I'm preparing a scenario where a city has been overrun by pirates and monsters. The PCs are trying to rush through the city to get to the central keep, encountering enemies and obstacles along the way.

Do you think it's reasonable for me to tell my players the following? If your DM said this to you, would you find it immersion-breaking, railroady, denying player agency, or otherwise bad?

"Theoretically you could take any arbitrary route to the keep you want. But I can’t reasonably prepare a battle map of the entire city with 100 potential encounters depending which way you go.

So I’ve prepared this linear battlemap, representing the most direct route, or the route you pick. You can try to avoid a fight by sneaking past enemies or doing something clever. But you can’t dodge a fight by taking a different route. You know if you did that, you’d just take longer to get to the keep, and would have to fight something else equally difficult."

If you don't think I should do that/tell my players that, can you suggest an alternative that's feasible for me to prepare in a finite amount of time?

Note that I run a goal-based game, rather than a sandbox game. I want to run prepared, balanced encounters with battlemaps, rather than improvising on the fly based on what arbitrary turns they take at each intersection.

(Disclaimer: If "Atlanta Falcons" means anything to you other than football or ornithology, please stop reading!)

Context: I am preparing a dungeon for a party of five level 10 PCs where the goal is to recover as much treasure as possible from a pirate cache in the caves of a volcano that is going to erupt in 8 hours. It will operate via dungeon turns (10 minutes rather than 6 seconds), and there will be a lot of treasure. I've prepared 130 aliquots of treasure weighing a total of nearly 8 tons, and the dungeon should be mostly combat-free. Most of the challenge should be "how do I get that treasure and how do I bring it back?" more so than just killing monsters and evading traps in traditional dungeon fare. The pirates are mostly already dead (the party intercepted them at their ships as they were trying to evacuate the cave). I do not expect the party to be able to recover everything, but it'll be neat to see how much they can get.

So the question I raise is this: What are some fun ways to "hide" treasure? This should range from simple (such as "the treasure chest is up on a platform that is easy enough to knock down, so you either have to find a way to safely bring it down or spend the time gathering scattered treasure off the ground") to complex ("there is a dangerous series of obstacles before you can even reach the treasure, and then it turns out you have to bring back more weight than 1 PC can carry").

A few other sample ideas I had (assuming treasure chests, but not all treasure will be a chest):

• A chest is across a chasm that's trivial to jump but not so trivial to carry a heavy chest over

• A chest is at the bottom of a pool of water but the water is very hot

• A chest is too heavy for 1 person to carry but is also locked so it can't be partitioned

• A chest is guarded by a mephit or some other relatively-weak enemy that will be an obstacle but is surmountable

• A chest is actively on fire

• Putting more than 200 pounds of weight on a rope bridge causes it to snap (and that includes a PC walking across)

• A chest is a mimic (I can't not do this one)

• There is a pitfall trap before a chest

• Exotic vines hold a chest in place

• A chest is at the bottom of a big pit

• A chest is greased

• A defector pirate is trying to escape with a chest

Any cool suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Im interested in the funnel concept but not super clear on how it works. Say my 4 players each have 3-4 characters. Are all their characters sort of "there" and around and they play who fits in the moment? do they start with character 1 and run it till he dies then move to 2? Wouldnt they just arrange them in order of most liked?

Note - I decided I needed to repost this with a more descripted title.

My group will be staring a new adventure finishing one that got to around level 12. For some of the players it was their first time playing D&D. We started with Lost Mine of Phandelver so we fought a lot of the "classics".

As I'm brainstorming ideas for the new adventure I'm trying to come up with interesting low level monster encounters and I'm struggling a bit. These players are all a little more experienced now so some of the things that maybe might have felt challenging and new to a brand-new player may not be as challenging or engaging now they they've had experience with the game.

Does anyone have any ideas, monsters or monster group/combinations they used to make low level play for experienced players a bit more interesting?

