I'm trying something for new D&D players
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 พ.ค. 2024
- In this video, we try making a character box to welcome and potentially help new players navigate their first game of Dungeons and Dragons without any prior knowledge. The goal is not to give them the Player's Handbook (PHB) in a box but rather to provide a few simple tools to help them feel more comfortable.
These are far from perfect and I am trying to improve these, so please let me know what you would include in a character box!
The Tins: amzn.to/3V7Q9eB - บันเทิง
Love how that die was such a drama queen that it not only dropped from your hand, but landed IN FRAME.
Literally had me crying while editing 😂
Those are the best dice. We should all be so lucky as to have a d20 with a flair for dramatics; whether it fails you or saves you, it will always make the best story. ^.^
What did it roll?
Any druid (with the exception of spore and maybe wildfire) and taking the chef feat seems to be something she might enjoy. Also flavoring her cure wounds as shoving her baked goods down the players mouth could work as well.
Why not Wildfire? They're the Druids that specialize in healing. The fire could ever could tie into the cooking. The Wild Fire Spirit is even shown as taking the form of an animal by default. So it could die into the animal buddies part of the character.
@@badwrongfun5541 It's mostly because of new player expectiations. The subclass is written into the concept of new life being born from ashes, but when I've run it with new players a lot of them see it as the blaster druid due to it's access to some solid fire spells. That's why I said "maybe wildfire" and not take it out completely.
@@MyKokohead Yeah, but that's people looking at it isolated and picking it expecting a blaster focused character, which isn't the situation here. It's instead a situation where the DM is picking the subclass and could even explain the pet and healing elements of the subclass that the player would likely interested in and that the blasts aren't the point of the subclass.
I had a player who made very similar requests for their character, and we almost started making her a Druid despite both of us being concerned about how tricky it can be to play especially as a first class, before I realized, "Duh, Beastmaster Ranger exists!"
In my player's case, they wanted a pet bird, so they started at level 1 with the Magic Initiate feat for Find Familiar, but this case sounds perfect for Chef and the Goodberry spell. Start them out with a normal dog as a pet using the popular homebrew rule of "If the pet doesn't do anything in combat, it's untouchable," and gain the Primal Companion statblock at level 3.
Goodberry!
My first GM didn't have minis, he handed us all pixelart sprites propped up in card-holding plastic bases. I copied his style and bought a bunch of those bases from Starfinder, though plenty of other games come with those. I hand out a pen and a piece of paper to new players and tell them to draw their character themselves. In fact, all my NPC, horses, dragons, trees, are also just drawings in plastic card hold bases. I think getting a fully painted custom mini is very nice, you do feel cared for, and you don't stick out like a sore thumb on a fully detailed battlemap, but a game of that caliber can also be intimidating and you get lost in the building side of things. Maybe it's just a cope for not going all out with minis. But I think what makes having players draw their own characters really work so well for me and for my players is that they are involved themselves. They don't just get handed what their character looks like, they get to work on it and flavour it themselves, and they get to experience that actually they can draw and be creative if given the chance, even though some drawing may be a bit crude, but it's all part of the fun. Just make sure that everyone can see your NPCs for scale, if you keep them behind your GM screen the players will hand you 15cm tall drawings of dwarves and tiny 1cm stick figures they ensure you are meant to show halforcs
some ideas for future builds, 1. a spray varnish instead of modge podge on the lid, 2. have a foam insert with a negative cut out so the paint on the mini doesnt wear down. Other than those these are super sweet!
Great suggestions! Thanks! 😊
I had the same thoughts. If you've only got Mod Podge around it makes sense to use it, but I'm not sure how it will hold up over time. And yeah, get some type of dividers.
Alternatively you can glue a magnet to the base of the mini. And varnishing it is always a good idea.
Love this! You can also put a small pocket-sized notepad and a mechanical pencil inside the player box as well (just in case your player wants to take notes and forgets their stationary)
I LOVE THIS! The only addition I would suggest would be a quick personalized cheat sheet for combat listing a few top suggestions for actions, bonus actions, and reactions. This is so class specific that many new people just have no clue what half of their possibilities are, not learning true action economy until weeks or even months later.
