Basically as the title says, in 10 days my players will fight the BBEG in (one of the) final session of the campaign. A campaign that started out when we where all still in highschool, continued on throughout college and will now come to an end with most of us having jobs.

AMA.

Update:

Hi all who are waiting for an update,
It went well! However, we started a little late, so we weren't able to fully finish the fight. So we are planning another session to finish it up. I will however, post some pictures of the terrain we made tomorrow to make up for the extra waiting time you all have to endure before I can post the full story.

Thanks for all the fun and intresting questions! Feel free to continue asking away!

By popular demand I will write an update here or in a separate post after the session!

Some links requested in the comments below:
Session pictures: https://imgur.com/a/NybJ7XK

World map: https://imgur.com/a/yk8h2jO

Injury Table: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/589024/d-d-injury-table

Edit: thank you all for the support. He’s actually the one that told me to post online. “Dude post it, Im positive people will say you’re cheating”. Glad to see y’all have my back. I shoulda just said “bro I’m god I can do whatever I want”

Edit2: wow this really blew up more than I thought it would. Since posting I’ve send the post thread to them and he said “the internet has spoken I’ll take the L” we gotem bois

I was playing an Illusion Wizard on level 1. During our first fight I casted Magic Missiles. The DM told me that the spell is too strong and changed it to only be one missile. I was very surprised and told him that the spell wouldnt be much stronger than a cantrip now. But he stuck to his ruling and wasnt happy that I started arguing. I only said that one sentence though and then accepted it. Still I dont think that this is fair and Im afraid of future rulings, e.g. higher level spells with more power than Magic Missiles. Im a noob though and maybe Im totally wrong on this. What do you think?

I'll preface this saying I am not a fan of Challenge Rating, but I don't mind people who like it and get enjoyment from it.

I just don't want to hear about it at the table.

I don't enjoy how “helpful” the number is, its idea of difficulty, its randomness, or the monsters in each rating.

That's just my reality.

I appreciate that it's brought easy-to-build encounters to the masses, though, and that can only be good for the overall health of our hobby.

I do, however, love Dungeons and Dragons.

At least, I used to.

We're eight years into a long, Covid-interrupted 5e system that my DM has been enjoying using.

Our group is a thrown together party of adventurers all out to claim revenge against the CR for crimes committed against our families.

It's been fun, even with the token rules-heavy player who doesn't participate beyond rolling to attack and gushing about how much they love CR.

But at some point during our hiatus, the DM has discovered CR and Kobold Fight Club, and it's a huge bummer.

What used to be a great game of high-magic fantasy is slowly starting to twist into the bastard child of a CR nightmare.

There are references to CR in every session, and now humanoids from the PHB have started appearing in the game as DMPCs using CR rules.

It's a small group of six and only about half of us don't like CR, so there's looks when we eye each other every time the DM makes a reference to "someone that has an appropriate CR" or names a creature the other players squeal in excitement about.

These gripes aside, and most cringeworthy to me, our DM has even changed his entire personality to be CR.

He showed up one week in this outfit, CR written on his t shirt, and has even grown out his list of monsters.

He wears CR merchandise and will spend about an hour every week recapping the creatures he just found in the MM.

The problem is, he isn't CR.

He doesn't have the knowledge nor stats to deliver a balanced gaming experience like a five-hour podcast conducted by trained game designers in one session.

It has killed my enthusiasm to play, and now I find myself finding reasons to not engage with the group.

I've gone from being the face of the party to just tagging along on CR-defined adventures and hoping I can botch a few save rolls so my character can get killed off.

I don't know how to broach the subject with him without hurting his feelings and coming across as a huge dick for not finding his new interest as fun as he does.

What do?

A few weeks ago I joined a new party with a new character, Justice the Tiefling Paladin. I worked hard to make him as dope as possible and spent a few days on his personality and cohesion between him and myself. I believe he was my masterpiece.

Since the first day the dm said he doesn't like Justice because "How can a Half demon serve a God?". I always respond with "he was raised in an orphanage that ingrained "God" into their minds or something like that.

