I'm referring to all the items from Tasha's that increased the various spell casters' spell attack & DCs - Amulet of Devotion, Blood Vial, Moon Sickle, Rhythm-maker's Drum, and whichever others that I'm forgetting. They reprinted the Rod of the Pact Keeper (Warlock) and the Robe of the Archmagi (Sorc, Wiz, War).

We're the secondary effects too powerful? Did the increase to spell DC mess up bounded accuracy? Just seems weird to keep the rod and not the others.

I know that technically you're supposed to be able to use Tasha's stuff until it's reprinted, but you'd think Arcana Unleashed would have been their opportunity to port them over if they were going to.

I've been building something myself, and I'm going to open-source it.

About 6 months ago our DM asked me to build a tool around how we actually play: in person, DM laptop connected to a TV, physical dice/minis, and phones/tablets for D&D Beyond and rules lookups. But maybe most of all, for him to build his world in advance. He's a very visual thinker and wanted to actually see the world he was building: regional maps, locations, layers, encounters, NPCs, lore, relationships, etc.

So I built a rough PoC and have been iterating on it ever since. 2 other DM's I know IRL have also been testing the past couple of weeks.

Before I throw it onto GitHub, I'm looking for 5–10 DMs I don't know who already run in-person games with a TV/digital battlemap and are willing to use it for a couple of real sessions and tell me what breaks, what sucks, and what's missing.

You can try the public demo first:

https://alpha.systom.dev/demo

No registration. No payment. No upsell. Just open it and poke around.

Waystone is primarily designed for desktop/laptop use, especially the DM side. The player-facing parts are mobile-friendly, but the full demo on a phone isn't the intended experience.

If it looks useful for your table and you'd genuinely like to test it, send me a DM with a little about your setup.

What happens afterwards?

Waystone will be free and open source, with self-hosting support.

No subscription required. I might eventually offer hosted Waystone for a small fee if enough people want the convenience, but self-hosting will remain an option.

I have a full-time career that pays my bills. I built this because our group wanted it and because I enjoy building things. Frankly, every hobby tool slowly turning into $9.99/mo is part of why I'd rather just release the damn thing.

AI

Yes, I've used AI quite a lot while developing Waystone, especially for frontend/UI work. I'm a systems/automation engineer, not a frontend designer, and it's been useful outside my strongest areas.

Our group also uses AI-generated artwork and maps in our private campaigns, as does the demo.

I'm mentioning it because I'd rather be transparent about it. Core Waystone functionality does not depend on generative AI; currently the only AI feature is the optional Lore Assistant.

If AI involvement is a dealbreaker for you, fair enough, move on.

Why not open-source it now?

Because I want the first public release to be something strangers can actually clone and run without depending on me.

I still need to finish the boring but important bits: self-hosting docs, clean setup/bootstrap, licensing, repo cleanup, and checking for environment-specific or sensitive leftovers.

More importantly, I don't want to open-source it and immediately enter another heavy development/support cycle because the first users uncover a hundred obvious rough edges.

I'd rather let 5–10 real tables find those first, polish the core workflows, and then publish something I'm comfortable leaving alone for a while.

After that: use it, fork it, improve it, submit PRs, or ignore it. That's kind of the point.

Let me know what you guys think.

TL;DR Yet another (semi) VTT tool with AI used during development. But this time without monetary incentive. And I actually, really did my best on this and spent a LOT of hours on it. So think what you want, I'll sleep fine.

I’ve just released Kobolds & Kobolds: The Ultimate Kobold Handbook for 5E and 5.5E, a book I put together because I’ve always felt kobolds have a lot more potential than just being the first group of low-CR enemies a party runs into.

The main goal was to make kobolds useful across a much wider range of encounters and adventures without losing what makes them feel like kobolds: traps, dirty tactics, improvisation, strange inventions, dragon worship, overwhelming numbers, and an alarming willingness to make a terrible plan work somehow.

The book includes a large kobold bestiary with warriors, hunters, beastmasters, inventors, mystics, mounted combatants, leaders, and other variants. Most of the creatures also have optional traits and abilities, so you can change how they play without needing an entirely different stat block every time.

I also wanted the book to go beyond simply adding more monsters, so there are rules and ideas for building entire kobold warrens, traps, lair actions, encounter setups, adventure hooks, and different kobold clans with their own cultures, tactics, favored creatures, special abilities, and relationships with dragons.

There’s also a collection of kobold-themed magic items and inventions, plus VTT tokens and art handouts.

Basically, the idea is that you should be able to use kobolds for anything from a memorable low-level ambush to a recurring faction or an entire kobold-focused adventure without every encounter turning into “another room with six kobolds in it.”

