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Ultimately you got my point. I guess I left a lot unspoken which you filled in nicely. Of course *meaningful* tension requires high stakes. Building tension around those high stakes is obviously what the DM would want to do to create a memorable and enjoyable session of play. When I used the...

Although it puts the onus on the DM, I prefer to use passive perception to award hints about the presence of something out of place, rather than directly revealing that something. If they are more than 5 above the DC for the check, then I'll give them a stronger hint. If a PC passively...

Wow, *five pages and I have yet to read about a good trap! I'm starting to think 5e might not be the ruleset for trapping DMs. Our DM has made it home safe and sound every time...

And that is why every pit trap contains no less than three kittens.... In case you were wondering.

A simple solution is to give surprised creatures disadvantage on their initiative and attack rolls for the first round. This gets rid of the stunned-like condition and replaces it with disadvantage, which is still strong but isn't quite as bad as action denial. Now you are at a disadvantage...

The implementation of surprise as some sort of stunned condition at the start of combat is just plain silly... I have no plans to even use that implementation of surprise as a condition. I think that reactions and delay-action rules already allow for ambushes to occur naturally. The reaction is...

Actually, Conan dons armor in the very first Conan movie. The last fight, the battle of the mounds, when few stood against many... blah blah blah. Arnie's Conan did indeed wear armor...

I was trying to understand this one too, I have found nothing in the rules that disallow reactions while raging... I think this is a holdover from the last playtest, which did have a rage drawback that disallowed reactions, except for opportunity attacks. :)

I think ZombieRoboNinja meant this thread: A-tad-confused-about-Warlock-magic which was originally posted yesteraday, and last post was earlier today. I do believe I have seen at least one more thread on this. The real issue is that the Warlock magic is apparently just confusing enough that...

I now understand the complaints about the PHB enormous cranium syndrome... but wow... look at that dwarf! At least the halfling skull would fit on a human sized body. That dwarf's skull would still appear too big on an ogre-sized body!

Ball bearings wouldn't have to be perfect to be useable. Couldn't they just use a mass mold and a tumbler? Or... hire a 3rd level wizard, levitate should work fairly nicely for making them. About 500lbs of steel ball bearings per spell use. :D

If you look at the 1E Players Handbook, it merely said Advanced D&D in the upper left corner. WotC wasn't the first to make the D&D part prominent on the cover of a PHB. I definitely would not be concerned over an essentially aesthetic change.

There are many instances that don't follow your quoted logic: IBM, AT&T, BMW, 3M, IKEA... there are probably thousands, and it's pointless to list them all here. Like many abbreviations, it was likely done because the shortened version has become equally iconic, and transmits the same...

edited: You answered my question about narrative complications before I finished asking it. hehe. Another idea for a mechanical complication for a failed skill-save could be introducing an extra condition tacked onto a failure effect. For instance, a PC tries kick over a table as a reaction...

What is the point of choosing to school me on this? Considering the entire point of the thread is examining the potential problems of a house rule, your quoted text comes across as condescending, though I hope that was not your intention. I thank you for the math example. It supports the...

It can improve the game by allowing a player to engage the narrative with a character defining skill in a creative way, burning their reaction for cinematic effect. This is a mechanical change, and I understand why many might not want to use it. The rules are definitely not and aren't meant to...

In the warlock piece, the character appears somewhat less than heroic, like they just failed a saving throw versus look vapid. I think this piece was meant to illustrate the concept of "seeing that which cannot be unseen." I still like it. :D This view of "D&D forum fans" is mostly skewed by...

I wish this were actually the case in the Starter Set adventure. Perception alone is used to notice traps and to actively search for them, which is a shame. I absolutely prefer the idea that passive perception is there to give you a clue that something is amiss, and not necessarily find a trap...

It's the part where it says, "...the character in the lead..." which makes it confusing. Why is that wording even in there? If they are all searching, why can't the others notice it passively? Maybe it was meant to be worded as "NOT searching for traps." If they are not searching for traps...