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I DM'ed Death House a couple weeks ago, and my players loved it. Particularly as I pulled the ol' switcheroo. I have my own homebrew campaign world. I started the players off with very vague details. "You'll be traveling through a forest in [homebrew Tsarist Russian nation in mid-winter]. Your...

My general approach is that if the PC is prepared for the situation and is initiating the action (in which suffocation is relevant), they can hold their breath. If the action is forced upon them and/or they are unprepared for it, they cannot hold their breath and are immediately into the "Con...

Awesome article, as always. I seem to recall a major kraken appearance in the BECMI Creature Crucible splat-book "The Sea People", which I'm surprised to not see listed here. I don't have my books with me at work, but I think a kraken featured as the climactic story hook for an adventure...

I'm kind of with Morrus on this. Every time I read a thread about how guns aren't lethal enough, I just think: "I'd far prefer to be shot with a typical handgun wielded by a typical trained user at (say) 30 feet of range... rather than a guy who can press 140 pounds striking a solid blow against...

Monster Manual 2 - more than anything else. And yes, I know there are 3rd party monster books out there now. And no, I'm still not going to buy them. My interest is in the official treatment of classic and specific D&D monsters (demodands, kopru, aurumvoraxes, froghemoths, etc), with WotC's...

Heh. From a tactical perspective, I agree with you 100%. But, sadly, you don't know my players. They are smack-talking, manhood-measuring, ally-robbing, NPC-killing murder-vagabonds. The only time they're happy to cast spells on other PCs is when it's a "broken arrow" area-of-effect damage...

Bless is not heavily used at my table. It comes out now and then, but the "Top 3" (at 1st level, not counting Domain spells) at my table are cure wounds, healing word, and shield of faith. Bless is probably the #4 choice, ahead of inflict wounds and command. As mentioned above, this is also...

Add me to the list of people saying: "Champion is fine, and we don't all agree that it's the nerfed version of the fighter." The fighter is the #1 top class choice in my two gaming groups, and the Champion is the #1 top archetype selected by my players. The changes you recommend would be...

Outstanding article. You're doing champion work here.

Depends on the nature of the monster and the nature of the party. The problem in any kind of level-based RPG is that high level parties are so diverse. It's very difficult to design a "challenging boss fight" that will suit all possible contenders. When designing a CR1 creature, you don't...

No, not in my group. On the rare occasion that the players in my group have decided to take someone prisoner, I'm not going to demotivate them by allowing a chance that the KO'ed prisoner wakes up and makes life difficult for them. My players are plenty murderous enough already. If an NPC is...

Drawmij's instant summons is useful as an anti-theft mechanism for high-level wizards. If the book is lost or stolen, re-summon it to your hands. It won't return if held or carried by another creature, but you at least know their location (and can then teleport in to give them a spanking. Bind...

Add me to the list of DMs who rule that the push is cumulative per hit. It's more fun that way, and it's consistent with other rulings (e.g. +CHA damage per blast, not in total). "The ogre is 15' from the chasm, and I get 2 eldritch blasts! Hit... [tension builds] ...and a miss! Darn it. Yo...

In 5e, silence is cast on a point you choose within range. There is no mention of it moving, or being cast on an object or creature. It creates a zone that does not move. An extremely liberal interpretation of the spell could allow that the point chosen is an object and that it can subsequently...

If I was asked in my home game about the ability to produce poison more quickly... I'd probably allow the concept of brewing batches. Between each session (assuming the rogue has a chance to perform downtime between each session, and isn't halfway through a particularly large "dungeon"), I'd...

Intellect devourers, obviously. And grey oozes. But the party has never encountered the former, and only rarely for the latter. So, of the commonly encountered low-level monsters...? Hobgoblins. They have decent AC, just enough HP to make it difficult to kill them at low levels, and they hit...

If you can find them for an economical price, I'd recommend the WotC Saga edition. It's the version I enjoyed the most. I've had exposure to the old d6 system, the original WotC d20 version, and the WotC Saga re-write. I have only a passing exposure to FFG's version. The things I like about...

Taken as a stand-alone game... yes, it's pretty silly. However, it's worth remembering that 5e was designed for inclusion and some level of backwards portability. There wasn't such a thing as a ring of resistance (electricity) in AD&D or 2e. However, there was a ring of warmth. The ring of...

My advice, having run it (so far) all the way through to the Fane of the Eye... 1) Start the PCs at 1st level. Either use the indicated prologue side-treks in the book, or consider running the first half of Lost Mine of Phandelver. Personally, I used the material from PotA, and it was a lot of...

If you're going to be a player, you already have everything you need if you have the PH and the SCAG. Arguably, you didn't need either of those. The basic rules are free online. But, if you really want to get into it as a player, and appreciate having nice books and lots of options... then the...