Archive for the D&D Fifth Edition Category

5e Skill Challenges

Posted in D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, D&D Next, Dungeons and Dragons with tags , on July 17, 2015 by boccobsblog

While I disliked many aspects of D&D fourth edition, I did like skill challenges. The following article outlines my conversion of that system to fifth edition. Credit where credit is due-this article draws heavily on the skill challenge chapter of the fourth edition Dungeon Master’s Guide II.

Choosing the Skills (and non-skills) for the Challenge
The short answer is, don’t choose any. Present the party with a problem or scenario and let them decide how best to deal with it rather than drawing a box of skills and secondary skills to confine your players, give them free rein to come up with a creative solution. Reward creative thought, award successes for non-skills too, for example if the players want to use a magical item, or a spell in place of a skill. Perhaps they bride the gruff city guard rather than try to use the persuasion skill.

Level of Complexity
Fourth edition used a five-tier complexity system for its skill challenges and I’ve reduced this to four to make it align better with fifth’s easy, medium, hard, deadly encounter scheme. Select a level of complexity from one to four. If your players are just poking about a small village trying to solve a crime, a one should do, however, if they are taking a voyage across a desert or sailing an airship to another country, perhaps a level four challenge is in order. Note: complexity differs from difficulty. Complexity only refers to the number of steps involved in the challenge, not how difficult those steps are. To be successful the players will need x number of successes before y number of failures. I’m using the patterns from fourth edition’s DMG2 where they refined the numbers published in the original 4e DMG.

Complexity Successes Failures
1                 4               3
2                 6               3
3                 8               3
4                10              3

Difficulty Class for 5e Skills/Ability Checks
Much like encounter creation, use a varying degree of difficulty for each step of your challenge. Lob a few soft balls (DC 10 – 15), and put a few challenges in their path (DC 20). Keep in mind that DC’s for skills are much lower fifth edition than they were for third and fourth. Without all those modifiers, the bar needs to be a bit lower. Gone are the days of fifth level bards rolling fifty on their perform checks.

Skill Difficulty Class
Very Easy 5
Easy 10
Medium 15
Hard 20
Very Hard 25
Nearly Impossible 30

Dealing with Failure
What if you players botch a roll or fail the challenge entirely? Failure shouldn’t end the adventure, it should just change the path the players need to take. If your players stealth through the prison but fail to unlock the door to the cell of the NPC they were sent to free, unlock the door but sound an alarm or alert the guards. Here are some ideas for failed rolls or failed challenges:

Possible Consequences for Failure:
• Increase the CR of the next encounter or raise the DC of the next skill roll
• Wandering monster
• Loss of a resource (Spell slot, per-rest power, hit dice, etc.)
• Apply a condition (poisoned, fatigued, etc)
• Inflict a curse or disease
• Expenditure of money or time
• Decrease an NPC’s attitude a step
• Disallow additional uses of that skill
• Damage
• Impose disadvantage on the next roll

Experience Points for Skills Challenge
Giving XP for role-playing is a great way to reward RP, but it can be difficult to decide how much XP is warranted. I think the “XP Threshold by Character Level” is a good place to start. Try awarding each player XP based on the chart below based on the complexity of the challenge (1-4) and character level.
Xp Threshold

I hope this conversion helps you maintain a healthy balance of Role and Roll. I would welcome any feedback you may have in the comments section below. Please download the free, Boccob’s Blessed Blog 5e Skill Challenge Cheat Sheet below.

Final Thoughts
A good skills challenge should:
• Involve each player
• Use several skills
• Allow successes from non-skills
• Reward creativity
• Measure how well the PCs succeed, not if they succeed.

Skills Cheat Sheet

5e Psionics Playtest Released

Posted in D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, Dungeons and Dragons with tags , on July 6, 2015 by boccobsblog

Wizards just released a new Unearthed Arcana article containing rules for fifth edition psionics. The article contains a new base class, the Mystic, (that only goes to level five) and two psionic orders (Order of the Awakened, and Ordered of the Immortal). Wizards is asking for playtesters to download the new rules, use them in their home game, and fill out the next survey.

Love em or hate em, here are the 5e Psionics.

UA Psionics

5e Resource Archive Added

Posted in D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, Dungeons and Dragons with tags , , on July 1, 2015 by boccobsblog

We’ve just added an archive page for official 5e resources released by Wizards. The archive will house the actual PDF’s released by Wizards, not just links to the documents because in the past we’ve linked to free materials only to have them removed from Wizards.com. If there is a resource missing from the page, please let us know and we’ll add it.

101 D&D Quest Ideas (repost)

Posted in D&D Fifth Edition, Dungeons and Dragons with tags , , , on February 13, 2015 by boccobsblog

For more 5e D&D Quest ideas check out our store at Limitless-Adventures.com. Find us on Facebook and Twitter.

