Recent content by abirdcall

2024 Monks are very strong on their own. They were probably the most buffed class and they were actually fine before. Deflect Attacks is probably their best ability. The main thing balancing Grappler is that they want both dex and wis. They can have 20/16 or 18/18 without feats at 8th level...

While this is correct, and why I liked 5e's original design and resisted the idea of magic marts, it is quite strange to say no one is buying and selling magic items in some campaign settings/stories. There are still things I do to make them special. 1. Items found in adventures are random. 2...

So, 5e was not designed with buying magic items in mind. And there is good in that. Magic items are special and gold can be used elsewhere. But buying magic items is fun and is part of most stories with these sorts of fantasy worlds. So what do. 1. Consumables cost too much. 2. Permanent items...

The rogue should hide behind the boulder and then run over to another boulder. Hiding allows them to do this without being seen running to the other boulder. Narratively they are taking advantage of distractions and such. If the rogue just stays behind the same boulder they should be seen when...

Varies by the setting/tone of the campaign and whether the party finds/acquires the ones that are there. Magic items are a great way to have a partial success on an adventure. They complete the goal but aren't able to find all the items. I use random tables so they end up needing to make the...

I consider myself well versed in the structure, framework, and spirit of the rules so that I can make rulings without much pausing in the game even if I forget the exact rule. I am also confident in the tweaks that I've made that remain in line with the spirit while serving my table.

For me the 2024 MM does a much better job of communicating the lore of the monsters with their art entries than the 2014 MM.

Every prime material plane has its own rules. This one might only have mythical ones.

Yeah, seems clear to me that magical darkness is intended to block darkvision but it got lost in the editing/drafting somewhere.

I agree that languages are a terrible system. What I'm going to do moving forward is making most of the language choices for reading ancient text or understanding ancient phrases if they are spoken by a guardian or such (this is like knowing Latin). If a character has the 'language' they get...

To the example of the thread I think the spellcaster would do best to create a moon facsimile that lasts for the duration of their needed eclipse rather than moving one. Doing the least influence needed to achieve the goal gives the greatest chance of success. What matters is not literally...

Yes. Unless something stops it. In 2024 it says the Lady of Pain will stop a Wish if it threatens the multiverse which implies that the effects are potentially unlimited but other entities also have Wish level abilities that can stop it.

I liked Curse of Strahd, Rime of the Frostmaiden, Planescape*. HotDQ and Out of the Abyss were okay. Princes of the Apocalypse was a bad time. *Planescape is a great adventure skeleton that takes quite a bit of prep time to flesh out into a full campaign. The adventure book is only 1/3 of the...

The first step is to select a variety of monsters according to CR and type and then compare how they function with the different rules. Until we do that it is difficult to judge just how it will end up playing out.

I see these complaints a lot with casters who also have some melee abilities. They get compared to non-casters and then the conclusion is that they are bad. They are still full casters. Caster subclasses should never give enough abilities to keep up with non-casters because then they also have...