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I've recently started using Rich Burlew's Diplomacy rules, and I've gotta say they're a big improvement. The changes make Diplomacy work more like Bluff. Here's the key thing in my mind: So this way the PC's have to formulate a proposal before they roll a Diplomacy check. They can't just say...

I've had this idea percolating around for a while, and haven't gotten around to fleshing it out yet, but yeah that's pretty much what I had in mind. My plan was to make the dead ancestors the basic source of all divine magical power - so that's who'd be answering your Augury questions for...

One way to do it is to envision a culture where the Necromancer calls upon his own family, tribal or clan ancestors for assistance. The culture feels that a person's obligation to defend his allies continues beyond death, so necromancy is not seen as inherently evil. Drop the Evil descriptor...

One thing I have done before is to make some of the goblins rogues, but with non-elite stat arrays and gear only equivalent to standard goblin warriors. (A CR 1 NPC 1st level rogue would normally have like 900 GP worth of gear as I recall). This weakens them enough to keep them at CR 1/3 with...

My point wasn't that it wasn't a type resource management, but that it was a type of resource management rather totally unlike spells and x/per day abilities in D&D. That's more of a strategic concern, whereas this is purely tactical in nature. This seems like a better analogy.

At least as it's described here, tokens don't seem anything like managing resources like spells to me. I don't think you get to keep them from combat to combat, and they are earned as a result of actions taken in game against a particular opponent.

gamist combat == good combat for many of us, I suppose. I like battles where there are interesting tactical choices to be made at every turn, and where doing cool stuff gets you an advantage. The token system sounds to me like it could work well towards that goal.

I don't buy many different RP games, since as it is I only have time for one session a week. For any other gaming the people I know would rather go with board or video games. Still IH has me interested enough I'll probably take a look at it. Unfortunately my 3.5e campaign is at least a year from...

I DM a group of eight every week and I still consider CR and EL to be useful guidelines. The thing with larger groups is you usually need to increase the EL by adding more lower CR opponents or special circumstances, than by simply using higher CR creatures. The problem with higher base CR...

At higher levels the classes with spellcasting abilities gain huge advantages in mobility when the fighters and rogues don't have access to things like winged boots or rings of blinking. The spellcasters lose less in general since they have still have access to all of the level appropriate...

If the goal is to make it very hard to protect her then it works just fine. For low level PC's the opponent could be a mundane CR 2-4 thug, so no worry about auto-kill magic missiles and the like. For higher level pc's consider what can be accomplished with spells like Dimension Door, Wall of...

As I said, it is unnecessary and possibly a waste of time if you already have the concept in mind and just want to jot it out and get on to the next thing. That's all fine, but as I said not always needed. A MM standard CR 1/3 goblin warrior only has leather armor and a morningstar, and...

Because there might be as much as a 3-4 month gap between when I stat her and when she's used. Also because "Perform(Dance) +20" is just shorthand for "she's one of the best dancers in the known world". You're really just nitpicking the example and missing the idea behind it. Maybe if I gave a...

Just to add to this, the system correctly identifies _reach_ as the most important factor in determining which weapon lands the first hit. I've often thought that it might even make sense to go a step further with the system and treat the dagger wielder as unarmed for the purpose of drawing...

You're really missing the point here. Of course stat them out as much or as little as required. For some DM's (i.e. me) having a few numbers to glance at is nice in many cases because you can quickly determine how someone's skills or abilities fit into the world and compare to those of PC's...

But for the DM, rules for designing NPC's are guidelines, just like those for creating new monsters. Most of the guidelines are even focused on building appropriate abilities for the CR, which isn't really an issue if the NPC is not meant as a challenge. So if a DM wants someone with, let's say...

Weird, this has definitely not been my experience with 3.5e. My players have lost three characters so far along the way to an average party level of about 4. Each time it was to a creature with CR <= APL. All three were lost to melee brutes, two of those on critical hits. The damage bonuses of...

I just don't feel that NPC classes are any more useful for modeling this than PC classes - i.e. I don't think NPC classes are bad just superfluous. He is by the RAW, a CR 10 encounter - in practice, not really ...but still, this doesn't cause any cognitive dissonance for you? If this is the...

I think the Bard is an excellent way to create nobles. An NPC ruler in my campaign: The King: Str 10, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 16; Bard 3; HD (3d6)-3; HP 7; Skills: Bluff +11, Diplomacy +11, Intimidate +5, Knowledge(History) +5, Knowledge(Local) +8, Knowledge(Religion) +5...

Except I think the RAW in this case create more conceptual problems than they solve, because combat ability is tied to levels - e.g. just what the heck is a 20th level commoner supposed to be modeling? How do you create someone who is the greatest painter in the world, but is not a serious...