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This kind of spell should require concentration. It is an extraordinary sense that cannot be gained through most other means. But I would probably roll it in with another effect, because completely separable magical effects are boring. Earthen Integration - Concentration (1 hour), self, 2nd...

Spending spells shortens fights and saves HP. You are finding one small part and grabbign onto it and ignoring the other parts. A PC's ability to kill monsters depends on spending spells. Spending spells both boosts the PCs damage which reduces enemy damage, because it makes foes die faster...

Also, note that +X items are mechanically surprisingly powerful despite being very pedestrian. A +2 weapon (+2 to hit +2 damage) can easily do as much damage as a flametongue (+2d6 fire damage) despite the 2nd requiring attunement. Avoid giving out vanilla +X weapons. Avoid making their...

Sure, I'm just explaining the problem. Either have your plots move at the speed of "the world is ending tomorrow/the invaders arrive tomorrow/etc, feel free to take a long rest but then the world ends" or use gritty rests and have plots move at the speed of "the world/etc ends in 10 days". Or...

So, if your players are having 1 encounter/day, and your expectation is that fights are going to be close, a party of 6 level 3 characters can blow away CR 7 foes. Try adding up the level/CR of both sides. The default assumptions is that you'll have like 7 encounters where the typical one is...

The yield of an enslaved person is going to be less than a free person, or the cost to get that yield will be higher (in terms of supervision). Prior to the current era, people spent a good 50% of their income on food. You can give slaves worse food, but that will be another reason to reduce...

All of this "primary casters get X, non get Y" make me think you are playing without any multiclassing. Which is great and all, but useless for me. And if you back load it, adding a save or two at T3/4 isn't going to make that much of a difference between primary casters and not. I am in...

To me, sorcerers limited list is part of the mythos. They aren't generic arcane casters; they have a set of magical talents. I'd rather gice them: 1. A chance to not use a spell slot when they cast a sorcerer spell, 2. Strip flexible casting, 3. Make metamagic be short rest based. 1 amd 2 are...

Yes, it passes around in schools. Around here, there is zero ability to send a kid to school without the child unmasking in a poorly ventilated room to eat with other people. And there is no in school mask mandate, so it swirls around in the community of people with kids. So they kid will...

There are two tiers of saves -- Dex/Wis/Con is top tier, and Str/Int/Cha is not. With multiclassing in mind, they all have to be either good or bad. Barbarian (STR / CON) + Dex Bard (DEX / CHA) + Wis Cleric (WIS / CHA) + Con Druid (INT / WIS) + Con Fighter (STR / CON) + Dex Monk (STR / DEX) +...

Mechanus is a plane of order and clockwork. I like the view of them as a bunch of increasingly complex mechanical golems, ruled by the prime. Traditionally they dwallers are shape based, with more sides = higher complexity. A cute bit of lore I like is that they tried to tame limbo by...

That isn't what I said? It is inefficient use of spell slots, but it is quickly. The more efficient way is to use it on crits, when it becomes both an efficient use of spell slots and action economy (18 auto-damage from a 1st level slot is very good). The comparison (for slot efficiency)...

Add more sources of resistance. In my case, people wielding shields can sacrifice them to get resistance against any non-psychic source of damage. (If the shield is magical, it just disables the shield until the next short rest. If you are attuned to the shield you can do this proficiency...

I've tried to make high level Paladin cheese builds that rely on smite. Whenever I assumed a modest adventuring day, you got higher total damage from a BM XBE Fighter or a GWM Barbarian. When I did strange stuff to optimize smiting, like Paladin 6/Hex 1-3/Sorcerer X, the baseline Paladin ended...

I'm going to try out giving the Tasha's companion (slightly buffed at higher levels) to the Ranger as a baseline feature. It is 5 HP/level and can be recovered in a short rest easily. Balance-wise, I'm treating it as a per-short-rest heal, on par with the Fighter's Second Wind (which I also...

This looks like attribute check time. Lots of "how should this magic corner case work" can be solved by attribute checks. Here the suggestion is cleverly trying to subvert the domination command; the domination command is still obeyed, just not the way expected. Which is legit.

Str Dex makes more sense if Str is "total muscle mass" while Dex is "Muscles per pound". Under this model, moving yourself around is Dex (acrobatics), while moving the world is Str (athletics). Lean athletes would be good Str amazing Dex. A sumo wrestler is high Str low Dex; they care little...

Reign, by Greg Stolz, has a system for organizations. The organization has a bunch of (somewhat abstract) features and attributes. These organizations can come into conflict or try to do things. PCs in this game adventure and act as spoilers. Their actions can add bonuses to what the...

If getting caught up on what the rules say causes conflict, I wouldn't call that "easier". You can have lots of conversation about how a game plays without agreeing on how force wall interacts with secret hut. In fact the conversations you can easily have are about how it actually plays. What...

Why would agreeing on the baseline rules of D&D be a great virtue? Each table should have its own understanding of how the rules work. So understanding the various ways you can read the rules is far more important than agreeing on what they are; that gives you the ability to move between...