Recent content by Taraxia

Peer is quite different from knight, though. There are plenty of peers who aren't knighted.

The idea that just *anyone* who *ever* gets killed by a vampire turns vampire themselves is a somewhat modern twist on the tale, and one that doesn't work for a lot of dramatic reasons that go beyond the math of the matter. Certainly ancient vampire myths didn't work that way, Bram Stoker, Anne...

This all depends on what kind of relationship the players and the DM have, and what kind of game the players are playing. I mean, true to a point, but I don't think it's realistic that a player should be expected to say, "Look at this spell on my spell list! It's totally overpowered! I think...

FWIW, I much, much, much prefer Rich Burlew's variant Diplomacy rules to the core rules.

They're good for things you could logically Intimidate someone into doing. The fact that Intimidate can't let you steal a kingdom doesn't necessarily invalidate the skill, any more than Base Attack Bonus is invalidated because no amount of BAB will allow you to fly. The difference is that the...

But that doesn't make sense. As the DM it's your job to make sure mechanics make some kind of sense, from a metagame perspective. By your logic, I could go up to anyone in the street, make a successful Intimidate check, and say "Now go over to that wall and smash your own skull against it as...

I do think it's hypocritical to get all upset about Knights' Challenges while still allowing Bards to inspire everyone to great fervor and excitement by... adding +1 to a bunch of checks rather than actually making an inspiring speech.

That's archons. Angels -- the astral devas, planetars and solars -- are different; they're direct creations and servants of the deities. It's an established difference between archons and angels that archons are related to good mortals and angels aren't. If you're talking about real...

The ability to semi-Heighten for free is part of the point of psions. It's why they get so few powers known compared to spells known -- because their lower-level powers turn into higher-level powers. This is limited, though, as others have pointed out, and is in any case an *essential feature of...

...You do realize this is the stupidest argument ever, right, and makes me seriously question that "degree in logic"? Historians have to rigorously check their theses against facts and records and the interpretations of other historians. That's why history is an academic discipline rather than...

Er, no. Unless you take feats, regaining focus is a *full-round action* in and of itself. That means that using a metapsionic feat turns a standard action into a standard action + a full round action. This is clearly a higher cost than turning a standard action into a full round action. The...

If you have a degree in "logic" (by which you mean what, a math concentration?) then you ought to know that anecdotal evidence means very little in these sorts of situations. There are way too many variables in people's subjective experience for any single person's experience saying "Psionics is...

The polymorph errata hasn't actually nerfed polymorph, or erased it from the game. What it has done is deleted all references to polymorph from the other rules so that polymorph *can* be erased from the game, which is clearly the direction WotC is leaning. Although you can't use polymorph to...

Er, yes? It is? I mean, YES, isn't that answer obvious? That it doesn't matter nearly so much to be able to switch off between the four elemental energy damages at a whim if you can have a non-elemental energy damage that nothing resists, and that affects incorporeal creatures? Not that damage...

Contrast is how much you stand out against your surroundings -- i.e. it accounts for the use of camouflage. Someone wearing ordinary, bright-colored clothing standing against a dark background will get a -5 to the Spot DC, while someone wearing ordinary, dark-colored clothing against a dark...