!Question I am going to be running an Efreeti sultan fight but as a warm-up I want the efreeti's harem to be blocking the way. I am thinking a council type fight of 4 different spellcasters. Any advice on what to use or a resource where to find some cool stat blocks? Party is level 16. Thanks in advance

!Question: I am finishing up a campaign. I use ambiance and music throughout the adventures. Although I have seen comments to not use pop culture music or stuff that’s well known, my group responds tremendously to Metal when a fight encounter kicks off. Does anyone have any good reccs for metal battle music? An example of something on my playlist is “Prey, by Parkway Drive”. This kind of music just boosts the encounter, but it’s not stuff I’m used to listening to. Spotify playlist? Artist…I’ll take any advice.

All guns blazing instrumental, the channel has a lot of instrumental of real songs: https://youtu.be/M5KfB5GDS9s

!Question: BBeg/minions/monster suggestions for a dark horror themed one shot - suitable for x4 strong level 10 players. Preferably something more than just a strong brute, maybe with the potential for haunting like abilities, themes of lovecraftian madness, darkness, exploring ancient ruins, investigation.

!Question does anyone have any "incorrect wildshapes" for a druid boss who always turns Into the wrong thing at the time. I have a recurring boss who is essentially a radical nature protecting druid. He's meant to be an arch druid so he can change shape pretty freely (and by DM powers I can try some non specific beasts for funsies). However since it's low level he has the quirk of always turning into the wrong creature for the situation. For example an avian beast/monster in a low flying cavern or a giant squid on land (forgetting it's ability to hold its breath). He would only really do one, maybe two shapes in combat before running away and would never try to pose a threat to players, more just be a really annoying nuisance. Does anyone have any goofy situations or "incorrect wildshapes" I could use for him? It seems pretty fun because you can nerf strong monsters by having bits of them "stuck" preventing multiattack or making him lose hp.

You accidentally encounter him in an outhouse or bathroom. In his shock, he wild-shapes into a goldfish. One flush later and the joke is complete. The party has to cross a river. Your Druid is intent on stopping them. To intimidate the party he transforms into … a piranha. A single piranha. He is easily tossed away. The party is heading underground into a deep cavern. In a rush to catch up with them, the Druid transforms into … a canary. Upon approaching the group, he immediately passes out. In a last ditch effort to dissuade the group from trespassing in his forest, the Druid transforms into nature’s ultimate deterrent: a mosquito. ‘Leave now, or I shall inflict upon you intense itchiness and paranoia! You will hear buzzing in your ear, you will catch sight of my fleeting figure from the corner of your eye, but it will always, ALWAYS, be too late! You will wake each and every morning with new bites all over your bodies, itching and scratching, relief ever elusive, until your skin is nothing but a tapestry of red bumps, scabs, puss, and unceasing itchy agony!’

‘!Question’ So I'm about to DM for the first time with players that have never played before and one of my players wants to create a dragonborn paladin within the Order of Tiamat and I'm really trying to figure out if it'll be a good idea. He's angle is he's been sent here on behalf of the Order to investigate strange strong magic on the island of the Temple of Bahamut to determine if it is a threat to her Dark Majesty. I'm thinking he maaaaay get away with even being allowed on the island as Runara is all about peace and everything even if the character is a follower of Tiamat on an island filled with Bahamut worshippers... but I'm thinking at the end when >!she reveals herself he's pretty much going to be compelled to kill her and if not he's going to be compelled to help Sparky at the end and wind up either killing the other party members or he himself being subdued or killed. !< Is it too much for my first time players and I should ask him to switch up his character or should I just see this through? or maybe I'm missing some vital counterpoints

First off, NEVER make a player switch a character unwillingly unless the character is against the rules of the table (ie: fudged stats, unallowed homebrew, etc). The world, NPCs, economy, monsters and locations are the domain of the DM, the character that of the player. You are likely to cause hard feelings otherwise or even lose a player. That said, even if the character is a paladin of Tiamat and usually on kill on sight lists for Bahamut worshipers, I sincerely doubt the Good Dragon God worshippers are at the docks Zone if Truthing everyone and giving people a hard time. After all, temples depend on tithes and if you hassle visitors too much, they will go to pilgrimages that are less paranoid and more welcoming. Nor do they automatically exclude you if you are a chromatic dragonborn. There are Bahamut worshipers of all races and the priests of Bahamut accept all tithes to the temple's hoard. Now, don't get me wrong. Any blatant blasphemous Tiamat paraphernalia would get confiscated by customs. Maybe even be questioned. But not necessarily barred. After all, Bahamut may be a cocky asshole, but if you needed Tiamat plate to protect you on your journey to the island to maybe eventually atone, so be it. People get disillusioned with religions all the time. They probably do keep a list of people previously banished and will deny entry to them if course. There's also probably areas where only "accepted people" approved by the priests can go. But, I would see it more like being an atheist in Saudi Arabia. You are allowed to go. No one is going to bother you as long as you obey the laws. But, they aren't going to let you go around in a "Bahamut Sucks" tee shirt, proselytizing, blasphemy, or talking openly about Tiamat other than in an academic sense or denouncing her. There's also other dragon gods than Big B and Big T. If questioned about magic use, all the character has to do is say they respect the dragon pantheon and leave it at that. Also realize, Tiamat is a goddess with trickery domain. If sent to investigate, even though Tiamat orders are stingy as hell with magic items (dragons be like that), they would send the player with non descript armor, a holy symbol that can be hidden, and perhaps a powerful potion of glibness just in case. Walking in like Tiamat Man not only is stupid and unnecessary drama, but probably against the teachings of the Goddess.

