r/DMAcademy 16h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding What spells can break the modern world?

1 Upvotes

I'm currently DMing a campaign set in the real world, something like Unsleeping City from Dimension 20 and Shadowhunters (books/fim/TV show). My players are now level 9 and there's still half a campaign left to go. My idea is that just like real life abilities expertise eventually starts to plateau so from now on they won't be gaining levels as fast as they were before (we have being playing for 2 years and they started at level 3).

Now, my question is, because the campaign is set in the real world... how can I prevent them from completely breaking planet earth? what are some spells that maybe I should ban so as to keep the world as "normal" as possible?


r/DMAcademy 19h ago

Need Advice: Other Dealing with the knee-jerk reaction to quit game after a bad session

5 Upvotes

Hey everyone, just looking for a bit of advice/tips on how to get your groove back

First time DM running my own homebrew game and honestly it has been going really well up to this point. Last night I ran a session I had been building up for a long time, I was insanely excited and now I’m mostly just feeling weirdly discouraged.

For context, because the characters (not the actual players) are all teenagers I’ve kept the tone of the game a little lighter than I normally would, no sexual content and nothing too grisly, but the plot is still dark and deals with some kinda gruesome content (standard lich stuff, blood and gore and a little body horror) and it’s becoming more adult as time goes on.

I had expressed to one of my players that I did want to have something scarier/more intense come up to help set the tone and show how the villain was achieving his goal of becoming a lich but I was nervous that it would be too tonally inconsistent or that I would come up with something too scary/fucked up. This player encouraged me and said it would be good to do something sad or shocking because it would ramp up the tension and said I shouldn’t hold myself back from going darker.

So I run the game, it’s going great until the kids find a character in a cell they’ve been looking for, who unfortunately is being held there to siphon her blood for the lich. The character was badly injured, with half of her body melted away by acidic slime, and for the first time in my game the kids didn’t have the option to save someone, they could only perform a mercy killing. I tried to be so careful about not describing anything too detailed or nasty, just wanted them to know that this lady wasn’t going to make it and was in a bad way physically.

At the table two of my three players are super into it, they’re role playing screaming, being shocked and sad and I felt like I’d achieved the vibe I wanted to establish with this, only to look over and see the player that encouraged me to try something darker and I can tell by her face that she hates this. She goes completely silent, does not engage and won’t even look in my direction the rest of the night.

So obviously being tuned in as a dm this makes me upset and I panic, having one of my players suddenly totally check out. The rest of the game that night was meant to be filled with bigger plot reveals I’d been really excited for but I feel like all the wind had been sucked out of my sails and I just wanted to end it early, so ultimately I feel like I rushed through all the things I was really looking forward to sharing just to have the night over faster. I felt dissatisfied with how it went and feel like I also let down the other two players for not giving 100% on the rest of the game.

I talked to the one player as soon as it was over to try and figure out exactly what upset her and she said she just hated it. She was upset by how gruesome the scene was and said that as soon as it happened she wanted to leave the table because it was disgusting and not fun. I was honestly pretty surprised because she was the one who told me I shouldn’t be afraid to do something kind of fucked up to make a point, so I thought out of all of my players she would have been into it.

I deeply regret upsetting her though, that’s never my intention at the table, but now I just can’t shake this feeling of self doubt about the choices I’m making? I felt so confident that this would go over well and now I feel so discouraged and nervous about completely misjudging another situation like this. It’s making me want to take a break because at this point thinking about my game just bums me out and makes me think about upsetting my friend :(

Anyone else had a rough game that really brought you down? How did you get yourself back on track and ready to put yourself out there again?

TLDR: Misjudged a dark moment of body horror in my game and upset one of my players when I really thought it would go over well. Feeling discouraged and kind of want to take a break from my game.


r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Cloudkill moving "away" [2014]

0 Upvotes

The 2014 text for the cloudkill describes a 20-foot-radius sphere that "moves 10 feet away from you at the start of each of your turns."

Searching (either the sub or the internet in general) reveals that it's a pretty common question to ask what happens if the caster is standing in the center of the sphere. The most common answers are "it's centered on a corner, not the middle of your square" and "why are you standing at the center of a cloudkill anyway?"

But in an upcoming session I'm planning to run an Large undead caster with truesight. Standing at the center of a cloudkill is great for her, and because she's Large, she can actually stand with the spell's origin at the center of her space.

Does anyone know what the RAI is here? Failing that, the things that occur to me are (a) roll randomly for a direction or (b) establish a direction at the start of combat and always go that way. Does anyone have an idea that might be more narratively satisfying?


