r/AskDND

Hello everyone,

Assuming that a party member dies and you use your Speak with Dead (2024) spell on them, what would you ask? I know it greatly depends on many context, lets assume a random encounter. What would you usually ask or weird things would you ask?

Typing this quickly as I need to go to work, throwaway cause I don't use reddit.

I need some advice, I've been feeling exhausted and annoyed with a DM and two players in a group I play with. Little things here and there but I've moved on from it and said it's fine, people have different approaches to do things. It mainly kicked up when the DM decided to do a one shot based on another players backstory, we were high level and they were low level to represent their beginnings. We were given the normal starter gold and told we could spend it on magic equipment, I mentioned to my DM about this magic item that lets me take 2hr long rests and he said it was fine. For context, I was playing basically a support build, very little offensive capability.

We play the first few parts of the one shot and they were good, everyone was contributing and the story was progressing. Here are some things that started happening that I thought were strange; Firstly, by the end of the second part of the one shot, the DM introduced an NPC to the low level player who hadn't engaged or interacted with the rest of the party at all. This NPC gave him access to "every magic item in the game", I'm not kidding, he was only limited by attunement but had access to more than we did, literally spending 10-20min scrolling through magic items when he thought he could do something. Secondly, I used all my spell slots to heal players and important NPCs and tried to take a 2hr rest, I got interrupted. I tried again, got interrupted again, then plot happened and I couldn't take a long rest after that. The time span between these interruptions was twice from midnight to midday, I later messaged the DM asking if he could explain why I couldn't take a rest with the time gap being so huge, he never responded.

Come to the final session, I ask in front of everyone why he didn't respond to me, he didn't even speak to me, he just said to everyone "Oh yeah, he messaged me and asked about the long rest and I didn't respond because I thought it was funny". He then gave a shitty plot twist to my character that kind of made sense yet was just shit, changing my characters entire perspective and basically how he was (imagine, half his life was a lie and he was working for someone who didn't care about him). And then after the moral decision I made to stop this entity, he stripped me of almost all my features, directly or indirectly relating to this decision. I thought this was okay but annoying cause it was almost the end.

I again afterwards asked him what that was all about and he said to me "you thought I would let you play out all the quotes you did for this character?". Context, I did a lot of research to RP this character and had a list of sayings that I prefaced to him that I wouldn't mind if we said them all, I said about three the entire game, and he was the one that initially suggested it. I got pretty frustrated, back in the main game, my character was going to go through a class change that I discussed with the DM and he agreed, it comes to the moment of the game, I don't get the opportunity to do the RP moment, I subtly hint that if he forgot something, the other player that is inconsiderate tells me "He said we're calling it", I just said okay and disconnected.

What frustrates me is that this player the DM did the one shot for and the other player who is just always rude and inconsiderate are getting on my nerves yet the DM shows preferential treatment towards them. I've known the DM for longer and another friend who I'm close with joined yet I feel more distant with him that I have before. A friend no connected to this group said I should just leave saying that I can't make the weekend session anymore, something's come up, etc, but I also don't want to let my friend who recently joined down. Yet, I feel like I can't discuss this with the DM as he'll just either leave me on read again or not take me seriously, what should I do?

Basically, the party is seeking several ancient artifacts, each of which is connected to a heroic trait (perseverance, caution, etc.) and each of the villains have these artifacts, but they demonstrate twisted versions of these traits, for example perseverance becomes stubbornness, caution becomes fear, and so on.

The problem is that I’ve been planning the villains before the artifacts, and then twisting their traits into good things. But I’ve hit a roadblock with the latest one. He gets visions of the future, and seeing how bleak and miserable they all are, he embraces hopelessness and decides that if everyone’s going to die anyway, he might as well put on a show for their demise.

No matter how hard I think, I just can’t come up with a way to twist this nihilistic hopelessness into a positive trait, so I was hoping maybe someone here would be able to help

This isn't exactly for DnD but I think I can post this here anyways. I am running a session where players will try to enter a nightclub to interrogate the owner about some information they want. The owner, a fancy rich man, will not fight them or try to stop them. Instead, he will play a game with them. If the party wins, they get the info they want, if they don't, he gets something from them. I want this game to have stakes, be either a game where someone could get seriously hurt or a game that forces my players to doubt or conspire against one another, preferably both.

