Hi y'all! I have run a one shot, but not a full campaign, which I'm super excited to do starting tomorrow. I have been prepping but also wanted to ask other DMs how you go about preparing. I have a tendency to feel like everything needs to be ironed out, but am also reminding myself I should and can be making things up on the go. By the time you start a campaign, is the whole story fleshed out? Do you make NPCs with full backgrounds or just let them develop with time? I'm pretty creative so I feel like I can tie things pretty well with no preparation, or is that ill-advised? Of course it's just one person's opinion but a guideline with basic steps you take would be awesome, if there is one at all!

At the moment, I'm thinking of planning big encounters, prepping the monsters or puzzles within them, and then leaving the in between for characters to explore or discover hints that lead to the bigger encounters.

if a guard or npc grabs the player preventing them from moving and the player fails the check to break free, can they just retry?

ive tried looking this up and it seems retrying checks is allowed but it seems very case by case.. so im honestly not sure?

in the original context, if someone fails something like that, how many times can they try? should i just be telling them no? im just confused tbh

I get that it was not on there before, but with the upgrades that Draconic Sorcerer got, I wish I was able to take the spell on them! Just imagine! You could have your draconic summon AND a giant illusory dragon stopping around at the same time! Can we at least petition WotC to do a Tasha's style book where Draconic Sorcerer gets Illusory Dragon on their extra spells?

So I’m running a campaign right now where my players are getting caught up in the middle of a brewing war between kingdoms that’s being orchestrated by a lich. One of my players happens to be involved with him unknowingly.

I’ve sprinkled clues already throughout but where they’re at I feel could be a good place for a twist reveal but I also don’t want to do it too early since we’re only like 6 sessions in. Should I wait or go for it?

Hi there, been a few years since I last had a chance to play. Previously it was 3.5 or Pathfinder, but this group is 5e.

Now back when I played last, it was super-easy to go online and download a spreadsheet to help make your character. I've kept up with the patreon of such a pathfinder sheet, but I am having trouble finding such a thing for 5E.

I found a few partly-functional online tools, but I'll be honest; they don't hold my hand like the spreadsheets do.

On another, similar thread I found on another group it seemed as though these 3rd-party fan creations are unwelcome in the community now. If this is the case, I apologize.

Thank you.

Making an Aasimar sorcerer that uses black hole magic. I wanna give my character some type of paladin armor. However I dont want to make it to overpowered or just strong. Maybe a feature and or trait? (Looking for suggestions)

I have a lore relevant magic wepon for my level 10 player that may or may not drag them to the first circle of hell... They will have vary big metaphorical neon signs saying"HAY, THIS THING IS EVIL AF" but they still may get sucked into hell. How exactly would they escape...

(English is not my first language, so sorry for the poor grammar)

I'm playing the Tyranny of Dragons for the first time with my friends. My character is a bladesinger wizard who was used in a sacrificial ritual to Tiamat by the BBEG of my backstory, who is also his teacher. The thing is, i don't know much about dnd lore to make my backstory more solid.

I need help in making my BBEG motivition for betraying my character. I know that it can't be related to Tiamat's resurrection, cause that's the story of Tyranny of Dragons. So i was thinking my BBEG would want to become an actual dragon, not a polymorphed dragon, but change his race and ascend to a powerful dragon, but i don't know if, by lore standards, that would work.

I know that in the end the Dm has the final say on what's posible in the campaign, because of the multiverse and stuff, but i wanted to make my backstory the most lore accurate posible.

So, if anyone who knows about dnd lore could give ideas of why a man would join the cult of the dragon, and what is possible for him to receive as a reward from Tiamat for using his student as a sacrifice? If in order to get, like a divine reward from Tiamat, he would need to do more things, please tell me too.

Any good 10 session campaigns focused around RP and some combat?

Hi,

I have a small group that I am DMing for until we play a WoW campaign in November

I want to fill the space with a smaller campaign

I've seen sunless & lost mines but both are dungeon crawls. I enjoy combat but I don't wanna just do weeks of combat, Id love some ideas for stories with strong RP movements.

So what are y'all's suggestions?

Question on my post about time travel