Hello 3d6! I’ve been working on this character theorycraft for a while now, and I’ve quite nearly accomplished my goal — only to fall barely short at the final 1%. I’m sharing it now in a 99-percent-complete state, for everyone to enjoy reading my mad scientist ravings, or to offer their own suggestions on how to wring out just a little bit more damage to finally have a character that can kill any creature in a single punch.
tl;dr: a theorycrafted level 20 Saitama character can deal 634 damage on average in a single punch, instantly killing 99% of all published monsters (27 monsters can survive).

The self-imposed rules

• Must be RAW.
• All printed magic items are allowed, and random properties may be chosen.
• Average rolls will be used for ability checks, attacks, and damage rolls.
• All the damage must be dealt in a single punch attack: damage that happens after the resolution of the attack does not count (poisons, damage on a later turn, etc.)
• Any amount of preparation time for the single punch is allowed.
• No friends — all the preparation must be done by the single character. No buff spells may be cast by other people.
• Bonus points if everything can be explained within One-Punch Man’s canon lore.

Now, let’s get into it!

Race

Protector Aasimar. Saitama claims to be an ordinary man, but let’s be honest, to have such ludicrous power, he must be more than human. Aasimar are more or less human, but with a touch of the divine, which fits the bill perfectly.Mechanically, we’re choosing this for the Radiant Soul option: as an action once per long rest, they transform for 1 minute and once per turn can deal their level in radiant damage to one target of an attack. At level 20, this will add +20 radiant damage to the punch, by far the highest single-attack damage boost of any racial ability.

Stats

Saitama has incredible strength, speed, reflexes, and durability, which he attributes to an intense training regimen. How could he have gotten such formidable training? Well, perhaps he read the instructions in a magic book. The Manuals of Gainful Exercise, Quickness of Action, and Bodily Health are very rare magic items that describe “fitness exercises,” “coordination and balance exercises,” and “health and diet tips” with words that are charged with magic. Studying these manuals and practicing their guidelines for 48 hours increases a creature’s STR, DEX, and CON stats by 2, as well as increasing their maximum for that score — up to a cap of 30. Clearly, to have such godlike strength, dexterity, and constitution, Saitama’s intense training must have included reading as many Manuals as necessary to raise his STR, DEX, and CON stats each to a godlike 30.This results in Saitama having a +10 to STR attack and damage rolls, a +10 boost to DEX checks like stealth and initiative, and a ridiculous amount of hit points.In order to multiclass, Saitama will also need at least a 13 in INT, WIS, and CHA — which should be achievable.

Classes

Saitama starts by taking three levels in Armorer Artificer, which gives him a suit of Arcane Armor that expands to cover his entire body and can be used as a spellcasting focus for artificer spells. The text describes “metallurgical pursuits,” but nothing RAW forbids one from choosing a suit of yellow leather armor for Arcane Armor. At AC 11 + DEX, this gives Saitama an AC of 21 — which doesn’t really matter, since he can kill nearly anything in a single punch before it ever has a chance of attacking him.We choose the Guardian Armor Model for Saitama’s Arcane Armor, causing the red rubber gloves on his leather armor to be counted as Thunder Gauntlets: they count as simple melee weapons when not holding anything in them, and deal 1d8 thunder damage on a hit. Saitama also has the option to use his INT modifier instead of STR or DEX when attacking with the gauntlets, but let’s be honest, he’s going to stick with his godlike +10 STR modifier here.Saitama will infuse his gloves with the Enhanced Weapon artificer infusion, giving them a +1 to attack and damage rolls, and turning them into a magic item.From Armorer, Saitama also learns the spells Booming Blade and Absorb Elements.To complete Saitama’s armor, he also gains a white Cloak of Billowing (a common magic item that does not require attunement) and a pair of red rubber Boots of Elvenkind (an uncommon magic item that also does not require attunement, and gives advantage on Stealth checks to move silently).
Next, Saitama takes nine levels in warlock. He chooses the Hexblade patron and Pact of the Blade, and gains the Hexblade’s Curse, the Eldritch Smite invocation, and the Banishing Smite spell from the Hexblade expanded spell list. He will also transform his gloves into his pact weapon, and take the Improved Pact Weapon invocation, allowing him to use his gloves as a spellcasting focus for warlock spells. Unfortunately, because his gloves are already a magic weapon with a +1 to attack and damage rolls from the Enhanced Weapon artificer infusion, they do not gain an additional +1 to attack and damage rolls from Improved Pact Weapon.Hexblade’s Curse allows Saitama to curse a creature within 30 feet for 1 minute as a bonus action, and add his proficiency bonus to damage rolls against that target.Eldritch Smite deals 1d8 force damage plus another 1d8 for each level of warlock spell slot expended when hitting a creature with one’s pact weapon. At a maximum 5th level spell slot, this adds 6d8 force damage to his punch.Banishing Smite activates as a bonus action and consumes concentration for 1 minute to add an extra 5d10 force damage on the next hit with a weapon attack. Additionally, if the target then has 50 HP or less, it is banished to its home plane (or until the spell ends).At nine levels in Warlock, Saitama gets two 5th-level spell slots per short rest. This is just enough for one usage of Eldritch Smite and one casting of Banishing Smite. However, he will then have to rest before going out to fight villains again — perhaps a good reason for why he spends so much time relaxing at home playing video games and reading manga.Saitama also gets two ASIs at his fourth and eighth levels of warlock. At these levels, he will take the Martial Adept and Fey Touched feats. The Martial Adept feat gives him a d6 superiority die and two maneuvers, one of which will be Menacing Attack (the other does not matter). Menacing Attack adds the d6 to the damage of the attack and forces the target to make a WIS save or be frightened (and though our goal is to kill the target outright, if it somehow survives, Saitama’s DC will be a difficult-to-surmount 24: 8 + 6 [proficiency bonus] + 10 [STR mod]). From the Fey Touched feat, Saitama will learn the first-level divination spell Gift of Alacrity, which lasts 8 hours without concentration and adds 1d8 to his initiative rolls.
To kill creatures in a single punch, Saitama will need to train to Assassinate: taking four levels in Assassin Rogue. Assassinate gives Saitama advantage on attacks against creatures that have not yet taken a turn in combat, and automatic critical hits on creatures who are surprised. In order to surprise creatures, Saitama will need to succeed on a Stealth check contested by the target’s Perception: “Any character or monster that doesn't notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter.” Saitama rarely sneaks up on his targets, but usually allows them to monologue for a long time before annihilating them with a single punch. It is his unremarkable appearance that allows him to take his enemies by surprise — and perhaps that appearance is its own form of stealth. Just to make getting surprise mechanically possible, Saitama will take an Expertise in Stealth, to double his proficiency for a +12 to Stealth in addition to his +10 DEX modifier. Due to his red rubber Boots of Elvenkind, he will also get advantage on Stealth checks made to move silently.With a +22 to Stealth, on an average d20 roll of 13.825 (with advantage), a Stealth of 35.825 should allow him to defeat the passive perception of nearly every monster — even the Greatwyrms, which have a passive perception of only 32. Tiamat has a passive perception of 36, and as the monster with the highest passive perception, she is the only monster capable of successfully noticing Saitama’s threat (unless he gets a little lucky with the Stealth roll). If we really want to ensure that Saitama can go undetected, we could give him the Epic Boon of Undetectability for an additional +10 to Stealth checks and immunity to detection or targeting by divination magic.He will also need to beat his target on an initiative roll to be able to get an automatic critical hit — which is why he will take the Alert feat on his fourth level of rogue, giving him a +5 to initiative rolls in addition to the +10 from his DEX modifier. As the only bonus monsters get to initiative is from their DEX modifier (and the highest DEX modifier that any monster has is +9, for the Elder Tempest or Will-o’-Wisp), with a total +6 edge from the +5 from Alert and his +10 DEX modifier, as well as +1d8 from Gift of Alacrity, Saitama will beat even the fastest monsters’ initiative rolls 89% of the time (and a later item will increase this to 97%).
When Saitama uses a Serious Punch, it’s like sending the target on a Path to their Grave. Thus, Saitama will take two levels in Grave Cleric. As an action, Path to the Grave allows Saitama to choose “another creature’s life force for termination.” The next time he hits the chosen creature within 30 feet with an attack, the creature has vulnerability to all of the attack’s damage, causing the damage to be doubled (as long as the creature is not immune or resistant to any of the damage types).
Lastly, Saitama will take two levels in paladin, gaining Divine Smite and the Dueling fighting style.When hitting with a melee weapon attack, he can expend a spell slot to Divine Smite, dealing additional radiant damage to the target. At three levels of artificer, two levels of cleric, and two levels of paladin, Saitama is a fifth-level multiclassed caster (his three levels from artificer are halved and rounded up to two, cleric gives two levels, and two levels of paladin is halved to one, for a total of five). This gives him two 3rd-level spell slots per long rest — spending a 3rd level slot on a Divine Smite gives an extra 4d8 radiant damage (1d8 off of the maximum of 5d8 from spending a 4th-level spell). It also deals an extra 1d8 to undead or fiend targets.The Dueling fighting style gives +2 to damage rolls when wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons. The Thunder Gauntlets count as simple melee weapons when not holding anything in them, so Saitama will hold something in his right hand, leaving him wielding only one Thunder Gauntlet on his left hand when he delivers a Serious Punch. (In One-Punch Man canon, Saitama usually punches with his right hand. For a mechanical reason, our theorycrafted DND Saitama has to punch with his left. Maybe this is why DND Saitama is slightly weaker than canon Saitama, and isn’t able to kill every monster in a single hit.)
With three levels of artificer, nine levels of warlock, four levels of rogue, two levels of cleric, and two levels of paladin, Saitama is a level 20 character.

Feats

As mentioned above, Saitama will take Martial Adept and Fey Touched at his fourth and eighth warlock level, and Alert at his fourth level of rogue.

Additional items

When Saitama strikes someone, it occasionally appears as if he has grown to incredible size (https://tenor.com/view/one-punch-man-gif-23643267). To simulate this, DND Saitama will consume a Potion of Giant Size (legendary) and a Potion of Growth (rare), increasing to Huge for 24 hours and then again to Gargantuan for 1d4 hours. From the Potion of Giant Size, his weapons roll three times as many dice (thus increasing his Thunder Gauntlets to deal 3d8 thunder damage on hit). From the Potion of Growth, Saitama gets advantage on STR checks and saves, and deals 1d4 additional damage on weapon attacks.
Saitama can attune to three magic items. We will choose the Hand of Vecna (legendary), Sword of Kas (legendary), and a Ring of Spell Storing (rare).
To attune to the Hand of Vecna, Saitama had to lop off his left hand at the wrist and replace it with the Hand of Vecna. This withered hand is hidden within his red rubber glove, and (among other properties) allows him to deal an extra 2d8 cold damage when he makes a melee weapon attack with a weapon held in the hand.The Hand of Vecna also includes one minor and one major beneficial property, along with one minor detrimental property. For the major beneficial property, we will choose the property: “When you hit with a weapon attack while attuned to the artifact, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage of the weapon's type.” For the minor beneficial property, we will choose immunity to charm and fear effects. The minor detrimental property we will choose is: “Your appearance changes as the DM decides” — from his intense training regimen (which included chopping off his left hand and replacing it with the Hand of Vecna), Saitama unfortunately lost all of his hair — still a sore spot for him.
The Sword of Kas grants several abilities, but Saitama only attacks with punches, so it will remain in its scabbard, somewhere on his person. While it is on his person, it adds an additional d10 to Saitama’s initiative (raising his probability of having a higher initiative than even a monster with +9 DEX to 97%).The Sword of Kas also includes one minor and one major beneficial property, as well as one minor and one major detrimental property. We will choose the same major beneficial property as the Hand of Vecna, for an extra 1d6 damage when hitting with a weapon attack (typically effects of the same type do not stack. However, since these are generic properties of two artifacts with different names, the properties should stack under RAW). The minor beneficial property can be any (some thematic options include immunity to disease or +1 AC), and the minor detrimental property can be: “The first time you touch a gem or piece of jewelry while attuned to this artifact, the value of the gem or jewelry is reduced by half.” Perhaps this explains why Saitama is poor. The major detrimental property can be taking 8d10 psychic damage when attuning to the Sword of Kas: Saitama mentions that his training was so intense that he thought he might die — perhaps this damage was why it felt so intense. (Note: with eighteen levels in classes with d8 hit dice and two levels of paladin for d10 hit dice, Saitama’s average hit points is 92, not counting the incredible 200 additional HP from his +10 CON modifier. Even at a maximum roll of 80 psychic damage from attuning to Sword of Kas, he wouldn’t actually die.)Interestingly, the Sword of Kas also causes its bearer to gradually become obsessed with destroying anyone corrupted by the Hand of Vecna — this might cause Saitama to become fairly conflicted.
Lastly, the Ring of Spell-Storing. Up to five levels of spells can be stored within, and can be cast while touching the ring. Saitama can spend one of his fifth-level Pact Magic slots to cast Absorb Elements (learned from his levels in artificer) into the ring, before resting to regain his Pact Magic slot. Absorb Elements can be cast as a reaction to elemental damage, grants resistance to the triggering damage, and adds an extra 1d6 of that damage type per spell level when the next time the caster hits with a melee attack on their next turn. Cast at a fifth level, this adds 5d6 elemental damage to Saitama’s punch.To voluntarily trigger the Absorb Elements, we will have Saitama use his free object interaction to stick a finger into a vial of acid held in his right hand (which also makes the Thunder Gauntlet in his right hand no longer count as a melee weapon since it's holding something, thus enabling him to use the Dueling fighting style with his left). The acid will burn Saitama, allowing him to cast Absorb Elements in reaction, getting resistance to the acid damage and charging up 5d6 acid damage to be released on his next melee attack this turn.

Preparation to punch

In order to maximize damage in a single attack, Saitama needs to do some preparation. At some point, he will spend one of his fifth-level Pact Magic slots to cast Absorb Elements into the Ring of Spell Storing, before resting to regain his Pact Magic slot.
On the day of, he must also cast Gift of Alacrity to maximize his initiative rolls (this lasts 8 hours), and spend an action drinking the Potion of Giant Size (which lasts 24 hours). One hour before the fight, he must drink the Potion of Growth (which lasts a minimum of 1 hour). He must also open the vial of acid and hold it ready in his right hand.
A minute before punching his target, he must spend an action to activate his Radiant Soul Aasimar transformation, and spend an action and a bonus action cursing his target with the Hexblade’s Curse and Path to the Grave.
Finally, on the turn he punches, he spends his free object interaction to touch the acid in the vial until it causes damage, then casts Absorb Elements as a reaction from his Ring of Spell Storing. He spends his bonus action casting Banishing Smite, and then his action casting the cantrip Booming Blade. (He has cast three spells in one turn, but the only limitation on casting multiple spells per turn is that if he casts a spell as a bonus action, he may only cast a cantrip — like Booming Blade — with his action.)
Edit (thank you to u/yethegodless for alerting me): I made a mistake with the rules on casting multiple spells on a turn. Saitama would have to cast Banishing Smite on the turn before he punches. Casting a spell with a bonus action casting time not only limits you to casting a cantrip with your action, but also prevents you from casting any other spells (like casting Absorb Elements as a reaction). If he casts Banishing Smite right after activating Hexblade's Curse and Path to the Grave, he has another nine turns to activate the punch. And as long as he doesn't cast a spell with his bonus action, then he can definitely cast Absorb Elements as a reaction and Booming Blade with his action.

The punch

Booming Blade requires a material component: a melee weapon worth at least 1 sp. Normally, using his arcane armor as a spellcasting focus would allow him to ignore material components, but this material component cannot be ignored because it has a cost. The Thunder Gauntlets from a suit of arcane armor have no assigned cost, but the basic leather armor costs 10 gp, so it’s a safe assumption that a magically-enhanced +1 Thunder Gauntlet would cost more than 1 sp.Upon casting the spell, Saitama makes a melee attack against a creature within 5 feet. At level 20, the cantrip adds an extra 3d8 thunder damage to the initial attack, and an additional 4d8 if the target moves on its next turn — but the latter damage will not count for this purpose because our goal is to annihilate the target with the first hit.
Assuming that his stealth and initiative checks have allowed Saitama to surprise his target and go first in the initiative order, he has advantage on his attack from Assassinate and gets +17 to the roll: +6 from his proficiency, +10 from his STR modifier, and +1 from the Enhanced Weapon infusion. The monsters with the highest AC are Tiamat and the Tarrasque, with an AC of 25 — with advantage and a +17 to hit, Saitama has an 88% chance of hitting, and any hit is an automatic critical hit from Assassinate.If a guaranteed hit is desired, we could give Saitama an Epic Boon of Combat Prowess, choosing to hit on a melee weapon attack once per short rest. At that point, the attack roll doesn’t even matter.

