So I've been working on expanding my ideas about my underdark for an upcoming new campaign arch that's going to take the characters down there where previously I've mainly just focused on the surface.

A consideration I've have though regarding things like the drow, duergar and derro, on the one hand I typically don't lean too hard into things like bioessencialism as opposed to considering how culture and geopolitics might make groups add, I just feel it makes for a wider range of interesting stories. And while the role of the divine in driving the actions of groups can be interesting I feel relying too much on it can be a bit of a crux. On the other hand, there are some pretty cool elements in various settings that are pretty closely tied up in these concepts.

At the moment I've been thinking about this.

The under dark has small islands where life can thrive, be that ecosystems and/or an agricultural core of a group. Most commonly magical crystalline structures that can absorb heat and give off light or chemically rich hot pools create an energy source for primary producers like plants to form the base of an ecosystem. But much of it are vast areas of tunnels and caverns where the resources for life are sparse indeed, just what little can trickle down from the surface or out from the more habitable area, there might exist the odd fungi that can spring up in areas the psionic fields are strongest but these are moving unreliable things, with fungi spores or mycelial networks lying dormant only to spring up when the psionic energies are at their strongest, and cease growing any edible bodies as these energies subside.

In many ways then, cities in the underdark have a tendency to resemble a lot of early river valley states, with associated tendencies towards either oppressively powerful states and/or extreme hierarchy as elite groups can dominate the limited amount of growing land. As the process of growing food in this environment is often labour intense, careful management of hot pools, and a necessary of direct irrigation without being able to rely on rain often requires a lot of work to cut channels in rock, remove sediment and gather biomass in dangerous hot pool caverns. Though this process can often produce a fair amount of food elites must ensure they always have access to enough labour to work their lands, ideally labour that can be prevented from leaving and be exploited. For those like the drow in particular with long lives and slow breeding cycles being able to... acquire external sources of labour is often vital to do things like expand operations, cushion against shocks associated with manpower shortages and carry out tasks that might be dangerous like mining, tunnelling and hot pool farming. Duergar and Drow ruled cities then tend to have populations that don't necessarily have a personal individual inclination towards evil, but have socio-economic structures which trend strongly towards iron fisted tyranny and/or a heavily reliance of slavery and exploitation. It also often sees intense competition between cities, and sometimes within factions of elites within then, over control of the limited available land where agriculture can be conducted when islands are close enough in proximity.

For those who don't live in the islands of farmable land life often requires careful and considerable mobility as their roam across large areas to acquire food, although in many ways they may live their lives free of oppression by tyrants and nobles many live close to the edge of starvation. It is not uncommon for some such groups such as those marked the derro to regularly carry out banditry and brutal raids on caravans and the outposts in the outer tunnels controlled by cities to acquire food and other resources, just as in turn the tunnel rangers of many cities aren't afraid to target nomadic deep gnomes and derro in slave raids. Nomads often find themselves having to be agile, hunting small scavengers or the ambush predators that target animals moving between the islands of ecological density, exploiting resources that can be found where under water cave mouths connect to the seas and deepest lakes, exploiting the wild fungi as they emerge and disappear, acquiring choice minerals and metals to trade with agrarian communities.

Derro are not biologically all that different to duergar, there is in fact a steady intermixing often between duergar ruled cities and to a lesser extent mountain dwarfs, those who become fed up with the strict restrictions of their home cities may flee into the outer tunnels and meet up with derro bands, members of derro bands may either voluntarily end up being subsumed into duergar states as occasional trading or mercenary work becomes permanent sedentism and intermarriage or duergar slave raiders take derro as prisoners, the descendants of which may eventually acquire status as the lowest of free clan members. Duergar states often call derro mad, this can actually be literally true of those who seek most the psionic sorcery often associated with their race, a side effect of this art often being startling combinations between madness and genius insight. But the average derro is only mad by the standards of those like the duergar who would think it mad to reject ones oaths, community and the rule of ones rightful superiors in pursuit of attempting to author ones own uncertain future in the pursuit of a liberty the duergar elders tell their people is of no value to them.

