Mashing Up Milestone XP and Inspiration in 5E D&D
It’s a fact of life — there isn’t an tabletop roleplaying game out there someone, somewhere hasn’t tweaked in one way or another. Opinions and perspectives are multitude. The value of these outlooks varies, and their worth only truly judged in a public forum through playtesting. To this end, I would like to offer a few fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons house rules regarding milestone XP and inspiration that have existed at my table for a few years now, with the same expectation other Dungeon Masters further tinker with them to suit their own needs. This is only logical; not every rule fits ever table.
Drunken Tactician: Character Build for Adventurers League D&D 5e
Unearthed Arcana — Class Feature Variants remains the gift that keeps on giving this week. We took a look at the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons ranger a few days ago with an eye towards creating a spellcaster focused ranger character and had a lot of fun exploring those ideas. So while Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss the drunken tactician character build for Adventurers League over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, I’m going to dive back into Unearthed Arcana and see what we’ve got available there for this character concept. More fighter tactics? More monk drunkenness? Let’s get into it and find out.
DMs Guild has Eberron Covered for the D&D Community
In just a few days Eberron: Rising from the Last War releases and we’ve been abuzz around Nerdarchy HQ. We’re all excited for the unique, compelling campaign setting to get official fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons support. But there’s a whole lot of content out there already for the Eberron campaign setting, and thankfully the Dungeon Master’s Guild collects it all for the D&D community. A lot of players today might not have discovered the hobby back then, so there’s literally a whole world for them to explore. Adventures and resources from Eberron’s past offers a tremendous resource to inspire 5E D&D games. And at the moment, the DMs Guild is offering Eberron titles for 20% off. They’ve also curated bundles of classics and other select titles for 70% off!
5E D&D Worldbuilding for a Revolution Plot: Part 2
Salutations, nerds! Last week we talked about setting up for a revolution plot. We explored reasons your power hasn’t been overthrown by revolutions already, and if all that is true, how to motivate your PCs to go ahead and overthrow them in the first place. Today, we’re going to talk more about 5E D&D worldbuilding and what you have to knock out from under your ruler’s legs to disrupt their power base. In other words, the stuff likely to actually happen in the campaign, at the table.
Expanding 5E D&D Ranger Spells Beyond Unearthed Arcana
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discussed 5 essential 5E D&D ranger spells for tier 1 characters. For a 1st-4th level ranger this means 1st level spells only, with two spells known beginning at 2nd level and a third known at 3rd level. Whenever a ranger gains a level, they can choose one of the ranger spells they know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots. Not a lot of wiggle room for a tier 1 ranger when it comes to spellcasting. There’s 17 1st level spells to choose from in official 5E D&D material, and with the video highlighting five standout spells, where do we go from here to continue the discussion?
How to Add Emotion and Depth with Fantastical Mounts
“Come on, Herbie! Just a little more!”
Herbie unleashed a thunderous grunt, his six massive legs sinking into the soft, wet earth. Mud clumped his thick fur, the torrential rain mingling with his sweat as the gantuan struggled to pull the carriage from the mire.
Panic gripped Wally’s heart as the family inside the sinking carriage clung to one another. The child, a little girl with her father’s broad features and her mother’s elven ears, pressed a hand against the glass.
Bounty Hunting like The Mandalorian in 5E D&D
If you’re like me and what I suspect are tens of thousands of other nerds, you fired up Disney+ today and watched episode one of The Mandalorian. And since you’re here I’m going to assume you’re also a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons player. Taking those two things into account, it can’t be far from the truth that a lot of us were not only blown away by the premiere of this new streaming show and our first thought was “this would make an awesome bounty hunter 5E D&D campaign!” And I just got a copy of Ultimate NPCs: Skulduggery from Nord Games so I’m going to use this Game Master’s Toolbox book to help. If this sounds cool to you, I’ll give you a promo code for 20% off the book and everything else in your cart from Nord Games when we’re done. So let’s get into it. (And don’t worry — no spoilers!)
Celebrate #5yearsof5e and 45 years since D&D’s First Publication
Guess what happens in 10 days? Wizards of the Coast commemorates five years of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons and 45 years of D&D history since the game’s first publication in 1974 with the D&D Sapphire Anniversary Dice Set. The complete set of luxury aluminum dice is created exclusively for WotC by Level Up Dice, and will be available directly from WotC starting at 11 a.m. PT on Nov. 21, 2019.
Wringing Arcane Juice from Your 5E D&D Warlock Spells
Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discussed 5 go-to Tier 2 spells for warlocks in fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Warlocks are unusual spellcasters in 5E D&D. With far less spell slots than their spellcasting colleagues, warlocks make up for this by casting all their spells at their most powerful iteration, and getting all their precious spell slots back after a short rest. Warlocks get a lot of mileage from spells that scale at higher levels, with effects that stick around for a while and don’t require concentration to interfere with keeping hex, darkness, fly, hunger of Hadar or any other useful spells going.