Damage

The 1d8 thunder damage from his Thunder Gauntlets is tripled to 3d8 by the Potion of Giant Size. The Gauntlets deal an extra 1d4 thunder damage from the Potion of Growth, an extra 2d6 thunder damage from the major beneficial properties of the Hand of Vecna and the Sword of Kas, and an extra 1d6 thunder damage from the Menacing Attack maneuver. The attack deals an extra 2d8 cold damage because it was made with a weapon wielded by the Hand of Vecna. We add an additional 6d8 force damage from Eldritch Smite, 5d10 force damage from Banishing Smite, 4d8 radiant damage from Divine Smite, 5d6 acid damage from Absorb Elements, and 3d8 thunder damage from Booming Blade.
Let’s total this up: 6d8+1d4+3d6 thunder + 2d8 cold + 6d8+5d10 force + 4d8 radiant + 5d6 acid damage
All these dice are doubled on the critical hit from Assassinate: 12d8+2d4+6d6 thunder + 4d8 cold + 12d8+10d10 force + 8d8 radiant + 10d6 acid damage
Now, counting the flat damage: 10 thunder damage from Saitama’s STR modifier on the Thunder Gauntlets, +1 thunder damage from the Enhanced Weapon infusion, +6 thunder damage from Hexblade’s Curse, and +2 thunder damage from the Dueling fighting style, for a total of +19 thunder damage. We also add 20 radiant damage from the Radiant Soul transformation.
Another preliminary total: 12d8+2d4+6d6+19 thunder + 4d8 cold + 12d8+10d10 force + 8d8+20 radiant + 10d6 acid damage
All the damage is doubled by the vulnerability inflicted by Path to the Grave: 24d8+4d4+12d6+38 thunder + 8d8 cold + 24d8+20d10 force + 16d8+40 radiant + 20d6 acid damage
This averages to 198 thunder + 36 cold + 218 force + 112 radiant + 70 acid damage, for a total of 634 damage on average in a single punch.
Anything that survives this formidable blow must then have more than 50 hit points remaining, or else it is banished to its home plane without a save by Banishing Smite (thus, Saitama's punch can effectively defeat creatures with up to 684 HP).
After two short rests, Saitama could theoretically do a Serious Punch again on the same day — minus the +40 radiant damage from Radiant Soul (doubled by Path to the Grave), the only ability used that requires a long rest to recharge. After a second Serious Punch, though, he’ll run out of third-level spell slots for the Divine Smite.

The targets (who survives?)

With the most hit points out of any monster in DND 5e, the Tarrasque has 676 HP, damage immunities to fire, poison, and bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage from nonmagical attacks, three legendary resistances per day, advantage on saves against spells, can nullify or reflect ranged attack spells, and can terrify creatures within 120 feet with its Frightful Presence.None of this protects it from a single punch from our Caped Baldy. On 62% of possible damage rolls, that Tarrasque is getting sent back to its plane of origin, gibbering with fear: with a WIS modifier of +0, it has no chance of succeeding the DC 24 WIS save against Saitama’s Menacing Attack (of course, Tarrasques are immune to the frightened condition, but let’s ignore that because it’s funny).
However, this doesn’t quite count as killing the tarrasque in a single punch, since it’s banished but still alive (and returns after one minute if it’s not originally from another plane). Additionally, a several other monsters could definitely survive the punch — chief among them, Tiamat:Outside of being immune to acid and cold damage (reducing the damage by 106 points and dropping the remaining 528 total damage from the punch well below her total HP of 615), Tiamat is also immune to spells of level 6 or lower: thus completely nullifying the effects of both Booming Blade and Banishing Smite. However, as a fiend, Divine Smite does deal an extra d8 radiant damage against her. Still, eliminating Booming Blade and Banishing Smite drops the single punch damage to 382 on average, leaving Tiamat with 233 HP: more than a third of her health.Instead casting Banishing Smite and Booming Blade, Saitama could use his action to punch twice using the Thirsting Blade eldritch invocation, spending both his 5th-level Pact Magic spell slots on Eldritch Smites and both 3rd-level slots on Divine Smites. If Saitama managed to sneak up on Tiamat to surprise her and get the automatic critical hits from Assassinate, he would deal 3d8+1d4+3d6 thunder + 6d8 force + 5d8 radiant damage on each attack, doubled from the critical hit to 6d8+2d4+6d6 thunder + 12d8 force + 10d8 radiant damage, and a total of +19 thunder on both attacks and +20 radiant on the first. The first attack damage would be doubled from Path to the Grave, but the second would not. The first attack would deal 12d8+4d4+12d6+38 thunder + 24d8 force + 20d8+40 radiant damage, and the second 6d8+2d4+6d6+19 thunder + 12d8 force + 10d8 radiant; for a total damage of 553 on average, still 62 points short of Tiamat’s 615 total HP.
Other creatures that would survive:

• Sapphire Greatwyrms and Velomachus Lorehold — with immunities to thunder damage and HP totals of 507 and 487 respectively, they survive the 436 total non-thunder damage from Saitama’s Serious Punch. With 51 HP remaining on average, Velomachus also has a 53% chance of having enough HP to escape getting banished.
• Amethyst Greatwyrms and Tanazir Quandrix — with immunities to force damage and HP totals of 507 and 444 respectively, they survive the 416 total non-force damage from the Serious Punch. Tanazir is almost definitely getting banished, though.
• The Aspect of Tiamat and Aspect of Bahamut are immune to both fire and cold damage, reducing the Serious Punch to 528 damage — not enough to eliminate their 574 and 585 hit points, respectively. However, both Aspects might still fall victim to the Banishing Smite: 56% of damage rolls will deal enough damage to banish the Aspect of Tiamat, and 37% of rolls for the Aspect of Bahamut. Interestingly, banishing these monsters with the Banishing Smite might be better than reducing them to 0 HP, because dropping them to 0 would trigger their Chromatic Wrath / Platinum Brilliance traits, resetting their HP to 500, recharging their breath weapons and legendary resistances, and unlocking their Mythic Actions.
• Copper Greatwyrms are immune to acid damage, reducing the Serious Punch to 564 damage on average — allowing them to barely survive with 1 hit point left (out of their HP total of 565). They will survive on 52% of damage rolls, and almost certainly get banished if they do. However, on the 48% of damage rolls that succeed in reducing them to 0 HP, they will actually not get banished: instead, their Metallic Awakening will immediately trigger and will reset their HP to 450.
• Silver Greatwyrms have 565 HP and immunity to cold damage, but even without cold damage, the Serious Punch still deals 598 damage on average: enough to reduce them to 0 HP on 91% of damage rolls. Interestingly, this gives Silver Greatwyrms higher odds of surviving than Copper Greatwyrms, because they are far more likely to trigger the Metallic Awakening and reset their HP to 450 to escape banishment — rather than Copper Greatwyrms, which have better-than-even odds of surviving the initial punch but then getting banished for their trouble.
• The other 11 types of Greatwyrm not yet mentioned will also survive thanks the same reason as the Silver Greatwyrm: they can't survive the initial punch, but being reduced to 0 HP will trigger their Metallic/Chromatic/Gem Awakening traits to reset their HP to 400 or more, ironically allowing them to evade being banished. Of the 15 types of Greatwyrm, only Copper Greatwyrms have moderate odds of getting banished in a single strike — the others will either survive the first hit entirely, or get reduced to 0 hit points and trigger their Awakening to avoid getting banished.
• Zariel from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Archduke Zariel of Avernus from Descent into Avernus each have resistance to radiant damage, resistance or immunity to cold damage (respectively), and 580 hit points. However, they are fiends, causing the Divine Smite to add an additional 9 radiant damage on average (the 1d8 extra Divine Smite damage to fiends is doubled twice from the critical hit and Path to the Grave, but halved from Zariel’s resistance to radiant damage). Accounting for the resistance to radiant damage and the bonus Divine Smite damage to fiends, the punch deals 587 total damage. Then, subtracting 18 damage for cold resistance or 36 damage for cold immunity, Zariel survives with 11 HP and Archduke Zariel with 29 HP — both still very likely getting banished back to Avernus.
• No creature has resistance to thunder and more than 535 hit points to survive the punch, resistance to force damage and more than 525 hit points, or resistance to acid damage and more than 599 hit points. Only 10 creatures other than Zariel have resistances to thunder, cold, force, radiant, or acid damage and more than 400 HP: of those, Sul Khatesh, Rak Tulkhesh, Orcus, and the Demogorgon’s cold resistances reduce the damage by 18, but, as fiends, they take an additional 18 radiant damage from Divine Smite — and with 475, 478, 405, and 406/464 HP respectively (depending on the source book), they get easily annihilated by the Serious Punch. Tromokratis is resistant to both thunder and cold damage, reducing the Serious Punch by 117 damage, but with 409 HP, the Serious Punch still deals over 100 more points of damage than necessary to kill it. The Marut and the Ancient Amethyst Dragon are also only resistant to one of the damage types, which does not reduce the damage enough for them to survive.
• Many creatures have the Regeneration trait that allow them to survive and regain a certain amount of HP at the start of their turn even if they start their turn with 0 HP. However, taking radiant damage disables this trait for fiends, undead, and aberrations, and acid damage disables it for trolls and giants. Cold damage disables it for Tlexolotl and Vegepygmy, thunder damage for the Glasswork Golem, and spell damage for Wereravens. Four monsters have Regeneration traits that still work to bring them back from 0 HP after being hit by Saitama's punch: Loup Garou regenerate if not dealt damage with a silver weapon; the Jabberwock regenerates if not dealt slashing damage; and the Regenerating Black Pudding and Living Doll regenerate if not dealt fire damage (for the Wood Woad, banishment likely counts as no longer being “in contact with the ground” and therefore its Regeneration trait fails). None of these monsters have more than 300 HP, so the 634 damage from Saitama's Punch may be enough to destroy them by dealing more than double their max HP in a single instance of damage — however, Jeremy Crawford rules that massive damage is not enough to kill a monster with regeneration (https://youtu.be/1frsmP_AzV0?t=2663).
• Some undead have an Undead Fortitude trait that allows them to drop to 1 HP instead of 0 on a save; however, these traits are disabled by both the fact that the Serious Punch deals radiant damage, is a critical hit (from Assassinate), and that they would have to succeed on a CON save with a DC of 5+the damage taken: DC 657 (when taking account the extra 18 radiant damage Divine Smite deals to undead).
• Vampires, Liches, and other monsters with the Rejuvenation trait may also be utterly destroyed by the punch, but survive by regenerating or gaining a new body later. However, we will still count them as having been killed by the punch, even if they didn’t fully die. Even if they return to bother Saitama, he can just destroy them again in a single punch.
• There may be other monsters with features that allow them to escape a single attack — if there are, they don't immediately come to mind.
• Edit (thanks to u/ItsOmar9000 ): Of course, I'm forgetting another monster that would easily survive Saitama's punch: the almighty Nilbog. Sporting zero damage resistances or immunities and a whopping 7 hit points, this beast of a CR 1 monster laughs in the face of Saitama's punch, capable of dealing over 90 times its hit point total. As Saitama swings with murderous intent and the fist connects, unimaginable damage rippling through the Nilbog's small goblinoid frame, a comical Reversal of Fortune occurs: Saitama's fist stutters to a standstill, dealing 0 damage, and the Nilbog regains 1d6 hit points. Truly, the Nilbog is the only monster worthy of standing beside Tiamat as the two monsters that can nullify Saitama's serious punch.

Thus, our final list of 27 28 survivors of Saitama’s punch:

• Nullifies the punch (1): Tiamat, Nilbog
• Avoids banishment with 51-100 HP (3): Sapphire Greatwyrm, Amethyst Greatwyrm, Aspect of Bahamut
• Gets reduced to 0 but avoids banishment by resetting their HP through the Awakening trait (12): Silver Greatwyrm and 11 other types of Greatwyrm
• 50/50 odds of being banished (3): Velomachus Lorehold, Aspect of Tiamat, Copper Greatwyrm
• Likely banished, but still alive (4): Tarrasque, Tanazir Quandrix, Zariel and Archduke Zariel
• Reduced to 0 HP and banished, but regenerates (4): Loup Garou, Jabberwock, Regenerating Black Pudding, Living Doll

Saitama can kill all remaining 2,800+ monsters ever printed in a single punch.

Thank you for reading!

If you've gotten this far, thanks for sticking with me! If you have any ideas on how to squeeze out the last bits of damage to allow Saitama to one-hit kill any of the remaining 27 monsters, please comment to let me know!

If you play with/as a pallid elf wizard named Natalie Dallant, stop reading now lmfao
Hey gang,
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I'm building a custom statblock for a beefed up hydra encounter. My players will be encountering it in an arena that has magical means of preventing death, so I'm not terribly worried about accidentally killing the party (Read: a moderate level of overpowered horseshit is fine), but I still want the encounter to be fun-challenging, not "and then the hydra eats you lmao".
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So far the changes I've made are giving it a psudeo-breath weapon: a recharging ability that emits a line of flame for each head the hydra has (each line has reduced damage than, say, a CR-appropriate true dragon) ; an at will ability that lets it hurl a ball of flame as a standard attack (mostly to deal with a wizard who I KNOW is gonna camp out at the edge of the arena lmao) ; I've also changed its achilles heel damage type (standard is fire, which prevents it from regenerating heads after it's taken) to cold just to switch things up a little, which also works thematically because it's also themed as a fire elemental.
I'm likely going to give it legendary actions as well, simply because we have a moderately large party and I've seen them absolutely wreck the shit of boss enemies who lack them bc 5e action economy; I think the multiattack ability of the hydra will probably offset this a little, but it's still "hydra does one burst of things and then the party does nine million".
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One of the abilities of the RAW CR8 Hydra is "Reactive Heads"; the Hydra gets an additional reaction it can take for each head it has, but it can only use that reaction to make an attack of opportunity. I've considered giving it the ability to grapple in place of one of these attacks of opportunity, to really cement the "once you're in melee with this thing you're IN MELEE with this thing", but I'm not certain that would actually be a fun ability to fight against, especially if it moves up to a squishy and just denies them the opportunity to leave.
What are some other fun gimmickey things I could do with a creature who gets multiple reactions? I'm not even certain how useful this ability is, it's just relatively unique amongst 5E creatures and I'm wondering how I can stretch it. I might not even do anything extra with this, but I wanted to think about it anyway.
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Thanks

It's been about a year now of responses and it's been very interesting to see what people have come up with and how they get around the same issues, and so far here is my best answer for the situation:
My initial criticisms:
1.) Attackers have a high propensity to not do damage. 2.) Defenders pretty much just have to stand there and take it. 3.) Once AC is bypassed armor is irrelevant.
My solutions: I've devised a d10 based system that takes some principles from GURPS, FUDGE AND 5E SRD. The most important innovation is the action and reaction system.
As in most systems initiators are chosen based on set criteria, and once those initiators choose a target for an action, that encounter becomes dynamic, meaning that the defender must choose how they wish to proceed. In my system:
Characters can move or act interchangeably in their respective turns, meaning a Archer can shoot then move or move first and then shoot.
Targets of actions often get to react. If two fighters are standing toe to toe and one initiates an attack, so can the other and a contest of attacks ensues, or if that Target feels they would not have an advantage there they can choose to defend
Stamina points allow for more powerful actions and reactions, but regenerate slowly requiring characters to be careful not to spend them all at once or in a haphazard way
Any characters that reasonably could react usually can, Any character that would logically be expected to retaliate also usually can, and the outcomes of a scenario play out more realistically then people taking turns wailing at each other or launching missiles or casting spells.
The abstraction occurs most where it matters most, the numbers concerning attack and defense. They are the sum of rolls and bonuses. Every piece of equipment, every skill, every class benefit counts, but they're all calculated easily from a glance to a single score.
How does that relate to the AC system? 1.) Initiator and Target both have a fair chance to deal or avoid damage in the scope of logic. In essence, the amount of pointless or redundant rolls is drastically reduced. 2.) As in real life sometimes being the defender is a good thing, reacting to initiator can be very powerful and even preferable. 3.) Equipment acts how it's reasonably expected to act: weapons can be useful in a contest of attacks, but a deflected sword is useless. Armor however is always worn, and therefore always affected unless it is bypassed - this is represented in a direct damage deduction which is a part of a defense score, which deducts from an attack score, which dictates damage dealt.
All in all an attacker attacks, the defender can expand more stamina points attacking and then being forced to defend, or just focusing on defense in the first place, and the reactor chooses how many rolls they wish to perform and what type after the initiator does. Both can choose to simply exchange blows and it works more or less like most systems with an attacker and a defender, but the score counts against each other and makes things simpler.
There are things to work out in the system of mine, but how does that sound so far?

Hi everyone! I just finished my initial cataclysm playthrough of the Palace of Ice DLC. I will be doing more testing on the spells & subclasses, but here are my initial impressions about the campaign itself & the new spells. I am not good at doing the proper syntax for spoilers on reddit, so I have just put spoilers on the whole post itself. If you do not want spoilers for the campaign itself, do not read this post until later. I won't go into super spoilers on much of the campaign, but there will be some in there.
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New Spells (I plan to update these during the day next Monday -- be patient!!!)

