r/wildbeyondwitchlight

Hi fellow DMs,

I have a player who wants to play a Hexblade Warlock. I'm a bit lost there, and so I have a few questions about this, answers to any of them will be very appreciated!

1. Isn't a warlock really OP ? Between the EB cantrip, the Pact, the eldritch invocations (he can have detect magic permanently on ?), the spells (back with short rests), the pact boon ?

Subquestion 1a. Should the pact be detailed (like we actually write a contract or something or is that juste for Fiends ?) ?

Subquestion 1b. Should the pact include drawbacks to balance if it's indeed OP ?

2. The Hexblade patron : is it a magical sentient weapon or its maker ? The PHB/Xanathar makes me think it's the weapon but.. how ? And online I see stuff about Dread domain monarchs/Shadowfell lords who could fit the Hexblade ? And the Raven Queen ..?

2a. Even more so with the Pact of the Blade, should he wield (or aim to wield?) the aforementioned magical sentient blade ?

2b. We're going in Prismeer and running Witchlight, could I >!make the Patron the blade wielded by Isolde in the Shadowfell Carnival, Nepenthe ? Then the sword (or its maker if that's the answer to 2.) might want the sword freed from his dread domain/Carnival or something? And that'd be the warlock's goal in the campaign, revealed to him whenever ?!<

Any help appreciated, thank you very much !

I’ve been watching one of Runesmith’s videos on Tasha and it gave me an idea. I’m considering making Baba Yaga the final antagonist. My main idea is inspired by the time loop in >!Hades II!<.
The concept would be that Tasha/Zybilna is actually destined to become Baba Yaga eventually. Baba Yaga isn’t simply her adoptive mother, she is Tasha from the far future, trapped in an endless causal loop. Zyblina is already the “Witch Queen” kinda similar to “Mother of Hags” and both are feys. Also, Zyblina’s future head in her palace depicts her as a Hag.

That would mean everything in Witchlight was orchestrated by Baba Yaga from the beginning. The Hourglass Coven, Zybilna’s imprisonment, the carnival, even the players’ journey; all of it would secretly be designed to push Tasha toward becoming the person she eventually becomes.
Baba Yaga wouldn’t necessarily be trying to kill Tasha, she’d be trying to ensure history stays intact. If Tasha refuses her fate, the entire timeline begins to unravel.

My current plan is to have Baba Yaga waiting at the Inn at the End of the Road, quietly steering the party toward fulfilling their role in the story. But how could the players truly challenge or reshape the time loop she’s trying to preserve?

I am currently running WBTW with my friends, and I am wanting to use Isoldes carnival.

So far in the campaign, I have eluded to its existence, but havnt used it yet. My players are about to arrive at Loomlurch, so i feel like I need to hurry up and decide where i want to insert it into the story. I dont think there will be enough time for me to prepare it before they go to Loomlurch, but I could insert it into the next region Yon, or even between the regions before they get to the POHD.

I am also using the expansion for the Inn at the End of the Road, that makes the innkeeper Babba Yagga. My players have done the first part of this allready in Hither, and are already guessing that Tsu the innkeeper may be her. This isnt confirmed as they havnt explored all of the secret parts of the Inn, and havnt found the information that confirms it. I would like them to go back to the Inn, but i do not know where i should insert the Inn again (I have made it so it can travel between regions).

Any help around where i should put them, and what to do with them would be much appreciated. Thankyou so much.

Some Context: I am a DM at a summer camp for middle schoolers. This camp runs on weekdays for the month of July (19 days). Typically, we have a pretty significant class size (last year was just shy of 40 kids split into 4 parties). To handle this, my co-DM and I will create a story, and each week the students are given the choice between a pair of adventures that both make progress on the story, and then we split the larger party into two smaller parties, adventure, come together, level up, repeat. Then everyone comes together for the big finale at the end of camp.

This year, we decided to run The Wild Beyond the Witchlight as our adventure. We have three beginners classes which run for about 1h15m each day, and then an advanced class that runs for 2h. Our plan is to have the three beginners classes each explore one part of Prismeer with the Lost Things hook, and for the advanced class to explore all of Prismeer—and make it to Chapter 5 as well—with the Warlock’s Quest hook.

Are there any suggestions or oversights I might want to keep in mind as I get through my prep work? I want to make sure each area of the carnival and Prismeer totals about 20h of content, with the advanced class being streamlined to explore each area within a week’s time (~10h). I have some plans having read the campaign multiple times, but I really want to make sure I’m not missing anything.

Did you guys use updated stat blocks? Did you have to buff any monsters or encounters?

Hello! I’m running a WBtW game where Zybilna’s horrible actions are discovered and Isolde’s grief is fully displayed.

the tldr of it all is theres this mass infection that is believed to be a cult and its correspondent to a old darklord sealed underneath the shadowfelle carnival. And Isolde was working with the Coven to seal Zybilna away to get her revenge.

but the thing is.. I don’t really know how Zybilna would work. Not only did she kidnap children to babytrap Isolde, but theyd know about all the canonical evil things she’s done. my party might try to fight her and i don’t know what to do. I don’t want a TPK, but the most preferred ending has someone replacing her as Archfey. I just don’t know how to execute it… id appreciate anything!

