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I'm not optimistic about spellcasters being able to use their abilities and never run out for several reasons: 1. The per-encounter mechanics which it seems like 4E will use don't appeal to me. It's trite to say it, but it does remind me of videogames. (Where "special ability" buttons are a...

The only real-life situation I can think of in which the guy lying on the ground isn't always at a disadvantage is if he happens to have a gun... There's a big difference between a fight going to the ground with someone trying to work his jiu jitsu from the bottom (where he's still at a...

It's a matter of degrees. For example, sneak attack is a mechanical device - the circumstances under which you can use it are highly specific, some class abilities arbitrarily stop it from working, and it doesn't actually come close to representing all the possible outcomes attacking an...

Yeah, they are, and I think it's very worrying. At least when it comes to character class design, where it seems this is coming into play as well, with all the talk about new "power sources" and so on. It's really starting to look like they're going with lots of per-encounter "special attacks"...

Well, I happen to think your friend is right. It makes no sense for an orc to lose his ability to attack you just because you say "I roll behind him!". That's like being eight years old and playing cops and robbers, arguing with someone about whether they managed to "shoot" you. Also, how...

I saw Hayden Penettiere at Gencon - she was signing autographs and posing for pictures at a booth for some terrifying "My Little Pony"-like trading card game. If anything, she looked cuter in person. (and not quite as young, which helps with "dirty old man" issues) Though actually, my personal...

Please excuse me if I sound irritated, but as far as I'm concerned, the fact we were thinking tactically - instead of relying on prior Open experience and being on the lookout for a gimmick - is precisely what got us wiped out. The idea that we needed to run for the trapdoor was actually floated...

I agree completely. The game should feel different as the characters grow in power, otherwise it's just an exericse in increasing numbers. It doesn't mean that the current high-level play is perfect - plenty of improvements could be made, because things often get rather predictable - but simply...

We played every encounter in the first round in a pretty straightforward way - very nearly the way we'd have handled it in our home game, aside from being a lot more liberal with single-use items and wands - and we got to the final encounter with everyone at or near full health and some of the...

For what it's worth, at the Gencon RPGA Q&A session (which I followed peripherally as I was looking for the rat that stole my dice bag) people were asking endless variations on "well, why not have both LG and LFR", and after running out of PR platitudes about making things even better and...

Really? We killed everything during the first round, and I don't recall any encounters during which simply running past the monsters would have been a good idea. I mean, what reason is there to think that they won't follow you and trap you between two groups of enemies? What in the information...

I was one of the players in Erithtotl's group, and while I also, on the whole, had a really good time, I thought the 2nd round setup was rather idiotic. At the very least, rather than saying "well, you need to play in the open so that you'll know what to expect next year" the organizers should...

They're pretending to look for playtesters. (they claimed at the annoucement they'll be putting a call out over the next several months, for a book coming out in May) From what I've heard at Gencon, the book is pretty much done - it won't actually go to print till next year, but it's much too...

3.5 Haste is, quite probably, the best "pound for pound" spell in the game, and certainly the best 3rd level spell. While it doesn't help casters any longer, it now affects one creature / caster level, and the extra attacks, movement, and small to hit and AC bonuses add up to a huge boost in...

I don't believe in making the players do the mapping for a number of reasons: 1. I have not met a DM yet who could describe the scene both quickly and efficiently enough that everyone wasn't well served if he supplemented it with a sketch on the paper or the battlemat. 2. I like to use...

Well, sure - but D&D monsters don't hunt in a logical manner. If they did, you wouldn't need the coating, because they'd learn that humans - with their pointy weapons and/or magic - are really dangerous prey, and leave them alone. (just as you are counting on them figuring out that humans taste...

Do they? Are D&D animals scared away by a good sword blow or two? I suppose they should be, because that's "food" doing a lot more damage than armor spikes are likely to do. Of course, if they were run "appropriately", they should hardly ever attack humans to begin with, but that's not why...

Fine, let's abandon real-world logic, and just look at D&D. Wearing armor doesn't protect you in any way from the most effective tactic of large creatures - grappling and then pulling your limbs off at their leisure. And by D&D logic, armor spikes don't do enough damage to the attacker to...

Really? You could climb a 15' brick wall? I think you ought to clarify what you mean by a "brick wall", then, because while I know of people that could climb a wall like the one pictured, I've known plenty of athletic people, but no one who could climb 15' of that. Never mind something in...

Cost, practicality and comfort have trumped protection time and time again throughout human history. The simple fact is that, even when they could afford it, most people chose not to wear armor in their everyday life. Hell, plenty of people living in the nastiest, poisonous vermin-infested holes...