Let's say a PC has 100 hp, then gains the benefits of a heroes' feast and winds up at 110 hp. These are real hp, not temp hp.

Later, this PC is fighting a 2024 demilich and gets hit by its energy drain attack, reducing their maximum hp by 14.

Now, in the moment obviously the PC's maximum hp drops to 96. What happens when heroes feast wears off though? Do they stay at 96 hp or drop to 86?

My rule would be stay at 96 but I'm interested in any conflicting opinions.

Yesterday ran for a first time this one for my friends birthday

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/170937/the-wild-sheep-chase-a-single-session-adventure

I liked its goofy energy, also it was my first time running pre-written story, I kind of liked it

I feel like this is a great exercise for me as a DM to improve my skills, so I want to try something new

would love to hear about your favorite one-shots

Hi everyone! I'm running The House of Lament (5e 2014) next week for an online campaign (5 players) on Roll20 / Discord. I've played a lot of in-person D&D but this is my first time running online -- the PCs are all my friends from college.

The House of Lament is an adventure set in Ravenloft (a la Curse of Strahd) and a key part of the plot progression is live seances the players perform with various ghouls/spirits/haunts of the house. If I were running this campaign in person, the adventure dictates to use a physical ouija board to simulate these seances, where the spirits communicate various messages to the players. The more seances you do, the more the house "awakens" and you unlock hints for various quests within the house.

Running this campaign online, I'm trying to think of how I might adapt this -- and was curious if other people have encountered this before (esp now as we approach Halloween season)? A couple ideas I have:

• Scrap the board altogether, prompt the players to work together to engage in escalating rituals using a "theatre of the mind" / arranging the tokens on the board approach, then maybe design new traps based on this approach / the orientation of the players?
• Curious if there's an online tool to simulate a board?? It seems less fun though when you aren't actually touching the item.

It's a dramatic retelling of one of my fav plays (I like writing :> feel free to give some constructive criticism)

The context is as such: we were having a hunger games inspired oneshot, where it leaned heavily on combat and PVP. The relevant characters are a cleric, a barbarian, and I played a rouge. Additionally, each character has companion NPCs at the beginning of combat to help account for action economy. Both of the cleric and barbarian's companions are dead.

After a brutal back and forth with each other, with the barbarian having been paralyzed at one point, they both only have 1/3 of their hit points left. They both are desperate for any grasps of survival.

As the barbarian hulked over the cleric, greataxe in hand, the player was about to attack.

Until.

"Wait, let's talk about this." The cleric begged. "If you kill me, then the rouge will easily win this fight."

Normally the barbarian would heed no mind, let out a grizzly growl, and cleft the beggar in twain.

But this time, he knows. After he killed the cleric, he would have to deal with me. I was in a rather advantageous position, with half of a shortbow's maximum range between us. He needed to do something about that.

And so, he uncharacteristically responded. "What's your idea?"

"We'll deal with that camping bastard together, you rush him, and I'll heal you in return."

The barbarian thought about it, he is aware of potential tricks, but he knows he can kill the cleric either way.

"Fine. How do you want to go about this?

"Well. If you can just agree to let me cast a spell on you, that would be great."

The barbarian agreed, giving the cleric an alert gaze.

"I cast warding bond."

At this point both me and the DM though about it. What is the cleric planning?

Then we realised.

That sly son of a bitch.

"You see my dear barbarian." The cleric began to conduct their dastardly plan. " Warding bond is a a bit of a special spell. It gives you +1 ac and resistance, but in exchange for one little thing."

I still remember the grin he had saying this.

"Whatever damage I take, you take."

Both me and the DM erupted in awe, the sheer audacity to pull that off.

To the astute readers here, you may think that 'oh he can just walk 60m' or 'it doesn't share hit points, he can just kill the cleric'.

Yes, you're right about that. But the spell itself is not the act of genius. Instead, it's because of one thing.

The barbarian does not know how spell works.

Quite stereotypically, the barbarian does not understand spells and refuses to learn them. THIS is what the cleric took advantage of.

So the barbarian on his mind though that if the cleric dies, he dies. He spent the most of the battle trying to keep the cleric alive.

Using this tactic, he went on to be one of the last people to die. Though he may have died in the end, that play alone cemented him as the MVP of the session. Hell, I didn't even give a shit that I won.

