Using Spells as Plot Hooks in Dungeons and Dragons 5e
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- Опубліковано 13 лип 2024
- MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... We discuss several ways we might use the spells of D&D to inspire adventure design in our games.
TIME STAMPS
0:00 - Intro
1:02 - Spells which Instigate Adventures
4:25 - Spells which Resolve Adventures
8:37 - Spells which Cross the Threshold
10:53 - Spells as Exposition
12:37 - Spells as Worldbuilding
14:29 - Spells as Prisons
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I used a non-RAW twist on the Magic Jar spell when our Battlemaster PC used Sweeping Attack to destroy the caster's body and jar in one strike. In a last-ditch attempt, the wizard's soul grafted itself onto the fighter, becoming a wisecracking hallucination in the PC's mind. Mechanically, it added a free Magic Initiate feat for the wizard spell list. Ngl I envisioned it as a Batman Arkham Knight Joker deal, but he became almost a mentor/father figure to the PC.
Yo thats really cool, sounds like your table can be pretty fun
Nice.....WELL DONE
Johnny Silverhand?
Holden and Miller, for those of you who know The Expanse...
That's almost like some Voldemort piggybacking on the back of Quirrel's head level shit.
In the 2004 Bards Tale, the Bard gets the dream that calls him to action as "the chosen one". Not long after he discovers that he's not the only one who got the summons, and a number of underqualified "chosen ones" are being incarcerated for their own safety. Turns out the magically endowed "damsel in distress" was just spamming every gullible fellow in the area and hoping one of them would pay off
And of course all the chosen ones that die before his eyes.
Oooo, I might use this in a future game. Reminds me of how in ToA if the players don't ask her why she's sending such an inexperienced group on such an important mission, Syndra conveniently neglects to tell the party that they're the fourth or fifth group she's sent to stop the death curse and they've all disappeared and are assumed dead.
NICE.....lol
Simulacrum on the McGuffin, Clone on the BBEG and repeated casts of Magnificent Mansion. A recipe for an adventure that has every evening ending with:
"I'm sorry, Mario, but your princess is in another castle."
Early in my campaign I introduced a cursed elf in a pond that can’t leave. Was only for 1 session since we were missing half the group. 2 years later my party is going back to the pond to cure her.
That idea of Raise dead opening a portal to the underworld blew my mind. Spectacular video Dudes
Yep, definitely stealing that one.
"If its soul is *free and willing*, the target returns to life...." What if the soul doesn't want to come back..? Maybe the good guy you were after doesn't want to leave paradise, but the ancient bad guy....
That opens up the option they described. Your players need to journey through the afterlife, find the target, and convince them to come back. (Like Orpheus from Greek mythology.)
Oh, there was an episode of Night Gallery, or one of them, where the mother neglects her until he dies. The scenario you set up is exactly what happens next... great episode!
I just bought Drakkenheim a few days ago (it's amazing, I can't stop gushing about it), and I particularly liked how it handled this exact thing. Spells and consumables that purge or protect from contamination are both important and pricey, i.e., just what you need to encourage low-level characters to dive into the ruins; they reassure them that contamination isn't a death sentence, but venturing into a haze is an investment they might not recoup if they don't find treasure.
High-level "service spells" like Raise Dead are also sprinkled around, but tied to specific NPCs with their own agendas, so their availability turns into a plot hook. Later on, a spell can be discovered to reverse monstrous transformations, but not only does it need to be researched, it also opens up a political can of worms.
It's brilliant; you guys are brilliant; I'm on episode 9, no spoilers please.
I once used an illusion spell to keep an npc in an eternal state of werewolf-ism. Where the spell kept a moonlight around the house she lived in for eternity until the players got her out and saved her with some lycan bloodhunters (matthew mercer dlc) to train her to control her beastly form.
I recently had my players deal with a tribe of Sahuagin. They found out a hydroloth had cast Instant Summons on a holy relic of a Sahuagin and kept the sapphire on a necklace. The Sahuagin had to obey the hydroloth or she would take the relic from them. The players hunted down the hydroloth and stole the necklace, freeing the Sahuagin.
I like that these also work for character hooks/backstory options as well. In my current game our Rogue has a cursed magic necklace that basically has a dominate person/geas affect that a wizard tricked her into wearing. Always appreciate the effort you take to make your videos for players and dm’s
I like the idea of making a magic heavy world where basically the advancement of magic works similarly to the advancement of technology in our world. In order to explore some interesting and unique themes and questions.
