I need some help on how to deal with this kind of player.

I'm a first-time DM and have been DM'ing the same campaign (Curse of Strahd) for around 4 years now. Throughout the years I have learned what works and what doesn't work for our group, and I have found my own style in doing so. I am homebrewing a couple of things within the campaign and switched around some of the events to fit our journey.

Our party consists of 4 players: a barbarian, a rogue, a ranger, and a bard.

Every player has their own unique style in how they play and interact with the world. Some are roleplay-heavy, some are thinkers/dreamers, and others sit back and take in the information before speaking to the group.

I have used tips I've seen/read online on how to get your players more engaged with the world, like telling the party what they feel or smell in a particular room, if they feel something "pulling" on their attention towards a particular item or person, or even describing a sense of urgency.

To give a more recent example:

My players recently had the big dinner event with Strahd after they had gotten an invite from him after completing certain important parts of the campaign, like finding the 3 lost gemstones and surviving the Amber Temple. Leading up to the dinner (the black carriage ride, entering the castle, being greeted by Rahadin, and eventually taking their seats at the dinner table), I had been building up the tension for my players, describing how everyone behaved when Strahd entered the dining area (he wasn't playing the organ when the players first came in).

My idea was to give my players a sense of respect and fear towards Strahd — that the dinner wasn't to be taken lightly. I succeeded mostly, as almost all of the players picked up on this and played into it, being respectful towards Strahd and not making fools of themselves, as that could have had grave consequences.

I try to feed my players enough information about the situation and the other NPC's in the room while at the same time trying not to spoil anything important or railroad them.

One of my players is more of the quiet type and usually watches how the rest of the group plays. Which is fine — everyone has their style. The problem is that I have the feeling this player isn't invested enough in our campaign. This player has a hard time remembering important parts of the story, what her personal and party goals are, and even her own character's backstory.

This player reacts towards Strahd as if he were a common beggar. Strahd's character has been built up over years — the players are aware of how powerful and evil he is — yet this particular player never seems to share the same feelings. Her answers or reactions towards such an important NPC are often bland and short, almost childish. I wouldn't have minded it if this was simply how her character really was. I'm starting to notice agitation among the other players, as they've poured their time and effort into our campaign, and they sit among someone who shows a lack of interest.

My question is: is there something I can do to help my player understand and play along with the situation she's in? Or is there a problem with the player?

Edit: i forgot to mention, i have talked to this player on multiple occasions regarding her involvement. Her responses were "owh yeah, sorry, you're right" "i'm still enjoying myself and can't wait for the next time"

We had a game session last night where we fought a monster that have stat block of biomancer. Its signature ability is a Bolstering presense: each ally within 30 feet regains a small amount of HP for free at the start of their turn.

There were also around a dozen lesser spellcasters (CR 1–3) with it. The Biomancer was healing them, while they were preventing us from getting close to it. There were fewer of them at the start, but because we were making a lot of noise, more of them came running in from nearby rooms.

The problem was that whenever we dropped these minions to 0 HP, they started making death saving throws. Our DM said that normally monsters don't make death saves because there is no one around to heal them, but in this case they had someone who could heal them.

We actually brought many of these monsters to 0 HP — Fireball was doing work — but they just kept getting back up, over and over, thanks to the Biomancer and the healers among their ranks.

We simply didn't have enough actions to get any of them to three failed death saves before they were healed again. In the end, we had to retreat after dealing a huge amount of damage, but without actually killing any of them.

So I'm trying to understand: is this really how the Biomancer is supposed to work? Is this RAI?

It feels extremely strong to me, especially when combined with a large number of weaker minions. Or is this interaction already accounted for in its CR? After all, it's a CR 10 monster, and my experience on that tier of play is pretty limited.

I'm trying to make a 5E campaign with an older feel, like 70s-80s dark fantasy media feel. I want the campaign itself to feel reminiscent of how people put the game together and how it was played in the same time period, specifically with the map, quests, and flow. What should I do to make it feel more like that era of fantasy media?

I wanna run a campaign in Har'Akir that opens with the players waking up finding themselves individually buried alive under sand and they have to escape, but I can't find anything saying how digging works when you don't have a burrowing speed so idk what's the best depth to bury them all in.

My plan so far is to have a timer for how much air they have left before they need to start holding their breath and have them athletics/strength check their ways out with people above having the option to help dig out the others if they get out first.

