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Or the other way around, uncouple the ability to do critical damage from the monster's suceptibility to sneak attacks. It would probably resolve quite a bit of WTF tidbits, like that extra damage the ranger gets vs. special enemies, or the coup de grace (that would easily solve the "impale...

Interesting discussion. Thing is, since "normal" attacks in D&D basically are a character swinging at the general area of his opponent, trying his best to land a solid hit and do some significant damage, critical hits should be those rare "YES! I aimed for the head and HIT IT!" attacks that can...

Looking at how damage potential scales in comparison to attack bonuses with monsters and NPCs in 3E, it definitely would make armor even less valuable than it is already. Taking off 8 points of a +18 attack bonus is a lot better than taking 8 points off 21 points of average damage, especially...

Yeah, it would include more steps than the current version of D&D initiative for sure. Problem is that it would require the other players to listen to the actions of those slower than themselves, in order to be able to react to them, and it would require to note down not just WHEN the character...

Personally, I'd prefer some change to initiative that would create an initiative order depending on what the characters DO, while the initiative roll determines when the character can announce what he intends to do. Full-round actions should finish last in any given round. And about that guy...

May I be bluntly honest? I think that would make people frown even more. "So I'm helpless when held out of combat, but not when in the middle of melee?" Replace Hold Person with extremely tightly bound, sleeping, paralyzed by poison, etc. Defining conditions in the context of in-combat and...

Without intending to be snarky or sarcastic, you're hoping for an ideal situation here. No rule works for every imaginable situation it can be used in for everybody and under every circumstance. There will always be exceptions where you get oddball results. There's a whole player tradition of...

You know, pointing to your own situation repeatedly and arguing that because you feel screwed over the rules must be faulty for a greater range of situations is not extremely convincing :) . From where I stand, you are arguing backwards...actually the rules work pretty nicely for the majority of...

Oh, I dunno...he could play GURPS or HERO instead, one of the game systems where you buy your own custom-made hero through building points. :) I bet he'd find everything he needs there. Bear Warrior from Complete Warrior, indeed...that can replace the Werebear level nicely. :)

Want it low-powered? Take two levels barbarian (for that raging and +2 BAB), 4 levels of sorcerer (for Lesser Fire Orb and 2nd level spells), add the Combat Casting Feat, one level of Rage Mage (Complete Warrior) for Spell Rage, and one level of the Werebear lycanthrope class from Dragon #313...

Not that I disagree on the general abstract nature of hit points, mind you. :lol:

Well, one thing is for sure...looking at the topic, it's pretty ironic how die-hard this thread is. :lol:

I'm simply going to take your perspective on it, and say that I'd like that as well. So...one thing that might be good about 4E again. :)

I'll be bluntly honest here and say that, for a beginner, it is better when he starts with a "class first" angle to character creation...at least in my opinion. And at least when the group per se is relatively new to RPGs. Trying to get the concept of a new player into a rules translation takes...

Wow...I must say, I'm happy for that guy that it made him happy that he got to do character creation in that way with 4E, but...without attempting any snark or anything...I've been doing that kind of character creation (character concept first) for years now, with D&D editions from 2E on, and...

Gleemax, the ultimate Brain Collector...Castle Amber strikes again! Make a Fort save or be added to the collection! :uhoh:

Och, not really...not if you set those "binary" conditions simply as the opposite ends of that continuum, and allow different "speeds" of how you get from one to the other...and wormholes. Definitely wormholes. :D (Sorry, I just feel like we all have been going 'round this carousel thread so...

Depends a lot on the style of play you and your players prefer, and what kind of person that player is, really. I'll simply give a few examples off the top of my head, maybe something helpful comes up. One romance I ran was in a pretty high-level game. The game was relatively immersive where...

Yeah, but isn't a save or die not just a resource attrition effect, too, just aimed at an even more precious resource? :lol:

Thing is, especially in a "points of light" setting, some church of good that wants to clean up the darkness-infested lands surrounding it might petition its patron to provide somebody to help them. Now, it's not that much of a stretch to say that one of the church's female followers who was...