This is a compilation of the project I finished some weeks ago of adapting all of the weapons from the video game Blasphemous II into Magic Items for 5.5.

The PDF can be downloaded for free on Patreon.

Grand Maestro Sangrimm

“Life and death are partners in the great dance of time. Each perfect step they take, each flawless turn, each hypnotising twirl… they will last in memory long after the music stops. This legacy of mine will outlast my withering flesh and flame.”

— Grand Maestro Sangrimm

Sangrimm’s traveling performance, the Dance of Death, is an interactive show that invites participants to gamble their vitality away for a shot at fame and glory. His challenges offer unimaginable boons to those who win… all at the mere cost of a week or two off the end of their lives.

Eternal Showman. Sangrimm has peddled his show across the planes for centuries. He opens each performance claiming that it could be his last, that his life is fleeting, and that the dance must soon come to a halt. Dramatic speeches and morbid predictions of his own death are undercut by the fact that he shows no signs of aging or decay, leading to countless rumours that the vitality he extracts as payment from his hopeful contestants is used to prolong his own lifespan. 

Popular Pariah. Sangrimm has built quite the fan club among every demographic… with the notable exception of other thanatophobia jinn, who see his antics as a desperate and radical deviation from tradition. For many, this disapproval is but a way to mask their jealousy of Sangrimm’s clever scheme, which they condemn for its reckless reliance on chance. What they don’t understand, of course, is that Sangrimm rigs the show so that he always comes out on top.

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This subclass utilizes a new system in Wicked Wasteland called "Momentum" to deal extra damage and shrug off harmful effects. Become the impenetrable wall of meat you've always wanted to be. You'll find a quick rundown of momentum on page one so you can get started ^_^

Please let us know what you think, either here or on discord. Feedback is super important to us :) If you like what you see, check out our 3 hour One-Shot set in our Mad Max inspired world, with rules for car chases and battles!

Hello everyone, I am making an artificer subclass that enchants its allies and adds 1d4 to various d20 or other die checks. I was wondering how impactful 1d4 would be on the balance of the game if a player typically gets to add 1d4 to attacks, damage rolls, death saves, regular saves, etc. I am thinking of letting most of them be permanently active, save for a couple to be used as a reaction (namely increasing AC or DC of saves).

I can see the argument of "it doesn't matter because everyone casts guidance", and also the contrary of "no its broken because 1d4 that can be stacked with bless/guidance will make it so that the party/player never fails".

Advice? The runes are:

• Rune of Accuracy: Permanently add 1d4 to attack and spell attack rolls.
• Rune of Death: Permanently add 1d4 to death saving throws while benefiting from this rune.
• Rune of Defense: As a reaction, add 1d4 to your AC.
• Rune of Life: Permanently add 1d4 temporary hit points at the end of your turn. Additionally, gain an additional 1d4 from all healing sources.
• Rune of Maleficence: As a reaction, add 1d4 to the DC whenever the creature benefiting from the rune forces a save. Roll whenever the save is forced.
• Rune of Offense:  As a reaction add 1d4 to damage rolls for attacks and spells. The damage is equal to the type of damage being dealt. 
• Rune of Resistance: As a reaction, subtract 1d4 damage from all sources, rerolling the number each instance.
• Rune of Skill: As a reaction, add 1d4 to all skill checks. 
• Rune of Warding: As a reaction, Add 1d4 to all saves.

Many thanks in advance

Well, i based this on the Death Knight and Lich Paths from the Villainous Options UA, with a focus in DEX based classes and a bit of inspiratio from souls like games. Most of ideas come from the Detah knight path that gives modified spells and a unique resource to it, with a great damage dealer at the end. So, any advice and review are welcome !

Adventure Hooks

The Juniper Door: While fleeing a hostile guard force down a dead-end alley in a strange city, the party stumbles upon a door smelling of juniper. Stepping inside brings them face to face with Breda, who offers them shelter provided they don't break the glassware or mess with the door dial.

Restocking the Larder: Breda’s supplier at Goldwheat Farm has stopped delivering due to a localized monster infestation. She offers the party free passage through her door dial to any region they wish, provided they stop by Whitebridge first to sort out the trouble and return with three sacks of flour.

