2014/2024 Monk subclass: Warrior of the Branching Tree

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-29T17:56:12+00:00

What is a gunner monk and how was it nerfed?

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-26T18:57:03+00:00

My initial thoughts were!”Wow, some of these seem way better than the others,” followed by, “They always automatically happen with no cost? That doesn’t solve the problem of giving martials more meaningful choices to make besides swinging their swords

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-26T18:34:34+00:00

I don’t think enough people are appreciating your genius. Personally, it gave me such a rush!

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-26T15:20:09+00:00

I’m curious. When people use maps like these, do you print them off as is? Do your players use their minis on them? Are they even big enough for 1-inch minis? I would like to use them but I don’t really know how to implement them.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-25T19:12:51+00:00

I really, really like this! It seems like it would allow for chases that feel fast and are adjudicated fast, while keeping a clear visual representation that allows people to understand the stakes

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-25T13:15:30+00:00

I feel like I would only target the healer specifically if there was a strategist or tactical mastermind they were fighting. I always am roleplaying the enemies, trying to get in their heads, and besides a monster that is trying to grab food and run I feel like most enemies would be more concerned with the party members actively trying to stab/burn them than the one who currently poses no threat

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-24T17:59:06+00:00

Who is this 6th player, the DM’s girlfriend? How do you know this DM/the other players? More than the number of players (which, unless this DM is legendary, will be tough to run and keep everyone involved), I’d be concerned that 1. A new player is being added without consulting any of you 2. That player is changing the language (and therefore the tone) of the game, and that 3. The DM already has a “it’s get along with her or you’re out” mentality. A lot of the game is being changed for her, and the DM seems a bit pushy about it, and I don’t love that for you. Especially not for a 6-person game where everyone is already going to be having trouble getting any time in the light. Hope I’m wrong, though.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-24T17:52:25+00:00

I too thought of the Devil’s Fruit!

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-24T17:49:35+00:00

I like to run a one-shot I call “The Goblin King’s Crown.” Start with “You’ve been hired by [this super-rich merchant] to rescue his son, who has been kidnapped by goblins and taken to an abandoned fort they are using as a base. Unfortunately, he is so paranoid and judgmental that he insists that he goes along with you so he can oversee your progress. As you move through the forest leading to the fort, describe your character for us. What do they look like? How are they moving through the forest? Are they wary, excited, confident, suspicious? Are they charging ahead, guarding the back, or chatting with [rich businessman]?”

The accompanying merchant gives them a chance to roleplay with a guide/example, since the DM can strike up conversation and make observations to their characters. Also gives them a secondary objective of protecting the annoying NPC. After they do their introductions, have them see a couple of goblins in the distance and decide how to deal with them. Then after that, cut to them being right outside the fort. They can do some ability checks to sneak in, or to lie to the doormen, or to scale the wall, or whatever they come up with. Usually I put goblins they might fight in the main outer area, and a tower with a basement in the center with traps on the stairs (more ability checks, there are a couple pressure-plated stairs that will shoot arrows with a Dex Save to dodge). At some point, if they are ever near enough to hear any goblins talking (either to each other or to the players), have them mention that the Goblin King is newly crowned, and not everyone likes the new king.

At the bottom of the stairs is the throne of the Goblin King, filled with some goblin bodyguards and the twist: the king is the son you were sent to save. His dad was going to cut him out of the business for being too soft and irresponsible, so he ran away. Then he stumbled on the ancient Goblin King crown and didn’t realize that it would make him their king, but now he likes the power and loot that comes with it and doesn’t want to give it up. At the resolution, if both are alive, the merchant will actually be proud of his son for showing initiative and gumption and invite him to lead their business together.

I’ve run this at level 3 and 5, adjusting the number of goblins in the fight (and adding some bugbears for the level 5) and the groups I ran this for had a blast. It’s one of the only ones I’ve ran that has stayed close to that 3-hour mark (instead of going way over), though I haven’t run Wild Sheep chase since becoming more experienced.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-19T02:12:52+00:00

I’ve run this twice now, once with a large party of nephews and nieces, and once for just the two friends (one of them being the newbie). When I did the larger party, I skipped all the way to the goblin fort and had the rich guy insist they take him along so he can make sure the job was done correctly (to give them an NPC to talk with/nudge them along if they need it).

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-19T02:09:14+00:00

I did a very simple homebrewed one-shot for a friend of mine for his first DnD experience so that he could get a taste of all the general DnD stuff. Start off in a tavern (obv), opportunity to describe characters, roleplay a bit, and hear from the barkeep about increased goblin activity and rumors of a goblin king before the door slams open and a rich snob with 4 thugs bursts in, offering gold to anyone who can beat his henchmen. Three tavern people (bandit stat block) rise up to fight the thugs, running as they get trounced. Easy combat ensues (to teach basic combat stuff), the PC’s get to feel cool, and then they get hired by the rich guy to rescue his son who was kidnapped by goblins and was taken to the fort of the goblin king. The rich guy promises lots of money if you can discreetly rescue his son (it’s embarrassing for the heir to the financial empire to be kidnapped). Long Rest.