Problem: I'm not smart enough to make it myself. So I'm asking you.
Do you know of any engaging, tense games that my villain can play with the party?

since the grung have to submerge themselves in water for an hour or so every day, what are your thoughts on walking around with a grung size pot filled with water? lol 😂

Hi everyone! I’m preparing my first homebrew one shot and could use some advice. It’s a mystery campaign, where the players are essentially told “something is wrong. Go find out what,” and have to figure out everything on their own. I’m prepping several clues for them, one of which is a journal from an NPC. I hid the answers they need in the entries, but need to know if it’s too obvious/too hidden. So my ask is, if anyone has a few minutes to spare, can you read through the “journal entries” and respond with where you would look for the monster? If you also feel up to it, what strategies you might use hunting it, how you would fight it, etc. Thank you in advance!

Journal:
·       “Something isn’t right in Carmathan. In my alms distribution, I have found many homes vacant, in various states of abandonment. Some still with food on their tables, beds slept in, clothing laid out, pets neglected. Businesses with full stores, money in purses. Some looked freshly abandoned. Some covered with thick layers of undisturbed dust and rotten food as if they had been vacant weeks, or even months. If people abandoned these places, why leave them in these states? Why not take valuables? And why does no one know of these inhabitants? Maybe it’s paranoia, but I must investigate further.” 
·       Several pages ripped out.
·       “The ledgers, records, none of it matches up. None of it makes sense. Names no one recognizes. Payments from accounts with no owners. I feel mad. Am I going mad?’
·       (scribbles) Cen. LY = 1532 TY = 916
o   “None know of any who departed. None recognize the names, even those sharing family names. No funerals. None of the names mark gravestones in the cemetery. How can this be??”
·       “My research has made me a pariah. No one sees what I see. No one suspects anything. My last dear friend, Meltara, has bid me seek help before she will see me again. I feel utterly alone. Do I save myself, abandon these people who are blind to their fate and flee? Back to the safety of my father? Could I forgive myself for such cowardice?”
·       “I have found another who might sense what I have. Some weeks ago, poor Jeremiah, the deaf old beggar, covered in sewage and filth, began ranting and raving in the streets about “the heads, so many heads, so many faces”, warning anyone who would come near. Many assumed it was his latest subject matter during yet another drunken spell. After screaming into the early hours of the morning, they locked him up, forbidden to speak to visitors. According to a guard, the drink has long since left him, but still he raves about the “heads”. Have I done what others have done to me, assume him mad when he sees what others do not? If only there were a way to speak to him. I must know what he knows.”
·       “Thrice now I have written details from conversations I do not recall. Who is Meltara? This supposed dear friend? I don’t remember writing about her, nor who she is. When I called upon the others mentioned in my notes, there was no sign of them ever living there. Either the evil I sense here is far more sinister than I imagined, or I truly am going mad. Helm help us.”
·       “The church bells no longer ring. Did they ever ring? The street lamps go unlit. The darkness seems familiar. Trash lays uncollected, our streets reeking like the very sewers. Surely someone must be responsible for these things. But who? And where have they gone?”
·        “The town notice board is filled with missing posters. I have taken many and spoken to their authors. All but one has no knowledge of the posters, nor their subjects. What could this mean? Greyson, the armorer, is the only one who remembers his dear wife.”
·       Several pages torn out
·       “Memory has become burdensome….. my very thoughts and recollections bring about unease and dread…. I don’t feel safe in my own mind”
·       “There is a sound. It is not loud. It is not quiet. It is simply there. A hum in my very bones. Like wind in distant pipes. Like a hymn heard through walls.”
·       “I can hear it during the day now. Not singing. Breathing. Like a great lung filling beneath the town. No one reacts. No one hears it. Trust the silence.”
·       “Do not trust your memory. Do not trust the town. Do not trust the song. It is not beautiful. It is hunger.”
·       More ripped pages
·       “They are watching” (a bunch of times)

PS - This is my first homebrew attempt…. So please be nice 😭

Edit: this is our first time doing homebrew, so I’m not anticipating the players being able to guess what it is. Even if they do they still need to find it.

our DM is a new DM we are all relatively new players, I used to DM for before, anyways the DM created something called a " Mana Geyser" it's a magical item that allows the user to limit the magical levels of the world in a specific place like stopping teleport rings and circles from working and every spell higher than lvl 2 automatically fails or actually has no effect, this " Mana Geyser " collects the magic from the area and gives it to it's user allowing them and who ever they choose to use magic freely in the area with limited magic for others, iam not sure if he intend for it to be only for enemies and not something we use as players, at some point we managed to distract the user and his allies to move away from it we were in a cave and the other party members ran in different tunnels to move them away from it , I managed to get to it trying to disable it ( iam a artificer and the other party members are a warlock, sorcerer and a monk) the DM tells me I can't and it only interacts with wizards and sorcerer ( after I got a high result with the arcana roll for it something like 23 or more I don't remember now ) when our sorcerer came trying to stop it the DM revealed it can boost the users lvl and allows them to be lvl 20 temporarily ( we were lvl8) now this lvl 20 sorcerer used a wish spell to wish for a simulacrum of his lvl20 self and told that simulacrum to also wish for one until he got 10 lvl20 sorcerer simulacrums .

