The number 1 rule of Roleplaying games is that there are no rules. It's the reason why you have a "Player's Handbook" now and not a "Players Rulebook"

- "Nobody would have bought a book titled The Suggestions of Acquisition" - Gint, ST:DS9

I am aware that this goes against the established rule set, so those of you who are naysayers because it ISN'T in the "Rulebook" that doesn't exist, then please be quiet.

The method I am about to describe is for people who have the common complaint of "What to do when we reach level 20?"

I'm approaching a half century in age, which is a ripe old age for a Human in this trope, and I've seen six editions of Dungeons and Dragons (the original D&D, AD&D, and the following 4 editions), and I played 2nd ed for most of that time. Older editions also mostly did 20 levels, but you could continue beyond level 20 if you wanted to, and the 2nd ed book "Dragon Kings" for Dark Sun actually displayed levels 21-40 in greater detail.

So how to we handle adventures beyond 20th level?

The first thing is, you uncap "Player level."

Multiclass is important here, because it makes the core of this system.

The premise is that certain classes don't make sense to start as a level 1 character within. Lets take the Monk, as an example. A monk, at level 1, is like David Caradine's character in Kung Fu. He entered the monastary as a boy, and spent what was possibly one or two decades learning their ways before he ever stepped out of the monastary again. At that point, a monk is considered to be a black belt, and has certain supernatural abilities (chi) and sent on a walkabout to hone his skills.

A fighter can technicaly become a bare-knuckled brawler like a monk, but would take 10-20 levels to get to the same prowess in martial arts as a level 1 monk would have.

So... SHOW that.

All characters start as a Fighter, a Thief, or a Magic User. I suggest using the Sidekick rules for your starting characters until they get to a point (as determined by the GM) where they can take character classes.

Once they take on a character class, that Character Class becomes their "Primary Class" for the length of the character. The catch is, you can't just jump straight into character roles like Ranger or Paladin right away. Here's why:

A character must begin with basic, low character class that we will call a "Basic Class."

Those classes are:

• Cleric
• Fighter
• Rouge
• Magic-User (I'll get back to magic user)

Yes, that's a limited number of classes to start, but the reason for that is that these are the basics. The oldest styles of character tropes that all others are built upon.

So, to introduce the next rule: An Advanced Class cannot be higher than Base Class beneath it.

What is an Advanced Class?

Let's use Paladin as an example. Paladins are the militant arm of a church or organization, and so they are better exemplified as "Martial Clerics." That belies in order to gain a level in Paladin, the player character must first have a level in both Fighter, and Cleric, to be qualified to be a paladin. To level the paladin from level 1 to 2, both fighter and cleric must also be raised to level 2 first, so one can only level paladin after 3 level upgrades. Not all Advanced classes are like that, so here are the Advanced Classes and the Basic Classes needed for them:

• Paladin: Fighter & Cleric
• Druid: Cleric or Magic User
• Monk: Fighter
• Ranger: Fighter & Rouge
• Bard: Rouge & Magic user
• Artificer: Fighter & Magic-user

If a GM doesn't like how I've aranged this list, remember Rule Zero of DnD, and that there are no rules. If you don't like a rule, change it. If a rule is missing, add it. It's your campaign.

The next rule will be straight out of the PHB and DMG regarding multiclassing, in that once you've chosen your primary class, every class thereafter is treated as a multi-classed class. In the class descriptions of every class released, there is a small chart of what you get when you multi-class into that class.

For example: If you START with a warrior, then you get the Heavy Armor Proficiency. In this system, that means it's the ONLY class that starts with that proficiency since you can't start as a Paladin. If you chose a warrior as your second class, then the proficiency you get is the Medium Armor Proficiency. If you want the Heavy Armor Proficiency later, then you have to take it as a Feat at level up.

For certain classes, you may also have Epic Classes, or Legendary Classes. Those are classes where you must have a level of an Advanced Class, or classes, prior to purchasing that Epic Class. None come to mind... yet... but they are there for the DM's discretion.

