#did you even read your dnd phb?

[utilitycaster]

Any thoughts on what personality traits and character flaws other classes should have in order to DND correctly?

So, good question! I have less strong feelings on most other classes though because I really do find that sorcerers and rogues tend to attract, as mentioned, people who are really into One Big Damage Roll and I as the URL indicates I am very much not about that life.

I think it's not so much that there's a specific personality trait or character flaw - to be honest, that's not even uniquely true of rogues or sorcerer (eg, my advice for a divine soul sorcerer or an inquisitive rogue would in fact be different; it's just that Zac hasn't played those). It's that like...you should have a very, very clear idea why your character became the class that they did, and at least in my opinion you should de-emphasize aesthetics during the class selection process. There is truly nothing stopping you from being a goth druid even if you are not circle of spores. Pick a class with mechanics that interest you, then ask yourself why your character became that. How did they learn this was an option? Who trained them, if applicable? When did they realize they had the knack for magic, or wilderness travel, or combat? Is this cultural/traditional or is this something they found for themselves? Like, to be totally honest, my advice is "actually read all the boring parts in the class and subclass section of the PHB and answer all the questions, and don't try to be cute or subversive because honestly, playing it straight and then letting the story happen to you will carve out a far more unique and interesting character than attempting to be edgy from the get-go will."

[white-weasel]

I loved reading about finnean in your tags of that poll reblog. This is your sign, if you want one, to talk about him (or any of your other characters) all you want. Fascinating little guy

Anon you have unleashed the floodgates I think... This is gonna be a mix of general information, campaign recaps related to him, and just general brain rot so uhhhhh who's to say if this will be even remotely intelligible lmao

So like I laid out in the tags of that post, Finnean Galondel is a high elf Order of the Scribes Wizard (currently we're at level 14). He's currently 91 and since elves reach the age of maturity at ~100 at least according to the PHB, I started by playing him as the equivalent of someone going off to college for the first time: very smart, but because he had never traveled very far outside of his village before so kinda naive about how the world actually works. He's certainly matured over the course of the campaign, but he does still tend towards optimistic outlooks

The backstory I originally provided for him was pretty brief. Essentially, Finnean's father had been out of the picture ever since he was 5 years old. Nobody really knows what happened to him. His mother told him that he was a very dedicated scholar, studying magic and history in general, but specializing in one specific area thousands of years old. Then, one night, he apparently stumbled on a huge discovery and told her that he needed to take it to the village elders right away. He left and wasn't back the next morning, the village elders saying that he never even approached them that night. Nobody knows why he decided to leave the village, or if it even was a voluntary decision at all. However, since 85 year had passed since then, Finnean and his mother essentially treated him like he was dead by that point.

And Finnean and his mom!! He is SUCH a mama's boy it's not even funny. Before the campaign, she was his best friend in the world. He loved helping her out around the house and just spending time with her. However, she was the one who pushed Finnean to leave home so that he could branch out in his training. She knew that he was pretty sheltered and needed real world experience if he was to actually improve and become a better wizard like he wanted. I have written multiple letters to my DM in character throughout the campaign for what Finnean was sending to his mom to keep her up to date

There was also Daemaris (hate this fucking bitch) who I originally included as Finnean's childhood bully. He's basically the village golden child who has always outshone Finnean and then rubbed it in his face. He left the village to strike out on his own a couple years before Finnean did and for right now all you need to know is he's an asshole and I hate him ajafsldf (he will become important later tho)

So yeah not to get into the details of everything we did in the first part of the campaign, but we played through the Dragon Heist module with some supplementary side adventures. Here, Finnean gets his first experience with violence and actually taking a life, as everything he's done before has been in controlled environments. He struggled with this for some time, about the realities of adventuring compared to all the books he had read that had made it sort of idyllic and heroic (because of course he's a huge book nerd, he's a wizard)

The thing that kinda makes him come to terms with death and killing is the group's first encounter with an evil cult (typical dnd stuff yknow). Basically it's all the horrible things, the group saw piles of bodies, but also saw a few survivors who were horrible brainwashed + traumatized from everything. We fought this cult leader, Vialis, but before we could finish him off, he teleported away. Finnean, seeing all the death and carnage around him, realized that he wished that they had been able to kill this man so he could never do this to anyone else again. Sometimes the world is a better place with certain people dead. (This cult encounter is where we have gotten one of the lines that has become our paladin's maxim throughout the campaign and has now become a central theme: "Death is inevitable, but not today" Whether that death is the PCs, those NPCs/citizens we are trying to protect, etc. Everyone will eventually die, but that doesn't mean we won't fight like hell to push it down the line later. So yeah, Finnean realizes that sometimes killing is necessary and it's part of his duty as an adventurer to carry it out.

During the course of Dragon Heist, Finnean and his friends (our party calls themelves The Keepers of the Howling Moon because we set up/own a karaoke bar in Waterdeep called The Howling Moon and it just sounds sick as shit) work for Vajra Safahr, the Blackstaff. She's basically the archmage of Waterdeep and I love her so much. Finnean and her have developed a friendship throughout the campaign. At first, I'm pretty sure she viewed him as a kid with a good heart, but green in the gills. However, as the party learned and grew and saved Waterdeep from devils, she has become much more comfortable with the party. Finnean opened up to her about his own self-doubt to her and she in turn revealed her own insecurities as the youngest Blackstaff in Waterdeep history and how she is pulled in a million different directions always. Whenever we're in Waterdeep and have downtime, Finnean spends a lot of time with her. Usually, he'll visit her tower and they'll each work on whatever they need to together. We have sending stones that connect directly to her and are CONSTANTLY trying to fill her in on what's going on with us. I just... love her so much

Another important NPC to Finnean is one Renaer Neverember. I wanna say we met him in session two, saw him be insanely competent in battle, and Finnean was IMMEDIATELY smitten with him. At the beginning of the campaign there was... so much failed flirting and obliviousness on Finnean's end. I think the most mortifying one was, Finnean went to his house, followed a courting ritual suggested by another party member (who, unbeknownst to him at this point, had just escaped from a cult so her perspective on romance was severely skewed), and then, when Renaer tried to let him down gently, misinterpreted his words and believed they were dating. After lots of second hand embarrassment, Finnean got his ass handed to him emotionally (Renaer basically said "look, you seem like a great guy, but I have a lot going on with my dad rn" but was never a dick) and resolved that they would never be more than friends.

