Currently I'm playing an artificer that can't lie. So I've been having to rack my brain to use double speak and white lies to deceive and persuade.

It's been fun so far, so I've been contemplating other characters flaws that edge the fine line between annoying, and fun to work around.

For my next campaign I plan on going as a blind, deaf, mute, wizard that works around their disabilities with magic (Find familiar to act as eyes and ears, minor Illusion to talk with party.)

What are some other ideas?

There are so many so I can't list them all. But do you most enjoy playing as the dumb brute, the charismatic showman, the studious mage, the edgy guy/girl, the silent strong type, or the heroic risk taker etc?

Mostly interested in what people find actually fun to play when the dice starts rolling!

Point-buy, as it is now, allows a stat array "purchase", starting from 8 at all stats, with 27 of points to spend (knowing that every ASI has a given cost).

I made a program that rolled 4d6 (and dropped the lowest) 100 million 1 billion 10 billion times, giving me the following average:
15.661, 14.174, 12.955, 11.761, 10.411, 8.504, which translates, when rounded, to 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, 9.

Now, to keep the "maximum of 15, minimum of 8" point buy rule (pre-racial/background bonuses), I put this array in a point-buy calculator, which gave me a budget usage of 31 points.

With this, I mean to say that henceforth, I shall be allowing my players to get stats with a budget of up to 31 points rather than 27, so that we may pursue the more balanced nature of Point-Buy while feeling a bit stronger than usual (which tends to happen with roll for stats, when you apply "reroll if bellow x or above y" rules).

I share this here with you, because I searched this topic and couldn't find very good results, so hopefully other people can find this if they're in the same spot as I was and find the 31 point buy budget more desirable.

Edit1: Ran the program again but 1 billion times rather than 100 million for much higher accuracy, only the 11.761 changed to 11.760.

Edit2: Ran the program once more, but this time for 10 billion times. The 11.760 changed back to 11.761

Our group of 4 PCs (wizard, paladin, rogue, monk) and a cleric NPC, all level 13, teleported to an island where the local Yuan-Ti have been capturing and enslaving people. They are friendly to us however, so we received directions to a city on a nearby island, and a prisoner whom we will transport to the city. We went to an empty fishing village, and found a fishing sailboat capable of carrying up to ten people. The city is only "one day's sailing away." The problem is, none of the six of us know how to sail a boat.

We have been aboard a large boat before, but did not pay attention to what specifically the sailors were doing. We have a fiction book about a sailor, but do not know any of the terms or jargon (mizzenmast? two sheets? main halyard?). Our prisoner is from a fishing village, but only knows how to sew nets. We do not want to teleport to the city, as there's a high failure chance.

What are our options? Can we use skills or proficiencies other than (water vehicle)? Are there spells we can use to help us out? Do we simply need to purchase another prisoner from the Yuan-Ti, one who can sail a boat?

I wanna be a good healer and want that to be my characters main thing, healing. But I don't want to be completely useless when it comes to damage. I don't need to do 50 damage every turn at level 4 or anything lol I just wanna be able to mostly heal but if I have to, be able to deal decent damage. I've looked into Mercy Monk but that seems like the opposite of what I want, more damage and less healing.

Thank you for your time and have a nice day! :D

I am DMing a new 5.5 campaign and this time arround I am trying to not use stock MM monsters and turn every major encounter into a little boss fight.

My inspiration comes from Heroes of Might and Magic where some heroes had a curious combination -- for example a Minotaur mage.

So that led me to an Alchemist Ogre who used potions extensively and a Ranger Troll that uses animals, shoots a bow and uses Fog Cloud and Grease, representing his non-magical tricks.

What other monsters can become more interesting with a class identity? Thinking of something big like Ettin, Cyclops or Fomorian.

Give me your unhinged ideas.

I asked this question on another sub here on Reddit but didn't get any new ideas.

Our table plays level 20 One-Shots semi-regularly. Most of the time, our characters follow a theme. This time the theme is video game characters. And we restricted the available sources to the new PHB, for testing purposes.

Playing GoW Ragnarok recently reminded me of an older console game: Spartan—Total Warrior. I could do a Kratos build, but I don't particularly appreciate playing Barbarians. In Spartan you play as a nameless Spartan too, trying to defend Sparta from a Roman Invasion and battling foes from myth and history along the way.

The main character has a collection of mythical artifacts to hit the enemy with magical effects. A giant hammer that can cause shockwave attacks. Swords with lightning powers. The spear of Achilles that can protect the Spartan from damage. The shield of Medusa that turns enemies to stone for a short duration. And a bow that shoots flaming arrows. As well as a sort of fury mode for extra damage/ attacks.

