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  1. EzekielRaiden

    D&D General Chef feat should be an origin feat

    Yeah. If you absolutely have to, you could even go for something like giving feats a score-boost prerequisite. "Some Feats have an associated ability score. For example, Resilient is associated with any single ability score, while Magic Initiate is associated with any one of the three mental...
  2. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2014) "You Can Do 3 Things" - My Nephew's D&D Houserule

    If I might make an alternative suggestion for FoB? FoB: If one of your Moves was used for a Monk action, you can make 2 Unarmed Strikes as a single Move. (Becomes 3 at level 11.)
  3. EzekielRaiden

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

    It has, yes. Had a TPK* because of one, for example, because the GM jumped us with a bandit attack while we were taking a short rest to recover from the absolute butt-whoopin' we'd gotten from the first combat of the day. *Well, all-but-one PK. But it killed the campaign nonetheless.
  4. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) [+] What does a non-spellcaster Psion need/look like?

    Happily for you, maybe. But this is much more useful.
  5. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) [+] What does a non-spellcaster Psion need/look like?

    Frankly, I find this silly at best, and it looks pretty dang disingenuous from where I'm sitting. That is, it seems quite obvious to me that spells are very different things from augmentable powers. Yes, 3e (uniquely) did put psionic powers on a 1-to-9 level system like spells, but psionics...
  6. EzekielRaiden

    D&D General Two Simple Ways to Make Combat More Engaging

    That you are, indeed. I've had a few. Not bad people, but closed-minded about what is or isn't possible. I've seen it enough personally, and heard of it enough from others, that it's one of the biggest concerns I have WRT how GMing is done.
  7. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) [+] What does a non-spellcaster Psion need/look like?

    Are you familiar with Dreamscarred Press? They did their own PF1e update to psionics which built on this principle.
  8. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2024) Rank 5e skills from most useful (1) to least useful (18)

    This is ranked by how I think the game's rules directly tell you they operate, not how I think GMs should run things, nor how I have seen 5e GMs (with the exception of my current GM) run it, which to be clear isn't better than the rules as written. Perception Persuasion Insight Stealth...
  9. EzekielRaiden

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

    Given the "ghoul surprise", I think it's about 50/50 either way. Neither speaks well of the design process that went into 5e, though. Seeing a problem is there, knowing it is a design issue, and then just flat choosing to do nothing about it...I mean, that sounds pretty blatantly like...
  10. EzekielRaiden

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

    Often, I find that it is helpful to pair sticks with related but distinct carrots. Helps the players feel like you aren't just making their lives harder solely to make their lives harder, but rather changing one benefit for a different benefit. So, for example... "You may not always be able to...
  11. EzekielRaiden

    D&D General Two Simple Ways to Make Combat More Engaging

    If you want combat to be engaging, it has to be worth engaging with. Create genuinely varied terrain which actually affects gameplay--positively and negatively. Use hazards. They're good. Make them worthwhile to exploit, and fearsome to ignore. Forced movement. Just...seriously. Forced...
  12. EzekielRaiden

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

    Frankly, the claim that there always is such time pressure is what is ridiculous. "You cannot ever wait 8-16 hours. Period. Never. Oh, but taking four hour-long naps? Yeah that's fine. Nothing will change." That's the critical problem with how 5e did its rests. Spending 3+ hours a day doing...
  13. EzekielRaiden

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

    As if your "this situation had time pressure, therefore ALL SITUATIONS EVER ALWAYS have time pressure" isn't a thought-terminating cliche? Time pressure is possible. It is not guaranteed. These are both facts.
  14. EzekielRaiden

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

    It's nice of them to finally admit this. But yeah. I was making noises about this way back when it was still called "D&D Next." More than a little irritating that it took them 12 years to figure out something that a casual observer, simply looking at the numbers, could point out plainly...
  15. EzekielRaiden

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

    Saying "no" to your players is not automatically railroading. However, saying "no" to your players is quite common with the more ham-fisted, clumsy forms of railroading. It's sort of like how frequent urination is a common sign of diabetes, but not a smoking gun by any means. You could also...
  16. EzekielRaiden

    D&D 5E (2014) Thoughts on bonus action potions?

    Sure. And games like Shadowrun have the idea of a slap-patch. It's not beyond the pale. It's just not aesthetic like potions are--so potions are here to stay. Because, in the end, several things trump realism, often more frequently than some folks would like to admit. Realism is a high...
  17. EzekielRaiden

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

    So, just so we're absolutely clear: Wizards literally have no idea when their spells become available. It just happens, spontaneously, always after a consistent pattern, but literally centuries of people practicing these arts while actively academically studying them, not one of them has ever...
  18. EzekielRaiden

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

    That's not minutiae. That's literally the single most important source of power in 5e. Knowing when your powers become available to you for use is kind of the single most important thing to know about them. Otherwise, you literally don't know whether you can use it...ever. That's a thing in...
  19. EzekielRaiden

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

    It just seems very strange to me that the world would know that spells come in discrete levels, that they can power those spells only a certain fixed number of times each day (which only increases through specifically training to get better), and that sleeping allows them to use their magic...
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