based before driven compound rewards

Obzedat Ghost

Monsters Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

Council of Five. The ghost has a trait based on who it is, as shown below: Enezesku: Enfeebling Ray. Enezesku’s Innate Spellcasting trait includes ray of enfeeblement, which he can cast at

Obzedat function as a unit, driven by their shared desire to accumulate ever more wealth for the guild. In times of disagreement, the eldest of the council exerts his seniority to bend the council to

Kalashtar Legacy

Species Eberron: Rising from the Last War

-Lashtavar. —Lakashtai, servant of the light The kalashtar are a compound race created from the union of humanity and renegade spirits from the plane of dreams — spirits called quori

are strongly influenced by the emotions of those around you. 8 You prefer to find nonviolent solutions to problems whenever possible. 9 You are driven by a warrior spirit and will fight

Urchin - Baldur's Gate

Backgrounds Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus

their torch-based code. From the lighting, placement, and type of torch arranged on or near a structure, you can gather a great deal of information about those who live or do business there, particularly

of desperate poverty, for good and for ill. They tend to be driven either by a commitment to the people with whom they shared life on the street or by a burning desire to find a better life &mdash

Tabaxi Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

, wandering tabaxi are catlike humanoids driven by curiosity to collect interesting artifacts, gather tales and stories, and lay eyes on all the world’s wonders. Ultimate travelers, the inquisitive

on a particularly interesting item when an owner refuses to sell or trade it. Tabaxi Names Each tabaxi has a single name, determined by clan and based on a complex formula that involves astrology

Half-Elf Legacy

Species Basic Rules (2014)

, wandering the wilds as trappers, foresters, hunters, or adventurers and visiting civilization only rarely. Like elves, they are driven by the wanderlust that comes of their longevity. Others, in

-Elf Variants Some half-elves in Faerûn have a racial trait in place of the Skill Versatility trait. If your DM allows it, your half-elf character can forgo Skill Versatility and instead take the elf trait Keen Senses or a trait based on your elf parentage:

Setting the Tone

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron

campaign isn’t driven by material wealth. Even when you go on expeditions, the University will lay claim to most of the treasures you find. Instead, the rewards of Morgrave adventures are measured in

use story-based advancement instead of standard XP. Level advancement could be based on time: player characters gain one level each semester, leveling up after finals. Alternately, advancement could

Warlock Legacy

Classes Basic Rules (2014)

are comfortable in light armor and know how to use simple weapons. Delvers into Secrets Warlocks are driven by an insatiable need for knowledge and power, which compels them into their pacts and

for your patron, or did your patron find and choose you? Do you chafe under the obligations of your pact or serve joyfully in anticipation of the rewards promised to you? Work with your DM to

Lizardfolk Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

have more in common with iguanas or dragons than they do with humans, dwarves, or elves. Lizardfolk possess an alien and inscrutable mindset, their desires and thoughts driven by a different set of

rage against their enemies. They simply observe and react as a situation warrants. Lizardfolk lack meaningful emotional ties to the past. They assess situations based on their current and future

Journey Spread

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->The Book of Many Things

journey you expect to last at least as many days as you have players. You can improvise encounters, other challenges, and rewards based on cards as they’re revealed, or you can build a small deck in

advance with fewer cards, then prepare notes on possible encounters and rewards based on your chosen cards. For each day of the journey, lay out two cards face down, one overlapping the other, to form a

Assignments

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

Assignments A more hands-off patron can still significantly motivate your group. Maybe you seek adventures based on what pleases your patron, possibly earning status and rewards within your

Running the Siege

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Princes of the Apocalypse

(s) player characters occupy, summarizing results from the other zones based on how you’d like the narrative to work. This method increases speed of play and lowers complexity. You can concentrate

. Initial Surge The first sign that the orcs have arrived occurs when their scouts appear on the low ridges all around the compound. Soon after, small bands of orcs spread out, surrounding the buildings. With

Greyhawk

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Princes of the Apocalypse

as the elemental prophets, the cults’ use of devastation orbs, and the search for the missing delegation make this a much more far-reaching and event-driven adventure than the original site-based campaign.

