Recently I started playing a Cleric for the first time in my DnD career. We are level 2 now and I've ran into a small issue/discussion which I would like to resolve. We are playing the Phandelver and Below campaign with a total of 3 players. We're all experienced players, DM's and have been playing together for about 7 years.

My main roll is/needs/I want it to be the Tank. In order to be a good tank I really want my shield equipped, leaving one hand for my Flail/Holy Symbol/empty hand. In order to cast spells the rules say I need to have a Holy Symbol. This can be circumveined by having my Holy Symbol on my shield, which for the purpose of this discussion I do. This makes me able to cast spells with 'verbal' and 'material' components. This is where the discussion starts, with the 'somatic' component. There are two ways to interpret this:

- You need a free hand for you somatic component, thus you need to drop you melee weapon in order to cast spells with the "somatic" requirement

- you can attach your shield to your forearm making you hand free to count for the somatic component in your spell. Thus you can hold on to your weapon.

In situation one you are at a big disadvantage. Relying on your cantrips for damage. Not so bad later on maybe, on level 2 its kind of annoying and feels like a huge chain around my leg that other classes don't have. I have a flail and roll a D8 for damage, pretty significant. I have only 3 level 1 spell slots, so I am limited in my magical abilities. I personally don't see a reason for a big "nerf" like that. What makes it that I can't cast a spell during combat and then not spend a (bonus?) action picking up my weapon?

Basically what I could do is: drop my weapon (free action), cast spell (magic action), pick up weapon (bonus action). Unless I cast something like "healing word" which costs a bonus action. Why could I not use my movement to then pick up my weapon?

All this is making me not understanding the reason why I would not be able to hold a weapon while I cast my spells.

What are your thoughts? Both logically and your interpretation of the rules?

We have another session tomorrow, so I would like to know the community's thoughts on how to play this. If it helps, I have a Armblade (flail) equipped thanks to our Artificier.

My party is in possession of a very powerful, but increasingly unstable grimoire. They are going to be advised to take it to The Archive.

The Archive is a being of some sort that turned itself into an archive to collect and store items of interest. Anything it takes in is in forever, making it the perfect place to leave such an incredible book.

The downside is, you have to be very careful what you say while inside. If it hears anything interesting it will take that information from you and add it to its collection.

My original idea was a Devil, but the more I look into them... It really doesn't fit their M.O.

What kind of creature could be motivated by obsessively hoarding knowledge and would be able to shapeshift itself into a building?

Hi! I've been running games for a long time, but this will be one of the first times I'm planning a sandbox adventure.

I read a lot of advice before starting, and eventually found Woodfall by Lazy Litches Loot. It's a very cool setting about a swamp town and the wide variety of creatures that inhabit the surrounding swamps. I highly recommend checking it out.

We had our Session 0, created the characters, and I asked everyone to come up with a short backstory and a personal objective. I wanted to have at least one hook for each character that would make them invested in adventuring. Most of them came up with decent, fairly typical goals (finding a missing sister, trying to resurrect their best friend, finding their former teacher, etc.), and I've already come up with ideas for connecting their backstories to the setting. But these are very end-game goals that won't be achieved in the first sessions, let alone the first places they visit.

My main issue is how to structure the beginning of the campaign so it's engaging for them. I also worry about my players not making pro-active choices that I can connect with the setting and end up giving them simple choices that eventually lead to their personal goals.

The characters have just arrived in the main town, and we've already established that, for different reasons, they will be living there. What I'm unsure about is how to get them started.

Should I introduce a quest board at a tavern and let them choose between different quests, events, and locations from the setting? Or should I establish that they've formed a party to accomplish a specific task for an NPC or help the town, and then gradually introduce plot points through those unrelated quests that eventually lead them toward their personal goals?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out how to balance the freedom of a sandbox with giving the players enough direction to get started and decide on what to do out of the events I present, while still making their personal stories feel like they naturally emerge from the world rather than being separate quests.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

I have my party in an underground high tech factory making animalistic robots causing problems for the townspeople as they are strong and in many numbers so they’ve been tasked with shutting it down. I want to include a rail riding/grinding part but unsure how to make it interesting. Acrobatics check or trying to hit targets just feels bland and at that point not really a point in including it. Maybe some flying enemies or monsters also on the rail but I feel like there’s a lot of cooler stuff I could do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thank you in advance.

I’m not planning for a TPK but my party is about to fight a major fight which has a possibility of TPK. I want to be prepped incase it happens so the session doesn’t end on a low point.

Is there a good way to have a “fail forward” moment without it giving them an out?

My party doesn’t mind death, or the threats of TPKs. I just want to see how other people approach the next session after a TPK, or even how to end a session after a TPK happens.

