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Well, Monster HP scales faster than PC damage so hitting more often is a nice way of helping keep the game pacing, IMO.

To Hell with Arrows, +1 Magical. That's just rubbish. If I want to give me players +1 to hit I'll either bite the bullet and give them a way to obtain a magical bow, a limited-use magical quiver, or the magical oils route. Deliberate and distinctive magic arrows, for me, need to evoke shades of...

13th Age made the correct approach to weapons an armor. None of them function in a vacuum. Instead the AC and Damage payloads are based on the class's relationship to weapon categories (simply v. martial, ranged v. melee, light/medium/heavy). For example, Rogues deal the same damage with their...

Now that is an interesting idea. It might be even more interesting if it wanted to be the Sun - for its flame to usurp the star itself, and thus also the solar system. It's such a nice neighborhood, really, with intelligent life in orbit, worshipers and all that ... I'm sure Ra / Pelor /...

I recommend the majestic Ash Gromnie: http://asheron.wikia.com/wiki/Gromnie Basically a lightning-breathing alligator. Marty Lund

Fire is the elemental affinity associated with substantive change in the nature of things - it's always discontent with the status quo and trying to change itself and its environs. This can be positive or negative. In that regard, a Fire Elemental could desire almost anything other than for the...

I'm actually in a similar boat. I'm running the Lost Mines of Phandelver for a pair of friends. They happened to wind up both playing Rangers - a sharp shooter and a dual-wielder, pretty complementary stuff. Here's my big take-away from the initial experience: just lowering the CRs won't cut it...

Bah, properly killing people in armor and whatnot is a waste of money. Mussing up the armor (like driving an ax or a spear through the breastplate) ruins its value. Dead enemies can't be ransomed or sold into slavery either. Yeah, killing farmers, bandits, and militia in rubbish armor is one...

Even the full-sized man-portable repeating crossbow was so weak it was almost worthless against medium/heavy armor. You had to use poison hand hope for a grazing injury. You just can't cheat physics without magic. The energy for each shot has to come from somewhere, or in this case someone. The...

Hand crossbows are not semi-automatic weapons. You aren't performing "gun-kata" nonsense with them. You'll have to settle for the rest of the crossbow nonsense, longbow nonsense, sword nonsense, and magical lightning bolt shenanigans. Nothing to see here. Move along. ;) Marty Lund

Typically by either taking the Warcaster Feat, dropping or stowing the mace, or gesturing with his or her holy-symbol emblazoned on the shield as the somatic and material component. Most of the cleric material + somatic mojo is about waving the icon of your deity at something so the gods can...

Kick out reason and do the impossible! Seriously, if this gets over-powered at my table I'll just demand an amusing one-liner in recompense whenever Lucky Disadvantage is invoked. ;) Marty Lund

Eh, it makes rapier + hand crossbow effectively the same thing as cutlass + black powder pistol would've been for pirates. Once you spend your shot you'll have to stop sword-fighting long enough to reload the blasted thing with both hands. It seems like Drow traditionally should be either...

Compared to living expenses for downtime days starting adventurers are living hand-to-mouth in a bad way. They can barely afford to feed themselves and replace their starting equipment if stolen / destroyed. You've got to start pulling down level 5-10 treasure to really move out of the...

That's because they got rid of "Neutral," in that edition. "Unaligned," made a lot more sense. Instead the alignments were basically: I care so much I make personal sacrifices and submit to just authority for the sake of others. I care so much I make personal sacrifices for the sake of...

In the Krynn setting it is pretty simple: would you murder an innocent child if I paid you enough money? If the answer is "yes," then you are evil. Period. If the answer is, "no," then the question is "where do you draw the line, and why?" For the most part, anyone willing to kill someone else...

We can disagree on our personal preferences, sure. Eh, I'd take it the other way. We're dealing with a game. It's composed of a series of systems - many of which are mutable / optional in the first place. Or a story is something that exists a priori, and systems are applied as appropriate to...

Sure, if your table is interested in a game that works that way have fun. I'm just not going to consider it a system flaw if trying to do that has negative consequences. Nothing in the rules as written suggests you need to apply all the Combat mechanics all time - or even every time someone...

More specifically, hit points what separate a character from being beaten into a helpless, senseless state (unconscious). Maybe that's some meat, some dumb luck, a bunch of stamina, and probably a pain threshold too. It doesn't really matter, though. If an enemy has Hit Points he's resisting...

I disagree. Given your standard compliment of murderous hobos that make up an adventuring party you have about 3-5 people with swords, axes, hammers, bows, fire bolts, and other implements of death and mayhem capable of killing / mortally wounding a "normal" person in a single stroke. On the...