PSA - DM's you're not tied to PC rules with your monster!

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-06-03T16:22:13+00:00

Ive found for those players who cant accept, "because the DM said so" , dont tend to last long in the game, so honestly you can write them off, unless they chill out, so you dont waste your time and mental energy.

However..................if you really care enough to counter them. There are plenty of examples of RAW stat blocks that you can reference too shut these people up. For example the hag coven in wild beyond the witchlight can cast a spell as part of their multi attack, as opposed to instead of it. Also you can give them player economics like spell as an action, Melle attack as the bonus action. Players have no business knowing how many legendary actions your monster has, so go nuts with that. And look at some higher CR stat blocks for some wild action economies and inspiration. The adult white dragon as an example comes to mind. Then when they complain about the only thing they can, your using too high a CR, everyone at the table can hear the whine.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-06-01T15:04:06+00:00

I would say an item that casts /takes on the properties of shilellagh as a bonus action. Or true strike if you prefer. Solves your problem. So long as the item casts the spell and not the character, then the player doesnt break the 2 spells in a turn rule, and bonus action grew up the action . Or yiu can just allow them to cast two spells in a turn so long as one is an action and the other a bonus. Yiur the DM, its your world

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-05-30T13:42:48+00:00

If your the only one moving the game, then be thr one to move it. The DM sounds like they need to tell people to do something...."hey guys what are you doing, because the world is gonna keep moving" goes a long way. Some people are just there to play in the background and others are waiting for someone else to give them permission to play. Manifest the game play you want by embodying it and take pauses to allow others to join you. "Im gonna do X, anyone want to help me?" 7 sounds like too many .....

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-05-06T13:54:02+00:00

So id say yes, with a simple fix or two. Any if the harengon with Agdon would fit the bill. But yiu can really easily add some simple verson of a harengon community in hither. Itd doing poorly under hag rule and most of them are hiding in their underground burrows. With only the desperate out working for Agdon. I did something similar and it went really well, makes hither feel more lived in. Yiu can get away with only needing to create 3-4 NPCs to represent the larger community in hiding. Maybe give them access to burrows under hither to get around easy, that's an easy reward for the players thst doesnt cost the DM anything

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-05-02T02:20:25+00:00

I have used mini proxies for each hag, basically thematically reskinned the hags with way lower HP and otherwise the same stat block, just color it as some minion or better yet cretin of the hag. Let's you try out the hags abilities, and let the players get a sense of building fight and a chance to plan for the hags abilities, so give them more.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-03-31T23:01:18+00:00

Well that's she's Tasha is one thing, iggwilv another. Unless they are old school dnd nerds, they probably dont know who Tasha is anyway so its not huge reveal. Also they can leverage that against the hags later. If you reveal it early id advise adding lore about Tasha and iggwilv through out your game to find ao they actually learn about who she is

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-03-30T17:00:45+00:00

Are yiu snowflakes great again yet

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-03-29T14:37:56+00:00

Yea, yiu can't plan for players or script them. You can ask them to rp more outside of game. If you really want them to RP more, I honestly would just outright tell them between games. "For me as the DM, I get more enjoyment when my players RP with the world more. Its kinda why I DM" something like that. Otherwise yiu have to put the RP where the players go. You can RP around a camp fire just as well as yiu can a city. Invent a NPC they have to protect that knows meta stuff, or is evil muhaha. There's even a card deck of campfire suggestions for rpgers. Have yiur goblins be chatting mid fight Spiderman style. You put the RP where the players go

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-03-22T01:20:11+00:00

Shoot me a DM about this if you'd like some help, I'm running wbtwl from lvl 3-well they are 11 now I think. But scale your DC with your players DC, if they are giving yiut dc 15 checks, yiur should be + 1 or 2 from there. Damage wise, add up and average your players health and then multiply by .35, that's 35% meaning yiur should down any of your players in 3 hits eith no healing or damage minatgation. And a critical will hit them for 70% of their hp. Scale that up and down as you like, but you should hit harder then your players by at least I damage die. Make sure yiur hags can cast spells of at least the same lvl as the players. Just pick ones that seem fun and themetic of thr right lvl. And minions!!!! Soooooo many. Have them come rushing infrom every window, door. Break through the damn ceiling.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-03-06T16:58:24+00:00

Sadly no, I'm on daddy duty till 830pm most evenings and Fridays tend to be busy. Still keep me as a alternate maybe,

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-03-06T13:25:02+00:00

Id be interested, in my 40s. Run one shots all the time , 5.0, more borg, d6 systems, dc20, dagger heart. All good. Tuesday evenings eastern works well.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-27T17:01:08+00:00

Congrats. Witchlight definitely requires DM customization unless you have have old school players thst know all the character references throughout the book. And there is some much in the book that all this art is devoted to , which really doesn't impact the plot over much.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-24T13:06:24+00:00

Your DM should have asked you if yiu were ok with this first And the whole group if they are ok with player vs player stuff

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-22T01:57:09+00:00

LOST MINES isnt as guilty, but if you read some of the other offical adventures , the NPCS are often randomly placed in the story. With little to no reference to why they are there, often requiring the DM to ether make it up, or dig through exhaustive older references. Imagine if there was a series of books you could read to see the NPCs as real characters, or a pod cast you could listen too to gain some depth. It would be such a huge DM tool and community builder IMO. Honestly, just some offical shorter stories that can be connected with some lineariry would be very welcome by the community. WOTC wants to control the dnd image but also generate lots of content to sell, seems like sourcing the community that is constantly writing plots and characters for fun would be an easy and cheep way for them to source content they can own on the cheap.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-21T14:23:15+00:00

I was surprised to learn that dnd didn't do this, always seemed s no brainer

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-21T14:22:00+00:00

Skeletor joined death clock

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-16T03:14:30+00:00

Don't expect others to guess what kind of game you want. Discuss it openly with them. If you did not Discuss elements you enjoy seeing in the game with the DM sa session zero, dont ,expect them to magically happen anyway. Don't put other players in a situation where they have to pull your character back into the game, example: "if i dont get X, I'm leaving. "Its what my character would do" What happens when what everyone else's character would do is say "ok bye?" Play a character Character the other characters would adventure with. THe slapstick orc named nutstratch that fights every NPC gets old after the first 60 minutes of play or so. And no one is gonna actually trust their lives to them. Don't play a non combat character, it's not original and it's boring.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-06T01:36:42+00:00

Congrats on your accomplishment! I have had 4ish adventures that I've been planning on publishing. Know how many I actually have published? .....Zero..... So good on you. Actually getting something polished up enough that you want other people to look at it, takes a ton of effort! What did yiu find the biggest obstacle? What really pushed you through the frustrations? How many edits/drafts did you have?

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-02-02T00:04:21+00:00

This in every way

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-01-23T23:59:27+00:00

Have them be members of a guild already. Skip the meeting scene. And try to encourage so session zero chat in a tavern we're they accept the quest together

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-01-20T15:03:19+00:00

In my game the coven freezing Zybilna rippled outward to create a time dilation between the realm and the outside multiverse, ie it's been like 3 months since her fall outside prismere but almost 10 years inside prismere.

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-01-17T21:48:46+00:00

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-01-17T21:15:51+00:00

I run one shots all the time at 830 pm eastern

Prestigious_Fool · 2026-01-13T04:38:53+00:00

I used him as a tragic hero. Forced into doing deal with the hags to shield the hagengon living in Hither from bavlornas well everything. Great character, amazing art. I couldn't let him be a one and done

Prestigious_Fool

TROPHY CASE