Alas, “lies like a rug” is entirely an English idiom, and is not what she said.

https://gramota-ru.translate.goog/biblioteka/spravochniki/spravochnik-po-frazeologii/vrat-kak-sivyy-merin?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

She used “lies like a grey gelding,” which is tantamount to calling him “too old and incompetent to be trusted to do the work required of him.”

In 5e: Simon the Devious and the Leather Skins (from What We Do In The Shadows) as a Dhampir Hexblade Warlock with Pact of the Chain.

Between the chain familiar (Count Rapula), a zombie from Undying Servitude (Ken the Accountant), Summon Undead (Blagvlad the Exsanguinator, or Desdemona the Shrieker, or Impussa) and an Accursed Specter (Carol), you have a 4-person posse by level 6. It grows situationally or permanently when you gain access to Danse Macabre, Create Undead, and Finger of Death.

Mechanically, you’re done by 13, and can either finish off with Bard (probably Whispers) or Paladin (Oathbreaker). Either way, take Inspiring Leader once you’ve maxed Cha, and then go get yourself that cursed witch’s hat!

Give https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html a read. Might sway you, might not.

It is totally fine to kick or knee or headbutt someone for your unarmed strikes when your hands are busy–this is true with or without Tavern Brawler

Oh, certainly! But then, I would avoid coming up with a policy at all until the amount of content reaches critical mass. If you’re not ready for whatever will be the right policy, why bother enacting one that you know you’ll have to walk back or ammend later?

RE Battlemaps: strongly opposed to allowing them. Lemmy.world already has a battlemaps community. Ttrpg.network is welcome to make such a community too, I suppose. That content works for many more ttrpgs than dnd, so putting it in its own space makes more sense than allowing it in here.

RE artwork, if someone wants to post a hand-drawn scene of their group’s epic win/loss against the bbeg, that’s cool. I think we like seeing dnd success stories from folks, and a picture can be worth a thousand words. But, if that person is open for commissions, I would strongly prefer not to know about it.

IMO advertising needs to be segregated to opt-in communities kept exclusively for that purpose, much like LFG posts get their own space to mot pollute the general discussion.

(Similarly, links out to other sites that have comment sections, like youtube, should IMO be required to have actual supporting text content worthy of discussion, as without it they are just more advertising. That’s outside the scope of the original discussion tho.)

Edit: RE homebrew–IMO it too should be sequestered, as it represents a divergence from everyone else’s frame of reference.

I strongly recommend not multiclassing for flavor–the only good reason in 5e to multiclass is for mechanics (Flavor is free, Mechanics are expensive). PDK flavor is great, but the mechanics are awful–and while both Warlock and Sorcerer would give you some mechanical advantages, they won’t offer quite enough to make PDK good.

What about just being a Valor or Swords bard, flavored as a PDK? Mechanically, a Bard can do just about everything that the PDK subclass offers but better and sooner, and both Swords and Valor get you extra attack at roughly the same pace. Unless you are dead-set on heavy armor, you shouldn’t need any feats or MCs to make this work for you (and if you are so inclined, then Heavily Armored on Valor Bard works just fine to be Str-based instead of Dex-based). The only mechanical caveat with Valor bard is that you need a musical instrument to cast some of your bard spells–you can either stick to Verbal and Verbal+Somatic spells, or else grab a lute. Flavoring the bard magic as “woah, my words and music are suddenly making thing happen, rather than just being entertainment” fits pretty well with your Wild Magic Sorcerer idea. And lastly, Bards make amazing faces.