So I’m making a Halloween one shot for my party, and I’ve decided on a plot where they investigate grave-robbing incidents and what not; until the conclusion of the campaign is them finding the criminal who’s been doing the grave-robbing and figure out this guy was making a Frankenstein type monster (it’s basically just a flesh golem) with the body parts. (That’s a very simple summary of it all)

I really wanna make this somewhat memorable and interactive, I just need help with making the investigation part of the one-shot interesting and not boring. I usually make props for my games as well so if anyone has any interactive props I could make as well that fit the investigation theme, that would be helpful too!

I've got a hag coven in the area where my players are, and I want to have a few encounters where they see some monkey paw hag deals that have been taken by the farmers around town. I've got two so far.

In one, the farmer had pests destroy last year's crop. So the hag gave this year's crop magical protection so that “no creature of the soil, nor the land, nor the sky shall touch your crops!” Turns out people are 'creatures of the land'. It's harvest time, and no one can touch the crops.

In the other, a woman's husband died and she wished she could just wake up next to him again. Now, every morning, his rotting corpse appears next to her when she wakes. The party will meet her re-burying him yet again.

The hags are purely there to inflict suffering; that's it. Just pure evil. They have also made a deal with a group of goblins in the area. The hags provided the goblins with magic items to make it easier for them to raid the farms. The hags know that this will provoke a response and have all the goblins killed, so even more suffering. The party will run into the cursed farmers while hunting the goblins and searching for their base (which is hard to find, because the hags are helping them).

I'm looking for a few more to seed around. Any ideas?

Hello Everyone!

Trying to get some perspective on how other GMs try to improve their skills...

After every session I ask my players for a Wish (what they wish would have gone differently), a Rose (which of the other players did something they liked) and a Star (what I did they liked the most in the session). Then I sit down with my session recap and their answers and try to work out how I'm doing as a GM. (Yes, I'm that kind of nerd.)

It has grown into a sort of GM profile. Everything in it sits in one of seven areas:

• Prep: how ready I was. The world, the scenes, the notes and props I had at hand.
• Narrative: the storytelling itself. NPCs, descriptions, and whether the plot holds together.
• Pacing: the rhythm of the night. Scene changes, dead air, whether the session flowed or dragged.
• Improv: what I did when the players went somewhere I hadn't prepared (so, always).
• Rules: my rulings. Were they clear, were they fair?
• Spotlight: whether every player got their moment, or the loud ones ate the session.
• Table dynamics: safety, tone, and how well we talked to each other as a group.

For each session, in each area, I note:

• what worked, and why it worked
• what didn't, with a possible fix
• one thing to try next time

Across the whole campaign:

• whether each area is improving, steady or slipping
• the strengths that keep showing up, session after session
• the problems that keep coming back, and whether they are new, stuck or getting better
• whether I actually tried the tips from earlier sessions, and whether they landed (this one is humbling)
• for each player, what works for them and what they've asked for or gone quiet about
• the one to three things to focus on next session

Now the important question:

What would you add?

Is there an area I'm missing, something about your own games you wish you could see? And is anything on this list useless to you?

Thanks!

Edit: a few people read the list below as a questionnaire for players. It isn't one. My players answer three questions (Wish, Rose, Star) and that's all. Everything else is what I work out on my own afterwards, from their answers and my session recap.

I am getting to run my first true political intrigue game. The world will react to them and I have already (and successfully might I add) consequences to some of their actions. The players control the pace of leveling through dungeons as there wont be a way outside of that away from completing large story beats. It was discussed in session 0 and they like the idea. There are also treasure dungeons . Anyway to get onto the meat of this.

2 of my players have been given a job to go rescue someone that has been long since missing (about 240+ years) and were given nothing but a name (by my design) so they will have fun figuring things out. I know everything I need to about this character. The circumstances that lead her into the spot she is currently in ect ect. I have everything I need planned in terms of encounters, traps....you get the idea. The current plan is for them to walk through the front door of the place as most of them actually have invites to the party and a couple dont but they will be trying to earn that. So here is my dilemma...I dont know how to run a party function. I have everything else preped but I dont know how to do that. I feel silly asking...but I figured why not give it a shot.