However, there have been so many moments where Renaer singles out Finnean specifically from the rest of the party: getting bracers of defense for his birthday, lingering touches as the party goes off the Baldur's Gate, etc, etc. So in character, Finnean has already resolved they can never be more than friends based just on how badly all previous attempts at pursuing him went. Out of character I am just SCREAMING because the stories of Finnean and Renaer are so similar to each other, but so different.

Renaer has a bad relationship with his father Dagult, who is an important figure in the city of Neverwinter. His father embezzled a shit ton of Waterdeep money and then dipped. Renaer has had to deal with the mess his father left behind, despite how much he wants to wash his hands of everything and be his own person. To most people he will be a Neverember first, and then Renaer. Finnean, on the other hand, barely knew his father. He used his father's books to study and connected to him that way, but there was never any expectation placed on him to be anything but himself. However, when he learns more about his father, who he was and how he disappeared, he knows that he must finish what his dad started, no matter how much the idea of it scares him.

Speaking of Finnean's dad, Finnean found out more about him by a Cleric/Warlock of the Raven Queen literally giving him the memories of his father's last moments. He had been researching this ancient lich and had finally figured out his location. He left a package and letter to Finnean and then set out to confront the lich. He didn't tell anyone what he was doing and didn't take any sort of backup with him. He ultimately died in his quest.

So cue a couple weeks in game later, we finally make our way back to Finnean's village to retrieve this package for Finnean, which pointed out some suspect ruins. There was a SHIT ton of stuff that happened there for each of us PCs (Paladin/Barbarian from the cult of Orcus had an emotional confrontation with her older brother, trying to save him from whatever entity's control he was under and Warlock/Sorcerer basically found out that she was not who she thought she was (too convoluted to explain easily, but essentially due to the trauma of seeing her sister die in front of her, she took on the persona of her sister to shield herself from that truth + her patron took advantage of that trauma further in making their pact)). The shit that happened with Finnean was twofold

Motherfucking DAEMARIS of all people was in these ruins, performing a ritual to open a portal for the bbeg lich. Finnean always knew he was an asshole, but he never thought he could ever actually be evil. They had a very intense confrontation, and when Finnean tried to get an answer about why Daemaris was doing this and hurting people, Daemaris accused Finnean of being a hypocrite. He wasn't very clear, but essentially said that they both play judge, jury, and executioner. They both kill. We have not played much past this, but now Finnean is spiraling because he thinks that Daemaris might be right. The first time Finnean killed someone, he literally threw up. Now though, he and his party members kill those they deem evil without hesitation and is that right for him? Yes, some people are probably better off dead, but to the extent of what they've been doing? He has a lot to think about. Even if this isn't true, Daemaris' mind games have worked on him. I definitely see a future where Finnean hesitates in the heat of battle and either he, or worse, one of his friends gets hurt because of it. Also, even though I as a player really really want to kill Daemaris, I think Finnean will struggle with this a lot more and probably won't be able to finish him off

Nezerac, the lich, was able to get through the portal and gave a long villain speech and one of the things he said implied that something about Finnean was only able to do all this because of him (so that could mean the source of his magic, his lineage, his village, SOMETHING) which is really just horrifying. And also probably gives a hint as to why Daemaris is working with Nezerac. He also revealed that he had been keeping an eye on the whole party since the very beggining which is so concerning. Nezerac then straight up killed Finnean and the Warlock and then provided two diamonds for the paladin to revivify them as a power move/taunt. And like I said, haven't played past this yet but Finnean is gonna SPIRAL and feel a shit ton of guilt about the entire encounter because the only reason his friends were there was because of him.

I think Finnean has half a thought that he should not let them get involved further, that he needs to hide his guilt that he feels about putting them in this position. He needs to be stronger and strong means that he would be able to handle this on his own. But then he also remembers the last memories of his father (which are now as good as his own memories), where he tried to confront Nezerac on his own and the only thing he did was get himself killed and give Nezerac another soul to gain power from. Maybe if he had spoken with Mordenkainen, or any of the other powerful wizards he knew, he would still be here and Finnean wouldn't be the one who has to deal with all of this. Something something, treading the path of his father but not making the same mistakes

There's probably stuff I'm leaving out about him, but like... I love him. If anything happens to Finnean I will genuinely be inconsolable for at least a week. He's the first dnd character I ever created and I absolutely love playing him because he has all this real shit going on, but also has the capacity to be Just A Little Guy when we aren't in the thick of it. (And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I think he gets a lot of good, funny moments outside of serious scenes to keep things from getting too dire)

Rapid fire little moments/facts about Finnean:

He has a ferret familiar named Fenny (short for Fenjamin). Fenny's "wriggly body is optimized for dance" and essentially when he's running around the battlefield and distracting our enemies (aka giving the help action to give one of us advantage on attacks) he's "dancing" :)

Met Volo (aka in-universe writer of Volo's Guide to Monsters), had an insane fanboy moment, and got him to sign multiple things including a copy of the book which he kept as a prized possession

His wizard robes were sewn for him by his mom and his name is stitched into the neck part

His spellbook is actually a library book from his hometown. He didn't realize that those needed to be returned though, so it's horribly horribly overdue (we actually just got back to his village a session or two ago and he had to pay a huge fine on it because it's now so beat up it can't be returned lol)

Made the poor choice of buying a Gucci belt for way too much gold (from Old Man Gucci at Ye Old Gucci Shoppe) but then became disillusioned with the drip when he kept seeing assholes wearing them

Helped make magical WWE called Mage Mania (I ordered shirts for my group as Christmas gifts after 2 years of us joking about it. I'm so excited for these)

For an event at the karaoke bar, he disguised self to make himself look like a women. Rolled a nat 20 for hotness and so was disguised as an extremely hot MILF. Daemaris (back before we knew he was like... actually evil) hit on him endlessly and it was very fun to see his reaction when Finnean dropped the disguise and revealed that he had been pursuing the "idiot loser" all night

Loves to study and learn languages (he initially bonded with the paladin/barbarian by taking Abyssal lessons from her)

[montereybayaquarium]

This is the sorcerer’s sea slug (Polycera atra). It is identifiable by its black stripes and raised yellow specks, and clearly belongs in Hufflepuff. While it can’t actually cast magic, it certainly has us under its spell.

Thanks to local underwater photographer Kate Vylet for this squee-inducing slug selfie.

