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Here's one way of thinking about how important dexterity is. In combat, a character's mechanical effectiveness depends on: Probability of hitting Probability of being hit Damage dealt Damage survived Turn order/number of turns Every character relies on dexterity for one of the five (turn...

It's worth noting that this question can apply to single class characters as well. Plenty of iconic abilities that a player may regard as character defining don't show up until after a significant fraction of the game. Consider: A Lore Bard can't choose their first magical secrets until level...

It's worth noting that increased character power in newer materials can arise by multiple mechanisms. It's not always clear which are being refered to as "power creep", but these are different enough that lumping them together may not always be condusive to productive discussion. Consider the...

It looks like they've removed the alignment prerequisites from the Initiate/Adept feats, but kept the alignment-based spells for the Divinely Favored feat- so a nice compromise that will annoy everyone.

I think a lot of people are approaching this by focusing on what classes to omit or combine. This makes sense in some cases, but to me it feels like it's necessarily about removing possibilities rather than adding new ones. A more interesting approach might be to think of 6 new categories that...

The argument goes in both directions. Wanting to limit optimization options is just as much an optimization-based concern as wanting to expand them. My broader point, though, is that I don't think the label is adding anything useful to the discussion. ASI rules are inherently about small...

I think there are plenty of reasons outside optimization to prefer flexible ASIs over racially determined ones. Suppose for the sake of argument, though, that it is all about optimization- that the +1 or +2 really is trivial in any other context. In that case, if the ASI rules really only matter...

I'd go a step further and say that the issue isn't just the benchmark, but more broadly the focus on "primary ability scores". If a fighter with 14 strength and 14 intelligence could have similar combat effectiveness to a fighter with 18 strength and 10 intelligence, this would be an entirely...

When building a character, be sure to precisely follow an online guide. Choosing a bad subclass or deviating from optimal ability score/spell/feat choices will make your character basically useless. As a DM, you need to know and follow all of the official D&D lore. If you change anything...

Long distance engagements certainly aren't limited to white-room scenarios. In a campaign with a lot of outdoor adventuring, it's more or less inevitable that some encounters will fall into that category, which means multiple rounds of unanswered attacks by ranged combatants about melee...

This is an interesting topic, though I don't think I find the OP's examples particularly compelling. The Artificer, as noted, has already been officially added to the game, first in a setting supplement and shortly thereafter in one of the only two player-facing rules expansions that have been...

I think the survey went down for half an hour or so. I got kicked out with an error message halfway through. I think it's back now, though I can't tell for sure, since it's now convinced that I've already completed the survey.

This would massively limit the customization potential of multiclassing, though. A Storm Spirit Barbarian/Wildfire Druid and a Totem Barbarian/Moon Druid are wildly different combinations, both mechanically and thematically, despite sharing the same base classes. To me, this sort of...

I think the clearest way would be something like: I approve of the changes to D&D's aesthetics. I am neutral towards the changes to D&D's aesthetics. I disapprove of the changes to D&D's aesthetics. I don't perceive consistent changes to D&D's aesthetics. This doesn't get around...

It's also worth noting that some faith traditions express this perspective by expanding who, from a theological standpoint, is considered a "priest" and using a different title for the associated leadership role ("priesthood of all believers" is a phrase used to express this idea in some...

Even with custom backgrounds, I'd be disappointed if feats like Actor were only available during character creation. That sort of ability could come from one's background, but I think it's also something one should be able to learn over the course of a campaign. As an extremely underdeveloped...

Condensing something as complicated as a character's personality onto two axes of variation is always going to simplify/overlook a lot of interesting variation. But if such a simplification is useful as a quick summary for some characters and is an interesting stating point for discussing...

Very surprised to see feats with alignment prerequisites. This seems like a pretty dramatic departure from 5E's general treatment of alignment (and I'd much prefer to keep alignment in its current role as a descriptive tool). As for the Kender, I don't know much of the history, but if the goal...

As I said, I think Vader has some lawful tendencies. But a lack of indiscriminate killing is not one of them. He chokes Captain Antilles to death, even though he might have valuable information if subjected to same interrogation techniques as Princess Leia. He chokes Admiral Ozzel to death over...

Vader strikes me as a character with strong tendencies in both directions on the Law-Chaos axis. All the chaotic traits you point out are are definitely there. At the same time, though I think he really does believe his argument to Luke that their combined strength could "end this destructive...