Recent content by Hautamaki

If we assume that Galileo, Newton, Einstein, etc, are INT 18, just imagine what an INT 32 character could figure out...

What I want from a character creation system more than anything is flexibility to fit the player's vision. My objection to 4e happened right at the outset when we tried to convert our 3e campaign to 4e and none of our characters worked anymore. 1 character was a fighter-rogue that used...

Multiple actions definitely is one of the main reasons high level combat gets so slowed down. But at the same time it may a trade-off worth making, as long as they keep control of it. So far it looks good imo.

Encumbrance is actually fairly easy to bookkeep when you have a good system. I go by 'stones'; that archaic British unit of measurement that equals about 14 lbs. 'Stone' is a perfect unit of weight for DnD for so many reasons. 1) Very few people outside of England know exactly what it equals...

I generally plan out an entire adventure in advance; that way I only have to prep once and it will last for up to 2 or 3 months. Prepping an adventure is a big deal; I generally put about 20 to 40 hours into it. It includes all of the important NPCs (depending on the adventure this could be...

Hey all, I'm looking for some ideas for new spells. Something that could range in power from around 6th to 8th level. The spells need to have a certain theme. Specifically I'm looking for something that could fit a combination of: 'shadow' magic and 'earth' magic 'heavens/sky' magic and...

My homebrew system has allowed reactions for a couple of years now. It adds a very nice layer of tactical complexity to even basic combat (eg Dodge works a lot better than Parry against Power Attack, but is worse than useless if the enemy Feints). The player has to pay attention to an enemy's...

What I'd like to see for halflings is a much more radical stat block for them; balanced, but a lot more radical. Something like cutting their str and con nearly in half, but a huge boost to dex, plus a bunch of other special abilities. Unfortunately, matching their mechanics to their fluff...

I've never been able to take halflings seriously as a race that could compete 1 on 1 with humans, dwarves, and elves, in any kind of a combat type situation. Unfortunately nothing in that article changes my mind. Halflings need some kind of equalizer to make up for the fact that they are...

I agree that forcing a cleric to RP (possibly against the interests of the rest of the party) in a certain way in order to get mechanical 'prayer points' is a non-starter. But I also agree that the cleric and divine casters in general need a different magic-using mechanic in order to set them...

Exploration rules are great, but traditionally spells have made the exploration rules out of date one by one every time the casters gain a spell level. By the time the party is at 5th level, all these pages and pages of detailed exploration rules to do with bypassing obstacles, encumbrance...

This is one of the most interesting off-brand products out there, kudos to the writers.

This is a story I heard from a fellow gamer about another group he played with. To make it brief, this player had a bunch of 3e supplementals that he cross-referenced to create an 8th level PC with the combat power of an 18th level fighter. It had insane AC, DR, attack bonus, all kinds of...

The problem as I see it with Vancian casting is that it increases in power exponentially. In other words, it increases in power along 2 different but equally important tracks. 1) spells per day increase 2) spells themselves increase in power If both of those things are true to any degree at...

There's another way to do TWF: Keep the light handed restriction, and cut only the strength (or dex) bonus to damage in half; the weapons still do full damage. This is better than a 2-handed attack yes? So the balancing factor should come in how it deals with armour. With armour as straight...