I need to write a character's plea to any gods listening. Her lover has just died and she is trying to desperately make a bargain. I'm having writers block so I'm looking for some literary inspo. Thanks in advance!

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

So I've been toying with a concept recently since our campaign start date got pushed back a bit.

So basically the concept is a magical thief. Not an arcane trickster but it sounds it initially.

The concept I had for this NPC was that it's someone who can physically interact with magic once it's already been cast and mould it into something else.

For example grabbing a beam from an eldritch blast and changing it into say a scorching ray.

I'm struggling at the moment with how the character should look and how to properly implement something like this. I don't think that they should be an antagonistic force moreso just a sometimes present one but I am not sure.

This isn’t for anything serious, unless someone is inspired to run it in a Halloween one-shot.

Description: in a multiverse of endless horrors, not every one of them is going to be a winner. Warlocks who engage in a pact with David S. Pumpkins will find themselves frequently on the receiving end of questions like “who?” or “ok but why is HE your patron.” the answer is simple, he’s David S. Pumpkins, and he’s doing his own thing.

David S. Pumpkins warlock patron

Lvl 3: I’m gonna scare the hell out of you. As a bonus action choose one creature that can see and hear you within 60ft. Make a performance check contested by target’s Insight. On a success against them the target can either move, take an action, or take a BA on their next turn, not all three. Use this feature CHA times/long rest.

Lvl 3: Pumpkin Spells (not sure what to put here besides “Raise dead”)

Lvl 3: MY OWN THANG! You gain expertise in the performance skill. You learn one Druid cantrip of your choice and add it to your list of cantrips known.

Lvl 6: The Skeletons are part of it. When you cast “Raise Dead” you do not need to target pre-existing bones or corpses. You can instead summon two Skeletons from the DMG. They spawn with extra temp HP equal to your Warlock level and proficiency in Performance. If one or both of these skeletons are within 10ft of you, you gain advantage on performance checks.

You can also confer this benefit on up to two skeletons you summon by targeting existing bones.

Lvl 10: IM CRAAAAZY…for David S Pumpkins! You can cast Otto’s irresistible dance. You can modify the spell to not require concentration. The spell lasts until the end of the creature’s next turn unless it ends its turn within 10 ft of you or one of your “Part of It” skeletons, in which case the spell can last until its full duration. You can cast the spell this way once per long rest, you can also cast it again by expending any uses of your Mystic Arcanum to cast this spell instead.

Lvl 14: Any QUESTIONS?!? 

When you roll initiative and have no uses of “Scare the Hell out of you” remaining, you regain one use.

As a magic action when a creature fails the check versus your “Scare the hell out of you” ability, you can magically teleport behind them and utter an inane question. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. An a failed save they become frightened of you for 1 min (repeat the save if out of line of sight with you at the end of their turn) and take 6d6 psychic damage.

I bought the obijima book and was really enjoying the subclasses there. I'm particularly enamoured by the circle of petals Druid. I also bought crooked moon and was loving the idea of playing a sinner rogue.

I like the Trap the Soul spell, and really want to use it, but I'm not sure how to translate it into 5e. If any of you guys have experience translating 3.5e spells into 5e, what changes should I make, and where should I start?

Hello everyone!

I wanted to share some spells ive homebrewed with my new Dota 2 x D&D project

I'm hoping to hear your thoughts to let me know if this is a bit underwhelming or OP and where I could balance

Spell name - Acorn Shot

Conjuration Cantrip - Used by Artificers, Druids and Rangers

Casting Time - Action

Range - 60 Feet

Components - Verbal, Somatic and Material (An Acorn)

Duration - Instantaneous

Flick an Acorn at a target within range​. Making a Ranged Spell Attack, on hit you deal 1d8 Bludgeoning Damage and slow the target's movespeed by 10 feet. The Acorn ricochets to another target within 10 feet of the first. You deal 1 damage and their movement speed is also slowed by 10 feet, if failing on a Dexterity Saving throw

The Cantrip upgrades at level 5 (2d8) , level 11 (3d8) and level 17( 4d8)

Let me know your thoughts!

Final member of the party. Cohle Blight. A grizzled detective (Quaestor in the setting) with a shady past. Part of a task force geared to solve crimes of an arcane persuasion. Blight’s natural predisposition for undercover work gives him endless opportunities to feed his vices. Drugs, alcohol, gambling. The evidence locker is always a little light when he’s not undercover.

Unnaturally charismatic and with a preternatural understanding of the arcane, Blight is adrift on the tides of fate. Unsure of his ultimate mooring.

Mechanically he’s a wild magic sorcerer. Aesthetically I took obvious inspiration from True Detective and John Constantine.

im currently working as a mentor/teacher for jr. High and Highschool students and were looking to expand the program by bringing In dungeons and dragons. lots of the kids in the program have some form of high functioning special needs or experience a little bit of social anxiety. im hoping to create a child friendly expierience that also aligns with the mission of my program of helping these kids come out of their shells but as well give them experience that helps them with real world problem solving skills. I want to give them encounters that push them to think a little outside the box of thier normal lives and help these kids long term. any ideas on encounters or just advice in general? thank you so much!

