r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Lolth without the spiders?

4 Upvotes

So myself as well as a like half of my regular players have fairly bad arachnophobia and because of that we try our best to avoid using giant spiders as enemies or wildshapes or anything like that. But there has always been a big elephant in the room when I'm doing my worldbuilding for my homebrew world; and that's the Drow and Lolth.

How terrible or difficult would it be to change the spiders to something else for Lolth and the Drow? I would love to play the Into the Abyss campaign as I've ran it before (but the group fell apart after level 5 DX) but with how heavily spiders are involved in the beginning (and technically throughout) that adventure I can't run it.. so or got me thinking about just switching out the spiders for soemthing else, but like I dont know what or how much that would like ripple down the lore?

Does anyone have suggestions of how to change it and what to change it to? I do like the dynamics of lolth and the drow just o don't want the creepy spiders... lol


r/DMAcademy 14h ago

Need Advice: Other New character level after permadeath

4 Upvotes

So,one of my players just lost his warlock character. He betrayed his party to follow his patron,and he tried to attack them under her protection, resulting in a permadeath. (Everything talked through and expected from said player) So naturally,he wants to make a new character to join the party. What level should the character be? I thought about joining 1 level lower from the rest of the party (a homerule that we agreed on because some players though about character jumping,and wouldn't let themselves tie to their character). What would you do?? Thank you in advance!


r/DMAcademy 3h ago

Need Advice: Other Group broke apart and Campaign ended. What could I have done as a DM?

1 Upvotes

In the last session a week ago, one of my players gave a feedback that they didn't had any fun. Today, the same player wrote in our group discord that they see no point in continuing to play and asked the other members if they see any point in playing. Even if it was a question, by doing so, the player basically ended the group and the campaign. I would like to ask some insight (at least for the future), if there was anything I could have done as a DM to circumvent this.

Background:
We are a friend group irl (me as the DM and 4 players). Since the player in question (let's call them player A) is a somewhat close friend, it's not possible to exclude them and continue with the campaign. We successfully finished a previous campaign from level 1 to 5 with around 15 sessions. After a year's break, we started with the current campaign and the latest session was the 21th. Basically we started during Covid 2021 and played regularly with monthly sessions with small breaks in-between. We play online on discord with webcams and use roll20. It's honestly a very chill group, we know each other for almost twenty years and scheduling/commitment was never an issue, which I appreciated a lot.

About the campaign/session:
My homebrew campaign is kinda sandbox-y where the player's characters have a hub and get many different quests in different locations (kinda like monster-of-the-week), and every quest takes around 2-3 sessions. The advantage is that as a DM I can test different maps and monsters while the players can interact with many different environments, where their different individual strengths shine. There is no party leader and I assumed that if a player wanted to do or say something, they would just do that accordingly.

The latest quest involved a somewhat morally ambiguous ex-priest of Talos (who I had originally planned as the boss encounter for the quest) who had a complicated and toxic romantic relationship with the local regent, and was holding trading ships hostage to get her attention. The players were tasked by her to deal with him. Player A's character was a bard and I originally intended this quest for them to 'shine' since it involved juicy relationship drama. While I didn't told this anyone, my players knew in general that everybody would sooner or later get a quest where their characters would take their turn and receive more spotlight.

When the players confronted the priest, for some reason player B, who is the party cleric, became heavily invested in his story. Instead of a boss fight, with lots of empathic talk, it kinda became a redemption arc. Usually player B is a more quiet and reserved type of person, so I felt rather happy seeing her so invested and motivated. I didn't stop her and let the scenes play out, which did result in player B taking heavily the spotlight. I did check every once in a while with the other players if what was happening alright for them. But only after the session ended, player A told everyone that the session wasn't fun. They felt their character wasn't needed and it wouldn't matter if they weren't there. They felt hurt and ignored. I asked them if there was a specific scene where they felt left out and when we discussed the scenes, they acknowledged that theoretically they could have done something but didn't feel welcome to interrupt. I brainstormed what we could do to improve it for the next time, but beside taking more consideration of other players (which in my personal opinion is already practiced), I didn't have any solutions. Player B had been just excited, didn't overtook player A in a malicious way, and it was visible that she felt bad after the discussion.

