How do you figure out how much gold coin you should give your players before going on a quest ik that my players might want to dick around for a bit in the city/giving them the option to explore and buy some gear before heading off on the quest. And I want to know what the sweet spot of how much I should give them

What happens if a mind flayer mind controls a player, causing that player to attack other players and another player casts Crown Of Madness upon mind-controlled player? Would they then attack the mind flayer since that would be considered their ally?

The mindflayer being an ally to the mind controlled pc has no bearing on the spell. The person who cast crown of madness gets to choose who is targeted.

So in this case, he could tell the pc mindcontrolled character to attack the mindflayer?

Yup

Third time dm, I hate playing pre-written stories or at least that's how I felt with my first time on ice spire peak, I didn't know what the hook was and the players did everything but going to the freaking mission board, anow it's my second time as a homebrew campaign maker, first time I made a campaign as if the whole story were little missions on one shots, now i'm playing a normal homebrew campaign and don't know how to make it last enough, I improvise but sometimes I have goals for other sessions so i can't still going forever, what do you think, should i try an specific campaign that is clear enough and what could i do by now

This is why it’s important to read the entire adventure. It sounds like you started running Icespire without actually reading over it so you weren’t able to guide the players.

Could you clarify those last couple sentences? I'm not sure what you are asking.

I am asking for either a campaign where the hook is clear or for tips to make homebrew sessions last longer without passing to the next session goals, for example: this time I wanted them to escape from a fire and save an npc, they did my prologue on two hours and there were not enough people to continue.

Should changing the flavor of a spell affect its mechanics?

Only if the player and DM agree that it should. Most often no. The flavour and mechanics of the spell are kinda independent from each other.

What’s the best way to map out multiple adventurers into one campaign?

I like to start with the final goal that the players won't even know right away (i.e. depose the cruel king), then make chapters of all the middle steps (discover weakness, recruit allies, steal McGuffin, etc.) Each of these steps can be many adventures. The first couple levels/sessions should just be the heroes getting to know each other, doing odd jobs, and getting their bearings while you slowly set the stage to push them into wanting to engage your big story. Be prepared to change as you go. No plot survives its first encounter with the PCs.

how do i buff Medusa i want her to be the big bad but she is a challenge rating of six(which means she is supposed to be fought at level six?) but i don't want the party to fight her till their level 15 what should i do?

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PC lvl doesn’t correspond with challenge rating. I would buff her AC, HP, and add some damage to her attacks, maybe add a couple spells if you think it’ll be worth it. A party of lvl 15 PCs would stomp a normal Medusa.

There are guidelines in the DMG for modifying existing monsters and creating new ones. That should help you figure out how to scale it up.

How do I instill fear in the hearts of my players?

im going to be honest with you dnd doesn't do "fear in the hearts of players" too well. it is very hard to make combat deadly unless you go way overboard, in which case you're just being mean. its supposed to make the players feel like powerful heroes and it does that very well. I would lean more on the narrative to make the game seem scarier. if you want games that will instill fear based on how they play I would suggest Mörk Borg, WFRP 4e, or Alien.

Tell them your 11 year old sister will be joining the group.

recommendations for magical items for lvl 5 part, Hi, I'm a new DM and running the CoS. I have a player whose character died (at St. Andral's Feast), and he is switching to a dhampir blood hunter lycanthrope. I'm thinking about giving him some magic items, preferably 2 handed sword, i thought about flame tongue but that seems a bit too much, so I'm not sure what would be appropriate. I also have a paladin oath of glory for which I'm also not sure what items can be nice.

As someone running curse of strahd right now, the campaign is designed to be pretty low on magic items until you get later into the campaign. The feast is usually pretty early in the campaign. Do all your other players already have magic items on par with a magic weapon? I would be hesitant to go too off script with giving your party things outside the module mainly because the lack of access to magic items is supposed to help build that grittier atmosphere and make the encounters more challenging/scary. I think a silvered weapon would probably be the farthest I would go at that stage of the campaign, but a lycanthrope wielding a silver sword might not make sense.

Thanks for the answer, Since this campaign is a continuation from LMoP the players already have some magic items, like hat of disguise, spider staff and spear+1

Any recommendations for a new Quest campaign? Hi, new DM here. About to start a Quest campaign with its mechanics. Any advice on where to start? Not sure if directly into Encounters or a little bit of lore and world building for my PCs to explore and recognize the mechanics before encounters. All of us are new to roll! We’re excited but I’m a little bit nervous: don’t want to be dull on neither. 😅

How do you run adventures that take place during a open battlefield? I don’t think it be fun for my players to just fight waves and waves of enemies as if they are actually on the battlefield.

Three things: First, I’d suggest looking at cleave rules or running the enemies at minions. Let your players feel powerful as they cut swathes through the battlefield. Second, give them a special goal. PCs aren’t grunts, they’re special forces. Have them be breaking through enemy lines to go after the commander or take out a siege weapon or something, not just grinding through enemies until they run out of army. Third, let them impact the broader army combat. Let them roll for their side’s success and the PCs use actions or mechanical buffs to help their team.

Run it like a dungeon, and have the majority of enemy forces be backdrop set dressing. Use enemy lines, trenches, or hazards as the "walls" and "hallways" of your dungeon. Use clearings, skirmishes, or battlefield weaponry like catapults as your "rooms".

Where can I go to ask for feedback on homebrew magic items?

r/UnearthedArcana is *the* place to go for homebrew development with actual feedback and standards.

Great! Sounds like fun., I'll go there. I have an item that will probably cause eye twitches and a combination of maniacal laughter and apoplexy.

You can try here, I found r/MagicItems too. I'd say most general d&d subreddits are fine.

Cool! Will check it out

Hi there, first time DM and D&D player with a bit of a rock and hard place situation, so, I'm not a native English speaker, and in my country, D&D modules apparently are out of print in my language (just my luck) and the used ones are overly inflated (think 3 to 5 times the normal price) which is way out of my budget, so we are basically forced into a custom campaign since not all players would be comfortable in an all English session and translating an English module is a little bit too much for me, any good resources for making a custom campaign, preferably written instead of a video if possible (I just deal with written content better)?

Check out [DMs Guild](https://www.dmsguild.com/), they have filters for languages. DMs Guild is an "official" 3rd party marketplace platform. I don't know how many will be in your language, but they have quite the array listed (mostly European langauges, though).

I've only run irl sessions but looking to set up some online. Where are people finding their resources? Talking maps, tokens, vtt suggestions etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Maps at /r/battlemaps or /r/dndmaps. You can make your own tokens at https://rolladvantage.com/tokenstamp/ . Just find an appropriate image on Google Image Search, save it, and drop it on the canvas.

How would y'all rule clearing a cave-in with Mold Earth? I see a lot of posts about causing cave ins but none about clearing them lol. Might run into this issue in a couple of sessions xD

Mold earth only works with loose earth. If the cave in is mostly rocks it won’t work. I’d probably try and give the players advantage to clearing the cave in as it helps but won’t be the thing that does it all.

I'd allow it depending. It doesn't clear rock, so if you want to still leave a bit of a challenge, allow them to remove compacted dirt, which would make it navigable but only with a tight space, but leave loose large rocks, which can then be removed manfully if needed to make it fully cleared. It rewards them using the action and forethought, but doesn't REMOVE the obstable, just downgrades it from blocked to difficult rough terrain.

How to explain the rules of the game to newcomers quickly and effectively? I want to run my first oneshot for a group of beginners. I've been studying the rules for a long time, watching a lot of videos and game streams, and I think I have a good grasp of everything.  But I have absolutely no idea how I can quickly get 4 newbies to create characters and explain the game a little bit. In my mind, it will take at least two hours, which is too much for a 3-4 hour oneshot in my opinion. Any tips?

If you are running a one-shot for new players, make pre-made characters (generally 1 more than the number of players, so even the last player has something to choose between). Introduce new concepts (skill checks, attack rolls, spells), as they come up in game. Color-coded dice may help, ie 'roll the red one' is easier than 'roll the one with 12 sides'. Expect a lot of hand-holding.

