I play at the table where we use exclusively 2024 rules. Since these annoying rules about buying magic items taking several weeks and additional costs are technically no longer a thing and were replaced by just a couple of simple guidelines and costs, our DMs just let us buy and sell magic items without trouble. So, any large enough settlement just has a vast enough market of magic items that you can just buy or sell them for the listed cost

Uncommon items are 400 gold, rare items - 4k and very rare 40k. Legendary ones are the only ones not for sale.

So, to the point. Apparently, at our table martial-caster divide kind of does not exist. With enmartialed items you can get Extra Attack, use a shield, action surge, Rage, and other useful martial abilities like that many times per day for a very reasonable price of 400 gold. For 4k gold you can get big ones like Extra Attack (x2) (especially good for wimpy wizards), Tactical Shift, Cunning Strike, Slow Fall and so on. Brutal Strike is considered one of the best abilities you can get, right? Sure, for 4k there is Cube of Brutal Blows! 10 charges, up to 2 Brutal Strikes per day (5 charges each). No Barbarian levels required.

Sure, you can always say it is but a fraction of full martial power. And you would be right. But it definitely does level the field. Because no matter how cool martials are they don't get spells. Most of the time they don't also get strong defensive abilities. Do you know how bad Monks actually are at keeping concentration? They often lose Str, Int, and Cha saves entirely and sometimes they negate one attack per round, but then get hit 5 more times and fail their concentration save. Same with fighters - with their front lining, lack of shield spell, and lack of a shield (they wanna do damage) they can't keep concentration for whole fight without trouble.

Stuff like Staffs of the Magi make it so having extra attacks, weapon masteries and appropriate feats like polearm master, fighting styles etc actually don't matter at all. Basically, any class without spells stops being comparable in single target damage to wizards. Half-casters and one third caster subclasses stop being comparable to wizards in single target damage. In other words, power levels of classes get much more reasonable (in casters favor).

"Tell me how you'd like to accomplish that plan, and I'll see if there's an appropriate check you can take."

"Oh, well, I think you actually ran out of arrows in the last combat, but I'll let you roll this one just for fun. Dexterity seems to be the most appropriate. If you roll high enough, I might look past it and let you substitute the shaft with something else on-hand."

"Ah, a Dirty 20, in more ways than one..."

"Well, before I answer that, roll a Persuasion or Intimidation check to see if he responds the way you'd like him to. I'll leave it up to you which one."

"Without needing to roll an Insight check, I can tell you that he doesn't seem to immediately hate it, and you get the impression that he secretly kind of likes it. But to everyone else, he's trying to keep a straight face, if you catch my drift."

"He whimpers, 'I thought you ran out of arrows...' How do you respond?"

"'Oh,' his eyes widen. 'Then what's...'"

"Very rad idea, but I don't know that particular rule--something like that might require an Initiative roll. Let me look it up quick."

"Hey, has anyone seen my PHB? Hmm...maybe it's in my room..."

"Mom? Mr. Drake?"

"No thanks, I'd love to join, but I have people over."

"Yes, I gave them napkins. I'm 24 years old, Mom."

"Hah, no, I don't have any, but I can cast a protection spell instead... Sorry, it's a DND thing. Anyway, gotta get back to the table!"

"Okay, so I was wrong, no Initiative roll yet, but if you succeed on your Strength check, it will trigger a surprise round first, then roll for Initiative."

"Sure, we can roleplay it."

Okay, disclaimer. I love strategy games. I love roleplaying. I love fun and interesting and complex mechanics. I'm not some stereotypical cartoon jock calling people nerds and shoving them into a locker. I have some genuine criticisms with the game, and I'd appreciate if people would read this giant unfathomable wall of text. Some opinions have also been exaggerated for comedic effect.

Edit: This is talking about base-game DnD. Obviously, homebrew exists, but that's like installing a game mod to correct the problems with the original, then saying the original doesn't have flaws because you can just play the mod.