• 5th Level
  • Mind Twist
    • This spell has been changed to affect your allies alongside your enemies.
    • This is a major nerf to the spell; however, it is still really good against enemies (even on cataclysm difficulty), and a spell I used to reliably burn legendary resistances from bosses -- it just takes better positioning on the part of your party to use well in-combat. It isn't S-tier anymore as a spell, but still a strong A-tier.
• 7th Level
  • Arcane Sword
    • Spiritual Weapon that uses both a higher spell slot and requires concentration. Although true to 5e, it's likely the worst new spell added to Solasta. F-tier.
  • Conjure Celestial
    • A summon option for clerics alongside their Divine Intervention ability (when that works). A solid summon spell in unmodded Solasta, though lags behind other upcasted summon options if you use the UB mod. On the border between high B-tier & low A-tier right now for me, due to the options you have between the summons.
  • Delayed Blast Fireball
    • I can see the usefulness for this on a sorcerer with subtle spell metamagic (new addition with this DLC) if you are using a sneaky party and want some strong round 1 AoE damage. Beyond that circumstance, I'd rather just stick with other options. C-tier
  • Divine Word
    • The ability to instakill up to 6 enemy elementals or fiends on a failed CHA save (both of which you encounter a decent amount of in the PoI campaign) is really good. The HP threshold stuff for other enemies isn't great through, so only B-tier for me. Keep it prepped for those circumstances though.
  • Finger of Death
    • Single target CON save damaging spell. It's only saving grace in 5e is the rez as a zombie if it kills a humanoid, but it doesn't seem to do that from my testing of the spell. There are better dpr spells to choose frankly at this level. F-tier
  • Fire Storm
    • A wall of fire spell that only lasts one turn & doesn't require concentration. I can see why people may pick it, but again there are better lower-level dpr spells you can upcast to do the job here. F-tier
  • Gravity Slam
    • When it comes to AoE damage spells, we expect them to do more than just damage when added at these levels, and this spell doesn't disappoint. It being a STR save also means it's solid against spellcaster to incapacitate them. B-tier for me.
  • Prismatic Spray
    • Admittedly haven't tested this spell yet, but if its not buffed from its 5e version it isn't going to rank very high. Provisional C-tier until I get to test it.
  • Regenerate
    • On lower difficulties, this spell is probably S-tier for a frontliner if "merciless AI" is turned off -- as it can end up being worth a ton of healing words to bring them from unconscious back to conscious. On cataclysm difficulty, it just isn't as great honestly. C-tier.
  • Resurrection
    • Only needed if someone dies to a disintegrate spell. Otherwise, other reviving options are good replacements for it. Didn't happen in my playthrough, but could be situationally useful in custom campaigns. C-tier
  • Symbol
    • In practice, this is the eyebite spell with more options, but requires resources to cast & 1 higher spell slot in lieu of its concentration. Very situational. C-tier.
• 8th Level
  • Dominate Monster
    • High risk, high reward spell to turn an enemy into an ally. Alongside the initial save, they get to save on each of their turns & whenever they take damage. It isn't going to last long for the worthwhile enemies to cast this one, but really good if you get lucky. C-tier
  • Earthquake
    • Essentially spike growth tailored against spellcasters, but also is decently effective against melee enemies that can't fly. B-tier only because so many enemies have flight options at this point.
  • Feeblemind
    • Take out an enemy spellcaster with a single spell (if they fail their save), and its saves on subsequent turns are fairly pointless as their mental scores are all 1's. Nerfed vs the 5e version to only last 1 minute, but that is more than enough time. A-tier
  • Holy Aura
    • The most effective cleric spell in the final final fight of the game. B-tier spell for all other occasions
  • Incendiary Cloud
    • Yet another fog cloud alternative with extra riders on it. It does more reliable damage vs an upcasted Cloudkill (DEX save vs CON save), but it is fire damage in a campaign with a lot of enemies resistance or immune to that damage type. F-tier
  • Maze
    • A more expensive banishment spell that is much more reliable. A strong spell to use on a boss after you have burned their legendary resistances. A-tier.
  • Power Word Stun
    • Another single target CON save spell. Thankfully it doesn't require concentration & can potentially last more than 1 turn. C-tier
  • Spell Ward
    • Designed as a mobile version of globe of invulnerability; however, both spells are bugged right now to let in most cantrips & spells right now. If it is bug-fixed, I'd easily rank it A-tier -- but in its current state, a spell to avoid entirely.
  • Sunburst
    • A daylight spell that is much bigger, does damage to anyone in its area, and is much harder to use. A weaker thunderstorm in many ways & still a CON save. C-tier.
  • Thunderstorm
    • An AoE CON save spell that inflicts damage & potentially stuns enemies in the area. In many ways this is just the superior power word stun, as it at least hurts enemies alongside trying to stun them. C-tier
• Spells I can't test...
  • Divine Blade (8th level)
    • No spellcaster has access to this spell currently, so I can't test it. We will find out eventually if the spell was cut or if it just not added to anyone's spell list.

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Palace of Ice Campaign Review

• Disclaimers & Biases
  • Cataclysm difficulty w/o UB mod features/spell/subclasses.
    • Not on ironman, due to expecting gamebreaking bugs (of which I encountered two -- each of which required loading older saves & avoid certain spells causing the bugs)
  • Point-buy party starting fresh at level 10
    • Motherland Paladin, Battle Cleric, Marksman Ranger, & Loremaster Wizard
    • I figured to play a "traditional" party akin to what many regular players would use, to have a more fair comparison of difficulty.
    • I also didn't use my CotM party, as having everyone have 22-24 in their main start at the start, combined with level 16, was a little overkill (the game saves your XP across campaigns -- so my OG party prepped for this campaign instantly went to level 16 on my first long rest...)
  • There are some rebalancing that will be occurring with some of the subclasses + bugs to fix with others, so I won't be fully ranking the subclasses for PoI until we receive a few more patches
    • E.g. -- in my run, my Marksman Ranger didn't get her 3rd main attack at level 15
• Puzzles
  • Teleporter puzzle
    • For some reason forces you to decipher the books, even if you understand what you are supposed to do -- not really sure why.
    • Options to read those books -- Spy's Cypher (if you have the spy background), comprehend languages (via potion, spell, or item), or have a ring that lets you understand all languages
  • Volcano puzzle
    • It sadly took be a while to realize what you needed to destroy & how. Part of it might be to me having a color deficiency, and those things looking similar to the spiky things you can't destroy until the end of the game.
    • Beyond that, the puzzle was just standing on the platforms and aligning the levers with the holes. Not that hard
• Combat difficulty
  • Of the 3 campaigns thus far, by far the easiest campaign at its earliest levels.
  • Besides the optional Exonaika dragon fight in Telema (a 700 HP dragon with legendary actions/resistances vs a level 11 party w/o UB mod subclasses/feats is a bit to deal with), most of the combats weren't that difficult.
    • Part of the problem honestly was that the campaign had to be designed so you could go to any clan's area right after the initial stuff with Vigdis in the initial city. As thus, most of the battles weren't that engaging nor tactically tough to beat.
    • Then again, like CotM, TA had to balance the encounters around your party not having any spells at all -- so once I do my spell-less party run I'll re-evaluate overall difficulty.
  • Most of the new enemies have resistance to fire or cold damage, and advantage on spell saving throws. As thus, I imagine Law Cleric, Balance Druid, and Hive Warlock would make fighting them easier. Being smart with your spells still made most of the enemies relatively trivial to beat.
    • I appreciated how TA was smart enough to spawn the enemies all apart from each other, so winning initiative and a good control spell couldn't just auto-win the fights. It takes more creative & adaptive tactics -- and I appreciated that in a higher-level campaign, as that should expect more out of you.
  • Palace of Ice area of the game
    • Like CotM final stretch, this area doesn't allow for long rests. However, unlike CotM, you actually have several boss fights in the area. As your martials ideally all have +3 weapons at this point, the debuffs essentially make your "to-hit" chance like a normal weapon. The saving throw debuffs is what hurts the most here, and is why having a Paladin with high CHA IMO is critical.
    • 7 fights total, 3 of them have bosses; all battles allow you to short-rest between them. The 4 non-boss fights unfortunately have extra ally/allies assisting you, which gives you free meat shields to deal with those enemies without costing valuable resources. I imagine on lower difficulties, they might actually be effective enough to defeat some of the enemies for you as well.
• Story
  • Honestly about the same overall as the CotM campaign -- except less crazy at the end.
    • You start with someone asking you to look into a mystery, which turns into a multi-part fetch quest (people & a legendary weapon instead of just gems this time), teleport to a multi-part final battle without the ability to long rest once you go there, and some ok cutscenes at the end.
    • I was a little disappointed our whole party didn't get stuck at the end of the campaign. From the dialogue of the other NPC's prior to going to the Palace of Ice, it felt like the others didn't want to go with us because they didn't want to get stuck -- and would give a more compelling reason for Violet to more earnestly continue her research. At least in the last campaign, there was a compelling reason why our powerful allies wouldn't go with us; this time, much less so.
    • I honestly didn't search around for optional side-quests, as I was at max-level before going to the final clan area of main quests, and had the gold I wanted for the stuff at the vendors I wanted to buy. In my next run, I'll look to see if there are more side-quests to take.
  • As to the future of Solasta
    • TA is hinting that Violet's research would be what starts the crisis that would kick-off Solasta 2 -- her pursuing Exonaika's teleportation research and figuring out how to make a 9th level gate spell (IMO what is depicted at the end of both CotM & PoI). The introduction of the Tirmarian gods to Solasta fundamentally changed magic in the realm, and her opening other realms could be the excuse they need to change systems & looks for the game -- should they decide to pursue a Solasta 2.
    • We know that TA is still undecided between making a Solasta 2, or just doing an entirely different strategy game in a different world. Due to WotC working on their own virtual tabletop with the OneD&D system (D&D 5.5e, or whatever you want to call it), I don't see it as enticing for TA to adapt that new ruleset. Continuing the current 5e ruleset to a new game would also be tricky, betting on the new system being less popular vs the current 5e one.
    • IMO the most likely system Tactical Adventures would use would be Pathfinder 2e. Owlcat Games are focused on Warhammer right now, and there is a desire for people to play a truly adapted PF2e game (Kingermaker & WotR games cover the PF1e & PF1e mythic rulesets). Could they use other ones? For sure -- and I'd buy whatever they make -- but that's just the best guess I have right now.

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Other updates

• See my personal post on the important patch note changes with this DLC launch.
  • Many crafting recipes have changed.
    • Do not rely on wiki's for crafting materials for a while. We all need to look over the recipes again in-game and update those locations.
    • Crafting is overall faster, but will require someone actually talented enough to craft (a high INT character with appropriate proficiencies)
  • Many factions have different items & pricings for stuff now
    • Again, do not rely on wiki's nor past campaign knowledge for advice here. The +STR items require more faction reputation vs the past & require MUCH MORE GOLD than before.
  • Subtle spell metamagic now available for sorcerers.
    • Subtle spell is my favorite metamagic (careful is #2), so it is exciting to see that addition now. When I do the sorcerer metamagic post, I'll go into greater detail about why careful & subtle spell are both really good.
  • Many items no longer require attunement. Most important one? Ring of Darkvision.

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Anyways, that's my initial impressions for now. After I get my thoughts finalized for all of the spells & subclasses, I'll start re-releasing all of the tier list posts for feats, spells, & subclasses again. Are there things I missed? Let me know below!

In my most recent DnD campaign I included a new race known as the caminites), their main feature is the capability of getting traits by interacting with other creatures, for example, eating a bat and gaining their blindsight or eating an ogre and gaining their regeneration.
The party has a caminite and there are a few npcs scattered about but I am struggling to decide what kind of creatures could give them interesting traits to use so I've decided to ask for help here, any kind of traits are welcome, combat, utility and even things that are just funny

For those regen fanatics like me, trying to find all forms of passive healing. Look no further (this is likely only like quarter the crap in dnd)
Regens:
Spells:
Regenerate (Once per turn 1 hp)
Aura of vitality (2d6 Bonus action)
Healing spirit (Radius you have to stay in)
Soul cage (2d8 Bonus action)
Temple of the gods (" hit points from a spell of 1st level or higher, the creature regains additional hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 hit point).")
Items:
Very rare: Ring of Regen (1d6 once every 10 minutes)
Legendary: Ioun stone of Regeneration (15 hit points once a hour)
Artifact: Hand of Vecna (1d10 every turn)
Artifact: Major benefical (1d6 every turn)
Class features:
Champion Fighter:
"At 18th level, you attain the pinnacle of resilience in battle. At the start of each of your turns, you regain hit points equal to 5 + your Constitution modifier if you have no more than half of your hit points left. You don't gain this benefit if you have 0 hit points."
Lycan Blood Hunter:
"At 11th level, you learn to unleash and control more of the beast within. You can use your Hybrid Transformation feature twice, regaining all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest. Your hybrid form also gains the following additional benefit.
Lycan Regeneration. At the start of each of your turns when you have at least 1 hit point but fewer hit points than half your hit point maximum, you gain hit points equal to 1 + your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1). If you are in hybrid form, you gain these hit points before you must make the saving throw for your bloodlust."
Redemption Paladin:
Starting at 15th level, a holy presence mends your wounds in combat. You regain hit points equal to 1d6 + half your paladin level if you end your turn in combat with fewer than half of your hit points remaining and you aren’t incapacitated.
Armorer Artificer:
Defensive Field. As a bonus action, you can gain temporary hit points equal to your level in this class, replacing any temporary hit points you already have. You lose these temporary hit points if you doff the armor. You can use this bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Feats:
Dwarven Fortitude:
You have the blood of dwarf heroes flowing through your veins. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Whenever you take the Dodge action in combat, you can spend one Hit Die to heal yourself. Roll the die, add your Constitution modifier, and regain a number of hit points equal to the total (minimum of 1).
Balance ideas for regeneration:
Cap the healing at half health and can't revive player
You cannot be healed by allies, relying on your passive
Make it a very limited pool (Like night did for me with my paladin class)
Make it consume an action (bonus/reaction/ maybe legendary action for boss)
Make it consume a resource (Hit dice/Channel Divinity/ Wild shape/ Etc.)\
Charges
Temp hp (gross not the same)
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(Sorry for the bad formatting)

"For too long, we feared the skies above us." The silent crowd listened in anticipation, hanging off the pause the elven woman in a green suit projected. The grand palace hall, decorated with precious jewels embroided into the walls, echoed the words of the elf. "We were not fit to take on such great feats. Our people were too weak, too frail, too untrusting in their own abilities to even consider doing the tasks that only legendary heroes could do." Another pause left the crowd slightly dejected, until the elf in green spoke up once more. "That changes today, my friends. I am Lexi Igori Cudomandi, and I am here to give you all the technology you need to slay a dragon."
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Welcome Dragons, to the realm of Fayedon! Hi! I hope my hook got your attention. I'm looking to run a dnd 5e game where you get to play as dragons. Yep, that's right, you're going to be the dragons. Thousands of years ago, Tiamat ruined the world. She had a great battle with Bahamut, who in the end was slain by the dragon goddess of evil. Fortunately, with the damage Bahamut had done to her, mankind was able to force her into a slumber and seal her away. Now she rests, slowly regenerating and regaining her strength, to bring chaos to the world once more. One thousand years has passed since then, and Tiamat is beginning to wake. Fortunately for mankind, in the past milennia, the realm's greatest magicians and artificers have begun developing a new type of artificial magic. Dragon Slaying magic. Magic that is harmless to all except those born of Tiamat and Bahamut. It burns their skin, weakens their powers, and leaves them ripe to be killed. Eight beacons containing this magic have been set up all across the world, reaching the corners of the realm. This artificial magic forces dragons into a weakened state where they cannot use their powers, and they become as easy to kill as a civillian. You will become your own dragon hiding in humanoid form, and with your fellow kin, you aim to take down these beacons. You will show mankind that there is a difference between metallic and chromatic dragons, and you will prove that by ending Tiamat once and for all. Hi, I'm Kale! I've been a dnd player for years now, and I'm trying my hand at DMing. I've ran a few campaigns short term, and I'm hoping to keep this one going for a while! I like to keep a lot of thigns homebrew too, which I'll discuss during our session 0. However, we'll still be playing along the basis guideline of DND 5e. If you're interested in joining, fill out this form! If you have any questions, ask away in the comments and I will do my best getting back to you.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOofFZHp9uQVQzoSO0jBX-RZ\_yeDiTmSnyUQzCHEfYLw9Byg/viewform?usp=sf\_link

TL;DR at bottom.
In 5e, the mechanics of the class comes directly from the class fantasy, that's why paladins couldn't punch-smite, it's why Druids cannot wear metal armour, and it's why Warlocks didn't have "Spellcasting" it had "Pact Magic".
We are now at a great precipice of change for 5e, and with it, the Warlock class needs to change as well. What they currently have is not working for them. 'They are broken', some say, and must be fixed.
Charges have been levied from the Coast onto "Pact magic" on accounts of spell slot hoarding disorder of the highest degree. A bit of uniqueness snuffed out in the endless pursuit for balance. It's worth it, right? Balanced means fun and fun means good, therefore balance is good... right?
This is not the stance I am taking. I have read numerous Warlock fixes, have played a pair of warlock characters, and have GM'd for some in turn. I have found a way to make Warlocks better, and it's by following their class fantasy.
A semi-brief summary of the class fantasy of the warlock, that I hope is the least controversial part of this post:
Warlocks have gotten magical power by a more powerful entity through indiscriminate means, most often through making a formal deal with a more powerful entity. Though sometimes either part is unaware of this connection (such as a scholar who foolishly read an ancient incantation aloud. Or a great unknowable Old One that has had wool pulled over their eyes (metaphorically) and a smidge of their power siphoned off by a cunning mortal. A key factor is how tantalizing this power is, even otherwise wise individuals can be suckered into becoming a warlock, with the downside only making itself known after the contact is signed. Another piece of the Warlock pie is the ease of availability. It wouldn't be so tempting if only a few people can become them! The path of the warlock is open to anyone if they know where to look.
My suggestion of how to make Warlocks better is simple, don't "fix" them. Make them broken.
While I would keep Pact magic, I'd make a few changes. They gain one more slot than they currently do (so at level 1 they have two, at level 2 they have three, at level 11 they have four, and so on) but still only regenerate the same number they do now (so they still only restore one slot on a short rest at level 1). The real kicker? Their slot level starts at 2nd. Right at first level, Warlocks can cast 2 second level spells, that means 2 invisibilities, or 2 hold persons! "Why would you ever go with wizard, who needs to get to 3rd level to do the same?" I hear you ask. That's exactly the point. If on paper the warlock is "balanced" with the other classes, it strictly goes against the ethos of the warlock class fantasy! Wizards should be jealous. Heck, even the wizard's player should be jealous. 'my character studied for 20 years, your character just... knew an archfey?". This is a feature, not a bug. Reading through the base class, and even seeing it in play will of course, encourage dipping in warlock. Everyone could use an extra two 2nd level spell slots, (especially ones that come back on a short rest) and thankfully everyone can...
Unlike every other class in 5e, the Warlock has no ability score requirements for multiclassing, it accepts even the least charismatic barbarian into their ranks. It even offers a little incentive: your first level of warlock is always 8 plus Con, to allow for the martial characters to not be too discouraged.
I hear what you're saying it seems too good to be true... and that's because it is. Players will see no catch, no gotcha in the base class, just beneficial feature after beneficial feature (I'm thinking the bones of the non Pact Magic side of the class will stay the same, maybe a touch better in some cases). However, it is their subclass which is where the twist lies.
Warlocks make their choice of patron at first level (the only logical place for it, really). But unlike other subclasses, the first feature they get is debilitating. You can't get power for nothing, and this is the terrible cost Warlocks pay to be the most powerful caster in the game. Each Patron would have a unique spin on the price. (Though at higher levels the subclass grants beneficial features as usual.)
Some examples are as follows, taken from the options in the PHB:
The Fiend has exclusive rights to your soul, causing all resurrection magic (except for Wish) to fail, and you die after 1 failed saving throw instead of 3.
The Archfey has taken all your Attunement slots.
The Great Old One has taken a toll upon your physical or mental health. Choose Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma, that stat decreases to 4.
This would open up an interesting design space for making new Patrons, and a fun way for players to attempt to get power without paying the price, such as multiclassing into moon druid to take the GOO pact as they are less reliant on statistics, or having a monk take the Archfey pact as they have less need for magical items. These behaviors should be encouraged as attempting to gain the power without the downside is what Warlocks are all about.
In conclusion, Warlocks need to be made better. Their class fantasy demands it, but they also need a heavy cost for this power. Currently there is no avenue for there to be any sort of drawback to having a patron, which removes a large part of the warlock identity. Due to OD&D, it's clear that the Warlock is probably going to be changed. I suggest that more emphasis should be given to making the Warlock more like a Warlock, than by making the Warlock more like other classes to appease the "Balance".
TL;DR: Becoming a warlock is supposed to be tempting, both in-game and out of game. Currently it is not tempting as it is balanced with the other classes (or even underpowered). I suggest making them overpowered with a heavy downside, in the hopes that it encourages behavior that Warlocks are supposed to represent: Seeking forbidden power, with no regards for the consequences, and trying to shirk those consequences when they do appear.
¹ I know these probably are not all of equal power. I haven't tested how they all act in a standard 5e game, but it's more so the concept that I'm showcasing, not exactly that each are the same power level.

