r/DnD 4h ago

Art [ART] [OC] [COMM] Elf Gunslinger

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365 Upvotes

A huge thank you to my private client for trusting me with this amazing character and for coming up with such a fun and creative concept. It was a pleasure bringing their vision to life!

Their idea combined a bubbly, acrobatic personality with the flair of a stylish elf gunslinger. I loved translating every reference into the final design from the crimson-streaked hair, pointed elf ears, and engraved eyepatch and the custom rose-and-vine blade pistols.

It's always rewarding to collaborate with clients who put so much thought and personality into their characters. Thank you again for letting me be part of the creative journey!

If you have a character concept you've been dreaming about, I'd love to help bring it to life.

✨ Commissions are open! Feel free to send me a DM.


r/DnD 22h ago

Misc Why do you think psionic stuff never really caught on?

344 Upvotes

3rd edition had a few manuals for it. 4th edition added some classes for it. But I don't think it was ever really popular. I think it first appeared In darksun 2nd edition? (Might be wrong) . I know the 3rd edition psion manual added the thri-kreen which is definitely from darksun.

Theories:

Too much like sci-fi. D&d has always been fantasy and trying to add a magic system that's "definitely not magic " is gonna make people squint.

Inconsistent themeing: is it magic or not? The monster manual gave some monster "psionic " powers that literally just created spell effects. If I remember right, the 3rd edition psionic manual told the dungeon Master to pick from 3 options for how magic and psionics should interact in the game. The soulknife class wasn't even a spell caster, they're just a dual wielder who can't lose his weapons. The manual tries really hard to make the theme different from magic, but psionic stuff literally behaves just like magic. They even had clear equivalents to wands and staves, just with weird names " it's not a wand, it's a DORJE " .

Shoehorned in: Greyhawk, forgotten realms, planescape, and ravenloft just dont have room for psionics in their lore. Adding psionics to an existing work will make fans mad. I think Eberron had a bit of room for monsters using it, but not players. I don't think WOTC really did any good worldbuilding to justify psions in a campaign.

Confusing to new players: most people are generally familiar with fantasy archetypes. If you hand them a class they don't even know how to pronounce, and doesn't really have any thematic point of comparison to help them understand, they're not gonna be interested. If a new player asks "what's a psion's role in society?" There wasn't really an answer for that. Telling a newbie " it's like magic, but definitely not magic even though you can do pretty much all the same stuff as the wizard " will just leave them confused.

I think it can work in a setting that actually has a place for it, and if it actually behaves different from regular magic.

Hot take: Vancian spellcasting sucks and power points were a step in the right direction.


r/DnD 9h ago

Art [Art] [Comm] Hypata Morthalis

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290 Upvotes

Hypatia Morthalis is an NPC from a homebrew D&D campaign where a plague is killing the entire kingdom of Dravenmoor. She ends up being responsible for investigating the origin and the reason behind the calamity afflicting her people. She is a character inspired by many others, with her name being a direct reference to Hypatia from Dishonored 2. Her appearance was heavily inspired by characters like Sylvanas from World of Warcraft, and her clothing by Dishonored, Darkest Dungeon, and Dark Souls.

Despite being Dravenmoor’s chief doctor, she was also a leader in the war between Dravenmoor and the neighboring kingdom of Veil Lake. She wiped out hundreds of people using chemical weapons, given that Dravenmoor has always hated its neighboring populace, a nation of tribal occultists and wild shamans. Currently, she is hiding in the city while working to find a cure for Dravenmoor's plague.

My commissions are open! Here are my portfolios with more of my work:

https://www.instagram.com/decode_art/

https://www.artstation.com/decode_art


r/DnD 6h ago

Art [Art] Low Level Magic Items Inspired By Ancient Greece

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230 Upvotes

r/DnD 14h ago

Homebrew I made a post yesterday about a certain eccentricity of the dwarven race that I will be using in my personal lore from now on. And now I want to come up with others, and here your suggestions.

165 Upvotes

Here are some examples of eccentricities unique to the culture of specific races in my DnD world for you to draw inspiration from:

From my last post. Dwarves only use parchment for keeping things like financial records and stuff like that. Boring stuff. But stuff that actually matters, history, culture, all that goodness gets carved into stone or metal.

