I have written quite a lot on diferences between OSR games and modern 5e, the difference in playstyle, relation with mortality, various mechanics such as gold for xp, reaction roles, dungeon turns and so on.

For quite a long time after I started to play OSR games, I was enamored, for I always wanted my 5e games to be more gritty, harder, yet still fair and with OSR I felt like I got that.

Now, with this piece, I wanted to look at something related to one of the criticisms I often saw levied against old school D&D and OSR games, mainly that they are unbalanced, too many save or sucks and difficulty just for the sake of it. Compared to nowdays, where even if CR could use some improvements (although it is quite a bit better with the 2024 iteration) it can still produce balanced encounters if followed properly.

And there is truth in both of this statements, but it ommits something - not maliciously necessarily - that balanced was not required for pre Dragonlance D&D and OSR games. The game did not make a promise of balance, but rather one of fairness, the DM, or as it was first known, the referee would be impartial. It is important to point out that you were not heroes, but anti-heroes at best, who might've offered some help only if you got something out of it. This stemming of course from how the game was emulating Conan style pulp fantasy, rather than the heroic epic fantasy later adopted following the success of Dragonlance.

So to cut it short, fairness and balance are not the same. One is about impartiality, while the others is about making sure that the danger the players are facing is winnable, without the requirement of underhanded tactics to tip the scales. One is pulp, the other epic. Both can be good, but we have to be aware of the distinction and not judge them against the same standards. Hope you will enjoy the piece!

Full article here: https://therpggazette.wordpress.com/2026/07/21/when-balance-replaced-fairness-two-different-promises-dd-has-made/

What class do you multiclass into and what level?

The 2024 SRD description says

* - (the powder of a crushed black pearl worth 500+ GP)

It does not say "consume". Is this a typo? Usually if a spell requires powder, it consumes it.

Some questions that swirl in my mind.

1. Is an overestimation of oneselfs charismatic abilities (performance, charisma,....) a lack of Char or Wis?

2. Is the Dunning-Kruger effect in a person the lack of Int or Wis?

3. Is the Darwin-Award winner a lack of Int(Nature) or Wis(Survival)?

All of them should be the first stat mentioned. But wisdom is the common sense. And all of the mentioned above have low common sense. Therefore the question, which stat are those people lacking really?

I invented a trick-taking game with 5 suits of 10 cards each and 5 special cards. Each suit beats two suits and loses to two suits. The suits are Crown, Sword, Shadow, Spell and Coin.

Shadow beats Crown and Spell and loses to Coin and Sword. Coin beats Shadow and Crown and loses to Sword and Spell. Spell beats Coin and Shadow and loses to Crown and Sword. Sword beats Spell and Coin and loses to Crown and Shadow. Crown beats Spell and Sword and loses to Coin and Shadow.

Alternatively you can use five elements, Wind, Fire, Lightning, Earth and Water (kinda like how a popular ninja manga/anime does it)

The five special cards are as follows: Shield removes all pentagram (suit) effects and makes cards win by number only, but cannot win a trick itself. The Fool beats the led suit card with an 11. Dragon wins the trick outright. Storm reverses the suits that beat and lose to each other for the trick, potentially turning losers into winners. It cannot win a trick itself. Void kills the trick, any card can be played after it is played regardless of what suit was led. Void cannot win a trick.

Play goes as follows: 5 cards are dealt to each player. The player left of the dealer leads any legal card (anything but the fool)

Players follow suit with the highest played card in the suit taking the trick unless trumped by a suit that beats it.

Players that cannot follow suit can play any card in their hand, whether it wins or loses against the suits played.

In the event of a three or four way tie, the tied players all draw and flip one card in a showdown round. It's resolved with rock-scissors-paper-lizard-spock rules at that point.

At the end of the 5 tricks for each hand, the player with the most tricks won takes the round.

Winning 3 tricks at any point ends the round.

In the event of a tie in a round because one of the special cards made it so only 4 tricks were won, a showdown occurs between the tied players, winner takes the round.

You can play as many rounds as you like in a match.

I got really bored and wrote this up in unity so players could connect and play with me during games if they REALLY wanted to gamble. The rules are also in a PDF. If you're interested, DM me. I just wanted to share.

I've run one campaign before and it wasn't particularly enjoyable for the players. I put way too much combat and very little story into it so it just kinda ended up being boring, so, I want to take an already existing module that would be good for me as a second time DM, but also good for the players because they will be playing for the first time. What would you recommend?

