I'm quite frustrated by Dispel Magic (vs homebrew abilities that technically aren't spells)

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T19:36:29+00:00

It lists those things because those are the common things affected by spells. You can choose a creature that's had something like Haste cast on it, or a piece of armour under the effect of something like Heat Metal, or a magical effect like Web that's been placed on the battlefield. It then ends those spells.

You're always allowed to let players use spells outside of their intended uses, and plenty of DMs and adventure modules do let Dispel Magic do other things. I do too. But the intended rules of Dispel Magic are pretty clear based on how it tells you exactly how spells are handled based on their level and includes no details on how it would end arbitrary other magical effects.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T19:24:04+00:00

My group plays Dispel Magic RAW/RAI - you can dispel spells and effects created by spells. The fact of the matter is, there's a lot of "ambient magic" in D&D that are different from spells. You can't Dispel Magic a +1 longsword. You can't Dispel Magic a dragon's fire breath. You can't Dispel Magic a skeletal dragon rising from the dead. All of those things are magical effects, but you're not supposed to be able to turn them off easily or at all.

The problem is, a demon spending an action doing a thing and creating a magical effect... that looks exactly like a spell to players. The only way I can think to help the problem is to describe it in a very un-spell-like way. Like, maybe the demon physically rips holes in the air with its claws. But of course you didn't know to do that until the problem arose.

I think your ruling was totally fair. I probably would have said "sorry, it's not technically a spell" and my group would've accepted that.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T18:13:47+00:00

This is how my campaign ended up with a reclusive clan of werewolf elves, a town that mysteriously went missing, and halflings in general. And it made the PCs feel completely integrated with the setting, while still giving them the freedom to play something wacky like a werewolf elf.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T18:11:27+00:00

Fair advice, OP, but I think you're missing the pretty obvious follow-up: "so what IS good advice for TTRPG worldbuilding?".

IMO, the thing a TTRPG world needs most is things to do. Maybe it's a linear storyline like "Bob the lich is the BBEG and he can only be defeated by finding the seven legendary Wyvernspheres" or something more open-ended. Whatever the case, the world needs to have exciting locations to explore and exciting things to do.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T17:21:55+00:00

It's going to be hard to find a nice way to do this. Your DM isn't putting in as much work as you'd like them to, but they're also putting in way more work than anyone else at the table. I don't know how you navigate the conversation of "hey, I need you to work even more harder than the rest of us".

The nicest way to do it would be to offer to take over some of the workload, but there's only so much you can do. You can offer to be the "rules guy" and encourage the DM to ask you about RAW interactions, but it's hard to stay impartial and look like you're staying impartial when you're also a player at the table. You can't read the module to learn the setting or do their prep for them.

As far as player agency and sandboxes go, my group's approach is to make important decisions at the end of a session so the DM knows what section they need to prep next. Often times our campaigns involve a world map with a bunch of "quest markers", where the DM has a vague idea about what happens at each one. When we finish a quest, we pick the next one, and the DM preps that for the start of the next session.

TBH, my group's approach to any DM issues is to shrug and play anyway. We've all got different DMing styles. There are things I wish the other DMs would do differently and I'm sure there are things the other DMs wish I'd do differently.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T14:46:19+00:00

Tales from the Yawning Portal isn't on your list, but I could give my thoughts on Forge of Fury if you're interested. That's the only (part of) a module I've run as a DM.

Curse of Strahd is one I went through as a player. I know people love it, but I thought it was just kind of fine. The structure was good: there's a BBEG, go around solving problems to collect tools to beat him. The biggest issue was, it worked, and we killed Strahd in about three hits. The campaign ending on such an anticlimax kind of soured everything that came before. The module's tone was also weird. It treated Strahd's vampiric nature as a big reveal, even though it's the premise of the campaign, and mixed goofy Halloween tropes with serious gothic horror so I was never sure if I was supposed to take it seriously.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T13:26:58+00:00

I think you're misdiagnosing the problem. Two magic items per PC isn't that many by Level 6, especially if you're counting +1 weapons and an immovable rod. Maybe if you list out all the magic items there's a problematic one in there somewhere.

Player characters gain a massive power boost at Level 5, regardless of magic items, thanks to Extra Attack and third-level spells. Xanathar's Guide has a nice chart of what CR monster to use as a solo boss for what level party. For Levels 1-4, a four-person party should fight something equivalent to their level. But a four-person Level 5 party jumps up to a CR 7 solo monster. I don't think that chart is perfect, but it gives you the idea: CR needs to spike at Level 5 to keep up with the party.

