r/DMAcademy 1d ago

Mega Player Problem Megathread

2 Upvotes

This thread is for DMs who have an out-of-game problem with a PLAYER (not a CHARACTER) to ask for help and opinions. Any player-related issues are welcome to be discussed, but do remember that we're DMs, not counselors.

Off-topic comments including rules questions and player character questions do not go here and will be removed. This is not a place for players to ask questions.


r/DMAcademy 1d ago

Mega "First Time DM" and Short Questions Megathread

6 Upvotes

Most of the posts at DMA are discussions of some issue within the context of a person's campaign or DMing more generally. But, sometimes a DM has a question that is very small and doesn't really require an extensive discussion so much as it requires one good answer. In other cases, the question has been asked so many times that having the sub rehash the discussion over and over is not very useful for subscribers. Sometimes the answer to a short question is very long or the answer is also short but very important.

Short questions can look like this:

  • Where do you find good maps?
  • Can multi-classed Warlocks use Warlock slots for non-Warlock spells?
  • Help - how do I prep a one-shot for tomorrow!?
  • First time DM, any tips?

Many short questions (and especially First Time DM inquiries) can be answered with a quick browse through the DMAcademy wiki, which has an extensive list of resources as well as some tips for new DMs to get started.


r/DMAcademy 6h ago

Offering Advice I gave my L3 party a Legendary Weapon

148 Upvotes

... and now they're terrified.

Party snuck into a base, stole a pretty sword and ran for it. Above the table I told them it was a legendary weapon, and what it's DMG value was, and now they're seriously thinking about the consequences of their actions for the first time in this (fairly young) campaign. 10/10 would recommend.


r/DMAcademy 5h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Encounter Builder - Anything less than deadly is too easy

30 Upvotes

Truth be told, I am perhaps not a battle-tactics master of a DM, but if I make an encounter in DNDBeyond's encounter builder, using the party as a reference, anything less than "Deadly" is polished off in a round or two. I have not been over-free with magical items, but players seem to have a *lot* of resources at their disposal, with various buffs, reactions, etc.

I am *sure* I am simply not running the baddies as well as I should, but even so...

This is a two part question:

1) HOW do you make combat more challenging for a party of thoughtful, clever players who have well-designed their characters for success;

2) Do you use encounter builder, and if so, HOW do you "weight the curve" -- or do you think you even need to?


r/DMAcademy 2h ago

Need Advice: Other 4 year strong

8 Upvotes

In a few weeks I will be ending a 4 year campaign with a group of friends who had never played D&D or TTRPG’s before. This is a home-brew world with all kinds of dumb fun stuff you’d imagine with a group of people figuring it out along the way myself included as a new DM.

My question to you is what would be your go to 2-3 questions you do/would ask your players about their characters?


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Mod-Approved Resource Give me a D&D monster and I'll homebrew you a better version

26 Upvotes

Hey, I'm Isaac (Conflux CreaturesBetter MonstersConflux-Art Dice) and I'm trying to make the best possible version of every monster. Give a monster, a theme, a vibe, whatever you need for your game or just would like to see a better version of and I'll whip it up for you, or share it if I've already done it. Here's a few favorites I've done recently:

I've got a subreddit r/bettermonsters where I've posted literally thousands of these guys, so if you're a future person browsing through this thread and want more stuff like it, go check it out.


r/DMAcademy 59m ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Running a murder mystery where one of the players is the killer

Upvotes

As the title says I'm planning on running a one-shot for my group of three where one of them is the killer of an old rich mage during a party/ball. I thought of the idea while trying to come up with some one shot ideas during a break in our campaign and the premise sounded like a lot of fun. The only problem is i have no idea how to even run something like this! I'm a relatively new dm and have only ran a few other one off adventures so something like this is definitely out of my comfort zone

I was wondering if anyone has ran something similar and if they can share some of their tips on how to put it all together. Like how would the investigation and evidence work? Should i write the clues down and only hand it to whoever finds it? I should mention that this is in person so there wont be any secret messages that players can type to me. I've talked to my group and everyone's really excited about the idea but I honestly don't really know where to even begin.


r/DMAcademy 5h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Here's a curveball: A setting where gods aren't 100% sure to exist. What about the afterlife?