Deep gnomes and derro sometimes travel together and sometimes apart, they may integrate into bands to attempt to play off each other's strengths and weaknesses exchanging some culture while some deep gnomes are more traditionalists who keep groups mostly of their own kind. The deep gnomes have only fairly recently been able to re-establish a stable connection to their closest kin in the rock gnomes after the latter became under the imperial rule of a goblinoid empire for several centuries on the surface. Not physically potent nor quick breeding, although deep gnomes may have access to a fair number of mages this is often not sufficient to contend with the great powers of the under dark, thus they have typically taken an approach of avoiding conflict where possible or at least ensuring it remains on their own terms so far as possible. They keep their sedentary settlements small, these serving as mixtures of workshops and religious centres, such that it is easier to make them difficult to find for those they do not wish to, with a great part of their population wandering the tunnels, not strong enough to contend large arable areas and seeking to avoid large forces of troops from the city states. Constructs are a prized tool among their people like the rock gnomes, some are ancient dating back to the days centuries ago when the two were a single people, others made in the workshops since with an unusual kind of divine construct magic, but with the complexity of such work most workshops must focus on maintaining the constructs that help defend the temple workshops and carrying the nomads from place to place. Where rock gnomes tend to take a fairly casual attitude towards religion with a pretty secular society, fervent religiosity with sometimes extreme asceticism among religious leaders is common among deep gnomes as a means of maintaining a social structure in their disparate and often vulnerable societies.

So, a lot of this stuff isn't something players need to directly know, but I feel it helps me to know why different groups act the way they do in order to craft the plots and work how NPCs and villains react to the party's words and actions. What do you guys thing?

So,one of my players just lost his warlock character. He betrayed his party to follow his patron,and he tried to attack them under her protection, resulting in a permadeath. (Everything talked through and expected from said player) So naturally,he wants to make a new character to join the party. What level should the character be? I thought about joining 1 level lower from the rest of the party (a homerule that we agreed on because some players though about character jumping,and wouldn't let themselves tie to their character). What would you do?? Thank you in advance!

I'm going to be running an encounter where a bunch of Ettins (two headed giants) are hoping to spring a trap on the players.

The players made a loud entry into a dungeon so the Ettins know they are coming and have piled a bunch of trash behind the corner of a hallway. When the players enter the right spot, they plan to push the trash onto them and then initiate combat.

Mechanics wise, how could I do this? I want the players to have the option to discover the trap first in order to avoid it. But if they know it is there and the Ettins are the ones that trigger it, then now they are bound by initiative order.

It's basically a held action, which can skip initiative, but it's held out of combat which is not something that is allowed.

I could use surprise, but then if the Ettins are found out it depends on initiative again and if they roll low now the entire party can run through the hallway they are actively watching and attack them before they can push their rubbish piles over. Which just doesn't make any sense narrative wise.

So how would I run this in a way that the trap can be sprung like a normal trap, that is ahead of initiative unless an outside of combat action "disarms" it, while being sprung by monsters that are bound by initiative.

Hi everyone, first time posting here. I’m finding myself in a weird situation that I’ve stuck myself in. I’ve been running a campaign for about 2+ years now based on a setting I spent a lot of time on that was meant to be the early emergence of cultures, societies, etc., but the parties I’ve been having for this setting have been huge on exploring old crypts and ruins. I love that for them, but I genuinely don’t have more prehistory to explore. For example, the first kingdom ever made is still standing after all this time. I’ve found ways to make the ruins more like failed outposts or splinter groups who eventually passed, but should I just jump the gun and make a precursor species or something if they’re really interested in discovering old history?