1. News spreads that a dragon was slain while away from his cave, a search for its unguarded hoard is underway
2. A thief has stolen a power item from a lich and then joins the party for protection
3. A wizard/collector wants a live troll to study
4. Rat catchers are going missing under the city and a plague is spreading in their absence
5. A local caster has summoned a creature that they cannot contain and it is destroying the area
6. A charismatic charlatan claims (and has proof) to be the cousin/brother/son of one of the PCs
7. A wandering merchant trades a pc for their magic item for a fake he claims is more powerful
8. Shipments from a nearby mine have stopped, when the PCs investigate they find the miners crazed and covered with red welts apparently from exposure to a new element they uncovered
9. A white dragon is driving monsters from the north into the southern lands
10. A planar rift has formed and outsiders are seeping through
11. A powerful noble/wizard is hosting a masquerade ball where the guests are polymorphed into monster as their costume, but an actual monster attends to kill the noble/wizard
12. A sorcerer has died of old age, strange things are creeping out of his tower as his spells, and dweomers break down
13. A map has been found that leads to parts of an artifact that once reassembled, will summon a fiendish kraken
14. The dead are rising as zombies one hour after their death
15. Slavers are capturing peasants and merchants on the highway and selling them to mindflayers
16. A shop/traveling merchant sells pets/familiars that are actually polymorphed people
17. The PC’s are sent to find a hermit that lives on the “moving island”, a zircon/dragon turtle
18. A traveling circus/faire comes to town and completely vanishes in the morning with several children
19. An Ur priest cult is killing all the divine casters in the area
20. Water drawn from a certain well is animating into water elementals/mephits
21. An evil druid has taken up residence in the sewers and is waging a guerilla war on civilization
22. Anyone who reads a cursed book, brought into town by an adventuring party, dies after reading it
23. A killer is leaving rare flowers in the mouths of his victims
24. A member of a planar cartographical society offers the PCs membership into the elite group if they can complete a scavenger hunt that leads them across several planes in one day
25. A mysterious helmed/hooded/masked figure has forged an impressive army by bringing tribes of kobolds, goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins under one banner. The leader is actually a cleric disheartened by the lack of faith and respect of his flock and means to increase belief and prayer for his deity by leading an army of wolves against his flock
26. The owner of a failing inn claims to have the entrance to a mysterious dungeon in his cellar hoping that the ruse will draw business from adventurers
27. A pack of displacer beasts/displacer beast lord are preying on farm animals and farmers alike
28. Two rival gangs are actually devils and demons fighting a Blood War battle on the city streets
29. The daughter/apprentice of a caster that polymorphed himself into a golden cup and placed himself in the hoard of a green dragon in an attempt to learn more about dragons, but it has been weeks and he has not come home contacts the PCs
30. Reports that a gold dragon is ravaging the countryside turn out to be true. The dragon, sick with a rare disease, has gone mad and must be stopped
31. Grave robbers working for a necromancer are running out of graves and start looking for easy prey
32. A “red” dragon demanding tributes from a village is actually an especially greedy copper dragon
33. A killer is released from prison and the father of one of his victims stages a similar murder in the hopes of framing him
34. A traveling “holy man” is selling relics that disappear in the morning
35. The new judge is in fact a devil hoping to harvest souls for not guilty verdicts
36. A logging camped is being haunted by the ghost of a treant/forest haunt and his dryad followers
37. A band of fey have been stealing wine from a rural tavern
38. A good and helpful aranea has been captured and tried for murder while the true culprit is a drider that resides close by
39. A college that teaches science over magic opens and arcane casters start going missing
40. Drug related deaths lead the PCs to an evil alchemist
41. The PCs are hired to retrieve a meteor, but find it is being worshipped by a tribe of goblins/orcs/lizardmen etc
42. Several woman in the area are pregnant under strange circumstances, an incubus is to blame
43. An artifact is needed to avert a major catastrophe; its last known owner was Levistus the arch devil trapped within a glacier
44. The PCs must find a rare herb only known to grow within Gith monasteries
45. The PCs visit a strange village where all the people are simulacrums, an ancient wizards mark is seen everywhere
46. The PCs are sent to a distant land to find an NPC that it turns out has been dead for 20 years
47. The PCs must help an conflicted Erinyes to the Cradle of Creation (phb2) to be reborn into a non-evil body
48. A map leading to the legendary Shield of Prator has been found, it states that the shield is in the cave of a dracolich. The map was sent by the dracolich’s minions in the hopes of freeing their master who is sealed magically into his cave
49. A local orphanage is actually run by a demonic cultist that sacrifices the weak children and raises the strong ones to be followers
50. A powerful artifact that will allow teleportation through the layers of the abyss/hells has been uncovered and a race to claim it has begun. The PCs must beat the groups of devils and demons that see the artifact as a powerful tool to end the Blood War
51. An overmatched Marut seeks assistance with a powerful lich/vampire/mummy
52. Rumors of “The most powerful sword” lead the PCs to an evil, intelligent, dancing sword that can animate other weapons to fight for it
53. The PCs are sent to a battlefield to retrieve a family heirloom from a missing soldier where a necromancer and his corpse collector golem are raising the fallen as undead
54. A cult of Tiamat have discovered a spell that ages living creatures and they are trying to use it on dragon eggs to raise powerful allies
