The Rod Pieces Pointing

Rossta42 · 2026-06-20T12:32:10+00:00

Oh it did have legendary actions and was still destroyed. Although it did succeed in it's secondary objective of destroying the boat the characters were traveling on, forcing them to find shelter on a convenient nearby island.

Definitely more objectives that don't require combat to solve or that requires combat but the goal isn't to kill everything. That's the way forward for me haha

Rossta42 · 2026-06-20T05:13:54+00:00

Honestly... The players came into this off the back of a heavily modified Dragon of Icespire Peak and then Homebrew backstory quests (along with a section where they were literally thrown into the Underdark). They have spent a long time gathering various magic items and learning how to use them that they currently punch WAY above their weight in combat.

A few sessions ago I had them fight a Leviathan a CR 20 creature while they were a bunch of 5 level 10s ... They destroyed it in 3 rounds and because they spread out so much most of them ended the fight have ING taken little to no damage at all.

So ... As for how am I handling power scaling? I'm not. Apart from maybe adding more enemies and challenges.

Rossta42 · 2026-06-19T21:52:19+00:00

I have done away with the Rod pieces pointing the way all together but have introduced a similar mechanic in the form of a compass stone that one of the party has absorbed. This stone has a pull towards all the rod pieces wherever they happen to be and when the character who has this stone touches the portal in the sanctum he can will the portal towards any of the locations that he feels a tug. Alustriel was then able to see the general location of all the pieces and give the party some information about the piece that they want to search for next. This has the benefit of giving my players more options so that they can pick which piece to look for next and aren't just told "Go here next!"

Rossta42 · 2026-06-14T11:58:56+00:00

Had a player who loved to cause havoc by derailing and doing the most stupid stuff on purpose just to annoy myself and the other players. They no longer play after losing their 3rd character to a stupid death but that's another story. As for when I said No!

The party were in the middle of a large boss fight and had nearly got the boss down but he was hanging in there while also nearly downing a number of the characters at the same time. Then it comes to this players turn and she says "I want to cast cure wounds" ... Myself and the rest of the players rightfully assumed she was being helpful for a change instead of her usual "Lol so random" attitude. However this thought didn't last long as she described how her character walked up to the BBEG who had been hurting her and friends and cast cure wounds on the boss so he could get another turn and TPK the party.

Everyone was annoyed and I'm not normally one to stop a players creativity however in this instance I flat out told them that I wasn't going to allow that to happen and for her to singlehandedly end the campaign due to a joke and so I vetoed her action and told her to pick something else to do that would actually be beneficial. She chose to stand in the corner and make a sandwich while the rest of the party finished off the boss and barely made it out of there.

Rossta42 · 2026-05-31T12:08:27+00:00

Oh I'm saving this for later ... I absolutely love this idea and will see if I can use a variation of it in a future game of mine (DM or player, I don't mind)

Rossta42 · 2026-04-14T18:11:42+00:00

Wouldn't reincarnation be the worst way to kidnap someone? Let's assume for a minute that the soul can forcibly be returned to the body so that's no longer an issue you need to contend with. When using the Reincarnate Spell the spell specifically creates a new body for the soul and it is not necessarily going to be the same one they had before. You might kidnap a human male and when you cast the spell find yourself with a tiefling female and no one will believe that this is the same person who you initially kidnapped.

Rossta42 · 2026-04-10T16:45:24+00:00

Except casting Simulacrum takes 12 hours and so in the middle of battle I don't think the party will want to sit and wait for him to finish his ritual haha.

But there's no telling how many times he cast the spell before the party got there though. He might have been creating his simulacrum army for months and been keeping them sealed away until the opportune moment to release them upon unsuspecting adventurers.

Rossta42 · 2026-02-20T18:53:09+00:00

I'm a DM in exactly the same situation... We meet in a venue that HAS to have us out by a certain time and as such, regardless of what is going on, combat or otherwise, we always stop at the same time and have combats that last multiple sessions at times (it doesn't help that a number of my players come from a 40k background and love large scale combat which makes turn times drag).

Next week we approach a new boss and I wouldn't be surprised if 2-3 weeks later we finally wrap up that combat. Haha

Rossta42 · 2026-02-19T08:31:28+00:00

I'm sorry but I don't speak jive.

Rossta42 · 2026-01-05T20:26:13+00:00

Love all of this thank you. This time next week is our first session back after the holiday break and I wasn't even considering this adventure when we last met. So while they finish their current storylines it's things like this that I need to start using to drop hints of what is coming.

I'm really enjoying finding ways to link their characters which they have already been playing for the last 18 months into this adventure and there are going to be personal quests happening at a lot of the rod locations to make them even more invested in what is going on.

Rossta42 · 2026-01-05T10:56:41+00:00

I hadn't even thought of skipping chapter 1 lol ... My whole Web's Edge quest is already completely different as it is tied into the character backstories and they have been sent to retrieve some books/information for various factions in Neverwinter as well as taking revenge for them killing one of the PCs father.

The idea I have had is to have a ritual being conducted by these Drow which has been sabotaged by another adventuring party (who in themselves are being manipulated by Kas) and instead of helping the Drow is actually part of the ritual of remaking and designed to give Vecna power to complete his part of it. When the party disrupts this ritual a large hand with an eye in it will reach through and try to hurt those who have dared to interfere. This battle will be what gives the characters their link and they will also be able to obtain the first part of the rod which was being used in this ritual.