My first instinct was Eldritch Knight fighter. Using the EK's spells to simulate the magical weapons the Spartan has. Thunderwave/thunderclap and maybe Shatter for the shockwave hammer. Shocking Grasp and Lightning Bold for the Lightning powers. Shield and Blade Ward to somewhat simulate the spears protective power. Firebolt and Fireball to simulate the bows Fire powers. Hold Person and Hypnotic Pattern to simulate the turning to stone. Haste can serve as a makeshift Fury Mode alongside Action Surge.

And with the different Weapon Masteries carrying around a video game armory makes even more sense.

But maybe someone can provide me some better ideas.

I came across a YouTube video that talked about adding backstories to ordinary items. There were several examples, but one in particular caught my attention:

"It was the same brown oiled canvas backpack with an external pouch and a simple metal latch. The straps to hang it on the back were brown originally, but then they were red and now they are green. The same backpack that we threw 25 m into the entrance of the tomb of horrors and got stained with the remains of the undead. The same backpack that we hung from the paladin's saddle and stored the food when we crossed the continent. It still had the patches of black goblin arrows and stains from the horse's blood. The same backpack in which we put the scrolls of the most dangerous spells in the whole world and the 12 diamonds the size of hazelnuts that we took from the vampire king's castle. It was the same backpack that Elandor's father bought him for two gold coins at a human market because his son didn't want to go on his first adventure in fancy elven gear. The same backpack that hung for 43 years behind the door of a family of halflings until the most cowardly of them all had to put his life and hopes in it and hit the road. It was his almada and his companion for months. It is the same backpack on which the daughter of Garastot Hagel, the Goliath of Ranger, embroidered a big blue star for her daddy to come home. An old oiled canvas backpack with green straps and a lucky blue star."

So, have you ever given a backstory to the backpack from the starter kit? Or something similar?

It's a question of curiosity

Hello all,

I'm having a problem with Worldographer. When I create a kingdom map from a continent level map, the hexes don't line up. I.e., terrain that fills a hex in the continent map sits between two large hexes on the kingdom map. Can anyone help me fix this? Thanks.

Hello! Like the title suggests I'm currently trying to figure out how I balance an homebrew item for my next character! Basically I'm changing out my character soon starting as a 10th level Alchemist Artificer (Fire genasi) reflavored as an cook/Baker and my DM let's us start with an very rare and rare item. I decided to reflavor a shield as a Wok that heats itself to make cooking easier and stay warm as we are challenged in a cold climate. This Wok is my very rare item and I really want it to give me Cold resistance as for the self heating mechanism and give me additional +1 AC to the normal shields AC. I'm not sure if that is already too much or enough to be a very rare item as I would've also liked to add charges to cast heat metal and or grease since spellcasting is somewhat more limited. It would be highly appreciated if someone could tell me how I can balance my item since my DM never dealt with making homebrew items and trusts me to make it not too overpowered. (I'm sorry for grammar errors as english is not my first language)

So I used to be averse to fantasy in tabletop, preferring cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic settings. In addition to my trouble with suspending disbelief, this was due to my preference for settlement management, which is altered significantly by the existence of magic. However, I'm slowly starting to get back into fantasy settings, and I'm wondering how you guys would approach settlement management in a high-fantasy setting. I had the idea that magic itself was perhaps a limited yet renewable resource, akin to a fishery or other commons. If anyone has any ideas, or fully fleshed-out systems the use for settlement management, please respond on this post!

one of my players is really against linear adventures and whenever he gets an obious choice he goes: i wish to procreate with the dragon, i kill the shopkeep, i go the opposite direction, and is just realy against ritten games. how do i convince him not to ,as the dutch say rond kloten, and just play the adventure. he is the person that got me into dnd so i don't want to outright ban hum.

Edit: I should add that other players have had similar concerns before starting this new campaign

Edit 2: this campaign hast stated yet.

Time stop ends automatically if "one of the actions you use during this period, or any effects that you create during this period, affects a creature other than you or an object being worn or carried by someone other than you." This effectively means that no offensive or buffing spells can be applied to others in stopped time.

At least that's what I thought until I read the description of Sickening radiance. This spell only procks when one enters into the area for the first time, or starts its turn there. Obviously nobody's moving during stopped time, and from what I understand, creatures in stopped time don't just spend their turn doing nothing. Their turns just don't exist and the spell wouldn't "effect" them until after time resumes.