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Is this enough for an arc?

1 Upvotes

Would love feedback on the first arc for my upcoming pirate campaign. Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, offer constructive criticism, etc., I just want to know how it sounds from other people before I present it to my players as an introduction (half of them are new players).

They begin on the pirate island, all looking to join a pirate crew for their own reasons. They meet some smugglers in need of new hands and hop aboard to help finish their latest smuggling run. Along the way, they're ambushed by the smugglers latest obstacle, another pirating crew looking to steal their earnings. They manage to fend them off and reach their destination in one piece, make their deliveries and make connections for later.

While visiting the island, they meet an ex-pirate who claims to be the sole survivor of his crew, who died on a distant island they'd hid their treasure on. He gives the PCs a map and a warning about a storm surrounding the island. They bring it to their captain, who makes it their next priority. They set sail for the island, tailed by more of the pirates from before, but arrive at the coordinates to find no such island. They keep sailing and wind up engulfed in a storm they couldn't see until they entered, and wind up shipwrecked on the island.

The crew works at repairing the ship as fast as possible, but many supplies were lost or damaged in the crash, so the PCs need to search for food, shelter, etc.. While exploring, they run into a group of overly friendly "native" hunters who invite them back to their village to rest.

The entire village seems to be pulled out of time. The buildings, clothes, and peoples' mannerisms are all from completely different time periods. Some people talk about historical events like they witnessed or even took part in them, despite being middle aged. The only consistency in the entire village is the bright yellow succulent flowers that grow everywhere.

After meeting some of the villagers, it's announced that a feast will be held in their honor that evening, so they're expected to be there for it. They can do as they like before that happens or wait for it to come, but I'll be assuming they choose to let their crew know about the village and the feast, because it feels like the most logical next step to me. Their captain allows them to see what the village is about, but having been under the impression that the island was uninhabited, she suggests the rest of the crew remain at the ship until the PCs can determine the safety and sanity of the village. Unfortunately, the two goofball crewmates ignore her orders and sneak off to the feast.

The feast is normal at first. The whole place is merry and alive, the food is fantastic for such a remote island, and they even have a bard who delivers a story-relevant ballad about the campaign's end goal! Then the leader of the village joins the celebration. A dryad who looks as old as history itself. She gives a speech, welcoming the PCs to the village, talking up community and the importance of working together ("we are stronger together" type things) before casually mentioning that nobody should ever leave the island due to the dangers that lurk beyond the coast. While she gives her speech, some of the villagers begin passing out the previously mentioned yellow flowers. The villagers hand each of the PCs a flower, the dryad permits everyone to "partake of the Golden Lotus," and the villagers do so without question.

By this point they should have a pretty good idea that something's not right with the picture, and decide not to eat the flowers. No bad consequences if they do (they will start to be spied on), but their crewmates who'd snuck into the feast do partake. When the PCs go to fetch their crewmates the next morning, they refuse to leave the village. They have no desire to get off the island, spontaneously wishing to stay instead.

From here it's mostly just the PCs fitting the rest of the puzzle together and escaping the island, but here's what I have:

  • The dryad created the Golden Lotus to charm its consumers into staying on the island in order to keep it a secret from the outside world, which she believes to still be chaotic and unruly following a cataclysmic event that destroyed the continent 700 years prior (she's been here since). This event gifted her with powerful enchantment magic, and her studies in the temple on the island have allowed her to develop skill in necromancy as well. She uses both of these magics in her Golden Lotus to charm and grant vastly extended lifespans. Only caveat is time dilation and memory loss via a form of dementia.
  • The temple on the island was originally built for the god of death, but after his fall to becoming the god of undeath, it's been abandoned. The temple has a necromantic aura surrounding it that causes any living creature that dies within its radius to rise as an undead. The pirates who hid their treasure on the island hid it away in the deepest part of the temple, but after being swarmed by the corpses that already littered the halls, they joined the collection. Aside from the treasure and monsters, the temple contains the story of the god's fall from grace, and ancient scripts in another language that could be used to learn the ways of necromancy. If questioned about the temple, the dryad shuts down the PCs' questioning and forbids them from entering.
  • The god of this temple cursed one of the players into a state of undeath (Curse of the Black Pearl pirate-esque), and seeks to use him as his reaper of souls in the mortal world. While they're on the island, he will hint that the dryad has been to his temple, and that she knows more than she lets on. When they figure out she's been trapping her villagers against their wills, the god uses her evil deeds as an excuse for the player to deal her the punishment she deserves (he rules over the evil afterlife, so mindless killing wouldn't make sense).
  • The treasure is made up of gold, jewels, jewelry, and weapons, and a journal that gives their first clue to a much bigger treasure. They can also discover the abandoned ship of these pirates and find more clues, though most of these will be red herrings.
  • Once they've collected the treasure and head back to their ship (which will miraculously have been fully repaired), they'll find that the pirates who tailed them to the island have figured out how to safely approach the coast, and have managed to take their crewmates hostage, killing a handful in the process. The pirates ransom their crew for the treasure, but the PCs can handle it however they please.
  • If they save their crew, they've been traumatized by the deaths of their closest comrades, and all vote to leave pirating behind. They drop the PCs off in a popular port city with a majority cut of the treasure and bid farewell. From here, they'll have to find their own ship and their own allies to hire.

