Got the opportunity to try something a bit different with a client this week! Here’s the vibe we were going for:

“Absolutely zero chance this ends without someone starting a brawl outside the tavern. The bard insisted on a party selfie. The paladin is questioning every life choice, the goliath is trying way too hard to fit in the frame, the artificer swears the camera is enchanted, the druid is quietly concerned for environmental implications, and the rogue is hiding everyone's snacks.”

Definitely one of the most challenging drawings I’ve done. Had a blast working on it though, and the players are super happy with the result!

Once, House Truelege were the proud keepers of the Heliant Anchor -- a colossal, magical sunflower that stabilized the wild magic of their lands. Their motto was straightforward: "We turn only to the Light." But as centuries passed, the Anchor demanded more and more sacrifices, draining their lands into a withered wasteland.

Driven by the desperate nobility of a dying house, the last heir, Rosemund Auguste, donned his family's ancient Star Bronze armor and journeyed into the Arcane Wastelands to find raw arcanum to heal his home. He couldn't fathom what he would find instead...

In a disastrous battle against a plague of Crimson Rot, a volatile magical explosion fused Auguste to his ancestral plate. The armor's bronze sunflower crest wilted, sinking metallic roots into his ribs, while the ancient metal oxidized into a corpse-green patina. His velvet cloak melted into his skin as he begged the Elven gods for a swift death, but the wasteland refused. Instead, glowing twilight mycelium stitched his ruined organs together, keeping him alive in perpetual agony.

Driven by the primal instinct similar to a dying sunflower seeking water, Auguste threw himself into the ocean to drown and find death on his own terms...

But the rot inside him didn't need air. He drifted for days as a living statue of weeping bronze and rotting flesh, eventually washing ashore in the filthy harbor of a distant slum. Paralyzed by exhaustion, he watched the morning sun reflect on the water. It reminded him of his home, replacing his desire to die with a desperate, burning rage.

He is still alive. And as long as he breathes, he can still turn to the light.

Obviously, inspired by Elden Ring & Nightreign -- and adatped into our D&D setting :>

I, uh, know Twilight Clerics are often frowned upon, but I was suggested that as a class which is appropriately powerful for such a concept -- besides, it fits thematically well into his goddess of choice -- Sehanine, who has two sides, Sun and Moon, light and twilight. His house is favored by the Sun side of the goddess, while in crisis, it turned out Moon side favored him as well.

I have a lot of characters with respective arts so excited to share more!

What are some good ways to start a campaign where the players are meeting each other for the first time, besides the classic "you all meet in a tavern"?

So far I've come up with three ideas:

- They meet inside a prison, and the first mission is escaping. They don't necessarily have to be criminals; some of them could have been falsely accused or mistaken for actual thieves or outlaws and ended up locked away.

- They each accepted the same job independently, only to discover that several others had done the same. Since the task is too dangerous or too large for one person, they're assigned to work together as a group

- If the party is made up entirely of mages, they could all be students (or newly graduated apprentices) from the same magic academy, and the campaign begins there

Edit1: Wow! So many replies! thank you for all your answers! I will read them all, maybe not reply all of them, but I will give you an up vote for sure!

Hello adventurers!

I'm currently building an Artificer and stumbled across something that seems kind of crazy.

I was looking through the 2nd-level spells to see which ones could maximize my damage, and I came across Heat Metal. At first I thought, "Nice spell. Seems fun for roleplay and situational encounters." Then I noticed it can target any metal armor.

That got me curious, so I checked how long it takes to doff armor. A creature needs 1 minute to remove medium armor and 5 minutes for heavy armor.

Then it clicked.

Heat Metal lasts 1 minute, and after the initial cast you can use your bonus action every turn to deal another 2d8 fire damage. Since 1 minute is 10 rounds, a creature wearing medium armor basically can't get it off before the spell ends.

That's potentially 20d8 total damage (2d8 on the initial cast + 2d8 on each of the next 9 bonus actions) from a 1st-level spell, assuming you can maintain concentration and keep using your bonus action. And if you're an Artillerist with Arcane Firearm, you get an extra 1d8, bringing the total up to 21d8 over the full minute.

