What works at your table?
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
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
Back in September of 2017, D&D released the Tortle Package on the DM's Guild in conjunction with the Extra Life event to raise money for Children's Miracle Network. Included in this class was a mechanic called Shell Defense. It's broken. Maybe I shouldn't say that. Like many things in D&D, it is situationally good. That in … Continue reading Tortle Shell Defense is Broken
I ran a survey asking Dungeons & Dragon's players to rank the feats of 5th Edition into tiers (broken, great, good, average, bad, junk). Check Out the Results! Observations Overall Balance The feats are generally well-balanced. Aside from three usual suspects, no other feat was voted broken. On the other end of the spectrum, only … Continue reading Feat Strength Tiers
When a DM decides to give their players a Level 1 Feat, it's likely to offset the mechanical allure of the Variant Human, and encourage a more diverse cast. Therefore, it's helpful to know what kind of sway Variant Human's mechanics provide before deciding to use such a rule. With over 400 survey responses, here's the … Continue reading Variant Human Feat Impact
Homebrew Spellcaster Template Click the link for a spellcaster template prefilled with spell progression, spell known ranges, cantrip known ranges, ability score improvements, "dead levels" for new spell level access, and the full Class Features and Spellcasting text in fillable format. Click "Source" in the top-right to add your own info, then copy it to … Continue reading Building a Homebrew Spellcaster
Players love rolling dice. A DM who inspires their players to take advantage of the environment to have more fun is doing a good job. The simplest implementation is using the "high ground" to gain advantage. Here are some different guidelines for granting "high ground" advantage in combat.
Various skills, tools, spells, and abilities in 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons enable characters to hide in plain sight. Employing techniques to guise a character's voice, change their appearance, or create writings can be invaluable to their survival. Wielding this power is up to you: Do you want to slip past the tavern bouncer to … Continue reading Hiding in Plain Sight
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