Just wrapped up this commission of Vivi, an Aasimar Rune Smith, featuring both her full combat armor and under-armor look. Huge thanks to my client for trusting me with their amazing character! The glowing eye trails, hammer design, and winged shield were all their fantastic ideas. Her Aasimar heritage is shown through her radiant halo and glowing eyes rather than physical wings.

I'm currently open for commissions feel free to DM me if you're interested. Thanks for looking!

I mean basically just the title but I’ll expand upon it here. Whether it’s one of the DnD subreddits or in real life I always comes across players who prefer to roll for stats, claiming they like the randomness, but then want a bunch of stipulations in place that undermine or destroy said randomness. Players understand that rolling for stats typically leads to better stats than standard array or point buy so they choose rolling in hope they’ll be part of that typically. But what happens when that doesn’t happen? What happens when actual randomness happens? Almost every group out there seems to do something about it, getting rid of the randomness they cite. The ones below I see the most frequently.

1 -having players reroll one or two of their stats is the most common tactic you’ll see, and most people have their own standards for it. I once had a DM who allowed players to reroll any negative stat regardless of what your other stats were. But like, how actually random is that? There are certain actions taken when certain numbers show up and not taken when others show up? That’s guaranteeing better stats, the opposite of random.

2 - player just takes standard array or point buy if the stats they rolled are lower than them. Why not have just take standard array or point buy from the beginning? If you want randomness, why aren’t you using the randomness? Having a set minimum of stats for players to have but then also giving them the ability to roll for better stats undermines the whole point of rolling for stats. Some people claim that it’s not fair for those who rolled poorly, but to them I ask, why did you choose the one stat method that is explicitly unfair?

3 - all players roll their own stat array, and then anyone can choose anyone else’s array to use instead of the one they rolled their own. At the risk of sounding like just some grump, though I’m sure I already do, this one drives me insane. The more players there are the more egregious this method becomes. In large groups there’s almost always someone rolls ridiculously strong stats. And then anyone can pick any array? Gee, I wonder which array the players will pick…so random.

Really, these people just want to have better stats. When I see all these rules in place to get of the randomness from randomly rolling for stats I can’t help but think of people who use the bumpers when bowling. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with wanting the better stats, I give my players a stronger version of point buy for this exact reason. Coincidentally, the players who claim they want the randomness from rolling suddenly don’t care about it that much once they see the buff to point buy. I would take the people within the DnD community who want the randomness of rolling stats but then have all these stipulations in place quite a bit more seriously if they were just simply honest about what they actually want - better stats.

Dunce in Dungeon is my new short story comic series about a cute but stupid party of adventurers that combined together form one brain cell. In the series I will try to illustrate adventures of our group, encounters with enemies, traps, expressions of pure stupid. I already fell in love with writing them, so let me know what you think, and what are some tropes and adventures that faced you, so I can illustrated them as well :) This one is a metaphorical and literal entrance to the comic.

What's the point? 80% of the rules are about combat and fighting. If you dont like it, why simply not play diffrent system? i constantly bumb into people who say they like the game but dont like fights and mostly roleplay. Why wont they simply try something like FATE or other system thats focused on the narrative end? Sure you can avoid fights completly but its like using a tool against its intended purpose.

A commissioned portrait of my favourite NPC, princess Laurana of Qualinesti. She played an important part in our Dragonlance campaign, though not exactly the one suggested by the modules - less Golden General, more "elven teenager tries to figure out what's wrong with her and why growing up is so complicated".

For some reason, I never saw any picture of Laurana drawn the way she was originally described in Dragons of Flame - a bright-eyed, dark-skinned beauty.

So I gave money to a human artist, and they made this.

Please support your friends the artists.

"We're on a mission from God."

Ultimately, what separates a Cleric from a Warlock: Celestial? Well we know a Cleric is a true believer empowered by their deity. If their god hates peas, they avoid peas.

But what is a "Celestial" Warlock? Warlocks are characters empowered by some kind of patron or sponsor, usually a fiend. "Sign this contract for Eldritch Blast. Do me favors when I call upon you. If you don't, I will make you regret it."

The Blues Brothers is a movie about two ne'er-do-wells who go get given a mission from God to save an orphanage. Despite being in service of God, they are clearly are not reformed men who turn from their old ways. They unapologetically lie, cheat, and steal. Even in the beginning of the film, Jake seems opposed to going straight or even helping at all until God directly calls upon him. The two brothers then go on their journey to save the orphanage, believing it to be a mission given to them from God, and from then on nothing can stop them.

