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I like writing elaborate backgrounds, and always from the character's perspective. The style of writing and the opinions on past events is crucial to shaping the character in its entirety. However, I do add useful asides out-of-character to establish the objective truth in order to help the DM.

I remember the old Combat & Tactics, when an Int 21+ enabled you to force opponents to declare their actions for the coming round before you acted (since, in those days, you declared actions in the RAW). Of course, not only did this whole 'declared actions' problem cause huge mechanical...

For a 'pure' archer build, fighter is superior to ranger, since Weapon Specialisation, Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialisation outstrip anything that the ranger can put forward, and the Combat Style feats are easily subsumed into the fighter bonus feats. Rangers, however, will...

Strictly speaking, of course, the chances of getting a 3 in any particular stat is not simply equal to (1/216)x6, since the logical extension of this indicates that if you got any 36 people the odds of getting a 3 in some stat is 1 (certain). Yet some permutations of selecting those 36 would...

Whilst I'm broadly in agreement that the skill point: class skill ratio is too low, I'd be wary of equalising SPs with the rogue, as the fact that the rogue has the most skill points is generally regarded as canon (wrt core classes anyway). Six is a good compromise, bringing it in line with the...

Looks like we have different interpretations of 'evil' then :). I like 'broad evil', perhaps partially driven by the desires and needs of our group (i.e. I like playing non-stereotypical villains and the players like bashing evil people :p ) but it seems you prefer 'narrow evil' as favoured by...

I'd probably argue it's a spot on the weak side. The best correlation is that of the ranger, and the ranger gets more skill points, Animal Companions, favoured enemies and spells. Even if the fighter feats offset the Combat Style and favoured enemies, the ranger is still up a bit. Perhaps...

Two quick points against Quasqueton, Takyris and the 'smiters': 1. The Concept of distinction between action and motivation As I have already outlined, one can be evil without performing acts normally defined as 'evil', if the motivation for those acts is sufficiently 'evil'. I cited the...

Best Buy at mid-to-high level: Wand of Greater Invisibility (and keep UMD maxed). This is an incredibly useful tool for the rogue. In the surprise round, move adjacent to your foe but don't attack. In round 1, full attack (TWF) against an opponent which is flatfooted with a +2. A mid-to-high...

A quick analysis of the normal distribution (SD=15, Mean=100) reveals that an Int 3 is roughly equal to a 60 IQ in purely intellectual terms. Whilst it's a relatively crude measure since Wis would factor into IQ, the general formula for converted IQ to mental age (in the case of retardation) is...

Three Evil Aristocrats... There are three evil Aristocrats, Lord Nasty, Lady Evil and Baron Unpleasant, who are competitors and are constantly trying to do each other down. They arrange each other's (evil) henchmen to be killed, kidnap each other's (evil, adult) children and are generally bad...

The Gods forbid that Good should ever be merciful, compassionate or understanding! Even in our flawed contemporary world which is certainly not Good, we only reserve capital punishment for the most heinous of crimes, and some countries have banned in- where it is implemented, it is after a full...

Lawful Neutral. Lawful doesn't have to mean 'following the law' or even following a set code. It entails inflexible adherence to a dogma or goal. To this character, it seems that nothing else matters other than the dogma, the quest, the objective. His ardent determination to achieve it...

Having fenced, I'd say that Bluff + Cha is still the best way to go. If you are feinting in a real sword fight, it's not about 'outsmarting' your opponents (Int) or analysing where he's going to go (Wis). It's about making your opponent do what you want him to do. Huge parts of this are body...

Darklone has it right. Taken purely as a psionic class, the psion is probably superior to the wilder, though Wild Surge is a fun power (a 1st level character running around with 2d10 damage spells is going to make a lot of people wake up and take notice...). But the main advantage of the...

Slap on Regeneration 5 (taking normal damage from fire, acid and good) and you should be fine. Seeing the zombies coming 'back to life' should scare the PCs sufficiently... (NB Don't use the standard 'Regeneration turns normal damage subdual' otherwise they will be invincible! Zombies getting...

The only problem I see with Blasphemy is if you start pumping your caster level. For example, if you take the +1 caster level Ioun Stone, the Bead of Karma and five levels of Hierophant with Spell Power than you can get to ten caster levels over people of your equivalent HD. Evil domain gives...

Pick up Deadly Precision from the XPH: it enables you to reroll 1s on sneak attack (though if you roll another 1 you keep it). This increases damage by about 0.42 average points per die i.e. it improved sneak attack damage by 12%. The only problem with stacking lots of sneak attack classes is...

I'm still going for some of the greater deities. The DvR 16+ salient ability Divine Splendour kills all mortal in a 10'/rank radius with no save, and Life and Death kills mortals without any save as well. The deity's neatest trick, however, is Antimagic. Under the description for Antimagic...

I think you mean 'almost never try to get into the thick of the battles'. At mid-to-high levels, most intelligent enemy strategies are to go for the primary spellcasters first (and particularly wizards). The tank fighter is undoubtedly dangerous, but nothing on the 15d6 Empowered Fireballs...