I can't play a spellsword/magus/spellblade/warriormage effectively.

All incarnations of D&D hate the archetype and not a single publication remedies the lack of either actions or abilities that allow the casting of a spell and melee attack (or ranged) at the same time.

Also, Vancian magic blows ass.

>All incarnations of D&D hate the archetype and not a single publication remedies the lack of either actions or abilities that allow the casting of a spell and melee attack (or ranged) at the same time.
3.5 Duskblade.
Exactly what you are talking about. Also, quickened spells, clerics, ruby knight vindicators, abjurant champions, spellsword classes in 4e.

I can't worldbuild for shit. I mean, I can make up plot threads, but when it comes to saying "this kingdom exists" or "this is the map of the world" or "the king is so-and-so", to actually fleshing out the world beyond the immediate plot to give it some sort of context. This is worst at the start of a game, when I know what's going to happen, but I can't tell you WHERE, or what the consequences are on the larger scale.

rolled 32 = 32

>>17663542

use pre-existing maps.

ever game book or atlas has more than enough maps for showing regions or countries. getting maps of cities and towns is tricker but if you have a printer the internet has a lot of historical real world maps, from sources such as National Geographic which depict ancient Rom and the Inca cities with colour and numbered maps, drawn from a "birds eye view"

>>17663661
Any good suggestions?

>>17663470

1. Is the rest of the party out performing you, or is the DM being to hard on you? If it is actually you personally, pick a single spell or ability that you like, then look for another that compliments it. Make that your first "trick" and focus on being good at that. Then one by one expand your arsenal until you are a killing machine. In example, my favorite was full plate and great sword with still spell.

2. I find this especially true at lower levels, and less add less true once you have access to metamagic and higher level tricks. My best results was being a monk/wizard. I could look over those spell lists if you want more low level help, but you should get the idea.

3. I've always preferred mana/stamina over Vancian. But after seeing how some psionics took that for a ride, I stopped taking Vancian for granted.

>>17663749
IMO the problem with Psionics was that by mid to later levels they did two things;
Increase power points too much
Increase cost of power points with higher power slots

If they kept the pool small, like no more than 20 points or so, priced powers/spells at a rate of "- slot level in points", and gave slots 2 slot levels and lower for free, it would both encourage high level casters to uses supposedly subpar spells and powers, as well as give low levels more powers or spells per day.

Why isn't D&D classless variant more popular?

We don't need classes. Just ability tracks.

>>17663831
If you're willing to invest enough time into game theory to run into classless games, you're not going to be playing DnD anyway. The people who play DnD because it's the thing to play don't care enough to learn it.

>>17663542

I too had that problem once upon a time.

I solved it by developing a big macro picture, and then zooming in on the players one scale at a time. I.E.

My world is called Blarhg
The biggest continent is called Westland
The main nation is called Helm
The starting city is called Rat's Gulch
The best friend of the PC's is named Kevin
Kevin has a magic item, that involves a mystery...

And then you have a stable, very easy to understand base to explore outwards from. Want another city?

City name,
Npc name,
Quest detail.

K.I.S.S.

In 4E what's the best way to give solo monsters status protection? Everytime I throw a solo monster at my players they end up dazing the damn thing into oblivion so it can hardly even do anything. I've thought about just saying "SOLO MONSTERS ARE IMMUNE TO STATUS EFFECTS" but that seems a little too cheap.

>>17663886
The other problem comes in that I don't visualize things in pictures. I visualize them in interconnectedness. I don't think "This is a map of the area", I think "This point connects to that point by passing through this third point". It's a subtle difference, but it means maps are hard for me.

>>17663798

My opinion is that people will find ways to break anything. But I was relatively unstudied about psionics until that particular turd hit the fan.

I've always humored exchanging spell slots into mana. Discuss that feasibility with your DM, in theory a spell slot is a spell slot is a spell slot. Maybe take a flaw to convince him.

As long as your not -trying- to be imba, he shouldn't rocks fall you and get pissed off.

>>17663831

No one has made classless DnD in a way that I enjoy. I wish for a Skyrim-esque handle to it.