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Mender_(5e_Class))
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Class Features

As a Mender you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per Mender level Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + Constitution modifier per Mender level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor Weapons: Simple weapons Tools: Herbalism kit, Doctor's Tools) Saving Throws: Constitution, Wisdom Skills: Choose three from animal handling, Arcana, History, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Persuasion, and Religion
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a quarterstaff or (b) any simple weapon
• (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) a shortbow and quiver with 20 arrows
• (a) Explorer's Pack or (b) Priest's Pack
• leather armor, doctor's kit
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 3d4 x10 gp in funds.

Table: The Mender

LevelProficiency BonusFeaturesLife Points1st+2Life Force#Life_Force), Healing Burst#Healing_Burst), Doctor's Knowledge#Doctor.27s_Knowledge)42nd+2Far Burst#Far_Burst), Mender's Rebuke#Mender.27s_Rebuke)43rd+2Path of Virtue#Path_of_Virtue), Calming Burst#Calming_Burst)64th+2Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)65th+3Healing Surge#Healing_Surge), Return from Death#Return_from_Death)146th+3Path of Virtue Feature#Path_of_Virtue)147th+3Mender's Eyes#Mender.27s_Eyes)178th+3Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)179th+4Holy Shield#Holy_Shield)2710th+4The Power of Medicine#The_Power_of_Medicine)2711th+4Path of Virtue Feature#Path_of_Virtue)3212th+4Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)3213th+5Life Spring#Life_Spring)3814th+5Avatar of Life#Avatar_of_Life)3815th+5Hope Springs Eternal#Hope_Springs_Eternal)4416th+5Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)4417th+6Path of Virtue Feature#Path_of_Virtue)5718th+6Source of Life#Source_of_Life)5719th+6Ability Score Improvement#Ability_Score_Improvement)6420th+6True Resurrection#True_Resurrection)64

Doctor's Knowledge

At 1st Level, you have learned the very important techniques of a doctor. Your Doctor's kit can be used as a Healer's kit with unlimited uses. If you lose your Doctor's kit, you can make a new one by obtaining a Healer's kit with at least 5 uses left. Then it will take 2 hours and 10 gold pieces to convert the Healer's kit into a Doctor's kit.
In addition, you have proficiency in Medicine and you can double your proficiency bonus for checks made with Medicine.

Life Force

A mender is filled with positive energy. This energy is represented by your life points, which fuel your other class features.
Life Points
You have a pool of life force that you can channel into others. The energy that you can access in this way is represented by a number of life points. You have a number of life points equal to the amount shown on the Life Points column on the mender table.
You can spend these points to fuel your life force features. You start knowing one such feature: Healing Burst. You learn more life force features as you gain levels in this class. The maximum number of life points you can spend at a time is equal to your Mender level.
You regain all life points when you meditate for one minute per life point regained at the end of a long rest.
Healing Burst
The primary use of your life points is a Healing Burst. As an action, you can spend up to your maximum number of life points to touch a creature and cause them to regain hit points equal to 1d8 x the number of life points spent. Only life points spent in this way count for this effect.
If you target an undead with this feature, it instead takes an amount of radiant damage equal to the amount of healing that would have been done. An unwilling target may make a Dexterity saving throw with a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom Modifier to move out of the way before your energy reaches them.
Quick Burst
You can spend 1 additional life point to use your Healing Burst as a Bonus Action, rather than as an action.
At 11th level, you can use quick burst without spending additional points.

Far Burst

Beginning at 2nd level, you can use your Healing Burst from a distance. When unleashing a Healing Burst, the mender may spend an additional life point (up to the normal maximum). If they do, the range of the burst is increased to 30 feet.

Mender's Rebuke

Also at 2nd level, whenever you use your Healing Burst to restore a creature's hit point, you can use a reaction to force a hostile creature within 5 feet of your target to make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier). On a failed save, that creature takes radiant damage equal to the amount of hit points you restored on the target and is pushed 10 feet back, or half as much on a success and is not pushed.

Calming Burst

Also at 3rd level, you can channel calm emotions through your Healing Burst by spending an additional life point. If you choose to do so, the target creature may make a saving throw against one effect that requires an Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma save to resist that is affecting them, ending the effect on a success.

Path of Virtue

At 3rd level, you chose a path of virtue, focusing your healing energy to a particular form of use. Choose between Preventative, Restorative, Weakening, Supportive, Combative or Medicinal, all detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 11th, and 17th level.
Mending Aura
A constant aura of life emanates from your body. Any friendly creature that is reduced to 0 hit points while within 10 feet of you is automatically stabilized.
In addition, your chosen path of virtue grants additional benefits to your mending aura. Benefits that grant bonus to saving throws are not cumulative with the bonuses granted by paladin auras or other menders auras.

Ability Score Increase

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Healing Surge

At 5th level, whenever you spend Life Points to restore hit points to a creature, a surge of life overtaken his body. At the start of its turn, that creature can take one of the following actions as a bonus action: Dash, Dodge, Disengage or make a single attack with a weapon.

Return from Death

At 5th level, you learn how to restore someone's ejected life energy back into their body. As an action, you can spend 5 life points to touch a creature that has died in the last minute. That creature returns to life with an amount of health as though you had used your Healing Burst on them with 3 life points. This ability can't return to life a creature that has died of old age, nor can it restore any missing body parts, though it can reattach any that are within 10 feet of the body.
If you use this ability on a creature that has been dead for longer than one minute, nothing happens. However, the next time you use this ability on the same creature, it is treated as though it had died one week earlier.

Mender's Eyes

At 7th level, you can see the life force of others simply by looking at their physical form. Using a bonus action, you can look at a creature and determine what its current and maximum hit points are, as well as see any temporary hit points it might have.
In addition, you can also see how far gone the fallen are. When looking at any part of a corpse, you can see how long the creature has been dead and what the cause of death was.
This feature has no effect on undead or constructs.

Holy Shield

At 9th level, your love of your companions motivates you to protect them further. Whenever you use your Healing Burst on a creature, a shield made out of positive energy surrounds your target, granting it a +2 bonus to its AC until the end of your next turn.
In addition, you can spend 2 life points to cast shield of faith, without spending spell slots.

Medical Treatment

At 10th Level, whenever a creature rolls hit dice to restore hit points during a short rest, you can use your doctor's tools to increase the amount of hit points regained by 1d4 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier. If the creature is affected by a disease or poison, their negative effects end.

Life Spring

At 13th level, you have reached a point where even when you feel depleted, you have more energy in you. You may spend one minute in meditation to regain half your Mender level in life points. Once you have done this, you cannot regain life points in the same manner until you have finished a long rest.

Avatar of Life

At 14th level, you have gained a mastery of life even in its most fickle moments. If you're reduced to 0 hit points, you may immediately forfeit all of your death saving throws to have your spirit take on the form of an Avatar of Health. You may also use an action to enter this form. While in this form, your spirit retains your life points and Mender features. You cannot move away from your body, nor can you make attacks. You can target your own body with your Return from Death ability while in this form, and you may also use your Life Spring ability as a bonus action instead of taking the normal time. At the end of each of your turns and whenever your body takes damage, you lose 3 life points. If you are ever reduced to 0 life points while in this form, your spirit detaches from your body and you can no longer use your Mender features until you are brought back to life.
Once you use this ability, you can't do it again until you finish a long rest.

Hope Springs Eternal

At 15th level, when you roll initiative and have no life points remaining, you regain 7 life points.

Source of Life

When you reach the 18th level, your mending aura grows in power. The aura radius increases to 30 feet.
In addition, whenever an ally start its turn within the aura radius, that creature regain a number of hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1), as long as that creature is below half its maximum hit points.

True Resurrection

At 20th level, your magic powers have reached their peak. You can cast the spell True Resurrection once, being unable to do so again until you complete a long rest.

Combative Virtue

Menders who follow the combative virtue heal their allies while in the heat of the combat, throwing themselves in harms way to save fallen companions, bringing them back from the grasp of death.
Combat Ready
Starting at 3rd level, you have been trained in the art of war. You gain proficiency with medium armor, martial weapons and shields.
In addition, while you have at least 1 life point, you can add your Wisdom, rather than your Strength or Dexterity, to your attacks and damage rolls with weapons you are proficient with.
Aura of Battle
At 3rd level, you shed an aura that emboldens and empowers your allies. When a creature inside the aura causes or takes damage, you can use your reaction to increase or reduce the damage by 1d8.
Extra Attack
At 6th level, you can attack twice, rather than once, when you take the Attack action on your turn.
In addition, you can replace one of these attacks for one use of Healing Burst.
Battle Mender
At 11th level, you can heal your allies as you strike down your foes. Whenever you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can use your Healing Burst, without using an Action.
Anger of the Healer
At 17th level, all the anger that is bottled up inside you now explodes out in the form of the creature made out of pure positive energy. This construct of light has the statistics of any creature of your choice with a CR of 6 or lower, but it is a construct, instead of its original type. Any damage caused by that creature is radiant damage, rather than the normal type of damage.
The creature acts on its own turn, rolling initiative as normal. It is friendly to your allies and follows your commands, and is also able to understand any languages you speak.
The creature lasts for 1 minute, disappearing after that. Once you use this ability, you can't do it again until you finish a long rest.

Supportive Virtue

Followers of the supportive virtue path are driven to empower their allies, by infusing them with life.
Empowered Cantrips
Also at 3rd level, you learn the cantrips guidance and resistance. When you cast these cantrips, the die rolled for their effects becomes a d6, instead of a d4.
Empowering Aura
At 3rd Level, any friendly creatures within your Mender's Aura area can add your Wisdom modifier to their Strength, Dexterity and Constitution checks and saves.
Courageous
At 6th level, you have gained the ability to empower your allies with courageous perseverance. As a bonus action, choose one friendly creature within 10 feet of you. The target gains temporary hit points equal to your mender level + your Wisdom modifier.
In addition, the creature gain Advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition while it has these temporary hit points.
You can have only one creature under the effects of Courageous at any given time. You can't use this ability again while a creature has the temporary hit points granted by this ability.
Perfect Courage
At 11th level, your courage ability gives absolute bravery to your allies. The target of your courage ability becomes immune to the frightened condition. If the target of the ability is currently frightened, the condition is suspended while it has the temporary hit points.
Aura of Might
At 17th level, any friendly creature that start its turn inside your Mender's Aura gain a bonus to their damage rolls equal to your Wisdom modifier until the end of its turn.

Weakening Virtue

Weakeners use their powers to take away powers from the enemies
Weakening Blast
At 3rd Level, you can use your Action to shoot a blast of weakness at an enemy you can see. That enemy rolls a d4 and subtracts the result from the next ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes. The die rolled increases to a d6 at 11th level.
Weakening Aura
Also at 3rd Level, any hostile creature inside your mender's aura has a disadvantage equal to your Wisdom modifier to their Strength, Dexterity and Constitution checks and saves.
Empowering the Weak
At 6th Level, when there is an ally within 30 feet of you who would have Disadvantage on an Ability check, Saving throw, or Attack roll, you can use your reaction to give them Advantage on the roll instead.
You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1 use), and regain your uses of it after completing a long rest.
Life Drain
At 11th Level, you gain the ability to drain the vitality from your foes. When you use your weakening blast against an enemy, you can use a bonus action to also cause 3d10 necrotic damage to force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw, or take 3d10 necrotic damage on a failed save.
When you cuse this damage to the target, you gain temporary hit points equal to half the necrotic damage dealt.
Rending Aura
At 17th Level, any hostile creature inside the mender's aura has their AC reduced by your Wisdom modifier.

Preventative Virtue

Followers of the preventative virtue put their emphasis in stopping their allies from getting harmed.
Aura of Protection
Starting at 3rd level, any friendly creature that start its turn inside your Mender's Aura gain temporary hit points equal to your Wisdom modifier. They lose the temporary hit points after leaving the aura.
Aura of Resistance
Starting at 6th level, any friendly creature inside your aura area gain a bonus to their saving throws equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Protective Burst
When you reach the 11th level, whenever you use Healing Burst on a creature, until the start of your next turn, any damage taken by that creature is reduced by your Mender's level.
Shielding Aura
Finally at 17th level, any friendly creature inside your mender's aura is considered to have half cover against creatures outside the aura.

Restorative Virtue

Mender's from the restorative aura are the true menders, completely focused on restoring the vitality and health of their allies.
Aura of Restoration
At 3rd level, any friendly creature that start its turn inside your aura while affected by a harmful spell, effect or condition that allows for a save to end the effect can instantly use its reaction to make another save, adding your Wisdom modifier to the result.
Heal Energy
At 6th level, you can harness the healing energy from the plane of positive energy. You have a pool of healing power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool, you can restore a total number of hit points equal to your mender level x 5.
You can use the pool in the following manners:
Mend Wounds. As an action, you can touch a creature and draw power from the pool to restore a number of hit points to that creature, up to the maximum amount remaining in your pool.Restore. You can expend 5 hit points from your pool of healing to cast lesser restoration, without spending spell slots.Heal Energy Rebuke
At 11th level, the healing energy can also harm your enemies at the same time it restore the vitality on your friends. Whenever you spend heal energy, any hostile creature within 5 feet of the target of the chosen effect takes radiant damage equal to the amount of heal energy spent.
Heal Energy Regeneration
At 17th Level, you have become so skilled at using Heal Energy that you can now regenerate it. When you have no Heal Energy left, you regenerate an amount of Heal Energy equal to your Wisdom Modifier at the start of your turn while in combat.

See Their Red-Cloaks on Dump Stat

 
The Red Wizards of Thay have been thrust back into the limelight with the release of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023). But who are these wizards? We know they make the bold fashion choice of only wearing red, all seem to suffer from hair loss, and can cast spells like nobody’s business. To find out where they came from, what they are all about, and what they are doing now, follow us down the rabbit hole as we dive into the Red Wizards of Thay.
 

1e - Red Wizards of Thay

Zulkir Szass Tam
Delhumide
24th level Magic-User, School of Necromancy, Red Wizard of Thay
NE Myrkul
Lich Male
from Dreams of the Red Wizard (1988)

In the Forgotten Realms: Campaign Setting (1987) and Dreams of the Red Wizard (1988), the Red Wizards of Thay are introduced to the world of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The two books are mainly concerned with the region of Thay, but you can only talk about Thay if you also talk about the Red Wizards. The Red Wizards liberated Thay from Mulhorand, set up the government, and plunged Thay into countless ill-advised attacks that always ended in failure. There isn’t a ton of information, but it serves as a fairly good primer for what is to come.
 

