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All the time to some extent Setting - sometimes Monsters - always Class rule tweaks - always Player options - some, but I rarely have players take me up on it Magic items - usually

I would take a page from 2e and cap hit point growth at level 10. At level 11+, classes gain 3, 2, or 1 hit points (warrior, cleric/rogue/bard/druid/etc., wizard/sorc/warlock) upon levelup. I have done this in my BG2 5e game and it has helped prevent the massive HP bloat that I have previously...

I finished Justin Alexander's book, and my son has mostly finished it. It's more "How to structure a campaign" than "How to DM" in my mind. Very little on monster roles and making individual combats interesting, but plenty on how to make those encounters fit into a bigger story or adventure...

What specific enemies is the party facing, and in what number? You want to look out for numbers that are at the high end of the spectrum. Key examples: 1. Monsters with AC 18+ where the lack of Extra Attack means the martials aren't hitting most turns. 2. Enemies with a lot of HP vs. the...

Baldur's Gate 2 had two returning daggers, the Firetooth (+1d6 fire damage, +3 dagger) and another +2 that I don't recall the name of. There were also four returning axes. One was Azuredge (throwing axe mace of disruption, Good creatures only), another was Riftholm +2 (apparently dwarven, but...

I thought New Holland was a tractor company.

I once tried a PBP game concept, but too many people flaked: The party was all 8th level (give or take), except for one second level character, who was equipped with several magical items not typically allowed for a character of that level. That character was the young entitled prince(ess...

My BG2 group drinks them like water. The rogue has no self-healing, the sorcerer has gloves with cure wounds twice a day, the fighter only has second wind, and the cleric prefers to only use spell slots in combat. HP growth capped off at level 10, so none of them have over 100hp at level 17...

I am pretty sick of tieflings being everywhere... they were way over-represented in the Tasha's art. "Here, let's take the people who look demonic and put them on everything" is not an approach I'm a fan of. Meanwhile Aasimars get...mentioned in the DMG?

I have kids but once a week in the evenings isn't too bad, especially since I'm now hosting at my house. The harder part has actually been getting my wife to find social out-of-the-house activities to do... but I think we have figured out a couple now.

My favorite non-traditional species to include is Warforged. There are a lot of different ways to do one, and there are good story paradigms to draw from in terms of personality and personal growth (Asimov, Data from TNG, Bolos, etc.).

There was a mechanical point to them. Let's say you have a campaign starting at 18th level. One player shows up with a druid. Another shows up with a CW Samurai. The third player brings a Warblade. The Samurai character is going to have absolutely nothing that he's good at compared to the...

It is YUUUGE. I am about 9 months behind and will binge it at some point, maybe on an upcoming short vacation. I am very concerned about Wheel of Time-style scope/cast creep (I stopped around book 7 with WOT), but apparently there is a master plan and at some point it's supposed to have an...

I have not had any problems DMing at high levels, as long as I don't have 6 different enemy types with unique spell lists for each. You just have to be willing to see the party hit really hard. My BG2 campaign just had the party fight Jon Irenicus in Suldanesselar. It lasted a round and a...

I like the chaos and unpredictability of high-level play!

IRL campaigns I have DMd: Castle Dracula (Castlevania): 3 to 13 Against the Idol of the Sun: 13 to 20+2 boons Westvault Explorations (episodic): 1 to about 6, 1/2 the party had a job change & relocated Baldur's Gate 2: 1 to 17, level 18 coming up. May end, may go ToB, may go Watcher's Keep...

Great Weapon Master locks you into a specific weapon and style. I don't like it especially since it forces Reckless Attack instead of making it optional. Additionally, if you look at the Barbarian's class features, it's the best class for grappling and shoving thanks to Advantage and later a...

Fun fact: You can drive from the Pacific ocean to the Atlantic ocean and spend over 1/3 of your trip in Texas. El Paso is closer to Long Beach than it is to Texarkana, and Texarkana is closer to Savannah than it is to El Paso. It's a bit over 800 miles, or about 1300km. I don't think I've...

Weatherford to Royse City, Lancaster to Gainesville! And still growing by about 100,000 people per year. It blew my mind a bit when I found out that the population of DFW was greater than the entire population of Ireland. This is an actual event close enough that I could make it, but since I...

If we have more kids I would totally go for a stuffed Owlbear instead of a stuffed bear as a toddler toy! It's a corporate reorg, so the name is just that - a name. We'll see what changes about their actions.