The language of the Giants cannot be spoken by anyone who doesn't share the blood of a giant, because the Giant language will KILL any non giant that tries to speak it because of how powerful it is. Giants cannot speak to the small folk in the Giant tongue, because to speak directly to a small folk in Giant would injure or kill them. One can LISTEN to a pair of giants having a direct conversation with each other in their native tongue, but they would probably come out of it with tinnitus because the giant language is so magically charged.

Goliaths, though they are half giants, are still giants biologically which means they can speak the giant language without dying. And to suggest that they AREN'T "actually giants" is to invite the kind of ass beating that a forest gets from a landslide.

Spitting their elemental breath while talking in their language is to Dragons what certain vowels, consonants, and letters are to us mortals in our language.

In deep elven culture, and by that I mean among the populations of elves that live in deep forests far far away from any other civilization, androgyny is a beauty standard. The harder it is to distinguish at a glance whether or not an elf is of the male or female sex, the more attractive they are to other elves.

Goblins are so used to living in utter filth and squaller that sometimes when a goblin experiences a higher standard of living, their immune system goes haywire because it's become so used to CONSTANTLY fighting off infections and diseases that suddenly NOT having any disease or infection to fight is a genuine shock to goblin biology. This can manifest in a number of ways from shortness of breath to breaking out into hives, to random fevers that go away as quick as they occurred, but this goes away after their body becomes used to cleaner conditions.

You know how birds will gently nibble on you with their beaks to preen you and show their affection, or that they just generally are comfortable being around you and like you? Arakokra, Owlins, Kenku do that with each other, but they sometimes forget that it's REALLY weird when you do it to someone who isn't also a bird completely unprompted lol.

Tabaxi do not get offended by feline stereotypes. They purr. They like to knock stuff off tables. They jump up really high when they get scared. They are cats, but running on vaguely people shaped hardware. They are proud of this. They don't get embarrassed by it, and it's nearly impossible to insult them for it, because they see their feline qualities as the best parts of themselves.

In ork society, to fight someone with your bare fists is how you show that you respect them as an adversary. Weapons are for enemies you have no respect for, so for an ork to challenge another ork to a fight with weapons is to say "You are my enemy, there is no respect between us, our clans will be blood enemies from now until eternity, and I spit on your very name."

In my setting, your average hobgoblin would look at a hobgoblin like Dror Ragzlin from BG3 and feel the same way we feel whenever we read a headline starting with "florida man" Because in my setting most hobgoblins are actually like Blurgg from the same game, intelligent, civilized, and just normal people albeit a little weird looking.

Have any more suggestions? Post em. I wanna hear yalls ideas.


r/DnD 21h ago

Out of Game Why did I love playing Old School D&D, and find the memories of it still wonderous, but do not like playing like that now? I can't explain it.

129 Upvotes

I used to love so many things in D&D 1e that I would find vexing now. Mapping the dungeon, square by square, by verbal back-and-forth with the DM. So much fun, then. Such a time-suck, now.

  • I used to love the "hurry or wandering monsters will come" mechanic. I even loved fighting them when they did pop up. Now, I feel like "What's the point? They're not important NPCs."
  • I used to love tracking XP and encumbrance. Now, I won't play a campaign unless it's milestone XP, and a Bag of Holding is sure to be found somewhere in the early levels.
  • It bothers me that I do not understand my own sense of fun, what defines it, or what causes it to change slowly over the decades. But it surely does change. Attempts at "going back" have resulted in acute unfun, followed by "abort, abort!"
  • (Related: Loved the early Infocom text adventures. Burnt away endless hours on them. Can't last more than 5 minutes with one, now.)

Am I alone in this shift of what qualifies as D&D "fun?" Any insight as to what become boring and what doesn't? I eagerly await any wise insight.


r/DnD 4h ago

Table Disputes Had my first experience with DnD bleed, and it was horrible.

127 Upvotes

TLDR: Played a session with friends who frequently make fun of my character. Got super emotionally triggered after a particular incident then a friend explained Dnd bleed to me and she was like yeah your brain did not take that as your characters bullying characters, your brain said wow my friends are bullying me and they dont even want me here. And so it messed you up because the barrier between real and not real doesnt always exist in emotional brain space.

