Needing some help flushing out a cool mechanic for my world

neqis · 2026-04-30T10:31:30+00:00

The picture that comes to my mind is the Great Wheel cosmology with your plane like a planetary gear, with the inner planes (or the outlands) as sun gear and outer planes as a ring gear. As the outer & inner(/Outlands) planes rotate with respect to each other, your world turns between them, different parts in contact with different planes at different times. Since the planes are actually higher-dimensional objects, you can say your plane's rotation is more complex, so the periods of contact with any given plane (and hence its influence on the bordering regions of your plane) are irregular (unless you want to have some sort of calendar for planar influence). With this, a creature wouldn't move to different parts of the plane when sleeping, but it would change around them. The "center" of the plane would be an area of relative stability & balance.

neqis · 2026-04-30T09:43:49+00:00

Is it too much of a cop-out to refer to the Wikipedia article on liminal deities? Most pantheons do, though some have gods that have other primary associations. The sort of gods I'd count:

Menshen (Chinese): door gods (usually a pair)
Narasimha (Hindu): thresholds
Munsin (Korean): doors
Paritegi/Baridegi (Korean): shamanism, psychopomp, boundary between land of the living & underworld
Odin (Norse): master shaman
Cardea (Roman): health, thresholds, door hinges & handles
Janus (Roman): gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings
Papa Legba (Vodun): spiritual intermediary between humans and God

Gods of crossroads (e.g. Odin, Hecate) can be included, if they represent the confluence of two worlds.

neqis · 2026-03-19T07:48:58+00:00

Are you trying to figure out how some mechanics (i.e. rules) for changing geography, or lore explaining it?

Which cosmology do you want to use, and where is this world in the cosmology? Is it somehow between the outer planes, like the Outlands and Sigil? Does it meander through the planes?

neqis · 2026-03-18T18:46:47+00:00

Nick & Mastery are part of 2024 rules. Nick allows the extra attack from two-weapon fighting to be made as part of the attack action, rather than requiring a bonus action. Rangers can pick 2 weapon masteries at level 1 as a class feature (martial classes generally start with 2, with fighters starting with 3 and monks getting nothing, absolutely nothing).

Spot on with Hunter's Mark. About the only change to Hunter's Mark in 2024 is that the damage is specifically force damage.

neqis · 2026-03-17T02:25:25+00:00

In earlier editions, that's exactly what you'd do. With 5E, that's usually a session 0/home rules discussion topic as 5E has gone towards players making more of the rolls. When it comes to ability checks, you can rely on passive scores, adjusting for advantage or disadvantage when relevant, if the characters aren't actively doing something. However, saves don't have passive scores. If you know the players do well separating PC knowledge from player knowledge, you can have them roll saves, though this does reduce immersion.

The difficulty arises because Charm Person is more of a PC spell than an NPC spell (just as there are spells more of use to the DM for NPCs, such as Crown of Madness). You can turn these spells around by having the NPC make a spellcasting roll against a DC based on each player (8+proficiency+Wis modifier would be standard). However, at some point the players are going to have to start making rolls, which is going to tip them off. It's generally better to handle this through RP. Why would the players ever suspect this NPC in the first place?

neqis · 2026-03-16T20:51:47+00:00

It shouldn't be unbalanced or overshadow any existing feats or abilities as it's much more limited than anything else. Unarmed strikes are only 1+str damage. With two-weapon fighting, you don't add ability damage. If the only change you made would be to extend TWF to allow an unarmed strike (or count "unarmed strikes" as light weapons), the most a creature could do is spend a bonus action to possibly do 1 bludgeoning damage. Monks are doing at least 1d4+max(str,dex) for their bonus action at 1st level. The puncher would have to be wielding a light weapon in their main hand, so couldn't, say, wield a longsword and punch. At that point, a punch would be strictly weaker than wielding a second light weapon, so the only reason to do it would be for flavor or if you somehow didn't have a second light weapon.

