Hello all, this is the club’s official raid background. Whenever you participate in a raid of another Toastmasters club, why not display the Dungeons & Toast banner proudly for all to see?

In a departure from previous editions, 5^th Edition Dungeons & Dragons introduced the mechanic of attunement as a way to balance the power of magical items and ensure that players couldn’t equip an overwhelming number of powerful items simultaneously. Prior editions did not have a specific attunement system, although they had other mechanisms to manage the use of magical items.

What is Attunement?

Attunement can be thought of as a special bond between a character and a magical item. This bond allows the character to unlock the item’s full potential, gaining access to its powerful properties and abilities. However, not all magical items require attunement. Generally, more potent and complex items necessitate this deeper connection. It is worth noting that armor with a static bonus to armor class and weapons with static bonuses to attack and damage never require attunement and thus do not count against your attunement limit.

At Akemi’s Magickal Sundries and Tea Shop, items that require attunement are clearly marked with an A icon, as well as being labeled on the item detail page:

You can also search for items that either do or do not count against your 3-item attunement limit.

The Attunement Limit: Three’s a Crowd

In D&D 5E, a character can be attuned to a maximum of three magical items at any given time. This rule encourages players to make thoughtful decisions about which items to attune, fostering a more balanced and strategic gameplay experience. It requires a short rest to attune to a magic item. A short rest is a period of at least one hour during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds. In this case, the character spends the hour focused on the item, establishing the necessary bond to unlock its magical properties. Note that this means that a newly found Cloak of Elvenkind cannot be effectively used until the lucky player takes a short rest.

However, attunement to a given item need not be permanent. A character can choose to end their attunement to an item at any time, freeing up a slot for a different magical item. This flexibility allows players to adapt to new challenges and opportunities by changing their attuned items as needed.

Why the Limit?

You might wonder why this limitation exists. The primary reason is balance. In a game where magic can bend the very fabric of reality, limitations ensure that no single character becomes overwhelmingly powerful. The attunement system helps maintain a sense of fairness and challenge, encouraging players to rely on strategy and teamwork rather than an overabundance of magical aid.

Choosing Your Magic: Strategic Attunement

Given the three-item limit, choosing which items to attune to becomes a strategic decision. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your attunement slots:

1. Understand Your Role: Consider your character’s role in the party. Are you a frontline fighter, a spellcasting powerhouse, or a stealthy rogue? Choose items that enhance your strengths and complement your role.
2. Balance Your Abilities: Aim for a balance between offensive, defensive, and utility items. This balance ensures you’re prepared for a variety of situations, whether you’re facing a horde of enemies or solving a tricky puzzle.
3. Synergy with Party Members: Discuss your attunement choices with your party. By coordinating, you can ensure that your party as a whole is well-equipped and versatile, rather than having redundant abilities.
4. Adapt to the Adventure: Be prepared to switch out attuned items based on the needs of your current adventure. Flexibility is key in navigating the ever-changing challenges of your campaign.

Examples of Attunement in Action

To bring the concept of attunement to life, let’s explore a few examples of how characters might use attunement strategically.

Brienne, the Stalwart Paladin

Lady Brienne, a noble paladin, is attuned to three magical items: a Holy Avenger sword, a Shield of Protection, and a Ring of Regeneration. This combination enhances her combat prowess, fortifies her defenses, and ensures she can recover from injuries quickly. When venturing into a cursed dungeon filled with undead, Brienne might switch her Ring of Regeneration for an Amulet of Health, boosting her Constitution to help her withstand necrotic energy.

Adelaide, the Cunning Rogue

Adelaide, a stealthy rogue, is attuned to a Cloak of Invisibility, Boots of Elvenkind, and a Ring of Evasion. These items make her nearly undetectable and enhance her agility. When tasked with infiltrating a heavily guarded fortress, Adelaide might replace her Ring of Evasion with a Ring of Mind Shielding to protect against potential mind-reading guards.

Aja, the Arcane Scholar

Aja, a wizard with a thirst for knowledge, is attuned to a Staff of Power, a Robe of the Archmagi, and a Cloak of Protection. These items amplify her spellcasting abilities and provide crucial defenses. However, when exploring an ancient library rumored to house sentient books, Aja might choose to attune to a Headband of Intellect instead of her Cloak, enhancing her Intelligence for the intelligence-based skill challenges she expects.