Orc Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

to be invincible. They see the principles that define them and their deities at work every day in the world around them — nature rewards the strong and mercilessly eliminates the weak and the

; their loyalty by turning them into slaves. If a tribe is defeated and driven from its lair, the survivors might come under the sway of a strong but dimwitted creature, such as a hill giant or an ogre

Yuan-ti Pureblood Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

with that of snakes, producing a caste-based society of hybrids in which the most snakelike are the leaders and the most humanlike are spies and agents in foreign lands. Humans Transformed The

caste system based on how complete a person’s transformation was. The vast majority of yuan-ti fall into three categories — abominations, malisons, and purebloods — while the mutated

Awarding XP

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide

Awarding XP Each monster has an XP value based on its Challenge Rating. When adventurers overcome one or more monsters—typically by killing, routing, capturing, or cleverly avoiding them—they divide

XP, treat a major milestone as a high-difficulty encounter and a minor milestone as a low-difficulty encounter. Other Milestone Rewards. If you want to reward your players for their progress through an

Conclusion

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Journeys through the Radiant Citadel

convinced the emperor of Secretary Wei’s schemes, they—along with Zhong Yin—are invited to a private audience with the emperor a day later. The emperor rewards each character with 1,000 gp, plus another

seemed driven by a desire to keep the empire safe—even if she did keep his impending death a secret. He favors exiling her but will consider whatever the characters propose.

The Horror of Defeat

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Rise of Tiamat

the age of dragons begins. Nations and kingdoms shatter, civilization collapses into bloody war, and chaos reigns supreme. None of the Dragon Queen’s mortal agents receive the rewards they expected

. The Red Wizards who freed her are devoured or driven away, hunted by the forces of Szass Tam. The cultists who orchestrated Tiamat’s return fare little better, with the Dragon Queen not caring which

The Horror of Defeat

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tyranny of Dragons

the age of dragons begins. Nations and kingdoms shatter, civilization collapses into bloody war, and chaos reigns supreme. None of the Dragon Queen’s mortal agents receive the rewards they expected

. The Red Wizards who freed her are devoured or driven away, hunted by the forces of Szass Tam. The cultists who orchestrated Tiamat’s return fare little better, with the Dragon Queen not caring which

Renown

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide

with another, based on the character’s interaction with each group. You can use renown over the course of an entire campaign or within a single adventure. At a campaign scale, you might set up factions

or guilds that characters can join, individually or as a group, and the characters pursue ranks and rewards by gaining Renown within their organizations. At an adventure level, you might decide that

Ignoring the Dice

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

DM decides whether an action or a plan succeeds or fails based on how well the players make their case, how thorough or creative they are, or other factors. For example, the players might describe how

make an ability check to do so. This approach rewards creativity by encouraging players to look to the situation you’ve described for an answer, rather than looking to their character sheet or their

Bottom Card: Reward or Ruin

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->The Book of Many Things

a ruin based on how well the players resolved the day’s top card. If you’re using cards that have a different meaning when they’re upright versus upside down, ignore the cards’ orientation. Rewards

When determining rewards, here are some effects to consider: Friendly Aid. The characters encounter another traveler or a friendly local resident who offers them food, shelter, information, or other

Character Advancement

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Character Advancement In a shared campaign, characters gain levels not by accumulating experience points but by reaching experience checkpoints. This system rewards every character (and player) for

taking part in a play session. A character reaches 1 checkpoint for each hour an adventure is designed to last. Note that the award is based on the adventure’s projected playing time, rather than the

Improvising Answers

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide

...” It’s based on the idea that an actor takes whatever the other actors give and builds on that. A similar principle applies as you run sessions for your players. As often as possible, weave what the

. This approach rewards the creative player while demanding less work from you. Aids to Improvisation When you need to make up something on the spot—say, a mages’ guild in a town where you hadn’t

Planar Effects

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide

more information about the planes of existence. Acheronian Bloodlust The plane of Acheron rewards a creature for harming other creatures by imbuing it with the strength to keep fighting. While in

plane of Gehenna and in regions where its influence is felt, creatures are driven to loathe helping one another. Whenever a creature subject to Gehennan cruelty casts a spell, including a spell that

