Recent content by Paul Strack

There are a couple of nice random item generators on the web, but I can't find any that support the Essentials-style breakdown of Common/Uncommon/Rare items. Also, I wanted a simple generator that has tables in it for actually rolling dice. The generator is pretty basic: just an HTML page of...

These are all pretty radical changes that will change the game balance considerably. You might want to consider less drastic changes. For example, one simple change I made was to eliminate the Extended Rest. In my games, Healing Surges and Dailies are per adventure, not per day. The PCs have to...

If you wanted to do Tolkien's elves in 4E D&D, I think the simplest option is: Noldorin (Light Elves) = Eladrin Sindarin (Grey Elves) = Elves Avari/Moriquendi (Dark Elves) = Drow The above assumes that the Avari are "evil" somehow. Perhaps the evil Avari get their spider taint though...

That's kind of you to offer. Unfortunately, I produced the Book of NPCs 2.0 using the information in the PHB1 and PHB2 PDFs that WotC created. Since WotC isn't selling PDFs anymore, I can't use my old code to add information from PHB3. In theory, I could pull data from the Compendium, but...

I want to see the Shadow-based classes (Assassins, Necromancers, etc.) After that I will be satisfied. I would also like them to flesh out some of the "Evil" races (orcs, githyanki, goblins, etc.) I would like to see more setting books ... provide they were any good. I haven't been especially...

I replied to you in PM but didn't realize you also posted here. The Tieflings and the Orcs *are* in the Book of NPCs, so maybe your download got corrupted or something.

Yes, I decided NPCs were not much more threatening than a normal monster, so I dropped the XP house rules. They do have more powers, but they often don't live long enough to use them. In particular, my players tent to kill the NPCs leaders as fast as they can (gank the healer!).

Wow! This is really interesting. It has a lot to recommend it: 1) It strongly encourages full participation. There is no reason not to have everyone involved in the challenge. 2) It encourages a variety of skill uses. Once your skill-monkey succeeds at his best skill in one round of the...

They all seem pretty good to me. They are definitely better than most magic items, but not in a game-breaking way. It's difficult to judge how well they balance against each other and whether they will pique player interest without knowing more about your players and their characters. Absent...

I use the RAW, with Errata, but add +5 DC and allow more failures. Basically I am splitting the difference between the pre-errata challenge difficulty (which was too hard) and the post-errata challenge difficulty (which is too easy).

I meant that PDFs are not available for new books. The Book of NPCs 2.0 is based on the books that were available in PDF. When PH3 comes, I will need to take an entirely new approach. That means throwing out most of what I did before and starting from scratch (rather depressing).

I would dearly love to see a rules quote supporting that, because it would solve a lot of problems. Unfortunately, the only rules I've found contradict it: PHB 192: "Bonuses of the same type don’t add together ... Unlike feat bonuses, however, untyped bonuses stack with themselves." PHB 275...

More challenge ideas Here are some of the things I think go into making a good skill challenge: 1) The challenge has to be about something the players care about. A meaningless challenge is boring. The challenge should be related to the story you are telling. 2) The players should have a...

Here is how I ran a physical skill challenge in my last game session. The PCs were in a village gathering information when their enemies, a group of ogres, hurled flaming barrels of tar into the center of town. This set various buildings on fire and the PCs had to save the villagers and put out...

4d6 (re-roll 1s, drop the lowest) is even more generous than 2d6+6. It works out to an average of 30.85 point-buy-value, and an average score of 13.43. If you want to (a) retain the spread of the point-buy system and (b) keep the range to 8-18, I would recommend: 1) Use 4d6 drop the lowest...