[dungeonqueering]

As You Wish

As You Wish is the (working) title of a game I am going to do when my current in person game wraps up. That is a working title, if you have better suggestions I would LOVE to hear them.

In fifth edition DnD, the spell Teleportation circle becomes a permanent circle if you cast in in the same spot every day for one year. Each circle has a series of arcane runes that acts like a serial number. It takes one round to commit these to memory, and once you have done so, you can use that number to travel to that circle either from any other teleportation circle, or by using the Teleport spell. That’s how it’s listed in the PHB, at least.

The spell Wish is, of course, one of the most powerful spells imaginable. It has a list of possible effects, but it could theoretically do much much MUCH more. However, if you order “off menu” it is up to the DM’s discretion if the spell messes up or has unintended consequences in some way. These are the two spells that are the crux of this campaign.

The three players will be the most important people in a small farming town with a population of right around 500. I have a system set up that will determine what exactly the town has, shown here:

Basically, we are going to use a large battlemat I have to do the rough layout of the town, and I’ll do a nicer map of it between session 0 and session 1.

So far, one player is going to play a Hobgoblin cook who “retired” from the Hobgoblin army after “The War” that was 5-10 years ago. He was the army’s cook, and now he wants to have a restaurant and make actually good food, probably out of the monsters they kill. (We did discuss the logistics of making stock from Dragon Bones, and I found a solution.)

The other player wants to play a cleric who left his small town home to get a Big City Education so he could come back and be the small town doctor / mortician. He’ll probably also be the town archivist because most of the folks here can’t actually Read so someone needs to keep track of town history.

I am not sure about a 3rd player, a lot is up in the air in regards to that.

SO! How does the game begin? Why do those spells matter?

The town, on rare occasions, gets an adventurer who stops through. One such adventurer walks into the center of town and casts Wish.

“I wish for Infinite Loot!”

The implication in the word Loot is that you have to somehow work, or more likely fight, for your spoils. The spell forms a permanent teleportation circle in town square, and forces the caster into it. Inside, an infinite series of dungeons that the caster is cursed to forever roam until his death.

Not so for our heroes. See, the teleportation circle is permanent. They won’t know this for a while, but it magically alters existing dungeons as well as creating new ones wholesale. At the beginning and end of every dungeon is a teleportation circle, so the hapless wizard can get to the next layer. But our heroes? They can get back to the original circle. Back to their hometown. And they will make FAR more money in one trip than their town makes in a year. It’s a poor farming town, after all. Unless they pick one of the luxury goods during creation, they may not even have any real exports beyond food.

So maybe they go in the first time because the town is afraid, and wants it closed. Maybe they build a shack around it and lock it. But the idea is that they build their characters with both a thirst for adventure, yet a resignment to a quiet life. What if they can now have both?

So the players can now use the infinite dungeon as a way to generate income. But they have no incentive to go in every day. That would be dangerous, you see. Therefore, I am counting on days, weeks, even months of downtime between what I am calling “Delves”. So what do we do with our downtime? The DMG and XGE have a downtime system in place, but it isn’t exactly robust. It’s quite limited in what you can do, and a lot of the options lose value as you advance in level. Because of this, I have devised my own Downtime system, using a mixture of the DMG and XGE versions, as well as the downtime system from Pathfinder and the Kingdom Building system from Pathfinder as well. The goal is that they can spend their hard earned resources to not just better themselves, but to better their home town. To add businesses, citizens, defenses, attractions, and more. They may smart as a small town that should never amount to anything, but they will overcome it. This will ideally make them more invested in the reocurring NPCs. After all, that’s your neighbor. Your doctor. The people who helped you build your house. 

So with that said, here is the full Downtime system that I have devised:

Feel absolutely free to use this yourself. I’m going to make a separate post with just the raw text for you to copy and use at your leisure, just don’t, like, sell it or claim credit for it pls. It contains stuff from WotC, so not only will I be hurt and sad, but WotC might get CaD hungry.

Anyway, this is not a full and comprehensive list of things they may do. By its very nature its incomplete, and I hope they will come up with ideas I had never considered. The goal here is to provide a framework so that I can work with my players to create a wonderful city that I will surely use in future adventures. And now, hopefully, so will you.

[bugbearraces]

dnd backgrounds

In D&D, you play as a delusion character. Roleplay is whilst your man or woman interacts with others inside the global. There are special ways to roleplay, so don’t be do away with if this sounds daunting! You can cross all-in with an accessory or unique voice, talking as if you had been the individual. Or, you may describe what your person does: “Ulfgar goes as much as the barmaid and orders liquids for the party”.

If you’ve ever visible Lord of the Rings then those delusion race alternatives will appear very acquainted to you – in particular the hobbits (we mean, uh, halflings).

In the PHB (Player’s Handbook) there are 9 races to select from. Each race comes with its personal racial tendencies and skills as well as a few subraces which provide even extra range.

For example, Elves can stay for as much as 750 years, can see inside the darkish, and thanks to their magical heritage, they are able to’t be charmed by means of magic or placed to sleep. Wood Elves are quicker and stealthier, and High Elves are greater adept with magic. Compare them with Dwarves who only stay to approximately 350 years old, also have darkvision, however they're proof against poisons way to their sturdy body, but due to the fact they are smaller in length, additionally they have much less speed (all of us don't forget Gimli going for walks seeking to hold up with Legolas, proper?).

Already you may see the wealth of alternatives available when creating your first person. Here’s a quick examine all the extraordinary races inside the Player's Handbook, (which you could read more about inside the unfastened Basic Rules on D&D Beyond):

Of path, those are just the fundamental races. In other posted fifth edition books, the listing of playable races is extended to include tremendous races like Goblins and Orcs, to extra wonderful races including the cat-like Tabaxi, or maybe the elephant-like Loxodon, and even encompass beings from other worlds like the angel-blood Aasimar, and half of-horse / half-individual Centaurs.

There is something of a reckoning going on for D&D's racial tendencies, with growing scrutiny at the underlying assumptions riding portrayals of 'evil' races specially. The 2020 D&D sourcebook Tasha's Cauldron of Everything did see specific racial tendencies become non-obligatory, encouraging players to pick out and choose stat bonuses as appropriate for his or her person, displaying a greater inclusive mindset from publisher Wizards of the Coast – so be aware which you do not need to fall into stereotypes of a brutish, high-electricity orc or swish, high-dexterity elf.

