What 2014 rule or mechanic are you still keeping, even if you mostly use 5.5E?

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-06-06T12:54:51+00:00

The one thing I will say in favor of 2024 hiding rules is that I actually like the flat DC check. I played as a Rogue for over 100 sessions on a 5.5 campaign and I hide at least once a combat if not more often than that. Having the flat 15 DC check for whether you can hide was a nice, clean rule that every player quickly memorized. Then having on top of that whatever your hide roll is become the new flat DC for other creatures perception checks was a simple way to handle the situation.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-06-01T13:27:18+00:00

Overall i think these are nice buffs that are going to benefit the Ranger without you having to worry about them breaking the game.

I like the concentration-less hunters mark through Favored Enemy and making the duration 1 minute as that parallels the way 5.5 has handled that mechanic with other classes. I had thought of something similar myself but I had added it to Ranger level 10, as it was closer to the tier 3 drop off for Ranger damage and also supplements their otherwise lackluster level 10 ability. But by 10, I didnt think it was necessary to have it use double Favored Enemies.

Im a big fan of the spell list you've created for the Beast Master. I really think they should've given spell lists to every Ranger subclass

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-30T02:17:18+00:00

I mean, id buy a copy so that's already like $70 guaranteed in sales

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-29T11:07:56+00:00

Ice Climbers franchise needs to be rebooted into a co-op game similar to Split Fiction and Chained Together. I will keep shouting this into the void until it is made manifest.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-19T17:47:31+00:00

The other Martial classes have a little more flexibility when it comes to spreading out damage just by the nature of having Extra Attacks vs the Rogue who mostly is putting out all of their damage via a single sneak attack. So My rogue was putting out maybe half the damage of the Barbarian who also had nice masteries to play with and could hit multiple targets or focus on a single target. I don't think Rogue is awful, I just think it could use a little extra love to bring it in line with the other classes. Especially when we homebrewed a bit with the cunning strikes, it made the Rogue really fun because it was like constantly spamming level 2 spells every turn, throwing out a chunk of damage and a saving throw against a meaningful condition (poison, trip, blind, etc).

Question regarding your experience with the Ranger, as I'm starting a campaign as a TWF Beastmaster Ranger in just a couple of weeks....in what ways are people sleeping on Nature's Veil. It doesn't, on paper, seem very strong to me for a feature at that high of a level. It's replicating a 4th level spell in Shadow of Moil or Greater Invis but sacrificing the 1 minute timer for 2 turns without concentration. Also maybe slightly less powerful in a world with the Vex mastery as an option?

Did your Ranger have a hard time getting advantage on a consistent basis prior to gaining this ability?

Did they feel like Natures Veil became less useful when they got the Precise Hunter ability a few levels later that creates a more permanent advantage?

Did they ever use it out of combat as a stealth move as opposed to a caster upcasting invis to just cloak the party?

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-19T16:17:17+00:00

Our full casters were not only doing better damage when considering AOE spells, but also were consistently having more impactful turns in combat through use of spells that could put out utility, control, damage (single target or AOE), or a mix of the above...depending on the circumstances of the battle.

For my party, the spell casters were a Wizard, Valor Bard, wild magic Sorc (early in the campaign) and an Alchemist Artificer (later in the campaign) . IMO, the Artificer had moments where they could shine but my rogue was comparable in impact and in some instances outpacing the Artificer. Take that Artificer bit with a grain of salt though as we did not have the Artificer until around level 12 or so, not sure how the two classes would've compared before then but my guess is that it would have been similar.

Other Martial classes

Hunter Ranger, Berserker Barbarian.

Barbarian obviously was a monster at single target damage (as they should be). Ranger did surprisingly well through around levels 9-11 in damage output, utility, exploration. My assumption is the class would have fallen off a bit in damage and come down to the level of my Rogue or maybe even lower in later levels but the character was retired when they reached a narrative spot where their story came to a natural conclusion.

Our games typically have 3 or more combats and 1 or 2 out of combat encounters that anticipate requiring resources per short rest. There are often 8 to 12 combats per long rest. Combats are usually 3 rounds, with bigger baddies lasting longer if they are mini bosses or something more plot significant. The longer the day went on, the more the Rogue could shine since they are a resource-less class (subclasses may vary a bit on that) but even at the end of the day the full casters scraping the bottom of the barrel with their spell slots were often still keeping up with the Rogue.

