Recent content by Jim Williams

D&D DMG 3.5 Method 5: Organic Characters My preference is for method 5, Organic Characters, from the D&D 3.5 DMG. "Roll 4d6 six times, discarding the lowest die each time. Place in order...as rolled. Reroll any one ability score of your choice, taking the new roll if it's higher. Then...

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Ray Winninger's Dungeoncraft articles in Dragon magazine also presented an excellent framework for creating your own sandbox for play. What makes the articles so useful is that Mr. Winninger not only describes the process but also runs through it twice...

Sundering - Why Care? Hey Nya, I honestly don't know what the full impact of The Sundering is. But if it's ever made clear and you can work it into your campaign in a way that works for you - GREAT! Me personally, I gave up on the meta-plot with the Time of Troubles. Should I run a...

My View on Short Rests Just to be clear, I shared the above just to point out the concerns some folks have with the Second Wind/Short Rest combination. I am actually with most of you replying in that I don't have that concern. :) Dungeons & Dragons is an heroic fantasy roleplaying game. I...

Multiple Short Rests Actually, the Fighter's Second Wind ability also resets with a Short Rest. Some folks have pointed out that the vagaries of what a Short Rest is means you can string together several of them in a row, recharging Second Wind and healing your fighter to full through...

Because in my game, I am the law. I'll quote myself here (emphasizing for effect): For me, the interpretation of the original posters' players is against the spirit of the rules. If five folks sit down at a table and spamming Healing Word over several simultaneous short rests is how they...

There is letter of the law and spirit of the law. And the sort of healing micromanagement mentioned in the original post strikes me as running counter the spirit of the law. If I could not discourage my players from engaging in such metagaming pursuits, I would rule as Old Gumphrey. After a...

And one would assume a fella toting a weapon and heavy shield is the anchor for the party (read: defender) thereby receiving a lot of external healing help, reducing the need for a healing potion.

I'm with you here. If you have been following the developments of the game and play through or run KotS and do not like what you're seeing, you probably will not like 4E. The only thing we are really missing at this point are a set of how-to-build rules: How to Build PCs (lists of feats...

Very cool haakon1...very cool. I was a Navy brat and did my own time in the Army. I've settled down since, but a long-term campaign like this was not in the cards for me. I think it goes without saying that the game needs to be fun, otherwise why play it. Even if 4E winds up being a blast...

In some ways this might wind up being the single most encompassing statement about 4E. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. D&D is its own brand. To those that do not play RPGs, D&D IS the only RPG. D&D was initially a fusion between table-top miniature wargames and myths, legends, and...

I read the review and I got a middle-of-the road opinion from haakon1. It sounds like his biggest hangups are largely with trying to reconcile what will be available in the initial 4E release with his campaign. It's easy to slice out unwanted content (such as dragonborn or warlorks). It's...

Great tradition! My first AD&D character was a half-elf cleric, doomed to obscurity by time and a multitude of characters. My first D&D character was a human cleric that died an ignominious death to giant rats, I believe, in the Caves of Chaos...good times... On Topic I DM far more often than...

I missed this in a playtest, but after reading it I would say yes as the movement is characterized as a move and not a shift.

So, it is not enough to write out an in depth history, regional culture, or character backstory. Rather, you feel the rules need to support the narrative you've laid out? Put another way, it is disconcerting to have an NPC history that is not supported by the rules? By manage I meant...