Search results

A combination of lack of negative hit points and death saves isn't new. The rules I use in BECMI are the optional ones from the back of the Rules Cyclopedia. * Hit points cannot go negative * Anyone taken down to 0 hit point must make a Save vs Death at the end of each round or die (after one...

Yes, but there's no reason why the two can't happily be used side by side. Realistically, the DM giving out advantage for "saying something witty" is a bit of a reductio ad absurdum and isn't going to be happening in combat (unless the DM was the sort that would give arbitrary bonuses for that...

This is rather an empty gesture for me, since I've always politely avoided edition warring and have never* been red-texted on a game-related message board anyway... I, Blacky the Blackball, pledge to not make ENWorld's forums (or any other forums for that matter) a hellscape of flame wars. I...

Melf was one of Luke Gygax's characters in Gary Gygax's original Greyhawk campaign. The name was short for Male Elf, since the character was a male elf and Luke couldn't be bothered thinking up a better name.

I'm guessing that the reason for that name is that it is an extension of 4e's "Combat Advantage" into non-combat situations. Having "Advantage" in combat may allow various characters to use special abilities, and having it out of combat may do the same. I'm also guessing that there may be...

I'm hoping for a twin release: 1) The traditional "three hardbacks" release of PHB, DMG & MM. This would contain the basic rules plus much of the modular options. 2) A boxed "Basic" set, containing the just the basic rules without the modular options and written in a style for beginners who...

I was getting sick of the whining too, so I thought I'd lighten things up a bit. NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooo!

It's not out until next year. C'mon guys, I'm Jonesin' for a fix here. Give a dude a break; I'll have the money for you next week, I promise. I'm just going through some stuff right now. Quit holding out on me, man...

At low level, although I said I'll usually (but not always, for example if the party are in the middle of nowhere) make sure there's the possibility of getting to a cleric who can cast Raise Dead. That doesn't necessarily mean that the party will decide that doing so is a priority; but that's...

To be fair, being in too many fires will tend to kill your comeliness.

My campaigns tend to be fairly consistent. The threat of death is always there. I roll openly and won't fudge things to keep people alive. If a PC goes into a situation that the player knows to be risky, the player must take that risk of their PC dying. In practice, that results in around one...

"It's OSR!" will be the new "It's WOW!", mark my words...

Is your Basic D&D comment about ability checks based on playing BX basic which had no ability checks or playing BECMI (with Gazeteers)/RC which had an optional skill system consisting of "Make an ability check; add your skill bonus if you have one"? Because I'm not sure whether your comment is...

Personally, I'm hoping that even if there's no OGL for third party companies to use, there will be some kind of license so that people like me who want to produce amateur stuff for free and stick it up on the web can do so, even if there are "non-commercial" clauses built in. Having said that...

I'd agree, but I think that to a large extent this may be because (disclaimer: I wasn't there, this is just from what I've heard) the playtest was largely with the most simple way of playing the game rather than with all the modular stuff turned on; and the most simple stuff is more like earlier...

[Further Speculation] I'm guessing that the basic cleric variant/build is that way deliberately to please the pre-3e players. I'm further guessing that a more complex cleric variant/build can take advantage of class features similar to those that have been mentioned for wizards, and have other...

To be honest, that's probably for the best. If they were posting here at the moment, they'd be inundated with questions they can't answer at this time and their presence in any 5e thread would inevitably spark a flame war of epic proportions. It would be great if they're lurking a lot (Hi...

I think it might go the other way to what you fear. I'm hoping that with 5e (apparently) using all your ability scores for various rolls and saving throws, the days of hyper-specialised PCs with one really good score and the others being terrible will be over. So putting a 20 in your class's...

Mathematically, d20 <= Score is the same as Score + d20 >= 21. Therefore the same system you suggest can be presented in a familiar-to-D&D-players way by simply having a normal d20-style X + d20 >= DC, where people simply use the ability score directly for the roll rather than using a bonus...

While I agree in principle that the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 success rate is good for "weak", "average" and "gifted"; I think that assuming that that range is represented by a 3-20 spread isn't realistic. Characters aren't likely to have that much spread. I think that that (with standard array, point buy...