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I'm one of the pirate everything people. If there's something I'm interested in (D&D, a TV series, a certain band) I download everything associated with it. Why? To see what I want to buy. And I do. Torrent sites are as easy to use or easier than any pay-for site. I can get the latest PDF...

I think you nailed it here. I remember how mind numbingly boring it was to run out of cool effects for low level casters in the previous editions of the game. Sadrik, I know you've responded negatively when people have told you this before, but the at-wills allowing you to always do...

Flickr: niceguyjools' Photostream ;)

It's definitely personal preference. I've played with everything on cards (yes, even my character's stats and whatnot) and with everything on character sheets. One thing I like about all cards is that it gives you the same feeling when you're looking through the cards as a board game where you...

I like how you premised it by saying such builds can be a factor, if you're having problems (I bolded the most relevant part above). I'd also add that the advice in this thread about the encounter design side of things can more than compensate for such builds being present.

My initial leanings would be to make it 1% a round-- and let the players know this with even a reasonable dungeoneering check. Kill that rust monster fast!

Both are good options. I like the spiked shield as a pact blade idea. The extra +1 reflex defense doesn't hurt and the idea of shooting magic out of a shield is kind of neat.

As a matter of civil disobedience to effect change, I don't recognize the personhood of non-natural people (ie. corporations and similar legal fictions). Thus, I consider them to have no right to the protection afforded by copyright laws. I see such protection as only belonging to natural...

Nothing wrong with a pact blade in your off hand and two weapon fighting and two weapon defense. Especially if the pact blade is a parrying dagger. I'd recommend sticking with the half elf (or half eladrin by way of background fiction). Dire radiance will actually work quite well with divine...

Note to self-- summoning demogorgon is a bad idea. Don't do it.

I don't play D&D for this. Nor do I run it for this. D&D isn't about exploring the themes of what it means to be human. Sure, stuff like that can be tacked on, but it'll be tacked on with about the same amount of depth/seriousness as tacking it on to an action movie or a kung fu movie. In...

This is actually a very useful an cool thing to do. A player in a game I ran wanted to be an arcane striker but didn't want to be a warlock. So he made an eladrin rogue and reskinned it as a wizard. All of his attacks were described as magical. A friend of mine out west had a player in his...

Random ideas: Rapid fire weaponry spraying an area -- handle it as a wall effect that doesn't last (unless you have some way of not running out of ammo-- then sustain standard to keep shooting). Forcefields are easy-- either defense boosts or temporary hit points or damage resistence...

Even though this thread is about pulling nasty surprises on players, I think exploding zombies is best done by giving some clues first. "As the zombies shamble towards you, their flesh swells, pulsates and shakes, like there's internal pressure pushing from the inside out." The players know...

What about if you had a print shop/service make your print copy of a PDF? There are some online ones where you can submit a PDF and the print copy will show up in the mail. Or you could go down to a local print shop. Or a company can supply you with computer equipment, a printer, ink, etc...

I haven't even looked at the MM errata. I wonder how often my monsters have been too strong or too weak as a result. So far I haven't hit anything that's made me think "I should check the errata on this." Now I'm curious and am going to go read the errata. I have a friend who bought every...

This. There's nothing quite like quick reference cards. And with the PDFs of the monster manual, dungeon magazine, etc., available, one can copy and paste, do some minor reformating and print out right onto a recipe card or a piece of card stock.

And what about for those of us who are outside the jurisdiction of the DMCA? Is it somehow immoral for us to buy the print copy and download the PDF if it is not a violation of the local law?

The basic issue here is determining how authoritative a given statement/result is in the shared story. Players often think that something their character does isn't legitimately authoritative in the shared story unless it was backed up by dice rolling or some appeal to the rules. Something to...

Great suggestion erf beto. The only thing to watch though is that while the HP might be cut in half, the damage output isn't. I know this doesn't really answer the OP's question, but I've found the best way to play with only a single player and the DM is to have multiple characters.