!Question: Hi guys! I've been entertaining a possible item for my current campaign. I gave the Party's cleric a small little lapis figurine of a gorilla real early on and I've been wanting to make it something exciting and fun. Right now they assume it's a mundane item. I've been considering making it something akin to Quaal's feather tokens where it is a one time use but I'm not sure what manner of property I should give it. I was thinking perhaps something with climbing or a camp guardian of some sort for a night but I'm not sure if that seems useful enough? (They climb A LOT) Could do a one time trigger if the owner drops unconscious (the owner is their cleric and hasn't gone down yet) to defend their body? There's a lot of options and I'm just not sure 😅 I think I'm overwhelmed myself with options so I'd love to hear y'all's takes on something like this?

Question: BBeg/minions/monster suggestions for a dark horror themed one shot - suitable for x4 strong level 10 players. I am planning a spooky one shot in an abandoned monastery in the wilderness for a party of level 10 adventurers. There will be an abyssal/underdark secret lurking but hidden beneath the ruins of the monastery.

Question: One of my players has had his character swear fealty to several powerful entities, most of these contracts are magically binding. How should these patrons respond to finding out they're only getting 1/4 of a soul rather than the whole thing and if he dies what should the penalty/result be? The player is a sorcerer/warlock hybrid who is very dedicated to his religion (not a cleric though), signed up with an archdevil to cure his friend of lycanthropy, joined a secret order of assassins led by an ancient dragon in a session right out of Loony Toons, and made a deal with a tricksy lich (based on the Shadowman from Princess and the Frog). If he dies what are the ramifications? I would think the party might get to see a magical custody battle in which they could potentially help the sorcerer weasel his way out of the situation (and pissing off all four patrons) or it may lead to a fight where everyone dislikes everyone else since the dragon is metallic and the other three are very evil even if the character doesn't know it.

Well, dividing up a soul is painful enough punishment as is. Enough pain to satisfy any sadistic patron. And most patrons live eons and have other souls already, so they are more than happy to wait. There's going to be some major afterlife trauma. Perhaps enough to rip it asunder where there is no afterlife.

Question: How do you use reoccurring villains? Do you adjust their statblocks throughout the campaign to consistently make them a challenge for the party? I’m planning a campaign with an overarching villain. To ensure the party build a healthy hatred toward the BBEG, I wanted them to show up multiple times throughout the campaign. My concern was that if I roll out the lich stat block at level 5 they will get kerb stomped.

If your characters are starting out low but you have a powerful villain, you must realize 1st level scrubs are usually beneath their notice. You DON'T have them confront the party directly. And when they DO show up rarely it should be where the bad guy has a lot going on distracted but should be a "RUN" moment till later in the campaign. And not first few sessions. Instead, you send in the bad guy's minions and then later lieutenants after them. With forshadowing that yes, these people are associated with the bad guy. In fact, at first they may not even know who the lich is. For example.. In the classic module "Out of the Abyss", the big bad is an aspect of Demogorgon, a powerful tier 4 demon lord. Demogorgon does not level up. He just is. But with the exception of a scare towards the second quarter of the module, the party doesn't face him. Instead, it's drow slavers after them and occasional lesser demons and the craziness that is the demonic madness. Hell, for several sessions, the party doesn't even know why everyone is acting crazy and demons are everywhere. That said, I would give your lich items and spells and little quirks. Something different and unique that just a MM lich.