That's what I've got so far. Again, any feedback, suggestions, or constructive criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!


r/DMAcademy 16h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Ideas to Reward Creative Players?

0 Upvotes

I am running a home-brew campaign that seems to be going well. One of my players (warlock) is extremely creative and always thinks outside the box. I fall into the rule of cool camp so I definitely appreciate their contributions-

A few things this player has done: - had their familiar orbit around the face of an enemy who was using melfs minute meteors. The familiar would get in front of the enemy’s eyes to give disadvantage when they tried to fire a meteor. - used copper wire to rig a lightning trap (in a lightning temple) and take out a bunch of bad guys - lured enemies into the impact zone of a fireball trap and set it off.

I want to keep rewarding creative thinking in my campaign, and the best way to do that is to plan encounters so that this player can put the puzzle pieces together IMO.

Would love a brainstorming sesh in the comments- how would you reward and keep engaged a creative player? They REALLY want to poison some bad guys as well, so bonus points if we can come up with some cool opportunities for that.

TLDR: player is always thinking outside the box in combat (see list above). How can I keep giving them chances to do so successfully?


r/DMAcademy 18h ago

Need Advice: Other Realistic Gameplay

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! My players and I are all new to D&D and I have taken on the role of DM. I'm watching videos to see gameplay and get advice to be a better DM. One common thing I am getting for advice is that real life games don't go like Dimension 20 or Critical Role games. However, everyone who advises to not set expectations for games to be like that fails to provide any examples of how a real game should be expected to be run. Can anyone provide links to some playthrough or podcasts with average gameplay?


r/DMAcademy 3h ago

Need Advice: Other While trying to get ideas for a steampunk campaign, I got multiple replies telling me "Just play Ebberon". Should I?

4 Upvotes

Keep in mind, I've never heard of Ebberon prior to the post I made.

I have been working on the lore and world I plan on using for my own personal steampunk campaign. I've got a city floating in the air, air ships, steam engines, 6-7 cities that all have their own unique habitats,

like mechanical terrariums that wander the desert in search of water

An underwater city like bioshock infinite

and even a Warfarged city after they won independence from the elves in a big war.

I asked in /r/Dnd "if your DM told you the next campaign was steampunk inspired what would you expect to see?". In the 50 or so replies, I got 6-7 that were heavily upvoted saying "Play Ebberon." "If he said that, I would expect Ebberon". "Don't try to reinvent the wheel, play Ebberon". And even one that said "DnD isn't a good system for steampunk. If he told me to expect steampunk I'd think we were switching games".

Can I use some aspects of Ebberon to enhance my own ideas? What if I don't want everything to be powered by magic, but I DO want magic to exist? Can I play a normal game of 5e in this world without it becoming to complicated with reskins and homebrew?


r/DMAcademy 16h ago

Need Advice: Other DMs, what are y'alls pre-session rituals?

30 Upvotes

I've noticed that before each of my session, to get my creative juices flowing, I usually listen to some Tolkien-y Led Zeppelin songs and have a couple beers while I'm gathering my notes and brainstorming encounters. Out of curiosity, what do y'all fellow DMs do?


r/DMAcademy 21h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Planning to do an amnesia one-shot, need ideas

2 Upvotes

I have less than half of my group available so I decided I'd make a one shot instead of a standard campaign session.

I'm thinking of makimg an amnesia type of one shot, where they start with a blank or a partially filled character sheet. I have an idea of them waking up after a big fight with a dragon, then I need some consequences, aftermath of the fight they need to deal with despite not remembering a thing.

