Unspoken Rules in D&D 5e 

Levels 1-3: Survival Horror Levels 4-10: Traditional Fantasy Levels 11-15: Epic Fantasy Levels 16-20: Superhero campaign.

Number 1 rule: kiss the DM on the lips upon entering and leaving the session. It's just good manners

Another Rule: Don’t beat your players to death with the DMG when they kill the big boss you spent four hours working on in 1 round of combat. Apparently that’s Illegal for some inexplicable reason.

The best part of this video, and the thing that not enough people say: "D&D is great at being D&D but other games exist, so play those, too."

Another rule- Don’t take advantage of the DM

I came here because I thought this was a bdsm channel... Now... Im playing dnd on saturday

I guess they are not unspoken anymore

“A stressed out, overworked, burned out dungeon master is the last thing you ever want at the table.” So very well put, dudes. Been there, hated that! Anyone got any stories about this?

I really love how the timestamps are in the description it makes it a lot easier to take notes.

Point number #2 I find is INCREDIBLY important for newer and less confident DMs to learn. It's okay if your monsters and bag guys are more powerful have access to things your PCs don't - that's what makes them so intimidating and engaging! Just don't make everyone in the game poop on the party all the time or else they'll start to feel insignificant... Solid video, my Canadian brethren!

Monty: "A lot of fantasy fiction fits best within what happens in a D&D game between levels 5 and 10." Fantasy fiction heroes: **killed by a single dagger stab**

Say what you like, you can't take away my ring of attunement. Rung of attunement Wonderous item (ring), rare Requires attunement. While attuned to this item, the wearer can attune to four magic items.

When I read the title of this video I was expecting rules like bring enough Cheetos for everyone, the DM gets dibs on the last slice of pizza or never touch the DM's dice. I was pleasantly surprised.

I did a homebrew game years ago, that was staged into three major parts. The first part was level 1 to level 10. A massive cult known as the Black Legion was attempting to bring Tiamat into the prime material Plane. To do this, they bid their time, waiting for a thousand years to amass an army a million strong. They hid away chromatic dragons until the time was right. The party is recruited by one of the lead NPCs to aid with quelling the troubles throughout the land to unite the kingdoms against the Black Legion. Very few actually know how strong their army really is or that they are about to launch a full scale invasion. Mostly, they seem like nuisances and terrorists, small groups launching organized chaos to disruption effects against the ruling kingdoms. The kingdoms are at a lack of trust with one another and the legion is banking upon that mistrust to have an easy victory. The party spent the first ten levels traveling to various kingdoms, to try and do everything to aid them, and ally them with the Temple kingdom of Nexus, to hold the Black Legion back. Level 1-10 takes about a year, minimum, for the party. But there is a kicker. At the beginning of the first session I have a list of all the kingdoms and I roll to see which one comes up on a Die. Sometime during the levels 1-10 the party acquires the knowledge that a MASSIVE Black Legion force is moving against one of the kingdoms in a show of its might. There is no way to save this kingdom, all the party can do is evacuate survivors. It is a joint effort, other kingdoms send airships to help, but ultimately very few of them make it out when the Black Legion summons dragons to drop beneath the clouds, forcing the party to do a full retreat with what they have. This sets up an example to be made of the rest of the kingdoms, but above all, it sows fear, exactly what the Legion intends. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people cut down by Forces loyal to Tiamat. A kingdom reduced to rubble in a single afternoon siege of overwhelming proportion. This also serves to let the party and players realize how absolutely dire the situation really is. They are heroes, but what can a handful of them do against what they witnessed? When they achieve level 10, they are grizzled veterans. They have made a name for themselves, but they have seen horrors more petrifying than any beast, any monster. They have seen the raw brutality of senseless war. At level 10 the war kicks off full steam. The Black Legion marches on the land, and the Kingdoms unite their best efforts even though they are horribly outnumbered. The party is essential in a necessary task during the war. Breaking enemy morale, taking coordinated attacks to cut off enemy supply lines, or the big task, tracking down and defeating every one of Tiamat's five great generals who lead the seemingly infinite Black Legion. The war takes another few months, minimum, and usually the party will be level 15 by the end, should they survive. The last part is where all the cards are played. A mysterious and ancient force was truly behind what roused Tiamat's ire, and it's nothing other than one of the primordial beings themselves. The party will achieve level 20 befofe the final, climactic, dimension-spanning battle that ends it all. The fate of the multiverse falls on that final battle. I love parties of all levels, and I believe a full fledged 1-20 adventure can be a tale remembered for many, many years. It has its hardships, its betrayals, but it also has good memories, life lessons, and hope.