D&D Ideas — Beacons
Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. Here is the quote that inspired this week’s newsletter.
“Aragorn: The beacons of Minas Tirith! The beacons are lit! Gondor calls for aid!
Theoden: And Rohan will answer. Muster the Rohirrim!”
We were goofing around in our weekly meeting and this quote came up. Next thing we know we’ve agreed to make it our weekly D&D idea for the newsletter and Running D&D video. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy, by signing up here. But before we jump into this week’s newsletter a quick reminder. You can still back Out of the Box: Encounter for 5th Edition. Or if you already did you can fill out your survey and make sure you get your stuff. Here is a link to the Pledge Manager. There is also a free encounter you can download in the Pledge Manager. This is available to anyone; it doesn’t matter if you backed the Kickstarter or not.
Add Your Voice (and 5E D&D Content!) to the D&D Community
Every single day the Dungeon Masters Guild adds new titles. At the time I’m writing this 14,184 titles stock the DMs Guild digital shelves and for every adventure, player option or Dungeon Master resource, somewhere along the line the author published their first one. This past week one of my favorite people in the D&D community to game with, Dylan Ramsey, published their first title. Dance of the Deathless Frost expands on Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus with a whole new way to approach the 5E D&D adventure with new locales, NPCs and magic items, including vehicle stats for the Baba Yaga’s hut plus a chance to tame the demon lord Kostchtchie. If you’re a Dungeon Master, chances are you’ve created your own content along the way too, right? Maybe you adapted adventures from earlier editions, created new subclasses for your campaign setting, focused on an element of the game to expand on or a million other things. Consider taking the opportunity to add your creations to the DMs Guild! Players and DMs are always on the lookout for new stuff to add to our games, and maybe yours inspire someone else.
Cracking Open the Warlock Grimoire from Kobold Press
It’s hard to believe over two years passed since Kobold Press launched Warlock, a Patreon-fueled project in the form of a booklet containing new maps, monsters, character options and more for Fifth Edition. Like it says on the tin, the most ambitious goal for Warlock is a yearly publication of the Warlock Grimoire, a hardcover collection of the entire year’s booklets plus more monsters, dark lore, secret encounters and Deep Magic. And now Warlock Grimoire exists! I received my copy in the mail and while a wealth of cool content waits within the nearly 300-page pocket-sized edition, my favorite part is the introduction. Why? Because before I interviewed Kobold Press head honcho Wolfgang Baur, someone advised me not to call Warlock a zine, but here in the intro to Warlock Grimoire, Wolfgang himself dubs the monthly booklets zines. Vindication!
Changeling and Kalashtar for a New Eberron Campaign
There’s Eberron in the air tonight. Over on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss what class you should play as a kalashtar or changeling, Eberron: Rising from the Last War releases in a few days and I just watched a terrific video about playing a juggernaut warforged as a T-800 Terminator character for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. I’m on the same page with Dave and Ted as regards ideal classes for changelings and kalashtar, so we’ll go in an unexpected direction here instead. A fresh cohort of Unearthed Arcana subclasses recently wrapped with lots of fantastic playtest options. How might some of them interact with kalashtar and changelings for a new Eberron campaign? Let’s get into it.
5E D&D Worldbuilding for a Revolution Plot: Part 1
Salutations, nerds! I hope you’re ready to do some 5E D&D worldbuilding because today we’re going to be talking about revolutions and empires, and what you need if the tabletop roleplaying game storyline you’re planning on running has to do with unseating someone currently in power. Please note, this is going to be a quick run down, not a comprehensive list. I’ve got the span of a quick article to do this — nope, two. Two quick articles. I’ve done the thing again where I had more to say than I thought I did. Ahem. But. I’m going to try to give you enough to springboard off of and hopefully enough to get the gears turning in your head for what you want to do with your plot. Got your notebooks out? Ready? Let’s dive in.
A Mouthful of 5E D&D Villain Actions Inspired by Matt Colville
When Nerdarchist Ted pitched the idea for a video response to Matt Colville’s Action Oriented Monsters video I was all in. I’d just watched the video myself and fallen in love with the idea of Villain Actions for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. We’re no strangers to creating new 5E D&D monsters. And like Matt mentions, making creatures in the style of player characters feels kludgy and needlessly complicated and time consuming. But while we’ve generally kept to the existing monster resources like legendary and lair actions, and striving to include action economy options like bonus actions and reactions, Matt took things to the next level by developing a new kind of action — the Villain Action. Like any good Dungeon Master, when I spot a cool idea I steal it for my game. So while Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss the ins and outs of Villain Actions on the Nerdarchy YouTube channel, I’m gonna try my hand at creating some of my own.
