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    Half Race Appreciation Society: Half Elf most popular race choice in BG3

    I have found that gods and cosmology and planes used to matter to people, and maybe still matters to a small number of people, but not at all to the majority (all in my opinion). Just look at how gods are handled in the PHB for 5e: for Clerics? Optional. Or merely window dressing for your...
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    Class spell lists and pact magic are back!

    If they do, I hope they do a better job of making those variant rules actually mesh with the core game. My biggest problem with the current DMG is the variant rules don't mesh well without breaking something else, or having carry down impacts. Plus, there is little explanation about what...
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    D&D General Arbitrary and Capricious: Unpacking Rules and Rulings in the Context of Fairness

    Playing. I wouldn't call it a "game" like, say kickball, or baseball, or wiffle ball, or the other things we did as kids. Games have rules, and usually a winner and loser. There really aren't rules when kids play make believe other than "I got you!", "No you didn't!" As far as DnD, and...
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    Beyond the Wall and OSE: Playbooks

    I collated and updated the first post to include a second file. This file is modeled on the first, and includes Knight, Paladin, Cleric, Magic User, and Thief. Each has its own playbook for chargen, and is based on my campaign using OSE Advanced, with some of the optional rules baked in...
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    Beyond the Wall and OSE: Playbooks

    I have Through Sunken Lands. I like it a lot, but I feel like it really builds a more S&S type character - Conan, Elric (I know, Elric isn't really S&S), etc., and it has a more eternal champion kind of vibe. Ooh, I don't have Grizzled Adventurers. I'll have to grab that one, I don't know...
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    Beyond the Wall and OSE: Playbooks

    Agree. I've just sat and rolled up small parties and individual characters, and it always gives me interesting backstory and roleplay ideas, without being onerous or too long. I especially like the way Beyond bakes in the connections to each other party member and the village.
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    Beyond the Wall and OSE: Playbooks

    That would absolutely work. You could roll on the Beyond playbooks without applying the stat elements, skills, etc. I found that either going with the OSE style classes directly, or using the Beyond classes fully made things easier. Trying to fit multiclassing into OSE didn’t feel as organic...
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    Beyond the Wall and OSE: Playbooks

    Thanks! What I did was I pulled what I considered the relevant playbooks from BtW, and then modified and applied it to an OSE Advanced Class. So, iirc, the “Would-be Knight” gets modified to apply to the Knight in OSE. The “Novice Templar” becomes the Paladin, etc. I’m happy to share and...
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    D&D 5E Thievery in 5e - still relevant?

    And don’t forget about the multiclassing and spells all around to further handle “thief-like” needs. Invisibility, silence, fly, spells as rituals not using resources (except time), etc. I remember (“Back in my day…”) the thief character was the one who scouted ahead of the party to scope...
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    D&D 5E Will Baldur's Gate 3 Change D&D?

    I voted “yes”. 1). In the old gold box and other DND video games, the games were built around the existing game system (or closely mirrored the existing game system, such that the stuff you could do in game you could do on the tabletop, without the RPG saying ‘nope’). Keeping in mind that the...
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    Memorize Spell is one of the most obnoxious abilities I've ever seen, despite being perfectly on-theme (Packet 7)

    Two things come to mind with all of this, including some BG3 derived rules in the playtest: 1) I don’t see why WOTC doesn’t just do away with the whole prepared spell thing for all casters, I mean, it’s moving that way anyway, just drop it. (And I say that as a player who prefers hard limits...
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    Memorize Spell is one of the most obnoxious abilities I've ever seen, despite being perfectly on-theme (Packet 7)

    Wow. So, now the counter argument to wizard being overpowered was ‘the overall power of wizards is being based on some wizard who somehow has the perfect spell for the perfect situation always ready’ - well, now they do… congrats WOTC. I just…🤷‍♂️
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    D&D General And the Druid Explodes: Understanding the AD&D Design Space's Legacy

    Or that one can’t abide any restrictions at all. We’ve seen that play out where the sky continues to be the limit, and ‘balance’ is achieved by giving classes more and more (usually spell like abilities), as a design decision rather than to rein things in. Our group cut our teeth on 1e, and...
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    OSR Old school wizards, how do you play level 1?

    Agree on the money element. We play OSE, and a wizard can craft a magic item for 500gp and one week of time if it mimics a spell effect (i.e. a scroll). With gold for XP, its usually worth the time investment for a couple of scrolls to take along. You need 2,500 xp to get to level 2, so...
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    OSR Old school wizards, how do you play level 1?

    When we played Basic/Ad&d, we absolutely played it as a combat sport, and the exploration was just an avenue to get to the next combat. But we were also 13, and figuring out the rules. Now, 40 years later, we have more exploration and social than combat, playing OSE/Basic, than in any other...
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    The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

    Gourmet pizza? Why? Pizza tastes best either in NY from a hole in the wall shop (no slight intended) or on a boardwalk by the beach. As intended. I mostly tire of the around and around and around of the same couple folks in the same couple threads saying the same couple things over and...
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    D&D General Making and surviving the break…

    Over 40 years, we started with 1e (brief B/X look-in), but jumped at "advanced", even though we weren't back in 7th grade. As each new edition came out, we jumped onto that one, all the way up until 4e. When 4e hit, our "forever DM" got the books, and we tried it, and bounced off hard. Or at...
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    How Old Were You When You Played Your First TTRPG?

    I need to break out my abacus. Let's see, 1982 or so, I was 13, 7th grade. I had the Basic Set in a pink box, circa (1980 printing). My friend got the Ad&d Player's Handbook, DMG, and MM, and so we used that. It was, after all, "Advanced", so had to be better, right!?! He was the always DM...
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    The WotC Playtest Surveys Have A Flaw

    Not really. Scientifically, you can get "representative samples" for surveys or data collection and analysis with far fewer participants. Now, I'm not a scientist, or a pollster, but I'm sure there are those on these boards who could explain it. Basically, the numbers that WOTC pulls for...
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    OSR How do you run your combat? (B/X, BECMI, OSR)

    Thinking more about it, I think we also at one point interleaved the attacks throughout the round (for 3/2 or 2/1). We did it two different ways: 1) the character with more than 1 attack would attack on Init for their first attack, then all other attacks at the end of the round (after everyone...
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