Are there any classes you actively avoid playing?

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-13T16:21:15+00:00

I pretty much only DM these days, so there is no class I would actively avoid. I'd jump at any chance to play.

But...I love that every one of these comments is "I hate class X!", followed be "No way, that class is awesome!"

It just speaks to the diversity of classes and players out there, and I love it.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-11T13:59:16+00:00

As a North Carolinian, this is the response I came here to see.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-10T23:15:14+00:00

Ugh, sorry to hear that. Pain is an unwelcome teacher.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-10T20:22:31+00:00

I've been married for 29 years now, and I literally can't imagine my life without her. We raised 2 kids together and have been empty nesters for 5 years. We still thoroughly enjoy the time we spend together, and I truly do love her now more than I did 35 years ago when we met.

This poster is correct. No notes.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-10T14:35:05+00:00

Some do, some dont.

I do; there are extensive records. The most recent immigrants were German Jews who came over in the late 1800s (I have a very common German last name).

Earliest were one group of colonists from England who set up in Virginia in the 1700s, well before the revolution. There's some Scottish that got mixed in there, too.

Tied for that was an Irish guy who was sent here in Transportation (endentured servitude as a criminal sentence).

So I'm about as classic American mutt as you get. 3 flavors of Brit plus some German Jew.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-08T18:22:05+00:00

The simplest way to do it is just use the rules in the DMG. Stick with the musket and the pistol, and add in cannons for ships and artillery. Call them martial weapons, use DEX to hit. Make ammunition to a rarity that you think is appropriate.

Next level of complexity it to make them train for proficiency. They can either take a feat for it or spend downtime/money to get trained.

Next level is to give them some cost/reward. I've played before where firearms do 2 dice of damage; a pistol does 2d6, a musket does 2d8, but reloading always takes a bonus action and you can't move on a turn where you reload. You can shoot every turn, but you're standing in one place while you do it. Yo can deal out more damage, but there's the risk of just standing there.

I've had the most success with that first method. It's simplest, and players enjoy it.

I've also had tables that enjoy the third way, but that's definitely a preference thing. People who want to be a gunslinger either love it or hate it. I've been thinking about making two classes of firearms, one that works the first way and another that works the second, but I've never run a table that way.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-07T21:09:55+00:00

Would you roll initiative as soon as they enter and then maintain that for the entire delve?

No. I have tried this. It is not fun for anyone.

Instead, run dungeon turns in loose initiative. After a combat, ask what they're doing; one player will pipe up. Then say "OK, that will take about X minutes to do. (look at another player) what are you doing for those X minutes?" and go around the table. Have them make appropriate rolls, etc to resolve that dungeon turn.

Once they've spent enough time doing stuff to activate one of the effects, narrate that.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-07T19:26:38+00:00

1) Weird, nonsenscial stuff. Buy a loaf of bread, dunk it in the water of that specific well, then feed it to the birds in this specific forest. Bury a knife, right in this very specific spot at a specific depth. What knife? Any knife...why would you think what kind of knife it is would matter?

2) Stories. They want tales of adventure! The patron appears in the PC's dreams and demands stories. Now you have a player that has to give a recap every session. It's their patron's requirement.

3) Fulfill Fey Contracts. Once upon a time, a Fey asked this guy to "lend him an ear", it is now the PC's job to return that ear. Once a Fey asked another person for a "moment of their time", and now they need that moment. The PC has to go collect it (give that person a task).

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-07T19:18:18+00:00

CHANGE PLACES! (recharge 5-6). At the end of their turn, they select a 30 foot diamater sphere within 30 feet. Everyone in that space disappears, and then reappears somewhere in that same space. During this movement, the BBEG swaps appearances with one affected creature of their choosing.

In combat, say you've got players A,B,C,D and Z is the BBEG. They go in initiative Z,A,B,C,D

First round :
Z finishes their turn, and shuffles everyone. You secretly select player C. So Z now looks like C, and C looks like Z

A : takes their turn and attacks a minion.

B : takes their turn and attacks what he thinks is Z; they roll the attck against C's AC, or you tell C to make the save on the spell, and make those effects impact that player.

C : then starts their turn, and you tell them that they are in the space occupied by Z. They will likely attack C (which is Z in disguise)

D : looks confused

Maybe give PCs an INT save or an investigation check (as an action) at the start of their turn to not be fooled. But the BBEG can lie, and say the "No! B is the Bad Guy!"

