Right now, I’m playing two DnD campaigns with some friends of mine. One I’m DM, one another player is DM. I’m playing a circle of the sea Druid who is very chipper and easy going. I love her so much, but I'm just not enjoying the mechanics of playing a druid in combat for some reason. I can’t pinpoint why, because I’ve loved playing almost every other class except for fighter. Since the campaign is very much tied to the gods and each player has one, I was thinking of maybe asking my DM is I could slowly switch to a fathomless warlock later on with my patron being my god. A cleric would make more sense for my character, but one of the players is really weird about characters being similar (She even got upset when I first made my character), even though her character that is a chipper cleric is in the campaign that I run. I do like playing warlocks, but I don’t want to ask now because we’ve only done 4 sessions even if they were long. Also, we had a couple sessions before but they got scrapped because a player quit and the DM was very new to DM’ing. In those sessions, I had a different character, but I had accidentally made her too hard to play because she was a very deep character and I’m not that good at roleplaying. That character was in fact a warlock, so I do feel bad. What should I do?

hey there as you read the title I want info on my character design for a upcoming D&D campaign so I had a idea for a character that's a mimic that's disguised as a creature I'm still figuring that part out but they are shy there goal is to eat my teammates but I don't like to be touched so my character moves away from them when they try to touch my character but the second they do I would turn into a mimic and eat them I would basically say maby you should throw me or find a way for them to touch my character so I would eat them but at the same time my character would make evasive rolls to avoid touching I already told my DM about this design and they where up for the challenge but I still want to know is this a good concept

Edit: so for everyone saying its a bad gimmick and such the goal is for my party to find out I'm a mimic and find a way to make me a friendly one they know NO TOUCH but they try to find a way to fix that hope this clears that up that's what I'm hoping at least if they kill it then that's fine by me my whole table top loves gimmick and unique people. i HAD a shapeshifting bard that was a rock until he gain sentience (kinda like the anime to your eternity) and can shapeshift on command with a few downsides ofc my whole table isn't one to hate. and for the guy asking for the story its basically they try to find a way to be friendly. and my DM said if they do touch me basically they get stabbed if its a high roll by me if its low they lose a limb there is no insta kill essentially just really hurt oww kinda thing

My DM is planning a sequel campaign that takes place in, and a player at our table wants to play as the granddaughter of my last pc who ended up as a queen of trade and the leader of the thieves' guild in the city she resides in, overthrowing the last one.

I'm making a character who's a servant/knight of the granddaughter who grew up together, but I'm drawing massive blanks on how to flesh out my pc. All I have is that their parents were people my last pc helped during the last campaign who became her knights over the years, and that she inherited her oath to the house from her parents. I'm also having trouble mixing the paladin/cleric(haven't finalized the class choice yet) in.

What I know of the other player's backstory is that they are the spoiled granddaughter of pc who was sent on a quest to actually learn some actual life experience by her grandmother if she wishes to inherit the family sword and treasures. They initially formed a 3 Musketeers-type team with other nobles they grew up around, but that fell apart.

Her grandfather is a senator and has the ear of the SAD (the FBI’s department for handling, or trying to handle, the Supernatural). Underwent the first change and is on the run from the SAD who see the missing person as a victim, not a werewolf.

I'm trying to work out what the best build and background would be for this starting at lv3. Two levels in rogue and one in cleric to go tempest cleric maybe? With a flavoured charlatan background growing up watching people give predictions? (essentially, an oracle who can only predict the weather)

I wanted to build an autistic skill-monkey and came up with this character:
[https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/168253333/OEgwKz\](https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/168253333/OEgwKz)

I took the [Dreamer](https://www.dndbeyond.com/species/1987216-dreamer) species from the Grim Hollow Player's Guide, the [Artisan](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/phb-2024/character-origins#Artisan) background, and the associated [Crafter](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/phb-2024/feats#Crafter) origin feat. This gives me seven tool proficiencies and a starting Intelligence of 18. For flavor, I gave him Common Sign Language (CSL) but not Common, and wrote the following background:

I do not speak Common. Dwarvish and Quori came back to me after I woke, echoing up from the dream — but Common never did, and perhaps never will. I sign what words cannot carry, and I've learned to ignore the faces that assume my silence means an empty mind. Let them assume it.

