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If the barbarian archetype in 5e is broad enough to contain wild magic and holy power within it, it's also broad enough to contain "just a guy good with weapons" in it. The rage maybe gets flavored as a "grit and determination" kind of thing, and you're off to the races.

They all look like celebrities from the 70's, so there is an element of idealized beauty to them. If the goal of D&D art of adventurers is to present a fantasy hero, then there's nothing wrong with presenting that fantasy as something that's a little grittier and less polished than most of the...

So many folks are going to do WIS/Cleric, INT/Wizard, STR/Fighter, DEX/Rogue. What would it look like if I yeeted those obvious answers, I wonder...? STR = Barbarian DEX = Ranger CON = Monk INT = Artificer WIS = Paladin CHA = Warlock Fighters get broken up by archetype. Want to play a knight...

This is a strawman. The brave warriors and sly rogues and giants could have a diversity of body types, ethnicities, abilities, and traits that are not in line with a "good looking" stereotype. You don't need to body shame players to recognize that basic truth.

I think this idea is well worth entertaining, but I can't help but think of people beyond myself. Sure, I don't always need a physical copy. However, if we abide by the seventh generation principle, then what happens to the history, the creativity, the context when these things disappear? How...

I mean, it's a hypothetical. Any actual scenario will be able to answer the question of if the Big Bad can escape or not in that actual scenario. Hypothetically, that's what I'm looking at as a DM in this situation - a way to escape. BBEG has lost. Taking out a PC is going to be at most a...

Hmmm...as the BBEG, I've lost this fight. Regardless of who I take out, I get taken out. If I kill the cleric, one of the other three hits me and I die. They then give the cleric a potion at their leisure. If I kill the rogue, wizard, or fighter, the cleric just yo-yo's them, and one of the two...

Ability scores are all sorts of blurry at the edges, so there's no description that maps 1 to 1 onto mechanics there. But when I speak of will, I'm not talking about, like, concentration. I'm talking about it more in the philosophical sense - a desire to do something. The wizard has a desire to...

It's kind of metaphysics, so the core doc (smartly) doesn't lock it down too tightly. Nature is multiverse's tendency to give rise to a harmonious life process. It's elements, animals, plants, and fey. It's volcanoes and earthquakes and tornadoes. It's not really personified, but it has a will -...

Kinda. The Wizard shapes reality through the force of their own willpower. They desire the world to be different, and make it different using magic. Their power comes from themselves, and their Intelligence helps them to use it to affect the world. The Druid gains magical power from Nature...

Nah, it's the idea that "nature," as a source of power, is not inside of you. Druids are dealing with elemental forces, fey beings, plants, beasts, spirits. They're shamans, chatting up the local rivers or volcanoes. The narrative idea is that these things are giving you their power to use when...

I can spend years of my life to become a good Engineer. Or I can get a problematic investor to loan me a couple mil and just hire one and get my project engineer'd without ever having to learn math more complicated than "Now I owe that guy a couple mil." And, let's be honest, when the debt...

Drakkenheim is pretty well done. Dungeons of Drakkenheim, which you can get on D&D Beyond now, is quite a well done little cosmic horror sandbox, and it doesn't overdo the tentacles and body horror angle. I mean, it's definitely there, but the idea of impersonal apocalypse and people just...

I played Zenexor, a human alchemist, for 14 levels. Zenexor was in a Theros campaign, so he was in a world that evokes ancient Greek myths. One of the gods of this world is a god of poison and medicine and serpents and medusae and similar. So he was destined for greatness by her. I played him...

I hear your point, and I validate it. I think you're essentially right that 'feels like D&D' as a goal meant putting that before some other design ideas (there's some nuance, but it doesn't detract from the centrality of your argument). My point is: this isn't a bad thing. So the central...

Meanwhile, my reaction to a game about isekai'd humans who become My Little Ponies and/or vending machines....

You're almost there. Just a little further. Here's a little light to the next step: All design has goals. One of 5e's apparent goals is "to feel like D&D" (whatever the heck that means). This was a reasonable goal to have for many reasons, among them the hope of a smoother onboarding experience...

Classes don't define combat roles super tightly in 5e. Monks can get a high AC (they don't need heavy armor), and their mobility is part of how they control space. Paladins can become huge sources of damage via smites. Or they can spend those same slots on healing and buffing. It's honestly...

Same level, but I'd give it some minor boost to make it competitive. Silence is already a bit of a mixed bag (disables your spellcasters, too), so it wouldn't need to be much. With the visual you're going for, it might be fun if the spell also rendered you incapable of breathing. Suffocation...

It's a sexy idea, though I think there's different answers depending upon the context. For D&D, officially, I don't think it's a great idea. Spellcasting mechanics define classes in the minds of enough D&D players that messing with that is just going to cause unwanted havoc with things not...