Regarding Sending disrupting the adventure: if the party has the spell, you could instead have them deliver an item. Or the message might perhaps be encrypted or in a cypher.
Or the word limit is too low for the message? Isn't it 25 words? That might not even hold a shopping list, much less vital orders/information.
How many messages would a kingdom need to issue in a time of need? They have dozen's to hundreds of spell slots waiting around for messages? Won't those slots likely be needed for other things?
@@AdrianParsons Ah, good point!
Yes, a longer, more complicated message would indeed likely need someone to transport it.
Great ideas fellas. I always appreciate the new angles.
Take a look at time stamp 11:13. There’s a glitch where the text overlay gets cut off at the bottom.
Things like this happen -- we can't fix it without deleting and re-uploading the video though.
Here’s my elevator pitch for this topic:
For wizard PCs: A bandit of adventurers have found a magically sealed door deep in an ancient catacomb in the wilderness and look to recruit a spellcaster who can either read the magical runes on door or cast Knock spell. They provide the muscle and you’ll get the door open. The door can be opened by Knock or by Read Magic, and the runes deciphered are a Knock Spell.
For non-wizard PCs: The opposite. The wizard is recruiting a party to protect him and get him alive down to the door, offering a share of the plunder.
Perfect timing - I've been burning through all of the DMing and world building videos as I get set to start a new campaign.
I've had this idea recently: what if a campaign began with the party waking up from death? It's similar to the "Summon Spell" gimmick, but a little more grim. I'd probably have the plot involve some kind of necromancer who accidentally revived the party while raising an army of zombies, à la Zarok from MediEvil :)
ohhhh, you just gave me an idea for an Undead Players campaign.
@@kathrynck *Dark Souls intensifies*
@@Randomdudefromtheinternet haha, true.
I was thinking a little more WoW in undercity mixed with a touch of Corpse Bride, maybe a touch of the nightmare before xmas. But dark souls would be interesting source material too :)
I used a Summoning spell to start off my recent campaign: The sorceress summoned party members from wherever across the land to find and retrieve a powerful magic item (The Stone of Memory) for them, giving the party a group patron to start out and an initial reason for them to be together. It also had the added benefit of avoiding them meeting in a tavern.
In a similar vein, I recently watched "Spycraft" on Netflix. After an episode or two, I wondered "Wait, how would espionage and intelligence-gathering work in a world with magic?" Then I started making a list of spells and abilities in D&D that allow for magical spycraft. Brought about my first honest look at Nystul's Magic Aura along with dozens of other spells
As a DM that's interested in espionage in DnD, I would very much be interested in your list
That's brilliant.
Can't imagine what I would do with the knowledge of that as a DM... Besides of using all Spells to find enough Dirt that other players swept under the rug, to Blackmail them to become the DM.
I would love to play a DnD Spionage game.
Though the First place on my list is playing a Bard that is a Conman, who goes from town to town selling houses of people who still live there with the help of the Actor Feat and the Warlock Invocation Mask of Many Faces...
@@martinstephenortiz4628 I only got through cantrips and 1st and 2nd level spells, but be sure to consider some spells I didn't list. Like I think I didn't list firebolt but it can burn objects or EVIDENCE. Also I remember in the Dungeon Dudes vid about reflavoring, they talked about reflavoring spells, so make sure to sometimes divorce the labels and the mechanics.
Spells for spycraft:
Cantrips
- Encode Thoughts (Ravnica)
- Friends
- Mage Hand
- Message
- Mold Earth
- Prestidigitation
- Thaumaturgy
1st Level
- Alarm
- Charm Person
- Comprehend Languages
- Detect Good and Evil
- Detect Magic
- Detect Poison
- Disguise Self
- Expeditious Retreat
- Feather Fall
- Find Familiar
- Floating Disk
- Fog Cloud
- Grease
- Hunter's Mark
- Illusory Script
- Jump
- Sleep
- Speak with Animals
- Unseen Servant
2nd Level
- Alter Self
- Arcane Lock
- Beast Sense
- Darkness
- Detect Thoughts
- Enhance Ability
- Immovable Object
- Invisibility
- Levitate
- Locate Object
- Magic Mouth
- Nystul's Magic Aura
- See Invisibility
- Spider Climb
- Zone of Truth
@@jackwriter1908 That's actually awesome, like the "Catch Me if You Can" movie where Leonardo DiCaprio is a young conman running from the fbi. I feel like I rarely hear about D&D adventures where the party is a group of organized criminals, it's always high fantasy adventurers that just end up as criminals
@@thebrunsenbeast1989 that's why I want to play one. I always wanted to play one, because the concept fascinates me, of someone so confidence that they are able to get away with so many things. The best part about _Catch Me If You Can_ is, that it's based on real world events. And the person who Leonardo plays said himself he was only able to get away with so much, because he was young and thought no-one can stop him. And that just screamed Bard at me...