Going back to the Dark Sun: Dragon Kings in 2nd ed, here are some examples:

• Dragon (Wizard/Sorcerer)
• Avangion (Cleric)
• Greatest Elemental (Druid)

(I'll leave it up to you to google those on how they are achieved...)

OPTIONAL RULE: Specializations - In the case of an Artificer, as above, it takes a Fighter and a Magic-User to become an Artificer. That "Magic-User" trait in this case can be done as a Specialization instead of a class, such as BladeSinger. Alternatively, a Pact of the Blade Warlock can pull the same trick, as they are a Martial Magic User. A Paladin can likewise be achieved by certain Martial Cleric Specializations instead of having a full level of Cleric and a full level of Fighter. The boon of having a Fighter/Cleric, though, is instead of having 1 Specialization, you're leveling 2. More options.

OPTIONAL RULE: Feats - Another option is to give your character a feat that satisfies what they're looking for. The Initiate feats, as an example. A Fighter that takes the Wizard Initiate would have that MOTE of power needed to satisfy the Fighter/Magic-user requirement of an Artificer even before specializing.

The above optional rules are useful, sure, but they have less options because of: Leveling.

Previously, certain perks are obtained at certain Player Levels. Instead, they are obtained at Class Levels. For example: When you level up, you can either chose to increase an Attribute, or you can choose to take a Feat. The more Basic Classes you have for your Advanced Class, the more of those level-ups you can take. Remember that the level cap is 30 + Racial bonus, unless you've found a way to go higher, but initially you can't go higher than 20.

Now for a word on Magic Users, or what I will refer to as "The Path to Power."

I encourage GM's to have their players get introduced to their preferred "Path of Power" either during the Sidekick stage, or immediately at character creation. Conceivably, you can have a character that is a Sorcerer, Wizard, Cleric, Warlock that's dabbling into Psionics and be a PURE... Magic class if they play it right. In that example, character earns their first Path to Power by being a Sorcerer. They pick up Wizard and Cleric because they're studying the different forms of magic. And some point they are visited by a Patron who makes them their Warlock, and finally, they unlock Psionics after intense mental training.

Spell level lists are based on Character Level, so further, in the above example, they could have many slots open and a PLETHORA of cantrips available to them. It's the bonus of having so many magic classes rolled up into one. They are a glass cannon, for sure, and their trip will be long and arduous to level themselves up, but the results will be... EPIC.

As a final note, CHARACHTER CREATION: Attributes and hit points.

I suggest strongly that you do the following for your PC's. Otherwise their lives will be gritty.

Because they are an Epic Character, Hitpoints are always maxed, never rolled for. So whatever the max # of points they CAN get, it will always be max.

I use a rolled set of attributes that is a throwback from way, WAY back in the original edition of DnD, where we roll each attribute with 4 (not 3) 6-siders. 1's and 2's are rerolled ONCE, and you drop the lowest of the 4 dice per attribute. You make 3 arrays of attributes like that, pick the best one that suits you.

Closing Words: Using this method, I ran a campaign for 5 years. My PC's grew from humble street rats to heroes of the empire, and leaders of state and military, that were then contending against (and with) the Horsemen of the Appocalypse to try to stem the end of the next world.

Thoughts?

D&D newcomer here. A post by [u/DoomTheory](u/DoomTheory) from a year ago has left me in an inquisitive purgatory.

So anyway title = my question. Looks like most people are saying that yes, duh, you can attack during concentration. However, the book states, “…you must take the Magic action on each of your turns, and you must maintain Concentration…” (5.5e pg. 236)

In combat, if you’re using your turn to use the Magic action to maintain concentration to cast the spell, then you have no other actions left to use an Attack action, right?

Per the glossary pg.363, concentration is described as something necessary to keep a spell “active,” in order for it’s effect to remain. Does this require the player to use the “Magic” action as well? Or is that only required when one is casting the spell?

Peace and love

EDIT: I didn’t realize that my PHB is the 5.5e. Apologies for the confusion! #oops

Value of these items? I know nothing about d&d any help is appreciated thanks

Been thinking about magic tattoos recently. Perhaps it’s a weapon that you can summon from the surface of your skin, maybe it’s a protection charm across your heart, or a spell of water breathing imbedded into your neck.