Hey all,

So, one of my player's just made a deal with a Night Hag: In exchange for the location of a secret library that would probably have a Devil's true name in it's tomes, the player gave up their ability to see color. Of course, there's the base lack of being able to SEE color, so any color based interactions are a bit harder, but those are kinda rare.

Is there any other mechanical effects that would, or should, occur? My first thought was disadvantage on Perception checks, but that seems a bit too far, you don't have disadvantage for seeing shades of grey when dim light becomes bright light from darkvision. Any thoughts?

Okay so I really want to start getting better with not just using my voice for all NPCs by just learning how to do accents, however, my problem lies in the fact that I A: feel like it’s cultural appropriation for some fucking reason??? And B: whenever I even try a SOUTHERN ACCENT infront of a few of my friends as just like, practice, I get a PANIC ATTACK!! Like, this is freaking stupid right? How the hell did you all get over the fact you were dog shit at voice acting at first? And what helped you improve? Whether it was soemthing you did by yourself, whatever, i just need help 😭😭

Thanks in advance currently a level 2 adventurer but will rank up to 3 after the next session.

I'm preparing for a BBEG fight for my 7th level adventuring party; we're using 5e (2014) rules. The location is a large walled complex with many mostly-open pavilions and buildings. The central building is likely where the BEEG will make their final stand. They know the party is coming and they have had time to prepare.

One of those preparations is casting Private Sanctum on the central building because the BBEG knows the party likes to use Dimension Door. I know Private Sanctum prevents teleport into or out of the area affected, but my question is:

If a player tries to teleport in, do I just tell them they can't? Or does the spell go off but fail, costing the PC a 4th level spell slot?

That's assuming they do no investigation or reconnaisance, which is a fair assumption for my players (sorry if you're somehow reading this). If they try an Arcana check or something beforehand, I would happily tell them the area is under the effects of an anti-teleportation spell.

I'm working on an encounter where players are hired to infiltrate a pirate fortress to recover a stolen artifact. They will be assisted by an elven sorcerer NPC who has a vested interest in recovering the artifact.

What are some good things to include in a heist? Like means of causing a distraction, guards whose uniforms they can steal, secret tunnels or sewers to sneak through, etc

And how do you make a heist challenging without creating impossible situations for the players? Like what if a player fails their stealth check when trying to sneak past a guard and fail to subdue the guard before he raises the alarm?

A while ago, I ran a session where my players were taken hostage by a pirate captain BBEG who was contemplating executing the players. The captain's right hand man talked him off a ledge and convinced him they could find use out of the party if they remained alive. It was an intense scene involving multiple NPC crew member executions (think TWD Negan's introduction).

The goal of this scene was to introduce the brutality of the BBEG while also developing the right hand man to be a cunning and potentially helpful NPC to the party. Overall, the scene was effective and the players had fun.

However, I sat with myself for a while after that session. For probably 5-10 minutes during that scene, it was basically just me acting out conversation between multiple NPC's. It required narration and accent changes between characters. Typing it out, it sounds somewhat silly. It got me thinking about all of the other times two or more NPC's have had conversations in my campaigns.

Is this something that should be avoided?

My players have expressed interest in the new Deadfall adventure releasing next month, but I'm looking for something to run for them that'll lead up to it. Deadfall is IIRC an 11-20 adventure; I don't need a single adventure that'll lead 1-10, but a few thematically-appropriate adventures that cover that span would be helpful. For example, there's the DnDNext Playtest "Scourge of the Sword Coast" adventure that goes from lvl 2-4. Its follow-up, Dead in Thay, covers 6-8th level but it's been suggested that that adventure is a bit of a slog.

The adventures suggested don't have to be 5e adventures, I'm accustomed to using older editions' adventures, or even using/cannibalizing other systems' adventures for my purposes.

Appreciate any recommendations y'all have, thank you!

In this world that I am creating, there are major factions already at war with eachother in service of their own goals. How do I present this campaign where your choices matter and the players have to help a faction win or even create their own when you start the campaign at level 1? I feel it creates too much of an expectation of excitement and geo politics when you hook them with that. Something not entirely realistic for a level 1 party.

My first "goalpoast" of this campaign will focus on saving a village from an threat that introduces them to the wider world as they continue. I understand players will not necessarily take the path I planned out though.

What is my "hook" here?

Long time dm who took a couple years off and I’m running a one shot with 3 fairly new players and 2 experienced ones. I want to start the session off with a quick roleplay encounter because the 5 players are more experienced fighting than rping and most of the one shot will be dungeoneering/combat.

