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4. Write down ideas on loose pieces of paper. If you need it, and it isn't in your binder, you will lose it.

Unless the Paladins are held too strictly to their oaths, or regularly put in situations where they have no choice but to Fall. Considering (seemingly) reasonable players were called "pedantic", I'd be inclined to believe that would be the case. "You didn't give money to that beggar, enjoy the...

Wait, really? At the same point the Wizard can Disintegrate people, or Chain Lightning, or the Druid can Wind Walk, and you have problems with the Ranger (already one of the weaker classes) losing their only standout ability? That seems... Harsh. Incredibly so if you don't provide alternate...

Nystul's Magic Aura is a great spell. In addition to tricking the party about the presence of doors, you can pull all sorts of nasty tricks; my favourite is to use Nystul's Magic Aura on chalk sigils which resemble Symbols or Glyphs of Warding. When the party sees the door covered in magical...

If they're going to be starting with magic items (given magic items are generally a Big Deal in 5e), why not go big? The Paladin starts with a Holy Avenger, the Rogue has a Ring of Invisibility, the wizard has a Robe of the Archmagi, and the Barbarian has a Vorpal Greatsword. They slaughter...

I always manage to work vampires into the setting, but my party's never been high enough level to pose a threat to one... The last (and only) time they actually met one face to face it Charmed them all before they got around to drawing weapons, which would have really ruined their day if it...

This is by no means mine, but I figured it's worth sharing. Terry Pratchett's take on the traditional Riddle of the Sphinx: What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening? ‘Let’s say for example that the average life expectancy is seventy years, okay?’...

Responding directly to the OP, IME something which is important at all levels, not just high levels, is to provide monsters with environments suited to their strengths. I know it seems obvious, but bear with me: as an example, I've seen Water Weirds used in two different scenarios. One was when...

A while ago I considered adding anti-inspiration for doing the opposite of Good RPing: not necessarily doing things outside of a character's normal code of conduct, but for habitual metagaming, breaking the 4th wall, and incessant pop culture references. Then I realized that that's just how some...

Dragons (especially silver ones) have the greatest possible advantage against undead provided they have at least 1 level in cleric or paladin: Holy water deals radiant damage, no undead (iirc) resist radiant, and requires silver to make, while a silver dragon's scales are made out of silver ...

Although by the time you're done casting Gentle Repose then the Revivify timer's worn off. And even if it works you'd have to pay 300gp in diamonds every 10 minutes for a potentially multi-week journey... EDIT: Just looked up the spell; I thought that it extended the timeframe for resurrection...

I haven't played an Arcane Trickster for very long (didn't reach 4th level before the campaign fell apart), but I personally like Sleep: it doesn't allow a save, and unconsciousness (and ergo automatic criticals) work great in conjunction with Sneak Attack.

Maybe a modified version of the Sending spell that allows the recipient to visualize the Sender (as well as increasing the word cap a bit)?

As a druid, I've always wanted a Staff of the Woodlands... But as my DM rolls for treasure, that isn't too likely. The other piece of equipment I've found useful is Dragon Scale Mail, as it bypasses the "no metal armour" restriction, and gives you resistance to a type of damage. The AC has...

In my game, a party of 3 7th-level PCs took out an Adult Black Dragon in its own lair, and an adult white dragon not much later. If you're going to be throwing one enemy at your party, expect that enemy to die fairly quickly, unless the terrain favours it heavily (e.g. a black dragon with...

There's technically no time limit on them, but for the sake of balance I'd rule that you can't summon a new creature until an old one is dead (or it runs away, or otherwise stops helping the party). Although they still have to feed their summoned animals, which can be hard if they have too many.

however, with the "specific beats general" mindset, the latter rule is actually the more general one, which is overridden by the more specific rule. For a good rule of thumb, all ranged weapons used to make melee attacks are considered "improvised" and deal 1d4 damage... But more specifically...

But you aren't improvising its use: you're using it as a net in melee. Ranged weapons are only considered improvised when used in melee if they have the ammunition property. Which, funnily enough, is every ranged weapon except nets and darts, and there isn't much of a reason why you shouldn't be...

Fun fact: there's no rule preventing you from making a melee attack with the net so you don't need Crossbow Expert to prevent your having disadvantage when using it. The rule for using ranged weapons as improvised weapons only applies to Ammunition weapons (which a net isn't), so it seems like...

One thing you glossed over is that Sleet Storm forces everyone inside to make Concentration checks against your spell save DC, which tends to be more difficult than the checks from damage (barring powerful AoEs). It can be really useful to stop opposing casters if Dispel Magic/Counterspell...