2e - Red Wizards of Thay

Zulkir Szass Tam
(Lich Male Necromancer 29)
Str 11; Dex 14; Con 0; Int 19; Wis 16; Cha 18
Armor Class: 0
Move: 6
Hit Points: 64
Number of Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d10 + paralysis or by spell
THAC0: 9
Alignment: NE
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Defenses: + 1 or better magical weapon to hit; immune to charm, sleep, enfeeblement, polymorph, cold, electricity, insanity, and death spells.
Special Weakness: Can be turned by priest.
Weapon Proficiencies: Dagger, staff, whip
Magical Items: Many (see below)
Age: 264, Ht: 60, Wt: 98 lbs. Hair: Black, Eyes: Gray
Spells: 10/10/10/10/9/9/9/9/9 (includes bonus spells)
from Spellbound (1995)

The Red Wizards of Thay first appear in Forgotten Realms Adventures (1990). In the early days of the campaign setting, the Red Wizards wielded massive power, way more than their modern-day counterparts do now. This power was derived from a powerful unnamed artifact. Unfortunately for our red-cloaked mages, unknown forces destroyed, turned off, or stole the artifact during the Godswar. Regardless of what happened to the artifact, it stripped the Red Wizards of their near-godlike magical powers when its power ceased.
Thay is a breakaway principality of Mulhorand, and the wizards in charge wanted only to make their newly independent country the most powerful in the world, who wouldn't in their situation? The Red Wizards are a cabal of powerful wizards, described here as an evil magocracy from across the Sea of Fallen Stars. Thay is a slaver nation, and the government is run by evil wizards. What could go wrong? Well, let's just say that very little gets done, there is little to no cooperation between the wizards, and each one is more interested in advancing their own agenda than working towards a common goal. Sadly, sometimes, fantasy is the same as reality.
The Red Wizards are arrogant and dismissive and have no qualms about killing you or anyone else that gets in their way. This attitude has prevented them from becoming the powerful nation they want to be, as it applies to friends, foes, and their fellow Red Wizards. You'd think that when you have a country filled with super-powerful wizards, they could easily steamroll across the land, conquering anyone who stands in their way. Unfortunately, each wizard truly believes they are the smartest of the bunch, which makes working together nearly impossible. In fact, the Red Wizards would rather kill one another than give up their plans for world domination, for they truly believe everyone else's ideas are inferior and doomed to fail.
In the sourcebook Old Empires (1990), we are provided with a bit of backstory about the land of Thay. Turns out the Red Wizards tried twice to break away from Mulhorand. A thousand years before their successful rebellion, the archmage Thayd and an army of powerful wizards attempted to overthrow the god-kings that ruled Mulhorand. They failed but, in doing so, weakened Mulhorand so much that they were defeated by orcs in the Orgate Wars in -1076 DR. Nearly two thousand years later, the Red Wizards gained independence from Mulhorand at the Battle of Thazalhar in 922 DR.
New and updated information about The Red Wizards can be located in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1993). As usual, before we can talk about the vilest bad guys in the Forgotten Realms, we can now provide you, dear reader, with a much more detailed description of precisely where Thay is located. Tucked between Aglarond and Thesk in the west, Thay is also surrounded by Rashemen in the north, the Inner Sea in the south, Sunrise Mountains, and Endless Waste in the east. It is a magic land filled with exotic items and people who wield mighty power within its borders. It is still a magic-based society, and at the top of the food chain are those evil magic spellcasters, the Red Wizards.
Thay is ruled by several zulkirs, and all of these leaders are chosen from the ranks of the Red Wizards. Under the zulkirs is the noble class of Thay. These tharchions and tharchionesses rule the eight provinces in Thay, doing the bidding of the zulkir under which they serve. The only zulkir that we know anything about is Zulkir Szass Tam. We'll discuss him in a little bit but just know that he's not the friendliest fellow you'll ever meet.
The Red Wizards rule Thay but in a disjointed and chaotic manner. Those that have left Thay and travel throughout the world of Toril act as spies for Thay. Of course, these Red Wizards make the worst spies ever, for the evil spellcasters are arrogant, self-centered jerks who think they know better than everyone else, including their fellow Red Wizards. You can never know if a Red Wizard is working with the best interests of Thay, themselves, or merely to dishonor a fellow Red Wizard who they are pissed at… or maybe all of the above.
Small cabals of Red Wizards have been known to work together, but these alliances are short-lived. Often, a group of Red Wizards will put forth an invasion plan, only to see their plans derailed when they start to squabble amongst themselves, and by squabble, we mean kill one another. It's one of the reasons no one knows how many Red Wizards there are. By this point, it should seem clear that the Red Wizards could have had an actual shot at ruling the Forgotten Realms setting if they could get over their petty squabbles and believe in something greater than themselves. But alas, these paranoid crimson mages have never been able to get their act together, so they have to settle for the province of Thay while dreaming of conquering the world.
There are a few other interesting bits of information scattered throughout the text. Regardless of where or how they are discussed, it is always in the context of them being one of the main evil forces in Faerun. Badge Heraldry was a big thing in the Forgotten Realms, and the Red Wizards of Thay's gold-touched flame was feared throughout the lands. Religion is secondary to the Red Wizardry, but that doesn't mean they don't pray to some evil god. The lucky deity is Cyric, a Greater Power of Death, Murder, & Lies. Also known as the Prince of Lies, it is the god of plotting and scheming, who came into existence after devouring the powers of three elder evil gods. Seems like the perfect god for the Red Wizards to pray to.
Before we dive into the next primary sourcebook on the Red Wizards, there are a few mentions in more obscure books we'd be remiss if we didn't mention. In Volo's Guide to the Dalelands (1993), there is the magic item, The Crown of Dracandros, an object of immense power unique to the Red Wizards. It's not a crown exactly, but rather a large electrum circlet one wears around their waist, which, when activated, turns slowly as it floats in midair, chiming softly as tiny motes of light play about it. It can detect invisibility and detect magic constantly and has a 1 in 6 chance of casting one of twelve spells, including animate dead, flaming sphere, fireball, and web; all at max level. In the book The Code of the Harpers (1993), we are introduced to the Harpers, a group of bards and rangers who aim to root out and eliminate all evil in Toril. On the top of their list are the Red Wizards. In Pages from the Mages (1995), the Red Wizards are credited with creating the fire gate spell, which allows the caster to teleport themselves via a bonfire. They are also credited for the murder of Agannazar, who is said to have died when they laid waste to the School of Wizardry at Neverwinter.
One of our last sourcebooks, Spellbound (1995), provides us with our next trove of information on the Red Wizards. It's a book on the realms of Thay, Aglarons, and Rashemen, so of course, the Red Wizards feature prominently in the chapters about Thay. Citizens of Thay are most commonly from the Mulan or Rashemi, and custom dictates that only those of Mulan heritage become a Red Wizard apprentice. This custom is often ignored if someone shows enough magical aptitude and is met with indifference by other Wizards. One thing the Red Wizards do care about is their outfits. If you want to make a fashion statement and where red robes, you can expect to meet a swift and painful death.
We learn more about the governing system through which the Red Wizards rule Thay. There are eleven provinces within Thay and eight zulkirs that rule over them. Why eight instead of eleven? Because they are the most powerful wizard from each school of magic. Once installed, they have the position for life, so as you can imagine, the competition for the role is extremely fierce. Life may not be the proper term since the most powerful zulkir is the lich, Szass Tam. The actual law states that a zulkir can only be removed if they are completely obliterated, beyond hope of resurrection or existence as a member of the undead.
Speaking of Szass Tam, you can find him and the other seven Zulkir's stat blocks in the back of the book. Szass Tam is the most powerful of all the zulkirs and has been attempting to unify the ever-warring wizards under his rule. When you live for over 200 years, you get sick of listening to the constant bickering and seeing every single plan for world domination fail because you can't get your shit together. To consolidate power, Tam has pulled wizards from the two factions within Red Wizard society; Imperialists and the Researchers. The Imperialists want to rule the world while the isolationist Researchers wish to stay safely behind the country's walls and work on their spells. Tam's plans for one lich rule forced the other Zulkirs to choose whether to be with him, against him, or to play Switzerland and stay neutral in all upcoming internal conflicts.
We learn about the Faerun's other big bad group of evil-doers in Cult of the Dragon (1998). Why do we bring this up? Because every group of bad guys wants to be the only bad guy in town, putting the cult and the Red Wizards at odds. We guess them sharing Toril is out of the question.
 

3e - Red Wizards of Thay

Szass Tam
Male Lich Necromancer 10/Red Wizard 17/Archmage 2
Medium-Size Undead
Hit Dice: 29d12+25; hp 211
Initiative: +2
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 31, touch 16, flat-footed 29
Immunities: Immune to cold, electricity, polymorph, and mind-affecting attacks.
Attacks/Damage: +17/+12 melee (1d6+2, staff of power) or +15 melee (1d8+5 plus paralysis, lich touch) or +17/+12 ranged touch (by spell)
Space/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Paralyzing touch, fear aura
Special Qualities: Arcane reach, spell power +2, immunities, turn resistance +8, DR 15/+1, Specialist defense (Necromancy) +4, spell power (Necromancy) +8, circle leader, Scribe Tattoo, great circle leader, undead traits
Saves: Fort +12, Ref +14, Will +25
Abilities: Str 11, Dex 14, Con —, Int 22, Wis 20, Cha 20
Skills: Alchemy +26, Concentration +25, Craft (gemcutting) + 16, Diplomacy +7, Heal +9, Hide +10, Intimidate + 11, Knowledge (arcana) +26, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +11, Knowledge (Thayan history) +16, Knowledge (religion) +11, Listen +15, Move Silently +10, Profession (herbalist) +9, Profession (sailor) +9, Scry +26, Search +20, Sense Motive +13, Spellcraft +32, Spot + 15, Swim +2, Wilderness Lore +7
Feats: Craft Staff, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, Improved Spell Capacity (10th), Improved Spell Capacity (11th), Increased Turn Resistance, Maximize Spell, Mind Over Body, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Signature Spell (animate dead), Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spell Focus (Evocation), Spell Focus (Necromancy), Spell Mastery (animate dead, cone of cold, control undead, magic missile, teleport), Tattoo Focus (Necromancy)
Challenge Rating: 31
Alignment: Neutral evil
Advancement: 27–52 HD (Medium-size)
Wizard Spells Per Day: 5/7/7/6/6/6/6/3/5/5/1/1; base DC 18 + spell level, 20 + spell level for Evocation, 31 + spell level for Necromancy. Caster level 29th.
Equipment: Staff of power, bracers of armor +10, ring of three wishes, hand of glory, a ring of spell storing, a +2 ring of protection, a wand of ray of enfeeblement (heightened to 4th level), and a darkskull.
from the Epic Level Handbook (2002)

When we first look at the Red Wizard in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2001), we are presented with much of the same lore and background of both the wizards and Thay. By now, we are sure you are wondering what it may be like to play an evil wizard cloaked in all red and on the path to world domination. Today is your lucky day because now you can not only think about it but play a Red Wizard too!
Presented as a prestige class, the Red Wizard is the way to go if you want to play a self-centered, arrogant spellcaster of immense power. You’ll need to start by obtaining the Tattoo focus so that you can bear the tattoo of Red Wizards everywhere. Not only does this give you the ability to become a Red Wizard, but you get a +1 to all saving throws against spells from your specialized school of magic and a +1 bonus on caster-level checks to beat a creature’s spell resistance when casting spells from that school.
The Red Wizard prestige class also comes with a range of abilities, mostly centered around making you a spell-casting force to be reckoned with. The Red Wizard’s class skills include Alchemy, Concentration, Intimidate, Scry, and Spellcraft, to name a few. Your spell power in your Red Wizard’s specialist school increases as you level up, increasing your DC for saving throws and to caster-level checks to overcome spell resistance based on your specialized school of magic. You also gain a bonus creation feat. This all comes at a cost, though. When you take the Red Wizard prestige class, you must forgo learning magic from an additional prohibited school of magic, no longer being able to learn spells from those banned schools. There is a silver lining, though, as you can still use the prohibited spells you already know.
A book about the bad guys in the Forgotten Realms would only be complete with the Red Wizards of Thay, which is why they are a featured group in Lords of Darkness (2001). We all know they are evil human wizards, feared and hated, wear red from head to toe, and have an unmatched lust for power. So what new information can we find? How about the non-threatening face of the Red Wizards outside the realm of Thay known as the Guild of Foreign Trade? This guild runs and monitors small Thayian outposts set up in faraway lands.
Why are they tolerated when everyone knows the Red Wizard would take over their country in a split second if they could? These enclaves sell powerful magic items, many of which were created by the Red Wizards. Say what you want about them, but the wizards can craft a mean wand or ring.
Red Wizard spells, magic items, and monster creations can be found in the book Unapproachable East (2003). A spell unique to apprentices of Szass Tam is animate dread warrior, which allows you to transform the corpse of a skilled warrior into an undead monster under your command. Leave it to a lich to give you a way to create an unbeatable undead army. When in combat, Red Wizards like to use the spells Nymbor’s gentle reminder and Nybor’s stern reproof. Where the first spell dazes an opponent, the latter can kill the target instantly if they fail their save. Yep, seems perfect for the Red Wizards.
Red Wizard magic items usually involve inflicting pain. The ebon lash, which delivers burning agony to anyone it hits, is a vicious whip favored by the wizards. Another choice weapon is the flamelance, a +1 flaming burst lance that doubles as a spear if you’re not riding a horse. You can use the lance to fire a jet of white-hot flame as if you had cast Aganazzar’s scorcher as a 6th-level sorcerer. Considering the Red Wizards were the ones that killed Aganazzar, we figure he is turning over in his grave every time a lance is used to melt someone’s face off.
Like all evil wizards, the Red Wizards are responsible for creating terrifying creatures. The Blooded Ones are orcs baptized in magically enhanced blood, are more robust than their standard orc brethren, and are utterly loyal to the Red Wizards and Thay. Attacking with a heavy flail, a blooded one can let loose a fearsome war cry, granting their allies a bonus to their attack and damage rolls.
 

4e - Red Wizards of Thay

Szass Tam
Human wizard lich
Level 30 Elite Artillery (Leader)
Medium natural humanoid (undead) / XP 38,000
Initiative +17 / Senses Perception +23; darkvision
Necromantic Aura (Necrotic) aura 5; any living creature that enters or starts its turn in the aura takes 5 necrotic damage.
Second Wind (standard; encounter) Healing Szass Tam spends a healing surge and heals 100 hit points. He gains a +2 bonus to all defenses until the start of his next turn. Regeneration 10 (If Szass Tam takes radiant damage, his regeneration doesn’t function on his next turn.)
HP 388; Bloodied 194; see also Indestructible
AC 45; Fortitude 45, Reflex 43, Will 46
Immune disease, fear, poison; Resist 20 necrotic
Saving Throws +2 (+5 against charm effects)
Speed 6, fly 8 (hover)
Action Point 1
Claw (standard; at-will) Necrotic +34 vs. AC; 1d6 + 10 damage, and 10 ongoing necrotic damage (save ends).
Soul Strike (standard; daily) Necrotic Close burst 10; targets enemies; +35 vs. Reflex; 5d10 + 11 necrotic damage. Miss: Half damage.
Necrotic Master Szass Tam can convert any attack power he has to necrotic. Change a power’s energy keyword to necrotic, or add necrotic energy to an attack power that doesn’t normally deal energy damage.
Flensing (standard; sustain minor; encounter) Fear, Necrotic Ranged 20; +35 vs. Fortitude; 3d6 + 11 necrotic damage, and the target is stunned (save ends). All allies of the target within line of sight take a –2 penalty to attack rolls (save ends). Szass Tam must make a new attack roll against the target when he sustains this eff ect. He can change the target as a standard action.
Resistance (minor; daily) Ranged 10; Szass Tam or 1 ally within range gains resist 10 against one type of damage until the end of the encounter. Choose from acid, cold, fi re, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder damage.
Time Stop (minor; daily) Szass Tam gains two extra standard actions, which he cannot use to attack other creatures.
Shadowflow (minor; encounter) Illusion Szass Tam uses the power contained in his robes to become invisible until the start of his next turn.
Spellmaster (minor; recharge) Szass Tam regains the use of an expended encounter power.
Indestructible When Szass Tam is reduced to 0 hit points, his body and possessions crumble into dust, but he is not destroyed. He reappears (along with his possessions) in 1d10 days within 1 square of his phylactery, unless the phylactery is also found and destroyed.
Alignment Evil / Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Elven, Infernal, Mulhorandi
Skills Arcana +31, Dungeoneering +28, History +31, Nature +28, Stealth +22
Str 12 (+16) Dex 14 (+17) Wis 27 (+23) Con 28 (+24) Int 32 (+26) Cha 30 (+25)
Equipment orb
from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (2008)

There is little information about the Red Wizards in this edition, but what there is advances their storyline. In the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide (2008), The Red Wizards have been united under Szass Tam, now known as the Regent of Thay. We wish we could tell you there was a glorious mage fight, with fireballs flying all around and armies of undead going up against legions of apprentice Red Wizards.
Alas, this was not the case, as the Spellplague laid waste to Thay, and Szass Tam was able to harness the power of the Spellplague, bringing him one step closer to becoming a god. This, in turn, made it relatively easy to install himself as ruler. Removing the other Zulkirs from power - whether they wanted to step down or not - Szass Tam installed his undead sycophants in those positions of power. Those few Red Wizards that still opposed him were scattered throughout Toril, hiding lest they be killed by Thay's new lich god ruler.
The land now has just as many undead as it does living inhabitants. Life is hard for the living, and the undead serve as Tam's army, defending Thay against anyone foolish enough to attack Thay. During this time, Tam spent decades preparing a terrible ritual that would strengthen his power even more, but before he could complete the ceremony, the remaining exiled zulkirs gathered what forces they could and prevented his twisted plan from happening.
 

