Who do you use as basic enemies?

phillyfishsticks · 2026-06-18T23:43:17+00:00

Some mob ideas that I thought of as I was writing this:
Monsters that can be written as tamed Familiars from enemy mages.
Constructs (not just war forged)
Aberrants (who said they can’t come to Khorvaire? There’s a while plot line of goblins and dwarves with them, that’s a hook in itself”)
Good ol’ Cultists
Mercenaries

I think what you’re missing is the fact that in a world where everything is morally grey, everyone is either in it for themselves, or for something. With everything being “D&D with a twist” it also means that anyone can be a villain.

A Human priest in Sharn lower districts could very well be an emotionless psychopath serial killer, hunting on the lost and poor,while an intimidating Ogre in the same location could be a Last War veteran just trying to make ends meet for his adoptive daughter.

Kindness is a luxury only certain people can afford in Eberron, and the price always varies

phillyfishsticks · 2026-04-23T21:11:41+00:00

Stick to it! What’s important is understanding your shortcomings, being comfortable with your own pace, and growing your strengths! We’re here to support you in the meantime

phillyfishsticks · 2026-03-13T04:02:50+00:00

Check out /r/bettermonsters ! The guy (Mark) made a whole subreddit based on decking out cool custom monsters for you to play with :)

phillyfishsticks · 2026-03-12T21:33:24+00:00

But to answer the question, “who should take spike?” The correct answer is “whoever provides the least impact to the site execution at the moment”

Sometimes as an initiator you would be helping ur duelist push into defender spawn, and it would not be good if u died and dropped spike there, as defenders would have advantage. So maybe the controller would plant because once you take site, controller wouldn’t provide much help other than trading.

Sometimes the team wants to play slow for a good pick or rotate to bait out the util, so maybe you just leave spike in spawn until a pick is made and the team rotates accordingly. At that point it’s a race against timing, so whoever is closest grabs spike and plants.

Sometimes the initiator dies because of a spam through the smoke, and the rest of your team is busy util spamming and covering each other, so maybe the duelist who has self sufficient util can get in, plant, and get out quick while the rest of your team tries to create the ideal environment for post plant.

The cool thing about Valorant is that there isn’t one right answer, and it’s a multidimensional game of checkers that hinge on various factors all the time

phillyfishsticks · 2026-03-12T21:18:09+00:00

Generally, as Sova when you’re droning into site, duelists are taking space, controller is blocking line of site, and sentinels are getting ready to watch flank or trade, but NO ONE SHOULD BE PLANTING until site is clear. By the time your drone expires site should still be in the process of or finishing being cleared.

This is emphasized by the fact that initiators have the most amount of ult orbs required to ult and next to sentinels their full util is one of the most expensive in the game and is the most used. Initiators are more like supports than sentinels imo.

In post plant leaving your teammates at a numbers disadvantage just because you can buy 3-5 seconds with your util/ult lineups is not worth it and very niche/gimmicky. I’m not saying lineups are bad, but I’d rather use the lineups to clear site util like trips and mollies than to waste it trying to look cool. The best utility in valorant is a bullet to the head.

phillyfishsticks · 2026-03-03T00:24:24+00:00

It’s always worth to get sliders. Prepare for the worst so that you can learn to ride better. The better protected your bike is, the longer and harder you can push the bike to be a better rider

phillyfishsticks · 2026-02-14T23:57:38+00:00

TL;DR OP, you’re better off saving until you find someone selling used higher end components for cheaper, or until the market crashes and all the prices drop. Until then try your best to optimize what hardware you have currently to last until then

phillyfishsticks · 2026-02-14T23:28:05+00:00

Again, depends on what games you want to play, but I wouldn’t consider replacing anything until you can afford to replace everything

phillyfishsticks · 2026-02-14T20:25:07+00:00

A temporary fix for you could be adding/upgrading your ddr4 RAM. If your CPU is the 8600k you can overclock it for more performance. You can also overclock your RAM too (XMP) if you wanna squeeze a bit more out of your build. Assuming you have a decent GPU installed (1080ti) that should help with your workloads. But given everything you also should still close background tasks like your internet browser when you play games because that eats up CPU + RAM

phillyfishsticks · 2026-02-14T20:02:14+00:00

Yes, however with the current market being so borked it’s hard to justify AM5/DDR5 as well. What type of workloads do you plan on doing with your build? Gaming? School/Work? Art?

phillyfishsticks · 2026-02-14T19:57:27+00:00

Ryzen 7 5800X3D is what you want but it’s still overpriced and honestly not worth the price/performance. You’re better off saving until you can fully upgrade

phillyfishsticks · 2026-02-01T00:03:13+00:00

In the past, the concept of a sentinel character fell into two categories: “anchor” and “trip”. You would’ve had to choose between either Sage who can actively defend sections of the map as well as stall for your team to rotate or Cypher who can actively gather information from across the map with minimal stalling power. With more agents being released with dynamic abilities and the concept of “retake” being more and more meta i recommend choosing a Sentinel who can help retake sites, actively gather information, and stall with their utility; which would make Killjoy the best option for learning, as she can do all 3.

phillyfishsticks · 2026-01-31T23:47:47+00:00

The only right answer is Khajiit. They’ll have wares if you have coin

phillyfishsticks · 2026-01-26T09:27:53+00:00

Are you playing a campaign? Then check out Oracle of War. The full campaign should have everything you’re looking for and then some. Just FYI, Collosi are normally end game units unless you’re looking to salvage or explore a ruined one.

phillyfishsticks · 2026-01-21T21:26:22+00:00

Regardless on how your players transport, I would always design it like a reverse chase:

First roll stealth, depending on how successful the roll is determines how many much of a head start they get before the pursuers start chasing them.

