SAge Advice?

[Ranger REG]

I don't know. Not a lot of people consider Skip William to be one of those talents at Wizards, at least that's what I'm feeling on this thread and past thread regarding his *air quotes * "unofficial rules answers."

And by "talents," I mean one that deserve both recognition and praise. He is most often criticized or worse personally attacked his intelligence.

 

[dcollins]

So, who do you ask for official ruling then?

The books are official.
The Errata is official.
The Official D&D FAQ is official.

It's no big mystery.

 

[coyote6]

The books are official.
The Errata is official.
The Official D&D FAQ is official.

Of course, most of the Official D&D FAQ is taken directly from Sage Advice, and almost all of Sage Advice gets put into the Official D&D FAQ (I can't think of anything that hasn't made it in, offhand).

 

[Ranger REG]

Interesting. Even the most recent FAQ (albeit in a disgustingly divided forms; reminds me of the SRD) has contact info for ... get this ... The Sage (changed to a paizopublishing.com email address).

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I don't know. Not a lot of people consider Skip William to be one of those talents at Wizards, at least that's what I'm feeling on this thread and past thread regarding his *air quotes * "unofficial rules answers."

And by "talents," I mean one that deserve both recognition and praise. He is most often criticized or worse personally attacked his intelligence.

The only reason he takes such heat is directly because he is the Sage. As the guy providing official rulings and errata, he puts a "face" on WotC upon which abuse can be heaped. In other words, he's a scapegoat or fall guy. He's a talented game designer; some of the adventures he's done (Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, for example) are among my favorites. I think a lot more people consider him one of the talents of WotC (until recently, when he was let go) than are speaking up here.

 

[Fast Learner]

I know that I certainly do, and I completely agree that, as WOTC put him forth as the rules guru, they also put him out as the highest profile flamebait. I can only begin to imagine how unpleasant that aspect of his work must have been (and must be).

 

[Gez]

Indeed, no error is going to be forgiven to a Sage. And he's bound, like every one, to make errors (like when he said a quickened spell did still provoke AoO, whereas the PHB explicitely state that free actions never provokes AoO -- that's the only Sage error that really irked me, I've forgot the others).

 

[kreynolds]

I think a lot more people consider him one of the talents of WotC (until recently, when he was let go) than are speaking up here.

Here, here.

 

[ichabod]

I know that I certainly do, and I completely agree that, as WOTC put him forth as the rules guru, they also put him out as the highest profile flamebait. I can only begin to imagine how unpleasant that aspect of his work must have been (and must be).

I can imagine it exactly. I used to do online rules for another game company, and it was sheer hell. Almost every ruling you make seems to anger somebody, and they are often none too polite about telling you that. Especially online. I had some online posters who were just incredibly nasty to me. When I met them in person at cons, they were nice and polite. Some people just don't click that there's another person on the other end, and behave in ways they never would IRL.

Even though I don't like a lot of the Sage's rulings, and use my own instead, I have great sympathy for the situation he is in.

 

[dcollins]

I don't know. Not a lot of people consider Skip William to be one of those talents at Wizards, at least that's what I'm feeling on this thread and past thread regarding his *air quotes * "unofficial rules answers."

There's no one in this thread who has criticized the talents or repute of Skip Williams! You have cunningly changed the subject of the thread by acting like the categorization of Skip's comments as "unofficial" is somehow a criticism of him. It's not, and I continue to be amazed that he personally answers questions by email.

All I did was quote "Sage Advice" articles from years past -- which Skip himself wrote -- which said (again) "The answers provided in this column are not official rulings."