5e - Red Wizards of Thay

It may surprise many who have only recently started playing Dungeons & Dragons, but the Red Wizards have always been the main bad guy right out of the gate. There may not be a single sourcebook dedicated to the crimson-cloaked mages, but their lore and impact on the Forgotten Realms continue to evolve. When you start to connect the dots, you realize their mark as an evil force in this edition.
Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle (2013) is a D&D Next playtest adventure. The Red Wizards of Thay return and have a base with four netherese portals that each lead to powerful elemental nodes. The nodes need keys, and the party has been tasked to retrieve one of the keys before the Wizards can access the node.
In Scourge of the Sword Coast (2014), another D&D Next adventure, we deal with the repercussions of the portal opening briefly, as the shade of the pit fiend Baazka can pass through into Faerun. He joins up with the Red Wizards where Szass Tam had made their base in Bloodgate Keep. Baazka gives the Red Wizards the scoop on a series of portals that wizards hope to use to bring in reinforcements to continue their assault on the Coast. The follow-up adventure is Dead in Thay (2014), where the adventurers are tasked with finding the phylacteries of the demi-lich Kazit Gul so they can destroy the vassal of Szass Tam, destroy the portals, and put an end to the Red Wizards and their Bloodgate stronghold.
Even getting into the actual edition, you can stumble across the Red Wizards causing all manner of mischief. In Lost Mine of Phandelver (2014), you encounter the Red Wizard Hamun Kost. He may help you, but deep in his heart, we're sure he'd rather snatch the soul from your body. In Hoard of the Dragon Queen (2014), an unlikely alliance is forged between the rebel Red Wizard Rath Modar and the cult of the dragon. Their common enemy? Szass Tam, of course, and the plan is for Rath Modar to unseat Tam as the ruler of Thay. All he needs to do to secure the cult's support is help free Tiamat. No biggie.
The culmination of this adventure series is the Rise of Tiamat (2014), where the Red Wizard and the cult of the dragon work feverishly to release Tiamat. In another strange twist, the adventurers travel to Thay and try to forge an alliance with Szass Tam. Tam's hatred for the rebel Red Wizard knows no bounds, so he will assist lesser creatures like yourself in crushing them. There is a glimmer of insight into what's happening in everyone's favorite undead landscape Thay. Szass Tam's rule has been slipping recently. Turns out living creatures don't enjoy living in a desolate wasteland filled with dead creatures enforcing an evil lich's rule of law. It's called a quiet civil war since neither side wants to risk the outside world finding out about the power struggles within the borders. Both sides worry that external forces will use this strife to their advantage, conquer Thay, and depose the Red Wizards for good. Living under the bootheel of a crazed lich is better than being dead, we guess.
The Red Wizards are up to no good again in Tomb of Annihilation (2017). Szass Tam wants the soulmonger for himself or, barring that, destroyed. There's not much new information about the Red Wizards, so know that our favorite evil spellcasters are alive and well, and still causing all manner of trouble for our brave band of adventurers. Of course, if you thought that might be the last you hear of them, they get brief mentions in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (2018), Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage (2018), Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes (2018), and Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (2020), with our wizard friends always up to no good.
 
While we haven't heard much from the Red Wizards of late (outside of being the BBEG in the Dungeons & Dragons movie), we hope that the Red Wizards are brought back as a major enemy soon. Maybe one day we can have an adventure where Thay can be saved, or at least less screwed over by the powerful lich Szass Tam. It would be nice to finally get the story of the Red Wizards to move forward, perhaps under a kinder, gentler red-cloaked wizard… Then again, probably not.

Past Deep Dives

Creatures: Aarakocra / Aboleth / Ankheg / Banshee / Beholder / Berbalang / Blink Dog / Bulette / Bullywug / Chain Devil / Chimera / Chuul / Cockatrice / Couatl / Displacer Beast / Djinni / Doppelganger / Dracolich / Dragon Turtle / Dragonborn / Drow / Dryad / Faerie Dragon / Flumph / Formian / Frost Giant / Gelatinous Cube / Genasi / Ghoul / Giant Space Hamster / Gibbering Mouther / Giff / Gith / Gnoll / Goliath / Grell / Grippli / Grisgol / Grung / Hag / Harpy / Hell Hound / Hobgoblin / Hook Horror / Invisible Stalker / Kappa / Ki-rin / Kobold / Kraken / Kuo-Toa / Lich / Lizardfolk / Manticore / Medusa / Mercane (Arcane) / Mimic / Mind Flayer / Modron / Naga / Neogi / Nothic / Oni / Otyugh / Owlbear / Rakshasa / Redcap / Revenant / Rust Monster / Sahuagin / Scarecrow / Seawolf / Shadar-Kai / Shardmind / Shield Guardian / Star Spawn / Storm Giant / Slaadi / Tabaxi / Tarrasque / Thought Eater / Tiefling / Tirapheg / Umber Hulk / Vampire / Werewolf / Wyvern / Xorn / Xvart

Class: Barbarian Class / Cleric Class / Wizard Class

Spells: Fireball Spell / Lost Spells / Named Spells / Quest Spells / Wish Spell

Other: The History of Bigby / The History of the Blood War / The History of the Raven Queen / The History of Vecna

I think that it makes the game more fun and dynamic if the players are allowed to know what the monsters they’re fighting can do. Some monsters have really cool weaknesses that would be fun if the players could exploit to their advantage, but nobody’s going to do that if they only fight a bad guy once. There are a few things that I do to make this work for me: First, in order to gain the stat block you need to be in battle for at least one round with the creature and then spend an action to succeed on a skill check (usually nature, arcana, or religion) of 10 + the creature’s CR. Alternatively I just let them look at it if they kill it and it’s CR is lower than their level Second, I play around with monsters a lot. I level them up and down. I change their hit points, stats and add cool abilities all the time, so my players know that the monster in the book is just a generic representation and not what they will actually encounter most of the time. Third, I usually ask my players to narrate how their character discovered any things in the stat block they plan to exploit if anything (eg one of my players said, “my mother always said to water your horses and set fire to trolls” as they cast firebolt at the monster to take away its regeneration.) I also really like increasing the player’s literacy of the game in this way because even if they don’t consciously think about it, they are understanding the vibe behind how 5e monsters are designed, and when they see the things I’ve decided to change from monster to monster they understand the things that I think are cool and my style. I also think that finding a monster’s weaknesses plays a big part in movies and TV, and I want it to be part of my narrative as well.

This is intended as an overview of most of the major tweak mods out there. I’m sure I’ve missed a few – please point out any I’ve overlooked! As a warning, be careful when installing tweak mods, especially if you’re using more than one. Read the readmes carefully for compatibility notes, as some of these may overlap.
ahungry tweaks: balances item APR or provide a backstab bonus depending on weapon size (the smaller weapon, the bigger bonus), and a few minor fixes like making sure there's a diamond at the Crossroads tree for Imoen's banter, or other mods breaking Taerom making ankheg armor.
Atweaks: nominally bringing the game more in line with P&P rules. As I am not tacticool enough for most of those components (read: the revised mephits kicked my ass in Chateau Irenicus), the components that I tend to use are:

• Prevent skeletal and incorporeal undead from being affected by Illithids' Devour Brain attack
• Change Spiritual Hammer into a ranged force weapon
• Allow Dispel/Remove Magic to take down Globes of Invulnerability
• PnP Color Spray
• Magical arrows and bolts deal bonus damage equal to their enchantment level
• Allow Mages to scribe memorized spells onto scrolls
• Additional racial traits for Dwarves and Gnomes, Expanded Saving Throws
• Unbiased quest rewards
• Slightly expanded storage capacity for containers

Convenient EE NPCs: allows you to remove or render passive the EE NPCs (preventing them from initiating dialogue), or to change their classes or portraits. If you choose to disable all of them, you can also choose to add NPC items to stores if you don’t want to miss out on gear.
EET Tweaks: despite the name, compatible with non-EET games as well. Its XP caps and XP reductions (for quests, killing monsters, and lockpicking/spell-learning) are useful if you’re running a lot of quest mods: as overleveling can kill any semblance of challenge, reducing XP gain to something more sensible makes for a better experience. Also features “consistent NPC appearance” options for those appearing in more than one game (including for cameo NPCs). Components that some may consider slightly cheesy: “PnP spell scroll caster levels,” “disable hostile reaction after charm,” “import party items to SoA.” Also offers convenience tweaks such as a key ring and wand case.
Hammers: adds a thrown hammer animation, adds thrown hammers (normal and magical) to stores, adds additional magic items (most quite expensive and late-game).
High Quality soundclips for BG2EE extended content: higher-quality voice files for EE NPCs and for the Black Pits II campaign.
House Rules: optional changes to racial enemy selection, shapeshifting, weapon styles, racial bonuses, constitution bonuses, backstabbing, stat-based bonus spell slots, and much more besides. Please note: I haven’t tested this for compatibility with other mods in this list.
Item randomizer: surprise yourself by moving things around. A great mod for those who already know the game well.
IWDification: offers divine and arcane spells and class tweaks to bring druids, rangers, paladins, thieves, and bards more in line with their Icewind Dale counterparts. Druids get alternate shapeshift forms (and can be elves), rangers and paladins gain the option for a different spell slot progression (starting earlier, but lower-level overall), and thieves gain an evasion ability at level 7 (if they would ordinarily take half damage on a save, they take zero). Paladins gain immunity to disease and fear at the appropriate levels, as well as a Smite ability (redundant if you install the Artisan Kitpack's paladin overhaul, or the relevant component in Skills and Abilities). These aren’t dramatic changes (unless you’re a cavalier angry at someone stealing your thunder, I suppose), but they’re nice enhancements. The bard changes are my favorite: unkitted bards lose the standard Luck bardsong, instead learning spells as they level. The various bardsongs offer a small but respectable attack/damage boost, a luck + thief skills boost, fear immunity, a chance to charm foes, and damage resistance + minor regeneration: a nice improvement over vanilla bardsong without being quite as good as the skald's song. Finally, there's an option to randomize enemy equipment.
jmerry’s tweak collection: Bugfixes and some quality of life stuff: the “increased Candlekeep XP,” “improved Adoy’s belt,” and “death ward protects against Aec’Letec’s death gaze” are handy components. Note that the Spell Shield component needs to be installed after SCS’ Improved Beholders to function.
klatu: I’m linking this for one specific component (“Free action does not prevent haste”), but the rest of the mod hasn’t been updated in so long that I can’t recommend it. This isn’t a “don’t install it,” just a warning: I haven’t tested it and can’t comment on other components’ functionality.
NPC EE: Equivalent in functionality to Level 1 NPCs and SCS’ NPC customization, this mod equips all joinable NPCs with an item which, when activated, allows you to change their class, kit, stats, and/or proficiencies.
Random Graion Tweaks: tidy up the inventories of creatures, like adding to casters scrolls, moving usable items from inventories into any free use slots instead, and move items into a "Spilling bag" if there's no actual space in the inventory for them. Also tweaking worg and planetar artwork and ranger spell slots.
Rogue Rebalancing: I would adore this mod for the Thieving overhaul alone. Suddenly failed pickpocketing no longer turns enemies hostile: now you can talk your way out of it (well, a couple of times) depending on your stats, including lore or reputation. Other components alter thief and bard kits: the swashbuckler uses the fighter THAC0 table when wielding melee weapons, the skald song’s upgrades are moved to slightly lower levels, and the assassin is now limited to non-good alignments. There are also some significant changes made to HLAs, and bards can now cast up to level 8 spells, as per PnP rules. Finally, it improves the Shadow Thieves’ combat abilities, and optionally adds a challenging combat encounter with the Chosen of Cyric.
Refinements: HLA overhaul, originally with the intent of better differentiating each class’ HLAs. I haven’t touched this in years – if anyone has some up to date comments on how it works and if you’d recommend it, I’ll edit this accordingly.
Reveal Hidden Gameplay Options: adds options to the in-game menu that otherwise require editing the ini file. Options include: show spell AOE, debug mode, limit cleric/ranger spells, pause during dialogue, improved pathfinding, no cosmetic attacks, frame rate slider. For best results, install after Tweaks Anthology.
Scales of Balance: A very large mod with potentially far-reaching changes that I have not tested nearly enough to comment on in detail. Includes an armor overhaul, a feat system, major changes to weapon usability, minor tweaks to Icewind Dale items, removal of class-based potion restrictions, overhauls to racial stat bonuses, changes to saving throws, bonus spells for high int/wis/cha, a complete rework of magic resistance, and much more besides. The readme is extremely thorough: read it first to avoid compatibility issues.
Sentrizeal's avatar pack: cooler avatars for elf warriors (cloaks!) and human fighters. Does nothing but look cool, but that's a priceless addition.
Shader pack: EE lighting adjustments: This mod provides a way to bring back the means to adjust brightness, contrast and gamma correction present in the original games.
Skills and Abilities: Larger writeup on this coming soom™. Short version: a proficiency overhaul that takes BG1’s weapon groups as its starting point and adds new proficiencies which can better diversify character builds, such as Spellcraft (bonuses for arcane casters), Divine (bonuses for divine casters), and Swiftblade (bonuses while hasted). Other components overhaul Protection from Magical Weapons, change Turn Undead, and allow bards to pick locks and disarm traps (EEex required for these). Optionally changes weapon styles as well, incentivizing approaches other than dual-wielding, and adds HLAs drawn from 3.5E.
Skip Chateau Irenicus: EE equivalent of the old Dungeon-Be-Gone mod. Optionally teleports all recruitable characters to the surface, and is compatible with mod NPCs.
subtledoctor’s random tweaks: a wide-ranging collection of tweaks that will generally make your life easier. “Cure Spells Bypass Deflection,” “Tweak Protection from Petrification,” and “Party-friendly Smashing Wave” are particularly handy. Optional changes to False Dawn, Sunray, and Hold/Control Undead allow these spells to bypass Magic Resistance, and the addition of a saving throw vs level drain makes it marginally less annoying. Some of these changes improve spells or items, others nerf them (eg, changing Web’s effect on failed save from Hold to Slow + 0 APR). All components are optional, so look over the readme first. Contains several components designed to affect Spell Revisions or Item Revisions, so install after those (if you use them).
Sword Coast Stratagems: I figure if you’re here, you probably know what this is, but what the heck. A modular tactics mod which markedly improves AI. Optional components improve restoration and healing spells, move or nerf very powerful magic items, delay the “bonus merchants” who sell very powerful gear, provide enhancements to particular enemy types (eg vampires, beholders, or golems), grant potions to enemies, and offer enhanced tactical challenges to specific setpiece fights (bandit camp, shade lord, etc). A word of warning: it hasn’t been updated in awhile and there are some known bugs. If you’re not sure, ask. As an aside: even if you’re not into tactical challenges in general, don’t dismiss it out of hand. There are several components which aren’t just about making the game tougher.
Tweaks and Tricks: “trap intuition” makes trap detection a bit smoother. Now you get warnings if you’re near a trap (you know, for those of us who don’t have trap locations memorized). I haven’t tried the familiar changes, so won’t comment on those. The “Improved Strongholds” is a nice convenience addition that reminds you if you have business at your stronghold, and “convenient ammunition,” which adds non-enchanted infinite ranged weaponry, is handy if you don’t want to drag around 100 lbs of throwing axes. The soundset changes, which expand returning NPCs’ soundsets to include BG1 lines as well, are a good addition if you’re sick of hearing the same battle cry again and again. Other tweaks close the infinite-money fence loophole, improve Protection from Evil to protect from mind control attacks (eg, vampire gaze), add more bags (gem, ammo, etc) from the beginning, and give the option to buff Melicamp in order to increase his odds of survival. Very useful overall.
Tweaks Anthology: convenience, rule changes, quality of life, and things that are probably cheating but who cares, it’s a single-player game. Improved ammo-stacking, a “happy patch” that prevents NPCs from leaving at excessively high/low rep, a movement boost for outside of combat, tweaks that let you turn off the vanilla game’s romances, put helmets on monks, or – one of my favorites – prevent lightning bolts from bouncing. (I am a coward.)

