EN5ider Magazine for D&D

Nature Magic: Ecomonacy

Nature. We are in it and it is in us. You can't escape it—but you can study it, learn from it, and just maybe with a little magic take control of it. We're not talking about druids though, we're talking wizards. Get your mage out of the keep's library and into the world with the School of Ecomancy and these 8 new nature-themed spells! Ride in style using conjure nature's sleigh, send forest texts via the grapevine cantrip, lay waste to foes with seed bomb...

Enchanted Trinkets: Scraps of Knowledge

The Enchanted Trinkets series continues with a worthwhile entry best enjoyed by sages, scholars, and anyone else with a penchant for the written word. Never allow your most treasured tome to suffer injury by storing it with a borrower's bookmark, prepare the most beautiful songs with an enchanted music sheet, draw upon unholy power with an incomplete infernal contract, and enjoy the 7 other unique magic items within these pages. However it is best to be war...

Mini-Adventure: The Devil's Maze

This 350th issue of EN5ider marks a milestone for us and we want to thank all of our Patrons for making it possible to amass such a resplendent library of quality D&D 5E content—you are a fantastic bunch of people! 

With the gravity of such an occasion in mind we’ve concocted a mini-adventure worthy of the moment, a one-shot that features innovative gameplay throughout a c...

Monstrous Menagerie: Damned Sovereigns

Wildernesses and ruins the world over are the abandoned homes of fallen empires and lost kingdoms, civilizations that have faded into history. The powerful rulers of such places do not always plummet with their domains however, continuing on by way of enduring magics imbued by the wealth of a nation or terrible curses wrought as punishment for the massive suffering under their decree. This issue of Monstrous Menagerie examines three such figures: the ghostly shadow of Queen Katarina,...

Enchanted Trinkets: A Noblewoman's Essentials

Are you among the highest social standing? Do the cultural elites vie for invitations to your parties, or fervently wish that you might attend theirs? If you are then you almost certainly have our catalog already, but if not then we implore you to peruse these pages—Madam Ursula's only trades in the absolute finest goods, garments, and curiosities that will make you an essential member of noble society! Practice discretion while you whet your tongue on the sly and put a touch of enchantment...

ZEITGEIST #11: Gorged on Ruins - Part 3

This installment of ZEITGEIST #11 has all the goodies in it: Gidim living steel, thoughtlocks, oculus prisms, and the statistics for a grand total of THIRTY-NINE creatures! 39! These monsters and NPCs range from the meek (the CR 3 Ursaliñan guard) to the incredibly mighty (the Esurientes Draco in Ruinam aka catastrophe dragon, at CR 25). Fleshwarped dire bears, army troops and soldiers of all sorts, a blizzard elemental of the end times, a skeletal phalanx swarm—if you ev...

Spells for Punching

Sometimes even the most cautious mage has to get up and smack somebody in the face—make that smack count. With these 11 new spells in your repertoire you'll be unleashing storm kicks and incinerating roundhouse strikes right alongside warrior allies, and when it really becomes a dire fight then maybe even a godstrike! Pugilistically designed by Peter Martin, illustrated by Herman Lau.

About EN5ider

EN5ider is one of the longest-running D&D Patreons, with nearly 600 issues under its belt. We launched in 2015 with the article Cherished Trinkets, and we produce an issue each week, which consists of a fully-illustrated 5+ page article or 10-15 page adventure. An article might contain new monsters, spells, rules, species, subclasses, and more--even en...

Mini-Adventure: The Pallid Piper

We first introduced the umamish—a curious infection of intelligent mushrooms—in EN5ider #333 - Mini-Adventure: Fungal Bums but they've spread since then! When the adventurers return to a town or village they've saved before they find it is rife with patches of mushrooms, unnatural growths said to have been brought about by an old man raising fungi with a song. Though he appears to be a strange human he...

Changes of Zhou: Far Eastern Cleromancy

The next time the adventurers cast augury or otherwise make use of divination magic you can do more than simply provide an answer—now you can give them a reading! This 8 page article includes a type of Chinese cleromancy that dates back to the Zhou dynasty (which started more than a millennium before 0 AD), tables for interpreting and understanding the trigrams and hexagrams at the core of this system for telling the future, and an NPC suitable for doling out prophetic information....

Spells: Herculean Incantations

Tell me friend: do you tire of seeing braggadocio knights impress with feats of strength? Running afoul of too many tavern fights with lumbering brutes? Well friend your troubles are over! With this suite of over a dozen brawny spells you'll more than make your mark with magical might that's sure to inspire all within sight! Take the fight against a foe into a coliseum for two with Ahlmeik's arena, send potential paramours head over heels with a bit of flex, make yourself as...

ZEITGEIST #11: Gorged on Ruins - Part 2

In this second installment of ZEITGEIST #11 the PCs encounter the Vsadni (five ancient Lost Riders now transformed into powerful icy titans by the Voice of Rot) and take their fight to Grandis Komanov—most likely with blades but possibly with words instead. Then it's on to a debate truly deific in both its nature and impact: the gods themselves are put on trial in Alais Primos. This module includes 3 maps and one statblock (the Bhad Ryzhavdut Militia), but stay tuned for next month...

Intriguing Organizations: Hands of Contrition

Adventurers almost reflexively destroy undead on sight—but they best be wary for there are a rare few that rise up above their nature, seeking to redeem their corrupted souls and serve rather than slay the living. These unique undead are members of the Hands of Contrition, creatures that strive to redeem themselves in their post-mortal existence and help the world at large. Although only ever gathering in small groups their influence spreads far whether they defend the innocent, bolster a c...

