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Since I discovered the reindeer names Donner and Blixem derive from the Dutch words for thunder and lightning, I’ve been wanting to draw a monstrous sleigh crew for the wizard known as Santa.

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elementals

[images are 8 paintings of big cats with fantasy elemental motifs: a dark brown lion with stylized flames in place of its mane; a blue snow leopard with snowflake patterns in its coat and icicles forming on its fur; a clouded leopard shrouded in grey stormclouds; a cougar perched on some striated rocks, with geodes dotting its fur; a tiger prowling with bright green vegetation sprouting from its stripes; a winking cheetah with a bright arc of lightning running along the length of its body; a blue jaguar, floating serenely with a ring of water splashing around it; and a purple-tinged panther prowling, with bright pink cracks of arcane energy creeping up from its paws and tailtip. bright diamond sparks float around it.]

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The Key Monster on Instagram / Etsy

Follow So Super Awesome on Instagram

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May end up increasing the damage slightly, but I’m liking where this is.  Twitter

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The Key Monster on Instagram

Follow So Super Awesome on Instagram

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I just had a Fan-Fucking-Tastic idea for a villain!

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The Grinch

Holiday Homebrew #9

You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch

You’re a nasty-wasty skunk

Your heart is full of unwashed socks, your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch

The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote

“Stink, stank, stunk!”

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Hey hey it’s your buddy Jay here to spice up your campaign with—you guessed it—another round of Dumb D&D Items!

The Wand of Toadstools: a thin green river reed, damp to the touch, that can be used on a toad or toad-like creature once per short rest. If the creature fails a DC 15 wisdom saving throw, it turns into a foot stool for 1d4 hours.

The Umbrella of Misfortune: a wide blue umbrella made of an unknown material. If opened indoors, it causes disadvantage on all ability checks until the end of its user’s next short rest.

The Bamboo Flute: a flute from a faraway land. When wielded by a Druid or Nature Cleric, it can be used once per day to grow a patch of bamboo that functions like a 60-foot Druid Grove.

The Bookbinder’s Dagger: a blade of polished bone that once belonged to a book-maker. Can be used as a regular 1d4 dagger, but deals an additional 2d10 psychic damage to any enemy that cannot read.

Meditation for Dummies: from the makers of the hit literary series comes another installation in cross-class collaboration! Once per long rest, this tome allows you to expend one usage of Patient Defense, or Step of the Wind.

Nightingale Boots: a pair of leather boots that make a high-pitched chirping sound whenever its wearer moves—causing a -10 to all stealth rolls. When attuned to, however, they grant the user a fly speed of 60ft for the duration of one hour per day.

The Bracelet of Bold Intent: a thin wristband of silver and gold. Once per week, the wearer of this item can make a DC 20 performance check. Upon a success, the wearer stops attacking and begins a rousing speech about the nobility and purity of their quest and ideals, striking passion into the hearts of their allies and terror into the hearts of their foes. Any enemies within a 30-foot radius are instantly immobilized for 1d6 rounds of combat, forced to listen to this speech. Upon a failure, however, the wearer becomes so distracted by their own fervor that for 1d6 rounds, they continue motionlessly monologuing and all attacks against them have advantage.

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This popped up in one of my FB groups and I thought it was rad!

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magic item idea: 

potion with 10 doses that has a d10 random effect whenever used, equally as many bad as good possible effects. Worth 150 gold if bought, 75 if sold. 

1. Comprehend All Languages for 24 hours. 

2. +1 Strength Checks for 1 hour. 

3. +1 AC 24 hours.

4. Chosen instrument proficiency 24 hours.

5. +2 Animal Handling 1 hour. 

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6. Deaf for 2 hours. 

7. take 1d4 damage and poisoned condition for 1 hour. 

8. lose spell casting ability for 1 hour. 

9. -1 AC for 24 hours. 

10. loss of all proficiencies for 1 hour. 

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i have some opinions about dnd werewolves

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Its time I showed off some 4 year old work. I had so much fun working on this board game project, but it unfortunately got shelved. First up are the monsters!

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this horrifying monster is canonically just a weird dog and I love him

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On the 5e language barrier

Does it bother anyone else that most npcs know common or am I blinded by the American upbringing that says “everyone should learn my language because it’s the best and as the largest consumer base in the world I need to be able to understand what you’re saying because I’m more important”? Because being bilingual seems more common in ither countries the more I hear about normal life in other countries.

I only bring it up because it feels weird to me that various communities of, say, elves or dwarves, would all know common, yet most DMs ignore language barriers when players interact with NPCs. On the flip side, however, most enemy creatures and NPCs are (I feel) prone to speaking non-common dialects, like goblin, undercommon, abyssal, or draconic. The enemy speaking a different language is often (again, this is what I’ve seen) then used as a way to challenge the players or create a player proof barrier to keep the game more linear when they encounter enemies. This makes sense when the players are in, say, an ancient ruin if a secluded culture, but not when they are in an all dwarven city.

It weirds me out that I’ve never really heard of a DM introducing a shopkeeper that doesnt speak common, but every enemy group won’t speak common for some reason.

Or is this an issue of planning? Because a lot of friendly NPCs arent planned but most enemies are.

Sorry for the rant, but it was just a randomly interesting topic.

