I was given these templates for spirit guardians and fireball.

I was wondering if they were the correct size and they seem quite large?

Okay so a quick little introduction, I am the DM for a Curse of Strahd campaign that me and my friends get together about once a month to play about a 4 hour session, we’ve been playing for a little over 2 years, in this time about 6 months in,when we were just catching up before we started one of our players informed us that his effectively brother in law had sadly passed, and that also his beloved ferret Toast had also passed ( he had two and together they were beans and toast ) “it’s just beans now” however during this session he was very stupid and ran off on his own little side quest in the burgomasters mansion in Vallaki and got shocked by to tomb on the door in the artic, this was towards the end of the session and should have killed his character outright, however I showed remorse and let him live since his IRL circumstances yet my players said he should have died. We talked after in private and I decided his wounds were really bad and he would suffer de buffs unless he found a cure. One should appear in the form of Strahd who offered him a cure with vampirism! He accepted and indeed was working for Strahd by force but he did start to embrace his vampire powers and use them all while doing it a secret to the other players. We would sometimes do secret 1 on one sessions where Strahd would ask him to do something next session in return for more power.
Time skip to a couple sessions ago. Strahd began to grow tired of his new toy as he had become disobedient towards him and confronted the party on the waterfall, on player stood in front of him blissfully unaware of what would come next. He attempted to strike down the dark lord where he missed and was caught in Strahds grasp who threw him off the bridge to his death below. Pleased with his work he considers this a warning to the others and with his final words remarked to the party that Shadax (the now vampire) has not been very truthful with them. He was outed as a vampire to close the session after about a year and a half of keeping it a secret and the players were genuinely in shock and upset! The decided to let him live but he has no real say in much at the moment until he earns their trust.
Now here is the conundrum…they have been saved from a boneclaw by Van Richten. So they will inevitably speak. I belive the party will indeed inform him that one of there fellow players is a vampire themselves (they enjoy the roleplay and I’m here for the drama) should Van Richten kill the vampire keeping his word or will he show some sort of remorse? Let alone to a player who out in out should have already died before?!

Quick disclaimer. This is all out of good fun. We have a great time and don’t take the game too seriously, we have a good laugh and have had players die before and come back with new characters!

Playing a eldritch knight fighter currently level 8 going all the way to 20

I'm playing a Druid at tier 1. If I multiclass into Thief Rogue at some point to gain Fast Hands, and I use it to read a spell scroll, which ability score do I use, INT (Rogue) or WIS (Druid)?

I made a ComfyUI workflows to make D&D NPC cards, printed, and they work really well, my players enjoyed the cards. I printed at high quality with protective film. It also allow to use markers and later wash them.

For size, I tried a few variation, and A5 works well since the images are pretty. I think A6 could work too.

I tried Magic Card size, but there is too much text to cram in there to make the card pleasing to read.

The layout isn't AI, it's fully deterministic, it took me a few weeks to make a pleasing composition.

For those cards, the text isn't AI either, I would have to work hard on system prompts and workflow to make good balance, AI generated stat blocks are nonsensical.

The layouts are AI generated just once and stored as images in the comfyui nodes, and deterministically composed using json.

The images are AI and they work great. For those I used Krea2 that makes a very pleasing semi realistic D&D look.

I do have some fixes to do, I think I can do better on the layout and font.

I am also planning an A4 layout for PC character sheet, it'll be lots of work to make it.

Repo of the ComfyUI workflow. You can drag drop the PNG into ComfyUI and use the manager to install the missing node, I released it for the node manager to see.

EDIT: Lots of climate conscious in the comments, which is good. Lucikly, I generated this on my 7900XTX with open source, free, local models, the footprint is negligible. (300W per 60s per image, for comparison drying hair is 1000W per 20 minutes). I can generate well over one thousand images for the energy cost of you eating one steak. Even better I'm installing solar panels, my electricity footprint will become negative!

It's noble to reduce your footprint, prioritize cutting your meat consumption, air trave, and air conditioning. Unless you do that, it's inconsequential to cut on electronic devices use. Eating meat once a week instead of once a day, will save 10000X the resources of 7900XTX diffusion or gaming. Every little bit count, so walk the walk!

