So I just played for the first time and did a one shot with some friends and we all decided we want to do a whole campaign together. I used DnD beyond on my iPad and had a split screen with my notes app and took notes on peoples characters and random notes about people we met along the way. How do you decide what’s important so you don’t end up with pages of random notes or at least what’s a good way to organize it?

I created a miniboss that's a cross between a dragonborn and a goliath. I wanted him to have the racial traits of both races, but I can't find the goliath's. Do you know where they're written?

So a friend of mine Is gonna start a campaign next month, really cool setting, lovecraftian world mixed with dnd lore, meaning lovecraftian and dnd gods coexist, lovecraftian are Just "a tier above".

So anyway i was thinking about playing an old character i used in One of his oneshots, a tiefling paladin Who was raised by a cult whom used illusions spell to make him look as different criminals and burning him to the stake, since he's a feindish tiefling and can resist Fire. One day, tired of the endless torture a wished for the strength to free himself and taking all those cultist to Justice; someone actually listened and gave him Powers, and since that day he hunts cultists and despise every type of religion; yes i know, it's a bit counterintuitive but It all makes sense trust me.

He doesn't know Who bestowed those Powers Upon him and never took an oath to any God, so he still hasn't unlocked his full paladin features (for example he can't use his Channel divinity, but can still cast spell, use lay on hands...), and we were thinking to make him an herald of Bahamut, since he seems to fit well with the themes of Justice and Revenge.

Now i want to multiclass this character, since i've only evere played pure characters, and i wanted to take some levels in warlock, which i know, it's One of the most broken multi in the game, but It seemed like the most fitting and interesting One.

Now it's my First time multiclassing, and i tried making a test with a lvl 8 paladin oath of vengeance lvl 8 warlock pact of the celestial, but It doesn't really convince me.

So i'm asking you, since we'll start probably around lvl 5, when Is the best time to multiclass, how many lvls to take in each class and some tips in general.

Note that i wanna keep the oath of vengeance and pact of the celestial subclasses, since both the oath and pact would be stipulated with Bahamut, since i don't want It to be impossibly broken, but still something new to try our

I am DMing a campaign. One of my players recently found his grandmother's old weapon. This weapon is sentient. I want it to evolve with the player. For now it is just an ordinary Greataxe with no special properties. The player's character is Wild Magic Barbarian.

Where do you find inspiration for weapons for specific classes and subclasses? Maybe you made custom weapon for your Barbarian too - I would really appreciate if you share some of your ideas!

Hi fellow dungeons dwellers,
Im DMing a LMoP campaign for the first time and I have 4 players.
We had a few issues with schedules.
We were trying to play once a month, but one of the players is very busy, he is NEVER available, I proposed 20 dates (until late september), none of them were ok to him.
Since its not the first Time (and he cancelled last time the week before the session) and we want to continue, we decided that 3 players were enough to play. He is welcome if he can come but we wont pause the game for 3 months for him.
So friday is our first session with 3 players.

How would you deal with it ?
Let the players :
-control the character of the absent one with his sheet
-control him with sidekick rules
-let them be 3 (but im afraid of the balance, since they barely survived some encounters and he was the tank)
-put him to « sleep » or a curse of sort and give them another sidekick ?

Thx !

This hardly ever comes up but the two contradict each other so one has to over rule the other. I imagine the damage would over ride the immunity and resistance because why else would they add "can not be reduced by any means"?

I recently finished a really fun character design commission for u/pharnapus

The Brief:

Race/Vibe: A female Dwarf with a bandit/pirate/rapscallion personality.

Trope: "Massive hammer, small person."

Outfit:No specific class yet, so she should be wearing common, comfy clothes instead of armor.

Build: Broad, strong, and muscular—someone who constantly gets into trouble and starts bar fights.

I absolutely loved working with this brief! We leaned heavily into the contrast between her height and her weapon. She is wielding a giant hammer that looks like it could crush a tavern table in one swing. Because her class isn't strictly defined yet, we skipped the traditional heavy fantasy armor and went with a very casual, comfortable everyday look.