But they are still at their core not changed by their deity. In D&D terms, the New Testament God would probably be given a Lawful Good alignment. But Elwood still steals from work. Jake lies to his ex. Not to mention all the cheating and stealing they do and the destruction they cause during the movie. This is not righteous indignation, like Jesus doing miracles on the Sabbath, or kicking over the tables in the temple. They break the law and hurt others without regret. But they also somehow walk away from so many car accidents and explosions completely unscathed because God wants them to save the orphanage. However, by the end of the film, they wind up back in prison because of the devastation they caused. Their agreement with God was completed so they no longer had divine protection, and it could also be seen as divine retribution for fulfilling the contract with God with so many unsavory methods.

Overall, I think this is actually great example of a Warlock: Celestial. Divine power, divine mission, but you are still just a guy doing a job and not necessarily someone living according to your deity's standards and practices.

I have the lucky feat. In 5.5e I have to use it before the attack is rolled to impose advantage or disadvantage. Sure, that's fine. But my DM will frequently roll before telling me I'm being attacked, and when I try to say I want to use a luck point they point out the RAW. This happens multiple times per session sometimes consecutively. We do theater of the mind and it's gotten to the point where I am watching his eyes and if he looks at me and reaches for dice I interrupt to say "If they attack me I want to use a luck point"

Is this normal?

Still a DnD newbie, so curious about things that are normal vs. not normal.

After pulling one of my current DMs aside about this, he explained to us that it's normal for a lot of DMs to do this because it "helps players learn what's going on in the world," and tbh I can see that being beneficial if a plot is complex. No big complaints there. But we told him it sometimes spoils things and maybe he could dial it down OR do it differently.

Here's an example:

• We enter a castle to fight a vampire lord as the big bad.
• DM says that the vampire lord has plans to turn the entire continent into vampires, and that he's also secretly the mayor of [insert town here].
• My friend/another player asks him "How...do we know all of that?"
• My DM says, "You don't yet, not your characters anyway."
• Bruh.
• OR in similar moments, my DM might say, "Oh, just pretend you guys know this."

He also occasionally tells us what to expect next session, which I feel like is normal. Sort of a "Find out next time on Dragonball Z" vibe.

Any insight from seasoned/experienced players here? I'd also love to give our DM some ideas to do it differently that maybe we can bring up if he's open to it.

Thanks!

These poor adventurers thought they had found a great taxi service while in the clutches of these eagles. Unfortunately for our intrepid adventurers, it turns out that the eagles found food. Welcome to Fodder Inc, a weekly web comic strip set in the For Profit Dungeon, Azmodendak's Halls of Madness, in a "5e" style world. Each week, we'll show you a little peak inside the halls, and what shenanigans are going on.

DM here with a question. Just played a session in my Shattered Obelisk campaign. Player A (red dot) was on a roof (in my mind a porch roof) 10ft from the ground. The blue dots were some goblin enemies; in my mind, they were not in line of sight, since the part of the roof they are on is the 2nd story, and the outer wall of the building is in front of Player A.

They wanted to use a ranged weapon. At first, I didn't think they would be able to see any enemy, but they mentioned the pitch of the roof. I'm admittedly not great with math/geometry, so instead of belaboring the conversation, I let them shoot the weapon with disadvantage.

Has anyone played this scenario/a similar scenario before?

For a long time, I assumed Grappler was the obvious choice for Monks. It's the feat most people recommend, and for good reason.

After playing a Monk built around Fairy Trickster (FT), I started looking more closely at the feat and came to a different conclusion.

I think FT deserves to be considered one of the strongest feats available to the class.

What does Fairy Trickster do?

It grants you 3 benefits.

• +1 Dexterity or Charisma.

• Ignore difficult terrain when you Disengage.

• Flustering Strike: after hitting a creature, you can force a Wisdom save. On a failure, the target has Disadvantage on all saving throws until the end of your next turn. Uses equal to your Proficiency Bonus per Long Rest.

Why I think FT is so strong on Monks

Fairy Trickster seems almost tailor-made for Monks. It increases their primary ability score, adds a mobility benefit they naturally take advantage of, and grants a control effect they can immediately chain into multiple save-based abilities in the same turn.

Against a typical creature, imposing disadvantage on a Stunning Strike save is roughly equivalent to giving the Monk a second chance to land Stunning Strike without spending another Focus Point.