So I'm playing in a one shot and decided to play a circle of spores druid (we're playing with 2014 rules) and i need a full spell list for a lvl 11 druid lol. (Bonus points if some spells can be themed to be mushrooms/spores lol)

So this is a one shot that's designed to be punishing but fair/ beatable, depending on player choices.

I want to include a woods witch (maybe a hag) as a possible interaction/ moral choice situation.

The final encounter has x number of rounds before the ritual is complete. The idea to this encounter is it will cost you time (thereby reducing number of rounds before the ritual is done), but to balance this, it can provide benefits to the party.

The woods witch is unconscious out at her table, alchemy supplies in front of her. Her notes indicate she's working on a remedy to her condition.

There is obvious low or mid tier loot in the open, and her notes indicate the potion provided basically a full rest. There's also a magically-locked cabinet that they can't break into, but they can see it contains good loot.

The question for the party is do they take the easy pickings + the remedy and leave her to her fate, or heal her and hope for better loot? Now, my questions for you are:

• What is this high tier loot? Something like 3 luck dice? Maybe aid they can call in one time? A Potion of Strength + Potion of Maximum Power?

• Should the remedy cost them something? A hit to their max HP? A spell slot (permanently??)?

• Say there's 6 rounds in the final encounter before the ritual is done, as a base number. Now, the cost to the number of rounds in the final encounter due to going to the woods witch:

◦ Going here - does it just cost a flat 2 (?) rounds?

◦ Does it cost x rounds depending on what they do? Like:

▪ Steal her stuff = takes not too long = 1 round lost

▪ Make remedy = time consuming = 2 rounds lost -->Is this too complicated?

Essentially what the title says. I'm running a campaign, and today we had session 1. One of my players revealed that once they level up they could create multiple bag of holdings at once. Naturally, I'm a little scared. I don't want to say "no doing that", because my first campaign felt pretty railroady, but I also don't want it to ruin the campaign. This player is know to be a bit of a meta-gamer, so I'm a little worried. Any advice would be great!

I've been playing D&D with the same group for years, always around a real table. Recently I moved to another city for a while, so we're looking at VTTs like Roll20 and Foundry to keep the campaign going.

I've watched a bunch of videos, and maybe I'm missing something, but... why are they all so complicated?

When we play in person, we basically use character sheets, pencils, dice, and our imagination. That's it. Then I open a VTT and I'm greeted with dozens of buttons, menus, automation settings, effects, macros... it feels more like learning a new piece of software than sitting down to play D&D.

Are all these features actually things people use? Or is it just feature creep over the years?

One thing I also don't really enjoy is the amount of automation. I don't want every attack and spell to be a button that automatically rolls everything for me. I actually like looking at my character sheet, adding the modifiers myself, and rolling the dice. For me that's part of the game, not something that needs to be optimized away.

I also have mixed feelings about things like spell VFX, animated maps, and dynamic lighting. They look impressive, don't get me wrong, but I feel like they also take away a bit of what makes tabletop RPGs special. I enjoy imagining what the fireball looks like, or picturing the hidden room in my head, instead of having everything shown to me.

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned.

Are there any VTTs that are closer to the experience of sitting around a real table? Something more streamlined, with a clean UI, minimal automation, and just the essentials?

Or is there simply no demand for that, and most people actually prefer feature-rich VTTs? I'm a software developer, so part of me is wondering whether it's worth building something like this, or if it's just a niche idea that only appeals to me.

Hey, i wanted to ask what are the strongest builds for tier 1 and tier 2

We will be starting as lvl 4 so something that is also strongest at lvl 4, just was wondering if something will catch my eye. Thanks

We are using mostly only PHB and some 2014 stuff, but dm is open if we ll have enough reasoning so throw whatever

Saving throw changes

Everyone is proficient in every saving throw, so a Level 11 fighter is getting a +3 bonus to their wisdom saves on top of their Wisdom Modifier.

Previous Saving throw Proficiency is changed to Expertise meaning you double your Proficiency on saves, This means as you level up you keep up against Level equal CR saving throws instead of getting worse if the Saving throw is not of your Primary ability score.

