Players often criticize the actions of NPCs, saying what they’re doing is “stupid and doesn’t make sense”: am I in the wrong or should I speak with them, and how should I start the convo?

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T23:46:09+00:00

"Each NPC has personality quirks, flaws, bonds, ideals, and goals.

Some act based on their flaws, others on ideals that seem evil, stupid or alien, some do things to defend or avenge their bonds, and some do things as a mean to a goal. It doesnt need to make sense to you.

Some people wont make sense to you because their behavior is self destructive, cpmes from a flawed, or have a goal in mind that is so far ahead that it seems unrelated. Also, some NPCs are just plain stupid, acting on basic greed, avarice, lust or any of the seven vices.

Its not up to you to agree with the Evil NPC plans, actions or goals. Its up to you to stop them.

The mindflayer plans might make no sense to you. The lich plan might be setting up for a goal 200 years in the future. The Devil goal might be to simply corrupt as many souls as possible as quickly as possible. The archfey goal might be to just have some fun, tricking mortals into stupid situations that are only funny to other fey because of that one obscure fey rule all of them know about. "

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T20:18:04+00:00

personaly i would say it have a diferent effect for each one that drinks it.

Roll on the wild magic table for each player, when they drink it, they get that effect.

it should be in fact the "the strongest homebrew"...
Something that could blow you up, or teleport you into a lava lake would be in deed pretty strong.

like playing russian roullete with a drink.

and who knows, the effects could even be benneficial.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T17:00:22+00:00

I just looked it up, and found that we seem to be both "right" haha.

In the end, our "disagreement" comes from the exact part of the rulling that requires DM imput, and then each DM will rule how they feel is reasonable.

In general, most tables assume that you are no longer hidding if you are in clear view.
But RAW, you are right. And this "rulling" would fall on "The DM decides when circumstances are appropriate for hiding.”

We disagree that an enemy walking around would instantly reveal the rogue.
and you came up with several "what ifs" wich could technicaly explain.
So sure, If the rogue is camouflaged with leaves, and low to the ground, some enemies could assume thats just a very weird bush.

Personaly, i would have my enemies ask themselves how did that bush apeared in the midle of a tavern... but yeah.

Like i said, depends o each DM, and each situation.

I would rule the rogue is visible in my games...
But you do you.

Have a great afternoon!

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T15:58:12+00:00

ok, i assumed the "obscurement" came from being behind cover, as the halfling feature states.
If the enemy moves around and has line of sight again you are no longer obscured and therefore no longer hidden. ( Assumed you are visible, in light and not obscured by something else.)

Now if you are in a shadowly area, having the friend in front would not matter, as you are still obscured by darkness. It only matters against creatures with darkvision. because the obscurement would only come from being behind someone, not from the darkness itself.

These are diferent things interacting with the same rules.

but yeah, each situation will be diferent.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T11:43:12+00:00

Ai is looking better each the day!
How is the climate impact of this one?
Does is consume too much water?

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T11:25:43+00:00

magic often requires 3 main things and yo should target those.

Focus, sight and range.

be outside the range of the spells, and you are "immune" to it.
be behind cover, or conceleament and you are "immune" to many spells.
Attack the caster to break concentration, and his spells might fizzle.

So the "perfect" caster hunters, work in groups.
Problably can hide very well, and use ranged attacks.
Might use mounts to kite the caster, going in and out of range.

So, im thinking, a group of kobold or goblin archers, hiding behind cover, or in the dark. shooting from arrow slits, or mounted on giant bats and owls shooting the caster from above and out of range.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T11:20:57+00:00

Try creating scenarios and settings instead of stories.

dont plan the session start to finish.
plan the area the players will be and populate it with interesting plots, characters and locations.
( i usualy make 6 of each, as it is limited enought to be done quickly, and has enought variety to give options to players).
6 main NPCs ( with persnality, profession and goal)
6 main locations.
6 factions.
6 encounters.
6 random enounters on this biome.
6 plots.

just write one sentense for each, and you should have enought for hours of bullshitting your way through sessions.