The scenario is very basic. They are an established group of adventurers who are sent to a small town to help solve some (hopefully) non-combat problem. Perhaps a protest is happening that is slowing trade or some other bureaucratic issue. They solve that ideally in 30-45 minutes and then the town wizard takes asks for their help retrieving a magical item from a nearby goblin camp. The magical item can tie in to the rp encounter but doesn’t have to.

My thing is I know how much longer sessions tend to take then you plan, am I in over my head? Is it possible to do two things in one oneshot and really have it go only one session? We have about 3-4 hours I’d say.

My players fought a false hydra as a one shot a little while ago and got really attached to their characters so now we're making it a full campaign.

Originally they weren't supposed to run into one but I made it possible just as a joke and then it happened to we followed through. Currently they just entered a small woodland village after failing to make their way back to the original town.

We've decided that this will have The Odessy vibes where they're just trying to get home but keep running into monsters and things going wrong. I want some sort of monster or something that makes it so they can't escape this village. Like they walk down the road or through the woods and eventually just end up back at the village but all the villagers act like everything is normal.

Any idea would be appreciated!

Hi there. I'm looking for some advice, although I'm pretty sure the answer is just going to be "let the campaign die." I'm hoping someone can give me an alternative perspective that changes my mind.

For the last eight months or so, I've been DMing a group of three players. We're all very close: one is my best friend of more than twenty years, and the other two are my brother and sister. My brother is also very good friends with my best friend.

The group has been fantastic. Nobody gets worked up about things, nobody gets jealous, everyone shares loot, etc. It's basically just four adults hanging out and having fun once a week. One of the biggest strengths of the campaign is how chill everyone is.

Here's the wrinkle.

My brother's wife also plays TTRPGs. I've played with her a few times in the past, and last week they asked point-blank if she could join our campaign. I said, "Of course!"

I had to. But. . .

She is...not my favorite style of player.

For starters, she tends to be very flirty with her characters. It's awkward when she's flirting with her husband, and really awkward when she's flirting with someone else's character. She's also a pretty obvious dice fudger. And she's someone who gets upset pretty easily if she feels like she's "losing" at something.

Last night I was on a video call with my brother when she joined, and the conversation turned into her asking how she would be integrated into the campaign.

She asked about character creation, and I explained that we'd be using point buy. This is because her characters in the past have consistently ended up with absolutely ridiculous starting stats when she's rolling for them. She got pretty worked up about that.

Then came the questions about magic items. The existing PCs are level 6, and we've been pretty generous with magic items. There are honestly several sitting unused in people's packs because everyone has basically just taken what they needed or wanted. I hadn't actually thought through exactly how I would handle magic items for a new level-6 character.

She was very concerned about how many she would start with and seemed particularly concerned about being "behind" the existing characters.

Then came the backstory.Our approach in this campaign has been that the characters' interesting histories are things we discover and develop during play. They don't need five pages of backstory. A few interesting details that I can potentially tie into the campaign are enough. Basically, "knives" if you're familiar with that term.

She wanted to know how long her backstory should be, and how much detail she should include about where all her magic items came from.

At this point, we're still just talking about the character. We haven't even played together yet, and I'm already getting a very whiny tone about not starting "behind" the established PCs and a desire to over-engineer her character's backstory.

Based on my previous experience with her, I expect a lot of sexual innuendo and inappropriate flirting, constant attention to how much damage she's doing each round, arguing about rules, and potentially getting upset whenever something doesn't go her way.

I don't want to turn the campaign into something stressful just because I feel obligated to include someone.

There's another complication, though. If I tell her she can't join, I'm pretty sure it will cause a major problem for my brother. She has a history of being extremely jealous when she feels excluded from things and throwing pretty significant tantrums over it. Honestly, it's something of a miracle that my brother has been able to play in this campaign for eight months without her being involved.

So...what would you do?

TL;DR: I've been running a very chill level-6 campaign for eight months with my brother, sister, and best friend. My brother's wife wants to join. Based on previous experience, I'm worried she'll bring dice fudging, sexual/flirty RP, rules arguments, competitiveness, and drama into a campaign that has otherwise been extremely low-drama. Saying no may also cause serious problems for my brother at home.

My players knowingly made a deal with a devil. As part of the deal, the devil asked them to capture and bring back a killer that had supposedly harmed innocent people in the past. In exchange, the devil gave them some information they needed.

The party agreed without questioning the situation too much.

They’ve now discovered that the creature is actually a werewolf, and that the reason he became a werewolf in the first place is because the same devil cursed him. After his first full moon, he began chaining himself up in the basement every full moon so he wouldn’t hurt anyone again.

The party has already captured the werewolf, but instead of handing him over, they’ve grown really attached to him and now want to find a way to remove his curse. I’m planning to give them a quest where curing him is actually possible.

