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Send in the assassins An overpowered weapon much like an artefact will attract unwanted attention. Soon the BBEGs, kings, and emperors will want the weapon for themselves. If they cannot buy it, they will hire someone to steal it. If that fails they will hire an assassin to kill the...

Thanks PBD for bringing this up in a much more polite form than I would have. IMHO the biggest brain fart that Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams have had in their career is calling a two-handed scimitar a falchion. Up until 3rd edition, D&D had a fairly good record on historical...

Spears yes, but not lances. AFAIK the Europeans were the only ones to couch their spears. An uncouched lance is a spear for all intents and purposes in D&D.

And just to complete the circle… in 1978 or 1979, Draucca the Druid hired an asssassin to kill one of those high level monks so that fellow party member Fochar the Monk wouldn't have to risk his own life (his opponent was LE). I rolled the % assasination and sure enough the assassin succeeded...

Helmets For Helmets, consider that in the AD&D DMG intelligent opponents will attack the unarmoured head 50% of the time and unintelligent opponents 33 1/3 % of the time. Rather than granting attackers a flat +1 to hit, consider granting them a bonus = 1/2 or 1/3 of the difference between the...

And also c.f. and viz. QED

Helmet Rules My all-time favourite hands-down rule from AD&D (1st Ed.) is the helmet rule. While I don't have the DMG in front of me, it goes something like: If your character does not wear a helmet, then intelligent opponents have a 50% chance of hitting your AC 10 head. Unintelligent...

In Grymwurld™ I've treated magic like an antedilluvian technology associated with lost gods and forgotten races. It is still possible to learn bit and scraps of magic through the discovery of prehistoric tablets written in forgotten languages (but succeptable by Read Magic). In game terms...

Weapon Specialisation: Available to anyone who has weapon focus and BAB +4, not just fighters. Greater Weapon Specialisation: Available to anyone who has weapon focus, weapon specialisation, greater weapon focus, and BAB +12, not just fighters. Weapon Finesse: Everyone has this feat for free...

This might be the key. It's one thing to develop new races, classes, skills, feats, equipment, spells, magic items, monsters, and deities. It's another thing to state which WotC optional rules or variants are used (or a reputable 3rd party). And still another to state how you've changed the...

I think you'll get more responses on the General forum. There have been a number of debates there on this very topic. While your question as written could be considered a house rule, you could re-write your title as: Speeding up 3.5 Combat (and drop the Skills reference). Otherwise the...

IME the biggest time-hog is when players try to figure out how to move across the battlefield without provoking attacks of opportunity. But that horse has been beaten several times in other threads. :p

I have to imagine that Elves must be highly political with constant shifting of alliances. A democracy in the truest sense with every adult Elf having a vote but with hundreds of political parties. Dissent and rebellion would be a way of life. Benevolent anarchy. Reminds me of hippies...

All of the above plus combat was fast. Extraordinarily fast compared to 3x. While I admit to having been seduced by feats, I really miss fast-paced combat with loud heavy metal music in the background. The way I ran combat back then, it was fast, furious, blood-pumping adrenaline rushes...

So what did Gary use then?

In the '70s, I had an active player who was a huge Led Zeppelin fan and another who would bring tapes of Uriah Heep to play during the game. However, most of the year we played in the Campus Club (C-Club) or the basement of Ross Hall at Butler University and thus heard pop music (My Sharona...

1977-80 OD&D and early AD&D Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath by Black Sabbath (the whole damn album) Rainbow by Raindbow (esp. Man on the Silver Mountain, Greensleeves, & Temple of the King) Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Alan Parsons Project (esp. the Raven) Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult...

For several years, I've been tinkering around the idea of replacing Human cultures, ethnicities, and races with D&D races. Elves seem to be a good fit for both East and Southeast Asian as well as First Nations. Elves probably don't make good slave labourers and so slavers would have to import...

:p ROTFLMAO

If Elves can breed with Humans, and Orcs can breed with Humans then why not Elves and Orcs? Why no Elveorcs or Orcelves? I should think an Orc/Drow combination quite potent.