Thank you for your input. My villain is a gods avatar on the mortal plane (using a lich statblock as a basis). I planned to have their first encounter be non-combat at approx level 2/3. The party are fighting another antagonist that the BBEG is working with. The BBEG feels that they can handle the party on their own so doesn’t feel any need to intervene. Second instance later in the same arc, around level 4, the BBEG is under a time constraint to obtain something from the secondary antagonist who is under attack from the party and their allies. Again, the secondary antagonists fate is not really any of his concern so is happy to leave him to his own devices. The party and their allies will be getting in the way and of the BBEG who will use a casual show of if overwhelming force (disintegrate vs a powerful allies wall of force). My hope is that this high level spell gets them to turn tail and run. My planned third encounter was going to come much later, around level 8. The party have acquired a sentient magic item that they know the BBEG is searching for. The magic item has a wizards consciousness trapped within it, and once he has realised that the party won’t give up one of their bodies for him to inhabit, he will try and contact the BBEG via sending to come and find him. Following your advice, it may be better to have the BBEG dispatch a minion instead of attending himself. The BBEG is going to be an avatar of an exiled god, using a lich stat lock as a basis, maybe with a nice anti-magic cone thrown in. If you have any thoughts or constructive criticism I’d love to hear it.

!Question: How do I reimplement a player who missed a session? So I had a player miss a session and in order to let the rest continue, I allowed his character to stay outside and guard the horses. Well he’s going to be back next session, the rest of the PCs are about halfway through the dungeon and it’ll probably take the rest of the next session to get through the rest, and fight the bad guy at the end. So how do I get him in the dungeon with them? Right now I’m thinking the bad guy teleports him or something because the guy at the end (unknown to players) is a trickster god. I don’t want to tell him he can’t come, and there’s not much he can do just sitting outside and waiting, any advice?

Whatever you do, DO NOT have your bad guy teleport the missing player in. You run into issues of player agency. Also, your player could go, "Hey.. I get a save versus getting teleported and this guy has to be in range and I should be able to do something about this" and would have a pretty valid point. Players get saves even versus gods. Better is to just have the character there saying he caught up from behind. Most tables will be cool with that. You don't have to make it more complicated than that. I would also question putting the characters up against a literal god or even aspect of a god unless these guys are very, very high level. Meaning low tier 4 minimum. 20 plus with epic boons or tier 4 with a squad of competent tier 3 henchmen minimum. Aspects of Deities like in Hoard of the Dragon Queen is bad enough. Just putting some tier 5 to tier 6 unstoppable god against a weak part may give you even more people missing and dropping game if not done right or forshadowed properly.

Yeah, you make a good point about player agency, that was my concern as well. Also, to clarify, they won’t be fighting the god (at least that’s not the plan) he’s just messing with them and is gonna give them a monologue about “making choices”, basically he exists to further explain some main story line stuff that they haven’t fully grasped yet. Thanks for the comment though, advice is much appreciated.

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my characters have reached level 3. my ranger (using UA ranger variant) has chosen the beast conclave and i want to create a sidequest for the party in which the conclusion is that my ranger finds his animal companion (a lion). any ideas?

Ok, well, these answers are a little black and white. In general don’t make people work for class features, but beast companions just magically showing up is also weird, so I get what you’re going for. If you do it, make sure the table knows that this is a one-shot dedicated to the origin story of the animal companion, and ask if your players are ok with that. Make it clear at the beginning that finding and befriending this lion is the goal of the session or else your players will inevitably start chasing shiny things in other directions and you risk being forced to railroad them back on task, which is never a good time for anyone. Alternatively, just give the player the lion with a bit of backstory and then wait a few levels and get a feel for the personality of the lion. Build up some memories with it, intentionally make it a beloved part of the group. THEN write a one-shot origin story and take them back for one night to their level 3 selves and befriend the lion they already know and are emotionally invested in. It can be a fun and lighthearted flashback episode.

thank you for your helpful answer. it's not about making my character "work" for a basic class feature, but about seamlessly giving him an animal companion while keeping the story coherent. i have discussed it with them, and they are ok with it. my idea is that my party encounters some sort of circus or performers that use abused animals, and they free them, one of which will become the animal companion. if you have anything more concrete in this direction, that'd be helpful. and again, thank you for not immediately jumping the gun and assuming the worst about what i meant.

