Faradon's page

I really like the Eberron setting for a couple of reasons.

First off, I've never been a fan of the plethora of Super-powered NPCs dotting the landscape of the forgotten realms, and missed Greyhawk for the PC's are the Heroes aspect of play. Eberron is trying to play on that and again, make the PC's the heroes.

The changes to the alignment system in Eberron are great... corrupt "good" clerics who still channel their god's spell power, evil Silver Dragons, etc. Have always hated the alignment system in D&D and like a system when you can really surprise the players with role-playing encounters that would never really be expected in other settings.

I will agree, the magic system is a little over-the-top, but I think that magic in general really needed a boost in 3.x. Far too often I see the casters outshadowed by warriors and rogues in near any situation (other than rogues pounding away on golems/undead... but the rogue is still better off than the wizard vs the golem)

I miss Greyhawk, and know it won't be back any day soon... but in the meantime I like the Eberron setting and if you haven't tried it yet I'd say to give it a once over.

From the SRD:

Shatter creates a loud, ringing noise that breaks brittle, nonmagical objects; sunders a single solid, nonmagical object; or damages a crystalline creature.

Well, as I thought, I didn't find anything in my collection. BUT I did a little research on the net and found that Wizards of the Coast published a 2nd Edition accessory book called Chronomancers, which detailed a class of "Time Mages". Just go on google and type in the word chronomancer... it's like the second site found on the list. You can buy the download version there. Sorry, it's pretty much the best I can do.

Ultradan

That book is actually pretty cool, has stuff about time mages, rogues, warriors, etc. A few new spells, some loose rules for what happens as you change time, paradoxes, etc. As a DM though, it really requires a lot of work to involve regular time travel into a game...

Well first off as a change I don't think any "adventurer" should have a hit die of less than a d6.

Heck, the local librarian, butcher, baker, and candlestick maker could all be level 1 experts that have a d6 hit die for all you know! :)

In any event, I think Rogues should be bumped up to the d8 that monks get, Clerics and Druids should be cut down to a d6 while wizards and sorc's and the like are bumped up to a d6. This would put all pure casters at D6, all versitile melee at d8 (monk, ranger, rogue), and the tanks at d10+ (war, pal, Barb)

Magic in D&D has always been questionable at best... the memorization system and very limited spells per day really don't live up well to the Gandalf, Elminister, Merlin, etc. of book and legend... but of course there is an issue of balance.

I realize these are pretty drastic changes, and that's why they are just ideas. Rebalancing an entire game system is tough work, and my ideas aren't set in stone.

as a side note... I think that wizards are OK other than the hit die... the divine casters are the problem in the 3.x balance. I say lower their hit dice and remove fort as a good save for divine casters is a good start... that or cut them back down to NO 8th and 9th lvl divine spells.

3. I think the spell diversity IS a good benefit, because the Sorcerer/Wizard spells are the most powerful list pound-for-pound. Plus, the Sorcerer's highest spell level is one behind the Wizard. . . this alone makes the Wizard more effective against day-to-day fights with approporiate CRs.

Raw spellcasting power per spell I think may be a little more subjective. But I clicked over to the SRD and compared some 5th and 7th lvl spells I thought are around equal power. Granted, the Wizard spell list is more extensive... but you have to find a way to acquire every spell you want where the cleric gets access to all the spells in every book for free.

5th lvl- Cone of Cold (Wiz) vs Flame Strike (Cleric)
1d6/lvl (15d6 max) 1d6/lvl (15d6 max)
Cone shaped all ice 10' rad / fire/divine mix

The cone of cold can potentially hit many more targets, but is harder to target properly while avoiding allies and is all 1 type of damage.

The flame strike is easier to target / avoid hitting friends, does the same amount of damage, and half of its damage is divine power (so no resistance).

---

7th lvl - Finger of Death vs Destruction
Fail your save you die from both (can't be rez'd as easily from destruction though)

Make your save and finger deals 3d6 (+1/lvl)
destruction deals 10d6

Both spells have the same range, etc.

I tried to choose spells that were relativly similar. I don't think the arcane caster really gets much of an edge if any...

Meanwhile the cleric had double the wizard's hit dice, full plate armor, good weapons, better bab, turn undead, can take item creation feats, and if he chooses the right domains can have some of the better/scary arcane spells anyways.

