#D&D 5E

[guardianinthemist]

Count Strahd von Zarovich~~

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Festival Idea

The town of Altfred has a yearly tradition where they build a statue of a bear from twigs and straw, and set it on fire. This celebrates the light returning during the cold and dark months of the year, and honors the local bear spirits who keep the forest safe. Townsfolk share spiced mead and sing classic bear songs. Then, a group dressed up as winter wolves tries to put out the bonfire with snow, while the other villagers defend it. This usually escalates into a snowball fight, followed by more food and drink.

This year, there are rumors that the straw bear will not burn. Something old from out of the forest has decided that the light of the new year shall not arise, and the winter-wolf villager team has been possessed by darkness.

[maximumzombiecreator]

It's often remarked how D&D 5e's play culture has this sort of disinterest bordering on contempt for actually knowing the rules, often even extending to the DM themselves. I've seen a lot of different ideas for why this is, but one reason I rarely see discussed is that actually, a lot of 5e's rules are not meant to be used.

Encumbrance is a great example of this. 5e contains granular weights for all the items that you might have in your inventory, and rules for how much you can carry based on your strength score, and they've set these carry capacities high enough that you should never actually need to think about them. And that's deliberate, the designers have explicitly said that they've set carrying capacity high enough that it shouldn't come up in normal play. So for a starting DM, you see all these weights, you see all the rules for how much people can carry or drag, and you've played Fallout, you know how this works. And then if you try to actually enforce that, you find that it's insanely tedious, and it basically never actually matters, so you drop it.

Foraging is the example of this that bothers me most. There's a whole system for this! A table of foraging DCs, and math for how much food you can find, and how long you can go without food, etc. But the math is set up so that a person with no survival proficiency and a +0 to WIS, in a hostile environment, will still forage enough food to be fine, and the starvation rules are so generous that even a run of bad luck is unlikely to matter. So a DM who actually tries to use these rules will quickly find that they add nothing but bookkeeping. You're rolling a bunch of checks every day of travel for something that is purpose built not to matter. And that's before you add in all the ways to trivialize or circumvent this.

These rules don't exist to be used, that is not their purpose. These rules exist because the designers were scared of the backlash to 4e, and wanted to make sure that the game had all the rules that D&D "should" have. But they didn't actually want these mechanics. They didn't want the bookkeeping, they didn't care about that style of play, but they couldn't just say, "this game isn't about that" for fear of angering traditionalists. And unfortunately the way they handled this was by putting in rules that are bad, that actively fight anyone who wants to use that style of play and act as a trap to people who take the rules in good faith.

And this means that knowing what rules are not supposed to be used is an actual skill 5e DMs develop. Part of being a good 5e DM is being able to tell the real rules that will improve your game from the fake rules that are there to placate angry forum posters. And that's just an awful position to put DMs in (especially new DMs), but it's pretty unsurprising that it creates a certain contempt for knowing the rules as written.

You should have contempt for some of the rules as written. The designers did.

[sirobvious]

“You just wrote your medieval fantasy setting to have medieval gender roles and homophobia and prejudice because you secretly fantasize about being able to be sexist and homophobic in a land with no PoC without any pushback! It’s fantasy, there’s dragons and wizards, it doesn’t have to have prejudice unless you, the writer, want it like that! In *my* D&D setting, there’s no sexism or homophobia, so that gay transgender women of all races can be holy knights fighting to protect the good kingdom from the endless hordes of the evil dark race that has threatened its borders for a thousand years!”

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

MINOTAUR

VS DRAGONBORN

First up, Minotaur! Around 7-9 ft (2.1-2.7 m) tall, impeccable sense of direction, strong as an ox, and typically cover those massive horns in etchings and runes and bands of metal! They actually aren't quick to anger in particular, just passionate in general, they're just as quick to laughter. They value not just power, but wit and cunning, so you can still impress without needing to get rough...but they do usually enjoy getting rough.