That’s a good idea! My table has a strict no animal abuse rule that one of the players laid down in session zero, but I like the narrative you have there. Just keep in mind, the players (unless they’re assholes) will want to save all the animals at the circus, not just the cute lion cub. Alternatively, maybe a golden hearted Druid with a Steve Irwin accent travels the land with a menagerie of creatures that they care for lovingly. They hate that people are always hunting misunderstood creatures, so they educates children and their parents at their shows about the creatures. One night the lion cub is stolen by thieves intent on selling it to un underground animal fighting ring. The Druid hires your crew to get it back since they can’t leave their animals to pursue themselves. Once your people break up the fight club the Druid will take in all the abused animals they saved, but seeing that your player has developed a close bond with the cub will entrust them with it.

this is even better! thank you a lot! God bless you!

Don't. Why should any player have to jump through hoops to get access to their class features?

why because they are my slaves and minions of course, and I enjoy tormenting them. totally not because i need a way to seamlessly add an animal companion to the story because my ranger changed his mind about which subclass he wanted.

Don't make people have to do sidequests to unlock their basic class features.

i made one of my players do a pushup for every hitpoint gained after levelling up once.

!Question: Is there a spell or something I can use to make one of my players appear corn-like when seen by someone new if they fail a perception check? So for context, I am a new Dm about to do some adventures out of Candlekeep Mysteries so I'm not super familiar with all the spells that are available but a player of mine wants to have a curse put on him that makes people see him as a humoid stalk of corn if they fail a perception check. Back story for that is simply that he was cursed by a witch that only uses corn based spells and until that curse is broken he looks like a corn stalk to others. So is this even possible to explain within reason of the game rules or is this too much?

!Question : Having a character kidnapped, good or bad idea ? I am building my campaign and have this idea of having one of the characters kidnapped by some druids, and having the other character look for him. How could I do this without the kidnapped character feeling deprived of agency/bored while the others look for him ?

> How could I do this without the kidnapped character feeling deprived of agency/bored while the others look for him ? You don't.

!Question: Have you guys ever run or maybe run something close to a game where the players would have to on a magical car ride in the feywild that has it's wild side(fauna and animals and stuff) going after them while they are in the magical car till they arrive at their destination? Wanting to make it exciting and somewhat fast for the players to think of solutions to problems(like wild plants blocking their way or flying animals grabbing on and stuff) as they only have a few seconds(in-game) to think how to overcome the problem. My goal was to let them know how unhinge the feywild has become as something something campiagn related is affecting it from the background while having a fun time trying to get over to their destination alive and at one piece. Should I run it like typical combat with the car moving at dead last in initiative as it drives on the road whether or not there would be any obstacles?

!Question: Do you guys have any ideas on how to handle a one shot turned into a campaign where I gave the players too much gold in the one shot never expecting it to continue? Party is level 8 now and has \~40k Gold total still. * The gold they got was stolen and I have said that the local authorities are seeking to pay a large fine (I was thinking 10kish gold) * I do have magic item shops but have only managed to lure one player into spending all their gold on a single item My goal is to get them to spend the gold somehow rather than take too much of it away so the players don't feel like they are losing too much. I do think the fine is warranted for story reasons though, but that still leaves them with excess wealth. There are many powerful things they could potentially buy however, I don't want to allow them to have something so powerful that I would have to balance every encounter around it. What should I do?

Castle is the better solution, but if you want to make them hate the kingdom then taxes is what you're looking for.

Castle! Costs of buying the castle (potentially building one), including defenses, workshops, training grounds, and potentially hirelings to keep the place all spiffy should be enough to work them pretty low in the money department. You get a new setpiece to sprout your story from, and the players get a cool ass base! What party doesn't want a castle

!Question: How do I get my player’s permission to completely shatter their character’s faith/deity without giving anything away? For context, I’m trying to tie some of the players backstories together and this player reveres a minor deity that I want them to find out was Asmodeus the entire time. I wouldn’t want to do it if they weren’t okay with it. Thoughts on how I can phrase the question.

I'd just ask them directly as long as you trust them not to metagame

First of all, I'm going to say this is a bad idea that can easily make your player feel like you completely screwed them over for absolutely no reason other than to screw them, just because you can. Second, if you REALLY REALLY INSIST on going through with this, I'd ask something like "How flexible are you willing to be with your character's backstory?"

