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Above all, the setting and cosmology. It's a thing of beauty, by far the best of any edition. I was very sad when 5E (which I mostly like) went back to the Great Wheel.

Rather than damage each time, I'd grant one recharge guaranteed, then roll each subsequent attempt. 10-19, you recharge normally. 2-9, your patron says no; you're done for the day. On a 20, your patron is pleased and restores hit dice equal to your level; if this takes you over your limit, roll...

I'm going to cast my vote for LeGuin and "Wizard of Earthsea," although the competition from Guy Gavriel Kay and of course Tolkien was intense. Other contenders included Stephen King's "The Gunslinger" and Barbara Hambly's "The Ladies of Mandrigyn." Hambly never gets enough credit.

The problem with that distinction is that it's applying tags across the entire game -- every single creature and class ability -- in service of a tiny handful of spells and effects (mainly dispel magic and anti-magic field) which care about distinguishing "active magic" from "background magic."...

I'm curious: What has been the impact on the quality of the paper product? That's a real question, I'm not much into the Marvel universe. I ask because of the post a few days ago on D&D sales, showing that the two editions with the most PHB sales -- 1E and 5E -- were the ones created with the...

At one point, I recall they were trying an approach where a creature's primary combat spells and spell-equivalents had the essential mechanics spelled out (heh) in the statblock, while the others were just listed off. I don't know if that's still the plan, but it seems like a good solution to...

This is a key point. D&D does not strive for realism -- it is obviously wildly unrealistic in many ways. But it does strive for "stage realism." The systems do not need to stand up to scrutiny, but they must offer a narrative that seems credible in the heat of the game. Hit points are an...

I don't want anything put in just to fill a box. If they come up with a compelling concept for such a species, by all means include it. If not, not.

So, 1.5M for 1E, 1M for 2E, ~1M for 3E, far below 1M for 4E, and 3M and counting for 5E? Those are some eye-opening figures. I had not realized the 1E boom was so gigantic relative to the editions that followed -- I thought surely 3E must have outsold it eventually. But 3E seems to have barely...

In an infinite universe containing infinite matter, everything that appears once can be expected to appear an infinite number of times. But we do not live in such a universe. There are various cosmological theories (e.g., eternal inflation) which propose a multiverse, which would be infinite...

There's really no such thing as a "basic proof of existence" for aliens. Every time we encounter some unknown astronomical phenomenon, somebody wonders if it might be aliens -- from pulsars that look like artificial radio transmissions, to a star suddenly dimming in a way that suggests a Dyson...

It is true that "most folks" agree with this. It's not because of basic reasoning, though; it's an argument from incredulity. Look at the size of the universe, the probability of intelligent life arising can't possibly be so low that all those stars and planets are devoid of intelligence...

And saying "Aliens must exist somewhere!" is like concluding the Loch Ness Monster does exist, after the same amount of investigation. If there were a "We don't know and it's absurd to make any kind of definitive claim" option, I'd have picked that. But if I have to make the absurd choice and...

It could well be that intelligence is merely a bootstrapping process, necessary for life to leap from a planetary surface to the stars, but worthless -- indeed, an active hindrance to survival and growth -- once a certain level of technology is achieved. Perhaps the end state of a technological...

With our sample size of one, we know far too little to assert anything with confidence. We don't know how likely it is that life arises on a given planet, or makes the countless evolutionary innovations needed for sapience, within the limited period during which that planet is habitable. (Earth...

If the Oort Cloud had been teeming with VN probes for (presumably) a couple million years, we would know because they would long ago have expanded into the inner Solar System. We would see them swarming in the asteroid belt, the rings of Saturn, in orbit around Earth itself. The whole point of...

The point of the Fermi paradox is that the amount of searching we've already done should be more than enough. If there were significant numbers of intelligent aliens capable of interstellar travel, and just one of them were inclined to expand and colonize, that species would have filled up the...

I am under no illusions that WotC is paying attention to this discussion, but I've been wanting to try this for a while, so here's a take on what hybrid classes in 5E could look like. (I'm basing this off the standard 5E fighter and wizard, since the 1D&D versions are still in flux.) HYBRID...

For my money, 4E was on the right track for multiclassing, the implementation just needed polish. Feats for those who want to dabble in another class. Hybrid classes for those who want to truly meld two classes. I played a hybrid wizard/warlord and had a great time. Obviously, this is easier...

The game punishes that. Rolling for stats means you get a chance to escape that punishment; you also get a chance to be screwed even harder. On net, you come out roughly the same. If a class suffers from MAD and you're looking to fix it, there are several straightforward, sensible ways to...