Once you’ve decided what race your individual is, it’s time to select a category. In D&D your magnificence determines what kind of things you can do and ultimately what function you’ll play inside the institution. If you play any sort of online game, it’s basically how you decide who can be the tank, the help, the healer, or the DPS (excessive damage dealer).  Some instructions use magic, a few use weapons, and a few use a mixture of each.

 As a new participant, it is going to be less difficult to apprehend the mechanics of martial instructions and mixed lessons (so-referred to as half-casters or 1/3-casters, with limited magical abilities), however that doesn’t mean you may’t dive headfirst into a few magic-based totally shenanigans.

[dndracesdd]

dnd character sheet

Throughout the game, you’ll come up towards monsters, bandits, and awful men, and every now and then talking simply gained’t repair it. You’ll need to defeat them in fight. This is when the Fighters will dart forward, sword and shield in hand, the Wizards will throw out magic spells from a distance, and the Clerics can be accessible to hold you all healed and alive. Combat in D&D is flip-based, so everybody will have their chance to make a flow, led by using the Dungeon Master that runs the consultation.

Exploration

Every D&D sport is ready in a extraordinary international. You may be gambling a recreation in one of the ‘legitimate’ D&D worlds, or your game might be set someplace your DM has invented themselves. Either way, there's lots so that you can go and explore, from sunken ships and haunted castles to deserted villages and monster-ridden mountaintops.

In D&D, you play as a delusion character. Roleplay is whilst your man or woman interacts with others inside the global. There are special ways to roleplay, so don’t be do away with if this sounds daunting! You can cross all-in with an accessory or unique voice, talking as if you had been the individual. Or, you may describe what your person does: “Ulfgar goes as much as the barmaid and orders liquids for the party”.

If you’ve ever visible Lord of the Rings then those delusion race alternatives will appear very acquainted to you – in particular the hobbits (we mean, uh, halflings).

In the PHB (Player’s Handbook) there are 9 races to select from. Each race comes with its personal racial tendencies and skills as well as a few subraces which provide even extra range.

For example, Elves can stay for as much as 750 years, can see inside the darkish, and thanks to their magical heritage, they are able to’t be charmed by means of magic or placed to sleep. Wood Elves are quicker and stealthier, and High Elves are greater adept with magic. Compare them with Dwarves who only stay to approximately 350 years old, also have darkvision, however they're proof against poisons way to their sturdy body, but due to the fact they are smaller in length, additionally they have much less speed (all of us don't forget Gimli going for walks seeking to hold up with Legolas, proper?).

Already you may see the wealth of alternatives available when creating your first person. Here’s a quick examine all the extraordinary races inside the Player's Handbook, (which you could read more about inside the unfastened Basic Rules on D&D Beyond):

Of path, those are just the fundamental races. In other posted fifth edition books, the listing of playable races is extended to include tremendous races like Goblins and Orcs, to extra wonderful races including the cat-like Tabaxi, or maybe the elephant-like Loxodon, and even encompass beings from other worlds like the angel-blood Aasimar, and half of-horse / half-individual Centaurs.

There is something of a reckoning going on for D&D's racial tendencies, with growing scrutiny at the underlying assumptions riding portrayals of 'evil' races specially. The 2020 D&D sourcebook Tasha's Cauldron of Everything did see specific racial tendencies become non-obligatory, encouraging players to pick out and choose stat bonuses as appropriate for his or her person, displaying a greater inclusive mindset from publisher Wizards of the Coast – so be aware which you do not need to fall into stereotypes of a brutish, high-electricity orc or swish, high-dexterity elf.

[sesquipedalianmarquis]

D&D Classes

so i offered to give someone a quick summary of the 5e dnd PHB classes, which i then read out to my friends, who then implored me to post it on tungle dot hell

so... here we go

being a barbarian is fun. you get an ability called “rage” which means u get super pissed and things can’t hurt you as much now. and all you have to do in a fight is run around and hit things! you don’t even have to wear armour. go into battle wearing only a cute skirt, footwear and a huge axe. go nuts. work off your aggression by playing A Barbarian today!

fighters tend to be more knightly than barbarians. this is mostly because they usually wear armour. they come in all flavours from “brilliant strategist” to “dumbass mercenary”. you can do whatever with a fighter, but your main job as a fighter is being the tank of the team!

rogues are, well, rogues. the sneaky stabby bastards of the group. the rogue gets a feature called sneak attack, which lets you unload unholy amounts of bonus damage when you have the drop on your enemy! if someone so much as breathes in your direction you fall over dead because you have few hitpoints and next to no armour, but it’s fine — they can’t hit you if you’ve already cut their throats while they were still drawing their swords. >:3c

monks are weird. like, imagine a dude, but his fists are lethal weapons. we’re thinking more bruce lee than medieval augustinian church man here. sometimes they’re really good at punching. sometimes they’re ninjas. you can go full naruto here if your heart desires! monks rule. they’re pretty squishy, but like, it’s worth it for the ability to hit someone three times in six seconds, yes?

rangers! picture aragorn from the lord of the rings. but like, maybe a bit more legolas. you probably have a bow. maybe even an animal companion. you can’t get lost in the forest, unlike the other dumbasses in your party, who are all fucking useless at surviving in the wild, in your opinion. you can attack a bit, heal a bit, cast a bit – and you get a free pass to play an introverted character.

PALADINS! :D my favourite class. don’t tell anyone, but yes, i have a favourite. and yes, it’s the paladin. you get the goodies of a fighter (high hitpoint maximum, heavy armour, any weapon you desire). and then also a god! your god is a little like your employer. or maybe even an annoying manager. or maybe your god doesnt talk to you at all and you’re just doing your best. fact is, because you believe in something really hard, you can do magic! it doesn’t have to be good. evil paladins are totally a thing. and you get healing skills! there’s nothing sexier than a group tank who doesn’t need a healer because they can heal their own damn self in the middle of battle. hell yeah.

bards? weirder than monks. bards can insult you so hard you take psychic damage. a bard can yell at a goblin “your mom suck me good & hard thru my jorts” and maybe the goblin will just straight up die. who let them have magical power? i don’t fucking know. but fuck, dude, they have it, and now there’s no stopping these weirdly charismatic drama club kids.

