r/dndnext

Hey there redditors!!

currently amidst a DND campaign playing 2024 5E, and we've ran into a problem with the suggestion spell, does anyone else feel its too op and their players abused it too much? if so, how did you nerf it whilst still making it feel fair? any help appreciated. (eg. they said "speak the truth and answer our questions to the best of your abilities for the next 8 hours") what do I do if they suggest a shopkeeper to sell his wares for 1 copper? where do I draw the line. Im drowning here as its my first campaign :(

EDIT: for reference, "The suggestion must sound achievable and not involve anything that would obviously deal damage to the target or its allies."

EDIT 2: we banned it

Just as a refresher:

• Standard Array = [15/14/13/12/10/8], Assigning one of each to an Attribute + Racial/Species/Background bonuses.
• Point Buy = All attributes starts at 8, you have 27 points to buy higher stats up to 15 (with 14 & 15 costing more) + Racial/Species/Background bonuses.
• Rolling Dice = Roll 4d6, drop the lowest numbered die, combine the rest, repeat 5 more times, assign each of the 6 combined numbers into each attributes, add Racial/Species/Background bonuses.
• House Rules of Official Methods = Stuff like Standard Array with different numbers, Point Buy with extra points, Rolling Dice but allowing to reroll 1s, etc.
• Completely Homebrewed Methods = Anything not listed here.

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This is not an LFG post.

Imagine you've been told your gm was running the original LMoP again. They allow you to read the book and playtest sections of the module to optimize techniques for getting through the chapters faster and plan routes.

Where applicable assume rules as written. The gm runs the module as written, but doesn't force you into the set plot-line since your characters have metagame knowledge about the module and can basically just go to the last dungeon at level 1 if they want.

For character creation, they allow you PHB, XGE, and TCE.

What's your party comp?

Hey all, I’ve played DnD casually for a while but I’ve never gotten particularly *good* at it. This is my first time playing a swarmkeeper - anyone have any tips about best build, spells, etc? I’m a gnome beekeeper and tried to make my build stay reasonably thematic with that but I want to make sure I’m not missing “this spell is the whole purpose of this character” or the like. We’re starting at level 5.

Thoughts?

Hi!

I am a return player to D&D playing in a 5.5e campaign. DM is a close friend. Other players I do not know.

I usually play other systems, but grew up with 1st/2nd ed. and have played a few 5e 1shots.

One of the players who is a DM in another campaign with our DM continuously chooses my turn to talk about our next moves, interrupting every turn with rules quotes, has an OP caster who does massive dps, so.ehow has like 3-4 actions and 2 attacks frequently due to "class rules", grabs loot and high tails it away from danger leaving us to scrape by.

So I guess an alpha gamer railroad minmaxer...that's allot.

Its becoming kinda miserable. After 20 minutes of quoting rules and best practices for my class and my turn, what I can do, should do, and even saying "do xyz" I just said "You can make all my turns for me if you want."

I brought it up to the DM after the session but I think it's not going to get better.

I want to continue, it's a new class for me and race and I like the character. But the railroading (we skipped the main quest we were hired for as "there won't be loot for me there") has me thinking, even though I have waited 2 years to get in this group with a friend, it's not a good fit. Also if I leave it's likely a letdown for my friend and likely end the campaign.

Not sure what to do.

I'm making an encounter in my campaign with Goblin Guards, but Goblins and Guards have two different stat blocks. Which one do I have to use, or do I have to use a combination of both? And how do I do that if that's the case? I couldn't find any information about this in the rulebook or the Monster Manual, neither on the internet.

My DM is quite open to the idea of giving the Rogue a bit more "oomph" and said if I want to pitch a new subclass or a change for my future Rogue, she would be open to consider it. I don't want to overdo it, so I would love to hear your opinion on what I would like to pitch:

1. I want to play an Arcane Trickster that failed to become a wizard and is very much interested in dabbling in all kinds of magic with a love for magic items and especially wands (a Wandslinger so to speak).

2. I would like to suggest to add the Thief 3 Fast Hands and the Thief 13 Use Magic Device features to the base class (or the AT) at those levels.

3. I would like to be able to use my Sneak Attack with any attack roll cantrip gained through Arcane Trickster - or alternatively that is on the Wizard Spell list (to avoid this working with Eldritch Blast) - as long as the normal sneak attack conditions apply.

What do you think? Would that be too much? I don't want to appear ubreasonable. Or should I maybe pitch even more? Or incorporate more restrictions to balance it out?

Hi, if this isn’t allowed feel free to remove, no worries.

I’m a DnD player with ADHD and one thing I’ve always struggled with is taking notes while actually staying engaged in the game.

About a year ago when I moved away and was playing over Discord, I built a small bot to transcribe sessions so I didn’t have to constantly switch between listening and typing. It worked pretty well at the time.

