The Gaming Den

Except the whole point is that PaO requires a save, and Holy Word is bad because it is either useless or too strong, because of the no save aspect. (It's fine for evil outsiders, because it has a save.) I had picked these two spells in particular because the Lich won't make his Fortitude save (unle...

The thing is that the melee fighter is like the easiest standard party archetype to counter . You can see this in games like, oh, every superhero TTRPG ever made. Even before we get into Yu-Gi-Ohesque 'I counter the counter of your trap card with SOLEMN JUDGMENT!' shenanigans, the melee character i...

Well, bonus escalation provides its own problems. Namely that the game becomes a game of counters. D&D is bad enough at that already (e.g. Death Ward, Mind Blank, Heroes' Feast). This is true. But the point is that raising the bonuses very makes the need for counters much greater. Isn't this ki...

The groups aren't shouting past each other. Stormbringer and CRKrueger believe (or claim to believe) that the only reason that Fighters are underpowered is because 3rd edition rules allow the Wizard to cast defensively in melee and take levels in Loremaster. I admit skimming this thread but I thoug...

<snip analysis of 40K power> I always thought these were just artifacts stemming from the fact that the game is supposed to be played on a table top. Of course, 40K also runs on the Rule of Cool, so there's this crazy insistence that melee is supposed to remain relevant (with no elaborate backstory...

I hate how every "fighters can't get nice things" discussion degenerates in two groups shouting past each other. Yes, the fighter class, AS IT IS, is hopeless. We got that. Bashing grognards who believe that there can be some balance AS IT IS is pointless. No, this doesn't invalidate the n...

angelfromanotherpin wrote:Xar, multifarious demon lord of impermeability. No, you don't get it.

Xar cults are recognized by their sinister chant:

"You don't get Xar!"

"I don't get Xar!"

"No one gets Xar!" (loops back, ad infinitum)

Yah. Kenpachi has powers that basically amount to invulnerability, a fear aura, supernatural speed, supernatural strength, supernatural senses, and of course air walk, and he probably has the most simplified set of supernatural powers out of all the captains. A Legendary or even Epic Berserker soun...

More brilliant game design from over at the WotC forums: Personally I want something like E6 but as E30. All class features, skill systems, and themes to be designed to go all the way to the "level cap". Then at a certain point you can buy "Destinies" with XP to place on top of ...

Maybe I have to go back into the history of the 17 page thread for context? but I don't really understand why Lago picked out these two posts as GREATEST EVER POSTS ON THE INTERNET. What is the big deal? I can't talk for Lago and I don't think those were The. Greatest. Posts. Ever. but they're stil...

The wizard class, as written, can do things out of combat. Magical things. At some point in their career, there are no practical limits as to what can be achieved or simulated through the use of some spell or another. The rogue can also do plenty of things out of combat, but compared to the wizard,...

4E D&D fights can end at a reasonable clip with a well-optimized party with access to all of the books and/or Character Builder. For most parties, however, it's padded sumo all-the-way. I ran quite a few 4E D&D games back before I gave up on the edition and a 5-6 round combat is quite stand...

Sword this, sword that. Combat this, combat that. Thanks for perfectly encapsulating why the DMF is a shallow and inappropriate archetype to have at higher level. Eh, Lago, are we even talking about the same game? I'm talking about the one with a "Combat" chapter that's like (don't have t...

4E D&D's closet troll design may or may not be a problem. For averagely built parties, sure. For well-oiled parties that have a STR/WIS Cleric and a Warlord that knows what they're doing, it doesn't help much. A properly built STR Ranger + Infernal Warlock + Battlemind + STR Cleric + Non-Ranged...

re nockermensch: Most of the time when people try to 'fix' the VAH/DMF it's stupid useless melee combat fixes. And I find it very weird how when I say that this is exactly why the martial character will never be balanced they try to disprove me by doing what I said symbolizes their eternal suckitud...

Thank you, Doctor Science. That really is interesting... unfortunately, it's actually not relevant to a universe where someone really could wave his hands to summon up some 'acid energy'. We're already in the business of curbstomping the laws of physics, so the way acid works in the real world is i...

Grabbing People The purpose of the grab varies depending on the relative power of the characters doing the grab. Major villains want to grab the princess and carry her away. Guards want to grab the Ogre just to slow him down while other people get some kind of real resistance together. The hero and...

I have no need for my fighter to get "stronger" then a troll in muscle power (STR modifier), but I do like him to be more skilled then a troll. My high level fighter should "dance" pass the blows of a troll, to climb-step on the body of that troll and drive his blade through the...

One thing that fighting man in fiction ALWAYS do is to use the environment against their foes. So, Samurai Jack vs. Flying Spellcaster means Samurai Jack slashing a wall and making pieces of the ceiling fall on the Spellcaster's head. He runs the fuck away and lures the solid iron demon into a trap...

Meet Kaelik. Just another regular internet troll who stumbled and tripped and found himself in...The Twilight Zone. No seriously. I have nothing against deaddm other than that he is actually responding to shadzar, and therefore making this forum objectively worse by encouraging him. But that was su...

Both Acid and Poison could fit the bill for Green bolts, but only Poison works with Purple, so Acid became Green in fantasy games. Well actually it's because poison would be a rather common immunity in dnd, whereas nothing is immune to acid, unless it is specifically given an arbitrary allowance to...

There are things listed as energy damage, despite the fact that it might not make much sense as an energy. How is acid an energy? I can get fire, electricity, sonic, and even cold (which should be the absence of energy but thats an entirely different issue). But how is acid an energy, it's never de...

This thread is actually funny, because fiction is full of heroes who are "mere" fighting man. It should be simple to fix the fighter if the designers simply asked themselves: "On this situation, What Would Samurai Jack do?" (WWSJD). One thing that fighting man in fiction ALWAYS d...

If you still have a storyteller who writes the plot, I can see a long story being screwed up quite easily if the PCs have big plot power. Very devoted storytellers could write out an entirely new long story every time the players change the plot in a big way. That's a ton of writing if the plot cha...

The ring isn't a 'ring of invisibility'; it's a ring of power , and it makes hobbits invisible because not standing out is a deeply ingrained part of hobbit psychology. People who aren't hobbits could use it for much more impressive things, it's just that it spends just about all of the main series...