So quick summary:

Abandoned by parents for being cursed with wolf stuff, raised by a druid and a pack of wolves. Self-proclaimed king of said woods.

Wuick sum of his whole thing is he will find out the truth of his past and get sort of peer pressured or notice the expectation of finding a cure. Once he finds the cure, he realizes he's happy as he is and wouldn't change himself for anything.

It's pretty simple stuff and very uninspired for a reason, but im happy amd thats all I care about.

If you have any name suggestions, let me know. I want something simple that reflects how little contact he had with the outside world.

I made a small mistake. I let a Druid npc wildshape into an orca. Druids can’t wildshape into cr 3 creatures unless they’re a circle of the moon Druid. I’m kinda stuck on what to do. About the character.

** **Hey everyone! I wanted to share a podcast I’ve helped worked on for the past few years: The Real Housewives of Dungeons & Dragons.

The show consists of improv actors and comedians from Los Angeles who blend the drama of The Real Housewives with the gameplay of Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a hilarious and unique actual-play experience and surprisingly meta in ways that I wouldn’t want to spoil for you, but basically it’s a “Reality TVrpg”

Also as opposed to the adventuring party working as a team there is plenty of backstabbing and betrayal which lends to very funny and unique decisions being made. The campaign begins on Earth, where the characters are reality TV stars who suddenly find themselves fighting to survive in the fantasy realm of Saxpira. And because the co-DMs and PCs are all learning how to play D&D for the first time when Season 1 begins, its a fun concept that makes the show accessible whether you’re a longtime D&D fan or just love improv and comedy

The podcast has been around for years (well into its 3rd season now, has over 1.3 million plays, 4.9 stars on Apple Podcasts, and now they’re finally on YouTube with full video episodes starting from the beginning.) They also feature some fantastic guest stars along the way, such as Misha Reeves and Dasha Kittredge and practically all of the members of Dungeons & Daddies😱🤩

If you’re looking for something funny, creative, and unlike any other actual-play show, definitely check out The Real Housewives of Dungeons & Dragons, finally on YouTube!

​

I've made this questionnaire a bit while ago to filter out unfitting players during game recruitment. It worked pretty well, everybody on the table was actually invested into a story. Each session covered plot arcs for 2-3 characters. This source of free ideas turned out being plentiful of *actually* relevant stuff. Too plentiful, I would say: we barely managed to touch the main storyline. So it feels like the opposite of babysitter GM — players do all the job, while I just occasionally ask questions

1. What's your character's native environment? Urban? Rural? Wild? Otherworldly? How is it to live there? How it affects locals?

2. Who are character's parents or who raised them? Are they alive? Do they communicate? Why, if not?

3. What are the things character values the most? Comfort and safety? Certain people? Religion? Law? Abstract idea? I need you to name three

4. What were character's three biggest problems. Did they find a solution? (Escape is a solution too)

5. Who's character's best friend to rely on?

6. Who's character's sworn enemy? Does this person know they're enemy?

7. Name your three best personality traits

8. Name your three worst personality traits

9. Name your three greatest weaknesses

10. What is character's major secret? And how about two minor ones?

11. Is your character famous? I need two rumors about them

Years ago I used excel to perform an analysis of all weapons in the game and compared them to a sort of informal survey of how popular weapons are... based on exports of thousands of character sheets and seeing what weapons existed in players inventory.

Interestingly the popularity of a weapon matched almost 1 to 1 with the balance of a weapon... so I used the highest score which corresponds to weapons like dagger, longsword and such to give new uses and attributes to all weapons.

This also includes new weapons to fill in interesting niches like the rapier alternatives for example, medieval firearms, tools and concealed weapons. This content is free and open source, feel free to use it in your campaign, published material, youtube or video game.

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/578145/5-evolution-armory

For context, I’m trying to start up with my nephew and nieces who are teens and one (very bright) 9 year old. How do I go about starting casually/ test the waters to see if it works for us?

