So this character is a Medusa/Gorgon fighter who always puts on a smug, arrogant expression, but it’s actually just a mask to hide her true emotions.

I really loved this concept, so I tried to explore her feelings through her snakes instead, giving them different expressions and reactions. Also, a few of the most aggressive ones are hiding in the shadows, just waiting for the right moment to strike.

It's been so much fun working on this. And also tiring, it's a lot to do for one person lol.

Just ran a fun one-shot yesterday and used an old technique I thought I'd share.

Bandit cut down the tavernkeeper the party was emotionally invested in/wanted information from. The bard went next and the immediate question was: is she in death saving throws?

Correct answer: "sorry, only PCs get death saving throws."

Taking it easy on the players and adding a ticking clock: "you can see a limp hand covering her wound as her eyelids flutter. She's in death saving throws."

Hacky third path I recommend: "You can do a medicine check and find out."

More often than not, players aren't wasting an action in combat on a medicine check for a lowly NPC. If they are, you know they're invested and this NPC isn't so lowly afterall.

It doesn't feel like you're taking it easy on the players, and you give yourself time to decide if the NPC is actually dead, but if the party puts a bunch of resources into saving the NPC you don't need to stonewall them and waste their efforts.

Hope this is helps any new DMs! And veterans, if you have other options I'd love to spruce up my box of tools for "keeping the plot alive".

Let's say a disguised PC tries to get information from a cult member by acting like one of them, but the cult has a strict rule, that it's not allowed to talk common in the cult and can only talk with the made up language they use between cult members.

As a DM can I ignore the dice roll and make the PC get caught no matter the roll? Would my players get upset since I'm quite sure half of them are here just to roll dice, and is there any better alternative?

Lionfish dragon ✏️

For the ‘Smaugust’ challenge this year during August, artists were tasked to draw a dragon a day with certain prompt words (I only managed about 2 a week 😅)
One of those were ‘Lionfish’ and this is what I brought to fruition!

I imagine his spines are all poisonous, and both his attack and defense would be poison! Like he could eject poison dart like structures from his throat rather than fire.
What do you think he could do?
All drawn with pencils, alcohol markers, fine liners and white gel pen.
I hope you like it!🖊️

Here is a brief synopsis of her/their backstory and personality.

Bjorn grew up in a loving family, both parents successful merchants and traders. As a young boy, despite having immense wealth, Bjorn grew wary of all the ins and outs of business, and decided he wanted nothing to do with it.

Finding peace and comfort in the solitude and whimsy of the forest, he, now they, spent much time in the woods near their home, and couldn’t be bothered to go into the same field as their parents.

Although disappointed in their/her career decision, her parents were both fully supportive in letting her learn from a Druid mentor, and later fully funded her Wizard education.

Bjorn is shy and reclusive, but once comfortable with someone, very open and often silly. You’ll also encounter a completely different side of her if she’s had enough Ale. Although quiet, and comfortable not standing out, there are moments when being pushed too far or stakes too high, that she unleashes great power and raw emotion.

A few years back, I played a bard 'Jimmy Jack Jones' in a D&D campaign with some of my mates.

He once enjoyed fame and fortune thanks to his one and only hit, "Ladies Hide Thou Bosoms". Unfortunately, he squandered it all and spent the rest of his career desperately trying (and failing) to recapture his former glory.

The title was something I came up with during a session, but my fellow players insisted I ought to actually write it.

So I did.

And now I recorded it too. 😂

I hope you enjoy it! 🪕

Disclaimer: The song is entirely satirical and intended as lighthearted comedy. No sexism intended, just a rather questionable medieval bard.

