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I think I would characterize the difference in inspiration thus: REH offers a lot of inspiration for adventures. Tolkein offers inspiration for campaigns.

Actually, whirling blade is great against high level foes--at least when you actually mean high level foes rather than tough foes for your level. A quickened whirling blade is a great 6th level spell because, not only does it work like a quickened lightning bolt with an attack roll rather than...

I ran a Living Greyhawk table for a PC that had brutal throw, quickdraw, and a massive quiver of javalins. That was the first time I saw it in play and it seemed... nifty but nothing game-breaking, at least for PCs. The sample optimized 7th level stats: +14 (1d6+9)/+14 (1d6+9)/+14 (1d6+5)/+9...

Wraithstrike is absolutely heinous, especially when combined with pretty common fighter/mage tactics. Wraithstrike, meet contingent improved blink (or contingent blink at lower levels or just straight-up blink at mid levels). Whatever you're facing, unless it has Uncanny Dodge, or See...

A. Not true. Even a core rules only fighter with Combat Expertise and a Tower Shield can get an AC that CR 20 dragons need to roll decently in order to hit. A character who uses non-core options to optimize AC can make the dragon actually unlikely to hit at all--and without reaching the heights...

Optimal builds (IMO): Fighter 1/Wiz 6/Eldritch Knight 10 (Core only) Paladin 2/Sorcerer 6/Eldritch Knight 10 (core only) Core only tactics: True Strike+Power Attack is nifty, but only helps you dish out more damage than simply attacking once (instead of casting true strike) and then...

A few things might make a boxing match more interesting to play out. One that wouldn't is a better description. A good description makes a good story after the fact, but it doesn't make an uninteresting mechanical game good any more than fancy graphics can make a poor video game fun. The...

More likely he's just a neutral jerk. An axiomatic sword gives negative levels to chaotic characters; it does nothing to neutrals.

True, on the other hand, evil clerics who care about hiding their affiliations all have access to that handy 24 hours/casting undetectable alignment spell. Evil clerics who don't use it either: A. Don't need to because they are protected by the laws or are the law (frex, the high cleric of...

There are several problems with the ambition to have gaming novels be great works of art: First, there is the limited availability of great artists. A genius like Shakespeare comes about maybe once a millenia. Even if you're generous and say that there has been a Shakespeare every century, what...

Hmm. If I answer that, do I confess to having ranks in profession: powergamer? The long and the short of it is that 11th-13th 3.x characters would take on Snurre with only a few magic items between them by: A. Creating the most ridiculously multiclassed characters ever, borrowing from five...

I've played 2/3 to 3/4 of them (though I missed Murder at Elmshire) and I feel confident enough to drop my vote Shrouded Shores of Abanfyl. It's a good, atmospheric mod that provides a good good challenge (but not one that is out line) and which, at least when I played it, seemed to offer a...

Hmm. How many threads can be combined into a single post? Criticism of "power gamers." Check. "Is 3.x like old D&D?" check. Miniatures mentioned. Check. Magic items. Check. But I'll fall for it once more. To answer the first part of the post, D&D 3.x works just fine in a setting where 6th...

The shadowbane inquisitor is the kind of "paladin" that gets the prereqs to blackguard as a bonus feat and a special ability that lets him keep his inquisitor abilities even if he turns to evil and becomes a blackguard. So, the answer is, "the kind of paladin who is on the way to being a...

The easy answer is: not having a familiar is worth... 100gp. That's it. Nothing says that you have to have a familiar and I've played a sorcerer without one and didn't miss it. I've also written a bunch of NPC wizards, and while most of them had familiars, more than a few did not and they didn't...

There are also a number of fantasy tales where swords take out doors, etc. Kull, for instance, takes down several doors with his sword in the few tales Robert Howard wrote about him.

She's a healer (you know, the girlfriend class from the Miniatures Handbook). I believe they get a cute furry animal with sharp pointy teeth at some point midlevel. The tiger must be her class feature.

Things are starting to look up for the doomed bastards. Which means that the Vrock, spectre and all the cult of orcus is due to show up any minute now and cull their number again. Time to see who kicks the bucket next.

One memorable Living Greyhawk encounter from a few years ago featured a farm that had been distorted by the forces of evil. I heard that the PCs ran screaming from a coop full of corrupted chickens.

This much at least is true. A duskblade will play much more consistently from level to level than an eldritch knight. On the other hand, I don't think that the eldritch knight needs to wait until 8th level to start playing the gish. I managed a 3.0 fighter/mage (without the benefit of Eldritch...