I am currently writing a one shot for my first dm experience, because the guys i currently play dnd would love to see me dm. since i have a story in mind, i thought alright lets do this.

The struggle i currently face is, that i cant really ask my party for advice about my story, since i want to prevent spoilers obviously. thats why i want to ask here.

quick overview:

The story revolves around a threat, that is located in a tomb. the tomb is accessed through an underground passage, in which, several traps, enemies and a riddle will await the players before they get into the inner tomb, where the show down happens.

the idea revolves around a cleric seeking help from afar (getting adventurers for a secret mission), to infiltrate the tomb because a source of evil has risen. the players will be "manipulated" in helping the cleric and see him as the good guy, helping him to access the tomb (without them he would be to weak). The cleric then turns out to be a fraud, who was using the players for his own benefit in getting him access to the tomb where he can harvest a powerful necromancer essence, turning him in a necromancer.

so therefore: i totally need the cleric inside the tomb.... its literally the plot twist of the story. BUT: i am unsure if he should join the group through the passage along with them, since its a oneshot and the majority of playtime will probably be in the passage way, i am scared that my players dont really like the DM to also control a player...

the issue i face is, what could be an approach, making it so that the players go through the passage and then the cleric "suddenly" appears once its time to start the end scene, without the story being forced.?

Does anyone have some ideas :)?

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the passage way is the only way to the tomb, and a way that only the cleric knows, because he wants the players to use it to bypass some other npcs that would interfere with them, and completely stop them from entering the tomb. so therefore the problem is that the story is linear and somewhat a predefined route, with only one way, but the players must meet the cleric at the end because he has such an important role for the story in revealing his true intentions afterwards

Hi, everyone. I have seen a lot of posts about magic items but I have not really seen any posts about consumable items, so here I come to their rescue.

The idea of this post is to make a case against permanent magic items and for consumables. This does not apply solely to D&D but the term "magic item" is so ingrained that I will use it from here on. I will give other examples when we pass the opportunity.

Please note that, as always, this is general advice that you can take to an absurd extreme - don't do that. With that said, let's jump into it.

Definitions

I'm saying "consumables" and "permanent item" a lot, maybe we should go over what I mean exactly.
By consumable I mean every item that has a limited amount of non-regenerating uses, grants temporary buffs, and is gone once they are used up. Prominent examples include the Necklace of Fireballs, potions and painkillers.
By permanent item I mean every item that either uses no charges or regenerating charges to grant temporary or permanent buffs. Prominent examples include the Vorpal Sword, +X weapons and cybernetic augments.

Disadvantages of Permanents

I wouldn't be making this post if I didn't think that permanent magic items have severe disadvantages that are often overlooked.

Permanence

To reiterate what "permanent" means: you cannot easily take it away. If you give your players one too many, two things can happen:

• Combat encounters get extremely easy
• You start a magical arms race

You can also give a single player a much too powerful magic item, meaning the other player will feel bad and you, again have to ramp up the power.

Attrition

Attrition is an important part of balancing combat encounters.
A single combat encounter per day is not generally challenging because you have all your resources. Funnily permanent items (at least those with permanent effects) are not used up and can ruin balance by attrition.

Drinking the Solution

Now, how do I propose we solve these issues using consumables?

Permanence

Consumables are not permanent and can be given out rather freely - once they're used up, they're out, nothing more to it. If you mess up, the problem will often times solve itself sooner or later.
Inner party imbalances suddenly turn into a moving spotlight.

Attrition

If much of your party's power stems from consumable resources, you can have attrition not just between two long rests but over way longer periods of time.

Generally planning for me works like this:
I plan an adventure / a mission for the party, knowing exactly which resources I gave them at the end of the last. I expect them to use these resources somewhere during the new adventure.

If they manage to pass to the next milestone without using the resources I expected, great for them! They get some leeway for when the rolls really hate them or they make terrible decisions.

