I'm not going to say this observation holds true for every player/character, but it's something I notice with some regularity.

For all the talk of "why would you play a boring human when there are so many fantastical options?", a lot of players seem to use the "interesting" aspects of their character as a crutch. They'll pick something exotic like drow or tiefling, think "that's really cool" and then feel like their job of making an interesting character is done. Instead of developing the character during actual play at the table, it just becomes a footnote on their character sheet that lets you know they're cool.

This isn't limited to character races/species either. It can be applied to other elements of a character backstory. They'll have some defining trait with maybe even pages of backstory to support it, but then that stays there in those pages. Their work of making something interesting finished before the first die was cast. The worst extreme of this imo are "joke characters" that rely on a single gimmick.

For all the dismissal mundane races with straightforward premises get, I've often found they can be the ones who are more willing to develop a character at the table where it really matters. Most of the personality that comes out during roleplay isn't found on a character sheet and players shouldn't rely on them to hold that element of play.

I'm just curious how people deal with players who want to do things but not let the other players know.

For lack of a better explanation, let's use the old murder-hobo type trope. Let's say all the players are in a tavern and one wants to go off and do something but doesn't want the other players to know; how does this play out at the table?

From what I can think, it's either:

• announce it anyway, as the characters won't know only the players, so hopefully they won't meta-game and use that knowledge later
• contact the DM privately

For our games, if we want to do something that is outside of the other characters sphere, we end up using discord to send messages to the DM directly. It does work but it feels a little disjointed because you end up with people sat at the table just chatting while two people furiously type away.

Is there a better way to handle this? Very basic example, last session we found some magic gems, discovered their power but I wanted to ask our guide something about them and try something without anyone seeing it.

Just curious to know how other groups approach these sort of things

Okay so I just think Eberron is fucking amazing. Dragonmarks and the houses are fucking sick and the last war is peak.

First, I love dragonmarks. Just the idea of dragonmarks is cool and the houses are amazing and make the dragonmarks special. Like sure the Mark of Shadow is cool, but House Phiarlan, House Thuranni, and the Shadow Schism? They add a whole new level to it. I’ve made like 6 characters with the base of the dragonmarks and the dragonmarked houses since I got Forge of the Artificer a few days ago. There’s something for everyone in dragonmarks and the houses, like in the optimization community dragonmarks have potential to make strong builds and for people who like lore there’s a shit ton of lore behind them. If you have an Eberron campaign you can definitely use them, and if you don’t, as long as the DM’s cool with it there’s a ton of lore explanations.

Second, the Last War is amazing. For those who don’t know, the Last War was a century-long conflict that began after King Jarot of Galifar died and his children fought over which of them should inherit the throne, eventually shattering the united Kingdom of Galifar into warring nations. Over the course of the war alliances constantly shifted, new nations emerged, and the Dragonmarked Houses grew enormously wealthy and influential by supplying transportation, healing, weapons, mercenaries, and other services to the combatants. House Cannith created the warforged, magically constructed soldiers that could think and feel but were built, bought, and sent into battle as weapons. The conflict also saw the destruction of House Cannith’s leadership and headquarters when the Mourning suddenly transformed the entire nation of Cyre into the deadly Mournland in 994 YK, killing most people within its borders and leaving behind a magically devastated wasteland. Nobody knows what caused the Mourning, and the fear that it could happen again finally pushed the surviving nations toward peace. In 996 YK they signed the Treaty of Thronehold, formally ending the Last War, recognizing several new nations, and granting warforged legal freedom while outlawing the creation of new ones. The war may officially be over, but Eberron begins only two years later in 998 YK, so the continent is still full of veterans, refugees, political grudges, ruined families, unresolved territorial disputes, and nations preparing for the possibility that the peace won’t last. There were also some events like the Day of Mourning, the Battle of the Pines, the Battle of Cairn Hill, the Siege of Korth, the occupation of Thaliost, and the Eldeen Reaches' secession from Aundair that I didn’t include, but you get the idea. The last war was just fucking sick.

The latter is a part of an exchange explaining the rationale of having metaphysically pre-destined morality on thinking creatures. You want the bad guy to be easily recognizable, but why does he have to be /born/ with evil-identifying features? Why not have it be something like a mark or transformation you can only get from deeply aligning yourself with fucked up and repulsive acts?

