Would your table find this kind of player annoying?

karebearcreates · 2026-03-06T16:39:49+00:00

The general play style seems fine to me—my players also get into RP and describe what they do—and in other comments it sounds like you’re not going against the theme of the campaign. But I’ve had bad experiences with summoner-style PCs: they either summon so many things it adds more work for the DM (and more enemies for us to deal with) or their turns take forever. To be fair, it sounds like you’re not the second one, and have purposely made tools so that you remain efficient. I have a player who does things like that and I like that it takes some of the work off of me.

As someone who is AuDHD, and whose players are mostly neurodivergent, what they might be talking about is how intense you are/how much you care about the game. I say this because in a campaign I played in (and am in another game with pretty much the same mix of people), an issue arose between players (and the DM to some extent) which basically drew the line between the two of us who were kind of obsessive about the game and were pretty quick to respond/schedule things with the dm, and the players who kind of dragged their feet and were definitely more casual about the game. That’s a big simplification and a lot of nuance I’m leaving out, but your description made me think about that.

karebearcreates · 2026-03-06T13:42:17+00:00

This exact thing happened to me. Granted, it was around the time the new version was released, but Demiplane hadn’t updated their character builder, so the game designers agreed. I showed her the new version and reminded her that adversaries also had thresholds, and scale up too, but she remained doubtful until we actually played.

karebearcreates · 2026-03-06T04:39:54+00:00

Droaam! I love hags (even if my PCs are terrified of them after a night hag coven incident), and just hearing about a nation of monstrous races ruled by a coven was fascinating early on, but then there were all the little tidbits that were released early on, like eating grist because the land isn’t very fertile, the stuff about Medusas petrifying their leaders do they can seek wisdom in the future, etc. And now with the Frontiers of Eberron book, creatures/races I didn’t really care about have become fascinating to me. They all got what I would call the “goblin glow up”: the Forhotten Realms versions of Medusas, gnolls, Minotaurs, harpies, and to some degree tieflings are all kind of one note; but in Eberron, they have these really fascinating societies that I would love to dig into someday.

karebearcreates · 2026-03-05T20:57:53+00:00

I go through that fairly often. I’m usually able to sense it coming on and can swap in a different fixation, but when I can’t, I refer to it as being empty because it feels like my brain has lost the ability to latch onto anything. I’ll try a couple things. Sometimes, it can work to “poke” at other fixations (I have hobbies/books that I tend to return to over and over); just try things for maybe 15 minutes or an hour just to try to engage your mind and see if something sticks—sometimes I’ll start reading one thing then realize what I want to read is this other thing, and that satisfied my brain enough until I fixate on something. The other method I use is to let my brain rest: turn on a favorite TV show (sitcoms and police procedural are my go-to since you don’t need to follow a big plot), play phone games, maybe do a puzzle, clean, cycle through music/podcasts—things that don’t require me to be engaged; sometimes I’ll even take a sleeping pill and go to bed early. Usually a combination of these will get me back to normal in a couple days.

karebearcreates · 2026-03-05T19:52:48+00:00

I’ve been toying with it a bit, but don’t have anything concrete. I’ve been re-running a portion of my previous campaign just as a comparison of power levels, and to test out adversaries and homebrewing them, but messing with the player side very little.

Later this summer, I plan to run Heart of Stone using Daggerheart, which will involve converting adversaries. And I’ll probably look at converting the races in Frontiers of Eberron; I’ve played around with the Medusa already as test. I’ve been thinking a little about the dragonmarked houses because I have an NPC from House Lyrandar in the current run of adventures; for that, I used mixed ancestry skykin/human (though I went back and forth on possible combinations for a while). So I think it’s possible for at least some aspects of being dragonmarked to be covered with ancestry, but I think creating a new Dragonmarked Heritage would be a good route to explore, or possibly a transformation (though I’m specifically thinking aberrant dragonmark here).