I feel like high level DND gets a bad rap. The rules work just fine at these levels, you've just got to embrace the change of pace and scope of the adventures.

I remember when my friend/DM pointed out specifically how absolutely busted Niv Mizzet in the Guildmaster's Guide is for having the ability to concentrate on two spells at once while also being a 20th level wizard.

Gentlemen, I think I've watched 90% or more of everything you've ever posted on this channel, and loved it I should add. I've watched a lot of it several times. This is the most insightful, intelligently expressed and important post you have made so far. (Standing ovation). D&D 5E is amazing, it's very versatile and many many fun, but if your game concept is not high fantasy (broad spectrum thereof) try something else. Call of Cthulu, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Starfinder. I have a player who wants to play a time-travelling steam-punk wizard, (let's be honest, Dr. Who) I could crowbar that into Eberron maybe, but how much more fun for a 1-shot in Dunwich or Starfinder. Being UK based, a Jack the Ripper murder mystery could be so much fun. 5E is my home, doesn't mean I can't go on holiday.

"The Dungeon Master can break the rules _in very careful and intentional ways_ ..." Careful. And intentional. Two things many people attempting rules hacks forget. Careful, as in you hack as little as possible. Your point about NPCs being built with the monster creation rules, not the PC creation rules is key here. You just don't need to alter the entire game to create a single adversary. Intentional, as in you have a clear idea what you're trying to achieve with your hack. Don't just randomly introduce stuff. Have a very clear idea of what you want, why you can't get it without hacking and how your hack is going to deliver it..

You forgot, never split the party, and that it’s your fault if you say yes when the dm asks “are you sure?”

Really the "sweet spot" is a major design flaw they really need to develope endgame play in future iterations

I was having issues with the realism feeling with D&D a few months back. If I had seen this video, I would have gotten over it a lot quicker. I love D&D and have run a weekly game for over a year and a half now, but wanted a more realistic feeling like I get from Call of Cthulhu or Traveller. Hearing "D&D is a Pulp Adventure game" was perfect. It made everything click. I feel dumb because of course, it shouldn't feel real, it is a PULP ADVENTURE. Thank you for this video. I needed that hammered into my brain.

"Nowhere in the rules does it say a human player character can't have six arms and two heads. It's just assumed you know that." *The Followers of Demogorgon would like to know your location*

I really enjoy your format these days, you have a very no fuss approach that I enjoy! Wish you all the best with this channel!

The idea that Levels 5-10 is the sweet spot for characters actually makes a lot of sense and something I never thought about. There are times I would look at the high level bonus a character gets and thought, "That is worthless."

So official modules end around level 13, and "data shows that most campaigns peter out at that point"? Almost sounds like a cause and effect situation...

2:30 - The fact most adventures stop at around, as is said, levels 5-10 annoys the ever loving hell out of me. I always feel about levels 8+ is when your character comes into their own and actually can DO things like pursue their goals.

I think hit points are actually abstractualizing how well the fight is going, but not an indication of damage. I think every kill is a one hit kill, but the exchange of hit points back and forth is describing their strikes, blocks, parries, and glancing blows. One character fighting a goblin loses some hit points, if we were to "visually render" the "matrix code" of that fight, the goblin would have locked swords with the character just then, and managed to shove him backwards over a table. It didn't hurt him necessarily to tumble over that table, but the fight is "going better" for the goblin. When whichever party loses their last hit point, *that* is actually when they got hit and run all the way through to the hilt. The reason why the winning character still has lower hit points after the fight, if they were just abstractualizations, is because *he's tired.* He just faught *really hard*, give him a minute! :P If, on the other hand, he barely lost *any* HP, or less than 10%, then he was actually just having fun with the fight, toying with his opponent, and barely broke a sweat. That's why as you go up in level, you get better.