Additional benefits

Additional benefits include:

• You can try more weird shit. You are not gonna accidentally kill all balance, even if you give you players ludicrous powers for a while.
• Your players will become more efficient at managing resources and come up with more creative solutions to your shenanigans.

Key Takeaways

What is the point I am trying to make here? It is twofold:
Temporary power is easier to control and more forgiving. Try giving out comparatively more consumables.
And, of course, try some less orthodox rewards. Your players are probably smart people - they will make use of anything you give them and it will be hilarious.

Really random question which isn't about D&D mechanics but more lore-based about medieval era ownership rights.

So the party in my campaign needed to get to an island where they were going to undertake a rescue mission but in order to do so they had to team-up with a guy / NPC who had knowledge of a hidden landing site on the island. However, his boat had been impounded by the authorities and a fee had to be paid in order to release it. One of the players went ahead and stumped-up the cash but then got an idea in his head and at an opportune moment said that he wanted to try and 'steal the deed to the boat' from the NPC owner once they were aboard. At the time I had no idea if boat ownership was done in such a way so in the moment I said 'Sure, roll for it.'

An impressive 'Slight of Hand' roll later and the player has somehow managed to pickpocket paperwork which is the 'deed to the boat'. He is now claiming that he legally owns the boat and has even flaunted this in the face of the NPC who originally had it (just for context, they are still on the island at the moment and the mission hasn't finished so they aren't back in civilisation).

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Now... I have no idea how this would work from a legal perspective. I tried searching on google about medieval boat ownership rights but unfortunately there isn't much information out there. I know this is my world and I can do whatever I want, but if possible I want to be both (a) fair to the player and their creative idea but also (b) present a plausibly realistic world where you can't just steal stuff openly and then have it.

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My thinking at the moment is that the player might have physical possession of the paperwork about the boat's ownership but it is made out to the NPC. Once they get back to the city they came from, if the player tries to persist with this the boat could be impounded (again) while the authorities investigate which would annoy the rightful owner and he might offer to pay a small fee to the player in order to 'settle out of court' and get his boat back (they did help him out before this).

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Oh, and it's a small boat with room for about 10 people, not a big ship with a crew.

Hey guys, I was looking to design a tier 2 vampire one shot, likely 3 or 4 level 5s facing off against a vampire. I know that this fight would be nearly impossible, however the vampire would be weakened in a few ways. First off, the general hook is that some hero failed to kill it, but weakened it; that’s where the party comes in. I’d want the party to travel around before fighting it, learning vampire weaknesses to make the fight more balanced. In the final showdown, they’d use these weaknesses to help bring down the vampire. I’d generally want the one shot to still have a darker/grim vibe.

I was hoping to see if anyone had any fun or interesting ideas, both for the one shot and maybe for specific encounters, that might fit in this one shot!

Some other ideas I had: Church that has holy water, secretly worships vampire and will try slowing party down. In the fight itself, access to sunlight/running water if the party thinks outside the box, such as ripping curtains/boards off windows, leading vampire to fountain, things like that.

Thanks a bunch!

So to not make this post to long, ill skimp over details as much as I can to get to the point. But if you have questions feel free to ask, ill gladly awnser. (Sorry for the longer post)

To start with, I am a roleplay focussed DM, I will always say that this kind of game and Dm style is not for everyone, but me and my party have been having a lot of fun with it. And so far ive had many successfull games with this style. This style in shortform means that we rarely have combat and only if the progression has lead up to it, or if the players create conflict. As for the story, its held together by a main treath that I made and I weaved in all of the players backstories into this, so whatever they do, they always progress both the main story and someone's backstory.

The other day the players were in a dungeon, and agrivated a group of alchemist that were in a hidden hideout there. They came up to them and when the alchemists asked questions they lied to their face and failed all subsequent checks, so a fight broke out. Now the only thing ill say is that it was 3 CR4 assasin alchemists vs a party of 4 lvl 8 and 1 cr 5 support npc.

The entire party got wiped in 2 rounds.

