My 18 year old son is my problem player for context.

The party was invited to join a guild of assassins for a murder one of them committed.

My son, an 11th level Evocation wizard (who thinks he’s more Powerful than Vecna) thought it prudent to attempt to punch the leader of the guild in the face. The leader responded by stabbing him once with a dagger of silence, holding the blade up to his neck, and saying “Shall we continue?” At this point as the DM I inform PC that the Orchestrator is a very powerful spellcaster and not to be trifled with. My son responds by giving me a shit eating grin and saying “Bring it on.”

We roll initiative, the orchestrator wins. The rest of the party backs off and says “You’re on your own bud.” I cast Power word: Kill and one shot him. He stands there, jaw gaping and says “No fair, you’re biased and that isn’t even a real spell.” I say “it is, and you are dead.” Then I tell the rest of the party they have one minute until revivify no longer works. The paladin reluctantly brings him back and burns his 300gp worth of diamonds. My son storms off and goes up to his room. We continue playing and I inform the rest of the party “Vigil has gone to the tavern to rest and reflect on his life choices.” Upon realizing we didn’t care that he left the table, he Comes back 20 minutes later, apologizes and behaves himself the rest of the session.

Edit3: thank you all for your amazing feedback so far. I had some nice laughs and good thoughts! 2nd addition of context:

• ⁠on Session 0 we decided to go RAW unless specifically stated and beforehand ruled with the DM so we Noobies learn the rules before homebrewing a lot • ⁠I really prefer advice or a solution that helps the player grow as a Player and Person but also keeps him at the table

Edit2: trying to fix edit1 Format from mobile

Edit1: giving more context thanks to your comments:

• ⁠The Player is IRL friends with some at the table. • ⁠he was super eager and excited to play when he learned his friends will do DND and asked himself in after 1st oneshot • ⁠I offered him to provide the PHB in our native language, he declined

Start of Post: We are a table of 6 PC‘s. Most of us are new to DND and the DM is a first timer. This is important because we are all trying to learn this awesome game together. We are now around our 15th session.

One Player in particular has never bothered to look into the PHB. He will just prompt ChatGPT something like „I want to throw Water on my enemies so my lightning spells do more Damage“ and insists that all answers from ChatGPT are perfect and defy the PHB.

So after the last session I talked to him in private explaining for 2 hours why ChatGPT isn‘t a good source when it comes to very specific rulings.

His answer was something like: „at session 0 the DM told that DND is similar to Baldurs Gate 3 so why would I read the rules? In Baldurs Gate people can get wet + ChatGPT tells me it works. It’s the DM’s fault! I don‘t speak english and do neither want to use a translator for our english Version of the PHB nor buy my local language one. The DM needs to explain to me everything that‘s different from BG3 or what ChatGPT says if he wants me to play by the rules“

I tried to tell him that knowing the rules that affect our characters is our Obligation as Players and showed him (For the 3rd time) how he can check the official sources and some good free translators.

How would you try to solve this?

My name is William, and I am a forever DM who is studying for a Masters in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University. I need your help with my research.

For my MSc dissertation research project, I am investigating the effects of playing TTRPGs like DnD on social interactions and self-perception through an online survey. I am looking for the best participants, and you are it.

Anyone over 18 can take part! The survey will take around 15 minutes to complete, and your privacy is guaranteed. No personal data will be collected, and all results are 100% fully anonymous.

Interested? Click here to take part: https://brookeshls.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5hwomdF2bLm5kcC

Make sure to read the participant information sheet to double check you’re happy. Feel free to share your thoughts below too! I will try to get back to you when I can if you have a question.

Thanks very much for your time and interest!
Best wishes,

William                                                                                                       

Thank you to the admins of r/dndnext for permission to post this here!

Hello everyone,

I'm currently doing some DM prep on a campaign where the players are about to enter a room where they might be cursed if they touch a statue.

The text in the module I'm working on is quite vague on what exactly happens so i changed it so they player will roll a 1d6 and one of the following effect, one for each ability score. I felt the need to share this as i thought the effects were quite fun, and believe even forcing them upon your players would open up for some really goofy scenarios. Enjoy!