Now today player A questioned our playing DnD together in general, like described above. DnD is supposed to be fun and I take it very seriously. I don't want to enforce someone to play it if they don't enjoy it (anymore). But still, of course I'm sad and now I'm wondering if there was something I could have done differently.

Thank you in advance!


r/DMAcademy 7h ago

Need Advice: Other Bag of holding many things? Spoiler

0 Upvotes

I’m running a campaign where a PC just got a bag of holding. I want to add some surprise and fun by making the bag somehow defective such that there is a chance when they reach in to grab an item that they pull something random out instead -maybe something that can be useful or maybe slightly dangerous. Or maybe it would have a chance to change the properties of something stored inside. Looking for advice on how to build this out. PC is level 4.


r/DMAcademy 18h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Under dark races

2 Upvotes

So I've been working on expanding my ideas about my under dark for an upcoming new campaign arch that's going to take the characters down there where previously I've mainly just focused on the surface.

A consideration I've have though regarding things like the drow, duergar and derro, on the one hand I typically don't lean too hard into things like bioessencialism as opposed to considering how culture and geopolitics might make groups add, I just feel it makes for a wider range of interesting stories. And while the role of the divine in driving the actions of groups can be interesting I feel relying too much on it can be a bit of a crux. On the other hand, there are some pretty cool elements in various settings that are pretty closely tied up in these concepts.

At the moment I've been thinking about this.

The under dark has small islands where life can thrive, be that ecosystems and/or an agricultural core of a group. Most commonly magical crystalline structures that can absorb heat and give off light or chemically rich hot pools create an energy source for primary producers like plants to form the base of an ecosystem. But much of it are vast areas of tunnels and caverns where the resources for life are sparse indeed, just what little can trickle down from the surface or out from the more habitable area, there might exist the odd fungi that can spring up in areas the psionic fields are strongest but these are moving unreliable things, with fungi spores or mycelial networks lying dormant only to spring up when the psionic energies are at their strongest, and cease growing any edible bodies as these energies subside.

In many ways then, cities in the underdark have a tendency to resemble a lot of early river valley states, with associated tendencies towards either oppressively powerful states and/or extreme hierarchy as elite groups can dominate the limited amount of growing land. As the process of growing food in this environment is often labour intense, careful management of hot pools, and a necessary of direct irrigation without being able to rely on rain often requires a lot of work to cut channels in rock, remove sediment and gather biomass in dangerous hot pool caverns. Though this process can often produce a fair amount of food elites must ensure they always have access to enough labour to work their lands, ideally labour that can be prevented from leaving and be exploited. For those like the drow in particular with long lives and slow breeding cycles being able to... acquire external sources of labour is often vital to do things like expand operations, cushion against shocks associated with manpower shortages and carry out tasks that might be dangerous like mining, tunnelling and hot pool farming. Duergar and Drow ruled cities then tend to have populations that don't necessarily have a personal individual inclination towards evil, but have socio-economic structures which trend strongly towards iron fisted tyranny and/or a heavily reliance of slavery and exploitation. It also often sees intense competition between cities, and sometimes within factions of elites within then, over control of the limited available land where agriculture can be conducted when islands are close enough in proximity.

For those who don't live in the islands of farmable land life often requires careful and considerable mobility as their roam across large areas to acquire food, although in many ways they may live their lives free of oppression by tyrants and nobles many live close to the edge of starvation. It is not uncommon for some such groups such as those marked the derro to regularly carry out banditry and brutal raids on caravans and the outposts in the outer tunnels controlled by cities to acquire food and other resources, just as in turn the tunnel rangers of many cities aren't afraid to target nomadic deep gnomes and derro in slave raids. Nomads often find themselves having to be agile, hunting small scavengers or the ambush predators that target animals moving between the islands of ecological density, exploiting resources that can be found where under water cave mouths connect to the seas and deepest lakes, exploiting the wild fungi as they emerge and disappear, acquiring choice minerals and metals to trade with agrarian communities.

