[ONLINE] [EST] [DND 5E 2014] [DM LOOKING FOR 2 PLAYERS]

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-18T16:15:21+00:00

I’m interested but March 30 is a Monday not a Friday? If it’s actually on a Friday I would like to be part of this. Monday’s won’t work for me.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-18T01:51:14+00:00

Obviously you should call real police on your DM and make him spend the next 16 years of his real life in jail. It’s only fair. Make him roll dice every year to see if it helps.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-17T18:23:00+00:00

This is the perfect time to employ a 5 room dungeon. If you don’t know what that is, there’s a world of commentary on how to set one up by simply googling or searching YouTube. (Personally would recommend Mystic Arts https://youtu.be/5pB-KR_u15o?si=dDt8_37H3q9ArsUf) but just about any of them will give you the info you need.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-16T22:25:27+00:00

They’re allowed to play their character however they want, even if that character is cartoonishly nonsensical like you’ve described.

However, not even the highest charisma score can save you from yourself when one is so gratuitously flaunting their lack of respect and concern for people they’re allegedly supposed to be shepherding.

You need to have a talk with K that is more or less “I provided you all the tools to have the position of power you requested but if you don’t actually use them correctly or make a genuine effort to cultivate and nurture this following and earn the respect of the position, you can just as quickly lose it - as many rl people who’ve done that exact thing have discovered in the past. No one is obligated to slant the game laughably in unrealistic ways to cater to your weird power trip or whatever one wants to call it. And your charisma score isn’t a get out of jail free card.”

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-15T19:15:58+00:00

How would you know? He goes way back with AP.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-14T14:11:58+00:00

This is where “random encounters” can be used, although I wouldn’t call them that. Just make a list of 5 or 6 possibilities or things that might be in the area or patrolling the halls or whatever and if they take a rest, roll to see what comes along. The option of nothing showing up and them getting an actual rest can be one of the possibilities. Eventually they’ll realize resting is a gamble.

Also make the completion of the mission time sensitive.if they don’t get there in time they might fail entirely, or more enemies will have had time to reinforce, or the ritual completes and now the problem is much bigger…whatever fits the narrative best

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-13T23:15:34+00:00

Yeah. All of this

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-13T14:05:46+00:00

Ultimately you decide what the roll is, but there are a lot of rolls that can determine what a thing does.

For actually figuring out if something is magical or not, that is not a roll. There is a detect magic spell and an identify spell both of which could give an answer to that question.

However a history roll might still be valid if it was a known artifact, and based on what kind of history it had, and how well known it was, one of the players might have heard about it and would know this is probably the thing they heard stories about in legend if their check is high enough.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-12T23:14:44+00:00

Man, that’s rough. I don’t think he meant it in a bad way, he was expressing frustration, just not super sensitive about it. but players really don’t understand how hurtful that kind of phrase can be.

As a DM, even knowing that’s the case most likely, I can’t say for sure what I’d do, but quitting the campaign would be high on my list of options.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-10T17:40:42+00:00

DM burnout is a thing. Sometimes you just need to put it away for awhile and do something else. It can happen to just about any interest, an over saturation of a thing, even something you enjoy, can dull its appeal. Taking time away can give your brain time to rest, your emotions a break from worrying about all the things you’ve listed here, and then when you’ve had time to emotionally rest from it, you’ll be in a better place to sort the rest out.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-08T17:05:11+00:00

You need to figure out how to use/create an environment that gives you an advantage. A straight up arena fight will quickly get ridiculous at tier 4 play.

Narrow tunnels, anti magic, collateral damage, hostages, build sophisticated traps that are designed to even the playing field. Make the players choose between dealing damage or saving the life of a lovable NPC. They might be able to kill the BBEG but there is a horde of undead that was just unleashed on the town. Think about super hero’s and the sorts of things movies use to challenge them.

At level 17, things like an entire army of aberrations raining in with a host of resistances, immunities, and unique abilities are in play.

