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If D&D was a car, I would say that 5E has the paint job and outline of 2E, but it's a whole different interior and engine. It has the same outward facing names of things, but the mechanics and playstyle are nothing alike. It's like this - both of them have class levels up to 20th and spell...

Or, put the "newb" stuff in the Starter box for new DMs and make the DMG a complete toolbox.

Yeah, the DMG shouldn't JUST be a beginner's tool. It needs also to be a toolbox to reference past the noob stage. And that should have meant that monster creation information should have either been in the DMG or MM (I would have preferred the latter, personally - that just seems a logical...

I had that impression too, but after recently dusting off my 2E books and giving it a go, 5E plays nothing like 2E, and the design mindset back then really is at odds with the core of 5E. I'd still play both happily but they are quite different experiences.

Yep, between the changes I've seen in 2024 and that it looks like they are going to double down from here, I think its time for me to peace out from WotC D&D.

If 5E gave Clerics 3 turn attempts at start, it would be right where I want it. The older editions always annoyed me that you basically had infinite attempts (at least, until you failed - but if you had a T or D there was no chance to fail. And you could always start over with the next group).

Wow, I'd forgotten about this pic from D3 until I saw it. Yeah - they're a handful, at least three!

Oh, the irony. In the game I was/am co-dming, the Warlock PC had a fiend pact and the patron turned out to be an Arcanoloth (who managed to keep its true nature secret until over half way in the campaign) ... working for a Lord higher up in the chain. And its interest in the Warlock was...

Demons fly into combat with glee. They're the combat monsters. Devils use combat when they must, preferring to overcome their opponents with subtlety and trickery. If they're engaging in direct combat, they're doing it wrong. Yugoloths sow discord so their enemies fight each other and they...

Class tags are also helpful if you want to switch out an ability or two or "advance" them further into the class.

If it's all "backwards compatible", that leave me little reason to move forward in the first place.

This was kinda why I didn't want them to go pure alphabetical. At the least, having a half page for the monster groups (Yugoloth, Demon, Devils, (Chromatic) Dragons, Giants, etc.) would have been good. Use the half page to give an overview of the group as a whole, and then at the end, give a...

Sounds similar to a Giant Weasel encounter I ran back in Saltmarsh. PC found a hole in the abandoned house's garden big enough to crawl in, and started to do so. The two Weasels inside attacked the interloper and tried to drag him deeper into the warren so they could eat him. There was quite...

My big question about the 2025 MM is how much space is actually devoted to reserved to talking about orcs? If the stat blocks are missing is there at least an entry that discusses what an Orc is? As far as I recall, the half-orc was stripped out of the PHB, and if there's no dedicated Orc stat...

There's good and bad points to it. Not having a full block for various humanoids leaves space for other creatures to be included, and if you CAN build an "orc warrior" by taking a Warrior stat block and applying a line or two of orcish flavor, it works. A table of various humanoid traits takes...

I try to play the monster according to its nature. I don't see the game as a pitting of wits against the players, but as an impromptu play where scenes are set up, but the players have control where it goes from there. I've been through previous games of onemanupship and rocket tag and I'm...

Just for my table (but I'm elated I actually got myself a printed copy). But I have two monster books that I've been print testing and hope to have on Drivethru soon.

I don't have to imagine, I pulled the trigger and got my own version printed. Too many changes to list fully, but I ended up rewriting just about everything, taking 2014 5E and pulling in everything from 2E & 3E that I felt fit. Some of the bigger changes: Anything that was a proficiency...