55. The PCs are sent to deal with a raiding ogre that turns out to be a gnome illusionist
56. The PCs are looking for an arrow used to slay a dragon a hundred years earlier, but when they pull the arrow from the dragon’s skeleton, it animates and attacks
57. The PCs need the help/information of a treant that will only add them if they agree to be shrunk down to clear out an infestation of insects that invaded his roots
58. The PCs are invited to a Three Dragon Ante tourney, either as guards, VIPs, or to play
59. A lawful good lich (Monsters of Faerun) seeks the PCs to protect him from a zealous paladin on a quest to rid the world of undead
60. Thieves have plundered a tomb and until his golden burial mask is returned, a ghost/ghast/specter will continue to kill innocent people
61. A group of fire giants has taken up residence in an inactive volcano, their activity threatens to awaken the volcano and cause widespread devastation
62. A grandmotherly, if slightly senile, NPC asks the players to rid her attic of rats. The rats are in fact a group of thieves trying to open a magical doorway left by the wizard that previously owned the home
63. A monster seen roaming close to town is actually a cursed person and not evil
64. The PCs find a genie in a bottle, but the genie agrees to help/grant wishes/serve only after the players travel to the City of Brass and save someone the genie cares about
65. The PCs find a wounded angel that is being hunted by powerful outsiders
66. A newly discovered dungeon is actually a complex trap to harvest souls/magic/life energy
67. The PCs must break an innocent man from a complex magical prison
68. Murders attributed to a small girl are being done by her doll, a slaymate (libris motris)
69. An ancient beholder has gone mad and his destroying the Underdark, driving monsters to the surface
70. A gnome settlement has been overrun by Drow displacing hundreds of citizens
71. A mad wizard has been selling potions that have poisonous/odd effects
72. Mind flayers are draining people of their quintessence in hopes of using the substance to return to the far realm from which aberrations came
73. A spelljammer has crashed in a remote forest/jungle and the inhabitants seek materials to repair their helm
74. A foreign diplomat seeks the party’s monk to protect him on a mission to a country/city where magic and weapons are not allowed
75. The tarrasque is wreaking havoc on the countryside and the party (lvl 10ish) must slow it down until the champions (20th) can arrive, but the tarrasque is actually a simulacrum (cr 10) sent by an outsider/caster/etc and not the real thing
76. Cultist seek a tablet that depicts a ritual that will summon a Fist of Spite (BoVD)
77. The party must save an NPC from the stomach demiplane of Dalmosh (MM5)
78. The guild master of the cooper’s guild wants to discredit the owner of a local winery with whom he has had an argument by poisoning his barrels
79. A local sage/astronomer is convinced that a massive meteor is going to strike the kingdom/city/town
80. The normally-inert gargoyles atop the temple/castle/mansion have have animated and started attacking people who approach the building
81. A group of bulettes are keeping anyone from entering or leaving the city/town/inn
82. A doppelganger/changeling serial killer claims the identity of their most recent victim for one week before killing again
83. A gnome settlement has been overrun by fiendish duergar led by a demon
84. PCs seek out a powerful dwarven, smith that traded his soul to Asmodeus for unearthly crafting abilities. Before the smith will help the PCs they must reclaim his soul from the arch devil
85. The players find/are sent to a city that reflects the entire multiverse scaled down with a neutral inn in the center run by a power caster
86. The PCs search for a legendary library that when found, has no books only the corpses of long-dead sages and librarian clerics that use speak with dead to obtain the knowledge
87. The PCs need a party member/NPC raised from the dead but the only cleric powerful enough to do so has recently been turned by a vampire he was hunting
88. The PCs find/buy/are given a strange bag of holding that has a small pocket dimension inside it where a frightened caster hides. He/she created the bag to hide in and saw that it ended up in the PCs hands to keep it safe
89. The PCs seek an answer/information from a forgotten bard. When they find him, he is a ghost and he will only help them if they give him peace by finishing his final poem/song/movement
90. A chaotic good horselord (CAd) has led all the horses in the region/city/town away into the hills to freedom
91. The huntsman of a local lord/mayor has kidnapped the NPC’s daughter, and only a highly trained tracker can follow the trail and find the girl
92. An aged and grizzled warrior is going town to town offering his magic sword/shield/armor to any fighter that can best him in honorable combat
93. After returning from a diplomatic journey, the noble/diplomat/prince/queen is acting strangely. The PCs are asked to look into it only to find that the NPC is a doppelganger/changeling/simulacrum/charmed/possessed
94. A pair of ethereal filchers are stealing all the curative magic in the area/city/town
95. The answer/riddle/name/code that the PCs require is etched onto the helm of a massive golem that paces a deadly dungeon
96. Monthly full moon attacks are blamed on a good lycan, and are actually being carried out by a pack of Moon Rats (MM2)
97. Summoned Thoqqua threaten to compromise the structural integrity of the city/town/inn/dungeon/ as they melt tunnels through the ground below
98. Centaur knights (phb2) are running any humanoid from their forest
99. The PCs are sought by the patrons of a desert land where a despotic temple of cleric charges impossibly high rates for fresh water to people not of their faith
100. A temple has hired a large number of bards for a festival where music is to be played from sun up until sundown, the only problem is that no one recalls the obscure holiday because it is a ruse to mask the sound of tomb robbers breaking into sealed vaults below the church
101. A xenophobic elvish lord has begun to arrest non-elves after his daughter eloped with a human