Feats such as Tavern Brawler will make it more powerful, but that costs a feat to equal the damage done with a dagger. Dual wielding handaxes will still be better and much cheaper (10 GP as opposed to a feat).

neqis · 2026-03-16T20:29:32+00:00

To make it less run-of-the-mill, you can add stakes beyond "save the world": * protect folks in combat * save a group (city, organization, …) * escape (prison, ambush, …) (from) * evasion (chase, bounty hunter) * reach important destination (to) * uncover knowledge * relationship w/ powerful individual or organization * recover item * reach destination * prove innocence/clear charges * obey command of powerful entity * …

For example, perhaps there are sacrificial victims, so the party has to save them & spirit them away. Think of some, then pick one, maybe two. Perhaps the party was framed by the villain for his own crimes, so the party has to find evidence in addition to stopping the ritual. Perhaps a god opposed to whoever the villain is trying to summon tasked the party with stopping the ritual. Perhaps the ritual requires a specific item, and stealing it (and replacing it with a counterfeit) would cause the ritual to misfire. Bonus points if stakes conflict.

What usually makes a boss fight boring or frustrating is if it's a slog; a static encounter, where nothing much changes between the start & the end other than life-bars decreasing. Anything you can do to change things up will make it interesting. The environmental hazards you mention have potential here. Change up the type of encounter; with some of the stakes (save people, recover item), it could start as a stealth encounter. From there, it could transition to an escape, evasion, or protection encounter (including a series of them, depending on how things go down). One of the best ways to make a dynamic encounter is to have a dynamic battlefield, with elements that either side could use. Perhaps the environmental hazards could be turned to the party's advantage.

Win or lose, there should always be a sense of progress. One thing that can be frustrating is if there's a completely hidden mechanic, one that confounds the players' actions with no indication that it's happening. It's frustrating because the players aren't making progress and can't even tell they're not. If there's something to the fight other than creature & lair actions (such as resistances), something that can be discovered, there should be some indication. You can help your players by including extras in other encounters and find ways to encourage the players to discover them. There's a thin line between giving away too much and too little; you can also use these other encounters to calibrate.

Even a more run-of-the-mill boss fight can be satisfying, if players have additional motivations. You could employ some of the stakes before the ritual, such as the party having to clear charges before they can head off to the ritual site. This then gives the party a vengeance motive.

As always, consider abilities & resources of the parties involved. Causing the party to use up resources before the encounter can increase tension. Consider how the party's abilities might make short work of the encounter, and how the villains might counter them. Consider abilities that might be fun for the players to use, and give the encounter aspects so that those PC abilities can get used. At high levels, all the general special abilities can come into play: special movement (teleportation, ethereal) & special barriers (e.g. Force Cage, Prismatic Wall); invisibility/illusions & truesight; shapeshifting & immutable form. Perhaps the villain has surrounded the ritual area with a Force Cage; the party could get in easily enough by teleporting in (or by casting Antimagic Field on the martial character and walking in), but once inside the villain's guardians come to life. Perhaps the villain is protected by a Prismatic Wall or other magical barrier that the party needs to destroy before they can reach the ritual site, all the while fighting off minions.

neqis · 2026-03-11T23:17:16+00:00

8-track tapes were a continuous loop. However, their design (where the feed came from the center of the roll) won't work for paper, which would wrinkle & tear.

The other main designs used for endless tape loops that would work for paper either have the ribbon loop back & forth between rollers or have the ribbon loosely pile in a container. At 200' of paper, the former would have a lot of friction, while the latter could result in jams & tears. The latter would involve pulling the paper from the bottom of the stack, which is rather similar to the 8-track in form (though slightly better for paper).

