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The only time I use the wealth tables is for designing NPCs and for characters entering the game at higher than 1st level. I have yet to get any complaints from my players about lack of loot or unfair distribution. As for starting cash, Frank the DM has covered the reasoning pretty well. If...

I really like the skill feats making those skills class skills. I may have to steal that one. Common Houses rules for my games: Critical Fumbles: If you roll a 1 on your attack roll, roll again. If the second roll would hit, the attack is a normal miss. If the second roll would be a miss, you...

I'm doing specialty priests in my new game world, mixing up BAB, proficiencies, skill points and granted powers based on the deity in question. Deities with martial aspects have standard, or close to standard, clerics. Those without get varying abilities. It takes some work up front, but it's...

In the new game world I'm developing, there are two types of elves: wood elves and sea elves. The wood elves are somewhat primitive, live in tree huts and generally want to be left alone. Any spellcasters among them are either druids or sorcerers. They get +2 to Dex and -2 to Int. The sea...

After insistance from one of my players, I cooked up a called shot system with a penalty to hit for each area of the body, and an effect that could be resisted by a Fort save vs. 10+ damage dealt. However, attempting a Called Shot in Melee provoked an AOO (unless the character in question had...

Again, it's a matter of training and weapon balance. That greatsword may weigh 5 or 6 pounds, but it's balanced well enough that that doesn't matter as much as one would think. Plus, anyone skilled in using a greatsword isn't going to be fighting the inertia of his weapon, he's going to be...

The speed of a weapon is only a small part of a weapon's effectiveness in combat. A trained warrior is going to understand his weapon's strengths and weaknesses. Also, how fast you can swing a weapon really doesn't mean that much if you can't strike your target with it. Sure a dagger moves...

This is same for my campaigns as well. The idea of gaining spells/channeling divine energy due to following a philosophy just seems odd to me.

I finally got the book today and have only had a chance to briefly skim through it so far. I do, however, agree with the assessment that making the Reserve Feat powers count as Supernatural is too much. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me from a thematic standpoint (mages use spells, not...

Very interesting character concept and storyline. I like the find a way to put them in separate bodies idea. I think, even once Cornelius discovers he's not the original, he's still going to want to exist and I could easily see him forcing Vargus to a path that lets them both live their own...

I kill PCs sometimes, but I don't set out to do it. Sometimes they make stupid mistakes and have to pay for it, like the samurai who felt compelled to challenge a baddie that obviously out-classed him to a duel and was dead in the first round. Oops. Othertimes the dice are unlucky, but even in...

Anhar pretty much sums up how I feel about the changes between additions. I switched as soon as 3.5 came out, reading the various conversion articles and updates before deciding to buy the 3.5 PHB. Upon reading it, I bought the remaining books and switched my campaign over. As Alceste said, my...

My FLGS fails on all three counts. Which is why, in addition to the 20 minute drive to get there, I normally order all my stuff online these days. The owner's a really nice guy and knows his stuff, but yeah, not the greatest shopping experience. The only time I ever go nowadays is when I need...

I don't like psionics and don't use them in my games. I feel they're more much better for sci-fi than for fantasy. So I have nothing to weigh in on in regards to the power of psions. For games I have run and games I have played in, we've never worried about a 4 encounter rule or ever assumed...

Not quite. He was no Deliverator. :) Actually, I'm drawing a blank trying to remember his family name. It's been a couple years since that campaign ended.

I had a Samurai/Iaijutsu master in one of my games and the combat pretty much went like this: Combat starts. Hiro wins initiative and charges the bad guys, dropping one of them with ridiculous amounts of damage from his Iai strike. Remaining bad guys gang beat Hiro into greasy smear because he's...

Chiming in on the Knowledge check, how many times have you gone "Wait, I know this..." about a subject you're familiar with, but it just won't come to you, and while you're straining your brain something clicks in someone else's head. Memory is a funny thing. Yes. This. 2nd Edition had the...

This is my recollection as well. I'd never heard of a wizard casting a spell from a spellbook outside of this thread. (Barring one of the Drizzt novels, anyway, which are notorious for playing fast and loose with the rules.)

I think it would be an interesting experiment to try. Andy Collins actually did something pretty similar for his Umber campaign: http://www.andycollins.net/Campaigns/Umber/c02_Magic.htm Note that he does give non-spellcasting class levels a caster level progression to make up for it, though...

I would say so. That's another aspect of casting a spell and the description doesn't specify grappling as an exception.