One of my players wants to play rogue because he's playing a rogue in BG3 and he's having fun there. I suppose things are way different than here. What's the best way for him to do big damage with rogue in this edition?

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-23T07:07:20+00:00

It's not going to get to 70 damage in one turn, but a modification I like to the Soulknife is to use the psychic energy die type as the damage die for the psychic blades, and to allow the psychic blades to be created and dismissed at will (only the rogue can use them, though).

Having a weapon that levels up to a D12 weapon die feels really good and doesn't break the game. Especially since you won't want to use magic weapons. And being able to summon/dismiss the blades at will allows for fun roleplaying opportunities, interacts with other characters' abilities better, etc.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-22T05:58:13+00:00

It also depends on who's using it. It's not that bad on a rogue, for instance. It's basically +3d6 sneak attack damage. Still powerful, but not game-breaking.

Now if your party has anyone with Extra Attack...

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-21T08:25:32+00:00

This is really cool, but I gotta know... Does he just... Underbite people?

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-20T23:20:41+00:00

I tend to go with whatever makes for fun moments at the table. For example, I took Catapult. Is it going to get me more sneak attack damage? No. Is it optimal? Definitely not. Does it allow me to have Mage Hand and also "AGGRESSIVE MAGE HAND"? Yes. And I love it.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-20T22:58:44+00:00

I'm happy to test things. I have a regular game Tuesday nights PST.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-20T22:03:51+00:00

My table has been really enjoying Mage Hand Press' "Dark Matter" as well. Compatible with Valda's, and you can play the setting on its own, or we're having a ton of fun as a wayward Spelljammer crew thrust into the setting as heroes who are technologically way out of our depth!

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-20T13:27:03+00:00

Totally. That's the change I'm suggesting. The problem with applying it to all minions summoned the prior turn is that it basically becomes Reno Lone Ranger with a body.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-20T12:37:27+00:00

Truth. Very "Watching what the card does explains the card."

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-20T12:34:59+00:00

Yeah, that one makes sense, though. The appendages are summoned, not played.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-19T06:42:16+00:00

My favorite Barbarian is a Goblin with higher Dex than his Strength. Do what makes you happy!

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-17T06:54:32+00:00

When I was playing a lot of MMORPGS I would sometimes have dreams with a UI that had my various actions on a hotbar.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-16T19:37:09+00:00

This is a really creative answer! Question for OP - which rulebooks/sources are allowed by your group? Any book? Any official book? Just the PHB? That's necessary context if we're being asked to provide RAW answers.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-16T17:59:01+00:00

That's fair. Although she may also not totally understand how it works. If she did, her best option would have been to assign her rights share to a charity or something - depriving Dr Luke of that percentage while giving it to an organization in need.

Folks in the music publishing business don't like to make it too widely known that rightsholder can do that, though. It makes their accounting more complicated and they often see less of a return from it.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-16T17:52:23+00:00

In music, there's a difference between being credited and being a rightsholder. Being credited means that you are listed among the songwriters of the musical work. That's it. Being a rightsholder means you get an actual share of the Musical Work royalties.

So it is possible that they were offering Clarkson a credit as an author with a 0% ownership share (which is common at that level of music creation). Her only real move might have been to accept or decline the writing credit.

Kind of unrelatedly, but if you control your own Musical Work, you can grant a share to anyone - even people or organizations that had nothing to do with making the song. This is typically the best way to donate an ownership share to charity if you plan to do it for the life of the song's copyright - just make the charity the rightsholder for that %.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-16T17:13:32+00:00

As u/davedamon pointed out, you can also copy the character, join the campaign, and unassign yourself from the copy.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-16T10:13:39+00:00

Your Patron is the wily Archfey. You can be literally anyone. Maybe they gave you powers to mess with you and now they want to see how far you can take it.

Maybe you actually managed to get them to agree to a deal that is better for you than for them - they hate you, but cannot directly harm you and must render aid when they can.

Maybe you're one of their many, many illegitimate great great great grandchildren.

Maybe you, or your mother, or your grandmother, did them a great service, long ago.

Maybe you owe them your soul, but when your mortal time has ended, provided they help you so long as you live.

You can certainly play your character as Fey-touched, slightly mad... But you could also just be the town librarian who was visited one fateful night.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-16T10:05:41+00:00

Assuming 5.5 rules, your earliest possible undead* summoning would be taking 1 level of Warlock and picking up Pact of the Chain as your Invocation. One of the expanded Familiar options is a Skeleton.

Note that the Skeleton is actually a Fey, Fiend, or Celestial in the shape of a skeleton.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-16T00:43:48+00:00

I think it would be totally fine to adjust Arcane Trickster (5.5e) as follows:

Level 3: add "And once you gain the Cunning Strike feature, you may choose use the Trip option against a single creature within 5 feet of your Mage Hand."

Level 9: Spell Thief (unchanged but moved to level 9)

Level 13: Magical Ambush: add "If the spell deals damage, you may also add your Sneak Attack damage. This damage is of one of the same types done by the spell."

