Recent content by Distracted DM

It adds an extra layer of decision-making for the player. Each new rest is an opportunity to think about what would be most useful the next day, it might even encourage more scouting/information-gathering, whether it's via physical or magical means. Also, I noticed a sentiment from some...

Plus+ thread, because I'd rather not have to justify/defend why I'd want to bring back old prepared Vancian casting. Rather than remove the current spell slot method, I'd rather create an incentivized option for the old prepared spell-Vancian casting. Incentivizing likely means enhanced power...

After some searching for curiosity's sake, I found this homebrew, btw. Might be time to make a thread to brainstorm around how to bring back classic vancian prepared spellcasting. Or look and see if there are more ideas. Rather than extra slots.. maybe the answer is in character level-based...

That's very setting-dependent- how widespread such knowledge is, communication between towns, etc.

I think a mix of both approaches fits best. Players already take a lot of metaknowledge with them into the game, whether they're thinking about it or not. They know a troll will die by fire or acid even if their character doesn't (unless you change it up, don't use the word troll, etc). Some...

That's very cool and very intense. I definitely do the "living world in my head" thing, but I've never gotten my ADHD nailed down enough to be so heavily organized as that. I'm just very comfortable with improv and remembering the right things at the right time, so I can reference/incorporate...

Well I started making a living off of it after I left my law job post-COVID, so the time commitment makes sense when it's your primary income 😅 But before that, twice per week was about right for me ever since I was a kid, with a few speedbumps here and there.

With WIS -1 at least they have a tiny to small chance of saving for most levels of play. But INT -5, like most bestial foes, means that they're just screwed once you start giving PCs INT-targeting effects. And something like Hold Monster is using a higher-level spell slot, even higher if you...

And some of us run 3-6 games/week 😅 Tasha's Mind Whip, though.. that was one of the things that made me stop allowing every 1pp in without checking it first. It trivialized a bunch of tier 3 encounters in late-game Night Below, because 5e monsters weren't designed with INT-targeting features...

If you want to skip the centuries of picking up the pieces of what was lost after Rome, sure, we’re better off now than we were millennia ago. But many, many fantasy tropes, what I was talking about, are post-post apocalyptic worlds. Lord of the Rings, Conan, Moorcock, Arthurian Myth, ASoIaF...

... If you entirely skip its 70% magic resistance, sure 😅

That is quite a hot take 😅

I almost want to make vancian for 5e again and incentivize it somehow ... But I feel like any reasonable incentives would never be strong enough to make it worth taking over the existing system. There must be existing work others have done in that line for 5e homebrew. But again I can't imagine...

Is this right? I don't remember most 2e combats lasting very long either. 3e I remember being longer.

Yeah I'm still thinking of artificers as actual item creators, like in 3e where they were just really good at creating real magic items. They got the feats included with their class as well as reserve xp to create them. I think that's why they anchored themselves in my mind as The Magic Item...