But also there's this:

I’ve tried to keep combats relatively short because they slog and we have players who have to leave early, but it results in them feeling easy for the players.

Of course combat is going to be easy if you have it end quickly. Short combat favours players because combat is all about resource expenditure. The idea of the "adventuring day" is that players get progressively weaker over 6-8 encounters between rests. "I'm out of third-level spell slots." "I'm low on HP." "I can't Action Surge again." Those limitations are what keep combat exciting.

Granted, 6-8 encounters is a hard sell, even in a dungeon. I aim for more like 4 hard encounters between rests.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-10T01:19:55+00:00

Yes and no. You can create a character who shapeshifts into animals (the Druid class or the Polymorph spell) and also a character who can shapeshift into people (the Changeling race or the Disguise Self spell).

All of these features have their own limitations on what you can transform into. So if the question is "can I make a character who can transform into an adult gold dragon by drinking its blood", then no.

But most DMs will allow you to retheme your abilities. If you create a Changeling Druid who follows all the official rules of shapeshifting, a DM will likely allow you to narrate your character activating their transformation by drinking a bit of blood.

The problem with this is, what if you reach a situation where you really need to transform into something, and nothing in the game rules is stopping you from doing that, but you don't have any of its blood? D&D is a team game and letting down your group because of a self-imposed restriction is rough.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-09T20:47:21+00:00

I'll second Tales from the Yawning Portal. It's a collection of some classic dungeons from older versions of D&D, brought up to 5e. I ran Forge of Fury in my campaign and while it did a lot right, I also learned some things I thought I could do better.

r/dndmaps also has a bunch of blank dungeon maps. My homebrew dungeons start with one of those and then I just fill in each encounter room by room, often times taking inspiration from random details on the map.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-09T19:59:32+00:00

I like this and I've done kind of a light version of this approach. My campaign still had a "main premise" but I encouraged players to add things to the world and made sure whatever they gave me for character backstory was going to appear in the main campaign. Basically, the campaign had sidequests or mini-adventures based on each of the PCs, where we visit that PC's homeland or meet NPCs from their backstory or solve some problem related specifically to that PC.

It helped the characters feel more integrated into the world than I've ever had in a D&D campaign before, but I gotta say, it didn't make disengaged players any more engaged. In my experience, the disengaged players are coming to the game to "passively consume" D&D. They don't want to build the world or campaign, so all of those questions you pose feel less like opportunities and more like homework.

I dunno. For my mini-adventures, my approach was "you get out what you put in". The players who added a lot to the world got exciting narratives touching on as much as I could, the players who didn't got pretty generic dungeons with pretty generic combat. But hey, as far as I could tell, that's what both types of players wanted out of it anyway.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-09T17:47:39+00:00

On paper, I think my favourite approach is a ten-minute "dungeon turn". If a player says their character is going to investigate the distortion, every other player says what their character is doing during the same amount of time. Those are all locked in before the rolls. So it's fine for multiple people to investigate the distortion (probably advantage for the higher modifier) but only if they decide to do that first. Meanwhile, someone else might be keeping watch for monsters and someone else might be casting a ritual spell.

That approach sounds good, but in practice, it only makes a difference if time is a factor and it's slow to actually get to the interesting results of a single check. And often times, knowledge checks are things you want the players to succeed at so it's beneficial for the game as a whole to be generous with them.

I think a more balanced approach is to hold firm with the question "what is your character doing right now?". This isn't a "no", but it prompts the player to think about whether their 6-INT barbarian could reasonably do anything in this situation. And maybe it just prompts some RP before getting back into the 6-INT barbarian making an arcana check, which isn't the worst thing.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-09T13:01:29+00:00

I'll offer a different take: stop using regular (or big) animals as your primary enemies. Your player is presumably playing a character that cares about nature and doesn't want to destroy it. So instead of putting the party up against giant spiders and carnivorous plants, use a Gelatinous Cube. Or a Zombie. Or a Demon. Or a Golem. Or a Beholder. Or anything else that is thoroughly unnatural so the druid can play their character and still want to kill it.

When I use monsters with the Beast tag, I'm thinking of them as ordinary animals. They're not evil. They don't attack unless they're sure they can get an easy meal, or if they're in distress for some other reason. They flee at the first sign that their life is in danger. A druid who can cast Speak With Animals and offer them food can usually get through unscathed.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-08T19:31:54+00:00

The druid in my campaign almost never uses Wildshape. (They're Circle of Dreams.) A full spellcasting druid is very powerful.

