r/DnD

Just wrapped up our sixth session in a homebrew 5.5 game. It's been an amazing game, centered around a small farming village. Five players and the DM. The DM has very professional quality materials, and the sessions are more like anime episodes, where each session introduces a conflict, and it is resolved in the 3-5 hour time frame. Episodes build on each other, and the huge cast of NPCs all have memorable personalities and backstories.

Thing is, we're still using the same character sheets we started with. We've solved mysteries, did some minor combat, explored places, avoided traps, and have been doing adventurer stuff. We do have classes and abilities and spells, and we have gotten treasures and improved our place in the village - but the DM hasn't had us upgrade our levels or hit points.

No one has asked or even seems to care. We are having an absolute blast and honestly, nothing we have encountered would require more firepower or skills.

Does this seem super weird? I want to think the DM is just being sneaky and doing some behind-the-curtain improvements to our modifiers and whatnot, and he'll eventually just be like "okay here is your new level 5 sheets," but I afraid to ask and maybe spoil a surprise.

What do yall think?

I'm making a homebrew campaign and a set of my npcs are some musical Kobolds that pop up throughout a dungeon that my players will traverse through. It has 5 membeers and they play Skaa music. Puns and craziness much appreciated.

Simple enough question, I wanna play a character who's a lawyer, but i don't know what class to make her.

I was thinking bard, but idk how well things mesh in that area. I was just hoping to get input here.

I've got her lore all settled. It's just a matter of flavoring gameplay rn

If a character is ahead of the rest of the party, and I have melee combat enemies, that character is getting swarmed and possibly brought down because I keep enemies on an adversary once they've attacked it unless another character has proven they're more of a threat.

On one hand, I think that's what they should do. Concentrate attacks until the adversary is down.

On the other hand , I'm discouraging heroism.

As the title suggests, I (as a fledgling DM) am in dire need of either hilarious or hilariously useless magic items. I have found one that is a helmet that if your spell is, for example, toll the dead, the undead around you pay you the level of your character’s amount in gold. Thank you in advance, love you guys. <3

Currently running a game using monsters that blend in with the other species through their true nature being easily disguised (like vampires and Lycanthropes as I said in the title of the post). Currently I only really need one more group of monsters, though I'd love to hear anymore too for possibly using more.

Edit: Dragons are already one of the groups I'm using. Additionally creatures from different planes (Fiends, Fey from the feywild, Celestials) are ones I'm not using because of a lore reason

My birthday is coming up and my wife asked what I would want if money wasn't a problem. (She is conspiring with other family members so money might actually not be an issue)

Do you all have any ideas?

Some background: We play a small family game in person. I have some minis (nothing over $70), some dungeon tiles, and plenty of adventure books.

Thanks!

My player is a dragonborn wild magic sorcerer. For context, he LOVES wild magic. He rolls it a lot and I let him because it's funny, even if sometimes it's not RAW. Sometimes it causes trouble — we had a chase fight on magical minecarts, and he got teleported into the abyss from the minecart he was riding. But most of the time it's just harmless fun.

Today my players were fighting a major boss. He was tough so the sorcerer used a lot of re-rolls and rolled a lot of wild magic. First, he rolled that Reincarnate will apply to him automatically if he dies within 1 minute. It was the 3rd round of the fight, me and my players kinda joked about it but I didn't think he would actually die.

On his last turn he rolls a 1. He has to roll for wild magic at the start of his every turn for the next minute. Other players shuddered in horror. Thankfully, the fight was over. But it meant that my sorcerer got to roll for wild magic 10 times.

He rolls for the first time. Fireball. He magically lives and leaves one other player with 1 HP. That player runs away into the other corner of the room. Others' characters watch in shock as the sorcerer's wild magic continues.

Second roll. Nothing interesting. Third roll. Fireball. At this point the sorcerer falls unconscious. We stop the rolls to argue if we should continue. My warlock rightfully points out that, since the sorcerer is down, he can't cast wild magic and that after he is reincarnated or healed he shouldn't roll for it anymore. And he's right, of course. But my sorcerer looks at me with those puppy eyes and asks if maybe he can roll the rest of his wild magic before he goes unconscious. This man just exploded 2 times and he wants to continue to roll, who am I to say no? We decided that it'll be funny and all watched as he rolled wild magic and death saves.