Also if you like Spionage Missions... I recently listened to the Podcast _Worlds Greatest Con_ the first Season is on UA-cam and man... I got so many ideas for DnD from the story.
A really solid spell that’s in line with using raise dead to learn hidden info from a dead creature is the spell Feeblemind. So long as the PCs are lower than level 9 or don’t have the ability to cast/easy access to Greater Restoration, it can be a great way to get the party set up protecting a normally great wizard turned feral idiot who should have a vital piece of hidden knowledge until they can cure them or set them up with enough buffs to succeed on their monthly saving throw. It’s an excellent book. Feeblemind’s effects (int score of 1) prevent various spells that read minds or memories is an important detail
No mention of Geas, the spell that literally forces a quest upon someone? I modeled my entire homebrew campaign on the party being trapped in a (modified and empowered version of) geas by the main villain.
Same, had the party sign a contract that placed them under a Geas, good stuff!! Now it's like "cool, thanks for signing up for this mission, here's hoping you don't wander astray!! :P"
“It’s not a bug, it’s a feature”. (Jk, love the idea)
I had a DM who did the same to our party. We chose to die refusing than become powerless pawns. End of campaign.
@@caiusofglantri5513 I mean, sure, unless it has a revenant's curse attached that raises them to continue the work anyway. >=)
Joking aside, I never had to invoke that particular aspect. Some of the details of how I implemented things meant that my players were more incentivized to work within the bounds of the geas to undermine the villain while finding a way out of it.
I'm particularly fond of using _modify memory_ to mislead players into believing that they had made prior agreements with NPCs even before the start of a campaign. It especially works well if you use it to give information that their characters shouldn't have, such as a noble's private schedule or secrets - that way they can come across as incredibly suspicious.
The last thing that Monty said it's absolutely true. I always try to stick to the spells that the players can access as well for world building.
It does not only create consistency, but it is also very fair. The players can see the logic behind it, and it grounds the dm as a narrator, rather than a deus ex machina.
I've made a skill challenge out of learning about tuning forks in a library. Combination of performance from the Bard to figure out the note, arcana from the wizard because duh, and Smith tools from the fight er who was a dwarf to figure out the needed metal
That's a good challenge :)
Phenomenal episode, fellahs!!! Gonna watch a few times and take some deep notes.
Such a great concept. You've implied this idea in many videos. Huzzah!
I love this kind of videos, thanks Dungeon Dudes!
Really appreciate your careful script and professional delivery
I always enjoy these kinds of videos, they really inspire creativity!
These are all great ideas for campaigns. Thank you for another great video!
I like this idea that I was just kinda spitballing in my head while watching this video of using Legend Lore in this Rashomon style, where you get three different versions of the same event that the PCs are investigating, and the players have to decide or discover which one is true.
Those are some fantastic idea in here, thank you very much for offering them, Dudes :D
I really do like these game-play suggestion videos. More please!
Absolutely stealing the idea that you must retrieve the soul of someone you wish to resurrect or raise from the dead. That's absolutely excellent!!!
You've given a lot to think about. Great video!
I have made a Domain of Dread where everything is either dead or undead, there is barely any farmable land, and most water sources are straight up poisonous. A small town there survives exactly because a druid uses Plant Growth on what farmable land there is, along with other spells like Goodberry, Create Food and Water etc. But even then, another important factor for their survival is that a good portion of them are reborn, and don't need food or drink.
The darklord is a dracolich that is also a lvl 20 wizard, but whose type is unknown, having Frankensteined his body from the bones of several different dragons, and all his draconic powers have turned necrotic in nature. He is a dragon of pure death.
