EN5ider Magazine for D&D

ZEITGEIST #9 - The Last Starry Sky: Part 3

Perhaps feeling some butterflies in your tummy today or a spot of nervous indigestion? Maybe its your appendices that are the culprit—worry not because today's post is all about appendices! This segment of the module brings ZEITGEIST #9 to its official close with an appendix for each of the following: the Rites of Rulership (rules for monarchs that the PCs will get to make use of), statistics for Fey Lords, Allied NPCs, and Naval Forces, and Magic and Training covering suc...

Villain Spotlight: Jaxi the Blightgunner

Although they are certainly places of decay and death, swamps are also home to a great deal of life and they bustle with activity—the popping of gasses rising out of the muck, the chittering of insects ever searching for food, and in Chokewater, the clack of colliding lead firing off an explosive charge from Jaxi's rifle! The Blightgunner has fiercely protected her lair for 16 years now, though she has long since ceased loving her home and desperately searches for a way to escape its influe...

Gamemaster Characters: Recruiting Followers & Pets

After finding an orphaned baby displacer beast, enlightening the misguided apprentice to a mad wizard, or helping a lonely dire lion heal an injury making it aggressive there are many adventuring groups that won't want to abandon a wayward NPC or monster—instead they'll plead to include it in the party. Let them and use this article to guide the process, utilizing the mechanics for Morale, Goals, and Recruitment to determine how long a GMC (gamemaster character, one shared between the GM an...

Mini-Adventure: Cold Love

The seasons should have passed but spring still hasn't arrived—almost as if winter's chill is stalking the adventurers. Soon they realize the truth of the situation and discover that one of the party members has inadvertently won over the love of a powerful cold elemental, Gelissa the Spirit of Winter, and though her affection for them might be red hot it's too cool to be sustained. While notes are included to play through the module all at once, this supplemental adventure  is designe...

Intriguing Organizations: Which Watch?

In every city adventurers tread one thing remains constant: there's probably a city watch or local police force.  Usually these guards only come into play when the plot requires it or a group of PCs start brazenly breaking the law, but minor as they often are that doesn't mean that all city watches will be the same. That's where this article shines—use these templates and guides to rapidly change these often overlooked NPCs into an engaging (and intriguing) force for good, evi...

ZEITGEIST #9 - The Last Starry Sky: Part 2

The name of the game in the second half of this module is regicide! These 36 pages bring a narrative close to ZEITGEIST's 9th adventure with 7 maps and 27 (!) different NPCs involved in plots to assassinate King Aodhan. 

Catherine Romana (CR 9), Senior Ghost Councilor (CR 10), Ghost Council Detachment (CR 12), Skeletal Dragon Tyrant (CR 18), Professor Bugge (CR 13), Dread Wight (CR 9), Flayed Dire Jaguar (CR 10), Bleak Gate Killer (CR 13), Obscura...

Magic Items: Hunter Totems

Congratulations! With daring, skill, and a touch of luck you've achieved new heights of herodom by slaying a powerful monster! As the party starts canvassing its lair for treasure however, you instead draw your carving knife and get to work taking a trophy for yourself from the creature's cadaver. Unfortunately you don't really get much for your dragon's tooth, the scales of a chitinous aberration, or a fiend's horn—until now! Using the rules in this article you can not only look more impre...

New Race: Sentient Illusions

A few weeks ago we introduced the sapient magical life forms wrought by the Order of Sentience as creatures⁠—today’s article gives sentient illusions rules for use as a player race! Start adventuring as magic incarnate by choosing your core (diamond, emerald, onyx, ruby, sapphire, or topaz) and later on perhaps dabble even further with the Back to Basics or Illusory Roots feats! Designed by Azra Kaknes; illus...

Mini-Adventure: Bastards Revenge

With decades of adventuring behind him it’s finally time for Talladio Mihrad to rest his blade and settle down. Unfortunately however this charismatic vagabond’s past is coming back to haunt him—he was a glorious monster slayer and hero to many, but he also sired copious children that are all now tracking him down to exact vengeance for their abandonment! This supplemental mini-adventure for 4-5 PCs of 3rd-5th level was designed by Mike Myler, illustrated by Claudio Pozas, and features ...

Magic Items: Prayerbooks & Scripture

This time of year is dominated by holidays—the Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Pancha Ganapati, Saturnalia, Yule, Boxing Day, Festivus—and in honor of these many traditions we've prepared a special article from a source uniquely suited to tackle religious subjects. Regular EN5ider contributor Josh Gentry is not only a talented and creative game designer, he's also a studying theologian and minister in training at Emory University! When Josh pitched an article that bridged...

Monstrous Menagerie: Sentient Illusions

Today's entry in the Monstrous Menagerie series brings into focus illusory arcana that have gone beyond the bounds of figmentation, attaining not just physical forms but sentience as well! The unique nature of these creatures ties each to a gemstone and set of characteristics that define the boundaries of a sentient illusion’s capacity for change after it achieves independent thought—for the bridge from spell to creature exacts a heavy toll. Innovatively designed by Azra Kaknes; ...

ZEITGEIST #9 - The Last Starry Sky: Part One

The second act of the ZEITGEIST adventure path begins its end in a perilous race against time as the heroes are trapped within the Dreaming. They are hard pressed to escape quickly to stop an Obscurati plot of regicide against the king of Risur, but to do so the adventurers must please a fey court and trick a true titan of nature! 

