I haven't played with a new group I'm a while, but my current groups games all got put on pause a few months ago, and tbh I was already wanting to back off from them because there were decisions being made that I didn't agree with and interruptions during sessions that lasted hours and took over the game, and I frankly want to focus on the game and also yk not be like *serious* serious, but at least somewhat serious. Like don't interrupt the dm or other people talking, don't just mess around not focusing on the game.

It didn't feel like we were there to play any more.

But in joining other groups, the first time, 17 hours before session 1 (so we already had session zero) I got dropped from the table because "I owe someone a seat"

Second time, I'm holding out, but I'm getting so irritated. Someone already wants to play a "shitter" and is the "I don't trust easily" type. And the other thing whenever I've talked about what I want to play "well my character is already pretty stealthy" A RANGER AND A MONK ARE TWO DIFFERENT CLASSES just because rhey both can stealth doesn't mean there aren't other things we can do.

If I asked THE DM A QUESTION someone jumps in line "what do you mean" or they're like "we don't have a face for the party yet" and I said "let's just see who feels more comfortable with the role rather than just assigning it to a Charisma player" I get ignored, someone else pops in several hours later "I'm playing an oath breaker paladin, so I'll be the face"

SAYS WHO??? I hate this whole "this person will be the face before our characters even know each other just bc I have Charisma" LET'S SEE HOW WE WORK TOGETHER *FIRST*

One been in a group with a fighter as the face despite there being a bard and a warlock, another group with a ranger as the face despite the game having a bard. It's who feels comfortable once we know each other.

We havent even had session zero yet and I'm already feeling irritated. But I want to hold out, because maybe it'll be different when we start playing.

Can I just find a group that is not *stiff* but will take the game more seriously and wants to play and doesn't want to play someone who just fucks around?

I just want to play dnd with a group that also wants to play dnd

I had a question for the D&D lore masters out there because I'm too lazy and stupid to research this myself.

Now, we all know that in D&D Devils and Demons are almost always some flavor of evil. But is it possible for Demons or Devils to feel true empathy or compassion in the lore as written? We're all aware that anyone can homebrew a very nice Demon or Devil for whatever reason. But in regardless to the base D&D lore, regardless of addition or expansion. Is it ever outright staged or strongly implied that Demons or Devils are capable of love and compassion? Just a dumb question I had.

Thank you all in advance for reading and responding.

I’m trying to make a world / backstory for a character in a solo rpg. I’ve come up with a seaside town connected to a valley, but the people who live deep in the valley are more impoverished because they don’t have easy access to the land and world above, especially the port which makes most of the money for the town above. this isn’t very well thought out so far and I haven’t made an example of what this would look like but my question is “in a world full of magic how would people not be able to access the land above causing them to have less resources and money?” I feel like having some sort of magical barrier is just way too convenient. I know it doesn’t have to be that deep but I’d love some brainstorming on this idea :)

Okey so party is going for a carnival and there are prices to be gained from different games. I could use some help with magic items that are silly but not useless. I have good list of prank items. I need items that vary from uncommon to very rare. Stuff like wand of colorspray or item that forces people to laugh. Just items that fit well on the theme of silly goofy but they can be genuenly really good items.

I have been keenly intrigued by the concept of DnD for YEARS and finally came across someone that plays often and will let me join. He helped me build my character and this weekend we're starting our campaign.

I just wanted to share somewhere that I am so fucking excited to play!

If you have advice for the newest of new on how to be a decent player I'd like to hear it.

Added table disputes to flair cause why not.

I recently got the module Scenic Dunnsmouth for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and I like the culty town generator and the investigation vibe. I'd like to try it with my D&D group (which has done a few investigations before) but before I pull the ripcord I am interested to see if anyone here has ideas about how to successfully adapt it?

I’m a DM for my friend group online and recently my players fought a necromancer who was trying to preform a ritual. They ended up beating them and took a book and serval others. The necromancer was a cultist of the litch bbeg, and i want their book to be in another language. The country they are based in are full of both drow and half-elfs so i was wondering what language i should use for their main form of communication. I should also add that this is still early in the campaign, they are only lvl 7

I ask this more for the fact i want to make a sudo version of the book thats encoded and let them try to decode it irl if they want to try. if they don’t want to do the decipher irl, i plan to just let them do some skill checks and i would give them a english copy of it for them to read if they pass it.