One of the coolest spells I've ever found online was converted from 3.5, and basically when cast as a ritual allowed the caster to slowly erode the memories of a specific being within a certain radius around me. It became a plot hook during the end of a Shadowfell arc that the BBEG was basically trying to use the "as above so below" concept to weaken a god, by making their followers start to forget them.
Looking forward to implementing these in our game this week
Best dnd Channel ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Wow im just implementing the "unlock this homebrew spells" mechanic! Thanks this was very helpfull
fun and creative ideas! i like the quest for "remove curse" as a low-to-middle level plot hook, and then you can develop more along with whatever will happen
I'm playing a fathomless warlock and need to find that shirt, love it Kelly!!!!
Coincidentally I have designed big main quest plots in both my tables which will be resolved with the appropriate spells.
One is to send two npcs back to their original plane and the other is to consecrate the land tainted by an evil wizard. I just rummaged through the spell lists and found what fit the theme in the warlock (For the first case) and paladin and druid spell lists (for the second). It has a HUGE help to find out that there is an 8-hour version of plant growth just at level 5. The rest basically put itself together.
I had a DM who used the Awaken Spell for worldbuilding: there was a conflict between a large Kobold clan and a goblinoid horde, with the people of the land being caught in the middle. Everyone who had the ability to do so was coming to prevent either faction from taking over the city, and I mean everyone. a Gold Dragon arrived to help organize the defenses, and the local druid started mass-casting the Awaken spell, granting to animals of the region sentience. The animal in question included various species of dinosaurs (and other, similar creatures).
What this meant for the game was that 'Awakened Animal' was now a player race option. Unfortunately, not all the awakened animals stayed on the side of good. Notably, an awakened T-Rex (Class: Conquest Paladin) went and took control of the previously mentioned Goblinoid horde.
Great video and a lot of cool uses.
Excellent idea!
You don't mean to suggest that a MacGuffin could be... Interesting?? And have an effect on the characters and world???
Or just have the plot hook be a spell that causes mayhem and the players have to go figure out who cast it, like Animate Objects or Fireball. Even an Eldritch Blast can one-shot a commoner.
that’s just a murder but with magic. not really worth making a video about, at least not through the lens of magic
Or the best option, either the party has to help or be killed:)
Then after that still allow player choices of course, but sometimes that type of starting hook may be necessary.
Several of your Resolution ideas amount to Plot Point stories - collect the set to get the free ending! (I got that from someone, possibly Dave Langford?). Essentially a tedious trope in fantasy literature that you might get away with as a DM.
I ran a game years ago that involved exploring a network of teleportation gates, some of which were one-way. Again not my idea; borrowed from an early issue of Dungeon and expanded.
The violet ray of Prismatic Spray is a useful plot hook. If a party member, or important NPC is hit by it, the party will be asking "Where have they gone?", "Are they safe?", "Can we contact them?", "Can we get them back?". It can also work the other way if a character from another plane is hit and transported to the party's location. This can be used to introduce an NPC, who might want help getting home, or even a new PC. Do be careful of introducing an off-world PC though; although I would disagree some DMs feel that they are hard to roleplay because they have no hooks into the campaign world
One fun spell I want to use as an instigator is Geas. Have the initial questgiver perform an unknown ritual, binding them to a Geas. They might later realise the questgiver and their task have questionable morals, but the players can't act against the Geas without triggering it.
I think the Dream spell started in the supplement called Dreams if the Red Wizards of Thay for AD&D 1e.
Great video. In my game, the players had to cure one of their NPC friends after he contracted Lycanthropy. To do so, they had to find a priest, obtain the special book that he needed that contained the spell, and then perform a ritual at midnight on the night of the full moon. It turned out to be a really cool moment.
I really like Matt Mercer's resurrection rules. They become a game of chance with opportunity for RP to have mechanical benefit. I'd add in that quests may provide the favor of a god, and then when the players require a resurrection they can apply that favor to give a high probability of resurrection.
at around 14:00 you talked about people surviving thanks to a circle of druid magically growing crops
A few weeks ago, I ran a oneshot in a frozen tundra, and had something similar happen, tho a bit homebrewy. The village there could only survive thanks to a circle of druid casting modified version of Heat Metal on various "heatshrines" around it, but they have recently been doing that less often, and the players were asked to find out why
I had an idea for a war campaign where part of the terms of enlisting is that should you perish the armies mages will raise you as undead so that you can continue fighting. However, there is another clause that stipulates that should you distinguish your self in the event of your death the kingdom/empire/whatever will bring you back to life at no expense. This would also give me an excuse to consider the implications of D&D magic on warfare, logistics, construction and civilisation building. I'm particularly fond of the idea of medics using flesh to stone to extract the wounded on tensers floating discs.
