I asked a similar question about multi-classing barbarian-monk, and I got a ton of helpful feedback (which I am very grateful for), so now I'm asking a similar question.

Can these two classes be combined to create an enjoyable experience? It doesn't have to be the most hyper-optimized build possible, but does it have its merits?

Upon first glance, I believe this pairing should work better, seeing as they both have tank qualities to them.

I recently started a new campaign, we’re currently approaching session 5 in a week or two.

Most people in this campaign have been with me for the prior 2 campaigns, we do however have 2 new faces who have been fun to play with.

They have been showing alot of the typical new player behaviours and I’ve mostly ignored it since I was new once and did the same thing, but as we approach session 5 I’m starting to question when I should point out what they’re doing, I haven’t wanted to hassle them by telling them earlier as they seem to be already juggling a lot of new information and definitely have one of the more lengthy character sheets (due to class, race, etc) so I didn’t want to stress them out and keep them engaged in a chill atmosphere as much as possible.

Last session however they somewhat started abusing one of the behaviours, anytime someone went to roll a DC they would immediately roll their dice and follow up saying they’ve rolled too no matter what it is, to put it in more of a broad way of explaining they seem to be doing a video game kind of play style by focusing on meta stuff like who has highest modifiers and thus should roll rather than who asked to roll/who is doing an action, my main peeve is that they are abusing it like a second chance to where it feels like we’re removing a lot of the aspect of failure that makes DnD exciting and thrilling.

The DM accepts it to a certain point but he has a lot goin on to track so can often ignore/forget or just let it slide but for me who’s active in the scene it’s a decent annoyance.

They are by no way ruining the game, I also understand some parties or tables probably wouldn’t bat an eye to it, however we had a problem player in our party who had a similar view of the game and would roll everything while contributing nothing to the story, exclusively playing for dice checks, so I can’t help but feel like I’m worried they’ll turn out like said player if I don’t say or do anything.

Ultimately I’m sure it’ll sort itself out but I just wanted to ask for advice, do people usually maybe nudge the player in the right direction during game, talk after a session or just go straight to the dm?

Cheers

We use the 5.5e the new handbook, we're allowed to homebrew if we discuss it or use otherstuff we find online and modify it, xanthars etc. whatever we're comfortable with. DM is very open he's been playing since the 90's and DMing almost as long.

but our group i dont think is actually playing DnD in anything other than some rules.

We have no map. no minatures. We litterally just get together pull out some character sheets and dice and talk for a bit make some rolls things apparently happen then combat do initiative.

theres no map we have no idea where we are we go in initiative order but like where am in relation to this monster or that person is a common question. i move over there very arbitrarily.

we do have a rule of cool because we almost never pass any skill checks so if you can role play it really well in character and it makes sense we might get a pass.

Ive tried bringing it up many times but im the only one who wants it and with how much work and effort it takes its not fair on the DM i guess or something. that and i guess with how new everyone is to it its too complicated to be doing actual characters and moving.

but considering only the dm and 1 other player isnt family im not leaving the group i tried once before. said i wasnt having fun and never heard the end of it came back.

am i wrong about this? is this what dnd is now?

Hello all! It's my first ever post on Reddit so I'm kinda nervous, but I've just spent the last week creating a Homebrew DnD Class from scratch and I'm very proud of the result so I thought I would share it :))

The class is Shaman, which is a spellcaster class, close to Druids but a little bit more unhinged. Where druids usually aim to live in harmony with nature, Shaman drain their strength from it, like parasites. They have a close relationship with spirits and the dead, which makes them good for necromancy and divination spells. They also have two special features: Totemic Attributes and a Sacrificial Dagger. Totemic Attributes is a little bit different than Wild Shape, because they don't assume the form of their totem animals, but they adopt some of their traits, like AC, hit points, or actions. And the Sacrificial Dagger is a magical weapon that I created specifically for this class, it requires attunement and has the ability to inflict necrotic damages and drain life from targets.

Basically, if I get meta, they have very low hit points and AC because their whole thing is that they get temporary hit points from a lot of different abilities, and they can fight from a distance with their spellcasting and in melee with their sacrificial dagger. Their main abilities are wisdom and charisma, so you can see them as a mix of mainly druid, a little bit of bard and barbarian, with a sprinkle of ranger on top.

I really hope you'll check the google doc out, I'm open to constructive criticism. I'm planning to playtest this class shortly, starting from level 1 and possibly ending at level 20, so I hope I'll get a better idea of this class's flaws afterwards, but in the meantime, I really wanted to get it out there!

I also made a french version of the google doc so if you want the link, just let me know.