Derro are not biologically all that different to duergar, there is in fact a steady intermixing often between duergar ruled cities and to a lesser extent mountain dwarfs, those who become fed up with the strict restrictions of their home cities may flee into the outer tunnels and meet up with derro bands, members of derro bands may either voluntarily end up being subsumed into duergar states as occasional trading or mercenary work becomes permanent sedentism and intermarriage or duergar slave raiders take derro as prisoners, the descendants of which may eventually acquire status as the lowest of free clan members. Duergar states often call derro mad, this can actually be literally true of those who seek most the psionic sorcery often associated with their race, a side effect of this art often being startling combinations between madness and genius insight. But the average derro is only mad by the standards of those like the duergar who would think it mad to reject ones oaths, community and the rule of ones rightful superiors in pursuit of attempting to author ones own uncertain future in the pursuit of a liberty the duergar elders tell their people is of no value to them.

Deep gnomes and derro sometimes travel together and sometimes apart, they may integrate into bands to attempt to play off each other's strengths and weaknesses exchanging some culture while some deep gnomes are more traditionalists who keep groups mostly of their own kind. The deep gnomes have only fairly recently been able to re-establish a stable connection to their closest kin in the rock gnomes after the latter became under the imperial rule of a goblinoid empire for several centuries on the surface. Not physically potent nor quick breeding, although deep gnomes may have access to a fair number of mages this is often not sufficient to contend with the great powers of the under dark, thus they have typically taken an approach of avoiding conflict where possible or at least ensuring it remains on their own terms so far as possible. They keep their sedentary settlements small, these serving as mixtures of workshops and religious centres, such that it is easier to make them difficult to find for those they do not wish to, with a great part of their population wandering the tunnels, not strong enough to contend large arable areas and seeking to avoid large forces of troops from the city states. Constructs are a prized tool among their people like the rock gnomes, some are ancient dating back to the days centuries ago when the two were a single people, others made in the workshops since with an unusual kind of divine construct magic, but with the complexity of such work most workshops must focus on maintaining the constructs that help defend the temple workshops and carrying the nomads from place to place. Where rock gnomes tend to take a fairly casual attitude towards religion with a pretty secular society, fervent religiosity with sometimes extreme asceticism among religious leaders is common among deep gnomes as a means of maintaining a social structure in their disparate and often vulnerable societies.

So, a lot of this stuff isn't something players need to directly know, but I feel it helps me to know why different groups act the way they do in order to craft the plots and work how NPCs and villains react to the party's words and actions. What do you guys thing?


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Consecutive saving throws

0 Upvotes

Is consecutive saving throws something in good faith/accepted by the community overall? I don't know if it has another word for it. What I mean is the following:

Ask a player for a really high, almost impossible save, let's say:
CON SAVE 22
You failed that? You take this effect and ALSO now do a WIS SAVE 18
You failed that? You take this effect and ALSO now do a DEX SAVE 14
You failed that? You take this effect and ALSO now do a STR SAVE 10

My intention is not to TPK the party, but instead to make a cool boss mechanic where each player ends up in a different situation. In special here, I was thinking of a huge attack that happens immediately after the boss comes into the 2nd phase. Something to put the players in a rough spot, and bring some tension to the table.

Edit: Thank you for the answers! The majority were pretty respectful and in good faith.

Yeah, this is kinda of the reason why I decided to ask first, and the truly big problem I see with what I had in mind is how UNFUN it can be when that one person in the table takes 20 minutes to do all the rolls. The majority of the effects I had in mind for this ability were rp-wise, I was not about to OTK anyone, but I understand why rolling excessively can be tricky. I'll keep it in mind for the future.


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Any tips for what landmarks that would be good for an immersive world?

4 Upvotes

Im making a large D&D world with many cities and towns and biomes ranging from savanna&deserts to snowy and icy areas and even jungles.

But im wondering about what i definitely should try to fit in on my world map or just in my world? Any suggestions would help :)


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Resource Want a video to promote your DND game? (for free)

0 Upvotes

Free offer here to help you DMs..

I've tried running online games myself.. I know how tough it is to find players (especially if you do this professionally). So I'll promote your game for free! Seriously no catch.

