A DnD Nerd's Notes

Just a big nerd trying not to forget my gatdamn DM notes

[dungeon-strugglers]

✨New item!✨ Bloodblade Weapon (any sword), uncommon

This magical sword is made out of your coagulated blood. 

If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack using the bloodblade, you can choose to immediately regain 1d6 hit points, or deal an extra 1d6 damage on your next hit with the bloodblade. Constructs, undead, and creatures without blood or an equivalent fluid, do not trigger this property. Only the creature who created the blade can use this property.

The ability to summon a bloodblade is a hemomantic process that can be learned by studying from a tome or teacher for 24 hours and a cost of 500 gp. Once you have learned the process, you can use an action to summon a bloodblade. When you summon the blade, you lose 2d6 hit points due to blood loss. You can choose to lose 3d6 hit points instead to gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls with the blade. The bloodblade lasts 24 hours before it dissolves and is destroyed.

Hemomantic warriors can mingle the blood of their enemies with their own, utilizing their sanguine sorcery to rejuvenate themselves while dealing devastating wounds. - 🖌🎨 Like our work? Consider supporting us on Patreon and gain access to the hi-resolution art for over 180 magic items, item cards and card packs, beautiful creature art and stat blocks, and setting pdfs with narrative hooks and unique lore!🧙‍♂️

📜 Credit. Art and design by us: the Dungeon Strugglers. Please credit us if you repost elsewhere.

[dungeon-strugglers]

✨New item!✨ Bloodbolt Weapon (arrow or bolt), uncommon

This piece of magical ammunition is made out of your coagulated blood. When you make a ranged attack against a creature using a bloodbolt, you can choose to have it heal instead of dealing damage. On a hit, the creature regains 1d4 hit points.

If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a ranged attack using a bloodbolt, the creature explodes in a violent, bloody mess. You can choose to cause each creature within 10 feet of the exploding creature to regain 1d6 hit points, or make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw. On a failure, the creature takes 1d6 piercing damage.

The ability to craft bloodbolts is a hemomantic process that can be learned by studying from a tome or teacher for 8 hours and a cost of 500 gp. Once you have learned the process, you can spend 1 minute to craft up to 10 bloodbolts. For each piece summoned, you lose 1d4 hit points due to blood loss. A bloodbolt lasts 24 hours before it dissolves and is destroyed. 

Hemomancers have discovered many unexpected uses for their blood, allowing them to heal or harm with equally grotesque techniques. - 🖌🎨 Like our work? Consider supporting us on Patreon and gain access to the hi-resolution art for over 180 magic items, item cards and card packs, beautiful creature art and stat blocks, and setting pdfs with narrative hooks and unique lore!🧙‍♂️

📜 Credit. Art and design by us: the Dungeon Strugglers. Please credit us if you repost elsewhere.

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

⚔️ 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Arkanobow
Weapon (longbow), very rare (requires attunement) ___

“Arkanobows" are weapons from a far-flung age and can sometimes be found in the lairs of sphinxes that have traveled through time. You can use the bow as described below, even if you aren’t attuned to it.

The item appears to be a bow handle. While grasping it, you can use a bonus action to cause a pair of bow arms to spring into existence, one from either end of the riser, or make them disappear. The bow’s crackling arms emit bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. If you are proficient with shortbows or longbows, you are proficient with the “arkanobow”.

You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. If you draw the bow without an arrow, the bow magically creates its own. The created arrow is already nocked, made of pure electricity, and disappears if you don’t make an attack with it. On a hit, the weapon deals lightning damage, instead of piercing, and if the target is made of metal or wearing metal armor, you have advantage on the attack roll.

The weapon runs on a power source that’s fueled by magic. The bow’s arms can persist for up to 1 hour before the power source is empty. Deduct the time it persists in increments of 1 minute from the power source’s total time. You know how much remaining time the source has while holding the weapon. Any creature can use an action to expend a spell slot level of 1st level or higher into the power source, adding to its total remaining time, by touching the bow as the spell slot is expended. The power source regains a number of minutes of power equal to the spell slot level that was expended into it. When found, an “arkanobow" has 3d20 minutes of power remaining, and it can’t have more than 60 minutes of power at a time.

If you’re attuned to the bow, you can use the following properties by deducting additional minutes from the bow’s remaining time. The number of minutes you deduct depends on the property you use.

