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In fiction any PC can become a Lich, but if by becoming a Lich that PC becomes an NPC and the player has to roll up a new character then you the player can't be a Lich and the claim that you can learn/do anything an NPC can do is false, you the player can't play as a Lich. Or if it takes 10...

Which is just pretending that there aren't PC vs NPC abilities when in fact there are. Like I can say any creature with LAs was gifted those abilities by the God of Legendary Actions who goes around arbitrarily giving out the Boon of Legendary Actions and all the PCs have to do is somehow...

You can make it a standard reaction keep the 1/Reaction a turn limit and just word it as "Until the start of the MM next turn whenever a creature in melee range damages MM, MM makes a gore attack against the attacking creature" That said after the first attack you should definitely warn the...

If the cost to learn a skill is to effectively retire as an adventurer then it results in the same thing, an NPC only ability.

You could easily tie spending gold into the DMG '14 Renown system, and since one of the suggested benefits of Renown is access to magic items, in a world without magic shops and random rewards this might be the best/only way to get specific items. Similarly there's a Piety system from the...

So overall one thing to note is that nobody wants to die, and continuing a fight risks death so even when winning a fight it can make sense for enemies tactically retreat and/or let the PCs run away without following them because it's simply risk then continuing to fight. So with speaking...

As I said before the work involved in creating a PC feat/subclass/replacement ability/etc.... is so much higher then doing it for an NPC. Like @Remathilis said take Legendary Actions, I have a master swordsman who has honed their craft to amazing levels they are super quick/strong and I give...

In theory sure but in practice no they can't.

And setting logic means an untold amount of variety so it makes sense that the PCs encounter unique abilities they've never seen or heard of.

I haven't worked out the details yet but I'm thinking of making Lifestyle Expenses a meaningful part of the equation, the gist of it being that it impacts Long Rest. So something like Comfortable+ will provide some extra benefits, and Poor- applies some sort of penalties. Probably also requiring...

Obviously subjective, but personally I don't want my NPCs to be loaded up to the degree PCs are. It adds a lot of complexity on the DM's side for very little real gain. And I don't even believe it helps the in fiction to do so, if the setting was a Magic University I wouldn't expect every...

There have always been things that monster can do that PCs can't. For example in the '14 ruleset Gladiators had the ability Brute which allowed them to do an extra damage die with melee weapons and they had a Shield Bash attack,. PCs could never get those type of abilities. These NPC type of...

Depending on the nature of fights and how many you get into I think there's a case for Dwarf with any caster with Fog Cloud. Tremorsense to still "see" while imposing disadvantage on enemy attacks is going to be tough to beat.

And if they see their rolls they can keep going in and out of stealth until they roll a 20. If players are going to try and exploit the rules it's not a rules problem.

The meta gaming angle is everywhere in D&D, each table has to decide how they want to handle it. And if your going down that rabbit hole players should never roll for stealth because knowing what they rolled can also influence their decision making. Which incidentally was the 2e solution to...

You narrate what happens because the PC asked to do something. And for lock picking that is exactly what the DMG tells you to do on page 28 "For example, failing a Dexterity check to pick a lock on a treasure chest doesn't mean the character can't try again, but each attempt might take a minute...

FYI perfume is only 5GP and does pretty much exactly that.

For sure things could've been worded/presented better, but the rules do say exactly what I presented. The DMG under Resolving Outcomes says "Players shouldn't just roll ability checks without context: they should tell you what their characters are trying to achieve, and make ability checks only...

If there are no time constraints then why? They will eventually succeed and whether it takes 3 attacks or 15 attacks is irrrelevant most of the time, so in the rare times it is relevant sure make them roll. If players are in Icewind Dale and tell you they want to go to the store to buy some...

The basic game loop isn't players performing Actions, it's them telling the DM what they want to do and the DM adjudicating what happens. There's no chance of failure to hide when nobody is looking so it just happens, you have succeeded in hiding behind the tree without needing to make a roll...