r/dndnext

[LFDM] Adult Trio Seeking DM for 2024 D&D Campaign — Fridays/Saturdays @ 8 CST — Long-Term

Who We Are: husband and wife team (possibly a third close friend), searching for a Dungeon Master a long-term, story and narrative -focused campaign with a good mix of combat. We’re consistent, drama-free, still in the honey moon phase , and ready to play.

Tone & Playstyle: • We enjoy a serious campaign with meaningful character development and a rough 50/50 split of combat and story • Shenanigans, humor, and memorable moments are absolutely welcome—we’re not trying to recreate a grimdark misery simulator • We prefer a table that keeps modern political debates and ideological messaging out of the game—we’re here for heroic fantasy, not culture wars or real-world soapboxes. Respectful adults of any background welcome

System & Rules: • D&D 2015 ruleset (5.5e) • Balanced world-fitting homebrew allowed

Schedule: 🕗 Fridays or Saturdays 🕣 Start time: 8::30-9:30 PM CST ⏳ 2–3 hour sessions ♻️ Weekly or bi-weekly

What We Want in a DM: • Comfortable with (or eager to run) 2015 rules • Focus on narrative cohesion, meaningful stakes, and player agency • Reliable, mature, and able to strike a balance between roleplay, combat, and exploration.

Interested? Comment or DM us with: • Who you are • Your DM style • Any campaign ideas you’d love to run

We’re hoping to start soon and look forward to meeting the right DM!

I am curious, if you were in a situation where your group needed a fighter style character but you wanted to play a full caster, what kind of build would you go for?

More specific version. Level 1 to 20 campaign, the other party members are a life cleric, a Thief rogue, and an evocation wizard. You want to make a character that fits well with the group, doesn't overlap too much with party role, and is fun. As well as being a full caster. What are you playing?

edit: that party is just an example, also curious for other scariest where you'd usually assume a fighter or a barbarian as the 4th member

Hello! So I am playing a Paladin for the first time and the only other character/class I have played before is a druid.

Now playing a Paladin I have thought of various ways to make him be quite protective and semi-passive. Primary weapon is a warhammer and a shield.

And I got an idea as I skimmed feats and check the weapon mastery.

On a hit I can push an opponent 10 feet with the Push mastery of the warhammer, I found it funny when I did and then found Crusher feat which also causes a push mechanic... Shield mastery also gives the option to shove and with Thunderous Smite I have a chance to shove again.

I believe I can potentially shove people 30 feet away in one hit and I thought this was visually hilarious, so I wonder how I can take this farther, and it is mostly fun and not about best damage or so but any tips would be great!

And do share any fun builds or strategies you have used!

So we've been running a year and a half campaign. We are a party of six and we just hit level 10 the other day. Till a couple of days ago, the sorcerer of the party outdamaged every single member of the party and it wasn't even close, but in a struck of genius, me and my friend have found an insane combo that wrecks.

My friend is a paladin 9/cleric 1. He just took his cleric dip and chose the order domain. Through voice of authority he can command one ally after afecting it with a spell to make a reaction attack. I'm a swashbuckler 5/battlemaster 5, recently took the "commanding strike" manuever, that allows me to command someone to make an attack as a reaction by forgoing an attack and a bonus action.

If you already figured it out, me and my friend can proc smites and sneak attacks out of each others turn. In his turn he will use his bonus action to cast healing words on me allowing me to attack as a reaction, and since it is not my turn I can sneak attack, then he would use his attack and second attack to smite. In my turn, I will take my first attack to sneak attack, then use my second attack and bonus action to allow him to smite + a d8.

This virtually means we have doubled our smite/sneak attack ratio per round. It has also being extremely fun to roleplay since at the begining the rogue and the paladin clash due to moral codes, but through the story they have became best friends, so the combo is very thematically fitting.

Last fight we did around 140 damage in a round, and the DM was so confused cause he thougth we already took our turn, when in reality we attacked on each others turns.