Yes! I hate the typical character sheets; they're just overwhelming. In planning a campaign for a set of newbies, I wound up making two half-page double-sided sheets on card stock, so that the player can focus on a small subset of info at a time. After some experimentation with layout, I managed a Combat Sheet, Non-Combat Sheet, Inventory Sheet, and a fourth sheet for rarely needed info.
I also varied from the alphabetical skill layout to one that first divides the skills into subsets (IIRC, basically physical, mental, and social, but I had to toy with them to get a roughly even distribution), and then ordered them by how proficient the character was -- with the key skills up top and in bigger/bolder print. Thus the newbie can easily grasp "I'm good at Healing!" or "I'm knowledgeable about nature" instead of always having to hunt through the list to remember their key skills.
It's so much more manageable when the visual/mental real estate isn't cluttered up with Every Possible Thing, and is visibly sorted by how often the trait will be accessed.
Oh, and for a different newbie campaign, I actually made item cards in little envelopes that showed what the object looked like, and if the object got partially or wholly identified the card could be slid up or out of the envelope entirely. Introducing the players to the concepts of certain items went over well that way, making them memorable (though of course it took a bit of extra work on my part!). Having the newbie's key inventory managed by cards or little figures could make that a more interesting experience as well (and avert the "I forgot I'm carrying a ladder" problems, heh).
❤ You're so welcoming! I would love it. Since you asked, I'd add: Explain consent in your fantasy game. Ask them if they have any "don't go there"'s, like dog attacks or whatever. New people might not say anything without this reassurance. It let's them know that players can say no.
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
@@nostromo9743 😲exactly, like Scary Clowns 🤡
dice color-coded to a corresponding shape might be helpful. I found it's easier to say "Roll the red one" rather than "Roll the diamond looking one"
Other than that, your welcome package is phenomenal! I'd feel welcomed and extremely enthusiastic to play.
You're a gem of a GM and I thank you for running games :)
Thank you and having a specific color for each die is an amazing idea! Definitely gonna use that in the future!
A note about coloured dice, while they can help identify which one to roll, using the shape identifiers is still useful for people with colour blindness. You could go for a partially coloured set of dice that focuses on the key dice they will be rolling for their character and colours those in a colour blind friendly way. Or use dice with particular patterns, eg speckled, wavy, clear, gloss/metallic
Also providing a QR code to a website that can automate some of the character sheet can be helpful, otherwise writing utensils that fits inside the box if you are providing the character sheet.
This is actually what the PF2 Beginner Box does, and it's super helpful!
When I DMed for a brand new player, she had some difficulty with which die is which (d8 vs d10 especially), so I made a sheet where I drew the shapes that she could rest the dice on between rolls. She also added notes for herself, like that the d10 was the Fire Bolt die.
I would add a small notebook for session notes or silly doodles if the player is so inclined.
For mini painting I recommend getting a painting handle. You can make one yourself out of a 5l bottle lid and a toilet paper roll. It will allow you to turn the model around without having to touch it.
That’s really kind. You’re an absolute darling. Wishing you, your players, and all your current and future games the very best.
Some thin clear plastic bent to a 90 in the corner to put the character in, that way the dice and other things dont constantly rub against it and wear the paint off.
This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
😭 My first D&D experience was the exact opposite. I wssn't welcome, I wasn't encouraged to be there. I was 10 and so abouts was everyone else, but I still remember it as a very sad core memory. So even trying to make sure your player feels welcome and has the tips needed to play well… that's awesome and so worth it
I know this is a month old but for anyone else a Bard’s Song of Rest is great for flavoring as cooking to heal. You can also manufacture healing potions during your rests as well (in the form of baked goods) bardic inspiration could be cookies/biscuits. When you think of cooking as a bard’s art it all comes together
Dude - good for you! This is a great way to welcome people to the hobby.
This is such a kind and heartfelt idea! I almost cried watching this because I never feel welcomed around people, and it really takes me a lot of time to warm up.
I would cry if my DM did something like this for me. I want to play again with good DMs but there's nowhere to go where I live :(
honestly this would be amazing as a first timer
The ability cards and the reference in the lid is dope! I feel like every rpg should have these for first timers!
I love this... sososososo very much, giving a kit to a new player is so special. It really sucks that my games have to be over the internet, I wish I could do stuff like this more.