DM Tips: Managing Attunement in Your Campaign

For Dungeon Masters, managing attunement can be just as engaging as it is for players. Here are some tips for integrating attunement into your campaign:

1. Balance Item Distribution: Ensure a balanced distribution of attunement-required items among your party. Avoid overloading one character with too many powerful items.
2. Encourage Strategic Thinking: Prompt players to think strategically about their attunement choices. Create scenarios where different items might be more advantageous, encouraging players to switch attunements. (Be sure to impose the short rest requirement so that there is potential risk to changing attunements mid-adventure.)
3. Narrative Integration: Weave the attunement process into your story. Perhaps attuning to an item requires a special ritual, a quest to understand its origins, or the discovery of its hidden powers.

Embrace the Magic of Attunement

The attunement mechanic can add depth, strategy, and balance to the game. By understanding and embracing attunement limitations, players can enhance their characters’ capabilities while ensuring a fair and enjoyable experience for everyone at the table. So, the next time you discover a magical item in your adventures, take a moment to consider its potential and attune wisely.

Can you solve the Case of the Snarfed Scarf adventurers? With these backgrounds you can put yourself in the case and help each other work together in capturing the culprit

Theorycraft Gone Wrong (Or Gone Right?)

In designing and playing my Warrens of the Harengon character for the 2023-2024 Dungeons & Toast (D&T) guild campaign (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024), I modified the theorycraft build I found online to fit in with the campaign; some may say, this writer included, with disastrous results. Where did things go wrong? One possibility is that there are three differences in the theorycraft of the build as it’s presented online and in how I built the character. The differences are ancestry, class selection after level five, and roleplay versus optimization. Other factors that come into play are related to the experience of playing the build – the execution of said build and less play time at each level.

For starters, “Theorycraft (or theorycrafting) is the mathematical analysis of game mechanics (usually in video games) to discover optimal strategies and tactics (Wikipedia).” The first difference to tackle between the theorycraft build and how I built the character is ancestry. The 2023-2024 D&T guild campaign was strictly based on animal ancestries, so the option to take the Halfling ancestry was unavailable as adjustments had to be made to fit the animal ancestries campaign theme. This means that the Lucky Halfling Trait (reroll ones on attack roles, ability checks, and saving throws)* and the Halfling ancestral feat of Bountiful Luck (allies within range can reroll ones on attack roles, ability checks, and saving throws)** were both unavailable to my character, further taking away an additional ability I could have had to help the party.

So you’d like to create a character for Dungeons & Toast’s Heirs of the Dragon campaign? Before you get started, you may want to review some background info:

Link to Campaign Overview – The campaign page on Dungeon & Toast’s website. Some basic lore and mechanics for the game.

Creating Your First D&D Character – This is a nice post on D&D Beyond that goes through the mechanics of creating a character. We use their website for our campaigns so it is a good resource to review before creating your own.

Create Your Character on D&D Beyond

Our Immediate Past Guild Master has a campaign already created on D&D Beyond.

Some things to remember before creating a character:

• Use the “Point Buy” system for the Abilities section
• Advancement Type will be milestone
• Make Character Privacy “public” if you’d like help from GMs or want to post your character on the guild site.
• Characters will utilize Max HP when leveling up during the campaign.
• Items that come with your character’s background/class can be added on your D&D Beyond character sheet manually when creating a character.
• If you would like to play one of the animal races from the Warrens of the Harengon campaign, they should be available on D&D Beyond.

Create Your Character on the Guild Homepage

Once you have your character created on D&D Beyond, you can put the basic information into the “My Character Sheet” section of the homepage (requires login). Once you login, click the “Campaign” drop down and choose the “My Character Sheet” option. Once you create your character here, you can link to your D&D Beyond character sheet as long as you set your privacy to “public” when creating your character. To find the link to your D&D Beyond character sheet, go to your character sheet page and click the “share” button at the top. It should give you a link to copy and paste.

Leveling and Gearing Up Your Character

Once you’ve created your character, you should see what level you are based on the XP you’ve earned so far during this Toastmasters Year. Depending on your level, you may need to go back to your D&D Beyond character page and level up your character. To do so, just click the hammer and anvil image on the top right of your character sheet to edit your character.

