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In the interest of avoiding Bishop Combat, I have switched my 4E game over to a hex map. So far it's working out pretty alright. I use the DMG's random dungeon generator and sometimes have to add an extra step to figure out whether the left turn is a deep left or a shallow left, but when it...

EDITED: Bah, wrong forum. Hoping this gets locked down or purged soon.

No, not at all. Boundaries. Upper and lower. Unless you want to say "0% to 100%". In which case, yes. Yes, actually, I do. Consider orc with greataxe vs. 30th-level fighter. The orc can still instakill the 30th-level fighter, if he rolls a 20, then a 20 to confirm, then over 50 damage (let's...

Really? Okay, let me probe some then. Consider the orc-with-a-greataxe example. There were three events the players could not control there: the orc's attack roll including confirmed crit the orc's damage roll the save vs. massive damage To you, what are the acceptable boundaries for the...

But as I've said upthread, death and failure are not obvious potential consequences. If they were, they wouldn't be such poor surprises. People are terrible at processing and thinking about long odds. Not terrible in the sense of "they generally don't do it enough", terrible in the sense of...

The module, no. But the DMG does say that creatures default to "ready" - weapons in hand, no impairments to Perception - instead of "alert" - taking up combat positions and making active checks every round - and certainly imply if not outright state that non-"alert" creatures should be using...

If you think you can get something out of it, why not?

What, the illustration? "Yeah, okay, he's a famous armorer, but does his logo really have to be a dude hitting a goblin in the junk? It was kind of funny the first few times but now it's just getting old." Well, there's something that makes the Hex Hammer (Con-warlock, crank up con, use hammer...

No, you shouldn't. You might be, but you shouldn't. Why? What are the odds the orc's going to roll a 20, confirm the crit, and do enough damage to drop you? 1/32? 1/64? 1/128? To be generous? On the other hand what are the odds he won't? Back to HIP. The orc has a pretty much 0-bit chance...

Bob is playing a fighter. Bob's fighter is charged by an orc with a greataxe. The orc rolls a natural 20, critting Bob for 51 damage. Bob fails his Fort save. If you like, replace "orc with a greataxe" with any one of the many spells from the 3E compendium that may as well read "save or...

Healing surges are how much recovery capacity you have. You can strain it or have it drained from you by things that aren't strictly injury, or have it tapped into in combat more than during just your one moment of clarity when others use a divine spark or a trained insight to get it out of you...

Originally I ignored it because it seemed like a nonsensical question, like a football coach trying to use one of his timeouts during pre-game warmups. There's nothing in the rules explicitly preventing it, of course, but I don't feel obliged to try to make narrative sense out of nonsensical...

Because the DM can change the world. The players can change their characters, and some allies, if they're lucky. It therefore falls to the DM to help players a) solve their problems b) resolve interparty conflict, and c) recognize when players aren't making a good-faith effort to do a) and b)...

So: And then: And then I invented time travel and went back to say: I am not sure how my model fits into any of the three stated options. Salient features of my model are, to wit: All damage represents concussion or strain. At bloodied you are obviously wounded but the wound is not...

...so Tarzan passed his "survive through the desert" skill challenge by making Endurance and Nature checks, with a combat in the middle of it. The DMG in fact explicitly calls out wilderness survival as a prolonged skill challenge, where failing some checks need not fail the challenge but will...

Yeah, this pretty much wins the thread.

Sometimes the onus is on the players for using "but my character!" to cover up a lack of creativity. But these times are really few and far between. The onus more usually is on the DM for using "but my setting!" in a similar way. The solution to this dilemma is for the wealthy NPC who's...

The eladrin are trying to figure out which world to destroy. The worlds can't exist hanging on like this, but if everything in the physical world died, would that create enough spirit energy to materialize a new physical world? If the entire spirit world were shunted into reality, would whatever...

Maybe anyone can't, but, uh. A character with 5 hp out of 80 is exhausted. Not status-effect exhausted, exhausted if you want to pose his mood. He has been warding off or absorbing blows for some time and doesn't know if he's up for another burst of that effort. He has taken one bloody wound...

Superior ranged weapons. +3 proficiency bonus to hit. One-handed, 1d8, 15/30. Two-handed, 1d12, 20/40. Load minor. You're welcome. You're really going to have to elaborate on this one. I see beholders, mind flayers, displacer beasts, all kinds of devils and demons. What's missing? Rust...