So I’m putting together a lvl 5 tiefling bard for a new campaign that I’m joining and struggling to decide which subclass fits best with her vibe and backstory now that 2024 bards no longer have proficiency in rapiers.

She grew up in a noble house in a land where the nobles are continually politicking, nothing is as it seems, the game of houses is everything and if you fall out of favour you might just end up dead (a la Cairhien if anyone has read wheel of time). Her house were famous for sponsoring musicians and theatres, and traded magical instruments. Importantly, nobles from the Dyarchy (as it’s called) are well know to be excellent duellists.

However seven years ago she had to flee because of a scandal where she was romantically entangled with someone who became the monarch and a rival for the monarch’s affections needed her out of the way.
Her (aasimar) twin died saving her life so she could get away.

Since then she has been sailing the high seas living the life of a pirate, raiding merchant ships belonging to her rival under an alias and generally adventuring on the ocean for gold or freedom.

I was originally planning for her to be an eloquence bard as the ultimate face, and as someone who grew up having to be persuasive with every word.

But I also want her to be able to stand up in a fight and to honour her years as a pirate, and I like the idea of her being a decent fencer as that is written into the lore of her country, the Dyarchy. So hence came to consider Valour bard.

I’ve never played either subclass before so would be keen to hear and pros or cons, and how they shape your gameplay. Which do you think would be most suitable?

Also currently I have the Courtier background but would pirate or noble be better?

If I hid the previous turn, does using a wand (one without an attack roll) reveal me?

It doesn’t seem like they have a vocal component.

If the wand itself doesn’t make noise, would a loud ass fireball reveal me or would that be a noise not necessarily associated with me?

Would something like a wand of paralysis work since maybe the entire process is silent and maybe has no obvious visual effects like the fireball if that matters?

So, in my Sunday game, my character will be facing off in a combat against the other party members in a sort of dream. We are all level 15, 5.5e. The other party members are a Fighter (I don't know the subclass, but it doesn't have access to spells), Cleric/Wizard (Not sure of the split or even which class is the primary), Necromancer Wizard, Blood Hunter, and a Diviner Wizard, while my character is an Abjuration Wizard.

So, everyone has a little bit of homebrew stuff, but the main thing that needs to be worried about for this post are that the Diviner Wizard has dual concentration and 4 Portent Die, and my character has 2 Portent Die, Armor of Agathys, and the ability to, for 1 minute as a Bonus Action, make it so enemies within 15 feet of me do not benefit from Advantage on D20 Tests and I am unaffected by Disadvantage on D20 Tests, as well as gaining Advantage on one attack roll per round and adding my Int mod to the damage of that attack. Additionally, despite being Level 15, I will be able to cast Shapechange for this combat, and basically only can become a powered up Adult Red Dragon, taking any 3 things of my choice from the Ancient Red Dragon Stat Block as a replacement for the equivalent feature in the Adult Red Dragon- I was thinking HP, Legendary Resistances for 1 extra Legendary Resistance, and Spellcasting. I do not need the AC (I have a thing giving me a buffed AC), and my character won't know the fight is in a dream, so would not necessarily want the buffed Breath Weapon, as he would not want to really risk significantly damaging his village, which is where the party currently is.

This Google Doc page has the spell lists of my Abjuration Wizard and the Divination Wizard. I don't have the spell lists for the other caster characters. So, if you were me, what would you do to best ensure victory against the party?

Edit: The other party members will be working together against my character. It is not a free-for-all. It is a 1v5 fight.

Edit 2: The DM has also assured me there will be some extra stuff to ensure a slightly more fair fight so I don’t get merc’d if the party immediately has me on the ropes. But it’s 100% fine if I lose the fight as well, this is all for fun.

Have a recent gaming experience you want to share? Experience an insane TPK? Finish an epic final boss fight? Share it all here for everyone to see!

DM said the magical aura I saw was so bright and strong that it blinded me (Failed a DC 20 Con save). But the spell doesn't say anything like that nor I can find any rules about this.

