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I'd like a fair degree of uniqueness and potency to equipment. Weapons should have a big effect on the game, and should not just be a simple line of description. They need to be interesting and unique. Let me think of an example on how I'd do that... Let's try this: Weapon Category: Bows...

Thanks for this. It can be hard being a fan of anime art and seeing people condemn D&D art for being too "anime," even though said art doesn't look like anime at all... Some nice choices of art, too. Breath of Fire, Fire Emblem, Yoshitaka Amano (though he is closer to traditional Japanese art...

That has the problem, though, of forcing the multiclassed character to pay feat taxes in order to approach the heart of what the character concept is about. This is on top of the problem that 3E-style multiclassing is generally very poor for characters of two different archetypes. The reason...

I voted Duskblade, though I don't really see what is so elven about it... It's just a good magical warrior class. It wasn't on the poll, but some of the magical swordplay stuff seen by the non-Warblade Tome of Battle classes like the Swordsage worked pretty well too. 4E's Warden is also a very...

I don't agree at all that imbalance is essential to the "D&D-ness" of D&D. Sure, every edition of D&D (other than 4E, which you fail to acknowledge) has has a severe imbalance between Fighters and Wizard. This is not precedent for keeping that imbalance, it is evidence for the claim that they...

I dislike the idea that "no one should be able to defeat a prepared wizard". Why not "no one should be able to defeat a prepared fighter"? Why is being awesome through planning and preparation the sole domain of magical classes? I could never understand that. Classes should be balanced through...

Honestly, I'd like to drop the entire simple/martial/exotic system of weapon tiers, which this reminds me very strongly of. I don't think that kind of system really helps the game, and it just swells the weapon list. I'd much rather see real weapon diversity than seeing the same weapon copied...

That comment was more referring to weapon vs. armor tables or the like that you need to look up mid-combat than handy weapon lists. Those can stay, for the most part. :) I'd also rather avoid having hundreds of swords to look up... As I mentioned above, I'd rather focus on significant core...

Seriously, this blog says absolutely nothing of value, other than an intent to not do things in the most boring way possible. A lot of vague "it should be awesome!" without any clear description of an implementation or anything better than a poorly-worded wish. I don't think the "simple vs...

I've never seen much of the appeal of identifying magic items. I'd much rather have characters just be able to quickly ascertain the capabilities of an item without even needing anything like an identify spell. Overly drawn out identification is just a chore. If you want magic items to be...

I wouldn't necessarily agree with this... The big difference, I think, is that many people consider the archetypes of older classes to be overly restrictive or to make too many assumptions. Class will always be both archetype and skill set, but there is a difference between the "fighter"...

I'd rather not see tables as the solution for making weapons different... My own preference would be to see weapons have either very significant special properties, like giving maces a "push target 1 square" effect on a hit, or to give each weapon its own power list that someone who is...

Balance is important, giving races powerful abilities is important, and approaches like level adjustments or level limits are a terrible solution. What is needed is an entirely different approach. I think an important part of the solution is recognizing that the choice to be human should have...

My mistake then. I knew it was far short of the cubing of mass, but I guess I got it wrong about how much it did increase. I was fairly sure that it was different than bone strength, though, so is bone the one that only doubles? Of course, this is only talking about direct muscle power, which...

For a number of reasons, but combat related ones are some of the most important. I mean, let's look at one of the most important uses of a Strength score bonus in D&D: swinging a sword. A sword owned by a giant who is twice as tall as a person would weigh eight times as much as a normal sword...

I haven't really been on the complaining-about-the-polls bandwagon, but that last poll was very badly worded. I couldn't even figure out what it was really asking. I'm not a really a fan of the tone taken by the article. It is hard to feel included in a talk about "remember when X?" when X...

Ignoring variation based off of size, there are pretty much four kinds of swords, I think. 1) Straight, broad swords, typically with two edges and a good stabbing point. The classic longsword is the archetypical example. 2) Narrow straight swords designed to stab things. Daggers, rapiers...

Massive difference in philosophy between us aside, I wanted to address some of these points. First, why should a creature of different size have a different strength or dexterity score? Why can't the physical difference be expressed in other ways? For example, 3E had plenty of rules for...

First "other" reply: No ability modifiers but really major racial features. For example, a Giant race that let's players be Large-sized (or even bigger) with all the accompanying benefits, but has no bonuses to Strength or penalties to any stat whatsoever. So, they can carry more and such, but...

Certainly a good way to start a column. :) My hope for the art of the edition is more scenes and fewer character images. In particular, scenes other than "fight!" or "we just fell into a trap!" would be nice. Show characters setting up camp, relaxing in a tavern, sitting down at a table to plan...