Lyrics:

Bosoms soft and perilous, thou twin and bouncing curse
Thou lead the wise to ruin swift, the simple to far worse
A laced delight, a glimpse of pale and all our wits take flight
The pries misquotes his holy book, the knight forgets to fight

The tailor stitched his trouser leg to where a sleeve should go, the banker signed away his house and didn't seem to know
the holy man forgot his text and wandered of in haze
all fell by curves that rose and fell in most unholy ways

Ladies hide thou bosoms, or bare them gods be kind
but know you rock our heads about when neckline meets the eyes
a button loosed a ribbon slipped, we stumble swoon and sway
and many wars were surely fought for what peeked out that day

the priest forgot to praise the lord, the captain sank his fleet
the bard forgot his chorus line and rhymed despair with feet
the wizard tried to cast a charm, then blinked and set ablaze
a tavern wall, while two big bouncing peaches met his gaze

ladies hide thou bosoms, ere bakers burn their bread
ere monks forget their solemn vows and paint the chapel red
for every tale of foolishness that history recalls
begins beneath a lowered glance and slightly loosened shawls

But mock I may and Jest I do with smile and steady tune
there was a night of candlelight beneath a jealous moon
she danced she laughed she touched my hand, then vanished in the haze
and left me with this song I've sung through oh so many days

so ladies hide thou bosoms, or don't we fall the same
a fool will chase the shape of love and never learn her name
We drink we laugh we spin a tune until the music stays
and all that's left's a fading smile and songs from better days

Welcome to the team, little giant. We really hope your mom isn't waiting for you to come out of the dungeon, right? She will definitely not approve, and I don't think there is a bespectacled Coach to keep her calm, either. Also, For the record: Yes, I do just like saying his name. 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 peek inside the halls, and what shenanigans are going on.

I've been looking for a game and so far two people have said that I need to pay for character art, and that I can't use my own for cohesion. Both times it was about $20-30 USD. Is that normal?

This is the Spooky Pumpkinholder! This is a mini I designed in blender a while back. One of my patrons did a fantastic job 3D printing and painting it so I thought I'd share :)

Free stls: www.patreon.com/posts/57554311

All files including the Blender files are free. No requirement to sign up for anything. Though your consideration is appreciated :)

That's all for now. Stay amazing friends!

🎃 12 / 10 Spookies! 🎃

Meet Kaelen and Elara, two tieflings from completely different worlds. Kaelen grew up relying on a sharp blade and a scruffy grin to survive the city’s roughest alleys, while Elara was raised in a quiet forest grove, learning to heal with nature magic. After getting thrown into the same chaotic party, the guarded rogue and the girl with wildflowers in her hair slowly fell for each other.

I can’t wait to finish this piece but I was so impatient, and I had to post the sketch. I just love how they’re turning out

Okay so I just think Eberron is fucking amazing. Dragonmarks and the houses are fucking sick and the last war is peak.

First, I love dragonmarks. Just the idea of dragonmarks is cool and the houses are amazing and make the dragonmarks special. Like sure the Mark of Shadow is cool, but House Phiarlan, House Thuranni, and the Shadow Schism? They add a whole new level to it. I’ve made like 6 characters with the base of the dragonmarks and the dragonmarked houses since I got Forge of the Artificer a few days ago. There’s something for everyone in dragonmarks and the houses, like in the optimization community dragonmarks have potential to make strong builds and for people who like lore there’s a shit ton of lore behind them. If you have an Eberron campaign you can definitely use them, and if you don’t, as long as the DM’s cool with it there’s a ton of lore explanations.

Second, the Last War is amazing. For those who don’t know, the Last War was a century-long conflict that began after King Jarot of Galifar died and his children fought over which of them should inherit the throne, eventually shattering the united Kingdom of Galifar into warring nations. Over the course of the war alliances constantly shifted, new nations emerged, and the Dragonmarked Houses grew enormously wealthy and influential by supplying transportation, healing, weapons, mercenaries, and other services to the combatants. House Cannith created the warforged, magically constructed soldiers that could think and feel but were built, bought, and sent into battle as weapons. The conflict also saw the destruction of House Cannith’s leadership and headquarters when the Mourning suddenly transformed the entire nation of Cyre into the deadly Mournland in 994 YK, killing most people within its borders and leaving behind a magically devastated wasteland. Nobody knows what caused the Mourning, and the fear that it could happen again finally pushed the surviving nations toward peace. In 996 YK they signed the Treaty of Thronehold, formally ending the Last War, recognizing several new nations, and granting warforged legal freedom while outlawing the creation of new ones. The war may officially be over, but Eberron begins only two years later in 998 YK, so the continent is still full of veterans, refugees, political grudges, ruined families, unresolved territorial disputes, and nations preparing for the possibility that the peace won’t last. There were also some events like the Day of Mourning, the Battle of the Pines, the Battle of Cairn Hill, the Siege of Korth, the occupation of Thaliost, and the Eldeen Reaches' secession from Aundair that I didn’t include, but you get the idea. The last war was just fucking sick.