Hey, all! It's been almost a year, but I've returned!
Before we start with the build, I'd like to thank my fellow DMs in our own DM Mentor's Guild! I couldn't have made this build without them, so make sure to check them out: https://discord.gg/46CS5hr
This is a guide for how to play Ridley in DnD 5e.
“What a miserable and helpless little girl! Your existence is like a bad dream!”
Race.
Ridley is a nightmarish, space-faring, sadistic, murderous, fire breathing purple dragon, so the race that fits the best for him is Dragonborn! We can read and write Common, which is just space pirate tongue. Additionally, we have a breath weapon that we can use once per long rest, and does 2d6 damage and can be used in place of an attack. As a Dragonborn, we gain powers based on our type, and for Ridley, we’ll be choosing the Red dragonborn- not because he’s red, but because this makes our breath weapon a 30ft long line that does fire damage, which is accurate to the flame breath Ridley is known for spewing in the Metroid games. Additionally, as a red dragonborn, we gain resistance to fire, which helps us survive in the depths of Noirfare! Finally, because of our race, our Strength increases by +2, and our Charisma increases by +1.
Stat Array.
For Ridley, we want a couple high scores, so we’ll be using Point Buy, which gives us 27 points to put in our stats, which start at 8 as a default. Each increase above 13 will cost 2 points instead of 1.
9 points in Strength! The raw power of Mother Brain’s second in command is truly brutal, so we’ve got to make sure we represent that! Our Strength will be 15 + 2 = 17, with a +3 modifier.
7 points in Constitution! It could just be a crime to have low CON on a nemesis so known for coming back from the grave! Our Constitution will be 14, with a +2 modifier.
4 points in Dexterity. Ridley over all is very spindly and evasive. Our Dexterity will be a 12, with a +1 modifier.
4 points in Intelligence, to put the “cunning” in “Cunning God of Death”. Our Intelligence will be 12, with a +1 modifier.
3 points in Charisma. In the Manga, it’s very clear that Ridley is an intimidating, taunting creature. Our Charisma will be 11 + 1 = 12, with a +1 modifier.
0 points in Wisdom. Ridley does have a bit of a problem with losing his cool. Our Wisdom will be 8, with a -1 modifier.
Background.
Let’s grab the Pirate Variant background, but alter it to gain Deception, for lying- of course, and Investigation to craft dastardly pirate tactics. Let’s also gain proficiency in Navigator’s Tools and Vehicles ( Air ) ( or should it be Vehicles ( Space )? ). Let’s call this the Space Pirate Background.
Ridley is a brutal, merciless killer, so it’s only fitting that we kick him off as a Barbarian 1!
Let’s grab Athletics and Intimidation to massacre Samus’s entire colony and give her PTSD while at it.
As a Barbarian, we are proficient in Strength and Constitution saves. We are also proficient in all weapons, as well as light and medium armour.
All Barbarians gain Rage, which is a inner murderous might. As a bonus action, we may Rage! Our Rage lasts for one minute, and raging gives us a bonus to all of our Strength based attacks, advantage to all Strength checks and saves, and resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage!
Finally, we gain Unarmoured Defense, which allows us to have decent AC without wearing armour! When using Unarmoured Defense, our AC is 10 + Dexterity Modifier + Constitution Modifier, which is 13 at the moment.
We’ll be using unarmoured defense for our AC, and we’ll use a rapier for our attacks, which will just be Ridley wielding his own tail as a weapon.
Barbarian 2.
At the second level of Barbarian, we gain Reckless Attack! When we make an attack, we may choose to attack recklessly, giving no regard for our own safety, but also going for a more brutal swipe! When we choose to do this, we gain advantage on each attack that we choose to attack recklessly with, but until the start of our turn, all attacks against us also have advantage.
Additionally, we gain Danger Sense, which is essential for Ridley to avoid near-death scenarios! Whenever we are subject to a Dexterity saving throw, and we can see the source of the effect, we have advantage on the saving throw.
Barbarian 3.
All 3rd level Barbarians get to choose a Primal Path, and since Ridley is a beast, the Beast Path makes the most sense! One thing to note: The Path of the Beast describes manifesting the traits of a beast, but since Ridley is already a monster, consider it to be simply “activating” the cybernetic enhancements within him to its fullest extent, for all of the resource based features.
As a Beast Barbarian, we gain Form of the Beast! When we Rage, we can fully invoke the cybernetic enhancements in one of our body parts, choosing between our Bite, our Claws, or our Tail.
Choosing Bite allows us to bite our opponent, treating our bite as a 1d8 piercing simple melee weapon, and we regain HP equal to our proficiency bonus, once per turn, when we hit with an attack. This perfectly fits Ridley, since he can regenerate limbs by feasting on dead carcases!
Choosing Claws allows us to swipe at our opponent when our hands are empty, treating our claws as a 1d6 slashing simple melee weapon, and on each of our turns when we attack with our claws, we may make one additional attack as a part of the same attack action.
Choosing Tail allows us to skewer our opponent, treating our tail as a 1d8 piercing simple melee weapon with the reach property. While this effect is active, if a creature attacks us, we may swipe our tail as a reaction, rolling a d8 and applying the roll to our AC, potentially causing the attack to miss.
Barbarian 4.
At this level, we gain our first ASI! Let’s trade it out for the Tavern Brawler feat! First, we can boost either our Strength or Constitution by +1, and we’ll choose Strength, as now our Strength will be 17 + 1 = 18, with a +4 modifier. Additionally, our unarmed strikes now deal 1d4 + Strength bludgeoning ( ask your DM if this can be slashing instead ) damage, we are proficient with improvised weapons, and when we hit with an unarmed strike, we may grapple as a bonus action! Now, we can truly embrace the feral nature that characterizes Ridley!
From here on out, this is our main method of attack, unless we are Raging.
Barbarian 5.
At this level, we gain Extra Attack! Now, when we attack with the attack action, we may make two attacks instead of one ( 3 Attacks with Claws )!
Additionally, we gain Fast Movement, which gives us an extra +10 to our movement speed, for a total of 40ft! Ridley does have good speed in Smash, after all.
Barbarian 6.
At this level as a Beast Barbarian, we gain Beastial Soul! First- all of our special attacks that we activate via Rage now count as magical for the purposes of overcoming magical resistances.
We also gain the ability to further tweak our physiology with cybernetic surgery! Whenever we take a long rest, we may choose to: 1) Gain a swimming speed equal to our walking speed and the ability to breathe underwater, because Ridley could probably swim, right?
2) Gain a climbing speed equal to our walking speed, and the ability to climb difficult surfaces like walls and ceilings without an ability check. This is just Ridley using his pronged fingers to climb.
3) When we jump, we may extend our jump by a number of feet equal to the total of a Athletics check, and we may only make this check once per turn. Something to note- this extra height does not take movement! Boom- we have flight!
Finally, our breath weapon damage is now 3d6.
Barbarian 7.
At the7th level of Barbarian, we gain Feral Instinct! Our killing prowess has become so honed that we have advantage on initiative rolls! Additionally, if we are surprised, we may still take our first turn in combat if the first thing we do on our turn is Rage. Samus can sequence break, so you cannot be caught off your game!
Barbarian 8.
Another ASI at this level! Let’s boost our Strength by +2 to cap it off at 20, with a +5 modifier! Remember- Ridley is too big for Smash . . . ( right? )
Barbarian 9.
At this level, we gain our first instance of Brutal Critical! When we crit with an attack, we may roll one additional damage die when determining the attack’s damage! This works great for when you hit the sweet spot of Down-Special Skewer!
Barbarian 10.
At this level, due to being a Beast Barbarian, we gain Infectious Fury! When we hit a target with our Claws, Tail, or Bite, we can curse them with a rabid fury! The target must succeed a Wisdom save against 8 + your Constitution + your Proficiency Bonus, or either:

1. Take 2d12 damage, which is just you dealing trauma damage to Samus.
2. Force that creature to attack a creature of your choosing as a reaction. This is actually an ability the Ridley clone has in Other M!

Barbarian 11.
At 11th level, we can defy death in classic Ridley style! When we drop to 0 HP while raging, we may make a DC 10 Constitution save, with a success resulting in us instead dropping to 1 HP! Each time after our first save, we may still make the saving throw, but each successive save has an increase of +5 to the DC, and the DC reduces to its default at the end of a long rest.
Additionally, our breath weapon damage jumps to 4d6.
Barbarian 12.
Another ASI! Since our Strength is at its max, let’s boost our Constitution by +2! Our Constitution is now 14 + 2 = 16, with a +3 modifier.
Barbarian 13.
Our Brutal Critical gets an improvement! Now we may roll 2 additional dice on a crit!
Barbarian 14.
We gain our final Beast Barbarian feature at level 14; Call the Hunt! Our murderous intent is now so potent that we can spread our power and resilience to our brothers! When we Rage, we can choose willing creatures up to our Constitution modifier, and gain 5 TEMP HP for each creature that accepts this feature. Until our Rage ends, each creature that accepts this feature may add 1d6 to an attack's damage, once per turn. We may use this feature a number of times equal to our Proficiency Bonus. Use this on Kraid, Mother Brain, Phantoon- the whole crew!
Barbarian 15.
At this level, we gain Persistent Rage, which means that our Rage cannot end early unless we will it!
Barbarian 16.
Here comes another ASI! Let’s boost our Constitution further by +2! Now, our Constitution is 16 + 2 = 18, with a +4 modifier!
Additionally, Our breath weapon damage is now 5d6.
Barbarian 17.
Our final Brutal Critical improvement at this level! That means we may roll 3 additional dice on a crit!
Barbarian 18.
At this level, we gain Indomitable Might! Now, any time we make a Strength Check, we may replace it with our Strength score, which means we cannot ever roll less than a 20!
Barbarian 19.
Our final ASI is at this level. Let’s cap off Constitution by +2. Our Constitution is now 18 + 2 = 20, with a +5 modifier. Yeah, it’s going to take a lot of missiles to break him down . . . .
And finally, we’ll cap off this crazy purple lizard with . . .
Barbarian 20!
Our Barbarian Capstone is Primal Champion! Both our Strength and Constitution are boosted by +2, even if they’re already capped! This means both our Strength and Constitution are now 20 + 2 = 22, with a +6 modifier!
In addition, we have unlimited Rages. Now, it can truly be said that Ridley is the god of death!
Pros

• We really are a beast! With Barbarian HP and +6 to Constitution, which means 255 HP on average, or effectively 510 HP when raging!
• We effectively have no resource flight!
• We are incredible at Grappling! We can grapple as a bonus action, have advantage and a +12 to that roll, and cannot roll less than a 22!

Cons

• When not raging, we only have a megar d4 damage die.
• We have very few ranged options.
• For the majority of the build, we have low AC.

Meta, Omega, and Proteus Ridley Quickbuild
“Somehow I survived by consuming the bodies of your kind, tossed every which way. Foul, foul, human flesh.”
The Meta, Omega, and Proteus versions of Ridley are various versions of him using cybernetic parts to keep himself alive.
Since he isn’t quite flesh but isn’t exactly fully metal either, the only change would be that these versions of Ridley would wear Half Plate instead of using Unarmoured Defense.
Mecha Ridley Quickbuild
“Screech-BEEP, Screech-BEEP”
Mecha Ridley is a half-complete robot Ridley had made in his own image.
We’ll use Warforged for this build, since this isn’t Ridley using cybernetic parts, but actually just a machine.
Our main stat is Intelligence.
Put 5 levels in Artificer, since they can replicate all of the space pirate weaponry you’re decked out in. Choose the Armourer subclass for missile-proof plate and lasers. Choose the Infiltrator model. Use Full plate, since you’re fully plate. Your Lightning Launcher will be your eye-beams.
As an Artificer, choose Shocking Grasp and Firebolt as cantrips.
Prepare Absorb Elements, Alarm, Arcane Lock, Faerie Fire, and Darkvision. We also get Magic Missile, Thunderwave, Mirror Image, and Shatter.
Shocking grasp is your devastating claw attack, Firebolt is flame(thrower) breath, Absorb Elements is just being built resistant to the Cold Beam, Alarm his just the Space Pirate ship’s alarms, Arcane Lock are the energy locks on the doors, Faerie Fire is calibrating your attacks, and Darkvision is thermal vision. Magic Missile is your rockets, Thunderwave is slamming the floor, Mirror Image are holograms I guess (?), and Shatter is mimicking the original Ridley’s ear splitting scream.
Pick the Enhanced Defense, Enhanced Arcane Focus, Armour of Magical Strength, and Mind Sharpener infusions.
From there, put 3 levels in Rogue for Steady Aim ( ask your DM if he allows this feature ) and choose the Swashbuckler subclass for convenience. Our Steady Aim feature encourages us to play as if we really are bolted to the floor ( which we are ). Sneak attack catching the player off-guard.
Put 11 levels in Wizard. We need a specific spell. Choose the War Magic subclass. Pick Message, Light, True Strike, and Blade Ward. Learn Burning Hands, Identify, Detect Magic, Protection from Good and Evil, Shield, False Life, Earth Tremor, Cause Fear, Magic Mouth, Scorching Ray, Locate Object, Silvery Barbs, Haste, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Lightning Bolt, Stoneskin, Spirit Shroud, Water Breathing, Fireball, Contingency, Legend Lore, Cloudkill, Cone of Cold, Contingency, and Chain Lighting.
Message is how you tell Samus the ship is going to blow, True Strike is waiting for the right time to strike, Blade Ward, Shield, False Life, Counterspell, Protection from Good and Evil, and Dispel Magic are just more defenses, Light is a glowing light, Burning Hands is flame breath, Identify, Detect Magic, Locate Object, and Legend Lore is the identification and memory of the CPU, Earth Tremor is slamming the ground, Cause Fear is standing intimidatingly, Magic Mouth is how Mecha Ridley sounds like Ridley, Scorching Ray, Lighting Bolt, Cone of Cold, Cloudkill, and Chain Lighting, and Fireball are all lasers and energy bursts. Silvery Barbs is being opportunistic, Haste is turning on overdrive, Dispel Magic and Counterspell are the ship’s countermeasures, Spirit Shroud is hitting harder, and Water Breathing is -well, not needing to breathe.
Finally, we have Contingency, which is the ship’s self destruct mechanism, and the reason we took 9 levels in Wizard.
Cast Contingency, and store a Fireball upcasted to 5th level, with the trigger being when 5 minutes pass after your death.
For our last level, put it in Artificer.
Prepare Enhance Ability, which is directing power to what’s necessary at the moment.
Finally, pick up the Spell-Refueling Ring and Armour of Resistance infusions.

In DnD [5e], ARTIFICERS are the third class of HALF-CASTERS alongside the Ranger and Paladin.
[Half-Casters can cast Spells up to the 5th Level in addition to possessing martial-like abilities. It's the approximate equivalent of taking 10 levels in a Full-Caster class along with 10 levels in a martial class.]
Artificers create magic using their talents in various crafts. They literally turn technology and artisan talent into magic.
I mean, hey, if musicians can make magic by stroking instruments in the DnD world, then it stands to reason that artisans can swing their tools around to make magic too. But what ARE Artificers anyway? Craftsmen gone wild? Why are they Half-Casters? Let's delve into their Features to figure out what Artificers are all about.
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ARTIFICER CLASS FEATURES
⁽*^{Features are all paraphrased from the Artificer class as detailed in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything}*)
Artificer HIT DICE: d8
The d8 puts Artificers on par with the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Rogue, and Warlock. Somewhere between frontline-tank (d10/d12) and backline glass-cannon (d6).
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Proficiencies - (Part 1/2)
ARMOR: Light / Medium Armor, Shields.
WEAPONS: Simple Weapons, Firearms (optional).
TOOLS: Thieves' Tools, Tinker's Tools, +1 [Artisan Tool of Choice]
Their default access to Medium Armor and Shields puts Artificers into a position where they can easily increase their Armor Class (AC) without investing much into DEX. Even with +0 DEX, Scale Mail and a Shield gives them 16 AC. Give them +2 DEX, and that's 18 AC at Lv01.
Their ability to use weapons is clearly lacking, however. The only martial weapons they have explicitly listed for Proficiency are Firearms, and that's only if Firearms exist. The best they'll get by default otherwise would be a Versatile weapon or a light crossbow for 1d8 damage.
Artificers beat all the other classes when it comes to the sheer number of Tools at their disposal though. They get Tinker's Tools, Thieves' Tools, and one more Artisan Tool of choice! There's a big reason for that.
Artificers MUST use these Artisan Tools as Spellcasting Foci when Spellcasting, unless this is overridden by another feature, because ALL Artificer Spells have a special Material component of "Spellcasting Focus" added to them. Yes, this includes Cantrips like Firebolt.
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TOOLS REQUIRED: (paraphrased from Artificer Spellcasting)

• Thieves' Tools / Artisan Tools act as a Spellcasting Focus [when you have Proficiency].
• All Artificer Spellcasting REQUIRES the use of a Spellcasting Focus.
• Therefore, you MUST hold Thieves' Tools / Artisan Tools you have Proficiency in to use Artificer Spellcasting.
• The Spellcasting Focus does fill the requirement for most Material components.
• However, Material components with a COST still need to be provided separately.
• From Level 2 Onwards, any ITEM bearing your own INFUSION can REPLACE the Artisan Tools as a Spellcasting Focus.
• Other Features may also override the need for Tools, depending on Subclass.

Again, just to put it simply, Artificers have access to more Tools because they literally can't cast Spells without them at the beginning! Talk about built-in flavor (I'm a fan of this, personally).
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Proficiencies - (Part 2/2)
SAVING THROWS: Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT).
SKILLS: Two Skills from (Arcana / History / Investigation / Medicine / Nature / Perception / Sleight of Hand).
Skills are kind of self-explanatory. Note that Artificers lack access to Proficiency in three common defensive Skills: Athletics, Acrobatics, and Stealth.
This means Artificers are generally vulnerable to being detected early and thrown around in melee combat with Grapples, Shoves, and other similar effects.
Might want to consider shoring up that weakness.
Else, take a look at the Saving Throws! It's what helps define Artificers. The CON Saving Throw Proficiency, to be exact.
I mean, sure, they have INT Saving Throws too, but that doesn't come up too often. If it does, you'll be glad you have it, but... really. CON Saving Throws!
The only other Casters with natural CON Saving Throws are Sorcerers and they're WAY more vulnerable to being hit than Artificers.
Oh, hang on, in case you're not too familiar with Casters or want a touch-up on the game rules, let's briefly go over why this is great. Concentration is the name of the game here.
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What Is CONCENTRATION: (paraphrased from Casting a Spell - Duration - Concentration)

• Concentration is a special state used exclusively in Spellcasting.
• Casting a Spell with the concentration trait automatically puts you into concentration.
• Concentration Spells can be maintained up to the Duration specified IF concentration for the spell isn't lost.

LOSING Concentration: (same as above)

• Casting an additional Concentration Spell CANCELS the one before it because concentration can only be held for ONE Spell at a time.
• Note that "Readying a Spell", "Ritual Casting", and Spells with a "Casting time > 1 Action" all REQUIRE concentration and will cancel out previous Concentration Spells! (from Actions in Combat & the above)
• Concentration on a Spell can be otherwise given up (for free) or lost by becoming Incapacitated, Killed, OR by TAKING DAMAGE.
• Anytime you take damage while in concentration, a CON SAVING THROW must be made to keep concentration. (See where this is going?)

Concentration's CON SAVING THROW: (same section as above)

• CON Saving Throw DC is the HIGHER value between:
  • DC10
  • The damage taken DIVIDED by 2, Rounded DOWN (DnD5e rounds down by default).
• Unless the damage taken was >= 22, the CON Saving Throw is for DC10.
• Keep in mind that EACH SOURCE of damage requires a separate Saving Throw.

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Artificers all have Proficiency with CON Saving Throws so given the usual DC10 target and +0 in CON:

• At Lv 01 they have a 65% success rate.
• At Lv 05 they have a 70% success rate.
• At Lv 09 they have a 75% success rate.
• At Lv 13 they have an 80% success rate.
• At Lv 17 they have an 85% success rate.

Compare that to a spellcaster [other than the Sorcerer] with CON +0 and DC10 as the target:

• At Lv 01 they have a 55% success rate.
• At Lv 17? It's still a 55% success rate.

