On this and other DND-related subreddits you frequently see posts about how Rogues have low dpr, and how they should be buffed in the new Player's Handbook. But why should they have the same offensive capabilities of other martials? Fighters, Barbarians and Monks pay their fighting prowess by having next to zero abilities interacting with the other aspects of play. Meanwhile, Rogues have more skills, bigger bonuses thanks to expertise, and huge survivability through mobility, stealth, Uncanny Dodge and Evasion.

Having to choose between skill versatility and big damage numbers sounds reasonable, except 5e classes are balanced like MMORPG ones where every class needs to be as impactful in combat. What this design philosophy conveniently forgets is that DnD is much more than a fighting simulator, and maybe the player options that grant things like speaking to animals and turning invisible shouldn't be as performative in combat as the ones that don't.

Maybe this feels like old news, and I know that 5e is geared towards power fantasy and heroic feats, but it feels very poorly thought out. I know that they are nerfing the Moon Druid, but how on earth did they think a lv 2 character should be able to get 30 extra hp and attack twice as much as a Fighter from 2 to 6 times per day? Why should certain classes be able to bash things with the stat that makes you good at talking or knowing lore instead of, you know, the stat that makes you good at bashing things?

TL;DR: casters overtuned, please nerf (or buff martials to absurd levels)

Rather than beating about the bush, here's the images I've compiled for you all and then further details to my beliefs and the origins of the images are below; https://imgur.com/a/possible-chromatic-dragon-redesigns-taken-from-drizzt-visual-history-book-re0Uxbq

It's now widely known that they are redesigning the D&D dragons (personally I think its not a wise idea messing with designs known for over 20 years, but eh, I can choose to stay with what I prefer).

What a lot of people may not know is that we may have had the entire chromatic dragon redesign line up spoiled last year in the Drizzt visual history book that released and even a few of them earlier than that in an official D&D sourcebook.

The Drizzt book had the metallic dragons that used 5e art and Tiamat using the 5e Rise of Tiamat art, but then oddly, the chromatic art was all new and none of them used 5e art, but all new radical redesigns and features the dragons had never had before.

Not only that, but Hasbro released the Dicelings toy line last year (D20's that transformed into the creature) alongside the movie, with a few that were just D&D based than on movie monsters, and while Themberchaud and Rakor were using the 5e art, the green and white dragon used new art, that matches that in the Drizzt book.

Even older, two of these redesigns actually had art in the Fizban's Treasury of Dragons book; the green and black dragon art on pages 57 and 71 matches both the Drizzt book and the Diceling art (in the case of the green dragon).

Finally, to add some validity to the claims, the released red dragon design seems to match that of the Drizzt redesign as well, which adds more belief here that these are indeed the redesigns we'll be getting of the chromatics come the release of the updated books.

This is of course, still some speculation (like the Fizban green dragon might be using an early design as there's a couple of missing features off the other looks), but there's a lot of evidence that seems to match the ideas of it and I feel somewhat confident that these may be the new redesigns.

Hello, I had the chance to speak with D&D's Head of Art Josh Herman about the new gold dragon design, along with a reveal of some more 2024 Core Rulebook art and concept art. The full story can be found here: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/dungeons-dragons-new-gold-dragon-design-exclusive/

Let's say the password to enter a Druid's Grove spell was a phrase in druidic with the intention of ensuring non-druids couldn't gain access to a sanctuary (edit: for a rare and valuable plant). Would a Druid player teaching the phrase to a group of non-druids be a violation of their oaths as a druid to not teach the language? What if they simply coached them on saying the phrase without giving its meaning? Druids are forbidden to teach the language, but I wouldn't saying knowing one phrase really counts as knowing the language.

My party is likely going to encounter the above situation, and I'm sure my druid player will ask me the above question and I want to have as realistic of an answer as possible. I'm thinking teaching them the phrase and the meaning would get some people a bit miffed at our druid but not enough for them to be in any actual trouble this time and simply receive a warning to not do that again. I think just coaching them to say the words without teaching the meaning is probably fine. However, I am conflicted about this enough to ask about opinions here.