I'm getting ready to run a new campaign and one of my players wants to be a member of a cult, an amnesiac who was indoctrinated by them at a young age. Incidentally I've planned for the secret final boss to be a society/cult pulling the strings in the background. Currently unsure of the logistics however, it seems like a good idea but wondering if anyone thought it would be possible/feasible to write the cult as the main villain and have the player break free from them without breaking too much of the mystery or side-lining the other players. TLDR; is it a workable idea?

Im building an homebrew that is set in a metropoly that is magically separeted from the world. Why and how was separated is a big point in the story since the nobility of the city use propaganda to maintain the status quo.

My vibe would be "the city has been close for so long that noone even knows if there is still an outside" also because the official reason for the isolation is to protect themself from a big war.

In my mind this time would be like 3/400 years and that would tie well with other aspect of the story if it werent for the "oh lets just ask a middle age elf" solution. I cannot for pg preferences remove elfs from the world.

I thought about a "magic chaged their memory solution" but that doesnt tie well with investigative work the pg would do.

Any other suggtions?

I ran my first Session of D&D (not ever, but im still fairly inexperienced) last month for a new group and I need some inspiration for what to do from here, I don't have much time to manage between now and the 2nd session so any and all advice is appreciated. I usually plan a bunch of encounters that are basic enough to be reskinned or modular with a fuzzy idea of an overarching narrative.

4 very players with little to no knowledge started at Lvl 1 & levelling up to 2 at the start of next session.

Background: The village the players start in is a peasants republic that is protected by a silver dragon from monsters and local lords. The dragon hasnt been seen for a while and some unwanted creatures have been venturing a little too close for comfort.

They started off on patrol for the village and find a load of bodies marked with a red hand symbol around a dead paladin positioned as if protecting what turned out to be a dragon egg, they inspected the scene. The bodies with a red hand painted on the tunic (not the paladin) got back up and attacked them (zombies). After combat, they took the egg back to the village.

On the way they chased down a burning runaway carriage and rescued everyone inside.

(Dragon egg plot) The village elder told them to check on the dragons lair in hopes to return the egg.

They then fought some wolves in a cave, did the classic LOTR riddle door thing, climbed an icy cliff, fought some dudes with the red hand symbol and finally reached the dragon’s lair…

Except the dragon was gone and there was a necromancer’s laboratory in its place.

There was evidence of the necromancer having instructions to harness the eggs not to experiment with them. He didnt do as he was told and now the players have the only surviving egg, The necromancer left a note on a map that the paladins would most likely have headed to the local temple. The players bit the hook and went towards the temple after the necromancer, on the way out they noticed the bodies of the red had guys had disappeared. ‌

We left it there and the players are going to pick the game up after a long rest en route to the temple. I might have the zombies of the guys attack their camp or something but where do you think I should go from here for my 2nd session... aghhh lol no idea.. my creative juices have ran dry.

Despite the Manticore being an iconic mythological creature, I haven't come across many adventures that explore its lore or build an interesting story around it.

Sure, there are dungeons here and there with two or three Manticores thrown in as ordinary monsters, but I haven't found many adventures where the creature itself is at the center of the story, with an interesting personality, a compelling motive, or a memorable plot.

I wanted to write my own Manticore-centered adventure, but it seems my muse has abandoned me!

So, I'd love to hear your ideas:

1. If you were a Manticore living in the Forgotten Realms, how would you live?

What kind of evil schemes would you pursue? Would you terrorize a region, manipulate settlements, establish a lair, demand tribute, hunt for something specific, or have a more unusual ambition? What kind of threat would you pose?

2. Suppose a group of adventurers interfered with your plans and ruined everything. How would you get your revenge?

Would you hunt them down, target their allies, set elaborate traps, ruin their reputation, or devise something far more sinister? I'd especially love ideas that go beyond a straightforward rematch.

I'm open to brainstorming, unusual interpretations of Manticore mythology, Forgotten Realms lore, adventure hooks, and any published adventures or sources I might have missed.

Thanks in advance for your ideas! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Hello all. Brand new DM here. Played as a PC for a while and in a few different game systems, but want to learn to DM to get a local session going with some friends. I was planning to start with the one shot A Most Potent Brew, and get a feel for the party and get a taste of DMing. However, where do you go to next?

