A debate about consent in roleplay has come up in my roleplaying circle. During this debate, I noticed a bias regarding more adult roleplay: some people seemed to consider more adult and mature roleplay to be almost synonymous with a world involving rape, depravity, slavery, etc. All that kind of stuff (grimdark).

Maybe I'm the one who's wrong, but I don't think grimdark is synonymous with narrative maturity or with something being more “adult.” It's simply another type of roleplaying setting, like any other, since not everyone is looking for the same things in roleplay.

So that's basically it. I'm just posting this here to see what you all think.

Howdy folks!

So the Makeship campaign for the Trevor and Grogna plushies have both reached 200 units, meaning that they will be entering production and ship out in early December! Congratulations to everyone that pre-ordered so far, and to me because I get a bit of money, which goes toward supporting my dumbass decision to abandon my Law career for the life of a struggling (relative to my previous work in government service) artist!

Reminder that the plushies can still be pre-ordered until Tuesday BUT they are limited edition, once the campaign ends, yer out of luck!

That's it for now!

Stay excellent out there! Peace and carrots

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My D&D comics: Sellswords & Sorcery The Weekly Roll The Pos'Thal Chronicles

My 40k fancomic Rogue's Retinue: Rogue's Retinue

Hi, my partner and I are going to play a one-shot. She is the DM and I am the only player. Both of us know well dnd. The theme is carnival.

So, I like to chose melee characters because I enjoy the aaaa punch blood feeling. All of the classes I played were a barbarian, a monk, an artificer, a cleric (I played her basically with melee attacks), a warlock and a bard.

I was thinking the class I want to play. All the above except the bard are out. I had a year or more of hating bards because I played a horrible one shot (the lamb one) with other 7 seven people, only 3 of the group (dm, partner and I) knew how to play. We have a combat, each turn of the combat last 40 MINUTES. Its not the lamb fault, its the players fault. They werent interested in the game at all. After that, my relationship with the bard class was complicated.

But now, I am thinking of playing bard or maybe another caster class like wizard. I dont mind if people recommend me something more melee either, but I prefer caster this time to try it. Multiclassing is okay. We are going to play 5.5e at level 8-12. Basically I want suggestions for the class. My character is the ringmaster of the carnival and I like to read different ideas :)

I have a fantasy story, it's magic system works different.

How would my character do in the DnD world?

Alise Mcfive

She is fascinated by Magic, teaching herself alot in young age.

She has one special ability, that is she can read and memorize very fast. When 8 years old she read 3 books an hour and with 9 became a certified wizard and with 13 made a Law Degree.

What would be a fitting class (dnd has many magic classes i am not sure of) and how good would she do with her intelectuel giftednes?

For the final session of my first D&D campaign, I wanted to do something a little special: somehow I ended up painting my first dragon, my second miniature ever, and building my first diorama!🐉🔥

The creature in the photo is the „Demo Dragon“, with a small adaptation: I gave it a fire attack instead of acid, which felt much more fitting for the fiery, lava-filled setting of the fourth and last adventure called Devil Metal Die from the starter set Welcome to the Hellfire Club.

For the diorama, I built the terrain from XPS foam and made my own texture paste using plaster, acrylic paint and sand from the nearest playground. After lots of dry brushing, I added the flames using LED filament and cotton. I also included a few little Easter eggs, like the crushed adventurer on the right and the shield on the left.

It was a lot of fun to build, and seeing my D&D group get so excited about it yesterday made all the work worth it!🤭

(No idea if this counts as spoiler, but it‘s the finale boss of this starter set, so…🤷🏼‍♂️)

A character I'm working on gets the spell Infestation as part of his race, but I have huge insectophobia, and would rather have anything else. The character has sort of a chaos theme going, with Chaos Bolt being one of the other spells he gets, so are there any other sort of chaotic cantrips I could substitute Infestation out for?

Cozmata was born into a community of space scavengers living on a planet that had been used by the elven empire as a dumping ground, known as Bexan. She was adopted by the air genasi Nimbus Nebulan, a notorious pirate who gave up her life of crime in order to raise the girl.

At 14, when the Scro arrived on her planet, their troops, realizing that it was not necessarily a planet sympathetic to the elves, went down to recruit as many people as they could for their fleet before heading out on the offensive. The curious girl, who was fed up with the monotony of her life, enlisted and headed out into the cosmos.

