Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6146782" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 322: August 2004part 8/8DM's toolbox: Our final toolbox reminds us that what players say they want isn't necessarily what they actually want, particularly in ongoing campaigns, and they might not even know what will really please them. So here's some tricks to help you read the unconscious signals they're giving off, and respond to them appropriately. Open-ended questions are far better than flat yes or no ones. Look at the character sheets, see what's emphasised on that. Let the players talk amongst themselves and pay close attention to their dynamics. And once you have an idea, don't be afraid to change your earlier plans to keep the adventure full of appropriate twists and turns. You might not be able to please everyone all the time, especially in a big group, but you'll please more people more of the time if you know how to work with human nature rather than against it. Sage advice is back to 3 pages again. Skip is not taking any crap. The eternal sage who puts the pages in the mages and the broomstick between the witches legs is on top again. So let's get back to business as usual. How smart is someone with an intelligence of 3 (Depends if their wisdom is also seriously sub average. You'll get more latitude that you would in the real world, because of the range of intelligence in sentient races, and the lack of a standardised education system. But yeah, you can talk, but people will know you're not the sharpest pencil in the box. ) Do charisma buffing magic items improve paladins divine grace (Yes.)How long does it take to activate trigger magic items containing spells with long casting times (A standard action, or the spell's casting time, whichever is longer. The designers really should have spelled that one out better. ) Do spell-trigger items suffer spell failure due to armour (Not in general.)What can be prone (Anything that can stretch out on the floor. Apart from a few weird things like beholders and gelatinous cubes, that's most things. Things with no limbs aren't negatively affected by going prone )What can be tripped (Pretty similar list, really. Anything that uses legs to move. You can perform an analogous move on things with wings, which stalls them. Try it some time, it could turn the tide of battle. )Can you trip someone while they're getting up with your AoO (No, as AoO's take place before the action that triggers them. You'd have to ready an action to pull that nasty little trick.)Can prone creatures move. Can they tumble (You've seen action movies, haven't you. They can pull some pretty cool tricks, and we're not going to completely forbid them. ) When fighting with two weapons, do you double the bonus from combat expertise (Hell no. You suffer the penalty to all your attacks, no matter how many different weapons you make them with.)Can you use both power attack and weapon finesse simultaneously with spiked chains and rapiers (Why yes. How feat intensive but potentially twinky.) How fasst can a halfling barbarian in medium armour move, preciousss (You would want to know that, shorty. And don't call Skip Precious, or Skip'll cap you. That pleasure is reserved for the laydees. And it'd better be in a sultry purr, not some awfull squeaky voice that makes your <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />ing teeth grind. Now about your question, lets see. Ahh here we arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhlarkhackhackguuuuuurrrrrrggggllllee :thud: ) A whole bunch of things come to an end this month, and most of them get fairly decent sendoffs. The theme isn't stuck too that strictly, but still manages to get a solid selection of articles. And since they did get pretty annoying at times with the formulaic generic stuff, I'm definitely interested to see what comes next. Let's hope player-focussed isn't a buzzword for even more contextless new spells, magic items, prestige classes, etc that you won't get a chance to use.</blockquote>

Verification