This is a really good video, guys. Well done. I've seen the truth of each of these "unspoken rules" in my games, often learning them the hard way from trying to play in games that have overlooked them. and it's great to hear them all articulated in one place. An overlooked rule that I might add: "the game expects teamwork." D&D is designed around a party of characters with different classes, each having different abilities that make them good at different types of tasks. That's why characters only have certain skill proficiencies, and why no one class can do everything that another class can do. DMs should rely on this when designing adventures: it's actually very good to have a wide variety of different types of challenges and situations, so that each player has some times when their character is the most important person in the story. But in addition, the game is also designed for characters to work together by using their various skills in combination. This is especially true in combat -- it's why monsters tend to have so much more HP and strong abilities than a single PC of the same level would have. D&D encourages PCs to help each other out, like a cleric buffing a fighter, or a fighter helping a rogue set up their sneak attack, etc. If every PC is just acting like a solo character in a one-player video game that just happens to be in the same room as some other solo characters, that's not going to be as good a game as if they're all really working together.

"It would be unimaginable to pull out 18 magic items." 3.5e: Allow me to introduce myself. Jokes aside, love the videos guys, 5e is a weird blob of a system and you guys do a great job breaking it down for all of these new friends to the game us grey beards have now!

14:00 dont forget, the rules actually say that a hit simply means a near hit where you lose stamina, balance, or just run out of luck. for players who have trouble wrapping their head around surviving 37 stabs wounds, this is a great way to describe it.

good video--I would be interested in a video on the "unwritten social contract" rules as well. I am DMing a group of newer players and at times I struggle with a lot of meta-gaming and personality conflicts (not in game, but meta) between the players that negatively effects the overall game play.

3-12 is by far my favourite portion of D&D, everyone has their subclass stuff to play with -> everyone is very proficient in their build, not god fighters but are extremely competent.

Our group decided to branch out from D&D to try a Shadowrun campaign. I loved it, but several of our players (most especially the casters since Shadowrun magic is much more mechanically involved) had a really hard time adjusting to the new rules. So we decided to continue our Shadowrun campaign (because we all LOVED the setting and stories we were running) in D&D 5e. It actually worked really well with minimal changes (stuff like hacking being slight of hand). It really didn't affect the game almost at all, aside from being easier on the casters.

"Mulitple Clones or Multiple Simulacrums" Ah, Pumat...

Love that you guys mentioned other Role-playing settings, I feel often times it is ignored (either purposefully or not) that they even exist.

I really have to give a shout out to my dm here about the higher lvl stuff as he is still making stuff challenging and interesting. I think we never had a boss that was only “hit big”. There was always different phases or things that needed to be done in order to fight the enemy. As an example: We once fought a barbarian clan chief that had a form of hyper rage that reduced every damage to 1. To we had to make sure he didn’t attack or got attacked for one turn and then attack. That however wasn’t as simple as “just run” as he would, if no one of us was close, attack one of his minions to keep the rage going. After the rage wore off, he was stunned for 1 round in which we killed him easily. But getting to that point and using the knowledge of how the ability worked was the fun part.

8:44 "And also, the party can use some really powerful spells to totally undo a combat encounter that you might wanna be careful giving to your NPCs and monsters." Mind Flayer Arcanist with Wall of Force: Hello.

My biggest takeaway was about game balance. The idea that an unbalanced game is ultimately a burden on the DM. If the goal of the DM is to provide an interesting and engaging challenge, it becomes really hard to do that if they players have stats or abilities that make them incredibly powerful for their level. And this is just a stressor for the DM. Honestly, in some cases, that stress is self-imposed, because the DM gives players a lot of extra advantages (e.g. no point buy caps, a really powerful ability score array, giving out magic items like candy, making expensive material components easy to access, etc.). These are all things the DM can control, but they might choose to be more lenient with, because they want their players to feel powerful and epic. But in the process, they're just making their job harder, because now they have to balance a party of superheroes against a world that isn't designed to hold them.

