Bensentials Session 6

Game Date: 3/30/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 6

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Human Fighter (Champion)

Rick - Tabaxi Rogue (Assassin), Tiefling Druid (Running for absent player)

The Session: When we left off last session, the town had been attacked by giants, and our heroes had accepted the mission to teach them a lesson. I used the version of Against the Giants that appears in Tales from the Yawning Portal, but mostly just for the map of the compound.

The PCs approached the giant compound from the south, listened at the door, and heard snoring on the other side. They sent the rogue in first, and managed to kill the first giant in his sleep. The other guard woke up but found himself surrounded, and was quickly dispatched shortly thereafter. They looted a couple of storage crates, then explored the staircase in the southwest corner.

In the original module, this staircase goes up to a guard tower, I believe. But I had it go down to a maze room. I got the maze layout (mostly) from an adventure in the book "One-Shot Wonders" by Roll-n-Play Press. This is a fantastic book for DMs who need a quick idea for an impromptu session, and they're not even paying me to say that.

The maze paths were only five feet wide, and the walls were electrified. The only light came from electricity sparking on the walls. Touching the walls produced the same effect as the Lightning Bolt spell: If a PC touched the wall, they would have to make a DC 15 Dex save or take 8d6 lightning damage (save for half). The players figured out not to touch them after seeing the walls spark, and experimented by throwing copper pieces at the wall and watching the sparks.

So, don't touch the walls. Easy enough, right? But some hallways also featured electrodes that fired bolts of electricity every five seconds. Getting their timing right to pass through these hallways also required a Dex roll to keep from getting shocked.

The whole thing gave us something of a Pac-Man vibe. The maze was populated by some creatures I made up, which I haven't really named. For the sake of this blog, we'll call them Orbies. They looked like beach balls with rubbery skin. They had feet and eyes, but no mouths or arms. Behold my MS Paint skills:

Of course, they don't look like they present much of a challenge. No teeth, no claws, no weapons.. what harm could they possibly present? Here's the stat block I came up with, in case you want to use them:

Orbie

AC 15, 20 hit points, Speed 30, Initiative 5

Immunities: Lightning

Resistances: Bludgeoning

Weaknesses: Piercing

Attack: +8

On hit, 0 damage, but the target is knocked into the nearest wall within 10 feet.

The PCs learned pretty quickly to defeat these monsters fast, lest they get pushed into the shocking walls. The creatures popped like balloons when reduced to 0 (originally I was going to have them explode on death, but the encounter turned out to be hard enough without that).

Getting past the electrodes was difficult for the party. The sorcerer managed to block one off with his immovable rod. But later he left the party to backtrack and retrieve it, and he got shocked to death. He failed his three death saves while the rest of the party worked their way to the center of the maze.

They found that the Orbies themselves could help them get past some of the electrodes. If they kept an Orbie between the electrode and the party, the electric jolts would be blocked by the Orbie, allowing the party to pass through the tunnel harmlessly. So they had to think tactically to keep the Orbies where they wanted them.

They finally reached the center of the maze, where three large treasure chests lay in the center. I let them draw Treasure Trove cards from Nord Games to determine the loot. That's my second product plug in this blog and I'm still not getting paid, I promise. Each card has the players roll a d12 to pick the treasure.

They also found a control box down there that allowed them to turn off the electricity in the maze. Then they found the sorcerer's body and took him back to town.

There were three churches in town with resurrection services, and they paid to have the sorcerer brought back to life. Then they stayed in town a couple of days so he could recuperate. When they were well-rested, they returned up the mountain to take another crack at the giant compound.

Along the way, they came across a druid grove being attacked by a couple of hill giants. The party joined the fight and the druid priestess thanked them by leveling up their pet wolf (he's now dire) and blessing each member of the party with an inspiration die. She also informed them that the giants were on an angry rampage now, due to the party's earlier intrusion into their compound.

The rest of the session featured a lot of exploration, taking out giants one at a time as they traversed the compound. They rarely had to fight more than two giants at a time. The sorcerer managed to befriend three wolves that were being held at the compound - they'd been taken from the druid's grove and they'd been mistreated by the giants.

As they cleared out room after room, they liberated several human slaves. Some fled the compound, but others joined the party, though they were too weak to be of much help.

The party took a counter-clockwise route through the giant compound, saving the main hall for last. This is where they finally fought the leader and his closest allies. The sorcerer, who is a changeling, enlarged himself and made himself look like a giant. He was still quite short for a giant, but it was close enough to cause the confusion he needed.

The disguised sorcerer burst into the main hall and shouted, "There's been a rebellion! The slaves are escaping!" The leader pushed past him into the hallway, and the sorcerer braced the doors closed with his immovable rod. Then the rest of the party rushed in through the other doors on the opposite side of the hallway.

