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I think giving fighters more versatility on weapon masteries is good but I still don't see how they give fighters and rangers enough when they are also giving them to barbarians and paladins, who really didn't need any better combat options in the first place.

The game isn't just about bundling numbers to get the highest chance of success. Some people enjoy playing that way but others like to build a concept that is independent of the numbers. I lament the loss of the highly intelligent fighter or rogue, which clearly SHOULD exist and did in 1e and...

I didn't like 5e decision to bring back a static strength score for Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Girdles of Giant Strength so I replaced them with a hybrid form based on 3e: +2 strength (max 19) and treated as large for the purposes of carrying, pushing, grappling etc; and +4 strength (cap...

While I hated the new look to the gnomes, and obviously ignored that part, I thought that formally making them fey was a genius move that made a lot of sense given their innate magical abilities. In a single stroke, the true difference between dwarves and gnomes made much more sense.

Not empty - just empty of adult humans capable of signing up to a census. The early gazetteers used to treat the figures as official in world rather than accurate.

I have checked out Level Up and there is a lot to like. It's also possible to treat it as quite modular, so I am going to use expertise as a die roll, the basic combat manoeuvres, and some of the class features as alternates like in Tasha's. The armour rules are interesting but I worry they...

Yes very true! And of course in 1e half the group was human or you were missing key classes.

It will be interesting if they consider the history of Greyhawk and use it as an example of how you can take a baseline, human-centric, lowish magic (with pockets of high magic) setting, and then find ways to adapt that to 5e rules where almost all modern groups will be magic-using non-humans.

Yeah this is definitely Morale Lite rules, which is great for DMing on the fly. The more advanced version would just give a baseline DC based on broad personality traits. It would also help with setting intimidation DCS. 1e even put them into broad categories from cowardly to fearless that...

I think the main issue with wisdom saves as the baseline is that a monster's wisdom takes no account of their personality or purpose, so a trained soldier would be easier to intimidate than the wise old herbalist. It's very inelegant. Using the old morale score allows you be more situation...

I meant rather that we are only discussing this because some players are xenophobic. Like the song from Avenue Q - Everyone's a Little Racist.

The Ovions in Battlestar Galactica welcomed refugees with (six) open arms.

I think the point is that the attitudes of players mirror the attitudes of the common folk. Why should it be a surprise that NPCs would be xenophobic when players are xenophobic? Not all players are xenophobic. Not all NPCs are xenophobic. You shift the baseline dependent on the fictional...

Well, the erroneous assumption is that you would be applying a monoculture to your NPCS. The story potential is in the different way different people will react. Fictional societies don't have to be polarised any more than the real world. That said, it's advisable to have a baseline and that...

It might be a thing if it's a thing in your game world. The rules no longer make assumptions about culture, which doesn't prevent you from making halflings an evil cannibalistic jungle tribe in your campaign if that's what you want. I don't change Greyhawk every time the rules change like some...

Any of those things could be true but not every realm is full of neutral greys. Some people may act with fear and shut up shop or put everything they own in a cart and flee. Some might seek help from the authorities or more powerful people. Some might choose to appease their new ruler. The...

True but there you are talking about small enclaves in particular locations. You can, of course splat remote villages anywhere, in mountains, virgin forest or swamp, for any reason, but you aren't going to evoke the concept of a noble, cultured race. You are better off looking beyond Eastern...

That's not strictly true in Greyhawk. Oerth is quasi-medieval, and very human-centric where population mobility is low and inter-species antipathy is rife. There were certainly humanoid settlements specified and other random small lairs tucked away. Warforged will exist outside Blackmoor or...

They could probably solve a lot of issues with world specific heritage tables specifying locations where different races can be found and how others view them.

I skipped the adventure in the pyramid with the visions and I'm just about to start the giant adventure at the rift just as soon as they have freed Geoff from the yolk of the giant invasion (we flip flop on plot threads). It is quite hard to balance, especially as one of the PCs is a barbarian...