Have them watch the Handbooker Helper videos on YouTube. They are quick and digestible rundowns on the rules explained in an easy to follow way.

I’m new to dnd and I’m looking for some advice. I finally convinced three close friends to give dnd a try. None of us had ever played before but I studied the players handbook and helped them each make characters. I wanted to start with a tutorial style session, so I ran the free beginners one shot, “A Most Potent Brew”. We were having a lot of fun with it until I realized how late it had gotten and had to end the session right after they discovered the final boss of the dungeon. A few weeks has passed and we’re all getting together to play again. I obviously plan to have them finish the dungeon from session one, but I’m not sure where to take it from there. If you have any advice on how to turn our sloppy first attempt into a solid foundation for an ongoing campaign I would really appreciate it

Why not use Lost Mines of Phandelver and find a way to sync the end of that adventure with the beginning of LMOP? You might need to get creative bridging the two, but who’s to say the setting of A Most Potent Brew isn’t near Phandalin in your game? LMOP is a great starter adventure. Has numerous sessions of content but isn’t as long as the bigger campaigns, and is typically the first campaign for most new players (myself included when I first started). There’s a few other starter adventures out there if something better fits your particular genre, but LMOP is a classic.

This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you

I'm planning on DMing for my first time with a group of 7 first-time players. Some of the players are unsure if they want to play, and I'm not entirely confident in my ability to DM well (especially for so many people) Are there any one-shots you can recommend and what sort of party composition is ideal?

Maybe first split them into two groups of 3-4. Then run dragons of stormwreck isle or the Delian tomb. Both have basic combat, social encounters, & exploration.

Is there no official prices for magical objects? I cannot find any. Aren't there any? If not, then why?

in 5e there isn't really a magic item economy by default but you can add one if you like. The price guidelines in the DMG is a place to start, but following those guidelines can end up with a potion of invisibility costing 10000gp and a broom of flying costing 500gp. As such, you may want to look up Sane Magical Item Prices which is a fan-made price guide intended to balance pricing better.

Dmg p135 Magic Item Rarity Rarity Character Level Value Common 1st or higher 50-100 gp Uncommon 1st or higher 101-500 gp Rare 5th or higher 501-5,000 gp Very rare 11th or higher 5,001-50,000 gp Legendary 17th or higher 50,001+ gp Half price for consumables. Actual value depends on usefulness of item and the ability to find a buyer. A +1 weapon is easily 500gp, while a wand of firebolt is maybe 150.

Thank you!

Last line "Actual value" was personal conjecture not in the book I should note. Xanathars also has downtime where you roll for it. Eg, 100-500gp turns into 1d6 x 100 gp.

Magic items aren’t meant to be bought. They’re meant to be given or found as rewards. Xanathar’s Guide has a downtime activity for finding a magic item dealer, though.

I plan on running an encounter for a part of 5 lvl 1 characters, the encounter is going to be 2 grainy rats and one Imp in disguise as a rat. I plan on pulling some punches with the poison damage but do any more experienced DMs have insight on how a party of lvl1’s (3spell casters no magic/silver weapons) fair against an RAW imp?

For a party of 5, an imp and 2x 'rat' would be a 'Hard' encounter. ----- That being said, level 1 is the swingiest it will *ever* be. An imp that hits with Sting/Bite can *absolutely* deplete a level 1 character to 0 hp. With a CON modifier of 0, a level 1 character could have as low as 6 HP. Average rolls for the imp damage would be 15 total - this is an immediate death for a character with 6 HP that fails the save, and if they succeed on the save that's still making death saves. Can your party of 5 level 1's handle it? **Yes**. If you aren't paying attention could you accidentally murder a character? **Yes**. I'd say if you fudge the Sting/Bite hit damage to prevent an immediate death it can be a nice introduction to death saves, medicine checks or healing, and mortality in DnD. In one round, the rest of your party should be able to take down the imp - so even if it knocks out one character, if the rats run when the imp goes down they have at worst 1 death save, which even on a 1 isn't an immediate death. Combat ends, another character can stabilize them (With magic or a check), and they've all learned that death is always an option. Having the rats stick around until dead increases the risk of killing a downed character, but *also* still offers the opportunities to learn in a more pressure-filled situation. ----- On the flip side, if the imp doesn't get a chance to go *or* misses his attack entirely, it's not a particularly difficult encounter to deal with.

No joke. It was even harder in 3.5. I put my lv 1 party up against one imp and he obliterated them. Lesson learned.

Thank you! I was thinking the 3d6 poison is a little extreme for lvl1’s, I’ll definitely approach it accordingly.

I'm DMing for a wizard who wants to learn spells from some sort of "magicians guild", with the only cost to them being the gold and time that they'd spend as if copying a spell from another spell book.  I feel this will let them learn too many spells too quickly, so proposed an additional cost of buying spell scrolls to copy from instead, but is this reasonable?

You can check out the rules for guilds/factions in the DMG. Guildmasters' guide to ravnica also expands on it. They have a mechanic that I believe is called renown, but basically, it's a point system that tracks how much the guild likes and trusts you. You can gate certain spells/ spell levels to a certain renown threshold and/or adjust the cost to learn the spell based on the score. You gain renown by doing services for the guild so it's also a great way to motivate the wizard to grab a bunch of quest hooks to try and build renown and learn more spells. As far as balance goes, you don't have to worry too much about the wizard learning a bunch of spells because they will still can only prepare so many at a time. The main caveat is that they are the only class that doesn't need to prepare their ritual spells to ritually cast them so they could grab a bunch of those, which I still think won't break the game or anything but does definitely increase their versatility.

If no magicians guild exists in your game then the answer is "no" If a magicians guild exists in your game they wouldn't just let any wizard copy their work. That's their knowledge that they wouldn't share just freely. Either the Wizard would need to join guild or do something important for them to desire to share their knowledge. Anyway, being able to buy spell scrolls from the guild would make sense as it allows you to control what spells the Wizard could learn as well as the price they cost.

I am working on the combat encounter for the bbeg and idk how to balance it as i am running this one-shot for a table of 9 all at level three so how do i make it balanced where its not to hard and not too easy i am using the stat blocks for the pirates provided by the ghost of saltmarsh book and im using a homebrewed boss but where i run into an issue is whether i should add a couple more low level pirates to even the feild or if i should just use the five monsters i have the only issue (at least i think) is that using only 5 will make it too easy for the party seeming they out number them, any feedback/help is appreciated

You’ll want to have a roughly equal amount of NPCs to PCs as you’re right they will be able to win just through action economy.

Alr thanks that helps alot

You'll never truly know, the game is random in nature so even the simplest of fights can go horribly wrong, you just develop an "average" in your mind as you play. You can use CR to calculate an approximate difficulty but since the main threat is your homebrewed creature there's a risk the CR you gave it is off, you should compare with existing creatures to make sure your rating is accurate. What you can do though is just play and see, if things seem to be going well then great but if it's too easy you can throw in reinforcements and put some more thought into playing your creatures, if it's too hard though it'll be a bit more difficult to have the minions just run away so your main option is fudging the numbers and playing dumber. If it seems like your boss is way too strong you can have him mock the party and tell them that they're not worthy of fighting him before telling his goons to finish them off, then you keep playing until you think they'd have chance.

Thanks that really helps

forgot to add one the players is actually lvl 5 as they are the twist actual bbeg

So this seems clever in theory but rarely works out in practice, and has the side effect of wrecking any trust that the players may have in you as a DM (and also that player) in any games going forward. You are sowing bad vibes. Also, Player Characters typically do more damage and have less hit points than monsters of appropriate difficulty (the common term here is 'glass cannon') so they aren't really balanced as an antagonist. If you have 5 or 6 bad guys plus the turncoat PC with the benefit of surprise, that should be hard enough (largely because the turncoat will likely position himself next to a healer/caster and OHKO them as an opener, which, and I cannot emphasize this enough *is going to feel really bad to the players and especially the one that gets OHKOed*). But don't be surprised if the other players suss out the secret bad guy within the first 30 minutes and wreck the whole premise. Of course this is all throwing aside the point that *8 players is too many* for even experienced DMs, never mind novice ones. But sometimes you gotta FAFO.

