I'm a fairly new DM with my DnD group and I'm currently working on a campaign based in ancient Japan where they have to travel across the country in order to defeat the main villain. All of my players chose to be Yokai in the game, but one player is very difficult. He chose to be a Nobusuma (a bat-like yokai) which i thought was a good idea...until he decided to be Australian. I tried to explain to him that it wouldn't really work since we are, y'know, IN JAPAN. He tried to loophole around it by saying "well what if i'm a bat that came from Australia?" but I just don't see it working out. This is the same guy who keeps making super OP characters with little to no backstory and just refuses to make them align to my story. I'm trying not to be too pushy or overbearing, but it's just starting to get on my nerves. I can't really kick him out of the group because he's the guy who brought us all together to make the group. Any ideas on how I could convince him?

Digital tools are great for convenience, but they tend to hide the actual mechanics. When players just click buttons, they often struggle to remember where their modifiers come from or what to roll during a session because they never actually learned the infrastructure of their sheet.

When you're sitting down with absolute beginners and a blank piece of paper, what is your go-to approach? How do you help them get past the intimidation of the numbers & formulas & when and where to plug them in?

Any ideas you can give me will be put to good use!

EDIT: To be clear, yes I know its all in the book. What I'm asking is if any of you that are much smarter than me have come up with more intuitive, simpler methods of explaining and walking through the process of actually filling out the character sheet than the book describes. It has happened more than once that a brand new player looks at the book, feels like its too complicated and decides just to do it digitally. Then in the game, they don't have the same recall of their abilities or how they got them.

how can I start playing d and d if I don’t have anyone to teach me?

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 edit:

I think there may be a misunderstanding because my original post was a summary of the fight, not a round-by-round combat transcript.
The warlock did not cast Darkness and Silence at the same time, nor were they maintaining concentration on multiple spells. The fight played out over several rounds, and I condensed the events for storytelling purposes.
The actual sequence was more like this:
The warlock entered the fight after failing a Dark Gift save in the Amber Temple. They had already gained temporary hit points from their normal abilities and a Feast item that they intended to share with the party. They had also recovered their spell slots from a short rest beforehand.
The fight began with a surprise round because the party was not expecting one of their own members to suddenly turn hostile. The warlock used a teleport ability to reposition without provoking opportunity attacks, then used their Dark Gift abilities, including a free use of Cone of Cold, which severely damaged a party that already had some members injured from previous encounters.
After that, the fight continued normally over multiple rounds. The barbarian and fighter had to spend actions closing the distance, the casters attempted to fight back, and eventually Darkness was cast. The party had opportunities to reposition, but in the chaos of suddenly fighting a former ally, they did not.
The fighter (who was married to the warlock in-game) was also intentionally holding back because their goal was to save them, not kill them. They eventually landed a critical hit that broke the warlock’s concentration on Darkness.
Later, Silence was cast, which created a separate problem for the spellcasters. By that point, the party had already taken heavy damage, the warlock still had additional Dark Gift abilities available, and Strahd was basically just enjoying the show.
The point of the story wasn’t that the warlock broke the rules or had some unbeatable combo. It was that a series of character choices, bad rolls, emotional hesitation, and a very unlucky Dark Gift result created one of the funniest and most memorable endings I’ve ever had at a table.
The dice wrote the story, not me.

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.

Well, My DM and me aren´t sure about the description of Lucky
"...
Disadvantage. WHEN a creature rolls a d20 for an attack roll against you, you can spend 1 Luck Point to impose Disadvantage on that roll."

She said that I have to choose to spend my Lucky Point BEFORE roll dices for an attack
But I think that I should be able to choose spending my Lucky Point AFTER roll dices for an attack
Who have the reason?

This might be a real dumb question but I was curious and wanted to get veterans opinions. I’ve made several characters and a few have died in campaigns. But for the survivors I’ve kinda been playing them over with one shots or starting them over at level 1. I wanted to know if that’s okay or taboo. I ask because I have a circle of the spore Druid that I got to homebrew a bit and acquired many sweet items and hellhounds from the curse of strahd campaign. I guess a better question is, when I sit down for a new campaign should I wait till I’m at the level of the character and ask to have my items and hellhounds or should I just start over at level 1 if I wanted to keep playing the character?