>>17663893

In all my years, very VERY few solo monsters ever challenge the party. They get more actions, more flanking, more tactics, and all of that ass kicking is concentrated on one target. Your handing them xp on a silver platter.

That said. I either make a solo monster thats so damn terrifying its supposed to make them scream and run into a chase scene. Or I cheese their stat sheet, add some HD, give them flaws that they don't care about, and give them extra toughness for tons of hit points, extra con and dump stat something else on them... You have to put work into making a Solo monster challenging.

Multiple attacks are a great start. And again, Tons of hit points. Also, make sure its an environment where the monster can be cheap and vicious, like an aboleth striking out from underwater. Or an otyuhg in darkness.

You have to cover all your bases, solo monsters are hard mode for the DM.

>>17663893
Check out the later 4e books, this power is from Monster Vault - Threats to Nentir Vale.
Action Recovery
Whenever [creature] ends its turn, any dazing, stunning, or dominating effect on it ends.
So it always comes back from them, without sounding like a jerk for making everything immune to everything (like 3rd edition did)

>>17663893
There was suppossed to be a book about solo monsters called Worldbreakers but i don't know if it got released

http://at-will.omnivangelist.net/2010/07/worldbreaker-maim-the-minotaur-first-visit/

>>17664261
DOWJIN

MOAR STORIES OF DIAS!!!!

>>17664286

Is your body ready?

I can't think of any more adventures past my first game.
In my first game, I introduced my world, racial politics, etc, and gathered the party with a mission from some local lord. This mission was to retrieve a book, which contained a note, which had a riddle on it.
There was also an address. Going to the address, they found an abandoned mansion. They searched inside, found a secret door with the riddle, found an alchemical lab with a secret door (again, riddle), navigated some tunnels, accidentally participated in a ritual to unlock the Sealed Evil In A Can (part of the riddle), and then followed a secret tunnel out that led to the estate of the local lord who hired them. Oh, and he was assassinated while they were gone.

So, now I'm going to task them with returning to the lord's actual home for a proper funeral, but after that, I have literally no clue what I want to do with my game.

>>17664321
we are ready. Bring out the big guns!

I don't know how to make interesting scenarios for my players. I'm afraid anything I do will just be a straight series of fights.

>>17664321

In order to explain the lonely desolation of the Overtime game which followed the complete destruction of Nebarron and the capitol city of Shivan De`Harren. I first have to tell you about one of Daies' comrades.

You see we weren't alone in the war. When our defences were breached and the planar wards fell, it wasn't the nameless rank and file plummeting from that portal in the sky. They were our old friends. Corrupted, and lost forever. This is the first whom Daies abandoned, once he began his descent into madness.

His name was Stephan Stoneblood

>>17664425
Wait where is this in the story line?

Also for anyone wondering.
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/17625459/#17625867

Part 1 of 2

Stephan was a mighty troll of such unparallelled savagery that from the first moment Daies laid eyes on him, he knew that he'd found his new master at arms. When we found him, he was elbow deep in a supply caravan for the Pantheon, roaring gleefully as he hauled out an iron wrought chest of such size it must have easily weighed a ton.

But that wasn't what surprised us. It was the bodies. They were everywhere. Slung over trees, dismembered, disembowled. Over twenty knights of the order and four archmages had been trashed by this monster. Dowjin cautioned Daies not to approach, that we should take credit fore this victory and let it be.

But Daies wouldn't hear it. And upon striking a conversation, we were stunned. Stephan spoke with eloquence and intelligence. His eyes beady and cunning. His ambitions as fiery as his temper.

So we made him a god.

>>17664472

Stephan was recruited during the Pantheon war, but before Chaos. This will explain a few key events up to the moment of Chaos overtaking us (no relation to 40k). Part 2 will be a little bit of overtime story.

>>17664503

I want a character like this Stephan in my roleplay.

My lawful good half-celestial Cleric could use a beating. She managed to skate through everything, and what she cant fight, she manages impossible bluff rolls to succeed. Including a half-fiend epic level ranger thats now magically bound to her service...