𝙅𝙪𝙢𝙥𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩. You can use an action to deduct 5 or more minutes from the the bow’s remaining time…

…Continued in the comment below! ___

✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon’s Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

[another-rpg-sideblog]

Continued from instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvPxlXeL0iy/

… to fire a special arrow from it, which harmlessly hits a creature that you can see within the bow’s normal range. That creature can immediately use its reaction to move up to its speed, without provoking opportunity attacks. If the creature had 0 hit points, it first regains a number of them equal to 1d8 plus the number of minutes you deducted, up to 20 minutes. Once a creature regains hit points in this way, it can’t do so again until it finishes a short or long rest. 𝙌𝙪𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙡𝙖𝙪𝙣𝙘𝙝. You can use a bonus action to deduct 2 minutes from the bow’s remaining time to make a single ranged weapon attack with it. If you already hit the target with the bow on this turn, you have advantage on the attack roll, and on a hit, the target takes an extra 1d6 lightning damage.

𝗙𝗹𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁! Mender sat at his desk with the odd blade before him in pieces. It wasn’t the first time he’d taken it apart, not by a long shot, so he was familiar with how to put it back together. But after six months of work, that didn’t feel like a lot to show for it. He heard the door creak open. "I’m back, sir,” said a familiar voice. “More from the desert. I think you’d take interest in this one.” “I’ve enough tile and trinkets fer now. Lest this is somethin’ new?” The boy scavenger slung his pack to his side to rifle through. “More or less, I think. It’s another one of those mysterious handle things. Took it from an explorer camp. Fresh one. Fresh abandoned, too, by the looks of it.” He pulled out an empty handle. A bow’s, by the looks of it. He handed it to Mender. “Careful, sir. It’s hot, and it shocked me something serious the first time I touched it.” Mender held the item in his hands. It took everything in him to hide his excitement. He turned it over in his hands and peered, carefully, down center. “If I may sir, could this find be worth double? Given it has two sides and all.” “Gladly. Did you bring this straight to me?” The boy nodded. “I’ll triple it then.”

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

💎 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Collar of the Crystal Veil
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement by a spellcaster) ___

This platinum collar surrounds a chained web of ornate diamonds with a series of armor-like plates. While wearing the necklace, a translucent, glittering veil surrounds you: your AC is equal to 12 + your spellcasting ability modifier if you are wearing no armor and using no shield. In addition, you gain a +1 bonus to saving throws.

𝘾𝙧𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙧. As a bonus action while wearing the necklace, you can project its magic outward to form a magical barrier. The barrier uses your AC, has 50 hit points, and is immune to poison and psychic damage. It extends from you to form a 10-foot-radius sphere. Nothing can physically pass through the barrier, and spells cast from outside the barrier can’t target anything within its area. Similarly, the area within the barrier is excluded from the areas affected by such spells.

The barrier remains for as long as you concentrate (as if concentrating on a spell), to a maximum of 1 minute, or until it drops to 0 hit points. You can designate up to 4 creatures that can pass through the barrier when it appears. The sphere moves with you and remains centered on you. It ends early if you remove the necklace or if you move in such a way that a creature you didn’t designate would be forced to enter its area. Once this property of the necklace has been used, it can’t be used again until the next dawn. ___

✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon’s Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

[emeraldmakes]

Soulstone of Transformation (Wonderous item, very rare [requires attunement]) 💎👻

A magical gem that can be used to temporarily change its user into any creature they've seen before. This transformation lasts for one hour and can be used once per day.

----------

A fun little magic item that works kind of like a Druid's Wildshape or a Polymorph spell.

Definitely not inspired by Animorphs at all.

[oddsbod]

monster monday!  another D&D monster for you, fresh off the grill.

[dailyadventureprompts]

I love these beasts, they serve a great alternative to undead as the “Low level monster you find in a temple” and come with much more personality . What’s more, due to the highly flexible nature of “abandoned temple”, you can have these little abominations show up just about anywhere and pantomime any sort of religious, culty practice without having to involve ACTUAL cults and explain why a group of humanoids would be in the middle of nowhere worshiping a ruin. 

Adventure hooks:

After the empire conquered the hinterlands and slew the druids, there were few who knew the secrets of the old standing stones. Fewer still generations later, after the imperial cult grew jealous and began outlawing “heathen” faiths. Without the rites performed at the circle, the forests surrounding them grew ever more savage, the darker aspects of nature fed by neglect and imbalance. Only one druid now remains to perform the cleansing ritual, but she is too old to oust the Profanities that have taken up residence  at that sacred site.  Omens have guided her to the party, and though she may be hunted by the empire, she will not leave until the party aids her. 