Watched some videos and read some posts, and saw a lot of people recommend running this and a few other one shots. However, how would you all typically handle one shots as a DM? Do you just create a town and house all the one shots inside that town and let them kind of explore the area and make things up as you go? What would you do exactly?

Obviously we all know the Christian idea of hell: Fire and brimstone, being tortured by devils with pitchforks for all eternity. But personally, I’m more the fan of depictions of Hell where it’s less about outright torture (in the broadest definition of the term) and more about it being minor inconveniences and annoyances that add up overtime.

Examples would be the Twilight Zone episode where the main guy gets anything he wants when he wants it, stuck in an eternal loop of boredom. Or the Adventure Time episode where Finn and Jake are trapped in a long line that just will not move. Or in HFIL by TeamFourStar where hell is a cul-de-sac with annoying neighbors and the only movies to watch are bad sequels (and no butter for the popcorn!)

So I’ve been brainstorming some ways of giving a DnD flair to those kinds of punishments, both in a lore-accurate way to the Nine Hells of Baator but also in more of a slightly meta way with DM methods that most players HATE (railroading, DMPC glory hogs, impossible checks, etc)

I was thinking on other ways for a bard support their allies in battle and I thought on the dancers in Fire Emblem series, where they can use their action to rejuvenate an ally to grant them one extra action.

By spending a Bardic Inspiration and an action, do you guys think it would be OP and a cool idea?

Edit: typos

I’m planning out a dialogue for my future session and I’m feeling like I may be either getting to dm bullshittery or may not make any sense and want either input or other perspectives on other avenues I may be missing.

For some quickly abridged context been running a 2year campaign now and in the next 2 or so sessions my players should be getting to meeting the bbeg in the flesh (for the second time but they weren’t the bbeg when the campaign was starting but it’s progressed to them being the parties bbeg and the main drive for conflict

I’m making a legendary magical item that was kept within a lead box the party hadn’t been able to unlock when first getting it at the start of the campaign due to most part early campaign levels and magical and mechanical means since first getting it and it has been long since forgotten and will be serving as a massive deus ex machina for me. In total the magical item would be capable of allowing its attuned user (the bbeg) the ability to scry, modify memories, and act as a way to paralyze or momentarily capture the party to allow for a bbeg dialogue and reveal that since the moment the campaign started they hadn’t actually been a random hap-penance of random encounter and joining up as fledgling adventurers party but were psyops’d by the bbeg and his own plans to orchestrate a rag tag group of nobodies to work in his own plotting and interest without ever having personally aided him or known him save for one passing interaction so many sessions ago.

After said dialogue the bbeg will be leaving through means of a temporary portal and a boss fight to engage. The boss being an eidolon and statue as a minion of a necromancer affiliate of the bbeg the party was sent out to kill and the whole reason they’ll be able to meet the bbeg again in the flesh due to a quest given to them to slay said necromancer due to sightings of undead however they also leave in tow with the bbeg but the bbeg removes the parties restrains just as the fight happens as they are all but amused by their adventures. Aside from the dm railroad/bs moment of taking narrative control the main thing I worry about is ruining the vibe and narrative suspense I have planned for them to feel and make the mood go from delving through a dungeon to all our carefull planning and prep is ruined and now we have to suffer a boss fight as our “reward”

I worry it could lead come off as dm bullshit or Mayhap’s even mean spirited and am open to input, feedback and changes that could be made. After said

i am in process of making a one shot/short adventure for a group based on the game Cult of the Lamb. the party starts at level 3 and will go all the way to level 20 by defeating the mini bosses of each area and the bishops then facing Ayam and Baal before facing Narinder. i however am stumped if the statblocks i have area balanced for what i am looking for.

Darkwood (level 3-6): Darkwood Bosses - The Homebrewery

Anura (7-10): Anura Bosses - The Homebrewery

still working on Anchordeep and Silkcradle but am having doubts and want to make sure things are balanced for the level range needed. Anchordeep will be for level 11-14 and Silkcradle level 15-18. Aym and Baal will be a double team for a party of level 19 then Narinder at level 20.

i guess i am just asking if what i have is on the right track before i proceed with the last two areas or if there is something i need to balance with the first two areas first.