For the actions sheet, did you just screenshot the website with those? I was thinking of printing some off for my own game coming up here
Thank you! And yes! I searched “DnD 5e quick reference sheet” on Google images (being specific in case you use a different search engine haha) and since I’m afraid to click on anything that says download I took a screenshot :)
@@JoshuaHuntsWorld Oh I found it! Perfect thank you! This video was so awesome I hope to see more dnd videos from you!
The gift of Knowledge is by far the most useful thing to give to any new player, need to start making them for my players (old and new).
so many times i see a new person just be like "i attack" and thats it... there is so much more to do!
This is so cute and dedicated! I bet you guys will have a blast
Color code the spell cards
Red - Combat; Green - Healing; Blue - Status
ALSO cheaper alternative to minis is lego minifigures on 2x3 bases + you can rock up with a bucket of parts and let the players build them on their own!
Really love this idea! Great intro for new players.
What a lovely gift for a first time player. I hope they have lots of fun!
I've found that the little rectangular prisms that Chessex dice sets come in are really good for putting one or two minis in to keep them from being knocked around by your loose dice or other stuff when you don't have foam inserts to cushion your minis.
Those are the cutest dice!
Also, something I that I find helpful is an extensive list of what all of my features could do. I know the character sheet comes with a place for futures and traits, but I never thought that was big enough and like to print out an additional sheet with the feature, whether its an action/bonus action/reaction/etc, a description of what it does, and (if its limited use) some check boxes I can cross out to keep track of how many times I have used it
I also recommend maybe making a little dice cheat-sheet to remember which ones are which. That was something I struggled with a lot in the beginning because D8/d10 look really similar to me and d20/d12 (basically I would print out a picture with what the dice look like and what kind it is. Maybe make it big enough that they can actually set their dice out on it and have the number written under it so they can see it)
Great idea, loved the little box. I think I'm going to make little boxes for all of my characters now!
What a nice idea! Maybe add a piece of felt to the bottom of the tin for rolling dice into?
This is a beautiful gift for your player. I give my new players a set of dice for the first session, but this is even cooler
THE DOG 😍😍😍 omg I love her!!!!!
Holly are you the new player? This was my first thought watching the video and I came to the comments to ask 😆
You are a standout GM my friend!
Sounds like a ranger with the chef feat to me! Love how you are taking care of this player!
"Do you remember your first game of Dungeons and Dragons?"
Nope, still haven't had it yet.
I know this might sound like a weird choice, but I'd actually recommend Circle of Wildfire Druid. The Wildfire Spirit is depicted in illustrations as taking the form of an animal, so it'd mean the player would always have an animal buddy. The subclass has a big focus on healing, which the player seems to care about, and the cooking aspect of the healing could tie into the fire aspect of the subclass. But obviously stuff like Circle of the Shepard, Nature Domain Cleric, Beast Master Ranger, and even Oath of the Ancients Paladin could also conceivably fit well.
That's a cool awesome way to make the player feel welcomed 😸
i do custom character sheets , and put them in a binder with baseball sleeves for spells and items they get. For my son and for newbs :) I make the character sheet simplified but also there is a spot that has a break down of Attack and what things they can do, Any bonus actions, and so on, so that like my son doesnt forget he has certain abilities.
For helping new players with actions in combat I give them index cards with their basic attacks “Short Sword, Two Attacks, Attack Bonus: +4, Damage: 1D6+1, Reach: 5” or “Short Bow, One Attack, Attack Bonus: +3, Damage: 1D6+0, Range: 80/320“ and cantrip spells like Fire Bolt that are most common in combat. That way if they get stuck they can just play a card. I like the idea of adding cards for Dash, Dodge, Help, and maybe cards for their potions.
Suggestion: Line the box with a bit of felt from Michaels or another craft store and the tin itself can be a rolling tray without all the noise.
A few notes:
Double the size of the spell cards, at least. A lot of players are going to find that tiny font impossible to read.
Include a notebook! I recommend a flip-book spiral bound across the top. Super cheap, gives your player something to take notes on, and feels disposable enough to rip pages out and hand over as notes if needed.
If it's not big enough to fit a character sheet into after a single fold, consider stepping up the size slightly. i.e. should probably be at least 4.5" x 6", hard to tell if that one is from here. The idea being, they can store *everything* in the box, and just grab the box and run out the door for game night.