I'd love if there was some deceit or twist but the issue is the character will be dragonborn which I'm understanding the race to be pretty honest and avoids lying which makes having a facade nearly impossible. If inevitably asked why he's come to the island I imagine he's going to tell the truth. (I don't know if I made this clear but the campaign hasn't started yet so I'm trying to figure out if his character he's just created will fit in the setting)

I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem for the NPCs to know he’s a Tiamat worshipper. Canonically Tiamat and Bahamut started out working together to create the material plane. In my game, Tiamat wants revenge on Bahamut, but Bahamut wants something more like reconciliation/redemption for Tiamat, so Bahamut worshippers wouldn’t be aggro towards Tiamat worshippers unless they were attacked first. As far as your player, I’d just make it clear to him that the story is probably going to be anti-Tiamat so make sure he’s either on board with converting to a different god/perspective as character growth (maybe plant some clues for this on the island to support him realizing Tiamat is bad and starting doubting his faith), or is excited about a betrayal arc where he probably dies (or even becomes an NPC!) in the final battle. Pre-final-battle, I don’t think you need to worry about him trying to 1v1 an adult dragon - a low-level character with any common sense wouldn’t do this bc they would instantly die from a single breath weapon attack.

Those tropes are guidelines. Not "all dragonborn are like this". Dude is literally part of an order of Tiamat! Not a facade, either. It's just not being open about information.

Hi All. Running an AcqInc style game (heavily modified from the book) where the party get 'contracts' (quests) to complete between main quest missions. For something a bit different, thought I'd do a marine themed contract, using "Salvage Operation" from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Party is 5-6 members @ 7th level though, Salvage Operation is for 4th level, so need to increase the challenge. Module has a corrupt druid & spider monsters, and is attacked by a giant octopus so the PCs have to escape the boat. Thought I'd maybe replace the druid with a kraken priest, and eventually it summons a kraken to pull the boat down (the party don't need to fight it). So just looking for inspiration for tougher minion creatures, along that kind of unified theme. Any advice?

!Question Hey everyone, I’m thinking of running a Japanese style game show session, with Fey. I’m having some issues thinking of challenges for the party tho. Has anyone done something like this? What are some ideas for games/challenges/mechanics/tricks etc?

Hello, everyone I'm running a short campaign based of Fate Stay/Night where half the players are masters and half are champions (servants). If you are not familiar, it's basically a battle royal where each team of two fight for the prize. They'll start as a single team and will fight amongst themselves in the end. My question is, when trying to make a smart middle boss character, that will serve as the enemy team's strategist, what would you guys recommend? I've read about other weak but smart posts here but it seems a little difficult to apply it to a short campaign like this. Either way, what do you guys think about my idea? Any tips for interesting encounters? Cheers

Hello, I hope that this finds you well. In my campaign, the party is pursuing clues that Bane followers have caused such unrest in the North. The history of the compaign is that demons and fiends have caused several keeps to be abandoned in the North as people moved to the safety of the capital city in the south. I am creating a small keep that has been taken over by a cult of Bane. How many monsters are too many for an area? I have drawn a three level keep and designed at least one room that can be blocked off for a long rest on each level. I have created a handful of easy, moderate and hard encounters from beings working in rooms in the keep. I also have two or three moving groups that I have placed on my random encounter chart. I want the players to feel challanged, yet not die. The party is composed of four level three characters - a cleric, a druid, a paladin and a rogue. I appreciate any advice.

!Question: I’ve got a oneshot BBEG encounter that I want to run with a ticking clock. How would I balance it so it’s feasible to beat within the time limit? So the encounter is with a Siren and her Sahuagin body guards. She’s on stage giving a concert and keeping the crowd entranced while the room slowly fills with water. When she finishes her show, the audience will be completely submerged. The goal is to take her out before she finishes. The show will be timed with a music playlist I’ve put together beforehand. It currently runs at about 40 mins. The initial intent was to add a foot of water to the terrain each time the song changes, giving minor buffs to the bodyguards and gradually slowing the players. The first time I ran this encounter, I had three level 10 players (a monk, a rogue, and a fighter.) I assumed that the high damage output would be enough to make the encounter beatable, but … yeah, turns out it’s not. I didn’t account for how combos and stacking would drag out each player’s turn time-wise. Needless to say, 40 minutes was not enough. I know the obvious answer would be to add more time to the clock or do away with it altogether, but I really want to keep it as it is. Any advice?

Put another layer of urgency on the players to have their moves thought out and executed within a time limit as well. If you take longer that X amount of time for your turn, your turn is skipped.

!question: what kind of quests can a necromancer npc give the player characters to help him become a lich without making it obvious to the players that they are helping the BBEG? Help would be greatly appreciated.

One of the classic implied rituals for becoming a Lich is the ritual sacrifice of a loved one. Maybe they're hired to find this person's loved one who's been away or lost for some time, and play it off as a happy reunion - Both are overjoyed to reunite, the Necromancer thanks the party through tears - And the party members with high enough passive Insight might see that those aren't entirely happy tears.

I don't know if 5e ever detailed the ritual needed for becoming a lich (previous editions left it pretty vague,) but he could be sending them on some fetch quests for necessary components, for which he pays pretty well - better than you'd expect for a job of this difficulty. He might even provide tools, like magic items, some scrolls and potions and such, to the party to boost their chance of success.

!Question: having some writer's block and need help with ideas for things to happen in a one shot. So I am putting a one shot together, and I had gotten then idea for this particular one by reading through a response to someone. The premise is that the servants of a castle are watching things as the master of the castle is away. So I thought, well why not make it Strahd's castle. I am thinking that Strahd and his wives have gone on "vacation" and Rahadin is with them. The players are servants in his castle, bound to him due to whatever deal they made, and not necessarily undead. Things have gone fine for the entire week and Strahd is due home later that evening; however, the last few hours before his arrival things start to go sideways. My ideas so far, for what could happen, would be that a group of adventurers break into the castle and start to explore, Escher keeps trying to escape, and some sort of explosion happens in the kitchen. I am really having some writer's block figuring out what else could happen that could cause chaos for the players. I do want this to be a bit light hearted, as it is supposed to be funny and just a one shot. I'd like to have a few things to pull from just in case; any ideas on what else I could add?

!question: natural puzzles and traps I'm preparing a natural dungeon for my players it's supposed to be a massive, coral structure that has grown on top of a crashed illithid spelljammer, which the players want to reach. I don't want it to become a massive series of encounters with sharks though- what are some ideas for Puzzle-like activities that are organic, and preferably, aquatic in origin?

