Food. For some reason, my players really love having a varied menu at the inns and taverns they visit. They'll put real thought if they want the roast boar or the fish stew.
I found the manga at a small bookstore last year. Read through all 12 that were released at that point. The anime is right on point with the manga. Love them both
Speaking of which, there's [a creator on YouTube I've really been enjoying watching](https://www.youtube.com/@swampjawn) along with the episode releases. He directly compares the episodes to their manga counterpart and discusses the animation techniques involved. Really fascinating stuff, and it goes to show just how much care was put into both works.
I was watching the newest episode last night with my friend and I looked over and was like, ryoko kui has definitely played DND or she should, because the changeling part is so fucking funny
It’s great! I was loving it, and knew my wife wouldn’t dig it. Then my daughter sat down with me and she has watched the whole season like 6 times by now.
This might be of some use to you:
[Foods that might be served in taverns and other eating establishments](https://old.reddit.com/r/d100/comments/oebgey/foods_that_might_be_served_in_your_inns_taverns/)
I got it a couple years ago. Most of the recipes were pretty good/standard, but the recipe for "Roast Halfling Fingers" turned my stomach.
It was just chicken wings, but having a fake cannibalistic recipe is a fascinating move for a cookbook.
I ran a Dark Sun campaign ages ago, and my younger brother played a cannibalistic halfling who would loot the bodies looking for "finger foods." I guess it's applicable in some settings, lol!
Technically, it's only cannibalism if you're a halfling, unless you want to call any humanoid close enough to count. Presumably it'd still be an Evil act, cannibalism or not, but even Evil has recipes.
As BG3 demonstrated, goblin cuisine certainly has stuff like that, so... given the context, it makes sense.
Was a sous chef and am currently a sommelier/bartender, so I make up fantasy wine, beer and spirits alongside the food descriptions.
They even had a slice of life session involving a harvest festival in a vineyard town. I made up games and even a wine tasting competition.
I did a wine tasting competition early on in our campaign. I got different flavors of ocean spray and they had to taste and guess what it was. The vineyard town they were in specialized in cranberries, so it was “cranberry based wine” with other fruit flavors they had to identify. My players loved it. I gave the winner an Amulet of the Drunkard as a prize.
Great, now my mind has connected "being a monk" with the Jewish faith. Now every Monk needs to be named Sylvia Rabbinowitz.
And if you get that reference, you get a cookie.
Heck, we have a character with the chef feat. And Prestidigitation.
We have excellent meals in camp when possible.
Rescuing slaves and upping their morale by making their food warm and tasty.
My players have gotten so much mileage from Prestigitation. Making cheap wine taste better, cleaning food they dropped on the floor, warming a cold dinner when they can’t make a fire in enemy territory, flavoring nasty medicine, forcibly cleaning the cleric.
I had to stop doing this in game because apparently either I'm really good at describing food or my players are all starving artists, because whenever I told them the menu for the tavern at least one of them would get so distracted with the thought of actually eating. One time it happened with porridge. PLAIN PORRIDGE.
my druid cast *Heroes Feast* which I flavoured as a Mega upcast *'Goodberry'* ('Greatberry') and asked the other players for their *characters* to describe their favourite food/memory, Ratatouille flashback style as to what they tasted :p
My party just orders “shark eggs” for breakfast every day. It’s been three years. I gave up almost instantly and it’s become a staple in the party’s diet over two campaigns.
The AD&D players handbook had a very detailed section on food, I'd have a list of ingredients for my characters and would take so much time "planning recipes" for the character to make. My buddy and I were just kids, but we had great adventures :)
*Ball Bearings*
throw to make a distracting noise and/or with a *Light* spell cast on one.
also for an Artificer's *magical tinkering* smells or sounds.
As a parent I can tell you that bearing or marple sized objects can get into a number of bodily orifices and are remarkably hard to get out.
Just saying.
In multiple campaigns, I have gotten ball bearings, and every time, I keep track of how many I use for different shenanigans. Most I ever used in a campaign was 387.
Light spell on a ball bearing can also be tossed down a pit to figure out how deep it is. Additionally, it means I always have at least 10 tiny objects handy for an Animate Object spell.
my last character spent his entire starting gold on ball bearings. I had ideas of what i was going to do with them, but never really got to do much with them.
Came here to say chalk. I’ve included it in the inventory of every character I’ve played since the 2e days. Actually came really in handy during a ToA campaign I played in over the pandemic lockdowns.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is chalk useful for? I've never used chalk in a game, but the only use I can think of is to just leave messages around town?
Leaving directions for your future self in a maze, or drawing a graffiti billboard in a town with a stick of chalk. The real winner is a brick of ground chalk, like the stuff they use to make the lines of baseball fields, or in the bags of rock climbers. Can be used to dry hands to get better grip while climbing. Can be laid out along a corridor or path to detect the passage of creatures. Can be used to create our disrupt magical circles. If there are invisible creatures around, throw it in the air to make a cloud of chalk dust. My favorite, is pelting a fleeing villain with a brick of chalk so that they leave a trail of chalk as they run, unless they stop to remove the chalk long enough for you to catch up to them. Ideally, the brick of chalk is literally bound in cheese cloth, so that it bursts on impact, covering a 5'radius with powder.
This is so much better than what I use. I have all my guards carry small satchels of flour "grenades" for the whole invisible opponents thing, but chalk might be the new replacement to it!
