Search results

As usual, most people missed the real zinger in today's column, notably the implication that paladins cast spells because that's what people expect them to do rather than as a way to differentiate them from other classes. Those of you who might remember the origins of the paladin class may note...

Three minutes is a real rush for any normal combat round. Assume you have five players and five monsters just for simplicity's sake. That's ten actors that need to all take a turn in 180 seconds. That's 18 seconds per person including time to pick up the dice, roll them, add up numbers, assess...

This isn't a terrible idea but every time I suggest that the same thing be done for spellcasters (making a limited list of spells that they can use as much as they want) people throw a tantrum.

Except Shaken isn't a status effect in 4e. I wouldn't knock it till you've tried it. The advantage of having a small number of status effects that aren't re-explained in every entry is... that they aren't re-explained in every entry. When an mummy stuns you and when dragon stuns you and when an...

I already gave you experience so I can't +1 you again for a while but you deserve it. Here's +2. QFE

In 4e everyone had a Standard Action, a Move Action, and a Minor Action. This kept a lid on just how much stuff a character could do in one round and provided a unifying framework to how actions worked. That way when you use a special power that lets you move you do that instead of moving by...

I'm really sad that the designers seem ashamed of the few 4E elements they found too good to totally discard. I really feel like there's a disconnect between the design objective and a large portion of the 4E fanbase that Wizards just doesn't even care about fixing. The most distressing thing by...

Luke Skywalker, as awesome as he is, didn't fight to the death with numerous deadly foes multiple times per day every day for months or years on end. As people have said, 4e combat is very fast... as long as everyone knows what they are doing, what's going on, and what options they have. The...

As someone else on another board put it

Oh boy! You sure showed me. I guess we'll need to go back to the THAC0 and racial level limits. Oh, my bad. Those are pretty new inventions (and are therefore terrible). We need to go back to an unrelated assortment of charts and tables covering everything this side of random harlots. But even...

I thought this was about where 5th edition SHOULD go rather than where OD&D did go.

Why not just make "super hero spellcasters" the advanced module? Let the base set have fighters who swing swords and wizards who shoot magic missile. Then you can add your book of vancian spellcasting and vancian martial maneuvers (yes, there is no reason that can't happen). Or you can add your...

I hate when people bring up the Slayer as an example of how a one-trick pony character is equal to everyone else. There are a couple reasons for this: 1. The slayer only works because it breaks design principles built into the core game, namely that characters should always be using an at-will...

Well, since they went and hired a truly C-list design team the end result was all but guaranteed to be garbage from day 1. These blogs and polls just allow us to be angry about it now rather than when it comes out. My only hope right now is that WotC is pulling an elaborate stunt in which on...

You have to take into account these articles are written by people who never played 4E for people who never played 4E. Just accept that everything 4E did is a horrible affront to the house that Gygax built and never speak of it again.

So, because your DM manually fixed the problems inherent in the system by devoting extra (and unwarranted) attention on players with mechanically inferior characters that somehow negates the problems that were there in the first place? If your boat has a hole in it the ability to plug it with a...

For the first time in a while I'm actually okay with this article. It has a little whiff of that dodgy "Well, if you don't like this aspect of the game that's just because it wasn't designed for you." garbage but not much. Overall the point is true (though I more and more get the impression that...

When cars were first invented a lot of people hated them because driving a car lacked all the subtle qualities of riding a horse such as sitting in a saddle and what not. These people did not want to start driving a car no matter what benefits it may have brought. They liked riding horses and so...

Great. Fighter is the "tutorial" class. I have never been so disinclined towards a roleplaying game of any sort. What if I want to play a cool fighter like Conan the Barbarian? Do I have to buy an expansion set to be capable of more than basic attacks? I certainly can't expect that Wizards will...

Because Xena can check for traps without using her feet all the time. It goes both ways.