Internet D&D Questions Issue 1

OK. I decided, for something to do in my spare time (it does say hobbies in the title), to trawl the D&D sections of the internet and attempt to answer cool questions that were - in my opinion - never satisfactorily answered.

1. Where do the D&D 5e Books List Potential Curse Effects to Use for a Cursed Magical Item?

Wow, I love this question. Well, not exactly this questions, but the fact that, now I realize it, there aren't many possible curse effects for magic items in 5e. Well, there are, but not many made for you. You have to come up with them yourself. The answer does a pretty good job of explaining it, but I want to challenge myself by coming up with at least 20 curse effects. Lets see what I can do!

d20	Curse Effect
1	All mortals must succeed on a DC 14 wisdom saving throw to maintain any information about the item.
2	The item’s owner becomes attached to all their material possessions, and must succeed on a DC 12 wisdom saving throw to give or trade anything of theirs away.
3	Rain is like acid for those attuned to the item. For every minute the person attuned to it spends unprotected in the rain, they must succeed on a DC 15 constitution saving throw or take 1d4 acid damage.
4	While attuned to the item, you have disadvantage on all ability checks made below ground.
5	While attuned to the item, you are vulnerable to fire damage.
6	When you take lightning damage while attuned to the item, you must succeed on a DC 11 constitution saving throw, or be stunned until the start of its next turn.
7	You have disadvantage on all saving throws made against being frightened while attuned to the item.
8	While attuned to the item, creatures must succeed on a DC 15 wisdom saving throw after each long rest or gain a type of indefinite madness, as seen in chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The madness ends after the creature takes a long rest.
9	While attuned to the item you regain only half as many hit points from short rests as normal.
10	While attuned to the item, you have disadvantage on all animal handling checks.
11	When you first attune to this item, you must succeed on a DC 14 constitution saving throw or be blind until you unattune to it.
12	While attuned to the item, melee attack rolls against you have advantage.
13	While attuned to the item, nonmagical attacks do double damage against you.
14	While attuned to the item, you have disadvantage on all spell attack rolls.
15	While attuned to the item, creatures have advantage on saving throws against spells cast by you.
16	While attuned to the item, no illusion magic can hide your true form.
17	While attuned to the item, you cannot magically travel using spells such as teleport, misty step and dimension door, or by portals.
18	While attuned to the item, you have a -1 penalty on all death saving throws.
19	While attuned to the item, you must succeed on a DC 12 constitution saving throw whenever you take a long rest, or gain no benefit from the long rest.
20	While attuned to the item, your passive perception suffers a -2 penalty.

Well, what do you think? The first 10 or so were easy enough, but then I started to get stuck for ideas. Anyway, hope someone ends up using this.



2. [5e] I am looking to make a mystery ridden campaign, what are some ways I can go about revealing major plot points without spoiling the atmosphere and the overall suspense of it.


Alright, interesting one. I'd say maybe have tiny clues which will slowly give players the sense that it's adding up to something big.

For example, the tower that the evil Necromancer lives in could be haunted by silent ghosts of lizardfolk and humans, who fight each other every night. And the ancient runes that you can only read with a comprehend languages spell on the monolith at the center of town could speak of an ancient reptilian evil.

Finally, a bandit leader could have a letter written in Draconic (lizardfolk language) in his tent, saying that the empire has returned, and that the bandits must join it or die.

These would all be clues leading up to the ancient lizardfolk empire's return.If your players are good at these mysteries, then this would probably be a good way to go. But make sure this is the kind of game your players want to play though. You might have already checked with them, but if not, then do.

3. New player my first character

This player presented a very good character description, and I wish my players put as much thought into their characters. "Liteboyy" asked about a Aasimar Cleric of the Tempest domain.
My response is: As "Ktollens" said, there are different versions of the Aasimar in both DM's Guide and Volo's Guide. I would recommend Volo's, but if you don't have that the DM's Guide one works fine.
As for the healing, most clerics can heal the same amount (life domain a little more).
For background, Sages know where to get information, such as which library an ancient tome is in. Hermits have one major discovery which you work with the DM to determine, normally something that will help you later in the campaign.
For the ideal, maybe something about how you serve your god first, but the common folk are a close second. Or the other way around. Like, you would disobey your god to save lives? That's just an idea.
For the bond, if you choose the sage, I'd recommend wherever you were taught or whoever taught you. If you end up going with the Hermit, maybe your bond could be with the land itself.

OK, that's all we have time for this time. If you have any D&D-related problems, feel free to mention them in the comments and I'll give them special attention next time!