One of those rules has to do with blocking. In Magic, you declare your attackers, which then leads to the defender being able to select creatures to block the attack. This naturally leads to the question: can you block an attack with multiple creatures?

Yes. In Magic: The Gathering, you can choose to block an attacking creature with more than one creature. This is a part of the basic rules in Magic, and you don’t need any particular cards in order to do it. If you block with more than one creature, the attacking player chooses the order in which the defending creatures block.

As you can see, it’s fairly simple. However, there are other rules and strategies involved in this concept. Let’s be detailed. Read more to find out everything you need to know about blocking in Magic: The Gathering.

Can You Block With With Multiple Creatures?

As I touched on before, you can block with multiple creatures in Magic: The Gathering. There’s no limit to how many creatures you can select as blockers. If you have a creature with flash, you can cast it after your opponent has declared his attackers and use it to block.

You can choose to block with every creature you have on the board if you want to. Remember, however, that the attacking player is the one who selects the order in which your creatures block, or if we want to rationalize this rule a bit, which creature he attacks first.

Arranging Blocking Order

Here’s a rule that confuses beginners sometimes. The attacking player gets to arrange the order in which the blocking creatures take damage.

The attacking player also gets to assign his available damage freely among the blocking creatures, but he has to assign lethal damage to the first creature that blocks in order to deal damage to the second creature, lethal damage to the second to deal damage to the third, and so on.

Let’s go through Player A is attacking with a 5/5 creature, and Player B has three creatures to use as blockers: Creature X (2/2), Creature Y (3/3), and Creature Z (1/1).

Player A is attacking with a 5/5 creature, and Player B has three creatures to use as blockers: Creature X (2/2), Creature Y (3/3), and Creature Z (1/1).

Player A must decide how to assign the 5 points of damage from their attacking creature to Player B’s blockers, without assigning any damage to Player B unless the attacking creature has trample.

Let’s assume the attacking creature doesn’t have trample. In this case, Player A can only assign damage to the blockers. Here’s a possible distribution of damage:

• 2 damage to Creature X (lethal damage, destroying it).
• 3 damage to Creature Y (lethal damage, destroying it).

Player A cannot assign damage to Creature Z or Player B unless they have a card or ability that allows them to do so, such as an instant or sorcery spell that deals damage directly or a creature with trample.

The key to assigning damage effectively is to consider the current game state, the creatures involved, and your long-term strategy. Intelligent damage assignment can be crucial in gaining a strategic advantage in Magic: The Gathering.”

Attacking and blocking are very strategic concepts in Magic as you can tell, which is part of the reason why the game has stood the test of time so well.

How Many Creatures Can One Creature Block?

While multiple creatures can block one attacker, it doesn’t work the other way around. A defending creature can not block more than one creature, which means that attackers can strategically set up attacking options if they have a numerical advantage.

This is one of the core principles of Magic, and it makes for very interesting ‘option selects’ when it comes to attacking and blocking.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. For example, the Hundred-Handed One can block up to a hundred creatures when defending.

Can Creatures With Summoning Sickness Block?

You might be aware of the fact that creatures with summoning sickness can’t attack. So, can they block when summoning sickness is active?

The answer to that question is a simple yes. Summoning sickness affects creatures’ abilities to 1. attack, and 2. use abilities that would tap them. That means that some creatures can use abilities right out of the gate, as long as it wouldn’t tap them.

Can Tapped Creatures Block?

So, we’ve covered the basics of defending attacks in MTG, as well as blocking while affected by summoning sickness. However, can tapped creatures block?

No. Tapped creatures can not block attackers in MTG. Creatures get when they attack, and stay tapped during the next turn. At the beginning of your next turn, you may untap the creatures, making them ready to either attack again or hold so you can block with them your opponent’s turn.

Players’ turns are segmented into different sections, and untapping is no exception to this rule:

1. Beginning of Turn Step: Some effects and abilities trigger at the beginning of a player’s turn. These are resolved at this point.
2. Untap Step: During this step, the active player (the player whose turn it is) untaps all of their tapped permanents, including creatures. Untapping means turning the cards 90 degrees back to their upright position.

Depending on what your deck is designed to do, you should have more or fewer land cards. Aggressive decks usually have fewer lands since their mana curve is lower and they want to stuff a lot of cheap creatures in the deck, for example. So, generally, how many lands should be in a 60-card MtG deck?

As a basic rule, land cards should make up about 40% of your deck. In a 60-card Magic deck, this is around 24 cards. This number should vary depending on what type of deck you’re playing. If you can generate mana using other resources such as Llanowar Elves, you can decrease the number of land cards in your deck.

As you can tell, there isn’t a set number of land cards for every single deck. Let’s go over this in detail. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about land distribution in 60-card Magic decks.

How Many Lands in a 60-Card Deck?

Having around 24 land cards in a 60-card deck is a very good rule of thumb. However, this number can vary. Aggressive decks want to dominate the board very early, and this means having a large number of cheap creatures in your deck.

Cheap creatures are, well, cheap, so you won’t need as many lands in your deck. Having fewer lands in a deck like this will also make sure that you draw those creatures. Other decks play more expensive cards, and as a result, they need more mana.

Another factor to consider is if your deck has alternate ways of producing mana. Cards such as Llanowar Elves, Cultivate, and so forth will provide mana for you, which means that you won’t have to draw as many land cards to apply your game plan.

It’s not a 1:1 replacement for mana, however, since mana base cards that aren’t lands, such as Llanowar Elves, cost mana to play. Cards like these often count as 0.5 lands. Furthermore, if these mana base cards are creatures or enchantments, they can be removed from the battlefield much more easily than land, which means that they aren’t as reliable.

Calculating How Much Mana Your Deck Needs

There’s actually a pretty neat way that you can calculate how many land cards you need in your deck. 24 land cards will work fine in most cases, but if you want to optimize your mana use, then you should follow the steps below.

• Calculate the total converted mana cost of your non-land cards. In other words, just add the costs of your cards together until you get a number. This is your deck’s total converted mana cost.

• Divide this “score” by the number of non-land cards in your deck (the same cards that you added).

• You now have the average cost of the cards in your deck. If this average is under 1.5, your starting mana baseline is 20. This is subject to change, of course, depending on your non-land cards and how far under 1.5 your average cost is. If it’s under 1, anywhere from 18-19 lands is probably better.

• If your deck’s total converted mana cost is 2 or more, consider playing 23 or 24 lands.

• If it’s over 2.5, you need a lot of land. Play 26 or more land cards.

There are boatloads of different decks in Magic, and if your deck has cards that warrant playing more or fewer lands, you should do that. The calculation above is a good baseline, however. Below, you can find a table of good land counts depending on your deck’s total converted mana cost.

What Is a Good Mana Curve in MTG?

Mana curves are really important in MTG, and it’s certainly relevant in relation to how many lands you should have in your deck.

As I mentioned earlier, having 24 lands in your deck is a good rule of thumb. The number 24 is meant for a deck with an average mana curve. Beginner players may think they have an average mana curve, and stick 24 lands in there, even though they’re running a boatload of expensive cards.

The truth of the matter is that there is no real “average” mana curve. Decks have different mana curves depending on their archetype, and you should experiment with your deck to find out how many lands you need.

So, let’s explore what a mana curve is. In general, a deck’s mana curve relates to what turns in the game it will be able to play cards effectively. We can visualize this in a diagram.

Spending turn one casting a 1-cost spell, turn two casting a 2-cost spell, and turn three casting a 3-cost spell is an optimal mana curve, for example.

If the deck in the diagram above had more 5 and 6-cost cards, more lands would be required to play it effectively, since we want to play a land each turn until we reach turn 6 and are able to play our 6-cost cards.

Playing More Than One Color In Your Deck

A lot, if not the majority of decks, play more than one color. I’d venture to guess that playing two colors is the most common, but three-colored decks are very popular as well. Four-colored decks are usually super-cool but they’re quite complicated.

How you distribute mana when playing more than one color is an interesting question. For example, say you’re running a red/white Boros deck. The likelihood of you getting screwed over increases slightly since there’s a chance that you draw a lot of your red mana and none of your white.

Your white cards will just sit there in your hand, and all of a sudden, you’re very inefficient with your cards. Using multicolored lands is very much recommended when running a multicolored deck.

I also recommend running cards such as Evolving Wilds or Chromatic Lantern to diversify your mana base even more.

It’s usually a good idea to put emphasis on one color and “splashing” some of another color. This will make your deck less reliant on drawing the right mana.

How Many Creatures Should I Have in a 60-Card Deck?

The amount of creatures you should have depends on the style of your deck, just like the amount of land cards. Aggro decks usually run a lot of cheap creatures, control decks run fewer, and so forth: the strategy should dictate the amount of cards of any type in your deck.

If you want to read more on this particular subject, I recommend reading this resource.

Players who are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons 5e will, without a doubt, have a great understanding of the damage system, as Baldur’s Gate 3 is built using DnD’s systems.

The system can be a bit overwhelming at first – even if you only focus on the battle system, as it has to take a bunch of different things into account when determining the outcome of an attack action.

We hope to make it easier for you to understand how the game works and how you can use that to your advantage in battles.

So, how does damage work in Baldur’s Gate 3? It’s hard to explain the matter simply, and I will go into greater detail to make it easier to grasp, but here’s a quick explanation.

Whenever your character attacks, dice are rolled to determine if the attack hits. If the attack hits, the damage dealt is determined by rolling one or more dice representing the weapon used and then adding the ability modifier. Hovering over a weapon will show you what type of die is used to roll for damage. The target’s resistances and vulnerabilities are then put into the equation, affecting the final damage.

But in order for you to understand the concept better, I think we must go into greater detail. This will make it easier for you to anticipate how much damage your attacks will deal, and the likelihood of them hitting their target.

Ultimately, giving you more to base your in-battle decisions on.

How To Calculate Damage In Baldur’s Gate 3

Attacks in Baldur’s Gate 3 cost one standard Action to perform, with a few exceptions that we don’t need to mention now. Prior to performing the attack, there are two things to take into consideration.

• Will the attack hit?
• How much damage will it deal if it does hit?

This is then determined by rolling dice. You’ll see things like “1d4” or “1d20” everywhere in the game. The first number determines how many dice are used in the roll and the second number determines how many sides the dice have. A 1d20 can result in any number between 1-20.

The formula to calculate if an attack is a hit or miss is the following:

Your attack will succeed if the total sum of a 1d20 + your modifier exceeds the target’s armor class.

Your attack will fail if the total sum of a 1d20 + your modifier doesn’t exceed the target’s armor class.

So, a 20-sided die is rolled and a modifier is then added to the result of the roll to determine if the attack hits.

