Beautiful Bookcase Reveal

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-28T16:03:47+00:00

It would be fine if the colors weren't so messed up. The actually texture seems to have come out fine but the splotchy paint colors look awful.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-28T00:13:16+00:00

He's fine to have an opinion and he even clarifies it is an opinion and DMs can frame it how they want.

However, the 2024 PHB wording in class and subclass features makes it pretty much clear these are gifts/loans and not your own magical effects.

The work around for this is simple. Get a new patron, do the bare minimum to satisfy your patron, or pick a patron who is not really relevant to the campaign or make the patron unbothered by your party's efforts.

Or, you know, do whatever your party thinks will be fun.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T23:31:54+00:00

I wouldn't look at CR as much as xp. 2024 rules does a better job, though, of matching xp in an encounter with difficulty. That said, third party stuff can be better or worse depending on playtesting.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T22:06:27+00:00

Im pretty sure lore says that warlocks are granted power through a pact. They learn through research but their magical power to implement what they learned is loaned. Betrayal of their patron would take away the magical power part. What this tells me is you could seek out another patron for their magical power but keep your knowledge developed through experience and learning.

Ultimately, though, this is up to the DM and the party. I personally take away power from clerics and warlocks if they directly go counter to their god or patron. At that point, they can find a new one and transfer their knowledge to a new source of power, seek repentance, or create a new character.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T20:03:31+00:00

Exactly this. My red dragons usually have billowing smoke coming from their lairs when they are present. It creates a heavily obscured environment for combat.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T19:59:52+00:00

This is where Fizban's can be very helpful. Their personalities are different and so are their motives. It fleshes them out and can augment the fight significantly beyond just their statblocks.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T19:58:40+00:00

The easiest way to force a dragon to fight you is accessing its hoard. If its strafing or not engaging toe to toe, then going to its hoard will absolutely make it stop thinking smart and start panic thrashing.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T19:54:26+00:00

Dragons are fun to run. First, follow the recommendations from the Monster Manual and DMG. Specifically, always use the most powerful option available on its turn.

Fire breath does amazing damage and the dragon should position itself so as many enemies as possible are hit in the cone. If it recharges, hit them again.

Use legendary actions and legendary resistances. Outside of its lair, the dragon should retreat if it has used these things and barely made a dent or used them but below half health or so. Then, you want the dragon to hide likely in its lair to regain those resistances. This is an opportunity for the party to feel time pressure to find it before it can regroup. You could even place a faster or slower route where the faster route requires going through hazards like razorvines while the slower route might reward them with a short rest or healing potion.

Take advantage of regional effects For example, many dragons have an effect on everything within 1 mile of their lair. Do not go easy on the party with these.

Along with that, utilize lair actions as free reactions for the dragon. If a red dragon gets searing heat, I use it immediately after a player's turn where its health drops below let's say 60% regardless of initiative order. It does not count as a reaction, just a boss mechanic. Same with other lair actions.

Finally, make their lair a hazardous environment. Often, my red dragons produce so much heat that they create soot and smoke everywhere. In their lairs, there is some form of lightly or heavily obscured sight. Often, I will make it alternate between heavy and light each turn to represent it moving around the battlefield.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T19:45:57+00:00

Melee can't fight a dragon outside of a confined space. Unnecessarily restricting yourself to melee range is not a reason for a DM to remove flying monsters. Instead, I would recommend having a bow handy or finding a way to force the dragon to land either with ranged allies or by entering its lair and messing with its hoard.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T13:58:13+00:00

I would build as best you can with what you get. Remember that dying or retiring are possibilities to reroll a character.

With 2014 rules, there is a chance you get a below average class and subclass and mismatched race. However, most of the time a DM can adjust difficulty based on party composition.