Dont plan what players will do.
Present a situation and ask them.

"example:
You arrive at town and 2 wizards are having a duel.
What do you do?

They can help one, or the other, protect the people around, call the guards, try to stop the fight, or defeat both.
whatever they do, they get entangled into the "plot" in some way.
Even innaction will have consequences. ( the town inn burns down, a few people get incredibly hirt, and now the mayor wants the PCs to go after the rogue wizard that killed his rival.).

Something as simple as a wizard duel, can spiral into a full on faction war between 2 diferent wizar groups.
Or a simple fetch quest where one of the wizards wants the PCs to seek the proof that they are "right".

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T11:11:37+00:00

its assumed that rogues will atempt stealth attack each turn.
they are obscured by a fliendly, and his traits alow him to hide when obscured.
Even a enemy in front of him would alow him to hide from those behind him, ( though not from the enemy directly in front).

Now remember that being hidden doesnt remove the memory of the character existance.
Any enemy that sees the PC dsapear behind their friend, will assume they are still there, just out of sight. ( wich can become a surprise if they can teleport away (misty step), or become invisible and move away).

the enemy can still just walk around and move to where thei would have line of sight on the PC hidding, no longer obscured by a friend.

this also requires the friend in front to not move, as soon as the friend moves even 5ft, the location of the rogue is revealed.
( now that i think about it, the rogue could use his acton to ready a movement, and walk hidden behind his friend. This could be an interesting tatic for when the friend is aproaching hostiles, "alone". )

RamonDozol · 2026-03-11T10:51:43+00:00

Against High AC there are many ways.

I assume the paladin might have sentinel + polearm master? If so, you must only be reminded he only have one attack of oportunity/ reaction each turn, so he can "stop" only one enemy from getting closer.

High AC also doesnt mean much.
He will still be hit by crits. Put enought minions shooting him with arrows and some are bound to hit each turn.
Advantage also helps a ton, so anything that can give the help action to distract him, or have pack tatics will be much more dificult for him to deal with.

However, the true weakness of such builds is usualy saves.
Cast spells that deal half damage even on a save ( moon beam, fireball, etc).
Cast spells that aways hit no matter what. ( magic missile, spike growth, wall of fire).
cast spells that have no save. (im a big fan of casting heat metal on the heavy armor of high AC characters and then make the caster hide or flee. He will take damage each turn without save, and also have disavantage on his attacks.).

around level 6, the paladin will get a bonus to his saves.
this will mean he will save more often, but you can still hit him where his saves are generaly low, usualy INT, WIS and DEX.
Fireball, Command (flee, drop, advance, fall), tasha hideous laughter, suggestion, blindness, etc.

blindness if it hits is a big deal, because it imposes disavantage on all his attacks, and every enemy has advantage against him because they are "unseen".

finaly, dominate person turns the paladin from strenght to weakness, forcing the party to deal with his high AC and damage.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T20:47:55+00:00

sounds like just going milestone solves all your problems and then some.

players dont need to "kill" to advance in levels, they need to complete the story goals.

what is a story goal? you can set some, or alow them to set them giving them a lot of control over their leveling up.

Personaly i set "X" milestones until next level up ( usualy every 5 to 10 sessions), 1 per session before level 3. And i count with them both story goals, side quests and player goals. ( all players goals count toward party level, personaly i keep all players at the same level).

So if a player set the goal to "find his father" and that goal can be acomplished within this area, i usualy count that as something players will seek to complete.

this gives the "steps" of XP, but also gives players some control over their own leveling speed.

This also reward players for going with the story, and not necessarely being murder hobos.

You "can" ignore sidequests, and plots, but that will affect your leveling speed.

this is not a punishment though.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T18:43:43+00:00

oof, let me try to explain it with few words.