Awesome guys, thank you for the new video! I love the variety you curate between in depth class and gameplay and meta content.

Naturally you have to shift your expectations a bit when gaining levels in D&D. The game as a system is designed to make players feel like average folk in the beginning, and heroes (or villains) towards the end. If that weren't the case, players would have nowhere near the same amount of freedom that they currently do have. Additionally, you can make almost any fight challenging, even for players of a higher level, by forcing them to adapt to their surroundings, develop strategies, and let foes of a higher intelligence level use their own strategies. Many people don't realize this, but a monster's intelligence can mean the difference between an extremely easy fight and a deadly one. Go ahead, when the beholder gets below half HP, make it choose who to target and what eye rays to use. Make that giant use the terrain to its advantage and throw a boulder at the puny wizard, or yeet that pesky fighter a couple hundred feet to the side. The monster's flavor texts in the MM or wiki pages often give great examples of tactics these foes would employ to kill an adventuring party. Goblins employ guerilla tactics and tamed wolves, Kobolds lay traps, etc. etc. Monsters aren't stupid. Well, most ones anyway. Making the monsters actually fight for their survival instead of "i whack tank with stick" can make the game very challenging for the players, create a sense of danger, and have the party develop their own strategies. The Runesmith made some great videos about this, you should check them out.

the dnd gospel according to monty and kelly! one of the best videos you have ever made guys. so much wisdom and experience on what d&d is great at, what it can't do, and encouraging people to play other ttrpgs if they really want to focus on another genre. great stuff!

I feel a need to comment on the level "sweet spot", while I don't disagree that this is a thing I actually find it very disappointing that so many campaigns tend to end there. It feels to me like I've done all the hard slog to reach my super cool awesome powerful abilities... and then I don't get the reward of ever using them. Just leaves a sour note to things for me. (disclaimer: this is a personal opinion and in no way is anyone expected to agree with it)

My rule is don't kill player before level 3 beacuse when they get to that level they feel attached and not just like welp he died

After watching most of your videos, & all of Drakkenheim seasons 1 & 2, somehow you keep coming up with things to inspire & teach this lady, a 23-year DM and longer player. Always fun things to watch! I appreciate your take here on the game being an abstraction, not a simulation. Learning that lesson as a young DM was what made DMing 'click' for me. I don't know where to put this, so I'm awkwardly putting it here: One idea I'd love to see is, breakdowns of whole scenes/encounters from the DM's perspective - "this worked this way," "I would do this then this and here's why" - going through concepts and adjudication with specific examples rather than generalities. Sortof like a hands-on approach to learning. Just a thought. Again, great job on your content and being a place where love for the game and respect for others really shine through. Kudos & thanks!

Yeah, this is amazing. It's basically all of the most important info about d&d in a single video. You make great content, but this time you've really outdone yourselves. Wow.

The way I take hp realistically is by explaining how the armor took most of the blow so you don't die outright or if it's a bad damage roll saying how the enemy didn't miss but swung their weapon poorly... You can add realism to dnd if you're creative enough

This. Just this, thank you Dungeon Dudes. This has answered a handful of difficult questions that I have been losing sleep over recently.

In the most recent game I ran, I only really allowed changes to the concentration and attunement rules was when the PCs where gearing up for the Final Battle with the BBEG. Even then, doing so required calling in all their accrued favors over the past 16 levels, basically allowing the big movers of the cosmos to indirectly aid the PCs. We all seemed satisfied by it. A suitable closing episode of Big Damn Heroes taking down the Big Bad Evil Guy.

I watch a lot of dnd videos. But i actually run Pugmire for my friends. We found that it's simplicity and lesser focus on combat works very well for us.

*starts doing casual research for my first session as a DM, clicks on this video and begins to sweat prefusely*

my only game so far has been 1-8 and I really loved the dynamic of learning what our characters were all about

Big kudos to you guys as a D&D centric channel taking the time to point out that the game is not flexible as it claims, and recommending people look at other systems if they want something outside of high/heroic fantasy.

