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First, thank you for message. Second, thanks for adding to the discussion with specific points and positions. That said, your corrected spreadsheet just seems to drive home one of my concerns: If Expertise is stealth errata to try and patch Bad Math (tm), then making it a series of feats that...

:uhoh::-S:blush: Wow. I...probably read that when FRPG first came out but I certainly didn't remember it. I'm sure the Swordmage player isn't remembering that either. He's gone down in the last couple big battles and this certainly could have made it much more unlikely that he would've been...

I apologize, I'm not sure I follow you. I don't remember exactly when our Swordmage respec'd to Ensnarement, but I hope 4e isn't so tenuously balanced that I have to worry about which build my players choose for their PCs. I can see the logic in having balanced roles, not necessary but a...

I think that's much of it. The current party make up is: Dwarven Battle Cleric: savvy & tactical player, one of the PCs I believe counts as optimized Human TacLord: the player is growing into his abilities & role, getting better with each session, and Nail nudges him (appropriately IMO) on...

Nope. It's banned for now, at Heroic Tier, because: It seems unnecessary at the current time: with good teamwork the party is having very little problem hitting even Soldiers of Level+2 with average die rolls ;) With the new Solo guidelines discussed in the latest Podcast and what I've seen in...

Good points, and I'm really not trying to equate death with fun for me as the DM or any of my players. There are plenty of threads describing how unfun it is to be nearly perpetually stunned and the dying condition is certainly along those same lines. However in this battle the two PCs that were...

Well, Mr. Goodfellow, in case you haven't actually read the entire nine pages in this thread you've just insulted me directly since I'm his DM. Since I've made several posts in the thread, constructive ones I hope, I'd ask you to please read them and rebut anything in particular you disagree...

Sorry that something's got your leg, but *I* am not. :heh: Now, I don't want to kill PCs frequently, but I do want PC death to be a real possibility in the middle of Hard encounters and sometimes even Standard encounters where the party has very poor tactics. However, PC death in 4th edition...

This is a misunderstanding and I'll inform the rest of the group to clarify on our website. Only some monsters will attempt to coup-de-grace, usually only evil-smart foes or hungry-dumb ones, but by no means will all monsters attempt to CDG. As I stated last night at the end of the battle, these...

That's a pretty convincing argument. ;)

You and the rest of the party are victims of your own success here, me thinks, given last night's "by the skin of our teeth" battle. 7 PCs (only 2-3 I'd really consider optimized, IMO), all 4th level against Kobolds: 4 lvl 6 soldiers, 5 lvl 5 skirmishers and 6 lvl 3 minions. This was in a cave...

I agree as well. I think a cumulative penalty for additional successful stacked effects would be more realistic, but I think for the vast majority of players it wouldn't be as fun so they didn't include it in the rules (wouldn't surprise me if some mechanic like this was playtested at one...

It could help in that regard, and I'm thinking of that, too. While I don't want combat to be a grind, I also don't want it to be unfun and unchallenging. Part of my concerns are if we accept Expertise as written that: A) the gap between those in my group who know the rules very well, like Nail...

Except anyone following the DMG's treasure parcels system isn't beholden to that type of schedule. For all 5 PCs to have a +1 weapon (cuz we're talking about attack bonus, right?) "by level 2" then all 4 magic items handed out at 1st level, of item levels 2-5, have to be weapons. So should that...

In what way? We are dead on track for treasure parcels and I have the sheets to prove it! By the end of 5th level every PC will have a magical weapon/implement, armor & neck slot item that's +1, and some will have +2 items. Those are supposedly the only items that truly matter to the math...

Please forgive the thread necromancy here, but I did state in the other thread I was reading through this one again! :D I'm just curious how much you've increased damage at the upper tiers and how much shorter you expect those combats to be now. By +1[W] per tier? By adding +MonsterLvl for...

I'm not going to hold my breath, but I, too, am anxiously waiting to read articles such as these! Do we even have a ballpark guess on when they'll be published? This month? next? the fall? Thanks

<puts on bullseye suit> I'm Nail's DM in this instance (though he's involved in a couple other games and we haven't discussed what might be happening in those). Now, the party is only 4th level and leveling only every couple months or so (we only get a chance to play every other Wednesday...

I did exactly this in our campaign just a few sessions ago. The BBEG started a nasty necrotic ritual with his Symbol of Despair used as the focus under the sacrificial victim. The party managed to save the victim and undue the ritual before it killed anyone, the cleric found the holy symbol but...

Nail suggested something similar to this to my group a few months ago and it has speeded up that part of my play at least. I haven't checked to see whether any of the other players have been doing it. The difference is we just roll the requisite number of d20s and look at how the dice as they...