In our last session we discovered a monster that was way stronger than us and decided to leave that area. As we walked away, DM looks over to me and says "Justice. As you are retreating you blink and your surroundings change. You have an idea of where you are. You've been told about this since a young age...to escape, you need to roll a disadvantaged con save." So thinking it's part of the game I roll a 14. He says it fails and hundreds of demons appear 100 feet from me. I can either fight or try to retreat. But if I do retreat I have to con save again. I try my con save again and roll a nat 1. Justice is now trapped in "Hell" (first time he mentions its hell). Justice needs to fight these demons to have a chance of leaving.

Sadly Justice died believing his friends were on there way to Save him, they weren't because Justice was removed from existence. He never existed. His friends had never met him and the replacement has always been there. It really hurt me that my character was so hated by the dm that he didn't even have a chance to show why he could work as a character.

Sorry that it was so long winded. I just needed to rant to people I don't know.

(Edit: I am absolutely terrified to look through these comments. I saw a funny one yesterday but damn😢

I have left the group after talking to the party. Two of them said they gonna stick with dm since they know him personally. They also said that they are interested in hearing more about Justice.

The DM hasn't responded to any of my texts since last night and keeps declining my calls so idc about that.

And to all you people being kind and (taking my side?), thank you. I don't know if I should post a full, entire story or not.

Thank you btw)

I would like a reason in game that this wouldn't work without me having to do some bs like magic resistant undies. Also so I don't have to say no outright because it's a funny idea but it doesn't fit the setting. Nothing removes the tension from a fight more than the big bad pooping himself.

Update: She said that even if she died it'd be worth it because she successfully rage baited strahd. But she said she wouldn't do it because she knows that everyone wants it to be serious and that it can still be fun and serious without turning it into a comedy campaign. Still think it's worth sharing because the idea is funny.

GinnyDi posted a video about player x DM contracts that she inspired herself to do after seeing Aabria doing it. Explaining it as quick as possible:

When the moment ask for it, when your roll will either cause the biggest impact narrativaly or when you already failed, Aabria will ask you "What would you give me for you roll to be a sucess?" or "How many NPCs are you willing to sacrifice for X thing?". I watched this today and I was like "cool, I need to test it sometime.

I didn't expected the sometime to be so early. I'm running CoS to my players and the today's encounter was VERY clearly supposed to make them run. Last session they had a hard time killing 2 werewolves. Today there were FOUR.

Even then they decided to stand their ground. Round 1, one player was already unconscious and another one was at half HP. It was going to be a TPK. And the funniest part is that the CoS:R itself tells you during Session 0 to warn your players that "Some fights are impossible to win. That's by design. Sometimes running isn't an option. It's the option." (which I did)

Well... my players didn't get the memo and after 2 rounds they were full on desperation mode. One of them decided to try persuading the werewolves to let them leave using the fact that he was infected with lycanthropy. Instead of asking for a Persuasion check, I just put my best scary DM voice and said:

"Kayron... what do you offer me for your persuasion to succeed?"

He thought for a few seconds and answered:

"I offer that I won't cure it through easy means like magic or clerics. I'll only get rid of it through a narratively satisfying way."

I just said "Deal." Not gonna lie... for a brief moment I felt like Aabria.
They were saved by this, but now I'm gonna start thinking of ways to do a good "Werewolf Cure Arc" lol

Feel free to use this in your own game!

Written up here:

Tactical

• Quick Dash – Move an additional 5 feet.
• Brace – Gain +1 AC against the next attack before your next turn.
• Assist – Give an ally within 5 feet advantage on their next attack if you haven’t attacked this turn.

Combat

• Distract – Choose a creature within 5 feet. It has disadvantage on its next attack against anyone but you.
• Shove – Make a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to shove or reposition a (medium or smaller) creature 5 feet.
• Improvised Strike – Use a nearby object (tankard, rock, chair leg) for a d4 bludgeoning attack.