I’ve always wanted to play a party that starts off with amnesia and has to figure out who they are. I saw it in a tumbler post and it sounded awesome
I have the city of Veritas and it's basically a city built on a giant circle of truth. It's lots of fun to have npc's tell half truths and double speak to constantly get passed it.
I always liked the idea of summoning the players. Old 2e had a spell called Monster Summoning, which included a table, on which 'adventuring party' was listed.
I saw that and the cogs began to turn....
A "classic" for initiating a quest is Geas...being magically compelled to complete a task. Obviously, talk it through with your players first, otherwise they might feel a loss of agency.
Collecting macguffins in order to cast a Wish spell is the entire plot of Dragonball as well as LoZ. Seems like that would make an excellent long term quest for a group of adventurers who need to change some part of reality through supernatural means.
I just started a new campaign for some players. Instead of using the meet in the tavern, in each session 0 they were kidnapped and thrown in prison where they woke up together. So they had to escape the prison as a group.
Now the good spell part was 1/2 were knocked out and taken but 1/2 had modify memory cast on them to think they were suppose to meet and travel with their kidnappers. Got a bunch of ohhh man's and crap that's slicks when did it.
A Dream of the Blue Veil is a great linchpin in a campaign
What I did use for initiated a story is a resurection spell. Where after a tragic event a group of person all die and for a mysterious reason they all ressurected, that group are the player. But without memories of there past and without even knowing about the resurection, because they wasn't any perso who was at there side after the awake
My players were not going where I had set up the adventure hook, and so I had them approached by a squirrel delivering a message via an animal messenger not meant for them, but because this second level spell's description says you just try to describe the intended receiver to the animal, the squirrel found the adventuring party accidentally because the description was similar enough.
So, I have played in several campaigns as the same character. And I devised a back story that explained why he appears in multiple "realities". Essentially he's an enslaved agent to an omnipotent being from the future, sending him back in time to these various points/times of interest to collect "power", that power being experience levels. Each time he's sent back, he's of a different age and is capable of different things (though he's always a Wizard/Sorcerer with Wild Magic). But when he returns from a job well done, his accumulated power is drained and he's sent on the next "mission". I've worked with a couple DMs to weave a little bit of his story into the actual campaigns we played, but it hasn't manifested into anything more than RP. But the lore I've given was that this character wasn't actually in these realities. They were a kind of higher-tier astral projection through both space AND time. Since the projection is through time, their "projection tether" also extends through time, and thus is basically invisible, making him appear to be a real person from that world. But if he dies, he's just sent back to his real body, pulling the "power" he gathered with him for his "god" to collect. For most campaigns, he hadn't yet realized he was a projection, but this most recent campaign he does know it and has developed a sort of "why bother" attitude when it comes to his own safety.
We had the idea that it would be fun the at a place every year the gravity would turn around for a short period. After that I find the spell 'reverse gravity' which describes exactly what I just made up
Listening to the summon spell mishap idea and all I could think of was Rising of the Shield Hero 😂
I've used the spell clone to create clones of my players to foreshadow that the bbeg has clones of himself. It also was a fun side quest.
Not a campaign one but a character one and a feat rather than a spell, but the same concept.
I re-flavoured the aberrant dragon mark for a human fighter as a cursed arm that was turning to stone. He had found an ancient relic that gave him the strength of a Dao but in return he suffered constant pain and his flesh was slowly petrifying. I gave him the mold earth cantrip and earth tremor spell from the aberrant dragon mark feat with the idea that he was using his cursed arm to do it. For example earth tremor was him punching the ground.
At later level he gained the tavern brawler feat making his cursed arm throw more powerful punches and showing him learn to use his curse to his advantage.
Lots of scope for developing it further but I love using feats and spells to flavour who and what a character is.
I love that shirt Kelly :)
Also, I just realized that the D&D cartoon was the first isekai anime...
I also like how spells can influence combat encounters.