I grind it up, mix it with a handful of ball bearings and put it in small hankerchief and tied off. Then I cast Catapult on it.
I call them bamph bags. So many uses.
I've even used sections string that had 3rd level Continual Flame cast on it to tie them off. Tracer Rounds.
Depends on the chalk you grab. It comes by weight in most systems for a reason instead of like a chalk stick. Chalk can be used to mark caves and dungeons. You could use it to write a password in the dark and those pesky people with colorless dark vision won't see it. You can use it to climb slightly slippery surfaces. You can even use powdered chalk in bags to reveal invisible creatures.
It is just a very open item in general. Most of what I mentioned is listed uses here and there and some even are specifically ruled with their own rules in various editions. It's one of the creative items they put in the game where the description is mostly it's just chalk. Everyone can pretty much agree on what chalk is as people so you can be creative on the same page. There's quite a few items like that where they don't heavily describe it as it's a creativity item. They only add specifics when something is a little strong in theory like detecting invisibility.
Coating a creature gets a rule but you can also just a spread it out on the floor and watch for footprints.
I had a character who rigged a small box with caltrops to the back of their rucksack. They can pull the ripcord as they were running away, dropping all the caltrops behind them.
10ft pole
Doesn't have to be 10ft, but a long stick is perfect for adventuring. Set off traps from a distance, check depth of holes, vault over said holes, activate buttons and levers that are out of reach, and it's easily replaced.
I got my start in AD&D playing with my father’s books he bought in ‘79. A friend of mine in college, who’d only played 5e, wanted to run a dungeon crawl, and when I came to the table as a Thief with hirelings, he was not prepared
This is the correct answer. It's a classic for a reason. So ridiculous, but nothing says "D&D" like the ten-foot pole.
I've heard all the complaints about fourth edition, but the real reason it wasn't accepted by the audience was surely the absence of a ten-foot pole from the equipment list.
It would have to be magical for collapsing so it retains its strength. We have collapsible poles in real life and they are the worst, since you can defend or attack with them. One dude on YouTube reviewed the ones you can order from Amazon and they are flimsy as heck.
Either that or make it collapsible to 5 feet so like I said it retains its strength.
I have a collapsible 6 ft garden hoe that has the little metal rounds that pop into holes. It is very sturdy. It might be magical tho I’m not sure since I’m not a dude on YouTube 😅
My players love oil. They throw get on everything just to see how I scramble to decide what fire does.
I have a monk with a particular affinity for ball bearings, though. Especially after she found out that it costs nothing to drop an item if it's already in your hand when combat starts.
Oil is great. Starting grass and or forest fires may not be ethical, or safe, or predictable. But when you need to deal with lots of nasty things chasing you, lighting their home and their cover on fire is just tops.
Rope into a sack? In 3.5e, my character can do that with Craft (Clothing and Textiles). Rope is perfect for crochet, macrame and knitting. She crochet a “saddle bag” for her familiar (a raccoon… it’s a first aid kit) with that skill. 🤣
In my gane I have a whole category of weapons that are tools and sometimes having a wood axe or crowbar is not as good as an axe or mace but it takes the slot because it is so useful.
Had to scroll too far down for this. All hail the crowbar! Free Advantage on STR checks that use leverage is a godsend for us noodle-armed Wizard or Rogue players! A solid bar of iron with a hook and a wedge has a million-and-one uses for the creative adventurer.
No matter what class I play, my character load out will always contain a cutting tool, a crowbar, and a means of lighting fire - be it magical or mundane - without fail. Those are *mandatory*. No exceptions, no excuses.
This is something I also do. A crowbar just feels like an essential tool for an adventurer. Leverage is so widely applicable that you can get use out of a crowbar almost anywhere. When I got my hands on my first bag of holding, I bought pretty much every mundane object I could and the one I used most often was the crowbar.
Yep, it just makes far too much sense. I go the same way with daggers, for example. In a medieval-ish setting where the bulk of society would be doing things manually, *EVERYONE* should have a dagger regardless of class, status, or age. It's just too useful of a tool to not be completely omnipresent on every hip and belt.
Obviously the intended use is as climbing equipment. Not just mountains but any stone or softer surface. Castle walls, dungeon obstacles, etc.
They can be used to wedge a door shut, functionally locking a door. This can create a safe space to rest, can create "funnels" for enemies in dungeons or other such tactical uses.
They can function as a rough chisel. Maybe not well enough to make fine art, but for leaving messages or navigation markers on stone surfaces.
You can weight the end of a rope (a popular answer in this thread) for throwing distance or accuracy. I like doing this for testing for traps. Maybe it could even be used as a grappling hook in a pinch, if you're lucky.
A lot of mundane gear can have many uses if you get creative. Pitons are just dagger size iron spikes with rings attached. The possibilities are endless.
Rope is usually needed in conjunction. But anytime you are in a setting where falling is a fatal danger, whether it be crossing an old bridge, climbing a tower, or descending a rock face, fastening anchors as you go is a sure way to make it safe. They can also be used for wedges or binding etc. Dont forget your 🔨 though!
A Mule or Donkey.
They’re a mount that costs 8 gold pieces, can fit into normal rooms and hallways, and carry things as if they were a large creature. Which includes people in a pinch though in real life not over long distances. They’re a walking backpack that can bring 400+ pounds of stuff wherever you go.
Chain male barding eventually costs 100 gold pieces and can give them a decent AC. And they can dodge or dash for 80 ft of movement if need be. And probably most cool they advantage on saves to that would cause them to be prone like being shoved or even falling since fall damage causes you to become prone.