So! DnD! The game that sells itself as being a fantastic adventure where you can be anything, do anything, and tell any story you want along the way. Or, at least, that’s what it markets itself as. In reality, and as dictated by the rules, the game is far less of an epic fantasy guided by imagination and more a swingy number-crunching grindathon driven by slap-fight combat and little storytelling. Keep in mind that I have played DnD six separate times with different DMs, so this isn’t speaking from lack of experience or contempt for the game. I wish that this wasn’t the bog-standard for TTRPGs and I genuinely think there are way better alternatives, like Blades in the Dark, Call of Cthulhu, etc. Like, TTRPGs aren’t the problem, DnD’s systems are. Obviously, a good DM can turn this horrible spreadsheet of rules into a fun experience, but that’s because the DM oftentimes has to work around these shitty defaults, not because the system itself supports these stories. 

Problem #1: Combat Is Genuinely Ass and Takes Too Long

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc at nibh in mi cursus tempus. Suspendisse potenti. Nam dapibus tempor mollis. Nullam eu risus ac ante pretium tempus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer vehicula velit et venenatis gravida. Nulla maximus, risus non imperdiet lacinia, quam quam ultrices turpis, at finibus magna arcu ac justo. Nullam a molestie ex, vel feugiat quam. Pellentesque blandit leo nec nisi feugiat efficitur. Curabitur ac metus pulvinar, iaculis dui quis, vulputate ex. Suspendisse potenti.

Nulla dictum aliquam nunc, id iaculis eros. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Curabitur nec semper leo, non semper mauris. In viverra vehicula tincidunt. Mauris dictum ipsum id tellus ultricies, ac ultricies tellus viverra. Orci varius natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Sed condimentum erat vel arcu euismod, eu pretium neque mollis. Pellentesque sem leo, placerat in ante nec, tempor porttitor diam. Phasellus nec posuere mi. Nullam facilisis augue vitae nisi aliquam placerat. Morbi volutpat dui turpis, eu mattis magna ornare nec. Curabitur et pulvinar lorem, vitae dignissim ante. Fusce purus risus, hendrerit a ipsum in, aliquam condimentum est. Phasellus non ligula velit. Praesent interdum porta mi vel pretium.

Vivamus ullamcorper, velit ac pulvinar consequat, est purus ultricies risus, sed aliquet eros mauris vitae quam. Quisque hendrerit a sapien vel condimentum. Duis elementum, dolor nec sollicitudin pellentesque, leo orci mattis nisl, in sodales dolor ex eget tellus. Mauris vulputate augue imperdiet, tristique ligula sit amet, imperdiet mi. Nulla sed leo mi. Vivamus sagittis mattis auctor. Morbi bibendum velit id semper vulputate. Aliquam erat volutpat. Phasellus posuere facilisis odio, ac accumsan nisl vestibulum ut. Aenean tincidunt eros eget ornare euismod. Vestibulum pharetra suscipit ligula ut ullamcorper. Duis et lacus vitae tortor suscipit suscipit non nec nibh. Sed mollis aliquet nulla eu gravida. Nullam vestibulum condimentum libero, sit amet ultricies urna rhoncus ac.

Nam accumsan quis velit sit amet interdum. Fusce iaculis sagittis lorem eu tincidunt. Vestibulum finibus feugiat turpis nec tempus. Pellentesque tincidunt lobortis nulla, ac mattis ipsum. Etiam porta facilisis malesuada. Sed id bibendum purus. In eu tristique ligula, at tristique tellus. Vivamus accumsan mollis viverra. Maecenas ex est, luctus quis commodo eu, finibus sit amet tortor. Nulla nec consequat justo, mattis iaculis sapien. Cras cursus tortor pulvinar turpis lobortis ultrices.

Morbi auctor sit amet augue eget fringilla. Ut pharetra ultrices semper. Duis diam turpis, bibendum nec sapien sit amet, fringilla feugiat tortor. Integer hendrerit, ex in tristique malesuada, leo est porta elit, id vehicula felis est at dolor. Duis commodo porta commodo. Nunc convallis condimentum sapien vitae interdum. Aenean at suscipit tortor. In lacinia erat augue, id gravida risus egestas non. Aliquam in sem pharetra, rutrum quam at, porta nisi. Suspendisse quis turpis neque. Phasellus nibh tellus, aliquam vel feugiat cursus, consectetur ut mauris.

