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Wow, thanx for all the comments! I actually have tried running some Skill Challenges before, with my previous group, but they didn't seem to work out too well. My players really wanted to focus on the role-play aspects of the situation, which is cool, but to the extent that it became difficult...

I'm gearing up to get back into 4e, and I've been reading the Mike Mearls Skill Challenge articles in the DDI. There's a lot of interesting stuff in there, but very little on the actual procedures of implementing a Skill Challenge at the table. This is something I've been noticing about 4e...

Please remain civil, folks I found this thread, "Please remain civil, folks", interesting and have nominated it accordingly for Topic Of The Week 38, September, 2008.

I weep just trying to read this... Any reason you had to post it in flyspec? Upon copying it out and increasing the font to a readable size I have to wonder how you would be using this? The Elite version seems like it might be more interesting (assuming that a lone Strige Swarm would be an...

I wouldn't think that it was. Maybe my choice of words was poor. What I mean by "spazzy" is this: I want the other players to have cool characters, that they are enthusiastic about. But a player should be able to explain (in a manner that can be understood by the other players) why their...

This has to be a group consensus, and I think it can work either way. Just not so much if you have a bunch of differing expectations in the same group. So, in a sense you need to optimize the players before you start thinking about the characters. I absolutely let other players make whatever...

Well, it certainly looks slippery over on that side... If you extend the point you seem (to me, at least) to be making to it's furthest point then you end up with 1 class with 1 set of powers and no choices at all, ever, because they wouldn't be balanced. I do agree that the possibilities you...

I don't see why this is a big deal, what am I missing?

Dibs on your Warlord for the next party I get to play in.

I ended up snagging a pirate-y Bugbear Sorcerer (who had been a party-neutral NPC) as a replacement character in a 3.0 game. The DM pulled me aside before the next session so we could figure out how to work things so that the character would be socially acceptable. I wasn't exactly flabbergasted...

I'd suggest adding more ways to remove or get around insubstantial. Giving such creatures a vulnerability helps. You could also include terrain features or the like that could temporarily shut off the ability. You can create a situation where the PCs can make a side-trek (or even back-track...

I would agree, except that this is a level 33 Solo. It's an encounter in and of itself, and a tough one at that, so it really doesn't interact much with the normal role system, anyway. I think that the intent must have been that this is a single creature that can (more or less) fill any / all of...

The only thing that makes the purple worm interesting (tactically) is swallow whole; or more specifically the tactics needed to avoid being swallowed. Aside from the fact that you should (IMO) be assuming that being bloodied is risky and a potential trigger for monster abilities (and being as...

I've always leaned much more towards giving the players as much information as possible. When you're dealing with abstractions like hit points that tends to include a lot of game-side info that would not strictly speaking be something that the characters would know. This can end up taking away...

Good article overall. However it seems like errors keep creeping into the crunchy bits of these... I agree that there's something wrong with the Feats. Sacrifice to Caiphon and Starfire Womb really should be once per day (at least), although Shadow’s Eclipse seems OK. I'm not fond of the only...

The article contains a URL (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ru20050810b) that seems to go nowhere... The errata has lowered DCs overall to the point that specialized characters (and not even just highly-specialized ones) have over a 50% success rate at most skill checks. Overall I...

From what I can see, it's for two reasons: Firstly, for the same reason that you have Daily and Encounter powers, because resource management is part of the fun of the game. As to why Item Dailies aren't quite "daily" (or, I guess Daily & X per day limitations both apply) it's a substitute for...

I have an issue with the Fighter being limited to three trained skills in 4e, especially when coupled with the rather limited nature of their class skills. This often leaves the Fighter with little to do to help the party in non-combat situations, and as "Defender" is really the least "sexy" of...

That's the gist of the problem: The content currently up isn't the sum total of all of the work that WotC has done over the last year plus, but it is all they currently have to show for that work. I wouldn't mind so much (I'd rather they took the time to do things right), except that they are...

Firing off everything in the first round could actually be part of the problem. You need to set up to maximize bonuses (Combat Advantage, buffs, etc.) before you unload with your big Dailies, or else they're much more likely to simply fizzle, and that can easily add two or three extra turns onto...