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Ah, travelers! We don't get many such as you in these parts, not since the Marquis' men took control of the pass. I suppose you're wondering why you can't post images or links on this Fifthday?

Thursdays are Text-post Only Days on /r/DnD. We're disabling picture and link posts for 24 hours to encourage discussion posts.

We originally began this trial about six months ago and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I've personally enjoyed a lot of the conversations that have sprung up on these days (and a smarter mod would have bookmarked some of them to use as examples* in this post).

As of now we're planning on keeping the experiment running indefinitely. We're always looking for feedback, so please let us know of your experience. Have you been enamored with a discussion post that arose one Thursday? Have you mourned having to wait one more day to see your comic update? We welcome all takes.

The switch is still happening manually, so it will happen around about midnight Eastern US time. If anyone is aware of a way to automate the process, please message the mods.

Perhaps you could discuss this...we've heard tale of a path through the eastern ridge. If such a trail exists we could circumvent the Marquis' blockade and supply this rebellion. Won't you help us, strangers!?

* The first Thursday after making this post, someone posts the most classic question imaginable. This is what it's all about.

As sickness laid upon the forest and all withered, once familiar and safe, now rotten and abandoned. Elders of the First Stag clan rose at natures call, rejuvenating places of corruption and death, seeking the source of the darkness. Along their side is a mystical lantern that illuminates the way, guided by its glow. Amidst the branches and fallen leaves there is something watching, waiting............

okay so baby dm here and i think i messed up 💀

i'm running a game for 3 of my best friends and we're all pretty new to this. one of my players made a way of the open hand monk and he was super excited about it at first.

the problem is the rest of the party is a vengeance paladin and a evocation wizard. now we're level 5 and he feels completely useless and i kinda see why.

last session, the wizard fireballed a whole room and the paladin one-shot the leader with a big smite. the monk's turn came up and he literally just ran up, punched a guy that was already almost dead, and that was it. he told me after the game that he feels like a "worse fighter with no armor and no damage" and that he's not having fun with it (he loves the background, history... the class is the problem)

he just messaged me asking if he could change his class to a fighter or something.

and idk what to do?? it feels like cheating but he's clearly not enjoying the game and i want him to have fun. do i just let him switch? how do we even explain that in the story? like he goes to sleep a monk and wakes up a fighter lol??

help pls i don't want to ruin the fun for him 🙏 any advice would be amazing

Hey, so my friend group is about to start a campaign in 5e and I decided to play as a monk. I’m using a quarter staff as my weapon. Monk weapons are defined as a short sword or any simple weapons that don’t have the two-handed or heavy properties. Quarter staffs have the versatile property but my DM says that versatile isn’t a property and if I two hand my quarterstaff, it counts as having the two-handed property and is therefore not a monk weapon. I want to know if this is true or accurate to how the rules work because I think that is a load of bull. This is important because martial arts gives me a bonus action attack if I attack with an unarmed strike or monk weapon. Thoughts?

The relevant rules as per 2024: The ready action is something you do on your turn which lets you act by taking a reaction before the start of your next turn.

You can ready a spell, casting it as normal but holding it's energy, which you release with your reaction at the trigger.

So, How would you handle a player who stealthily scouts the exact position of stationary guards around a corner and wants to ready a spell, like fireball, to cast the moment they come into view?

I'm torn on my ruling. One part of me thinks this is what surprise is for so roll initiative like that. But at the same time as it's wrote in rules the only dependency is their being a turn order to utilise the ready action, which is something you can do outside of combat already. So it should be able to be performed?

Then logically I think. If I'm chilling, stood at my post. Then a mage comes round with a fireball, that's precast the components and incantation and all other time consuming elements and is just releasing it the INSTANT line of sight is available. I don't think my 6 second turn saves me from this.

100% if they cast fireball, the somatic, verbal and component parts would take time this initiative is needed. But skipping all that, I can't see why it wouldn't be allowed other than simply game balance

So yeah sorry for my blabber, I'm conflicted in thoughts on this scenario.

Tl;Dr. Would you allow a spell action to be readied outside of combat, and it's reaction to cast to trigger on unsuspecting enemies the immediate moment LOS of a known position is visible

This character was a commission i had the pleasure to work on! I hope youll like her! :3 "Radhika Sharma is a Tiefling whose bloodline was influenced by the Endless Bog of Minauros. She is a warlock of the Fiend, tasked with collecting debts for her Patron in exchange for her powers. Said Patron, however has been nothing but helpful and kind to her family, protecting them from anyone that wouldn't take too kindly to the Yuan-ti traces in their heritage. So they decided on their own to help out their patron since the more powerful their benefactor is, the better their own situation gets. Of course, anyone familiar with the Hells knows Minauros if where new souls are processed and minted..."

I have been playing with this group of friends for 8+ years now, and recently became the DM - I have absolutely loved crafting my own homebrew campaign but various things have happened in our personal lives, and the friendship group has changed to the point where I am not sure if any of us are really friends - that's how bad the feeling is around the table.

