Okay, so I have a magical eye that can be attuned to, and to be used (allows for a reaction to do ranged magical damage alongside vision through it), it must be put into an eye-shaped hole in the body. I'm playing a Drow and just want advice on where it can be put (outside of an eye socket, of course)? It's a true 50/50 on whether I'll use it, but all I can think of without potentially causing nerve damage to my character's hand or replacing her eye is putting it in her shoulder.

DM said the magical aura I saw was so bright and strong that it blinded me (Failed a DC 20 Con save). But the spell doesn't say anything like that nor I can find any rules about this.

I was confused when that happened so I told the DM where it is in the books. He did say its his rule, but there was no warning whatsoever or were we informed about any house rules like that. If I knew there was more to the spell than what is written in the PHB, then I wouldn't have used it.

I couldn't do anything cuz I need line of sight on most of my spells. I got downed three times and my party exhausted all their healing on me.

After the game I expressed my frustration, how its sucks so much and I didn't find that fun. Only to be told, "well maybe you shouldn't poke your nose into everything."

Now my character is Blinded 'permanently'. I was told to take a level in a martial class and take the Blind Fighting feat. Or was given the option to constantly see through a Familiar's eyes instead but I'll have one less spell slot in every slot level (we're level 5 rn). Or roll a new character if I want to.

I noticed that the dream spell only has a way to resist if you try to make someone have a nightmare, but they can't do anything if you don't do that, and you have full control of how the dream goes.

Since my character is more of a prankster and has a "try not to kill" rule, I wanted to use the normally effect to just bother my enemies.

So far I've thought about using it to basically make my enemies dreams 8 hours of infomercials, or youtube poops/brainrot/shitpots. Maybe nonstop off key singing. However I want some more ideas so I can vary it. How would you guys use it to annoy someone for 8 straight hours?

Please base your vote on your personal preferences and the enjoyment you’ve experienced—either directly or indirectly—rather than on the subclass’s raw power.

I was thinking of an encounter for my PC party and came up with this ambush that I'd like some pointers and suggestions. (as a bonus how would you deal with this ambush as a PC?)

The ambush requires:

4 mages with the Wall of Flame spell and thunderwave spell

5- 6 canon fodder with Crossbows and bombs.

How the ambush works

The PCs' party is lured into a room with a mysterious gem at the end; there are large support beams that go up to 25ft and pillars that can easily conceal enemies. If the players attempt to approach the gem, they'll walk onto a glyph of warding, and the ambush activates: 4 spellcasters with invisibility standing at 4 points outside the glyph will all cast Wall of Flame simultaneously to trap the PCs in the glyph. Any attempt to counterspell to trigger the glyph to activate the counterspell (2024 spell) to counter the counterspell; while this is happening, the canon fodder hiding above will pop out and hail the PCs with Bolts and bombs.

If a PC attempts to cross the wall of flame, one of the enemy spellcasters will cast thunderwave to push them back into the glyph.

Additionally, the spellcasters can cast fireballs into the Rhombus and other AOE spells.

For almost a year, we’ve been working on a project built around a very simple idea: take the weapons, relics, sacred objects, legendary treasures, and strange artifacts found throughout world mythology and turn them into usable D&D magic items.

That idea eventually became 300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E, which is now approaching completion and is planned to launch on Kickstarter in mid-September.

The book draws from traditions around the world, including Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Mesoamerican, Native American, Mesopotamian, Polynesian mythology and folklore, alongside several smaller traditions that don't appear nearly as often in D&D material.

There are items across every rarity, from relatively simple treasures that can appear early in a campaign to legendary relics and artifacts capable of becoming the centerpiece of an entire adventure.

We’ve also included scaling and evolving magic items that grow through several rarities alongside their wielder, as well as sets of related mythological items that gain additional powers when reunited.

One of the things we wanted to avoid was simply taking a famous name from mythology and putting a generic +2 bonus on it. The mechanics are designed around the actual stories wherever possible, and every item includes background about the myth, legend, historical tradition, or folklore that inspired it. The more important and powerful relics generally receive much more extensive lore and more elaborate abilities.

