the Immunity perk from Aristocrat is basically just diplomatic immunity. Let's just hope it doesn't get revoked.

Thank you for this upload time saving me from boredom while I stock shelves

A massive endeavour I'm sure, but how awesome would it be to run two concurrent campaigns, each party sponsored by rival patrons?! A job which one party accepts, impacts the storyline of the other, and neither party is aware that they're driving the narrative for each other!

Honestly, not that it's a very important part of the chapter, but my favorite part is the picture of the "Wizardly Boyfriends" in the academy section. I don't know if it's the first appearance of gay people in d&d, but it just feels so natural and perfect. As a man in a gay relationship who loves the game, something as small as that just felt amazing to see.

I played in a game where each party member was serving their own patron, we had a paladin who was a member of the town guard, a rogue who was in the local thieves' guild, a warlock who was serving their patron, a cleric who was serving the local temple, and an apprentice wizard who was serving their master. It was really fun to play off of each other's backgrounds and such.

Just looking at starting my first campaign and was trying to encourage my players to explain why they've gathered together as a group but didn't seem to be getting anywhere. After seeing this video I've suggested that their a member of an Acadmey and we can flesh it out as part of the Session Zero, they seem really into it and it opens up a lot of doors for me later.

I think it's strange that they didn't include the forgotten realms factions as group patrons, the Zhentarium, Harpers, Emerald Enclave, etc. I thought they really should have had group patron options for those.

I like this. As someone who hasn't put groups in my worlds very often (my players liked my post apocalypses best), this is a nice world building tool. It gets the creative juices flowing.

I like this tool because it seems like you and your group would feel more ingrained in the world and you get to experience this one part of that world. Then the Patron/ Organization could act as a catalyst for different narratives if the players are down for that (i.e recovering a religious artifact for your order, or planning and executing a heist for your criminal syndicate, or baking some rare ingredient muffins for your Hag patron etc.)

Doing a game in eberron with my party working for Arcanix, a magic university, and the only part about group patrons that's really helpful I feel the examples of benefits of serving under a patron. Basically, it helps separate it from your standard games as you have support.

I'm currently running Waterdeep Dragonheist and this chapter alone helped me more than the WD:DH book itself.

I've been homebrewing a setting where the party is a newly graduated adventuring group from an Academy for adventurers. It's funny that most of the post character creation benefits match the behefits for both an Academy and an ancient being because the headmaster of my Academy is a millennia old Lich. The key difference in my homebrew that verges on the whole thing being "OP" is that during character creation they get 2 options. 1. Start as a student and gain all the benefits of variant human on top of your PC's actual race. 2. Start as a non student who meets the rest of the party half way through the dungeon that is supposed to be their final exam, and you start with a +1 magic weapon or armor set. Obviously the non students get dragged back to the Academy where they can audit classes until level 4 when they also get the benefits of variant human, and the students earn a +1 weapon around then.

I think that the two best ways to offer group patrons are 1) “I have a campaign idea where you’re working for [a criminal syndicate, for example]. Are you interested?” Or 2) putting potential group patrons in front of the party in-game so they can choose to join or pass in character.

I like this section. A lot of campaigns already have patrons but they aren't always fully developed. The perks are important because they give the characters a motive to remain loyal. If they betray or ignore the patron they lose the perks.

14:52 I never assumed that Natsuki Subaru would become a patron for a group

Free 5th level spell? Well Awaken is a pricy 5th level spell and could make use of the new sidekick rules for some fun party NPC action.