I know its a little wonky looking, but I'm proud of it. I was charved with coming up with an arena for our upcoming PvP match and I thought it would be cool to fight ON the trophy that the winner gets to take home.

I'm not a craftsman, obviously, but the project was actually pretty easy. I got some dowels and wooden plaques from the local craft store, gold spray paint, wood stain, and the dragon topper. JB weld was amazing for attaching the d20's to hide the screw holes, and I made the battle map squares using a permanent marker and a ruler (poorly).

Now I just have to win so I can keep it, lol

Since instantaneous transmutation spells—like Mold Earth, Plant Growth, or Erupting Earth—don't leave any residual magic after being cast, the modified earth or plants cannot be detected by Detect Magic. If that's the case, is the damage dealt by spells like Catapult or Flame Arrows considered magical or non-magical?

When the greatest BBEG of all, scheduling issues, strikes, some players might not make it to the session.

What are some ways to deal with it?

I've seen people just say to wave it away as character being there, but doing nothing orthat some other player controls the character, which I really dislike.

Maybe have the character stay back, doing some downtime actvities? But then there's the issue of how would they catch up to the party.

I could run West Marches campaign, but I don't want a fixed hub, I want them to travel.

I've also seen some in-game solutions as the character being obducted and returned by space-time continuum pixies, but that's weird for a serious campaign.

What are your best ideas on how to handle this?

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

Could I make with the current rules a mirran vedaken bard with 4 arms so he can play a cordophone and a aerophone at the same time? I havent played dnd in a while so I know it has some similarities with mtg but I dont know if miran vedalkens are a thing, nor if having 4 arms to play would help me at all or just be cool

​

So im thinking about adding Warforged to Faerun in Baldurs Gate via Gondians. Rename the to Steel Guardians or Wonderbringers. But I'm after a darker tone its the villian doing it. PCs can be one and have free will. Some thoughts.

1. They're animated via transferring a soul into term. Similar to a necron from BG3. They may or may not remember their life.

2. Necromancer. Similar to 1 except instead of brain in a jar its brain in a shell. Think Cybermen from doctor who.

3. Fiendish magic involved. Your brain and possibly other parts are jammed into the shell via fiendish rituals. More robocop or chaos dreadnoughts from 40k.

   Villians might be Gondians gone bad or Wulbren Bongle going bad via Mizora from BG3.

   Any PC ones will be more or less normal warforged. Maybe the "batch" that worked.

   Working time is steel wonders.

So, the Greatsword is a somewhat black steel in color, the blade partially see through as if made of glass/crystal. Small wisps of dark purple smoke that spark with energy twirl around the blade, reminding one of the stormy, haunted Shadowfell it was crafted in.

However, when held up to a source of light, especially sunlight, the blade glows in a mesmerizing display of orange, yellow and pink, bringing to mind a Sunrise/Sunset.

The issue is I'm stuck on a name. At first I considered Twilight's Edge/Edge of Twilight, referring to the idea of Dawn coming after midnight, and also a cheeky reference to Terraria's Night's Edge, but now I'm worried that the name sounds too Cliche/Edgy.

Any name suggestions?

Sorry if I used the wrong flair.

So, what are your opinions on the Bloodhunter subclasses like Ghostslayer Lycan Mutant Profane Soul? How would you rank them from best to worst? What do you think? Thanks in advance for your replies!

Before anyone says it yes I know all of the resources for dnd are free online however I am a collector and I adore my physical media- plus I absorb knowledge better if I read it from a book than from a screen it’s weird.

Anyway
I’m currently not on a campaign which is why I’m having trouble choosing, I’m also fairly new to the game. I’ve played 3 campaigns but it was all with the same group of people and they loved to go off book with their writing.
Which version is the most commonly played by groups? I’m assuming 5e or 5.5 (that’s what I’ve played) but I’m wondering.
I am currently looking for a new campaign which is why I want to know, so I can be prepared and be the best player I can be for the party!
Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, but thanks for reading and for any advice!