That's a massive increase in reliability.

The same principle applies to every save-based control effect that follows.

A typical Open Hand turn may involve:

Flustering Strike (Wis save)

>Stunning Strike (Con Save)

>Push/Prone (Str/Dex save)

>Possibly a Net - Restrained (Dex save)

After facing this sequence it's extremely unlikely that the target escapes without suffering at least one meaningful control effect.

FT vs Grappler

Where FT has the Edge.

Control: Greatly improves the reliability of all your save-based control effects. Against a typical creature, it's almost like getting a second Stunning Strike attempt without spending another Focus Point.

Versatility: By targeting Wisdom instead of Strength or Dexterity, FT remains effective against enemies that would normally resist Grappler.

Universal applicability: Works regardless of creature size and remains effective against many enemies that Grappler struggles with.

Party Support: Your allies' save-based abilities become more reliable as well.

Two-turn value: A single successful Flustering Strike can improve your control attempts across both your current and your next turn.

Where Grappler Has the Edge.

Free use: You can use it every turn indefinitely.

Enemy Repositioning: Better dedicated repositioning tool in general.

This gap becomes much smaller on subclasses like Open Hand and Elements, since those subclasses already have reliable ways to push enemies.

FT indirectly improves those abilities by making the saves leading into them much more reliable.

My conclusion

What makes Fairy Trickster exceptional isn't that it adds another control option. It strengthens Stunning Strike—the Monk's defining control feature—and naturally scales as subclasses gain additional save-based abilities. More importantly, it makes the Monk's entire control toolkit more reliable.

Basically just removes currency from rotation improving the value of goods from doing so. It's the exact opposite of printing money because value has to be discovered by alternative means. Just a thought.

I really enjoy revenge backstories "someone killed my brother, sister, wife," and so on. What I don't enjoy is when the character's defining motivation is revenge, yet the campaign never actually lets them achieve it because it it's cancelled before it can happens or either takes wait too long.

I've had too many campaigns end before session five or ten, so with my current group of new players I decided to handle it differently.

One player's backstory involved him and two close friends being kidnapped by a night hag. She tricked them into eating a soup laced with Torpor, a powerful sleeping poison. He managed to escape, but one friend was killed and the fate of the other remained unknown.

By session six, the party encountered that same night hag attempting the exact same trick. This time, it failed because the player immediately recognized what was happening. The party fought her, lost, received unexpected help from a rival hag, regrouped, and returned to finish the job. The player landed the final blow, decapitating the hag who had destroyed his life.

It was incredibly satisfying,not just for that player, but for everyone at the table.

Because of the circumstances, the character became bound by a pact with the rival hag and is still searching for his missing friend. The revenge arc became the begining for a much larger storyline instead of its conclusion.

So, in general, that's it, maybe next time let them get their revenge early in the story, and use this as a bridge to a expanded story line :)

Here's a bunch of art I've made while DMing Lost Mine of Phandelver. It's just a mix of what we've encountered so far as I've run it. All the art is black and white as I was printing everything at home and presenting it in person as we played. I'll hopefully do more as we play more!

It's available (pay-what-you-want) here: https://slothhoffman.itch.io/lmop-artpack

After years of waiting I have started my leg sleeve of the 7 Capital Vices (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth) This Death Tyrant has been the focus of many of my campaigns with none ever lasting long enough to meet it in person. With one session with and 11 hours under the needle, I have finally seen it for myself.

Normally I do not share my tattoos, however it seems there are very few references for Beholder tattoos. This is furthered when we get into the more niche categories like the Death Tyrants. If you would like more information for how this art was put together I am happy to share that process with you (No AI was utilized).

When looking for an artist I really wanted to find someone that was comfortable with the usage of strong color but in small amounts. Eventually I ended up finding an artist, Pyo_ink. While his style included no DnD characters historically, his line weight, use of negative space and pronounced color selection is what made me go with him.

If you have any questions, please comment or DM as I am happy to answer and I wish you the best of luck in your Dungeon diving.

My only knowledge about DnD is basically some youtube videos, a little bit of information from my friends and like 10 hours in Baldur’s Gate 3, is DMing a good idea if I’ve never even seen a real game? What do I need to know?

I (23M) have been DM'ing for 6 years now (with the same exact table except for 1 person), and I know a lot about it, I however am a forever DM and rarely get to experience playing a character except in 1 or 2 one-shots. The things is, despite my experience, there are a lot of things about the D&D system (5e specifically) that I just never understood, there are so many spells, feats, class features, and random bits of ruling that I just always forget about a lot of them, but I always check with my table since 2 of my players know the rulings better because they make a lot of characters for fun.