So I love it how your dnd beyond works perfectly but every time I try logging in to mine it says “internal server error”

I was planning on reversing the process and building my leveling system inspired by populous and civilization. The players would basically become Overlords or great hero protectors. NPCs would basically be given support hero cantrip and your following would determine your level

This just makes my job easier and gives some more guided directions to go with it

For the Ancient One who's lived many lives, first thing I though of was a steel dragon: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jZhygpB92dWxl6c.html

Please never change your ending song

Point of clarification: "Expeditionary Force" is a military colloquial term for invaders. Source: I served in the 1st Marines Expeditionary Forces (1MEF-OEF 10.1)

Thank you.

one thing whit the Group Patrons is that it let player join and leave mid campaign whit little fuff. let say a party had a really good forest wilderness expert and now the party need to go to a desert place where the forest expert is just plain useless in. he can leave and a desert expert can join the party near the desert (im from the origination im here because you need my expertise). it also mean that the player really dont need to spend a lot of time weavering the backstory between each character. our group had a huge problem whit that out of 5 peaple (A,B,C,D,E) the knows other was like this. A knew B and C. C knew B but not C. D knew somewhat E. and E knew no one in the party not even D. and this was when we was forcing connections. this let us skip this as the party can been made of several groups that are asambled for this one task we set out of and from there stays (untill a party member need to be switched out for reason). saw a AAR of one party that had a minor noble that got switched out when needed (mostly because the Noble would not move that far from the regions capital made no sense). so when the party was leaving for long trips out in the what ever it was to do some dungeon raiding the noble stayed behind in the city (was a good fighter and all that just not something that would think about going out in some swamp). also another thing whit the Research function is that it let the story continue even if the party fails whit there research roll. we had a case where we failed so hard whit a research roll in another system we litarly got hard locked out we could not advance the plot at all, it took us days of real life out of game time to figure out how to advance the plot because we could not give the item to some one else (and this was whit several tries whit advantage rolls) us failing all of them that hard was less then 1%. party finds plot items fails the rolls hard. okey we got no clue what this is, send it to the academy that then will Force succeed after a additional time this can be long. so yes the party gets "punished" takes longer to figure out what it is but the story does not hit a hard stop plus if this was the Big box of Evils radio receiver for plot point the party will not get money/reward for reporting it, just a we found something interesting please look at it. Another thing whit this for a new campagn is that you can have the player join let say the academy and then roll for a few pure NPC "Group Patrons" Origination that have there own goals. Let say the players are part of a Academy that find relics and old documents to make sure that there is not some random evil sword laying in someone shed kind of deal, and that the legendary sword of demon lord Xi is known so that in the case Xi shows up we know where it is. you can then set up a criminal org that might work against or whit said academy maybe it swifts from moment to moment. an Aristocrat that might employ one or both of the academy/crime org for there own gains. as someone said its great when the GM can if they want run a nations army whit the same rules a player would. aka if the player destroys a nations only if massive iron ore and iron melting facility/production the army would start to have supplies issues. that also let the player temporary join another org if needed let say the party need to travel really far way beyond there own Patrons reach, maybe to another continent where the Academy is not establish at all, so they need to join a Guild to continue there work and get access to what they need, or a criminal org because its something really dangerous and those are the only ones that have any information about it. finnaly you can have the party start whit for example been part of a military Force, Standing army/expeditionary force tasked whit doing a few quest (into quest and to kick start the campaign) and rail road it a bit at the start in a natural way. whit your officer been a taskmaster that send you on a few task and then have that regiment (not the whole army just that section of the army that the player are in be destroyed, betrayed or betray or in other way been made none operative. maybe a ancient dragon gets waken up when the party is out doing recon work in some old ruins, flies over to the regiment base camp and inflicts serious casualties. the party returns to the camp site finding there taskmaster lying dying giving them his/her seal and the order to kill that darn thing and dismissing any survives from service, before passing out (maybe he/she survives or not but the taskmaster will never be seen again). and now the player can choice to rejoin the Military order at another location, maybe take over what remains of the regiment, or join another org more suited for there needs. also this also means that the player does not need to worry about supplies, food and medical care if the part because of bad rolls need to stay longer at a location to heal up. thats paid for and not going to put the party at a risk of not making any money or losing so much money they can´t afford food to venture out into the wilderness to make money. can be really helpful especially at the start.

I am having my players be under the Ancient One. They won’t know that but it’s something I am not really forcing on them

Having a fallen noble as a patron would be fun, your party is an elite group of her agents all specialized in certain tasks. Trying to help them reclaim a stolen throne. Getting help from underground groups old loyalists in certain cities and using an old guard network of intel that gathers secrets from the new regime

Hey Ted, I've just finished up a Cleric subclass I've been working on and I was wondering if I could get your personal opinion on if anything in it should be changed, adjusted, etc.

