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Every human tradition, perhaps. Elves are not human, and this is one of the primary non-physical differences.

There are very few monsters original to D&D. Beholder is pretty much the only one other companies won't touch for legal reasons. They won't use the name "mind flayer," but the design of the thing is straight out of Lovecraft, so D&D can't claim it. Bahamut and Tiamat are godlike creatures out of...

His maneuvers are all very supportive in nature. Commander's Strike is his favorite by far, followed by Goading Strike. (He has taken every defensive option you can imagine.)

Very few elven traditions are born out of practicality. If you believe they are, you do not understand elves.

Now that you mention it, this was an explicit design goal for 5e, and the reason 80 percent of the wishes in this thread will never come true.

Elves who are Dex-based fighters do know that, and they probably use rapiers for the most part. Elves who are not fighters at all (the only people for whom this discussion matters) just can't seem to get the hang of rapiers. I guess longswords and shortswords are just easier for an elf to use...

I have a friend who has played warlords almost exclusively, ever since 4e came out. He's playing a Battlemaster now and loving it. He feels like it captures the feel of the class very well. He hasn't quite gotten used to rationing his dice yet, but he agrees that it's probably a good thing that...

I find it's best to let the players decide what kind of world they want to adventure in. Arbitrary class/race restrictions only serve to frustrate players who want to play a certain character concept. If all the players are on board with certain restrictions, sure, go for it. But I'd make sure...

Evolution, which is a very broad-strokes process, doesn't really apply to the minuscule difference between a rapier and a longsword. Generally speaking, natural selection only cares that they are using weapons at all. It is a cultural bias, nothing more. As such, it doesn't have to make sense...

This is very, very inaccurate. There is a huge difference between being able to spy using only stealth at a maximum range of 100 feet vs. being able to spy invisibly at infinite range. In fact, higher intelligence and the ability to turn invisible at will make the special chain pact familiars...

There is no such thing as hands-free casting if there is a somatic component. If the spell includes both M and S, you must use at least one hand to manipulate either the true material component(s) or a focus. Simply wearing it is not enough when an S is specified.

This is exactly the problem. By the rules as written, no character of any race has to sleep, ever. There is no explicit penalty for not sleeping. It is not required as part of a rest, and apart from the fact that elves don't do it at all, natural sleep is not mentioned anywhere else in any of...

The playtest damage increase was intended to do just that, and there was tremendous resistance from testers. There are a lot of people who greatly dislike the idea of "encouraging" characters to conform to a racial stereotype. Proficiency is a fine compromise. Anything stronger, and you are...

If the spell requires both M and S components, the S is only mentioned because you are supposed to use a hand to manipulate the material component. If you are using a focus (such as a holy symbol on a shield), your shield hand is assumed to be covering both the somatic and material components ...

I'd allow it. I'd also give a chance that the wound would cause an additional lingering injury -- probably putting out an eye, assuming the scar is on the face. (I can't imagine any other location that would cause advantage on Intimidate checks.) I'd also require a Constitution save to avoid...

Of course, I'm sure you came to the boards hoping for advice in making those "rulings, not rules," so I'll be happy to tell you how I do it! First and foremost, I would never allow the ignition of a creature's held, worn, or carried items. That's right out, and many such spells explicitly...

You will get hit; that's just statistics. It comes down to a question of play style. If you want to be good at buffs, you need to focus on Constitution and take the War Caster and Resilience feats. Charisma is less important in such a build. On the other hand, if you want to be good at healing...

Life Drain allows a saving throw; Strength Drain does not. Life Drain does not hamper the victim's immediate ability to fight; it only hampers recovery. Strength Drain is significantly worse.

If they had included it, it would probably be something like, "Increase the monster's effective per-round damage by an amount equal to the Strength drain" (or possibly double the Strength drain), which would not push the offensive CR above 1, leaving the overall average the same. I would...

Setting doesn't matter too much to me -- it's not that hard to transplant events from the Realms to another world. What bothers me is that these are being created by an outside studio. The track record for such products for 5e has been astonishingly wretched so far.