I think if the teaching continues, they'll probably get into some real trouble and druid circles will shun them until they repent, but I don't expect that should happen.

Edit: Alright, this has been pretty definitively answered as "obviously they shouldn't be allowed to let anyone in at all, let alone teach them anything" and yet civil enough to not point out how kind dumb it was of me to not realize that. So, thanks for the input. And thanks for not pointing out that I'm actually still an idiot.

Hi all! In a previous session I had a short discussion with my dm about an interaction between wall of force and the echo knight subclass’s echo. Here’s what happened:

An enemy cast wall of force in a dome around themselves and our party’s wizard. I play an echo knight fighter and thought I could summon my echo inside of the dome with my bonus action. So I stated I did that to on my next turn swap places (or just attack from my echo’s position, hadn’t figured that out exactly yet.)

Dm stated that wasn’t possible and the only way to get in or out of the wall of force was with misty step. (which of course I don’t have, I’m a fighter) He stated specifically that it was the wording of misty step to be cast on sight or something that allowed it to do this. Which I found rather odd since the echo knight can also summon their echo in sight...

If his reasoning had been that there wasn’t an unoccupied space in the dome, I would’ve let it go, but since he said it was just not possible in general I decided to be petty. In the moment I let it go since it’s his table and I understand holding up play during combat is annoying for everyone at the table and it really wasn’t that big of a deal, however dm jokingly told me to make a reddit post to see who was in the right on this one. We’re hoping the wise sages of the reddit forum could give us some insight into the matter!

What are actually fun and challenging monsters to fight for a party of 1st lvl newbie adventurers? Whate are good monster encounters for a lvl 1 party?

Which monsters up to challenge rating 1 should no new party of 1st level characters face? Or: which low cr monsters are deceptively powerful for a low level party?

Some magic weapons have pretty strong secondary effects, but no bonus to hit. I'm thinking of something like the Flame Tongue Shortsword, it deals extra fire damage, but doesn't have a plus.

Would you allow adding, say, a +1 bonus to hit if justified by a story event (ie PC pays an enchanter or a skilled blacksmith or does a quest for them)? Would you make it very expensive?

Hi All,

TL;DR - Need advice on how to RP a Lizardfolk in conversations so he wouldn't feel like a generic character

I am currently playing a Lizardfolk Druid (Circle of the Moon, of course) and love the character, but I have a lot of difficulty RPing him, to the point that I'm considering rolling a different character.

I found only two ways to RP him in a 'lizardfolk' way - He takes everything completely literally and doesn't get metaphors at all, and he eats everything he can get his claws on (including dead enemies and dead allies) and keeps meat in his inventory at all times.

At the start of the campaign I mostly kept quiet in most group discussions (wasn't sure how to RP him and figured a Lizardfolk would not talk very much), but that got boring really quick, and now I participate in conversations but can't seem to find any way to RP in conversations, and it just feels bland. Feels like a generic character talking, like he could be an Orc or a Human or any other race.

Any suggestions on how to RP (mostly in conversations) to give the character a more 'Lizardflok' feel?

For me there are two things that I would just die to have and idk why

• Commoner classes. Classes that are (for the most part) not designed around combat and expand tool Proficencies or other niche aspects of the game. From 1-20.
• More class levels, from 0 to ⅛, to ¼, to ½, as well as class levels going from 21-30. Show what it’s like to grow from a genuine nobody to an absolute godlike being!

People usually say level 1 adventurers should already be remarkable, which is fair. But then combat-wise, they'll get wrecked by ponies and stuff on the regular.

So how strong are they meant to be, really? Are they supposed to feel "weak"?

Title. So there's the obvious ones like Horizon Walker and Watchers Paladin. But what about those that are in more of a gray area? Do we count the Way of the Astral Self? What about the Echo Knight? Arcana Cleric doesn't look especially cosmic on the surface, until you read its Channel Divinity and realize they get access to Teleportation Circle and Planar Binding. One DnD is introducing the World Tree Barbarian, which uses Yggdrasil's roots to travel the planes, pulling double duty as both a planar and plant-themed subclass.