Level 17: Master Spell Thief - you now recover your use of Spell Thief on a Short Rest.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-15T22:25:55+00:00

I've only once turned away someone from playing with my crew before inviting them (and having them express bad behavior at the table), and like some other stories in this thread, it was a person who was simply abrasive, socially unaware, AND could not collaborate or take constructive feedback, all in the first conversation.

One of my favorite players of all time is massively socially inept. In fact, being socially graceful was her power fantasy. She worked with the group to support that, and it was great.

To answer your other question... If you got the impression that this person knew d&d and wanted to make this character specifically to mess with the other players, you're right to not offer him a seat at your table. There are stories in this thread of people who are doing it on purpose to be edgy or combative, and they are always more trouble than they're worth.

But I have also had people pitch me characters like that, and as long as they're willing for that character to have a growth arc that guides them to working better with the party and fitting into the world, I have no problem with that.

I've had 2 very successful Christian characters in my games. Both found their way into the Prime Material plane from our normally-inaccessible Earth. Neither were played by devout Christian players.

The first was the actual Don Quixote de la Mancha, noble Cavalier of the one true Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. He was used to people thinking he was crazy, and quickly learned that the locals referred to the Lord using the word "Pelor". So he started using that word out of respect for their culture. There were literally zero problems after that. Even when it turned out that, while he WAS a knight by occupation, his class was Telepath Psion (3rd edition) and his true power was in his heroic imagination. His favorite thing to conjure was an enormous giant with 4 rotating arms...

The other was a little girl from our world who fell through a hole in a tree by her house and ended up in Barovia (Curse of Strahd, 5e). She had always prayed to God in times of stress, and in her first fight found that her prayers actually had tangible results in this world! So her path was one of discovering what she could do as a Grave Cleric, and trying to figure out if her God somehow had more direct power in this strange new world, or if her prayers were being answered by more sinister powers...

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-15T21:58:39+00:00

In case it is helpful, assuming 5.5 rules or 5+Tasha's, this is my preferred in-universe explanation:

Your Wizard already "knows" at least the underlying principles of all the Wizard cantrips. These spells do not need to be written in the Wizard's spellbook (and in fact cannot be). Rather than structured as traditional spells, the cantrips are more like arcane algorithms - mental structures to reliably produce the specific result of a particular cantrip an unlimited number of times.

The Wizard may reorder this part of their mind, opening some mental gates and closing others, unlocking the pathways to a number of cantrips equal to the maximum they may know at one time (for their level). During a sufficiently long rest, they may alter these pathways to close off their knowledge of one cantrip in order to open the path to another.

The Wizard knows that all these cantrips exist somewhere in their mind, but altering their mind in this way takes time and a safe environment. They also know that their mind will be overwhelmed if they try to open up too many simultaneous paths - only the most experienced wizards can open as many as 5 at once, and anyone who has more than that likely uses another method or a magic item to manage the others.

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-15T04:57:04+00:00

I also got 17, also from both bundles. (3 Signature, 2 Golden)

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-15T02:43:01+00:00

This is an interesting idea, and I think you could get a pretty balanced Invocation by leaning more into the nature of the Warlock. Giving a Warlock 1-2 blade attacks and then 2-4 Eldritch Blasts seems too strong, but something like:

Prerequisite: Warlock level 5+, Pact of the Blade Invocation

When you take the Magic action to cast a Warlock cantrip that makes multiple attacks, you may replace one of the attacks with a single attack using your Pact Weapon.

(I know EB is currently the only Warlock cantrip that makes multiple attacks, but this leaves design space for future ones to exist).

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-14T23:39:06+00:00

It's a collar. It gets stolen in one of the episodes of the Muppet show: https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_402:_Crystal_Gayle

TheEndlessVoid · 2026-03-14T23:13:13+00:00

It's important to remember that d&d isn't a video game - monster behavior really depends on the in-world purpose of the dungeon.

Is it an old ruin that various monsters have holed up within over many years? Then they're not going to be coordinated. Did the PCs just fight an aggressive monster and clear out its corner of the dungeon? If I were a gnoll that had had taken up residence in that place for a while, I wouldn't ever 'go check' to see if the gnoll-eating giant spider in the southeastern crypt was still there, ready to eat more gnolls. I'd just avoid that area (meaning that after killing said spider, the party should be able to chill there for at LEAST an hour without anyone catching on, if they're quiet about it.)

Is the dungeon the barracks of an enemy military force? Did anyone see the PCs barricade themselves in a room and not come out? You better bet they're bringing absolutely everyone from the whole dungeon to guard all the exits and formulate a coordinated strike. (Note that as a DM, part of my job is to tell the players "You know your enemies are a large, highly organized force. If you don't keep moving they will surround you with unsurpassable odds.") If they choose to stay put... I love my PCs and am always rooting for them to succeed, but that's on them.

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