First time player here and I’m DMing 5e Icespire Peak. o.O One of my players is a Ranger and now has Lightning Arrow. They believe it should be possible to cast Lightning Arrow and attack with a shortbow in the same turn because the Casting Time is Bonus Action. Is that right? I‘m a bit lost on what Bonus Actions are and when you get them.

People have already explained that your ranger shouldn't have that spell, but to answer your original question- yes, a character can (and probably should) do both. On a turn, a character gets 1 action and 1 bonus action.

The player is correct. > I‘m a bit lost on what Bonus Actions are and when you get them. Everyone has the ability use bonus actions. But you can only use a bonus action if you have an ability or spell that takes or has a casting time of one bonus action. I'm surprised that you have gotten your players to level 9 (which is when Rangers get 3rd level spells) and not gotten your head around bonus actions yet. You don't have a Rogue who can disengage/hide/dash as a bonus action? You don't have a Cleric or a Bard who uses Healing Word as a bonus action? Your Barbarian never rages? Your Wizard never casts Misty Step? Your Fighter never uses Second Wind, Moon Druid and wildshape, Monks and flurry of blows etc etc. Your Ranger never casts Hunter's Mark and then attacks in the same turn?! PCs can do all of these things (bonus actions) and then take their action as normal (although if you cast a spell as a bonus action then you cannot cast another spell that turn unless it is a cantrip).

No, we’re level 3 lol. We just returned the midwife and defeated some Ochre Jellies. Good times. So any entity can take a bonus action on their turn, but only if the ability is a bonus action (ie lightning arrow)? Okay, so I think some of the confusion is that my player picked Lightning Arrow from the 3rd Level Ranger Spell List, as a lvl3 character. That’s a Spell Slot level, and at Ranger Level 3 they get 3x Level1 Ranger Spell Slots. So they could have, for instance, Cure Wounds, Speak with Animals, and Detect Magic. But NOT Lightning Arrow.

>So any entity can take a bonus action on their turn, but only if the ability is a bonus action (ie lightning arrow)? So long as they have access to an ability that is a bonus action then they can take a bonus action. >Okay, so I think some of the confusion is that my player picked Lightning Arrow from the 3rd Level Ranger Spell List, as a lvl3 character. That’s a Spell Slot level, and at Ranger Level 3 they get 3x Level1 Ranger Spell Slots. So they could have, for instance, Cure Wounds, Speak with Animals, and Detect Magic. But NOT Lightning Arrow. Correct. Lightning Arrow is a 3rd level spell and Rangers do not get access to 3rd level spells until character level 9. Spell level and character level progression is not a 1 to 1 ratio.

Yep, spell level is different from character level.

The player should not have Lightning Arrow. They only get 3rd level spells slots at level *9.* spell slots do not level up at the same time as Class levels. There is a chart in the Ranger Section of the class that tells you exactly what level you get more spells.

I got into really annoying discussions of bounded accuracy. I watched a video that had a few arguments against 5e's implementation, but they felt rather dishonest intellectually. I feel like I like the idea and goals very much. Kinda didn't even notice how little boni scale - even though it was quite apparent in bg3. I am honestly still not sure where I stand tbh. Some people just have very strong opinions on frankly entirely subjective matters which is a pain.

This isn't a question

What's the deal with bounded accuracy? You can't just make the D20 smaller or all of the boni bigger, turn Guidance into a third level spell, right? I thought 3.5 skill points scaleing off of intelligence and class and level were also whack, so I appreciate the simplicity, but overall skills and proficiencies are quite static in DnD.

I have no idea what you're talking about with the second sentence. "What's the deal with bounded accuracy?" It's so that the roll of the die is still relevant. Everyone has a chance of succeeding or failing no matter what. A bunch of goblins with +4 to hit still have a chance to hit a level 15 PC with 23 AC. In other words, it's the design principle behind 5e to move it away from earlier editions of having a million little numbers to stack for any given roll.

\[5e\] Was there a Doppelganger card in the deck of many things? My DM owns a physical deck of many things that appears (and we draw from the deck IRL) in every oneshot. I always assumed the deck was exactly the same as the one in dnd's official rules, but there's one card someone drew that doesn't seem to be anywhere now that I've looked Doppelganger - A person with your exact appearance and memories appears in a unoccupied space next to you, but with the opposite alignment. (not exactly what it said but about it) Was this card sourced from somewhere, or was it made up?

I cannot find such a card among any of the decks from WOTC or partnered sources, so it looks like homebrew.

/u/SpiderKatt7 Found it: [The Deck of Weals and Woes](https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Deck_of_Weals_and_Woes_\(5e_Equipment\)), a homebrew alternative to the Deck of Many Things. Doppelganger is card number 5.

Thank you!

Made up. It's at least not in the standard deck. It might be from an older edition or just made up by your dm.

Def wasn’t made up by DM cuz they bought it, but maybe from different editions 

\[?\] Hello, hopefully soon first time DM here! I finally assembled a group of friends to play DnD with, but we are all new to it. I'm a bit afraid that they will have trouble with the "roleplaying" aspect of DnD. Do you have any tips that I can give them on how to approach a DnD game as a player and getting into the game? Or any resources/videos/..? I really like the "third-person" style of narrating instead of "first-person" that I read in the FAQ, I'm sure that would make many feel more comfortable, but from experienced players' experiences, what else can you suggest?

Don't worry about it. At first they're going to be really focused on understanding the rules, just figuring out how to play the game. Let the RP sneak in at the edges. When they got the hang of it, toss this at them. They're hired to stop some bandits. The bandits though have someone tied up. They're going to have to interact once they untie the person, who thinks they are more bandits, so is scared of them. So the party has to try to reassure the tied up person that hey, we're the good guys.

Thanks for the reassurance!

\[5e\] Can counter spell be used against necklace of fireball? The item description says that it detonates as a 3rd level spell, but my table isn't sure if it counts as a creature casting the spell since the person using it just throws it.

No. No spell is being cast, just an effect that acts similarly to a spell

\[5e\] Can a magical weapon be +1 - 3? Specifically a sword of wounding can be any type of sword, like a longsword or a shortsword, but can a sword of wounding be +3? A longsword of wounding +3 for example, is that possible or rules say that items are either "enchanted" or +1-3?

If we're talking strictly RAW, magic items only do what they say they do, and there's no categorical distinction between a "*+x weapon*" and a different type of "enchanted" magic weapon that provides some other effect without a numerical bonus. A *+1 longsword* is one specific magic item, and a *longsword of wounding* is a different specific magic item. Some items provide both a numerical bonus and some additional effect, like a *sun blade* or a *vorpal sword*. The exact written rules are a little vague, but RAI definitely seems to be that when a magic item can be "any sword," they mean any type of **mundane** sword. Saying that "this is a *sword of wounding* that uses a *holy avenger* greatsword as its base weapon type would be pretty silly. That being said, if you're the DM, there's absolutely nothing wrong with homebrewing your own version of a *sword of wounding* that also adds a +x bonus attack and damage rolls. Just keep in mind that, depending on the exact bonus, it would likely necessitate an increase in rarity.

The rules say that magic weapons exist and then give a bunch of examples of magic weapons, that's about it. Nothing stops a DM from making a Flame Tongue +53, aside from the sheer absurdity of it. However, many magic weapons include an attack bonus in their effect even if there isn't one in the name, for example the Vorpal Sword gives a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls in addition to its other effects.

\[5e\]Well I have a question about rogues. Im trying to understand what weapons shold i use for my rogue...I used to play with 2 Daggers because thats what made sense to me... however I learned i can wield 2 shortswords and I wonder what are the cons of 2 short sword compare to 2 daggers? because dmg wise shortsword makes more dmg, is there a reason to even using a dagger other than be able to throw it on people?

