Shitty D&D Ideas

Just stupid TTRPG concepts. Asks and submissions welcome!

[shittydndideas]

a wizard and barbarian duo who do arcane science, mythbuster style.

the barbarian often takes the role of the test dummy, because if you can survive falling at terminal velocity then ostensibly you can survive almost anything. if the barb does actually die, the wizard marks it as a notable experiment and then drags what's left of the barb's body off to a temple for resurrection.

one of the wizard's primary focuses is testing out alternative material components, acknowledging that most spell components are based off of common sayings ('a penny for your thoughts' being the explanation for a copper piece being used in the Detect Thoughts spell) or old wives tales (carrots being used for Darkvision). For example, they try out replacing sulfur with powdered sugar in the spell Fireball, since powdered sugar is extremely flammable and easier to acquire.

The scientific ethics council hates them.

[shittydndideas]

Necklace of Ailment Transfer:

A necklace of round beads that can remove status ailments to party members, regardless of what they may be. The affliction is stored in the bead, and you can have 24 max status ailments total stored in the necklace. One bead, one ailment. Said beads do not provide a healing effect, however, so it's best to get a Cleric or other healer to help you out.

Once a bead has a status ailment stored inside of it, the bead can be fitted to an arrow's shaft, or thrown at an enemy. Once it makes contact, it transfers the ailment to the enemy, with said ailment originating from the point of contact.

Roll a 20 and it might make the ailment twice as powerful. Roll a 1 and you could get the ailment yourself. Each bead is one use only. Ailments will not affect any being with immunity to said ailments

Smash the necklace on the ground in a crowd and you have a Super Spreader event!

[shittydndideas]

A warlock who follows a chaotic hivemind that speaks through their mind and sees through their eyes. It randomly grants them gold and a longer life, but at the cost of hearing ungodly information nobody wants to know. Each voice's name is indecipherable. Each word spoken is physically painful. Every moment is misery, yet it's vital to the warlock's ability to live. And the party knows they're in pain, when they say... "Chat, thanks for the five dollars."

Hi, I love your brain

[shittydndideas]

Assuming it’s safe to, put your pet on the battle mat and let them determine the monster’s movement and actions. Keep them to scale with the minis. Bonus points if you keep the monster on theme.

Although probably a bad idea because if your pet is interested in the minis it’s probably trying to eat them and if it’s not then it kind of defeats the point. You’d also probably need a really big battle mat for anything bigger than a cat

If they're going to interfere with your game anyway, I think it's perfectly reasonable to give your pet an actual job on the table.

Somebody should send me a pic of a particularly large pet tortoise engaging in a scene on a battle mat. I need it for reasons I shan't explain.

[shittydndideas]

dnd but race and class are swapped. idk how to explain it but. wizard is a species. dwarf is a class you can embody. does this make sense

Yes it absolutely makes sense. The Wizard species does better in captivity, honestly; if left to their own devices they would simply starve to death in their towers or else explode themselves. This is why the greater Community At Large tends to arrange colonies of wizards and puts them in universities. It's easier to keep an eye on them all at once and socialization with others of their kind means the wizards are less likely to go mad.

And Dwarf is a performance the way gender is a performance. It's like drag.

[shittydndideas]

A telling warlock with really high deception who tells people they're a human cleric with a skin condition

In one of the games I play in we do have a tiefling warlock with a similar schtick! She didn't know she was a tiefling for her whole childhood because her parents told her she had a skin condition. The tail was a bit harder to explain away...

[shittydndideas]

I had this in a campaign I am currently in, and it’s a bunch of geese in tracksuits that speak in heavy Russian accents and carry weapons.

I'm disappointed that I can't think of a way to make a pun or portmanteau out of "goose" and "mafia" or "Bratva"

[shittydndideas]

your character is an inanimate object being held by a creature, you can control the creature but you have to roll against their will everytime you make them do something. if you fail the creature will do whatever it normally would (attack party members,run away depends on creature) and if you get picked up by someone/or something else you control them now so you can order your goblin to give your object to a stronger creature but it would have a much stronger will

It's a lovely morning in Middle Earth and you are a horrible all-powerful ring.

