before both deciding chance record

Mapping

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

Mapping A character not focused on any other task — including watching for danger while traveling — can record the group’s progress through the Underdark and create a map of the route. Such a map can

be a useful resource in later chapters of the adventure when the characters retrace their steps. Having a map allows the party to navigate that area without any chance of becoming lost.

The Middle Path

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

The Middle Path Many DMs find that using a combination of the two approaches works best. By balancing the use of dice against deciding on success, you can encourage your players to strike a balance

tools to help keep the action moving. At any time, you can decide that a player’s action is automatically successful. You can also grant the player advantage on any ability check, reducing the chance of a

Using Ability Scores

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

deciding whether to use a roll, ask yourself two questions: Is a task so easy and so free of conflict and stress that there should be no chance of failure? Is a task so inappropriate or impossible — such

Involving the Characters

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

Involving the Characters Once you’ve identified what your campaign is about, let the players help tell the story by deciding how their characters are involved. This is their opportunity to tie their

characters’ history and background to the campaign, and a chance for you to determine how the various elements of each character’s background tie into the campaign’s story. For example, what secret

Orc Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

, where they join Gruumsh’s army and fight on his behalf in the endless war against the goblinoid followers of Maglubiyet. Gruumsh sees this conflict as a chance to pit his people against an eager

everywhere in the world around them, and the priests of a tribe are entrusted with the responsibility of identifying these signs and omens — both good and bad — and deciding how the tribe should

Procedure

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Procedure The lizardfolk start out indifferent toward the characters and, by extension, Saltmarsh. To track the attitude of the lizardfolk, use points to record the characters’ progress toward

irrevocably hostile if the characters’ total number of points drops to 0 or lower even after the queen offers them chances at diplomacy and ways to improve their standing. If this happens, after the lizardfolk give them a second chance, the characters’ mission ends in failure.

Forming a Team

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

and map of the Biblioplex (map 3.1), see chapter 3. If characters don’t immediately leap at the chance to form a Mage Tower team for the Battle of Strixhaven, emphasize that every peer they speak with

wants to see them participate. In addition to social rewards, the characters learn that participating in the Battle of Strixhaven earns them a permanent commendation on their student record, as well

Ability Checks

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

involved.” Sometimes the rules allow for any one of two or more proficiencies to apply to a check. When deciding what check a character should make, be generous in determining if the character’s

of a passive ability check to other abilities and skills. For example, if your game features a lot of social interaction, you can record each character’s Passive Insight score, calculated in much the same way as Passive Perception: 10 plus all modifiers that normally apply to a Wisdom (Insight) check.

Camp Alertness

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

cry, which quickly draws a crowd. A roll of 10 or lower means someone has recognized the character from the fight in Greenest. The characters have a chance to get away if they immediately go on the

as if they’d been recognized. If characters lie to Mondath—claiming they are new recruits and this is all a mistake, for example, or that they are studying the cult before deciding whether to join

Initiative Variants

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

and take them out before they have a chance to act. Speed Factor Some DMs find the regular progression of initiative too predictable and prone to abuse. Players can use their knowledge of the initiative

example, a fighter wants to turn a winch to raise a portcullis. This is a complex, difficult action. You could rule that it incurs a -5 initiative penalty. Rolling Initiative. After deciding on an action

Angels in the Outlands

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

Angels in the Outlands CoupleOfKooks “If you think you’re prepared for the ultimate struggle between good and evil, the deciding contest between all that is righteous and all that is foul, then to

, and the next batter steps up to home plate. Home Run. A batter who rolls a 20 on the die hits a home run. The defending team doesn’t get a chance to catch the ball, and the batter and every other team

Camp Alertness

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

the hue and cry, which quickly draws a crowd. A roll of 10 or lower means someone has recognized the character from the fight in Greenest. The characters have a chance to get away if they immediately

effect is the same as if they’d been recognized. If characters lie to Mondath — claiming they are new recruits and this is all a mistake, for example, or that they are studying the cult before deciding

Hidden Rune

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

Xen’drik in Eberron), members of the Hidden Rune venture into the ruins of these lost civilizations to collect any writings, technology, and artifacts they find. On worlds with no historical record of

giants can be persuaded to share it. 6 An agent of the Hidden Rune steals an important artifact and flees to another world, but the adventurers have a chance to follow. There’s a myth behind the name of