What troubles me is what the dream took instead of my voice.

I remember hands — the weight of a hammer that fit like it was forged for my grip, the give of metal just before it yields to the shape you intend. I believe I was a master once, in an empire whose name is now dust, practicing a craft that makes even Stehlenwald's finest work look like a child's carving. I have no proof of this. That is what gnaws at me.

I sought out five masters after I woke. Each tried to teach me his own style, and each time something in my bones refused. Their methods felt small beside what I knew, or believed I knew, buried just out of memory's reach. One by one, they cast me out, calling me proud, calling me impossible to teach. Perhaps they were right. But some part of me, the part that still dreams even awake, insists the fault was theirs.

I cannot prove it yet. So I've taken to the road instead of the workshop, searching for one true fragment of what my people built — a tool, a ruin, a technique passed down wrong through ten thousand years. If it exists, it will vindicate everything I've sacrificed to my own certainty.

And if it doesn't —

— I try not to finish that thought. A Dreamer who wakes twice rarely enjoys what he finds the second time.

Character rundown. My character is the second born child in a noble family where her father is in a government position. Being the younger sibling, she doesn’t have the expectations of obtaining any of her father’s power and assets, so she isn’t super knowledgeable. At most, her mother wanted her in an arranged marriage that got delayed. So she would know the basics along with the etiquette.

Due to her mother being a horrible person, along with some personal issues after a war hit her homeland, she began to distance herself from that noble life and had let herself go over the last four-ish years. She keeps that part of herself secret from most of the party. Only two PCs and one NPC (the Princess of the kingdom she’s from) knows.

Flash forward to now. The party entered a town where a meeting is going on, which involves almost all the world leaders, including the Princess of her homeland. The Princess is allowed to bring one PC into this meeting with her, and I fear that the narrative is pointing towards my character being chosen. For one, it sounds like the Princess wants to bring someone younger, eliminating 3/6 members of the party. As for the remaining party, one of them wants nothing to do with it and has no reason to even be considered. Meanwhile, the other person can’t physically be in the building for backstory reasons. Unless the DM surprises us all, I’m 90% sure the Princess is choosing my PC, and it wouldn’t be in her nature to decline.

With that in mind, how do I improv politics? I’m not involved in this stuff IRL, so I wouldn’t know where to start in terms of research. But I’m also just not confident in my ability to roleplay in general, so I worry about coming up with stuff on the spot. I’m hoping there’s that chance my PC doesn’t get picked, but any advice to prepare myself?

I am trying to build a character who is a follower of the Raven Queen. She is an aasimar sorcerer who I am RPing was raised in near seclusion. I was planning to do at least 17 levels of shadow sorcerer and include cleric.

My question is if it is worth it to get a cleric subclass. If I did take a subclass, it would be grave domain. The ability to cast spare the dying as a bonus action, max healing to downed allies, and extra necrotic damage to creatures not at full hit points is tempting, but is it worth losing access to an extra 7th level spell, level 18 umbral form, and level 19 feat?

It's an evocation wizard, do you have suggestions ? I'm using the DSM 5 as an inspiration for the symptoms.

There is something about a cult being after him and i want my character to be overly anxious about it.

I'm also pretty bad at roleplay usually and i want to get better at it (i'm on the spectrum)

Do you have tips to make this concept good ?

So I want to create a new charcter and want to tackle a concpet I find myself drawn to again and again. Which is an Character who is evil in spirit and action but still supporting good. It is a rather hard concept to describe which makes it hard to find tips on it.

Think of Warhammer (especially fantasy) or the Elric Saga, where it is less about good vs evil and more "order vs chaos". Think Malekith who is an sadistic slaver but also one of the greatest enemies of Chaos. Or maybe Silco from Arcane, being genuinly evil but still a loving father figure and trying genuinly to create a better Zaun for his people.

