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A book on how to create new things for the game that serves as a kind of "director's commentary." I want monster building, class building, subclass building, I want a design advice and dpr charts, I want the game-makers to show me how to bend this system over my knee and make it what I want. I...

This is the way. I like that this makes the poison VERY potent, and encourages the party to stick to ranged attacks, knowing that an unlucky die roll could quickly result in a dead melee fighter. The other way would be to have it as a rider on a tentacle attack, but not require the initial...

It's easy to have expectations of CR that the CR presented in the game can't possibly meet. True "Difficulty" or "Challenge" is such a squirrelly target in a TTRPG. The mechanic of CR in 5e really just compares 2 things: HP vs. Damage. For each side. That's all CR is really made to do: this...

I've used the monster creation rules extensively in combination with Xanathar's encounter-building rules to tune encounters very tightly to create an atmosphere of difficult and impending failure for fights in my Dark Souls-inspired setting, without creating a hopeless scenario or risking much...

One of the things rather ill-explained in the 2014 rules is that CR is mostly made up of two numbers: HP, and DPR. AC and attack bonus/DC can modify this (a creature harder to hit has more longevity; a creature who hits better will drain the characters quicker), but those two numbers mostly...

I do think it's not an easy road to walk, because publishing something that's just going to annoy a loud section of the fanbase (which is kind of inevitable here) is never, like, a great idea. So they need something else to sell it, too, some way to say that even if you don't like the psion, you...

I think WotC was planning on putting out a psion when they released Dark Sun, but then Dark Sun fell through, and now... The psion faces some big obstacles, but nothing deal-breaking. Certainly not more than the artificer faced.

The Blood War is a Cool and Interesting Bit of Lore, but what I like about yugoloths being selfish, scheming, suffering-seekers is that it doesn't rely on the Blood War. "Mercenaries in a conflict that has nothing to do with my campaign" doesn't get me using them, but "operatives for a vast and...

Obyriths have strong aberration vibes, I'd figure if you want to give your fiends wriggling tentacles and alien geometries, that's where they'd go. FWIW, I think it'd be pretty neat to see obyriths back in some adventures. I'm definitely into a D&D whose fiends are more than just demons and...

5e. Every version before 4e is way too fiddly. The 3e version was the best iteration of the "turning damage" roll, and even that was very fiddly. The 4e version just misses the point of why turning undead is a fun alternative to attacking or casting a spell. Another "damage + condition" result...

To a certain degree, I like the idea that the reason that nobody knows quite what defines a yugoloth is because the yugoloths want it that way, and are broadly successful at it. Like, 3rd level fiend warlock, finding out that their patron is a yugoloth for the first time: "A whatoloth? Who are...

I feel, given the Fiends video, that the current team doesn't understand what makes yugoloths interesting aside from "they're not demons or devils." To me, yugoloths are a few things. Dangerously Secretive. Yugoloths are creatures of conspiracy. Not many people know much about yugoloths...

Yeah, aarakocra have been sunset/sunrise colors since 2e at least. Parrot-people more than generic bird-people. Though given that we've got Athasian aarakocra as vulture-people, the precedent is there.

They aren't calibrated for a 2024 character's power level, so they aren't going to work as well. I mean, if you're trying to convince me that this isn't important to me, you're doomed to failure. It is important to me. That isn't really up for debate. Which is why the most effective reasoning...

I'm sympathetic to two main concerns I've seen. The creation rules are not newbie friendly, and they wanted to target newbies more. This makes some sense to me, and is something I can get behind in principle. This still ruins how I use D&D, but I'm definitely a pretty elite user. I do wish WotC...

Given how light the '24 species traits are, this isn't so much a logical fallacy as it is a tautology. It's just true of how the chosen design works out. Take an axe-wielding berserker and give 'em Orc traits, and it isn't going to impact the fight much. One could desire more impactful species...

Wait, do cultists get a few different stat blocks in 2024? That's neat. Doesn't exactly fix the issue, but it's a bit of a salve.

THANK YOU. I wonder how these interact with the encounter building rules in Xanathar's. I use those pretty exclusively (since I ain't got time for math, but I can do 1 PC : X Monsters OK!), and I'm a bit concerned about 2024 monsters being too tough given those rules.

Yeah, this is why I will loudly complain about this glaring omission until it's been rectified. It's honestly exceptionally disappointing that they didn't include an updated CR chart for 2024 at least. They have these numbers.

"Other people can fix it," sure. But other people shouldn't have to fix it. These are pretty iconic villains. FWIW, I think D&D 5e has a (lesser) version of the 3e problem of "we're never fighting people, we're always fighting monsters." Eyes of Gruumsh, Priestess of Lolth, Necromancers of...