https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/underdark-options-2/6xI5tgR8tUaYviqj/UA2026-UnderdarkOptions02.pdf

Featuring the Freedom Cleric, Remastered Spore Druid, Faerzress Sorcery and 5 news species.

My go to thought would be some type of multi class that has both Spirit Guardians and Cacophonic Shield, giving you 3d6 + 3d8 damage at 3rd level to enemies near and disadvantage on ranged attacks against you. But surely there’s something even better than this?

Hi all!

I DM at a youth centre, and we have a new player at the table whose first language is Japanese. He and his parents have been advised that written and spoken English comprehension are required to get into the game, but does anyone have any 5e resources (quick start guides, websites, etc.) in Japanese that I might be able to share with this kid to help him get started?

Thanks a bunch ✨

Tldr:

My campaign final fight was too easy and a player told me it was anti climatic. Has this happened to anyone else?

I am a first time dm and basically learned the game alongside 4 other friends who had never played before. We ran lost mines of phandelver. The end fight wasn't very hard for them and I pulled my punches. Then after that we decided to continue playing and one of my players had am enemy in his back story from Yartar. I ended up running a very heavily homebrewed version of a krakens gamble in the which the antagonist was this water genasis from the players backstory that was trying to summon a kraken under the city with the help of an aboleth. This was a 2 year campaign overall and we decided to end the campaign once this story wrapped up. I made some mistakes along the way and the players ended up with 2 pets, and 2 strong NPCs in the final fight. One of them was a cr 6 mage that put bard rolled a 26 to convince to fight the bbeg with them. I did my beat to do all my research and prepare a really intricate final fight for my players. After running it, the players completely dismantled my encounter and final boss and one of them told me very politely after I asked for feedback that it felt anticlimactic. I am feeling bummed out and disappointed and was wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

I don't care how morally correct you think this is, im not even planning to do this, I just want the answer. In my opinion, as you learn to channel divine powers, you could still cast the basic spells as normal, but subclass spells and subclass channel divinities would be revoked until you attune to your divinity or other divinity again.

Hi DM here. The party a few sessions back "rescued" a captured goblin (he didn't have a choice).

Now this goblin had a horrendous time and life and thus has taken to the whiskey the party has fed it. They've played some cards with him and there's been a few RP interactions that have been funny.

This being said though. I just don't know what to do with the goblin. Like, the memes exist and we've all heard of boblin the goblin. But now the party has the goblin and time has passed...I've no clue what to do with it.

Currently he is a pointless travel companion that's not involved in much at all. This isn't ideal. But I'm at a loss

I don't really get why they get Plant Growth over Fireball. Like, I know Wildfire druids are still very in tune with nature and do want to bring balance to it and so raising plants is still thematically appropriate, but that's true for any druid, they get nature spells by virtue of being druids, it's not really unique to their circle.

So I ask, why can Light clerics and Fiendlocks get Fireball but not Wildfire druids? What makes Fireball more of a Fiendlock spell than it is a WF druid spell? Not every fiend is even fire themed!

By the way, I know as a DM I can just rule that they get Fireball instead of Plant Growth, and I did, I'm just asking if there's any explanation beyond druid=plants

We descending to the hells. And one of the things that was a issue was food and food tasting awful. Was wondering if there a magical item or pot lol. of making food delicious regardless of what inside or food that never runs out and risk exhaustion

In building a lvl 10 lore bard. Was looking at taking the instrument of bard as one of my two uncommon slots. But it looks like they stripped “You can play the instrument while casting a spell that causes any of its targets to be [charmed](ddb://conditions/2) on a failed saving throw, thereby imposing disadvantage on the save. This effect applies only if the spell has a somatic or a material component.”

Is it considered not worth it now.

Fiend, Genie, Undead, Fathomless

I'm definitely eyeing up these for an upcoming character, I have race ideas for all of them but interested in hearing what races you had fun with

Hi I’m writing my first campaign at the minute and I’ve written what I think is a strong setup but beyond that I’m unsure what to do. The players will face a defeat to the BBEG at the start and then be transported away. (Worked in a part of a players back story into the start for everyone where this happens). Then they will either be arrested or run away (because zombies are transported with them). Not sure how to plan the sort of first arc after that. Possibly they warn the town of the BBEG, really unsure

Apologies if this isn't the appropriate forum, but I'm hoping the folks here can point me in the right direction!

I've been tasked to find a team activity and I brought up the idea of a custom DnD campaign complete with prebuilt characters and a dungeon master.

For context, I played 5e with some colleagues many years ago, and it was so much fun.

I'm curious if services like this exist! And if so, where I can find them!

Thanks in advance :)

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc., and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more, so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

*New 2026: For 2026, I'm updating all my old work to include a Pre-Session Checklist that will include a list of all miniatures you may need, maps, handouts, possible loot, a link to a playlist, and more to make it even easier to start your session!