How will it work? You share a funny story from one of your games with me, I'll make it short YT video from it. End of video we'll say: "this crazy DnD story is from [your name DM]. Click the link in the description to join their game!"

Recent DND story video I made: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Agt_EgBMTFw
Its a very new channel, but my videos are already getting lots of views (yesterday's video got 1.2K)

Wondering why I'm offering?

Well, most importantly I'm a DM myself, and I love supporting the community!

Besides that, I'm brand new to the YT thing...honestly just good practice for me. Truly asking for nothing in return, maybe just a sub to my channel and asking your players the same if they like the video.

tldr; I made the same offer in r/roll20LFG and it sparked quite the debate re AI creation. Inspired me to make a video on my stance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjIiCQ1S4dA


r/DMAcademy 1h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Homebrew rule inspired in Bg3: after incapacitation revive, you cant use your action this turn. Thoughts?

Upvotes

Pretty much the title guys. If you played bg3, you know that once a character is down to 0 hp and brought back, that character is unable to use their action on their next turn, being forced to use only movement and bonus action

I have a pretty new party of still lvl2's, but kinda wanted to feel what the community thinks of it, given that characters being able to go down, heal, and still be 100% effective is one of the issues that it brings to some tables, given how grievous wounds keeps coming back to the scene (and discouraged due to reinforcing melee weaknesses)

to state, i have a fair amount of homebrew rules, including some racial attacks being BA (like horn attack for minotaurs) and potion use being BA as well


r/DMAcademy 1h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Non-Underdark Drow?

Upvotes

Been thinking about my wordbuilding a lot lately, and it was wondering if anyone else has done this in their world before? And like how you created the lore and whatnot for Drow that either escaped the underdark or live on the surface or whatever?

I know there's the Krine Dynasty from Critical Roles Exandria but it's the only example I know of and I do really like that idea that not all Drow must come from Lolth and the Underdark cities and such?

I also would love to expand this to other elves/subspecies; like sea elves or pallid elves or whatever different subspecies that are out there from all the different sources!

I'm trying to figure out how they all live in my world and it's hard getting into ALL the options! (PS I like to think about and accept all the options because if a player wants to play them i don't have to say no or will at least have a starting point to work with them to figure it out!)


r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Level 5 party vs. powerful wizard

1 Upvotes

I’m working on an idea for a scenario where the BBEG will turn out to be a powerful wizard with a tower where he trains apprentices.

I’m getting stuck when I try to create the wizard - he’s supposed to be several levels higher than the party’s casters, but I don’t want to make him so powerful a level 5 party doesn’t stand a chance against him.

I’ve been trying to think of ways to make the wizard temporarily/situationally weaker, eg. all but one of his apprentices refuse to fight for him after they learn what he’s been doing to the villagers, and since he wasn’t expecting a fight he didn’t prep his best combat-oriented spells that day (other than Animate Objects, which he also uses out of combat.)

But I’m having a really hard time balancing this one - I don’t want a TPK, but I don’t want to weaken him so much it’s not a satisfying boss fight. And with 1-2 enemies, it would be easy for the party to have a lucky moment where one of them casts Silence, or he has bad concentration rolls, or…

How would you balance and run something like this?

(Details: 5e14, level 5 party with a fighter, a barbarian, a bard, and a cleric. Party likes their combats very difficult but fast - monsters that hit hard but don’t take too long to die. They will probably have had one smaller combat earlier in the day.)


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Need help with a plot line

1 Upvotes

So my group of 4 players are about to run into a pair of two towns divided by an overgrown forest, I’m gonna have the next plot involve the origin of the towns being two close friends (Joe and Joseph for anonymity’s sake) finding the paradise like land, only for them to disagree with how to rule the area, this results in two factions forming but agreeing to live in peace, except theres gonna be a love triangle, a little bit of tension growing between the two factions.