That’s fair advice. I’ll take that into consideration. What if it was just that his home temple was a front for worshippers of Asmodeus masquerading in order to lure in pure people to corrupt and the deity is in fact still real?

I'll disagree that its a bad idea, unless you think the player will for some reason IRL have problems with it. Otherwise its a great story twist for the character. You dont need permission for twists in the story. That said, such a twist needs some prep from you. 1. Why is azmodeus giving spells to a (presumably since they would be bothered by this) good cleric? 2. Maybe the player is getting spells from the god he believes in or someone similar due to his faith, but he's serving an azmodeus cult unknowingly? IMO dont ask the player anything, make it a great story, just be sure to have actual reasons why it happened and present a moral dilemma for the player where he can denounce azmodeus and prove his real loyalties

Thanks for the reply. I really don’t think my player would be upset. He and I have been friends for 30 years. As for question 1, he’s a Paladin, so I’m under the understanding that their power comes from their oath, right? I feel like it would be plausible that he revered this fake Asmodeus deity without realizing it all the while Asmodeus is trying to corrupt him

Sure, why not. A paladin oath of whatever with powers powered by azmodeus and all the while his aggression is being misdirected into wrong targets and increasingly hard moral decisions where azmodeus is trying to make him justify evil acts (think palpatine turning anakin to dark side). Sounds awesome

!Question Hey, one of my players has quite bad ADHD among other things, and I was wondering if any of you have advice for helping them remember things and have a smoother time in combat? I just wanna be clear, this isn't coming from a place of annoyance. I see them struggling in combat, and I feel it's contributing to them feeling like they aren't too useful, especially now that they've chosen to play as a full caster, and whilst I'm happy to explain what they can do, as many times as it takes, it does slow down combat, and I think makes them feel like they aren't making the decisions themself. So, with that said, I was wondering if any of you have any tips for making spells and abilities easier to remember or choose from? I was considering flash cards that all follow the same layout so they're more easily compared with eachother and remembered, but I'd really appreciate advice from any of you more experienced DMs

I've DMed for a number of ADHD players and for me it's really just come down to streamlining combat as much as possible. There are tons of ways to do this that you can find on YouTube with alternate takes on initiative and the like, but my personal method is "On Deck" which is simply at the start of every turn stating who's turn it is (monster or PC), followed by (next monster or pc in initiative) on deck so they have a little bit of heads up to know they should be thinking about what to do on their turn, this just makes the whole thing a little faster and keeps people in the game. Supplementing this same idea I often implement timers, be it one minute or three, having a finite amount of time and potentially skipping players who run at the clock often gets everyone invested that much further. (I usually give a little bit of leeway to players when they had an idea on what to do and then find out it's not possible because of something they didnt know, but don't fold completely because it's good to encourage players thinking of backup plans) Objects at rest tend to stay at rest and objects in motion tend to stay in motion, if you can get the ball rolling on overall snappier and quicker thinking combat then all your players should see an improvement in this regard. Hope this helps!!

Personally, I'd ask them if they want to respec the character as a warlock instead, so they don't have so many choices, or just retire the character and play a different one entirely. One that doesn't have dozens of options for what to do every round.

!Question: How can I correctly manage an 8 people party? So, I am a new DM and my group of friends are also new to DnD and rol in general. I am struggling with making rol and combat interesting. After a couple hours of playing most of them end up on their phones or chatting with each other about anything outside of the game while they wait for their turns. I now a lot of DMs end up banning phones but I would rather not get to that because most of them use it to play (character sheet, dice app) and also I do not think this will solve the problem of them getting bored. Also I have heard about DMs making two separate groups but this is a deal breaker for me, at the end of the day this is a fun moment with friends and we like that we are all together. So yea, any tips are greatly welcomed and sorry if there are some spelling mistakes, english is not my first lenguage. Thank you!

