Recent content by Nordic Birch

http://www.theescapist.com/index.htm http://www.car-pga.org/Literature/Home car-pga especially has a long list of studies on the subject.

Well, it's 20th level so most campaigns are winding down but IIRC the DN transformation is without the LA cost. From the DN Handbook "Lich Transformation: According to Wizards Custserv [Incident: 070501-000021], you do not gain the Lich template with this ability . You do gain the undead...

The LA comes with the template. No difference if you start out with it or get it in game, except that usually a beginning partys ECLs are balanced against each other. You're now a 12th level Druid who counts as 16th level for CR evaluation, experience gain and level up. So you have the xp you...

Savage Tide is an adventure path like Shackled City or Age of Worms. Yeah, it goes from 1-epic. JollyDoc has a great SH on it and his group is nearing epic if you're interested. Hmm.. Just an idea, how about some oldie but goldie? City of the SpiderQueen or something that hasn't been updated to...

I'm thinking Red Hand of Doom. It might benefit from the fiction approach more than most with its timetable, victory points etc. It's got a pretty tight focus and pressure anyway (kind of like with this SH too) so the lack of sidetracking and such player habits doesn't matter.

Could be worse, he might start playing clerics again... ;) Amal would have so much fun in the groups current area of operations. (viva la CotSQ) Wonderful writing btw, I just finished your earlier SH's. Easily the equivalent of most fantasy books I've read.

The university of Tampere in Finland has a faculty of hypermedia which is focused on the study of gaming in all it's forms. One of the founding professors, Frans Mäyrä, is a long-time veteran of multiple tabletop and live-action rpgs. Maybe his publications will have something useful...

Well, one could argue that being disintegrated counts as removing the creatures head. (Although the specifics of head removal are a bit vague in the srd. Is the holy wafer essential, do you need to destroy the body as well etc.)

Only if you consider uncanny dodge an ability that has a rate of advancement... There is the one improved version and some classes only get the lower version, I don't really see it as having a progression as meant in that ruling. Getting "double" unc.dodge turns the later gained into the...

Just a quick note: That was shot down immediately on the charop boards. It's just so enticing that someone brings it up every now and then to be ridiculed again.

IIRC you look at a single level at a time for most things. So a Gestalt Rog//Barb would get imp. U.Dodge at 4th instead of at 6th like a multiclass Barb2/Rog4. Such synergy is kind of the point of gestalt. If you're worried about power balance, check out the wotc charOp boards. They're pretty...

May all his hits be crits. :)

I kind of agree with your basic point but the above statement is either false or gross exaggeration. Scandinavia for example doesn't really have environmental hazards unless you count cold winters. :)

Wonderful as always but one gets the nagging suspicion that the "earlier" is supposed to be "either"?