warlocks. you have a contract. a deal. a curse. a sugar daddy. basically, a demon, fiend, fey, eldritch monster or other powerful whatever went “hey you, i’ll give you some magical powers. blast plasma from your hands and mind control people or some shit.” and maybe you owe them your soul now, or have to follow orders, or something. but it’s really not that bad a deal... right?

clerics, here we go: you’re super magic. it’s because a god likes you. or you like a god? religion gives you magical abilities. clerics come in all flavours from “i will die if you so much as look at me mean” to “i am tankier than the barbarian, get fucked” but if your party’s cleric dies... you’re fucked.

druids. druids are the smelly forest dude who smokes weed and has leaves in his hair at all times. druids don’t know what sugar spoons are. they just wanna talk to plants and, like, chill, man. you usually get a druid in your party either because the druid’s like “this sounds fun” or because someone’s been fucking with the forest and they’re pissed. did i mention they can turn into animals? because that’s a thing. hell yeah.

wizards are nerds. all of them. they’re all nerds. they study books real hard until they can do magic! it takes training and studying and more studying and finally your robe clad, fire throwing wizard is ready to go on an adve— oh no. he tripped. and fell. and the fall damage killed him. because wizards have the structural integrity of a damp saltine cracker. i was a wizard once and i got knocked unconscious by a bunch of ravens. bring a barbarian, to protect your little wizard. please.

sorcerers are like wizards... but better. they make fun of wizards. they bully the wizards. because what a wizard has to study for ages, a sorcerer can just... do. just like that. did someone in their family fuck a dragon? did someone in their lineage get dunked in the astral plane for a while? is their soul just kind of spectacularly magical for no reason you can guess at? whatever the source, they have an innate ability to Do Magic. it’s pretty cool. if only most of them weren’t dumbass drama queens, or massive emos.

[nerdarchy-blog]

When Nerdarchy went to GenCon 2018 I met some of the people over at Legendary Games and got a copy of their Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium for 5E D&D to check out. I am a huge fan of fey and forest games out in the wilderness and away from normal civilization. If you want to pick up the book on Amazon you can do so here. You can also head over to the Legendary Games site and check out this or other amazing products they offer.

5E D&D Forest Kingdom Campaign all-in-one

From the back cover

“Step into the shadowed boughs of the forest realm to find a wild world of magic, mystery, monsters, and more! From the misty boreal taiga of the cold northern reaches to the wondrous glades of enchanting fey beauty, the Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium from Legendary Games offers a wealth of amazing expansions for your wilderness campaign using the 5th edition of the world’s most famous RPG!”

Flipping through this, I’m impressed by the amazingly high quality. Gorgeous full color artwork is found throughout. You can see some of my favorite pieces in the slideshow below. Each page has a stripe of artwork on the left and right sides of each bi-folded page. It is a hard cover book and jam packed into over 350 pages of useful stuff. The back of the book contains 6 pages of maps you can use as references for your players as well as a page of paper-craft minis, if you are willing to cut your book. But you can save your book and pick it up as a PDF as well, so you can print as many of the paper-craft and map pages as you need.

But I am sure you are excited to know what else is inside. When I saw the table of contents I knew I needed to have a copy of this book for my gaming shelf as it has material designed for both the player and the Game Master.

Chapter 1 gives fey and forest options. You get 19 new subclasses for your typical classes: bard, cleric, druid, fighter, ranger, sorcerer, and warlock. You even get 6 new warlock Eldritch Invocations. You get a couple of new feats like Fairy Blessing and True Love’s Kiss that give fun roleplaying benefits. They really encourage the roleplaying in this game, which I love. I think these would make great rewards for quests or in-game actions, though that is just my call. I use mechanical rewards as well as story rewards in my games. There is also 18 new spells fit for your game in this setting.

Chapter 2 goes into new magic items. There are 40 new magic items going from common to artifact in power. Things like survivalist arrow all the way to fractured phylactery. Though I do have to say collecting owlbear dander might be a new thing in my game after reading this.

Chapter 3 and beyond starts going into the campaign portion of what the book is about. In case players out there are using this I am going to keep my information vague but hopefully helpful in your decision as to whether or not you are looking to pick this book up, Though my recommendation is certainly to do so.

Chapter 3 is about the Faerie Forests. We start off with a nice sidebar comparing east vs. west of mythology where fey are concerned. I am glad they have taken the time to go into this, as the Asian mythology has many useful aspects where fey are concerned and to have them incorporated is just awesome. The rest of the chapter goes on to influence, impulses, effects, rumors, bargains, and lore. This chapter is enough material for repeated use in your games. There is so much packed into these 50 pages that I marvel at how they did it. The bargains section is intense and, as it should, makes me want to revisit my fey game I played recently and enter in a lot of the great material found here. Come on, who goes to the fey wild without seeing a fey willing to make a bargain with the player characters?

Chapter 4 is worth a read for any GM as it does not necessarily have to do with fey and forests although it certainly could. It is about Royal Tournaments. You get rules for jousts and a number of other games as well as what rewards might be had by winning. Roughly 35 pages that are useful for GMs who want to have a nice relaxing session of fun revelry and games but are just not sure how to do so.

Chapter 5 is Countries and Characters. Here you get a more in-depth look at the places you could use in your game. It is useful to know about the places you will travel during your game, if you want to use their setting, and here is where you get a lot of that.

Chapter 6 is about some premade characters that you can use as fully fleshed out NPCs or as player characters. They have all the information there ready. I think this feature is really cool. You have full page art you can share with your players so they to take in the character they are meeting in full view.

Chapter 7 is another section that is useful for any GM. Here is a section of Monsters of the Forest. You have over 60 creatures designed as potential friend or foe depending on the type of game you are playing. There’s weak and tiny monsters all the way to incredibly large and powerful monsters. They posses a wide array of abilities and like I stated this is a section any GM can use. Because you can never have enough monsters, am I right?

Chapter 8 is an adventure.

“Cold Mountain is an adventure set in the back country of the rugged frontier lands that PCs are in the progress of exploring and perhaps even claiming as their own. It is designed for characters of 4th level who have begun to achieve some success with adventuring…”

Having all of the great information plus a fully incorporated adventure makes this book a total winner by my standards. You literally could take the 5E D&D PHB and this book and have enough stuff to run a large number of 5E D&D games.

Again if you want to pick this book up from Amazon you can do so here or if you want to check out the publisher you can do so at the Legendary Games site. There are awesome deals over on their main site including 20 PDFs for $20. These are very much worth checking out.