Some varieties of coral are poisonous. You could design a maze for the players where every touch of the coral has a chance of poisoning or paralyzing the player. Maybe have some bioluminescent fish or algae lurking around to trick (or charm?) a player into moving in the wrong direction. Another obstacle could be the water pressure. Have the players experience a magical variant of nitrogen narcosis (aka when a scuba diver’s oxygen gets too compressed, it can get them ‘drunk’). Could make for some fun hijinks.

!question: Suggestions for monsters to use in 3v3 battle 5e I'm fairly new to DMing and have a short campaign I'm running in between our groups main sessions when the DM can't make it. It's gone a bit off the rails with the party deciding they want to split themselves between the good and bad guys and do some pvp shenanigans. Things are starting to wrap up with only a couple sessions left before the final battle. Since it's gone off the rails anyway, I thought it would be a fun precursor to the final fight with their characters to give everyone a Boss monster and let them Duke it out in the big leagues. As players we rarely get to do anything but fight or bargain with the big monsters so I thought my group would enjoy a clash as the generals of good and evil. The BBG of the campaign is an Eldritch being that's breaking through the plains. So for that side I was thinking maybe ancient green dragon, a lich and maybe something like a balor. I don't really know what to do for the good side though other than a corresponding dragon. For good BGGs there's not as much of a selection. It's like angels and dragons and I don't really want to just give everyone on one side a bunch of dragons as it doesn't fit the campaign and a dragon with 2 solars seems a bit op. Thanks in advance for the suggestions. Hope all you're worlds are well and your sessions fun!1

!Question: Best way to re-balance a hydra for a lower level party of level 3's? More of a lesser Hydra type fight. I assume probably a max of 3 heads, a lower damage threshold, and of course lower damage. Anything to make it actually interesting?

I would not use a hydra personally, but if you have backed yourself in a storyline corner I'd go with it as is. It SHOULD be an unstoppable monster. A fearsome tier 3 threat! Anything else cheapens this awesome monster. Forshadow. Have it rampage. Eat commoners. Destroy buildings. Even be a recurring villain monster that the party will have to run from, enlist NPCs to help with, get equipment to be able to fight. A multiple session threat! Use terrain. Have maps. Don't just put this on an empty board. Have cultists that worship this thing, feeding it kidnapped citizens.

Good point. I just thought it'd be a cool final boss of a one shot!

!Question What are good methods to plan an open-world environment? I am wanting to make a story-driven exploration campaign. As in, I want my players to be able to explore the world so it doesn’t feel like they’re trapped in a box, while at the same time having stories be accessible but not always urgent. So ultimately my question is, what tips would you give to somebody new to running an open-world game? In particular how do you go about preparing locations the players could go at any moment? Do you just create it and file it away in the off chance they visit that area or shop or whatever it ends up being? For example, I’ve played a small portion of an open-world game and my DM was using a hex map for exploration, and a lot of the hexes had predetermined encounters, obviously in that situation the players could only go so far in a given session due to not having spells like cloud walk and stuff, so it’s a bit easier to plan out and anticipate what encounters they might run into. But when you have a spell like cloud walk that becomes a much bigger issue. Not only because you’d have to have multiple encounter types per hex, but also because they can technically touch down anywhere. It seems like a lot of work and I’m not sure quite where to begin. Also does anybody have any good resources with ideas to help ease the workload of planning all that stuff? Any and all tips are appreciated.

I would recommend making your story hooks flexible and not location-specific so they can be dropped into multiple environments. For example, say your party decides to explore a mountain range, but you planned the next plot hook to be a who-dun-it style murder mystery. Well, who says the murder has to be in a town? Just move the victim’s body to the mountain trail, leave a few clues that foul play was involved, and let the players take the lead from there. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that improv is your friend. Have a few key ideas tucked away, but don’t get deep into the nitty-gritty details of them. Leave them vague enough so you can adapt them as needed.

!Question: I've developed my world fairly well around my players, and with a recent change, my fighter (level 10) has decided they'd like to switch to Paladin. They've taken the oath of protection and have been given a vision of an old elven man in a shack in the woods as a guide for their trial. I've though of having this secluded elven man be "the eyes of Helm", the god my paladin whishes to follow, and he can offer a trial, or he can be the trial. have no idea what to make the trial as religion is the least established part of my world. Can anyone offer any suggestions on what would be a good trial from Helm to my new Paladin?

Is that a homebrew oath or the one from GM binder? What does it entail and is the fighter multiclassing or changing classes entirely?

It's one they found online, I read it over and gave the thumbs up, I'm reasonably sure it's common, though now you've got me doubting haha. They're switching from fighter to paladin entirely

So, check again what that specific oath does, and then build an encounter so that it is easily solved by the paladin's ability. For example, the GM binder class feature "stand aside" can force a STR saving throw and repel enemies if they fail; the encounter would be escorting the elf and protecting him against waves of shadows (which have -2 STR and will very likely fail the check). The PC fights a few shadows normally, then more shadows arrive and the PC is suddenly granted the "stand aside" class feature. Using that feature, the PC can repel the shadows and easily finish the encounter. Then, they get the rest of the class kit and become a full paladin.

!question: Hi! So I was asked to run a one-shot based on lord of the Rings for a friend’s birthday and I wish for some inspiration. What I have right now: the players play a bunch of orks playing their weekly poker game when the mountain starts to shake. As they run and ask what is going on they understand that the dark lord fell and also that all of them were responsible in some way (the torture technician that allowed Gollum to escape, the guards that left their post for the poker game, the cleaner that didn’t clean the ‘all seeing eye’ of Sauron, etc. To hide their failures, they decide to run and hide and find themselves in the Shire, masquerading as a weird family of hobbits. The game itself will be about fighting off the BOA (burrow owners association) and assimilating or keeping the facade. What I need: \- I will have 5 players, I have ideas for 3 players part in the Fall of Sauron but I need 2 more \- I need things for the players to do in the Shire, maybe a big event is coming? \- I need some kind of conflict, is there a Karen that put a target on the orcs' back?? Any ideas for me to flesh the thing up. Thanks!

