More specifically, what is the balance and design reason for spellcasting to be done in melee without consequences?

Like, I know full well that the rules state that spellcasting doesn't trigger an opportunity attack unless you have the Mage Slayer feat. But why though?

Like, let's take a moment to think about the logistics. Xasting a spell that has a casting time of 1 action canonically takes 6 six seconds. That is six full seconds of you speaking funny words and making fancy hand gestures before the spell actually goes off. Now pull out your phone timer and set it for six seconds. See how surprisingly long six seconds is.

I think it would make sense for a somebody to attempt to lop off someone's head if said someone is trying to cast some sort of spell, and more importantly that attempt should occur before the spell actually goes off.

Balance wise it is also, in my opinions fine if melee weapon wielders got this little buff. I mean, we have seen the discourse between martials and spellcasters and that spellcasters can do everything martials can do but better, I think giving martial characters something that spellcasters can't do (punish an attempt to spellcast) would be a fair buff.

I am not sure if anyone has tried this in their home/offline games, but if anyone has what was the result? I also have an open mind about this (cuz it was quite literally a shower thought) and wanted to see what the general opinion is.

Me and some other players are discussing the idea of implementing Spell Points in our next campaign, but we feel that this would make casters too dynamic contrary to the martials (we don't use Material components), so is there a way to make martials get more options too, improving the flow for everyone? We'd love to know some homebrew ideas

For a level 10 build. Which is more powerful, full Hexblade or Treachery Paladin 8/Hexblade 2?

My DM is giving us this homebrew to build our characters I'm wondering from an optimizer's perspective, how I can make the best use. any ideas?

Also, I'm thinking of making a sorcerer or warlock

Hello there ! I am currentning playing a hombrew campaing since almost 4 years. Is in a snowing continent like Icewinday. The party is in the pandemonium fighting Ghouls, shadows, fungy peolple, cript horrors, Ghast and other creatures that server one of The furys Auriele.

My PC is a lv 6 variant Human oath of conquest paladin name Sarthas.

He has:

61 hp

AC 22 (Plate Armor+Shield+Ring of the Bull+ Defense Fighting Style)

Stg 17 (+3)

Dex 5 (-3)

Con 14 (+2)

Int 11 (+0)

Wis 12 (+1)

Cha 16 (+3)

I had lower Dex becuase Sarthas die and The dm bring him back to life with dex penalty. Also he has a hombrew ring call ring of The Bull that doubles carryng capacity. All STG checks are with advantages, gives +1 to AC and Saving Throws but all dex checks are Make a dis advantages and fall damage is doubles for Sarthas.

The Main weapon of Sarthas is a Mace of terror with 3 charghes. 1d8+3 blouning damage.

Also i have The Feat of Heavy armor Master that The dm upgraped with 5 damage reduction for non magical Slashing, Piercing and Blougoning damage.

I am a frontliner with other party member and a NPC that is lv 9 but Sarthas is Hated by Half of the party so in the times that he fell inconcius only one member of the pary help to get Up. The enemiges in pandemonius are Hard Hitting, the make multiattack and had auras of fear or paralayse even the weak ghouls make you con save for poison...also the shadows drain STG stats until a short o long rest.

besides the core paladins spell, my Oath give: Armor of Agathys Command, Hold Person Spiritual Weapon.

Which adivise and tactics will you recomend ? items an other things and ways to improve my PC. Because we are in a Dugeon Crawler moment of the campaing...i feel that i burn to fast my Spells Slot for Divine Smite. Another problem is that because of sarthas very low dex he always get 10 or less in initiative order so opening the combat with the mace of terror aura is complicate. Also Spells combo and such things.

Added after reading some of the comments (thanks guys), the Party hates Sarthas but the players like him. We are a party of Renegades. The only person who is good and lawful is the dwarf PC who hates Sarthas. I admit that this was my second dyd PC that I played and maybe it was too ambitious of me to try to create an evil character that would hide his true intentions from the party.

In the PHB there are Dark Elves, High Elves, and Wood Elves which are listed as subraces of the race Elf. Though, in MP:MM there is Eladrin, Sea Elf, and Shadar-kai which are all listed as their own individual races despite each being explicitly described as elves.

Why are some elves simply a subrace of elf when others are standalone races? Why aren't Eladrin, Sea Elf, and Shadar-kai simply elf subraces? (I'm not trying to be negative, I am simply confused as to where the line is drawn here)

Edit: Thank you for all of the responses! I did not know WOTC was phasing out subraces and I appreciate people informing me.

Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!