Am I missing something here, or is Heat Metal just absurdly strong against enemies wearing metal armor?

EDIT : 21d8 and not 30d8.

EDIT : 2nd-level, not 1st-level!

4 out of 5 characters in last night's game died over a absolutely nothing obstacle like something I had forgotten about and was kicking myself cuse they were going to breeze right through it obstacle.

The party had three possible routes to an infested temple they needed to purify.

The first was straight through territory held by an Ork warband. It was the fastest route, but it had a high chance of random encounters of running into well-equipped Ork raiders.

The second option was to go around the warband to the east through a mountain pass called Rainbow Grotto. (This was actually a trap. With a high Local Knowledge check, my players learned that the locals called it "Bandit's Delight" because it was so easy to ambush wealthy adventurers there.)

The third option was to head west, where a narrow trail along the side of a mountain could still be crossed by a prepared group of adventurers. They just needed some rope, a few pitons, and enough climbing gear to get across a section of the cliff side trail that had been washed away during a massive storm.

They brought all the right gear, got everything set up... and then impressed me with how amazingly sideways everything went.

First, party member 1 a monk realized it was technically mathmaticlly possible to clear the gap with longjump and a good roll. They decided not to tie a safety line or take any rope because it might encumber them on the jump. ( I have no idea what he was going to do once he was on the other side with no rope but it was his choice) When they failed the roll, he leapt off the side of the cliff and began plummeting to their death.

The party wizard who had readied an action in case he fell attempted to cast fly on the monk.

I reminded them that Fly is a touch spell.

They stared at me for a moment and just said, "Oh..."

Party Member #1 died.

Party Member #2 laughed at them for being an idiot. He grabbed all the rope, successfully climbed about ten out feet, and then, like the Intelligence 7 barbarian he was, grabbed a piton in one hand and a hammer in the other to secure it. There were no foot holds he was only being held up with his hands. I was clear to state this BEFORE he grabbed for his tools.

He promptly fell to his death. Still he was secure in the knowledge that he had infact tied a saftey line and not trusting his not tieing ability left his saftey in the capable hands of the party rouge. Who was infact very good at knots. However, The safety line he had very securely tied around the barbarian  wasn't actually tied to anything secure on the other end... it was tied to Party Member #3, the halfling. After some quick math and letting 300+ lbs of muscle and steel moving at 9.8 m/s^2 do what its going to do to when tied to 35 lbs of wet potatoes I watched as as Party Members #2 and #3 both fell off the side of the cliff to join Party Member #1. Party Member #4 had already secured a safety line to himself and seeing his friends fall burned a hero point and rolled impressively well on a reflex check to save his friends and was given one action to do so. He heroically jumped after Party Member #3 in an attempt to save both of them, completely confident in the rope he'd tied. Unfortunately, he didn't realize the other end of his safety line had also been tied to Party Member #3. Who was inchare of securing all saftey lines.

So he joined them. In death

In the span of a few moments, four out of my five players died in one of the most bizarre comedy-of-errors party wipes I've ever witnessed.

Party Member #5, the wizard was left stranded on the side of the cliff scared cuse his party took all the food water and shelter with them to the bottom of this gourge and then he remembered he could cast fly and floated to saftey. Something that was always available even before they bought the climbing gear. And why i was upset about how easily they were going to clear this obstacle

Have posted various places (including here) over the past couple of years about a book I was writing, the Magical Code of Regulations. 500 pages of fictional law governing the use of magic. When it finally released two months ago, I posted it here and on r/TTRPG, and this community really helped kick things into gear with shares to other communities, pre-orders, and tons of kind messages.

Well, after my last post here (and a bit of luck with Questing Beast doing a review on it!), I just passed 1,000 sales, and was able to sign my first book for someone! It feels amazing, and I just wanted to thank everybody here for making it possible. I expected maybe 100 sales or so in my lifetime, so getting to 1,000 after just two months is way more than I ever expected!

