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I use Xanathar's encounter building guidelines almost exclusively, and this sounds like a bit of a step down from that (XP budget uuuuugh).

5e was never balanced around the adventuring day, anyway. I do like having an expectation of how many encounters the party has resources for so I can pace dungeons, but so many folks got hung up on that 6-8 encounter line that they figured it was essential for balance when it was really just a...

I think "adventure first" is probably the right approach for a new DM in 2024. WotC has written and published adventures and written and published settings and going as quickly as possible from "I want to play D&D with my friends!" to "I am now playing D&D with my friends!" is a worthwhile goal...

For death specifically, no, not everyone cares about that. I wonder if I can read something in those tea leaves, though. What if "risk of characters dying in combat" is something of a signifier for "risk of failure"? As a game system, D&D doesn't have a lot of out of the box ways for someone...

Do people want balance? IDK, wtf is "balance," define your terms. It means different things to different people. I think rigid mathematical combat balance isn't really for everyone, for instance. 4e maybe got the closest to this, and I think this contributed directly to the feeling of grind...

What would be the worst place you can put them? Put them there. See what they do. This is the stuff of memorable sessions!

It definitely feels like a legacy of the earlier dungeon survival vibe. In more intentionally designed dungeon survival games, inventory management and encumbrance are a key part of hitting the vibe. A lot these days use a limited "slot" system where maybe a dagger or about 10 arrows fit into a...

It's a more general genre statement. Yeah, you can have story in any game. But, a game where the main challenge is surviving a hostile environment where you need to carefully track resources is a different vibe than a game where the main challenge is to grow and change as a character and thwart...

Bet yo momma can. Really niche use, BUT, there's a few poisons in the DMG that cause unconsciousness or paralysis to an injured creature. If you wanted to incapacitate a creature with one of those poisons, but did not want to kill them, a blowgun would be the safest way to do that. Its low...

Sure, that's just meaningful chance of failure. My point was just that in the play of the game, swinging a sword isn't ALWAYS a die roll. By default, it's not. We need to have an excuse to roll the dice. I mean, I accept that you can make an argument for wanting to roll dice for social...

It's a problem seen across the gamespace, and I think the cause of it boils down to the diverse audiences D&D tries to serve. If you're trying to make your game hit a broad audience who wants both dungeon survival and monster fighting you have to somehow develop, say, a healing mechanic that...

There's something that seems off about this statement to me. If we go back to the example on swinging a sword vs. the talky bits, both seem to me to hinge on one shared rule: "Pretend to be your character." In certain circumstances, pretending to be your character means doing something with a...

Misspelled "though" :)

Arrow tracking matters if your D&D game is about dungeon survival or emergent gameplay. Arrow tracking doesn't matter if your D&D game is about monster fighting or storytelling, though. An infinite quiver as a magic item makes a lot of sense, but it'd only really be valuable to the first...

Yeah, that sounds intentional to me. Good catch!

I agree. I also think that because we live in a world where being paid for our work is how we access food, housing, and healthcare, replacing a human with cheap AI ("bending the cost curve") is not a necessary or defensible way to adjust. Yet it is a very likely short-term way companies will...

I find that it impacts play a lot because it impacts the characterization of the warlock character - players like answering the question of why they undertook the pact, why it was worth it, what they hope to do with it. Often, I've seen players answering this question with reference to the INT...

Part of the fun of playing a warlock is playing someone whose gift might go up in fairy smoke (or whose dark magic might cost them their soul, or whose alien insight might lead to madness). A warlock likely is giving up a lot for very little, in a classic Faustian sense. It's pretty fun to play...

The 2014 edition for Wand of Fireballs says you can use an action expend a charge to cast the fireball spell. The 2024 version could have the same language (and in that case wouldn't be kosher for Fast Hands). The 2024 version could also have different language. If it says you can use a Magic...

No, I'd say they're charming an arch fey. CHA 16 is a heroic level of charm, a level of attention-getting that most people aren't capable of. Enough for an arch fey to notice them, to have them stand out of the crowd. Enough so that when the warlock reaches out to form a pact, the creature is...