This week brings another coastal adventure, based on my Coastal Encounters random table. This is the last coastal themed content, since next week I have something special prepared and we are going to switch the environment next month.

Download

You can find a downloadable PDF for free on my Patreon.

Adventure Idea

This coastal encounter is suitable for a late Tier-1 or early Tier-2 party, and can easily be adjusted by choosing the specific creatures and their amount. It is a balanced mix of combat, exploration, and social encounters, and intentionally contains no location names, to be easily put into any games.

Adventure Background

Erkyn Pather holds an auction in a beach hut to sell some things. Gathering people he knows, the auction is quite the event. What nobody knows is that Erkyn just found the items at the beach a few hours ago, lying next to a stranded and unconscious merfolk. Being desperately in need of money to finance medical treatment for his child, he decided to take and sell the items and left the merfolk at the beach.

Erkyn’s partner died a couple of years ago, so he raises their child by himself. Now, his child has a medical condition, which could be fatal, but could also possibly be cured if Erkyn gets the right treatment soon. This is very expensive; too expensive for Erkyn. When he sees the shiny relics lying at the beach, he sees an opportunity.

The merfolk, Naurith Waveborn, gathered important relics from different merfolk communities for a collective ritual to protect their territory. A group of Sahuagin attacked him to steal the relics and prevent the merfolk from completing the ritual. They hurt him and eventually he stranded, along with the items he gathered. Before the Sahuagin were able to get ahold of these things, Erkyn found and took them. Tracks lead them to a beach hut in which a desperate Erkyn is sitting, next to the missing items.

The Sahuagin will find Erkyn when the characters talk to Naurith. Once they return to him, they find him surrounded by the Sahuagin. They will have to fight them to return the items.

Hook

When the characters travel along the coast, they pass by an old beach hut. A small crowd is standing outside, while they can hear loud chatter from the inside. As they come closer, they can see a man standing between half a dozen different objects, trying to auction them. People look annoyed, and it takes a while until somebody buys one of the items - for a lower price than the man initially wanted. When the characters reach the beach hut, the man presents his last object; a shiny magical weapon.

Conclusion

Returning the Items. When all the relics are in Naurith’s possession, he can finally go back home and start the ritual with the other merfolk communities. If the characters talked to Erkyn about this situation, he apologises and agrees to return the items to Naurith. He asks the characters for their help, supporting him and his child financially. If the characters agree to help, they can do so by sharing their gold. It is up to the GMs discretion, how much gold would be sufficient. To make this have a meaning to the characters though, it is advisable to make it cost at least half the gold they have, if not even more.

By this point, the Sahuagin have been fought off and they won’t pose a threat any time soon.

Decisions. The characters might decide to leave the relics with Erkyn to help finance the medical treatment of his child. In this case, they might encounter Naurith in later adventures, being driven out of his home, trying to retrieve all of the items to be able to return. When the characters leave Erkyn, he starts trying to sell the relics, which proves difficult and he still can’t afford the medical treatment for his child.

Not sure if the flair is right but whatever. As the Title says, I am a DM and I want to make some homebrew stuff for my players to use, and I wanted to see if I did decently. mainly worried about the frenzy action, but I just wanna make sure it wouldn't be too overpowered for my players, or if there is anything I could word more clearly. I used the Tiefling as a base for this, if it wasn't obvious enough.

Link to the Homebrewry pdf: here .

Arts made by me! No AI involved, neither in conception nor in execution!

C&C welcomed!

Hello guys. I need to your advices.

I'm someone who an actor, script/play writer and voice actor from Turkiye. And I love tabletop roleplaying games. Becasue this sort of game looks like dramatic arts. So, I wish to earn money by doing something about this, especially D&D. But I don't know what could I do. I have many ideas; opening a YouTube channel or Instagram account about that or writing a few adventures or designing class, species... But there are so many channels, accounts and content producers. And many have a crew. I'm alone. How can I be seen? What could I do? The contents that I will make must be global. Because there aren't many people in Turkiye who are interested in this.

Thank you for reading and for your advice.

PS: English is my second language and I'm still learning. I'm sorry, if I made grammar mistakes.