So I am DMing for the first time and one of my players got their character captured by guards protecting an illegal slave trading organization and I dont know where I should imprison the character. I dont know whether putting him in the official prison would work since the Mayor is extremely against slavery and another PC is in the Prison of the slave trading organization freeing slave and I dont want them to discover the on freeing the slaves

hi reddit

my players are on a quest to protect a town crier from assassination. they sorta infiltrated a evil faction (A) on a city, and there is a less evil faction (B) that sees A as a problem, so B is taking out A, But A figured it out, and is using a major image of a town crier to lure the assassin, and the players will need to deal with chaos

anyway, this is not the important part. The Important part is that i stumble upon this cool song that pretty much resumes the entire speech i wrote to a very impactful song, down to the name of faction A

now im a bit conflicted...this song is so cool that will surpass anything i wrote to the point where i want to replace the town crier with a bard band that sings the song

But on another note, i feel like it could be seen as cringe? its a heavy metal song, so i know this aint everyones cup of tea, but then again, i planned to "trim" out the song, and only play a bit of it (makes sense as the lead singer would get a arrow in the head shortly after)

still, i feel like if i had to pause the session to play a song would be real cringe and awkward, and not the powerful delivery i was hoping for

what would be your reaction?

Do you tell your players the actions a creature is taking or just describe what happens.

For example would you ever say:

The goblin uses his action and shoots his bow from behind the safety of the tree and then uses its bonus action to disengage and dart among the trees.

ETA: Or even say the goblin uses Nimble Escape to….

Edit 2: So far the answers are more diverse than I anticipated. It’s giving me a lot to think about on both sides.

Hello everyone!

I am not sure if this is the right place or if r/dndhomebrew is more suitable, but I will post this there too.

I have run two homebrew campaigns so far and am coming up with the plans for a third one. I have this very stupid funny idea where my plan is to have the players figure out a mass murder mystery of what happened to the droids in Portal II "Pit Song".

How I am thinking it would go, is the players begin as part of a military unit that has been tasked to find out what happened to another military unit as they disappeared after taking part in a massive military operation. This would entail investigation work and searching over a vast area of the world map in a detective/crime scene investigator style. The numbers that are gone through in the song would be the soldiers dogtags essentially and I will fit how each has been described to die in the song into what happened to the individual soldiers.

Now what I am thinking, is that the term 'droid' and robot would be based on some form of mind control where the soldiers are tasked with a mission and they are following said mission until completion. The twist for the players being that they don't know this is the case and that they don't know they have been tasked with finding out with what happened to the unit in a similar fashion.

My question is: how/what mechanics would you use to build this?

I have some ideas but I am really keen to hear what you would come up with as I am still in very early planning stages and am very open to anything. Edit: Link to song lyrics: https://genius.com/Harry-callaghan-the-pit-song-annotated

Running a campaign, and still trying to finalize all the pieces.

TLDR:

Seven "sin" relics - each will provide a buff and debuff to a specific player in the party (based on their characters backstory/personality established in session 0) - These are found in the infinite dungeon (prison)

Seven "virtue" relics - each will "counteract" the opposing sin, removing the debuff from the player, and leaving an improved buff. - These are mainly found in the city above ground.

The Dungeon (delicious in dungeon inspired) - The "infinite" ever-shifting dungeon is a prison for an ancient evil. The combined relics form a powerful artifact that can siphon the ancient evil's power, and power the dungeon/prison.

(undecided final use of relics - IDEAS PLZ?) - The relics will either combine into 1 large item to facilitate their end-game needs, or each relic combo (sin/virtue) will slot into an item/weapon for each player to grant them power to defeat the ancient evil.

The consistent theme of the campaign is light vs dark, sin vs virtue, but beneath that there is an intersection of the opposing concepts. I middle ground where a balance between these opposing concepts can create something good/useful.

