Search results

Well the DMG also notes (p. 55) that "NPCs may have treasure in addition to ther gear, at your discretion," so as long as you don't mind handing out a wheelbarrow full of treasure, Tordek is equal to the giant here. Tordek has his gear, and he can also have as much treasure as the giant...

In my opinion, PC-type monsters are slightly weak for their CR simply because they typically grant far more treasure than monsters, and lowering their CR would make it even worse. I mean seriously, look at Tordek's possessions, compared to the hill giant's and try to tell me you should be...

In a previous campaign, I've used the DMG variant for standard XP per session. I went with 300xp x level, with adjustments for people who had fallen behind in level to catch up quickly. XP aren't such a huge pain to track, so it's a good idea to keep track of them to allow for things like...

With DR, if I feel like giving an "in character" type description, I usually compare the amount of damage reduced to the hardness of common objects. Thus, something with DR 5 might "have flesh as hard as wood" to common weapons. Similarly, DR 10 might be like iron, etc.

No, no, my stats are already modified for the Whisper Gnome's stat adjusments. You can't start with less than an 8 (pre-adjustment) using the standard point buy method.

Here's an excerpt from the Wizards web page about whisper gnomes: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040807a&page=3 You're losing Charisma, which some of the Beguiler's skills depend upon. Otherwise, whisper gnome is a good choice. Beguilers benefit from many good stats, but...

Really, the main expense here is spellcasting, and raise dead spells. These are difficult to break down and figure into an equation, but I generally figure 10% of the treasure the PCs get at a given level will go into things like that. It doesn't matter if the NPCs get to use them in the...

I like your economic analysis, but you're making a few important flaws in your assumptions. First, the PCs might very well outnumber opponents who are of equal level. In fact, I hope they do, as otherwise the fight moves to an EL 4 higher than the party's level. In such a fight, I hope the...

Reach weapon + armor spikes can arguably do the same thing, except without the cost of a feat.

I think it's a cool idea, and if it's similar to the bat swarm, then level 4 would be fine.

Lightning Bolt, being instantaneous, already is permanent. I mean, you don't see the damage going away after 1 round/caster level, or something, do you?

Magic Missile's reliable, and it does the equivalent of 1d6/2 levels in damage. As mentioned, that means than whenever your fireball only hits one target, and that target saves, then you might as well be casting magic missile. Whenever you have to roll an 11 or higher to hit with your orb...

Okay, okay, maybe I was overstating my point a little. To restate it, less emphatically: the reliability of magic missile makes it so that almost every other damage spell is only situationally better than magic missile.

Well because he can also have fireball. Still, there's plenty of situations where magic missile's fine, or even the best choice. Let's say that one Giant Grapples the greataxe-wielding barbarian, and the other two surround him. Or that instead of Hill Giants, they're Barded Devils, or...

Sure, but in more games, the PCs with better DCs or touch attack rolls have sacrificed in some way that the Magic Missiler didn't have to. Both by using feats or by putting more points in a casting stat, or in dex. The magic missiler is free to sink points into con, or use his feats or spell...

Now with melee attacks against an adjacent creature, soft cover doesn't matter, but I've been playing it that with reach attacks, soft cover is cover. It gives all the normal effects of cover, including no AoOs. If I've been interpreting it wrong, I'm curious to hear how.

I do a lot of my playing these days in fairly "rules-strict" groups, where both the penalties apply. Plus, if we're going to have a common ground here, I think we should go by the RAW. I don't think a 35%-55% chance to hit is unreasonable for a wizard, but I think that given the option, many...

Right, but in many circumstances there's more than just the melee penalty. For example, in a typical encounter where the fighter charges right at the enemy, the mage is going to have both cover and melee penalties applied, for a total of -8 to hit. (Or -4 to hit from melee, and +4 to the...

Are you including both cover and melee in your modifiers? I find to-hit rolls annoying, especially when I miss. I'm not saying enemies will always have cover and melee modifiers, but they'll frequently be in melee, and I find it advantageous as a wizard to be in an area where me and the...

Because the orb spells require a to-hit roll. Magic missiles, in terms of average damage, do around 1d6/2 levels. Most other damage spells go with 1d6/level. So that means that any time you have more than a 50% chance of missing, magic missle's better. So, assuming you have around a +2 dex...