My players will get a choice as they are assaulting a castle. There will be three magical siege engines they will need to stop so their troops don't get slaughtered.   Now knowing they have a fight with the big bad coming, they can either sneak in and stop all three towers themselves, or just stop one then move in to the boss fight leaving the other two towers to their retainers.  Should the players decide to leave the other towers to their retainers I want a simple way to decide some off screen combat because the retainers might die if it's left to them. How would you guys handle it?
124147
I'm about to run a premade adventure, and reading through it I see a potential situation where one group of monsters could, though PC actions, end up fighting each other.   As a PC, I hate seeing my DM, for lack of better words, play with himself. NPC vs. NPC combats played out blow-for-blow in initiative order, while the party fights other foes or just ends up watching.  Is there a tried and tested better way of doing this?    I want the PCs to be able to take advantage of the situation, but ideally not track HP and roll damage round for round if they decide to sit and wait.   If it's a full "background battle" then I'd assume the highest CR group wins, with losses.  But if this is not the case - both enemy groups are hostile to the party and each other - how do I resolve the NPC-NPC combats quickly and cleanly so my players aren't bored waiting for the results?
86481
Take a simple scenario as an example:  A cleric casts sanctuary An enemy wielding a spear attempts to make a melee attack at the cleric with his spear The enemy fails his Wisdom save, and thus can't attack the cleric  Now what? According to the  spell description:  On a failed save, the creature must choose a new target or lose the attack or spell.  No one else is currently in melee range, but others are within move distance. What happens to the enemy's intended attack, after failing the Wisdom save?  Do they simply lose the attack if there is no other target immediately in range, causing that spear attack to be wasted? Does the enemy now get to &quot;hold&quot; the melee spear attack, use movement to get in melee range with someone else, and then resume the same melee spear attack on the new target? Can the enemy choose to make a different kind of attack with the same weapon, and decide to throw the spear instead (at someone else)? Can the enemy choose to attack with a different weapon, such as a shortbow, and attack someone else instead (either before or after moving)? Can the enemy choose to cast a spell instead of making a weapon attack?
95664
Several times when I have played in or ran a game in which the players had an objective and reasonable resources, a lot of (real) time was spent trying to plan for every contingency.   For example, the last part of one objective is "Get Away". This resulted in a discussion that covered five methods of transport, where said transport should wait, how the party should get to it, if it should have an NPC hireling controlling it so it could be called in, and what defences might threaten it. The discussion took 45 minutes of real time … to plan just the get away.  These discussions are usually driven by one or two of the players and leave the rest of the group having less then the ideal amount of fun. Both as a player and as a GM, what techniques can I use to speed up these planning sessions?
53167
While DMing my session today, I encountered a situation I wasn't sure how to answer. The PCs were attacked by a werewolf and decided to flee onto their nearby horses. Two of them were already mounted and two of them were on foot. One player on the ground (a wizard) attempted to cast a spell on the werewolf and failed. He then moved closer to the mounts but couldn't make it with his speed. After a few turns it was the barbarian's turn. The barbarian wanted to drag the wizard with him and plop the wizard onto a horse and then mount with his remaining movement speed.  I wasn't sure quite how to handle it, so I made a compromise. I allowed the barbarian to drag the wizard. However, because the rules specifically state that it takes half of a character's movement to mount, I wouldn't allow the barbarian to force the wizard to mount. However, if the barbarian wanted to, he could mount the horse himself as he had enough remaining movement.  The reason I allowed the barbarian to drag the wizard is because of the lifting, dragging, and pushing rules in chapter 7 of the Player's Handbook. The barbarian had more than enough strength to push our tiny, lightweight wizard around.  I'm not really sure if I handled it right at all. I'm not entirely sure that those rules apply to living beings, especially living beings that can move. I would really appreciate some advice on whether or not players can drag other players after their (the player who is being dragged) turn is over or if players can drag other players at all. If I recall correctly, I believe the wizard still had about 5' of movement left, if it makes a difference.
113605
Goblin bosses can use their reaction to redirect a successful attack against them to another goblin within melee range by swapping places with the other goblin. (Source: MM)  RAW this ability does not state (unless I've missed it) that the goblin receiving the damage, that was originally intended for the Goblin boss, has to be an ally of the Goblin boss. This seems to imply that an enemy Goblin boss could use this ability to redirect a successful attack against a PC playing a goblin (Source: VGM) or a party allied NPC goblin?   Is this a correct RAW understanding, or have I missed something?  Has there been any official or semi-official clarification (Sage advice, relevant tweets, etc) that show whether this reading is "rules as intended"?
60018
This came up in my session tonight. My players all had the cash to buy war horses and outfit them, I ruled that they're readily available in Neverwinter which they were near for their last adventure.   However, there are two bits of text that I'm trying to piece together and figure out how they work. The first is the following from the mounted combat text:     It moves as you direct it, and it has only three action options: Dash, Disengage and Dodge (PHB 198)   Does this mean that you cannot under any circumstances use your mount's attack (such as the Warhorse's Trampling Charge/Hooves attack)?  Reading the next section it really seems to come down to whether or not a Warhorse is considered an intelligent mount or not, answers should address this.
14698
If you know ahead of time that you're going to be missing a player, do you reschedule? Or just play them as an NPC or as a group puppet?