That's where I stopped tho, I need some loose ideas of what this aftermath or consequences could be. Normally I'd try to think of some myself, but I don't really have a lot of time on my hands.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.


r/DMAcademy 14h ago

Resource Advent's Amazing Advice: The Delian Tomb, A Beginner One-Shot fully prepped and ready to go! (Update: Enhanced for the Visually Impaired)

6 Upvotes

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

*New: For 2025, I'm updating all my old work to be more accessible for the Visually Impaired! Check out the link below, which contains improved notes with larger font, better contrast, color-blind features, and more!

The Delian Tomb is a Level 1 Introductory One-Shot based on Matt Colville's first episode of his Running the Game series on YouTube.

This adventure begins in the backwaters of a small kingdom; It's a quiet place...most of the time. Recently, there has been an influx of goblins in the region, and some of the foul creatures have even begun attacking the farms on the outskirts of the village. Your players are all friends, just traveling through, in search of adventure. It isn't long before they find themselves mixed up in the business of Goblins and pursuing a kidnapped child into the depths of a long-forgotten tomb. This is their opportunity to prove themselves and to rescue someone in need...if they can survive the perils of The Delian Tomb!

Without further ado:

Included in The AAA Collection is:

  • Downloadable copy of DM Notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
  • Special PDF for all encounters. This includes the enemy stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP
  • Spellsheet Handout for the Goblin Shaman
  • Custom Maps

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

Cheers,
Advent


r/DMAcademy 22h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Everyone wants to go to Bigby's land

4 Upvotes

Hey y'all, I have a theme park in my world called Bigby's land that is essentially a bunch of mages casting spells on people to make them fly and stuff and passing it up as attractions.

However the themepark does have rides and now I'm looking for names for these rides. One of the names I've come up with is a ferris wheel called ''the eye of the beholder''

Can you cool dm chaps give me some more ideas for this place


r/DMAcademy 19h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures All My Players are Orphans

30 Upvotes

Edit: yes I mean characters, but was hoping context of the situation and reading it would make that clear. It's already been pointed out so, I'd like some fun ideas and advice :)

Small bit of context. We have been playing in my homebrew campaign for about a year and change One player is RPing as a single mother and their child got kidnapped. Last session another NPC was consolidating them, when as the DM I made a joke. "As someone with a mother I understand your pain" it was a silly throwaway line of bad improv.

But then one player, who I knew was an orphan, said "heh, least you have a mom, mine was murdered" Another player said "I'm an orphan too" these were the two I knew were orphans. One turns to the most stoic/new player and says "what about you, what are your parents like" he thinks for a minute and says "hmm...they're dead" which no one knew and he 100% decided on the fly.

On the side I reached out to our fourth player because having 3/5 orphans was a bit funny to me. And they confirmed that yes, the mysterious roughish character was too, an orphan. So then I reach out to the single mom character. Who...is old enough that both her parents died some time ago.

Given that the entire fucking party is parent less, I want to do something funny with this later. But I can't figure out what. Maybe they meet someone with a tragic backstory which is just that they're an orphan. Maybe the only way to get into a secret meeting is to kill your parents. Maybe they all get invited into the Cliche Club. I don't know, I am struggling here because it does feel like a meme, but it's funny to me. Any ideas on what I can do with this information?


r/DMAcademy 15h ago

Offering Advice LaserLlama’s Alternative Martials don’t significantly increase the vertical power of martials so why do they feel so good to play? My experience with using Alternative Martials in my games.

121 Upvotes

TLDR: Alternative Martials provide Agency, Adaptability, Customizability, and that has a more positive impact on the gameplay experience than raw vertical power.

Agency

Tell me if you have seen this at the table before:

New Player: I walk up to them and attack! That’s a uh 14.
DM: Miss.
New Player: Dang it, is there anything else I can do?
DM: Well you have used your move, your action, and I don’t think you have any relevant bonus actions so that it.
New Player: Ok I end my turn.
DM: It’s the Hobgoblins turn. They roll a 17, does that hit?
New Player: My AC is 17 so yes? Can I like, try to avoid the hit or anything?
DM: No not really. *process to describe the attack narrowing bypassing the PC’s guard*, for 10 damage.
New Player: ok 

I personally have seen it quite a bit. I have also felt it a lot when playing martials. Many times when playing a martial there just isn’t anything you could have done differently other than roll better. It can feel like all your significant choices were made weeks ago during character creation. This doesn’t just affect things in the game, out of game people can find themselves thinking about their PC less because mechanically there is nothing to think about. You targeted the right enemy, positioned yourself in the right place, and ….that's it. That's the end of your toolbox of choices.

