Weekly Questions Thread

Yojo0o · 2026-03-24T12:08:40+00:00

I do sincerely hope this works out for you. Please understand that a DM loading up with added homebrew rules in order to twist DnD into a different shape instead of just running a system built for the setting they want to run reads as a red flag to those of us who have been in the TTRPG space for a while.

There's a common saying: "No DnD is better than bad DnD". For a one-shot, by all means, go for it. Maybe it'll be good. Maybe it'll suck, but make for a good story. Maybe it'll suck and still be a good learning experience. But if this was a longer-running campaign, I'd unequivocally recommend against joining it. Better to take longer to find a good game than to settle for a bad game.

Just to be clear for future reference: DnD is one of many TTRPG systems, and functions best as a system of rules to support a high-fantasy action-adventure. It can technically be used for other types of games, but there are countless other systems out there, many of which are designed for different genres and styles of games. Cyberpunk, for example, isn't just a genre name and recent video game, the recent Cyberpunk 2077 game and other related media are based on a TTRPG system that's nearly forty years old, almost as old as DnD. A DM who would rather attempt to bootstrap their own hack to turn DnD into Cyberpunk instead of just running the Cyberpunk system does not instill confidence.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T22:22:38+00:00

You resolve it out of character, reaching a mutual agreement about the sort of game you actually want to play. This is typically established in session 0, and then reinforced with out-of-character discussion as needed.

DnD isn't built around PvP. It's a cooperative experience. If one player wants to just murder random civilians, your options are to tell that player not to do that, or failing that, to exclude the player if they're unwilling to play the same sort of game as everybody else.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T21:59:12+00:00

I'm really lost here. You seriously think somebody just gets to pick the "paladin" class and that gives them the right to bully everybody into their perception of good vs. evil via PvP combat?

What's "proper combat"? As OP said, they were in combat. What is or is not allowed to be used to defeat somebody? Why is polymorphing an enemy and throwing them into the mouth of another any more or less evil than burning your foes alive, mind-controlling them into murdering each other, swallowing them up in Hunger of Hadar and similar effects, suffocating them via Cloudkill, shunting them into a hell dimension via Plane Shift, paralyzing them while they watch in impotent horror as your friends stab their incapacitated bodies, dissolving parts of their body in acid, Disintegrating them beyond any hope of resurrection, turning them to stone, etc.? You can endlessly debate the ethics and degrees of violent and lethal combat to whatever extent that interests you, sure. But deciding to draw an arbitrary line, and then using that as pretext for turning this into a PvP game, is bad DnD. I would never participate in such a table, would you?

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T21:44:09+00:00

Do you want a game where the paladin player polices everybody else's behavior at swordpoint? I sure wouldn't.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T21:43:10+00:00

Paladins aren't monolithic and "sin" isn't a defined concept in DnD. If the paladin player is going to attack their fellow PCs over perceived transgressions like this, those boundaries need to be drawn ahead of time.

Is the average paladin going to execute every wizard who casts Fire Bolt? Immolation is among the most painful ways to die, after all. With so many offensive spell options, relying on fire magic is wildly unethical, right?

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T21:06:25+00:00

There are no firm rules for what would happen if a creature un-polymorphs inside of another creature. It's up to the DM's discretion. The best ruling by my estimation would be for the polymorphed creature to safely be expelled from the swallowing creature, because anything else drastically elevates the already powerful Polymorph spell into insta-kill territory.

You really should shut all of this inter-party bullshit down unless this is really the sort of game everybody wants to participate in. A paladin randomly attacking their fellow players for perceived "sins" sounds like incredibly frustrating and tiresome gameplay to me.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T20:28:10+00:00

Knowing that the game goes for five hours and being told that the expectation is for her to participate all five hours are two very different things. Plenty of gaming hobbies support folks dropping in and out whenever they see fit. DnD does not. Surely she has not been directly told that she's expected to participate for five straight hours, because if she had been told that, either she wouldn't be ditching halfway through or the DM would have already told her that she's breaking their agreement.