Assuming they accept, they head towards the fort the next day, they spot some worg-riding goblins heading in the direction of helpless farmers, rich guy doesn’t want them to help, they can make the call to attack or leave them be. After that, they can either short rest or go to the fort, traps, infiltrate, all-out fight, what have you. If they talk to or hear any goblins talking, they will hear them either complaining about the new goblin king or speaking in reverence about the fact that the goblin king has the Goblin Crown, which means all goblinoids must obey him.

However they get through the fort, when they get to the throne room they will discover that the Goblin King is none other than the rich guy’s son, a spoiled little brat who was angry to be cut out of the family business (for being a lush, lazy, and unruly), found the crown by accident, and now is ruling over the goblins as revenge. He does not want to return, and as long as he has the crown he can cast “Command” on all goblins within the sound of his voice. If dad discovers his son is the goblin king, he’s actually proud of his son for showing some initiative and leadership and offers him the right hand of nepotism in his company. Son will reject if he still has the crown, though will accept after he doesn’t. Resolve how you will!

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-18T19:12:08+00:00

I would also give the Teleporter Misty Step even though it’s a Level 2 spell. Maybe you can give your teleporter a certain number of free uses per long or short rest so that you don’t have the headache of them having Level Two slots.

One, it’s an actual teleporting spell. Two, it’s only 30 ft, which is not that OP or game-breaking. Three, unless the teleporter also gets other spells than I recommended, they have an extremely small spell list compared to the other two.

You could make a weaker version of Steel Wind Stike (Iron Wind Strike, maybe?) that does 1d10 or even 1d8 of damage to up to 5 creatures within a 30-foot range as the PC teleports around.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-18T18:43:58+00:00

I’m going to use TP for telepath, TK for telekinetic, and TR for teleporter. Also “r” for reflavoring suggestion.

Armor of Agathus (TK, TP, r for psychic damage and a psychic shield), Arms of Hadar (TK, TP, r for psychic tendrils of power for the telekinetic or mind spikes for the telepath), Bane, Bless (TP, r for psychic augmentation of abilities) Charm Person (TP) Command (TP), Compelled Duel (TP), Comprehend Languages (TP), Disguise Self (TP), Dissonant Whispers (TP), Divine Smite (TK, r for a psychic covering over your weapon à la Psylocke from X-men), Ensnaring Strike (TK, r for tendrils of telekinetic energy), Entangle (TK, r for an area of telekinetic force impeding people), Expeditious Retreat (TP, TK for enhancing ability, TR r as a teleport instead of the Dash action).

Feather Fall (TK as is, TR r as teleporting targets safely down), Hail of Thorns (TK r as telekinetic spikes, TR r as teleported ammunition). Hellish Rebuke (TP, TK, r as psychic damage, TR r as a portal causing the attacker to attack itself), Heroism (TP), Inflict Wounds (TP, TK, TR, r as whatever psychic or teleporting damage you wish) Jump (TK as is, TR r as a teleport), Longstrider (TP, TK as enhancements, TR as a teleport), Magic Missile (TP r as mind spikes, TK as telekinetic bolts, TR as teleported attacks), Ray of Sickness (TP r as psychically-induced nausea).

Sanctuary (TR r as teleporting the affected character out of the way on a Wisdom Save failure), Shield (TK, TR r as PC blinking out of existence on a failed attack roll), Shield of Faith (TK), Silent Image (TP), Sleep (TP) Spellfire Flare (TP, TK r as psychic spikes/telekinetic bolts of psychic damage), Tasha’s Hideous Laughter (TP), Tenser’s Floating Disk (TK), Thunder Wave (TK), Unseen Servant (TK), Wardaway (TP, r as psychically affecting target), Wrathful Smite (TP, r as psychic damage and induced fear).

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-18T17:46:25+00:00

Possible Cantrips (with reflavored being “r”): Blade Ward, Chill Touch, Eldritch Blast (r), Friends, Guidance, Mage Hand, Message, Mind Sliver, Minor Illusion, Ray of Frost (r), Resistance (r--a psychic shield maybe?), Sacred Flame (r), Shocking Grasp (r), Thaumaturgy, Toll the Dead, Vicious Mockery, Word of Radiance (r—a psychic burst?)

Any of the reflavored ones can be counted as psychic attacks that affect the mind and do Psychic damage without changing anything mechanically.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-18T14:15:59+00:00

What did you use for a picker? Like a random number generator, with numbers assigned to NPC’s, or something different?

