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Yeah, but the problem is that I want a game style best supported by the default rest schedule, except the class design and adventuring day encounter guidelines completely work against each other when you do that. The game, as presented in it's default configuration, works terribly because short...

What makes you think book layout can't be part of the game? Books like Volo's Guide to Monsters or AD&D's Elminster's Ecologies are written as if from in-game characters. And the book layouts are presented with trappings of an in-game work. They might have art that evokes an illuminated...

What always confused me was that the "simulationist" parts felt like, "the mechanics that support the roleplaying narrative or theme or setting," while the "gamist" parts felt like "the dice rolling that would be unreasonably difficult to fairly turn into narrative." I guess I don't like...

I've always considered massive damage rules a solution in search of a problem from a mechanics perspective, and insult to injury from a gameplay perspective. If the risk of sudden death is important, then sure, but I don't really care for it. Is that for the NPCs, too? I guess that kind of...

It's still not really meaningful to evaluate a house rule without knowing the intent behind that rule. I can't really say if the change is good or bad because I don't know what you're attempting to achieve with the change. I think the change to Extra Attack is pretty weird all around. It feels...

Amusingly, Greyhawk does include the first description for Rod of Resurrection that I'm aware of: Rod of Resurrection: A rod which allows its user to resurrect just as if he were a thoughts to any creatures behind doors or walls within its range. It functions as an ESP Medallion on a roll of 6...

If I were to speculate, it would be that Gygax's assumptions were so strongly built around playing Men that correcting the language of the other existing rules simply wasn't a concern whenever they introduced Halflings to the game. I think it's pretty clear from Gygax's statements that he was...

In OD&D, Halflings could not be raised if you strictly followed RAW. Raise Dead in Men & Magic reads: "Raise Dead: The Cleric simply points his finger, utters the incantation, and the dead person is raised. This spell works with men, elves, and dwarves only. [...]" Given that Halflings were...

I'd be inclined to rule that it's dynamically whatever benefits the character with Mage Slayer the most, or, alternately, the player's choice. That means if they cast Misty Step or Teleport, then the attack happens before the caster disappears. If they cast Bless or Wall of Fire, then they will...

Nope. In my experience, it was much like the class level limits on multiclassing. Which is to say, during Session 1, the DM insisted the rule was extremely strictly enforced, but by the time you got to Session 50 when it actually came up everyone decided that it wasn't a good rule anymore. In...

If I wanted to "maximize player agency" in my games, then I'd run them more in the West Marches style. You don't have to exactly replicate it, but it's kind of the quintessential ideal of maximum player agency. The drawback, of course, is that the players need to direct you more, and it sounds...

I would allow it. Or rather, I would allow it without requiring the player to imagine whatever narrative description of the same thing exists in my head. "Failing a saving throw," is how players understand the event, but given that that is actually how the world works in-game there must be...

Look, you don't get to say you can only read the PHB or only read the DMG. That's not how the game works. You need to use the books together. That's why they keep referencing each other throughout. You're just saying, "Well, it doesn't say Gary is going to send Pinkertons to your house to...

Sure those are super different. You mean the same DMG right below where it says: "While it is possible to generate some fairly playable characters by rolling 3d6, there is often an extended period of attempts at finding a suitable one due to quirks of the dice. Furthermore, these rather...

I always like to point people to the 1e AD&D PHB which says very clearly that a PC should have no less than two stats of 15 or higher. People playing 3d6 straight were not playing the way Gygax was directing.

Jacob Marley certainly had a hard time with them!

The problem with doing that is the first thing that will happen is every player will descend on those tables and take them as gospel for exactly the actions that are possible within the game to take with precise DCs they can optimize for. It won't provide guidance to the DM. It will give...

Yeah, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially in 3e. Spells are so good, so to keep it balanced they make everything into spells to keep some semblance of order and then give out more spells. That increases reliance on spells, and makes spells more valuable as a resource, which means other...

3e features infamously overpowered spellcasting classes. Ludicrously so. The fact that 5e manages to get under the 3e bar does not mean that it's still not easily clearing the bar for spellcasting being overpowered.

I think this speaks to the fundamental issue for why so many classes get spells. Even something like adding graduated success to the skills like Pathfinder 2e or PbtA just doesn't help because at their core skills just do less. The spell system is so overwhelmingly better than any other mechanic...