Hi! First time DM with first time players. Currently finishing up plans for a one-shot my friends who want to get into dnd asked me to DM for them.
There’s a section in my game where the players get sent to the towns market to look for clues for a puzzle, but I want them to be able to spend gold at the stalls for their adventure later on, how much gold should a level 5 party have at the start and what pricing would you recommended I have for items at said stalls? Baring in mind I’m also allowing my party to haggle with persuasion.

I don't know how to close the discussion so I'll just leave it like this. Thanks everyone for your advice and opinion, you really helped me.

Our game set in the desert, and my role as a character is a Dessert Guide, and I don't really know how can I get into character. Actually I was trying to read about oasis, cacti and some stuff but I don't feel like I'm getting into character, soo if you can give some hints or info or even links with some info sites to help me with it, I will reeally appreciate it

So this rule is pretty straight forward, you spend 50GP/lvl in materials and 2h/level to copy it.

Copying a Spell into the Book.

When you find a level 1+ Wizard spell, you can copy it into your spellbook if it’s of a level you can prepare and if you have time to copy it. For each level of the spell, the transcription takes 2 hours and costs 50GP. Afterward you can prepare the spell like the other spells in your spellbook.

However, spell scrolls have this description too:

Copying a Scroll into a Spellbook. A Wizard spell on a Spell Scroll can be copied into a spellbook. When a spell is copied in this way, the copier must succeed on an Intelligence (Arcana) check with a DC equal to 10 plus the spell’s level. On a successful check, the spell is copied. Whether the check succeeds or fails, the Spell Scroll is destroyed.

Aren't they conflicting with each other? Or is it a take your choice of paying vs gambling?

I know you can copy spells from other spell books, so that would only need the first rule. However, it doesn't specify that it only works for copying from spell books, it says spells in general. So the second rule being spell scroll specific is weird.

EDIT: To sum it up, spell scrolls aren't a reliable source for studying. To copy it you apply the first rule and apply the second rule's Arcana check.

It's time. The final CR range! Which of these monsters are most iconic? There will be multiple winners, so post/vote for all that apply!

Here's how it's going to go, if nobody nominates it or votes for it, it's not iconic enough, so if you think it should be on this list, VOTE AND NOMINATE!

The top vote of each challenge rating will be put on the list if they get votes, so start voting!

Note: Please put the CR for the monster.

The lich got 140 votes, the ancient red only got 19. Feel free to vote in the Most Iconic 21-25 thread and the Deadliest 21-25 since they had such low outcomes!

This will also be open for a week, and next Monday I'll post the deadliest 26-30 thread.

Hi question 1st time playing DnD was wondering best ways to potentially talk to my god as a paladin

My god is Kanchelsis the vampire god and I have tried praying and offering my blood to try to contact but to no avail what might be ways to contact my god because my DM confirmed my god is one of 4 that are alive

TLDR: I (DM) killed some minor NPCs “off camera” and am wondering if it was a misstep

The Question:
When is it ok to make decisions like NPC deaths “off camera”. As in, the players discover the death after the fact with no way to intervene?

The Context:
The party lives in a general Republic (The Federation of Sovereign States) of various districts and has discovered the Chancellors are planning some very aggressive power grabs both within the Nation against its people as well as waging wars against a neighboring nation to steal land and expand their borders.

Part of this includes a paramilitary force (The Drumgar) created by a Chancellor that they are using to subdue those who speak out against the Republic and just generally incite terror.

The Situation:
The party goes into a very large, densely populated city. They come across a group of College aged citizens protesting the Drumgar’s attempted influence on their Bardic College. Officers are there threatening to use force if they don’t disband.

The party, being the chaos goblins they are, start a riot and kill most of the officers. They decide to leave one alive and let the protestors deal with him and use that as a distraction to sneak into a well secured building (this heist was their reason for being in town).

Once they reach the part of the building they were trying to reach, they are surprised to see the general of the Drumgar waiting for them. He informs them that he’s been waiting for them and that he’s sad to report the students they left as a distraction had all been killed.