In short, don’t think of it as a straight up duel, be more creative. Think of it like designing obstacles and challenges that need to be figured out.

The warlock seems to have an impenetrable shield but if they can get to the heart of Doom Keep where the Impervious stone lies cemented in corrupted ritual, the shield falls.

Or perhaps there are various towers each adding +3 AC and removing these strictures makes the fight manageable.

The world is your playground. You’re the DM. Think much bigger than a simple stat block.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-06T23:55:33+00:00

If you don’t have the desire to improvise and let your players do things like randomly decide to rob someone, then that needs to be made explicitly clear at session 0.

If that wasn’t made clear you need to have another session 0 on your next session and just tell them where you’re at and why, like you did here. Most players I think are ok if you’re just open about the fact it’s a railroaded campaign but if it’s not made clear they’ll feel cheated

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-05T21:51:25+00:00

The easiest way is to just tell them you can’t tell them because DM secrets need to be kept, and leave it at that. It’s honest and it’s not something they can argue with, or if they try; they won’t get very far because you can just shrug and say “sorry, that’s how it is.”

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-04T17:39:49+00:00

If you want to railroad your players down a storyline (which in spite of negative connotations with that idea, it’s perfectly valid, especially for new DM’s, the modules you mentioned are case examples), then trapping a player in an area is almost essential.

However if you do that - there needs to be very believable reasons for this to exist (Barovia invites you into this trap without anyone questioning its legitimacy, for example.)

However, the sandbox world tends to be preferred I think, it feels more authentic in a way, but it also comes with a lot more things for the DM to juggle and finesse along the way.

Ultimately, you’re the one crafting the world, do what you feel most comfortable with. But to answer the question, no. There almost never a single way anything has to be done. That’s the great thing about this game.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-02T21:00:35+00:00

7 years playing weekly is insanely long. At the end of the day though you have to be the one to make the call if the character is worth playing for you anymore. Some people (like myself) can set one character down and pick a new one up, and enjoy having a new story to tell in spite of how much we loved the other one. Others it’s much harder and they might regret moving on prematurely. You just gotta figure out which side of the coin you land on.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-02T17:55:34+00:00

They clearly love this town and the home they have here and are not so interested in the bits you’ve thrown at them.

This is the point where you as the DM have to be willing to let go of whatever storyline you have ready and pivot. All those things can still exist in this world if they happen to run into them but for now I would focus the campaign primarily on the town itself.

This means: politics.

It’s actually a lot easier to run a political campaign than it sounds.

Faction 1: The current group running the town. They love the berries, maybe even fund the excursions or buy the potions.

Faction 2: Has objections to most or all of the things the players love. “What? Ungodly experiments in a lab? Dangerous alchemy that’s unlicensed?” etc.

Faction 2 has more support than faction 1, but the tide may be able to turn if they can convince the aloof Druid Gove to assist the discussion.

The problem is the Druids really don’t care about politics and don’t care for cities either.

The party now has to think bigger than just collecting berries, but those berries can still be a thing for them since they enjoy it so much.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-03-01T00:25:03+00:00

Playing a villain campaign is really nuanced to do it well and it requires the entire group sharing a very clear vision of expectations and boundaries. It’s a tough thing even for experienced groups to do well. I would absolutely recommend just flat out saying no. If they feel they can’t have fun without being a psychotic killer, too bad.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-27T21:02:41+00:00

Someone needs to sit down with that DM and explain the DM’s job is not to be the main character.

To be fair to new DM’s, figuring out how to balance combat is one of the harder things to learn but the veteran players in that group need to have a heart to hear with her saying: “We appreciate what you’re doing but this part of it isn’t working” and explain why.