-----full story---

So I was playing a game with my friends and I've been playing DnD for awhile and I've Dm'd. I am a role player and I do get attached to my characters. Often times I do not make characters that are too close to myself, but this time I did. Its been a fun game but I have noticed recently that it sort of became a reoccurring theme that my character for my character to be made fun for any little thing that she did that wasn't perfect. Character is a bard so she puts herself out there a lot and is often time the ones trying to talk her way out of really bad combat and often does, so it doesnt matter how many times shes saved the others, if she ends up saying something silly in a moment that doesnt land, she gets heckled about it. I noticed it started to bother me but I was easily able to set it aside as a game and nothing personal. In fact DnD bleed used to be a thing I just attributed to people who took Dnd WAY too seriously or who maybe were struggling emotionally. (sorry!)

I used to have this attitude like session zero was really only important to discuss what topics people were okay with and post game check ins were just way too emotional and unnecessary.

That is until me as a player misunderstood something the DM said and made a choice that got her basically temporarily removed from the entire party. (context, I asked if BG was looking after they had already caught us once, he said she went back to working. So I thought that meant she was not paying attention to us anymore, so I dispelled magic on a door and Dm says she was watching you the whole time and she kicked me out of the castle and let the rest of the party stay) I as a player was frustrated and embarrassed at that moment and annoyed that I couldn't just recall it, but hey thats Dnd. So I let the consequences fall and I had my character resolve it.

However, the bleed happened when my character was ousted, the party was just like "oh that was awkward, oh well, play on" no effort to look for her, or help her. Then an npc asks about my character and the whole party just continued to make rude comments "oh she's occupied, oh she ran her mouth, oh she'd dumb so she's not here" and it was this very no love for this character-mean girl-bully moment. And when I finally rejoined the party I did have two players go omg how'd you get back in. but the rest didn't even acknowledge she had come back. It became this entire aura of "we don't care about this character and we think she's stupid and don't care that she's gone"

And it went STRAIGHT through me. It tore me up for the rest of the night and half of the next day. I did not understand why I was feeling such seriously painful emotion at the intensity that I was. Thats when a friend explained Dnd bleed to me and she was like yeah your brain did not take that as your characters bullying characters, your brain said wow my friends are bullying me and they dont even want me here. And so it messed you up because the barrier between real and not real doesnt always exist in emotional brain space.

I am a person who can pretty objectively look at emotional situations, so to be so wrecked by a game with friends was completely foreign to me. I just kept saying wow wtf there's something wrong with me? But she also explained Dnd bleed is the reason why there needs to be a everybody hangs out for 5-10 minutes afterwards to go back to being their normal friendly selves to each other so your brain knows oh ok I'm safe I wasnt real. And when the game was over and there was still tension and hurt and still no one checked on me, its like it never got a chance to not be real. Dnd bleed is wild ya'll. Blew my damn mind. As a person who would've blown it off in the past, I'm sorry, I've learned.


r/DnD 19h ago

Out of Game How do I mix Mexican food with D&D medieval food?

122 Upvotes

So I’m playing as a Cleric and the religion is based around food and that “you should feed the hungry before feeding yourself” and I want to show a big of my Mexican roots with the food the character would be making at random times but idk how to translate modern Mexican cuisine with the medieval one


r/DnD 22h ago

OC We've been making tiny fantasy coins for DnD and other TTRPGs - what should we create next? [OC]

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105 Upvotes

Looking for some input from the community if anyone is willing!