So, what’s a modifier and how do you know how high your modifier is? There are different types of modifiers, and which one is used depends on the type of attack you perform.

We’ve written an article that explains armor class in great detail. You can find it here.

Calculating Weapon Attacks In Baldur’s Gate 3

Let’s start by looking at a weapon attack

When performing a regular weapon attack, the modifier would be either the attacker’s Strength or Dexterity, depending on the type of weapon. Ranged, versatile, and finesse weapons are Dexterity-based, while the rest of them are Strength-based.

Let’s say that a character performing an attack with a strength-based weapon has 18 strength points. The modifier is then calculated by taking the character’s total strength minus 10 divided by 2. In this case (18 – 10 / 2 = 4) the character’s modifier would add an additional 4 to the 1d20 roll.

The formula for a regular weapon attack to hit would look something like this:

1d20 + Weapon-specific ability modifier + any proficiency bonus + any related feat bonuses = chance to hit

Wielding a weapon that the character is proficient in grants them a proficiency bonus in addition to the modifier and other bonuses that they may receive through feats, which characters are granted the first time at level 5.

With all of these effects in play, the character has a very high chance of hitting its attacks. It should be noted that wielding a weapon that the character isn’t proficient in will not only remove the bonus but also prevent the character from using the weapon’s unique traits.

Nevertheless, if the attack hits the target, then there’s a second sequence of rolls that are put in motion to calculate the damage dealt by the attack. The formula used to calculate damage looks like this:

Weapon’s damage + weapon-specific ability modifier + any related feat bonuses = damage dealt

If a rogue with 20 dexterity wielding a dagger performs an attack. The calculation starts by rolling the type of die used by the weapon. Daggers use a 1d4, which means the outcome will be a number between 1-4.

The weapon-specific ability modifier is then added. In this case, this would be the character’s dexterity. For a rogue with 20 Dex, that would equal 5 (20- 10 /2).

Feat bonuses are then added to the roll. For the sake of this calculation, I’ll skip those.

In this scenario, our rogue’s main hand dagger would hit for 1-4 + 5 damage. It works the same way for weapons that are strength-based.

Let’s look at how magic spells are calculated before we take resistances, vulnerabilities, immunities, and critical hits into the equation.

Calculating Magic Attacks In Baldur’s Gate 3

When it comes to magic attacks, the calculations are a bit different from weapon attacks. There are two types of magic attacks in the game.

• Magic attacks that use attack rolls.
• Magic attacks that use saving throws.

When calculating magic attacks that deal damage, the first part of the roll consists of determining if the spell hits. The formula used is similar to that of weapon attacks and looks like this:

1d20 + proficiency bonus + Spellcasting Modifier + any feat-related modifiers = chance to hit

Wizards, whose spellcasting modifier is Intelligence, have their Intelligence modifier added to their rolls much like rogues have their dexterity modifier added to their attacks. As a spellcaster, your spellcasting modifier is added to determine the effectiveness of the spells you cast.

If the attack hits, the damage is calculated just as a weapon attack is – but with the spellcasting modifier added instead of the weapon-specific modifier.

The part that makes magic attacks a bit different is the second type of magic attack. The one that uses Spell Save Difficulty Class (Saving Throws) instead of attack rolls. In short, they’re performed like this.

• Spell Attack = You Roll
• Spell Save = They Roll

Your character’s spell save DC determines how high the target must roll in order to pass the saving throw and mitigate the effects of the given spell.

Your spell save DC is calculated the following way:

8 + Proficiency Bonus + Spell Casting Ability Modifier

If the target meets or beats it, then they can take either half or no damage, depending on the spell’s description. Other than that, magic attacks work similarly to weapon attacks. They just rely on different stats.

But let’s continue looking at other things that impact the outcome of an attack and the damage it deals. By the way, I’d recommend learning a bit about disadvantage and advantage in Baldur’s Gate 3. Two mechanics that impact combat substantially.

Vulnerabilities, Resistances, and Immunities Baldur’s Gate 3

Now that we’ve calculated the damage input, we’ve got to take vulnerabilities, immunities, and resistances into consideration before we land on the final number of damage an attack makes.

To understand these, it’s imperative to understand that there are multiple types of damage in the game:

Physical (Non-magical)

• Bludgeoning
• Slashing
• Piercing

Physical (Magical)

• Acid
• Thunder
• Necrotic
• Fire
• Lightning
• Cold
• Psychic
• Poison
• Radiant
• Force

When any of these types of damage are dealt to a target. The target can be affected in four ways.

1. Vulnerable – Take x2 damage from that type
2. Normal – Roll normally
3. Resistant – Take 1/2 damage from that type
4. Immune – Take no damage from that type

Let’s imagine you’re up against a target who is vulnerable to fire. You strike that enemy with a weapon that you’ve dipped in fire. The weapon now deals 8 bludgeoning damage and an additional 4 fire damage.

Because the target is vulnerable to fire, the ultimate number will end up being 8 bludgeoning damage plus 8 fire damage, as the creature’s vulnerability to fire causes all your fire damage to double.

In another scenario, where the creature is resistant or immune to fire, the attack would either do 8 bludgeoning damage and 0 or 2 fire damage depending on if the creature was immune or resistant to fire.

You can find out about a creature’s weaknesses and strengths by left-clicking on them and selecting Examine. Use this information to your advantage when planning your attacks, as these things impact the outcome of your attacks a lot.

How Do Critical Hits Work In Baldur’s Gate 3?

In addition to all of the above, an attack can also be a critical hit or a critical miss.

• Critical hit: the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s armor class.
• Critical miss: the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s armor class.

Your attack roll must be a natural 20 (meaning the 1d20 attack roll is a 20 before bonuses are added) in order for the attack to become a critical hit. A critical miss, on the other hand, only occurs if the 1d20 roll is a natural 1.

Rolling an 18 and then having a bonus of +2 will net a 20, but it’s not a natural 20 and will, therefore, not result in a critical hit.

The numbers needed to perform critical hits or misses can be adjusted with feats and certain items, making it more difficult or easy to achieve them.

In addition to ensuring that the attack hits, a critical hit will also increase the damage dealt by the attack.

See, when you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. You roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Any relevant modifiers are then added as normal.

For instance, a rogue who scores a critical hit with a dagger will roll 2d4 for the damage as opposed to 1d4. The attack modifier is then added to the number. If the attack includes other damage rolls, such as a rogue’s Sneak Attack, then those dice are rolled twice too.

Some spells, like Hold Person or Sleep, cause the attacker to get an automatic critical hit. Some feats can increase the range of critical hits for certain weapons.

This means that some characters, when equipped with certain weapons, can deliver a critical hit when the 1d20 roll is both 19 and 20, increasing the chances of a critical from 1 in 20 to 2 in 20.

But among the options, you’ll find the option to recruit the companion. Both single- and multiplayer campaigns can recruit companions to either join the party or stay at camp to converse or join the fight later on in the game.

These companions have their own stories, ambitions, and enemies. Players will be able to continue the companion’s quest, which opens up more cutscenes and sidequests when certain places are visited with the right companion in the party.

Naturally, after investing a good bit of time and gear into the companion, players have started asking:

Can you lose a companion in Baldur’s Gate 3 permanently?

Yes, you can lose your companion in Baldur’s Gate but it rarely happens without your consent. There are different story paths that result in companions permanently leaving the party or dying but players will have to make that decision through dialogue. Companions can also leave the party if they disapprove of your actions to the point where they’ve lost all respect, which takes a lot of time to achieve.

But it should be noted that none of the companions are necessary in order to finish the game, it will just play out differently than it would if you had kept them. This is made obvious by the fact that you don’t even have to recruit them in the first place. You’re always given an option.

Some companions will only be available to recruit if you’ve chosen a certain path early in the game, as you might’ve already built up a bad reputation or gone against their cause but most of them can always be recruited.

Can You Get Companions Back In BG3?

If your companion died in battle, then you’ll be able to bring them back by helping them up, casting revivify on them, or by talking to Withers in camp – if you’ve gained access to him.

If you and your companion end up fighting one another and the companion is killed, then you won’t be able to bring your companion back. Not even Withers wields powers strong enough to do so.

If your companion leaves you, you won’t be able to get the companion back either. They might, however, leave you temporarily in certain areas, but for very short periods of time then return again.

How Many Companions Can You Have In Baldur’s Gate 3?

Your party can only consist of four members, but you’re allowed to have as many companions as possible in your camp. As I stated earlier, there’s a total of 10 companions.

Those who you recruit without using in your party will find their place in the camp and receive experience when the rest of your party does, meaning they will have gained levels in accordance with the rest of your party.

You can also recruit hirelings, a type of custom-made companion without a backstory. This can be a good option if the other companions aren’t to your liking, but you’ll miss their stories.

Can You Beat Baldur’s Gate 3 With No Companions?

You don’t need companions in order to beat the game but it’s quite difficult without them. Without companions, you best have a good strategy and make use of the terrain whenever possible.

The most important part, possibly, is to collect experience from every possible source so your character grows strong early on.

Which Companions Are Easy To Miss In Baldur’s Gate 3?

To tell you the truth, there are plenty of missable companions in the game. But if you’re a completionist who wants to talk to every non-player character in the game and explore every nook and cranny of the map, then you’ll most likely run into the companions.

The following companions are considered more missable than others if you ask me:

• Gale – Found in the teleportation stone north of the crash site.
• Karlach – Found south of the Toll House along the stream.
• Minthara – The drow in goblin camp whom Halsin asks you to defeat.

The last one, Minthara, is probably the most missable as you’re on a warpath with the intention of getting rid of the leaders of the goblin camp.

From terrifying dragons to towering giants, the creatures of D&D have been responsible for some of the most memorable moments in the game’s history. Each creature has its place and purpose in the story. Some of them are villains, some of them allies, and some of them have no standing.

In this article we’ve decided to take a look at the most powerful creatures players can encounter in the game. We’ll introduce the creature, and talk a little bit about their powers and their background. These creatures can then be used in your own campaigns!

Intellect Devourer (CR 2)

An intellect devourer, or brain dog, is an abomination that takes the form of a disembodied human brain with 4 bestial legs that carry it around. Most, if not all intellect devourers, are servants of mind flayers and are looked upon as dreadful beings in the Underdark.

As the name implies, these beings are capable of magically consuming another humanoid’s brain and absorbing energy from it while leaving the humanoid incapacitated as a result of the extraction. In some cases, the victim’s mentality will be crushed to the point where they’re dazed and unable to act.

As if the creature isn’t horrendous enough as it is, the Intellect Devourer can replace a humanoid’s brain after consuming it, it is then possible for the devourer to control the host body as it if were its own.

