dnd-worldbuilding-ideas

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Mystery: Revel no More (Part 1) 

A Portrait of Lord Ansem Barethi & Lady Jysila Deen, 

Painted to commemorate their 10th wedding anniversary. 

Recovered After the Barethi estate Massacre

Setup : The city is rocked by the disappearance ( and likely death) of its mistress of revels. Charged with organizing public festivals and managing the city’s performers,  Lady Jysila Deen was a well loved figure among the nobility and common people for her dedication to invigorating the lives of it’s every citizen: bringing wonder and spectacle into their world while at the same time curbing the excesses of the nobility and the anger of the mob. 

Though some saw her role as frivolous, a petty appointment for a Duke’s libertine daughter, Lady Deen’s absence has set loose a series of aftershocks that have brought the city to the edge of disaster. 

Adventure Hooks: 

For the first time in over a century, it seems like the summer solstice will go unmarked, as plans for the grand, annual celebration ( which promised to be the greatest of its kind) have come to a grinding halt as sure as an army that’s routed after its general has been slain. Players who were drawn to the city with promise of revelry find themselves buffeted by out of pocket circus performers, priests up in arms about “offence to the gods”, and a populace suddenly deprived of it’s well earned week of mellowing amusements. The Solstice is usually celebrated with a week of bonfires burning late into the night, and without Lady Deen it seems like the whole city may catch alight, figuratively or otherwise. 

Late at night the party is taken by surprise as the inn they’re staying at is raided by the local constabulary, and everyone sitting up for drinks is taken in for questioning after a good beating. Apparently In addition to her duties as an event planner Jysila was responsible for regulating “morality” in public performances, a task which largely consisted of ensuring cabaret acts didn’t become too raucous, and that the city’s artistic set wasn’t openly calling for any public officials to be guillotined. Under her light touch, the arts flourished: skirting just under the line of what would offend the powers that be while giving voice to the people’s frustrations.  Her replacement is not so delicate (as the party discovers first hand),   a blunt tool of the thin-skinned and uptight city elders who’re more than willing to shutter playhouses and pillory performers if there’s even a whiff of disobedience. Apparently someone reported that a bard was telling raucous jokes that parodied a certain councilmember’s fondness for horses. The establishment is to be shuttered ( leaving the party without a place to stay), and their bard friend is to be thrown in irons pending his trial. 

Lord Ansem Barethi is also missing, presumed dead  along with his wife. HIs family are gold-traders, and are offering quite the sizeable reward for the capture of his killer. His younger brother believes this to be the work of business rivals, and will gladly arm and equip the party if it means sicking them on his brother’s suspected murderers. 

Keep reading

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Art by Philip Byers

Instagram: @pjbyersfineart

Tumblr: @philipbyersart

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

The B.O.L.O.G: A Big Ol’ List Of D&D Generators...

Ladies, Gentlemen and Everyone and Everything in-between, I present to you: The B.O.L.O.G, or the“Big Ol’ List of Generators”, something I’ve been working on for a long time.

The “Big Ol’ List Of Generators” (or B.O.L.O.G for short!) has pretty much everything, with over 100+ DM and Player Tools, Random Generators, Cheat Sheets and Reference Sheets to help take your DnD Games to the next level!

Eigengrau’s Generator

Procgen Mansion Generator (with 3D Visuals & Floorplans!)

Chaotic Shiny 

rollforfantasy.com

D&D DM Tip Generator (Sly Flourish)

D&D 5e Mob Damage Calculator (Sly Flourish)

DND Speak

Random Potion Generator for D&D (GeekNative.com)

donjon.bin.sh

Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator

Watabou Medieval Fantasy City Generator

5eTools

5eMagic.Shop (Magic Shop Generator w/ Items and Prices)

D&D 5e Tools by Leugren

JenniferBrussow.com (D&D Library Generator)

dnd5espells.rpglist.net (D&D Spell Scroll Generator)

RPG Tinker (NPC Generator)

Mithral and Mages (5e Treasure Generator)

Site of Many Things (Random Magic Item Generator)

Kobold Fight Club (Encounter Builder and XP Calculator)

DM Heroes (NPC Generator)

Here Be Taverns (Tavern & Menu Generator)

Instant Tavern Generator (WoTC)

Red Kat Art DnD5Tools

Myth Weavers Dungeon Generator

Not Another Tavern Generator

Goblinist.com (Random Encounter Generator)