The accident that caused the fire and destroyed the old cathedral is still unknown. Most folk saw it as an ill omen regardless, but the great and the good saw it as an excuse to commission the building of a new, more expansive cathedral as a sign of their wealth and beneficence. With construction only a few months away from being complete, a church official is seeking to reclaim the old founding stone and has had the lower, formerly unreachable chambers of the old cathedral unearthed. Many more chambers survived the collapse of the tunnels than would be expected, but strange things have made a home in them in the intervening years. 

Thanks to @oddsbod, as always, for the inspiration! 

[cryptid-peanut]

I made a playable Myconid race! I’m actually really pleased how fast this came out! I haven’t actually made a race before so let me know what you think! Any feedback is appreciated!

[rpgsandbox]

15 Druid Grove Adventure Seeds

by Robb at readytorole.com

The druids of the grove seem to be unable to shapechange back into their normal forms and don’t know why. For now they are scratching messages into the dirt to communicate but seem desperate to remedy this issue.

A strange mist has taken over the forest, locking the druids in a deep trance. In the mornings a single druid may be heard muttering some words, and their allies have been trying desperately to see if there’s a message amongst the mumbling.

Word has spread of a druid who has lost her touch with animals and is going mad. While animals once came to her without guard they now flee at the sight or sound of her.

The spirits of nature seem to have found fault with the newest initiate into the druids’ circle. A spell to summon forth nature’s protectors instead brought volatile elementals who seek to harm the young druid and the civilizations near their grove.

A strange fungus has started propagating throughout the woods and their spores have had a myriad of effects on travellers and wildlife alike. Effects range from benign haziness to red-eyed rage or even loss of senses for weeks at a time.

A recent fire consumed most of the druids grove, and fire spirits now roam the ashes and burnt trees attacking all on sight. Even the surviving flora and fauna seem to be corrupted, with flaming dryads seen attacking and then fleeing through the burnt husks of trees.

For the last month the moon has sat still over the druid grove as a full moon as a result of a druidic ritual. This is having adverse effects on the nearby ocean/port city who are unable to safely dock their ships due to the permanent flux of the tide, and a reward is being offered for any who can convince the druids to let the moon go.

A caravan of merchants who went to visit druids report finding only lizardfolk who claim to be the new forms of the druids. The merchants say that while they were still helpful, the lizardfolk seem to have no memory of those who have known and befriended the druids in years past.

The swamp that the druids call home has become more perilous, with the water seemingly lashing out and dragging some travelers under the surface. The only pattern in who this living water targets is that its prey usually is heavily armored. The druids scoff at having any involvement in this and show no desire to help find out what is going on.

Hybrid animal monstrosities have been seen leaving the grove and suddenly dying or writhing in pain. This has immediately raised concern around the local village, with many blaming the druids and theorizing why they would be working their magic against nature to create these abominations.

A clan of dwarves have shown up on the perimeter of the forest, furious that one of their own left to join the druids. They threaten to cut down the entire grove in short time if their kin doesn’t return with them back to the mountains, but the druids remain defiant to the idea of handing her over.

A dragon has recently decided to make its home in the forest, and has been at odds with the druids ever since, being actively sought out by members of the grove for battle. Some of the druids however refuse to engage, saying that the dragon has shown them no harm and that one of their own’s hatred for dragonkind is what is causing the issue.

Strange runes have been found on trees throughout the grove, though they appear to have appeared from nowhere rather than being carved. The trees are oozing some kind of magical goop from the runes, but otherwise seem healthy. The nature of the magic goop is unknown and so far their effects are untested.

A band of marauding ogres have made their way to the grove and have begun ravenously eating all the wildlife they can capture. While seemingly insatiable, they seem to have no quarrel with humanoids and instead feast upon the beasts of the woods. While upset, the druids are hesitant to attack the otherwise cooperative group.

While the archdruid of the grove was away advising a nearby kingdom, a young druid made a deal with a fiend posing as an archfey. Now a small group from the circle have defected to following this new eldritch druid and his teachings that lie in gaining power versus maintaining balance.

[the-griffons-saddlebag]

💎 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Spool of Shadow
Wondrous item, common ___

Thin wisps of smoke gently rise from this spool of magic black thread. You can use the entire spool of thread to repair an article of clothing or embroider a design on one instead. In either case, it takes 1 hour to sew the entire spool’s thread on an article of clothing, at which point the thread’s magic is transferred to it. While a creature is wearing the article of clothing, it can add 1d4 to the total of any Dexterity (Stealth) check it makes. Once this property has been used for a third time, its magic is lost. ___

✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon’s Saddlebag on Patreon for less than $10 a month!