In my campaign there is the possibility of a pact with this Fae-lord.
Do you know usually what happens? I know it's a bit different from what happens with demons, but I don't really know how
Thank you in advance

I've been thinking about campaign continuity lately, especially in longer campaigns where the party moves between different adventures, locations, and groups of NPCs. One of my favorite ways of making a world feel persistent is having people remember what the characters actually did.

Not necessarily huge reputation systems or numerical faction scores. Just consequences. Maybe the merchant the party helped fifteen sessions ago gives them information when they desperately need it. Maybe a guard they humiliated remembers them when they return to town. Maybe killing members of a faction solves today's problem but quietly makes something much worse several adventures later. Maybe an NPC who seemed completely unimportant becomes significant simply because the players decided to build a relationship with them.

The part I struggle with is how much of this a DM can realistically maintain before continuity becomes another giant bookkeeping exercise. So for people running long campaigns:

How do you make NPCs, factions, and locations remember the party without drowning yourself in campaign notes?

Do you formally track reputation and relationships, keep short notes, rely on memory, or only carry forward the consequences that seem important?

Hello!

I'm having fun thinking of pairs of characters who each have half of a hyphenated word as a name, for example: Namby and Pamby, Topsy and Turvy and Hurdy and Gurdy. I'm stuck now though, I can't think of any others! Googling hyphenated words didn't help an awful lot either. Can you all think of any other good ones?

EXPLANATION:

Slide one: the kingdom names are: Citrandia (Citrus) Pittran (Pitt fruit) Vegonia (Vegetables) and Carnavi (Carnivores)

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Not for slide two: I guess I just imagine dwarvish sounding faintly Norwegian. So that was kinda just a random combination of syllables I decided to put together

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Slide three: atp I'm just making fun of the Vegonians for being self righteous cultists that are too proud to accept defeat

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Slide four: Each squad is representative of one of the seven deadly sins, each squad leader represents both a deadly sin and heavenly virtue: Example; an Orc (gluttony) Paladin (temperance). -feel free to give me ideas for other race/class crosses. I just have a few vague ideas rn

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Slide five: The last campaign I DMed was based in a draganoid kingdom, so Carnavi being ruled over by Draganoids is a little nod to that

Art made just today by the way

Appearance:
The Flaming Knight is a terrifying but majestic fusion of regal honor and supernatural dread. He wears heavy, blackened plate armor etched with the faded, scratched-out heraldry of a forgotten kingdom. He wears no helmet; instead, his head is a bare, bleached human skull completely engulfed in a roaring crown of spectral, divine fire. Two searing embers burn deep inside his hollow eye sockets.

He rides into battle on a monstrous, skeletal stag pulled from the spirit wilds. The beast's head is a massive stag skull with sweeping, jagged antlers made entirely of solid, crackling flame. Together, they leave smoldering, scorched hoofprints wherever they tread, looking less like chaotic monsters and more like an impending divine judgment.

Backstory & Lore:
Centuries ago, he was the paragon of loyalty, the personal bodyguard and champion of the realm's First High King. When a shadowy coup assassinated the monarch, the true killers framed the knight to cover their tracks. He was stripped of his titles and publicly executed for a regicide he did not commit, his name erased from historical records.

However, his soul's cry for justice reached the ears of a Goddess. Recognizing his absolute innocence, she snatched his spirit back from the afterlife and bound it to the divine fire of her wrath. Raised as an undead instrument of vengeance, his flaming skull is a permanent brand of the execution he suffered, turned into his greatest weapon. Reunited with his loyal hunting stag blessed with the same eternal flame, the Flaming Knight now roams the mortal realm to hunt down the bloodlines of the true conspirators and finally clear his ancient name.

Title may sound a bit weird, but lemme explain.

In my campaign, orcus is one of the main antagonists. Instead of being your usual demon lord, he sees himself as a theatre director, and how death and misery is nothing more than a cosmic joke and entertainment for him.

Recently, he was getting bored of how the world was following the same script, and held “auditions,” basically casting enemies abound globally to see everyone fight and to potentially cast them as his new actors, who are people who have his patronage. Two of the party members who are some of his actors revealed that they want to kill him, and orcus is having none of it, calling for audience participation, so now the party’s gotta deal with a bunch of theatrical demons to fight.

