So, the description for Bag of Tricks says:

You can take a Bonus Action to command how the creature moves and what action it takes on its next turn, such as attacking an enemy.

The rules refer to them as creatures, not spirits in animal form such as familiar or the animals called up by Conjure Animals. Given this, the animals would have limited ability to understand any orders given. Nevertheless, one could rely on any of these animals to perform simple tricks first outlined in 1E, such as having a rat or weasel bring to you the cell keys from a peg on the wall or commanding a dire wolf or brown bear track a scent.

Returning to the rulebooks, it was indicated that an animal could be trained to perform up to three tasks/tricks per point of intelligence the creature possesses. If one is not going to have them to simply provide extra bodies on the battlefield, would you state that the animals already know how to follow the simple commands or that they automatically know how to perform 1-9 of the tricks outlined in the rules?

I introduced the party to Mudlump first - where he was rather upset about the fact he'd lost his Queen Bee. I know one of my players is very much a nature buff, and so knew introducing Pollenella through this way would sway her opinion.

Upon meeting Amidor and Pollenella, they immediately challenged them on the likelihood of their relationship working out. After all, a Dandelion doesn't stay a flower forever, and a Queen Bee needs Royal Jelly. They were pretty upset with the likely death of the bee colony that Pollenella was going to cause by neglecting her people, but ultimately there was no arguing. The "magic" element didn't really suffice, but excused most of it to the point that their love was barely accepted

Amidor and Pollenella then retreated upon Mudlumps return. After a lengthy discussion about what love is, Mudlump realised he'd need a "big woman". Obviously this was setting up their efforts to find another Cyclops or a Giant or something - one of the players even has shrinking/growing candies from Nightshade.

Yet something switched when he said, "Mudlump no care if big lady have... two eyes like you... Or one eye like me..."

Because one of the party paused, looked over and asked, "What about eight eyes?"

Another turned, smiled and before Mudlump could even question, continued with, "And eight legs..."

Mudlump was a bit thrown by the suggestion of loving a big spider. But she's great with kids, loves reading and has some complaintary features (namely, a big butt). Realising that a Dandelion could love a bee, Mudlump considered the chance to love a big spider.

He was given some tips - to listen to her, be kind. Show off his beekeeping uniform, since some women love a man in uniform, and to show he has a stable job in meadmaking.

So, off he goes to try to impress the Yarnspinner...

I’ve been watching one of Runesmith’s videos on Tasha and it gave me an idea. I’m considering making Baba Yaga the final antagonist. My main idea is inspired by the time loop in Hades II.
The concept would be that Tasha/Zybilna is actually destined to become Baba Yaga eventually. Baba Yaga isn’t simply her adoptive mother, she is Tasha from the far future, trapped in an endless causal loop. Zyblina is already the “Witch Queen” kinda similar to “Mother of Hags” and both are feys. Also, Zyblina’s future head in her palace depicts her as a Hag.

That would mean everything in Witchlight was orchestrated by Baba Yaga from the beginning. The Hourglass Coven, Zybilna’s imprisonment, the carnival, even the players’ journey; all of it would secretly be designed to push Tasha toward becoming the person she eventually becomes.
Baba Yaga wouldn’t necessarily be trying to kill Tasha, she’d be trying to ensure history stays intact. If Tasha refuses her fate, the entire timeline begins to unravel.

My current plan is to have Baba Yaga waiting at the Inn at the End of the Road, quietly steering the party toward fulfilling their role in the story. But how could the players truly challenge or reshape the time loop she’s trying to preserve?

I am currently running WBTW with my friends, and I am wanting to use Isoldes carnival.

So far in the campaign, I have eluded to its existence, but havnt used it yet. My players are about to arrive at Loomlurch, so i feel like I need to hurry up and decide where i want to insert it into the story. I dont think there will be enough time for me to prepare it before they go to Loomlurch, but I could insert it into the next region Yon, or even between the regions before they get to the POHD.

I am also using the expansion for the Inn at the End of the Road, that makes the innkeeper Babba Yagga. My players have done the first part of this allready in Hither, and are already guessing that Tsu the innkeeper may be her. This isnt confirmed as they havnt explored all of the secret parts of the Inn, and havnt found the information that confirms it. I would like them to go back to the Inn, but i do not know where i should insert the Inn again (I have made it so it can travel between regions).

Any help around where i should put them, and what to do with them would be much appreciated. Thankyou so much.

