Recent content by talien

Fair. I think you probably don't want TOO many recurring villains. Sometimes bad guys do escape though and it's perfectly reasonable for them to show up again; I had this happen a few times in a different campaign.

You make a really good point, which is that a continuing villain is a luxury of consistency, and that usually means on DM throughout. Which not everyone has; it also implies a consistent campaign where the players play regularly. The odds of remembering someone (or even caring) go down...

Yeah this is a tough one, because the expectations of "success" are built in at low levels (you fight stuff and hopefully win), and there isn't necessarily an expectation for that to change at higher levels, even though in theory the stakes are higher. This is one of those: does power creep...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. It's hard. As Dungeon Masters, we meticulously craft encounters, balancing challenge ratings, hit points, and legendary actions, to make an encounter challenging. But sometimes, that intent is for the party to face an insurmountable obstacle, a force meant to...

These are scans of old magazines, so it's possible that's a crease in the cover.

I ran an entire D&D 3.5E campaign that was King in Yellow (good gods, TWO DECADES AGO): Arcanis: Gonnes, Sons, and Treasure Runs (COMPLETED) I really had to scramble to find KIY content, and cobbled it together from Call of Cthulhu, Freeport, and Arcanis materials. Of course, I had KIY be...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. What Do You Mean You've Never Heard of Me? As Dungeon Masters, we invest heavily in our bad guys. We craft intricate backstories, devise cunning schemes, and anticipate the look on players' faces when a past foe steps back into the spotlight with a flourish. It...

I love this!

Ahh right, this is basically a more practical bag of holding: Roll20 - Compendium and Rule Set Directory

Gandalf's argument is "old man needs his staff to hobble around" so of all the potential stave weapons, I imagine "walking staff" is the most socially acceptable to lean against your chair. It's the other stuff that isn't. Polearms are just right out, and it may not even fit in the ceiling...

This is the magic item I couldn't remember! It's probably the primary one specifically for this sort of use case besides a bag of holding.

Staves are probably the least problematic of the "polearm" types. My legionnaire took a lot of plot-wrangling to make sense with his tactics, which fell apart when in dungeons or with small groups of allies who weren't similarly armed and armored. Ironically, he was better against bigger...

Picture courtesy of Pixabay. Fantasy narratives often imbue characters with powerful staffs, portraying them as tools of authority and magic. From Gandalf's iconic wizard's staff to Marcille Donato's staff Ambroisa from Delicious in Dungeon, staves are as much tools as part of their identity...