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I actually like the term suggest by That Other Thread: stamina points. My dictionary (the Mac OS X dictionary widget) defines stamina as "the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort," and having positive hit points corresponds to having this ability. That said, I think "hit...

Honestly, I think that is what the designers have in mind. The fact that the player chooses when the warlord's tactics succeed is no more or less outrageous than players choosing when to use action points, especially in 3E when a typical usage of an action point is to modify a die roll. The...

Then poison has certainly changed in role; my 3.5 DMG lists almost 30 poisons in Table 8-3, only one of which inflicts hp damage. (Even that one also inflicts secondary Con damage.) Honestly, I won't miss the 3rd Edition poisons specifically, but I do hope that 4th Edition can model the...

funny, I was about to start this thread I have always modeled long-term injury as ability damage. Such injuries actually impair your ability to fight and otherwise go on adventures, and they can take over a week to heal naturally. I have even considered allowing ability scores to drop below...

I'll second the nomination of Dragon's Lair, although again based only on familiarity with the Austin location. Their web site is at http://www.dragonslairtx.com/.

The calculus of rules I voted "rules heavy; like it that way," but I wanted to clarify how I define the relevant terms. You can interpret "rules heavy" to mean "there are a lot of rules" (rule complexity) or "there is a rule for (almost) everything" (rule coverage). When it comes to combat in...

I read the ECS cover to cover and loved it. Eberron is my favorite campaign setting. But I voted for Pathfinder anyway. The reason is that I am trying to finish my PhD, and as a (slow, methodical, newbie) DM I don't have time to create adventures from whole cloth. I treasure polished...

Just the fact that you're aware of the interaction between treasure and game mechanics is a good sign. In the last campaign I played, the DM had our 3rd-level party fighting (and looting) goblins who randomly had +2 weapons, while the newbie player with the sorceress never found a single scroll...

I agree with your first sentence. Nothing that the OP described makes me think that anybody made any "mistakes" in playing the game. I will say that the OP should consider that how he handles this situation will set the tone for the rest of his campaign. At one extreme, the players could...

It does suck when your character gets unlucky and dies, but for me, these risks are a part of the game. They are what make the character's actions heroic. Even then, death does not have to be permanent. Even if the PCs are not powerful enough to cast Raise Dead, perhaps they can petition...

IMHO, you were too nice. D&D games are [like] relationships. If your needs aren't getting met, you have (at least) three options. First, hope that the other people notice your unmet needs, care about them, and change their behavior for the sake of the group. In the meantime, you resign...

I have also found Paizo's shipping to be very slow. I submitted my first and last order on December 30, and I didn't receive the items (all then in stock) until January 26, literally fifteen minutes before I had to leave for the game in which I intended to use some of my new purchases. I ended...

Perhaps the character can use the Emulate Class Ability feature of Use Magic Device to emulate the required caster level? Then every round he wants to use Dual Wand Wielding, he must make a DC 25 UMD check.

Why not ask her? IME, most players know in what class they will take their next level. If everyone simply works out their new levels ahead of time, you can gradually dole out the incremental benefits as you see fit. Besides interpolating the PC's hp between her current amount and her already...

From your original post, I gathered that the issue for your problem player wasn't one of plausibility, it was one of a perceived shift in genre or flavor. Particularly if the campaign began in a seedy pirate city, the addition of a dinosaur-riding druid could certainly seem jarring. Clearly...

The elements that ruin my immersion in a fantasy game world do so by bringing along with them associations with some other world or genre. It's not about how weird or outlandish a creature is; as others have pointed out, beholders and gelatinous cubes are pretty far out there. However, if...

Yes, in analogy to the topic of this thread, I think it's easy to overlook the silent majority of unaligned/neutral people. It's just the vocal minority of strongly aligned people who are posting about 4e with any regularity. I won't touch the question of which camp corresponds, in this...

One critical variable is the interest level of the new player. If he's new but dedicated to learning the game, help him with character creation to get him started but let him learn the system by doing. Even a sorceror is fine; he'll get the handle of his focused selection of spells before too...

I agree wholeheartedly that DMs have the right to include whatever creatures they desire in their campaigns. That said, in the context of D&D, a dinosaur is definitely more exotic than a dragon, from the perspective of players. I would wager a large sum of money that if we were to poll a...

I'm with you. IMC, I define (mortal) good and evil in terms of a character's attitudes towards strangers. Everyone can behave decently to their friends (except when they hurt the ones they love in the way that all humans do). Good characters feel an innate desire to help strangers; evil...