Honestly, I don't even call it Level Five. I call it Level Fireball.

Dungeon Dudes: "That’s why it’s been so hard to have a very good Dungeons and Dragon video game that doesn't compromise on so many of the things that makes Dungeons and Dragon magical." Larian Studios: "Challenge accepted."

Going along with the idea of learning from other gaming systems, G.U.R.P.S (GenericUniversalRolePlayingSystem) was very eye-opening when I first read it along with their subsequent source books including cyberpunk and supers. At the time, I had only been playing 2nd Ed D&D so a lot of the ideas felt quite new in how you could run your game. The Merit/Flaw system was a great way to add some unique flavors to characters while also giving them balanced buffs right out the gate. The cyberpunk source book went into some pretty cool hacker theory comparable to Shadowrun and is worth the read all on its own. I also read the crap out of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rulebook and it was actually pretty good! I think we played 2 or 3 games of it before it fell apart, but the character building for that was a lot of fun. Another great unspoken rule; If your gonna use the restroom, like USE IT USE IT, do it before or after the game at your own house. Everyone's noses will thank you.

This is one of their best videos. Some very important things discussed here. I’m a veteran DM and it’s tough to find videos relevant to me. This certainly fit the bill. Also, their passion for te topic in this video really stood out. Great job you guys. Keep it up :)

Regarding the concentrating on two different spells, this is definitely a thorn in my side. It's not the fact that you can only concentrate on one spell that gimped a lot spells, it's the fact that so many spells were made concentration spells. Haste, Bless, and Sleet Storm are just a couple that I don't feel should require concentration. Each of them should be a one cast, limited duration. So, to counteract that, one thing that we have done is that you can concentrate on a second spell if you pass a concentration check of 12 + second spell's level when you cast the second one. That way, if you only need to cast a 1st level, you only need to beat a 13, but you still have a 60% chance of failure.

"As a player character I would love to be able to fly, while invisible, while casting wall of force and cloudkill all at the same time! it's DnD 3.5"

I joined a campaign recently with a DM who is really challenging with the combat. Even with the characters being insanely strong. Its such a refreshing feeling to feel like every single fight could be your last. For those who want to know what the DM does, its a bit of homebrew. The things we are fighting would be above level 20 if that was a thing. Basically they just add some lore or some other reason that this creature/person is so powerful. Custom moves/abilities/items etc. It all adds up to an intense and tough battle.

7:55: "Willy nilly ability" gave me more joy than it should have.

Getting wood burned into my DM screen “at the DMs discretion”

Just started playing dnd, had my first session last week. Your content is super helpful and well explained.

10:33 The first thing that went through my head was a reddit DnD thing I saw on youtube somewhere. The party was fighting on a cliff, the jungle far blow them was on fire, the druid jumped inside of the mouth of a pterodactyl, and the Barbarian then jumped on their back while it tried to flee. The druid then wildshaped into a bear and clawed out of it's stomach, creating the cover of a heavy metal album. A musclebound barbarian in fur armor on the back of a pterodactyl falling into a flaming jungle with a bear clawing it's way out of it. It's so strange and silly, and was the very first thing that ran through my mind for some reason.

Although I really love your standard videos, like rating subclasses, spell mechanics, etc, this video was really excellent. I very much appreciate the thought, writing, and research that went into this video. Looking forward to your next video essay. 👍

Another reason I like BECMI. It always has something new to do all the way to level 36. Build a Kingdom, adventure to find the Paths to Immortality. 5e really should incorporate some of the old system mechanics.

Still goin through the Dungeons of Drakkenheim it makes me smile to see the Sebastian shirt now lol

I love the blades in the dark shoutout! I ran a campaign for some friends that were well versed in DND and they really loved the darker feel. Really good for RP practice as well.

Very solid and well thought out. Having played almost equally on both sides of the screen, I think you guys really nailed down a lot of the finer points here.

