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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Edena_of_Neith" data-source="post: 3144374" data-attributes="member: 2020">It's actually a Dungeons and Dragons version of the game Knightmare Chess.  Have you ever played Knightmare Chess?  In Knightmare Chess, you use a normal chessboard and the normal chess rules.  But each player holds 7 cards, and they play 1 on their moves, and these cards change the rules.  There are tons and tons of cards (I never took the time to even begin trying to memorize them all ...) that change the rules in tons and tons of ways.  There is nothing like a game of chess where the board is flipped sideways, then your opponent flips it upside down.  Think *every* pawn in the 7th rank.  Think 5 queens on each side running around.  <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=":)" />  The game is a blast, uproariously fun for me.  (I'm no chess player, though.  If I were, I'd faint at the idea of Knightmare Chess!)  Ok, how is Knightmare Chess relevant to 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons?  I'll show you:  First comes 3.0, with all new core books.  Everyone is accustomed to 2nd edition, and has to relearn things.  Then comes a lot of 3.0 official supplements.  These are like habitrail add-ons, much like the old 2nd edition add-ons, to 3.0.  Then comes new world settings.  And then comes a plethora of d20 products, campaign worlds, and other things.  We have lots of stuff from Mongoose Publishing, Necromancer Games, and more other d20 companies than I can shake a stick at.  And then we have all the errata for 3.0.  And then we have a massive number of online products as well.  Then comes 3.5, with all new core books.  And then a ton of official expansion books (enough to fill a large bookshelf.)  And the d20 publishers with more products.  And more errata.  And more online material.  I argued that it would be difficult to create effective tactics and strategy in Knightmare Chess because you could never know exactly WHAT was going to happen.  There were just too many possibilities, too many cards, too many combinations.  So, you just had to play your best and hope for the best ... sorta like any Newbie was when he or she played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time.  <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=":)" />  What I am saying now is that 3.0, 3.5, d20, online stuff, errata, and all the rest have made Newbies again out of us all.  There is no way we can know all the stuff, memorize all the rules, understand all the possibilities ... short of spending thousands of dollars, reading an entire library of books, and making thousands of judgement calls on contradicting rules.  And besides being impossible, it most certainly wouldn't be much fun.    So ... taking into account the philosophy I espoused above ... I just say:  bring your stuff to the game, use your rules, and let's play.  And hope it works.  Much like Knightmare Chess.  Is it Munchkin?  Certainly.  But powermongering is a normal part of the game (at least, a normal part of most of the games I was ever in.)  Heh ... even paladins get into the powermongering act, which always gets the paladins in trouble.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />    I think it is only normal, IF all the rules are allowed, that the Terrible Trio would be adopted.  So yeah, 7th level cleric/wizards would be running around with Autokill spells.  Then again, a lot of campaigns seem to go only to 10th level, so most of the campaign is over by the time the characters get so strong anyways.  TPKing the party is not my idea of good DMing, even if the party is behaving totally unreasonably.  What is reasonable - if scary - is gleefully informing the players of all those TERRIBLE things out of sundry d20 products and god-knows-what products you plan to throw at them.  Players on their toes are a Good Thing.  You may not be bent on TPKing the party, but they don't have to know that.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  I showed, using the Terrible Trio (and then with help, the Septet Spectacular) how a mundane cleric 1 / wizard 6 could be turned into a killing machine.  I was hoping that someone could point out feats that would help the other classes to compete.  The combination of keen edge and improved critical does help the fighter, for example.  One does want every player to have a fair stab at the action.  So once again, I was asking if you'all could find neat feat combinations for the fighter, rogue, and bard.  We know the cleric and the wizard can be made superpowerful;  now, what can we do with the other classes?  I am not all knowing on feats, guys!  I would like to hear from you about some really great feats for the fighter and rogue, to offset the munchkin <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> wizard/cleric I have constructed out of monstrosity!</blockquote>

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