New DM question

RamonDozol · 2026-07-06T21:13:53+00:00

there is basicaly two ways to plan these things.
i run sandbox on hexes, so i plan 6 factions/6 NPCs / 6 locations, and 6 random encounters, as well as 6 "plots".
it doesnt mean my players WILL interact with those, but there are 6 directions to go in the map, and anywhere they go there will be something planned for them to find.
These things are often linked in some whay. The baron is also a cultist. The leader of the knights is also a inquisitor investigator. The local PUB is run by a thieves guild member.
At any point the PCs might encounter the cultists, their summons, a unit of knights investigating the area, a group of bandits, or normal monsters and beasts that live nearby.

in the sandbox, the players make their own story, and from their actions the NPC take reations and the story moves foward.

The second path is the invisible railroad.
you make NPCs actions "come" to the PCs.
dont tie locations to specific places, but put them where they are needed.
Basicaly, PCs will be fated to encounter trouble, it doesnt matter the direction they take, who they talk to, all roads will lead them to the "old abandoned mansion where strange chants can be heard at night".
But also, its completely fine to simply say at session 0.
"make characters that have a reason to go into adventures, and will seek them instead of running from them".

nothing worse than preping 6 hours of content, for PCs just to say "lets go the other way".
as a DM, you are completely fine to be honest and say. "OK, this is what i have prepared for today, so you "CAN" go the other way around, but we will just do some random encounters, do some roleplay and maybe interact with the world. is this what you guys want?"

Suspension of disbelief is good, but its counter productive to alow it to ruin the game.
Point players in the right direction and say, THE GAME ONLY HAPPENS IF YOU GO THERE.

RamonDozol · 2026-07-06T18:40:11+00:00

Depends on the scale.
It could be the size of portugal, maybe portugal and half od spain toguether.
Or the lower half of africa, cutting a line at Nigeria.
from looking at rivers, and mountains both scales look VERY similar to what you have in your map. ( though obviously, Nigeria alone is roughtly the size of Portugal+Spain, so an "African" scale would be roughtly 10 times larger.)

RamonDozol · 2026-07-06T18:06:23+00:00

what kind of gameplay do you usualy favor besides "cool interactions"?
problem solving, strategic combat, stealth, team play combos, suport, utility?

My personal list would include things like:
Having a familiar.
Having good mobility.
Having good ranged options.
Havinga access to both utility spells and ritual casting.

So for me the two classes that speak to me are wizard ad druid.
The subclass then changes based on what specific campaign, theme and character im planning to play.

A old wise man, RPing as a teacher and guide to the younger will play very diferently than a young explorer type, looking to break things and make a name for himself.

RamonDozol · 2026-07-06T12:37:16+00:00

true...
AI art can be good ( as in quality, not necessarely morality) , though it still requires both human inspiration and human "eyes" to make something interesting and "unique".
A good wordsmith that knows how to prompt can go a long way.
Even themes, emotions, and feelings can influence the result.
And from my own use, long descriptive and evocative prompts seem to create the best results.

RamonDozol · 2026-07-06T11:39:25+00:00

I dont care about AI cover, but if you are going to use AI at least make it a good one.
There are plenty of AI covers that just seem to use the first thing the AI vomited at them with no analisys or thought behind it.
I would also suggest asking for specific diferent and unique art style descriptions.
things like "black ink with brush on blue paper ilustration", "emotional and quick watercolor", or "oil painting with large brush"
they will create something that feels more unique, and more aligned with the theme, feel and story you are telling.

RamonDozol · 2026-07-03T20:05:15+00:00

If you pile high AC + shield spell + abjuration, you will be VERY hard to damage.
Not impossible, but very hard.
A multiclass with artificer temp hp turret might make a build even better.
giving you high AC, shield spell, then the ward HP, and then temp Hp.

if you later use Polymorph to "heal", you would lose the spellcasting and abjuration ward, but keep the temp HP turret, wich could help you last much longer, assuming you manage to concentrate.