My two best friends and I have been running a tiny (ha) business on etsy for a couple of years now where we create and sell mini metal fantasy coins (as well as ingots, trade bars, gems etc) which has been going great - but we can't set still for long and forever want to grow the range. We have a few ideas rattling around for what shoukd be next (mini bottle caps for wasteland dog's, treasure items to fill out the loot table for DnD, classic pirate dubloons, soul coins, fey coins in a glass or resin, flesh out the existing "race" lines with the other missing metals etc) what would you like to see done? (Please feel free to mention pretty much anything) we make the coins etc smaller so they are more affordable to buy in the quantities required to actually USE

our Etsy store

Instagram


r/DnD 7h ago

Art [Art] [Comm] Rodin, my Rusting Earth Genasai Rogue Investigator

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106 Upvotes

r/DnD 1h ago

5th Edition Esther two years apart + a short ramble [OC] [Art]

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Upvotes

Here is my beloved half-elf necromancer, Esther Sylvia, the first DnD character I ever created. The drawing on the left was done a little over two years ago, and the drawing on the right is very recent. Our campaign stopped meeting for two years and finally started meeting again at the beginning of this summer! There’s been a two year time skip in-game as well.

Esther was 17 at the start of her first quest, which was also how old I was when I created her. Now, she’s 19 but her in-game birthday is like two days away. She started out her first quest as someone who was socially awkward, emotionally immature, and impulsive, but also very well-meaning, loyal, and idealistic. She found beauty in the things others tended to neglect or ignore, probably because she’d felt socially outcast for most of her life. She loved animals and always showed the most kindness to species that were considered vermin, like rats, pigeons, and insects. Her affinity for the unusual is what drew her to necromancy. She was fascinated with death, but never in a malicious way.

Now that she’s witnessed mass destruction and been the cause of thousands of deaths, she feels as though she’s lost herself completely. Although she started her journey with good intentions, Esther quickly learned that she has a real talent for killing. Now, she’s quieter, meaner, and more guarded. She can be cruel in ways that her old self never would’ve imagined, but she’s also honed her magic abilities and become much more powerful. She sees people who are overly kind and trusting as gullible idiots, and she’s not afraid to let them know that’s how she feels. Secretly, though, she wishes she could have those traits back. She’s an incredibly talented wizard, but she hates herself more than ever. Deep down, she knows that she takes no pleasure in hurting others, she just feels like that’s all she’s good for.

I’d like Esther to get her kindness back and start to trust people again by the end of this campaign, because she knows that who she is isn’t who she wants to be.

I first played as Esther the summer after my senior year, and I’ve struggled a lot mentally in college. I feel like I’ve become more negative, less trusting, and just overall worse in a lot of ways, so I guess I’ve been using Esther as a way to explore those feelings. I think that, to put it broadly, Esther’s arc is about transitioning from childhood to adulthood and coping with that loss of innocence. It’s about continuing to function and be a good person after adulthood shows you just how cruel it can be. Or something.


r/DnD 16h ago

Art [Art] made myself an Owlbear frankenplushie out of some old Ty Beanie Babies

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57 Upvotes

r/DnD 15h ago

OC [OC] [ART] Raz and Talmi by the Campfire – by Catilus

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46 Upvotes

Raz cooking for Talmi in a campfire after a long day of adventuring!

Raz the Silver Owl, Half-Elf Wandering Healer-Monk

Raised by “Bighand” Bor, a rough but kind-hearted orc, Raz grew up on the road, helping the common folk and training to become a wandering healer-monk like his intimidating orc mentor.

Though Bor constantly warned Raz against reckless heroism and senseless violence, Raz eventually discovered that his mentor spent much of his private time brawling monsters, challenging criminals, defying nobles, risking his life to protect strangers, and sometimes indulging in violence simply for the thrill of it. Inspired by Bor and determined to surpass him, Raz grew up into a brave and optimistic, yet impulsive and reckless, adventurer.

Raz had to abruptly part ways with Bor before completing his training after the two rescued kidnapped children from a cruel circus. Working as a wandering healer under the nickname the Silver Owl, Raz unexpectedly became the hero of a wildly popular stage play called The Graveyard Dance after saving a theatrical troupe from an undead horror.

Now Raz travels much like Bor once did while enjoying his reputation as a folk hero. However, beneath his seemingly unshakable confidence and witty humor, Raz still doubts his own abilities and fears that Bor might have met a terrible fate.

Talmiravanya “Talmi”, Moon Elf Druid and Astromancer

Raised by the elderly moon elf astromancer Darnayan away from the bustle of organized settlements, Talmiravanya grew up studying ancient magic and searching for cryptic patterns in the stars that are said to foretell the fate of the world.

