Butaro's page

"The stream can not choose what will fall into it as it journeys to the sea."

I would place a proverb-like saying to summarize each of Butaro's chronicles. He is a Zen Archer, stressing the "Zen".

Perhaps "Many strong trees standing alone yet failing to make a forest." would be more appropriate to the thread. (4 optimized characters were competing to kill each encounter fastest and never worked together)

The "still threatens squares" wording is what is up for interpretation. It could be seen as saying "you may still make an unarmed strike on your AoO if you wish". If it said "still only threatens squares", then there is no dispute.

Since it has changed the AoO rules, the question now is whether a bow is a melee weapon equivalent or a melee reach weapon equivalent. It is reasonable to consider it a reach weapon, making it's maximum reach 1100' (10 range increments). Point Blank Mastery only allows you to attack while threatened, it does not make the bow into a melee weapon, which does not clear up the ambiguity.

An APG errata entry that adds "only" and/or "as a melee weapon" would be simple and appropriate if their intent is within unarmed threat range.

Real hard mode is playing only with core material. Try it some time~

This is probably the best suggestion so far and it can be applied to every scenario. A Hard Core note on a chronicle sheet works for me.

I would like to see some mechanical benefit. My thought would be to allow a different character to play the scenario at regular difficulty if you complete AND survive the mission at hard difficulty. This would be particularly useful for future faction ending scenarios.

I don't like the idea of hard difficulty for lower tier groups. Generally they have less of everything and can get in too deep very quickly. If they have the levels, they will play up anyhow and get a material benefit for the risk.

I would like the option to opt out of hard mode midway through. Everybody bites off more than they can chew sometimes. There would not be an opt in though.

I would most like to see 6 player mode and/or hard mode published for season 0-3 scenarios. Most of these are in serious need of rewrites, even if only tactics and spell selection.