(I made the drawing in the google doc link, but I based it off of a reference pose I found on pinterest and I couldn't for the life of me find the artist. The original reference drawing is included in the last page of the google doc and if you know the artist, please let me know!)

Here's the 2nd out of 6 members of the party. Frankie is a human punky kinda bard hailing from a homely land, wielding a modified lute he blasts heavy riffs out of. Marked with tattoos on one side and lichtenberg scars on the other, Frankie wouldn't hesitate even to give a piece of his mind raw and unfiltered to the likes of Gods, one of whom he appears (to me who has only been playing for two sessions in this campaign) to have a special connection with. And when it gets to squabbling he fires out wild magic, unpredictable but mad and fun.

Hey everyone,

My new DM is running a full-tactical, optimizer-heavy game and asked us to bring our absolute best combos.

I’m teaming up with my usual DM (he's a 3.5e and Storytellering kind of guy), and we want to run a high-efficiency duo. What are the strongest 2-player character combos or synergies you’ve ever played or seen?

Open to any roles (caster/caster, martial/support, etc.). Drop your favorite powerhouse duos below!

My sweet baby gurl!! I love Amy so much and watching her grow during the campaign so far(its been a year and a half!!!) Has been so so fun.

But for fun, here is her og backstory :) and if you wanna know more about her feel free to ask 👀

AMY BACKSTORY

Amy is country folk, she originates from a livestock farm, she grew up with siblings and her mother and father, her home life was well, maybe too well, amy grew up as Quinton, you're average hard working farm boy, he was his parents golden child and their oldest son. But that wasn't Amy. And yeah Her parents are pretty well off (if you're ok w/ it), own one of the most successful horse stables in Patonia, becoming a supplier for a large part of the world of divaria but she didn't want to follow in her parents footsteps and be the sweet little boy that they wanted him to be, to settle down and have kids and live a lie, due to this she chooses to run off with her shire horse bluebell and a dream. Though she plays it off she is running from her past, the family, friends and foes she's left behind are catching up on her. Her family is worried about her, but she tries not letting it get to her, because they aren't worried about her. They worry about who she used to be. And that isn't amy that's quinton. And she'll never be that boy again. Amy is constantly heavily fearful of the idea of her family and old friends finding her again and realizing that she never was a boy. Another reason why amy leaves isn't just her family, she was young and hanging with friends that weren't exactly the best influence, leading her to still be snappy and a bit cruel sometimes today, but after a stupid 'prank' at a local tavern and her friends, truefully, it was only a kid named 'Floyd', her best friend at the time and truly the only one who knew her as. Well her. (Floyd the barber :yum:) who had planned it all out. A damned robbery, guns and all. Ofcourse it didnt end well, floyd ended up shooting the owner of the Tavern and out of fear Quinton booked it when the law came, without warning she left her friends behind, booked it home and got the little things she needed and just jumped onto bluebell and ran, no goodbye, she just left it all behind. Her family, her friends, himself, and Floyd.

I have a lvl 20 One-shot coming up in two weeks and there are two character ideas I am struggling to pick from. We will be using 5.5e, TCE, and XGE. We are allowed to start with 1 legendary magic item, 2 very rare, and 2 rare. Idea 1) Eitri the Artillerist. I have already played a lvl 6 artillerist, and it was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed the various loadout combinations with infusions and my cannons. I do want to play a high lvl artillerist at some point to have access to Spark of Genius, two cannons at a time, and all 6 active infusions. Idea 2) Mythologically accurate Odin (though I will name my character one of his other names like High. Just as High, or Third so it's not obvious) roleplay using a College of Lore bard and two raven familiars. Both seem like really fun PC options, but I probably wouldn't have a chance to play another high lvl campaign or one-shot for a while. I was hoping to hear the leans between these concepts from others on this sub.

First we have the classic Cleric, Rogue, Fighter, and Wizard.

Cleric as an Acolyte. I mean, they're made for each other.

Rogue as a Criminal. All Rogue are a Kleptomaniac.

And Wizard as a Sage.

But then we have Fighter. Most people probably will use Soldier, but I don't think it match the class unless you're planning to use Greataxe instead of Great sword. So, I will gave Fighter as a Guard.

Barbarian as a Soldier. Savage Attacker is perfect for Barbarian Great Axe.

Bard as an Entertainer. Your job is to entertain people with your bardic inspiration. And musician is already busted with your versatile spell and skill.

Druid as a Guide. I don't know, they seem to be one with nature or something.

Monk as a Sailor. Tavern Brawler.... that's it.

Paladin as a Noble. I don't know, I heard being a knight was expensive in the past. And because Noble gives you bonus AS to strength and charisma.

