You're not allowed to elaborate except in replies. What is the absolute worst trait, in one word, to see in a DM, either one you've had to reflect on yourself, or one that you've experienced as a player? To kick us off:

Schadenfreude

I'm playing in my first ever campaign and I close a Hexblade Warlock. I like the abilities granted by that patron, but none of the spells from that additional spell list are speaking to me. I'm not saying they're not powerful or useful, just not especially so.

Are there any of them that you think I might be under-evaluating?

I have seen this said over and over again: You can use the darkness + devil's sight combo but it will hinder the rest of your party.

Is that really true?

When you cast darkness, you get to choose where to place it. In many cases, that by itself will have utility. You might be able to cast it over ranged or spell-casting enemies forcing them to leave their position. You might be able to place it so that one of your party members gets a "free" disengage. You might be able to place it so that a rogue can bonus action sneak in the open and then move for a backstab.

In the worst case, the enemy has some non-visual or devil's sight sense ability, but I think that is pretty rare and obvious (devils, dragons, elementals, creatures of pure darkness).

But in the average case, the advantage and disadvantage cancel out. Even that can be an advantage, if the enemy was getting advantage from some other game mechanic.

So yes, darkness is pretty situational if you literally have no way to take advantage of it, but even one character that has devil's sight might be enough to tip the balance. This is particularly true if one of the characters without devil's sight casts darkness (which is better action economy).

The homebrew setting I'm running and developing in my Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign consists of an endless universe filled with infinite worlds. Since I can't create infinite worlds on demand, I've divided the universe into star sectors, each containing a number of worlds. These worlds, not planets, are any celestial bodies inhabited by humanoids, acting as different planes accessible through chappa'ais (magical portals from an ancient civilization), magic, or spelljammers. Currently, the PCs are in their home sector and can travel between about 10 different worlds (so far, at level 12, they've visited a total of 5).

Separate from these worlds but withing the same sector, is Astra Taldea, a group of asteroids bound and connected to each other by ancient and gargantuan magical chains, forming a kind of archipelago. This group of asteroids travels through space along this star sector, pulled by a herd of colossal and ancient kindoris.

Astra Taldea is formed by asteroids similar to Rock of Bral and is inhabited by five humanoid races: the Astral Elves, the Githyanki, the Tenno humans, the Skittermanders, and the Plasmoids. These humanoids possess technology similar to Treasure Planet and Spelljammer. The Astra Taldeans rarely travel to the other worlds in the sector, and some are unaware of their existence.

No one truly knows who formed Astra Taldea, but it wasn't any of the races that inhabit it today, despite each race's legends claiming it was them.

Astra Taldea won't be accessible during this first campaign, but it will be during the next one. I would like some ideas to elaborate futher more Astra Taldea for this second campaign.

EDIT: I'm looking for location, point of interest or hook ideas.

I'm a 17th level Arcane Trickster with 2 Wizard levels and 1 Cleric level. I have 4th-level spell slots, but none of my classes let me prepare 4th-level spells, as per multiclass spellcasting rules.

Here's Spell Thief, the 17th-level Arcane Trickster feature:

Immediately after a creature casts a spell that targets you or includes you in its area of effect, you can use your reaction to force the creature to make a saving throw with its spellcasting ability modifier. The DC equals your spell save DC. On a failed save, you negate the spell's effect against you, and you steal the knowledge of the spell if it is at least 1st level and of a level you can cast (it doesn't need to be a wizard spell). For the next 8 hours, you know the spell and can cast it using your spell slots. The creature can't cast that spell until the 8 hours have passed.

The phrase "and of a level you can cast" seems to imply I'd need to be able to prepare those spells naturally before stealing them from another. However, "it doesn't need to be a wizard spell" seems to imply otherwise. Are there any official rulings on this?

Since Hexblade doesnt exist in 2024...yet...Would Undead be the next best option for a Raven Queen based warlock especially flavor wise. I do know you can still use 2014 classes in 5.5 but I kinda wanna just stick with the updated classes.

My pc is a ranger that has acquired a construct weasel made of brass. Help me pick a name. (Was found in a dungeon discarded as a semi failed attempt) playing moot(construct of purpharos. God of forge fire and creation)

Os explico no he jugado a D&D en mi vida, y mis amigos (que tampoco lo han jugado nunca) quieren probar. Quieren que sea el DM voy a imprimirme resúmenes de cada raza y clase para que elijan. Estoy buscando una campaña que hacer, a poder ser que sea de una sesión, porque si sale bien vamos a pillarnos el kit de inicio (primero quieren ver si les gusta para meter pasta). ¿Me pasáis alguna campaña medio sencillita, por favor? Y si me dan algún tip y cosas que debería llevar, se lo agradecería mucho

I’d love to hear about it. I’m using a fighter/barbarian Zoro from One Piece this weekend and I have a monk Kusuriuri from Mononoke. An interesting element to me to bring in outside characters into this fantasy world

My campaign is going to involve the players running around a lot and very likely evading the goverment. I want to force them to have some hideout-type place to store things they have to come back to and mantain hidden (using a version of bastion rules probably).

