You’ll never be able to prepare for all the things your players might ask an NPC. They could latch onto any random NPC, including ones that were meant to be just background, and decide they’re a main character now. You’re going to have to make stuff up on the spot, and you should lean into it. Lots of favorite NPCs are made that way.
It sounds like you’re doing a great job. DMing can be a lot of work and stress, but it’s worth it. Just remember that your fun is just as important as that of everyone else at the table.
Lol I am definitely looking forward to having some of those situations come about naturally. They already had a bunch of fun with an NPC that they decided they wanted to bring along on their quest. And I guess I’ll get better at rattling off correct-sounding lore jargon as I get more practice improvising. It just baffles me some of the things people I see online manage to come up with on the spot. Though I also understand that many of those people have been GMing in some capacity for 15, 20+ years.
Thank you!! It has definitely been work but I’m having a ton of fun with it so far. Appreciate your comment!
Roll20 as my VTT, but we do all audio and video over discord. My players all use dndbeyond for the character sheets, so we use the Beyond20 extension to bridge the two.
Maps mainly just for battles and bases, but I will sometimes use a roll20 map screen just to show an image to set the stage for theater of the mind. Lately I’ve been using Easy Diffusion to make some of those images.
I get my maps all over and make some (occasionally) with DungeonDraft. I’ve got a bunch of map and tile packs from DMs Guild, but I forget about them and search around for what what I need instead. I also always keep an eye on !battlemaps, subscribe to Cze and Peku, and will search the the battlemap subreddits when all else fails.
For notes I started using Obsidian with my most recent campaign. Being able to link and query is handy.
Read the adventure so you’re familiar with all the important bits
Don’t be afraid to go off script and improvise. It’s ok for the players to do something not in the book: just wing it and see where the session takes you!
Bookmark some random tables (I love the Random Settlements in the DMG) and level-appropriate enemies to help you improvise better.
If you followed the above advice and now your players are off doing some little self-selected side quest in some random town you rolled up on the spot, use the Three Clue Rule at the beginning of the next session to get them back on track.
DMing is a skill. It takes practice. You’re probably going to suck for the first few sessions, if not the first campaign. So relax, don’t be too hard on yourself, and have fun. Eventually, you’ll figure out your own unique style. If you end a session near tears because you’ve concluded you’re the worst DM of all time and are considering quitting forever, only to be interrupted with, “When can we play again?” it means you did a good job.
You’ve definitely got more than enough to get started. Only thing I would recommend here is read through the adventure if you haven’t already. Also don’t be scared to improvise if the situation calls for you. You decide the rules you want at the table, not the books. As long as you stay consistent feel free to make any ruling you like if it works for your table.
And the rules, as Barbossa would tell you, are more like guidelines. Throw out the ones that hamper fun but take the time to understand which ones those are and why they do.
But no one here can tell you which those will be. They can be different at every table
The martial/caster disparity is the (IMO, proven and obvious) idea that martial characters lack gameplay options compared to their caster counterparts, and that this problem only ever gets worse with level.
Also, “martial” in this case specifically refers to Fighters, Barbarians, and Rogues.
IMO, it does exist, but it’s not as “end of the world”-bad as some people make it out to be. Basically, rogues are fine because they get a crap-ton of skills that can be put to good use as long as the rogue player makes their character with even a little long-term thought. Rogues that have problems tend to focus in things like stealth, and other physical skills that casters can use spells to imitate or replace. Rogues that pick up and spend expertise in one or two soft skills (some kind of knowledge skill, insight, investigation, etc…) will never find themselves with nothing to do and will always have a niche where they can make the full casters go “holy shit!” from time to time.
Fighters and Barbarians actually have problems because they seem to have been made more with dungeoncrawling in mind, to the detrement of anything non-dungeon related. They generally lack useful soft skills, and don’t stack stats that will make using them useful because they generally don’t have ways to make a high int or wisdom terribly useful.
Fighters and Barbarians compound the skill problem by not gaining useful/impactful abilities in T3 or T4. When full casters are busy choosing and enjoying the most powerful spells in the game, fighters get another use of indomitable (which never, ever fucking works, IME), a second action surge per short rest WAY too late for it to really matter, and a 4th attack they will probably never, ever actually get because it’s at 20th level for some stupid, fucking reason (as opposed to level 17 where ALL casters, even the half-casters, get their 4th cantrip damage die).
