Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk

Creating your character

We'll be using Point Buy for character creation, and will stick to the regular classes and subclasses of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. Point buy is a character creation method where you get 27 points that you can allocate across your stats, which all start at 8. The cost of how many points it takes to raise a stat from a certain threshold varies (Raising an 8 in your strength stat to a 9 would cost a single point, while raising it from a 13 to a 14 costs 2 points). I will assist in this endeavor when you join the game and I help you create your character. We start at level 1, and all characters will be created within Foundry VTT. Refer to all published Wizard of the Coast material for your class and/or subclass (Coming to me before choosing a certain one). No Unearthed Arcana content is allowed.

Preparing for the session

A decent internet, and mic. A Discord and a Forge (https://forge-vtt.com/) account. A general understanding of some core ideas of tabletop games (such as what dice you use, what skills are, etc.) If you prefer, I will explain these to you myself.

What Henry brings to the table

I run my games using Foundry VTT, which I'll brief you on how to use during our session 0. I will also teach you how to make a character using the program, and give you a step by step of the process. I use some custom maps from time to time, but since we're playing a pre-written adventure, it will mostly be maps from the adventure. I do utilize the remade maps from The MAD Cartographer for this particular adventure, since they are very beautifully crafted. I do character voices a lot, and consider myself fairly good at doing them since I took acting classes and have practiced voice acting and singing for years. You're not required to match the level of commitment to character voices or roleplaying that I engage in, but the heads up is always good. I also utilize ambient music, be it through tracks directly played through the Foundry VTT music player, or through a music bot on the Discord server. Combat will hopefully be hard enough to provide a challenge for newer players, but I'll be sure to accommodate to you if you bring any concerns or complains regarding the difficulty of encounters. I have a tendency to lean towards Rules as Written (Which means to stick to a more literal interpretation of the rules) over Rule of Cool (Which is to hand-wave some rules in favor of a cool moment). This does not mean I won't allow you to do cool, creative ideas, but if anything is already supported by a Rule found in the Dungeon Master's Guide or the Player Handbook (or other books like Tasha's Cauldron of Everything) then I'll try to stick to those for consistency. Don't be afraid to try, however!

Homebrew rules

Drinking a healing potion is an action or a bonus action. If drank as an action, you regain the maximum amount of healing from it. If drank as a bonus action, roll as normal. We’ll be using a slightly modified Point Buy for your characters’ stats. Go into this website (https://chicken-dinner.com/5e/5e-point-buy.html#customrace&NA&8&8&8&8&8&8&0&0&35&18&6&19&15&12&9&7&5&4&3&2&1&0&1&2&4&6&9&4&4&4&4&4&4) and keep the following changes in mind: The Available Points are 35. The Maximum Purchasable Attributes Before Bonuses is 18 and the Minimum to 6. That is it! You can buy your stats before applying racial bonuses this way, and customize your character exactly the way you want them.

How Henry creates a safe table

We'll be discussing your do's and don'ts when you join up, so that if they come up (which I'll try to avoid if you've relayed these to me beforehand) we can avoid the topic and move forward, discuss it if need be, or accommodate to said topic in a particular way