Recent content by mrtomsmith

Yeah, I would say go one of two ways in a situation like that: 1. He's a friggin' peasant. The PCs can wipe the floor with him. Combat is entirely role-played, maybe with a single d20 roll just to see if something odd happens. 2. He's a tough peasant, so grab a similar monster from the MM and...

One thing I find interesting about the system is the potential for expanding it. The concepts of tags (Bold and Aid aka Helpful and Daring) could allow for the invention of additional tags in the future to provide more variety in skill challenges. Just like combat always has new features and...

Related Questions Can a Wizard with Thievery as a skill use Mage Hand for pick pocketing? Disarming traps? Open lock? Sleight of Mage Hand? These seem reasonable to me, but potentially too useful in the hands of a clever player. There are many applications of the skill where the STR 2 won't...

Granted, although 3e core didn't have that much additional support. Expect the opportunity to buy such rules in the future. Granted. It's a rarely used campaign type from my experience, but 3e definitely handled this better out of the box. Really? There are much clearer rules for humanoid...

I've been playing around with something that happens to be similar to your Skillful Recovery idea. My thought had been to 'assign' a skill to play this role, rather than tie it to critical successes. It seems like this would normally be linked to a specific skill (generally Bluff for lower-class...

1. Not in the RAW, but it shouldn't be too hard to house-rule. 2. Yes, 'problematic' spells are generally either rituals or gone. There are a few powers that could count as 'problematic' - clerics have some pseudo-summoning powers, wizards have some wacky utility spells, but you're generally...

The index entry in the DMG for "Terrain Features" refers to page 110, which is the "Setting Details" sub-section with a paragraph on relating Terrain Features to setting and plot, rather than the actual full section on Terrain Features, found on pages 60-69.

I agree with Unlogic - good idea, not the ideal implementation. I've been pondering conditional feats, to give useful bonuses that apply when certain combat situations occur. These would maintain variety by encouraging players to seek out conditions that are already there. These are quick...

It looked like they flinched. Expect this to come back soon. Is there anyone who did see it who can give us more detail?

From what I've heard, the books are pretty clear that if you get a condition (such as Curse), you not only know that you have it, but you know exactly the effect it will have. The example usually given is marking - intelligent enemies can adjust their behavior to avoid taking marking penalties...

Yes, I agree. I like the fluff-lite approach they took. I don't want to pour on more fluff in the base system. But given that there is at least some fluff in the core books, I'm trying to make sense of it. And a few bits like living part-time in another dimension and making deals with devils...

I know that D&D is now a minis game and I'm not supposed to worry about this sort of thing (kidding), but there are still some bits I'm not able to wrap my brain around: 1. Do Eladrin really live partially in the Feywild? For a player, what's that like? Do Eladrin cities randomly disappear into...

Yes, for the record, playing D&D there was the kids' idea. Or at least they got all excited when it was mentioned - I forget who brought up the idea first. Either way, they were amused at the concept. One of them specifically mentioned wanting a picture of dice on Splash Mountain. That said...

It'd be nice to have a "Not yet, but I'm going to get them before the release day" versus "Not yet, as I am patiently awaiting the official release date" option.

So you can spend a feat to get +2 to all skills, or spend a feat to get +3 to one skill? Is it me, or is that messed up? The skill focus feat seems very weak relative to other skill-affecting feats. Am I missing something?