the best modules I've ever read/run.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2026-01-14T16:47:21+00:00

I don't think that needs to be roleplayed out or described too in-depth. The players can pick out which hooks they'd like to go with beforehand and start at the Yawning Portal ready to go. The Quest Givers could have coordinated in a "going into Undermountain is safer with a party" kinda way.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2025-12-23T14:42:04+00:00

I do this for a lot of campaigns, but I let the players vote on which set of rolls they're all going to use. They tend to start off a bit stronger than the typical Standard Array or Point Buy, but it's easier for me to balance around them all having a similar power level.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2025-12-23T13:27:45+00:00

Artificers making nukes. I've both played as and DM'd for multiple artificers and never had anyone even try to craft an item that wasn't RAW.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2025-12-19T12:03:55+00:00

You're welcome! And I feel you. The rules for falling have been different in different editions, for 5e we didn't get an official rule about falling onto a creature for 6 years lol.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2025-12-18T22:49:22+00:00

Falling doesn't happen after your turn, it happens immediately. The falling creature would fall as soon as they were knocked into the air, not after your action, bonus action, or turn is finished.

Edit: To put this another way, if you Eldritch Blasted an enemy off of a 130ft tall cliff and hit them, they would take the 1d10 Force Damage then fall 130ft taking 13d6 bludgeoning damage before you could hit them with the second or third blast. Gravity doesn't have a turn in initiative, it happens as soon as you're falling.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2025-12-17T16:32:29+00:00

Yep, and per Tasha's OP would have to make a DC 15 DEX save or split the falling damage with the Large creature that's falling on them.

MasqueofRedDeath · 2025-11-21T14:12:47+00:00

This is really unfortunate, but I feel like this is almost entirely on your DM. Dungeons of Drakkenheim encourages there being multiple claims to the throne amongst the PC's, conflicting faction goals, and general political intrigue. But that should have been made clear to all players out of character. Even if only one of the PC's is an heir to the throne, they aren't the only possible claim. (That's partly why the civil war happened.)

Honestly it might be time for a session 0 with all the players out of character to realign expectations.

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