Had a player who wanted to use their main action to use a wand of magic missile, and then bonus action to cast spiritual weapon.

I have seen a lot of posts about casting more than one spell in a turn, but i have yet to see anything about casting more than one spell in a turn, if one of those spells is cast with the magic of an item.

One player argued that it‘s about the magic coming from the caster, that since the item was the source, it was okay.

Had another argue the opposite.

I don‘t really know the rules here, so in the moment i let it happen to keep the game moving and said i‘d come back next sesh with a concrete ruling for the situation going forward.

Any sage rules lawyers out there that have encountered this situation?

I know this is probably something that has been discussed 100 times. My friends and I started playing dnd last month (all of us started with 0 knowledge of dnd). So this campaign is mostly supposed to teach me how to dm and my friends how to play.

I have an idea for the next campaign that we are all excited about but I would feel bad to just end this campaign early.

TLDR the campaign is just the main antagonist trying to return to the world to rule everything yada yada yada.

So yeah my question is should I make this like a full multi months campagin or finish this arch and continue with the next one?

Hey all, hope it's a good day for you!

Looking for a little bit of advice on running a social encounter that could potentially go hostile?

Running Storm King and my team have just arrived in Triboar... en route they ran into a pig merchant guarded by Zhent caravan guards, and also hours outside of Triboar they encounter a gem merchant with the same. The pg merchant ones were the stoic silent types But the gem merchant ones were the chatty types and spoke to the party and their new allies... asking them casually if they've seen "this person"... that being one of my groups members.

During downtime between modules ke killed a Zhent member in a town after she tried to steal his improved smokepowder formula. But she managed to use a sending stone to alert the faction. So he's a target now.

The encounter I have in mind is more a "might happen" than a certainty. Might Happen soon but will deffo happen at some point so I should be prepared.

Specifically the guy who's the zhent agent in Triboar, he displays it proudly, and as far as the commoners are concered the Zhent are a very good travel guard/caravan guard company (they've been slowly monopolising it to disguise their shady shit)

So what would they actually do... if one of their "hitlist" people just wandered into town, or even better right into the guys shop?

I wonder if they'd play it cool and try to decide the party and the PC that nothing is amiss? With some Deception checks Or would they go immediately hostile? Or something along the lines of a threat like "if you weren't in town, you'd be dead right now... watch your back" kinda stuff? 🤔

So I stated during Session Zero that I didn't want to include encumbrance in my campaign because I feel like it subtracts from the experience. Two of my four players also parroted the concept. Though, I think I learned the hard way...

My players have recently come upon some magical items and the King of the region has granted them a bounty of 5000 GP, split amongst four. Including their other items and money they've picked up along the way, I feel as if they have too much at their disposal.

So my question is, how do you handle Encumbrance, if at all?

Hey all, I'm running a funhouse dungeon for Christmas this year and I've got an area inhabited by ghosts who take one of the five senses away from each party member for the duration of their time there.

Sight and Hearing are obvious (blinded and deafened), for Touch I said they get disadvantage on Dex checks and weapon attacks, for Smell I said they have disadvantage on saving throws against poison and gas and vulnerability to poison damage (I'm not crazy about this one tbh), but Taste is really alluding me. I feel like I can't just leave Taste out, having only four senses would be weird, but how can I tie Taste to a game mechanic?

Right now all I have is having disadvantage on saves against consuming poison and spoiled food (almost certainly not going to come up) and consumed potions are half as effective, but neither really sits right with me. I would love to hear any ideas, this is a head-scratcher for me for sure.

Thanks!