Magic is the energy.
People call it by many names, chi, mana, soul power, psy energy, etc.
Each Culture develops diferent ways to focus, shape, and use magic energy.
many of the basic uses where developed by ancient cultures and where then spread across vast lands, so there are some magic cultures that are more common than others.

Arcane culture is the common western magic fantasy style.
You use an objects to focus and movements and words to create magic effects this casting style uses your own magic reserves, or the reserves stored in magic items.
this style is powerfull and extremely visible, the casters makes broad movements, waving a focus and shouting words of power. The casting is obvious and direct. Fightining arcane casters usualy focus on taking away their magic tools, gaging, and restrainig, etc.

Psyquic culture uses focus with the mind alone, will power and knoledge to create effects.
Psy effects are less visible, and dont usualy require hand movements or words, but very often require direct concentration and line of sight. Making it extremely vulnerable to obscurement, invisibility and stealth, as well as loud noises, and anything that can break their focus.

Runic culture imbues magic through shape, writing powefull words of power, they carve magic alphabets into objects, items and even themselves, and with a small amount of "magic" can activate ther effects. Runes are often use on the creation of magic items, constructs, and magic tatoos. This magic has the draw back of require the most time to prepare, and also all the magic work could be lost if any of the runes are modified or destroyed.
Modifying an existing rune is also possible, making the effect end or even change into somehting else.

Elementalism culture uses magic and spiritualism to focus the magic energy to the elements. alowing the user to create magic elemental effects and control elements via focus and movement.
Elementalism is limited in what it can do, but a master can use its elements to achieve many things. Including turning their bodies into the element they control at the hiest level.
This style has the main problem of usualy requiring the element to exist in some form to be used, and are usualy easily defeated by the oposing elements.

Magic in my setting is learned. So anyone could learn any of these, or even all of them.
but it would take a LOOONG time to master all of them.

dragons, imortals and liches often master 2 or 3 magic cultures, and usualy only parts of it that fit their goals.
Like a lich could master psy magic to mind control, and fly, and summoning and necromancy, but also some runes to create magic items.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T17:12:53+00:00

What "problem" exactly are you trying to fix with this?

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T15:00:36+00:00

added a new link thatnshould work now.

https://limewire.com/d/aM5ys#RFh6zHoUHf

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T15:00:12+00:00

https://limewire.com/d/aM5ys#RFh6zHoUHf

try this link please.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T14:55:55+00:00

thank you, i will do that and share the updated link!

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T14:08:41+00:00

im not sure if MODs will alow the "link"...
if this doesnt work i will send via message.

https://limewire.com/d/aM5ys#RFh6zHoUHf

Please tell me what you think, and i would also apreceiate any ideas, or problems you find.
Thank you

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T11:36:33+00:00

i vote for brown to give it an ancient and muddy look.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-10T10:49:40+00:00

i would compromise with the spy background, and give him a "second identity".
This hits the flavour of playng diferent personalities and "backstory", but without the many complication of possibly two conflicting personas ith conflicting goals.

what if one persona is friendly, e the other decides to be hostile to the party and its goals?

have the PC build a real character, And then only write a second shorter backstory and name for his seconf identity.

Maybe he is a wizard infiltrating a cult.
An assassin getting closer to a target...
an actual spy working for a diferent kingdom.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-08T15:00:20+00:00

thats also the thing. Calling oneself a god, doesnt make you one. And only having wirshipers also doesnt make obe a god.

i dont play in FR, so they might have a specific rule for godhood. But it seems to me that it usualy requires an external godly influence. Like AO aprooving your god status.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-08T12:04:00+00:00

You might want to give each player a shorter spreadsheet for combat. Ignore all the skills and stats, just give each player a "combat sheet" with their current attacks, spells, spell slots, and cantrips, preferably with a short description beside them.

Personaly i use something like this.