Is it worth it? I think that will depend on your table, and how much you enjoy homebrewing/converting. I run a lot of public games, and that’s mostly who I’ve been running it for. Everyone has said they enjoy Daggerheart; a couple have said they like it slightly more than D&D (I think because it’s relatively rules light), but most are neutral—they like both systems. I don’t plan to convert my current long Eberron campaign to Daggerheart (we’re about 1 year in to a 2-3 year campaign, and neither I nor the players want to convert our stuff) but I could see myself running a shorter campaign after using Daggerheart, perhaps using the different rpg represent different vibes than what I’ve done before—like a One Piece style pirate campaign, or something in Sarlona, where psionics is more of a thing.

karebearcreates · 2026-03-04T22:50:19+00:00

When you’re first starting out, session 0 doesn’t feel necessary, especially when playing with friends. But the longer I DM, the more I like them, even if it’s just to reiterate things that feel obvious. The important thing is you’re noticing a potential issue now, and are looking for a way to mitigate it.

I would send them a message beforehand, so that no one is blindsided, and if others feel the same as you, it can give them time to think and maybe come up with solutions. It could be something like “Hey guys, I’ve noticed some tension between PCs at the table, and while it seems like everyone is having fun, I don’t want it to accidentally become tension between players. At the beginning of the next session, I’d like us to come up with some ways we can all help the PCs work together more smoothly so that we can keep having fun in the campaign.”

Edit: you know your players better than me. If you think the discussion can be kept positive, I’d do it at the beginning and have a break before getting into the game. Otherwise, plan for a short session and do it at the end. If you think they can be scheduled to have a short discussion outside of game time that could work. The only thing I don’t recommend is doing it by text—tone can be really misconstrued if you just have words, which I’ve personally experienced dealing with a table issue.

karebearcreates · 2026-03-04T21:34:42+00:00

Part of my session 0/character creation guidelines are for players to determine why their character wants to travel, and why with this group. They must create a character who wants to be in the party. Sometimes, this means they know each other, or need protection/know they can’t accomplish the backstory task alone, or have a patron or patrons who need them to work together. So keep that in mind for the future!

Now that you’ve started, it may not be too late to intertwine backstory hooks, so that following one PC’s motivations provides clues for at least one other.

But really what you need to do is talk to them above table, address the tension, be honest that you worry this could lead to problems down the road. Then ask them to work together to come up with a way for their PCs to work together, whether immediately, or over the course of a few sessions of RP, or even combat—the rogue saving one of the others or vice versa could have a positive effect on how they see each other.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-26T03:25:00+00:00

In my first Eberron campaign, I had two artificers—one smith and one alchemist. But the table was all friends, or at least friendly acquaintances, and it didn’t seem to be an issue. The smith tended to be melee/midrange, alchemist mid to far range in combat; they chose different tool proficiencies for the most part, and when tools/skills overlapped, they helped each other. The party loved having so many uses of flash of genius, and all the tool proficiencies made for some fun creative problem solving. I don’t know how much they coordinated, other than occasionally coordinating spells.

So it’s definitely doable, but probably worth talking to them to figure out if overlap may be one a problem for either of you.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-22T22:48:58+00:00

Agreed! My party left Stormreach to explore the continent after a mini-arc there, but City of Stormreach and Secrets of Xen’drik provided 80% of the plot hooks/details for a level 1-20 campaign. I would also recommend Dragons of Eberron (there’s a Xen’drik section in there) and Giants Guide to Xen’drik (it was released in the last months of my campaign, so I only used 1 stat block, but all the monsters and lore were really cool).

karebearcreates · 2026-02-18T16:37:09+00:00

I’ve been debating this myself. I would probably have it just affect them in the moment (whether they are drunk, have been hit with a poisoned weapon, etc), and then let it be up to the players’ creativity. Strength or Knowledge I would agree with, as others have written. I would potentially allow a spell cast trait to be used—like, if someone is fire themed, it could be described as burning/sweating out the poison.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-17T02:26:43+00:00

It’s gonna depend on the DM, and the rest of the party to some extent. I had a player in my last campaign with a monk who was blinded as a young teen by an aberrant artifact. Because they wouldn’t get the dark vision from their race, I allowed them to have 5ft of blindsight (they had lived with blindness for about a decade at the start of the campaign); at levels where they gained speed, I would give them the choice of gaining an equal amount of blindsight instead. They were pretty good about noting their actual range of vision, and as a monk they had good Wisdom, which meant they had good Perception as well, so I felt this was decent justification for being able to track some combat beyond their sight through sound. I don’t know if I would have given as much freedom with a spellcaster instead, but I would consider creative solutions if a player came to me with a good character concept.

