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That's a really good choice for the hermit secret. It ties him directly into one of the big story beats of the adventure. He may have been sent away from the grove in order to find a way to prevent the wedding coming to pass. But was captured during his travels. He could have visions of...

From my reading of bladesong, you can dual-wield while singing. What you can't do is perform the somatic components of any spell you wanted to cast. All the new cantrips, and plenty of bladesinger-useful spells are V or V,M only.

No, no reach. Unless you count throwing it, haha.

I just don't like the idea that the skill of my character (stealth expert rogue) or skill as a player (create distraction, use cover) doesn't come into play until I succeed at something. As opposed to making success easier. I'm quite sure that I don't have a complete grasp on how you're setting...

I second the Spear as an excellent Monk weapon. Best starting damage, along with the quarterstaff, and you can THROW them! There's your Monk's (short) ranged weapon.

I don't think that you should be taking your PCs skill scores into consideration when setting DCs in the first place. Changing the DC based on the character's skills either negates or doubles the effect of having skills. If PC A has a skill bonus of +5 and attempts to perform the same task as...

Agreed. Unfortunately for you and your group, it seems that the DM has decided to implement a bunch of house rules without thinking about how it effects other parts of the game. Your Jack-of-all-Trades ability being just one of MANY things that will get messed up by changing how proficiencies...

If the PCs having the ability to cast rituals is derailing or undermining the challenge of your adventure, simply make sure that time is an important element of your adventures. With all the time in the world rituals can be quite powerful. But PCs rarely have all the time in the world.

What could be quite cool is to tell them that they can choose one of the items they find to take back with them. Then, losing the other stuff won't be annoying, but it will still be worthwhile finding as many as possible to expand their choices.

I see no reason why Elves couldn't experience visions during their trances. Unlike regular dreaming, I suspect they would have more control over it, more like Lucid dreaming perhaps. I had an elf druid with the Hermit background in my first 5e group and he periodically received visions.

I prefer this method as well. Mainly because "I go take a look at each door" is part of the group conversation, and adds to the ongoing story. Whereas "What do the doors look like?" starts heading towards me and Bob having our own discussion while the others wait their turn. Plus it lets me use...

This is probably the biggest difference in our style, to be honest. I tend not to give NPCs any social skill checks, they tend to be more reactive to the actions and skill checks of the PCs. And to each their own, I'm not gonna cut on anyone who plays differently from me. Otherwise it'd be me vs...

What is the mechanical effect of being intimidated? What effect is this PC immune to?

I have no problem communicating with my players. I just like to let them know that they have inherent permission to do things and complete agency over their character's decisions.

But what you're saying here is that he is fighting back because he is afraid or intimidated, which is the DM prescribed effect. I'm saying he is reckless and doesn't take kindly to threats, which is a character trait defined by the player.

But eventually the player will stop asking for permission to move, or remember things, and simply take those actions. And question-time is something I try to avoid. I find that nothing bogs down the flow more than describing a room, then having the PCs spend ten minutes asking questions before...

An NPC being intimidating and a PC being Intimidated are very different things. If Krusk the barbarian's natural reaction to being threatened is to lash out, or make his own threats then I don't think it would be fair for a DM to say, you are intimidated. I would describe the NPC as making his...

I see the difference as this: In my last session, the PCs are in a crypt, and one of them asks if they can go down a set of stairs. Whether I say yes or no, nothing has occurred in game. Time is standing still while the players ask things and decide what to do. What I gather is that Iserith's...

Nice write-up! It reminds me of the other reason journal entries are so great. If the idea of playing D&D is to create exciting stories, then surely those stories should be shared! I love reading about other groups exploits. Keep it up.

I'm all for this. I used to write up journal entries for the Orpheus campaign I played in (I've been DM for every D&D game I've ever been involved with). It actually helped our GM to figure out what we were focusing on as a party, what clues we hadn't noticed, that kind of thing. Link here if...