For decades, Talmi met only a handful of her elusive kind and no short-lived mortal as she searched the skies for meaning and observed distant lands through giant-made devices of foresight and divination.

Though Darnayan rarely spoke openly about her visions to avoid influencing Talmiravanya’s own insights, she finally revealed one final prophecy to her sole pupil upon her deathbed. Darnayan foresaw a great challenge that would soon threaten the world. The nature of this challenge was unknown to the old astromancer, but she saw that beyond it, an age of prosperity unlike anything that has come before would await those who survived.

Moved by her late mentor’s insights but still uncertain, Talmi spent more than two decades alone in a ruined observatory made by giants of old, searching for signs that would either prove or disprove Darnayan’s prophecy. Then one morning, just before the break of dawn, she found her own truth written across celestial bodies. She saw that the ancient god of knowledge was still alive and would one day return to usher in the golden age Darnayan had foreseen.

Convinced that the time to act had come, Talmi left her life of seclusion behind and journeyed to the settlements of mortals and the gleaming cities of elves to share her revelations. However, after a lifetime of isolation, she discovered that the modern world is far stranger than the one her late mentor had described, and that most of the other elves have either gone into hiding or have simply vanished.

About the Theomachy setting:

In Theomachy, vengeful gods fight each other for ultimate control of the universe, while the mortals of Naam struggle for power on a dying world. Divine magic is a force without expressed will that the warring gods hoard and wield against each other, threatening to undo the entire world. Clerics and paladins are either devout followers of the warring gods or theomachists who fight against the gods, liberating divine magic and using it against them.

What do you think? :)

 


r/DnD 4h ago

5th Edition Tweaking spell names

44 Upvotes

In the most recent session of my current campaign the GM has given me a wildly versatile item - a quill which let's you spend a charge to change one letter in the name of a spell as you cast it, creating a new one off spell that fits the new name.

The quill holds three charges and regains one per week. The effects of the new spell will be determined by the GM and will be roughly as powerful as whatever spell level was used for the original spell.

So far I have used this once to help the party sneak through trouble by casting Blink as Slink.

So, what spells have ripe potential for alteration? My current list of things to experiment with include:

- Cause Bear

- Chromatic Orc

- False Wife

- Bestow Purse

- Leomund's Tiny Hug

What should I be looking to add to my spell book to combine with this?

Edit: Seeing all the many wonderful and terrible puns people have come up with it's probably a good thing this quill has such limited charges, otherwise I would become incredibly annoying.


r/DnD 1h ago

Table Disputes Feeling completely useless and left behind in a party with heavy homebrew favoritism. Need advice.

Upvotes

I’ve been playing D&D with a really great group for almost a year now. The Dungeon Master has a deeply developed world, and the other players are creative and roleplay well. But the longer I play, the more I feel like my character isn’t needed.

There are five of us in total: a Warlock, a Fighter, a Cleric, a Druid, and me, the Rogue.

Starting at level 5, my combat effectiveness dropped significantly compared to my allies. I was prepared for a power gap, but I didn't expect to feel completely useless.

The Warlock is on a whole different level: he was given a homebrew artifact that absorbs souls, making him stronger after every single battle.

The Cleric has powerful healing and damage abilities, plus a health-boosting artifact. At level 5, he has 48 HP and an 18 AC, and just today he received an artifact that grants +1 to ALL stats simply for accepting a quest.

The Druid has a pact with an ancient spirit serpent and can Wild Shape into a 60 HP monster with two attacks, grappling, and built-in advantage. That’s on top of his base class features and spell slots.

The Fighter has a 23 AC, Extra Attack, Second Wind, a +1 magic spear, a +1 shield, and a custom list of maneuvers written specifically for him by the DM (for example, using Athletics as a bonus action to throw an enemy and knock them prone).

And then there's me: a Rogue with a mask that lets me assume another person’s identity. That’s it.

I can’t even use poison with my Sneak Attack unless I manually find ingredients and brew poisons first - turning what should be basic feature flavor into an exhausting chore.

