What works at your table?
Since Two-Weapon Fighting (TWF) only allows you to make an off-hand attack if both the weapons you wield are light, many new players are tempted by the allure of upgrading that damage die with the Dual Wielder feat. Often an Ability Score Improvement (ASI) to your attack stat is the more effective and versatile choice. … Continue reading Dual Wielder vs. ASI
Scaling up Difficulty Class (DC) on successive checks is a bad idea. Some DMs like to increase DCs on successive attempts, dissatisfied with the relative ease of a standard skill check (or saving throw). However, doing this has drawbacks which you can see in action on the DC Increase Chart.
The "Bag of Rats" Problem is an issue that arises with RPG mechanics that trigger upon a kill. While kill trigger abilities are intended to reward the character for disposing of a foe, they incentivize players to metagame by carrying around a lot of easily-squishable pocket-sized creatures. Explore the solutions and find out which are best.
Elven Accuracy gives you "super advantage" via a mechanic that lets you select the best of three dice rolls when you have advantage on an attack. This is widely regarded as a very strong, if not broken, feat. The truth is that the "super advantage" part of the feat doesn't do that much, because already having advantage is normally good enough.
The War Fan is a light one-handed martial weapon constructed as a folding fan with spokes of iron. Tengu demons can train players to use this versatile defensive weapon. Stats for the weapon and the monster.
A Vorpal Sword is a slashing weapon that decapitates on a critical hit. Even experienced Dungeon Masters are wary of allowing a Vorpal Swords in their game--probably because they have heads. Since Vorpal Swords are some of the most fun you can have with your scabbard on, let's figure out how to make them work. … Continue reading Vorpal Sword Mechanics
In January of 2018, I ran a poll asking D&D players about feat strength. Nearly 60% felt that the Sharpshooter feat is "broken": Are they right? If so, when? Nobody is always right--except the Dungeon Master. To find out, I built a calculator to determine the benchmarks where Sharpshooter is advantageous to use. Introducing "The … Continue reading How Strong Is Sharpshooter?
The Beastmaster Ranger has long been plagued by the squishy-ness of its animal companion. While the Revised Ranger tackled some of the action economy issues for the Beastmaster, it did not address the underlying issue: that the beast is supposed to be the highlight of the show. Shapeshifting Druids are also plagued by unimpressive beast … Continue reading “Beast Builder” CR Calculator for Rangers and Druids
Back in December, I wrote about The Dark Sun Mystic. After D&D head gurus Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford commented that the Mystic subclass (teased in Unearthed Arcana) needed a major overhaul, I wanted to see if I could fix it myself. No easy task. After countless hours reading, digesting, concepting, charting, comparing, stat-ing, rolling, tinkering, testing, … Continue reading Psion Character Class Release and Build Notes
Only Clerics should move like Bishops. 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons embraces non-Euclidean movement. That means it's agnostic as to lateral vs. diagonal movements in gridded combat. Such a system sacrifices a little realism for the benefit of simplification, with no impact to balance. Some DMs and players don't like to sacrifice realism. Thankfully, I'm … Continue reading True (Euclidean) Move Distance
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