Greetings, I am a first time dm, long time player. Early in my campaign one of my pcs received a cursed glove, it was obviously cursed but the player wanted it anyway, the glove allows the player to cast vampiric touch once per long rest without consuming a spell slot, each time they use this ability on an enemy the glove which initially fit perfectly becomes slightly tighter. The PC has used it a number of times now to the point where the glove is painfully tight, but can't be removed. I was wondering if anyone here has any fun ideas on how to build on this curse in the future assuming the player keeps using the item. Thanks in advance for the help.

My party will soon encounter a sea hag and her coven of lesser hag maidens. If I find a good-enough idea, I think it would be fun if the hag cursed one or more players with her dying breath, or as a punishment in the unlikely event that they make a deal with her and fail to live up to their end.

Any suggestions?

Hi fellow DMs ! So tonight the PCs of my group fought a blob of annihilation and one of them died inside and thus was "consumed into ashes" to quote the statblock.

Another PC managed to get inside and recover a bit of the ashes, they were then ejected in the astral plane when the blob died.

Now they want to find a way to revive him. (They have a way of getting back to the material plane, so thats not too much of an issue)

I really dont know how to rule this. Surely a True resurrection would work. But what about Resurrection (lvl 7 spell), or even Reincarnate (lvl 5 spell).

Some of the players are arguing that ashes are a piece of the corpse, and so that Resurrection or maybe even Reincarnate should work. But at the same time, being consumed into ashes sourds a lot like being desintegrated which specifically mentions that you can't be revived by other means than true resurrection or wish.

But here the wording is not exactly the same.

So, what are your thoughts ?

Is consecutive saving throws something in good faith/accepted by the community overall? I don't know if it has another word for it. What I mean is the following:

Ask a player for a really high, almost impossible save, let's say:
CON SAVE 22
You failed that? You take this effect and ALSO now do a WIS SAVE 18
You failed that? You take this effect and ALSO now do a DEX SAVE 14
You failed that? You take this effect and ALSO now do a STR SAVE 10

My intention is not to TPK the party, but instead to make a cool boss mechanic where each player ends up in a different situation. In special here, I was thinking of a huge attack that happens immediately after the boss comes into the 2nd phase. Something to put the players in a rough spot, and bring some tension to the table.

Edit: Thank you for the answers! The majority were pretty respectful and in good faith.

Yeah, this is kinda of the reason why I decided to ask first, and the truly big problem I see with what I had in mind is how UNFUN it can be when that one person in the table takes 20 minutes to do all the rolls. The majority of the effects I had in mind for this ability were rp-wise, I was not about to OTK anyone, but I understand why rolling excessively can be tricky. I'll keep it in mind for the future.

This is a broad skill challenge system that can be used for everything from finishing a summoning ritual, opening gnomish vault, running from the city guards or whatever you might like. It offers system that makes adventuring situations more fun, encourages teamwork and creates more tension than just freestyling the same encounter.

You set a goal number "X" - i find 3-5 is usually good.
The whole party tests to either get X Failures or Successes. If they get X successes first they do the thing, if they get X failures first they get the bad consequence.

Tell the party they are doing a skill challenge and tell them the DC for all the checks (10-15 is usually a good range to set the DC)

To make a check a player must declare they will try to perform a certain action in the challenge. Let them be creative, use spells, abilities and everything they have. Turn their action into a skill check based on what they are trying to do (work with the players and be open to what skills they think are suitable for their idea). One player cannot go for a 2nd time before everyone else has pitched in.

If the Idea is really good/poor you can give a +5/-5 to the DC (dont use this too often, and let the players know when you do it). If a player tries the same thing as someone else/or themselves again they get the +5 penalty.

Have a smaller consequence for each failure.

In your notes you can set it up like this example:

First to 5 skill challenge DC 11 Running from the guards.
5 Succces: They get away / 5 Failures: They are caught.
1st failure. You must change direction as you stumble into more guards. Next player check is at disadvantage.
2nd failure. A bystander/guard tries to trip you, the player making the check must take a dex save (11) on a failure you take 1d6 bludgeoning damage is exhausted from hitting your knee and fighting off the man.
3rd failure: You are all getting winded. CON save (11) against a level of exhaustion.
4th failure: The player making the check is chased down an alley and 4 guards are on your heels. Player makes an ATH/ACR check (11) against the guards and is caught alone on a failure.

