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Spells?

That isn't really the point. The point is that a ranged PC can avoid melee contract while sacrificing nothing, while a melee PC has to put themselves in harms way to be effective. The monsters can respond to PC tactics, but that doesn't change the fact that a melee PC is always putting...

The monster manual tends to emphasize melee. A lot of monsters don't even have a ranged attack, and for many that do it's significantly weaker than their melee attack. I guess a theoretical "good DM" could avoid this, but it doesn't seem to be the default if you're running things straight out of...

In my experience, damage isn't the issue. Ranged attack is superior to melee in 5E because you don't have to put yourself in harms way. The melee character has to be in melee and take attacks. That isn't a given for ranged, which I find is the main reason ranged feels superior. Being in melee...

As an optimizer, the Magic Initiate feat has some uses. It can put Shillelagh or Booming Blade onto a Cleric, or put Booming Blade on a Rogue, without multiclassing and as a variant Human at level 1.

You are just talking about how things look on paper. In an actual game, it plays very differently depending on circumstances, as I have described. How they play differently is what's important, and my issue, not how it looks on paper. It is a lot more work, especially when I can name three...

I'm generally setting a DC of 10 for most things, sometimes 15 for more difficult things. That is when Storm King's Thunder isn't specifying a DC. Why rolling a DC? Mostly because that's how the books present things and that's what the players seem to expect, to point of declaring skill rolls...

Other versions of D&D don't emphasize the d20 like 5E does. 5E has bounded accuracy and fast combat, both of which put heavy emphasis on the randomness of the d20. When I played a 2E Fighter, my numererical advantages compared to other classes and the monsters were more significant than the d20...

This exchange(the second quote is a direct reply to my first quote)from another thread sums it up:

Dislike--the lack of player agency Like--it's popular

I mostly posted this as an update to my threads on playing in Curse of Strahd, which a number of people here found interesting. It does bear saying that I have a lot less to say about things this time around, on account of my negative reaction to DMing 5E. My negative reaction has come somewhat...

Eliminate how? Not compared to other games.

I win buttons don't exist in isolation, they usually have a cost. You either have to spend limited character resources in having the "I win" button in the first place, or you have to spend limited in-game resources to use them, like spell slots or fate points. The idea is to give the player...

If we are speaking about 5E in isolation, and comparing good 5E play vs bad 5E play, I don't disagree. If I am comparing 5E randomness to randomness in other systems, I disagree.

The first rule of gaming the table, DM or other players, is never let them see you do it. If they see you do it, you aren't good at it. The second rule is to first make the DM and other players value your presence. The more they value your presence, the more you can get away with. For example, a...

The arbitrary randomness can be reduced compared to other options within 5E, but not so much compared to other systems. In 4E randomness was mitigated by stretching tasks over a multitude of rolls, which greatly lessened the impact of any single roll. In addition, bounded accuracy didn't really...

A true optimizer combines mechanical optimization, quality tactical/strategic play, and gaming the DM. "RP nerds" tend to get envious when they have comparatively less success at the table than somebody pursuing all three. Gaming the DM isn't a specific thing unique to "RP nerds", it's just the...

Seriously? From a purely mechanical standpoint, in 5E, the statement isn't true. There is a big enough difference between optimized and vanilla in 5E to matter, to say nothing of the gap between optimized and unoptimized, and the gap widens at higher levels. You might not be able to mitigate...

1. I find there is far less agency in 5E than there is in any other edition of D&D, and to an unsatisfactory degree. 2. The law of averages in 5E I find means little when most things are more or less decided by 1-3 rolls. 3. How is this different from 2E/3E? In both of those editions, there...

My experience spans levels 1-9, and my statement does apply to the top end of that. It sounds like you and I are speaking of different issues. You seem to be speaking of a lack of real challenge, which isn't what I'm saying. What I'm trying to say is that in 5E both success and failure feel...