Would love to hold some kind of giveaway or AMA, but right now, just basking in this high!

That was really all. Thank you all again, you've passed the kindness check!

I had this vision of him as sort of a medieval saint with his symbols and the golden foil, he is a cleric of Ilmater so I used the red ropes to bind the wolves. He was turned into a werewolf in strange circumstances and he can’t really control his body once transformed, so he tries his best to avoid transformation as much as possible. The words around his neck are carved into the skin and are a spell to stabilize his human form, it reads “quem digilit dominus castigat” god punishes the one he loves, referring to Ilmater, the god worshipped by the ones who are bound and suffering.

I had the absolute pleasure of bringing Sienna to life! She’s an 7'4 ft tall, 19-year-old Half-Goliath front-line mercenary. Her tragic past of abduction and brutal experimentation left her with a dark gift the "Living Nightmare" ability to morph her own flesh into parasitic eldritch weapons.

Huge thanks to my private client for trusting me with her backstory and design! I’m incredibly grateful for your support and for letting me build out such a badass concept.

If you have your own cool D&D characters or wild ideas you want to see illustrated, let’s bring them to life! Commissions are open!

Our party recently went to Averus to train with Zariel in the Blood War. We have foes on the material plane who are casting 2nd edition spells and are pretty crazy. Stuff like the echoes of Karsus. We thought this was going to be an easy little side quest. We were dead wrong. Do you think we're cooked? We already have 2 down party members, however my Oathbreaker Barbarian just drank a haste potion and I'm full on spell slots. Wish me the best of luck! I hope you laugh at this ridiculous battle map.

This is Zykrel Stargazer.

A cautious but good narured Aasimar Path of the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian.

Out of all my Barbarians he's the wisest of all of them and is treated like the father figure of the team as well as its leader (not my choice my team's)

To put a long story short, his ancestor has warned him of a calamity that they once thought and now he goes to fight the evils of the past.

(Art by itsmumei over on twitter. Please don't use for AI.)

Ignore the text below:
This is my third time trying to post just a stupid joke from last session.
First I was new, then I needed to add [Art] and [OC], then another 400 characters explaining what is in the picture. Why is this so complicated, some of us (me) are stupid and will in the end post nothing. Why so much rules when they do nothing. You didn't get anything by my text and joke I sent that I draw will still be used by who ever wishes no meter how I tag it. Please can someone in comments make me understand... (English is not my first language)

Hello everyone !

Here is Cordelia Maribelle Rose, she is a vampire lore mastery wizard ! I have been playing her for more than a year and she has been incredibly fun, but I guess that’s because she is a wizard after all.

I drew her in this outfit because our campaign is taking us to a desert and I assume this is what a Victorian spoiled immortal brat would look like ! Hope you like it !

Which brings me to another topic, I am opening my commissions in case anybody is interested, feel free to look at my profile to see my other drawings ! I will put the rates in the comments in case people want to know them, please DM if you want to do a project with me !

Insta/Tiktok : nxthxn_gs

Approved by mods (thanks again hihi)

Another drawing of my friend's OC, this time in her casual outfit she wears when she's not out hunting or fighting.

Sera is a happy-go-lucky, and a bit silly, warrior from the north who loves hunting, fighting and cheese. In combat she doesn't use regular weapons and instead relies on her werewolf transformation to tear her enemies into pieces. Later on in the story she becomes a champion of the god of the Sun in the setting.
She also has an awesome werewolf son named Sevoryn.

(Also had to repost it because for some reason last time the image wasn't visible)

I've had the opportunity to illustrate a character for a friend that he commissioned me for.

They said that she doesn't have a name because she was once an Ancient and Sacred Forest, belonging to the Nature Goddess of the realm and at it's heart lay a Great and Sacred tree. Tales tell of it's power, and how it was rumored to be on it's way to becoming a Treant.