Hope you like it, I have started using it a lot in my games in situation where I want to force some tension onto the table.

This is for a build Idea I have , but i’m afraid it probably wouldn’t work. A Character set of 3 , based on the odd sisters.

They would be played under one character slot and be more so roleplay based. I would go with having all three of them being a sort of hive mind and if one feels something the others do and if one dies they all do? ( ofc unless story events allow the other two sisters to die off separately).

They would a cast the spell together (still counting as a single spell) and they would have a sorta mother maiden crown type of feel to their personalities despite being almost all the same. ( maybe even worship The Sister of Fates)

any advice about how to go about this ? would it be doable or would it make the party still feel overcrowded? any class/flavoring ideas?

Okay so after a couple RP heavy sessions, I want to give my PCs a pretty energetic fight.

I plan on having them face werewolves and vampires in the city's castle. They're all there for this druid wolf the kings have locked away for ancient political reasons. Long story.

I bring this up though because I want the main fight to take place in the room the wolf is held in. It has to be fun and make sense. I want traps that would activate during combat, because of course they'd be there to keep this giant wolf inside. And the wolf itself will attack PCs and the werewolves that want it.

So it's a lot of moving parts. I don't want to bog down combat with really tedious trap design. But I also want it to prioritize positioning and cover. So everyone is moving.

So far I imagine fire traps. A gust of wind trap. Some swinging axes perhaps. Any other ideas or advice you might consider? Even layout ideas?

Free offer here to help you DMs..

I've tried running online games myself.. I know how tough it is to find players (especially if you do this professionally). So I'll promote your game for free! Seriously no catch.

How will it work? You share a funny story from one of your games with me, I'll make it short YT video from it. End of video we'll say: "this crazy DnD story is from [your name DM]. Click the link in the description to join their game!"

Recent DND story video I made: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Agt_EgBMTFw
Its a very new channel, but my videos are already getting lots of views (yesterday's video got 1.2K)

Wondering why I'm offering?

Well, most importantly I'm a DM myself, and I love supporting the community!

Besides that, I'm brand new to the YT thing...honestly just good practice for me. Truly asking for nothing in return, maybe just a sub to my channel and asking your players the same if they like the video.

tldr; I made the same offer in r/roll20LFG and it sparked quite the debate re AI creation. Inspired me to make a video on my stance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjIiCQ1S4dA

I’m super excited and honored that my DnD friends enjoyed my one shot and want to continue the story but I’m honestly so lost on where to go now.

The concept of the one shot was that the party was hired by an unknown patron to steal a relic from the treasure room of some eccentric noble. They were given fake invitations to the noble’s ball and through some RP with a ghost and some attendees of the party, they found the secret passage down to the safe, disarmed the traps and defeated the guard dog (spectator) within the safe. Once they touched the relic, the party was transported up into the nobleman’s office and told the whole ordeal was a sort of job interview and that the noble himself was the one who hired them. He and the NPCs the party spoke to (including the ghost) reveal that they were once a group of adventurers themselves and had previously tried to get the relic but were unsuccessful. The players were asked to help find and retrieve the real relic in order to try and save the country from an ancient corrosion or disease that is seeping back into the world. The party is level 4 and the reward (because it was a one shot and I didn’t think they’d ever use the PCs again) was 500gp and an uncommon magic item for each of them.

I’m just not sure what to put between them and the relic. I don’t think it would be very fun to just go straight there and snatch it up and I also want to take the time to flesh out the world, and the characters’ place in it, a bit more beforehand. Any suggestions as to what obstacles/detours I could place in front of them to slow things down a bit would be greatly appreciated!