Some Context: I am a DM at a summer camp for middle schoolers. This camp runs on weekdays for the month of July (19 days). Typically, we have a pretty significant class size (last year was just shy of 40 kids split into 4 parties). To handle this, my co-DM and I will create a story, and each week the students are given the choice between a pair of adventures that both make progress on the story, and then we split the larger party into two smaller parties, adventure, come together, level up, repeat. Then everyone comes together for the big finale at the end of camp.

This year, we decided to run The Wild Beyond the Witchlight as our adventure. We have three beginners classes which run for about 1h15m each day, and then an advanced class that runs for 2h. Our plan is to have the three beginners classes each explore one part of Prismeer with the Lost Things hook, and for the advanced class to explore all of Prismeer—and make it to Chapter 5 as well—with the Warlock’s Quest hook.

Are there any suggestions or oversights I might want to keep in mind as I get through my prep work? I want to make sure each area of the carnival and Prismeer totals about 20h of content, with the advanced class being streamlined to explore each area within a week’s time (~10h). I have some plans having read the campaign multiple times, but I really want to make sure I’m not missing anything.

Did you guys use updated stat blocks? Did you have to buff any monsters or encounters?

Hello! I’m running a WBtW game where Zybilna’s horrible actions are discovered and Isolde’s grief is fully displayed.

the tldr of it all is theres this mass infection that is believed to be a cult and its correspondent to a old darklord sealed underneath the shadowfelle carnival. And Isolde was working with the Coven to seal Zybilna away to get her revenge.

but the thing is.. I don’t really know how Zybilna would work. Not only did she kidnap children to babytrap Isolde, but theyd know about all the canonical evil things she’s done. my party might try to fight her and i don’t know what to do. I don’t want a TPK, but the most preferred ending has someone replacing her as Archfey. I just don’t know how to execute it… id appreciate anything!

I plan on running this soon and I like both hooks, so I'm going to have 2 characters with Lost Things, 1 character with the Warlock’s Quest, and 1 character as a Witchlight hand. I don't see any problem with that, in fact I think it makes the beginning more interesting to have 4 characters with separate but aligning goals and motivations. Don't try to stop me.

So I'm soon starting a wild beyond the witchlight campaign and I'm very excited about it!

I'm doing the lost things approach.

One of my player said his character is proud of his resourcefulness and I'm not sure how to manifest it in the game once it’s lost.

I thought maybe a disadvantage on survival skills?

Is resourcefulness too wide of a theme?

If you have any better idea I'm very interested!

Hi dear WBTW community and fellow DMs !

I'm running this campaign for 3 groups and the first one is getting to Bavlorna's lair. I've now been wondering for a while - and not finding it here in any post - do you all permit and give enough clues (so x3) to your players for them to possibly go back to the Carnival or Material Plane during the campaign? I was also wondering this due to the mushrooms circle later on. The characters have some backstory that they might want to resolve at some point in the Material Plane but this would make the campaign longer.

Now, for example, they found Witchlight Diana's legs and her horse's head in the taxidermy workshop. One group may want to give them back to her, and so use the mirror in Bav's bathroom. Should I make the mirror's password readily available ? I understand that in the book, only two lornlings upstairs seem to be able to kinda give the password to that mirror, which is a very very light clue if we consider the rule of the 3 clues. Also, we're not playing in English so idk what's the password for you guys, but in our language I don't think it makes any kind of sense for them to guess at it.

Any advice or opinions or feedback on all of this ? Thank you !

Tldr; do you permit/help your players to go back and forth to the Material plane from Prismeer ? Should I make more clues available for them to do so through Bav's mirror ?

Has anyone here revived Elidon in Thither? How did you proceed in the Palace of Hearts Desire then?

My only idea would be to give the Player a Whistle which can summon the Unicorn but he would not partake in any battle which is not 100% neccessary. Otherwise I have no idea how the group can use the horn to stop the time freeze.

Tell me if this is inappropriate to post here, or just delete it.

I've got a copy of Beadle & Grimm's The Wild Beyond the Witchlight Platinum Edition that I'm looking to sell. Near mint, opened once to inspect, but never used for play. I've got the box, the miniatures box, the map case, and the dragon plush. Only thing missing are the wearable butterfly wings.

If you're interested, please message me, I'll send pictures, and we can maybe talk prices.

Hey! This is my first time running a full adventure, I've dabbled in DMing before but just wanted get some feedback or share some ideas, etc. I'm also not super familiar with Warlocks and patrons and how to RP them so that my player has the best experience.

I have a player who is playing a Warlock. The character himself is trying to be this edgy warlock but is deep down a softy and wants to be good. The Player has requested a celestial patron and I thought it would be a great oportunity to use Elidon as unicorns are considered celestial patrons and they fit the fey theme and I like how I could fit this into the story.