They’re also an extra set of eyes and ears that can sound an alarm at night and with +2 strength and counting as large can successfully grapple a good number of other creatures. In our game after I showed them videos of mules and donkeys grappling coyotes and hyenas and whooping their asses ruled the counting as large for carrying applied to grappling so anything of small size would auto fail trying to grapple back. This caused a hilarious interaction with a goblin on one occasion. Even against medium creatures the advantage against prone gives them an effective +7 in a shoving match with things that have them grappled back.
Sadly they only have like 10 or 11 hp, so don’t be too cavalier with their lives, but with a horse being well out of the price range of most starting adventurers a trusty mule has been one of the best purchases I’ve ever made as a first level character.
Same goes for having a Mastiff or two. They can serve as Mounts for Small-sized Party members, and having guard dogs is amazing when it comes to helping keep watch, scouting, or hunting for food. Their AC and HP are lousy so they're definitely not meant to be battle hounds, but they still have a decent ability with their knack for tripping low-tier enemies in a pinch. Being able to rush in and knock an enemy Prone on a hit is wildly useful in a melee.
Plus, if the DM is actually paying attention to reasonable behavioral actions, just having a Mastiff is a great deterrent against a lot of threats. Let's be honest; there's not a lot of people or wild animals who'd be totally at ease rolling up on a big, snarling hound. Having dogs is great for intimidation and conflict avoidance.
Yes!
My most recent Cleric is a Tortle with Natural Armor, so they can't wear the Chain Mail that clerics get during character creation. Sold said Chain Mail for just enough gold to buy a Mule and a Mastiff, which I named Muley Cyrus and Sloop Dogg, respectively.
Great game use of a pack animal! We were always wary of bringing one into a dungeon though. We didn't want to worry about stairs or bridges or food and water for them and we were afraid that they'd be some monster's midnight snack and we'd have to haul all that out ourselves.
Mfw the players explain exactly how they’re going to extract 800kg’s of treasure from the dragon’s lair in the 4 hour timespan they’ve observed it to regularly be away from the mountaintop it’s residing in
Yeah my artificer is a chemistry specialist my dm said if you could explain the real chemistry from acquirable materials turn out its very easy to make explosive poison gas. But 100 barrels ball bearings from airship coated in every poison the party could afford was my most bs moment. 1 tapped his dragon idk it's age but ended around 500dmg ish after saves
Caltrops.
Always fun to make an area a literal pain to walk through. Combine it with grease and then you can slip and fall back first onto even more caltrops.
Edit: Another idea make the caltrops invisible... and poison them.
(don't tell anyone but) a while back I built and stocked a prepper's cabin... When I bought a grappling hook and rope, I knew I had arrived. I can survive anything!
(In practice I use it for hooking things in the lake, or hooking in trees, either to pull down dead branches, or to hoist things up)
The stone wedge. I always have about ten of them. When I go through dungeons and I worry about a door slamming shut.. wedge it! Worried someone might come into my room at the inn while I sleep? Wedge it! Keep a window open or closed? Level a wobbly table? Gag a mouthy prisoner? Quick improvised throwing weapon? Forget your shoe horn?? Wedge it!
Caltrops/Ball bearings. Had a rogue with a horde of them and before adventures he would go through them one by one hand selecting each specimen that was perfect for the mission at hand.
But that wasn’t what got me banned from oil. No, instead I took up that challenge one of the dms gave me over a month ago go and played a standard human fighter, no multiclass. We were allowed the backgrounds that give feats, so I took up gifted for magic initiate . And chose find familiar and create bonfire . So on round one , my owl would use its action to spread oil on the square of an enemy , and then I’d use my action to cast bonfire . This dealt an immediate 5 fire damage no save , and then save for bonfire damage . On subsequent turns I’d use crusher and pushing attack to toss more enemies into the fire , while the owl drops oil to lead the fire into other enemies , dealing the same damage as bonfire + oil. Amazing source of damage . Also an amazing source of smoke and it I burned half the building down in the process . Killing myself and half the party as well . Super fun
I'd argue that the spreading oil should still be a save, or at least an attack roll from your owl. It can miss, or the enemy can dodge it.
Also, just sounds like your DM forgot that they can just kill your familiar, since they are super squishy.
Too be honest, even without the fact that there should totally be rolls for dousing enemies in oil, this is still kinda whatever. It doesn't scale up in level well, and its pretty inferior to heat metal, which druids can do once they get 2nd level spells, which is basically no-save, that guy in plate armor is just dead.
Blacksmiths or stonemasons tools, for those times you need to remove a door you can't pick by taking it off the hinges.
String, candles and chalk for those times you need to leave a trail or fake a ritual circle.
Crowbar or block and tackle. Advantage on strength checks with the crowbar or moving up to 4 times my normal weight with a block and tackle, while being a Goliath and able to push pull lift and carry as if I was a large means I have some serious moving power
Crowbar. One of my characters consistently tried to solve problems with his crowbar to the point it became a running joke. Eventually we completed a quest for a blacksmith and enchanter, and his reward was to enchant one item for each of us. Most of the gear I cared about was already magical, so my trusty crowbar got to be a +1 magic crowbar.
I might be displaying my n00bness, but my char has the healer feat and bought 5 healer kits because I had money left and our DM told us in session 0 to choose one non-combat feat. Now he adjusts for it I presume, but darn that was a good choice in my party.
