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My interpretation differs. Her "Spider Queen" form also has 634 hp, and the trigger for Divine Discorporation is "Lolth drops to 317 hp or fewer." So when the sidebar states, "When Lolth drops to one-quarter of her hit points," I believe it refers to her total hit points across both stat blocks...

Hmm, so if one player rolls a 20, the monsters all roll in the teens, and the remaining players roll single digits, then all the monsters go before all the PCs but one. But if you add one monster who rolls a 21, then all the PCs go before all the monsters but one. Seems weird, but I suppose it's...

I've been dying to try the ars ludi approach for a while, but I haven't found time to start a new group since moving to San Francisco. The way I see it, it's the difference between parallel processing and serial. As a computer scientist, I appreciate the speedup possible with parallel...

Ah, I see. Yeah, I like the story behind the bullywug more than I like its mechanics. Anyway, the crauds feel very different to me. Instead of a race of dim-witted (Int 6-10) frog-men, crauds are straight-up monsters: Medium beasts (Int 3) that plague coast and sea. The artwork manages not...

The crauds doesn't seem dorky to me, but then again I like the bullywugs. Mind you, I haven't had much time to peruse the book closely, but the oblivion moss, mentioned in a recent D&D Alumni, looks pretty cool. It's a level 12 elite controller that has an encounter power that prevents a PC...

I prefer the combat rules themselves to be fairly streamlined: players should have a handful of interesting choices at each decision point and not too much bookkeeping. But I prefer a large number of character builds and equipment options, so that each player can have a completely different set...

The Ambush Spider (Level 2 Lurker) is very fast and only needs regular concealment or cover to hide. The Spiderling is a Level 4 Minion Skirmisher inflicts cumulative vulnerability to poison. The Feyspitter Spider (Level 7 Controller) has poison that sends it victims into a dreamlike dance...

Alas, I believe you cannot use immediate actions during your own turn.

"Choldriths are always female, and they resemble driders, except their skin is pale." They are the most powerful monster in the Chitine section, all natural humanoids with the spider keyword. They are priestesses of Lolth. Forsaken are epic humanoids inhabited by the divine energy of gods slain...

I organize my power reference sheet the same way. I figure we already have color as an easy way to find powers by frequency of use; we should be using space to group by action type and trigger. Yeah, and I hope they follow suit with their pregen character sheets. That would be awesome! (And...

Yeah, I picked up my copies of Monster Manual 3 and Deserts of Athas at D&D Encounters on Wednesday. I thought all stores running Encounters got this stuff early. They are allowed to sell them early, right?

I just got my set, too—thanks, D&D Encounters!—and I agree about the design. But I find myself really wanting to create a desert-island side trek now!

WotC has already published stat blocks for gods that the PCs can slay in the default setting, so why can't some Dark Sun campaigns involving deposing a sorcerer king? Those for whom "epic Dark Sun" is an oxymoron can stop after paragon tier.

Actually, instead of using fewer monsters, you might consider simply using lower-level monsters. For example, a party of three 3rd-level PCs might have a more dynamic combat with five 1st-level monsters (500 XP) instead of three 3rd-level monsters (450 XP). Once your party gains a couple of...

While I agree that wizards probably don't need another Class Acts article, I think the distribution of articles should follow demand, instead of seeking uniform coverage. Wizards probably did need more attention, and I would guess artificers have not become a very popular class. (Although I...

This point is key. The GM's primary goal is fun, but he or she should not bear sole responsibility for the players' enjoyment. In this respect also, D&D is a collaborative effort. That said, the DM is typically the group leader, in this meta-game sense.

Rechan, your question is quite broad, and I suspect you may be overthinking the issue. I suggest you try simply making some of your players' incidental decisions tougher. Provide incentives, reasons, and motivations to deviate from the expected course of action. Example: the default action...

I agree 100%. Adventure modules should inspire the DM, and background details can enrich the campaign. The crux of the issue at hand seems to be how to communicate such information. I can't speak for all DMs, but I prefer these background details and flavor elements to be outside the combat...

I don't see the two quotes as intrinsically in conflict. One refers to the characterization of NPCs and the other refers to the mechanical design of monsters. I certainly appreciate both campaigns with engaging characters and game systems with simple-to-run rules. I think the key issue is that...

Great news--I like what he's done for the game--although I can't say I'm surprised. He's been a rising star in the company for a while.