u/DeaconBlueMI

For those of you that play AL regularly or used to…

Did you often rebuild a character you made as they progressed or did you usually stick with a build and not monkey around with it once the character started leveling?

Many/most of the builds posted here about optimizing your own character to do as much damage or be the most effective it can be.

I’m curious if anyone has any favorite builds or tips for a character whose main goal is to optimize his other party members first and then maybe do damage as a secondary goal?

I know the general ways you can do it…things like bless spells…paladin auras…Bardic Inspiration. But I’m curious about good builds that put things together in the most effective package.

I was watching an old Sly Flourish video and he mentioned that he gets more ideas and inspiration for his homebrew campaigns from campaign setting books (like the Forgotten Realms book) than from taking pieces from published adventures.

I’m looking at creating most of my own little world for my next campaign, but I was curious if any DMs had suggestions for campaign/world setting books (not adventures) that they were able to get good inspiration from.

I was wondering if anyone had an experience or reviews of the Legends of Greyhawk adventures they have for sale on Beyond?

I'm joining a campaign with a group that's currently mostly all melee. I think I'd be starting around level 7. Since there's not much support (buffing or healing), control or AOE in the group I thought a DS Sorcerer might be an interesting fit. (Light Cleric could fit I suppose but I've played one and I'd like to try something a little different).

For folks that might have some experience playing Divine Soul in 5.5 I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have. Builds, spell choices, feats, metamagic - anything that works really well now, especially if its different from 2014.

I think mostly I'm looking at him focusing on support and control but able to do some aoe when it makes sense.

I’m a little confused on what version or the Grave Domain cleric to use. Since that domain is now reprinted in the Ravenloft source book -

Can I play a Grave Domain cleric in a Forgotten Forgotten Realms based AL game?

If I can do I use the Ravenloft version or the 2014 version?

I ask because my understanding is Ravenloft character options are only supposed to be used in the Ravenloft setting?

I was just curious. When you use D&D Beyond for in person play at the table. Do you use the app or your character on the website/web page?

Some context. It’s towards the end of a multi-year campaign. Players are 10th level. The first time playing D&D for many of them.

They’ve fought down to the lower levels of a dungeon where they know there are 5 mcguffins. They know the more mcguffins they take out the easier the final fight will be. But there’s a ticking clock and there wouldn’t be time to get them all. Each mcguffin is in a different section separated by decent distance. They well know there’s danger down there.

They decided to split up and each investigate a different area. At first I thought they were just doing a little recon but kept pushing farther and farther in until each one of them started encountering the different guards for each area. A group of 5 10th level characters wouldn’t have trouble, but just one player is probably toast. They even have a telepathic bond spell cast on them by the party wizard so I let them share what they were seeing and encountering taking turns around the table.

Each of them had multiple chances to back off and regroup but none of them did. There was plenty of foreshadowing for them to know they were getting into something.

I honestly felt like they were punking me! So now I don’t know what to do? Do I play things out how they actually would play out and end with multiple character deaths or probably a tpk 5 sessions before the end of a campaign, letting the chips fall where they may? Or do I finagle things and try and find a way to let them get out of their predicament?

Edit -
I know there's been lots of comments already and that's great. I also know opinions may have been formed already, but I wanted to add a couple notes to the post that I've said in threads that may add some additonal context.

We're running Red Hand of Doom which is a Tiamat/Chromatic Dragon inspired adventure. The 5 chromatic dragon colors have been used throughout the adventure and having 5 characters and 5 dragon themed areas was not an intended thing.

Also, before the characters made any of these choices I was clear that there was a ticking clock (they can see the physical count down die) and that getting each of the mcguffins was NOT intended or needed. They knew each of them should be well defended. We had discussed this is the last section of the campaign and the BBEGs lair. It would be well defended and they had experienced that so far. All of that was discussed above table and through in game information reveals early in the evening.

Multiple times multiple characters said while they were splitting up “I probably shouldn’t be doing this” and I’d ask if they wanted to continue on their path and they chose to.

In an ideal world I'd bet most DMs would love to be able to create combats with unique monsters with interesting abilities (from books like Forge of Foes) AND environments/fight locations that the players and monsters can interact with that can affect the fight. Unfortunately I don't always have that kind of time.