So, one of my players used the Eye of Vecna and rolled a 1 on a d100 for the soul tear effect. However, at that time he had death ward on, so for a moment of narrative we had the death ward protect him, although made Vecna aware of the character and I'm planning on having Vecna send minions after them in an encounter.
I do want an actually mechanical effect to accompany this though, as the other downside I mentioned I plan to make mainly roleplay focused and have no real mechanical stakes. Since it is the Eye, I need a debilitating downside which isn't as bad as the base one but still very noticeable.
Some ideas I had were giving all evil creatures advantage on hit against this character, or make it so that evil creatures rerolls 1s or 2s on any damage types against this character.
I don't want to be overly mean, but I want a large downside to go with failing the eye percentile roll.

I have introduced to my new sticky-fingered somewhat evil party in session 4 a trading card game called "The Magical Gathering," (I know, lol) and this offhanded joke has become a player goal. They want to be the very best, like no one ever was, and the wizard necromancer player specifically is very interested in playing in tournaments with his new NPC friend that has a decent collection. I've allowed him to retroactively have a cheap mono black deck that he already knows how to play.

How do I make this fun? All I can come up with is variables on the rolls based on deck matchups and rolls to determine the game based on deck cost (please don't complain about magic being pay to win in the comments) as ideas, but none of the specifics. This just happened on Friday and I'd like to have a prototype for him to play a money game versus his new friend next session, if possible. I love this kind of thing and I've played in mid-level competitive magic tournaments (long live Jund) so if you give me game terms I'll know what you're talking about.

My party are level 3 and juat abiut to enter their first major town with ample trade and all. They have stopped by an abandoned brothel in the middle of the forest and decided to loot it for money when they get to the town. But my problem is I am notoriously bad at pricing things, and find the rules dont really help me with this balance. Due to them starting as escaped prisoners from another country, they have literally no money on them.

So, how much should i aim to make the loot inside here worth? How much should level 3 characters ideally have?

My party has come to a very ancient and special religious place which two gods have control over. Party members can choose between two paths and each path is a trial which fits them more. Judgement and growth.

Their first challenge was a test of if one can grow or if they have grown as a person. Judgements first challenge was similar to was to test if one can judge their own weaknesses and address them as they also judge another party member.

This went down incredibly well. Now I have some ideas for the next 2 challenges of each path. Especially Judgement. Bur I wanted to see if I could get some further ideas from you amazing dms!

I would really prefer role-play heavy trials!

Player Engagement

The game is not about the DM it’s about the players and their story. Here’s some ways to get players to engage with your world.

1. Use their backstories to really attract them to act.
2. Spotlight each character, so everyone feels important and everyone gets a turn.
3. React to their decisions in meaningful ways that make them feel they are in control of the story.
4. Prompt players when describing the scene so they can get a feel for their options or maybe make up their own.
5. When defeating an enemy use the phrase, “how do you do it?” To allow players the chance to describe how cool their character can be.
6. After a serious moment in the story ask the player, “What is your character feeling?” To give them a chance to have their character react to recent events.

Creating Options

1. Present clear, compelling choices by prompting the players with interactables like a video game when you hover over something with your mouse and it lights up. You can do the same when describing a scene.
2. Leave room for creative solutions. Just like when you are reading between the lines in a novel, so should your players by you allow them room for narrative judgement.
3. Let them fail forward so when it seems like they are backed into a corner there is always a way out. Plus it allows the players to not feel like they have been stopped dead in their tracks and slowing the story wayyy down.
4. Sometimes asking your players, “what are you trying to do?” Can allow you to give them the “yes, and” answers that can open up even more options.

Compromise

1. Be flexible, the rules are not there to prevent fun. If there is a ruling a player makes you might want to let them get away with it, research it after the game, and inform them at the beginning of next session.
2. Find ways to say “yes, but” followed by a, “does that sound fair?” So you can get let your players know that they won’t get shut down when trying to be creative without breaking the game.
3. Check in with your players to see if they are having fun, ask them if there is anything they would like to see more from you and talk about it. Session 0 doesn’t stop at session 0.

Be quiet

1. Let players fill silences with their ideas and role-play
2. Don’t over explain everything, allow your players to connect the dots.
3. Give them space to steer the story. It’s their adventure, after all.