FantasyNameGenerator.com

FastCharacter.com (Character Creator)

Tetra-Cube.com (Random Character Generator)

ChaosGen.com RPG Tools

AutoRoll Tables - Github 

Indie Loot Generator for D&D 5e

Kassoon D&D Tools and Generators

Sane Magic Item Prices

Weak Magic Item generator

Watabou’s One Page Dungeon Generator

D12dev

Fantasy Calendar Generator

Drugs for D&D

Poison Generator

ancientquests.com

thievesguild.cc

5thdnd.com

John’s Dungeons and Dragons Tools

enneadgames.com

springhole.net

roll1d12.blogspot.com

seventhsanctum.com

npcgenerator.com

dungeonmastersvault.com

Random Spell Scroll Generator by u/Zwets

What Do You Want? (a Character Motivation Generator) by FencedForest

Maze Generator

NPC Generator by theunburnedwitch

Cafe Arcane (D&D Tools)

Worldbuilding: Clothing and Fashion (HumanVariant)

Slyscript’s Glossary of Archaic Words

Vulgar: A Fantasy Language Generator

Megacosm Generator

The 100 Most Important Things To Know About Your Character

Nonsense Generator

Tree Description Generator (by ModernBarbarian)

Overflower (A Flower Generator by Bleeptrack)

Tiny Quests for Tiny Goons

Magic Carpet Generator (by Zoyander Street)

Potion Description Generator (by Piecewise)

The Monsters Know What They’re Doing

D&D Swarm Damage Calculator

Monster Manual Encounters (Reddit)

MapGen4 (from Red Blob Games)

Random Inn Floorplan Generator (by Inkwell Ideas)

Instant Dragon Generator (by WOTC)

TabletopAudio (Custom Soundboards and Presets)

Phanary.com (Soundboards and Presets)

Iron Arachne Culture Generator

Merchant Wagon Generator (GeekNative.com)

RPG Market Generator

Random Prophecy Generator (GeekNative.com)

TrollMystic Random Generators

RanGen Random Generators

Improved Initiative Tracker

Chicken Dinner’s Point Buy Calculator

Adventurer’s Codex

Hit Effect Description Generator

Maker’s Forge Games

1 Dot Villain Generator

MiniWorld’s NPC Generator (by Profession)

The Thieves Guild

D100 Tricks, Puzzles and Riddles

GiffyGlyph.com

Orteil’s Dungeon Generator

Character Goal Generator

Tavern Description Generator

Shipwreck Description Generator

Realm Description Generator

Quest Generator

Character Personality Generator

Forest Description Generator

Character Appearance Generator

Dragon Description Generator

Farmland Generator

House Description Generator

Fantasy Swear Word Generator

“A Wise Man Once Said…” (A Fantasy Quote Generator)

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Abandoned lighthouse on Sakhalin Island, Russia. 

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

12 Random Farm Hauntings

Roll 1d12 for a paranormal event at a farm:

As a low wind blows, a sickle falls from the rafters of the barn and lands between your feet or inches from your face. Inspection of where it came from shows no sign of any tools, and when you look back the sickle is gone.

In the corner of your eye you see corn in the field move as if something is running through it towards you, but when you look the corn stalks are deathly still. Later you hear strange noises from the cornfield, such as giggling or sobbing.

Cattle in the field drop on their sides, dead. When turned over, it’s revealed that their sides that were touching the ground look as though they’ve been dead and decaying for days.

In the middle of the night you hear a man’s laughter at the edge of the property. Minutes later it appears halfway up the drive. Then it’s heard at the front door. Next you hear it at the closest window. Finally, as soon as you try to sleep, you hear the man laugh as if he was standing over your bed.

You hear a door slam in the cellar. When you investigate, a door is there that never existed before. It is jammed and won’t open. As you try and try to pull it open, it finally gives to reveal a blank wall on the other side.

The livestock around the farmhouse seem to keep their backs to you, but otherwise are behaving normally. When you try to look at their faces, you find that they’re missing and exposed bone with empty sockets stares back at you before going back to grazing.

In the middle of the night the barn doors start slamming open and shut. When you investigate, the doors slam shut behind you. Nothing is out of place in the barn, but outside you hear screams of torment and horror. After a few moments the screaming stops and the barn doors slowly creak open. As you step out of the barn the screaming starts again, but this time right behind you.

