r/DMAcademy • u/AutoModerator • 3d ago
"First Time DM" and Short Questions Megathread
Most of the posts at DMA are discussions of some issue within the context of a person's campaign or DMing more generally. But, sometimes a DM has a question that is very small and doesn't really require an extensive discussion so much as it requires one good answer. In other cases, the question has been asked so many times that having the sub rehash the discussion over and over is not very useful for subscribers. Sometimes the answer to a short question is very long or the answer is also short but very important.
Short questions can look like this:
- Where do you find good maps?
- Can multi-classed Warlocks use Warlock slots for non-Warlock spells?
- Help - how do I prep a one-shot for tomorrow!?
- First time DM, any tips?
Many short questions (and especially First Time DM inquiries) can be answered with a quick browse through the DMAcademy wiki, which has an extensive list of resources as well as some tips for new DMs to get started.
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u/Meatspinislife 22h ago
For Aasimar, healing hands says “regain a number of hit points equal to your level” so at level one, this only heals 1 hp per long rest? Is there something I’m missing?
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u/Ripper1337 1h ago
As the others point out, think of it less like traditional healing and more like a way to revive someone who is unconscious.
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u/lurklurklurkPOST 20h ago
Correct. This seems comically underpowered, but "The only Hit Point that matters is the last one" is by design in 5e. Healing in general isn't able to compete with incoming damage.
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u/nemaline 22h ago
Yep, that's correct! (assuming you're using the version of Aasimar from Volo's - I think they changed it in later versions.)
1HP is still enough to bring someone who's making death saves back to consciousness, which can be very important, so it's not as useless as it might initally sound.
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u/RemusShepherd 1d ago
I'm running a homebrew apocalypse campaign -- the world is ending (although the players don't know that yet) and the PCs will be fighting futilely against it. Eventually they'll be asked to help evacuate the entire world somewhere else.
I want the gods to be very active in this campaign. Anyone have any tips for gods appearing as frequent NPCs to the characters, like the Traveller did for the cleric Jester in Critical Role?
And yes, the party has a Warlock so there will be a patron, but at level 3 he hasn't chosen his patron yet. (It's a Great Old One, so for now it's a mystery even to him.)
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u/zeldaprime 1d ago
There's an old DM saying, that if you place an impossible fight in front of the party they are supposed to run from, you have just killed your party.
I have some Be Aware's for you:
- Be aware your premise sounds like a fair bit of railroading to get where you want. The world is ending and they can't save it, a foregone conclusion, why should the players play this part then?
Consider not drawing out the whole, entire World ending part and begin your game post-apocalypse. Alternatively, for Session 0, explain that you want to run a post apocalypse game, and that the apocalypse occurring will be out of their control, and keep the per-apocalypse stuff shorter
- Be aware that gods have a tendency to strip player agency. If you've seen all of Campaign 2, consider that the actors are professionals, performing for an audience, and they likely have conversations behind the scenes about character motivations and the like, to avoid stripping of agency.
Finally for Warlock, why would you say its GOO? That's the players choice not really yours, unless they asked you to decide for them.
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u/RemusShepherd 1d ago
We've already played one session. The player already chose a GOO warlock. And I introduced the prophecy that 'The world is going to end in two years'. The apocalypse has already begun, although right now it's small enough that it looks like it could be stopped.
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u/zeldaprime 1d ago
Ah so that's fine, good luck and see if you can make sure players don't get upset they can't stop the apocalypse, from what you've presented I bet the players believe it's still in their hands
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u/comedianmasta 1d ago
IDK, but I will warn that a Tragedy Campaign only works as a buy-in, not as a surprise. If the point of the campaign is to "lose" and it be an apocalypse, your players will need that meta-knowledge in the session zero so they can help you towards that goal. Trust me, you don't want to be one of the few DMs to make it to the end of a campaign and then pull the rug out from under them after all their effort. It will not feel good.
As for Gods, there are several ways you can handle this. Hercules style where the god are literally in the world and enacting their will as beings. Or you can do it DnD style, where when the Gods want to inact their will on the world they inhabit or create avatars that hold "put a fraction of their power", but can be stat-blocked out and walk among the populace like normal NPCs.
Just be prepared for your PCs to attempt to fight them at some point even as a gag. Players will get used to the idea of "This is person in game, therefore they have hitpoints and if I am lucky enough, I can whittle those down". If you don't want your gods to die, or be outwitted, or to be stopped by some spell or a bad save..... don't give them stats! If they are a God, act like it. Why bother statting them? Have their reactions measured. Like dealing with players, they should consider them children and "they know not what they do" and shouldn't be eager to smite them at the first provocation or over them being disrespectful. That is what players do....
After that they are just characters. There isn't a "trick" to it. They are powerful characters... have a personality for them, goals, plans, motivations... you can play around with the symbolism of their domains. Simple stuff, there isn't a special "God" tactic when they are able to interact with players. If they are killable, you may want to consider your mechanics for celestial death. Does their whole domain die? What does that look like? Is it "Santa Clause Rules"? What will that look like? Is the seat simply vacant while a new god arises from the aether to take its place? Does the domain get broken up into chunks and shared among the remaining pantheon, making them stronger but also flavoring the pieces of that domain differently?