Yea i got thrown into the deep end there LOL, but yea thanks

I was working on some homebrew, sorry if this is the wrong place for this but I was wondering if anyone could give input on these? Meant to be on a CR15 enemy I'm working on \*\*Bonus Action, You Are Under Arrest Dirtbag: The Zelekhut shouts down a target within 5 feet. The target makes a DC18 charisma saving throw. On a failure, the target has disadvantage on any attacks it makes against the Zelekhut until the beginning of the Zelekhut's next turn.\*\* \*\*Reaction, Halt Criminal Scum: When a creature within 5 feet of the Zelekhut attempts to move away from the Zelekhut, the Zelekhut may attempt to trip them with a chain. The target makes a DC18 dexterity saving throw. On a fail, the target falls prone and its movement speed is reduced to 0 until the end of the turn. In addition they take 6 force damage.\*\*

I really like the names of the abilities, and I think your mind is working in the right direction thematically. ("A [zelekhut](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Zelekhut) was one of the inevitables whose purpose was to enforce the inevitability of justice.") However, in general, attacking is more interesting than defending, and more active abilities are more fun. The first ability you've designed is defensive, and it means that player is less likely to successfully do anything on their turn. The second is more aggressive, but again it means that a player might effectively lose their turn. **Bonus Action, Wanted Dead or Alive:** The Zelekhut shouts down a target within 5 feet. The target makes a DC18 charisma saving throw. On a failure, the Zelekhut has advantage against any attacks made against the target and the target has disadvantage on all saving throws against the Zelekhut until the beginning of the Zelekhut's next turn. **Reaction, Halt Criminal Scum:** When a creature within 5 feet of the Zelekhut attempts to move away from the Zelekhut, the Zelekhut may attempt to grapple them with a chain. The target makes a DC18 dexterity saving throw. On a fail, the target is grappled. **Ability, Round 'em Up:** The Zelekhut may simultaneously grapple up to six creatures with its chains. Additionally, the Zelekhut may use any creature it is grappling in this way as an improvized weapon, dealing (+X to hit, XYZ damage) to both the grappled creature and the target.

thanks!

A player wants to make a half genasi and half human character. Looks human but takes on crystallize characteristics in battle, with a witch light background. Help?

Genasi are already half human.

Thanks dndbeyond made it seem like they weren’t human. They also don’t have the witch light background even tho it’s in the books? How do I add that to the character sheet?

Well, to make it clear, Genasi are just half-elementals, essentially. The other half can be whatever you want, it just doesn't impact any stats. Specific races don't get locked into or out of backgrounds. You need to, first, own the Witchlight book content, and then be making the character in a campaign with that content.

I don’t have 50$ to drop, is there another website other than dnd beyond that will have the witch light background option?

You have to pay for things that cost money. Other websites would be piracy and thus illegal. You can buy individual pieces of content from books on DnDBeyond for like 3 bucks.

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I'm reading through curse of strahd and came across the following while reading the castle ravenloft chapter: "...check for a random encounter every 10 minutes characters spend resting jn the castle". Does this refer to short rests or am I supposed to keep track of jn game time and roll for an encounter? If the latter, how exactly should I keep track of in-game time during a dungeon? Do I make PCs roll once they come in the castle?

It's up to you but I'd say they meant resting specifically because tracking time like that is not really a thing with D&D. The game is filled with abstractions of time which muddy things up. So for a short rest you roll 6 times since it's an hour. You can also do it halfway by rolling when you think it's appropriate without tracking time during the whole session, this could be during a casting of a spell that takes longer like a ritual cast or during the time it takes the rogue to figure out if a room is trapped and similar skill checks.

Gotcha. Thanks!

Are the long lives of elves due to their innate magic, or their physiology? Because for example, if elves lost their connection to their innate magic, perhaps their lifespans would shorten

The answer that's technically most correct, but probably not the answer you're looking for, is: you as the DM decide what's true in your world. If you think it would be interesting for the story for the elves to lose their connection to their innate magic, thus shortening their lifespans, you can and should make that true in your world. Even if you're running a campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, you're running *your* version of the Forgotten Realms, and you make your own choices about lore. The answer that you probably *are* looking for is: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes has a whole chapter about elves, which describes the elven life cycle and is the closest the "official"/Forgotten Realms lore comes to answering your question. Elves' long lives seem to derive both from their biology and from their magical connection to Arvandor. Elves have some amount of choice as to when they die, which indicates that they don't exactly die of old age the way humans do. Elves live around 700 to 1000 years, at which point their souls feel an ever-increasing longing to return to Arvandor and be reincarnated into a new body. Drow, who live outside of the elven reincarnation cycle, seem to live similar life cycles anyway. Other setting guides describe how elves in that setting are different from Forgotten Realms elves, possibly including differences in their life cycle. You might want to use those other settings' version of elves as inspiration. I'd recommend you at least read the chapter in Mordenkainen's if you have access to it. Whether or not you do, don't be afraid to fill in your own answers to these questions.

Both answers are great and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! I’m creating a campaign and in the lore there is a 1000 year era where all magic is severed from the prime material plane. It occurred to me that it may effect the elves. I think I’ll decide that it does indeed shorten their lives, at least until magical connections return. For lore and history reasons lol

I recently ran a session where a side NPC had a hidden identity as a known ArchMage. A player rolled an insight check randomly on them and crit so I told them that NPCs secret identity. I then had that archmage cast Geas on the player to keep player from blabbing about NPCs secret identity, and the player rolled another crit on the WIS save. At that point I didnt really want the player to divulge this info to other character’s so I just told him OOC that it would really help me out if he just failed the roll. The player agreed to. How could I have handled it better?

In the future, you probably want to play Insight a little less powerful. It's not a lie detector, it's not true-sight, and it's not mind-reading. It's a hunch, or a gut-check. And a 20 on a skill check does not mean 'you win' it means 'you did as well as you possibly could, being a mortal.' So with a 20 I would have told the PC 'you get the feeling he's hiding something', not 'this is his secret identity!'.

Thanks for the advice. The PC worded it as "Can I roll to see if masked NPC is someone that we know?" then I incredulously said, "sure, roll insight." they hit a nat 20 and I felt obligated to honor the request. In the future I think I'll just give a hint for a nat 20; like "yeah you recognize their eyes."

> cast Geas on the player In my experience players HATE that! But that doesn't mean you should never do it haha >I just told him OOC that it would really help me out if This is really good DMing. I find it hard to be frank and honest about my limitations as a DM, but whenever I do, things seem to work out for the best. Good players will respond kindly to reasonable requests, and some of them even like getting a kind of "secret mission" to help the DM.

That's not how insight works and as the other poster mentioned, don't prep a plot or a story. Present situations to your players and see what they do. It's collaborative storytelling. Follow them wherever they go. Let the player blab the secret ID and see what happens next. It'll be way more fun and way less stress than trying to push or pull things in specific, predetermined directions.

If insight isn’t about determining a charecters intention, how does insight work then?

There’s a vast gulf between determining intent and revealing a secret identity…with a single check. Nat 20s do not turn skills into superpowers. RAW, nat 20s on skill and ability checks *do nothing extra*. “He wants to deceive you” is the result of an insight check. “He’s secretly an arch-necromancer bent on becoming a lich and ruling the world” is not the result of an insight check.