If one character had died... it wouldve been sad but a new character could be introduced. But it was sadly a TPK.

As I have my entire campaign run by the fact these characters backstories are woven into it. Losing them would mean losing the game, so in the blink of a moment I switch the scene to ''The bridge of passing'' in hell. Think of it as Charon's dock so people can take the boat to the afterlife. (Greek Mythology)

Them going there made sense, and one of the characters even prayed to this god as its cleric. So it wasnt the end of the world for me.... just a little... xd

The party, having beef with this god then decide to banish the god of passing into a different dimension. Causing the worlds balance to go awray as now no souls can pass to the land of the dead. As at some point no one can be born since this world works with reincarnation, not with making new souls. (For the most part)

ANYWHO. this brings me to now.

The party is currently in hell, or rather a part of it they cant pass from or to. Figuring out ways to escape it and having ideological discussions about wether it was a good idea to banish the god of passing to save their own hides.

I want and need the party to get out of hell and back on the campaign road, in the meantime im using this oppertunity to just get a lot of story beads they would have on the original road to be had in hell. So they are progressing.

My problem is not so much on how they get back, but at what cost.
I dont want them to feel a dragon ball effect that if they die they can just come back without anything having happened. I want there to be some sort of reporcusion to them being back into the land of the living or rather I need there to be one. Since otherwise it will break the seriousness of how death is treated in my world. But on the other hand I dont want this reporcusion to be game/character breaking.

So that brings me to you, I really could use some suggestions on what brings these characters back and what the consequences on them will be for doing so. The goal is to make them feel the gravity of being back from the dead, but not make it so it breaks any character completely, both mechanically and in RP.

Thank you for reading, and any help is gladly recieved.

I do have to admit that I truelly suck at Balancing combat. It‘s always waaay to easy even when I try to balance the action economy with multiattacks and reactions and try to check the CR to make it appropiate. It just doesn‘t feel dangerous. My players have high AC and decent saving throws. I can‘t spam them with Fireballs all day! So any help how to make combat more interesting and dangerous would be greatly appreciated! Doesn‘t matter give me all your ideas and all your tips!

I have a three-person party with a tabaxi Astral self monk, a human redemption paladin, and an elf arcane archer fighter. They leveled up to level five last session and I wanted to give them their first magic items. I was thinking for the tabaxi monk: A ring that lets you heal 1d4 every time you use 3 or more ki points in a turn, for the paladin: A special sword that does an extra d8 of divine smite for every 5 above the enemy's AC, and for the fighter: A crossbow that will allow her, when she has advantage, to shoot either one bolt with advantage, two bolts with straight rolls, or three with disadvantage.

I made a similar post to this a few days ago. (Thank you if you're one of the people who contributed.) Now though I have the opposite problem.

You see, I'm running Dragon Heist for my girlfriend as a one-on-one campaign. Being an enormous fan of class fantasy/identity, I wanted to lean hard on her being a Rogue. Hence why I decided to run the module with her in the first place given its emphasis on intrigue, mystery, and infiltration. (That and as a still learning DM, a well-known module was easier than homebrewing a campaign.) I even gave her the Rogue Tavern Establishment from Matt Colville's Strongholds & Followers to run out of a converted Trollskull Manor.

I was struggling with giving her theme-appropriate named NPC companions that she can take with her on quests but now I've gone from maybe one to perhaps too many to just sit around the manor doing nothing.

So what I could use some help on is either what to do with them as a DM when they're not following her or who to keep and who to discard.

I have as her possible companions:

-Vincent Trench. Naturally. A private detective fits thematically and he comes with a built-in twist.

-Bazile Thibodeaux. Wild Card Rogue addicted to high stakes on the tables or on the streets.

-Astarion. Yes, the one and only. My GF doesn't play BG3 so she wouldn't recognize him.

-Belinda. Phantom Rogue who works as a mortician. Helping spirits of the recently passed move on.

-The Black Viper. Could make for an interesting rival-turned ally figure within the city's lore.