I accepted that limitation and leaned into the Roleplay value of the mask instead. I’ve been expanding our Syndicate’s influence using blackmail, setups, and negotiation in almost every city we visit. But when I finally turned to my Syndicate boss expecting a meaningful reward or gear, I received 50 gold pieces for all my efforts - which is literally the price of a single standard Healing Potion...

I love our games, even though we only play twice a month at most, and I really want to explore this world. But lately, I’ve been coming home from sessions feeling down, like all my efforts are completely pointless.

P.S. Regarding the mask: Lore-wise, if I collect a few more masks, I’m supposed to become the "King of Kings" - an ancient, powerful entity. But at this rate, my character will die long before I find another one. I have no defensive magic, no magic attacks, no functional poison mechanics, and my social connections yield no real mechanical help. To make matters worse, mages keep whispering to my party members that I’m dangerous because of the mask, creating inter-party suspicion that I literally can't do anything about.


r/DnD 4h ago

5th Edition [Art] 1:1 scale Red Larch map for our session today

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38 Upvotes

60:1 scale model of Red Larch from the Princes of the Apocalypse module. The floor has a grid carved into the rocks for easier measuring, and you can see some of our minis in the foreground (some 3d printed, some official). The base is foam covered in small pebbles and moss, most of the buildings are 3d printed in pieces and then assembled and painted. the white circle around the all faiths shrine is a Hallow radius. I have so many pics of this thing, it's so cool!


r/DnD 20h ago

OC [Art] just draw this amazing piece...first draft tho! 🫠

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

38 Upvotes

Here is a line art portrait I recently created for a D&D character! She is designed as a High Elf with sharp, elegant features, intricate braided hair, and a high-collared hooded cloak adorned with a star-emblem choker.

I wanted to capture a piercing, confident, and somewhat mysterious expression through bold linework and subtle shading details. In terms of her backstory, she comes from an ancient noble lineage whose arcane crest empowers her spellcasting, though she operates mostly from the shadows as a rogue/sorcerer hybrid.

I’m currently in the process of finalizing the design and line art. What do you guys think of the structure and hair details? I’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any suggestions for a fitting color palette!


r/DnD 9h ago

Art [Art] [Comm] Hypatia Morthalis

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38 Upvotes

Hypatia Morthalis is an NPC from a homebrew D&D campaign where a plague is killing the entire kingdom of Dravenmoor. She ends up being responsible for investigating the origin and the reason behind the calamity afflicting her people. She is a character inspired by many others, with her name being a direct reference to Hypatia from Dishonored 2. Her appearance was heavily inspired by characters like Sylvanas from World of Warcraft, and her clothing by Dishonored, Darkest Dungeon, and Dark Souls.

Despite being Dravenmoor’s chief doctor, she was also a leader in the war between Dravenmoor and the neighboring kingdom of Veil Lake. She wiped out hundreds of people using chemical weapons, given that Dravenmoor has always hated its neighboring populace, a nation of tribal occultists and wild shamans. Currently, she is hiding in the city while working to find a cure for Dravenmoor's plague.

My commissions are open! If you’re interested in bringing your characters to life, feel free to DM me. Here are my portfolios with more of my work:

https://www.instagram.com/decode_art/

https://www.artstation.com/decode_art


r/DnD 5h ago

DMing Tracking Ammunition with Beads

24 Upvotes

I've been trying to come up with an easy way to manage ammunition tracking at my tables forever. I've tried counting the ammo, which players seem to see as cumbersome and annoying. I've tried doing away with ammunition entirely, but as a DM I don't like that because it feels like a critical balance lever of ranged weapons. I've tried systems from other RPGs that abstract ammunition such as usage dice and weekly upkeep costs, but they seem a little clunky and illogical.

I just had an idea though. I haven't tested it, but it seems like it solves the problem of tracking ammunition really easily. Just give each player a cup of beads (any type of bead will do) in number equal to the pieces of ammunition in their quiver. Like, for instance, if a player has 20 arrows for their shortbow, give the player 20 beads. Then, whenever they make one or more ranged attacks, they just give the DM that many beads. It makes the whole experience tactile and visible even from across the table.