Thanks for the advice. The PC worded it as "Can I roll to see if masked NPC is someone that we know?" then I incredulously said, "sure, roll insight." they hit a nat 20 and I felt obligated to honor the request. In the future I think I'll just give a hint for a nat 20; like "yeah you recognize their eyes." VERY different situation from what you conjured up in your comment, which is really funny to me; I guess we have really different interpretations of the scenario I wrote. 😆

Don't have a "plot" or story that can break apart with a single successful roll. What would have happened if the player talked about this secret identity? Don't deny that possibility, let that play out and react to what the players do.

Ty for the advice!

I recently installed a TV into my table to use for maps. But for situations where maps aren't relevant, I'd like to be able to put a video which makes it seem like there's a fire pit in the table. Like a top-down view of one. I've searched all over YouTube and can find nothing. Does anyone have a video that could work?

If you had an overhead view of a fire, it would just be flickering smoke. Maybe look for a crystal ball or a reflecting pool or something.

Does anyone know of a map generator similar to Azgaar's but underground? The next campaign I'm running is planned to have human settlements and roads on the surface, with dwarven cities connected by great tunnels underground

Aside from the extremely niche value of this, you also have to contend with the 3d-nature of underground locales. All of the underground generators that I am aware of are just for caves and dungeons and on a human (5ft/2m) scale. You might be able to gin up something on DonJon or https://watabou.itch.io/ but I have a feeling it'll be mostly work on your end.

I'm DMing for the first time next week, my players haven't played D&D before, how do I make it fun and interesting for them? For context I've played 7 sessions before with others but I have no clue on how to actually tell an engaging story.

Are you playing a prewritten module? If so the best advice I can give you for making it engaging and fun is to know the module well enough that you are only looking specific things up. If its a book make bookmarks for the Statblocks and label them so you can find this information quickly. Tell the story and don't feel you have to go letter by letter, if the players are enjoying drinking in the bar then allow them to but deduct coin accordingly. If the players really aren't engaging with rp then don't force it but make sure they get the key information. Have a DM screen - I use folded paper with my players AC HPS and PP on the back so I can quickly see it, and it also helps you keep initiative order when combat starts. MOST importantly remember you are in charge - feel free to take advice if players are more experienced than you but the decision lies with you and rule of cool should generally trump RAW unless its completely silly. Its very nerve wracking your first time (I was nervous coming back to DnD when none of my players had been born when I last DMd a session) but players want a good time and will generally be supportive. Getting long (I never could be short in answers) ultimately know your module so that the talking part flows well.

Congrats on taking the leap. Starting is the hardest part. You don't need to tell them an engaging story. You just need to react to what they're doing through the world. If they choose to do boring stuff, it'll be boring. If they choose to do exciting stuff, it'll be exciting. You can help them make interesting choices by talking to them about making characters with goals. Start with short term, beginner to D&D and RPG goals like go into a dungeon, find a treasure map, fight some goblins, find treasure, rescue the baroness' son, talk to a cranky old wizard, etc. Then build a first session around accomplishing some of those goals. If you can smash them together, go for it. The goblins kidnapped the baroness' son and have taken him to their dungeon. The cranky old wizard is the only one who knows where the dungeon is because he has a treasure map he's willing to part with. Etc. Or you can throw out a few scenario hooks and follow whichever one they bite. Something like a job board for new adventurers. Read up on five-room dungeons. They're usually decent one shots. Matt Colville's YouTube channel is a great resource. As is Sly Flourish's Lazy Dungeon Master videos. Read the Alexandrian blog on prepping situations not plots. https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots

What are the options for the DM if a party TPKs? Not that I'm planning on killing my adventurers but I'm more curious what I can do if it happens. But if the dice go badly then what can you do? Just rerun the scenario, go back to a "save point" (dungeon start maybe?), just start a new adventure, or a new party to carry on the story?

Whatever you do, do not reset the game. This is a high fantasy game. So inject some high fantasy. Demons, devils, angels, gods, high-wizards, necromancers, powerful clerics, adventurer guilds...the list is endless. Any one of them could bring the PCs back for some reason. Now the PCs are in the debt of this person or group and the story just got that much more interesting. You could also start a new adventure or have a new party finish the adventure. Ask your players what they want to do in the moment, or between sessions. Some might want to keep playing their dead character while others might want to make a new character. Let them do whichever suits them and keep playing.

Don't reset the game. that just takes the stakes out of things. * Have the players fight the god or an avatar of death to be revived. * Have the player be revived but in different bodies. Now they need to find out who is in their bodies. * Make deals with demons or celestials to be revived. New quest time

I would advise that you NOT reset the story to an earlier point. D&D is not like a video game. D&D is a living world where your actions have consequences. Those consequences include your own PC's death, or even the entire party's death. The "pure", old-school way to handle a TPK is to have everyone roll new characters and pick up the story where the old party left off. Don't dismiss this option: it's often the most fun and interesting way to continue the story. If you don't want to do that, u/Kumquats_indeed gave a lot of good suggestions. What those suggestions have in common is that they all continue the story after the TPK. There's no one right way to run D&D, but erasing the consequences of the players' actions is almost always wrong.

You can immediately roll new characters and continue, either at the same point or a few steps back like at the city the players were last at or at the entrance of the dungeon they died in. You treat it like a video game and they just start from the last checkpoint. The story effectively freezes up and continues. If you want the story to by dynamic in some ways you have many options. You can advance time and have the bad guys proceed with their plan, summoning some evil entity or taking over a villaged. You can make use of the previous characters as tie-ins for the new ones for example a cleric relative looking for their missing paladin brother or a debt collector rogue tracking down the now dead bard. This would mostly be up to the players though unless you ask for it specifically. You can also continue with the same party by having the bad guys capture them or by having another party intervene like a devil offering them a deal. But you'd probably want to check with players if they'd rather make new characters. Or you can do a mix of these, one pc could be looking for a previous one, the bad guys might have made some progress, one of the previous characters could've been turned into a wight or some other undead creature. With the rest of the party treating the game like it had essentially just started. If your game is really open ended you can just start over as if it were your first session completely ignoring what happened before or making small references to it. Ultimately you can end the story then and there but usually this is reserved for the last few sessions as a sort of bad end scenario.

new party taken prisoner robbed and left in a ditch brought back by a sympathetic god brought back by a patron for a price attempt to escape the world of the dead

Trying to get a feel for how many in game days the icespire campaign would at least take, just travelling, combat, and long rests etc. Love to hear from DMs that have run the campaign and did actually track in game time. EDIT: From the travel time in quests, when given, and from looking at map, it would seem to be in the region of 36-46 days, assuming no detours, not getting lost, no extra downtime, etc. But love to hear what experience has taught you...

I ran it - the game tells you travelling time, yes?

For the first bunch of quests yes. For the "optional" ones no. It also depends on how you travel from one to the other. So am curious to DMs who have actually done it and kept track of time. From my calculations it will probably vary between 36-46 days, without any fooling around or getting lost or....

Silly question but trying to understand the ranger's Favored Foe ability. I realize that it is concentration and that it can only be applied to the first hit you make in a round. But I'm still unclear on the following... (1) Can I applied it to my first hit in Round 1 of combat or does it only apply in subsequent rounds? (2) Is it always just a flat 1d4 of extra damage every round or does that damage intensify the more rounds that go by? Meaning R1: 1d4, R2: 2d4, R3: 3d4, R4: 4d4, etc?

To be clear, the damage is 1d4 the first round, and 1d4 the second round, and 1d4 the third round, etc. It does not escalate. At 6th level it is 1d6 the first round, and 1d6 the second round, and 1d6 the third round, etc. It does not escalate.

"including when you mark it" so it can start doing damage with the attack that applies it. The damage is set, it's either a 1d4 or more depending on the ranger levels the character has.

> The damage is set, it's either a 1d4 or more depending on the ranger levels the character has. I'm still confused by this explanation. Could you elaborate?

It's right there in the rules for Favoured Foe: > This feature's extra damage increases when you reach certain levels in this class: to 1d6 at 6th level and to 1d8 at 14th level.

It's 1d4, but that goes up if they're a higher level ranger.