-"Lady" Delancy. A charlatan and assassin who masquerades as the nobles she's killed.

(Two of those I credit to Pointy Hat on Youtube.)

So who should I keep and who should I cut? I'm not opposed to keeping all of them, but how would I otherwise juggle or occupy them so it doesn't seem odd that they're just waiting around in the Manor until the PC calls them on a job?

Lastly, I did decide to run the Xanathar as the villain which might seem odd as I'm otherwise hammering the Rogue and intrigue theme so hard. Thing is, my GF's character is a rescue from a dead campaign and the Mind Flayers were the main threat that went undefeated. So I thought I'd tie that unfinished adventure into this one and Nihiloor was just standing there waiting to be used as the face of her old foes. However, if there are ways to incorporate the other villain factions in ways that would fit the theme, I'd love to hear suggestions.

Thank you for your time.

One of my players is building a Hercules-type character and wants to slay a great beast and wear its pelt as Hercules did to the Nemean Lion. The problem is a lot of monsters that are… pelt-able…? are not strong or scary enough to warrant wearing as a trophy of great strength. What monster is worthy and can be reasonably turned into a cloak?

One of my players gave me an interesting response to me asking for a character trait:

"Probably protecting his [player character] people. He'd die before them . He'd die before them. He'll fight to the death before letting anyone else hurt his people."

I'm not really sure how to approach this. Would you consider it a flaw?

I am DM'ing a game where the party has assassins sent after them now and then. It is a party of three level 11 characters, a barbarian, an arcane trickster/blademaster, and a cleric/ranger. Between all of them they have really good ac, good hp, and good saving throws.

They've managed to counterspell, dispel magic, and save against saving throws against caster assassins. They can crowd control, nuke, and just overall stomp melee assassins. I've tried a combination of them, and still they handled it without too much trouble. Between the wizard and the cleric they have spells to counter pretty much anything, while the barbarian can just tank so much damage while mauling stuff.

I want this assassination attempt to be something new, that has unique mechanics or abilities that make the players really have to work together and be creative to fight off. Could anyone provide some recommended creatures to have them fight, that would provide this, while not making it a guaranteed tpk. I'm a relatively new DM and not familiar with what cool monsters are out there that might provide something new for them to deal with.

So DM of a new campaign here, was supposed to be a mini campaign that basically followed the Ebonclad book, but like all good players, they drove things completely off the rails.

Long story short, they heard of this one unimportant NPC and started asking around about him. "Probably (Orc suburb)" one NPC said, "but be careful, orcs don't like outsiders and the guards avoid the area."

Of course they want to tear this area apart to search for this rather unimportant NPC.

Any suggestions?

Trying to create a feat for an Arcane Trickster. Level 7 now, getting close to 8. The general idea is to get something that scales with the level but doesn't get OP later. What we'd like to incorporate is that the character gets a once-per-day d20 that he can roll for a bonus of some sort. A success would be rolling current level or lower, with 1 still an autofail.

Is just a plain +1 to attack and/or damage rolls too boring? +1 to AC or maybe DEX bonuses? Maybe an extra cantrip? There's a cool story behind the artifact, so I'd like the results of the roll to match the effort put into it without breaking anything. For flavor, the "20" is a symbol of Tymora because the character is chaotic good. Thoughts?

Wanted to get others opinion on this idea: I’m building up a campaign inspired by Greek mythology. I was thinking of starting the campaign semi-realistic with characters limited to martial classes only. The first ‘act’ will be them journeying through the land to confront a “forgotten” god. I’m thinking maybe until level 3-4.

Hopefully they get some confidence to believe they can try to take on the god but, spoiler alert, they will die. Due to the mythology setting, they will be brought back to life by different Greek gods. From there, I’ll introduce magic because they will be essentially avatars of the gods, and I’ll give them the option to re-roll if they want a magic class.