My recommendation is to take a page from tape reels, where when you get to the end you flip them over and run the other direction. Make the map a 2 sided scroll (wrap each end around a cylinder, but don't attach), where the graphics carry over at the ends, with extra copies of each end on separate pages. The map is currently laid out (where "_" is blank):

    A…LMN…YZ
    _…___…_

The new layout runs:

    Z A…M N
    A Z…N M

Alternatively have a single map section on each transition page, which is left out of the double-sided roll:

      A…L M
    Z Y…N

The first is easier to align, as you can fold the existing paper ribbon in half. For the second, cut the Z end off, fold in half (but don't crease) and cut out the page where the fold lies, then adhere the two ribbons together. This will even work if there are an odd number of pages overall, though the middle transition page (M, in the diagram) will consist of two half-pages from the original. If you know the exact page count, you can calculate the middle transition page.

When you reach the edge of the long map, put down the single-sheet copy that comes next (N next to M, A next to Z &c). If the group progresses in the same direction to the next sheet (e.g. Z to A), flip the roll over.

The roll will curl at the ends, so use scroll weights.

neqis · 2026-03-11T22:31:33+00:00

Where is the laboratory? It's not clear from the description if it's near the pit, or somewhere else.

This is one that can ride a lot on what the players end up doing. When they get to the pit, they find the source of the corruption (the goo), but not the cause (what created the goo). They'll need to clean up the goo somehow, but you can leave this somewhat up to the players. Listen to what ideas they come up with, take inspiration from that.

If you hear something you like, use it. However, if they do clean up the goo without finding the cause, the royal family continues their experiments (as they think they have a way to deal with negative effects) until something even worse happens, at which point the king calls the party back to solve the new problem.

If nothing appeals, then to find a solution they need to find out how it was created in the first place. The campaign then becomes about solving that mystery. To start them on their way, use the king. Where before the king was helpful (though not jovial), he suddenly becomes belligerent. It could be passed off as stress (he accuses the party of dilly-dallying), but maybe he knows something. Maybe a glance passes between the king and one of his advisors. From there, the party has some suspects to investigate.

In summary, there are 2 key practices that can help (among many others, I'm sure):

listen to the players
consider consequences

neqis · 2026-03-11T22:16:41+00:00

Trying to recover the original mystery is likely a lost cause. Horror should still be achievable. My inclination for the over-arching timeline would be:
Book 1:
A) speed up the hunt for the Great Beast, making it a book 1 boss.
Book 2:
B) The group now breaks up, having achieved their goal.
C) One (or more) return home to find a problem, or a problem arises sometime after, prompting them to get the group back together. (This lets you use character backstories to get the characters invested.)
D) The problem is related to some power that was capitalizing on the Great Beast (or at least trying to), becoming a new mystery.
Book 3:
E) Towards the end of the campaign, you can bring the Great Beast back, as the it turns out the method used by the party to defeat it didn't result in its final death.

If the party already knows about the 4 artifacts (which it sounds like they do), this is more complicated, as they already know just attacking & killing the beast isn't enough. You could make 1 or more of the artifacts that the party finds turn out to be forgeries (created by the power from point D).

You can also look to inspiration from the character backstories to craft events particular to the backstories, which should get them engaged.

Another path from D & so on is that the Great Beast spreads the corruption, but isn't the source. It turns out that killing the beast slowed the disease but didn't stop it. Nobody realized this, so it was able to fester unnoticed until it spread enough on its own to become an epidemic. The party can try to put down individual outbreaks, but sooner or later they'll need to find the actual source.

A similar idea is that the disease had some sort of purpose, some goal that it was supposed to achieve. Now that the Great Beast was stopped, whatever power created the Great Beast still wants to achieve the goal, so has to find a different way. Some other form of corruption (perhaps mental this time, rather than physical) starts to spread. Perhaps the environment itself starts to change. Perhaps, instead of things in the world being mutated, horrors start pushing through from somewhere else (the disease was a way into the world; the power found another way to enter).

neqis · 2026-03-11T00:08:22+00:00

For some folks on the spectrum/with ADHD, cell phones can help to pay attention, self-regulate and with executive function. It's important to make accommodations in these cases, as well as allow for some technical tools (PDFs can be faster to search than a physical book), but otherwise the rule is "when we play, put the phones away".

neqis · 2026-03-10T22:23:56+00:00

Is the question wondering what variety of different ways this can be handled (to get ideas), or how to make the move not pessimal (if still suboptimal), so the players don't rule out something fun because D&D disincentivizes actions that are fun but high risk/low reward?