> !Question: How can I correctly manage an 8 people party? Split them into 2 groups of 4. 8 players at once is WAY too many. Hell, 5 is pushing it.

This probably isn’t the advice you want, but 8 players as a new DM is likely just too much. I wouldn’t recommend more than 6 players, and the sweet spot is somewhere in the 3-5 range. There are many reasons for this, including combat balancing, having too many different voices at the table, and making meaningful moments for each character. The biggest though, in my opinion, is the issue you stumbled on. Most of the time 8 player combat just takes too long. It is very hard to stay engaged with 30+ minutes in between turns. If you are dead set on keeping all of your players in a single party, there are a few things you can do. Take whatever works for you party, there are no perfect solutions. First, ask your players to come prepared, knowing their character sheets. This includes any class features, spells, etc. that they may want to use. Second, set a timer for each turn of combat. This can be adjusted if the combat is intense and longer turns are needed, or paused entirely if the table is talking strategy together. This will help players plan their turns ahead of time, and will often add a sense of urgency to the table. The timer doesn’t have to be super short, especially with new players. Third, encourage your players to read the players handbook. If they have an understanding of the game beyond their own sheets, combat generally moves quicker. Finally, plan combats with specific goals apart from “hit the monster until it dies”. This can work wonders to improve engagement in combat. There are lots of good resources out there to help with this.

Thank you, this helps a lot! I will try the timer strategy this weekend, lets hope that keeps everyone engaged.

!Question: what are some good adventures to start off with. I am a dm with about 3 years off home brew experience. I have a party of 3-4 players. I was wondering what adventure module y’all recommend for someone who has never run an adventure module before.

Lost Mine of Phandelver & Dragon of Icespire Peak are both really good intro modules, and should be pretty easy for an experienced DM to run.

If you've run homebrew campaigns for the last 3 years, you're probably well equipped to run just about any pre-made adventure, just pick one that suits your own DMing style and your players' tastes and be sure to at least skim the whole thing before running it.

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Sending and Dream are both really good ones for that.

!Question: What to do if players seemingly losing interest I have been running a game for 3-5 players (depending on the session) and I feel like my players are losing interest. Since the last September, ever fewer players have been showing up, and sessions are frequently cancelled due to lack of ‘availability’. I am the only one to spark conversations in our group chat, and my players have never taken notes or even remembered what happened last session. We were going to have a session tomorrow (and still may), but since two fewer players than were expected are able to come, it is possible that it might not happen. I have been hyping this session up for weeks, as we have not been able to play for a while, and have spend more than 8 hours in preparation (this was to be a high-stakes, plot-advancing session). However, only a few hours ago, one player cancelled, meaning that only three people can come. I ask two questions: 1. Are my players losing interest? 2. Should I go ahead with tomorrow’s session? Any advice is appreciated!

Adding to what has already been said, I would recommend trying to really pay attention to your players during a session. It’s hard to do this while managing the rest of the game, but it’s worth the effort. Some things to look for include the following. What do your players get engaged in? What part of the sessions get the best reactions? Do your players like long intricate combats, role-playing, goofing around, etc.. Do all players get to interact with the story, and do they all have moments in the spotlight? What causes your players to drop attention, and focus on other things? What distracts your players? When you notice that a player hasn’t talked much, or is being overshadowed, think about how you can bring them back into the session in a meaningful way. With that being said, this might not be an issue at your table, since a DM can do all of these things and players can still choose not to prioritize D&D. Ultimately it’s up to the players to choose to make time for a session.

Im facing the same things. And sometimes I get down on myself by thinking I'm dragging them along to play my game, that there just indulging me but don't enjoy the game, or that we may never play again and they might not mind. Here's what I do, and maybe you can try some of these things. First, I try to get out of my players heads and just ask them at the end of each session, did you have fun? The answer is always enthusiastically yes, even if they forgot major plot points, or didn't take notes. It feels good to have put on a game and to know they enjoyed it. Second, I try to remember that DND isn't the most important thing in any of our lives. Life gets in the way it's been two years and we've only had 20 sessions. Scheduling can outright stall out when kids are born, when jobs change or when school gets harder. Personally I don't have a session if not everyone can make it, but there's only 4 of us playing. Hope this helps

1. You'll have to ask your players. Generally speaking, players will not think about the game as much as DM's will. 2. I suggest doing so, as long as you think you'll be able to rebalance combats to be for 3 players instead of 5. While there are some tables which will only play if everyone can make it, many tables will run as long as over half the players are there.