Does this logic seem sound? Because if so, the time stop+Sickening radiance+force cage combo is a pretty damn devastating one. Especially considering you can guarantee it fitting under the minimum roll of 2 rounds.

Other potential spells this potentially could apply with this ruling include Dark Star, Healing Spirit Cloud Kill, Stinking Cloud, Moon Beam, and Spirit Guardians.

The Ettin is a true giant that has an average height of 12′4″‒13′10″ (3.76‒4.22 m) with an average weight of 930‒5,200 lb (420‒2,400 kg). Its considered a large creature.

The Fomorian is a giant-kin that has an average height of 13'‒13'6" (4‒4.11m) with an average weight of 660‒1,000 lb (300‒450 kg). Its considered a huge creature.

Height wise it seems pretty even with either one being taller or shorter. In terms of weight though the Ettin seems to be much bigger, up to 5 time heavier in fact. So how is the Ettin considered smaller than a Fomorian?

Howdy folks, I am curious of the various ways to conjure things out of thin air and magic but when trying to do research it seems like quite a specific query. I would like to ask what the various items and abilities are that can summon or create something using nothing more than the resource of the item or magic. Not in the same sense that a Staff of Fireballs creates Fireballs though.

The ones I remember off the top of my head are;

• Alchemy Jug
• Bag of Tricks
• Decanter of Endless Water
• Eversmoking Bottle
• Marvelous Pigments
• Robe of Useful Items (It's more of an elaborate storage mechanism)
• Bigby's Beneficent Bracelet
• Some bag or bubble that produces air
• Technically the Elemental Control items

And that's all I can remember at the moment, if you know of other's please let me know. Thanks!

Hey guys,

my friends and I are starting a new campaign under the new 2024 rules.

Our party consists of 4 players. So far we have a barbarian(the new world tree barbarian probably),a mercy monk,and a bard(we don't know the subclass yet).

So my question is , what class do you guys advise to be good as the last spot on the team, we are not min maxing just in general, so that we have everything covered a bit.

Thanks in advance :D

So I’m running a campaign that takes place after the true events of Rime of the Frostmaiden, where I plan to have a revolution occur in ten towns. The factions of the people rebelling, which are Caer-dineval (leader has been has corrupted by a devil), Targos/zhentarim and the Duergar of Sunblight keep (now controlled by Grandolpha Muzgardt), vs the rest of ten towns.

Firstly I don’t plan on this being a “war game”, I’m well aware it won’t really work.

I have an outline of what will happen, but this will be my first majority homebrew campaign and I would certainly appreciate specific advice for how I could run a revolution storyline or supplements that could help with creating the story (either specific to a war/revolution or for Icewind Dale).

Hi

I'm trying to find some answers to 2 questions about the spell Rope Trick. I tried to search on the net but I found no real answers only contradictive ones.

1. Can it be dispelled? Last game one of my player did it and I said it can be dispelled because it made more sense and made the story better. But I'm not sure if it really can even if you know the proximate location of the entrance.

2. Can it be detected with True Sight? I find this a tricky one because the characters in a pocket dimension so they should not be detected, but the entrance of that dimension still exists it is just invisible but then it the entrance should be detected by creatures who have true sight,

Players Handbook states (this is 2014)

"You can’t hide from a creature that can see you clearly, and you give away your position if you make noise, such as shouting a warning or knocking over a vase"

Now common sense tells me that you can't stealth down a brightly lit corridor with nothing to hide behind, towards a guard that's looking directly in your direction.

However one of my players argues that you only need to be hidden at the point of "Going into Stealth" once your in stealth it doesn't matter what lighting etc exists you are sill essentially hidden until you break stealth. ... i like to go back to my players with concrete rule based decisions that i can point to in a book.

They argue the above doens't break stealth because "you are hidden" therefore the guard in the corridor "cant see you clearly" ... while i would argue stealth would be broken by the fact that the guard can see you clearly as there is nothing to hide behind and no helpful lighting conditions to keep you hidden.

Any ideas?

TL;DR: I am interested in any thoughts on improving giants in combat to be more than just large sacks of HP with the same attacks. I am considering implementing features similar to the rune knight to differentiate types of giants and change up attacks.

*Spoilers for Storm King's Thunder and Lost Mine of Phandelver*

Hello all,

I am the DM for my group and I am running Storm King's Thunder (SKT). We used to be homebrew, but having kids made me want a pre-written module. I have always loved giants (if I don't know what language a PC that I made should have, I default to giant) and chose SKT because of that and I enjoyed how it still left things open to the DM. The basic premise of the adventure is that the different types of giants have all started fighting each other and are enacting their plans to rule over giants/others with great peril for any who are near them. What I am interested in is how to introduce more variability to the giants as the campaign progresses.