Would you like more free D&D 5e content? Download our free sampler from Limitless Adventures. 

 

Sword Coast Legends Announced

Posted in D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, Video Games with tags , , , , on February 13, 2015 by boccobsblog

Wizards announced today the creation of a new video game, Sword Coast Legends. The game will use the 5e mechanics, and feature five player races and six classes. The game, set in Forgotten Realms, will also feature a DM mode where a player can create and run adventures for other players.

See the full article and screenshots here.

It looks amazing.

IMG_1097

First 5e Game Notes

Posted in D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, Dungeons and Dragons with tags , on February 9, 2015 by boccobsblog

This past Saturday I ran my first 5e game. I’ve read the three core books and love the new system, but I really wanted to see how it worked at the table. There were a few confused moments, but no more than could be expected with a new edition. Here are a few thoughts from our session:

  • While a bit murky at moments (death saves, no spell descriptions, etc.), the game still feels like D&D. This is a bit of a given, but some people fear that a new edition won’t feel like the game they’ve loved for years.
  • Spells do a great deal more damage. With the general power curve of the game reduced in 5e, I’m not sure why spells do so much more damage now.
  • The way spells prepared works is a bit different for 3.0/3.5 players, and vastly different for 4e players. The wizard and cleric (those were the only casters at the table, so this may apply to other classes as well) prepare a list of spells for the day (Their ability modifier + level) and then spontaneously cast from that list. For example, the wizard got four spells to prepare, but can only cast two spells. So the new system gives you a bit more versatility at the table.
  • Sneak attack seemed particularly easy to use (no more flanking required) and quite deadly. Rogues seem to have gotten a serious overhaul in 5e.
  • Advantage/Disadvantage really makes things quicker and easier than modifiers.
  • Dexterity seems like a slightly over-powered attribute as it now applies to saves, ac, many skills, to hit, and damage. Additionally, with the loss of strength and half for two-handed weapons, dex fighters do seem to have a bit of an upper hand, though str fighters will still out damage dex fighters (slightly) and will have a (slightly) higher AC. The str fighters will still shine when things need lifted, when door need forced, gear needs carried, and when baddies need disarmed, bull-rushed, or grappled.
  • Combat seemed much quicker. A party of three characters cleared six encounters in two hours. We started hacking and slashing at 9:30 and wrapped up our session at 11:30. Granted there wasn’t a great deal of NPC or roleplay-heavy encounters (I really just wanted to test combat), but it still seemed very quick.
  • The monsters hit hard. The CR 2 black dragon laid out 66 damage (22 acid damage to three characters) when he caught three characters in his breath weapon. I guess now that HP’s don’t go into the negatives anymore, DM’s can knock players around with a lesser fear of a TPK.

All in all it seems like a solid system. It feels like a trimmed down third edition, though players from any edition will be able to see hints of all the previous editions.

Review of the 5e Player’s Handbook (Ability Scores & Races)

Posted in D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, Dungeons and Dragons, Wizards of the Coast with tags , , on February 6, 2015 by boccobsblog

Here is part two of our in-depth look at the 5e PHB.

