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See? Alchemical Gunpowder ftw!

It doesn't have to be unlimited, you know. It has to be enough to destroy their enemies. There is a HUGE difference there, especially with storage/shrinking magic.

Meh. Normal elves, who live in civilized forests and mingle with men. The high elves, who live in mountain cities and remain aloof from the world. Wood elves, who hide in the deep forest and generally disdain men. Oops, no, not Tolkien elves. Sorry, those are the elves of Greyhawk and the...

Dude, he had a cauldron of gunpowder. One.

Dude, you're talking about pressure vehicles and explosion dispersion in a world where if you stand one inch outside a fireball you take no damage whatsoever, but full damage if you ARE inside that one inch, and the second after the fireball is gone, ambient temperature is back to normal. Unless...

Because its his version of dwarves, and his version of elves, that populate the standard fantasy world. If you deviate from them, you're a Tolkien wanna-be 'my elves are different'. Elves and dwarves used to mean other things, but now, the instant you say the word, the elf and dwarf you think of...

For shame! It obviously collapsed under its own weight from a small pop. Stop bringing movie physics into my gaming fantasy! On a side note, I think he rolled 20d6 and did at least 10 points of structural damage.

Yeah, myths and legends do tend to hold to common elements. They noted on the Baba Yaga thread that although she morphs between different cultures, there's still over a thousand different stories about her, but nobody complains of Baba Yaga saturation.

Um, no. What I did was explain why there is very, very little use of gunpowder and no gunpowder weapons IMC, and WHY they are not easily available. I headed the problem off before it started... it's part of campaign design, with a reason for it, instead of just blank fiat. This puts the focus...

That's not quite true. You just had to go back further. Conan and the pulp fantasy crew were around a long, long time before Tolkien. Tolkien, however, was the first work of really, really serious fantasy fiction that made it into the mainstream. It oozes intellectualism, and was told like it...

They are making a false argument. People have already stated what black powder does. The fact that it doesn't do that 'in reality' means nothing. What it does in the game tends to be what it does in movies, and what it does in fiction is blow up big and loud. So the problems are: cost for...

Sure. Look at every post and module talking about using/blowing up gunpowder, every movie you've ever seen using it, and how much damage it does/is assigned to do. Then look at every chemist saying 'in reality, gunpowder kegs don't do that!' Then consider whether D&D pays attention to the...

I think the general view of blackpowder in a magical world is the Bug Bunny version, which is a higher grade and would indeed blow up rather nicely.

No, I'm giving options for the non-magical. Floating Disk is a level 1 spell. Getting 20d6 damage out of it is OPTIMIZING the spell slot, and making that damage available to a LEVEL ONE character. Item spells are cast days ahead of time, OUT of combat. Build up an inventory, swap out spells for...

well, like I said, you're now involving three characters instead of one. One archer with fire arrows can set of 2-3 barrels a round from a distance. You can put a fuse on the barrels to delay them going off. And you get one big explosion, instead of three smaller ones, and only need to have one...

There's a big difference of 3x 6d6 vs 1x20d6, and gunpowder is a blast, not fire damage. And how much is a barrel of gunpowder? It also doesn't require a mage to make... any mundane with enough Ranks in Alchemy can make one. You also don't need to be a Caster to set off Gunpowder, you can delay...

Bags of Holding, Item spells, Portable Holes. It's not bulky enough to stop them from using it, at all. So, yes, they CAN chuck full powderkegs at an enemy. Telekinesis helps. So does Floating Disks, if they are clever. Heck, tie it to a Summoned creature and send it in. Gunpowder does blast...

I have to agree. The 'dark elves' of nordic literature are literally dwarves by any other name. Just calling the house elves of Potter that doesn't change the fact that in any other system they are house spirits, brownie-equivalents of fey, and the like.

Like anything, it's a question of quantity, the ability for enemies to deal with it, and availability of enemies. Anytime you can directly convert money, which players have plenty of, cheaply into lots of sudden damage, like you can with gunpowder/explosives, that is going to flip your campaign...

Hey, that's Asheron's Call! (shakes fist) Leafcull forever! And there was not a damn Tolkien thing in Asheron's Call. Even the dragon-things had more in common with lizards and pterodactyls, them dem grommies. Banderlings, tuskers, mosswarts, drudges, virindi... nothing Tolkien about any of...