Hi dear WBTW community and fellow DMs !

I'm running this campaign for 3 groups and the first one is getting to Bavlorna's lair. I've now been wondering for a while - and not finding it here in any post - do you all permit and give enough clues (so x3) to your players for them to possibly go back to the Carnival or Material Plane during the campaign? I was also wondering this due to the mushrooms circle later on. The characters have some backstory that they might want to resolve at some point in the Material Plane but this would make the campaign longer.

Now, for example, they found Witchlight Diana's legs and her horse's head in the taxidermy workshop. One group may want to give them back to her, and so use the mirror in Bav's bathroom. Should I make the mirror's password readily available ? I understand that in the book, only two lornlings upstairs seem to be able to kinda give the password to that mirror, which is a very very light clue if we consider the rule of the 3 clues. Also, we're not playing in English so idk what's the password for you guys, but in our language I don't think it makes any kind of sense for them to guess at it.

Any advice or opinions or feedback on all of this ? Thank you !

Tldr; do you permit/help your players to go back and forth to the Material plane from Prismeer ? Should I make more clues available for them to do so through Bav's mirror ?

I plan on running this soon and I like both hooks, so I'm going to have 2 characters with Lost Things, 1 character with the Warlock’s Quest, and 1 character as a Witchlight hand. I don't see any problem with that, in fact I think it makes the beginning more interesting to have 4 characters with separate but aligning goals and motivations. Don't try to stop me.

So I'm soon starting a wild beyond the witchlight campaign and I'm very excited about it!

I'm doing the lost things approach.

One of my player said his character is proud of his resourcefulness and I'm not sure how to manifest it in the game once it’s lost.

I thought maybe a disadvantage on survival skills?

Is resourcefulness too wide of a theme?

If you have any better idea I'm very interested!

Hey! This is my first time running a full adventure, I've dabbled in DMing before but just wanted get some feedback or share some ideas, etc. I'm also not super familiar with Warlocks and patrons and how to RP them so that my player has the best experience.

I have a player who is playing a Warlock. The character himself is trying to be this edgy warlock but is deep down a softy and wants to be good. The Player has requested a celestial patron and I thought it would be a great oportunity to use Elidon as unicorns are considered celestial patrons and they fit the fey theme and I like how I could fit this into the story.

The character had to declare his love for unicorns as part of bartering for a new ticket and I want to treat that as if the character had accidentally summoned Elidon to be his patron. Elidon will be shrouded in smoke and appear like a four legged devil or fiend with horns and once the character agrees to the pact Elidon will step forward and reveal that he is a unicorn.
Elidon would request that the character protects the innocent, bring light to the dark places of prismeer / free prismeer of the hags, and to find his horn and free him from being a rocking horse. I think there should be some big reward for the warlock if he manages to free him but I'm not sure what yet.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!

As the title says, I dont own the book but really would love to run it for my players at some point. Is that something thats possible?

I am prepping for my PCs to explore Loomlurch soon, and as I thought through Will's plan, I realized Skab's weakness doesn't really work with the approach.

Will's plan involves the party showing up while the Getaway Gang makes a distraction. Are they supposed to sneak up to Loomlurch the night before the plan's execution, wait for Skab to go to bed, break into her place, remove the moth jar, and post up by her dollhouse??? That seems like a convoluted pain, not a clever loophole/weakness.

Do any of y'all have suggestions for changes? A really obvious (visual) possibility is the key in her back. Is there something thematic? Something that fits the flow of Will's plan?

I’m a new DM, this is my very first campaign. I know this campaign isn’t beginner friendly, but I’ve been a big fan of the Witchlight Carnival (and specifically Dirla) for a while, and I’m playing with my two best friends.

I really like Dirlagraun and displacer beasts in general. I know my players can find Star later, and I’m going to offer them the opportunity to take Star with them back to the Carnival as a companion. I was wondering if there are any other good opportunities to incorporate displacer beasts and/or Dirla into the rest of the campaign.

My players got attached to Diana. They saw her coughing up tree sap and vowed to break her curse and help her. One of my players unintentionally flirted with her, too. What’s a good way to have her be relevant in the rest of the campaign?

I have used these all in my ongoing (almost complete) campaign based on Witchlight Reimagined. My party of 5 was usually 1-2 levels higher than the book when encountering the hags, and had very strong magic items. These are balanced for my party and turned out to be very tough fights in the context of each hag's lair, so use them at your discretion.

These are mostly based on the incredible work of u/Phaerlax. My main contribution is adding Legendary Actions and Lair Actions. I have also tweaked stats, spell lists, and specific abilities in a few places.

Also included are revised stat blocks for Lornlings and Tin Soldiers, as well as two brand new stat blocks: Bavlorna's Cauldron and the Assassin Puppet, a new minion of Skabatha.

Hope this is helpful to some of you!

My Group came to Yon, helped the elf and got the invitations for Endelynn. Then the tornado swooped them back to Hither where they achieved to revive the alicorn in a stealth mission. None of the Hags were fought yet.

I ended the last session in moment the Alicorn became alive again.

What can the alicorn do for the group now/which information could I give for the moment? My first instinct was to lead the group back to Yon for the next step where they could free Gleam and proceed to the palace of hearts desire quickly afterwards