Light, Darkness, and Darkvision...ok, mostly Darkvision

 

You just can not see in the dark.  Well, unless you are playing D&D 5E as one of the something like 70% of races that have Darkvision.   

Darkvision is pervasive in D&D 5E.  Most of the playable races have it, almost all of the monsters have it. Tasha's even introduced an option to let everyone have it.  It is just pervasive.

I've seen many adventuring groups with one poor human being lead around in the dark by his group mates who refuse to light a light. Presumably there are whole underground cities with nary a light source to be had...hmm, that just doesn't jib with typical fantasy world visions.  It also makes dungeon delving a different thing than what I want to run.  So, I'm going to look deeper into this topic in this post and make sure I know how I want to handle this topic.

Inspiration - A Non-Inspired Rule per RAW

D&D 5E didn't add many new elements; it largely streamlined and simplified mechanics that have been in one or more of the earlier versions.  Inspiration is one of the brand new items. It essential provides the DM an ability to give any/all player(s) a virtual cookie, a reward, in the form of advantage on a future roll of his/her choice.   

The idea seems really solid.  Give the DM something other than Gold, Magic, or XP with which to reward players.  Sadly, the actual rule works out to be a tad bit uninspiring. 

In this post, I will take a closer look at the rule, discuss a bit of info from the web and define how I want to try handling Inspiration in my next campaign. 

Chase Scenes

The assassin fires a crossbow bolt through the window, landing a bolt in the chest of her target.  He then leaps from the balcony and attempts to escape into the crowd hoping that his slight lead over the party will be enough to get away....What follows could be an interesting chase event or just a simple counting of distances with a predetermined result just playing out as difference in speeds.  I've DMed such an event rarely but never had I been happy with the way it worked.  

I ran across a post on oldschoolroleplaying.com that reviews the history of pursuit rules in D&D.  I think it makes an interesting read.  In this post, I will look at how chases are defined in RAW and consider a couple alternative rules.  

UA Class Features and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCoE)

Tasha Contemplating

 TCoE includes a large number of class specific options.  Each class has a number of OPTIONAL Class Features and then a handful of new subclasses.  

Tha Class Features are most, but by no means all of the features specified in the 2019, UNEARTHED ARCANA Class Feature Variants article. They will be the focus of this posting.

The subclasses are a combination of new and retreaded information. Many of them have previously been specified in various Unearthed Arcana articles.  Some are from campaign source books, such as Artificer from Eberron and Bladesinger from the Sword Coast. I've not looked in detail, but I presume that some tweaks have been made and that the TCoE version, as the newest is the default RAW definition. I'm not going to look further at the subclasses unless a game setting suggests one as useful or a player wants to play one.

Rests Revisited & Revised

Back in July 2020 I put together some thoughts on rest durations and effects in response to an interesting video I watched.  The author of that video suggested several changes, some of which resonated with me while others seemed like change for changes sake.  

In this post I am will spell out the experimental home rule, subject to refinement and further change, that I would like to implement in my next game to define four levels of rests:

1. Breather (10 minutes)
2. Short Rest (1 hour)
3. Long Rest (8 hours)
4. Full Rest (12+ hours in safety)

Character Creation and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (TCoE)

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the most recently published rule book contains a lot of additions of this and that.  A fair number of those additions are formalization of what has previously been UA or specific campaign material.  What I am looking at in this post is all new defined in a section titled Customizing Your Origin that basically (optionally) throws the entire D&D rule book out the window.  It allows assignment of stat bonuses to any stat, changing languages, even adding darkvision to any character all as OPTIONS.

This post will discuss the customizing origins rules in TCoE as I see them and outline what I will typically be allowing in my games.