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I think the rules and design philosophy of 5e pretty clearly point towards a particular conclusion: you should use the extra books and optional rules that your DM says are appropriate for his campaign.

Sure, but the rules also don't suggest that non PHB books are okay, either. For non AL play, the game assumes no feats, no multiclass, and just the PHB classes/races. Basically, pming's game. Any other method comes down to you as a DM exercising your god given right to allow whatever rules...

I might be closest to hawkeyefan. I prep a decent amount of big picture stuff. Worldbuilding, maps, NPCs, etc. On a session by session basis I do virtually no prep at all. It's all improvisation with the players, over the bones of the world prep I have done. I prefer sandboxes, so this is...

I'd strongly suggest that this is not the best course of action. No offense. I do think you're giving the OP an example of what they want, but I'm really skeptical that what they want will actually be productive. I just don't think it's the right approach. This is just a way of telling...

I really don't think that repeatedly punishing him in game is ever going to get desirable results. It will either upset him or feed his desire for attention, depending on his personality, and either way it will disrupt everyone else. Either you need to kick him out/ask him to change his...

Okay, my previous post was simultaneous with this, so... you want to engage in game. Punishing his behavior isn't going to change him, most likely. You're better off giving him bears that are meant to be poked, that give a good satisfying reaction when poked, and that won't derail your game by...

Either let him poke the bears... give him bears for poking... or ask him to find a new group.

I totally understand why you do that, and I've done it myself for certain games. But that's explicitly counter to the way the DMG indicates XP is awarded. You aren't "supposed" to use those multipliers for XP awards, only for calculating effective XP for purposes of difficulty of the fight...

It's also worth bearing in mind that the game isn't designed for you to face perfectly "level appropriate" challenges at all times. And XP isn't a measure of difficulty... by design, since bounded accuracy means that low level monsters in large enough numbers remain threatening *forever* but...

If you have a good group that you know well, this works great and is my favorite method.

Obviously, the larger your party the higher the chance of an overpowered set. I usually run small groups, 2-4 players, so it's never been a big deal. Most often I find the big complaint about rolling is inter-party inequity rather than general overpoweredness. An easy solution if you have a...

Nice! I came into this thread to post my method again, like I always do, but it's already been posted. Glad to see it's gotten out there. That's awesome! :) The best times are when you have a couple interesting different ones, like one with extreme highs and lows and one that's all-around good.

Hah, that's far more impressive than my Kit. He's just there to provide some buffs and Cure Wounds for the PCs. He's more of a healing Kit.

Not necessarily. If the other three are a human, a half elf, and a dwarf, and Flerd is a halfling, we could chalk it up to cultural differences. Flerd Dumpling is a far cry from Fighter McFightFace in my view. But I guess I'm forgiving. One of my players had a water genasi named D'Sanii...

I get how you're interpreting the spell, but personally I'd rule that you can cast this over text already written. I don't see the need to use a restrictive interpretation of what is already a bit of a niche spell.

As always, iserith, you have a lot of wisdom and awesome cooperative/improv-rooted GMing mixed in with a dose of apparent egotism and seeming inability to conceive of anyone genuinely enjoying a game played in a way that you don't like. I'm fundamentally in agreement with you that I don't care...

So for a nice challenging dungeon , sounds like party level 3-5. For a more traditional/easier D&D dungeon, perhaps level 5-7.

If a tough fight with strong possibility of death is the goal, in most cases you can approximately double the party's level in CR, give or take a couple increments. An ogre at level 1 is scary but not insurmountable. A troll at level 2 or 3 likewise. A pit fiend at level 11 or so should be...

Currently, you aren't drawing a distinction between a low magic party and a low magic setting. In a low magic setting, even a sandbox, there will be far less adventures that explicitly call for magical solutions. I suppose in a sense there still are... if a major event happens 500 miles away...

In a sandbox environment, the entire issue is moot. They would engage with events on their own terms, and the idea of there being some highly time sensitive quest that they are expected to complete doesn't really wash. Having run many sandbox-style low-magic games, I just don't see the need...