Someone without a head – Cannot eat, see, hear, speak or smell
DND character with minimal Homebrew
Homebrew: 

Can’t taste, eats by inserting through the top

Make the Familiars Undead instead of Fiendish 

Make the Familiars look like a Floating Skulls (Your previous head and Others)

Doesn't need a brain to think or live

Race - Custom Lineage 
Humanoid - Medium - 30ft
+2 to Charisma 
Feat - Fighting Initiate - Blindsight 10 feet
Skill Prof in History 
Common and Abyssal

Class: Warlock LV3

Subclass: Undead - Flavor and you get a major flavor buff at 6th with eating and breathing
Form of Dread - His neck bursts into green flames 

Pact of the Chain - Gives you a familiar, we will use a Imp
(Later levels pick up Gaze of Two Minds) 

Invocations:

Voice of the Chain Master - Lets you see, hear, smell, and speak with your Familiars
Investment of The Chain Master -  You are basically connected to your familiar in every possible way, this provides more survivability for your familiar 

Spells and Cantrips 
Warlock - 
Minor Illusion - Can use this to speak while your familiar is away
Magic Stone -  Combos into Flock of Familiars well, giving Familiars a guaranteed damage source

Blindness/Deafness - Karmic 
Armor of Agathys - Good defense
Flock of Familiars - Spies and more ways to see even if you don’t have your original familiar - All rules apply for this spell as Find Familiar, Meaning you get 2 more Chain Master Imps 
Mind Spike - Big damage without voice. 

Hello all. Im a few months into a curse of strahd campaign with my players and we just had a new player join. They wanted to play a Giff gunslinger and I was happy with that and in brainstorming how a space hippo would find themselves in Barovia I settled on them crashing their spelljammer.

Things have gone well and a gun wielding PC isn't as hard to adjust combat for as I thought. But the players have taken a back seat to the actual campaign and are just explore doing odd jobs and other things without stressing about strahd thats also fine I dont mind rolling on tables for encounters and loot. But they have floated the idea of turning the crashed ship into a home base of operations and have moved into the wreck. Ive looked at some official material for lifestyle expenses and stuff but they have been talking about adding in a restaurant and gambling hall, ballrooms and other crazy stuff and was wondering if there was some home-brew system for base upgrades that go further then just you owe $1000 gold this week.

Thanks in advance

Hi everyone,

​I’m currently putting together my (first!) short campaign for a group of friends and want to make sure to cover all my areas.

​What are the absolute essentials on your Session Zero checklist?

​More importantly: What is something people often forget to include, or what is a unique point a DM/player once brought up that made you think, "Wow, I'm glad we talked about that"?

​Thanks in advance!

I still don't get it...

Why wasn't (in DND 2014) hunters mark just scrapped and favoured foe made non-concentration so the rlanger can actually make use of its spell list?

I get that dipping for multi classing is an issue, but couldn't you just make it like the barbarian's rage where if you cast a non-ranger/druid spell favoured foe ends? Or even becomes concentration RP wise I kinda like that, when the ranger tries to do magic outside of their class they need to concentrate to keep focus on their favoured foe.

If that wouldn't work (and I am willing to hear why it's a bad idea) I'd still think the ranger would be more fun and not overpowered if you keep hunters mark and just make it non-concentration once you reach level 6 or something to stop people dipping one or 2 levels?

Like if you're going 6 into Ranger you kinda earned the free concentration given most campaigns end around level 10 so you only get 4 in another class.

Just sucks you can't easily play a melee Aragorn style ranger...

I was recently inspired by the tale of SCP 055 to create a unforgettable (ha) villain.

The villain is a “antimeme”. A being or idea that can be perceived normally in the moment, but cannot be reliably recalled afterward, causing its existence and actions to constantly slip from memory.

The horror and gameplay gimmick come from players uncovering evidence of encounters, missing time, altered events, and forgotten people while struggling to maintain continuity long enough to understand or stop the villain.

Slowly the PC's have to uncover what the Villain is not so as to finally lcoate and defeat the villain. This is very much a slow burn type of idea where the players will slowly realize something is wrong.

A few example encounters:

The Missing Party Member

> >Setup: The party visits an inn. The innkeeper says, "Ah, the usual four rooms for you folks?" >

>The Twist: The party looks at each other. There are only three of them. They have always been a party of three... right? > > The Clue: They go upstairs. There is a fourth room paid for. Inside is a backpack filled with gear, a half-written letter to a family they don't recognize, and a diary. The diary details a grand adventure with the party, but the name of the author is completely smudged out. The antimemetic villain didn't just kill their friend; it erased the memory of their existence.

The Mid-Combat Amnesia

> The Setup: Start the session in the action "Roll initiative. You are all at half health, the Wizard is out of 3rd level spell slots, and the Barbarian is raging. There is a massive, smoking crater in the middle of the tavern, and three town guards are dead on the floor. There are no enemies in sight." > > The Twist: When the players ask “What are we fighting?!”, you reply: "You don't know. But your swords are drawn, and you feel terrified." > >The Clue: When they investigate the room, they find a pool of weird, shimmering blood. If they track the blood, the tracks abruptly vanish after ten feet. Their brains literally refuse to process where the tracks lead.