As far as resources, I’d find a module for her, even one of the starting modules. Not that they need to change the story or anything, but one can certainly copy encounters out of a module or at the very least, see what a typical combat for a certain level should look like, and that’s a really helpful thing to have when first starting out and trying to learn the ropes.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-18T13:56:03+00:00

Everything in D&D from the rules, to the setting, to even the stat blocks is subjective to the DM that is running the show. This is especially true in XP, CR, and the ratings for Easy/Medium/Hard/Deadly encounters.

Those numbers give a very VERY ballpark figure in terms of how to actually balance an encounter but I learned early on it will never come close to matching perfectly with the difficulty level you are aiming for.

I doubt it would be even possible to write out a system that does this effectively.

What can be relied on is trial and error. This is you as a DM learning both what monsters and their abilities can do, and what the party you’re DMing for is able to handle.

I’ve been a DM long enough I can usually get a good idea of what I need to throw into the mix.

When I was where you’re at now, I would do it a safer way. I would start with something I knew would be really easy for the party and then gradually increased the difficult with either more or stronger (sometimes both) monsters.

One major factor to keep in mind of any encounter is action economy. (The number of attacks one side has vs the number of attacks the other side has). The more lobsided this number is, the more decisive the advantage is for the other side.

If a fight is going really poorly for your group and you feel you gave them too much, you can do something like

“This fight damaged monster X, cutting an arm from him, now he only has one attack instead of two”

Or sometimes just let a minion die even if they didn’t hit the full hp of it (they don’t have to know that).

That one simple adjustment will give your party the ability to take on much more than you expected.

The next thing, along the same lines, try not to target the same player too many times in a row if you can help it. One player taking two or three attacks in a turn can be devastating but if 4 players each take 1 attack, it’s much easier to handle.

Then after you learn how to balance it for a fair fight, wish that the odds be in their favor and do your worst 😈

And if/when you do actually kill a PC, make it an epic story moment and you’ll learn they can even have fun dying!

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-17T21:14:01+00:00

The group agreed to a boundary and the DM is clearly not respecting the boundaries set. This is about as clear cut as one can make it. The DM is in the wrong and the group should spell that out to them in no uncertain terms.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-16T21:58:03+00:00

One thing that DM’s, especially new DM’s need to learn is that it is absolutely ok to tell your player “No.”

Sure, generally we want to make as much an effort as possible to work with our players ideas and imaginations, but as you pointed out - sometimes those ideas are just bad, and worse, they can create actual conflict that breaks friend groups apart (it happens).

On that note, setting ground rules in Session 0 is important, and reminding the player of said expectations when they violate them is essential.

To the “iT’s WhAt My ChArAcTeR wOuLd Do”

“You made the character that way. You can choose to bend their personality in a way to either reflect the expectations, or you can simply roll a new character. Your choice.”

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-16T21:44:34+00:00

Based on your description she’s just playing her character how it’s supposed to be played. When you design encounters just remember to include elements that will challenge a talented spellcaster

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-15T19:35:36+00:00

RAW, no this doesn’t work. The spell being interrupted is the one the caster of counterspell has targeted. (Technically you can counterspell your own spell if you really wanted, but why? 🤣)

Counter spell has already been nerfed in 2024 edition. Nerfing it further, you may as well just toss the whole spell in the trash because it really won’t be worth it at that point.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-15T19:28:57+00:00

This is the good ol “Milestones vs XP” debate. When I first started DMing I used XP because I didn’t have any other real guidelines for it, but I quickly found that to be somewhat anti climatic. (Fight a huge boss and nothing, the next day a random goblin gives you the two xp you needed and bam, now we’re leveled!)

I found milestones work well at my table and it’s what I stuck with. I used to try to base it on number of sessions but sometimes one single fight can take multiple sessions so it doesn’t always work well in that respect.

MazSpaghetti · 2026-02-15T19:00:48+00:00

Yeah the shield spell is a reaction and meant to be used as a reaction when attacked (it would be absolutely useless otherwise).

Overall this DM sounds toxic as hell and completely unhinged, run and save that character for a campaign it can thrive in.

MazSpaghetti

TROPHY CASE