The outhouse begins shaking violently. When you open the door it stops. When you investigate inside you realize there’s sobs coming from the toilet.

A heavy rain begins and the land around becomes muddy. It’s then that you notice that something that looks like bone can be seen in the dirt below the crops. When you investigate you start to hear low moaning and what sounds like a heartbeat. If you start to uncover the bone, a skeletal hand shoots out of the mud and grabs you.

From the well outside the farm house you think you hear shouts. It sounds like a young girl has fallen and gotten trapped. You approach to the sound of the girl’s sobs, but you find that the well is filled to the top with murky water. As you examine it’s surface you see a water logged hand quickly raise from the depths to claw at you. The arm retreats into the well and the water begins to turn a dark red. The next time you look into the well you see that it is filled with dirt and looks as though it has been for years.

You realize that the scarecrow in the field looks like it’s staring at you. When you move around you feel like it’s following your movements. Before you stare at it too long, a murder of crows flies in your face, obstructing your view. When the birds have passed, the cross that held the scarecrow up is now empty.

While out in the field or in the barn you hear a dinner bell ring at the house. As far as you know, no one is at the house at this time, but as you approach it appears as though lights are on and the chimney is blowing smoke. The lights are dimly lit in the house, but the dining room is laid out with enough places for everyone examining the house. There are covered dinner platters in the middle of the table. A name tag labels each seat with the name of everyone who entered the house. If the platters are uncovered, they reveal a harvest feast. There are pies and roasts, a plethora of cooked vegetables and fruits. You feel the urge to devour the meal as it’s delicious scent fills the air. Moments after you either begin or refuse to eat the lights suddenly blow out, leaving you in darkness. When you light the area again, you realize that the room is in shambles, the dishes are rusty, and the food is molded, maggoty remains of something humanoid.

Art: RadoJavor

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

20+ Mechanics and Ideas To Spice Up Your D&D Combat!

Synchronised Button Pushes. Three obelisks stand far apart from each other, and need to be activated occasionally at the same time to prevent disaster (a sleeping monster waking, a magical explosion, etc). Each obelisk is guarded, either by a trap or a creature.

Hostage Situation. The enemies have hostages.

Floating Isles. A series of small floating islands all over, with the gravity changing direction each round.

Wild Magic Zone. There’s a Wild Magic Storm raging all around, causing every casting of a Spell to create a Wild Magic Surge!

Guerrilla Tactics. A boss that, instead of standing in a big room exchanging attacks with the party, fights dirty. Casting spells under Greater Invisibility, escaping to take the fight into a new, more favourable room, forcing the Party to chase them and guiding them into traps, etc.

The Floor is Lava. The combat arena is overflowing slowly with some dangerous substance, hindering party’s movement more and more with each turn.

Flaming Buildings! Enemies keep lighting everything on fire! The Party needs to keep putting out the fires or keep them contained while fighting the enemies.

Dockside Battle. The Party is fighting on a dock or boat, with underwater enemies trying to pull them beneath the waves!

Collapsing Dungeon! The entire area is collapsing, causing parts of the ground to fall away and debris to fall from above each round.

Avalanche! The battle takes place right in the middle of an avalanche!

Abyssal Portal. While the boss fight is going on, a powerful artifact needs to be destroyed or else a portal will open to the Abyss and Demons will pour out.

Dark Ritual. The Party must fight through the baddies, but also stop the ritual from completing.

Tall Grass. There’s very tall grass all around, giving everyone cover and giving enemies a new way to hide.

Sea Monster. Successfully steer a ship to safety that is being attacked by a sea monster.

Kill the Messenger. The enemy has sent a messenger to go get backup, and if it’s not taken care of quickly, a larger force will arrive and overwhelm the Party. If the messenger is killed quickly enough, then the bad guys could retreat, surrender, or release another messenger, depending on what you’re going for.

Silent Combat. The Party and the Big Bad are fighting in a situation where any sound would be equally detrimental to both sides. Maybe there’s a sleeping dragon nearby, or any concussive forces would set off an avalanche or a room collapse. Whatever it is, the fight must be conducted in relative silence or disastrous things could happen.

Tsunami of Death. A strange liquid (acid, lava, etc.) flows through the arena and expands each round, with new flows snaking across the battlefield as the battle goes on.

Dead Magic Zone. The battle takes place in area completely devoid of any magic, making casting spells both arcane and divine (including healing spells) impossible.