I don't think I ever even really tried to do inventory before because forcing players to constantly tally weight of objects is plain boring, plus it often leads to things that are physically impossible.

Do you know a way of doing this that is at least fun for the players?

This is the third sub I'm posting to. Even after refining and editing the question, most people seem to prefer not interacting with the question and instead just say "it depends" or "it doesn't make sense" 20 times in a row. So, maybe I've learned the best way to ask it now and it'll go great here!

Recall the best combat you've ever had as a player. On a scale of 1 to 10, how difficult was that combat? If you never had that "best combat" then think about a hypothetical best combat that is the perfect combat for you, with all the context and teammates aligning perfectly. How difficult do you think it would be?

1 = Zero effort, impossible to not easily win.

5 = Halfway between impossible win and impossible lose. So I put "a good fight with very little risk of a TPK" here.

10 = Complete Fail state achieved, TPK imminent, or just impossible to win.

Examples:

If there's no risk of death, what's the point? My PERFECT combat is one with my life on the line, so give me that 9.5 bro.

I don't think my perfect combats are actually very combative. The best combat I ever had was when we insta killed the BBEG after weeks of planning. So, ideally my favorite combats are 1 or 2 because all the work leading up to the combat is where the fun is.

Me Personally? As a player I think that the "perfect combat" doesn't need to be deadly. The "Perfect" combat is one made easier by all of the work you did before the fight, so basically you see your hard work turn a 9+ into a 7, and that once invincible dark lord becomes a tough battle instead.

My character is going through some story stuff that is respecing them out of a hexblade warlock/battlemaster fighter multiclass into full painkiller illrigger making all my attacks based off my charisma stat still

I have GWM and elven accuracy but i dont have a great way to get advantage anymore for elven accuracy since i no longer have the darkness+devil sight combo

I'm hoping not to multiclass at all but I'd still be interested to hear those options if you have them. But feats or magic items are preferable

i've looked into it some myself and i can't really see any feats that would help much but i might have missed something. and as for magic items. god there are so many to look through. i looked through for a while but genuinely got a migraine and had to stop.

Long story short: the PCs escaped Ravenloft after Vecna, and they must throw Vecna back in 33 days or they will be thrown back with no escape. He would be dragged back in 33 days, so the PCs escaped after, so the curse transfered on the PCs, and the portal wants one or other. The thing is, by the rules that i made, if Vecna kills then, he will be next to be dragged back!

I know that i cant change the rules and etc, but, now it presents me a interesting challenge. Every monster will be attacking for non lethal damage, and spellcasters will try to incapacitate then rather than kill. Even Vecna would have to change plans a bit. But it will be fun.

Also, anyone have a monster sheet for something like Vecna for 3 level 15 characters that are not a counterspell heavy?

Hey All, how are we doing?

I wonder if you can help me out. I'm curious about getting involved with a campaign or DnD in general.

I have been following Critical Roll for a while (I'm aware that "normal" DnD is not Critical Roll) and played some of BG3.

This has made me think about getting involved in some kind of campaign.

My only other experience in this type of thing is that I had GM'd 2 games of Alien RPG, which I really enjoyed, unfortunately our group couldn't free the time consistently.

Any advice on getting more involved in DnD would be greatly appreciated.

Jay

I was looking up options for magic bows, and there are a few that seem similar in power to me, so i was wondering if one of them is considered better than the others (including 2024 content).

The ones that i consider the best for now are

1) A simple +3 longbow

2) The energy bow

3) Oathbow

The oathbow is certainly better against a single target but i am considering a day with 3 combats and a decent amount of enemies in each one.

I'm excluding the dragon wrath weapon because it's clearly the best but i'd consider it harder to obtain due to it's requirements.

What do you all think? Thanks in advance for your answers.

Edit: i got a lot of detailed aswers, thanks everyone!

I want to use it to create/generate combat environments for designing adventures and solo play, but I cant't find it! If there's no way to get it now, or if it doesn't even exist (I learned about its existence via Google AI Mode), what are some great PDF resources similar to it (besides Jose Manuel Navarro's Terrain Randomizer?

Do you think the game would benefit from having fewer levels?

If so, what do you think would be a good number, and why?

If not, why not?

Welcome to the circle, r/dndnext! today im curious about druids, those who praise nature itself, with no divine intemediary. remember that we listen, but we dont judge, so feel free to talk about your druid characters (i might ask something or just say if i like the character).

i want to learn about your druids: what inspired you to make them, what character from pop culture tehy take inspiration from (if any), their story, their strategy and mechanics, their subclasses (original or homebrewed),did you play with them or are you planning to use them in the future, their favorite wildshapes or spells... as well as what you may think of the class.

it's only natural that i start by showing a few of my characters:

-Artioo: just a build that i tried to do using both Bear and Barbarian. Moon bear to wildshape and then using rage as a bear totem barbarian, the Bear'est of Bears!

-Peach: just a dumb idea i saw, i tried to make Peach from the Super Mario games, but she is a drow circle of the spores druid ordering her two druegar fighters around and making them fight a dragonborn that wants to capture her and bring her to justice.