You can throw daggers, yep, and a dagger is easier to conceal than a shortsword.

is that the only diffrence between daggers and shortswords?

Also cheaper and lighter. But yeah they're generally worse, but it's only 1 less damage on average per attack, and for rogue specifically you don't get many attacks anyway and deal most of your damage through triggering Sneak Attack, so the damage penalty isn't *that* bad when the upside is the ability to chuck it if you can't get in melee range during your turn (which is also why if you go daggers you should carry, like, six)

{5E} So I joined my first ever long term dnd game and I'm playing as a half-elf paladin who ran away from the monastery because he never really resonated with what they were teaching (My guy didn't even pay attention so his religion is +0 TT) and I was lucky enough that my good friend, decided to dm for me and another friend (He is a cannibal lawyer/warlock and yes, he's a guy in a suit in a medieval setting and it has it's hilarious moments) and uhh my paladin's intelligence is unfortunately 10 (+0 modifier) and it doesn't help I have such terrible situation (signed his real name on a demonic contract and he's supposed to be a tank but he keeps missing). Anwyays, now for the real question is, do you guys have any recommendations on how exactly to play a character with such low intelligence for a new comer? I'm not really good at dialogue and stuff.

10 is just average. You might even have 10 intelligence in real life. It's not bad. You're just not super smart or freakishly smart like a 18 int wizard.

10 is average for all ability scores, not low. The reason PCs end up with much higher scores is because they are exceptional individuals possessed not only of great power and potential, but the drive to attain that potential and faced by the challenges needed to do so. The way you play an Intelligence score of 10 is to treat your character as a person of typical intelligence. You know some things, you're probably even an expert on a few things, but most subjects have intricacies that go over your head, like how the average person today can handle arithmetic and basic algebra well enough but would have no idea what to do with calculus. Keep in mind that intelligence doesn't necessarily correlate directly with a character's wits. A very bright character might have a low intelligence score simply because they were never educated, so while they pick up on things quickly, they just don't know very much.

\[5e\] I recently started dming my first campaign, but my group decided that instead of trying to find a way back home (which is literally what the campaign was about) they are going to stay in the world they ended up in. Any suggestions on what to do?

You have two options. You can have an out of character discussion with the players “I know you said you wanted to stay but everything I have prepared and discussed about the game is about your characters trying to find a way home” generally speaking if they have a strong backstory reason to return they will. If not they won’t have a reason to return. Like if they have a partner or child. Or lean into it, set your notes about going home aside and figure out the game where they stay.

their lives lowkey sucked in their backstories (this wasn't even planned) we have: -a jobless super senior who spends all day gaming -a clown who's losing business cause she's out of touch and doesn't understand what kids like anymore -a depressed minimum wage pet store manager who hates her life Im planning on leaning into them staying but I have no clue what to do next. Kinda wanna make them go house hunting and try to figure out everyday stuff

This sounds like a Session Zero would have been useful. i.e., yall should have talked as a group and decided ahead of time what you actually wanted the campaign to be about. For future reference, if you want a campaign to be about something specific, like returning to the original world their characters are from, thats an expectation to discuss ahead of time, because just pitching it as their characters being sent to a new world may have given your players the impression that this was gonna be an isekai campaign where their characters should want to stay and get invested in the new world.

That's the thing, I did have a session Zero. The more I think about it tho it seems like this problem is coming from this being their first times playing and not knowing exactly what to do. I did end up finding a workaround tho. They're going house hunting today, so that should be fun

\[5e\] Is a racial ability to shapechange into a giant weasel OP? I'm making a lycanthrophic kobold dire wereweasel race and while I will not be following exact lycanthrophy rules because they are too OP, it would be nice if the race could shapechange. Is turning into a giant weasel as an action too broken?

I think its gonna be pretty *under*powered, honestly. A giant weasel has less health and deals less damage than most level 1 characters, and as you level up the weasel form is just going to fall further and further behind.

Instead of asking strangers on Reddit to just *guess* if this would be OP, try it out in your game yourself and see how it fares. Get one of your friends at the table to make a character using this race option you have designed and use that to learn about how powerful it is and tweak it as required. Maybe it is OP, but we have no way of knowing that in the abstract. Don't go balancing the fun out of the design before it has even hit the table- that's no way to make good TTRPG material.

Question about grappling in 5e If i only can attack one per turn, and i grapple on My first turn Would i be able to attack on My next turn while mantaining the graple?

As long as you're not using a weapon that requires both hands, yes. One hand maintains the grapple, the other attacks with your weapon.

[5E] Have y’all ever seen The Power Team? They were a bunch of muscle-bound missionaries reciting bible verses while ripping phone books in half. Shit was wild. I’m trying to figure out how to build a character like those guys. How should I go about that? Cleric/Barbarian? Barbarian/Bard? Something else entirely? Thanks in advance.

Zealot Barbarian might be what you're looking for

Any character can worship a god. If your main point is to perform feats of strength, that's the part you'll want to focus on because that starts informing what your build would have to be. Of course it's still so broad as to be unhelpful. Anything with a focus on Strength will do, preferably also proficiency in performance and religion, perhaps with the acolyte or entertainer background. The field is wide open. I might go with a devotion paladin.

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If you're looking for ways to justify it, here's some options to consider- * The compounds you create are very unstable, breaking down in a matter of second if not immediately used * You're the only one who knows how to properly make use of the things you make- anyone else it likely to do more harm than good without YEARS of training and practice. * The salve itself doesn't actually do anything- your artificer is unconciously utilizing their own magic. * Your artificer has some skewed priorities and would rather die than give someone else the chance to discover their secrets * Your salves can only be properly applied using a special tool, and you have the only one in existence

It's just flavor. The spells work the same mechanically as if a cleric casts cure wounds.

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If it helps, think of the spells-as-items as not being durable enough to be used by someone else--in order to even work, the artificer has to use his own magic to trigger the magic he's stored inside it. Those spell-items are too fragile, unstable, or weak to be handed off. Compare that to the infusions for replicate magical item--those are stronger because they can be used multiple times, other people can use them, etc. Same with an Alchemist artificer's potions.

It could just be a mixture of things that needs to be infused with magic and applied within the 6 seconds of casting. Lots of real world things need to be mixed and applied within a time limit and don't really have any shelf life. I've played a ton of artificers and I love the flavor. ANY artificer can use ANY tool they're proficiencent in, so like a battle smith could create their spells with calligraphy with their construct being a sentient mass of ink and paper. Lots of cool options.

However you flavor your spells, they still need to behave as the spells you're using. Maybe the salve is infused with your magic and needs to be applied by you to not just be random gunk. Maybe it expires rapidly, only working at the instant that you create it.

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Truth be told, you're overthinking this.

[5e] heya, just want a clarification on attack rolls vs dexterity saving throws for defending against ranged attacks. I know some spells specify, and when fighting against ranged attackers (rangers, fighters) in combat you’d probably just defend w/your AC. Say a trap in the wall fires a torrent of arrows after a character steps through a tripwire - would the player make a dexterity saving throw or just defend with their armor class?

I like to compare to spells. Spells that fire a bunch of arrows, Conjure Barrage, is a dex save. Also looking at official traps, usually it's only traps that fire a single piece of ammunition use AC. Like a poison dart trap is usually a +5 to hit attack roll.

