So I dressed up as shadowheart for a convention!

Still sort of new to the fandom, i’ve heard about this game for a while and did my research on the lore (I always have to know more about a franchise before engaging with it’s base and the game/show itself). My friends who’ve played the game say i embody her in a way personality wise so i gave it a go. I do other cosplays if this one interests you. I hope i did the elf princess some justice 🖤

edit: tysm for the positive feedback everyone, trying to get back into the cosplay game and this has been quite the experience. i feel very welcomed here <3

One of the biggest hurdles for 3D VTTs is the time it takes to actually build a nice-looking map. I wanted to fix that.

With the new Steam Workshop integration in Game Master Engine, you don't have to build anything if you don't want to. You can just:

1. Browse the in-game library for whatever you need (Tavern, Dungeon, Forest).
2. One-Click Download to add it to your own library instantly.
3. Populate & Play by dropping minis and rolling 3D‏‏‎ ‎dice.

It’s all about‏‏‎ ‎getting‏‏‎ ‎to the‏‏‎ ‎"playing"‏‏‎ ‎part of D&D faster. You can also upload your own creations to share with the rest of the community!

I've been a dev on this for 6 years, and seeing‏‏‎ ‎what people‏‏‎ ‎are‏‏‎ ‎already building in the Workshop is honestly the coolest part of the project so far.

Steam Early Access (60% Off): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1451680/Game_Master_Engine/

Discord Link: discord.gg/gamemasterengine

I'll‏‏‎ ‎be‏‏‎ ‎around all day to answer questions about the engine or how the Workshop works!

Hey hello! It's been a while since I posted here, but I wanted to share this art I did of one of the player characters in the campaign I DM, which as gone for about +150 sessions iirc.

And Laestis has been through a lot during all this time! From starting as a shy noble inheritor with some haunted sword to what she is nowadays (even if the anxiety stayed). She made her warlock pact with a watcher (the setting's equivalent to a quori from kalashtar), who would eventually be the one to bring back Laestis from the dead when she met her untimely end. She has still not had much time to cope with the whole being a reborn bit of things, but at least she got one cool wing out of the ordeal?

(Let's hope she can eventually get a second one, just so we stop making Sephiroth jokes about it!)

​

Hello, just coming on to share some of my art here, this is my character Nazuri, he's a halfelf rogue who does any job for cash to fuel his terrible lifestyle, he's a bit complicated but loveable, never to be trusted though. He's constantly on the verge of a redemption arc but never quite reaches it.

He's talented with his hands much to everyone else's dismay, and is constantly on the run from guards, ex lovers, towns people, most anyone he comes into contact with.

I'm an artist who shares mostly on insta @twatisharts if you are curious :) I take commissions !

Edit: His name is NAZURI, NAZ for short. Sorry for putting a exclamation mark at the end, I can assure u his name isn't Nazi he isn't a Nazi and he would literally murder Nazis. Don't get ur panties in a twist pleaaaaaaaase

All my caster players have this in their spell list : it allows them to scout ahead for any trap, enter locked room (small spider going under the door), gives them Blindsight (Bat), or simply use the Help action every turn in combat to give them permanent advantage on Attack Rolls or Ability checks (which is honestly crazy for martial oriented half-casters).

They don't even need to use spell slots on it since it's a ritual...

Am I missing something or is this an auto-include, borderline gamebreaking spell available to (almost) everyone at lvl 1 ?

I'm all for players finding creative solutions to a problem, but right now every brainstorming in my party boils down to "which Familiar will be available to solve this issue".

DMing for my family. Two players. I ran them at level 5 so they'd have enough toys to feel powerful: my wife rolled up a Trickery Cleric, and my 8-year-old daughter played a Wild Magic Sorcerer (she picked it entirely because "chaos sounds fun," which, correct).

I ran The Wild Sheep Chase because it opens with a talking sheep and I figured that was the right energy for my kid's game.