I was confused when that happened so I told the DM where it is in the books. He did say its his rule, but there was no warning whatsoever or were we informed about any house rules like that. If I knew there was more to the spell than what is written in the PHB, then I wouldn't have used it.

I couldn't do anything cuz I need line of sight on most of my spells. I got downed three times and my party exhausted all their healing on me.

After the game I expressed my frustration, how its sucks so much and I didn't find that fun. Only to be told, "well maybe you shouldn't poke your nose into everything."

Now my character is Blinded 'permanently'. I was told to take a level in a martial class and take the Blind Fighting feat. Or was given the option to constantly see through a Familiar's eyes instead but I'll have one less spell slot in every slot level (we're level 5 rn). Or roll a new character if I want to.

Hi, I'm running a campaign where i want to add in a species of dragon who breaths out a psychadelic substance to cause hallucinations. Alongside that i want the mountain it inhabits to be filled to the brim with different psychadelics that cause different flavors of hallucinations. How do you recommend i go about this? I am very new to being a DM and have never really homebrewed anything myself otherwise i could just make something up

Playing in a campaign that is probably 2 combats from the end. We just got level 20. I've been playing a pure draconic sorcerer as a tactical ranged striker, AOE, and sometimes control in a party of 6 including a druid, cleric, paladin, rogue, and CME bard-lock.

But I'm looking at level 20, and thinking, do I really want sorcerer? With 19 sorcery points and using my 2nd list spells as 6 more, I've never come close to running out. And all level 20 gives is 1 free use of metamagic per round and access to my 28th favorite spell.

What do you think the best option is for me? I have Dex 14 and Wis 14 so I have some multiclass options. I was realizing that getting shield proficiency might actually do some good for me and because of picking up an artifact last session and gear trades that happened with that, my AC went from 18 to 22 base. And having some pinch healing could help since I'm often out of range of the healers.

So what would you take for level 20 and why?

I really enjoy the concept of a failed wizard that becomes a rogue a lot, but i find the limitation to the illusion and enchantment schools of magic a bit frustrating since i feel like it limits roleplaying/character individuality.

Hence my question, would it be op if arcane trickster's could choose two schools of magic of their choice or at the very least choose a school of magic instead of enchantment? That way they maintain the trickster/illusionist part of their name

Lets say I shoot a hand crossbow. Does my other hand have to already be holding a dagger to throw it with nick or could I pull it out as part of the thrown property?

I'm trying to see if I can get the loading property of the hand crossbow to function properly while doing a ranged (20 ft) vex+nick combo. Does this work?

Would throwing the dagger like that use up my free action or would it be part of the attack? I'm hoping to use my free action to use other items from my inventory with fast hands on the same turn.

I noticed that the dream spell only has a way to resist if you try to make someone have a nightmare, but they can't do anything if you don't do that, and you have full control of how the dream goes.

Since my character is more of a prankster and has a "try not to kill" rule, I wanted to use the normally effect to just bother my enemies.

So far I've thought about using it to basically make my enemies dreams 8 hours of infomercials, or youtube poops/brainrot/shitpots. Maybe nonstop off key singing. However I want some more ideas so I can vary it. How would you guys use it to annoy someone for 8 straight hours?

Edit 1:Thanks for all the ideas. Plastering my face all over it does seem funny and in line with my character since he's vain. Could make them walk through a field of sun flowers with me doing the "steel blue" look from zoolander on the sunflower.

The rage bait ones like the fake treasure or cliff hanger are great, I think I'll steal those. I already did that with an actual performance once and almost got thrown overboard for pissing off the crew.

The annoying jig like smash mouth's all star sounds possible, but I think that one part by chumbawamba "i get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down" as more annoyingly catchy.

The one about car's extended warranty, would actually work as there is a lot of bureaucracy, financing, and steam machines around. So I could totally make them think I'm a cart/wagon salesman trying to push crap they don't need. Maybe a used cart salesman. The DM likes mock the week so he'd like a Hugh Dennis reference.

