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  1. Paul Farquhar

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

    This is the key phrase. You cannot “average out” cars and bicycles and expect to get an outcome that is useful to either motorists or cyclists, never mind pedestrians.
  2. Paul Farquhar

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

    Nope, I wasn't there, having given up on D&D years earlier. The current rules seem to be full of creative vaguery to me. Very much in the spirit of 1st edition.
  3. Paul Farquhar

    D&D General What's your view on a pirate-driven campaign?

    Deadfire is good, apart from the central plot, which is terrible.
  4. Paul Farquhar

    WotC D&D Universes Beyond

    Is not the Stranger Things boxed set a Universes Beyond type product?
  5. Paul Farquhar

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

    It's a problem that the game has to handle, because it's D&D's USP. By specialising, you have a far smaller market, and WotC is too big a company with too many overheads to be a niche company.
  6. Paul Farquhar

    D&D General What's your view on a pirate-driven campaign?

    It's going to depend on the players, but I have had players interested in this in a Traveller campaign. Traveller is just much better at this kind of thing than D&D though.
  7. Paul Farquhar

    D&D General 5e System Redesign through New Classes and Setting. A Thought Experiment.

    That is ridiculously hyperbolic. If your players find an encounter too difficult there is no reason for it to "ruin a campaign" or even a session. They can retreat, or surrender, or be captured. Advice that "not all combat has to be to the death" is far more productive for the DMG. And is the...
  8. Paul Farquhar

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

    I think people are largely unaware of how many encounters they have, and how many rounds of combat. And it clearly is going to vary depending on what kind of adventure (dungeon, wilderness, urban, political, horror, etc) is being played. Which in turn depends on what sort of adventures the group...
  9. Paul Farquhar

    D&D General 5e System Redesign through New Classes and Setting. A Thought Experiment.

    The biggest factor that determines the difficulty of an encounter is the skill of the players.
  10. Paul Farquhar

    D&D General 5e System Redesign through New Classes and Setting. A Thought Experiment.

    What does your gut tell you? Since 1st edition that has been the most reliable method.
  11. Paul Farquhar

    D&D 5E (2024) Hellfire Club Starter Set

    In that it’s marketed to Stranger Things fans who may have never played D&D before. They couldn’t really say in small print “you must own the core rulebooks and have previous D&D experience in order to use this product” could they?
  12. Paul Farquhar

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

    Serendipity. The game proved easier than the designers originally intended, and that was popular, so everyone kept quiet about it.
  13. Paul Farquhar

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

    I would say that “easy mode” was the secret sauce that made 5e so attractive to casual gamers. They wouldn’t have taken up D&D if they were dying on a regular basis. Sure, hardcore gamers are going to grumble about it, but commercially they don’t really matter (and if they are really as...
  14. Paul Farquhar

    D&D 5E (2024) Hellfire Club Starter Set

    Yeah, it doesn’t have the words starter set (or synonyms thereof) on the box, nor is it described that way in any of the official WotC marketing materials. I’m not sure why people are describing it as such. I would call it a boxed set media tie-in.
  15. Paul Farquhar

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

    Lost interest in D&D mid 3e, looked briefly at 4e and bounced off, and was was completely unaware of anything D&D until I was reintroduced to 5e a couple of years in.
  16. Paul Farquhar

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

    Sure, hindsight is wonderful, and making mistakes is normal. Admitting to them leads to growth. I was simply responding to someone who seems to think the original rules were perfect, and it’s all the players who have it wrong. As for the play test, it’s worth noting that very few current 5e...
  17. Paul Farquhar

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

    Yes it is. And Mearls admits it himself in the original article.
  18. Paul Farquhar

    D&D 5E (2024) The Great Wizard Extinction.

    Hit point totals are much higher in 5e than they were in 2e. 2e goblin would average 3.5 hp, so a 2e magic missile would most likely (75%) kill one. 5e goblin has 7 hp, so you would need to hit it with 2 missiles to have a fair (62.5%) chance of killing one, all three to be confident.
  19. Paul Farquhar

    D&D 5E (2024) Feywild technically doesn't mention the Seelie and Unseelie Court

    I associate the seelie with spring and summer, and emotions like passion, confidence, love, lust, jealousy and impulsiveness - not necessarily all positive. The unseelie I associate with autumn and winter, and emotions like depression, melancholy, uncertainty and mindfulness. The alien legal...
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