Recent content by theNater

Don't forget that adventurers often have to travel to and from dungeons, and are not compensated for it. If they spend two days heading out, one day adventuring(four encounters with the rest of the day spent searching for traps, following dead ends, and such), and two days traveling back, they...

Paladins have a few utility powers that allow them to defend by staying close to their allies. Martyr's Blessing(lvl 1), Divine Bodyguard(lvl 6), Noble Shield(lvl 10) and the like let the paladin take damage so the rest of the party doesn't have to.

There's two advantages to the morality chart. First, each alignment is very broad, which means the player can find a useful part of it in many situations. Second, the sorts of situations I see newbies having trouble with most often are moral issues, so the fact that it's specifically a...

Out of curiosity, what's the harm in leaving them in as a crutch for newbies? I find that alignments can help new players with a number of situations they've never really considered before, but are fairly common in D&D.

Blowing through all their dailies is not using four encounters' worth of resources, because four encounters' worth includes four copies of each encounter power. The disparity in total power per day between a one-encounter day and a four-encounter day is much greater in 4e than it was in 3e...

Many classes that didn't have area attacks got multiple attacks per round, though. Deciding whether to hit three targets for normal damage each or one target for triple damage isn't a new choice for the fighter, although he's now making it at a different time. I never thought what they were...

You could ask your DM permission to use a homebrewed feat for it. Just let your DM know that you like a paragon path with a lot of poison damage, and that you're worried that you'll be underpowered given the amount of undead you're fighting. If you sense resistance, offer to spend multiple...

Minions. Swarm 'em with minions. With no controller, they're limited in their AoE, so they'll have a tough time taking out numerous targets. The two strikers' bonus damage doesn't help against minions, and the mobility the warlord provides doesn't help much if there's enemies everywhere. The...

I know, but I like coming up with justifications for things. As a fun mental exercise. Herremann the Wise did ask. And I've actually seen(in rare cases) people respond to a justification they hadn't heard before, or even just a rephrasing of one they had. You can never tell what'll click for...

I wanted to give an option that might help you rationalize this: The situation is that the target must react in precisely the wrong way to a particular kind of feint your character makes. It is rare enough that a target will react that way to make rolling for it impractical, and DM fiat runs...

I agree with this, and would like to relate it back to the issue of alignment Tiitha brought up. Fourth edition's softer and broader alignments make it easier for players to ask "how would my character behave in this situation?" instead of "how would a character of my alignment behave in this...

The Grappling Fighter is a great place to go for grabs, although it is a weapon class(meaning that being unarmed while using it will be rough on your damage). With your GM's permission, you might be able to take proficiency in the Monk's Unarmed Strike with a feat; it basically turns your...

I'll yield the point, as any difference would probably be less than a centimeter, and this is an issue of inches. If Joe is leaping from the ball of his foot, his toes can be over the line. That gives him inches, depending on how long his toes are. If Mike Powell fell backwards, his distance...

Sure, but it's not reasonable to posit that the guy with the highest bonuses got the 20 on competition day. If the guy with the highest bonuses rolls a 16 that day, the record goes to somebody else. Also, examining competition results means restricting yourselves to the rules of the...

Joe's not superhuman, he's at maximum human capability. He is in exceptionally good shape(20 Str) and exceptionally well trained and practiced in the long jump(skill focus), just like an Olympic long-jumper. The World Record is 29.4 feet, and wind-assisted jumps are disqualified. All Joe has...