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Hey, guys! I created two polls on the Wizards forums to discuss formatting for monster stat blocks. The first deals with the creature blocks found in the Monster Manuals and the second with the "adventure blocks" for creatures found in published adventures. I'd love your input on these issues.
I don't know that's true. The hook horror isn't given skills, but that's because the hook horror's only cognizable skill is climbing, and it was given a climb speed to reflect that. That simply wasn't a focus of this article.
Well, it's too late now. I can't go back and edit the poll. Too many people have already answered. I'll go fire my crack team of professional pollsters* for missing something a few people thought was really important. Congrats. You got me.
*I don't have a crack team of professional...
With regard ot listening, I had considered adding "Therapist" to the list of occupations. In the end, I think they are subsumed into all the service occupations, including field marshal, judge, puzzle master, and writer.
To me, pacing would be a part of writing, if it's story pacing, and field marshal, if it's combat pacing, and puzzle master, it it's pacing in other types of encounters.
I've created a new poll over on the official website forums asking people to opine as to what minimum levels of competency a DM needs to possess in seven discrete areas in order to be considered a "good DM". Much like my previous poll on player skills (now closed), while I'm happy to have a...
I was offering three options.
Crossbow wizards only; cantrip wizards banned from table
Cantrip and crossbow wizards sitting at table together
Cantrip wizards only; crossbow wizards banned from table.
The group still decides which of these three options to take. It baffles me that there are...
I understand that some people don't like crossbow wizards. I understand that some people don't like cantrip-attack wizards. I don't understand people who can't abide a game who has crossbow wizards or cantrip-attack wizards as an option in the game.
(Alternately, I don't understand why people...
What do you mean "is right out"? You mean you wouldn't play the game that has 3 as an option? You mean you wouldn't play in a game in which the DM allowed such an option? Or you mean that's just not an option you would ever choose?
I don't believe anybody said "needs". It's not in Mearls' L&L article. (That's what makes it a "strawman" by the way.) You've invented a position for people and then you criticize this imagined position.
I don't see how someone can apologize for something they don't think was insulting...
No, you were insulting because of what you wrote. My three categories are a separate point.
Which words were unclear?
Here (I bolded the relevant points for emphasis):
You felt that somebody (presumably DFCON1, whom you quoted), was saying that at-will spells is really all that wizards need to...
Actually, it sounds more like 3e zero-level magics, but to be performed at will. 3e had zero-level spells like acid splash and ray of frost that did minor damage (1d3) slightly less than a crossbow (1d8). (Even Gygax' original cantrip article and a cantrip called "exterminate" which was ideal...
All characters -- including the fighter and cleric -- have the ability to string a line to hoist a dangling rope bridge over a chasm. That doesn't exonerate a game from giving a class something class-appropriate to do.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just because people want to be able to cast a spell instead of using a crossbow or darts does not mean they are implying anything about other things a mage should do. What you just wrote is not only a straw man, but an insult to the people with whom you are having a...
A couple comments
Noncasters using scrolls
I think it's unfair to make any conclusions about this from the article since the discussion of scrolls was a small part of a larger discussion about how scrolls would not constitute extra spell slots. There may be rules for a noncaster being able to...
I thought I was pretty clear in my post that the prosaic and one-line write-ups would be together. More importantly, the one-line write-ups would also be available for any electronic creature builder, so that they could easily be incorporated into stat blocks of NPC spellcasters.
I think mechanical complexity and technical presentation are inter-related. The more complexity you have, the more prose you need to offer to explain these complexities. (Prose that was often lacking even in the prosaic editions.)
By the way, I'm not eschewing prose. I've said repeatedly...