before build deciding causes reason

Darkling Legacy

Monsters Volo's Guide to Monsters

chambers beneath the towns of other species. From such enclaves, they quietly ply their trade as thieves and assassins. The Killing Light. The Summer Queen's curse causes a darkling's body to absorb light

, and doing so wizens the creature, much like the effect of rapid aging. For this reason, darklings cover every part of their body with clothing when exposure to light is a risk. The light a darkling

Darkling Elder Legacy

Monsters Volo's Guide to Monsters

. The Killing Light. The Summer Queen's curse causes a darkling's body to absorb light, and doing so wizens the creature, much like the effect of rapid aging. For this reason, darklings cover every

Returned Kakomantis

Monsters Mythic Odysseys of Theros

, which manifest as separate beings known as eidolons. The experience of escaping the Underworld also causes them to lose their faces, which become expressionless surfaces with empty eye sockets and gaping

’t build meaningful relationships or establish new lives. Instead, most experience fleeting emotions and follow hollow routines, their existences reduced to shadow plays without weight or substance

Returned Drifter

Monsters Mythic Odysseys of Theros

), the Returned lose their identities, which manifest as separate beings known as eidolons. The experience of escaping the Underworld also causes them to lose their faces, which become expressionless

long-term memories, they generally can’t build meaningful relationships or establish new lives. Instead, most experience fleeting emotions and follow hollow routines, their existences reduced to

Returned Sentry

Monsters Mythic Odysseys of Theros

, which manifest as separate beings known as eidolons. The experience of escaping the Underworld also causes them to lose their faces, which become expressionless surfaces with empty eye sockets and gaping

’t build meaningful relationships or establish new lives. Instead, most experience fleeting emotions and follow hollow routines, their existences reduced to shadow plays without weight or substance

Returned Palamnite

Monsters Mythic Odysseys of Theros

known as eidolons. The experience of escaping the Underworld also causes them to lose their faces, which become expressionless surfaces with empty eye sockets and gaping mouths. These blank surfaces

they cover with distinctive golden masks. Returned reenter the world blank and undead. No longer possessing the ability to form long-term memories, they generally can’t build meaningful

Human Legacy

Species Basic Rules (2014)

shorter lives that they strive to achieve as much as they can in the years they are given. Or maybe they feel they have something to prove to the elder races, and that’s why they build their mighty

build cities to last for the ages, and great kingdoms that can persist for long centuries. An individual human might have a relatively short life span, but a human nation or culture preserves

Mercenary Veteran

Backgrounds Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

possibilities.) Now you’re looking for something else, perhaps greater reward for the risks you take, or the freedom to choose your own activities. For whatever reason, you’re leaving

promote elven causes or involve destroying orcs, gnolls, and the like. Prospective employers must leave written word (in Elvish) near Evereska, and the Silent Rain sends a representative if interested. The

Auril (Second Form)

Monsters Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

Short or Long Rest). Auril causes a magical blast of cold air to erupt from her hand. Each creature in a 60-foot cone must make a DC 21 Constitution saving throw, taking 36 (8d8);{"diceNotation":"8d8

damage from swirling ice, and nonmagical, open flames in that area are extinguished. Splinter (Costs 3 Actions). Auril uses Create Ice Mephit or causes one to ice mephit she can see within 60 feet of

Eye and Hand of Vecna Legacy

Magic Items Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)

’s lieutenant Kas coveted the Spider Throne for himself, or that the sword his lord made for him seduced him into rebellion. Whatever the reason, Kas brought the Undying King’s rule to an

both the hand and eye, you gain the following additional benefits: You are immune to disease and poison. Using the eye’s X-ray vision never causes you to suffer exhaustion. You experience

Tortle Legacy

Species The Tortle Package

dozen) in a fortified compound enclosed by stone walls that are easily defensible. If no such compound exists, they build one. The parents spend the remainder of their lives guarding the compound

prefer simple, non-gender-specific names that are usually no more than two syllables. If a tortle doesn’t like its name for whatever reason, it can change it. A tortle might change its name a dozen