After a while one of the enemies managed to use dispel magic on 9 of them, the remaining one was in a different place that simulacrum used it's wish like before until there were 100 simulacrums , the sorcerer gave everyone 5 simulacrum , and after some fights we got to lvl 10 , now my question how do we fix this and how do I help my DM fix this without stepping on the sorcerer shoes or the DM's

Update: Thank you all for your input and great advice, I sent some comments from this post to the DM and researched some points with him, we just finished our session , the DM at some point in talking with the sorcerer told him he will eventually kill them all ( the simulacrums) with another magic field or he would upset a very specialised guild that Hunts ppl's clones because of some fear of clones. the sorcerer also tried to say he can sacrifice sorcery points to get that lvl eazly, at the end I had to inter the chat and explain to both the mistakes in calculation and told the DM not to deduct the lvl we got and told the sorcerer he gets to keep one simulacrum both said ok , but the DM informed us he made one of the enemies survive after we killed him, Again thank you for the help

Just asking, no reason. Haha seriously would love recommendations of the worst dnd monsters to be stuck in small spaces with. Not necessarily the most dangerous but more the most terrifying.

So I’m running CoS but have had to do a few one shots in between when some players couldn’t make it but the rest wanted to play DnD, no problem!

But I find it really hard to write a one shot that is started and tied up in the same session (usually around 3-4 hours) I either feel I’m putting too much in and it drags OR feel I’m just skimming a story that won’t have any weight. No idea how best to get a good balance.

For example I have started prepping last night and the story will be;

• new characters all are kind 10ish years old or so and they are in a new town brought by their parents for whatever reason

• they walk aimlessly until they meet Rick an older cool kid wizard who gets them to do some prank or steal

• he then dares them to go to the abandoned orphanage at the edge of town

• as soon as they all enter all the doors & windows slam shut & Rick transforms into an older man (creepy, tall rotten teeth etc.) the old master of the orphanage (Rickton)

• He wants to punish them for being “Evil children”. as they walk through the building they see flashbacks of the abuse he put the children through & he will periodically appear fight them & disappear (beating them every time)

• there will be the Ghost of a Nun appearing to heal them ( a lady who loved the children & tried to protect them from the Headmaster)

that’s all I’ve got so far. the idea was to make them young kids to make them feel weak and actually be scared of the Headmaster master (Rickton) as well as him being OP.

My idea is to have them solve puzzles fight Rickton as they go until eventually they level up & the Nun steps in to help them finally beat him and escape/ destroy the old orphanage.

This just doesn’t feel up to snuff but not sure if I’m being too critical.

Ps. All players have asked for creepy & grim story

starting off this is a ditch account and no names will be used: I 26m have just started my first real dnd campaign and not just multishots. We have 3 of my irl friends playing and 4 online friends playing. Two of my irl friends are doing brother characters that they have had saved for multiple years together. They are very indepth homebrew characters (seem very overtuned so far) one of them is the intelligent dragonborn warlock and the other is a very low iq (6int) draconborm barbarian. I am playing an assassin rouge with a greedy streak but helps in the group. The issues came up first session in but came to a larger head at the 3rd session. Befire eveb the first session the 6int character ill call Glut. Tells everyone for weeks how strong his character is and talks over and over about how if you dont feed his character he will get violent with you. First session starts and glut tries to eat multiple dead npcs rations off the corpses as a fight starts. Well that can be simply chalked up to his character no issue. When the fight is done without any prompt he goes back to it and two other player characters, one brand new to dnd. wants to get on his good side, one of them is warforged and the other is a skeleton of somesort(not yet known). Both do not need to eat so they give him all of their rations with no concern which he takes and eats as much as he can. His brother character takes some away for later but he still tries. The other players have agency but it's metagaming to me to just give a guy a bunch of food you just met with no request. The dead npcs have a few dead horses so my character, a survivalist, butchers the hindquarters of a horse and bleeds it and hangs it from their bag. Then the area ends we travel and then set up camp. I see the brother character set up an altar and burn food to it as a sort of ritual. I keep this in mind. two sessions later we arive at the edge of the first city. the brother goes to make an offering before we head in so i offer him two fish i caught from a nearby lake as we made our travels. He uses them for the ritual. This establishes i will give up food to them but only for this ritual (the greedy character wouldnt blindly give food but if there is possible protection we are recieving i paid into it) This was the best way i could come up with to try to apease the situation Glut has made.