Next Dragonborn! So many looks, all without tails. They're tall, averaging about 6-7 ft (1.8-2.1 m), and tend to be strong as a default. They're loyal, proud, hold family highly, and have a similar lifespan to humans (though they mature far faster). They also breathe and resist the element of the dragon they resemble, so you've got some options if temperature play's your thing. Note that their body temperature actually runs a bit hotter than a human's, and apparently they have ridged dicks in the BG3 character creator!

[fortunatefires]

It is a truly horrific experience to try to explain dimension 20 references to ppl who have never watched it. I can't just say "He said he was gonna shit in my MOuTH! in my mOooUuth!" And make it make sense

[malinastharlock]

+3 hole-e damage

[retrograde-tonic]

TWST D&D Character Sheets!

Feel free to use them! They started off as a silly project but I got hooked and finished all 7! They’re great for a TWST campaign, or even just to grab for a character that you think would be in that dorm

I only ask you don’t repost them, edit them (aside from adding character/OC information ofc), or crop out my signature

[tanoraqui]

D&D 5e PC free to a good home: Human Bard, Variant Human build wherein they start with a Feat. The Feat is Magic Initiate into the Warlock class. They got it because they defeated a Devil in a crossroads fiddle duel and, when they refused the golden fiddle prize, knowing it to be a trap, the Devil laughed and offered them a straightforward deal instead: three wishes, with a teaser sample of 2 cantrips + a 1 use/day petty spell, and after the fulfillment of the third wish, their soul will come directly to Hell.

The Bard agreed - they're fine so long as they never use the third wish, right? Heck, they'll just never use any of the wishes, and they can escape this very dangerous conversation with a little magical boost and a great story to tell.

How you play them is entirely up to you, except know that 3 times, you can call upon this Devil for a wish...which will manifest, mechanically, as taking a level in Warlock. For the third wish, they will give you that same golden fiddle, which will act as a Pact of the Blade Pact Weapon, mechanically modified to function primarily as a spellcasting focus rather than a literal weapon.

Your relationship with the Devil is also up to you and the DM. Personally, I'd go for slowburn romance with a College of Creation Bard, to really fascinate a properly Lucifer-coded Devil, fulfilling the final term of the deal by straight-up moving to Hell with your new sugar mommy (after defeating the Big Bad of the campaign, which is what you needed the third wish for). Or the Devil could be the Big Bad of the campaign! Or you can never make a wish and multiclass into Warlock, if you're very strong of will! It's your story to tell.

[curse-of-dming-strahd]

Oh right... The curse. The curse of Strahd. The curse chosen specially to torture Strahd, Strahd’s curse.

[probablyfunrpgideas]

Idea: when fighting a werewolf, cast Invisibility on them!

Possible benefits: if moonlight isn’t shining on them (it would go through without reflecting) they might turn back into a person.

Possible downsides: invisible werewolf.

[dndprofessor]

[dungeon-strugglers]

✨New item!✨ Bandolier of Many Knives Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

This leather bandolier has eight daggers sheathed in it. You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with one of these magic daggers. A dagger removed (or thrown) from the bandolier vanishes at the end of your turn and reappears on the bandolier, unless you are wielding the dagger as a melee weapon. You can draw a dagger from the bandolier (no action required) as part of making an attack with it.

Fan of Blades. As an action while wearing the bandolier, you can throw all eight daggers at once. You must have a free hand to do so. Each creature in a 15-foot cone must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 8d4 + 8 piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Once this property of the bandolier has been used, it cannot be used again until the next dawn.

An engraving on the inside of the bandolier reads: “A knife for each of your problems.” - 🖌🎨 Like our work? Consider supporting us on Patreon and gain access to the hi-resolution art for over 200 magic items, printable item cards and card packs, beautiful creature art and stat blocks, and setting pdfs with narrative hooks and unique lore!🧙‍♂️ Thank you so much for your support! 💖

📜 Credit. Art and design by us: the Dungeon Strugglers. Please credit us if you repost elsewhere.