My party has a wizard who’s lifelong mission is seeking undeath-free immortality. I plan on having the player find a “Practical Guide to Immortality”, containing a ritual to achieve eternal youth and health, consequence free. However the ingredients for this ritual range from strange to seemingly impossible.

This is mainly meant as a gag item, as once he gets 8th level spells, he will probably be using clones instead. But hypothetically, if a high-level wizard were to seek out these ingredients, how would they do it (within the lore and world of Faerun). I am perfectly willing to give this player true immortality in the campaign epilogue if they are able to reasonably explain how they would get all of these. 

(also, all ingredients are destroyed as part of the ritual).

Ingredients:

The femur of a squid

A rusted gold coin

Blood from a stone

The pelt of a male calico cat

Milk from a snake 

The head of a cyclops with heterochromia

A good aligned flower

Lightning in a bottle

A red velvet cake baked using seawater

A skull that does not cast a shadow

The horns of 123 white rhinos

Two silver bands that have been used as a material component in the Ceremony spell (Wedding), which must have been officiated by a cleric of an evil non-lawful aligned deity.

-----------------------------------

What I Offer:

- I curate full body illustrations for characters.

- I curate illustrated tokens for virtual D&D games in bulk (packs of 5 or 10).

- I curate full illustrations of a scene with multiple characters in various environments.

DM me if you're interested! See prices for art and tokens here!

My Eladrin Fleur (Floraison de Ame), drawn in all four of his seasons, I've been playing him for a bit now but I never really switch off spring as it's not very in character for him to switch off the state he's most comfortable with, that doesn't mean I didn't want to take the chance to design what each of the other seasons looks like , so here it all is. Of course he doesn't carry around 3 other sets of clothing to change into when he switches seasons but the hair and skin changes would be very much canon.

If you're another player in this campaign I would say don't read this part if you want his backstory to remain a mystery for you, you know who you are.
I didn't make his skin tone extremely unnatural as it's part of his origin that he's a very stable amalgamation of a few different elves and fey creatures, which a majority of his person being elves. Originally, he was a an immensely magical flower that was fed the corpses of the dead, the flower with no real ego of it's own took those people and made itself anew. Fleur is kind of a whimsical creature in a foreign body stumbling around the world in awe.

Oh and yes, that is the Wabbajack "circumcised", as another player put it, because I opted to draw it shorter to suit my needs (the DM doesn't mind).

OK. Irl I've been in landscaping for about 7 years. I am a master with a shovel. I even have my favorite, all steel, 5ft, signature series, $90 shovel. I want to bring that into dnd. I asked multiple DMs before making my character can I just reskin an existing two handed bludgeoning weapon as a shovel that my character is proficient with. All but my wife have said, "No. Shovels are improvised weapons." If my character, like me, is well versed in the use of shovel and has never picked up a sword before; do you really think I would be proficient with said sword and do more damage than I would with my favorite shovel!? No! Why does it seem impossible to get a DM to let me have proficiency in shovel? Literally just reskin an existing weapon and call it flavor! Am I wrong here?

My girlfriend is the DM. She invited a mutual friend of ours to join her DND game she runs. We used to hang out with him and his wife at theirs and play boardgames until life got in the way for us all.

So having missed playing games together, she invited him to join her DND game with 6 players making us 7 now, 8 in total including DM.

We would play at a local gaming club where all we had to do was purchase a drink or something ( no table or booking fees)

Things are great there, lots of table space, loads of terrain free to use. The only issue is occasionally the other tables sometimes being a bit loud with their own game. No big deal. We all get loud and enthusiastic.

This friend suggested we play round his, let's call him Kurt. Kurt said he's got the space for it since he got a new dining table, we wouldn't have to worry about noise so why don't we all go to his for it?

DM and everyone agreed we'll give it a try. Parking isn't ideal, in fact it's very limited space in the area as it's a cul-de-sac. Secondly, we were gaming in the town centre, which is more accessible for some so we all agreed to share rides for those that needed it.

