Hi everyone! I'm really happy to share that, thanks to everyone's support, we've already unlocked two of our stretch goals, allowing us to create new mythological items with new artwork!

We're now in the final days of our Kickstarter campaign, so there's still a little time left to support the project and help us unlock even more content.

For anyone unfamiliar with the project, Mythological Items is a D&D 5E and 2024-compatible collection of 300+ magic items inspired by myths, legends, and folklore from around the world. Each item comes with its own history and unique abilities inspired by its mythological origins, and many can even grow in power alongside your characters throughout a campaign.

We're now working towards our next stretch goals, which will allow us to add even more items and new artwork to the book! There's still plenty we'd love to include, and every bit of support helps us make the final collection bigger and better.

You can also download a free PDF preview directly from the Kickstarter if you'd like to take a closer look at what we've been working on!

Thank you so much to everyone who has backed, shared, or supported the campaign so far! It's genuinely exciting to see the project growing thanks to your support, and I can't wait to share more of the new items with you all! ❤️

I received an early review copy from WotC and put together this guide.

Simple question. Example : one of your players come across a +2 to hit sword. Do you tell the PC what it does, or do you just keep a note for yourself and mentally add the modifier anytime the PC attacks with it? TIA

I'm currently Dming for a Lvl 2 party. Thius is about our monk player (Tavern Brawler and Prone Fighting Style from a dip into Fighter). They showed me this homebrew version of the Kensei Monk they made, asking if they could play it. And tbh I'm not sure.

It seems like they just moved some abilities around, but still... I mean, if I'm not crazy, their version of Deft Strike almost doubles their damage for one attack without cost or limit. It does seem a bit much, doesn't it? I'm new to DMing, so I don't have the intuition the rate this appropriately.

Because I can't post pictures of it, I'll just write down the two abilities I'm unsure of:

Level 3: Deft Strike

Your training with your weapon makes your strikes even deadlier as you aim for the weak spots your weapon can abuse. When you hit with an attack roll using a Kensei weapon, you can roll your Martial Arts die and add the number rolled to the attack's damage roll.

You can use this feature once per turn, or you can spend 1 Focus Point for each additional use this turn. You can apply Deft Strike only once to an attack. At Monk level 11, you roll an additional Martial Arts die and add it to the attack's damage.

Level 6: Agile Parry

Your martial training included many, many duels, yet a warrior can never let their guard down even while focusing on the enemy in front of them. When a creature you can see targets you with an attack roll while you are holding a Kensei weapon, you can use your Reaction to enter a Parry Stance. Until the start of your next turn, you gain a +2 bonus to your AC, and you gain an additional reaction which you can use only for your Deflect Attacks feature.

So I ask you. Is this HB balanced or should I talk to my player about reworking some things?

Hey everyone! Whenever my players ignore the main storyline and walk straight up to the town tavern's notice board looking for quick gold, I like having zero-prep bounty contracts ready to go.

Here is a quick drop-in bounty contract you can run at your table in 30 seconds:

---

BOUNTY NOTICE: "WANTED — THE CLOCKWORK RATCATCHER"

• Reward: 75 gp (plus salvage rights)

• Posted By: Master Bramwell, Guild of Candlemakers

• The Notice (Read Aloud): "Three weeks ago, we paid a gnome tinkerer fifty gold coins to build a brass automaton that would clear the cellar rats from the Candleworks. The good news: there are no more rats. The bad news: the automaton has welded kitchen knives to its paws, declared itself King of the Tunnels, and is holding my wax-boilers hostage for 'tribute in copper gears.' Smash it and bring me its mainspring."

• The Twist: When the party reaches the cellar, they discover the automaton hasn't gone rogue on its own—a family of exiled kobolds is living inside the walls, operating it like a miniature war-machine to steal tallow and scrap metal.

---

If you like this style of zero-prep side quest, I just published a collection of 50 of them called "The Game Master's Bounty Board" (part of The Busy Game Master's Toolkit series).

It is available right now on Amazon and included free with Kindle Unlimited:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HPFQTY9Z

Hope this saves you some prep time this week!

So, I was looking at Glyph of Warding and I'm confused on the spell effect part. If I were to cast, say, Haste using GoW, how does that work? Obviously I can't cast it on an amulet or something and carry that around with me to give me a free cast of Haste, but if I cast it in a gladiator arena that I knew I would be fighting in soon with a super specific trigger so it doesn't accidentally go off, could the Barbarian activate it on themselves and still run around or would they be limited by the 10 ft range? Also, would it still require concentration, and if so, would it be me (the caster of the spell) concentrating or the Barbarian? My DM says I would still have to concentrate on it, but the way it's worded in the description makes it seem like I wouldn't have to. Obviously I'm not going to argue with my DM but I want to maybe use it in my own encounters. Thanks!

We made a Halloween one shot for people who play Star Wars 5E; the Star Wars reskin of 5E. If you’re looking for something spooky with a Star Wars theme you can find it there! We hope you enjoy it!

Cross-posted to get more opinions.

I'm sharing a free magic item supplement for Kengir, part of my upcoming Bronze Age Mesopotamian 5e setting.

Magic items in Kengir aren't just enchanted weapons and armor. They're clay seals, lapis lazuli jewelry, sacred amulets, ritual objects, and relics tied to the gods.

A farmer might bury Beads of Fertility to bless the soil for a season. A merchant might use a clay cylinder seal to keep provisions from spoiling. A silver mirror sacred to Sîn (Nanna) reveals shapeshifters beneath the moonlight. Anzu's Feather can lift allies safely into the air or hurl enemies skyward. At the other end of the scale, the legendary Tablet of Destinies grants power over time, but permanently drains its bearer's vitality with every use.