Thanks for reading and as always until next time, stay nerdy!

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Whether you're running a full-on forest kingdom campaign or taking a side trip to the fey realms @LegendaryGamesJ got the magic, myth, monster and more covered for your #DnD games When Nerdarchy went to GenCon 2018 I met some of the people over at Legendary Games…

[bookworm-2692]

8, 14, 17 for the dnd asks!

thank you!!!!

8: what does your dream dice set look like?

hmmm i’m not sure…. definitely blue. probably that etheral yeti one miho sent yesterday that i fell in love with haha they’re so pretty!!!!!

14: what inspired you to make your character?

i guess i’ll go through each of them.

norixius kava, dragonborn paladin (out of the abyss). this was my first one and i had no idea how dnd worked haha at all. in the car on the way to my cousins place, i was driving, and my dad and brother were reading through the books and talking about the races and classes and stuff and explaining to me bc obvi i couldnt read them bc i was driving haha. anyway we got to my cousins place and each of them paired up w the three of us to help make our first characters and we rolled for stats and they asked if i had anything i wanted to play and i was like “idk dragonborn sounds really cool” and they were like thats as good a reason as any, and then they suggested paladin would work well w my stats so i was like sure why not and did it haha. she survived the campaign, to level 11

matilda, human monk (curse of strahd). this was point buy system. i had mentioned seeing a homebrew avatar thing, so one of my cousins mentioned how way of the four elements monk is like the avatar, so i read through it and thought it sounded cool. i took the mobile feat, and went way of open hand instead. in this campaign we had a fight where four characters died outright (three deaths due to natural 1s in the death saves) and only two survived, including matilda. the dm mentioned taking the dead people to another room to discuss what to do and i was like “nah brian and i will just move since we’re the only alive one and theres more of you”. they ended up becoming revernants (idk spelling) but i suggested adding a caveat in place where every time you died as a revernant, you lost 1hp from your max, which we did. we then abandoned this campaign after 4 levels bc my uncle who was dm-ing was having trouble finding the time to read the campaign

jamnugget, gnome fighter (arcane archer) (storm kings thunder). this was rolling stats. one cousin rolled between 13 and 18 for every stat, and after race ability improvements got all 14-18…. so he multiclassed all of them and got to level 12 as one of each class it was a beautiful amalgamation (omg i spelt that correctly first try haha). then someone else rolled three single digit stats but was told he wasnt allowed to reroll so he became a druid for wildshape. he had -2 con, so only adding 3hp per level, starting at 6hp. 3rd level before he got double digits. if you averaged the rolls of these two you got normal stats haha. anyway onto my character. my cousin suggested the arcane archer thing on unearthed arcana so i was like “sure ok”. turns out you only got two magic arrows per rest thing and they werent very good so i hardly used them. the sharpshooter feat was way better. the best part tho was bc we were fighting so many giants, at one point someone cast fly on me, someone else cast greater invisibility on me, someone else gave me bless, so then i went in a chased a giant just shooting him on my own while everyone else was doing something else it was great. i also accidentally succeeded on an intimidation check bc an npc was saying “im sure we could handle a giant” when we asked about that and i was like “ive killed 15 myself” (bc we were keeping tallies on our sheets) and the guy panicked bc was technically in an alliance w them whoops. jamnugget survived the campaign. six of the seven original characters survived to the end, my brother went through four characters

maegrakka, half elf barbarian. we were told to make characters for a quick one shot dungeon thing for when storm kings thunder dm wasnt able to make it. so i made a barbarian bc i decided that was something i hadnt done yet and would be easy to just make (no spells. i have a strong aversion to spell casters). i think shes level 3 now???? every time we play this everyones like “wait whats my character again” bc its so long in between haha

nissa, human rogue 1 monk 2. one shot a friend wanted to dm before he moved to canberra. it was very fun. i made a monk bc i was desperate to play again bc matilda had been abandoned. i added a rogue level for sneak attack damage, w mobile feat, it was great

clover, human fighter 11 or 12, monk 3 or 4. level 15 fight to the death situation. i knew how powerful the arcane archer stuff was so i did it here. monk levels were to give me back up in case i got engaged in melee. i shouldve had some sort of healing that was my downfall. my first character to die bc three of them were ganging up on me!!

meredith, elf wizard (tomb of annihilation). we started off playing as commoners, as servants to this lord guy. so i was a librarian and realised id have to be a wizard dammit. i hated the spell casting part haha. she died. its funny bc my dads character died at first level, then we levelled up. brians character died at second level, then we levelled up. they were also sitting next to each other. i was sitting in the next seat along so was worried i was also gonna die… then my brother took that seat and died instead. so i was like there is definitely a curse. i was in the next seat along, and then one of my cousins. then came a fight where my cousin next to me turned to stone and then i died. turns out he could come back to life so the death seat thing continued. we levelled up to level 4 after my brother and i died in separate sessions in the same location. also my dad and brian died in the same location in separate session. so now theres multiple patterns - theres the “someone needs to die to level up” thing, and the death seat thing, and the two characters dying in the same location in separate sessions thing. w my cousin who got turned to stone, i keep on insisting he stays in the death seat bc either he dies (death seat) or he doesnt (he tricked death w the stone thing so is now immune), and if he doesnt die either it skips him and my uncle dies, or no one else dies ever. its very exciting haha. also w this campaign theres a map thing only the og characters can see and we’re joking how now only three characters left can see it and you can see how my cousin the dm is getting worried that we’ll all die haha. also the campaign is about how the og characters lord got sick and we need to find a cure, but once the og characters die then who cares about the random lord? itll be very funny haha

elenoa, tabaxi monk (tomb of annihilation). since i started at level 4 here, and matildas campaign got abandoned at level 4, it felt fitting to play a monk again. no mobile feat yet, but im playing the sun soul monk from xanathars which gives a radiant punch w a range of 30 ft so i dont need to get close to punch and then use mobile to run away. 

i havent even talked about where the names for each one came from….. maybe another time if asked……..