Problem #2: Extremely Swingy RNG

Nulla augue justo, ultricies sed pellentesque sit amet, rhoncus scelerisque lacus. Integer non purus et dolor gravida convallis ut in ante. Ut lectus dui, eleifend non justo sit amet, pulvinar euismod urna. Aliquam erat volutpat. Vestibulum vitae pulvinar ante. Phasellus a nunc leo. Morbi quis sapien quam. Proin vel mi non lorem lacinia iaculis quis in urna. Pellentesque felis odio, varius nec hendrerit et, aliquet eget purus. Aenean rutrum facilisis tempor. Etiam elit mauris, tempor ultrices euismod malesuada, suscipit nec ipsum. Praesent congue ante quis magna tristique, eu commodo mi cursus. In mattis dignissim erat, at imperdiet augue varius vel. Suspendisse potenti.

Morbi non leo mi. Maecenas congue ex id quam euismod vehicula. Vivamus eu efficitur odio, ac dapibus ligula. Sed in porta sapien. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Praesent non ipsum vitae lorem venenatis rhoncus. Fusce quis cursus lectus. Integer eu urna ac lectus iaculis ultricies et ac ex.

Problem #3: Leveling Takes Too Long, Too

Etiam fringilla, augue scelerisque molestie porta, nisl lorem imperdiet mauris, vel porta mi dui ut erat. Aliquam sit amet odio vulputate felis finibus accumsan. Aliquam condimentum nunc eget magna luctus, nec vestibulum sapien vestibulum. Quisque pretium ornare eros, ac tempor odio volutpat vulputate. Nunc ligula ligula, commodo eu metus eu, interdum fermentum risus. Morbi commodo ullamcorper purus, eget imperdiet mi ultrices eu. Duis odio lorem, blandit id tincidunt a, maximus sed sem. Fusce rutrum arcu lectus, quis sagittis orci rutrum sed. Duis iaculis posuere dignissim.

Nullam blandit tristique ligula, pellentesque rhoncus quam consectetur ac. Donec blandit tellus ipsum, vel interdum urna vulputate nec. Pellentesque consectetur, odio efficitur sodales porttitor, justo elit maximus sapien, id porta justo eros vitae augue. In in nisi tristique, eleifend purus et, placerat nulla. Proin id justo non tellus convallis congue ut non sem. Mauris eu sollicitudin tortor. Quisque sapien nunc, ullamcorper vitae semper in, tempus non velit.

Pellentesque quis metus placerat urna dictum scelerisque vel a massa. Maecenas tincidunt luctus imperdiet. Aliquam erat volutpat. Suspendisse et sapien quis neque aliquet lobortis at non dolor. Nulla porta, augue sed vulputate molestie, tortor sem porttitor dui, sed rutrum augue eros at nibh. Quisque sit amet ligula imperdiet, dignissim dui sed, ultricies nulla. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia curae; Curabitur ac lectus sit amet elit mollis euismod eu eget massa. Suspendisse a nisi id urna dictum pretium in ac dolor. Phasellus risus augue, egestas vel fringilla quis, condimentum et leo. Donec eu ullamcorper velit.

Vivamus ullamcorper, velit ac pulvinar consequat, est purus ultricies risus, sed aliquet eros mauris vitae quam. Quisque hendrerit a sapien vel condimentum. Duis elementum, dolor nec sollicitudin pellentesque, leo orci mattis nisl, in sodales dolor ex eget tellus. Mauris vulputate augue imperdiet, tristique ligula sit amet, imperdiet mi. Nulla sed leo mi. Vivamus sagittis mattis auctor. Morbi bibendum velit id semper vulputate. Aliquam erat volutpat. Phasellus posuere facilisis odio, ac accumsan nisl vestibulum ut. Aenean tincidunt eros eget ornare euismod. Vestibulum pharetra suscipit ligula ut ullamcorper. Duis et lacus vitae tortor suscipit suscipit non nec nibh. Sed mollis aliquet nulla eu gravida. Nullam vestibulum condimentum libero, sit amet ultricies urna rhoncus ac.

Problem #4: Permadeath

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi cursus, est non tristique maximus, nibh urna pellentesque nisi, eget tempus quam nunc vel tortor. Nunc a ex dignissim lectus dapibus fermentum. Proin id lorem enim. Ut ac mauris odio. Aenean tincidunt nisi sit amet mi sollicitudin, eget bibendum nibh efficitur. Pellentesque pharetra a sapien ut ornare. Nunc a luctus orci. Phasellus interdum, quam id gravida accumsan, ligula purus pretium tortor, eu finibus risus arcu id nibh. Ut at leo non justo molestie pulvinar. Nulla blandit diam sit amet lectus luctus auctor. Vestibulum ornare felis non leo sollicitudin, ut efficitur risus tincidunt. Aliquam nunc velit, pharetra et ultrices sit amet, placerat eget arcu. Sed ac dolor et mi efficitur convallis.

