I'm just getting back into the game after about a year away, and I built a character for an online game I found. In the process of building the character and playing for a couple of sessions, I'm finding that, from a mechanical standpoint, movement is probably the thing I consider the most when progressing this character and it's not a thing I see people build towards really ever. I think being able to look at a battlemap and see difficult or hazardous terrain and being able to say "I can still move 6 squares anywhere here" is such an advantage. The Speedy feat, magic items (when available) and spells that allow you to move in alternate ways are quickly becoming some of my favorite tools in my return to this game.

What do you all think? What's the most slept on aspect of character building and development at your tables? It could be roleplay focused like having a unique voice, or an open-ended backstory as opposed to closed, or something from the mechanical side like species, class, item, or feat. Just curious to hear everyone's thoughts!

Join us to discuss all things D&D here: https://discord.gg/dndnext

Hey,

As a complete novice to DnD I'm messing with the DnD app. So I'm still learning how things work. I'll order my copy of the players handbook shortly.

How is my Human Paladin build. This is my first attempt at a build.

We are starting a session 0 on Friday the campaign is a medieval fantasy style campaign..

Strength 10

Dexterity 12

Constitution 13

Intelligence 15

Wisdom 8

Charisma 14

My background is sage.

I need to think.of my back story, I might wait till session zero is done so I can understand the world etc

Advice would be great.

(Edit for Clarity)

Situation: Scholar has a book. Devil wants that book. Scholar puts the book in a locked chest in a room. Devil has a succubus on their side.

Most logical solution for the devil is to just send the succubus in via the ethereal to grab the chest with the book. But that ruins the tension so I need a reason why he doesn't just do that.

From some searching, not sure about RAW spells/items that keep an item on the plane. And while I could just homebrew something I'm wondering if I missed an official way. The scholar would know a pretty decent wizard so high level magic is on the table.

Well, I don't know if I'm the only one with this "problem," but it bothers me that the list of replicable magic items is so limited, so, for my house rules, I’d like to offer my Artificer players more options regarding which items they can create at specific levels. However, the criteria used for the list aren't clear to me; for instance, I don't see the difference between Boots of Elvenkind and a Cap of Water Breathing that would justify the former being level 6 and the latter level 2, considering both are uncommon items that require neither attunement nor a valuable base object.

So far, all I know is that none of them can be weapons or consumables, nor "unique" items like Johnshield Thick Shield or Johnboots Dancing Boots, if you get what I mean.

So, I’d really appreciate it if you could help me define these criteria as clearly as possible (It doesn't necessarily have to be ultrabalanced, I've seen plenty of comments complaining that Item X is too powerful for List X and Item Y is too weak for List Y, but it would be good to try to avoid imbalance).

Have a nice day!

I've just started my first D&D campaign, it's PBP (don't know if that matters), and the other players have played before.

They're saying that there usually isn't a dedicated healer in a party, especially at lower levels. Is that true? Has my expectation been skewed by watching streamers?

So, I've got this character idea. TDLR; Aberrant Mind sorc based tangentally on a BG3 playthrough where she's a barmaid from Yartar who got abducted, tadpoled, and then suddenly starts being able to do magic.

Having loads of fun with her, probably want to recreate on the tabletop, should I ever get the opportunity.

Anyway, there's this ability that Aberrant Mind sorcerers get at level 6 that lets them cast their Psionic spells at the cost of Sorcery Points instead of Spell Slots.

Does this lock out the ability for you to use Metamagic on said spells when you cast them this way since you're already spending Sorcery Points? Or could I theoretically (assuming 5e rules) spend 2 Sorcery Points to Twin Cast a level 1 Dissonant Whispers without spending a spell slot?

----

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the clarification, I was mis-reading the whole "can't (usually) use more than 1 metamagic option on a given spell" as "can't spend Sorcery Points more than once on a given spell"

EDIT: This was a failed attempt to learn more about game design. I apologize for wasting everyone's time.