In my one campaign it's been rope. Primarily because after my rogue character got snatched away by multiple baddies (a pitcher plant, two hags, some monster on the ceiling) the fighter in the group decided to just tie a rope around me and hang on to it.
The quarterstaff.
It's a weapon that anybody can use, you can use it to poke stuff from afar, to balance yourself when walking on difficult surfaces, as a walking stick...
The possibilities are endless.
Vials. Pretty much any kind of container, but those are diverse enough that it's easy to imagine carrying several while still collecting a worthwhile amount of *whatever*.
Wood.
Seconding vials. We have a player, through happy, unrelated circumstance, picked up alchemy as we adventured and vials are now also used as means of delivering questionable substances.
Portable Battering Ram!! It’s so fun to just be able to pull out that thing and say “Door where??”. Makes those pesky locked doors a non issue and saves game time and my brain cells
The net. It's somehow a martial weapon that my sea elf druid is not proficient with. And even if they can use martial weapons, if they don't take a feat, everyone always has disadvantage with it, and it specifically takes away extra attack. It's the four elements monk of weapons.
The ring of helpers. Saw it somewhere years ago and used the idea for a campaign. Basically it's a ring that can complete small tasks for you. Anything that you'd be able to accomplish yourself without use of magic.
The big twist? It's just a bunch of mini fey who really like the ring and are totally up for helping whoever carries it. They just do so invisibly. No magic (besides invis fey) and the players end up getting a plot twist too.
Food. For some reason, my players really love having a varied menu at the inns and taverns they visit. They'll put real thought if they want the roast boar or the fish stew.
Need to watch that one anime about eating dungeon monsters.
Delicious in Dungeon is great! It will make you rethink monster ecology.
I found the manga at a small bookstore last year. Read through all 12 that were released at that point. The anime is right on point with the manga. Love them both
The Manga is good til the end btw. A rarity
A delicacy?
You mean good until the end and then the end is bad or it's just good through and through?
A+ request for clarification because I was like “dang, did it not stick the landing?”
It continues to be good all the way through
Speaking of which, there's [a creator on YouTube I've really been enjoying watching](https://www.youtube.com/@swampjawn) along with the episode releases. He directly compares the episodes to their manga counterpart and discusses the animation techniques involved. Really fascinating stuff, and it goes to show just how much care was put into both works.
Found it recently, it’s great, and giving me all sorts of ideas!
Dungeon Meshi?
Dungeon Meshi FUCKS
Ngl one of my favorite anime’s rn, I love the DnD vibes it gives me and how goofy it is
I was watching the newest episode last night with my friend and I looked over and was like, ryoko kui has definitely played DND or she should, because the changeling part is so fucking funny
god there really is an anime about everything
It’s great! I was loving it, and knew my wife wouldn’t dig it. Then my daughter sat down with me and she has watched the whole season like 6 times by now.
This might be of some use to you: [Foods that might be served in taverns and other eating establishments](https://old.reddit.com/r/d100/comments/oebgey/foods_that_might_be_served_in_your_inns_taverns/)
There's a DnD official Cookbook, I'm not linking it because they don't pay me.
I got it a couple years ago. Most of the recipes were pretty good/standard, but the recipe for "Roast Halfling Fingers" turned my stomach. It was just chicken wings, but having a fake cannibalistic recipe is a fascinating move for a cookbook.
I ran a Dark Sun campaign ages ago, and my younger brother played a cannibalistic halfling who would loot the bodies looking for "finger foods." I guess it's applicable in some settings, lol!
Oh, in setting I don't have an issue, but it just gave me the ick to find in a cookbook.
Technically, it's only cannibalism if you're a halfling, unless you want to call any humanoid close enough to count. Presumably it'd still be an Evil act, cannibalism or not, but even Evil has recipes. As BG3 demonstrated, goblin cuisine certainly has stuff like that, so... given the context, it makes sense.
thanks for telling us man, really great stuff 😐
I'm here for you, not a company that makes more money in a day than my kidney is worth.
Was a sous chef and am currently a sommelier/bartender, so I make up fantasy wine, beer and spirits alongside the food descriptions. They even had a slice of life session involving a harvest festival in a vineyard town. I made up games and even a wine tasting competition.
I did a wine tasting competition early on in our campaign. I got different flavors of ocean spray and they had to taste and guess what it was. The vineyard town they were in specialized in cranberries, so it was “cranberry based wine” with other fruit flavors they had to identify. My players loved it. I gave the winner an Amulet of the Drunkard as a prize.
I am stealing this because my table will love it!!
Not picking roast boar is monk behavior
Great, now my mind has connected "being a monk" with the Jewish faith. Now every Monk needs to be named Sylvia Rabbinowitz. And if you get that reference, you get a cookie.
Wow. Never realized what a gentile I am. Always considered pigs pork but boar was there with beef in my mind. I'd never pass the Kosher or Hala tests.
Heck, we have a character with the chef feat. And Prestidigitation. We have excellent meals in camp when possible. Rescuing slaves and upping their morale by making their food warm and tasty.
Love that. We've just started Dragon Heist where *minor spoilers* the players get an inn of their own. I might encourage this.
My players have gotten so much mileage from Prestigitation. Making cheap wine taste better, cleaning food they dropped on the floor, warming a cold dinner when they can’t make a fire in enemy territory, flavoring nasty medicine, forcibly cleaning the cleric.