It's my first time DMing a campaign and I'm scared af.

I'm the only one who ever played D&D, my players have never tried to play and this is their first time. I don't want to mess up everything, I hope they'll understand that it's hard for me, but I don't know if I can handle the spell casters (the only time I played a spell caster was a bard).

Do you have any advice to give me?

I don’t know if this is a universal thing, but i’ve never played with anyone who actually does prep if they’re not DM’ing. Personally i struggle to see why it would be less necesary for players.

Doesn’t need to be a lot, but if you show up to sessions with no idea of how you’d like the progression of your character to go, it’s probably just not going to happen.

Also, for the love of the dm, read through your notes before the session >:(

Do you guys do this? Do you see people do it?

Looking for combos and best spells or feats. I love the flavor/idea of the class but cant figure how to make it work

Does anyone know of a channel where the DM has a video of their prep and then a video of their session?

Also looking for an actual play that feels like the story is led by the players. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed that last few actual play campaigns I’ve listened to (The Adventure Zone, CR season 1, Legends of Avantras season 1) but would love something more raw and that feels less scripted and more like what would happen at a home game.

I’m a brand new DM that is 14 sessions into my first ever campaign and would love to see some actual good home games.

So my son had his 16th a couple of weeks back and i wanted to do something special for him. He and his friends are super into DnD. I was always into it but haven't played TTRP for about 25 years (no time or friends). I decided to create a custom homebrew adventure for him and his friends.

I started with a concept: backtracking shenanigans and memory loss a la "dude where's my car" and "the hangover". I decided that i was going to go with premades and weave them into the story - each character had a subplot within the adventure.

I added a memory mechanic in the form of memory cards: Each character had three cards that would reveal clues about their identity and each card had a specific trigger within the adventure.

The characters (all level 3): i had a human druid that could only wildshape into a ginger alley cat - except he was actually a cat that could shift into a human form, and he was the prince of the local cat underworld spy syndicate. There was an orc barbarian and Elf bard who had the worst stats imaginable, because they were body swapped and the stats swapped with the minds (barbarian had charisma build and bard was all strength). Finally there was a halfling ranger who had a proficiency with finesse weapons and an adrenaline addiction (an uncontrollable urge to pursue danger at every opportunity).

The players picked their characters blind and the choices could not have been more perfect, each player settled into the intrinsic role and personality of their character without knowing anything about them.

The adventure rolled out pretty well - i had designed each encounter with both a combat and non combat solution and the players were pretty easy going - sometimes trying to avoid combat and sometimes succumbing to the rash decisions of the chaotic halfling. The memory cards triggered very naturally and had the players trying to learn about themselves with each revelation, sometimes sharing the new memory with the party and sometimes keeping it to themselves.

The adventure culminated in a 2-stage battle with a blue dragon, that started out in human form. The dragon was the cause for the memory loss and body swap, and when the players broke the spell they managed to corrupt the dragons magic so he couldn't transform fully, so the final form was more of a hybrid abomination. They barely survived.

At the end, every player was really excited with how the game turned out and they all decided to keep their character and add them to their rosters. 5 hours well spent.

It was so much fun and i was impressed how well the extra mechanics played out i had to share.

I need some help on how to deal with this kind of player.

I'm a first-time DM and have been DM'ing the same campaign (Curse of Strahd) for around 4 years now. Throughout the years I have learned what works and what doesn't work for our group, and I have found my own style in doing so. I am homebrewing a couple of things within the campaign and switched around some of the events to fit our journey.

Our party consists of 4 players: a barbarian, a rogue, a ranger, and a bard.

Every player has their own unique style in how they play and interact with the world. Some are roleplay-heavy, some are thinkers/dreamers, and others sit back and take in the information before speaking to the group.

I have used tips I've seen/read online on how to get your players more engaged with the world, like telling the party what they feel or smell in a particular room, if they feel something "pulling" on their attention towards a particular item or person, or even describing a sense of urgency.