Should this happen to one of your party members, you’ll have to fight one of your own, as they’re no longer controlled by themselves.

Pyrolisk (CR 3)

Initially, one doesn’t think much of the Pyrolisk as the creature is depicted as a cockatrice-dragon the size of a chicken with a chicken-like head but as the battle starts, challengers will come to understand that the Pyrolisk is, in fact, one of the most dangerous creatures in Dungeons and Dragons.

They are malevolent creatures that thrive to spread mayhem. Pyrolisks attack most other creatures who come close to them, even unprovoked – but their worst enemies are the phoenixes. They’re considered mortal enemies to one another.

When you shed light on the Pyrolisks attack, you will understand why wreaking havoc and spreading mayhem isn’t difficult for them. The chicken-dragon-cockatrice has multiple abilities that deal lethal damage to its foes.

To their disposal are many attacks, but two stand out. The first one is the pyrolisk’s deadly gaze that sets anyone on the other end of it aflame, killing them unless they succeed in a saving throw or are resistant to fire.

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Second to none comes an attack known for being bizarre, it’s the 43-hit dice for a potential of 344 damage when the stars align for the Pyrolisk. Few challengers stand upright after being on the receiving end of this attack.

Black Pudding (CR 4)

Depicted as a structureless mass of tar, the Black Pudding is among the deadliest of the oozes and slimes that roam the underground sewer canals or temples of the world. This pile of goo is made even more lethal by the fact that it’s immune to damage.

Any attempts to damage the black pudding will cause the creature to split into two equally dangerous blobs. The monstrosity deals tremendous amounts of damage with every hit and its attacks penetrate armor with ease, making it suboptimal to allow the creature to multiply even once.

But even the black pudding is designed with a simple flaw that will allow players to deal damage to it without spawning clones, and that’s its weakness to fire spells. This is by no means obvious to anyone challenging the black pudding, which makes it a challenging and rewarding encounter.

Death Slaad (CR 10)

Among the slaad species, which are known for their unpredictable and chaotic nature, the Death Slaad is thought of as the strongest and deadliest. Being the pinnacle of a race that strives to bring evil and chaos to all gives the Death Slaad a lot of power and influence over other Slaad, but also other creatures.

This influence allows the Death Slaad to gather large armies and send them through with the intention of destroying peace and spreading chaos across multiple planes.

Death Slaads are capable of morphing into humanoids to disguise themselves, and even though their appearance transforms from truly monstrous into a persuadingly regular humanoid, they still maintain their true strength, making them incredibly powerful and deceitful.

Resistance to magic and the ability to wield a magic greatsword that deals tremendous damage is part of what makes Death Slaads scary.

Encountering a Death Slaad is not only a test of pure strength and stamina. Rather, the battle will force players to deal with the Slaad’s manipulative and strategic nature along with its intellect and raw force.

Defeating this malevolent creature will require players to use their resourcefulness, but it will make for a memorable triumph.

Aboleth (CR 10)

An eel-like anomaly with malevolent instincts, the Aboleth are a race of aquatic creatures with powerful psionic powers. Formerly, Aboleth were considered gods of the lakes but they were stripped of their status by the true gods, and the Aboleth have sought vengeance ever since.

These amphibians are immense, measuring 6 meters in length and weighing about 3000 kilograms at their prime. They do, however, continue to grow in size as they age, which is why some ancient Aboleth doubles the average size of their kin.

Armed with tentacles, these creatures can swing brutal melee attacks that can inflict a disease upon their victim. They’re even able to enslave it, should the victim fail his or her saving throw.

If a character connects with the Aboleth, telepathically, the monster can learn of the character’s greatest desires and exploit them.

Hecatoncheire (CR 11)

These creatures derive from Greek mythology. The word “hecaton” means hundred and “cheir” arms, making it the “Hundred-Hander”.

The hecatoncheire has been presented in various ways throughout the different editions of the game. The evolution of the monster started as a towering swarm of 50 heads and 100 arms armed with swords but has, in later editions, been depicted as a four-armed giant.

The monster’s body resembles that of a large tree and moves by using a series of roots at its base.

Nevertheless, the hecatoncheire is incredibly rapid because of its bizarre amount of arms, allowing it to attack a myriad of times during a single round. While it’s wise to attack the hecatoncheire from afar to be out of reach for the swarm of swords, one should still expect the abomination to be able to counterattack.

Challengers will be put to the test during this encounter where you’ll have to dodge a barrage of sword attacks in melee range or avoid enormous stones as they’re thrown against you at a distance. To make the encounter even worse, they’re capable of rejuvenating wounds that aren’t caused by divine weapons.

Beholders (CR 13)

Depicted as a floating blob with one rather large eye, a mouth, and tentacles armed with multiple smaller eyes, the Beholder is an abomination you won’t forget. The creature may not look like much at first glance but their kin reign supreme over other beings and consider themselves superior to all other creatures.

Beholders are not the most versatile creatures when it comes to their arsenal. There are a few noteworthy attacks at their disposal – the first being a fearsome bite attack and the second being their trademark attack, the eye ray.

The eye ray is what gives the Beholder more layers and adds complexity to the encounter, as there are multiple variants of the eye ray that have different effects. Among the 10 variants, there are two that are deadlier than the others.

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The death ray and the disintegration ray are both capable of depleting a character’s hit points in a single hit. Those who manage to avoid these rays might stand a chance against the floating eye monster.

Elder Brain (CR 14)

It comes as no surprise that a monstrosity called the Elder Brain has the ability to read thoughts and manipulate minds.

Portrayed as a giant floating brain in a see-through cover filled with harmful fluid, the Elder Brain has a truly monstrous appearance that matches its intentions.

As threatening and fatal an encounter with an Elder Brain can be, it’s made even worse by the fact that these creatures rarely go unguarded by their servants, the mind flayers.

Mind flayers are a highly intelligent ancient race that resides in the Underdark – a subterranean network of tunnels.

In their colony, the mind flayers are controlled by a hive mind, which acts as a repository for accumulated knowledge, memories, and intellect in the community.

This hive mind is the Elder Brain. With this in mind, you might understand why you won’t be able to attack an Elder Brain without having a swarm of mind flayers appear.

Purple Worm (CR 15)

Purple worms are enormous beasts capable of burrowing through solid rock. They’re famous for their insatiable hunger and immense size. Much like the sandworms in Dune, purple worms are able to sense vibrations in the ground and then quickly move toward the vibrations to devour whatever living thing they might find there.

The purple worm’s 80-foot-long body is covered in purple chitinous plates, and its enormous maws are capable of devouring a party member whole. It’s also armed with lines of razor-sharp teeth and at the end of its body sits a stinger that will incapacitate anyone who’s stung.

If you’re unable to levitate or move through the air, hiding from a purple worm is very unlikely. By creating a complex network of subterranean tunnels, the purple worm can move from one point to another with great haste.

Encountering a purple worm is a terrifying experience, their sheer strength and speed are enough to crush a human body, and their acidic digestive system will dissolve the toughest materials.

Purple worms are often found in underground caverns or deep within dungeons, where they often guard treasures or roam their habitat freely as apex predators.

Marilith (CR 16)

Depicted as some sort of reptile humans, Mariliths have a human female upper body while their lower body is that of a giant snake. Their upper body hosts six strong and quick arms wielding long swords, ready to throw a barrage of lethal strikes toward any foe who comes close.

They have connections in the Abyss, where they’ve acted as advisors to demonic nobility, trained demonic armies, and sometimes, climbed the ranks to the point where they’ve been considered demonic queens. Their intelligence and expertise in the field of warfare make them very valuable to those who seek to conquer the battlefields.

These aberrations are very quick to react, and anyone trying to surprise one will have to use their wits to not fail. The punishment, if caught, will be multiple strikes, by the aforementioned six arms – but there are more hazards in Marilith’s arsenal.

They have the ability to teleport to and from foes, making it incredibly hard to escape or kite the being from a distance. Its tail is used to knock players to the ground, incapacitating them.

Dragon Turtle (CR 17)

Deep down in the ocean roams one of the largest monsters in Dungeons and Dragons, the Dragon Turtle. A massive creature that combines characteristics from both dragons and turtles, the Dragon Turtle measures a staggering 70 feet in length and has the appearance of a massive turtle, but along its spine runs a row of jagged spines that resemble a dragon’s spine.

The Dragon Turtle is covered in scales that protect it from attacks, and as an aquatic creature, it can move speedily underwater. Unlike creatures in other domains, the Dragon Turtle isn’t evil in nature.

Instead, the Dragon Turtle has a neutral stand against others but keeps a strong territorial instinct to defend their territory against anyone who might be a threat.

This has made it possible for adventurers to concede part of their loot to the Dragon Turtle in exchange for safe passage through the turtle’s territory. Those who have refused

Death Knight (CR 17)

When a devoted paladin strays from his path and becomes corrupt without seeking to correct his wrongdoings before his death, the god he has pledged his life to will punish him by returning him to roam the earth as a Death Knight.

The former paladin can still find redemption for his sins – but most Death Knights fall into despair and become full of hatred against the god who cursed them. Instead, they devote their lives to spreading chaos and misery.

Having been powerful warriors in life, Death Knights wield lethal spells and abilities.

Death Knights are very interesting encounters in Dungeons and Dragons, as they’re not part of your run-of-the-mill creature pool. They aren’t killed by brute force or spells.

In fact, the Death Knight can’t be killed until the wicked actions the former paladin took during his living life have been redeemed.

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This will have the party investigating the Death Knight and the sins he performed with the aim of righting his wrongs so that he can return to rest peacefully ever after. Death Knights can be used for some pretty incredible storytelling, especially dark and tragic stories.

Nagpa (CR 17)

The Nagpa were once prominent elven mages devoted to serving the Raven Queen. When a pack of elven mages decided to plot against the queen to hinder her from completing a sacred ritual, the queen responded by cursing them.

The pack of mages was turned into Nagpas and banished to wander the material plane for the rest of their lives.

Their newly-acquired, somewhat hideous, form was that of a vulture-like humanoid with skeletal hands armed with Nagpa staffs, a staff with a bird-head. The Nagpa are unable to reproduce, and the race of the Nagpa will, therefore, one day come to an end when the last of their kin have fallen.

The Nagpa excels in the arts of arcane magic. They’re very selfish and reclusive, and do whatever they can to keep the knowledge of their curse from reaching the public.

Their kin does not require food or sleep in order to survive. They must, however, meditate for a big portion of the day in order to replenish their spells.

They’re not prone to aggression as long as their interests aren’t threatened. In fact, characters might end up receiving advice from a Nagpa if the creature isn’t provoked.

