Common new DM mistakes list...
- Thread starter Tatsukun
- Start date
especially given the nature of 4d6 drop the low.
taliesin15
First Post
tatsukun writes:
5) A cleric or Paladin doesn't have to worship any one god. S/he can just worship goodness (for Paladins) or anything (for Clerics).
dCollins responded along the lines of what I was going to say here--which I'll say in another way--though many assume a monotheistic paradigm for Clerics, etc., the fact of the matter is that most ancient cultures were polytheistic--the Greeks and Norse tended to refer to "the Gods" meaning a multiplicity of deities within a single pantheon--as a matter of fact, in areas that represented the "hub" of civilizations encountering each other (say, ancient Alexandria), you had people invoking deities of disparate pantheons
thus, there are extant "spells" dating to the 2nd-4th centuries C.E. invoking every imaginable Greek, Egyptian, Assyrian, Roman (some "duplicating" the Greek, such as both Jove and Zeus), Jesus, Jehovah, Satan--you name it, even invoking deities that were diametrically opposed to each other
I find the assumption that all clerics (and other players) should just have one deity pretty annoying--but hey, its all Open Source, my point is that DMs might make the mistake of just following along the examples given instead of taking the opportunity to put some of their own imagination or creative examples from real world history or even creative variations on sci fi literature milieus
5) A cleric or Paladin doesn't have to worship any one god. S/he can just worship goodness (for Paladins) or anything (for Clerics).
dCollins responded along the lines of what I was going to say here--which I'll say in another way--though many assume a monotheistic paradigm for Clerics, etc., the fact of the matter is that most ancient cultures were polytheistic--the Greeks and Norse tended to refer to "the Gods" meaning a multiplicity of deities within a single pantheon--as a matter of fact, in areas that represented the "hub" of civilizations encountering each other (say, ancient Alexandria), you had people invoking deities of disparate pantheons
thus, there are extant "spells" dating to the 2nd-4th centuries C.E. invoking every imaginable Greek, Egyptian, Assyrian, Roman (some "duplicating" the Greek, such as both Jove and Zeus), Jesus, Jehovah, Satan--you name it, even invoking deities that were diametrically opposed to each other
I find the assumption that all clerics (and other players) should just have one deity pretty annoying--but hey, its all Open Source, my point is that DMs might make the mistake of just following along the examples given instead of taking the opportunity to put some of their own imagination or creative examples from real world history or even creative variations on sci fi literature milieus
Darkness
Hand and Eye of Piratecat [Moderator]
*nods*
4d6, drop lowest, re-roll if you suck averages to about 28 (or 29?) point-buy points, as I recall.
BTW, random fact: The CRs were playtested with 25-point point-buy characters who deliberately made some sub-par skill and feat choices to ensure you don't have to be a good character min/maxer to survive.
Thus, 25-point characters are actually already overpowered for the CR system if the players build their characters even halfway well or make use of non-sub-par feats outside the core rulebooks. Or use prestige classes, even those from the DMG.
Yes, I'm being silly. Doesn't make it any less true that good builds have a noticeable effect on character power. Just like high stats and other factors.
4d6, drop lowest, re-roll if you suck averages to about 28 (or 29?) point-buy points, as I recall.
BTW, random fact: The CRs were playtested with 25-point point-buy characters who deliberately made some sub-par skill and feat choices to ensure you don't have to be a good character min/maxer to survive.
Thus, 25-point characters are actually already overpowered for the CR system if the players build their characters even halfway well or make use of non-sub-par feats outside the core rulebooks. Or use prestige classes, even those from the DMG.
Yes, I'm being silly. Doesn't make it any less true that good builds have a noticeable effect on character power. Just like high stats and other factors.
Tatsukun
Danjin Masutaa
OK, I've updated.
I'm going to stick to my guns on the cleric / one god issue.
Also, I think the order of feats / class / skills is murky, and I remember a big debate about it. So, I'll leave it off until it goes unchalanged for a while longer.
Thanks for all the help, keep 'em coming!
-Tatsu
I'm going to stick to my guns on the cleric / one god issue.
Also, I think the order of feats / class / skills is murky, and I remember a big debate about it. So, I'll leave it off until it goes unchalanged for a while longer.
Thanks for all the help, keep 'em coming!
-Tatsu
Darkness
Hand and Eye of Piratecat [Moderator]
Maybe add a note regarding settings...Tatsukun said:
Not really. Maybe in 3.0, although even then designers have come out and explicitly said that yes, this is how it works.Tatsukun said:
The 3.5 DMG also clearly states it:
DMG, p.176, regarding Prestige Classes: The rules for level advancement (PHB, p.58) apply to this system, meaning the first step of advancement is always choosing a class. If a character does not meet the requirements for a prestige class before that first step, that character cannot take the first level of that prestige class.
Jeff Wilder
First Post
IMO, the most fundamental mistake new (or even just mediocre) DMs make has little to do with misunderstood rules. It is this:
Sweating the details.
It is nearly impossible to overstate the relative importance of "game pacing" over "whether the goblins are armed with short swords or short spears." Nothing kills the excitement of a game more quickly or more thoroughly than the DM paging through the adventure -- or his notes -- for five minutes, looking for picayune details, mumbling "Um" every few seconds.
Make it up, go with your best guess, and move on.
Sweating the details.
It is nearly impossible to overstate the relative importance of "game pacing" over "whether the goblins are armed with short swords or short spears." Nothing kills the excitement of a game more quickly or more thoroughly than the DM paging through the adventure -- or his notes -- for five minutes, looking for picayune details, mumbling "Um" every few seconds.
Make it up, go with your best guess, and move on.
Asmor
First Post
taliesin15 said:
I think it's more that you choose which deity you primarily worship... In D&D, it's pretty much a fact that everyone knows there are multiple gods, and even the "agnostics" aren't agnostics in the true sense so much as they just choose not to worship any of them.
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