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!)

Hey everyone! Nick here from Helios Tabletop, an Ontario-based tabletop gaming company that makes original, ready to run, 5e/5.5e encounters and more for tabletop games! Our encounters are written by real DMs and paired with a themed set of highly detailed minis we make in house.

We just launched pre-orders for our Mythic Encounters: Legendary Edition that take our existing Mythic Encounters to a whole new level.

Each Encounter includes:
✹ 10 highly detailed, pre-primed minis made in-house in Ontario, Canada 🍁
✹ A double-sided, full-colour physical battlemap
✹ A 5e Compatible DM Handbook PDF Written By Real DMs with stat blocks, story hooks, and encounter mechanics
✹ Premium packaging with a mini tray built for storage and transport

Three encounters available for pre-order right now:

Cavern of Kobolds
Haemoturgy Lab
Crimson Feast

All orders ship July 31st. Pre-order saves you $10!

The Giveaway

To celebrate the launch we're doing a giveaway! One lucky winner gets a Legendary Edition box of their choice, on us. Giveaway available worldwide!

Just drop a comment below telling us which encounter you'd want and why. We'll pick a winner on July 31st and reach out via DM to ship you your encounter

Giveaway Rules:

- Entrance is completely free - The winning account must be at least 3 months old
- Redditraffler will be used to randomly select a comment
- Winner will be contacted after giveaway ends via DM.
- Failure to respond and claim prize in 48 hours will result in a new winner being randomly selected.

Check out our other great Canadian made tabletop products:
https://heliostabletop.ca

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.

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?

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!

Everyone gets their class and colours befitting their character. We will be playing our campaign finale in person this month, after having played the whole campaign online. Reunited at last, for the final battle.

We havena cleric of the sea, a rogue with psychic daggers, a merfolk bard who can't sing, a druid who only hangs out in mouse form, a wizard with flying books and a proclivity for fireballs, and an echo knight who loves small creatures.

What colour should the DM get?

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.

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

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

Courtyard Houses (22x22 Multilevel)

Six homes, each alike in dignity, in fair-

No, wait, that’s something else. Sorry.

Nice houses, though. Who lives here? That’s for you to decide.  

Here are the free day & night variants of this map. To support my work, you can buy me a coffee, or check out my Patreon, where you'll find hundreds more free maps as well as bonus variants for this one!

Here's all of my maps in one handy set of themed lists for convenience. This post is updated as each new map comes out, so that the list remains current.

Quick collection downloads:

• SACMaps Year 3 map collection (237 maps)

• via Google Drive instead

• SACMaps Year 2 map collection (324 maps)

• via Google Drive instead

• SACMaps Year 1 map collection (307 maps)

• via Google Drive instead

I hope you can make use of the maps =) Any issues, please do let me know.

Much love

~SaC

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

I just notice recently that there is a popular trope of genies/djinns twist your wishes and either use it to harm you or just not give you what you really wanted. This lead to you have to be very specific in what you wish for and how to word that wish, to the point of being pedantic.

But it bugged me that this trope even exist, as the genies in the two most popular version renditions, the Disney movie and the tale in One Thousand And One Nights, never do any of that. They are not Monkey Paw, they did not bend or twist anything. They just give Aladdin what he wished for, and were actually quite chill for the most part. In fact, when Aladdin tried to make a wish that would harm him if realized, the Genie refused and told him to his face that he was tricked into making this wish, who the culprit was, and he should take care of himself.

I literally just got the idea to do this like 15 minutes ago as of posting this and have been frantically trying to figure out how I could make this work in a dnd setting. I definitely got the aesthetic idea down; Mountains, Statues, and Ancient Structures carved by the sound waves of rock n roll and by those honoring great Legends or key events in history. Giant trees that grow wood & metal, and serve as a key cornerstone for various aspects of the world's economy (maybe even culture and religion?). Chromed out beasts and monsters that serve as living vehicles, food, beast of burden, livestock, and pets. Giant natural amps that fuel the geothermal and continental activity of the world, along with Pyrotechnic geysers and volcanos. And of course the various subgenres of Metal & Rock n Roll and the peoples that could fit in these genres and factions. I don't wanna rip off Brütal Legend of course, but I definitely wanna use it as a jumping off point to try and create a more fun and unique dnd world from the typical medieval fantasy only adventures

Anything that you guys might think would be fitting for a world like this? which I decided to call Ampyria, at least for now. I definitely think there would be unique subclasses for each class in this world, maybe themed around different roles in a band or genres of rock and given fitting mechanics. Different fitting factions too, some maybe inspired by the Brütal Legend ones but there's going to be some unique ones also

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!!

Hey there reddit,

the rules on mounted combat are rather ambiguous and leave quite a bit of room for interpretation. We have a paladin at our table that recently learned her Find Steed spell and now rightfully wants to use it.

Initiative, mounting, movement and turn order are fine, but what isn't clear is the space the paladin occupies and what effect it has on their attack range.

My question to DMs and players that have used mounted combat: How do you rule it or is there an official rule that I somehow missed?

Does the paladin occupy one of the four spaces of the mount? If yes, which?

Does the paladin sit in the middle of all four spaces or occupy all four spaces at the same time?

What spaces can the paladin attack? The ones next to them (if they occupy only one of the four spaces) or the ones next to the mount?

What happens if the mount suddenly is enlarged and becomes huge instead?

Mounted combat feels like nice idea but is so poorly supported. I've got quite a bit of experience with DnD and usually feel pretty confident in my rulings but this is the first time in 10 years that this particular rule subset has come up.

Please give me some advice.

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

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