Recent content by jayoungr

I have a fondness for Xonthal's Tower in Rise of Tiamat. They handled the maze in a way that appeals to me, as a series of encounters to be solved.

I think you're missing a key point here, which is that 10-year-olds are usually DM'ing for other 10-year-olds, who are not as demanding an audience as adults. It's not that unusual for 10-year-olds to write or paint or DM well enough to impress their peers.

Town guards don't typically use the commoner stat block. They could be anything from guards to veterans to knights.

I've never gotten into Talislanta for similar reasons. Their only advertising slogan is "No Elves!"

That's just the old "Can I play a ninja?" trope. Some players just want their characters to stick out in the setting.

I don't think it's just a 5E thing. I definitely remember friends taking advantage of the playable monster rules back in 3.5 for "exotic" characters.

You are not alone. I chalk it up to different priorities in character focus: some players are more drawn to macro-level difference/novelty (either in mechanical terms or in roleplaying concepts), while others prefer to differentiate at the micro level by making this human different from the...

I personally didn't find it so, and I played it up to level 17. But my group is pretty casual for the most part, and not into wringing every last bit of DPR out of their builds.

And that's what's going to make fans of the setting scream, if they do it again. People seem to have very strong feelings about Dark Sun. That's why I said WotC would get flak from both sides. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I believe they are at least trying to make a Dark Sun conversion. I just don't know why, since so many elements of it would be controversial nowadays. If they change the setting, they get flak from one side, and if they change nothing, they get flak from the other side. It seems there's no way...

What makes you say this? I actually think it is less that way than any of the other previous WotC editions.

Also, if you think 5E has too many options/choices, you can always stick to just the original PHB. (And, did you ever try 3.X?? It has many more options.)

Many players in my group are about your age and go back to AD&D in their play experience. They really lit up when we first tried 5E because they said it felt like 2E (their favorite overall) but with cleaned-up math. By that, they mean things like ascending AC instead of THAC0.

Like the 2014 version?

Having looked over the new subclass, it might be because it has been substantially changed. There was (ironically) no actual drinking involved with the Drunken Master subclass, while the Warrior of Intoxication is all about creating and consuming Mystic Brews. The 2014 version was never married...