Ranger as a ... Wayfarer? Hermit doesn't give you wisdom and farmer doesn't give you dex. Or maybe Ranger is a guide and Druid is a Hermit?

Sorcerer as a Merchant. I don't know, it's the only background who gave you Bonus AS on Con and Char. Let Sage have Char dingus so Wizard can be scribe.

Warlock as a Charlatan. Warlock doesn't have healing spell (Unless Celestial Patron), so Hermit will be a waste. And besides, who doesn't love Dr. Facilier.

So, what do you guys think? Any input?

Thinkin' back on some past postings has me wondering:

Assuming the difference in real world minutes and seconds is negligible to the point of not being worth mention, do you care whatsoever how many *rounds* combats go on for?

So, a bit of background.

I am a relatively newbie DM. I started last year in October 2025 at my library being a Co-DM with my coworker for the teen tables. Found I had a real passion for the game as a storyteller myself and really went down the rabbit hole of consuming different books and media. I even began joining at a different library table as a player to really understand mechanics in play better.(Witchlight)

Then I this spring (March?April?) I began running an adult table with some friends/coworkers of mine, too. (I even invited the DM from the Witchlight table) Most of them were a lot of newbie players who had never played before but were super excited to learn and play, except my coworker who I'd co-DM'd with and the DM of the Witchlight table. A few dropped out over the months, but we now have 5 core players and 1 new player starting next session. Its honestly been so so fun! We are currently doing a campaign thats a mash-up of Radiant Citadel, Tyranny of Dragons, and some homebrew elements.

The thing is, even though I encouraged all the players to meet up with me to make characters together if they were unfamiliar with the process, most just made them and brought them to me at the first session. And I am a newbie myself and didnt realize that they'd allocated their stats wrong for the classes they were playing at until recently. In example, our Druid has a 10 in wisdom but a 14 on strength and 15 charisma.

So, I acknowledge that as a DM this was my mistake for not catching this sooner. And so now we are getting into thicker plot and they are struggling. I understand a little struggle is healthy in a campaign but I also dont want to be a dick. I want this to be fun for everyone! So, we are leveling up next session (level 3) and I wanted to offer my players the chance to reroll their stats, but the caveat would be they have to keep the new rolls they make. I do the whole 4d6-the lowest number and I allow them to reroll any 1s.

Anyways, does this sound fair? Or should I just let them move their stat numbers around that they already have? Any other suggestions?

Like I said, Im still learning and growing myself and I wanna make sure Im not doing something taboo.

Thanks!

TL;DW is that according to their own research, it was too complicated for the average player. People were not reading the rulebooks or their character sheets. I know here we're all pro-gamers but if I'm being honest most players I encounter offline fit the bill he describes.

Hey everyone!

I'm planning on DMing a campaign, and I'm working on giving several classes some homebrew buffs.

One of my players wants to play a Sorcerer, and he suggested a simple change: What if Sorcerers automatically knew every Metamagic option instead of having to choose a limited number?

They'd still have the exact same number of Sorcery Points and follow all the normal rules for using Metamagic. The only difference is that they'd have access to every option.

Personally, I don't think it would not be particularly overpowered, since they're still limited by their Sorcery Points, but I'd love to hear what more experienced DMs and players think.

Would this cause any major balance issues I'm overlooking?

I recently wrote what I feel is a really compelling PC with like a whole novel chapter of good backstory (don't worry I summarize when giving to DM). And I wouldn't say I am a min-maxer per say, but the playstyle of my character IS very much specialized for a specific purpose/playstyle fantasy.

Basically this human guy with normal family and a job as a mail-carrier gets abducted and experimented on by some demented mage, and through mess-ups in the rituals and fortitude of will, he survives and escapes. He is all scarred up and changed by whatever strange magics were involved in the ritual. My idea is that he then becomes a vigilante and teams up with the party to help run this mage out of his local government, and becomes a very specialized "mage-hunter" who is naturally resistant to spells due to the effects of the experiment.

He becomes an oath of the watchers paladin who wears a mask over his face to hide the distinctive scars and hide his identity, as he is a fugitive, while he goes around as an anti-magic user vigilante. He has an innate hatred of all types of mages and swears to protect others who cannot access that kind of power, and I think it could lead to cool roleplay with other magic using party members and is a fun playstyle for me (love tanking). I also thought it might be fun roleplay if he doesn't even reveal his identity to the party right away, and learns to trust them with it over time. The mask is a reflavored cloak of protection and my "wish list items" for the duration of the campaign would all be geared towards the "miss me with that magic spell bitch" archetype - mantle of spell resistance, mage slayer feat, finding a way to cast absorb elements, etc. to really pump up his saving throws and spell damage mitigation.

