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Bear in mind that if you warn your players that the risk of PC death is going to be high and you don't give plot immunity (making 3 failed death saves actually mean the character dies), then they tend to adapt their playing to match. Even though my current party is almost entirely new to D&D--...

I can see players getting upset at this... They intend to spend 5 days carousing, then the dice hate them and they spend 40 days (and more gold and downtime than they have) carousing. Maybe allow it to happen once, but then it's rerolled if you get it again; or simply give it an extremely low...

If the spider's poison causes a failed death save, then you've neatly danced around the reason the spider has poison, regardless of whether or not the damage is simultaneous. The damage of the poison is secondary to the fact that the poison is meant to stabilize the PC and keep them paralyzed...

Of course nothing's stopping the army from laying wooden planks over the top of the Hut and simply walking over. Or piling dirt over the top to bury everyone inside alive. The big question would be whether they slowed the army down enough to give the helpless city time to prepare.

Pardon me if I'm wrong, but isn't XP gain continuous? That is, the values in the table for how much XP to level are set values (you're level 6 when you've earned 14000 XP, and having hit level 5 you're already at 6500 XP) rather than an addition on top of the previous value (you need to earn...

So... Grappling, shoving, disarming, overrunning/tumbling aren't "maneuvers"? Or do you think that those should be effects that any martial character can tack onto their normal attack?

I think that Charm Person/Suggestion/Friends kind of require that the recipient be unaware that you're casting the spell, unless it's hostile anyway in which case it doesn't really matter. As I see it, the components for Charm Person are closer to saying "Come on, we're all friends here..." (Or...

Looks good! My party is in Wave Echo Cave (LMOP) and I'm doing something similar: once a fight breaks out, I roll (1d4+3) for how many rounds it takes for a random encounter to arrive. The pressure it puts on the players is great, especially if they're like my party and use all their spell slots...

A rogue/Paladin with both Sneak Attack and Smite... Toss in three levels of fighter to get the expanded critical range and a Diviner wizard in the party, and you've got yourself a nasty combination. Fighter 3/Paladin 11/ Rogue X, perhaps?

Bear in mind that although a 10-dex fighter has no chance of saving against an ancient red dragon's breath attack (because a 20 on a save is just a 20), the same ancient red dragon only misses on a 1 for targets up to 19 AC with its attacks. 19 AC is a lot, even at higher levels, and the targets...

In my game, I turned everything up to 11 to see how the players dealt with it. I made Phandalin a police state under the thumb of the Redbrands Ruffians, Cragnaw Castle was inhabited (with a few exceptions) by hobgoblins rather than goblins, and Wave Echo Cave has a *lot* more enemies, with...

What are your reasons for limiting your PC build options so much? I can understand Moon Druid because of its power in an extremely narrow level band, but the rest seem incredibly arbitrary...

If you allow grappling with whips, then they can be used for great area control: two goblins grapple/prone someone while an owlbear capitalizes on the advantage its attacks have. Ghouls paralyze a target, and Violet Fungi go to town with their multiattacks. Swapping out anything's weapons for a...

There isn't masterwork equipment anymore: adamantine and mithral armours are magic items, whereas mithral weapons aren't mentioned and adamantine weapons are only mentioned as a means to non-magically bypass some creatures' resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage (somewhat like...

Well, it isn't a magic item now! I think they'd get given it as soon as they're officially inducted into the Harpers (although I have no clue how that happens).

If you must do something, hire an assassin (and someone to cast Pass Without Trace on them) to kill them all in their sleep. With its near-impossibility to be detected, it can get in, cut their throats, and waltz out in 5 minutes or less. Your superiors would guarantee payment upon being given...

I think that in theory, Spell Points are preferable to slots because of the finer control you have over your casting. It also goes a long way towards making Wild Magic sorcerers competitive, since you can use all (or most) of your points towards first-level slots to maximize the number of surges...

I have a great solution to your "problem" (quotation marks because it's a ridiculously simple fix). If you want to play a generalist wizard, a spell-less ranger, or a non-assassin-esque rogue... Make a Wizard, Ranger, or Rogue, and don't use the Arcane Tradition features, spells, or sneak...

You absolutely can make a spell-less ranger! Just build a ranger... And don't use the spell slots you're given. Sure, you could argue that that isn't "making" a spell-less ranger, but it works identically in play. You'd be slightly weaker than the average ranger, but the integrity of your...

This. Why would you go around proclaiming to curious tavern-goers "This is my +1 sword!" when it being +1 is a purely metagame concept? It's far more interesting (and far better RPing) to call it "Rhokh-nath, Slayer of Dragons", "Hailfury, Bow of a Thousand Arrows", or "Sheepbiter, enemy of all...