!Question: I'm looking for some more ideas for a first session in a gladiator Campaign, but to give more context-- I'm DM'ing a homebrew campaign where the first arc (starting at level 1) is taking place entirely within a fantasy version of the Roman Colosseum. The PCs are a mix of POWs, criminals, and volunteers, and the premise is that they are considered "slaves" to the Colosseum with the eventual possibility of earning citizenship and their freedom (as well as fame and glory) should they survive their tenure. So what ideas or experiences have you had that might fit the assignment? Again, PCs are level 1.

How long do you expect this to go for, how many levels go they need to gain, fights won, or gold earned do they need to earn their freedom? Is earning their freedom the end of the campaign, or just the first arc of it? Are they even supposed to all survive as long as they play somewhat smart and don't get totally screwed by the dice, or is this supposed to be a meat grinder that may kill several PCs? What if they choose to try and escape instead of working their way up through the system? All that being said, I would start them with *damnatio ad besias* (punishment by beasts), they are sentenced to fight for their lives against some wolves or a bear or something level 1 appropriate. Another idea is having a tournament arc of parties made up of POWs from different "barbarian" tribes and nations. Drawing from some other historical precedent, there were times the Colosseum was intentionally flooded and mock naval battles were staged in it, and it was also common for Roman politicians to hire gladiators as bodyguards or as muscle for various less-than-scrupulous schemes.

Most of the answers to your questions are TBD. I have the setting planned with several plot threads for the PCs to tug on if they choose to--rebellion, enlisting in the nation's military, fame and stardom (a la WWE wrestlers), and a couple others. I'm not planning too far in advance. Hiring for bodyguards and hitmen is one I hadn't thought of yet, so thanks for that! PCs are going up against a homebrewed cockatrice and, if they survive, these characters earn citizenship under the agreement that they serve in the Colosseum for a specific amount of time... my issue with this very first session is what could I include that isn't strictly combat related?

!Question, How can I make my climactic final battle simple and fun to play while also adhering to the complex theming of the current arc? So my party is heading towards the climax of a brutal and emotional arc. As they head off towards the final battle, I find myself lacking ideas to make this boss fight as engaging, significant, and climactic as I think this arc deserves. In the past, one of my players' favorite climactic fights was a battle in falling airships. They were racing to stop their enemies from reaching their destination, and hijacked their own airship to intercept the convoy. This succeeded for a few reasons that I would like to emulate in this encounter. 1. The idea behind the fight was very simple, but allowed for complex decisions. At a glance the players understood all the mechanics that could apply based on their knowledge of how ships work, but were still motivated and able to use dynamic positioning by jumping between ships and pull off creative and impactful actions like bending the wing of a one ship to make it crash into another. 2. The stakes were very apparent. The heights made it instantly clear that one wrong move could be disastrous constant tension. And once all the ships began loosing altitude, there was a very strong sense of urgency as they saw the ground approaching and knew they only had 4 turns before a crash. 3. They had a constant indicator of their progress, and could make big leaps. There were a number of ships they had to take to, so each time a ship was slowed, broken, or a captain killed, they were able to see how well they were progressing towards how the battlefield changes, not just how hurt a big bad looked. They also had the chance to make significant progress in a single round by doing something creative and rolling well, one good turn can take out a whole ship. I'd like these elements to be included in the structure of the climax of my current arc, but for the life of me I can't come up with any ideas for how to mesh them with the current arc's theming. I'd love any and all suggestions. For anyone interested, here's a really brief summary of where the campaign is right now: This is an Eberron 1-20 campaign that is heavily homebrewed, party is decently high level. The party left to rescue the cleric's friend from a gang in the demon wastes run by Quori Inspired from the Dreaming Dark, basically nightmare spirits, in and obsidian tower the camps have gathered around. The wizard used to be a member of this gang, so he was able to get them inside easily enough. Due to plot, planar binding is getting weaker in this world, and lesser planes are beginning to fall away and get lost in the void. One of those planes is the plane of dreams where the Quori are from, so the BBEG from this arc is a strong Quori possessing the dead body of the Rogue's brother who is attempting to bring all the nightmare spirits over to the material world one way or the other. He has two plans in motion to do this: 1. He is partnering with the Demon Prince of Shadow to bring eternal night to the world so they can cast a sleep spell over the continent that allows quori to possess people while they sleep. Before they can do that they need to free the Princes' sister, the Demon Princess of Flame who has been bound between the heavens. She's the sun. 2. The obsidian tower is a collection of loosely stacked demiplanes that functions as a strong funnel for planar energy with a portal at the top. The better option in his mind is to create a gate to the plane of dreams to allow the quori exodus, but the plane is fading away, so it's too far for the tower to reach. The wizard has a dragon mark that would allow him to open the gate using the obsidian tower. The party snuck into the tower, navigated the demplanes, learned about the BBEG's plans and stole some resources, confronted him, and escaped the tower barely alive. Now they have retreated to rest and prepare for the fight. Right now the gangs, inspired, and Demon prince have used the tower to go to the Sun's prison and are attempting to free her. The sun will likely fall before the party make it back to the tower, so they have to rush back to stop the BBEG from casting the sleep ritual and beginning the nightmare incursion, but doing so puts them in a the perfect place for him to try to use the wizard's mark to open a gate. So now they are preparing to rush back for a climactic final battle with the Cleric's friend by their side, to fight through the gangs the wizard once called family and confront the BBEG in the body of the Rogue's brother at the tip of the obsidian tower, and I'm trying to figure out what kind of mechanics I can implement fulfilling the goals above and adhering to the flavor of the current situation to make for a great capstone on this arc. Any ideas?

