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Without overthinking... LG - Offers to pay for what the man has stolen (normal); embarks on a campaign to end poverty by challenging the system that produces them, changing it so that all have enough money (heroic) NG - I didn't see anything, what are you talking about? (normal); embarks on a...

Back when chainmail bikinis were a big thing, you could count on the person buying your fantasy product to, for the most part, be a heterosexual cisgender white tween boy whose parents were working class or wealthier. So big muscles (exactly what your tween wants to be) and scantily clad ladies...

The nuance here is that it actually depends on how many risks you feel like you can take. If you need mass appeal, you take relatively few risks. If you don't need mass appeal, you can take more risks. At a certain level of expected $, you need mass appeal. Which is how we get Disney...

When it comes to publishing an official setting, there's a bit of a paradox in this choice. Because by allowing one thing, you cause people who don't like that thing to avoid it. You could have chainmail bikinis in your art, and those who don't like it would then avoid your product. But if...

I don't really agree. Disability, skin conditions, things like this...they become part of how a person is perceived by the world, and so how people see themselves, too. And that self-reflection is core to "fantasy." The idea is that me, or someone like me, could be this great hero or storied...

It's pretty disheartening to see Fighter - a class defined in part by its adaptability to many circumstances - be thrown into the "Strong" bucket and locked out of tactics, of gishes, of archers or duelists. Six classes each tied to an ability score could really just be one class with six...

If the barbarian archetype in 5e is broad enough to contain wild magic and holy power within it, it's also broad enough to contain "just a guy good with weapons" in it. The rage maybe gets flavored as a "grit and determination" kind of thing, and you're off to the races.

They all look like celebrities from the 70's, so there is an element of idealized beauty to them. If the goal of D&D art of adventurers is to present a fantasy hero, then there's nothing wrong with presenting that fantasy as something that's a little grittier and less polished than most of the...

So many folks are going to do WIS/Cleric, INT/Wizard, STR/Fighter, DEX/Rogue. What would it look like if I yeeted those obvious answers, I wonder...? STR = Barbarian DEX = Ranger CON = Monk INT = Artificer WIS = Paladin CHA = Warlock Fighters get broken up by archetype. Want to play a knight...

This is a strawman. The brave warriors and sly rogues and giants could have a diversity of body types, ethnicities, abilities, and traits that are not in line with a "good looking" stereotype. You don't need to body shame players to recognize that basic truth.

I think this idea is well worth entertaining, but I can't help but think of people beyond myself. Sure, I don't always need a physical copy. However, if we abide by the seventh generation principle, then what happens to the history, the creativity, the context when these things disappear? How...

I mean, it's a hypothetical. Any actual scenario will be able to answer the question of if the Big Bad can escape or not in that actual scenario. Hypothetically, that's what I'm looking at as a DM in this situation - a way to escape. BBEG has lost. Taking out a PC is going to be at most a...

Hmmm...as the BBEG, I've lost this fight. Regardless of who I take out, I get taken out. If I kill the cleric, one of the other three hits me and I die. They then give the cleric a potion at their leisure. If I kill the rogue, wizard, or fighter, the cleric just yo-yo's them, and one of the two...

Ability scores are all sorts of blurry at the edges, so there's no description that maps 1 to 1 onto mechanics there. But when I speak of will, I'm not talking about, like, concentration. I'm talking about it more in the philosophical sense - a desire to do something. The wizard has a desire to...

It's kind of metaphysics, so the core doc (smartly) doesn't lock it down too tightly. Nature is multiverse's tendency to give rise to a harmonious life process. It's elements, animals, plants, and fey. It's volcanoes and earthquakes and tornadoes. It's not really personified, but it has a will -...

Kinda. The Wizard shapes reality through the force of their own willpower. They desire the world to be different, and make it different using magic. Their power comes from themselves, and their Intelligence helps them to use it to affect the world. The Druid gains magical power from Nature...

Nah, it's the idea that "nature," as a source of power, is not inside of you. Druids are dealing with elemental forces, fey beings, plants, beasts, spirits. They're shamans, chatting up the local rivers or volcanoes. The narrative idea is that these things are giving you their power to use when...

I can spend years of my life to become a good Engineer. Or I can get a problematic investor to loan me a couple mil and just hire one and get my project engineer'd without ever having to learn math more complicated than "Now I owe that guy a couple mil." And, let's be honest, when the debt...

Drakkenheim is pretty well done. Dungeons of Drakkenheim, which you can get on D&D Beyond now, is quite a well done little cosmic horror sandbox, and it doesn't overdo the tentacles and body horror angle. I mean, it's definitely there, but the idea of impersonal apocalypse and people just...

I played Zenexor, a human alchemist, for 14 levels. Zenexor was in a Theros campaign, so he was in a world that evokes ancient Greek myths. One of the gods of this world is a god of poison and medicine and serpents and medusae and similar. So he was destined for greatness by her. I played him...