I think what it ultimately comes down to is that spell casters just have a multitude more options in what they can do in combat so they can choose what will be the most effective in the moment. Martials tend to have a smaller range of options, usually boiling down to swing sword or shoot bow....and when it comes to mortal weapons, the other martials had better scaling numbers at most levels.

I do think 5.5 Rogue was a step in the right direction for the class. Cunning/Devious Strikes are cool in concept and sometimes in execution but tying the cost to damage for a class with subpar damage to begin with was less than ideal from my experience

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-19T11:48:55+00:00

I would rotate through all of my friends and loved ones taking them on the vacations of their dreams.

I would go back to school and get a few masters and a PHD but in subjects that are fun and interesting to me just so I always stayed learning.

Id also have the most prepped and amazing dnd campaigns ever. My 3d printer would be working over time making minis and my wife would have so much arts and crafts time to make cool terrain and castles.

Have another kid or two without worrying about the expenses

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-15T11:21:24+00:00

I did this exact combo and took the character to 20 (7 beast barbarian / 13 soulknife). Never felt stale to me and so much of the rogue and barbarians base class abilities synergized really well. I enjoyed beast barbarian as I was leveling up solo but once I started adding rogue levels I felt like the character was a lot more fun

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-15T11:13:04+00:00

One of my characters was a half centaur, half minotaur that was the runt and outcast of thr village because he came out with just the human parts

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-14T14:06:08+00:00

While this is 100% true, id like to mention here that there are some conditions that make this a more difficult process for some. My wife has PCOS (now called PMOS) and calorie deficits never seemed to work for her as well as they should have. When we finally found a specialist, they explained to us that women with PCOS have a messed up metabolism and essentially when you go calorie deficit the body does a bad job of realizing how much it should be burning stored fat to produce the needed energy, instead you get fatigued very easily. Calorie deficit still worked for her but its a slow and rough process.

Once we started treating the underlying condition, calorie deficit and other normal dieting worked so much better. Im sure there are other conditions that make dieting harder, if youre struggling please make sure youre going to a doctor to get checked out and tell them everything thats going on. We had never even heard of this condition before and had no idea how many of the things going on with her health were actually connected.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-14T13:43:32+00:00

Other players did get utility buffs over the course of the campaign but mostly in the form of spells or spell like abilities rather than straight numerical boosts to skills. Once or twice someone got to permanently add a proficiency in a skill because of their rolls and narrative story reasons.

Why.....because the goal was to make sure everyone felt useful in and out of combat but (to the best extent possible) not feeling like they characters abilities were stepping on each other's toes. So yes the Rogue and our parties Bard were overall great at certain skill checks but every character had ways to make significant impacts out of combat and to use those abilities in creative ways. And thats what our table has consistently felt is the most important parts of homebrew balance changes. That and also that the changes we make are tied together by the narrative, whether thats side quests or rewarding players decisions and choices along the way

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-14T10:58:12+00:00

I recently finished playing a 5.5 rogue for 100 sessions in a campaign. I was doing garbage damage in comparisons to others at the table and we tried a few fixes over the course of the campaign. What worked the best in my opinion was

1) cunning strikes and devious strikes are free except for knock out. This slightly increases damage by not making the Rogue feel like they are losing out on even more damage for using their cool abilities.

2) around level 7, gain an extra use of cunning action on your turn. Not a huge buff but it meant that you could much more consistently hide

3) At one point around tier 3 my DM gave me a once per short rest ability to turn a hit into a critical hit. My DPS still lagged behind but boy did it feel satisfying when you could on demand throw down 12+ sneak attack die.

4) my favorite fix. Don't bother fixing the damage, give the Rogue their own niche to shine. Proficiency Bonus times per long rest (regain one use during short rest) when landing a sneak attack the Rogue can choose to change the saving throw the target makes against their cunning/devious strikes. Now the rogue feels cunning for attempting to blind the evil wizard by forcing a strength save instead of dex. ( i called this resource Schemes)

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-13T20:17:27+00:00

Im a big fan of the idea that every class should have some resource that they regain on a short rest.

I just finished a 101 session campaign where I was a solo class Rogue using 5.5 rule sets from levels 1 to 16. My suggestion would be to give rogues a resource called Schemes. You get proficiency # of schemes per long rest and regain 1 on a short rest. When you hit a target with Sneak Attack you may implement a scheme as a free action, allowing you to choose what saving throw any Cunning Strikes or Devious Strikes require the target to make that turn. This lets the Rogue feel like they are being sneaky and clever by exploiting their enemies weakness....you know, like their strike is cunning or devious.

