Unused tools?

[MerakSpielman]

I don't think a single player I've ever DMed for has ever:

attempted a trip attack
attempted a disarm
attempted to attack a weapon or held item
used the Aid action
used any of the initiative-specific actions (though they occasionally ready an action)
made a bluff check in combat

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think metamagic feats are very good. Wizards who know their stuff just don't use Cone of Cold, Delayed Blast Fireball, etc. It's all about metamagicked Scorching Ray and Fireball (and now the Orb spells from Complete Arcane).

At 10th level, Empowered Fireball does 15d6, compared to 10d6 for Cone of Cold. And the area of effect's better. Empowered Ray of Enfeeblement is an excellent 3rd level spell, far superior to Ray of Exhaustion. My necromancer's also got a lot of joy out of Empowered False Life in the 4th level slot.

An 11th level wizard can cast a twinned sudden maximized scorching ray for a straight 144 points of damage if all six rays hit. At the same level, a puny spell like Harm only does 110 and they get a saving throw for half.

 

[cybertalus]

You guys who haven't used the NPC stats are missing out. Those things have saved me so much time I can't tell you. Even if I just use them as a starting point, they're great. A lazy DM's best friend.

Though I'll be bad and issue a "me too" on all the reasons people state for not using prestige classes, metamagic, and templates.

Metamagic in particular just always struck me as a good idea that didn't work out so great. It could have been a system that made lower level spells useful for a caster's whole career. Specifically a metamagic feat that incresed the cap on spells the affect a specific number of HD would've been awesome.

Prestige classes have just never appealed to me in D&D. As a player I always considered that they're too much of a pain to qualify for, and both in meeting the qualifications and then taking levels in the prestige class I usually had to give up too much from the base class. I like the Advanced Classes in D20 Modern, but those are much easier to qualify for and since D20M's base classes are only ten levels anyway, you're not giving up nearly as much base class progression.

Edit: Oh, and Merak, I've used some of those things on your list as a player. I griped a lot when 3.5 took away the Refocus initiaive option. Almost always used it with spellcasters. My monk character tried tripping and disarming a few times, but when none of the attempts suceeded he went back to using flurry of blows instead. I had a character who would've used the Aid in combat action, except it's melee only and he was a low-Con archer. I looked for chances, but it never happened.

 

[Archibald Theocliste]

As a DM or a player, I very rarely use new weapons and armors. But the most notable thing is that, despite the huge amount of spells available now, be it myself or my players we rarely use spells outside the PHB (usually some spells from CD and now from CA).

 

[LrdApoc]

I think that the two biggest mechanics we've not used much are Metamagic and Counterspelling. Though UA added some interesting flavor to making both more workable in my opinion. I played a Wizard for 13 levels and never found one time preparing a spell with metamagic worked better than casting a higher level spell. This may just be because of the situations we were in. Counterspelling also never seemed worth it - while not too expensive per se, it just never felt right in game use.

As a DM I've created many PrC's but they have so far not been used by players - since they rarely know where they will end up character wise and many of the WotC Prc's are either too generic or too specific (for example all of them it seems in Complete Divine) and require you know where you will build from level one. The nature of our games does not suit that well.

 

[Darkness]

You guys who haven't used the NPC stats are missing out. Those things have saved me so much time I can't tell you. Even if I just use them as a starting point, they're great. A lazy DM's best friend.

I'm with ya, mate. If they hadn't been in the DMG, I would have made them myself.

 

[Tom Cashel]

I'm with you on the NPC stats. Now, give me the same thing as stat blocks and I might use it. But a chart? That doesn't work for me.

Likewise. That's one of the many reasons D20 Modern is the shiznit.

Scads of stat blocks just ready to be modified, augmented, transmogrified, altered, switcheroo'd, and fnorded.

 

[Tom Cashel]

[never...]
attempted a trip attack
attempted a disarm
attempted to attack a weapon or held item

Mine either, until I had a dragon they were fighting use all three. I figured, they're just standard combat actions, and the dragon's going to succeed 8 times out of 10 with those staggering bonuses to hit...

Boy, were they pissed.

And dead.

They started putting the Combat chapter to use after that.

 

[Allanon]

Mine either, until I had a dragon they were fighting use all three. I figured, they're just standard combat actions, and the dragon's going to succeed 8 times out of 10 with those staggering bonuses to hit...

Boy, were they pissed.

And dead.

They started putting the Combat chapter to use after that.

That sounds familiar, as soon as the NPC's starting using the combat chapter the PC's began using it too.

On the topic of templates I'm currently running an undead heavy adventure thus templates are my friend. Prestige classes I rarely use (as a DM). But my players are all over them. Metamagic is the reason one of my player's became a sorceror. On-the-fly metamagic can be very deadly and very usefull.

 

[Staffan]

I don't use the DMG stock NPC tables; they're just too hard to read and annoying. Personally, I'd like a "Monster Manual of NPCs" with suitable CR villains (or allies) written up as monster entries. THAT I would use, at least when short of time.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that what Enemies & Allies was all about?

I griped a lot when 3.5 took away the Refocus initiaive option. Almost always used it with spellcasters.

Delay now includes refocus, since you can delay into the next round.