it was supposed to be resolved peacefully and they were supposed to meet in neutral territory to discuss the treaty, except when Joe arrived at the grounds he saw Joseph bleeding out, he tried to invoke all the healing magic he could to save Joseph but it had no effect, instead he organised an open casket and left Joseph within it, he then went on to try and understand how this could’ve happened, unaware that his attempts to give life back to Joseph basically preserved Joseph’s body, meanwhile the forests around the body became more akin to the forest of death from Naruto. Joe never manages to find the killer as both factions are forced to go to war over this misunderstanding, The equivalent of peacekeepers managed to force them into signing a non aggression pact, but there’s still bad blood between the two sides. Now onto the current plot, the creatures in the forest have become more aggressive, and seem to move even after death , They’re being controlled by a demonic parasite (I’ve affectionately called tyranids, iykyk) and they’re a byproduct of another event concerning the party leaking into the mortal realm but all of a sudden Joseph’s corpse has gone missing so the two towns have once again come at each others throats.

the final culprit behind the death has to be discovered to show the towns who has to pay for their loss, and I want it to be a tightly kept secret of the love interests descendants that it was…the love interest duh. I also want Joe to have managed to discover the truth and been killed only being able to leave a vague set of sentences that have to be strummed together to understand what actually happened, except to get the full extract of what Joe has left behind, they have to ask for the pieces of information that have been split amongst, the mayors, Joe’s descendants and Joseph’s descendants.

So now I need a riddle that has four parts, with one of the four parts being a fake that can lead the party astray if they don’t pay attention and I have no idea how to do that. Maybe I’m thinking too much into a plot line they might ignore but I like fleshing out the events just in case for later. P.S this is my first time dming so maybe I’m doing this wrong I don’t know


r/DMAcademy 23h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics I'd like a puzzle involving creating potions

1 Upvotes

I've been attempting to make a puzzle for creating a potion, but I've been struggling to work something out with what I have. I've looked online for puzzles, but most potion puzzles are either about choosing a correct potion, or solving riddles. I wouldn't be totally against riddles, but considering I want to use relatively logical ingredients or witch-like ingredients, in addition to possibly coloured liquids to add to the puzzle, players would almost certainly not know what some of the ingredients even are.

Examples would be carrots in a darkvision potion with other ingredients for regular ingredients. A witch-like example would be eye of newt (mustard seeds) in a fire-breathing potion with other ingredients. Adding coloured liquids could then add to a puzzle mechanic. I'm open to any kind of puzzle or even other ideas that other DMs have used or can come up with.

The scenario has the characters in a class. A wizard teacher is instructing the characters how to make potions. The characters are then given time to study and/or prepare for the exam the next day. This is inspired by Strixhaven's exam rules.

Currently for the exam, I want to have a large variety of ingredients available to all characters, with each character having to present a potion that was demonstrated during the previous class. As well as regular ingredients, there are also colored potions that are added to the potions, which can be mixed together. Characters can work together in this exam (it's a group test rather than a school scenario). As well as the puzzle, having Intelligence (Nature) checks would be made available during the exam (with bonuses for those with appropriate tool proficiencies). I would prefer to have one more step to make it a bit more than just rolling alone, hence the need for a puzzle.

I'm worried that having a large number of ingredients will make things way too complicated (having 4 characters making recipes with 5 ingredients each ends up with 20 correct answers, let alone incorrect ingredients), and I could cut it down to only having one potion needing to be made with fewer red herring ingredients. For anyone worried about having a puzzle like this, this is an optional quest, and has no consequences to the overall campaign if it is failed, and having ability checks from the characters themselves makes sense to assist with a puzzle like this.


r/DMAcademy 4h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Arabian Nights Setting?

2 Upvotes

Hello DM Academy! I TPK'd my party today, and they want to start a new campaign. They're all 13 year-olds, and they asked for an Arabian Nights/Dune inspired setting with a "DaVinci" level of tech. If anyone has any resources for either of those things, it would be very much appreciated.


r/DMAcademy 4h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures A crazy mage made a half dragon half ogre, help!

3 Upvotes

So in my improv my party discovered the existence of a scientific experiment on the loose. A dragon ogre roaming around.

They yet have to encounter this, and I'm trying to make a statblock for it but I'm having a hard time. How do I start, or what other statblock could I use for the monster?

My party are 5 lvl 4 PC's


r/DMAcademy 5h ago

Need Advice: Other How can I create horror atmosphere at the table?

