A few months ago I read Justin’s article, “D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations“. I agree with a fair amount of what it says about how character level expectations are often unreasonable (‘Einstein need only have been fifth level’… Justin shows how this could be so, and it makes sense). That in …
Item creation in 3e is very abstract. Take a masterwork item, add gold, experience points, and time, and you end up with a magic item. The item creation might involve binding spirits, it might involve empowering the item with planar energy, it could simply enhance the nature of the weapon …
Justisaur posted an absolutely brilliant method of ability score generation to rec.games.frp.dnd. It’s simple, it provides some nicely organic scores, and it seems, as best I can tell, more fair than other random methods. I’ve seen it called a few things, perhaps the simplest name is ’27-25-23′, after the three …
In an Alternative epic level system thread in rec.games.frp.dnd, I had cause to examine the spell slots available to the various classes. I was able to come up with a reasonably close approximation to the spell slots available to all of the base classes. Examination of the various spell lists …
In considering how to handle ‘fatal blows’, specifically how to cause a particular death blow, I wanted to find a way to target specific body parts. I can see cases where a particular killing blow would be useful (staking a vampire or decapitating it both come to mind). I believe …
In looking at the current monster types, I see a number of cases where the differences between types are fairly small. I think several of these may be merged, reducing the number of monster types in the game. Current Monster Types We start with fifteen monster types. Monster Type Hit …
All clerics in a RAW game can either Turn Undead or Rebuke Undead. This doesn’t seem right to me because it seems to me that not all settings or religions would put enough emphasis on undead to make it relevant. Also, I don’t really like the way turning works — …
I’ve been writing up about the Arcane Academy of Ter Liatri. This is a big wizard guild in my campaign — Ter Liatri used to be the capital of the Empire before it collapsed, and the guild survived it. More or less. I have in mind a couple of prestige …
A focus and specialization feat tree is used to make a character better at two aspects of a particular ability. These improved abilities apply to a subset of items the character is proficient with, such as a particular type of armor, a particular type of weapon, or a particular school …
Mobility feats make it easier for a character to move around the battlefield. Here are the core feats, and a few more. Avoidance [Mobility] Prereqs: Dex 15, Int 13, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Evasion, Mobility, Spring Attack, BAB +4, Tumble 8 ranks Benefit: You do not provoke attacks of opportunity for …
