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The latter I disagree with, because it is contrary to a major design goal of the mastery system (namely, increasing diversity of weapon usage). However, I do think that it's ok for Fighters to be an exception to the rule, as a way to fulfil their role as the "master of weapons." But as I said...

Ah I am less familiar with the dmg. Should probably be moved to the PHB.

I think the Fighter is in a pretty good place; they were already doing well in damage, and they got more versatility in Tactical Mind, Tactical Shift, and Studied Attacks. I do think Master of Armaments could be a bit better tho. Letting the Fighter use two Masteries at once wouldn't be...

Yeah, if we're talking about feats of agility, we're talking about Acrobatics, Stealth, and Sleight of Hand. I do get that there is a "pain point" when it comes to jumping, but I think the issue is actually one of semantic confusion. In D&D, Jumping refers really specifically to long jumping...

Sure, that works. But I would also say that this is also a classic of an Intimidation (Strength) check (albeit a failed one). And one that doesn't involve an initiative check...

I think the Monk's level 1 issues are dealt with by the change to Martial Arts that allow them to Dodge/Bonus Unarmed Strike (and then Dodge/Flurry at level 2).

As someone who likes Lovecraft and Howard, I don't have a problem acknowledging that these two dudes were pretty weirdly racist even for their time. Lovecraft's issues are better known, but Howard's beliefs are quite distinctive in their own way. While we can certainly detect a strong...

I think the entire legbreaker industry would disagree; it's highly intimidating.

This does feel like more of a table problem than a rules problem. My DM is very fluid with gathering information checks, so that we can use pretty much any skill as long as we come up with a good RP explanation for how we're trying to find some information. So our Bounty Hunter Soul Knife...

On their own, B/P/S aren’t mechanically significant enough to be worth anyone’s time. Maybe if the Tasha’s feats were incorporated into them and there were a lot more monsters with vulnerabilities and resistances to mundane B/P/S, but I think three types are probably too few to do anything...

Yeah. TBH, I have more of an issue with D&D's mental abilities than the physical ones.

Yes, agreed. Whether we call it fast twitch vs. slow twitch or something else, not all muscles do the same thing. This I'm less in agreement with. While there can certainly be mental components to both stealth and sleight of hand - memorizing patrol patterns and map layouts, the accuracy of...

While it's true that bodybuilders are often not as strong as you'd think, it's also true that you don't see a lot of weightlifters in gymnastics competitions as well, because there is a tradeoff regarding weight when it comes to acrobatics and the like. This is why I don't think Strength needs...

If I wanted that, I'd just play AD&D1e instead.

Bit of a reductio ad absurdum there. I'm a pretty extreme golf bag enthusiast, and even I don't think you'd ever have more than five weapons max.

Again, I disagree. The goal is to encourage diversity of weapon usage, not narrowing it down. If all weapons with Versatile can use Sap, then every Versatile weapon becomes the same - and so on for the other properties. By contrast, the fact that a Battleaxe gets Topple and a Warhammer gets...

Character build, party composition, spell choices, etc. There are quite a few factors. And yes, there should be a rough balance, although I think it may have to be a rough one because it can be rather difficult to directly compare more qualitative differences.

I'd also point out that a better distribution of items in the books is good for all DMs - I've certainly naughty word up enough trying to format homebrew items on D&D Beyond to know that having more premade variety makes things a lot easier for newer DMs and DMs with more restricted prep time, but...

This is something that I hope they're going to fix with the 2024 DMG - we know that they're going to be adding a bunch more stuff for monks (hand wraps and bracers and belts and tattoos and the like), so it would be a good opportunity to balance out the distribution of magical weapons in general.

I cannot disagree more. Reducing weapons of a type to mere fluff is less interesting and engaging than having there be mechanically significant differences between them. This is why I think Weapon Mastery was such an improvement, because it moved away from the old regime where all weapons of...