if i were to cast conjure fey, could i conjure a PC race centaur with class levels equal to the challenge rating of a fey?
instead of CR 6 fey, i instead conjure a PC centaur with 6 levels in a class?
or even calculate the actual CR of the centaur? Player characters don't have a CR. Your DM could customize summon-able creatures, of course.

That said, I loved the old adventure where genies summon the PCs to do menial tasks, so…

— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) June 2, 2020

ah i see. i wasnt sure, cause polymorph is worded like a character can transform into a creature of a CR equal to class levels, so i wasnt sure if thatd work for summoning too Yeah, polymorph makes a specific provision for PCs. Conjure fey, not so much. 🙂

— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) June 2, 2020

D&D terminology is a lot like accents, or dialects. You can often tell "where" someone is from, at least in part, by the language they use to describe things in the game. I hear a lot of 2e with 4e influences in @matthewmercer's accent.

Delightful.

— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) July 31, 2020

I might be wrong, of course, but Prime Material Plane says 2e to me, and Astral Sea is all kindsa 4e. I think Astral Sea is also pretty old school? But yeah, good observation. I know I've picked up a lot of dialects over the years

— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) July 31, 2020

I don’t recall that name for the Astral Plane, at least in any sort of common usage, before 4e.

It may well have been prior, but that’s when it landed in my awareness at least. Pretty sure we invented “Astral Sea” for 4e. “Attack of opportunity” is a 3e giveaway. #wotcstaff

— James Wyatt (@aquelajames) July 31, 2020

Attack of opportunity is something I have had to actively remove from my lexicon for work purposes 🙊 Heh. Answering questions and discussions in the big FB group helped me burn the older terms out.

— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) July 31, 2020

If a creature is flying/aloft via an object not directly related to them (flying on a magic broom, a flying carpet, or similar, with the creature having no flying speed themselves), can Earthbind target them causing them to descend? Earthbind only affects the creature's flying speed.

If the item they're using has its own flying speed, like a flying carpet, the carpet isn't affected.

— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) July 12, 2020

Hello Mr. Greenwood, I am a beginner writer of fantasy universes, but always while I am creating some scenery or city, I deviate and lose my focus on the main story a little which ends up affecting the quality of the adventure. How did you stay focused during your creations, even with so many details?

You have always been a great reference!
Thank you very much for all your work!@TheEdVerse

— Patonieri 🇧🇷 (@patobfr) May 30, 2020

1/Happy to! The problem is: we’re all different; any advice I give might not work for you.
But borrow the old TSR approach: what is the core ethos of your setting, or your adventure, or your story?
Meaning: boil what’s going on/what you want to achieve down to a sentence or so 2/So it might be "We need to go into this war-torn kingdom and find the woman who invented this new wagon suspension, and get her out of there alive and unharmed before the invaders kill her. But we don't know who she is, or how to convince her to come with us."
So, rescue…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2020

3/…mission is the core, and the identifying and convincing are two hurdles/subplots.
Write it down. Then consider format (RPG adventure? film? prose fiction? computer game?) and how that will shape/limit the project.
Then, what tone/flavor do you want to predominate? Fighting.. 4/…to the fore? Solving a mystery? Decide that, and your target audience (players you know? characters of what class/level? How big a party?)
Those are your goalposts.
They determine the big encounters/scenes. Think about what scenes you want to have, and in what order.
Get…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2020

5/…some sticky-notes, or recipe/index cards, or same-sized pieces of paper, and a large flat surface (table or even floor). Write down each scene you want on a separate card/page/note. Arrange them in desired order. Put blank cards/pages/notes between them. Draw arrows on… 6/…these "between" surfaces to join the desired scenes.
Then sit down, look at the chain/sequence you've created, and on each "arrow card" write what the MINIMUM info you need to tell the reader/viewer/players between the scene before that arrow, and the scene it points to, …

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2020

7)
…make the story make sense (so those entering a scene understand and appreciate the stakes in that scene). Here’s where you think about pacing, and challenges (monsters to fight, puzzles to solve).
When you’ve got a shape you like for your adventure/story, record the… 8)
…whole thing in whatever way works for you (so you can give the table or floor back to general use). It might be taping everything together into a chain and pinning it onto a wall, or putting it on a shelf. This is your spine for the whole project. Refer back to it…

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2020

9)
…whenever your creative focus starts to sidetrack. Maybe you don’t need to detail every shop or inn or tavern in that city. Maybe we don’t need to know all the noble families and their feuds. Maybe you can build urgency into the pacing so players won’t have time to explore.. 10)
…the city or the nobles, and have to hurry to get to a particular innkeeper before he flees, because the city is burning down. Source of excitement can be used to narrow/sharpen the focus of the project AND yours while crafting it.
And as I said, we're all different; …

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2020

11)
…this might not work for you. But give it a try, and see; it might!

— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 30, 2020

I saw mention of how D&D players who play Bards shouldn’t worry about not being able to break into song or perform, which is absolutely true. But what is also true is that Bards don’t even have to be performers. There’s tremendous breadth to the class that doesn’t always get seen

— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) June 23, 2020

Bards are also collectors of lore and stories. Your Bard could be a quiet librarian just as easily as they could be a braggadacious performer. Your Bard could be a grifter, a spy, a therapist, whatever you want them to be. It’s an open-ended class. Have fun! That goes for every class. There’s no one way to play. You could be a Barbarian who is more concerned about seeing the world than fighting, a Paladin who lacks people skills, a Ranger who just got really into squirrels one day it’s fine

— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) June 23, 2020

Adjacent to this: a lot of players think and/or worry that Charisma means “super extrovert.” That’s an interpretation, but Charisma also means self-assuredness and belief in one’s self. It doesn’t always mean charming, it can mean a lot of different qualities.

— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) June 23, 2020

All of thiiiiiiiis. The reason I ADORE Bards so much is the versatility in characterizations and interpretations. <3

— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) June 23, 2020