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Minion is an abstraction -- it is a creature that dies in one hit, being nothing more than dangerous-if-not-dealt-with fodder for PCs. If you were to treat minions as actual creatures, they'd have more than 1 hit point already - the point of a minion is that they drop in one hit. I can...

I can't imagine that hit points have been described as literal damage by "most" DMs. I can't really imagine that "many" do. Regardless, "many" people spell rogue "rouge", but I don't believe we should change the spelling because of it. Re: a simulationist approach... Having multiple pools of...

I think it has more to do with character concept. As a general rule... players that use giant two handed hammers expect that they will get big, crushing damage (see the 6d6 damage done at first level by the fighter in KotS). The player would rather hit a little less often as long as when they...

3e was a computer program. It had rules for creating everything and then processed those rules in certain patterns to create things. Monsters were a prime example of this. Pick a base race, add a template perhaps, add racial levels, add character levels... and "luckily" there were charts for...

I loved 3.0 when it first came out. It was the feats, skills, and simple multiclassing. The promise that fighters and rogues would have powers that would be interesting, just like casters had interesting abilities. As someone said above, it was true for a bit. The multiclassing thing worked...

Obviously we don't know what the rules actually are yet, but here's my take if it's just a freebee: Arcana (trained): move action to sense magic (creature or item) Arcana (trained): short rest to identify the type of magic on a creature or item No class restrictions, just skill in knowing...

Warning: I go way back to the white box with three little brown books, so some of these opinions may be tainted by nostalgia. Okay, back when I started playing there were miniatures, but I didn't use them and it never occurred to me that I was missing anything. In a way, it was very freeing...

I've never been fond of the kill the monster, get it's loot mantra either. In my world, the PCs are mainly supported by the townsfolk themselves. First, it really doesn't cost THAT much to get a room for the night and some food as my game world economy assumes a lot less money is floating...

I'm not real keen on the travelling merchant thing. Then again, I've never been keen on the idea that there was a trade in magic items at ALL, nor on the idea that PCs rake in tons of gold. I like it when a magic item is something special that a character would never consider giving away - it...

Thanks, guys! Wow, I AM blind. I looked and looked for that "against bloodied" type of text. I'm apparently going to have to read and reread the stat blocks before I use them. They seem easy to use, but the text apparently runs together for me in parts.

What is the numeric bonus? +2 to attack? +5? +1d6 damage? And where is this listed? Am I blind and just not seeing it (in which case, where is it), or am I simply daft due to old age and it's inherently known to everyone that when flavor text says "it gets a bonus to attack bloodied foes,"...

Okay, I know someone asked this before in the thread, but the answer didn't make any sense to me: Where is the mechanic associated with this flavor text? This creature leaves me nonplussed. Why preview this seemingly boring critter? Also, are these direct excerpts? If so, it concerns me...

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I wouldn't approach raise dead, and haven't for over a decade. I thoroughly dislike the idea. Basically, the problem is the game system is designed like a board game where pieces can be eliminated while at the same time assigning each player the job of only one piece on the board. Thus either...

Let the players do some of the heavy lifting. No matter the setting or story, there are two things you can do to make your life easier as a DM and at the same bring your players deeper into the story: 1) Hooks When you talk about hooks, I'd suggest going the personal route. Each character...

Keep it simple. That's a large motto of 4e. And I agree entirely. However, it begs the question... why give one action point every other encounter with a maximum usage of 1 action point per encounter and a reset to 1 action point after an extended rest? Okay, you start with one, get in two...

You draw an oa when you "move away" from an opponent. Does that mean that if you only move in squares that are adjacent, you don't? Or that if you're adjacent and move at all, you do? And I'm talking truly moving, not shifting. E.g.: 1 2 3 4 A 5 6 X 7 8 9 10 A = character, X =...

<mach1.9pants dies of suffocation />

I think part of the reason they may have gone to 1/1/1/1 is to stop people from having to figure out how much someone actually moves if they get slid diagonally. DM: The orc smashes the sledge hammer into your side, sending you sprawling. You get slid 1 square. Player 1: I already moved 3...

I believe that the description in the spoiler is horribly written. It is grammatically vague. The statements appearing in two sentences does not imply from a grammatical standpoint either reading. However, both readings can be reasonably inferred. Why on earth they wrote: "Stealth and...