Recent content by Lazybones

In my game, if there was a cliff as an option, I'd allow the player character to flee alongside it even if technically dropping off it would increase the distance between them and the caster. If there was no other option, I'd allow them to try climbing down the cliff (with an appropriate chance...

The Command spell doesn't require concentration; it's instantaneous. I think permitting alternative command words works fine, as long as the results are more or less the same as the examples provided; i.e., the target loses one turn of actions. I have a warlock character in my 5e 2024 game who...

I have a house rule that if you drag someone through a hazard, like spike growth, you take the damage as well. That, combined with carrying capacity limits (the 2024 monks I've seen so far have been Dex builds rather than Strength), tends to limit the shenanigans you can get up to with...

I still haven't read all of the books in the Salvatore bundle I picked up in 2020, but I'll probably get this; I'm a sucker for the book bundles. There was a really good one that had a bunch of Adrian Tchaikovsky's works in December, and a Glen Cook one in October that had all of the Black...

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. You don't see the downside of a F9/W1 being able to cast shield 15 times a day? Or to be able to give themselves 30+ temp HP with false life multiple times each day? In that case you would strongly disincentivizing single class builds. I think the...

It is not 100% clear in the rules. The text in the 5e2024 PH says, "One third of your Fighter or Rogue levels (round down) if you have the Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster subclass." The phrasing doesn't anticipate someone taking both of those subclasses in one character, so I suppose it...

I don't have a specific aasimar culture in my campaign world, and celestials don't really appear on the material plane that often (barring exceptions like certain familiars and spell summons). So aasimar are "divine touched" or some such, and are only occasionally born to the various other...

Perhaps the logic is because the first two levels in those classes don't grant spells? Paladins and rangers now grant spells at L1, so they round up.

Thanks to everyone who posted or liked the story; it was fun to write. * * * Chapter 45 A cold wind blew down off the mountains to the north. It whistled between the trees in the old wood, swirled down across the road, stirring the surface of the river and the rippling the many stagnant...

There's nothing wrong with limiting the available books used for a campaign. When I was recruiting players for a 5e 2014 game a few years back, I said PHB and XGTE were available for character creation, because a) it was a tabletop game and I only have a digital copy of Tasha's Guide, and b) I...

Chapter 44 Leana sat in the quiet of the private garden behind the temple, trying to put her jumbled thoughts into order. The sheer mass of the Keep’s curtain wall felt reassuring, as did the majestic outlines of the temple itself. Her eyes drifted to the spot where Fazzir had shown her the...

Thieves used a d4 hit die in all versions of the Basic rules prior to 1983. I started with Moldvay Basic in the early 80s.

Chapter 43 Greghan shook his head, looking around at the chaotic aftermath of the temple battle. His eyes finally focused on Leana, who had grabbed Folgar’s healing kit and was using its to stabilize the stricken dwarf. “I… that woman, she… are you all right?” “I will be,” Leana said without...

I like the Exhaustion option for the life drain mechanic, but I don't see the existing effects as any less "scary" or meaningful than in previous editions. In a recent session I had a mid-level character take a critical hit from a chasme demon (as a note, they do 7d6 necrotic/life drain with no...

Well, self-published, anyway. My fiction is available at Smashwords and the Amazon Kindle store.