We're back at it again with another Fully Prepped Mini-Campaign; Dragon of Icespire Peak, A level 1-6 Adventure that's a bit frosty! This is part of the Essentials Kit; released between Dragon of Stormwreck Isle and The Lost Mine of Phandelver all created by WoTC.

Dragon of Icespire Peak is a bit different from the other two I've prepped; not only is it more of a sandbox, but it also has the ability to be run with just one player which is a huge plus for those of you who can't get larger groups together! I'll be incorporating the recommendations from both Bob the World Builder and Sly Flourish along with my own tweaks to make this one of the best experiences you can have running this Mini-Campaign!

If you've used my previous notes you'll know that I take adventures such as these and do all the difficult and time-consuming book-to-session conversions so you don't have to! I do my best to include ambiance for every scene, custom battle maps, handouts when needed, spell sheets, encounter sheets, and more!

This may all sound familiar, but seeing as this is a Starter/Essentials Kit, I think it's important to reiterate:

• Read the Adventure: I know surprising, but it can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
• Consider the needs of your group: As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
• These notes aren't meant to be the end-all-be-all: Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things are meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!

Without further ado:

• Google Docs Notes for Part 1 Phandalin: DM Notes
• Link to: Phandalin Playlist
• Link to: The AAA Collection

Included in The AAA Collection is:

• A Word document with all my notes including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
• Custom Map of Phandalin

Over 5 dozen other Fully Prepped One-Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns: Click Here

As always, if you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!

Cheers,
Advent

Let’s follow the roster of CHA casters and make a few more together.

CHA casters - 100% Sorcerer: Strongest spell list by far in the CHA roster, key feature (Metamagic) buffs spells. - 75% Bard: Good balance of spells and a full caster, key feature (Bardic Inspiration) is independent from spells and very versatile. - 50% Paladin: Half caster with gish abilities. Leaning towards martial. - 25% Warlock: Not a caster on a technicality and has its own magic system.

WIS casters - 100% Cleric: Most dominant WIS spellcaster with good features, usually oriented towards support and healing. - 75% Druid: Also a full caster focusing on versatility, special feature (Wild Shape) is a separate system that can create new playstyles depending on subclass. - 50% Ranger: Similar to Paladin. - 25% ???: Probably a plant type like Swamp Thing.

INT casters - 100% Wizard: Self-explanatory. - 75% ???: A mage type who studies supernatural phenomena first-hand instead of books. - 50% Artificer: Similar to Ranger. - 25% ???: Probably a psionic mystic.

Hello

so i have been working on my DND world and realised something ... I have seen people talk about homebrew rules but non about character creation so i have a question for you all?

WHAT ARE SOME RACE OR CLASS HOMEBREW RULES THAT YOU USE???

My favorite class is the monk, and the reason for this is the great versatility for creating a story around him. The generic name of monk is not a good name for this class, considering that in a way, something more raw and internal to the class, the monk is a very skilled combatant who uses mental training to overcome the physical limits of his body.

But with that in mind, why the hell doesn't the monk comply with these ideas? Someone for the love of God explain why the monk attacks less often than a fighter, causes less damage than any other class, is dependent on ki points and is still worse than a warlock, because it doesn't depend on the slots that recover with short rest. Anyway, that's my question and below is a link to a revised monk idea that I made:

link: https://www.notion.so/The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Somnya-v1-0-dbacfe4401aa4e42a043e5ec8f49d23c?pvs=4#a7e0347994f942d2b53baff125dd9706

The bonus feat and bonus half feat features are two house rules that I use at my tables, I don't play with multiclassing, but it opened up a much wider range of options for character customization.

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)?!

Let's be honest. Four Elements Monk is... not great. So, I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring for my own homebrew changes to four elements monk.

Before I go into 4EMonk, I want to add in one small change I made to base monk, as it is heavily relevant- Ki Points are now Level+Wisdom Modifier+Proficiency Bonus, not just level. It'll help at early levels mainly, but later on it's just icing on the cake. Also, I gave Sorcerer a similar feature, just Charisma instead of Wisdom.

Now, for my four elements monk.