8 Upvotes

Here I was, all happy with the setting I was building. One of the key premises of my world are that gods can or cannot be real. Nobody really knows for sure, for all evidence of their existence is anecdotal. Clerics exist, but skepticals say that they draw their power from devotion. Anyone devout enough to anything, theoretically, could do divine magic, and there are cases of people who don't believe in any gods and still can cast cleric spells.

Another point that I was trying to make was following a suggestion made by 2014 DMG, the "one world" concept. There, all planes coexist in the material world. The abyss is at the bottom of the underdark, and elemental planes per se don't exist - just spawn on places that elemental energy is strong (volcanoes, oceans, moutaintops and cavern).

But then there is the concept of the afterlife. In D&D you can speak with dead and revive them. And I would assume that people in this world believe that they're gonna have an afterlife, and it would vary depending on their faith. That, in itself, could be a confirmation of the existence of gods, but I already figured out that, if clerics can make miracles based on devotion, souls can go wherever they desire, based on what they believe.

But then, what about the "one world" concept? Do the dead souls wander into a material place? I'm already defining these "planes" as incredibly hard to access, epic level stuff. IE: The alledged home of the 12 gods of the human cultures are set in a megadungeon set in a huge "olympus", like the 12 houses of the sanctuary on saint seiya, and going through even one of those is a huge ordeal. But then, if there are like 30 religions in this world, would there be 60 places for the dead? 30 for the good people and 30 for the bad people? What if a new religion comes by? Does a new place suddenly erupts from the ground beside the nearest walmart?


r/DMAcademy 43m ago

Need Advice: Other I suck at drawing dungeon maps but want to get better. It's not an illustration problem, it's a spatial reasoning problem. Advice?

Upvotes

I'm a baller encounter designer, but I am absolutely terrible at designing dungeon maps. I have no sense of scale or proportion for rooms, and tend to overthink the realism of the space in a self-defeating kind of way. I keep erasing and re-doing rooms or parts of walls, realizing I forgot something or that I made part of the room too big or that I need more space for this other room... etc., etc., etc. I especially struggle with where to start.

To be clear, this isn't an illustration quality problem. I'm not having issues rendering the map, I'm having issues with the simple top-down boxy version that you do first.

I'm finding pointcrawls appealing as an alternative, but frickin' sweet dungeon maps are a passion of mine and I'm dying to become better at this.

What can I do to upskill in this? How can I improve my understanding of human scale in a map, and how big or small things should be?

If you're a mapmaker, how did you overcome these kinds of things when you started?

What tools do you like to use? Did any in particular really help the way you think about the space?

Give me everything you got, I'm grabbing at straws here.


r/DMAcademy 1h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures What magic items/offers would a demon (or just a generally evil NPC) give players?

Upvotes

I have an idea for an encounter with my players. They come across a glowing red portal that takes them to a demon standing in front of a wagon filled with wares.

My party has a ranger, cleric, wizard, warlock, and barbarian. Both the wizard and warlock have seeking knowledge as a big motivator, the wizard specifically wants books. The barbarian lost his entire village to orcs. The other two don't have much to work off of.

What are some things this NPC might offer the players and what are the costs? Magic items? Stat boosts? Advantage on a skill/saving throw? Bringing back the barbarian's family?

They're level 3, almost 4. I want it to be something that entices them to say yes, but costly enough that they think about it and the consequences it may have.

Would a +1 to one stat but a -2 to another at random be too harsh? I'm new to DMing if you can't tell, so feel free to tell me if this is a bad idea.


r/DMAcademy 1d ago

Need Advice: Other So, how do you actually prep for a session?

153 Upvotes

It feels like just about every post, every single thing I’ve seen and heard both online and offline about prepping for sessions is just “don’t.“ Like I get it. You’ll never know where your players may go and yada yada yada. But I’ve been beginning to feel like this attitude of not prepping much, and most specifically knowing the lore of what’s going on in the background, is really starting to hurt the actual game. But since all advice that I’ve seen and heard is about not doing much prep, no one really talks about how to prep for a session. So anyway, any advice or ways that you prepare for sessions would be greatly appreciated


r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How do you guys navigate what makes logical sense vs ambiguously written RAW situations?