Barbarians get even less than fighters due to most of their class budget being tied up in a massive passive ability: Brutal Critical. So all they ever get to do is crit-fish, which they’ve all been doing since level 1 anyway.
The disparity is choice and impact. Because of their lack of choices, it can seem difficult to have an impact on the game, mechanically. A good DM can make up for this in a variety of ways, but when you’re just looking at the rules or white-rooming a character, the problem does tend to become a bit obvious…if overblown.
Generally, the fix is simply to give fighters and barbarians more class abilities that involve getting to make interesting choices during play.
Also, “martial” in this case specifically refers to Fighters, Barbarians, and Rogues.
Don’t discount Monks! They’re generally regarded as the worst class in the game, as they’re essentially fighters that deal less damage in exchange for a resource that lets them use cool abilities…for a short time. Yeah, I know they’re technically? magical, but they function and present as a martial class, poorly at that.
The disparity is choice and impact. Because of their lack of choices, it can seem difficult to have an impact on the game, mechanically. A good DM can make up for this in a variety of ways, but when you’re just looking at the rules or white-rooming a character, the problem does tend to become a bit obvious…if overblown.
Also don’t discount, being able to play out-of-combat scenarios. Casters get utility like Pass Without Trace, Spider Climb, Prestidigitation, Friends, and then the fact that most of them are charisma-based for some strange reason, which is THE out-of-combat stat. I know my suggestion in particular doesn’t really address that, and is more focused on the more-abilities and/or allowing interesting choices part that you mention after that, but I do absolutely want things like 3.5e’s Moment of Perfect Mind, and whatnot.
That’s how bad monks are. I forgot they even existed :D
But seriously, they’ve been getting some good changes in the UAs, and with WotC being a bit more generous with things like expertise it makes being useful a lot easier when you’ve got a lot of random weird shit you can do, like a monk can.
Honestly, Monks are so close to being a top tier class. All they really need is for WotC to pull their heads out of their collective asses and make short rests not a fucking tooth-pulling exercise in frustration for your average group.
If it were me I’d bring back the concept of 10-minute “exploration turns”. You use one exploration turn to do something like pick a lock, break down a door, climb your speed x 5 in relatively safe conditions without a check, attempt to disarm a trap, attempt to climb a slippery or dangerous surface, examine a magic item (arcana check to figure out something basic), make a general knowledge check about a subject (would have to define a distinct difference between using knowledge checks in combat and using them outside of combat), etc…
…but, most importantly, you would use an exploration turn to try and take a short rest. Take one short rest action and you can spend one hit dice per three levels (rounding up). Take a second in a row and you can spend one hit dice per three levels. Take three of them back-to-back and you can spend another one hit dice per three levels, and any short rest recharges trigger. Your short rest is now done. You can gain the recharge benefit of the third rest action twice per long rest.
…and while that was going on the rest of the party was able to fuck around and do stuff. Which means the monk who gassed themselves in the last combat can take three rest actions to get back their ki while the rogue searches a room, disarms a trap guarding a hidden chest, and then picks the lock on the chest.
I fundamentally don’t understand why classes having a different amount of options is a problem. But then again, maybe I just have brain rot from decades of playing B/X and BECMI.
When power levels of the degree of modern TTRPGs are expected of characters, D&D sort of becomes a game all about your options and which you choose when. If certain characters have inherently MORE options to pick from in such a setting, that means they are essentially objectively better by default.
In the older editions, like the ones you’re talking about, casters had serious downsides. Between being very fragile, spells being interrupteable, and sometimes having different XP amounts, casters were kinda ‘glass cannons’, and needed a martial frontline.
In 3.5 and 5e, casters have had these harsh downsides decreased or removed, while not otherwise losing power. They are more or less strictly better than martials, in the sense they can do 90%+ of what martials can do better than they can do it, while also doing several other things. And the few things martials do do better, it’s by slight degrees.
It’s not just that casters are powerful, it’s that they’re powerful and flexible, able to be top tier in several different roles at the same time, and can change what roles they cover by resting and swapping spells.
Whereas martials can sometimes build to be top tier in one role, but they’re largely locked into that one role, or can build to be okay in several roles (and be outclassed by casters in all of them).
You put that WAY better than I did.
And yeah, At this point Casters really can just do everything martials can, better, and more. There’s just no denying that.