Once you create your character, you also earn 250 GP. To look for items you may wish to purchase, I recommend using the D&D Beyonds Item Page to look at equipment and magic items. To start, it’s likely you’ll only be able to afford common and uncommon items. Look for armor, weapons, and items suitable for your character and then visit Akemi’s Magickal Sundries and Tea House to purchase utilizing the gold in your account. Just search for the item and click “Unlock for XX Gold” to add to your character. You can also add the item to your character sheet in D&D Beyond if you’d like to track it there for our Roll 20 Games.

Some items to consider as you start earning gold at lower levels:

• Bag of Holding – carry all the loot!
• Cloak of Protection – +1 AC (Armor Class) and +1 on all Saving Throws
• +1 Weapons and Armor – Improves defense/offense in combat
• Alchemy Jug – Fun item that allows you to create a bunch of different liquids
• Brewer’s Supplies – Because you’ll want beer for your journey

Seriously, just look through the items, see what speaks to you, and check the shop to see if you can afford it. If your character’s race, class, or background gives you items to start, just add them manually to your D&D Beyond character sheet. Do not worry about purchasing these from Akemi’s shop.

Done… for now!

That’s it! You’re ready to play in the Heirs of the Dragon campaign. But there’s a lot more stuff for you to check out if you’d like to:

Beyond 20 Chrome Extension – If you’d like to use your character sheet from the D&D Beyond homepage to play in Roll20, Chrome has a nifty little extension that’s pretty easy to use.

Request a Character Design – Want a cool image of your character? Submit your design request and our resident AI artist (Loni) will get something whipped up for you when she has time.

Check out everyone’s character! – Visit the character roster page on the guild website and see what other members are doing with their own characters.

The story so far… – See posts from other guild members about the game or their characters that are shared on the Dungeons & Toast website/blog.

Level Up! – Visit the Quests page to figure out how to maximize XP and Gold earning. Give speeches, serve as a functionary, wear your gear! These are all ways to level and strengthen your character.

Give Commendations – Did someone inspire you? Help you with a speech? Do a great job in a meeting? Run a fantastic game? Well take a moment and nominate them for a commendation on our “Commendations” page. This earns their character XP for this year’s campaign.

Come join us tonight at Dungeons & Toast and celebrate the new year with us with these fun backgrounds themed around our annual TTRPG campaign!

Our end-of-year recognition, the Golden Goblet Awards, were held on Friday, June 19 as part of our last meeting of the Toastmasters year. Overall, we held a total of 39 weekly meetings and 23 game nights. Members gave a total of 90 speeches and created 18 characters for the Warrens of the Harengon tabletop roleplaying game campaign.

Congratulations to the following members upon recognition of their spectacular achievements last year:

Welcome to the Dragon Coast

In the Forgotten Realms there is a small geographical area known as the Dragon Coast. It exists on the southern shores of the Dragonmere (also known as the Lake of Dragons) which runs into the Sea of Fallen Stars to the east. From the west, the Tun River flows into Dragonmere through a small, wetlands area and a large mountain range protects the region from the south. The Dragon Coast has long been known for its lack of central government and to outsiders, functions as a small collection of city-states and pirate holds. Power has never been focused in one group but rather ebbs and flows between the different thieves’ guilds, pirate bands, and secret societies that work in the shadows of the region.

There was a time, many generations ago, that this area was the center of power and nobility. Over the centuries, it has devolved into a culture of “everyone has a price.” No one knows when it began, but everyone understands that this is the reality of the Dragon Coast.

Forever Winter

For the last five decades, the seas have gotten colder, darker, and more wild, increasingly limiting trade to the region. The tops of the Giant’s Run Mountains have been covered with snow and the mines in the Gulthmere Forest have gotten colder as the years have gone by, making it nearly impossible to access the resources within. Even the edges of the “Lake of Dragons”, have begun to freeze at their narrowest point between Westgate and Urmlaspyr, forcing the towns on the western edge of Dragonmere to discontinue all travel by sea indefinitely.

No one knows what’s wrong on the Dragon Coast. But if it is not solved, the fallout will be felt by all life in the Forgotten Realms.