New DM Quest Rewards available on DM's Guild

[kalani]

Correct (it says so in the DM Quest instructions for the Initiate quest). Also, with the exception of the item not counting against your MI total - it follows the same rules as for the "Special Starting Items" from season 1-3 DM folios.

1) It can only be applied to a new character (one that has 0XP)
2) The character must have the same story origin as the certificate (CoS in this case).

You can however, add DM rewards to the character after adding the cert - but the character still needs to have played zero adventures at the time you give them the cert.

 

[RCanine]

DMs need to buck up and learn how to min/max the resources they have available. First thing I do in any mod is look for a spell caster. If there is one (almost always is) and I know some (one or more) of the players are min/maxers, I'll edit their spell list for maximum effect. Greater Invis right before the players arrive + counterspell = shut down Wizard/Sorc/Warlock. If you're starting higher level, then the enemy casters will also have better spells. Watch in hilarity as the spell caster is shut down by the BBEGs/support wizard's Greater Invis'd Simulacrum who had Contingency -> Greater Invis if someone tries to Counterspell him.

I remember Baldur's Gate 2, where basically every fight started off with a caster who had a minor globe of invulnerability or immunity to normal missiles or whatnot and every fight just boiled down to a CC-off, and if you ran out of memorized dispel magic slots, you'd just have to load the autosave because it was impossible to actually kill anything. I'd hate for 5e to become the same.

 

[RulesJD]

I remember Baldur's Gate 2, where basically every fight started off with a caster who had a minor globe of invulnerability or immunity to normal missiles or whatnot and every fight just boiled down to a CC-off, and if you ran out of memorized dispel magic slots, you'd just have to load the autosave because it was impossible to actually kill anything. I'd hate for 5e to become the same.

The concentration mechanic takes care of that. I'm not saying bring the hammer down on every party, but using the resources available is significantly better DMing than getting upset and DM fiating one player into oblivion. The system is there to shutdown mix/maxers (I'm horribly guilty of min/maxing) but requires the DM to know the system.

 

[Pauper]

Im yet to download the DM Rewards, but am guessing the flood of people posting selfies with the sheet is a reward? I was gonna wait until the corrections were made.

Yep -- it's the task for the Ritual of Scrying DM Quest. At first, only the completists were doing it, because there was no listed reward, but when the update was released indicating a 500XP reward, the population of selfie-takers exploded.

--
Pauper

 

[Ainulindalion]

Ritual of Scrying + Ritual of Divination = 5 minutes to get 3 3rd level characters. Of course people are going to do it.

 

[devlin1]

OR start your next six characters at 2nd level!

 

[felwred]

Kalani - great catch on how to apply the DM rewards certificate. I didn't realize that it could only be done for a character starting in that season. Thank you for clarifying it!

Fred

 

[felwred]

I do have to disagree with a previous poster about objecting to the system. Many DM's don't often get a chance to play. When we do, it's nice to have the option to do something other than a level 1 character - especially if there is an interesting higher level adventure. I added up what I've earned DMing as a lark recently and prior to the new rewards, I had earned 20K xp 500+ downtime days, and around 10K gold between summer of 2014 to February 2016 DMing virtually every week. That was good enough to let me start a tier 2 character with no magic equipment other than the current season DM cert (BTW - I didn't see it because the local shop where I run games didn't get season 3 packets but was there a season 3 DM rewards cert?) Now, I can realistically work out having a level 11 or 12 character for a tier 3 adventure (there are 2 DDALs plus the latter sections of RoT, OoA, PoA, and Epics) (plus Author Only adventures) that can fit into the characters my friends are playing within 3-4 months. It's a smart idea.

Having DM's award more XP for being more experienced as a DM makes sense as does awarding consumables. I am with the earlier poster on not adding permanent magic items for PCs based on experience. The qualifications to be able to do so are pretty extreme, though - it is unlikely more than a couple dozen DMs nationwide will hit that mark (I likely won't be one of them).

Fred

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

Kalani - great catch on how to apply the DM rewards certificate. I didn't realize that it could only be done for a character starting in that season. Thank you for clarifying it!

Fred

To be more specific, it can only be used on characters with that particular Story Origin. The certificate can be redeemed on a character made in another season, but must use the Story Origin of the season that awarded the certificate.

 

[kalani]

To be more specific, it can only be used on characters with that particular Story Origin. The certificate can be redeemed on a character made in another season, but must use the Story Origin of the season that awarded the certificate.

Correct. For example, if you decide to DM full time this season, you can use the CoS DM Reward cert in season 5 or even season 6, however it must be applied to a brand new Level 1 character with the "Curse of Strahd" Story origin.