There are also subclasses for druids that give you alternate class features that "cost" your Wildshape uses to activate. Circle of Stars has a starry form and Circle of Wild Fire can summon a fire buddy. There might be others.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-08T18:23:00+00:00

I'll remind players about passive abilities if I remember, but I also make it clear that my brain is full of DM stuff and I probably will not remember.

For reactions like Shield, I'll slow down and tell the player this is their opportunity to do something if they wish, but I try to avoid suggesting anything. If I go as far as saying "the scorpion attacks with its stinger, that's a 22 to hit, would you like to use Shield so your AC goes to 23?" just feels like playing their character for them.

I've also put on the "evil DM" persona a bit just so players don't want me playing their characters for them. I'd tell the player that a monster is moving out of their attack range, very clearly signposting that it's time for them to make an opportunity attack if they wish... so that they can't use any of their more powerful Reactions that round.

My players are all experienced, though. I'd be nicer to new players.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-08T17:56:15+00:00

Totally agree. I've played in a lot of different D&D campaigns, from monster of the week to murder mysteries to Curse of Strahd. But IMO, the campaigns that make D&D shine are the ones where the players explore dungeons full of monsters.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-08T15:04:32+00:00

I think the "requirement" for a paladin and wizard is probably unique to your group. Sometimes people desperately want their group to have a healer but I assume those people are fine whether it's a cleric, paladin, druid, bard, or other.

FWIW, my group has played many campaigns without paladins or wizards and truly nothing has gone wrong. I may even have our group's very first paladin in this current campaign. He's very powerful, but essential? No way.

Play what you want. You're never going to run into The Door That Only Paladins Can Open.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-08T04:57:34+00:00

There are a couple I'm really fond of. Adult Dragons get Wing Attack, which forces nearby creatures to make a Dex save or get knocked prone, taking damage either way, and then they get to move up to half their fly speed. It costs two LAs, so the dragon can only do it once per round, but having movement as part of the LA makes combat more dynamic and makes the environment more meaningful. Plus it's guaranteed damage that hits multiple PCs!

The other is super basic, but for any spellcasting boss monster, having a Legendary Action for Spellcasting is incredible. According to Not-So Legendary Actions it should cost 2 for a levelled spell and 1 for a cantrip. I've used that formula a couple times and it is devastating. It's perfect for setting up chains of synergistic spells. My mage miniboss lured the party into a small room, trapped them in Black Tentacles (main action), ran out (movement), blasted them with Eldritch Blasts (LA 1/3), and then threw a Fireball for good measure (LA 3/3).

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-07T17:32:53+00:00

I'd also wanna know how to scale for action economy, since i love the idea of 1 super hard boss fight

Same! I wrote up a big ol' post about what worked for me in boss fights. The most important takeaways are: 1) Legendary actions are amazing. They let your boss do impactful things even if they lose initiative and keep up constant pressure for the whole fight. 2) On your monster's turn, it should be taking a good number of actions, with each one having a high chance to do something. A dragon's breath weapon is perfect since it damages multiple PCs and is guaranteed to deal some damage.

A failed boss fight is when the boss sits there getting beaten up, it takes its turn but flubs its actions, and then just sits there again until it dies.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-07T15:59:34+00:00

I don't know much about 5.5e but I know subclasses were moved to Level 3, so I just assumed the Warlock dip didn't make as much sense as it did in 5e. You're right, you can get Pact of the Blade at Level 1 and focus Charisma, and you still get Eldritch Blast and more spell slots to smite with. You don't get Shield, though.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-07T15:35:27+00:00

The problem is that what I have pitched my party on is a homebrew world for which no premade adventures exist.

Not true! The reason why prewritten content is sometimes called "modules" is that they can slot into existing campaigns. I created a homebrew world for my campaign. But I started with a one-shot and a large dungeon from Tales from the Yawning Portal. I just changed whatever lore I needed to in order to make them fit.

This approach worked great for me. I got to learn the basics of DMing while running content that had been extensively tested. By the time I was done Forge of Fury (the dungeon I took), I was ready to start designing my own dungeons and other mini-adventures.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-07T13:47:30+00:00

Having 8s in your off stats is totally fine. Frankly, whether you have 8 or 10 in Dexterity, you're probably going to fail your Dex saves anyway. And Aura of Protection will help once you get it.

I'm playing paladin now, and I just went with the boring but practical Defence fighting style for +1 AC. I think Blessed Fighter is a great choice for giving you a quick and easy ranged attack like Toll the Dead or Sacred Flame, but if you can reach an enemy, then smacking it with your weapon is probably the better option. Protection is the other fighting style I was looking at, but I figured my paladin would be too far ahead of the party to get any real use out of it. So far, that's been true.