Now I’m back to in-person sessions and realised… my note-taking is still terrible

So I picked that project back up and went a bit further with it. I ended up building a small web app where I can upload session recordings (or transcripts), and it turns them into usable notes I can actually follow between sessions.

It’s kind of grown into more of a companion tool than I originally planned.

I’m not trying to promote anything or sell it (it’s free and just a fun project), but I was curious if something like this would actually be useful to other players/DMs.

If anyone’s interested in trying it or has ideas/feedback, I’d genuinely appreciate hearing them.

I know that some dms give everyone a feat and an ASI.

what about just martial characters- fighter, barbarian and rogue only getting double?

it doesn't reduce the difference to 0 but would certainly help the martial characters. especially as martials are really more feat department than other classes.

or giving them more ASIs

an additional ASI at level 2

In the Most recent Session of my dnd group 3 people + me + DM we Had to fight a Hag the DM Said toward the end that it was a cr11 Monster but then he also said that He offcourse Made it weaker damage wise, as we are only lvl 5, the next part is what is concerning to me he told the group that he lowered the damage except for attacks against me. This is the first time playing dnd for me so I dont know all the ins and Outs of dnd His explanation was that i was to powerful for the party im currently playing a sorlock 4lvl into abberant mind sorcerer and 1lvl in archfey warlock I am a dwarve that wears medium Armor wich leads to an ac of 17 and i have 47 max HP with my dex being +2 my con and char being +4 and everything else being +1, I rolled the stats with the DM now im wondering If Iight haveade a build to powerful and want to know If you can Help me Out. sidenote the stats above are with a lvl 4 ability Score increase as the dm doesnt allow feats. Small edit: the DM is my brother FYI

Now to start, I am explicitly not using this to make money. It's a charity thing for my God Oghma. I'm working on creating "civilizations in a box" to create and hand out to the poor. It'll have educational materials (I've already done the math on the logistics), "time saving" tools like washboards etc.

Now the rules for Fabricate is it needs to be a single object. My understanding is that a chest is a single object (you can interact with it as a single object interaction, Teleport usually works on chests).

My plan is to create a near 5x5x5 foot crate, with sleds that can be attached to the bottom, and chock it full of goodies for the poors. Not just food, food gets eaten, but things that allow them to bring themselves out of poverty (historically this was clothes, as what you wore defined social access, I have weavers tools proficiency and know how to make fabric out of natural fibers). Learning to read is a big one for Oghma, I want to teach them their civil rights as well, lots of things.

Now, RAW, I can do all of this with Weavers Tools (Rag Paper, Tapestries for literacy etc) if I'm allowed to make the crate as a single object. Slight flexing on the rules and I can include any one other artisan tool, I was going to use Woodworking and make Wood Leaf Sheave Books which are practically indestructible when heat treated. Breaking the rules I can get a +5 to all my INT checks to make the educational materials by being allowed to reference books, and can switch between the Artisan tools as a Magic Action. I'm not to fussed on the last part I have things sorted.

So what do people think? RAI and RAW I think technically the crate would be a single object, especially if I include thin sprues connecting them. I know the answer is "Ask DM", I'm waiting to hear back from them but I'd just like to talk to someone about this :P

BTW A single casting of Fabricate can create 8x5 crates, but each filled crate would use about 25-30 adult trees, and I don't want to clear fell an area.

I’m playing a bard for the first time in a curse of strahd campaign and I need help as I’m still very new to dnd (I’ve been in like 4 campaigns but only 1 made it past session 2)

My DM let me homebrew a wild magic bard based on a tarot deck with I’m really excited for so thematically they’re a fortune teller. I just don’t know what spells I should be picking or what skills I should investing in (point buy system) I know charisma is my spellcasting skill

I also get one feat and one uncommon item. I chose fey blessed as by background and half elf as my race

Hey everyone,

I’m pretty new to D&D and just had my first character death yesterday. Honestly, it hit me harder than I expected. I’d put a lot of work into this character (drawing them, writing their backstory, making sure they fit the lore, etc). I was the only melee in the party (which i did because i knew the others would be squishy) running a gish build (Warlock Great Old One 3 / Fighter 1). My party is a divination wizard and a trickery cleric.

In our last session, I opened a dungeon door and three zombies rolled super high initiative. One paralyzed me, the others took me down, and I died before anyone could react. It wasn’t even a boss fight...just a random encounter. I felt crushed because the campaign is heavily tied to our backgrounds, and my character’s hometown is central to the story.

I asked the DM if I could roll a new character who would rescue mine and then play her as a reborn, but he said that wouldn’t be fun long-term. So I started brainstorming a new character, but I’m struggling to fit into the ongoing campaign. I tried a paladin of Lathander, but the wizard uses undead spells like animate dead. I asked if the DM could reskin it (like animate armor instead of skeletons), but he said no.