Do you have a file or PDF of that little reference sheet? I have a new group I'm running with some newbies, and that would be a great resource for them.
I searched “DnD 5e quick reference sheet” in Google images and just chose which one I though worked best for this project :)
I would link the one I used but I’m not sure if it’s the original creators link and don’t want to accidentally boost a repost.
Let me know if you have trouble finding it!
@@JoshuaHuntsWorld I think at least trying to give credit would be a good move. In the very least, someone out there would see it & could point you back to the creator.
That said, there's a reference sheet on GitHub that looks like it & has everything stored as HTML content. Considering they have a section to report issues with it, I'd be willing to bet dimes-to-donuts that's the source. Would you like the link so you could pop it in the description? If there's already been a couple of people looking for it, I'm sure more would appreciate it.
Lots of good resources on DM's Guild, many are free or pay-what-you-want.
The sources appear to point back to crobi on github, which is neat because what's there is editable.
@@rycudas yup; I found that too. Then my comment disappeared after I pointed it out. Let's see if that happens again....
cool idea...hope she liked it :)
Thank you for the great idea and the work to make the video: Absolutely love the idea, especially for conferences where you may be playing with new players to the system!
Recently I welcomed some older players into the hobby(and as an older gamer), so I do have some thoughts, mainly around offering bigger fonts! :). Love the cheat sheet, but it could also be done as a card folded in half, printed on both sides. That will give you four sections which allows you to group explanations. Also consider making spell & action cards take up the entire space you have. If the dice no longer fit you could just glue two altoid containers together..
Alternatively you could also just have some handout versions handy that were larger size. This makes it more inclusive for older and younger players with less than perfect eyesight.
Dude, this is so thoughtful😭❤❤❤
Class options I'd recommend for the character, depending on the player's preference, would be Ranger or Bard.
Ranger would be easier as a martial character, at level 3 Beast Master could be a good option for riding a dog in combat if they *want* animals to aid them in battle, and Goodberry is an easy pick. Also, the Favored Enemy feature could be used to just know interesting facts about animals rather than hunting them. I had a player who had a very similar character plan, and this is what they went with after I realized Druid would be a pain.
Bard could have the Disney princess singing to animals schtick, healing spells can just be flavored, they'll be wholesome, and Song of Rest could be used for passing food around at the campfire. The downside would be needing to learn spellcasting rules at the very start, but Bard is one of the easiest casters.
In either case, let them take pets that can just opt out of participating in combat entirely, and if you give out free feats at level 1, Chef or Magic Initiate for Find Familiar could be great choices.
I would love that table of what to do during your turn.
Wonderful gesture!
The options for combat actions is pretty nice. I printed the options out and taped them to the outside of my dm screen. Even then a lot of my players don't remember actions outside of attack and disengage
This is lovely! But, to be entirely honest, if I had gotten one of these boxes at my very first session I would have felt intimidated, overwhelmed with too much commitment. 😂
Yet, these boxes are super cool and even after decades of playing I'd love to have this cute little box! 😊
Thank you for your insight.
This is a great idea! I should consider something like this for my Mothership table
Druid springs to mind first. As an aside, I feel like every young woman I've ever introduced D&D to wants to be a druid, which is fine; but it's rough for me as someone trying to help guide their build decisions because I, personally, don't _get_ druids.
I digress. Bard could work, I once had an idea for a bard who performs their magic through the culinary arts; specifically reflavoring Song of Rest as whipping up snacks for the group.
Nature Cleric and Ranger can also fit the vibe, reflavoring their various healing spells and abilities to be meal-based (This can be done with Druid and Bard as well).
Finally, it'd be unusual to try and hit "Cottagecore" with this class, but you could make Artificer Alchemist work for this, also.
To help guide her decision, I'd ask what she considers Petal's strongest non-physical trait. Like, if she had to pick one, is she Smart? Empathic? Charming?
Another question I've found helpful when trying to get to the core of what fantasy a player wants out of their character, is to ask them to disregard the rules of the game for a moment and consider a thought experiment; So, it's the turning point in the battle. The spotlight swings to your character, the theme music picks up... what happens?