As I have reached a point where the decisions of my players will lead my current story, and because my players have a lack of communication on what steps they want to take before game; anticipating their decisions is hard to track and I am struggling with it. I'm open to suggestions. My game is steampunk styled d20. I will post details of the story so far upon request.

>>17664332

Stop thinking about the game as a way for you to spin a plot and more as an exercise in collaborative storytelling. Too many GM's wank on about their amazing 'story' when really the great strength of pnp roleplaying is the limitless sense of exploration you can share with your players.

So, basically what i'm saying is, ask your players what they want from the game. What would their characters do? What would THEY as players like to see from the game? What kind of general plot? Write the game session by session with a very flexible overarching story to tie them together and you will have a more rewarding time.

>>17664538
Dowjin should DM one day in the afterlife with Anderson and Gygax.

At first things were going great. Stephan pereformed admirably. He became the vessel by which we inducted new members into the Alliance. While retained the full entirety of our portfolios, Stephan would "share" his lower rank with our new friends.

And we had a lot of new friends.

Nations were falling under the catastrophe of the 13th pantheon member getting even with his old 'mates. And a lot of dieties couldn't sit by on the sidelines anymore. Hextor fell, Pelor fell, Vecna fell. One by one they were dragged into what the Old Ones called Ragnarok.

Daies was loosing supporters fast. They were the heavyweight contenders in this war, while he was a self appointed duke of damnation.

So he sent Stephan out on a quest. To find how many divine were still alive, to conscript them towards our cause, and find out where they were disappearing to.

>>17664598
The problem is, our first game was absolute shit because nobody cares. One guy made a ditzy paladin who has no real goals, one guy made up his shaman on the spot, and one guy made his special snowflake vampire rogue who also has no goals or ambitions.

They don't want anything.

Thanks. That should prove to make the story more for them, and that's what I want really. Awesome, so progress begins!

>>17664571

I had a couple groups with communication issues. My solution was to at the beginning of each session forma veryu brief paragraph outlinine things they've mentioned are important to them. And then asking them what they do. Remember to put emphasis on "they" "teamwork" and "togetherness".

Also do a one-sentance version of it whenever one of them gets a blank look in they're eyes. Keep them active, always have them rolling the dice, or answering "what do you do?"

>>17664665
Then give them something to want.

Let me guess: You plunked them down in a nondescript village, in a generic kingdom, surrounded by everyday citizens and civilians.

Start them off with a bang: A dead man falls from the roof of a building, throat slit in two. A bystander spots them and screams bloody murder. The town guard's boots are tramping on the flagstone. "Quick, what do you do?" you demand of them, and so the game starts.

Stephan began to remote sense across our homeworld, D'nesathia. But he could find nothing.

Toril was scryed. Vacant, and empty of power.

Where in all the dimensions were these people?

Finally he got a lead. Within the world of Eberron he sensed a major power, someone traveling without their divine Cloak, letting it all hang out.

The plane shift was immediate, and brought him before an ancient structure of unbridled primordial energy. The Lightening Rail. It was an innovation of the magical society, propelling cars upon the raw forces of the universe at blistering speeds.

He walked up the steps into the station, and he saw an old man walking into an empty car which had stopped to admit passengers.

>>17664745
Best game I ever ran started with the group getting to such a nondescript town. I monologued the sleepy night, the general dullness of town

And the next day, they woke up about a mile above it, clutched in the talons of birdmen. What now, guys?

How do I stop being an autistic asshole of a DM who gets frustrated whenever I feel like I'm losing when my players just roll through the challenges I set before them?

Stephan entered without hesitation, slipping just inside before the doors shut. The old man turned and sat down opposite of Stephan, with a sigh and the shaking of his head.

"You shouldn't have come here."

The man speaks.

"And why not? These problems are trifling for a being of your calibre... Cuthbert." Stephan replies.

"I am not what I once was. And neither will you, or any of your friends. This world is coming to an end. Our followers have been culled and slaughtered. The Pantheon rules now, and you mortals can have them."