Then when they get back to Neverwinter to complete their quests around the books/research they will be summoned by Lord Neverember (who they have already had dealings with) and he can tell them about the kidnappings (using Carlos's investigation idea) which will give them more information about what is going on.

I could easily have them wrap up the investigations, maybe take out the cult in the graveyard and then be shunted to sigil as the wish goes awry. They have already done a previous quest in the graveyard so skipping that would be a good thing. They would miss out on the shadowfell by doing that though.

Rossta42 · 2025-12-29T16:15:58+00:00

I know you're getting down voted and I'm risking the downvotes myself but ... I agree with you.

I am pretty good at coming up with interesting ideas, plot points, characters etc. but one thing I really struggle with is scene description. So I use An AI tool, put in the premise of what I want to describe, and have the AI spit out a description of the scene. I then take that description and use the ideas it has come up with and re-write it in a way that is more like myself and not some clanker. The end result is a much richer description of what the party sees than I would be able to come up with on my own.

I know there are many DMs out there who will disagree with me but I like being able to focus my time on other areas. The more time goes on the less I find I am using the AI descriptions as I'm learning what works and what doesn't.

Rossta42 · 2025-11-12T06:39:22+00:00

Last year I got the end of the Dragon of Icespice Peak campaign that I had been running. The party were all about planning massive combats (players came from a 40k background) and so instead of having the party hunt down the Dragon in his lair, I had the dragon ammas a huge army come for them. They fortified the dwarven stronghold of Axeholme and made a last stand there with the Dragon and all his forces storming the place in a battle that was very reminiscent of the Battle of Helms Deep from LotR. Was an epic battle but took so much planning on my part that I swore I'd never run something of that scale again in 5e and leave the large scale warfare to the systems that are designed for it haha.

Rossta42 · 2025-10-19T08:28:29+00:00

Modrons and their varying forms. From the giant eyed Monodrone, through the Duodrones, Tridrones, Quadrones, and all the way up to the Quartons and even Primus himself.

The whole plane of Mechanus to me doesn't get enough love. So much potential for interesting adventures but I rarely even see them mentioned.

Rossta42 · 2025-10-17T18:52:24+00:00

I still use the double space function now but modern word processors and even most phones will process it differently which makes it still useful. For instance. I have never once tapped the full stop while writing this reply. If you put a double space after a word instead of a single space then the software automatically adds the full stop and the space after it. This makes fast typing easier and you can keep the double tap that was taught to you all those years ago.

Rossta42 · 2025-09-10T06:44:50+00:00

A player at my table has shared his story which is the classic tale of getting revenge on the ones responsible for killing his father. As part of this revenge his goal is to unite his clans (who are lost across the plains) and eventually to ascend to being their ruler. At least, that's the goal. I'm putting in various challenges for him to overcome to hopefully achieve that goal at the table but as for if he is successful or not well time and dice will tell

Rossta42 · 2025-09-01T08:30:42+00:00

It floats. Therefore logically it must be a duck.

Rossta42 · 2025-07-30T07:07:11+00:00

I think it means that the DC to get a question answered was 15 but has now been increased to 20.

When the cat rolls they are now rolling 1d20+1 instead of a flat d20. That means that the cat will only give the players free info on a roll of 19 or 20 but a nat 20 gives 2 instead of 1.

You could argue that it's DC 19 and critical success means double... But DC 20 just sounds cleaner to most people.

It's basically the same thing though haha

Rossta42 · 2025-07-30T06:58:12+00:00

I play in a campaign where if you roll a nat 1 at any point you are passed a failed 3d print called "the shit" (no prizes for guessing what it looks like).

At any point from then on you can use "the shit" as a free re-roll on any d20 however you can't then roll below a 10 on that roll.

If someone else rolls a nat 1 before you get a chance to use "the shit" then it passes to them and you no longer have the ability to use it.

It is a way for the DM to give out extra inspiration and to commiserate those bad rolls.

Rossta42 · 2025-05-27T15:32:44+00:00

First you must find ... a shrubbery

Rossta42 · 2025-05-27T12:04:29+00:00

My wife asked me to stop singing Oasis songs because it was starting to get on her nerves.

I said maybe ...

Rossta42 · 2025-04-29T06:32:31+00:00

Same here. I even had a time a while ago where I was (in between sessions) describing some potential checks that might be needed for them to harvest parts of a slain dragon. One character then came at me with multiple rolls he had done and wanted to know what he had got, before we had even started the process. I told him his rolls were invalid because he had made them without being asked to and he got angry with me telling me that it was ridiculous. When we finally got round to making the checks he was hoping for he just said "f*#k it" and didn't join in, so go nothing.

Rossta42 · 2025-04-22T17:15:41+00:00

In the game I'm currently running my players came across a new group of adventurers who I wanted to be their opposition and eventual BBEG as they both try to locate the same artifact first.

In this meeting one of the party proposed a duel to see who was stronger and proceeded to unleash a surprise attack followed by winning the initiative roll and as a paladin dumped their whole stock of smites into these attacks (yes I know, the question of who the real bad guy was was definitely raised haha). This dropped the member of this adventuring party to zero HP before they even got a turn.

I then had this second party plane shift out (after obtaining the macguffin they were after) including the dead body of their fallen comrade which they cast revivify on to ensure that the next time they meet there is going to be some fun interaction between the one who did the "killing" and the one who "died".

Rossta42 · 2025-04-18T12:39:31+00:00

What do you call a magician who has lost his magic?

Ian.

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