Author Archives: Brent
Semi-Monthly Map: Porphyria’s Pit
Long ago, a natural pit in the earth was enlarged by the worshippers of Porphyria, a goddess of light and shadow. Deep in the center of the pit stood several crystal altars that shone and reflected the light in beautiful patterns as the sun moved through the sky. Porphyria’s worshippers–always an odd lot–created a large … Continue reading
Monster Monday: Elite Kala Warrior of Tarakona
The savage continent of Tarakona, where draconic races battle for supremacy! The fearsome, combative, plains-dwelling Kala people (think lizardfolk) send powerful, elite warriors into battle to direct their forces. As mentioned in other entries for kala fighters, they prefer to focus their attention on one powerful enemy and take him or her down, mostly ignoring other enemies. … Continue reading
Faction Friday: The Frost Trolls
The Frost Trolls can be used either as a friendly faction that sends the PCs out on a mission, or as a foe that the PCs must overcome. It is led by Dolom, an unusually intelligent male troll. The group bases itself in a small, magical cave complex. As a friendly faction, the Frost Trolls are magical, neutral beings of … Continue reading
How to Prep a Spellcaster for Combat in D&D 5E
If you’re running D&D 5E combat that includes an enemy spellcaster, you may look at its stat block and secretly despair. Spellcaster enemies often have a dozen or more spells available to them. How on Urth do you decide which ones to use in combat? Do you go over the list every round and decide which one is … Continue reading
Buffing D&D 5E Fights without TPKs
Let’s say your PCs are waltzing through combat in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. How do you make fights harder without accidentally annihilating the PCs? Let me introduce you to Dale. Dale tried a bunch of different approaches. This is his story. Increase AC First, Dale increased the AC of the monsters in the battle. This … Continue reading
The 5 Minute Dungeon
Oh no! Your players are coming over and you haven’t prepared! Or they’ve gone way off the map! No problem. Here’s how to build a simple, effective dungeon in under 5 minutes. Setup Grab a piece of paper, and draw a small box at the top of the page, just large enough to fit about … Continue reading
Monster Monday: Kala Archer of Tarakona
The savage continent of Tarakona, where draconic races battle for supremacy! The fearsome, combative, plains-dwelling Kala people (think lizardfolk) use well-trained archers to overwhelm enemies from the back line. As noted for kala warriors, kala prefer to find the most powerful enemy—that front-line barbarian, fighter, or paladin—and swarm him or her. The archers follow this strategy, … Continue reading
Faction Friday: The Wizard’s Tower
Coril Hawklight, a high-level wizard, lives in this classic wizard’s tower. He can be run as either friendly to the PCs, in which case he will ask them to recover powerful magical artifacts in return for a useful artifact from his own collection, or as an antagonist who has stolen a powerful artifact and keeps it in … Continue reading
GMs: Ask These 3 Questions At the End of Every Session
“What was your favorite part of the session?” “What was your least favorite part of the session?” “What do you want to see happen next?” Of course, you don’t have to ask these questions. But if you don’t ask for feedback, or the feedback you get isn’t helpful, these questions tend to get to the … Continue reading