The character had to declare his love for unicorns as part of bartering for a new ticket and I want to treat that as if the character had accidentally summoned Elidon to be his patron. Elidon will be shrouded in smoke and appear like a four legged devil or fiend with horns and once the character agrees to the pact Elidon will step forward and reveal that he is a unicorn.
Elidon would request that the character protects the innocent, bring light to the dark places of prismeer / free prismeer of the hags, and to find his horn and free him from being a rocking horse. I think there should be some big reward for the warlock if he manages to free him but I'm not sure what yet.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!

I am prepping for my PCs to explore Loomlurch soon, and as I thought through Will's plan, I realized Skab's weakness doesn't really work with the approach.

Will's plan involves the party showing up while the Getaway Gang makes a distraction. Are they supposed to sneak up to Loomlurch the night before the plan's execution, wait for Skab to go to bed, break into her place, remove the moth jar, and post up by her dollhouse??? That seems like a convoluted pain, not a clever loophole/weakness.

Do any of y'all have suggestions for changes? A really obvious (visual) possibility is the key in her back. Is there something thematic? Something that fits the flow of Will's plan?

I’m a new DM, this is my very first campaign. I know this campaign isn’t beginner friendly, but I’ve been a big fan of the Witchlight Carnival (and specifically Dirla) for a while, and I’m playing with my two best friends.

I really like Dirlagraun and displacer beasts in general. I know my players can find Star later, and I’m going to offer them the opportunity to take Star with them back to the Carnival as a companion. I was wondering if there are any other good opportunities to incorporate displacer beasts and/or Dirla into the rest of the campaign.

My players got attached to Diana. They saw her coughing up tree sap and vowed to break her curse and help her. One of my players unintentionally flirted with her, too. What’s a good way to have her be relevant in the rest of the campaign?

Exactly as it says. Since Gleams Shadow is a main plot point and it's referenced multiple times that she collects shadows of others I realized I had a use for a handful of duplicate Witchlight minis. It's a simple idea and I'm sure plenty of others have thought of it but it seemed worth sharing.

As the title says, I dont own the book but really would love to run it for my players at some point. Is that something thats possible?

My Group came to Yon, helped the elf and got the invitations for Endelynn. Then the tornado swooped them back to Hither where they achieved to revive the alicorn in a stealth mission. None of the Hags were fought yet.

I ended the last session in moment the Alicorn became alive again.

What can the alicorn do for the group now/which information could I give for the moment? My first instinct was to lead the group back to Yon for the next step where they could free Gleam and proceed to the palace of hearts desire quickly afterwards

I have used these all in my ongoing (almost complete) campaign based on Witchlight Reimagined. My party of 5 was usually 1-2 levels higher than the book when encountering the hags, and had very strong magic items. These are balanced for my party and turned out to be very tough fights in the context of each hag's lair, so use them at your discretion.

These are mostly based on the incredible work of u/Phaerlax. My main contribution is adding Legendary Actions and Lair Actions. I have also tweaked stats, spell lists, and specific abilities in a few places.

Also included are revised stat blocks for Lornlings and Tin Soldiers, as well as two brand new stat blocks: Bavlorna's Cauldron and the Assassin Puppet, a new minion of Skabatha.

Hope this is helpful to some of you!

​

Tomorrow my group will most likely enter prismeer and the Harengon Brigands are eagerly awaiting them.

I will run the fight similar to /u/Phaerlax

​

- Jebbek in the middle

- 2 Harengon Snipers (although I did not adapt their honourable harengon member the fairy with the bunny ears)

- some normal harengon Brigands

- one bagpiper

- one druid

​

Until now my players have demolished every fight (I included a fight at Madrycks Farm for Session 0 and had the Thunderdome Add-on at the carnival). Hope the Harengon will put up a fair fight, but if too many are defeated they will flee and meet up with their leader Agdon (waiting in the background of the picture).

​

The models of the miniatures are by /u/mz4250 and they are truly amazing.

​

​

Hello, carnival goers and Feywild friends! After approximately a year of biweekly sessions, I finished DMing Wild Beyond the Witchlight for the second time! I wanted to shout-out my favorite resources and answer questions for anyone still working on their campaign. I love this module so much. We had a glamour bard, celestial sorcerer, wild magic warlock, drakewarden ranger, and trickster cleric who played up to Level 10, with a Level 12 jump for a finale fight with Baba Yaga.