Magical and Mechanical Minefield. The Big Bad Boss is Invisible in an area filled with traps and magical glyphs. The Bad Guy won’t willingly step onto the traps or trigger the magical glyphs, but a Party of oblivious Adventurers however…

Possession. The Boss is a Ghost that possesses different friendly NPCs, turning them hostile until they’re knocked unconscious or killed outright.

Shipwreck! A fight underwater after a shipwreck, with other crew and passengers that need to be rescued before they drown.

Cliffside Combat. The Party are at the top of a cliff or fighting on an out-cropping on the face of a cliff. The enemies are attempting to scale it and the Party needs to continually kick them back down while not letting themselves be pulled off or falling to a grizzly death. 

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20+ Character Motivations...

Gain the favour of a powerful entity.

See a government fall.

Become rich by any means.

Murder a person of noble blood.

Win the heart of their love interest.

Blackmail a city.

Sabotage a former mentor.

To be respected by the elite.

Find out the fate of a lost loved one.

Be the pride of their family name.

Find a mysterious figure from their past.

Find true love.

Ensure their own success.

Save a country from ruin.

Complete a pilgrimage to a famous gravestone.

Rule over an area of land.

Get revenge on a former ally.

Steal back their only child.

Win the favour of their ancestors.

Avenge an old love interest.

Run and hide from a powerful member of the elite.

Emulate the famous actions of heroes that came before.

Have as much fun as possible, even if it kills them.

Maintain the status-quo to the best of their ability.

Usurp a Royal.

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

43 Things To find In A Giant’s Bag...

The deed to a ruined tower.

An ornately-carved drinking horn worth 25gp.

A twisted iron torc worth 1gp.

A large blob of iron weighing 5lbs., worth 5sp.

A page torn from a ruined spellbook.

A small boulder weighing 20lbs.

A small cask of oil weighing 1lbs.

A flattened tin tankard.

A set of merchant’s weights worth 5sp.

A bag of salt worth 5cp.

Various gnawed bones.

An iron cooking pot worth 1sp.

A wheel of sharp cheese worth 1gp.

Several large iron nails.

A tin bowl and spoon.

A bundled up two-person tent.

A tortoise shell bowl.

A cask of roasted cave insects.

A giant wasp trapped in a pot bound with leather straps.

A pouch of polished stone marbles.

A gnawed reindeer antler.

A crude map to a local dragon’s lair.

A 120-foot tangled coil of hempen rope.

A ring of broken iron keys.

A collection of small crystal prisms.

A 1-foot-diamater glass eye.

An empty wooden cask.

A pouch of coarse coal dust.

A pouch of sweet-smelling incense.

A crushed red wyrmling skull.

A smoking pipe.

A short list of famous local taverns.

The blood-stained journal of a legendary explorer.

Giant mushrooms wrapped in cloth.

A small cask stuffed with salted fish.

A clay pot of cooked crab.

A collection of seashells wrapped in fishing net.

A large lodestone worth 80gp.

A hard-boiled dragon egg.

A cloth bag stuffed with 1d10 dead birds.

1d6 Dead Trout.

1d6 Humanoid Skulls.

1d6 Dragon Scales.

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

7 D&D Adventure Hooks That Totally Aren’t Rip-Offs!

Several notorious crime families have brought themselves to justice after being attacked by a mysterious group of four shadowy figures. After some investigation, it seems that a Were-Rat living in the sewers of the City has sent out his agents as a form of revenge against the people that slighted him and his martial prowess.

After a heavy snowstorm blocks all routes out of a military outpost, the Adventurers are stuck inside, with a Doppleganger waiting in the wings to pick them off one by one.

An Androsphinx with a love of singing has been swayed into worship of the Demon Lord Yeenoghu, and after banishing his Mate to the Outer Planes, he and his three Gnoll Minions plan to overthrow the local powers and expand the territories and hunting grounds of the local Gnoll Warband, all in the name of Yeenoghu.

Several village children have gone missing after being led into the local woods by a Hag’s set of cursed children’s toys. But the Party of Adventurers now face an issue, as these children’s toys have been enchanted with the ability to animate only when no living adult is watching. Do they risk tearing apart dozens of beloved childhood toys all in the name of good?

A panicked Transmutation Wizard approaches the Party, telling them of a group of bandits that disguise themselves as circus-folk and how they stole his most valued pet: A Flying Elephant he created by replacing the creature’s ears with the wings of a Roc!

