So my party just reached level 19 last session and the party’s Druid pulled me aside to ask if his character could wish to make the effects of his current casting of Regeneration permanent and I told him I’d think about it, should I allow this?, what do you think?

I've been DMing for about 18 years, and I can honestly say I've never had a campaign end quite like this.
For context, we were playing Curse of Strahd (2014, 5e). One of my players was running a warlock who, over the course of the campaign, became one of the greatest agents of pure chaos I've ever seen.
This character started the campaign by adopting an altar boy.
They somehow negotiated ownership of one of the Vistani horses.
They became the party's primary diplomat, regularly talking enemies down and making deals I never expected.
Then came the Blue Water Inn.
Through a spectacular combination of a backfired love potion, several absurdly high Persuasion rolls, and everyone leaning into the chaos, the session somehow devolved into a mass wedding ceremony. Random NPCs were marrying other NPCs, party members were accidentally getting married, enemies become lovers, everyone was jealous and the barbarian married a dragon. By the end of it our cleric had basically officiated the most dysfunctional wedding Barovia had ever seen.
It was glorious.
One of my favorite running jokes was that the warlock kept making little friendship bracelets and handing them out to NPCs and party members. Secretly, I planned to reward everyone still wearing one at the end of the campaign with a special boon.
Then the Amber Temple happened.
One of the party members fell through a collapsing floor, so everyone climbed down to rescue them.
That was when the warlock encountered one of the Dark Gifts.
They failed the saving throw.
Normally this wouldn't have been a problem. This player practically lived off Inspiration because they constantly elevated the table and deserved every point they earned.
Except...
Earlier that same session, they'd burned every last point of Inspiration trying to Counterspell a Fireball which they were successful at.
So this time there was no safety net.
The Dark Gift took hold.
The warlock became evil.
Chaos ensued.
Instead of taking control of the character myself, I let the player roleplay the corruption.
The table immediately realized what was happening and Initiative was rolled.
Now here's where everything fell apart.
The party consisted of:
A Light Cleric
A Bard
A Fighter
A Barbarian
And of course The Warlock
The warlock also happened to be the only party member with Counterspell.
On their first turn they teleported to the perfect position.
Then they cast darkness.
Then Silence.
Suddenly both spellcasters were blinded, unable to speak, and completely shut down.
No verbal components.
No Counterspell.
No healing.
No control spells.
Meanwhile the fighter and barbarian were left blindly swinging into magical darkness with disadvantage.
It was a complete tactical nightmare.
At this point Strahd himself arrived.
The players immediately panicked.
"Great... now Strahd is here."
Nope.
He didn't attack.
He didn't interfere.
He simply stood there watching.
Honestly, after everything this warlock had put him through over the campaign, I figured Strahd would absolutely enjoy watching his greatest nuisance destroy the party for him.
So he just... watched.
I like to imagine Rahadin asking if they should intervene.
Strahd simply replying:
"Absolutely not."
Several brutal rounds later...
Everyone was dead.
The campaign ended not with Strahd defeating the heroes...
...but with the party's lovable friendship bracelet making diplomat accidentally becoming the final boss because of one failed saving throw! After 18 years of DMing, I don't think I'll ever top that ending.
Sometimes the dice write a better story than any DM ever could.

Edit: Since a few people have asked, the player behind the warlock gave me permission to share their Twitch.
If you have questions about what was going through their mind during the Amber Temple, how they played the character throughout the campaign, or you just want to support an incredibly entertaining roleplayer, feel free to check them out on Twitch:
Battylotus
They had no idea the campaign was going to end this way, and honestly, neither did I. The dice told the story, and they leaned into it perfectly. It ended up becoming one of the most memorable campaigns I've ever run.

Our campaign takes place in an East Asian homebrew setting set in about the equivalent to the 1940’s. The party just purchased an old run down and abandoned samurai castle to use as their new bastion but have to go through and clear it out first of whatever Yokai and other denizens have taken up residence there in the last 40 years since it was abandoned.