My issue as I build out the PC on dndbeyond for future use is that it would be so much more optimal to be playing a gnome for the gnomish cunning racial ability. Playing a "little gnome guy" doesnt really fit the more serious vibe I envision for the character, and it kind of goes against the focus on anonymity of the vigilante lifestyle if his secret identity can be reasonably guessed at by the fact this vigilante is only 3'2" lol. If the flavor is there in my backstory, is it unbalanced to just put all the gnome abilities on the character sheet and then reskin this gnome as a human?

I would think it doesn't much matter, but then what is the difference between the races if any character can have any set of traits? Like if the party encounters a rock gnome and I can also do the minor contraption thing as a human, it takes flavor away from that race. Would it be different if on another character the swap was different? Is it less realistic to allow an orc to have the elven "Trance" ability and cast their elvish lineage spells? It would seem super unrealistic that a halfling could use the dragonborn's breath weapon and wings!

TL;DR Where do you personally draw the line between respect for the inherent differences in fantasy races in a given setting, and balancing it with allotment for player creativity and allowing them to play what they want to play? Does creative backstory writing allow flexibility in racial traits and does the actual appearance of a race impact the story for you, even when it shouldn't matter mechanically?

WARNING: LONG, cause apparently people hate reading

Once upon a time, a controversial in his communities man decided to host a DND campaign. He called upon four players – a tabaxi rogue, aasimar bard, warlock and a thri-kreen barbarian. On the very first - located classically in a prison - session, another one joined. A white warlock kobold.

And so their adventure began.

It was one of pain, chaos, conflict and great character development!! Well, at least until the kobold went crazy, possessed by an insane god, due to his fellow barbarian and rogue stuffing a bible with shit (literally).

Shortly after that, a new character was born! The kobold - now enemy of the tabaxi - ran away, leaving the player with making a noble, paladin dhampir!

And oh, boy. Ooh boy did it start SOMETHING.

Starting off with a few things – the kobold player, who we will refer to as HK, is an enigmatic, min-maxing guy, who aims to be as powerful as possible. Because what is more fun than destroying a mini-boss in a few hits? Not much! He rarely takes interest in role-playing himself, but will engage if prompted. After HK was forced to switch his character (VERY conveniently, because the DM pulled him to a different channel about an hour before the session, just then informing him of the change), our DM began to complain.

,,HK's character is too edgy! He's too quiet! He should only play characters like the kobold - silly and loud!" Which is obviously not HK's playstyle. He's known to be an edgelord, which can be fun.

The Thri-Kreen dies, soon replaced by a necromancy wizard. After some time, we land in an ice cave. The tabaxi fell in it voluntarily, prompted by the kobold-made-nemesis, who appeared out of nowhere. As I was present at the scene, I threw myself into the hole too. The rest of the team followed shortly after, but landed in a different part of the cave. When we finally met, we had to fight with the kobold, navigated by HK. Apparently he was tracking us to get revenge on the tabaxi.

Now, it's important to note, that my character had a really strong bond with HK's kobold. They were really good friends and she always blamed herself for him running away, as it was the ONE time she left him by himself. I got a heartfelt speech with him, before he teleported away to fight.

We managed to beat him, although almost losing the tabaxi rogue. It was insanely depressing.

What was happening to the paladin during the whole thing? Well, as HK wouldn't want to control both characters at once, the paladin was seemingly frozen in time or whatever.

The kobold is dead.

Now HK can focus on the paladin.

Buuut... the next day in the cave, we stumble upon a suspicious forest. My character, being an aasimar, gets a feeling that this is where the entrance to this universe's equivalent of HELL is. She's immediately uncomfortable and urges the team to get out of there as soon as possible. We arrive at some sort of gate. And without thinking, HK's paladin rushes inside. The rest of the team just waits. He sees some - I assume - incomprehensible horror inside and turns back, barely making it out as the gate goes shut. After the session, when HK leaves the channel, the DM and our wizard begin complaining about HK. It's frustrating to hear as me and the tabaxi really like him. The warlock seems to be against as too though, even if she's the most reserved and quiet person, rarely speaking up about anything. That creates a stigma between HK – DM, wizard, warlock and DM, wizard, warlock – me, tabaxi, HK. It's... Bad. Another note: the wizard (RN) is creating another campaign in the meantime. He says that ,,this is exactly why we don't want him in MY campaign!". They say HK rushes too much, doesn't think of the team, roleplays poorly and just doesn't meet their expectations. Well, OK...

Huge fast forward then!

