The Gaming Den

Collapse variable damage into static damage codes, possibly allowing degrees of success to add additional damage; instead of 1d8, a longsword would do 5+STRMOD+DoS vs fixed defensive value of the opponent. Same thing for spells - take the average die result per level and figure your damage once when...

My table(s) have always used "psion" and 'psychic" relatively interchangeably to refer to characters with Psionic abilities - thinking about it, I'd bet it's largely due to the pop culture influence of late 80s and early 90s XMEN comics, since they so heavily featured Professor X and ...

The fact that this is the kind of place that gnerates etymological sidebars is a big part of why I come to the Den, though, so it's okay

Unearthed Arcana this week dips it's toe into Psionics, and it only took them, what, 9 months to release a class that shits all over the Fighter (in the form of the Order of the Immortal psion, who has 27 psi points per long rest and can spend 5 points to Action Surge just like a fighter. He can als...

Josh_Kablack wrote:Chapter 12: Cyborgish Bits

This looks interesting, what is it?

So what's the splatbook plan for 5e? I can't seem to find much on it. Instead of doing splatbooks, they're doing Adventure supplements. So, for each of their adventures (like the current one, Elemental Evil ), they release a Player's Companion (pdf) with additional spells, races, class options, bac...

Well, you can do that with as many slots as you have Int bonus, so I think it's absolutely worth a feat. And saying that a full-round action equals 15 minutes in terms of viability is pretty far-fetched if you intend to play an actual game and not just spout internet wisdom. I dunno, man. Typical s...

Seconding EarthDawn; I love the premise of explaining D&D tropes as in-world constructs the PCs and NPCs are aware of. None of my other players would be able to function in the step system, though. Speaking of - are there any other games out there that explicitly recognize the game system featur...

Anybody seen the magic mechanics for TitansGrave yet? I watched episode 0 and most of episode one, didn't see any mention. I ask because while I like the theory behind the *Age rolling system (3d6 with degrees of success based on the one off-color d6 in that mix) it seems like the magic/technology p...

...yeah. Ugh. Maybe Pathfinder 2 will be more supportable (lol)

I'm kind of thinking about going through each skill and setting DCs for each one, then publishing that list of DCs to my players. At least then we'll all be on the same page, and if I accidentally bullshit them they can keep me honest. I mean, it's shitty that the developers didn't do this, but the ...

Based on recent interviews... Where are you selling most of your product –hobby shops, bookstores or retailers like Amazon? The ratios remain the same for us –the hobby stores and the book channel both are tremendous for us, and they both do a big chunk of the business. Amazon, I think, has been a ...

It's also inconsistent with their previous UA racial entries - the Changeling, Shifter, and Warforged are listed as just that, not Changeling(Eberron) etc. The format of this UA looks much more polished, however. I wonder if they're wrapping more editorial control and layout around these now, instea...

This month's Unearthed Arcana is a comparative breath of fresh air. Giving rules options for Minotaurs (who get a 1d10 weapon in their horns which they can bonus-attack Shove with at level 1, constant advantage in all Shove actions, plus a charge attack), a Duelist Rogue (who gets to sneak attack an...

to continue WotC's lurching failure of a hype machine, today CriticalHits' Dave Chalker reports that a new Dragon Magazine has appeared... in the iOS App store. Story here; http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2015/04/30/breaking-dragon-magazine-app-comes-to-the-ios-store/ I'm checking it out now. I ca...

Longes wrote:Oh, also Materialization mages can now learn Channeling metamagic and possess themselves with a Materialization spirit.

Who doesn't like having the best of both worlds!

yeah that seems like it would be super deadly. Plus everyone starts dumpster diving for both Attack Bonus and At-Will Touch attacks so they can do X6 damage on an attack.

I don't dislike it as a mechanic, though - it resonates similarly to the degrees of success from Shadowrun.

has pathfinder done a manual of the planes analog, is there still a Glittering Heavens?

Before we see 5.5, we'll see a return to the PHB 1, 2, 3 treadmill with the Classplosion that Frank has been saying is necessary. It's an easy thing to change without trying to get folks to buy an entirely new core set.

That might push your timeline out to 36-48 months Insomniac.

The current plan appears to be content expansion by way of PDFs called Adventurer's Guides that are associated with each Module. Princes of the Apocalypse gave us a couple extra races and backgrounds and some spells. Devs have been quoted as saying they're interested in 're introducing Settings in w...

Yeah I'm not going to be as caustic about it, but almost all of your requested concepts can be fully serviced with the existing classes (and a feat maybe), Insomniac. Now, the fact that you can't play the class you want to play until you've ranked up enough to GET a feat is an entirely separate shit...

Wanna see them horns, Arioch.

I don't have any pictures, but I had my Inquisitor all decked out in white and gold - it was pretty awesome. Nothing but the best for the Herald of Andraste, after all.

Rogue is probably worse than ranger. As the ranger, you still get magic, and some of that magic is shit like "conjure a bunch of tiny bullshit animals to crush your opponents through the power of bounded accuracy." The only reason people don't bitch about the rogue is because "it's s...

Insomniac wrote:Would you like full casting divine spells with a d8 and a bunch of goodies and Charisma to all your saves as if you were a Paladin for one measly feat? Yep, that is on the table, too.

Do tell.

He's pretty fighty, he gets medium armor and shields, plus a bunch of crowd control and enchantment, plus at tenth he gets to poach two spells from anybody. Fun note that Bards are the only caster who get Power Word: Heal, IIRC.