"Thats not what we want and you know it" the troll snarls, plopping heavily into a seat before the other God.

"Oh? Then what do you want? Do you even realize -what- Daies is. -What- Dowjin is? Of course not, or you would know that they can not save you."

"I'm not here for them, I'm here for you. We need your help."

"Well I think its past time you got what you deserved instead. When we decide to return, it will be long ages past your flickering lifespark." Cuthbert replies.

"What do you mean?"

"We are leaving." The man gets up as the rail car starts to slow down for its next stop. "And if you were wise, you would do the same."

Stephan stood. "Wait! Don't give me that bullshit, I sensed your power, your leagues ahead of our competition!"

Cuthbert raised his brow. "What power? I've had my Cloak on this entire time."

>>17664860
Ray, we got a problem.

Stephan looks puzzled as the aged man steps down from the raised Railcar step and onto a stone platform. With utter non-nonchalance for the fate of the Alliance, Cuthbert begins to walk away. Stephan wondered why he was taking the effort to actually walk. Where was he going in such disguise?

He was snapped out of his musings by the sound of another door closing. Out of the corner of his eye he glances, about to give up the mission he'd barely started. Someone must have just walked in.

Someone with a ruby rod.

>>17664945
Waiting for it...

As if on cue, the man holding that diabolical scepter began to chuckle an unnerving chuckle. He could feel Stephan's eyes on it.

"Oh, darn... I just- missed him, didn't I?"

The man began to walk forward, and the car lurched as it began to accelerate down the rail. What stood before Stephan was no man, however. Hooves clanged against the steel structure of the cabin, and a wispy black robe clings to the figure of a very red beast.

"Yeah. You did." Stephan retorts. "But since your here, I might as well extend the offer. You know a lot of gods are about to fall. Why not join the winning side?"

Stephan narrows his eyes, and the infernal chuckles.

"Join you? No, dear Stephan, you will join me, Asmodeous, the rightful lord of all these planes!" His voice begins to thunder with a terrifying depth, a voice that would have melted the brain of any mortal creature.

"I'll never join you! Your kind started all of this."

>>17665131
Why does this sound like an episode of Futurama almost?

"Then you will DIE!"

A roar of hatred spews from the mouth of Asmodues, and he points his ruby rod at Stephan. A crimson spark ignites from the tip, and a bolt of searing lightening arcs from the artefact to strike Stephan's leg. The flesh boils and bursts as that nether energy begins to incinerate and destroy the meat within, copious amounts of his trollish blood leaking from the rent wounds of his withering leg.

Stephan roars in kind, and hurls himself towards Asmodeous, balling a fist, and delivering a sledgehammmer blow into Asmodeous' stomach, lifting the infernal off the ground as the divine actually retched. Stephan's free hand caught the rail beside him so he didn't fall on his weak leg.

Between them Asmodeous clutched his rod, and again that hellish spark burst through Stephan, a hole rupturing through the other side of his back. His trollish regeneration could only take so much.

"This doesn't look good." Daies speaks to Dowjin, as they both worriedly look into a crystal which revealed to them the battle.

>>17665239
So a Troll divine vs the most powerful god?

If the troll win does that mean the god was trolled?

Stephan grits his teeth, and jerked his head back. Jacking it forward he drives his boney forehead into the soft flesh of Asmodeous' nose, and the sound of a hideous crunch rewards him.

Between them their divine auras clashed. Wrestling with each other, trying to utterly consume the other and all of their power. If concentration waned even for a moment, if one got enough initiative to blast the other before defenses could be raised, it would all be over in an instant.

Asmodeous staggers back, and reaches out a clawed hand. Clutching the air, it was Stephan who felt the pressure. Throwing his balled fist towards the ground Amodeous began to slam Stephan into the metal edge of the seats and the floor. Cackling as he seemed to gain the upper hand.

"Dowjin, we have to prime it. We have to get it ready. We can't take the chance that he escapes to kill another one of us later." Daies reasons.

"Give him time. He can do it." Dowjin replies.