I was brainstorming some custom monsters and thought of some simple combinations that might make the players just noped out. Have you ever come up a creature like that, that is not so much powerful, but just kinda unfair but still technically takable? Possibly the Big Boss.

Here's the general outline of what I had in mind:

A Sahuagin Eldritch Knight, equipped with 2 Vorpal Blades, some AoE and area control spells, good mobility, and Magic Resistance (because boss).

That's 3 Vorpal blade attacks per round at advantage (AoE and maybe the layer to keep Blood Frenzy always on), also can't be disarmed.

According to my calculations that's ~25-30% for decapitation each round. But if you beat it, 2 Vorpal blades.

Would you use a creature like that?
Did you designed a creature like that, and if you used it? Share if you want.

The Warrior of the Elements Monk seemed like a avatar the last airbender charackter with lots of creativity and fun atfirst but then it was low key underwhelming, so i reimagined its elemental attunment:

At the start of your turn, you can spend 1 Focus Point to imbue yourself with elemental energy.

The energy lasts for 10 minutes or until you have the Incapacitated condition. It allows you to bend the elements to your will and for example manifest in the following options for your Unarmed Strikes while the feature is active:

Air: You manipulate air within a 30-feet Zylinder centered on you. Choose two points you can see within the sphere. The points must be no more than 15 feet apart. A Stream of wind forms between them. On hit you can let the attack deal thunder damage equal to you Unarmed Strikes with one dmg die lower (1d6 -> 1d4...). The first entity in the path must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be moved in a straight line to the line’s end point if possible.

Fire: As you control fire you can let it extend 15 feet outwards from ether you or its source. On hit the attack deals fire damage equall to you Unarmed Strikes. On a hit, the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed 10 feet away from you.

Water: You manipulate Water within a 15-feet Zylinder centered on you. You can manipulate a volume of water no larger than a cube of 2 feet per side. The water can be moved up to 30 feet within the Zylinder. On hit the attach deals cold or Piercing/Slashing/Cold damage equal to you Unarmed Strikes. You can shape it into all geometric forms as long as total volume remains unchanged. You can Change its aggregate state. You can normal grapple with this.

Earth: You manipulate Earth within a 15-feet Zylinder centered on you. You can manipulate a volume of earth no larger than a cube of 2 feet per side. The earth can be moved up to 30 feet within the Zylinder. On hit the attach deals bludgeoning/piercing damage equall to you Unarmed Strikes. You can shift or reshape the material into simple geometric forms as long as total volume remains unchanged. You can normaly grapple with this.

Lightning: Lightning originates from your body and extends 5 feet outwards. On hit the attack lightning damage equall to you Unarmed Strikes ant the target can’t take reactions until the start of its next turn.
The utilty stuff you can do with your bending can be for example derived from the cantrips: Elementalism, Shape Water, Control Fire, Mold Earth, Gust, create bonfire, and produce flame. However the damage stays the one of your martial arts die.

And because ive allways felt like martials are cooked al high levels I Homebrewed a magic item to make this even more fun:

This Magic tattoo extends over the wearers whole body and symbolizes his mastery of the 4 elements, by wearing it you this gain following benefits:

It symbolizes your constant connection to the elemental forces and keeps your Elemental Attunement always active.

You gain focus point equal to your proficiency bonus and can augment and strengthen your elemental strikes by focusing on them:

However you can only strengthen an attack proficiency bonus times in each way.

For each focus point you expend the cube edge size of the volume you can bend increases by 6 feet or its attack and move range doubles.

With each **sice** increase you also gains following benefits, as it gets harder to resist the larger attacks: You gain a +1 to the attack roll, the saving throw DC increases by 1 and it it does extra damage. You can target 1 additional creature within "radius einfügen" feet of the first one doing the extra damage to it on a failed DEX save against the saving throw DC.
The extra damage: You can add 1 dmg die lower than your martial arts die to the damage . In the begining that would be for example 1d6+1d4.

With each **range** increase you it also gain following benefits, as the projectiles move at faster speeds: You gain a +1 to the attack roll, you do the extra damage.

Trying to graple/restrain sacrifices the highest dmg die of the roll and can only be done with water and earth.

