What works at your table?
As a matter of adventure design (or when improvising as a DM), you shouldn't lock mission-critical information behind a skill check. Because if the characters fail the check, the plot line is dead. But, the solution isn't to get rid of skill checks. The solution is progressive skill checks, starting at 0.
Answering the question, "what does my character know about this monster?"
Fleshing out the missing rules for the Poisoner's Kit in 5th Edition D&D.
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.
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.
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.
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 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
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
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.