Dracolich (CR 17)

The Dracolich are remnants of dragons who’ve undergone rituals to become undead beasts. The ritual makes the once-dragon more powerful and gives it immunities and new abilities, such as the ability to control the undead. They’re soulless beings, as their souls are removed and spared in phylacteries when they become undead.

In battle, a Dracolich can frighten creatures and attack multiple times by using both their claws and maws. This combo leaves most characters with very little health left, if any.

Most who go into combat with a full-fledged Dracolich are either left on the battlefield or return with little to nothing left.

Additionally, the monstrosity has a powerful lightning breath that causes about 120 damage to anyone who’s struck by it. Defensively, the Dracolich can fly, making it easy for it to avoid melee attacks – in addition to this, it is also immune to multiple schools of spells.

Demilich (CR 18)

Prominent sorcerers and wizards who sought more power beyond death sometimes became liches, who were powerful undead casters. In pursuit of even more power, some liches would strive to become demiliches.

In order to become a demilich, a lich had to be separated from its body and then replace its body parts with soul gems. This required the lich to learn the art of creating soul gems.

In the process of becoming a demilich, the lich loses its extremities and torso. In the end, all that’s left is a floating skull that holds all of the soul gems created in the process. The soul gems could appear in other remaining parts of the liches body, but the most common form is a floating skull.

There’s no arguing why the Demilich has landed a spot on this list. The soul gems the skull holds are powerful enough to absorb a soul and the skull’s shriek is so horrifying that it leaves anyone exposed to it lifeless, with no possibility of resurrection.

Defensively, demiliches are immune to most attacks, making it incredibly hard to defeat one, should you encounter it. Only a small subset of rare weapons and powerful spells cause harm to the floating skull – so make sure you’re prepared if you want to stand a chance.

Oonga (CR 18)

The least conventional of the most dangerous creatures in Dungeons and Dragons might be Oonga. Created towards the end of the first edition of the game, the Oonga was introduced to allow players who had snowballed and become too powerful to still be challenged.

Depicted as an enormous version of King Kong in the scenario Isle of the Apes, the Oonga quickly became a household name as the towering creature was given incredible powers that not only matched those of some of the game’s strongest creatures but surpassed them.

Oonga has a lot of hit points, hits like a truck, is immune to mind control, and regenerates itself. Both dragons, demons, and giants were afraid of Oonga.

This is understandable, especially when you consider one of its most prominent attacks – its ability to pick a player up, squeeze him in its enormous grasp, drop him from wuthering heights, and stomp on whatever is left.

Balor (CR 19)

Despite their raw fury and desire for power, Balors are intelligent and persuading creatures. Through their ability to manipulate those around them, they worked their way up the ranks to command the legions of demons in Hell. To quench their thirst for power, Balors strive to take over the world by conquering it with their demonic armies.

Enveloped in an aura of darkness, Balors stand 12 feet tall and weigh up to 4500 pounds. Their grotesque and devilish body form is engulfed in flames. Much like pit fiends, Balors are armed with wings, venomous fangs, and razor-sharp claws.

But, as a symbol of their ability to command armies and battle fearlessly, Balors often dual-wield a flaming whip and a longsword charged with the power of storms.

However, even though their supreme ability to battle, Balors often favor scheming, plotting, and using their spells and long-range abilities to impact battles, rather than joining the legions on the frontlines.

The most powerful of the Balor’s abilities, Death Throes, is channeled when the Balor dies, causing the Balor’s flaming body to explode, sending massive pieces of burning flesh flying at high speeds. The explosion deals massive damage to the party and sets the surrounding area aflame.

Pit Fiend (CR 20)

In the unfathomable depths of the infernal realm, where chaos reigns and hellfire dances, a hierarchy or equilibrium must be upheld. The top of the demonic hierarchy of dominance is the pit fiend, who carves its path mercilessly through any imp or lesser demon foolish enough to impede its progress.

Known for their brutality, pit fiends have become both respected and feared in their domain. Should anyone who doesn’t belong there venture into Hell and encounter a pit fiend, they will have to use everything at their disposal to have a chance against the pit fiend.

Standing, 12-foot tall and weighing 800 pounds, the pit fiend is covered in scales, inflamed by their rage. The pit fiend’s back has two strong wings, giving the pit fiend a gargoyle-like appearance.

The pit fiend is a fearsome encounter, as it can use its maw, claws, tail, venomous teeth, and wings as weapons. If bitten, a character will suffer from a horrible disease known as devil chills.

Solar (CR 21)

Solars, a type of archangel, are the most powerful of all angels and celestials in Dungeons and Dragons. To some, they’re considered to be godlike but the Solars don’t want worshippers of their own. Instead, they only want to serve the divine power that they’ve pledged their allegiance to.

Deep within the flaming hell holes in the Abyss, the demon lords themselves fear the day a Solar makes an appearance, as they’re exceedingly powerful beings whom Orcus himself would stand little chance against.

Few beings are strong enough to challenge Solars for power, as the Solars have a vast arsenal of powerful attacks and spells. Armed with a greatsword that can slash through creatures with ease and even fight on its own while the Solar shoots fiery arrows, a Solar can face armies of feeble creatures without harm.

Dealing damage to one is no piece of cake either, as they’re highly resistant to magic and weapons.

Elder Titan (CR 21)

Among all of the giants in Dungeons and Dragons, the elder titans are colossal in comparison to the rest of their kin. Their immense size and strength make them an unstoppable force to be reckoned with.

Anything in their path will be left in ruins as they rummage through cities armed with gigantic hammers or javelins.

Don’t let their size and exceptional strength fool you, they’re also extremely intelligent beings and skilled spellcasters. Some titans are even capable of becoming invisible and levitating. This mixture of cosmic size, brute force, and vast intelligence makes the elder titan extremely dangerous.

Molydeus (CR 21)

Deep within the Abyss, Molydeus serves as one of the demon lord’s most prominent and powerful servants, and are even considered superior to balors.

Depicted as a demon with a goat head and a snake attached to its back, the Molydeus is incredibly dangerous and masters a plethora of fearsome attacks that will leave few characters intact.

As the demon lords’ servants, the Molydeus are expected to and capable of withstanding the attacks of an entire party single-handedly without the help of their lords or other feeble creatures.

Standing about 4 meters tall and weighing 650~ kilograms, the demon is covered in red skin, and equipped with a set of lethal clawed hands.

In addition to its claws, the Molydeus often carry a unique demonic weapon linked to them. While the weapon could vary depending on the lord they served, it’s more often than not a demonic greataxe. These weapons are deadly but will dissolve when the Molydeus is slain to ensure no one else can harness its power.

Molydeus have plenty of magic abilities, a lot of resistance against different schools of magic, a set of powerful attacks, and a couple of legendary actions.

These attributes cause problems for any foes by themselves, but when combined, they offer characters the possibility to meet with something they’ve never seen before.

Empyrean (CR 21)

Empyreans are tall and graceful beings who never age and always maintain their beauty. Their titan-like appearance is the shell of an inside that’s controlled by strong emotions. So strong that the Empyrean can physically alter their surroundings based on their mood.

As for some of the other creatures on this list, Empyreans aren’t aligned to do evil. In fact, they’re kind and well-meaning – or at least most of them.

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Some Empyreans stray too far from their path and become corrupted or cursed by an evil deity. They’re then banished from their home plane and sent to the Prime Material Plane. Encountering an evil Empyrean is a completely different experience.

From ground-shaking attacks to powerful spells, they’re a force to be reckoned with. With an armor class of 22 and 313 hit points at their disposal, their foes are in for a long fight.

Zaratan (CR 22)

The Zaratan, a turtle-like creature with a shell measuring hundreds of feet in diameter, is a beast to be reckoned with. Their metabolism allows them to live for thousands of years, during which sediment and plants will start growing on their shells, creating a sort of ecosystem on the monster’s back.

When submerged halfway, a Zaratan could be mistaken for an island because of the vegetation on their shells. They’re not evil, but they’re not good either. They’re just beings who you don’t want to get on the wrong side of.

These creatures are extremely dangerous and will strike back with the force of an army at anyone who’s provoking them or hindering their march forward. They do, however, spend most of their time sleeping inside their shell and reflexively swallow anything that gets close to the opening during their hibernation.

Fighting one is difficult, as the Zaratan’s movement creates dangerous shockwaves that the party must withstand. When damaged, the turtle will retract its body into the impenetrable shell on its back and wait until it has regenerated.

Sometimes, the Zaratan will go into a deep slumber which can last for decades once retracted. The encounter is, as you can imagine, difficult to navigate.

Kraken (CR 23)

A creature that can control the oceans wields tremendous power over those who seek to traverse it. By manipulating currents and the weather, Kraken can create the perfect opportunity to strike and sink both lonesome ships and entire fleets.

These colossal monstrosities can swallow foes whole. Anyone who survives being swallowed can fight the monster from within. Fighting a Kraken is no joke, even for the most stacked of parties, as the Kraken bears high stats and deals lethal damage with its tentacles.

Even though the Kraken is known for being a horrendous sea creature, it is by no means bound to the aquatic domain and can breathe out of the water. The deep trenches of the sea are its primary habitat, though.

Good luck fighting one. Hopefully, it doesn’t regenerate its tentacles once you’ve sliced them off or spew a cloud of black ink your way.

Ancient Red Dragon (24)

Challenging an ancient dragon, regardless of which one it is, isn’t for the faint of heart, as they’re some of the most dangerous creatures, and a fight with any of them is an obstacle that will drain or defeat even the most prepared party.

Among these unstoppable forces, the red dragon is known for being one of the strongest, only triumphed by Tiamat. It’s very evil, self-centered, and extremely protective of its treasures.

The red dragon is no tactician, unlike many other foes on this list. Instead, it snaps and goes berserk without any forethought. Their power and cruelty make them incredibly dangerous even without a plan. Having a monster of this size go into a blackout rage and act unpredictably will shock anyone.

During an encounter with the red dragon, the party can expect it to cast a fire breath that will either kill or severely damage the party, and a wing attack that can render characters incapacitated. In addition to their strong attacks, they’ve got a boatload of hit points and a high armor class.

Primus (CR 25)

Known as the lord of the Modrons, Primus is the supreme power that leads his race of lawfully aligned beings who inhabit Mechanus, the Plane of Law.

The fact that ending up on the wrong side of the law could lead to an encounter with Primus will have creatures reconsider their plans, as Primus has enough force to incapacitate most woes.

While Primus is no god, he comes very close. His entire demeanor conveys a sense of law, order, precision, and perfection.