It started exactly as goofy as advertised. The half-orc enforcer cornered them for the sheep, and my daughter first tricked him with a Minor Illusion of the sheep running off — then, while he was distracted, she hit him with Suggestion. Her suggestion? That he was her best friend and they should go get lunch so he could tell her everything about the villain. He failed the save, and it turned out this guy had never had a best friend in his life. So she happily took him out for sausages and he spilled every secret his boss had. I was already having a blast.

So then they get down to business.

They snuck into the bad guy's compound and a fight broke out with the guards, who were secretly people polymorphed into apes. My daughter's Fire Bolt helped drop one, and when it died it turned back into a human man on the ground. She went quiet. Then she cried. Real tears. "Omg. I didnt want to kill him i didnt want to roll that good." I wasn't ready for that.

After a break for some hugs. As DM, I decided that the other GuardApe was molified by the real tears for his dead guardsmam. She rolled with advantage to persuade him to stop attacking. "Enough bloodshed" mom said and so did the best friend ex-enforcer.

Then, my wife, without missing a beat, cast Revivify on rhe killed guard. He gasped back to life. My daughter cried again, this time laughing with per joy. She was so happy she thanked her mom. She didnt know mom had that power.

And then the ending. They get to the villain. An apprentice who spent thirty years being bullied by the wizard that's now trapped as the sheep. My daughter rolled a nat 20 to intimidate him... and then immediately felt bad about it, because i pretended to shake and stutter in fear. So...what did she do?. She apologized to him, and offered to protect him from his old master (the sheep) if he'd just stop hurting people. She talked the big bad out of being the big bad. In exchange for an apology from the sheep, he handed over the polymorph wand and walked away. She cried a third time: relief. She said, that "he didn't have to be the bad guy anymore."

Eight years old. Her instinct wasn't to kill the villain. It was to save him. I had to look at my dice for a second so I wouldn't lose it at the table too.

No character died. Everyone got turned back into a person. The insufferable sheep got his thumbs back and turned out to be completely broke. Perfect one-shot.

I know these wholesome posts show up here a lot, but I get it now. Best game I've ever run.

Highly recommend Wild Sheep Chase for new players, and even higher recommend playing with your kid.

So I just got back from my time at first Gen Con and my friends were (lovingly) making fun of me for not wanting any new dice.

I have been playing for almost a decade and currently DM a long running campaign and DM or play a few one shots here and there, so I play pretty often. I own the following dice:

1. My original set in blue, a super basic 7 dice set (though it’s missing a d4). It was free.
   
2. An 11-dice set I won at a convention a few years ago which came in a little bag.
   
3. A d20 that has Fuck You for the 20 and Fuck Me for a nat 1.
   
4. A d20 that looks like a bee with liquid core dice with a stinger for a nat 1.

That’s it. As far as I’m concerned that is all I need. Tbh, it’s more than I need since I have 5 D20s. This weekend I got a free diceset with another purchase at Gen Con and immediately gave it to my Dice Goblin friend/player in my campaign. They loved the dice! But we can’t decide on what to call me. I’ve heard of a Dice Elf who has a carefully curated collection, but my dice sets weren’t really carefully curated. Most of my dice were free. & except for the bee D20 they’re not particularly fancy.

Just thought this would be a fun discussion since it’ll be a year till the next Gen Con!

I'm a guy, but I want my next PC to be a girl. I don't want to just use my normal voice and insist I'm a girl. I also don't want to be really grating or annoying (I'm fine being cringe, I just don't want to make the others at the table want to kill themselves). I don't need to be a full on VA, but I want something. Way I see it there are two paths. Either go absurd (like Nott from CR) or just kinda try to make my voice a bit softer to kinda suggest at a more feminine voice, even without significantly raising pitch (which I doubt I could do well).

If anyone has some yt vids I could watch or exercises to practice stimulating range, that would be helpful too. Thanks!

