The Gaming Den

How large are are the point buy numbers being talked about here? Does a level of spellcasting cost more than a point of BAB or die of SA damage? But specializing always beats generalizing in D&D. If you're a wizard, and you can give up anything to increase your caster level, you do it and don't...

They were intended to be scary, difficult, and otherworldly. So how well did the game achieve this? Not for a moment will I claim to be an expert on this, because it's been a couple of years since I've played it and I haven't played a game in the second edition version of the game at all, but I see...

I just talked my GM into letting me play this class. One question: am I better off using divine metamagic or master of many forms 3?

Datawolf wrote:At least that story had a happy ending.

And we got to hear about it, which is kinda win too.

Seriously, save the shit talking for when you actually disagree with what's being stated. You're off base: ...but that's not what I meant by "dipping". I meant that if you have 8 lvls of Fighter, there ideally should be a reason you might want to dip 1 lvl of Wizard. And vice versa. It do...

At this point, the very instant I see a "magic skill roll" in a d20 product, I put it down. d20 skill rolls just don't generate the kinds of numbers that would tell you want a level appropriate effect would be. Yeah, if you're talking about D&D I totally agree. The magic system in Con...

K wrote:If each buff is removing abilities as well as granting them, piling them up becomes counter productive and you have reasons to end them.

Soooo.... re-write all the spells?

I don't think that stacking multiple bonuses on single item slots breaks the game. But it's still bad for the game, I get that, I actually liked the idea from a fluff point of view. Ah well... Knowing that it's bad for the game doesn't prevent you from using the idea and making it work. For instanc...

The "encounter" mechanic is just a recipe for arguments at the table. If I were the DM, I would say, "The encounter is over once the fighting stops. End of story, full stop, etc." And then people will argue that they are still "fighting" while they rush into the next r...

Echoes wrote: People like rolling attacks, and are OK with missing sometimes. On the other hand, people hate failing saving throws. Ergo, static defenses = more happy players.

This has certainly been my experience.

I loved the skill roll involved, I thought that worked really well with everything. I also found that because of the limitations magic was either a totally scary and awesome tool to throw at PCs or it was a fun and very thematic part of a character that worked kinda well without breaking the game. T...

Bihlbo: I don't play PF. So, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that it was PF, since that element has nothing at all to do with the point. Swift actions aren't really underused, overall. Sure, it might be easy to build a character that doesn't have a use for them, but that doesn't mean there s...

Encounter The spell effects last for the duration of the encounter or five minutes, whichever is shorter. (These are generally stronger buffs like polymorph or crowd control spells like wall of fire .) The way 4e handles these is "encounter or 5 minutes, whichever is longer" specifically ...

Well, testing proves that this concept does not solve the problems I had hoped it would solve. So, while I still think it would be interesting to see how it would play out with people who've never played a d20 game before and who therefore have no reason to think of this as a change , I don't think ...

I very much prefer a system where every caster casts spontaneously and prepares spells the same way, after playing a couple of games using it. I think Warcraft d20 or World of Warcraft d20 did that. Likewise with Arcana Evolved. And the EQrpg had a great system, ported straight from EQ: All casters...

... whereas preparing spells for a wizard can take as little as 15 minutes, but requires 8 hours of sleep. "I can sometimes save 45 minutes" isn't nearly as good a benefit as "I don't need to sleep for spells," which has always bothered me. I very much prefer a system where every...

I'm just curious, but why is this a new thread instead of a reply to the actual material?

From my perspective (i.e. from the people with whom I discuss RPGs) 4e's biggest failure is the inability to play a game that focuses on anything but skirmish combats. It isn't that you can't, it's just that if you try, you aren't using 4e for it so you might as well skip the books entirely. I mean,...

I would note however, that many games typically don't go for 10 AP (or MP - movement points), because having 10 points to account for does slow down play. Most wargames typically limit their AP to around 6 points, with only a few "fast" creatures going up to 10. I would also strongly enco...

We'll make fun of you on the internet, and then give you a better game system and setting than the one you shelled out 60$ for. While I have seen plenty examples of the former, I've not seen any examples of the latter. Tome, while it may be mechanically better, is less usable than what money can bu...

The main problem I see with adding hp due to armor is that at higher levels you have to find a way to keep armor relevant. There's no way anyone's going to bother with armor if at level 15 it gives you a +5 boost to hit points.

Move+Standard can be combined to use a Full Attack or whatever. If you want to move and attack a bunch of people at the same time, take whirlwind. Note how there is zero accounting? None at all. Your 'fix' is being applied to something that is *not a problem* in any way. You are 100% applying chang...

I just stumbled across this thread and I'm kind of excited to mine it for good game recommendations. These are the games I've been into for the last 6 months or so. Civ V is pretty exciting. They really dropped the ball on the interface though, making the game harder to quickly control than it was i...

Hehe, given Wolfe's use of language in the books, I'm almost scared of what a gazebo would be.

The biggest hurdle for me actually doing it is finding a good RPG system that doesn't make me want to spend months reworking it. The setting doesn't lend itself well to skirmish-oriented system like D&D.