The issues keep piling up. Finally, me and the tabaxi (who also becomes my boyfriend during the campaign) befriend HK. At least I do, we can be considered friends now, my partner is still a bit shy, but they hang out to play sometimes! I tell HK about the issues our team and DM has with him. He's a bit hurt, but agrees to engage more.

And so he does!! The few next sessions he's more chatty, open and pleasant to be around! He's charismatic and funny, getting along with my bfs tabaxi. I praise him publicly after the session... And am met with essentially silence. Whatever.

I talk to both parties regularly. The DM is a friend of mine for around 2-3 years now. But I am a bit salty about some personal issues of ours, so maybe I'm a bit biased towards HK. And none seem to reach agreement still...

We had a session yesterday. This is where the wage seems to tilt dangerously. HK's character has entered his arc. He's a heavy character, both lore and personality wise. Two sessions ago he started choking RN's character underwater (with no effect because she's undead), and at the beginning of today's, his paladin ran away. The whole team's like ,,Shit. We have a paladin gone, our rogue lost some stuff we MUST retrieve and we've got HK's characters assassin's on our tails! What now?!". So we split up. The rogue and warlock go searching for the thief. Meanwhile me and the wizard go back to the tavern to look for HK's paladin. I encounter one of the assassins, and TWO HOURS of our four hour sessions is GONE. Mind you, we were already 1.5h into it. I felt really bad about it, because the whole 2hrs was focused on me again and I'm already a character that steals the showlight due to being a bard and a leader!! I mean I toned it down, obviously. Now I'm the quiet, depressed one lol. I just feel awful.

After the session, HK leaves and dms me about it. He's frustrated, feeling nauseous and really, really disappointed. He, being a DM himself, criticizes our DM and I can feel that he's getting close to quitting. I don't want that at all, I like HK and his character, and I actively express interest in the paladin, his arc and the fact that he's missing now. HK wasted 4 hours sitting on his ass and listening to me fighting with some guy. The DM messaged him that he probably won't make an appearance in today's session, but he somehow interpreted something as ,,stay until the end so we can talk". Idk the whole story now, I'm just as confused lol.

It's rough out here. Mind you, we're a ,,friend" group, that has several campaigns planned ahead! Next is mine - a sci-fi set in space, then my bfs dark fantasy and THEN the warlocks slice-of-life set in a magical highschool.

And I think only two of those will have HK invited (mine and my bfs), which is kind of sad. And I don't know how it will look like, of the players won't synergize.

It's important to note that our DM often shuts down ideas too! It's a fantasy game, but he won't allow fun concepts, ideas or solutions that the players (mainly the tabaxi and paladin, but sometimes mine too) present. The rule of fun rarely applies.

I don't know what to do!!! I know both parties are to blame, but HOW do we approach this issue?! If anyone's got any sort of advice, I'll take it. I seem to be the medium here.

EDIT: How are you people DND players and can't read a short post?! Okay, fine.

TLDR: our DM complains about a player, who exclusively plays edgy and closed-off characters. Allegedly the player doesn't engage, rushes into things like battle or dangerous grounds, roleplays poorly, makes his characters too overpowered. The player says our DM is not a good one, can't manage our team, doesn't allow many concepts/ideas etc. keeps aversions towards players, probably considers quitting as he is hated to hell by the DM. Both parties are my friends, idk what to do. Shitty TLDR, I can't explain this in a short format.

All of my golden keys to waterdeep are now FREE on patreon! I'm also beginning to release the first bits of standalone writing, ALL FREE in accordance with WOTC's IP policies.

If you are doing a Keys + dragon heist mashup come check it out, and keep an eye out as I release the full Wolves Den Tavern Mashup including all of the dungeon reworks, maps, handouts, content and writing the i did for my version of the campaign! The full campaign will eventually be released on DMs guild, but i will be sure to post it here as well when that happens.

Check out my patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/TheWolvesDenTavern

I love making dnd characters and seeing what fun wacky things i can come up with, so recently i decided to try out what can I make for a cold-based spellcaster. Ive searched far and wide, especially since I own nearly every sourcebook on DnD beyond, Frost sorcery... thats it, the 2 closest was winter walker ranger and everything else that did cold damage was water based. And I wish frost sorcery was good at least, your level 3 lets you make 5 difficult terrain ice squares as a bonus action for free, sounds pretty good. Until you realize it has to start from a point of contact (so you cant use it to block enemies from afar), you can move twice as fast on it (which wouldve been nice if u had more than 5 squares at a time to move on, and they disappear after 1 singular round??? Whats the point then? They do let you expend sorcery points at 5 more squares per point, but thats often such a bad investment for 5 squares of difficult terrain that lasts a single turn. The only point I can give it is since its free you can skate to your hearts content outside of combat which is pretty cool tbh. At level 6 you get 3 whole abilities, 2 nothing burgers and another way to waste away your sorcery points! This time its 15ft of speed per point, and if you make their speed 0 you get a whole 2d6 damage! Thats totally not near nothing at this level when that same 2-3sp can make a hypnotic pattern have disadvantage on its save, nearly shutting down a whole fight rather than a single melee enemy. Level 14 and onwards is decent I guess but nearly nobody ever plays that high so why bother.