Perhaps you're trapped in a dead-end cave with an NPC wizard and being hunted by monsters, and you have to find some ingredient so he can cast Teleportation Circle to get you all to safety. He needs a long rest to grind up the materials he needs to make the inks and powdered gems necessary to cast the spell, and tells you guys to guard him while he prepares. The next morning, he's finally ready, and begins casting the spell... and the enemies attack! An endless wave of monsters comes at them, overwhelming odds, but you have a chokepoint at the cavern entrance, and you had a day to prepare. You have to guard him for a minute while he casts the spell, and jump through it the round he finishes. Ten intense rounds of stalling after you prepared a gauntlet for the enemies to face.
This gives the players time to prepare spells and traps specifically for a defensive encounter, something that players almost never get to do. This gives you an objective aside from "kill all" for a combat scenario, as that would be impossible, and your main goal is escape. Now, Magic Circle, Wall of Fire, Glyph of Warding, Snare, Cordon of Arrows, hunting traps, caltrops, ball bearings, Alarm, rigging explosives, Hypnotic Pattern, Slow, Hunger of Hadar, Faithful Hound, Guardian of Faith, various illusion spells, clever use of crafting skills or disguise kits to make decoys, etc. all become incredibly useful. You give the players a chance to use spells, skills, tools, and problem solving that rarely get used in many campaigns, all because you built an encounter around Teleportation Circle.
We need a video for best 3rd party wildshapes. Especially from tome of beasts 1 and 2
Just bought the Drakkenheim campaign and wanted to maybe use a spell for a plot hook so great timing
9:45 Kelly just casually explains the the plot of Rise of the Shield Hero 😂
I feel like the Plane shift or Teleport/Teleportation Circle spells is great for plot devices! Just send the players of to get the tuning fork or glyphs for the Circles, as a quest! I would encourage people to use the Find steed/ greater steed to create a plot around!
I can't believe Continual Flame wasn't mentioned
If you ever happen to roll a 3, that's a great chance to play a character with their intellect stollen or something, and there's a built-in quest to get awaken to be cast on yourself.
I had my bbeg use dark star to threaten a town, using a LOT of onyx and a LOT of blood to make it extra big!
The Shield Hero disapproves of the ideas in this video.
If only Naofumi knew someone who could cast Zone of Truth
I'm playing an evil tiefling who's mother is a succubus. I'm using dream to manipulate the town around me. Great spell 10\10
What I do is have a spell list of availability to prevent most casters from learning spells that could derail certain scripted situations. The only class that circumvents this is the Sorcerer. But I send them into a mindscape of their Soul where they must complete a challenge to learn a new spell. The same goes for clerics, pallies, druids, and bards. Doing this makes the players more immersed in their class. Like did the Claric send their prayers on behalf of the corpses that the party just killed? Did the pally do right by the rights that allow them to fight? Did the bard pay attention to whispers of magical secrets from observation and intimate interactions with magic users? Did the druid hump a tree good. (I dunno! I couldn't come up with anything) Did the Dragon Soul Sorcerer commune with their ancient dragon soul across the realm of the wheel of time. By doing this you make an easy level 3 to 6 short campaign feel longer.
in my last campaign, the players discovered that they needed to speak to a dead saint in order to the location of a sacred weapon, and so decided to find the relic of his head to talk to. the problem then became that they could only cast speak with dead once, and four different churches claimed to have the saint`s skull, prompting a multi-session detective arc to find out which, if any, claim was accurate.
Ik this isn't the right video for this but I hope you guys see it. I think a cool idea for a monk subclass or variant option that would let them stun on ranged attacks is that they have to use the ki point before the roll, as the ki must leave their body when the weapon leaves their grip. I think this would be a good limitation, but if it's still too strong you could also make it PB or 1/2 PB times per short rest (since monks rely on short rests more)
I have a dystopian idea of a group of druids that keep casting "Druid Grove" to the tune of "half a league half a league half a league onward." But a demon trapped in a circle for a year? I'm all about that lol
while it was not for a campaign for a character i used Geas on him instead of a warlock pact
one of the Geas's placed on him was he could not retreat when faced with undead, a little interesting when playing the lost mines of phandelver where there is a ghost that gives you a quest item
if my character had not been warned before he would have upon seeing her attacked unprovoked and he would promptly die
it was though pretty amazing when he walked up to the old tower, got surrounded by skeletons and zombies and had someone run around provoking oppertunity attacks triggering Tunnel Fighter Sentinel allowing unlimited free reactions against opportunity attacks against enemies attacking other people, it was so STUPIDLY spicy
although from now on i now try to homebrew Tunnel Fighter to only work in a cone as it just makes more sense
An interesting twist on the Raise Dead plot hook would be to remove resurrection spells entirely and require an Orphean journey to the underworld to bring back the soul of a dead person
Or keep D&D rules as they are, but the dead character, for some reason, refuses to be raised (a decision they have - you can only raise a willing target). The party must travel to the underworld to convince a happily peaceful character to return to the struggle.
