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Ok, Storm Raven, time for some rather severe number-crunching... The barbarian grappler: First of all, remember even if the barbarian wins initiative, he only has a 60.6% of starting the grapple (inflicting an incidental 7 hps). Now let's see what happens in the grapple. The barbarian wins...

Not to sound churlish, but yes. Fighting defensively, he still stands a good chance. First of all, the chance of a touch attack: 90% Chance of barbarian winning initial grapple check: 63.8%. So far, so good for the barbarian. However, once grappling, the archer fights defensively with his...

Storm Raven: You've posted repeatedly about how my test is fundamentally flawed. If you could post a better one I'd greatly appreciate it. Failing that, subject your meleeist to the series of tests. If you can do neither, there is no point us continuing, though I would feel it would...

Storm Raven: If you can find a series of impartial tests for the archer and the meleeist to go through, then I'll happily submit my build to them. I generally use DMG characters as litmus tests as these are properly impartial, if slightly weak. The point is that if I created a series of 12th...

Mike Sullivan has it spot on. The point is not to say- oh, I beat the DMG barbarian. It a litmus test under semi-control conditions for the meleeist and the archer, sort of like an assault course of CR 12 beasties. It's to show how effective the characters are in *real* combat, as opposed to...

I don't think that summoning is underpowered per se- it's just that people don't know how to use them as effectively, and/or dismiss the utility of the summoned creatures. Firstly, I think that many of the creatures summonable, certainly from about the 3rd level list, can indeed hold their own...

Okay, here's the build. Rog2/Ftr4/OotBI6 Race: Human. I originally picked elf, but couldn't face the multiclassing penalties. Going Rog3/Ftr4/OotBI5 would have made the character slightly weaker IMO, though I'd be fairly tempted to take third level of rogue next for the extra sneak attack...

Storm Raven has been talking about a fighter with three levels of barbarian as his stock meleeist. This means that he can rage *1* time per day. One =/= several. Nor is it right to assume that this one time lasts all day. Ignoring the fact that the tempest cannot use his advantages with a...

This one caught me out as well. According to the FAQ, the best you can do with Command is to render them either stunned or prone. Personally, I think that this nerfs the spell (especially compared with Color Spray and Sleep), but then the FAQ is the FAQ.

I think that consistently assuming that the barbarian has four points higher Str is probably slightly misleading. Since your meleeist is primarily going to be taking levels of fighter, and you imply that the fighter will likely only take around three levels of barbarian, it is slightly...

That's certainly true. However, the archer does still gain obvious benefits from a higher Strength, and your repeated examples demonstrate. The archer is (generally) not too stupid. He can identify his weaknesses and cover them...if he's not bright enough to do that, he can pocket the...

Fair enough. However, it is somewhat disingenous to assert that the melee fighter can have a high Dex, whilst the archer *cannot* (for some obscure reason) have a comparable Str. This is slight double standards, is it not? As for AC when being denied Dex bonus, this is a fair criticism...

Hmm...thanks for that. I think I need to talk to a certain player who likes archers with sneak attacks from flanking...:mad:

Hmmm...well it seems that my analysis seems to provoke controversy... Very good point. The stacking of archer-based prestige classes makes it a real problem. That's true to a point. 5' step means that the archer can have little loss of utility. Order of the Bow Initiate Close Combat...

Having been at the receiving end of a whacked-out archer build (I was DM) with the aforesaid character dishing out 300+ points of damage per round, I will take up the case that archery is clearly more powerful than melee. First of all, I will deal quickly with Kai Lord's assertion that (e.g.)...

By 11th level, the tide is beginning to turn for the wizard. He no longer needs to fear for his life, and is beginning to see his hard slog through the low levels having to save up his measly two spells per day (not including cantrips) pay off. Defensively, nothing can come near Wall of Force...

Well, it certainly looks like an interesting PrC. A few general tips: Prerequisites Though not entirely necessary, it adds flavour to a PrC to have more than one mechanical prerequisite (having a liege counts as a roleplay prerequisite). Perhaps a few feats or skill rank requirements could...

From Tome & Blood's article 'Fun with Prestidigitation': Change - Transform an object of Fine size into another one. e.g. Change a piece of paper into a rose. Chill - Reduce an object's temperature by 40F (but not below freezing) Clean - Self-explanatory Color - Self-explanatory Dampen -...

Fair point. I have not been following this (evidently long-running) saga between yourself, U_K, Seasong and Anab. From the responses of the others mentioned, it seems to be too intractable for me to disentangle. However, I can attack your PROOF. Ignoring the fact that, on balance, a...

Is this really a curse? You can't be banished or dismissed since you are a 'native' outsider (i.e. there is nowhere to banish you to) and whilst you can be affected from Protection vs. Alignment and the likes, you also get immunities against e.g. Charm Person, Hold Person, Dominate Person and...