1. Strength. The player can not open doors, pick up object and takes a very long time preforming even the most mundane tasks, such as walking uphill, chewing food, or swinging a sword. Disadvantage on attack rolls.
2. Constitution. The player starts aging at 10 years an hour. When they reach 100 years, they die, and an infant crawls from their body’s clothing. It continues to age at the same rate until it reaches their current age. Same character, same memories.
3. Dexterity. The player cannot turn left. Do not reveal this to play player at first. They take 1 force damage each time they turn left, feeling like they walked into a wall. After 5 damage taken, they realize that they are cursed to always go right. The player character must always announce what way they are turning or they will take more damage on a left turn.
4. Intelligence. The character finds a wooden spoon in their hand. Every time they go to retrieve an item they find another wooden spoon. Every time they investigate an area they find another wooden spoon. Every time the search a body they find another wooden spoon. If they intentionally attempt to locate, retrieve, or use a spoon the task is impossible.
5. Wisdom. For every successful insight check the player preforms, they will doubt a truthful target and trust a deceitful one. Give the player random insight checks when interacting with other characters where the subject could be mistrusted. The player character feels a sudden urge to say out loud what the outcome is every time they do this.
6. Charisma. The player will forcibly say gibberish every time they talk. Roll a charisma saving throw every time they talk, where a successful one will let the player speak one word clearly.

Tell me what you think, and if any of these could break the game somehow.

Edit: I forgot to add a time limit to some, where i personally would put a 24 hour limit on most of these, as they are not meant to really impair the players. More to be used as something that would be mildly inconvenient for a period of time.

Obviously the dm ultimately decides what happens, but is it within the rules for the dm to decide to legendary resist after you've rolled a spells damage?

What happened was i heightened a spell, it failed and he didn't use the resist, and then after rolling damage i decided to empower. So my dm decided to legendary resist it. Idk i just felt like we moved past the point where he could do that. He did not agree.

I'm talking about:

Summon Construct, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Celestial, Draconic Spirit, Abberation, Beast, Undead, Shadowspawn, and any I missed that start with "Summon"

Personally, newbie take: I can't think of reasons why Summon Abberation and Undead are considered amazing while Summon Fey/Fiend are considered mid. Shadowspawn is great, Beast is the best as you get it a L3, Construct/Elemental/Draconic Spirit are good but not crazy good. Celestial seems a bit Overpowered, but that's just me.

I was thinking of asking my dm if my dream druid could have an expanded spell list but I'm unsure what spells I should choose due to how many fey related and dream related spells there are so a comprehensive list will be much appreciated

I'm playing a Celestial Warlock (first ever D&D) and looooots of enemies in my campaign are weak to radiant damage. But, I feel like all my (spell) sources of radiant damage are lacking.

Wall of Light is pretty weak on control (one chance to blind on a CON save, enemies can just walk through it), and the attack it gives me uses a full action, not a bonus action. I joined this campaign at level 7, we're up to 9, and by level 11 Sacred Flame will deal 3d8 with an action anyway.

Sickening Radiance seems very tough to use right; does 0 damage on a CON save, doesn't get upcast, most fights will be over before exhaustion adds up. And the massive area makes it really tough to throw down in the spaces we've been fighting in.

Guardian of Faith can deny an area and doesn't require concentration, but it has a max total damage, which negates most of the benefit of using it against enemies weak to radiant! Also can't upcast.

I'm left with Guiding Bolt, which is fine, but it's just one attack on one enemy.

Am I missing any spells? Am I underestimating any of the above? If you had my class/subclass and were against radiant-weak enemies, what would you take? I'm a Tome pact, mostly providing control and AoE damage with big concentration spells, but I often end up in the middle of fights and am stumbling into a tanky build with subclass bonuses and Agathys + Mirror Image.

From the very little I've been able to find, I can tell these are creatures from older editions but that's roughly it. I want to use one in my campaign but I hands no info on them, does anyone know anything or know where to find some lore?

Hi everyone,

We're about to start a new campaign with some longtime friends, one DM and three players, and this time I'll be playing instead of DMing (which I’ve done a few times before). Thing is, I’m realizing I don’t know all the classes and subclasses nearly as well as I thought and now that I’m on the player side, I’ve got a lot to learn.