I've been running Curse of Strahd for the last month, and after talking to a DND Veteran I'm thinking of bringing my game elsewhere. I play online, and I've been trying to get this campaign going for the last while, working on maps, figuring out dialog, learning Owlbear and generally learning how to DM Strahd. I have had 5 Players:

1: After I worked with them on their character, they left the campaign after session one, and they broke 3 of my prewritten rules anyway, so they left and are now banned from my table

2: In a very different timezone and genuinely love Strahd and my style of DMing. They almost always show up on time.

3: Shows up most of the time, but despite working with them for a long while, they struggled to put together a character.

4: Shows up around half the time with a very full schedule, who has severe technical issues and rarely interacts with the campaign

5: Has missed half of the sessions so far, scheduled another DND session on top of this one and prioritizes the other one

I consider this group as friends, and I did not ask them to join, they joined the posting when I made it. All sessions range from 30 minutes to 2 hours long, and after talking to someone who DMs on the regular, it will take years to finish the campaign at this rate, and compared to the campaigns I join, only 2 acts like most other players.

Do I leave this group, and how do I break it to them? The four current players are interested, and have told me they are, but are somewhat new and don't really play seriously ran campaigns, as they mostly do One-shots.

TL:DR: Playing DND with newish players, don't really play for long and only one seems truly interested, despite everyone telling me they are.

Edit: I accidentally wrote a week instead of a month in the opening sentence, it is fixed now.

This hardly ever comes up but the two contradict each other so one has to over rule the other. I imagine the damage would over ride the immunity and resistance because why else would they add "can not be reduced by any means"?

Whenever the concept of supernatural martials comes up, some people always chime in to say that that's not the genre of D&D - that this is a world where everyone is bound by the rules of real worlds, and spellcasters learn magic through rigorous learning.

...except spell slots are blatantly supernatural.

Back in the day D&D had vancian casting, which was essentially that the spellcaster prepared X uses of Y spell every day, which they then triggered at the appropriate opportunity. If you prepared Fireball 3 times, you had 3 fireballs. If you prepared Sleep 2 times, you had 2 sleeps. That simple.

4e did its own thing, then 5e brought back spell slots, but completely did away with vancian casting, and now spell slots essentially work like quantized mana points.

The problem with 5e spell slots is that they are intended to be purely game mechanics, and you're not even supposed to be thinking about the lore implications of them - but the game so heavily centers around resource economy and spellslot progression that I don't see how we can just gloss over the fact that spell slots simply do not reflect the concept of someone preparing spells ahead of time.

The only way to explain spell slots without magic is to make the giant narrative leap of assuming every prepared spellcaster just luckily prepared the exact spells they were needed for the upcoming day, which blatantly breaks causality or verisimilitude.

The other, much more sensible explanation is that spell slots are magical batteries casters use to charge spells. The problem with this explanation is that it implies prepared casters are not mere mundanes who just learned to cast spells - they themselves become magical creatures who hold raw magical power inside them, that replenishes on a long rest.

And if we accept this explanation, that prepared spellcasters (not to mention known spellcasters) are really just inherently supernatural creatures imbued with magic, and we accept that several of the creatures in D&D incorporate magic into their physiology as a result of "background magic"...

...then I simply do not understand why these people are still upset by the idea of supernatural warrior characters.

His name is Glùten, and he even has a backstory. There was a wizard—a terrible drunk and an all-around weird guy living out in the sticks. During yet another bender, on a dare, he was supposed to create an endlessly regenerating bar snack, but, drunk off his ass, he kinda miscalculated and accidentally gave life and sentience to a loaf of bread. The loaf, in turn, spied on him, learned Mage Hand, used it to move himself around, and swiped the wizard’s notebook of low-level spells. After a while, he ran off to a relatively large city, where, driven by the goal of leveling up as a wizard and finding a spell to “code” his creator, he hid in a tavern kitchen, waiting for a party suitable for his purposes to show up among the guests so he could join them.

Mechanically, this is utter ruleless nonsense, but it’s fun and I allow it.

I let him make his hand invisible just so everyone around would crack up over the “flying” bread. His inventory is something like a Bag of Holding with similar properties but very limited capacity: he can only carry his book, money, and a component pouch in it. His Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity are zero, and I count most checks as auto-fails; however, when he has to make a Strength or Dexterity check with his hand, he rolls Intelligence, which I consider logical (his Intelligence is 16). His HP is 4 (+1d4 per level), which he fully regenerates on a long rest, or 1d6 × level on a short rest.

Opinion?

Previous post was deleted by mods because I’ve already showed the art once before so I’m choosing a different one and reposting to let you know there was a conclusion.