At the start his death saves were okay. Then he rolls another Fireball. He exploded AGAIN. Of course, with that he fails his death saves. The warlock pulled out an extended table for Reincarnate and they rolled for his new race. So, from the ashes as a phoenix he rose, as a kenku. And we continued rolling for wild magic.

At this point, all the other characters, the antagonist included, are huddled in the opposite corner of the room. It turns into a straight-up religious experience — they watch as the now kenku sorcerer starts floating, turns into a plant, dies as a plant (so he is kenku again), casts Mirror Image, turns into a plant AGAIN, floats AGAIN, casts Mirror Image once again and, in the end, embraces sobriety. We end the session with me describing how the walls of the dungeon begin to collapse, which I decided is a natural consequence of bombardment of that scale.

Moral of the story — don't let your sorcerer roll for wild magic 10 times. Or let them IDK it was pretty funny.

if you’re my DM i’m so sorry, i just want to get this out

so the group i’m in plays DND regularly on saturdays, usually at a local gaming store. my DM runs the beginner table there, so he takes in all kinds of beginners or people new to DND in general. his table was how i learned to play, and i’m having a lot of fun with the group

however, since he does take all beginners, the group has been increasing in number slowly. i think at the beginning it was 6? now, at the last session, there was 10 people. it was so overwhelming that i left mid-session and four other people weren’t able to play much

we have a discord group, and i messaged our DM about it. i asked him if he could maybe think about splitting it into two tables or finding another DM for another beginners’ table. but he told me he wants to try out a new system where (hopefully) a 10 person party will work out. it’s a hex exploration / westmarches type system where we’ll have quests posted on the discord and we’ll all vote for what to do next session. so in a way, we’ll already know what we’ll be doing and there won’t be so much discussion about next steps at the session

i’m still wary about it though, i feel like it’s still going to be overwhelming. i have autism and i don’t work well in such big groups, small groups like we had before were perfect for me. i’m going to try out the new system, but i’m just nervous

this morning, someone new posted in our discord server, asking if there was room for another player at the beginners’ table. our DM said “yeah there should be room”

there was 10 people at the last session?? what do you mean there should be room??? i know there’s a chance not everyone’s going to show up. but still

am i overreacting? am i just not good enough socially? there are other tables i can join, i’m not stuck to this group. but i’m just disappointed (maybe) with how it is now

I've got an idea for a slightly masochistic warlock; one built around Zhentarim Tactics: Whenever I'm hit, I hit back harder. Pact of the Blade/Greataxe for as much bang for the buck as possible with the ability to roll damage twice. Zhentarim Mercenary background, granting Zhentarim Ruffian, followed by Zhentarim Tactics at level 4. Fiend subclass to have a constant source of temporary hit points to survive the punishment.

My issue, and my question to more experienced warlocks, is how you survive as a straight class Pact of the Blade warlock. At best, I can get an AC of 16 from Mage Armor + Dex 16, but it never seems to scale outside of magic items.

When it comes to AC, I see three obvious solutions:

1. Take a level of fighter for armor proficiency. That'd instantly give me an AC of 18 (Half Plate + Defense Fighting Style + Dex 14). This is the obvious solution, if there are no other good alternatives. Having Weapon Mastery in a few big weapons would be a boon, too. It would delay Zhentarim Tactics until level 5, and extra attack until level 6, though.
2. Take Hexblade instead of Fiend, for AC 17 (Half Plate + Dex 14). It doesn't seem like a worthwhile trade, as I'd lose the thp I'd get from the Fiend subclass. Not to mention, Fiend is a much better fit for the character concept.
3. Take Moderately Armored. The problem is that a) It doesn't increase Charisma, and b) it means I can't take Zhentarim Tactics until level 8, which practically invalidates the build.

