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29 DM Ideas for Spicing Up D&D 5E: New Twists for Campaigns, Combat, Equipment, Magic and More!
Episode 6710th October 2021 • 3 Wise DMs • The 3 Wise DMs
00:00:00 01:31:53

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DMing is all about bringing your ideas to the table, but some ideas reach beyond the story and dialogue to change the way the game is played. Today, 3 Wise DMs open a Pandora’s Box of DMing ideas and inspiration for D&D 5E.

From campaign setting ideas to new weapon rules, combat formations, vampire and dragon age categories, and more, in this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave pitch the craziest D&D house rules and setting features they’d love to play with in the future.

1:00 Campaign ideas

  • 1. Dark Sun for 5E: Could you resurrect the survival desert setting full of slavery and cannibalism?
  • 2. Spelljammer space travel for 5E (Note: we recorded before WotC revealed it’s happening)
  • 3. Planescape for 5E: Plane shifting between different, wacky worlds and dimensions
  • 4. Call of Cthulhu in Ravenloft with PCs like Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker
  • 5. Celts vs. powerful nature spirits vs. Romans in a pseudo-historical setting with limited NPC magic
  • 6. A prehistoric game with more intense magic and active gods, but low-level technology
  • 7. Clerics vs. Wizards: A world where arcane magic has been branded heretical
  • 8. Do you need to limit PC class selection in worlds with low magic or low technology?

25:00 Mechanical ideas for combat and encounters

  • 9. Technologically low and high-quality swords with non-magical +/- bonuses
  • 10. Injury rules and not recovering all your health after long rests
  • 11. Weapon wear and breakage
  • 12. An aside on Viking sword and shield usage
  • 13. Capping hit points at a lower level
  • 14. Combat formations: shield walls, pike hedges, etc.
  • 15. New weapon properties and action: long reach, weapon grapples
  • 16. Called-shot attacks (Aim for the eyes!)
  • 17. Weapons that give an AC bonus
  • 18. Improving the shield bonus, but making it something you can lose
  • 19. Heirloom weapons that get progressive bonuses/powers as the player advances in tiers

62:00 Magic and magic item ideas

  • 20. Expanding spell concentration (perhaps by allowing a familiar or item to hold concentration on one of your spells)
  • 21. Creating unique spells
  • 22. Places of power where players can cast unique spells
  • 23. Rare spell components that boost the spells cast with them
  • 24. Rebalancing charges

71:00 Monster ideas

  • 25. The bag man and other Candy Man type horror monsters
  • 26. Giving dragons wider age categories and introducing mightier Great Wyrms
  • 27. The Corpse Flower garden
  • 28. Expanding vampire power levels and roles
  • 29. Spirts of the Land

82:00 Final thoughts

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