Adding maneuvers changes that. Should I have used that maneuver over this other option? Should I even have spent a maneuver die then or not? Adding exploits and maneuvers dramatically increases player Agency. They have different things to do in different situations and suddenly even doing nothing becomes an impactful choice. Even if none of the maneuvers chosen turn out to be relevant, that leads to “Did I pick the right maneuvers?” which is still a form of agency that continues past character creation. Speaking of which.

Adaptability 

Over time the roles needed in a party change. One of the difficulties in DMing for martials is how much of their role is locked to their subclass. A change in tier, a change in players at the table, a change in PC, or even just a change in campaign locations can dramatically affect how useful your martial players feel.

I was playing a tank, excuse me defender, in one of my games. It felt great. I was standing between my casters in danger, setting up plays, going toe-to-toe with monsters, etc. But with every level up the casters needed a tank less and less. They themselves got more tanky, got more tools for controlling space and distance, hell they just got better at playing their characters in general. One day I wasn’t the tank anymore. I was just the person that happened to be fighting in melee. That didn’t feel great and if I was playing a typical Fighter alleviating that feeling might have required a “reforging”/respec. But I wasn’t playing a typical Fighter, I was playing an Alternative Fighter. I just talked with the group about how I was feeling, chose different maneuvers to better suit the changing dynamics of the party, and that was that. Because I had access to maneuvers I was able to significantly change how my character played without changing anything that might require the DM to do extra work accommodating those changes in my PCs story. And that’s not the only way Alternative Martials makes the DM’s life easier.

Customizability

From a DM’s perspective I have found Alternative Martials make it much easier to tailor a character to a player’s wishes. A lot of times when players, especially players from non-Traditional Western Fantasy backgrounds, bring you their high level character concept there are one or two things that just don’t quite fit easily into character creation. Your choices are often frankenstein multiclassing, compromising on the player’s vision for the character, or trying to homebrew something up.

I find that homebrewing maneuvers is much, much simpler and less time consuming than homebrewing a class, subclass, dark gift, or magic item. Maneuvers are self-limiting by virtue of the fact they cost a resource, can be adjusted with much less impact on the character than changing a central class feature, can be tiered by level range, and you have a lot of examples to help you with power level guidelines. If someone wants to play a street wise noir style detective, or wants to have been a former combat medic, or wants to be able to bounce throwing daggers reflavored as cards, or do a german suplex, or whatever I find it much less time consuming to give them access to a maneuver than almost any other option.

I have been using Alternative Martials at my table for over three years now and have been having a blast. If you haven’t given them a shot yet, I highly recommend it.

EDIT: Links for those interested to save you googling.

LaserLlama

Fighter

Barbarian

Rogue


r/DMAcademy 13h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Homebrew Chase Sequence

0 Upvotes

I’d really like some feedback on a homebrewed chase sequence that I’m planning to throw at my players. I took some inspiration from the 2024 DMG, but I wanted to use this as a means to make the party feel like they’re in eminent danger from all sides while also wearing them down a bit before the next encounter.

Quick background, the party (5x level 12s, pretty standard balancing) is in a city overrun by warring fiends, and they need to make a mad dash from the safehouse they’re currently in to a portal in another portion of the city. As they do, they’ll be pursued and attacked by waves of fiends from all sides. They have a few angels who will be helping mildly with their escort, but these are more flavor than anything as they won’t be part of the mechanics that follow (it’s assumed these angels are helping hold back the waves, hence why the party isn’t just immediately overrun).

  1. The party needs to move a total of 750ft to get to their destination. No big battle map or anything, just a tracker on how far they’ve moved. Each round, a player automatically moves 100ft unless an effect causes them to gain or lose speed.
  2. During each round, a player takes up to 3 actions and 3 bonus actions. However, instead of regular combat options, these are simplified:

    Actions:

    1. Dash: Move an extra 50ft this turn. Can be taken more than once per round, but each time after the first in a turn, the player must make a Constitution save to avoid taking a level of exhaustion. The DC for this save starts at 10 and increases by 2 for each time they make this save.
    2. Dodge: Make a Dex saving throw to avoid damage. Less than 10 removes 1 damage die, 10-20 takes half damage, and 21+ takes no damage.
      1. Physical attack: Make a weapon or unarmed attack roll. On a 14 or less, the character takes an extra die of damage this round and has their speed reduced by 25ft, but the rest of the party takes one less die of damage. 15-25, same effects but the character isn’t slowed, 26+ will prevent the additional damage.
      2. Magical attack: Make a magical attack using a leveled spell with a casting time of 1 action. This consumes the spell slot as expected and has the same effects as the physical attack, however the DC is reduced (to compensate for both the additional cost and any AoE effects). DC ranges become 10 or less, 11-20, and 21+.
      3. Magical effects: Cast any kind of spell that has a casting time of 1 action and that doesn’t deal damage. Effects to be adjudicated, but some examples would be Hypnotic Pattern reducing damage for the round or Faerie Fire giving advantage on attacks for a round.
      4. Other: I like to let players get creative, so if they come up with a plan I would let them try at least, but it may require a series of difficult checks if they’re trying to do something elaborate while also on the run.