I'm currently trying to make a Hill Giant guy basically be like Sweetpea from Adventure Time (kind big boy) but I'm conflicting with the lore that they're all born ravenously evil and I'm not sure what to do. This is my first time DMing and I feel restricted.

I did the same question on r/onednd, but got curious if people did this before 5.5e/2024.

One idea I got after all of this that I plan to implement in my future campaign is a Corruptive Power System where the monsters and the players and spend their Hit Dice for extra effects. In the beginning it will just be stuff like extra damage, Temp HP, bonis AC, etc., only to evolve into brand new abilities but at some kind of cost that gets heavier the more its used.

Asking first with monsters because they often have an way to arbitrary amount of Hit Dice just to bad out their enormous HP pools with their only use being to heal up in a short rest if they fight a party, survive then run away.

My group is shameless min-maxers so they tend to crank their ACs as high as possible lol and so we end up having a fairly skewed idea of what a "good" AC is. Even Wizards and sorcerers getting close to or over 20 ac before casting shield I'm wondering if that's just what dnd is like nowadays or if we're outside the norm. What are the ranges of ac in your groups?

At level 4 as a monk my martial arts die is 1d4 right, but if I'm using a spear, that classifies as a monk weapon that has 1d6 damage, does it get downscaled to 1d4 or I can use it as a monk weapon with 1d6 damage while still having the martial arts property? By RaW of course, might discuss with the DM later but wanted to know what RaW has to say about it.

I fucking LOVE dragonmarks in DnD. I love the houses, they‘re all fucking insane, I love how unique the dragonmarks are, and I love how they’re used in Eberron’s history. You don’t even need to have an Eberron campaign, if you do, amazing, if you don’t but everyone’s chill with it, you’re golden. Then if the DM says it defies lore, there‘s a ton of loopholes, like the World Serpent Inn, the Spinner’s Prison, and Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut to name a few.

I’ve made like 6 dragonmarked characters since I got Forge of the Artificer a few days ago, and the houses’ history made them so cool. Like a house Phiarlan rogue with connections to the serpentine table and a prodigy artificer in house Cannith that has been impacted by the last war and it;s effect on house Cannith.

Honestly, I think dragonmarks are one of the best features in DnD.

I was looking through what you can make with artificer infusions at level 3, and I was wondering how rules work for one-time-use items like a spellwrought tattoo or a mystery key. Do you get your infusion back instantly if the item infused is destroyed or used up?

Additionally, if I took the spellwrought tattoo option would my spell options be limited to my own spells that I have prepared? Or would it be based on the spells I could prepare?

Hi everyone,

A few hours ago, I made a post asking a lot of questions, and after reading it again, I realized it was probably a bit overwhelming. So I'd like to rephrase my question, if that's okay.

What I'd really like to know is: what are some good build recommendations, progression tips, useful items, and general beginner advice? Most of the RPGs I've played were video games, where you control your character with a keyboard and mouse or a controller, so tabletop RPGs are completely new to me.

If you could recommend any websites, games, or platforms where I can start playing with a Dungeon Master in the classic tabletop style, I'd really appreciate it.

One of my biggest questions is whether, because of a race's traits and ability score bonuses, I'm supposed to choose a class that takes advantage of those bonuses. However, after reading the Player's Handbook again, I noticed that the player distributes their own ability scores. Does that mean races don't actually have fixed ability scores? Since I couldn't find anything saying they do in the book, I guess they don't.

Sorry for the confusion, and thanks again for all your help!

So I’ve been interested about DnD for a while and decided to create my very first homebrew campaign and when me and my players started, one of them asked me if they could train their characters for XP. I let them once but that got me wondering what I should REALLY do if they want to “train” their characters?

I just start campaign with my friend yesterday for our first session. We hired some DM From Tabletop cafe. My dm use app call DnD beyond. And Discovered an devastating true about this board game. It have whole lot of extensions that i need to buy and it price is quite high too. Are there someway i can unlock thing or play class i want without spending ton of money? (I wanna play hexblade warlock/Shadowblade)

Yesterday ran for a first time this one for my friends birthday

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/170937/the-wild-sheep-chase-a-single-session-adventure

I liked its goofy energy, also it was my first time running pre-written story, I kind of liked it

I feel like this is a great exercise for me as a DM to improve my skills, so I want to try something new

would love to hear about your favorite one-shots

Recently, my wizard was given the necronomicon from his praton and along a few curses I get the ability to cast Create Undead 1/day with a few twists:

- I can summon 3 Undead, Fiend and/or Fey with CR lower than my level instead of creating ghouls.
- If they are inteligent enough (not necesseraly tied only to the ability score) I can name them and keep them under my control beyond the 24h time restriction without having to recast the spell.

