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Ah yes, I missed that in my reading of the Grapple text yesterday. It looks like the rules do require you to keep that free hand tied up for the duration of the grapple. Good! Of course, you can still use the other hand for normal actions. Also, good point about multiple Shoves. I hadn't...

Grappling, as defined in the rules, is fairly limited in scope and utility. It allows the Grappler to control the movement (and nothing else) of the Grappled creature. That's it. There is no reference to what exactly is grappled and what the Grappler needs to do to preserve the grapple. (Such as...

Player challenge vs character challenge is a bit of a false dichotomy. I guess the question is more, "should the character be able to solve problems for the player because of all his or her skills, ability scores and proficiencies?" And, conversely, "should the player be able to override...

I don't think my use is in opposition to what you quoted. As the PHB says, "You don't normally decide to make a saving throw; you are forced to make one because your character or a monster is at risk of harm." An investigation, persuasion, or any other kind of check, is to determine the...

First of all, do not overthink it. Every table is going to be different in terms of what is and isn't the "most useful" ability. Most campaigns will use only a small subset of monsters in the MM. DMs will also often bring monsters in from outside sources or make up their own. Different DM's will...

I have played multiple adventures where skeletons line walls, but don't animate until some trigger happens. In some of these cases, I have allowed sufficiently paranoid characters to snipe the skeletons until the trigger condition is met. Sometimes, the PCs will attack a skeleton, realize that...

TWF can use strength, but GWF can't use Dex. That makes it a pretty valid argument, in my mind. The fact that dual-wielding non-finesse weapons isn't possible until you pick up a feat makes a strength-based two-weapon fighter a less likely "trap" for the unwitting new player. If you're choosing...

There are some older threads here on ENWorld that work out the math in a great amount of detail. Basically, TWF style handily out-performs GWF style in DPR until 5th level, when the 2nd attack brings GWF up to parity with TWF. (Since the bonus action attack does not scale with action surge or...

I might try this. Added bonus is that you can match the numbers up to NPCs in your notes instead of trying to remember which orc mini has 3 hp and which has 15! I bought a box of Pathfinder Pawns a while back, thinking that they would be fun for tabletop. Ironically, we almost only ever use...

Used to run mostly theater of the mind. Then switched to minis on Roll20. Lately doing mostly theater of the mind. I actually find that theater of the mind works best in dungeons, because the positioning is usually more intuitive, and we also often have a map going anyway. I (or a player)...

Oh man, it's tough, because sometimes I have different feelings from one night to the next. Ultimately, I think that the game is best when player knowledge is just slightly higher than relevant character knowledge. A little bit of dramatic, "I am playing a character and not doing what I might...

Awesome. Yeah, in the hands of the DM, this could make for some really great, gnarly combats against large groups of opponents. As the fighter action surges through a group of goblins, the creatures he cuts down are moaning and crawling away from combat, or scrabbling at his heals trying to trip...

This feels like a great house rule. A little complicated to explain, but if you have a regular group that can get the hang of what can and can't be done, it could add some fun to being at 0 hp without buffing "unconscious" PCs more than they already are. It would be interesting to see, in play...

Red Shirts don't need HD staying power. They're there to show up and die, hopefully advancing your pack or your torch a few feet for their trouble. NPCs who get used as meat shields in my games will either die often (see Red Shirts) or leave/flee to find other, safer lines of work.

I really love Bounded Accuracy. For me, it facilitates a much more open, try anything attitude towards the game. Player tasks aren't split between, "easy for her, impossible for him." As a DM, I can populate my area with creatures that will work across a wide range of levels. It makes monster...

I agree that a common mistake a see from novice players is, "I didn't take a healing spell because we already have a cleric." Having multiple sources of healing always seems to be helpful for a group. The group I play in, on the other hand, has only a ranger for healing. It certainly makes the...

Shouldn't you be using challenge rating when identifying how "appropriate" an NPC is as a companion? I'd look at the encounter difficulty chart and compare the XP for a given NPC or Monster to encounter difficulties for that level. That kind of tells me how well that character would face off...

I guess I'm just saying that most of the DM's I've played with (and myself included) tend to run their monsters with a sort of "hive mind" mentality. They may run them effectively, with a clear strategy, or they may be like me and run them poorly, but the individual survival instincts of each...

This is what I'm working on, though it's hard for me. Unfortunately, I think I am more likely to play my PC like he's a 4HP kobold... (My PC got dissolved by a gelatinous cube last week. Dissolved by a cube while lying prone after failing to climb out of a pit. What a chump.) As DMs, we get...

Amen, I am the worst monster general and generally send my bags of hitpoints straight into fireballs like so many lemmings. That being said, I had a really great grind-out encounter where the last surviving NPC grabbed a PC who had just been knocked out and held a knife to her throat saying...