[heronbrew]

I think it's hilarious that hands down the worst way to learn magic is the actual rulebook. Please do not read that. It's just there for reference when something weird happens

[shittydndideas]

Sorcerer mentality vs. Wizard mentality

[shittydndideas]

Stat Generation Method

Take the whole party bowling. Choose six frames; these are your core stats. Add a point to the score if the frame contained a spare, or two points if the frame contained a strike. The total score at the end is your HP. The DM is whoever scored highest.

[shittydndideas]

A group of triplet liches whose phylacteries are each other.

[shittydndideas]

A Barbarian who only communicates through the speed of the bongo drums he plays. It turns out that he came from a long line of Bards and wanted to buck the trend without disappointing his family, hence his bongos being withered with time by beating them too quickly.

[shittydndideas]

Here's an idea from one of my campaigns as a DM.

An evil organization called "the doorgang". (in Dutch, doorgang is a passageway) this organization is in the business of stealing doors. Their headquarters is a giant building aptly names "mordoor" (more door) and inside its just a labyrinth of open doors, locked doors, trapdoors, trapped doors, mimics,...

One of their members is someone with very low intelligence and/or wisdom scores and only steals windows.

The big boss of this organization is this high level goblin with extreme dexterity and only runs away, making for one very non-lethal end-boss that just had an obsession with doors...

Just some doors, you say? Sounds like every party's worst nightmare.

[shittydndideas]

rise of tiamat except tiamat is just five chromatic dragons in a trenchcoat and not even the bbeg. the REAL bbeg is tiamat and bahamut in a trenchcoat pretending to be asgorath. also all the villainous npcs are a) three kobolds in a trenchoat pretending to be a dragonborn or b) three dragonborn in a trenchcoat pretending to be a dragon and it's not even rise of tiamat it's just draconic people (?) in trenchcoats. aNYWAY shutting up now, sorry for the ask of ungodly length.

The DM is actually a bunch of rulebooks in a trenchcoat. That trench is actually a hole full of coats pretending to be a trench. Those coats are just a bunch of mittens stapled together. That guy wearing a trenchcoat in the corner.... Well he's just a dude wearing a trenchcoat, but you don't want to know what he has under it.

[shittydndideas]

Shitty Item: Bartimaeus's Bodacious Bounce House

Clearly inspired by the spell Mordekainen's Magnificent Mansion, this item creates a mansion of similar size and features. The Bounce House comes in a single-use pellet that can be activated with a few drops of water. Every surface inside the mansion is made of soft, bouncy material in a variety of colors. All furniture is made of inflatable plastic. The transparent servants all appear to be clowns and their appearance can't be altered. Furthermore, they make jingling sounds when they move.

Like the spell, the bounce house vanishes after 24 hours; unlike the spell, anyone or anything remaining inside will disappear with the house. There is a 30% chance that one room of the Bounce House will contain a door leading to a Bounce House dimension, where previously-used Bounce Houses (and anything they might have contained) will appear.*

*Entering the Bounce House Dimension is not recommended, as your return from this place is not guaranteed. If anyone has successfully traversed this dread domain, they have kept any details to themselves.

[depsidase]

[eldritchscholar]

#the wild hunt

[thatdisasterauthor]

Whatever this is, I want to participate.

[shittydndideas]

Character concept.

[shittydndideas]

speaking of fantasy osha, in a d&d minicampaign (we were a party of LE kobolds), the barbarian would change his hat & sunglasses and ppl would think he was a different person. one of his disguises was a member of kosha, which was kobold osha and it was great :)

That is great!

Also, I figured I needed to post this before it got too far away from the other OSHA mention on this very sporadic blog.