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I'm great at making interesting challenges and NPCs the players love to hate. Because I don't really follow the encounter guidelines, focusing on more realistic setups, the players have to carefully consider their decisions. Additionally, I'm a big fan of tricks and traps that challenge the...

One or two level dips are all I ever see, and even those are pretty rare.

IME the primary reason successful campaigns don't go to high level is because their story has been told. I've run three successful campaigns in 5E, ending at levels 18, 7, and 9 respectively. The first one was an epic tale told in 3 arcs, plus I had an additional one-shot callback adventure...

Yes. Just because it's not their walking speed doesn't mean they can't dash. Flying creatures can dash with their action too. RAW, no. IMO, I wouldn't require a character to hide in the first place, as they're virtually undetectable. Their movement would create a slight breeze, so in a confined...

I oppose the notion of magic item shops, but I seldom have any issues with PCs not having anything to spend coin on. At tier 1, the characters need to save up for at least one suit of plate armor, and often two. Material components are expensive, especially if they're consumed, and everyone...

Using a VTT, I prefer to use the minis. It generally speeds up play and keeps things moving. IRL I prefer theater of the mind, because setting up a map and mini's takes too much time.

While by rule I'm pretty sure that MM only creates one save, we've always house ruled it to be one save per missile. We've never found the spell all that useful, so this gives it the niche of "concentration breaker."

I'm simply going to bring back the Hidden condition from the playtest. I don't have it right now, or I'd post it for those who don't have it. It worked fine IIRC, and the only real thing I see as an issue is that See Invisibility effects don't work on it (which I'm fine with).

The Stealth rules for 2014 were intentionally a big vague on purpose, because there was a huge argument during the playtest about how it should work. In theory, each DM would have leeway to run it whichever way they wanted, although with clarifications that idea slowly went away. The Stealth...

While I'm not a big believer in the martial/caster divide, I think the two simple things you could do is remove cantrip scaling and use more encounters per long rest. Using either of these will make casters "weaker" without upsetting their overall balance (or fun), while using both should all...

I've already started adapting the Rules Glossary to my 2014 campaign. The players will continue to use their original options, as they're balanced together. My next campaign will be fully 2024, however.

While I don't really focus on the world demographics in my Greyhawk campaign, I do generally break things down for the Flanaess where the action takes place. Humans make up 40% Orcs, Goblinoids, and Kobolds make up 40% Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, and Gnomes make up 15% The remaining 5% is...

I've always considered the campaign setting book to be the "fourth core" book for any given campaign. However, with the modular nature of 5E, I could see a book designed to tweak different options to generate specific themes. Honor and Horror rules, for example, would be found there, instead of...

I miss those. It made a variety of similar types of monsters by having different morale levels. It also made certain types of monsters more likely to run than others, such as beasts who just want a meal vs those defending their lair. I've been houseruling those into 5E for years. While there...

Disease is now handled as a form of poison, IIRC. They wanted to move away from it being its own type.

I would probably suggest the following. It adds Incapacitation to the mix, but with the ability to bypass it with successful death saves. While at 0 HP you have the Prone and Incapacitated conditions, which cannot be removed. If you start your turn with 0 HP, or take damage while at 0 HP, you...

I try to have each creature act as appropriate for their motivations and morale. This means enemies run away quite a bit, because unlike suicidal adventurers, they actually want to live. Tactics is based on a mixture of Int and Wis, since smart/wise creatures should act appropriately.

I personally like the idea because it doesn't immediately force unconsciousness every time a character goes down, which bugs me. I like the idea of a downed character trying to crawl their way out of danger.

Personally, I'm old school. I remember there being a generic warrior type for humans, elves, dwarves, etc in the MM, and would prefer that. This allows DMs a quick reference without having to pick a specific NPC stat block.

The 4E/D&D Next adventure Murder in Baldur's Gate has an excellent city guide as part of it.