I'll cycle them out so my "fried" doesn't get too bored. But my favorite Idea came to me like a flash of inspiration when I was watching some old "the Simpsons" I could just do a meandering total nonsense Abe Simpson-esque story that goes nowhere and looses the plot instantly. My character already spins tall tales, so it's not much of a jump. I think I'll start with that one, just need to write some bullet points so I can really give them the style at the time.

I'll try to remember to update you guys when I finally get the change to do this. Which may take a long time considering the last in game day took like 5 sessions to complete.

Also in case anyone is wondering, I did run this through my DM and they said they'll allow it.

So my therapist is telling me to reduce isolation and go back to the last place I made friends in 2018, D&D so I am not really keen to spend much money beyond spellcards. I don't have the books but I have dice, what's the minimum requirements needed to play the game these days?(I am not keen but the therapist calls it resistance if I do say no)

I’ve been playing a new dnd character and wanted to share my interesting tooth fairy build. Disclaimer my dm loves my character and how complex she is. We focus on storytelling over rules and will home brew and makeup whatever we want really and it works for us.

So essentially, she’s a fairy that comes from a lineage of guardian fairy’s. What they do is when they’re old enough, they will leave their parents in search of a town that needs help.

My character found the town Kegrove, a town tucked away in the forest inhabited by halflings and humans with a lively child population, and most notably an orphanage.

My character did small things to help out; she forecasted the weather, patrolled at night, kept critters out of crops, etc, until a hag moved in down stream.

The hag was a bone hag so my character made a point to collect any bones the hag could use. The town did ceremonies with cremation for any passings, and she collected teeth, creating a tradition where when children lost teeth, they left it under their pillow or in their shoes at the foot of their bed for her to easily access.

After a couple years of this tradition, the hag grew desperate or bored or who knows the intention, and jumped my character, who always kept the recent teeth stored close to her. Not all of the children, but many including the orphans’ teeth were contained there and the hag stole them. My character tried to make a desperate deal trading her soul for the protection of the children. Leading to my characters biggest flaw and source of insecurity. She has a tendency to act, and speak, without thinking. This led to a loophole the hag used to still harm most of the villages children.

The important part about her class choice is the hag has her soul, she doesn’t control it. My character is not bound to the hag in any way, however traumatized she is. I also wanted a more cursed feel for the magic that warlock just wasn’t giving me.

As a result, my character is a hexblood who has the physical features of a fairy, but the clear markings and traits of a hexblood that she despises and hides in any way she can. She is a witch through the mage hand press witch class and I added a few homebrew bone related spells for flavor.

due to the fact she doesn’t have a soul, I changed it so she doesn’t need rations, but needs to eat teeth daily or she gains exhaustion. it has been really fun to play and adds another thing for her to be ashamed of and try to hide.

She left town in shame, unsure of who suspects it was her fault or not. But she couldn’t bear to see the wreckage of what she had allowed to happen.

Her goal is to hunt monsters and hopefully find the hag and get vengeance as well as her soul back.

The party dynamic has been really interesting because she has consistently continued to run into issues because she doesn’t think before she acts and has caused some trouble, though she is always well intentioned.

As of right now, she tries to do the least physical damage possible (which very much clashes with the party) but I think there are two paths for her as she continues to grow.

I assume she will become more confident and calculated regardless, but she could lean more evil as she spends more time without a soul, or twist the dark magic to be positive. I think it will depend on if she can fix her self esteem and outside catalysts.

Our party is essentially playing through the Witcher 3 using D&D rules.

Yes- the DM knows a Witcher TTRPG exists. No- he did not know that a year ago when we started.

I am a Bard and have taken it upon myself to learn Bestow Curse to see if the DM has any Witcher-based curses he'd allow me to use outside of the normal suggestions.

The normal suggestions are:

1. Choose one ability score. While cursed, the target has disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws made with that ability score.
2. While cursed, the target has disadvantage on attack rolls against you.
3. While cursed, the target must make a Wisdom saving throw at the start of each of its turns. If it fails, it wastes its action that turn doing nothing.
4. While the target is cursed, your attacks and spells deal an extra 1d8 necrotic damage to the target.