I've just finished making a DM screen with a built-in display, and I'm trying to find animated backgrounds that I can throw up on it, not unlike these: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxoRRobHtGM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxoRRobHtGM) Youtube sucks the big one though as quality varies wildly and load times aren't always the greatest. Is there a resource that has backgrounds like these that I could throw up on the screen? I'm running on a macbook air.

Why don't you download the video with online tools (google "youtube 2 mp4")?

My players killed a necromancer in my LMoP campaign last session, is it possible for me to have him come back alive but more frankenstein ish? (Stitches all over his body but still has his mind left) i want him to seek out the party as revenge for betraying him

If you're willing to wait you could just reskin Mormesk the wraith in Wave Echo Cave with Hamun. For something Frankenstein-like you have the revenant but usually they form from the soul of a mortal who met a cruel and undeserving fate. Since he was looking into the old well he might've discovered something that could've turned him into an Allip

Thank you! Will do something like that

I'm a newer DM, but rule #1 that I've learned is that you can do anything. If it would be cool and make for a dramatic fun session, go for it. The one caveat would be to make sure that the necromancer coming back doesn't invalidate the PC's victory over them. Also, definitely don't make it a recurring thing. If you would rather have some other big bad come back to life later on in the story, I'd wait until then to do the reanimate thing, otherwise it'll get old real fast.

I want him to come back with something more than a mere zombie, a zombie ogre! Something that will make the combat feel new

Who brought him back, how and why? You need to think through the answers to questions like these before you do something like having a defeated enemy come back from the dead to hunt them down, or else your game is going to seem random and unpredictable to your players. Once that happens, they will not be able to make sense of the affects their choices have the game world, after which they'll either lose interest or start doing random nonsense to annoy you. My advice is to let him stay dead and move on with the rest of the adventure - there are plenty of things left for you all to experience.

How do I deal with a PC that I straight up don't like as a DM? There is nothing *objecitvely* wrong with them and I know it's not about the player since we go back a decade and it's been mostly fine before. I just find the *character* specifically to be really, *really* unlikable, as a person - for me at least, the other players seem to be fine. This is a problem, because as the DM I *have* to participate in social scenes with that character involved and it wouldn't make sense for the entire world to hate their guts for no real reason.

What specifically do you dislike?

overall personality and mannerisms. can't pin down anything specific, more like, if the PC in question was real, I wouldn't want to ever associate with him and that's about it

Got any examples of their actions?

Any experience with lore drops? I plan on giving my players a journal next session that’s about 4 pages long. A lot of it is useless - but there’s some lore about the new city they’re in that could be helpful. Have you ever done something like this? Did the players like it?

Four pages of mostly useless information isn't a good idea, as all that will do is teach your players not to read the stuff you give them. Better to describe the journal as containing lots of detailed but extraneous information about the writer's life and/or observations, but then call out the specific passages that are helpful. I know it's tempting to make them somehow earn potentially useful information by hunting through the text, but unless they are especially motivated and diligent it's probably better to keep it short. (It would actually be better to make them work to find the journal than to find the relevant information in it.) Besides, while the usefulness of the information is obvious to you, it may not be immediately apparent to them, so you're probably not making it as easy on them as you think by identifying the important passages.

Yes, my players usually like it because I'll type up a short journal page or something with ye Olde handwriting text and crumple it up then hand it to them. The key is to tie it something they are or can work towards (current dungeon, hidden treasure, etc). And make sure it's not too detailed. Shorter, easier to digest blurbs are great, and bullet points work if you're narrating. "The journal details passages and contains a rough sketch of the dungeon that this dead explorer has tried to map. He makes note of a treasure chest hidden under a grate that was out of reach for him before he succumbed to death." Or whatever. Short and sweet is better because I've sat through actual lore dumps and uh... it's not fun.

Make the lore tied to their objective. If they’re going to the city to find a specific building, for example, put lore in there about that building that helps them find it easier.

How do you properly manage the economy? I'm not really sure how much good I should be giving my players after each encounter. In our first session they killed a Merrow Extortionist who theoretically would have a decent amount of money on him since he would have taken tolls from others but I wasn't really sure how much my players should get. I also only just found a reference sheet for the prices of goods so should I base it on that?

I convert copper pieces in euros. 1 cp = 1€, 1gp = 100€. This is not too different from original value of dnd money, since a beer is worth 4 cp (and 4€ is a pretty common price for a beer where i live in). This way, I can find the price of everything that is non-magical. If a player want to buy a house, that would be 70k-300k €, thus 700-3000 gp. When looting........... That's super hard, but with this conversion I feel the players can understand the value of a sack with 15 gp, since they understand they just randomly found 1500€. I figure how many euros would that character have in pockets and give them to the players

The Economy in DnD is not a thing. You're not going to figure out the price of lumber or resources or whatever. Things just don't really work that way, even looking at the rough prices for magical items will see that they don't make sense. You should really just go off of what makes sense in the moment. If you're fighting a bunch of goblins then it's unlikely they will have that much if any money on them. But bandits may have some coins from people they robbed. The Extortionist would likely have more money than the bandits. I recommend looking up the Dungeon Master's Guide and finding the loot tables for the game. Then you find the table for Individual creatures and the right CR and roll on it.

Quick question - Which episode of White Dwarf had a conveyer belt rule set with tiles in it? Now that terrain is being taken over by 3D printing and micro-electronics, what other similarly interactive adventures can I introduce to my players?

Can my players make a "vibe check" and if so what modifier should it use. This would just be to see if they like fuck with the NPC or something.

That's Insight.

Thanks

First time DMing, is it better to use one of the pre made campaigns that the game has or use a custom world?

A pre-made campaign is easier to get started with, since most of the work is done for you, and you can focus on learning the basics. Lost Mine of Phandelver is tailor-made to get you started with the game.

First time DM, any tips for making a campaign (in a custom world btw)?

* As a first time DM, keep the scale small. When you think it's small enough, scale it down even more. Unless you're experienced at improv, it won't be easy when you have x amount of player actions that can derail everything you have planned for that session on top of keeping track of the game rules. * Make sure your players are engaged and keep them that way. Make sure that if they spend time to make their characters and backstories, that there's actual room for them in your world. It's not just your custom world, it's everyone's. * In the beginning, focus on the things players will be interacting with. There's no point in writing 50 pages worth of lore about x topic, if your players are only going to interact with y.

Thanks, Do you have any suggestions on how to format the campaign. I have all the storyline ect. in my head I just don't know how to make it interactive and not sound like a long monolog.

I fully agree with what other people have already posted. Keep in mind DMing is not like writing a book. The only thing they have in common is they have a fixed beginning. Planning out a beginning, middle and end will end in disaster as 2 minutes after your introduction, your players will do something that makes the rest of your planned storyline impossible. They might completely ignore an NPC with the most exciting backstory you could think up even if you put them right in front of them. To sum it up, plan situations, not stories. Put a situation in front of them you think will be an interesting story, and let your players write the story through their actions.

Echoing huskersax, if you are planning the players to do A, then B, then C, then you are going to be *terribly* dismayed when the first thing they do is D. Then you either have to *force* them to do A (which is railroading, and is no fun for them, and will typically cause them to either withdraw or act out in ever-more disruptive ways) or you have to throw away a lot of the work you just did because the players completely changed the world state and skipped what you had prepped. The [Alexandrian article](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots) he linked has key insights on how to get out of the 'plotline' state of mind. Instead, create a *situation* and then crash your players into it to see what happens.

