Krome's page

I should pop in here and note as an addendum that standard array is 10, 11, 10, 11, 10, 11 or the reverse - nonelite is not standard for creatures, just very close.

Thank ya'll much. I've never bothered to use those before. 99.99% of the time my NPCs don't actually NEED stats :) My stat block usually consists of name, class, level, 2-3 skills of note, quirks, and where they can be found. On the almost never chance they will be in combat then I just do the numbers and such on the fly :)

Even the cannonfodder don't get complete work ups. Class, level, 2-3 skills, 2-3 feats, AC, HP, Attack Bonus, Saves. And how much gold they are carrying, let's not forget the gold, now.

Only villains get complete stat blocks. :) And they are customized to the Nth degree.

Upon reading part of the first installment of STAP today, I noticed something new (new to me) in the stat blocks. *Elite* Human Expert, *Elite* Human Aristocrat, and so on...
What is the Elite part, where does it come from, what book?
I know it's probably right in front of my face, but I am missing it anyway.

Thanks.

BTW To you guys at Paizo... and Dungeon specifically... damn you're good! Keep up the great work!

No it doesn't make sense!

If you buy the PLAYER'S GUIDE from Paizo - it contains a map.

Why isn't the map included with the published PLAYER'S GUIDE?

Because a vast majority of players do not need the map, and if they do happen to play in the AP and they want the guide then they can have it. A higher percentage of DMs will be running the AP and they WILL need the map, so it is included in Dungeon and not Dragon.

It actually costs money to make the map, print it, fold it, package it with the magazine etc. From a cost point of view and a resource point of view it makes sense.

If from a "I want it cause I want it and don't want to pay for it" point of view then nothing will ever make sense. It's just a map... without the adventures - found only in Dungeon- it's useless. Still makes sense to me.

I quite enjoy the "Ecology" article that comes our way each month, with its game mechanics, modified beasties, occasional deities, and spells and feats tied to the creature. And then there's the taste of "real history" every so often. To this latter piece, I would like to see it made a staple of the "Ecology" articles by way of some small side bar.

I simply want to know where the creature "really" came from - be it myth, lore, or the pages of some historical edition of DnD. The Rust Monster, I believe, was the last one that had any "real history" to it, and I quite enjoyed reading of its origins. But I'm making my way through the "Ecology of the Elemental Weird" right now and would seriously like to know how the concept of this creature actually came to be - be it by myth or someone's creative genius.

So, how about it? Can we start to see more real-life histories of creatures?

Yeah ditto that

I have noticed that I have spent almost $50 on my subscription to Dragon Magazine – however that I would have to buy the Player’s Guide to Savage Tide from Paizo to actually get the Map of Sasserine.

Why Isn’t the map part of Dragon Magazine?

Or at the least a free online download?

The map of Sasserine came with Dungeon 139. Since they have made the diferention of Dragon for PCs and Dungeon of DMs (roughly) that makes sense.

I have to agree with Saurstalk about the electronic versions for 4E. We are in the 21st century now.
Sure I understand that with PDFs it is easier to buy just one copy of a book and distrinute it to everyone in your gaming group, thus resulting in lost revenues.

But let's face reality, it already happens. People scan the books and distribute them over the web all the time.

I'm a photographer and long ago decided not to fight the trend of people to scan and use my pictures without my consent. Instead I embraced the concept and worked high res images suitable for printing into my offerings. Best of both worlds. They'll do it anyway so make some $$ and let them do it legally.

I would like to see 4E much more computer compatible. It should include good tools for managing campaigns, battles, characters, etc. Sure those things are out there now, but they are all 3rd party stuff. WizCo should do it and make the money on them. My favorite at the moment is PCGEN. Now if WizCo had come out with something like that, and it allowed integration with all of its products and supported 3rd party material I would pay for it, no problem.

Besides I think that nearly all of the RPGers out there would LIKE to legally support WizCo and other companies and not have to pirate stuff, but the fact is the companies are not making the products the people want. So as a result we get piracy.

I'm sure you have worked quite hard on that spreadsheet, but it is just a pain to use. What is it with people using spreadsheets for databases? It's the square peg, round hole syndrome. Spreadsheets are just not made for databases.

4E... I have dreamed about 4E as soon as 3.5 hit the shelves.

Areas *I* would like to see improved and changed:

Skills and feats.

They have done a great job of them, greatly improving them over 1E and 2E. But I just don't think they are quite right yet. I do think Monte Cook has done a great job of improving on them in Iron Heroes, but still one more notch up and we just might have it.

But you know what... that's all I would want changed. Not enough for a real 4E.

So, a better suggestion would be put 4E off for another 5 years. Instead I would like to see some consolidation of the D&D books. I would leap at a Complete Feats book. Last night a friend and I were looking for one feat and we had to go through six books. That is nuts.

Along those lines... Completes Classes, Complete Spells etc.

Come on who wouldn't jump at a chance for this.

Now, having these books may or may not undermine the sales of the supplemental books they derived from, so I doubt it is something WizCo will want to do. Can't blame them.

HOWEVER... a complete INDEX, updated annually would be nice... maybe just a PDF. List all the feats, spells, classes, equipment, rules etc, by book and page. I would imagine they have to have something like this already for in house use, otherwise they would need to have a GREAT therapy rider on their insurance. And so far there have been no rumors of editors and staff being hauled off to Arkham.

I expected that Wil Save would be controversial. I received this month's issue of Dungeon and flipped straight to Wil Save. And once agan I LOVED it.

A friend of mine recently put in perspective. It's fluff vs crunch. My biggest complaint about Dragon and Dungeon is the over abundance of crunch.

There's only so many new Prestige Classes I can use. There's only so many new Feats and Skills that I can use. I don't play the game just to see how big I can get the numbers. I play for social interaction and creativity. Fluff.

Gygax's article was the first thing I turned to in Dragon before it was axed. I like the fluff and regret there is so little of it.