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Honestly, most fighter bonus feats, epic are not, are underwhelming enough that in the past I've allowed players to ignore all prerequisites with Martial Monk and it's turned out fine. Heck, one of those monks was a ranged spec, with Zen Archery and Distant Shot for accuracy, Swarm of Arrows...

It doesn't even have to be 5 miles--3e teleport's off-target distance is [1d10*1d10]% of the distance traveled in a random direction, so if you roll badly you could end up going several hundred miles in the wrong direction. The problem with scry-and-fry isn't the teleport accuracy, really, it's...

D&D teleportation uses the Astral Plane, so its unreliable targeting (along with that of plane shift, shadow walk, and similar) are explained by the fact that the planes aren't connected point-to-point and going from one plane to another will always involve a bit of distance distortion. I...

Idea: Why not limit spell and power selection to a thematically-paired school and discipline? Abjuration + Psychometabolism Conjuration + Psychoportation Evocation + Psychokinesis Transmutation + Metacreativity Divination + Clairsentience Enchantment + Telepathy If you have access to just one...

Not entirely true. Mearls has already said that there will be class- or classes-specific themes, giving the example of the Necromancer theme which is for arcane and divine classes only. So it would be possible to make a few warlord themes and make them fighter- and paladin-only, turn the...

Paladin auras aren't just a WoW thing; D&D paladins have had magic circles against evil, auras of courage, and the like throughout their career. If anything is to define the paladin as being different from a fighter/cleric, I think auras are probably the right way to go. Note that we already...

Setting aside the issue of what a paladin should do for a second, I'd just like to point out that "Paladin shouldn't be just a theme because it's always been a class" isn't exactly a good argument. In 1e, it essentially was a fighter theme or theme+background combo, since that's how sub-classes...

It all depends on player skill and maturity. I've run games for parties of beginners where the traditional blasty/healy/fighty/sneaky roles are used, and everyone is roughly on an even keel. I've seen mid-optimization parties consisting of mostly casters and mid-optimization parties consisting...

Not true. HP bloat is a major problem, but other numerical and non-numerical aspects are problematic as well. Looking at just the fighter, going from 2e to 3e he lost the ability to move more than 5 feet and get all of his attacks, his saves dropped dramatically, the effectiveness of iterative...

To expand on Hussar's excellent reply: They can't do their main job because they rely on items and buffs to perform their primary functions. Example spoilered for space. Take an ancient black dragon, for instance, a fairly standard CR 19 threat right out of the book. A fighter can't get an...

Herschel and Neonchameleon: You two seem to have missed the point of my original post on roles. I said nothing about how roles work in 4e relative to pre-4e editions. I said nothing about how valid the criticisms of them were. I was disagreeing with Hussar when he said that the original...

But the point is that the perception of how you do them is different. If you want to make a TWF character in 3e, you pick feats relating to TWF. If you want to make an archer character, you pick feats relating to archery. Someone who wants to make a TWF or archer character decides on that...

While it's the case for many elements of 4e that a better presentation could clear up lots of problems, I think the problems people have with roles stems from a different issue, namely the fact that classes were defined by combat role rather than thematic niche. (Caveat: all of the following is...

I disagree. Which feats are more abstract or less noticeable than spells? Power Attack? Combat Expertise? If fighting defensively and full defense are noticeable in-game (and at the very least they can be, since I've always seen them described as such), then another...

Regarding the interchangeability of damage types: I disagree that you can simply swap out energy types for spells and consider it pure fluff. Different creatures have resistances or immunities to certain types, different class features provide benefits with certain types, and so forth. There's...

You're entirely correct in noting that, in most editions and sourcebooks, later material assumes you're using earlier material, and that perhaps optional things shouldn't be supported, in order for people who don't use them to not feel left out or have space taken up in generic books with...

You can play 3e with nothing more than a large whiteboard, a set of markers, and a ruler if you want to do it "theater of the mind"-style; I run my weekly college game that way. AD&D doesn't even require that much, though having the whiteboard is still convenient. Of course, I do enjoy having...

If 5e included channeling rules (not the disastrous second-rate hack job they did in the 3e WoT book, but real honest-to-Jordan channeling rules), I would buy 5e, no questions asked. If they included allomancy, feruchemy, and hemolurgy rules, I would personally fly out to WotC headquarters and...

As I mentioned above, there are some concepts that can be done as modules, such as the examples in the OP and the examples I gave. DMs and software alike can incorporate actual modules just fine if the system is designed for it. However, there are some things you can't modularize, and there...

If you'll permit me a brief digression to critique this premise: Regarding modular design: I'm not singling you out here, this goes for everyone saying "there's a module for thatTM" or "just throw it in a module and we'll be fine." Speaking as a software developer here, modular design just...