Play Your 5E D&D Dragons with Big Brain Energy
Dragons are immortal creatures who grow in power and size but it is not only their physical stats reaching immense proportions. Mentally dragons are one of the most intelligent creatures in the realms. As a 5E D&D Dungeon Master it can feel a little intimidating to run dragons whose intellect is much more vast than our own. Even DMs with genius level IQs are still not up to par with the intellect of elder dragons.
Run Your D&D Encounters with a Battle Pack
There are all sorts of ways to run encounters in D&D. Whether you are using hazards, lair actions, legendary actions or just monsters there is a lot to keep track of during an encounter. Today I’m exploring going one for one with the party. Typically a good group of adventurers comprises a warrior, a sneaky character, a healer and some kind of damage dealing spellcaster. In the years I have been playing very rarely do I see combats being pitted against such an encounter unless we are in direct opposition of another adventuring party.
Plant the Seeds of Adventure with More Treants for your 5E D&D Games
Whether you are talking about Dungeons & Dragons or Lord of the Rings, treants have the ability to make a big impact. Not only are treants very large creatures — Huge in fact — but they are quite long lived and quite powerful.
Go Bigger and Badder with More Archdevils and Demon Lords for 5E D&D
I explored some of the baddest baddies from the Nine Hells of Dungeons & Dragons in the past. If you want to check it out you can do so here. Now it’s time to check into a few more of these amazing lords of hell and how you might use these wonderful meanies in your next campaign or session.
5E D&D World of Monsters — Beasts
Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted picked up a video series called Nerdarchy’s Guide to D&D Monsters. We launched this series a few years ago with aberrations but one thing led to another and yadda yadda yadda we’re revisiting the topic now. These video guides cover tips for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players on what to expect and how to manage things when a particular creature type shows up in your campaign setting and adventures. I dig this series personally because a theme like this makes a great jumping off point. Here on the website I take the topic in a different direction and ask what if beasts are the only type of monsters in your 5E D&D world?
Activate Beast Mode for Your 5E D&D Games
Penny Dragon Games invites fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons players to live on the wild side with Bergin’s Book of Beasts, a 5E D&D supplement featuring over 200 new beasts plus beast themed subclasses for all your adventurers. This fully funded project already unlocked a bunch of beastly stretch goals and shows no signs of slowing down. An awesome resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike Bergin’s Book of Beasts is packed with tons of great material to unleash your inner beast. Let’s get into it.
Scaling Up Your D&D Game to Giant Proportions
Giants have been a part of Dungeons & Dragons since the beginning of the game. I have always struggled with giants. They did not come up a lot early in my game play and when I watched the old ’80s D&D cartoon giants were much more massive than they are listed as now. But whether giants are just over 10 feet tall or over 100 feet tall they are still ginormous and difficult to interact with in D&D.
How Often Should Dragons Show Up in Dungeons & Dragons?
I have been playing tabletop roleplaying games for over 30 years at this point. I can honestly say there have been long stretches of time and numerous games played with no dragon encounters. Today I ask the dreaded question, “How often should you face a dragon?”
Ember Roc and Other Monsters of Tal’Dorei Inspire New Characters and Adventures
Tal’Dorei Reborn recently released and if you managed to get your hands on a copy from the wonderful people over at Critical Role’s Darrington Press you’ve seen a bunch of new monsters and their respective stat blocks for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. But enough of the book for now — you can hear more on this from us over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Undead Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m going to be taking a look beyond the grave into the realm of necromancy and necrotic damage in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Undead creatures are the bad guys you can reach for when you don’t want your heroes to have to think too hard about the monsters they’re killing.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Plant Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Everybody who plays fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons has probably adventured in the forest at one point or another. It’s a staple fantasy backdrop. And what does a forest have in abundance? Plants. Trees, underbrush, bushes, briars — all sorts of things that grow. Even if you’re not in the forest there’s still farmland with crops and that one dandelion poking through the sidewalk in the city yelling, “Yeah, cobblestone!” But sometimes the plants turn around and want to kill you, and today’s post is about those 5E D&D plant creature types.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Ooze Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! I’ve been waiting to donk around with this fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type because while I’ve already covered my favorite creature type — fey — this one is my spouse’s favorite. I’m referring to oozes of course. Slimy, lurchy, squishy and rolly, there are not a lot of these available in 5E D&D (there is really only so much you can do with them) but they are unique enough to merit their own creature type.
If You’re Gonna Go Bad, Go Big with Archdevils and Demon Lords for 5E D&D
My first fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign focused on the big bad of a Demon Lord. Gnar’Kee’Tis was a major deal and the final battle of a game lasting over four years. Over the course of this 5E D&D campaign I newly written lore for the current edition. The players were shocked when I described gnolls being transformed from straight up hyenas. As the quadrupeds became bipedal humanoids the players thought I had made it up. But it was right in the Monster Manual.
Dissecting the 5E D&D Monstrosity Creature Type
Salutations, nerds! Today I’m turning my attention to the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons creature type crossing the line from ordinary to extraordinary and stops druids from Wild Shaping into owlbears — the monstrosity! These 5E D&D creatures are monstrous, hence the title, and are massively varied so this should be a fun one.
Prepare for the Gith Invasion of Your 5E D&D World
There are a handful playable race options in fifth edition who are not truly native to the Material Plane. One of these is the gith. When I think about the gith I see them as one of the few races who could easily facilitate a thematic crossover between science fiction and fantasy.