Paladin Legacy

Classes Basic Rules (2014)

yourself before gods and mortals. Your oath and alignment might be in harmony, or your oath might represent standards of behavior that you have not yet attained. QUICK BUILD You can make a paladin

for the lesser of two evils, and sometimes the heat of emotion causes a paladin to transgress his or her oath. A paladin who has broken a vow typically seeks absolution from a cleric who shares his or

Kobold Legacy

Species Volo's Guide to Monsters

sewer tunnels, paying them with food and tools the kobolds wouldn’t have access to on their own. If they are treated well and left alone to do the job, the kobolds work industriously and build a

, they might build a warren and make a permanent home there, while continuing to expand the town’s sewers as the community grows. These so-called “city kobolds” live underground but

Chapter 1: This Is Your Life

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

experience before deciding to become an adventurer? What were the circumstances of your birth? How large is your family, and what sorts of relationships do you have with your relatives? Which people

backstory for your character — an autobiography of sorts — that you can use to inform how you roleplay the character. Your DM can draw from this material as the campaign proceeds, creating situations and scenarios that build off your previous life experiences.

Ability Checks

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

creature’s efforts. In a contest, the ability checks are compared to each other, rather than to a target number. When you call for a contest, you pick the ability that each side must use, deciding

Constitution Stamina and health Endure a marathon, grasp hot metal without flinching, win a drinking contest Intelligence Memory and reason Recall a bit of lore, recognize a clue’s significance

Gravity Planes

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Spelljammer: Adventures in Space->Astral Adventurer’s Guide

Gravity Planes The reason everything pulls its own atmosphere along through space is the force of gravity. It’s also the reason why creatures can stand on a spacefaring ship without falling off the

gravity plane is that an object that falls off the side of a ship can end up oscillating back and forth across the gravity plane. It drops in one direction until it crosses the plane, then reverses direction back toward the plane again, continuing until something causes it to stop.

Wearing and Wielding Items

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)

magic item that's meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they magically adjust themselves to the wearer. Rare

exceptions exist. If the story suggests a good reason for an item to fit only creatures of a certain size or shape, you can rule that it doesn't adjust. For example, drow-made armor might fit elves only

Tragedy

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

Tragedy Ghosts embody the pain and grief that surround death. To build an effective ghost story adventure, present either the ghost or those they haunt as the tragic victims of painful circumstance

to prevent these heirs from inheriting what is rightly theirs. 7 Society shunned the ghost unfairly in life. 8 Association with the ghost causes their living victim to be shunned by

Using the Golden Vault

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Keys from the Golden Vault

profane entity. Four adventurers hired to retrieve the book from Delphi Mansion have disappeared without a trace. We have good reason to believe they’re dead. This quest, should you choose to undertake

it, requires you to travel to Delphi Mansion and retrieve The Celestial Codex. May you fare better than the last group. Good luck, operatives.” Closing the music box causes the golden key to vanish.

17. Midden

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Infernal Machine Rebuild

end of their move. If the check fails by 5 or more, the character slides 5 feet closer to the pit. Manipulating Time Having a mechanical guide spend 1 charge in this area causes a lizardfolk to appear

here with a bucket of waste to dispose of. The lizardfolk ignores the characters, expecting that anyone hanging out in the midden must have some good reason to do so.

The Darklake

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

The Darklake To move their expeditionary force across the Darklake, the characters must build rafts or coracles from Underdark materials, or seek out duergar or kuo-toa ferries for hire. Each ferry

chapter 1) was not killed in a previous chapter of the adventure, the characters find him among Sloobludop’s survivors. He is the sole point of calm and reason in the ruined settlement, and the various

The Dark Powers

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

villains to add to their terrifying menagerie. To what end, no one knows. The Dark Powers don’t move in the shadows of Ravenloft; they are the shadows. They’re the Mists and the darkness. They’re the reason

. These diminished vestiges manipulate their realm to create negative forces that sustain their essence and build toward renewed apotheosis. Rudolph, I write you in the throes of a most perplexing