Utility

• Quick Draw – Draw or stow a weapon and swap to another item.
• Scan – Make a Perception or Insight check to quickly assess a creature or scene, learning a piece of information on a success.
• Drink Potion – Drink a potion you have on your person.

Cinematic

• Short Speech - Briefly speak to your team, an ally or an enemy - they can respond briefly if this involves a question.
• Focus – Take a centring breath to regain 1d4 temporary HP once per short rest.
• Mark of Intent – Choose a creature you can see. Until the end of your next turn, attacks against that creature deal +1 damage.

So there we are, hanging out in the local capital talking to a king. When the rogue decides to talk to the mystery old man we're all convinced is some secret dragon or divine being. We've all tried to talk with him, no biggie.

Anyhow Rogue ends up 'accidentaly' activating the Mcguffin. We were right about that old man. Warlock gets killed, and it triggers the bbeg's walking necrotic castle. And dm pulls out this thing. We're level 7. This was planned for level 12. I'm sure this will go swimmingly.

It's 3D printed and almost broke/cracked the TV screen when it 'carefully' set it down..

Just as the title, I would like your character names and title, for NPC's, so I can build a better world since names from only my brain is rather limited. My personal favorites I've done was "King Razamgeld the Fudd keeper of the crystal of the Magui" and "Maximo Pontifico de la Roshambough the 3rd" and his sister " Minima Pontifica the first of her name."What's your favorite character name and title? So I can steal them and use them in my upcoming campaign. Thank you in advance!

All the characters are level 1 goblins so they will be pretty weak. But I'm hoping they can find overpowered magic items in the village that will cause as much hilarious chaos as possible.

Now I know from the title it seems bad but I was playing a game this evening with some friends and we were dropping off enchanting supplies in a magic school think hogwarts but it’s wizards druids sorcerers and warlocks.

Anyway while being questioned by the (clearly kinda bad but not violent our causing any danger to the party or anyone else) head of the sorcerer house a very powerful npc the barbarian decided he was gonna punch him he rolled to hit without asking and said does a 22 hit the dm said “are you sure” and he said “hell yeah” so the dm reluctantly tells him “that just barely hits roll damage.” He deals 6 bludgeoning damage and the DM says “you see his mouth open and everything goes black, everyone else Barbarian is now dead”

everyone gasped a bit and was super shocked the sorcerer NPC walked away like it was no big deal. None of us had anything to bring him back but about 5 minutes or less later while we were talking to the head of the wizards she called the Druid profesor up to her floor with a sending stone and the Druid brought him back to life. The barbarian then sat there for 30 minutes and refused to engage before getting up in the middle of a basalic fight to walk out of the house and leave.

Now normally I’d say this is toxic behavior for a DM but this player has been the problem character constantly he fights everyone and gets the party into big fights with people who are supposed to be out Allies he also has frequently attacked party members. Our DM has been nothing but patient and kind to him helping to develop a character that’s more than just punching and trying to build a bond in the party.

now he’s saying some really rude things about the DM and I think this was his own fault after all “play stupid games win stupid prizes” if you punch a level 20 sorcerer who is the leader of a house full of magic users you should expect some kinda consequences and it was more than nice of the DM to bring him right back to life. What’s your thoughts?

Update / DM’s response (DM found this post and left a comment explaining some things I saw questions to do here’s that update

Alright I’ll defend my honor here a little bit as the DM in question in this scenario…

1. ⁠(This player had previously been a problem) all the things the post said he did he did (in session 1) however I’ve had previous talks with him and with the wider table about following the call and respecting your party members and since then we have had no issues with PVP or general asshole behavior at the table, now he does play his barbarian a little trigger happy with his hammer and prefers to fight first ask questions later which can totally be okay but can definitely go overboard at times.

