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I think in this particular case, the meaning of the proficiency bonus isn't clear. Still too new to have gotten an increase. Which might point to a world where you just don't get proficiency bonus 'till 5th level or something. Not sure that would work, but it's an interesting idea... Yeah...

What @Staffan said, basically. I'd add that Guidance/Bless create a layer of "if you're not using it, you're not really playing optimally, since they stack with advantage!" (especially Guidance -- that spell needs to be at least 1st level, using some resource) that I find particularly annoying...

+1 for Mearls's statement of "role playing games aren't actually games, they're activities."

One of the things I've become convinced of is that we don't need a list of 18 unique skills. D&D 2014 had something called "background proficiency" as an optional rule, very reminiscent of AD&D's Secondary Skills. This is enough. One thing, beyond my class, that I can say "I'm good at this," and...

One of the issues, I think, is that this runs up against how a lot of DMs design their combats. I am probably only going to have like 1-2 encounters before the party does a long rest, I better make them DEADLY! OK, I've got this XP budget to spend on monsters. What's the deadliest monster I can...

Mearls here says something like "It turns out needing two islands to cast a counterspell is a part of why it works," so, yeah, he definitely has learned that the preparation cost matters. While it's a different vibe in D&D than it is in M:TG, I think "stop having fun" effects are ultimately...

Broader. Talking about modularity, and how that lets 3PPs get away with 5e-compatible design that is quite different from 5e and uses some different assumptions. Subclasses were mentioned as one of those spaces where that's not really true: subclasses kind of assume that an underlying class is...

Commentary as I'm listening to it: "Blue Magic" design was part of what informed the design of Shield and Counterspell, since Mearls is a big Blue-style M:TG player. This could probably be a whole thread of its own, but the Blue playstyle is a big part of why I am not an M:TG fan. These spells...

In an ideal system, trying to intimidate to surrender, like casting a save-or-die spell, would still do something to these encounters. Make the enemy frightened, cause some damage, etc. It might be something handled more on a monster-by-monster basis than something handled in the system though...

Oh, it's a great use in theory. In practice, no, I'm not going to let you frighten Orcus into giving up and begging for his (un)life because one person made a high roll and now my climactic fight is scuttled. This isn't a problem 4e really dodged, btw. Though it limited the valid targets to...

Worth exploring! I'd want to note that disengagement itself isn't necessarily a huge problem. In a 4-hour session, a little brain break isn't a bad thing. It's OK for a player to run to the restroom or go grab snacks. Engagement is important, but it should be expected to wax and wane over the...

I think this is likelier than something more....product-intensive. If the idea is to do little pop culture riffs and just kind of have fun with it, I'd expect a lot of reskinning (which is already a thing for the M:TG cards) and only a few new mechanics where it would be particularly...

Hmmm....not sure I follow. If the goblins want to kill me, and I say "You all might get lucky enough to kill me, but how many of you will die before you get lucky?", I might be able to Intimidate them into thinking it's a bad idea. They respond, "Yeah. Sod off, then, we ain't seen nothin'."...

This is part of what makes me very suspicious of the D&D skill system. How your character is defined and how they interact with the world? That's HUGE. That's a question that should be answered by your CLASS, the most significant mechanical choice you're making when you are building a...

Heh, one of the fascinating things about the show is that it's HUGELY popular, but by all accounts, nobody had any indication that it would be. So many kids this year are dressing like Rumi for Halloween and finding a wig is not easy! IMO, a Dungeon Meishi-inspired Monster Manual Cookbook...

I personally think the whole skill subsystem needs to be yeeted. It's such a weird little grab-bag of verbs that all do such different things. 5e24 has Actions for almost everything, and part of me wonders if that's a better foundation for these little character distinctions. And, I think there...

That's where I think examining monster design would help. D&D5e has legendary monsters, but the design logic behind them is opaque, there's not enough, and they're a little one-note (ie: they're the ONLY solution used regularly by 5e to handle boss encounters). Additionally, long combats get...

ALSO: The rest issue is significantly mitigated if a long rest requires 10 days (or a week or a month or a winter or something) instead of 8 hours. The overnight rest recharge is a question worth revisiting in D&D, I think: resting should be a more significant choice than just "okay, reset your...

It's weird that so many people are caught up in the rest cycle without taking the time to examine monster design. If you want a "boss monster," it clearly needs to have different rules than a regular monster. 4e understood this OK. 5e Legendaries get at this, but have a problem in that there...

Tracking is one of the better use cases of Survival, but in practice, it's not super critical to have the skill to do the thing. If the DM WANTS you to find the tracks, you won't need the skill to do it. Or the DM might use Nature or Perception or Investigation or some other skill to make it...