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One other thing. If a player said to me that they REALLY wanted a specific uncommon or rare item, I would find a way in the story for them to either find one or be able to buy one. But because the uncommons and rares are under the DM control, I can make the choice to let them have one without...

This may be the root of the disagreement: different styles of games. My game is much closer to AbdulAlhazred's. I run a fairly traditional game more in line with the the AD&D 1e and 2e games that my players and I used to play when we were younger. They have adventures, they find treasure...

I think I would prefer there not to be an actual 5th edition (mostly because I don't want to have to buy all the books again, but also because I am really enjoying 4e), or if there is, it should have continuity with 4e, in the same way that the classes in Heroes of the... represent a change in...

This is an interesting topic, and it's great to see a lot of nuance here. I can kind of see both sides. I can imagine a group of immature teenagers or young adults using D&D (or other RPGs) as a way of indulging violent or destructive urges. Not in a "release valve" sense, but in a sense that...

I mostly just subscribe for the online compendium (mainly for searching for magic items of a given level). We are an "Essentials-mostly" group, and so far we just use paper character sheets, but I have used the Character Builder to double-check that our math is correct. I also like some of the...

It doesn't scale, but I misspoke in my earlier post. The DC increases by 5 every round whether you succeed or fail on the check. So round one is DC 20, round two is DC 25, then 30, 35, etc. Epic level characters will certainly be able to hold their breath (or go without water or food) much...

This is probably quite reasonable, especially since the failed checks don't actually cause real damage until the PC is out of surges entirely. So there isn't an immediate risk of death from being reduced to negative bloodied in hit points. I think this is how I'll handle it, since there's a...

I disagree that the MM1 monsters pose no challenge. My players almost lost a battle recently, in large part because they were taking enormous damage from a pair of hobgoblin archers that they just couldn't manage to reach. Monster Vault updated a lot of the traditional "core" monsters that were...

Funny you should say that! None of the PCs are, but the NPC crew of the riverboat will be halflings. They won't be doing any actual fighting though (except perhaps dieing horribly). Well, the rules for underwater combat give creatures with the aquatic keyword a +2 attack bonus against...

Perhaps, although failing two Endurance checks will reduce you to negative bloodied and kill you, and many heroic tier characters are more likely to fail a DC 20 Endurance check than a death save.

Suppose you have a scenario where the adventurers are fighting in shallow water (maybe 4 feet deep). This isn't "underwater combat" but it must be more complicated than normal dry land. Is this just difficult terrain, or does an adventurer have to make an Athletics check in order to "swim"...

I am so psyched to see this back on the release schedule! For me, this is the one book that was missing from the Essentials line. I like the new magic item rarity system a lot. First, because it allows me as DM to carefully meter the amount of potentially balance-killing magic that enters the...

I ended up using text similar to corwyn77's, but I wanted to keep the original mechanic of having the limbs share hit points with the rest of the body (i.e., you can't kill them individually without killing the entire zombie). I think I would allow the zombie to continue to grab people even if...

That makes some sense, as I suppose a severed limb would do less damage than the remaining zombie, and solve the problem of making the monster overpowered. The twist with the original 1e monster is that the severed limbs share the hit points of the monster. So you could actually kill the whole...

I didn't care for the Strahd Zombie published in Open Grave, and wanted something closer to the original from I6: Ravenloft with its original shtick of getting its arms lopped off and having them continue to attack. Obviously, you can't do that with a minion like the Open Grave version. I...

I don't know, I think I agree with the people saying that it isn't broken. Unless you and your players aren't having fun. My campaign is at 3rd level. The knight has an AC of 24 (which can be boosted even higher by the warpriest), so sometimes I need to roll an 18 to hit him. Meanwhile, the...

Well, the DMG has a section on creating characters of higher than first level and it recommends giving that PC whatever mundane equipment they want (within reason), and then the following: 1 magic item of their level + 1 1 magic item of their level 1 magic item of their level - 1 and cash...

I've been playing D&D on and off in one form or another since circa 1983, and I can remember arguments about "role-playing vs. roll-playing" and the idea of "munchkins" since the minute I started reading Usenet newsgroups about D&D in the early '90s. I'm not sure of the exact definition of...

I like your idea - very exciting way to start a campaign. If you don't need the PCs to fight the dragon right now, it could become a long term villain that they can eventually defeat when they have leveled up enough. The latest skill challenge rules are in the Rules Compendium, and there's a...

Well, I think if everyone is having fun then there's really no problem. One of the things I like best about an "old school" type of game is the emphasis on cautious exploration of unusual environments that invite thoughtful speculation, and coming up with a plan before leaping ahead. I like it a...