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  1. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) [+] What does a non-spellcaster Psion need/look like?

    Frankly, I find this silly at best, and it looks pretty dang disingenuous from where I'm sitting. That is, it seems quite obvious to me that spells are very different things from augmentable powers. Yes, 3e (uniquely) did put psionic powers on a 1-to-9 level system like spells, but psionics...
  2. EzekielRaiden

    D&D General Two Simple Ways to Make Combat More Engaging

    That you are, indeed. I've had a few. Not bad people, but closed-minded about what is or isn't possible. I've seen it enough personally, and heard of it enough from others, that it's one of the biggest concerns I have WRT how GMing is done.
  3. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) [+] What does a non-spellcaster Psion need/look like?

    Are you familiar with Dreamscarred Press? They did their own PF1e update to psionics which built on this principle.
  4. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Rank 5e skills from most useful (1) to least useful (18)

    This is ranked by how I think the game's rules directly tell you they operate, not how I think GMs should run things, nor how I have seen 5e GMs (with the exception of my current GM) run it, which to be clear isn't better than the rules as written. Perception Persuasion Insight Stealth...
  5. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    Given the "ghoul surprise", I think it's about 50/50 either way. Neither speaks well of the design process that went into 5e, though. Seeing a problem is there, knowing it is a design issue, and then just flat choosing to do nothing about it...I mean, that sounds pretty blatantly like...
  6. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    Often, I find that it is helpful to pair sticks with related but distinct carrots. Helps the players feel like you aren't just making their lives harder solely to make their lives harder, but rather changing one benefit for a different benefit. So, for example... "You may not always be able to...
  7. EzekielRaiden

    D&D General Two Simple Ways to Make Combat More Engaging

    If you want combat to be engaging, it has to be worth engaging with. Create genuinely varied terrain which actually affects gameplay--positively and negatively. Use hazards. They're good. Make them worthwhile to exploit, and fearsome to ignore. Forced movement. Just...seriously. Forced...
  8. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    Frankly, the claim that there always is such time pressure is what is ridiculous. "You cannot ever wait 8-16 hours. Period. Never. Oh, but taking four hour-long naps? Yeah that's fine. Nothing will change." That's the critical problem with how 5e did its rests. Spending 3+ hours a day doing...
  9. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    As if your "this situation had time pressure, therefore ALL SITUATIONS EVER ALWAYS have time pressure" isn't a thought-terminating cliche? Time pressure is possible. It is not guaranteed. These are both facts.
  10. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    It's nice of them to finally admit this. But yeah. I was making noises about this way back when it was still called "D&D Next." More than a little irritating that it took them 12 years to figure out something that a casual observer, simply looking at the numbers, could point out plainly...
  11. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    Saying "no" to your players is not automatically railroading. However, saying "no" to your players is quite common with the more ham-fisted, clumsy forms of railroading. It's sort of like how frequent urination is a common sign of diabetes, but not a smoking gun by any means. You could also...
  12. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2014) Thoughts on bonus action potions?

    Sure. And games like Shadowrun have the idea of a slap-patch. It's not beyond the pale. It's just not aesthetic like potions are--so potions are here to stay. Because, in the end, several things trump realism, often more frequently than some folks would like to admit. Realism is a high...
  13. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    So, just so we're absolutely clear: Wizards literally have no idea when their spells become available. It just happens, spontaneously, always after a consistent pattern, but literally centuries of people practicing these arts while actively academically studying them, not one of them has ever...
  14. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    That's not minutiae. That's literally the single most important source of power in 5e. Knowing when your powers become available to you for use is kind of the single most important thing to know about them. Otherwise, you literally don't know whether you can use it...ever. That's a thing in...
  15. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    It just seems very strange to me that the world would know that spells come in discrete levels, that they can power those spells only a certain fixed number of times each day (which only increases through specifically training to get better), and that sleeping allows them to use their magic...
  16. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    This did not answer the question though. Are you saying that Wizards in your worlds, for example, are completely ignorant of the fact that their magic recharges after they sleep?
  17. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2014) Thoughts on bonus action potions?

    Hussar's group follows the roll for HP if you use a bonus action to quaff a potion, max healing if you spend a full action on it. I've found that that makes for an actually interesting trade-off. In a party with minimal healing, it's pretty important for avoiding death. And for goodness' sake...
  18. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    100% agreed. This is why I've beaten my "perverse incentives" drum for something like eight years around here. Game design is very much about being vigilant about perverse incentives--and re-evaluating whether an incentive is in fact perverse, or if it is pointing you to a different vision for...
  19. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    Is it though? Because that seems to be exactly the claim being made: that it ISN'T easy to fix 3e. That it is, in fact, pretty difficult to fix it, but people want the concepts, so they just...use it anyway, despite knowing that it will break. Okay. I don't think anyone should be required to...
  20. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Mike Mearls explains why your boss monsters die too easily

    That was the point, yes. It's objectively one of the most powerful feats in the game.
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