Aren’t those two the same thing? At least in C-style arrays, which might not be how they’re handled under the hood, but is at least how most languages present it to the programmer.

Tbh I agree that “horny bard fuck dragon” memes are tiring. But I actually didn’t read this meme as horny. I thought it was just “hey, you expect your orc to be buff and muscly, but NO! She lithe and slim!” Basically just poking fun at WotC for removing a feature called “powerful build”.

I’m a little sad that that book took so long to arrive that I had gone from never even considering moving to another system (other than for some fun temporary one-shots & small campaigns to add variety) to basically not being able to imagine myself choosing to go back to D&D at all, between the time I paid for it and when it finally arrived 5 months ago. Because I really did love the idea of it when it was being Kickstarted.

Oh man this is brilliant. Make it its own post please, don’t bury it here in the comments!

I think that’s largely a consequence of the 5e design in general. It doesn’t leave a lot of room, natively, for exciting challenges from its monsters. You’ve got to go to third parties, like Colville’s “action-oriented monsters”, or other systems like PF2, to get that.

I’ve played the Lost Mine of Phandelver beginner box campaign for 5e twice. Both times, I ran the dragon that appears in it by adapting this guide. It turns what would otherwise be a very dry and boring encounter in a very enclosed space into something that absolutely terrifies the players.

If I was to do this, whoever gives them the “disintegration gun” would give the players a cryptic warning. Something like

Beware. This weapon will remove any enemy you may face from your path. But the debt will come back to be paid…with interest.