I've played with adding an up cast effect for Remove and bestow Curse. The Curses effects are stronger the higher you cast it and become more difficult to remove the higher level it's cast at. As well each curse is personal it's not enough to just cast the spell you have to prepare it much like a ritual.
It also calls for a roll your spell attack vs the DC of the caster. The more steps the player takes to fight the curse the lower I make the DC. As well the more the caster of the curse does to make the curse personal the higher the DC
I feel this makes the simple act of just casting remove curse builds into an quest of it's own.
My warforged wizard, while diving into a cave for archeology's reasons, got victim of a Dream of the Blue Veil spell and got shunt from Eberron into the Forgotten Realms. That's how his Descent into Avernus' story began.
Hi guys, love your videos!! This probably isn't the best place to ask this question considering it has little relevance to this video but I didn't really know where else to ask you. I was considering building a blade singer Hexblade multi class (17 levels blade singer 3 levels Hexblade). I really like the flavour of the Hexblade but I wanted a character that could do more on a turn (hence the extra attack given by the blade singer) and I like the amount of flexibility blade singer gives with it being a wizard. And I also have this image that I want a character that can cast darkness and enter into it and just obliterate anything in it (think batman but with magic). I thought having blade singer would be the stronger class overall but taking 3 levels of Hexblade would allow me to take the blade pact boon as well as devil's sight and improved pact weapon (which lets me get around war caster to be able to take another feat... I'm thinking mobile will go well with the blade singers extra attack).
Any thoughts on this? Are there any caveat's I'm missing or anything I'm overlooking that would restrict this? I understand I'd have to be more careful with health and constitution but otherwise I love this dark kind of 'arcane batman wizard fighter' vibe that this gives :)
Thanks guys
I'm playing curse of Strahd and my character is an ex bully noble which was on her way to becoming fully evil when she got cursed with a geas that hurts every time she does something that oppress an innocent, and that forced her to learn to become a better person.
Now, my DM is great, he's awesome, but we're close to the end and I feel that he lost the chance to give me a subquest to dispel the curse so she could understand if she really became better or if she was still a bad person on a leash.
You could even have raise dead open basically a madoka magics witch labyrinth type deal based on the person you’re raising
I... Did recognize Kelly at first. Thought he got replaced for a moment!
"INCOMING MESSAGE FROM THE BIG, GIANT HEAD!"
I removed all resurrection spells apart from revivify from my setting, because I want death to have a meaning. In order to resurrect someone whose soul has left the material world (After the time limit of the revivify spell has passed), you will have to get the soul back into the material plane first before attempting to resurrect the dead person. If some powerful being has captured the soul, they would have to strike a deal with it, but if the soul has already been reincarnated, they would have to contact a god to recreate a "copy" of the original soul.
Now, gods have a lot on their plate, and it takes a lot out of even them to do that, so they would either have to be convinced that the person can further their agenda by living, or have the party do some srt of quest not only for necessary components, but also to make the resurrection worth the deity's while.
I think that is a good way to make death more permanent and meaningful without making it impossible to resurrect a dead partymember.
Simulacrum, with some of the higher level spell slots already expended, to give the PCs a hint of the power they will eventually come across.
I think True Polymorph's creature to object option has some potential with the target not having any awareness of time spent as an object.
Did no one else notice that Monty said: “there’s a lot to discuss today so let’s get rolling” instead of Kelly???
I minute in and I already have a list:
Hallow, druids Grove, magnificent mansion...
could do a whole adventure in a dream, bend rules of spell to allow dmg and death, pull whole party in, all sorts of things you could do b/c any world changing or upgrades they get will be wiped after dream so buff with more xp, good items. tldr so much potential to have 'dream boss' toying with them. Might be annoying to get no xp at end of dream tho so maybe reward in some way to compensate
The Wizard's summoning spell conjured the adventurers.... I have flashes of Terry Pratchett, and Rincewind being summoned.
Oh neat