This is a chaotic character and he did start a fight at the beginning of this session with a Druid NPC I introduced to be an ally however she just wildshaped into a bear and eventually everyone stood down and she ended helping them (thanks to a high persuasion roll from the rouge) Now onto the magic school

A few things

1. ⁠The sorcerer is evil he is somewhat restrained at the moment but fully believes he is in charge of the whole school, he has an army of sorcerers who are his students behind him who think they are better than everyone else (wink) (wink) this was a peaceful introduction to a BBEG.
2. ⁠The barbarians actions were stupid and I did ask if he was sure but his reason was good and should have increased party connection and role play his punch came directly after the sorcerer was belittling a fellow party member who used to attend the school, the barbarian was attacking to defend that other PCs honor.
3. ⁠A lot of people want to know what the consequences of this are for the sorcerer well none the entirety of the school is scared of him even the other head professors (he is a Yaun-ti so he has magic resistance) making him an extremely deadly threat to all of the other teachers, the story here shows he is clearly evil but doesn’t place the rest of the faculty on a good or bad side

On one hand yes the resurrected the victim but on the other they stand by and let it happen which makes them complex and morally grey characters as they will inevitably be involved in the final fight but the party’s choices will punch them in one direction or the other

And finally this attack was not meant to teach him a lesson it was a in character reaction of a power mad evil sorcerer that extended the narrative and showed the party not to fuck with this dude YET…

Anyway that’s all

Hey there! Longtime lurker, situational commenter!

Well now, it certainly looks like the cat’s out of the bag (and seemed to sneak out a LITTLE early, hehe)! I can’t express just how excited and honored I am to have been given the opportunity to bring my world to you all via the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. D&D has been such an influential element of my life, of who I am, and to have contributed to it in this way is beyond words.

I’ve spent the better part of 1.5 years working on this project, along with some incredible contributors, to make this something we could all be extremely proud of. I set out to create this book not as a tome specifically for fans of Critical Role, but as a love letter to the D&D community as a whole. Those who follow our adventures will find many familiar and enjoyable elements that tie into what they’ve experienced within our campaign. However, I want this book to not only be a vibrant, unique setting for non-critter players and Dungeon Masters young and old, experienced or new, but also a resource of inspiration for DMs to pull from regardless of what setting they are running their game in. I’ve done my very best to make it a dynamic, breathing world full of deep lore, detailed factions and societies, a sprawling gazetteer, heaps of plot hooks, and numerous mechanical options/items/monsters to perhaps introduce into your own sessions, or draw inspiration from to cobble together your own variations. I wanted this to be a book for any D&D player, regardless of their knowledge of (or appreciation of, for that matter) Critical Role. I made this for ALL of you.

I am also well-aware of how much negativity can permeate these spaces regarding myself and the games we play, and that’s ok! One could never expect our form of storytelling and gaming to be everyone’s cup of tea, and it could very well be that this just isn’t the book for you. I don’t begrudge you that, and I only hope one day we get a chance to roll some dice at a convention and swap stories about our love of the game. I know for some folks this isn't necessarily what they were hoping for the announcement to be, and for that I'm sorry.

As a person excited and clamoring for new settings to be brought into the D&D multiverse, I also understand the frustrations from some that this isn’t one of the “classics”. Believe you me, I’m one of the those who is ever-shouting “I want my Planescape/Dark Sun”, and said so loudly… multiple times while in the WotC offices. Know that my setting doesn’t eliminate, delay, or consume any such plans they may have for any future-such projects! I’m not stepping on such wonderful legacy properties, these same ones that inspired me growing up. This is just the new-kid stepping into that area and hoping one of the older kids will sit and have lunch with them. ;) If Wizards has any plans to release any of their much-demanded settings, they’ll come whether or not Wildemount showed up.

I also wanted to comment on the occasionally-invoked negative opinions on my homebrew designs I’ve seen here… and they aren’t wrong! I don’t have the lengthy design history and experience that many of you within this community do have. Outside of small, home-game stuff I messed with through the 2000’s, my journey on the path of public homebrew began as a reaction to online community demand and throwing out my inexperienced ideas in a very public space. Much of my early homebrew was myself learning as I went (as all of us begin), only with a large portion of the internet screaming at me for my mistakes and lack of knowledge. Even my Tal’Dorei Guide homebrew was rushed due to demands being made of me, and I continue to learn so many lessons since. The occasional unwarranted intensity aside, there is much appreciated constructive criticism I’ve received over the years (from reddit included) that has helped me grow and improve. Anyway, what I mention all this for is to express my thanks for all the wonderful feedback, the chances to learn from all of you as time has gone on, and the many elements of this book reflect that improvement as I took those lessons and collaborated with the official WotC team to make this as good as it could be.

