Abashima's page

I was in a Pathfinder and a D&D campaign at the same time. I dropped out of the Pathfinder campaign and joined (an additional) D&D campaign because of a wide variety of reasons, no single thing, but in general every time I played Pathfinder I saw things that D&D was doing better. Also on balance the Pathfinder rules were frustrating me more than they were helping me have a fun experience.

However, I use the Pathfinder setting for my own D&D campaign, it's top shelf and really very awesome. What makes the book even better is that it's basically uncoupled from the Pathfinder rules set so it's extremely flexible.

Pathfinder setting + D&D rules = win.

If you're going to get an iPad (as I am) how are you planning on carrying it around?

• Loose in your hand (but in a case or sleeve of some sort)?
• In a messenger bag type affair?
• In a backpack?
• Other?

Then why would someone cast cast tongues?

For the reason you state, namely, you can cast it on others.

Also look at the name of the spell... Comprehend languages... not speak languages. This spell does exactly what it says, and nothing more, which makes sense to me.

And I'm not arguing that. I'm saying that the spell itself is fundamentally broken.

Tongues allows any language, and it's only 4 levels difference for a wizard (3 for a bard).

The difference between being able to hear and speak is not a four levels' worth of difference. More like one.

In tonight's Pathfinder playtest, a goblin seemed intent on communicating to us. So my character, a 1st-level wizard, cast comprehend languages so we could find out what was going on.

That's when I discovered that comprehend languages is one-way—making the spell effectively useless in communicating with someone verbally. Despite the spell being in full effect, we had to resort to a game of Pictionary to understand what the goblin was talking about. In short, the spell might as well not have been cast in the first place.

Here's the problem: Since it's unavoidably a personal and direct interaction with someone else, the spell should also allow speaking the language, not just hearing. You have to touch the person you're speaking with, so it's not like watching a movie and getting subtitles and it's not eavesdropping on a secret conversation—it's directly interacting with someone, and in that situation it's effectively useless not being able to speak with the person you're directly interacting with.

It's only for 10 minutes. That's not game or genre-busting. There's still a reason to take additional languages.

Corollary: The difference between speaking and not speaking with someone is not five whole levels' worth of difference. No. That's ridiculous. That means either comprehend languages just as it's written without any changes needs to go up in level to be closer to tongues or tongues needs to be a second level spell across the board.

not letting me on even though I'm logged in

You don't need to log in, ever--no one does.

Leave the fields blank and just click the Log In button.

Having to log in is a sham.

if I've not made my point by now (Fey Step = Good in combat, but too free to abuse in non-combat situations and should be nerfed to Daily) you'll never get it - until you GM and you've an Eldarin PC in the party

Nothing you described seemed at all like any sort of abuse or problem, not in the slightest.

• A rogue fell into a pit trap, but I guess he got out without fey stepping. No abuse or problem.
  
• The eladrin fey stepped up to get a treasure you put in a place that sounds like it required fey stepping to get to. There is neither abuse nor problem.
  
• The eladrin fey stepped past some dungeon dressing -- and the trap functioned as written. That is neither abuse nor problem.

You've made no case to support your position that fey step needs to be changed.

For an eladrin, it's "You fall into a 10' pit and take some damage." "OK, I teleport out of it." For anyone else, it's "You fall into a 10' pit and take some damage." "OK, I climb out." (Or, someone pulls me out, or some other variation.)

Hence my confusion about why the hubbub.

True, but we're thinking PLAYERS here. I've run adventures where the characters start in prison. What am I going to do?

Design better than you are now?

There have been multiple examples of ways to deal with fey step in this thread. You can either take inspiration from them, house rule fey step, expand the definition of encounter--or all three--and move on.

Others of us have no problems with it, have fun games with it, and have not found it to be the absolute problem you're suggesting it is. It's not.

Saying "D&D has to satisfy a far wider range of experiences." is just pretentious.

