Recent content by Chzbro

The suggestions here are very good, but I would try something slightly different. You don't want to have to assign your players "homework," but they don't know the setting. So I would organize the campaign around a group of adventurers from a different continent (Xen'drik, Argonnessen, Sarlona...

I just ended a campaign at 13th level. Our next it slated to run to 16. At first, paragon level was rough for me (as it was my first time personally designing and building paragon encounters). PC power seemed like it had quickly gotten out of hand. Fortunately, that didn't last and the last few...

Really interesting observations. Makes me want to try it out. How often do you have to use this type of challenge each session in order to see results like you mention? In other words, would players still be interested in skill training if they only ran into this challenge once every other...

In that case, you should probably have the dream feature a fight or event that effectively kills the PCs. You want them to know after the dream that it's a fight they have to avoid because it's one they can't win rather than have them thinking, "if we were more powerful or did x differently, we...

Welcome! My suggestion would be to ration out some of those clues and hooks rather than deliver them all in one big chunk. The nice thing about your dream is that many of the clues are emblems and symbols that you can describe during the combats rather than just before. The enemies will...

I don't doubt their effectiveness; that was kind of my point. I have played or played in a group with ardents, e-druids, artificers, runepriests, bards, warlords, and clerics. They all did their jobs and did them well. If the artificer with no support can be an effective leader (not the best...

"A loss for the game" implies that the cleric is no longer playable, which is in no way true. Even with these changes, I don't think anyone can convince me that the cleric isn't still better than the artificer, ardent, runepriest, or e-druid as a leader simply because of the number of options...

Did I somehow get routed to the World of Warcraft boards?

I don't disagree this can be true, but it depends completely upon the party. My warlord trained out of such powers because the battlemind, charisma paladin, ardent, and wizard he runs with are useless for MBAs. I'm not arguing that some warlords (maybe even most) have more effective at-wills...

So your advice to him is that he should stop playing the way he does and start playing the way you do and your advice to jbear is to stop treating residuum like treasure because ... I'm not sure why ... it offends your sensibilities? I actually think the "residuum as currency" idea has legs and...

My point is, though, that it doesn't work if you're a STR ranger who wants to throw or a DEX ranger who wants to melee. Thrown weapons are balanced against their versatility, but very few powers allow them to be versatile. In other words, a DEX ranger will always prefer to Twin Strike with a...

I don't know how to "fix" the Seeker. I did build and play a handaxe throwing Seeker at last year's GenCon and thought it worked pretty well. However, in my opinion, it wasn't a very good controller and (for me) just isn't a very interesting or compelling class. I ended up trying to amp up his...

I think the attack powers themselves and not the thrown weapons are the culprit. For example, Ranger powers that could take advantage of a thrown weapon's versatility don't because they mandate that you use Dex for ranged attacks and Str for melee. If, on the other hand, it were simply Dex OR...

Maybe the OP's proposal requires more clarification or maybe I'm just missing something. Why would he "get to attack every enemy that shifted away from him instead of only 1/round"? The aura only imposes attack penalties, not a mark, right? And the OP said that the aura would replace Combat...

As a brawler fighter, he can use Grappling Strike as an opportunity attack even without HBO. But that's not really an answer. Personally, I don't think what you propose would be particularly problematic. In fact, with no Combat Superiority he'll be a little less sticky that a regular brawler...