I’ve got a bunch of questions about this approach:

1. Does this sound fun as a PC?
2. Would you feel both limited at the start and like the rug was pulled out from under you later on?
3. Would a better approach be to keep the martial only classes but introduce more magic items that allow for access to limited spells?

Hey guys!

A bit of background first, though it's not terribly relevant to the question at hand - feel free to skip if not interested! So my players are trying to get a favor from House Orien. They bounced off typical Dragonmarked House bureaucracy, but were overheard by one of House Orien researchers who suggested a deal. Since one of the player characters has a Mark of Passage, the researcher wants her to conduct a test of an experimental vehicle she works on. This vehicle is a "magical skateboard" that hovers a few centimeters above ground when in use, and can only be operated by someone who has Mark of Passage.

Now, on to the quest itself. The quest's premise is simple. Players meet up with the NPC, she leads them to the "testing area" - a city block next to an abandoned Lightning Rail track and some warehouses. Here, the Mark of Passage player will race against a few of the researcher's friends (who use different vehicles). The researcher does not actually care about player winning - though of course that's nice. Simply proving the viability of her invention is enough, the race is just for fun (and bragging rights).

Mechanically, I see it like this:

1. The race track consists of a few "zones": straight section of Lightning Rail track (start point), the Howling Tunnel, overgrown alleyway, abandoned train platforms, a broken turntable, old rail depot and flooded track.
2. Each of these "zones" will constitute one round of the race.
3. During each round the player declares what speed they move at. This speed will determine DC of skill check at that round. For example DC could be 10 + (speed in ft - 50). If the skill check is failed, the player's speed at that round is cut in half and I write down one failure. Get 3 failures and the board breaks or otherwise malfunctions.
4. Either have the player decide what skill they want to use for each turn (similar to skill challenges) or me telling them what skill a specific zone will require. I'm not yet sure which approach I want, the former promotes more creativity, the latter could make each zone feel more distinct. I'm leaning towards player deciding, though. Perhaps with penalties if they use the same skill more than once.
5. Me rolling the dice for each opponent's speed at each zone. Sum of their speed at each zone determines who's in the lead.
6. Have the one with most speed in total be the winner.

Now I feel like this is... serviceable... but I have a few problems:

1. I've been trying to add some "complications" to each of the zones but honestly failed to think of anything that sounds interesting. Most of them boiled down to just requiring an acrobatics check since they were mostly about dodging some obstacles.
2. Having the entire quest boil down to 7 skill checks feels a bit... boring? Though maybe it's just my impression? On the other hand I'd rather not design an entire racing boardgame for a single quest, haha.
3. I have 3 players and the other 2 players (a bard and an artificer) would simply... watch? That's not a particularly engaging gameplay for them. Even if it makes sense lorewise since one of my reasons for this quest in the first place is to add some flavor to the Mark of Passage the first player's character has.

So what do you all think? Would you find such a quest fun or not really? Do you think this modified skill challenge approach could work, or would you do it differently? (as mentioned, main quest is not about winning - just proving the skateboard works - but of course the researcher will be disappointed if the player plays it extra safe, and may throw an extra reward - or a wager - if the player gets first place) And how would you keep the other 2 players engaged?

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I'm DMing a campaign where the central theme/conceit is that all of my players end up in a deal with the devil. I've already searched for ideas on here, but most of them are pretty small. It's maybe stretching the typical way that this trope is used, but the idea behind this was that the deals they'd make would take the form of a fairly involved quest that would be the main focus of at least the first part of the campaign. I had each of my players give me one thing they want from the deal: two need money, one is trying to bring someone back from the dead, one is trying to heal a loved one from a terminal illness, and one is trying to learn who killed their brother.

I cannot come up with good trades to make with them and I'm curious if anyone else has ideas. I was originally hoping that all of the individual deals could be part of some larger scheme by the devil but I am still hoping to come up with something that matches/reciprocates what they're asking for.