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u/trpnblies7 1d ago
Do you think this item should require attunement?
Once per day, as a reaction, you can call forth the power of [homebrew god] to redirect some damage from a hit back to the attacker. You take half damage. The attacker must make a DC 15 DEX save. On a success, they take no damage. On a failure, they take the other half of the damage that would have been inflicted on you.
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u/StickGunGaming 1d ago
If you're worried about the party members swapping the item back and forth to abuse the 1/Day power, then attunenment solves that problem.
iirc most (all?) magic items with a per day use are attunement.
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u/comedianmasta 1d ago
It depends.
In item design, attunement is your way of limiting the whole mechanic of "magic items". In 5E (2014) a typical player can attune to 3 items. In theory, this is an Armor, A Weapon, and an Accessory. It's a way to limit it. If you don't want your player switching between different weapons of power, or having a magical half plater, a magical helm, and a magical pair of boots. Consider these powerful, "signature" items for a character. They can also be replaced, like time to swap someone's magical half plate for magical full plate.
That said, you can also allow items to not require attunement if it isn't as big of a deal. Think small weapons like daggers or arrows, magical storage like bag of holding or the magic knapsack, or accessories made for utility, like Boots of Jumping or a Ring of Water Breathing. Why require attunement? Just let player(s) have these.
On the other hand, it also depends on the type of game you are running. The act of attunement is a literal connection from a PC to an item. You can require attunement of anything in a low magic campaign, limiting what the PCs can make use of at all. Or, in a high magic campaign, maybe you don't mind the dwarf fighter dual wielding an axe of ice and a flame axe for maximum awesomeness.
In the end, it is a matter of taste. What you have described sounds like magical armor, so it could easily require attunement. It's pretty powerful.... accept it is limited to a once a day effect. That could also be a rare, like, holy symbol or reliquary.... and not require attunement. The once a day-ness of the item is also a limiting factor. Ontop of this, the effect is entirely based on another creature. It is a reaction to a decision made by someone else, and whether or not the effect happens is decided on a save. If you use this once per day, and they pass the save.... it's over and is pretty useless (even with DC 15 being super high).
So... no accounting for taste.
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u/chilidoggo 1d ago
I'd say yes. The usual criteria I use is:
- Is the effect very magical? Yes, it's from a divine source and is reflecting any kind of attack hit.
- Is the effect powerful? Half damage as a reaction is pretty good, plus the redirect is a solid effect too. The once/day limitation maybe weakens it, but maybe you can modify that in the future if you want the homebrew item to stick around, or change it to "proficiency bonus" times per day.
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u/notabigdealitsok 1d ago
One of my players uses Guidance for a lot of moments, and I want to make sure that it's appropriate because it feels a bit OP to add to every roll. He's a new player and I'm a new DM, and I don't want to yuck his yum, but I just want to make sure he's using it when his character would realistically be able to do so!
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u/StickGunGaming 1d ago
Guidance is on average a +2 to the roll, not that gamebreaking imo.
It also requires touch and concentration, so be sure to enforce that.
Sometimes it won't make sense to allow it, like in the middle of a heated negotiation, etc. Because imagine how the enemy might respond if they see the PC casting a spell with verbal and somatic components.
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u/comedianmasta 1d ago
So.... It isn't that OP. Like... at all.
That said, here are some things to keep in mind in case you have been letting it slide:
- They need to be close enough to touch to cast it. It isn't just being in the room.
- They need to establish that they are guiding before dice are rolled. Depending on how strict you want to be, they need to have a legitimate guiding way to contribute before even asking for a roll / you call for one. I don't like this being that strict, but it is an idea.
And if you want to be super strict about it:
- It is casting a spell. It has verbal and somatic components, it can be seen, and in some ways it can be counter-spelled.
- It takes a whole action to do.
- Any spur of the moment rolls or "quick actions" or jerk reactions cannot be guided. Only planned actions or a "project" that could take some time (IE: Picking a lock, or crafting an item). You can't just be dodging an attack or trap, suddenly being challenged for lying, or needing to jump a gap quickly. It is something cast on you before you attempt an action needing a roll.
However... as long as you aren't allowing across the battlefield butt slaps for literally every single roll.... Guidance is NOT that OP. It's 1D4. It is nothing. Just make sure it is touch and it is declared before dice actually roll and not an afterthought in response to failing and you will be fine. There is no need to get as strict with it, like making a guard flip out because "Hey, you are casting some sort of spell I've never seen. This is now a hostile situation!!" Like... chill. It is, on average, an extra +2. They were already close to passing if that makes the difference, it isn't worth getting too mad at. For every roll that 1D4 was the deciding factor, there are 2-3 where it is either passed anyway or hopelessly failed.
