Tag Archives: D&D 5E

March of Madness: Introduction

Demons lords are, to be blunt, gods you can punch. They’re top-tier monsters whose tendrils work their way into every part of a campaign. They’re impossibly strong, able to pervert the environment around them for miles just by existing. They’re … Continue reading

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Group Checks

Most rolls in D&D are made by a single character. Only the cleric makes a saving throw when she looks at a medusa. Only the rogue tries to disarm a trap. Only the fighter swings his sword at the goblin. … Continue reading

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Talent vs. Effort

This comment came in recently on the article In Defense of D&D Stats in Simple Language: The Definition of Charisma: I think the use of the word “empathy” was the one mistake in your article. Psychopaths by definition don’t have … Continue reading

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Under the Stars

While Faith is on its season break, now is a good time to talk about the other campaign I’m running. Under the Stars is, as I’ve said before, roughly “Breath of the Wild meets Ni No Kuni 2.” Unlike Faith, … Continue reading

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Creating Bosses: Actual Numbers

This post is the reason I’ve been avoiding writing about boss monsters for so long. While I’ve run hundreds (literally hundreds) of sessions in 3E/Pathfinder and 4E, my 5E experience is much more limited. I wasn’t sure I had the … Continue reading

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The Splash Damage of Alignment Restrictions

I’ve been trying to come up with something else nice to say about 5E. I don’t think it’s a bad system, I just think it took away a lot of the things I like about running D&D games like agency … Continue reading

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Subclasses, and What Came Before

This is DMing with Charisma’s 300th post. I was planning on an important, sweeping post describing how my last campaign affected me and how it will affect all of my campaigns going forward from the standpoint of the table experience … Continue reading

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The Role of Rolls

The essence of D&D, and arguably of tabletop roleplaying at all, is randomness. For years it was right there in the name: D&D ran on the d20 system, where players roll a 20-sided die and use rules to interpret the … Continue reading

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The Superman Problem

After several weeks of illness and travel, my first D&D 5E campaign has finally wrapped up. But in the long stretch of time between last two sessions, I realized a normal campaign post-mortem wouldn’t really cover the things I wanted … Continue reading

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Campaign Write-up: The Eight Arms and the Day That Wasn’t

I don’t spend a lot of time here talking about how my current campaigns are going. I generally only mention what we’re doing week-by-week when it’s something I can apply to gaming in general or an opportunity to make fun … Continue reading

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