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It would be nice if they did away with those "dead" ability score levels. In 3E at least there was the odd justification of feats needing odd scores, but here an odd score is worthless. Just rate abilities from zero to +5, or from -5 to +5 if you must. It simplifies a needless portion of the...

If my players are trying to stealth through an area where people aren't actively searching for them, such as sneaking through a house or through a castle courtyard at night when the guards aren't alert, I'd have them describe what they are doing. If it obviously won't get them noticed, they get...

Personally I find them necessary for a fun game and this is probably the closest out D&D edition to doing feats "right", although they're still not there. There aren't many meaningful options to make in combat anyways, so more options besides "I attack" is always a plus. I also find them much...

The Fighter, Monk, and Sorcerer had a lot of interesting options that I felt were much more fun and well-designed than what we got. If you have the "081712 DnD Next Playtest Packet", I highly recommend giving it a read. The sorcerer's dragon origin had a unique mechanic where they got more...

Gradenko2000 and Sanglorian from the Something Awful forms both made attempts to make nice, standardized, easy-to-understand monster creation rules and tables. Personally, I really like Gradenko's table; if I recall correctly, he made the stats under the assumption that a PC can solo something...

Does the game actually have enough rules and mechanics to support a class based around diplomacy? What would a diplomat class accomplish that a rogue or especially a bard couldn't?

Personally, I think 3E stealing everything from Diablo was the downfall of gaming. :p I suppose I should have used past tense to imply those were resolutions. So... Gonna ask a few whys there. Why do you have to rationalize "2W + move your foe 1 square" 75 different ways? What forces you to do...

If you don't mind me asking, what is the difference between these situations? Is there anything here you would object to a player saying here that would take you out of the game? 3.5 Ranger in a greek mythology-themed campaign I played a year ago "My ranger brings up her bow and fires off a...

I've never heard of Robin's Laws before, so I hope these are accurate and that people can be a part of more than one category. I'd say I'm a combination Method Actor/Powergamer/Storyteller in that order. I develop a character and use the system as best as I can to create him or her and play as...

My comment wasn't so much "be a slave to the rules", which I completely agree can be stifling and bad, as "if the rules constantly fail to provide a desired experience, then maybe they are bad rules."

I understood you, but I don't believe it's as bad as you say. Compared to 3E, 4E made great advances towards allowing all characters to be good in combat and out of combat. Not perfect as you indicated with the "3 good stats / 3 dump stats", but sub-optimal characters aren't as ineffective all...

I want to address some misconceptions I feel you have about 4E that Tony didn't cover. I feel like you've somehow gotten the wrong impression about some things in fourth edition. I feel like 3E set the precedence on min-maxing, especially since before that (if I recall correctly) you needed...

Is there actually anything in the PHB or DMG that helps people play TotM combat? From skimming through the DMG at release, I don't recall seeing anything that makes it more viable now than it was in 3E or 5E... Still tons of really awkward positioning and area of effect rules, especially if you...

As someone who has played since AD&D, I don't understand how someone can become so emotionally invested in a game that they personally take offense when someone criticizes it. Like, how are we supposed to have any discussion about the games that isn't just a positive echo box? Is complaining...

I think this is why Tony said D&D is a bad game. Even though 4E can provide the exact same feeling as previous D&D games, the modern mechanics were such a departure that many of the old guard disliked it. People can still have fun with bad games; every week I play in a 3.5 game and I've ran...

Regardless, as a large fan of 4E, I've got to say its "demise" (such a weird word for this...) wasn't caused by its attachment to D&D. In my opinion the D&D name does much more to bring people into the hobby than force people away because "it's not D&D". I think it was due to mismanagement. Lack...

So I've got a question since I don't understand the appeal of starting at level 1 (outside of it being easier for newbies), even after reading through this thread... Why do people say it denies you the opportunity of knowing what your character did at low levels? Why can't that just be written...

I think there is a large difference between very occasionally having this problem where you need to change things (whether numerically fudging numbers or narratively) and having to do it on a frequent basis. If this happens a lot, it means the DM is having issues using the (encounter building)...

I prefer not to fudge HP values (or dice rolls) when playing or DMing. It's a slightly slippery slope that leads to the mechanics and the game's rules being detrimental or meaningless to some extent. Except when I was super new to 3E/4E/5E or didn't have a solid grasp on my players' abilities, I...

I disagree that it means tougher encounters; I believe it means that there are more consistent encounters, which means it is easier for the DM to create an encounter that fits what she is trying to accomplish narratively and mechanically at the table. Edit: I do agree with your second point...