Recent content by Psikus

Ah, I see. I hadn't even considered going back to the 3.5 license, so I just assumed you meant the GSL. The OGL certainly has much less draconian conditions, but I am a bit confused as to the benefits of this approach. What is the advantage of using heavily modified OGL material rather than a...

...and that is my cue. I'm the guy from Square Fireballs, and while I've been suggesting (hopefully thoughtful) houserules for a few years now, I, too, have been tempted by the notion of a full-on 4E revision. Interestingly, when I laid out the design goals for my project, they turned out quite...

What if automatic success passes its save? Should it take half damage?

Hit points ARE the defense against Save or Die in 5e. All of the (admittedly few) SoD spells known depend on HP in some way. Sleep only knocks unconscious if the target has 11HP or less, Hold Person only paralyzes creatures with less than 40 HP remaining, and so on. And Charm Person isn't...

I think your patches cover the high end of skill DCs, but the low end (untrained PCs with a low ability score) is basically hopeless. I've been thinking on this issue for a while, and it requires some heavy changes in order to work well. The DCs you suggest (12+Lv, 14+Lv, 16+Lv) are a good...

It's a bit situational, but the Ringmail beats Studded leather for characters with Dex lower than 10 (since Dex penalties are also halved).

Though I agree that Dex is likely the most useful ability, I do think there is a case for characters in medium or heavy armor to not prioritize it that much (or even use it as a dump stat). Consider the following: - Medium/heavy armor halves/negates Dex modifiers to AC, not just bonuses. So...

I don't know if it is exactly what you are looking for, but I've written a bunch of blog articles about the math of the game. Some of them are slightly outdated since the MM3 monster math change, but other than that, you should find them useful. - Baseline PC damage - Character Survivability...

From what I have seen, it's highly likely that "Solo" won't exist as a monster type. Any monster that outlevels the party by a certain margin will be usable as a solo encounter... and, as the party grows in power, the same monster will become equivalent to a 4E elite, then a standard, and...

Keep in mind that, if all goes according to plan, it will be possible to have low-level monsters as a (relevant) element of high-level challenges. So an invisibility with low DC could still be extremely useful for, say, a level 20 PC facing 50 orcs. On the other hand, this introduces...

They seem to be aiming for a different solution. From the article: So, using your example, at level 20, the Wizard 20 might have 4 9th level spells, the Fighter 20 could have 4 attacks, and the wizard/fighter 10/10 could have some 5th level and 4th level spells, but could cast a spell and make...

The level/2 bonus is only one component of the total bonuses. For the most part, character (and monster) numbers tend to grow at a rate of roughly 1/level. Here is a summary of the increase in some stats from level 1 to level 30: Stats that increase at ~1/level Monster attack, defenses: +29...

Skill Math. They finally went and made a clear, predictable progression for most numbers in the game ("increase by 1 per level")... only to leave skills behind? At least since the skill DC update that came with the Essentials books, the system more or less works, but I'd much rather have it be...

This reminds me of a glaring omission from my previous feat list: Pacifist Healer! If there is a candidate for Most Awesome Feat in 4E, this is it.

These are some of my favourite feat concepts: - Most 4E multiclass feats are great feats. They tend to provide a variety of abilities (attacks, healing, ability to mark...) - Likewise, the Skill Power feat is ridiculously flexible and fun. - Stuff like Arcane Familiar can be awesome, though the...