Setting the scene: There is a large prosperous city, Sol Verida (City of Sun). After a recent earthquake, an entrance opened to a dungeon beneath the city. Monsters are in the dungeon, and the city guard was handling it, but as they explored deeper the monsters became unmanageable. They outsourced the dungeon containment and exploration duties to a guild. The guild is tasked with exploring the dungeon to discover its true nature. So far, they haven't been able to find an end to the dungeon. It seems bottomless, and on top of that, some floors seem to occasionally shift their layouts.

Players join: The PCs are new recruits to the guild. Session 0 they are all asked to ensure their characters have a unique reason for wanting to join the guild. It can be to find riches in the dungeon, it can be in pursuit of knowledge, it can be they were "chosen by a god", or that they just love a good fight. All of these reasons are important for the main story.

The party has an "initiation" into the guild (basically baby's first dungeon), where they do a mini dungeon simulated by senior guild members. After completing this they can explore the dungeon proper (levels 2+).

Story Hook (seven sins): The players will come across a relic/item/object. It will seem innate to everyone in the party except for one person. It will call to that person. As a DM, set them up to want to get grab that relic. Once they touch it, they will experience an sensation "An intense yearning. You feel a hollowness deep inside of you. You need... more. Magic, gold, power... it feels insatiable. Uncontrollable." This player is the one who entered the dungeon for riches, and they've just been "cursed" by the Greed Relic. The relic will "pull" (encourage) the player deeper into the dungeon. The relic, can be inspected with Detect Magic to get a sense of the aura that is affecting the PC. And an arcana check will reveal some things (like it is one of several pieces). The PC will get a buff from the curse, and a drawback.

Greed Relic:

Buff: 1/long rest - Detect magic items within 100ft for 10min. (useful for dungeon exploring)

Drawback: (WIP) - Disadvantage on charisma checks when haggling. Disadvantage on perception checks when near a (unowned) magic item. (may not see that trap on the chest they are trying to open)

Major Plot points

Seven Virtues: The party will continue to explore, finding more (sin) relics that call to different players, being attracted to a trait that player posses. Eventually, one relic will have a tie back to the city. A story, a rumor, etc. The players will go to the surface to investigate rumors of a person driven mad in the dungeon, who killed his own party in a blind rage (wrath relic). Their investigation leads them to a temple, there they will find this man, cured by the priests of this temple. They will explain that they've long housed a relic, its purpose lost to time, but this man was brought in by the city guard as they thought he may be possessed. This relic reacted to him when he entered. It lit up, it seemed to be pulling towards the man. Bringing the man in contact with the relic relieved him of his ailment. The priests are unsure of how it worked, but know it did. The man, living in the temple now, explains to the party that he touched a "relic" in the dungeon, which caused him to fill with rage. After the story and explanation, the temple may agree to let the party borrow the relic. But insist they report to the dungeon guild leader so that it can be properly documented.

This is how the party learns that the curses (drawbacks) from the sin relics can be negated. If they find the opposing virtue relic, they can keep a buff with no downside.

The Guild & Dungeon

Going back to the guild leader, and presenting information of the sin/virtue relics will trigger an info dump. The guild leader will explain there is an ulterior motive for their exploration. Most of the guild are just meant to help explore. To clear monsters and draw maps. However, there is a small group of senior leaders in the guild that are privy to their the true nature of the dungeon. It isn't just a "dungeon", it is a prison. It's why it is changing and shifting. It's why there are monsters everywhere. It was not meant to be explored, it was meant to keep everything else out.

The earthquake was the first sign of the dungeon (prison) failing. The knowledge is several millennia old and most is lost to time. What they do know is that there are powerful relics that were used to power the prison and seal away an ancient evil. The party sharing information about these relics confirms it.

The guild leader will officially induct them into "The Penumbra Society", a secret division of the guild tasked with recovering the relics and sealing the prison once again.

The seven sin relics are supposed to be scattered within the dungeon itself. Sealed in there as they are dangerous on their own.

And the seven virtues are held by various organizations throughout the city (temples, government, wealth individuals).

The party will need to recover all of them.

This is where I'm stuck:

I want to give the party some choices at the end. Repower the prison/dungeon and seal the ancient evil (boss) for another several millennia. OR use the combined relics to help destroy the ancient evil (boss) OR keep the relics for themselves, becoming their own form of ultimate power.

