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I disagree. It's not the familiar's stat block that says it cannot attack -- it's the find familiar spell itself. In fact, most familiars have attacks listed in their natural stat blocks, but they aren't allowed to use them because of the spell that summons them. So no, a polymorphed familiar...

Yes, in 3e, standing up did provoke an attack.

Trying to bring real physics into a fantasy spellcasting system is unwise to say the least. If you need an explanation of why it's possible to speak underwater, just say it's part of the magic of the water breathing spell. From a gaming perspective, it's probably unwise to disenfranchise an...

"Magic-user"? Seriously? I'm very glad he did not get his way on that. I thought it was stupid in my BECMI and AD&D days, and I would have thought it was stupid in the present.

Which makes me wonder why somatic components even exist. Sure, there are times when your hands are literally tied or whatever, but could such rare and extreme situations really be the only reason? I don't want to make spellcasting unnecessarily cumbersome, but it honestly feels like they're...

The sob story of the martyr DM is never very convincing. Players who optimize for combat want to be good at combat. There is no valid reason to discourage that. However, they are seldom good at other aspects of the game. If you reward those other aspects of the game in ways the charops value...

I'd go with any or all of the above, based mainly on the challenge level I wanted to match.

I have to disagree with your statement about lion-knowledge. They are mentioned over a hundred times in the Bible, and even before the printed Bible, Christian oral tradition spread familiarity with the beast far and wide across Europe. Lions appear on crests and coats-of-arms all over the...

Ravenloft is the only setting I feel needs an update. I never cared for the basic structure of the thing -- it seemed so forced and uninspired. Some of the elements were great, but the overall package fell kind of flat for me. I felt like way too much effort went into fitting everything into the...

Monetary treasure really is overrated. I don't like it as a player or DM. Except in the case of dragons, it doesn't even make sense most of the time, and even when it does, it's not terribly heroic to obsess about it as much as players do. (And to be fair, I think a lot of them obsess about it...

In a world where trolls exist, how realistic is it to assume the PCs have never heard of one? Not very. They've probably heard stories about their evil deeds, the valiant heroes who have slain one or more, and their strengths and weaknesses. They've probably even seen a drawing or two, so they...

I'm better at running material I make up myself (with a lot of help from the participating players). So traditionally, "no," but that's not to say it could never happen. However, with my recent experiences in HotDQ, you can bet I'll be waiting and reading a lot of reviews before I purchase...

I'm actually running a coinless campaign right now, and the players and I are enjoying it. I'm not doing it out of spite or anything -- it actually makes sense in the setting. It's a barter economy, so if someone has something the players want, they have to trade for it or earn it with favors...

However, the likelihood that a player will try to rules-lawyer his way into a ridiculous advantage has varied widely among various editions, and attempts to robustly define the rules with a Magic: the Gathering level of rigor have tended to make that worse, not better.

While not likely, it is possible that a paladin's spellcasting stat is higher that his or her melee stat, in which case inflict wounds might be a halfway reasonable choice. It might be a valid multiclass option? I believe hellish rebuke is a reaction, so ...

I don't think he's looking for a way to kill the dwarf faster. He's just sharing an anecdote of an unexpected thing that happened. (And, it turns out, may have been played slightly incorrectly if they were adding Con mod to death saves.)

If you are using an action to kill one or more skeletons rather than damaging the lich, the skeletons have made a significant impact. 5e encounters are short and deadly. Every action counts. Even if the minions are just soaking up a player action or two, they have contributed enough to warrant...

Everyone always acts like all the monsters are neatly bundled up into one tidy little 15-foot square. Such is almost never the case in encounters I design.

In fact, how about this: In an encounter with several different tiers of monsters, calculate each tier separately. But when doing so, add up the number of monsters in the tier plus the number of monsters in all higher tiers to get the multiplier for that tier. So if there are 3 skeletons, 6...

Obviously, it's going to break down even worse the more different types of monsters you throw in, but it it does seem reasonable to multiply the XP of the low-power group. But I'd count the lich as a skeleton when choosing a multiplier (and then apply that multiplier only to the actual...