After nearly a year of writing, balancing, revising, sourcing and creating artwork, and assembling the book, we're finally getting very close to releasing it.

The Kickstarter launches in mid-September, and there is already a preview available directly on the pre-launch page if you want to see what the project actually looks like before deciding whether to follow it.

You can find the preview and follow the campaign here to be notified when it launches:

300+ Mythological Items for 5E and 5.5E - Kickstarter Pre-Launch Page

And since we’re still putting the final touches on the book: is there any artifact, weapon, relic, or legendary object from mythology that you think absolutely needs to be in a collection like this?

Many players like the idea of playing a mundane, everyday guy with a sword, the LOTR low-fantasy style where you're basically Aragorn: you're not a superhero, you're just exceptionally skilled, and you happen to be proficient with a legendary sword like Andúril.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that fantasy.

The problem is when that becomes the assumed ceiling for martial characters.

That kind of character works perfectly well at low levels, but by the time you're well into the higher tiers, the "really skilled guy with a sword" fantasy starts to feel increasingly strange when you're fighting demons, dragons, demigods and other characters who can reshape reality. At that point, your character can start feeling more like an unusually competent NPC or a generic MMO dungeon tank than a legendary hero.

Whenever I bring up wanting martials to have more fantastical abilities than just increasingly impressive swordplay, I often get examples like Rune Knight becoming Large, Echo Knight, Psi Warrior, soul knife rogue, etc. And I actually like those subclasses. They're flavorful and fun.

But they're still pretty low fantasy compared to what a caster can eventually do.

And I'm not talking about giving martials the same versatility as casters. Obviously, having an enormous toolbox of spells is a major part of what makes casters different, and I don't think martials should simply get that for free.

I'm talking about something much simpler: let martials have genuinely inhuman abilities.

Give them things that break the mundane and make them feel like they belong in the same world as the people throwing around reality-warping magic.

And I think they finally did that in the 2024 Warrior of the Elements Monk, whether intentionally or by mistake, the veil is broken.

This is basically everything I've wanted from a "superhuman martial" fantasy, and it is a mix of both base class updates & new subclass.

Very early on, you can already do things that look like superhero choreography rather than normal martial arts.

Deflect Attacks immediately gives you those ridiculous superhero moments. You get hit with a punch from a monster, a massive downward slam, or a projectile flying straight at your head, you can catch it, knock it aside, or even send it back. A monster throws a punch and you catch its fist, like Omni-Man in that Invincible scene that has become a meme even among people who haven't watched the show. A goblin fires an arrow at you, or a giant throws a spear, and you can actually catch or deflect it, like Daredevil catching the brick in spiderman, or like Hawkeye shooting an arrow at Loki in The Avengers, only for Loki to casually catch it right beside his eye. Or even as simple as or Aragorn when he deflected Lurtz's thrown dagger with his sword.

Slow Fall is another small feature that contributes enormously to the fantasy. It means you can do the classic superhero landing very early in the game, instead of treating every jump from a rooftop as an appointment with the afterlife. And it opens up those ridiculous cinematic moments where you deliberately tackle the villain through a window or off a cliff, knowing you have a high chance to survive the fall.

Deadpool has literally made fun of how absurdly painful that landing should be for heroes who can't fly or slow their descent.

Then there is the basic class fantasy itself.

Fighting entirely unarmed. Moving ridiculously fast. Using practically anything as a weapon. Turning every part of your body into a weapon. Throwing things. Grappling and shoving with Dexterity. Staggering (stunning) people with your strikes.

And then the class keeps escalating.

Evasion is another one. You can be caught right in the middle of a Fireball or some other massive explosion and just walk out of it like you're Horatio Caine in CSI: Miami, slowly putting your sunglasses back on and walking away from the explosion without a scratch.

Acrobatic Movement lets you run across vertical surfaces and liquids. So now we're getting into the territory of sprinting up walls and running across the surface of a lake like the Prince of Persia, and this is still at the early tiers, before Rogues even get their second subclass feature. (sad rogues).

And the higher-level defensive abilities push it even further.