Knowing your players

1. Are they heavy role-players? Combat enthusiasts? Puzzle solvers? Cater to their preferences. Build the encounters based off what they like.
2. Session 0 never ends and players preferences changes over time. Ask if there is anything they would like to see more of or less of.
3. Pay attention to the reactions of your players. when do they gasp? when do they laugh? Take what makes them excited and leap further into it.

is there anything else I am missing?

There’s an NPC in my campaign who has been through hell and back time and time again. He’s getting old, he’s slowing down, and god is he ever tired. In the third act of my game I know a lot of characters see going to die, but I never planned on him being one of them.

As my girlfriend(a player) pointed out to me, a lot of the songs I use for him have subtle hints that he would not see the end of this campaign.

On one hand, I love this character and don’t completely want to kill him.

On the other hand, it would fit his story, add weight, and give him a proper send off other than fading into obscurity.

Any advice on how to move forward?

P.S. This is my first campaign, and I really want this story to draw in my players as much as I can.

Need advice for adventure design! Short version is the final paragraph!

So I'm a DM with 2 years active experience (but 7 years of interest/research) who mostly runs short adventures, anything from one-shots to four-shots. This style has it's benefits, such as my ADHD having a** not getting burnt out on one theme, and being able to improve on adventures and run them for a wide audience of new players. For context I consider myself an intermediate level DM, but always looking to improve!

I've run a few campaigns, and am currently running LMoP. I've come across a common problem with any longer campaign I run. (Longer to me is anything around or over 10 sessions): A lot of these adventurers have a hook to continue on with the 'prepared content' that involves a ticking clock. Now I never run adventures as written and at times do a complete restructure ground up. Still of the 3 longer campaigns I've run they all have this driving force pushing the players to this conclusion. The issue is that I, and some of the players I've had, find this restrictive.

In my homebrew it was a curse turning them to stone that pushed them onward and past anything interesting on the side, in my Claws of Madness campaign (short adventure I restructured into a longer campaign) there are people of this town being taken prisoner to an island, which is in the module. I added a ton of stuff on the island to flesh it out and let it be a sandboxy section, but with the ticking clock of these prisoners my players didn't feel their characters could explore it. Same with LMoP and Gundren, we are currently in section 3 pre-cragmaw and I have homebrew quests based on their backstories that now feel like 'side' quests, while Gundren is lain away in a cell somewhere in the forest.

During my stars and wishes one or two players admitted that while they have never felt railroaded, the 'timer' feels punishing and doesn't allow them to go off and explore without feeling like their character is a bad person for not trying to save their friend and patron. I 100% agree, and have noticed it's a common issue. A 'ticking clock' is a good way to herd the players towards prepared content but I hope there is another way I can do this without making the players feel restricted to a set path. They always have multiple options and hooks that are presented to them, but if only one of them makes them heroes then do they truly have a choice?

I know these modules were pre-written with these but it's my job as GM to twist these to my vision and ensure a fun adventure for my players, so the fault is mine. I do love written adventures and feel any issue any of them have is fixable, and thankfully so as I do not have the free time between work and parenthood to craft homebrew campaigns from the ground up anymore.

I'm sure some of you have come across this issue and hope someone can give me some solutions they've happened on. Replacing a 'ticking clock' is there a way to still point the heroes towards a location without making them feel it is the 'utmost absolutely time sensitive or innocents will die and your mission will fail' path, making them feel like that if they continue on this fun little side track they were interested in they are terrible terrible adventurers. I still want to herd them towards prepared content obviously, I'm always prepared to improvise but just making everything up as you go is a DM that's too lazy to prepare a fun night for their friends imo. Using LMoP as an example with Gundren.

I'm DMing a two shot campaign this winter and January with 5 players that takes place on a train where a murder happens. Basic murder mystery game, but the twist is that one of the players well be randomly assigned as the murderer and must attempt to secretly halt the progress of the group and deceive them.