Jergal

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

record the passing of the living and to aid Kelemvor in seeing that souls are properly bound to their appropriate afterlife. He is rarely acknowledged directly, except for being mentioned at funerals

quickly ascertaining that the winner of the contest would receive all of Jergal’s power, he chased off after the three skulls to make sure that the contest would be halted until he had a chance to

Monastic Orders

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

, not just the darkness. Grant and take each new chance to be virtuous. Shine light into darkness. Share the soul’s light with the world. Light up dark places with your presence and banish shadow. Due

welcome the diseased and the dying so that they might watch and record their deaths. If such unfortunates seek release from pain through death, the monks provide it. They view death as a gift that

Sports and Games

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

are the fastest in the race, and overall have the best record. The reigning champion is the Pegasus of Highwater, whose supporters wear white and silver. The Hippogriff is tied to Overlook and

competition, but most are debtors who have been offered a chance to pay off their loans by winning the match. Daask takes bets on the outcome, and usually earns a tidy sum as its share of the proceeds.

Inspiration

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

those conventions. Players and Inspiration. Remember that a player with inspiration can award it to another player. Some groups even like to treat inspiration as a group resource, deciding collectively

approach makes your life easier and also gives players the chance to recognize each other for good play. You still need to make sure that inspiration is being awarded fairly. This approach works best with

Creating a Combat Encounter

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

there’s a slim chance that one or more characters might die. Deadly. A deadly encounter could be lethal for one or more player characters. Survival often requires good tactics and quick thinking, and

(400 + 400 + 400 + 200) Record the totals, because you can use them for every encounter in your adventure. Total the Monsters’ XP. Add up the XP for all of the monsters in the encounter. Every

Factions of Gracklstugh

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

laird, who rules over his or her own holdings and directs the clan in dedicating its efforts toward a particular trade or craft. A caste of priests called thuldar officiate all rituals and record the

are duergar soulblades (see appendix C) who roam the streets of Gracklstugh searching for psionically gifted children to abduct and train. They also keep an eye out for worthy calassabrak (see below), offering them a chance to join a new community from which they can strike back at those who cast them out.

Fortune's Wheel Locations

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

Bounty. Named after a god of revelry, this game is played on a long table embroidered with a flat pattern of an unfolded, twenty-sided die. The game’s dealer is also its deciding piece: a spectator

experience: an exciting game of chance where fortunes are won or lost. The fortune’s wheel consists of three concentric spinning wheels and measures 10 feet in diameter. It occupies its own roped-off

Platinum Room Locations

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

characters’ sight, such as area P1. Winning the Contest. There is a 50 percent chance for either Bowolg or Volsheez to win their ages-long battle, but which of these fantastically slow-moving entities

characters’ unique situation is a result of a planar imbalance caused by a group of modrons lost in the Outlands. She hopes that by manipulating the data these modrons record, she can profitably influence

Tomb Locations

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Candlekeep Mysteries

ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes. The creature can wait until after it rolls the d20 before deciding to use the number, but it must decide before the DM says whether the roll succeeds

come to me. It is part of me.” Flaw. “Each future that allows a chance for my failure to occur must be tracked, must be focused on, and must be destroyed.” Fate’s Boon. All creatures in the room

Headquarters Features

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

players and the DM. Group Design When selecting a feature, the characters must make decisions together — meaning the players must do the same. Deciding on the features of a headquarters should be a team

and features do not change, and individuals interacting with the ship or investigating its appearance have a chance to see the true form of the ship and its crew. Spectral Wait Staff. A tavern

Tower of the Heavens Locations

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Quests from the Infinite Staircase

one chance to explain themselves. A shrewd, calculating liar, Piyarz tries to make the characters doubt anything Hadley might have told them. Piyarz hopes to convince them his assumed title of elder

planets relative to the lattice, the sages can precisely record the movements of the heavens. The statues are two gargoyles. They’re trained to attack any visitors unaccompanied by a tower sage or tower

Grimskalle Locations (G15-G23)

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

you determine whether the vault door in area G20 can be opened or not. It is strictly a tool for DM record-keeping and not meant to be shared with the players. Permission is granted to photocopy this

nomads on their journey and endure the same hardship. The trip is a grueling march across the tundra with the wind against them the whole time. There’s no chance of a party member becoming lost in

Roleplaying a Giant

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

giant’s armor and weapons are as much a record of its battle honors as its trophy collection is, for those who know how to read the signs. Notches carved into the haft of a weapon show the number and

weaker than its kin has a low rank in the ordning and practically no chance of rising any higher. At times, when a giant becomes intensely frustrated with that situation, it turns to clandestine

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