Nice playing, you devious bastard

If a character received Bane's help and became a successful tyrant, ruling with an iron fist and the necessary cruelty, but his true motivations were noble things such as ensuring humanity's survival, maintaining peace in the country, and stopping the Chaos Gods, and if he also had very strict principles that he would never violate, such as never experimenting on people or practicing slavery, would Bane still despise him and eventually stab him in the back, even if the character managed to remain a powerful tyrant under all these conditions?

I'm looking to build some dnd adventures, short one shots 5-10 hours a piece. I've got several cool ideas, but my main goal is that a DM can pick one up and without prep add it to their game. For those nights where someone didn't show up and you do a 1 shot, or you realize that it's wednesday and forgot to prepare this week, etc.

I want them to look nice and I was just going to use homebrewery but if there's something better then I'd love to learn how to use it and make them look as nice and easy to use as possible

Hey guys!

I love Homebrewing stuff for my players, but actually using it at the table was always a bit of a chore. That’s why I started building Homebrewcodex.

You can create Classes, Species, Backgrounds, Feats, Items and Spells. Build a Character and use it in a fully interactive Character Sheet. Or atleast that’s the goal.

It’s currently still in development, that‘s why I’m here looking for homebrew enthusiasts who want to try it out.

If you’re interested please check it out at:
https://homebrewcodex.app

And if you find any bugs, missing features or have any other suggestions feel free to send me a DM or email me at: social@homebrewcodex.app

AI disclaimer: I’m developing Homebrew Codex with AI assistance for coding, debugging and implementing features, or you could say it’s Vibecoded. The app is made to create your own homebrew content manually, not to generate it using AI.

So premise of SKT is that Annam "dissolved the Ordning" and threw giant society into chaos. My question is what exactly does that mean and how do any of the giants know what happened? Kind of the central point of giant lore, and especially storm giants, is that Annam has abandoned them and doesn't answer prayers. All of the lore on storm giants in Volo's says they're basically so desparate to "bring him back" that they devote their entire lives to searching for even a clue to a hint to a single part of how to bring him back. But then apparently he's still so invested in their doings that he sends a message that the single unifying thing among the giant races just doesn't apply any more? And apparently the Ordning being dissolved is more important to everyone than actual contact with the guy they've all been trying to contact for thousands of years. And then not only that but it sounds like he basically just told them the answer "I'm pissed because you guys are too busy doing your own thing instead of taking over the world" which also seems obvious since he abandoned them in the first place because they let their empire fall.

I'm going to be running a campaign soon that will utilize primarily random encounter rolls (basically I have many encounters planned, but the order and timing will be based on rolls and how the players approach). I have always hated the "roll a d20, monsters show up on 18+" or similar, and so I'm interested in hearing other ideas. My current ideas include:

• Every roll is SOMETHING: This is a system I wrote myself for a previous campaign. Basically, every "period of time" (depending on danger of the area, usually 2 hours of travel, or 10 minutes in a dungeon) you roll 2d10.
  • 2-8 is a complication -- maybe a combat, or an obstacle in the road, or the weather gets worse, etc. 2 is hardest, 3-5 medium, and 6-8 easy
  • 9-14 is a "safe travel" world-building encounter -- no real mechanical effect, just some easter eggs about the world (e.g. they spot a dragon hunting in the distance, or they find a lost love letter in the woods, etc.).
  • 15-20 is a lucky break -- they find a helpful traveler, or a lost magic item, etc. 15 is the most benign, 20 is the best.
  • My problem with this one was that it ended up difficult to create enough unique encounters to keep it interesting, especially with 6-14 coming up so much more often than anything else.
    • I also recently came up with the idea to add in Daggerheart's "Hope" and "Fear" dice to adjust encounters -- for instance if they roll a 6 but the fear die is higher, they might be ambushed, but if the hope die is higher they might spot the enemy in advance -- but I haven't actually tried implementing it yet, so I don't know if it works.
• AngryGM's Tension Pool: Every time the players take a time consuming or reckless action, roll the Time Pool (starts as a d6, adds one more die as more actions happen). If a 1 is rolled, an encounter happens.
  • I really like how this keeps tension building, and allows players to control the rolls by choosing when to take more time consuming actions. My one issue with it is I don't want every random encounter to be a combat/obstacle -- I want some good encounters, like the "15-20" above -- but those feel weird to be adding to building tension.
• Deck of Cards: I heard about this one online a few years ago, basically you have a deck of cards with various encounters (both positive, negative, mixed, and many blank), and whenever "time passes" you draw one card.
  • This one was intriguing because every monster and every treasure was somewhere in the deck. It was up to the party how far to push to find the treasures before needing to leave.

