Recent content by Scott Christian

Or both. ;) In all seriousness, in my experience, DMs that know their canon, yet are able to succinctly point out what is important, are top notch. Agreed. Thi8s is especially true across tables.

This might be the best analogy of Greyhawk I have ever seen. Thank you. I think it might also explain some players' preferences (and tolerances) for a table's setting, as well as some DMs' preferences for liking and/or hating books. If I remember correctly, that is one of the reasons we, as...

All of your examples use multi-classing. They are all also built with character optimization in mind. Having to use those two things to compare a single class, non-optimized paladin should give you perspective on smite. I don't know about your table, but half of our selected feats and classes...

If I may cut in here, I believe people are saying it is extremely powerful in the right circumstances. And (here is the important part) for many tables at higher levels, those circumstances tend to happen more and more often. This could happen from fewer combats during the adventuring day or...

My approach wouldn't be a mixture of what was said earlier: Interesting lair effects (Especially in a Greek themed campaign, these could range from shrines where only one god's divine magic works to permanent silence to sovereign glue traps (seeing how there are lots of centaurs. ;) )...

They do. They just utilize third parties to do the work.

Acrobatics, sleight of hand, athletics, etc. For me, any of it works as long as the player explains what their PC is doing. That said, I really believe the DC for getting out of rope binds should be much more difficult than what appears. It's always seemed to me that the hands tied in front of...

Personally, I think this is a really difficult question. Most things in the game tie together so smoothly, that changing one thing leads to changes in others, which lead to changes in others. The independent lever isn't really a thing. This is especially true if we are talking about a game that...

I hear you, and that was the point of my post. You want it full of alternative rules so you can alter the game. Others want it full of creative points such as world building, encounter design, magic items, and planar information. You seem to fall heavily into the first category, hence, the...

I think this is one of the perspective problems about the DMG. Some readers want it to be full of rules, which can be used to alter the game or min/max aspects of the game (such as flanking). This is sometimes in contrast of those that want a guide to build creativity in their world. For these...

One last thing I would state about the new DMG which didn't fit with the discussion above: Please for the love of god, they should not, under any circumstance, absolutely in no way, add more pages on player/DM interaction. Their one-page talk is all DMs and players need. If more is added, that...

Like you, I thought it was really well done. I did not approach it as the eyes of a beginner though, so maybe that is why I liked it so much. I also (as a general rule) don't piecemeal read rulebooks. I read them once, cover to cover, then go back and reread sections that piqued my interest or...

Fall damage recently came up in my last campaign. Lots of climbing, and at one point, two people gating 300' up. I found the RAW rules worked well for all the situations. But if I was a player at a table, I would not be opposed to a d10 or instant death at x height.

I agree. However, you can key the characters into the setting/campaign in many ways, not just subclasses. You can do it through divine boons, curses, magic items, rituals, etc.

While I agree with the number of players I've seen use background features, I disagree on the traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds. Those have been pillars for a plethora of players I've had the pleasure to sit at the table with. I have seen it make beginners understand roleplaying, and I have seen...