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How about parity for the commoner? Should there be a "viable combat commoner" PrC? Why does every concept have to have parity? And why does "viable" have to equal min/maxed? Really, is there some way that you think core handaxes should be changed to make your concept more viable, since that's...

Plus locathah and merfolk for swim speeds. --Axe

I think in this case there's a distinction between bonuses and penalties. Clearly, the designers felt that a Strength bonus was too good to be balanced by one penalty, but obviously it does not work the other way around; Strength penalties are balanced by a single bonus for halflings and gnomes...

A twist on this: Deities are the patrons of clerics, and they also have worshipers. Is it not possible that a cleric could derive his/her power from no specific deity, and at the same time worship a specific god? This occured to me when I was creating a human cleric of Ehlonna, only to...

I like conjurers in general. It's a very strong school (even core only). It includes Mage Armor, which is a pretty standard first level spell, Web and Glitterdust are excellent second level spells, and Stinking Cloud at third level actually very good. One thing I'm curious about is how people...

In terms of core rules, you can be a barbarian/paladin, but either you lose all paladin abilities (including smite evil) for not being lawful good, or else you lose the ability to rage if you become lawful. So, for the purposes of marrying rage and smite, you'd have to go outside of the core to...

Well, the rules are in PHB II, not a core book, so they are effectively at the DM's discretion anyway (beyond Rule Zero). So, there's no "entitlement" unless you grant it. I also don't think these rules actually encourage power-gaming; they just provide another avenue for the "power-gamer" to...

If the paladin can take Combat Expertise, why not take Improved Trip as well? Get Power Attack at 3rd level, and you have a nice combination. Tripping is very powerful, IMHO, and getting a free attack on a prone opponent makes for a nice smite opportunity. I also like Improved Disarm, but I...

My undertsanding (from the rules and from posts on these boards) is that a ranger (or paladin) who is not yet fourth level has no caster level, and therefore cannot make caster level checks to use scrolls of, say, cure light wounds. Can anyone point out the SRD text that spells this out? I've...

I think that's a good point, but a druid can at least cast speak with animals to overcome that limitation. Granted, that takes a spell slot, rather than a couple of skill points (if that), unless the druid is allowed to use Handle Animal to direct the summoned animals. Keep in mind, though, that...

I've seen summoners played pretty effectively in a couple of campaigns. One was a cleric 1/conjurer N with the Good domain, to squeeze an extra round from summoning celestial creatures; the same campaign had a druid as well. In another campaign, the gnome cleric uses SM all the time. It's...

We've used a more liberal variation of 4d6, and I'm curious as to how it would come out in this analysis. You start out rolling 3d6 for your first score. If you wish, you may roll a fourth die and drop the lowest, or you may take the 3d6 result and "bank" the fourth die for a later roll. For...

Well, 1e/2e is the point from which any such "entitlement" stems, IME/O. There seemed to be lots of characters with 18s out there, and I think part of the rationalization of basically giving characters high scores was the fact that there was essentially no difference between a 7 and a 14 in many...

One thing to keep in mind is that, while many choices may be suboptimal for an adventuring PC, they have a place in the campaign world. I've never heard of a 3.5 PC with ranks in Profession, but presumably the worlds are full of them, as well as folks with Skill Focus (Profession: X) and Skill...

I think this is probably the main stumbling block to adding magic holy symbols as standard treasure. For one thing, most of them will be the holy symbols of your foes, and those that are found as other random treasure will most likely not be of your god. Still, I agree it has lots of potential...

One thing that isn't clear to me is whether you can train a non-domesticated animal. Handle Animal includes DCs for rearing wild animals (though it doesn't give time frames), but it does not otherwise say you can "domesticate" a wild animal. I suppose one could argue that Handle Animal does not...

I've wondered why, although they have a similar mechanic, Combat Expertise is limited to +5 and Power Attack is not. Anyone know the rationale behind this? --Axe

Is a dancing weapon therefore considered unattended for purposes of sundering? --Axe Edit: Posted before I2K's response (post #6) went up. Thanks for the clarification!

We used cut-out overhead transparencies for similar uses, but I like the wire idea, since you don't have to lift the minis. Keep in mind that this is particularly useful for keeping track of illumination. Another idea that has occasionally come in handy: Make a document that consists of a grid...

Especially for inexperienced players, it's useful to have a card listing as many of your possible actions as you can. A barbarian might have a list with melee attack, melee attack with power attack, melee attack while raging, etc., with attack modifier and damage listed. A sorcerer migth have...