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sorry what

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Villains - Archfey - Worldbuilding Wednesday

The villain is my favorite part of ANY campaign. So here I am gonna talk about how you can make different kinds of villains, honing down on a specific type and offering various ways to make them interesting. As always, we will be looking at real world history, culture, and mythology to make your villains seem realistic and specifically dastardly. For our first entry let’s discuss…

~~~~~~~~~~~~Archfey Villains~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why archfey? Two reasons: 1) I like archfey, they’re fuckin’ dicks. 2) Someone who’s name I can’t find asked me to make this and I am more than happy to make things for my followers.

NOW, let’s understand what an archfey really is.

An archfey is a creature of fey ancestry that is excessively powerful, nearing the power of a deity. Usually, such creatures are native to the Feywild. Within this realm, they command great power and can even shape the realm itself to their whim and whimsy. 

Common Misconception

Archfey doesn’t mean “superelf.” An archfey can be a pixie, a dryad, a ghost, a beast of some kind, anything that is classified as “fae” or “fae-like” can be turned into an archfey. Elf-like archfey are the most COMMON, but absolutely not the ONLY form of an archfey.

The other misconception is that the archfey are good. This is because the Feywild is mistaken as a plain of good, while Shadowfell is a plain of evil. This is wrong. Feywild and Shadowfell aren’t images of good and evil. Their are images of abundance vs lack of emotion. Shadowfell is a plain of the depressed, the emotionless, the broken. Feywild is a plain of the bipolar, the expressive, the artists and the madmen.

(I’m getting tired of saying “archfey”)

Characteristics of the Archfey

So to understand how we get an Archfey villain, lets discuss some general characteristics of the archfey.

Background.

The archfey come from the Feywild. This is a place governed by emotion. When its denizens feel something strongly, they can physically change their environment. A cruel witch will transform the forest around her to grow trees that bleed and produce fruits shaped like heads. While a kind princess will transform the fields around her into a gorgeous plain of crystalline flowers.

Now, the archfey can transform the Feywild at a moment’s notice. Which means they can do one or both of these things:

They can control their emotions very well.

They only ever have emotional extremes powerful enough to instantly alter the Feywild.

Lifestyle

The archfey live careless lives. They are too powerful to have any natural predators, as such live carefree and happy. Due to their extended life (they live like thousands of years), they are NEVER in rush. Why should they be? They’ve got time, ALL the time.

Environment

Based on HOW the Feywild is, how it is ever-shifting and changing, its denizens must learn to control this change to be able to thrive. Since we are working with an archfey, we can assume they’ve already thrived to the top of their food chain. As such, they must have learned to command the Feywild OR adapted to this changing world, having very drastic changes in personality, behavior, or even looks.

With all this information, let’s share some ideas for archfey villains.

Examples of Archfey Villains

Example #1: The Many Faced Man. Simply put, a doppelganger. The archfey are ever-changing. For this example, our villain always changes their looks. So your Party pisses off this archfey or in some way becomes enemies with him. So when your spends the night camping outside, whoever is keeping watch suddenly poof, is teleported away (because this is an Archfey, it can do this kind of shiz) and in steps a the Many Faced Man who takes this lost PCs form.

I urge you, IRL, pull the Player of this character aside and tell them your plan. Tell them that you want to replace them with a Doppelganger, but not to worry, because their PC will eventually be rescued. THEN, offer them to role play as a doppelganger pretending to be their character. Most players will have TONS of fun with this idea. If you player doesn’t want to RP a doppelganger offer them to role a new temporary PC or just dump the idea.

Example #2: Prince of Liars. A very powerful archfey this one is. He has immense power in the Feywild, and has managed to TRAP the Party in his domain. I’m stealing from Curse of Strahd here, but essentially rework that campaign with more fey-like themes. Instead of vampires, we got fey, instead of Strahd we got a spoiled brat of a prince who is all-powerful but only wants to mess with the Party before killing them in a cruel manner for his or her amusement.

For additional complexity, you can make the Prince of Liars have very drastic shifts of emotion. Think, the bad guy from Split (the movie). One moment he is nice to the Party and leads them to a place filled with treasure, the next he snaps into sheer brutal cruelty and slaughters the ranger’s companion. This will put the Party on edge when dealing with the guy. Furthermore, knowing that the archfey is powerful enough to destroy them with ease puts the Party on the edge, at least until they find something that can kill or neutralize this big bad.

Example #3: The Undying Court. This is for LARGE scale campaigns. Let’s say you have a game that is heavy on politics, but spans different dimensions. So the PCs are working with the politics between Mount Celestia and the 9 Hells and the Abyss, etc. That’s when you throw in the Undying Court. A hive-mind of several Archfey that operate as a singular entity and wish to expand their chaotic influence across the many plains. They may ally with Demon Lords and expedite chaotic situations to gain more power, so your PCs would have to negotiate a turbulent field of politics.

And that’s that folks. I hope this provides SOME use to y’all and helps you out with future ideas. Of course you don’t HAVE to follow my guideline 100%. You don’t need to follow it at all, in fact. Just take it as it is, my ideas for a good fey villain. What about you folks? Would you like to see breakdowns of other kinds of villains? I’d love to do more. Send your recommendations my way or share your ideas for villains. I’d love to hear it. Good luck everyone.

The Unfair DM

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“The players all are told to create mid level druids with animal companions. After creating their characters have all of the druids be kidnapped and the players must rescue them as their animal companions.”

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