Rel
Liquid Awesome
I ran a session last night in my Eberron campaign. Not the best session ever but things worked out pretty well. I had to adjudicate, on the fly, some rules for the PC's paddling their boat upriver to overtake a trio of Goblins in a rowboat who were trying to escape with some crates the party wanted. Meanwhile a bunch of Gnolls fired at them from the docks with their longbows and I had to take into account whether the PC's would get their Dex bonus to AC while rowing and the cover they got from the sides of the boat. The PC's responded with some bowfire of their own as well as a well placed Minor Image spell that cut off the Gnolls line of sight and ended their archery fire.
When all was said and done, I came away with the following inescapable conclusions:
None of the spells used were broken (even the Minor Image spell that shut off the Gnolls attacks completely).
None of the feats used were broken (even the Warforged's Adamantine Body feat that gives him DR and let him blow off the damage from a couple arrows).
None of the character classes involved were broken (even the Artificer who was able to whip out that Minor Image spell on the fly using a hastened Infusion).
The cover rules are not broken (even though it was tough to hit the PC's in the boat and nearly impossible to hit the swimming Goblins when their boat capsized).
The skill rules are not broken (even though I let the PC's with nary a rank of Profession: Boatman crew the small fishing boat they stole).
My ability and authority to make up rules on the fly to handle rare circumstances is as good as it ever was in any edition of any game (even though I was just flat out making up the speeds of these boats and playing fast and loose with time and distance until things closed within bowshot).
d20 and D&D works really well for our group almost all of the time (even though I see a hundred complaints about it every day here on the boards).
I guess that puts me in the minority, huh?
When all was said and done, I came away with the following inescapable conclusions:
None of the spells used were broken (even the Minor Image spell that shut off the Gnolls attacks completely).
None of the feats used were broken (even the Warforged's Adamantine Body feat that gives him DR and let him blow off the damage from a couple arrows).
None of the character classes involved were broken (even the Artificer who was able to whip out that Minor Image spell on the fly using a hastened Infusion).
The cover rules are not broken (even though it was tough to hit the PC's in the boat and nearly impossible to hit the swimming Goblins when their boat capsized).
The skill rules are not broken (even though I let the PC's with nary a rank of Profession: Boatman crew the small fishing boat they stole).
My ability and authority to make up rules on the fly to handle rare circumstances is as good as it ever was in any edition of any game (even though I was just flat out making up the speeds of these boats and playing fast and loose with time and distance until things closed within bowshot).
d20 and D&D works really well for our group almost all of the time (even though I see a hundred complaints about it every day here on the boards).
I guess that puts me in the minority, huh?