Ability Scores

One thing that bugs me about 5e is that they vastly limit the power level through ability score, but give ability bumps away like candy. For example, ability scores cannot go above 20 without the use of a powerful item (the old ability score improvement items, like Headband of Intellect only grant a score of 19, and give no benefit if you already have a 19+), but a character will receive +10 stat points from 1st to 20th. If a player rolls an 18 at creation, she will max out their prime requisite very quickly (immediately for some demihumans).

It just seems odd to cap scores at 20 and then give a ton of bonuses to them ( +2 or 2 +1’s five times before twentieth level).

Races

All the standard races are represented, and there are no big surprises here. In addition to Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Half-Elves, Halflings, Half-Orcs, and Gnomes (back from their sabbatical in the 4e MM), Dragonborn and Tieflings have carried over from 4e. In addition, the Drow were added as a playable subrace (at your DM’s discretion), with no level adjustment or penalty.

Mike Mearls stated in a D&D Podcast that R&D wanted all standard races from all editions to be present in 5e. Fans of the Eladrin should note that while not in the PHB, they are present in the DMG.

Review of the 5e Player’s Handbook (Classes)

Posted in D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, Dungeons and Dragons, Wizards of the Coast with tags , , , on January 30, 2015 by boccobsblog

I thought I could bang out a quick review of the 5e PHB as I did with the Monster Manual, but there is just far too much ground to cover. So I’ll give you my take on the classes first. I am happy with all the base classes in fifth, they seem balanced and the archetypes give them serious re-play value. Here is a brief break down:

Barbarian

Not much different here, this class will feel very familiar. The rage mechanics are far simpler as you no longer add stat points mid combat. Instead, you take less damage and do more damage. The barbarian has two paths; one that heightens the rage ability and one that is more spiritual and offers magical abilities (though not spell slots).

Bard

The bard gets a pretty big power bump in 5e as they now have access to spells all the way to ninth. As far as archetypes, they bard has two colleges to choose from, one that focuses on being in the thick of combat and rallying forces, and one that focuses on knowledge. Bards look cool to me for the first time (sorry to the three bard fans out there).

Cleric

Largely unchanged, again this class will feel very familiar to pre-fourth players. Clerics only have one domain as do most gods in 5e (Side note, the PHB lists nearly every god in D&D history: Forgotten Realms, Dragon Lance, Greyhawk, etc., as well as many Earth pantheons, Greeks, Egyptians, etc it is an impressive list to compile your pantheon from.). There are seven domains to choose from: knowledge, life, light, nature, tempest, trickery, and war. The DMG also contains the death domain for evil characters.

Druid

No big changes for the druid. They choose from two paths one of which offers a broader range of spells dependent on the land type the druid protects, and the second offers more wild shape options. It looks like the animal companion got chopped.

Fighter

The fighter has always been my favorite class and they get a lot of attention in fifth. They have three archetypes to choose from: the Champion is an easy to play fighter that requires little thought (along the lines of the 3.5 fighter) he hits, and he hits hard. The Battle Master reminds me of the classes from the Book of Nine Swords or maybe a 4e warlord; he has numerous maneuvers and abilities that he can choose from that aid his party and make him extremely interesting to play. He is slightly more complicated than the standard fighter but a refreshing change for those of us that want a more dynamic melee character. Lastly, the fighter can choose to be Eldritch Knight, which, much like the 3.5 prestige class it’s derived from, is a fighter mage with spells up to fifth level. 5e fighters are amazing.

Monk

I’ve never been a fan of the monk class and feel that it really doesn’t fit into the western feel of a largely medieval game, but with that said, the 5e monk is pretty cool as monks go. They have three paths: one that focuses on hand-to-hand combat, one that is essentially a ninja, and one that gets spell like abilities (though no spell slots).

Paladin

The idea of a non-lawful good paladin isn’t a new idea, there have been paladin variants around for over thirty years and have always been met with mixed emotions. The 5e paladin comes in three varieties: the pain in ass lawful good chivalrous knight we all know and love, a neutral good, nature knight (an elven knight from Middle Earth), and a badass, don’t get in my way neutral or lawful neutral knight of vengeance that is on a mission to destroy evil and cares nothing for law or goodness. The DMG also has an Oathbreaker path for evil paladins that have strayed from the path of good. Not sure how I feel about the third option, but the pally has options for players that don’t want to go the boy scout path. Paladin also get their spells much earlier, and cast up to fifth-level spells.

Ranger

The ranger, like the pally, see increased spell casting, and has two options: the beast master with his animal companion, and the hunter (who should probably be called a slayer) who focuses on hunting a favored enemy.

Rogue

Like the fighter, the 5e rogue gets a lot of attention and has three paths to walk: the thief (no explanation needed), the assassin (first edition fans rejoice), and the arcane trickster who is essentially a rogue/mage.