The giant leader banged on the doors while the party, the wolves, and the freed prisoners took out the giant's minions. After a few rounds the leader burst through the doors, only to find half his allies had been wiped out. The party had saved all their best moves and resources for this fight, and they took the leader out a few rounds later.

We wrapped up pretty quickly after that. The party looted what they could, then returned the wolves to the grove and began to lead the ex-prisoners back to town.

I ignored a large portion of the Against the Giants adventure, but we might revisit it at a higher level.

Nomads of Zyden

Off-topic, but I've just self-published my eighth book, a swords-and-sorcery fantasy titled "Nomads of Zyden." Synopsis:

When a tribe of ghoulish monsters wipes out her mountain clan, a fierce warrior named Marta sets out on a mission of revenge. But while she grew up fighting giant beasts in the frigid wastelands, she isn’t prepared for the culture shock of meeting people from the lowlands.

During her epic journey she befriends a jester, a fairy, and a woman with whom she shares a magical bond. Together they take on a much larger quest in which they must explore ancient temples and fight ruthless monsters, all to retrieve a set of artifacts that will help them defeat an all-powerful evil. Their time is short and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

I don't always post it here when I release a new book, but since this one takes place in a fantasy setting, I thought it my interest this blog's readers. You can get it (and my other books) here:

Books by Xine Fury

Bensentials Session 5

Game Date: 3/1/2025

Location: Home Game
Campaign: Bensentials, Session 5

System: D&D 5e
DM: Matt

The Party:

Baileigh - Tiefling Druid (Circle of the Moon - 2024 rules)

Ben - Changeling Sorcerer (Draconic)

Bryan - Human Fighter (Champion)

Rick - Tabaxi Rogue (Assassin)

The Session: Happy new year... Oh, it's March. Well, it's been a busy few months. Last October we ended the session one-third of the way through White Plume Mountain from Tales from the Yawning Portal. Today we picked up right where we left off.

This time they took the north path. The kelpies tried to lure them into the water, but the party wouldn't fall for their ploys. It wasn't a long fight. The party continued to follow the hallways until they fought the giant crab, retrieving the legendary item Wave, which the party Sorcerer claimed (after changing their religion).

They returned to the central junction and took the east path. They - somehow - correctly solved the Golem's puzzle (which number doesn't belong - 5, 7, 9, 11, or 13), so they didn't have to fight the golems, and one golem joined the party. Then they backtracked to the room with all the glass orbs. Even when they found the correct key, they continued smashing orbs to collect all the treasure in the room.

Heading back north again, they went through the one-way turnstile and entered the room with the hanging platforms and boiling mud. By utilizing a potion of flying and all the rope the party carried, they managed to make the puzzle a little easier.

Finally they faced the vampire in the magically darkened room. This was a difficult battle for obvious reasons, but they hacked away until they won. They probably couldn't have done it without the other two legendary weapons, Blackrazor and Wave. With the vampire now killed, they aquired the final weapon, Whelm. None of the party can weild it, but they're going to hang onto it for a while instead of collecting the reward money.

On their way out, they encountered the owner of the dungeon, an evil wizard who invited them to join his cult. The party refused, and fought the wizard along with his guards. The Sphynx joined the fight on the side of the party. This battle wasn't quite as difficult, and soon the party made their way back to town.

After a few days in town selling items and spending money, the city was attacked by hill giants. The party helped the town guard fend off the attackers. Shortly thereafter, the party was summoned to a town meeting, and hired to investigate a hill giant compound located on a nearby mountain.

Next session is scheduled for 3/29, where we will be starting the module Against the Giants, also from Tales from the Yawning Portal.

2025 Monster Manual

I'm not sure if I really needed to upgrade my Monster Manual. I mean, the old MM works just fine with the new rules. But I wanted to complete my set, so here we are.

So what's different? Hell if I know. I've cracked open the original 5e MM maybe five times. I mean, in the past ten years I've been a player more than a DM. When I did DM, half the sessions were online, where I tended to google the stat block I needed at the time. And the games I ran in person, I used a pre-made module with its own stat blocks.

I'll say this, I like the new look of the stat blocks. They're cleaner-looking, which is easier on the eyes. It's not a huge difference, but putting initiative in the top right, and putting boxes around the stats (now with their saves) is convenient. There's also a line for gear, for those DMs whose players loot everything they kill.

The monster's CR now also includes their PB, which I can only assume is the monster's peanut butter rating, something D&D has been sorely lacking. Those of us who use Reese's for monster minis have been demanding a peanut butter rating for years.

Edit: Okay, so I looked it up, and that's actually the monster's proficiency bonus. I guess that could be useful, but I'm a little disappointed about the peanut butter thing.

