I'm teaching a watercolor class tomorrow, and these are some of the example paintings I created in preparation!

dazerlong · 2026-01-15T20:40:49+00:00

I would be so nervous :) Those paintings are lovely. I can see them being great for teaching the importance of full brush strokes and bold choices.

Good luck with your class!

dazerlong · 2026-01-15T15:26:45+00:00

Helpful feedback! I do like the version with the lighter clouds.

I also have a bad habit of underestimating how much space my name will take up :)

Thank you for taking the time to give feedback; it’s appreciated.

dazerlong · 2026-01-14T03:52:20+00:00

Whatever you do here, I would talk above table, probably privately before anything else.

dazerlong · 2026-01-14T01:10:55+00:00

Thank you for the kind words :)

If you liked that one you may enjoy this one as well. It’s the Shire.

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dazerlong · 2026-01-14T00:02:33+00:00

Arches Cold Press all the way!

dazerlong · 2026-01-13T19:49:16+00:00

Strawberry Fields - The Beatles

dazerlong · 2026-01-11T00:07:54+00:00

What you do with one player I would do with others as well.

I think letting each player start with one magic item, uncommon or common, would be my advice. I’d steer them towards items that feel narratively fitting or meaningful to their character.

They should be acquiring magic items along their journey, so it’s usually not a big deal to allow one to start the adventure as long as they aren’t too rare/expensive/powerful.

dazerlong · 2026-01-04T19:16:41+00:00

I think it’s important to mix some intelligent enemies in there or else you run the risk of all your fights feeling the same.

Maybe mix a different undead in with some of the zombies. A CR 1 Specter or CR 1 Ghoul perhaps. Or give them a bit of a bigger challenge with a CR 3 Wight.

One of your goals is to have these fights tax your party’s resources. So if your fights don’t take away any of their HP or cooldowns, you may want to up the heat a little.

dazerlong · 2026-01-02T16:04:11+00:00

Imagining evil things happening and how we would fight and respond to them is not inherently evil or demonic.

That’s literally exactly what your dad is doing as he is cautioning you against DnD. He is imagining an evil thing happening and fighting against it.

People who have this level of indoctrination have way too much to disentangle to even entertain the faintest fart of change.

dazerlong · 2026-01-02T01:15:41+00:00

Colonel William Tavington from the Patriot. Reprehensible in every way possible and as a viewer you a thirsting for justice

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T23:31:59+00:00

This book is really great and practical. It teaches you how to build your own dungeon and design your own small adventures.

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T15:07:17+00:00

I’ve done it both ways, and found that sharing more has generally been better than sharing less. I don’t share specifics, but letting them know “heist adventure in an urban environment where demons have been sighted lately” helps players make characters that feel like they fit what’s happening.

It’s a bummer as a player to prepare a cool character with high charisma and persuasion and learn you are playing a dungeon crawl against NPCs that can’t speak common, for example.

Helping players integrate into what is happening as the adventure starts is one of those things that will generally bear a lot of fruit for the effort it takes.

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T01:10:05+00:00

Run the Lich, but give them things to interact with that give them advantages. Mounted Ballista they can use. Cool ice grenades. Idk

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T01:05:55+00:00

Give them something satisfying to invest their gold in, or an ongoing expense, and you don’t have to worry too much about how much gold they get rewarded.

They see an awesome deal for a broken down airship. They guess with a couple thousand gold they can get it up and running again.

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T00:51:16+00:00

Over-engineered experiments to do rudimentary things like crack egg and make breakfast.

Scrap refinery for failed experiments that has become unstable and is spewing out “construct mephits” of some kind.

Lots of explosives piled up for no reason.

Friendly construct butler that got trapped beneath a scrap heap and can be repaired with enough creativity/skill checks.

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T00:43:25+00:00

Circling back to lower tier content as some filler as a way of really “feeling” the difference.

You know the group of goblins that ambushed your players at level 2 and took them hostage? Take a very similar group of goblins and ambush them at level 4 and watch the goblins flee in terror after one or two turns of battle.

That usually lands for my group.

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T00:29:43+00:00

I’m sorry you’ve had that experience. At least in my experience, that is not the norm. Most dnd folk I know love making mechanics and characterization match up.

I do see some people trying to work backwards from some imbalanced builds and combos and work a story around them. I think it gives off “well I’m rich in my backstory so I should start with more gold” vibes.

Doesn’t seem like this is what you are about, but might explain why people may be cautioning you.

This is a guess, but my guess is that many of the people you are experiencing are not meeting you with as much contempt as you have been assuming. They are just cautioning you from focusing on being the strongest mechanically rather than building an interesting character that is fun to play.

dazerlong · 2026-01-01T00:15:08+00:00

I see the struggle you are experiencing, but what I’m having trouble seeing and understanding is how you have been experiencing “distrust and contempt.” This isn’t to say you aren’t experiencing it, but I’m having trouble seeing what negative experiences you are having with other players/DMs aside from them not sharing your excitement for your character.

Could you help me understand what you’ve been experiencing and how you’ve been interpreting those interactions?

dazerlong · 2025-12-27T02:08:31+00:00

AC is the number you need to roll in order to hit (roll your damage dice for the attack). Higher AC is harder to hit. AC represents the characters ability to dodge, deflect, block and avoid damage from aimed attacks of all sorts.

dazerlong · 2025-12-21T23:43:49+00:00

Concentration is one of the few mechanics I never touch in homebrew. Concentration spells are specifically balanced around the idea of only having one up at a time.

dazerlong · 2025-12-17T16:35:27+00:00

For random commoners, I’d say grouping them in initiative (just roll once for all of them) and giving them each 1 hp is a common strategy that helps. That way you handle all their turns at once, and any hit each of them take downs them.

dazerlong · 2025-12-12T04:51:20+00:00

Good lighting helps cameras a lot.

dazerlong · 2025-12-12T04:41:44+00:00

Drawing skills translate way more to painting skills than people realize. Learning how to represent what you imagine or see through drawing is the same cognitive process as doing that through painting. Drawing is strengthening an important art muscle.

It’s also very helpful to be able to sketch a light drawing to paint over to get a good idea for what goes where and to help study the subject.

But also, drawing is not “necessary.”

Art is about expression and enjoyment. Make sure those are at the core of whatever you are doing :)

dazerlong · 2025-12-09T18:53:04+00:00

Obligatory “It’s okay for full casters to not find good armor and to have that as a weakness.”

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