What other cool ideas can you come up with that would make a villain such as this a cool BBEG and a fun mechanic for your game? Any unique insperation on how you would run this BBEG?

I'm a learning DM, and my player just hit level 9 warlock; insert the surprise invocation allowing at will castings of Speak with Dead.
Is it just me, or is that super overpowered? Especially considering at will Alter Self/Disguise Self to become fallen comrades of a body.

I had players discover the remains of a brutal combat between two parties, with lots of information hidden in the layout, position, nature, damage, etc of the bodies. But then realised he can literally just ask each and every one.
I limited it to 4 bodies, just because it was taking too long and people were getting restless - and it was definitely fun having to improvise unplanned content on the fly, but I can really see that becoming an issue if he decided to want to cast it every time he saw a body.

Thoughts?
I don't want to just give him a block of information rather than answer 30 questions, but also feel it's removing his agency by limiting the bodies. Or do I just ensure all bodies from now on are headless XD

Now, I am more of a role-playing person. But peer pressure makes you do interesting things. So to the veterans out there can u please help me build a lvl 8 character that is a powerhouse in combat. I also kind of want to delve into the combat mechanics of D&D so that’s another reason I’m interested in it. I’m doing my own research but a helping hand never hurt anybody 😅.

So I’m currently playing a Level 9 Moon Druid who is… deeply unwell. Low intelligence, absolutely feral energy, and completely unpredictable. I’m looking for more hilarious things I can do both in and out of combat to really sell the “batshit insane nature wizard” vibe.

For example, in our last session I pulled inspiration from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I cast Enlarge on myself, Wild Shaped into an eagle, flew 100 feet above the battlefield, then Wild Shaped into a whale midair (yes, I know whales technically don’t exist in our setting, but my DM allowed it). I proceeded to become an enormous falling cetacean missile and instantly crushed the entire enemy group to death.

Now I need more ideas.

What are some absurd, chaotic, or stupidly creative things I could do as a Moon Druid that would make the party question both my sanity and my survival instincts?

I want to improve these feats so that they perform well. Revised effects are indicated in bold. Please give me your feedback.

#Great Weapon Fighting

When you roll damage for an attack you make with a Melee weapon that you are holding with two hands, you can treat any 1 or 2 on a damage die as a 3. In addition, once per turn when you score a Critical Hit with the weapon, you can replace one of the weapon's damage dice with its maximum value. The weapon must have the Two-Handed or Versatile property to gain this benefit.

#Interception

When a creature you can see hits another creature within 5 feet of you with an attack roll, you can take a Reaction to reduce the damage dealt to the target by 1d10 plus your Proficiency Bonus and your Strength or Dexterity modifier. You must be holding a Shield or a Simple or Martial weapon to use this Reaction.

#Unarmed Fighting

When you hit with your Unarmed Strike and deal damage, you can deal Bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 plus your Strength modifier instead of the normal damage of an Unarmed Strike. If you aren’t holding any weapons or a Shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8. At the start of each of your turns, you can deal Bludgeoning damage to one creature Grappled by you equal to your Proficiency Bonus. While you are Grappling a creature, the distance you are pushed or pulled by enemy is halved.

Edit) Interception: damage reduction is now 1d6 × PB

Hi,

I wanted to surprise my husband with a D&D session once the kids are in bed on Father's Day weekend. Normally I DM and I'm open to just DMing something for him. But I just had the idea of hiring a DM so we both could play - so we could use some characters we love from different campaigns and actually play together for the first time in 7 years.

I've seen date night D&D ads for self contained sessions but I'm not sure if they're compatible with using your own characters and we don't necessarily want a romance centered session which seems to be the implication.

Do you guys have any suggestions or ideas on how to get started?

Granted... I just thought up a cool solo session for his favorite character so that's my backup.

Looking for ideas on the best way to do maps at a physical table, I don’t have time or money for building or buying full models. I ran a one shot recently and printed some maps in A3 and just stuck it to cardboard which was ok but if my party is exploring a dungeon where I don’t want the full map visible at the start this is difficult to manage with one A3 map and sometimes a single A3 is to small. also the maps I found at the time weren’t well set up to print in A3 or multiple A3/A4s to make bigger maps. I want an option that doesn’t require me to do editing myself

TLDR where’s the best place to get printable dnd maps for a physical table?

Hey everyone, this is my first ever D&D campaign and first character, so I wanted advice from more experienced players.

I’m currently a Level 5 Aberrant Mind Sorcerer and trying to optimize my spell choices better because I realized I was lacking AoE, battlefield control, and overall versatility.

