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ECL or CR? PMFJI, but I'm curious--do you really mean for this template to increase ECL? Or do you mean CR? I ask because all of the features you mention (except for the immortality bit, which I'll get to in a moment) are either feats or race/class features that don't affect the ECL of the...

The NPCs I identify with most as a DM are the ones that were previously my PCs (a friend and I switch off being DMs in our campaign). However, there are also a few villains that I've put quite a bit of work into, so that I feel I have a pretty good insight into what makes them tick (I'm not sure...

Delphi 5 doesn't have TClientDataSet in the VCL, and I haven't quite persuaded myself to shell out the $$ for a version upgrade at this point (it will happen eventually if past experience is any guide :)). However, so far I'm finding that I don't need an in-memory dataset type object to do what...

Delphi 5 (Object Pascal). I could do it in C++ but I find Pascal a lot easier to work with for stuff like this (the syntax is much more transparent to read). My approach in the project I'm working on is simply to not let the user remove "elf" from the database at all while in character...

Can you describe in more detail what you did? Since "use the table editor" is not something likely to occur to a user who for some strange reason expects to be able to add the class levels on the XP/Level Up page. Peter Donis

I agree, the rules definition would have to contain all the dependencies. The question is, how? Dependency information is often not explicit when rules are defined. Example: the Timeless Body feature of monks and druids in d20/3E. Say you have a monk who is already middle-aged (and hence has...

Thanks for the lucid exposition. I understand the pattern, and it's basically what I was thinking, but the issue is that at run time, each object has to know as it's created which other objects it needs to register with. That's what you need the (potentially massive) database table for--the...

I've heard of the book but haven't read it, I'll try to look it up. It's mentioned in some other books on OOP that I do have, but unfortunately they don't talk about the Observer pattern. Can you briefly describe it? (Since I haven't read about it, it's possible that I'm re-inventing it in the...

I've been working for some time now (in my copious free time :)) on a character generator that basically works as you described. Every attribute, stat, spell, power, object, etc. that a character can have is an "item" that can be of various types and have various data fields attached to it. Then...

I saw this suggestion over on the WotC boards after I'd made the above post. My only potential misgiving is that 1/2 levels may be a bit much (that means a ranger 20 has +33 to Wilderness Lore when tracking if the skill is maxed out, not counting any Wisdom bonus, which seems high to me, but...

This topic has come up before, I'm sure, but I've got a simple house rule suggestion to give rangers an advantage in tracking over other classes (e.g., a barbarian or druid who takes the Track feat). The Track feat description in the PHB says that you must move at half speed while tracking; if...

OTOH, I, as soon as I saw the Loremaster in the DMG, knew that it was tailor made for one of my elf wizards, who is a historian and keeps extensive chronicles of the campaign world. There's somebody out there who can use just about any class that's been thought up. I don't think the DMG classes...

A lot of these problems just seem like lack of communication between WotC and Fluid (and/or lack of understanding of the rules on the part of people involved in the development on either or both sides). I can understand a limit of 20 PC class levels (even though I personally don't like it since...

It's a bit more complicated than that. The rules are on pg. 175 of the DMG (my copy, anyway), under "Using Items". Scrolls are spell completion items, so you actually have to be able to cast a spell of the right level and class to use them, and if you don't actually know the specific spell...

As hong said recently, that's not a bug, it's a feature. :) Some kinds of damage impair your ability to fight back, and some don't. Peter Donis

Besides me, I take it. :) Actually, it's not that I disagree, exactly, it's that it hasn't been my experience. I'll have to check out the story threads in question--what I'm wondering is if those who are getting killed off more quickly (whether characters or monsters) are really using all the...

You're not by any chance a software developer, are you? :) Well, the standard MM orc does 1d12+3 normal damage with his greataxe, which gives a 50-50 chance of reducing a 1st-level fighter to 0 hp, taking him out of the combat. I agree that's not exactly the same as a finger of death, though...

The template doesn't need to change creature type: "Devil" isn't a creature type, the correct one would be "Outsider", but the base creature is already an outsider. The only potential change would be to change subtypes to "Lawful, Evil" if they weren't already (assuming that the Duke of Hell...

True, but it does degrade your ability to absorb future hits. I should have elaborated a bit more, but I was writing quickly and it was late. :) True again, and I don't mind the idea of re-designing instant kill effects as ability damage if it fits better into your campaign. As I said in a...

Probably because the designers wanted to keep the feature of previous editions that most damage doesn't change your ability to do things. If all damage were ability damage then each hit would decrease your ability to hit back (to put it crudely). You may well say, "Exactly--that's why I think...