Recent content by IceBear

I'm unhappy that even if I go with Pathfinder, it's still not very compatible with 3.5 (sure, it's more compatible than 4E, but still needs a lot of work to convert NPCs, etc)

I would never just use the numbers in a general catch-all table without running it through my DM "does it make sense" filter first. As far as I understood that table it was just meant to be a good starting place for coming up with numbers when a player wanted to try something not covered by the...

I have ALWAYS used miniatures during combat while playing D&D (started with the red box and 1E) - it was a chess board and Stratego pieces but my groups have always used them. Just find it difficult to imagine never meeting anyone who wanted to use miniatures. Even in my PBeM games and what...

I honestly don't know why they even released that web enhancement because right from the moment I read it (without doing any of this fancy math) it was obvious it was a complete longshot, hail Mary, type event for a desperate group. Heck, it's a level 6 skill challenge for a level 3 party, it's...

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that actual grappling rules were coming out in one of the later books. As mentioned, this is grabbing, not grappling.

Well, they do say it's a 6th level challenge. I suspect it's so high because if it was a 3rd level challenge it would be a lot easier than actually defeating the enemies in the final encounter.

I think this is where a lot of people are having issues with 4E. I consider 4E rules-light (at least compared to the bloat that was 3.x) and thus having more things subject to DM tweaking.

As a DM, I tend to know what my players' skills are and what I want to accomplish in any encounter. If I were placing a skill challenge for my group I'd start with the suggested DCs, but I'd then tweak them (if necessary) to make sure that what I wanted to accomplish got accomplished.

Maybe he got tired of all the pointless bickering like I did :P (Kidding - mostly).

Then, quite simply, D&D isn't for you. If you have to take out most of the rules and items from the gam then you're really no longer playing that game, which is perfectly fine. Just hard to have a discussion about spellcasters in D&D when you aren't playing D&D. It seems to me, you enjoy the...

Just wanted to say I'm really enjoying this story our and your DMing skills

I think part of Dan's point was that rolling the 8 goblin's once would be better than doing it every round. Also, his first point, as I stated previously, is that after the first round it's all relative. If the rogue rolled a bad initiative in round #1 and ended up going last he will lose any...

Yeah, that board sounds neat, but more time than I currently have to make (and it does sound like there is a player moving it around). Most of my players are just getting comfortable with the rules so asking them to help might be too much of a distraction.

Yes, I do #1. I've had issues with cheating players in the past and don't want to give anyone any room to do so again (not that said player is in my group anymore). I guess I'm too "formal". I record everything, track time (when spell durations end, etc) and pretty much have a copy of all the...

Good point. I had just assumed there was the same problem in 3.0