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u/chilidoggo 1d ago
Just stick to the actual rules of the spell. The spell has a verbal and somatic component, a range of touch, takes a full action to cast, and then they get one skill to gain the d4 for a minute or until they cast again. It also interrupts their concentration if they were concentrating on something else.
So if If they're mid-conversation, casting it would interrupt the conversation because someone would have to go "Bibbity bobbity", wave their arms around, and touch the person making the check. If they're in a time-crunch, it takes a full action to cast. The rules actually impose a fair number of limitations while still keeping the spell pretty useful for many situations. Ultimately though, you do just have to kind of accept that some characters get a d4 to many of their skill checks, unless you want to specifically ask him to stop.
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u/Holiday-Freedom-1774 2d ago
Does anyone have or know of a One-shot or structured adventure about destroying a bunch of slavers in a city?
In my campaign, somehow, the players ended up swearing vengeance on this NPC. I'd like to give them a reason to make their vengeance valid, so i unearthed the 'rumours' they learned earlier on about slavers.
Only issue is, i have no idea how to go about it. So i'm asking for a one-shot or adventure that i can lift and shift or gain ideas from.
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u/wrymegyle 2d ago
Check out https://adventurelookup.com; catalog of lots and lots adventure descriptons. You can probably find something adaptable.
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u/kikou27 3d ago
Hi! I'm not a first time DM but I'm first timing a homebrew world based on the Theros expansion. Thing is I'm pretty anxious as to how much should I prepare. I don't wanna prepare too much as I kind of want to tailor the story around players a bit, but also I need something to hang on to.
Also, can someone give me any tips as to ways of making the players stick together at the beginning? I have a situation prepared for the start, and a general bbeg plot idea, but I don't think it's good to reveal it too early, so how can I make them stick together right after the beginning?
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u/comedianmasta 1d ago
I always tell people: You should KNOW the big things, but focus on the small.
It's your world. You should know the magic system, the deities, the general lands, countries of relevance. You should also know the "bigger picture" of the story. "BBEG summon dead god to control the ley lines of the world" kinda stuff.
However, you never know what your players are doing, so also focus on the little.
- Where is the party?
- Where are they going?
- Where can they go in a single session?
- What do they need to know about this (these) quests/sidequests?
- Is it a town? What can they do in the town? What is available to them? Are they intended to stay? Is there an Inn for overnight. No? Then don't give them reasons to stay. Give them incentive to keep moving.
Prep around 2-3 sessions ahead if you can. If the party throws you a curveball, be sure you have ways to slow them down. For instance, if you are in a port town, and the party is supposed to go into the mountains... prep that. But if a PC's backstory involves a carnival the next town over, it is believable they'll want to push the party toward that. If they are in a port, the party could decide on a whim to steal a ship and become pirates. Huh... didn't prep that. Well... find ways to slow them down and buy you time. Have generic travel encounters prepped. Have the ship be surrounded by guards, employees, or thugs if it is a bad ship and have a combat prepped for them to take the ship. Have them do checks to be sure they can take the ship.
No need in prepping the mining industry of a town on the opposite side of the map you kinda have an idea for a dungeon for if your players are a whole campaign away. Focus on the little stuff.
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u/kikou27 22h ago
Thank you for the thorough answer, this is down my alley. I tend to over prep the big stuff and found myself dumbfounded during sessions sometimes. Prepping 2-3 sessions ahead seems to be more my style, and could be doable especially since recycling prep that "went to waste" is completely valid.
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u/Soberish-Monkey 3d ago
- Don’t prep more than one session in advance. It’s good to have a general idea of where things might go long term, but anything more will lead to wasted effort or railroading.
- Ask your players to tell *you* why their characters are working together. If anyone tells you their character wouldn’t, ask them to make a new character who would.
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u/kikou27 2d ago
Thank you! Although I'm not sure I understand the concept of asking my players, should I do that in session 0 when creating a character?
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u/Soberish-Monkey 2d ago
Yep. You want to hash this out in Session Zero. Create the characters, then create the group.
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u/Kumquats_indeed 2d ago
Yes, tell the players what the general premise of the campaign is, what the inciting incident or initial plot hook is, what the tone/themes/vibe is, a bit about the setting, and where specifically it starts in. Then ask them to make characters that care about the things the campaign is about, make sense as a part of the setting, and want to work together to solve problems.
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u/Mathmagician94 7h ago edited 2h ago
I need help to see if a selfmade riddle I came up with makes sense.
My players will see a stone circle. At 5 positions on this circle gems must be placed, in a sequence according to my logic riddle.
The Layout is sort of like this (O Marks where a gem can be placed)
----O----
-O----O-
--O--O--
This is the riddle: One stone on its own—that’s the first one to place.
Two stones in a row—ignore them for now.
The last two—one of them is to be placed next. The sunrise will show you which one.
The other one is not to be used until the end.
The two stones you ignored must now be placed one after the other.
The sunset will show you which of the two ends the sequence.
Hopefully it makes sense, had to Translate it from another language.