Trouble in the Fortress

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

Nildar, as far away from him as possible, sending them on dangerous missions to acquire more chardalyn in and around Ten-Towns, fearing that they might usurp his throne otherwise. Xardorok rewards his

duergar clan, has recently arrived at the fortress after being invited here by Xardorok. The Muzgardts are based in Gracklstugh, a duergar city in the Underdark. They mass-produce and distribute a filthy

Unity of Rings

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse->Turn of Fortune’s Wheel

Other Sigil Contacts Farrow or another Sigil-based ally is glad to hear the characters resolved the strangeness plaguing them. The ally is well connected and know others who need accomplished adventurers

characters resolved the situation in Tyrant’s Spiral, R04M might be pleased or horrified. Nevertheless, if the characters helped any of the modrons escape, R04M rewards them with the promised gems. This

Attack on Goldenfields

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Storm King's Thunder

thwart the attack on Goldenfields, they gain special quests and rewards based on which NPCs survived the battle.

Attack on Goldenfields Guh, the self-styled chief of the hill giants, has driven off her female rivals and conquered their husbands. Now, she tasks her mates with collecting food for her voracious

Starting Quests

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

matter of hours for any magic items the characters bring to her. The amount she’s willing to pay is based on the item’s rarity, as shown in the Magic Item Rewards table, and is nonnegotiable. Characters

their arrival at the Yawning Portal. The characters can accept as many or as few starting quests as they want. Based on the needs of your campaign, you might even introduce some starting quests of

Death Dog

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual

, favoring the wounded or infirm. They attack recklessly, infecting as many creatures as possible with their diseased jaws. If driven off, death dogs linger close to their victims, letting infection weaken

their prey before they attack again. Legends tie death dogs to malicious death gods, the underworld, and cursed rulers. These stories are based on the malady death dogs spread. Roll on or choose a result

Darguun

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron

many human cities are built on goblin foundations. This empire collapsed into savagery, and when humanity arrived, goblins were driven from their ancestral lands or enslaved. Galifar ended the

hobgoblin clans known as the Ghaal’dar were based in the Seawall Mountains, but during the Last War the demand for mercenaries drew an ever-increasing number of goblins out of the mountains to fight

Intrigue

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

Intrigue Intrigue adventures are event-based adventures that revolve around power struggles. Intrigues are common in the courts of the nobility, but power struggles can play out just as easily in

the event-based goals discussed earlier in this section lend themselves to intrigue adventures. For example, if the adventurers must uncover a conspiracy, negotiate a peace treaty, or secure aid from

Save the Mill

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tyranny of Dragons

. Inside, the main floor is dominated by a massive stone grinding wheel driven by a water wheel in the stream. The mill was operating late when the raid began and the millers fled without disengaging the

healthy defenders arrive from the keep with orders to relieve the characters and defend the mill. They tell the characters to go back to the keep quietly while they remain behind at the mill. Rewards

The Ordning

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants

place within the larger framework of the ordning, and each kind of giant has a different way of assigning that place. Cloud giants rank themselves based on wealth, fire giants based on crafting skill

, frost giants based on physical strength, and stone giants based on a combination of artistry and rock throwing. Hill giants give their respect to larger and stronger giants without putting much thought

The Zhentarim

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Out of the Abyss

rewards ambition, granting its members autonomy to pursue their own interests and gain some measure of personal power or influence. In this way, the organization is a meritocracy. The Zhentarim welcomes

fate would destroy the Zhentarim’s plans for control of Faerûn. Davra Jassur Lawful evil human assassin Ideals: Order, discipline, ambition Personality: Driven, focused, ruthless Potential

Save the Mill

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Hoard of the Dragon Queen

. Inside, the main floor is dominated by a massive stone grinding wheel driven by a water wheel in the stream. The mill was operating late when the raid began and the millers fled without disengaging the

healthy defenders arrive from the keep with orders to relieve the characters and defend the mill. They tell the characters to go back to the keep quietly while they remain behind at the mill. Rewards

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