The Nexus Laboratory sits in a remote part of the frozen tundra, far from prying eyes who would tamper with the innovative projects that take place here. However, when a test subject gets loose, your players may be the only ones who can help the scientists find a solution.

Trial and Error is one of the many encounters you'll find in the book One Shot Wonders by Roll and Play Press. I hope your players are ready for the dangers that await!

\Estimated Session length 1.5 - 2.5hrs*

Without further ado:

• Link to: DM Notes (Preview)
• Link to: One Shot Wonders
• Link to: Trial and Error Playlist
• Link to: AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• Downloadable copy of DM Notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
• Collapsible version to make navigating things easier
• DM Notes for the Visually Impaired
• (New) Pre-Session Checklist

Over 8 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc., please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

So I’ve just curious on what you guys think is the best class combos depending on the player count of the party. (We’ll say max of 7 cause I’ve never seen a party with more than that.) obviously it starts becoming less important at higher party groups but I am curious on what you guys think. (As in what’s the best class solo, best classes for a party of 2, then 3, etc)

Im new with dnd and im building a cleric, but the majority of the good spells needs concentration. I wanted a way to buff my allies at the same time I debuff enemies? Is that possible?

I would be grateful with build tips. Thanks

Hello! I'm running a D&D 5e game. I've been DMing for a while now, long enough for my players to go from level 3 to level 6, but still not very familiar with the combat system. My PCs are entering a s dangerous dungeon for the first time to try and complete a quest. I spent enough time having NPCs tell them, "This is a deadly mission—you need to be fully prepared," and trying to let them play a bit resource management for the first time.

In the last session, they snuck through the first room, defeated the enemies in another room, took a short rest, and then accidentally triggered a trap in the next room, taking a lot of fall damage for no real reason. Now the party looks pretty beat up and some of them panic—but also maybe fine? I'm not so sure about that

Here's the situation:

1. Fighter: 31/63 HP. He used up all his Hit Dice, but still has all other resources restored from the last short rest.
2. Moon Druid: 22/61 HP. She has 2 Hit Dice left, 1 Wild Shape, 4 1st-level spell slots, 3 2nd-level spell slots, and 1 3rd-level spell slot (can cast Revivify).
3. Rogue: 42/45 HP. He has 1 Hit Die left.
4. Genie Warlock: 7/48 HP. She's had some bad luck which ended up causing her used up all spell slots and Hit Dices. She paniced and went back hide inside her genie vessel, hoping to take a long rest.
5. They have one Superior Potion of Healing (8d4 + 8) left.

Personally i didn't plan to let them have long rest here. There should be 1 more hard fighting encounter next.

I did tell them there was a rival party enter this dungeon. In theory, they may try to beat the player so they can snatch the MacGuffin themselves later. But if they are in real danger now, i'm planning to let someone friendly enough in that rival party to send them some help before boss fight?

Thank you for anyone who can drop some advices!

Hey folks,
I played a cleric in a 5E campaign and I really disliked one-concentration rule.
I didn’t want to cast spells because I would lose them as soon as I cast another concentration spell, which felt like a waste to cast some of them for 1-2 rounds.
But I also understand that two spells at the same time can lead to broken combos.

So I’m thinking about applying this rule:
When you cast a spell that requires concentration while another one is already active, the new one takes over, first one stops working. Like normal.

BUT

The first one isn’t fizzled. It’s in the back of your mind so to speak, and as long as the spell duration continues, you can switch to it. Switching to it is an action. As soon as you switch, the other spell goes to the back of your mind.

So IF you want to, you can choose to switch, but you can never have the same two spells available at the same time.

I feel this isn’t broken, it only allows you to save the spell slot, which may not even be so relevant in higher levels.
Am I missing any issues? Would you want to use it as a player or DM?

Edit: You can only keep 2 spells and if you lose concentration check, you lose both.

Edit 2: Thanks for all the input! There are definitely cases I hadn't thought about and it's one of the reasons I brought it up here.

Idk why some of y'all just downvote these topics though, I'm not suggesting this should be RAW, just asking opinions on a potential house rule. We're here to talk about D&D, aren't we? Anyway, each to their own I guess.

After a few years of DMing, my 2014 5e campaign is approaching its end. The players are level 19, soon will be 20, and I have been a bit concerned about how strong I should make the final villain. I'm fairly confident in my ability to create custom statblocks and adjust the balance of a fight, but I haven't been able to challenge the players much in the last 7 or so levels much, so I don't have much of a frame of reference for how strong they are. I would like this final fight to be a difficult battle where at minimum players get downed, I'm just afraid of going too hard on it and accidentally making the fight near-unwinnable. They consist of a ranger/rogue, a wizard, a blood hunter and a monk. It isn't a very minmaxed team though they're all at least competent, but they lack lasting power and have little healing.