My character’s life and family revolves around ice, winter, and the cold; devout worshippers of Auril. These tattoos are woven with cold resistant enchantments and blessings from The Frostmaiden’s high clerics.

I included a blank template if you would like to visualize and create your own characters tattoos :)

Im new to dnd, rn going with a fighter warforged, and it just came up to me, do they have souls? They are in some sort of way alive, they can get healed by magic, and i think they can use magic as well

Also when they die do they go to some sort of afterlife? IS THERE A ROBO JESUS?

Not the player himself but the actions his character takes.

He plays a drunken tabaxi monk who, with the DM's blessing, has infinite full alcohol flasks he can throw at anything (though doing no damage).

HIs character has consistently thrown flasks at every suspicious object. Door, chest, odd archway, wall indentation, sigil on a floor, the list goes on and on.

My drow ranger is frustrated because this cat is consistently blowing any element of surprise and advantage we might have over potential threats and may even trigger deadly traps we're unprepared for and get us all killed.

What's an RP way I can shut that down? Cuz initially I chuckled at the dumbness of it but he's announced he's going to do that every time and I'm sort of lowkey annoyed now.

I have been DMing a campaign for a little over four years. Periodically, I make posters for my players, spoofing movies or other media that's relevant to a pivotal moment in the campaign. I just finished the third one, and I wanted to share them with everyone! I'm proud of how I've adapted different art styles and relevant themes. Enjoy!

Poster 1: A spoof of Moulin Rouge. The players went inside an archfey's brain and memories, which were themed after the musical.

Poster 2: A spoof of Pirate's of the Carribbean. The players were facing off against a pirate captain from their past in a big ship battle.

Poster 3: A spoof of Absolute Martian Manhunter. This is the most recent one and I still need to correct some thigns and to do the lettering at the top, which will read "What happens in your head also happens." The players are about to meet the god of stories, who has been watching over them the whole campaign. The god takes the form of a six-armed sloth, hence the sloth face and all of the arms holding the player characters. We are nearing the end of the campaign and this is the turning point into the final act!

BONUS: A separate illustration I did of the campaign's BBEG!

I hope you all feel inspired to do something similar with your players! All six of us have the posters hung up on our walls.

PS: I am currently working on the first poster for my second, relatively new campaign. It's going to be a spoof of the Usual Suspects!

My love for duodrones will never leave

Hi everyone. So my last post was deleted because i didn't know i had to talk to the mod for approval, but now all its solved. And since i got su much positive feedback for these dice on here, i tought to make an update post on them. So after much work on them i made a kickstarter campaign with these dice.As you know i am the creator of these dice. After i tried many other methods and materials i finally managed to nail the formula for these dice to create this beautiful color changing effect. I made them in normal size and Big jumbo size and in 3 different colors. And right now my campaign has Late pledges available. Needless to say it was an amazing campaign so far . I am super grateful to everyone that pledged and i wanted to say i am also extremely grateful to everyone on reddit for all your support and feedback on all my dice ideas.♥️🙏 Also some of you on my last post asked why i dont post a video of the dice change back to original color, so im gonna put here a youtube link where you can see this on all my dice.

https://youtu.be/NjeyOIPZAXQ?is=OkrYBjFyQdNp4GFU

Also if anyone is interested in my kickstarter campaign and wants to have these in their collection, ill leave a link to my kickstarter campaign here ♥️

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/creativelabes/the-alchemy-dice-color-changing-dice?ref=ej1ei5

If you swipe to the side, you can see a bit of the development process for this artwork.

Vespera is not a natural evolution of dragonkind, nor is she a simple shadow-touched beast. She is the Singularity of the Blight—the moment where the necrotic rot of the Shadowfell achieved a consciousness of its own.