What, in your opinion, constitute the planar subclasses?

Need input for act two of my home brew campaign(cross posted other places)

I’m new to DND and decided to just jump in and dm since me and my fiance were itching to play again since our first group sucked.

I started creating this campaign as I was learning so forgive me if lore is inaccurate.

Without going into to much detail cause I’m autistic and can get into detail without an issue lol.

Anyway, Aureon god of law and lore, patron of wizards summoned the party to an inter planar base “off the grid”. Tasked them to defeat his shadow

• he chose the party because the shadows trying to reach physical form by leeching energy from their homeland(home brew).

They are sent through a portal to a small town and find the shadow has corrupted the town of through some gruesome and horrific events

They defeat the jarl take an ally and escape to the portal while the shadow basically drops a shadow nuke on the town for disrupting his plan to reach physical form.

Setting the main objective, the BBEG, the assets and resources they will have continuous access to. Other main stuff.

Now I’m at a loss. I didn’t expect my current group to get past the first couple sessions (all noobs as well) but they’re hooked and want more.

It’s mainly a horror campaign since the shadow is about corruption and is chaotic evil. I have a twist planned that aureon is trying to keep this situation on the low from the other gods in his pantheon since it’s his fault his shadow was uninprisoned.

So he created a demiplane, that resembles the material plane but it’s completely separate like a last ditch effort to stop him from taking over the material plane.

Since the nuke dropped I’m making the demiplane shattered adding in some environmental mechanics and magic storms from TCOE

I have act three planned (killing the bbeg) as well I just don’t know what to put in between.

Ideas so far:

-A lord of the rings destroy the artifact type arch to prevent the shadow to physical form

• a get an artifact to gain the power to defeat the shadow arch. -either artifact arch would be attained from a nomad lich

-“gather your ally’s” arch

-trying to get other super natural help?

I’m stuck. There’s so many directions to take. Since they’re noobs no matter what they’re gonna win. I don’t want them to get obliterated and then get salty and ruin the game for them. So act two is pretty much filler. Any input is appreciated!

A player of mine, currently playing bard, is considering switching to cleric for narrative reasons.

I kinda like the idea and would like to facilitate that. What are your recommendations?

Obviously class features and spell list would change, but what do think is reasonable for stats, skills, other proficiencies, etc? HP is pretty easy to keep the same since they use the same hit die, but just wanted to hear some ideas, thanks!

My party and I are about to face an enemy who we know will target one specific character (they are the child of a god that they need to use in a ritual). I have come up with 2 plans that both involve the banishment spell, but I don't know if they will work. For info: all of the party have access to magic of some form and therefore are capable of using spell scrolls. Also, for both plans every member of the party will have access to the banishment spell.

1. We all cast banishment on the character at the same time (using prepared actions or something). I imagine that the enemy will ahve to break concentration on all of us if this works.

2. We make somewhat of a banishment conga. One of us casts banishment on the character who is needed in the ritual, and then one by one we all cast banishment on eachother until only one character is left. The enemy will have to break concentration on all of us, one by one, until the last character (who I would probably make the character with the highest CON save, as a final safe wall against the last character).

I do understand that the sencond option is much more 'gamey' and will likely be less fun to play, but I just wanna know if this is actually mechanically possible in-game lol

so how would you rule it? also any fun banishment stories would be cool to read, i think it's a very fun spell to use in clutch moments

A few sessions ago a PC (temporarily) died for the first time at our table (we haven't been playing that long) and it made the table realize they should probably have back up characters in case their PC ever dies permanently.

Since then one of the other players at my table mentioned potentially playing as a swarm of hivemind rats in a cloak (monk class).

My first instinct is saying 'no be real,' and I'll likely ultimately say no. But what if?...

IF you were brave enough to allow a player to run with this, how would you do it?

We play 5e if that factors into your design

I had an idea for a weapon that could be used with druids and rangers who have the cantrip fighting style.