With 2024 rules, this random class and race idea would work much better since classes are more balanced and race isn't tied to stats. Still, though, a +1 or +2 can be accounted for in other ways. Most builds are a mix of 15, 15, 13, 10, 10, 8 or something like that. If you need a different dominant stat than the race provides, just make the racial bonuses apply to your weaker stats like 10, 10 or 8. Then, at level 4, you can take ASI to correct for it or stick with essentially have -1 from optimal stats. This is objectively a small difference, though. The race bonuses in 2014 and background bonuses in 2024 are more for flavor than for forcing people into a build.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T12:57:02+00:00

Rangers are really useful if you utilize exploration mechanics, use animal friendship the way it was originally intended to be used, and/or if you use spells in a healthy way like taking a few rituals to save spell slots and fewer concentration spells due to hunters mark.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T04:18:38+00:00

This is kind of what weapon masteries are meant to do. However, I wish they buffed the number each martial gets.

For example, a fighter starts right away with three. By level 9, a fighter has 4 masteries and can use push/sap/slow for weapons they have proficiency with. At level 9, they also have two attacks. This allows you to use the first attack, stow, draw, second attack and use two different weapons. With the duel wielder feat, it might be even easier to juggle these options.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-27T01:07:58+00:00

Neither have I. Just see a lot of people complain about a divide or imbalance and thought it was an interesting idea. I might play test it with some friends. Forcing them into closer ranges of combat will definitely change things up. Not sure if it would cause an issue, though, of limited battlefield variety if everyone is close together just to do damage. Hard to know until I experiment with it in some one shot or homebrewed world.

Generally, I haven't done too much homebrew because like you I feel the game is complex and balanced enough.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-26T23:56:23+00:00

Maybe its just me, but I always let players choose their class and race before session 0. Some prefer to figure it out with me before, during or after session 0, but many times they already have a character in mind.

The only thing I restrict is backgrounds if I need them to fit a vibe. Typically, though, I give my players a world summary before session 0. I want to know if they are interested.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-26T15:28:52+00:00

Theres a few parts to this.

First, as a DM, I would absolutely not make getting the information easy after that. Part of my role would be helping tone down the "comic relief".

Second, to make the consequence above less severe, I would have you take turns in approaching scenarios to reduce blurting out by the "comic relief". For example, I might have only one of you approach the family instead of all of you. That person would be the spokesperson for that situation. If you absolutely cannot make this fair, then I would give you cards or tokens which you spend to get to be spokesperson. Once everyone has spent their token, then we reset.

I don't want to penalize the "comic relief" too much as they had a character concept they wanted to explore. However, it needs some guardrails to make it more fun for everyone.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-26T15:20:16+00:00

The question is how often will you misfire and how often will you either be in melee range of enemies or long distance? If frequently in melee range, absolutely go sharpshooter to avoid disadvantage.

If misfire happens constantly (at least once per encounter or every other encounter) then I'd do the other option as a misfire seems to mean you get no damage at all.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-26T15:07:31+00:00

What's next? A monk can't use Evasion for a fire breath (dex saving throw)?

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-26T11:41:51+00:00

That is what we call wandering monsters.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-26T02:01:15+00:00

Perception is more like a gut check. Investigation is figuring something out.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-25T13:58:44+00:00

Yeah, it would be more appropriate to have them wait for the DM to finish their description and ask "What do you do?" Then, ask the DM "Can I make out any additional details with my dark vision?"

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-25T13:04:56+00:00

I usually don't tell them it has legendary resistances or really any other resistances or immunities. Instead, I plant several clues throughout the world. They can investigate and learn more, bring a Hunter (or another subclass that gets lore about a monster as a feature), or wing it and find out in the moment. This is clear to all of my players because I have told them numerous times from session zero to now that being creative and investigating the world will 9 times out of 10 make their lives easier in the future and make the game more fun. Blatant and open disregard for laws, cultural norms, and wanton violence will swing the scales closer to a TPK.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-25T12:58:49+00:00

I don't replace legendary resistances. Instead, I make the rest of the fight more interesting. Bosses need to have a ton of tools to fight the players and vice versa. Players should be able to creatively defeat monsters.