Sorcerer

Earlier in the 5e playtest the sorcerer has a vastly different and new approach to a spellcaster (as was the warlock), but fans shouted that idea down and the final product is fairly the same as it was in 3.5 or pathfinder. The sorcerer has two possible bloodlines: draconic and the much-loved wild magic. My beloved 3.5’s attempt at the wild mage in Complete Arcane was a joke, but the 5e wild mage is more akin to its 2e roots, complete with wild surge chart.

Warlock

The warlock is once again a base class (one thing 4e did right). The warlock has invocations, as well as spell slots. The warlock derives their power from three possible sources: fiends, fey, and great old ones (yup, Cthulhu and his homeboys).

Wizard

Finally, everybody’s favorite blaster caster, the wizard. Like the cleric, the wiz doesn’t see much of a change. At creation the wizard must choose one of the eight schools to specialize in, but he isn’t barred from other schools as we was in the past, he’s just better at one school.

All in all, the 5e player’s handbook gives you 12 base classes (the most of any PHB in the game’s forty year history) that after archetypes is actually 40 (42 if you allow evil characters) classes. That is pretty cool. Sure we lost prestige classes (for now), but can play a lot of those role more quickly. I am especially impressed with the fighters, monks, paladins, and rogues.

Another 101 D&D Quest Ideas

Posted in D&D 3.5, D&D 4e Content, D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, D&D Next, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder with tags , , , , on July 27, 2011 by boccobsblog

Many of you may remember the post we did several months back entitled, “101 D&D Quests Ideas”, it has been one of the most popular articles on the blog and one of the most searched terms by readers using search engines like google to find us (in fact if you google, “D&D Quest Ideas” B3 is the first hit- woot!). So we turned out another 101 D&D quest ideas usable for any fantasy-themed RPG, but written with D&D and Pathfinder in mind. Enjoy! (And a big thank you to Dave R. and Adam A. for submitting quest ideas)

1. A minotaur was victimized by a wizard, and now he will hire you to lead him through his own labyrinth to his treasures.

2. A painter has been using magic to easily duplicate his own paintings to sell as originals. But a fowl art critic with a penchant for theatrics is on to him and has sworn to reveal the secret unless he is permitted to marry the artist’s only daughter. The artist hires you to eliminate the critic who knows too much.

3. The sun set 26 hours ago. The world is in panic. The Drow are invading, and only the heroes can stop them.

4. A madman who thinks he is a prophet is slaughtering the livestock of the local farmers in the hopes that it will bring forth Ibanirox, the Night Eater, a long forgotten (and made up) deity of immense power. The farmers offer the group 20 gold or 3 cows per adventurer.

5. A theatre director hires the party to keep his lead actor (who is marked for death by a crime syndicate) alive long enough to perform in front of a powerful monarch. The assassins attempt to make his death scene a real one.

6. A tribe of kobolds has taken up residence in the sewers and has been hunting dogs and cats as food.

7. The pc’s are sent after a powerful artifact/weapon that will make their patron unstoppable.

8. The pc’s are hired by a Gensai sorceress to recover her mephit familiar from an enemy.

9. A character notices an error in a broadsheet posted in the city square, and quickly realizes that the paper has been forged to deflect guilt from a minor noble. The noble hires thugs to “dissuade” the party from investigating further by stealing some of their gear and shifting their attention to the thieves.

10. Mind flayers are performing perverse rituals on local orc tribes and granting them psionic abilities. The party must find and destroy them before psionic orcs destroy the kingdom.

11. Ancient prophecies predict that a star will fall at a precise location on a certain day. Whoever is first to grasp the star will receive a wish. Various dark factions camp and await the coming of the star, intent on making their wish.

12. A devil/caster/demon/warlock has set a fire using hell fire and it can only be quenched by the waters from a spring in Celestia

13. A Devil prince coerces you to sabotage the wedding of one of his political rivals.

14. A besieged city holds a tournament to mock their enemies. The King asks you to sneak into the city and win the tournament to demoralize them.

15. A wizard believes he has discovered the location of the wreckage of a legendary battleship, but so has his rival. You must recover the arcane weaponry from the wreck before the opposing team does.

16. You are hired to perform a filibuster in the legislative body of a monstrous nation. It proves dangerous.

17. An ancient and complex prison facility for extraplanar criminals is malfunctioning. The party must repair it as a group of imps attempts to use the facility against them.

18. The party is sent to investigate the disappearance of a missionary cleric in a vast and dark jungle. Investigation reveals that the cleric has instead been converted by the demon-worshiping jungle people and now mobilizes them against his former mission.

19. Gnolls have dug up the severed head of a lich in the desert, and it has promised them great power if they reunite him with his body.

