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Perhaps a sapper / demolitions expert. I think of Fiddler and Hedge in the Malazan series. Not the "artillerist": that builds turrets and wands and casts spells. Basically an infantry grunt crazy enough to handle explosive substances and bring down walls, bridges, you name it.

You mention wanting to avoid a "kill everything" mentality of XP grinding with this system. To me, it seems like the "kill everything" approach isn't so much a result of wanting all the XP as it is the players realizing killing everything is the fastest way to the XP, and there's no in-game...

Hmmm. Back to the OP, in the case of an NPC trying to cast invisibility to escape a non-combat situation, I wouldn't roll initiative. I'd ask the PCs for a perception check, and roll sleight-of-hand for the NPC. If they don't see it, NPC goes poof. PCs still have a chance (at disadvantage) to...

Indeed. I got into 5e a bit late, so it was easy to just buy stuff on Beyond without duplicate-buying. I don't mind running a game from a laptop. (In fact, the hyperlinks mean there's a LOT less page-turning...)

Depends on what you consider the "major archetypes." Fighter, Healer, Mage, Thief. Done. :)

For that, I have to say - D&D Beyond's character sheet is freaking amazing for spellcasters. Don't remember what a spell does? Click on the name - the details pop open in the window. No page turning. The drawback is you have to pay D&D Beyond to access all the content, and it's only for 5e.

Philosophically, D&D is a game. To have fun. That you play with friends. So, if one person has to miss a session now and again, I'd rather not punish them when they're already missing out. They gain XP with everyone else. XP isn't keeping a score to "win" D&D - it's just a method of determining...

If you want to eliminate the random spread-ness but don't want to go point-buy or standard array, what about this: Each player rolls 3d6. (If you have 3 players let each player roll twice. Four players they each roll once and you roll twice. Five players, each rolls once and you roll once. Six...

... if you're running something based on the Acquisitions Incorporated sourcebook, goofy names are highly encouraged. :)

To mitigate the big stat swing, add on either the Matt Colville rule (at least two stats 15 or higher) or the Matt Mercer (grand total has to be at least 70) or else you re-roll the entire set.

If I was a lawyer, I'd be arguing that the stat block is a descriptive block of text describing how this specific game-related entity interacts with the player's characters under the game mechanics.

I'm now thinking of Terry Pratchett. "You and your party find yourselves inside the Great A'Tuin..."

I tried it a month or two ago for a short session (we ran the Red Larch intro from POTA). We did 4d6 drop lowest, though. Lowest stat I rolled was a 10 (in Wisdom). I actually wound up with a pretty decent bard. Went standard human and had an 18 in Charisma, decent strength for the occasional...