80094
This came up in a game involving Haunt 23, Tentacled Horror. (Spoilers will be kept to a minimum.) There are multiple different types of monsters in that Haunt: some of them have a Sanity trait, and others don't. One of the Heroes had the Ring, which let him attack with Sanity instead of Might. He attacked a monster that had a Might trait, but no Sanity trait, using the Ring. At the time, I told him that the monster had no Sanity trait and that he'd need to try a different type of attack, and he ended up doing a Might attack using the Sacrificial Dagger instead.  Was this the right thing to do, or should the initial attack have failed entirely? Or should we have explained which traits the monster does and doesn't have the instant the monster went on the map? The rules just say "you can't use a trait to attack against a monster that doesn't have that trait," but it's unclear on how to handle the attempt. This is particularly vexing, because all monsters have hidden traits and this is going to come up again.  (I looked at the , and it turns out that the specific Haunt I was looking at no longer has that problem, but I'm sure this question will still apply to other monsters.)
30109
Let's say that a player uses the ready action and says "If a character aims at me with a weapon, I'll use Teleport to move behind cover."  What happens? Does this work? If not, please cite the rules to explain why not.
59013
For example, if there is a lava river surrounding a castle. There is a drawbridge that can be lowered, but the lever is on the other side. PCs couldn't find a hidden passageway,either because PCs failed necessary check and couldn't find it or just because there isn't one. They don't have rope to try to pull the lever down. Or if PCs want to rob a house, but can't pick a lock, they see that window on the second floor is open. Can one PC use his Strength to throw another PC that is one size smaller, with other PC using his Dexterity or Strength to not fall down or lose balance?
76436
So whilst going to rescue the Moth Priest 'Dexion Evicus', I think I accidentally might have hit him, not sure how. Anyhow the bearded maniac has taken this as a personal attack and refuses to accept a yield. Because he's so angry with me he'll just not quit, but being a quest NPC he can't die, nor can my companion Mjoll. So aside from the hilarious infinity battle, I thought, fair enough I'll talk to him whilst he's 'downed' and lo, I progressed the quest.  So I go back to the Dawnguard fortress, and he's there in the middle shouting murder and attacking everyone in the fortress! Clearly his rage knows no bounds.    Is there a way to forcibly pacify him without interring him? Or do I need to roll back and do over?
56186
My group have been playing various D&amp;D style games for a few years,  I have one player however that often will drift off and start playing on his phone  and several times has actually fallen asleep (with his character having to be "nudged" along by his fellow players).  He insists he's "just tired" and "isn't bored" — and besides, he keeps insisting we all get together for D&amp;D and wants to play.  Unfortunately we're all pretty busy, so if I'm to get the group together at all it's usually late on a Sunday. After talking to the player he insists it's not the game, or the story, he just happens to be tired. But, it's the same excuse every week, and the odd times we've played at different times or situations, the falling asleep has happened.  How do I cope with:   The morale destroying (for me) idea of your players falling asleep through a campaign and story you've put lots of work into. The general tone of the room when this player loses interest. (Occasionally a couple of others zone out into Facebook when they're not "active" because the players have split up / gone unconscious).   Given that it's an "all or nothing" situation with the group (there are only 3 players and they won't play unless all 3 are around), how do I best deal with it?
55370
In our 5e game, we stole a boat. And a horse carriage. And a lot of other stuff for moving things between cities.   Our DM meant for this to be a way to skip road encounters. We decided to fund a shipping company and hire managers (Knights retainers, etc.) to turn a profit. The DM ruled that these would cover lifestyle expenses, provide us with easy smuggling, etc.   However, we want to keep tabs on the treasure we're moving back and forth.   What can we use for communicating with our managers from anywhere in the world? What about from say, across the city?  We don't need to communicate often or for long - a single round will work. All we need is for the manager to say "we need you back"
80133
Do you get to use the additional attack from the Extra Attack feature as well when you Ready an Attack action?  One of my players, a monk, decided to Ready an action as an earth elemental was about to attack. The trigger was the elemental moving within five feet of him. When this occurred, he took his Attack action, and then proceeded to take the extra attack as well.  I was unsure at the time whether or not the extra attack would also happen, and I haven't had much luck figuring it out.
91619
I've just finished running my first session with only one player, and it felt pretty different from running a session for a group.  Could someone with more experience in this talk about what one should do differently in that situation?  I'm not referring to mechanics like encounter-building, but just how to handle the change to the social dynamics.
37069
I had to make a call today and I'm wondering how this scenario should've gone down   The map was a U-shaped hallway; the party was on the lower left of the U, with the enemies on the upper right. The wizard has an owl familiar who could see an enemy caster, with the wizard seeing through the familiar's eyes, and the wizard was further back.   The enemy caster cast a fireball.  The player claims that since he was looking through the owl's eyes from his turn, he should technically have line of sight for a counterspell.   Could counterspell be cast in this case, even though there was a wall between him and the caster, and he was physically not able to cast towards the enemy caster?  Was I wrong in said judgement?
117036
Right now, the group that I GM for is very, very tactical-combat focused. To some extent, we may as well be playing a dungeon crawl board game for all the role-play we manage.  Now, in and of itself that's not bad, and I enjoy progressing the story that we're telling, but I would like more "theatre of the mind" than we're achieving right now.  The one bit of advice that I always seem to come across is to have the villains and other NPCs in the fight invite role-play by taunting and otherwise engaging in banter with the PCs, but unfortunately I've tried and failed at that - largely because quick witted banter is not my forte, and so it comes across as strained and less than engaging.  What I would like are other play-proven tactics that I as a GM can employ to lead my players towards more role-play during combat, without taking them away from their (and my) roll-play comfort zone.