So, what methods do others use? Are there any other cool ideas out there to borrow and share?

------------------------------------------------

EDIT: Just to clarify, this is not about just rolling "which random monster do you fight next?" I fill my encounter tables with story-focused and character-centric encounters (some combats, some not) -- I just want some randomization for *when* those encounters happen.

A character was killed in my campaign and as a neat plot thread I am playing with the idea of letting the character be revived by an entity. What do you think is a decent trade-off to be able to go on? I thought about giving the player access to the wild magic table like the Wild Magic Sorcerer has in exchange for drawing on their Constitution. Is this too harsh or too much of a benefit?

He plays a character build around teleporting, maybe even set the trigger of Wild Magic to him teleporting?

I am a bit unsure about if this is a good idea. Let me know what you think.

As time goes on more spells are added to 5e, and it's great fun getting access to new stuff. But, as someone not familiar with old stuff - is there a spell (or other ability I guess, for the non casters), whether low level or high, that 5e doesn't have and you think was cool?

So I've been playing this new system lately called Immortal Die(not sponsored) that balances racial flight in an interesting way. There's a flying race, but flying requieres concentration. And honestly, that would kinda make sense for DnD? Because it puts it more in line with the Fly spell, and makes it more counterable. Because sure you can just make them Prone or reduce their speed to 0, but not every monster can do that, specially not at range. But you know what every monster with a ranged attack CAN do? Damage.

Now, it's a harsh nerf, but I think it's fair. Racial flight is currently a sidegrade to a 3rd level spell, because while it doesn't requiere concentration(which is a big upside), it does restrict the armor you can wear and only works on yourself. But it's a sidegrade with infinite uses. If it did require concentration, then it would be strictly worse than the spell. With makes sense, because its a racial ability, which aren't supposed to have roughly the same power as a 3rd level spell. I mean imagine if tomorrow WOTC came out with a new race that could give themselves the benefits of the Haste spell, infinitely and with no action or concentration needed, but also they nerfed it somewhat by not allowing you to attack with the extra action. It would still be stupid broken, right? Well that's basically what races with flight are now

I really like being a dumb muscly orc barbarian, literally my favorite flavor of DND character, but I often find myself getting analysis paralysis trying to play them because like... I'm not that dumb. I'm not Einstein or anything, I'd say I'm perfectly average, maybe even a little below, but I just feel like when I go to play my character the only "dumb" things I can think to do would actively be a detriment to the party in a not fun way, so 99% of the time I'm just playing a dude who hits things and that's about it.

What are your strategies for appearing stupid in game when playing a stupid character, without being stupid in ways that get you all killed? So far the way I've been doing this is just having my guy never think to question what's going on, and just take everything at face value, but that just doesn't feel like enough when playing a character who's entire defining characteristic is being dumb.

For reference I'm kinda going for like Patrick Star vibes, only if Patrick occasionally started frothing at the mouth, and giving people cte with a big hammer.

Trying to explain what a Gnome is to a non-dnd player. Turns out they know nothing about gnomes (not even the garden variety!). How do I explain them in a short and relatable way?

I have a question about using polymorph on a beast sidekick: would I be able to transform them into another beast based on their stat block CR or based on their sidekick level?

For context, I am a level 7 druid (the whole party is level 7) and have a white rabbit as a sidekick with the warrior sidekick class. The polymorph spell description says

The new form can be any beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's (or the target's level, if it doesn't have a challenge rating)

The rabbit has both a CR of 0 and level of 7, so which can I use for the transformation? I just got access to polymorph and really want to turn this little rabbit into a CR7 giant ape

Edit: We are using the sidekick rules from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

I’ve only played in one campaign so far (its still ongoing lol) but my character is a Bard, and since bards are a jack of all trades (well most. they don’t usually tank) it’s helped me to figure out what roles I like working with.