Suddenly Stephan's arms convulse and twist, and when he shoves them towards Asmodeous they burst into a dozen meaty tentacles. They latch onto the railings, and with a vastly superior strength, muscles through the pain of that crushing telekinesis.

"GET SOME!"

The troll roars, heaving himself up, and rotates! Delivering a mighty kick with his good leg, he digs his heel into Asmodeus' sternum with bone crunching force. The infernal is thrown back, and crashes through the window behind him, his body folding through the ruined glass as he's flung from the side of the car. A blurr of motion, and Stephan can't see where he is anymore. Did he fall?

"We wait until the last possible moment." Dowjin instructs tersely. one of his fists clenching and relaxing. He didn't like this at all. This screamed against everything that was right.

"We will, of course! We will wait until the last moment for him to win." Daies agrees, as he pulls a lever, inside of a control room, and then another beside it, and waits to hear the titanic thud of something heavy falling into place.

>>17665348
>>17665510

Wind whistled by the broken window, and Stephan's steps crackled atop glass. His troll blood was repairing the damage that had been done to him. Slowly, but surely. He glances out the window. Something wasn't right. That was too easy.

The roof of the railcar is punctured by the black of a fell red energy, and the blast hits Stephan square in the chest.

"HA HA! Its all over now! Give in and join me, that I might let you live!" Asmodeous offers.

"Like I'd ever, trust you!"

Stephan crumples onto a knee, as Asmodeous continues to blast him again and again, ruining the troll's body as flesh is torn side by the crackling energy. Breathing heavily, Stephan surges upwards, and through the wide rent in the cieling flings all of his tentacles up to catch Asmodeous!

Asmodeous is snared. Immediately runes begin to burn into Asmodeous' flesh, some magical ward reacting to Stephan, and a shockwave thunders between him and Stephan, breaking the bones of the troll as he's hit. But regeneration kept him together. He had to hold it together for just one last thing.

His tentacles keep their death grip upon the dark lord, and the troll heaves Asmodeous back into the cab with him. They fall together painfully into the steel floor, and one half of the tentacles clutching Asmodeous shapeshifts back into an arm, with a fist clutching the side of the infernal's head.

With primal strength Stephan slams Asmodeous' head into the floor, pushing through as the divine's head bursts through the bottom of the car, his aura peeling back the metal like an invisible shield.

Right beneath Asmodeous' face, was the crackling rail they were sailing over. Their speed was tremenduous, and many lost arcane arts had gone into the power plant of this artifact. That energy would shear through anything it touched with absolute ease.

>>17665731
I take it back this is like mortal combat between gods.

"RRRREEEEAAAAARHG!"

Stephan screams, sheer brute force pushing the head of Asmodeous into that crackling rail, and the dark lord's body began to convulse in violent spasms. But he could not get free. His magic had indeed ruined Stephan for all time, but the troll has persevered, and with barely a breath left in his body, the troll grinds Asmodeous' head to dust between his fist and the lightening rail.

When it was done, he was huffing, his knuckles white, and trembling. He was certain there was residual death magic still in his wounds. He would die without help. He reached out to send a missive through the planes to his comrades.

"Asmodeous is dead... I did it." He smiles.

"Planar Cannon! Ready! FIRE!" Daies yells with gusto, and a death knight yanks down on a lever, situated on a wall fifteen feet from the control panel beside Daies, and Dowjin.

Dowjin closes his eyes, and turns his head.

>>17665834
Wait what?

A shining gateway opens, high in the atmosphere above the rail car sailing across Eberron.

Stephan blings, gazing up through the hole in the rail car, shadow and light alternating through a tunnel beyond that portal in the sky.

An enchanted payload strikes Eberron with such force thats its split asunder before the strike even detonates. And then, when it does, there was nothing. No flash, no crack, no bang. The entire plane collapses into itself within an instant, and is destroyed.

>>17665898

Hey OP, simple question. At what level should I give my Magic-User a Staff of the Magi?

>>17665944

As soon as they could otherwise afford a set of gear of comparable power. Artifacts are tricky to judge like that though.

