The Gaming Den

this reminds me of Frank and Oberoni talking about feats vis a vis spells. Oberoni thought Gain a Combat Feat could easily be an 8th or 9th level spell and nobody would have a problem with it. after all, if the standards for 8th and 9th level spells are Gate, Greater Planar Ally, Wish, Miracle, True...

Let's take Bards for instance, not optimal by a long shot, but fun. I like to give people Heroism and extend it, usually with a metamagic wand, Haste and twink my Inspire Courage as much as possible in Pathfinder and use material from 3.5 to squeak out a few more points of Inspire Courage. then, wit...

Any martial buffed to the gills from a caster can get it on, but it's a fraud. The Angel Summoner making Angels lift the BMX bandit, you know? It's all fun and games until you realize, "Man, this class is mechanically inferior to the magic user by a long shot. I could never do any of this witho...

Yep, Dummy Wizard. Imagine a foe's entire existence being a hyper-intelligent magic user never using any magic and letting itself get punched in the face. The Monk stands a chance!

the d8, 3/4 BAB, two good saves, all Cleric spells known, heavy armor proficiency, Domain abilities and Domain spells and a casting stat that benefits a save as crucial as Will is a badass chassis to do essentially anything. And not just half ass it either. They are the best or plausibly within top ...

some of the new races, like Skinshifter, work very well,as Alchemists Barbarians, Clerics and the like. Half elves get shit on for no real reason, a legacy from 3.0/3.5 where you would never play them. You can be an Ancestral Arms one and get sleep immunity, EWP, +2 against enchantments, lowlight vi...

Enworld, a,place that seems supportive of 5E, much, much more than here, at any rate, is busting Mearls' chops over this one. "This is nothing I have not seen in dozens of other RPG systems." "These rules are derivative and poorly done." Wonder of wonders, somebody pointed out ho...

I am sure it has come up before, but what about abilities that detect alignment? Should any old putz subjected to one turn up Evil or Good? Or even Neutral? The example I have seen given for this moral conundrum is a Paladin is in city and dealing with a merchant. The merchant is a drunk, cheats on ...

Unchained does seem to be a company scribbling on cocktail napkins for an edition change, and then charging people, to use a Franktrollman term, real money for it. Aspects of Complete Psionic, Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Magic and Tome of Battle absolutely were that.

I think some people have a disdain for rules and mechanics and think they "get in the way." Oh, who am I kidding, by some, I mean a majority. a lot of people would read an account of a Fighter playing a mundane lyre to dupe a dragon, a wise and intelligent creature, against a DC that doesn...

PF2 is clearly going to be PF1.5, the way that 3.5 was a moderate change to 3.0. They are NOT going to risk a surefire thing with something as radical as 4E was in comparison to 3.5

They still want to maintain the 3.5 compatibility fairy tale and retain people who like Pathfinder now.

After "Unchained" was more sedate than a nearly 15 year old supplement, Unearthed Arcana, and seeing their hybrid classes, PF2 will be somewhere between Dungeons and Dragons 3.76 and E6 I think. They really are in love with third casters and two thirds casters.

On skills, I'm reminded of the defenses of 4e's Skill Challenges. On the third page of the Giantitp thread someone pointed out there were three versions of 5e skill checks being offered, none of them compatible but all of them blaming people not liking the system on not "getting it." That...

I think the fundamental question in this setting is the morality of giving the deities power again. Is that morally good, morally evil, not one or the other but trending one way, or morally indifferent and neutral? are people aware of this and trying to bring them back and vice versa, suppress them?...

It stinks that sound strikers have to give up Suggestion but the tradeoff is 1d8 damage plus Charisma modifier damage up to 10 times.The only reason not to do it is the sheer tedium of it all. 10 ranged tough attacks, then 10 different rolls for damage, then 10 separate Fortitude saves for half.,Dam...

The page 38 DMG says a player gets 20,000 GP, but to spend upon what? Magical armor and weaponry is in the +1 territory, and even then considered rare. I do not even know if you can explicitly purchase magical armor, shields and weaponry in the system and if there is a rule saying you can, it is alm...

The second thing to remember is that 5E isn't making new books. What? Why? When did WotC decide that they hate money? they don't have anybody on the payroll. another guy just got fired or he walked from his job, Rodney Thompson. I think they have 6 guys working on 5e pen and paper now. Not all of t...

So with Numenera and the guy doing a kickstarter for a tabletop RPG while working for WOTC, Frank seems right. They are all trying to pull a Monte Cook, I guess. Dungeons and Dragons is firing people to a level where they farm out work to fired people, have no real release schedule and half the peop...

You can't use Magic: The Gathering to cross-promote Dungeons and Dragons at this point because MTG is too big. We've got a good idea that MTG is in its financial heyday worth about 250 million dollars. Dungeons and Dragons is at a 15 year financial low point worth maybe about 10 million. Something t...

2200 archers against an Ancient Dragon in 3.5 or Pathfinder are in for a world of hurt. First off, those systems don't labor under the delusions of "Bounded Accuracy" so dragons have Fuck You levels of non-Touch Armor Class in the 30s and maybe even the 40s before magic. At some point, a D...

I just remember as a kid having these backpacks bulging with hardcovers. Just the PHB, the DMG and a Monster Manual or 2 and another supplemental book is 1100+ pages of hardcover material. Those backpacks got pretty heavy as the edition dragged on and on. Kids these days with their smartphones and l...

In the past 5 years, Magic the Gathering has increased by almost 200 percent. The last several blocks have been well-received moneymakers and smash hits. As pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons went underground for almost 3 years, Magic: The Gathering basically doubled its value. Forbes has reported t...

So the miniatures, board games and video game agreements are where all the focus is then? It certainly seems like it. 4E went dark after publishing less than half of the material promised and there wasn't something related to pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons for pretty close to 3 entire years. Are...

I don't know what I am wrong about? Is a bald eagle not considered a raptor? I do know that dinosaurs eventually evolved into birds so why not do something transitional like, whats that thing called, archaeopteryx?

Wow. Two adventure style books released when Paizo does APs monthly and has a years long backlog of them. They aren't even writing the freaking adventures themselves! How in the world do they think that is competitive?