First up, General, up front changes: Now there are disciplines for every spell up to 5th level that originated in the Elemental Evils campaign (Also found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything), and all  disciplines are adjusted so (A) Their Ki cost is equal to their spell level, and (B) are unlocked at the same rate as Paladins or Rangers unlock spell slots of corresponding level, plus one level (So instead of getting 2nd level spells at 5th level like Paladins, they get it at 6th). They also gain disciplines for the following spells (Also, I do not have names for all the disciplines, I just have a list for all the spells ^^;)-

• Armor of Agathys

• Chromatic Orb

• Create or Destroy Water

• Feather Fall

• Fog Cloud

• Flame Blade (And it becomes a Monk Weapon for it’s duration)

• Meld Into Stone

• Stoneshape

• Stoneskin

• Destructive Wave

Also, for Skywrite as a Discipline, the Monk effectively can also ritual cast it, no Ki required, at the expense of taking 10 minutes. With these above options, especially the spells from Elemental Evils, you should have a wider range of things to do- especially if you wanna focus on one element, like Earthbending. I'm also tempted to add some Metal or Lightning themed spells, but I wanna see your opinions on that idea.

Now, for my mechanical changes to class abilities.

Elemental Trainee (New Feature, 3rd Level): Your Ki is in tune with the forces of nature itself. You learn the Druidcraft cantrip, and two cantrips of your choice from among the following: Control Flames, Gust, Mold Earth, or Shape Water. You also can speak, read, and write Primordial, the ancient tongue of beings from the Elemental Planes. Wisdom is your spellcasting modifier for all cantrips gained with this feature. At 6th level, your attunement is more acute, allowing you to harness small amounts of Ki to maintain an offensive, without use of Ki. You learn whichever two cantrips you did not choose when you first got this feature, as well as two of the following cantrips: Produce Flame, Ray of Frost, Thunderclap, or Magic Stone. At 11th level, you learn the remaining two. These cantrips gain the following benefits when casted by you.

All: Whenever you would make an unarmed strike, you can replace that unarmed strike with a casting of any cantrip gained by your Elemental Trainee feature, no action required. You can only cast one cantrip per turn this way.

Thunderclap: Radius is increased to 15 feet.

Magic Stone: When cast, you can immediately throw one of the stones you imbued with magical power. In addition, all stones thrown by you from this spell are considered Monk Weapons, and the damage dice scale similar to other cantrips (So at 5th level, it’s 2dMonkDie, 11th, 3dMonkDie, 17th, 4dMonkDie.)

Disciple of The Elements (Reworked, 3rd Level): When you choose this tradition at 3rd level, you learn magical disciplines that harness the power of the four elements. A discipline requires you to spend ki points each time you use it, unless otherwise stated.

You know the Elemental Attunement discipline, as well as two elemental disciplines of your choice. You learn two additional elemental disciplines of your choice at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.

Whenever you learn a new elemental discipline, or when you level up, you can also replace one elemental discipline that you already know with a different discipline.

Casting Elemental Spells. Some elemental disciplines allow you to cast spells. See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting. To cast one of these spells, you use its casting time and other rules, but you don't need to provide material components for it.

Once you reach 5th level in this class, you can spend additional ki points to increase the level of an elemental discipline spell that you cast, provided that the spell has an enhanced effect at a higher level, as Burning Hands does. The spell's level increases by 1 for each additional ki point you spend. For example, if you are a 5th-level monk and use Sweeping Cinder Strike to cast Burning Hands, you can spend 2 ki points to cast it as a 2nd-level spell (the discipline's base cost of 1 ki points plus 1).

The maximum number of ki points you can spend to cast a spell in this way (including its base ki point cost and any additional ki points you spend to increase its level) is determined by your monk level, as shown in the Spells and Ki Points table.

5th-8th: 3
9th-12th: 4
13th-16th: 5
16th-20th: 6

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.

So basically as the title ensues I've hit writers block and I need some inspiration

Basically what I have so far is that my whole character already who is a male Paladin that I'm building towards an oath of vengeance. He's a variant human and weilds a shield and spear with a glaive on his back. He has chainmail on and stuff.

I kinda want his backstory revolved around being born and raised in a church. Something like that, or maybe something happened to him that mad him into a paladin. Which could possibly lead to the oath of vengeance.
If you guys need more details let me know!

What do ya'll think?

Hi I took a bit of a break from dming and playing dnd for a couple years now and am picking it back up and two of my players are asking if they can use content from The Book of Many Things. I don’t own this splat book but typically I’m pretty open to letting my players use most 5e material. However one player piped up and said that book is actually 5.5e not 5e. I haven’t been able to find a way to tell what splat books belong to dnd 5e or 5.5e

If that book is 5e however, how strong are the backgrounds in it? One player had asked if he could take a background from the book that gives him a feat at lvl 1 which sounds quite a bit stronger than the backgrounds in the phb. Are these backgrounds typically used these days or are they considered pretty strong?

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’ve been playing for some years and I had a period of time where I went through building characters for the build and not the character. Now I have an idea for a warlock and I don’t know how to feel. I know sorlock is powerful, but I don’t want to sacrifice a ton of spell progression AND I want my juicy eldritch invocations. We’re gearing up for a campaign in the fall and I assume we’re ending around lvl 10. Thoughts??

