The math in D&D 5e is pretty solid with a few rough spots, and most of your skill rolls should be DC 13. That's a great starting point when we assume that: Skill checks are only made in dangerous or uncertain situations. The average adventurer is reasonably competent at core adventuring tasks . Superfluous (non-impactful) d20 rolls are elided. 5e is built around point buy, with the assumption that your primary ability score will have a +3 bonus with a 16 or 17 base. (Clerics

Game designers obsess over probabilistic precision when designing their TTRPG mechanics. They'll run formulas through AnyDice and pore over the exact results, tweaking convoluted dice mechanics and numerics to achieve the perfect spread of results. Then they totally disregard how those mechanics play at the table. TTRPG mechanics need to "feel good" in play. You cannot design a good RPG around mathematically-perfect probabilities because RPG is not a math game. An RPG is a so

Baldur's Gate 3 is a great videogame. It's a terrible D&D game. Baldur's Gate 3 utilizes the D&D 5e (2014) rules to fuel its gameplay,...

Ability scores worsen 5e. They encourage cookie-cutter point-buy characters and they slow the game down because you're calculating derived values like saving throw DCs and attack values. I don't know about you, but I'd rather spend less time mathing around and more time playing around. Moreover, there's the disparate impact ability scores have on the game: Dexterity influences Armor Class, melee and ranged attacks, and the all-important ability to move around without alerting

Although many adventurers find their fortune in dungeons and strange wildernesses, the cityscape provides another landscape for them to...

Hello, all! The Helpful NPCs team are here to present a new and REVISED NPC for your games: the BODYGUARD! Player characters can hire...

Hello, all! The Helpful NPCs are here to present yet another drag-and-drop encounter. Many of our encounters have focused on the...

Hello, all! The Helpful NPCs crew are here again to provide a helpful reference cheat for you. This time, it's all about stealth. How do...

Hello, all! The Helpful NPCs team are here to present a new NPC for your games: the BODYGUARD! Surely you've run into a situation where...