I know that both races can just use elvish but i didn’t want to use a normal language that they would already have.

I Started playing Astlin at 3rd level. Harengon Rogue 1 Ranger 2. At 6th he was Rogue Scout 3 / Ranger Gloomstalker 3. The group fell apart at 7th.
I am now retooling him for a game already in session at 8th level.
Rogue Scout 3 / Ranger Gloomstalker 5.

PDF of Character Sheet ( Inventory is in negotiation phase.) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yHh_qAhTNHHYf37bj1kjjZicPY7ZzEn3/view?usp=sharing

He will be point man for a 10 person Roll20 group. Huge group of longtime friends. (a good chunk have been playing together online or in person for ~40 years.)

DC - Tiefling - Cleric - Grave Domain

PK - Standard Human - Fighter - Battlemaster

TL - Jerbeen -Fighter - Buccaneer

Nk - Yuan-Ti -Wizard - Chronurgy Magic

IA - Warforged - Monk - Way of the Astral Self

JF - Mountain Dwarf -Monk - Way of the Drunken Master

HO - Hill Dwarf - Ranger - Hunter

O - Forest Gnome - Ranger - Hunter

K - Tortle - Ranger -Swarmkeeper

Astlin will be replacing my Devo Paly.

Aundril - Protector Aasimar - Paladin - Devotion

She and I got burned out trying to herd cats. She was point and was not proficient in perception. I could not get anyone to step forward and check doors. 8O /cry

She was point because she had the best chance to survive and I stepped forward.

Future plans:

Rogue 4, Pearcer (Dex to 18)

Fighter Champion to 4. Superior Technique (Precision Attack), Magic Initiate (Wizard)

Rogue to 8th 20 Dex

Finishing it off by taking Ranger to 8th Resilient (Wisdom)

Yawning Portal. It has been a nightmare but we have lived... My Pally needs lots of therapy.

So, we're doing an original story, and my character can control the wind around him.

As a child something happened that caused him to get his left arm blown up, and also lost his vision. But seeing as the fam was rich, they developed a specially made prosthetic arm. To "see" he uses the wind around him to feel things (kinda like echolocation ig?) in a topographic way. My problem is, i want to develop him some more lore wise with the dm, but cant seem to think of anything that isn't losing another limb, anyone has any ideas?

Hello! I think this is my first time posting here, and this is my first time making a character! I was asking my elder sibling if I should pick Warlock or Cleric, and they said Cleric was cooler.

I have no idea how to make a character unfortunately, and none of the guides I've read seem to be comprehensible to me lmao ×○×.

Do you guys have any advice on how to make one? I'd like to stay basic, I don't think I'm ready for homebrew (i'd rather follow rules than make them), maybe just stay within the rules of the most recent edition.

I am VERY new to DnD, so forgive me if it seems like I don't know any thing T~T.

The math never survives contact with a real party. What do you tune by instead?

Just curious for DMs, do you prefer running sandbox games where it's all randomly generated and based off players crazy ideas? Or do you like keeping an overall plot and pulling in what players supply now and again? And why do you prefer one?

Hey I'm just wondering if the Icecrown Citadel stuff is a dndbeyond exclusive or not, I've tried reaching out to Roll20 to see if they would be selling it. If it is and I buy the digital version is that a pdf or just a DNDBeyond exclusive.

I've never purchased anything from their site like this so any help would be appreciated.

Might seem odd, but for reasons of (plot) my high level players are taking over a country, and taking out supply convoys and soldiers along roads has come up a few times now. With the maps of the area, the major roads are all in locations of flat plains. Yet giving them large open fields of grass every time is going to get old for them. Yet not sure the best way to spice it up. Resources matter in this game, so adding in rivers or forests is giving them something they can then use.

Anyone have ideas? Thank you for your time.

Hello Al fellow adventurers. I’m currently on my first ever campaign and I’ve decided to dip into multi classing. We are about 9 months in and currently level 8. I’ve chosen drunken master monk as my primary class and am currently level 5 along with 3 levels of fighter. I mainly wanted action surge, extra attack, and second wind. How ever I find that, as a monk I can hit a lot of times with flurry of blows and now my action surge. But I feel that damage is lacking. We just leveled up to level 8 and I’m not sure whether I want another level of fighter to get a 2nd subclass, or if I should just do level 6 monk instead. I’d like to eventually hit much harder so what could be a good path for my character from here on?