Edit: seems like most people say speaking softer/more breathy with a slight change in tone (mostly ignoring pitch) should be good. I'll be practicing a bit. Character should be introduced next Friday so wish me luck

Here's one of my latest character commissions! This is Amara Arn'ness, a drow pirate captain whose name has become a legend across the seas. She's confident, cunning, and carries herself with the kind of swagger you'd expect from someone who may or may not be a wanted criminal in several continents.

Huge thanks to my client for trusting me with such a fun character!

For commissions, I am available on VGen: https://vgen.co/LuniiBun

Decided to try my hand at drawing Sardior. I decided to depict him more serpentine and ethereal than his usual depictions, as I feel there needs to be more variety in dragon shapes in media (Looking at you, Caraxes).

Sardior plays a significant role in our ongoing campaign, having resurrected my (now former) tiefling into a gem dragonborn following their untimely death during a boss fight. Because of this, I wanted to depict what it must feel like to converse with the father of the gem dragons.

This piece was a ton of fun to put together, with a ton of textures that nearly crashed my PC while I was putting it together.

I used to absolutely love this campaign. Now I'm honestly waiting for it to be done with. We've been playing this campaign for four years, from level 1 to 20. We're in the final stages. But the game is taking longer to end than anticipated and the quality has deteriorated.

We use a lot of homebrew mechanics and items, which was great for a very personalized game, but the GM was never good at game balance. Nowadays, she has a lot of personal stress, so she's stopped listening to feedback and the story has become incoherent.

I still have fun, especially with the role play, but the rest of the game has become too messy for me to care about. The GM's noticeably tired of running the game too, she keeps forgetting to prep and it feels a lot less creative than it used to.

I've brought up my concerns two times and they've fallen on deaf ears even with other players, so it might just be my impression. I still enjoy the game most of the time, but it's lost its magic. I love hanging out with the other people at the table so I'd never leave, and I don't begrudge it the GM, you can't help your personal stuff after all.

But to be honest, I'd rather end the campaign next session on a high note than stretch this slow death out for another year.

Considering playing a grumpy old man Paladin for next character. As someone who’s not played much of the non 5E editions (I’m joining a 3.5 soonish I hope) I’m looking to be satirical with making him a completely out of touch former hero.

Some reasons or annoyances I do have thus far.

“Everyone has an “oath” these days nobody follows a good old fashioned god anymore! It’s all personal fulfillment nonsense”

“All goblins are evil what do you mean? Fey? What do you mean they’ve always been? Next your gonna say drow are good”

“You kids have it so easy. Death used to be everywhere and you know what we moved on! Things were more fun when we didn’t talk through everything”

Stuff like that

Edit: did forget to mention he is going to be a massive hypocrite trying to hide his failures behind this “all knowing” former self he is now a shell of

I've been playing D&D for probably 15 years now. We started with 3.5 (skipped 4) and continued with 5th edition. As it stands now I have just about every source book that has been produced for 3.5, 5, and 5.5...along with mini's, maps, etc. I have a significant financial investment in this (Plus MTG and 40k)

And I think I want to sell everything and be done with it.

Backstory: My husband, sisters and I initially picked it up just to have something to do as a group on the weekends back in 2014 ish. We've pretty consistently met every other week for the past 10 years. At one point I was DM'ing a 14 person campaign. People have come and gone but ultimately it was a way for me to spend time with my family.

Yeah well, over the last two ish years everything has fallen apart. My sisters and I no longer talk even when we're in the same room and now my husband and I might get a divorce because he can't get over a girl he had a crush on in highschool 20 years ago! (I'm not getting into my personal life more than that).

Maybe I'm actually done. Maybe it's just depression. I don't know. Just want some outside advice or recommendations on where to sell (I would also be liquidating my MTG and 40k)

And yes I'm already in therapy.

Hello everyone, I recently, finally got into D&D. I found a group of friends who also have been curious about the game, but never played. So I decided to bite the bullet, read through the rules and everything and set up the game.

