User:TheStoryEnthusiast

Hi

It's me, your local, queer, autistic, depressed, communist, lawful evil scoundrel of a DM (whose boyfriend loves him so much, he'll have you know). If any of this offends you, there's a little "X" at the top of your browser, you can go ahead and click that for me. D&D has held a special place in my heart for the better part of a decade now, and I'm not about to see any of it get dirtied in the name of some middle-school OC-do-not-steal style content.

If you're here because I requested your page to be deleted, left a rather honest and informative criticism, or perhaps made an edit you did not solicit from me, I'm not sorry; if you're here because you're an admin, it wasn't me; and if you're here because you're interested in what I've done on the site,

good, you can stay.

Glow-Up

First and foremost, how are you getting along? Have you got all your materials? Well in case you don't, here's a little something for each of you:

• Dicecloud is a 100% free and super-modular online character sheet
• Anydice is a great website for rolling, but I personally use it for all the delicious probability charts
• Fantasy Name Generators is handy and self-explanitory
• Tabletop Audio is a must have for any session, online or in-person
• The Homebrewery is where you should put all your stuff after getting it peer-reviewed here, look at that lovely, printable page art!
• Medieval Fantasy City Generator is beautiful and self-explanitory
• DnD Speak is a fabulous little blog filled with supplementary tables. Give it some love!

Now that you have that, let's talk DM:

• Always, always, always make an introduction document to your campaign and world for the players to read before starting your campaign
• Never, ever, ever plan the final boss before the campaign starts
• If your players are experienced, at session 1 ask each one for 5 rumors about their character (2 good, 2 bad, 1 false) on slips of paper, mix them in a hat, and pass one or two slips out for each player (possibly more for higher Charisma characters, your choice)
• If your players are inexperienced, take it slow, lean more towards the roleplay aspect, and keep the battles small (with numbers of enemies equal to the party)
• At some point, have your party go on a boat on the open ocean (if it makes sense), hint at them being attacked by a sea monster, but never actually make it happen (instead, have a mutiny be planned and executed, it's a great opportunity for roleplay and multi-level combat)
• At some point, have your party attend a grand ball (if it makes sense), and watch the networking/espionage/chaos/splendor unfold
• At some point, have your party go on a sky-ship (if it makes sense), and have them try to help repair the ship as a terrible storm is ripping it apart

And if you're a player:

• Cool your heels and realize: your character's stats don't affect much, especially in the early game. A +5 is only 25% more likely to succeed, and by some point everything is gonna scale so you're less likely to succeed anyways
• Seriously
• Like, flawed and vulnerable characters are so much more fun to play because they add an element of thrill to the game. That fear of not knowing whether you're going to succeed or fail is such a fabulous part of this game

And lastly, if you want to homebrew:

• Don't
• At least, not yet. First, write every little idea you have on paper, then see if it either
  • Introduces a new mechanic or fresh take on a mechanic
  • Introduces a new thematic concept that hasn't been touched upon
• If neither of those apply, please just use what's already available
• Really, let's not reinvent the wheel over and over

Articles & Such

Here's all the stuff I've made so far:

• The Nomad (5e Class), huge thanks again to Blobby for balancing and wikifying, literally couldn't have gotten featured without you!
• Expert (5e Rogue Subclass), an expirement in a non-combat rogue
• Placebo Enhancer (5e Potion), a funny little idea
• The Mascot (5e Class), using failure to their advantage
• SUPER. HOT. (5e Monk Subclass), because I, too, play the vidja games
• Oath of Perfection (5e Paladin Subclass), my personal take on a philosophical paladin oath, rather than an organized one
• The Underdog (5e Class), was inspired by some user content to make a batman-style everyman class. Has a lot of fun with the action economy
• The Landsknecht (5e Fighter Subclass), also inspired by user content mixed with a side of HEMA (but like, narratively and mechanically sound, so not 100% historically accurate)

On the other hand, here's stuff I didn't originally post but have put a great deal of love into:

• The Path of Iron (5e Barbarian Subclass), pretty much 100% rewritten
• The Path of Gruumsh (5e Barbarian Subclass), because I love monster characters
• Archivist Tradition (5e Wizard Subclass), because the title inspired me, but the content was so lackluster
• College of the Jester (5e Bard Subclass)

Here's what I'm currently working on:

• Speak Easy (5e Campaign), honestly not gonna work on this one until the campaign/playtest is done, then I'll infodump most of it here
• Eidolon (5e Race), a beautiful little idea for a player race
• Ethereal Machinist (5e Subclass), Path of the Undying (5e Subclass), College of Wisps (5e Subclass), Ascetic Domain, Eidolon (5e Subclass), an ongoing experiment in the function of subclasses
• (5e Campaign Setting), another vidger game idea

And most importantly, here's what I found of you guys' that I've been interested in!

• The Weapons Fanatic (5e Fighter Subclass), because this boy is still my favorite depiction of a fighter ever
• The Dread Fighter (5e Prestige Class), because its an actually decent 5e prestige class (and because I'm a sucker for normals fighting magic-users)
• The Human Paragon (5e Racial Class), because it's a decent non-combat racial (prestige?) class
• The Adventurer (5e Class), because the concept is interesting (but I'm about to rewrite allllllll of it)
• Variant Gestalt (5e Variant Rule), because part of me still misses 3.5
• The True Artificer (5e Class), because it looks good but I'm about to scour this puppy for balance issues. If it's good, I'll be using it in all my future campaigns