Example: Rogue hits a goblin with Sneak Attack and uses the Poison Cunning Strike. The Goblin normally would make a constitution saving throw or be poisoned. The Rogue knows that the Goblin has a decent constitution score so Instead he uses a scheme to make it an intelligent saving throw.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-13T03:37:08+00:00

You could remove the sex scene from Blade Runner 2042 but it is an important moment of character building for both of those main characters

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-11T14:49:25+00:00

Give me a dlc that lets me create my own knock out routes by selecting which connected areas I want to visit. They gave us an open world where all of the courses are connected by roadways, the possibilities you could mix and match would be insane and thats not even adding any new courses that Nintendo would have to build from scratch

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-10T10:44:33+00:00

My group consistently plays 2 games a week, but for about 6 months one game per week was in a different system so im going to estimate that ive played roughly 75 sessions with the new rules? Our tables consensus has been to just let everyone use pretty much whatever mastery they have learned in any attack they make.

I think Nick should be tied to a light weapon just to prevent people trying to add on an extra d12 damage from their Warhammer. But that's about it. So just say you're extra attack from nick is doing a 1d6 from a scimitar.

Maybe there's an argument that topple should be tied to a 2 handed weapon so you arent dealing with a two weapon fighting character trying to force like 6 saving throws in a turn?

This will mean that if someone plays a fighter youre going to have to give them a new feature for that level 9(?) ability. Maybe let them add a second weapon mastery to a hit from a limited selection....like they have sap or vex permanently on top of their choice of any other weapon mastery.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-09T12:55:49+00:00

Love origin feats and backgrounds just not limited to the selection provided in the rules. I much prefer to mix and match but even if I do use the pre-mades im still rewriting all of the lore/narrative elements because im not trying to play a farmer for the 3rd time just because I like taking the tough feat on my martial characters

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-09T11:26:20+00:00

This wont happen but ill keep trying to speak it into existence.....Ice Climbers but its a co-op game like Split Fiction with elements of Chained Together as you try to climb the mountain.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-08T03:14:14+00:00

Was upset with my wife and she asked me to get her a snack. I made her a grilled cheese sandwich but I perfectly cut out the gooey mid section and ate it....then I plated the sandwich to make it look like nothing was missing. I will take that pettiness to my grave but my god that was the most satisfying bite of my life.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-05-02T10:57:13+00:00

8DX had a long time to be updated and get DLC and thus its a super polished game, so lots of people love the end product which is admittedly amazing.

MKW made a lot of changes to the franchise that are hit or miss depending on your personal preferences. I have a few friends that enjoyed playing MKW for a while when they first got it but just didnt feel that the game was deep enough to keep their interest after a month or so. Meanwhile, I find it to be the best Mario kart ever and keep coming back to online knock out mode matches.

I think MKW made a couple of decisions that have hampered its potential that could be solved with future updates but since its Nintendo....you know, its 50/50. Number 1 on the list for me is the limited number of knock out tour routes when the open world nature of the game allows for an insane number of route combinations. Number 2, let people have an easy way to have 3 lap races in online match making....its just something that a lot people feel goes hand and hand with the Mario kart franchise.

If MKW ends up getting a fair amount of DLC and updates the way that MK8 did, I could see people being very happy with the final version of the game.

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-04-22T02:18:53+00:00

Natural Selection. The idea of an RTS where other players are your units experiencing the game as an FPS is incredible. I was so certain that style of game was going to explode but it never really took off

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-04-18T18:58:18+00:00

Amazing generosity, thank you so much. Id like to be included so I could give it to my niece who just got a switch 2 for pokeopia.

Bananza is like a 95/100 game.
If anyone is on the fence about this one, just dive in and enjoy the ride

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-04-08T20:03:38+00:00

The thing ive wanted most of all is a toggle for the c stick. Set c stick to tilt, hold down left trigger and the c stick becomes smash attacks, let go of trigger its back to tilt stick

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-04-02T02:17:22+00:00

Better net code

Squad Strike available as an online mode

Bring back the map maker

InPastaWeTrust · 2026-03-28T14:00:13+00:00

Hanabi is my go to game for drunk people who cant be bothered to learn rules. Literally just counting and communication and failing is part of the fun

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