roleplaying – Page 3 – The Daily SPUF

D&D: Creative Uses for the “Minor Illusion” Spell

April 24, 2022May 1, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, magic, roleplay, roleplaying

So minor illusion isn’t actually a druid spell, but it is one of my favorite spells in the game. I usually wind up with it due to constantly taking “Magic Initiate” as a feat. Find familiar is my goto for the 1st-level spell, so it only makes sense to grab minor illusion off the Wizard spell list as well. (Make the last one shape water and you’ve added a boatload of utility to any class in the game.) Today I wanted to discuss why it’s worth the steep cost of earning it. What minor illusion does Minor illusion’s main job… [Continue Reading]

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D&D: 5 Good Feats For Druids

April 23, 2022July 21, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplay, roleplaying

Every handful of levels, all characters get a chance to either increase their stats (an “ability score improvement,” aka ASI) or take a feat. Druids are in an interesting place when it comes to this choice for a couple reasons. In short, they only have one stat that really matters (Wisdom). You’re going to want to reach 20 Wisdom, but your best starting roll, racial bonuses, magic items, and maybe a single ASI is usually enough to do that. Because they’re always shapeshifting into animals (which overrides most of their base stats), druids don’t really need to worry about buffing… [Continue Reading]

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D&D: Why Every Druid Should Have a Familiar

April 22, 2022October 16, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments animals, d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, roleplay, roleplaying

In D&D 5e, familiars are normally a wizard/warlock-only thing. You get one through the 1st-level “Find Familiar” spell, which nevertheless behaves pretty differently from most spells. Back in the day, the only way for other classes to obtain a familiar was through specific feats. This was how my druid obtained one, but there’s a new way as well. Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything introduced the “Wild Companion” alternate class feature, which every druid gets for free: First, I’d like to discuss why I consider familiars one of the best choices you can make in your personal build. Then, let’s go over the… [Continue Reading]

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D&D: 5 Under-Used Druid Spells

April 21, 2022October 11, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplay, roleplaying, spells

Druids don’t have as versatile a spell list as some other casters, but there are nevertheless a ton of great options available. Spells like faerie fire, barkskin, and healing word are time-honored mainstays of any druid’s prepared spells. But today I wanted to discuss some of my favorite additional choices that many druids overlook. I should note that my philosophy when it comes to spells is “evergreen cantrips, situational leveled spells.” Since you can only cast them a few times, better to pick leveled spells that excel when needed and rely on your cantrips for all-purpose adventuring. As always, my… [Continue Reading]

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D&D: 5 Lesser-Known But Versatile Combat Options for Druids

April 20, 2022May 1, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments animals, d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplay, roleplaying

Everybody knows about the ‘typical’ druid combat forms, specifically wolves and bears. In a vacuum, these two options deal the most damage and have the most hitpoints for their level. Generally, these two can get your basic job done, and some druids never use anything else. And trust me, I understand where they’re coming from. But there are so many crazy options available if you expand your horizons! In this article, I wanted to discuss five alternate combat forms I like to use. Often I’m looking for environmental or situational opportunities where I can take maximum advantage of their unique upsides.… [Continue Reading]

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D&D: Creative Uses for the ‘Shape Water’ Spell

April 19, 2022January 8, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplay, roleplaying, water

Shape water is my favorite spell in D&D, hands down. I have found so many different ways to use it, in part because of the many different ways it lets you manipulate water. You can move it, animate it, recolor it, or freeze it, and the effect lasts for 1 hour without needing concentration. Today I wanted to go over some of the more common situations I find myself busting out shape water for utility (or sometimes even combat) reasons. There are three main ways to get the water you’ll be manipulating for the spell. The easiest is the environment,… [Continue Reading]

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D&D: How I Learned to Start Shapeshifting and Love the Druid

April 17, 2022December 12, 2025 aabicus 0 Comments animals, d&d, Druid, Dungeons & Dragons, roleplay, roleplaying

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for a long time, but I avoided the druid class for most of that on principle. The problem was that I got a bad first impression from another player’s character; Hantan was a party member in my first-ever campaign, a two-year medley of weekly one-offs during my undergraduate years where I was a sword-swinging barbarian. Hantan’s player, while a wonderful guy, was depressingly uncreative when it came to roleplaying. He spent the entire campaign simply shapeshifting into whatever combat form was meta according to the online forums. At first it was wolves, then briefly lions,… [Continue Reading]

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D&D 5e: The Troubles With Monk

April 16, 2022March 17, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments criticism, d&d, Dungeons & Dragons, monk, roleplay, roleplaying

Hi all! While the Daily SPUF is a video gaming blog through and through, we do occasionally cover other types of games. This includes card games and board games and even tabletop RPGs. I’ve occasionally covered Call of Cthulhu, but I’ve actually been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over a decade, starting with 3rd edition in 2009. So I got the idea to write some articles giving advice for newer players. And then I started with a guide to my favorite class, druid. Well, that druid guide turned into three different articles…then eight…and now there are fifteen. So apparently I won’t… [Continue Reading]

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My 5 Favorite Weapons in Call Of Cthulhu

April 15, 2022May 12, 2025 aabicus 2 Comments advice, Call of Cthulhu, fire, grenades, lists, melee, roleplay, roleplaying, weapons

As a fan of historical firearms, my biggest complaint with the Call of Cthulhu system was its relatively-limited firearm roster. I understand why (it’s not a combat simulator, your characters should be avoiding firefights at all costs), but that doesn’t mean I want to give my investigator some generic pistol or rifle. Your character’s weapon-of-choice is a hugely defining characteristic, often tying into their personality, backstory, and team role. But there are only a handful of common options for every weapon type in the core rulebook, and they all differ only in damage, magazine size, range…mathy stuff like that. So… [Continue Reading]

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A Call of Cthulhu Tale: The Last Stand of Barnabas Nambly

January 16, 2022December 5, 2023 aabicus 0 Comments Call of Cthulhu, cthulhu, recap, roleplay, roleplaying, rpg, story

A while back I wrote an article recounting my first experience in Call of Cthulhu. Those campaigns were all set in the default 1920s setting, but there’s actually a second available time period: the 1890s Gaslight era. After having a blast with roaring San Francisco, my group chose to rewind the clock. This time we wanted to face our next eldritch threat in London on the turn of the 19th century. For me, the first curveball came when generating stats for my new character. The online generator gave me one of the weirdest builds any of us had ever seen.… [Continue Reading]