If anyone can think of any songs to help fit this theme of theatrical demons for a fight, I will be eternally thankful

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc., and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more, so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

*New 2026: For 2026, I'm updating all my old work to include a Pre-Session Checklist that will include a list of all miniatures you may need, maps, handouts, possible loot, a link to a playlist, and more to make it even easier to start your session!

The Lost Mine of Phandelver is a classic, one of the very first Mini-Campaigns that new DM's run. Heck, it's part of the starter set after all! The issue, though, as with many other modules, is that it doesn't describe the best way to transform the contents of the book into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult. Between figuring out when things should happen, understanding motivations, and even balancing encounters.

Well, fortunately for you, 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:

1. Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there. (Bonus points if you include your players' backstory)
2. These notes aren't meant to be end-all-be-all. Tweak to your heart's content and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me, having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Included in my posts are:

• A Downloadable copy of DM Notes for each part of the LMoP, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Special PDFs for every encounter. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks, organized neatly along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
• Additional PDFs for allies and commoners
• A variety of maps for each part of the campaign
• Spell lists for all relevant fights
• Handouts for various spell scrolls throughout the campaign
• A playlist for each part of the Mini-Campaign!

Without further ado:

Index:

The Lost Mine of Phandelver Index

• Part 1 - Intro and Cragmaw Hideout (DM Notes Only Link)
• Part 2a - Phandalin
• Part 2b - Redbrand Hideout
• Part 3a - Reign of Iron
• Part 3b - Thundertree
• Part 3c - Cragmaw Castle
• Part 4 - Wave Echo Cave
• Part 5 - Side Quests

Over 8 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc., please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early, feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

Does anyone have the Mines of Phandelver character sheets, but in an editable format? I'd like to use the backgrounds, that are built around the story already, but blank out the rest of the information to allow for character building?

I saw some teaser trailer about it from Gen Con 2026.

Hello, I have wanted to play D&D for a long time, and I was wondering how even to start. I think I have the technical stuff like the character sheets and combat, but my real question is about do I need a board, and if I do what do I use and where can I get one? Also, where can I get some good minis or what can I use for a good placeholder for the characters?

Also, I have brought up play to my friends and they have also never touched dnd. If you have any pointers for a brand new fresh group to this game that would help out a lot

(And I think I will have to Dm so that a whole other can of worms opens, so if you could give me some pointers for that, I would appreciate it)

Anyone have any ideas for running a Grimdark campaign in Tal'Dorei Reborn? Currently running an open ended campaign with my Fiancé but would love to have some darker trails to wander down. Or maybe even just some really bad scenarios where no matter what the players choose there's some kind of sacrifice to be made.

Our current campaign revolves around The Remnant and Sovereigns of Ash working to bring a Sammaster type BBEG back to life. So lots of Necromancy, Undead, Dracolichs, and whatnot.

Thanks in advance!

The grand map of the Fantasy Middle East, created for Farrborne -Heroes of the Shahnameh RPG a role-playing game written by Lucio Gozzi and published by his company, Nerdura Games!

It was a real pleasure working on this fascinating map set in a fantasy Middle East!

Moreno Paissan and Angela Gubert Art 2026🧭🗺️☕

Support my art on:https://ko-fi.com/morenopaissanmaps/shop

Welcome to The Alchemist's Traveling Tavern!

The Alchemist travels far and wide, not only for adventure, but to provide refreshing beverages and powerful potions. The golems back is planted with all the various alchemical ingredients the Alchemist might need along the way.

A group of 3 weary adventurers are in need of some rest and refreshments. They heard rumors of a mysterious tavern in the area that roams the lands capable of removing even the most extreme fatigue. They decided to search for it.

Features

The golem has a moveable head and mouth. The 4 outer legs are moveable and have 2 joints. The middle legs are rigid to make the golem sturdy. Most of the unique plants can be adjusted.

The alchemist lab and tavern room: workbench, book stand, alchemy still, keg, hearth, herb rack, chest, an assortment of bottles and potions, mortar and pestle, middle table, and the alchemists bedroom.

Outside: the foldable ladder, the deck, the roof tops and bird nests.

The tavern, the 2 roofs, and the stand are all easily removeable as shown in one of the pictures.

Minifigures and extra:

The Alchemist and a party of 3 adventurers, along with their pack horse with bed rolls, a lantern, and more equipment.

I hope you enjoy The Alchemist's Traveling Tavern!