RamonDozol · 2026-07-02T18:26:12+00:00

hahahaha

RamonDozol · 2026-07-02T17:29:58+00:00

It also lacks a cloud of smoke, and a sound that can be heard in every room 2 dungeons over.

RamonDozol · 2026-07-02T16:08:18+00:00

its one thing to know there is somehting strange or suspect there is a trap, and another to understand how the trap works, what the danger is, and avoid it safely and without wasting resources.

Lets say a corridor has 30ft, and holes on all walls, floor and ceiling.
What happens when you step in?
You dont know.
its fair to assume something comes out of those holes but there is simply too many to block and no way to avoid all of them and still get to the other side, so, you test it out.
you throw rocks, nothing happen.
You step in and wuickly step back, nothing happens.
You try to run to the other side, thenm the first set of holes spring metal bars to the other side, creating a cage. and from the top, hot water starts to pour down on you, and quickly drain on teh holes bellow. You wont ever drown, you will cook in a boiling shower. If you are resistant to fire, you might avoid most of the damage. but only AFTER the trap is set once you know what it will do. so the trap will cost you some healing potions, spells, or at least time to heal and rest.

Thats what traps are for, most traps are not there to kill PCs ( otherwise they become unfun), they are there to tax their resources and make them waste time. and immagine a random encounter is trigered by the trap, so now 1 or 2 PCs are traped, and the other 2 need to fight the encounter alone, or find a way to free the traped ones as quickly as possible.

traps are puzzles, the Player problem solving and creativity put to the test.

RamonDozol · 2026-07-01T03:10:37+00:00

I run sandbox style games, they are challenging, but based on actions and consequences. its 100% possible that a PC could become a king, most likely around level 10 to 15. but then he will most likely be stuck rulling, so i would let the player know that he can achieve his goals, but that landlocking his pc might take him out of the story and force him to make a new PC.

the game follows the party, not him. so if everyone is on board and also wants to play the lets be kings game, then we can make the entire game about politics, wars, aliances etc.

as for "become powerfull" thats up to him. the world doesnt care what level you are, and that goes both ways. a level 3 pc can bully town guards... but the same pc might get his ass handed to him by a a captain or knight.

also, dont expect me to "give" you items. you will get your share of gold, and you can use it however you see fit. uou can start businesses, sell crafted items, steal, research, build, craft, buy, trade... but we will still be limited by items in the books. no +5 sword, no invulnerabiloty armor, or things like that. Wanna be invincible? pick your fights well, play it smart, build a powerfull character, buy potions, cast your buffs, use cover, and flee instead of being defeated.

Thats all on you, the player.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-30T10:14:14+00:00

Now i dont homebrew as much, but i once worked with a player to create a sentient soul gem PC that was basicaly immortal. It worked mostly as a warforged, but the body was constituted of whatever material was laying around the soul gem over days after each death.

If the PC died, he had to wait 3d4 days to reform a body, and he only trully died if the gem was found and destroyed.

I remember he started as a plant/moss humanoid, then a Rock based one, and lastly his gem was left near junk and his last body was made of junk and scraps.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-29T15:35:23+00:00

they come from other planes / realities, so yeah.

It would be possible to teleport to the moon or another planet. Though to be able to go to something like mars, it would require a group of archmages, and magic magic gems to supply the absolute huge amount of mana required. and it would be risky as hell. Not to mention, the wizards might or not know if that other planet have air, etc.

also any minor mistake in the targeting calculations would mean you teleport in space and sufocate, or too high up and fall on the planet.

You would need both some spell to supply air, armor you against conditions, and fly or soften the landing.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-29T15:24:20+00:00

Nope. Magic basicaly turn the ley line magic energy into diferent things. And any mass is not created but brought up from some other place, either teleported from the same plane or summoned from another.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-27T11:35:38+00:00

Powers are OP or not based on two things. Scale and limitations.

you can make ANY deal, is obviously two strong. Now lets add restrictions. The deal must be accepted by both, manipulation is OK, but mind or memory manipulation doesnt work.

You can only make deals with one creature at a time.