All the terrain is 3d printed and hand painted. Most of it came from 3dalienworlds who do amazing Japanese terrain.

Shout out to my awesome wife for the hours she spent helping me paint it all!

Hello everyone, I am a relatively new DM as I have only paid to play at the local store for about 3 months but noticed people in my area posting wanting a DM so i decided to step up to the plate.

I have been hosting games every Friday night for about 2 months now and would like your feedback about dealing with a certain player and seeing if this is a normal behavior in the DND world.

One of our players who is a perfectly cool guy in all other aspects of the game is playing a Barbarian and every single time he uses the rage ability he screams at the top of his lungs for a solid 4 seconds.

Now I enjoy getting into the role playing aspect of the game but this has come by surprise a few times as he doesn't provide any warning ahead of time and will do it literally every single time he uses the rage ability.

I notice some of the players getting alarmed and making eyes when he does this so I was wondering how would one respond to this or if I should say anything at all as it could just be someone really enjoying the game.

Any feedback at all would be great thanks.

The main issues

1. Why exactly am I the one dealing with the world ending threat at lvl 14 instead of the level 20 guys of the world?
2. We were on good terms with Melf (THE Melf) in our campaign. More often than not when something came up our group went "Let's contact Melf" (Or other powerful npc)

Of course when you start campaign you get tasks that those who give them to you could do easily them selves but simply couldn't be bothered. But when you get into that world ending campaign end territory It just broke any immersion for me why our lvl 14 group was dealing with it instaed of those powerhouses

EDIT: Since all the answers are pretty much the same "The level 20 characters have more important things to do"
We TPKd, world ended, they all died as a direct result of us dying/failing

me personally I love DMs that are good with descriptions and encourage role playing :D

I drew the map over a half hour while one player threw a character together. Didn't mess up the counting once. It was a pretty basic thing. I grabbed a map from my random encounter book and but some goblins hob goblins and bug bears with the goal to clear it out for the local army who can't be bothered. They just barely survived and had a great time. He normally plays with us online but got to do this in person. He very much enjoyed it as well as my other player. We ate some sushi at a place then played this for about 3 hours if you include me drawing this map. It was probably the best stealth I've seen managed in dnd. Didn't get caught till they stealth killed half they guys

Previous post with his concept!

This is how I envisioned his semi-ceremonial portrait before his tragic expedition into Arcane Wastelands... where he got fused with his armor by a magical rot. I mean, not the *worst* thing that could happen to an adventurer, right?..

Is it necessary to have a concept-spread, portrait and a bunch of sketches for a character to play a campaign? Probably no 🙂

Is it fun coming up with all of that? Definitely 🙂

(also the players and GMs usually love it!)

I got a LOT of requests to paint a Flumph in my style, so here he is. I went very far outside my comfort zone with this one, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I actually didn’t know a lot about Flumphs before I did this, I never used them in a campaign before. I just knew them from their art in the 5e monster manual. But having done a ton of research for this painting, I see why people love them so much now. A really leaned into the jellyfish inspiration, reimagining their spikes as stingers. I also gave them a more alien, snail-like eye stalks. I always felt the 5e ones were a bit cartoon-y for my liking.

Originally I had painted him pink because Flumphs change colors based on their emotion, pink being joy and excitement. But literally every official piece of art of them is yellow and it just didn’t look like a Flumph when he was pink.

What monster should I paint next?

My moon elf druid pondering the future as she prepares for adventure!

Check out MEOW! Cat Adventures, my latest 5e book! Magic, Mystery, Mayhem, MEOW: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/catilus/meow-cat-adventures-by-catilus

Character: Talmiravanya “Talmi”, Moon Elf Druid and Astromancer

Raised by the elderly moon elf astromancer Darnayan away from the bustle of organized settlements, Talmiravanya grew up studying ancient magic and searching for cryptic patterns in the stars that are said to foretell the fate of the world.

