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Any spell that is a racial spell would be common. I think any spell with a complicated or expensive material component would be rare; they may have been used less frequently and fallen into obscurity. Out of combat practicality will probably relate to rarity - levitate and spider climb have...

One inadvertent result of just sticking with 9 levels of spell casting for most casters is they all have gas tanks of roughly the same size. In a game where resource attrition is both an important part of balance but also buried in the texts and interpreted very differently, this is a net...

I think that's two different arguments, though - One, a rejection of the simplification. If consuming/plaing D&D is made easier, people will do it for the wrong reasons or the wrong people will do it! (Theodor Adorno railing that housewives might listen to opera on vinyl while washing dishes...

The problem is when someone with access to expertise and a high relevant stat is compared to someone who does not who wishes to be ok at, say, deception. A clever smooth-talking barbarian might have had a charisma of 12 and proficiency in deception. At level 8, they might have a deception check...

The problem is characters with access to expertise can become untouchable in more than just stealth. Athletics and persuasion, in particular. The only way to match them is to gain expertise. This is a huge design error. If used to shore up skills with poor stats, it is less of an issue, but...

Ok, give them something that covers for poor stats in those areas but doesn’t surpass what proficiency+a 20 in that stat should do; like expertise but not applicable to skills with a high main stat. Expertise with a high stat breaks bounded accuracy. It was a mistake.

Why not give rogues something similar to jack of all trades instead? Expertise is all about breaking bounded accuracy, and either more classes should have access to it or none of them should.

This was true of Asimov's early stories, too. It doesn't mean it is a necessary or defining feature of the genre (whether that genre is science fiction or sword and sorcery). I'd argue that Song of Ice and Fire has many elements of S&S, and it seems to have avoided that problem entirely, while...

I couldn't agree more. Particularly if people won't even consider resource attrition as a topic worthy of consideration in a game where, say, rogues exist with essentially no resources at all aside from hit points/hit die.

I think many people see overpowered spellcasters as a feature. They won't admit it, of course, and some of them are the same people that would argue that they aren't overpowered in 5e (I suppose 3e is the reference for this comparison?).

Decide if half elf or elf and then use the custom stuff from tashas, pick proficiencies to suit upbringing. Decide whether skin tone is blue black, grey, or beige as you like. I wouldn’t use the Drow subtype as a start point, because of the sunlight sensitivity. Half Elf Drow descent might...

I don't buy settings for mood, I buy them for mechanics.

You titled a section: And I said I do not think that works as a core theme for a dnd setting. You said it could work - and it could if the players play ball. But if they don't, or only half of them do, then some of them will be bored. I don't see it as a core defining part of a S&S game. If...

That would be fine with me, though it doesn't specifically have to be Darksun - or have dragons in it. Some grit would be nice, though - and no, I don't think Van Richten's supplied enough.

I like Darksun, but that so many physical mechanics are required is an excellent example of how poorly dnd (particularly 5e) models morality. Frankly, it just doesn't. And, thus, with no system for what is good and bad, an arc that requires characters to feel bad about a thing they may feel...

What if they don't care that their characters have changed over time? And if the characters themselves do not care? People change all the time; and they change their personal narratives to fit the new them. I don't think it is as inherently crisis fodder as you make it to be.

They do, which is why I was ok with S&S, but I think the Low Magic part is the more important part for me. Survival as a theme.

Ok, yes, if the players consent to the DM telling them what they think, sure. I wouldn't ever do that. I don't think you can decide, for the players, that their characters will be uneasy with that. They may think town life is just grand.

Also the last time I played DL it was a AD&D box set and I don't recall sorcerers at all. I don't remember 3e ish sorcerers in the books, so adding them to latter settings just to fit the system would be an example of exactly the thing they should not do. Subclasses or even whole classes that...

I usually play humans or human-adjacent characters so it wouldn't bother me. The system has a ton of options, a particular game doesn't need to use them all.