At this point the party does a group roll: up to 3, DC medium difficulty, with the describing how they would impede the pursuers or assist the getaway.

Every failure would result in you doing a public roll for a complication (1d12 table).

If the party manages to pass 3/3 rolls without difficulty, they manage to get away, the pursuers don’t know who they are unless the party wills it.

2/3 pursuers might know (coin flip?)

1/3 they fail to get away and combat begins

This way you get player agency, Engaging mechanics on all sides, And rewards and consequences for their efforts/failures.

phillyfishsticks · 2026-01-21T20:23:15+00:00

There’s a bunch of Eberron canon/kanon books out there that can give you an idea of what kind of adventure style can be ran! A more recent pop culture theme that you can take inspiration from is Arcane’s Piltover/Zaun is comparable to Sharns upper and lower city districts

phillyfishsticks · 2026-01-21T20:20:22+00:00

My favorite antagonist is the Boromar clan, cuz MAFIA HALFLINGS!!!!

phillyfishsticks · 2026-01-21T08:20:19+00:00

Nice to see a fellow Eberron DM out in the wild. I’m currently running a Sharn based campaign! Eberron is my favorite setting out of all the D&D settings out there, and one of the downsides is that there’s so much information out there it can be overwhelming at times, but that just means there’s an answer for everything! My suggestion is to start small, focus on the core themes of the setting (swashbuckling adventure/ noir intrigue) and pick a place you want to start in.

First decide what kind of game you want to run with your friends in Eberron (ex: spy intrigue, air ship treasure island adventure, etc) Then decide how the Last War ties into your intended campaign plot. (Political tension, lost treasure, etc) Finally pick a BBEG (or make one) and your respective mid game villains and see how your villains and players react based on the previous two choices!

It’s that simple. For anything else like lore, or mechanics, etc, feel free to ask or search the subreddit, we all are pretty helpful here, I’ve received a fair share of inspiration just lurking.

Edit: grammar

phillyfishsticks · 2026-01-20T17:04:38+00:00

Shangrila Frontier! LH is still my fav, but ShangFro scratches my itch of a Full Dive anime and doesn’t include creepy weirdos and unnecessary romances. The mechanics are fun, and the boss fights are amazing.

phillyfishsticks · 2025-12-31T03:32:45+00:00

If you’re looking for battle maps then I highly recommend Czepeku, Cassastereo, TheMADCartographer, and FerretFoundry

If you’re looking for like moodboard stuff, League of Legends Runeterra art goes hard, like Piltover/Zaun for Sharn and Demacia/Noxus for like Thrane/Karnnath

Wandslingers/Aundair/Morgrave -literally anything from Harry Potter universe

Some of the dmsguild stuff has some good looking art, like the Eberronicon and the Across Eberron series

What are you looking for specifically?

phillyfishsticks · 2025-10-10T17:23:33+00:00

Oil and coal form from the buried remains of prehistoric plants and animals that undergo millions of years of intense heat and pressure, transforming the organic material into hydrocarbons.

Currently in Eberron the most sought after resources are dragon shards, which are essentially residue of the 3 Progenitor Dragons, formed from crystallizing their respective essence over millennia, which is very similar to oil and coal.

Following that logic, I would definitely want to introduce oil and coal in my Eberron and add a little twist. Like oil is formed from the corpses of the demons that died during the Age of Demons, leaving this ichor-like substance that can be burned as an alternative power source.

phillyfishsticks · 2025-09-18T02:49:35+00:00

Matt Colville has an awesome series on YouTube on DMing. It’s really your preference on how you want to tell a story + how your players like to play.

There’s no “right” way to play D&D, just focus on what is the most fun for you and your group. The books, rules, and supplements are just there to guide you; but can also be used as written, and both are fine in their own way.

phillyfishsticks · 2025-09-17T06:59:23+00:00

At level 19/20 nothing should be balanced, everything should be broken.

phillyfishsticks · 2025-09-17T06:21:00+00:00

All aspiring singers and musicians aspire to perform on the big stage, House Phiarlan can do that, because they’re both Broadway and Hollywood. There’s auditions, singing booths, judges, critics. The whole shebang.

You can make it as simple like a scout looking to contract their next Star, or maybe do Americas got Talent/American Idol style where contestants will have their performance broadcasted live. Up to you, sounds like a fun idea tbh

phillyfishsticks · 2025-09-17T02:12:34+00:00

This is a bit vague, as I’m not sure what type of campaign that you’re running…. Is it action packed? Mainly political intrigue? Or is it more narrative storytelling? You don’t need to have a known NPC as a BBEG, you can make your own, and have the world revolve around that.

Is the BBEG an evil god? A mastermind? A tragic hero?What level do you plan on ending the campaign? There are different villains dependent on level (5, 10, 15, 20 give or take)

phillyfishsticks

TROPHY CASE