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I have replaced subspecies with Phenotypes. Phenotypes isn't region specific. We have Ectomorphs, Mesomorphs, and Endomorph built people. Not following the junk science version, but there are build differences between people. For my lizardfolk, I can break them down into crocadilian and...

I want to go with one of those, but who fights adjacent to another PC as a melee character? You are usually running off to pin someone down, and the people you want to protect are elsewhere in cover.

2d10 is just 1d20 with some scaling. Namely, DCs are ~0.5 lower, modifiers are SD(1d20)/SD(2d10) =~ sqrt(2) larger. (VAR(1d20) is 399/12, VAR(2d10) = 2VAR(1d10) = 192/12, so VAR(1d20)/VAR(2d10) = 399/192 =~ 2. SD is the square root of variance.) https://anydice.com/program/42b2b Select...

I have been playing with a model to give bonds alignments. Along this way I had to make Law and Chaos a bit less flanderized. Lawful elevates abstractions over individuals. Chaos elevates individuals over abstractions. If you are loyal to the Crown and not the current Queen, that is a Lawful...

I dislike 3/4th casting here; I think 1/2 casting would work just as well. The gap between 1/2 and full is too narrow at low levels to fit 3/4. All you really get out of it is 6/7th level spells at high levels and other spells a bit early; and I'm not sure why we want that on a bard. The...

"You can use Holy Symbols as a focus" is that feature that allows you to substitute a Spellcasting Focus for material components. Barring a magical focus, the only thing focus's do is substitute for material components, that is what "using a focus" means. It does mean you can only use the Holy...

Yep: if you have a 50:50 chance of hitting, you'll have fights where you hit 0 times if you fight often enough. With 2 attacks per round and 3 rounds of combat, that happens 1/64 fights. With 5 PCs, it happens to someone on average every 13 fights. Make a foe with a higher AC - a 40% chance...

There are some simple tools to estimate how big a fight will be. The first is simply to add up the HP of the monsters and divide by an estimated DPR of the PCs. This gives you "how many rounds will this take" number. It doesn't say if the fight will be challenging etc. But a fight that takes...

OAs (and being out of reach so you can't be charged) are about the only reasons why position matters in melee combat right now. Getting rid of them is sort of bad. I've played with a flanking rule that is "if you end your turn flanked, melee attacks are at advantage on you until the start of...

Imagine if each time you get the ball, you flip a coin. On heads, you stand around for 5 minutes, then the other team gets possession. That is what rolling 2 times and missing both times while staying still (because moving is clearly worse) is like in 5e D&D. You roll 2d20, both are low...

No, it shouldn't be copy and paste? Meteor Storm is not a copy and paste of Shield. But Meteor Storm has mechanics in common with shield. Mechanics should be introduced in lower tiers and made epic in later tiers, not utterly different in design in later tiers. This means if you add Deeds of...

Seems like a fun game to play. That is sarcasm. Alice rolled to hit and missed. Bob skipped their turn. Same game state change. In 5e D&D, taking a 5 foot step backwards doesn't give you any defensive boosts. It means your foes get extra OAs. Giving ground makes you worse defensively. In...

Mechanics at level 11+ should echo mechanics at level 1-5 not be out of left field. People get into their class in the first few levels; most people want something that feels the same, if better, not something new. 6/7/8/9 spells are similar mechanically to lower level spells, just stronger...

5e doesn't reward moving all that much, unless you build for mobility. If you are engaged, mostly a melee character's turn is to roll to hit that target. If those rolls miss, the melee character's turn may as well have been skipped. And position in 5e mostly matters in that it determines who...

Redirect 2nd level Abjuration 60' range Reaction to a spell being cast In response to detecting a spell being cast with a component you can perceive, or a spell with a perceptible effect going off, you attempt to redirect the target of the spell. The spell's target or center of effect is...

I'm thinking about mechanics to unfreeze the narrative in D&D. Ie, some creature's turn comes. The creature tries to do something, but rolls poorly or the enemies roll well. Nothing happens. The next creature goes. That is a frozen narrative - the turn could have been skipped. Sometimes...

Look, if you want to make counterspelling fun, please don't make it save-or-suck. The best counterspells aren't counterspells. 1. A counterspell that replaces damage dice with d4s ("stifle"). The creature whose spell is countered gets to reroll damage dice on their next spell. 2. A...

I'm thinking of a flat cosmology. We have the mirror worlds of Fey and Shadow (they are just too good), but we'll add Liminal worlds between. Fey : Astral : Prime : Ethereal : Shadow Lets go further and swap Fey and Astral: Astral : Fey : Middle : Ethereal : Shadow This breaks the symmetry...

Oh yes, I fully support the "add up and round up after fractions" in my houserules. It is a bit more complex, but multiclassing already is complex enough. I go further than that even; I give access to higher level spells for multiclassed characters. Max spell level for full casters is half...

The math is weird to avoid exploits. A simple version would be to give everyone an ECL. Half casters get (1/2 class level, rounded up), Subclass casters get (1/3 class level, rounded up), and full casters get class level. You just add up ECL. This leads to an "exploit": 1 level splash of...