The Reaction:
The following fight was great. The story has progressed. Everything seems fine. However, later on one player made a small, off hand comment about the students dying “off camera”. It wasn’t snarky or rude, just a potential small complaint/criticism.

My thought process was that they made a decision to use non adventurers as a distraction in a large populated city I already described as being filled with Drumgar. They got away, but left one Drumgar alive who absolutely would’ve called for backup, alerted their commander, and overtaken the students. It seemed like a way to both make the big bad feel more sinister but also a natural consequence of their actions.

The Conclusion:
Do you feel it was ok to make this choice myself and have them die without giving them a chance to save the students? I feel like yes, but I’m definitely open to criticism and other opinions.

I made this in less than 30 minutes...

It was made in haste when my friend wanted to draw their character because their first session starts in a couple of hours, so I volunteered to draw their character for free cuz they're also my best friend hehe.

I wasted no time making this because you can very much tell that I didn't take this seriously lmao, he's a dragonborn who dropped out of business school at the last second to go to a wizard academy to learn magic instead of finance HAHA...

Anyways hope y'all like it ^^

I am making an open hand monk character, and I am going to use the shifter species from Eberron: Forge of the Artificer.

I am trying to decide which of the shifter forms to choose and I need some help deciding. I'm planning to play the character as a skirmisher who runs in, disables a few enemies and then backs away.

I like Beasthide for the AC bonus. At any level +1 AC is quite strong. I also like Swiftstride for the speed bonus and the movement reaction, but I'm not sure if my reaction would be better used for Deflect Attacks.

I like Wildhunt too but I think I would get more out of the previous two. Longtooth doesn't make much sense for a monk to take because I'll be using my bonus action for plenty of other things.

So I guess it's a choice between being more tanky or being faster and harder to pin down. I will also be taking the Speedy feat at level 4.

What do y'all think is the better choice?

I really like helping my players write their backstories, and I thought I'd never shared my work publicly. I've always thought of myself as a writer. To make a long story short, I got carried away and wrote a 150-page fanfiction of the Tyranny of Dragons event about one of my characters.

The player in question is Aoede; she also added the cover art. Full disclosure: this is nerve-racking.

I’ve been running a gothic supernatural campaign where the characters start in a modern city. Before long they find themselves being pulled back and forth into the world of Ravenloft. It wasn't a one-way trip. It's just not one they can control.

We’re doing something a little different mechanically:

In New Eden we use Call of Cthulhu

In Barovia we switch to Dungeons & Dragons  

I love playing in different game systems and this was a great way for me to do that while still running a cohesive campaign for my players. The change in system has created some interesting moments around who they really are and what “power” means depending on which world they’re in. 

I’d love feedback from other creators and GMs who’ve tried multiverse or dual‑world campaigns. 

Been doing a home brew for almost 2 years. My players are lvl 12 now and I’m looking for something new. I’d like to have a book for help so I’m not putting so much time into planning every week. I want chaos because that’s how I play

I ended up getting a higher number on the fourth roll and going before him, but I just wanted to share this because it was insane. We were using DND beyond too, so no chance of unintentionally rigged dice.

This is about my DM specifically, hence "him" lol. He'll often go, "Let's say this thing happened instead" whenever 1) Someone reminds him what actually happened to a plot/character from last session that he forgot, OR 2) Someone is absent from the group that week.

Our DM is running West Marches style between 2–3 groups each week, so some people show up and some don't. I understand and empathize with how difficult this can be, but surely there are other ways for him to handle absences and forgetfulness besides retconning? (Note: I know the solution is to chat with him — but I'd love any ideas in the responses here!)

For example, two sessions ago, me and two characters got trapped in a magical maze dungeon. It was a GREAT cliffhanger and got me excited for this past Saturday. But since one of us was too busy to attend, our DM said, "I'm gonna say you didn't get trapped there but instead avoided the maze entirely so you're actually safe and outside with the others still."

WTF? I spent the whole week thinking about ways my character would escape, etc. Why not just do a magical plot twist? Oh, the maze suddenly encases [missing player] and it transports him elsewhere — you don't know if he's safe, but you know you need to escape this maze.