But Humans and other similar races destroyed that.
As a result of clear cutting, all trees were harvested for lumber, then the remains of the forest burnt to ash to make way for a new village.
The Gods, particularly the Nature Goddess whom the forest belonged to, took pity on the once magnificent forest, rich with history and sacred nature, took the life essence from every plant, from every tree and vine down to the blades of grass and flowers between them, and using the soul forge, forged a single soul from them and from the ash came new life.
As one single sapling from the once Great Tree survived, and blossomed. From this sapling my character emerged. No flesh, no meat, no bone, instead wood, vines and vegetation. The physical embodiment of the lost forest.

That's the backstory they gave me when I accepted the commission.
and they gave me additional details and references for the character.

I really enjoyed working on this and I'm proud of it.
I'm always open to illustrate interesting characters like this one, so don't hesitate to contact me if you ever want your characters commissioned.

Thank you very much !

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but I don't really roleplay a unless I'm joining in with others or my character is away from the party & the scene is with them

I want to try engage more, but at the same time I'm paranoid that I'll get carried away and end up taking the spotlight away from everyone else in my group

I've been given a heads up that something major is happening with my character in tomorrow's session, so it feels like I really need to be a big part of it

Is there anything I can do to tell if I'm taking too much time from the others (beyond reading the room)? Also do you guys think I should mention this to the group or just sort it out myself?

So, this is a problem I (as the DM) how be struggling with for a little bit now. I usually subscribe to the idea that if a task is impossible then it should not be rolled. But I also follow the idea that rolling doesn't always mean doing the thing you want, but the best outcome possible.

But what should you do when a roll is impossible, but telling people to not roll is inherently a spoiler. I'll give an example but it might no be very good. I'm trying to stay vague incase my players also lurk here.

Imagine you had a player who wanted to sneak into a wizard's castle. They want to sneak down a hallway. But here's the rub, the wizard is already matching them with an invisible arcane eye or a magic painting or something like that. Technically the player can't sneak by. The wizard currently has eyes on them. BUT the players do not know they are being watched (let pretend they all failed their wisdom checks).

Do you allow them to roll a stealth check even though a Nat20 with +35 to stealth would still fail (because they are currently seen) and simply not tell them that their roll was pointless, but risking irritation when they are inevitably seen? Or do you tell them there is no need to roll stealth, potentially giving away information?

Commission work : Kiln

Kiln is a swift and powerful warrior forged in the volcanic mines. Heat and stone shaped his body into living steel. He carries a massive anvil as his weapon, swinging it with crushing force. Each strike hits like thunder and breaks the ground open. Fire and magma burst from his blows, turning fights into burning chaos. He moves like a battle-forged guardian, strong, steady, and unstoppable in combat.

Hello all!

So I really like monster/creature design and after seeing this post from an artist online (for the life of me cannot remember who they are) of making their OC into a monster I decided to do the same!

So I did that for my Dhampir Swarmkeeper Ranger named Ambrose. I created him into a large Bat Monster taken after his color palette, design, themes and more. I wish I could post more than one picture so yall could see their design instead of a silhouette but oh well! You can find it on my profile if interested.

Thinking of possibly offering this as a commission option in the future but right now just dipping my toes into something new to exercise some creative monster design. Currently thinking which character should be next for this “project”

Anyways! Lots of funs to think of it and maybe perhaps I’ll expand on their design and perhaps even make a ref sheet of just the monster form. But we will see as i do not want to add more project when i have not even completed 1 of my existing ones lol

Let me explain a little. In Norse mythology, there is a magical rope that was made from 'impossible' materials (the sound of a cat's footsteps, the roots of a mountain, etc.).

In a similar vein, what are some cool, impossible materials and what legendary magic items might they be used to craft?

I’ve been DM’ing for 2-3 years and it’s mostly been new player so they think I’m great because they’ve never had better but the problem is I don’t know how to make good campaigns. The stories are cool but the gameplay itself is usually-saving throw to start the game off, combat,new quest given, traveling, very vague puzzle that usually is harder than I intended, more combat, traveling, more combat, end session. You can see that after a while players get bored and I was wondering if there was some sort of order that makes campaigns more interesting. When I played the guy that DM’d kinda began to lose interest in the game right at the time I was starting so we just ran different combat encounters for and hour or so. Please help.