Recent content by Nefermandias

2014 5e, when played fully vanilla (no feats or multiclassing) feels very similar to 2e. Especially when you use things like Slow Natural Healing and Gritty Realism to enforce some sense of attrition into the game.

What? I'm with my 4e MM open right now, and the Ogre Savage (lvl 8 brute) doesn't even have a ranged attack in it's stat block. The other four ogres are two high level Minions, one Skirmishers and one Elite Brute, and the only one with some ranged capacity is the Skirmisher one.

My group, whom actually played 4e from 2008 up to 2014, were plenty happy with that Ranger's niche and presentation.

The old Great Thief Debate @Snarf Zagyg is always yapping about.

This "most complex stack of exceptions" you are seeing with 5e doesn't hold a candle to the complexity of 3e and 4e.

Honestly, the "nobody reads the DMG" meme has always been tiresome and kind of harmful for the community. Especially for newcomers. It is particularly annoying when "influencers" keep spreading the lie that the DMGs were all bad and useless. And yes, I am including the 2014 one here too. I am...

Why people keep saying they removed contested checks from the game? Here is what page 29 from the new DMG says under "Calculated Difficult Classes": Another way to handle similar situations is to have one creature's ability check set the DC for another creature's check. That's how hiding...

Only English speakers have eight fingers though.

Yeah, I was already typing furiously to correct that madness. Cantrips are officially level 0 spells. Thank you!

This seems to be RAI, yes.

In a situation where a single party member being loud would have alerted the guards for the presence of the whole group, I guess.

Actually, there's something quite interesting in the new write up: They tell us that group checks aren't the right tool to resolve situations where a single failed check would have consequences. They even call out stealth checks specifically.

I would even make the point that it's really hard not to be a spellcaster in this edition. You have to deliberately go out of your way to avoid all the magic options.

I agree with your guiding principle for role-playing. My point is that good players almost never feel the need to say that infamous line out loud. They just keep in character and make decisions accordingly, without ever having to justify anything.

Those good, estabilished characters emerge naturally through game play, over the course of several sessions. That's why I don't let my players bring me huge backstories. I much rather leave things fuzzy at the beginning and let the characters be born and take shape of their own. That said, in...