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Aug 20, 2018 My Issues with the 5e Flanking Mechanics It’s Too Powerful. I’ve written before about how I love the cover rules in D&D 5e because they add another layer of strategy to combat. While flanking also adds more strategy to combat, I feel that being given advantage for something so easy to do in combat is a bit counter-intuitive. Dnd-5e combat advantage-and-disadvantage flanking 27 There is no flanking rule as a default; there are, however, a couple of optional rules proposed in the DM's handbook. It should also be noted that these are part of a general set of rules dedicated to playing using miniatures and tactical maps and even then they are marked as optional.
I will have given the overall physical quality of the book a 5/5 rating but alas, the quality control/assurance on this book isn't that great. Just like the PHB (and I own two of each books), the binding isn't perfect (excessive glue coming out of the pages) and the hardcover gluing isn't evenly done and exist creases.PHYISCAL QUALITY SCORE: 4/5
Review Introduction
The content of the DMG is divided broadly into 3 parts:
Part 1 covers: Master of Worlds
- A World of Your Own
- Creating a Multiverse
Part 2 covers: Master of Adventures
- Creating Adventures
- Creating Non-player Characters
- Adventure Environments
- Between Adventures
- Treasure
Part 3 covers: Master of Rules
- Running the Game
- Dungeon Master's Workshop
Finally, there is an appendix (ranging from A to D) section that covers Random Dungeons, Monster Lists, Maps and Dungeon Master Inspiration.
Finally, a useful index section to search for content.
Review Summary
This has been added here for ease of reference after I have completely read and reviewed the entire book.
Let me put it upfront - I'm not totally satisfied with D&D 5e. No doubt, it's good (after the utter disappointment of 4e) but after the playtesting and build-up (especially to this DMG), the final products don't live up to the expectations and hype.
Pointedly to the DMG, there are simply too much fluff content. Nearly two-thirds of the book are fluff or merely reference materials. Although these content are usable across game systems, there are definitely better guides out there in the market that helps GM/DM to plan/create/run adventures/campaigns/worlds.
I suppose I expected more coverage on variant rules and options (since D&D 5e was touted as highly modular and scalable) which isn't the case here.
Overall, I will only score this a 3 out of a total of 5.
Part 1: Master of Worlds
Chapter 1: A World of Your Own
A total of 17 pages including graphics. There are an assorted images of various styles - possibly by different artists. Somehow, this is a minor grip but I wish that they will have set the overall tone and style of the drawings.
Content-wise, it covers how to create a world in D&D context. It talks about the overall tone of the world, pantheons, races, scale, mood, organisation, commerce, languages, cultures and magic. The material given skims over details (e.g. pantheons coverage is merely a page, commerce half a page and magic covers only a page) - this is more of a overarching guideline than an-indepth guide.
Then it elaborates on how to create and run a campaign and how to tie it in into the world that has been created (or borrowed).
Finally, it covers playing style and its various flavours and how it'll affect how the world and campaign is created/modified/run.
My take: It's a refresher for experienced DM and definitely a great way to organise information and use as a guideline. Yet somehow, I felt that it is too skimpy to be sufficiently enough for a new or more inexperience DM to employ.
CHAPTER 1 SCORE: 3/5
Chapter 2: Creating a Multiverse
This chapter is 26 pages long. It contains details on how the material plane interact with the other planes, extending beyond normal play.
The planar categories are roughly divided into the material plane and its echo planes (Feywild and Shadowfell), transitive planes (ethereal and astral planes), inner planes (the four elemental planes), outer planes (all 16 planes) and the broad segregation of positive and negative planes (just like yin and yang concept).
This chapter covers a broad concept on how an individual can traverse these planes and a short description of each of these planes. Accompanying the short description, it also covers a writeup on the plane's peculiarity and an optional idea of how this plane will affect/influence an individual (e.g. In Mount Celestia, creatures of good alignment gain the benefit of bless spell as long as they remain on the plane. Finishing a long rest on the plane grants this good creature the benefit of a lesser restoration spell).
The outer planes cover:
- Mount Celestia (LG)
- Bytopia (NG, LG)
- Elysium (NG)
- The Beastlands (NG, CG)
- Arborea (CG)
- Ysgard (CN, CG)
- Limbo (CN)
- Pandemonium (CN, CE)
- The Abyss (CE)
- Carceri (NE, CE)
- Hades (NE)
- Gehenna (NE, LE)
- Nine Hells (LE)
- Acheron (LN, LE)
- Mechanus (LN)
- Arcadia (LN, LG)
My take: This is a pretty good chapter with excellent content formatted in an easy to read and reference manner. It's not totally new information and definitely the majority are rehashed from previous incarnations of D&D. Nevertheless, it is a good spring-board on how the planes are and acts as a catalyst for ideas to run an adventure on planar travel or questing on the planes itself. I especially like the half page graphical overview of how the entirety of planes interact.
