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I have a conceptual problem with "if you want to play an archer, play a ranger." And that's this. What does the fighter do when he's fighting a dragon that just won't land? Plink at it ineffectively with a crossbow? Sit on his hands? Pick his nose? Similarly, if the caravan he's guarding gets...

Realizing that D&D Next is a long way from being published, I wanted to put forward the notion of a race that I really think the game needs to work in. And that's the "Giant" race. Personally, I really like Goliaths and would love to see them join the core - except that I completely hate their...

I think it would be far better if rather than giving the fighter multiple attacks as a default, if we just raised the damage done by a single attack. I've got a thought in my head that the damage of attacks from fighters and others who rely on them (like paladins, rogues, barbarians, rangers...

Here's my take. "Theme" exists for all those things that people think ought to be classes, but aren't really. Things like "Knight," "Noble," "Swashbuckler," "Pirate," "Soldier," "Samurai," "Explorer," "Scholar," and so on should be themes, not classes. If it weren't for the "rage" ability...

I picked "roleplaying theme" because it's the closest to what a class really is in my mind. Which is this: a class is a gamist expression of a heroic archetype that exists in the game world. If there's not a strong enough archetype for the class, it shouldn't exist. A "Fighter" is the trained...

I approve. One of the things I've always remembered (and liked) about the old West End Games d6 Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game was that it let you take multiple actions per round by penalizing your skill at what you were doing for each extra action you took. For example, if your blaster skill...

I would actually endorse choosable "stances" like this as the proper way to build a more complex fighter. Of course, you could probably do it quite effectively using a re-tuned feat system. The standard low-option fighter simply gets a given (pre-chosen) "stance" at the appropriate level...

Take it up with Gary. Hit points don't, and have never been intended to, represent "real damage." They have always been abstract. That's why taking hit point damage has never, in any edition of D&D diminished your fighting capability. I could point you to the appropriate passage in every...

It would be very nice if those who wanted to play defender types could choose to interrupt and block an attack against one of their allies without having to sacrifice their own hit points to do it. Or if they could (mostly) stop an enemy from squeezing around them if they were fighting in a...

Yes, and 3e "multiclassing" was the same as the dual-classing of earlier editions, except that you could go back and forth. I deliberately used the 2nd Edition Bard as an example of a well done jack-of-all-trades class. Because it was. Unlike the 1st edition bard, which had to grow into its...

Well, there were a few 1e players who were annoyed that their overpowered prestige class got nerfed. But other than that? Not that I recall. Among the groups I played with, there was a discussion about whether the 2nd-Edition bard was TOO capable. It had the combat ability of a thief combined...

No comment on the graph because it was a bit confusing to me... As to the rest, I generally agree. It would be nice if the game wanted a certain minimum level of arcane (or other magical) capability and any of several classes could provide it. Sure, it makes sense that a single-classed wizard...

The Green Ronin guys instituted a mechanic like this in the Thieves' World Player's Manual to better capture the feel of casting magic in that setting. If memory serves, there are also casting rolls in the magic system for the Black Company Campaign Setting (also from Green Ronin) and Elements...

Well, I know it would never gain traction in "core" D&D, but I'd love to see a variant rules module where the support abilities of the cleric and the spellcasting of the mage get rolled into a single "spellcaster" class. I know the tendency is to think that such a class would be overpowered...

This is actually one of those areas that really needs a big section of options. Personally, I've always conceptually liked the feel of healing that trades lethal damage for non-lethal damage, or for CON drain that recovers over weeks. Partly, that comes from the early chapters of The Eye of the...

I would have to agree with you. Characters with strengths and weaknesses are vastly more interesting, especially in a team game. The trick is to make sure that the class has one area where they excel, and that they can still contribute meaningfully in the other areas. Nobody likes to be sitting...

Just adding to this idea, by stealing something from OD&D... In OD&D, there was a significant distinction between a hero (of any level) and an "ordinary man." A hero could mow down a group of ordinary men with impunity, but simply adding a hero (even a lower-level one) to that group eliminates...

The closest I ever saw to something almost as evocative as the Cauldron-Born were the Fell from Fantasy Flight's Midnight campaign setting. In that world, the land itself is so corrupt that there is a good chance that the recently dead will rise - with a burning hunger for the flesh of the...

So, I'd like to see Morale guidelines, as opposed to actual rules, that apply to monsters and npc's. In other words, put in something like was mentioned up-thread about general tendencies for a particular monster type. I think it was something like: Goblins: Cowardly Orcs: Fierce Skeletons...

Using the Mentzer Red Box as a template, it wouldn't be that hard to fit a stripped down Core game, similar to OD&D with just the basic 4 classes (Fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue), and races (human, elf, dwarf, halfling). The Mentzer set only went to Level 3, but going to Level 5 wouldn't add a...