Recent content by I'm A Banana

  1. I'm A Banana

    D&D 5E (2014) Arcane Abeyance, huh, yeah, What is it good for?

    Obvious uses: give your friend an attack spell or healing spell they can pop if they want. Also lets you store a Charm or something if you want to be subtle about your spellcasting. Similar to the artificer's ability to store spells in things.
  2. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    Absolutely. Pretty sure my newbie player doesn't really get why any of these exceptions occur, and even my more experienced players hit a wall sometimes. I had a fight with a monster that cast darkness and the cleric - an experienced player! - didn't quite get why guiding bolt had disadvantage...
  3. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    I think in this particular case, the meaning of the proficiency bonus isn't clear. Still too new to have gotten an increase. Which might point to a world where you just don't get proficiency bonus 'till 5th level or something. Not sure that would work, but it's an interesting idea... Yeah...
  4. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    What @Staffan said, basically. I'd add that Guidance/Bless create a layer of "if you're not using it, you're not really playing optimally, since they stack with advantage!" (especially Guidance -- that spell needs to be at least 1st level, using some resource) that I find particularly annoying...
  5. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    +1 for Mearls's statement of "role playing games aren't actually games, they're activities."
  6. I'm A Banana

    D&D 5E (2024) There is sauerkraut in my lederhosen: Snarf's Guide to Using (and adjudicating) Skills in 5e

    One of the things I've become convinced of is that we don't need a list of 18 unique skills. D&D 2014 had something called "background proficiency" as an optional rule, very reminiscent of AD&D's Secondary Skills. This is enough. One thing, beyond my class, that I can say "I'm good at this," and...
  7. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    One of the issues, I think, is that this runs up against how a lot of DMs design their combats. I am probably only going to have like 1-2 encounters before the party does a long rest, I better make them DEADLY! OK, I've got this XP budget to spend on monsters. What's the deadliest monster I can...
  8. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    Mearls here says something like "It turns out needing two islands to cast a counterspell is a part of why it works," so, yeah, he definitely has learned that the preparation cost matters. While it's a different vibe in D&D than it is in M:TG, I think "stop having fun" effects are ultimately...
  9. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    Broader. Talking about modularity, and how that lets 3PPs get away with 5e-compatible design that is quite different from 5e and uses some different assumptions. Subclasses were mentioned as one of those spaces where that's not really true: subclasses kind of assume that an underlying class is...
  10. I'm A Banana

    D&D General The Beautiful Mess of 5e

    Commentary as I'm listening to it: "Blue Magic" design was part of what informed the design of Shield and Counterspell, since Mearls is a big Blue-style M:TG player. This could probably be a whole thread of its own, but the Blue playstyle is a big part of why I am not an M:TG fan. These spells...
  11. I'm A Banana

    D&D 5E (2024) Rank 5e skills from most useful (1) to least useful (18)

    In an ideal system, trying to intimidate to surrender, like casting a save-or-die spell, would still do something to these encounters. Make the enemy frightened, cause some damage, etc. It might be something handled more on a monster-by-monster basis than something handled in the system though...
  12. I'm A Banana

    D&D 5E (2024) Rank 5e skills from most useful (1) to least useful (18)

    Oh, it's a great use in theory. In practice, no, I'm not going to let you frighten Orcus into giving up and begging for his (un)life because one person made a high roll and now my climactic fight is scuttled. This isn't a problem 4e really dodged, btw. Though it limited the valid targets to...
  13. I'm A Banana

    D&D General Combat Against Player Engagement: A Systemic Challenge

    Worth exploring! I'd want to note that disengagement itself isn't necessarily a huge problem. In a 4-hour session, a little brain break isn't a bad thing. It's OK for a player to run to the restroom or go grab snacks. Engagement is important, but it should be expected to wax and wane over the...
  14. I'm A Banana

    WotC D&D Universes Beyond

    I think this is likelier than something more....product-intensive. If the idea is to do little pop culture riffs and just kind of have fun with it, I'd expect a lot of reskinning (which is already a thing for the M:TG cards) and only a few new mechanics where it would be particularly...
  15. I'm A Banana

    D&D 5E (2024) Rank 5e skills from most useful (1) to least useful (18)

    Hmmm....not sure I follow. If the goblins want to kill me, and I say "You all might get lucky enough to kill me, but how many of you will die before you get lucky?", I might be able to Intimidate them into thinking it's a bad idea. They respond, "Yeah. Sod off, then, we ain't seen nothin'."...
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