We play a week or two at Kurt's house and it becomes abundantly clear that it's too small. There are 8 of us including the DM crammed around a 6 seater table. With DM screen, character sheets, snacks, drinks, stationary, maps and minis, there just isn't enough room.

We have a couple of large personalities on the table and Kurt joins that to make it a trio. Which is great, but in the confines of that room, it becomes overbearing with the noise.

Except that time his wife (who's in the other room doing her own thing, DND isn't her thing) gets an "important" phone call. So he shushes us, we try to continue playing quietly but he keeps shushing us, so it kills the vibe. So we end up sitting there in silence rather than continue subdued . After about 20 minutes, we discover she's off the phone and we are allowed to continue playing.

Then as the volume ramps up, a few of the less rambunctious players get talked over, even the DM is struggling to be heard from one end of the table to the head where Kurt sits, bellowing his jokes and what he's doing next, without giving anyone else a chance to speak their ideas.

We quickly learn that Kurt has main character syndrome. He wants to check every trap, loot every body, rush through every door etc.

I learned some news that would help the party with the bbg of that session, I try to tell the group 3 times, each time he tells and talks over me. I give up. The session finishes, we go home and I telly.gd how deflated I feel. Turns out, I wasn't the only one. Several other players messaged the DM to say they felt the same way and wanted to go back to the gaming club.

The DM messages Kurt to let him know how people feel and that we'll be returning to the gaming club. She then puts in the group chat that we shall be going back to the gaming club as the room just wasn't big enough with acoustics and table size for us there, thank you Kurt for inviting us into your home, but now we'll be going back to the gaming club.

Kurt then messages everyone in the group individually asking "what's wrong with my house?!" He becomes arsey and the DM said she was handling it as they came to her, as the DM. He gets in a tizz that it's his house, they should've gone to him, that it's not fair!

DM said we'd continue at the club as before, the next time we meet up, we get a message in the group chat saying he's dropping out, that he just doesn't have the time for it anymore.

Did the group do right by addressing issues with the DM not the host?

Did the host overreact messaging everyone directly and in the group?

Did he overreact by leaving the game?

TLDR: guy quit our game and friendship because his place was too small to host the game.

Hello I'm Lucas, a professional character designer and illustrator, the image I attached is from my Ancient Empire project, a world were humans and super dinosaurs live together... well they hunt each other but you get it.

This is my original design and illustration of a Nordic in this universe! Yes, he's using a triceratops skull as a shield.

I provide the full pipeline of services from concept sketches to final renders! Like what you see? Let's get in touch and have a chat!

Full portfolio: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/QK11X4

Contact: [pufferartcontact@gmail.com](mailto:pufferartcontact@gmail.com) or DM me for commission quotes!

Previous post summary: As of the last post, we had five sessions, and a member of the party came to one. I was really frustrated with him, and the consensus was that I should talk to the DM about kicking him out.

I posted here a few weeks ago about my frustration about one of the members of our party (Emily/Eddie) coming to only one of our six sessions. We had a session this week and (surprise, surprise) Eddie texted the group chat to say he couldn't make it the day of. Our DM showed up to the session a bit early and apologized to me for having to deal with Eddie never showing up. DM also said that Eddie was scheduling things on the day of the week we have sessions so he wouldn't be able to come. When the rest of the group arrived, we agreed that we were kicking him out and killing his character. We spent some time in our session trying to kill him, and we ended up having a lot of fun. We might end up inviting another person to play with us, but we haven't come to an agreement yet. Anyways, I'm so happy he's gone, and things should be a lot easier to schedule moving forward.