Some traps will make an attack roll with a stated attack bonus, some will call for a saving throw. If you're making your own, it's up to you as the DM how to handle it.

Attacks from traps and other inanimate objects generally ask for a Dex saving throw rather than the object making an attack roll against the target's AC.

Whichever the DM thinks is more appropriate. Traps are often handled with saving throws, but armor helping against an arrow trap makes perfect sense to me.

[5e] I am doing this campaign with friends on discord. Next time we meet my bard has to perform on stage. I don't have a clue on how to play a real instrument but I wanted to prepare something cool for the performace. I thought about putting some background music and telling a story because in the worldbuilding the DM created some cool fables for me to tell. This is kinda the low effort option. The difficult option is to create a song with some online tool like songfinch and let it play but I don't know if it even can do what I want. Do you all cultured people here have suggestions?

I would say the first idea is way better since it ties in nicely with what you and DM has already established

Is this a good subreddit to ask questions about forgotten realms lore? Seems like most questions on this sub are more related to actually playing DnD instead. If there’s a better subreddit for lore questions could anyone tell me what it is?

There's specifically r/forgotten_realms. The trouble with actual established lore is that it's scattered among a heap of books spanning 40 years. You mention the Spellplague--that's all in 4e books. So unless someone has them and pulls them out, or someone remembers... Anyhow, the wiki has an article [on the spellplague](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Spellplague).

Perfect that’s exactly what I’m looking for, thank you so much! 😄

It can be, but unless your question happens to pertain to a specific module's narrative or a published novel, your question may not have an official answer beyond "ask your DM".

So there isn’t a subreddit dedicated to dnd lore?

This sub is perfectly fine for any DnD question, including lore. I'm just saying that many lore questions will lack an objective answer.

Sounds good thank you! 😄 I’m a bit confused about what you mean by objective answer though. Like for example wouldn’t the objective answer to what continent is waterdeep located on be Faerun? Do you just mean that since DnD is player focused then the DM could make Waterdeep be in Australia instead?

The DM can, in fact, make Waterdeep be in Australia if they want to. The setting is always in the hands of the people at the table, it just helps when everyone shares an understanding of that setting so it's usually best to stick reasonably close to canon.

Well, that would certainly have an objective answer. I just mean that sometimes folks expect answers to minutiae, but the only answer they get is "ask your DM". Folks will ask questions like "how would a Flaming Fist enforcer react to a druid using wild shape?" or "what would the punishment be for using Charm Person to rob a shopkeeper in Neverwinter?" or "Would Elminster and Drizzt be friends?". There's no compendium of in-universe laws or a Facebook for legendary NPCs, so unless those specifics were coincidentally addressed in a module or novel, there's not going to be an objective answer to the question.

Ah okay that makes sense, thank you for clarifying!

Lore is what you make of it. You can't ask a question like, "According to lore why do goblins and kobolds dislike one another." Because there is potentially no answer. Lore is what your DM wants to do with it.

I’m talking about forgotten realms canon lore, like stuff about the spell plague, time of troubles, history of the planes, eliminster, drizzt, stuff like that. Lore that’s in novels, adventure modules, video games, etc. is there a subreddit for that or no?

Just ask your fucking question, and if people can answer it, they will. Or check the Forgotten Realms Wiki. [https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Main\_Page](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page) But again, lore could be meaningless for your campaign if your DM decides to ignore it.

Woah dude, what’s with the hostility? Not sure what I said to offend you, looking back at my response I don’t see what I said that could’ve pissed you off so much. And I’m not sure why you’re telling me to ask my question when I already did at the beginning. Is there a subreddit dedicated to dnd lore? It’s a pretty simple yes or no (preferably with a yes followed by what it is), and if you don’t know that’s fine too, just say you don’t know or don’t respond. I won’t hold it against you if you’re not sure.

[5e] Not specifically edition related. Does anyone know of any puzzle generators or programs for making puzzles, preferably interactive? Don’t mind making them in a design program or just using imagination but was wondering cause I thought it would be a nice extra touch if possible?

What kind of puzzles? One thing I've done is taken one of those "grid" logic puzzles (the type with 4 jobs, 4 cars, and 4 names that give you hints like "the lawyer does not drive the Toyota") and reflavored it to be D&D-esque. For interaction, you could generate extra clues and then give them a clue everytime they do something.

This is a cool idea thanks! I was thinking more on the lines of like a jigsaw type thing like where you have to move the tiles around to complete an image

\[5e\] Ice Devils: I was looking at this stat block as I plan to use it sometime in the near future. Can anyone tell me why this monster is CR 14? It doesn't seem that brutal. Is there something I'm not seeing? My problem is that in the CR system CR 14 means that a level 14 party of 4 would comfortably be able to deal with the monster. But I think a level 10 party would probably comfortably deal with it too.

The DMG actually has a process for creating homebrew monsters of a particular CR. While this process isn't strictly followed by official monsters, in my limited experience looking at this process it tends to match up well. Off the top of my head, I honestly don't know how well the Ice Devil matches so let's take a look. A creature with an *expected* CR of 14 shows an expected proficiency bonus of +5, AC of 18, HP of 266-280, Attack bonus of +8, Damage per round of 87-92, and save DC of 19. Ice devils have a proficiency bonus of +5, AC of 18, HP of 180, Attack bonus of +10, Damage per round of (very roughly) 64, and save DC of 17. So far, we're a fair bit under the mark but most of them are on point. The appropriate expected CR for the creature is 10, but that's not the end. Ice devils have resistance to 3 damage types (with qualifications) and immunity to 3 more. This increases the "effective hit points" of the creature by a x2 multiplier, resulting in 360 hit points and an expected CR of 16. Though it's worth noting that if the original expected CR were 11 instead of 10, the multiplier would only be x1.5 for an effective HP of 270 and a CR of 13. That 1 original CR difference makes a big impact, so it makes sense for there to be wiggle room between them. Officially we should be using the 360 HP, but I'm gonna explore the 270 as well going forward. We also need to take into account the special features the monster has. Devil Sight has no impact on CR, but Magic Resistance increases the "effective AC" of the monster by 2. Ice devils also have boosted saving throws for four ability scores, which raises the effective AC by another 2. With an effective AC of 22, our new expected CR is 16, or 14 if we use the 270 HP. And that's the last step. I can only assume that ice devils were deemed too weak to be a CR 16 creature, so they reasonably used the lower effective HP value when calculating their CR. So why are ice devils CR 14? In short, it's because they have lots of resistances and saving throws and such to make up for their relatively poor offensive abilities. However, these defenses leave gaps so if your party is equipped to hit them where they're weak, they don't matter and the creature might as well go back to being a wimpy CR 10. Especially since its saving throw DC isn't super relevant. That might also have gone into the decision to use the lower CR in the final calculation.

Running the numbers on the DMG, everything checks out. Defensive CR is 16, offensive CR is 11. Averages out to CR 14 (because it rounds up). Most of the challenge comes from how well defended an ice devil is. It already has a high number of hit points, but the damage resistances and immunities it has coupled with the number of saving throws and its Magic Resistance trait push it up even more. It might not deal a ton of damage each round, but it's expected to be around for a few rounds. Not easily factored into the CR as well is its Wall of Ice feature. A very fun tactic with Ice Devils is to use that action to deal a bit of damage and lock some of the PCs out of combat with the ice devil. The PCs stuck on the other side of the wall will want to spend their turn bashing their way through (and melee combatants will take damage crossing the frigid air left behind).