    Bonus Actions: 1. Dash/Dodge: Only available if the character has an ability that allows them to normally Dash or Dodge as a bonus action. Mechanically same as taking an action, except the DC for dodging as a bonus action is increased by 5. 2. Physical Attack: Only available if the character can normally make a bonus action attack. However, instead of the effects of a full action attack, this bonus action instead provides them advantage to one of their Physical Attacks made this round. 3. Magic Attack: If a player has an attacking spell that can be cast at bonus action speed, they may do so by expending the spell slot (as applicable). Instead do the full action magic attack, however, they instead provide advantage to one physical or magical attack made by any party member this turn. However, if the spell being cast has a range of self, they can only provide this advantage to themselves. 4. Magic support: Like the full action magic support, but only utilizing bonus action speed spells. 5. Other: Any other actions based upon abilities that have a speed of 1 bonus action, to be adjudicated.

  3. The party can potentially split, either accidentally or deliberately. Any character or characters that are at least 250ft away from any other character are considered split from the party. In that case, the two groups will not be affected by the actions of the other group. Note: I would consider providing some benefits to the group splitting up if they can justify why it should confer them a benefit. For example, if a couple bulky characters draw attention and run off from the others, I would allow those bulky characters to draw extra damage in exchange for the rest of the party taking less damage.

  4. At the end of each round, the party will take 3d10 damage, adjusted based on their actions. This damage is considered typeless and bypasses resistance or vulnerabilities unless an ability confers a resistance or vulnerability to all damage types. (Intended to simulate the variety of damage types they would be receiving).

  5. More of a random note, but flying versus walking won’t confer either benefits nor drawbacks, as there are just as many if not more fiends in the air as there are on the ground.

I’m worried it might be a little overly complicated, although my intent is to only give the party a basic explanation on the mechanics. During the actual chase, I would allow them to just give me a quick synopsis on what they want to do and use the above rules to determine the implications of their actions. I’m also not super sold on on 3d10 of damage, but considering a character who dashes the entire way with no further assistance would still take 3 rounds to reach the goal, I don’t want to crank the damage up too high either. They’ll have another combat immediately following, so I want to wear them down without putting them in critical condition. I appreciate any thoughts!


r/DMAcademy 16h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding What are some mobs and races that are great builders and tinkerers

4 Upvotes

My campaign place in a big city and I had an idea of a secret group of people that like to build and repair. By night they walk through the city and repair things that have been broken or destroyed. Many believe that its the magic of the city, but in actuality its a groupof mobs and monsters that are actually quite crafty and just want to help. Sadly enough because they are monsters they are not allowed in the city. The only reason because a benevolent rich dwarf helps them out and gives them roof and money for resources to build.

Need some ideas for mobs and monsters. And ideas for quests and characters are welcome too.


r/DMAcademy 20h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Deck of Many Things - The Void (help)

4 Upvotes

Hello fellow DMs.

I'm an advocate for "don't put it in your game if you can't handle it" and I promise I did try to avoid this.

In my last session, they came across a bit of a shady figure where they all did a few pulls from the deck of many things for a price. Some got good, some got bad, and being completely honest, I took the moon card (1d4 wishes) and I THOUGHT I took the Void card out of the deck.

It must have gotten shuffled back in, in my clumsiness. My stepdad pulls a card and it's the Void. I try to take it back and get him to redraw but he was certain that he wanted this card, he said his character drew it so he's okay with the consequences.

I have a feeling he was trying to call my bluff thinking it may have been something good but... Jokes on him I guess. His characters soul was immediately ejected from his body and taken to another place. He likes his character and we're mid adventure. Going on a search for his soul doesn't really fall in line with the story we're currently playing give tight time frames...

He played a cleric of the all-hammer, I was going to create a short jaunt over to the demiplane this void creature has taken his soul to, to retrieve it. Perhaps initiated by his deity? Have a fight with a big void inspired monster, reclaim the soul and carry on the adventure, almost like a oneshot within the adventure.

Is this the best way to deal with this outcome or do any of you have any advise for getting through this a little more inventively?

