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I'd love it if the designers were more open about how and why they make some of the decisions they do. In part, I'd appreciate that because I think that D&D's competing goals are actually one of the good things about the game. D&D is serves many masters "well enough" that folks with many...

I'd argue that to speed up combat, you need to decrease granularity, which is in line with your thinking here, but a little akimbo. Bonus actions and reactions, sure, but pets and summons are probably still viable, just not on a "I control your entire turn" kind of level. And the "boring and...

I know "tradition" is a popular scapegoat 'round these parts, but honestly it's just differing priorities. While nuking traditional disabling effects would certainly tighten up the combat loop, it would weaken other areas of the game, and those areas are vital, too. D&D is destined to do its...

The full take is a lot more nuanced. Specifically: The problem isn't that control spells ruin 5e, it's that they specifically ruin difficult encounters against one hard threat. And that Legendary Resistance is a bit of a kludge to make that not true. And I'm fond of his more specific...

I'd wager that Drakewarden is likely not very popular. For me, I find that it does not fulfill the fantasy of "a frickin' dragon companion" very well, in part because of how it is a spirit whose power conforms to your level, and not, y'know, actually a dragon that you made friends with. It...

It'll be interesting to see if any of that is supported in the book, or if it's just basically Fridge Logic/Copium. What @bedir than mentioned about it not just being handwaved is encouraging, but the Krynn thing is goofy enough to give me pause. I can take a little goofy in my FR, but if that's...

PDKs are still knightly inspirational leaders, so that's a fine lore match. And their tension with the dragons is preserved - the two don't depend on each other, in a mechanical sense, and so if their goals conflict, it would make some sense. And, neat trick about leader classes is that NPC...

This being my first campaign, my main strategy for the long timelines is to do it in about half-hour chunks, or to do it podcast-style where I'm listening while doing other things (which is pretty effective).

Ah, good! I did think this story had potential if they didn't phone it in, and it sounds like they saw that, too. Great news. So...maybe best of both worlds? A good lore update AND a decent leader-y fighter?

I am incredibly fond of them using custom elements. D&D at its best inspires tables to do that, and since CR is one of the biggest D&D things around, it's great that they're into that. This is like 15 nerdy middle-aged theater kids, everyone's here to be the most interesting character in the...

But, like, the people who wrote that material, they didn't bother to communicate any ideas about why that might've happened? Anything about what's going on in the minds of the people who did this? One possibly deceased ancient dragon has a vision of another world and just can't resist how super...

And what did the book do with that potential? Anything interesting? Seems like not.

It makes a better joke.

Dragon pets in D&D are either disappointing or overpowered, fite me. I'm happy with a leader-style Fighter. The PDK's have been such, and it's a useful thing to have in the game. And it seems like they did not explain this pact very well, since it still sounds naff. Why do planar scholar...

I especially like them as part of a campaign setting. One of my remarks on Spelljammer and Planescape was that a bunch of little adventures would have shown off the setting a lot better than the bigger adventure we got for each. This adventure, simple as it is, does bear that out. We get a hook...

The Beastlands and the gate-town of Faunel are canonically lousy with talking animals -- former mortals, now divine beasts of wild freedom. No construction necessary, they just dwell in the wilds, and are happy there. I'd typically embrace a talking animal PC. Might be some weird corner cases...

This is a slightly upgraded Orc and Pie. "Adventure" implies a lot of content that isn't there. For what it is, it's fine. Pretty cool map, and a unique little vision encounter. There isn't a lot of room for thematic resonance or compelling character moments or whatever, but it's not aiming for...

Hmm...while I'm perfectly content with a spell slot psion, I wonder if approaching this from another direction would be useful. Spell slots are one way to do power scaling in 5e. The other existing ways are Extra Attack (sometimes in combo with Spellcasting) and Sneak Attack. If we focus on the...

Obvious uses: give your friend an attack spell or healing spell they can pop if they want. Also lets you store a Charm or something if you want to be subtle about your spellcasting. Similar to the artificer's ability to store spells in things.

Absolutely. Pretty sure my newbie player doesn't really get why any of these exceptions occur, and even my more experienced players hit a wall sometimes. I had a fight with a monster that cast darkness and the cleric - an experienced player! - didn't quite get why guiding bolt had disadvantage...