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Well, a basically neutral character can do evil things from time to time, is how I look at it. And good things from time to time – the mechanism by which many neutral characters function in good-aligned parties. Changing alignments involves either a pattern of consistent behaviors (of which the...

Ok, nobody's going to believe me because I didn't post about it, but I had totally called this, down to the choice of spell (well, not gust of wind): – long prospective trial with devious NPC – V is on no sleep – V is basically neutral, alignment-wise – V does not suffer fools gladly The only...

None of the GM-improvisations cited in this thread have been particularly demanding though. And I'm not someone who just goes off the cuff all the time – I do worry about things like presentation & coherency. Nor do I think the GM has to bend over for the players at all possible junctures. It's...

I agree with KM very much here, though I wonder about the party dynamics in #2, #3, and maybe a little in #4: in #2, you'd think the rest of the party would join in, cajoling with visions of treasure-chests, or reminding the PC about the time they saved their bacon from the whatsit with the...

Oh, I'm sorry, was I in particular claiming that hit points in whatever version were perfect? That the 200' cliff-jump-and-move-next-round maneuver wasn't also silly? No, I wasn't, chuckles. But so I suppose we should be using Dead Alive as our go-to movie reference from now on, instead of Die...

In movies where big sharp weapons are wielded you don't usually see somebody just get up after taking a substantial blow, usually it's one shot and down he goes, hero or otherwise, with some room for dying counter-strikes – sort of The Law Of The Size Of The Thing That Hits You. Inigo Montoya...

The one-metamagic-rule idea seems graceful enough. I haven't played or seriously looked at Conviction points yet but that seems to be a big contributor to nova-ing there. Your version of E6 reads as basically equivalent to E8, power-level-wise. I'm just mentioning that because I floated the...

It is probably a good and efficient reference book but I am honestly not exaggerating when I say I've read more engaging car manuals. I'm not talking about the 4e system or gameplay at all here – just presentation and style.

Well, yeah, there's that – I'm not much for reserve feats* or Races of The Dragon (uh, Draconomicon, right?) either but that leads to a complicated discussion on feat and item houseruling. *I still haven't gotten to put together an E6 campaign but I am sort of considering allowing one reserve...

Keeping in the spirit of E6, I would tend to hard-cap metamagic effects (including those from items) at 3rd or maybe possibly 4th level spell slots, which would put the big metamagic effects right out. I don't know what the ideal spot is, but I certainly wouldn't let the metamagic stack to 9th.

Nonononono. No, people. It's a paper-rock-scissors thing, with ninjas, pirates, and Vikings. Ninjas destroy pirates, because come on: pirates are falling-down-drunkards, lousy swordsmen (except maybe the captain), and have scurvy and missing limbs. It's not even close. Guns? Allow me to repeat...

But that's missing the point – NPC help isn't necessarily in the form of big dang heroes, but other warriors, peasants, cavalry, the dude you're trying to save from the orcs (but who might nevertheless survive a few rounds), whatever, and when minion/regular monster divisions are as stark as...

D&D, enclosed you will find this pre-nuptial agreement. In event of divorce it assures me half of all the dice and character sheets, I'll get to keep the displacer beast, and you can have the dragonborn.

I don't actually mind the tiefling. Well, I hate the art, but a tainted race, that's something I can work with. As far as cleric and paladin go, those names have bled enough into the general culture that they're ok, and at least 4E has taken steps to alleviate the "off we go on an adventure...

I would say as general trends go: The 3e rogue is stronger & more able to contribute to things than thieves were in previous editions – it isn't quite as big of a gap as it looks like on paper, primarily because of uneven level advancement prior to 3e, but it is a pretty big gap and it...

For serious. You know how, even here, when the discussion of "what is your ideal D&D movie like" comes up, and so many people are like "ok. One: don't call it D&D. Two: don't have a cleric, wizard, fighter, and rogue. Three: don't have a human, elf, dwarf, and halfling" and so on? Welp. There...

I suppose so; but then, so... what's the point in caring about the overall tenor of an edition, except to construct a narrative? Also re AD&D I am pretty sure there were coup-de-grace rules, something like one per (minute-long AD&D-style) round or something. I forget the details and don't have...

The NWN original campaign is not very good (the expansions are somewhat better) but there are gigabytes of user-made modules which are better; you can get a ton of play out of it without going to online play. I never have. I've not tried it, but there is a 3.5 mod for Neverwinter Nights, also...

Well it can't be the wrong decision if you're okay with it! But neither would it have been wrong for another DM to disallow the choice, especially if the DM's preferences on the matter were well known. It could be wrong for the DM to be a jerk about it but that is a separate layer to the issue...

It hasn't been a problem for me either, but that's because I made it not a problem, by making it more expensive and less convenient. Similar to other item creation. I don't actually agree with AllisterH that this is a totally irreducible issue – casters have to make their choices, zap things or...