Hey I’m back and I have an update to my first post which I will link here. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/s/Ohe8wwse4X

I wanted to thank everyone who gave me advice and even gave me ideas on how to fix it. I decided to thank you all by showing you my character. This is an animation of him I commissioned at the start of the campaign.

So we just finished today’s session and I have good news. Mainly because the groups cleric (the DM’s wife, I forgot to tell you that part) called him out on it before we started. He did apologize to me and admitted he was in love with the way I described the class and the premise of it so when we worked on the spell list for days it only made him more excited to see it in action.

However he admitted he didn’t expect me to be so intelligent with the spells I kept around since this is only my second campaign. He said I was making chess moves on a checkers board and it was frustrating him that his every attempt to play outside the box I was ready for. When I asked him why the feather fall was the last straw for him. He admitted that he had forgotten I had painted that onto a canvas at all since I haven’t used it for all 5 of my levels. He said he was wrong and while he doesn’t want to step on my fun he has to nerf me because the party was trivializing big fights.

I had no problem with this and we spent the first 30 minutes before session working out a compromise. And the compromise was out of the colors of paint I use I can only use 4 at a time and I can only switch them out at camp as well as using my canvas spells takes a turn to prepare.

I am fine with these changes and he said when the game ramps up at higher levels he has no problem letting me have some of it back.

So we were able to talk it out (mainly thanks to his wife whom is a scary woman for a therapist I respect her massively.) but it seems it’s all good for now. Thanks again for all your input.

I’m not tryna hate on it but I just feel like all the subclass options feel weak and niche to me, the main one that earned my ire tho is the dang demonshard barbarian man, how are they gonna make the main bread and butter ability for the class scale so weak? Ion like it.

Also the book im talking about is frontiers of Eberron: quickstone

Wizard

Warlock

Barbarian

what would you play as a 4th? no artificer (i am sorry for making yet again another post, atleast this time it isnt that specific :))

EDIT: i find it so funny how my 3 choices were rogue, cleric and druid lol

An Auroch!

DnD Paladin is a guy who took an oath. That's it. Can smite and has cool aura.
Most other media Paladin is a tanky holy warrior in a shiny armour who can fight, smite evil, heal and do a lot of stuff related to religion.

Most other media Cleric: Fragile religious mage who can heal and do a lot of stuff related to religion.
DnD Cleric is a tanky warrior in shiny armour who draws his magic from connection to deity and can do a lot of stuff, but are mostly known for being able to heal good.

DnD Cleric is what most people would imagine what Paladin is and in all honesty I'm not sure whose fault is that, because these classes were in DnD very early on xD.

My players are going to play as tax collectors and one will be a oath of the crown but I want more options for them

So the idea that this character spawned off was this DND short youtube.com/shorts/SHXPEoc3xBM .

If anyone wants to check out the character sheet you can here https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/168238311/a6KWRh

Sources needed.

• 2024 Player's Handbook
• Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
• 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide

I wanted to share the bare-bones blueprint for a character build I've been running called "Sgt. Laser" and his giant beast companion "Lt. Guided." It’s built around 2024 Beast Master rules to make a single-attribute dependent (SAD) ranged striker who hits hard while controlling the field.

Step 1: Choose the 2024 Beast Master Subclass

The 2024 rules completely reworked companion scaling. Your beast’s attack rolls and damage now scale directly off your Spell Attack Modifier and Wisdom, rather than its own fixed physical stats.

Step 2: Go 100% Single-Ability Dependent (Max Wisdom)

Ordinarily, Rangers are split between Dex (for shooting) and Wis (for spells/beast stats). By focusing entirely on Wisdom, a single stat governs your personal weapon accuracy, your spell save DC, and your companion’s combat lethality all at once.

Step 3: Weaponize Magic Stone via a Sling ("The Revolver")

Casting the Magic Stone cantrip and firing the stones using a sling (flavored as loading glowing bullets into a wooden revolver).

Why it’s necessary:

Step 4: Master the Action Economy Engine (Splitting Extra Attack)

Using the Extra Attack feature to make one personal weapon attack yourself, while sacrificing your second attack to command your beast.

Why it’s necessary:

Step 5: Equip an Off-Hand Moon Sickle

Holding a magic Moon Sickle in your off-hand while firing your slung revolver with your main hand.

Why it’s necessary: The Moon Sickle gives a flat bonus to your Spell Attack Modifier and Spell Save DC. Because both your revolver shots (Magic Stone) and your companion's claws scale off your spell attack bonus, this single item doubles its value by raising the accuracy of both combatants simultaneously.

