The Gaming Den

Some items might be undervalued, some might be overvalued, but by and all the market works. Say you're a fighter with a new +2 sword, after having spent 5 levels and a couple of close friend's lives on finding better than a +1. Some dude wanders up with a bunch of +1 swords and wants to swap them f...

OK: real weapons come down to being extremely aggressive while keeping the dangerous thing between you and your mortal enemy (and getting his dangerous thing out of the way, keeping him on the back foot, and don't over-balance). All the footwork, balance, and reach work is very similar, and not at a...

"Markets and treasure selection" works very well if you treat magic items as that what they are in D&D 3E: Just another aspect of character builds like feats and spells. The problem with 3e market items and WBL is that the items you're selling are the things no one should want to buy;...

I find the sword of omens. I'm an axe dude. Can I... Sell the Sword at the next town and buy an axe? Barter the sword for an axe? Give the sword to a dwarven lord to increase favor? In each of these scenarios, does the axe have to be objectivley better/worse/the same as the sword? Ahem. Sword of Om...

DCs in the game are "if you can take 10" it's 15, and "if you can take 20" it's 20 + a small number. If you can't take 10 but should succeed anyway it's DC 5, 10, or 15 if you should fail (at low levels where skills might matter). Other than opposed checks you win with extra frie...

Cleric's easier; Hold Person, Light, Turn Undead, Cure Wounds, Finger of Death. Mage might be; Phantasmal Forces, Darkness, Invisibility, Fireball, Charm Person, Polymorph, Haste, Cloudkill. All existed since forever, even got most of them in 4th edition. Honourable mentions to the popular "new...

Dragons were under CR so that DMs new to 3e would all TPK via Dragon. After all, dragons are an end-boss, so you better use an EL = APL+4 encounter, right? Haw haw.

The point of the Symbol of Death and Djinni are to tackle the people talented enough to get inside the keep without dying. One doesn't waste that expensive shit on Orcs.

I hated that in 3e if you were playing a character who fights with two weapons, you had to come up with a darn good reason not to take one level of ranger. It was just stupid not to - sort of like it was built so that only rangers use two weapons. Two weapons is Ranger-style, like fighting unarmed ...

Every game since 1974 has basically stolen D&D's combat system for combat, about time D&D used it for everything else. Multiple defensive pools are generally shit because multiple PCs can't stack their attacks, so just stick with HP (hero points, if you need to justify the name). Then you ju...

Yes, suns burn down to create iron. However, gold comes from stars that burned iron and created gold. It's a crazy cycle. Not quite. Big stars form Iron, and cannot fuse more regardless of size. Iron core grows until it collapses to a neutron star, or black hole, depending on size. Supernovas are t...

If Dipping was supposed to be de regeur, then why have the multiclass system set up to punish people who don't have the same number of levels in each class? In addition to fectin's note, which is partly speculation on my point, as I only know it's true for some of the anti-multiclass rules: it was ...

Re: 3e's multiclassing, I noticed the other day that the 3e previews in early y2k dragon wrote that frontloading and dipping was exactly how it was supposed to work. Elven Ftr/Wiz was supposed to be Ftr1/WizX. That was the design. A Rogue who wanted TWFing was supposed to grab 1 level of Ranger. If ...

God of magic raises middle finger => imperial age of goblins comes to an end => GIANT FROG interlude => age of men begins.

Next up: age of fish-men; tides will rise. Then fey, then dwarf, then back to goblin. Big circle. Or so the eldest titan says.

5e: boost the growth rate of the hobby, particularly by targeting young independent learners. Future self-taught players are your target market. D&D Game: fully playable independent boxed game (dice, etc) written by teaching-oriented outsiders for ages 7+. About 7 Race-Class options (more l8r). ...

Nothing creates fights faster than killing somebodies player and nothing generates more screeching than when it happens to a character because of "good" DM dice rolls during a random encounter. Already been said, but I'll say it again: anyone who feels the need to argue and screech over a...

so everyone at the Den, or the largest part, just play pathfinder, cause all their love for 3rd edition goes to waste meaning they are no longer playing D&D, because that shit hasn't been D&D for a long time now? Most folk at the den seem to play in whatever's locally available to play, whi...

Threads linked there seem to be a perfect example of Shadzar's argument by solipsism. Only, dude, you use capitals at the start of sentences there, be nice if you did that here too. Oh, and to translate: Shadzar means "D&D" is what his group did in the 90's, and some editions aren't ve...

Killing PC's ain't fun. That is such bullshit. Nothing players hate more than a DM cheating them out of a good death scene, or even a weak one when it's obvious. For a lot of people, there is no fun anywhere in the game if their PCs can't die. People made a character they wanted to play as and tell...

I'm pretty sure trying to follow the 1st edition combat system to the letter involves more dimensions than exist in our reality. But it's not Cthulhu at work, because he kills 1d6 PCs per round, and I've never even heard of more than five going down in an AD&D round. Wall of Ice, bitches. AD&...

Re: talking to Mearls. He joins in on quite a few conversations where people are having problems with the game that he believes lie in its fundamental design assumptions rather than any particular implementation people are discussing. One I recall, for example, he pointed out that feats were suppose...

YES!, i think 3.x is utter and total shit and trash, but it still holds the same concept as earlier editions, just terrible implementation. LE GASP! You've admitted to never even having read it, right? How the fuck would you know? Good grief, son, at least you were trying to say something sensible ...

What I took from GNS was that different people get different things out of playing RPGs. Like what Robin's Laws of Good Gamesmastering said better. Power Gamers, Butt-Kickers, Tacticians, Specialists, Method Actors, Storytellers, and Casuals: you can't make them all happy with the same stuff. Modera...

claims that aren't quite true Well, no problem buddy, I'm here for you. I'll give page number citations and links and everything. I love this place. I get away with my usual crap far too often elsewhere. :wink: Partial actions? Gah! Of course, remembering 3.0 correctly involves understanding you co...

in my "fight" if you want to call it that, i am sure i am heavily reason 2, if not 3~4 people no longer work for WotC. Mike Lescault (gamer_zero), Dave Noonan, Jonathan Tweet, Bill Slavesik. I am sure I am heavily reason Barak Obama man made president of USA. Also instigate tea party move...