I'm no expert on CR, but if I had to guess I'd say the ice devil's high rating from its survivability. Comparing it to an Adult Black Dragon, also CR14, the Ice Devil does less damage and has comparable HP and AC, but has resistance to nonmagical BPS damage, immunity to two other common damage types (plus poison,) and advantage on all saving throws against magic. It also has a pretty effective battlefield control ability. ...but also CR is an imperfect system and I suspect the potential for the wall to do damage under certain circumstances is bumping the CR up a bit

\[5e\] Participating in a one-shot arena, where there are no long rests, only short rests between fights. 12 Level. Shadow sorcerer 9 with 3 levels in hexblade warlock, so i can recover some spell slots between each fight. Other than agonizing blast, i don't know which eldritch invocation to take. I thought devil's sight, as it would let me see in magical darkness without using the two sorcery points, but i don't think it's worth it. Is there any other EI that would go well with the character?

Eldritch Mind for maintaining Concentration is good.

I already have the war caster feat.

\[5e\] When you level up and gain a hit die, how do you calculate how many you then have after your long rest? As in, say you are level 4 and you spent all your hit dice over your short rests so you have 0 left. You long rest, and reach level 5. Do you then gain half your level's worth of hit dice which would be 2.5 but round down so you end up with 2? Or do you gain one for levelling up *plus* half your level's worth for long resting, ending up with 3?

The game does not mandate that leveling up must happen on a long rest, so the two events are completely separate. When you level up, you gain a hit die. Unless there's a rule I'm missing, nothing says that the new hit die begins in the "spent" state, so it doesn't.  So in your example, either the long rest happens and then the level, or vice versa. If the long rest happens first, you recover half your hit dice for your level (2), then you level up and get a new die, making 3. If the level happens first, you get a new die, then recover half your hit dice for your level (2.5 rounded to 2), making 3.

Perfect, thank you!

In a campaign that might be going until level 17-18 (if not 20), think a 2 level dip in Stars Druid might be adding anything to a Light Cleric? Was looking at the Stars Druid ability that improves concentration saving throws (plus occasional utility from shapeshifting), combined with hearing in a video that blasters light a light cleric kinda fall off after the mid levels.

Imo, it’s almost never worth dilluting your full caster progression, since spell slot power levels do NOT scale linearly. If you want a better concentration save, then I’d say pick up War Caster, Resilient or both. A few extra 1st level Guiding Bolts and some extremely limited Wild Shape-ing isn’t worth completely locking yourself out of 9th level spells for (if you “only” go to 17-18th).

\[Any\] I was recently gifted a 12 panel DM screen that is customizable and I was wondering what other DMs deem necessary to keep in their screen at the ready for reference or whatever else.

A list of names you haven't used yet.

I always like to keep info for the conditions (poisoned, restrained, blinded etc) handy. I can always remember roughly what they do but get similar things like grappled and restrained mixed up and need to double check.

Anyone out there use any specific tools or programs for creating any sort of interactive puzzles in some way, does anything even exist?

Any tips on a fun fathomless warlock multi class? I have a pirate campaign coming up and would love to be some kind of martial combat pirate with a tentacle friend.

Swashbuckler multiclass if you wanna be dex and like the rogue kit. It makes your bonus action pretty crowded though, but at least you have the free disengage with swashbuckler getting Fancy Footwork. Paladin of Glory or the Open Sea could also be fun, but that's more of a strength build, so might need to spread your stats out. It's also more heavy armor, which might not be your preferred aesthetic. What I personally would do is Swords Bard! Since you're using your bonus action on your flourishes instead of bardic its good to have the tentacle for your bonus action. Probably not the best for a campaign that ends before you'd get multi attack from Bard, but you can get booming blade or green flame blade from warlock to help fill the gap. Or rely on Eldritch Blasts more. With Improved Pact Weapon and Swords bard you can cast warlock AND bard spells through your sword, which I think is cool.

Rogue-lock or Bard-lock with a tentacle friend. Both sound interesting, sub-optimal (which is a good thing!), and fun. Thank you for these. Now to debate which way to go.

Pact of the Blade will give you the tools you need to swashbuckle, at least to some extent. With high dexterity and charisma, you can probably do this single-classed. Otherwise, consider starting with one level of fighter. This will give you a bit more HP, the option to use medium/heavy armor, and a fighting style. And, of course, the ability to wield martial weapons without waiting for level 3.

Sounds good. Thank you

\[5e\] My group is more use to the old editions, and concentration come up in the last session. I explained that you are allowed cast a concentration spell like bless and then under its duration you can use your action to cast ex. Guiding Bolt. Now, a website that i shall not link says that there are 4 primary ways to break concentration: 1. Failing your concentration check (upon taking damage). 2. Casting another concentration spell. 3. Casting another spell with a cast time longer than one action. 4. Using your action to ready a spell. Can someone remember where and/or in which book these rules are mentioned? Since #3 is also the rule that indirectly says that you can cast other non concentration spells while maintaining concentration on a spell, i am especially interested in which book that rule is stated. Thanks :)

3 and 4 sort of follow on from 2. You cannot concentrate on more than one concentration spell at once. In all official 5e content, there is only **one** creature who breaks this rule; in fact, concentration is one of the core aspects of the game's balance that the Dungeon Master's Guide explicitly tells readers not to mess with. To wit, when you cast a spell with a cast time longer than one action, you must concentrate to maintain the casting until it's complete; in effect, you're using your action each turn to carry out the casting. Similarly, the Ready action explicitly says that when you use it to cast a spell, you must concentrate on it in order to "hold" the effect until the set trigger occurs.

3 and 4 are kind of redundant to 2. Casting a spell that takes more than 1 action requires you to maintain concentration through the rounds it takes to cast it. To ready a spell you have to keep concentrating on it until you cast it. So basically it comes down to failing a concentration check or using your concentration on another spell whether that's because it inherently requires it or because you're holding it or casting it over multiple rounds.

Points 1 and 2 are part of the rules for concentration. Point 3 comes from the rule of casting spells with a longer time than one action, as doing so inherently requires your concentration. This is in the PHB spellcasting rules, chapter 10, and ties back to point 2. Point 4 comes from the rule for readying spells under the Actions in Combat section in chapter 9 of the PHB. Readying a spell requires you to concentrate on that spell, and as such ties back to point 2.

Is there any official population for the world of Toril, or for parts of it? (such as Faerun or the Sword Coast) If not, is there a number given by any of the designers anywhere?

If there is, it’ll be on the Forgotten Realms wiki, or you could ask Ed Greenwood on Twitter.

I have tried looking on that wiki, but I couldn't find anything in any places that make sense to me. In case I am missing something, I decided to seek help. As for twitter, I don't use that platform.

Right, you use X.

Hi there! New DM here, running my first campaign after a few oneshots. Most of the party are newbies, we have one veteran player that is not me. We play online with maptools, I develop the maps in a vtt maker. My main problem is I'm getting sick of the party disrespecting my time. Last sessiom 1/4 showed up. One of the player constantly has stuff to do when we are about to have a session, or he needs to suddenly study, when he could have done it all morning when he played league. I do 10-16 hours of map prep to make sure everything is visiually exciting, they have a map, and that any npc they emcounter at least has a sketch. I invest my time and heart into my world, developing it (it is a homebrew world based on greek myth) and I feel like they don't respect neither me, nor my time. One session we had a dungeon prepped, and I told them for a few sessionsy we are going to be staying in this dungeon. Next session a player immediately wanted to go back and do something else in another town. I try not to railroad if I can, I try keeping the world open, I am asking for feedback after every session... And they keep saying they wanna play so bad, but yesterday I posted 10 session times they could vote for, everyone was online in a call. I joined, said "hey guys I posted the next session vote, please pick the times that are possible for you and we'll go from there" and that was like 16 hours ago and nobody clicked on any of it. What am I doing wrong?