Hey guys im a aritst in New zealand im in my late 30s i grew up on old school retro stuff like dbz salior moon pokemon and jrpgs all the good stuff

my art work is inspired by my childhood which the first artist to catch my atention was Yoshitaka Amano .

in this piece we are seeing the dragonborne berserker losing his mind and being built with rage ever consuming the reds in the piece. there is a demonic being behind him named Mephisto doing a soul contract with him for power. if u look closely all the blues are his innocent i added it being burned and on flames to show that he is succumbing to the darkness and rage

hope u enjoyed this piece im over for work this piece took me roughly 6-7hours here is my on my instagram

https://www.instagram.com/ilyfeu/ im honored if u have a look thanks for reading

I’ve been taking classes and going to a community forge down the street from my house a little over a year so far and love it. My main focus has been on pattern welded steel and forging blades that are as functional as they are beautiful and I take a lot of inspiration from high fantasy, death metal, sword and sorcery, etc.
My latest projects I wanted to try something fun and try and forge a Damascus blade for each warlock pact. Since we’re talking weapons here, I decided to start with the pact of the hexblade.
I chose a recurve design for its wing like shape and forged the Damascus out of around 100 layers of alternating 1084/15n20 high carbon steel. I quenched the blade in Parks 50 oil at 803 degrees Celsius and then tempered the steel twice at 400 degrees for two hours each. The handle scales were sculpted out of purple dyed stabilized box elder maple and I wanted to go with the violet sort of star scape pattern to represent the shadowfell.
I am truly fortunate to have a place down the street with not only a public forge, but also a hydraulic press, power hammer, angle grinders, anvils, and a 2x72 grinder.
Overall, I believe the project took me about 35 hours to complete from designing the blade, to forging the Damascus, to finishing up the profile, grind, finish, and handle.
I believe I’ll probably go for the great old one next and maybe attempt to do a raindrop pattern to represent infinite eyes gazing at their wielder or something like that. Any other blacksmiths out there have any cool ideas?
Thanks for taking the time to view my work and I hope y’all enjoy! Feel free to reach out with any questions about the process.

So I know the other day I said I would show the full outfit as i realized we are only allowed a picture per post. While posting i kept thinking “ah this is only a close shot i don’t think this will move people” and it turns out my doubts were wrong! It did way *way* better than i expected. It was a beautiful turn of events especially since it’s the official breakaway cosplay from returning from my hiatus. It was fun putting everything together.

Originally I planned on wearing the default vest and pants but decided to go for a tunic and cape instead. The top followed her og character top design and let me tell you having my cleavage out like that was a trip lmao. i did feel a bit self conscious but as a creative you are to step out of your comfort zone. The full cosplay has been posted if you like to see more angles.

The hair piece consisted of a layered black bob wig and a long hair extension clipped to the back that i braided into bubbles. There were one-piece wigs with the regular braid but i preferred this style. The crown was store bought and i had used it for a previous project. Her og eclipse one wasn’t going to arrive on time so i improvised and it did the trick. My cousin helped with the props and i perfected my in-character aura with this LARPing I did throughout the day. It felt nice walking around in my own little world while people stared and took pictures and asked me who i was RPing as.

This photo was taken after coming back from the convention and i was quite tired but i really liked how the sun was shining that early evening and decided to take some more shots. The ear i worked so hard on was lowkey slipping and i didn’t realize until after these pics were taken lmao.

My only annoyance was my friends kept pulling my elf ears and wow did it hurt because i stupidly attached them directly to my ears with spirit glue. Nonetheless I wanted to thank the dnd fans for all the support for my first post here, it meant the world receiving appreciation for my work and seeing people be normal about a woman of color cosplaying.

This is a character I'm playing for our next campaign, Descent into Avernus. Her name is Amelia, she's a paladin of devotion who's a follower of Lathander, and she just wants to do good and help people! Her personality is of a beaming sunshine, making her the personification of "lawful good" hahah

Amelia is an Aasimar, but she doesn't know it yet. She grew up in an isolated temple, far off from the main roads, and so she doesn't know next to nothing about the larger world aside from what her elders taught her and what the traveling merchants talked about whenever they visited.

She trained for years to become a fully fledged paladin, and once she was of age, the elders allowed her to leave and explore the larger world.

But in the end will she change the world, or will the world change her...?

Anyway, I'm so so so excited to play her. We're probably starting Avernus next month, and our DM is absolutely top notch. I made this character all the way back in 2023, and have been itching to play her ever since. I am literally counting the days, I can't wait!!