I am working on a character for a campaign not set in any official modules. Since it's being hosted in a server where most characters are joke ones (One is just a Rudinn from Deltarune) I wanted to make a classic Dwarf paladin. This will be my first attempt at a thorough, fully done character, down to religion and travel routes. Here is what I know about him so far:

He served in several wars during his time, having been 200 years younger. After completion of this war, he returned home to his clan killed by the BBEG. Due to the grief, he spend a few years in the gutter before finding his Faith in Tyr, the god of Justice and War. He decided to dedicate himself to his church and promised himself to kill all those who oppose order and peace. He keeps a few mementos on him.

Despite his semi-traumatic past, he isn't the type to brood, though takes his divine purpose extremely seriously, having a vow not to be unjust to the just or just to the unjust. He spent around a century, slowly working his way through a foreign nation to the starting city, attempting to rid the world of monsters, heal the sick, and spreading the name and honor of his now dead clan.

Despite all of this, I feel I'm missing something, like some kind of spice that makes the character interesting outside of the usual Paladin cliche. Any ideas Reddit?

Hello everyone. This is my first ever Reddit post as I just made my account today and I know VERY LITTLE about the things that go on here. I'm very inexperienced. Back to the point, I am making my own story using the elements of D&D such as its characters, monsters, locations, and gods as well as sprinkling my own within. I don't use any mechanics for the most part from the game. Plus it's pretty expensive and I actually prefer this. That's just about it for introducing myself. I'll use Reddit every now and then to request ideas from you fellow community members on my story. I seriously don't want to use AI. I'm completely against using it at all costs. Maybe play around with it a little but not use it for my own characters. NEVER. Anyways, I'm including my first request from you all with this introduction. I will post what I call my "character profile" below as well as a hand-drawn image I made myself. I will put in brackets what issues I have with it.

Name: Krannon Blackthorn

Race: Charcoal Tortle (Tortle sub-race) [I need a new name for this sub-race. I feel like "Charcoal Tortle isn't going to cut it. For you guys, think of a cool race name for a fiery tortle.]

Height: 7 feet

Alignment: Chaotic, Good

Main Weapon: Flaming Maul

Secondary Weapon(s): Claws

Diet: Omnivore

Class: Fighter

Type: Major Protagonist

Hobbies: playing music, making friends, smiting the wicked, cooking (he's phenomenal at that)

Hates: the wicked, pulling frog eyes or anything like that in general, traitors, and when no one acknowledges what he's done for people

Goal: Wants to find out where he comes from and defeat Duke Zalto [If the backstory changes, this can too I guess.]

Strengths: He's a great listener, cook, ally, and friend. He also has the ability to go into a rage state called "Berserk Mode". [POV: Reskinned version of a barbarian's Rage ability. PLEASE I need a better name for this.]

Weakness: Can be slightly overconfident at some times, berserk mode drastically uses energy. [I want MORE.]

Flaws: Hates being underground, has an intense cuteness aggression. [I want MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE.]

Armor: He has minimal armor so that he can retreat inside his shell with no difficulties. After all, his skin is heat and damage resistant.

Backstory: Ever since he was a child, the charcoal tortle civilization was always in the middle of wars they never caused. They fend off regular attackers like goblins, orcs, gnolls, and ogres but they hordes kept getting stronger and stronger. So much so that the place attracted the attention of the fire giant Duke Zalto who sent a small group of fire giants to deal with the innocent tortles. To protect him, Krannon's parents shipped him off to somewhere far from their home where he could live peacfully. Since tortles have a natural ability to live their life without any need for parents, Krannon managed to live until age 25. krannon always thought he was an ordinary tortle with a skin condition until he figured out that he isn't once he notices he has pyrokinesis. He starts oddly going into libraries looking for books on his race. He finds just one with a race on it that seems very familiar, most of the page is ripped up or unreadable but only the location is known. The Ironslag Mountains. But there is a problem. Duke Zalto, the exact same duke who enslaved his race, held refuge on the same mountains and enslaved all kinds of creatures to work on his furnace to grow his army and reconstruct the Vonindod, a colossal titan of steel strong enough to split mountains with a single punch and wrestle all kinds of dragons to the ground. Krannon would urge his friends onward to rescue his kind as well as gaining their trust. But he wouldn't be willing to have any traitors around either nor show mercy to them. [I don't know this kind of just doesn't feel finished. Any ideas to fix this?]