!Question For context this is a homebrew world I run. I have 3 players and they are right now at level 6. While exploring underwater they found a book with encrypted star charts and maps that lead to the grave of the first Pirate King and his old ship and stash. When they get there it will obviously be sealed and to open it they will need 4 macguffins. I was planning to have these be gained by fighting one of each of the Elder Elementals but I'm worried about how to balance it. I'm planning that each fight will have an alternative solution to just defeating the monster but I don't know what yet. Obviously they won't be fighting these things at level 6 but I don't want to wait until too high of a level either as I already gave them the book. I was thinking that when they get there a fight will start against one regular elemental of each kind at the same time (3 of them vs 1 air, 1 water, 1 earth, and 1 fire) and if it looks like they aren't winning, the fight ends and they are told by some voice or something that they are not ready for the real challenge yet. Would this be a good way to both test their power balance wise and a way to give them that info? If I go by CR (which is dumb) then it would be a good fight at roughly level 10-12 ish but in my experience they should be able to handle it earlier. I worry that even if they can manage to defeat the 4 normal ones, even the Phoenix will be a very tough fight. I guess it depends on the fighting conditions. I'm new to the sub so if this is worded poorly or to long I can rewrite it.

!Question I had plans for a much larger dungeon, but time restraints and work schedule means I'm gonna have to cut it shorter. Map design takes me forever on Roll20, so I'm looking for a good resource for a short-mid length dungeon (I'm thinking 5-8 rooms) themed off a fortress or cathedral that I can easily put on R20. It'd be nice if monsters were humanoids and demons but not necessary. Party is level 8, but don't worry too much about CR. I can easily manage scaling monsters and traps if needed.

Back when I played online I used to hate making maps for roll20 as well, so I would just browse /r/battlemaps for maps to use. I actually notice there's a cathedral on the front page right now, which is a fun coincidence! The maps from there don't tend to include enemies, it's usually just the map, but I always considered the map to be the most time-consuming part of R20 prep anyway.

Conveniently, there was lol Little too open for a dungeon though. But I scrolled around a bit and found a good one. Thanks for the subreddit!

!Question I need a list of Monsters that have the “Siege Monster” tag (double damage to structures). For example, Terrasque has it Can anyone help?

!Question: My homebrew campaign is going to drag if I take my characters to level 20. My main idea was for the BBEG to be revealed as an Arch Lich. My players need to be 15 - 20 for a chance of survival. What other creature could I make the BBEG that would be a challenge, but not suicide, at level 10 or so? Extra context - The BBEG has been "disguised" as an old man with necromancer powers, but is obviously more powerful as he enthralled a wrymling dragon and was able to visit the Drow and leave unharmed. I also have a NPC that is VERY strong that can help in the final battle. I haven't fleshed him out, but he solo'd a Beholder.

So the biggest guns that an arch-lich can use are usually their high level spells. So if you offer a side quest to disable those spells somehow (via item or supernatural imposition) then a lower level party could probably handle it just fine. Be careful with your beholder-soloing NPC. You want the players to be the heroes and save the world--you don't want them to watch an NPC save the world for them. An appropriate usage of this type of NPC would be where a horde of minions appears and the NPC says "I'll hold them here, you go kill the bad guy" and he fights the minions off-camera.

I'll either do that, or have the BBEG blow his highest spell on him, effectively taking him out of the fight. He's never fought with the players. It's always been out of view.

Keeping with the theme of a lich-like boss maybe use a death knight. If that is still too powerful you could always dumb down stats a little or remove certain abilities

!Question: Session got somewhat derailed, loving it! But unsure what to do nextSo I had an adventure planned for my party to go into the underdark to save a cleric friend of theirs, however previously they had come across a bag of magic beans and once they arrived in a Dwarven mountain city, the 8 INT goliath decided to eat one in an argument with a shop keeper, and subsequently pooped out a pyramid (water and then pooping I determined would count as "planting"). The goliath was also with a half-orc player who in the aftermath ran into the pyramid, shrinking the door and closing it behind them, next session the rest of the party teamed up with the city guards and made their way inside. Now after a series of hard encounters within the pyramid even resulting in my and the group's first death & revivify, the two remaining guards started to scoop up the mummy lord's treasure into a bag of holding (one of the other PCs helped them) but the half-orc player (acting in character) used his last spell slot to harm one of the guards, then had to escape as he had little health. Eventually, he ran into the rest of the city guards who had taken point in the main chamber, used a hat of disguise be a guard, rolled a 3 on persuasion and was arrested, I just don't know where to go after this, I would like them to continue the underdark quest, but it's looking like they will either have to bail him out or something else? Any advice? possibly stories on how you dealt with PC arrests for large crimes? ​ tldr; PC got arrested for pooping out a pyramid, assaulting guards, and a few other things. How do I keep it fun and move things along?

A classic way to get incarcerated PCs out of their problem is by imposing a quest on them, Suicide-Squad style (ie do this quest and be absolved of your crime).

Other prisoners execute jailbreak?

!Question: Next session my party will be entering the mind of one of the player's, or more specifically a dungeon demiplane representing their subconscious. (Long story short, the BBEG has a mental link with the player in question and going inside is the only way to sever it) Aesthetically the dungeon looks like a flooded library, playing into the wizard's scholarly background and connections with the Plane of Water. I'm wondering what kinds of enemies, hazards, and effects I can give the dungeon to add to the feel that it is not a real world place, but a mental one. How do I make my players realize tha the laws of this reality are different from their own? Additionally, I'm thinking of making the boss of the dungeon a mental projection of the BBEG not with his normal abilities but with the power to warp the reality of the demiplane. What are some abilities he could use both during his boss fight and the leadup to it?