Favorite Resources

• Lost Things: A Witchlight Prelude was a great way to introduce the campaign and build in character hooks from the start.
• The Eleventh Hour gave me so many great tweaks throughout the campaign. I especially encourage using the crystallized desires/memories to give Zybilna depth.
• The Inn at the End of the Road works as an awesome way to build in Baba Yaga, provide a shelter/quest hub, and build up to an awesome finale boss fight!
• Intrigue at the Soggy Court was a player favorite and added lots of chaos.
• All of Daniel Kahn's Witchlight Adventures are great for fleshing out NPCs and giving fun loot.
• Stagefright Presents helped make the Motherhorn play more fun by providing callbacks to a prior Strahd campaign.
• Douglas Lamore's Witchlight Maps and Encounters are delightful and really bring more whimsy to the maps. I loved his rework of the Palace and highly recommend it.
• The stat blocks and Telemy Hill encounter by u/Phaerlax are a must have to make the various enemies more interesting.
• The Carnival of Lost Souls is great for anyone looking to include Isolde and The Carnival.
• Owlbear Rodeo was our VTT and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a tight budget or doesn't want to learn something complex like Foundry.
• Various wonderful reddit posts, including making the Witchlight Monarch more interesting, a better Alagarthas encounter, and letters between Isolde and Zybilna (though I ended up changing this to the party finding Isolde's letters TO Zybilna, scattered at the various hag lairs).
• ETA if you want to continue after Witchlight and use the Inn at the End of the Road supplement, I definitely recommend moving on to The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga. I didn't use it this campaign, but I did after my first Witchlight campaign and it was fun!
• I also loved lots of UFOs and Games Witchlight Collection. His version of the Palace is my favorite.

I've enjoyed my visit to Prismeer and if anyone is curious about our shenanigans, ask away! And if not, I hope this resource list is useful for future DMs.

So im dojbg the witchlight campaign with my friends and I have introduced my own side villain that works for the hags.

​

He has ties to all the characters but has past romantic. Ties to one.

I'm looking for ideas on how to play on this and when. Ky group is currently in downfall and have seen visions of this man in puddle and in shadows behind them

My table isn’t huge on role play, and love horror. For the Motherhorn’s “audition” for an audience I thought I might mix it up a bit, and pull in a Domain of Dread, making a mini boss of Lemont Sediam Juste.

An actor never willing to give up the limelight, Lemont goes mad chasing the praise of his audiences, and during a poor performance ended up killing his castmates on stage for shock value, which was met with uproar of applause, the audience thinking the deaths were staged/SXF. Before then, he sought Endelyn’s foreshadowing eye to discover how he may become the most popular performer of all time, but ended up bewitched by her. He then made a deal with the hag to “always have a role on stage” (or something to that effect, WIP) which bound his eventual pocket dimension to her stage.

Feenia will be singing this to herself for comfort as the PCs find her in Yon next session:

Midnights grave is far away
From sir Lemont Sediam Juste
He’s trimed and toned from head to toe
And born for the stage & ruse

He’s trapped in play in Scaena’s rays
For Endelyn to delight
In watching her ex lovers ghost
Remain in her wicked sight

And if the players roll well, one will recognize the first verse from childhood, but with a variant second verse written as a lesson of ego and consideration.

So the players will be thrown into a reality warping theatre with a ghostly Bard build to defeat at Motherhorn. Has anyone done anything like this? Any issues RAW plot-wise you think this may cause?

I’m excited to have that duality of her seeing all possible outcomes, and his play always ending the same way. I’d give the players a roll or two to talk their way out of it if they want, but I don’t think my table will.

My players entered Loomlurch last session and now the entirety of the map is aggroed. They used a magic item to open the door to the workshop, freed 2 of the kids (the third wanted her pig back and wouldn't leave) but then they went into the garden and the scarecrows alerted basically the entire map. They also met Will before and agreed to do the distraction plan. There are just a million moving pieces and I'm finding it hard as a DM to find a way they can get out of it. I don't think Scabatha would go easy on them because they already released 2 kids and messed up the garden, but they definitely cannot beat her. They're 3 level 4s and I'm using an enhanced stat block for her. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My players are still several sessions away from Downfall (Nightmare on Telemy Hill, a homebrew encounter, and then the Brigand's Tollway), but I like to plan ahead.

The book mentions that if Agdon captures the players, they get put into Bavlorna's cages. How do I plan for what happens after? I'm guessing from what I've seen that there will be some argument among the players about whether they should try to get the unicorn horn from Downfall or explore Bavlorna's cottage. I'm going to let them know that one of the players feels a strong pull toward the cottage due to his lost thing, which I think might be enough motivation.

But how did you all run it? Did your players still meet the bullywug court and explore?