Mercer’s Exandria Unlimited Character Taps New Best Spellcaster Race

What's going on with Matt Mercer's sorcerer build? Some crazy good tech! Here's how it works.

Poisoner’s Kit DCs

Fleshing out the missing rules for the Poisoner's Kit in 5th Edition D&D.

Smites Without Spell Slots

Let's hack smites to reinvigorate Paladin spellcasting, discourage multiclassing for the sake of powergaming, and promote more dynamic playstyles.

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.

Proficiency Scaling

D&D's latest tech is proficiency scaling for class features. Let's dive into this new tech, see what the designers are saying about it, and figure out what we need to look out for in playtesting.

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.

Design Tips: Trap Features

We used to build characters a different way. Back in 3.x, the splat got so numerous that you were practically forced to "work backwards from 20." In other words, you would build your ultimate character concept and work backwards to see what you needed to take at each level. For example, failure to properly plan … Continue reading Design Tips: Trap Features →

Player Screen

Why do we only use one side of the DM screen? Make use of the player's side to your DM screen to keep your D&D sessions running smoothly!

Passive Skills vs. Reliable Talent

Reliable Talent makes all your skills passive. In order to see what you're really getting from this class feature, you need to find out what skills already function passively, and what skills only function actively. We'll examine passive skill treatment in the rules and analyze where each skill should fall.