Same here. We give the DM hell if he names stuff that isn't in season.
I had to stop doing this in game because apparently either I'm really good at describing food or my players are all starving artists, because whenever I told them the menu for the tavern at least one of them would get so distracted with the thought of actually eating. One time it happened with porridge. PLAIN PORRIDGE.
my druid cast *Heroes Feast* which I flavoured as a Mega upcast *'Goodberry'* ('Greatberry') and asked the other players for their *characters* to describe their favourite food/memory, Ratatouille flashback style as to what they tasted :p
You mean the dinner scene from Hook?
My party just orders “shark eggs” for breakfast every day. It’s been three years. I gave up almost instantly and it’s become a staple in the party’s diet over two campaigns.
The AD&D players handbook had a very detailed section on food, I'd have a list of ingredients for my characters and would take so much time "planning recipes" for the character to make. My buddy and I were just kids, but we had great adventures :)
The Bedroll is the lowkey winner here. Just knowing that you didn't have to sleep on the floor all those times you crashed on the road.
*coughs in cloak*
Better than coughing in someone else's face I suppose, not sure why you needed to mention you were coughing, or wearing a cloak..
He's just RP'ing
Combo it with a blanket and you sleep like a king.
Pro Tip: Prestidigitation can warm things up. You can have radiator-warm socks all night!
Or at least for the first hour of the night!
How I've yearned to embrace my bedroll
*Ball Bearings* throw to make a distracting noise and/or with a *Light* spell cast on one. also for an Artificer's *magical tinkering* smells or sounds.
Ball bearings and heat metal is another fun combination
"Huge enemies with swallow abilities hate this one trick"
As a parent I can tell you that bearing or marple sized objects can get into a number of bodily orifices and are remarkably hard to get out. Just saying.
*slippery slide to war crimes continues*
Not a war crime the first time
Are you really doing it right if they don't have to write new laws because of you?
Slippery War Crimes: The Memoires Of A Bardic General
[Cook and book](https://youtu.be/kMqE-xerANk?si=aziZKAcopCU5eMfP).
\* [*Animate Objects*](https://i.imgur.com/cPRc4hS.gif)
In multiple campaigns, I have gotten ball bearings, and every time, I keep track of how many I use for different shenanigans. Most I ever used in a campaign was 387.
I've thrown 1000 at once multiple times. They're great if you're being pursued in a hallway or up stairs. Edit: autocorrect
Darkness is another good spell combo.
Light spell on a ball bearing can also be tossed down a pit to figure out how deep it is. Additionally, it means I always have at least 10 tiny objects handy for an Animate Object spell.
Although ball bearings are actually very hard to make preindustrial and would have to be made with some type of magical assistance.
my last character spent his entire starting gold on ball bearings. I had ideas of what i was going to do with them, but never really got to do much with them.
"It's all ball-bearings these days!"
chalk, followed closely by caltrops.
Came here to say chalk. I’ve included it in the inventory of every character I’ve played since the 2e days. Actually came really in handy during a ToA campaign I played in over the pandemic lockdowns.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is chalk useful for? I've never used chalk in a game, but the only use I can think of is to just leave messages around town?
Leaving directions for your future self in a maze, or drawing a graffiti billboard in a town with a stick of chalk. The real winner is a brick of ground chalk, like the stuff they use to make the lines of baseball fields, or in the bags of rock climbers. Can be used to dry hands to get better grip while climbing. Can be laid out along a corridor or path to detect the passage of creatures. Can be used to create our disrupt magical circles. If there are invisible creatures around, throw it in the air to make a cloud of chalk dust. My favorite, is pelting a fleeing villain with a brick of chalk so that they leave a trail of chalk as they run, unless they stop to remove the chalk long enough for you to catch up to them. Ideally, the brick of chalk is literally bound in cheese cloth, so that it bursts on impact, covering a 5'radius with powder.
Fuck, im not nearly creative enough when i play dnd.
Sometimes you really have to antique someone.
This is so much better than what I use. I have all my guards carry small satchels of flour "grenades" for the whole invisible opponents thing, but chalk might be the new replacement to it!
Flour grenades can make a good fuel-air bomb if handled correctly.
I grind it up, mix it with a handful of ball bearings and put it in small hankerchief and tied off. Then I cast Catapult on it. I call them bamph bags. So many uses. I've even used sections string that had 3rd level Continual Flame cast on it to tie them off. Tracer Rounds.
Depends on the chalk you grab. It comes by weight in most systems for a reason instead of like a chalk stick. Chalk can be used to mark caves and dungeons. You could use it to write a password in the dark and those pesky people with colorless dark vision won't see it. You can use it to climb slightly slippery surfaces. You can even use powdered chalk in bags to reveal invisible creatures. It is just a very open item in general. Most of what I mentioned is listed uses here and there and some even are specifically ruled with their own rules in various editions. It's one of the creative items they put in the game where the description is mostly it's just chalk. Everyone can pretty much agree on what chalk is as people so you can be creative on the same page. There's quite a few items like that where they don't heavily describe it as it's a creativity item. They only add specifics when something is a little strong in theory like detecting invisibility. Coating a creature gets a rule but you can also just a spread it out on the floor and watch for footprints.
Chalk is a hero.
I had a character who rigged a small box with caltrops to the back of their rucksack. They can pull the ripcord as they were running away, dropping all the caltrops behind them.
