Does anyone have guidance or templates for creating a randomized table? I'm specifically referring to a psychedelic drug one of my PC's has from her homeland (the forest two forests over).
Background: I'm a new DM (just had my first session on Sunday!) and am looking to develop a homebrew effect for this psychedelic drug one of the PCs uses to commune with her ancestors (she's a druid, surprising, I know) I have a sense of what kind of effects I would want to create if someone else were to take the drug, but I wanted to check if anyone had any way to balance a randomizing table or knew of any generators that exist for it. She's a tabaxy, and no one else in the group is, so it seems fun that everyone else would have a weird reaction to it. Effects I'm looking at include: increasing or decreasing various stats, i.e. you get really sweaty, -2 DEX mod; you feel light & easy like air +2 DEX mod. I'd also like to create a randomized duration with a constitution or wisdom save, so I'd love any suggestions on that as well.
After we get through The Sunless Citadel I'm going to start developing my own adventures tailored to the team, especially since they're largely spell slingers (Druid, Bard, Cleric, Rogue), and I want to challenge them with creative problem solving. I feel like throwing a wrench like this will force them to try new things & think outside the box. Appreciate any feedback or guidance here!
Any time you increase randomness, it hurts the PCs, keep that in mind. I would suggest, instead, not doing it randomly, and just making up whatever you want the result to be. Then you can tie it better to what's happening. Say she talks with one of her ancestors and in the conversation they are running through a forest. When she comes out of the trance, maybe she gets to ignore difficult terrain until her next long rest, but has to make CON saves at disadvantage because she's winded. Or if the ancestor is a great sage, she gets a bonus on her history checks, but a minus to stealth. In addition to tailoring it to the experience, you can tailor it to what's going on in the campaign, so the bonuses and drawbacks become meaningful.
As far as I know, there’s no generators for random effect tables. And balance isn’t really the focus of one anyway. Look at the Wild Magic Surge table. You may grow a beard of feathers that lasts till you sneeze, or you may cast Fireball centered on yourself. Just pick a number of effects that can be rolled on a die and assign each to a number. I would tend to stay away from effects that mess with stats, though, as that gets messy to manage. Simple advantage or disadvantage or applying your proficiency bonus are the usual mechanics 5e works within.
Consulting the Wild Magic Surge table would also be a good place to look for ideas of effects. A lot of them feel pretty psychadellic.
So as a starter, I’ll build suggestions out to a d4. You can add in and replace with your own ideas. You probably want to go to at least a d6 on the randomizing.
1. Your body rejects the drug. Gain the Poisoned condition until you finish a long rest.
2. You don’t commune with anyone’s ancestors, but you do feel more feline. You gain the Feline Agility racial trait for 1 hour. And a craving for tuna.
3. Ancestors might be a stretch, but you definitely saw your mother giving you heaps of guilt for doing drugs. While you relive your childhood, you may not apply your proficiency bonus to any CHA based checks. This effect lasts until you finish your next long rest.
4. You’re pretty sure you achieved enlightenment. Advantage on all INT and WIS checks until your next long rest.
40-49: Highly suggestible (charmed) for 10 minutes
That's all i can think of
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
I would say that it has no mechanical effect on the tabaxi (it's part of normal religious observances), and has net negative effects on other characters, probably hallucinations of some sort. Coming up with a random table is probably unnecessary, once players figure out that it's bad they'll stop experimenting, so just come up with a small list.
Does anyone have guidance or templates for creating a randomized table? I'm specifically referring to a psychedelic drug one of my PC's has from her homeland (the forest two forests over).
Background: I'm a new DM (just had my first session on Sunday!) and am looking to develop a homebrew effect for this psychedelic drug one of the PCs uses to commune with her ancestors (she's a druid, surprising, I know) I have a sense of what kind of effects I would want to create if someone else were to take the drug, but I wanted to check if anyone had any way to balance a randomizing table or knew of any generators that exist for it. She's a tabaxy, and no one else in the group is, so it seems fun that everyone else would have a weird reaction to it. Effects I'm looking at include: increasing or decreasing various stats, i.e. you get really sweaty, -2 DEX mod; you feel light & easy like air +2 DEX mod. I'd also like to create a randomized duration with a constitution or wisdom save, so I'd love any suggestions on that as well.
After we get through The Sunless Citadel I'm going to start developing my own adventures tailored to the team, especially since they're largely spell slingers (Druid, Bard, Cleric, Rogue), and I want to challenge them with creative problem solving. I feel like throwing a wrench like this will force them to try new things & think outside the box. Appreciate any feedback or guidance here!
Any time you increase randomness, it hurts the PCs, keep that in mind. I would suggest, instead, not doing it randomly, and just making up whatever you want the result to be. Then you can tie it better to what's happening. Say she talks with one of her ancestors and in the conversation they are running through a forest. When she comes out of the trance, maybe she gets to ignore difficult terrain until her next long rest, but has to make CON saves at disadvantage because she's winded. Or if the ancestor is a great sage, she gets a bonus on her history checks, but a minus to stealth. In addition to tailoring it to the experience, you can tailor it to what's going on in the campaign, so the bonuses and drawbacks become meaningful.
As far as I know, there’s no generators for random effect tables. And balance isn’t really the focus of one anyway. Look at the Wild Magic Surge table. You may grow a beard of feathers that lasts till you sneeze, or you may cast Fireball centered on yourself. Just pick a number of effects that can be rolled on a die and assign each to a number. I would tend to stay away from effects that mess with stats, though, as that gets messy to manage. Simple advantage or disadvantage or applying your proficiency bonus are the usual mechanics 5e works within.
Consulting the Wild Magic Surge table would also be a good place to look for ideas of effects. A lot of them feel pretty psychadellic.
So as a starter, I’ll build suggestions out to a d4. You can add in and replace with your own ideas. You probably want to go to at least a d6 on the randomizing.
1. Your body rejects the drug. Gain the Poisoned condition until you finish a long rest.
2. You don’t commune with anyone’s ancestors, but you do feel more feline. You gain the Feline Agility racial trait for 1 hour. And a craving for tuna.
3. Ancestors might be a stretch, but you definitely saw your mother giving you heaps of guilt for doing drugs. While you relive your childhood, you may not apply your proficiency bonus to any CHA based checks. This effect lasts until you finish your next long rest.
4. You’re pretty sure you achieved enlightenment. Advantage on all INT and WIS checks until your next long rest.
d100 roll. here are the options.
1-9: Vomit
10-19: Fall prone
20-29: Become intoxicated for 10 minutes
30-39: Fall unconscious
40-49: Highly suggestible (charmed) for 10 minutes
That's all i can think of
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
- Litany Against Fear, Frank Herbert
I would say that it has no mechanical effect on the tabaxi (it's part of normal religious observances), and has net negative effects on other characters, probably hallucinations of some sort. Coming up with a random table is probably unnecessary, once players figure out that it's bad they'll stop experimenting, so just come up with a small list.
Quite easy to create a number generator using excel or google sheets. I created a 1d10000 for random loot based on rarity.