So I have played DnD for years happily and went to the GIAG sessions for this society and enjoyed them but I absolutely cannot do it anymore.
Ive been multiple times since actual sessions started and I really cannot communicate with the people there. I genuinely do not get their humour at all, they say something that is so mind-bogglingly boring or just irrelevent and they all laugh their heads off I really don't get it.

I keep trying to just smile and continue but it's just making me shut down mute like I really have no understanding of them at all.

I'm also really struggling because everyone there keeps bringing violence and graphic descriptions in which I really struggle with so I always only go to the ones without any violent trigger warnings but then everyone just approaches every encounter with either violence or the same "humour" that seems to just get us absolutely nowhere. They're also all quite insulty like every single encounter seems to be some sort of aggression with every group I've been to, is that normal, I've literally never had that in any other campaigns or with other players?

I'm really confused because I seem to just have to leave halfway through because I cannot speak or do anything with them, I feel like I'm crazy. I know I'm autistic but it's a DnD group like surely everyone else here is too?? (edit This is a joke bc of how popular and usually accommodating dnd is for autistic people, I dont *actually believe all dnd players are autistic that would be a ridiculous generalisation, this ia justa. common joke I've found in dnd communities when tlaking abt autistic struggles) Plus I've hosted DnD myself every week for the past 4 years and never had a problem in those groups even when it's included different or new players.

Someone please tell me how on Earth to communicate or play like this, I've even been googling how to understand humour I need desperate help. I don't even think I can be refunded for the membership.

Anytime we do a session the DM really really reaaaalllyyyy likes to pad out anything and now theyre asking for another campaign.

we have yet to finish the previous campaign, its over 3 years in run time now.

I’m a big fan of world-building and lore, and I know that there’s countless people have made settings with stories and details that they’re genuinely proud of and could talk about them for hours.

So I’d love to hear about your homebrew,what’s the history behind it, what is it about, and what makes it different from other settings ?

Edit: I am not a bot 😭

Basically the title. I’m playing in a high level Halloween themed one shot soon and was asked to play a twist villain character. Normally I’m good at writing twist villains, and making a high level character off the bat is always fun, but for some reason combining the two is messing with me. The premise of the one shot is that everyone has been kidnapped by a chaos god and is being forced to go through trails (aka do his errands) to earn freedom. My evil/villainous character will have been in disguise for an unrelated reason when kidnapped, and the god reveals me at the end and I have to fight everyone at once. If anyone has any good ideas or even just something to get my brain moving on it, I would greatly appreciate it!

I’ve been DMing for a while, and I have been trying to improve my storytelling and DMing skills over time. I currently feel as though I do a good job, especially with creating Homebrew content. However, something I feel like I don’t do a great job at is giving players a situation where they have to come up with a plan before moving forward. I have done it before, but I find it hard to do consistently, and my players love to run it down in a blaze of glory. So my question to fellow DMs is how do you do it? How do you create situations forcing players to come up with a plan before tackling the problem?

Theophilus first joined forces with Amira back at level 1 in a quest to save Phandalin from the terrible Black Spider. Later, Amira fully converted to the faith of Cyric and master and apprentice moved to the city of Neverwinter and joined the Zhentarim there. After being backstabbed by the very agents who had recruited them, Sargon and his party undertake a jailbreak mission that ends up with the defeat of all three Zhentarim agents who looked over Neverwinter. The party took over their business and were eventually invited to visit the headquarters in Darkhold, where they met the higher ups and received a suicide mission as the ultimate test: venture into the Outer Plane of Arcadia, assault the Marble Tower and kill its guardians at the top: a Planetar and an Adult Gold Dragon.
Recently, Sargon disposed of the disguise of Theophilus by creating a series of well crafted illusions that lead the people of Neverwinter to believe he died as martyr in a recent battle, and assumed a new identity that is yet to be revealed in a new character board...

Ignoring mounts, what's your campaign's expectations for a party member acquiring at will, long duration (lets say, one hour) flight. Maybe by species, or magical items, or othewise.

I ask, because the draconic sorcerer's 14th level ability seems lackluster.

Had a idea for the party to save a band of new adventurers and eventually that party begins to emulate them/impersonate them. How would I go about this ? I already picked out some races that are similar but not the same as the party. Any advice is appreciated.

As promised, I am sharing volume two of the library of new magical items I have been working on. The linked PDF contains twenty new items; some are combat-oriented, some are utility items, others are more for roleplay or world building.

All of these items are designed for my own campaign setting of Audalis, but can be easily dropped into any world or game.

This document includes three Anathari devices - the Anathari are an ancient lost empire in my world. Their magic works differently than contemporary magic, and may include elements of lost technology, as well. Generally speaking, these are more "quality of life" items as opposed to flaming swords or wands of power, although there are exceptions.

I hope that you enjoy!

https://www.rdinn.net/downloads/Audalis_Magical_Treasures_Volume_II.pdf

I will share volume three sometime soon.

Hey everybody! I made a Necronomicon for an Evil-Dead-inspired one shot!