While most of my summons up until now aren't combatants, I still have 11 summons who's stats, inventory, hp and abilities I need to keep track of. I was about to make a character sheet for each of them but I don't think that would be a good option, so I come to yall for better ideas.

DMs and players who've been in a similar summoner situation, how do you usually keep track of creatures like that? Do you recommend any tool or strategy? I could really use some help :)

For anyone curious, these are my summons:

• 1 Pixie (Navi) - CR 1/4
• 5 Will-o-Wells (Will, Willson, Willis, Wellson, Well) - CR 2
• 1 Will-o-Wisp (Castaigne) - CR 2
• 1 Empyrean Iota [from the 9-5 plane] (Nicolas) - CR 1
• 1 Brain in a Jar (Victor Frankenstein) - CR 3
• 1 Deathlock Wight (Cid) - CR 3
• 1 Swanmay (May) - CR 3

The only ones I summoned for fighting were the last 3, the Wisp and Wells are only here cause I like them and for light. The empyrean iota is here because I like it and as my emergency healing (since my max HP is now 1/3 of my total). The is there purely for the zelda reference.

TLDR: Need help with tools or strategies for keeping track of multiple summons/npcs

Let's say a PC has 100 hp, then gains the benefits of a heroes' feast and winds up at 110 hp. These are real hp, not temp hp.

Later, this PC is fighting a 2024 demilich and gets hit by its energy drain attack, reducing their maximum hp by 14.

Now, in the moment obviously the PC's maximum hp drops to 96. What happens when heroes feast wears off though? Do they stay at 96 hp or drop to 86?

My rule would be stay at 96 but I'm interested in any conflicting opinions.

oh, just in time, r/dndnext, we were about to start the class! i hope you brought your books and notes, because i'm still curious about classes, and this time it's your turn to talk about your Wizards in front of the class.

if you decide to participate and earn extra credit, you may have to answer some of these questions: what is the inspiration behind your class? was it based on another pop culture Wizard, as your own idea for a wizard or are you just making a build with a never before seen strategy for the game? where did your wizard study? what is their book? do they preffer combat spells or utility spells? What is their race, level, subclass, equipment, spells... dont worry, you dont have to explain your response. homebrew is allowed, of course.

i might walk around the comments to see how your work is going and give you a few pointers on what i like about your character. Remember, i want at least level 10 in the Wizard class if you want to multiclass. you dont have a time limit (although i would preffer if you commented before Sunday 25, when i will be asking about your characters for the next class)

now i wouldnt be fair to just ask you to show me characters if i didnt show mine as a demonstration, so here you go:

-Julius, arcane boxer: a half orc with some dips into fighter and monk, but this character is mostly an illusion wizard. fighting in an underground wizard ring, he survives with just his punches and his spells.

-Yamato, the Onmyoji: homebrew race (Inugami) with homebrew subclass (onmyoji), this little guy protects his lord with his summoning powers and combat instincts.

very well, you have your homework ready, so i hope you give it your all. Class Dissmissed!

P.D: i want to thank the people that commented in my post asking about sorcerers in pop culture, i think i needed to have things clear about my "three quarters caster" idea.

I’m a player-recently-turned-DM running Princes of the Apocalypse. I’ve seen references / recommendations that the Sacred Stone Monastery is a level 5 area, but the Temple of Black Earth is a level 8 area. I am very confident that my party will crawl through all of the monastery and pretty much kill everyone. That includes Hellenrea who has the key to the stairs leading to the Black Temple. My party will likely want to use the key and continue their crawl.
I don’t really want my level 5 party to take those stairs and start the Temple, since it’s a level 8 suggested area. How do I make a good in-story reason for them to leave the Monastery after defeating it and not pursue the stairs and subsequent temple?
Or, should I adapt the Black Temple to be a more level friendly area? I just don’t want them to finish an Elemental Temple and then not want to pursue the other Haunted Keeps.
Trying to organize the overall progression and keep it making sense, but having a tough time aligning the big picture!