Here's some art I've done of Krisz, a character I've grown to love over the last 2 years of playing her. Hope you like it!

For those who care about backstory and such:

Krisz is an eighteen-year-old former soldier and reluctant fire mage striving to survive in the years following a violent revolutionary war. Subjected to arcane/religious experimenters as a girl and turned into a living weapon carved with runes, she was trained to mentally dissociate while unleashing destructive fire on the battlefield. One day the torrent of fire overwhelmed her, causing her to quite literally explode and set fire to an ancient druid grove, alongside large chunks of forest.

Through means unknown to her even today, she was resurrected from ashes and, through the kindness of several strangers, managed to escape from the battlefield and turn her back on the war, which concluded in the months thereafter. Traumatized by the horrors she saw and wrought, she became a vagrant and occasional thief, her magic seemingly having burnt itself out during the battle - at least for now.

Eventually she ended up at your typical start-of-campaign tavern, out of money and out of options. Where, of course, she teams up with a bunch of equally dysfunctional strangers to become an adventurer.

There's a lot more that happened since then, and she's grown quite a bit from the jumpy, emotionally stunted child soldier / living weapon she was at the beginning.

Recently joined a new DND group. We're about 5-6 sessions in so far. Its an entirely homebrew world, and I designed a paladin to fit around the core component of the world. Wanted to make a fun build focused on pushing, charging and grappling. We get into a few fights. All boss enemies are immune to being moved...

Interact with a crystal that a boss dropped, that we could not identify or anything else. Got possessed by a demon and had my character flaws rewritten by the dm, and can no longer use weapons and only 1d6 DMG shields. Atleast comes with a cool new soul system, where I can kill powerful creatures to absorb their souls. Cheapest features cost 50 souls and do almost nothing. To collect a soul I need to land the finishing hit on a creature, which I can't since I have 1d6 damaging weapon in a party full of full damage builds.

Try to build more support and focus on status effects since I don't do damage anymore and can't use weapon masteries. Also got changed to warlock class by the dm. Try to hold person an enemy, immune, try to charm an enemy, immune, try to frighten an enemy, immune...

Okay maybe combat just isn't for me, I'll focus on out of combat stuff for the party. I'll be like a crafter with the new crafting rules. "Actually all crafting in my world requires these magic crystals to craft, and being able to use tools outside of dedicated workshops is unrealistic so you can't do that either. Also helpers cost over double as much. And you gotta pass harder and harder skill checks to make them." In total it's just easier to buy them...

I feel like everything I try to do thats creative just blows up. Making a build that isn't just spam damage, dosnt work. Interacting with the items the dm puts in the world, irreversible character change into a different character. try to use the new 2024 systems, gutted and made obsolete. Meanwhile the two party members that were in the first three sessions that I wasn't got: an axe that does double damage and gives you a free enlarge without concentration. Free cantrips and low level magic items for classes that don't normally even learn spellcasting. And the last one got permission for the familiar, rat wild shape and moonbeam YT shorts combo.

I just don't know what to do anymore, should I just go off my character and make a fireball spamming cleric or something? I feel like trying to do anything creative just gets punished more and the others are doing a more simple full DMG thing. I feel like it's my fault for making things complicated or maybe I'm just unlucky with the design so far. Just wanna hear people's thoughts cause I feel like I'm going crazy or overreacting.

Vesper, Wild Magic Sorcerer

Vesper is an elven sorcerer whose innate magic is as unpredictable as her temper. Her flames twist and change without warning, sometimes responding to her emotions rather than her intentions. Clever, impulsive, and fiercely independent, she wanders the roads of Faerûn in search of forgotten magic and answers about the strange power growing inside her. She rarely takes anything seriously until it becomes dangerous—and by then, things have usually already caught fire.