I've been attempting to make a puzzle for creating a potion, but I've been struggling to work something out with what I have. I've looked online for puzzles, but most potion puzzles are either about choosing a correct potion, or solving riddles. I wouldn't be totally against riddles, but considering I want to use relatively logical ingredients or witch-like ingredients, in addition to possibly coloured liquids to add to the puzzle, players would almost certainly not know what some of the ingredients even are.

Examples would be carrots in a darkvision potion with other ingredients for regular ingredients. A witch-like example would be eye of newt (mustard seeds) in a fire-breathing potion with other ingredients. Adding coloured liquids could then add to a puzzle mechanic. I'm open to any kind of puzzle or even other ideas that other DMs have used or can come up with.

The scenario has the characters in a class. A wizard teacher is instructing the characters how to make potions. The characters are then given time to study and/or prepare for the exam the next day. This is inspired by Strixhaven's exam rules.

Currently for the exam, I want to have a large variety of ingredients available to all characters, with each character having to present a potion that was demonstrated during the previous class. As well as regular ingredients, there are also colored potions that are added to the potions, which can be mixed together. Characters can work together in this exam (it's a group test rather than a school scenario). As well as the puzzle, having Intelligence (Nature) checks would be made available during the exam (with bonuses for those with appropriate tool proficiencies). I would prefer to have one more step to make it a bit more than just rolling alone, hence the need for a puzzle.

I'm worried that having a large number of ingredients will make things way too complicated (having 4 characters making recipes with 5 ingredients each ends up with 20 correct answers, let alone incorrect ingredients), and I could cut it down to only having one potion needing to be made with fewer red herring ingredients. For anyone worried about having a puzzle like this, this is an optional quest, and has no consequences to the overall campaign if it is failed, and having ability checks from the characters themselves makes sense to assist with a puzzle like this.

I'm working on an encounter for my group and the plan right now is to have groups of agents from 2 different factions that want to capture the party, but are also opposed to each other. I want this to be a major encounter, it'll be the climax of the story arc. I want to balance it out, do I make it one large challenging encounter or 2 slightly less challenging encounters then add them together?

My players pissed off a Goblin Boss, these are the goblins in Ravnica, so they are a little more advanced than regular goblins. But I couldnt find a sort of Goblin Assassin that would be sent after them, so i built one. I read CR is half to 2/3 PC level so Its basically a level 2 character, 1 rogue, 1 fighter mashed up with the goblin boss.

Spacing isnt great in the table but subtitles are in bold. Would love your thoughts.

|| || | GOBLIN ASSASSIN Size: Small, (Goblinoid), LE| |Armor Class 15 - Studded Leather Hit Points 30 (6d6) Speed 30 ft.| |STR 10 (0)|DEX 16 (+3)|CON 12 (+1)|INT 10 (0)|WIS 10 (0)|CHA 8 (-1)| |Saving Throws Con +3, Str +2 Skills Acrobatics +5, Deception +1, Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +7 Senses passive Perception 11 Languages Common, Goblin Challenge 1 (200 XP)| |Sneak Attack. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll. Second Wind. Once per day, on its turn, Goblin Assassin can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10+1. Nimble Escape. The Goblin Assassin can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action on each of its turns.| | ACTIONS| |Off-Hand Attack. The Goblin Assassin can make an Off Hand attack with its dagger when it takes the attack action with its shortsword and has both weapons drawn Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d6 + 3) slashing damage. Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. one target. Hit: (1d4 + 3) slashing damage. Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 80/320 ft. one target. Hit: (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.|

Hello everyone,

I will soon be running a level one session for 3-4 players who have never played D&D. The interest they have shown is in narrative play, and so I am working to construct the bones of story that will give them an opportunity to interact without me immediately resorting to "Roll for Initiative"

The story begins at a Spa. All the players are going to be meeting in the bathing pool, which will give them a chance to interact with each other and some other NPC Patrons and staff.

