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They're CR 1/2, not 2. Same as before. The extra damage is also exactly what they gained from Martial Advantage before, so the only meaningful change is the addition of Pack Tactics.

I think people are getting a bit hung up on Orc = Tough. That's literally for if you're playing an old adventure and an encounter says "5 orcs" or something, and you only have (or only want to use) the 2025 MM. In the case, use the Tough stat block, because it's the same CR and fights broadly...

Actually, using Steady Aim drops your Speed to 0 for the rest of the turn, so Withdraw has no effect - half of 0 is still 0!

I'm pretty sure plain old Guard is in the DMG somewhere though. Maybe in Greyhawk's city watch? Also iirc one of the mini adventures features an encounter with berserkers leading infantry warriors in a jungle, which I'd have expected to be tribal warriors in that context. Not a hill I'm going...

I strongly suspect it's the new name for 2014's "tribal warrior", which was all kinds of problematic.

A generative AI program that has consumed a parallel universe and is encroaching on this one. Instead of mutations it's extra fingers and lifeless, uncanny valley faces with an unwholesome sheen. Instead of slime and tentacles it's endless hallucinatory slop that blindly apes but doesn't quite...

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Why would you host a party people don't enjoy? Yeah, as DM it's your job to facilitate the group's fun. That doesn't mean giving them everything they want all the time - rewards are more satisfying when they're earned - but basically, yeah, you're organising a fun activity for your friends. I...

"This book about hosting a party is just full of things for your guests to do! Where's the stuff that makes my life easier?" Wild idea, but what if one of the things that those mavericks at WotC think makes people want to DM is the chance to facilitate their players doing stuff they think is...

The 14th one down is interesting. They both seem to be iconics from the new PHB: that's the halfling wild magic sorcerer, and the one shouting is the orc gloom stalker ranger, but the latter looks a lot more human than the PHB art here - only the ears and the tusks indicate they aren't. So...

The stat blocks were, yeah, but the character races (species, now) were still Humanoids, and it was implied the monster versions were special cases, like the Eladrin. I'm fine with it; the inclusion of the Feywild in 2014 felt like a bit of an afterthought to not have to retcon too much of 4th...

New stat blocks! The MM ones aren't finalised, according to the text, but it's interesting that they're seemingly going all-in with making stuff Fey. Bugbears, Bullywugs, and Worgs are all Fey in this adventure. I don't have a problem with that (Worgs already originate in the Feywild in my...

I suspect the logic is that if a Warlock is going Pact of the Chain, then the familiar - being more powerful and capable - is part of the equation for class balance, whereas Find Familiar for another class is balanced solely against spells of the same level (and it can't fight, so whatever)...

Normally we just call this thing where you write a summary of the information you're most likely to actually need during gameplay "taking notes".

When he asked her specifically about D&D and why she liked it, clearly Woll should have held up a hand and explained, slowly and carefully, the full history of roleplaying games as a cultural phenomenon, starting with the debate over whether Gygax or Arneson actually formulated the original...

You can actually view the relevant page on the Amazon listing for the PHB! It is indeed under "Attack" in the glossary.

Again: he's overhauling the CR system and encounter building system as a whole. This has nothing to do with whether the CR calculation in the DMG is accurate on its own terms or not. I've designed hundreds of monsters during the lifetime of 5E, and picked apart many, many of the officially...

Yes, that's true of the encounter difficulty guidelines. It's not true of the CR calculation for monster creation in the DMG, which is accurate to basically every 5e monster WOTC have published. If that happened by accident, it would be a remarkable coincidence!

Because, at the risk of opening a whole can of worms, there is a pervasive belief among some segments of the community that the DMG guidelines for CR don't work even on their own terms, and various hacks of 5E dispense with them altogether for that reason. In actuality, the DMG guidelines are...

That's how much each use of Legendary Resistance adds to the effective hit points for the purposes of calculating CR, for a creature of CR 11 or higher.