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For those who don't know it yet: the assertion that 'good optimization = bad roleplaying', and 'bad optimization = good roleplaying' is known as the Stormwind Fallacy. Tempest Stormwind's early insight has been a staple of discussions such as this for a while, and for good reason. Statements...

Nice catch, although I'm forced to point out that Frightful Presence only makes its targets shaken, unless they're seriously low level (and would die anyway against any dragon with the Frightful Presence ability). Nevertheless, your point holds that dragons that get the drop on you aren not...

Well, that certainly depends on your group's preferences and playstyle, doesn't it? Can't we leave the "roll or buy" debate behind already? It's not as if there's an objectively right answer waiting just around the corner. I do prefer point buy, and I have good reason for it. Nevertheless I'm...

I'm actually planning to do this in a rather old school-y campaign I'm planning on DMing... whenever I can interest some of my regular players to give it a try. Very much on the 'survival of the fittest' side, we'd be playing lots of one-shot dungeon crawls, with new PCs brought in when and if...

Just posting to say this made my day! Unfortunately, can't XP you right now. And I do believe your point was all about point buy, right, not about rolling? Because in point buy, you have actual freedom to play any character you want (including very suboptimal choices), while rolling just...

...which just goes to show that balance isn't everything. "Clearer writing" is NOT what made 3E a step ahead. A unified, streamlined (in many, not all places) core mechanic is what 3E is all about. Balance? They tried that in 4E, see where it got us. I prefer a varied game with few limitations...

d6s are your reason to play a Rogue. They're what sneak attack is about. That single point of damage on a longbow or longsword really doesn't make a difference if every attack you land also does a bunch of d6s extra. IF you can reliably get sneak attack damage, which I find hard to do with a...

forrgott: The bit of rules text you quoted, while interesting, unfortunately doesn't adress what lies at the heart of the matter of this discussion: can there or can there not be an area of objective shadowy illumination if there's somebody present who can see through it? Also, one sentence...

By RAW, nothing. I'd probably rate it as +2 to +3 CR. Some creatures (the big bruisers) get a lot more out of those buffs than others (casters).

Mathematics don't concern me. Fun does. Mathematics only come in as an afterthought, as a method of generating good fun. If you start at 1st level, that first levelup sure is flat randomness. When you get to 3rd level and already rolled low once, you really can't afford to roll anything but...

And what IS the basis of game world physics then? It patently isn't real-world physics (which don't allow for magic). You just make something up? And follow the rules otherwise? If so, that's entirely in keeping with my post.

A while ago, my players complained about the flat randomness (no bell curve) of the HP roll, right after we switched to point buy for ability scores. I could see their point, so I offered the option of choosing: a) roll your HD, one roll, no re-roll, old-school, or b) take half your max result...

Care to elaborate?

But Matthias, that is exactly what is the case! Any Fighter, no matter how good, will never be able to get beyond 95% hit rate. Nobody is capable of exploiting more than one moment of dropped defenses in a 6 second interval, unless they've received special training AND are exceptionally agile...

I don't get how you can go ahead and praise archer Rogues, of all archetypes. It's almost impossible to gain reliable sneak attack going (not even balancing opponents are considered flat-footed anymore!), and you lack the feats for an effective archer anyway. Elf is not really that great for...

This was already mentioned and discussed above... in fact, the Ranger's and Shadowdancer's abilities bear he same name, but not much resemblance otherwise.

Some very useful tricks were nerfed directly: you can't draw and throw more than one alchemical item per turn (pure arbitrariness, I say); Blink doesn't let you sneak attack; trapfinding can now be done by everybody, with Perception relying on Wis, making Rogues more MAD (whereas Search in 3.5...

In the Magic of Faerûn FR supplement, there's a chapter on mage fairs. During these, there are not only mage duels, markets, gladiatorial matches, spell swap meets etc. Wizards and Sorcerers also engage in Fireball hurling contests. The relative heat and maximum distance reached by each Fireball...

The direct damage spells aren't even the big deal. A charging Barbarian can do more damage than your metamagicked orb spell, unless you concentrated your resources really hard on that as a Wizard. But Glitterdust, Web, Grease, Stinking Cloud, to name low-level stuff, or their bigger Conjuration...

I have nothing against Inquisitors, and in fact I love their versatility. However I believe a novice player could easily "miss the point", or be overwhelmed with the multitude of options, and end up with a rather ineffective character.