29 DM Ideas for Spicing Up D&D 5E: New Twists for Campaigns, Combat, Equipment, Magic and More!

3 Wise DMs

DMing is all about bringing your ideas to the table, but some ideas reach beyond the story and dialogue to change the way the game is played. Today, 3 Wise DMs open a Pandora’s Box of DMing ideas and inspiration for D&D 5E.

From campaign setting ideas to new weapon rules, combat formations, vampire and dragon age categories, and more, in this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave pitch the craziest D&D house rules and setting features they’d love to play with in the future.

1:00 Campaign ideas

• 1. Dark Sun for 5E: Could you resurrect the survival desert setting full of slavery and cannibalism?
• 2. Spelljammer space travel for 5E (Note: we recorded before WotC revealed it’s happening)
• 3. Planescape for 5E: Plane shifting between different, wacky worlds and dimensions
• 4. Call of Cthulhu in Ravenloft with PCs like Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker
• 5. Celts vs. powerful nature spirits vs. Romans in a pseudo-historical setting with limited NPC magic
• 6. A prehistoric game with more intense magic and active gods, but low-level technology
• 7. Clerics vs. Wizards: A world where arcane magic has been branded heretical
• 8. Do you need to limit PC class selection in worlds with low magic or low technology?

25:00 Mechanical ideas for combat and encounters

• 9. Technologically low and high-quality swords with non-magical +/- bonuses
• 10. Injury rules and not recovering all your health after long rests
• 11. Weapon wear and breakage
• 12. An aside on Viking sword and shield usage
• 13. Capping hit points at a lower level
• 14. Combat formations: shield walls, pike hedges, etc.
• 15. New weapon properties and action: long reach, weapon grapples
• 16. Called-shot attacks (Aim for the eyes!)
• 17. Weapons that give an AC bonus
• 18. Improving the shield bonus, but making it something you can lose
• 19. Heirloom weapons that get progressive bonuses/powers as the player advances in tiers

62:00 Magic and magic item ideas

• 20. Expanding spell concentration (perhaps by allowing a familiar or item to hold concentration on one of your spells)
• 21. Creating unique spells
• 22. Places of power where players can cast unique spells
• 23. Rare spell components that boost the spells cast with them
• 24. Rebalancing charges

71:00 Monster ideas

• 25. The bag man and other Candy Man type horror monsters
• 26. Giving dragons wider age categories and introducing mightier Great Wyrms
• 27. The Corpse Flower garden
• 28. Expanding vampire power levels and roles
• 29. Spirts of the Land

82:00 Final thoughts