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Any paladin concept that does not begin at, "I AM a servant of [insert deity]." Which - for me - is basically every paladin I've ever played for 40 years (which is a lot); not a one of them was defined to any degree by their choice of deity. Their common core was that they wanted to promote...

I give up. Again. I've been at this point before because I've been playing every version of D&D except 4E for 40 years. Conversing about it anymore these days is like trying to speak an alien language being invented by Forge hipsters on the fly and I'm tired of trying to sort out just what...

Players can learn D&D without reading everything if everything is explained to them enough times and in enough deta il that it sinks in. Players can continue to play D&D knowing only enough to play their ONE PC. More players is good and we should all game on and be happy. BUT, if a player...

Always has been and always will be. New players to D&D (or nearly any tabletop RPG) ALWAYS need to accept that they will be doing a LOT of reading and learning. The rules books are hundreds of pages. Even if they are not going to play a full caster themselves they are doing themselves a...

? No, it is not a universal rule that governs all game mechanics. It is a response to the situation presented because we were asked for our approach to such an interaction. PC/player suspects poison. Fine. PC gets one attempt to detect poison - players choice of the most...

The issue for me would be that each of the Oaths seems to want to take part of what I have always felt paladins to be (since 1E) and says, "Well no, we want paladins to have specialists among them, so only SOME paladins care a lot about these aspects of being paladins, and here's cool powers to...

We were asked how we handle it. I'm not angry about this, but my answer is my answer. It wasn't intended to be reflective of everyone else's experiences and enforced as universal Truth or else I'd have told everyone directly to do it MY way or the highway, and it stands as written.

I'd only say that when the player/PC says they are suspicious about the tea and that's why they're smelling it then the perception check is appropriate, but the results are irrelevant because there is nothing to perceive. After all, if the check is failed has the PC failed to perceive that tea...

In which case, if we're not talking about when combat is taking place, there isn't a real need for initiative. Initiative rolls are a random determination of who goes first. Adjustments may apply but it's still random. When talking about about how you DO initiate combat without then suddenly...

Assume the average ability score roll is 12. An average human has a 13 Con (12+1 for being human). The average dwarf then has a 14 Con (12+2 for being a dwarf). I CHOOSE to create a dwarf PC with a 12 Con because I want any higher score used elsewhere. My character doesn't reflect his race...

Only, in my experience, when the DM allows them to choose what to actually do in the moment anyone does anything they decide they don't want them to do. Saw that a lot with 3E. "I ready to attack". Okay, do you ready to attack with a sword or your bow? Can't do both. Pick one. Do you ready...

The statistical shift of the general population will still be set by the DM. PLAYER characters do not need to always reflect or benefit from the statistical tendencies of the general population.

In rare situations I will ask players to roll initiatives even though there is no combat happening, and I do that just to be able to deal with their actions one at a time in some kind of order. However, as a rule, if I call for initiative it is for one reason - COMBAT has commenced for one...

There are plenty of epithets for just about all the classes that are used by people who have particular issues with that class, or how players choose to play that class, or how they DON'T play that class, how it CAN be played and/or how the rules get in the way of how it SHOULD be played, etc...

You mean, how do you force player characters to be adjusted toward the norms for their race? My question would be WHY do PC's need to be adjusted toward racial norms? The DM can and will assign stats to NON-player characters however they wish. If they want more elves with higher dexterity...

There is an advantage to acting before your opponents in ANY round. It's just not as great an advantage as it might seem unless the opponent can one-shot you. I think it'd be better for the game to have initiative randomized each round just to keep things lively and unpredictable. The...

I make it clear that unless otherwise arranged, each player is responsible for their own snacks and food. That said, it rarely happens that we don't arrange to order pizza, subs, or somebody volunteers to cook something, or we just break for dinner and say, "everybody is on their own to go get...

An Insight check isn't about how a setting's people, organization, motivations and goals relate to each other, but how the DM wants to give players/PC's that information.

about the same way. Bob would have to say, "My character is suspicious of him, do I get an Insight check?" I don't have a problem with DM's that object to ABUSE of mechanics like this. It is worse when a player uses the clumsiest phrasing possible such as, "I use insight on him." But these...

Have a heavy arse 85" TV with a touchscreen overlay that I deinstalled from a place because the touchscreen wasn't working anymore and the company concerned didn't want the old TV back. Usually that's due to high shipping costs making it not worth the effort. We initially tried to just sell it...