Yeah. It was worse in 3.5 ironically; despite casters having more downsides than 5e, spells were overall stronger. It did leave this narrow window at levels 1 and 2 where martials were basically strictly better, but caster quickly skyrocketted in power, especially if you were playing with prestige classes.
Spell power was reigned in for 5e, and pretty sharply at that (most notably from adding Concentration). But, they also washed away caster downsides, by making cantrips at will, casters not quite so fragile, and by softening Vancian casting. 5e is still absolutely more balanced than 3.5, but that’s not saying a lot; 3.5’s power level was all over the place.
Still, I feel like 5e’s levels 1-5 are pretty balanced, and the martial/caster imbalance doesn’t really become painful until like, level 12.
I have used nothing but AI art in many of the adventures I've run for my players and it's working great. Perhaps you're using AI art generators in too superficial a manner, the best generations require a fair bit of attention to detail.
I’ve used gummy bears as tokens and maps thrown together in 30 seconds with Sharpie on wrapping paper and it works fine too. Players generally are pretty happy with whatever you throw at them.
I’d still expect better than that from a product that a major company is expecting you to trade money for.
Yes. Solasta is a faithful implementation of the 5e mechanics, with races and classes copied directly and sub-classes being OC to a large degree. There may be some stuff missing though, at a glance BG3 is more comprehensive in how many spells, items are there. The entire setting is also an original thing, we’re NOT playing in Faerun there, the mosnters are different, the map is different, the lore is different and much smaller.
Compared to BG3 there’s a lot less stories in Solasta. I’ve won the main campaign and the first DLC while trying to find as many subquests as possible and I don’t think it would add up to 100 hours. But then there’s the second dlc (which adds levels 12-16) and a myriad of fan content, so sky is the limit. Most quests are excuses to go out there and clear a dungeon or a swamp. Main plots are fairly on the rails and not too deep. The first DLC tries to be a bit more of a sandbox but in my playthrough the ending had a glaring contradiction in it so you see it’s not too polished.
But boy, is the dungeon clearing pleasant. Solasta embraces the dungeon crawl and combat aspects of D&D - maps are very diverse, there’s a good balance in number of different enemies (enough to not be boring, but not too many to lose track of how to deal with anyone), very granular difficulty settings. And the UI.
Coming from Solasta I can say BG3 has missed the mark in converting 5e to a computer game. Solasta is much cleaner and more accessible (bigger icons, better controller integration, clear movement in combat), multiplayer is easier to start, but is fairly unstable once the game is going. It’s not a serious problem tho, desync doesn’t kick out anyone from the game (just now everyone plays single at their machines), I can save and re-start the multi session with a save from the moment the server failed.
So if you want the tactical d&d with smooth multiplayer Solasta is the best thing there is. If you care for stories and roleplaying… not so much.
Tactical combat with the D&D 5E mechanics, and with a quick setup for a battle that could be started playing in a short amount of time, is something I’m definitely looking for. For the FR lore, stories and roleplaying I’ll stick with (another playthrough) BG3. :)
I’ve only done a little time as a DM, but myself and all of my players were diversly nuerodivergent.
Some of them just did not have a performative bone in their body and I considered making or buying some kind of button that simply lights up while holding it down, as a visual indicator that they’re speaking as their character.
Probably not for everyone, but seemed helpful to a couple of people.
I can’t speak to the neurological state of my last group, but we had a lot of people new to TTRPGs, so we had similar issues.
We house ruled that making a gesture over your head meant it was OOC.
This was to help separate thinking outloud as a player, from something involving the character. It had become an issue for one of our players with a low int score, lol.
Part of it depends on how you want to play. Personally, I love playing a CC/buffer/debuffer version of cleric. Outside of the spells mentioned by others, here are some of my favourites:
Sanctuary — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve saved an ally/myself from death because of this spell.
Shield of Faith— cast this on your melee meat shield and let them do what they do best.
Faerie Fire — IMO one of the most underrated spells in the game.
Guidance — One of the best cantrips for people who like to role-play in towns and villages. Cast it on yourself or your bard and make haggling with townsfolk a whole lot easier.
Those are all pretty low level spells. And FWIW If you’re a fan of buffing/debuffing/CC than Twilight Cleric is fucking incredible. It’s basically broken if you know what you’re doing.
