The Gaming Den

Warblade and Swordsage manuevers are no harder to track than spells for any caster. Warblade is easier, in fact, because they have a fairly small number to keep track of, and if you ever forget which ones you have left, you can just attack normally and recharge them.

Well, having a them be recharge rather than at-will means you can have powers which are stronger than doing a normal attack sequence. For that matter, it means you can have powers which are stronger than other powers, without rendering them obsolete. I don't know if "recharge on 6" would w...

It does seem to be going in circles a bit.
I also hadn't realized that IM was the primary target platform - if it is, then sure, go abstract.

You might be able to make a list like this for specific proposals given so far, but you've been trying to tackle everything en masse and giving us untenable generalities. Ok, fair enough. Here's an issue I've seen with the prosed systems, right off the bat: No support for one-to-many relationships....

Some people may want to play games with an atmosphere different from that of a tactical skirmish, and having the map out may be less than ideal for that purpose This might be the real issue - some people want a tactical skirmish, and some people don't. I'm not really sure it's possible to please ev...

The only media where a visual representation is less preferable seems to be IM though. With tabletop or virtual tabletop, a map makes the situation easy to see, even if you don't track things precisely. With PbP, it can work either way, and people have enough time to update their own maps, if they w...

Ok, I'll admit that a movement system could be designed to have emergent tactics. However, would such a system really end up any simpler than non-abstract movement? I mean, Magic is given as an example of a system with non-movement-based tactics - but I think most people would agree that Magic is mo...

Maybe I should clarify more what I mean by emergent tactics: Tactical things like sneaking around the fighter minions to slam the technologist in the kidneys work just fine. The minions are "guarding" the technologist, and stealth is one way to bypass the "guarding" stance. This ...

While on the one hand I can see the benefits of abstract positioning, it's looking like its ultimately going to be slower (at least in most formats) and less flexible than what we have now. The main problems, as I see them: 1) Less Intuitive: With real positioning (grid based, measured, whatever), m...

I've seen the "number pulled out of the DM's ass" argument, but I feel it's somewhat missing the point - everything is a number pulled out of the DM's ass. The monsters you fight? Their level? The spells and bonuses they have? How many there are? What treasure they were carrying? All ultim...

I think it'd be fine to have a certain number of slots, with a few options for those who need less/more: 1) Slots that are left empty can be filled later by in-game activity, and it takes a lot less in-game time/effort to fill an empty slot than to develop an extra slot. 2) There are multiple skill ...

Movement abstraction - at least the way you've described it - seems tricky for any multi-person fights on non-trivial terrain ... which are pretty common in many campaigns. Consider: The Orc is 25' from the Fighter. The Fighter is 10' from the Wizard. The Orc is 30' from the Wizard. The Wizard is 10...

First, I consider them roleplaying stuff and generally they shouldn't be abilities. Just because something can be accomplished by roleplaying, doesn't mean there can't be rules for it. I mean, combat could be accomplished just by roleplaying too, but we seem to have quite a few rules attached to it...

I don't know what the "two minutes" has to do with anything, because you certainly can't Take 20 on Jump (unless for some reason there was nothing actually dangerous you were jumping over, and you were just jumping around for the hell of it). And while a shorter jumping distance might be r...

Actually, this almost seems more like an argument about power level than about warriors specifically. The question is, should D&D stay in realm of the heroic but recognizably human for its entire level span, or should it go beyond that? For me, the answer is - hell yes! My ideal D&D power sp...

The skills actually do have static DCs listed in their entry - the scaling DCs in the DMG are more for an ad-hoc challenge, so just don't use them. For skill challenges, someone on EN World made a mathematically sound version, which also makes them less protracted. As for monster HP, I've heard &quo...

When did the goal of D&D become "to play a Fighter" anyway? I've seen the argument - several times - that 4E is better because it makes playing a Fighter more interesting. Even if this were true - how the hell would this make 4E a better game? If one or two of the classes are somewhat ...

No matter how useful your attacks are, one of the following will be true: A) Some attacks are stronger than others. Therefore, there are weak attacks. B) All attacks are equally strong. Therefore, there are no strong attacks. For Climactic Uber Attacks to exist as a concept, there have to be other a...

You sound to me like you're kidding yourself that 3E was better, because you're viewing things entirely through the spellcaster's viewpoint, which is a very specialized viewpoint. 3E spellcasters had an interesting number of options. Most of the martial classes didn't. No 4E class does. A game wher...

I've seen "just play Exalted" coming up a lot as advice recently, and it misses a critical point - one of D&D's big features is the fact that it is D&D. Roleplaying games can't be judged on their individual merits alone, because the finest RPG in existance is worthless if you can't...

As mentioned here, 4E's non-Euclidian geometry means that even with a push/pull, you can zig-zag people through a wall for more effect. Of course, this really reaches its peak when a Blood Mage does it - it seems like you could actually be dealing 3E-style damage for a couple rounds.

Compared to how lacklustre most of the 4E feats are , the initial multiclassing feats aren't bad. +5 Perception may not be that exciting, but it's better than +2 to one attack roll an encounter, or +1 damage with some of your spells. And yeah, lack of ability to affect the world with any of your ab...

How do they make psionics happen if they don't have a fucking body to gesture with?

Because psionics doesn't need gestures. Or chanting, or bat guano.

It’s important to remember that this isn’t Dnd, and abilities like teleporting or plane shifting haven’t been defined yet. Fair enough, but it really applies to a wide range of abilties. If you (or your minions) can do anything with normal actions that requires an acti...

On further inspection, I think I was misreading it - you always get your normal ER while in ES, and you also get an infinite ER (so, invincible) against the first attack, correct? I guess the real question then is - what kinds of normal actions can you take without disrupting your Epic actions? Can ...