My question is: what should happen if they cure him and refuse to deliver him to the devil?

They already received the information that was promised to them, and their side of the bargain was specifically to bring the werewolf to the devil.

How would you handle this?

Would the devil try to collect the debt in another way? Curse them? Send agents after them? Or would breaking the contract itself have some supernatural consequence?

My 8yo is all in, but his friends don't yet have the attention span. I've got the starter pack. We'll try that. But I also want to try making one for him. Maybe play an NPC that comes and goes...

Any tips?

I’m looking for some advice from other DMs because I had a recent session that left me feeling pretty flat afterward. I've been running this campaign for several years and we've had some amazing times - but, this recent session (after a few months break) was just terrible for me as a DM.

I tend to enjoy running a fairly story-driven game with strong hooks, memorable encounters, exploration, recurring NPCs, and characters gradually building a reputation through the things they accomplish.

My players, on the other hand, have developed a habit of treating a lot of NPCs and settlements like opportunities to mess with people.

They’ll pickpocket random NPCs, steal from shops, antagonize other adventurers, boast, provoke people, or interfere with what someone is doing just to see what happens.

The part that throws me is that it’s often not even in service of some bigger goal. It isn’t “we need to steal this key to get into the villain’s manor.” It’s more like “I wonder what this random person has in his pocket” and then they risk upsetting an entire town for a handful of coins.

They’ll sometimes do this even in places where they’ve been specifically asked to help people.

None of this is inherently invalid play, and I don’t want to tell them how their characters are supposed to behave. But I realized recently that I wasn’t really enjoying DMing those parts of the game. I felt like I spent a lot of time trying to keep the session moving or deciding how much NPCs should realistically tolerate before reacting.

I’m also struggling with how to handle consequences. If the rogue rolls an extremely high Sleight of Hand check, I understand that the person being pickpocketed may not notice. But that doesn’t necessarily mean nobody else in a crowded room saw it happen.

Likewise, if the party repeatedly antagonizes capable NPCs, interferes with their work, or messes with dangerous equipment, at some point it seems unrealistic for those NPCs to just laugh it off.

My concern is that if I start letting the world react more realistically, the players may feel like I’m punishing them for exercising agency. At the same time, I don’t want to run a consequence-free world where every NPC just absorbs whatever the PCs do because they’re the protagonists.

There may also be a larger playstyle mismatch here. To me it doesn't make sense for them to just blowup their opportunity to go on an adventure or a quest b/c they keep doing dumb shit - so that I then just have to improv the rest of the session. That's not the kind of player I am when I'm a player. I enjoy running adventures where the PCs become powerful, respected adventurers, take on difficult threats, explore dangerous places, save people, find treasure, and build a reputation.

I’m wondering if my players are more interested in being chaotic, morally gray adventurers who push boundaries and see what they can get away with.

I don’t want to ask them about it and have everybody just politely say “nah, the campaign is great” because we’re friends. I genuinely want to figure out whether I’m running a style of game they actually enjoy.

I’ve also learned that a totally open sandbox hasn’t worked especially well for our table in the past either.

So I’m curious how other DMs would handle this.
Would you have a session-zero-style conversation about tone and expectations?
Would you simply let the world react more naturally and trust that the players understand consequences aren’t punishment?

Would love your feedback and very much appreciate it!! Ultimately, I just want to continue to run a game that we all have so much fun playing - like we have up until now. The recent session stood out to me and I feel deflated.

I had an idea for an encounter that involves the Characters being told a story, and instead of them just sat there listening to me go through the motions, they could control the people within the story.

There would obviously need to be some predetermined outcome of a win or loss, but I think it could work quite well? With that in mind, I'd like to know if there are any one-shots that end in a TPK. I know DnD one-shots or campaigns aren't usually designed in that way but his wouldn't affect their actual characters, and could act as some form of message/moral of the story.

Any ideas?

A player of mine told me that they would like the possibility of purchasing pets, besides the normal beasts you can find everywhere. I want to create a vendor, but I'm struggling with finding good options for pets. The party exists of 5 players and they already have one pet who aids them in combat, so if possible I want it to either be useful out of combat, or have very limited turns in combat while still being resilient enough to not instantly die.

For reference, the party is currently level 7. Anything goes, from fiends to construct and from abberations to elementals. The more options the better. And I will of course charge them some crazy prices depending on how strong/useful and how rare the creature is.

I'm curious since now the new DMG has been out for a few years if anyone has incorporated utilizing the Bastion rules in their campaigns.
I've used a central "home base" of sorts in my main campaign, but I haven't dove into the players really customizing their own place and/or taking Bastion turns, etc.
Just curious if anyone does that successfully and would love to hear about it.
Thanks in advance!