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If it truly is the final encounter of the game, the Big Boss fight, then the player is going to lose their PC afterwards anyway, right? So the real issue is just how the character's retirement gets narrated. So you could do something like: each time the artifact is used, it increases by 10% the...

I ignore the entire last paragraph under Ready; if you want to cast a spell as your reaction, you can just do that, just like taking any other action. The extra complication of "holding" the spell with concentration is not worth the supposed benefit, not even close.

If you do the math, drinking a potion during combat is almost always a waste of an action. The exceptions to this rule are: 1) It's one of the higher-level potions, and you are lower level. 2) You're in a safe position, and can't do much to help the group this turn anyway. 3) You are not...

Another idea for a staged roll-out is that each time they use the item there is a chance that they "move one step closer to Lawful Evil." This would mean that Chaotic Good characters can hold out the longest, first becoming NG, then N, then LN, then LE. A character who's already LN should...

My preferred fix for geas is to keep it once per day, but increase the damage by 1d10 for each infraction: 5d10 on the first day you break it; 6d10 on the second day; 7d10 on the third day; etc. This way you can never "out-level" geas. Some people can last longer than others, but it always...

Only under magical compulsion. Usually when my PCs turn evil it is entirely voluntary. ;}

Two things about wish to keep in mind if you go with a flat percentage: 1. The players know the percentage in wish and the consequences are well understood too. 2. Failing is bad but doesn't retire your character. Would your players activate an item that had a 15% chance of killing their...

Several editions of Star Wars RPGs feature the idea of "Dark Side Points." Doing evil things or drawing on the power of the Dark Side gets you points, and when you have enough points, you become an NPC. Other games have similar features (e.g. Fading Suns' urge and hubris ratings). So if you...

I treat alignment as purely descriptive, not prescriptive: your alignment is based on your actions, it doesn't determine your actions. You can write whatever you want on your character sheet, but if you do a lot of lawful evil things, at some point the cosmos is going to treat you as Lawful...

For Scouting and Caution, instead of working against these habits, could you streamline the process? Like, just assume that the PCs are going to adopt standard scouting procedure unless they say otherwise, and tell them what they discover. For players being cautious, reduce danger assessment to...

So the most memorable encounter I've run recently was incredibly complicated and took three whole sessions to resolve. The Premise: One of the bosses of Monster Town, a great beholder and cleric of the Elder Elemental Eye, has called for a meeting of the high priests of different religions --...

I've never run a game that lasted 4 years, but my last D&D campaign lasted one year and had two different plot threads: 1. Under the city was a piece of Tharzdu'un's prison, and his cultists were planning to kill everyone and harvest their souls in order to open the prison. Over the course of...

Give the bats advantage on their attack, and if both dice hit, they deal double damage! ...oh wait, that is exactly the same as just giving them multi-attack... I also think swarms should have multi-attack with 2 attacks but only when above half hit points. I think the ability would read...

Welllll... you could do something similar to the swarm rules, but for non-tiny creatures. I think I've seen these called "mob" rules in other games (maybe in 4E?). In a military context, I'd call this creature a "unit." Here's how I'd turn a creature into a unit in 5E: Unit Template A unit is a...

Three words: Explosive sewer gas.

I would give iron dragons a poison gas breath, for the same reason that iron golems have poison gas breath. (I have no clue what that reason is; but it must exist, right?) Plus, it's the only chromatic breath weapon that isn't already possessed by a metallic dragon. If you do go with lightning...

I like the idea of this, but I feel like the item is doing too many things. Paradoxically, I think an item with more restrictions might lead to more creative game-play. More specifics: - The DC for items other than staffs is usually fixed, and based on the hypothetical caster level of the...

What about those of us who do have interest in AL? I run games at my FLGS and I'd really love to run AL because it increases the available pool of players (many players only want to do AL). But I currently run "homebrew" because AL just keep making the special rules more and more and more...

Action-RPG video games often have an NPC or multiple NPCs who follow you you around and fight for you. But in older games, you would often get one of two problems: - If the NPCs were incompetent, because their AI was too stupid, you'd often have to rescue them. Like the NPC would charge right...

I was thinking about this more, and I really think it comes down to the fact that there are no good crafting options for PCs. Like there's no "Master Artisan" feat that lets you craft the :):):):) outta everything. If there were, then the modifier doesn't matter as much, and the NPC stat block...