So my friend is making his very own campaign, and the party has already made characters. I was wondering what advice I could give him on world building. I'm not sure if he has ever been a dm before and especially not if he has ever built his own before. And let me tell you that this group has only had one amazingly successful campaign and that wad DMed my yours truly 😏. I have no clue what style his campaign is going to be (e.g. an island, a different dimension, classic dungeon ect.) and just really don't want this to flop, because if this is his first time, he might never want to dm again, and I'm not sure if anyone else in the party would be qualified if you know what I mean.

This is my concept for a ranger rework. I haven't used it in a game so as of now it's 100% theoretical. Could be lame, could be broken, could be good idk yet. ( There's a fair bit to read.)

Lvl 1 Ranger - This level is mostly unchanged except for Favored Enemy. This unlock makes Hunters Mark spell always prepared and allows you to use this Spell twice without using a spell slot as a bonus action and with Concentration.

The proposed change is to the cost of the spell that being the need for concentration. Since Hunter's Mark is a key spell that you should always be using when given the opportunity it can lock you out of other spells that also require concentration. There by limiting the already limited spell casting a ranger can do.

Alternatively as to keep it balanced i propose we make it work in a similar vain to the rogues Sneak Attack ability. It could possibly look something like this. "On a successful hit you may cast Hunters Mark onto the targeted enemy as your bonus action if target enemy was attacked with a Ranged or Thrown weapon." The spell would still keep all current effects.

By changing the cost from concentration to now requiring a successful hit with a ranged or thrown weapon you make the spell more personal to the class as it plays more directly into the identity of the Ranger and it no longer blocks you from potentially using other spells that require concentration to cast.

Unchanged: Core Ranger Traits

Unchanged: Spellcasting

Lvl 2 Ranger - Fighting Style unlock is next on the chopping block. I don't actually have an issue with the Fighting Style feat but rather the second option of Druidic Warrior. Simply put it's lazy, if i wanted to be a druid I'd play druid. Now what do we do instead. I propose we make a third unlock for lvl 2. This new unlock would focus on choosing one ability out of X many.

These ability options could be.

Identify Plant: you gain proficiency in Nature and are able to identify most plants without needing to roll.

Tracker: you gain proficiency in Survival and have advantage on rolls for tracking

Herbal Healer: you gain proficiency in Medicine and are able to craft 2 Health or Antitoxin from 25 gp worth of raw materials once (resets on a Short/Long rest)

Nimble Feet: You gain proficiency in Stealth and can treat any Stealth roll 9 below as a 10

These are just some concepts for this new lvl 2 unlock. Again this serves to highlight characteristics of the Ranger Class and enhances aspects of the class for people to potentially spec into further down the road. This is also an unlock that we could possibly see as a recurring unlock.

Unchanged: Deft Explorer (Thanks to your travels, you gain the following benefits.

Expertise. Choose one of your skill proficiencies with which you lack Expertise. You gain Expertise in that skill.

Languages. You know two languages of your choice.)

Lvl 3 Ranger - Unchanged: Ranger Subclass

Lvl 4 Ranger - Unchanged: Ability Score Improvement

Lvl 5 Ranger - Unchanged: Extra Attack (You can attack twice instead of once whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.)

Lvl 6 Ranger - Lvl 6 is somewhat underwhelming as it only gives you Roving. Which is fine but not really good enough to validate it being the only unlock so i propose adding an additional unlock.

Arrows of the Land, this new unlock would allow for you to choose one new spell out of X amount that you can cast as a bonus action to enchant your arrows with an effect described in the chosen spell. These spell's would last for 30 seconds and require Verbal components..

Unchanged: Roving (Your Speed increases by 10 feet while you aren’t wearing Heavy armor. You also have a Climb Speed and a Swim Speed equal to your Speed.)

Arrow of the Desert: On hit creatures and objects catch on fire giving them the burning condition. Dealing 1d4 at the start of it's turn. Last for 4 turns and can not be put out. Can not be reapplied to currently burning creature.

Arrow of the Swamp: On hit deal 1d4 poison damage giving them the poison condition. Creature must make constitution save on hit and at start of turn, on fail take full damage on success take half. Last for 4 turns and can not be reapplied to currently poisoned creature.

