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4th Edition assumed a baseline of 5 players + DM at the table, and all adventures and encounters were balanced accordingly. Assuming the DM made appropriate adjustments to the encounters for the number of players that actually showed up, this worked ok. I m wondering though what the actual...

D&D is a very combat heavy game, and there are some serious drawbacks to having characters with a big difference of combat effectiveness in the same group. Running combat takes up a massive amount of time in the game, so a players ability to effectively participate is going to dramatically...

I think Skills should remain essentially as they are in 4th Edition. What I would try to change though is I would like them to tweak the skill challnge system. I love the concept, but the implementation is just a bit lacking. - We need a much clearer suggestions for what should happen on a...

I would say that the single spiked pit in the middle of the hallway outside of a combat encounter is basically a vestigial thing. It basically forces the players to 'commando crawl', ie, move 1 square at a a time poking everything with a 10 foot pole while doing perception checks to find...

I am not dead set against the concept of Vancian magic, but I also think that having it in the game as implemented up until 3rd edition was not an asset. The number of alternate implemnetations and customized rulesets for spell casting should be seen as an indicator of that. I am ok with the...

I like the current split of Heroic / Paragon / Epic. I think that the designers should do more work on making Paragon and Epic levels more 'playable'. I think 4th Edition did a better job of balancing the game at those levels in a mechanical sense (ie, the math for how much damage was being...

I prefer the PHB(N) model (PHB1 / PHB2 / PHB3 / etc) model much more than the old way. Whether its the PHB4 or the Complete book of Splat, WotC is going to be selling bundles of character building crunch to the players. The PHB(N) model is much better at being of general use. A Complete Book...

Yes. However, The Psionic's systems in every version of D&D since the 2nd edition have always been the 'And Now for Something Completely Different' chapter of the D&D rules. Since Psionics are often hard to fit into many D&D settings, it was always a 'nod, smile, and ignore it' kind of...

Saw the filter option after I made the post. The filter does not work quite as well as I would have liked though. I did have success by doing an item search with the word 'concordance'. I am trying to pick a paragon level artifact that I can introduce into my game which is going to be split...

I want to introduce an Artifact into my game, and wanted to get an idea of what is available. The problem is that the D&D Compendium site does not lend its self to actually finding the damn things unless you type in the exact name. I don't suppose anyone knows of which combination of search...

In my game, I have basically ruled out the vast majority of Essentials materials. The reason for it is that the Essentials rules appear to be trying to claw back several of the things that I actually like very much about 4th edition. I like that each class gets encounters, dailys, and at will...

The threat of TPK is something that should always be present in some form. To guard against it, there are a few things that the DM ought to do though. First is that the DM should avoid setting up encounters with monsters beyond the players level. Going a little on the high side is ok. Going...

The reason for the nitpicking is probably due to tracking the HP and AC of the target. It can get problematic when the DM has a large encounter and there are multiple non minion types. As for the rest of it, I would say that at worst you and the DM just have different expectations from the...

The problem with Rituals is that they are a game feature which is secondary to the primary design elements. Most of the work on D&D is done relative to combat stuff. Rituals are meant to be used outside of combat. If there were more effort put into making skill challenges interesting, it...

Thanks for the response. I had been looking for this in the wrong books. END COMMUNICATION

I have found that there are typically two problems to solve for Skill Challenges. You have solved the first, which is the resolution mechanic. The second is that you need to have a failure condition and a success condition that will actually matter. Without a reasonable success and failure...

I have ended up using a few monsters that have resitance values like "Resist 5 variable (1/encounter)" Clearly I can just select a damage type to resist. However, I have not found any info on the following details. 1) Is the resistance triggered as an interrupt, or as a minor / move...

Sometimes accurate is what counts. I actually like the book, as you can drop a Delve into the middle of an ongoing adventure when you want filler. Each delve gives mapped out encounters, some tactical notes, and possible hooks to build from. I generally use it to help flesh out my own...

Dungeon Delves. Amazon.com: Dungeon Delve: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement (D&D Adventure) (9780786951390): David Noonan, Bill Slavicsek: Books It is a collection of mini-adventures, 3 or 4 encounters each, with Delves going up to level 30. END COMMUNICATION

4th Edition tends towards specific types of items doing specific things. Your Implement / Weapon item will add to your attack and damage rolls, but nothing else will. The guideline is not 100% enforced, but it is enforced enough that you generally wont be able to twink your bonuses through...