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The problem is that the -2 would be equivalent to the target having half cover. If you have the Archery fighting style (like most Sharpshooters would), then the penalty of the feat is negated, essentially giving you a flat +4 to damage. The -5 penalty is more difficult to permanently counteract...

You should read the chart on page 41 of the DMG. It has the names for every weapon in a wuxia setting: shurikens are the equivalent of darts.

If a player argues and throws a fit when you try to figure out how something works RAW, immediately make a ruling to their detriment. They may whine and complain and throw yet another fit, but stick to your guns for now. After the session, go over the relevant rules (in this case, make sure...

This is why we have a DM: to screw with the RAW to kill the PCs. It makes far more sense that one of the dragon's attacks would be replaced with the grapple attempt (like a PC), and makes for a tougher fight. As I see it, the speed reduction when grappling is because the grappled creature can...

When I read through the end of RoT it seemed like a "last stand" kind of fight. If Tiamat is summoned to the Material Plane, your last stand has the freedom of the world (or at least the Sword Coast) at stake. If not, you still have an epic battle going on (which you don't get to see because...

I suppose that dragons being enormous flying magical lizards is enough of an advantage over the glorified apes that call themselves "adventurers"... On the other hand, simulationism leads to wonderful fun like dragons divebombing a party and crushing them with its momentum (dealing quite a bit...

Since the caster couldn't do much to impede the dragon's movement, and would probably be light enough not to hit the dragon's carrying capacity, I'd probably allow the dragon to fly at full speed. As I see it, the RAI speed reduction when grappling is because the grappled creature struggles and...

I wouldn't allow retroactive healing, as IMO that drastically reduces the threat the ambush poses. Incidentally, in my game a long rest doesn't automatically restore HP, which makes night ambushes that much scarier for the party. Instead of being a speedbump at best (maybe someone will drop to 0...

If Sharpshooter doesn't limit cover penalties, then neither should Spell Sniper. Which means that there's no way to circumvent cover, and then there are lots of angry players saying there needs to be a way for their characters to ignore cover because half-cover for shooting past allies can be a...

If the dragon is ambushing the party at night, Pass Without Trace is probably the best spell the dragon can have. +10 to every Stealth check means that it can fly in, target a PC (to get up to three instant criticals), then fly away before the party can respond. Kill order should be...

If you want to cut a rope then slashing damage is far better than piercing. Some undead (flameskulls and skeletons, iirc) resist piercing damage but not slashing, and some of the oozes split if you slash them as well... So the difference is there, but won't matter in most situations.

No, you're confusing "dealing with" with "dealing with". ;)

Instead of making 1HP minions and throwing lots of them at the party, why not make a "Swarm of [minion]"? Say you have a group of 30 kobolds; instead of keeping track of all 30, it could be a Gargantuan swarm of Small creatures, that has a CR of 7 (30 kobolds times 25XP each times the mob...

Yes, you always add your ability (in this case Str) modifier to a damage roll with a weapon. And since the attack is technically made using the polearm, he's proficient with the bonus action attack. That being said, there are a lot of people who think that Polearm Master is overpowered...

What were you expecting 5e to be like? That is, what do you think WotC promised, and how did you get that impression? I'm asking because I only got into D&D a couple of months before 5e released, so I didn't follow the news during the playtest at all. What old-school mechanics are you looking...

Erm... There are no rules saying you'd have to use it as an improvised weapon. In in case you didn't read my previous post, using a dart as an improvised weapon would only take away the finesse property, which seems to be a rather pointless nerf to make. Applying the same logic to nets (because...

I definitely prefer the first suggestion to the second. The first makes sense in that they can take the plate, but (repairs and) refitting could come to a significant portion of the base price if you don't want your PCs to use it right away. The second is also perfectly valid, but a little...

A slight correction: A ranged weapon with the ammunition property used to make a melee attack is an improvised weapon. If we look at the ranged weapons, all of them have the ammunition property except for darts and nets. Darts already deal 1d4 damage, so making them an improvised weapon would...

It was animated by a spell, but the corpse is still good ol' flesh and blood (and bones and decay...). So while the zombie wouldn't wink out of existence in an AMF, I'd say that the magic animating it would be rendered inert while it remains in the zone.

No you don't, because the disadvantage only applies to ranged attacks, not melee attacks with ranged weapons.