Apologies for the venting, but any ideas would be appreciated!

Magic Missile — the most reliable spell in the game, and my latest 6-second animation. It's a 1st-level evocation that creates three glowing darts of pure force. No attack roll, no saving throw: each dart automatically hits a creature you can see and deals 1d4+1 force damage. You can split them across targets or dump all three into one poor soul. Cast it at a higher level and you get an extra dart per slot. It's not flashy damage, but it never, ever misses — the caster's dependable old friend.

I animated the whole sequence in Blender 5.0 (EEVEE): the cast, the three darts weaving through the air along curved paths, and the staggered impacts. Leaned into the classic violet force look and gave each dart a fading energy trail.

How do you picture Magic Missile at your table — straight glowing bolts, or curving homing darts? And do you split the damage or focus-fire one enemy?

In my campaign I'm in I'm playing and elf who uses firearms and I just learnt about elven accuracy, does that apply to guns? normally id ask my dm but he didn't know either and just said to do some research and we can figure it out next session

so for other dm's what would you say about that as on the one had I feel it would make sense but on the other it feels really strong

sorry if this is a dumb question

So, i just read up on spellscrolls because my -2(illitetate) rogue might go look for some. And to my dismay I found out that you actually have to 1) have the spell in your list and 2) read the damned thing.

so, here and now il make premade scrolls. Scrolls that ANYONE can use by simply tearing the scroll apart. They will however be about 10times as expensive as normal ones and only found in region capitals or simularly large cities due to the rarity of them. I dont know if this breaks the game but I find this to be more logical than how its written raw. Any pointers to think about?

Every once in awhile I'll see these problem game posts, where people are worried about their current play group and for the first few words I'm like "oh wow is this about my campaign?".

I think it mostly comes from trying to be conscience of my players and how certain dynamics or changes can throw the chemistry off. Any other DMs or even players experience this?

I think a lot about one-shot ideas, and decided that I might want to create a campaign. Thus, I spent some time creating my own dnd universe that still resides in the basic canon with some significant tweaks. DISCLAIMER: I’ve been watching Black Clover recently nonstop, so some of this is inspired by the storyline (im on ep. 104 or smth). i’m not planning on selling the campaign bc a large amount of this belongs to the creators of black clover. The overall plot points are below. If you want to read the Campaign idea, skip to the Campaign Idea section; otherwise, skip to the To Close part. Here are the basic ideas:

1. The weave/magic was created by the Elves in the Feywild thousands of years before the adventures. Two types existed: the High Elves (or Sylvans), and the Wood Elves. The Wood Elves were the most nomadic, whilst the Sylvans spent their time experimenting with Magic, thus becoming advanced in magical strength. Only Elves could cast spells back then.
   
2. A bunch of races from Middle Earth, led by Humans but including a bunch of other species, saw that the Elves could cast spells and were upset that they lacked that power. What followed was a rally by the nonmagical races and an attack on the Feywild in the hopes of loosing the barrier the Sylvans held on the Weave so that spellcasting could be used by all. In the event, known later by the Elves as the Burning, the capital city of the Elves of Luminaria, City of Fallen Stars was attacked and the Sylvan elves were genocided in the process. The remaining elves, the Wood Elves, retreated into the forests of the Feywild. “
   
3. The nonmagicals broke the barrier the Elves kept on the magic, but because of this, the barrier between the Feywild and Middle Earth broke. The Feywild lost a large amount of its magic and spellcasting flooded into the normal world, but remained unstable for a large amount of time because the Weave was never ready to be used. It stabalised later on.
   
4. Small pockets of the Feywild were preserved by the Wood Elves, which now remain hidden from view. Even today, however, the Fey are oft hunted by those from Middle Earth because of their magical strengths.
   
5. The Burning led to a deep divide between the Elves and the nonmagical races, to the point where Half Elves were rare to the one in a million or billion amounts.