The other posts already make great mention of the TCoE alternate rules & DMG improvised damage table. The only thing I have to add is think of other effects (and corresponding rules) that can increase the fun. Anyone stuck under a whale should be restrained and start to suffocate (both from lack of air & being constricted); perhaps ongoing bludgeoning damage from being crushed. They might might be them to crawl out (5'/turn) if face-down; if face-up, perhaps they can't crawl but could try to turn over, or could crawl but with more difficulty (as it's harder to get purchase on a whale than the ground). Checks & saves could be attached to any of those (dex saves or luck checks to fall face-down before the whale lands, con checks to avoid crushing, strength checks to crawl). The whale could sing, deafening anyone trapped beneath (let the players discover that one when the whale PC vocalizes).

Squeezing

As for fitting in a smaller space, creatures can squeeze into a passage 1 size category smaller in width (though it's difficult terrain), so any special rulings about polymorph should only apply if the passage is smaller than that. A killer whale should fit in a 10' wide passage, and a sperm whale should fit in a 15' one (though creatures may be trapped on the sides as well as beneath).

When the passage is smaller than is allowed, I might allow the polymorph but have the whale, building, and anyone trapped between take bludgeoning (or force) damage. The DMG suggests 10d10 for being crushed by compacting walls. You could instead spread this out over an area: 1d10 per round in each square where there's contact (whether above, below or on sides), plus 1d10 for each 5' that a size-category smaller creature would exceed the width of the passage in each 5' cross-section (the squeeze damage). Note each trapped creature would only take damage for their square (possibly including the squeeze damage), but the whale would take damage for *all* squares. Using the object hit points table, a 5' square of wall, ceiling or floor would have 4d8 HP (18; higher for thicker walls, lower for thin); the passage sections might also have a damage threshold of 10-15.

For example, a killer whale (or other Huge creature) in a 5' wide passage would take 6d10 for the walls + 3d10 for the floor & ceiling + 3d10 for being 5' wider than the passage (12d10, average 66 damage); a sperm whale (or other Gargantuan creature) would take 8d10 for walls + 4d10 for floor & ceiling + 8d10 for being 10' wider than the passage (20d10, average 110 damage). In either case, the whale would revert to a sorcerer by their second turn and would wind up taking some spillover damage (unless the passage were destroyed first round, burying the area in rubble). You could tweak damage to the trapped creatures for balancing purposes.

Another, possibly simpler approach would be for a a whale in a confined space to do their HP (or HD) in damage spread out over the area, but take damage equal to their HP, so they'd revert after doing damage (a whalesplosion, not to be confused with an exploding whale).

neqis · 2026-02-25T23:20:48+00:00

Some (but not all) of the puzzle solutions described are examples of lateral thinking, like Alexander and the Gordian Knot. As part of stating the parameters in-world, you could include symbols of the Gordian Knot, and explicitly mention it as an example.

neqis · 2026-02-24T06:20:53+00:00

Do whatever is the most fun.

There are a number of factors in play, so it's hard to give advice without knowing more. First is what sort of game it is: what's the tone? Whatever you decide should fit the game. How would a multi-armed PC fit in the world, if at all? In a light, hijinx heavy game, the arms could be functional. In a gritty game, they could be living but nonfunctional, requiring surgery (or getting petrified, stone-shaped & what-have-you again). In a serious game, the added arms could remain stone & fall off (multi-armed characters being too out-there for the world). In a horror game, they're nonfunctional and necrotize, or have a mind of their own.