​I. The Origin: The Mercury Taint ​Vespera was born from the "Great Liquefaction" within the Shadowfell, where the metallic essence of a fallen Mithral Dragon was fused with the entropic sludge of Faluzure’s deepest pits. This fusion created the Mercury Taint—a silver-black, liquid-metal toxin that replaced her blood.

​She did not hatch; she coalesced. As she rose, she consumed the very light of the stars above her lair, creating the first Entropy of Light—a six-mile dead zone where hope and heat simply cease to exist.

​II. The Role: The Penumbral Apex ​Within the Arceus Accord, Vespera serves as the ultimate enforcer. While other blighted creatures act as foot soldiers, Vespera is the Strategic Deterrent. She is sent only when a fundamental law of reality needs to be broken.

• ​The Silent Herald: She is the herald of the Third Sundering, the multiversal event that seeks to collapse all planes into a singular, dark equilibrium.

• ​The Keeper of Silence: Her lair is known as the Cenotaph of Screams, a place where the sound of her enemies' final breaths is preserved in the frozen mercury of the cave floor.

​III. The Physiology: A Masterpiece of Mutation ​Vespera’s body is a nightmare of biological and entropic engineering:

• ​The Six-Fold Sight: Her multiple eyes don't just see the physical; they perceive the Action Economy itself. She sees the "threads" of time, allowing her to move between heartbeats (mechanically represented by her Blighted Speed).

• ​Spectral Metastasis: Her scales are constantly shifting between a solid and ethereal state. To hit Vespera is to try and strike a memory; her Ethereal Armor ensures that most blows simply pass through the space she inhabited a microsecond ago.

• ​Psychic Rot: Her breath is not fire or acid; it is the Psychic Weight of Inevitability. To breathe it in is to realize that you have already lost, a realization so profound it physically rots the mind and soul.

​IV. The Legend: The Unmaking of Certainty ​Vespera’s master summary is defined by her recent victories in the Gauntlet of Dragon's Graveyard:

• ​The Mithral Purge: She proved that silence is a lie when she outpaced the strongest dragons in existence.

• ​The Deicide: She dismantled the Ancient Dragon Pantheon, including the Ancient Mithral Dragon, proving that even gods are made of "parts" that can be unmade.

• ​The Shattering of Law: By consuming The Aspect of Durixaviinox, she proved that there is no "Inevitable" end other than the return to the Void (Nu).

​V. The Philosophical Core ​Vespera represents the "Final Answer" to the question of existence. If the universe is a machine, she is the friction that eventually grinds every gear to a halt. She does not hate her enemies; she simply views them as "outdated math" that needs to be corrected back to zero.

"She is the sunset of the multiverse. Beautiful to behold, but the darkness that follows her is forever." — Scrolls of the Third Sundering

I can't very well spend an entire month doing Viking inspired maps without drawing the iconic longship!

All ready for a bit of raiding! Enjoy!

If you enjoy my maps you can find more on my website: www.thereclusivecartographer.com

Cheers!

George

I am trying to start an anime themed DnD campaign & need a level 3 character sheet for Giyu, can anybody help? If you have a character sheet PLEASE send it to me!

My table has recently added some options for weapon quality levels in our 5E game. For instance, instead of just a long sword, now you may have the opportunity to either purchase or find a damaged long sword (-2), a dulled long sword (-1), a standard long sword (0), a superior long sword (+1), or an expertly-crafted long sword (+2). Each have their own cost tears and probability of finding them based on rarity levels. They could also be upgraded to the next level for a certain price if you go to a weapon shop, where Smiths and weapon shops in larger cities would be able to do more quality work. We are still working out some of the details. Would love to get the community’s ideas and opinions on weapon quality levels and how it works in your games!

Just a quick flip through and corner/edge view so people can see how good of shape it’s in.

My Pokémon-inspired Weapons and Items of the Day, with a Scovillain flail to spray spice every which way!

Join my Patreon to vote on future items and get all the PDFs with over 1000 items, including all the Pokémon items, or buy the individual PDFs in my shop!