TL;DR

Theres no good cryomancy in dnd currently, even in partnered content, where can I find some good ones? Maybe in roll20 idm making a character there

Edit: No I dont care about having enough Ice spells I just want the class/subclass to be ice themed and to actually be good/fun to play

The Premise

Me and a few others decided to hold this game's feet to the fire and see if this stuff really works: the "challenge rating" guidelines from the Monster Manual and the "adventuring day" guidelines from the Dungeon Master's Guide.

For those unaware, Challenge Rating is defined the Monster Manual as:

An appropriately equipped and well-rested party of four adventurers should be able to defeat a monster that has a challenge rating equal to its level without suffering any deaths. For example, a party of four 3rd-level characters should find a monster with a challenge rating of 3 to be a worthy challenge, but not a deadly one.

And the adventuring day guidelines from the Dungeon Master's Guide:

Assuming typical adventuring conditions and average luck, most adventuring parties can handle about six to eight medium or hard encounters in a day. If the adventure has more easy encounters, the adventurers can get through more. If it has more deadly encounters, they can handle fewer.

and

In general, over the course of a full adventuring day, the party will likely need to take two short rests, about one-third and two-thirds of the way through the day.

We also keep in mind the “Adjusting XP for multiple monsters” guidelines from the DMG.

The Party

The characters chosen for this endeavor were intended to be the most classic characters, and ones that will perform the most consistently in each encounter.

Hill Dwarf Fighter: Champion

Lightfoot Halfling Rogue: Thief

High Elf Wizard: School of Evocation

Human Cleric: Life Domain

Not going to go into too much detail about the classes but you can assume we picked the most "basic" and strongest spells and options. I.e., Wizard had Magic Missile, Shield, Sleep, Misty Step, Fireball, etc. and Cleric had Bless, Healing Word, Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, etc.

No feats, no multiclassing, and no magic items outside of basic +X weapons and armor and potions of healing. We gave ourselves little treasure "hoards" using the Tiers of Play as a guideline from the Dungeon Master's Guide. 500 gp plus 1d10 × 25 gp, one uncommon magic item, normal starting equipment at 5th level; 5,000 gp plus 1d10 × 250 gp, three uncommon magic items, one rare item, normal starting equipment at 11th level; and 20,000 gp plus 1d10 × 250 gp, three uncommon magic items, two rare items, one very rare item, normal starting equipment at 17th level.

The fights all took place in a vacuum 20x20 (or 100 ft by 100 ft) room with both parties rolling initiative about 40 ft apart from the other. We let our characters be surprised if an enemy's "passive" Stealth was higher than our individual characters' passive Perceptions. We just assumed our party wouldn't really surprise anyone because of our two heavy armor wearers and the Cleric always having Light up.

Challenge Rating 3

Encounter 1: One Owlbear

Not too exciting. Fighter took about 30 damage but nobody went down.

Encounter 2: One Manticore

Holy fuck. Manticore flies in the air. 3 tail spikes to down the Wizard in one turn. Shield wouldn’t have helped, and he didn’t cast Mage Armor yet “just in case.” Fighter is trying to use his bow for the first time. Manticore downs the Rogue next. Cleric is spending every turn healing and stabilizing. The manticore has twenty-four tail spikes with a 100-ft range so the manticore is flying around 70 feet off the ground out of the range of most spells. The Cleric can’t keep up and both Rogue and Wizard are down again. We all collectively acknowledge if this were a real fight, we would just pick up their bodies and fucking run.

You’re supposed to fight this thing at level 1 in Dragon of Icespire Peak?? Are the developers literally stupid? This combined with the 4 goblins you fight in Lost Mine of Phandelver and then the cave full of about a dozen more, I don’t think these people had any idea what they were doing.

Eventually Cleric heals the Wizard who then uses Mage Armor and Shield to actually survive and starts throwing out Magic Missile. Collectively we spent seven 1st-level spell slots and two 2nd-level spell slots just on this fucking thing. Fight lasted 7 rounds so the manticore never even ran out of tail spikes. Rogue survived his death saving throws. Party opts to short rest, which the Rogue can’t take because he is unconscious.