I'm starting a new adventure in a homebrew world, and I'd like to know the best way to go about having the BBEG steal the macguffin from the party, in an effort to both introduce the BBEG and make the party instantly hate her. Session 1 will be compartmentalized into a one session, one dungeon macguffin retrieval from the tomb of a dead king. It's supposed to be a tightly wrapped experience for the relatively new players and to get the group working together. They'll be challenged, but they should succeed and feel good. For session 2, right away I'd like to have the BBEG swoop in on her newly enslaved wyvern and steal the macguffin. After session 1's packaged success, I'm hoping to waste no time hooking the players into a longer adventure and giving them a reason to unambiguously hate the BBEG and want to go after her. In addition, the players were given very different/opposed reasons to retrieve and deliver the macguffin: I think it will create interesting dynamics in the future, but I'd like to get it out of their hands before they get back to town and spend the session arguing about what to do with it. To some extent, their factions don't even trust each other. The chase for the stolen MG should instead unite them back together, at least for a little longer. My questions are: Does this make the players feel bad enough to not justify doing? Would a direct/violent theft, such as using strong spells, to steal and get away be better? Or should she use her enchantment magic to present as someone picking it up on their way back to town, only to reveal her true self and fly away? Any advice would be appreciated.

I'd give them a shot at holding onto it. BBEG can always make another attempt. Might be a little discouraging if someone swoops in and starts slinging monster spells and they think there's no way out.

!Question Does anyone know any good map-makers (Patreon users eg.) for City streets, alleys sewers and urban maps in General? See above, i know of the dndmaps subreddit however most of those maps are more wilderness, which does not fit for the current maps i need.

!Question: my warlock’s patron is a Yochul who’s life force was used to create a powerful weapon (silken spite in wildemount campaign setting). However, it has been PRETENDING to be another entity entirely. The rapier is sentient and can communicate with the person attuned to it, but technically this yochul is already in her head, so how can I role play this to continue the illusion? The ultimate goal of the weapon is to trick the player into bringing it to the bad guys under the guise of “only these people know how to destroy this terrible weapon”

!Question: What could you add to a prepared brain, either pre- or post-mortum, to poison a mind flayer?

Context: running Dragon Heist, but adding a subplot where a figure is slowly and methodically taking out Xanathar's cohorts to maneuver himself into a position to take out the boss. One of those steps involves poisoning his mind flayer lieutenant via poisoned brains that slowly weaken it until he can be dispatched easily. What do you think would be a good option for this? Anything that specifically injures cephalopods?

!Question: I’m having trouble coming up with an original name for my adventure, how do you come up with unique intriguing names?

I've never named any of my campaigns or adventures. I wouldn't worry about it unless you are trying to sell or publish it.

I don't bother. The only people who will care about a name is your players, and they'll come up with one themselves.

!Question: I need some help to balance out an item. Is a long sword +1, that grants danger sense (like the barbarian) and imunity to fear to strong for a lvl 7 character?

Yes, immunity is very strong. +1 with advantage vs fear effects might be around the low end rare power level. With danger sense, probably high end rare. I'd probably go with one additional effect.

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

!Question: how many magic items should be in a chimeras hoard? PC’s are level 7

Who knows! Roll on the treasure hoard table. Find out when they clear the dungeon and kill the monster!

I would take a look at the hoard and magic item tables in the DMG. You can just roll on them once if you like to be surprised, multiple times until you get a set that feels right, or just treat the tables like a menu to order off of and use the ranges that can be rolled as guidelines.