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I am on the magic weapons with pluses (as opposed to virtues) are problematic wagon as well. However, I would argue magic shields and armor are far worse from a game balance point of view. One of the bad features in 3.X and 4E was the difficulty that low level creatures had in hitting high...

I think a lot of the conversational issues between OSR types and 4E types comes down to these differences. If you are going to play D&D as a series of pick-up games (see Living Greyhawk) then the unit of balance needs to be the adventure. If you are playing a tournament (two men enter, one man...

You have identified the one case where I would be okay with some rules issues. Games (or supplements) that open up new and imaginative ways to game get a lot of forgiveness for rules issues. AD&D 1E, Vampire (the original white wolf game), and Traveller are all paradigm setting games that...

Make operating under invisibility like walking underwater -- extremely taxing and tiring. People who do a lot under the spell end up exhausted. With web, really enforce the anchor points and remember it is a barrier for the party as well.

3/2 attacks were bad because it added one more thing to keep track of. Complexity is a great way to reduce the core audience. Trailblazer's approach required a fairly straightforward scaling of AC with CR. Otherwise, that -2 can be meaningless (requires a 20 to hit, or hits on a 2+ either...

Agreed. Non-weapon proficiencies in AD&D 2E worked the same way as well and so did skills in the Rules Cyclopedia. So this approach has a long tradition even within Dungeons and Dragons editions.

Okay, the past tense wasn't an ideal choice. :)

This is a good point. I was not a fan of the very slow 4E combats. Of course, increasing damage would be okay for me as well . . .

This is a good thing; Castles and Crusades was a really cool system and it would be nice if it influenced the next edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

Bad design on the part of the scepter and crown. Is this an item that can kill deities if you trick them into using it? If so, is it not actually the most valuable thing in the tomb (as opposed to a trap)? Seriously, this simply kills with no conditions or saves is lazy design and begs for...

Fair enough. On the other hand, don't you get attacked by demons if you go astral inside the tomb? 1E magic users generally feared melee creatures like that and so you'd really need to know the combo in advance to even try for it.

I always found this to be especially odd. Does power word kill normally work on undead? And what is this astral/ethereal stuff? Few magic users are going to be 18th level and have memorized this spell to fight a Lich. To go astral you really need two ninth level spells . . . It seems mostly...

True, but all good things have their end and holding on to them past their time is never a good thing. Besides, I really, really want to talk about area 33 and I am an impatient person. :)

iPad make a huge difference for Pathfinder, which has a lot of resources as PDFs (as well as the pathfinder SRD). It is an expensive start-up but solves the book lugging problem permanently.

My approach to allow any books that the players enjoy using. One of my players in Pathfinder even uses a class that I do not own the book for (Gunslinger). It has worked out well so far. Part of what helps is that people are really, really cool with rule disputes. There is a good table...

With luck he will be back. But he is definitely stealing all of his scenes.

The idea that the doors are solid mithril is hard to know. That being said, even a mithril coating is worth a lot of cash. I wonder if the enchantment would survive being melted down in an anti-magic field, for example. Absolutely magic and spell proof is (ironically) slightly on the vague...

Yeah, I am pretty sure that this is a 3E-ism. That being said, maybe the blood is there for the greedy players who try to cut the doors loose to sell them. After all, any reasonable pricing of mithril (especially if they are solid) would suggest that it is time to go home and rejoice at a...

In some ways this is a reaction to the weakening of Frieball, Lightning Bolt and Metor strike. After all, how different is Cometfall (conceptually) from metor strike? How often would Orb of XXX come into play if Fireball was not so weak? And weak it is. It is affected by saves (1/2 damage)...

Half price books is a pretty amazing place for nostalgia purchases, isn't it? I miss the downtown Seattle gaming shelf.