Primus emerges from a pillar of energy, his upper body is that of a humanoid while his lower body is a column of spiral energies. His appearance is surrounded by a radiant aura that symbols his almost divine power and superiority.

As a talented spellcaster that rarely relies on his magic abilities, Primus has gathered enough brute force to use his melee attacks to fend off attackers who dare approach him.

Marut (CR 25)

The Maruts were created by Mystra to enforce the fundamental laws of the universe. Primarily, finding those who’ve found ways of denying or cheating death and ensuring they’re punished for it.

As enforcers of contracts throughout the Multiverse, Maruts have been given significant strength and power to be able to carry out the tasks they’ve been given. Maruts care about little except their duties given by the deities who they serve.

Maruts are mostly found on their home plane of the Mechanus, where clockwork creatures roam. They’re depicted as large mech-titans, humanoid in form but made of mechanical components, and wield no weapons but carry out lethal damage through brute force.

Once these colossal mechanical enforcers have spotted their target, they march toward it without doubt or pause and continue to pursue until the target has been eliminated and the task has been completed.

Maruts mainly rely on their fists of lightning and thunder to deal damage but they’re also able to channel bursts of arcane energy from their chest, which both damages and stuns enemies.

The Marut’s left fist, the thunder fist, emits a huge thunderclap that can deafen opponents for up to a minute when it strikes. The right one, the lightning fist, strikes with a great flash of electricity that can blind a foe for the same amount of time.

Demogorgon (CR 26)

The powerful demon prince, Demogorgon, is one of the most famous and feared villains in the game’s lore. He lived on the 88th layer of the Abyss, known as Gaping Maw, where he raised a palace known as Abysm, which consisted of two towers connected by a bridge at the top.

He is worshiped as a god by many other evil creatures. His two heads create a duality that plagues him as there’s an ongoing internal conflict between the two heads. Demogorgon is known for his cruelty, as he has a strong desire to spread chaos and destruction throughout the Abyss.

Demogorgon can be one of the most challenging encounters in the game to defeat, even for high-level players. His attacks deal a great amount of damage and his powerful abilities and magic can leave characters with little-to-no hp left. But as with most things in Dungeons and Dragons, the encounter can be made harder or easier.

Adding other creatures by the Demogorgon’s side is a surefire way of making the encounter harder. Another is to fight him in his own favorite domain – water.

Orcus (CR 26)

The Demon Prince of the Undead, Orcus, was once a powerful and wicked spellcaster on the mortal plane. His actions during life forced him to an afterlife in the Abyss, where he worked his way from the bottom to the top. The climb took thousands of years, during which he challenged many other demon lords for power.

Once at the top, Orcus showed very little compassion for the minions who served him. Those who serve under his rule and prove powerful and willing to continue his mission of spreading chaos are given a piece of his power, but they’re bound to him. Orcus’s goal is to create a gigantic necropolis under his command.

Vecna – Lich (CR 26)

Vecna, popularized by Stranger Things, is a former human king turned lich who was betrayed by one of his closest servants. Vecna isn’t bound to any single domain but roams all over the multiverse with the intent to bring destruction and gain dominion over other beings.

One of Vecna’s methods to gain sovereignty is to manipulate and expose others’ secrets. According to Vecna, every being holds a single secret that, when unearthed, gives others control of that being. Thanks to his incredibly keen perception, he doesn’t miss anything.

Vecna’s foes are usually met with a myriad of different powerful attacks, as he himself harbors tremendous powers. Among the least forgiving of his abilities, you’ll find horrible ways of altering reality and paralyzing his targets with his touch.

Tiamat (CR 30)

Dragon goddess of greed, queen of evil dragons, sister of Bahamut, and servant of gods Bane and Asmodeus – Tiamat isn’t just the mightiest of dragons, but one of the most powerful creatures in Dungeons and Dragons altogether.

Tiamat is depicted as a dragon with multiple heads, one for each color of the chromatic dragons (red, blue, black, and green).

Each head is capable of acting independently of the other heads and carries the powers of the chromatic dragon its color represents. During combat, these heads will cooperate and cast breath-like spells associated with their species.

Tiamat has the ability to claw and kick her victims with enormous force, but mostly when she’s airborne as the sheer size of her body makes it hard to do while standing. At the end of Tiamat’s tail sits a stinger that injects victims who are stung with a fatal venom.

This mixture of abilities in combination with Tiamat’s deity status and stats turn this dragon into a powerhouse few can triumph.

Tarrasque (CR 30)

Towering over most other creatures in Dungeons and Dragons, the Tarrasque has probably become the most infamous monster in the game, known for its hunger for destruction and ability to wreak havoc on everything it sets its gaze on. During a rampage, anything standing in the Tarrasque’s way will be left devastated.

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Everything about the creature is designed to be a symbol of brute force. Its appearance is much like that of a dinosaur with spikes along its back. It stands fifty feet tall and seventy feet wide, with an enormous maw capable of swallowing enemies whole.

Because of its sheer strength, the Tarrasque’s attacks are primarily hard-hitting melee attacks. In addition to its devastating attacks, the monster has a reflective carapace, which can redirect spells back toward the caster.

Players who are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons will, therefore, know their way around Baldur’s Gate with ease. A big portion of the player base has never been in contact with tabletop roleplaying games though, which has resulted in the game spawning a plethora of questions related to the game’s mechanics.

Two words that appear frequently in the game are “Advantage” and “Disadvantage” – whether it be in combat, during an action, or in a dialogue. They were both introduced in the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons to help streamline the somewhat scattered situational bonuses from the prior games.

Let’s start by looking at the meaning of each state and how you can obtain it.

What’s Advantage In BG3 and DnD?

In both games, the outcome of an action is determined by rolling dice. More specifically, a 20-sided die. Whenever a character makes an attack, tries to lockpick a door, or persuades someone in a dialogue, a dice is rolled to determine if the action will succeed or fail.

When a character has advantage, that character is given a second die that will be rolled at the same time and the die with the highest number will then be picked for the character’s action. Your modifiers (bonuses and penalties) are then added or subtracted from the roll.

This is extremely beneficial as it increases the chances for the player to hit attacks, succeed in dialogues, open doors, and much more. You can have advantage over another character or being in more than one way in any given situation – but the effect will never stack or grant more benefits.

So, how is it obtained?

How To Get Advantage In BG3 and DnD

Advantage can be obtained in many ways. We’ve compiled a list of different situations where a character will gain advantage to give an idea of the concept.

• When attacking while hidden (or surprising the enemy).

• When flanking an enemy, which happens when two allies are attacking from opposite sides of the enemy. (In Dungeons and Dragons)

• When the enemy you attack is prone.

• When the enemy you attack is restrained, asleep, or paralyzed.

• When one of the many spells or items in the game that grant advantage on the next attack is used.

• When the attacker has a high-ground position in relation to the target. (Only Baldur’s Gate 3)

• When a character has a class action that gives advantage. Rogue’s “Cunning Action” gives advantage on Stealth Checks, for instance.

• When the non-player character you’re trying to persuade is charmed or befriended using spells.

These are the most common situations that grant a character advantage when rolling – but there are many other occurrences that alter advantage on rolls, such as feats, which characters are given the first time at level 4, and racial traits which also grant advantage in certain situations.

It should be mentioned that any feat that allows a character to reroll a die, such as the Lucky Feat, only allows characters to reroll one of the two dice with advantage.

The benefit of being in a state of advantage is roughly equivalent to a +4 bonus to your rolls, meaning you’re 20% more likely to succeed on any roll. This makes advantage a very important mechanic to understand and master – as it is one of the greatest ways to impact the outcome of your actions.

In Baldur’s Gate 3, the maps are often very detailed and few battles are fought in locations where the environment can’t be used to your advantage. High-ground positions are one of the most easily accessible ways of doing it.

Another way to gain advantage over an enemy by using the environment is to shove said enemy off a ledge high enough to cause the creature to be prone after the fall.

What’s Disadvantage In BG3 and DnD?

Characters who are in a state of disadvantage in any given situation are also given an extra die to roll with but instead of picking the one with the highest number to determine the outcome, the die with the lowest number is picked.

You want to avoid being in a disadvantage at all costs, as you’ll need to pass the roll with two dice instead of one.

For instance, imagine that you need to roll 15 to pass a Wisdom check but the character rolling is at a disadvantage. When the character rolls, the dice must both pass 15 in order to pass the check – as the lowest number is picked. This state often produces failed actions and misses.

For obvious reasons, you’ll want to place your own characters in a position where they’re given advantage while the enemy is forced to roll with disadvantage, but accomplishing this isn’t always easy.

How To Avoid Disadvantage In BG3 and DnD?

So when are characters placed in a disadvantageous position? Some of the most common situations tend to be when:

• You attack in the darkness without darkvision.

• You make a ranged attack when the target is in melee range.

• You’re wearing armor or equipment that you aren’t proficient in.

• You’re frightened, blinded, or affected by other status effects that cause disadvantage.

The easiest way to avoid being at a disadvantage is to use equipment that you’re proficient in, as equipping a piece of armor that you’re not proficient in has crippling consequences.

Furthermore, ensuring that your character isn’t over-encumbered and that any hindering conditions that are inflicted on them are removed immediately are solid ways of preventing disadvantage.

This state can, as mentioned before, be caused by spells too. An example is Blur, a spell known to Wizards and Sorcerers in Baldur’s Gate 3 that puts the target at disadvantage. These spells are more useful than one might think, especially if you’ve grown used to brute forcing it.

Not only do they impose disadvantage on an enemy, making them much less likely to succeed, they can also make an enemy with advantage lose the advantage.

How? Well, advantage and disadvantage can cancel each other out.

(Below is an example where the environment causes both states, which cancel each other out. The same could be achieved by casting Blur on the target with advantage.)

A character could, for instance, be positioned on a high ground, giving the character advantage – while the character’s target is positioned in the dark, putting the same character in a state of disadvantage. The two states will then cancel out, resulting in a neutral roll with one die.

Wrapping Up

Rolls are, like it or not, a fundamental part of the game, and learning how to cope with these mechanics is most likely going to make the experience even more enjoyable.

In Baldur’s Gate 3, players are directly responsible for out-of-combat rolls, such as rolls in dialogue and lockpicking – the rest of the rolls are handled in the background by the game.

The same can be said for Dungeons and Dragons, where the Dungeon Master handles some of the rolls and the players cast the rest.

Curses can be cast by good, neutral, and evil characters but they’re more often than not used by evil-intentioned creatures.

Curses come in different forms throughout the game and can be acquired through various means, such as cursed magic items, spells and rituals, and encounters with cursed creatures.

