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  1. Merlin the Tuna

    How many people do you know who haven't switched to 5e, and why haven't they?

    Yep. In 4E terms, it basically amounts to making the maximum attainable level 10 (or possibly 11 if you want to give folks just a tiny taste of paragon paths) and letting players take feats or additional lower-level powers beyond that. I haven't gone whole hog on the idea, but my last 4E...
  2. Merlin the Tuna

    How many people do you know who haven't switched to 5e, and why haven't they?

    That was pretty much our take as well. Especially since we're spending a lot more time on Real Adult Stuff these days, the desire to spend $100 and 900 pages on an incremental adjustment to 3.5E is just not there. Having branched off into a lot of lighter, quicker, cheaper, and frankly more...
  3. Merlin the Tuna

    DM/GM Advice Books

    Best GM advice I've ever seen has been the GM rules for Dungeon World. I'm madly in love with the system as a whole, but even if it doesn't ultimately scratch your personal RPG itch, the rules-light-ness of it makes it easy to port the principles to other systems.
  4. Merlin the Tuna

    D&D 5E Thread: Your thoughts on the 5th. Edition Player's Handbook classes?

    I'm working off of Basic v0.2 and forum info (I haven't purchased any 5e books), but from all indications I've seen, this Fighter should never have seen print. I don't even care whether the math behind his attacks and defenses are good. You don't present the game as being made up of 3 pillars...
  5. Merlin the Tuna

    D&D 5E Barbarian vs Fighter vs Monk

    Disclaimer: I'm basing this off of my experience with the final playtest rather than the PHB (which I don't have). But that Monk was tightly constrained in terms of Ki points, and short rests being lunch breaks rather than breathers really exacerbates the problem. To wit, at 8th level, I had 4...
  6. Merlin the Tuna

    D&D 5E Speculating about the future of the D&D industry/community in a post-5E world

    You're likely right that Paizo & WotC aren't saying prayers that the other company crashes and burns. But the "competition makes things better" refrain is oversimplifying the situation and leads to dubious conclusions like "everybody wins if WotC & Paizo win." In terms of what I think will...
  7. Merlin the Tuna

    D&D 5E Basic already surprising us.

    That's some data, but "useful" is dubious. By the same logic, I can point out that the Google+ community for Fate Core has 20% more members and 3x as many posts compared to the Pathfinder one. I'd be certifiably crazy to assert that that's "useful data" in depicting that Fate is crushing...
  8. Merlin the Tuna

    Uh... since when was this an issue.

    That's not really accurate, nor do I see how it could be accurate. Combat in Fire Emblem is different from combat in Super Robot Wars, is different from combat in XCOM, is different from combat in Final Fantasy Tactics, and so on and so forth. That's still totally independent of what we're...
  9. Merlin the Tuna

    Uh... since when was this an issue.

    It is now, but it somehow managed to earn literally thousands of furious posts in its prime. Anecdote! I've only loosely been following 5E - I was pretty turned off by the first couple playtest packets, but I've checked in occasionally to keep an eye out for any interesting developments. In...
  10. Merlin the Tuna

    D&D 5E Are you going to buy 5e?

    I'll probably download the Basic Set at some point with the expectation that I'll get roped into a one-shot at some point, but no, I won't be buying. I just don't see anything that the game is notably good at doing. If I want a heavy roleplaying experience, I'll grab something like FATE...
  11. Merlin the Tuna

    Death Spiral vs Starting at 1st Level - X-post from 'Death by Infelicitas'

    As a player, I have no interest in running around with a stack of DMPCs. As a DM, I have no interest in managing a stack of DMPCs that the PCs have recruited. A (single) temporary tagalong is fine and not at all uncommon, but our playstyle -- and I suspect a fair percentage of folks' --...
  12. Merlin the Tuna

    Death Spiral vs Starting at 1st Level - X-post from 'Death by Infelicitas'

    The biggest issue I'd highlight here is the potential goofiness in the narrative. Adding a PC to the group is generally hard to justify in-game -- a good friend and partner has just died, so you go to the local pub/guardhouse/bounty hall and recruit someone roughly similar? And only one person...
  13. Merlin the Tuna

    D&D 4E For the post 4E world, what will your game be?

    My group quit keeping up with the current state of D&D when WotC started pushing out Essentials material, so we've felt like we're playing an "old edition" for a while. We've been pretty big fans of 4E even as we whine about its shortcomings to each other, so 5E is barely on our radar. There...
  14. Merlin the Tuna

    D&D Insider Platinum edition

    Yep. I thought that the original EQ did it, but Google is only giving me hits on EQ2 implementing the /pizza command. Everquest -- now with pizza - Boing Boing
  15. Merlin the Tuna

    Runepriests

    Do they? I feel like the defining visuals for the Avenger are that they're melee combatants without armor, and that they all wield anime-sized weapons. The first of those fits the concept perfectly, and the second one pretty much poops all over it. As for the runepriest, I'm currently DMing one...
  16. Merlin the Tuna

    Red Hand of Doom 4.0

    Having run a portion of the adventure in 3.5E, I can say that the 4E minion mechanics alone are making my current run much better than the 3.5E attempt. Now does anyone have any fire or acid handy for our friend here? Anywho, I am indeed in the midst of a 4E run through RHoD, and despite a...
  17. Merlin the Tuna

    Quick Question: Only two players

    Depending on how well they can handle having a variety of powers, you may want to give them a couple extra ones so that they have a little bit more to do as a party during a fight. I'm running a party of 3 characters at low heroic right now, and I let them each grab an additional level 1...
  18. Merlin the Tuna

    CB to be Updated 12/21

    Speaking of, is there actually a way to get rid of items that you've incorrectly added to your inventory (or just sold)? My friends and I haven't been able to figure that out.
  19. Merlin the Tuna

    The Bard's Melee Weapon powers

    Yeouch. I wasn't aware of that (I claim the "Who cares about Ardents" defense), but the Bard does at least have the White Lotus feats to buff up his at wills. White Lotus Enervation in particular works nicely with Guiding Strike, and Riposte is, as always, a solid one to put on a semi-defender.
  20. Merlin the Tuna

    The Bard's Melee Weapon powers

    The biggest problem I found in playing a Bard through a fair chunk of Heroic was just that there simply weren't enough Melee Weapon powers. There's only one or two at any given level, so if they don't suit your concept or your party composition pretty well, you're quickly stuck going with...
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