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So it occurs to me that the eldritch knight archetype and the arcane trickster archetype are very very very similar in power, to the point where I might consider swapping one for the other (ie - have a fighter with arcane trickster or vice versa). There are some issues there, to be sure - like a...

Starting from the premise that when you play a roleplaying game, you want to spend time doing things in that game that appeal to you. Some people want to say "I hit it with my sword" each round and not be penalised. Others want to move to square B, ready a 2-square move-and-attack on monster C...

This just struck me - I know it's crazy, but... So, instead of having a small set of dailies and picking which one you want to use: You get 4 (or less for lower levels) daily uses, and you have a stack of power cards - class dailies, either of the appropriate level, or the appropriate level...

There's a lot of post on these boards about speeding up play. There's some arguments about how to do that, and what works, and whether there's an issue. One thing I think that is missing is hard facts. I work as a programmer. If I find that a program is running slow, the first thing I do is...

My group has been playing 4e for a while now, and are now approaching the point where instead of getting new powers, we're going to be trading in lower level powers for higher level ones. And it struck me that I don't actually want to: the powers that I have are pretty cool, and there's no...

So, I've been watching Monkey!, and it strikes me that all up, a lot of minion combat happens. By far the majority of hits on a minion do the following: knock it down and away from the attacker. So, in light of various "minions aren't tough enough" threads, I'm going to propose the following...

Fundamentally, gold has become a character-building resource. You spend it on magic items, rituals, consumables and the like, and if you blow all your money on ale and whores, you're going to make life hard for yourself (without some intervention from the DM). I'd like to propose a system to...

So, I'm noticing that there's an awful lot of threads that complain that something or another is too much like WOW. The funny thing is that usually they cite mechanics that are actually stolen by WOW from other things, most often from P&P roleplaying games. So, I'm going to start a big list of...

This is an interesting power. Specifically the damage it deals: "Hit: The target takes damage as if it were hit by its own melee basic attack. If you have combat advantage against the target, you can add your Sneak Attack damage." I'm assuming, for the sake of balance, that this isn't supposed...

Wizards have a big 'gleemax announcement' on their flash intro to the wizards site. It turns out that they're canning gleemax in september in favour of DNDI. Looks like they're really pushing their pay-to-play option, and really who can blame them? That said - lots of people aren't going to...

I'd like to nominate stalker0's skill challenge maths thread for sticky status. Arguments about fixing skill challenges are cropping up anywhere that skill challenges might be mentioned, and it'd be nice to be able to direct people to the mathematical proofs that skill challenges need a ton of...

Thanks to Stalker0's comprehensive analysis, everyone should by now be aware that the chance for a normal party to succeed at a moderate skill challenge is pretty low (7% or so). Personally I've played through 3 skill challenges, succeeded at one (lucky us!) and failed at the other two. I found...

At present, it seems that intimidate is a waste of skill points. It has the short term effects of bluff or diplomacy, but suffers because: DMs like to make their NPCs immune to it It wears off in a few minutes It carries stiff roleplaying penalties So - no doubt (in my mind) that as 3.5 has...

Ok, so basically the archivist from Heroes of horror is a divine spellcaster that uses a spellbook. He's a fairly useful replacement for the traditional cleric - some monster busting powers, some bookish nerdyness. Good fort and will saves, medium armour, bad BAB, 4 skill points per level...

Something I've noticed while playing a mid-level wizard (and ghost-playing another player's cleric at the same time) is that often the following will happen: 1. I'll spend a round working out my action - looking up the spells available, picking one, and having the text ready for when the effect...

This would seem to suggest that fabricate can only create an item, or items which are made from a single material - ie you can't make an axe with it (unless it's an all-metal axe or something). Easy enough, right? But what can you actually make? Can I make a loaf of bread? Can I make an...

We were discussing this on the thread about forgotten realms cloakers, and it got me thinking. The fact that a race, or type of creature, or whatever has an "alien mindset" and this somehow explains away all the inconsistencies the race has is a fairly common thing to find in fantasy games...

In the description of a net, it states "An entangled creature can escape with a DC 20 Escape Artist check (a full-round action). The net has 5 hit points and can be burst with a DC 25 Strength check (also a full-round action)." Ok - you can get out with an escape artist check or a strength...

OK, we all know that the new uses for knowledge skills are really quite good. However - does anyone else think that the exact things a knowledge check should reveal should be more specific? I note that in the shackled city story hour, a player was upset that on a successful knowledge(religion)...

Dragon 316 contains, under the article "cloack & dagger" the "poison ring", a ring with a needle intended to be poisoned. Unfortunately it deals 1 point of damage on a successful touch attack, in addition to dealing poison damage. Luckily it wasn't designated a weapon type or size, or we'd be...