What works at your table?
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
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.
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?
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
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.
ThinkDM 