Recent content by jayoungr

I personally didn't find it so, and I played it up to level 17. But my group is pretty casual for the most part, and not into wringing every last bit of DPR out of their builds.

And that's what's going to make fans of the setting scream, if they do it again. People seem to have very strong feelings about Dark Sun. That's why I said WotC would get flak from both sides. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I believe they are at least trying to make a Dark Sun conversion. I just don't know why, since so many elements of it would be controversial nowadays. If they change the setting, they get flak from one side, and if they change nothing, they get flak from the other side. It seems there's no way...

What makes you say this? I actually think it is less that way than any of the other previous WotC editions.

Also, if you think 5E has too many options/choices, you can always stick to just the original PHB. (And, did you ever try 3.X?? It has many more options.)

Many players in my group are about your age and go back to AD&D in their play experience. They really lit up when we first tried 5E because they said it felt like 2E (their favorite overall) but with cleaned-up math. By that, they mean things like ascending AC instead of THAC0.

Like the 2014 version?

Having looked over the new subclass, it might be because it has been substantially changed. There was (ironically) no actual drinking involved with the Drunken Master subclass, while the Warrior of Intoxication is all about creating and consuming Mystic Brews. The 2014 version was never married...

I played a Drunken Master monk up to level 17 in 2014 rules and loved it. Hope the new version is as good.

Can you expand on this? One comment I hear frequently is that it's too hard to kill high-level PCs, so how do you get character death to work for you in that case? (Me personally, I almost had a TPK at level 17 in one memorable game. But that was largely due to player miscalculation.)

My opinion is a tad more nuanced than that. I think most of these issues are only problems for certain tables with certain types of players. If you happen to run into those players, you'll see them as problems, and if you don't, you won't. And there's no way to player-proof any RPG, so no matter...

Isn't Mearls developing his own game these days? I'd take any statements about 5th edition being "ruined" with a grain of salt.

If they ambushed while the party was asleep, they should catch the PCs prone and without armor, however. That's unlikely to be the case while the spell is being cast.

The most recent one was in a supplemental side aventure to Descent into Avernus called Encounters in Avernus: