We get a lot of polls asking folks what their favorite level to play at is. And those results are often used to make inferences about what level players would like campaigns to end at, but insofar as I can tell, it has been years since that more specific question was asked.

I know a lot of people are going to look at this and think, “well it depends” or “the campaign should end when it reaches a natural end point.” If you are in that camp, please search your heart of hearts and ask yourself, under ideal circumstances, in the most perfect campaign you can imagine, at what level would that natural end point arrive?

So the party is in the forest of mir, trying to enter myth dyraalis, and as a way to enter I had them encounter a green hag who, in exchange for the memory of a loved one, would give them necklaces with a rune that would allow them to pass through the mythal.

Long story short the player who had to give the memory refused, so as an alternative I improvised the hag asking for a black dragon’s tooth (young). The party headed south where they thought there would be spiders to xp farm before going after the black dragon; instead I had the dragon appear in the swamp (He scared away the spiders).

I didn’t want to do a tpk so I played the dragon similar to smaug but slightly more “reasonable”. He asked the party for the head of a hobgoblin warlord who stood in his way of claiming the forest for his own, then he would consider giving them one of his teeth.

Okay sooo the party succeeded in the mission; so now I’m thinking the dragon should order the paladin (black dragon born and squire of the purple dragon) to try and pull it off. Here’s where I get stumped. I don’t know wether to have the black dragon lay a curse on the paladin, given his allegiance to the purple dragon; or have him straight up refuse to give them a tooth and go after myth dyraalis now that there’s no rival conquerors (hobgoblins).

For context I tried to play the dragon as an prideful, deceitful, and cruel dragon, but I don’t wanna catch my players off guard; does anyone hace advice in how to handle this?

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).

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’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

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

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.

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.

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

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)

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?

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?

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?

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

Link to google doc for view.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eBgx86lCahTx1TZKhsHfn3Nv7M4gIXHIFEI-kio26W0/mobilebasic

Hey so I am kind of new to DND. I say new because I have been following it for a while and have technically played for a few years, but it’s been very inconsistent. I am currently in my first long form campaign where my DM over Discord is running Lost Mines of Phandelver Shattered Obelisk for our group. We aren’t that far along as we still haven’t beaten Klarg yet. But we are at a point where our DM can start work/prepping in our backstories to the campaign. This brings me to this post.

I have my character’s, Ocean Breeze a Tabaxi Rouge, backstory pretty much ready though I am willing to leave it open for further additions that unfold in the campaign. I would like to know if there are any further edits I should add in for her or if I should wait for further development in the campaign, or even if it’s fine as is. I am aware that character backstories for DND don’t have to be high quality novels or a well written script. It’s not like our campaign is like critical role. I mainly want to know if what I’ve done here is a good job for a first time campaign character.

For context
- Some of the details are a bit vague cause I like to leave things open for further connections to the campaign that I currently don’t know about.
- I tried my best to connect her to mainly one prominent NPC in the adventure, mainly Gundren.
- The DM confirmed with me that their organization and occupation fits with the setting. It is on the sword coast, so I would imagine Pirates can easily work even if it’s not really a pirate adventure.
- You will see a list of NPCs meant to represent the crew of the Ship she is a part of. I did clarify at the top of the Allies section the DM can use as many or as little of the NPCs on that list as he wants. Mainly out of fear of giving them too much homework.
-If you mainly want to read just the backstory, skip to the bottom of the Google Doc.

I've been looking at the firearms in the DMG, since Artificers can theoretically replicate them as one of their item plans. Given that Optimus Prime has had dealings with knights and wizards, He-Man and She-Ra had to dodge lasers, and Samurai Jack and Hawkeye exist as properties, I don't think it's that big of a tonal problem.

My question for the people who've been willing to use them is how to put them out there without possibly causing a weird power disparity in the party? Tracking ammunition would probably help with the Antimatter Rifle(6d8 necrotic)and it's 2 shot limit between reloads, but the Laser Rifle(3d8 radiant) carries 30 shots and doesn't have Burst Fire like the auto rifle to encourage burning through ammo faster.

I also know it says "treat modern items as Rare magic items and futuristic items as Very Rare", but what investment would melee characters need to keep up? And is a ranged fighter with a gun going to potentially skew the numbers significantly enough to be a problem?

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.

Hi everyone! First, sorry if my english is a little weird sometimes, I'm from Argentina and english is not my first language.

I've been working on something called Campaign Chronicles and the mods were kind enough to let me share it here.

The idea came from something that I think happens in almost every long campaign. After months of playing you have so many NPCs, places, factions, quests and random details that eventually someone asks "wait, who was this guy?" or "when did we learn that?" and nobody has any idea anymore.

So I made Campaign Chronicles basically as a memory for the campaign.

You can keep characters, NPCs, locations, sessions, quests, items and notes in one place, make connections between them and keep a timeline of what happened. There are also private notes and some tools for GMs, so not everything has to be visible to the players.

I didnt want to make another VTT or something that runs the game for you. Its more about keeping the story your group is creating somewhere, especially when a campaign starts getting really big.

Its available in english and spanish and I'm still working on it, so feedback from people who actually play TTRPGs would really help me. If you try it and think something is missing or could work better, please tell me.

Website:
https://campaign-chronicles.com/

I also made a short video showing it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTsnpz_F7hI

And since the mods asked me to be clear about this: I did use generative AI as an assistant during development, mostly for debugging and troubleshooting. The video also has a few AI generated fantasy visuals between the actual recordings of the app.

Thanks for reading and I hope some of you find it useful!