Larry Lichman's page

Question: Can a cleric casting water walk go up a waterfall?

Think of it this way. You have legs that work pretty well walking on ground just as water walk allows you to walk on water.

Every try climbing an avalanche?

But in that case, putting a gun to someone's head becomes standard operating procedure, doesn't it?

The trick isn't to put the gun to his head. The trick is to make him believe you'll pull the trigger. That's what the intimidate check represents. It's not whether you do something threatening. It's whether or not the subject believes you'll follow through on the threat, and since my players have no ranks in Intimidate, no one is going to believe them.

So then it becomes a reputation issue...

Player 4: I'm getting tired of killing the entire family of everyone we capture. Haven't we developed a reputation as the guys who will do that to our prisoners yet?

Me: Depends. Who has ranks in Intimidate now?

*silence*

Player 4: Dammit! I get out my family killing knife again!

Ok, so let's break down what you're saying:

1) You can't skip the intimidation roll because Intimidation, the skill, exists and must mean something
2) Not skipping the intimidation roll causes problems because situations that are intimidating don't always succeed
3) There is no way to resolve this!

I look at pretty much all social skills, Intimidation included, as lazy short cuts. If you don't want to actually do it, if you're way less intimidating/diplomatic/deceptive than your character, or if you just draw a blank on the spot, then you roll. That's what it's for.

Well, that and Shaking enemies.

The three handed cleric. This character routinely uses one hand to hold his heavy shield, one to smash his enemies, and casts spells when convenient with his third hand.

Technically legal with the light shields, because they leave your hand holding the shield free (its strapped to the arm) you can either cast with your shield hand or pass the mace over and cast with your other hand and then pass the weapon back.

The speedy potion: Standard action to draw a potion, move to a fallen comrade, and a standard action to feed that comrade a potion, all in one round.

Otherwise known as the "I'm looking the other way so your character doesn't die" dming technique.

The rogue with everything: tumbling about and evading with the greatest of ease, AND prepared for every contingency with a wagonloads of gear too.

With enough bags of holding you too can be a wagon.

They did this so the rogue can't sneak up with his portable hole behind the BBEG, then punishing kick the BBEG into the portable hole, and the rogue closing it...

It would solidly be a dick move if the fighter's weapon had been destroyed in a way which was not logically consistent. Being charmed by a succubus and then told to throw away the weapon you are holding is a completely logical course of action, and while it is definitely not nice to the fighter, I would not describe it as a dick move.

Not sure we really need stress testing. After all, it's just a guide on how to create a specific house rule. :P