• Xenforo is upgrading us to version 2.3.7 on Tuesday Aug 19, 2025 at 01:00 AM BST (date has been pushed). This upgrade includes several security fixes among other improvements. Expect a temporary downtime during this process. More info here

The Dungeons and Dragons Megathread v2

Critical Role is still my favorite D&D show, but I just stumbled across Acquisitions Incorporated Season 2. Pretty good first episode. Anyone else watching?
I listen to them on occasion, but I listen rather than watch actual plays. My favorites are The Glass Cannon podcast (despite being Pathfinder) The Diecast podcast, and The Rancor's Brothel (but more for their Delta Green stuff than their D&D campaign )
 
Hi Sherbros,

Would appreciate some ideas for the backstory of a Level 3 Neutral Good Tortle Druid I will be playing as soon,
I'm not super experienced with D&D or creative writing, but have played a few sessions years ago,

So far i've thought of perhaps awakening on a beach, near dead after an unknown event(potentially ship/weather/combat related), shell broken/removed and tail removed.. Passing in and out of consciousness but perhaps aided back to full health via Chwinga elemental spirits or something else, Shell fixed now with elemental magic.

Followed by,

Now recovered and mobile I have been adventuring in an attempt to learn more of the mysterious spirits who fixed me, and any clues of what my life before might have been prior to that.
Since being repaired I have noticed I now have magical abilities
, also a new found admiration for Nature + Elements .

I'm not super content with what i've got though, especially the Bold part, amnesia kinda feels played out, but struggling to piece together exactly what my background and new purpose should be,
I also need a reason to include the wild companion feature.


I'm thinking of using the Mary River Turtle as my appearance inspiration,
mary-river-turtle-reddit.com_.jpeg

Feel like Circle Of The Moon Druid will also make sense,

Few other notes,

Tortles Believe in the Sun watching over them in the day and the Moon keeping them safe in darkness- Nervous and uneasy when either orb not seen in the sky. Blessed are the days when both are visible at the same time.

Probably go with these skills:

Animal Handling since awakening
Nature
Survival
Can leave Druidic messages and speak the Druidic language .

Thanks :)
 
Last edited:
Hi Sherbros,

Would appreciate some ideas for the backstory of a Level 3 Neutral Good Tortle Druid I will be playing as soon,
I'm not super experience with D&D or creative writing, but have played a few sessions years ago,

So far i've thought of perhaps awakening on a beach, near dead after an unknown event(potentially ship/weather/combat related), shell broken/removed and tail removed.. Passing in and out of consciousness but perhaps aided back to full health via Chwinga elemental spirits or something else, Shell fixed now with elemental magic.

Followed by,

Now recovered and mobile I have been adventuring in an attempt to learn more of the mysterious spirits who fixed me, and any clues of what my life before might have been prior to that.
Since being repaired I have noticed I now have magical abilities
, also a new found admiration for Nature + Elements .

I'm not super content with what i've got though, especially the Bold part, amnesia kinda feels played out, but struggling to piece together exactly what my background and new purpose should be,
I also need a reason to include the wild companion feature.


I'm thinking of using the Mary River Turtle as my appearance inspiration,


Feel like Circle Of The Moon Druid will also make sense,

Few other notes,

Tortles Believe in the Sun watching over them in the day and the Moon keeping them safe in darkness- Nervous and uneasy when either orb not seen in the sky. Blessed are the days when both are visible at the same time.

Probably go with these skills:

Animal Handling since awakening
Nature
Survival
Can leave Druidic messages and speak the Druidic language .

Thanks :)

That seems like a very solid start for the backstory. Run it by your DM and see if they have anything they want to add or work with on it.
 
Hi Sherbros,

Would appreciate some ideas for the backstory of a Level 3 Neutral Good Tortle Druid I will be playing as soon,
I'm not super experience with D&D or creative writing, but have played a few sessions years ago,

So far i've thought of perhaps awakening on a beach, near dead after an unknown event(potentially ship/weather/combat related), shell broken/removed and tail removed.. Passing in and out of consciousness but perhaps aided back to full health via Chwinga elemental spirits or something else, Shell fixed now with elemental magic.

Followed by,

Now recovered and mobile I have been adventuring in an attempt to learn more of the mysterious spirits who fixed me, and any clues of what my life before might have been prior to that.
Since being repaired I have noticed I now have magical abilities
, also a new found admiration for Nature + Elements .