It used to be so much fun, but now when they play, they just are silent and don't engage at all and as a DM who puts in a ton of work it's really disheartening. One player sits at the table completely silent, and staring at the table despite asking when we're next available to play. Another, whose character should be incredibly invested into the lore just refuses to interact with anything or anyone. I have tried to get them engaged, and interacting but they just refuse to do it and I don't see why I should keep trying.

Last session, I asked them what they wanted to do next since they reached a big location, and it was dead silent for 20+ seconds as they all looked around the table and shrugged. I just had the realisation that I didn't want to play anymore with them.

One of the other players also told me they don't want to play anymore because of how bad the feeling is around the group now, and it makes them feel down and like it was a wasted day. Two of the players actively avoid talking and interacting with each other now. I think it's time to just call it quits.

It's really sad for me, as DnD is a huge part of how I relax, but the vibe is really miserable and I don't think it's salvageable as it's not just one person who refuses to engage. I think it's especially disheartening with the amount of work, and how excited I was to slowly reveal the campaign.

What can I say? I don't want to be horrible, but equally I don't want them to keep asking me if I'm ready to take it up again.

Hey there,

I recently joined a new DND party with a new DM, and I’ve found some of their rulings a little odd. I thought I’d share them here since some people might find them funny or interesting.

For context, I’m a DM myself and I’ve also played in sessions and campaigns with four different DMs so far, so I feel like I have a decent range of perspective on this. I joined this new campaign a while ago, and some of the rulings feel a bit ridiculous at times. I’ll list them from least to most absurd (at least in my opinion).

1. The DM changes monster stat blocks, but only to the players’ disadvantage. This one isn’t as wild as the others, but I still find it interesting that it’s only done to make players suffer, not to make monsters more interesting or give them cool new abilities.

2. The DM sometimes says our characters do something instead of asking what we want to do.

3. Every single NPC or animal needs “official art.” It’s gotten to the point where we meet a random guy at a bar and, instead of having a quick two-minute conversation, the DM stops and says, “Hold on, I’ll find art for them.” This often means using AI or reusing one image for multiple NPCs. As a DM myself, I don’t mind using imagination sometimes, cus not everything needs a picture.

4. Players have to declare everything. For example, we bought climbing gear for everyone because we planned to climb a mountain. Later, when we were at the base, we said we were preparing and starting the climb. A few minutes later, the DM said a small rock hit one of us, causing them to fall all the way down because none of us explicitly said we put the climbing gear on. For us, that was obviously part of preparing.

5. Inspiration has to be declared before the roll. So you have to say you’re using it and then roll with advantage. No rerolls allowed. Last session, I used it and rolled a 17 and an 18, both of which would have succeeded anyway. In my opinion, it just feels petty and unfun.

6. Spells like Shield have to be declared before attacks are rolled. This one is especially funny. I don’t have access to the spell, but our wizard does and when he’s about to be attacked, the DM says, “Three attacks are coming your way. Are you going to do anything about that?”. It turns out the DM changed the spell so it has to be declared before the attacks are even rolled. Last session, our wizard panicked and used it, and none of the three attacks would have hit him anyway.

7. Finally, the DM always points out female NPCs’ breast sizes when describing them. We don’t even encounter female NPCs that often, but when we do, we get a disclaimer about their cup size. As the only woman at the table, I find it unnecessary and honestly disturbing.

Overall, I just find these rulings weird and uncommon. I absolutely love my character and everything else makes me want to stay in this campaign but I’d love to hear what others think, especially if anyone wants to defend some of these (particularly the last few).

I bought this broken down, split spine, board separated, sorry state AD&D 1e Monster Manual.

The idea is that I’m going to colour my way through it. A bit of meditative self time. At the moment I’m doing A to Z, but I may just mix it up as I fancy.

Link: https://goblinshenchman.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/broken-monster-manual-second-life-in-colour/

YouTube slideshow: https://youtu.be/5JvwPzQnLf4?si=oq-3drHs3MaNefwU

I’m going to use coloured pencils as I don’t want colour to bleed through the pages. As you will probably spot, I’m not an artist! I should probably work out how to take better photos!

Call it sacrilege, but I figure this book can have a second life, albeit under my amateur hand.

I’ll update the associated post as I meander along.

PS – I’m not necessarily following the colours mentioned in the description of the MM (I’ve only got so many brown pencils), I’m just going with whatever I feel like on the day. It’s also fun just to reimagine the monsters. D&D is a fantasy game amIright?

I'm going to be roleplaying a character with 6 int, 14 Wis, and 18 Charisma. I've been mulling it over in my head and, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm starting to think Philomena Cunk from those comedy interview skits might be a good template to start with for my character. Earnest, likeable, can hold a conversation and has a professional demeanor, makes a lot of connections between concepts, but just doesn't have any idea how the world works and her knowledge of things is often wrong.

A couple quotes: "What was the world like before Isaac Newton discovered gravity? Was everything just floating up to the sky?"

"If gravity is real as you seem to be claiming, how come it doesn't work on kites?"

"How did sir Walter Raleigh invent the potato?"