There's a combination of things happening here. 1. You're maybe putting too much work into it. It's one thing if you just enjoy the prep, but if it's hard work that is wasted or their lack of appreciation for your time is making it feel wasted, then it's worth considering how much of yourself you actually want to put into this game if you even want to keep running it. No D&D is better than bad D&D. 2. The players may not be that interested in the game. You can't really control how the players will react or how invested they'll be. You can ask for them to put more time in and you can tell them your expectations, but if those expectations aren't met, you have to deal with it in whatever way works best for you, which might be finding new players or taking a break. 3. Finally you teach people how to treat you. To me it seems incredibly rude for them to give so little consideration to you, but if you continue to put all this effort in when people don't really care that much, then that is YOUR decision. It's like a relationship, if someone isn't that into you, there's no amount of work you can do to make them change their mind, and there's no argument that you can put forward that will make them care. Ultimately it comes down to "I need X, Y and Z from you guys if you want this to continue, and if you're unwilling to meet those expectations, then no hard feelings, but it's not worth it to me." Then they will either rise to the occasion or not, and you have to be the mature one who walks away. You need to be willing to walk away from a bad deal no matter how much you want the fancy car. If the car doesn't run and is worth less than what the price is, walk away. It will suck because you want it, but you will find another one that *is* a good deal at some point. You can't let yourself be a doormat.

Find new players who want to play.

Honestly, they might not be into it. Can't force somebody to like DnD. You may want to find different players who are willing to commit on a level that you need. Before you get to that point, try emphasizing your expectations on a broad scale, rather than on a session-by-session basis. It's one thing to say "Let's play DnD this weekend, please respond", but it's another to call a session 0 and explain to these newbies that a DnD campaign represents a commitment. Obviously, the commitment doesn't overshadow stuff like emergencies and job duties, but the idea is that joining a campaign means that the campaign becomes a priority for them, and that they should be budgeting their time accordingly. This isn't a pickup game with no set schedule like League, this is a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly standing obligation that shouldn't lightly be disregarded. And if they don't want to commit on that level, then they need to admit that to you so that you can adjust accordingly. Also, do yourself a favor and find ways to streamline your prep. Unless you *really like* those 10-16 hours. You really don't need sketches for every NPC, you can avoid maps for innocent locations like town square or shops, etc.

How did everyone get into D&D? I really want to get into it but all of my friends have shut it down and bad mouthed it so I don’t really know where to start. No where near where I live does like meets or anything that I can find either. Does anyone have advice for getting into if you got no one to play?

Look into local hobby shops and libraries, both often have groups. Coffee shops sometimes have DnD groups, too. r/LFG can help with finding online groups. If you're in school, there may be a DnD club, or you could perhaps start one yourself.

It’s going to have to be online only as I live in a beach town about 2-3 hours away from anything social. Populated with people 80+ yrs old. Thank you for the community though!

I started by playing online. So, play online. It's what just about everyone did during COVID. Go on r/lfg or a D&D Discord [here](https://discord.gg/sHVwj6we) or [here](https://discord.gg/sHVwj6we) and go to the LFG channel. Folks play with Discord for Voice, and a virtual tabletop program like Roll20.

Thank you this was super helpful!

I got nominated as a DM in my group and I want to be better at storytelling. I think my vocabulary is lackluster so I want to start there. What would you recommend? I was thinking of going going back to reading. Any books you can recommend?

You can’t go wrong with Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld) He really knew how to craft a story, and even rereading a book after several times I still find things I didn’t catch before. It’s fantasy, closer to the Honor Among Thieves movie than Tolkien-like epics. There are just over 40 books, but the series as a whole can be broken down into different groups based on the main characters, which are more enjoyable if you read each group in order but you can jump between groups as you like. I started with the very first book, The Color of Magic. The first few books are a little rougher, the characters are pretty much reacting to many famous sci-fi/fantasy parodies like Conan, Cthulhu, Pern. I liked it enough to keep reading, but a lot of people say to start with one of the later books and come back to the beginning after you’ve seen how good it gets. I also recommend starting with Guards! Guards!, which is the first book in “the Watch” group. I read it for the first time and then immediately started it again :D

Awesome! Thank you!

how can I make combats feel/take longer in-universe? just had a major combat that went a whopping 11 rounds across two sessions and got great feedback from the players about how monumental it felt... but it lasted barely a minute to these characters so there's a disconnect

Idk...you don't really need to think about it that much/you can just say that it takes longer while still committing to the time frames from a mechanical point of view. In other words, you cast a spell that lasts a minute, then it lasts for 10 rounds. After 10 rounds of combat (which is kind of insane for D&D my experience is usually 5-6 is a super long combat), you say that whole thing transpired in about 20-30 mins. But if someone asks if their 1 minute spell can last for 20-30 mins outside of combat, the answer is no. Or make exceptions wherever it makes sense. The thing about it though is that while some things definitely become unrealistic here, have you ever been in a fight before? My friend and I tried boxing once, and let me tell you. 1 minute feels like forever when you're actually fighting.

I'll answer this by pointing at HP. It's not a direct measure of your flesh, and so a 10th level fighter can take like 16 arrows to the chest and be fine, and as soon as he gets a night's rest all his HP are restored, the arrow wounds just evaporated. HP represents a lot of things like luck, etc. The old answer from Gygax is that a fighter dodges every arrow and blow and it's the last one that drops him to 0 HP was the one to hit him. Especially given how characters are able to perform and move identically at full HP or 1 HP, no impairment from injuries, you're fine until your HP hits 0. Thus, HP is an abstraction. A round of combat is the same way. Characters that save against that fireball hunkered down behind a shield or cover and likely not popping back out the second the fire is gone. An attacker waits for an opportunity in their opponent's guard to swing. Someone standing up from prone doesn't just pop up and swing, they're going to try to get their balance and bearings while they're being pressed. If someone is hit in a fight, they're going to spend a few seconds sucking air through their teeth, assessing how badly they're injured, and try to move in a way that doesn't make the injury worse. They're going to *get tired*. And then there's the classic "move forward threateningly to get your opponent to back up/guard". Fighters do that to give themselves breathing room, to psyche themselves up, to look for weakness, to make things unpredictable, to feint, etc.

Well, Make sure you aren't narratively equating one attack roll to one attempted blow with a weapon, but rather a volley, including feints etc (although you can't abstract spells and ranged weapons as easily) or assuming a character isn't moving in small ways outside of their movement phase.

Honestly, this kinda thing could just be hand waved without much issue. Just come to an understanding that sometimes gameplay and narrative don't really work and give into the suspension of disbelief. Don't change any rules or durations of things, just accept the flaw and sweep it under the rug.

Does anyone know what book the character generator charts are in? The charts I'm thinking of let you roll for race/class/background but also let you randomly roll for things like family/siblings/rivalries/events that happened in the past. I find it a really good jumping off point if I'm struggling with making a PC but I can't remember where I found it. If there's an online resource for something like this too, that would be amazing!!