The effects of the curse can vary from impacting individual characters, places, or items to spreading to everything surrounding the cursed object or character. Curses can be removed but players must often overcome a challenge to find out how.

As simple as it may sound, there’s much more to say about curses in Dungeons and Dragons.

I feel like the framework for curses has been laid out for the Dungeon Master, but managing and picking the right type of curse requires a bit of balance in order for the curse to have a big enough effect to make it motivating to remove but not great enough to render a character useless.

What Types of Curses Are There In DnD?

In Dungeons and Dragons, the use of curses can enhance the storyline, make for a challenge for the players, create interesting class builds, and mystify places and items. While curses have negative effects, these effects can be used by the Dungeon Master to challenge the party.

There are many layers to a curse and the way it works. On the first layer, you have the object, place, or character that’s cursed.

On the second layer, you have the mechanical effects of the curse, the detriment that those who happen upon it are affected by.

On the third layer, you have the origin of the curse, which doesn’t affect the curse mechanically but it adds to the storyline and may or may not give hints about ways of dispelling the curse.

The origin of the curse doesn’t need to be the item or person who cursed the player. Instead, the curse could have its origins far back in time, and he or she who created it might not even be alive anymore. This can then be used by the Dungeon Master to create fascinating lore.

Aside from all this, there are different types of curses, which also have an impact on how they should be applied to the game. Let’s look at them.

1. Bestow curse

Bestow curse is a 3rd-level spell found in the Player’s Handbook, allowing players to impose a variety of penalties on enemies, such as a disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. There are four suggested curses that can be used but players might create their own curses as long as they’re equally or less powerful than the suggested alternatives.

This is the most common way of accessing curses in Dungeons and Dragons for players, meaning they can use the curses against their own enemies rather than being affected by them themselves.

The suggested curses are tailored for combat situations, and their duration is determined by the level of the spell slot used. At 3rd level, the curse lasts for 1 minute, increasing to 24 hours when cast as a 7th-level spell.

If cast at 3rd or 4th level, concentration is required to maintain the curse, but using a 5th-level spell slot or higher eliminates the need for concentration. By using a 9th-level spell slot, you can impose a curse that remains until it is dispelled.

The specific effects of this spell depend on your DM’s interpretation, but it can typically be employed for temporary, surface-level curses that serve narrative purposes and have minor mechanical implications.

2. Cursed Magic Items

Cursed magic items in Dungeons and Dragons are meant to surprise characters when their effects are revealed. Therefore, you’ll get nowhere with the most common methods of identifying curses, including the spell identify.

There’s a section in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (Page 138) where cursed items are outlined. There are a total of 5 cursed magic items, excluding artifacts in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and they all require a bond to be created between the character and the item, also known as attunement.

Once attuned, the character will be unable to end the attunement, meaning the character can’t stop using the cursed item until the curse has been dispelled. Be it a shield, armor, necklace or sword, it simply can’t be removed as long as the subject is cursed.

The Dungeon Master determines what’s required of the character to break the attunement, which will free the character from the cursed item.

All in all, cursed magic items can be used for some incredible lore and character development when used wisely.

3. Monstrous Curses

Monstrous curses in Dungeons and Dragons refer to curses that afflict creatures with monstrous or supernatural attributes, often found in the context of monstrous races or creatures. These curses typically impact the creature’s physical form, abilities, or behavior.

This could be your typical banshee, who used to be a beautiful woman who was cursed to roam the earth as a banshee because of her vanity, or a formorian who was cursed because she (or he) did evil deeds and held little sympathy for others in her heart. Curses of this type often cause deformities and misery upon the character who’s cursed.

Some examples of monsters who can be creations of terrible curses include:

• Vampires
• Lycanthropes
• Demons
• Driders
• Mummies
• Nothics
• Perytons
• Undead

Some common monster encounters that can inflict curses upon the party in combat include:

• Werewolves (Bite): Inflicts the lycanthropy curse.
• Demilich (Vile Curse): The character has disadvantage on attack and saving throws until the curse ends.
• Lamia (Intoxicating Touch): Until the curse ends, the target has disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws and all ability checks.
• Mummies (Rotting Fist): Inflicts mummy rot upon the target. The cursed target can’t regain hit points, and its hit point maximum decreases by 10 (3d6) for every 24 hours that elapse. If the curse reduces the target’s hit point maximum to 0, the target dies, and its body turns to dust. The curse lasts until removed by the remove curse spell or other magic.

Curses can be avoided by saving throws as defined by the ability. Some curses last for a set period of time, some can be removed by additional saving throws, and some can only be removed by using magic.

How Can You Identify a Cursed Item In DnD?

This is one of those in-game rules that have no real consistent justification.

You might consider casting detect magic upon the item to find out if it’s a cursed item. Well, a cursed item does not show as magical, unless there is a secondary magical effect (+1 cursed sword). Therefore, neither Detect Magic nor Identify will show that an item is cursed, let alone what that curse is.

So, there are two major key pieces when it comes to curses. One of the pieces of the puzzle is finding out if the item is cursed, and the other one is to figure out the effects of the actual curse that the item harbors.

To make cursed items more interesting, the game has made it far more difficult to figure out whether an item is cursed or not and what the effects of the curse are. From my own experience, any character who is cursed in a campaign will have a harder time dealing with the curse than one would have initially thought.

This can, of course, be adjusted by the Dungeon Master. However, making curses rather difficult to detect is part of the point of using curses. They’re supposed to be narrative devices in the game and if they’re little-to-no hassle for the party, then they’re not going to impact the narrative as they can be overlooked with no consequences.

You, as the Dungeon Master, can control how the party can detect and reveal the cursed item. Some people like doing it through lore, which includes giving the party hints. This can be small subtle hints found throughout the campaign but also grand revelations. It can also be delivered as a “sensation” that the cursed character feels after having worn the item for a period of time or any time anyone gets close to the item.

Because curses often require attunement in order to be obtained, it would be unwise to allow players to identify the cursed item before they’ve been attuned to it. I know it sounds dumb to not have a way to reward players for being precautious before grabbing random items, but it would also make it too easy to dodge cursed items.

Players will understand that the item is cursed once they try to unattune from the item and notice that they can’t break free from the item or when they start suffering ill effects.

Cited from the DMG: (I believe it was page 138-139)

“Some magic items bear curses that bedevil their users, sometimes long after a user has stopped using an item. A magic item’s description specifies whether the item is cursed. Most methods of identifying items, including the identify spell, fail to reveal such a curse, although lore might hint at it. A curse should be a surprise to the item’s user when the curse’s effects are revealed.

Attunement to a cursed item can’t be ended voluntarily unless the curse is broken first, such as with the remove curse spell.”

How Can You Remove a Curse In DnD?

So, what can be done to end a cursed character’s suffering, freeing them from the darkness within? Removing a curse looks a bit different depending on what type of curse it is and who the subject is.

When it comes to cursed characters, the curse can be removed by a 3rd-level spell called remove curse, which is known to be used by clerics, paladins, warlocks, and wizards.

The spell has a casting time of 1 action / 6 seconds and requires verbal and somatic components. The caster must also be in contact with the cursed character or item while casting the spell.

Remove curse can remove the effects of bestow curse, end the attunement to a cursed magic item, and remove curses brought upon characters by monster abilities in combat. You can also remove the effects of bestow curse with dispel magic.

Curses won’t be removed from a cursed item when remove curse is cast on the item. This depends entirely on the item and any information regarding this should be stated on the item.

If you, as a Dungeon Master, have come up with the items it’s up to you to decide whether the curse is removed from the item or if the spell merely breaks the attunement to the item.

Greater restoration, a spell known by bards, clerics, and druids, can also remove curses from creatures. I’d say it’s a more powerful spell than remove curse and can, therefore, sometimes remove curses from items that remove curse can’t.

Our Favorite Cursed Items In Dungeons and Dragons

There’s a long list of cursed items that have been introduced in the different versions of the game throughout the year. I’ve handpicked the ones that we’ve had the most fun using in our campaigns. You are, of course, allowed to create your own cursed items for your campaign. But, without further ado, here’s the list.

Hell-Hound Cloak

One could think that this cozy cloak made from hellhound wool is a mere piece of clothing at first glance but it is not until the wearer starts experiencing the effects of the cloak that it becomes obvious that it is a cursed item.

The cloak will, once attuned to a character, allow the player to polymorph into a hell-hound for an hour. The sixth time the character is polymorphed into a hellhound, the only way to come back to human form is to make a saving throw. If the saving throw fails, the character is stuck in hell-hound form until dispelled or until his or her health points are depleted.

The longer the character is stuck as a hellhound, the harder it will be to revert the effect. With the right set of spells, the curse isn’t that difficult to deal with.

Wand of Orcus

The Wand of Orcus is a popular cursed item possessed by the Prince of Underneath, Orcus. The item has many cool properties, but a clear favorite is the ability to call for undead soldiers at will. The wand can also be used to cast spells like Power Word Kill, Finger of Death, and Speak With Dead.

The wand serves as a 3+ mace that deals 2d12 bonus necrotic damage on hit and uppers your armor class by 3. The hefty upside of the item is balanced out by the costly, it not fatal, detriment carried out by the curse.

If you fail to attune to the item by failing a Constitution 17 saving throw, the item will kill you immediately and raise you as a zombie. This makes it quite difficult for many low-constitution characters to handle the attunement. Even successful high-constitution characters will take damage upon attuning to the item, but they’ll survive.

Staff of the Forgotten One

Hailing from the campaign Tomb of Annihilation is another one of our favorite cursed items, the Staff of the Forgotten One. The staff can only be wielded by a warlock, sorcerer, or wizard and gives the wielder the following:

Immunity to being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, petrified, or stunned. Proficiency bonus to Arcana and History is doubled, and you won’t be attacked by undead creatures with a challenge rating below two unless you provoke them.

In addition to the passive effects, the staff also comes with seven charges that can be used to cast curses upon other creatures. The curse causes creatures to be unable to heal and makes them vulnerable to necrotic damage.

Seems nice, doesn’t it? But, because we’re talking about cursed items I’m sure you were well aware of the fact that there would be a downside. The staff is controlled by a mage who’s imprisoned within the staff, who will try his best to possess you every time you use one of the seven charges.

If you still haven’t heard about ChatGPT: It’s a chatbot that will generate answers to your prompts, allowing you to have human-like conversations with it and use its vast knowledge of things. The bot can do fascinating things when the right prompts are given.

This has, of course, proved useful in the Dungeon and Dragons community in multiple ways. With a little bit of creativity and understanding of the way prompts should be given to the language model, you’ll have a great asset at your disposal – regardless of your role in the game.

