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Yes, with the implied idea that if a PC wants to give up adventuring and become a Sage or Alchemist instead it's possible - given some in-fiction training time - to do so. PCs aren't usually the stay-at-home types, however, thus there's little point in putting these classes in the PH which is...

That info is very useful, though, as it tells me-as-DM what's in the caster's spellbook - which the PCs are, after all, inevitably going to loot at some point.

An ooze or jelly would not be PC-playable, nor a Demon, nor (yet) a Hill Giant, etc. usually for balance reasons. Also, some DMs ban certain species as PC-playable even though the books say otherwise, e.g. "No PC Tieflings in this game". I don't care much about spotlight hogging - if you want...

Which blows up your in-setting consistency. If an NPC Elf can do X-Y-Z-A in combination then a PC Elf should (and IMO must) have the potential to be or eventually become able to do X-Y-Z-A as well. Flip side: if a PC Elf can do B-C-D-E then an NPC Elf should be able to do likewise. "Why do...

Some of those seemingly-excess rules are there purely for small-g gamist concerns such as balance and playability (it's been so in every edition); and while they can indeed be annoying, removing them can end up making things worse in the long run unless you're very careful about it.

I'd rather almost go the opposite: arcane casters become almost exclusively damage-dealing artillery and mind-screwers while divine casters do the buff-support-healing piece. There's room for a Swashbuckler-y class that could mechanically replace the Monk in the light-armoured warrior slot but...

Other than perhaps degree of organization, once the houserules become extensive enough what's the difference? Take the system I use. It's fully written up (except for many of the monsters), sort of vaguely organized, and consists almost entirely of tweaks, kitbashes, and houserules on top of...

I'm an "Old School Gamer" (at least according to many here :) ) and I think 3e got this bang-on right for NPCs that are PC-playable species. If an NPC can do it then a PC of the same class and species should at the very least have the potential to do it; ditto for the reverse. Where 3e got it...

I largely agree; and have two means of to-a-point solving it: 1. Players are always allowed to play two characters at a time if desired. That way, even if one is just to fill a hole the other can be what they really want to play. 2. If they think to do it in-character they can almost always...

That's fair. I've built up a rather crazy-size collection of minis over the decades, to the point where there's probably something here that's at least vaguely close to whatever you happen to be playing (but it might be on you to paint it; when it comes to minis I have the painting skills of a...

If GRRM goes the same direction as the shows did in how the stories unfold - there's been fairly persistent rumours that at least in some key ways he will not - then this is correct. But, like the rest of the world, I'm still waiting for the next book... :) IMO for any D&D player GoT is...

As written, UA is an unholy mess with a few sparkling exceptions. Careful tweaking and massaging and houseruling can, however, make about 60-70% of it fairly worthwhile. The rest gets chucked.

The way I've sort of dealt with this is that adventuring is the high-risk high-reward way to quickly get better at what you do while functioning as a stay-at-home member of the same class is the very slow way of getting better at what you do. Thus, someone who doesn't feel like risking death at...

Yes. A TV-based example of one-shot minions are most of the fights in Hercules and Xena. Usually there the mooks get clobbered, pick themselves up, and run for the hills; and while fine for campy entertainment like that, it actually makes very little in-character sense that the heroes a) let...

I don't recall such, but maybe? Which is fine. The real success story is Sansa anyway. I never thought of him as deus-ex-machina or overpowered, but his physical limitations would make him a fairly challenging-to-play PC in such a combat and travel oriented setting. What great about that...

Good thing you gave me the hint. :) I've never really looked at Spelljammer so this is foreign territory to me. And for a focussed campaign like that, that's great. Dismiss? No. And I gotta say, that's one nice mini. Prepainted, or did you do it? Aye, but there's the rub: if all you know...

Had he died in the books first (i.e. had GRRM got that far in writing the bloody things) and stayed dead, nobody would have batted an eyelid when he died in the show. Same as Ned Stark - everyone knew going in that he dies because that's what the book says, so it doesn't come as a big shock...

Where I was reading the books (and, later, watching the shows) thinking "This is what a big long sprawling D&D campaign should look like! He's nailed it!" I could be wrong, but I don't think my players are hoping for any sort of TPK anytime soon.

Not at all. I've played this character. Best AC in the party by far but due to class, lack of strength, and lack of decent weapons he couldn't hit worth a damn and did trivial damage if he did. Oftentimes his best way of helping the party win combats was to run in, draw fire and foes that...

In our 1e-adjacent crew Gnomes have almost always been 7th on a list of 7 options in terms of overall popularity, as measured by what people have actually played over time. It usually goes: 1. Humans 2. Elves <the rest, sequence always changing> 7. Gnomes That said, there's also always been...