However, there will definitely be future releases further detailing these planes (e.g. the abyss and nine hells) so these content are only a prelude. Useful as a reference now till these supplements are available.
CHAPTER 2 SCORE: 3.5/5
Part 2: Master of Adventures
Chapter 3: Creating Adventures
A 17 pages long chapter that provides guidelines on how to create/run adventures. There are lots of tables with associated numbers for random dice rolls to determine the results (e.g. 1d20 goals for dungeon based adventure or 1d6 villain event-based actions).
There are some advices for how to create/run a great adventure, adventure types (location-based or event-based), how to frame events, adding complications or twists into the adventure stories, determining encounter level of difficulties and structure for running random encounters.
My take: 17 pages of fluff again! Sigh...only useful information is that 1 page that covers how to create encounter with the right balance of difficulty and a guideline on how determining how much XP to gain per adventuring day. Honestly, what's the point of adding dice rolls to the tables for random selection? (It's going to get worse in the next chapter). 7 sample objectives to create an adventure?! 50 examples to framing events?! 5 categories of moral quandaries?! 20 event based goals?!
The more I read the DMG, the more disappointed I get. They (WoTC) claimed that many materials were left out due to the size limit of the book. Either they took out worse fluff that what are already in the book or they took out the good stuff and left us the bad stuff.
Poor chapter. 17 pages could have been condensed to 2-3 pages. It's a clear overview of creating adventures but not good enough with many other such guides found readily available in the market (e.g. Kobold guides).
CHAPTER 3 SCORE: 2/5
Chapter 4: Creating NonPlayer Characters
10 pages long. The chapter covers materials on why is it necessary to flesh out the NPC and what to include (such as appearance, abilities, talents, characters, background, etc). There are a lot of tables here and again an associated dice rolling if the DM chooses to randomise the results.
There are two optional rules that a DM can use from this chapter in his/her adventures/campaigns. That will be loyalty and villainous class options.
My take: Thus far, this is the worst chapter I've read in the DMG. I somehow felt that they (the WoTC designers) came up with a top-down design (segregating the book into 3 parts) and had to make sure that they cover sufficiently on each parts regardless if it is necessary or good.
Take for example the NPC talent table. 6 on d20 - 'Great with children', 10 on d20 - 'Draws beautifully', 11 on d20 - 'Paints beautifully', 12 on d20 - 'Sings beautifully'. Huh?!!
NPC mannerism table?!
The whole idea of randomising the results across the tables is ok but must ensure that the results somehow tie up together.
The only tiny bit of useful morsel of information will be the optional rule on loyalty of NPC/hirelings/henchmen.
CHAPTER 4 SCORE: 1/5
Chapter 5: Adventure Environments
This chapter contains a total of 25 pages interspaced with images. The content found therein is pretty clear - the environments of the adventure, be it in a dungeon or out in the wilderness. It covers advise and guideline (with tables) on how best to plan, construct and run dungeons and notable key features such as ecology, inhabitants, doors, rooms, temperature and air quality, light and sound.
The chapter then proceeds to touch on how best to run the wilderness, giving two approaches - travel-montage and hour-by-hour running of the wilderness. It covers wilderness features (e.g. monuments), weathers, hazards, settlements and terrains (e.g. sea, underwater or sky travel and encounters). Finally, the chapter covers traps. Triggering a trap, detecting and disabling, effects of traps and gave 8 samples of traps (e.g. collapsing roof, poison darts, poison needles).
There are optional rules covering foraging, becoming lost, damage threshold for a ship and how to handle traps.
My take: There are definitely more useful information in this chapter yet it does feel vague and skimpy. Again, a very broad guideline and overview.
Another gripe that I have on this chapter - it feels disjoint, somehow not very coherent in the presentation. For example, it has high altitude in a separate section from wilderness hazard whereby it covers desecrated ground, frigid water, quicksand, thin ice, etc. Shouldn't mountains (open storm, high altitude) be a wilderness hazard too?
It tries to cover on how to create dungeons and wilderness then it moves into how to run wilderness adventures and then move back into creation of wilderness consideration.
Except for the few additional rules for running an adventure/campaign, the content in this chapter are pretty bland. Definitely not something that I'll reference.
CHAPTER 5 SCORE: 2.5/5
Chapter 6: Between Adventures
7 pages in total in this chapter. It covers how to link adventures, recurring expenses and downtime activities.
One portion that is especially of note is crafting magic items and training to gain levels.