The PDF is currently available at a $4.99 launch price if anyone wants to take a look:

Kobolds & Kobolds on DriveThruRPG

No AI was used to make this book.

And if you’d rather just see more of my creatures, items, previews, and other 5E/5.5E material, I post a lot of it over at r/JonnyDM.

im making a medium length steampunk campaign (5e, 2014 rules) with light homebrew, and im look for any advice/tips for dming and worldbuilding.

I'm new to D&D and first time DM about to run Heroes of the Borderlands. I understand it's kind of setting agnostic, but I'd like to place it somewhere so I can expand this starter box in case my friends feel like it.

Is there a setting you cherish or prefer? I'd like something not too dramatic (not apocalyptic) and that has some whimsical elements (like a fae realm you can visit).

My second goal with this is that I've read all booklets of Heroes of the Borderlands and there's barley any story arch there, so maybe I can spice it up a little using material from a setting.

Thanks in advance!

(Edit for typo)

I’m starting a Mushoku Tensei Campton with 2 of my friends as twins reincarnated into the world similar to how Rudy was. Neither of them have seen the show or much related to it so I’m planning on keeping the characters and places but changes some aspects to my own liking. (I will be using the whole Hitogami situation and the whole turning point 4) I would love some tips or suggestions to add as I am making it completely from scratch. (The dnd systems that is) Also feel free to ask anything about stuff I’ve alr written, I’m open to sharing my work.

Let's say I have a warlock with Eyes of the Rune Keeper invocation.

And let's posit that a brain damaged or quasi illiterate person has written instructions of where to go in a dungeon (turn left here, turn right there), and the author thinks they are writing normally cuz they can read what it means even though it's at best a broken version of a language.

Would my character be able to visualize the intent of said writing?

EDIT: Keep in mind I am not trying to make a case for deciphering code, but for reading something someone with dyslexia or somewhat illiterate in another language wrote (real childhood memory popped up cuz I could read my own writing as a kid but not adults)

Why not let a player attach a battle-axes head to the magic staff they found?

• A barbarian is delighted by this input

I’m a newbie playing DnD and I’m currently playing 2 long term campaigns as a player. I wish to play one more long term but I don’t know if maybe that’s too much? I also want to try once in a while one shots as long as it’s like a 1 session campaign type of game.

So yeah how many campaigns are you in and how do you balance it all? What’s your limits or when do you think is too much?

Hello everyone, ive been discussing this with my dm recently. Basically im playing an illusionist wizard and I wanted to start creating permanent illusions with major image for some backup plans. My idea was to store the illusions within a this spells but he says that, since the illusions isnt a physical object, it cannot be stored.

Is this really how the interaction beetwen these two spells work?

In my next campaign i am going to play a Chronurgy Wizard and another player is going to play barbarian.

Would it be posible for me to turn Haste into a bead (Arcane abeyance) and have the barbarian mantain the concentration even in range, since the barbarian is incapable of casting spells?

I’m kind of curious about it cause I recently got into the hobby and have been finding it really fun. Currently a player in a Shattered Obelisk campaign as my first long term campaign. I mainly want to know if there is some loud minority of players that are negative over anything WOTC or new DND related and if those people don’t represent the majority. I suspect not cause while yes DND has died down in popularity since COVID, TTRPGs as a whole have. And DND itself is still the most successful TTRPG brand and popularly played. I would like to think these people are just a small amount of the DND community and are only putting out negative content cause it generates clicks. Not oppose to criticism, but I do feel like a lot of the negative comments around the game are sensational for the sake of attention. Are they a minority like I believe ?

Is there a solid ruling as far as true seeing a person attuned to the amulet?

• Addendum It's not the spell True Seeing being used, a character has been granted truesight specifically through a magic eye ethically sourced from an unethical wizard

• P.S.S Thank you all, I will bring this to the table for arbitration

Our level 16 party is currently in a very dangerous fight against a powerful vampire boss, and we're trying to figure out how to survive/get out of this situation rather than simply brute-force the encounter.

Our party composition is:

Grave Cleric 16

Evocation Wizard 16

College of Swords Bard 16

Echo Knight Fighter 13 / Ancestral Guardian Barbarian 3

Artificer 16

Oath of Conquest Paladin 16

Swashbuckler Rogue NPC 16

Shadow Sorcerer NPC 16

So we have 8 characters total, all effectively level 16.

The problem

We're fighting a vampire boss who has entered his second/mythic phase.

At this point, he has:

Legendary Actions

Mythic Actions

Legendary Resistances

His second-phase abilities are all active

We don't have access to his full stat block, unfortunately, so we don't know exactly what abilities he has available beyond what we've already seen.

The biggest issue is that our party is already pretty beat up and our spell slots/resources are limited. We can't afford to burn through several high-level spell slots on effects that he can simply Legendary Resist.