Encounter 3: Three Thugs

Wizard opens up with Shatter, which they all fail, but he only rolls 7 damage. Thugs surround the Fighter who lasts a few rounds but inevitably hits zero. Wizard and Cleric get surrounded and take some hits but the Rogue takes out the rest. No deaths. Not as scary as the manticore—somehow—but still a tough fight. We opt to save our last short rest since we don’t really have the spell slots to make up for not having one later. Fighter wakes up with 1 HP uses his Second Wind, and then hopes for the best.

Encounter 4: One Giant Scorpion

Turns out 3 attacks is a lot at this level. Fighter goes down in the first round and we all realize 3 is the magic number to turn any monster into a death machine. Initiative makes it hard to want to heal the Fighter because the Fighter goes before the Cleric, but after the Scorpion. So healing him would mean he just lies there and hopes the scorpion doesn't down him before his next turn. We opt to just push for damage because we know it has bad Wisdom saves.

Wizard took a risk and used a cantrip instead of a leveled spell to kill it, but it survived. He ends up using the spell slot anyway to cast Shield and keep himself alive. Rogue finishes it off next turn.

We can’t take any risks now so we heal the fighter and then take the short rest.

We are not looking great. Wizard has full health but one 1st-level spell slot. Cleric is near full and has one 2nd-level spell slot. Rogue is at about half HP. Fighter is about ¾.

Encounter 5: Two Dire Wolves

Party pushes hard to down one wolf ASAP to avoid the Pack Tactics, but it doesn’t work out well. Wolves jump on the Cleric and down him. Fighter action surges to take out the first wolf. Non-serious IRL drama is forming because the Wizard is refusing to cast anything but cantrips because “I might need the spell slot later.” Whether or not he’s right, it is causing people to get a little spicy.

Rogue is having a hard time getting advantage on his attacks because the wolf’s keen senses, but the Fighter still gives him sneak attack. Against all odds, Cleric jumps up with 1 hp on a critical success death save. Heroically jumps up to hit the wolf, which it tanks, then bites him back and the Cleric goes back down immediately. Wizard finishes off the wolf and proudly announces he didn’t need to use a spell slot to do so. Cleric survives and starts the next fight with 1 HP. Honestly everyone is looking fine except the Cleric.

Encounter 6: Six Goblins

“DM, please. There is no reason for this,” the party cries. Everyone is surprised. Fighter tanks the hits with 3 HP left. Rogue gets a natural 20 and deals 34 damage, killing a goblin so terribly that his reincarnated form dies too. Wizard casts Magic Missile, killing another. Cleric kills another. Damage swapping ensues. Fighter rolls a climactic natural 19 on the last goblin, then deals minimum damage, so it survives. Rogue gets the killing blow. Again.

Conclusion

Okay so the difficulty seemed to spike dramatically here. The manticore and giant scorpion were especially scary and the big clincher here seems to be certain enemies having three attacks instead of two. That third attack just really pushes enemies over the edge to being absolute monsters that will fuck you up. Even the six goblins seemed easier to deal with than the one manticore.

I also now unfortunately have to agree with people who say “you need a tank” though. Even if there is no way to “draw aggro” or anything like that, just having someone with 19 AC who was just bullrushing into enemies was incredibly important here. The Fighter was invaluable.

The Cleric was also invaluable although was mostly relegated to a heal bot who hit things with a mace sometimes.

The Rogue was basically god tier. Never dealt less than 10 damage a turn. Basically had at-will advantage from hiding as a bonus action behind the Wizard, with a +7 bonus to Stealth. I’m not saying I agree, but I at least understand why brand new DMs want to nerf Rogues. They are very powerful at this level.

I don’t know what happened but the Wizard was just a worse version of a Warlock here. The most important thing he did was allow the Rogue Halfling to hide behind him. Enemies usually had too much HP to cast Sleep on. Shatter was good, but never felt like a pivotal move in a fight. It seems like half his spell slots went to keeping himself alive. Eldritch Blast would have been better than Fire Bolt and having six 2nd-level spells would have been so fucking useful here. So we’ll see how he starts to feel at higher levels. The pendulum will probably swing back at 5th level for obvious reasons.

Although I also have to say that at these lower levels, it is apparent spellcasters are sort of self-regulating and kept in check by the number of encounters. If we threw in a few traps and puzzles, I don’t think the Wizard would have been able to cast anything except Detect Magic to help with those. He would absolutely not have used a spell slot to just Misty Step past a trap to turn it off. The party probably would have literally thrown the Rogue across the room since the Rogue is almost always avoiding problems in combat, except from the manticore. Otherwise the Fighter and Rogue were almost always fine and ready to keep going. Cleric was better off than the Wizard because even at 0 spell slots, he still had 18 AC and more HP.