Obviously there are some spells that would straight up break this concept like detect thoughts so I would appreciate some suggestions about a banlist

My players are prepping to fight an ancient green great wrym that has been posing as a god for a few thousand years. All said it’s supposed to be a big epic bad guy and the boss to end all bosses.

I’m wondering how I could make fighting a single monster boss more interesting. The few times I’ve tried it ends up becoming a punching bag that dies after one or two rounds or they drag out into a long slog that gets sort of dull after a bit.

How are some ways beyond the basic legendary actions that I can do to make the boss more interesting and dynamic but not drop dead in a moment.

How do you guys take inspiration from media without our right copying it? I want campaigns set in my homebrew setting but heavily based on the persona game series. I feel I could make it work really well but say I'd want an Igor-esc character but I feel it'll literally just be Igor or just a terrible character. Same goes for theechanics of the world.

So how do you guys go about it?

So, I am very comfortable in designing more traditional dungeons, but one of my groups prefers political intrigue, and castle infiltration. I know on paper, the two are the same... but in design it just isn't.

How do you go about designing a castle, as a dungeon crawl, without it being a slog, or turning into a "room clearing" type of thing where you are just going from room to room, just because?

So, I’ve been prepping for my campaign that I’m hoping I can get started later this month and I can’t think of a BBEG, or more like I can’t figure out how to write them. I have like a general idea of what I want to do but I don’t want it to be a cliche, yk?

I want them to be the leader of a cultus which worships an Eldritch god that watches over the world through the stars and the motivation for the leader is to bring this god into the world and killing said god so the world will be reborn because the leader believes that the world is corrupted and needs to be enlightened by the Eldritch god by means of Sacrifice.

Is there anything I should think about further for this guy or anything I should rework? I don’t wanna have this be a cliche and I cant tell if this is one or not

Got a player as a hunter ranger and he loves the idea of it as a lizardfolk constantly hunting for his next biggest meal but he's not really enjoying the mechanics. What can I do as a DM to 'fix' his ranger or how would you make it so the Hunter Ranger was more fun to play?

Im running a small murder mystery sub-plot for a few sessions. I enjoy the genre and know the tropes im aiming for. I’ve even run them on smaller scales before. But im sorta second guessing and wondering:

what makes them feel bad?

I know what works. The puzzle pieces leading to the Ah-ha moment. The red herrings. Slowly telling a story that changes the perspective you had when you took the case.

But what takes you out of it? What makes you frustrated? What have you tried that totally didn’t land like it traditionally would? What was the big lesson?

I feel like when I run stuff, a lot of the “what went right” things are great, but it’s more the things i would avoid if i did it again that make me a better DM with hindsight 20/20. So im curious!

My phantom rogue joined an assassins guild that works with necromancy at level 1 and is regretting it as he wants to be a better person without objectives to kill people for random reasons he doesn't understand (yet). Based on some recent plot happenings, I think I will move him over to the department in the guild that takes a kinder approach to soul capturing. He's joked before about wanting to take on a more "ghost whisperer" role, if you're familiar with that mid 2000s show with the thin white lady who helps spirits out before sending them off.

I'm having trouble coming up with mission assignments for him while he's out questing with the party. Maybe behind hired for things like "Please bring back the soul of my dying grandmother who has a relavant plot point in the land youre about to travel to" or "Please find my abusive ex husband and bring me his soul so that I may get information on the money he stole from me". I'm getting some writer's block with ideas that require someone he sees to die in order to capture their soul. Maybe he could be given a soul trinket to release at a specific time? Any suggestions are appreciated !

I have an upcoming boss fight that is an ancient undead hero and an undead dragon. I'm a relatively new dm who hasn't done any complex boss fights (mostly just a big guy and some little guys)

Any suggestions on how to make this boss fight engaging and interesting? Interactions between the hero and dragon, phases of the fight, unique legendary actions, etc.