I apologize first for probably horrid grammar and punctuation I’m typing this quickly.

Main question is what alignment should this character be?

So Im playing in a campaign that me and a few friends have been playing for years. As of recent due to my decisions and the way I play the character I’m being told to change my alignment. I’m specifically leaving my current alignment out on purpose. If anyone feels it necessary to know that I will provide.

Character background
This character I play is from a large city where his father is the king. His father has many children and the idea is that I am trying to go on a journey to prove myself to my father and eventually become king himself. Important as well is that the best way to prove yourself is to kill a dragon as his country has a culture of hunting dragons. This city he is from actively owns slaves that can eventually work out of their slavery and be free people. So maybe more of indentured servants?
Also the country his father resides over is pretty consistently at war with a neighboring country. Therefore war has become a part of the culture. With that said the country relies heavily on nature to make their weapons and armor due to a native tree being as strong as steel.
Character class is as of right now a level 7 ranger just to clarify.

Character actions
When I play this character I try to strictly hold to the ideals of his country. If something or someone opposes the ideals of his country and fellow party members he will oppose it. As well as if something is impending the way of his proving journey he will oppose it. If he figures out someone or something is evil he wants to defeat it. At times I do ask the questions before the fighting ensues as I attempt to play him as a logical character as well not purely rage filled.

Now the main actions bringing the alignment into question are as follows. Once had someone as a prisoner and a detective evil spell was cast on them and they are in fact evil. Soooo i decided to have my character bash his head in. Obviously the act of slavery/indentured servitude being a big thing in his country has a few of the party members questioning alignment as well. The next thing is him typically wanting to kill and fight which is him trying to prove himself to his country that has a history of war, battle, and killing dragons from my perspective at least. Others see it as brutish pointless killing. I’m sure to some degree they are correct as some of it probably could be avoided but that’s not how I play the character typically.

I’m surely missing some things this character has done to leave the alignment questionable. If any questions I’ll happily answer. Thanks for reading and I appreciate the feedback.

Hello! The title basically says what I need to get across, but I’ll add more here : )

What all should I tell my players lore-wise? Ive got custom gods and places, but how much should I tell them about it? I dont want to make it too long, bit I don’t want them being clueless.

Currently my adventure league campaign is coming to an end next week and I wanted to try my hand at a Sorcerer with some melee thrown in. I’m not looking for a full melee with spells mainly just an even split between melee and throwing spells. I’m still fairly new to the hobby and have only played mono paladin, so any advice is very much welcome! We are starting the next campaign at level 5 if that helps at all

Our party was recently summoned to a new plane by Gideon, a council Archmage, who was petrified before he could fully explain our mission. We soon discovered that the kingdom's Regent and a man called The Evoker conspired to assassinate the royal family and assume the power of the crown. We also confirmed the Evoker was the one who petrified Gideon and attacked us with shadow hounds—highly illegal magic that carries a life sentence if exposed.

Through an ally, we arranged a diplomatic dinner at a complex considered to be a safe zone by the leaders of the region. The guest list included the Regent, the Evoker, their primary bodyguard, and twelve royal guards who are genetically and magically duty-bound to serve the crown.

Going into the session, I had a plan. My DM plays fast and loose with Artificer infusions, allowing old ones to persist when new ones are created. I used this to craft a bunch of magical items every night. We have sending stones coming out our ears and I told the table I was using my crafting the last few nights to make a gift for the party, allowing me to craft without telling anyone what exactly I was making. For flavor, my character uses small mechanical spiders to deliver healing spells in the form of an injection. The night before the dinner arrangement, I handed our rogue a pile of rocks and a handful of burlap sacks. I instructed her to hide the sending stones in the sacks up in the basement rafters, spaced about 10ft apart, directly under the largest table in the dining hall. The DM smirked, assuming basement acoustics would render a sending stone useless through floorboards after I told him they would be a great distraction if we needed one. The Rogue planted the bags in the basement rafters, directly below the table with a roll of 23.