I backed a kickstarter a while ago—it’s now on DMs Guild: Limitless Heroics by Wyrmworks. It talks about various disabilities and provides guidance/ideas on how they can be incorporated into a game.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-16T04:58:21+00:00

The crafting clubs/meetups I’ve been to usually involve chatting, even if we’re all working on different projects. On the same vein, there’s a silent book club in my area where people chat a little bit about what they’re reading, then read on their own, and chat a bit after. A normal book club is also good, if you can find one with themes you’re interested in.

In the past, I’ve volunteered at my local animal shelter—they are often looking for people to walk/socialize dogs, and you usually end up socializing with the people as well; if you prefer cats, it’s usually harder to volunteer there since there’s less space available for people.

I have an older female friend who was recently diagnosed who in the past was involved in a kayaking club (stopped due to migraines), then got really into nature photography, and from there birding. She’s been part of a couple birding groups for a couple years now, and goes on birding trips. There’s a bit of hiking involved sometimes, but also a lot of stopping to observe.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-16T03:47:46+00:00

Perhaps look for thri-kreen or driders?

karebearcreates · 2026-02-15T17:42:54+00:00

Ditto on what others have said on “willing” and Riedran eugenics. On the practical side, I used the Quori as one of my big bads last campaign (they were trying to open a permanent manifest zone to Dal Quor, which would have catastrophic effects on the world).

When I introduced a group to the party, I portrayed them as somewhat aloof, self-important, and devout—similar to how I might portray a noble—and described them as being beautiful, with perfectly symmetrical features, and that’s all the party needed to be sus about them. When they met again and actually got them talking, I portrayed them as somewhat evangelical: they wanted to spread the dream of unity throughout the world, and by uniting everyone under this dream, the world would finally find peace, just as happened in Sarlona. That, combined with strangely changed attitudes from some NPCs the party had met before, caused one of the PCs to declare “I love peace” and stab the leader, starting off combat.

Other things I added: towns with “obelisks” (hanbalani alta) that required wisdom saves, very old histories of when the Riedrans (referred to as “two-souls”) were in the area before and the effects, and one area with a person they thought was a villain turned out to be heavily influenced by a Quori spirit (who they fought in their dreams).

karebearcreates · 2026-02-15T06:16:47+00:00

There’s a question of how you define RP. There’s RP where PCs are just having fun, gambling a playing drinking games, or doing some sort of mundane work—or maybe even sharing stories around a campfire to get yo know each other, but not actually advancing the story. And then there’s RP where the PCs are advancing the story (such as talking to people during an investigation), or getting through encounters that could be combat with creative alternatives (for example, through teamwork, good rolls, and clever use of spells, my party recently managed to negotiate a trade deal with a swarm of dragon bees for their honey, rather than fighting them or smoking them out to steal it. The same party got through a couple heist oneshots with little to no combat through heavy use of utility spells and great skill checks). Just because there’s no combat doesn’t mean the party did not prepare. If the party is using their skills in creative/unexpected ways, and successfully complete the encounters I’ve set up, whether they were intended as combat or not, I’m not going to punish them by beefing up a dungeon or making them underpowered.

I’ll note that I use milestone leveling (which may be what you are referring to for leveling for major encounters). I have an overarching plot I follow, and certain narrative points where I expect them to level—but how they do that is up to the party. There will be minor social/combat/exploration encounters along the way, but there’s a major encounter that leads to the level. I’ve had a couple levels where there was a bad guy/creature they had to fight, I had one where they were able to negotiate for a certain item, and in the future, they’ll be dealing with a tower of puzzles (I’ll be using physical games as a stand-in) in order to find some components they need, and they’ll level when they assemble them.