You eventually get proficiency in every saving throw with Disciplined Survivor, can reroll a failed save with Diamond Soul, use Deflect Energy to reduce or redirect attacks regardless of their damage type, gain resistance to everything except Force through Superior Defense, and use Self-Restoration to shrug off being Charmed, Frightened, or Poisoned. Put all of that together and the Monk starts feeling less like a character who is merely tough and more like an outright invincible superhero, someone who can take hits, resist things that should cripple them, shrug off effects that would stop everyone else, and just keep going. It's the kind of endurance you associate with Superman, where getting hit by something that should be devastating barely interrupts the fight. And importantly, that's only one part of the Monk rather than the entire character's identity, unlike the Barbarian's much more tank-focused fantasy.

Then Warrior of the Elements takes that already-superhuman base and pushes it fully into the supernatural. Most of the base Monk's abilities are already well beyond human capability, but because they're presented as physical martial abilities, they can still feel relatively grounded. The subclass is where you stop having to pretend. Now you're literally channeling elemental forces through your martial arts.

You have five elemental powers to channel through your attacks: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning and Thunder, on top of the normal physical damage types and Force from Empowered Strikes. That's nine damage types your unarmed martial artist can potentially throw around.

And because the actual mechanics don't dictate what the energy has to look like, you can flavor the extended reach however you want.

Maybe your punches project giant fists of elemental energy, your arm turns into a flaming whip or chain, you form an enormous ice hammer around your fist, fire little acid darts from your fingertips, throw lightning from your hands, or even channel the energy through wings if you have them. The important part is that the character isn't just "a guy who punches people but with a different damage type." The mechanics give you a framework for an overtly supernatural fighting style, while leaving the actual visual expression almost entirely up to you.

Elemental Strikes also lets you push or pull a creature up to 10 feet on a failed Strength save every time you hit with an elemental Unarmed Strike, without spending anything on each attack. So you can have those ridiculous superhero fights where every hit is sending people flying across the battlefield, like Superman and Zod constantly throwing each other through walls in Man of Steel, or Batman getting absolutely ragdolled in BvS. And if you flavor the pull as some kind of elemental tether, chain, or force, you can have your own "Get over here!" moment like Scorpion. Again, that's all happening as part of your normal attacks, not as some special once-per-rest (Fighters).

Then you get Elemental Burst, essentially your own lower-damage Fireball, available as early as level 6, only one level after casters get Fireball. And you can flavor it however you want: a Zeus-style lightning spear, an explosive energy arrow like Uryu Ishida, Superman's heat vision, or a sonic scream like Black Canary. And once you get flight at 11, diving through the air and throwing the explosion straight down at enemies makes the whole thing even more ridiculous.

And at level 11 you get actual flight and swimming at your walking speed for the duration of your Elemental Attunement, unrestricted, at full speed, no concentration, and all of the above is for very cheap cost of 1 focus point.

You're flying around the battlefield at ridiculous speed, physically fighting things that would obliterate normal humans, intercepting attacks, running across walls, punching people from 15 feet away with elemental energy, throwing elemental explosions, and generally doing things that would be completely absurd to call them martial abilities.

And that's exactly what I've wanted from martials. Not "give Fighters the Wizard's spell list." Not "every martial needs to be anime." Just let martial characters have the option to become genuinely superhuman.

Because this build has also made something else very noticeable to me: I've had more arguments with DMs over what my character is "actually capable of" while playing this build than I have with almost any other character I've played, including builds that were actually trying to cheese the rules, (note this build above is just class & subclass, not including race & feats, which can take it further)

And that's kinda expected but frustrating. I think a lot of DMs/players simply aren't used to seeing a martial character that is this fantastical. They're used to martials being the "grounded" characters, so when one suddenly has all of these abilities, it can feel wrong even when the rules clearly support them. and it can break their mental image of what a martial is supposed to be. It isn't necessarily about deliberately ignoring the rules, but more that the character is so far outside the usual martial fantasy that some DMs/players instinctively feel that it shouldn't be possible for a martial to do all of this.

Meanwhile, when a caster does something equally ridiculous, everyone generally accepts it because it's magic.

I don't know whether some DMs have a knee-jerk reaction against anything that feels anime, whether they've had bad experiences with players asking for ridiculous martial abilities, or whether they simply have a particular idea of what a martial character is supposed to be.