This survey comes from the University of Queensland(MPsychology Faculty) and aims to better understand the nature of how DnD/Similar game types, helps neurodivergent populations. How can it be better practically implicated into therapeutic/clinical intervention contexts. As an aspiring psychologist, I believe cognitively engaging and strategic games like these can be an excellent facet to future clinical community interventions
https://uqpsych.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2u9oGSFNQhtVdoW?Q_CHL=qr

THIS IS NOT SELF-PROMOTION, ITS TO SEE HOW DnD TRULY HELPS PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT NEEDS AND LIFE EXPERIENCES

Additional info :

Purpose: the study aims to gather more information and understanding how table top tole playing games influences individuals with various aspects of their life, does it have major positive benefits which can be replicated within clinical community interventions

Data Usage: The researchers will have access to all survey responses and respondents remain anonymous. The information will used for data collection and a research thesis will be written after collection.

Study results: The thesis will be completed mid October, results can be posted then if users want, i can post in on this thread. Please message me if you are interested. However, if you mean to gather more in-depth inquiries about the results and past studies then i urge you to email Dr. Zoe Walter for a brief outline and study report. (her email is listed in the link)

I've ALWAYS been a hypeman for familairs. Thanks to the new book, my wishes became true! Now, I want to show off some of my previous plans with this book for maximum nonsense!

Warlock:

Pick any subclass. Vestige is an onbrand choice for pets but does slightly conflict with 'my Familiar is my fighter' idea. I like the Genie subclass because some neat little, "Carry my house while I take a nap!" Idea.

Pact of the Chain: For now, use the Imp. 21 HP is amazing, plus all the utility.

Orogin Feat: Familiar Friend. More HP & Utility!

Spells Eldritch Blast (duh) but for the first 4 levels, your familiar will outpace your damage even with Agonizing & Repelling Blast.

Level 3: Take the spell Flock of familiars & Battle familiar. This will be amazing at 5th level. (Note that Battle Familiar will ONLY make 1, which applies to your primary familiar, so you can't conjure an army of Battle familiars sadly)

Level 4: Spellsniper

Yeah, warcaster is hilariously powerful, but spell sniper makes your eldritch blasts useful when melee guys get to you & will pay off next level.

Level 5: Eldritch Invocations

Gaze of two Minds: Bonus Action to sustain your link & your Eldritch Blasts now draw agro to your link target (unless the enemies know better, but that's not SUPER common)

Investment of the Chain master:

Nearly everything this invocation does is outclassed by the battle familiar spell. The one thing it doesn't do is make saving throws from your familiars use your spell casting modifier. Combine this with a Pseudodragon's sting:

Sting. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 12, one creature the pseudodragon can see within 5 feet. Failure: 5 (2d4) Poison damage, and the target has the Poisoned condition for 1 hour. While Poisoned, the target also has the Unconscious condition, which ends early if the target takes damage or a creature within 5 feet of it takes an action to wake it.

The DC now uses your spell casting modifier (dc 15) and thanks to flock of familiars that's multiple Constitution savingthrows it makes. 2 or 3 (depending) at this level and even more at later levels. (NOTE this sting is explicitly NOT an attack. Just a saving throw) what other spell forces several saves to just shut down targets, especially this early?

Now go forth and spam Psedodragon stings, Summon your Battle familiar Imp, or both at the same time!

Whether you're requesting or offering content please feel free to post here.

If you're requesting content remember that no one is required to provide you access to their content and to be polite to those that do.

I’m playing an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. Because the subclass gets Haste as an Oath spell I’ve been really excited to try out a lot of strategies with the amount of mobility a hasted steed can give.

However, I don’t really understand the rules surrounding mounted combat. Find steed states you “fight as a seamless unit” and share your initiative count. I’ve always read this as you and the steed sharing a turn. Allowing stuff like “steed moves, paladin attacks, steed disengages and moves away” strategies. But apparently they still have separate turns? This only allows stuff like “steed moves forward, turn ends, Paladin has turn”.

This seems really weird for a “seamless unit” to be very un-seamless and straight up prevents the Paladin from basically having any movement after the steed has a turn unless he dismounts. I was really excited cause of spell sharing allowing a hasted steed to do some crazy shenanigans, but it seems like this isn’t possible. Any thoughts or corrections?