On top of that, I had items (boots of elvenkind, an unknown amulet, and about 230 gp. 150 of which I spent on potions for the party). The DM said new lvl 4 characters start with base gear and one common item. I bargained and got 100 gp, but I still feel behind compared to the others (E.g. wizard, has a magical staff, a spellbook from a defeated mage, a raise dead trinket, and more gold. Meanwhile, I’d be starting with basic gear and a cloak of billowing.).

So here’s my question: am I being too picky for wanting more items or some way to keep my old character’s impact? Or am I just being a sore loser because it was my first death? How would you guys overcome this feeling? I really enjoy D&D, but right now I feel discouraged and unsure if I want to keep going with this campaign.

Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts or advice.

I've been taking intense notes of my homebrew campaign each session. I really don't have anyone to talk to or bounce ideas off of. Would anyone want to read my sessions and provide feedback?

So a PC in a 5e game I run was dosed with the Midnight Tears poison. I know Lesser Restoration can cure the poisoned condition, but Midnight Tears does not confer the poisoned condition specifically. Would Lesser Restoration still be able to neutralize the effects?

I have some questions for mounting the primal champion…

At level 7 your beast gets a bonus action which can be dodge, disengage, or dash. So since you can command it to use dash, dodge, and disengage as its action, couldn’t you do a double dash? Like how you can command it to attack then disengage

With the champion’s disengage, since you aren’t using your movement speed, wouldn’t the creature’s disengage also apply to you and not provoke an opportunity attack on the rider? Since you’re attached to the creature’s movement, wouldn’t its dodge apply to you too?

We’ve been playing Dungeons of Drakkenheim and all the original characters have died so i’m looking for something more survivable and hoping these ideas work per the rules

It seems like if you take two levels into druid, and three into the old ranger-beastmaster, and then your beast dies, you can become your own companion by turning into a beast and binding to yourself.

Binding to a beast takes 8 hours, so you need recharge your wild shape with short rests so you can sustain your form for the full duration.

"If the beast dies, you can obtain another one by spending 8 hours magically bonding with another beast that isn’t hostile to you, either the same type of beast as before or a different one."

This feels like it works, but the buff bit feels a bit up to interpretation:

"Add your proficiency bonus to the beast’s AC, attack rolls, and damage rolls, as well as to any saving throws and skills it is proficient in. Its hit point maximum equals its normal maximum or four times your ranger level, whichever is higher."

If you are no longer a beast does it still apply? It would be highly situational if it only applied when you are a beast, maybe could build around it not sure.

The most interesting part of the text is:

"On your turn, you can verbally command the beast where to move (no action required by you). You can use your action to verbally command it to take the Attack, Dash, Disengage, or Help action. If you don’t issue a command, the beast takes the Dodge action."

This I feel like has two interpretations if the previous works:

1: RAW, you have to command yourself to move or take A/D/D/H otherwise you have to dodge. This is incredibly powerful, command yourself to move each turn and you get expertise in everything including saves, attack rolls, and AC.

2: A much more balanced funny and thematic interpretation is that you must command yourself to Attack, Dash, Disengage, or Help, otherwise you take the Dodge action, meaning you can either spend your action to command yourself to do an action which you can no longer do, or spend your action to dodge. So you get a ton of buffs, but you lose your entire action... Unless you take the monk's ability to dodge as a bonus action at the cost of a ki point, meaning you have a number of actions equal to your ki points.

Now RAW it looks like the first, incredibly powerful one is how it is written, but it also seems not how it was intended and if that is the ruling that means that with the normal beastmaster If you command your beast to move it does not dodge which kinda sucks and also makes the interaction likely too powerful to play in most settings, though people play coffee lock so that's a bit moot.

Do you think this works RAW? Are there other rules which might affect this?

I want to make a Druid Subclass called Circle of the Vanguard, which is supposed to be the tanky Druid subclass that lets you wildshape into the bulky animals, like bulls, bears, elephants, the main drawback being that most of your wildshapes won’t have a fly speed or anything really fast. The problem is, I don’t know how to narrow down spells or wildshape animals, because I want to include some monstrosities, and since I’m using Kobold Press’s Tome of Beasts I, II, and III, and their Creature Codex, as well as some spells of the Tome of Heroes, mainly the tomes of beasts because they add things like an Oliphaunt, but I digress. I’m trying to figure this out, and if anyone who has experience making subclasses or something like that could give me some insights, I’d really appreciate it.

Performance, a skill check that I have often heard as being the worst in the game. The reason I have been given is that its not that useful outside of roleplay. Beauty, a mechanic many third party developers and even official designers have attempted to implement into the game. But I think I have found a solution to both.

Presentation. Presentation is a Charisma skill check that represents a creatures ability present themselves as they wish and how they captivate those around them. This can be used in many of the same ways as performance could, acting, dancing, but with the added capability of being used to craft a disguise, apply cosmetics, or seduce with your looks instead of your words.

To some it up, Presentation is used when a creature is attempting do something to or with how they present themselves and what they are doing.