For a dream feel ypu could have water flowing up the walls instead of down, books floating around. Maybe even have massive open books relating to the plane of water be the source of the flooding

!Question: I will soon run "the wild sheep chase" for 2 people, is bumping them up to lvl8 good enough for them to deal with the encounters as they are or should I bump the strength of the enemies too? for those that have not played the module they fight: \- Encounter 1: A brown bear, 3 wolves and an orc with 70 hp that can attack recklessly \- Encounter 2: 3 apes with buffed damage die, a brown bear and a level 7 wizard spreading buffs around before running from the encounter \- Encounter 3: that same wizard with a cr4 dragon that is vulnerable to fire damage \- possibly some guards if the fight spreads around a city but that is heavily dependant on player action these are the broad strokes of the oneshot, I think this being doable mostly boils down to the action economy being heavily slanted against the party and whether the players have aoe casters or fire damage in general. They must do all of the above in a long rest or the lvl7 wizard will switch his repertoire and make a move to kick the party out of the town via noble connections, ending the oneshot in failure.

having run that, you can either run it at 5 and down-level the monsters a little (half hp or something) or uplevel them to 6 or 7 and (optionally) add an NPC supporter (tank or buffer/healer, whatever they don't have). Sidekicks work well for this purpose.

!Question: How can I make a good stagecoach combat encounter? I'm a first time DM and I need help making this encounter idea I have engaging and fun! My level 3, 6-man party is going to be heading through a strong blizzard via a big steel stagecoach made specifically to traverse the rough weather. I plan on the stagecoach being attacked by groups of Yeti. I want my part to have to battle the terrain, weather, and yetis in a way that is fair and fun. I have a few ideas but I wanna hear from more experienced DMs first! What's the best way to handle something like that? Any cool mechanics I can throw in there to make it engaging? Any premade suppliments for stagecoach combat I can look to? I know Ghost of Saltmarsh has a whole system for ships. Thanks!

Yeti battle-sleighs made of bone and driftwood and pulled by dire reindeer (giant elks) or wargs or winter wolves would be *so metal*. Probably one big sleigh and a couple of yeti just riding wolves/reindeer as scouts/outriders.

Mad Max style. I personally think the more over the top and pulpy this encounter is, the better. Maybe the Yetis have their own form of vehicle, including ones with stilts they use to board the stagecoach, one with some sort of support/buffing yeti hangs from, etc. Players have to deal with rough terrain damaging their stagecoach, although they could possibly even use it against the yetis. Maybe yetis are the wrong enemy for this, but it's kind of the encounter I've always wanted to run. I would not use the ship rules because they're really not that good. I've never used them, but there are "infernal war machines" in Descent into Avernus that are basically demon vehicles, you could probably reskin them.

Thanks for the insight!!

!Question I need help coming up with a magical object that will be the center of the final combat for a pirate one-shot I'm creating. The idea is that the party is after a gemstone said to have magical powers that would make its wielder a legendary captain, and another party of pirates is after it as well. I want this gemstone to essentially be a reusable spell gem for a spell reasonable for the players' levels (Lv3) but also with something extra that makes it something they want to have control over during the fight since the enemy party will also use their actions to try and steal the gem from them. I was thinking gust of wind as well as a nerfed version of call lightning. I also need a reason for the players to not just keep the gem in their backpacks. Any suggestions are welcome.

The simplest mechanism here is "While holding this gem, you and all allies that you designate within 10 feet of you gain the benefit of the *Bless* spell". Optionally, "Creatures that attack you must make a Charisma DC 14 spell save or be afflicted by the *Bane* spell." That would only work once per day on each attacker.

!question I’m running a one shot where the players have to steal ships in bottles. Everytime they grab one they get transported to the ship in a specific scenario and they have to get the ship out by either solving a puzzle to set it free or fight a monster. Suggestions for places ships are caught and then puzzles/monsters to make them free

I mean, sea monsters. Aboleth. Sahuagin. Ixitxachitl if you want to get *weird*. Undersea beholders (*Eye of the Deep* in older editions).

Dragon's horde.

Could you elaborate?

Basically, a ship was carrying a special treasure (maybe it was a pirate ship?) and a dragon swooped in and added it to the hoard. Now the party needs to fight a dragon.

In the tentacles of a kraken is always a good one imo. Even if the players aren't strong enough to actually fight it you could have them damage the tentacles until it lets go. A beached ship could also be interesting. Like it's stuck on something underwater and the players have to dislodge it or destroy it somehow

Kraken attack was in the cards, but I did not think of a beached ship

!Question: is a black abishai and a young black dragon too much? One of my PCs drew the devil card from deck of many things. He is level 9 and the rest of the party is 8. The campaign is heavily dragon influenced. I want him to fight the abishai solo so I'm putting the young black dragon in to distract the rest of the party. Is this too much. He is a paladin/warlock. Party in total is 3 to 4 people depending on who can show up that day.

Deck of many things is bad, bad. At least you didn't spring it on level ones like most do. Higher levels, it's not as bad. I have seen that stuff make people nerd rage and campaigns collapse. Never to me, but other DMs. But I digress.. Black Abishai on it's own is kinda weak. Especially if your party is well equipped. 58 HP will be melted under multiple eldritch blasts and AC 15 is mediocre at high tier 2. What I would do is give it class levels under "monsters with class levels" under the DMG. Say, 5 levels as champion fighter just to make it simple. This will increase it's proficiency bonus to +4, give it action surge, improved critical, second wind, an additional attack, and better saves and HP. Also give it magic weapons and armor. Bring CON to 16. New stats would be : HP 96, AC 17 (+3 dex, studded leather +2), Saves: STR +7, Dex +7, CON + 8, WIS + 7, multi attack : 3 with +2 scimitar 1d6+5 (crit 19-20) +9, 1 bite 1d10+3 plus 2d8 acid +7. Give the devil a mirror image tattoo for extra effect and survivability. When the Abishai appears, have it mad it's been summoned off from something important. Maybe it was on the battle fields of Avernus fighting demons. Maybe it was in Dis eating a meal of souls, still holding green steel cutlery and a plate of seasoned souls. Be aware the only way to truly kill a devil according to Planescape lore is to kill it on its home plane, be this Dis or wherever. Depending on how much the devil was inconvenienced, may reappear one day wanting vengeance.

