Search results

About the "What class does the Monk most resemble?" debate... If you forget about D&D for 1 second, what's... (definitions drawn from Wikipedia): 1) A fighter? It's a person that's skilled in combat, whether through professional training (like a soldier) or not. That's it. 2) A cleric? It's a...

This is going to be a bit harsh, but here it is: I think people that react the same way the OP does is far more harmful for our hobby than any perceived bashing by game developers or designers on previous editions. It's a seed that eventually grows into ugly internet debates. You can disagree...

Funnily enough, and exagerating a bit (but not that much), my problem with Rolemaster was to survive 15 minutes... seriously, how do you survive any severe critical? I remember one of my players having both ears taken out, each by an arrow critical hit; the first ear in the 1st fight of the...

I loved the advantage / disadvantage rule when I first read the test rules. Reading that answer in Rule-of-Three I was disappointed. I agree that (dis)advantages bonuses shouldn't stack. BUT I think it's perfectly reasonable to grant (dis)advantage when there are more "sources" of one kind than...

I'd make use of the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanics with Shield. Buckler: when you're attacked by a light weapon, attacker is disadvantaged. Shield: when you're attacked by a non-heavy weapon, attacker is disadvantaged. Tower shield: Anyone attacking you is disadvantaged. When you attack with...

Some people keep failing their panic saving throws...

I think anyone that has played more than one edition could point to AT LEAST one mechanic in each edition that he would want to see removed/destroyed/annhilated/whatever... doesn't mean that the player dislike eveything about that edition. Just a few examples, in my case: 1st: THAC0...

1) Since when being a demigod a requirement for being an epic-level threat? 2) You know there's a whole range of epic levels, right? We might argue about Sauron being low 20s, mid 20s, high 20s; the fact is that they're all epic levels, and I sincerely think that painting Sauron as a...

I'm sorry, but if Sauron isn't epic-worthy, there's not a SINGLE non-deity entry in any monster manuals, in any edition, that's worthy of being epic. And everybody knows it's the smurfet that's the deadliest threat.

No, that's not metagaming. Metagaming is when a player makes an in-game/world/character decision based on out-of-game/world/character informations; e.g. the player knows that poison X is dealing 50 damage, and since his 75 hp character won't die from it, he decides the character can safely drink...

To me as a DM, the difference between: (a) a PC drinking the poison willingly because its player knows that the PC won't die for it; (b) a PC drinks the poison by mistake; is metagaming. Of course the poison's lethality doesn't theoritically change between the two scenarios. But if the player...

Wow. Considering that Sauron is an extra-dimensional being that pre-existed the creation of the World, and that the Free People losing against him in the War of the Ring essentially meant the End of the World (tm), saying that Sauron isn't an Epic threat (and LotR compares very poorly to...

I like the principle of ability damage but like many others, I despised how much of a pain in the rear end it was in 3rd ed. My solution would be this: apply a -1 penalty to every check (ability/skill/attack...) related to the ability for every damage you've taken to that ability. This way...

To my mind, Clerics are mortal agents of a deity, which begs the question: "Why does the Deity even bother?" That answer will be different for different deities; Athena wants to promote (for example) civilization + reason vs barbarism + rage. Athena's cleric, each time his actions work toward...

When I was talking about HP being an abstraction, I was referring specifically to the fact that it's not only a representation of a PC's actual health, but also of luck, skill, stamina, etc., as has been mentionned numerous times. Sorry if I wasn't clear aout that in my post. If your preference...

I find it a little ironic that the vast majority seems to not be bothered by the HP definition, yet a lot of those same people are up-in-arms regarding 4th edition "non-magic" healing, the bloodied condition and Second Wind. IMO, either you don't care about HP being an abstraction (as it is...

IMO opposed rolls wouldn't add THAT MUCH to time spent in combat: instead of looking up a number, you look up a number, add a dice throw and voilà. What turns combat into loooong booooring things are, again IMO: 1) The number of different options the PCs have when it's their attack; this tends...

I don't think it's so much the rules themselves, but rather the tools you have as a DM in 4th edition. For example, I know Combat Roles for monsters have been demonized in some circles, but it's a tool that allows to quickly adjust monsters / create new ones. To me, your second quote is one...

Long DM prep, not among them? Fighter/Caster imbalance, not among them? (I'll put aside the fact that your "idiot-proof" remark seems to suggest that people disagreeing with that are, in your eyes, idiots.) I don't have a problem with people that prefer 3.X to 4th or other editions. There are...

I know not everyone will agree with this, but in my view ALL D&D editions had skills for all characters: THAC0 / Attack bonus Saves Those are, in a sense, specialized skills that all characters have, at least in the same fashion that thieves had skills in earlier editions. Why am I saying...