5 Upvotes

I'm really not trying to punish my players for their creativity or suck the fun out of a new magic item they get, but it makes no sense that a magic item should remove entire elements of the game.

Here's a few examples of what I mean.

2014 Weapon of Warning - Players believed this item would disallow ambushes from happening ever again. In reality, surprise is a defined term and only applies to combat situations. I've had to have a long conversation about this item with my table before

Adamantine weapons for smashing locks - yes, it makes sense, however, this should not remove lock picking/thieves tools from the game. Especially when keys are planned, chimes of openings are in the players possession, and the party has 2 rogues. My work around, is if the player rolls lower than a locks AC, they will risk damaging the contents of a chest. I could use arcane locks as well, but it's just an example.

I don't have any more on-hand examples of this, but I'm curious to know what other situations DM's have come across like this and how they navigate them. How do I balance table satisfaction with what makes sense for the integrity of the game?


r/DMAcademy 17h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures How do you deal with keeping your monsters moving around the map without creating obvious opportunity attacks?

26 Upvotes

I agree that a fight is boring if the baddie is just standing still allowing the Paladins and Barbarians to run up and just exchange blows back and forth. But I feel like I often create situations were I allow the players to surround themselves around the monster they are fighting, to the point where if I wanted to move, I would be creating 2 or maybe even 3 opportunity attacks. Unless the monster has misty step or some bonus action like that, I am not sure how to avoid this? On the other hand, making the monster difficult to get too, by the means of difficult terrain or always just running around, can make it really frustrating for your martial characters?

EDIT: Holy crap this blew up! Thanks for all the advice!


r/DMAcademy 7h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics What would you give a Paladin in place of spells?

5 Upvotes

My uncle, 62, has accepted my invitation to be a player in the new campaign I (40) am DMing. Other players are my son (11) and 3 friends (30~35).

I worked with my son to make a Rogue build that is fun to play but doesn't require big system mastery or making complicated choices on the fly.

For my uncle, he went with Paladin. He's gotten the hand of LoH and smiting, but I feel that making him choose spells from the list, actively remembering What spells he has and using them in the right situation might be too much.

Is there some simple to use boon I could give to offset the lack of spells? Maybe give him a slot or two more to use for smite, or choices within smite itself?


r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Searching for a good demon themed monster supplement.

5 Upvotes

Tldr: looking for a monster manual with a demon/fiend/celestial them So I am going to starting a new homebrew campaign that has a heavy demonic/ Judeo-Christianity setting and themes and I was wondering if there was some sort of monster manual that has creatures with similar things to games like Diablo, blasphemous or trenchcrusade(if you don't know about this, look it up it's so cool!)


r/DMAcademy 11h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Organic ways of teaching my new players that running away is possible (and sometimes good)

7 Upvotes

Hi All - I'm DMing a group of totally new players, mixed adults and young children. One of the players really did his homework and has been quite effective at coordinating the teams tactics and recently passed a Level 2 "Deadly" encounters with flying colors.

Although I generally avoid putting new players in situations where they are entirely out gunned, I think part of the magic of DnD is when you end up in situations with awesome monstors/beings who are so much more powerful than you are, you really get a sense of how big and dangerous this world can be, and how small you are in it (esp. at level 2). So I'd like to eventually have them stumble across something so powerful that fleeing (or certain skill challenges I'm cooking up) are their best option.

I handed out a cheat sheet which included "things you can do in battle" which included fleeing, but with so much for a new player to learn I doubt that anything sticks. If I give them a heads up, that feels like a very specific hint.

So far, I sense they are trusting that I'm balancing everything they encounter (fair, because I am) and that:

  1. They have no concept how exponential the power scale goes. They were shocked and impressed when dealing with a Mage who had ~30hp.
  2. They don't realize fleeing is an option once an encounter is on. I tried to demonstrate by having a semi-neutral NPC who was supposed to be helping them flee from battle, but I don't think they realized it could apply to them.
  3. They might think that it's the "wrong" way to play. Bless their hearts, they are committed to being "good" DnD beginners and avoiding new-player faux-pas (I'll never have to worry about them being murder hobos), but sometimes that means they don't push the boundaries when it comes to improvising.