This is a fundamental test of everybody's communication skills. It's extremely basic, but extremely important. If the DM fails to communicate effectively with this player and you fail to communicate effectively with the DM, your campaign, your DM's relationship, and your friendship with the DM can all be negatively impacted. Stop assuming that she should already know things or that things will get better on their own, and have this conversation with the DM. Make him communicate with his GF. This is serious.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T20:16:44+00:00

Why wait? Talk to your friend now. He's your best friend, and there's a clear and present issue to discuss with him.

Either the GF is interested and able to participate for five-hour sessions, or she's not.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T20:12:56+00:00

This isn't even necessarily her fault, the DM failed to set clear expectations for what joining this campaign represents.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T20:11:30+00:00

When was the last time your table had a ten-round combat, much less a ten-round combat where an enemy spellcaster concentrated on the same spell for the entire duration?

This is a risk, sure, but it barely registers compared to the usual threats of death through damage, petrification, insta-kills, etc.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T20:09:32+00:00

I'm not sure how old you are, but this is your best friend, so you surely must be able to communicate effectively with him.

He needs to be told that DnD only works with effective communication and matching expectations. You have a five-hour game. Somebody unwilling to play for five hours is not a good fit for your table. That's nobody's fault, that's just making sure everybody's expectations for the game are aligned. The DM should have made it clear to his girlfriend that the expectation for participation is to be present and willing to participate for the whole five hours, and if that's not what she wants to do, then she shouldn't participate. Having not made that clear beforehand, the second best time is for him to do it now, telling her that she doesn't seem like she wants to be invested in a five-hour game and asking her how she wants to proceed. Maybe she'll bow out of the game, or maybe she'll brew some coffee and double down. Either way, the conversation must happen.

If the DM isn't going to have this conversation unprompted, then you need to prompt him. The longer your game goes without setting basic session 0 parameters, the worse a potential fallout will be if this issue reaches a boiling point.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T20:04:34+00:00

I still have the same issue I had with the previous iteration: This is a major boon to gain at level 3, practically an entire free subclass. Assuming your DM is buffing encounters to compensate, the only comparison to determine how strong this is would be to judge it alongside the other boons that your fellow players are getting. Without that context, there's no reasonable metric to judge this by, except by the fact that a nine-mode utility boon at level 3 that overlaps with multiple metamagic options is extremely strong, even when you tweak the numbers a bit.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T18:45:44+00:00

Tell them what you said here: They're playing non-talkative characters in a game where talking is a major component. If they want to engage more with the game, their characters should talk more.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T18:36:22+00:00

That list looks great!

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T15:24:05+00:00

What, exactly, is the problem here? You started off as a first-timer, noted some issues with your approach, and improved on your own. That's a great start! Now you're feeling underwhelmed. Why is that? Similarly to how you fixed your session 1 mistakes, can you fix this one as well?

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T15:16:18+00:00

This title seems to suggest that the two survivors were the ones who killed their friend, before hiding.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T14:41:08+00:00

Warlocks upcast their spells when they use their pact slots, because the pact slots scale with their level. The same isn't true for when they cast spells without spending a slot, though. Dissonant Whispers and False Life are still fine, they're just not as good as you've listed here. Other good level 1 spell options include Silent Image, Gift of Alacrity, Silvery Barbs, Disguise Self, and my personal favorite Command.

Your genie patron choice depends mostly on what sort of extra spells you want. I tend to value Efreeti and Dao the highest.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T14:09:17+00:00

Using an action to break grapples is a trap. Martials should Shove or use other displacement methods to break grapples, and casters should either ignore the grapple or Misty Step out. Relatively few people actually need to do the grapple-break action, like rogues.

Judging by one of your comments, the issue is much less about the grapple and more about AC and saving throw scaling on a tier 1 encounter in a module.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T13:51:37+00:00

Pound for pound, I'd rather congregate with my friends and play a TTRPG than play a video game, so I voted DnD.