Acquisition Incorporated already had sme pretty fine rules for running an organization

Religious Order, "casts any spell of up to 5th level on your group's behalf"... That includes Greater Restoration! This is a must-have for anyone running into, oh, say, those Intellect Devourers in the top level of Undermountain. Seriously, I've lost two characters to catatonia because of the little bastards. :P

Reminds me of Section 7 from D20 Modern...

It's certainly nice to see something I've been using since I first read Legend of the Five Rings codified and given mechanical benefits. ;) Seriously, though, I love this, especially the idea of becoming one's own patron. As far as which are my favorites, I love the flavor of the Academy (Hogwarts!) and also the Aristocrat/Sovereign (again Lot5R-inspired samurai/daimyo relationship ... which would allow players to work as law enforcement/problem solvers, diplomats, bodyguards or simply as a strike team in wartime). I'm also rather fond of the idea of the criminal syndicate, though I despise the idea of a "thieves' guild." But working (or having my players work) for an organized crime "family" or an umbrella organization like Steven Brust's Jhereg, which is essentially the same thing, a syndicate organized enough that there are rules that have to be followed, but chaotic enough that you not only have to deal with law enforcement but also the occasional threat from within your own organization. The religious organization would work well IN THE RIGHT CAMPAIGN, one that focuses either on religion or on supernatural threats ... or possibly in a campaign based in a theocratic society. And Ted is right, the benefits of working for a religious organization are quite concrete and potentially very valuable. Oh! And I love the idea of the "Endless" patron, but then again, I've been a huge Neil Gaiman fan for decades, now. ;) :P

Technically the players couldn't just keep throwing advantage at the problem (a lockpicking check in your example) because advantage doesn't stack so no matter how many party members grant it they only get one extra roll

The blessing of Valhalla can't be used for 7 days after it has been used and you probably don't have to give every party member the same boon.

lesson 1 make the party first and see what patrons they are already connected to.

Man what are wr going to do after Tasha..... I dont remember the before times. Is everyday going to be tuesday?? Im so confused... Is this my first exestensial crisis

I'm generally against patrons, because they often serve as motivation for all of the PCs' adventures, rather than the party's actions being motivated by their own goals, and because DMs often become attached to the patron, and make the story more about the patron than the PCs. Yes, I've occasionally seen group patrons done well, but it's difficult, and more often goes wrong than right. Unfortunately, the problems with group patrons aren't ones that DMs tend to see! As the DM, it's hard to see that the patron you built is out-cooling your PCs, or that you've left their personal stories untouched for four levels of play in favor of the patron's goals.

, Advantage doesn't stack so people can't stack their advantage gives in RAW

Why would you be on the fence about this? It fills in so many 'holes' in backstory, incentives etc. and can account for centralized outfitting for a campaign. There is too much 'boring' effort for players to cover every base in, say, an expedition to the Spine...it takes those periphery considerations as reasonable assumptions for the mundane but necessary items and articles...no more 'I thought you brought the rope?...guess we have to turn around and go back to town...'

These are given as "Examples" but there aren't any rules for creating an organization as the DM for players to join. Any thoughts on rules for creating your own patron from scratch outside of the example categories?

Lol people can already give advantage.. its called the help action..

i wanted to make a guild in sesion zero i would ask would you rather play at the rise the glory or the fall of the helping hand guild made by my one lookalike npc stantleraluos fon fantasie apstrof on the e based on me and my own mind im tellyported to insert world here and want to go back to my own world but the guds say nope YOUcant but because im not from here an alternate person/identety comes alive made of all my fears he is undeatles until he finds (his)tru luve or the girl he thinks is his love who he is defout to at a fault and becomes a enraged marauder with all skills who chance daily one quest is to find her in that world or his own

first :)

What if each person has different patron such as my rogue is in a thieves guild and my wizard goes to a academy (HOW DO ACADEMIES WORK!! How do I add them I. My game and run them) and maybe one is super religious and goes to a church?