Any suggestions are helpful! Thanks!

Disclaimer: I am running my first campaign as a DM and thus far have ran five sessions into it. So by no means am I a veteran in DnD, quite the opposite. Rather the goal of this post is inspiring another way of thinking as a DM that I hope might make the gameplay part also fun!

Intro: Usually I have noticed as a new DM that most tips for new DMs on social media devolve into seeing the gameplay as a tool to tell the story of your campaign. Either by having encounters that fit the scene that you are trying to tell, making the encounter have an emotional impact and/or as a way creating tension for the story. Obviously this is a solid piece of advice into making the story interactable for the players and as well as it makes the story engaging. However in my view by only viewing gameplay through this lense, it also creates some tendencies that ironically restricts/limits ways of roleplaying for the players. For example if a player wants too roleplay their character becoming stronger it is only through a sudden unpredicatable change by leveling or buy accumulating wealth too buy an item because in reality the story demanded so. This makes the progression feel reactive and external, not proactive and internal. Another consequence is that gameplay and rulings from the DM become for a lack of a better term metaified. It should not only be why from a balance perspective, but also why from a story/worldbuilding/lore perspective.

Alternative way to explain rulings: In my perspective/little experience rulings that are logical and lore based tend to be more readly accepted then meta-balance reasons by the players. Additionally it creates a good excuse to tell the lore of the power/magic system of your world. The players are incentivized to listen in order to gather hints on how they can "bend" the rules if they have the urge to metagame, but also easier to be more consistent with the rulings. You do not need it to be in a Sanderson/Mistborn tier of detail, but creating a light logical framework by asking yourself why?

Such questions could be: "What are the rules/laws of magic in your world that forces a spellcaster to only be able to cast one spell from a spellslot per turn?" instead of "How do I explain my players that its unbalanced to be able to cast more than one spell per turn from a spell slot?"

"How does the Bard cast Bardic Inspiration? Does this method make it so that one can restrict the Bard from casting it?" instead of "Is it balanced if my Bard can cast Bardic Inspiration whenever?"

Alternative way to explain more mechanics to new players: No loredump or ruledump, but a balanced and combined drop! In essence using NPCs as a proxy to explain how to craft items or having a quest tied to it will at least make it easier for the players to remember how they can do it. Which makes it easier to drop silently more mechanics without them having a information overload. Also it is an easy downtime activity to make in the earlier levels/sessions.

Additional way to have power progression gradually by not only leveling: So far the DMG 2024 only has bastions, giving items, crafting, shopping and leveling as a way of power progession (as far as I know). Which are mechanics I love, but they are types of progression designed to dictate the pacing of the campain in itself and by themselves difficult to feel gradual over a single session. Gradual and small power progressions in terms of gameplay I believe equally also serve as a hook and expands the scope of what a quest can be for some players. Regardless this is the part that is both allows most creativity and fun for the players and the DM, but also the most challenging. However I think there are some rule of thumbs and methods that can be implemented to make this prosess easier!

Ask the players during session zero their combat style as well, how do they imagine to use their powers?: Making it easier to have a vision as a DM to accomdate the players.

Having players being able to learn a skill or having a crafting blueprint: Make it so that the players can actively decide if they want to use their time to learn something that might be useful for them. It gives also more options for down time activies as well. An important principle I believe here is that this form of power progression should not give them more tools to be able to use, not make them directly more stronger through stats necessairly. It should give them more tools to use, but not better tools. If it still gives them more power then there has to be a cost as well. This method can be applied through homebrew if you want to expand the options, or making the rules even more restrictive then RAW and then loosening the rules as they learn their skills.