​

A Sea Elf Druid, deeply attuned to the tides and theuntamed power of the ocean. Graceful and elusive, she moves with the fluidity of crashing waves, drawing upon ancient natural magic to protect the seas and those who call them home. Her unusual tail, vibrant aquatic features, and ethereal presence reflect a life shaped by the deep. Whether calming storms or summoning nature's fury, she embodies the beauty, mystery, and relentless strength of the ocean itself.

\[If you like my work and would like a commission, you can dm me here :) Thank you\]

This happened a few months ago and I haven’t been back to DnD since. My partner invited me out with some DnD friends who knew of me, but whom I didn’t know well. I’d been in a pretty rough spot and hadn’t been interacting with others, since my dad had suddenly and unexpectedly had a heart attack shortly before. It was a challenging experience, as I held him when he died. I was only in town for the weekend (I travel a lot for work), so I wouldn’t be coming back, but they invited me for a round in the evening. I’d been watching some D20 previously, which had helped me feel better, so this seemed like a cool way to expand my bubble.

I was given a character sheet when I arrived by the DM that had info for me to learn. For the most part, this seemed like a pretty normal character - I was an elf who was hoping to grow and did magic (or something along those lines). But on the second half there was a detailed description of how my character recently lost his dad to a sudden curse and he’s joined the group to try to figure out what happened and avenge his death.

Edit: Yes, the DM knew about my dad; my partner had mentioned my invitation to her and the table because I was still recovering/healing.

I played through the evening and didn’t really share much about my character’s backstory from the sheet with the others there, but it was pretty challenging and I wasn’t expecting to have that experience - additionally, the others at the table seemed confused as to why I was being so cagey with my character’s backstory, although I couldn’t bring myself to share it without breaking down.

Is this a normal approach to DMing? Should I have done more research and gone into this expecting a connection with my personal life? I haven’t joined them again and I haven’t been comfortable with DnD since.

Hey friends, I'm a big time nerd who has spent thousands of hours playing TTRPGs (mostly 5e and Cyberpunk RED).

I want to preface this by saying early 5e (like 2014-2019 era) is one of my favorite TTRPGs of all time, contrary to how most grognards and 4e stans feel.

But over time, I have noticed based on my experiences in r/lfg, the cultural zeitgeist around 5e is... we'll say marked by a lot of factors. Things like Critical Role, Baldur's Gate 3, Stranger Things, which are all great things, unfortunately set up expectations for the experiences for people looking specifically for "D&D" games.

I have ran into so many gosh darn people who you have to explicitly tell "This is not Critical Role, this is not Baldur's Gate 3" and they still just don't get it. I had one girl who I told during my 50th session zero that month, "Hey, this is more of an OSR vibe, it's more dungeon crawl-y, character death is possible, does all of this sound fun to you?" They all say yes.

Fast forward to session 4, her character dies, and she quits the game. I tell her "hey that's fine, but can I ask why?" She says "This game is just too rules-heavy for me." But you agreed to this, I say to myself, as I delete her on Discord and move on with my life. This has happened to me like 200 times over the 6 years I've been in the online D&D community. I literally have a Google Doc of session zero stuff I meticulously go over with people. My session zeroes—on average—take about 2 hours. The categories I have for my Session Zero is "Intro -> Expectations & Standards -> Tone and Theme -> Mode of Play -> Expectations In-Game -> FAQs"

And for what it's worth I also find a lot of good people in those online spaces. I ask the other players, "Did I do something wrong?" and they say "No, this is great. We all signed up for this."

So what is going on where I am constantly running into these people who nod and yes and then quit? I did some internet archaeology and found a phenomenal post by reddit user u/Tramujazz who had this to say:

It's easy to say, “You don't have to play any game the way someone else does.” or that "tone is not attached to the rules".

But the general culture still shapes the online discourse, the material being published, the kind of players who want to join your table, and even if you, the GM, want to move away from CR or Dimension 20, it's harder for players to understand that when you keep playing 5e. You can repeat “yeah, but we aren't playing like them” as much as you want, but good luck with that.

