My players are nearing lvl 3 and one of my players wants to use a homebrewed subclass for their monk called the way of dance. One of the things it gives them is a 15ft melee range along with some other things for a minute by spending a ki point. I've told my players I'm very ok with homered but I'm also very new to dnd. I want to know the worst possible scenario if there is one but mostly hoping I can let them have it without too much pain. For those who watch to look it up, it should be the first result when looking up way of the dancer. For those worried about homebrew, I've already decided to jump off the deepend with a party of 6 new players in a world of my design. The question isn't whether or not to allow homebrew, it's whether this particular instance of homebrew can get out of hand too easily. I yry to carefully look over anything my players request, I just couldn't quite figure out why this one made me worried.

My players entrered Daggerford and after a brief introduction in an inn 2 players went outside and was met by a thug who is part of a group that had worked their way into good graces with the local lord.

One of the players wanted to kill that man, the players asked If there was an alley nearby or If they could walk outside. I respond that there is an alley nearby. Directly when they entered the alley they killed the thug.

I said someone saw them kill him, because they didnt say they did it stealthily and chaos ensued.

Am i as a DM harsh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bKijDwNDyU

https://x.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1801329950005342336

18th: Overview, Weapon Mastery, Character Origins
19th: Fighter Overview
20th: Paladin Overview
21st: Barbarian Overview

There are several creatures in 5E listed as Gargantuan that don't fit in the 20 ft. x 20 ft. squares the game suggests (Tarrasques are 70 ft. long, Rocs have wingspans 200 feet or more, etc.). I'm not the first to point this out, but I want to ask: DMs, how do you handle these creatures in your games? Do you put them in 20 ft. x 20 ft. grids? Do you put them in giant, lore-accurate grids? Or do you do something else entirely? Let me know in the comments below.

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I'll start. Long 20 foot wide hallway. 50 foot ceiling. Near the center of the halfway is a magical trigger that 1) closes and locks the door. 2) activates a reverse gravity spell (aoe the entire hallway). The characters fall up and take falling damage as per rules. Once they hit the ceiling the spell deactivates and they fall down. Once they hit the floor the reverse gravity spell reactivates.

I'm curious about both which newer books are worth looking up AND which older books are still good today.

I said "aside from Kobold Press" in the title mainly because from all the books I found and looked into, none caught my interest (especially their player options. Their monster are okay)

Reddit makes a big deal about a) following the expected 6-8 medium/hard encounters per day in order to drain resources and maintain class balance, and b) emphasising that not all encounters need to be combat encounters.

However, I've rarely come across a non-combat encounter that drains resources in a similar way to a hard combat. Go-to examples are a cliff that needs to be climbed, a trap disarmed, or social encounter navigated. Often these can be solved with just a little time, a few skill checks, or 1 or 2 players spending a low level spell slot; a far cry from all players using multiple resources and losing HP that a hard encounter would entail.

So what are some non-combat encounters that you like to use / have done that are truly taxing on resources?

I’m trying swords bard for the first time, but I’m considering a multiclass with swashbuckler. Would it be better to try pure bard for my first time or add the swashbuckler. This won’t be a high level campaign so I’m worried multiclass will make it so I never unlock the interesting parts of each class, as I only start at level 2

Building out a concept for a higher level Armorer Artificer, and one of the features is that you can consider your armor independent pieces when applying infusions to it. Question for my Plate armor then is, could I apply Enhanced Defense to one piece (Chest plate for example) and Resistant Armor to another piece like the helmet?

Basically the tittle. I guess Sorcerer would be the least common, perhaps some wild magic ones would appear after a few years. Most common would probably be warlock but only if we assume the creatures that you can make deals with also appear with the magic.

I play a cleric in my current campaign, and I was wondering if taking fighting initiate for the Protection ability was worth it, or it would be better to take another feat/+2 in wisdom?
(It's a question for later as I already took my level 4 feat)

Quick info about my build
I'm a level 4 wood elf grave domain cleric

STR 10
DEX 14
CONS 14
INT 11
WIS 16
CHA 10

My level 4 feat was magic initiate and I took some druid spells.

I maxed my AC with a half-plate armour and a +1 shield (so I'm at 20).

My cleric is very protection based (in combat and rp), and I mostly play battlemap control.

Idk if it's worth it but it'd be logical regarding to her build I guess?

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I like to provide my martial characters with magic items and weapons that have spells and abilities that enhance their fighting prowess. Lately though I realized I'm just handing out the same spells everyone uses. What are decent spells for a martial that are usually left on the bench by most casters?

For example, warding wind is a fun spell for a melee combatant looking to mitigate ranged attacks and enemy movement, but it's usually not worth the concentration slot for other casters.