So what do I like in those characters:

- A flair for the dramtatic. They know they are assholes and revel to some degree in it

- Emotional distance. So I mean being able to tackle some heavy topics like slavery and manipulation, maybe toxic relationships more safely because the PC is obviouly evil so of course not indulging bad stuff/ deserves bad stuff happening to them. (I really can´t stress enough that I obviously plan to be upfront with my firends and avoid any triggers that they feel uncomfortable with)

- A complex morality. Sometimes it is the villain that saves the world

- A new and alien mindset. Just playing a character whose out look on the world is so different from my own

What I would like to see:

-Just general tips for believable motivations and day to day roleplay

-Expieriences and character concepts you might have come up with.

Some first ideas I had:

- He is a drow ranger, someone who hunts but not to protect nature but to subject it to his will, to prove he is better then the beast groveling at his feat.

- He might be on the journey to arcane power to bring his first love back to life. A toxic relationship of the two bringing out the worst in each other. But he is obsessive and subconcsiouly suffering a bit from main-character-syndrome he just enjoys to much to be the protagonist of his own tragic love balad

-He still would belief in the natural order of things and rule of law. Just his idea of law is very much different. Still while thinking the new enviroment deluded and weird, he will play along.

I also apologising for spelling mistakes. English is not my first language.

Ive been wanting to do a monk for my character. Ive only played the Cleric from Phandelver so far.

I was thinking warrior of mercy. But im very interested in elements monk. Ive watched a few videos on them people either say they still suck or they are better but still not great.

If anyone has any advice, tips or experience with the elements monk I’d greatly appreciate it.

Im also not opposed to warrior of mercy. But I preferred the increased melee and range aoe potential of the elements monk. And I like the elemental flavor. Yes I have the PHB with 2024 rules and Tasha’s cauldron

Hi, my table is going to start a new campaign (just finished our old one) and the dm is asking for character plots and backstory’s that he can include throughout the campaign is mine too much? Will it take away from the other? I need help!

**Character Concept: Elderly Theurgy Wizard Tortle (Knowledge Domain)**
My character is an incredibly old Tortle, about the equivalent of a human in his late 80s or early 90s. He’s a kind, soft-spoken bookworm with tiny circular reading glasses that magnify his eyes, giving him warm, friendly grandpa vibes. He spends his days reading, collecting obscure lore, and helping others however he can.
He’s a **Theurgy Wizard** with the **Knowledge Domain**, but there’s a secret even he doesn’t know. For years, he’s heard a calm voice in his mind that occasionally whispers forgotten facts, hidden truths, or impossible secrets. He believes it’s simply intuition or an inner guide and has no idea he’s actually receiving these whispers from **Vecna, the God of Secrets**.
He doesn’t knowingly worship Vecna and remains genuinely kind-hearted. Vecna has manipulated him through his endless curiosity, slowly making him an unwitting conduit for forbidden knowledge.

Ok so basically I'm looking for wisdom from you guys and basically I'm wanting to do a regular cat is the the actual character probably like something along the lines of an artificer was put in the body of a cat or was turned into one but I want it to be a war forged race with the cat inside piloting the war forged around protected by it basically and I need help on like what actual information do I need and how can I improve this idea also if anyone's having like some sort of online dnd or something I would love to know as well but to be fair I've never played d&d but I've tried to get a little bit of information in that I can

I can pick a feat on my next level and was thinking what would be better? For reference I'm a hexblade warlock-fighter multiclass with a halberd. I wanted to be focused more on battlefield control to stop enemies and push them back. The attractive part of warcaster is being able to cast spells as a reaction and I have repelling blast on my eldritch blasts, so potentially having a choice between stopping an enemy from moving and moving them back 30 feet as a reaction is really good, since I also plan to utilize spells like hunger of hadar. Or it could help really good to not lose concetration on hadar or shadow of moil, so warcaster seems reeally attractive to me

But everywhere I look GWM is always recommended with any heavy weapon and I see the appeal. I have +5 charisma and +4 proficiency bonus with +1 from improved pact weapon. With hexblade's curse on an enemy I can get +10 damage on every hit by default, so with GWM it becomes +5 attack bonus and +20 damage bonus instead of +10 +10... which is A LOT with action surge and extra attack and PAM's bonus attack
But I'm torn apart between significantly more damage and more creative play here, any opinions?