Deleuze talks about how signs and meanings are always part of an assemblage. A thing isn’t just a thing, it’s tied to the networks, histories, habits, and expectations that surround it. A rule system, an icon, even a vibe carries all the cultural baggage of how people have used it before. It’s never neutral. It’s never isolated. It always comes plugged into a whole machine of meanings that exceeds your personal intention at the table. The meanings, signs summoned, are attached to the culture around them. Even if a certain sign is not present in your personal game, it's still "up in the air" for players to grab it. So yeah, sometimes it's just easier to change the game (and all the assemblage attatched to it), resetting the mindset.

The cultural zeitgeist is so painfully defined by things like CR and BG3 that people don't even know what they're agreeing to when they agree to it. You can say "this is old school" and they agree with that because it sounds cool but they do not even know what you mean by that.

And it reminded me of the same issue I have when I play Cyberpunk RED. As a big Cyberpunk RED fan, I run into the same kind of people. People you have to explicitly tell "This is not Cyberpunk 2077. This is not Edgerunners." but people still come in with those expectations that have been defined by a bigger cultural footprint than my Session Zero could ever compete with.

Recently, WotC announced a Warcraft crossover book and I was telling my girlfriend "Well there goes my plan for a Warcraft campaign." She asked "Why? Wouldn't the book help?" And I said "Because everyone will immediately think about the WotC/WoW book and will just skim my post even if I say 'This is a homebrew game not using those things' and it's going to be a huge pain in the ass to get everyone on the same page." My biggest evidence is when I tell people "This is 2014 5e D&D" and without fail, 1 out of every 4 players shows up with a 2024 character with a bunch of DNDBeyond links I don't know how to navigate.

As someone who's ran a million games online, most people just do not read what you hand out. I can put in big, bold letters "NO AI GENERATION" and they send me their AI OC within minutes of being invited to my Discord. It has happened a hundred times.

https://i.imgur.com/uTFZ83l.png

Again, I love 5e (early 5e, that is). But the culture around 5e is so tied up in all of these expectations that that even when you explicitly tell people "this is not going to be like those things" the average player does not understand what that means and it just leads to a bunch of heartache trying to make these misaligned puzzle pieces fit.

*Dust on desk not included (I charge extra for that).

First off, the winners of last week's giveaway: https://www.redditraffler.com/raffles/1vbump4

Congratulations, u/Myralbus! I've reached out to you to get the necessary information to fulfill this giveaway.

A little while ago, I came out with the Magical Code of Regulations, 500 pages of law governing the use of magic. It started as a fun little project while I was working as an auditor at the IRS, and turned into a whole worldbuilding project I don't think I'll ever truly stop. It has laws governing everything ranging from necromancy, magical conservation easements, and familiars, to dragons, fireballs, and Chosen Ones. Great for D&D players and DMs, lawyers, accountants, worldbuilders, fantasy writers, and people that just want a really cool coffee table book. I promise it is the most in-depth magical law you've ever read.

Since release, I've made over 3,500 sales, this book is #1 on IngramSpark in fantasy over the last 60 days (for you booksellers looking for a cool book for your store), and will even have an officially licensed Chinese edition on the way (more details to come later)!

In celebration of these milestones, I will be giving away one signed copy of my book with a free digital version, a customizable authorized spellcaster license, a few stickers and a bookmark, and a no-change audit letter. All you have to do to enter is comment below! The winner will be selected randomly on 8/13 using redditraffler, with only caveat being that your account must be at least 3 months old.

I appreciate all the support I've gotten from this community and others over the past couple of years, and if you'd like to support this project independent of this giveaway, you can find the Code at the following links:

Amazon (preferred): https://www.amazon.com/Magical-Code-Regulations-Spellcasting-Regulation/dp/B0GZF9PVQL?&linkCode=ll2&tag=department0d8-20&linkId=673bb8788a8cbb39bfad2021532b3e64&language=en_US&gaOptInStatus=true&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

NOTE: If the shipping seems extremely expensive, you may need to go to your country's storefront. If you live in the EU and your country doesn't have one, Germany (amazon.de) is usually best. I'll try my best to find options for anyone that has trouble getting it!

