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Treantmonk's latest video about how DPR-focused wizards suck and how DPR is a bad tool got me all salty. Especially because Tasha's, and to a lesser extent Wildemount and Xanathar's, made DPR-focused wizards much, MUCH more viable than they were at the start of this edition. Of course, I can...

It's 2020 and we're still doing the Oberoni Fallacy. I guess 'it's not a game balance problem if you use that optional rule that isn't necessary in 99% of games that don't have a monk' is progress, I guess.

What do you mean, experimentation and playtesting? How should the experiment be set up? Are we going to instruct 20 tables to run randomly-selected hardcover adventure from level 1 to 11 and then chart turn-by-turn details? This isn't a reasonable request as it is.

Do you want me to get you tables of tables of average saving throws and then put together plausible DC progressions of Stunning Strike? Something like rows of levels that compared average monster ACs and saving throws versus their likelihood of being stunned if Stunning Strike is used 1 / 2 / 3...

Yeah, and that's the fault of the game designers, not the DM. The game designers should not force the DM to make a choice between breaking the fourth wall, throwing out a common and plausible adventure design, or hurting game balance. It's a choice that was never appropriate for the game to...

In the monk's instance, going by DPR is warranted. For a few reasons. 1) The monk doesn't bring much to the table besides DPR. The monk doesn't heal, it doesn't put additional tokens on the board, doesn't buff, doesn't unlock party transportation options, crush ability checks, interdict...

The DMG guidance is wrong in this instance. It runs up against how stories are organically structured and tells the DM to damage internal consistency for game balance. And a lot of DMs, understandably, aren't going to design the adventure of 'escape from the zombie apocalypse before the city...

The thing is, the Warlock and Fighter don't drop off as hard in T1/T2 as the Monk does when they don't get a lot of short rests. The AB + Hex + EB spammer Warlock is boring, but it's still effective. Even single-classed BM fighters who used up their dice and action surge and second win are still...

This is not an honest representation of the argument. Plenty of people with charts and graphs have in-game experience of monks sucking. It's just that we realize that without the numbers, it'll just devolve into a 'he said/she said' argument. I can give you tons of anecdotal, non-numerical...

It's been my experience that a lot of monk defenders way overestimate how many ki points will be available to them. An hour is a very long amount of downtime, narratively speaking. If you're storming the castle or escaping from prison or defending the city from waves of bandits, you're not...

Treantmonk, I think you need to redo that calculation. Level 2 Spiritual Weapon / Level 3 Spirit Guardians is 35 DPR per round and honestly it's going to be less since it A) relies on two Wisdom saves and B) requires two rounds to set up. Level 5 Spirit Guardians / Level 4 Spiritual Weapon at...

Really? It depends on whether or not you have access to magical items. If you have magical items, Haste can pull slightly ahead at endgame. If you don't, Shadow Blade is better for raw DPR. That said, Haste has a couple of benefits that Shadow Blade doesn't (most notably the speed increase) so...

Then when are fans of martial characters going to draw a line in the sand? This instance of martials copping nerfs that monsters and casters aren't subject to is by no means the only occasion.

The hosejob comes into play via a double-standard that only ever affects martials. 'Dragons being able to fly despite the square-cubed law and breathing 30-90' cones of fire hotter than volcanoes every 1-4 rounds? That's okay.' 'Martials dual-wielding lances? Not okay.' What makes the first one...

Which is another martial hosejob. I don't know why you thought this would negate my point. The "hazy double standard" part comes from martials, all other things being equal, being more likely to copping a sudden 'realism' nerf than monsters or caster PCs. I'm serious. 9 times out of 10, if you...

I see it happen all the time. I see DMs declaring that rogues can't sneak attack oozes, I see DMs declaring you can't shoot arrows through a Storm Sphere, I see DMs declaring that swimming in heavy armor is an auto-fail even with a strength of 20, I see DMs declaring the fighter can't dual wield...

That's precisely the problem. People shooting snake arrows out of a bow is, from a physics perspective, more ridiculous than dual-wielding lances. But the former, in your own words, is deemed as a 'cool' and is thus unworthy of an on-the-spot nerf but the latter is okay if a DM on-the-spot...

A non-zero number of DMs in this very thread wouldn't allow the fighter dual-wielding lances on horseback, but I'm pretty sure close to zero DMs would disallow medusas shooting snake arrows Thulsa Dooms style under the same logic. It's a clear anti-martial hosejob and all you can do about is...

Hmmph. Willing Suspension of Disbelief always seems to be at its strongest when it comes to fighters. If my DM's definition of fair play was medusa riders shooting poisonous snake arrows from their hair atop of hellhound mounts but not a fighter dual-wielding lances on horseback, I'd (rightly)...

I see all that, and I still think Flesh to Stone is woefully underpowered. 6th level and all. I wouldn't use it even in a 4th level spell slot, because CON is a garbage save to target.