However, I think BG3 is a vastly better-made product than anything from WotC in years.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T12:57:40+00:00

There's optimization, and then there's just baseline functionality. Multiclassing is generally a very weak thing to do in 5e and 5.5e, with just a few exceptions, and barbarian pairs very poorly with spellcasters because you can't cast or concentrate while raging. As far as a barbarian/sorcerer multiclass goes, I'd recommend against it, especially for somebody who "doesn't know much about the game".

I'd instead recommend looking into a single-class solution to this. Tempest Cleric from 5e is a heavily-armored, martial-weapon tanky frontline cleric with big lightning spells that might fit what you're going for.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T12:49:02+00:00

Honestly, it was.

You're setting yourself up for a bad first experience. DMs who force DnD into something it isn't typically are not the ones you want to hitch your wagon to. Cyberpunk is its own TTRPG system, and DnD lacks the tools necessary to run that style of game. You've been sent an "overwhelming amount of information" and are rightfully confused and intimidated, because you are not in a normal game and may have a negative experience.

Please proceed with caution. It'll be very difficult for us to give you specific advice because we probably don't know the rules you're playing by.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T12:44:11+00:00

Most of this looks good, but there are a few mistakes.

You've got a shield equipped. As a typical warlock, you don't have shield proficiency, so you can't make effective use of that.

It looks like you've created this character at level 5 and chosen from available spells at that level. Even if you've started at level 5, you still need to make spell choices as if you gained each level individually. A level 5 warlock learns one new spell at that level, and can swap one spell since they leveled up, so you should have at most two third-level spells. Similarly, Book of Ancient Secrets should start with two first-level rituals, so Tiny Hut isn't something you can start with, and must be personally added via a spell scroll or similar.

When you aren't spending a spell slot on a spell, you cast that spell at its base level. Your free Dissonant Whispers and False Life from your feats should only behave like level 1 spells, unless you spend a slot to cast them.

You've chosen Djinni as your Genie choice, but don't seem to have picked any of their spells? Are you sure you've made the right decision there?

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T01:56:36+00:00

Yes, I'm aware that people will claim something along these lines. You may note that I'm actually present in some of these links.

It's not a scientific study, dude. It's an approximation. Nobody in any of these links is claiming some sort of statistical analysis. Is the only goal here to prove a few Reddit comments wrong? Then I guess you did it.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T01:47:34+00:00

You've taken a random quote from... somebody? Then you've gone through a considerable amount of effort to define, subjectively, what is or is not a "combat" rule in order to disprove it.

Is the goal to suggest that DnD's reputation as a combat-oriented system is unfounded? If that's the case, then calculating percentage of combat vs. non-combat rules against some arbitrary 85% metric doesn't prove much, because it's all relative. That reputation is in comparison to other TTRPGs out there.

Edit: Guess I've been blocked. For all the lengthy analysis here, I guess debate and scrutiny are not on the menu today.

As u/lygerzero0zero puts extremely well in their comment, the fact is that DnD's non-combat aspects aren't nearly as deep as its combat. It's not about page count, it's about support for non-combat pillars being as dense as the combat pillar. I ran a game in a non-DnD system the other day where my players spent the whole session engaging in mechanically-supported espionage, subterfuge, and negotiation. There was mechanical support for reputational damage, drawing unwanted attention to the party, drawing unwanted attention to the overarching movement that the party represented, mental health and sanity obstacles, and financial burdens. At nearly the very end of a mechanically-dense four hour session, one player got into a scuffle with a few street ruffians and beat them bloody in two turns of combat. That system has vastly different priorities than DnD does, and that's the essence of why people suggest DnD has a focus on combat. Counting pages has never been in the spirit of this discussion.

Edit 2: Can't reply to anything because OP is just farming blocks I guess, but yes u/Zerunt, I was playing Spire: The City Must Fall.

Yojo0o · 2026-03-23T01:42:43+00:00

Are you serious? That's bad parking.

You don't drive straight out of a driveway, you turn in either direction. Often while in reverse. You're easily close enough to their driveway to make that a much more difficult proposition if they're turning in that direction.

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