Recent content by Steady Vane

Some spicy takes but that is what we are here for. I feel like asking for a faster and more thematic version of the game is not too much

-Skill system needs a mild rework, the conglomerate skill of Athletics should be broken up. Every class should get at least one Expertise -Saves need to scale properly on both PC and monster sides. Mearls mentioned the saving throw bug and it should be fixed -One monster per PC encounter...

The house rule is every time you go down, one death save sticks until a long rest. Go down three times, you're dead. Healing that removes conditions removes a filled-in death save.

I will point out that initial sales are all reflections on the past edition and how it left the state of the game. 4e was a failure, so initial 5e sales were slow. That didn't last! 5e was the most popular D&D version ever, so pre-orders for 5.5 did well. How have sales been since then? It's...

5.24 slows down combat and complicates with lots of little conditions to track. Character sheets get much more busy, and I have two players who like to keep it simple. Neither could remember masteries, we kept doing the "wait this thing should have happened last turn" rigamorale. Someone...

That said, these assumptions have some problems: Firstly, many classes do not scale attacks per turn past 2, which trashcans their DPR at higher levels. 5e was not designed for high level play for many classes. Ranger and Monk should have attacks scale as Fighter. Barbarian should get a third...

Yes. If accuracy is 65%, then with a +1 sword accuracy rises to 70%. Magic weapons are assumed in 5e, just not hard level-locked as they were in 4e. I have those numbers, at least on the PC side. That said, there are some hard assumptions in the numbers that 5e only somewhat supports RAW. After...

The Grimlock is not a bag of hp - it's an ambush predator from the underdark, with stealth trait and capabilities. Assuming it gets Surprise, just multiply it's damage by 4/3 and see if it works then imo. Same for the Twig Blight, ambush trait means surprise round of damage. Needle Blight seems...

I couldn't tell you the relation between xp values and anything else, but I can tell you those assumptions are wrong. PC accuracy is assumed to rise, it only starts at 65% at level 0 with a +0 weapon. Accuracy rises with every +X weapon, to 85% assumed PC accuracy, at least in the math. It is...

3 to 4 combats is at "deadly", which in the playtest versions of the game was instead named "hard". If the combats are easier, you can go through more of them. 6-8 would be during a dungeon crawl, which is what the assumed playstyle was when 5e launched. Presumably the difficulty would be...

Combat is assumed to last 3 rounds, I can answer that. As for adventuring day, it depends on the strength of combats, but I believe the number sits at around 3 to 4 with appropriate encounter strength. Casters at least are assumed to use one of their highest-level spell slots per encounter, and...

One of the funny things about 5e is that it has come out how certain "iconic" spells do too much damage on purpose. They had a spell formula, and purposely ignored it for certain spells to make them more "fun" - fun meaning overpowered for their level. If I recall correctly, this also applies...

It is a failure of the game design when it no longer caters to the community that used to play it. This is the 4e arguments all over again. No matter how much it is belittled, not "feeling" like what you want out of D&D is a valid complaint, and always has been. Perhaps I am a grognard, but I...

His reticence on the 2024 rules reminds me a lot of A Knight At The Opera, another 5e blog that found themselves not liking the new edition's moves despite wanting to. It takes guts to say you aren't jiving with the direction the ruleset you've made your name on is now going. I think people are...

As for not valuing the conditions properly using this system, short answer yes. You are totally right, the quirks lead to undervalued status effects in general it sure looks like