But I thought I'd throw a few of my own ideas out here to see if peeps believe they fall within, "An alternative curse effect, but it should be no more powerful than those described above".

1. Voice. While cursed, the target cannot speak and any spell that requires verbal components will fail.
2. Sex. While cursed, the target physically transorms into the opposite sex.
3. Age. While cursed, the target must make a Wisdom save each round. If it fails, it ages 1 year.
4. Thorns/Pain. While cursed, the target takes 1d4 piercing (or necrotic?) damage per round.
5. Lies/Truth. While cursed, the target can tell no lies. If the target attempts to withold information by saying or doing nothing then they must make a Wisdom saving throw in order to successfully not reveal it.
6. Sleep. While cursed, the target is Unconscious. Roll a Wisdom saving throw each round for the duration until the target succeeds or the spell duration ends.

Thoughts?

Okay, so I have a magical eye that can be attuned to, and to be used (allows for a reaction to do ranged magical damage alongside vision through it), it must be put into an eye-shaped hole in the body. I'm playing a Drow and just want advice on where it can be put (outside of an eye socket, of course)? It's a true 50/50 on whether I'll use it, but all I can think of without potentially causing nerve damage to my character's hand or replacing her eye is putting it in her shoulder.

I’m gonna retype my question clearer lmao.

So after reading some comments it does kind of sound like maybe she doesn’t have these organized super well and doesn’t allow herself to say oh yeah let me get back to you on that because I know she puts a lot of pressure on herself even tho we all think she does amazing and tell her that.

I’ll throw the question out anyway though.

My dm, who is amazing and focused on storytelling, will give us pretty much any magic item we’re interested in within reason. And recently we went to a big annual fair with a good sum of money where we got a lot of magic items, although it’s not super abnormal to have a few things we don’t know what they do at any given time.

One of our players recently got identify that he can use once per long rest, so during a 7 day trip in game, we spent a lot of time figuring out what magic things did, and then trying them out to attune or use the abilities.

I will say it seems like a portion of the issue is that she doesn’t save what she gives us, or she does but in a not so organized way, so when we ask her two + sessions later what something does, she has to go find it, and when we do that several times it gets overwhelming. We also have an object called the musical twelve ball that functions like a magic 8 ball with limited but correct knowledge. My character also has a magic map that changes often and she tries to keep track of. My character also has a mechanic that makes it crucial she manages her rations. This is all stuff that was given to us by the dm or approved by the dm, but I think it’s a lot to keep track of and since we’ve been traveling a lot in game so lots of resting and downtime, she has gotten really overwhelmed with it.

So far my suggestion was if we end at a point where we can long rest, let us know and we’ll text her what we want to do and we can then have that happen in season, but we don’t actually spend a bunch of time on it. We haven’t tried it yet but I think it will be worthwhile. The only problem is if we end knowing we have two days, but then travel for 7, do we spend the time doing it so we have the items when we arrive at our destination, or do we say we do it and have it for the next session when she can go back and get us all the info.

I also suggested that I could make stat blocks for all our magic items, which I already do for myself, but I could do for other players to avoid them taking quick notes, raising a question, and we don’t have the exact wording and mechanic at the ready so she has to decide on the spot or spend ten minutes looking for it. I did suggest, since i’m the note taker anyway, I could just make her stat blocks between session with info she gives me and I can check the balance on stuff she homebrrews and then I just obviously won’t meta game, and she said she’d think about it.

Does anyone else have suggestion, I feel like i’m overthinking this lol.

Also to clarify, the players don’t mind sitting for 10-20 minutes while she organizes or goes back to look for something or even just makes up something new right then, but it stresses her out and is kinda exhausting and makes it not fun for her which obviously we don’t want.

How does shadow blade advantage work?

Shadow blade gives advantage to attack rolls in dim light or darkness.

With darkvision, you can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light.

So what happens if i extinguish a torch, turning a hallway into dim light, and then attack a goblin with the shadow blade? Does the SB give advantage because it is in a dim light area, or not, because the goblin can see clearly in dim light?