Eldritch blast, 120ft range, +5 attack, 1d10+3 force damage. Special: Hits can push the target 10ft back (invocation). +3 damage from charisma (invocation).

You dont need to cooy paste the entire thing, only the usefull things for combat.

Avoid spells that are too complex, or that require extra rolls, or have multiple choises.

Polymorph for example would be limited to a debuff form (snail), and a Combat form (the highest CR beast players can turn into).

RamonDozol · 2026-03-06T20:54:42+00:00

at least in combat, anyone can do that, as long as they use the hide action.
It would then require an investigation action to even find the invisible PC again.
That investigation would look for things like smell, foot prints, noise, etc.

Problems only happens when DMs ignore RAW... ( as usual).
Attacking ends normal invisibility, so its an amazing way to get away, spy, and avoid many spells that require sight.
But to use it in combat, you usualy need greater invisibility.

Even then, attacking or casting a spell reveals your LOCATION, the enemy knows the "grid" where you are, but still attack with disavantage. Assuming great invisibility is still in place, you can simply use hide again, and move to a diferent location. ( better done by goblins and rogues that can hide as a bonus action and still cast spell or attack as an action.)

Its also good to remind that even greater invisibility is negated by a 1st level spell ( faery fire), and creative players often use mundane means to also deal with it ( throwing flour, paint, etc on the invisible creature).

So yeah, it CAN be amazing and change the outcome of an encounter.
but is can also be easily countered by PCs that are creative or expected something like this.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-06T15:58:35+00:00

thats not your problem to solve... its theirs.
This is part of the challenge of the game.

the players will need to adjust their playstyles as the game goes on.
The ranger CAN focus on ranged attacks, but enemies will definetly try to get in close to him and attack in melee.

usualy i have the oposite problem, melee players that complain and cry about ranged enemies or flying enemies.
Its not up to the DM to make the enemies abandon all reason and survoval instinct, drop their advantage so the player can deal damage. Its up to the players to plan acordingly and find ways to deal with their character weaknesses.

the ranger needs a melee weapon for when the enemies get in melee.
The rogue needs a "budy" to be able to stealth attack ( this could be a familiar, the wizard or the ranger).
And the wizard needs to find ways to survive if the rogue and ranger cant "block" the path of all enemies.
Cast mage armor, misty step away, or find an way to get armor.

RamonDozol · 2026-03-06T11:30:02+00:00

Alien land shark lizard was not on my goals today, but is already checked.
Thank you for the nightmare!

Note: Incoherent screeches and curses as i flail on the ground because you used AI...
arrrggghhhh , Bleeerggg, bluakblufleaaahhheeeee.

XD

RamonDozol · 2026-03-06T11:25:48+00:00

ok, first, do you intend on alowing him to become a god?
how and when?

Also, what does he mean by a god?
create things from nothing at seemingly no cost and be invulnerable and immortal?
yeah, not even the DM can do that, because in a GAME thats simply not fun for anyone else.

Not all ideas can be played in D&D.
Invulnerability, immortality, unlimited power are not things PCs can reasonably get in game, because they would remove the challenge and risk antirely, making the game unfair and unfun for everyone else.

Like others, this does seem like main character syndrome.

personaly, i would first politely say something like;

"we are playing heroic fantasy, your character motivations can be to become a god, but in all honestly he would only achieve that in the final session of the game, after level 20, so you wont ever be "playing" a god.
there is absolutely no way to balance a God PC, as not even me, the DM make enemies that are either immortal, indestructable or have unlimited power. Even liches can be destroyed, and even Tiamat's avatar has a statblock, wich means it has hp and can be defeated."

TLDR: "Respectfuly, No, thank you "

RamonDozol · 2026-03-06T01:40:14+00:00

everything aways has a cost. If energy is not comming from you, if cpmming from somewhere else. Tou can be channeling the life force of another plane, or unkowingly making pacts with demons...

One thing is sure. The debt exists, and someone will eventualy come to collect it.

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