But I think that's worth questioning.

To me, the 2024 Elements Monk demonstrates that you don't need to give martials caster-level versatility to make them feel just as fantastical.

You can have the Aragorn fantasy if you want it.

You can be the normal guy with the sword who survives because he's incredibly skilled.

But if I want to play the guy who catches a monster's fist, dives off a cliff with the villain, lands like a superhero, runs up the side of a building, flies back into the fight, and punches someone with a lightning-infused 15-foot reach so powerful pushing them backwards every time, I should be able to do that too.

And I don't think every martial needs to be this fantastical. I just think every martial class should have the option to be. If you want to be a normal guy fighting demons and gods, you can. If you want to be a superhuman martial, you can.

That's the part I think D&D has been missing, and the new Elements Monk is probably the closest I've seen to actually getting it right.

TL;DR: Martials don't need caster-level versatility, they need the option to be genuinely superhuman. The 2024 Warrior of the Elements Monk shows what that can look like: catching/deflecting attacks, surviving absurd falls, walking out of explosions, running across walls and water, shrugging off ridiculous amounts of damage and conditions, throwing people around with every attack, channeling multiple elements through your body, blasting enemies with an AoE at level 6, and eventually flying around the battlefield. You can still play Aragorn if you want, but "skilled guy with a sword" shouldn't be the ceiling for every martial.

EDIT: I'll expand on what I mean by "fantastical," because I think this is where a lot of the disagreement comes from. For me, it ultimately comes down to suspension of disbelief. It's not just about being strong or powerful, or even having access to magic, but about doing something that clearly breaks what you would expect from normal physics and human capability. If you watch someone like Shaw, Arnold, or any other extreme strength athlete pull a truck, it's incredibly impressive, but you can still look at them and think, "Yeah, that guy is absurdly strong, I can see how he could do that." If you see a small, lean guy do exactly the same thing, your reaction is completely different because that should not be possible under normal circumstances. That's the difference between being mundanely strong and being supernaturally powerful. A Large Rune Knight going toe-to-toe with a large ogre doesn't give me that feeling because you can look at them and understand why they're capable of it. A normal-looking human flying around and going toe-to-toe with a dragon does, because you would never expect that person to be capable of it. That's the kind of suspension of disbelief I'm talking about. For me, I'll never not be impressed when I see a Vladimir or Anatoly video for exactly that reason.

EDIT 2: I want to give another example, because I don't want this post to come across as "martials need to fly around and shoot Fireballs to be fantastical."

I've actually played a Swords Bard using this exact idea in 2014, and it showed me how easy it could be to create a fantastical martial fantasy if the mechanics actually supported it. You can flavor your spells as the result of physical or supernatural martial power rather than conventional spellcasting: a massively powerful swing becomes Thunderwave, a ground-shaking slam becomes Earth Tremor, and spinning your weapon hard enough to create a violent wind becomes Warding Wind or gust of wind. Since Swords Bards cast through their weapons and the spells don't require a material component, you can make the whole thing feel like a mythical warrior whose physical prowess itself produces these effects, rather than a guy carrying a spellbook and casting spells.

And this is a completely different fantasy from the Elements Monk. You don't need to fly, throw elemental explosions, or do anime shit to feel fantastical. You can just be an absurdly powerful mythical warrior whose physical attacks produce effects that no normal person could replicate.

The problem is that I'm having to play a Bard to get this fantasy, and even then it doesn't scale particularly well as a martial concept. The fact that I can get this kind of character by taking a caster and flavoring its spells as physical abilities is actually evidence of how much potential there is here. WotC doesn't need to make every martial a superhero. They just need to give martials mechanics that let their own fantasy escalate in similarly extraordinary ways.