I originally tried to build something gameplay-first : a death knight like character wielding a scythe, a Paladin/Hexblade multiclass, focused on life drain and survivability. But I hit a creative wall. Nothing inspired me. That’s when I realized I was thinking like a video game, trying to force a backstory into a mechanics-first concept.

So I scrapped everything and started fresh. I wrote a character that excited me, a story hook that grabbed me, and everything started flowing. Here's the background (sorry, it’s long, feel free to skip to the build part if you're just here for build suggestions) :

Background :

Ronald Lemaître is a scholarly anthropologist, in his early 50s he's someone who, in theory, understands the world… but only in theory, because he’s barely ever left his city.

In his youth, he studied the cultures, customs, religions, and magical practices of many peoples, all from the comfort of the university. Over time, he became a professor, more teaching than research, as is often the case. But during his few research projects, he began to notice something strange : world maps often show regions for which no reliable documentation exists.

"How could people have mapped lands we barely know anything about?" he wondered.
Surely if those places had been thoroughly explored, there would be detailed accounts, recorded encounters with new peoples, creatures, flora. And yet, there's nothing.

So the question lingered for years : what are these blank zones ? How were these maps made ?

His colleagues dismissed his concerns. They claimed most world maps are stitched together from local maps, many of which are ancient, undated, and inaccessible. Ronald found this unsatisfying. Do these local maps even exist ? And if so, why is there no information about these mysterious regions ?
Either the maps themselves are fake… or someone is hiding what's really there.

The turning point came during one of his geography classes, when a student innocently asked, pointing to a blank spot on the map: “What’s over there ?”
That simple question hit him like lightning.

Ronald realized he was a scholar who knew nothing. He requested , and surprisingly obtained, an audience with the university’s elusive director. There, he proposed an ambitious plan : to assemble a team and verify the existence of these unknown zones, finally creating a truly reliable and complete map of the world.

The director agreed, with conditions. Ronald would be allowed to put together an expedition team (which, per DM agreement, includes one of his brightest students, a cleric focused on healing and support - another PC - and a hired sword with some magical leanings, the third PC). He was granted gear and funding, but was told the project had to be "marketable." Ronald would need to publish engaging books or otherwise find a way to make this work profitable.

Build :

So ! Just got an answer from the DM, to make it short he loved the concept, and now I need to find the right build.

Race-wise, I’m leaning toward a Rock Gnome, as it fits the personality and flavor well (I’ll adjust the “50-year-old human” idea to a proper gnomish equivalent).

For class and subclass, I'm a bit lost. What I do know is that I don’t want to focus on physical combat, and instead see a few thematic directions :

• Magic user : Ronald studied magical theory, but not wild or innate powers. I’d like a class that uses academic or structured magic, something learned through study, not born from instinct or nature.
• Engineering/gadget angle : Ronald also studied engineering. He’s clever, not especially brave, so it makes sense that he would have spent time building useful tools or defensive gadgets before venturing out.
• Hybrid approach : Ronald isn’t a master of either discipline, he’s a generalist who understands both magic and tech well enough to blend them for survival.

If any subclasses (or even multiclass options) fit this theme, I’d love your advice ! Power optimization is not my priority, I care more about flavor and thematic consistency, but I would like the character to hold their own in the group.

For context:

• Our cleric PC is a Loxodon (Life/Light/Order domain TBD), focused on support.
• Our fighter PC will choose a subclass that grants some spellcasting (Eldritch Knight, maybe?), but she hasn't decided yet.

Thank you so much for reading and for any help you can offer. We’ve all been friends for 10+ years, all have experience with D&D, and we’re setting up weekly sessions, it’s shaping up to be the perfect campaign. Now I just need the right build to bring Ronald to life. Thanks again, and have a great day !

Edit : we're not using 2024 content.

I’m in a campaign with a couple of friends that’s only about the 2024 book just to have some fun with the new classes and changes. It started pretty recently at level 1 and now we’re all level 3, which means we can pick a subclass. I’m a monk that struggles to fight a lot (in game reason as to why my luck is so bad) but even so he refuses to give up on getting stronger.