20. A band of Drow (or similarly evil humanoids) comes to town claiming to be not evil and seeking asylum.

21. Ghostly dryads haunt the grove where their tree was destroyed and they can only be put to rest if the grove is replanted.

22. A werewolf, seemingly immune to wolfs bane and silver terrorizes a village. He is in fact a barghest.

23. A ruined tower is in fact a colossal animated object.

24. A yeth hound poses as a wounded blink dog.

25. The pc’s seek an item buried within a grove sacred to a centaur tribe.

26. A delver tunneling under the city is causing earthquakes.

27. The characters are sent to a primitive island to retrieve an item/find a treasure/seek an npc. The island is filled with dinosaurs, near-humanoids, and dire animals. As the pc’s explore the island they begin to devolve, as do their animal companions, mounts, familiars, etc.

28. The mayor, sheriff, high priest, has been replaced by doppelgangers.

29. A white dragon is freezing ships and carrying them off to his glacial home.

30. A major port is now home to spawning dragon turtles.

31. Dryads have taken loggers hostage.

32. All news and shipments from a dwarven stronghold have stopped; the king frees a Duergar attack.

33. Ettercaps have poisoned village children and carried them off, the pc’s know they have a limited window in which to rescue the children before they are eaten (as ettercaps like to let their dinner hang and liquefy before eating).

34. Hippogriffs, run off their mountain roosts by a red dragon, have begun devouring cattle.

35. All the townspeople in a village have contracted lycanthropy and become were-moose at the full moon. The group must discover that the alchemist upstream of the village’s water supply has been experimenting with dangerous chemicals to turn his beloved pet albino moose, Alabaster, into a sentient best friend.

36. The pc’s break a law in an unjust and evil land while doing something good, but are later pursued by a zelekhut for their actions.

37. The elementals that power a dwarven forge have broken free and must be captured without harming them.

38. A thief tells the party about a dragon graveyard that contains the treasure of a dozen hoards, but is haunted by ghostly-dragon guardians.

39. The pc’s require the help of a lillend, but she refuses unless the party’s bard can impress her with his musical abilities.

40. Ice mephits have frozen the town’s well.

41. Merfolk are waylaying ships from traveling over a sacred coral reef.

42. A gelatinous cube, used to eat waste, has escaped the sewer and must be lured back down.

43. Drunken satyrs have carried off a number of women from the village.

44. Will o’ the Wisps are luring people to their swamp.

45. All the animals in the village have collected on a hill nearby and refused to come down.

46. A splinter cult of Drow are kidnapping townspeople and sacrificing them to a powerful aranea sorceress, they worship as an avatar of Loth.

47. The pc’s hired by a local politician that fears he will be poisoned at an upcoming banquet.

48. Thieves have stolen dragon eggs and put the entire town in jeopardy as the angry mother wreaks havoc.

49. The “haunted forest” is actually filled with awakened creatures.

50. A mage’s guild seeks thieves to steal an artifact that will hamper the use of magic. They plan to use it to control all magic in the city.

51. A stray cat taken in by the pc’s is the familiar of an enemy spell-caster.

52. Mongrelmen living under the city are demanding citizenship and full rights.

53. The local wizard’s college wants to hire the pc’s to capture some new familiars.

54. A con artist posing as a priest is fleecing peasants.

55. The pc’s must stop an angry mob from attacking a peaceful tribe of orcs.

56. A glacier has been discovered with an enormous, nightmarish creature inside and the ice is beginning to melt.

57. The pc’s are asked to serve as guardian to a young noble whose parents have been killed.

58. The pc’s must smuggle a message into a besieged city.

59. A dying dragon holds a contest to give away pieces from its hoard.

60. Lizardman-half-Mindflayers are being spotted in the marshes outside town.

61. A vigilante is killing evil criminals in town. The party is hired to capture him, while the people view him as a hero and champion of good despite his methods.

62. Something has driven all the game from the kings hunting grounds.

63. Prisoners are being sold to mindflayers.

64. Marble carved from a newfound quarry is animating.

65. The prison has been taken over by the prisoners.

66. When the well goes dry, the villagers discover a glowing portal to Sigil.

67. A wizard/engineer wants help capturing elementals to power airships.

68. A wizard polymorphed into a chimera is attacking caravans.

69. The pc’s must acquire an artifact from the hoard of a fiendish-black dragon that resides in the swamps of Othrys on the plane of Carceri.