Problem #5: An RP game without RP mechanics

Nulla facilisi. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Vestibulum elementum vulputate metus, ac gravida mauris pharetra a. Proin augue risus, malesuada condimentum ultrices id, egestas at odio. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Quisque nisl lectus, interdum nec mi vel, porttitor bibendum libero. Maecenas id nibh mauris. Nam ultrices, diam vel suscipit facilisis, urna turpis molestie diam, sed tincidunt quam enim at enim. Vestibulum ultricies nisl commodo tincidunt ultrices. Nunc molestie ultricies ipsum a rhoncus. Mauris massa velit, sodales aliquam odio vitae, hendrerit volutpat ante. Curabitur arcu dui, lacinia tincidunt hendrerit eget, viverra in urna. Sed condimentum arcu eget lectus tristique, in rhoncus lectus ultrices. Proin finibus condimentum libero, a imperdiet sem. Vestibulum efficitur pulvinar nisl sed commodo. Pellentesque volutpat commodo placerat. 

Problem #6: Manual Overhead

Nunc magna magna, rutrum id massa ut, dapibus cursus neque. Pellentesque eget nunc convallis, condimentum nisi eu, semper tortor. Pellentesque mi est, cursus sit amet vehicula ut, pretium non nunc. Ut varius turpis libero, eget elementum felis venenatis eget. Vestibulum eu sodales nulla. Fusce sagittis leo pharetra eros venenatis, non suscipit nisl tristique. Ut quam dolor, euismod hendrerit quam suscipit, tristique imperdiet nunc. 

Problem #7: It’s the Default RPG

Proin sollicitudin arcu libero, a tincidunt elit dictum at. Duis lacinia mauris vitae libero ullamcorper ultricies. Suspendisse rhoncus magna et neque faucibus, quis rutrum nulla tempus. Donec ac vestibulum neque. Vivamus ac velit elementum, tempor magna et, gravida neque. Quisque sit amet laoreet mauris, eu tempor leo. Nullam dictum turpis porttitor leo elementum feugiat.

Basically, turn every game into a gestalt game like in 3.5e, where players can level up 2 classes at once. So you have the cool martial stuff, and the much cooler caster stuff at the same time. Easy fix, lol. Dunno why nobody thought of this, tbh

So I've been trying a new style for the new campaign, where the PCs stay in one isolated and relatively small area (1 large city, 3 small cities, and various rural adventure locations scattered in between) but they regularly receive word of going-ons in the wider world, like wars and other political events, and large construction/economic projects. The way I do this is by having my archmage DMPC appear in the PCs' tavern and tell them about all the massive and awesome things he's witnessed lately. He listens to their own adventure stories and emphasizes how small such an episode would be in the gigantic battles and wondrous cities beyond this backwater zone. Then he tips a few gold and teleports away. He does this for entertainment, it's like reality TV for him, Deadliest Catch or something. Though I guess with Deadliest Catch you still admire the guys, maybe it's more like Family Feud. Anyways the players seem really annoyed at this, but I think it's a good way to balance a focused adventure with a living, complex world. Certainly I can't just let them go to the places the archmage keeps talking about, it would never live up to the hype. And I'm sure they all feel hyped.

Hello i'm a ancient dm of the old order of dms from long ago. I being dming since gay gaygax was a little boy in his craddle being nurtured by the rpg tree and the old rpg empire was rising. We had a saying back in those more civilized times "combat is a fail state" all the old sages agreed and danced for we were so enlighted. As the choosen one (gay gaygax) grew up and learned swordsmanship, horsemanship, leadership and statecraft we watched in wonder as he mastered all arts so whimsically a king who could be gentle and tought a man in which we could follow into the glory of our empire, the borders grew, trade flourished and the people of the shires and farms were prosperous and fat. Our life was peaceful and happy, the cities bloomed with the hammers of artisan and the fair sailors brought fishes and riches from land beyond.