Anyway, that’s enough rambling from an insecure nerd. I’m extremely proud of what we’ve done with this book. I hope you give it a shot and enjoy it. I really do. If you choose to pass on it, that’s totally cool and am just happy we find joy in the same pastime. Either way, be kind to each other, and keep on forging amazing stories together. <3

-Mercer

So we were playing a game and met an NPC who was colorblind. She offered us what was essentially a ball of raw meat for food. It was described as golden from her pov, but the image the DM posted was obviously just a nasty lump of red gore. This prompted one of the players to ask what our DM what they meant by red, as the image shown looked "pink" to him (we later found out he can't see pink either).

Obviously things spiraled from there and ended up with the player taking colorblind tests for the rest of the session. Turns out they have severe colorblindness and can't see most reds or yellows. 25 years of life and they had no idea. He thinks the yellow teletubby is brown. He thinks super saiyan Goku is orange. I love this game🤣

Edit: Apparently the reason he never realized is because whenever he questioned things, everyone in the family agreed with the colors he saw. They're ALL COLORBLIND! This explains so much about some of his color choices for his characters lmao. They're not even bad, but he would swear they're matching or say "this is red" when it was either more pink or orange than red, or clearly two different shades of red.

Update: He can't see yellow at all. After some more questioning, he sees either burnt orange, red, or brown. I guess that should've been obvious from the teletubby comment, but he really can't see any yellow whatsoever. Sunflowers, bees and mustard are burnt orange. The teletubby and hazmat suits are brown. Gold is red/orange.

With reds, he can only clearly see very vibrant and bright reds, like a rose. Otherwise they fade into oranges(or what he calls "yellow" which is mostly a burnt orange) He can't see pink at all, it's just red/brown/orange to him. Burgundy (#33000d) has orange in it apparently when he looks at it, and Pink (#FC0FC0) is just red. Kirby is barely red with brown cheeks.

We also realized he's not great at seeing purple either. It's like violet to him, a mix of blue and purple that's mostly blue, I.E. grape soda being almost entirely blue. Green has a faint blueish tinge to it, at least that's the way he said he sees grass/plants.

This whole thing has been an experience. I do kinda feel like we just dropped some Eldritch knowledge on the poor guy, told him about whole ass colors he can't actually see or even imagine. We will check his closet just to make sure he's not wearing something garish, but other than that everything is good.

What alignment would you say this action reflects?

Edit: This post is completely hypothetical.

Edit2: Lawful didn’t make the cut because the poll is limited to 6 options.

Edit3: Downvoting people for not agreeing with you is so dumb I can’t even put words to it.

I said I ban flying races and was promptly told that I am just a selfish lazy DM for not putting in the extra work to accomodate a flying race in my homebrew and prewritten adventures, that I DM for free for the public. Is it just me or is 5e's playerbase super entitled to DM's time and effort, and if the DM isn't putting in the work they expect they're just immediately going to claim you're a lazy and bad DM?

Edit: To everyone insulting me and saying I'm just stupid, you're not wrong. I have brain damage, and I'm just trying my best to DM in a way that is manageable for me. But I guess that just makes me lazy and uncreative.

When talking about rules DMs ignore, you often hear pretty big ones like encumbrance, Druid armour or food tracking. What are some little rules most DMs ignore?

My pick would be the Battlesmith’s Steel Defender— RAW, they can have any appearance, but only 2 or 4 legs. Want to make a 3 legged steel defender? Maybe a 6 legs giant beetle? A spider? Shit, you’re out of luck. RAW, only 2 or 4 legs.