While walking through a Forest of magically awakened animals, each animal makes its pitch on why they and they alone should be taught the components of a Fireball Spell.

A local restaurant has opened up to critical success and fame. But rumours are gathering that the chef’s kitchen of this restaurant is in fact ran by a single Druid and his army of Giant Rats!

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Shadowfell Fortress - DnD Battlemap

Hey everyone! We’re back with our Shadowfell Fortress battlemap! This is one of the longest maps we’ve made so far. We wanted your party to have a lot of land to fight through and space to defend (depending on which side of the bridge you’re on).

Get the 10 variations here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/shadowfell-26x67-36134724

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Monsters of the month by Justin Gerard

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

The Elder Scrolls Online concept art by Jeremy Fenske

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Huntmaster of the Fells // Ravager of the Fells

If you’d like to help support me to keep doing what I’m doing, as well as request your own card conversions, check my page or the notes for the links to my Patreon.

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Old Herb Names

Raven and Crone

Adders Tongue: Dogstooth, Violet, Plantain Ass Foot or Bulls Foot: Coltsfoot

Bats Wings: Holly Leaf Bats wool: Moss Bears Foot: Ladys Mantle Birds Eye: Germander Speedwell Black Sampson: Echinacea Blood: Elder sap or another tree sap Blood of Hephaistos: Wormwood Blood from a Head: Lupine   Blood of Ares: Purslane Blood of a Goose: A Mulberry Trees Milk Blood of Hestia: Chamomile Blood of an Eye: Tamarisk Gall Blood from a Shoulder: Bears Breach Bloody fingers: Foxglove Bloodwort: Yarrow Bodily Fluids: Houseleek Bone of an Ibis: Buckthorn Brains: Congealed gum from a cherry tree Bread and Cheese Tree: Hawthorne Bulls Blood or Seed of Horus: Horehound Burning Bush: White Dittany

Calfs Snout: Snapdragon Candelmas Maiden: Snowdrop. Capons Tail: Valerian Cats Foot: Canada Snake Root and or Ground Ivy Cheeses: Marsh Mallow Chocolate Flower: Wild Geranium Christs Ladder: Centaury Christs Eye: Vervain, Sage Clear-eye: Clary Sage Click: Goosegrass Clot: Great Mullein Corpse candles: Mullein Corpse Plant: Indian Pipe. Crocodile dung: Black earth Crowdy Kit: Figwort Crows Foot: Cranesbill, Wild Geranium Cuckoos Bread: Common Plantain Cucumber Tree: Magnolia Cuddys Lungs: Great Mullein

Daphne: Laurel/Bay Dead Man: Ash or Mandrake root carved in a crude human shape or poppet Devils Dung: Asafoetida   Devils Plaything: Yarrow Dew of the Sea: Rosemary Dogs Mouth: Snap Dragon Doves Foot: Wild Geranium Dragons Blood: Calamus Dragons Scales: Bistort Leaves Dragon Wort: Bistort

Eagle: Wild Garlic Ear of an Ass: Comfrey Ear of a Goat: St. Johns Wort Earth Smoke: Fumitory Elfs Wort: Elecampane Enchanters Plant: Vervain Englishmans Foot: Common Plantain Erba Santa Maria: Spearmint Everlasting Friendship: Goosegrass Eye of Christ: Germander Speedwell Eye of the Day: Common Daisy Eye of the Star: Horehound Eye Root: Goldenseal Eyes: Aster, Daisy, Eyebright

Fairy Smoke: Indian Pipe Fat from a Head: Spurge Felon Herb: Mugwort Fingers: Cinquefoil Five Fingers: Cinquefoil Foxs Clote: Burdock Frogs Foot: Bulbous Buttercup From the Belly: Earth-apple From the Foot: Houseleek From the Loins: Chamomile

Goats Foot: Ash Weed Gods Hair: Hart’s Tongue Fern Golden Star: Avens Gosling Wing: Goosegrass Graveyard Dust: Mullein Great Ox-eye: Ox-eye Daisy