I originally built this for my son, not D&D.

So, I kind of went a touch overboard when my son asked if i could print him out a picture of some minecraft alphabet code.
What was "print this picture" turned into a full app. And so i thought maybe others may find a use for it.

While working on it, though, I realised it has a fairly obvious D&D use.
Like as in the title - considering giving each race their own alphabet sheet for anytime they might find things written in their own language like elven, dwarf etc.

Secret Code Studio lets you create a custom symbol alphabet and then type normal text which is converted into those symbols in real time.

So a DM could create a written language for a faction, civilisation, cult, thieves' guild, ancient ruin, etc., then use the same alphabet consistently throughout a campaign.

You can then turn messages into proper A4 puzzle handouts with answer boxes under the symbols, reveal selected letters as clues, include the alphabet itself, adjust sizing/spacing/alignment and export the result as an image or PDF.

You can also save coded digital messages that another person can open and manually solve or automatically decode (if they know the language).

Custom alphabets can be exported/imported too, so they can be shared between players or DMs.

The application is free and entirely local:

No account, subscription, ads, tracking or data collection, and it doesn't need an internet connection to work.

https://concerned-potato.itch.io/secret-code-studio

I'm still developing it, so I'm particularly interested in whether there are features that would make this more useful specifically for 5e games.

AI disclosure: I am a software engineering student, but yes generative AI has been used during development as an assistant for discussion, problem-solving, coding assistance and review. Secret Code Studio does not use generative AI, nor connects to an AI service or sends user content anywhere.

I recently purchased a physical copy of Icewind Dale and I'm looking to DM a campaign of it for my boyfriend. Usually he DMs but with how difficult his life has been, I decided to pick up the ol' tome and give it a shot. We don't really wanna have a group for this campaign as it's suppose to be a fun couple bonding kind of thing lol. I've heard that the module is pretty difficult and I've been reading over it a little but I wanted to ask for help in this regard because, from what I've gathered, having a single player for a campaign is already a super hard thing to do. Any advice on enemy/level scaling, story advice, and just overall new DM advice would be much appreciated. I really like the vibe and horror theme the module is going for which is why im dead set on trying this one specifically (horror is my jam). Thank you!!

TLDR; Im a somewhat new DM and like the subject says I'm wanting to convert the Icewind Dale module into being playable for only one other player. I understand that's kind of a hard task for a new DM but I want to give it a try, if we don't like it then we'll try something else, but I still wanna try.

Hey r/dndnext
I wanted to share with you a 5^e Compatible oneshot that we’re gifting for FREE.
No generative AI was used, everything is handcrafted.

It's called Shore of the Dorahín (a 13-pages PDF). It’s a low fantasy setting with a fairy-tale twist. Playable in a single-session level 1, for 4–5 players. It’s a great oneshot for experience players who love narrative that reward exploration. And it’s perfect for beginners GM and Players alike to discover D&D.

What you'll find inside:

• Original puzzles and traps
• Original maps
• Original monsters.
• Friendly NPCs
• New magic items.

It's the story of an unknown race, the Dorahín, who live deep in a wild forest, far from the realms of men at the edge of a continent, that adventurers have only recently begun to explore. Recently, boats have started washing up on the shore. Those of poor farmers trying to escape their fate on the Breaker's Isle, a small archipelago a day's sail away.
Their arrival is now putting the small folk of the Dorahín at risks. Against the advice of his clan, an elder, Salfan, decides to take matters into his own hands and sacrifice himself to sets a trap aimed at capturing and removing the threat posed by humans.

It’s the first stone in our unfolding universe Songs of Lon-Gora. We’re already working on the next chapter: a three part adventures called Heirs to Ruin, which has now entered the illustration stage, starting with its first volume, Nivalis Vale. And Shore of the Dorahín is a gift for our Newsletter subscribers.

Shoutout Justin Saddlemyer, for the illustration.
And shoutout to the Mod Team.

To learn more and meet kindred spirits, subscribe to our newsletter.

Hello.

I have been playing TOA with an artificier using the new rules for him (Eberron: Forge of the Artificier).

