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5 minutes, but capped at 2/day. (I would not mind 5 minutes with no cap, but that would require a lot of rebalancing. The 2/day limit makes it work as a drop-in replacement for the current rule, which my table has been using for years.)

I can't speak for any other nerds, but the reason I turned on him was the atrocious dialogue and acting. (The excessive reliance on primitive CGI didn't help either.) The plot and vision of the prequels were fantastic. If Lucas had just had the sense to recognize his own limitations and hire a...

I gather there were quite a few people who did that while Tolkien was still alive. In the revised edition, he devoted a chunk of the foreword to knocking down claims that it was an allegory for World War 2, with the Ring symbolizing nuclear weapons. And I'm sure that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Tolkien had a good deal to say on that subject. The funny thing is that the Lord of the Rings really does have a lot going on under the surface, deliberately put there and carefully thought out by the author (who was after all an academic himself). But none of it lends itself to hot takes on...

Bias is inevitable in both kinds of sources. But bias is not the only source of inaccuracy. Another is that human memory absolutely sucks, and it sucks in direct proportion to the passage of time since the event. Contemporaneous sources are far less affected by that type of inaccuracy, and are...

Didn't we already have more or less this exact plot in "Out of the Abyss?"

It's true that you can't pare a caster class down to the simplicity of a champion fighter... but you certainly can pare it down to the simplicity of a warlock. That's one of several reasons I hope they update 2014 Pact Magic instead of going with the mess they replaced it with in the previous...

D&D would be much better if ability scores were abolished wholesale. Fold everything into a single proficiency bonus where you either have it on a given roll, or don't. Skills, saves, attack rolls; any time you pick up a d20, all you need to know is whether you're proficient and whether you have...

Asking whether fiction or mechanics is more important is like asking which is more important to a car, the wheels or the engine. You need both or you're going nowhere. And if they aren't connected solidly, you're going to break down in short order.

A 5-minute short rest, usable twice per day, has worked just fine in my group for years. It's dead simple and it resolves a bunch of issues (mostly, but not entirely, to do with warlocks and monks). I know the plural of anecdote is not data, but I don't think most players would give a crap one...

In principle, #2. In practice, steps are often skipped when there's no need for them. A player about to sneak past a guard might go ahead and roll Stealth without being asked, because they know I'm almost certain to call for a Stealth check and why not save time? If for whatever reason I decide...

I agree, that would be my ruling as well. I might allow a trigger such as "Six seconds have passed since I was knocked unconscious by injuries, during which I have not received any magical healing or medical treatment." I'd have to think about whether "X time has passed since event Y" should...

Surviving on the front line doesn't make you a tank. It just means you don't need anyone else to tank for you. The monk is much more combat-oriented, and specifically melee-oriented, than the rogue. If it isn't able to defend itself from melee foes, it can't fulfill its basic function...

As I said earlier in the thread, I think monks should only tank on a limited basis; probably at a ki/discipline/focus cost. They should be primarily skirmishers. But they still need the defensive capability to survive on the front line, and ideally that capability will fit the theme of the...

I certainly wouldn't argue with that. I was just noting that it doesn't raise significant balance issues to hand out animal friendship at will. The warlock proves there are a lot of magical/mystical abilities in D&D that really don't need to be confined to slot-limited spellcasting or...

They should just bite the bullet and accept that trying to shoehorn four full caster classes (plus a couple of partial casters) into a single arcane spell list is a terrible idea. They're already being forced to make a bunch of class-specific spells; so now, instead of picking from one spell...

Same way we have a warlock invocation that lets you cast silent image at will, without overshadowing the wizard who is limited by slots when casting that spell. Many utility spells are primarily limited, not by casting resources, but by opportunities to get good use out of them. Animal...

If you're talking pure movement rate with no other abilities, sure. But that doesn't mean you can't design a class around mobile defense. You can either tie an AC boost to movement, or make it easier to get out of attack range: Ability that lets you move places your enemies can't (e.g., up a...

Others have already offered most of the advice I was going to give on how to handle the unpredictable; so here are some thoughts on making players a little bit more predictable. 1. When you present them with the goal for the adventure, be clear about it. And I mean spell out every goddamn...

I like the idea of renaming the condition to "sickened," which fits disease, poison, and a variety of other causes. If a condition and a damage type have to share a name, they should come together whenever possible. Things imposing the condition should include at least a token amount of damage...