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You're not just giving up verisimilitude. You're giving up the statistical reality that half of the zombies should have gone flying. This is a very real adverse effect for the poor wizard who is left standing next to eight zombies. If you want to skip dice rolls, it would be fairer and less...

I don't see what's lame about it. It ignores those things because those things are not part of the spell's effects or interactions. I see no reason to assume this was an oversight or mistake, or even sloppy editing. The fact that it must be conjured into an unoccupied space, plus the word...

RAW, it's the player's call. Both options are presented to the player simultaneously in the Player's Handbook (p. 15). The phrase "you can use the fixed value" is used, with "you" being the player. It does not say anything about needing the DM's approval. If the DM wants to take that choice...

Why? Because it doesn't fit into one of the prescribed descriptions of a character class? I think it's silly to assume that the people in the D&D world think of themselves (and each other) as strictly bards or rogues or even paladins. Every person you know in the real world has a broad range of...

Everyone is aware that rolling for hit points is a fool's bet, right? Because the average is rounded up, your chance of rolling higher than that is less than 50 percent, while your chance of rolling worse is exactly 50 percent, no matter what your class is. So unless you are house-ruling that...

I'm pretty heavy-handed about forcing my players to participate in and interact with the game world. I always make them help me create some aspect of the lore, whether it be through a personal magic item, an organization they help create, or simply a formal system of bonus XP for setting and...

I fully agree. I can easily run an entire session with nothing more than the books, some scratch paper, and dice (plus map and minis/markers if a tactical combat is called for -- but TotM is often all we need). And my players have never felt the need for a character generator. They note their...

I feel like some of your players would rather be playing Krosmaster. Encourage them to do that, and find other players to replace them. Despite your best intentions, your chances of "converting" them into actual roleplayers are slim to none. I mean, sure, talk to them and give it a try, but...

Multiclass wizard/EK is a brilliant way to add more magic to the build. You'd get access to a wizard specialization, some nice EK tricks, and a wider spell selection than a straight-up EK. The way multiclass spell slots work is the most genius iteration of multiclassing I've ever seen in D&D...

Treasure map in a secret compartment in the captain's quarters.

Against the Giants (G1-3) isn't mind-blowing in its plot, but it's an amazingly well-crafted set of "assault the enemy stronghold" scenarios. I've always considered it a benchmark in design for that sort of adventure.

I love it, too. My favorite aspect is the flexibility. I'm already running a campaign in a very nontraditional setting, yet I don't feel like I'm having to battle with (or rewrite) restrictive rules every step of the way. Things were much harder when I tried to "play outside the box" in 4e...

Whenever my players do something crazy or unexpected that leaves me in a slightly dangly position as DM, my response is always, "What do the players want to do now?" In your case, I'd ask the players why they stole the ship, what they intend to do with it, and (most important) why I should...

Maybe you should count yourself lucky. Everyone else seems to be complaining that the early encounters in HotDQ are far too challenging. Anyway, +1 to your Sanctimony skill. You're being every bit as argumentative as I am, so I find it interesting that you complain I'm the one stating that my...

Even though the 2e sha'ir was a wizard, they basically had to rewrite the entire class and come up with completely new rules for spellcasting. I think warlock makes the most thematic sense in 5e, and it's actually going to require the least mechanical rewriting of any candidate class. I would...

So much spewing of judgment about people's play styles in a thread about a simple rules question! It's interesting that by condemning the people one considers to be "that guy" at the table, one sometimes becomes a different sort of "that guy" on the forums.

Yes, and if they're all spread out, the bear can only kill one at a time, nullifying Multiattack in most cases. The game is not supposed to have the adversarial approach of DM vs. players, but if you are not doing your best to play their enemies as if they know how to fight, you're doing the...

Open or closing a door explicitly costs no action or movement (Player Basic Rules, p. 70); I don't know where you're getting 5' -- I'm guessing 3e? There is no rule about needing a free hand to open a door, but yes, I think it would be reasonable to make any character sheathe his weapon to do...

The bear only has AC 11, so out of those 7 hits, only 3 or 4 would have hit a fighter, and only 4 or 5 would have hit most other party members. But why are the enemies focusing exclusively on the bear? If they start killing the bear's friends, maybe the bear decides it's time to stop mauling...

The strength of the druid class is its versatility. Apart from this bear discussion, which I find overblown anyway, the druid is supposed to be a jack-of-all-trades class. But it's not exceptionally powerful in any one area. In particular, the druid spell list is not all that zing-wow if you...