There is the This is Your Life section in Xanathar's Guide, page 61; but that only involves random races/backgrounds/classes for backstory characters. There is something similar called the [Heroic Chronicle](https://www.dndbeyond.com/tag/heroic-chronicle) from DNDBeyond articles, but it only features random backgrounds. The only random race table for PC generation that I remember is from the Reincarnate spell.

The This Is Your Life section is exactly what I was thinking of, thank you so much!!

I didn't think I was breaking any rules, but I am blocked from posting and do not know why

Is it because the post you're trying to make violates the [Text-Only Thursdays](https://new.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/qwigov/why_cant_i_post_a_picturelink_thursdays_are/) rule stickied at the top of the sub, and listed in rule 3 of the rules on the sidebar?

No, I had no media attached. It was just a post about monks

And it also isn't a link post? Regardless, if you have questions about the rules, I'd suggest messaging the mods. Most of us don't have any visibility into what you may or may not be running into.

Got it thanks. No links

Any recommendations for places I could find cool class-themed dice sets or just jumbo D20s? I wanna get my campaign-mates a little something and I thought it would be cool if I found dice themed around each of our classes. Specifically looking for something cleric, rogue, and wizard themed.

Gylded has some fantastic sets themed for classes and/or damage types and give you a good number of dice in each set: https://shop.gylded.com/collections/damage-dice Their Bless and Fire Damage sets might be my favorite dice I own.

Dark Elf Dice should have you covered, from what I've seen all of their class-specific sets + their gamemaster dice set should still be available. [https://darkelfdice.com/collections/character-class-dice](https://darkelfdice.com/collections/character-class-dice)

This is peerrrrfectttt, thank you!!

i am trying to make a dnd game for me and my friends to play is it possible to 3d print the dice needed for it and if yea where can i get the files for it?

If dice are that hard to get, then yes you can use 3d-printed dice. They won't be 100% fair, but it's better than nothing. Printing slowly with 100% fill will be the best means of balancing the dice. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4606860

ah thanks, i really think the dice would be that hard to get.. but the only ones i can find are 50$ and i would rather 3d print them, thanks for the link

I'm no 3D printing pro, but I imagine it might be tough to guarantee balanced dice via 3D printing. DnD dice sets are common and relatively cheap, are you unable to use those?

well where i live i cant find any on sale online when i search em up once 6 sided dice and uno come up sadly ;(

Does Amazon ship to you? Searching "DnD Dice" on Amazon returns tons of cheap options.

sadly no amazon does not ship where i live

That's tricky, sorry. Your 3D printing idea might work, I'm just not sure as to the quality. There's going to be a significant difference between effectively printing a 20-sided die and having it actually roll fairly.

true, but at this point il be taking anything.. its just a fun game to play at school during breaks tho so im sure its going to be fine. i just found this online " [https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4918160/comments](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4918160/comments) " is this the thing i want? or if you know, i s there any other i should use?

Do you have any sort of board game stores anywhere near you? What comes up if you just google search for "twenty sided die" or "d20" or something?

oh i will try to search for board game stores near me, but when i google it it just shows a website of a store in newyork

another option is a comic book store.

ah thanks i have some in mind that are near i will check them out

**Context:** I'm running an interactive TTRPG stream for my Twitch chat to introduce them to role playing and hopefully spark interest in D&D. I'm starting off with a simple quest where they have to find money to obtain chicken nuggets. **I have two questions, one for players and one for DMs:** 1. Players, what got you hooked on D&D the first time you played (so I can consider adding it)? 2. DMs, how do you keep a story/game on track with very chaotic players? (Twitch chat is randomly separated into TTS characters for a bard, wizard or rogue)

I would try to answer both questions. First the player part, i think what got me hooked, was just that i could use my own imagination freely, in imagining how the world looks how the DM describes it, and also what i want to do. My decisions were used for the rest of the storyline. And as a DM i always make the players fell like they have a free will, I try to push them in a specific direction, but if that doesn’t work, i just change the theme of the encounter, or story part, if that doesn’t work, i just tell them, that there is a great danger, by saying things like, “Do you really want to try this” or stuff like that

Thank you so much! I'm hoping everyone realizes how much creative freedom they have, so i'll definitely push for that. I appreciate the advice a lot, especially the danger part\^\^

Designing a new warlock for a 5e campaign. If I take Improved Pact Weapon so I can use a crossbow, and I take Thirsting Blade, will that let me attack twice with the crossbow? Or does the Loading quality override that?

You need crossbow expert if you ever want to attack more than once per action with a crossbow.

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I think it's totally fine to directly ask if you can make a roll. I do think the thing is you should be specific about what you're looking for. So if you just say, "can I make an investigation check" I'll usually say, "for what" so you can cut down on that by saying, "can I make an investigation check to look for secret doors?" or "can I make an investigation check to see if anyone was here recently?"

> I accidentally said "can I roll for perception", which I realise now isn't how it's done, For myself, just saying "can I roll for perception" is meaningless because I as the DM do not know *what* you're looking for. It's better to mention what you're looking for "Can I make a perception check to see if anyone is following us." "Can I make a history check to recall details of this goddess?" then I'd call for a Religion check.

>[...] in my first session I accidentally said "can I roll for perception", which I realise now isn't how it's done [...] It's fine. The main reason people have a "rule" about not calling for checks is because the DM has to get information across to the party about the situation they're in; DMs can't read your mind, so they do their best trying to convey information about the scene, and try to determine if the players are getting that information in the intended way. So, crucially, asking for a specific roll doesn't tell the DM *what you are trying to understand*. "I'll roll for perception" vs. "I'd like to keep my eyes out for any signs of traps or ambush ahead" -- it's very obvious in the second one what the DM can do for you, whereas the first one might either get you nothing in the immediate area if the ambush is up ahead further, or just make the DM have to clarify. In your statue case, for example, "Do I know anything about the figure in this statue?" Could prompt either a religion or a history check, depending on what info the DM wants the party to glean about it. On the bonus side, asking specifics might see some DMs skip the check entirely (and thus, no chance of failure) to get that info across to the party.

You know how sometimes, someone asks a leading question that doesn't really have anything to do with what they want as a way to ease into another question? Like if I were to ask my wife "Hey, do you have any plans tomorrow?" instead of saying "Hey, I'd like to do this thing tomorrow that you're not going to want - is hat alright?" That's sort of what asking for a skill check is. Instead of saying "Can I make a history check," just ask "What does my character know about this god?" Or, even more pointedly: "It seems like this god might be related to the story in - would my character know anything about that?" Sometimes, **a check isn't interesting or relevant.** Usually, in a case like this, if a player asks me for more information, I'll just give it to them. When I'm DMing and a player asks something like "Can I make a history check," often, I'm (mildly) irked by the question because now I have to say "Well, what do you want to know?" Because depending on what they're looking for, I may very well just give it to them. Personally, I also don't call for a lot of skill checks other folks will - if the rogue wants to pick a lock on a chest and they have infinite time to get it right, they just do it. No need to screw around with failing and figuring out what that means, etc. So getting into the habit of asking for what you want just helps best facilitate how your DM is running the game. Is this a big deal? Nah. Just something to keep in mind while playing.

First off, don't worry about it too much. Most tables aren't going to care if you accidentally slip character. The best way I've found to handle this is to frame your action as a leading question. "Do I know any details about this godess?" directly puts the question to the DM to see if a skill check is appropriate here. They might have you roll religion, or possibly a different skill if another is more appropriate. They might give you the information for free if it's common knowledge or something that your character would already know. Or they might say that it's impossible for you to discern more information about this thing. There's no problem with baiting a skill check, skill checks represent active choices that your characters are making and don't need to be danced around.