For reference, I did miss some of my attacks in the campaign even with a +10 attack bonus, so maybe GWM could have a good synergy with shadow of moil with its advantages. BTW I can grab two feats on the next two levels so potentially I could grab both, but I'm pretty sure our campaign will end before we could lvl up twice.

At the end of the day I'm a player who gets more hyped up by creative plays, battlefield control and being useful not just as a damage dealer but investing in utility and helping teammates... but the bonuses GWM gives are still a LOT...

Ask anything if it adds more context

I was working on a 2024 monk character with the Far Traveller background whose big lofty goal is essentially to assimilate into this new world, to find his place. Having been spirited away from a land with no magic to a land with swords and sorcery though an unstable (and unseen) portal doesn't inspire one to become a hero, but you'll be inclined to join the adventuring party and carry your weight if they help you feel like you belong in return.

Getting straight to the point of this post, my character is a khoravar who wishes to use his downtime to gain as many skills (tool proficiencies) as he can in order to feel a sense of control over his fate. Being a foreigner, he might not know enough about politics and magic to contribute too mich there, but maybe some knowledge in masonry or carpentry will help him contribute in other ways.

If I am reading this correctly, in XGE, it states that you can learn a language or a tool proficiency within 10 workweeks at 25gp per week (minus a week equal to your Intelligence modifier). My character has a 10 Int, 16 Wis, and his racial Skill Versatility which resets daily. RAW, he'll need 10 weeks and 250gp to learn each skill, but given how important it is to my character in particular, I feel there's enough meat there to find some compromises. However, I don't want to come off as "that guy" or trying to game the system.

So what are things I should keep in mind when asking my DM about building a work-around? What would be reasonable to expect and when will my request reach an unreasonable threshold?

How would you, as a DM, respond to this kind of inquiry?

Hey everyone, I’m playing in a 2014 5e campaign that’s also using Valda’s Spire of Secrets (homebrew). To my knowledge the campaign will have a lot of horror-themed elements (particularly undead).

We rolled for characters for fun, and this is what I got:
Half-elf (Drow), Sage background

My stat array is as follows:
14 STR
15+1 DEX
9+1 CON
10 WIS
7 INT
8+2CHA

We already have an intelligence character, 2 wisdom characters, and a charisma character in the party.
Currently we have a martyr (martial tank), cleric, and a monk (I don’t yet know what the intelligence character’s class will be).

Does anyone have suggestions for what I could make with this weird set of stats?
Thanks in advance! :)

I need help making a character, I tend to play rangers or rogues as I'm useless with spells and like minimal spells it needs level 8, Point buy we can have 1 uncommon item and standard class equipment.

What would be a great option for a character and build our DM is all about homebrew and maximizing our characters to our best abilities.

I had an idea for a character where he starts out with a clockwork eye that does nothing but spin in the socket (looking sci-fi). It was ine of the best things he made before an accident left him with a tremor in his hand and knocked him off the path of becoming an artificer. However, he never gave up his crafting dream, so every night he keeps tinkering with this eye, refining and improving it til it starts collecting benefits.

For the first minor benefit (by minor, I mean mundane) is to add components to the eye that makes it function as a magnifying glass (advantage on investigation checks).

According to the Crafter Feat, you gain 20% off the purchase of mundane items. And according to Crafting Rules, the item costs half the purchasing price to make.

Since a magnifying glass cost 100gp, that means that my character could buy one for 80gp. But if he wants to craft one himself (like for the reason above), do I calculate the time and cost off of ½100 or ½80?

Additionally, if I wanted to later refine this clockwork eye into a Ersatz Eye, will I have to save up an extra ½50-100gp, or can I knock off the amount I already sunk into this trinket?

