Recent content by Syntallah

Wow, you really showed me, thanks for contributing to the conversation. I have had the utmost respect for you Dasuul. I make a habit of looking at posts you have contributed to as you have some very insightful thoughts. Quite disappointed in this one.

I guess I wasn't aware I was being irrational. I was comparing 8d6 damage from a cantrip to 8d6 damage from a 3rd level spell. And since that is the crux of my beef (at-will cantrip doing damage equal to a 3rd level spell slot), I thought is was fitting. I have the same beef against Thunderclap...

I don't know how to do the multi-quote thing, so I'll just address the applicable posters above: I am well aware that a Fireball would do 64d6 to the 8 goblins... BUT, if the EK drops a Fireball on the 8 goblins surrounding him, then he takes Fireball damage too. Not to mention that he just...

Wow, just took a look at the Sword Burst cantrip from SCAG, and... Wow... This thing has the potential to do 3rd level Fireball damage* as a cantrip?!?!? How did this pass the Whoa Police?!?!? *the tank EK is wanting to take it. If he is surrounded by 8 goblins (entirely possible and likely)...

I use the Greyhawk Initiative variant from UA (and love it!). Since all players have to declare their actions each round, I rarely actually ever call for "initiative". I simply ask the player to my left (addressing by character name) and ask "what do you plan on doing?"... I then proceed around...

Thanks for all the input, gang, much appreciated. To clarify, I never intended to be heavy handed with the player, I will very much gauge his intent and read the Table to see what is working and what is not. I was simply reading through Xanathar's (specifically, the Patron Attitudes and Special...

As the title says, how involved should I be as the DM portraying a warlock's patron? I have a player starting a Celestial warlock in a new campaign. He is a younger player, with decent role-playing instincts, but none of my players have ever put a lot of thought or effort into a backstory. It's...

I do not reveal a foe's current hit points. I announce that a creature is Wounded (at or below 50% health), and Badly Wounded (at or below 25% health). An individual trained in Medicine might be able to pin point a little closer depending on his knowledge base, and the creature in question (e.g...

Thanks for all the replies, gang! The insight is much appreciated.

[PHB, page 157] Have any of you actually used the Lifestyle Expenses system in actual play? I think the system definitely has some merit, but I find that way too often I end up just like Inspiration, that is, I forget about it... I know part of the reason is that my players strongly gravitate...

TPK Games has a book called Fifth Edition Options - Optional Rules and Mechanics (great book, chock full of interesting stuff) that has a section on using armor as DR, and assigning AC values based upon class & level instead of armor worn. You might check that out...

I use the above, Standard Array or Point Buy, but I did something different this time. I had each player (I have five) roll 4d6, drop the lowest. Then I had each player roll 1d6, and dropped the lowest two. This gave me six scores which I converted into a Point Buy total. Came up with 29 vs the...

I'm already using your Perception/investigation variant, and I love it. How did you break up the new skills (i.e. Commerce, Etiquette, and Folklore) for the purposes of who can learn them? Did you add them to class lists, all/some Backgrounds, or both?

Uh, I, the OP, haven't banned anything. I merely heard some rumblings and grumblings about power creep in the new books, and since I have a penchant for white-room theory knee jerkery, I came to this august body for some insight, and opinion...

Thanks for the insight, gang! Much appreciated!