Recent content by Hexmage-EN

Don't get me wrong, there are definitely aspects of 5E where the DM is expected to do a lot of the heavy lifting. The designers have at least been pretty generous with monsters, for example, and for the most part over time the monster abilities have gotten more interesting. In contrast, being a...

My read is that 5E gives a decent amount of material for DMs and a frustratingly small amount to players, possibly because it's mostly DMs who buy the books, not players. As for player-facing design space, I think Baldur's Gate 3 demonstrated that creating more magic items was Larian's answer...

The chromatics were fine, but the metallics have needed more distinct visual designs for a long time now since three of them are brown with similar body shapes.

I'm curious if the crafting rules are just going to be the ones from Xanathar's or something more elaborate.

I find it interesting that the conflict where the Rod of Seven Parts was first used is now referred to as a war between primordials and the gods. It seems the 2E War of Law and Chaos has been combined with the 4E Dawn War. We've also been getting a lot of references to the primordials lately...

An idea I'm going with in increasing player options is giving out magic items with built-in feats or features from other subclasses, amongst other things. IMO it's the easiest player-facing part of 5E to mod, if you introduce something that doesn't work you can just give them another magic item...

I decided to try and brainstorm how to make the most Warlord-like Fighter using features in official 5E. The answer was basically to take the Banneret (that's right, not Battle Master) archetype and be in a long-running Dragonlance campaign that lets you be in multiple knightly orders at once...

In light of Pathfinder 2E putting out a playtest for a Warlord-like class, the Commander, I can't help but wonder why such a wildly popular class concept has not been introduced to 5E. A number of abilities in the spirit of the Warlord are available throughout 5E, including the Battle Master...

I prefer the World Axis mostly because I prefer the idea of Fundamental Planes you can add other planes to better than the rigid structure of the Great Wheel, which is harder to modify and has more planes that seem either uninteresting or redundant. Quick personal impressions of the Outer...

I immediately love the dust digger and want to use one in a game now.

I've been a DM for years now, but a feeling I have fairly consistently is that I never have enough time to prep, even when I'm only running a game every other week. I know part of this is because I am pretty much incapable of running an adventure as written, but I'd like to figure out what I can...

In one of the official preview videos it states that the hook for the adventure in When a Star Falls comes from exposure to oblivion moss, so it seems they swapped the web for the moss. I'm a bit sad about this, if only because I once gave a drow PC a memory web as a companion.

Since 5E doesn't really have extensive magic item crafting rules, what approaches have you used or seen used, and which are your favorites? Some sample implementations I've seen: From the Bastion UA: A Masterwork weapon retains the effects of a Magic Weapon spell permanently. Building off the...

The Astral Dominion concept in Spelljammer 5E is straight from 4E's version of the Astral Sea, so I pretty much just imported the 4E Astral Sea into 5E but made the 4E Astral Dominions into outposts of the Outer Planes in the Astral Plane instead of being outright replacements for them like in...

Another tidbit based on the effects that alcohol has on dwarves in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes: Alcoholic beverages created using the lake in the center of Mutas and inspire pleasant-yet-fleeting memories drawn from anyone that has ever enjoyed a drink in good spirits. This confers the benefit...