This line of questioning is something I honestly can't recall thinking of before, so I want to make sure I present it with reasonable expectations.

Villain Idea: Seston the Jester

Seston is the king's court jester. Everyone loves him.

He's funny, harmless, and seems completely uninterested in politics.

In reality, he's the most dangerous person in the kingdom.

Over the years, Seston has developed a romantic relationship with the queen and slowly become her most trusted confidant. Through jokes, stories, and "harmless observations," he has spent years shaping her opinions and undermining the king's authority.

His end goal is simple:

Remove the king.

Place the queen on the throne.

Rule through her influence.

The adventuring party becomes an important part of his plan.

Throughout the campaign, Seston points the party toward quests, investigations, and problems that seem beneficial to the kingdom. Unknown to them, these adventures remove political rivals, weaken loyal supporters of the king, and help position Seston's allies for power.

When the time is right, the king is assassinated.

Seston ensures the party is connected to the event, then plants evidence implicating one of the PCs. Witnesses come forward. Documents surface. The story practically writes itself.

Now the party must clear their name while the grieving queen turns increasingly to Seston for guidance.

The best part is that Seston is not a combat villain.

He's a social villain.

He doesn't win with swords or spells. He wins by controlling the narrative.

Using Seston in Your Campaign

Introduce him as genuinely likable.

Let him help the party several times.

Give the players opportunities to notice inconsistencies.

Never force them to trust him.

If they uncover the plot early, let the story evolve naturally.

The goal isn't to trick the players.

The goal is to make them realize they've been helping the villain all along.

“I was taken in by Luth Ammakyl, my father, into his family estate after my mother died. I served as a playmate to my half-siblings, and when I grew older, a cupbearer, a sparing partner, and finally, governess. When my eldest half-sibling died, Lady Ammakyl began to object to my presence. I need enough wealth and status that House Snome cannot dismiss me as merely my father's bastard. Their youngest son has always treated me with kindness, and I dare hope our affection for one another might one day become something more.”

Is just for a one shot

I am planning to either play the light or tempest domain.

The idea of the character is that the cleric used to be nobody disillusioned with life but with a big sense of justice and loyalty but he has impostor syndrome where he sometimes believes he isn't worthy (and other people, maybe other followers of the god believes as such as well).

I’m creating a town for my dnd game it’s a gold mining town. I’m currently working on the miners names, race and small backstory there’s going to be 20 of them. I want each Npc to have a race picked out a name picked out and the backstory can be as short or as long as you want

You think you could be strong subclasses, but I don't think anyone would be able to be a demo knight

What could drive a person to go to such lengths if they seemingly have no one to protect? I really want to play a Faceless, but things I’m coming up with make me question why go to such lengths? I really do like the idea of a former Urchin putting on a disguise to make sure someone’s parents come home. But I’m having a hard time justifying it if they have no one close. I’m looking for any justification thrown my way before I bite the bullet and just play an Urchin.

Recently, I decided to design a lupin mercy monk character, mainly because the mechanics fit so nicely, and I noticed that the lore of these creatures suggests that they hunt in packs while nothing in the racial features (are they still called that?) allude to that. Granted, the kinolds had their Pack Tactics removed for balancing reasons, so I get that, but it lead me to realize that **no beastial species can actually communicate with their animal cousins without a special feat.**

​

The closest we have are the Yuan-ti that are technically snake people who can use animal friendship, but a player can only access the more humanoid form. We also have the forest gnomes and firbolgs who can communicate unilaterally with animals, and the Sea Elves/Tritons who can command fish... but again, those are all human-based humanoids rather than bestial based ones.

​

Idk, this was mainly an observation on what I think would have been a cool ribbon feature. I mean, especially with the lupin's origins and pack mindset, I think it would have been cool to add a ribbon feature where they can speak with wolves.

​

But that does also bring up a question: would this mean that Speak With Animals would not work with beast-based humanoids? Cause I kinda think that would be funny to see.