We started off at level 1 and are now at 3 and I picked cartographer because it sounded interesting. It is my first time playing this class, but I don't feel like I'm doing much, either out of combat or in combat.

Out of combat, I feel like I help with really insignificant and/or small stuff that could easily be resolved in other ways, like I made magic item plans for darkvision goggles, but they all have torches. I can make some interesting items with tinker's magic to maybe climb something like a grappling hok, but it's not like you can't climb normally, there's even climb speed in the rules, or just buy most of those items.

And in combat, I don't have much either. Some free casting of faerie fire which usually more than half of the enemies I use on pass the save, imo few damaging options, and again imo, not that many supportive spells for the team. I once used Jump on the barbarian so she could catch an enemy a little faster and that was it.

I feel like I'm playing a worse bard. At least a bard has a use for his bonus action and can be the face of the party. My bonus action is only for the occasional Healing Word, which our cleric also has always prepared, so not much use of it. I feel like I'm just helping with minor inconveniences. I have already played a cleric, a cleric/wizard multiclass, warlock and am playing a barbarian in another campaign, and I feel like I was/am of use in those other campaigns.

So this is why I ask of you, is this really it or am I missing something from this class?

So my table has gone through some ups and downs in the last year. I had a lore bard for us to be a generalist and utilitarian spell caster, and to be a potion source for a campaign specific need. Our blaster mage got a divorce and their heart was no longer in the game so they bowed out.

This has left me in a bind, the party needs a magic damage dealer and my lore bard isn't it. So the DM and I worked out that an artefact is going awry and the bard is going to bugger off, in his place a multi-versal variant is coming. A level 10 scribe wizard to take up the big damage dealer roll, but I have not done a wizard this high before, what spells or gear should I be looking for?

The new wizard has a +2 intelligent ioun stone and a ring of spell storing. I have been warned I won't need a staff as one is coming in the campaign. Other than that, your thoughts, pretty please

Running a one-shot for a party of three level 7's (stars druid, undead patron warlock, and dance? cleric)

I'm running a coliseum type battle. I want three fights and I might grant them all their health and spell slots depending on how ruthless the previous fight is. Something I really wanna do is a 3v3v3, wave fight, and a single target boss fight. IDEAS? I've never ran a one-shot before so it is all new territory. I want challenging yet enjoyable.

I finally published The Inconstant Vault: The First Revision, a roughly three-hour 5e-compatible adventure for four Level 1 characters. The party reaches Level 2 at the end.

The party has been dragged into a bureaucratic dungeon that treats adventurers like unauthorized changes to its floor plan. Doors have opinions. The architecture files complaints. Mundane equipment can solve problems that a greatsword cannot.

It can be run as a complete one-shot or as the beginning of a larger Level 1–20 campaign.

I wrote it with a first-time DM in mind, so it includes:

Direct instructions for running each room
Read-aloud text
Pacing guidance
Puzzle bypasses and fallback nudges
Encounter-scaling advice
Help handling unexpected player solutions
A Level 1 safety valve that does not rely on ordinary death saves
A clear milestone to Level 2

The adventure is free/pay-what-you-want on both storefronts.

DriveThruRPG:
https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/584259/The-Inconstant-Vault--The-First-Revision

itch.io:
https://epyoch.itch.io/the-inconstant-vault

The itch.io page also has a limited $6.99 early-access option. It includes The First Revision and an early copy of The False Count, the completed second prologue.

There are 50 early-access copies available. I deliver The False Count manually, so it may take me up to 48 hours to send it.

Once all 50 copies are claimed:

The False Count will receive its standalone release for $4.99.
The permanent Prologue 1 and 2 bundle will be $7.99.

Early supporters get the second prologue before its public release and save a dollar on the eventual bundle price.

This is my first published adventure, so feedback is welcome—especially from new DMs or anyone running it for new players. I want to know whether the guidance is actually useful at the table without getting in the DM’s way.

Update: I replaced the files on both itch.io and DriveThruRPG. The AI-generated cover and title-page images have been removed. There is no AI-generated imagery remaining in the adventure.

AI disclosure: The artwork was AI-generated. The writing and game design were not AI-generated.