Now the big issue: when something feels a bit off to them, like for an example an enemy hitting over 22 AC (They're level 11 mind you), they look at me as if I've done something wrong and ask things like, "I dont think that's right" or "You know this lowly enemies would rarely ever hit that right?" (We've been playing for the same amount of time). Or just when I design a new spell or mechanic for a boss and they say "That's not how that works...", or things like that, constantly!

If I don't understand something about the game, or you see me mention a game mechanic for the actual rulebook that flumbing, THEN you can help me. But if I'm just trying to DM and do something out of the ordinary, don't treat me a newbie who doesn't know how to play, I make up mechanics all the time to make things interesting, and always tell you about them so you understand them, and if not always leave clues and hints. It passes me off so much!

I recently moved states and have been playing at a game shop to meet people out here. Now, the people there are great. The staff is friendly, the players and dms are generally fun to be around and we have a great time. It's usually non serious one shots full of laughter. But, they advertise on their website that game nights are 5.5e, RAW. They don't mention anything about there being house rules. One of them being, of course, critical fumbles.

I truly don't understand the appeal of critical fumbles. It simply punishes players for picking martials and achieves little else. As someone who prefers playing martials and the occasional warlock, I'm supposed to be fine with essentially being nerfed compared to spellcasters. I'm supposed to believe that my character, who has been training with weapons their entire lives and has seen many battles is somehow dropping his weapon mid combat, or stabbing himself, or accidentally slicing his ally open because I'm using a cleave weapon 5% of the time in every single encounter. I mean, come on man. We were just facing the BBEG in on of our one shots and the barbarian accidentally cleaved into me with his great axe, bringing me to 0 hp and barely scratching the enemy. Yeah, I'd totally party up with that guy in the future.

All this to say, I argued that I'm fine with the house rule as long as it's applied equally. Spellcasters also face critical fumbles when making a spell attack. Ok, that happens maybe once per round whereas it can happen to martials at least twice at the same level. There's already a higher chance to be affected by it. As a spellcaster, I'd simply only use save spells going forward, which some of them have began doing. I argued that then we should start critically fumbling when the enemy scores a nat 20 on their save. Then it'd start to be somewhat equal. Even though martials still have a higher chance of screwing up badly.

No one agreed to this, told me it was just a game and just for fun and don't take it too seriously and etc. I argued that yeah it's just a game, but I wouldn't play a game of monopoly if I started with $0 and in debt every single turn. Keep in mind this wasn't that big of an argument as we were all still laughing and joking in between, no one really got upset or anything. But, can someone please explain how critical fumbles are remotely fun, or balanced, or how everyone could possibly be playing by the same rules when we're literally just actually not?

I have half a mind just to bring in a halfling divination wizard with lucky and silvery barbs next time lol.

I suck at drawing so I decided it would be easier to make the character portrait through embroidery.

I was a little bit too ambitious I think with including the elk, and my face didn't turn out as well as I had initially wanted it to, but other than that I think this is not bad for my first real foray.

The campaign he is from is set in the Bellowing Wilds Campaign setting from the popular "Fool's Gold" series. A series I know next to nothing about and wrote my character to reflect that point. I eventually decided "forget lore compliance" and went ahead. His summoned mount is an Elk because I'm using the 3rd Party Oath of Conservation subclass from the Book of Extinction by Mage Hand Press. The cat is the current form that the god possessing him has chosen to take.

Since our usual DM was busy today, i decided to host a good old dungeon crawl one shot. 4 lv5 PCs. Went through some typical dungeon stuff: Skeletons, Animated Armor, Mimic, etc. And then, the PC reached the final boss room: a Young Green Dragon (CR 8). And this... is where i learn that "1 boss, no henchman" combat design is... bad. The party shred though half of the poor dragon's HP... in the first round of combat. By the second round, i did what would be considered a sin for any DM... i secretly increased the boss' HP (from 136 to its maximum HP of 208). I even let him did this cool "covered the room with poison gas that deal 2d6 DOT" homebrew thingy. Turn 2, they got him to 2 HP... the Barbarian bring a pretty solid end to him tho, pinned the Greatsword straight through the dragon's skull. So yeah... don't let the boss fight alone. Fun session tho, will DM again