Another option is to consider non-magical ways the character could fit the vibe. Any class can just have proficiency in Animal Handling and decent wisdom. The chef feat allows you to do something similar to Song of Rest, and you can reflavor the healer feat to use food instead of bandages or whatever. This also has the benefit of making it so when she inevitably finds out that being a dedicated healer kinda sucks in 5e, then the healing via food thing is actually just a fun, supporting flavor quirk instead of the sum totality of her build.
Nice video. I like the idea of giving a welcoming gift to players, but I also would invite them to be part of the creative process as well by inviting them to contribute to the box as well. Give them a notebook and a pencil and maybe some questions for them to think about, especially if their character is going to be around for a long time. You can also give them secrets about the world that their character might know, such as a friend in a neighboring town or a story about a forgotten dungeon - or just pictures for them to improvise with. Also, if you're giving them a box, offer stickers, too - great way to personalize something and friendly for all ages.
For a cooking based character, you can go bard for song of long rest and take the chef’s feat. Both of these add extra hit dice when players take a short rest. “A halfling humming a tune while rolling out dough by the camp fire”
Thanks for the video as a year old dm I learned something and got entertained on the way, btw try agrax earthshade or nuln oil citadel washes to finish your minis is magic in a bottle for low effort speed paint
I have a handful of build ideas. Hear me out, though. Celestial Warlock with, of course, the Chef feat and proficiency in cook's utensils. You get a number of d6s equal to your Warlock level that you can use any number of as a bonus action to heal an ally within 60 feet! Double the range of Healing Word, and it will eventually create a "rolling a fireball" moment of borrowing a d6 from everyone at the table to roll a HUGE Healing Light. By level 2 they get Eldritch Blast, which keeps them combat-relevant and can push enemies away from them and their allies. But the best part is... this is a Warlock, which means we get a patron. A Celestial patron, the saint of the chefs and cooks. In return for granting them food-themed magic (reflavor spells... get it? ReFLAVOR! It's too good.) they're sent on a quest to find the true nature of what makes a meal satisfying and delicious. Probably more Delicious in Dungeon than Toriko, in term of vibes. They'll get party necessities like lesser and greater restoration and revivify, plus great cooking-themed nukes like wall of fire and flame strike. Invocations and cantrips are a blast to play with, and if no one is ritual casting in the party, they could go Pact of the Tome with Book of Ancient Secrets reflavored as a recipe book. If they are, they could go Pact of the Chain to have an imp that's their line cook now. Early on, get them an extra magic item by way of Heward's Handy Spice Pouch and they're good to go. Maybe even let them use it as their component pouch!
There's also a really cool sorlock-esque build I made up myself for a player who wanted to really focus in on potion-brewing and alchemy. It might be too complicated for a newbie, but basically you use an elf species (you can reflavor this as a halfling) with 4-hour long rest and take 3 levels of Alchemist Artificer, and 2 levels of Genie warlock. The character found a magic sauce pot and summoned a genie, from whom they wished to learn the power to become a great chef who could heal and invigorate her allies! Basically, by level 5, each time you long rest, you can take 4 additional short rests while everyone else sleeps, which is flavored as you waking up early and prepping your food for the day. Each short rest lets you spend two 1st-level Warlock spell slots to create two Experimental Elixirs of your choice. That means each day you get your two free random elixirs, but also start the day off with EIGHT elixirs of your choice. You can run this either as a Charisma-focused build that pumps Artificer mostly just for support and magic items, or as an Int-focused build that ignores the combat aspect of the Warlock levels. For even MORE optimization, they can use Replicate Magic Item: Spellwrought Tattoo (level 1) to give each party member a FREE find familiar that stays around until it dies. The familiars can each hold an elixir (I recommend Boldness for the damage-focused players) and administer it at the start of combat before you even attack. If you add a level of Peace cleric at level 6, the familiars can buff everyone and you can pop Emboldening Bond and now your party is REALLY ROCKING. They're not just elixirs... they're Petal's famous focus fuel! Just JUICED UP on GOOD FOOD and caffeinated with delicious chai and espresso blend and READY TO GO! This is an almost PURE support character that can more than pay off their slot, and once that's up, can mostly use cantrips (with Genie adding bonus damage), mundane actions, and cast spells as they please during combat without any fear of ever not being one of the top contributors. Plus, they can use their Genie's Vessel to stash their kitchen equipment... just full on stoves, cauldrons, comfy chairs, herbs hanging from the ceiling, a cat they befriend, etc. Pure cottagecore vibes in there, and the time you can stay inside scales with proficiency bonus not warlock levels, so you're good to go Artificer or Warlock from there, depending on if you'd rather be Intelligence or Charisma.
