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Some background: - We are a group of 6 players (myself included) of varying levels of experience - Still playing online/virtual only - Scheduling is very challenging and session length varies because of real-life, kids, odd work schedules, etc. So I'm looking for a campaign that supports the...

As a DM, one of my favorite things is introducing the starting town or "home base" to the PCs. I love bringing the town to life and hopefully making the PCs feel connected and a place they want to be. A good map also goes a long way in doing that. Like most of us, my free time is a luxury so...

Overall I like the monk class. But I don't like how heavily skewed it is to Dex builds. Strength-based monks are almost inferior in every way unless focused on grappling, and even that is better server by other classes. I'm starting to introduce my son to D&D and he's really excited to play a...

I've been brainstorming on a D&D campaign using Saltmarsh as the home base but set in a region similar to the Caribbean (lots of islands, tropical/tropical savanna climate). I always try to find imagery when working on a campaign both for my own inspiration but also to set the stage for the...

When creating a new campaign, one of the first and most important things I focus on is immersion. From the first few lines of the intro flavor text, I want the players to understand where their characters are right away. The cliche of course if for them to "feel like they are there."...

Given the amount of discussions in the past few days, they would be better organized into their own forum. Thanks.

After concentration popped up again in a recent thread, I dug out my own notes and revisited the topic. Here's my quick take on the concentration mechanic: The concentration mechanic has been a great addition to 5E. Some spells are hurt more than others by requiring concentration and therefore...

I'm putting together a new sandbox campaign and I'm looking for a few premade dungeons to sprinkle into the local region. I'll be using Saltmarsh as the home base so it's a coastal setting with a big nasty swamp and a big nasty forest nearby. Off the coast is a large island chain, much of which...

Just a random thought/observation while doing some design work lately. Why doesn't the Wizard get proficiency in Arcana for free? Why doesn't the Druid or Ranger get Nature or Survival? Why doesn't the Beast Master doesn't get Animal Handling? Nature domain gets a choice of a skill, including...

There's been a lot of heavy topics lately so feels like a good time for another nice and calm ranger discussion. :LOL: Anyway, I'm I'm starting a new campaign (coastal/island sandbox with Saltmarsh as the home base) and I finally have a player who is going to play a ranger. I'm definitely in...

I've been following along (as much as I can) the numerous discussions on WotC's recent statements. For the record, I'm in favor of anything that makes the game more inclusive and welcoming for everyone at the table. The main question I have is whether a culture of sentient beings (or "race" for...

I have a potential encounter coming up next session that will involve a wagon chase, specifically the PCs helping a group of wagons to escape. The DMG chase rules are fairly rudimentary and don't really apply much to vehicles. I could wing it of course but I'd like something a bit more...

And more specifically, the Sunsword and Holy Symbol of Ravenkind. So the basic concept of Ravenloft is that the domains are prisons for the darklords created by the Dark Powers. Strahd is cursed to be forever punished for Tatyana's death. I subscribe to the idea that Ravenloft is basically a...

Because of this thread (which you should read, it's good stuff!), I took a look at some of the variant rules in the DMG (also a must-read). Anyway, I haven't tinkered with Initiative variants very much. While the RAW system isn't perfect, I also haven't seen any variant system that offers...

The "Fixing the fighter" thread was a...spirited...discussion, and one that I'm not interested in repeating here. However, there were a lot of good ideas presented for giving the fighter some non-combat (social/exploration) abilities. I'm interested in continuing that brainstorm here. I've been...

While I'm not opposed to the variant human, I don't really like that it's the only race that gets a feat. It's a huge outlier across all the races and a big boost in power right out of the gate. I know some people restrict the feats that can be chosen but I prefer a more elegant solution...

So I've decided to run the tier 1 DDAL5 modules as a mini-campaign for a group of new players. I've been doing some prep and considering a couple of ideas: 1. The Black Road says it's optimized for 5 3rd-level characters. Since this will be an inexperienced group, I want to start them at level...

I recently posted that I may be starting a new campaign for a group of inexperienced yet highly enthusiastic players. I want to keep things relatively simple at the start and prep relatively low. I've been looking at some of the WotC offerings other than LMoP (which I really like but want to run...

So I might be starting a new campaign for pretty much all new players. Lots of interest and my sense is that there could be some very good role-players. However, there is probably little to no experience with actually playing D&D. Given my lack of prep time, my first choice is to run a...

I'm almost always the DM but a player in my group wanted to try his hand at DMing so we started a side game and we just hit 3rd level. I'm currently playing a bard because I've wanted to try the class for a long time. I'm going College of Lore and focusing on buffs and crowd control. 3rd level...