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I immediately think of how Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster both work. The base Fighter and Rogue chasses don’t have spellcasting (nor do most of the subclasses), and there’s no Fighter spell list or Rogue spell list. Yet those two subclasses gain a Spellcasting ability and draw from another...

I was a new 1st Edition AD&D player who rolled that 1% chance for PHB psionics on my first character. So, that’s my take on new players coming in through the shallow end of the complexity pool... ;) (although that might inform why I’ve always since chosen to play characters with a breadth of...

Having played since the late eighties, it wasn’t until well into 3.5 that I ever played with miniatures with a grid. That’s not to say that games before that didn’t involve drawing a quick map on scratch paper with Xs and arrows that looked like a coach’s play sheet, nor does it mean players...

A clever cleric carries a tight blindfold with them as well, to tie around the eyes and secure the coins in place — that way the body is protected against jostling and no greedy passerbys decide to get 2cp richer... ;)

Might simply listing consumables separately from permanent items on their sheets (or on a group sheet) be a trick to help them remember what they have and to use them?

I wonder to what degree the issue is the lore over who created whom. If the Yugoloths created the Devils and Demons, that lessens the status of those entities compared to other “great powers” of the multiverse. If the Devils (in the person of Asmodeus) is behind the creation of the Yugoloths...

I also wonder if, like with Frenzy-Zealot Barbarian and Elements-Sun Soul Monk, they may end up coming out with an additional pet ranger subclass down the line to offer some of the fixes folks are talking about with Beastmaster, without scrapping a class that others are likely using and enjoying.

My first thought is how odd it is to have such an overhaul of lore at this point in the edition cycle. It would make sense to have those sort of changes at the release of 5ein 2014 (similar to the changes to monster lore in the MM), but we’ve gone through four years of assumptions around...

If the party is in a classic dungeon or similar situation, the DM can design the circumstances such that PCs trying to have a Five Minute Workday are going to either be attacked, surrounded, or reinforced against. Tactically, the party will have to face/force a higher number of encounters before...

But the lack of mechanics in D&D for the players adding story to the “DM’s” world doesn’t stop that from happening. It’s been going on since Rob Kuntz added El Raja Key to Greyhawk...or even since Gygax added Castle Greyhawk to Arneson’s Blackmoor game! There’s no algorithm at play here...

Now I’m getting happy Sword of Vermillion flashbacks.

Surprise, we’ve gotten off topic! I disagree with the thesis of this thread, based on how I’ve always played campaigns. I’ve roleplayed across editions of D&D and many other games for about 35 years now, and I’ve only run two short campaigns of my own as a DM or GM in that time (both of which...

Probably the simplest method is not to change any mechanics, just limit what the Common tongue covers. If it's a trade pidgin instead of a full language, able to best convey concepts of trade, travel, and direction, it's still a useful thing – but it's like trying to carry on a conversation in...

Plan C: Hold a polearm in each hand, use your action on an Intimidation check.

Archon is actually a historical word, not any sort of gaming creation, the Hellenistic Greek word for “monarch” that came to mean “magistrate” when Alexander and his heirs conquered the Persian Empire and dependent Greek kings replaced the old Persian satrapies. The reason the name is used for...

I voted Bard, 20% for healing and 80% for entertaining your kids with Vicious Mockery — using charming and witty insults against your foes to drive them crazy sounds like something that children would love (especially as it then let’s them actually dispatch the bad guys after you’ve weakened...

The one thing I would add to Zardnaar’s points is to pay attention to what fantasy (or historical) sources you think should inform a game and how they actually intersect with how D&D is designed as a game. There are a lot of sources mentioned above, different tabletop and video games — all...

If you’re looking for ideas on interactions with geni, I’d recommend looking back at home D&D has handled sha’ir in previous editions. They’re in many ways the earliest warlocks (in terms of how we see the concept designed) and the spell-fetching by their gen would make for an ideal custom pact...

Alright DMs, your party’s next encounter is with a naked halfling, barreling down the road in a empty cart seemingly pulled by nothing. Roll initiative!

Just wait until you see the Gyesmes...