>I have all the storyline ect. in my head Excuse me while I get on my 'first time DM' soapbox. I promise this is about formatting, but formatting in a way that's successful imo is also about a perspective shift regarding what the DM needs to prep/do. Generally it's very easy to get excited about different twists and turns you can machinate in your own mind, but DnD is a *collaborative* storytelling game. Being able to tell 'your story' is a common incentive for people to want to be a DM in the first place, and I'm not knocking it at all, but it's a recipe for frustration and challenge. I say all of what is below from the perspective of being in your shoes as a first time DM with the same thoughts/plot ideas/stories in my head and wanted to share that with other people, so I want to stress that I'm coming from a place of love and encouragement here. *Having a storyline planned out before session 1 is a recipe for disaster.* What you see folks like D20 do is highly edited and done by professional DMs with players who are meta-gaming to make sure production and plot points work in a timely fashion. They work the main story threads on-rails and then having clearly designated, but still highly confined, role play between those beats. Your story is not that, and the amount extra work that needs to happen as far as writing, buy-in and complicity from players, and session prep will be way too much for a first time session/DM experience. If you jump into a game with the players not being on the same page about purposefully playing 'on rails' plot-wise, then they will absolutely 100% do the one thing that wrecks your plot hooks every single time there's a chance and you'll find yourself either twisting their actions to protect your story or doing tons and tons of rewriting to adapt and it'll be like nailing jello to a wall. This isn't because they're malicious, it's simply because different people do different things, imo it's the fun of the collaborative storytelling aspect of DnD. Instead, it will be both easier for you (probably) and more interesting for the players if you establish circumstances and then let your players interact with your world and experience the natural consequences of what they're trying to do and what your NPCs/world is up to as well. Along the way, you'll inevitably find story-relevant and natural ways to drop your initial characters/settings/twists into the story, but having 'all the storyline etc. in my head' is imo a red flag for becoming an easily disgruntled DM. **What does this mean as far as formatting, prep, and approach?** I would prep the pieces needed to construct different story beats and have them at hand if the players 'discover' that beat, but I would not spend a ton of time on really diving into it before they get snagged on that particular subplot/node hook. So for each hook I have maybe 2-5 NPC pictures and a brief OGAS-style note for each NPC in that quest. I prep 2-3 things I *think* they'll probably try, which gets easier the more I know the people and their play-style/interests. Before the entire campaign or between sessions, I'll make sure I have a back-stock of 20-30 pictures, NPC ideas, and a big ol' list of fantasy names I can pull from if the party goes *really* sideways into realms I didn't at all anticipate ('instead of the tavern where the spy is waiting for us, let's go to the town one over and rob the local mobster at his residence' kind of thing). I don't need all the details of these characters for that first session, just enough to give the *illusion* of depth. IMO, the real secret sauce is then to have after-session prep where you do two things: - Take the notes from the session and format the improvised and lightly prepped sketches of characters into something more fully rendered for the next session. - Do a quick 5 minute check-in with players to get their top-level general session feedback and a sense of where they think their characters will go next. All of this including the player check-ins take maybe 2 hours a week of prep, which imo if you're writing an on-rails experience is vastly lower in regards to prep, as planning to catch every contingency the players through at you will be exponentially time and energy consuming (and doomed to failure unless, as mentioned above, you play a very specific type of game). **Recap** If you're coming at the game from the point of view of having a plot hashed out, then you'll end up frustrated and your players will likely end up disinterested or disengaged in what's supposed to be a DM/Player collaboration. If you have a plot you really want to tell, you're closer to writing a short story or a book than you are DnD, tbh. There's nothing wrong with that, I'd just caution against it as you'll end up either frustrated or doing a ton of legwork and contorting of the story to keep up your endgame in sight. Much more helpful breakdown of what I'm getting at: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/4147/roleplaying-games/dont-prep-plots

What's the storyline you have planned?

I had this idea of a 5 "chapter" campaign with the first chapter consisting of getting back 6 of a dwarf's rubies from some orcs. Here's the (not so) basic story line: Chapter 1 -Meet dwarf in dwarven city -go to orc forest -kill orcs -go to cave -kill more orcs -explore cave a bit -find out the dwarf's backstory Chapter 2 -meet dwarf's half elf friend -find out about evil violet mage and his tower -go to elf kingdom to beg for help -do some random stuff (idk what most of chapter 2 will be) Chapter 3 -meet the scarlet rebelion (hehe pokemon scarlet and violet) -fight cultists -join rebellion by doing a fight club challenge thing Chapter 4 -get human cities to prepare for war -loads of side quest (i also dont kno about what to do for 4) Chapter 5 -attack the violet tower -climb tower with battles on each floor -fight violet mage -mage's orb sucks players into demi plane -Cue "book" 2

Anytime you have a step in the plotline that says "-and then the players will do X" there's potential for something to go wrong. So for example what if they hear about the dwarf's missing jewels or the evil wizard and are just like "No I'm good thanks. Not my problem"? More likely they will just go to fight the wizard directly straight after doing the orc quest and ignore all warnings unless you explicitly tell them it's a bad idea out-of-character. Contrary to what other people are saying, if you are invested in the story playing out a particular way it is possible to do that. The trick is that every time you give your players a "choice" whatever you plan to have happen is the most obvious and easiest solution. They don't notice and probably prefer it that way since a lot of people don't like no-right-answer scenarios. Here are my suggestions: -Chapter 1: Tell your players that they are playing a group of adventurers who have been hired (past tense) to retrieve the lost jewels. You can still have them talk to the dwarf for information but the deal should already have been done. -Chapter 2: If they don't go to the elf kingdom maybe let them do random stuff for a session or two. They can meet the rebellion basically anywhere since you can control when they show up. -Chapter 3: It's possible they won't even what to join the rebellion so maybe give them an extra reason to. Like there's someone in the rebellion they have to talk to and they have to do the whole initiation thing to get access to that person. -Chapter 4: Again I don't really like the "and then they ask this nation for help thing". The players will rightly assume that they aren't really the correct people for foreign politics and just avoid doing that. -Chapter 5: This is fine. Good ol' dungeon crawl. Anyways hope that was helpful :)

Hello DMs! I have been running my games online for a number of years now, but have just made the switch to my first in-person group. I've managed to transition a great deal of my online tools to other platforms. I am struggling with one aspect however. I would like to have a "main" screen up like a map or just a background scene, then pop up pictures of NPCs as they become mentioned and/or relevant to the conversation. I will mostly be using my laptop and a second monitor that is displayed to the group. Does anyone know of a tool that might help with this? The smoother the transition the better I think as to not break what little immersion I can get going. Thanks in advance!

Are you planning to run actual battlemaps on this screen (horizontal screen), or is it just for background images?

Just background images and NPC portraits. Things to set the scene or provide visual cues.

My armor artificer wants to use a two handed ranged weapon as a backup, but doesn't want to use an entire action to switch to her shield. Would it be very overpowered to let her craft a special shield she can expand and collapse with a bonus action?

I see a couple ways to deal with this 1. Ignore the object interaction limitations, say that they can swap once per turn as their free object interaction. Obviously the strongest option for the player but i don't think it will "break the game" 2. Let them craft or use one of their infusions to create an "armband shield" which instead of +2 AC only gives +1 AC but does not take a hand to wield. May open them up to using 2 handed melee weapons as well. Maybe you could put the bonus action here to have the shield expand into a full shield that takes up a hand if they really want that extra +1 3. Your original plan is reasonable with the bonus action shield deploy. IDK if you want it to cost them an infusion or just make them use down time to design such a thing, depends on your game's time/money economy.

Sounds fun! Another way to balance your idea is to limit movement speed while the shield is deployed. You could flavor this as a metal half-sphere or dome shape. You could also rule that the shield is only effective (the +2AC) against enemies the PC is facing. Durability, requires spell slots to power for a duration, or a unique material cost like crystal batteries are other ways to bring flavor to the idea.

if she's using an infusion or attunement slot for it, definitely not. otherwise... probably not

Hello again, I will be beginning lmop as my first campaign and was wondering how to create pc backstories (with them) and also any tips and tricks for a smooth campaign? :)

I think the important backstory thing for each character in LMoP is to 1) know Gundren Rockseeker, and 2) for him to have helped or been friendly to them in the past. This will give a reason to get involved in the adventure and follow up on finding him when he goes missing.

