Some characters enjoy using their downtime to craft mundane items. Repairing your armor, making some new arrows, concoct a potion of healing or whipping up a tanglefoot bag.
D&D is notorious for making the crafting rules complex or unusable for adventurers. I am talking about crafting mundane items, not magical ones. Let’s take a look at the rules for D&D 3.5 and 5th edition, and my suggestions for changing them.
I’ve always liked archer characters. With the right build you can rain devastating attacks down on your enemies from relative safety. And after I saw Legolas slide down stairs on a shield and kick ass with his bow in Lord of the Rings, I knew my next character would pick up a bow again!
But with archers also comes a problem: there’s not a lot of diversity in combat. You shoot a couple of times each round, wait for the others to cast from their amazing array of spells or cleave their way through the battlefield, you shoot a couple of times, etc. Although you can describe your actions in the most epic way, you still have only a few real options.
I have some ideas for you. Continue reading 8 custom arrows to spice up your archer
Rogues are the ideal class for players who like to walk the line between good and evil. However, introducing your character by stealing from your teammates is far from a good start.
I’d be hard pressed to deny that the rogue class is not biased towards stealthy violence, assassination and thievery. And if you like it that way, there’s no need to change it. Still, in many game systems it is very possible to take a different approach. I’ll also give you some suggestions on how to alter sneak attack, since that ability is on the back seat with these characters.
If you want to play this cool and versatile class without getting in trouble with the law every time you sneeze, keep reading! Continue reading 3 rogues that are not backstabbing bastards
About a year or so ago, I felt our group needed some extra incentive to use our imagination in combat. As a DM I had a hard time coming up with cool ways to describe my monsters’ and player characters’ actions, and often the players were just reciting attack roll results and damage rolls.
Asking the players to describe their attack helped a bit, but in my opinion we could improve more. That’s when I decided to start rewarding the players for coming up with cool heroic moves. Continue reading Kick-ass role play with Hero Chips
Friday evening.
Five eager players sit at your dinner table while you set the scene for a series of adventures you have prepared for them. They come with expectations: enthralling stories, epic battles, terrifying monsters and beautiful damsels in distress for them to rescue.
And XP. Lots of XP.
I’ve found that there are a couple of ways to deal with XP. While most of them involve adding up numbers, there are a few more elegant solutions. Let’s explore and find out why I’ve done away with XP! Continue reading Level up! 5 ways to deal with XP