​
This illustrates that the CON Saving Throw Proficiency provides a HUGE boost towards keeping Concentration Spells active.
But aren't Sorcerers just as good at this?
No, they aren't. Again, the reason Sorcerers aren't as good at maintaining concentration is because in general, THEY'RE EASY TO HIT!!
Remember that a CON Saving Throw needs to be made for each instance of damage. Got hit by three arrows? Well shit, that's three CON Saving Throws and if you miss ANY of those, you lose the Concentration Spell!
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In light of this hypothetical situation, an Artificer with easy access to 16+ AC is much less likely to be hit by all three arrows than the unarmored Sorcerer with 10+DEX AC.
Let's say an Artificer gets hit by 2 arrows while the Sorcerer gets hit by 3. Both are at Level 5 with CON +0. The odds of keeping a concentration Spell are then:

• Artificer 49% = (0.7^2)
• Sorcerer -> 34% = (0.7^3)

As more attacks are thrown around, the difference in AC leads to larger discrepancies between the Artificer and Sorcerer's ability to hold concentration.
For this reason, the Artificer is superior to even the Sorcerer in keeping Concentration Spells active.
I'm not trying to bash on the Sorcerer though -- I'm trying to point out that the Artificer DOES have a niche. Despite not having the Spell growth of a Full-Caster, Artificers can function because the Spells they do cast are naturally difficult to disrupt.
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But are their Spells worth concentrating on?
​
Consider the following examples.
[The following list is not comprehensive by any means. It's not at all.]
The format is:
#.a. Artificer Spell (# Level).
#.b. Other Classes with the Spell.
#.c. Why it's Unique for the Artificer.
​
​
01.a. Expeditious Retreat (1). Concentration.
01.b. Sorcerer / Warlock / Wizard.
01.c. With the AC provided by armor proficiencies and a natural proficiency in CON Saving Throws, Artificers are better at sustaining this Level 1 Spell in-combat, for actual combat, than other Classes. This allows Artificers to zip around like a Rogue for up to 10 minutes at the cost of one Lv1 Spell Slot. Excellent for ducking and weaving or catching up to pesky runners.
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02.a. Faerie Fire (1). Concentration.
02.b. Bard / Druid.
02.c. Similar concept as above. High AC and Proficiency in CON Saving Throws make Artificers very good at sustaining this support Spell. Advantage on all targets tagged by Faerie Fire for up to a minute is pretty damn effective if party members are Attack-reliant. For example, those that use Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master Feats.
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03.a. Heat Metal (2). Concentration.
03.b. Bard / Druid.
03.c. This is a stellar, albeit conditional, single-target Spell that doubles as both damage source and crowd-control. Artificers get this spell later than Bards and Druids, courtesy of being Half-Casters, but Artificer concentration is harder to shake off.
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04.a. Web (2). Concentration.
04.b. Sorcerer / Wizard.
04.c. Same darn idea. AoE crowd control that's difficult to disrupt. Doesn't do damage on its own, but forces the Restrained condition onto opponents, allowing attackers to go nuts (including the Artificer) while keeping the opponents in check. Unless someone burns the web -- then it does damage.
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05.a. Haste (3). Concentration.
05.b. Sorcerer / Wizard.
05.c. With the exception of maybe the Bladesinging Wizard subclass, there's no caster that can use Haste as a self-buff more effectively than Artificers. Of course, it could be better to buff an ally, but that's beside the point. Who doesn't want to see an Armorer jump in with 20+ AC and THREE thunderous punches to throw? Good stuff.
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As these examples illustrate, the Artificer has access to a variety of Concentration Spells that they can make great use of, especially in more challenging campaigns where concentration isn't that easy to keep.
By buffing themselves or their allies and debuffing opponents, they let the big hitters do their jobs more easily. It's awesome!
But let's move on, because some or all of you folks might have noticed by now that we've only made it past the Artificer's Proficiencies list and there are still many Features to look at. I'm not going to cover all of them in detail because the Features are generally straightforward, but I'll point out some important points as we go.
​
We basically covered Spellcasting, so from there onwards!
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RITUAL CASTING (lv1)
Yes, Artificers have it.
Just remember that they can only use it IF the Ritual Spell is "prepared".
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INFUSE ITEM (lv2)
There are two default infusions that pertain to the topics on hand here.
01. Mind Sharpener: Makes keeping Concentration Spells even easier than it already is.
02. Spell-Refueling Ring (Lv6+): Provides one extra Spell Slot up to 3rd level to work with each day.
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THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB (lv3)
Temporary Tools can be made with other Tools in an hour.
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TOOL EXPERTISE (lv6)
Exactly what it sounds like.
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FLASH OF GENIUS (lv7)
Spend a Reaction to add the INT modifier to a creature's Ability Check or Saving Throw, usable up to [INT modifier] times, with a minimum of one use.
This means you can take your INT modifier and add THAT to your CON Saving Throws too!
SEE THAT?
Not only do Artificers have a natural aptitude for keeping concentration, they can also get an Infusion that lets them CHOOSE to keep concentration, then they get a feature that lets them add their INT to keep concentration in case the other options weren't enough for some reason.
Artificer concentration is as tough as it gets in DnD 5e and this stuff isn't subclass-specific -- it pertains to ALL Artificers. So if you're an Artificer, make use of it!
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Next are two key Artificer features, from level 10 and 11, that make Artificers SPECIALISTS of lower-level Spells, including the Concentration Spells they're so damn well geared towards sustaining.
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MAGIC ITEM ADEPT (lv10):

• You can attune to up to FOUR magic items at once.
• If you craft a magic item with a rarity of Common or Uncommon, it takes you a quarter of the normal time, and it costs you half as much of the usual gold.

​
The real treasure is the latter half of Magic Item Adept.
To make sense of it, keep the following in mind.
Spell Scrolls of:

• [ 0 ] Level = Common
• [1st] Level = Common
• [2nd] Level = Uncommon
• [3rd] Level = Uncommon

​
If we go by the pricing in the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG), consumable items are half the usual price.
This drops the cost of purchasing:

• Common Spell Scrolls to 50 gp
• Uncommon Spell Scrolls to 250 gp

​
Magic Item Adept halves the cost when creating Spell Scrolls of 3rd Level or lower, so even if the cost of CREATING = the cost of PURCHASING...
Magic Item Adept cost of creating:

• Common Spell Scrolls <= 25 gp
  • Same with Common Potions!
• Uncommon Spell Scrolls <= 125 gp
  • Same with Uncommon Potions!

​
Since Magic Item Adept also quadruples the creation speed, an Artificer going all-out will generally spend 2x the gold for 4x the product.
EX. [ If a Wizard spent 100 gp to produce 2 Common Spell Scrolls, in the same amount of time, an Artificer with Magic Item Adept could spend 200 gp (2x100) to produce 8 (4x2) Common Spell Scrolls. ]
In this manner, Artificers can efficiently turn their gold into pseudo-Spell-Slots of 3rd level or lower. This is at level 10, when Full-Casters are at the cusp of gaining 6th-Level Spells.
Once Full-Casters do get their first 6th level Spell Slot, Artificers get Spell-Storing Item.
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SPELL STORING ITEM (lv11): Creation

• Choose:
  • A Simple/Martial Weapon OR
  • A Spellcasting Focus valid for use by you, the Artificer**.**
• Choose:
  • A 1st or 2nd level Spell from the Artificer Spell List that costs 1-ACTION to cast. (The chosen Spell doesn't have to be "prepared".)
• Touch the chosen object at the end of a Long Rest to imbue it with the chosen Spell.
• The object's Spell has uses equal to your INTx2, minimum of 1.

SPELL STORING ITEM (lv11): Usage

• While holding the object, a creature can cast the imbued Spell as an Action.
• The Spell is produced using the Artificer's INT for Spell Save DC, Hit, etc.
• If the Spell produced requires concentration, the caster needs to use their own concentration.

[ Note that this Feature specifies the Artificer Spell List, NOT any Spell you know.
This may disqualify Spells provided by Subclass, since those are technically not stated to be part of the Artificer Spell List.
That said, I'd allow the Subclass Spells, as long as it's from the Artificer's own Subclass. They're thematic and still just 1st or 2nd Level Spells. ]
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Spell Storing Item might not sound too impressive at first glance, but it scales with INT. It could potentially provide an extra TEN 1st or 2nd Level Spells per Long Rest.
An Artificer that places a Concentration Spell onto this Spell-Storing item could make it last all the way til the next Long Rest. I mean, It's up to ten uses of whichever 1st or 2nd level Spell they want! Up to ten uses of Faerie Fire. Up to ten uses of Web. Up to ten uses of Enlarge/Reduce. Etc.
Or you could blow it all on non-Concentration Spells too. There's still the usual Spell slots and Spell Scrolls to fall back on!
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If we crunch the numbers at this point (Lv11):

• Full-Casters have 16 Spell Slots, not including Spell Slot regeneration.
• Half-Casters have 10 Spell Slots, and generally lack Spell Slot regen.
• Artificers have the above 10 + up to 10 more Spells from Spell-Storing Item.
  • IF Artificers have at least +3 INT, they will have 16 or more Spell Slots to work with in total.

And at Level 20:

• Full-Casters have 22 Spell Slots, not including Spell Slot regeneration.
• Half-Casters have 15 Spell Slots, and generally lack Spell Slot regen.
• Artificers have the above 15 + up to 10 more Spells for a total of 25.

The sheer number of low-level Spell Slots, combined with Magic Item Adept's utility of creating 3rd Level or lower Spell Scrolls at half-cost, is the reason I consider Artificers to be SPECIALISTS of lower-level Spells.
Artificers are the only Half-Caster Class that has the potential to function as a Caster with their specialty in Concentration Spells and various buff / debuff Spells.
Don't be fooled into thinking they can replace the absurdities a Full-Caster can throw around with high-level Spells, though! Those high-level Spell Slots are limited in number for a reason.
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Leverage the advantages highlighted here to really let the Artificer and their Subclasses shine.
And yes, I know there are more Features for the Artificer I didn't cover, but they're so straightforward.. just read them. They're not as groundbreaking as the above.
Cheers!

Greetings, gamers!
I've been playing an OL campaign for a couple of months now and I'm really digging the system. I however, being me, have a couple of ideas and would like to submit them to the councils judgements. Keep in mind two things: A, I come from 5E D&D, so that might explain some things. B: Most of this is highly experimental, so that might explain some things. Enjoy!

Clearer improvised action

You may take a Major action outside of your turn any time at the cost of a Focus Action on your next turn.

Death Rolls

Immediately when a character reaches 0 HP or if they start their turn at 0 HP they have to roll a Death action roll with a DC of 10 + the amount of excess damage from the damaging effect that put them below 0 HP. A character can treat the Death roll as a Fortitude, Will or Presence roll. If the character fails this action roll they gain a level of the Fatigued bane. If a character rolls an exceptional success (succeeds with 10 or more) on this action roll they become “stable” until they aren’t at 0 HP anymore, meaning that they don’t have to roll a Death action roll when they are unconscious. Anyone with access to the Healing, Restoration or Regeneration Boon could stabilize a character as a major action if they beat the DC defined above with the attribute that they use the boon with. For example:

• Sherlock, who was previously at 5 HP, gets shot by Moriarty who deals 9 damage. Sherlock immediately makes a Death action roll with a DC of 14 (10 + (9-5)). He rolls a 12 and fails, receiving one level of the Fatigued bane. Unfortunately for Sherlock, his turn is right after Moriartys and he now has to roll another Death action with a DC of 14, gaining another level of the Fatigued bane on a failure. He rolls a 15 and currently has only one level of the Fatigued bane. Now that it’s Watson’s turn, he has to decide if he should possibly take down Moriarty once and for all or if should help Sherlock get back on his feet.
• The Great Orcs of Mount Ruin have received specific instructions to drag their prey back to their master's castle alive before killing it. The orc captain can see with a successful Perception roll that two of the six humans have become stable, as they beat their Death action rolls by 10 or more, so he decided to stabilize the rest with a presence roll (1d20+1d10 with disadvantage 4). The orc captain rolls a 20, stabilizing all but one human who had gotten a DC of 22. Now that the human failed his sixth Death action roll he is dead and the orc captain now has to decide if he should bring the human and try to explain the situation to his master or if he should leave the human and try to convince his master that there were no other human.

Custom Extraordinary Attribute

This rule, if used, replaces the 8 extraordinary attributes with one.
In addition to the eight extraordinary attributes there is one called CUstom. You gain a number of Banes, Boons or other abilities (described at the end) equal to your Custom score that can be used with the Custom attribute. You may gain additional Banes, Boons or abilities that can be used with the Custom attribute for the cost of 1 Attribute score. Conversely, you may choose to gain 1 Attribute score at the cost of a bane, boon or ability gained with the extraordinary attribute. These extra abilities are as follows:

• Taking the Defend Interrupt action (like Protection)
• Increasing the amount of lethal damage a creature can heal per day (like Creation)
• Make a damaging attack with a specified damage type (like Energy or Entropy)
• Make a damaging attack with any damage type (like Energy or Entropy) (Costs 2 points)

Examples:

• Jonathan is a mage. He has a 4 in the Extraordinary attribute and therefore gets 4 things to choose. He first chooses to be able to make a damaging attack with the Fire damage type. He also chooses that ability a second time in order to be able to attack with the ice damage type. He then chooses the slowed bane, the persistent damage bane and the aura boon. He has now chosen 5 things and therefore has to spend another attribute point in order to keep all his abilities. He has now spent 11 attribute points on the extraordinary attribute.
• Obzidian is a giant fire monster. He has a 6 in the Extraordinary attribute and therefore gets to choose 6 things. He chooses the damaging attack with the fire damage type and then the Defend action. He then chooses the persistent damage bane and then the regeneration boon. Not knowing what to do with the remaining abilities he converts them into 2 Attribute points. He has now spent 19 attribute points on the extraordinary attribute.

Feat: Master Imitation

Cost: 2 feat points
Prerequisites:

• Tier 1: Influence 3

Description: Whether it is through heavy makeup and plastic surgery, some well placed holograms or magical manipulation you take on a disguise.
Effect:
When you use the Phantasm bane, you may cast it on yourself and assume the appearance of another person. The illusion moves with you visually. If you choose to do this you succeed automatically when casting but if your behavior or other signs provide reasonable suspicion, an onlooker can attempt a Perception roll with a Challenge Rating equal to 10 + triple your Influence or Deception score, whichever is higher. If they succeed, they will recognize your disguise.

WORLD: So first of theres 13 dimensional planes (think dnd 5e sorta but instead of being tied to alignment its tied to a genre or something else. One of the 13 planes is a center plane that connects all of the other 12 planes and is secretly being protected by a organization called S.I.L.V.E.R. (Acronym not fully thought of yet, most likely will be changed) whos main goal is to keep order in the center plane as well as dealing with/containing(when necessary)/destroying(when necessary) (anomalies will be explained in there own section) The center plane will most likely have a semi high tech dystopian world with most likely a underground crime society cause… uhh… The other 12 planes would have different vibes or something ie one being basically our current reality one being a pirate like sea adventure world one is a high fantasy world another one is a star trek like space society thing. So on so forth. Around only 30% of all humanoids in all 12 noncenter planes know about the center plane and can teleport to the center plane Via a magic like system that will be explained later, as well as via runic portals, these portals can also be used to teleport to the other 12 planes from the center plane. There is also various types of humanoids and human like beings (ie humans elves, oni alien… men) scattered across the planeswith humans being the most common, and some of the other ones having innate magic like abilities
“The gifted” {beta title} The gifted are a set of humanoids (any type of humanoid they are not a separate race) that have some form of a unique semi-supernatural ability ie one gifted that i have in mid can turn his body into a red sharp string like substance and control it to a certain degree, another one could exhale a heavy mist like substance that is also a heavy hallucinogenic. Around 5% of all humanoids are this sub species. The center plane’s government would have pretty harsh restrictions on them, they would also have access to a transformation n via training and something else that makes there appearance mystic supernatural while still being humanoid as well as giving there Gifted ability buff / an entirely new power connected to there first one, the transformation can last anywhere from 10 minutes to 6 hours depending on mastery. also theres a rarer type of gifted called resurrecturus which are are regular humanoids that have the odd ability that allows them to resurrect after death, once they die for the first time and if its not in the center plane the get transported to the center plane and unlock there gifted ability as well as regeneration, there heart is replaced with a colored crystal that when destroyed, the resurrecturus dies instantly and there body disintegrates into a fine dust that when snorted gives a extreme high because (also dont ask what happens if a resurrecturus dies for the first time in the center plane),
Magic system: im not gonna lie i barely thought much of the magic system so far, all i got so far is that its hard to learn but most if not all people could learn it and its weaker that gifted abilities but more accessible
The anomalies Personally my favorite part [yes im a semi scp nerd] The anomalies are a separate species from all humanoids, there appearances range from Semi humanoid to some thing so abstract looking that its probably one of the farthest things from humans possible [sorry about the poor description] they all have verifying appearances and abilities (ie an example of one a crystal golem with chrono manipulation abilities)

To be clear, the entire PDF is available for free right now. There are multiple download links on my homepage for the project at:https://ko-fi.com/foreverdmproductsI'm not trying to sell anybody anything; I encourage you to download the entire thing and look through it before even considering donating a cent. Hope this helps some people out.
Edit: An overview of the project This is a 3rd party, independently funded and produced 5e-compatible product. As the title says, it has the normal stuff such as monsters, spells, subclass, and magic items. but the real juice of this project are the prestige classes and copy/paste monster abilities.
the prestige classes are like addons for your base class and subclass; they aren't class specific but have restrictions. (such as the blood mage requiring the PC to be a full caster. meaning you could have a wizard, sorcerer, or even bard blood mage)these are not subclass replacements, but just extra tools for your character.
The monster abilities are lots of tables to easily be able to make your next zombie encounter something extra surprising. How about zombies with poison-breath weapon? or a gaze attack? or maybe their wight leader has an aura of regeneration that constantly heals the zombies. These are designed to be interchangeable and to give any monster any extra ability from another monster with little hassle for the GM. You won't need multiple stat blocks open for these.