Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Servant of the Lord of Dead Dreams

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel when Nerdarchists Dave and Ted develop a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character idea straight from Patreon. We conducted a poll to ask which Nerdarchyverse villain to revisit. Our own Lord of Dead Dreams came out as No. 1 and while we shared the insidious entity’s dream goblins at Nerdarchy the Website we thought he could use a more substantial enforcer. This Servant of the Lord of Dead Dreams 5E D&D Character Build Guide represents a dark fey knight who embodies their lord’s sinister reputation. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Servant of the Lord of Dead Dreams

Every Character Build Guide we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Dark Fey Knight here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Dream Servant’s nightmarish assaults. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too. We’ve had so much fun taking these a step further and expanding on one of our encounters like we did with Lizard Wizard and we’re doing the same with the Dream Servant for our patrons in May. At each step of the way we considered this character’s reputation as a sinister entity’s enforcer.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Dream Servant can really mix things up and call on an impressive array of thematic features by 6th level.

Dread Sprite NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of our favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

A few months ago we expanded upon the CBG line by taking another big step and integrating them with our monthly Patreon rewards. Now we take these NPCs and craft an encounter around them in the style of our super popular Out of the Box series. Since starting down this path with the Party Animal CBG and Dark Paths: Little Shop of Dark Delights we only gotten more excited. Now we’re integrating those encounters from the very start to build on themes and concepts from them and other favorites.

The Dread Sprite demonstrates how a small collection of features combined with some evocative flavor helps sell the sizzle. The nuts and bolts of this Tiny fey creature flow together and help tell a story. In one case the story is a dark tale about a sprite shocked by living nightmares until they manifest in a decidedly deadly manner.

Corrupted by Nightmares. Dread sprites were created by the Lord of Dead Dreams. A dread sprite is created by exposing a sprite to nightmares over and over again until they break and the poison infecting their minds and souls painfully bursts through their flesh as poisonous spines. They appear to be wearing spiked leather armor. Upon closer inspection it’s leather armor with their little spines protruding through it. The process to create a dread sprites surrounds them with a tangible aura that causes fear and protects them from harm.

“Poison Spines. At the start of each of its turns, the dread sprite deals 1 piercing damage to any creature grappling it. The creature must also succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 1 minute. A poisoned creature no longer in direct contact with the dread sprite can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a character who terrorizes their enemies waking hours and haunts their dreams — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Servant of the Lord of Dead Dreams Character Build Guide here.

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