Recent content by Paul Farquhar

I would call it a feature (of D&D), not a problem. In D&D, the story of the class comes first, and the abilities are chosen to fit the story. Subclasses (kits/prestige classes in other editions) further focus the story. Bad subclasses are ones that don't have a clear story. This Hellknight...

This is pretty much Darth Sion from KotOR2. And what is different about it is the flavour of the abilities. You don’t want smite - aside from theme it’s mechanically bad for monks, who have better things to do with bonus actions, you don’t want a steed, you don’t want Bane - since the...

The Death Knight used to be a subclass, it was called Oathbreaker. The issue was, in order to tell a story of a character falling from grace you needed to use an obscure DM-facing optional rule for changing subclasses. Using feats is pretty much the same as a subclass, but can be tacked on to a...

This goes into both philosophy and etymology. As most people know, the word "lich" is just an old word for corpse, applying it to an evil undead spellcaster is a D&D-ism. However, the concept of the evil undead spellcaster without the name was a well established fantasy trope well before D&D...

There is optional, and there is optional. You need to pick one, and Find Steed is by far the best, especially if you don’t have spell slots.

Different code, different tropes. You could have a dark path suitable for a monk, but it needs to be different from the death knight, with its focus on knightly tropes like wrathfully smiting enemies with a big sword and galloping around on a fiendish horse. Death Knight is an example of a dark...

Yeah, made a bunch of suggestions for the titan, suggested a fix for warlock liches being broken after level nine and red lighted hell knight and demon sorcerer for being dull.

Way to completely miss the point. As already pointed out, death knight is a role playing choice . It has nothing to do with mechanics, it’s the story that is important. It’s the story of a character who falls (and is possibly redeemed) from a code of chivalry. Ergo, it’s the fluff of the class...

So is assassintion. And is generally reserved for heads of state and the like, who have no problem accessing the funds required.

Clerics become liches. It’s mentioned in the 1st edition monster manual. Who should it, they are not knights? Different classes are different. Making all classes the same, devoid of any lore or fluff, is what blandification is. If you don’t want class choice to have any significance you can...

That’s going to be difficult to time, as we saw with BG3 tie-ins. Not allowing for delays in video game development leads to poor quality products being released.

As someone who knows a little history, that suggestion really grates. More like the strongest 1980s fantasy aesthetic was strongest in the 1980s. The shift to renaissance is actually a little more aesthetically authentic. Of course Volo was always a trend-setter!

Before or after Darth Competent?

Nothing wrong in putting yourself into your work, but I can't affor to work for nothing, it would leave me homeless and hungry. It's an insecure world, no one will provide me with food and shelter if I don't get paid.

I do - if you were to read an article or adventure written by me you might be exposed to liberal environmentalist politics and and anti-religious bias*. A good editor can scan for bias and at least make sure they conform to a house style so people know what sort of values to expect. But the...