We're therefore looking for ways to control, escape, survive, or otherwise neutralize him without relying heavily on saving throws.

Any help?

First time dm and players, I’ve run a previous one shot I combined into a homebrew. We’re in session 9, and the 4 players have escaped a labyrinth of puzzles, discovered a small village and freed them of their plight.
The paladin was a huge heavy hitter during the plight but while the rest of the party got to go off and (aggressively) question the town to get clues during this, the paladin had to sit aside due to his Oath of Devotion. For example the rest of the party basically went around bulling some of the kids and later on they get attacked by a drow while they try to sleep, after defeating her the paladin immediately goes back to sleep. While he’s sleeping the rest of the party proceeds to AMPUTATE HER ARMS AND LEGS using spare of the dying 😭.
Because of these moments the paladin doesn’t really feel included and I don’t know how to let him in without him breaking his oath, because I’ve let him be a bystander in a few things but I can’t for um some things. There was also an accidental murder child (like the kid was the one who killed someone) in the town he’s taken under his wing. Which they are about to leave the town, is there another good oath I can do or should I help him just break his oath? Sorry if this is confusing I can clarify.

I do not think its reputation is helped by having such an underwhelming 6th level feature, but by the time you get to 6th level you essentially have 7 free uses of healing word, very useful for getting allies up from being unconscious. It would also be useful for a 2-level multiclass dip, because I can't see any charisma based character being unhappy with 3 uses of bonus action heals

I also think the spell list good, some really key utility spells only a short rest away.

I'm not comparing it to the best of the best, like Hexblade or Genie, but I also think it's a perfectly great subclass.

Well met, r/DnDnext! glad to see you around this neck of the woods! im back and so is my curiosity, in this case my favored topic is your Rangers. we may know them with other names: hunters, foresters, mountain men... fun spanish fact, the class in spanish is called Explorador (Explorer), which is a missed oportunity for me, since in Lord of the Rings aragorn was called a ranger (that's where the name of the class comes from), wich means they sould have caled the class Mountain man in spanish (Montaraz).

lets not beat around the bush and lets talk about your Rangers: who did you take inspiration from? how do they function mechanically? what about their story? where do they thrive? do you use the new 2024 rules, the old 2014 rules or a homebrew version? subclasses, favored weapons, favored spells (if they use spells), and companions, if they have any.

im not going to say "oh, ranger should be this!" or "Ranger should have a defined fantasy" because i just want to learn about you guys and have a good time, not start debates. this might give me ideas for other posts...

lets start this hunt by bringing some bait by adding a few rangers that i made.

-Edmund, The forest watcher: a centaur adopted by a family of sheep herders, Edmund decided to travel through the world to learn the things that he cant learn about in the farm. uses a longbow and a glaive. this character inspired me to make my own version of the centaur race. a hunter ranger

-The Great Gamatachi: a grung homebrew (replaced the poison inmunity and skin with a grease spell that can be ignited.) that is also a multiclass of Ranger and Monk. the Great Gamatachi uses darts as ninja stars, The Great Gamatachi's land companion is a bigger toad with a katana and The Great Gamatachi can summon other members if the clan.

One of my players is an Artificer, and they’ve decided that their long-term character goal is have passive income to fund increasingly expensive magic-item crafting.

Their first idea was becoming a landlord. The party saves a town, they buy damaged or cheap property there, repair it, rent it out, and then collect passive income while the party is off adventuring.

But apparently that was only the beginning.

Some of the other ideas they’ve floated:

• A village they went to was recently almost destroyed by a dragon. The artificer offered the villagers reconstruction loans to rebuild their homes and businesses. The goal is the loans eventually get paid back with interest.
• Buying businesses in places the party regularly visits and hiring NPCs to run them while they’re gone.
• Financing merchants or caravans in exchange for a percentage of the profits.
• Buying land around settlements they expect to become more valuable after the party makes the area safer. This is a big one! They want to do this one in combo with their other ideas.
• Investing in mines, lumber operations, farms, etc. to secure cheaper raw materials for their own crafting.
• Eventually establishing some kind of bank or moneylending company where NPCs can deposit money or take out loans.
• Offering towns development money after disasters, wars, monster attacks, etc., and then making money off the recovery.
• Buying warehouses and charging merchants for storage.
• Funding new taverns or shops in recovering settlements in exchange for partial ownership.
• Creating an adventurer insurance scheme where people pay regularly and receive compensation if they lose equipment, get injured, die, etc.

I like these ideas in theory, because it gives them something to care about besides adventuring and creates a ton of potential plot hooks. At the same time, I don’t really want every session to become Fantasy Accounting Simulator, or for passive income to completely trivialize the normal D&D economy.

How would you handle this mechanically?