17: what is your favourite race?

idk actually. the only races ive ever played multiple times are humans, but altogether ive played longer as a dragonborn or gnome than human so like. theres not super much difference in the races in phb, like its just flavour. the new races and stuff have heaps extra stuff, but tabaxi is the only one of them ive ever played and only two sessions so far. i think humans are cool bc you get a feat at level 1 haha but other than that theres not really much difference in them yknow? races w darkvision make things easier too haha but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

thank you for these asks!!! it took so long to respond haha im gonna be late to uni now (bc still in pjs havent made lunch or brushed teeth or anything and if i wanna be on time i gotta leave in the next 15 minutes so maybe ill just…… skip this lecture lol idk haha

[feministfangirl]

Hey I just that evil smiling picture of you playing dnd. I was wondering what you did to become a good dm, I've been curious about playing the game for a while and I think I have to be the dm if I want people to play with lol. Thanks for any help

I promise I didn’t ignore you! I’ve been real busy this week, and wanted to treat this question with the respect it deserves. Thanks for asking me…and assuming I’m a good DM, lol. I try to be good by following the cardinal rule: if you and your players have fun, you win! It’s easy to think it’s you v. the players as a DM, but really it’s a story you’re all making together, you help keep it going smoothly but it belongs to all of you. Once you look at it all from that perspective it gets less stressful, for me at least. Now I know it’s kinda weird since I did kill my players in that picture you saw going around… But that was a one shot. And there were ample opportunities for them to reverse the tide, but the dice were not on their side. Anyway. I’m sure you’re looking for more concrete answers. Here are the most important things I did in learning to DM. 1. Watch D&D gamesI watched Critical Role for a few weeks. After years of being afraid to DM, Matthew Mercer made it look easy and fun. He told fun stories and had varied characters and his players were so invested! The more I watched the more I wanted to play. And the best part about watching Critical Role is that there are 102 episodes and counting. Tons of material to mine for ideas. Another good one is The Adventure Zone podcast. It starts out a little slow for my tastes but once you get into it it’s AMAZING. I love the story in this one, it’s a great way to show you don’t have to stick to typical fantasy tropes to have a great game. Any genre can be a fun game. While watching, I paid attention to what kinds of rolls the DM called for in situations, how many monsters you could throw before combat gets hazy, how hard it is to DM for lots of people, how long combat takes, how to describe effects based on dice roll, and most importantly, when to stone face your players and when to laugh like the evil genius you are. 2. Get tips from expertsOkay, so, now you think you could probably do the thing, but you don’t want to screw it up right out of the gate. I spent years too scared to DM because it seemed like there was too much to know. I went looking for words of wisdom and found the aforementioned Matt Mercer’s GM Tips. It’s a great series of videos that are short and helpful, split up by topic. Another great series of videos is anything from Matthew Colville, whose Running the Game videos are probably the second largest influence on my work as a Dungeon Master (after Matt Mercer). I also read tons of articles from the official D&D website, like the Sage Advice column. I read every Unearthed Arcana article and thought about how those adjustments compared to the Player’s Handbook. I signed up for the Roleplaying Tips mailing list run by Johnn Four, whose advice is probably the third largest influence on my DMing. I heavily recommend it also because it’s great to get a reminder to work on D&D every few days when a new tip arrives in your inbox. Seriously the best mailing list I’ve ever been on. He also answers questions and solicits answers from the community, so he’s a great resource for obscure wonders.3. Join a communityThis kind of follows from the previous point about advice from Johnn directly. If you’re really struggling with the density of the Core Rulebooks and are daunted by the many columns and tables, a community can help explain things. For instance, I had a lot of trouble parsing how exactly XP adjusted values work. I asked online, and someone helpfully pointed out the reference and made an example so I’d get how to use it myself. Tumblr is good, but I prefer reddit for D&D things. Some great subreddits are r/DMAcademy, r/DMToolkit, r/DnDBehindtheScreen, r/mattcolville (yes, that same Matt Colville), r/UnearthedArcana, and r/worldbuilfing.

There are a number of other forums specifically for D&D that I have accounts for but never use, mostly because I am still recovering from my forum days… I won’t date myself and say how long ago.4. Google is your friend!I google everything I need for D&D. Sometimes, even though I know the information I want is in my PHB, the book is on my shelf and I’d have to search for the info. The internet can tell me what I need to know NOW. So! Here’s my advice for googling D&D stuff, along with some of my favourite links.

Rules: Include ‘5e’ or ‘fifth edition’ along with the keyword you’re looking for. This will reduce your chances of ending up on a site intended for players of another edition.Spells: Don’t google them, go to dnd-spells.com. Seriously. This website saves my life every time I play D&D. You can also make spellbooks for your characters and then generate pdfs before your game! It’s MAGICAL!Monsters: Homebrew monsters can be fun but be careful when implementing them in your game. If you need help building encounters (like I do), use Kobold Fight Club.Images: Google image search can get you really general or really specific stuff. If you want random images to inspire you you’re better off looking at something like The MET.Names: There is one site to end all sites for this. For all other generators, see donjon.5. Steal like an artistI have a lot of fun watching, reading, and playing other types of media and thinking, “I’m going to steal that for my game.” I love comic books for example. Recently, I decided to put Iron Man into my game. Not for any reason, just because it would be fun. I didn’t simply put Tony Stark as a rich human noble into my game and wait for my player to meet him so I could do my best Robert Downey Jr. impression. I thought about what makes that character exciting and recognizable and transported it into the steampunk world of my campaign. I changed his name and race. I made him an Artificer, a Gunslinger protective of his prototypes (*waves at Taliesin*), who could also build Mech Suits that are as much works of art as they are feats of magical engineering. I gave him an assistant with a romantic love triangle and let him loose in my world. It was so much fun to watch my player figure out my inspiration! Not every NPC needs this level of detail, but all your choices should circle back to 'How well would this work in MY world?’ By taking inspiration from the things you love, filling in the 'gaps’ to breathe life into your universe should come easily. I didn’t know Tran Intubi (Tony Stark) had a gallery of retired mech suits in his Tower but I described as such in-game. The description came naturally when I had a base inspiration to rely on.I hope that was more helpful than long-winded!

[trpg-dingusmaster]

two druids and a bard almost ruin dm’s fanfiction, dm responds by being a weenie

I went to play dnd at the shop a while ago, again my friend who usually plays the unicorn in my game came with- this time there was room a the table so she joined the game. there were a lot of people missing but also one new guy? or at east one guy I’ve never seen before. he and I helped her build a character. he did most of the work since they were both playing druids anyway.

the dm this time was the guy who plays the one handed girl in edwardian/victorian england (90lbs FineCoal) campaign, and the tabaxi in the official event campaign. 