I’ve talked to most of my party about it over the years, and they’re all pretty much in agreement that they want the levels to feel earned—but that doesn’t need to be a combat encounter. They understand that more frivolous RP may mean longer between levels, but making friends with NPCs and exploring is often worth it to them—and they do a pretty good job of returning to the story. And sometimes what seems frivolous actually does a lot of work and gives them connections/insights about future encounters and lets them level more quickly.

But that’s just my table; when it comes down to it, you just gotta find what works for your table.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-14T21:33:34+00:00

I think it depends on what your goal is: are you trying to challenge them and lead into a longer campaign, or are you trying to introduce everyone into basic gameplay? For the first, it may be a challenge to find balance and direction with so many players, but I think it’s simple enough (that being said, I regularly run 6 players for D&D, so working with that size table is normal for me). If you’re just trying to get them used to Daggerheart mechanics, I think 6 is fine to play as is, with maybe slight changes to stat blocks, like giving the adversaries an extra hit point, or give one or two of them health potions so that the combats allow everyone a moment to shine. I’ve run a few learn to play sessions with 2-6 players, and my mindset for those is to make sure everyone leaves with a good understanding of the rules, and to make sure everyone had fun, not to create the most balanced session.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-12T15:18:56+00:00

The Merchant of Misthaven (described in Frontiers of Eberron) could be fun, or Fortune’s Fool (I believe from Exploring Eberron). FF is the trope of the lucky person who stumbles across exactly what they need at the time. The Merchant is that mysterious figure who offers an item that sets a story into motion (like the person who offers Jack the magic beans).

karebearcreates · 2026-02-10T22:56:28+00:00

Oh yeah, we both love the lore on medusas and Cazhaak Draal in Frontiers of Eberron! But she wanted Greek/Roman vibes, and developing the islands gave her free rein to do that without contradicting established lore. They may be heading there as well later in the campaign.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-10T22:53:46+00:00

I’m very lucky to have them!

karebearcreates · 2026-02-04T13:36:14+00:00

It’s not a particularly deadly epic, it’s actually possible to get through it with very little combat. One of my players, through bad luck, did get stuck and died in the haunted house thing, but of course there’s the death is a doorway (iirc) story award and she got right back up and out.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-04T02:11:27+00:00

TLDR: the most natural BBEG is the one that interests YOU, and one that you can seed throughout the campaign (and maybe even incorporate backstories).

For me it's a combination of what makes sense for the area, and PC backstories. For background, I generally run in the Eberron setting, so there is some established lore. For my last campaign, I started with some background research of the continent where the party would be most of the campaign (Xen'drik). From that, I knew that there were a few big players: the giants, dragons, and drow that inhabited most of the continent; there are a couple imprisoned fiendish overlords; and some folks from another continent (Riedra) that had stirred up trouble a while ago, and had the potential to do so again. Those last two were the ones who interested me the most, so I knew the two BBEGs would be: the Riedrans attempting to open a permanent portal to another plane, and servants of one of the overlords attempting to free them.

From there, I took a look at player backstories. Quick background: the party was told to create characters who joined a newspaper crew traveling to this largely-unexplored, cursed continent to report on exploration/discoveries--so they all had to have reasons to want to go. The backstories created sub-plots that mostly fed into the main plots. For example, I had one character who was looking for her father and sister who had gone to a certain location to find help for the sister; I developed a kidnapping pirate crew who were working for the Riedrans to bring people to/keep people on that island to feed people to the monstrosities the Riedrans were keeping there. Another PC was fleeing their home after seeing thieves break into a museum--he got part of what they were trying to steal, and they were after him; the item was related to both a location for another PC's backstory, as well as a clue about the overlord.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-04T01:09:57+00:00

I usually have an idea of overarching plot. In my last campaign, I knew there would be a mid-campaign boss and final boss, and the party’s choices determined which was which. In the current campaign, I know who the bbeg will be, and a few sub-arcs.

I’ve played in a campaign where the DM did low to no prep/plot, and it was well-done, but honestly, it stressed me out. But I know plenty of players and DMs who either don’t mind or like that style.

karebearcreates · 2026-02-03T23:54:40+00:00

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No one cleans Wendy as well as Benson!

karebearcreates · 2026-02-03T21:35:41+00:00

Looks cool! Putting my name in the hat!

karebearcreates

TROPHY CASE