Let’s take a look at all the ways AI bots can be used in Dungeons and Dragons.

Let ChatGPT Be the Dungeon Master (Partially)

Hoping that the language model can run your entire campaign will frustrate you. It should be used as a supplement. I’m saying this now to prevent you from making up ideas of a robot Dungeon Master who will surpass any DM you’ve ever seen before.

The role of the Dungeon Master often includes preparing the story, narrating the creatures and non-player characters that exist in the story, managing the outcome of the character’s actions, etc. These tasks can be performed by a language model like ChatGPT.

To get the best results you should teach the bot about its role and how you want it to respond to your prompts. The bot can then remember the commands and guidelines you’ve provided, which will garner much better results.

Let the bot get into the swing of things, and you’ll have a good Dungeon Master at your disposal. This can be time-consuming the first time – and it depends on how much information you want to feed the bot. Keep in mind that the more guidelines you can provide, the more precise ChatGPT will be.

• Here’s an example of a small prompt fed to the AI prior to starting the adventure.
• Here’s an example of a more thorough prompt fed to the AI prior to starting the adventure.

We’ve had some great campaigns with ChatGPT filling the role of the Dungeon Master, especially when playing with younger crowds or beginners. We’ve also tried using ChatGPT for solo adventures, where a sole player is guided through the game by the Dungeon Master.

But we’ve had to make some tweaks to some of the answers we’re given by the bot.

The AI is still missing a few elements that a human Dungeon Master possesses. Therefore, I think you’ll get the best results by using the chatbot as an assisting Dungeon Master who can generate all sorts of things, such as items, settings, characters, options, challenges, and more.

Here’s an enormous list of ChatGPT prompts for Dungeons and Dragons that you might find useful.

Use ChatGPT to Generate Content For Your Campaign

This is where ChatGPT excels. You will never have to spend time coming up with names for characters, items, cities, quarters, taverns, or anything else you might want to name. You can simply describe the object to ChatGPT and ask it to generate a fitting name.

I prompted ChatGPT to provide a fitting and funny name for a Steampunk character and this is what I was given:

• Amelia Gearhart
• Cornelius Steamfist
• Octavius Copperbeard
• Ada Ironwood
• Nathaniel Clockwinder
• Victoria Steamweaver
• Ezekiel Brassheart
• Imogen Cogsworth
• Leopold Steamwright
• Rosalind Gearspinner.

You can ask ChatGPT to generate NPCs, cities, character ideas, plot twists, background stories, and much more. Here’s an example of a generation given to me when I asked ChatGPT to describe a city in ruin. This is what it came up with:

The city lay in ruins, a haunting reminder of its former glory. The once-grand buildings were now crumbling, their walls cracked and overgrown with vines. The streets were empty, with no sound but the rustling of leaves in the wind.

The city had been abandoned for centuries, with no living thing remaining to tell its story. It was as if time had stood still, frozen in a moment of decay and desolation. The only signs of life were the animals that had made their homes in the ruins, scurrying through the empty streets and seeking shelter in the decaying buildings.

Lastly, I tasked ChatGPT with coming up with a puzzle for me to describe to my party who had just entered an abandoned library during their adventure. Here’s what it came up with:

“As the party of adventurers steps into the abandoned grand library, they are immediately struck by the overwhelming sense of history and knowledge contained within its walls. The shelves are stacked high with ancient tomes, scrolls, and manuscripts, and the air is thick with the dust of ages.

The party soon learns that the library was once a repository of arcane knowledge, with many secrets hidden within its labyrinthine corridors. They are tasked with finding a hidden department that is said to contain a powerful artifact that could help them in their quest.

As they search the library, they come across a locked door with no apparent keyhole or mechanism to open it. However, upon closer inspection, they notice that there are strange symbols etched into the stone around the doorframe.

The symbols seem to represent different magical schools of thought, and the party realizes that they must activate each symbol in the correct order to open the door and reveal the hidden department.

The catch is that each symbol is also linked to a specific riddle or puzzle that the party must solve in order to activate it. The riddles are all related to different aspects of arcane knowledge, such as magic theory, ancient languages, or magical creatures.

For example, one riddle might be: “I am a creature of the night, with wings that can blot out the moon. I am often feared, but can also be a symbol of transformation. What am I?”

The answer, of course, is a bat, and once the party has solved the riddle, they can activate the symbol for the school of illusion magic, which will light up on the doorframe.

Once all the symbols have been activated in the correct order, the door will swing open, revealing the hidden department and the artifact within. However, the riddles and puzzles will be challenging and require the party to use their knowledge and skills to solve them, making it a satisfying and rewarding puzzle for them to overcome.”

I asked ChatGPT for the rest of the riddles and immediately it spat out 5 more great riddles for me to use in the library.

Any Dungeon Master will immediately see how this could be a great resource when planning a campaign. No longer will you run out of ideas with nowhere to turn.

Use ChatGPT For Worldbuilding

Yes, this goes without saying after reading the tip prior to this one, but I still think it’s worth mentioning that it can be used for all your world-building endeavors. From the universe where the story takes place, to the house your character was raised in, and anything in-between.

Can You Learn How To Play DnD With ChatGPT?

Dungeons and Dragons is a game with a plethora of rules, mechanics, classes, and a few different editions. Information about these things is then spread out across a bunch of different books, making it hard for newcomers to learn the ropes at a rapid pace.

Now, one of the best ways to learn the game is to play with someone with superior knowledge of the game who can pace the campaign to fit a group of beginners and teach the rules and mechanics along the way.

ChatGPT can also supplement the rulebooks to a certain degree. You can ask ChatGPT about specific concepts or mechanics and ask it to explain them as if the recipient of the message was a total beginner with no prior knowledge.

You can ask the AI to teach you the basics of Dungeons and Dragons then continue from there. Make sure to include the edition you’re playing as the rules may vary from one edition to the next.

The only issue is that you can’t trust the answers to be correct every single time, meaning you might feel the need to fact-check some of the answers. Most answers tend to be correct though.

Can ChatGPT Single-Handedly Run a DnD Game?

While it can be used to come up with pretty much anything, I think any seasoned player would say that ChatGPT can’t replace the Dungeon Master in every aspect, and I concur. The AI can remember prior conversations and recall pieces of information that you’ve given about the setting, characters, or encounters.

But as of now, I think humans do a better job of putting all the pieces together. Your results will be somewhat limited if you intend to use the bot as your sole Dungeon Master. On the other hand, using ChatGPT as your assistant will prove extremely useful.

We tried having ChatGPT as the sole Dungeon Master in a campaign for the youngsters in our family, and it worked great. It included plot twists, explained concepts, took their age into consideration, and provided age-appropriate content. We monitored the campaign and fed their prompts to the AI, which we then read out loud for them.

So, while the AI was producing the content, we narrated the AI.

Anyone with a little bit of programming knowledge could probably use OpenAI’s API to implement ChatGPT in their own apps to create a sweet toolset for their DnD groups.

What’s Bad About ChatGPT When Using It For DnD?

Sometimes, the AI won’t understand the core intention of your message. You might have a clear image of what you’re relaying to the AI – but you’re then given something back that falls way off what you had hoped for.

You will, at times, get overshadowed by ChatGPT who will answer the prompt and leave very little space for your input or include you in a not-so-satisfying way.

It can also feel like you’re being served the same thing over and over again. Even though the bot will give you different answers, there’s something about them that just feels generic. I think this can be manipulated with the right prompts.

They’re designed to be less overwhelming and involving than longer campaigns, providing a playground for new players who don’t want to commit to a character or setting for a full-length campaign but rather swap until they’ve found their preference.

They’re popular because they require work prior to running the game from both the players and the Dungeon Master. There are often pre-generated characters, settings, challenges, and more.

Alas, one-shots can be used by Dungeon Masters to implement in their current campaigns to enhance them – or give the players a break from their current mission.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the stuff you came to learn about. Here’s our list of the best one-shot adventures for players who have just started playing the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

Death House

Death House is part of the Curse of Strahd campaign setting and can be experienced as a precursor for Curse of Strahd or as an isolated one-shot adventure. If you aren’t familiar with Curse of Strahd’s setting, expect Gothic horror elements throughout the story.

The setting, with its ominous mountains, dark forests, and overall creepy atmosphere, creates an immersive experience you won’t forget.

The campaign is designed for characters of levels 1 to 3 and includes thorough exploration, some combat, challenging puzzles, roleplaying, and saving throw mechanics. Death House introduces this mixture of different D&D elements in a way that’s designed so that it can be absorbed by new players.

The dungeon in Death House is a multi-story dungeon filled with hidden secrets that players must discover by exploring every nook and cranny that presents itself. The dungeon is also populated by non-player characters that the players can interact with, and of course, foes that must be dealt with.

All-in-all, Death House is a very good (if not the best) one-shot adventure for new players. I’ve recommended the campaign before, in our article about the best campaigns for new players, which you might find interesting if you’re looking for a longer campaign to take on later.

Mines of Madness

Mines of Madness is part of the “One Shot Adventures” series, published by the Wizards of the Coast. The adventure takes the party through an abandoned mine, Khundrukar, which once flourished with valuable gemstones and life but turned into a den infested with creatures, traps, and other mysteries after an event that took place a long time ago.

The module is commonly known for its absurd elements, which tend to cause the entire party to break out into laughter at times. The module’s challenges can be difficult, but they force players to explore and use their problem-solving talents more than brute force, as the module has more puzzles than combat.

You’ll encounter a variety of intriguing, funny, and memorable encounters as you delve deeper into Khundrukar. Some might say that the adventure is more suitable for players who’re trying Dungeons and Dragons for their second to fourth time, but it can be adjusted to be a great one-shot for total beginners who like challenges.

It can be run in a single session too, and the module seems (based on my intuition) designed to be less serious than many other adventures. Laidback and comedic elements can ease the pressure for new players, and at the same time introduce them to the game’s mechanics and rules.

Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment

Deep inside a temple populated by angelic creatures known as Empyreals, lie secrets that haven’t been unearthed for centuries. The story calls for someone who can enter the temple to investigate it. Someone who can handle the encounters, traps, puzzles and understand the mysteries that lie within. This is where the party comes in.

Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment is almost all roleplaying through the first half of the adventure – with a few small encounters appearing now and then. As a beginner, you’ll benefit from the roleplaying elements as you’ll get into the setting of the campaign while having a chance to define and get to know your character.

During the second half of the journey, everything ramps up and the outcome of the party’s prior choices will begin to make a difference, and the mysteries start to unveil themselves.

The campaign should take you about 4-5 hours to run and you can make minor tweaks to the adventure to facilitate the game for new players. When we’ve played the campaign, changes made have included revising traps, adding NPCs, and making some pieces of information easier to find.