>>17665932

You remember them working on building the cannon last story?

---

And that was how we lost Stephan. Nobody could say whether or not it was the right thing to do. But Dowjin never looked at Daies the same way after that.

Had Daies truley waited until the last moment? It was so hard to tell who was winning. Daies would say over and over again that the troll was almost dead, and was never going to have made it.

---

Next, Part 2 of 2

Collected shorts from Overtime

What do you do when a player using a monster race that has an alignment of "Always X" breaks their alignment?

>>17666018

Depends on the DM. I like to enforce it as being something magical in their blood and very nature that forces them to think that way.

But I also give PCs leeway about evolving out of it. Because you know, they're PCs, they aren't run of the mill members of their race. They can be special. As long as its not special like a snowflake.

Hey OP, if Corellon and Asmodeus were to get into a fight, who would win?

>>17666013
I remember but that's what it did.

Jeez I want one.

We realized later why Daies had done it. It was too late, of course, but that's the way it goes, you always realize it too late.

Stephan was the only one with the portfolios, power, and regeneration necessary to resuscitate, revive, and bring back from the beyond any one of us. Even if another god were to smite us, Stephan could probably grow us back together. Not something he advertised for testing, but when we saw his abandoned laboratories it was obvious what he'd been working on. His notes and journal spelled it all out.

He wanted our destruction to be absolute.

When the wards to Shivan De`Harren were dropped, and Chaos came down on us, in the very end. There was no more Alliance. Everybody was fighting everybody, and all of us were doomed.

Hot rain began to pour from the volcanic skies, such was the grief of Dowjin, though his face wore only an expression of hatred, so pure and absolute that it might wither Daies where he stood. It would be the final stand of his people.

If you were a DM, and one of your players really, really wanted to become a void pirate and captain a baller-as-fuck legendary airship capable of flying between planes of existence, how would you react?

Would you write an adventure based around acquiring one? What level would you wait for him to attain before throwing out an adventure hook of this sort? Would you force him to pay for its construction out of his own funds? Would you flat out refuse him and tell him that his idea is stupid?

Dowjin could only remember flashes of what was going on. He recalled grasping a half-dragon child by the shoulders and pushing him against a wall. Saying something heartfelt, and watching the little one vanish into a portal.

He remembered holding an outstretched hand to Destamona. He was a fool to think she'd pick him over her brother.

Drake was gone.

Stephan was dead.

They're entire cabinet of under generals had been killed in action, or went missing. It was pandemonium.

The great and giant warship that Chaos commanded to spearhead their charge was a vessel of pure mithril. Indestructible, massive, and bristling with cannons that fired devastating volleys of the Destroy Seed. It had once belonged to the Alliance, and Admiral Van. Now Van was corrupted by Chaos, and stood at the helm, driving the ship nose first into the city, to crash and unload its cargo of demons.

>>17666231

Actually...

>>17666247

>The great and giant warship ... had once belonged to the Alliance

Boarding actions against the pcs, making the pcs use the vessel as a transport to break through a blockade and disembark alive. Make sure everyone can participate somehow. Don't let the captain steal the game for a whole hour.

I'm having a crisis of inspiration. Or something. Some sort of crisis, I don't know what the fuck.

I'm GMing a Pathfinder game. It has its share of flaws here and there but overall it's going great. I've got a good group of players and we're currently on pause for this month while I plan out some future adventures. I think I've planned too far ahead.

The premise of the game is that the party are members of the Vollen Sentinels, a guild of monster hunters spanning two out of four major continents. This provides a handy framework for me to introduce new PCs and to throw money and NPCs at the party. They've been picking up clues about a necromancer cult that's enacting some grand plan, which they've discovered is to bring their undead almost-god into the world to conquer everything.

At this point the party has dealt with a large-scale undead siege of a city in one kingdom and rooting out a necromancer infiltration in a castle in another kingdom. I think I might have written myself into a corner after this, because now they're heading south to the untamed wilderness of the Southlands, and after that, another kingdom will declare war on the others, under manipulations by said necromancer cult.