Hags Taper: Great Mullein Hagthorn: Hawthorn Hair: Maidenhair fern Hairs of a Hamadryas Baboon: Dill Seed Hair of Venus: Maidenhair Fern Hand: The expanded frond from a male fern used to make the true hand of glory, which is nothing more than a candle made of wax mixed with fern Hares Beard: Great Mullein Hawks Heart: Heart of Wormwood Heart: Walnut Herb of Grace: Vervain Hinds Tongue: Hart’s Tongue Fern Holy Herb: Yerba Santa Holy Rope: Hemp Agrimony Hook and Arn: Yerba Santa Horse Hoof: Coltsfoot Horse Tongue: Hart’s Tongue Fern Hundred Eyes: Periwinkle

Innocense: Bluets

Jacobs Staff: Great Mullein Joy of the Mountain: Marjoram Jupiters Staff: Great Mullein

Kings Crown: Black Haw Knight’s Milfoil: Yarrow Kronos’ Blood: of Cedar

Lads Love: Southernwood Ladys Glove: Foxglove aka Witches’ Gloves Lambs Ears: Betony Lions Hairs: Tongue of a Turnip [i.e., the leaves of the taproot] Lions Tooth: Dandelion aka Priest’s Crown Little Dragon: Tarragon Love in Idleness: Pansy Love Leaves: Burdock Love Lies Bleeding: Amaranth or Anemone Love Man: Goosegrass Love Parsley: Lovage Love Root: Orris Root

Maidens Ruin: Southernwood Mans Bile: Turnip Sap Mans Health: Ginseng Master of the Woods: Woodruff May: Black Haw May Lily: Lily of the Valley May Rose: Black Haw Maypops: Passion Flower Mistress of the Night: Tuberose Mutton Chops: Goosegrass

Nose Bleed: Yarrow

Old-Maids-Nightcap: Wild Geranium Old Mans Flannel: Great Mullein Old Mans Pepper: Yarrow Oliver: Olive

Password: Primrose Peters Staff: Great Mullein Pigs Tail: Leopard’s Bane Poor Man’s Treacle: Garlic Priests Crown: Dandelion leaves Pucha-Pat: Patchouli

Queen of the Meadow: Meadowsweet Queen of the Meadow Root: Gravelroot Queen of the Night: Vanilla Cactus

Rams Head: American Valerian Red Cockscomb: Amaranth Ring-o-Bells: Bluebells Robin-Run-in-the-Grass: Goosegrass

Scaldhead: Blackberry See Bright: Clary Sage Seed of Horus: Horehound Semen of Ammon: Houseleek Semen of Ares: Clover Semen of Helios: White Hellebore Semen of Hephaistos: This is Fleabane Semen of Hermes: Dill Semen of Herakles: Mustard-rocket Seven Year’s Love: Yarrow Shameface: Wild Geranium   Shepherds Heart: Shepherds Purse Silver Bells: Black Haw Skin of a Man: Fern Skull: Skullcap Snake: Bistort Snakes Blood: Hematite stone Soapwort: Comfrey or Daisy Sorcerer’s Violet: Periwinkle   Sparrows Tongue: Knotweed St. Johns Herb: Hemp Agrimony.(this is not St. John’s Wort) St. Johns Plant: Mugwort Star of the Earth: Avens Star Flower: Borage Starweed: Chickweed Sweethearts: Goosegrass Swines Snout: Dandelion leaves

Tanners Bark: Common Oak Tarragon: Mugwort Tartar Root: Ginseng Tears of a Hamadryas Baboon: Dill Juice Thousand Weed: Yarrow Thunder Plant: House Leek Titans Blood: Wild Lettuce Toad: Toadflax Tongue of dog: hounds tongue Tooth or Teeth: Pinecones Torches: Great Mullein

Unicorns Horn: False Unicorn:Helonias Dioica Unicorn Horn: True Unicorn Root Unicorn Root: Ague Root

Wax Dolls: Fumitory Weasel Snout: Yellow Archangel Weazel Snout: Yellow Dead Nettles/Yellow Archangel Weed: Ox-Eye Daisy White: Ox-eye Daisy White Mans Foot: Common Plantain White Wood: White Cinnamon Witch’s Asprin: White Willow/Willow Bark Witch’s Brier: Brier Hips Wolf Claw: Club Moss Wolf Foot: Bugle Weed   Wolfs Milk: Euphorbia Worms: Gnarled, thin roots of a local tree

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Here is another Valkyrie themed commission, but for a Fighter subclass. Enjoy!

