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I vote background and history. Adding background to a magic item turns it from a list of bonuses and powers into an unique object with connections to the world. A cloak of resistance +1 can be a generic save boosting slot filler or it can be the cloak worn by the PC's ancestor when he faced...

As I've mentioned on that other thread, one of the big reason why the number of non-combat magic items have decreased in recent editions is the increase in the player's ability to trade magic items. Once players can sell items and then easily either buy or make their own items, wacky oddball...

The balancing guidelines in the DMG is to give the DM an idea of how dangerous an encounter is for the PC party. It doesn't restrict you to only using risk-free encounters. The DM can make harder or easier encounters as he sees fit. But the guidelines let the DM know what he's sending so that he...

Ah, I was unaware of that since my old 2nd ed group never used any module. I think I got a +1 sword after 7 levels....anyways, maybe rare isn't the correct term. What I do mean is that getting magic items in older editions were completely up to the DM. There was no wealth by level tables or...

I would agree that magic items in older editions (pre-3e) tends to be wackier, more flavourful and more "magical" than modern ones. I think there are several interconnected reasons for this: 1. Rarity. In older editions, magic items were much rarer. Whether you get any magic items were purely...

Have you tried looking at the traps and hazards section in the DMG? Slime is considered more of an environmental hazard rather than a monster so it isn't in the MM anymore.

umm...marks don't stack, they override, and the -2 penalty from marking is only if you attack someone other than the one marking you. And it only applies to its next attack roll. Not that big a deal to someone who makes multiple attacks.

Personally, I think people find 4e powers dull as compared to 3e spells because the write ups of the 4e powers are very formulaic and concise. The flavour text is seperated from the mechanics just like Magic cards. In previous editions, spells are written in paragraphs and you actually have to...

What I like about 4e NPC/monster creation rules (more of a guideline really) is precisely because it allows me to create characters that are mechanically different from the PCs. It also allows me to create NPCs that are completely different from each other and don't have to follow the same...

Tiamat is female right. If she's too big, she'll have trouble finding a guy big enough to eh....satisfy her. Gargantuan male dragons don't grow on trees you know.

Just a few more examples of "psionics-like" magic in fantasy: David Eddings' Belgariad Mercedes Lackey's Heralds series Robin Hobb's Farseer and sequel series even the WoT series by Robert Jordan is more similar to D&D psionic rules than vanacian magic rules Other than D&D novels, most of...

The use of player knowledge for making decisions as opposed to restricting yourself to using only character knowledge. An example would be having your PC immediately using fire or acid on trolls even though your character have never encountered or heard of trolls before.

Yeah, it was pretty disappointing, but not unexpected. Unfortunately, it pretty much means that IKRPG is a dead system. :( Although, truth be told, 3.5 IK rules are clunky and needs quite a bit of work. Excellent flavour, poor execution.

I guess my experience and view of D&D would be pretty unique because of my background. I started playing D&D in the mid to late 90s with 2nd edition in highschool. We were a bunch of recent HK immigrants to Canada so we weren't brought up with traditional Sword & Sorcery or LotR influences...

If you want guns in your D&D, you should take a serious look at Iron Kingdoms.

Minions aren't a gamist conceit. Gamism doesn't care how many hp something has. It cares about whether the game is challenging/balanced for the players and hp is only small part of that. Minions are primarily a narrativist tool. It allows the DM to tell stories where the heroes hack through a...

Anyone noticed that the forcecage spell seems to be missing its 1500 gp material cost? Not sure if it's a feature or a bug... It seems that PF turned most of the save-or-die into save-or-massive damage, but didn't do much about the save-or-sucks or no-save-you-just-suck spells. A lot of the...