Tell him the truth, because that's what friends do Sometimes, talking around or avoiding an issue increases trouble, rather than decreasing it. This looks to be a case of that happening. You ...

Good or Evil: intelligent creatures can make moral choices The alignment specified in a monster’s stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a monster’s alignment to suit the ...

It began with going into a "Dungeon" (the areas underneath a fortress) during the development of the game Dungeons and Dragons. According to Gary Gygax (in an interview with Dungeon #112), ...

Treat the Orcs as though they are an organized crime family. If you murder a member of the Mafia, or one of the nefarious narco gangs of the modern age, do you think you'll get away with it? Will ...

Short answer: stop playing with people who abuse you What could I do if most people are just going to keep on stealing what I earn and making the game not fun to play? You are being picked on. ...

Try not to treat the DMG as a shopping list The thing is that it doesn't seem very plausible to get these items. D&D 5e isn't designed as a video game with "must have to beat the game" items....

It might be time for another session zero: expectations adjustment. If there wasn't uncertainty regarding success or failure for a given event or attempt during play, we would not be rolling the dice. ...

It Will Only Change The World if You Let It - which might be fun How should one DM proceed if his or her group manages to seize control of a superweapon that could change the lives of the entire ...

Is it possible to join an existing game? Yes ... but ... ... there appears to be a small group dynamics issue that needs to be addressed. (More on that at the end). Joining a campaign that is in ...

Avoid the DM vs Player trap It looks like you may have fallen into that trap, based on how you presented the problem. This isn't a matter of a "fair fight" between a monster (or a group of monsters) ...

The DM is charged with making rulings on a huge variety of things that go on in the course of playing the game. You can make your case for why you think it should be a given way, and then await a ...

Use a Rolling Tray I don't want to accuse someone of cheating if they were not, but I also don't want cheating to continue if it is in fact occurring Since another player has already mentioned ...

The Brinks Job, The Italian Job, Willow, or Charlie Varrick? the players worked their way through a series of fiendish traps into a high security vault, where they recovered a Staff of the Magi. ...

No, it is not bad form Regardless of how much immersion1 you are trying to achieve, you are still a table full of people playing a game. When you run across a situation that surprises you as GM, or ...

You are not overreacting. Your reaction is normal. If you are used to a team-based RPG, and you encounter a "every PC for themselves" party, and are not aware that this is the basic tone of ...

I've been that player; how did GM's get me to back off? The best GM at handling my over-eagerness to help a novice player had 3"x5" card that he'd hold up to me. On it was written three ...

The damage roll is not disassociated from the successful attack The basic rule of combat is that if a creature successfully hits, it does damage. That's the whole point of rolling the dice. (p. 194 ...

I told him no right off the bat...But he's extremely insistent about it Just tell the player "no," again; you are allowed to do that as DM There are a number of reasons for this. An invisible ...

Added complexity versus added value The core objection to Psionics in a Swords and Sorcery / Fantasy RPG (for those who do find it a problem) is rooted in two issues: Damage done to the suspension of ...

You are the DM, you can say No, although "No, but ..." also works You are not required to change your world to accommodate a single player. What are the other players creating, as ...

You didn't miss any rules; levitate can do that if used cleverly Your party's wizard was being clever and resourceful. And your question has in it the key to your answer: the enemy did not make the ...

Two cleric domains get proficiency with martial weapons in DnD 5e, and dwarves have a racial proficiency Cleric Domain PHB p. 62 and 63 identify Tempest and War Domains as having martial weapon ...

Tradition The lycanthrope has been a standard monster since the game was invented. From OD&D Monster Manual(1974, Monsters and Treasure) (Lycanthrope): Only silver weapons or magical ...

This answer includes a frame challenge. 0. Let go of the fallacy of perfect balance What I am looking for is a good resolution, or compromise, so that my players don't feel slighted and no ...

You may be encountering My Guy Syndrome. There is a fine line between role playing in depth and falling into "My Guy Syndrome" where the cooperative fun at the table between players is influenced in ...

You were not being a jerk Both of your players were offered agency: the one got the chance to attack an NPC and the other got the chance to interfere with a murder. If the player who attacked the ...

It Isn't Based in History You won't find the answer to this element of your question in that form: ... rather an outside source that shows the historical connection) to show the origin of ...

Minimization and Maximization for Optimization Min-max (minmax) comes from using mathematics to solve optimization problems. An example is finding the maximum area for a given perimeter. As applied ...

The answer to both of your questions (this and the parallel one) is the same: Stop giving all of the NPC attackers the same initiative. That step right there eliminates the focus fire problem. ...

Build a criminal network as your BBEG I have had success over the years in using the Organized Crime family model (an example is mentioned here) to provide scalable challenges to parties of good, ...