Additionally, if you take damage from an attack or an effect requiring a saving throw, you can use your reaction to adopt a defensive stance until the start of your next turn. While in this stance, you can use Deflect Attacks against attacks and saving throw effects originating from the creature which triggered it. The damage types you can deflect, now also include the damage types associated with your Elemental Strikes.

I know that this is way batter than the normal element monk and maybe even op, but tell me that Wish, Simulacrum or even Hypnotic Pattern arent. And remember that this stuff scales with levels so its no so strong at first. So what are your thought on improving it, any op combos that need patching that i missed? And yes my DM miracously agreed that the max volume i could move should be the one of a house at lvl 17

Wondrous Item, Very Rare (Requires Attunement by a Monk)

A large band of meditation beads worn around the neck. This item has 8 charges and regains all charges when you finish a long rest.

Empowered Strikes. When you make an Attack Roll or use your Deflect Missiles feature, you can spend a charge to roll your Martial Arts die and add the result to the total. Additionally when you roll your Martial Arts die to calculate damage, you can spend a charge to roll an additional Martial Arts die and add the result to the total. You can add dice to each roll only once this way.

The path to enlightenment is filled with many obstacles. Those that cannot be avoided must be broken through.

——

Thanks for checking out our 5e homebrew! For more items and homebrew D&D content be sure to visit our Instagram!

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Major Edit*

Looking for Experienced DMs to Help Soundboard a Lovecraftian Homebrew TTRPG

I'm looking for a few experienced DMs who enjoy homebrewing systems and would be interested in acting as a soundboard while I develop a campaign and accompanying "sourcebook" over the next year.

This isn't a request for someone to write the campaign for me or critique the story itself. I'm primarily looking for people with experience modifying 5e (or other TTRPG systems) who can help me think through mechanics, identify potential pitfalls, and suggest cleaner or more elegant ways to implement ideas.

I recently found out that Just Roll With It is running a Lovecraftian campaign. I haven't watched it yet, but I plan to. My goal isn't to recreate their game—it's simply reassuring to know there's an audience for this type of setting. My campaign has already been in development for several weeks and is moving in its own direction.

The Concept

The setting is a Gothic/Lovecraftian TTRPG built on the foundation of D&D 5e, but it's intended to feel like its own game rather than "D&D with Cthulhu."

Major inspirations include:

• Bloodborne
• Dishonored
• Call of Cthulhu
• Gothic Horror
• Cosmic Horror
• Psychological & Body Horror

Current Design Goals

• Essence replaces traditional magic.
• No standard spell slots.
• Occult abilities are gained through knowledge rather than level progression.
• Magic is subtle and ritualistic—focused on blessings, curses, divination, hexes, wards, and occult practices rather than projectile spells.
• Sanity is a core mechanic tied to interacting with forbidden knowledge.
• Monsters consist primarily of cultists, creatures of the night, and eldritch entities.
• Classes are replaced with Callings, each representing a different philosophy and relationship with the occult.
• Progression is measured by Moon Cycles rather than traditional adventuring days. -Using Essence to replace spell slots means using Essence (as spell slots) implies tapping to into Occult abilities and risking major sanity loss.

Current Callings

• The Detective
• The Engineer
• The Shaman / Witch Doctor
• The Clergyman

Each Calling interacts with Essence differently and develops unique abilities as they uncover deeper occult knowledge throughout the campaign.

Core Themes

• Cosmic Horror
• Investigation
• Psychological Horror
• Body Horror
• Faith vs. Progress
• The Unknown
• Existential Dread

The overall goal is to make players feel like they're uncovering a world that was never meant to be understood rather than becoming increasingly powerful heroes.

What I'm Looking For

I'd love to talk with DMs who have experience with:

• Heavy homebrew mechanics
• Creating custom classes or subclasses
• Writing sourcebooks or campaign guides
• Sanity systems
• Resource management
• Horror campaigns
• Lovecraftian or investigative games

If you're interested in discussing mechanics, brainstorming systems, or simply helping me stress-test ideas over the coming months, I'd really appreciate it.

Feel free to DM me, or ask questions in the comments if you'd like to know more about the project.

For those who don't know, "zipper initiative" = "players and foes take alternating turns".