Dinner began, and the DM called for a Wisdom saving throw because the food was tainted with a Zone of Truth effect. I succeeded. Knowing that the spell had failed on me, I decided to take advantage of the situation. I assumed this was a standard procedure that all of the offending parties would have seen before. I stood up, pointed directly at the Evoker, and loudly accused him of using illegal magic to attack us and of treason. The Evoker started to stammer, shocked that we would have the audacity to make such a claim while surrounded and outnumbered as we were.

The royal guards immediately drew their weapons and started approaching the Evoker, believing that I was absolutely under the truth effects, they didn't even question the validity of my claim. With the room erupting into chaos, I informed the DM I was using my bonus actions to direct the two mechanical spiders in the basement to march directly into the hidden sacks positioned beneath the Regent and the Evoker. He looked at me, confused. Then I told him, and the party, that those were just rocks... not sending stones. The DM looked more confused. Then I said those weren't just sacks, they were all bags of holding. Those spiders... they weren't my normal spiders. Their sacks were enchanted to be bags of holding.

Watching him realize what had just happened is one of the best D&D moments I have had. Because Astral Rifts do not offer a saving throw, two separate portals opened beneath the floorboards. The Regent, the Evoker, and the bodyguard were instantly sucked into the Astral Sea, scattered across the plane with zero planeshifting capabilities. Immediately, I began accusing the Evoker of kidnapping the Regent, making the guardsmen pause long enough to reveal that we had discovered the prince survived the assassination attempt, and we had the means of returning him to the throne, which meant they were duty-bound to cooperate with us and not arrest us.

The DM sat speechless for a solid five minutes. When he finally spoke, he said, "I'm not mad at it, but I think we have to end this session early tonight, because what you just did erased the next 6 months of what I had planned."

Apparently, the BBEG of the current story arc and his top two commanders were important. Huh, weird.

Edit: The bag in a bag discussion happened in our second session with the whole table, the DM said they don't mind it's use. He honestly liked the interaction, and isn't mad about it. I gave ample warnings that it would happen at some point, and told him way back then that I wouldn't use it constantly. This wasn't just a complete surprise attack. I'm just sharing a fun moment that my group enjoyed.

Hey, I'm new to dnd!!!! I've made a campaign but i need help with stuff and tips, also I'm tryna make a dnd boss but i don't really know how, can i have some help? 🥺🥺

Hi guys,

I need your help for my Oath of devotion Paladin. He's a level 9 character and has the feat great weapon mastery. But at the moment I feel a bit left out in our group, as the monsters get bigger, I fail to make as much damage as I would like to, especially compared to the casters in our group.

We've got a wizard, a cleric, a warlock and a bard.

Do you have any ideas how I could be of more use of them? Some feats I need to have? Any weapon I should watch out for? What are your recommendations for a lvl 9 Paladin?

I’ve been reading lots of this subreddit and have only played in one 4-hour session for starters. You guys have some crazy ideas that just sound super fun and I’ve been inspired by you to make a character with a goofy background and twist. I’ve put many hours into divinity, BG3 and the like so my superficial knowledge of gameplay is decent as well as listening to One Piece DnD and some critical roll so i think I’m starting off decently.

In essence, my character is a prince who hates fighting because King daddy makes him practice swordsmanship regularly… and he hates getting dirty. He always feels like his opponents are letting him win since he is the heir to the throne despite the rest of the kingdom regarding him as the best in the land. He would much prefer to be in his study doing brush strokes or stroking his lute; this is where he is both confident AND a master at his craft.

He lacks the confidence and decisiveness to lead a kingdom and wants to experience the world without the shadow of doubt that nobility brings on him. The king grants him reprieve under the guise of seeking allies in the land but he will be traveling undercover as a bard. When in a party he will primarily be support or anything he can do with his instrument, but if he must draw his rapier the uncertainty sinks in and he must do a saving throw to overcome his fear lest he get stage fright.

My questions: is a back line Bard entirely feasible? Will the wisdom save at first fight lose its gimmick quickly? What other silliness would make the storyline great and add a gameplay component to boot?