• I have created a stuck valve for the hot water that will need to be opened.
• [here I am thinking about some kind of contest\massage event\puzzle. ] This is where I am hoping for ideas. I want this to be fun, but I also want them to experience the squishy joy of level one. Does anyone have ideas for level-one events, thingamcbobbers, or ribald gesticulations that can capture imaginations at a spa? Trying to find this balance has been challenging for my brainpan.
• I also have where the owners are going to be attacked by kobolds and captured. They have to figure out why they were captured, where they were headed to, and also comfort the child of the owners. Then a short journey to the kobold camp with a single combat encounter.

It doesn't have to be huge, and silly is welcome. Thanks and if I posted this incorrectly, I apologize (I am a reddit Newbie).

Go clarify: "selling" in this case meaning the wrestling term for rolling with/exaggerating the fake-attack in order to convincingly "sell" the illusion of having taken a major blow to the head/chest/whatever.

I was watching some old moments from CR Campaign 1 and realize that 1 thing ALL of the people there do is "sell" their reactions to the DM and other players around the table. PART of it is taking someone else's ideas and running with it (improv style), but they also aren't afraid to fake-overreact or exaggerate their reaction when one of the other player's does something. Stuff like jaw dropping, giving a reaction that instead of just communicating "I am surprised" says "that's the most shocking thing I've ever witnessed in my life and I am absolutely flabbergasted by this!!"

I'm...... not good at this.

I've been naturally shy and awkward for a lot of my life, and I tend to regulate my emotions a LOT unless I'm around close friends and family that I've known for a long time.

This seems silly, to some extent, I guess, but... I feel like it would help my ability to be entertaining and engaging as a DM more if I could tap into that capacity... and I feel like I just.... don't really know how.

Maybe this is the wrong question for a DM help forum. But this is the context I'm wondering about building this skill in, so....

So I want the players to experience a world altering event. Things have been somewhat normal so far. We are about 7 sessions in. I had this plot hook with an evil sword the party’s cleric had delivered to his superiors - the cleric was given a mace with a “shard of light” inside that would counteract the “dark shards” in these cursed swords they have been hunting down. It was going to be a major hook later on, with this light shards mace that keep the evil power of these swords at bay…so last session, the players encountered the seelie market where they could barter and…well…the cleric traded his mace. So that hook, while not gone, is severely damaged by the cleric losing this item.

Fast forward some time and the players find themselves in a tavern celebrating their recent victory in a city wide fall festival competition. Various guilds competed and they all threw a party for the victors, the players, in a large inn/adventurers guild hall the players call home.

I want this apocalypse to happen during this party. And I kind of now want this to be related to the cursed items the cleric was supposed to use the light mace against. The whole party knew the significance of the mace. And everyone was kinda like “wtf” when he traded it away.

So, my fellow story weaving pals, what awful apocalypse breaks the world? And do I pin this on the cleric without making him feel too too bad?

Some enemy statblocks have a proficiency in Intimidation. Other than just signifying that the character is more intimidating in order to inform you're roleplay of them, I struggle to think of how to use this. It feels very wrong for me as a DM for an NPC to roll some sort of intimidation check against a player and tell them "they have intimidated you, you are frightened / you're going to do what they tell you", which to me takes away their agency. And the feature is explicitly different from features like Intimidating Presence which are a mechanical way for a monster to make PCs frightened.

The only real viable use I can see for it is in interactions between NPCs, for example the party trying to convince a minion to betray their boss being harder if their boss is particularly intimidating.

Does anyone know how Wizards intended DMs to use this? Or alternatively, has anyone come up with a good way to use this on their own.

I'm really just curious, how much does the music you listen to influence what adventures or campaigns you do? Have you ever heard a song and been inspired? One of my examples is when I heard Boogie Woogie Wu by ICP. I was flipping through the MM for an idea, and the song came on the same time I came to the entry for Oni. That was perfect synergy, because he'll yeah, the Oni is the goddamn boogeyman.