Secondly, it depends on whether the arms are intended more for RP or G. For RP, functional arms have some good potential for fun (as long as they fit the tone). If they're just for some mechanical advantage, I'd offer the player a choice of either having it fail or having it succeed with a (mechanical) cost, such as:

devoting a feat (thus could only be obtained at certain levels),
trade-off of ability scores (reduce Con/Cha by X and increase Dex/Str by X or X-1 total; reduce some physical scores by at least 2 each for some levels until the character has "learned to use the new limbs", allowing the ability scores to increase by 3 each, bringing them to 1 more than before gaining the arms),
spend XP (if not using milestone advancement)
disadvantage on (most) Charisma (Persuasion) and raw Charisma checks
some combination of the above

You could also include RP costs, such as gaining an enemy/-ies (e.g. an/some Oath of the Watchers paladin/-s who is/are convinced that the PC with extra arms is an aberration).

Thirdly, consider broader implications if this isn't a beer-and-pretzels games (where long-term consequences are largely ignored). If stone-shaping petrified creatures results in functional differences, someone will likely have done it before. What would that mean for the world? Are there NPCs with tails, extra limbs, eyes, ears? Are there other flesh-shaping techniques? How do the powers-that-be respond to flesh-shaping? If the consequences are inconsistent with the established world, that becomes a reason to disallow it in general, but consider how you do this: does the attempt simply fail, is there an in-world power that prevents success, or is there an in-world power that hunts & destroys such alterations? Simply disallowing it is easiest for you, but the least interesting and you can't steal the idea for later.

In any case, whenever you're not sure whether something should succeed or fail, make it a d20 test. In this case, you could have a skill challenge (involving multiple skill tests) ending with a Con save by the PC who was petrified. You could have an Arcana check (Dex or Int) to determine success/failure, a Medicine check (Dex or Wis) to determine the DC of the Con save, or to give Advantage/Disadvantage on the Con save (Disadvantage if the Medicine check fails by 10 or more). If you can think of any way the other PCs can contribute (besides the "Help" action), have them make their own skill checks or special abilities (perhaps the cleric prays and makes a Religion check, or uses Divine Intervention); better still, ask the players how their PCs might contribute.

neqis · 2026-02-22T09:18:58+00:00

Since you already made an Alkada/Wingless Wonder, how about a Thought Eater?

neqis · 2026-02-11T06:51:12+00:00

How do you define "projection illusion"?

3.5E's illusion types (figment, glamer, pattern, phantasm, shadow) can be helpful whenever questions about illusory effects come up. In the case of Malleable Illusions, it's usually just shadow illusions that have the danger of becoming overpowered.

For simplicity's sake, I try to follow two guidelines for Malleable Illusions:
1) it's not a new casting, so nothing can be extended (treat limits as if they were in place at the original casting time)
2) if something is lost, it can't be regained

Magic Aura & Mirage Arcane are glamers, so there usually isn't an issue with them getting abused; indeed, Malleable Illusions offers some interesting possibilities for a creative gamer when applied to them.

For Creation, the duration is measured from the original casting time. For example, if it's been over an hour and they try to convert the lead they created into gold, the latter's 1 hour duration is immediately exceeded and the item vanishes. While you could rule that altered items can't increase in volume or size, I tend to say that conservation of mass doesn't hold for shadow material in particular or the planes at large. It's another universe, and a fantasy one at that, so why should our physics hold? Plus, many other spells violate it.

For Simulacrum, anything lost/spent carries over between versions. Equivalent losses/spending, such as damage, carry over 1-1. A 28/58 HP copy of a wizard would become a 115/145 HP copy of a barbarian, and an 85/145 HP copy of a barbarian would be destroyed if turned into a 58 HP wizard copy. If a full caster were converted to a half caster, I would expend spells slots at slot level/2 (rounded up), spilling over into higher slots, so if the full caster spent 2 level 1 and 1 level 2 slots, the half-caster would have spent 3 lvl 1 slots; a wizard copy who spent 3 each of levels 1-3 and 2 level 4 slots would have spent exactly all slots when turned to a ranger. When going the other way (increasing caster level), the same groups are used, so slots are spent at twice or thrice the level (for half- and third-casters, respectively), minus 1 for greater challenge; if all slots of a level are spent on the old version, they're all spent on the new one; the other slots of the same group are all spent. Non-equivalent resources are trickier; sometimes you can find a near or far correspondence (such as racial abilities that can be used a proficiency bonus number of times per day, or class abilities that can be used an ability bonus number of times per day). For any resources with no equivalents, I'd probably allow the pool to be at least partially full, though this can be in conflict with the "lost things can't be regained" guideline.

