I think you answered your rethorical question yourself: If it is not in the official books, it is not an official rule.

And I would not say that they leave it vague. To quote the PHB: “To make an ability check, roll a d20 and add the relevant ability modifier. As with other d20 rolls, apply bonuses and penalties, and compare the total to the De. If the total equals or exceeds the DC, the ability check is a success […]. Otherwise, it’s a failure, which means the character or monster makes no progress toward the objective[…].” That does not leave much room for interpretation. It plainly say that if the exceed, then they succeed and if they don’t, than they fail. Yes they don’t make an explicit remark about critical results, but they don’t need to, because such a rule was never meant to exist in 5e aside attack rolls and death saves.

Not to say that you can’t make it a rule at your table (same as with everything else), but there is still not much room for missunderstanding the official print.

Yes he is and no it does (edit: has) not. That is a common house rule Larian implemented into BG3, but it is not part of the original rules of DnD 5e.

What? Don’t you dare insult kneebreaker. He’s one of the finest works from the 42th generation of smiths.

I love it. The drawings, but especially the moments of characters looking back at how far they have come and remembering all the happened along the way. There is a certain… bittersweet melancholy to it.

Poor Sildar…

What!? Who is short here? I’ll show you short!!

Objection. This is most likely out of character.

I might inject, that this is a very drastic measure that some groups will find to be annoying. As long as they are actually debating constructively, then the example above isn’t even needed. If, as the comment says, the debate is going in circles, some groups can be brought back on track by simply telling them: “So guys… What are you going to do? Because you’ve been doing the same back and forth for half an hour now?”

Not saying that you should not use the above method. Just saying that some players will find that to be an “extreme” solution. Instead, simply reminding them, that they should probably get to a result within the next five minutes can do.

Thanks.

Please. Its not that bad. Baldurs Gate is a nice place. With a lot of crimes. And horrible Living conditions. There are also a lot of politicians. Did I mention all the noise reporters…? Okay maybe it’s that bad.

Thanks. He seems like a really cool guy.

Who ist this guy?

Ah yes. Good ol’ Volo. Nice to see him from time to time. I should use his books more often.

Fortunes Favor doesn’t seem like the optimal spell to use in a situation like this (even if you could). Unless the games include no social component, enhance ability would be better.

About the house rule: I get why you’d use the rule for simplicity, but especially if your not playing a cleric, but instead a wizard or an artificer, it seems weird to make the PC a chosen one by having those spells.

I usually give NPCs a set selection of spells they use. But this set is only their prepared spell-list, it varies depending on the NPC and most preparation-casters will have access to the other spells on their list, should the need arise (as it most likely won’t, so there is no extra work on my part).

Oh. That sounds very interesting. Thanks.

Who’s Aribeth?

Ah. I see. I think I understand the notion, but if an approach to a map is changing it along with its respective lore, then I prefer just making my own cities alltogether. It’s part of the realms lore that not everything is a gigantic floating city. There are those of Netheril if you want some.

Probably. An author once wrote this piece of conversation:

“Wait? You can transform matter. Thats magic.” “Your people can use metal to fly over buildings.” “Of course they can. It makes perfect sense.”

Having a world, where “magic” actually exist raises a lot of questions about some conventional expressions and cultural aspects.

Yeah. I’ve seen some of it and it looks quite promising. Unfortunately, I’m one of those DMs who, for the love of his life, can’t make a campaign with self-made stuff as it always ends in hyper fixation and over preparing on some parts, but complete lack of direction in others. I’m trying to get better, but modules just take of so much of that pressure, allowing me to fill in the gaps with actually well thought out content.

But if any DM wants to run a campaign in the places I so smugly called the ,forgotten" part of the realms, then I’m always happy to see it.

Where is this city?