Surely "grab tile and eat it" is a standard action, right? Letting that be a free action seems like a weird call by the DM...

Meh, if it's a one off and not an important fight? Doing it for the sake of a gag I've got no problem with. Just don't want it to be a consistent thing.

What if that’s the core fault of my character? Can only eat tiles so eats it whenever it’s available

If they had two attacks, I'd probably allow eating dirt as a substitute for a second attack.

Ah... the ol' switch'over'to'cover'roo

That character must make some exquisite mosaic poos.

If that second opponent was a pirate and uses the eye patch for what it was meant for, it would not make any difference.

Reminder that by RAW in 5e (2014 at least) skill checks are a standard action. This is handwaved 90% of the time (except for Maze in my experience) but still. Eating dirt could be an object interaction, which I recall is similar to sheathing or unsheathing a weapon and you get one of those free per round.

I'm glad these people are having fun, but I always feel a bit put off when some random group's homebrew and table rulings are pitched as being typical d&d.

Aww. It's such a quirky and funny thought, imagine eating the rubble as an intimidation attempt, like, the guy just missed but is trying to turn it into a "that was intentional, I wanted you to know what I'm going to do to your BRAIN after I cave in your skull!" This is the kind of stuff that makes a game memorable IMO. As a DM, even if you don't want to allow it for some reason, just go along with it. Fake a roll and have the opponent yell back "Bahahah I haven't even hit you yet and you're already getting ready to start shitting bricks?!"

You fool, you gave him darkvision

'I have you now Blackbeard, I've ruined your night vision! YOUR NIGHT VISION!!!'

Eh, +2 on the next hit after you miss, if you do enough damage to only some kinds of floor and if you pass an intimidation check is almost nothing. The problem I have is that it'd get old, so the player has to come up with new material. Thought: A barbarian subclass that has a version of cutting words, but instead of insults it's shit like this

I had my familiar transform into a bird to shit in an assassins mouth to interrupt a spell without causing a diplomatic incident at a wedding.

Crits on anything that are not attacks are what bither me most. "Natural 20!" "Ok what's the total?"

So by adjusting the game slightly to suit what the group feels would enhance their experience makes it... not counting as the game somehow? So my Rimworld isn't Rimworld anymore because i added some Mods? I think this is gatekeeping, tbh.

That's not what he said at all. He pointed out that recommending a game and then listing examples that aren't actually part of the game's core rules is a bit weird. It sets an expectation that may lead to disappointment or argument. "I love Rimworld, it's got so many Big Naturals in it" would be, I presume, misleading \* \* I've never played Rimworld but I assume it has Big Naturals mods like everything else

No. These people are welcome to play however they want. They're having a good time and that's great for them. Pitching this as "d&d is great" when the entire story hinges on multiple table specific rulings makes this both less relatable for players of d&d used to a different tone of play and can set unrealistic expectations for new players who might join a game that plays very differently. I'm not saying they shouldn't play like this, or that this isn't d&d. It's just a very specific scenario that is quite likely to be non-representative of many games.

I'd say this is more of a "RPGs are great" moment than anything else. Any table *could* have stories like this with any system. It's only a d&d story in particular because that's the most popular system. Any system can be house-ruled to do whatever, and that's the joy of pen and paper games as opposed to board games or video games, where the rules are more difficult to change.