Search results

I missed this on my first read-through. Let me tell you a story about the last D&D character I played before real life conspired to make me a Forever DM: Esmerae. You see, my DM bought Spelljammer (The Beadles and Grimm version no less!) with the intent to run Light of Xarysis. I intentionally...

I'd like to. By the end of GoT, (no the books no longer count, he's never finishing them) the sheer about of character assassination and murdered characters had left me with no character I was rooting for and secretly hoping they all lost. If you want to run your campaign like George Rartin...

WotC is being too cute by half. You notice no The Dark Sun related verbiage appears anywhere in the "Classes of the Apocalypse" UA? They don't even call it Dark Sun when we all know it's Dark Sun because they don't want people comparing it to old Dark Sun. People are going to people, but the...

The problem is that we again are seeing one part of a tapestry and assuming we have seen it all. For example, the PDK was derided for not matching 2e Cormyr lore without knowing about the background (and feat) the new lore (still a mystery, but clearly the knights are bigger than just Cormyr). I...

We don't know the fiction. We are making guesses based on what we THINK the fiction is based on older editions and a short blurb. It's one thing to say "I think the defiler sorcerer should have an ability that withers plants since the description says it does." And another to say "According to...

We had a long running joke called "Blue Thumb Syndrome" where one of the character's thumbs turned blue. While their thumb is blue they are immune to all damage but they can only follow the part and quizzically stare at their thumb and wonder why it turned blue. Many players would find somewhere...

Both. What is more important, the story of the X-Men or the story of Cyclops? Both are important. The X-Men can tell stories without him, and you can tell stories about Cyclops without the X-Men. It's not fair to say that only stories about the X-Men as a team are important and it doesn't...

Once again, the curse of the "purple dragon knight" strikes where people rate the incomplete lore rather than the actual class features.

Not since I was 12. I don't get to play very often (nearly every DM). I legit build characters for fun in my spare time. I have a "folder" of character ideas I want to try. Additionally, I rarely like playing the same class twice in a row. And most games I play on tend to focus on specific...

One of the things I was most disappointed about in 5.24 was the move back to Ability score bonus per day class features. Imho, class needs to be decoupled from ability scores so as to not encourage "race to 20" in your primary score. I think Basic did this best; outside of xp bonus for higher...

D&D was sold to me as the ability to make my own characters, worlds, and stories in a way that allowed me to express my creative freedom. D&D in the years since has moved in the direction of better helping me tell those stories. Creating nameless fighters to rush into a dungeon and die was the...

Almost a little too on the nose, considering the first chronological movie is A New Hope...

I'm haven't tracked XP for a decade and I haven't missed it, except for the bonus XP I would get for bringing snacks to game.

3e was better at not penalizing bad rolls than AD&D. Bonuses start lower, ASI was built into character progression and stat boosting magic was assumed in the math. It wasn't perfect though, since high ability scores were baked into the math assumptions, but it was better at actually allowing...

Yes, but but there is a fine line between using them for inspiration and being forced to roll for everything and being bound to the results. DMs have veto power over random rolls if it serves the flow of game (ignoring a random encounter roll against a weaken party or rolling an obvious...

I didn't say that. I don't think balancing the potential power of fireball should be "...and sometimes you kill your friends instead". I'd rather have those "cool powerful abilities" be brought in line with the other classes.

I don't have an issue if you want to play D&D like analog Diablo. I just don't want that the default assumption for character, world, or adventure building.

You know what else would be fun? DMs have to randomly generate all dungeons and make all encounters random encounters! All treasure randomized! All towns procedurally generated. All NPC reactions rolled. Why should DMs not have the fun of having their creative efforts bound to the dice?