before blasting defenses concept rather

Water Weird Legacy

Monsters Monster Manual (2014)

those its summoner declares as off limits. When slain, a water weird becomes an inanimate pool of water. Good and Evil Weirds. Like most elementals, a water weird has no concept of good or evil

interlopers rather than kill them, while a neutral evil water weird kills its victims for pleasure and might turn against its summoner. A water weird loses its evil alignment if its waters are cleansed

War Magic

Classes Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A variety of arcane colleges specialize in training wizards for war. The tradition of War Magic blends principles of evocation and abjuration, rather than specializing in either of those schools. It

teaches techniques that empower a caster’s spells, while also providing methods for wizards to bolster their own defenses. Followers of this tradition are known as war mages. They see their

War Magic (XGtE)

Classes Xanathar's Guide to Everything

A variety of arcane colleges specialize in training wizards for war. The tradition of War Magic blends principles of evocation and abjuration, rather than specializing in either of those schools. It

teaches techniques that empower a caster’s spells, while also providing methods for wizards to bolster their own defenses. Followers of this tradition are known as war mages. They see their

Firbolg Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

the group’s needs, but the effect each action will have on the forest and the rest of the natural world. Firbolg tribes would rather go hungry than strain the land during a famine. Hidden

Shepherds As caretakers of the land, firbolgs prefer to remain out of sight and out of mind. They don’t try to dominate nature, but rather seek to ensure that it prospers and survives according to its

Ancient Dragon Turtle

Monsters Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

the surrounding water—and any creatures in it. And even if an enemy wears down the dragon turtle’s defenses, magical storms manifest to shield the dragon turtle and strike at foes

following lair actions; the dragon turtle can’t take the same lair action two rounds in a row: Blasting Current. A strong water current moves through the dragon turtle’s lair. Each creature

Goliath Legacy

Species Elemental Evil Player's Companion

the goliath concept of fair play. A permanently injured goliath is still expected to pull his or her weight in the tribe. Typically, such a goliath dies attempting to keep up, or the goliath slips

away in the night to seek the cold will of fate. In some ways, the goliath drive to outdo themselves feeds into the grim inevitability of their decline and death. A goliath would much rather die in

Kobold Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

, the kobolds are usually put to work enlarging their masters’ living area and protecting vital areas of the lair with traps and other defenses. Some human communities hire kobolds to dig their

other useful items, but if they are at risk of discovery, they run away rather than attack anyone in the house. By fleeing before they can be seen or identified, they avoid getting into a situation

Character Names

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

names, that’s fine. If the group would rather take the characters and their names a little more seriously, urge Bob’s player to come up with a more appropriate name. Player character names should match

each other in flavor or concept, and they should also match the flavor of your campaign world — so should the nonplayer characters’ names and place names you create. Travok and Kairon don’t want to undertake a quest for Lord Cupcake, visit Gumdrop Island, or take down a crazy wizard named Ray.

Simic Scientist

Backgrounds Guildmasters’ Guide to Ravnica

advancing civilization, nature needs some help from biomancers and terraformers. If, along the way, you happen to create super-soldiers and mutant monsters that can bolster the combine’s defenses

Everything I do is an attempt to impress someone I love. Flaws d6 Flaw 1 I have a rather embarrassing mutation that I do everything I can to keep hidden. 2 I’m more

Goblin Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

the fringes of a society first test its defenses by stealing objects, and if these crimes go unpunished, they begin stealing people. Enslaved creatures receive the worst treatment the goblins can dish

circlet of blasting, or the like) and learned how to use it. Booyahg Whip. Khurgorbaeyag saw fit to gift this goblin with powers that enable it to dominate others. The goblin has 1d3 other goblins

Survival of the Fittest

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Volo's Guide to Monsters

pity for adults who can’t take care of themselves, though a sick or injured individual is treated, as a result of the goliath concept of fair play. A permanently injured goliath is still expected to

themselves feeds into the grim inevitability of their decline and death. A goliath would much rather die in battle, at the peak of strength and skill, than endure the slow decay of old age. Few folk

Barbarians

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide

Barbarians Closest to the dark elves, Pwent lowered his head, with its long helmet spike, and impaled one elf through the chest, blasting through the fine mesh of drow armor easily and brutally. The

from warmer southern lands, rather than the Savage North, although southern foundlings are sometimes adopted in the North and raised by tribes there.

