Recent content by dangerous jack

Really keen to see the new take on the Assassin. (so Rogue, I suppose) Other than that, how the differences between Sorcerer/Warlock/Wizard are presented.

They are competing ideas, but not mutually exclusive. Ability score bonuses are indeed downright simple, but I just think they are a lazy approach and one that messes with my personal simulationist side. Another way to say it is that it seems like its reactive (to their design work with other...

I am arguing for baseline, but not no power whatsoever. There are two ways to do it. 1) give humans effective and simple to understand powers. E.g. A reroll of any single roll once / encounter, and/or a 4e action point. These are powerful enough (yet simple enough) that other races could...

I think you're right in your analysis on the first point. But I would be just as annoyed if not more so at a +1 to every d20 roll. :-) It would force more addition and be easy to forget (except for stuff that can be precalculated on the character sheet), and still messes with my personal...

1. I'd drop wilderness and replace it with hostile environment, because I could see an enemy controlled city as a place where a ranger was more comfortable than other characters. But aside from splitting hairs like that, I reallly like the awareness about ambushes/trails aspect. I'm not sure...

I don't think having humans as a baseline means they have to be vanilla in all ways. I think they should periodically take a look at the game if there were no races, and figure out if they'd make the same choices for humans. So if every character was human, would we give them all... * ... +1...

1) I like Paladins as a class. I think there have been enough niche power styles for paladins over the years that a class is appropriate (e.g. auras, challenges/sanction, & smites) 2) I like advantage/disadvantage. Not sure how this rule of thumb will work out in the long term, but we'll see...

I think it can depend on two things. One is your view of what the different races represent: * Elves are only as different from humans as the different human races: no racial modifiers * The average elf is a little more dextrous and has slightly lower constitution than a human: +1 dex, -1 con *...

It's attractive to give clerics and PCs more healing powers (hey, who doesn't like more power), but that inevitably causes inflation pressures on the amount of hp PCs need to get through fights. For me, in-combat healing should only be a way to smooth out the swinginess. So limited use...

From what I remember, during the development of 4e they considered making Initiative a skill, but dropped that because it became a must-have skill that everyone trained. Personally, I'd favour removing ability modifiers from initiative checks, but I'd also like to remove ability modifiers from...

Old: 2e multiclassing (although let me pick up a class later on and just spend the XP), and the relatively compact size of the player's book from BECMI New: Second Wind (although I like the surgeless 50% per encounter ala Gamma World) Borrowed: I don't really play non-D&D, but I like the idea...

What are your thoughts about characters that play against type (e.g. dwarven wizards, Goliath rogues, elven paladins, or even the old half-blind lame but vastly experienced warrior)? Is it a design goal to make these types of characters viable and equally effective as those that play to type?

Voted +2, and the game should assume that PCs have no bonus to their attack rolls coming from their weapon. +0 for most magic weapons. +1 for truly masterwork and some magic weapons. +2 reserved for those magic weapons that have their magic specifically tuned to accuracy (at the expense of not...

+1: sure, but like others I'd say these are mundane masterwork weapons. It's perfectly balanced. I'd just call it a "masterwork weapon". +3: sure, but it's cursed. The weapon is guiding your hand, not your skill, and it doesn't give back control easily. or maybe it does, but if you let it...

Copied from my post on the site, since it's something that I feel pretty strongly about.