So for background , the plot goes that the party lives in a very expansionist militaristic “ democracy “ . While their is a election held every time a leader dies or otherwise steps down , it’s a sham . You see , for the last 500 years , the kingdom has been ruled over by the same lich , who simply posses the ruler , waits for the right time to step down and hold an election for the next ruler ( who is undoubtedly going to be one of rulers children ) kills himself , and posses the newly elected leader . The kingdom is going to have a very starship trooper / hell diver brand of fascism , focusing more on censorship and media control then brute force to uphold their version of order .After snooping around the grand castle of the kingdom, a favored successor, prince Diomedian , uncovered the conspiracy after discovering the liches phylactery . He ran to his mother to show her the dark secret. But before they could flee, the lich discovered them . His mother held the lich off for as long as she could so he could escape . While the state controlled media branded him as a insurrectionist who killed his own mother in a bid for power, labeling him The Betrayer Prince , he went around the surrounding nations and tribes to unite a alliance . This alliance is made up of 5 different factions of species that are commonly seen as evil in most media , and labeled the alliance “ The Pact” . For pact factions , I’ve decided on wyvern riding witches who hail from a once great empire now cursed and destroyed in an ancient war , a vast network of tribal like orcs , and the goblioid nation ( hobgoblins , bugbears, and goblins) . What are 2 more species/ cultures I can add in, and how can I change them to be seen as the good guys while keeping most of their lore intact ? Preferably one hailing from a desert oasis

We are playing the Tyranny of Dragons campaign and one of my PCs chose the secret golden dragon background! (she was one of the 9 golden dragons that circle bahamut (maybe 7 idk) but then she was too arrogant so she was sent down to the mortal plane without her memories, with only knowing to serve bahamut) I am looking for ideas on his to go about that during the campaign. Would Bahamut send signs? his blessing every now and again on a huge boss?

I learned to play from a DM that uses the systems rules when its convenient/fun to do so, but kind of bends the rules when its more enjoyable to do so.

Now that I've stsrted DMing i find myself doing the same.

like i dont play with strict carry weight, or counting arrows for instance.

I’ve DM’d LMoP for a couple groups and play in another group. My player group canceled and I’ve been tasked with running a one shot this weekend with a couple of players from the two groups I DM. Two days away. I’ve decided I want to run a pirate themed one shot. I’m just wondering if any of you would have some cool NPCs or hooks you’d throw in to a one shot to make it a little more interesting? I know they’re going to be members on the crew, just haven’t decided on the main hook. I have a few ideas but always looking for better ones! TIA.

After a one year campaing I'm starting to cook the PC background quest, so far I have no issues brainstorming for most of the players but one of them had a particular request for his background plot.

So basicaly the player would like his Lawfull Evil Barabarian Dragonborn having a background quest mainly focused on POLITICS. He gave me a brief background with enough gaps to fill out but i dont know anything about politics

Main facts about his past:

• Member of a wealthy clan
• Lost everything after his clan was bestrayed by another clan and his family was killed.
• Exiled he wandered trough the wildlands untill he found his now friends.
• He despices wealthy people because he himself had it all before he was betrayed
• desires power (political) among anything else
• lossing everything drove him into alcohol.

So far, I have one idea: His clan was the one trying to betray the clan who killed his family but they were defeated.

Also, I would like to introduce an NPC with Darth Sidious vibes, this player loves that guy.

Thanks for reading.

To my players who use reddit, if your “friend” was recently kidnapped by a Yule Cat named Desmond, stop reading here.

More or less, answers to the question in the title work as answers to the long version of the question, but here’s said context:

Okay so, in short, there’s an NPC in my game who’s effectively a magic item akin to a wizard trapped inside of a box. Initially it was built as a rudimentary terraforming construct meant to create colonies in hostile landscapes over the course of a few years, but because its creators used actual souls in its construction, after it was deployed it eventually developed sentience and swore revenge on its creators. The next arc involves the players trying to track it down and take its fuel source so they can use it to power a maguffin.