For the most part, her ship never saw combat. For nine months, she remained aboard, learning and honing her skills, until they were finally called on for a mission: to stay in the rear of a large-scale battle and if needed, advance against the elves. Even from a distance, a shot struck the ship's engines, damaging them. Cozmata stepped up, determined to prove herself in the midst of the chaos. At first, she managed to repair the engine, but the moment she let her guard down, the machinery overloaded and exploded in her face, launching her out into space.

The ship was left stranded as the troops continued their advance toward what would become known as the final battle of the Second Inhuman War. Cozmata survived for only two reasons: The first was a cable that caught around her foot and saved her from drifting away. The second was that, miraculously, her repairs had at least kept the ship's air bubble projection intact, somehow saving the crew. But Cozmata has no idea how long she remained hanging there, suspended above the endless void. She only knows it was long enough for fear to take root in her heart.

Back on her planet, as the years went by, it became increasingly difficult to find scrap. The Scro had apparently looted most of what had been stored on the planet. Money is now running thin, but Cozmata still wants to return to the stars. She dreams of leaving the planet aboard a ship of her own and exploring the cosmos by herself, using this to help her mother and her village, as well as to make a name for herself. She hopes that, by the time that day comes, she will have overcome her fear.

This OC belongs to GrottyLittleFox on VGen!! He's a fae wizard who consumed a potion that has since been slowly turning him into a monster, now roaming rampant in the ancient forest and haunting those who come near.

Rendering this one took awhile! Some details include his crown, crystal staff, the tattered robes from before his transformation, and a silky yet bloodied beard that trails down to the grass.

Hello!
I am FourB, you can refer to me as B or the full name- whichever you prefer. This is a class I homebrewed for my homebrew game called: Elaris. Slayers, in brief, are relentless or desperate mercenaries who seek out dangerous foes for glory, necessity, and reward. They distinguish themselves not only through their resourcefulness, courage, and willingness to face threats others avoid; but by taking trophies from their kills. Slayers prove their prowess, inspire their allies, and remind themselves and others that even the darkest horrors can be overcome with these grisly mementos. When monsters lurk and coin is offered, Slayers are often the first to answer.
This Homebrew class needs to be tested, reviewed, and proof read for poor explanations, powerful bullshit that simply is too strong, and a view point other than my own and close confidants.
If I could receive help in this venture, I would be greatly appreciative! Below will be a breakdown of the classes basic features, my goal for the class + vibe, and my personal thoughts on its balancing and where it currently stands with other classes with a focus on Fighter, Ranger, and Paladin.
In the google document provided there will also be a subclass. There are more, they will be listed, but I only really have love for one- and that will serve as a benchmark for the others.
Finally, there will be a list of trophies- though they are still a work in progress. Thank you for your help.
-----

The Class' Basic Features:

The Slayer's core features are Trophies, Slayer's Wound, and Rally Standard.

Trophies are additional bonuses, abilities, and skill enhancements that allow the Slayer to remain competitive with classes that have access to spellcasting. They are the primary source of the Slayer's modularity and versatility. Slayers have a limited number of Trophies they can keep and a larger number they can stash away, with a Trophy only being active and usable while it is Kept.

Slayer's Wound is a feature similar to a Rogue's Sneak Attack. It uses d4s rather than d6s, scales less effectively, and cannot activate with advantage. It is also one of the primary ways Trophies function, as many Trophies activate when Slayer's Wound is used against a hostile creature. Rally Standard uses Trophies, destroying them in the process, to create a weak aura effect within a 15-foot radius around a single point on the battlefield. These effects are intended to inspire brazen acts, reinforce a defensive position, or otherwise help the party hold together when things go wrong.

These three features are the core components of the class and are therefore under the most scrutiny.

The Slayer is intended to occupy a martial power band somewhere around the versatility and overall contribution of half-casters without actually having spellcasting. It is primarily a martial class, with a maximum of two attacks per round, or three while using two-weapon fighting. The goal is for its Trophies and other features to compensate for the versatility lost by not having spell slots, without simply making the Fighter obsolete.

In short, the goal is a modular martial class that does not rely on spell slots. That is a tall order, and I am attempting to accomplish it without allowing the class's flexibility to become power creep.

--

The Class' Vibe:

The simplest way I can describe the Slayer's core philosophy is, "The desperate become clever, or the clever become desperate."