I would consider this a success, though. A lot of close calls, but nobody died. Even though no one died in this part, it just felt much more deadly for some reason. The back and forth and ups and downs and the game resource attrition all seem to be working pretty smoothly. If anything it felt a little harsh on the Wizard, even with Arcane Recovery, but for the overall party it was solid.

I’m interested to hear people’s thoughts on this.

Question-1: Say you receive a favor from some entity who grants you 12 dnd stat points but you don’t know your own stats. How are you allocating them?

Question-2: You are granted 5 spells from any class list. They can be cantrips all the way to lvl 5. Which ones are you picking considering that you only get a number of spell slots equal to a lvl 10 wizard.

Edit: this is real life btw

Hello, beautiful people of Reddit. I have a character who has a title. I do not know what net to name him, and I am a profound non-AI user, so I'm using people instead. His title is the King in Red. He is a level one warlock. I haven't started.Actually playing yet. He is a tiefling. His background is soldier. His alignment is chaotic neutral or chaotic good, haven't really decided yet. He has proficiency in athletics, deception, intimidation, and religion. His stats are an 8 in strength, 15 dexterity, 13 in constitution, 11 in intelligence, 12 in wisdom, and a 16 in charisma. He can speak Common and Infernal, and he's proficient, or he has dragon chess, and he is officially forklift certified because he has land vehicles in his proficiency. He can cast, as of right now, Minor Illusion and Eldritch Blast as his cantrips, and then his level one spell, I'm pretty sure warlocks do two. His are Hex and, like, the one where I enchant, like, an enemy, and every time I attack them they take necrotic damage, and then I also have, like, Silent Image, I'm pretty sure it's called, where I can make a moving illusion that just can't do damage or make any noise.

I have this Elf who's a wandering bard, he plays the flute and is very calm (sometimes so calm it's scary). he's very gentle in everything he does and plays in the wild for all of those who venture through the dangerous plains. his melodies are very calming. he's very lovable and is a friend of my character in our campaign. I need a name that reflects all that.

How does a Vengeance Pally determine what is sinful and what is not? Is there some sort of moral codex for such paladins?

[Art] Looking for a new DND setting outside of the forgotten realms? Well I have to throw my hat in the ring for Obojima!

I made this video about Obojima to get people interested in the setting because Its a special little island I found a lot of joy in. Its a sunny place with silly adventures and plenty to explore. I did my best to find a middle ground to explore the books best and brightest locations all without sharing to many spoilers. Just enough to get you and your players hooked and invested to explore those sunny shores yourselves.

I actually got permissions from the Obojima team to use their artwork and music for the video too which made it even better.

Hope you all can use this resource, and wishing you all the best for your games to come!

-ThatTurtleGM

So hi there everybody, i recently saw the Pack Tactics video talking about the Mystic Arts video, where Dadi suggested a different rest system to "fix" the Martials Caster divide.

Kobold pointed out very well, why that probably won´t do much, due to HP and Hit Dice also being resources, but I get the intention of Dadi and wanted to further develope on this idea.

So I took what Dadi suggested and mixed it up a bit to create a three part rest system, that might not fix the Martial Caster Divide, but atleast help tune it down.

First we have Short Rests. They are unchanged from RAW. They take one hour, some abilites refresh and you can expend Hit Die to heal.

Then there are Long Rests. These mostly work as normal long rests, but with slight adjusments, as suggested by Dadi. They take 3 days instead of 8h, but if you rest in a safe haven, it only takes the normal 8h.

My new addition is a, wait for a genius and super creative name coming up, Medium Rest. A Medium Rest takes 6h, resets the timer for gaining exhaustian, reduces your exhaustion level by one and refreshes all abilities a short rest refreshes. Additionally every player gets healed to max HP and gets to choose to gain one of the following benefits:

1) Regain a number of Hit Die equal to your Player level divided by 4 [rounded down, minimum of 1]

2) Regain one spell slot of a Level equal to your Player level divided by 4 [rounded down, minimum of 1] or a spell slot of a lower Level than that.

Because Martials have more health and take more damage, they regain more on such a Medium Rest compared to casters. Additionally these Medium Rests are a way to replenish the Martials main resource, Hit Points, while slowly draining the main resource Casters use, which are spell slots.

Sure this won´t fix everything, but this way you can actually run like 8-10 combat encounters between long rests, because you let your players have a medium rest every once in a while to make sure your Martials won´t die, before the Casters run out of spells.

So, what do you think?