I’d really like playing as:

• Scout (best non-combat role ever change my mind /lh) (sneaky stealthy stuff is super fun though)
• Blaster (I do wish my bard had more damage stuff)
• Healer (every party needs one and I like helping people stay alive)

And the role that I would hate to play as is:

• Face (funnily enough my bard is NOT the face. that honor goes to our swashbuckler rogue)

Generally speaking, when it comes to roleplay I like being able to get high rolls on skills (so yeah maybe add Skill Monkey lol), and although the spotlight can be on me occasionally, I don’t want it so much as to become the Face or the Main Character. I want to be useful, but I don’t want the pressure of having everything Depend On Me.

also sorry I dont want to play Paladin that would be the worst possibility for me lol

Also even though there isnt a lot of rush or anything, the reason I made this post is because I always want to be prepared. I don’t know WHEN I’ll be in another campaign, but I want to be able to make the right decision for said campaign.

Also also. Keep in mind I’ve only played D&D once (aka this ongoing first campaign), and have only played a Bard before.

EDIT: I should’ve clarified im ok with only having 2 out of 3 roles lol

I had specifically struggled to choose between Cleric, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Warlock because Druid and Wizard seem pretty hard to play for a now-1st timer, someday-to-be-2nd timer lol. I also don’t want to multiclass

Hello!! This is just for personal fun, I'd like to play a character based off of a photo of an albino porcupine!! He's a very soft, round, white little guy, and immediately inspired me.

I'm not the biggest fan of bugbears as they're typically portrayed, and a porcupine doesn't much fit a firbolg, but I'd like the character to be about that size. Any input?

porcupine for anyone who would like to see

Hi everyone. So, I recently picked up 007: First Light. Absolutely fantastic game, loved it. Playing it, I developed the idea for some sort of medieval spy or assassin that served a kingdom. I was thinking of basing it off of James Bond, and various other characters, like Ethan Hunt from Mission Impossible and Peter/Pietro from Killer Peter/Killer Pietro. A suave charismatic spy that excels at stealth and high stakes situation, while also possessing the ability to fight someone head on. Rogue is ofc a good class for this, but I'm trying to figure out his ability scores, as well as whether to multiclass him into a Battlemaster Fighter for the manuvers (especially precision attack and ambush) or to go for Monk for that h2h feel.

Been playing D&D for almost a year now and wanted to try DMing a campaign among close friends based on Assassin's Creed system of having a high-tech modern day character entering a simulation of their ancestors, with the time period of their ancestors being a high fantasy late-Neolithic period (transitioning into the Chalcolithic age).
- Meaning no writing, no mass spread currency, most technology doesn't exist.
- However, the same monsters, dinosaurs, and other prehistorical creatures all exist at the same time.
Wanted some help worldbuilding and deciding how to go about reworking mechanics for DND to match both a high-tech and also primal setting. If there's a better system, I'm somewhat open to running it, though my group is most comfortable with DND 5e.

General lore ideas:

Modern Age:
- Magic in the is dying, Gods are alive but silent, & technology overpowers magic.
- Magic flows through focus points in the world and PCs are tasked with finding a way to bring back magic.
- Most races other than humans are isolationists that hide away.

Prehistoric Age:
- Magic is ancient and an unknown mystery left by a previous fallen higher tech civilization (this civilization will be around the same technology as official DND aka medieval fantasy)
- This ancient civilization built those magic focus points that are fading in the modern setting.
- Humanity are barely starting villages and farming.
- Elves have existed longest, are more civilized, higher tech, and utilize magic better than any other race.
- Dwarves second longest living race, are greedy miners and recently discovered metallurgy.
- Other races will have more defining traits (example: Tritons are basically Atlanteans that guard old submerged ruins)

Gameplay mechanics:
- The players will make two characters and swap between each character when big story beats happen in each world.
- Loot and level ups gained by the ancestor will be learned, replicated and upgraded by the descendant, meaning they'll both gain power.
- The descendant playing the ancestor won't have outside knowledge of the time they're from.
Example: Ancestor gets a wand, the descendant fabricates that same wand and mounts it onto a power-enhancing weapon frame.
- Time spent in the simulation moves slower but still passes. If the ancestor dies, they'll swap to another ancestor in the same family. The descendant will rarely be in life threatening scenarios but if they die, revival means are available (like cloning with long-term consequences).

I'm DMing a new game for my friends and I had the beginnings of an idea.

Thought I'd ask here if anyone has done this before (which is likely) or if anyone had their own ideas from this that could help me.

I was thinking it would be cool that if the players are attuned to more than one magical item at a time, the two or three items would interact and create secondary effects.

I'm not sure if all the effects should be good or if there should be some hindering effects as well.

In my setting the weave is having bizzar effects especially at high levels and the characters are going to investigate it, hopefully 🙃

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, thanks!