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I've been running the game without the DMG, and in fact I still don't have it. I think it's safe to say that the DMG doesn't contain any rules that are necessary for running the game. I think the core 3 approach is gone somewhat. The PHB and basic rules have all the rules for running the game...

If you want your rogue to do huge burst damage, I would recommend the assassin. Automatically critting with surprise is enough to outright kill a lot of enemies you face.

I don't think we're literally talking about players reading or not reading the DMG. It's more about whether players should assume the DM is playing from the DMG unless otherwise noted, or whether players should not make that assumption. It comes down to the question of whether the DMG is a...

I've played in a few groups, as well as some con games, and I've never really seen anything like this. Usually it's the opposite: if combats are dragging on too long people will start to fall asleep or go find things to do when it's not their turn Combat is a big part of the game, but it's fun...

That depends on which of the books you're talking about. The Rincewind novels are mostly a parody of sword and sorcery tropes. The stories that feature Sam Vimes usually fall into the mystery category. The witches are probably closest to heroic fantasy, but are harder to place. Thief of Time has...

I'm firmly in the camp that alignments are both unrealistic and unfun, so I've been running all my games without alignment for a while. No problem at all.

This exactly. And the point of my posts above is that the result of the test is 100% situational - there's no disagreement as to what would happen given a particular situation, the disagreement is over what situation actually counts as a proper test.

Well, first off we're probably talking about a wizard casting cantrips, so ammo isn't an issue. Even if it were an archer, then the archer could have a buddy fly next to him carrying a giant stack of arrows or something (that wouldn't strictly be soloing the tarrasque, but it is still in the...

This is fine, but it's a ruling, not a rule, and many DMs may prefer not to do this for various reasons (they prefer to not add to RAW, throwing boulders doesn't fit their idea of what the tarrasque can do, etc). My point remains: what matters are the parameters of the test. If you decide to let...

I feel like the best way forward would be to have a conversation about it. The player in question could come up with a good reason he would know about the creature. If he was a scholar, presumably he would say that although he's never seen one in person, he read a book once that mentioned the...

This won't help at all, but I can run a test right here: Before battle: Wizard casts fly, then approaches tarrasque. Round 1: wizard attacks tarrasque. Tarrasque does nothing because there's nothing he can do about it. Round 2: wizards attacks tarrasque. Tarrasque does nothing because there's...

One slightly bizarre aspect of this approach is it means that higher con creatures will have fewer HD than similar challenge lower con creatures. If we're letting monsters use HD like PCs it means that the highest con monsters will have the worst healing abilities.

I'm all about more PC options. I would rather they come from a big, shiny new PHB than in dribs and drabs from a bunch of setting and adventure books. I DM, but I feel like with bounded accuracy, I can get way more mileage out of the current MM than anything in the past. Plus, with proper...

That's true, at the ends of the spectrum your narrative has to change a lot to keep balance the same. However, if you made short rests 5 minutes, then long rests would presumably be something like only an hour, so everyone can heal to full in an hour anyway. That means the fighter's second wind...

Changing long and short rests actually shouldn't change balance at all. As long as the number of encounters/other resource consuming challenges remains the same between each type of rest, the only impact is narrative. That's the beauty of the rest system they established - it works regardless of...

What I've found is that battles against highly leveled foes can be very swingy. Their damage is enough that a solid hit will easily drop many PCs, but the PCs often have the ability to nova huge damage when they need to. That means that the key to beating a tough enemy is getting the drop on...

I felt like 13th age had extremely clear rules. They were just very open-ended as well. I wish 5e had the clarity of 13th age.

I think it just depends greatly on playstyle.

I've done your number 1 in 5e, and have done something similar in 4e and 13th age. It works really well.

I think it's obvious that high level characters would have lots of resources to escape or evade this scenario. Even mid-level characters could probably get away without much trouble. The question posed, however, wasn't "can high level characters escape a town trying to kill them?" The question...