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Arn goes so far as to take it out to decimal places, so he calculates it as 3d6+1d5 for a 10 foot fall.

Yeah, somewhere. The basic rule of the system is 1d20 per 10' of falling, divided by 1d6. And yes, I hate the inelegancy of division as I have a general rule that anything other than at most division by two is too complicated for the table, but this has worked for me in its present form for a...

The complex math that Arn derives his falling damage from isn't even really the bad part of the system. All that math just resolves out to a handy dandy table of the sort common in 1e AD&D. And, as a table it's not that bad. I see what he's going for albeit there is an assumption of rigor and...

Wrong genre savvy.

Agreed. While at the time of the article realism was fetishized as the solution to all table problems, there real and meaningful table problems that they were trying to fix. They weren't just being realistic for the sake of realism. This particular problem that was trying to be addressed had...

Most people playing D&D have always struggled with this very example in various ways depending on how they conceive the hit point. When a person is hit with a spear they are not necessarily stabbed with a spear in the sense of being impaled. When in combat any weapon does damage to a target...

The falling damage article was impactful on me to this very day, as it got me thinking about how damage could be modeled better to our expectations and experience, such that falling off a ladder is potentially lethal but also people have survived falling out of planes. This lead to a long...

To a certain extent you are right that "immersion" can be seen as just as synonym for "my expectations for the game" and those are of course going to be divergent and contradictory. For me, "immersion" is that quality of feeling in the game, and I feel it sometimes in both cRPGs and ttRPGs...

Yeah, Minecraft is a great game but if it was my job, it would be an incredibly tedious mind-numbing job and I'd hate the game inside a year.

The NYT is so bad that it counts as anti-information, in that the more you read and rely on the NYT the less you know and the less you are informed about the subject. It's Walter Duranty from top to bottom. And while there are ideological biases, sometimes it is actually more useful to read a...

The only thing that I find hard about vision is that it's really really annoying in typical tabletop play when different characters are capable of seeing different things. They have a lantern. The dayvision races can see 60 feet, but only 30 feet clearly. The Darkvision races can see 90 feet...

My players tried to use Speak to Plants on a carnivorous plant. They eventually figured out: a) Plants are typically very stupid. b) Plants do not have a lot of sensory organs. c) The plant was interpreting all the attempts to bargain with it as suggestions to feed it. Yes, it would like if...

I don't agree, but I would say beware who you make bargains with. If you make a bargain with something like a dragon that considers conversation with you part of a dining experience, don't be surprised if it goes badly.

I put that campaign on hold in 2020 when we weren't able to meet in person, but before that it ran like 7 years about 150 sessions (600+ hours of play). I have wanted to pick it up again, but players have moved in the mean time and meeting in person has become hard. So I've been running for...

As far as Haste goes, the changes in Haste in 3.5e compared to 3.0e turned haste from an automatic self-buff any caster did at the beginning of a fight into a buff a caster might do to other party members at the beginning of the fight. And to me, that's a crucial change. I am really all for...

"Natural Spell" was a mistake, as it produced a situation where the Druid was a better fighter than the fighter while simultaneously being competitive with a Cleric as a healer and with a Wizard as a general caster. I don't allow the feat, as it was both overpowered and therefore compulsory...

I'm not as restrictive as you but do agree that shapechanging is problematic in play both for balance reasons and speed of play. I therefore require a player who could shapechange (or summon creatures) to have already prepared an adjusted character sheet (or stat block) for each and every form...

Alter Self Transmutation Level: Brd 2, Sor/Wiz 2 Components: V, S Casting Time: 1 standard action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: 10 min./level (D) You assume the outward appearance of a creature of the same type as your normal form. The new form must be within one size category of your...

Family D&D Christmas in Tomb of Horrors Star Wars Campaign: Session #63: Terrorists attack Anti-Grav Night Club Session #64: Planning to protect the Prefect

I'm happy with the 3.5 Haste, but all the 3.5 shape changing spells including Alter Self are broken as written in 3.5 because they allow you to make LA adjustments to your character class. They would to be balanced require everyone who made a monster to ask, "How would this impact Alter Self or...