This contains useful spells, deadite powers, exorcisms, etc, all of which were helpful to my players for defeating deadites.

It also contained easter eggs for my previous campaign that only my players would understand, as well as easter eggs and hints for my future campaign.

The key was also a big part of the session, I hid it under my shirt for the whole session until my players got to the boss, which with a prepared action from a player, using Ray of Enfeeblement, the player was able to take the key fairly easily.

I had homebrew deathsave system using a d6. Immediately upon reaching 0 HP the players would roll and if they get a 1 they would die.

Upon death, their body would be possessed by a Kandarian daemon and their goal became killing their fellow players.

Flesh-merging was one of their powers, and so by the end all dead players became one giant flesh monster with 10 attacks per turn.

With one player left, (our final girl was my sister playing a Human Warlock, pact of the Fiend) they managed to get Nazkrul, the sword of death, kill a hag, enchant the sword with incantation, “Accede et accipe!” Roughly translated: “Come get some!”

(I had also brought my real sword as a prop and gave it to the player.)

They killed the giant flesh limb deadite, raising it above them as they showered in gallons of blood in true Evil Dead fashion.

Shoutout to u/OPLemonz for the Deadite statblock.

The session itself was chaotic, stressful, very unbalanced and I had to make up a lot of shit on the fly and the flesh merging became so confusing in regards to initiative that I fucked up the order several times lol.

Regardless my players had a very good time.

Happy Halloween everybody!

Now heres some info about my world so I can fill the word count lol:

Everscape:

Vingard
Known as the Land of the Warriors,  towering mountains encompass a frozen landscape. A cold, harsh climate ruled over by several warring jarls. Vingard breeds a culture of strong fighters to protect the cities from threats such as the Frost Giants that live in the northern glaciers. Generally, magic is distrusted as most Vingardians prefer to settle their disagreements with weapons. Some of the most renowned blacksmiths hail from this province, as such, Vingardian weapons are highly sought after.
Mostly home to humans, snow elves, goliaths, dwarves and firbolgs.

Fargrove
The birthplace of Godrick, the capital country of Everscape.
Fargrove was once a monarchy ruled by the dragon king, Virideus who was slain by the Funky Thugs. A landscape with abundant forests, rolling hills of grass and towering mountains, The Grove is known as the most magical and beautiful province of Everscape. The capital city of Viridian is governed by The Imperium.
Mostly home to humans, wood elves, fairies, satyrs, centaurs, gnomes, halflings and firbolgs.

olympia
Known as the Land of the Scholars. 
A mountainous and grassy tundra region home to The Imperium, a rising empire born from the Capital Vasilais, one of the most technologically advanced cities in Everscape. The city has a complex water system that allows for renewable water filtered and purified by magic. Unlike Fargrove, Olympia is democratic republic with city-states, each with their own government. No two Olympian cities are alike. Within Olympia resides a wizarding school known as Mystica University.
Mostly home to humans, high elves, dwarves, orcs and goliaths.

Solcara
The Face of the Sun. A rainforest to the south and a desert to the north. Solcara is one of the most diverse regions in Everscape, as well as the largest province. Solcara has a lucrative merchant population because of the resource-abundant jungle. The people of Solcara have adapted to its hostile environment - whether that’s the city built atop towering trees to avoid the monsters below or riding large geckos across the dunes of the desert.
Mostly home to tabaxi, wood elves, sun elves, humans, dragonborn and orcs.
Gods & Pantheon
The main gods are depicted as dragons, with corresponding chromatic color or type, although gods can appear in humanoid and other various forms.

Gods
1. Godrick - King God of Life, Nature and Health - Green Dragon
2. Eave - Goddess of Infinity, Space and Stars - Astral Dragon
3. Nethron - God of Death - Black Dragon
4. Ozan - God of War - Red Dragon
5. Vincall - God of Frost - White Dragon
6. Smithe - God of Storms & Lightning - Blue Dragon
7. Kronos - God of Time - Golden Dragon

Quasigods - Lesser gods that are tied to a specific domain, location or landmark. Generally, these are not depicted as dragons.
1. Vern - Goddess of Springtime
2. Froth - God of Wintertime
3. Sol - Goddess of Summertime 
4. Dus - God of Fall 
5. Loki - God of Trickery, Mischief, Thievery, Stealth
6. Aara - Fairy goddess whose dominion is Lake Aara, she also essentially rules Fiefgarden.
7. Boitata - Fire serpent that protects the rainforests and deserts of Solcara

Dæmonlords are Monarchs of kingdoms in Helscape, another realm where the dead and souls are forced to fight in an eternal war. If you’re playing a warlock, you can choose from here!
1. Bal - King of the Dæmonlords and Helscape
2. Ashgoth - Dæmonlord of Fire and Destruction
3. Ogrebile - Dæmonlord of Acid and Plague
4.  The Abyss - Dæmonlord of the Oceans, Madness, Darkness
5. Slugcoin - Dæmonlord of Greed and Gluttony
6. Hornlech - Dæmonlord of Lust, Rape and Domination
7. Hathblood - Dæmonlord of Hatred and Bigotry
8. Agonon -  Dæmonlord of Grief and Despair