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You know, 5e is the one edition where it's always possible to have your special snowflake character with an unusual weapon - take the Gladiator (Variant Entertainer) background. That gets you proficiency in any one "unusual" weapon (martial or otherwise). Wield a trident, or a scythe (I'd stat...

I have this mental image of Alice blundering through a portal to Sigil. I suspect it does not end well for her. On the other hand, if she survived it would make a very interesting story :-)

I'm running two games, both of which started with 4th edition. The next time I start a new game I'm planning to use some ideas some friends and I came up with on a LARP channel a few years back. Basically a post-magical-disaster world in which the nature of reality has been perverted. In terms...

Heh. At my table, I'll add one above all those things: Assumptions or mistakes the players make that are better than anything I have prepared

I'll use anything pre-written that supports the story I want to tell. I'll happily use the existing fluff when it doesn't contradict something important in my story. Anything else will be twisted to fit or cut from the game.

That's probably about right. In this case, CR isn't just tracking pure threat level, it's tracking threat-level-by-level. Invisibility is a very powerful ability at low level. Or, to put it another way, imagine adding invisibility to any CR½ creature and still attacking a 1st level party with...

So, again, let's compare two creatures - this time the Shadow with the Thug. The Thug has 32 hit points. The Shadow has 16, but with its resistances you can call it 32. So, that's basically the same. The Thug is AC 11, the Shadow AC 12 - slight advantage to the Shadow, there. They're both at +4...

I don't think so. Yes, it's situational just like the ability to hide or turn invisible, but it's something that provides more flavour than tactical ability. Think about it this way: The situationality (abuse of language is a fun game) of an ability falls into several categories and there's a...

(Warning: Went overboard with maths. Apologies in advance) The Shadow is definitely a strong CR½ creature. Obviously it's not unthinkable that it's too strong, but I'm going to assume for now that there's a sensible reason. I think it's clear that we can compare the Shadow directly with both...

Yes, that's absolutely right. Legendary items of any sort should be the object of quests lasting more than just a session or two. If you're playing 5e by the default rules, they should be used for important story-arc-defining moments only. Of course, some will want to play higher powered games...

Yes, a +3 item should have a distinct personality. It should have more properties than just a flat +3. Hell, +3 items are "Legendary" according to the Basic DM rules. From the DMG previews we've seen, there are tables for random properties to apply to magic items and a Legendary item will have...

Basically, the Imp and quasit look weak, but they have a lot of abilities that can cause havoc in a party. There's nothing like them among the CR½ creatures I'd draw this general rule out: CR1 creatures often have the same basic combat statistics as CR½ creatures, but those that do will have...

The quasit: Fewer hit points than the imp. Isn't immune to fire. However, it has more resistances: In addition to everything the Imp resists, it also resists silvered weapons, cold, fire and lightning. Which means it's effectively at 14 hit points to most of the attacks the party has, especially...

The Imp has very few hit points, yes. However, it has a number of advantages. Firstly, it resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical weapons that aren't silvered. That will effectively double its hit points in melee. Secondly, it has advantage on saves against spells and magic...

Also in the Monster Manual

A few things: 1) The Scout NPC is at least as dangerous as the Thug. Half the hit points, but AC13 and either two shortsword attacks (which using your NAD formula would get 11 damage) or two longbow attacks (13). They have a decent Stealth bonus and advantage on Wisdom[Perception] - in any...

The existence of some +3 items does not make +3 items the default. In 5e, the default is extremely rare magical items, and the DM is entirely in control of how to enforce that. The existence of +3 items means more flexibility for DMs and more playstyles that 5e can accomodate. The reason I...

Yeah, it's nicely reasoned out and pretty clear once you take into account the effects.

None of my players read this forum (And if any of them do, don't read the next bit. I'll be able to tell if you do!) These are from my notes for the next session, where the players will be looting a fortress they've just stormed. One thing they may discover is: (The spellbook exists because...

I used to GM 4e using a laptop, but towards the end I just made sure I printed out everything I needed ahead of time. I'm now GMing 5e with a tablet and a phone, mostly pointing to a couple of tools with statblocks and things on them. I print some stuff out ahead, but it's nice to be able to...