Example: in 2014 (don't if the table was changed in 2024) a CR 1 creature is expected to have a DC13 save and a CR 11 creature has a DC17 save. A Warlock with 10 Wisdom has a 45% chance to make the Save against a Level equal CR creature at level 1 but only a 35% chance to make the Save against a Level Equal CR Creature at level 11. with this system a Warlock would have a 55% chance to make the save at both level 1 and 11 against a level equal CR monster. 

If the Saving throw is of your Primary or Secondary stat then it gets Better For each ability score increase you put into it rather than Needing to get it too 18 and 20 at level 4 and 8 to keep up with the Math of the game. Basically switching it from What people think PF2E is like to how PF2E actually works. 

This also massively buffs any Advantages you have on Saving throws from your Species. 

Class DCs (Such as a Monks Stunning strike or Rogue's cunning strikes) and Spell Save DCs are now 10+Prf+Stat meaning most casters will start with a spell Save DC of 15.

Every Class Has a Class DC at level 1 now with it being tied to the Classes Spell Save DC and is used for class and Subclass abilities. It is equal to 10+Prf+ Primary stat (Which is substituted in some cases for certain subclass like Psi Warrior for another stat), at class level 5, 11 and 17 you receive a +1 bonus to your Class DC meaning it tops out a Base 20+Primary stat. If you multiclass you apply the highest Class DC bonus to both Class DCs you have. 

Feats and Species based DCs use your Class DC scaling. Universal Stuff like Grapple and Shove now use a Formula of 10+Prf+Ability score modifier or 10+ athletics Skill Proficiency+Ability score modifier (E.G if you have expertise in athletics your DC is going to be 10+Prfx2+ability score modifier)

This mechanic is to basically make sure the Saving throws you force on other creatures stay consistent with the Scaling Saving throws of the enemy so you don’t enter 3.x true namer style scaling  (getting worse as you level up).

And also because saving throws being incredibly inaccurate is just going to make the game more Toxic and swingy given how many Instantly shut down this creature effects exists, basically the same reason One Hit KO moves are banned in Smogon competitive pokemon.

Hello all, thank you for taking the time to read this! I am a beginner at the start of my second campaign (first one was the dragons of stormwreck isle, but I used the premade paladin) and would appreciate some input on how to go about building my character. I have decided to go with an ancients paladin, race will be either half-elf, wood elf or variant human and there are three build directions I am interested in. Firstly an axe and board tanky paladin. For fighting style I will go with dueling but uncertain of how to proceed. Second is a polearm build with polearm master and later on sentinel, felt this would be a good crowd control machine with all the opp attacks and the ensnaring. Lastly there's a build inspired from my current (and first) bg3 playthrough which is a greatsword wielding wood elf. Between these 3 styles, which one would you go with? I still don't know what our party will consist of, thus would like my character to not be dependant on buffs by others. Looking forward to your thoughts, thanks for reading!

We have a warlock in our party that does equal casting and weaponry and was wondering if there was a weapon that also adds to casting.

Thanks

Hi everyone, as a DM for my ToD campaign, i tend to use music for ambiance and during encounters. And for now, my players are still far from the end, but i like to prepare final BBEG encounters long before they even get here, to improve all elements of the encounter to its maximum. My question is what music would you use for this fight against Tiamat ? This encounter will work around three different phases, so it would be incredible to share three music for each phase (for an example, in my old Vecna Eve of Ruin campaign, i used Demon King Ganondorf's theme for the encounter, with three phases, like this version of Tiamat).

Thanks in advance for your music recommandations!

I'm considering a more selfless reason to seek out immortality for an aasimar undying warlock I have planned for a back up: Their death would cause bad things to happen.

They'd be the last of a bloodline, one's existence being a safe guard of sorts, keeping something at bay. So they made a pact, seeking out immortality to ensure that protection remains way beyond their normal lifespan.

The thing can't be too crazy bad either, maybe something more local and not like a world ending threat. Like, more something that provides a new quest for the surviving party members if my character dies and not something that releases the big bad. It should add to the campaign, not take it over so to speak.

Maybe something that can show some effects if my character would ever be dead briefly before getting resurrected, which would put the safe guards back in place.

Like maybe their ancestor who could have been a full blooded angel could have sealed some demon away, or kept a powerful curse at bay but couldn't destroy it, and it cost him his immortality and a lot of power to do it. So he'd have had children to ensure the protection holds after his death. But over the course of a few centuries, there's now only one descendant left.

So what could the bad thing kept at bay be?