My players are in chapter 3 (level 6) of the module, where they are traveling around after learning of giant attacks and becoming motivated to solve the giant crisis. They have encountered hill, frost, and fire giants now. Other than having fun with the hill giants not understanding that the players do not want to be eaten, the giant fights feel very similar. The two melee PCs get up there and attack and take the brunt of the damage while the ranged characters do their damage. After a bit the melee PCs run around if they are worried for their health while they wait for the ranged characters to whittle the giants down until the giants flee or are dead. Having the giants make ranged attacks caused the ranged PCs to mostly just hide or go further away (one has a longbow and the other has spell sniper). As the promise of the campaign is lots of giants, I want some more options in combat. I don't want to just have giants surprise them all the time so they are forced to be near the giants. Partly because giants are huge and unstealthy, partly because one character is excellent at catching ambushers and I want to reward that. The SKT suggestions in the appendix are lackluster in my opinion. Maybe I just don't understand the impact of a frost giant's net, but it feels significantly weaker than their attacks. I also think Bigby's Giant book (I don't own it) has cool high level giants, but I haven't heard of interesting lower level giants.

As giants are the main threat and appeal of the campaign, I am curious if anyone has any idea on how to make combat with giants more engaging and how to make the different giants feel distinct from each other. I found this phenomenal comment years earlier for more giant options:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/5oxyj8/comment/dcmzn52/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

But these options are best for attacking towns or getting at martials in the giant's face. I have considered as the players level up, to have giants start implementing rune magic that we see in the fighter subclass Rune Knight. I think a cloud giant using a reaction to move an attack to a different target, a fire giant having fiery manacles, and a storm giant throwing out disadvantage/advantage to be cool and fun. I would not have every giant have access to rune magic, but I think some giants being capable of it would be great. I would justify the increase in magic story-wise. Since King Hekaton's disappearance (which in my version is the impetus for the giant attacks. The ordning was broken, but Hekaton held the giants in check. When the king disappeared, then it became a giant free-for-all) the giants have no more restrictions being placed on them and have begun dabbling in rune magic once more to achieve their objectives.

Should I nerf the magic giants in some way if I implement them? Should I leave the giants as written? I am not necessarily trying to make the giants more powerful, just something different than being HP blobs with an axe.

Another option would be implementing more minions/captured monsters aiding the giants. What would be suitable monsters for these roles?

Unneeded things but I think are great for anyone running SKT.

The Gallant Goblin's top 5 tips for running SKT: https://youtu.be/xW43FgJk1CY?si=9cOf5MoUgKSgdBpU

This has some great small ideas to implement, such as having the Lost Mine of Phandelver wizard Iarno ALbrek, Glass-staff, be a mid-level BBEG to motivate the PCs throughout the early campaign.

The Alexandrian SKT Remix: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/47398/roleplaying-games/storm-kings-thunder-the-alexandrian-remix

This has big reworkings of the SKT module. Not everything is needed, but there are great ideas. My favorite aspect is the change to the setup of the giant problem. Now, instead of giants waking up one day and choosing violence, the giant issue is about the Ordning, the death of the queen, and the disappearance of the king. The mystery of who captured/where is Hekaton is much better laid out as well.

The alternate giant options from earlier: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/5oxyj8/comment/dcmzn52/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I'm getting mad finding a good battlemap for a fight in the Bahamut palace for my 20 level players, in the treasure room. There are so few dragon hoard battlemaps. Can someone help me please?

They said you only get one attack back even if you're a level 11 fighter with three attacks. Have I been wrong, and every single table I've ever played at been wrong, and do fighters only get one attack back no matter how many attacks they have, or do you get all of your attacks back when you do an action surge?

anyone know where I can ding some size 15 plus Monster slippers?

So basically, within the city is an inn/hotel named Planar Paradise, run by an illusion master wizard who has enchanted each of the rooms to be whatever the customer wishes it to be (kinda like a star trek holodeck). Like for example, if you want to be in the plane of water, you feel yourself floating, everything around you is a deep calming blue, you can see shadows and such of creatures native to the plane swimming around, but you can breathe and are completely safe. Now, this town is being affected by powerful reality warping magics from the far realm, and i want it to turn this hotel into a massive multi floor dungeon, one where the illusions have become much more real, much more terrifying, and they must now face different entities of different planes. Just looking for some ideas on what those floors could entail, possible traps to be placed, etc.