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I like that from the fairness angle, and it's pretty close to what I actually did. I invented at the table, a klah-tasting potion for the orcs to stabilize the paladin, which felt like distasteful fudging, and then ran a split adventure where the paladin and warmage made a deal with the slaves'...

I'm not sure if we thought you were limited to a straight line, or what. I am way too wussy to let myself roll the dice in secret. The dice are my saviors, they add all the actual danger to combat because they don't care if the characters die. That's why I'm complaining here about situations...

In that example, the group pursued two orcs into a room, the hallway became congested (paladin, fighter, and halfling ranger) and the rogue decided to go around to the back. This was about a 170-foot trip (down a conveyor belt, behind an orc sentry, and down a staircase). Another example: One...

To expand on the reason I don't want to just play RAW and let the party get its just deserts: for dramatic reasons, I want to be in control of whether the characters have a chance to die. Because there are times when I'm perfectly OK with the dice ruling and characters dying: when they're...

More ideas I like: Sure! If the one PC shouts "hold him off!" and then does his maneuver, the paladin can disengage some or do total defense (another good idea).

Two suggestions I see that I like: * Have the boss send some minions around to look for flankers or "the others" (Thornir). This works for all kind of split-party events and gets everyone involved. * Have the monster step back and drink a potion (Mark CMG). This adds more cool magic to the...

I am sorry that it took me so long to get back to explain m original post. I worked a 12-hour shift yesterday, all my breaks were interrupted, and I had to bring work home. Points: * I play Goodman Games modules with the entire map drawn out on easel paper, so all of this sneaking is taking...

My players don't seem to realize that the average 3.5 combat is supposed to last five rounds, and they keep undertaking things like "sneaking around to the back through the other room" which is tantamount to splitting the party. How can I make the monster team give up whaling on the paladin...

This isn't explained well. You haven't explained what you're going to take away from the druid, only what you're going to give them, so it sounds like you're just adding a bunch of abilities to the druid... until I get to the line here a druid has to give up a domain to get an animal companion...

The instant I open a door and see the entire room covered with runes, I'd be hooked. And that puzzle is a great payoff for it. What numbers did you use exactly? I'm thinking you would want it to be +4 to +6 to AC initially, so that the PCs would have to use the control panel if they wanted to...

This thread turned out just as hilarious as I hoped. The one that appealed to my sense of humor most was "Gelatinous Cube (if it engulfed a Bard)." A Devourer could do well at the duet thing. Or how about a mimic -- the party comes across a player piano, playing itself, and doesn't even...

The idea of monster bards amuses me and I just wanted to see what you creative types would do with it.

I tried using 10+BAB as the tumble DC in 3.5 once. I gave up on it when an ogre barbarian caught a character tumbling and like to killed him, and I realized I'd instituted a rule that actually discouraged mobility in combat. I might have pulled the trigger too soon since it was a CR 7 and the...

My instinct would be to focus on buffing the party instead. That moves the DMPC into the background and helps the fighter/wizard and rogue/wizard make up for the BAB they're losing.

Well, Zak did a brilliant thing with Justine by giving her a secret to hang onto. Where Sasha summed up her experience by "so I'm sitting here... sucking," Justine could be thinking "I'm sitting here... waiting for my chance to be special!" And she was important to the plot, too, which builds...

Yeah -- like this epic-length post on railroading, and all those monster manual entries about how liches thematically are really about how laws and traditions set up by long-dead men constrict our lives. Very brainy. They do so much work to make it better -- I don't know if it's the sponsors...

I really liked episode 11 of the "I hit it with my axe" series. (Watch it here, I couldn't embed it.) No one is acting here -- the players are totally into the game emotionally. And yet they're still porn stars, not geeks -- they say things that would only be in character for porn stars to...

Like, make the first player's choice binding on the whole party. "I fly to the top of the cliff" means the next roll of the skill challenge becomes about getting to the top after the boulder rollers are alerted. "I go the long way around" means the next roll is about enduring the hot hot sun...

I really didn't do a good job of understanding the game descriptions. The Dark Sun arena is obviously not player versus player when I reread it. I realized that being able to bring your own character is actually a tremendous plus and something 4E is awesome for allowing. I've only played...

It would be interesting to play in some of your one-hour-prepped games. I imagine I still wouldn't believe it was possible to create what you did in an hour -- I'd just be jealous, like when I see somebody write a 1000-word blog essay and say "oh by the way this took twenty minutes."