Functionally, its an immobile obelisk, you were meant to place it down and set a range, and it’d cast spells to gradually terraform that area. It’s been left alone for what in its head feels like approximately 3000 years. Since it has no real sensory organs, from its perspective all of existence has exclusively been a black void where it’s aware of the outside world, but only able to interact with it by casting spells. Runes upon it prevent it from taking any action to move itself, create a new disconnected body, or expand past/affect things outside its range. While desperately wishes it had a human body, it’s mind is so complex that it’d be incredibly difficult to construct something organic that could fit it, there’s just too much data. Since its deployment, it’s terraformed the surrounding area into a humongous sentient labyrinth which it controls, waiting to trick someone it trusts into undoing runes on part of it’s original obelisk that prevents it from taking any actions to expand past the 40 mile radius it controls. If it succeeds in doing so, it’s maze will expand wildly and destroy the surrounding area.

It has no memories from the souls used to make it, but still innately craves hearing, vision, and mobility, of which a sentient object of course cannot have. Basically think adjacent to a fantasy version of a fledgling AM from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream

I want to know what spells something like this would come up with out of sheer boredom, after having been stuck like this for millennia. Its more than powerful enough to create new spells, and while it can’t create new bodies to directly control, nor create things intelligent enough to cast the spells required to undo its runic inscriptions, it has been able to experiment on nearby wildlife. The early spells were attempts to free itself, but failing that, they quickly turned into methods of entertainment and/or “scholarly research”.

I mostly just need these as tone setting gags, I don’t intend for most of them to be used on players in combat, just brought up in passing, used as explanations for what magic created the labyrinth’s bizarre inhabitants, and maybe one or two of the spells to be cast by it during the final fight of this arc. Maybe a player could get a different magic item that can cast one from the labyrinth as a prize, who knows.

Is it at all possible for a character (player or otherwise) to be able to understand thieve's cant if they dont have the skill? I have been looking into this for a while but can't seem to find a solid answer. Nearly all the answers just seem to be people wanting to go "um, actually..." and then explain that thieves cant is speaking in another language but using code phrases and gestures to mean something else. But that's not what I'm asking.

So let me give you an example (because i like examples). We have 3 characters. Let's call them Mark, Bob and Wade. Mark is listening to the other two speaking.

Bob says to Wade "I saw Sean the other day with his old Horse. Saw he bagged a fox as well probably the same one that was going after his chickens." All the while, Bob is scratching his nose, rubbing his ears, and such.

Wade, who knows Theive's cant, knows what he is saying is "Sean just finished some kind of criminal activity (old horse) and a cop (fox) is following him. And that it's likely the same cop investigating his other crimes (chickens)."

But Mark does not speak Thieve's cant. For this scenario let's say Mark can cast any spell, is any level, perform any check, or be any class (except rogue, obviously). Is there any possible way for Mark to know what they were saying?

I'm pretty confident comprehend languages should not work becuase it will just give him the literal interpretation of what they said (talking about a guy's horse, and hunting foxes). And i feel like an insight or investigation check would at best tell Mark that they are speaking in code but wouldnt tell him what they are actually saying.

So, is it possible? How can someone figure out what is being said without someone else providing a translation?

I want to give my players a big reward for a huge quest they are about to finish. I don't want it to be treasure, and I'd like to give them a character upgrade. I want it to be better than a feat (ignoreling some of the really powerful feats, build defining feats), but less than an epic boon (because some are amazing)

I originally liked the dragonmarks from Ebberon: Rising from the Last War. Each ones gives +1, +2, or +2/+1 to some stats, +D4 to a skill or two, and a free casting of a 1st-ish level spell. Very flavorful, which I planned to reskin just a tad based on the quest they completed and different kingdoms in the setting.

My issue became only a couple players are spellcasters, and since the dragonmarks buffing the mental stats more means the casters benefits more because it's their primary stat getting boosted rather than a secondary stat. The spell tables of known spells also only helps casters because the non-casters can't benefit from those. I tried to strip out the spell tables, and let the stat increases go to any stat. But then the different marks become very unbalanced. The healing mark becomes kinda bad because a lot of the value of that mark is in getting access to healing spells later in the game that you otherwise wouldn't.

