Ender_rpm's page

In history, there is no longsword like the one presented in D&D. It is an D&D invention, or a distortion of the arming sword.

Respectfully, this statement is bull-pucky. The late Roman Spatha, Viking Sword, Celtic War sword, Straight bladed Arab and Turkish swords, all fall under the single handed "longsword" category. Later in european history (10-13th centuries) the hand and a half sword became more popular as plate armor improved, and much later than that the 2 handed models (13th -15th iirc?) were used to break up pike formations. A light, fast, single handed sword was the single best weapon for almost a millennium.

But yes, the overall weapons classification is a bit muddled, but I find it works best that way. one handed, long straight blade, slashing weapon? LS. Done

9th level character (f1/w5/ek3) which has been minmaxed ...blah blah blah

Do NONE of your adversaries cast Dispell Magic? One good targeted dispell and the dude is looking a lot less twinky. Sure, he's still swinging a MW sword for X dam/rnd, but it's probably a lot more inline with the other players.

Also, why does he get so much time to buff up? Swarm them with goblins who steal their gear, pull their hair, and generally make it impossible to get off more than one spell before he has to start hitting things. Make him NEED the other characters help, even once, and they will be more supportive of his accomplishments in dealing damage.

And has been noted, yes, he swings good sword, but can he dance? disarm traps? read exotic languages? balance on a greased pole suspended above a pit of crocodiles? There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy :)

I'd include a few mooks too, some 1st level warriors with tower shields, and a second line with reach weapons. MOre of an appetizer than anything else, but it prevents them from ganging up on one or the other BBEG.

IIRC, at some point in 3.0, a flying creature WAS restricted to a light load, and was forced to land if they were below 1/2 HP, but that all went away in later versions.

Thanks for all the input ya'll!! One issue I think all Auteur DMs run into is that only so many of your players are going to wade through 100 pages booklets on back story, rule tweaks, etc if they came to play DnD. Even when I was a player in an aborted FR campaign, reading the FR source book was just... ugh. Interesting, but... ugh.

And I hear ya re: alternate cultures. I'm simultaneously working on lands set in all sorts of culture ports. But once again, you need to have the PHB common stuff, and when you restrict or remove some of that, people can get upset. Back to the note book
:)