Search results

As I can recall, *no* edition of D&D has ever given dragons in their write-ups the magical power to create the lairs and the traps therein. Certainly none of the dragons I recall in 1e or 2e had such powers in their write-ups. And in 3e, their spellcasting power typically wasn't adequate to do...

As noted by others, your arguments here indicate that you consider only spellcasters and those with plentiful spellcasting powers worthy mastermind enemies. I am hoping that the 4e rules will work to reduce this, by allowing far more ways for non-spellcasters to deal with magical foes. If...

If so, it's pretty selective foam. Only a little while ago we had a fair number of posts on how 4e was pandering not to the family friendly crowd, but the "Evil is Kewl!" crowd. This was based on the introduction of the tiefling race and the warlock class. Certainly, they haven't been at all...

So the Wizard *can* out-do you in your speciality, but he's got better, more important things to do? Sorry, that doesn't help much either. The Wizard could and likely would use magic to make your character obsolete, but he'll only do so when it's on the line. In the meantime, you can do the...

I don't think so. I've never had any problems with human, elven and other traditional PC race villains. I can't recall anyone ever complaining that the elven cultist about to sacrifice to Orcus wasn't believable, since elves have CG on their racial write-up. As long as you give a reason for...

There's a parallel in the way I feel about S-B-T to the way I feel about Save or Die. Both can be fine as interesting, defining characteristics of particular scenarios, enemies, artifacts and such. But by putting them on the list of common high level PC, NPC and monster abilities, they aren't...

I can think of a few possibilities: 1) Magical: you are able to sense and manipulate vital forces. When you strike in combat, you are not only paying attention to the common, physical vulnerable points, but also points on the body where the life force is most available. Sometimes when you...

My players expressed their feeling that such tactics felt like cheating, but they were used because they were so effective. After the house-ruling of teleportation, they expressed their feelings that they were enjoying the high level game more since it required less suspension of disbelief...

Most of my games haven't been at high enough level for Teleport without Error, which is the biggie. In those relevant games I've DMed it occurred about five times by PCs successfully. There were a fair number of failures because I decided that villains would indeed be skulking behind wards...

I play with real people as well, but the real people I play with like to think that they're using all of their resources to their best effect and their enemies are doing likewise. If characters (either PCs or NPCs) aren't using obvious tactics because it would spoil the entertainment value, the...

I tend to dislike Scry-Buff-Teleport, but one of my major objections isn't the *PCs* abusing it. It's trying to justify why the NPC villains don't abuse the hell out of it. You can always try to justify your villains spending all of their days in a small area (every time I've worked out the...

My suspicion is that when they talk about a class having a role like Striker, they're referring to the fact that enough of its no-choice class abilities allow it to fulfill that role. Not that it can't fulfill other roles, like Controller. So a Warlock may be a Striker because all Warlocks...

I definitely noted that there were fewer item slots in both games. But there certainly were plenty of magic items to be found, looted, purchased or made. As I recall, in each game I tended to end up carrying 4-5 weapons and defensive items for each character. And frequently selling/throwing...

Is that true? I've played Final Fantasy X and there were plenty of magical items around (and techno-items that might as well have been magical in effect). I've also played DragonQuest VIII, in which I recall plenty of magical items, including those you created yourself through alchemy. There...

I hated the Avatar Trilogy and the Time of Troubles, but I'd have to say that while there were many complaints, it's not like it appeared to result in negative impact on sales. Lynch mobs there may have been, but the books kept on selling.....

It's a personal preference, but I hope that whatever they do with multiclassing, I hope that the route to the *most* effective types of characters come from sticking with a single class. I don't want multiclassed characters to be crippled or useless, but I also don't want them only a step...

I can definitely see that monsters with gradual status effects over multiple rounds would be a pain to keep track of for DMs and players. Without the details on how exactly that power works with the beholder, it's hard to make a judgement. That's a specific problem with a class of powers...

I believe the design goal is to incorporate the amount of DM work required to run a monster into monster creation and monster designation. There are certainly inherent limitations on encounter types that make for non-cumbersome DMing. These are present in every edition of D&D. A DM can...

Yes, but I believe the assumption is that solo monsters will be used, well, solo. So that while a solo monster like a dragon or beholder might be harder to run than a single standard monster, it will be equivalent to running 4-5 standard monsters. So greater stress on the DM would occur if he...

I will note that it seems perverse to complain about magic item proliferation bringing D&D closer to MMORPGs. One of the most consistent claims from the 4e designers is that the game will work to reduce the magic item "Christmas Tree Effect." This seems to be constantly and consistently...