Search results

I think Dark Sun works better without Preservers. All magic defiles, period. Preservers were a cop-out so people could still play mages and not have to grapple with the consequences of defiling magic. They watered down the setting from "every mage hurts the world" to "only evil mages hurt the...

This is going to end up like the Greyhawk threads where no one can define what elements are actually necessary for the campaign setting. I think the only truly necessary elements for Dark Sun are "harsh desert world", and "magic defiles the land". But I would put psionics in the second tier...

Wasn't there an evil moose in this one? How did that turn out?

After reading this thread, and trying to get a feel for Greyhawk from the Greyhawk partisans, I have the following related thoughts: I feel like there are two types of D&D settings: The adventuring party reflects the setting The adventuring party is significantly different than the setting...

I think the inheritance angle is the best. Maybe the father was a scrape-grace younger son with no prospects, which is why Keltos opposed the marriage. But then the father's older brothers died, and he inherited, and the granddaughter inherited in turn. --- Actually, now that I think about it...

But would it be worthwhile for such a game to invest a great deal of time/effort/resources into combat rules? Like if combat in your game is so deadly that players never engage in it, then spending 50+ pages on elegant and comprehensive combat rules seems like a waste to me.

"Support" from a video game player usually means heals and buffs. I'd actually recommend a bard. The D&D bard is charisma-based, but dex is a good secondary. It also fits the image of agile, lightly armored character who supports her team.

It is a little confusing sometimes rolling one leadership die, and sometimes rolling the entire pool. I think you should pick one of the two and balance around that.

Magic does have Warriors, Soldiers, and Knights as separate types, where Fighter would encompass all three. But Warriors have the greatest rules text in Magic, thanks to Boldwyr Intimidator:

It is the next Magic set, Zendikar Rising. Tomorrow is the first day of previews, where they will be unveiling the set. However, the tweet implies that there will be something for D&D players in the stream, perhaps some sort of tie-in. Edit: I should mention that current rumor in the MtG...

I think that's a lot of elements. Elements (and archetypes in general) work best when they are over-broad. About 4 to 6 elements is probably best. My favorite elemental setting is Sharon Shinn's Elemental Blessings series. Here's a post I wrote a long time ago about the central mechanic...

Creativity, inspiration, ideas, reason. The collective unconsciousness. The divine fire which Prometheus stole and gave to humanity. Maybe there's just inherent magic in groups of intelligent beings, like there is in nature, and that is what the bard is tapping into.

Maybe the bard is just a people-oriented wizard. Regular wizards focus on the world (magic, elements, etc). Clerics focus on the divine, Warlocks on the demonic, Druids on nature. Bards focus on people and society. Musicians, poets, orators, prophets, judges, politicians, leaders.

Are any of them actually high level in D&D terms, though? Boewulf's great enemy is basically a troll. Robin Hood fights a sheriff. King Arthur contends with an enchantress. None of them really have to deal with "reality-warpers", which is what a high-level D&D character has to deal with.

Perhaps flip the problem around. Let's say we have a party of 4 spellcasters. The BBEG is a high level fighter. What could we do to make her terrifying to the party? I think the biggest necessity would be very high magic resistance. The BBEG would need to be able to shrug off or fight through...

A long rest does 2 things: Restores ability resources Restores health Certain classes (healers) can convert ability resources into health. If you remove or diminish the second element from a long rest, but keep the first element, it becomes nigh-mandatory to have one of these classes. One of...

You could tweak it slightly: Fail by more than 5 - unqualified failure Fail by 5 or less - success but with a consequence Success by 5 or less - unqualified success OR success + consequence + opportunity Success by more than 5 - success + opportunity Though I do think 'success + consequence +...

No, you misunderstand my point. D&D is the combination of all the elements that cannot be removed. Other games can share elements, but unless they have all the elements, they're not D&D. For example, both Monopoly and Euchre don't have a DM. Therefore, they are not D&D. I don't think the D&D...

You can look at it from the opposite direction. What can you remove from D&D and immediately have it be "not D&D"? For example, if you remove levels, or classes, from the game, I think most people would immediately label the result as "not D&D". So I think that levels and classes are core to...

Personally, I like a variant where you put your highest roll in your primary stat, and then assign the rest in order. This means that you can still play the class you want at a decent level, (ie all Wizards are smart) but the variance in the other stats makes them more interesting. It's a nice...