The Gaming Den

Back to the point, certainly, you can get some theoretically stupid results on some arbitrarily slapped together simulator...but if you work on a simulator for 30 years, it usually doesn't have hole after hole after hole after hole in the simulation. Except the goal of D&D is not to be a simula...

It's logical (as logical as any of this can be) for a divine power to only function when doing the work of the divine. Slaughtering goblins who can't even begin to fight back isn't a particularly holy task. Cleric "fluff" such as it is in 4e is that cleric powers are already invested in t...

Because there are people out there who will read the rules as written, take every single word of them literally, and then have their characters march around smacking a bag of rats as if that makes sense from any perspective. Here have been some of the solutions proposed for the great cleave feat. S...

If a cleric uses Sacred Flame against a goblin, an ally gets temp hp. If he uses Sacred Flame on a rock, an ally does not get temp hp. If he uses Sacred Flame on a rat, an ally does not get temp hp. If he uses Sacred Flame on an ally, an ally does not get temp hp. If he uses Sacred Flame on that sa...

The fact that, by definition, I can not shoot a ray of frost at a glass of water to make ice cubes infuriates me about 4th ed. You can. You say to your DM, "I use my ray of frost to freeze this water", and he says, "Okay." If he says, "No, that's not written in the rulebook...

As for allies, does "All of my allies died that day" imply the speaker is dead as well? The English language definition is immaterial. Only the game's presented definition. Which is very explicit: 1) You are not your own ally. 2) All creatures that are not your ally are your enemy. Theref...

Oh fuck off. It's absurd that squares are "adjacent" to themselves. It's absurd that "all of your allies" doesn't include you. There are lots of things that are absurd in the 4e rules. If you throw out everything that's "absurd" about 4e, you have to dump out the entir...

You don't count as your own enemy. Yes you do. When a power’s target entry specifies that it affects you and one or more of your allies, then you can take advantage of the power’s effect along with your team-mates. Otherwise, “ally” or “allies” does not include you, and both terms assume willing ta...

Wait. If you count as your own enemy, what prevents you from putting an Astral Sigil on yourself out of combat and telling your friends to punch you very softly? That might work even in games where you aren't allowed to target objects. You don't count as your own enemy. Powers only trigger from cre...

But you do make a good point. It's hard to imagine a good game experience coming out of asking the wizard's player to sit out for two days while the fighter drags his corpse through the desert. I don’t know about that, while I was playing a dwarf fighter at the time, I have a lot of fond memories o...

I think you are confused. Let me try to explain this in terms of teh Maths: ... This is the absolute maximum differential, and yet there is literally only a single day out of six in which the Fighter and Wizard have different levels of combat readiness. You just demonstrated there are three out of ...

No, it's not an exaggeration. Both people live exactly the same amount of time, they guy who loses 3 surges is not appreciably better off than the guy who loses all six and takes 7 damage. And they both die the next day. That is the maximum possible variation. Neither one can survive combat, and ne...

Pinniped, the choice is between getting a new DC on subsequent days that is 5 points higher (if you succeed) or continuing to make the same test on subsequent days (if you fail). You do not have to roll all 37 checks looking for a nat 20 all at once the moment you run out of water. -Username17 Ah, ...

The point is that having an elaborate rolling system based off of the assumption that 90% of characters will fail to make the roll at all on day 5 is dumb. If that's how it actually works, then you are fine on day 3, on day 4 you have a 50% chance of losing a healing surge, on day 5 you lose two mo...

The line must mean that the character continues to make checks right away, potentially losing multiple surges until he succeeds. Thanks for this. That seems to work much better. I don't know, I don't want to sound too difficult but isn't it a little too deadly? Sounds about right to me -- the avera...

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20090814 Dark Sun in 4E. I had to look up what the 4E rules were for starvation and thirst. For reference, here they are from page 159. Note that a character with 10 healing surges can thus go two weeks without water, even if they fail every endurance c...