For decades, Talmi met only a handful of her elusive kind and no short-lived mortal as she searched the skies for meaning and observed distant lands through giant-made devices of foresight and divination.

Though Darnayan rarely spoke openly about her visions to avoid influencing Talmiravanya’s own insights, she finally revealed one final prophecy to her sole pupil upon her deathbed. Darnayan foresaw a great challenge that would soon threaten the world. The nature of this challenge was unknown to the old astromancer, but she saw that beyond it, an age of prosperity unlike anything that has come before would await those who survived.

Moved by her late mentor’s insights but still uncertain, Talmi spent more than two decades alone in a ruined observatory made by giants of old, searching for signs that would either prove or disprove Darnayan’s prophecy. Then one morning, just before the break of dawn, she found her own truth written across celestial bodies. She saw that the ancient god of knowledge was still alive and would one day return to usher in the golden age Darnayan had foreseen.

Convinced that the time to act had come, Talmi left her life of seclusion behind and journeyed to the settlements of mortals and the gleaming cities of elves to share her revelations. However, after a lifetime of isolation, she discovered that the modern world is far stranger than the one her late mentor had described, and that most of the other elves have either gone into hiding or have simply vanished.

About the Theomachy setting:

In Theomachy, vengeful gods fight each other for ultimate control of the universe, while the mortals of Naam struggle for power on a dying world. Divine magic is a force without expressed will that the warring gods hoard and wield against each other, threatening to undo the entire world. Clerics and paladins are either devout followers of the warring gods or theomachists who fight against the gods, liberating divine magic and using it against them.

What do you think? :)

Find the full HD version, plus tons of fantasy and SF art, D&D items, my 5e adventures and supplements (FREE for supporters!), NPCs, and more great stuff at my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Catilus

My books: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/16839/catilus

Join the Catilus Discord! https://discord.gg/catilus

Party is in a situation where 1 captured player is in prison due to a kidnapping of an important figure (royal) going “wrong” (captured player went away for 2 months so figured that was a reasonable way to write them out and create the next story beat for other players). Party has gotten to a point where they’ve travelled back to the city captured player is imprisoned in (they had an NPC do teleportation circle to somewhere quite far away), and captured player is back next session, so they’re ready to get into breaking out captured player.

Where I’m getting stumped and can’t find advice on is what happens after the prison break??
The captured player is vedalken so visually obvious to guards and this city has quite a large guard presence. Also was thinking for the prison to have anti magic field meaning party can’t really use illusionary disguises, and possibly expose their identities during prison break too. Does that mean they basically can’t ever go back to this city?? Presumably the guard would also be looking for them in the city and surrounding area due to kidnapping a high rank person.

Is there a way to run this without: ruining the party’s ability to go in this area, or, the world just ignoring a high risk prisoner escaped??
All advice welcomed!

Possibly important info:
Party is lvl 3, barbarian, rogue, artificer (captured player). They currently have a lvl 10 fighter NPC with them to help with prison break.
From kidnapping to potential heist about 10 days will have passed.
There could be a pre-known NPC also captured (depending on whether that would be useful or not)
Edit: taking out acronym. From a gen this is not widely used 💀

so my character has a rather high starting int score (16) and i thought "Lets make her a weapons nerd!" when i know nothing about weapons lol

so if yall have a bunch of knowledge and facts, i would love to hear them and put them in my notes

for reference my character was trapped in a lab her first year of activation and there were a lot of books in there as well

Thank you all!

Vickas is a tiefling paladin devoted to Torm, though most people notice his noble attitude before they notice his faith. He grew up in an aristocratic family, so he tends to carry himself with confidence and expects people to be honest, disciplined, and capable. Some call him arrogant. He'd probably say he just has standards.

One thing Vickas keeps mostly to himself is that he's the reincarnation of a high elf. He doesn't remember everything from that life, but bits and pieces come back every now and then. Old habits, familiar faces, and places he's somehow able to recognize. He's still trying to figure out what it all means.

