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    PHB Cleric = Unbalanced?

    Yep. Furthermore, the cleric was designed with dungeon-bashing in mind, where a party has to make it through encounter after encounter in the same day. A buff-and-bash cleric might own a fighter in a duel, blowing all his spells on buffs. But fighting against monsters in a series of encounters...
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    Describing a Culture

    It's good advice, too. What a character aspires to, what he admires in others, what he is not prepared to do to get these things (in short his values) are the most important thing to have in mind when trying to portray him as an NPC or PC, or when trying to manipulate, anticipate, motivate, or...
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    I need help with out of control Quentin Tarantino-esque gangster characters!

    What you need is something that is simultaneously more brutally effective and cooler than a Quentin Tarantino gangster. This being the case, I have one name to whisper to you: "Clint Eastwood". Let the problem PC suffer a run-in with Bill Munny (Eastwood's character from Unforgiven), the...
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    Bardic songs in real life!

    Anything by the Pogues, especially "Sickbed of Cuchulainn".
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    Cocked? Cocked! :):):):).

    "Polyhedra".
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    Requirements for the perfect character sheet

    Hear! Hear! And while we're getting professional, let's gather all the information used in combat onto one page, so that players aren't flipping pages and searching for numbers in the middle of what is supposed to be fast-paced and exciting.
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    What's the secret behind D&D's ability to sustain long term play?

    I don't think that D&D actually has any special ability to sustain long-term play. The longest-running campaigns I have been involved with were played using James Bond 007, Champions, ForeSight, and HindSight. And I have friends who have played in long-running RuneQuest, DragonQuest, Flashing...
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    What's the secret behind D&D's ability to sustain long term play?

    Because I can find new players. I much prefer other game systems for actual play, especially in long-term campaigns (because the dramatic difference in power between a beginning and an experienced D&D character means that parties drift only fleetingly through the sweet spot for any particularl...
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    Feats for a buff-and-bash cleric

    Yes, it is. The thing is that you don't know whether you are going to run into a big baddy or get nibbled at by ducks. Buffs are good at the beginning of major fight. But they are wasted on harassing attacks. I plan to prep buffs in case of a stand-up fight, and sub in 'cures' only if we get...
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    Feats for a buff-and-bash cleric

    I think he mixes them up, but he did say something about the role of our low-level characters in an epic struggle for the survival of Faerûn that makes me expect that for some considerable time our role is going to be to protect higher-level NPCs from being swarmed by mooks, while they go...
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    Feats for a buff-and-bash cleric

    Yes, 2nd level. Domains are a choice ot Strength, Protection, Planning, and Law. I don't know what Planning offers.
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    Feats for a buff-and-bash cleric

    I'm ambivalent. The GM asked us to roll 4d6 drop one for six stats three times over and choose the set we liked, then assign the stats as will like. It pleases the people who are impressed by big numbers, but in my opinion it makes all characters too much the same, and throws the balance of the...
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    Its a new campaign and your DM offers you the following options

    You're absolutely right. And that is why it might be best to choose to be all the same class. A party who were all the same race would produce a campaign not striking different from the usual. A party who were all the same class would make for a campaign that was out of the ordinary, and likely...
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    Feats for a buff-and-bash cleric

    G'day I'm joining a party that is weak on heavy hitters and has no healing magic to speak of (2nd level paladin, ranger, rogue, ninja, and sorceror), so I have decided to play a buff-and-bash cleric. Ie. I plan to prepare spells that will increase the targets' mêlée capability (such as 'magic...
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    TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

    I agree, and that applies equally to adventures/locations/encounters that are prepared in detail as to ones that are made up on the fly.
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    TSR Q&A with Gary Gygax

    It's a case of making up on the swings what you lose on the roundabouts. A thoroughly prepared adventure gives you more time to think, an opportunity to work out the details of a fiendishly elaborate dilemma, or a spectacularly intricate set piece. But on the other hand there is no way to know...
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    Who are Howard and Leiber?

    Poul Anderson is Golden Age writer, not a 'Sixties newcomer. Three Hearts and Three Lions was published in 1961, but it was very far from being Anderson's first fantasy novel. The Broken Sword came out in '54, for example, and Vault of the Ages in 1952. Little surprise then that he was immune...
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    Ever had a Player Threaten you Like This?

    Not I. People who want to stop playing generally want to quit rather than get sacked. Once (well, many times, over teh space of years) upon a time I used to bend over backwards to indulge players. I've written about that, about 'the 'one move and the idiot gets it' gambit. It ruined, completely...
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    FR introductory materials online

    Thank you.
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    FR introductory materials online

    G'day On Monday I will be starting to play in a campaign set in the Forgotten Realms (near Waterdeep). Are there any sites onteh web that will give me just a basic sketch of what the area is like, enough that I can pick a cultural background, aspirations &c for my character. Teh party I am...
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