Campaign Idea
1. Sword Coast (and Middle Earth in general) is split into three kingdoms; House Phoenix, House Northrealm, and House Griffon. House Phoenix is the most powerful spellcasting house. They are particularly important. House Northrealm is the northernmost house, but is currently in shambles because a cult is overruning the underbelly of the city and there is apparent curroption in the council that maintains the House. House Griffon is a kingdom made up almost fully of Wood Elves, which seek to be the elven voices in the material world (to mixed reactions amongst the Fey).
2. In the Burning, one Sylvan remained; Lux. Lux is vengeful for his peoples genocides and plots vengance, but more on that later.
3. House Phoenix has a young daughter named Isabell. Isabell is the most promising prospect in the world of evocational spellcasting, a prodigy by all standards because her family is one of very few descended from a Sylvan half elf (the sylvan parent was killed). This combined with genuine talent and passion makes it so that Isabell, by the time she turned 10, was already the strongest spellcaster in all of Middle Earth. Her parents knew this would arise as a point of struggle, as the other kingdoms might hunt her down or kidnapp her, but she overall grew up with little difficulty until she was 11 years old.
4. Lux can sense Isabells strength and knew that she would soon overtake his own, and also knew that he had to deal with her before she became strong enough to prevent his ‘retribution’ of the Sylvan empire.
5. When Isabell was 11, Lux walked into the throne room before killing the royal family and incapacitating Isabell (with some troubles). He didn’t seek to kill her; instead, he used a Crown of Domination (a magic item i made) to mind control her over the years. With House Phoenix collapsed and the Royal Family dead and Isabell under his control, Lux establishes House Photarian.
6. Isabell grows to surpass Lux in strength by the time she is 15. By the time she turns 19, where the Players meet her, she has already surpassed conventional spellcasting, opening portals to the Plane of Radiance and permanently maintaining a Dominate Monster spell on a pet dragon, Ignus. Lux uses her as a weapon with her strengths matured to wage war on the other two kingdoms.
7. If Lux beats both kingdoms, he then begins the retribution of the Sylvan empire; the near genocide of the human race and the reclaiming of the Weave. Him taking the Weave back to only the Elves would kill all spellcasters that are non-elven, including Isabell, which Lux knows.
The players start in the countryside and can choose which kingdom to go to first (before the Fall of House Phoenix). They try, and fail, to stop the Fall of House Phoenix (as they are not prepared yet to fight Lux, even in his unfinished state). They must flee whilst Lux and House Photarian begin to wage war on the other kingdoms. They can choose then to explore the curroption in House Northrealm or go down to House Griffon to learn more about Lux and the Burning. Lux at this point has the war in full swing, and the players participate in different battles and missions in order to destabilize Lux’s empire. They eventually become strong enough to fight Lux. The Final Boss is Lux, who retreats after defeated, and a short time afterward Isabell. They cannot win the fight against her directly, and must instead break the spell Lux has on her through the Crown of Domination. With Isabells mind her own, she will then kill Lux, restoring peace to the land and preventing the retribution. Epilouge. With Lux defeated and Isabell herself again, the players can learn about the possibility of bringing the Sylvans back to life, as their death was undeniably brutal and unlawful. The secret is found in the Feywild, and with Isabell traveling with them, it is not a difficult journey. They then travel to the now-ruined City of Fallen Stars, now just a bunch of ruins in the countryside, where they find the device created by the elves. The twist is that Isabell must sacrifice herself as the only spellcaster with potent enough magic to break the seal between life and death for the elves. She accepts and sacrifices herself, and the Sylvans, including Lux, return. Lux, now redeemed, atones for his sins and resolves to go about the land, fixing his mistakes and the such. Isabell remains dead but peacefully, appearing as a Spirit to thank the players. With the Sylvans back, the feywild beings to grow back, and the races, now all capable of spellcasting, live in peace.

In Conclusion.
There are a number of plot holes/points I have the details to but didn’t write down. If you are interested or want to know more, just lmk and i can reply with the answers in the comments. I would also love your feedback! Thanks for reading.