True though the disguise kit would take more time. I am so far. part of my GMs annoyance is that a lot of the names of the NPCs are clear hints as to their purpose and if you speak German and some Latin it makes it VERY obvious what the next plot point will be so I have been banned from translating the names from now on.

Use and abuse prestidigitation. Annoying dog? here puppy, the best steak you ever tasted. need to ask the guards again? Change my clothes. plot exposition? minor cube of illusion. Between that and mending I have my GM debating firing my bard after only 3 sessions of curse of the crimson throne.

Kineticists. Those are called Kineticists and there’s a reason they aren’t allowed in most campaigns.

Map out the dungeons. On the map they form three arrows pointing to a place in the middle of the most dangerous desolate Level 23 dragon infested place. But if you make it a circle instead at the center is the BBEG’s place which is actually this wood carver hut in the woods NEAR the imperial city and it turns out he’s been making realistic looking wood golems the whole time and replacing key figures in the kingdom because they are loyal to him, the plot to get rid of heroes is just insurance.

Do you mean rolling random encounters while traveling or Rolling encounters randomly within a dungeon?

Random encounters were originally put in to add spice to long travel and make it feel like actual long time to travel and dangerous. Nowadays with modern story telling you can continue using it if you want but if you have a story base campaign they mostly just interrupt the flow.

If you want to use them for Additional XP and gold from time to time to adjust your players level gently and/or because you havent quite prepped the next area and you want to stall til next week then go nuts but see them for what they are, a purposeful time filler and making your players scared to go throught the forest.

If you mean within a dungeon then go nuts if you arent planning your dungeon fight by fight and you like the challenge of your monsters being random so your players have a more even chance, go nuts.

I’m running an Anything goes campaign soon and one of the recurring enemies will be a variation of a steel golem but one of the incarnations is 5 or 6 mimics forming up Voltron style into one enemy.

My boss was all 100% for stay WFH. All of us are in different countries so it would literally affect 5 people total. Nope. They had a big higher ups meeting with just him and suddenly he has no good arguments for it but he is 100% for “we will all go back to the office”. I have a few guesses as to why he changed his mind and most of them start with: “They told you that if we didn’t go back they didn’t need you anymore.”