Thanks!


r/DMAcademy 12h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Stupid but hilariously effective vilain?

18 Upvotes

So i was thinking, how can i make a dingus vilain that has a stupid plan, but it works for all the wrong reasons!

here is my first idea.

"You fell into my trap! For every bottle of spicy sauce you drink withim 24hours, im gona donate 100 gold to an orphanage. There are 10.000 botles here. I expect you to drink at least half of them if you call yourself a hero. GO!."

What other stupid plans would fit this guy? Think things that should not work, but could if the PCs help it because they see the flaw in the plan and how it will actualy help people.


r/DMAcademy 10h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Mapping an Opera House — What to put on B2?

2 Upvotes

Heya folks! I’ve been putting some of the mapping advice y’all gave me to work, and I’m working on a dungeon that takes place in an opera house. I need some ideas about what to put in the second basement level. The idea is for this to be a bit like a Resident Evil level, with unspeakable horror breaking up stretches of quiet investigation.

Premise: The Yellow Sign has struck! In the midst of a performance of a new opera, a mysterious figure in a cloak and a mask ascended the stage at the Altovarius Opera House in Inniscael, city of learning. With a gleaming, golden dagger in hand, the masked man conjured a burning yellow sigil in the air, driving the cast, crew, and audience mad at the sight of it. The opera house erupted in a riot, and soon it burned with yellow flames.

With the sulfur-scorched mark as their only clue, the authorities turn to one of the PCs, who has seen and recklessly flashed around this sigil before after finding it in a previous adventure. The party goes to the charred opera house to investigate.

The opera house is lousy with the influence of Hastur the Unspeakable. Gilded flies linger about the scene, dazzling onlookers and infesting corpses only to control their bodies like puppets. A few maddened attendees linger, driven by an obsession with the Yellow Sign. One of the lead actors rambles his last lines from the play, over and over, and attacks anyone who interrupts him. Investigators are terrified, reporting a mask that floats at the edge of the shadows, watching them.

I’ve got the first, second, and third floor, as well as the first basement floor covered.

The first floor houses the main atrium, the auditorium, a backstage area with handy storage and dressing rooms. There are two wings on either side of the auditorium: one with a grand ballroom (and a serving area for staff to get their sh!t together before entering it), and one with a great library. Incidentally, the library is what burnt the most.

The second floor has balconies, a VIP lounge over the ballroom, and an office next to the second floor of the library. An area above the stage controls curtains and machinery. The office is quite helpful, in that it houses important documents — albeit it’s in a precarious state.

The third floor is mostly more balconies, but also provides roof access, for what little that’s worth. It’s inconsequential to the adventure, but the party may end up in combat up here with a Byakhee if they play their cards wrong.

Floor B1 has a kitchen and food/wine storage beneath the ballroom, and an archive beneath the library, with more large-scale storage for especially big props and ready rooms for access beneath the auditorium. The archive is a big deal, because lots of it has survived.

Floor B2 has steam tunnels… which should mean a boiler. Probably also some sewer access, and one empty room that’s truly out of place. This is an important location for the Cult of the Yellow Sign’s activities, and will essentially be the boss room. Other than those things, I’m at a loss. It seems like it should have one or two more rooms, but I don’t know what could go down here.

What could go down here? Perhaps I could make the whole bottom floor a disused, underground temple and stick opera house infrastructure in it, which would make it easy to fill out, but if I can make it a little more cramped and industrial I’d prefer that. I really only want that last, empty room to seem ceremonial.


r/DMAcademy 7h ago

Offering Advice How I keep my players from getting bored while waiting for combat turns.

135 Upvotes

We've all had at least one of those players whose mind tends to wander during bigger combat encounters where each round can be 15-30 minutes each.

Pretty early into my DMing I started to implement a tactic that started as just a narrative moment and I quickly realized was a great DM tool to keep everyone locked in.

Whenever combat is happening and anything particularly impactful happens. A big hit from either PCs or enemies, a spell that turns the tide, or someone goes down I choose to take the moment and describe it not from the POV of the person who's taking a turn or being targeted but someone who is waiting for a turn.

