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I agree, that's probably the common case even in sandbox campaigns. However, my players do surprise me, if not every week then once every two or three. If the previous session ended at the entrance to the Lich's cavern, then I will have a very good idea about what the next session looks like...

Are you talking about encounters in general or combat encounters specifically? (My random encounter tables usually feature all kinds of encounters.) I don't usually prepare "encounters" for the interaction pillar, but that's where I spend most of my prep time - coming up with NPCs, their...

That very much depends on the campaign. I can imagine sandbox campaigns where almost no encounter you prepare would be one that you'd be sure to use. No way to know which direction the players take it. I think creating random encounter tables is a way to prepare encounters ahead of time. When...

I liked the linked article. Now onto the kobolds. :devil: People, your kobolds are way tame. If my players attempted a 15MAD approach with kobolds of all things, they wouldn't just sit there. Or have escaped with their treasure. They would at least have done both of those (50% chance the party...

Except that's not always true - in fact, in some types of campaigns that's seldom true. The main place I use random encounter tables is precisely where I don't know if the encounter would get used.

In those terms my preference is 2A + temp damage, with some magic item healing on top. I think 3e could have done a lot of interesting things with non-lethal damage. Examples where 5e could use it are stunts like tripping or bull rush, weapon differentiation (e.g. blunt weapon crits are half...

I would appreciate an easier way to track encumbrance, but having the rules for tracking it is important. IMC, I ask my players to track anything on their person. Most stuff is carried by pack animals and I just make a ruling on it.

Mine is that they should be included in the DMG (since that's what I always have at the table), but additional digital tools are a good idea (since they are quicker to use when preparing adventures). Some types of random tables take a lot of space in books and might be better as digital only...

How would any of us know what is atypical when we have only played in a tiny minority of campaigns? :)

The examples I gave are from AD&D. Can't remember which were in 1e and which in 2e. In any case, there are probably others. In 3e by the book 5% of randomly generated items are cursed. Of those about half are beneficial, but with drawback or flaws. If you limit yourself to uncursed items you...

Forgot to mention that 3e Cleric would become pretty much optimal IMO, if you take out about half the shared spells in favor of making all domains as interesting as the best ones.

There are mechanics that make adding spells balanced, but they haven't been explored a lot. One example are the Initiate feats in 3.5 PGtF. Each is a feat that gives Clerics of a certain faith both a thematic ability and a few spells to add to their spell list. Another way to balance new spells...

Fighter: 1st-2nd Cleric: 3rd Rogue: 3rd Wizard: 1st-2nd Fighter and Wizard AD&D, because they were in better balance than in 3e. Not sure about 1st vs. 2nd edition, because I haven't played them recently. Cleric and Rogue 3e, except that high level Clerics are... somewhat powerful.

Out of those? Bard.

Good point, I misunderstood. However, I'm not sure that's (purely) a good thing. If healing uses up character resources, it means that there is a hard limit of one Cleric (or Warlord/whoever can heal). Having no Cleric is a Bad Thing, while having two is much less useful. If healing uses...

But it's not just for the sake of different mechanics. There is both an in-game and a meta-game reason for why those resources work differently.

Thus, (fixed) in the post you quoted. You can make CLW heal 10% of target's hit points or 25% or whatever. No need for either surges or wounds to do that. In low level 3e (and most levels of AD&D) that's not really the case, since going into fights with some damage is common. Anyway, the short...

I think ability scores and class level should both have a significant effect on attack bonus, just not as high as 3e (or 4e, especially for non-fighters). +10 from BAB and max +5 from ability would work for me. For example: fighter has 1/2 BAB (round 1/2 up), cleric and rogue have 1/3 BAB...

That could work, but what are its advantages over a (fixed) pre-4e hp system? I can see that it would mean you enter most encounters with full hp, so the number of wounds only matters once you have too many (what's the limit?) - I personally don't consider this a feature, but some might. It...

Ok, we'll have to agree to disagree. It just isn't as satisfying to me when you know no wound has long term consequences and the characters can push through anything with pure will.