Right now I’m considering spells like:

• Shield
• Mage Armor
• Misty Step
• Suggestion
• Tasha’s Mind Whip
• Fireball
• Hypnotic Pattern
• Dissonant Whispers
• Hunger of Hadar

For cantrips I’m thinking:

• Mind Sliver
• Fire Bolt
• Minor Illusion
• Mage Hand
• Prestidigitation
• Ray of Frost

Metamagic:

• Quickened Spell
• Twinned Spell

Questions:

1. Are there any spells I should absolutely swap out?
2. Is Fireball worth taking even on Aberrant Mind?
3. Is Hypnotic Pattern better than straight damage most of the time?
4. What spells ended up carrying your Aberrant Mind Sorcerer at Level 5?
5. Any mistakes first-time Sorcerer players usually make?

Would appreciate any advice. Really enjoying the class so far.

My athletics proficiency says it can allow me to jump further than normal but the jumping rules don't state this anywhere.

​

Saw a D&D meme (wish I could just post pic) that said "every magic shop in your D&D campaign should have a discount bin of potions that have no labels".

I liked the idea. Asked my players if they'd be interested in something like this, as I liked random effects in my games sometimes. They worried about negative effect potions, so I told them they'd all be beneficial. Potion effects could be combat (Haste, bless, fire resistance) oriented or noncombat (water Breathing, comprehend languages, advantage on ability checks) oriented.

But one player brought up good point relating to action economy. Said that in combat it probably wouldn't be wise to waste an action an an unknown potion as it might be useless, thus wasting majority of the characters turn.

Had few thoughts for making random potions work better so that my players would be willing to try them. Let me know if these ideas sound good, or if you have any of your own ideas.

1. Make all mystery potions a bonus action to drink

2. Increase duration of most potions from 1 minute to 10 minutes so might be able to drink before battle starts.

Side note, in my last campaign i introduced 2 artificers that ran a magic shop and one item they gave party was pill the party could add to regular healing potionss to make them into Greater Healing potions, but there was a 20% chance drinking it would activate a wild magic surge as the pills were powerful but unstable.

So I recently joined up for a one-shot at a DM's table. I haven't played with this DM since mid 2023 and I remembered nothing about his preferences and playstyle (this will come up later in the story). He posted his rules and homebrew. Point Buy, Average HP and two uncommon magic items. No where in his post did he mention about not allowing certain magic items or DM preferences. The only thing that really stood out to me was saying Slivery Barbs would be a second level spell. I choose not to take it out of respect for his displeasure with that spell.

I made my character, legacy content was allowed so I choose the Yuan-Ti with a Headband of Intellect and the Deck of Wonder. Out of respect for his game, I asked about the DoW being allowed and he approved with the condition that I could only have 3 draws for the one-shot. A fair ruling and I agreed. I posted my character to the "meet my character" channel 4 days before the one-shot was to take place.

30 minutes before the one-shot started he said I had to change the Headband of Intellect because he didn't agree to the item boosting one ability score temporarily. He also disapproved of my triple multiclass Artificer 2, Cleric 1 and Wizard 6. He allowed multiclassing but told me I was limited to 2 classes. Nowhere in the post or in the text channel was that mentioned during or after character creation. I told him that my whole character hinged on this setup and to change a Level 9 character in 30 minutes would be a no-go. I told him if there are things he disagreed with or took issue with, make it clear in the post or during character creation. He ended up begrudgingly accepting my character but I never really felt welcome at the table afterwards.

I have no issues with changing a character for a DM but not on game day and certainly not 30 minutes before session with a higher level character with a readied concept. I in fact worked with this DM on things I didn't have to and still I got called out for something I had no knowledge of or could reasonably change in time. I think DMs really need to lay out stuff they want and stuff they don't. I don't mind have restrictions if they are clear and to the point. I don't even mind being told after the fact, just tell me (and other players) in a reasonable timeframe.

The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth for the whole one-shot. He's a pretty decent DM at the table but his pre-game needs some work. I've been there as a DM myself and generally just eat the mistake when I make them, learning for next time.

What are your thoughts?

Edit: Still flustered but at myself. I think I could have made another character in time. A fighter or something. I got pigheaded and stubborn. I still feel like miscommunication happened on both sides but I should have taken it on myself to have been more clear. I think I am also going to make two characters going forward as well in case this happens again in the future even with better communication. I ended up underplaying my character that was probably a mistake as well. I was trying to appease myself and the DM without compromising because at the time I felt I was right. I think in the future if I am unable to play my character to the fullest, I am just going to respectfully backout. It took me a while to get to this point but thanks to everyone that commented. I think I am going to take a break from playing with new DMs for a while. I will be apologizing to this DM tomorrow.