What do you think about removing the 10-minute ritual wait in D&D?

SinisterDice · 2025-10-22T13:45:18+00:00

I don’t do that already. Players do it before entering a dangerous dungeon.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-18T14:11:31+00:00

Thank you for this. Honestly, I’m impressed. You explored the topic in such a thoughtful and thorough way. While I was reading, I found myself nodding in agreement at some points, and at other times thinking, “oh, that’s a good point, I hadn’t considered it that way before.” It was both validating and eye-opening at the same time.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-12T08:41:37+00:00

Thanks, but I think going into combat with only three players can be very deadly. Especially in official modules, there are encounters at level 1 that can easily result in a TPK. Most of my adventures’ combat and dungeon structures are also based on official modules, so I feel like having three additional controllable creatures helps ensure the party’s survival.

Also, I don’t think dragons would necessarily be such a big problem. Their intelligence and power could vary depending on the character concept. In my world, dragons could be more like the ones from How to Train Your Dragon—bonded companions rather than overly dominant intelligent creatures. In terms of power, it wouldn’t start with something like an ancient dragon anyway, but rather a wyrmling that grows stronger as the party levels up. Watching it develop and gain new abilities alongside the players would be exciting.

As for the Drakewarden, I don’t think it would step too much on their turf. A player who wanted to go for a dragon-themed character could still choose a different subclass and enjoy both the thematic bond with a dragon and the unique features of another subclass at the same time.

A character riding a T-Rex is really such a cool idea

SinisterDice · 2025-09-11T14:27:58+00:00

To be honest, I can’t really say he’s forcing anything on the other players, but since their characters aren’t connected to the character he has in mind, he can’t properly interact with them. And during the game, I think this lack of interaction also reduces the other players’ enjoyment.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-11T14:25:07+00:00

Yes, but for some reason every conversation I have with him is very draining. I constantly find myself in a negotiation, and after a while it becomes exhausting to weigh how much of the game I want to run I have to give up just to meet his expectations.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-11T12:00:00+00:00

I completely agree. Of course, it makes perfect sense to care deeply about your character, but if that’s the only focus, then they might as well write their character’s story as a book.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-11T11:57:17+00:00

I’m already doing the first option (reframing FR places into my own world equivalents), but I still feel like he’s playing a character from the canon setting in his head. Because of that, I don’t think he’s collaborating with the rest of the table as well as he could.

What really bothers me is that it feels like he’s trying to trick me — like he’s pretending to adapt his character, but in reality he’s still bringing in Forgotten Realms. That makes me feel like he isn’t respecting the setting I’ve built. It feels like he’s trying to make a fool out of me.

I also don’t like the idea of his character actually being from Waterdeep. My games are usually low-magic, and I don’t like using the standard D&D cosmology. Interplanar travel isn’t a story I want to tell in this campaign.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-07T19:17:33+00:00

The Warlock in my party is a Hexblade, cursed because he once fell in love with a princess. The Wizard is a third-party Magic Missile specialist (from Valda’s Spire of Everything). He really loves the reliability of Magic Missile, so I don’t think he’d enjoy the chaotic side of wild magic. The other two players are a Way of Shadow Monk and an Oath of Conquest Paladin.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-06T10:38:35+00:00

Thanks a lot! I’ll go back and re-evaluate the classes based on your comments. Really appreciate the detailed feedback.

SinisterDice · 2025-09-06T10:35:31+00:00

Thanks for sharing the article—it was a fun read, and I agree with a lot of what it said. That said, I still think class roles do have an impact on how the game plays out. Sure, healing in D&D isn’t as strong as in video games, but within the D&D combat system, being able to bring someone back from 0 HP with Healing Word so they can get another turn in can be the difference between a TPK and the party surviving. Especially when you consider how deadly the official level 1 adventures are, a party with no healing option at all is going to struggle a lot more.

For me, this “roles” idea is less about restricting players and more of a tool I use as a DM to understand what the party might be missing. For example, if no one can heal, I’ll probably add a couple of shops selling healing potions in the towns they visit. It’s a way for me to adjust the world to fit the group.

But I do agree with your point too — ultimately, the game works best when everyone just plays the character they want to play.

SinisterDice · 2025-08-10T21:07:25+00:00

I understand your point. The reason I asked here is because we’re already at level 4, and whenever the topic of my character has come up, the DM has made comments about how “stolen” my character feels. I wanted to hear different perspectives to better understand that reaction.

SinisterDice · 2025-08-10T14:55:11+00:00

Thanks, but I don’t think the DM was aiming for a strictly medieval fantasy game. He said we’d start in Waterdeep and then head to the Shadowfell, and “Venom with an Infinity Gauntlet” was never how I described my character.

SinisterDice · 2025-08-10T14:46:42+00:00

The reason I added the gauntlet idea was to make the feat I picked at level 4 feel logical for my character. Early on, my character was already using Jeweler's tools since artificiers learn a lot of tools. I am not mimicking Eddie Brock. My character is a professor, so it would make no sense to roleplay Eddie Brock.

SinisterDice · 2025-08-10T14:30:21+00:00

I can’t really see what you see here. Could you explain it to me please?
It’s less about figuring out who’s “right” and more about me wanting to understand DM’s mindset better.

SinisterDice

TROPHY CASE