Many still wonder what happend from those glorious days of peace and wonder ? how could times have gotten so bad so quickly but we didn't realize the problem was within, our hearts grew with discontent and the young desired for war, an evil order of wizards from a coast have plagued us slowly and deep, they told tales of riches and glory on the ancient burial tumbs of our people, the people started wandering far and wide from the safety of our city blinded by greed. Althrought the riches were real and the powerful treasures were wonderous so many of them perished on the journey and make you wonder, is this worth it ? not only that so many of those treasures were cursed but the worst curse of them all was the curse of inflation. So many adventurers and so much gold so quickly made our coin lose its value and soon the entire economy colapsed, the trade was the first to stop flowing, them the artisan and finally the humble farmers. Desperate the king gaygax had lost all the kingdom riches and we were broken so we made a deal with the devil, in exchange for a fix to our economy the wizards in the coast would have ownership of our kingdom. We accept with great sorrow and planned on how to save our people but the wizards in their infinite greed stroke the king down and depose of him, we the ancient sages watched in horror and marked this as the end of the first age.

some hundred years had passed and many of us had scattered but some still remained. The evil wizards have turned our once beloved cities into hubs of industry and war, our beloved artisans didn't make toys and tools anymore, instead their forges have turned into malicious built of jagged weapons and armor, their scholars wrote so many hundreds magic books with doors to different worlds, one where the deserts were wide because of wizards greed, another were a gay vampire locked everyone inside a fogwall or smt, and the eviliest of them all, a place where the realms were forgotten, where the humans elfs and dwarfs no long reside as the only species but evil twisted creatures lived among them on the great cities we watched in horror as our world was morphed and changed with barelly anything we could do.

The worst of it was yet to come, we thought the wizards were the greediest of them all but they were just the tip of the iceberg, a great monster beyond the comprehesion pierced our tiny veiled skies "Ha'sbruh" it chanted and demanded the powerful magic cards that the wizard held in exchange of not being completely destroyed. We who were once dominated saw our dominators being conquered, we couldn't do anything but watch in horror, what would be of us ? We watched in horror as this monster twisted and change our bodies and world even more, our industries of war were turned into complex machines of infinite bodies and weapons production, millions of weapons were produced for to wage eternal war beyond the skies, our once simple and weak bodies were turned into super soldiers that could defeat entire armies by ourselfs, our simple minded wizards that could only have a few spells now could cast dozens and be ready for more after a simple "long rest" we watched in horror our bodies and world was no longer the same, our friends were long gone and the adventures lost, for 2 eras we waged untold and inomerable wars against enemies of different dimensions in the name of the "Ha'sbruh".

Ha'sbruh seemed interested in the old times on the 5th era, we thought maybe just maybe we would get a tiny pocket of peace for our people but them in a twisted taste of irony it was just a plow, Ha'sbruh loves to consume hopes and dreams of the people and turn it into paste for his power, the 5th era was marked by even more changes to our bodies and mind, even more powers, even more twisted creatures. But some adventurers that found the ruins and relics of old time shouted NO MORE, NO MORE PAIN NO MORE DEATH NO MORE RUIN !!!. They gathered so many of us from the ancient times and even some newborns that were interested in a more simpler life and opened a portal first we had to venture throught the shadowdark and beyond but once we reached a promised land we knew we could rebuilt, we didn't have much, just the essentials to rebuild our old school times.

I look down from my wizard tower, with a smile in my face i watch as the kids play, the farmers plant and the artisans work. This was worth it, this is our Renaiscence but still some dark reside in the new kids and refugee from the portals, they wonder where is the combat ? where is the character builds ? where is the epic items ? but we calm them down and teach them the way of the land and commerce and to not be too greedy or venture too far always have the essentials only. This time we will do things right, this time we will have our dungeon and dragon.

Multiply the HP of any creature by 8 for every Size Category they are above Medium.

Examples: Large x8, Huge x8x8, Gargantuan x8x8x8, Colossal x8x8x8x8

This ends with the Tarrasque at 346,112 HP lol.

Now give all AoE Attacks the ability to hit a creature for every square it occupies.

For example a Fireball would hit a Large Creature 4 times.

Give AoE attacks and Siege Weaponry to Maritals to compensate.

Everyone gets to have big meaty monster battles now.