Wild Sheep Chase

Wild Sheep Chase is the one-shot adventure you’re looking for if you’re into quirky and surreal stories. It starts off in an ordinary way by presenting a mundane task to the party – finding a lost sheep.

In the pursuit of the lost sheep, the story escalates rather quickly. The party sets out on its mission and soon thereafter they will find themselves in bizarre and hilarious situations over and over.

The one-shot presents memorable characters and enjoyable puzzles throughout the 3-6 hours that the adventure usually takes to finish. The adventure can be enjoyed more than once because it has multiple possible endings that vary depending on dice rolls, the character’s alignments, and the choices made throughout the journey.

It’s a hilarious one-shot that will have you laughing while presenting different elements of Dungeons and Dragons in a beginner-friendly manner. In fact, the story is packed with a bunch of opportunities for the party to solve problems.

A Most Potent Brew

A Most Potent Brew is an adventure designed for characters levels 1-4 and can be tweaked to fit most settings. The story takes place in a village where the party is hired to exterminate rats from a nearby beer cellar. This introductory mission then takes the party on its real mission, investigating an abandoned wizard’s tower to retrieve a stolen item.

This will take them on a journey full of investigation, traps, puzzles, and dangerous encounters. The adventure introduces common Dungeons and Dragons elements in an easy manner. It’s a great experience for new players because of how diverse and exciting the story is.

A Most Potent Brew makes for the perfect beginner one-shot because it can be expanded to a full campaign quite easily if the party wishes to continue. The adventure is a bit on the easy side, by default, but can be adjusted to prove more difficult if one wishes. It’s an easy story to follow and provides plenty of space to add your own storytelling.

This is a common starting point for new players, and I can truly understand why.

Grammy’s Country Apple Pie

This is the light-hearted one-shot that most beginners will enjoy, as the campaign is a good mixture of humor and challenges, with more emphasis on comedic elements than serious ones. The absurdity of some of the situations will have the party laughing and relieve any tension that any newbie might feel.

Tyndareus, an elderly wizard, becomes determined to satisfy his childhood craving for a unique treat and hires a team of adventurers to locate the bakery that used to make the finest apple pies. Unfortunately, the bakery has been taken over by goblins, stopping the group from retrieving the treats.

The situation at Grammy’s Bakery is not straightforward, and the adventurers soon realize that Tyndareus is not the only one with a strong desire for those delicious pies.

The journey that you’re sent on to find Tyndareus treats contains puzzles, interesting interactions, investigation, and combat. The story will twist and turn and when you think you’ve solved a problem, there’ll be something waiting for you.

Without saying too much about the adventure, I’ll say this one thing; you can expect goblins. This is truly a perfect experience for beginners but it can be adapted to suit players with varying knowledge of the game.

The Gribbits Detective Agency

The Gribbits Detective Agency is a single-session adventure designed for level one characters. The adventure comes in three acts and takes about 3 hours in total from start to finish. The story takes players on a mission to investigate the sudden disappearance of Janos Meer, (aka the Beggar King) a prominent figure in the town’s underbelly.

As it turns out, the player characters aren’t the only ones looking for Meer. There’s a rivaling group who have been hired to find Meer, they’re known as the Dragon Friends. This rivaling party will surface every now and then to stir the pot if the Dungeon Master decides to keep them involved in the conflict. They’re a great addition to the story and can be used to motivate the party in their search for Meer.

The adventure contains a great mixture of combat, roleplaying, and problem-solving elements for the party to overcome together in order to advance the story.

Here’s a quote from the adventure’s introduction that I think speaks for itself:

“The explosive destruction quite accidentally
meted out by the Dragon Friends some months prior
has made their city a dangerous place. It’s up to the
adventurers to follow the clues through the urban chaos,
unravel the mystery of the missing Meer, and maybe—
just maybe—expose a conspiracy greater than any of them expected”

Read: How To Make DnD Fun For Beginners

Wolves of Welton

Wolves of Welton was my go-to one-shot adventure whenever a new player was present, as it provides the perfect elements for a beginner module. The adventure is rather short and straightforward with a mixture of roleplaying, combat, puzzles, and exploration. In addition to all this, the one-shot is available online for free.

The adventure takes place in the town of Welton, a town that has seen more and more wolf attacks lately. The inhabitants long for a way to stop the attacks, and the party is hired to investigate the cause of the wolf attacks. This takes the party on a journey that has more layers than one would think initially.

As you delve deeper into the source of the powers that have set their sights on Welton, you’ll be taken on a classic adventure containing a town in distress, a mysterious threat, and a group of heroes all packed in a great story. The module can be enjoyed by both seasoned veterans and beginners alike.

Other Resources

Thank you for taking the time to read the article. If you’ve had success with other one-shot adventures as a beginner or when introducing a new player – please let us know in the comments so we can try the one-shot ourselves and add it to the list.

Here’s a list of other useful articles for beginners:

• Can You Play DnD Without Roleplaying?
• Character Creation Tips For DnD
• 19 Best Apps For Dungeons and Dragons

Because the Dungeon Master is so invested in the story, and has to focus on telling the story, rather than viewing it from the outside, one might think that the Dungeon Master shouldn’t have a player character to control as well. But the truth is…

It’s possible to be a Dungeon Master and control a player character simultaneously but it’s important to balance the DM’s character to make sure it doesn’t overshadow the party, or make the game about the DM’s character. In addition, the Dungeon Master must be careful not to manipulate the game too much to benefit his or her character. Instead, the DM’s character should facilitate the game, not own it.

It’s quite difficult to have a DM-controlled player character unless it’s done properly. I can see why some people would want to, though. Especially when you’re playing with a smaller group, where an additional character can add more layers to the adventure.

It’s important that you, as a Dungeon Master, find a balanced approach before you decide to join the party as your own character to make sure the player’s experience isn’t dampened or affected by it too much, as this will make the game less enjoyable for all of you.

So, what should you consider before being both a Dungeon Master and a participant at the same time?

How To Play a Character and Be a DM at the Same Time

We’ll take you through some of the steps that should be taken into account by anyone who’s thinking about multi-playing Dungeons and Dragons. Generally, having your Dungeon Master play his or her own character isn’t something that enhances the experience, because they’re so valuable in their position as Dungeon Masters.

However, in certain scenarios having your Dungeon Master play a character can take the adventure to the next level.

Balance Your Role as Dungeon Master and Player Character

While you’ll partake in the story as an observer, or as someone who experiences it through the eyes of your character, you’ll also be the one telling the story at the same time. It’s important to not let one of the roles overshadow the other.

Finding the perfect balance here can be difficult. From what I’ve found, the best way to approach this is to have your character be more passive than the other characters, which leaves space for you to master the game. The same would be much harder if your character was a very active and lively member of the party.

There’s a sweet spot and you’ll find it over time. Just knowing this is most likely going to help you achieve the status quo.

No Conflicts of Interest

This one is obvious. You’re in control of the encounters, the puzzles, the mysteries, and the game world in general. Don’t get involved when there’s a situation that you can manipulate single-handedly through the knowledge you’ve garnered as a Dungeon Master.

Also, as a Dungeon Master, you shouldn’t punish players who your character might have beef with to manipulate the story to your advantage.

Do Not Steal the Show

As a Dungeon Master, you’ll be gaining a lot of attention, not through acts of heroism, cool one-liners, or knee-slapping jokes, but by being the story and everything the party encounters through their journey. So, when you’re playing your character, let the party have their time in the spotlight. Don’t try to steal it from them.

Keep Your Character’s Knowledge and Your Knowledge Apart

This can be difficult. You know the story, you’ve prepared it – but your character does not. You’ll have to learn how to switch between the two and not use that knowledge to your advantage. You might know about a secret passage, a trap, or a treasure but your character must be oblivious to the fact.

Don’t Let Your Character Snowball

It’s better to let your character struggle a little bit to overcome certain tasks than to have the character plow through each encounter like nothing. This could quickly turn into a snowball scenario where the character turns into an unstoppable force, which might sound cool but it tends to ruin the campaign for everyone.

Can the Dungeon Master Do Anything?

The Dungeon Master certainly has a lot of control over the game and can decide to switch things up during the campaign, introducing new characters, encounters, and much more. The role is about being prepared and proactive, but it’s also about being reactive.

This means that they should have a couple of aces up their sleeve or options in the back of their head that can be introduced throughout the campaign.

The only limitations that a Dungeon Master might be bound to are the rules and mechanics that have been picked for the campaign beforehand. The one thing that a Dungeon Master shouldn’t and can’t do is to control the actions of player characters and what they experience.

Can You Play DnD Without a Dungeon Master?

From a purely technical it’s possible to play Dungeons and Dragons without a DM, but it would require you to make modifications to the game and it will certainly not be the same. Seeing as the DM is the core of the game, you would be giving up a vital part of the experience.

So, if you’re dead set on playing the game without a Dungeon Master, then there are ways of doing so. It should be noted that the game won’t be the same, but it’s still possible to do it.

One thing that parties without Dungeon Masters do is that players take turns reading descriptions and narrating the NPCs and encounters. Which basically turns them into short-term DMs whenever it’s their turn to narrate the actions of the NPCs. It’s a more collaborative way of playing the game.

Playing a pre-written campaign that comes with a complete story and predetermined encounters also is pretty much required when taking turns overseeing the game.

Your best bet is to turn to another system. A system that doesn’t require a Game Master to be played. Perfect examples of games that are designed to be played without Game/Dungeon Masters include Fiasco or Microscope.

The stories in these games are created differently. The group creates the story collectively, rather than having a master serving or presenting the game to the group. Players then take turns narrating parts of the game.

There are also digital solutions in the form of random generators and such that can be used to fill the gaps.

With that said, I think the game should be enjoyed with a Dungeon Master to get the most out of the experience. However, I wouldn’t want to prohibit anyone from playing the game their own way.

Can There Be Two Dungeon Masters In Dungeons and Dragons?

Yes, a DnD adventure can have two DMs to oversee the game but I can’t imagine it being better than having one designated DM throughout the entire campaign. To do it successfully, the Dungeon Masters would have to coordinate their plans and communication with one another to ensure they’re on the same page.

One way of executing an adventure with two DMs would be to have them take turns guiding the game or let them be responsible for different parts of the campaign.

You could, for instance, divide the different aspects of the game into modules that the DMs can choose to be responsible for. This would leave one DM in charge of storytelling and roleplaying while the other one creates and monitors combat encounters. This way, both DMs have their own areas of interest.

For this to work you would need two people who are willing to collaborate and compromise, regardless of how you choose to execute it.