I'm not super content with what i've got though, especially the Bold part, amnesia kinda feels played out, but struggling to piece together exactly what my background and new purpose should be,
I also need a reason to include the wild companion feature.


I'm thinking of using the Mary River Turtle as my appearance inspiration,


Feel like Circle Of The Moon Druid will also make sense,

Few other notes,

Tortles Believe in the Sun watching over them in the day and the Moon keeping them safe in darkness- Nervous and uneasy when either orb not seen in the sky. Blessed are the days when both are visible at the same time.

Probably go with these skills:

Animal Handling since awakening
Nature
Survival
Can leave Druidic messages and speak the Druidic language .

Thanks :)
Circle of the Moon is generally considered the strongest circle, but Circle of the Shepard might fit your backstory better if that's your preference "Druids of the Circle of the Shepherd commune with the spirits of nature, especially the spirits of beasts and the fey, and call to those spirits for aid"
 
Circle of the Moon is generally considered the strongest circle, but Circle of the Shepard might fit your backstory better if that's your preference "Druids of the Circle of the Shepherd commune with the spirits of nature, especially the spirits of beasts and the fey, and call to those spirits for aid"
Ah very nice idea, thanks!

I just figured with Tortles having a strong affinity with Suns & Moons it would be kind of a cool cross over of Race/Class traits, also

Elemental Wild Shape
At 10th level, you can expend two uses of Wild Shape at the same time to transform into an air elemental, an earth elemental, a fire elemental, or a water elemental.
Could perhaps link to the Chwinga part of the backstory with them being elemental spirits.

Ideally i'd merge the two together and be a Moon Shepard.
 
Ah very nice idea, thanks!

I just figured with Tortles having a strong affinity with Suns & Moons it would be kind of a cool cross over of Race/Class traits, also


Could perhaps link to the Chwinga part of the backstory with them being elemental spirits.

Ideally i'd merge the two together and be a Moon Shepard.
You could always adjust the backstory to align a touch more with circle of the moon. Cause frequently games fall apart, characters die or even just character level plans change and you may never get to that level as a druid if you're tying your backstory to that class feat
 
You could always adjust the backstory to align a touch more with circle of the moon. Cause frequently games fall apart, characters die or even just character level plans change and you may never get to that level as a druid if you're tying your backstory to that class feat
Very good point, I know we are starting at lvl 3 but regardless you are indeed correct, + it's a brand new group.

I've since thought of this,

Prior to the accident the Chwinga perhaps took shelter/protection inside my shell(not sure if I knew about them doing it or not)they are like 5 inches or something so can probably fit a few in, also perhaps some died in the event and are around where I washed up, (corpses represented as stones/petals/pollen/puddles I don't know they are that though). They were curious about me and followed me for some reason(that's what they do apparently), then we got into trouble with a Moon Lord(a particularly large Moon Calf), or instead maybe something elemental like hit by lighting or in a blizzard.
latest


Maybe slowly learning how to communicate with the Chwinga over the adventure as I level up, to piece together what happened, then giving me a quest to get revenge on the Moon Lord once powerful enough.. Also learning why I was in the territory of a Moon Lord in the first place.
 
Last edited:
Very good point, I know we are starting at lvl 3 but regardless you are indeed correct, + it's a brand new group.

I've since thought of this,

Prior to the accident the Chwinga perhaps took shelter/protection inside my shell(not sure if I knew about them doing it or not)they are like 5 inches or something so can probably fit a few in, also perhaps some died in the event and are around where I washed up, (corpses represented as stones/petals/pollen/puddles I don't know they are that though). They were curious about me and followed me for some reason(that's what they do apparently), then we got into trouble with a Moon Lord(a particularly large Moon Calf), or instead maybe something elemental like hit by lighting or in a blizzard.
latest


Maybe slowly learning how to communicate with the Chwinga over the adventure as I level up, to piece together what happened, then giving me a quest to get revenge on the Moon Lord once powerful enough.. Also learning why I was in the territory of a Moon Lord in the first place.
I'm thinking maybe the Chwinga can be the mystery, your past doesn't necessarily need to be too. Perhaps you simply were a druid charged with protecting the wilds, you came across something attacking one or more of them and you drove off whatever the attacker was, but we're almost killed by the encounter and then it nurses you back to health for saving it and you still wish to learn more about them (or perhaps what attacked them in the first place and why, something you could leave open for the DM to weave into the campaign story in some way so it's a mystery for you as the player too)
 
First session went well,

Game started with like an adventure speed dating improv situation in a bar, all of us had to describe ourselves individually to our opposites, after the timer ran out we were grouped together as compatible by a quest giver/event organiser, he gave us some time and then we had to meet him later at location outside a dungeon which was delivered to us as a perk of his job 'Not only am i great at grouping adventurers together but I also throw in a paid quest to get you on your way' sort of thing.

