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Ability Modifier is the bonus derived from the ability score. Ability Check Modifier includes the half level bonus, and is what you add to a d20 if you make a straight ability check (instead of a skill check). So, if you have a 10th level character with a strength of 14, s/he would have a...

It depends a lot on the setting, but I often feel that merchants selling powerful magic items is just not realistic. Hero: "Here's a small country's economy in cash. Do you have the kind of sword that heroes use to kill huge, ancient dragons?" Merchant: "Wow, wouldn't you rather erase famine...

It's true, you can't take immediate or opportunity actions on your own turn. I'm not impressed by the design goal of that limitation, but those are the rules. I remember the first time it was explained to me that if someone marked by an adjacent fighter made a single ranged attack against...

Bull Rush would be the answer. It's a standard action attack roll that gets worse as the players get higher in level (it lacks the weapon or implement keyword, so it doesn't gain the enhancement bonus OR feat bonuses connected to expertise). Otherwise you're looking at class powers or...

This is the problem with being a DM. You have to figure out the balance between minimizing your own extra work with making the game fun. If you don't do enough work, and the game sucks, it's on you. Picking a good adventure will go a long way towards minimizing the work.

Quoted for emphasis. I haven't read or played it, but the reviews of this product are very consistent on these boards. Just FYI. I would remove any elite or solo soldiers as well, unless they are the same or lower level than the PCs. Their defenses are too high, and it turns into grind. Swap...

In addition to what the others have said (particularly about removing soldiers, especially any elite ones), make sure to violate marks and draw OAs whenever reasonably plausible. This not only accelerates fights, it makes them more fun, since players get to use characters' special abilities.

I've found that narrative and combat mechanics need only loosely fit each other. For example, it could be argued that failure to take the alertness feat makes you a poor bodyguard. But nobody would take that criticism seriously. So, I would build the most fun character I could that vaguely fits...

Personally, I consider Mark of Warding one of the more powerful feats in the game. If dragonmarks are available, I would take that, for a fighter, instead of Mark of the Sentinel. The value of Shield Push, Swift Spear, Mark of the Sentinel and Mobile Challenge depend a LOT on how often the DM...

It depends on whether you have some elites among the enemies. It takes failing a save to get rid of people that way. And elites rarely fail their saves. I'd say that the danger is more to the PCs, if the bad guys have any kind of power that repeatedly forces movement.

True. But it still works. Slow or immobilize effects are often until the end of the attacker's next round or save ends. Attacking the same targets again has a strong likelyhood of proning.

I'm actually curious about this as well. To be able to steal all published crunch, what "active" deities and other "higher" immortal "roles" are necessary? For example, I know I need a main good god and a bad one, and each domain needs to be assigned. I'm pretty sure there needs to be a...

Link for the lazy: 13th Age expansion book: 13 True Ways by Fire Opal Media — Kickstarter

Can I suggest making the game more lethal and gritty, instead of cutting HP? As far as I make out, HP don't represent significant wounds. They are exhaustion, bruises, cuts, and luck, and this has been the case since first edition. Bloodied is just what a boxer looks like after a few rounds...

Perception to avoid the trap or Ambush that they laid for the party, Diplomacy or Intimidate to convince someone to take them to the Goblin King to talk, Diplomacy to convince the Goblin King to be open to talk about this, Insight to figure out that he really fears something else, Nature or...

I think it carves a safe haven for using some of the D&D language that some fear would otherwise get them into legal hot water. Words like beholder and hit points, perhaps.

You're mistaking first edition with BECMI, or the red box stuff, or earlier versions of the game. Elves, and any other race in first edition, are a race than can take on many classes. I'd like to xp Obryn for pointing out OSRIC, but I have to spread the love first.

I think that was the source of the idea. Rethinking it, it might be better to go with a carrot method: instead disallowing dailies, penalized them, and offset the penalty with the escalation/stake number. I had no idea. I don't see the disconnect between the name and the effect. To me, it's a...

Unifying just at-wills might be a nice first step, but it would be better to move encounter powers and some dailies into "common" lists. Without a thorough review, I imagine that most could be indeed lumped by role and power source. I think some would be heartbroken over some of the more...

As much as I would love a unified powers list, I agree with GreyICE. You'd have to split them by role, at the very least, or something.