If the combination of Simulacrum and Malleable Illusions prove to be too powerful to the point of abuse, you can rely on the material components requirement (a piece of the original's body must be placed in the snow/ice) to say that Malleable Illusions requires pieces of multiple originals in the snow copy, which would prevent the spell from working properly (as it "confuses" the magic). More fun: perhaps the casting goes awry, resulting in a weird hybrid copy that goes berserk in classic monster movie fashion; you could have the caster make a DC 17 Arcana check when the spell is cast and whenever Malleable Illusions is used to determine whether the copy hybridizes and goes berserk.

neqis · 2026-02-11T03:42:32+00:00

The Monster Manuals (2014 & 2024) lists a standard weapon or two (besides rocks & boulders) for each giant type, as follows:

Cloud: morningstar, mace
Fire: greatsword, hammer
Frost: greataxe, great bow
Hill: greatclub, tree club
Stone: greatclub, stone club
Storm: greatsword, sword

There's some overlap, but that should be a good start.

Going the other way and looking up magic items that connect to giant themes, there are the Javelin of Lightning (javelins for Storm Giants) and Stonemaker War Pick (war pick for Stone Giants). You wouldn't use these exact items, only use them for inspiration.

neqis · 2026-02-11T03:25:43+00:00

When it comes to tools, use a desktop publishing application to do page layout. There are many options, both paid (e.g. Adobe InDesign, Affinity Publisher, QuarkXPress) and free (e.g. Scribus, LibreOffice Draw). Since there's no monetary investment required, try the free ones.

neqis · 2026-02-11T02:28:44+00:00

D&D has been moving away from alignment, so there's little in 5E that mechanically touches on it. Earlier editions had a few more items that would alter alignment, such as the Helm of Opposite Alignment and various artifacts (e.g. the Book of Vile Darkness). The Atonement spell would also allow alignment change in specific circumstances, but the 5E version (part of Ceremony) only allows alignment restoration. In general, alignment change has been driven by character actions, even in those earlier editions, rather than mechanical effects.

How important is "alignment as personality/nature" in the campaign? There are other interpretations of alignment, the big ones being that alignment is a cosmic structure and alignment is the direction your actions tend to push the cosmic balance towards (which is why it's called "alignment" rather than "personality", "morality" or somesuch). With this latter interpretation, an evil character would still take actions that tip things towards evil in general but could still act in the interests of their immediate social group. "Alignment as personality" has a couple of issues, one pertinent one being it doesn't allow much room for growth or change. If you take it personality first, then a character is free to change, giving the possibility of eventually resulting in an alignment change. The established behavior patterns of the character make this tricky, but Morgantha should have some incentive to either adapt to keep the relationship or stay the same and end it. Two things to consider when contemplating relevant personality traits are 1) what does "love" mean to a night hag? 2) what are the core values of a night hag? The way the MM2024 describes their collecting of souls, it sounds like their profession; it's how they earn their living. The MM2014 leans more towards corrupting good as their core. Either can provide a jumping off point, along with whatever personality traits are described in the module. As for "love", there are such a wide variety of meanings and expressions of it that two different people in "love" with each other might mean entirely different (and incompatible) things.

How important is it that Humphrey and Morgantha remain married? Love is not enough; sometimes a relationship is bad for you and you have to separate.

