Recent content by BenjaminPey

Nope. I don't. We all have slightly, sometimes hugely different expectations and needs about this game. In fact, those MM24 monsters are veeeery near my sweet spot, much more so than any of the previous ones.

But dragons spit things, don't they? Isn't it kind of their thing? And spitting a ball of poisonous stuff is in fact kinda believable? Kinda physical, rather than magical? Some spiders and snakes do that in the real world! Anyhow, I doubt we'll agree on that and I respect your opinion, of...

I for one very much enjoyed The Monsters Know What They Are Doing, precisely because it helped me tremendously to DM a 5E game. And I remember, speaking about the new MM here and there, that one of my first comment was "we may not need Keith Amman anymore (but I'm sure he'll come up with other...

I don't see that as more or less magical than puffing a poisonous gas (or fire, again)?

I don't see the problem here. It's a miasma ball. Why should it differ from a fireball? Why is it more (or less) "realistic" or "believable "?

I am this guy. Though I did read the DMG, multiple times. In my book, streamlining this kind of things is 100 % beneficial to the game. I don't care for analyzing stat blocks and coming with supa dupa smart tactical moves, I'm not here for that. I'me here to help narrate a cool fight. Give me...

The Vast Oblivion in Out of the Abyss: vertical encounter against a crazy Beholder, with side tunnels, crossing bridges and webbings, yes please! Best yet: no map. It's all in your head. Xanathar's lair in Dragon Heist. Huge social potential, arenas, cool defense protocol with central control...

I couldn't agree less. National archetypes are a tired way to build and present a setting. There are many, mny more ways, starting with some which don't rely on any kind of pseudo-encyclopedic knowledge. The radiant citadel and its, well, radiant way to present multiple micro-settings, to start...

They very much do, at least insofar as they can measure this kind of thing (and they can better than us).

I understand the need (or the desire, rather) from someone to have some kind of hooks and strings baked in the setting to attach their characters to, but is a monocultural settlement the only way? Even if the setting's lore kinda prohibit it? Tieflings are supposed to appear in other species'...

In Rime of the Frost Maiden, there are two Goliath settlements (with an interesting feud between the two), a tiefling commune, and several isolated Dragonborn. (Three, IIRC: Torvus, an inn keeper and this guy counselor at the prison.)

Leveling (and thus awarding XP) is primarily for me a pacing tool (both for intra and extra-diegetic dynamics), best controled at the table level. So my favorite method is to frequently ask the question "should we level up now?" and form a consensus around the answer. Milestones in most of the...

I mean, the Ten Towns gazetteer, the Baldur's Gate Gazetteer, the Waterdeep gazetteer... The now very detailed area around Phandalin (LMoP, EK). The sandboxy savage north in Storm King's Thunder? Chult in Tomb of Annihilation? The underdark in Out of the Abyss? Maybe they're not FR books as...

Planescape was quite good (and I say that as a fan of the 2E era, I still own all boxes and supplements from back then). Solid panoramic view of Sigil and the Outlands, largely on par, if not better, than the original campaign set, content wise, both on quality and quantity. Didn't run the...

Since 2023 or 2024 (2025 is a bit of an outlier for me, less games played, 4th child born): DnD 5E, multiple campaigns: Descent into Avernus (DM), Rime of the Frostmaiden (DM), Dragon Heist in reverse (DM), home made campaign in Ptolus (PC), home made campaign in Krynn/Spelljammer (Player)...