[educationaldm]

The massive scary Yule Cat from Icelandic Mythology has always amused me. I may have to write a One-Shot adventure for it some day. Homebrew monster stat-ed by Star Sail Games

[another-rpg-sideblog]

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/comments/rnwudq/the_yule_cat_a_christmas_monster_from_icelandic/

[shmaba]

Swordtember 2022 prompts 1-6

Gothic

Caustic

Potion

Crystal

Dragon

Emotion

Jump to set in series: 1 | [2] | [3] | [4] | [5]

Downloadable pdf available on Gumroad

[dailyadventureprompts]

Villain: The Birdwatchers

In a moment before a major turning point of the campaign, the party encounter a group of sinister figures standing on a hill observing a great murmuration of birds, massed in their thousands and winding through the sky like some colossal thing with life unto itself. One figure, shrouded, watches the swarm with a concentration that borders on mania, while the other two, armoured,  begrudgingly turn to the party and regard them with a distant wariness. The party have intruded on something sacred, and while they’re warned not to interrupt the oracle at her work, they’re extended a stark invitation to stay and find out what the future holds.

Adventure Hooks:

These foreboding strangers are agents of an order that follows the Flock of Famine, a monstrously powerful celestial of disaster and dissolution that appears in time of great turmoil to make hopeless situations worse. The priests of this order practice a form of divination called Ornithomancy, which gleans insight into the future from the movement of birds. While this art is practised in many cultures, the nameless order study the Flock in order to divine the woes of the land and how they could be turned to the order’s benefit, as well as what the monstrosity wishes for them to do in order to help it achieve a full manifestation. They’re more than happy to share the information with the party if it’ll help push them towards rash or destructive ends.

The Order’s agents appear during a crisis, whether it be a brewing civil war, a spreading blight, or in the wake of an ongoing disaster, acting as advisors to whatever pretty tyrant promises to make the situation worse. Which means when the party confront this foe, they must also face off against a prophetically inspired anti-paladin bodyguard throwing around wasting curses left and right. Imagine their surprise then when after knocking the villain from their throne, a very similar knight shows up and pledges service to them, offering them insights on how to best exploit future events.

Looking to redevelop land long left fallow, a farmer is perplexed when her plow keeps bringing up fingersized shards of silvery metal, and has come into town to ask around if anyone ( say a group of well respected heroes) might know anything about it. These shards were infact the fragments of a holy weapon sent by the god of harvest and agriculture (Pelor, Yondalla, karametra ) Foreseeing the threat posed by an emerging Flock of Famine. To actually get the weapon, the party will have to aid the farmer in tilling her land, putting in the sort of work that they might’ve thought they were above being high-flying adventurers and all.

Edit: Also thanks so much to the ever amazing Jessjackdaw for their monster stats/ideas.

[lucasferreiracm]

Gnome Necrodancer

[shmaba]

Swordtember 2021 prompts 13-18

Monolithic

Illusion

Inanimate

Garbage

Dualistic

Malevolent

Previous in series  –  Next in series

All swordtember swords available on gumroad in a pdf book!

[cloaksandcapes]

Another day, another DnDaDay. Had an idea for a Fist Weapon for Monks where you can change the Element of it and do different cool effects. But it was hard to balance out so it wasn’t just “which one will do the most damage?!” and so I made 6 Fist of… Weapons. THAT ANYONE CAN USE! But Monks will probably get the most mileage. Anyway here is the first one!

[jillybeanjoy]

Guys! I cracked the code! I wish I had any followers to share this magic revelation I had!

In D&D I love being a DM. I really do. With one exception.

Money.

Knowing how much a character should buy or sell something for is just way out of my grasp. For a rare item the price can be anywhere between five hundred and five THOUSAND. That’s a big difference! How am I supposed to know in between those two numbers what it should be?

I googled. And googled. And googled. Thinking *there must be a better way* and couldn’t find a single thing that made sense. Well me and two other DM friends got together and we figured it out. The magic system of pricing.

So first you take the pricing by magic item rarity in the DMG

Then you go to Xanathars and look at the Magic Item Tables to determine if the item is major or minor

Divide the prices in the rarity into major and minor. Major the higher half and minor the lower.

