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A movie I've seen many a time before. :) Just because you-as-DM place an item in an adventure doesn't mean they're gonna find it, or that they'll recognize it as valuable even if they do find it.

We use your method B above (5d6k3, arrange to suit), and have done since before I started playing. Tried, tested, and true. (side note: your suggested array in method D seems to be missing a number)

Oh, sure - but let's instead ask why is the combat there at all? Is it there mostly as a vehicle for in-character roleplay and story development (CaT) or is it there mostly as a challenge or task for the PCs to overcome (CaW) or is it there mostly so the PCs can bust out their combat feats...

Which raises a question: is CaT more the domain of diceless or dice-light games, rather than dice-centered D&D where it's kind of an add-on or overlay to what's already taking place?

I used to think like that, but eventually came around to "hell with it - leave it as it lies". Why? Because IME they either destroy the good stuff along with the bad or just sell it off because they don't want it. Having run it a few times now I don't recall there being 3 unguarded +3 maces...

You might want to either add some sort of material cost to this or harshly limit how often it can be cast, otherwise your Rangers and Nature Clerics stand to make a financial killing by producing these potions and selling them on the open market. :)

That seems a bit too close to the 4e-5e tier system, and tiers don't play well with parties of mixed levels. Better if-where possible (and for sure it isn't always) to smooth out those jumps. The combat matrix is a great place to start this process, by making it more linear (mostly) rather...

I start tweaking after 3rd level for most classes, as beyond that straight-up doubling can get too slow even for me. The other option is to simply halve the hit die size after 10th and keep rolling. If you look, the static increase for all classes in 1e is the closest integer to the average of...

As @Moving Pictures points out, spreadsheets (and .html) can be Your Friend. My spell lists and write-ups are all online such that everyone can access them at once (far better than passing a book around), thus if I want to add or delete a spell it's just a matter of a few minutes of telling the...

The neutral and impartial piece is around how you run what's already been prepped (or written, if using a canned module). If the module says there's 2 Beholders in the room and the PCs get way in over their heads in trying to deal with them, a CaW DM isn't going to help those PCs out. They're...

Like it! We also invented a bunch of new spells for them, some based specifically on Magic cards: Drain Life is a 5th level spell that does 4d8 damage to the target (range 50 ft) and all that damage, up to what's required to slay the target if relevant, translates as hit points for the caster...

Maybe that was Gygax's own experience around learning cosines. :)

Yes to both, but I'm trying to talk RAW here (for once! :) ). He still uses spell points, I went to wild-card slots. That's just the sort of thing that IMO should slowly earn xp for that stay-at-home NPC. She's probably chucking a few cures around here and there as well when she can, I'd...

Which is fine until you try to match the rules with the setting: Setting --- all the magic was made long ago. Rules --- magic items can be destroyed if exposed to AoE damage untended, or if their bearer fails to save, or by other less-common means. They can also be forever lost e.g. dropped...

4th level on that chart stands out as odd, as instead of double the start-of-level xp the MU needs almost triple to get through that level. That said, levels 1-3 look like the original Fighter progression rather than MU, so is 4th just making up for lost time? Then 5th is also more than...

Agreed. What about wands that don't always directly replicate spells, e.g. Wand of Wonder? (I don't at all buy in to the 3e idea that wands can only replicate spells, I found that both unnecessarily limiting and - worse - boring. Wands should be able to do all kinds of things.)

That's how I do it too, and the person receiving this spell doesn't have to roll to learn it as it's assumed to be built in to the training. At 1st level, I don't go through all that rolling for each spell stuff. Instead, I just roll what they start with (usually Read Magic plus one from each...

Everybody kind of has a limit as to how good they can get at any given profession - the old (and quite true) saying that people rise to their level of imcompetence holds sway here. But sure, someone who has been a merchant for many years and has an aptitude for it might well be an expert. And...

There's two in-setting reasons why lots of magic weapons and armour might be made: --- adventurers and-or nobility pay MUs or Artificers really well to make martial items to commission (this is where the high-end stuff comes from), or --- nobility pay, or hire, or enslave, MUs or Artificers to...

No PC is doing it, and yet somebody has to be doing it because otherwise where do all the magic items come from and how (and from whom) can the PCs commission new items to be made, or get broken ones repaired and re-enchanted? So, a DM can either invent and codify what happens and who does it...