What a cute a useful gift! 🥰👍
With that size box, you could add a pocketmod character sheet and a spellbook. There are a number of pdfs available, so you should be able to find something you like.
Might do this for my players! I’m so tired of keeping all of their scrap papers with my own notes lol, boxes for everyone!!
Halfling Druid. I have a lot of minis so try to provide a selection for each new player. I love the idea of handing out a set of dice. Love the Box too. I have a few small hard candy boxes I've used in the past but the altoid box is a nice easy to find though.
For 30 mm models, you can usually make a trophy case out of the clear plastic box that some dice come in. Might protect the mini from rattling around in there. Also, putting the dice in the bag.
Well done. These are all great for new players. I would argue a mini set of dice and an additional d20 would leave more space.
As far as class, likely shepard druid. Give her the chef feat when possible.
OK, this is extremely cool, cheers.
I'd add a MPMB character sheet in a folder to go with the box. MBMB character sheets are much better at putting the info you need on the first page, and the folder helps it not get lost.
Character art on the front of the folder would be extra awesome!
What kind of printer did you use
I know it's the wrong system, but I don't know D&D, so I'm just going to make a nuisance of myself and build this character in PF2.
Thaumaturge with the chalice implement and the animal trainer archetype at level two. The chalice is a very easily reflavored minor healing potion, and the animal trainer gives you all the classic animal-linked abilities like a companion and speaking with beasts. That being said, thaumaturge is a little ability-hungry (it's a Charisma-based secondary martial) so being good at normal non-Chalice cooking might be tricky. The chalice is also more a minor combat buff, like _lay on hands._ Great if she wants to be a little esoteric and spooky about it, though!
Witch with the Cauldron class feat, Wilding Steward, and, again, Animal Trainer at level two. You get to start with a familiar that gets stronger as you do and can help you summon animals to your aid. You can always still go into a healing focus for spells, since Primal grants the _Heal_ spell, and Cauldron lets you make free "potions" (obviously delicious meals) every day.
Druid of the Plant Order. She literally gets to talk to animals and grow food to heal people; that's very easy to reflavor. Of course, this will stick her with a leshy familiar, but I love the idea of a little leaf or fruit leshy serving as a living cooking aid for its mistress, plucking off little sprigs of thyme from its head and the sort. Failing that, or if _cornucopia_ isn't enough, just grab the Herbalist archetype and make healing "potions". Or she could multiclass archetype into...
Alchemist. Alchemist is a great pick for any of these multiclassing into, as long as the Intelligence is high, but on its own you could seriously focus on alchemical food (that's a thing!) and re-flavored elixirs. Again, Animal Trainer at level two. I think this is the perfect option if she doesn't want a plant companion, although it might stall the Beast stuff a little.
Oh, also, if she's not set on halfling, gnomes are very fey-coded in Pathfinder and have lots of feats available centered around talking to animals. Gnome alchemist animal trainer could be sick!
Also-also, as long as I'm giving advice for the wrong system -to procrastinate doing my work- , I may as well go all-in and talk about what I'd offer a beginner player.
PF2 is simultaneously very challenging for a new player (lots of numbers!) and very easy (your character is good at the things you expect them to be good at, and your sheet is full of great roleplay prompts during combat). What I would include is a short run-down on common turns they'll take.
See, most PCs start out with a fairly manageable number of good action combinations. For example, a generic warrior, given an enemy right in front of her, will want to Strike twice in a turn--once at full bonus and once with the -5 multiple attack penalty. But that leaves one action unaccounted for. Demoralizing with Intimidation or Feinting with Deception are really good opening actions to debuff the enemy's AC, while raising their Shield or Aiding an ally are great actions they can take at any time in their turn. They likely have other special abilities, too.
So what I would do to start with is list a few of the "stock turns" their character might use in a fight for certain problems. For example, let's take a scoundrel rogue with a rapier.