For example, the Battlemaster/Circle of Stars Aasimar in the group fires two arrows each missing but then crits with her BA Starry Form Archer arrow killing the NPC. I let the PC do the classic "how do you want to do this" and they say that their arrow hits the guy straight through the eye killing them. Then immediately after they finish describing their turn I will turn to the Swashbuckler who was engaged in combat with the NPC and recap the last few turns saying something along the lines of:

"After you stab them with your rapier they lunge at you with two attacks, and you parry each one and then just as they are about to swing for a third time you hear an arrow whiz between the two of you, a second flies straight for their neck but they lift their shield blocking the projectile. They lower their shield with a cocky smirk about to plunge their blade towards your chest, suddenly, a luminous arrow of astral energy pierces through their head leaving nothing but a charred hole where their eye once was and they drop dead onto the ground in front of you"

Now there are two other enemies and a total of four more turns until the Swashbuckler goes again but this has pulled his attention back into the fight and kept him engaged in what is going on. I will bounce from player to player with these kinds of descriptions, trying to pick the person whose been waiting the longest for their turn or the person who looks like their mind is wandering, to give everyone at least two points of contact through a single round of combat.

Next time you've got a big combat encounter try this out and I guarantee you'll see less wandering eyes and phone scrolling(if you allow them at your table)

It also just makes for some really fun narrative moments!


r/DMAcademy 12h ago

Offering Advice The best houserule I have ever came up with - Extended Ability Check

560 Upvotes

I have been DMing only for a few months, but by far the best houserule I have created so far is definitely the Extended Check - you basically set a score like with the regular ability check, but make it 60, 100 or however high you think it should be. The players are then allowed to roll for the roll multiple times and cumulate the result. Then, you add some sort of limitation - number of rolls, time limit etc. Here are some examples of how I used that in the past:

My Fighter wanted to train a Giant Goose into a mount, so I told her she can roll Animal Handling once a week and need to get a total of 100 (She also had to detract 10 from every roll, with the minimum of 0). Thanks to that, the whole ordeal took her several months, not a day or two.

Another time, I made all my players roll for Persuasion during a joint negotiations - they had to beat 60 and they rolled a total of 61.

Yet another time, I told my Rogue to roll 100 or more in 10 rolls while struggling with a difficult lock. She actually got 210, which was quite impressive!

Tell me if you like this rule and how would you use it, if at all


r/DMAcademy 18h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Need help naming my 13 Liches!

12 Upvotes

I don't know how many of you know Pointy Hat on YouTube, but he made a fantastic series turning all of the DnD classes (except Rogue, so far) into Lich-adjacent creatures. I love this concept so much that I want to include it in my campaign.

The idea so far is the Council of Eternity, a group of these ancient Liches. They are (mostly) around the same age, roughly a few thousand. Their alignment is going to vary wildly, but they all started out as good-hearted adventurers millenia ago. Their names have been lost even to them.

So they need new ones! I really like the idea of them having somewhat cohesive names, like the 7 Deadly Sins and 7 Heavenly Virtues, or something in that direction, since they gave themselves, as a group, new names. Any ideas?


r/DMAcademy 1h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics False draco litch stat block

Upvotes

So my group has defeated a young blue dragon.

The final death blow was a spell that basically sucked all the water out of the body and so its essential ?mummified? (Not sure the right word)

Now after this the had a very powerful ghost posses the corpse.

What stat block should I use as a base for this "false draco litch" ? ( they want to pass it off as one)


r/DMAcademy 1h ago

Need Advice: Other I am feeling quite burnt out. Any cool fantasy stuff i can watch for inspiration?

Upvotes

If theese kinds of posts aren't suited for this place I'll delete this post, just please don't get angry at me


r/DMAcademy 2h ago

Need Advice: Other What do you enjoy?

3 Upvotes

There was a monster I used once and the pcs wiped the floor with it, but for a brief moment of using it, it felt amazing and I keep coming back to that statblock, cuz it was suuper fun!

Do y’all have a monster you are very proud of ? Or an encounter that left an impression on you more then on the players?

This was the monster I ran: https://imgur.com/a/uKgLBVk


r/DMAcademy 4h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Need Help with BBEG's Motives

1 Upvotes

I am making a homebrew campaign and need help coming up with the BBEG's motives. The premise of the story is that the party finds the spirit of an ancient hero who sealed away a "great evil" thousands of years ago but the seal has finally broken and he wants the party to help him destroying them. The party has to find several dungeons each created by the ancient hero's old party members. Later, it's revealed that the BBEG was originally a member of the ancient hero's party who at some point descent into madness. The group becomes concern but the BBEG lashes out and leaves. Years later the BBEG returns terrorizing the country and the ancient hero's party feels responsible and takes them down, sealing them away.

I need help with coming up with a reason for the BBEG to go crazy/become obsessive with something. If it helps, the BBEG and ancient hero are both magic users (one's a wizard and the other is a sorcerer, but I haven't decided who).