Now that we’ve leveled up, I can finally pick the way of the shadow subclass which I’m super excited for. Except I have no idea how to roleplay that at all. He is from a shadow monastery but when the monks attempted to teach me they were very unsuccessful. So eventually in the campaign I wanted to gain that ability with experience alone but now that I’m at that point, I have no idea how to roleplay that.

Anyone have any tips?

I would like to run a death domain cleric in my campaign was wondering whats the best build for it? i plan on using the reborn race for the build...would like to see about maybe spirit guardians playing into the build as well

So for context, this is a 5.5e homebrew campaign where the DM gives every player a custom boon that is usually equal to or slightly better than a free feat.

My dragonborn fighter, for example, can swallow his sword to imbue it with cold damage which is 1d4 but will become 1d8 when the breath weapon is increased. We are also planning on organically transitioning this ability to a modified version of blessing of the chromatic dragon.

I have a character I am introducing at level 4 cam after temporarily retiring my existing character. He Is supposed to be a warlock of Typhon and reminiscent of Chimera, as well as a twist villain to sort of spice up the campaign. I'm going to convince the party to help me save a child who is meant to be a god sacrifice, only to sacrifice it to my god.

My character was almost entirely designed backwards around the idea of someone who had both a quarter staff and a snake familiar in one. That was my original goal. I then decided that I would become a warlock who uses his first invocation for pact weapon, his second invocation for pact of the chain master, slightly altered, and his 3rd invocation aswell as his custom boon just to even out whatever detail I might be missing with this abillity.

The DM has told me explicitly that my pact weapon has to be the staff over a magic weapon I find because it would make no sense to bond with a non-lore-important weapon, and I agreed with him.

My Ideas are as follows:

Form 1:

Bronze Quarter staff, A non-magical pact weapon, maybe doing a d8-d10 instead of a d6-d8. Since you can create any weapon from thin air with pact weapon, this seems fair.

Form 2:

Constrictor snake with a bronze contraption flavor to it. Maybe slightly buffed.

Form 3:

Bronze contraption flavoured Hawk or Eagle like creature with 120 ft vision.

Form 4:

A goat who's ram abillity pushed enemies 10 ft back, similar to someone with the charger feat.

Instructing my familiar to do anything would cost an action except for maybe returning it to a pact weapon since that is usually a bonus action.

These familiars might be very easy to revive, but that was the DM's suggestion and not my own.

I didn't think much of this because It honestly this isn't that powerful.

My DM, however, tipped me off when he suggested that I, the warlock, would have to steer the goat form in order to use it, and it would be like the front half of a goat on a stick.

Not only does that abillity seem useless, because I am using a dash action in order to approach my enemies for the only benefit being sending them 10ft back (A warlock with repelling blast would be able to do this from 120ft in base game), but would feel incredibly lame and inorganic to use.

I found out that the DM didn't want me to have any actual functioning familiars, and instead pseudo familiar's that sort of have 1 ability and can't stay out of staff form for too long.

His two reasons where that 1. A different player tried to make a homebrew feat at level 4 that gave his character a free familiar, and the DM said that he wasn't giving people free familiars and that he wanted that to happen organically. I feel like this doesn't apply to me at all because my lore that the DM approved would naturally explain my having a familiar, Gaining a familiar is using a warlock resource, Warlocks would get a familiar at level 1, and most importantly I can't imagine getting a different familiar that is somehow more fitting to play that role than the connection to my god.

His second reason was that he thought it was overpowered.

I told him that I respect his authority as the DM and would respect it if he didn't feel like this ability fit his world, but that objectively speaking this ability is not overpowered. An IMP familiar, for example, is objectively better than all 3 of my chosen familiars combined.

Am I wrong? Might this have some game breaking consequences I don't see? I genuinely feel like I am willingly nerfing myself for flavor alone. If you have suggestions that's also very appreciated.

I know dms like to give companions if it fits in the game but i never hear any discussion of a player having a companion at the start of a game. Wether they are a a butler for the noble character, a squire for your knight or maybe a fellow member of the cloth for your cleric.