Instead of the dragonmarks, I tried grouping some feats together (Mindfulness, Physical Prowess, Elemental Energy), and I'd let the players pick like 2 out of the 3 or 4 options for that group. But it kinda loses some of the flavor when it's a menu. Everything kinda turns bland since there isn't any contrast or really uniqueness. They were also all over the place. The Mindfulness one had pure psionics, some scholarly abilities, etc.

Does anyone know a list kinda like the dragonmarks, but intended to be given as a boon, rather than as a race?

So, I'm writing a one PC campaign for my wife, and the idea I'm come up with is basically the plot of A Knight's Tale. She and two NPCs are the squires to a druid who dies suddenly, and she needs to take their place in tournaments in order to have any income. She's starting off level one, so I'm looking for ideas on what kind of competitions a druid would compete in. Any thoughts are helpful! Thank you in advance!

Hey all - I am looking to run a scenario for my players that involves cleansing a cursed burial ground.

Scenario: Party is going through the territory of Sentient Apes, who worship, Maltaegan, the god of Exploration, Regrowth, Knowledge, and Music. Maltaegan is at odds with another god, Grixis, god of Decay, Corruption, Spite, and Secrets.

A cleric of Grixis laid a cursed object (a metronome-esque device) within the burial ground of these Apes causing all of their dead to rise to the surface. The corpses just sit there trying to sing a dirge, which is in mockery of Maltaegan, god of music. The rest is sort of irrelevant to my question...

Where I Am At: This is an optional side quest - the party could push on and just try to peacefully pass through the Ape's land. If they choose to cleanse the burial ground I will reward them with the Ape's knowledge of the landscape making the next legs of their journey easier. I would also like to give them a small boon from Maltaegan.

I have one idea this far: the cursed item is a totem of Maltaegan that, when uncursed, has some music based effect.

Question: What small but meaningful reward/boon might the God of Regrowth, Exploration, Music, and Knowledge hand out to a group of do-gooders who do not worship, but has helped his worshippers?

Would love some ideas! Party is 5 lvl 6 PCs, but ideas for any level are great.

It's happening in a large open area of a mine and he'll have a bunch of duergar minions (20 hp but they die in one hit to attacks or if they fail a spells saving throw).

I'm thinking his first LA will be basically casting wall of stone and then as a bonus action he can walk into any of these walls and reappear through another one.

Was thinking also to have some sort of AOE with a saving throw that leaves the PCs dazed if they fail the DC (dazed = can only do one of the following on their turn: action, bonus action, or movement, its a status from MCDM's Flee Mortals book). I want to fuck with their heads without just stunning or frightening them, so they will have decisions to make on their turn.

Just finished LMOP and about to start SKT one of my players has asked about being a kobold Hexblade warlock. But as the patron is the sword (I think) he has asked if I can be the voice of the sword. Do you think this would work? What do I need to know about Hexblade warlocks and the Hexblade patron. And do you think this would work in a session? Thanks!

A player froze a pack of monsters with Binding Ice, and on a subsequent turn, used the shatter spell.

The player argued that, because the creatures were locked in a sheet of ice, they should have disadvantage on saving throws against shatter. However, shatter's spell text states creatures must be *made* of inorganic material such as stone, crystal or metal for the disadvantage to apply. These monsters were no such creatures.

In the moment, I sided with the player because it made sense that a creature locked in ice should struggle to resist the effects of a shatter spell. I also ruled in his favor for "rule of cool" reasons. In hindsight though, I'm second-guessing my decision.

Did I make the right call in your view or should I reverse my ruling and tell the player things will work differently next time?

Has anyone used any AI software to create landscapes or scenes they would like a visual reference for? I’ve wanted to try it out but I know some AI software can look weird. I’m not artistic and feel some of the scenes I would like to depict might be to niche to find through other online references.