Recent content by AeroDm

I agree with most everything you said. I once tried to create what I thought was an innovative approach to encumbrance. It was simple and quick but still allowed for the interesting tradeoffs of "do I carry it or not." What I learned is that most people fall strongly into one of two camps. (1)...

A key challenge I have frequently witnessed is that restarting a campaign is very exciting. People like the optimism of creating new characters and undertaking those initial adventures when anything is possible. As a result, being overly punitive towards people who can't attend or restart...

I think the problem with negative rules are two fold. (1) If the rule is static (i.e. a -2 penalty to dexterity or bad at social skills) then you end up with self selection. The only people who will take it are those for whom the penalty is not that big of a deal and you've just shut out an...

I feel differently about immunities on monsters vs PCs. Immunity for a monster does indeed force creativity and speeds along play. Immunity for a PC closes off potential adventure arcs and requires the GM to introduce gimmicks like hyper-poison that still affects dwarves. The game can take...

I think one more key difference between earlier editions and 5e is that your skills improve much slower. The main way skills improve is by your ability scores increasing (via stat raises) instead of adding additional skill points or 1/2 level. As a result, if you're trained in a skill at lvl 1...

Instead of every weapon having an attunement section, I'd prefer a sidebar giving ideas for how to vary it up and a list of 20-50 ideas to get you started. That way if a group decides to hand waive and just go with the 10 minute rule they don't lose pages from every book. Also, I'm not a fan of...

I think it is a neat idea. Limiting cantrips to one time per encounter ensures that a range of spells will be used but also ensures that the really base spells can be done often. Sure, it comes up with some problems of "how do you define an encounter" but it also forces some level of resource...

This is going to be really cool for a lot of gamers that weren't around to experience it the first time around. Kudos, Wizards.

War and Celerity both offer things you couldn't otherwise get at first level. The 3.0 version of Animal gave you a follower which was ridiculously powerful.

I'm with ya, but that isn't a profitable vision. You're aiming for 3ish books/year which is awesome for the player base, but terrible for the company/brand.

So we have proof that they're reading these forums and, contrary to OP, I've found the general reaction to be positive in many forums. Where I have some concerns is in the fact that the vast majority of the community is not active in *any* forum. How is DNDn going to get their feedback to make...

I don't see any reason you couldn't begin whenever your fancy suits you. Sure, you'll have to fill in some gaps, but it is a playable framework and people are already starting to show homebrew content. Just make sure the players are on board for an evolution in the rule set and you're good to go.

I read that 100% as an endorsement of killing prostitutes and taking their stuff.... I'm really not a fan of XP for GP. It was a clunky system and if anything I'd like to see XP moved more into the abstract. Players progressed much more slowly in OD&D or 2e and so experience needed to be a very...

It stars with significant narration and trails into none. The first few rounds I try to set the cinematic scene with an abundance of narration. After that I try to keep combat moving briskly to keep interest high, and that means less narration.

That's a good point. It is sort of interesting that you could similarly make the feat more powerful just by increasing the penalty. If you got no benefit of a shield without the feat, it'd suddenly be a more powerful feat. Kind of an odd relationship.