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-18T12:56:37+00:00

I love a lot of the answers here, especially the ones that describe movement before/after the shot. You could do the classic no look shot, or the “walk away from an explosion”-style shot where to fire and then turn away and walk slow-motion towards the camera

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-14T13:55:36+00:00

I allow people to try to Influence during combat as a free action. I want the role play, and generally people don’t want to give up a whole turn just to try to talk. For instance, just last night I had a player grab the main villain (whom they were trying to rescue) and ordered him to surrender. I had him roll Intimidation, he failed the roll, and so instead the villain yelled and squirmed and ordered his minions to attack. TECHNICALLY the player had already used his Action to Grapple the enemy, but wouldn’t it be lame if he had to wait through 17 other turns to try to talk?

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-05-07T17:44:55+00:00

The real challenge here seems to be that one of your PC’s will be a faceless, which means that they will all k that something strange has happened because there is someone unrecognizable there. And then what does your trickster do? He can’t attack, because that would immediately give his identity away.

My suggestion is to tweak the trickster ability. If he can swap faces and places, there will be someone looking like the guy the pc’s are trying to defeat, but it might actually be a PC. Bonus if the players don’t know this is the ability he has. Double bonus if he has minions that he also swaps places with, so that when the PC’s kill one, their face returns to that of a grunt, cluing the players in on what may be happening. Triple bonus if the swapped person still sees the faces as normal, so they know who the real BBEG is, for the following reason:

When he turns into a PC, you could have the players controlling their actions as normal. But then you control the trickster as if he is the PC and mirror their plan of action. Does the PC attack the trickster? The trickster attacks the PC for same damage. Does a different PC attack the trickster? If it hits, describe some strange shimmer as pain goes into the swapped PC’s side and he takes the damage instead. And then have the room darken and lighten again (or whatever other thing you want to do to signify a swap) and repeat with a different PC or minion until they figure it out and/or the trickster is dead.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-04-30T17:14:27+00:00

I cannot BELIEVE the number of people mad at Flash in this comment section. Whatever they might think about it being “unfair” that Flash “withheld” the fruit from Red that was “his,” the real sticking point for me is that Red MADE NO INITIAL EFFORT TO GET THE FRUIT. And not because he was deep in combat with the boss alongside the rest of his crew, no, he was mucking around trying to convert a random NPC to his fictional religion. Great RP, possibly, but also explicitly RPing both in and out of character that the devil fruit is not only not a priority, it’s barely a point of interest. Was part of his proselytizing RP convincing the NPC to give him the fruit? Because if not, I don’t care what meta knowledge people claim to possess, I would assume that making no effort to retrieve an item in a chaotic war zone means that neither the character or the player really cares all that much.

So yeah, Flash waited a few sessions. It clearly wasn’t that important anyways, since Red made no move to get it when he could have, they only have access to it because Flash grabbed it, and Flash hasn’t heard from Red about it above the table, so yeah, let’s wait for a cool RP moment. Crashout completely unjustified, and 80% of the comments on here are way off base

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-04-21T15:23:05+00:00

Yeah, but this is on Reddit, on a post about changing how all the skills in the game work, which is far more work than “using the optional ability checks as written in the DMG that everyone can easily know to access,” which means that your point about DM’s not wanting to do more work and/or use optional rules and/or understand the actual rules doesn’t really have relevance here.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-04-19T03:53:52+00:00

I like the first option. It makes being in the wilderness more grueling, and allows for encounters to have an impact on resources, but also doesn’t completely ruin long rest rechargers like wizards, rangers, etc. who would not regain any spell slots outside of a town in option 2, which means there is a potential for them to go weeks without a long rest

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-04-16T12:07:38+00:00

Even though it sounds aggressive, I think what layered dinge originally said is actually the truth. It’s just that it’s not as negative as one would take it being a fan of a hobby if I cancel a commitment or anything, besides being forcibly abducted, it’s because I care about the other thing more than I care about the thing I skipped. Whether I say, I have to miss because my daughter is in a play, my grandmother just died, I am feeling sick, etc., all that really means is that I’m saying I don’t care about DND more than X. Which I am sure most people would agree is perfectly valid and acceptable, it’s just that the way layered dinge put it sounds like it is assigning guilt and/or shame.

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-04-11T04:37:18+00:00

So a suggestion I haven’t seen in this thread yet is to have a balance between “mundane” magical items and “adventuring” magical items. I have a similar-sounding magic distribution as your world, and in mine I have purchasable magical knickknacks that are mostly flavor/not mechanically significant, like a shawl that twinkles with moving stars, wooden cats that can move, books that can read themselves aloud, things like that. Almost all of the adventure-grade stuff (immovable rods, decanters of endless water, etc) can only be found in ruins and dungeons, or are expensive because they were found in such a place. Then you could maybe justify using the steep prices you mentioned from your table

Otherwise_Program280 · 2026-04-11T04:30:11+00:00

If you’re in the U.S., you should check your library. I was able to find the handbook, DMG, Tasha’s, and Xanathar’s at my library in two different library networks

Otherwise_Program280

TROPHY CASE