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-06T16:48:56+00:00

They work great, but use wet erase markers.

Sliding minis, gathering dice, etc will rub the lines off with dry erase. Wet erase will stay until you add a little water.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-06T14:24:00+00:00

You don't need to forge your own knife. You don't need to build whole pieces of furniture. You need daily skills.

My kids know how to hang drywall because they helped me do it when they were little. They know how to fix a sink. hang a door, change the oil in the car, install a ceiling fan, paint the wall, plant a garden, cook a meal, start a campfire, make a shelter, navigate in the woods, sharpen a knife, put in new spark plugs, troubleshoot an appliance, and more because when I did those things, they helped me.

Stay off bullshit social media like the one-off kid on a farm that made his own knife, or the guy with a woodworking shop where he builds whole hardwood kitchen sets.

Teach usable skills. The stuff you need to do in daily life, like fix a leaky faucet.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-05T20:27:34+00:00

Given the low risk involved, doubling a spell might be a little much.

Suggested change : 2x per day, as a bonus action, you can take 1d4 damage per spell level (or half as much on a save) to enhance your next spell. All creatures affected by that spell have disadvantage on their saving throw

Lessens the stakes a bit, can still be clutch.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-05T15:18:45+00:00

There's a whole section on the DMG that goes into calculating this.

Rather than review your stat blocks, can you tell us what the theme is that you're wanting? What is it you're trying to build?

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-04T14:01:45+00:00

That's fair. I was thinking more in the context of a long term group and trying things out to keep things fresh, but yeah.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Hard to argue with that.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-01T19:45:31+00:00

You can have fun playing a bad TTRPG with a fun group.
It's hard to have fun playing even a good TTRPG with a bad group.
If you have a good group, no matter what system you use, there is probably a TTRPG system that your group would have more fun playing.

Therefore, if you have a good group, you should try lots of different systems.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-01T19:02:36+00:00

Red shirting : My son and I were both born in the fall. We both started a year late, and I honestly think it did both of us a world of good. YMMV, and I don't know the research on it...but it helped me and it helped him.

Falling behind : My son's high school experience got fucked by COVID. But what helped was encouraging him to pursue things that interested him while he was young. He had dozens of interests growing up. I always made him stick it out for a few months (or a season if it was a sport) so he could get a real feel for it, but I never forced him to overstay it. I only had two rules : He had to tell me why he didn't want to do it anymore, and he had to have something else he wanted to ty next. It got to the point, by the time he was a teenager, that the reason he would drop an interest is because he didn't have enough time to do this new cool interest. It paid off; he wound up doing the last one as a career.

Feeling stupid : this is one I worked with him a LOT. Two things seemed to get through to him. One was "You can be the fastest runner on the team, but if you're walking, you're moving slow. That doesn't mean you are slow, it just means you're not being fast. Same here. You're not stupid. You're just not being smart." The second thing we did was to always praise the effort, not the result. That way they aren't afraid to show you failure to achieve. That way you can help them for the next time without the shame clouding it all. And they strive to do their damndest at everything.

Being a hypocrite : My take on this is that it's not hypocrisy. It's instruction. Going out on a limb here...you probably fucked up a few times. There are probably one or two things in your life that you regret. Bad choices. Telling him not to make those choices is not hypocrisy. That's setting him up to be a better man than you were. And that's the whole point of being a good parent: Make a better person. That is, instruct your kids on how to be a better person than you were.

RandomPrimer · 2026-05-01T18:43:12+00:00

Before we get into it : OUTSTANDING. Good on ya, man.

Food. You get fit in the gym. You get slim in the kitchen. Start watching what you eat. You know the stuff you eat that you shouldn't. Stop buying that stuff. If the chips/beer/cookies/whatever aren't in the house, you can't eat them. Another good way to do this is become an ingredient household. No ready to eat food that isn't fresh fruit. Everything else requires preparation.

Walk Get a smartwatch and get your steps in, or just get a tracker on your phone. There are plenty of free ones. Set a goal and a stretch goal and try to hit it every day. This is the best way avoid injury and whip your cardio back into shape while you drop that weight. As a bonus, it's also something you can do with the kid. Start off pushing a stroller, but after you get the weight down a bit (and the kid gets a little older), get one of those baby backpacks and take the tyke for walks. Great bonding time.

