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My take: Stop fighting human psychology and put it to work for you. If you present an indication of danger, the players will zero in on it. This is perfectly logical and entirely in character. It is also a valuable tool to the writer/DM: You can be confident that you have the players' attention...

At that point you don't need box text. Just put on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." It's all you'll hear that session anyway.

I can see the point that box text is a good support for novice DMs, but if that is its primary function, then it should be modeling evocative, immersive narration. And that means keeping it short. No, shorter than that. Really short. The more adjectives and sentences you pile on, the more the...

Depends on a lot of things. How common are magic items in this setting? What other adventure options are available? What kind of monsters are we facing? Also, what edition is this? Some editions you're badly screwed without magic weapons. Others, it's not such a big deal.

Eh, this isn't really in "boycott" territory IMO. More like "Your periodic reminder not to assume WotC always has the community's interests at heart, and check that money you're spending on them is still giving you value." (Of course, if you do that check and the answer is no, then you should...

Before anyone says it: WotC is NOT required to do this to keep the IP. "Defend it or lose it" is for trademarks, not copyrights.

I think it's safe to say Sigil's hit point total compares unfavorably to that of a doornail. This is no doubt stuff that was already in the pipeline. If they are still putting out content three months from now, then I might start to consider "not dead yet."

Moreover, concentration requirement is a killer for damage spells. The powerhouse combat spells tend to be debuff, battlefield control, and action denial. And most of the good ones -- Fear, Hypnotic Pattern, Hold Person/Monster, Wall of Force, etc. -- are concentration spells. That's generally...

Just a reminder that you have the power to edit Wikipedia articles if you feel so inclined. :)

You can make enormous changes while preserving backwards compatibility. D&D rules consist of "elements" (spells, feats, equipment, classes, species, etc.) and "systems" (movement rules, resting rules, combat rules, etc.). There are well-defined interfaces through which each system interacts with...

The changes are on par with what we saw in the 3E -> 3.5E transition. It is certainly not 6E. But it absolutely is 5.5E. Substantial changes were made to the existing rules; they did not simply consolidate options from the material already in print.

If it were my campaign, the answer would be yes; there is a genuine eclipse that serves the archmage's requirements. Of course, there will be some... side effects. For example: The archmage did not specify which moon was to produce an eclipse, so rather than moving the existing moon, the...

We are making the switch. Currently we have no plans to import bits of the 2014 rules... but that may change depending on what we encounter, and we will certainly have some house rules, we always do. And I'm with @Belen on usability in DDB, it's a hot mess right now. The search feature has...

I should be more excited about this than I am. Lorwyn is a really cool setting that should lend itself to D&D well. But... eh. Something about 2024e has sapped my enthusiasm for new D&D material.

Yeah, it was called 4E. It didn't go over well, and WotC clearly learned their lesson.

One diamond can power unlimited castings. There's a high one-time investment, but after that, the marginal cost is zero. (Well, zero plus a 9th-level spell slot. In most worlds that would be worth more than the diamond, but not this one.)

Just because somebody brings up a complaint now, doesn't mean it wasn't an issue before. The medusa/gorgon thing bugged me when I first encountered it 37 years ago, and it still bugs me today.

The Clone spell means anyone rich enough to pay for the material components every 50 years or so is essentially immortal, and those who can afford it more often won't even show signs of aging. Transportation is far more advanced than even our world. The Gate spell can move everything from...

While I have no strong feelings on "race" vs. "species," I strongly disagree with this as a general point. The choice of names is a huge part of game design. The exact same mechanic can be super intuitive or utterly incomprehensible depending on what it's named. And where RPG design is...

I would follow Mearls's idea and merge most bonus actions into regular actions. So barbarian rage is an action that also gives you a full round of attacks. Rogues get an extra action each round, which must be Dash, Disengage, or Dodge. Et cetera. This would reduce the design space some. For...