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On a similar note, I've been thinking of putting a hard cap on the XP value that the players can spend on item creation per level and then removing the XP burn for creating items. That restricts the creation of items, but doesn't force the players to give up levels to create items.

I don't think magic item creation counts as as standard every day use of magic, even for those that have it as a feat. If it is a standard thing in the campaign, I believe that the XP penalty should be mitigated by some form of GM intervention. The power item helping to craft something is a...

I agree with Elephant and PC, doesn't seem that far out of their nature, especially if they happened to be lawful. {sniff sniff, I smell a sunder coming on....}

Whether you have a long arc or a series of short arcs you eventually run out of compelling stories to tell with a group. Just go two more adventures past that and then call it quits. ;) Seriously, this is like trying to decide when to break up with someone. It's time when its time and you...

Sounds like a cool system. As I've stated many times, I have not problems at all with changing magic. I just think it is punative to the player to create a system where normal use of magic causes XP, HP, OR Stat damage. Even the DMG states that altering the system to punish players in this...

Those are all cool ways to change the flavor. In the campaign I'm currently running, my wizard gets his spells from an item that talks to him and teaches him about magic. Basically it is a tutor that explains the rituals and gesticulations that will cause the spell to occur. We play this as...

That is one standard, but not the only standard. You could rule that it requires magical apptitude and every character had this apptitude. You're characters are the one in a million that gets magic. Isn't that simpler than rewriting a whole class?

High levels vs Magic as a plot device I've been thinking about the orginal premise of this thread, that magic should be a plot device instead of a player ability (over simplification, read their posts for the meat) I think this stems from where the game has gone in terms of the levels that...

In a party with magic: no I tend to think about this issue in terms of the respective roles the players take in solving adventures. You have the fighter that melee battles, you have the tactical fighter in the thief and you have the healer and support charcter in the priest. In this world...

I guess I don't see how this is excluded with the current D&D magic system. After all, you could rule that the players are the only people in all the world with access to this magic and then Everything you said above would be true for everyone in the world except those in the party. The...

I think this is because there isn't much difference between a CR 13 and a CR 14 monster. CR only really works at low levels. Anything beyond 3rd or 4th level and the difference between players, characters chosen, GM style and magic items available cause wide fluxuation between parties. So, I...

If you don't have access If you don't have access to the faerun stuff here is the basic gist of it. Treat them exactly like potions except the can't be passed on to another person like potions. To balance that, you don't need a standard action to get them ready to use. So, instead of a full...

Point buy = cookie cutter characters I tried point buy as a player and as GM in couple campaigns. What I found was that it was great the first time, a little tired the second time and by the third or fourth character generating session I was sick of seeing the same damn character generated. A...

Normally I agree with your statements. But, I find I trip, it works, I trip it works as a poor substitution for I swing I miss, I swing I miss. Both are yawn city. I wouldn't consider having improved trip as a highly specialized fighter that paid a hight price either. With all the bonus...

I agree Hong. I think in the next game I will ban the improved versions of all these attacks or even outright ban them. I never feel like the game is improved by a character using these tactics and more often then naught I end up having to crash on them as a GM to keep them from using these...

I spend less time now then in 2E I tend to prep less per hour than I did in 2e or 1e. I find that with all the special rules and lots of rolling stuff and looking up powers and feats we tend to get less done per hour in 3e, so I only have to prepare every third session or so.

You ask me to come back! And I wasn't trying to pick a fight. Brother MacLearn had ask about other systems of balancing magic and we were looking at a couple systems and commenting on them. I though saying what I objected to furthered the discussion. :)

I didn't add this to the list because it is a temp imbalance in scores and is restored to normal right after you stop raging. The types of penalties to stats, XP and HP are more permanent in game terms and tend to be treated more as penalties by the system than a barbarian rage. For similar...

Little bit of both I tend to run strong episodic adventures within a slowly developing story line. In the moment the players are always looking at the episode level, but they do expect things to build on themselves pointing toward an eventual goal. If I had to chose one or the other, I...

But losing XP, HP, or Stats when you cast a spell is more like having the movie theatre take an actual pound of flesh when you went in. If there was a butcher block at the cineplex, you'd be much less likely to go to the movies. Well, at least I would. When you take XP, you are saying to...