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But if it represents something that can't be relied on, why can I rely on it? This is IMHO the essence of the disconnect. I want how the rules work to represent what happens in the game world.

Firstly, I think class levels should be a way to measure ability, but not necessarily/only combat ability. I would stat the martial artist as a monk (though maybe level 5-10 - high level NPCs aren't that common in my setting), but he wouldn't be an adventurer: he would have advanced much slower...

I hope those two aren't equivalent. Assuming that d stands for damage per hit and not average damage per attack or round, d/h should change based on class and level.

Isn't this just a question of how many things they should change? IMO, the number of changes matters very little in comparison to the specific things they change and how they do that. They could make a handful of important changes to 4e and it might become my favorite edition. Or they could...

Why is it any more OK to require the world's leading martial artist to be an adventurer? IMO the solution to this problem is simply that (at least non-combatant) NPCs level up differently than PCs.

This has the same potential pitfall as "power sources" - the designers may feel forced to fill a niche for no good reason.

IMO, that's what DCs are for. Adding more ranks to a skill has diminishing returns, because there are fewer and fewer tasks of each DC. DC 10 and below tasks are common, you will run into DC 15 tasks all the time, DC 20 tasks every once in a while, DC 25 rarely and although there are a lot of...

Oh, I wasn't talking about an individual encounter, but over the course of a day, or even an adventure. I would very rarely use that many enemies in an encounter, unless I had some sort of mass combat or "swarm" rules to use. Maybe I'm just stricter with time, although I don't have codified...

I think basically what you are saying is that many of the spells from previous editions assume short combats in how they are balanced? I agree, but that doesn't really make the idea of days with a single long encounter problematic for 5e, it just means those spells need to be rebalanced.

2x is in the same ballpark, IMO. I feel both the character who kills 10 orcs and the one who kills 20 orcs made a difference. Maybe it's a question of tolerance? Those for whom 3e works well enough have a higher tolerance for disparity. 30 minute turns have never ever happened in our games...

I did some back of the envelope calculations and arrived at 3x. 14 for a 1st level fighter and 42 for a 10th level one.

I don't really see the need to fill every niche like this, especially in the PHB. That's why I also don't feel there should be a large race just to compensate for the small ones. That said, the most interesting construct race IMO would be some sort of homunculus. Maybe some homunculi live on...

Mostly I agree, but I disagree that feats are a bad way to give wizards At-Wills. If you want At-Wills without feats, you should probably start with a Warlock or something. As for whether 30 is a good number... That depends on the scope of the PHB. If the PHB is 128 pages it's probably a good...

XP for encounters is a good default, as long as it isn't implied it's only for combat encounters. XP awards for goals should also be mentioned, but giving guidelines for it is more difficult, so I think encounters are a better default. Experienced DMs and groups will use whatever they like in...

My intuition says something between 3x and 7x. I would have to work through some math to determine which would have the best characteristics. The most important thing is that both AC and hp not increase (linearly). If AC pretty much caps off around third level (after the fighter has acquired at...

That somewhat parallels the early part of my experience. At first 3e was just a way of playing the game. As people become more experienced with it, we thought we found a lot of "flaws" and attempted to patch them. Then we noticed doing that did nothing to improve the game, just took time and...

You are exaggerating a bit, but not much. I for example dish out a lot of plot hooks, but it's up to the PCs to pick and choose or go looking for others. Cleaning the city of the Thieves' Guild is a perfect example of what might happen IMC in response to a (possibly random) encounter with a...

Warforged and Thri-Kreen. Also, if Eladrin had been there, I would have selected it for the newcomer Eladrin. The planar Eladrin are OK. Additionally, there are many races in the poll that I wouldn't allow as PC races in most campaigns, but are fine as monster or NPC races. At least Drow...

Rules lawyers and powergamers are annoying, but I can game with them. The only style that's incompatible with the way I like to play is strongly railroaded story. I can play those kind of campaigns, too, every once in a while and it can be fun. However, it's incompatible with the more free form...

I don't get why a single Nth level character should be significantly more powerful than an Nth level monster. What's the point of calling the monster Nth level, then? Just make characters one or more levels higher from the start and use (multiple) lower level monsters, if you want that.