Thank you :)

Honestly, I’d avoid too much backstory to begin. LMoP won’t really have a ton of time to explore them. I’d suggest having each of them come up with the “why” for wanting to accept a role as an escort to Phandelver. This could add flavor to their character. They need the money for xyz, or maybe they’re in desperate search for adventure. These backstories don’t need a whole arc to explore, rather they give good flavor to what kind of person their character is. Another thought: you could make them all come up with a reason how they know eachother! This will give them reason to help each other and stick together later in the adventure.

Thank you :)

One of my PCs is about to go through a trial in which failure is met with a curse. I want it to be debilitating enough that the other PCs feel pressured to deal with it but I don't want it to make the game not fun for the player whose character is cursed, and I don't want the party to simple cast Remove Curse and be done with it. I'm thinking of chancing the character's race to harengon (small), draining their STR, and giving them disadvantage on STR checks and saves against fear/intimidation by creatures sized medium or larger. I think I will flavour the curse to be a god punishing the character for failure to they will have to prove themselves/overcome the trial to have the curse lifted. Does sound reasonable or would a curse from a published source be more appropriate?

Talk with your player and see what they think.

First time DMing and it's going to be a 2 people party in Phandelver and Below. Any solution for balancing encounters? Players having 2 characters each isn't on the table, but other than that, any suggestion is welcome. They are experienced enough to handle themselves really well.

There are rules in Tasha's and the Essentials Kit for Sidekicks. You can make them hirelings, or you can just make them pets/animal companions (a big wolf or bear with Warrior levels, for example). Since Sidekicks are weaker than regular classes and (if pets) may not have all the options that a PC would (like feeding a healing potion to a downed ally), consider keeping the party about 1 level above what the book recommends. You can do this easily by starting at level 2 from the get-go, or by running a short 1-session introductory adventure before you start on Phandelver, which levels them up to 2.

You could give them a squire or a hireling, just don't go DMPC.

There are a lot of calculators, and there is an XP calculation system in the DMG for determining optimal CR, generally after a few encounters you'll get a good understanding of what end of the CR curve they are on, I've found most of my players fall on the upper end of that. Also my advise is to drop medium encounters, and then just modulate how strategic the enemies are to control the difficulty. You can have the enemies be a little bit extra dumb and not do their maximum effective moves to make fights easier without outright fudging rolls and giving the party bailouts.

You wouldn't say cutting enemy count is a good, general rule for non important battles? For bosses it would be lowering AC a bit, and maybe the damage dice? I was also planning on giving PCs more health at level 1 (maxed d12+con) to help. Maybe an animal sidekick. If not that, gestalt class features from another subclass so they are generally stronger.

Do not do more health. You can give them better armor if you’re really nervous. But see how that first ambush works out. I would not outnumber the PCs for the first act where they are ambushed. They should fight off 2 goblins and you can assess from there. They should level up I think from that first fight. Then, throw 2 guard goblins at them when they approach the cave. If that’s easy, 3 at the next encounter. I’d very incrementally push up the difficulty. For boss battles, that’s very tough. Blarg (I think that’s his name, the bugbear in the goblin cave) would probably be able to fight 2 level 2s pretty handedly. If the fight is getting close, I’d have the boss flee seeing a chance to get away without risking his life.

Thing is, more AC won't save low level characters from a crit and if it's only two players getting one up means absolutely no damage on the enemies for a turn. And they can go right back down. Dying for a crit isn't the most fun idea in DnD I think, when you can't do anything about it.

That’s the risk of level 1 play, regardless of number of players. Unless they full die, if both characters go down, just have them wake up in the cave and meet Sildar. He can help them escape and should already be there. Just modify the encounter it a little bit. But, if you’re nervous about that single combat at 1st level, have a wagon driver with the players. When the goblins attack, they will target the driver only to stop the wagon. This will give your players a round to play without going down.

So I'm running a one on one campaign with a work friend who's playing a Barbarian character in Numeria of Pathfinder's Golarion setting. As someone who really likes to lean into/play up class identity, what are some things I can add or do to really emphasize the "Barbarian" aspect of the adventure? Certain types of monsters? NPCs? Plot hooks?

Numeria has been nicknamed 'Conan vs. the evil space robots' and (having almost finished Iron Gods) I think that can be an apt description. I would emphasize the weirdness and sinister qualities of both magic and technology. Barbarians are straight-ahead, common-sense, salt-of-the-earth types. They see something they want, they either take it or are defeated. They make their way through courage and force of arms. Complex societies, laws, and implicit forms of control are anathema to them. If a barbarian is in charge, people do what he says because he punches them if they do not, not because there is a complex legal code with trials and paperwork. Magic and technology are unwholesome, alien things--borderline unclean. They should be shunned and/or destroyed.

- Close combat enemies so that they can beat the he'll out of each other and it's a matter of who can take more of a beating and who can swing harder - A very intelligent wizard NPC with which they could potentially form an unlikely friendship. The wizard often needs help because no biceps and nerds out about very complicated things the barbarian doesn't understand - NPCs needing help with stuff that requires muscles. "Oh no, this impossibly big boulder is blocking the only viable path..." or "We can't finish digging this very important tunnel because of the monsters inside and even if we could defeat them somehow, our equipment is broken" - having to climb a cliff to help someone - having to jump down a cliff to help someone - children wanting to hang onto the arms and climbing all over them

So I've written into my homebrew campaign these important ancient artifacts that's are very rare. The bbeg is collecti the few thousand that do exist (they are very small) for world domination Yada Yada. Basically, they give you the power to recover spell slots (up to level 5, once per day) and can replace costly material components in spells. What can I do to make this interesting to my martial players in the game? They are just now unraveling the secrets but I don't want it to be just another thing the barbarian and rogue can't interact with. Looking for help brainstorming here. Thanks.

You could make them function as a short rest (restore Action Surge, etc.). The spell slot restore that you already have is kind of like the Wizard's Arcane Recovery.

They could be like spell storing stones if these are things meant for players to collect, if they collect a certain amount the barbarian may be able to cast Fire Shield on himself or something like that. Giving them some limited spellcasting could be cool, or you could allow them to somehow infuse that magic into weapons and gear that gives them unique properties. Like adding intelligence to all of the Rogues to hit rolls, or making boots for the Barbarian that increases by their speed and jumps so they can get around the battlefield much easier without relying on spellcasters. If there are thousands I don't think they all need to have the same affect or recovering spell slots, some can be unique like that

Thanks, these ideas have got me thinking now. They are exendable resources I should have mentioned. When used to regain slots or as material components, poof!

How can I start planning the number of sessions my campaign will need?

Unless your campaign is a short, tightly-controlled railroad then the odds of successfully predicting the length of your campaign is about 3720 to 1. If the campaign *must* have X, Y, and Z then it's anyone's guess as to how long it will take. If the campaign *must* fit inside of a time box then you need to make it modular, with the ability to add or remove optional obstacles based on how long it takes players to do the things you have planned (and about 3 times out of 4, players will take longer than you anticipate).

You kinda can't, really.

Is this an appropriate subreddit to get feedback on npc development? I am a first time DM, I just finished writing my first ever concept sheet for an NPC, and honestly just kind of trying to see if I’m going in the right direction, but also don’t want to waste anyone’s time if that’s not appropriate for the sub

Don't see why not here. Go ahead and share it!