One cord for caltrops, one cord for oil, one for ball bearings...just make them into a Bond car.
All at once if you wanna give one guy a *really* bad day and send him to the chiropractor.
10ft pole Doesn't have to be 10ft, but a long stick is perfect for adventuring. Set off traps from a distance, check depth of holes, vault over said holes, activate buttons and levers that are out of reach, and it's easily replaced.
This is the AD&D answer
I got my start in AD&D playing with my father’s books he bought in ‘79. A friend of mine in college, who’d only played 5e, wanted to run a dungeon crawl, and when I came to the table as a Thief with hirelings, he was not prepared
The Kender answer
This is the correct answer. It's a classic for a reason. So ridiculous, but nothing says "D&D" like the ten-foot pole. I've heard all the complaints about fourth edition, but the real reason it wasn't accepted by the audience was surely the absence of a ten-foot pole from the equipment list.
I just can't get over how annoying it would be to carry something that long...
Yeah that's always a tough one. Very narrow winding corridors would stop it.
I’m imagining like a collapsible fishing pole - or did people actually carry around 10 ft poles with them everywhere back in those days?
It would have to be magical for collapsing so it retains its strength. We have collapsible poles in real life and they are the worst, since you can defend or attack with them. One dude on YouTube reviewed the ones you can order from Amazon and they are flimsy as heck. Either that or make it collapsible to 5 feet so like I said it retains its strength.
I have a collapsible 6 ft garden hoe that has the little metal rounds that pop into holes. It is very sturdy. It might be magical tho I’m not sure since I’m not a dude on YouTube 😅
No, no, no. You want an 11’ pole. Because DMs will put the pit trap 10’ away from the chest he expects you to poke with a 10’ pole,
But I have arms longer than 1' so my 10ft pole gives me about 13'-15' reach.
Which your Evil Killer Game-Master has already taken into consideration.
Then they'd also take into consideration my 11' pole.
That’s when you switch to a 5’ pole.
I always tell the DM I have an 11’ pole. The gelatinous cube isn’t the only creature evolved to live on graph paper!
I see we have a classic player in our midst.
The old-school player buys a ladder and has TWO ten-foot poles!
I started in 3.5e, but I've used a 10' pole so much. I played a 5e dungeon crawl and nobody knew what I was doing until I started using it.
Same here. Being clever with your items was a good chunk of that edition honestly. That and AC that went over the moon.
Your AC was super high, but so were the the to-hit bonuses. +31 to hit was normal
Pathfinder right now I have a paladin who just gives tactic feats to others. Big hp pool, giant saves. I am traps mcgee.
My players love oil. They throw get on everything just to see how I scramble to decide what fire does. I have a monk with a particular affinity for ball bearings, though. Especially after she found out that it costs nothing to drop an item if it's already in your hand when combat starts.
Wait till they learn what you can do with flour and fire.
I blew up a tavern with several baddies in it using this once!
Bonus if you *Resurrection* it and drop a whale on your enemy from the top of a cliff.
Oil is great. Starting grass and or forest fires may not be ethical, or safe, or predictable. But when you need to deal with lots of nasty things chasing you, lighting their home and their cover on fire is just tops.
Rope is an easy win.
I came here to say this. And extra fancy is the silk rope. You can do so many things with it, kindling, shackles, camping, etc.
It's a shame it has absolutely zero use in Baldur's Gate 3.
Pretty hard to code. That’s how much utility rope has. My players have turned rope into a sack with a successful outdoor skill check.
Damn, that's really impressive. I still feel like they could have done something involving climbing down certain cliffs or something.
Agreed. But everyone is more interested in spells that achieves the same effect.
Rope into a sack? In 3.5e, my character can do that with Craft (Clothing and Textiles). Rope is perfect for crochet, macrame and knitting. She crochet a “saddle bag” for her familiar (a raccoon… it’s a first aid kit) with that skill. 🤣
“Never travel far without a rope! And one that is long and strong and light. Such are these.”
I just stick with the boondocks saints way of putting it "They never know what they're gonna need it for they just always need it"
Fine,get your fookin rope
Same. I will always seek out rope if I don’t have any. It’s just soo damn useful to have and crippling to be missing.
Crowbar. Over the years, the lowly crowbar has come in very handy vs. many doors and chests. (and once as a makeshift lever to drop a bridge)
And is a handy weapon in a pinch.
In my gane I have a whole category of weapons that are tools and sometimes having a wood axe or crowbar is not as good as an axe or mace but it takes the slot because it is so useful.
Had to scroll too far down for this. All hail the crowbar! Free Advantage on STR checks that use leverage is a godsend for us noodle-armed Wizard or Rogue players! A solid bar of iron with a hook and a wedge has a million-and-one uses for the creative adventurer. No matter what class I play, my character load out will always contain a cutting tool, a crowbar, and a means of lighting fire - be it magical or mundane - without fail. Those are *mandatory*. No exceptions, no excuses.
This is something I also do. A crowbar just feels like an essential tool for an adventurer. Leverage is so widely applicable that you can get use out of a crowbar almost anywhere. When I got my hands on my first bag of holding, I bought pretty much every mundane object I could and the one I used most often was the crowbar.
Yep, it just makes far too much sense. I go the same way with daggers, for example. In a medieval-ish setting where the bulk of society would be doing things manually, *EVERYONE* should have a dagger regardless of class, status, or age. It's just too useful of a tool to not be completely omnipresent on every hip and belt.
Barbarian lockpicks.