Once again, all my fellow players (which I suspect more and more to not be real friends...) has ganged against me. ME. For what reason you ask?

They told me that my Hexladin build was cancer and I was ruining the game for them. To be fair, I never really put much consideration if this was that strong, I mean it's totally a lucky guess from my part that I can smite to death all the mobs, needs only one stat to run, has no weakness, and a big ass AC. I have a very clear background has to why it is entirely justified that I have those two classes at the same time even if my patron is completely opposed to my moral compass as a paladin but this is not the question here.

Basically, they claimed that I killed mobs so fast that they didn't have the time to do anything, and everytime the DM try to adapt battle to me, they get immediately demolished and I end up solo carrying the fight.

But, damn, this is a cooperative game guys! I mean, the wizard can cast haste on me to make me stronger! That way, he does contribute to victory! The monk can run to the monsters, fail his stunning strikes, and take two hits then dies, in the end, he did contributes to the victory too, in his own way! The bard can, I dunno, sing and praise me after battle, it's what a bard is about, right? Why he wouldn't want to sing about the hero I'm playing? I specifically suspect him to be quite a bad player that isn't really interested in RP.

I'm still stunned that people would react on me like this. I mean, come on, even if I was that OP, it's up to them to look through the rulebook and reddit and make broken-ass characters too by using multiclassing shenanigans and rule exploit (sometimes you can also do impossible combo, you just need to gaslight the table that the rules make it possible). It's a combat game, it isn't MY FAULT that their character are normal and intended in design while everything I do is possible per the rules?

In the end, would not any adventurer try to be the strongest possible? I mean, they do roleplay quite bad if theirs don't try to achieve more heights of power like I do.

And what did the DM do? "You should change character". What? I spend 40 dollars to get this artwork even before my character was validated and it is so ME. I cannot roleplay anything but this character! It's the best character I've ever made, I'm sure one the best I've ever seen in fiction... Why would I change this for something just less cool?

Sorry, I'm venting, and I am shaking while I type this post. I'm feeling so bad, treated so harshly, "my friends" seems like shitty people and bad roleplayers... It's hard to swallow...

What recommendations do you guys have for me. I'm building a low fantasy Christian friendly environment. Ty, I love you all! 😍

Yes the title is correct I did that today. So firsts off one of the players wasn’t able to make it so the DM was rebalancing encounters as we played. Now the two other players were shopping and I went off to a suspicious building. I knocked and then a person asked “who is it.” And then I said the first name that came to my mind “It’s Jacob Alpharad.” And than my dm blacked some stuff on the plan out and then showed me the plan and it said the Jacob Alpharad was the leader a the organization I was screwing with. And then the dm said he had no idea that Jacob Alpharad was YouTuber. I the. Fought ten guys and the dm said “oh god this encounter hasn’t been rebalanced yet and you are meant to be fighting it with the full party.” I then killed all of them using a custom spell called big dawg that has no stats except for 300 pounds and ten feet by ten feet large. I then squashed half of the enemies with the big dawg. The other half fled out of fear. So yeah I soloed an encounter using a spell that was meant to be a joke.

TL;DR: I used a custom spell to squash half of the enemies and the others fled because they were scared.

*Caveat: I’m old! Oldschool. Trying to stay in tune and often failing.*

What TF is the BS intention of this spell?

Just to circumvent drain dynamic and the preciousness of looking stylish as fuck?

Bu the wording of the spell, imo, with the precise 8 hour duration, the ’stylish and protective’ depiction, shielding from threats, it seems obvious it is meant to warrant a long rest anywhere. Anyhow! There are exploits. I will cover them below. But the INTENTION seems clear.

What the hell were they thinking?

This is antithetical to what I always thought D&D was.

Resources; spell-slots, HP, potions etc… are valuable and precious. The opportunity of looking fly as hell, which just about resets everything in 5e because "I rolled a nat 20 on persuade" hard counters everything, precious! My preeeeciousssss!

Yet here we get… a RITUAL enabled spell intending to offer dope-ass headgear in any dire dungeon or situation.

What do you guys think?

*The exploits/misses: You can see beneath it. Meaning you can still get petrified, if the DM is harsh, by a sufficiently seductive medusa. It is, as far as I read, immune to anti-magic dispelling it, and also it's tiny so you kind of look like one of those creepy clowns with putatively entertaining miniscule headgear*

Still: THE INTENTION of the spell disgusts me! (An oldschool D&D gamer).