Enchanted Trinkets: Plumed Panoply

We've done quite a few Enchanted Trinkets articles but none quite like this one: a full set of magic attire! If your adventurer is the kind that cares about fashion there will be no higher calling than acquiring every piece in this set, from the duck call necklace all the way to a pair of penguin boots. Any that manage to get all 11 of these magic items unlocks a special power too, though doing so—while resisting the urge to break any of them for their more potent...

Tertiary System: Mass Combat

The mass combat rules offered thus far for Fifth Edition can be pretty disappointing depending on the expectations of your group. Trying to extend the core mechanics to adroitly navigate an entirely different scale of play is simply too much stretching, often eliminating player agency and diminishing how fun the game is for everybody. Instead we offer you this alternative tertiary system, rules that employ straightforward mechanics based on narrative storytelling. Make the players in...

Intriguing Organizations: Readers of War

Fantasy gaming oft emphasizes the magical side of scholastic pursuits, but in the real world one of the traditionally most studied aspects of history is the making of war. With that in mind we present to you the Readers of War, a sect of warriors that fastidiously study combat in all its forms with the most devoted accepting the First Codex of War as their very patron.  The rank-and-file are combatants through and through however, traveling the land to teach martial history and ...

ZEITGEIST #11: Gorged on Ruins - Part 1

Undoing the Obscurati's ritual is a tall order but there are three terrible dangers threatening the world that the adventurers might turn to the vital task: beneath the Beran city of Ursaliña is a Gidim leviathan colonizing the world, comets have striking in Drakr's frozen north herald the return of mythic warlords seeking a final battle, and the gods themselves are being put on trial by the people of Crisillyir! Can the adventurers navigate these epic challenges while learning the ritual th...

Villain Spotlight: Vengar the Reader

Goblins are known for many things—reading is not typically on that list, but it's not like Vengar is a typical goblin. Once a trapfinder for the Chokeleaf tribe, this errant necromancer went entirely off the deep end after selfishly stealing an ancient tome to fulfill his ambitions of power. The cursed book has sucked away his vitality and now Vengar travels from tribe to tribe posing as a shaman, utilizing everything he can to acquire more magics able to extend his piteous life before the ...

Enchanted Trinkets: Arcane Atlases

Sometimes knowing where you're going just doesn't cut it because after all, journeys are often only half of a quest. That's where these wondrous maps make their mark. The atlas of the lost keeps track of the things you've erroneously discarded along the way, a social map is certain to show its value after carousing starts and you forget where the next tavern is located, and surely being able to quickly find a healer thanks to a caduceus chart is a boon—one that mi...

Multiclass Feats

Sometimes you want to play an adventurer that's more than a stalwart warrior, deft vagabond, or potent spellcaster. It can be good fun to explore concepts that mean a few levels in one class and then a few more in another. The Fifth Edition rules are unfortunately not quite up to the task when it comes to keeping such a character as viable as their purely fighter, wizard, or cleric counterparts when the campaign reaches higher levels—until now. With these 12 feats in hand (all...

Mini-Adventure: Fungal Bums

The adventurers destroy an infestation of strange mushroom creatures but days later one of the PCs develops an odd sickness impervious to traditional cures. Within weeks mushrooms sprout from the afflicted's back, and far stranger, the sporecaps speak. The 'umamish' claim to be helpful symbiotic fungus, merely hoping to hitch a ride until they reach maturity—and their host feels stronger, more resilient, better than ever before. However the umamish are anything but benevolent, slow...

ZEITGEIST 10 - Godmind: Part 3

This is the crunchiest part of ZEITGEIST #10 - Godmind and includes the full breadth of rules and monsters a GM will need to run the rest of the module! That begins with the fundamental changes to the mechanics of reality following the Obscurati ritual and is followed by a host of creatures: the Ash Wolf (fey titan CR 25), smoldering wolf (CR 10), Beshela the Archfey of the Sea (CR 14), the Father of Thunder (fey titan CR 25), Granny Allswell (fey titan CR 25), corrupted earth spirit...

Writhing Codex

Kill and zombify foes with breath of the master, do exactly what you think with corpse explosion, cast parasitic eruption to send someone to Cronenberg-ville, curse enemies with power word doom, become as resilient and unyielding as your animated minions via undead fortitude, disturb everybody at the party by conjuring a wall of flesh, protect your secrets with withering aura, travel in style by using ...

Enchanted Trinkets: Patron Tokens

Warlocks—the mages who traded their souls for eldritch blast. We know them, we love their beams of death, but when it gets down to the nuts and bolts they sometimes fall short of the prowess shown by their companions. In that light this article is all about gifts geared to make the most out of Pact Magic users! As usual with the enchanted trinkets series each item has an innocuous, roleplay enriching effect, suggested gold value, and a resource element that you can use to ...

Spells: Masterpiece Renditions

There is magic in music and few melodies contain as much nuanced power as this suite of sublime spells! Play the rousing and rising accelerando to empower a band of warriors, unleash the battlecry ballad to rally your forces, employ the expertise of circular breathing to perform beneath the waves, cast crowd pleaser to get a party started, employ dramatic sting to pluck at a foe's heartstrings, never allow an audience to forget you with earworm...