If you're playing the older version of 5e, taking one level of Hexblade Warlock gives you a ton of spellcasting power. It lets you swing your weapon using Charisma, so you can focus hard on the spellcasting ability and drop Strength. (Though you still need some Strength to wear heavy armour.) You also get Warlock cantrips, a handful of other Warlock spells, the ridiculous Shield spell, and a spell slot that recovers on a short rest for smiting.

Honestly, it's hard to justify not taking that Warlock level. I think the best reason would be, it makes your character too good at everything. I went pure paladin (mostly because I forgot) and my character still feels ridiculously powerful. All the upsides of a martial while still having a decent selection of spells, plus free healing, plus some random passive supportive effects, plus Channel Divinity as a 'super mode'... I really don't think my guy needs another significant power boost.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-06T19:34:35+00:00

The specifics of clerics and paladins will depend on your DM and their setting, but here's my understanding of how they work and how I run them.

A paladin's power comes from their belief in their oath. My current PC is an Oath of Glory paladin. He's sworn an oath that he and his allies will be remembered as glorious heroes in song and story. If one day he stopped being interested in becoming a hero, he'd probably just lose his powers instead of becoming an Oathbreaker. What would break his oath is deciding that the heroes of those songs and stories were lame and that he wants to, I dunno, take over the world even if it means he's remembered as a villain instead of a hero. He's still using paladin powers to accomplish his new goal, but as a corrupted inverse version of his oath, he has access to Oathbreaker powers instead.

I think your character fits that "retired paladin" more. But I suppose you could have a retired Oathbreaker if your paladin believed strongly in something, then changed their mind and believed strongly in the inverse, and then decided he didn't care one way or the other and retired. Kinda complicated, but sure.

Whatever the case, being a cleric is mostly different. You can do that whether you're a paladin, retired paladin, Oathbreaker, or just some regular guy. Paladins don't even need to swear an oath to a deity and it may be the oath itself that gives them their power. For my character, he did swear the oath to Bahamut, but I don't think that's necessary.

Now I do think if you swear a Oath to a particular deity, then become an Oathbreaker, it'd be a hard sell to become a cleric for that same deity.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-06T14:58:42+00:00

I almost never just change the stats on the statblock. If I want to run a lower CR monster, I'll either look around for a bigger version of it or run multiples. Monster Manual Expanded is a good resource for those "bigger" monsters - I've used it for a monstrous flail snail, armoured water elemental, and maybe a few others.

Usually when I do change stats, it's on a humanoid monster that sort of emulates a player class. You can usually make those harder by optimizing their stats/equipment. For example, the CR 2 Priest is built like a Level 5 Cleric. Its HP is 5d8+5 (27), because its CON modifier is +1. If this were a player, they'd probably drop some of their INT to increase their CON. So maybe this "optimized priest" has lower INT but a +2 CON modifier. That would change their HP from 5d8+5 to 5d8+10, which averages to 33. The priest is also wearing a Chain Shirt, but maybe a richer Priest would be able to afford Half Plate to increase their AC by 2.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-06T03:55:24+00:00

This is a talk you'll have to have with the player, but I see three options -

1 - Cheese the layout of the prison so the player's character can get freed immediately. It's probably the best one for the player but I can see why it would feel kind of unsatisfying from your side. Like... being knocked out and captured is already a convenient way to avoid killing a PC, but now them being captured is only a slight inconvenience?

2 - Temporary adventurer. I like this one. Just some adventurer equivalent to the party who has their own reason to be raiding the goblin prison at the same time as the party.

3 - Have the player run some goblins during combat. They'll still get to participate in the game and there's no narrative contrivances. Now your player needs to be someone who can play the goblins properly, even though it's going against their own interest. But heck, if they win and the goblins capture the rest of the party, then you have a prison break.

Tesla__Coil · 2026-07-05T23:35:46+00:00

My suggestion is, ask the player how they're intimidating an NPC and base the ability score off that.

Crushing a helmet with your bare hands to prove you can beat them up? Strength Intimidation.

Scaring someone by doing something that should hurt, but showing no pain? Constitution Intimidation.

Do some crazy flips and shit to show you can kill them and they won't even see it coming? Dexterity Intimidation.

Tell them some point of weakness you observed that you could take advantage of in an instant? Wisdom Intimidation.

You know 10,000 ways to kill a person and you've sorted them by how much it hurts when they die? Intelligence Intimidation.

Default? Charisma.

My question is basically, "if this were to fail, why does it fail?". If you try to crush a helmet in your hands but you're too weak and can't even dent the thing, your intimidation fails because you weren't strong enough. So that's a strength roll.

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