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In a game where the DM decides everything about an encounter, how tough the enemies are, what abilities they have, how many HP, how many there are of them etc, I kind of don't see "fairness" as a factor. To me it can be a bit like saying that spaghetti is "unfair", I can't even see the context...

I've just started playing at a local store and found that the houserule there is that normal humans get +1 to each stat that is odd and +2 to each stat that is even, up to a maximum of 16. In effect, they get a +1 real bonus to every stat. I'm not sure how I feel about that, so thought I would...

I actually have not come across people asking for a more complex fighter. I have come across people asking for a fighter with more options, or referring to them as one-trick-ponies without further elaboration. As far as I can tell, the people who want more abilities for fighters tend to have a...

I am away from the books at the moment, what are the rules for falling damage in D&D? Is it d6 per 10' or something? Also, is it an acro check for half damage? How hard is the check? I have not used the default falling rules in D&D, well pretty much ever, so I don't know them anymore. Now that...

At my table, an experienced martial type can read opponents enough to tell. The litmus test we use for being an experienced martial is A) do you have more than one attack or B) do you have a melee related feat

I don't know the monster in question, but if it includes the ability to be hurt by its own visage, then it must not be a conscious thing, it must just happen. For extra fun, a spider has no eyelids, cannot close its eyes or squint and has a huge range of vision, it could not just look at the...

After playing a fair bit of Edge of the Empire, I have started to give my PCs little white tokens when I fudge something that screws with them. They can then cash them in as either inspiration or to mildly affect the narrative in some way e.g. "Of course I am carrying 200' of rope". This way...

I'm rather surprised to see so many people like the Champion as is, soon after 5e came out, it was demonized as useless, the pendulum has swung back it seems. I have always loved the simplicity, but felt they give up too much effectiveness for that. I think if anything the simple options should...

Just remember that when sheathing a sword, an experienced warrior is generally doing it quickly and easily without looking. Also remember that that brings the point of the sword 2" from their kidney :) or at least love-handle. One little tiny spark of domination or distraction at the right time...

Condiments One of the things about 4th edition D&D was that combat was all about set-pieces. You never had a random encounter, or a fight in a square room, or an open field. Every fights was on a sinking ship, around a faulty portal, during a tower collapse, in an elemental magic node, in an inn...

mgshamster have you found that turning NPCs into companion cards makes the fights significantly harder than intended? There is a pretty big difference in combat ability between a 'real' NPC and a companion card. I would imagine that you would have to re-balance many fights to take that into account?

Without special DM effort to spice them up combats in pretty much every system are either tactical, but too slow, so they end up boring and taking a long time, or too simple so boring but taking a short time. I'll take boring and quick, it helps get on with the rest of the game.

This brings up a point that has always bugged me about Polymorph. PCs try to use it to do useful things like turn into a bird and scout out an area. If you turn yourself into a sparrow though, isn't your Int now 2, so you will forget what you were doing and decide to eat some grain for a while...

Sentinel allows a player to play a tank, without it or the optional marking rules, it is just too easy for monsters to use a disengage and run through the battleline and tie up the wizard in melee. I personally would not want to play a sword and board style tank without sentinel being an option...

If you go Tavern Brawler, how is your DM with letting you use your whip to grapple? It does no more damage than an unarmed or improvised attack. It would be cool to whip somebody and entangle them. The issue that would remain is that you are using your bonus to grapple, not dual-wield...

Pity the Scabbard of Silence is itself evil :) It was owned by an assassin and casts silence on the wielder for one turn when you draw a weapon. It lets you get that one good shot off while the victim can't scream. The paladin might find their vocal component spells not working in the first turn...

On a side note, I run Oozes as being able to change their body shape however they like and instantly snap back into a cube or ball. As such, an ooze waiting and lurker can cover a 20' square area easily, more if they are bigger. The second somebody falls into them, they snap back like a...

This all sounds very interesting, it just raises a couple of red flags for me that I should mention. Firstly, do you have a group of awesome roleplayers? These sort of plots sound really great and I would love to play in a group that works like that, but unless your players have a demonstrated...

My advice as somebody that has run a campaign like what the OP is suggesting is, don't do it. If you have a world of grey, then every victory feels less heroic. Players don't pat themselves on the back for choosing the lesser of two evils. They feel that they are not really making a difference...

At least one Gazebo. It is a huge mimic and will eat PCs that get close enough. Of course, most of these suggestions are classic dungeons for very experienced players that love/hate them from days of yore. You would want to skip many of them for new and young folks, as they will just seem weird...