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I think there's a big hint that they haven't been calling it 5e, and Mike Mearls wants to call it very simply "Dungeons & Dragons". My guess is that their goal is to make D&D become like Prego (see Malcolm Gladwell's spaghetti sauce talk at Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce | Video on...

I don't "hate" any of them. But the one that I voted for is Ranger, because I think that considering how popular they are, they need some work to carve out a distinct space. Is he: * a light armoured two-weapon fighter * a really good bow fighter * a fighter/rogue/druid 2e/3e has favoured...

To me, a Rogue is the guy who's going to beat you and you won't see it coming. Whether he bluffs you, sneaks up on you, sets a trap for you (or lures you into one), or taunts you into making a mistake. Contrasted with the fighter, who will beat you by being stronger, tougher, or just plain...

I liked Specialty Priests in 2e. In our Birthright campaign (where it was mandated to be a specialty priest) we had 2 that felt completely different. That said, for 5e I could see these being implemented through Themes. Instead of "Priest of Nature God" it could be redone as "Nature God's...

For missing options: I really liked the vestige pact... but I haven't played one. I also liked the idea of sorcerer king pacts as a long time darksun fan, but reading it didn't inspire me. I definitely like the Dark Pact because it didn't play nicely. It definitely felt like they sacrificed...

From a typographic/visualization point of view, it requires less "non-data-ink" than using parenthesis. e.g. Thief-Acrobat vs Thief (Acrobat) The single dash uses a few pixels whereas each parenthesis uses about twice or more pixels. On the other hand, the dash connotes a more equal...

Can't XP you, but I actually agree here. I only separated them to hint at things that could be in a Basic set (dagger & sword, along with "Common Armour", "Common Classes", "Common Races", etc.) vs what the full list would have, but I could have laid it out better (as "Basic Weapons List" and...

I'd prefer the opposite for mechanics: Common Weapons dagger - 1d4 sword - 1d8 (and I would just call it a "sword") Less Common Weapons shortsword - 1d6 greatsword - 1d10 But plenty of art showing characters using all sorts of different swords. After that, let someone take feats or powers...

I definitely like the idea of slight changes in gameplay at bloodied: Tiefling's Bloodhunt, Dragonborn's Fury, Shifter's Regeneration, Deva's loss of whatever it is, etc. What I don't like is the fiddly numbers. IMC, it happens at least once a night that the dragonborn restates the AC that he...

At the risk of veering this conversation too far from D&D... I studied muscles primarily, and it was 15 years ago and I don't work in the field today, so I can't speak to bone strength (meaning resistance to breaking). Most of this is from memory (and it's stuck with me because I had a great...

Close. You have the right idea, but your numbers are wrong. Strength (measured as power or force) is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the muscle (and only when you assume the number of sarcomeres per unit area is constant). Doubling a creature's size in all dimensions will increase...

Thinking about the difference between a fighter, a cleric, and a paladin and what it means to me as a thought exercise. A fighter: * picks an enemy (or group of enemies) and attacks immediately (charge or ranged) * the fighter's allies don't worry about him in combat for a little while, but...

I group them into a few levels, but I'd personally like about a dozen races at the start. Give them 1 page each (except humans, which I prefer to be the baseline / no special rules) of compact bullet-point basic description, abilities, and optional abilities. Level 1: Human - If they decided...

Not at all. The tail shouldn't be wagging the dog. If a potential rule: * improves organized and home game play, implement it. * improves organized play and complicates home game play, don't implement it (or do so in a "module") Now if a rule improves organized play without affecting home...

On the one hand, I initially liked 4e for getting rid of spell levels vs class levels (and no mention of dungeon levels!). I also liked splitting out utility spells from attack spells. On the other hand, because of 4e's power frequency, a level 5 spell (daily) is more powerful than a level 7...

Kits or Themes here. I really like Themes because they aren't restricted by class (although of course they sometimes worked better with some classes), and they are nice tight packages of powers. But I'm also a big fan of having different characters with different numbers of layers. A Fighter...

Agreed on the 3 saves taking too much time in 4e and other PCs seeing if he'll snap out of it on his own. Easy improvement (although we haven't tried it at my table yet): getting reduced to 0hp requires you to make an immediate death save. Also getting hit while below 0hp requires an immediate...

How about save or get a failed death save and dying (as in 4e)? Bob the Fighter's at full hp and gets hit with Finger of Death. He fails his save, so his bond between his body and soul is weakened (he gets a failed death save) and he's actually dying. At the end of his next turn, he needs to...

"Negative hit points shouldn't exist, but characters shouldn’t die outright at 0." Copying my comment from the blog, this is something my 4e table already does: Like 4e: * reduced to 0hp, make a death save each round * 3 failed death saves and you die Unlike 4e: * negative hps don't exist *...

Interesting comments all round. I find myself agreeing with pretty much everyone. On the one hand, I want to be able to come up with an idea for a dwarven wizard and not have this be such an inferior choice that the rest of the players grumble about my character's ineffectiveness. So I don't...