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Using the guidelines from page 42 to allow PCs to perform stunts and ad hoc powers is great and I do this a lot in 4e. I also use the "terrain powers" and stunts from the DMG2 to great effect. Adventures published after the Essentials line frequently offer examples and suggestions as well (VERY...

Minions are also specifically designed to be easy to run, with simple attacks and effects. That is not necessarily true if simply using lower level monsters as minions. Also, minions often have traits that come into play when in groups, or when a leader is present. Of course, a DM can add these...

4e's rolls depend on attacker attack skill and defender's skill, just as in 3e; the difference is in who is making the roll. I agree that miss damage is not needed--I think it was an outgrowth of two things: mitigating when a magic-user attack spell failed in AD&D and providing a game...

I didn't take away that they want the "1 hour" adventure as the design space, but the "short adventure". They had a 1 hour adventure using a simple rules set with a well experienced and focused group.

As others have said, the minion mechanic is more about making an encounter easy for DMs to run than anything else. I had a negative vibe from each part of that Rule of Three: 1. Minions--keeping the one hit kill, but possibly not their other useful aspects 2. Alignment--suggesting that...

It's fun to discuss things--mental exercise, or thought games. I thought that was obvious. It's why most of us engage in these boards at all.

I heartily agree--I won't be sorry to see rules lawyers be sad. RAW doesn't need to rule the game.

In 4e, a house cat isn't a monster with attacks and damage. It's a housecat.

4e Slayer would be Simple or Standard, whereas the 4e Fighter would be Complex. I disagree that all classes should hover around moderate complexity. That was a failing of the initial launch of 4e. Many players want Simple, and a few want very complex. Perhaps different versions or builds could...

What if, instead of rarity, the term "complexity" were used? Classes could be classified as Simple, Standard, and Complex. That would certainly be more useful to me and the new players I see every year than "rarity".

I would like to see a couple cultural types sketched out for each race. Humans can have lots of different cultures, and we often go off of historical human societies for examples. Elves: provide examples for more forest-dwelling types and more magical types Dwarves: underground dwellers and...

One hour is a bit of a short time frame, but I absolutely want this type of game. In fact, if 5e doesn't really support streamlined gameplay where an adventure can happen in a couple hours, I won't buy it, or buy into it. I already have two versions of D&D that are intricate and feature...

The rules didn't make this impossible. In fact, the rogue power provides an example of the best, most optimal version of this special attack/move combo. You can use that as a guideline for other characters trying the same thing. The power structure is liberating to some, as it provides a...

I think a great way to change encounter powers in 4e is by using power points, like 4e psionics. You could change the name to whatever you want (like vitality, fatigue, etc.). During an encounter, the character can "spend" effort to make otherwise at-will attacks even better. Dump dailies...

"Zero-level" spells annoy me. It's a relic of cantrips being put into the game via Dragon Magazine after AD&D printed rules starting with level 1 spells. It reminds me of the story of the Zeroth Law of Thermodynamics. I like spell level to match the level of the caster. The spell-level/caster...

That is a problem with the design of some particular monsters. It is fixed by not having succubi as demons, pretty much. Also, don't design demon princes as arch-devils, simply because you've limited yourself to nine arch devils for some reason. The conflict in the flavor text of a small group...

There were precious few "fighter only" magic items. Some weapons were fighter-only, but many weapons were usable by thieves and clerics (and also paladins, rangers, barbarians, etc.). Other items were typically marked C, F, T or F, T -- I can't think of a fighter-only item off hand. Was Rod of...

I agree that many characters are not described well using alignment. On the other hand, some are, and some creatures are especially well described with an alignment: devils, celestials, certain undead, slaadi, and so forth. Some players really do want to play a character with an archetypical...

(By the way, I didn't say my players wouldn't play without 18's.) It is an immature attitude, and we were teenagers in those games. On the other hand, if someone presents a new game to me, loaded with classes and races, and then my die rolls eliminate a large swath of options right off the...

The problem is not all murderers are evil. Some folks want absolute alignments, other want more subjective alignments, and some don't want alignments. The problem arises when the absolute alignments (which work well for demons and celestials) don't accurately portray the complex behavior of...