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It is actually possible for a weaker participant to win an arm wrestling match. I have accomplished as much. There is a small degree of skill and a large degree of timing, in addition to brute strength. If the arm wrestling contest is supposed to be a long and nearly inevitable result of the...

Commissioned deal arrangers is exactly how expensive items like suits of armor were sold in the middle ages. On the plus side, you get ballpark 90% of the "market price" from selling you items. On the minus side, getting a fair deal could take weeks or months. The 3e "sale price" = 50% of...

I like how you put this. It highlights what I believe really matters the most: player engagement. It is auspicious when a player just jumps in and says "I stack up crates" or "I jump off the bannister and swing from the chandelier" or "Would you know my uncle?" That kind of engagement is...

That placement and timing can matter is the very purpose for which we bother to roll initiative at all. The relevant question is whether 5e would be improved by the addition of Delay to the initiative rules. I do not feel strongly either way at this point. It is different. As you noted...

I am just not understanding what bothers you. Everyone here is in agreement that expenditure of a feat might make a shield a somewhat effective weapon (even if there is no consensus yet on the details). But under all other likely scenarios employing a shield as a weapon is less effective than...

Right. In the bigger picture, the Wizard is denied the hyper-optimal choice of tactics because he rolled low for initiative. Having rolled low for initiative, using the better initiative as a comparison point exaggerates the issue. Rolling low on initiative has a natural cost that is intended...

I have a minor nit to pick. From a gamist and narrativist POV, I interpret the scaling challenges as a practical shorthand. If the PCs are up against a DC X cliff that is a level appropriate, I would add in description about the other dangerous cliffs that the hardened adventures already...

The OP's point makes sense, but it is overstating the problem. A chance to deny the most dangerous enemy in the room an action right now is a bird in the hand. Sometimes that is less valuable than the two in the bush. The solution is to Ready if you want the two in the bush.

IMNSHO the random encounter tables are not plausible representations of a simulated living and breathing game world. They would seem to strongly imply that the average significant city has a lich problem AND a demon problem AND a devil problem AND a bandit problem as the bog standard normal...

If Dex save were affected by the armor, then dumpstating Dex would be hyperoptimal. In general principles, this is exactly the same as in 3e -- there are very specific different rules for AC, Reflex, Skills.

Well, we do expect the ghouls to lose, but the Wizard may have to drop a Fireball(s) on his own party to save their lives, which will probably force a Short Rest if they want to continue adventuring. The tactical result may be a foregone conclusion, while the strategic cost may be in the air.

That is the extreme example. The more common example, one so common that we take it for granted even when it is staring us in the face, is the typical structure of a long written adventure. At the macro level, there are usually areas that are supposed to be fought in a specific order. Area...

Exactly. Level 2 and level 3 always provide strong class benefits. The strong class benefit of level 4 is the stat/feat gain. Without some kind of incentive a 2 or 3 level dip per class is potentially overpowered. One could change this so that the stat/feat boost is based on character level...

Yup. I remember. It is one of those things that is somewhere between Really Awful and Really Good, but usually Really Weird, depending on the campaign style. That Level 1 Magic User with 0 XP and 40 HP is actually going to race through the first few levels, because he is probably hanging out...

Nonsense. There is not a huge difference unless you insist on trying to make a mountain out of a very small molehill. To think of the "guardian angel" as an NPC is an ideological and narrow viewpoint -- it can be done that way but it is not the only option. A player both plays the character...

If the crafting rules allow (I am not up on 5e on those kinds of things), Timestop is an extremely attractive scroll. When the moment is right, this is an incredibly useful ability, both in and out of combat.

I find ccooke's reasoning compelling. As for the lizardfolk, presumably that is the equivalent of an Exotic Weapon and the lizard warriors get a racial proficiency in that weapon. IMHO the game would not be improved by a short treatise on that topic stuffed into the D&D MM description of...

Ghouls were glass cannons in 3e and earlier. IMHO that is not a good design for a low CR critter. I think that critters that chew you badly when you are unlucky with your saves works well enough. Different strokes, etc.

It is perfectly reasonable for a character in a D&D setting to believe they have a "guardian angel" that can twist fate at critical moments and might be influenced by sincere words, regardless of whether there are mechanics that support that belief. Such a belief is undeniably plausible, based...

Yes, I see that as the key question. It is not Bad DMing to have house rules that may make particular kinds of PCs not fun to play for particular players. It may be Bad DMing to imply that certain PCs are allowed and then be inflexible about mitigating the perceived problems that stem from...