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Big ol' dragon in 1e had 88 hit points and an AC somewhere in the negatives (can't be bothered to look it up right now). Those peasants needed a natural 20 to hit. 150 peasants with slings (let's give them proper bullets, so d4+1 damage each) are on average going to roll (let's be generous and...

I suppose this does point out one difference I hadn't yet considered: non-Fighters hit much more reliably in 5e than in some earlier editions, which means math like this can even be usefully done.

At the top of the screen there's a "Features" drop-down. Click that. The second item on the list is a write-up of the survey they did leading up to 3e.

You forgot one: (5) the change is objectively worse/less functional/harder to use than what was there before (e.g. many so-called software "upgrades").

What I find is that sooner or later one or both of two things happen: 1. The players by and large get it out of their systems and get on with adventuring. 2. Every potential new party member is vetted with alignment detection spells and the like, with unacceptable results being forthwith...

Yep. And sometimes their recon is accurate, and sometimes not. I think we're in agreement here. My point, though, is that if their recon isn't accurate there has to be a causal chain within the fiction to explain it even if the PCs (and thus the players) never find out what that causal chain...

Unless the dragon is itself supposed to be a minion in this example?

Ezekiel is, I think, advocating for the opposite; that lower level monsters not remain a meaningful threat as levels advance. Steeper power curve a la 3e-4e rather than flatter a la 1e and 5e. Every monster has a range of character levels to which it represents a viable threat without being...

I've been on about their surveying since 1999. And as their surveying has been crap since 1999 it's not just a problem for 5e; 3e and 4e were similarly affected. Perhaps, but it does indicate success enough to be able to keep doing it.

Their surveying has always been suspect, to say the least. With both versions of 5e it appeared in hindsight that their key decisions had been made before playtesting even began, with the playtest surveys able to round off a few edges at best. Curious - how so?

In fairness, it might very well be more than a small percentage overall; only those DMs tend to not be DMs for very long. Put another way, five bad DMs who only stick at it for a year each because all their players drift away do in fact outnumber one good DM who can keep DMing for a decade...

In order: Yes. Yes, though tweaked. Yes. And pretty much no; I brought in the idea of high-level characters getting a few choose-able feat-like abilities but I'm not thrilled with it, it'll probably get chucked on the next reboot. No to attunement except in rare instances...and see below. We...

Why? "Must" is only true if you're specifically looking for a steeper power curve than the gain in PCs' power and ability already gives as they level up. Denying a prong's relevance is different than ignoring it. Sounds good so far. To the bolded: am I? And even if it's true (which I...

Maybe so. If you're ever in Victoria I can introduce you to some others. I'm by no means unique in this regard. :) Because it means two rules are often trying to apply at the same time: the specific, and the general. When they conflict, even though specific beats general is the intent, it's...

I think it's the second point here that's the outlier: I don't think people want it to be guaranteed that you outscale weak creatures, they just want it to be more likely. It's the whole flatter power curve piece I keep banging on about. Given that, small(ish) numbers and diegetic processes...

Relatively little. A fair bit of what became core 2e was in our games before 2e came out as we'd had the same ideas on our own. Didn't follow all the later splats very closely but I did steal a fair number of spells from later 2e. From 3e, the main thing I swiped was the Sorcerer's casting...

I'm simulating physics, not history. :)

Ok, we're good on that one. :) The latter two points there are not really considerations of mine. If I'm throwing a horde of high-hit-point monsters at the party then I-as-DM an willingly taking on the task of tracking all those hit points. And I'm not much for emulating fantasy tropes unless...

Yes, and I think the point is that it's a very intentional anachronism built in a) so that firearms don't take over from swords and bows the way they did in the real world and b) so fireworks and big booms remain the purview of mages. Then again, most D&D settings have anachronisms at every...

I wouldn't know, as I didn't buy any 3.5 stuff (I already had 3e). Interesting to see that, though. I'll have to borrow a friend's book and see what it has to say. And then in another part of the book he'd exhort DMs to change rules as desired to make the game their own. He wasn't exactly a...