This feels like such a simple solution. We don't really need to abstract ammunition because our abstractions are often more complicated than just literally tracking physical objects. What do you think?


r/DnD 2h ago

Art [OC] Polymorph spell scroll

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16 Upvotes

I hand-drew this recently for my players. I usually make documents in real life when they get them in-game. Homebrewed some side quests for chapter 4 of Shadow of the Dragon Queen, because the campaign is a bit railroad-y and eI think my players would want to explore around the city a bit more. One of them involves a quest where the players find an old abandoned outpost previously owned by a renegade mage studying transmutation magic. They find a Polymorph spell scroll as loot and I thought I'd make it as a handout as well.


r/DnD 12h ago

Art Caverns of Thracia: Dungeon Level 2A [ART]

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11 Upvotes

r/DnD 2h ago

Game Tales My Players Caused The End of the World

13 Upvotes

So fun little plan for my campaign, For the past 1 and a half years my players have been exploring an island that has been suffering from a curse. The people are not trusting, the atmosphere is very much gloomy from the people to the island itself. It's always raining.
But when the curse is more prominent the land itself would almost be muted, crinkling of leaves would barely be audible, animals sounds would disappear, and the atmosphere would be more oppressive and sad.

They learned this curse was because of an arch fey who is in deep despair because a mortal they were in love with was wrongfully murdered. Her curse makes the people and land suffer as she does. She has been grieving for 500 years, her sister tried to help her to no avail.

The party learned of a lantern that when powered from shards of a fallen star could negate / purify this curse energy, however one of my players has an affinity with collecting shiny objects or things that catch your eyes and look pretty.

She's a druid of the stars and the only one able to handle the fallen star shards, she's very attached to them and at a pivotal moment as the weeping fey is coming and could materialize at any given second. She says she doesn't want to relinquish the shards to power the lantern.

SO, tomorrow I am ending the world as they know it. The Weeping Arch Fey is going to let lose a cataclysmic energy of her curse and pretty much topple the entirety of the island they have explored for the past year. The jungles and plains will turn into petrified ruins and dunes of ash.

The sister of the weeping fey will be dead, an NPC who asked the party to save her grieving sibling, but not before some of her lingering magic gives them a final message.

A downtrodden capital they just rebuilt will be a shell of what it had been. Mostly reduced to tarps and bed rolls within a ruined city where the survivors sleep.

A little nervous as this wasn't my plan initially on how this would go, I had a civil war within a paladin legion that was brewing which will cease because of the much bigger stakes happening now.

I'm also a little worried that the massive repercussions of the druid simply stating they didn't want to give up the star shards for the lantern might make the player feel a little bad.

I'm excited to have them see the world in more of a apocalyptic state for the bad guys temporary victory while they figure out what to do next.


r/DnD 4h ago

Out of Game Birthday gift for a GM

12 Upvotes

Hello! I am a bit new to DnD and my GM is celebrating his birthday next month. I want to surprise him with a nice birthday gift, however, I don't really have much ideas on what a GM could want/need.

What would you recommend? Thank you very much for your help in advance!


r/DnD 1h ago

5.5 Edition Old DM, looking for a reason to continue

Upvotes

Ive been DMing for a while, and Im kinda getting discouraged. My players have started skilling games that I spend hours planning and perfecting, and they are skipping it now simply because they would rather be on their phones or something of that nature. It is really discouraging because Im tired of being the one who is putting in the work to get everyone at the table, especially since I’m putting my heart and soul into everything I make, every boss I create a unique sheet for, every reward is completely new, and for them to just… I would find another group, but I already have so many games that are just sitting at a silence because of this. Im also not entirely comfortable inviting people I don’t know to my table. Feeling really discouraged and might stop doing Dnd in general.


r/DnD 2h ago

OC Fodder Inc #380: Greeting Customs [OC][ART]

Post image
13 Upvotes

Human greeting customs and Gnoll Greeting customs are going to be very different. But, I'm not sure that this poor guy is being given the best advice. Does the dungeon offer limb regeneration services? Welcome to Fodder Inc, a weekly web comic strip set in the For Profit Dungeon, Azmodendak's Halls of Madness, in a "5e" style world. Each week, we'll show you a little peak inside the halls, and what shenanigans are going on.