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Be a fighter/warlock. Nikki Vexx and the Nasty Hex.

The examples that are part of the rules of command do a pretty good job in expectation-setting, and, I'd argue, it could be better and clearer and more explicit (it takes some system knowledge to grok that the spell's main utility is combat action denial, after all). Examples and guidance and...

Emphasis is mine, because I think that's part of where these trains diverge in the station. I'm not scared at all of a DM judgement call giving players more power. What's there to lose? D&D is a cooperative game. Fly the eagles to Mordor, throw the BBEG off the cliff, poison the enemy camp...

I'd actually been thinking I needed a thing like this for a while. Good! Yay!

I hope whoever gets the job starts to unionize is all.

See, part of the fun of that for me as a player would be seeing what would happen. That's why I'm casting the spell - I want to do something that's more interesting than just deal damage and cause an effect. I want to play in this space with the DM, where I am using the divine magic of the gods...

When a PC says something unexpected to an NPC ("I tell the king he's an idiot."), and you need to come up with a response, that's open-ended gameplay. The PC could say something extremely disruptive or use some element to thwart your plans easily. Or if a PC finds a way through a locked door...

This is just why the DMG (and maybe the PHB) needs to discuss things like bottlenecking and collaboration in terms DMs (and players) can quickly grok and apply, not a reason to ban all open-ended game mechanics. If I'm worried about "cheesemonkey weaseling," I'm worried about a player behavior...

Dissonant Whispers has always been a pretty straightforward spell with direct, uncomplicated effects. The discussion is about taking a game mechanic that once had a possibility for nuanced, creative, spontaneous play experiences, and turning it into something straightforward, direct, and...

When I think "experimental," I think, "new and with a high risk of failure" which includes things like selling a classic version of an ongoing MMORPG. The things Hight did with WoW were novel and innovative and risky and could've flopped in a big way. There wasn't an obvious market demand...

In the case of Command, its utility in combat in 5e is pretty clearly action denial. You make your enemy do something on its turn other than hurt you or your friends. Cast it on the big damage-dealer or someone who applies an annoying condition and spend the round free to do pay attention to...

I actually see it as quite the opposite. The majority of D&D players don't buy all the stuff. They buy the core rules and maybe some big supplements that clearly fit (maybe they support popular archetypes that aren't common enough to be core, for instance). Experimentation doesn't produce new...

Part of the fun of DMing is in making judgements when PC's throw chaos wrenches into your plan. It is, I'd argue, a core delight of the game in actual play for players and DMs - riffing off of the other players. Not knowing what they will do, having them do something unexpected, and figuring out...

It might be nice, but I think there's a tradeoff. WoW is a subscription. WotC products are not. With a subscription, you benefit from experimentation, even if it's not super successful - if you get folks to check out the game, talk about the game, and see what all the hubub is about, then you...

It's good that they're more explicit in 2024, but the "immortal entity" line is a little odd to me. Is the intent that all clerics are theistic, and that nontheistic faiths aren't good fits for the cleric class? Or is the intent that this "immortal entity" is not necessarily a personality? If I...

"Action" heavily implies to me that I can use my "Action" in combat to do it. Attack, Spellcasting, Dash, Use an Item...I can take these actions outside of combat, too, but if I'm in a combat, I can also use my action to do these things. It'd be a little odd to have exceptions to that.

Wait, this is an action, as in I can do this in combat? Folks, I just found out how to turn disaffected minions into a live coup attempt after rolling initiative.

One of the things about being hidden is that like charmed or frightened it is relative - there's a creature you are hidden from. This is also why it's useful to have more than one guard standing watch, right? You can be hidden from one, but if the other spots you, they can raise the alarm (and...

I like this ruling, but it doesn't seem RAI to me, else we'd be seeing a lot of rogues sneaking up to sleeping dragons and slitting their throats without ever needing to roll initiative. If I can make one skill check to kill a boss, I'd always be trying to get and maximize that skill check...