We have successfuly escorted the woman who survived the event where the npcs died and get rewarded for her return. We are advised to sign up with the guilds in town to recieve legal papers to be able to enter and exit this town on our own. Great going well. We have some down time and the magically adept wish to seek out a store for magical wears and materials. They are advized by the guild master and they set off. This leaves myself, Glut, and the newbie bard who gave him his rations without ever being asked. We are sitting in the bar area I buy myself a drink and wait by a symbol i see on the wall (theives cant) glut sees the mission requests and is trying to judge them based on the photos since he cant read, the bard goes over and reads the mission word for word to the glut, even the request where the reward is 8,000 gp, and 1 month worth of rations for clearing out blood flies from an overrun butcher shop. His character freaks out with excitement saying hes going to get 30 rations as a reward and insists we do this mission first. I walk over and read it and say, well it says 30 rations and the money so it would be split between the group. So youd get a some because everyone would get some. His character gets pissed, saying im trying to take his food away. i said no i am not im saying the reward doesnt say 30 rations for everyone it says 30 rations total, ive gotta eat too man. He then grabs me by the throat and says again im trying to seal from him and just using big words to get away with it. The bard puts his hand against his arm holding me telling him to let me go. Glut listens since the bard fed him twice and he throws my character as he lets go. I draw my daggers since ive been assaulted by him and then his character gets more pissed and asks tries to fight in the guild but the guild leader tells us to go outside, i say i dont want to fight you. He keeps asking for us to go outside so he can kill my character. The DM, gluts bff, steps in with the others ariving back around then.

Post session gluts player, hey, sorry for almost killing your character. in a dimeaning way. I said you character could certainly have tried. he launches in bragging about how strong his character is and i said i could fly away, he said he has a mechanic that lets him increase his fly speed to 120 and i would fly faster than you and just breath weapon you to death, I said you know, not everyone has to do everything you say, were not all here playing your little fantasy, if your level 3 character can so easily just kill mine its the DM's fault for letting you play it. You cant brag about how your character is good at everything excluding intelligence and force other people to do what you say, my character has their own mission their own goals. Youre not the only important one. Id just fly to the guards take damage along the way and youd be arrested by them since they would be much stronger as capital guards than a lvl 3, then its jail or fine.

Gluts character after being called out goes to drop out of the campaign since no one likes his character, the dm's cousin complained about how glut was acting. I spoke to Gluts player again and asked if the inteligence issue and flaw of being perpetually hungry could be played slightly different, for example you can eat dangerous things out of hunger, or you be hostile about food towards people outside of this group but not inside. He said " It cannot, my character will not change, I have been putting him together for 2 years and people dont like him. I will not be changing how he acts and or make a new character." He then continues the threat of dipping out until more than 50% are asking for him to stay in the game. Then he says he will keep playing but hes not going to change anything still. I mention even a 3 strike rule would be better than, my teammate made my character angry once, he deserves to die and then try to kill them. I will not be feeding his character im playing someone Greedy, I made concessions to try to make a bridge, He is unwilling to change a behavior slightly for his overtuned, arrogant dragonborn.

TLDR: dnd campaign starts, 6 int teammate demands everyone feed his character or he will hate you, my first conversation with him I tell him a mission reward of food is for everyone and he tries to kill my character with no hessitation. DM is his best friend but still told him to stop. Teammate threatens to leave until people beg him to come back and he insists there will be no change to his character.

How do I navigate this situation, The DM does care more about this game than Glut but glut comes immediately after. Can this situation be salvaged or is it better to get out while its early. Another Irl friend is joining as a first time player too and is likely to just do what Glut says personality wise I dont think this behavior will stop. I cannot reconcile being a survivalist rogue character and giving a dumb oaf all of my food to just not die.

Im trying to build an orc armorer artificer but i dont know which infusions would be cool or powerful to choose. I rly wanna be a front liner with the dreadnought mode. I also don't know what spells are actually good for artificers as they are half-casters and i have never played one. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

(Oh yea my sweet dm gives us a free feat at lvl 3 so dat would also be great) Edit: As someone pointed it out there are no infusions in 5.5e so yeah just imagine i wrote magic items instead of infusions

Bastions are one of the 5.5e ideas I keep going back and forth on.

On paper, I really like them. Giving the party a home base, NPCs, facilities, and something that grows alongside the characters sounds like exactly the kind of thing that can make a campaign feel more grounded and personal.

But in practice, I’m not fully sure how naturally they fit into every kind of campaign.