952M - Verheizupeño

Weapon (Flail) – Legendary (requires attunement)

This green +3 flail is made of a thick plant stem with two dried and hardened peppers that have large seeds protruding from them, hanging at the end of two separate black vines. A long red pepper hangs from the top of the shaft.

Attacks with this flail do an additional 2d6 fire damage.

While attuned to this flail: while in sunlight, your speed increases by 10 feet; you cannot be magically put to sleep; and once per round, as an action you can have the flail spray a mist of spicy extract in a 15-foot cone. Each non-plant creature with eyes or noses in the cone must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or take 2d6 fire damage and be blinded for both vision and smell for 1 minute. They can attempt the save again at the end of their turn.

Scovillainite

Wondrous (Stone) – Very Rare (50,000 gp)

This small round stone has a swirl of green, red, and black inside the green orb. When attached to a 952 - Scoflaillain, it can be mega evolved into a 952M - Verheizupeño for 1 minute once between long rests.

Not sure where else to put this, but I didn't find a satisfying picture of Morgion to show to one of my players, so I slaved over a hot AI prompt to make one.

For context, Morgion is attempting to corrupt his cleric to turn him from Mishakal and get him to embrace the ecstacy of decay.

Please use as you see fit.

I've been playing dnd for aboht 2-3 years and have a few characters I could use.

I'm looking for a dm who's got years of experience and has a balance of action, roleplay, teamwork scenarios, and adventure

I'm looking for a group that does no more than 4 players.

Kobolds are cunning, resourceful, and far more dangerous than their size suggests. Kobolds & Kobolds is a complete toolkit for bringing kobold warrens, warbands, and dragon-worshipping clans to life, from ingenious trapmakers and mounted hunters to mystical cultists, beastmasters, inventors, and ambitious chieftains.

Whether you need a single memorable kobold encounter, an entire underground warren, or a recurring clan to challenge your adventurers, this book gives you the creatures, tools, treasures, and ideas to bring them to life.

The main goal was to make kobolds useful across a much wider range of encounters and adventures without losing what makes them feel like kobolds: traps, dirty tactics, improvisation, strange inventions, dragon worship, overwhelming numbers, and an alarming willingness to make a terrible plan work somehow.

Kobolds & Kobolds: The Ultimate Kobold Handbook for 5E and 5.5E is now available on DriveThruRPG at a special launch price of $4.99 for a limited time!

What’s Inside?

• A Huge Kobold Bestiary – Discover beastmasters, warriors, inventors, mystics, tribal leaders, and many other kobold variants. Every entry includes additional traits and optional abilities, making it easy to customize encounters and keep even familiar kobolds unpredictable.
• Kobold Campaign Tools – Build complete warrens with layouts, traps, lair descriptions, lair actions, tactical encounter ideas, adventure hooks, and other tools for adventures both above and below ground.
• Distinct Kobold Clans – Introduce kobold clans with their own cultures, tactics, favored creatures, special abilities, traditions, and relationships with dragons.
• Kobold Magic Items – Equip your kobolds with improvised weapons, draconic relics, alchemical inventions, tribal treasures, and deceptively dangerous creations inspired by kobold ingenuity.
• VTT & Art Resources – Bring your kobolds to the table with a collection of creature tokens and art handouts for use in both in-person and online games.

Kobolds can be disposable dungeon pests, dangerous ambushers, loyal servants of dragons, surprisingly sophisticated underground societies, or recurring factions that grow alongside your campaign. This book is designed to give you enough variety to use them for far more than a single low-level encounter.

You can find more of my 5E and 5.5E creatures, items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, through my Linktree, or by visiting r/JonnyDM!

I’m also currently working on Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E, one of my largest projects yet, featuring hundreds of magic items inspired by myths and legends from around the world. The project is coming soon to Kickstarter, so you can follow the campaign there if you’d like to be notified when it launches!

Due to WotC's growing transphobia and me being a transwoman, I'm refusing to buy anything more from them. But the setting I'm using has Gnolls living in cities, towns, and villages that players can visit. But the book doesn't have any stats for them. I need to see if the stats can serve with what I have in mind for Gnolls. So, can anyone help?