_So, scoundrels are really good at feinting, which is a way to make an enemy off-guard and thus vulnerable to your sneak attack. You're so good at it, your feints even benefit your teammates, and a successful feint gives you a free five-foot Step they can use to disengage or try to surround the enemy._
_Most of the time, you're gonna be focused on debuffing your enemy and dealing damage. If you can surround an enemy, damaging them becomes way easier. What you're bad at is taking a hit, so keeping your AC high with Parry is also super helpful._
_You just want to deal damage: Feint(+Step), Strike, Strike._
_The guy is already off-guard: Strike, Strike, use your rapier to Parry incoming attacks._
_You want to pile on the debuffs: Disarm, Feint(+free Step), Aid an ally or Parry._
_You can't engage the enemy: Demoralize, Parry, and ready an Aid for an ally._
_Of course, you might tinker with these. Often you'll have to Stride to close the distance. Sometimes you'll get a clever idea, like Striding to Strike at the rope holding up the chandelier, or trying to use Deception to lure a monster into a trap. Sometimes an action isn't useful, like Feinting someone who's already off-guard._
_In this case, just remember that most things you can do take either 1 action or 2 actions, and you have 3 total to spend. You might Stride, Strike the rope, then ready to Parry. Or instead of Feinting, you might try to set up a flank, or use Create a Diversion to say "hey, what's that behind you?" and make them off-guard for a few seconds, or find some cover and Hide, or take out your crossbow and take a shot. There's always something you can do!_
I recommend either shepherd druid or alchemist artificer, shepherd druids get permanent speak with animals and insane healing (seriously I'm DMing for one right now, buckle up if you take that path) and alchemists get special potion brews that they can give the party which can easily be reflavored as food.
Really awesome idea, it's clear you've put a lot of thought into this. It's very considerate of you! Just please tell me that you put the dice inside of the bag so that they wouldn't scratch the figure
If you play with a battlemap, a little rolled up paper ruler with real-world inches and game-world feet marked on it could be helpful. I bought a mini tape measure a few years back at an Autozone and it's been just about the best $6 I ever spent on a tool for playing, so paper approximation may be appreciated.
Listening to the description of your player's character, and looking over things, maybe she could be a Circle of the Shepherd Druid? The Spirit Totem has one option (Unicorn) that increases healing, plus Druids learn a lot of healing spells and these could potentially be reflavoured to do with her cooking. Alternatively, instead of Circle of the Shepherd, Circle of Dreams has more straight-up healing as a bonus action, though I feel like that might be a bit harder to reflavour.
You could even flavor goodberry as a magical cooking spell and instead of little berries are little treats.
Do I remember my first D&D game? Uh ... yeah. It was in a "how to play D&D" non-credit class at college. I played a human cleric ... who died in the first round of battle without ever having had the chance to even swing his mace. A goblin came up and smacked him for max damage and, BOOM, dead. Brutal. But rather instructive! Old school, baby. Old, old school (it was 1976).
Honestly, I'd feel a little overwhelmed, maybe even a bit pressured if given ALL of these at once as a brand new player. But a smaller combination of one or two of these things would hit the mark just fine! However, I do think combined, this would actually make a great going away gift for a player who is leaving your table due to moving away, life responsibilities, etc, or even a character who is simply retiring (or perished!), having completed their adventure.
The best class would be a Beast Master Ranger, the PHB version. That way she could mechanically ride a dog, or any medium sized creature, and be able to replace it should it perish. She won't have as many healing spells as a druid, but she'll have access to Goodberry. Plus, she'll be decent at weapons as well, with a good armor class.
Really, just loading up on healing spells and then using her weapons to attack sounds right up a newbie's ally.
I keep spare dice sets, the collapseable trays you can get for really cheap if you get 12 or so and folders with character sheets and extra paper for when i have new players.
If they enjoy it I tell them to keep the dice when they buy a set to have enough for crits and advantage/disadvantage etc.
I'd agree with druid class comments. (Anything druid mostly would be fine but probably Shepard druid). As a new player it's also helpful to keep everything easy that way it's easier to take in everything new. I would suggest sticking to the one class (not going multi class) and avoiding homebrew (only because as they start to have questions it will be easier to research and find info on an official source). Seems like you are going the distance to welcome the new player, they are really lucky to have you as a DM! Hope you both have a great time!
A small moleskine or field notes notebook and a pen for notes would be a great addition!