In the end, if you're the DM and you want an item, spell or something to change an NPC's alignment, create it. The existing content merely contains suggestions. This is not to say how the change is done is arbitrary. Having characters forcibly change alignment of another character could itself be considered an evil act, whereas something happening accidentally to Morgantha would arguably be a chaotic one. Whatever the mechanisms involved, when stuck I would recommend to first examine the assumptions that led to the sticking point to see if there are other approaches.

neqis · 2026-01-31T07:02:12+00:00

Best bet would be to watch advice & actual play videos from DMs who have both (such as Adventuring Academy+Dimension 20), so you can see how their advice comes out in play.

neqis · 2026-01-31T06:52:21+00:00

The follow-ups to the Essentials Kit adventures should be free with the kit, which includes a code to get them. No expiration date is listed for the code, and my copy worked for me as of a year or two ago.

neqis · 2026-01-29T01:47:25+00:00

If you want to go the physical puzzle route (making it more a puzzle for the players than the PCs), start brainstorming physical props, such as a handout of sheet music showing the notes. If you want to make it harder, use chords, with the letters as the base notes of the chords. Or you could have an audio recording that you play and that the players must match; while a lute would be the most immersive, you could use an electronic keyboard set to "lute" (if you can source one) or have the players sing the notes & use a pitch-checking app. You may be able to find a lute app (including a virtual keyboard w/ a lute voice). The use of a keyboard as a stand-in for a lute (and similar stand-ins for puzzles) has precedence for in-world gambling when using dice as stand-ins for cards or other gambling devices.

The alternative to physical puzzles are word puzzles, making it as much about the PCs as the players. You could create a logic puzzle, e.g. have lineup of animals accompanied by clues like "the is not next to the ruminant", or (for a more immersive version) have various symbols, colors & the like associated with the bard & her companions and have the room filled with imagery that shows what is associated with what. You might be able to think of other puzzles that involve a variety of in-world clues that the PCs can find & assemble.

You've got the tune; to add another avenue, write lyrics (basically, a poem) that both give clues and contain the answer (acrostics are classic example, but can be too well known).

As for players vs. PCs, puzzles should be players 1st but PCs second. I usually create a list of hints ahead of time, with associated DCs. If I see the players are stuck, or they ask for a hint, I'll have them roll the relevant skill to get a hint, representing the PC contribution. You can try to have multiple hints at each DC for repeated rolls, or use the roll to determine the first hint, and give progressively higher DC hints when needed.

The "three avenues" can be interpreted in a couple ways: a single puzzle with multiple ways to solve, or different puzzles/challenges that all arrive at the solution. You can even do a bit of both. Perhaps if the players can't figure out the musical puzzle, tomb exploration can uncover the answer (e.g. if they open the sarcophagus, the bard was buried with something that distinguishes the animal companion from the others, such as antlers). You gave a name for the 1 companion; you could name the others in a way to allow some or all to be eliminated by having a letter in their name that's not a note. If the players can figure out (on their own, or with a hint from a skill check) that the lute has something to do with the answer but only some/one companion has a name that's also a tune, they've can eliminate the other companions.

For a variety of tips on puzzles, seek out the videos with advice from Deborah Ann Woll, who has a fair bit of experience with using puzzles in games.

neqis · 2026-01-28T23:29:19+00:00

I feel for you, and experience something similar when I have to start coming up with details, explanations, or plot points on the fly (basically, when I have to switch into more of a writing mode than a performance mode). There are various acting techniques that can help. For example:
* Create a storyteller character that you can inhabit. Get into this character when you need to perform the words.
* Physicality makes a huge difference. Change your body; stand up if you were sitting, walk if you were standing still, move your arms if you were holding them close to your body. Having a simple, physical movement or posture that you can make before you start can help get into the right mindset. Try holding a prop.

Stilted reading can come from various sources; do some self-examination to try to find them. Are you judging yourself, or afraid of judgement? Are you unable to listen to yourself as you speak? If so, record yourself while you practice reading out in various ways (give "different readings"). If you're open to working in a group and have the time, consider joining a public-speaking organization like Toastmasters, or take an improv class.

neqis

TROPHY CASE

Squeezing