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He was fixed to work without the ability, so just ignore the reference.

I believe that Shadow Form was cut for space purposes. It allowed him to turn insubstantial and gain phasing for a round when bloodied, and I think we had to cut the explanation for how those two effects work for space reasons. His stat block is fine* as is, though. *If you assume that fine...

Message received! A few of us in R&D saw this thread, but we completely forgot that retailers were getting early copies of KotS. Sorry! We didn't want to jump into a thread before an official release. I'm reading through this thread now to make sure that we take care of any issues that come up...

It isn't quite that simple. We still want to map all the humanoid types to the different roles, but we'd like to express that flavor in those roles. Here's an example: Gnoll Controller: This guy throws bolas to bring down the pack's prey. He's good at tripping people with ranged attacks, and he...

I think there are two things at work. WotC-ites like myself are but one voice among many. It's easy for someone to just miss the post where we correct someone. I think in most cases, people are simply misinformed when it comes to factual inaccuracies. OTOH, there are people who want to distort...

The problem had already been identified and corrected before D&D XP. The characters were created before that round of changes, and nobody thought to make sure the changes had been implemented to them. There was full rules playtesting, but not everyone took part in it. We used a mix of the two...

I think the flavor issues boil down to a simple issue: what does it change at the table? Does it make more sense for a subtle manipulator to work for devils, or for demons? On that score, I think the change does make the game more fun, because it places a creature in a better context. You...

Garnfellow, this is pretty much why. Playtesting and a few other topics just turn into mindless, recursive arguments that have no resolution. I can't refer to the rules text and say, "Look, this is what the game does." In some cases, people *want* to believe the worst for a variety of reasons...

The 4e playtest process was specifically designed with the successes and failures of the 3e process in mind. Having run a number of playtests, I can with 100% certainty say that just giving people the entire set of rules and hoping they manage to use everything and provide good feedback is the...

One of the frustrating (perhaps the only frustrating) parts of the 4e process was watching people blatantly lie about the process behind creating the game, and knowing that piping in to correct them was a waste of time. The "4e isn't being playtested" meme was perhaps the most common one that...

The similarities between the maps are deliberate. I thought it would be a nice (if perhaps obvious) Easter egg. We couldn't do the Caves of Chaos justice in the adventure, primarily for space reasons, so the adventure itself is a little more moathouse than caves.

I tell the players. The way I see it, a minion is essentially a game construct. If in the world of D&D, this orc can take one hit before crumpling up in a bloody heap, and this orc takes 4 or 5 punches to the face to go down, the characters can tell the difference. In play, I describe minions...

Not to let the cat out of the bag, but I meant to make an analogy with the table thing. There isn't a table, per se, but you could easily construct one from the rules components (whatever those may be...) and use that as a guide.

Very nice!

You know how in pro football, the first time a hot shot young rookie plays a game, someone slams him to the ground and, while he's writhing in pain, yells at him "Welcome to the pros, m**********r!" Yeah, that's what getting to epic level is like.

I was really, really opposed to standardizing advancement. And now, after playing the game, I really, really like it. IMO, on the surface it's neat that people get powers at different rates. At the table, nobody notices that, though. It puts a burden on classes to do different stuff (which is...

I can't speak to the rod issue, but this one I can sort of tackle, but probably not in a way you expect. I frankly can't remember which race Peter is talking about. One of the interesting things about the 4e process is watching issues morph from hot topic issues of debate to things that are...

There's a gnome wizard PC in my Temple of Elemental Evil campaign. EDIT: Using the rules from the MM.

In the MM, the oni only gains his bonus damage on melee attacks. Also, we dropped the term "sneak attack" from most monsters and used language like "when this creature has combat advantage, it gains X, Y, and Z" precisely to avoid confusing the rogue ability with a benefit a monster might get...

Cool! Well, if he ever has time for a break from producing hit computer games, he's always welcome back into the D&D writing fold.