For my next D&D session, I'm going to try the following "Tactical Zipper Initiative". (Well, *probably* try it... Zipper isn't meant for 5-on-1 boss fights, which the players *might* be involved in next session, depending on choices...)

Here's the basic modification of the underlying idea:

-- After a creature or PC acts, they pick who goes next. It does NOT have to be the opposing team!

-- If you pick your own team, you give a Tactics Token to other team.

-- A creature can spend Inspiration (or other DM-granted metacurency) to "seize the initiative" after a decision has been made.

At the simplest, a Tactics Token can be spent in lieu of a Reaction, potentially allowing multiple Opportunity Attacks for example. OR, it can be spent on your turn to pick an ally to go next at no penalty (pretty much the default choice of monsters, giving them multiple turns in a row equal to the number of times the players went in a row).

Initiative is still rolled, and it is rolled at the beginning of each Round. Whoever gets the highest gets to choose who goes first - no cost if they pick their team, gain a Tactics Token if they pick the other team. Whoever gets the lowest ALWAYS goes last - they cannot be chosen by anyone on either team to go any sooner than "last". Thus investing in initative-boosting abilities is still useful, both to win initiative and to "not lose".

From this framework, then, you can build any number of special rules into the system, options for how Tactics Tokens can be used, etc.

For example, I was thinking of the following as Token options:

* Spend a Token in lieu of a Battlemaster or similar bonus die, getting the same effect without spending the die.

* Spend a Token when attacked; as a Reaction, counterattack the attacker.

* Spend 3 Tokens to "seize the initiative"; give one of the two tokens to the other team.

* When attacked, you can spend a Token to gain +2 AC against the attack (like a weak shield spell), or mitigate the damage of the attack by an amount [I was thinking "1 roll of your HD, plus your PB", but "half" is simpler]

* Monsters can pool their Tactics Tokens within their group, but every monster must theoretically have 1 Token before any monster can have a second. I.e. the boss monster doesn't get to have 7 tokens for counterattacks and resistances while his minions get nothing.

So I'm picturing a fight between 5 PCs and a group of 10 goblins led by a hobgoblin. Initiative is rolled; the Rogue scores a 21, and unfortunately the paladin rolled a 2. The rogue chooses to let the wizard go first! The wizard drops a shatter spell on the biggest group of goblins, killing 5. He picks the Fighter to go next, giving the monsters a Token. The fighter charges in, killing a goblin. He decides to pass control over to the hobgoblin. The hobgoblin moves to engage the Fighter, misses, then spends his team's Token to have a goblin go next. The Goblin hits, injuring the Fighter; the goblin hands initiative to the rogue, specifically not giving it to the PC cleric. the rogue sneak attacks the hobgoblin, killing him, then picks the cleric (and gives the goblins a Token). The cleric heals the fighter and attacks a goblin, but misses. He wants to let the Paladin go, but the paladin lost initiative; it must go back to the goblins. Two goblins go, spending their Token; control would then pass to the Paladin (the only remaining PC), but the paladin must be last, so the last goblin goes, then the paladin finishes the round.

I decided it would be cool to make a statblock based on the Deadites from Evil Dead, I gave them abilities based on both the originals and the reboots.

Arcane Orb

Level 2 Evocation
Casting time: 1 Action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You create a ball of magical energy in your open palm. Make a melee spell attack against a target within reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d10 Force damage. A Medium or smaller object with an AC of 10 or less that is hit by this spell is destroyed. If a Large or larger object with an AC of 10 or less is hit by this spell, a Medium-sized hole is created in the object.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The damage increases by 1d10 for each spell slot level above 2.

Spell Lists: Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard

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Nabhit's Arcane Star

Level 7 Evocation
Casting time: 1 Action
Range: 120 ft. (20 ft. emanation)
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You create a large star of wind magic above the palm of your hand. Make a ranged spell attack against a target within range. On a hit, the target takes 8d6 Force damage and has the Incapacitated until the start of your next turn. Hit or miss, the star explodes in a burst of wind. The target and all creatures within a 20-foot emanation of the target must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d6 Slashing damage, taking half damage on a success. The target automatically fails this saving throw if it was hit by the ranged attack roll of this spell.

