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In fairness, I’m remembering lot of long forgotten issues that I had with 3E, mostly in regards to initiative and to attacks-of-opportunity mechanics. In hindsight, I’m also able to articulate an unease which ultimately was resolved by bounded accuracy, and, having built a few terrain tables...

In 3.5E, that is definitely the case. There is reach, so the area which may be affected is closer to a 15dia circle. A character cannot make a melee attack against a target which is out of reach. A character with spring attack can move, attack, then move back. Other characters must move then...

4E dwarves have “Slow and Solid”, which reduces forced movement distances by one. It seems rather powerful, given how much forced movement there is In 4E Hatred is too strong here: I freely admit that I dislike 4E, for several reasons. I don’t hate it, and wish well to folks who enjoy it...

I once proposed the idea of a committed action: A reaction that cost you your first action in your next turn. Then, evasion could be a committed move outside of the spell area of effect. My group was unenthused, at the least. Evasion is a well, loved, signature ability for dexterity builds...

Well, what other abilities require the player explain how the power works, in a particular use? I thought the ethos of 4E was that such explanations were not required, and the player could choose whatever interpretation they preferred. And, that ultimately, the interpretation was entirely...

Targets which have a movement of 0 or 1 squares, or which are paralyzed or entangled, or sleeping, are moved. An incorporeal target, with which the fighter has no means to physically interact, is moved. Targets which are unaware of the attacker are moved. An invisible, silenced, fighter can...

Come and get it has a special place of shame: The problem was not the power structure. The problem was that any reasonable interpretation pushed you into problems. In 3E, a similar ability would either be a telepathic compulsion, which ought not to affect mindless creatures, and should be...

I’m finding the damage on a miss discussion amusing, in that, if we accept that hit points represent such things as exhaustion, morale, and luck, then both the attacker and defender should potentially gain or lose hit points on any attack. After all, ought not a successful attack improve the...

Undead are evil (1): In many systems, undead have a drive similar to or worse than a starving pit bull. Deliberately creating such a creature is wrong (evil). Using such creatures with at best tenuous control over them is similarly wrong (evil). That undead act as starving pit bulls seems...

I can (kindof) justify this because an attack of the wrong damage type will be less likely to take out an opponent. Continuing with the example of the 8 hit point target, with swords doing 4 (or 1-7) points of damage. If the target has DR 5/Silver, then most attacks with a sword have a much...

I entirely agree. The view of hit points that I presented is hard to align with events which should be directly damaging. For example, there is little that can be done to avoid damage from a fall. Then, a more realistic way of handling fall damage might be to represent it as a coup-de-grace...

Apologies up front for the mathy-ness of this note. In my view, hit points aren't trying to directly simulate anything. Hit points do relate to all manner of character state, for example, Health, Vigor, and Divine Favor. The relationship, however, is indirect: Hit points are intended to...

Part of the Pathfinder schedule is a subscription service of modules and adventure path volumes. That neatly fills the void left when Dungeon went out of print. (Don't get me started whining about the online Dungeon replacement!). I am a long time Pathfinder subscriber. How does Pathfinder...

Going back to the very first post: I'm highly suspicious of statistics that are provided with less than a very very careful analysis. Most of what I get from this is that 4E sold less than 3E, and was expected to do better. This gives a basis to ask two questions: (1) Why did 4E sell less...

Damage on a miss seems more palatable when there there is a resource other than hit points which was expended that made the attack miss. Most commonly, deflection (shield block or parry) or dodge. Say, if one could have an extra reaction at a cost of stamina points. If hit points include such...

Well, except that hp are rather a poor mechanism for anything like exhaustion, the accumulation of small wounds, morale, or divine favor. They strip away all of the flavor of that, so much that I wonder if that consideration was anything but a poor attempt to rationalize them, added after their...

The nature of hit points seems similar to the treatment given to electrons: in one view, they are a continuously variable flow, in another, they are individual particles. A character receiving a strike perhaps can receive a similar strike ten times, successfully dodging or deflecting the...

I’m still dissatisfied by the lack of scaling to the amount of damage. Concentration DCs scale with damage. I’d be happier if the damage caused a new death save, not an automatic failure. Perhaps adding the damage to the DC. TomB

Well, at this layer of rules, a hit is a probabilistic grouping of damage, from potentially one or multiple sources. Then, the effect should be equally probabilistic. A more consistent rule would be that each “hit“ causes a new death save, adding the damage to the DC. To me, the problem is...

Which addresses the second point, but not the first: Even as actual damage, is there one strike, or potentially several? TomB