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No, because being grappled by a big monster is no fun. (And believe me, I've seen this on both sides of the table, playing and DMing.) You basically get to roll a D20 with no chance of success once per round and hope that the rest of the party can kill the creature before you die. I'm not...

One of the problems with grappling is that it's almost impossible to escape from a big monster once it has you. Big monsters almost always have a high strength and BAB as it is. Add on +8 for being Huge (for example), and they're nigh unescapable. Here's what I'm thinking. "When making a...

There is nothing in the current Rules As Written that makes it impossible for a fall off a horse to do more than D6 damage. (Or if you prefer, that it not result in an instant death effect that bypasses hitpoints.) Show me where in the PHB or the DMG it says that you can't die from falling off...

I've been following this thread, and I'd like to offer something up. A key point has been made about events that "the rules say can't happen". I dispute the idea that an outcome not being one of the possibilities provided by the rules is the same thing as saying something "can't happen"...

I just had to respond to this one. The same principle that allows a 20th level NPC off-screen to fall from a horse and break his neck logically also allows a dragon to kill him with a single bite, without whittling away at his hitpoints. It also allows him to die from an arrow through the eye...

Here's the thing, and the reason I put this in the 4E forum. The DM does not get to do this to your character. (At least, not without discussion and consent around the gaming table.) Your character gets to operate within the assumptions of the rules that simulate reality. NPCs/monsters do...

What do you call everything that happens during cutscenes if not fluff over rules?

I fundamentally disagree. The rules may say something cannot happen, but that doesn't mean a situation can't arise where it wouldn't happen anyway if it makes sense within the context of the game world. Or in other words, fluff trumps crunch. Always. The fluff is that Drizzt is a...

Why couldn't he? Is his flesh impervious to being hit with great force at the bottom of the fall? Is he physically different in some way from a 1 HD dark elf? Under the game simulation he won't die, because it's a heroic simulation where he'll somehow land just right or catch a bush on the...

I consider it lazy and devoid of imagination to assume that there must be a rule covering everything that could possibly happen in the game world. Something are not worth including in the simulation provided by the rules, because it is not desirable for them to happen by random chance. Some...

Perhaps I didn't put it the right way then. Let me try again. "It is fundamentally impossible for the rules of any RPG to accurately and completely model the physics of the game world, and thus any rule set will always be a rough simulation. You're just fooling yourself if you think they do."

Picking up on something from the "Stephen Radney-Macfarland" thread that I thought deserved its own discussion. I offer this up for debate: Game rules are not intended to model the physics of the game world. Rather, game rules are intended to offer up a rough simulation of the game world that...

Magic shops are awesome. I'm pleased as punch that you can go out for a night of wine and wenching (With potential mechanical benefits? That would be the awesome too.) and wake up to go to your friendly neighborhood arcane ritualist for some magicked up armor. It just feels right. Anyway...

I like breadth, but I could do with a reduction in size. I love quirky, fun spells like Unseen Servant, Shrink Item, and Rope Trick. But do we really need 70 different spells that do damage to opponents with slightly different special effects? Do we really need 30 different ways to give...

A few times. Almost never when playing D&D 3.x, since D&D is a very mechanistic game where it feels silly to cheat. (What's the point in going through all the effort to stack the modifiers if I'm not going to live with the roll?) But once in a great while, there will be a game situation where...

At Epic levels, I expect many PCs will be on their way to being actually immortal. If you're in taste range of actual immortality, being "effectively immortal" doesn't seem such a leap.

But the rules only apply if the PCs are involved. If an NPC archmage needs to die for the sake of the story, it's okay to have him fall off a 20 foot tall ladder and break his neck. Nobody in the the game world is going to protest, 'He's an archmage! No archmage would ever die from a 20 foot...

In our party, we split it up. My Beguiler maxes out Search, and the party Factotum takes Disable Device. Of course, in my experience traps aren't a big deal anyway. If someone triggers a trap, we sigh and break out the cure wand to pump them back up to full hitpoints, then tiredly continue on...

Use Magic Device is a great class skill to have. I actually finished off the big boss of the adventure with a scroll of Shatter and a good Use Magic Device check. After we dispelled the creature's buff spells (including its fly) and beat on it, it Dimension Doored to the outside of the tower...

I've been playing through the Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path with a Beguiler. Last night I played my first session with the PC as a Beguiler 6/Mindbender 1 (going to continue as a straight Beguiler). With seven levels of play under my belt, I feel qualified to offer some...