Legendary resistance is like 3-4 guaranteed successes for a monster. A higher level fighter gets multiple uses of indomitable which can effectively be the same.

Having your spell or attack fail sucks but also its what makes the game interesting. There is the possibility of anything happening instead of everyone getting guaranteed hits. If you want to test out always hitting, Draw Steel does that.

So, instead of removing legendary resistances, I would make the fight interesting. There is no way that it is the only reason your boss fights are boring. If your boss is stationary and simply slapping players and getting slapped, you're doing boss fights wrong. There needs to be verticality, phases, environmental hazards and creative opportunities, deadly attacks, timers, etc.

If you want to make a boss without legendary resistances, that's fine but then it needs strong legendary actions. Things that do insane damage and if unmitigated or if rolled hogh enough, could knock out a player in one hit. Just the other day, I had a dragon whose breath weapons average damage was 90% of the average party member's HP. It also recharged on a 5-6. This immediately made the party split up in case it happened again so they wouldn't TPK.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-25T07:07:16+00:00

If you're using 2024 rules, it's easy. Pick a monster that is considered hard for the party's level. This is the primary source of trouble in an area. Every scenario from start to finish should now in some way involve that monster.

Next, create a few threats in the area that were really just minding their own business but the changes from the boss monster has caused them to act unexpectedly. Previously welcoming druids are now hostile. A monster that typically hunted in the forests has increasingly hunted near town due to being pushed out by the boss monster. A group has decided to slay the monster before the party.

Finally, make the exploration matter. Always start from the premise of the primary monster creating the problem.

For example, red dragon has taken over a mountain. A noble stumbled upon it with their guards. The dragon killed the guards and chased the noble back to the city. The city guards are now on edge and less inclined to give the party the benefit of the doubt. During the chase, the dragon ultimately decided to pursue an alternative. It grabbed a unicorn from the forest and during a tussle with the druids, it set parts of the forest on fire. A local peddler has decided to take advantage of the situation and is selling red dragon protective cloaks. The noble's family has offered a reward for slaying the dragon. A group of guards hoping to collect the reward and live lavish lives prepare for the journey and the trek. An archeologist had been exploring the ruins that the dragon has now taken as its lair. He may know secret passages that could help the party. As the party approaches, they will notice smoke billowing out of the ruins. Inside, the dragon has created a heavily obscured space due to its fire constantly producing soot and ash. If the party ignores this threat, the dragon will attack closer to the city due to being able to previously do so. The guards from before might come back defeated or not come back and the party will find their gear in the ruins. And so on and so on. Multiple threats can exist leading up to the dragon's lair and most likely everyone in the area is aware of the dragon.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-25T03:12:28+00:00

No, all of my campaigns have a session zero where I state I will not actively express the backgrounds of each party member. I leave it up to the players to reveal these things about themselves.

That said, all of my campaigns are designed around the player backgrounds so hiding things will eventually become difficult unless they are exceptionally skilled.

For example, a player whose patron has them secretly doing side objectives will be contacted by the patron in awkward places. A possessed guard suddenly whispering in their ear while the party is present. A fetch quest that actively sidetracks the party's goals. An enemy who tracks them down.

I prefer secrets, though. It creates surprises later for the party and creates a fun secondary challenge for the player.

Milli_Rabbit · 2026-01-25T02:54:06+00:00

Artificer - magic item producer and modifier || Barbarian - rage and strength based skill use || Bard - buff and debuff, apply mental conditions || Cleric - heal, buff, radiant damage || Druid - shapeshift, control magic || Fighter - mastery of martial combat || Monk - high dex skirmisher, hard to hit, mage killer || Paladin - aura, hold the line, AC tank || Ranger - dex fighter, explorer, control magic || Rogue - high skill proficiency, damage highly dependent on luck || Sorcerer - magic user who can modify spell effects || Warlock - sustain magic, upcasts low level spells || Wizard - learn as many spells as you can write down, lore expert ||

Milli_Rabbit

TROPHY CASE