Fate of the Hourglass Coven

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

one of the hags is still alive. The surviving hags can sense when Zybilna is released from temporal stasis—or, rather, they can sense when their hold over Prismeer is lost. The instant Zybilna regains

is beyond the scope of this adventure; flesh out its occupants and defenses as you see fit if the characters decide to pay the hags a visit. Zybilna takes no immediate action against the surviving hags

Origin of the Ordning

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

the ordning in some mythic future. Giants on some worlds (including Eberron) have no concept of the ordning at all. Such giants might think of themselves as a single species, with the differences

among giant kinds reflecting a cultural or geographical distinction rather than an inherent one. They might live in bands composed of multiple giant kinds or family groups of a single kind. Or giants of

Evil Inchoate

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

absolute evil, demons have no concept of empathy. Each demon believes that only its needs and desires matter. This self-centeredness applies even with regard to other demons. These fiends have no

. Such a site is usually protected with intricate traps, mindless servants, and other defenses that bring no risk of subversion or betrayal. If an archdevil were ever to acquire a demonic amulet

Character Advancement

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

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

designed to take 2 hours, the character reaches 3 checkpoints. Playing time might seem like an odd way to measure experience awards, but the concept is in keeping with how a shared campaign is meant to

Across the Fungal Fields

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

. Unfortunately, they have no means of assuring the slumbering fungal entity of their intentions, and the growing threat posed by Zuggtmoy and the demon lords has roused Araumycos’s defenses. The pastel

rise up and attack the characters. Created by Araumycos to perfectly duplicate the abilities, traits, and actions of otyughs, these creatures are plants rather than aberrations. They attack until slain

Secret

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

holy symbol that represents that divinity. Some clerics, especially in a world like Eberron, serve a whole pantheon, rather than a single deity. In certain campaigns, a cleric might instead serve a

cosmic force, such as life or death, or a philosophy or concept, such as love, peace, or one of the nine alignments. Chapter 1 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide explores options like these, in the section

Darklords

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

adventures rather than saving them for distant climactic plots. Darklords Don’t Realize They’re Darklords. With a few exceptions, Darklords don’t realize they occupy a special place in the world. Their

concept of how long they’ve lived, how many times they’ve died, or why they returned to life. Should a Darklord fall, the temporary defeat lasts until they’re restored by the Dark Powers. In their

Water Weird

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monster Manual (2014)

. Good and Evil Weirds. Like most elementals, a water weird has no concept of good or evil. However, a water weird bound to a sacred or befouled source of water begins to take on the nature of that site

, becoming neutral good or neutral evil. A neutral good water weird tries to frighten away interlopers rather than kill them, while a neutral evil water weird kills its victims for pleasure and might

Yuan-ti Cities

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Volo's Guide to Monsters

yuan-ti content themselves with maintaining these ancient places rather than building new ones for their needs. Although these sites are hundreds or even thousands of years old, they don’t look or feel

reflects human ideas about art and beauty. Over time this perspective was skewed toward the concept that the snake is the perfect form, so serpents are a common theme in their aesthetic. The major

During the Siege

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

During the Siege Run the siege as a series of encounters rather than one extended battle. As terrible events unfold around the characters, it’s up to them to determine who and how they’ll help. Begin

horde soon begins overwhelming defenses nearby. Once the characters defeat a few zombies, roll 1d6 and consult the Zombie Siege Encounters table. The event rolled unfolds within sight of one of the

Introduction

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1

you receive a cancer diagnosis or a similar health news, you probably appreciate that concept a little more than other people. Watching someone you love waste away is a terrible thing. You want a

magic button to bring things back to the way they should be, this person you love so much restored to who they really are rather than what cancer is grinding them down into. It’s easy to give in to