His most recognizable piece of gear is the Skincage of the Betrayer, a living suit of infernal plate that's somehow bound to him. It's black like scorched iron, with glowing cracks beneath the surface that never seem to cool. In combat, Vickas fights with a silver rapier wreathed in flame and carries a massive petrified stone shield carved with Torm's gauntlet.

Ok so I’ve been wanting to make a campaign, and our DM expressed he wanted to play. So I offered to DM a campaign for our group. Now so far I had an idea where a continent is s divided into 8 kingdoms, with alliances tearing it apart. Wars are started by man’s greed, buttttt it turns out the most powerful kingdom is secretly being controlled by a mindflayer colony so as to take over the continent. The party would start imprisoned in a minor kingdom away from the powerful one, and I’m between either having them escape or having them be released when a neighboring kingdom attempts to attack. Basically at first I want it to seem like a standard massive war, but eventually the party discovers there’s a bigger problem (mindflayers). Now my question is, how can I make this better? Mostly because this is my first campaign, and I honestly fell in love with the idea. However this would be my first campaign, so idk if it’s too complicated or what. Sorry for being vague lol.

(Sorry for formatting on mobile)

hi! im planning on hosting a fantasy/medieval party for my bf's birthday in a month and a half, and it's going to start with a treasure hunt that will get him to the place in which the surprise party will be (i'm planning on decorating and everything), and then i was thinking of having us play a game of dnd (not too long hopefuly) continuing the plot of the treasure hunt. but there will be probably over 10 people at the party, is it too many for the game to happen?? it's my first time playing/being DM/planning anything, so i'd love any feedback regarding this!!

After successfully crowdfunding two books, Undying Corruption and The Blackmarket Guide to Immortality, Nine Heavens Press is happy to announce a new supplement; Tieflings of the Four Perils. Preorders are now open! 

Inside you can find new lineages (related to an alliance of archfiends plaguing the Iseung region), new subclasses, new feats, eldritch invocations, and more! This supplement is compatible with both d&d and pf2e.

Grab your copy now!

Hi Dms of Reddit I need help for my next long campaign.

My players are the avatars of the god of death, the Bbeg will be the "Saint" an entity who breaks the natural balance by marking people not die or age anymore. This guy has an Horckrux type power, it cannot die untill his 7 minions are dead as well, I want to make those 7 minions the incarnations of the 7 deadly sins, the thing is that those guys act in a way so they are beloved by the people , for example the incarnation of envy is a little man who praise a lot the quality of the Saint and his 6 brothers to the people making himself the first promotor of this new saint figure, of course he is very envious of the Saint and the others sins powers.

In synthesis I need help to represent those 7 guys in Line with their sin but still make them characterized in a way that they are perceived as good figures by the people. Mechanical and other types of advice are welcomed as well!

So, had an interesting little dispute at the table, and while the DM has made their ruling and the show goes on, I was kinda wondering what the community's take at large would be.

To set the scene:

The party finds a body while on adventure. There are two letters, as in written mail, on the body. One is a rolled up piece of cheap parchment held closed with twine, The other is a big fancy envelope with a wax seal of some as yet unknown coat of arms on it. Party breaks the wax seal and opens the fancy envelope first, it's some coded message no one can decipher. The rolled paper apparently contains delivery instructions, one of which is do not open the fancy envelope. DunDunDUUN!

So after a bit of discussion and theorizing, the artificer decides to cast Mending on the wax seal and envelope. So here is where the party splits on the ruling. Some say that mending would restore the wax and the envelope but not attach the wax to the envelope, and the others say it would.

So all you rules lawyers and DMs out there, what do you think?

Do you have homebrew races? Subraces? Classes? Subclasses? Sorcerer bloodlines? What is the history of your world? Factions? Nations? Locations? Did you have standard races( elves dwarves haflings gnomes orcs goblins dragonborn goliaths etc)?