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Well, it depends on the context, so it's not a bad example. That's why phrasing it as a question allows your DM to give you the right skill check to roll. Maybe that goddess had a cult that nearly destroyed the city you're in, and a history roll would be perfectly reasonable to gain that bit of information.

Can a spellcaster with a focus reload a one handed ammunition weapon? Or would a component pouch be more practical?

Depends on the focus and how it is carried.  If it occupies the other hand at all times (like a staff for example) then you can't reload. If it is a holy symbol like a necklace then sure, you've got a free hand to reload since you only need to interact with the focus when casting and it's just hanging there rest of the time.

A focus and a component pouch function in exactly the same way. There is generally no benefit to using one over the other.

*Akshully...* Take two druids, one with a component pouch and one with a staff, but both wearing a shield. The druid with the staff cannot cast spells without a material component until they drop their staff, while the druid with a component pouch can keep their hand free and only reach into the pouch, which specifies it is fastened to their belt, when they need a specific component. If following the rules of spellcasting to the letter, a component pouch is a *massive* advantage over every other focus because you don't need to fuss around with the whole not being able to use somatics components while holding a focus if there are no material components, but *if* both of those components are needed then you *can* use the same hand that holds a focus to also do the somatics. But seeing as most tables generally don't care about spellcasting components and free hands, yeah, pretty much identical.

> a component pouch is a massive advantage over every other focus Except in style points.

> a component pouch is a massive advantage over every other focus Except in style points.

> a component pouch is a massive advantage over every other focus Except in style points.

Ammunition property says: >You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack **(you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon)**.

Yeah I read that. Is there a way to have a hand free for specifically the weapon attack with an arcane focus? As I understand it a component pouch already solves this.

5e, 2 questions 1) Could you use Featherfall right before you land on the ground after a high fall or would you still take damage? 2) Does paladin divine sense always stay active or only when you “activate” it? Like it says you can activate it to know where they are but are you able to just tell the good and evil whenever?

> Featherfall If you follow the Xanthar's Guide to Everything falling rules, you fall 500 feet immediately, then another 500 feet at the start of each turn. I think it'd be unreasonable to say that the trigger for using Feather Fall wouldn't be available at the start of each turn that you fall. Once Feather Fall kicks in, you have one minute of safely dropping 60 feet per round, which means the entire duration of the spell gives you 600 feet to descend, which means you could safely cast it on the round when you would have impacted. Personally I would say you do have to do it at the start of that round, even if you still have a few hundred feet to go, so you may have several rounds of feather-falling before you safely landed

1. I'd rule you can, I don't see anything wrong with that. I'd be reasonable with it, though, you're not casting in the last few feat of a fall- but I wouldn't ask for it to be cast immediately if you're falling hundreds or even thousands of feet. 2. It lasts until the end of your next turn, as noted in the feature.

Would it be possible to have a humanoid robot character in dnd? Like one that appears closer to a person, but is still a robot? (I'm pretty new to dnd, but I'm 99% sure the version of dnd I'd be using is 5e.) I wanna make an android character, but I'm not sure how it would shake out, or if I even can.

I just made a character like that using the Reborn lineage someone else mentioned! There's a lot of fun stuff in there and you can technically skin it as any race, so you could be an elf/dwarf/human/tiefling/whatever and still be a Reborn and use those Reborn stats for it.

Mechanically, yes, via either the warforged as mentioned by /u/PM_ME_MEW2_CUMSHOTS or maybe the reborn lineage, as neither needs food, drink, or air. Are there any specific needs or not-needs that you are looking for?

Probably warforged. They're essentially artificially intelligent wooden mannequins plated in metal and brought to life with a magically created "soul". Technically they don't exist in the "*main*" DnD setting and are only in a different plane of reality called Eberron (that has more of a scifi fantasy feel), but if your DM allows it in a different setting, it's pretty easy to just say you were made by a really skilled wizard or artificer and are more of a one-of-a-kind deal.

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In 5e can you use the Potion of Dragon's mastery to harvest dragon scales from yourself to make dragon scale mail armor?

I guess...? If you feel like ripping off your scales.  Seems like a waste of the ability to be a dragon. Then you have to be in a game that lets you craft fancy magic items like that.  And know how to do it or know someone who does. And have access to the tools or person.

TLDR I'm a DM and want to remove an irl friend from my dnd group but he didn't really did anything wrong So I started DMing CoS last year, we are all irl friends getting back to play DnD after years. We started playing in person here in my house but eventually due to scheduling and other issues we started using foundry in a sort of hybrid way, whenever we could we would play here and when we couldn't we would play remotely. At first things were fine but I noticed one of the players sometimes wasn't able to attend on the remote sessions and never really said why, just that he couldn't. This particular player also seems to not enjoy that much the dark fantasy vibe of strahd and would clearly prefer a more traditional fantasy setting, though he never actually verbalized that either. Now we are almost 100% only playing remotely on foundry because it is sjust better for us, except for him. I had a private talk with him and he said he didn't had a PC and didn't want to admit it at first because he can't really afford one. He sometimes was able to play remotely when he was on his parents house, but he can't always be sure to be able to play remotely. I think the best thing is to just remove him, getting back to in person sessions would be too troublesome as well as having the rest of the players having to manage his character on foundry as well. Although I do believe that if he showed more enthusiasm with the setting itself we could make some more effort but I honestly simply don't want to. And I also don't want to sound like a jerk because he is an irl good friend regardless. What would be the best approach here? Thanks everyone for reading so far and helping me out.

I think part of the issue here is that you sort of did your friend dirty, right? You started an in-person game. Your friend signed up and was a member of that game. Then, the group decided to transition to being largely remote because "it's just better for us," but you weren't explicit about it, and it wound up excluding your friend. (Of course, the blame is shared - your friend probably could have been more proactive about this, but they're the one being hurt by this particular change of pace.) This is a good lesson to take going forward into the future - communicate stuff like this. Be explicit about expectations, get buy in from people. It's scary and it takes work, but I promise it will make your life better. You could have had a conversation about how to run games in a way that better included this person when you first tried playing remotely. You could have made a conscious switch to primarily remote and discussed things then, etc. > This particular player also seems to not enjoy that much the dark fantasy vibe of strahd and would clearly prefer a more traditional fantasy setting, though he never actually verbalized that either. Be honest with yourself. Is this a justification or a reason? Are you looking for justifications to kick this person out and you found one that feels reasonable, or do you think that this is a legitimate reason? You don't have to tell me, and I'm just some dude on the internet, I may very well be wrong, but I suspect there may be some hand-wringing going on here. All that said... it doesn't change the situation, right? You shouldn't play D&D with people that you don't enjoy playing D&D with. And if you feel like the best course of action is to kick this person out of the group, do it. Sometimes, perfectly reasonable, friendly people can't make certain things work even with the best of intentions. That's okay. It's just part of life. It sucks for them, it sucks for you, but maybe it will be better to rip the band-aid off. Hang out with this friend outside of D&D. Or don't - sometimes friends drift apart. I just want to acknowledge that there probably could've been some other choices made along the way that would have helped here, rather than just saying "Eh, kick 'em."