The goal is to make magic items feel like they belong to the world. Some serve practical needs of daily life. Others offer supernatural protection, dangerous bargains, or powers that might attract the attention of kings and gods.

This sampler includes 20 magic items, four each from Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare, and Legendary. The full Kengir Game Master's Guide includes 100.

Do you prefer magic items with practical uses and a place in everyday life, or powerful artifacts that can change the course of a campaign?

Hello, fellow adventurers!

Today, I'm excited to share a 15-page preview of The Ancient Library of Knowledge, now discounted on DriveThruRPG!

What's Inside?

• 12 magical libraries, unique locations complete with brief role-playing hooks and quest ideas to offer opportunities for discovery, learning, and adventure;
• A collection of 345 magical books ranging from common to artifact rarity, each bestowing powerful benefits to characters reading them over a certain period of times. The books are divided in 10 sections: Generic Tomes, Manuals of Proficiency, Treatises of Expertise, Offensive Tomes, Defensive Tomes, Spellcasting Tomes, Cursed Tomes, Sacred Texts, Codices of Knowledge, and Grimoires of Summoning. Additionally, special rules are presented to provide alternative mechanics and restrictions for the books found inside;
• 3 d100 tables containing a vast collection of nonmagical books, for a total of 300 nonmagical books;
• The Warlock Patron: The Lich, a unique subclass to delve into forbidden knowledge and necromantic art;
• 10 spells thematic to the new Warlock subclass;
• 18 unique monsters to fill ancient libraries, including animated objects, book mimics, fable fiends, rune wardens, book wyrms, and much more!

The compendium just received a v2.0 update, featuring brand-new artwork and illustrations, expanded compatibility with both 5E and 5.5E, balance adjustments, several new spells, general layout improvements, and more! or the occasion, you can find it discounted either on DriveThruRPG or my Patreon, alongside a vast collection of previews for this and all my other titles! I'm currently working on updated version of all my older releases, so there's a lot to uncover :)

You can also find this manual (and many more) discounted on my 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E Kickstarter! This project brings weapons, treasures, and relics from Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Asian, Mesoamerican, and many other mythologies to 5E and 5.5E, including scaling items that grow alongside your characters. If you’d like to bring a piece of these legends to your table, check out the campaign!

Choose any number of willing creatures that you can see within range. Each target shape-shifts into a Large or smaller Beast of your choice that has a Challenge Rating of 4 or lower. You can choose a different form for each target. On later turns, you can take a Magic action to transform the targets again.
A target’s game statistics are replaced by the chosen Beast’s statistics, but the target retains its creature type; Hit Points; Hit Point Dice; alignment; ability to communicate; and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. The target’s actions are limited by the Beast form’s anatomy, and it can’t cast spells. The target’s equipment melds into the new form, and the target can’t use any of that equipment while in that form.
The target gains a number of Temporary Hit Pointsequal to the Hit Points of the first form into which it shape-shifts. These Temporary Hit Points vanish if any remain when the spell ends. The transformation lasts for the duration or until the target ends it as a Bonus Action.

So, as a druid, is there anything really stopping me from using “Speak With Animals” to negotiate with an ant colony to let me borrow 30-40 workers and then during the middle of a fight, I pull out a jar of ants and turn them all into stegosaurus’s?

Is this something I should even do, or will my DM drop power word “a rock fell on your party and you all died.” on me?

Other than Shillelagh is there a way to a medium/long term/permanent way of using Wisdom for melee weapon attacks, like how Pact of the Blade does for Charisma and Battle Smith Artificer does for Intelligence?

True Strike does not apply since it needs to be used every time, precluding Extra Attack.

As a mental exercise, I asked myself what is the largest number of "free" uses of Misty Step (i.e. without using a spell slot) one could get per long rest.

1. High Elves get one free use at level 5
2. Taking Fey Touched gives the character one additional use
3. The Archfey patron Warlock gets Step of the Fey, granting a number equal to their Charisma bonus, so we will say 5 for a Charisma of 20
4. The 6th level Misty Escape feature does not say it does not expend a spell slot, but the 14th level Bewitching Magic feature grants an open-ended number of uses of Misty Step with the casting of an Enchantment or Illusion spell without the use of the spell slot for casting Misty Step as part of the same action.

So, that's 1+1+5=7, plus however many uses show up for a 14th level Archfey Warlock.

Did I miss anything?

Magic comes in all shapes and sizes! From kobold sorcerers wielding draconic magic to goblin and orc shamans drawing upon ancient rituals, this collection brings together all kinds of monstrous spellcasters. You'll also find powerful wraith necromancers and some more unusual magical creatures, including the mysterious Whimz'orr, fiery Pyro Pixies, and imposing Infernal Golems!

Each brings something different to the table, from elemental powers and necromancy to strange supernatural abilities and magical defenses. Whether you need a cunning spellcaster to challenge your party, a mystical ally, or a powerful magical guardian, there's plenty here to add some variety to your adventures!

All these creatures come from various 5E/5.5E manuals I've created over the years, with ready-to-use statblocks, unique abilities, and plenty of options to customize them and bring something new to your encounters!

My Kickstarter for 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E is also live now! Alongside the new book in digital and hardcover formats, the campaign offers exclusive, high-quality printed editions of several of my previous manuals featured in this post! It's a great opportunity to add these books to your physical collection, or grab them together in discounted bundles if you prefer digital copies!

You can find more of my creatures, magic items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, my Linktree, or on r/JonnyDM!