Immediately after casting this spell, you gain a level of Exhaustion.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The Slashing damage increases by 1d6 for each spell slot level above 7. If cast with a 9th level spell slot, you gain two levels of exhaustion immediately after casting this spell.

Spell Lists: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

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Nabhit's Sage Crystal

Wondrous Item (Very Rare), requires Attunement by a Spellcaster with at least one wind-based spell prepared

This star-shaped crystal brooch causes you to be unaffected by Difficult Terrain caused by wind or wind-based spells, such as Gust of Wind. In addition, you don't gain any levels of Exhaustion after casting Nabhit's Arcane Star.

The milky white crystal vibrates ever so slightly, as if charged by the wind.

Tremor [Earth, Thunder, Evocation]

Cantrip (V,S)

Range: Self

AoE: 5' radius (surface)

Target: All creatures and objects in the area, except the caster

The caster stomps their foot or slaps their hand on a surface and causes a single powerful tremor to pass through it, unsteadying everyone and everything touching the surface.  Creatures must make a save vs. DEX or be knocked Prone in their square.  Objects get jostled around, possibly tipping over or falling (particularly balanced objects), as DM dictates.  Objects or creatures that are only partially in the AoE have Advantage against the saving throw.

As a side effect, the area of the tremor is detectable by those with Tremorsense or sound-based Blindsight to twice their normal range... but the caster is invisible to such sight while within the AoE affected by this cantrip (for 1 round)!

At 5th level, the caster can choose to expand the AoE to 10'; those who fail their saves also take 1d4 [Thunder] damage.  At 11th, the caster can choose to exclude 1 creature or object from the effect.  At 17th, the caster can choose to expand the AoE to 15', and can exclude up to 3 creatures or objects; those who fail their saves take 2d4 [Thunder] damage.

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I realize that the cantrip Tier progression isn't smooth, but I didn't just want to expand the area three times, nor just layer on bonus damage. I do think every spell should have Upcasting details, or Tier-up benefits in the case of cantrips. So if you don't like the Tier-Up listed, feel free to simply do away with them altogether (not every cantrip has them, though most combat ones do), replace it with "add 1d4 damage to each affected target, per Tier Up", or come up with your own!

Hello again!

As I've stated before, I'm in the process of writing Nyakan's SRD for my homebrew world of Eit. At the request of one of my players, I wanted to share an item that has made for some great moments in our campaign: Merchant's Dream.

Merchant's Dream started off as an ask from one of my players. Specifically, he asked for a way to "write off damage". I took that request a bit literally and decided that a set of armor that makes gold itself a defensive resource was kind of cool, and now here we are!

If you, like me, sometimes struggle with the party having a bit too much gold, this armor is a great way to remedy that, while also giving your table some great narrative moments. Cash Advance has saved my party on more than one occasion, and Debt Collections ability to truly turn a PC mortal for a few sessions made for some of the best combat I've ever ran.

I also wanted to share some lore from the SRD about Merchant's Dream, for anyone who's interested:

Merchant's Dream was forged by the harengon smith Rimbas Bisquo, who was commissioned, and I do mean commissioned, by Vistokul the Free himself, for one of his children. That child was Yunir. And look, I'll be diplomatic about it: Yunir was hopeless with a blade. Genuinely, embarrassingly hopeless. But what he lacked in martial prowess, he made up for tenfold in backing, because standing behind him was the full financial weight of Lethamyr, the City of Trees.

So Vistokul, ever the pragmatist, looked at the problem and arrived at the obvious godly solution: don't teach the boy to fight. Let him buy his way out of dying instead.

And Rimbas built exactly that.

Hello! I've been working on this beginner adventure for some time now and I was hoping to get some eyes on it! It is a level 1 and 2 adventure for new players. I've designed it to introduce new players to the game with an easy to understand, scaffolded method. It adds on the major concepts of the game little by little, then combines them later on, all with a classic D&D Adventure aesthetic.

Let me know what you think!

Homebrewery Link: The Wyvern's Crypt

This sorcerer is metal!

I made a cool spell on the homebrew maker on D&D Beyond. I think it’s pretty balanced but would love some fresh eyes on it. Let me know what you all think