Inspiring the players to use their resources creatively: Especially for newer players using their resources creatively is challenging. Whatever the reasoning might be having an example gives the players a way too think and have both you the DM and the player in the same logical frame of mind when interpreting rulings in the future. For example a Wizard might not realise their full potential by not using their spells to their fullest potential and thusly feel underpowered in the party. A quest that has a reward that either teaches another application of the spell that they may have overlooked (I only reccomend this if the player is very new), or even better makes the Wizard think themselves how to apply it better. In this way you can make the player feel a sort of power progression without directly increasing their powers.

Conclusion: While this is not some hidden universal DM trick to be applied to be applied at every table, it does at least I hope provide some inspiration in another way of interpreting the game that I have not seen be talked that much about. Also I think that it also caters to those players that love not only the story and roleplay, but gameplay as a mark of progression which I do believe should be catered to! I would also love to hear your perspective as well on this subject!

Siren Features- Old

Source: Plane Shift - Ixalan

• Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.

• Alignment. Most sirens lean toward chaotic alignment, cherishing the freedom and independence that comes from joining a pirate crew.

• Size. Sirens stand about 5 to 6 feet tall, but their bodies are slender and their bones partially hollow to facilitate their flight. Your size is Medium.

• Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet.

• Flight. You have a flying speed of 30 feet. You can’t use your flying speed while you wear medium or heavy armor. (If your campaign uses the variant rule for encumbrance, you can’t use your flying speed if you are encumbered.)

• Siren’s Song. You know the Friends cantrip and can cast it without material components.

• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common (if it exists in your campaign) and Siren.

Siren Features- Updated

• Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2 and your Dexterity increases by 1.

• Alignment. Most sirens lean toward chaotic alignment, cherishing the freedom and independence that comes from joining a pirate crew.

• Size. Sirens stand about 5 to 6 feet tall, but their bodies are slender and their bones partially hollow to facilitate their flight. Your size is Medium.

• Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

• Flight. You have a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You can’t use your flying speed while you wear medium or heavy armor. (If your campaign uses the variant rule for encumbrance, you can’t use your flying speed if you are encumbered.)

• Siren’s Song (REVISED). As an action you let loose an eerily beautiful melody that charms anyone nearby who hears it. Choose up to two creatures that you can see within 30 feet of you, they must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you for 1 minute, or until you or your companions deal any damage to the creatures. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest.

• Charismatic Nature. You gain proficiency with one skill of your choice from persuasion, deception or performance. 

• Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Aurum.

This is the second game I’ll be running in this setting, I just finished a 2 year campaign in this setting and now we’re gonna run a new game in it. This one will be a sandbox instead of a story/adventure based game. Anything you think would be important for me to add to the world building?

This is the link to my world anvil page for the setting:

https://www.worldanvil.com/w/never-written-blankvoid

Hey folks,

I've got a player who had kind of a neat character concept. They're playing a circle of stars druid, but they wanted to use Intelligence as their casting ability. The idea is that most people who are interested in nature magic, like druids and rangers, learn it more through intuition and meditation than through intensive study. This character would be a wizard (a re-skinned druid) who is interested in the natural world, but wants to unpack it mechanically, actually working out and diagramming how and why nature magic works. I thought it was a cool idea, and it's easy enough to switch the casting ability, even on dndbeyond. I'd say that, generally, Wisdom is a more useful ability than Intelligence, so focusing on Int instead of Wis certainly won't make the character overpowered, so I agreed to it.

I was thinking later about some magic items I might want to prepare for the party, though, and a thought occurred to me. Usually when I have a wizard in the group, I'll drop spell scrolls for them here and there, so they can add spells to their spellbooks. I'd like to do something similar to that for his character, but since they're mechanically a druid, and druids already get access to all their spells... it wouldn't make much sense to drop spell scrolls. I mean, yes, they could hold onto them and cast them later, of course, but they wouldn't be getting the "copying it into the spellbook" experience.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could still give them that spellbook experience? If the eventual determination is that I can't, really, then that's not the end of the world, but it would sure be neat to figure out a way to make this work. Any thoughts?

