Category: DM Resources

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DM Resources Editorial

Keep PCs Grounded – A Look at Flying in D&D

The Pixies are invading D&D! With the release of Heroes of the Feywild it seems like everyone wants to play a Pixie. I don’t think that everyone finds the concept of being a Pixie all that appealing, rather I think a lot of players believe that being able to fly gives them a huge advantage over all other PCs races. And you know what, they could be right. However, after seeing a bunch of Pixies in action during numerous gaming sessions I feel the need to review some of the rules about flying. After all, until now flying was limited to monsters (with very few exceptions). This meant that players didn’t need to worry about how flying worked. But now that everyone and his mother are playing flying PCs it’s time to review the rules and clear up a few of the misconceptions abut flying in D&D.

I began by looking in the glossary at the back of my Monster Manuals. Upon reading the flying rules I realized that there are a few very important details that we’d overlooked. A quick double-check of the DMG confirmed it. At least I thought it confirmed it – until I looked up flying in the Rules Compendium. That’s when things really got confusing.

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DM Resources

How Observation Changes Characters’ Behaviour

How often has your character done something during the heat of combat that he would never do under normal circumstances? Usually these uncharacteristic actions revolve around killing the enemy. It could be something marginally questionable like attacking an unarmed opponent or it could be a lot more extreme like killing an opponent that has already surrendered.

We don’t often worry too much about the consequences of these actions because the only witnesses are the other members of your party, and let’s face it they’re probably just as guilty of the questionable behaviour as you are. But lately I’ve wondered if players would make different decisions for their characters if they knew that the PCs were being watched. Would PCs still act with impunity if there was a good chance of their actions being seen by others?

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

10 Adventure Hooks Found in the Library

If your character is only good at killing monsters you likely dread when the adventure leads the PCs to a library so they can perform research. That’s something best left for the smart PCs. After all, what can you possibly contribute to this situation except mayhem and grief? A creative DM can find plenty of ways to get the whole party excited the next time they find themselves dealing with books instead of monsters, and today we’ve got 10 adventure hooks to make the job even easier.

I’m actually surprised how often my own adventuring party has found themselves wading through books looking for some lost kernel of wisdom. Many DMs prefer to rely on an interesting social interaction with a wise sage or local expect to convey the information the PCs need, but leaving the heroes alone with a whole lot of books can be more fun than you might think.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Time Travel in D&D

If you’re looking for a way to pump some new life into a long-running or stagnant campaign why not make a radical change like thrusting the PCs into the past. I can already hear some of you scoffing at the idea, but in a world with magic is time travel really that unlikely?

Players get bored when they’re not challenged. Sure you can throw more powerful monsters at them but even that gets repetitive. What I’ve found is that anything that takes them out of their comfort zone is good for the game. Players don’t realize how much the success of their characters relies on the familiar. High level PCs usually have a reputation and their deeds are well-known by the community. Taking all of that away from them can have a greater effect that you might think.

Although I’ve played multiple characters in multiple campaigns over the years every camping took place in more or less the same time period. In established worlds like Forgotten Realms or Eberron, keeping the action in line with cannon allowed us to interact with well-known NPCs and work elements from new releases into our games. Even though I played in numerous campaigns set in the Realms during my high school years they all happened simultaneously.

Now fast forward your campaign setting 50 years. Assuming there wasn’t a cataclysmic disaster (like the Spell Plague) and things progressed without any significant interference, what changes do you think happened to the world and the people in it during that time. Just think of how much things have change in the last 50 years in real life and imagine the kinds of change that will come in the next 50.

So in a world with magic what do you think their future will look like? How technologically or magically advanced to you think your campaign world will become in the next 50 years? A more important question is how much has your campaign world advanced over the last 50 years? While contemplating that brain teaser think about how your PCs would react if they found themselves thrust back into that time.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

8 Adventure Hooks for Campaigns on the High Seas

Adventures that take place on the high seas (or at least on a ship) and feature pirates seem to be very popular these days. When we posted the preview of Lair Assault: Talon of Umberlee last week it generated a lot of excitement – in large part because of its pirate theme. There’s just something about an adventure that takes place on a pirate ship that appeals to so many D&D players. I know that when I first saw the Pirates of the Caribbean movies I immediately started thinking about how to shift my existing D&D camping onto the high seas. The question was how to make that transition?