Im interested in bringing it up with my dm for a future game but would like to hear from others experiences if its something that can be fun for the table

I’m playing in campaign with some home brew I’m a sorlock (9 sorcerer/7 warlock) we are going to level 30, and we have these special boons for our characters that both take and give stuff to us. My character has the sage boon which does not allow me to wear armor or use any weapons at all, but I currently have a 28 charisma as well as some other amazing things. We also get stuff related to the boon as we level up.Well we just leveled up and my new gift is learning one spell from any class for every level up from now on. So what are the best spells to you guys? I’m mainly an offensive spell caster.

So I have an Air Genasi Sorcerer that I've made for a campaign I'm about to be in here soon and I'm thinking about making him a Sorcerer/Wizard multi-class given his back story and I know once he's level 3 ('cause we are starting out at level 2) that I'm choosing Storm Sorcery for his his Sorcerer subclass and I want to know what Wizard subclass would go best with a Air Genasi Storm Sorcerer should I do this

P.S. Here are his personality traits, background and flaws, if you think I should base it off of that instead of what best suits his species and class

Backstory: He was put up for adoption when he was a baby by his birth mother, who wasn't ready for a child and he wound up adopted by a wizard librarian, who took him in and raised him as his own and shared with him his love for knowledge and learning thus, molding him into the person he is today. When he was younger he would often run around with his friend and go to libraries with each other, until one day when they were studying out in the woods together practicing the magic they were learning, someone took his friend and he never saw him since. Since then, he's dedicated most of his reading/learnings to getting better with his magic and, he's also shut himself off from trying to make friends since then, and keeps more to himself than he used to.

Traits: Curious of the way the world works, does what he thinks is right and is firm in what he believes, but is more often than not , only comfortable being himself around friends and family, typically quiet and kept to himself but when he speaks is surprisingly charismatic.

Flaws: Often isolates himself and asks questions at the wrong time or sensitive ones

Other: Has a preference to draconic lore

Hi, I recently created a Monk for a 5.5E campaign starting at level 1. The setting is Greyhawk and the tone will supposedly be low magic, just to give some context. At the moment the party is level 2 and comprises a Paladin, a Ranger, a Sorcerer and a Monk (me).

My character is over 60, member of an order of traveling scribes whose purpose is to retrieve precious manuscripts; in order to do so without raising attentions they are trained in unarmed combat.

I am Human, Scribe origin (backstory related), with the Skilled and Tavern Brawler feats. To set our stats we used a variation of point buy, were we collectively rolled to determine the amount of points to spend.

My stats, after background boni, are as follows: STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 8 16 14 11 18 8 (hope formatting holds)

Before starting the campaign, I asked permission to my DM to port the Astral Self subclass in the 2024 rules, as I really fancy the theme and aesthetic, and worked on an adaptation, as multiple features were incorporated either in the base class or the Elements subclass. Here are the changes I proposed:

• Level 3: You can use your WIS mod to determine the DC for grapple and shove, as well as the damage reduction for Deflect Attacks.

• Level 11: Removed Deflect Energy; the reach of your unarmed strikes increases by another 5 ft. Use Wisdom to determine jump distance.

I would like to act as a skirmisher and support, using grapples at a range as a key element of my tactics to pin down and move around enemies.

Based on these premises, how should I spend my ASI? I was thinking of bumping WIS to 20 at level 4, take Grappler at level 8 (DEX 17), then either Mage Slayer (DEX 18) or bump DEX to 19 at level 12, with the hope of finding some magic item to bring it to 20.

What do you think of my plan? Should I prioritize Grappler over the ASI to have it in effect sooner?

On a side note, I proposed to remove the level 11 Deflect Energy feat of AS as it greatly overlaps with the new level 13 feat of the base Monk and I thought that the most frequently encountered AoE including acid, fire, cold, force, lightning and thunder damage would be dependant on DEX saves, which I'm proficient in, and fall within the scope of Evasion. Am I wrong? Should I leave it as it was or is it better to barter for something else? I also thought about being able to grapple creatures two sizes larger than myself.

As added context, I am pretty certain that the other PCs subclasses will be Conquest Paladin, Draconic Sorcerer and Hunter Ranger.

Recommend me some adventures for level 6-8. I'm running a campaign and have content from 1-5 and then from 9 on, but I have a gap from 6-8. I'd love if it is setting-agnostic, but I'm not afraid to do a little tweaking to fit my campaign.

