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Interesting. There are a lot of things I've liked about 5E--I'll admit I'm not much of an old-schooler, as I started playing with 3.5, switched to 4th Edition for the duration of its support, and started playing 5th edition a few months back. At first, I really liked what 5th edition did with...

Clerics are great. Speaking from a low-to-mid-level perspective (as that's where I've played a cleric and played with clerics in the group), there are a lot of offensively powerful cleric spells to go along with some buffing and healing. Bless, as previously mentioned, is probably the best...

I'm of the opinion that if a player dies, there needs to be a die roll involved. Getting them involved in an unwinnable fight with no hope of escape--even if it's due to "missing clues" and what not, is probably as much on the DM's plotting as it is on the players' inability to "get it". It's...

Considering the things a level 17 wizard can do besides raising the dead, I don't see them being free of such mundane concerns such as "whoops I died" being an issue. Now, if you were more concerned about bardic magic granting the ability to raise the dead, I could understand. But really, most...

In theory, you are correct. In practice, it really sucks to fight things with resistance to non-magic attacks if you don't have magic weapons.

The DM should be comfortable with the game s/he is running. If s/he isn't, then chances are everyone is going to enjoy the game less. If you feel it is "close-minded" to be uncomfortable with "evil PC antics", that's fine, but personally I find it a very reasonable position. Not everyone...

Conversely, I see a lot of people singing the praises of using "imagination" for combat, as if implying that putting combat in a grid is somehow limiting. I'd make two points in reference to this. The first is that I've been taught all my life that simply describing something with words is a...

Dungeons and Dragons seems very clearly designed with a grid in mind, as much as certain individuals (including developers) claim otherwise. The rule set focuses primarily on combat, and that combat is meant to be resolved as a turn-based tactics game, and uses a lot of precise measurements. I...

My point wasn't really about whether it was "easier" or "harder", and I don't fully buy into the whole "combat as war" vs. "combat as sport" dichotomy, my point relates to game balance. The effect of a 2-4 encounter adventuring day on certain classes is very different than it is on other...

This is a fairly standard observation. System balance breaks down fairly quickly when you do not adhere to the 6-8 encounter (with 2 short rests) adventuring day. Some consider this acceptable, but many classes/archetypes are going to be significantly weaker than intended when the standard...

That would make some sense, but neither of those are exactly how 5E handles saving throws. Consider the humble Sacred Flame, for example, or any number of rather simple or minor effects that are tied to saving throws and affect one creature at a time. There is also a somewhat clumsy mechanical...

Oh! One thing that's a huge turn-off for me would be "theater of the mind". I've seen it attempted and it always resulted in more confusion than was necessary. I feel that combat in DnD really needs a grid, no matter how much the developers (or others) might try and convince me otherwise. I...

Personally, I liked 4E's take on it (saves as defenses) just because it had the attacker rolling all the time, rather than the attacker rolling half the time and the defender rolling the other half. That made a lot more sense from a design standpoint to me than the weird save system in 5E...

And that's a perfectly legitimate approach, but we're talking about Dungeons and Dragons here--presumably (this is the DnD 5E forum). I have a certain expectation when it comes to a game that uses the Dungeons and Dragons rules, just as I have a certain expectation for games that follow, say...

Deal-breakers... I'd say I'd show up at a table expecting to use the rules to resolve situations. There are things that would turn me off from a game pre-emptively, like most homebrewed worlds that aren't very fleshed out, or excessive house-rules (especially house-rules that look like they were...

So far, they've approached this with the idea of "superiority dice let you do damage while you also do the other thing" and that's worked well enough. For example, you can Shove someone to knock them prone, or you can use Trip Attack to damage them and knock them prone at the same time. In...

I suspect 5E CR1 = 4E Level 1 Solo (or 4 regular monsters) is a better equivalent. A level 1 monster in 4E does not translate into CR1 in other editions. A "moderately challenging" encounter in 4E is supposed to be one equal level monster per PC, and as I understand CR, a CR X creature is...

I was wondering if anyone was going to point this out. I don't really mind that all the "flourishes" use your bonus action, but it gives the Two-Weapon Fighting style... and then presents a set of options wholly incompatible with actually attacking using your off-hand weapon. WotC should really...

This seems a good a place as any to ask this... I just recently started playing lots of games (on roll20) with various DMs. Before this point I had played only with a handful of other people, over a period of several years, and aside from that I've DM'd a campaign for a long time. I have a...

If you're asking for the RAW, it's very clear: it's not an Athletics check if it doesn't have the (Athletics) part next to it in the description. It's just a Strength ability check without any proficiencies. If the DM wants to decide Athletics training can apply, that's their prerogative, but...