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I'm going to agree with the OP.. sort of. To me, it's a psychological issue. In previous editions of D&D, the whole thing was more freeform and so social roleplaying and combat roleplaying tended to bleed into each other. You disarmed a foe because you really wanted to disarm a foe, despite...

Mmm.. some things wouldn't make sense in the continuity.. if the attack does no damage, you shouldn't be slowed or stunned or whatever by it. I consider that non-numerical 'damage.' If my hit lets me shift, though, I still get my shift despite the lack of damage.

This, to me, is very genre specific. Did Legolas ever run out of arrows? No. He pulled them from dead stuff or whittled them or bought them, or heck, maybe he pulled them out of his posterior. Who knows - point is, in high-level fantasy, no one cares. You'll need every last one of those...

"I dislike the idea of forcing character behavior through a die roll" I thought about this myself at first, but then it occurred to me, aren't we really forcing most combat behavior through a die roll? You don't roleplay being dead - a die roll (or series) determines it. Unless you're playing...

I've gotta go with the Mouse on this one. Something's just not right about being unable to disarm an opponent because it upsets the game balance or is somehow 'unfair.' Now, what to do about it... The basic concept of disarm is "I knock your weapon out of your hand and put my blade to your...

Anyone like to venture a guess as to why Frigid Blade uses the unwieldy 'penalty to speed' mechanic rather than the simpler "slowed" condition? It seems a bit counter to the overall design goal of the edition. Dimensional Thunder is fun, but overly complex in my opinion. I just about fell...

I'm inclined to follow continuity over RAI, given that RAW is ambiguous. If myself or my players can't teleport a foe over a cliff because of 'game balance,' then the suspension of disbelief is broken - and what's a roleplaying game without suspension of disbelief? The BBEG should know better...

Something I'd taken to doing as a GM, though it's admittedly a little complex, is assign minion status on the fly. Its based from this concept.. but backward: Giant In the Playground Games Basically, nothing starts out as a minion. Things then become minions as a) they suck in a fight and don't...

I've been running/playing 4E for about two months now, and IMHO, the powers system is problematic in two ways: a) you can't always find powers to match the style of character and b) the psychology of resources is way different. To address (a), this will get sorted out slowly over the course...

You know, you really might be better off trying to make the class something that doesn't absorb the powers as written, but the keywords of the powers. An at-will like.. say.. Elemental Bolt At-Will * Arcane, Implement Gathering your foe's residual magic, you launch an assault that borrows...

You almost have to allow customization of powers to get a real sense of character identity in 4E, IMHO. F'rinstance, I'm playing a gnomish ironsmith-turned-artificer undergoing a midlife crisis that prompts him to go adventuring. All of his adventuring tools are rune-inscribed household...

as far as I understand RAW, I'm going with Chen - the attack was interrupted and so your PC can either take her OA for going around the dragonshield and finish her charge or she loses her action. If she can't finish the charge, the action is lost. That being said, this is a roleplaying game...

This only happened to me once - we were playing MARVEL, actually, but that's beside the point. I let the characters fight to the last man, then plot-device killed the last one, janked all their stuff and sent all the players home three hours early. The importance of the gaming 'social...

I happen to have a group of players with a really solid grasp of rules balance, so DISCLAIMER: Your Mileage May Vary with this idea. I also tend to run a lot of low combat density roleplaying, where we might have one or two encounters per session, and almost never two fights on the same game...

The short answer to the OP's question, IMHO, is "Yes, if you like playing a Warlord." An Artificer on his/her own is simply walking XP for some monster somewhere, but the ability to dole out a nearly constant +1 AC bonus is spectacular. Damage bonus from Spike Wire is nice if you can get a...

My $0.02, FWIW Other than the rogue not quite getting back to the party fast enough, your team has the basics down pretty well. They may not have style or grace yet, but the fundamentals are there. It sounds to me like you need to incorporate ranged attackers into your encounters. I don't...

The reason I have the new at-will replace the current one is because (and I now see I didn't write this down), the healing surge mechanic isn't good as it's written now. CON is not a primary stat and you're already required to have good CHA and at least DEX or STR, maybe both, so you'll get 7...

Anthony - go look up 'Dogs in the Vineyard' Sweet Mother Mary, now there's a non-combat skill resolution system, though it does handle combat as well. To put it shortly, you start out by rolling a boatload of dice based on your stats and skills and then play sort of a poker variant with the...

Agreed with Runestar. This is not an optimized build and should probably mention that on the article. WoTC clearly makes their builds for flexibility, not focused effectiveness. What you've got here, RigaMortus, is a decent swordmage facsimile. WoTC has something that's mostly effective in...

Heck, we could make this a running cleric build. How about... Blazing Bacon Cleric Attack 3 You invoke the most holy of meats, and your weapon sizzles and crackles. When you strike your foe, a blazing strip of bacon burns its way into the foe's forehead, guiding your allies' attacks with its...