70. People are disappearing and paintings of the missing are showing up in the inn/temple/manor.

71. Fiendish weasels are terrorizing a farmers chicken coop. The family is on the edge of hunger and ruin.

72. A group of wild elves hire the pc’s to escort their clan to a new home in the Beastlands.

73. Something is causing the dead to rise from the local cemetery.

74. After a dark omen all cure spells function as inflict spells.

75. Wererats are stealing children and infecting them with lycanthropy.

76. After a Drow priestess is hanged, women in the city begin giving birth to spiders.

77. The pc’s encounter a strange man on the road how casts a spell on them/gives them a potion, shortly after they arrive in town to see (with their arcane sight) that half the town are actually changelings.

78. A farmer finds a possessed tablet in his field and begins going on a killing rampage.

79. The city’s most powerful adventurers return from questing in a temple of Tharzidun.

80. A child has been bitten by a rare spider, and the only antidote requires some of the spiders venom.

81. A vampiric bard is dining on the finest artists in town.

82. A pc learns that his family lost a powerful legacy item to a dragon. The item is still in the dragon’s hoard.

83. The party is left to raise a brood of silver dragon wyrmlings after their mother is slain.

84. A child is possessed by a demon and must be exorcised.

85. The pc’s are shipwrecked and must build a raft to escape.

86. A child in the slums is spouting doomsday prophecies and is gathering a large following.

87. The pc’s are drugged and forced into naval service by a violent press-gang.

88. The party’s warriors are invited to participate in the alabaster cup (Com. Warrior).

89. The party is approached by an npc that claims to have detailed evidence of an assassination plot. The npc even shows them plans that he stole from the assassin. After the attempt is made, the pc’s are framed and they detailed evidence is found in their room at the inn.

90. An awaken golem is creating an army of warforged to wipe the lands free of living beings.

91. A barbarian horde threatens to invade unless someone can defeat their leader in single combat.

92. The new mayor of a rural village is a Rakshasa.

93. A massive egg has appeared in the village square and cracks are forming.

94. Each night eerie organ music can be heard from the ruin manor on the hill; in the morning, a townsperson is missing.

95. Lightning continues to strike the same gravestone every night for the last week.

96. A wizard, pretending to be goodly, hires the pc’s to retrieve his “stolen” spell book from a rival.

97. Cultists have obtained a scroll of Crushing Fist of Spite (BoVD) and intend on releasing it on the countryside.

98. A party member’s soul has been purchased/stolen/bartered for, by Asmodeus and the party must debate the Devil lord to get it back.

99. A gnoll army sweeps from the north, their leader wields what appears to be the Triple Flail of Yeenoghu, Demon Prince of Gnolls.

100. A Cauldron of Zombie Spewing (BoVD) has been unearthed in an ancient ruin by clerics of Neurull.

101. A mad cleric has resurrected the stuffed monster in the party’s favorite inn.

Another 101 quests

The first 101 D&D Quest Ideas can be found here.

 

Buy me an 1/18 of a cup of coffee
D&D 5E Core Rulebook Gift Set
Dungeon Mayhem – D&D Card Game
Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

3 Games of Chance for Your Fantasy RPG

Posted in D&D 3.5, D&D 4e Content, D&D 5e, D&D Fifth Edition, D&D Next, Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2011 by boccobsblog

Gambling is a reoccurring theme in fantasy novels, games, and films. I guess since they have no TVs or Xboxs all Orcs have to do when they have down time from their pillaging is to throw dice and play cards. Today I wanted to show a few games that could be used in-game to add realism and depth to your campaign’s tavern experience.

For brevity’s sake I will not be going into rules or mechanics of each game, but I will provide links to their site so you can find more information.

Three Dragon Ante

This is supposed to be the premiere card game in the D&D multiverse. TDA works well as a stand-alone card game and is quick and easy enough to be worked into an adventure without taking up the whole night. TDA (and really all of the games mentioned today) give you a great opportunity to role play and let those charismatic players shine. One thing that I really like about TDA is that it has a section in the rule book that lets you us character skills to affect the card game. This option really lets players feel like they didn’t waste those skill points and have a great deal of fun in the process. At the link provided above, you can get a free copy of the rulebook and TDA quest ideas.

Harrow

Not to be outdone by Wizards of the Coast, Paizo has created their own card game for the Pathfinder world. Harrow is a stand-alone card game that can be played in-game or out. One cool feature about Harrow, is that it is can also be used as a future telling device as well. According to Paizo’s website, Harrow features the artwork of Kyle Hunter, whose comics have appeared in Dungeon Magazine.

The Red Dragon Inn: Gambling? I’m In!

This is actually nine games inspired by Slug fest Game’s The Red Dragon Inn, and can be used interchangeably. I had a chance to demo this game (not all nine, but the main game and two others) at last year’s Gen Con and they were all easy to learn and enjoyable. The game includes a 90-card deck and rules for all nine games that can be played as a stand-alone or in-character in any fantasy RPG.