Listen/Spot Checks

A new 5th Edition system for adding the dynamic of listen/spot rolls to perception vs. stealth checks, without all the punishing baggage of editions past.

5 Skill D&D

Why have 18 skills when you can have FIVE? We’re giving D&D players more agency over the narrative implementation of their skillsets by streamlining a bloated system and highlighting a popular variant rule.

Variant Human War Caster

As a follow-up to last week's post comparing the War Caster and Resilient (CON) feats, let's take a look at how the numbers shake out if you're playing a Variant Human or in a campaign where your DM lets you have a free feat at level 1.

War Caster vs. Resilient (CON)

Comparing the War Caster and Resilient (CON) feats to determine which one gives a bigger boost to maintaining concentration on a spell.

Skill Challenge Odds Calculator

Skill Challenge Odds If the interactive sheet appears broken, check here for a read-only copy. You can find great tools by looking to older editions of Dungeons & Dragons. 4th Edition introduced skill challenges, which are an interesting way to run a narrative event (such as a chase or an escape from a collapsing building). … Continue reading Skill Challenge Odds Calculator →

Meat Grinder Death Saves

In honor of Joe Manganiello's recent appearance on Stephen Colbert's Late Show, let's dive into the mechanics of death saves. While we explored ways to make death more interesting back in January, we'll explore the mechanics of death saves in this issue, while comparing them to Tomb of Annihilation's Meat Grinder mode. Death Saves Death … Continue reading Meat Grinder Death Saves →

How Minotaurs Caused the Shield Master Rule Reversal

Dungeons & Dragon’s May 2018 Unearthed Arcana updated the Minotaur race. With three years since the original release, the improvements in the race design can tell us a lot about what lessons the Wizards of the Coast D&D team learned in that time.

Don’t Do DC Increases

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.