The monsters are organized a bit differently this time, which may or may not make things easier. For example, in the 2014 edition, the dragons were all lumped together. In 2025, black dragons are listed together with the B's, green dragons are listed with the G's, and so on. 

However, the "index of stat blocks," which was in the back of the 2014 MM, is right up front as part of the table of contents page this time. It lists everything alphabetically, so "Adult Red Dragon" is listed in the A's while the "Young Red Dragon" is listed near the end, despite appearing together in the book itself.

This is good. I do remember a couple of times when I was looking up a monster, I found the index more useful than the table of contents. Putting the index up front makes it that much more intuitive.

One thing that's causing a bit of controversy is that orcs are no longer in the Monster Manual. This struck me as odd at first. I mean, yeah, sure, they're a player race now, but that doesn't mean you won't still fight orcs.

But it makes sense in context. Traditional orc stats aren't hugely different than those of a strong human. The Monster Manual still includes stats for humanoids, including bandits, berserkers, knights, warriors, toughs, cultists, mages, spies, nobles, and so on. Every one of those is designed so they can be any humanoid race.

Some monsters are gone, but some have been renamed or replaced with something very similar. Thugs are now toughs, quippers are now piranha, and lizardfolk now use the "scout" stat block. This book contains more monsters than the previous book, so overall it's a net gain.

There's a list in the back of the book that tells you what new monsters to use in place of monsters that vanished between 2014 and 2025. So if you want to build an orc warband, use berserkers instead of the orc grunts, use the "tough boss" instead of the chief, and use the "cultist fanatic" instead of the shaman. So there's no particular reason orcs needed to take up space in an already crammed book.

Bottom line: I can't say the 2025 Monster Manual is a necessity if you already have the 2014 book. There are improvements, but they're nothing groundbreaking. Still, if I had to choose between the two books, I'd pick the 2025 version.

2024 DMs Guide

Honestly, the DM’s guide is probably the most useless of the core books. There’s very little a DM needs to know that isn’t already covered in the PHB and Monster Manual. Generally speaking, if you know how to play D&D, then you know how to DM.

But I want the complete set of the 2024 core books, so I splurged a little and picked it up. So how is it? I'm pretty happy with it. Here’s a breakdown on the chapters.

Chapter 1: What does a DM do? - This section is remedial for anybody who’s run a game before. But even if you’re new to being a DM, it still doesn’t do much that isn’t covered in the PHB.

Chapter 2: Running the Game - More tips, including things like running with multiple DMs, when to use advantage and disadvantage, ways to track initiative, and so on. Again, maybe useful info for newbie DMs.

Chapter 3: DM’s Toolbox – Tips on running chases, how to create backgrounds, creatures, magic items, and spells, how to manage curses, fear, mental stress, and rules for firearms. This section is moderately useful for advanced DMs.

Chapter 4: Creating Adventures – Tips on making adventures compelling and interesting. The advice in this chapter could be applied to writing in general, not just gaming.

Chapter 5: Creating Campaigns – This section mostly centers on planning ahead and making sure a campaign is leading somewhere. But it also contains an extended look at the Greyhawk campaign setting, which is pretty cool. The Greyhawk pages almost feel like an excerpt from a different book, but it’s a good-sized section (about 17 pages), so if you like the setting, this could help you. Note that the book also contains a fold-out map of the city of Greyhawk.

Chapter 6: Cosmology – The usual info on the planes, including a bit of Spelljammer content.

Chapter 7: Treasure – The section I tend to use most. I’ve seen most of these magic items before, but there’s a few new ones scattered in there. I’m sure some of the existing items have been tinkered with for balance, but I haven’t looked that closely. It includes all the magic items from the 80s D&D cartoon. In the previous DM's guide, the sentient magic items and artifacts were listed separately from the other magic items, but this version mixes all the magic items in together. 

Chapter 8: Bastions – Rules for letting players build their own forts and keeps. It’s always surprising to me what does and doesn’t make it into a DM guide, but this one feels like it belongs.

Chapter 9: Lore Glossary – A guide to classic D&D characters and locations. It's pretty useful if you're into D&D lore, though personally I tend to make up my own worlds. They honestly could have filled an entire book up with lore, so it's a little funny to see which characters/locations did or didn't make the cut.

Chapter 10: Maps – Just a bunch of sample maps to jump-start your imagination.

Tracking Sheets – The book contains several examples of tracking sheets (events, magic items given to the party, etc), scattered about the book in different sections. It’s a nice tool for certain DMs.

Bottom line: Is this book worth it? Well, you don't need it. It’s more fluff than crunch, and fluff is the one thing I don’t need help on. I barely cracked open the 2014 DM book, and I don’t expect this one to get much use beyond looking up magic items. Still, it's a decent read and I’m glad to have it on my shelf.