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Not to sound stupid, but wasn't "Ultimate Combat" already released? Why does this sound like it's being touted as brand-new?

Maybe playtest feedback will result in Shield-Block-enhancing feats, like Seelah's Lay-On-Hands-enhancing feats. Like "+3 to the effective hardness of your shield", or "Make a skill check / save / whatever to negate a Dent as it is applied to the shield". If they do "Potency Runes" for shields...

Kyra's Sling does d6+1, average 4.5 damage. Shield Hardness blocks all the damage with no dent. Fundus's dogslicer does d6+2, average 5.5 damage. Shield blocks all damage with no dent half the time. Putting your shield up to block Seelah's or Valeros's hit is probably tossing away your...

In all the games I've run across the years, I think the players have intentionally hired two henchmen. both were specific RP situations. They have certainly led anything from squads to small armies of NPCs, again for specific situations (the local lord's guardsmen, all armed with crossbows, as...

You're saying that a Sorc with 4 level-3 castings, and 2 level-3 spells known (say Fireball and Fly) is going to spend the 4 castings on Magic Missile 3, and not be throwing 4 fireballs? Hmmm... not in my experience, but YMMV. I suppose, if the 3rd level spells known were both utility, then I...

Fair enough houser. I thought you didn't see the versatility. But no, you see it; you are upset that this isn't baked into *all* the sorcerer's spells, that it is limited to just 2. I get you. I guess we need to see the slots and spells known to know how the Sorc will really compare to the...

Not that I can disagree with the inelegance of the rule, but here's what I see: Wizard: Level 1: Feather Fall, Sleep 1, Jump 1 (10 other spells in the spellbook) Level 2: Invisibility, Magic Missile 2 (6 other spells in the spellbook) Level 3: Fireball (2 other spells in the spellbook)...

The problem I envisioned with hirelings and henchmen - outside of trust issues (lots of treasure, absent employers) - is that once the party "loses" a few... no one else wants to hire on. If, as the OP says, hirelings have a life expectancy measured in *minutes*.... maybe you could raid a local...

I played a girl "street rat" caught stealing by the church, and eventually converted to cleric. Street "wise" but still fairly naive, she was seduced by another PC during a carnival -- whilst said PC was using magic to change shape and gender! [I, player, had no idea the other character was...

So the PF2 Monk's first round is going to be "Move in, Flurry 0 and Flurry -4, Move out", with increased speed. Opponent, assuming no ranged attack will have to "Move, Move, Attack" -- Monk moves 40, remember? Monk's second and subsequent rounds can be "Flurry 0 and Flurry -4, Strike -8...

Excellent point. Dragonlance tried an alternate system as well, with "steel pieces" - steel was rare, and a longsword was literally worth its weight in steel, the very steel that would be smelted to make the blade (plus the smith's time, as a sword is not actually all steel). A dragon's hoard...

One of my more "gritty details" campaigns definitely did the coinage variation. The current human kingdom used the PHB standards. The dwarves used square coins of differing sizes and metals. The elves did the circles-with-holes style, so their wealth could double as jewlery and music; they...

I totally get "use shield for AC all day long" + "let the bad guy hammer directly into your shield = broken shield" (with different shields able to take more hits). Not hard to understand. As for "why don't we track durability on all other equipment"... I have certainly seen other systems that...

I get "paid" by the players providing my dinner and snacks for the night. and generally, setting me up with enough pop and/or alcohol to last the two weeks until the next game. Does that pay the mortgage, no. Is the $20-$40 saved on consumables across 2 weeks "worth" 4 hours of my time...

I have used many methods of creating characters (PCs and NPCs) in the past. A few were created to "try out a mechanic" ("best archer possible in 4e", or "highest Divination skill possible in 3.5e") - these have varying success as being fun to play. The latter was actually a blast, but the...

In the series "The Dragon and the George" (IIRC), the author made a few setting-based comments that have stuck with me for years. Essentially - in the middle ages (the generic background timeframe/setting of most fantastic worlds), people don't travel. "Fare well" is the parting salutation...

I love both presented solutions - "Kinetic Poisoning" and "only works in anomaly zone beneath the hole". Also, as a games designer, I like mechanics to be consistent across everything, so a *break* from the consistency is intentional and important and carefully considered. Too many writers in...

Traps, I've found, do two things: the first one causes damage to the unwary party, alerting them to the possibility of further traps; thereafter, the party moves very slowly, searching/detecting/sacrificing ("101 uses for a dead gnome") looking for more traps. As a DM, I don't like the...

Someone upthread posted the design question for a lair: Is this a Home? A battlefield? A mix of both (like a castle)? Think about your house - okay, maybe not. Think about a house in a wartorn land, or where law and order isn't ubiquitous (inner city slums, perhaps). Your basic home has...

In my current (4e) campaign, the PCs come from a wide variety of backgrounds, most of which aren't relevant to this conversation. However, there is one elf in the group, and he is also the only one who understands Elven without magical aid. (There are two wizards, and both have Comprehend...