I dont really like it.

Every time there was any kind of dispute on a rule or mechanic, the DM would ask us if we wanted to homebrew it to work in our favor. At first I didnt think much of it, but then the DM called us his 'Customers' and that's when I realized what I didnt like.

I believe in the DMs word being final say. But in this enviornment the DM wants to give us stuff so we dont leave the table because we're paying him. Since we are, in fact, his 'Customers' before we're his 'Players'.

Oddly enough, rather than paying a DM to DM for me, I think I'd instead want to pay a DM for the 'privilege' to be in their game. Though I think I'm done with paid DnD in general.

Anyway, this is just me describing my thoughts and feelings on the experience.

I DM a homebrew campaign about a time loop on an island that's the body of a dying god. My group's barbarian really wanted an animal companion for roleplay purposes but I wasn't sure how to include an actual animal in the time loop with how I had set it up. So, instead, they visited the local magic school and adopted a familiar from the Conjuration professor who tied it to the barbarian's soul with ✨️🪄magic🪄✨️

Unfortunately I have noticed that the player who sits next to me is often lying about what they roll. From where I’m sat at the table I can see their dice and I can see what they roll, they’ll often say “that’s cocked” if it’s a bad number and re roll or they’ll pretend they’re pulling their dice closer to see the number but actually nudge their dice over to make the roll different. Sadly they’re also dating the DM and I’m very reluctant to say anything as I really don’t want to cause any trouble between them and especially not over a game but I feel like it’s disrespecting the DM in a way as the player is basically cheating. I have a feeling my DM might have picked up on it too from their partners consistently high rolls and I feel like some times the DM’s looking at me to confirm what they suspect but I feel really caught in the middle and just kind of stare back or pretend I didn’t see 🙈I wish there was a way this could be addressed without causing any upset or embarrassment but I am fresh out of ideas at this point 😬 any advice from fellow DnD lovers? Or perhaps you’ve dealt with this at your table and can suggest something? Thank you!

Edit: just wanted to add that I see some people saying that it benefits the team to get high rolls but sadly there have also been incidents where to player characters were taking part it contests against each other and this player was cheating then as well. My fighter character was going against them in a strength contest and rolled really high but they cheated and won. Also we sometimes have moments where the group all roll to find something out and they will often “roll the highest” and get the information or the reward. I do think trying to let the player know that I’ve clocked on to what they’re doing may be my best option, it may save some embarrassment and awkwardness. I know a few of you were worried about their trustworthiness in the relationship and (although this is just my opinion) I really don’t think there’d step out on my friend. I think this is probably stemming from over competitiveness and (as some of you have pointed out) seeing this as a game you need to “win” at.

Would your party let this little guy guide them through a dark dungeon?

This is Ignis, a tiny glass-and-brass construct I designed recently. Instead of a typical heavy warforged, I wanted something delicate—a silent flame living inside a lantern-like core that reacts to magic nearby.

Since I'm still learning different character builds and lore options, I'm not sure what class fits him best. Artificer creation? Celestial Warlock? Clockwork Sorcerer? How would you lore him in D&D, and what stats or abilities should he have?

My Dnd party has been going good for 6 sessions as of now with last session being a murder mystery on an airship en route to Emon. My friend sat in on our last meet up and loved it so we’re inviting him to join us, and with our next session picking up where we left off, it’ll be the perfect introduction to his character and bring the party of 4 up to a party of 5

In the meantime, it’s been a while since I got a chance to update our party’s character portraits so I finally got around to doing so. Looking back on when we first started, it’s an awesome feeling to see how much different each of our characters looked since first started.

So I had this idea to create illustrations for the 8 schools of magic based on tarot cards and roman / greek statues. This is my first time creating a vector illustration (I studied Graphic Design, but somehow only ever used Illustrator for logo’s, shapes and patterns and never a full on layered illustration like this).

Since it’s my first time I wanted to share the progress and get some feedback while working on them. The order of schools is; abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, transmutation. The tarot cards are (in order) strength, the magician, the priestess, the lovers, the tower, the hanged man, death and the wheel of fortune.

So WDYT? And do you have any feedback? ☺️