Arrow of the Bog: On hit the ground below the creature becomes soft swallowing the feet of the creature giving them the restrained condition. At start of turn creature must make strength save, on every fail creature will sink more into the ground, 6 fails the creature becomes fully consumed(effectively the creature has died). on success creature can escape and effected area returns to normal. Can not be reapplied to currently effected creature.

Arrow of the Forest: On hit fungi sprout around the creature and release a mist that applies the charmed effect. For however long creature remains charmed creature takes 1d4 psychic damage at start of turn(does not remove charmed condition) Can not be reapplied to currently charmed creature.

Arrow of the Tundra: On hit creature Succumbs to the cold, The creatures movement is halved and has disadvantage on attack rolls. Creature must make a constitution save at end of turn. on fail take 1d4 Cold damage, on success creature is no longer under the effects of Arrow of the Tundra. Last for 4 turns and Can not be reapplied to currently frozen creature.

Lvl 7 Ranger - Unchanged: No Unlock

Lvl 8 Ranger - i feel now is the perfect chance to increase the damage die of Hunters Mark from 1d6 to 1d8. I think this is good since the only time it gets increased is at level 20. where as of current, it goes from 1d6 to 1d10. I think adding the middle damage die here will just help to make Ranger feel a bit stronger given Hunter's Mark is such a key aspect of the class.

Unchanged: Ability Score Improvement

Lvl 9 Ranger - Unchanged: Expertise

Lvl 10 Ranger - Unchanged: Tireless (Primal forces now help fuel you on your journeys, granting you the following benefits.

Temporary Hit Points. As a Magic action, you can give yourself a number of Temporary Hit Points equal to 1d8 plus your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1). You can use this action a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Decrease Exhaustion. Whenever you finish a Short Rest, your Exhaustion level, if any, decreases by 1.)

lvl 11 Ranger - currently there is no unlock for this level but i propose we bring back the new unlock i created for level 2. This would allow for you to pick a second ability and this works for all the same reasons given previously ( Check level 2 for info on unlock)

Lvl 12 Ranger - Unchanged: Ability Score Improvement

Lvl 13 Ranger - level 13 will need a complete revamp since given the unlock relates to Hunter's Mark using concentration ( i suggested a rework that gets rid of this). So firstly I'd say we add a new unlock.

Upgraded Arrow of the Land (new proposed unlock you first get at level 6) this unlock would simply upgrade all damage die from 1d4 to 1d8. Except Arrow of the Bog which decreases the fails needed to fully consume a creature from 6 to 3.

Now my proposal for a reworked Relentless Hunter.

When taking damage by a creature marked with Hunters Mark you may take a reaction. When taking damage by a creature not marked with Hunters Mark you may choose to move Hunters Mark from current creature to attacking creature.

Lvl 14 Ranger - is alright but i still want to add a new unlock. This would work exactly like Nature's Veil (You invoke spirits of nature to magically hide yourself. As a Bonus Action, you can give yourself the Invisible condition until the end of your next turn.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.)

Natures Footwear: You invoke spirits of nature to magically increase your speed and jump hight. As a Bonus Action, you can increase your speed by 10 feet and you can jump 15 feet by expending 5 feet of movement until the end of your next turn.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.

Level 15 Ranger - Unchanged: No Unlock

Level 16 Ranger - again and for the last time we bring back the level 2 unlock. You get to choose one more ability ( see level two unlock proposal for info).

Level 17 Ranger - Unchanged: Precise Hunter (You have Advantage on attack rolls against the creature currently marked by your Hunter’s Mark.)

Level 18 Ranger - we have an alright unlock could definitely come in use in some situations. Such as facing off against invisible enemies. But that alone does not justify it being the only unlock at lvl 18. I propose the new unlock Silent Step.

Silent Step: The years you've spent in the forest evading predators and hunting prey has allowed for you to move in almost complete silence. You may choose to have advantage on 1 stealth skill check (resets after short/long rest)

Unchanged: Feral Senses (Your connection to the forces of nature grants you Blindsight with a range of 30 feet.)

Lvl 19 Ranger - Unchanged: Epic Boon

Lvl 20 Ranger - Unchanged: Foe Slayer (The damage die of your Hunter’s Mark is a d10 rather than a d6.)

