Recent content by rules.mechanic

The statement "(No Honor Among Thieves Starter Set? Really?)" is another good example of how out-of-touch this is. That clearly wasn't the biggest draw of new potential players in 2023. "No Baldur's Gate 3 Starter Set? Really?" would be far more accurate...

As a year-ender, I updated the O5E and A5E versions of our Tome of Variance (ToV) to fit with the new Creative Commons licenses for each and used the opportunity to update and add a couple of new options. With my groups playing both, it's been good to have both O5E & A5E versions. As before...

Great to see the Dragon Warriors releases in these freebies updates - Red Ruin Publishing have done a great job keeping DW alive with their consistent releases, all free.

Yes, that's right - always good to have a benchmark. Yeah, have tried a versions of that and it feels like there's something in it. The feedback I've had is that it's quite a big trade to lose the attack (like in v1). However giving it free on every attack and allowing a choice becomes OP. As...

Thanks. It's probably a bit too small an effect for a reaction (assuming attacker has similar attack bonus, might expect a 25% chance of changing the outcome). Could instead require the attacker to re-roll the attack, or add a proficiency dice to your AC. Or could do without a reaction (e.g. 1...

Thanks, good idea. I thought about that to fit with the Degree of Success theme I otherwise use, but winning the contest roll by a large margin almost guarantees a successful attack versus AC, so that already felt like a reward. And I use Degree of Success for the AC bit so the high roll could...

True, and especially for the BBEG at higher levels. And while maybe that fits thematically with not expecting to parry a monstrous claw, it would be good to keep the mastery relevant. I'll have a think

Fair, I found it hard to word clearly. v2 spells it out a bit more, but needs to contend with not necessarily being an attack. v2 looks like the one for me to work from

That's right. Do you mean it's simpler to tie to having the Extra Attack feature than to number of attacks? Could be

Thanks, I had a version that did just use a reaction to attempt the contested roll but I'd like it to make use of Extra Attack to allow for scaling and to tie more strongly to martials. Maybe I'm over-complicating...

I'm looking at using the new Weapon Mastery Properties to introduce an active Defense variant (refreshing the current option I've been using in the 5e version of the Tome of Variance - the A5E version is good as it is). Both variants here use contested attack rolls. This gives a defense that...

Would be great to select more than one option. I feel a Hexblade should be a half-caster at most. But a Pact of the Tome caster should be able to match a full caster.

In the final version, they've said they'll suggest defaults for nearly everything. So the complexity might only be there for those who want it.