Darklings

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

the towns of other species. From such enclaves, they quietly ply their trade as thieves and assassins. Darkling The Summer Queen’s curse causes a darkling’s body to absorb light, which wizens the

creature, much like the effect of rapid aging. For this reason, darklings cover their entire bodies with clothing when exposure to light is a risk. The light darklings absorb over the course of their

Wearing and Wielding Items

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

cases, a magic item that’s meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they magically adjust themselves to the wearer. Rare

exceptions exist. If the story suggests a good reason for an item to fit only creatures of a certain size or shape, you can rule that it doesn’t adjust. For example, armor made by the drow might fit

One for All: The Stronghold

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

at the touch of a child when they are unlocked. While some other races erect statues or build special structures to honor their heroes or commemorate momentous events, the dwarves live and work within

of art makes any stronghold a prime target for thieves and raiders. For that reason, the entrance to a stronghold doesn’t broadcast its presence by being a stellar example of dwarven stonework. The

Tenets

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

initiation, which includes a solemn oath of secrecy, learn deeper truths that build upon the basic tenets of the group: Preexistent Souls. The souls of mortal beings have always existed and aren’t part of

lest they be destroyed along with it. Lost Causes. Those who don’t accept the teachings of the Heralds of the Comet are doomed to destruction, and they deserve pity. Initiates are taught to warn

Hermit

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)

stuffed full of notes from your studies or prayers, a winter blanket, a set of common clothes, an herbalism kit, and 5 gp Life of Seclusion What was the reason for your isolation, and what changed to

allow you to end your solitude? You can work with your DM to determine the exact nature of your seclusion, or you can choose or roll on the table below to determine the reason behind your seclusion

Build Your Group

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

Build Your Group Naturally, a large portion of the Boromar Clan’s members come from a criminal background. There’s no reason characters with other backgrounds can’t be part of the syndicate, though

Minions and Pets

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

beholder can kill them whenever it wants and it is in their best interest to stop resisting and just obey the beholder’s orders. Minions build walls in the beholder’s lair, distribute food to other

last line of defense against foes that threaten the inner sanctum. Pets A beholder often has one or more pets in its lair, mainly because (for whatever reason) it enjoys the company of such creatures

Inside the Cult

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica

fear that any other guild might gain enough power to overwhelm all the others and impose its own values on everyone. For this reason, they focus their efforts on subverting other guilds’ schemes, by

undermining popular and powerful leaders and interfering — often violently — with any effort to build a centralized concentration of authority. The Azorius Senate currently stands as the greatest

Build Your Group

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

Build Your Group Newspapers employ a wide range of adventurers to bring news back to the home office. Consider some or all of these roles for the characters in your party: Voice of BRELAND

’ wealth and influence. Whose interest, then, does the Chronicle serve? All the more reason, loyal readers, to rely on the Voice of Breland for unbiased news you can use. Civilian. Some groups include

Adventure Models

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

,” both in chapter 2). The Against the Giants table offers suggestions for adventure hooks you can use to build an adventure following this theme. On the world I call home, three linked mountain ranges

of bystanders while the giant deals with (or holds back) the greater threat. The Clash of Titans table provides a sampling of adventure hooks you can use to build an adventure along these lines

Howler

Compendium - Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Monsters of the Multiverse

in horror and stumble around the battlefield in a search for safety. Fiends especially prize howlers for this reason, because for a few crucial moments in a battle, their howls can neutralize an

enemy. Why does the howler sing? Doing so causes its prey to flee, and surely stealth would make for better hunting in howling Pandemonium. There is only one answer: the creature can taste fear

Adirohit's Retribution

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

river and that soon enough humans will build a new, greater city on its banks. He invites the characters to rest here under his protection and tell him how the world has changed. Amanisha has no

causes the following treasures to rise upon a geyser from the ruins beneath the island, bequeathing them upon the characters: A fist-sized sapphire worth 6,000 gp An emerald elemental gem that

Giants and Other Ancients

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

. You could build an entire campaign in the shadow of such a conflict, which is basically taking the ideas described under “Clash of Titans” earlier in this chapter and extending them through many

thousand years for good reason: neither giants nor dragons were ever particularly numerous, and actual skirmishes between giants and dragons were rare. For this reason, you could run a campaign where battles

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