My problem is that I'm all wrapped up in thinking about how fucking awesome the war plot arc is going to be, with the players commanding troops and getting an airship and other cool stuff. Whenever I try to come up with ideas for the Southlands stuff, I just get so BORED. wat do?

And so there was Daies, laughing madly as he stood atop a rocky cragg overlooking the ruined city. There was a dusty plateau hugging the cliff face beside him, water pouring down its low spots from the rain.

It was amazing, and exhilirating. It felt better than Daies had ever imagined. This is what it was like, when he cried. But his revenge was not complete. For ages that desire hadn't been slaked and now he knew why. The Half-dragon's promises were as empty as the 7 kings.

He had his twelve seconds. And he enjoyed every last one. By the thirteenth second there was a crackle, and the warlord, the half-dragon stood fifty feet away from the necromancer, the blackguard vampire whom was the scourge of their existence.

"Will you watch the end with me?" Daies asks.

>>17666323

Replace names, races, and creature types, with what you've already written for the necromancers, so that the players can enjoy that same quality adventure down south with whatever the hell is down south.

OR

Watch something martial or barbarian themed until you find inspiration for new quests. Like feuding lords, high level priestess maidens in need of saving, or savage monsters?

>>17666343
So what is Chaos?

Some weird darkness or something?

>>17666323
>>17666323
>My problem is that I'm all wrapped up in thinking about how fucking awesome the war plot arc is going to be, with the players commanding troops and getting an airship and other cool stuff. Whenever I try to come up with ideas for the Southlands stuff, I just get so BORED. wat do?

I had a similar problem, once. I had really awesome plans for the endgame, but the players were level 6. The game fell apart because I wasn't invested in my own campaign, so neither were the players.

I got two pieces of advice.

1) Make ONE adventure in the southlands. Like, I dunno, a temple full of weird traps, awesome shinies, nasty baddies, and a hint of what's to come- like the heart of the temple is a sub-section of the earlier cult that the players stop, and find clues about the upcoming invasion that make them want to hurry back.

Make this section intense, but fairly short, and tie it in to what you really want to run.

2) Talk to your players, ask if they'd be cool with skipping to the part you want to run, and make sure they WANT to do this sort of campaign in the first place. I remember my GM tried to make me Mayor of my little town in the middle of a campaign once, and when I went "NOPE" his campaign just fell into shambles, because he had incorrectly assumed that where he wanted the campaign to go and where WE wanted it to go were the same thing, without even talking to me beforehand.

"You bastard!" Dowjin huffs.

How could you?"

Everything we fought for... We were so close..."

The half-dragon looked crushed, for a moment, but then his fist tightened, one that clentched the hilt of a dire weapon, a small dragon's skull was mounted to the crossguard of this curved bastard sword blade, and runes marched down its facing.

"YOU. Were so close. This has always been, just, about you." Daies retorts.

"WHY?! Why did you kill her?!" Dowjin starts to march foward, unable to contain himself any longer.

"Because it was easy." Daies replied with a smile. He watched his old friend lunge for him, and the duel was on.

Daies drew his hecacontares sword, and parried Dowjin's slash. The twang echoed with a crack of thunder as the two gods clashed.

The minions of chaos swarmed through the streets, biting, feeding, slaying, and casting their spells of corruption. Wild, and mad, they tore through the capitol. Heroes such as Scryver faught back against the advance of Van, smiting every evil he could reach, his heart sinking as one friendly face after another fell beneath his blade.

>>17666433

That's another long story. But Basically, Dow started off monk/sorcereor, but was physically and mentally abused. He grew up wanting to use his sorceror powers to get rid off everything that hurt him. After developing severe demential, he literally charmed himself into thinking the sorceror powers were a totally seperate person in his mind. Then once he had the right spells to make that a reality, he gave that part of him life, and it later became a Fiend of Posession.

Over 10 years and different calamities it grew in strength and gained different abilities, and in the end it wants to consume everything, be one with everything, and then end everything.