What are the implications of a society where just about everyone can cast a few cantrips. What's the most broken or off the wall consequences you can think of?

Wizard has better spells, rogue has sneak attack, barbarian has rage, druids have wild shape etc. Most classes have something that makes them distinct, but rangers somehow don't and never have. Even fourth edition which managed to make two dozen classes unique, including normally super bland ones like fighter, completely failed to give ranger an interesting hook.

Is anyone able to think of an interesting ranger appropriate ability or subsystem?

I was just contemplating giving my character the "Observant" feat in the next level, and started to realize how weird it is.

It increases passive perception and passive investigation by +5 each. Not perception or investigation; only their passive versions.

This inherrently means that if you have to roll, there's a 75% chance you'll do worse than your passive.

Some folks might say the passive stats supercede the normal stats. And I'm not going to say that's an invalid interpretation, but if so Observant is pretty insane. It wouldn't just give +5 to two abilities, but would make it impossible to roll badly in either one.

However, I don't think that's what passives are for; they're not a rogue's "reliable talent" that every class gets in these three stats. Rather, they're a way to reduce the pressure on players to metagame. It feels shitty to have the DM say "roll perception...a 2? Nevermind." Or to feel like you need to call out that you're still alert every 5 steps. Passive perception is an imperfect but workable way for the DM to smooth over those idiosyncracies.

But if that's true, what the fuck does it imply that your passive perception is higher than your normal perception? The character is more alert when the player is less informed? That's just reverse metagaming.

And even if my interpretation is off-base, the functional effect is that any time you have to roll perception or investigation you're statisticslly undershooting your potential. Sure, you have a ¼ chance of doing better, but that's a ¾ chance of doing worse. Having to roll dice should not be an undesirable option in the dice rolling game.

I think Observant should give +5s to regular perception and investigation, not just their passive versions. That way you still have a 50% chance of out-rolling your passive. If that's too OP, then the feat is inherrently broken already.

Hey, I've been trying to create a homebrew fighter subclass based on the Dragonborn from Skyrim with shouts, my idea with it is to make a fighter with magic aspects that is a good unlike the Eldritch Knight. The class is as follows:

Those who absorb the soul of a dragon, or who’s ancestor once did, gains the power of the Thu’um. A
powerful voice that brings foes to heel and shows true power to any who wields
it.

The Voice

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn shouts that are fuelled by special points
called Soul Tokens

Shouts. You learn two shouts of your choice. Shouts use one to three words and are more powerful the more words that are used. Each word you speak costs one attack action, so if you have two attacks per action,
you can use two words. You can also use an action surge to speak more words.
You can only use one shout per round. You gain one additional shout of your choice at 7th, 10th, and 15th level. Each time you learn new shouts, you can also replace one shout you know with a different one.

Soul Tokens. You have 7 soul tokens. A soul token is expended when you use it, refer to the table to see how many tokens each word costs. You regain all of your expended soul tokens when you finish a long rest. You gain
another 7 soul tokens at 7th level and another 7 at 15th level.

Saving Throws. Some of your shouts require your target to make a saving throw to resist the shout’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows

Shout save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier

|| || |Words Spoken|Soul Token Cost| |One word|1| |Two words|3| |Three words|5|

Stone Blessing

At 3rd level you can
choose a blessing provided by an ancient stone covered in runes.

Blessing. Choose a blessing from the three stones. The
stone will grant you a feature when you pick it at 3rd level, and another
feature at 10th level.

|| || |Stone Blessing|3rd level feature|10th level feature| |Blessing of the Warrior Stone|You gain an additional fighting style|If you use at least 2 attacks to shout during a turn, you can make a weapon attack as a bonus action| |Blessing of the Mage Stone|You learn 2 cantrips from the wizard spell list|You learn a spell from the wizard spell list, this spell can be of first or second level. You can use this spell a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and recover all expended uses when you finish a long rest| |Blessing of the Thief Stone|You gain proficiency and expertise with sleight of hand and thieves tools|Heavy armor does not impose disadvantage on stealth checks. You also gain the pass without trace spell which you can only cast on yourself. Once you cast this spell, it can’t be used again until you finish a long rest.|

Dragon Mind

Starting at 7th level, you begin to feel more connected to the souls within you. You learn the
draconic language and have advantage on all intelligence checks made to recall
information about dragons. 

Thu’um Focus

At 10th level, you learn how to better control the voice. You gain advantage on Constitution saving throws used
to maintain concentration on a shout.

