Let’s Play D&D With ‘Sandman’s Dream
We’re getting ready to binge-watch The Sandman this weekend, so maybe we’ll invite Dream to play D&D with us, too.
Sandman is streaming on Netflix this Friday, and we’re all pretty dark excited. I own enough of these comics that they were single-handedly ruining the structural integrity of some old Ikea bookshelves. But sometimes you just have to move your heaviest books down to the low shelves where they can do the least damage.
The Endless are some pretty hard characters to incorporate into D&D. They’re too powerful to be wielded by anyone but the DM. And sure, a Sandman-inspired D&D adventure would be pretty cool, but we wanted to try our hand and make something like the Endless for our next campaign. So let’s play D&D with…
Dream
Right at the top, I know you’re probably looking at something and thinking, “That’s not enough.” And I know. But like I said, it would be impossible to make any of the Endless as playable D&D characters without making them incredibly unfun. Should Dream have a much higher strength score? Of course he should. I know that you know that I know that he has superhuman strength because he is superhuman. But the dice demanded a dump stat and this version didn’t really need that one.
The thing with the Endless is that they’re more than gods, which would make a D&D version of them look more like when kids on the playground yell “Nuh-uh!” than D&D. So what we ended up with was a mix of Dream and maybe one of his followers. We went for the general vibe and powerset without all of the game breaking.
via DC
That said, I made the strongest playable D&D character that I could with a level twenty Circle of Dreams Druid. I also opted for Elf over the other races because I needed Dream to feel like he could conceivably be very old. Elves aren’t before-time old, but compared to your average human a thousand-year life span is pretty darn old.
Druid gives us access to an animal companion, and raven happens to be an option. Which is perfect, giving Dream access to Matthew the Raven. Unfortunately, D&D raven stats are a little low and Matthew does deserve better, but we work with what the Players Handbook gives us.
via DC
Circle of Dreams Druid is pretty straightforward, so there aren’t a ton of other bells or whistles there. But I made sure to give the Sandman a few feats to even out his powers. I gave him Durable to make him a little more hearty since he should be hard to kill. Master of Disguise helps us mimic his shape-shifting abilities, and Telekinesis because the character is canonically seen using telekinesis.
When it comes to spells for Dream, just about anything will work. We want to make sure we have the few that relate back to dreams or shifting somebody’s perception of reality. But besides that, whatever you want to see on there is fair game. Healing spells? Dream is seen healing himself. Attack spells? He should have a few. Spells for more free movement? He should absolutely have teleportation. Basically, this is a character with access to and knowledge of a ton of magic and you can sort of play that however you want.
That’s our take on Dream from The Sandman. But with all of the Endless to look forward to, maybe we’ll come back with a certain spooky sister this Friday.
Are you excited to watch The Sandman on Netflix this Friday? Who is your favorite of the Endless? What scene from the comics do you want to see play out in live action? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