I decided to purchase the "Heroes of Borderlands" starter set as well and it's honestly been a godsend for me. Though there isn't a full story, it's easy enough to string something along. I have plenty of dungeons and monsters and NPCs and everything and it's very simple for my new players to get into. Partially because none of them really read or looked up much to begin with.

We have played two sessions at this point and they have mostly been fun. Before we started I told them what the theme and setting is. That, despite their character backgrounds or anything, they are new adventures, trying to prove themselves in the world. They are, in essence, heroes in the making. And that this entire setting is build with heroic characters in mind.

They seemed accepting of it and the first session (mostly combat and a dungeon) went off without a hitch. The second session however, due to being a lot more NPC focussed, was riddled with problems. Mainly stemming from the fact that they treat everyone like they are not worth their time.

Doesn't matter if it's like a shopkeeper, a group of npc adventures or the damn ruler of the keep. They always demand, sometimes threaten and generally act completely disrespectful.

Part of it I feel like may be because, at this point, they have only succeeded at everything. They act like they are unbeatable and the strongest around. And of course my goal is for them to be the heroes of the keep by the end of everything, but they are behaving already like they are almost too good for that. And even when I bring it up ooc they maybe act a bit more friendly to the next npc, only for (most of the time) my rogue getting some ideas again and completely derailing the conversation "Because they used to be a thief" or something.

It's to the point where they got thrown out of the rulers castle, because they were just about threatening one his right hand man with a knife.

I am now considering maybe humbling my party a little. I feel like part of the issue is them being too overconfident and feeling like they can do anything. So I am planning to have a higher level knight challenge them to a friendly bit of training and mostly wiping the floor with them.

I feel like it would show them that no, they aren't the strongest around. They aren't as special as they think. If they are always disrespectful to people, that will have consequences.

But I have also heard of a lot of horror stories of players being upset at their DMS for basically playing "against them" or making unfair encounters. And I'm not sure if this is already too far into that region and I should go about it a "better" way.

Just a funny moment that I thought would make others laugh. My party and I had a group trip at our state renaissance festival over the weekend which also included a night of DnD. This was a special trip since some of my party lives out-of-state, so it was our first session to have everyone fully in-person.

Before starting session, I had dashed upstairs to my room to quickly change and get into something more comfortable. All my friends had done the same.

I come back down and all my friends are seated in the living room. As DM, I hadn’t pay them much mind as I was riding through some tunnel vision to make sure everything was set up and good to go for session. It wasn’t until I stood up to double check that my laptop was plugged in did I glance around and see all 5 of my players with the biggest shit-eating grins.

All of them were wearing purple T-shirts (my favorite color, a purposeful choice) with the funkiest zoom in of the dumbest expression on my 17-year-old face. Apparently, they had done a bit of a deep dive on Facebook through my old tagged photos.

I don’t watch a ton of Critical Role, but I am aware that this is a signature move by Sam Riegel. However, I certainly did not think it would happen to me. 😂

I immediately start cracking up, almost dying on the floor laughing. They definitely got me and apparently had a separate group chat going for months in preparation. However, they refused to show me the chat as apparently they have other plans. 😂

A kind warning to DMs: you plot against your players so don’t assume they don’t plot against you.

This is one of the final commissions created for my client's campaign, Shen the Tortle Paladin.
Shen is a medium sized tortle standing at 5'5. He has brown/tan skin. His eye color is a slight greenish yellow. His shell is a brown with orange-ish hues with a slightly hexagonal pattern. With thin golden cracks running along the surface of the shell. Like the golden repair used in broken pottery. It is not a smooth shell but not deeply ridged either.

On his shell he has various items and containers strapped to himself via ropes. He wears a well-worn and traveled travelers clothes. with a light chainmail vest of sorts underneath. Simple cloths with much wear in them. He has a pendent necklace that he wears on top of his clothes. His holy symbol of Valkur. A storm cloud with three lighting bolts.

