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IMO using Rogue instead of Warrior takes them to CR 1/2 if you only give them mook gear, or to CR 1 if you give them full NPC equipment. For the latter, may I recommend a group of hit-and-run masterwork crossbow wielding goblins tossing thunderstones and using smokesticks makes for a nasty...

This is about how it's worked out for my group, maybe a little slower, and I have no complaints. We have a large group, so it takes a while to get through anything. Four encounters a session is really about the max we normally do, and that would have to be either strung-together encounters or...

In my campaign I've made Goblins the main race inhabiting the Underdark. They're a once-great civilization that has fallen into decline through infighting and a series of unsuccessful wars. They are a death obsessed culture whose cities of the living are built on top of mirror cities for the...

Just assign the NPC whatever skill ranks they need to fulfill their role in the world. There's no rule that says NPC's have to be constructed as precisely as PC's ...the only reason to bother is to make sure their CR is where you want it. Even by the rules a talented commoner can be reasonably...

Anything is playable so long as the player doesn't mind the character being gimped compared to other members of the party. There's no question that the NPC classes are fragile and ineffective in combat compared to a standard PC class, though.

Almost all of the most devastating combat spells in the game are in the Enchantment, Transmutation, and Necromancy schools anyways.

We probably have a differing opinion of what constitutes "flashy" if you're keeping spells like mirror image, invisibility, and fly. ;) I think you'll have more success getting the feel you want if you just completely redo the spell lists for each caster type.

That makes sense, though technically speaking you're adding 1/2 CR to the creature. I'll go back to not thinking about this too much now.

I've always thought the Adept class was superfluous even for that role - might as well just use levels in Druid, Wizard, or Cleric with a non-heroic stat array.

I think it just works better. Anything that needs a CR because the PC's might wind up fighting it can get Fighter or Rogue levels or racial HD. An example of how I usually do it: I need a fat, greedy human merchant with an oily tongue who is looking to cheet the PC's on a fake treasure map. He...

Yes, I agree 100%. My first priority with D&D is to play a fun game with my friends, and in our opinion PC control of magic is more fun than the alternatives. Unreliability and Bad Things Happening is, again in my opinion, a poor game mechanic because it's not fun for the person who wants to...

I ditch the whole Dragon color/metal type classification anyways. That's always seemed like an unneccessary D&Dism to me. I keep the breath weapon type - immunity relationship, or course, but I see no reason any PC should be able to eyeball an individual and know. This makes Knowledge (History)...

Generally improved defensive capability of this sort is modeled by HP's in D&D. The character still gets hit and nicked, but twists at just the last moment to avoid a lethal bow. Those who improve in any exceptional capacity at completely avoiding blows do so via stat increases, feats, and...

I don't bother to use NPC classes at all, except for 1st level warriors and commoners. If someone with no combat ability should have some sort of exceptional talent, or maybe a broad but shallow range of knowledge skills (i.e. an aristocrat) then I simply assign them the skills as required by...

I just started playing and DMing the game again last year for the first time in about 8 years, and most of the players had little or no recent RPG experience. So I thought it'd be best not to get bogged down with messing around with the rules at first, so we pretty much go with the RAW. On the...

I'm curious about this, because it's never been my experience - how do attacks of opportunity slow the game down? What would you recommend as an alternative which preserves the benefits of reach and defensive position?

This is my opinion as well. The whole magic in literature argument drives me a little nuts because it's simply not universally true. So far as rulesets go I think it's easier for the no-magic folks to take a well defined and balanced magic system and ban it all from PC's than it is for those of...

Some of us call this "glossing over the unimportant details". If you consider the important part of the game to be running excited tactical combats, interracting with powerful NPC's, shaping the destiny of kingdoms, and so on, why bother with every bit of minutia involving the disposal of...

I like the limited number of unlimited use supernatural abilities idea embodied by the Warlock class. I think that might even deserve a place in the core rules in some form or another.

Well I think it's a poor metaphor in that it supports my side of the argument better than it does yours. A shotgun is certainly dangerous to the person it's pointed at. The odds of someone who is not totally incompetent hurting themselves with it are pretty slim. Compare to a Wand of Acid Arrow...