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I generally interpret "Take 20" as "I will try over and over until it works or until I have tried everything I can think of". As Greenfield notes, that means you'll get a 20 sooner or later, and a 1 sooner or later, but if there's no impact on a fail, we'll abstract that to 20 tries, 1 with...

This is true only if we assume one may be Lawful Good only by always making the most Lawful and Good choice at each and every turn. And even then, where Law and Good collide, a decision of which to follow must be made. Alignment is not "every character of an LG Alignment will always make the...

Agreed. To me, if the answer is so obvious the Paladin would know it, then this gets pointed out to the player before he commits. We can certainly discuss the interpretation. If it's a judgment call, then the Paladin (or whoever) is quite within his rights to make either call and have it...

I find this a poor comparison. We have plenty of rules for combat with the dragon, enabling an objective determination of whether the Dragon or the PC's won. We don't argue over whether the Dragon should or should not be able to fly. We accept that Dragons can fly. We don't assert that...

It seems to me that there is little challenge in role playing this character's strong moral directives when the player knows, and the mechanics dictate, that the character is always more likely to succeed by adhering to those moral beliefs than if he deviates from them. What is difficult is...

Why can't the Paladin actually judge himself more harshly than his deity does? I suggest that "Good is about altruism and respect for life". The taking of a life is, in itself, an evil act, one which the Paladin would, or at least should, strive to avoid. The defense of other is altruistic...

I missed the part where there are drawbacks other than the 8 hp damage and possible attendant concentration check. Where was that? He has no first level cleric friends? Maybe a 1st level cleric friend who also has this feat, so he can use his 0 level spell slots for Cure Light Wounds (2-9...

While it's fine to say "just go on without them", that's not necessarily practical. We are talking 50% of the players, so that halves the team, and halves the player contributions. Having two sessions written, one in case we have two players show and one in case all four make it, isn't all...

Seems easy enough to deal with the Prestige Class issue by ruling the ability to cast X means the ability to cast the specific spell(s) without a negative level feat (ie the ability to cast 3rd level spells means having a 3rd level spell slot; the ability to cast Divination means the ability to...

This comes back, to me, to the earlier discussion of Weather Sense. Weather Sense is a character ability to have advance knowledge of the upcoming weather. If the character has the ability to dictate the weather, that is a different matter. If the player, not the character, can dictate the...

Given our discussion is supposedly framed around answering the question of balance between spellcasters and nonspellcasters, but in a broader sense balance between characters, your comments above lead to a fairly obvious (in my view) question - do some skills (which I expect are linked to...

My reference to "cannot fail" was to the character failing to persuade the target of his diplomacy skill. When he rolls a '2', and the check is a failure, this cannot be attributed to the character misjudging the situation, making a less than inspired speech, inopportunely belching (or failing...

How specific a playstyle? I am setting the backstory based on success or failure of your rolls. My recollection was that their intention was to persuade the Chamberlain to grant them an immediate audience with the King, which he did. Their purpose in having that audience granted was to...

It illustrates my concern that, if the die rolls do not indicate a failure on the part of the PC when unsuccessful, then logically they also do not indicate any success on the part of the PC when successful. That is, the "die roll creates circumstances" logic indicates that the PC neither...

Yet if the reluctant chamberlain had been a gebbeth under the control of the Court Mage from the outset (ie not an Indie model), we are back to the chamberlain whom the PC’s cannot persuade, for which the GM was vilified many pages back in this thread. As I reflect, I start to see why this...

The Chamberlain was also supposed to be quite difficult to persuade. This seems to presuppose he does not share the PC’s goals, does not approve of their methods, does not trust them or is in some other way predisposed to NOT assist the PC’s in their goals. How would we determine whether the...

Emphasis added - that suggest to me that a 2 handed weapon to a M character is 1 handed to a L character, but he would take a -2 penalty. I also like the optional rule (I think it's in the DMG) that suggests a similar weapon with the damage of the other size's weapon substitutes freely. For...

I’m not sure how much these variant scenarios bring to the discussion. The “Reluctant Chamberlain” as originally presented was a challenge which had to be resolved by diplomatic means – murdering the Chamberlain to obtain an audience with the King was simply not a viable option, he had to be...

So, wait a minute, here. A court mage who is harvesting corpses, manufacturing golems, and replacing people, including a key member of the Royal Court's inner circle, with those flesh golems is fine. But the possibility of a spellcaster capable of casting the 0 level Detect Magic spell and...

I would suggest that harsh winter conditions, lack of supplies and overwhelming opposition are all challenges which would have recurring impact on the campaign as a whole, and not be quickly resolved in a single encounter or scene. That is more akin to the Lord Chamberlain who it is simply not...