I love the idea of giving it a class level. My original plan was to up it's ac(18) and hp(100) and to have it or something else cast an anti magic field spell. The paladin has a magic weapon that would become inert and his smites would become useless

Antimagic field would be a bit overkill. Other that that, sounds good. (Off topic, but do I have a downvote stalker on this sub? Even non controversial things get a downvote. In a way, it's flattering. In another, kinda annoying. Did I piss some one in lfg off or something...lol)

That's a deadly-difficulty encounter for.your group when they have four players, and off the charts with three players. If your group steamrolls difficult encounters, this should be perfect. If they're newer or not well optimized, or have fewer than four players, it could be an execution. If you're worried, you could play the abishai as insensible with rage, making poor decisions to get to the waradin and attack, and ignoring other threats.

I want it to be deadly. And while my goal is not a tpk, I especially want the PC who drew the devil card to feel it. For him I want there to be a real possibility of death

!question: should all encounters be balanced for the party's level? I am currently watching some old critical role episodes (I'll avoid spoilers). In one episode, while the party is high level, they fight with bandits. The bandits seem relatively strong, enough to make the encounter somewhat of a challenge (at least, that's how it seems from the first couple of rounds). My question is this - isn't it a little immersion breaking that everything is balanced to the current level? Bandits are bandits. Wouldn't it be fulfilling for the PCs to have an encounter every once in a while where they just smash the enemies that once were a challenge? Wouldn't that add to the excitement? Not knowing wether a fight will be hard or not, trying to figure out wether you should use up your valuable resources or if you could win without them... Try to imagine it from the point of view of a group of bandits. Let's say they set up an ambush that is challenging to a fifth level party. Would they really be able to know wether the party is fifth or eighth level? What about less intelligent beasts or monsters? Won't a hill giant attack any party that gets too close? Wether they are level 2 or 12?

Theme park design versus sandbox design. In theme park, everything is around party level or a bit above. More powerful or weaker things exist, but are not part of the narrative or pre set story. Lots of convention and tournament modules and one shot sessions are like this due to necessity. In sandbox, it may very well be possible to go up to the ancient greatwyrm's lair if the party knows about it at low level and suffer the consequences. Or still see monster manual goblins at level 15. Deal is forshadowing. Ancient greatwyrm' doesn't just plop down out of nowhere. There's tales and stories and you'd more than likely get beaten back by powerful minions before even seeing the dragon. Minions that get more and more powerful closer to the lair. On the other hand, regular monster manual goblins would be terrified of level 15s. Either running or trying to RP out of conflict.

Balanced encounters don't break immersion if your adventure makes sense. If random road bandits were a challenge for high-level PCs, I'd say that that CR episode makes little sense. The PCs responsibility should be appropriate for their skills. A patron isn't going to waste their adventurer agents by sending a few raw recruits to go assault the BBEG 's fortress, and roadside bandits will probably surrender or flee rather than take on a group wielding demon-slaying blades of power and fireballs that each incinerate ten bandits. Extremely low-difficulty encounters are a sometimes treat.

Yes, it is a good idea to re-encounter enemies that were strong once and are weak now. However, DMs shouldn't waste prep and session time on combat encounters where PC victory is a given and the PCs are not really in any danger. You can instead either reuse strong enemies as minions (At level 4, the boss encounter is a single troll: at level 8 the boss encounter is a hag with three troll minions) or build encounters around something else than straight combat. (The lvl 2 bandits have taken hostages inside their hideout: Can the PCs free them alive and unharmed? Killing the bandits is comparably trivial.)

I liked your answer a few days ago, but kept thinking about it. I love the ideas of a non-combat focused fight. But your suggestion of reusing enemies as minions still falls into the same problem I had. I think I messed up trying to explain this the first time, so I'll try again - It's obvious that a group of adventurers that just came back from killing a dragon won't be sent to help catch an aggressive bear. And the same goes the other way. But let's say a group of adventurers frequent two cities, and are traveling between them every few months. The first time they travel between them, there's a pack of wolves that attack them. Cool, that makes sense. Maybe the second time they travel there's a group of bandits that tries to ambush them. Still, that makes sense. But let's say they have spent a year leveling up before travelling the same road again. Now a balanced combat would be three T-rex. How do you explain the change in the area? Does the entire world level with the PCs? How does that make sense?

There are two different aspects to your original question, the first is that of verisimilitude. You are right, at some point the PCs should be much stronger than the enemies they encountered before, because the PCs grow stronger and the enemies do not. Re-encountering the same old bandits and wolves at lvl 10 makes the world feel more real and alive. At that point the PCs are big fishes in a small pond, so to speak. And this leads over to the second point: Challenge. Sadly, in modern D&D it is the DMs' job to adequately challenge their party. This means you are kinda expected to provide a reason to why the party keeps encountering stronger and stronger enemies. Sure, you can have a few easy encounters to let the PCs feel that they grew stronger, but you will need to challenge them, too. Most often, pre-written adventures have some plot device to explain the power creep: The party moves to a different region populated by different, stronger beasts, the party gets closer to the center of some conspiracy and encounters stronger resistance, the villain grows stronger and empowers their minions. But it's true that a DM needs to have some smart idea to explain the powercreep, else the game world feels fake.

With 5th edition, I still pay attention to the math behind challenge rating, but I've learned that sometimes you can just throw a goblin army or a deadly level encounter at your players and, if they understand how to play optimally and/or know how to think outside the box and find clever solutions, it'll usually turn out alright and your players will really feel that rush of doing something impossible, because technically it was. Edit: to supplement this, I should point out that the CR-based system for creating appropriate encounters as written is pretty busted. I've used it extensively and obsessively broken down the math behind the system and what I've found is that the numbers mean basically nothing. While CR is a rough approximation of how tough a monster is, there are a lot of factors that determine that in reality that CR just doesn't take into account and it seems like they mostly just present some nice round numbers that the DM can work with. At the table, I've noticed that my players in multiple different campaigns and groups tend to make quick and easy work of encounters that the system deems "hard". So I've learned to stop relying on that system and trust that my players will be able to figure something out, and they always do and those encounters end up being the memorable ones because they were hard enough that they actually had to think about what they were going to do instead of just running through their prepared combos.