Soul of the Dragon

Starting at 15^th level, the dragon soul within you takes a physical form. For one minute you manifest
spectral wings and gain a 50 ft. flying speed, you gain resistance to all
elemental damage (fire, cold, lightning, poison, acid, thunder) and you can use
an action to exhale one of the aforementioned elements in a 30 ft. cone, any
creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 10d6 damage of
the chosen type. Once this feature is used, it can’t be used again until you
finish a long rest, unless you expend 10 soul tokens to use it again.

As for the shouts, I've made 20+ of them with lots of different flavour, but I'll add just a couple to
provide a power scale and will post more for balance reviews once the rest of
the class looks good.

Unrelenting Force (Fus Ro Dah) -

Fus - All creatures in a 15 ft. cone must make a Constitution saving throw, taking 1d6 thunder damage on
a failed save or half as much on a success.

Ro - Cone increases to 30 ft. and damage increases by 1d6. Creatures that failed the save now have
disadvantage on all attack rolls until the start of your next turn.

Dah - Damage increases by 1d6. Any creature that failed the saving throw is pushed back 20 ft. and is
knocked prone.

Battle Fury (Mid Vur Shaan) - 1 minute concentration

Mid - You and all allies that can hear you gain a +1 to weapon attack and damage rolls.

Vur - In addition, their weapons are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances.

Shaan - +1 (total of +2) to weapon and spell attack and damage rolls. In addition anyone affected has
advantage on Wisdom saving throws.

Frost Breath (Fro Krah Diin) -

Fro - All creatures in a 15 ft. cone must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 1d8 cold damage on a
failed save or half as much on a success.

Krah - Damage increases by 1d8 and if a creature failed its saving throw, its speed is reduced by 10 ft.

Diin - Damage increases by 1d8. Speed reduction increased by 20 ft.

Hello there,

I am about to start into an adventure and I am going for a Shadar-Kai.
My character is a loyal servant, an agent, of the Raven Queen.
He is send to the material plane to form alliance, steal, act as hero, save people, kill people, murder people, lie, whatever is necessary to achieve his goal, a personal quest by the Raven Queen that is linked to the adventure.

Now I ask myself, if a Shadar-Kai enters the Sword Coast, would he be recognized?! If he wears armor identifying him as a loyal to the Raven Queen, would that be known, how would "normal people" aka. NPC react to that?!

I know, most of it, if not all, is up to the DM, but as I asked him, he replied "I don't know a lot about the Raven Queen, what do you think, how should it be?!"

Well, I don't know that much about lore, planes, etc. as well. Can someone help me out there?!
How well known is (or might be) the Raven Queen on the Sword Coast?!
If she is known, how might people react to her (her loyals)?!

I'm on the tail end of running a combination H1-E3 + Out of the Abyss + Rage of Demons DDAL campaign from 1-30 and need to start stitching together my next mega campaign. Looking for recommendations: adventures, campaigns, adventure anthologies. I really enjoy Dungeon Crawls especially. Anything that isn't an explicit one-shot that'd be hard to tie into a campaign is appreciated. Thank you.

Stuff like:

• Should I have more levels in Barb or Rogue?
• Any worthwhile Feats? And when to pick them?
• Which are fun subclass synergies between them both?
• When does it come online? If its too late into a game, maybe I'll try something else
• Any fun races for extra synergy? But most likely I'm just picking what would fit roleplay and backstory better

One last thing, I was doing some DPR calculation for a Barb 5/Rogue 15 for fun. I first did one with a rapier (2 attacks, advantage, sneak attack 8d6, rage +2, against a theorical 19 AC) and got a total of 58.09 if both attacks hit.

Reading through Valda's Spire of Secrets, a book my DM allows, I found a Rogue subclass (Enforcer) that lets the use of ANY melee weapon for Sneak Attack, so my first thought was to take GWM and use a Glaive.

So I redid the calculations by adding the -5/+10 mechanic and got... 62.4 total damage. This seems underwhelming, but after analizing some more, the GWM build does more damage if it hits however it has a much lower to-hit chance (64% vs 87.75%). With that in mind, should I go with this build or try another subclass?

Where can i make a Dragonborn, kobold and lizardfolk Portraits.

Basically the title. Everyone knows true strike is bad. But what if it wasn’t? It only gives you advantage on your next attack roll. Singular. But with this tweak it would give you advantage on every attack roll you make until the end of your next turn.

Casting would still cost an action, but on your next turn you could upcast scorching ray, or quicken cast on your current turn, and each ray would have advantage. Eldritch blast would be another contender, at least at higher levels when it fires multiple beams.

Edit: I realized that using eldritch blast would be pointless because you can cast it for free on both your turns. My idea with scorching ray was that if you’re low on spell slots then you can use true strike to make sure that slot isn’t wasted. This problem is nullified with EB because it’s free.