Search results

Mashup somethings are a pretty old idea, though, aren't they? Ranger, bard, paladin, those are mashups. The 2e approach to classes was that you are your class, but there are so many options that your class/multiclass can have all kinds of different combinations of things. There are tons of...

I'm trying to cover all bases here. I terns of D&D, I would think that most versions are #2 or #3, so #1 and #4 are pushing the boundaries. Perhaps if you go back to the fighting man and magic user, it's #1. #4 is essentially your 3e fighter, used for every class. Which is to say, each...

Interesting. I certainly think that getting a sense of how much stuff you can skip is one of the harder parts of being a DM. (Quite a lot is the answer).

Is the jargon not clear? I would hope that the poll options would make it clear enough what I'm getting at.

What the heck. Let's have a poll.

Does the term "class" imply an exclusive niche? Vote away. "Exclusive" means something that is only accessible by taking the pertinent class (or a class within the pertinent group). For example, a bonus to base attack bonus/THAC0 is not exclusive, because all characters receive some level of...

Only if the purpose is niche protection. Which I don't think it really is.

Using rogue class skills and treasure gained through advancing as a rogue is not playing pretend wizard. It's playing a rogue. Stop being obtuse.

Great, so rogues doing this are using a nonmagical class skill, not "playing wizard".

And yet, at the same time, you have defined the ability to wave a magic wand as innately magical.

Of course not. But if anything, I would turn that around and say that playing a wizard should convey a sense of magic and mystery, when largely what it conveys is a sense of endless bookkeeping and futility. I've yet to have my first player come to me saying that playing a fighter isn't...

This is interesting, but sounds like the opposite of what we've seen from D&D. The D&D rules put an enormous (relatively) amount of detail into combat, often covering very minute details, while leaving other areas very vague. For example, if you're fighting someone, you track positioning down...

I didn't get that sense, but maybe that sort of cultural thing fades with time. I recall them making a big deal about it being for "mature" people only, including the Sticker that Shall Not Be Removed on the book itself. I certainly felt that some aspects were overly salacious, whereas in other...

Yes, but I don't think abstraction is really the issue either. A simulation can be detailed and specific, or it can be abstract. And that's what I would argue that D&D is: an abstract simulation game. I think the actual conflicts are more along the lines of: *Realism vs Fantasy (are the...

I get that. I'm simply expressing a viewpoint that is neither quite that nor opposed to it. I don't mind that there are things that can break physical laws and that those are called extraordinary, but I think that they should be split off from all the regular stuff, and shouldn't be a typical...

I think the problem with that line of thinking is that while D&D does have outcomes up to and including character death, none of those outcomes are given value judgments or treated as winning or losing. A character may defeat an enemy, but that does not indicate that the player "won" that round...

Most of them don't do that, though. Virtually every nonmagical class ability has that designation. For example, basic PF fighter abilities like bravery and weapon/armor training that are just bonuses to existing commodities that are not Ex abilities. The issue I have with the Ex designation is...

FWIW, using material is not an endorsement of the content. For example, I ran a horror game in which the protagonist PC was tormented by his wife's cancer diagnosis and started hearing voices in his head. Would I say that playing the voices was enjoyable? No. But the story was really about the...

I took the much more cynical approach that she simply knows that seduction is powered by things withheld, not things given.

Except for having done so over and over again. Healing surge. Done. Topic over. Moreover, as we've also discussed. Use Magic Device and other ways of activating magic items are not in themselves magical abilities.