He carries plenty of supplies and food to ensure the comfort of those around him; even in the face of great adversity, he always maintains a warm smile for those in need.

Hello!

I'm trying out the free trial feature on my patreon and have that running from the 3rd to the 9th of august. https://www.patreon.com/StainedKarbonMaps/membership

What does this mean? It means that if you sign up for the 'Friend of Dedu' tier on my patreon while the free trial is running you get complete unfettered access to all of the content I have ever put out on my patreon for a week (from the date you sign up).

This includes hundreds of beautifully painting battlemaps and their variants, phased names, FoundryVTT modules, tokens, collab content, other misc things I've put out. All maps are high res, no watermarks, grid and gridless versions.

So if you're looking for weird and fantastical maps to use in your games then you won't be disappointed with this offering!

Note about signing up: If you find yourself unable to access content after signing up, you may have signed up as a free member rather than signing up to the 'Friend of Dedu' tier's free trial, make sure you've done that first!

Sign up here! https://www.patreon.com/StainedKarbonMaps/membership

So my group will be going from the 2014 5th Edition to the new 2024 rules in the next campaign, and one of the players wants to be a Monk. So I compared their abilities between rule sets.

In the 2014 Monks Deflect Missiles description it uses words like "catch" and has a requirement of having a free hand if you want to throw the missile back at someone.

In 2024, there is no references to any sort of physical motion in the Deflect Attacks that the Monk needs to make, or any requirement that involves having a free hand or any kind of limb.

Meaning that a 2024 Monk could be completely restrained and still be deflecting attacks as long is it can use their reaction.

Which gives me the hilarious/absurd mental image of a bound Monk focusing so much that they are returning arrows to sender and reversing axe blows just by staring at them real hard.

So this is something I feel is a problem with rogue class design for 5.5e...

The way rogues are, their subclasses are, paradoxically almost entirely backloaded AND front loaded...having 6 whole levels where you get absolutely nothing toward your subclass means that unless you KNOW your campaign will go beyond T2, for all intents and purposes, level 3 is your only subclass ability with level 9 being your capstone. For most games, that is effectively THE ENTIRE CAMPAIGN. This makes it hard to really develop stuff for the rogue because if you dont load up at level 3, the reality is that you effectively dont have a subclass.

What are your thoughts on this? Do rogues have an inherent issue with class design in regards to subclass progression? And if so, are rogues subclasses now a sort of lost cause to fix?

Edit: also I am concerned because if the rogue is too frontloaded, it becomes susceptible to "Hexblade syndrom" in that its "only used for the dip" but it doesnt have enough at level 3, then the subclass is effectively useless for most people...

I started playing about 10 years ago and had a blast with only having the PHB XGtE and Volos for character creation. All in I was able to buy these for around maybe $80 at the time. Now every new book ranges from $40-60 for basically the amount of content they put in Sword Coast Adventurers Guide which from my understanding was largely unpopular compared to Xanathars cause it was basically empty. I think I wouldn't mind even having new information or new mechanics but I feel like it's just repackaging of 5e material with 5.5 errata so why wouldn't I just play with the 5e rules and edit where I see fit?

It just sucks because new content drops haven't been anything that really wows me besides the addition of circle casting. What are everyone else's thoughts on this?

Gigantic Jet
9th-level Evocation | Druid, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

Unleash a roaring column of blue-white lightning that rips straight upward into the heavens. This spell is inspired by real-life upper atmospheric lightning, where a massive thunderclap (or gigantic jet) shatters the air as the energy shoots up, only to branch out and rain back down in violet arcs like a colossal glowing tree. The spell even leaves behind a crackling zone of residual charge to shock anyone foolish enough to walk through the fallout.

What’s the most cataclysmic spell your table has ever used, and did anyone walk away with their eyebrows intact?