There won't be a D&D presence at PAX West this year. BMG was not slotted to do it, and coordination with the new folks running the show came a little later than it should have. I'll be there on Sunday, so if you see me, gimme a high five.
The rules don't preclude it.
As a DM, I wouldn't burn a player's limited-use resources--especially those that have lingering effects. How much of a dick move would it be for a DM to force a dominated character to cast wish for something arbitrary and stupid only to have the character fail the...
It is a feat. There are only two ways to get a feat: by being a variant human or by choosing the feat instead of am ASI when you reach a particular level in a class. As deep gnomes are not variant humans, the only way to get the feat is by choosing it instead of an ASI as you level. In short...
Expect table variation. A player at my table that wanted to summon a giant ape with find steed and then slap some armor on it would get a long, awkward stare while I tried to figure out if he was joking or not.
As a general rule, characters retain equipment, items, and treasure found in a given encounter's treasure section. If it's not found there, they can typically use it until the end of the session at which point it is lost.
Changing the flavor is perfectly fine to an extent. Mechanical changes are not permissible. The Adventurers League uses the rules as presented in the PHB.
While you can use the pike and simply call it a longspear the PHB doesn't permit you to add the finesse property to the weapon. Therefore...
Given that that is about twice what we had, yes; especially considering that would have left none to distribute to the RCs for local con support (which is really the big reason for them, to drum up attendance at the smaller, local conventions).
Pretty much this. To put it into perspective, I...
I would have loved to have been able to give everyone something, but we simply didn't have enough to spread the love around equally. In the case of Gen Con 2015, the RCs and the Admins each got a pretty small allotment of certs to distro as they saw fit.
Now the reason they're in such limited...
Buying and selling is nothing new; its been going on for over a decade. Promotional materials have always had a market and there's nothing inherently wrong with that.