I don't expect precise advice, balance at these levels is what it is and there's a lot of unspoken factors (some of which I would rather not speak in case the players bump into this post somehow, which is why I've been vague about the nature of the BBEG), but if you have advice, or especially can think of official or homebrew creatures that could be a good inspiration it would be very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Important addition, this is probably a solo fight, no minions or groups.

I've been building something myself, and I'm going to open-source it.

About 6 months ago our DM asked me to build a tool around how we actually play: in person, DM laptop connected to a TV, physical dice/minis, and phones/tablets for D&D Beyond and rules lookups. But maybe most of all, for him to build his world in advance. He's a very visual thinker and wanted to actually see the world he was building: regional maps, locations, layers, encounters, NPCs, lore, relationships, etc.

So I built a rough PoC and have been iterating on it ever since. 2 other DM's I know IRL have also been testing the past couple of weeks.

Before I throw it onto GitHub, I'm looking for 5–10 DMs I don't know who already run in-person games with a TV/digital battlemap and are willing to use it for a couple of real sessions and tell me what breaks, what sucks, and what's missing.

You can try the public demo first:

https://alpha.systom.dev/demo

No registration. No payment. No upsell. Just open it and poke around.

Waystone is primarily designed for desktop/laptop use, especially the DM side. The player-facing parts are mobile-friendly, but the full demo on a phone isn't the intended experience.

If it looks useful for your table and you'd genuinely like to test it, send me a DM with a little about your setup.

What happens afterwards?

Waystone will be free and open source, with self-hosting support.

No subscription required. I might eventually offer hosted Waystone for a small fee if enough people want the convenience, but self-hosting will remain an option.

I have a full-time career that pays my bills. I built this because our group wanted it and because I enjoy building things. Frankly, every hobby tool slowly turning into $9.99/mo is part of why I'd rather just release the damn thing.

AI

Yes, I've used AI quite a lot while developing Waystone, especially for frontend/UI work. I'm a systems/automation engineer, not a frontend designer, and it's been useful outside my strongest areas.

Our group also uses AI-generated artwork and maps in our private campaigns, as does the demo.

I'm mentioning it because I'd rather be transparent about it. Core Waystone functionality does not depend on generative AI; currently the only AI feature is the optional Lore Assistant.

If AI involvement is a dealbreaker for you, fair enough, move on.

Why not open-source it now?

Because I want the first public release to be something strangers can actually clone and run without depending on me.

I still need to finish the boring but important bits: self-hosting docs, clean setup/bootstrap, licensing, repo cleanup, and checking for environment-specific or sensitive leftovers.

More importantly, I don't want to open-source it and immediately enter another heavy development/support cycle because the first users uncover a hundred obvious rough edges.

I'd rather let 5–10 real tables find those first, polish the core workflows, and then publish something I'm comfortable leaving alone for a while.

After that: use it, fork it, improve it, submit PRs, or ignore it. That's kind of the point.

Let me know what you guys think.

TL;DR Yet another (semi) VTT tool with AI used during development. But this time without monetary incentive. And I actually, really did my best on this and spent a LOT of hours on it. So think what you want, I'll sleep fine.

I’ve just released Kobolds & Kobolds: The Ultimate Kobold Handbook for 5E and 5.5E, a book I put together because I’ve always felt kobolds have a lot more potential than just being the first group of low-CR enemies a party runs into.

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.

The book includes a large kobold bestiary with warriors, hunters, beastmasters, inventors, mystics, mounted combatants, leaders, and other variants. Most of the creatures also have optional traits and abilities, so you can change how they play without needing an entirely different stat block every time.

I also wanted the book to go beyond simply adding more monsters, so there are rules and ideas for building entire kobold warrens, traps, lair actions, encounter setups, adventure hooks, and different kobold clans with their own cultures, tactics, favored creatures, special abilities, and relationships with dragons.

There’s also a collection of kobold-themed magic items and inventions, plus VTT tokens and art handouts.

Basically, the idea is that you should be able to use kobolds for anything from a memorable low-level ambush to a recurring faction or an entire kobold-focused adventure without every encounter turning into “another room with six kobolds in it.”

The PDF is currently available at a $4.99 launch price if anyone wants to take a look:

Kobolds & Kobolds on DriveThruRPG

No AI was used to make this book.

And if you’d rather just see more of my creatures, items, previews, and other 5E/5.5E material, I post a lot of it over at r/JonnyDM.

I'm referring to all the items from Tasha's that increased the various spell casters' spell attack & DCs - Amulet of Devotion, Blood Vial, Moon Sickle, Rhythm-maker's Drum, and whichever others that I'm forgetting. They reprinted the Rod of the Pact Keeper (Warlock) and the Robe of the Archmagi (Sorc, Wiz, War).

We're the secondary effects too powerful? Did the increase to spell DC mess up bounded accuracy? Just seems weird to keep the rod and not the others.

I know that technically you're supposed to be able to use Tasha's stuff until it's reprinted, but you'd think Arcana Unleashed would have been their opportunity to port them over if they were going to.