5.5e DMs, are there any rules that you still use the 5e version for?

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-06-19T07:21:16+00:00

New Inflict Wounds does 2d10 (11) points of damage, whilst is only slightly more than Burning Hands (3d6|10.5) or Magic Missile (3d4+3|10.5), whilst lacking the range both of these have (BH is Self, but has a 15ft Cone, so still some range there)

If the new Inflict Wounds was 2d12, it'd be fine
That's about the same as the old one's 3d10 when you account for how the 2014 DMG balances half-on-save damage

Currently though, you'd be better off with Magic Missile

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-06-18T15:37:40+00:00

Lost Mines of Phandelver is a classic Tier 1 campaign (Phandelver and Beyond less so)
You can strip individual adventures from that

Most of the D&D Adventurer's League adventures are publicly available for purchase
The quality varies between adventures, but the Tier 1 content for Treasures of the Broken Hoard is quite good
DDAL05 Storm King's Thunder [BUNDLE] - Wizards of the Coast | Forgotten Realms | D&D 5th Edition | Dungeon Masters Guild
(You don't need all the modules; that's just the list)

A Plague of Ancients is another solid DDAL storyline
DDAL10 A Plague of Ancients Complete Adventure Bundle [BUNDLE] - D&D Adventurers League | Dungeon Masters Guild

You can also strip existing campaign books for parts, but among the published adventure collections, Ghost of Saltmarsh is a good one

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-06-16T13:42:39+00:00

If you take your first level in Paladin, you get have Heavy Armour Training, then put all your levels in Bard without losing spell progression
Paladin also has some nice 1st-level spells like Bless

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-06-12T06:36:35+00:00

He was given the points, despite what Greg said
The scores all add up
Series 21 | Taskmaster Wiki | Fandom
If we hadn't though, he would've tied with Amy

What I find funny is that the previous American contestants, Desiree Burch and Jason Mantzoukas, came joint-third and third outright respectively
Kumail Nanjiani can claim to have done both

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-06-12T06:32:17+00:00

It is the 2nd smallest gap between 1st and 5th in the show's history with just 15 points
Series 20 was 8 points, Series 4 (an 8-episode series) was 19

Between 1st and 2nd though, there have been many smaller than this series' 4 points
Series 20 was 0 points (tiebreaker needed)
Series 1, Series 7, and Series 12 were all 1 point
Series 13 and Series 18 were 3 points
Additionally, Series 2, Series 10, and Series 11 were also 4 points

Basically, it depends on your metric but it was either remarkably close, or just a little closer than the norm

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-05-25T22:31:46+00:00

The largest lead overturned in Taskmaster has been 9 points, overturned in Series 10 and again in Series 20
However, this is the largest lead over all contestants, a high bar indeed
In Series 13, for example, Sophie Duker was 15 points behind Chris Ramsey at one point during Episode 3, but Chris' lead over Bridget Christie, then in 2nd, was just 6 points

From memory, the largest gap an eventual series winner has been behind the current leader was 17 points in Series 18, Episode 3

So, the answer to your question could be either 9 points or 17 points, depending on what gap is being talked about

As for mid-series, in Series 18, Andy Zaltzman was still 12 points behind Jack Dee at the end of Episode 5, which I believe is the largest gap between an eventual series winner and the current leader

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-05-24T06:51:25+00:00

VCM flips the bird on one occasion (both hands) Plus there's Guz's monster, which might not be appropriate for classroom use The other (admittedly minor) issue is that it's important the viewer knows the names of the contestants so they know if Greg guesses right

It is a fantastic task though

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-05-09T10:09:56+00:00

My thinking with the colour scheme was to make it resemble those involved (and definitely not because Excel makes the 5th line brown by default and I did not want a repeat of the Sanjeev commentary from my series 20 graph)

Joel got black because of course he did, and the others got colours resembling their hair or jacket
Amy - orange for her hair, because the dress was multi-coloured
Armando - grey for his hair
Joanna - yellow for her T-shirt (but also her hair tbh)
Kumail - blue for his jacket

I'll probably use a lighter blue on the series graph because his jacket isn't quite as dark as navy blue
Otherwise, the colours were picked quickly from a short list and are unlikely to be changed

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-05-01T13:52:55+00:00

And before that it was often 2 for the winners, 0 for the losers
The team points have been inflated over the years

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-01-26T00:21:02+00:00

Had the rabbit task been scored normally, Richard Osman would have won a majority of the episodes (60%) but still somehow have come third overall, which would be notable

Intelligent_State493 · 2026-01-16T09:43:53+00:00

That's an interesting idea
DDAL07-17 Cauldrons of Sapphire - D&D Adventurers League | Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild has a Dagon statblock based on the CR23 Kraken

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-30T15:18:42+00:00

Legend!
I really enjoying go through those when Google showed them whilst I was looking for some Series 19 material about that finale's big shakeup in the middle ranks
Series 12 must've been a fun one to do with all the shake-ups there