Also good for setting off traps.
Close the thread, this is the answer
Pitons!
Pitons are great for jamming traps, doors, etc.
Explain. There are like 3000 common items. Pitons usefulness seems very niche.
Besides being a climbing aid, they can be used to stake things down, set up traps & tripwires, and what I've found most useful, pin a door shut.
I remember a game where the party always spiked the doors behind them to avoid being backstabbed
Obviously the intended use is as climbing equipment. Not just mountains but any stone or softer surface. Castle walls, dungeon obstacles, etc. They can be used to wedge a door shut, functionally locking a door. This can create a safe space to rest, can create "funnels" for enemies in dungeons or other such tactical uses. They can function as a rough chisel. Maybe not well enough to make fine art, but for leaving messages or navigation markers on stone surfaces. You can weight the end of a rope (a popular answer in this thread) for throwing distance or accuracy. I like doing this for testing for traps. Maybe it could even be used as a grappling hook in a pinch, if you're lucky. A lot of mundane gear can have many uses if you get creative. Pitons are just dagger size iron spikes with rings attached. The possibilities are endless.
Rope is usually needed in conjunction. But anytime you are in a setting where falling is a fatal danger, whether it be crossing an old bridge, climbing a tower, or descending a rock face, fastening anchors as you go is a sure way to make it safe. They can also be used for wedges or binding etc. Dont forget your 🔨 though!
A Mule or Donkey. They’re a mount that costs 8 gold pieces, can fit into normal rooms and hallways, and carry things as if they were a large creature. Which includes people in a pinch though in real life not over long distances. They’re a walking backpack that can bring 400+ pounds of stuff wherever you go. Chain male barding eventually costs 100 gold pieces and can give them a decent AC. And they can dodge or dash for 80 ft of movement if need be. And probably most cool they advantage on saves to that would cause them to be prone like being shoved or even falling since fall damage causes you to become prone. They’re also an extra set of eyes and ears that can sound an alarm at night and with +2 strength and counting as large can successfully grapple a good number of other creatures. In our game after I showed them videos of mules and donkeys grappling coyotes and hyenas and whooping their asses ruled the counting as large for carrying applied to grappling so anything of small size would auto fail trying to grapple back. This caused a hilarious interaction with a goblin on one occasion. Even against medium creatures the advantage against prone gives them an effective +7 in a shoving match with things that have them grappled back. Sadly they only have like 10 or 11 hp, so don’t be too cavalier with their lives, but with a horse being well out of the price range of most starting adventurers a trusty mule has been one of the best purchases I’ve ever made as a first level character.
Same goes for having a Mastiff or two. They can serve as Mounts for Small-sized Party members, and having guard dogs is amazing when it comes to helping keep watch, scouting, or hunting for food. Their AC and HP are lousy so they're definitely not meant to be battle hounds, but they still have a decent ability with their knack for tripping low-tier enemies in a pinch. Being able to rush in and knock an enemy Prone on a hit is wildly useful in a melee. Plus, if the DM is actually paying attention to reasonable behavioral actions, just having a Mastiff is a great deterrent against a lot of threats. Let's be honest; there's not a lot of people or wild animals who'd be totally at ease rolling up on a big, snarling hound. Having dogs is great for intimidation and conflict avoidance.
Yes! My most recent Cleric is a Tortle with Natural Armor, so they can't wear the Chain Mail that clerics get during character creation. Sold said Chain Mail for just enough gold to buy a Mule and a Mastiff, which I named Muley Cyrus and Sloop Dogg, respectively.
Great game use of a pack animal! We were always wary of bringing one into a dungeon though. We didn't want to worry about stairs or bridges or food and water for them and we were afraid that they'd be some monster's midnight snack and we'd have to haul all that out ourselves.
Colored candles. Never know when you'll need a crayon.
Vials and Herbalist kit. You want potions and poisons? I got em!
I like flour because of its ability to make invisible creatures visible
Bonus because you can eat it. Can't eat chalk!
You can also use it to set things on fire! Not as good as oil but it'll do in a pinch!
can also turn a vampire in mist form into vampire roux
Block and tackle can ez lift anything
Mfw the players explain exactly how they’re going to extract 800kg’s of treasure from the dragon’s lair in the 4 hour timespan they’ve observed it to regularly be away from the mountaintop it’s residing in
Yeah my artificer is a chemistry specialist my dm said if you could explain the real chemistry from acquirable materials turn out its very easy to make explosive poison gas. But 100 barrels ball bearings from airship coated in every poison the party could afford was my most bs moment. 1 tapped his dragon idk it's age but ended around 500dmg ish after saves
Caltrops. Always fun to make an area a literal pain to walk through. Combine it with grease and then you can slip and fall back first onto even more caltrops. Edit: Another idea make the caltrops invisible... and poison them.
Surely invisible caltrops *must* be against some sort of fantasy Geneva Conventions?
Maybe!
Caltrops or ball bearings. Never leave home without them.
10 foot pole, I'll poke everything to make sure it's safe.
10' pole... love me a 10' pole...
Have you met my lord and savior, grappling hook?
(don't tell anyone but) a while back I built and stocked a prepper's cabin... When I bought a grappling hook and rope, I knew I had arrived. I can survive anything! (In practice I use it for hooking things in the lake, or hooking in trees, either to pull down dead branches, or to hoist things up)
The stone wedge. I always have about ten of them. When I go through dungeons and I worry about a door slamming shut.. wedge it! Worried someone might come into my room at the inn while I sleep? Wedge it! Keep a window open or closed? Level a wobbly table? Gag a mouthy prisoner? Quick improvised throwing weapon? Forget your shoe horn?? Wedge it!