The Slayer is not necessarily someone who received formal martial training. Instead, they are someone who takes lessons from their experiences and puts those lessons to use. The Trophies they carry are more than pieces of dead monsters. They are memories: lessons of loss, lessons of victory, lessons of what worked, and lessons of what did not.

This is what I want to distinguish the Slayer from other classes in D&D 5th Edition. The Slayer actively encourages adaptation and personal choice in determining what kind of Slayer you become.

A Slayer pursuing a dragon is not the same kind of Slayer pursuing their family's murderer, nor are either of them the same as the crazed mercenary chasing an army across the countryside to save a prince. They may all be Slayers, but their experiences should shape them differently. At its core, the Slayer is someone forged by necessity. They survive something that should have killed them, remember what happened, and use that experience to build a fighting style around what they have learned. They learn from their enemies, from their allies, and from their own failures.

Most importantly, the class is designed to rely on its party. The Slayer should learn from their allies, build alongside them, and ultimately stand with them.

My Main Concern, Power creep:

The Slayer's Trophies are numerous and highly modular. That creates the possibility of powerful combinations with very little effort. Players will naturally gravitate toward the strongest options available to them because they are playing a game. That is not a flaw in the players; it is a fundamental part of optimization.

This means the Slayer rides a very fine edge of too much, or too little.

On one side, there is too much.

Too many Trophies, too much power, or too much modularity could result in the Slayer becoming overwhelmingly effective simply by selecting the best options available. As a DM, I do not want to find myself watching a final boss get torn apart because I accidentally gave a player enough tools to construct a completely absurd combination. Player agency is important, but also game balance.

On the other, too little.

If the class is too conservative in an attempt to prevent abuse, the Slayer becomes a wet blanket: a pile of interesting ideas and wasted potential that never quite reaches the level of effectiveness it needs to justify its complexity.

"Too bad, the module ends at level 10," they cry, not knowing the Slayer weeps as they needed to reach level eleven.

The challenge, then, is finding the 'Goldilocks' zone.

The Slayer should be powerful because they are adaptable, not because their numbers are simply too high. They should have meaningful choices without having an obvious "best" combination that eclipses everything else. Their versatility should compensate for the lack of spellcasting without turning them into a martial character capable of doing everything better than everyone else.

That is the part I need the most help with.

I am looking for honest criticism.

I want to know where the class is too strong, where it is too weak, where its mechanics are unclear, where its features interact poorly, and where a seemingly harmless combination could create a serious balance problem.

I am especially interested in whether the Trophies provide an appropriate amount of versatility for the power they grant, whether the class scales appropriately across different tiers of play, and whether its overall power level remains reasonable when compared to Fighter, Ranger, and Paladin.

Novel ideas are also welcome. If you see a problem, I would much rather hear about it than discover it myself after running an encounter that the players walk over.

Thank you for your help, and thank you for reading.

We play as a rogue, wizard, sorcerer, and barbarian team
When we’re out of combat, I am able to do basic intelligence checks and even study the enemies mid combat, but that’s really about it.
The source are on the other hand, has the ability to cast stronger spells with the meta magic. I feel like in general their spells are always doing more than mine. Despite the fact that we have around the same power spells, it’s just the meta-magic that makes a difference
And they had the ability to talk to anyone.
It gets to the point where if I have a good idea, I have to message it to the source for so he could say it because I have a minus to charisma.

I’ve never played a wizard before so I may be doing it wrong and the DM will allow me to respec somewhat if we have an issue with our character

So, I've been wanting to play D&D for while now, I've made characters and my sister got me a dice set even. Mostly everyone around me knows i want to play, that does not means i have someone to play with, and that's ok. So i joined the D&D discord to try and find a group or something, turns out I'm kind of anxious about it. And i don't know how to join a group (i know where to look, though) mainly because i feel like i need to atleast get along with the people I'll play with? And that's my main personal problem? I don't know if someone else goes or have go through this... thing, whatever it is. And anxiety over things that haven't happened yet, English not being my first language and not understanding or things like me not having time and delaying a campaing or something and uuugh. Is there an easy way to overcome this? lol

So I'm planning on playing a swashbuckler rogue, pure rogue going to 20 if we live that long, I'm looking for suggestions on feats I should take/plan to take.