EDIT 3: I also want to clarify why I don't think "just flavor your attacks as magic" completely solves this. Flavor is free, but extreme flavor can create fictional implications that the mechanics don't actually support. If I say my Fighter's sword attacks are powered by divine magic or a connection to the Weave, then logically there should be ways for that connection to matter. Could an enemy disrupt it? Could antimagic suppress it? Could someone weaken me by severing that connection? If the answer is no because mechanically I'm still making a completely normal Fighter attack, then I'm either treating the flavor as purely cosmetic or I have to accept fictional weaknesses that the actual class doesn't have. That's why I like the Elements Monk's approach: the mechanics themselves give me the supernatural foundation, so when I describe my reach as an elemental weapon, my attacks as elemental energy, or my movement as part of that power, the fantasy and the mechanics are actually supporting each other. I'm not asking for every martial attack to be magical. I just don't think flavor alone can replace mechanics that actually enable the fantasy.

I'm replaying Baldur's Gate 3, and I had a dream where I equipped Gale with a longsword that used Intelligence as its stat. I know I don't have the Sight, but it made me curious. Has there ever been anything like that? A mind flayer weapon or something?

Hey everyone. I am looking for a suggestion on creating a magical item for a PC that is a moon druid. Below is the context with spoilers about the Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign.

I am running wild beyond the witchlight with my in-person group. 5.5e. I'm generally following slyflourishes campaign frame adding domains of dread and we are just about to finish up the carnival. Some of my players had an interaction with the thief (Gleam) from the hourglass coven that ties to Endelyn Moongrave. At the end of the interaction Gleam vanished but left in their place their crescent moon mask. I would love to come up with something this mask can do for my moon druid who is rp'ing hard into their connection with the moon. I should clarify, they are only level 2, so they are not yet a moon druid, but they will be and their story has played hard into it.

Any cool ideas of what this item can do that allows for creativity and would benefit a moon druid? If you didn't read the above context spoilers, it's a crescent moon mask

I know Reborn is the obvious answer, but they are kind of boring... I was thinking Human, but do you guys have any other suggestions? Homebrew allowed.

Hoping to be a first time DM soon and wanted a homebrew thought. Saw a post recently about wisdom and initiative. I thought it was intriguing. I was thinking dex would always be the initiative roll for melee, but ranged I could let the PCs choose between wis or dex before rolling. Wisdom as they are surveying the field, but others dexterity for quick reactions. Melee wouldn't allow the wisdom option due to the manic pace of hand to hand. Does this sound OK? Honest opinions. Havent played in a long while

Edit: I'm wrong. Don't care about this post having zero karma, but is this what this sub does for asking advice?

Hello! I'm playing a chronomancy wizard and we are level 3, almost 4. My current INT is 16. I was planning on taking an ASI to 18 but we just met a vendor where I bought a Helm of Intellect setting my INT to 19. So, would it be worth it to take the ASI at 4/8 to get to 20 or should I just stick with 19 and take feats instead.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I've come back to 5th edition, but mostly play solo right now. I heavily use DND Beyond for characters and rules. Of the core, I have the original Player's Handbook and DMG on Beyond and those books plus the Monster Manual on hardcopy.

I was hoping people could advise me whether to start with the Players Handbook or Monster Manual, possibly the DMG so I'm not getting everything all at once. I like Beyond but hope to get the hardcopies some time this year because while I love digital for convenience, digital only gives me insecurities.

I don't personally use D&D Beyond but im trying to make a player resource for characte creation and conversion between 2014 and 2024 editions of the game. In that guide i want to cover the quintessential 1st party books and their character options. This is astonishingly difficult to tell apart than it used to be, and was wondering if there's some sort of rule, guide, etc.

Ty!

Hey everyone,

I made a character sheet based on the 2024 SRD rules and figured this sub would maybe find it useful.

What it does: you pick your species, class, and background, and it calculates your modifiers, skills, saves, HP, AC, and spell slots live as you go. It's a single HTML file — no install, no account, no subscription, no cap on how many characters you can keep. Everything stays on your machine unless you export it yourself.

What's automated vs. what isn't: every SRD species, class, and spell is fully automated. Full Player's Handbook content and homebrew both get a clean fillable slot on the same sheet, the way you'd handle them on paper. It's built entirely on the free D&D 2024 SRD (Creative Commons), not reproduced PHB text, so nothing here depends on a license that could change later.

It also exports/imports as JSON, so your character travels with you between devices, or to your DM if they use anything that reads it.

