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    What do you do with the updates?

    My current plan is to be completely neurotic, convert the books to HTML from the PDF, then add the errata as they make updates. We'll see how long I can keep it up :)
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    Yet another Skill Challenge Variant

    This is not bad. I wasn't liking it at first until I noticed that you factored party size into the difficulty of the Champion's roll. The should make the rules scale correctly. I'd make the "Fatigue" penalty only 1/4 hp if the PC doesn't have a healing surge instead of 1/2 hp. Other than that...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    Not quite. It still means no easy CA for the rogue's ranged attack powers. So you only get once-per-turn CA with the equivalent of a basic attack. No more "rogue nuke" of a Sneak Attack plus a Daily power. I think you can still play a rogue under the new rules, but they are a pretty major nerf...
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    How do we make economics that do not limit character concepts?

    Is this a one-time award for starting characters? I'd say it should be about a 20% of a level XP wise (200) and the equivalent of a 1st level magic item, gold-wise (360 gp). Don't sweat the balance issues, because after a couple levels the growth in XP and gold will wash out the differences in...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    The "stealth shuffle" does not have to be back to your original location. When you move to re-hide, you can go to a new location, provided there is an appropriate one nearby. The rogue in my game darts from cover to cover as she advances on the enemy, which is very rogue-ish and rather...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    You are definitely right. If you play with the new Stealth rules as written, Deft Strike is a must-have for rogues and Nimble Strike becomes very good for Rangers. Both would let you get CA every turn by popping in and of out LOS. It still nerfs both ranged-attack rangers and rogues, though...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    I just realized: the new rules boost TWF rangers! The new rules let you retain the benefits of being hidden for the action that you break cover. This lets you hide and then charge out of cover to attack with CA. This isn't such a good option for the Dex-based rogues and archer-rangers, but it...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    If you are OK with that, then your rule works. One of the things I like about the new Compendium rules is that it forces stealthy character to move in order to hide. So far my experience with 4E is that mobility = fun. From what I can tell, your rule would discourage movement, because they...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    This my main objection to the new rules. It makes playing rogues very tedious. You either need a forgiving GM or a deep understanding of the cover rules. I am not interested in waiting 10 minutes for the rogue to look over his possible destinations and draw lines to various squares every time he...
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    House rules for Compendium-Stealth: de-nerfing Stealth a bit

    I am mostly adopting the new Compendium rules for Stealth, which will likely become official errata soon. If you don't know what I am talking about, look here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=237486 I mostly like the new rules. To summarize, the Compendium's Stealth entry only...
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    How do we make economics that do not limit character concepts?

    I tried to work this out myself, because my house rules in 3.5E were that characters always had equipment value equal to their XP total (which worked pretty well up to about level 10). Unfortunately, the math doesn't work in 4E, because treasure and XP scale at different rates. Treasure value...
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    Skills..

    I am considering letting characters take 2 or 3 extra "hobby skills" and occasionally gaining new ones, maybe once per tier. Since the skills don't apply in adventuring situations, they mainly exist as background information for the character. I might occasionally allow hobby skills to be useful...
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    How do we make economics that do not limit character concepts?

    In my house rules, I don't give out treasure parcels at all. I abstract the entire treasure collection process by simply letting the players pick and upgrade their magic items as they advance in levels, more or less following the guidelines for "Starting at a Higher Level" rule on DMG 143. I did...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    I am still mulling over house rules to de-nerf things a bit, because I expect my players to be pretty unhappy with the new rules. My rough idea at the moment is this: Better Hiding (Trained Only): Your Stealth training teaches you how to take better advantage of partially obscuring terrain. You...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    My best interpretation for the revised Stealth rules is that they are not so much about hiding where you are (generally somewhere you enemy already can't see you). They are about your ability to retain your hidden (that is invisible) status when leave your location and move into lesser...
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    D&D 4E Some musing about 4E, the WLD and encounter design.

    I think scale and XP total are not enough. You need to factor in level as well. A large group of weak creatures isn't equivalent to a smaller group of strong creatures and will react differently to threats. Here is how I would stat out an organization: * Level: A rough measure of a...
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    New stealth stuff from WotC

    I am in the camp that these rules nerf Stealth too much. I was convinced in another thread that Superior Concealment/Total Concealment was too much of a restriction for Stealth. Other than the SC/TC requirement, though, these rules look pretty good to me. Clean and simple and not so many...
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    WotC CS answers some Stealth and Shadow Walk questions

    There two uses of Bluff that give you CA, Feint and Diversion. That is probably what he meant. I like the clarity of the Compendium rules for Stealth, but they do nerf Stealth hard. I was just convinced in another thread that requiring Superior Cover and Total Concealment was much too...
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    Spending your gold on non-combat stuff?

    In my house rules, I abstract the whole treasure collection process and simply give players magic items appropriate to their level, following the "Starting At a Higher Level" suggestions for equipment on DMG 143. That eliminates the whole question of spending money on being combat effective...
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    Stealth: There are two levels of "hidden", not one

    I am convinced that getting CA from Stealth is that easy. The fire-and-forget Stealth is clearly allowed by the RAW. I don't think it's game breaking either. For most characters, it's just a +2 bonus to hit. For Rogues, it makes their ranged damage output comparable to Rangers (the better Sneak...
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