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Heh. That campaign I mentioned where the players can decide their own incoming levels is actually a quasi-e6 homebrew. I allow a lot more power creep than regular feats though, especially in some areas (damage is easier to get than HP, for example). I let people come in at whatever level (up...

If you wanted to model fiction where everyone is a competent hero with a rich backstory, you could play ES@5 ;) Or higher, but I think 5 would be enough.

Tectuktitlay: another thought I just had, regarding your comparison of a campaign to popular movies/books/TV... Low level D&D doesn't model that stuff super well anyway. Nobody but Luke starts at level 1 in Star Wars. Nobody at all starts at level 1 in shows like Burn Notice, X-Files, etc. In...

It definitely works best in a living world "West Marches" style game with multiple simultaneous PC groups operating in a shared world, so players can move in and out of different groups as desired. It's hard to find a group for, most places. It's undoubtedly the minority of games. Neither...

Tectuktitlay: I wrote my reply while you were writing some of your recent posts, just saw them now. I want to stress that I don't think your approach is bad; I use it myself more often than not. In most even loosely plotted/story-driven games, I like bringing in characters with a rich...

I think this is the key observation. In a lot of cases the people who can't grok the sense of ES@1 are having a problem because they haven't checked their premises. Just to reiterate, I don't think ES@1 works for every campaign. Like I said up thread, in my current longest running campaign new...

As much as 5e is already kind of 3.5's e6 variant stretched over 20 levels (due to bounded accuracy)... Yeah. Some kind of e6 or e8 style variant for 5e could still be fun to keep HP inflation down.

Yeah, inter-party conflict is not necessitated by evil characters. Even evil characters in overall good aligned parties. Just to be clear: I'm not advocating for evil characters who try to screw over other player's characters.

Evil characters can still fit in fine within a heroic story context, so long as they aren't some sort of intrinsic/demonic pure evil bent on general mayhem and destruction. They can be the troubleshooters, the guys that do the dirty but necessary work no one wants to admit needs doing. Saving...

I have no issue with ending the conversation, if you like. However, for the record: disagreeing with you is not the same as messing with you.

Sounds agonizing. But also...If that's a huge cultural point, aren't they used to the consequences by now? What's the point of not talking about your problems if people are going to read between the lines and try to talk about your problems anyway? If it's important to my friend to be stoic...

Are you seriously trying to draw a connection between ES@1 and current popular social "pay gap" talking points? Are you doing this because you're trying to be divisive and polarizing? Or are you oblivious to how incredibly ridiculous and insulting your comparison is? Gender and ethnicity have...

That is a super cool setup!

Oh for sure. Arguably, killing him with an ID wouldn't even be cruel so much as a useful learning experience on the value of mental ability scores.

Or just throw stuff he's weak against at him until he dies. In my opinion that's the only reasonable in game solution to this kind of thing. Not a tailored "trap", just reasonable enemies that happen to hit his weak spots. But talking would be better.

Shidaku: it sounds like the player has 18 or 20 in not just strength but also dexterity and constitution. A strength draining critter alone won't do it. I agree that punishing him in game for your mistake is a bad idea. Just take it out of game, discuss the problem, and rebuild or replace the...

Lots of good advice. I will just echo that giving attention to the little inconsequential stuff, especially sensory details, is huge. Smells. Tastes of local/unique cuisine. Styles of dress and architecture. All of them are extremely important.

I'm a very laid back DM, so I would have no problem interpreting simple orders generously. You order skeletons to attack hobgoblin A and I'll assume they use the best method available as long as that method is straightforward. So, bow at range? Yeah. Sword in melee? Cool. Go grab the alchemists...

Cool. As far as people saying it's an unnecessary archetype... I mean, yeah, it is. Of course it is. Heck, half the archetypes in the PHB are unnecessary, as are 2/3 of the classes. But they're still fun. Nothing wrong with adding more archetypes to fit a niche you want filled. Have fun!

So Bloodied gives them a free action surge every fight? Seems too good. Consider limiting it in some ways. Like they have to use the action surge before the end of their next turn. Even so a free surge every fight is probably too good, but limitations can mitigate somewhat. Maybe they also...