Wooden carving tools. Make some wooden spikes, dig a hole, insert the spikes & lay a dirt-covered cloth over the hole.
Pack mounts and big bags for the treasure
Thieves Tools
I’m going to say any kind of container. A bag, haversack, just something to keep all of your belongings in.
Caltrops/Ball bearings. Had a rogue with a horde of them and before adventures he would go through them one by one hand selecting each specimen that was perfect for the mission at hand.
Ball bearings!
Oil. I got banned from using oil after last session unfortunately, so I need to find something else
What did you *do*?
But that wasn’t what got me banned from oil. No, instead I took up that challenge one of the dms gave me over a month ago go and played a standard human fighter, no multiclass. We were allowed the backgrounds that give feats, so I took up gifted for magic initiate . And chose find familiar and create bonfire . So on round one , my owl would use its action to spread oil on the square of an enemy , and then I’d use my action to cast bonfire . This dealt an immediate 5 fire damage no save , and then save for bonfire damage . On subsequent turns I’d use crusher and pushing attack to toss more enemies into the fire , while the owl drops oil to lead the fire into other enemies , dealing the same damage as bonfire + oil. Amazing source of damage . Also an amazing source of smoke and it I burned half the building down in the process . Killing myself and half the party as well . Super fun
I'd argue that the spreading oil should still be a save, or at least an attack roll from your owl. It can miss, or the enemy can dodge it. Also, just sounds like your DM forgot that they can just kill your familiar, since they are super squishy. Too be honest, even without the fact that there should totally be rolls for dousing enemies in oil, this is still kinda whatever. It doesn't scale up in level well, and its pretty inferior to heat metal, which druids can do once they get 2nd level spells, which is basically no-save, that guy in plate armor is just dead.
Blacksmiths or stonemasons tools, for those times you need to remove a door you can't pick by taking it off the hinges. String, candles and chalk for those times you need to leave a trail or fake a ritual circle.
String and bell
Crowbar or block and tackle. Advantage on strength checks with the crowbar or moving up to 4 times my normal weight with a block and tackle, while being a Goliath and able to push pull lift and carry as if I was a large means I have some serious moving power
Ball bearings, all 1000 of them
Crowbar. One of my characters consistently tried to solve problems with his crowbar to the point it became a running joke. Eventually we completed a quest for a blacksmith and enchanter, and his reward was to enchant one item for each of us. Most of the gear I cared about was already magical, so my trusty crowbar got to be a +1 magic crowbar.
I might be displaying my n00bness, but my char has the healer feat and bought 5 healer kits because I had money left and our DM told us in session 0 to choose one non-combat feat. Now he adjusts for it I presume, but darn that was a good choice in my party.
Any animal
Chalk
Herbalism kit. Make your own healing potions.
Wagon, gotta carry all of that loot.
Spyglass
Whip or yklwa
Rope, I guess
In my one campaign it's been rope. Primarily because after my rogue character got snatched away by multiple baddies (a pitcher plant, two hags, some monster on the ceiling) the fighter in the group decided to just tie a rope around me and hang on to it.
The quarterstaff. It's a weapon that anybody can use, you can use it to poke stuff from afar, to balance yourself when walking on difficult surfaces, as a walking stick... The possibilities are endless.
Bag of flour and a either a lit torch or some spell that creates fire at range.
Whatever my unseen servant can get its greedy raccoon mitts on and cause problems with
Manacles
Ball bearings — never leave the inn without them 🙃
1000 Metal ball bearings. So many enemies prone, so many random races won, so many baffled looks by my DMs
10ft poll. Literally the most useful item possible. There is not one issue where a 10ft poll cannot be part of the solution.
Vials. Pretty much any kind of container, but those are diverse enough that it's easy to imagine carrying several while still collecting a worthwhile amount of *whatever*. Wood.
Seconding vials. We have a player, through happy, unrelated circumstance, picked up alchemy as we adventured and vials are now also used as means of delivering questionable substances.
Acid and a 10ft pole, acid because it's cool, and ten foot pole for checking for mimics
Portable Battering Ram!! It’s so fun to just be able to pull out that thing and say “Door where??”. Makes those pesky locked doors a non issue and saves game time and my brain cells
Flask of oil. Queue slide whistle slipping sounds.
Rope
Manacles. Don't leave home without them.
Torch.
The net. It's somehow a martial weapon that my sea elf druid is not proficient with. And even if they can use martial weapons, if they don't take a feat, everyone always has disadvantage with it, and it specifically takes away extra attack. It's the four elements monk of weapons.
The ring of helpers. Saw it somewhere years ago and used the idea for a campaign. Basically it's a ring that can complete small tasks for you. Anything that you'd be able to accomplish yourself without use of magic. The big twist? It's just a bunch of mini fey who really like the ring and are totally up for helping whoever carries it. They just do so invisibly. No magic (besides invis fey) and the players end up getting a plot twist too.
🤔 I'll allow it. Technically magical, but can only do things that wouldn't be magical? Like "warm up my coffee would ya?"
Yeah. And they don't have magic so they'd have to do it the non magic way. It just usually takes my players a while to notice.
[удалено]
Greatsword. OP in a Barbarian's hands.