Divining the Dice

Grappling is a fun and unique mechanic which people often tailor their characters around. Commonly the Goliath Barbarian or perhaps warrior is a popular choice, for a number of obvious reasons. However due to me liking to raise the bar for a number of ridiculous reasons I would like to put forward my favorite alternative. The Bugbear Sorcerer Grappler. Yes... sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Grappling Refresh Ok so first things first, lets refresh our memories as to the grappling rules. As taken from a terrific post by Ktkenshinx on grappling from Enworld , lets have a look at the basics: Grappling is a "special melee attack". To grapple a target, you must "use the Attack action" to then make your special melee attack (the grapple). From an RAW perspective, the "Multiattack" ability of monsters cannot enable multiple grapples because it is its own action type. If you have multiple attacks for the Attack action, you can replace as many of them

As far as class thematic's go, Sorcerers have to be some of the most flavorful. Storm, Sea, Shadow, Draconic, Favored Soul, Wild Magic, Stone, and Phoenix, they all just work beautifully with their unique sub class abilities. What falls short unfortunately is the base class itself, with a very restrictive spell list and no ritual spell casting, its hard to justify a sorcerer over a wizard. But I personally have a soft spot for sorcerers, so lets have a look at making the most out of this class. Wizbanga the Kobold Sorcerer, he saved many a life in his day. Charisma, a PC's Best Friend Having a spell casting modifier based of charisma is a huge bonus that grants a sorcerer some reprieve, as having a strong modifier for social skills allows sorcerers to excel in social interactions. Additionally many races have great natural bonuses to charisma, with Tiefling, Aasimar, Half-Elf and Yuan-ti Pureblood all gaining a starting +2, there is plenty of opportunity to start with a

Looking for a fun holiday present to get a fellow gamer, significant other, your overworked DM, or even yourself? Well look no further!! The hobby of tabletop gaming has a large number of resources available from mini's to maps, supplements to subscriptions, books to bags, and even dice to dresses.    In the spirit of honesty, I have no affiliation with any of these products or companies, apart from having purchased almost everything on this list and personally recommending them as great resources which I have enjoyed using.   For Newer Players/DM's To begin with, if you are contemplating jumping into the world of D&D, there's no other gift i could recommend more highly than the 5e Starter Se t. Its where my family and I started and gave us hours of enjoyment for a little over $25aud. The next item newer players will most likely want to invest in would be a 7 piece dice set. Chessex would most likely be the default brand, with a large range of colours an

Humble Bundle is a great resource for any gaming enthusiast. For Tabletop players, the content on offer is seldom relevant, Currently however as of the 8/12/17, people can pick up a massive batch of content starting from tier 1 for just $1 through to tier 3 at $17. Now I'm in no way associated with Humble Bundle (unfortunately), I  just love a good deal and the idea that my money can build my hobby and help charity. You can follow the following link to find out more: Humble RPG Book Bundle The content comes from 2 of the most well known 3rd party producers for D&D 5e Content, Kobold Press and Frog God Games. This content is not official cannon but is well constructed, edited and has a number of favourable reviews. For the purists out there not interested in homebrew mechanical content, just the adventures alone may be enough to justify the price. I personally enjoy flicking through adventures to get traps, plots, maps, or even BBEG's for my own campaigns. That'

The concept of a session zero is a great idea which allows the party to create characters without potentially stepping on each others toes. In reality however, I often see people just pick the characters they want to play, which could lead to 3 melee tanks and a wizard or 3 charisma based characters and a cleric. Now this isn't wrong in any way, it just means that more people are capable of filling the same niche, which leads to less overall coverage of all the various skills and abilities. This can potentially complicate things further as it means there's more competition to fulfill certain aspects. Hence the 'stepping on each others toes' issue. I think DM's and players at this point have a responsibility to attempt to split the responsibilities evenly between the group to ensure everyone has their own niche and chance to shine. So to counter this issue in my own games I have devised a simple setup to have players "specialise" in a particular field

From Dungeon to Dessert Welcome to Rocco Battlehorn’s complete guide to field dressing and cooking all of the lands most dangerous game and delicious flora. This comprehensive guide covers how to butcher and cook all manner of beast and monstrosity, as well as how to identify and utilise all types of fungi, vegetable and plant life perfect to give yourself and your companions a winning edge. Disclaimer As a standard rule of thumb, Rocco discourages anyone from eating any meat harvested from any being that was capable of speech. This book has been put together with the careful experimentation and trial of all included ingredients. It should be mentioned however that due to Rocco’s dwarven heritage, these meals may not be suitable to those of a more sensitive constitution. Due to the ordinary nature of many common and weak beasts, this guide will begin only with those capable of producing some form of advantage when compared to regular food. Additionally Rocco strongly recommends av

Looking through FiveThirtyEight's  amazing survey the other day yielded a number of interesting insights to the types of characters people enjoy playing. The most baffling thing to me though is the very poor representation Druids received in the survey. They ended up being the least popular class, which for a class with such utility, diversity and flexibility, really left me surprised.  There's 6 druids in this picture... maybe. Lets Talk Options Druids have to be almost hands down, one of the most flexible and interesting classes to not only play, but also role-play. I think that most must simply view them as forest dwelling hermits who hate everything but trees and things that cannot speak. This however, doesn't have to be the case. Perhaps your druid is an urchin who has gained their powers after spending time with the vermin that frequents a large city. Or maybe, your druid trained as a cleric following the teachings of a nature god but was never blessed with th

This week we continue delving deeper into the joys of character creation. Therefore in the spirit of pushing the boundaries and maximising your experience with the game, let’s talk about optimising.... your fluff. Not every character created decides to adventure based on wonderlust, is an orphan with no siblings, has no hobbies, interests (romantic or otherwise), or religious affiliations. I think a number of these factors can easily be overlooked when creating a character. But looking comparably with our own lives, or the lives of our ancestors, it’s very easy to determine all these little issues would be large factors in our characters day to day lives. Uncontrollable Circumstance I find the first step is to get a feel for the setting the character is to take part in. Is the world based in feudal times, with a strong influence from gods or magic? What is the climate like politically? Is there any unrest or war? Are the wilds encroaching on the reaches of civilisation per

Being a DM is challenging for a number of reasons. Good DM's (Or GM's) not only have material prepared, but can jump off script at any moment. They know whats an appropriate challenge for combat, the right way to get the party to jump onto a hook, how to manage the table and different characters expectations. A lot can ride on a DM, weighing them down and sometimes throwing them about and spitting them out. DMing can be disheartening for a number of reasons also. But there's only one way to get good at things right? Practice practice practice. WRONG!!! I think there's 2 ways, practice and study. That's right your schooling days aren't over future and current DM's, you are going to have to put in some effort if you wanna be the best. How can you rise through the ranks in almost any pursuit or hobby? I'd wager a good way would be to look at the professionals, what makes them great? Is it the story? the table management? the interesting hooks, plots

I understand that some people utilise RPG systems for a combat simulator and to test their mettle. This doesn't really apply to that style of gameplay. This is more of a generic overview for the regular game and it covers an issue i see arise in almost every group i have ever been involved with.  I love table top role playing games. I love getting together with real people and solving problems, having a laugh, interacting with someone’s creation/passion, and guiding which ever character i play onto bigger and better things. I love the idea of the three pillars of game play which D&D has promoted. What do I dislike about this game? Player’s often single minded focus on combat and the optimising that often goes along with it.  Now before most people stop reading, please understand that I like combat, it’s often at least 33% of the game. I just hate the idea of it being something that people focus on so intently it compromises other sections of their character. I also bel