Search results

Feels awkward plugging my own work, but since it’s relevant: my wizard spell lessons sounds exactly like the sort of magic-as-science you’re asking for even if the intent was (obviously) for wizards. There’s a lot of focus on spells, but artificers have those too, and the parts on arcana...

Not answering the question-as-asked, but this may interest you: Up to the ALDMG v7, spellcasting services cost (usually rounded): 10 * spell_level**2 + one_time_cost / 10 + recurring_cost * 2 Beginning with ALDMG v8, spellcasting services cost: whatever_the_hell_we_feel_like I don't play AL...

I nominate foo, bar, baz, qux...

For anyone interested, I have consolidated the list significantly and updated the original post.

They’re “merely“ rulings made by the lead game creators and designers. Since 5e took a “rulings not rules” approach, and considering who is making these rulings, I think it gives valuable insight into the rules as intended. The context dependency of skill checks that I discussed earlier was in...

It's fine if you don't want to run the game that way at your table, but "whoever wrote that" was Wizards of the Coast. Specifically, the lead 5e designer, lead rules designer, and lead story designer all show up on the author lists of these adventures. They clearly intend Arcana to be used...

@Tony Vargas It depends on the frequency of different checks in your games, I suppose. Some modules ask for almost 50 Arcana checks, some ask for none, and most ask for about 5. @Simonb1 and @cbwjm yes, they're the 5e adventure modules. OotW is The Orrery of the Wanderer, LLoK is Lost...

Quite so. In fact, I would go further to say that in general, I would not advise consulting DC lists of any kind during a game. DCs in general are problematic in that they give many people the wrong idea that the DC is inherent to the task. The DC actually represents how difficult it is to...

Inspired by the the original post on medicine checks, I decided it might be useful to go through the published material and put together a short list of the things arcana checks are being used for. This was not as simple as I thought. Arcana is sort of a catch-all skill for anything 'weird'...

@Dave Goff wunderbar, I love it! I think you've done a good job of summarizing and conveying the essence of what I've done here. Mostly though, in a culture that commends indifference at best and hostility at worst, just knowing that somebody out there likes that weird thing you do... it feels...

This is a brilliant idea. I'm going to do this for Arcana.

@DWChancellor Indeed, that is a good suggestion. It is done! @Dave Goff Glad you like it! I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a sister document, but it would be a significant undertaking. Every page would need to be re-jiggered to look decent, and the tables and text boxes are probably...

@DWChancellor thanks for having a look! Do you mean artwork on the cover? I'm not sure if I have the artistic talent to do a great job with that. I think these covers are in line with the 2e Wizard's Spell Compendium or Encyclopedia Magica. That style might no longer be in vogue, but I kind...

Turns out you’re right. I double checked and even though I thought I was playing D&D with my friends, it turns out we were all just having fun instead. We even thought we slightly cared about balance... dang!

As an enthusiast of wizardly roleplay, I was looking for resources to add flavor without necessarily changing any gameplay features. Not finding anything that really spoke to me, I wrote down some thoughts on magic systems and game aids. A few forum members encouraged me to put them on DMs...

I find myself wishing this forum’s members could find another word for “not to my personal preferences.” Claiming a game feature is broken -so fundamentally flawed as to be unplayable in its current state- implies that those of us who use and enjoy such features at our table must be too dumb to...

I think bards in general are a bit problematic lol. You might be overestimating the combat effectiveness of the simple simulacrum, however. Remember it has half the caster’s hit points and can be dispelled. Most level-appropriate enemies will probably be able to drop it in one hit (or one...

It certainly would, I just have an aversion to recurring costs. Not a fan of costly components of any sort, really, but I felt like I couldn't really avoid it with this one - I just did my best to guess a number that I thought people might feel was fair. I'm going to try to not go off the...

Excellent points by all. Kind of difficult to balance things meant for a specific class when the game designers won't keep the archetypes in their lane (or when they give spell-like abilities that are not spells)... But I've given it some thought, and I think "cannot use class features which...

@Gadget indeed. Do you feel like my update to limit it to one per spell slot level (So if you currently have one simple simulacrum, a 6th level slot is required to create a second. If you have two, a 7th level slot is required to create a third. Etc.) is enough of a limiter? I feel like being...