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I'm with everyone else who can't stand forcing rangers into a binary "two-weapon vs. archery" decision. Those are both perfectly reasonable ranger character concepts, but it's a little batty to divide up the whole class between those two options. At its core, a ranger is a fighter that...

I agree with your overall analysis, but disagree with this particular point. Medium armor doesn't have to work differently than heavy armor. The conceptual space for medium armor is "like heavy armor, but not as good." The purpose of medium armor is to create classes (like the cleric) that...

The feel of BECMI has a lot to do with the simple rules structure, so I doubt it is compatible with the rules completeness of 3e. Or, to be more accurate, you may be able to get a game that can hit both of those targets (through optional modules), but not at the same time. -KS

According to the proficiency listings, clerics get light and medium armor (but no shields), while fighters get all armor and all shields. Several differences: The fighter can use any martial weapon. The cleric (without racial or war domain abilities) can only use basic weapons and simple...

Are you serious? Fighters have better weapon attacks, armor and hit points -- plus the fighter abilities currently expressed in fighter's surge (presumably the "simple alternative" to maneuvers). Clerics have divine spells, channel divinity and an appropriately themed domain. -KS

This is an interesting issue, but I tend to think it's more about DMing than rules. A good DM will make sure that different NPCs have different connections to or reasons to focus on different PCs. The old veteran NPC or the academic NPC will prefer to speak with the powerful fighter PC or the...

I seriously doubt that the human stat bonuses are overpowered. For most characters, it's a hit point and +1 on 60% of their non-primary ability/skill checks. That's nice. I'd even go so far as to say that it's good. But it's not obviously better than the abilities the other races get. It...

I curious what folks think will be the unintended consequences of bounded accuracy. We've already discussed the logistical challenges of handling dozens (or hundreds!) of weak opponents with the same stats. I suspect that D&DN will need a horde/swarm mechanic much as prior editions did (but...

I really like the idea of making human a race that is "top tier" for every class. 4e generated far too much "cantina effect" because the two-primary-stat system made humans a second best choice for most classes. That having been said, I'm not sure where I fall on the +1 to all attributes...

The whole question of "base measurement amount" misses the point. If you're drawing a map, a square should be whatever size you need it to be to fit the encounter area onto the paper / wet-erase / whiteboard you're drawing on. If the room is small, a 5-foot square is fine. If the space...

Most of my gaming experience involves a mixture of casual and hardcore players. I was able to have a lot of fun with 4e in an all (or mostly) hardcore group because the players learned their characters well and were able to quickly make the type of detailed tactical decisions that 4e is chock...

I thought it would be useful to let everyone know that, once you open the survey, you need to complete it in a single session. The survey tells you that, but only after you begin it. I hope this saves some heart ache for anyone tempted to complete it on an unreliable connection or who want to...

Playing without minis and loving it. I'm looking forward to returning to a 2e / early 3.0 system where an adjustable-scale map is used for relative position, but the grid lines are only a guide to distance. If you have a battlefield that is 600 feet from side to side, you just draw the field...

Because they want to try a mixture of old rules and new rules. Vancian is more central to the magic user experience and clerics have already experimental with limited spontaneous casting, so cleric is the logical place to try something new. -KS

By default, I would like to see the wizard, cleric and sorcerer all cast spells in a different way (e.g. pure Vancian, spontaneous Vancian, spontaneous fixed list or spell point). But at the same time, I'd like to see optional rules so any of the classes can be converted to one of the other...

Half of old-school is the "less is more" approach to character abilities. I wouldn't expect to see reaction and morale mechanics in this first round, as those rules clearly belong in optional modules. Anyway, I love the toolbox approach. I'm not sure I'd ever run without backgrounds and...

I've run parts of B5 Horror on the Hill for play test. I disagree that you can just use the monster stats (I use printouts of the new D&DN monsters), but otherwise you can pretty much play. The one issue I've run into is that the early D&D modules tend to give out an awful lot of treasure...

I strongly disagree. Past editions of D&D (to varying degrees) have been far more flexible than the OP suggests. Published rules have included non-standard D&D genres like Masque of the Red Death, Birthright, Ravenloft and Dark Sun, and plenty of folks have home settings like the...

The math errors shouldn't obscure the OP's essentially correct point: HPs are too important to character balance to be random by default. Yes, there is a 91% chance that characters will be in the 40-70 range, but there is a huge difference in effectiveness between a 40 hp fighter and a 70 hp...

Monsters cast spells for two reasons: (1) Monsters cast spells because they will attack PCs by casting spells at them (or otherwise use spells in combat). (2) Monsters cast spells when the PCs aren't around because they are doing things in the world and spell casting is a part of that. Type...