If you find yourself in a similar situation and you’re looking for a way to get your heroes involved in an adventure at sea than we’ve got just what you need. Below are 8 adventure hooks for campaigns on the high seas. These adventure hooks are easy to work into any game whether you’re already immersed in a campaign on the high seas or you’re looking for a jumping off point. Use them as presented or tweak them as necessary to better suit your needs.

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DM Resources Player Resources

You Make the Call – Questions About Rules (Part 1)

Every now and then a situation arises during game play that we’re not sure how to adjudicate. This kind of thing happens much less frequently now that we’re familiar with the 4e rules, but it does still happen. In our experience it’s better for the DM to make a quick ruling and keep the game moving foreword, and most time this is how we handle these unusual situations at my game table. However, we pride ourselves on knowing the rules inside out so when we have something unexpected come up and we don’t know the answer we see it as a challenge and after the game’s over we start digging.

When trying to find the right answer we of course begin by searching in the PHB, DMG, Rules Compendium or online compendium. If we can find a definitive ruling we go to the internet and the various forums. But this doesn’t always provide us with a satisfactory answer either. So we’ve decided to try a new series where we present the situation, explain our ruling and ask for your feedback. This might end up being a very informative series that clears up a lot of confusion for players and DMs alike or it may become a series where we get flamed by the online community for not knowing something obvious. We’re hoping that the good outweighs the bad so we’ve moving forward with it.

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Adventure Hooks DM Resources

Adventure Hook: The Magical Bazaar

I’ve always found the idea of purchasing magical items boring. As a player I’d rather my character risk life and limb to battle monsters and delve into dangerous catacombs in hope of finding a special magical item. However, the reality is that I usually only find one or maybe two items this way. In order to fill out the rest of my PC’s inventory I usually end up purchasing the majority of his gear. This is the way D&D works.

As PCs advance and level up they’re eventually going to accumulate vast wealth. It’s an unavoidable reality. With this abundance of gold pieces comes the inevitable request to purchase magical items. PCs many not be able to purchase magic items in the middle of a dungeon crawl, but as soon as they hit a larger metropolis there’s few excuses for why they can’t convert their hard gotten gains into something more functional and portable.

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DM Resources

Bonus Action Points for the Party

Action points are designed to give every PC a chance to be truly heroic and do something extra when it’s needed most. The very name “action point” brings to mind the potential for something truly remarkable. Unfortunately this has not been the case in my experience.

I’ve found that at my gaming table actions points are generally used in one of the three following ways:

  1. Make another attack after missing with the first one (essentially a re-roll).
  2. Use your second wind.
  3. Take a move action after standing from prone.

Don’t get me wrong, these are all perfectly acceptable actions all well within the rules as written, but honesty, these are all pretty boring ways to spend (waste) and action point. Action points should be used to keep the action going. There should be excitement when a player declares he’s using an action point. These three examples are all sort of blasé.

The problem is that you only get one action point every two encounters. If they were more abundant in the game then using one in the ways I’ve listed above wouldn’t seem so bad. After all, you’re not going to be knocked prone during every encounter. So the question becomes how to let PCs use more action points more often without breaking D&D.

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DM Resources Player Resources

7 Halloween-Themed Articles

"Zombies Playing D&D" by Mandi Tremblay
"Zombies Playing D&D" by Mandi Tremblay

Every year around this time DMs are inspired by Halloween and PCs find themselves facing off against skeletons, zombies, vampires and werewolves. Campaigns become darker as the DM taps into the fear associated with Halloween. But creating something original can be more challenging than many DMs realize. In order to help, we’ve combed through our archives and found 7 articles that we think will help DMs add that Halloween flavour to their campaign without just rehashing the same things you’ve done year in and year out.

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DM Resources

Let Monsters Use the Treasure

DM – With that final blow the evil Warlord falls. You’ve defeated him and saved the village from his ruthlessness and cruelty. Well done.

Player – I search his body. Does he have anything good on him?

DM – As a matter of fact he does. Let’s see… he has a few potions, some gp and a +3 flaming weapon.

Player – Really? He has a flaming weapon? I wonder why he didn’t use it when he fought us.

How often have you found yourself in a situation similar to this one? You fight a bunch of monsters, search their treasure horde after the battle’s over, and find a bunch of stuff that the monsters could have – but didn’t – use in the fight against the party. Regrettably I find this happens way too often.

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