Sanctuary is a super interesting spell. There’s a trick with it on the artillerist artificer where you can keep it up on yourself while attacking with your turret/gun
For sure. Just bear with me, this is gonna get a little long-winded. Like, too-long-to-fit-into-one-post-on-Kbin long ;p
A lot of it depends on party make-up and playstyle. I'm gonna assume your party is rocking with the usual set-up: two melees, a ranged character, and a healer/spellcaster (you).
First thing to remember is that, as cleric, you kinda sorta have more responsibility than anyone else in your party. For instance, all the barbarian has to do is rush the bandit and swing his axe. As cleric, you're gonna be expected to attack, heal, buff and debuff. To be a great cleric, you’re going to have to pay attention every round—see who needs healing or a spell to cure frightened/confused/what have you. Some people don’t like this responsibility but I absolutely love it.
Your position on the battlefield depends on playstyle and party. If your party is configured anything like the one I mentioned, then I think your best bet is to be between your melee and ranged allies. Basically, you want to be close enough so that your spirit guardians can really mess with your enemies but not so close they can fuck with your concentration.
SPELLS TO CONSIDER:
Other than the ones mentioned before, here's a few more…
Healing word: use it sparingly, mostly to bring your allies back to life. There's no point in wasting the slot if your ally just got nicked for 5hp. Save it for when they lose consciousness and are on the brink of making death saves.
Aid: Great for a majority of the game. Personally, I like using a third level slot to give my allies +10hp. Because the health from Aid ISN'T considered temporary, the extra temp. hp from Twilight Sanctuary stacks with the hp from Aid. So, with aid and TS, at low levels you can almost double your party's HP.
Spells gained through twilight domain: You gain access to some of the best spells IMO. Faerie Fire, Moonbeam, See Invisibility, Leomunds Tiny Hut, and Greater Invisibility are all great spells. Pair moonbeam with an ally who has booming blade and bosses (aka your DM) won't know where to go.
Put greater invisibility on your rogue (or druid) out of combat to steal anything you want.
Use LTH whenever your party needs a rest, and even as choke points to mess with your enemies (they can't go through the hut, neither can magic).
Eyes of Night: So much for having to worry about dark vision. Having this pretty much allows you, and everyone in your party, to pick a race that doesn't have access to dark vision. The game hasn't even started and you're already helping out your buddies.
Vigilant Blessing: Advantage on every initiative roll you–or anyone of your choosing–makes. This is huge. Just make sure you use it.
Twilight Sanctuary: This is what makes you god-like. In my opinion, it's the strongest skill in the game. Time it right and you'll mow through bosses. Pair it with spirit guardians and good luck getting the smell of dookie out of their pants.
Steps of Night: Useful at night and in dungeons. Aesthetically badass (imagine being a bandit and seeing a heavily armoured dude with wings slowly floating towards you with two kickass spheres ((TS and SG)) surrounding their party). Also great if you need to flee a battle.
– As cleric, you can swap out spells during a long rest. This comes in handy if you're about to fight elementals and need the right kinda magic to beat them.
– With Vigilant Blessing, you might find yourself at the top of the initiative order often. Use this to buff your allies if you can (Shield of Faith) activate TS immediately (So everyone gets temp. hp) or cast something like Faerie Fire on a mob before your allies get in range of the spell.
– Where other characters measure success by damage/round, you measure it in damage, healing, buffing. If it annoys you that you're not doing the most damage then cleric won't be for you. So just remember: your success isn't based on the damage you do but the damage everyone else can do.
– The hardest part about being a cleric is that you have access to a lot of bonus action spells, and figuring out when to use what can be tricky. Pay attention to your allies, enemies, surroundings to figure out which one to use. Same rules apply for spells requiring concentration.
That's all I can think of for now. If anything else hits me I'll reply with another comment. One final thing though…
I've played almost every class in DND, and multiclassed into anything and everything. By far, I never felt as god-like as I did when I played twilight cleric.
True story: I was playing with a DM who had a hard time scaling the difficulty for our four-person party. We had around 6 player death's in our first three sessions. When my bard died, that's when I decided to try twilight cleric. We went from 6 death's to none. I don't know if anyone even made a death save after that. Morale of the story: twilight clerics are an absolute game changer when played properly.
Enjoy the game and if you have any more questions ask. Twilight cleric is awesome. Seriously. The worst part about it is that every class will seem weak after you've played it lol.
dnd
Top
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.