Any similar musically inspired adventures or campaigns for you other DMs?

I've written a few themes for my one-shot -- a couple ambient pieces and a couple battle themes -- but since I don't have that much music, I'm wary of tiring my players out. I'm not dead-set on having all the music be original, of course, but if it's going to be a mix, I find myself wondering where and when I should use my original pieces, for how long, etc. So I'm curious if anybody here has had good experience incorporating music they've written specifically for their campaign -- maybe with finding ways to deploy it strategically that feel distinctive and enhance the game without it getting boring.

If your answer is "I tried this, it's a terrible idea," of course, I'd also love to hear that and hear why it didn't work out. Appreciate any advice you all can offer!

My players (party of 3 - level 11) are exploring a lake in the Underdark and encountered an ancient beefed up Aboleth that is building a following attempting to become a god. They were losing the battle and towards the end the Aboleth tethered itself to our Cleric and began digging through his memories. The Aboleth offered to free them in exchange for an artifact important to the campaign.

The Cleric successfully rolled a 7 on divine intervention, asking his deity what to do in this situation. In exchange, the deity reversed the tether and the Cleric now has all of the memories of the Aboleth, including those of its followers. We ended the session there.

My ask is what benefits or unwanted side effects might come from receiving thousands of years of memories? He will get lots of relevant campaign information in addition.

I was thinking expertise in history at least but maybe exhaustion points for a week as his dreams are flooded with memories that sent his. I’m open to any ideas!

So there is one big issue ive had with my new group.

They really liked splitting apart, which im not fully against, i think its fine if we're in a town and onw player wants to go eat at the tavern and another wants to shop for stuff thats completely fine. If they go on an adventure together they dont have to be in the same room at all times either, thats also fine.

My problem is that last time 2 of the players decided to go do the quest earlier than the others, they left them a message and so 2 of them were a good 15min earlier, then one of the players in the group ahed had the bright idea of going faster than the others did resulting in them now being an hour apart when they got to the location.

I tried slowing them down with a big spider enemy but they managed to get past it no problem and it instead slowed the second group down by a bit.

This made a whole lot of problems with interacting with npcs and stuff at a time difference, luckily the first group decided to sleep before they went to the main part and sio i could make them regroup but how can i make this not happen again?

Like it seemed that one player thought itd be a fun idea to be a little early and get there early and i dont want to take that away from them but this made everything so difficult for a moment

Soooo Me and a friend of mine are big fans of Legend of Avantris and want to play the Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign with some inspired additions and changes I am DMing. And we have a party of 4 Bard Fighter Rogue Ranger

The main inspiration is the "poem" intro that LoA has And I wanna input scripted magic items to coinside with it as "gifts from the Dreaming Queen" That also awaken when they reach the final area

The items are as followed:

-Spring -bag of tricks with monstrosities -Awakened-Cast Conjure Animals 1/day

-Summer -Obsidian Steed Shape of a motorcycle -Awakened can dimension door 3/day

-Winter Orb of Divination Can cast Identify, Detect magic for free And Scry or Augury 1/day -Awakened 1 portant die at the start of the day(or the wheel/woe from star druid)

-Seasons end 2 halves of the Cauldron of Resurrection

*Autumn Im having trouble thinkin up a good item for this one

Poem exert: He searched from autumn's harvest throne The prince then found a toy of bone Lettered blocks, stacked to the sky When turned to words, could only lie Deceit known to the hounds of hell Makes for a potent hex or spell Of souls, of sin of shadowfell

-any ideas? My initial thoughts were -A mimir with comprehend language, and the the other utility spells but it crossed over with the Divination orb

-a chattering skull that cast offensive spells Like bane, dissonant whispers, and eventually power word stun But i felt it overlapped with the bard in the party

I cant think up much of anything else so im diggin for ideas I want it to be powerful/useful and very impactful when paired with the poem