I have made a one shot that I am wanting to include pre-gen characters as an option.y problem is I can't figure out how to put them into my Google doc. I made the characters on DND beyond, and can export them as a PDF, but you can't insert PDFs into Google docs without it causing weird issues.

This will be sent to people online for them to print out and run the one shot, so just including links to the DND beyond characters isn't ideal

Does anyone have a work around for this or a different character builder somewhere that makes better character sheets for inserting into documents?

I'm a fairly unconfident DM and I'm starting a campaign after 3 years of 0 play.

The game is going to start with 1 adventure, during which I will plant hooks for a couple of other adventures, which are flexible in where they can appear. So far so good.

The problem is the adventure itself. It can be summarized as follows:
There is a drug problem in the city. One bandit that is known of delivering the supply of drugs to the local thieves guild has been spotted multiple times in X tavern. Find whoever is creating the drug and stop them.

So in order to solve this I have the information
The bandit who makes the deliveries doesn’t know who makes the drugs, only to meet at a certain place at a certain time every 10 days. Hooded figures, disguised as the towns clerics, show up and give them the drug.
There is a group of bards (who partake on the drug, which is hallucinogenic), which communicate with the hag that creates the drug trough visions. They are the ones that take the drug from the hag’s lair, in forest close to town, to the meeting place.
Oh also the bards ritually sacrifice new members so the hag can produce more of the drug

To me it sounds very railroaded, they have to either follow or talk to the bandit, they have to either follow or question the hooded figures/bards, and then have to go to the hut in the forest and stop the hag.

Am I looking at this wrong?

Hi folks!

One of my players is incredibly meticulous about keeping records of everything that happens in our campaign. Their character journals in-game, and as a player, they’re constantly taking notes about what’s going on around the group.

I’d love to recognize their diligence—both in and out of character—with a special little moment. Does anyone have any ideas?

I just wanna check I didn't accidentally create an instant kill weapon.

One of my players is adventuring because his druid circle tossed him out when the arch druid had to sacrifice himself to prevent a freezing disease spreading in the forest, and they all blamed him. Now, I want to use that freezing disease on an NPC as poison (it's a nice way to tie the backstories together).

Basically, the disease (I call it Winterbark) is caused by stabbing someone with the special ice shard required for it for three rounds. First round, you make an attack. If it hits, you need to pass on a athletics check contested by the athletics or acrobatics check of the target, to ensure the poison really takes place. After that, the target becomes a walking potential popsicle.

Every 24 hours, they make a DC 18 Constitution save. If they have a total of three successes, the disease wears off and nothing happens. If they have a total of three fails, they freeze completely, as if subject to the Flesh to Stone spell (but frozen, not turned to stone). The cure for this is the Regeneration spell (although I've also considered Greater Restoration or Heal).

The NPC that makes this is relatively available to the players. They can either buy the stuff (however, I've set the price for 1 dose to 1000 gp, as it's difficult to make the stuff without contracting the poison yourself), make it themselves (but like I said, it's difficult to make without getting the disease yourself). The disease is also the effect of overdosing on the drug I call Chillshiver that takes similar ingredients. Long story short: it's not impossible to make or buy.

How game-breaking will this be?

I've been working on developing an adventure module as part of Guy Sclanders' "Challenge 2024." Here are the requirements:

1. It can utilize any roleplaying setting or system.
2. It must be play tested.
3. It must be easy for someone new to the roleplaying system to understand and use.
4. It should be a single adventure that takes 4 to 8 hours to complete.
5. It can be no more than 10 pages long.

I feel like it is in a pretty good place right now, but I'm always looking for constructive criticism. If you have a few free minutes, please review this adventure module and let me know what parts of it really stand out as fun and which parts of it really stand out as boring or dumb. Thanks for your time and feedback.

Headshrinker - A Psychology-Based D&D 5th Edition Adventure Module