I think the choices are fine, but how do I facilitate them?

My thought was that the 14 relics combine to create the frame of an item "Mirror of Perdition". It's was created to absorb the sins that gave the ancient evil power, neutralize it with the virtues, and convert that power into something that can power this massive prison/dungeon. So the party could use that again to repower the dungeon, or fight the boss with it (basically debuffing it to not be a "god").

OR

The each person that reached into the mirror could withdraw a legendary item, unique to their sin/virtue combination that would help them defeat the boss.

OR

Ignore the mirror all together. Instead, each player will find a unique magic item (weapon, armor, amulet, etc.) that the relics will slot into. Slotting both will create a powerful item that can later be used in the final battle.

Final Thoughts:

I think I have good bones for a campaign. I can fill in the gaps with encounters, quests, adventures, NPCs. But I think the core of it will be engaging with enough twists to keep it interesting without being convoluted.

I do wonder if the sins/virtues is cliche. But in some searching I don't think I've seen it done like this before.

It is my first time DMing (long time player), and its going well so far. I just need to lock in on some of the main details around these relics as my players are finding them.

Hello everyone! I'm a Dungeon Master who plays D&D 5.5e.

I've been playing D&D for a long time and have experienced a variety of adventures, but I'm having trouble deciding which adventure to run next.

Here are the adventures I've already played or run:

• Lost Mine of Phandelver
• Curse of Strahd
• Storm King's Thunder
• Tomb of Annihilation
• Essentials Kit
• Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
• Candlekeep Mysteries
• Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus
• Chains of Asmodeus
• Tales from the Yawning Portal
• Dragon Delves

I'd love to hear your recommendations for long-form campaigns other than the ones listed above.

I'd also really appreciate it if you could explain why you recommend them.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone!

I'm planning on DMing a campaign, and I'm working on giving several classes some homebrew buffs.

One of my players wants to play a Sorcerer, and he suggested a simple change: What if Sorcerers automatically knew every Metamagic option instead of having to choose a limited number?

They'd still have the exact same number of Sorcery Points and follow all the normal rules for using Metamagic. The only difference is that they'd have access to every option.

Personally, I don't think it would not be particularly overpowered, since they're still limited by their Sorcery Points, but I'd love to hear what more experienced DMs and players think.

Would this cause any major balance issues I'm overlooking?

Hey there,

I'm experimenting with creature statblocks and trying to play up a monster's strengths to make a fight harder instead of inflating stat or fight numbers. I'm seeking advice from you all to see if I'm using this monster both effectively and in a believable way.

I came across the Shadow Demon statblock from the new 5.5e monster manual. I found it interesting and I thought about putting it up against my player party (four level 4's) inside of an enclosed space (15x15 battlemap). It'd just be this creature alone facing off against the party, and it'd be spurned into fighting because of a (potentially) activated a trapped part of a dungeon puzzle.

But I digress, what I really want to know is would the monster behave in the following ways and is this an effective use of their statblock?

It has the following Monster Trait:

Incorporeal Movement. The demon can move through other creatures and objects as if they were Difficult Terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) Force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.

It has the following statblock characteristics:

Intelligence of 14, Wisdom of 13, Telepathy, a CR of 4, and lore flavortext that claims the demon to be a wicked and malicious creature.

1. Would the Shadow Demon be wise and cunning enough to end it's turn occupying the same space as a player character who just took their turn? (PCs don't count as objects, but creatures instead)
2. Would the Shadow Demon be bold and predatory enough to end its turn in a wall, only springing out to deal damage and retreat into a nearby wall? (It'll take damage but, unlike most other statblocks, doesn't get shunted to the nearest available space)
3. I'm not sure if Demons behave like Devils (I'm using the original Toril Forgotten Realms setting), but if the Demon drops low in hit points would it get more aggressive (maybe mythic action a multi-attack action in)? Try to bargain its survival in the material plane (telepathy)? Try to escape (are they vindictive?)?

I acknowledge that this will result in a bunch of Held Actions but I'd like to work in increased depth and show more notable strengths to my stronger enemies.