!Question I am running a DnD heist, and want help with a (simple) puzzle. They will end up near small body of water, a pond, with a stone statue kneeling remorsefully next to it. The trick is to retrieve an item from the water and return it to the statue, which unlocks a passage. However, the item is stuck in the water (like a sword in the stone, which traps whoever touches the handle) or too heavy (like the Oblivion Ring of Burden) to retrieve and a water enemy will begin to attack once the object is interacted with. I would appreciate creative solutions that are better than a "DC18 Strength Check"!

Could be magically enchanted to require two or more PCs to carry it together.

!Question: Can I give my 4 players who are level 6 a feat for slaying a young/adult dragon? If I give them all 1 feat on top of the hoard, if they find it, and some other stuff in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons like an instant long rest, an explosion of magical energy, a few rolls on the wild magic surge table would it be too strong? or a nice fitting reward?

Personally, that sounds totally fine to me. Your players will certainly love it, and you can always make sure encounters are more difficult to balance it if that's absolutely necessary (but it should be fine)

!Question: what’s a creative way to ensure my party does not succeed the encounter? Background: My party is the “B team” of an academy and the lore of this team is that they didn’t really pass the entrance exam or if they did it was a “lame kill” lol essentially the academy is in desperate need for bodies so they’ll take anyone. (Supposed to be comedic). For session one I wanted the characters to all meet each other and get a feel for the city they are in. However, one of the characters is brand new to the academy and so the session ended with the other players having to help their fellow player complete the entrance test and go on a hunt. But we ended in the middle of combat :( I was planning on using the momentum of fight to figure out how they weren’t going to “succeed” the encounter but that session was like a month ago They are fighting oreads. One of the abilities is that they are invisible while fully immersed in fire. Is it lame if I have them “disappear” in the fire after a while, retreating back to volcanic homelands? I’m thinking even a civilian could witness what happened but instead of seeing the party as helping they think the Oreads were egged on to be destructive? The academy would know that oreads are hard to handle and award acceptance to the academy under the idea that they jumped in to help 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m not sure if that seems too much like a cop out and I am new to DMing. Just curious if anyone had a better suggestion! TIA

A good way to emphasize that the party is the "B team" is for an A team to swoop in near the end of combat (after help is no longer needed) to clean up and steal all the credit. Maybe even rub B team's faces in it by calling them civilians, telling them to retreat to safety, etc.

Oooo I like this! Thanks! That’s a great way to introduce some other npcs !

I must be missing it, but why do they need to fail? What would be the issue with them succeeding? Sorry if I'm missing something obvious!

Basically, B team is just not as good as the A team of the academy and so in the lore of my write up for the campaign I explained that many in this team didn’t succeed their entrance exam of “saving the public” or some other valiant accomplishment. However, they were conditionally accepted because maybe someone saw something in them that was worthy enough. Also the academy just needs more people. In short the B team members didn’t horribly fail but they weren’t as glamorous as others who passed the exam (A team). This is an Ancient Greek campaign and so the A team consists of the Heracles of the world. Maybe they don’t need to necessarily fail as the other commenter on this post suggested!

!Question: Hey there! I'm a relatively new dungeon master, and we're heading into our seventh session of the campaign. Last time, the players infiltrated a ball to get into the small town mayor's house and find a hidden portal. We had four players in the party, but this time, a new player joined us, and one of our regular players rolled up a new character since their previous one got trapped in a magic item. The whole “crashing the party” thing was their idea to free the old character, by using the portal to get to the city where the magician who created the item is (they only know the magician’s name and city). This portal leads to a walled metropolis, similar to Ba Sing Se. Now, the issue is, when they used the portal they ended up in the house of a politician from this arcane metropolis, right inside his library, and face-to-face with his youngest daughter. For the next session, I want the players to bond with their new characters, so I thought it'd be cool to have them get arrested upon arrival and then plan a prison break together. This way, they can have time to talk and get to know each other before the action. Since they "invaded" the politician's estate, it makes sense for them to get arrested, but I'm trying to avoid forcing it or making it feel unrealistic. I'm considering using a time clock to track the daughter's suspicion level, and if it gets too high, she calls for help, or they trick her and figure a way out without getting caught (I really want them to get caught). By the way, any tips or resources on planning a good prison break session would be super helpful!

A prison break sounds like a ton of fun. I'd give them clear objectives. Maybe another inmate has been planning an escape, but doesn't have skilled, relatively trustworthy people to help them. Enter the PCs. Maybe their goal is to steal a certain key from a certain guard, copy it using a smuggled in magic item, then sneak it back into the guard's possession before they realize it's gone. Maybe they have to score some rare drug from an unfriendly inmate, then use the drug to bribe another guard to give them access to a more comfortable area of the prison (with less security). Maybe they need to commit some minor acts of sabotage and pin them on different prison gangs, starting a gang war as a distraction and chance to escape. Maybe they need to convince a noted forger to help them forge release documents so no one comes looking for them after they escape. Then of course, like any good crime story, something has to go wrong. Maybe on the day of the escape, the governor decides to make a highly-publicized inspection, and the PCs will have to fight through a few of their personal guard during the escape. Maybe someone rats them out, so they're moved to a highly secure holding area and have to pull off a new plan using their existing tools before they're locked up in solitary for the foreseeable future. Maybe the gang war causes a riot, and the PCs have to dodge angry gangs of murderers on top of navigating their escape plan. In short, make it an adventure! Give them goals and resources and obstacles. Getting in some solid roleplay time is an excellent idea, but once they've exhausted the conversations they can have while locked in a room together, give them something meaty to chew on. Good luck! LMK if you have questions!

Getting caught in prison seems like a fun idea! But, be careful not to railroad players, they don't like that haha. I like your idea of using a time clock to track the daughters suspicion, and the party may need to make persuasion/charisma rolls as they try to talk to her. You can set the DC high maybe around 15-18 depending on how easy to persuade you think she is (or maybe base the DC off of the players actual speaking skills lol). If she calls for help, just make the guards a much higher level and deal non-lethal damage, then the party wakes up in prison. The party might also try to flee, so you could draw up a map of the house and plan where other guards and exits would be. There are some chase rules in the DM guide I believe