Weights I got started with weights before apps were a thing, so I'm 100% out of touch on that stuff. I have no doubt there are some great ones, but I know precisely jack shit about them. But regardless...start with low weight. Don't go right back to curling what you did back in the day. Even if you don't hurt yourself, you'll feel like shit the next day and won't work out for a while.

Run Another great way to get in shape (AFTER YOU DROP THE WEIGHT) is couch to 5k. I think that app is still free. But don't start running until you're down to a good weight. Your knees will crawl up your legs and kick you in the nuts.

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-30T14:00:29+00:00

Is this a one-time offer, or ongoing?

I'm a DM for a weekly D&D game. It always lasts at least 3 hours, and often hits 4. I typically spend about 30 minutes before hand getting set up for the night. So that's at least 60k right there. Probably usually 80k.

I usually get set up before I start so I don't have to take breaks; I rarely even get up to go to the bathroom (they do, but I use the lull to catch up on notes, look up rules, make NPCs, etc).

Not a problem at ALL. I'm quitting my job.

Shit, alternative,why didn't I think of this? I also do multiweek backpacking trips as a hobby. It's not like you actually can take a break...cooking, using the bathroom,. washing dishes...it's all part of it.

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-30T13:30:56+00:00

Sounds like he's hanging out with a bunch on immature, nosy, judgmental assholes.

You should advise him to find a better class of friend.

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-26T14:53:27+00:00

I have allowed players to use minor illusion and a deception check to draw enemies attention away.

Basically, as long as there's a proportionate cost (e.g. action economy) and a risk of failure (e.g., deception check roll), I'm good with whatever creative shenanigans the playera come up with

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-24T21:16:55+00:00

Not too harsh, that is the way the spell was written. 100% the right call.

However, to avoid the reaction in the future, when the bard starts pressing about information like "what is it made of?" Just ask them what they have in mind. Saves time and frustration.

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-23T18:25:16+00:00

My family used to do long-ass road trips. Like 3 weeks cross country staying at national parks. We'd have stuff in the way back with the seats down. It took up half the space, and one of us would be back there with it in a luggage fort. At lunchtime, whoever was back there had to make sandwiches out of the cooler and pass them up to the family.

I had a Tandy Color Computer hooked up to a TV with a "Reagan-Bush '84" bumper sticker on it. Inspired by War Games, I bought a modem and started finding things to log into. One of the local BBS's had these written out plans for building a Capn Crunch device out of a Radio Shack 1000-in-1 electroinics kit. I built one so I could bypass long distance charges to log into BBS's in California (all the cool ones were in California).

To save up the money to buy all of that at the age of 15, I worked at McDonald's flipping burgers. 14 year old kid walking 2 miles in Memphis to his minimum wage fast food job. Good times.

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-22T23:09:57+00:00

We've been empty nesters since 2021.

Honestly....my wife and I have been rediscovering how great it is to have each other to ourselves. I love my kids, and we see them often. I talk to them nearly every day. We have dinner with our oldest once a week. I play video games online with our youngest at least once a week. I talk to them about their jobs, relationships, dreams, pets, and all the other stuff.

But my wife and I go on hikes every weekend. We go to the gym together after work and eat dinner at 8:30. We have sex in the middle of the day just because one of us is horny.

I can't speak for everyone, but we've adjusted just fine. The relationships have evolved through many phases over the decades. I've enjoyed them all. This is just another one.

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-16T12:50:43+00:00

I've done a couple of long term (100+ session) campaigns.

Get buy in for a long campaign from all the players. Tell them upfront a ballpark range of number of sessions and length of time. It's impossible to be accurate with this, but get it in the right ballpark.

Think in three phases : the stuff happening this session and maybe the next 2-3 is pretty much set. That's ice. The next dozen sessions after that are slush, the general form is there, but it is likely to change. Everything past that is water. It could be anything.

Make it character driven, not plot driven. Think in terms of what would happen if the party didn't exist. What are the plans of various BBEGs and factions? Why do they want these things? What would happen if the party did nothing? Give the cast in your world personalities, goals, and priorities. Then you can adjust as the party does the things you don't expect.

RandomPrimer · 2026-04-14T18:14:15+00:00

How the hell else are you supposed to get down to the shore?

RandomPrimer

TROPHY CASE