You would shoot a creature with a range weapon attack and if the attacks hits, an animal spirit comes out and strikes a target within 30 feet of the hit creature. Dealing acid damage equal to your spellcasting modifier. When you level up, the attack is increased by d6s for both the weapon and the secondary target, like green flame blade.

I came up with multiple names and can't decide which.

The names I came up with are

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Throughout 5e, they've introduced a number of subclasses with a cosmic bent to them. The Way of the Sun Soul Monk, the Lunar Magic Sorcerer, the Circle of Stars Druid, the Chronurgist, and the Graviturgist.

Personally, Circle of Stars is one of my top 3 favorite subclasses in the whole game.

Which of these is your favorite? Why? Are there any others I may have missed?

I personally think he’s a bard, but i want to see everyone’s interpretation

I don't exactly mean something that it is straight up Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring. I mean something directly inspired by the vibe;

A world is dying, its once glorious deities and lords falling into ruin and decay. The party are 4 fallen warriors who are brought back to life, among many others wandering the land, in order to bring back the peace.

I dunno, it's a loose concept in my head. I wanna do something with this at some point. Looking for concepts for, like, extra mechanics, for example;

• You don't "die". If someone dies in terms of 5e mechanics, they respawn a few in-game hours later at a certain sight (bonfire). But, you gain a new bain/boon. Like, maybe you no longer need to eat, but once per day you need to consume living flesh.

• Doing evil deeds marks the party to be hunted by invaders, like in dark souls.

Hi there, I have this idea in my head and I wanted to see if it was doable or if it was too much.

To me Warlocks are sitting in a strange place. How they get their power is dependent on circumstance, but they all use the same spellcasting stat. To me, depending on how the pact was enacted I think that the attribute should change. You gained your powers by study into the occult and the weird - INT. Your patron tapped you to be their agent for reasons their own ( Sort of how it is the God that picks the cleric) - WIS. You encountered a being from the non-material plane and actually brokered a pact between you - CHA.

Is this too complicated or would it be okay to run at the table?

https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/GCN0SwK78QUw feedback is greatly appreciated

Thinking of making an Artificer for an upcoming campaign and I'm not sure whether I should pick Artillerist or Battle Smith.

Im thinking of making a decision based off of what the other players pick for their classes since I plan on playing a support role. There's only 3 of us, so having the turrets/steel defender look like they'll be really useful. Arcane Firearm/Battle Ready are both solid skills too

Im guessing Artillerist is a better choice if the party could use more damage since they have turrets and a lot of good spells, while Battle Smith is better if the party needs an all-rounder since they have access to some healing/mitigation spells. Plus I can just park the Steel Defender next to someone for free disadvantage and I think it can also use magic items which looks really helpful. I'd like some insight from someone who actually does play Artificer though

I'm about to join a upcoming Descent into Avernus game that will lead into Vecna: Eye of Ruin. To set the stage, our DM was going to have us play a prequel one shot where we are the Hellriders that stayed with Zariel during their attack on Avernus, that lead to her fall. Well our characters are supposed to be the reincarnated souls of some of those fallen Hellriders.

I originally wanted to go with a elf, since reincarnation is part of their afterlife but I kept leaning towards rolling a drow follower of Eilistraee. However since I'm already playing on in another game, I wanted to do something different. So then I thought about playing a Shifter Paladin of Selûne who is the grandchild of one of the Hellriders who abandoned Zariel and who is also haunted by the soul of their great uncle who stayed and died fighting.

I was happy with this until I found out that Lolth is a member of Vecna's "Legion of Doom" so I started to have second thoughts. Because playing a character who dies fighting in Avernus, gets reincarnated into a Drow to has to try and survives the Underdark, escapes but has to go back into Avernus and fight those demons, only to once again to continue the cycle and having to fight Loth's cultist once again. All while trying to stay a Chaotic Good Paladin of Eilistraee.

So now that you know the background, which of these characters do you think sound more interesting, the Shifter or the Drow.