My take: Although a mere 7 pages in this chapter (I wish there are more), it is one of the most important chapter thus far in this book. It plugs the gap in the PHB about what the player characters can and will do in-between adventures. It covers the important aspect of building a stronghold, crafting/selling magic items, running a business, training, etc. It allows the players to immerse their characters into the world and adds an extra dimension of game-play such as carousing, gaining renown, sowing rumours beside those already listed above.
One of the shortest chapter but one that I found most useful. I somehow felt that the designers should have added more information to it (e.g. building a stronghold can be further expanded).
CHAPTER 6 SCORE: 3.5/5
Chapter 7: Treasures
99 pages in this chapter covering treasures. All types of it.
A useful small section covering the buying and selling of magical items, identifying, attunement of the magical item if required, cursed items, activating and for the more unique items, a background on it.
My take: WoTC must be kidding right?! They claimed that the book has reached the limit of page counts and hence many optional rules had to be taken out (mass combat?!) in favour of 99 pages on magical items?!
This is basically a rehash of those magical items that can easily be referenced from D&D 3.5e or D&D 4e or earlier versions. I'm not saying that the information given isn't welcome but to drop important elements of game-play and skim on more important details to provide a list of magical items and its descriptions? Sadly, we'll most likely see a future supplement compiling on all magical items. Thereby making this 99 pages very much obsolete; pages that could have covered more optional rules and in better details.
CHAPTER 7 SCORE: 3/5
Part 3: Master of Rules
Chapter 8: Running the Game
This is the first chapter in part 3, a total of 27 pages. It broadly covers guidelines for running the games such as table rules, table talk, dice handling, meta-thinking, absenteeism, ability checks, saving throws, DC, proficiency, advantage/disadvantage, inspiration and resolution handling.
There are a few variant rules involving:
- dice uses
- auto success in handling DC
- awarding inspiration
- success at a cost and degrees of failure/critical success or failure
There is also a section on exploration, guideline on how to run it covering elements such as pacing, visibility and tracking.
This is followed by all small sections on social interaction, object handling (half page), combat (half page), tracking monster conditions (half page), improvising damage (half page), adjudicating area of effect (3 pages) covering rules for flanking, diagonals, facing, line of sight, cover, handling mobs, using miniatures.
There is also a section on conducting chase followed by siege equipment (??).
Finally, a few pages of details on diseases, poison and madness rules.
My take: This is what I deem useful in the DMG. Something that will be heavily referenced by DMs in future. This is what D&D 5e was all suppose to be - modular and scalable rules and gameplay.
The chase section is pretty good. How a chase begins, running the chase episode and how it ends. It factors in advantage/disadvantage based on several elements and factors such as crowd, noise, ability of the tracker, terrain, etc. It covers two very useful table that include complication of a chase both in urban and wilderness scenarios, splitting up and mapping the chase.
I appreciate the additional information on the siege equipment but suddenly dropping it in the chapter without information on how to conduct a siege is pretty strange. Similarly, a half page on how to handle mob combats could have been better expanded. Flanking and facing rules shouldn't be only applied to using miniatures. This advantage can also be applied without the use of miniatures or tactical maps.
The remaining sections on disease, poison and madness handling rules are also excellent. How I wish the rest of the book was written like this.
CHAPTER 8 SCORE: 4/5
Chapter 9: Dungeon Master's Workshop
Another 27 pages chapter (coincidence?!) packed with very useful information.
- optional rule on proficiency bonus
- skill variant
- hero points (spent 1 hero point, roll 1d6 and add the result to any rolls such as attack, ability check or saving throws).
- honour and sanity ability scores
- fear and horror status
- variant on healing and resting
- addition of firearms, explosives and alien technologies
- plot points
- combat options covering variant initiative rules, actions, hitting cover, cleaving, injures, massive damage and morale
- section on creating monster or modifying an existing one
- small section on creating spell or how to modify an existing one
- section on creating magical item or how to modify an existing one
- section on creating new race or class
My take: This is the climax! Fantastic chapter that brings a glint of excitement to my eyes. Except for the section on resting (what is WoTC thinking?! Such a letdown here) and creating new spells, the rest of the content (in this chapter) are excellently written.
Especially good are creating/modifying monsters, variant combat options, new ability scores for honour and sanity, and hero points.
CHAPTER 9 SCORE: 4/5
Finally, there are appendixes A to D.
Appendix A covers random dungeons. The entire appendix is nearly covered with tables. Relatively good set of information, concise and compress for ease of reference.
Appendix B covers monster lists sorted by environment tables. Within the table, it is further sorted by CR. Included in this appendix is an index of the monsters sorted by CR, ranging from CR 0 to CR 30 (the Tarraque!)
Appendix C gives a few sample maps and finally, Appendix D provides a very short list of possible inspirational readings to the DM.
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- Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014 6:41 am (Total Number of Edits: 16)
- [+] Dice rolls