This module (for PCs of 15th-16th level) is chock full of 17 statblocks for NPCs and monsters that are great for forested or fey-themed session...

Mini-Adventure: Tainted Remedies

When the adventurers emerge battered and bruised from a dangerous situation they fortuitously stumble across the traveling healer Sanador. The elven woman introduces herself as an emergency medic who seeks out danger to offer aid, then gives each of the PCs a healing potion absolutely free of charge. What the party don't know is that the alchemist secretly laces her healing potions with a highly addictive solution that not only makes them more potent, but can easily get her patients crippling...

Over the Next Hill: The Medieval Lord's Manor

Baronies and fiefdoms are a staple of medieval fantasy, playing a role in many of our games and worlds—today's article takes a historical approach to understanding the barony of Alexander Ouer Middleton, providing a perfect example of the usual ruler, subordinates, and culture to be found in a medieval estate. Included are statistics for the baron (CR 3), his reeve (CR ¼), and the local miller (CR ½) as well as rumors and plot hooks alongside a custom map of the Middleton lands! Written b...

Monstrous Menagerie: Unique Dragons

The Monstrous Menagerie series is back with a variety of new dragons to enrich your 5E game! This article includes the fey dragon template with Teyladin the Reclaimer (a young green fey dragon) and the memory dragon template (used for the Librarian of Orban Tur, an ancient silver memory dragon).  Written by  Ben Green; illustrated by Alba Palacio and Ellis Goodson.

Intriguing Organizations: House of the Reclaimed Soul

Many adventuring parties are heading into Hell for a bit and EN5ider has something to offer for these daring heroes, an Intriguing Organization that takes in the truly repentant to try and lead them to find redemption: the House of the Reclaimed Soul. Despite the horrorscape around them these ex-clerics, warlocks, and other fools tricked into serving fiends during their time as mortals strive to do good following their deaths while purging themselves of the...

The Not-So-Lonely Road

Make your next overland trip more interesting and really engage adventurers with the world in just a few dice rolls! This article takes a look upon our collective past, using historical information and parallels to help GMs create realistic NPC encounters outside of major settlements (with examples), providing opportunities to roleplay, pass information via highway gossip, and even trade and refresh supplies. Written by Phill Harmon; illustrated by Phil Stone.

Mini-Adventure: The Titan Gates

This is EN5ider's 300th ARTICLE! Thank you, wonderful patrons, for helping us reach this seminal milestone. To commemorate the achievement we've got an excellent extra special mini-adventure for today: a module that's meant for 11th-12th level play but with a little modification can be used anywhere from 3rd to 16th level. This has not one or two but THREE different maps as PCs face off against giants with portals in their chests, the mystical gateways dragging the a...

ZEITGEIST #8 - Diaspora: Part 3

With their next destination revealed the PCs must begin their plans to reach the ghost city of Methia, located deep in enemy territory, and they will need to properly plan their method of insertion and extraction from the Danoran-held city. To succeed the adventurers must journey across a dead magic field, sneak past an army, unleash a colossus, temporarily wind back time 5 years, face the villain Nicodemus, and escape capture along the way! For GMs not already using this adventure path, this...

Villain Spotlight: Rosie Arkwright

Halloween is later this week and to help spookify your games we've got an unassuming horror to titillate, captivate, and eviscerate adventurers: the undead ragdoll Rosie Arkwright.   Despite her small size she is durable, deadly, and able to create legions of creatures like herself, vastly outnumbering victims before swarming upon them with mystical needle and thread used to sew up mouths, eyes, and lives! Brilliantly penned by Andrew Engelbrite with a wonderful illustration by Xand...

Monster Salvaging

Halloween is nearly here so the next couple articles offer a bit of creepy or gruesome content for your 5E game.  With that in mind today's offering is all about corpses! Get the adventurers rooting about in cadavers after a battle ends in search of monster reagents they can transform into items that enhance spells, help concoct virulent poisons or useful potions, and even replicate the abilities of the creatures they've slain. Written by Michael Ohl; illustrated by Herman Lau.

Technomancy Gremlins

Veteran EN5ider designer Andrew Engelbrite has penned another article of fabulous magic items, but this time they're not enchanted trinkets—instead each are innocuous objects of a different sort, powered by curious little gremlins that love nothing more than to perform the specific tasks they've been conjured for! There are a total of 13 different such items within ranging from the simple gremlin direction finder MK2 and timekeeper gremlin deluxe to the dicier 2019-10-14 19:55:55 +0000 UTC View Post

Mini-Adventure: Desert on the Road

This short sidequest (designed for 4-6 PCs of 5th-9th level) can be placed in any campaign not currently set in an arid location. The adventurers find the climate becoming unusually hot during a journey, to the point that plants are dying around them. As they continue the normal landscape suddenly turns harsh, dry, and hot, and they encounter a few random fire elementals. At the center of this strange desert is a tower taken over by creatures adhered to flame: an incursion of salamanders, led...

ZEITGEIST #8 - Diaspora: Part 2

In this 32 page second act of ZEITGEIST #8: Diaspora the party recovers an artifact to let Kasvarina recollect over five centuries of memories from across the world, and they too bear witness to the memory-events! For GMs that aren't using the adventure path yet the PDF includes 16 (SIXTEEN!) NPCs and monsters: a Vigil Chaplain (CR 9), Vigil Vindicator (CR 5), the Godhand Commander Aulus Atticus (CR 14), weretiger Bramblehome Hunters (CR 7) and Shamans (CR 9), the weretiger ...