This guys campaign was, I was told, a High Seas themed 5e. I had made a character for this when I was first told about it i dunno a month or two ago? 1/2 orc bard, Bassun (like a bassoon) Drun. 

it turns out this campaign is coming to an end though so it doesnt matter. I had kept missing weeks this game was going on because of work and it seems like a WHOLE LOT of stuff went on between when I made my character and yesterday. heres a few few things, and getting even this ,uch was like pulling teeth to be honest. a lot of these details lead me to believe this is some kind of kingdom hearts fanfiction? but it was never explicitly escribed as such.

-characters all have keyblades? some more than one. each having a special ability of some kind though it doesnt seen to always correspond with the theme of the keyblade? like- mine is basically just a magical electric-keyboard-guitar? thing? but is special ability is to turn into a really big gun??? unless I misunderstood?? I thought it was weird though so I never used it.

-there are Nobodies- both monsterous and humaniod I think? But the humanoid ones might be called Shamans? (but the could be a different faction?)  which cannot be hurt by any magic or attacks not done with the keyblades. and several spells that probably we shouldnt have needed to make any rolls for we had  to roll to see if they effected them or something? I think someone said it was because they can become incorporeal nearly at will? and/or because they can shift into a pocket plain as a means of travel through the material plain?

-non magic using classes get 2 first level spells or 1 second level spell with dm approval they can cast through the keyblade only, these spells are attached to it permanently and cant be changed. these spells can be used 1/long rest. spells are taken from a class list that either fits the keyblade theme or some arbitrary choice by the dm im not sure

-magic user classes can cast either all of their spells through the keyblade or the same unchangeable 2 first level or 1 second level I’m not sure. but at the very least I  know I can cast shatter with it? 

-there are things called orbs? which are collected from defeated nobodies (I think?) and theycan be used to do stuff like- get new keyblades or to do something that sounded like buying spell slots but not quite? I’m not sure.

-there are god like entities in physical form that are just?? around?? but also somethat are not in physical form?? some of them have avatars that are around doing stuff?? both god like beings and their avatars are kill able? 

Theres something called the cursed lands which seems to be some kind of separate plain seeping into and corrupting the material plain? it seems to have some natural mind effecting abilities? and is where the main antagonists are hiding out? I get the feeling its based off of some end game locations in some kh game or another.

I’m thinking maybe if I was more familiar with kingdom hearts maybe I’d have some idea about whats going on? I’ve only played 1, 2, and chain of memories so....  I dunno if any of the weird stuff here is from the other KH content or what. I suspect the ‘Sea’ is actually SPACE/multiverse and the ‘islands’ are actually distinct worlds/universes.

Also, its not really very 5e? the way the game goes is very like how the 90lbs FineCoal is played but combat sort of resembles 5e where the other doesnt.

the game was very chaotic and confusing but this time it was basically no fun, like at all. my self, my friend, and the new guy were unfamiliar with the setting and its rules and no one felt the need to explain. nearly everything we tried to do ended up being not allowed either by setting rules or just because it was too far removed from the dms expectations and thus would ruin his narrative, I assume based on what things did work.

Which brings me to how the dm was being a weenie. Instead of just explaining to us you cant use this or do that and you don’t have such and such ability because game rules, even if it wasn’t true we wouldn’t have known or just honestly saying: I cant let you do that because it ruins the story I’m trying to tell, that would have been one thing, but what he chose to do was punish characters/players for doing stuff didn’t want us to do whether or not we knew what we were trying to do was allowed, with no explanation. this ranged from giving damage or curses to characters or destroying character equipment, and even going so far as to allow players to roll for actions or saves with crazy high difficulty but disregarding the roll entirely even if it was a natural 20 ift he result didn’t work with what he wanted to happen. this was a literal exchange between a player and the dm:

-can I roll to stop that?

-you can try hehehe

-natural 20!

-...I dont care... you still fail. (no, he wasnt kidding)

here are some things that were not allowed or deemed really annoying for... reasons? (even if what we were doing should have been allowed based on what we understood of the rules we were told, like- magic cast through the keyblade effects Nobodies... except when the dm doesnt want it to because it ruins the plot)

casting identify, casting locate object, casting warding wind, casting pass without a trace, casting wind wall, casting glyph of warding, casting lesser restoration, casting remove curse, leaving an npc behind for in character plot reasons also they were a distracting attempt at slapstick comedy (this npcs weapon of choice was a frying pan) which no one wanted to bring into the end game, having in character conversation while the rest of the party participated in the plot that only they understood, wanting to start changing character alignment for the better because plot, asking how big a space was, asking how far away things were, inspiring the party (my bards equipment was broken for this). asking for explicit approval before trying to take an action. 

one guy, whos been playing this campaign since it was started got so fed up with the dm being a weenie he nearly left. It seems this kind of behavior- punishing with out explanation or obvious reason, was common throughout and it really fits with what I’ve come to learn about this guy and how he plays these games. I can only hope he learns and grows out of it.

if youre going to run a railroading style campaign or adventure, thats fine and a perfectly valid way to run a game, but please be clear with the players- ALL of them that’s whats going on and such are your expectations for the game, also if there are weird homebrew rules you REALLY need to make sure ALL of your players have some grasp on what they are.

if my friend and I, I assume also the new guy, had known more about the setting and the dms expectations we would have chosen and built our characters, or at least played them, differently. Maybe we could have been a constructive part of the group instead of three annoying piles of dead weight everyone was frustrated with by the end of the session.

or I dunno, maybe don’t have three new people jump into the tail end of an unnecessarily complicated homebrew campaign with no real context.

we could have done something else, I could have run a little one shot  at another table or helped people make characters for the murder hobo game. if I’m there the next time this game is going I might do that, because i really didn’t enjoy this. The whole thing hardly even felt like a game? It felt more like we were just being lead through the dms fanfiction. He intends to start another campaign once this is done, to stay in the rotation, I’m not sure if I’m gonna do that one either.

 I might at least give it a try once, mostly to confirm my suspicion that even though he owns a copy of the PHB and possibly the DMG I’m not sure he actually read them. I mean, look, I understand being a dm is hard especially if youre still new and learning, I’m still learning too, but that’s no excuse to be a weenie to your players. You know? You have to communicate and yeah sometimes you gotta compromise sometimes you gotta improvise, thats like, a pretty big part of games like this isnt it?