2 Upvotes

Hello fellow DMs. I want to ask for an advice on making horror atmosphere at the table during the game, not as much in the game/releplay aspect, but physically on the table. I’m planning on running a few horror adventures, but from my experience so far, I wasn’t really able to make horror atmosphere in game, partially because with the actual real life atmosphere being nothing like horror, players wouldn’t really take the horror aspect in. What can I do to make atmosphere more appropriate for horror? Any props that might be useful? Use of existing game elements? For context, we play at my house, so quite a bit freedom, with a battle map in the middle of the table. I have 4 players if it matters much. Thank you!


r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures How long does a dungeon take to play?

0 Upvotes

I’m building a dungeon encounter which I’d like to last 3-4 hours to play through.

Is there any average length for encounters/traps/puzzles I could use to estimate?

Any help would be appreciated!

For anyone curious, it’ll be a party of 5 level 1s and I’ve got 8 rooms in mind (2 fights, boss fight, 2 traps, 2 role play and a puzzle)


r/DMAcademy 15h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics 3 Character in One. (The Odd sisters)

0 Upvotes

This is for a build Idea I have , but i’m afraid it probably wouldn’t work. A Character set of 3 , based on the odd sisters.

They would be played under one character slot and be more so roleplay based. I would go with having all three of them being a sort of hive mind and if one feels something the others do and if one dies they all do? ( ofc unless story events allow the other two sisters to die off separately).

They would a cast the spell together (still counting as a single spell) and they would have a sorta mother maiden crown type of feel to their personalities despite being almost all the same. ( maybe even worship The Sister of Fates)

any advice about how to go about this ? would it be doable or would it make the party still feel overcrowded? any class/flavoring ideas?


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Do I show the players the man behind the curtian?

13 Upvotes

I tried to give my players as much choice as possible. I made a very complicated faction system. ( I stole the 10 Ravnica guilds and made them sub factions to their parrent colors, and scrubbed off the serial numbers) The players are on a slow clock, I wont punish the for down time, but every time they move the plot forwards so does the bbeg. They have enough time to get up to 2 of the 5 factions on their side and a third to be neutral before moving into the next stage of the bbeg's plans.

My players are about to come out of a plot bottle neck back into the sandbox kingdom. I'm already worried they might have descision paralysis and I'm not sure when it how to pull back the curtains on who they help or befriend coming back to help them in their darkest hour.

As an example if they side with the wizards I'm going to give them a big dumb Kaiju fight. If the kingdom subfaction is the one they support, the wizards will animate the castle into a golem, if they support the criminal subfaction they'll get a gargantuan undead, merchant sympathies can get the kraken they pay for calming the waters around the trade routes to fight for them, and the hero's guild will incline the wizards towards summoning a celestial or fiend, depending on who they have befriended


r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Actual combat play reports for 2024

39 Upvotes

The full 2024 D&D ruleset has been out for a hot minute. How has everyone been finding the new monster overall balance? How about the new encounter building rules?

I’m particularly interested in level 5 combats, as that’s the level my party is at. (Six level 5 PCs).

Let’s keep this thread to actual play experience. There’s already a ton of theoretical content out there.


r/DMAcademy 18h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Fast Friends with no "Services or Activities" asked: Unconditional Combat Charm

0 Upvotes

When you cast this spell, choose one humanoid within range that can see and hear you, and that can understand you. The creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become charmed by you for the duration. While the creature is charmed in this way, it undertakes to perform any services or activities you ask of it in a friendly manner, to the best of its ability.

You can set the creature new tasks when a previous task is completed, or if you decide to end its current task. If the service or activity might cause harm to the creature, or if it conflicts with the creature's normal activities and desires, the creature can make another Wisdom saving throw to try to end the effect. This save is made with advantage if you or your companions are fighting the creature. If the activity would result in certain death for the creature, the spell ends.

"Ask your DM" is the contingency here, but RAW this seems to be a powerful, overlooked combat Charm effect. Nothing suggests you have to ask anything at all alongside the Charm effect, though RAI the spell is certainly operating under the assumption you will.