I've tried to look at other ways to increase survivability outside of increasing AC. First and foremost ways that do not involve using my Reaction, as I want to use that for Zhentarim Tactics as often as possible.

1. Dwarves gain +1 hp/level. Orcs can survive a fatal blow once per long rest. Sadly, Warforged is not a legal option. Are there other species that can increase my survivability?
2. Lessons of the First Ones: Tough would provide +2 hp/level.
3. Lifedrinker can provide some sustain, but that's not available until level 9.
4. Armor of Agathys provides thp at the start of each fight, which is helpful before I kill my first target (or an ally kills one next to me), and works great with the 'you hurt me, I hurt you more' schtick.
5. Obviously, hanging back and firing Eldritch Blasts increases survivability, but that's pretty suboptimal when it comes to damage, as I won't be taking Agonizing Blast. A better alternative would be to acquire a magic shortbow and bind it with Pact of the Blade.
6. One with Shadows may allow me to start fights invisible, but it's not ideal to walk around invisible all the time in case a fight breaks out. I want my character to be attention-grabbing and boisterous.

There are some spells that increase survivability, such as Darkness and Mirror Image, but they take an Action to set up, which is often not ideal. If I have a round to prepare, I'd prefer to use one of my limited slots to cast Summon Undead, at least from level 5. Not to mention, if I've spent a slot on Armor of Agathys, I only have a single pact slot left. I want to be able to drop a fireball now and then without completely invalidating my build.

Are there other ways to increase survivability that I've missed, preferably ones don't cost a spell slot, an Action to set up or require a specific magic item? Bracers of Defense seems like a no-brainer, but I can't exactly count on getting it early.

I dont get it. Why is it apparantly one of the strongest in entire game.

Its a Monk that heals for Ki Points. Or "Monk smite".

But like. Other subclasses also are good why is this Better?

I wanted to get into Dnd for a long time and discovered there is a shop close to me that hosts games, I've never played it but wanted to as the title says, if it were you would you mind someone in my position asking if they can learn the game from you guys?

As a dm I’ve been doing a mythology campaign for almost a year now with 3-4 of my friends. This is the first campaign they’ve ever played so I gave them some space to understand how to play but they all know how to play pretty well now even the main person who keeps complaining bought the main books to play. For the past 5-6 sessions he’s been complaining about how he doesn’t get this or he can’t get that (it’s all about what he wants to get from me), and throughout the campaign they’ve each collected these special weapons to defeat the gods. But every time another player gets someone from a piece of wire to a special weapon he complains on why he didn’t get anything, also as a paladin he has killed people who didn’t do anything wrong and when I told him he broke his oath he didn’t care even though his whole backstory is about how he is a protector from evil. I also already tried to punish him with the law but then he complains more about how he did nothing wrong and doesn’t want to play if its like that. I’ve talked to him about 3 times now about he needs to stop complaining if things don’t go his way and how it’s even annoying the other players. I talked to the other players about this issue but they say they don’t want him to leave or it will be boring.

So I’m just trying to see if I can find a way to get him to stop without the whole party leaving.

Added note: Multiple times if he didn’t do what he wants or hits the enemy he runs away looking for loot almost tpking the party.

I'm running a 5.5 campaign that just hit level 5 and it's been going really well! But I have a question about the 5.5 Fighter since it's my first time running a game with one.

The fighter took the Dual Wielder Feat, and is using a short-sword + dagger. So far that's played out as using their main Attack to do Sword + Dagger, then their Bonus action to Attack with the Dagger, since it has the Light property.

Now with Level 5 the character has Extra Attack also. I think that, all together, that should bring their total number of attacks per turn up to 4? But I'm not sure. My reasoning goes that Two Light weapons without any feat would let them attack twice- once with their Normal Action, once with their Bonus action. Weapon Mastery (Nick) lets them move those two attacks into their main action and free up their Bonus Action. Dual Wielder Feat lets them then use that Bonus Action to attack again. Extra Attack then should just add one attack to their Main Action making the rhythm Action (Shortsword, Shortsword, Dagger) and Bonus Action (Dagger) but does that hold together, or is it a nerf?