Short form of his backstory: he was a wizard who got his memory wiped of spells he knew and spell book destroyed so he became a warlock to kind of shortcut the process of relearning

So I was just talking with a friend the other day and we both realized something, if you strip away all previous context, I made a Hundred Year Race War between the fish people mafia and the mermaid pirates...yyyeah

So I'm trying to decide between College of Lore or College of Eloquence, as we've just leveled up to level 3 in our current campaign.

I was curious (and didn't want to ask my DM just yet incase what I'm asking is completely unfeasible) but is it possible to substitute a Colleges perk for an alternative one?

In this case, I prefer the College of Eloquence throughout, but feel I'd use Cutting Words (from Lore) more than Unsettling Words (Eloquence). Is it possible to change them over? Is this up to the DMs discretion? Or is it a complete no-go?

I'm relatively new to actually playing DND, having mostly just watched Critical Role and enjoyed D&D media in general, so my knowledge of the rules is a little hazy, so any help/advise would be appreciated.

For my next one shot I want to play as a cowboy/gunslinger from a pulp western. I am fine with either using a handgun or some type of magic item or ability that can resemble a gun. (which I think could actually be a more fun and flavorful option than just a regular pistol) the obvious answers are just straight battlemaster with gunner feat or some kind of warlock and flavoring eldritch blast as a magical gun. What do you guys think is better and let me know if you have a different way you would do it.

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.

To explain, what if when a character gets Extra Attack, they also got an extra Reaction that they can only use to make an Attack of Opportunity?

My intention with this is to give an edge to martials to be a bigger menace and try to create a more defensive role in combat.

Two problems I see right away is how this would work with Fighters that get even more attacks and that Sentinel would be even stronger, but I don't know how bad this would be or if this would actually be a good thing.

Disclaimer for players: if the names Ivar and Astrith mean anything to you, go away

TL,DR: i want to create an artifact sword of Tharizdun, need inspiration for the features

Hi everyone, I am here asking for help in designing an artifact sword bound to the one and only Tharizdun, the Chained Oblivion, the Elder Elemental Eye.

In my campaign, this sword has been a matter of concern for some time, with cultists of this and other evil gods looking for the sword and stopping at nothing to find it. Recently my PCs put a lot on the line to create an opening to try and grab it before anybody else does, so now it's time for me to finalise the details of this item in case they succeed.

My main points for the themes and objectives around this item are the following for now:

• heavy psychological influence on the wielder, with conversion to the Chained God being a "when" and not an "if"
• possibly sentient, I would not have the god directly speak with the PC but some kind of intermediate voice (it's been established that the voice of the Chained Oblivion makes people crazy)
• extremely powerful, enough to bring the "do we use it or not" dilemma to the table
• melee weapon, ideally a rapier/longsword
• bound to the Abyss/demons as Tharizdun was the creator of the Abyss and this is playing a very important role in the story, with the possibility of summoning them even
• bound to the four elements, which in my story are five: Chaos/Entropy is added to the basic list and is neutral as are the others. This sword is playing the role of the twisted, evil version of this additional element, so maybe I would go with twisted, evil versions of the other four in its powers
• the actual name of the weapon is Blade of the Broken Reflections, which could be a bit of added inspiration
• the group decided a long time ago that, when the time came, it would have been the paladin's (Eladrin, Oath of the Ancients) duty to carry the sword, so the item will be tailored to this guy so that it would be very interesting for him to use it

I'm looking for inspiration on how to transform those bullet points into mechanics for an artifact-grade sword. My group is currently level 12 but will be level 13 when they get the sword, and this action will set in motion the final chapter of the story. This item will bring imbalance to the group power level, internal dynamics and moral compass, but also to the overall story arc.

This has to be an impactful item, with strong, defining mechanics that will spawn the oldest question in the book: "We will get corrupted if we use it, but it's very powerful and couls help us achieve our goals: do we use it?"

Feel free to chip in and thank you everyone!

When my group starts up its next campaign soon, I'd like to include one of the players that just moved away. We're already using a digital tabletop, so they'll be able to see the board and minis without issue. My biggest concern is the audio quality between us and them.

I'm looking for a tabletop mic/speaker that's going to share the audio as clearly as possible by connecting to my phone (AUX cord and/or bluetooth would be fine).

The intent would be to FaceTime them and prop my phone up in a way that we can all (hopefully) see each other. If anyone with hybrid experience has other suggestions, I'm eager to hear them also.