Regardless of whether you feel it's pretentious, it's true. You need only look at this very thread to see how differently people play and expect D&D to be. The strength of D&D, I've long maintained, is its ability to cater to such a wide variety of play styles. Star Wars, however, has more limitations in the kinds of styles of play it offers, not the least of which is that it's but a single campaign setting.

The board wasn't accepting my close quote tags so I had to use bolds instead...

What is there is so poorly referenced, badly structured and just downright lacking that it’s beyond a joke.
Hyperbole.

using sticky tabs to mark pages
I see people using tabs on every kind of reference book that exists, just as I see people not using them. This is an utter non-issue.

This game needs a Glossary, bad. It needs a bigger, better index.
Correct.

My impressions are that the PHB designers spent so long congratulating themselves for making such an awesome game, they forgot to actually write the damned thing.
Comments like that lend zero credibility to your argument.

Also, the Powers are completely and utterly all over the place
Not true. They're grouped according to the classes that use them--which is very good organization, not bad. Instead of paging through the book during play--or heavens forfend using a tab--I can keep it open and be within a few pages of what I need to consult.

The number of times my players have played Hunt The Power in the PHB already is beyond a joke.
Beyond a joke, eh?

The Character Class chapter is a joke.
You must laugh a lot, but despite that, you don't sound like a happy person.

there’s so f~~!ing few of them to choose from it’s laughable.
In the most recent 3e game I played half of the players were new to D&D or hadn't played in so terribly long they might as well have been new. They found the choice of spells, feats, and skills--and the math associated with them--simply paralyzing. One player even said out loud: "The number of choices is overwhelming." I've never forgotten that i because that sums up the problem that 4 fixes. There is a point at which there are too many choices and players are simply overwhelmed by it all. Having a few choices to start and then more choices later is exactly the right way to go.

Likewise, there's time at the table. A few sessions ago, we were gearing up for a fight and the two spellcasters at the table picked their spells. We're playing around 15th-level characters. It took an hour for them to pick all their spells because they had to look so much up, what the spells did, and all of that. For me, who had no spells to cast, that hour was shatteringly boring and frustrating because I came to the table to play D&D, not sit and watch other people do bookkeeping.

Likewise, it can take forever even for experienced D&D players to decide what to do during their turn, something that's terribly pronounced at high level. When a single round of combat takes 45 minutes to an hour to play, that's too long.

Take out the page-and-a-half double spread artwork at the beginning
Or not. Art is fun and adds to the overall enjoyment of the book. Back to ye curmugdeonly artless world with ye--but don't be too bitter at those of us who appreciate nice art.

why not just make ‘em Powers that are usable per week, per month or whatever. This means they could go into that Powers chapter that’s missing
Because rituals can be used by any class, thus it would be inappropriate to either make them powers or to group them by class.

Sure, I know that the limited number of Powers is designed to get us to buy more books from Wizards tofill in the gaps
And/or to not make the game overwhelming for new players.

That Fey Step means you can’t put your Eldarin in jail.
Don't be ridiculous. There are any number of ways to restrain an eladrin even with fey step. A hood might be the easiest. Another would be a 30' pit.

You can’t have them stuck at the bottom of a pit trap.
Whyever not?

The equipment list is very limited too, lacking several of the core essentials for any dungeon adventure.
Untrue. At least, none of my players have noted a shocking loss of "several essentials."

Where’s the 10’ poles (personally, I prefer quarterstaves anyhow)
Seriously? A 10' pole is essential? I disagree, given that I haven't seen one used in over a decade. It was probably removed because no one used them--like you, who prefer quarterstaves.

There should be a group of General Powers which are open to all
Like feats and rituals?

The Star Wars RPG contains the entire system in one book
Apples and oranges. Star Wars is a very distinct and limited milleu. D&D has to satisfy a far wider range of experiences.

d20 Modern is another one-book system that’s pure brilliance.
The wealth system is the single worst idea in the history of roleplaying games. No, not brilliant. But that's a different topic, really.