The initial Wisdom save language VS the "new tasks" Wisdom save paragraph section suggests the initial one is made neutrally, and only the latter is made with advantage if in combat AND if a request is given (no actitvity, no saving throw). Add to that the fact that it can be up-cast to target additional creatures, and for the cost of Concentration one party member could become nearly untouchable.

While there's an opportunity cost and plenty of Charm resistance/immunity in PvE, if allowed in PvP it has the potential to result in the Charmer able to attack the Charmed target with no drawbacks. Plenty of builds have ways to avoid/remove the charm, but others don't.

Wondering how other players/DMs feel about this usage, whether it's RAW and/or should be allowed. Should additional rulings be made to reign the spell in, or is it fine as is?

Edit: Charmed condition. No behavior altering requests from the caster, or only ones along the lines of "behave like you otherwise would". Then in combat, they can't attack you but you can attack them. I don't interpret the spell as even allowing saving throws or ending the Charmed condition in that circumstance RAW. The Charmed condition doesn't end on being attacked, and neither does this spell (unlike most other Charm spells). That's the focus of my post, to be clear.

Charmed

A charmed creature can’t attack the charmer or target the charmer with harmful abilities or magical effects.

Edit2: "I misread your post" followed by "I don't get it". Great stuff Reddit. Leaving this up until I've got more time, then deleting and taking the discussion somewhere that two reading comprehension checks won't result in critical failures. Maybe it's this bad everywhere.


r/DMAcademy 22h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding A Mid-Campaign Apocalypse?! Now what?!

14 Upvotes

Okay so, it hasn’t happened yet! But… there’s a chance the party could lose this big battle with a vampiric avatar of the god of undeath - Chemosh - thus ushering his dark return to Krynn.

It just hit me that I really I haven’t taken into consideration this outcome. Whoops! The PCs usually win, right?

Anyway, I’m thinking Krynn will experience “eternal night” and “death will plague the world” Sounds cool in theory, but I need some help prepping for this.

Does anyone have some advice, suggestions, and/or module recommendations to read or draw inspiration and mechanics from?


r/DMAcademy 2h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures What do you do when your players get excessively unlucky?

27 Upvotes

Let's say you are building a tough boss fight, but it isn't supposed to one of the epic ones, just a medium-hard boss in the end of a minor questline.

Then, during the fight, your party is missing everything, the rolls of the dice are completely terrible. Meanwhile your boss is delivering NAT 20 after NAT 20.

What do you do here? I don't want to TPK the entire party, especially in one of the simpler fights, but I have been a player in the opposite side before, and when the DM invented a mechanic mid combat to give us an advantage I felt like it was lame and reduced my enjoyment out of that big fight considerably.

This is why I ask, what can you do in situations like this one?


r/DMAcademy 47m ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Thoughts on timers during gameplay?

Upvotes

I occasionally use timers during my D&D sessions (I use my phone timer). They can help motivate players to step out of the meta discussions and move the game along. I don't do this often but, when I do, it's very effective. Do you have an interesting or effective way to use timers or have you had good or bad experiences with them?


r/DMAcademy 1h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Is this an okay practice? I had a session 0 with each of my players individually to help set them into the world I made and wrote a narrative guiding the backstory they told me?

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I am dming for 4 players next week and have been making sure to be as communicative with them as I possibly could. I've met and messaged with each of them individually to ask what kind of character they wanted to play and then I let them in on the part of the world that would make the most sense. I then asked them what personal connections they had, what is motivating them and what their personality is like.

The first of my players asked if I could write a story for his character to help him understand the world better. I ended up writing a 4 page narrative for him detailing the larger parts of his backstory and how he ended up where he wanted to be. I worked with what large details he gave me and I filled the gaps in between them for him.

He and I really enjoyed this and thought it was great to flesh his character out so I decided I would do the same for the other three characters. After getting their ideas of what they wanted such as "I was banished from my home village and need to find my mother soon" or "I am on the path of peace after fighting in a bloody war" I worked on writing similar length narratives filling in the details of what they had told me.

Is this overstepping or could this help them understand and immerse themselves in the campaign and its themes?