One thing that has bothered me, almost since day 1 of playing 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, is how little size matters in combat, and how the prodigious Strength of monsters such as ogres, trolls and dragons is barely reflected in the game’s mechanics. Now, I get that D&D is a fantasy game, in which […]
Author: duncan (Page 2 of 8)
As any Dungeon Master will attest, but particularly any who write and publish their own adventures, coming up with vaguely credible names you don’t hate for all your NPCs is a major pain in the @&$€. Something I’ve found myself leaning into recently is the classic ‘epithet + noun’ formula for NPC surnames. Names such […]
I read a fair few Dungeons & Dragons blogs and stumble upon umpteen D&D discussions a week, in various corners of the web, and one comment I notice pretty often is someone bemoaning how powerful Dexterity is in 5th edition compared to Strength. It’s hard not to agree with those grumppots. After all, the Dexterity-based […]
It’s a core feature of any action movie… the moment(s) when the hero has to jump across the river, rooftop, lava, chasm, pile of bad guys they just sent flying, viper pit, vat of acid, or whatever other obstacle stands in between them and their goal. Often the consequence of failing these jumps would be […]
So I was thinking about falling damage recently, and specifically about how little danger falling represents to characters of a certain level, no matter how high the drop. The rules given on p.183 of the Player’s Handbook simply state that a character 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it falls, to a maximum of […]
Hi guys, I’ve recently crafted 9 new weapon feats for 5e D&D, to fill in the gaps left by Crossbow Expert, Defensive Duellist, Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master and Sharp Shooter. You can skip right ahead to the following feats: Axe Master Bludgeoning Master Fencing Master Flail Master Knife Thrower Morningstar Master Short Blades Master […]
As I mentioned in a recent post, Battle Master Maneuvers came as a welcome surprise to me upon first leafing through the 5th edition Player’s Handbook. I love the thrill of being locked in combat against a powerful foe in Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s easy for it to deteriorate into a mechanical exercise of […]
Few players at my table ever remember to use the Disengage and Dodge actions, which is probably why it’s taken me about four years to realise they are way too powerful. Or, at the very least, they are immersion breaking. I can get on board with someone managing to extricate themselves from a fight by […]
The other day someone in the comments section accused me of hating 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. 🤔 At first I was taken back… after all I started a roleplaying blog that talks exclusively (so far at least!) about 5e D&D, not to mention the fact that I dedicate a considerable amount of my free […]
On page 174 of the Player’s Handbook there’s a table of Difficulty Classes for ability checks that goes a little something like this… DIFFICULTY CLASSES (PLAYER’S HANDBOOK) As you can see, to succeed on a Medium difficulty skill check you need to roll a 15. What’s my problem with that? It’s way too difficult, that’s […]
