Recent content by Celebrim

That is one of the solutions to the problem. Instead of rolling damage after the fall move the damage roll back to where it naturally is in the D&D cycle at the top of the fall, then decide what the roll means. However, this isn't a perfect solution as sometimes previously narrated detail...

The issue is in the typical D&D proposition->fortune->resolution cycle. Normally "stakes" are not set in D&D and combat is abstract, so what 70 damage from a sword looks like is simply a matter of narration. We post fortune set the stakes based on observation of how much 70 damage is relative...

I don't think any game models actual trauma well. It's not just falling that kills like that, but everything.

You're absolutely right. I was thinking of a yari, but doing this out of my head without checking.

I'm going to put this as delicately as I can but at the granularity that D&D cares about a yari is just a spear, a naginata is just a glaive, a katana is just a broadsword that can be wielded with two hands, and a samurai is just a fighter with a noble background.

I briefly mentioned my choices. Let me explain them. Martial Classes Fighter - Base class of the game. Combatants defined by their traditional martial expertise. Experts in weapons, armor, tactics, combat leadership, marching, running, discipline and fortitude, carrying things, and generally...

With a sample size of one, it's really impossible to answer those questions. It really just comes down to what narrative the writer wants to believe about themselves. Intelligence is something that we are not really understanding but I feel like we are on the cusp of understanding, and the...

Ok, so that explains a lot. So, the psion technically didn't exist until 2001 when it was introduced by 3e's "Psionics Handbook". By that time I was 28 and had been playing D&D for about 20 years. The predecessor to the psion was the "psionicist" which was in 2e "The Complete Psionicist...

I'm not actually happy with my complex system either; it's objectively too complex and breaks my rule that no gaming rule should require division. It's just that I'm more happy with it than I am with any alternative. And, it does pass your test of "people do sometimes survive falls from...

Yes. How is that my "very argument"? I never said anything of the sort. In fact, if you'll go back and read me from the start I implied something quite the opposite of that. Moreover, I never said "It's magic therefore it's just another wizard". That quote isn't even a paraphrase of...

Is there even an argument being offered in that? Are you offering up anything in the way of evidence? And to the extent that you are offering up an argument, it's a semantic argument and therefore it supports my position. I've already anticipated and disarmed it by pointing out that the words...

I mean it's magic. What is magic? What is psionic? Just because they are two different words doesn't make them two different things. Psychic powers are magic. Magic is psychic powers. Psionic is just psychic powers. It's all the same getting the universe to conform to your wishes...

So to understand where I'm coming from you have to understand my idea of what a monster should be is built around the idealized D&D combat. The idealized D&D combat is 3-7 rounds long (average about 5) and in each of those 5 rounds both the PCs and the NPCs are making choices, moving around, or...

Because it does not and never has used an entirely different kind of power than magic. It's just magic. The more you look at it, the more obviously it's just a wizard in a different set of robes. There is so much overlap. Crystals. Mental discipline. Mind over matter. Rigorously training...

Because the "I Attack" fighter is terrible design to? I mean, I can point you to the threads on this boards where people talk about just how terrible of a design that is. Here is one of mine as a sample: D&D General - The Linear Fighter/Quadratic Wizard Problem Designing the fighter is one...