The action economy is for sure, too dangerous to mess with. I created an Inertia system that gives each character an encounter-refreshing pool that builds up after every combat (+1) that they can spend on additional reactions/actions (3 points for an action). The points increase from 0 to as high as the players want to go. Short rests reduce the points by 1, and burning points on low-level spell slots adds a penalty to that character's pool as well. A long rest resets the pool to 0. The Inertia Surge (an extra action) was amazingly potent against a legendary zombie creature I was using who definitely felt dangerous but lasted only one round against four level-5 characters (I think he made it to the top of round 2 before being wiped out). I've pulled back using that system. It is probably fine for giving out extra bonus actions and reactions and extra low-level spell slots for parties that push longer on the adventuring day, but extra actions is a big NO - especially with a battlemaster, a bard, and two wizards. PS: There was a round-by-round time crunch on at the time due a zombie horde outside the warehouse trying to break past the barricades the party's NPC allies had rushed to setup. Took over a minute for the zombies to begin breaking in, but the party found the artifact and used an escape tunnel. Very Tense even with the Zombie boss going down so fast.

Really appreciate this advice. Wish I'd heard this back in my 1/E days, glad I know it in my 5/E games while I am trying to pass along the love of D&D to my collage age offspring (can't say child, this is a DnD discussion after all!)

This video should be part of every DMs library. These tips are invaluable. Thank you so much I hope I got you many subscribers by sharing this video.

Thank you for amazing content! Watching all of your content makes me want to start my first campaign even more!

For rule #2 I would like to caution Dungeonmasters out there from doing things with the enemies that is 100% impossible for the PCs to also do (assuming the PCs could be reasonably expected to be able to duplicate the method that they're able to pull off whatever your enemy is doing). For example, if your big bad villain is, for all intents and purposes a wizard, sorcerer, or warlock, cleric, druid, etc of a standard race, and they "discover" a method to concentrate on two spells at the same time - it is reasonable to assume that the PCs could, with effort, duplicate everything they did, and gain the same ability. Why is it important to avoid this situation? Game world consistency. It's very important for proper immersion for a lot of players. In the game world, doing x, y, and z results in being able to concentrate on two spells at once - as the DM, you've made that the case by putting your villain in the game who can do that. So if players are capable and willing to do x, y, and z, and do it, they have good reason to expect the same results. If you can come up with a way that it's literally impossible for the player characters to duplicate the circumstances for your NPC/Monster/Villain's abilities, then it's less of a problem for this, but do not underestimate the ingenuity of your players. If they want it bad enough, they may well come up with a way to do it (potentially only temporarily).

Just recently a friend complained that hes only played 1 character above level 5.

This is such a fine and heartfelt video, in addition to being incredibly useful - thank you.

Dudes, this video is straight up fire! I'm so glad you recommended other systems based on D&D being about big damn fantasy heroes! Love it!

My favorite D&D setting right now is the TV show Supernatural.

I have a recent story on the last point lol A novice DM friend of mine was really into HEMA, and he felt underwhelmed by how simplistic 5e is when it comes to weapons and armours. Dude spent days and days writting pages about a super well thought of homebrew about a new way to implement weapons, including flat damage resistances, new properties, more AC modifiers, nerfs Buffs and etc. The idea was cool, but it felt too slow, defeating the purpose of 5e in the end. And theeeeem, we played Pathfinder 2e, dude instantly felt in love with the system and decided to try DMing it instead.

Just wanted to say you both are great. I'm about to run a campaign, and I've used so many of your videos to help me be a better DM for my players. Thank you!

Thanks! The discussion about PC/NPC/MOB powers helped me greatly.

Definitely agree on other game systems! I love D&D and it's always been my most played game, but it fails miserably in a modern setting. It's firearm rules are generally ridiculous and make them awkwardly weird bows instead of far more deadly, but take forever to load for the first models. It's designed around magic and fantasy. Plus as a company they're the biggest ones in the RPG sphere. That doesn't mean there aren't tons of small content producers trying to take off that you may not have heard of that have a much better setting / game for what you're trying to awkwardly force D&D into whether it's Sci fi, horror, or modern adventure.