You are absolutely right this was a good lesson for me, I will try to include regular discussions about expectations and the such on the table and between players from now on, not just on session zero. But yeah the damage is a little done right now. You are right that the fact his vibes are not exactly the best is more of a justification than a reason, although it would make me want to find a way to keep him, but I don't really want to. But the bigger reason is that we did move on to playing online which is something he can't do regularly enough and it does suck and I feel bad to kicking him out due to that reason alone. As for now the other options like playing in-person or managing his stuff for him on foundry are out of the question and I just want to decide how to best remove him without hurting too much our irl relationship.

Talk with him. Be honest about your reasons. Don't put the blame on him, take responsibility for the decision you're making - You're not kicking him from the game because it seems like he's not having a good time, you're doing it because "It's too much of a hassle for the rest of us to have someone that can't access the software" and "We've tried to make this work with what we have, but we don't have a solution" are totally reasonable. Allow for the possibility that you may need to give him space - you're being a bit of a jerk (in a way that's okay! Sometimes we have to be jerks!) and he may be justifiably unhappy with this decision, so be ready to extract yourself from the situation if he doesn't want to talk more right this moment. And beyond that, just... be compassionate. Assure him you still want to be friends, you still want to hang out, but D&D isn't working for you. > I just want to decide how to best remove him without hurting too much our irl relationship. I just want to note that none of us can guarantee this for you, right? This may hurt your relationship. But sometimes, "This might hurt our relationship" is not a sufficient reason not to do something. I'm not saying you should go out there and blow up your relationships for no reason, but relationships require buy-in from two people, and if you're honest, respectful, and compassionate, ball's in their court.

That's great advice there. Thank you, online stranger!

Can someone suggest me a race/class combo to help me create a \[5E\] spiritual successor to my last Earthdawn character? Skerrit Skreep was a Windling, (a winged race comparable to Fairies, or Pixies, but slighty larger, less rare, and less Fey-ish), a Weaponsmith by trade, and a tinkerer. The Weaponsmith Discipline/Class's primary strengths are improving the party's equipment, which mostly happens during downtime, providing the occasional buff during combat, and a lot of skill utility to help with traps, puzzles, mechanical challenges, and whatnot. Leaving aside his backstory, his mechanical concept was that he had the raw combat potential of a soggy tissue, instead supporting his party in all kinds of creative ways. He'd flit around the battlefield and snap bowstrings with his pliers, or empty a wineskin full of oil in a line and set it on fire for a little battlefield control. Or just fly around the battlefield (with his high DEX and AC-equivalent stats) while thumbing his nose and blowing raspberries at enemies to distract them, thereby imposing upon them the equivalent of Disadvantage on them attacking his friends. As far as dealing damage went, the best he could do was shoot his little Windling bow, comparable to a toddler shooting you with a kebab skewer from his toy bow. Basically, he was the ultimate support character. In 4E terms, a "Controller", with a generous bit of "Leader" thrown in. Now, it's been a while since I've played D&D. In fact, 5E I've only DM'ed, and that was two years ago. The system-fu will come back to me eventually, but I could do with a little help coming up with a (mechanical) concept that covers the same bases as Skerrit. I'm looking for all-out fuckery that doesn't deal damage directly, but lets me screw around in all kinds of creative ways. So far I'm leaning towards some kind of Artificer to cover the whole tinkering bit. No idea about race; it doesn't have to fly, but something small and scrappy and hard to hit would be nice. Since it'll be an online game among internet strangers, let's assume we'll be sticking to RAW without too much wiggle room. Anyone with a spark of inspiration?

Well, Artificer definitely fits the tinkering bit, as you said. As far as creative battlefield control/support vs. dealing damage, I’m not sure if one is going to give you the same playstyle as Skerrit. I currently have a lv. 4 Battle Smith Artificer as well as have previously played Light Cleric and Champion Fighter to the mid-teen levels. The Artificer spell list does have some good support spells but is a half-caster. Most of my battles so far have been attacking with weapons and cantrips rather than using spells in creative ways simply because I have fewer magic resources available to me than the full casters in the party. I‘m good with that for this character, but for all-out fuckery I personally would want to be a full caster. I guess I would consider the most important part as you described Skerrit as the battlefield support and skill utility. Tinkering, in that case, is something that I would consider more as flavor that could be appended to any class. As already said, Bard is a great choice basically tailor-made for this. And I wouldn’t rule out the fuckery potential of Cleric, Druid, or Wizard without reviewing the subclasses and spell lists. If I’m wrong and you consider the tinkering the most important part, Artificer away! Infusions are amazing for improving your equipment. I think either Armorer or Battle Smith are more “mechanical” flavor rather than Alchemist or Artillerist, as far as subclass. I don’t know how large your party will be, but I do like that my Steel Defender can follow any command I give it and help anyone, it’s not stuck just attacking and staying by me. As far as race, I’d probably go with Gnome or Halfling. Gnomes are basically the small tinkerer race, Halflings have luck, and neither will be too exotic for a game with strangers.

Thanks for the input, I'll take Bard into consideration. It's just that I'm not very theatrically inclined, and I might struggle a bit coming up with nice flavor bits. A little Gnome Artificer sounds pretty nice, too. I'll decide based on what fits the party based on session 0 later tonight :)

Yeah, I’m not the best at improv so I have to figure out some guidelines in advance that I can refer back to in the moment. The Fighter doesn’t leave anyone behind, even at the cost of herself. The Cleric is very straightforward, so when she says she’ll distract the dragon so the Rogue can sneak in the window, she means that she’ll go knock on the tower door. The Artificer talks to her Steel Defender like he’s a beloved pet, he’s the best mechanical bear, yes he is, he did such a good job! I have a concept for a Bard that I haven’t had a chance to play yet, a storyteller. I would fail miserably trying to be a musical or comedic or actor bard, but I know Lord of the Rings well enough to fudge an epic tale in bits if necessary for a performance check ;) I hope your session 0 goes well, have fun with whatever you choose!

Some kind of bard is the most obvious choice. I'd look at Eloquence or Glamour if you want to lean into the support side, or Creation if the appeal is more about creativity (although they are also great supports). If you have good DM buy in and don't expect to play past level 6 or so, you could consider a thief rogue, and if you want to lean into the "reduces enemies' attack effectiveness" while also getting to do some of the item upgrade stuff you could consider an Armorer Artificer using the Guardian form

That's some valuable input, thanks! I've never been all that keen on playing a Bard because I'm not good at the things that comprise their flavor, but it sounds like it might be worth stepping out of my comfort zone.

Also, while this depends on your DM/table, more often than not D&D people endorse the idea that flavor is free. All bards are (or should be) charismatic, but they don't necessarily have to be performers and certainly don't have to be musical. I've got a Glamour Bard with a Order Cleric dip planned for an upcoming campaign; his flavor is gonna be a grizzled old sergeant. He'll probably be a good orator when its called for but nothing else about him will be particularly bardy

Well, our session 0 turned out to be more of a session -1, just a little chat to get to know each other and see who's who. But I got the vibe that we should be good on the reflavoring front. We've got a bunch of Discworld fans together to see if we can figure out a way to roleplay something Discworld-ish, and we're bound to run into a whole load of GM calls anyway. I have the feeling we should be able to figure something out.

Hi guys, I've played before as a PC with a friend group, however now I'm going to try to DM for my first time with another friend group who has never ever played DnD (barely heard of it either). Have any of you been in this situation before? and if so, what have you done and what do you recommend? any youtube guides, online resources, and any general help is very welcome. I'm thinking of playing a one shot so they can learn the mechanics and the rules and such without much compromise.