What works at your table?
Critical Hits are often the subject of homebrew rules. Driven by the perception that critical hits frequently underperform, these homebrew rules juice up the damage of critical hits to a more impressive level. They're often implemented after a player waits 20 rolls (on average) to score a critical hit that lands with a thud. But, is this underperformance a reflection of perception or reality?
Can we rewrite the Shield Master feat to fix its fiddly action economy?
We're comparing the Martial Adept feat and the Magic Initiate feat. While the effect of linear fighters vs. quadratic wizards most often manifests in class design (mostly due to spell access), there’s an interesting reflection of this design in the 5e feats, which we expect to be balanced against each other.
After last's week post calculating the success odds for the Lucky feat, some folks who run the Lucky feat a little differently asked me to run the odds on that iteration. Since this homerule is popularly employed, including by D&D Lead Rules Designer Jeremy Crawford, we're running the odds and evaluating the comparison.
Since the Druid's non-metal armor restriction is purely thematic, we're taking a close look at the rules and reskinning the metal options to give Druids access to the full armory!
The Player's Handbook errata released in November 2018 patched a gap between RAW and RAI by inflicting the poisoned condition. We're exploring the impact and duration of the poison effect with an updated odds calculator.
Over the past couple weeks, we've looking into issues with Two-Weapon Fighting and solutions to fix Two-Weapon Fighting. While discussing potential solutions is a good starting place, theorycrafting can often fall flat at the table. In order to identify which systems are the most balanced and deserve testing, you've got to run the numbers. The … Continue reading Two-Weapon Fighting Calcs
Last week we explored the mechanics and design goals of two-weapon fighting. This week, we're going to examine some hacks to make it more competitive with other fighting styles. Feel free to borrow pieces of these to spruce up two-weapon fighting in your game. While the goal is to achieve a system that fits into … Continue reading Two-Weapon Fighting Hacks
D&D Creative Director Mike Mearls recently tweeted about revised Two-Weapon Fighting rules, including a poll about where its damage output should lie: Mechanics Any discussion regarding two-weapon fighting involves these mechanics: Two-Weapon Fighting bonus action Dual Wielder feat Two-Weapon Fighting style Let's explore these mechanics first to identify where we have wiggle room to improve … Continue reading Two-Weapon Fighting
D&D 5e is great because it allows you the flexibility to build on top of the system. Sometimes we rush to fill gaps that are empty for a reason. Designing good content requires knowing these pitfalls so you can navigate them. Character features mandating equipment are one such case. What can we learn from Mike Mearls about how to design them?