In my experience, players often like the idea of having a base, a ship, a guildhall, a tower, or some kind of home between adventures. But once the campaign starts moving, especially if the party is traveling a lot or following a more urgent plot, it can be hard to make that home base feel relevant without forcing the campaign to bend around it.

So I’m curious how people are actually using them.

Have Bastions added something meaningful to your campaign?

Do your players care about them and interact with them regularly?

Or do they mostly feel like a cool system that only really works if the campaign is designed around them from the start?

I’d especially like to hear from DMs who tried them for more than a few sessions.

I'm a new DM and my party and I have been using a premade campaign but are feeling like it's a bit too combat heavy. We want to do something that's more explorative and interactive without having to create a homebrew from scratch, since we aren't experienced enough to be comfortable with that. Does anyone have any suggestions or resources for something like that?

Edit: The premade campaign we are using is called the Tyranny of Dragons

Hello! I'm starting to get into D&D and I had an idea for a character I want to make and play as, but I'm not sure what type of Goblin species they would classify as. Essentially I was thinking of a regular cave goblin you would see with green skin yellow eyes, long ears and really small. I can't seem to find anything that would match that in D&D Beyond. I want her to be a rogue like character who's parents were killed by a wizard for stealing his staff, but she was hidden away from the wizard with the staff so every chance she can she tries to use the staff and fails, but keeps up hope in the long run hoping to find and kill the wizard with his own staff. I guess I'm asking of what would be the Goblin class I would use for that? If I can! Any information would be great because I have no one I know who is interested in D&D to really talk to in order to learn the game and mechanics. I watch a bunch of videos but even those are limited on teaching the game.

I love makin characters and i really wanna play something with bows/crossbows (anything besides rangers, hate that class). And i have no idea which class would be cool. It would be awesome if ya'll could recommend a few classes subclasses races feats or even entire builds. We play 5th edition and my dear dm gives us a free feat at lvl 3 n 10 so basiclly anything is on the table

(answered)

Hi!! I know this is probably strange cuz I only joined the subreddit a couple of minutes ago, but I need help! (I apologise for the formatting, I'm on mobile)

I'm a first time DM, and I've only played a couple times. I'm doing a magicless dnd game that's based loosely in httyd, but I'm confused on the character sheet aspect of it :,)

I'm unsure how to fill out the inspiration, proficiency bonus, saving throws, and skills section. I'm not quite sure how to fill out the hit dice either!

I apologise if I'm bothering anyone, I've just wanted to do a campaign based in the world of httyd for so long, and I don't want to let my players down :)

Edit: I don't have a player handbook and I don't know how to get one. I'm a teen and this is my first time DMing

Edit 2: I know how to get a player handbook! I'll look at that over the next two days

Edit 3: damn, I get it, I'll try something else.

Edit 4: still gonna play it like this anyhow, thank you so much to all of the people who helped!!

Edit 5: I think, due to a few people saying going magicless was stupid, I think I have an idea how to balance it without giving the players magic. Would giving the dragons their standard abilities, and make them an extension of the characters work? I know it's still probably still dumb, but whatever- (right now we have a woolyhowl, stormcutter and a deathsong. I'm waiting for my other players to hand in their character sheets)

Does anyone know if playtest content often gets fully released? And if so how long does it normally take?

I’m trying to figure out if one of my D&D characters should stay a pure Sorcerer, multiclass into Bard later, or just have “bard-like” interests/personality without actually taking bard levels.

Her name is Vaelysia. She’s a tiefling who got lost in the Feywild as a child and was raised by a hidden Fey community made up of Eladrin, satyrs, spirits, musicians, storytellers, dancers, etc. The Feywild itself basically changed her over time, and her magic became tied to emotion and wonder rather than bloodline or study. Her sorcerer magic manifests artistically and emotionally... glowing butterflies appearing around her, flowers blooming, illusions forming unconsciously, lights reacting to her feelings, etc.

Personality-wise, she’s very emotionally open, expressive, warm, sincere, wonder-driven, and artistic. She LOVES:
- music
- dancing
- storytelling
- poetry
- emotional expression
- making people feel joy/alive

The thing I’m conflicted on is this:

Should she:

1. Stay a pure Sorcerer, with all the artistic/self-expression stuff simply being her personality and how her magic manifests?
2. Multiclass into Bard later as character growth, representing her learning how to intentionally connect with and inspire others through art/music/stories?
3. Actually just BE a Bard instead of a Sorcerer?

I feel like her magical origin screams Sorcerer, but her personality and upbringing scream Bard, so I’m stuck between “bard flavor” vs actually taking bard levels.

Curious what you all think fits best narratively and mechanically.