Recent content by Kurotowa

Yeah, maybe as a tie breaker. I'd allow that. I'm not up on the BG3 build meta.

To a degree. But my belief is that that specifically in a video game RPG, where you're spending the entire game staring at the PC you've created on the screen, the visual presentation far outweighs ability selection for most people. That's very different than a TTRPG where you're sitting around...

I have a working theory that character design works on one of those triangle graphs with three poles, and a strong design either lands strongly towards one pole or hits a good mix of two. And while what the three are can vary by medium and genre, for a video game RPG we're working with Sexy...

Realistically, that's going to be the default answer to this question, going forward. "Is it worth buying [NEW BOOK] if I'm sticking with 5.14 rules?" Probably not. None of the crunch will be fully compatible, and if all you want is setting blurbs you've got decades of back catalog items you...

If by "meat of the content" you mean "the player facing options". A DM might find use from one of the three campaign skeletons, or from the chapter on airships, that make up the other half of the book. But yes, the book is of limited utility if you're not specifically looking to update Rising to...

Airships get a 9-page chapter all to themselves. Operation, combat, upgrades, travel encounters, and stats for three different models. It's not a ton, but it's better than Spelljammer did.

And that's why the campaign concept pitch is so important. There's such a wide gap between "You were the promising young souls of your village ...and then the ravaging armies of the Dark Lord attacked. Now you've been forced into a dramatic series of quests to rescue your families and save the...

Fair, but there are ways around it. It's less of a problem if you're starting at 3rd or 5th level, which at least in my groups isn't uncommon. Or you could choose to deploy the "skill decay" trope. The PC suffered a major injury that took months to recover from, or crawled inside a bottle after...

"Military veteran with a specific skill set and a touch of PTSD looking for purpose in peace time" is a major archetype for a reason. That's everyone from Dr. Watson to John Rambo, because it comes up in real life all the time. It's why I think one of the under appreciated elements of Eberron...

My experience as a player is somewhere in between. I'll come up with the seed of a character idea and then focus on learning about the parts of the setting that are relevant to the character. Learning about everything is too big for me to keep in my head. But if I want to make, say, an orcish...

Warlocks have a ton of flavor flexibility. You could easily do a GOO Warlock that steals notes from the old Vestige Binders of 3e. Someone who kindles the embers of dead or forgotten gods with small rituals, just enough to spark a few weary thoughts and tease a few magical secrets loose. They're...

My point is that you're positing the uncertainty of Patron is an out-of-game situation. That in-game the Patron is already locked in, but it exists in a state of quantum uncertainty until the player commits to a choice at 3rd level. My counter argument is that the uncertainty can be in-game as...

Warlock levels 1 and 2 are the intern levels. You're starting out, you're learning, you've put out feelers and probably have your sights set on the position you want, but the contracts aren't signed yet. Nothing is final, and maybe circumstances will force you to change plans in an unexpected...

The disconnect happens when either side, player or DM, forgets that a TTRPG is a collaborative endeavor and decides to just do whatever they want without considering the other party.

The problem with Chill Touch it that it's, finally, what it says on the can. A melee spell attack with a range of Touch. And a Warlock being able to survive in melee is a whole can of worms, where a lot of people swear they're too squishy and need something like a Fighter dip for Heavy armor...