Recent content by Hawk Diesel

I voted that I will not buy WotC products, regardless. Hasbro is an awful company. They didn't sit great with me to begin with, but after the OGL scandal, I'm good. I'd much rather give my money to 3rd party pubishers.

Sorry, just to clarify. I wasn't commenting on your house rule, so much as the idea of why things may be different in combat versus out of combat, at least for D&D (other systems may be different). If you want to treat the different pillars of play in D&D as each being more consistent in how the...

I don't think it's so much that Dash isn't allowed out of combat, but rather that it doesn't make sense. We aren't tracking rounds out of combat, so why would we track speed as rigidly as we would in combat? Personally, I think of combat like it is represented in BG3. The turn-based mode doesn't...

I don't know that its a problem so much as an abstraction. We don't tend to worry about exhaustion when a combat happens, but for anyone that has actually fought it is very much at the forefront of mind and strategy. Just because the rules don't directly mention other senses doesn't mean it...

In case anyone is interested, here's my take on the Hide action. The intent behind it was to clarify how hiding works, formalize the use of the Hide and Search (which is an action that I think is largely ignored) actions, and reduce rolling by making the active character roll against the passive...

I wouldn't limit the number of times a utility cantrip can be cast, just as I wouldn't limit the number of times a non-caster could use a shovel or swing a hammer for blacksmithing. Any prolonged activity, whether mundane or magical, can be limited by calling on an ability check to determine...

Something that may help you is to stop thinking about any mechanical drawback aside from maybe exchanging some racial features or requiring a feat. It's not always fun for some players to get a benefit that comes with a curse. Especially when this ability benefits you as a DM to further drive...

What has your player told you they want from the mark? I've often found that players don't want a mark just to have it or for the story implications, but they have a vision for the abilities it might grant. Maybe that would be a good place to start.

I don't think a dragonmark on a warforged is weird at all. Warforged were originally created in the Age of Giants (House Cannith found creation forges in Xen'drik and reverse engineered them). I also believe there's some lore suggesting waforged have ties to Dolurrh, and the creation of a...

I have made my own Artificer, and while my homebrew tends to really up the power scaling to be unbalanced/broken for most tables, two things I think help include removing their spell list (let them cast from all spell lists, since they are about the fundamentals of magic and not tied to a...

All right, so I have to admit this has gotten me to go down a rabbit hole of sorts. As I think about HP between classes, I can't help but feel odd about having 9th level casters put on the same tier (HP-wise) as rogues and monks. Additionally, if wizards and sorcerers are given a the lowest tier...

I actually really dig this idea, and I may use it in my future games. I'll mull over the mechanic and let you know if I see any particular flaws. The one thing I may do differently is HP at higher levels. HP bloat can really impact fights at higher levels. I like the introduction of randomness...

Is it that all the players independently want to play dwarves, or does the campaign necessitate that they all play dwarves? If the latter, perhaps the better option would be to allow players to pick other races for their mechanical benefits, while reskinning them to be different kinds of...

Some people like that, and consider it a feature rather than a bug. You don't have to like it for someone else to have fun with it. No one's forcing you to play by rules that you don't like. You don't like this table, then don't participate and DBAD.

There are other reasons. How about a Rogue 5 / Champion Fighter 3? They don't want the 2 extra levels of fighter, but still want to feel like they are part fighter. Seems like a reasonable scenario to want Extra Attack without investing 2 more levels in a class that you don't find all that...