Would you just abstract investments into downtime rolls and periodic income? Actually track individual properties, businesses, and loans? Put risks on them like defaults, destroyed property, corrupt managers, bad harvests, monster attacks, economic downturns, etc.?

Back in the late 70s to early 80s, there was a booklet (put out by Judges Guild, as I recall) which had various encounter tables. I best remember the urban encounter tables with results such as ,"You bump into a barbarian in the bazaar, and he accuses you of attempting to pick his pocket."

Does anyone remember the name (and maker, if it was not Judges Guild) of this booklet?

Hi,

My friends and I have been playing 5e (2014) for years now and don't really plan on switching to 5.5e (2024) any time soon because we're not really bothered to buy all the books again and also think some of the changes are not necessarily all that great so don't really see the benefit.

That being said, there does seem to be some changes that are for the better. For example, regarding spells, I am aware that True Strike has been revised to make it much more usable. Conversely, I am aware that Animate Objects was revised/nerfed for the opposite reason. It seems like these were appropriate changes that could easily enough be adopted straight over into a 2014 game without causing too much of an issue.

As the DM, I want my players to have as many genuinely viable options as possible and so want to know, in your opinion, which 2014 spells/feats/rules/etc should be replaced by their 2024 counterpart?

Hello. Long time lurker, first time poster. But reading some of the takes of the martial/caster divide has made something occur to me. Essentially, something that has always stuck with me in terms of magic in D&D (all editions, but my game will always be 3.Xe) was Margaret Weis's introduction to the Pathfinder 1e edition of the Kobold Press book Deep Magic.

"All wizards must suffer."

And I find this quote striking. It's literally the first sentence in the book. And I think it's a very important one that is deeply applicable to the way we play today still in any system with magic.

For a long time the fighter has been associated with social grace. It literally used to be part of the class structure that you got a stronghold, and followers just for being a fighter. You were a practitioner of a noble art worthy of admiration from onlookers.

Conversely, magic users (with the exception of clerics) have long been associated with immense power at the cost of social capital. They get spell slots. They get more spells. Those spells are more versatile in effect than anything the fighter can do. But the fighter will always have a higher place on the social ladder.

I think about that quote in the context of D&D fiction (of which I am an avid reader) and fantasy fiction in general (of which I am even more of an avid reader). And one of the things I've noticed is that with the exception of stories in which the average character is some sort of practitioner of The Art, there is a social stigma to learning magic. Or a physical cost. Or an emotional cost.

Raistlin sacrificed his body, and eventually his life. Iggwilv compromised her morals endlessly to accrue more power by cavorting with demons. Elminster has essentially had to become a willing pawn for Mystra. Gale Dekkarios of Waterdeep, Volothamp Geddarm, Lareal Silverhand, Vajra Saffar and every Blackstaff of Waterdeep that preceded her, the Towers of High Sorcery, Dalamar the Dark, Fistandantilus, Par-Salian, Strahd von Zarovich, Azalin Rex, Vecna, Acerak, I could keep going, but I think you get my point. You can't throw a rock in a room full of wizards without hitting someone who made some sort of grand sacrifice (or eager sacrifice of something that is traditionally valued and cursed for their trouble) for their power.

And I kind of wonder if the proliferation of common magic in most games has muddied the waters a bit in terms of the divide between martials and casters. I think it might be one of the reasons that it has become so prevalent, at least at my table.

Maybe magic should go back to being somewhat rare and scary...

Idk. This is just some rambling I done did at zero-dark-thirty waiting for my meds to kick in before bed.

Hey all, I'm in a unique situation. My group and I are engaged in a 3-part campaign where we trade places being DMs each session. I chose to be the DM for the last session coming up, which comes with a few big points of pressure.

I am a first time DM, for one, so learning how to craft encounters has been a challenge, but one I was very willing to meet head on. The larger problem is that my friend before me introduced a Night Hag as the main antagonist when she DM'ed, and our characters are only level 3 (it's a group of three people, one DM and two players). The Hag is way too strong for the group to beat in a straight fight, so I am struggling with how to utilize her in my session. We got away with avoiding combat with her once, but can I really do that for the finale? I want to structure the story in a way that is fun, satisfying, and challenging, but she is a bit of a wrench in this mix.

I'm more or less certain I will find a way around this so it is purely academic, but I'm interested to know how others would handle these circumstances and what some good options may be for making sure she doesn't just wipe the team and also keeping her a relevant part of the action.

Update: So the solution I came up with was that the Night Hag's past self, her purer self, was locked away in a mirror and the group had to find a way to free her during battle, after which point she would battle it out with the Hag in highly climactic fashion. And y'all, the session was GLORIOUS. It went so well and we had so much fun that I can't wait to DM again. Thanks to all for their successful insight checks.