"Make us whole" kind of thing if you played dead space, and chaos's motives are equally as confusing.

>>17666503

To clarify, the fiend of possession possessed Dow for a while and did chaos stuff, then posessed a freaking ogre, then posessed dow again, then was locked away fro a long time until a nezumi rat by the name of Rauntek got infected... Fun story, Rauntek was Daies' 2nd in command at the time.

But where was I?

>>17666503
Almost sounds like the Flood or the Nids.

Perhaps even the Borg.

Daies ducked Dowjin's swing and rolled around him, but they'd fought together for so long they knew each others moves inside and out. When Daies arrived Dowjin turned, extending a palm to blast him away at point blank range with a blast of divine energy. But all that massive blast succeeded in doing was peel away part of Daies' divine shield.

They locked blades again, steel ringing, both taking flight, circling the other, charging on the attack again and again as they clash against each other, flares of holy and unholy light bursting between them as their strikes shook the cosmos.

They land, sliding towards each other, the half-dragon draws his sword in a slash; but Daies twists into it, his deamonhide trenchcoat absorbing the blow. The hecacontares sword Daies held in hand etended all of its blades in a circular pattern, and gripping the handle to grasp it as a shield he gave life its magic. The bladed tips of that shield made of sword began to spin, and with a roundhouse swing he nearly decapitates Dowjin as he slides by, the half dragon leaning back barely in time.

But one of them was waning in strength.

"Whats wrong, Dowjin, getting tired?" The vampire grins.

"Even tired. You'll never defeat me on my own ground."

"And neither do you have what it takes to defeat me."

"Then WHY?!" Dowjin demanded.

"I was just waiting for him to show up." Daies grins, looking past Dowjin's shoulder.

He'd been so distracted. So bloodthirsty, that he didn't notice that feeling.

That feeling like roots were sinking into his mind, that loss of control. Feeling despair.

And also feeling, home.

"Finally together- after so long. Didn't I promise to make everything right?" speaks the voice from a nezumi rat, an anthomorph creature with bready black eyes, mottled clothes, and an old short sword that used to belong to Daies, one that inflicted isntant death upon mortals.

"Chaos..." Dowjin muttered, and then dropped to his knees. All strength was failing him. He just couldn't fight anymore. All of his divine power began to flood out of him, as Daies siezed it all.

"There there... It will all be better soon. Come. There are some old friends, who want to see you." The rat-man spoke, lifting his sword as Dowjin stared dumbly. Mortal now that his divinity had been consumed. The welcoming way that Chaos spoke was unnerving, the horror of it crept into his mind, and though Dowjin tried to fight it, he no longer had the will.

"Well, I'll just leave you two alone..." Spoke Daies with a grin, and with that he shut his eyes tight and with his monopoly of all the divine power within this realm, catapulted himself through space and time to a distant world. Escaping the end, and leaving them all to fend for themselves, as they would have done to him.

Chaos' laugh was complete as he stabbed Dowjin through the chest, the magic in his sword instantly extinguishing the half-dragon's life. The planes were his. The worlds were his. He had consumed them all. Chaos' victory was complete.

But something was wrong.

Where was Dowjin's soul?

END

>>17666520

You've got the right idea. Add some 'once bitten there is no cure' and your all set

>>17666401
>>17666444
Thanks for the advice! I've decided to take your advice and compress Southlands stuff into a single adventure. They went to the Southlands in the first place to investigate rumors of necromancer activity there, and to test out the war rules I've come up with, I'll have them defend frontier settlements against undead attack.

I had other plans for the Southlands like exploring ancient ruins and finding cool shit and meeting strange creatures (some of which might not actually be interesting in killing or eating the party), but I'll save those for later in the war arc, when the party gets their airship and is tasked with gathering powerful artifacts to help the war effort.

>>17666764

Your very welcome!

But how do I shots archive?

I think the end got cut off from the one that somebody posted.

I think Outlander fell asleep.

Thank all of you so much for reading! I'm always happy to answer questions or share more stories. More Dungeon Masters Guide tomorrow night maybe.