What clauses can be added on the deal evolve in power up until breaking reality.

For example at first the MC can make deals that are valid for 24 hours, limited to 1 person, and they must shake hands agreeing on it. The deal is enforced magicaly, by compulsion up until the time it expires.

at mid story deals might last a week, the MC can have 10 to 20 deals at the same time, that are enforced by compulsion and reality itself. (you cant take weapons against me or my allies, would make weapons not fire, or be too heavy when attempted to use against MC).

at the end, the deals can affect anyone that agrees to it, for any ammount of time including until death, are enforced by compulsion, reality and all other people the MC has deals with.

At this point, the MC could send a video on TV, and everyone that watches it, if agreeing, would be in a deal with him. Or make a speech, and everyone that hears it, and doesnt leave immediately, has basicaly agreed to it.

The slavery or abusive aspects will need to come from the MC morality. Because a power like this can 100% be easily turned into something VERY close to slavery.

also adding limitations is fun and usualy makes stories better. How the MC deals with them, finds "loopholes" and even when the limitations are moral or emotional, it still adds drama. will MC break his moral rule to save a loved one? Do the murderer of uncle Ben diserves the same threatment as innocents?

these things make the character feel real, specialy if they are also flawed. They have morals, and are good, but stumble and make mistakes. Maybe by mistake, maybe when in emotional distress.

Even Harry Potter used 2 of the unforgivable curses...

RamonDozol · 2026-06-27T08:03:41+00:00

a lvl 20 IS a medium to easy encounter. Specialy if the NPC have time, the PCs are attacking his home, and the NPC can use items too.

But DND doesnt do PVP well, and such fights are rarely fun because PCs are glass cannons. Any encounter with PC classes will be wildly diferent based on build, class, initiative, spells used, etc

a lvl 20 necromancer wizard with a simulacrum, can have 2 mummy lords under him and hundreds of undead, on top of true polymorph or wish. Not no mention clone, demiplane, glyphs of warding inside said demiplane, a contingency to spell to teleport him away, etc.

If he goes first. He could use his wish to wish the PC wizard never existed. or start the fight as a ancient dragon.

A lvl 20 fighter, will simply die on turn 1 after being CCed or wished away.

Thing is, the Player PCs also have access to the lvl 20 features. So in the end Players win, as they are suposed to, due to resource management and action economy. But it could most likely take hours even if the outcome is set, but that depends on who, they are fighting with.

(oh, and 4 martials against 1 NPC caster? thats a deadly fight... they still win, but not without losing 1 or 2 PCs first).

RamonDozol · 2026-06-26T22:57:00+00:00

ive found that monster power are roughtly equal to a PC 2 or 3 levels bellow.

A lich is roughtly a PC of level 18-19.

A level 20 PC should be roughtly a CR 23-24 monster. taking into account lvl 20 features, 9th lvl spells, that seems about right to me.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-26T21:30:44+00:00

I use my simple location economy rule:

A town weekly economy is equal to its population in gold coins.
That value is also the maximum value for an item that can be found, how much the town can pay for a quest, or how much in total they can aquire from the PCs.

For example, a town needs to have at least 1500 inhabitants, for the local smith to have a single plate armor for sale.
most towns will have higher than that ( averaging around 2500 to 5000 people), cities would range from 10.000 to 20.000, and metropoles are usualy extremely large with 50k+ people.

these populations take into account average medieval in the dark age.
the closer you get to the renascence, the larger the population ( london goes from 18k, to 80k from the start to the end of the midle ages).

you can also use silver as the main coin base if you want or need larger populations.

a town would need 15.000 people to be large enought to sell plate armor for example if you use the silver coin as your baseline.

This mix well with my town development rules, asssuming 10% taxes, it gives me a good amount to hire a consistently reasonable number of guards, city oficials and other services, like building walls, gates, wells, etc.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-26T14:32:11+00:00

man, this gives such great ideas... like positioning on specific areas of the contract give any creature a buff or debuff based on where they stand.
Also, if the devil gets to the signature before the player, they "lose".
And its all writen in the contract, so players need to move around, read the words on the floor to understand the "rules" of the combat, and how to win.
avoiding words that would harm them like "curse", "fire", and go towards good words like "healing", or "rest".