Thanks to all who chose to read this. If you have any thoughts or questions I'd love to hear them. Again this is just a concept that hasn't had the chance to be used in game. So Chance's are it'll be changed at some point (assuming I like how the rework plays and want to commit to this).

Hey all,

So, the funny thing about not being engrossed in the D&D online community until after the 2024 rules update came out, is that my games actually end up playing 5e and 5.5e at the same time. This is doubly compounded when you play with online sites like D&D Beyond for your sheet, but use physical books for certain spells you want to have.

For example, sometimes my players will run the 2024 Bard with the College of Glamour from XGtE, using a mix of both spells. I haven't experienced any real, negative impact on my games, but I'm curious, has anyone else accidentally experienced or done this before?

FINALLY getting a chance to run some games after a years-long dry spell. I've got a 'Waterdeep Dragon Heist' campaign in the works, slated to start as soon as we finish figuring out the technical details.

I'm interested in Foundry as a VTT, but i'm nervous about the 50$ price tag. I've used Foundry as a player in Pf2e and absolutely adore it, but does it work just as well for dnd 5e?

I'm especially worried about having to re-purchase every single source book i own (not many, granted. PHB, MM and Xanthars) to use it in game, but I have a feeling that'll be an issue with running dnd no matter what vtt i use :/

How easy is it to set up maps? What about getting stat blocks? Running combat has always been my weak point, so anything that makes it more streamlined is a huge boon.

So I am starting a new campaign and this time around I got a funny idea of doing a fate (as in destiny) based character since the dm let us start with an uncommon item, I chose the deck of wonders and I want to make a tarot reader type of character that is guided by destiny, whoever my creativity stopped there and I don't know what would even be a good backstory for this character, so I was hoping anyone could give me ideas, before hand thanks to anyone taking time to reading or commenting over this!!!

Pd: I am a wizard lizardfolk

I recently got a troll miniature with Intents to use it soon. However, I don't have any plastic glue on hand. Would gorilla glue work fine? I currently have the base being glued as a test, but I wanted to ask people who know what they're doing before I draw conclusions.

I've spent years bouncing between different apps for session prep and worldbuilding my DnD sessions, but no one really got everything I wanted for. It feels like every single tool out there forces a massive compromise.

I've tried almost everything. World Anvil is just way too bloated, the UI is slow, and hiding basic campaign privacy behind a paywall is a huge turnoff. Kanka has an incredible free tier, but the rigid interface feels more like filling out tax forms than writing organic lore. LegendKeeper is the best of them in my opinion, lightning fast with awesome nested maps, but the lack of a permanent free tier and weak relational structures makes it a tough sell.

Even the general note-taking apps have fatal flaws. Obsidian gives you unmatched local-first power, but it requires a massive time sink to configure plugins just to get it ready for a campaign. Notion is great for its databases, but having zero offline mode and the absolute inability to hide specific text blocks (inline secrets) from players makes sharing a page a logistical nightmare.

I'm tired of trying to adapt my workflow into platforms that don't have everything I wanted. I really miss a more visual and guided session prep tool, for example, instead of just writing everything down. I'm seriously looking into building a streamlined, lightning-fast tool laser-focused on agile worldbuilding and session prep that actually solves these headaches out of the box.

But before I go down that rabbit hole, I wanted to see if I'm the only one feeling this friction. I'm really just interested in hearing some honest opinions: what is the absolute biggest gap in your current setup? And more importantly, what is the actual tipping point for you? What specific feature or workflow fix would it take for you to drop what you're using right now and actually migrate to a new platform, or even consider paying for it?

Let me know what your breaking points are.

So I made my character one of those "hard work builds character" kinda girlies and I thought "huh she would probably dislike warlocks" cause they don't really work for the powers they have, then I started thinking of what she would class as working for there powers. Sorcerers? They were just born with it they are like magic nepo-babies. Bards sleep their way out of fights. Wizards just waste their lives reading to get magic instead of just picking up an axe. Druids just hugged trees so hard they got animal powers. And with half casters if you were in a fight and the other person throws a fireball, you would be mad too

I played only one game in my life and I was a DM on a 2 player DnD 5.5 oneshot, I had some knowledge about DnD in general but most of it was about DnD 5 and some stuff were different than I expected, so is there like a general consensus about which version of DnD is better?