The "D&D is high fantasy" was a pet peeve of me for a while now. There are SO MANY great systems out there. Why do people think they need to mod D&D to play cyberpunk instead of just playing, you know, Cyberpunk? Only reason i could accept would be the price for the books, but considering how expensive D&D is compare to other games. Thinking about it, maybe they don't want to learn a different system?

I love that your videos are always so detailed and long

Your videos are super helpful to me as a new DM and I really appreciate you sharing your experiences and wisdom.

I feel since your mic quality is so different that Monty is just a Major Image Kelly made

Kelly spent the whole video staring into my soul. Monty just stared at Kelly. It was cute.

The big unwritten rule I go by is that the DM calls for ability checks and sets the stakes on them. The abilities and skills aren’t buttons that a player gets to press to make things happen. Players make things happen by describing their actions, then if the DM decides an action requires a check, they call for a check. And the DM also decides what success and failure mean on a check, taking everything relevant into account on a case by case basis. The PHB should have explained this better imo. Also, great to hear these guys talking about and advocating other game systems. From their other videos I got the impression they only really played D&D. Shows what I know! Great advice in this video.

The one about how balance doesn't exist to have a fair party, but to have a system in which the DM can actually challenge the players with, was really refreshing to hear. I've heard far too many times, mainly from Matthew Colville, that "the rules don't matter" and "the DM can work around anything", and it's a philosophy that seems to forget all the work the DM has to do in the game. The rules exist so that we can actually tell an engaging story with stakes, and tension, and a genuine feeling of being challenged. And compromising it can compromise that feeling.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with the *general* point, but I would argue the "multiple clone/simulacrum" example of "OK for NPCs, bad for PCs" is actually exactly backwards: it's something that would be largely harmless for the PCs but potentially problematic for NPCs to use. Consider: In the long run, a PC having access to indefinite resurrections with an overhead hurdle is ... what they all have already, all the time. I mean, it's *possible* a group would tell a player whose PC died that they have to go sit in a corner for the rest of the campaign, but I think in most groups, what happens is that player picks back up with a new character of the same level after at most one session, and that character might well even be a metaphorical "clone" of the character that died (the idea of umpteen identical fighters who were all brothers is a stock joke in roleplaying). While a given group may have different preferences for how it would affect the mood of the narrative, from a gameplay perspective it's not really going to break anything if the returning character is *literally* the same as the one that died rather than merely functionally the same. Whereas if an NPC dies -- specifically, if an *antagonist* NPC is defeated by the PC heroes, and then returned to the game in defiance of the expectations created by the player-facing rules -- then what you, the DM, have done is handwave a player achievement out of existence, potentially making them feel their efforts at the table are futile and pointless.

Remember that the npcs are people not just things to move the story along. Also make sure your monsters aren't just there to die. They have their own agendas and reactions to encounters

this was a really good vid. I like these deeper insights into how all the gears move&grind.

Great info here thank you! I also play a lot in the Open Legend system which is the flip of 5e - very flexible, not setting specific but relies heavily on GM interpretation and is hard to balance. So this was super helpful in looking at the pros and cons and how to adapt so games in both systems grow!

Been reading the new Dresden book there, Monty?! :D

If I had a dime for everytime a player "airbudded" me, I'd have a whole lot of dimes

Thank you for doing these videos, Dudes, they are fun, informative and well made :D

Great to hear these guys talking about and advocating other game systems. From their other videos I got the impression they only really played D&D. Shows what I know! Great advice in this video.

unspoken rules should be spoken to avoid misunderstandings.

WotC: Things to not mess with... (1) the action economy, (2) concentration, (3) item attunement. Also WotC: let’s give artificers an item that doesn’t require attunement, stores up to 10 spells, and let’s also give them Tiny Servant.

I really liked the last segment where you talked about improving your D&D game by playing other games. A video on that would be really interesting - kind of like the one you did on borrowing things from D&D 4.0 into 5.0. PBTA games and other indie, narrativist "third wave RPGs" have great ideas that can be used in any kind of game.

Something I'd like for a future video would be to expand on examples from that last section on concepts or mechanics from other systems that you like bringing into D&D. One for me for example is the Icons from 13th Age, which is a great way to think about the major figures of the world and how the player characters tie into the setting.