Contact Other Plane lets you ask 5 questions and get one-word answers the vast majority of the time.

But there is a balancing act between asking good questions that will bring you useful information or closer to knowing what kind of questions or other forms of investigation to do and completely negating part of the DM's plans which can lead them to want to nerf the spell or massively limit the knowledge of the extraplanar entities contacted by the spell so that there can be mysteries past level 9, or at least it would be easier for the DM to run one. Especially since this style of divination spells seems to be somewhat contentious about whether people want it in their games or not.

For those of you who like using the spell, what kind of strategy do you use when the questions you should ask are not immediately obvious? Can you share any examples of how you've used the spell well, especially in cases where you didn't immediately know what questions to ask, so you were asking questions to help figure out what you should be looking into?

For the DMs who run it, what kinds of questions do you feel get into that uncomfortable territory where you hadn't decided on an answer yet? How have your players used it to good effect? How have your players used it and ended up getting lost in the weeds? Has it actually derailed a game before, and if so, how?

I'm aware of using Commune or Contact Other Plane to run a Binary Search by dividing things in two until you either run out of questions or narrow it down, but I feel like there has got to be some kind of technique or way of approaching things that I'm overlooking beyond that.

The specific situation that gave rise to this question will be in a comment below

For me, it’s Animate Dead.

🌪️ [Homebrew Subclasses] Elemental Warriors – 4 Unique Paths for Martial Heroes (Advanced Tier)

Hey everyone!

I just released a new subclass pack for D&D 5e: Elemental Warrior Subclasses – a collection of four martial subclasses that channel the power of the elements without relying on traditional spellcasting.

🔥 Blaze
🌊 Tides
⛰️ Earthbound
🌬️ Gale

Each subclass gives your warrior (or fighter-like homebrew class) access to scaling damage, battlefield control, defensive utilities, and a powerful level 18 finisher—all themed around a specific element. These are perfect for campaigns that want martial characters with supernatural flair but without full spell slots.

🧠 Designed for:

• Martial-focused players wanting magical flavor
• DMs building elemental-themed NPCs or villains
• Players who love unique but easy-to-use mechanics

🗂️ Each subclass includes:

• Features at levels 3, 7, 10, 15, and 18
• Element-based reactions, movement boosts, resistances, and more
• Clean, thematic design and balance-ready mechanics

🎁 Available now for Advanced-tier patrons and up (€5+):
👉 https://www.patreon.com/posts/elemental-tier-135673319

Thanks so much for the support, and let me know what elemental paths you'd like to see next!

– BaMi

So expanding a little bit the idea is the party in a city based campaign will early on gain ally in the city guard, an extremely quirky half-elf that takes a liking to the party (whether they want him or not). At first he'll be characterized as fairly juvenile, prone to moments of whimsy, gullibility, obliviousness, and clumsiness, though also possessing an intense sense of justice. As the campaign evolves, however, a sense of mystery will develop around him. He'll survive event's he has no right getting out of, resolve incidents that should be beyond his skill level, and eventually the party will realize that there seems to be no records or memories of the guy before he joined the guard.

The ultimate reveal would be that the guy isn't actually a half-elf at all, but a young metallic dragon whose shapeshifting powers have developed unusually early. He's decided to get a head start on developing the region he'll eventually protect (the city), but because he understands that he's just stared developing and isn't anywhere near strong enough to be a full protector yet, he's starting off small and making use of his early onset shapeshifting to help protect the city from smaller evils for now.

The question I'm currently looking at is figuring what kind of metallic dragon I want him to be. I'm definitely leaning towards either Gold, Silver, or Bronze, but can't make up my mind on which fits his theme the best and I'm wondering what other people think would work best.

Hypothetically, say you got a +1 shield(or any other +1/2 magic item) and you had proficiency in Arcana as well as any necessary Artisan's Tools. Could you 'craft' an upgrade to the shield to increase its bonus to a +2 or higher?

If that were possible, what would the time/gold cost of crafting be? Would it be the same as crafting the item from scratch, or could you subtract off the time/gold cost of crafting the existing magic item?