1:01 Mark of Hospitality Halfling from Eberron, Alchemist Artificer, Chef Feat. Already seen it done before.
Alternative to druid chef would be artificer battlesmith. Might lose the nature theming, but you get a metal dog and can use chef's tools to create cure spells xD
I’d either go with goodberry for healing food, or use the crafting rules from the Tales Arcane video.
Artificers need to use their artisan's tools to cast their spells, and chef's utensils are an option for artisan's tools, so an artificer who casts healing spells by cooking with their utensils makes perfect sense.
I have a player in my game who is a Hearth Domain Cleric (I used one I found online, there are several but I based mine on the one with the "Bring Them Home" channel divinity) with the Chef Feat who heals people with cooking
This is amazing
I do hope you ended up making the halfling and flavouring Goodberry into her cooking.
Oh man, losing your first dice does hurt. My original collection of dice just disappeared one day over a decade ago. I've never really recovered. I have a collection of perfectly balanced clear dice in my dnd binder and a couple random sets, but no bag or desire to start a new collection.
I NEED to know where you got those dice!
I love that information paper or your "Gift of Knowledge" it looks so clean and well structured. Is there any way to get a closer look at it? :) (first time here and I reallly like how calm and motivated you are through this)
I'd probably add a little notebook and pencil with a rectangle eraser and mini pencil sharpener.
It's prolly too late, but considder the beastheart from MCDM, a class built around having a monsterous wild companion. As for healing with food, the chef feat does most of it, so just let her have that a few levels in advance, alternatively give everyone a extra ASI at level 1 or something.
No D&D DM here, but a different system. My new players don't get a handpainted mini (yet?), but I include a binder with prints about basic knowledge of the world. Every fantasy world is different and with that collection of information they can learn something about the gods, currency or holidays. I also ad journal pages with an ingame map & calender, so everybody can organize the notes to theire liking.
Maybe add a small notebook and pencil? As for apinting the mini: a zenithal highlight will add a lot to the mini without much extra effort.
Very attentive, though!
Great idea! Do you have a link to the table you used?
May I suggest copy's of the player handbook pages. That way it's easier to see how level works when they are ready for it.
Font size may or may not be an issue. But usually, the bigger the letters, the easier to read and quickly check. :3
Love the idea of the mini, dice, and box but kinda hate the idea of "This is what you can do" though this is because of what my first DM did for me I guess; I know that D&D can be initially overwhelming but the biggest advantage to table top games as opposed to video game is that players are not limited to whats in the rules, there is this magical feeling that one gets a few minutes after starting to play that "I can do anything?" feeling that is extremely rare. Codifying everything you can do raw kinda stunts creativity in my opinion.
You can also add a cheat sheet on which dice is which
In my homebrew I would run that character as My Wizard Alchemist subclass, and flavor the daily potions the alchemist makes to food. I allow wizards in my game to cast Conjure animals so thats how you could get the mount. Or my homebrew ranger may work better, have animal friend all the time (that scales with level) and then just re flavoring the healing spells as food.
This is great
i think the new Humblewood Community cleric domain would be perfect for her
Do you have a PFD or a link to the action economy handout you printed?
I searched “DnD 5e quick reference sheet” in Google images and just chose which one I though worked best for this project :)
I would link the one I used but I’m not sure if it’s the original creators link and don’t want to accidentally boost a repost.
Let me know if you have trouble finding it!
I *still* need that cheat sheet of what I can do on a turn. But also like. How about a "If you want to look around and take in your surroundings, you should ask about specific things you might be looking for" because I DO NOT KNOW THE BUTTON TO LOOK AROUND. Think about it like a video game that you've been sat in front of- with no controller in front of you. You can't just button mash to figure out what does what. And yes, sometimes this means spelling out very basic things that you - person who has played this game more than once and probably has listened to way too many DnD podcasts- take for granted. Like a turn cheatsheet.
Very considerate! I would have treasured anything like this, but the hobby wasn't nearly so well-established back when I started, they were still trying to convince people it wasn't the road to doom for actual players...
Little pencil and little pad?
This is so cool! I’m totally stealing that reference sheet for my games. Did you print the spell cards yourself too?
Where did u got the image that you pasted in the tape of the box? I really need that for a new player