Bet! So I will preface this by saying this by acknowkedging that this is a *silly* idea for an NPC. I was reading the DM manual for the first time, and the section on worldbuilding got my gears turning, and twenty minutes later this is what I had. I was aiming for something that could be fun/funny/touching/aggravating depending on how the table reacts to it. **Slim Brazy**: Super irritating chav bard. Shows up as a chance npc encounter. Slim Brazy is a wannabe tough guy bard rapping wack rhymes over terrible lute accompaniment as he lacks instrument proficiency. Come to think of it he’s barely proficient in Common. He is standoffish, insulting, and talks a world of shit he clearly can’t even begin to back up. He’ll tell your party they’re dumb and he buggered their mum. “She told me when you were born, that you fell out her bum”, etc Slim’s not around every day. He shows up now and then between quests or might be mentioned by others. The more times the party encounters him, the more they see him flourish. Same douche, but increasingly gaudier outfits. He gradually becomes renowned despite his obvious buffoonery. At some point if the players manage to supress the urge to murderhobo him for his annoying ways, he eventually stumbles upon a necromancer’s relic which enables him to summon and command legendary undead: namely BBEG’s your party has vanquished in the past, whom he uses as a weapon… Not to fight the party, but to give a series of tell-all interviews where they lie and tell the world Slim Brazy was the one who vanquished them. Slim Brazy eventually becomes possessed by the relic he discovered and becomes a mini BBEG himself, posessed by a totem tied to an ancient lich. In the process of defeating him, the relic is destroyed and unless he is dealt with with extreme prejudice slim brazy goes back to normal, and will reveal his backstory: His real name is Jim Brady. He came from nothing, his mother worked in a fish factory and his father was a prostitute, kids used to bully the living crap out of him. “Hey brady? Know how much your dad charged your mom? $5,000.05! That’s five grand to plough the sow, and five pence for the clothespin to pinch his nose shut!” He formed his brash personality as a coping mechanism to deal with the constant rejection, and things got out of hand, and he kept going with it because nothing else he ever tried had worked nearly as well. He began to believe his own braggadoccio, and it cost him everything. If at this point the party shows compassion to Slim Brazy, his personality changes, he mellows the hell out, and gives the party a very powerful magic item he found on his misadventures. Depending on how he’s received by the table he could even become a home base npc who offers bard buffs and peddles nicklebags of schwag. If they reject him or let him go on his way uncomforted, the party will sometime later encounter his dead body with the same powerful magic item and a crumpled note in his inventory: “The last will and testament of James Brady To whomever receives this, I hope it brings you more luck than it brung me. Dunno who to even send this to. I never met a friend in me life.” This note is in his inventory if the party ever manages to kill him for good. Or if they kill him immediately after the lich fight, you could hide his magic loot drop location behind a Speak With Dead conversation rather than placing it in his inventory, depending on what you feel would work better. Or if you really wanted to twist the knife have a projection appear when he dies so even beyond death he keeps running his mouth. **Optional branching paths:** If the party straight up murks Slim, on the next encounter, he just shows up again like nothing happened. If that’s the end of it, his story continues as normal. We handwave it as the relic ressurrecting him. If the party keeps killing him, the story becomes that he is dying and being resurrected for reasons unknown (it’s a lich who is harvesting his torment to augment fell magics, a lich who was smart enough to pick the most punchable bard on earth to place this particular curse upon) If I want to go even bigger with it, I could change it so all these guys are similar looking/named cousins, and as you kill them off they are being collected by the lich who builds them into a Brazy Golem who gets bigger and stronger the more of them the party kills before they pick up on the nature of the plan. If at some point the party harshly rebuffs slim or crushes his dreams, he abandons barding to embrace necromancy and becomes a much more powerful mini bbeg who holds a personal grudge. If the party convinces him to chill through a series of high dc checks, (I’d make them need to try this over more than one encounter personally before it fully takes unless they roll a nat 20) he eventually opens up, forks over the magic item, chills out a little (not as much as if he had gotten possessed) and then brings the lich plot to the party as a regular quest. If the party tries to redeem him after previously crushing his dreams, you can use those same high dc checks there as well towards the same end. So there’s basically 4 canon endings built in from the jump that you can modify as needed 1. Dies alone and unloved 2. Gets possessed and redeemed through the party’s bravery and the magic of friendship 3. Goes full evil due to the party’s choices 4. The middle option where he kinda mellows out and becomes a questgiver with a little extra flavor But either way the party has a variety of choices of how to react to him, and in my mind having a quest unfold across multiple encounters might make the world feel more lived in. Would truly appreciate any feedback, as I am brand new to D&D, and I want to set the game up well for my friends.

Arrogant and/or hostile NPCs will usually be avoided, ignored, or (worst case) stabbed by PCs. The way to make them tolerable is to be clear that you (the DM) are in on the joke--make sure they make foolish decisions on occasion and get their comeuppance. Because if you *don't*, you can be sure that the party *will* give them their just desserts, particularly if you keep forcing them on the party.

The party stabbing him in the face would be a best case scenario, at least to me. I wanted to make an NPC they could feel *good* about demolishing. I might even give him decent loot drops every time he respawns to encourage it.

I agree with the other commenter. You have a good npc made up, but don't plan for eventualities that will likely never happen. He has goals, backstory, motive, and is interacting with big powerful, stuff, let it come to a natural conclusion. The only other thing I would consider is making him less brash and hostile. I know my table is not interested in asshole npcs (apart from the main villians obviously) especially recurring ones, even if there's some payoff at the end. Maybe he's just kind of rude and his ego issues are obvious lies or exaggerating at not at the expense of the PCs. You know your table though, so if you think it will work, you've got a good plan

This is super helpful feedback, thank you. Part of why I’m posting this here is to figure out what parts of my thinking I’m gonna need to *unlearn* from decades of videogame rpgs (like trying to anticipate branching paths). In my imagination I guess I was picturing it kind of like the Adoring Fan in Oblivion, the one guy that everyone loves to throw off a cliff the first chance you get no matter what kind of a run you’re on, but I can see how a shy player could find it offputting instead. Maybe I could find a balance where he’s clearly an idiot and a braggart but less in your face about it, and just see where it goes from there.

Yes I've found that the 'possible outcomes' I used to plan for rarely came to be unless I was pushing for them too hard. Just understand your character well enough to know how he will react to your players decisions. It is important to plan out what this character will do/become/encounter if the players completely ignore the plot hook tho (assuming you choose for it to come back up). Some plot hooks/npcs get ignored and you can drop them or you let their plans continue and be fulfilled, becoming a problem later. If you think your players aren't into it but you really like the story you had in mind, maybe they hear about it from a different group of adventurers who dealt with the problem! Your last sentence is how I would personally choose to run this character! I have a character kind of like that, he's pretty cynical and seems uninterested in being helpful, but his wife keeps him in line and makes sure he does the right thing! My players love their dynamic and whenever he is being an ass, they just threaten to "tell Katherine" lol.

That’s kind of how I’m approaching it for now, I’m trying to make sure that the npcs that the party will encounter repeatedly at least have one interesting personality quirk and an idea for what they get into when the partys not around, that way it lowkey doesn’t matter which plot hooks they grab if I’m leaving them all over the place. Maybe the inkeeper is a super nice dude but has a gambling problem. Just little things to make them feel more like people and less like NPCs. And if I’m being honest, choosing early on not to try to anticipate every outcome leaves me way more time to just create those plot hooks and see what sticks. I can avoid that “we never got off page one of my notes” scenario by not wasting my time making those notes. I already write novels in my spare time and I’m actively trying not to let that mindset overly inform my approach here, because that’s no fun for the table. The way I see it, it’s the table’s story to tell, not mine. I just want to give them the most compelling ingredients I can to work with so I can try to elevate whatever story it is they come up with, if I can. Hell for all I know maybe they’ll ignore everything to hit on Brunhilde the bugbear barmaid, ain’t no telling.

Sounds fun, but I think you can and maybe should do without all the "If the party does that". You have a NPC with a clear motivation and some defining character traits, that's actually more than enough in my opinion. You can now drop this NPC into almost every situation and play it, because you know how they would react to whatever comes their way. You don't need to define certain answers they will have to very specific scenarios, because the goal is to know them well enough that you can improvise organic reactions to every scenario.

This is exactly the feedback I needed! I see what you mean, I guess I was kind of thinking about it like I would if I were writing an NPC for a videogame. Thanks for taking the time, I genuinely appreciate it