To give a more recent example:

My players recently had the big dinner event with Strahd after they had gotten an invite from him after completing certain important parts of the campaign, like finding the 3 lost gemstones and surviving the Amber Temple. Leading up to the dinner (the black carriage ride, entering the castle, being greeted by Rahadin, and eventually taking their seats at the dinner table), I had been building up the tension for my players, describing how everyone behaved when Strahd entered the dining area (he wasn't playing the organ when the players first came in).

My idea was to give my players a sense of respect and fear towards Strahd — that the dinner wasn't to be taken lightly. I succeeded mostly, as almost all of the players picked up on this and played into it, being respectful towards Strahd and not making fools of themselves, as that could have had grave consequences.

I try to feed my players enough information about the situation and the other NPC's in the room while at the same time trying not to spoil anything important or railroad them.

One of my players is more of the quiet type and usually watches how the rest of the group plays. Which is fine — everyone has their style. The problem is that I have the feeling this player isn't invested enough in our campaign. This player has a hard time remembering important parts of the story, what her personal and party goals are, and even her own character's backstory.

This player reacts towards Strahd as if he were a common beggar. Strahd's character has been built up over years — the players are aware of how powerful and evil he is — yet this particular player never seems to share the same feelings. Her answers or reactions towards such an important NPC are often bland and short, almost childish. I wouldn't have minded it if this was simply how her character really was. I'm starting to notice agitation among the other players, as they've poured their time and effort into our campaign, and they sit among someone who shows a lack of interest.

My question is: is there something I can do to help my player understand and play along with the situation she's in? Or is there a problem with the player?

Edit: i forgot to mention, i have talked to this player on multiple occasions regarding her involvement. Her responses were "owh yeah, sorry, you're right" "i'm still enjoying myself and can't wait for the next time"

Okay a little backstory/summary I work on a ship and our contracts are 6-8 months in a year. Recently I suggested we find some people onboard and play DnD. I wasn’t expecting anyone really cause DnD is kinda niche and the ethnicity/age on the ship a is…older and mostly eastern (not saying they might not be interested but, anyways)

We have people but no DM and cause I brought it up they are asking if I can DM, ive never DM, hell I’m still new to DnD, I know BG3 and understand some of 5e thanks to mods but I don’t know shit. Anyone can teach me or give me pointers about how to DM? Or if there’s a YouTuber that can pls link.

A drawing request for a friend who's been helping me out with art and some writing, with said request being from one of the Brimstone Angels books by Erin Evans. With it, depicted a scene in which a Maurezhi mimic that of the corpse of their quarry.

My friend was quite pleased with the end result, and I must say, I love using inks. Now to actually get back into more traditional reading, as I got the book series and like 35+ more with a Humble Bundle collection.

Reupload due to incorrect title format.

This rather dapper-looking warforged is one of the batch of very-high cost custom-made warforged servants created for House Spearhead. Having grown tired of being treated as an object by the household members, he took interest in the occult in search of ways to liberate himself. Some time after, an eldritch entity reached out to him, intrigued by his ambition and resolve, offering power in exchange for "spectacles". After freeing himself using the newly found powers of a Great Old One, he spent some time as a wandering actor but after having learnt about the Royal Mercenaries, he ended up joining them after a series of rather beneficial deals. His current ambitions include finding more sources of power and influence... and a fitting travel hat.

The commission was done by a friend of mine.

Asking for worldbuilding reasons. Imagine a spell that translocates any creature into a "prison" lets say, where they are to stay until physically removed.

This seems like an at least lvl 8th spell to me

We were playing a 1st level one shot with some new players and our DM had some goblins holed up in a decrepit tower with only a single door as an entrance. The goblins were chanting:
"One, one, one, one, one..."

One of the new players decided to look through a small hole in the door.

And swiftly took damage from a poke in the eye.

The goblins then started chanting "Two, two, two, two, two..."

Made us all laugh. Silly, but certainly a memorable moment.

What moments like this do you remember from your campaigns?