A default win is a combat that has reached a state where it's pointless to continuing rolling dice because the result is inevitable.

Example 1: an all flying party meets enemies that have no flight or ranged attacks. Assume running away isn't an option.

Example 2: all enemies have failed against a cc effect that allows no further saves; the party can defeat them without expending anymore resources or hit points.

Sometimes a default win happens on turn 1, almost synonymous with "bypassing an encounter."

Do you find them fun or boring? Does it matter if it was a random encounter vs setpiece/iconic boss fight?

EDIT: I meant Ice Storm, my bad

Edit 2: Double typos, I'm an idiot, sorry, 4th lvl, and ice storm

I'm playing a Scribes Wizard in a game, and I have a question.

Given the wording of Awakened Spellbook, would I be able to use lower level spells as higher level spell elements on upcast?

For example, as stupid an idea as this is, would I be able to use Cone of Cold to make a lvl 3 Magic Missile or Scorching Ray Cold Damage?

Before anyone says, I know the former can probably be done with Chromatic Orb, it's why I took C.O., just using a theoretical as an example to explain what I'm asking.

Okay. Now I know this is unrealistic. That is SO much content, and each one of those pages would have to be filled with art, flavor, and various other details, making the book like 500 pages long. Which is obscene. Not even counting for the balancing issues.

BUT. I wish we at least got two specs for subclasses. Because this is one of the biggest crossovers, WOW X DND is a huge deal. And to really fulfill the flavor, we should have gotten so much more. I mean barbarian x shaman. Seriously? Personally i think it should've been handled something like this:

Warrior
Fury : Barbarian
Protection: Fighter

Shaman:
Enhancement: Ranger
Elemental: Druid

Hey folks,

This coming weekend, I'll be DMing session one in a Curse of Strahd campaign (which I'm ecstatic about, I've been wanting to playing since 2017 but scheduling has always been the true Curse of Strahd...) and my group just had our session 0.

I'm super excited about all the characters, but I'm a little worried about one in particular. One of my newer players wrote up a Kenku fighter.

I've admittedly always been a bit partial against the Kenku because I feel that typically, the mimicry stuff can cap your character's narrative / dialogue potential. In my experience, most players gravitate towards jokey-characters at best, and struggle to effectively engage with other players in speech and whatnot. The player in particular is newer, and this is his first contact with Kenku in D&D thus far.

The rest of the party has very distinct, conceptualized personalities (i.e. we have a crochety old man, a surfer, a naive, bewildered cleric, a vengeful paladin, etc.) and he's kinda the only character that I feel has an unconfident image when it comes to roleplaying.

And I know, roleplaying won't be everything (every table and every player is different, OP!), but the table I run is fairly concerned with dialogue and character arcs, I know he's a player that enjoys that stuff, and I don't want there to be a gap between him and other players.

From our talks, he wants to play a dark, criminal-underbelly type, pulled from the world of black markets and pickpocketing into Barovia. He's playing an echo fighter from the Wildemount guide, which we plan to reflavor to a kind of secret order of urban adventurers, or a thieves guild of sorts. I like the motif of echos, mimicry, and mirrors between the Echo avatar and his Kenku mimicry, but I'm unsure how to lean into it.

My question to the sub is what has worked at your tables when roleplaying Kenku? Are there any examples in media or actual play that you guys really enjoy, that the player and I could use for inspiration? What should be avoided, and what have you guys done for good dialogue, that still maintains the mimicry ability? The first thing that comes to my mind is Baby Driver, but that's a lot easier said than done, especially for a new player.

I like to explore all the options. I feel like I'm falling into using the same 3 spells for everything. What spells do you recommend?

Short story: we did build the character together, it's the players first game and we did a short summary of how he end up here. He wanted a better bow, so he was in a town and traded some items he had, including his leather shirt and some weapons and tools for a great bow. He still got some money and in a later town he bought a leather shirt with discount. He rolled a 2 for investigation and thought it was a new leather shirt, not used at all.
Of course, the player RP very well and is very happy with his armour.

I don't want to give it -1 AC, because then it's just no armour and in a few sessions he will probably have a better armor, but for the first couple of adventures, what shall I do? He is level 1 and his AC is 14 (dex 16).

Options:
- If an attack is exactly 13 he gets 1 damage.
- if an attack is exactly 13 he gets half damage.
- if an attack crist, he gets an additional damage die against him (I guess this is to punishing and swinging on level 1...)
- all succesful attacks deal 1 additional damage (also to strong I think...?)
- an enemy crits on 19 and 20?
- or something like, after each hit, the patched-up spot becomes more visible and after like 5 times it tears of and the armor falls apart? Or this in combination with 1 damage on a 13?