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They tried that with a Strixhaven UA. It... didn't work too well. Different numbers of subclass feature at wildly different level points made it hard. Not being able to reference or tie into any base class features was also a problem. In the end, the idea was scrapped. Really, it sounds like a...

Like most things in D&D, the more effort you put into it the more you get out of it. If non-cash loot is just noted on a loot list and automatically liquidated once you're back in town, it's just making everyone put in more effort for the same result. If it takes a bit more effort and you put...

Depends on the adventure and campaign. Sometimes, the party are relic hunters and tomb robbers, delving the abandoned ruins of the past. They're not just stripping the place of everything that isn't nailed down, they're bringing crowbars so they can up the nails and sell them too. Other times...

Randomness is useful as a creative prompt. Something to spur ideas and break people out of creative ruts. It can be useful for a DM to use randomness for things like less important monster encounters or padding out treasure lists. I can be useful for a player who wants to pick up some character...

Random HP is random, and I dislike randomness in character creation. Results for in-game actions, sure, some randomness is great. Essential, even. But I want character creation to be fair, balanced, and under my control. It's the same reason why I was all for point buy ability scores over rolled...

All true, but a bit trickier to navigate in a fantasy world. As my brother puts it, there's the Power of Kings to command workers and armies, and the Power of Dragons where you yourself are mighty. The reach of the King is farther and with the right minions they can accomplish great things, but...

You might be right. It's not like the days when you could be confident that everyone at the table was familiar with a majority of Appendix N. The playerbase for D&D is larger and more diverse, the novels and movies and comic books that campaigns are taking inspiration from are more numerous and...

And in non-capitalist societies, the nobility work very hard to retain their privileges. That's "privilege" in the original sense, private law, where all are not equal under the law and nobles have rights that others don't. That's why rich families were always trying to buy or marry their way...

The divine fragments are only easily visible to people who already have one. The PCs get their starter set (probably very weak ones) somehow that isn't being Chosen Ones; accidental blowback when stopping a villain's ritual, test subjects (willing or otherwise) for a mad wizard, inheritance...

We can't, but that won't stop people. In the old days it was called Kremlinology, as people tried to read into the opaque inner workings of the Soviet regime through trivial and unconnected public details. These days the kids in the Vtuber scene warn each other not to "listen to the rrats"...

The corporate CEO President stepping down doesn't tell us a lot. Could be personal, could be business, and it may not even really matter. The big tell for the future is who gets tapped to be her replacement. That's the follow up that I'm going to be waiting for.

Depends on the group. Some people want to get it out of the way ASAP. Other people just love fantasy shopping and meeting the quirky NPC merchants. No answer is universally right, so it's up to the DM to feel out their players and decide what's right for their table.

Isn't it already? In the 5e DMG p226, Sword of Kas, artifact longsword.

So, putting aside theme and flavor for a minute, let's look at the mechanics. Mechanically it's not a great fit. Enchantment spells want a high Save DC, which means you really want to focus on your caster stat. Divination spells don't have many good combat buffs besides Foresight, so they don't...

Not easily, they can't. A Rogue would have to give up an entire turn to charge up the weapon first, and if they're higher level that's absolutely not a net gain to make a 6d8 attack the next turn. Not to mention that your item description doesn't specify what sort of ranged attack it is; the...

Lances are a pretty specialized weapon. Not only do they have Reach, you have to use that Reach because you have Disadvantage to attacks against adjacent targets. Using a Lance requires both a specific build and a party composition to facilitate it. Don't have other melee to stand behind...

All well and good if the DM is on the ball about introducing powerful signature weapons for their martial PCs that fit both their fighting style and the campaign's story. That has... often not been the case IME. Either the DM throws in items without really understanding the PC's build and why...

Thinking about it, perhaps there's another question to ask. For the people who object to PCs buying the magic items that they want, is your problem with the "buying" part or with the "that they want" part? Because I can partly understand that if a DM is used to having a tight grip on what magic...

The way I see it, if the PC goes through a process of Participate In Epic Adventure -> [Middle Step] -> Obtain Swank +3 Sword, it doesn't really matter what that Middle Step is. It can be "looted from an ancient tomb" or "received as a reward from a grateful king", or you can add an additional...

I'm mostly on board with all of this. Barter is what people resort to when the common currency can't be trusted, for whatever reason. Political instability, dealing with strangers arrived from a far off land, whatever. As long as people can reliably spend their money, they will likewise accept...