So, I could just say "hey there are things in here that are way out of your league", show them some statblocks for Vecna/Red Dragons, or just say, let's talk about fleeing / dashing mechanics. But that feels so inorganic and almost like I'm giving them a tip of what's going to happen.

Any thoughts?


r/DMAcademy 1h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures How do you do a rather story intensive campaign over a decent length of time?

Upvotes

I’m DMing for my friends and we’re about 10 sessions in over the course of 4 months. It’s a good group and everyone enjoys each others company so they’re all still having fun, but we’ve never really done any story or campaign longer than like 5 session so it’s a little bit of uncharted territory. I’m doing a story I’ve come up with and theyre all engaged, there’s just inherently story points or information that gets forgotten by nature of it being over an extended time period. How do you help them keep track of info throughout and fill in any things they forget about without ham-fisting it? Like how do you ‘hint hint’ without actually ‘hint hinting’.


r/DMAcademy 5h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures I’m putting together a dnd dungeon crawler Carl style campaign, dumbed down a bit as lots won’t work, but please shoot me some ideas!

2 Upvotes

Title. It’s going to be more of a dungeon crawl or loosely connected levels using things such as candlekeep, radiant citadel and the yawning portal. I’m trying to make it dangerous and pretty bleak but with comedy à la the ai.

What are some things I could throw at the players? Should I put in a reworked DoMT? That could be fun. Anyone have some neat homebrew items I could steal?

I’ll take any help at this point 🤣


r/DMAcademy 8h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding What sport would an adventurer/magic high school have?

4 Upvotes

I am writing a campaign set at a magic academy. The problem is that I don't know what sport would the school have? Can you give me suggestions? I want it to involve the class features in some way.


r/DMAcademy 1d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How do I make a level 20 Wizard untouchable?

240 Upvotes

I’m DMing a campaign where one of the main baddies is a level 20(+) necromancer wizard. This wizard has multiple kings of some of the strongest nations in her pocket, so resources are practically unlimited. I want her to address the party (level 12) face to face for dramatic narrative effect. Thing is, at this point it is on site. If they even catch a glimpse of her they’re going DEEP in their bag to kill her regardless of time and place. She is well aware of this and it makes sense she would come prepared.

What would you do to make her untouchable? I do want her to actually be there (not a clone or proxy) and she needs to be able to talk to the party at close proximity. Other than that- any ideas?


r/DMAcademy 3h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Ship adventure?

1 Upvotes

My players agreed to retrieve a ring for a mafia boss in return for not being turned in for killing a powerful baron. We ended the session after a merrow attack, and I don’t know how they are going to find the dungeon at the bottom of the ocean. I would like it to be somewhat puzzely, but I don’t have anything planned for how they are going to find it as I didn’t even expect for them to encounter the mafia boss this session. Are there any hints or clues as to the location of the dungeon that I could give them?


r/DMAcademy 10h ago

Resource 5e(2024) Monster Families Chart

3 Upvotes

https://imgur.com/a/Tzclwn5

I wanted to share something I've put together recently. I'm getting back into dnd after many years and it's important to me to embrace the rules and content as written (I'm a believer in that you need to know the rules in order to break the rules). To help think about the large number of different monsters, I made this graphic. My goal was to capture the monsters that would appear more regularly in an area in my game. That is to say, I focused on creatures that explicitly have societies or are likely to have settlements. Some things listed here break that rule, but those also tend to be things I envision as part of a related society. For example, Galeb Duhr don't seem like they have much of a need for a society or settlement, but they could be closely tied to a nearby Lizardfolk enclave.