Mirabar

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide

maintains docks, ships, and fortified harbors on many of the islands in the Sea of Swords, and as such the city is always seeking magical and military support for these defenses. Where other cities

might use such vast mountains of coin as Mirabar possesses on shows of prosperity, Mirabarrens use it for more functional goals, making sure that the city’s defenses are new, that its gates close

Appendix A: Shared Campaigns

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

hard to keep a campaign going. Enter the concept of the shared campaign. In a shared campaign, more than one member of the group can take on the role of DM. A shared campaign is episodic rather than

Dragon Turtle Lairs

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Fizban's Treasury of Dragons

. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon turtle can take one of the following lair actions; the dragon turtle can’t take the same lair action two rounds in a row: Blasting Current

missing patch of shell. However, rather than humbling the great dragon turtle, these injuries have made him more irascible. Those who meet the dragon turtle are advised to pay whatever price he asks, and to treat him with the deference he believes he deserves.

Enemies All Around

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

off, the dragon might start to test its outer defenses in advance of mounting a larger assault. This strategy can take years to come to fruition, but from the dragon’s perspective it is time well

to possess the material goods in a stronghold’s hoard, and would much rather snatch up living treasure. Using its powers of deception, a green dragon might try to entice dwarves it encounters to ally

Modifying a Class

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

, paladins might not swear their oaths to ideals, but instead swear fealty to powerful sorcerers. To capture this story concept, you could build a new paladin spell list with spells meant to protect

opportunity to develop the character’s story and that of your world, rather than shutting down possibilities. Substituting Class Features If one or more features of a given class don’t exactly fit the theme

Warforged Colossus

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Eberron: Rising from the Last War

of elemental rock, blasting out elemental air to deflect ranged attacks, and so on. The captain of the colossus could control all this weaponry through the docent network, but for optimal performance

though a colossus has fallen, its docent nodes and elemental defenses might still be active. The dragonshards that once bound the elemental that powered the colossus’s main weapon might have been

39. Big Ears Watch Post

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

gold rather than stone. Treasure. The gold circlet is a circlet of blasting. 39b. Bugbear Den Three bugbears sit in the middle of the floor, eating from a sack of dead rats and stirges. One of them

Staff

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Acquisitions Incorporated

concept behind the hirelings and selecting one proficiency for each. The DM can then customize the hirelings as desired, perhaps by adding additional proficiencies or adjusting their combat statistics

(sailors for a seagoing franchise, engineers for a giant hollow statue, and so on). Crew do not leave a franchise and cannot perform franchise tasks. They typically run rather than fight back when attacked

Mind Flayer Magic

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Volo's Guide to Monsters

after death would its consciousness be cast into oblivion. Two divine entities have long been associated with mind flayers by the scholars of other races. These aren’t deities, but rather

attitude — actions that have often been misinterpreted by observers as worship. Maanzecorian. The entity/concept called Maanzecorian embodies a complete comprehension of knowledge. It is a state

Rejecting the Ordning

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

one their kind traditionally values. These are often giants whose ranking within their kind is low. For example, a contemplative cloud giant might pursue knowledge rather than wealth, or a weak frost

otherwise enjoy in the ordning. When giants join the cults of demon lords, they reject the entire concept of the ordning—the idea that there is any kind of order to the multiverse at all, which is the

Battle Smith

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

them. Tasha Armies require protection, and someone has to put things back together if defenses fail. A combination of protector and medic, a Battle Smith is an expert at defending others and

other than the defender. Extra Attack 5th-level Battle Smith feature You can attack twice, rather than once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Arcane Jolt 9th-level Battle Smith feature

The Path to Perfection

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

of time. Rather than imparting his skills to them, he fueled their spirits with a burning desire to follow his example. His gifts of durability and purpose gave the dwarves all they needed to devote

been used for centuries, without considering the possibility that its enemies have discovered how to overcome those defenses. The dwarves’ way of thinking leads to difficulties in their relationships

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