D&D 5E Some Gems I Have Forgotten In The DMG

[Parmandur]

Tables. The whole lot!

I can come with all kind of villain NPCs, but I'm not sure I'd made a gold dragon who over-enunciate his words resorting to extortion to (re)conquer his tower as campaign villain.

This, big time.

 

[pukunui]

The scroll mishaps and mixing potions tables (pg 140) are fun, though I can't say we've used them at all.

I think a scroll mishap has occurred once in all my years of running 5e games. My players seem generally pretty averse to the risk involved in trying to use a higher-level spell scroll.

As for potions, sadly no one has ever drunk more than one potion at the same time, so this one has never come up.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

I think a scroll mishap has occurred once in all my years of running 5e games. My players seem generally pretty averse to the risk involved in trying to use a higher-level spell scroll.

As for potions, sadly no one has ever drunk more than one potion at the same time, so this one has never come up.

Yeah, I feel like I've been shirking some of my DM duties by not coming up with ideas to trick encourage the players to try these things!

 

[Azzy]

The Special Features section (pg 141-143) is a good reminder that we can bring a bit more flair to Magic Items in our campaigns.

Word! I use the heck out of that section.

Next up, special combat actions!

I really wish that they had covered more of the combat actions from 2e and 3e, but I dig what's there.

Morale rules

I'm actively disappointed by the morale rules—they need beefing up.

 

[cbwjm]

I'm actively disappointed by the morale rules—they need beefing up.

Yeah, maybe. But if you want something simple to determine when a group of enemies breaks, this works well enough. It also gives you a good starting point to tweak it if you want more to it. Things like fanatic or disciplined might grant advantage on the check, or remove the need for it altogether.

 

[dave2008]

I often remind people about the Improvised Damage section in Chapter 8 of the DMG. It is useful for various situations like when you want the dragon to slap the ceiling and cause a cave-in while it escapes the PCs.

I was just going to bring that up. It is one of my staples. That with the DC tables and monster stats by CR table and I can improvise an encounter without a stat block.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Handling Mobs (p 250)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Word! I use the heck out of that section.


I really wish that they had covered more of the combat actions from 2e and 3e, but I dig what's there.

Yeah, I think they did a good job of showing what you can do without trying to cover everything, but a poor job of sufficiently explaining that you should view the rules as a toolkit to draw from in order to make the game you need at the this table, in this campaign/adventure/encounter/scene.

I'm actively disappointed by the morale rules—they need beefing up.

Passive Intimidation, morale bonuses to saves against fear (even the untrained peasant army can become brave if the odds are strongly in their favor), some mechanics to form boss within a party and get higher morale by doing so, etc.

 

[Laurefindel]

I always liked the section on epic boons. Many of them work nicely as one-off freebies as mechanical rewards that are not XPs. So while I never used it as intended, I refer to it regularly.

 

[dave2008]

I always liked the section on epic boons. Many of them work nicely as one-off freebies as mechanical rewards that are not XPs. So while I never used it as intended, I refer to it regularly.

Supernatural gifts (and Blessings) too. People think of Theros with those, but they are right there in the DMG. I haven't used them much, but they would be a great way to do mythic heroes like Theros.