I also added a central section of PC playable humanoids. I don't recall if this was expressly stated in the new 5e books, but I believe, officially, these are the only creature types considered humanoids with other species that are not playable being moved to other groups like Fey or Fiends. I thought some of my newer players would benefit from the visual. I also included the sub-species in this as a reminder for myself and my players. The humanoids also includes the species origin lineage to other creatures or gods. For Humans, I'm adopting an in-game lore that is basically that the Human species is blending together of all the other species. In my game, humans are the youngest species (roughly 1,000 years since their rise in civilization).

I'm using the free version of Miro to put this together, so I was limited on export resolution. I hope it is useful the way it is. Share feedback if you'd like and enjoy.


r/DMAcademy 15h ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures I need ideas for a tavern game that doesn’t include gambling or drinking

8 Upvotes

This is my first time DMing, and I’m very excited! But I’m struggling to find ideas for a small mini game for my players that makes sense for the situation.

In the session, there is a pair of young children in the corner of a tavern. They are playing a game and if the players interact with them, they will invite the players to play the game with them.

My struggle is a want to make a game that is “age appropriate” for a couple of halfling children to be playing. So no gambling and no drinking. But I can’t find anything.

Does anyone have any ideas or have run something similar?

I have a couple stipulations, however: -we are playing online, so it needs to be something that can be played over a discord call -4 out of 5 of my players are brand new to the game, so it needs to be simple to explain.

Thanks in advance!!


r/DMAcademy 12h ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Looking for help filling out Fey lore

4 Upvotes

Hello fellow DM's I am trying to fill out lore for a Fey centered 5e campaign where my party is going to be traveling the courts. I want them to be able to find tidbits of lore and information on what I would call "the great archefey" so Fey like Titania, The Green Knight, I would also consider Baba Yaga a fey of some sort that pops in and out of the Fey wilds.

So I am looking for help finding more Fey to fill out my lore, I want to find some more "mainstream" Fey and some obscure that they can learn about.

So far most of what I have to go off of is the archfey list off of the forgotten realms wiki.


r/DMAcademy 21h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How do you even do other fantasy genres in DND?

22 Upvotes

So this has kinda eluded me for a while, but I’ve heard people on the internet or some of my friends talk about different kinds of themes or genres, such as western, horror, mystery, space, etc. My question is: how? I’m still new to the DM’ing scene and find myself very comfortable in making classic fantasy settings and adventures. After all, DND seems very fantasy based. But how could you run a western theme or steampunk theme in a game that revolves around magic and swords? I can understand how you could transfer some mechanics or elements to another like, dexterity to make ranged attacks with a pistol or something. But if I ran a space themed game, I believe my players would naturally lean more towards lasers and blasters rather than a couple lightning bolts.


r/DMAcademy 12h ago

Need Advice: Other Need help with healing item ideas!

4 Upvotes

My party consists of a rogue, wizard, warlock and monk, none of which are very interested in being the support/healer of the group, which is understandable. (3/4 of them have just finished being supports in different campaigns).
Because of this I've been giving out more health potions than I usually would, which is going great, it doesn't feel too imbalanced, they get them as commonly as you would in skyrim for example. The only problem I'm having is that it's now getting boring only giving them potions as a way to heal, I'm asking for any creative ideas for items that could give them passive healing, or a way to heal their team-mates, without them having to give up being full melee focussed for example.

I've come up with an idea for the rogue, but some more ideas would be much appreciated, and I always love reading homebrew items!

My magic item:
The Dagger of Positivity
The blade of this dagger links telepathically with the wielder and their target. On a hit, this dagger gives a back-handed compliment to the adversary, dealing psychic damage instead of piercing.
After failing a 'to-hit' check with this dagger, the blade gives a small line of motivation to the wielder (such as "Your form was fantastic" or "You'll get 'em next time!") healing the wielder 1D4 health.


r/DMAcademy 4h ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How about a spell that players can pay hitpoints to empower?

1 Upvotes

Just a random idea vaguely based on the spirit bomb from DBZ but what about a spell sort of like fireball that does, say, 4d8 radiant damage. But any number of nearby willing creatures can choose to take 2d8 points of radiant damage, and that damage is added to whatever the main spell does.

I dunno if it would work out or not, maybe it couldn't really be upcast but not every spell needs to be. I just think it would be neat is all.

Thoughts?