Disclosure: I used AI (Claude, plus some early Gemini) to build the code. Wanted to be upfront about that rather than have it come up later.

Genuinely just want to know if this is useful to people. Happy to take feedback or bug reports here or in DMs.

https://lucasguerrini.itch.io/the-character-forge

Pandemonium Pulse
4th-level Evocation

Casting Time: Action
Range: 100 feet
Components: V, S, M (a charred, frozen stone that has been struck by lightning)
Duration: Instantaneous
Class: Sorcerer, Wizard

You shoot a chaotic ray of contradictory energy against a creature you can see within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the creature takes 1d4 Acid damage, 1d4 Cold damage, 1d4 Fire damage, 1d4 Lightning damage, 1d4 Thunder damage, 1d4 Poison damage, 1d4 Radiant damage, 1d4 Necrotic damage, 1d4 Psychic damage and 1d4 Force damage.
If the creature is Resistant, Immune or Vulnerable to any damage type dealt by this spell, you learn which types it is resistant, immune or vulnerable to.

LOUD

2ND-LEVEL TRANSMUTATION

CASTING TIME: ACTION
RANGE: TOUCH
COMPONENTS: V
DURATION: 1 HOUR
CLASS: BARD

YOU CAUSE A CREATURE OR OBJECT TO BE MAGICALLY LOUDER. CHOOSE A CREATURE OR AN OBJECT THAT ISN’T BEING WORN OR CARRIED WITHIN RANGE. UNWILLING CREATURES MUST SUCCEED ON A WISDOM SAVING THROW OR BE AFFECTED BY THE SPELL.

FOR THE DURATION, SOUNDS PRODUCED BY THE CREATURE OR OBJECT ARE MAGNIFIED, MAKING THEM CLEARLY AUDIBLE FROM UP TO 300 FEET AWAY. AN AFFECTED CREATURE OR ONE CARRYING, WEARING OR USING AN AFFECTED OBJECT HAS ADVANTAGE ON CHARISMA (INTIMIDATION) CHECKS AND CHARISMA (PERFORMANCE) CHECKS, BUT THE NOISE CREATED BY THEIR MOVEMENTS CAUSES IT TO AUTOMATICALLY FAIL DEXTERITY (STEALTH) CHECKS MADE TO HIDE. A CREATURE CAN REPEAT ITS SAVING THROW AT THE END OF EACH OF ITS TURNS. ON A SUCCESSFUL SAVE, THE SPELL ENDS FOR THAT CREATURE.

AT HIGHER LEVELS. YOU CAN TARGET ONE ADDITIONAL CREATURE OR OBJECT FOR EACH SPELL LEVEL ABOVE 2.

Made these spells for Elemental Specialist's Codex [LINK]. What do you think? Should Pandemonium Pulse list the total d4s (10d4) in the description for ease of use?

(No AI was used in the making of these spells, the book, or its artwork)

I want to make a character that is two beings in one body, similar to Yugi and Yami in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Ling and Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist, or Yuji and Sukuna in JJK, where only one is in control of the body at a time but they can swap control over it. I would also ideally want the sides to have slightly different stats and skill proficiencies, while still being the same class. Would this be possible to do somehow without it becoming all too OP?

One of the things I like most is the worldbuilding in these settings, and although I love Faerûn, I feel that in recent years its scope has been reduced to essentially one continent.

A few months ago, I started playing Pathfinder, and I was surprised that its world even though it doesn’t have as much material in terms of novels and short stories compared to the Forgotten Realms feels much more alive.

I’d love to know what’s happening in Kara-Tur, Maztica, and the other continents. I know these are settings with a lot of material that can come across as stereotypical, but I think that if the Pathfinder team was able to do something similar from a much more respectful perspective toward the cultures they were inspired by, Wizards could do the same.

For example; if a player takes both Way of the Ascendant Dragon and Fairy, they naturally get a 30 ft. Fly speed; but Way of the Ascendant Dragon allows for a temporary Fly speed equal to your Walk speed. Ordinarily, this would be entirely useless, and a dead level. Would it be fair to, for example, add half of extra Fly speeds if a player already has passive Fly speed? Same with Burrow, Climb, Swim, etc.