In your experience, if you had to choose one of those things which one helps make the combat more fun and interesting?

I'm planning to run Tales from the Yawning Portal for some friends and we're planning on using the 5.5 rules.

I was looking through the adventure on Beyond and noticed all the links to monster's, spells, items etc all link back to the legacy version of those. It will make using DDB for the adventure a bit complicated.

I'm sure its a pretty big undertaking to change all the links from the old books to the updated links/versions, but 5.5 has been out for well over a year now.

Does anyone know if that's something on the roadmap or is it not something I should be holding my breath for?

I’m finding my biggest problem creating home brew encounters, quests and adventures is just getting the ball rolling. If I can get a couple words, ideas or monsters for inspiration I can go from there, but sometimes I find myself getting paralyzed at the start with a blank sheet/screen in front of me.

Does anyone have suggestions of resources that might have lists or rollable tables that can help give inspiration for quests and adventures? I’m not looking for random encounter tables really. But some prompts for things that I can turn into a few sessions worth of content.

For you DMs that DM away from home, I'm curious about what you pack to take with you to your games? Some times I feel like I may haul too much.

My pack usually consists of a crate holding a collapsible folder of 2D terrain, a little box of 1 inch wood cubes to make actual elevation/walls if needed, condition rings and aoe markers, a pack of 2d/printable minis for planned encounters if I have time to print/cut organize, a tackle box that holds all my doodly-dos (meeples, markers, dry erase pens, 1 inch/2 inch dry erase circles to use as emergency/random encounter minis, flying stands, dice, spare parts) and my roll of dry erase maps. I also have a couple binders of Pathfinder Pawns I usually don't haul around unless I think I might need them.

My backpack has my Chromebook, DM binder, session folder/clipboard and whatever other random stuff I need.

What's in your kit? I'm always looking for ideas that could make things easier for me and more fun for the players, but still easy to haul around.

I know there’s lots of videos with suggestions on better ways to prep and how not to over prep.

I was wondering what has worked for regular joe DMs to break the over prep habit? Did you force yourself to go into sessions cold turkey with little or nothing prepped?

My weakness is dungeon crawls. I feel like I need to have the whole place prepped because I have no idea how fast the group will make it through.

I know this is going to be fully based on the personal opinion of those responding.

I was curious what folks believe is the class that is most affected by the subclass choices available?

Which class has subclasses that make the most difference in how the class is played depending on the subclass chosen, making it feel like it has the most variety in play-styles and “feel” and “vibes”?

We'll be starting a new campaign soon and its the first time I'm trying to run something in a completely homebrew world.

My intention is to have the group all starting together with some ties to each other and the small town they are starting in.

For DMs that regularly run in homebrew worlds, I'm curious how much of it you showed your players at the start? I like the idea of spiraling out into larger and larger areas as the players level, but I also want the world to feel alive and something worth exploring.

Did your players have a map of your whole world or just their local area? Did the know about major cities and points of interest that were more than a few days travel from their home village? Did you let them discover events and plots in different areas or did you tell them where they could find different things from the get go? I'd be happy to hear any tips you might have that helped your players explore your world.

You get asked to fill in as a DM (or you volunteer) at your FLGS on short notice.

What T1 and T2 adventures are your go to's that are fun and also easy to prep?

We have lawn seats for N1 in GR and we’re taking our soon to be 9 year old to his first show (it’s actually his birthday that day).

Any tips for a smoother time for him (and his parents)?

Ear protection is handled. I’m bummed the new arena in GR doesn’t have chair rental but we’re planning to bring them with.

I tend to lean towards classes/builds that can do a decent job at damage and support or control. I'll be playing a sorcerer in a 5.5 campaign and I'm trying to decide which way to possibly go between Divine Soul and Spellfire. We'll probably be going to around level 12 or 13.

I know Divine Soul didn't get the expanded spell list that redesigned subclasses did (were playing Adventurer's League rules so no homebrewing an expanded spell list or anything), but they did get more prepared spells than they did in 2014 and having access to the whole cleric spell list allows a lot of choices. The Spellfire sorcerer does get to lean into all of the benefits and design changes that came with 5.5 (like handing out temp HP)

Has anyone played either of them so far or have any thoughts on which one feels more well rounded or (in their opinion) fun to play?