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Sure, but make the look-up table simple. Don't make it a 3 dimensional lookup based on monster CR, number of PCs and PC level to produce a difficulty. My point is that you can get really close to the precision of that by doing the work on the design side. If you follow through the math above...

I mean, I spoke about it? It is like the difference between having the weight of the stuff in your room and a cargo van capacity, and having a program that lets you tag items and tells you if they fit in the cargo van. Sure, you can go around tagging items until the cargo van is full. You can...

Sure. But 4e's system was a fixed XP rating (that grew exponentially with level, and had level-bands, due to +1 ATK/DEF per level). A level 15 solo was for almost all purposes just 4 times the XP of a level 15 normal. You could balance encounters by just adding up XP. You could also balance...

I really don't like the 2 dimensional matrix mearls is using here. [PC level, Monster CR] -> CPs It enforces table lookups by the user (either automated or not) and by design encourages tiny tweaks in the values. We should resist lookup tables with all of our might, even at the cost of...

Here a set of rules I don't think you can really abuse: Two Weapon Fighting is part of the attack action. Polearm Mastery, Double Scimitars and Monk Martial Arts count as forms of Two Weapon Fighting. Only Monk Marital Arts lets you deal your attribute bonus to damage by default. All other...

My toy simplified 5e makes classes have weapon damage. Simple, Thrown and Ranged weapons do d4 damage. Wizards, Rogues and similar do d4 with everything. Rogues get sneak attack, which adds cinditional d6s, and finesse, which adds 1d4 unconditional. Rangers do d6 with one handed weapons, and...

I have gone over the rules to do this once. Martial Arts deserves a similar treatment to TWF: then downgrade flurry to 1 extra attack. As it stands, twf monk gets twf, attack, flurry x2 at level 2 for 4 attacks, or 3 attack twf ma at level 1. Dual wielding spears with twf feat is 3 attacks at...

Alchemists - they can put bonus action and action spells into elixers. Anyone can use them. DCs and effects are determined by Alchemist, targets and concentration are by the user of the liquid. Beneficial Elixers with one target are potions, and must be drunk by the target. Detrimental...

Sure, and like anything else where a player has their character have a goal, this is an adventure hook. They don't know how it happens, but maybe they can get a clue with an arcana check. If they want to go down that route as a party, you can do it. There is nothing super unbalancing about...

It is force damage bypassing almost all forms of resistance, and it is both melee and range. 1d6 makes it a solid choice. Not a great one. At 1d8 it is a better choice than firebolt in most situations; 19% less damage, melee and range, nearly unresisted damage type. A new ability doesn't...

I am pretty qualified in a technical field. Say I'm level 10 ish. A talented freshman physicist can probably solve entire categories of differential equations better than I can. Learning how to solve DEs that well would take a fair amount of work for me. I've sketched how, if a player wanted...

Arcane Blast: 120' ranged spell or 5' reach melee, 1d6 force damage. At level 5, 11 and 17 this increases to 2d6, 3d6 and 4d6. Feat Intense Cantrip Practice: You can add your intelligence modifier to the damage rolls of wizard cantrips. Feat Force Specialist: You learn Mage Armor and Arcane...

Now, all this being said, I would prefer it if my Apprentice Wizard cantrips felt more like PC spell casting. Emulation is important! However, the +2 to damage (to me) just means it has a feature that adds int-to-damage on Cantrips. Dropping melee range attack would be a good thing from my...

And there are many, many ways a PC that wants to duplicate a "seemingly at-will force attack" that a monster has could be made to do so as a DM? From the Player side: 1. Is there any way to know exactly how it works? Ie, 1d10+2, that just looks like a modest-low amount of damage. 2. Is there...

If someone misunderstands your point and interprets it as an adjacent position to yours, try presuming good faith. And explain what you are arguing better and clearer and distinguish it from the position they seem to think you are holding. You are being disagreed with, and the person...

The apprentice wizard is expected to last all of 3-5 rounds in combat. So do you want a way for players to duplicate their abilities? They simply took the apprentice spellblaster class. This class grants 0 HP, 0 proficiency bonus advancement, and after 5 levels lets you cast a single...

PCs gain power at an insane rate: a PC wizard can go from an apprentice to a demigod using her already written research notes. Go back to school and spend 30 years practicing it if you want to mimic some specific power. Meanwhile the other PCs will adventure and gain levels.

I mean, the really obvious thing is to modify "teleportation circle" to be "concentration, 1 minute". And to get rid of the cheese-rush (as the 6 second readied action thing is really stupid, honestly), make it teleport up to 10 medium sized creatures per round (and scaling numbers of larger)...

If I have long-distance trade magic, it won't look like the "teleportation circle" spell. The spells in the book are examples of spells, biased towards adventuring magic. Almost all high-level magic casting in my world involves consuming a scroll with the spell on it. Teleportation Circle is...