Recent content by CydKnight

Interestingly I am having the opposite issue as a PC. We are now in our 2nd major underground dungeon crawl through level 5. My character is a human that is obviously without darkvision. All other characters in the party have darkvision and have insisted that no one produce a light source in...

I can't think of an instance that I disallowed a race in a game I was running. I suppose anything is doable as long as the background story makes sense.

Thank, you. I'll take it and tuck it away for later. I'm sure it will come in handy sooner or later. I recently ran The Barber of Silverymoon as part of a larger campaign. This was my first experience with Xvarts as a DM. I did some background research on Raxivort beforehand and was...

I've used both encounter and Milestone. Even when simply awarding XP based on the encounters/sessions I've often made milestone adjustments (always positive) to keep the levels appropriate based on what's to come in the campaign going forward.

They don't owe me anything.

I use Roll20 but wouldn't say it's the most user friendly for a player and worse for a DM. The group started playing on it when Covid began since most of us already had an account and some familiarization with it previously. I can't compare it to anything else since I've never used another...

As long as you include flanking in your game it should work both ways and that should be the balance preventing it from being "OP". If it still seems too one-sided for the party, then make some adjustments to your encounters so that the enemy can take advantage of the flanking too. This could...

Yes, must be fighter levels. From the SRD With this rule, you have the option of gaining a level in a new class whenever you advance in level, instead of gaining a level in your current class. Your levels in all your classes are added together to determine your character level. For example, if...

With groups I've played with it's kind of an understood, unwritten, no-need-to-be said rule that the DM does indeed have final authority. It has never been an issue unless that authority is abused and that's typically done out of spite in my experience rather than for the spirit of the rules or...

I am running this now with the party at level 11 and about to enter the Labyrinth. There have been a lot of easy battles, some that I thought would be a lot harder for the party than they turned out. A couple of encounters were near fatal for one or more characters. I have fiddled with it...

It is true for me because this is how I rule it. If combat has begun within initiative, then I rule there are no more surprises. Just because your initiative roll is worse than the enemy Assassin doesn't mean you are surprised during initiative, it simply means the Assassin acted on the...

My pantheons are very limited to mostly Faerun (Toril), Greyhawk ages ago when I played AD&D, a Homebrew World, and, only very recently, Exandria. With this very limited pantheon experience, I can't really give an unbiased answer. Obviously I do enjoy Faerun on the world of Toril since I've...

I jumped from AD&D all the way to 5E. It wasn't because I didn't want to play other editions. I didn't play at all for over 25 years. When I began again with 5E nearly 5 years ago, I found it to be quite logical to my way of thinking and have had fun with it ever since. Since I hadn't played...

The ruling on this has been an issue for me as a DM in the past. You have one chance to use Assassinate and that will always be before combat officially begins. In order for that to occur, you must surprise your target before the initiative round. It can't occur after initiative, because...

I agree, you can always improve on this. The trick is getting that information across in an effective way to everyone. Some may be OK with the "paragraphs upon paragrahs" or may not care for travel guides at all. :)