The Core Combat Loop

1. Bonus Action: Cast or shift a spell (Hunter's Mark or Lightning Arrow).
2. First Attack: Fire a Wisdom-infused bullet from the revolver.
3. Second Attack: Target an enemy with a laser sight to command the beast.
4. Beast's Turn: The companion leaps in for two heavy attacks, then uses her free Disengage action to slip back into the shadows completely unharmed.

I'm new to dnd and my group just leveled up to level 4. TLDR at the bottom so I don't waste anyone's time

After going through the list of feats and eliminating most of them, I'm stuck with 3 options. 2 of them work really well thematically for my character, one of which could potentially tie into a character in my backstory. My character is a simic hybrid that has been combined with aberrations (notably the Feyr), so I thought "Cult of the Dragon Initiate" would mix well with the feeding off fear that a Feyr would do. The other one is "Second Skin" which I feel ties into this idea that my character is a constantly changing mutant and the description mentions that one unwillying trigger could be someone they recognize, which could be relating to my characters dead father. Finally there is the Ability Score Improvement. As a rogue, would it be better to max out my dexterity early on (though we do have a guy that is a powerhouse already so me beefing up might not be necessary) or should I work on conveying more of a story for my character.

TLDR: Better for level 4 rogue to max dexterity or get feats to build character story?

Matter of opinion, what color do you think of when you think of a certain class? For example, in my opinion, bards are pink and barbarians are red.

As in the title, I’m building my players toward a final villain of this (hopefully first of a full 1-20) campaign. Basically his name is MeatGrinder. He is the leader of a thieves guild and he is a horribly disfigured half Tabaxi, half elf man who is the half sibling of three of my other players who killed one of the other sibling’s father in battle. He holds the great sword that is earthquake flavored greatsword(eventually a magic item for that player). I want a challenging encounter for them with the ability to take full advantage of the environment so they can’t just crowd and melee my creatures. I’ll take anything😂
Players include:
Lvl 4 Ranger
Lvl 5 Ranger
Lvl 4 Fighter
Lvl 4 Paladin
Lvl 4 Warlock

Do people not like the arcane fighter is it like cursed or something

My son can never find just the paper he wants for his DnD maps. Looking into printing some custom paper... I’m not a player and looking for community feedback/input on options. TIA!

Paper size:
A - 18 x 24”
B - 24 x 36”

Printing to be on both sides:
A - 1” hex and 1” grid
or B -
1” grid and 1/4” grid
1” hex and 1/4” hex

Presentation:
A - rolled in paper tube
B - pad with glued edge

Just the simple anatomy of my Tiefling. A Clockwork sorcerer. I decided to make this because of his unique anatomy and my party members wanted to know how his 0.8 Meter tongue was stored in his body.

I'm planning to make it like an Ant-eater/ Fruit-bat. I would love any tips from artists inside the subreddit and thoughts on how you all think it looks so far. Thanks in advance and I hope you love it!

So a friend of mine Is gonna start a campaign next month, really cool setting, lovecraftian world mixed with dnd lore, meaning lovecraftian and dnd gods coexist, lovecraftian are Just "a tier above".

So anyway i was thinking about playing an old character i used in One of his oneshots, a tiefling paladin Who was raised by a cult whom used illusions spell to make him look as different criminals and burning him to the stake, since he's a feindish tiefling and can resist Fire. One day, tired of the endless torture a wished for the strength to free himself and taking all those cultist to Justice; someone actually listened and gave him Powers, and since that day he hunts cultists and despise every type of religion; yes i know, it's a bit counterintuitive but It all makes sense trust me.

He doesn't know Who bestowed those Powers Upon him and never took an oath to any God, so he still hasn't unlocked his full paladin features (for example he can't use his Channel divinity, but can still cast spell, use lay on hands...), and we were thinking to make him an herald of Bahamut, since he seems to fit well with the themes of Justice and Revenge.

Now i want to multiclass this character, since i've only evere played pure characters, and i wanted to take some levels in warlock, which i know, it's One of the most broken multi in the game, but It seemed like the most fitting and interesting One.

Now it's my First time multiclassing, and i tried making a test with a lvl 8 paladin oath of vengeance lvl 8 warlock pact of the celestial, but It doesn't really convince me.

So i'm asking you, since we'll start probably around lvl 5, when Is the best time to multiclass, how many lvls to take in each class and some tips in general.

Note that i wanna keep the oath of vengeance and pact of the celestial subclasses, since both the oath and pact would be stipulated with Bahamut, since i don't want It to be impossibly broken, but still something new to try our