Recent content by touc

We're trying these out (currently up to level 6). Death saves secret. Other players should not know whether you succeed or fail. Zero Hit Points, slowed condition. If at 0 HP and healed above 0 HP, until the end of your next turn, you are affected as if by the Slow spell (nonmagical, cannot be...

D&D 2024 tried to correct an "unfun" rule wherein one side could be severely damaged or wiped out without having touched a die. While perhaps realistic, it wasn't fun being on the receiving end. Even so, it does stretch the imagination when, every single time, this occurs if you follow the rules...

Below are my DM "cheat notes" for our current 2024 D&D campaign on grappling. I don't adhere to a 2017 Twitter post by Crawford that makes no sense (claiming that moving a grappled creature only depends on the target's size, not the grappler's strength). This is congruent with the OP's concern...

Not everyone may be into partying as a roleplay feature. In my current pirate campaign, every time we're in port, folks are warming up their d100 to roll on our carousing table (attached). It has led to some unusual storylines that I would never have come up with otherwise, which might lead to...

I like giving items that give fun options instead of numerical buffs, such as a Folding Boat or a Cape of the Mountebank or a Figurine of Wondrous Power.

Level Up: Advanced 5E has crafting magical item rules and each magical item has a cost. I'd use a combo of "downtime" rules (searching for sellers of items) and adjust costs for labor, and ultimately some items are so rare they can't be found or so valuable they can't be bought.

My kids would say 6 or 7, but maybe 15 (equivalent of a CR 1/4 creature). Low enough many 11th level character basic attacks will 1-shot them (e.g. an average 3d10 cantrip) but with a chance an erratic low-damage roll might leave one alive. Provides chance. If you don't want chance, then simply...

Haven't been for a few years, I need to block off my calendar about a year in advance and tell my gamers let's plan on a road trip. I enjoyed it much more than GenCon (less crowds, felt more homey, lots of the original innovators pop in).

It hearkens back to prior enworld discussions of what makes D&D....D&D (versus Pathfinder and all the other systems). Other systems have expanded the stats to 8 (e.g. Hackmaster). Fantasy Age (a D&D-esque system that replaced the math of the d20 with a 3d6) did away with the 3-18 ability score...

I'd identify CORE do not touch features first. IMO, it's the six primary ability scores ranging 3d6, the four core class types (fighter, divine, arcane, rogue), and hit points. Everything else I'm open for a redesign, though there's a question whether I'd be coming up with something new or...

Diversifying combat goals (e.g. protect that NPC for 10 rounds, DPR doesn't matter so much as protective abilities), or as you propose change combat mechanics can shift combat strategies but likely at the cost of longer combat encounters. The longer the combats, the less roleplay / exploration...

Knowing Strahd is a vampire isn't the horror or the "reveal" of Barovia. Instead, it's things like:

First post, welcome to the community (it's a wonderful one). So, caveat. Modifying rules when you've never DM'd isn't a definite "don't do it" (the creators dating back to the 1970s said the rules are guidelines and if you want something changed, then change it), but there is an underlying math...

Interviews with the artifact's namesake Tim Kask gives some clues, though he never actually says what Kwalish was. Most of this is taken from his years-long Q&A on the Dragonfoot forums: Kask was a first employee and early and prominent editor for O(School)D&D back in the 1970s-1980s (he was...