Went through the dungeon and killed some fools, lots of forks in the road, few characters fell down holes and had complete actual Mazes DM had printed out lol, couple easyish puzzles that we didn't nail(makes sense with 3/4 of us having shite intelligence).

Then after defeating the boss which was I believe a Coatl, we opened the loot chest, to then let out an evil spirit who'm appears to be the evil spirit lord of the quest giver END, Next sesh starts with another boss fight and we aint rested lol, time to Wildshape me thinks.


realised I need some new dice as the one's i've borrowed are well unclear taking some of the steam out of good and bad rolls.

DM is AI Generating images of the NPC's and Monsters which is cool, gives us an idea of what we are interacting with but without the spoilers of knowing stats and weakness's and stuff.
 
The other day I googled to try to see which streaming service is showing the old cartoon and seems Freevee has a new D&D channel where you have to text search dungeons to find. I tried looking a few times and only found the celeb D&D fan in a cooking show and another show of people playing the tabletop game, no cartoon.
 
Went to my first DnD session ever. I could barely keep up with the mechanics and the creative aspect of the game. You kinda need to tap your 6 year old self again and be silly at times. How many games should I need to play to learn?
You’ll learn after maybe 3 depending on the session length.

What are you playing character wise?
 
Rogue. I have only attacked via short bow.
If you don't play consistently (ie at least every other week) I would recommend listening to/watching an actual play game, preferably with a rogue, to help get used to terms/mechanics. There's a million out there, so you should be able to find one with a rogue that you enjoy (be it play style, audio, personalities, etc)
 
Went to my first DnD session ever. I could barely keep up with the mechanics and the creative aspect of the game. You kinda need to tap your 6 year old self again and be silly at times. How many games should I need to play to learn?

I guess it depends on the style of the group? Are the other players "play to win" min/max power gamers or is it a more loose environment where "check this shit out" is acceptable from time to time.

Playing your character is really who you want to be. My.last campaign i.played an asshole Necromancer who was very much a "win at all cost" and was built that way...my barbarian was uber strong...and dumb as a box of rocks, who I'd play up doing dumb shit and not knowing his own strength (responding to a play punch by knocking a dude out cold..)
 
Rogue. I have only attacked via short bow.
Biggest advantage to the rogue is your out of combat ability of stealth, thieves tools, etc. use those to your advantage, sleight of hand stuff if needed or wanted. Steal some shit, cause some trouble if that’s how you want to play.

Other great thing is sneak attack opportunities. Work with some of the other martial characters to get into a position to nail people with sneak attack damage. A good sneak attack can deal massive damage and turn the tide for sure.
 
I just picked up a few books to expand upon my home brew world. One of those being Eberon. Overall a solid book with plenty of useful information. The part that I was most interested in was how to create a large city in a fantastical setting. I think they did that quite well with 'Shard'.
Reading in to 'Shard' it gave me a great mini campaign idea. I would like to run a 'Blade Runner' style setting where the adventurers are hired to stop a group of rogue warforged who have returned to the city looking to extend their lifecycle. I can see replacing Tyrell with a master wizard or artificer. Much of me would love to run it one for one with the movie. Of course, that only works if you don't let you players know that you are basing it on the movie.
 
Session 124 last night. We had been whisked away onto another plane and were exploring a castle. I had been checking for traps as we dungeon crawl. Party member opens a door to a privy. My turn to open a door. In character and out of character, I felt the door was safe for some reason so I didn't check for traps.

DM - "Everyone roll a dexterity saving throw as lightning (chain lightning) explodes through you and your party."

That subsides so I go to open the door again.

DM - "Everyone roll another dexterity saving throw as lightning (chain lightning) explodes through you and your party."

What?! As my wife and son are yelling at me. Our entire party of six go unconscious except for one of our fighters (son) and ranger (NPC).

I legitimately thought it was a one time trap like most traps. Luckily, we don't die in the narrow hallway thanks to healing potions. The trapped door is the person we're trying to find so he lets us in and we're about to short rest.

Session ends. 😁
 
Back
Top