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I'll add my bit. Before 4e came out I was a big fan of the unified character/NPC creation in 3.5, even though it took a lot of time as DM. I enjoyed the character building game on its own, and the unified method really helped me engage with the setting. When 4e came out, imagine my surprise...

In principle that is true, but in practice there is a big caveat: the tools the game makes available to the DM can have a big impact on how the game is actually run. Consider 3.5's CR system, 4e's DDI, and either system run in a gritty low-magic setting. The absence of CR, DDI, or low-magic...

For options that can be "nested" inside another options, I think it makes sense to write the basic framework once, and then swap out components of that option family. I can imagine nesting the classic hit point system inside a lightly detailed lingering wound system inside a very detailed...

You don't keep liquid Awesome in the glove compartment right next to the liquid Schwartz? ;)

As DM I can remove a race, class, or power in sentence. As a player I might be able to negotiate it. It's unlikely I could invent any missing option that easily. I might briefly become surly if the only game in town has an element I can't stand, but for the most part I don't see it as a...

Let me agree with you in a very long-winded fashion. :) As I see it, a basic and necessary conceit of D&D is that the challenges played out at the table are almost always those that are within the party's grasp, plus or minus a bit. Otherwise, D&D fails as a game: neither regularly failing at...

I'm on board with Ahnehnois here. Especially this: "The basic goal of a health system needs to be that anyone can die, but that some people probably won't. And that battle has consequences." Yes, yes, yes. The game should focus (IMHO, etc.) on keeping hit points small and I'd strongly prefer...

If the stated goal is to unify, then it must be possible (to a significant degree) for people who love Vancian to have it, and those who loathe it to avoid it. At the very, very least this means they'll try to make sure a person can play a character that matches their preference. For a great...

If the internal name isn't "Illithid" I'll eat a virtual hat. Unless the designers' love of snark far surpasses expectation and they too decided to call it "Inevitable", in which case I'm expecting a Marut on the cover of the MM. :)

I thought the article was a fairly honest appraisal of the ritual system, whether or not we approve of its design goals or execution. Personally, my preference is to conceptually treat all magic as a ritual (slow, expensive, setting the baseline for what we think of as "effective", largely...

Words that now apply to the OotS/Tarquin relationship at least as much as the Nale/Tarquin relationship which elicited them. This development will almost certainly cause grief for the party, and we can be sure Tarquin will maintain the appearance of ignorance for precisely as long as it suits...

Thanks for responding. I think I'll give it a pass for now, as I'm trying to maintain a mobile lifestyle of best practices. This should not be interpreted as any mistrust for you. :) If the permissions are pared down to a more reasonable level, I'll definitely give it a shot. A quick...

Looks promising, but why are some of the permissions the way they are? As a rule I avoid installing apps that have more permissions than it seems they should need. In particular, why would the app need to know about phone state, be able to make calls, or know my location? In the latter case I...

I think the notion of the charge is useful when you start somewhere and need to end somewhere else to attack, but there are all sorts of attacks (especially if against multiple creatures) where this simple division isn't suitable. I'd rather divide actions into essentially parallel and...

I found that a curious thing until I remembered something else. I know captchas are being used to help digitize old documents now, so I wouldn't be surprised if the autofail version helps to determine what the actual thing says. After several trials yield sufficient statistics to indicate it...

While it is easy to blame it on rules lawyers as such, I actually think there is something much more fundamental going on. Rules are essentially defaults, and defaults are psychologically powerful. Even when they are acknowledged as suggestions, we often don't act like it. Therefore I think...

TL,DR version of this post: What if we used two checks, one rolled by the hidden thing vs. passive perception, and the other by the party against a fixed DC once the party is on the right track. I think the results could encourage interesting interaction with the environment, with room for...

811 is up. The alternate title is "When clerics win initiative."

In the non-d20 homebrew I play we similarly let any ability score be used with any skill. (Incidentally also a 4 score system, with Brawn, Agility, Mind, and Soul.) However, I don't think it is necessary to formulate the skill list to make sure each one has a use for every ability. The skills...

If I were to simplify these rules I'd probably say opportunity attacks require combat advantage or whatever is its analog in 5e. Stickier creatures, like many defenders, can ignore that rule. That covers the most basic cases swiftly, and in my experience trickier cases usually have lots of...