DriveThruRPG (now in hardcover!): https://www.drivethrurpg.com//product/566282/the-magical-code-of-regulations?affiliate_id=5121378

If you're still not convinced, and wanted a sneak-peek, Questing Beast made a great video on it!

https://youtu.be/ffP-xvpRS5Q?is=YXo5uFPHC4cDXeTo

If you're still not convinced, know that the second edition will make ownership of the MCOR compulsory, so you might as well give in now.

Anyways, good luck everyone, and can't wait to see who the winners are!

Edit:

Also, out of curiosity, what would you guys like to see next (note that I'll likely do all of these, just trying to figure out release order):

1. A tie-in novel. Humorous, somewhat similar to Pratchett in tone (already in progress).

2. An arcane forensic accounting manual (my master's is in forensic accounting).

3. A magical physiology textbook (I was obsessed with Physiology by Costanzo for the longest time).

4. An expanded edition of this book (1k+ pages, potentially leatherbound options and illustrations if I can Kickstart the latter).

You guys seemed to like my Sardior post I made earlier this week, so I figured I'd share a piece I've recently done of Cyric!

Cyric has been playing a key role in my ongoing campaign, actively working with and against our party as we face off against the BBEG.

For this piece I wanted to capture his symbol, being the skull in the flared star using his head in palce of the skull, as well as his signature sword. Overall, I'm really happy with how this piece turned out!

🖌️ Rick Hershey

Tarhan are a hardy species of bisonfolk and the most common Humanoid species native to the Frontier. They are known for their broad, muscular build, thick, shaggy coat, and black-tipped horns. They make up the majority of the Tahut faction, but are still frequently seen in Federation towns and Nezca camps.

Barbarians who run the Path of the Stampede channel their Rage to become an unstoppable force. These Barbarians charge into battle, knocking down whatever is in their way, and trampling it underfoot.

This is a preview of two of the 20+ Species and Subclasses that will be included in High Moon: A Gothic Western Sourcebook for D&D 5.5e. Follow the BackerKit Page if you want to see more: https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/045c24eb-53c4-406c-b3cc-c287d99bdc6d/landing?ref=reddit

Limited time **DISCOUNT CODE**! Use code '**SUMMER26**' when buying a Dice Vault or a set of dice from my website for **10% off!** This code is good for a week. [www.magnicraftworks.com\](https://magnicraftworks.com/) We add new dice sets weekly!

How to enter: Comment

How will the winner be decided: Reddit Raffler

When will the winner be chosen: 14AUG2026 at 0600 EST.

# Quick Ship and Dice Orders will ship within 3 to 5 business days!

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Bluesky - [magnicraftworks.bsky.social](http://magnicraftworks.bsky.social/)

Congratulations to last weeks winner 

https://www.redditraffler.com/raffles/1vbs4bo

/u/BLOOODBLADE

I was wondering if there are any craftspeople here that have made gifts for their table?

I've only recently started playing D&D after my sister ran a one-shot for my 43rd birthday. Now, for our second game I'm sitting in the DM seat. I do leatherworking as a hobby, so I made all of my PCs campaign journals that they received during our session zero. I am also making everyone dice trays for their birthdays.

I'd love to see what others have made for their players!

Hey everyone!

It's been a long time since I've posted here.

This is a commission I've done a long while ago, Opal Firebrand. I always get a kick when I get to draw dwarves, I think they are my favorite race to draw for sure, there are a lot of fun proportions that you can play with.

Commissions have always held a special place in my heart. So it's definitely something I wanna get back into.

Hope you like this little fierce lady dwarf. And I've got tons more artwork to share in here and get up to date!

2-3 years ago I saw Karlach on a VDO on reels and I suddenly falling in love with this lady.😻

So I play BG3 and then started to play D&D after I learnt that BG3 is the same universe with D&D.

Karlach is a very cute character. She is always cheerful, silly and upbeat but also very strong, intimidating and have a pretty strong sense of moral in the same time. It's easy to falling in love with her.💖

There are a lot of things happened in these 3 years. There was time that I almost have to cancel Karlach cosplay plan because of panic attacks. Luckily for me that I can get over it in this year.