DMs Please Be Clear With Expectations (A Frustrated Player's Perspective)

So I recently joined up for a one-shot at a DM's table. I haven't played with this DM since mid 2023 and I remembered nothing about his preferences and playstyle (this will come up later in the story). He posted his rules and homebrew. Point Buy, Average HP and two uncommon magic items. No where in his post did he mention about not allowing certain magic items or DM preferences. The only thing that really stood out to me was saying Slivery Barbs would be a second level spell. I choose not to take it out of respect for his displeasure with that spell.

I made my character, legacy content was allowed so I choose the Yuan-Ti with a Headband of Intellect and the Deck of Wonder. Out of respect for his game, I asked about the DoW being allowed and he approved with the condition that I could only have 3 draws for the one-shot. A fair ruling and I agreed. I posted my character to the "meet my character" channel 4 days before the one-shot was to take place.

30 minutes before the one-shot started he said I had to change the Headband of Intellect because he didn't agree to the item boosting one ability score temporarily. He also disapproved of my triple multiclass Artificer 2, Cleric 1 and Wizard 6. He allowed multiclassing but told me I was limited to 2 classes. Nowhere in the post or in the text channel was that mentioned during or after character creation. I told him that my whole character hinged on this setup and to change a Level 9 character in 30 minutes would be a no-go. I told him if there are things he disagreed with or took issue with, make it clear in the post or during character creation. He ended up begrudgingly accepting my character but I never really felt welcome at the table afterwards.

I have no issues with changing a character for a DM but not on game day and certainly not 30 minutes before session with a higher level character with a readied concept. I in fact worked with this DM on things I didn't have to and still I got called out for something I had no knowledge of or could reasonably change in time. I think DMs really need to lay out stuff they want and stuff they don't. I don't mind have restrictions if they are clear and to the point. I don't even mind being told after the fact, just tell me (and other players) in a reasonable timeframe.

The whole thing left a sour taste in my mouth for the whole one-shot. He's a pretty decent DM at the table but his pre-game needs some work. I've been there as a DM myself and generally just eat the mistake when I make them, learning for next time.

What are your thoughts?

The findings show only 11 per cent of young DMs hold a very positive view, while DMs under 30 are three times as likely to hold a negative view of players compared to DMs over 30.

According to the poll carried out by the Merlin Academy for the New Wizard, young DMs “don’t care for” young players, believing the feelings are mutual, and citing an over-focus on combat motivation and a lack of care about roleplay issues, with DMs aged between 18 and 30 found to be the most theatre kid demographic in dungeons and dragons by far.

The research found that young DMs are 26 percentage points less likely to feel positively about Wizards of the Coast compared to young players.

They were also found to be much less likely to believe the action economy works in their favor and far more pessimistic about their own and others’ future games. Even though young players are more likely to be crowd controlled, it is young DMs who are 21 points less likely to believe they will take more actions than their players.

And more privileged DMs were found to be the most pessimistic of all, with DMs with more source books less likely to believe they are valued by their players or that they will succeed as a DM when they work hard than their homebrewing counterparts.

Under-25s were also found to be twice as likely not to want to be a DM at all as young players, and said they feared the prospect of being pressured into running games by Hasbro
When asked how he felt about the players he knew, a DM called Matthew told the New Wizard: “I don’t care for them. They’re not bad people, but they refuse to call out their fellow players who make their DM uncomfortable. They’ll laugh at jokes about Fatal and Pathfinder 2e ; they don’t care about rules issues… I don’t think they like their DM a lot... I feel like a lot of them are quite combat motivated players.” He said players would discuss subjects such as the hero’s journey if they fancied his game.

The group of young DMs she was with all agreed they would not run games with players with different rp/combat ratios, with one telling the publication: “I don’t think I’d even be friends with one. They don’t see you as human.”

Brennan was the only one to admit having player friends and shared his concerns about what content they were consuming online. “The stuff that’s being said about DMs is crazy,” he told the New Wizard. “They’re getting all these reels, talking about, like, bad stuff about DMs. And I get reels of DMs saying bad stuff about players. I try to think, not all players are like this, but idk”