r/DnD

My players are battling against a secret organization, a real political/social intrigue story. The thing is, the bad guys are smart too. Each of their members with decently important information is tattooed with an arcane glyph that goes off if they reveal important secrets(or have the intent to)-- killing them. Kind of a cyanide pill to prevent leaked information.

One of my players thought of this, and I hinted that it might be the case. They proceeded, unbeknownst to me, to craft an absolutely brilliant plan. I was informed of the idea just hours before the session and was very impressed.

Here's the thing: they captured a bad guy, and when they went to go interrogate him... polymorphed him into a rat. Rat form means no glyph, no glyph means he doesn't die. But how do you interrogate a rat?

And that's when they cast Speak with Animals. Completely circumventing the cyanide pill, allowing them to interrogate fully. An incredibly genius move, and one they pulled off excellently. I'm so impressed.

They got a ton of useful information, and honestly they deserve some extra XP(milestone XP at least) for that move.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

With the new books out, one of my groups has decided that everyone should switch over to the 2024 rules for simplicity. My character is an artificer however, and since there are no new rules for the class we decided I should get as updated as possible. In my spells list though on dndbeyond, it looks like I’m only able to select the legacy versions of spells and none of the new versions. I’m guessing this has something to do with me still technically using a legacy class, but it’s very annoying. Has anyone else experienced this?

I've noticed that most adventuring parties I DM or join don't invest their limited funds wisely and I often wonder if I'm just too old school.

• I was the only one to get a war dog for night watch and combat at low levels.

• A cart and donkey can transport goods (or an injured party member) for less than 25 gp, and yet most players are focused on getting a horse.

• A properly used block and tackle makes it easier to hoist up characters who aren't that good at climbing and yet no one else suggests it.

• Parties seem to forget that Druids begin with proficiency in Herbalism Kit, which can be used to create potions of healing in downtime with a fairly small investment from the party.

Did I miss anything that you've come across often?

EDIT: I've noticed a lot of mention of using magic items to circumvent the issues addressed by the mundane items above, like the Bag of Holding in the place of the cart. Unless your DM is overly generous, I don't understand how one would think a low-level party would have access to such items.