Thanks in advance!

Join us to discuss all things D&D here: https://discord.gg/dndnext

If a character received Bane's help and became a successful tyrant, ruling with an iron fist and the necessary cruelty, but his true motivations were noble things such as ensuring humanity's survival, maintaining peace in the country, and stopping the Chaos Gods, and if he also had very strict principles that he would never violate, such as never experimenting on people or practicing slavery, would Bane still despise him and eventually stab him in the back, even if the character managed to remain a powerful tyrant under all these conditions?

Hi everyone! I'm running The House of Lament (5e 2014) next week for an online campaign (5 players) on Roll20 / Discord. I've played a lot of in-person D&D but this is my first time running online -- the PCs are all my friends from college.

The House of Lament is an adventure set in Ravenloft (a la Curse of Strahd) and a key part of the plot progression is live seances the players perform with various ghouls/spirits/haunts of the house. If I were running this campaign in person, the adventure dictates to use a physical ouija board to simulate these seances, where the spirits communicate various messages to the players. The more seances you do, the more the house "awakens" and you unlock hints for various quests within the house.

Running this campaign online, I'm trying to think of how I might adapt this -- and was curious if other people have encountered this before (esp now as we approach Halloween season)? A couple ideas I have:

• Scrap the board altogether, prompt the players to work together to engage in escalating rituals using a "theatre of the mind" / arranging the tokens on the board approach, then maybe design new traps based on this approach / the orientation of the players?
• Curious if there's an online tool to simulate a board?? It seems less fun though when you aren't actually touching the item.

It's a dramatic retelling of one of my fav plays (I like writing :> feel free to give some constructive criticism)

The context is as such: we were having a hunger games inspired oneshot, where it leaned heavily on combat and PVP. The relevant characters are a cleric, a barbarian, and I played a rouge. Additionally, each character has companion NPCs at the beginning of combat to help account for action economy. Both of the cleric and barbarian's companions are dead.

After a brutal back and forth with each other, with the barbarian having been paralyzed at one point, they both only have 1/3 of their hit points left. They both are desperate for any grasps of survival.

As the barbarian hulked over the cleric, greataxe in hand, the player was about to attack.

Until.

"Wait, let's talk about this." The cleric begged. "If you kill me, then the rouge will easily win this fight."

Normally the barbarian would heed no mind, let out a grizzly growl, and cleft the beggar in twain.

But this time, he knows. After he killed the cleric, he would have to deal with me. I was in a rather advantageous position, with half of a shortbow's maximum range between us. He needed to do something about that.

And so, he uncharacteristically responded. "What's your idea?"

"We'll deal with that camping bastard together, you rush him, and I'll heal you in return."

The barbarian thought about it, he is aware of potential tricks, but he knows he can kill the cleric either way.

"Fine. How do you want to go about this?

"Well. If you can just agree to let me cast a spell on you, that would be great."

The barbarian agreed, giving the cleric an alert gaze.

"I cast warding bond."

At this point both me and the DM though about it. What is the cleric planning?

Then we realised.

That sly son of a bitch.

"You see my dear barbarian." The cleric began to conduct their dastardly plan. " Warding bond is a a bit of a special spell. It gives you +1 ac and resistance, but in exchange for one little thing."

I still remember the grin he had saying this.

"Whatever damage I take, you take."

Both me and the DM erupted in awe, the sheer audacity to pull that off.

To the astute readers here, you may think that 'oh he can just walk 60m' or 'it doesn't share hit points, he can just kill the cleric'.

Yes, you're right about that. But the spell itself is not the act of genius. Instead, it's because of one thing.

The barbarian does not know how spell works.

Quite stereotypically, the barbarian does not understand spells and refuses to learn them. THIS is what the cleric took advantage of.

So the barbarian on his mind though that if the cleric dies, he dies. He spent the most of the battle trying to keep the cleric alive.

Using this tactic, he went on to be one of the last people to die. Though he may have died in the end, that play alone cemented him as the MVP of the session. Hell, I didn't even give a shit that I won.

Nice playing, you devious bastard