Recent content by chriton227

How would you resolve the paradox if a caster in the party managed to land a Hold Person on the sniper before the sniper's initiative count? Either the sniper isn't able to make the attack that alerted the party to the sniper's presence, or you negate the value of the caster's action by ruling...

The sample build I was commenting on was a 3.5e sorcerer "rogue" build that MS(KL) posted as an example of a build that was "effective" in 3.5e but couldn't be duplicated in 5e, which I was pointing out really wasn't a particularly effective build since in 3.5e the low caster stat did reduce the...

But the casting stat does still matter. That 13 means that you can't cast 4th level or higher spells, plus starting at level 4 you will have fewer spells per day as a result of the lower number of bonus spells. And as far as being "good at it", you have to go cross class to get the open...

I like the premise. I look forward to seeing it more fleshed out. I can just imagine the reaction of the players the first time they stumble across the ethereal representation of the bracers.

I'll pull in the PDF to look at when I get home this evening. When you say Rifts, are you talking about the Palladium Games post-apocalyptic game, or the Trion Worlds fantasy MMO?

I have a hard time deciding which articles I like best, but I will say that I've liked every En5ider article that I've read more than anything I've see so far in Dragon+.

Dual Wielding/Two Weapon Fighting requires using your bonus action to make the off-hand attack, and the cleave option of GWM also requires the use of a bonus action to make the cleave attack. If you make an off-hand attack, you can't make a GWM cleave attack in the same round, and if you don't...

Platinum actually has a fair number of uses giving it value beyond just being rare. Most cars on the road have some amount of platinum in them, sometimes in the spark plug electrodes and very frequently as a catalyst in the catalytic converter to clean up the emissions. There are medical uses...

One issue I haven't seen mentioned with the idea of spamming FF is that when you recast it, the effect ends on anyone who failed the save against an earlier casting. So if there are three targets that you really want to put FF on, you would need all three to fail the save against the same...

Thank you! That looks awesome! Now I just need to figure out what groups to swap in for the Zhentarim, Harpers, Order of the Gauntlet, and Lord's Alliance. Order of the Gauntlet should be easy to swap to one of the many "Knights of the *" organizations. I don't expect this to be a long...

My normal group is getting ready to try 5e and as a short introductory campaign I was going to use Lost Mines of Phandelver. I prefer Greyhawk to FR for a number of reasons, so I'm looking at transplanting it to Greyhawk. Does anyone have any suggestions for locations and factions to swap out...

I don't expect the PCs to automagically know exactly how dangerous an area is, but there should usually be in-character clues available for observant PCs. Just like how you probably know (or could easily learn) what areas of your local city are relatively safe and which areas you don't want to...

Usually we talk as a group about the general theme and style we want to play, and work together to make a party, not a random assemblage of characters. If I choose to make a character bad at combat in a combat heavy party, the consequences of that should flow naturally. If I bring something...

What I've read about adaptive difficulty recommends implementing it invisibly to prevent the system from being gamed by the players. For example I have a friend that was talking about the older Street Fighter games, it would adapt the difficulty and players figured out that if they sandbagged...

I think this is the root of the issue. I don't play to experience the GM's story, if I wanted to experience someone else's story I'd just read a book or play a video game. I play in order to forge my own story from the raw materials that the GM provides. I don't want an illusion of meaningful...