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Potentially open to abuse. For example, Munchkin Bob wants to make a human fighter. He reads the new system and comes up with a cunning plan, by taking level one in rogue, netting him 36 skill points, which he dumps into +2 Strength and +2 Constitution. Then, he multiclasses into fighter...

There are three basic defensive spells which are imperative to defending any castle: Unhallow A must. Even the basic version provides a useful bolstering of your evil minions with better AC and saves against those pesky do-gooders; prevents them from summoning and stops your grunts from...

I think that the primary reason why the victim, rather than the caster, rolls the save is because spells have a far greater effect than mere hits, a lot of time (especially at high levels). It is less fun for the player to be on the receiving end of a Finger of Death spell and be told that he...

Getting involved in mage/monk battles is not the issue, irrespective of buffs- though I would probably have to concede that before around 15th level the monk would win in a straight-up battle. The problem is thus- the mage simply ignores the monk altogether and targets the rest of the party...

Monk. The problem with the monk is that he isn't really a party-building character. The monk's strongest suit is mage-killing, but when you examine *why* he is good at mage-killing, his use to the party becomes minimal. The reason that the monk is good at mage-killing is because of his...

Too many knock-on effects for my liking. The current system is balanced for the current ability modifier system, and a paradigm shift of this magnitude seriously messes things up. For example, low HD (and low Con) classes get a better deal. Take Joe Fighter, with his d10+3 hit dice (Con 16)...

Another wizard. Once you have a cleric, rogue and fighter in position, more wizards increase your power incredibly- not only vastly increasing rate of firepower, but also being highly versatile. If you have specialists, a second wizard becomes almost imperative. Failing that, sorcerors are...

Hmm...I'm not really sure. The problem with rebalancing of the nature described is that it doesn't make Magic Missile too weak per se, but unnecessarily weakens a good 1st level spell. A similar effect would be if Fireball were capped, say, at 9d6. The new weaker Fireball would still be a...

When building NPCs, I find skill-boosting feats most commonly on non-combat type archetypes. Non-combat rogues get a lot of mileage, and being able to outstrip your counterparts on key opposed rolls is useful- given the non-combat emphasis, I find that social skill boosters are the most common...

Hmm...ambushes shout 'fighter/rogue' to me, though I suppose most rogue multiclasses would be good. Ranger/rogues are slightly cheesy as a multiclass combination but remarkably powerful. Depending on the 'real' power of the party (which is dependent on much more than level- ability scores...

But the question is this: is this a problem with the rules for children's statistics, or is it a problem in the bell curve altogether? I'd plump for the latter. The fact is simple- extreme abilities cannot be accounted for by a simple 3d6 bell curve. Taking Intelligence, an Int of 18...

My ruling on children is pretty harsh, but divide all stats by (base age/current age). So, an 8 year old human divides all stats by (15/8). Rationale? I don't see many 15 Strength six-year-olds, even if they are 1 in 216. A flat penalty to stats makes nonsense if you compare them with adult...

The problem with the 'twist it' interpretation is that it still leaves the notion that a perfectly drafted wish would have the power to kill a god or whatever. For example, if a top contract lawyer were to join your gaming group and draft a 30-page draft wish with no inconsistencies, loopholes...

I played the raising/resurrection rules as per PHB in 3e, and tend to prefer the 3e costs to the 3.5e costs. The reason is simple...continuity. Due to either the heroic nature of the setting or the deadly nature of (especially high-level) combat, death in DnD is surprisingly common...

Actually, necromancers aren't the ones that got really messed up. They got a lot of cursey type spells, the waves of fatigue/exhaustion, symbol of death, animate dead improved, create undead and a slew of other new stuff. No, the real suckers are specialist abjurers and illusionists. Abjurers...

As we all know, DnD maths have the following paradigms: 1 x 2 x 1.5 = 2.5 1 x 2 x 2 = 3 :rolleyes: So, Improved Power Attack would do 2.5x the attack penalty in bonus damage when used with a two-handed weapon; whilst Supreme Power Attack would do 3x the attack penalty in bonus damage. With...

No, but his Cloak of Resistance +5 trumps the Headband of Intellect +6...and his Luckstone and Pale Green Ioun Stone are simply supplementary boosters. Not really. It's a team game, after all. The cleric doesn't think of the party as "dead weight" when he has to heal them. The rogue...

Lotus- your statistics are incorrect. The average of 2d6 is 7, not 9, as you infer (9+11=20). This gives the greatsword a modified total of 24.6 (including the magic bonus) to the spiked chain 20.6- a % difference of roughly 17%. The question is thus- is 17% extra damage for a greatsword...

A 12th level human fighter has no less than 13 feats. There is no reason why he should not be able to take GWS with his preferred weapon. Indeed, for a main-battle-tank-type fighter, he's getting rather desperate by this stage as to what feats to choose (though, I suppose, he could branch into...

Spell Focus, on its own, was never a problem. GSF, Archmagi, Red Wizards and other DC-boosters were. Spell Focus could easily be matched by Iron Will, Great Fort or Lightning Reflexes- or, indeed, outstripped. Iron Will protects against nearly all enchantments, illusions, divinations and some...