If you enjoy my work, a donation is always appreciated. My Ko-Fi

[dnd-worldbuilding-ideas]

Sword & Shield – Personal Plots for Fighters

In many ways, the Fighter is the most iconic class in RPGs. D&D started life as a wargame, and the default unit of any wargame is a soldier. It’s also one of 5E’s most flexible classes, so there’s a bit of a challenge in developing generic fighter plot. So let’s look at some ideas of what kinds of stories we can write for a player playing a fighter in a campaign.

There are many kinds of fighters, from combat experts like Battle Masters and Champions to noble Samurai and Cavaliers to Arcane Archers and Eldritch Knights. A lot of the story elements you might write for a character in your campaign might come from their race, background, or other elements, but you can also use the type of fighter a character is to generate from elements.

Arcane Archers tend to be elves by the basic lore of D&D, but there’s no restriction that stops members of another race from taking this subclass. In fact, this alone could be the crux of the storyline that you tell with an arcane archer fighter – where do they get their training? You could have the PC go through a series of quests to prove that they are worthy of the secrets that an elven arcane archer could teach them. If you have them happen on the levels prior to each of the abilities arcane archers get (let’s say, levels 2, 6, 9, 14, and 17), then they could see the benefits of their tutelage after each quest. Alternately, perhaps there are sacred spots that they must locate and touch, each one imbuing them with the powers of the upcoming level. Even though I’m positing this for non-elven arcane archers, even elves could have to go through this rite of passage.

Battle Masters have a more academic flair to them. You could use a similar flavor to what I suggested for Arcane Archers, but you could couch them in the flavors of teachers that they have to seek out and impress. I’m imagining the scene in the Princess Bride where Wesley and Inigo have a sword duel while discussing the techniques that they’ve studied. This could be a duel between two battle masters. Alternately, maybe there are fabled volumes out there that contain lost lessons of swordmasters from long dead civilizations. Finding these techniques could be the object of a storyline or quest. It’s also worth noting that this subclass really lends itself to the idea of a rival. Perhaps another student from the same college of warfare seeks the same info, and the two students are constantly trying to reach the next lesson before the other, hoping to win the school master’s favor? Even better, you could take a note from the Gentleman Bastard series and make the rival a romantic interest as well. This could be an exceptional story.

Cavaliers lend themselves to a particular flavor of adventure. If you want to be a knight in shining armor without the trappings of the paladin, the cavalier is definitely a good route to take. For inspiration, one can go straight to the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. These stories are loaded with adventure seeds. Quests for fabled weapons, armor, shields, or even mounts make for easy fodder in a cavalier’s tale. And there is likely to be a fair amount of righting of wrongs and the like.

Champions, in some ways, are the hardest fighters to write fighter plot for. Of course you can use the other elements of the character to write plot, but the Champion, while a fantastic option, just doesn’t have a ton of story woven into its nature. I think a rival is a good way to go, as mentioned above. You could specifically work a rivalry story around the fighting style that the player picks. “You think you’re special because your teacher taught you the Cappaldi method of Dueling? Well, my master *is* Cappaldi. Let me show you how that move is really done.”

The Eldritch Knight is positively swimming in story potential. Given that fighters start with no magical ability, you could start the story with what event happens at the end of 2nd level to open this warrior’s life to magic. I play a fighter in an Eberron campaign who was on the border with Cyre during the Day of Mourning. I gave a lot of thought to role-playing strange headaches that suddenly erupted in magic as I slipped to level 3. Once past that, there can be the search for what this strange talent means, or a seach for teachers who can help the knight find their full potential.

If you have the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, the option of the Purple Dragon Knight comes with tons of story potential if you’re playing in the Forgotten Realms. Alternately, you can use it as the “Banneret” more generic option they mention. But it’s another courtly knight type, although not one involved specifically with mounted combat. All the same kinds of stories that you tell for a cavalier are good here, as well.

And finally, there’s the Samurai. This doesn’t need to mean a Japanese knight, though it absolutely could if such a culture exists in your campaign. It means a warrior with unbreakable resolve who is also a noble courtier. Here, I would be tempted to look at the classic tropes of samurai stories and movies. Such a fighter is likely either traveling on their lord’s business, or their lord is dead, in which case they are a masterless ronin. It doesn’t take much effort to find great stories to model your plot for this character on.

Hopefully this article has given you some fodder for the fighters in your campaign. More than many other characters, I feel like a party could have two fighters in it and yet have two utterly different characters with very different personal plots. Let’

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Planeswalkers of War of the Spark

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