Trimming a bad mechanic from 5e to improve the flow of combat and eliminate adversarial DMing posture.
Cutting Words
Tag: Dungeon Master
The Gunslinger Misfire
Examining the Gunslinger's Misfire mechanic as a cautionary tale for importing character options from other games. Why to never base a class on a "critical fumble" mechanic.
Poisoner’s Kit DCs
Fleshing out the missing rules for the Poisoner's Kit in 5th Edition D&D.
Critical Saving Throws
Adding mechanical benefits to critical saving throws so players don't feel like their 20 is wasted.
Expertise Skill Hack
5th Edition D&D has a skill problem. It lies in a feature called expertise, which allows you to add your proficiency bonus twice when using a skill. Let's see what problems this causes and I'll give you a simple hack to fix them!
That Broken GWM/SS “Fix”
The most notorious feats in 5th Edition D&D are Sharpshooter (SS) and Great Weapon Master (GWM). These feats are considered the most powerful because of a mechanic they share in common. Yet, a common "fix" to nerf them does not have the intended result! Let's run the numbers.
AoE Spells vs. Hordes
Casting big area effect damage spells is great fun. Taking forever to resolve them is not. Let's reverse engineer the saving throw math so we can get to the narrative resolution quicker.
The Hotel California Rule
The Eagles masterfully set the scene in the first few lines of Hotel California. Learn how we can employ that lesson as Dungeon Masters.
Exploration Dice
5th Edition D&D players often lament the exploration pillar as the most underdeveloped tier of play, behind the combat and social pillars. While there are great tools for fleshing out your world in the core materials, they lack mechanical bite. We're here to give those narrative elements some mechanical teeth with Exploration Dice.
Egg Moves
I often draw tabletop RPG inspiration from playing totally unrelated games. In the Pokemon game series, you can breed your Pokemon together for a variety of reasons, including learning new moves. How can we adapt this concept to make more creative monsters?