So that makes

Rare Minor - 500 - 2,500

Rare Major - 2,501 - 5,000

Very Rare Minor - 5,001 - 30,000

Very Rare Major - 30,001 - 50,000

Legendary Minor - 50,000 - 300,000

Legendary Major - 300,000 - 500,000

Then

THEN

It’s all up to a persuasion roll. Because let’s face it, what’s a fantasy shopping adventure of magic items without bartering and haggling?

So you divide the amounts into roll milestones. So a persuasion roll of 0-10 you pay the highest and 20+ you pay the lowest.

Like so:

Common Items: 1d6 x 10

Uncommon Items 1d6 x 100

Rare Minor:

0-9: 2,500

10-11: 2,100

12-14: 1,700

15-17: 1,300

18-19: 900

20+ : 500

Rare Major

0-9: 5,000

10-11: 4,600

12-14: 4,200

15-17: 3,800

18-19: 3,200

20+: 2,500

Very Rare Minor

0-9: 30,000

10-11: 25,000

12-14: 20,000

15-17: 15,000

18-19: 10,000

20+ : 5,000

Very Rare Major

0-9: 50,000

10-11: 45,000

12-14: 40,000

15-17: 35,000

18-19: 30,000

20+ : 25,000

Legendary

0-9: 250,000

10-11: 200,000

12-14: 150,000

15-17: 100,000

18+ : 50,000

Legendary Major

0-9: 500,000

10-11: 450,000

12-14: 400,000

15-17: 350,000

18-19: 300,000

20+ : 250,000

Seriously someone who is followed by a lot of D&D people find this shit and spread it! It’s so much easier and makes a million times more sense then anything I ever heard of before and i wish someone else would have thought of it sooner (or if someone else did that I had found it sooner)

[another-rpg-sideblog]

A couple of useful links from @luuma-makes-games tags:

https://tentacle.net/~prophet/lock/DnD%205th%20Edition/Sane_Magical_Prices.pdf

https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/5e/magic-item-prices/

[dailyadventureprompts]

Any thoughts on how to run a feywild casino - run by a greedy archfey? I see my group wanting to swindle them or pull off a heist in this setting.

ALT

Heist: The Vale of Splendor

I have a “how to run a heist” system! check it out while planning this adventure for a great underlying structure.

Setup: It’s said that on the far side of the mountains there’s a place where your luck can turn, where fortunes can be lost and made, and destinies can be rewritten. Those that spoke these stories were likely speaking hypothetically, but since the feywild is a place where mortal stories come to life, it wasn’t long before this fabled place manifested in the place of fables and mortals and fairykind have flocked to it ever since.

In the early days the Vale of splendor was morphic, conforming to the particular circumstance of each group of visitors. That was until a particular fey by the name of Hap inserted himself into the narrative as a sort of gatekeeper. Hap denied some access to the vale, and insisted that others engage him in various games, staking their own luck against the windfall they were about to receive.

Hap’s power and stature grew along with his stolen fortunes, transforming the vale into a grand pleasure palace and gaming hall. There’s only one group who value luck more than the fey, and that’s thieves ( followed closely by sailors and people who climb mountains for fun), and the fate-crammed vaults of this self made fey lord could provide enough windfalls for what could be the most daring series of heists history has ever seen.

Adventure Hooks:

A con artist among the fey just so happens to gain knowledge of the party’s infiltration and introduces himself as a potential ally. He’s figured out how to counterfeit the lucky pennies the Casino uses as gaming tokens, meaning that the party won’t have to stake any of their own fortune and can keep it while doing the heist. He just needs them to steal a particularly portentous object that’s hidden among Hap’s vaults.

Rather than just trying to score a lifetime of lucky draws and easy breaks, the party has heard rumors that there’s one or two “heroic destinies” that’ve been stored away in Hap’s vault, which may prove key to defeating some semi-mythic foes looming on the horizon. Obviously these are kept in a hardier sort of vault, so the party might want need to plan two concurrent heists if they want to be both heroic AND lucky.

Every casino has it’s losers, but among the throngs of unlucky patrons and doomed debtors the party is approached by a cat-eyed beggar clad in scraps of fine fabric that barely fit his lean body. He claims to know the Vale, that he once had a place in it, but that his place along with his name was stolen by… something. Can the party risk offering charity in the middle of their infiltration? Is this beggar truly some miraculous source of information, or just another con job?

The valley path up to Hap’s palace has been occupied by a thriving Goblin market, looking to cash in on all the suckers travelers attracted by the gambling hall. All manner of magical and ephemeral things can be found here, provided the party can agree to the equally intangible prices. 

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