Recent content by ThaDium

One favorite in an old campaign I ran was dubbed the "lint o'dimes" by my PCs. I was getting tired of them asking me if "anything else was magic" after every encounter. So I just said "Yeah, that guy's pocket lint." Now, here I am stuck trying to figure out why the pocket lint is magical...

So, I handed out some fun armor yesterday. It started as Elven Chain of slipperiness. Then I started connecting the slipperiness to oil (motor oil, really) and that got me thinking about how gross it would be to bite oily metal, which lead me to swallow whole. The result: +1 Elven Chain of...

I just finished a wonderfully ridiculous game, and I have to share. Allow me to set the scene: My PCs started off battling a hydra that had been snacking on a triceratops corpse. During the battle the wizard animated said triceratops as a skeleton. (Not something I was expiating.) They...

I completely agree. The sadness, I think, is part of what gives the idea the potential to be so memorable as an encounter.

Hey Rumbletiger! I was hoping to hear from you. My brain keeps going incorporeal too, but then she seems to have a physical claw-like attack. As for CR, the PCs won't be likely to encounter her until at least 12th level, but that doesn't mean the CR needs to be that high. It's a cool enough...

Hey All, I've been away for a while. Stupid life... Any way, I need help templating out an idea I've got. My idea is that a dryad's tree was used to create a huge door as the gate to an evil fortress. The makers knew what they were doing, and managed to turn the dryad into an undead...

I know, but if it's a true werebear, I see no reason why it can't breed with a celestial. Hence, a half-celestial were bear. I have decided, though, that he can choose to pass on the curse of lycanthropy or not. Generally not.

I've been thinking about how I DM lately, and so I figured I'd share some of those thoughts and ask y'all about how you do it. How I Plan a Game: I generally start by planning out a few scenes/beats for the session. These are usually really cool in my imagination. Then the come into contact...

Because he's half-celestial, I'd be inclined to say he can't use it. But if he does, definitely have him deafen himself. But let him be aware of that fact and act accordingly, using it as a last resort and such.

I'm going to start by giving as much context to the over-the-top cutscene I just shared with my players as possible because I've learned that if I don't, I'll get shouted down for being a bad DM and that tends to make me cranky. The story might have some ideas worth sealing, though, so feel...

One of my favorites is having the PCs pre-roll saving throws. That way, it's legit what they rolled. Then, as the game goes by, I roll a d10 when one of them needs to make a save they would not be aware of and count down from the top number to get the roll. Then I add the mods for the...

Has your DM ever had an enemy just come by and dispel the rope trick? Assuming they've observed you enough to know you use that, it seems like an obvious tactic to let some evil NPCs catch your party unprepared. Maybe even just dig a nice wide, deep hole under the rope and fill it with spikes...

A single 4th level druid goblin can summon wolves, a swarm of spiders and throw a thunderstone. That's everything I mentioned and would cover one night for keeping them up. They don't have rings of sustenance. (Speaking of quite a lot of resources.) Though, after this they may seek them...

I appreciate all of the concern regarding the impression that I'm railroading my PCs. I assure you, I'm not. It would take too much explaining to go over the reasons why not, but the biggest one is that if they figure out how to thwart the plan, I'll let them. My motivation for the scene...

I see why you'd say that, based on my post, but it's not the case. They can catch/kill the goblins, just not all of them. They do have some spells that could get around it, such as entangle. I expect them to use those spells and they'll get solid results from those actions. This will...