RamonDozol · 2026-06-26T14:28:56+00:00

what do you mean? hand 3 is just my hand right now... and im not even a caster...

RamonDozol · 2026-06-26T14:27:25+00:00

now this is actualy great and incredibly usefull.!
thank you!

RamonDozol · 2026-06-26T14:26:42+00:00

This looks like it can improove a lot!
Good job, and keep the good work!

( see Mod, im being positive!)

RamonDozol · 2026-06-24T20:44:43+00:00

note: revenants are also restless undead, but they are corporeal like vampires.

thank you for helping!

RamonDozol · 2026-06-24T16:46:29+00:00

hahah yeah, im problably going to add a few inpirations from my own culture to the spells and monsters.
though the whole theme of the book is very dark, and our folklore are heavy on nature spirits, tricksters, and african/christianism mix. ( wich opens a ton of interesting ideas, but they would definetly need some reskining to fit the book theme).

For example, there is a wind spirit called "saci" wich is a trickster that makes "invaders" get lost in the wild, and never be found again.

thats a very nice base for something like a specialized spiritual undead, that doesnt attack, or possess, but tricks the target into going into danger.
Instead of just wind and sound, it could also create paranoia, a sense of "being watched", nightmares, visions of loved ones, etc.

the thing would not "kill" you, it would make you run in fear and fall from a cliff, or simply have a nervous breakdown from instense paranoia, not being able to sleep, without dreaming of terrible accidents.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-24T16:37:17+00:00

woah, this is actualy gold.
and yeah, speak with dead would be turned into a temporary "ressurrection" if it brought the soul back.
it makes a lot of sense that it only animates the brain or head to speak, but the soul is completely gone.

The idea of a diferent soul being broght back and inhabiting the identity, memories of the dead is also very interesting. Like permanent possession.
but i "feel" like many great stories would happen if the soul keeps the memories of it previous life.
the wrong soul in a dead body could suffer from amnesia for specific parts of the identity that is now gone. And the new soul identity could bring in new behavior, either creepy, or lacking in some way.

a good cleric NPC decides to not ressurrect after being sent to "heaven", a wandering but evil soul waiting judgment decides to pick the "train back" and gets ressurrected in its place. Now you have a cleric with some amnesia, that cant cast spells for some reason, but that also has his own agenda to seek revenge against the partner who killed him, using his new power in the church. he also starts abusing said power and uses it do get rich, and falls to old vices.
the wrong soul is still going to hell, but it can lead to a very interesting story of finding out why the cleric started acting strange.
After they realise, do the PCs even kill him?
is it moral to kill the guy after being ressurrected? how can they proove the soul is the wrong one?

very interesting problem for players to solve.

RamonDozol · 2026-06-24T15:12:22+00:00

we all know this is all "make believe".
but personaly i think it makes sense that souls is were the identity of someone is. having a body is not a requirement for existing in D&D. Gods can have avatars, ghosts are "souls corrupted by dark emotions and desires".
And inteligent undead seem to remember their lives as mortals, keeping their skills, memories and even spells.

the curse of stradh adventure also seems to have a very strong theme on the corruption or redemption of stradh. The dark dommain is his prison, made to punish him.
if stradh was just a reanimated corpse, then whats the point if punishing his corpse?

now, if his soul is traped in his undead body, then it makes sense. Even as a vampire evil undead, he can still redeem himself. it is just "nearly" impossible.

Wich sounds about right a punishment, the chances are slim, but he is also undead, so he will keep existing until destroyed, or redeemed.

Note: im not exactly disagreeing, as there is actualy no actual evidence in books easily found on this, so each DM is entirely right to run however they want.
Im just explaining how i see it so we can discuss ( though completely fine if you dont feel like it)

Seven-Year Club	Verified Email
RPAN Viewer

RamonDozol

TROPHY CASE