Search results

Anecdotal: 4e has the slowest progression of any game I've played. (No, not "edition of D&D" or "tabletop RPG," but "game.") In 5e, for example, encounters often go like this: DM: "You see 20 goblins approaching." Player: "I cast Fireball!" That's it. Flawless victory. 1000 XP. In 4e, each...

I have done this for some classes and levels; here are my results, and an example of my process. Wiz 1 - CR 1/2: DCR 1/4, OCR 1 Wiz 2 - CR 1: DCR 1/4, OCR 2 Wiz 3 - CR 1: DCR 1/4, OCR 3 Wiz 4 - CR 2: DCR 1/4, OCR 4 Wiz 5 - CR 5: DCR 1/4, OCR 11 Note that the character is still Defensive CR 1/4...

This matches a lot of my experience and feeling in the first year and a half of running 5e. Inevitably, the more you are able to customize your character, the more optimization is possible. My first 5e group was mostly "power gamers"--they were new to D&D, but they were very competitive at MTG...

1. The gods' power already reaches across planes, right? Like, the gods are mostly on the Outer Planes, and you're usually on the Material Plane. So why would it be any different? 2. In the 5e cosmology, all the different worlds exist within "the" Material Plane. There are no alternate Material...

1. Write more content and publish some of it. 2. Not get into any dumb arguments on the internet. 3. Make every session as good as I can make it. 4. Keep getting better at DMing. 5. Maybe play D&D as a player once or twice. 6. Introduce at least 1 new person to TRPGs.

Honestly, in my campaign, the kobolds would probably surrender or rout without any prompting from the players. The PCs have basically won by that point; why would the kobolds fight a losing battle?

Anecdotal here, but no group I've ever played with has cared at all about XP. You just play the game, and you level up every once in a while. As long as it's established from the start and consistent, there's been no problem using any and all XP systems.

I'm glad we have an EU explanation for the political situation, but that really should've been in the movie itself. The whole time I was watching it, I was thinking, if the Republic is in charge, doesn't that mean the bad guys are the "resistance?" All we ever see of the First Order is one Star...

I just looked through my library and the only one I'd recommend highly (assuming you mean high-fantasy aesthetic and dungeon-crawly gameplay) is Gauntlet: Slayer Edition. The characters all lend themselves to different styles of play, the core mechanics are fun, and it's a perfect couch co-op...

Who cares what it's "supposed" to do? Who decides whether the person is "right" or "wrong"? If it doesn't do what THEY want it to do, it doesn't work FOR THEM. Regardless of whether YOU think they're "right," for THEM, it is a real problem that needs to be fixed. If they are trying to fix the...

For an upcoming campaign, I'm building a post-apocalyptic world where different cultures of humans got to different technology levels before going extinct. In this world, there is a race of androids, left behind by the most technologically advanced civilization. These are sentient...

We can agree that the designers intended the feat system to be optional, but being optional does not exempt it from criticism. As I said in the passage you quoted directly above this paragraph: It doesn't matter whether you or I as individuals feel GWM and SS are imbalanced. The very fact that...

What would "fail-forward" mean in this example, though? In my opinion, if the GM needs you to find the secret door, the GM should not make you roll for it. Because rolling has the possibility of failure, and the GM is not prepared for this failure. So the PCs are going to succeed no matter what...

I still don't understand what "fail forward" means. The example everyone always gives is that the players need to find a secret door to advance the plot, and all I can say to that is, the GM shouldn't have put the plot behind a secret door. That is a failure of adventure design. Why do we need a...

Here's a great article about pacing combat: http://theangrygm.com/manage-combat-like-a-dolphin/ tl;dr: One of the biggest bottlenecks is when players take too long to plan out their turn. AngryGM's solution: Make the players declare their actions immediately when it's their turn. If they take...

What makes you think it sucks? 1 extra attack per round for the most important fight of the day seems better than any of the Totem Spirit features at that level, and 1 level of exhaustion is hardly debilitating. Even level 2 exhaustion isn't so bad, since you get Fast Movement.

As I suggested upthread, I think this problem could be mitigated if there were no feats that make you better at something you already do; only feats that give you additional capabilities (e.g. Magic Initiate, Dungeon Delver). Since versatility tends to be less powerful than specialization, it...

Maybe the rules for scrolls at the beginning of the magic item section?

Kinda. While it technically says "optional" in the PHB, I think the default assumption in most groups (especially of 'advanced' players who've played 3e and/or 4e) is that anything in the PHB is fair game. My players nearly staged a revolt when I pitched a no-feats campaign. It's natural to want...

I think the two solutions can be merged. I agree that different gods should have different spell lists. Why would the god of famine and plague grant create food and water and cure disease? etc. A DM could easily create or modify a domain to swap out some core cleric spells for more thematic...