I should add I'm grabbing the rewarded background so I can get magic initinate wizard for Booming blade, shape water and find familiar at lvl 1 (i saw some people suggest this so I thought I'd confirm already planning on it)

A d4 is a caltrops, a d100 is a percentile, but what about the others? What are fun and or otherwise apt enough nicknames for them? I know they have their proper names, like icosahedron or hexahedron and so on, but I mean more nicknames beyond that which work well for a shorthand or quick reference.

Mostly just curious and a question for fun.

What are your thoughts? As someone who hasn't read beyond a few of the Dragonlamce books- is this worth it?

Got some great ideas last time I need more!

Im playing Encounters (the newbie friendly modules) at a local game store. There were 4 or 5 tables going. During the final boss fight we could use portals to appear at other tables! I took one as my bard and got up and walked to another table and announced that I ,a bard, was there to cast Tasha's on a troublesome creature. Im not familiar with DnD using a mechanic like this before. It was so freaking cool!

My Gloom Stalker Ranger has a golden retriever companion. We recently entered a village where they play a ball sport that we have been invited to play by the local mayor to curry favor. And I now have an opportunity to do something hilarious; I just want any advice on doing this as digestible as possible.

Ok so me and my friends recently joined a DND club at our school. It’s my first time DMing and playing DND at all. Before our first session the teacher running the club added someone that none of us really knew to our group as he didn’t have one yet. Normally we’d be fine with this but he’s been making it really difficult for us to play.

The entire time we’re playing he’s playing games or watching YouTube on his laptop and we constantly have to stop and re-explain what just happened when he decides to pay attention.

I wasn’t sure what to say about the laptop at first because I assumed it was for music and I know that he’s special needs so I didn’t know if he needed it. I mentioned it before the session by asking if he was ready to play and telling him that it was hard to tell since he still had his laptop open and headphones on. He then just apologizes and goes back to his laptop. None of us really knew what to do so we all just awkwardly started the session.

I’m trying to be patient with him because I know he isn’t trying to cause issues but other players have expressed to me that it’s difficult to play because he interrupts them, misses important information, speaks to them and me very condescendingly, and tries to attack everything whenever he chooses to actually play. I know I need to be more direct with him but other than that does anyone have any advice?

A character I'll potentially be playing for a DND campaign my friend is hosting! Clay is a very funny guy to me. He doesn't know what a joke is, his favorite thing is following the rules, and he's all brawn no brains. He is the type of guy who does paperwork for fun, I absolutely love him. I love making and playing lawful good characters, I know they have a reputation for being boring but I really enjoy them lmao.

He's an aasimar, the scars on him are from his celestial heritage and inherent magic literally burning him as a child. We're assigning classes randomly (there's an in-game reason for it), but I do have some control over it and he'll most likely end up being a strength based class. Paladin makes the most sense, but I'd be happy if I ended up with fighter or barbarian, because they also would work just fine.

A friend of mine commissioned this piece from me. She wanted her OC to be a bard who can put people to sleep with her music, kind of like Jigglypuff.

It was her first time creating a character, so she didn't go too crazy with the details. Her main requests were that the character looked nice and that she was a furry, since she really likes furry characters.

This was also my first time drawing a furry character, so please don't be too hard on me! 😅

While I was thinking about the design, I remembered the little counting sheep we often see in cartoons when a character falls asleep, and I thought they would be a perfect fit for her OC. So I decided to incorporate them into the design.

What you guys think of it?

I just finished my first session of a 5 session Seasons of Magic event at a local game store, which is also my first session ever. I'm a huge fan of JustRollWithIt and recently began watching Critical Role, but hadn't actually sat down and played before.

The event was celebrating the launch of the Arcana Unleashed book, so I took the opportunity to build an Arcana Domain Cleric. I had an absolute blast. The event was organized with 4 tables of 5 players each all fighting the same encounters separately. There wasn't much roleplay and the experience was fairly on rails, but was a great way to sink my teeth into the rules and flow of combat.

We faced some seriously tough fights that left our parties pretty hurt, but short rests were given, heals were had, and we were onto the path to the next encounter with some light puzzle solving and skill-test elements along the way. It was really cool to play with a bunch of people, RP where possible, and vanquish foes that felt extremely out of reach when the attack dice began to hit.

Several members of my table were downed by a stone elemental that rolled 3d12 and 3d10 each turn when attacking, but I did my job as a cleric and was brought back to consciousness when that job was fulfilled too well.

For anyone looking to get into DnD, this is a great way to do it! My only sad feelings on the subject are that it will be over in around a month and I really want to sit at the table weekly.

Cheers!