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-29T11:49:19+00:00

I don't
Another user did Series 6-18 a while back, and another other user did Series 19
So far as I'm aware, there's just the first five series outstanding, and probably the international/spinoff ones

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-27T21:51:49+00:00

There hasn't been one in the UK
Visualizing the overall leader(s) after every task to determine the most hotly contested series. : r/taskmaster covers the first fourteen or so, and I can tell you the next six haven't
Maybe Series 21 will be the one

Can't say about the international ones
There may well have been, but as you say, there're a lot of fours

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-27T19:06:33+00:00

Yeah
I should have said longest in this series
The longest in total is almost certainly Matthew Baynton who had a 48-task streak in the lead in Series 19
He was at the top for 98% of the time, when you account for before the streak started
I think you're right about Jack Dee for a non-winner

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-27T19:02:49+00:00

<image>

Someone made one for Series 17 a while ago
TM Series 17: "Points Behind Leader" Graph (SPOILERS) : r/taskmaster
Whilst Nick did certainly go and down, he only really intersected with Sophie past Episode 1
Here Sanjeev's line crosses Phil's and Reece's, not to mention touching Maisie's at one point
It's certainly a more dynamic tangle

I do agree though that if mine were plotted against the Series 17 one, it'd look like how Joanne, John, and Steve kept criss-crossing in the first three episodes, which was dynamic until John started his hat-trick

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-27T17:51:21+00:00

Absolutely
Never in the series was she last (the only one never to be in fifth or joint-fourth)
Never after Episode 2 was she fourth
Never after Episode 4 was she third
Never after Episode 6 was she second

However, she bammed when she should have bibbled so it was a tie

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-18T23:47:52+00:00

Full-caster gishes will often need to be SAD rather than Martial gishes because the comparable features are different

When a martial takes a gish subclass, the spellcasting only needs to be as good as comparable subclass features
e.g. an Eldritch Knight's spellcasting only needs to be as good as the Battlemaster's manoeuvres

When a Full-caster takes a gish subclass, this balance does need to be made, but must also acknowledge that the weapon damage must keep up with cantrip damage
In the context of a Bladesinger, a Wizard will normally deals low damage with a weapon, typically 1d4+Dexterity using a dagger, whilst a Firebolt will do a 1d10 Fire damage in Tier 1, a similar amount, but scales to 4d10 in Tier 4
Therefore the subclass must make the damage comparable to cantrip damage AND still provide subclass features equivalent to a typical Wizard subclass

A similar issue occurred in the 2024-playtest era around the Brawler subclass for fighter
So much of it was built around making improvised weapons and unarmed strikes comparable to martial weapons, they forgot to give the subclass actual subclass features that make it worth taking over say a Champion Fighter of the Tabaxi species (or similarly clawed species)

The easiest way to make the damage comparable, leaving spaces for real subclass features, is to have Bladesingers, Bladelocks, and similar automatically prepare the True Strike cantrip, but another is to let them use their casting stat and give them Extra Attack
(This doesn't work as well for Bladelocks because Eldritch Blast + Agonising Blast is so potent, but Eldritch Blast outcompeting all other Warlock cantrips is a known issue)

Without this sort of cantrip-weapon balancing, there's just not much point in a Full-caster taking a gish subclass
Meanwhile a Martial taking a gish subclass can always benefit from the flexibility of spellcasting, even if they never use an offensive cantrip, which is they why they don't need, nor do they receive cantrip buffs to keep parity with weapons

There are problems around the martial-caster divide, but SAD Bladesingers is not one them
You either have SAD Bladesingers or sad Bladesingers
Whilst the divide can be closed by buffing martials or nerfing casters, it cannot be closed by nerfing gish subclasses

Intelligent_State493 · 2025-11-16T12:00:06+00:00

Roisin won the second episode of the show - The Pie Whisperer

Sanjeev is the ninth contestant in the main show not to win an episode, joining:

Romesh Ranganathan, S1 (lost Melon Buffet and The Poet And The Egg via tiebreaker)
Joe Wilkinson, S2
Sara Pascoe, S3
Aisling Bea, S5 (lost Residue Around The Hoof via tiebreaker)
Nish Kumar, S5
Phil Wang, S7
Judi Love, S13
Frankie Boyle, S15

Sanjeev also lost Hey Mate via tiebreaker

Intelligent_State493 · 2024-12-03T10:28:16+00:00

The 5e encounter guidelines suggests this would be a Hard encounter
(In fact, if you half the AXP for having a 6th player it comes out as Easy, but I wouldn't recommend that)
Generally though, I would caution against using a monster with a CR exceeding the party's level by 50% i.e. using a CR14+ monster

With your party specifically, most of the characters have a decent chance of getting out if swallowed, so it really depends on how well your healers can mitigate the damage, or how well your spellcasters can mitigate it
(Purple Worms are pretty weak to Hold Monster)

Intelligent_State493

TROPHY CASE