I guess all I'll say here is you must play a really different game than I do. That's not a bad thing, of course. ;) It's generally in the 10 session range (give or take) between levelling up for us.

Do you play the XP system by the book? Maybe I'm doing something wrong? As far as I can see though, I look at the Eberron modules, Dungeon Adventure paths, and other published stuff... every "adventure" which takes 1-2 sessions (5-6 hours or so in a session) seems to give 1+ level worth of XP. I think the Shackled City and Age of Worms paths are set to go from levels 1-20ish in 13-15 adventures (someone correct me if I'm wrong on this please)

In every campaign I've seen a wizard played (which hasn't happened often—they're not popular choices for campaign play), that player has hit all five of the above problems and it's been a MAJOR source of concern.

First, I think we've wandered far off topic from the warlock discussion, and this should probably be split into 2 threads so as to be courteous to the originator of this thread. That being said...

I've played a 1st/2nd edition Wizard from 1st - 14th lvl over the course of several years. In that time I had run into some of the problems listed...

#1 HP was never something I complained about, that was something that I always just took at face value... more would always be nice, and from a 3.x perspective I think all the d4 hd classes should be boosted up to D6.

#2 My oh my does this bring back memories... we played where if a caster was knocked unconcious that you lose all your prepared spells... take that in combination with the fact that my DM required me 8 hours of sleep... + 15 min per level of spell to memorize for each spell. In order to get my full compliment of spells back it took in the ballpark of 21 hours if fully depleted... try convincing a party in the middle of an adventure to take a day of downtime. I'm glad you don't lose your spells anymore and that it doesn't take so long to prepare them... but again, the price you pay for power right? In all actuality though we added something similar to an eldrich bolt for wizards pre 3.x... where you could do your level in damage at will (so 14 points at lvl 14 once per round) Just to be able to do something when you are out of spells.

#3 This is one of my biggest problems with 3.x from the arcane spellcaster standpoint. Wizards have been relatively unchanged... they start so weak that they really shouldn't survive without a lot of help... and get really powerfull right? Well, now all divine casters, who get double the hit points, armor, better base attacks, domain spells, turning undead, domain granted powers, better weapon selections, etc. get the same amount of spell power as a wizard to boot... oh... wait... clerics get more spells per level than a wizard. But wizard spells are more powerful right? That must be why they get less of them than clerics and druids? Well... no, not really... not anymore. Storm of Vengeance is just as powerful as a Meteor Swarm, Miracle is as good as a Wish, etc.
Oh, and don't forget that clerics with the magic and war domain gets some of the best wizard spells anyways...

#4 Well, kinda. If you play in a campaign the DM *should* allow you to research your own spells, which allow you some good stuff, pressing the limits of what is allowed at each level of spells, but yea... now that divine casters get 9th level spells of equal power or greater there isn't much point to being an arcane caster... just play a cleric of Boccob, Mystra, etc.

#5 At first, I agreed completely. The problem here is that you have to realize that 3.x D&D is more Diablo and less D&D. You instantly level up without training (with or without a *DING* / Gratz and flash of light.) You level up every 1-2 game sessions. The ridiculously fast XP system actually is designed so that if you are behind in XP... you catch up. Basically this would allow you to create a bunch of items, sell them for market value or more (especially if they are items based on a spell you designed / researched) and make quite a bit of money in the process. Then, you play 3-4 games and you are caught up in levels to your teammates. Personally I think the new XP system is great for casual players... but I enjoyed a slower advancement, when you got to use and learn about your new powers before you leveled up again. I think, at least for me, a lot of the 3.x stuff just takes getting used to before you can really just sit back and enjoy it (especially from a DM perspective.) Item creation feats I think really need some work, craft points are a nice idea, the "free xp" that an artificer gets are a nice idea for wizards too IMO... I donno. I agree with you on most of this though.

Cool! See, that was fast. Anyone else have WWDDGD plans?

We could have an epic rematch of kobolds vs gnomes?

Down this road lies madness.

What about Drow? Or the hundreds of other races superior to humans?

: ]
rob

Most evil races that are superior to humans fail to overtake the world because of that whole "evil always turns against itself" mentality. (in a fantasy world...)

As far as the good races that live longer... one of the big thing that happens with people who strive for power is that quite a few of them die in the process. When a party of humans die, it's not really that big of a deal... there's always more where they came from to fill in the ranks and keep adventuring. Elves on the other hand are almost always described as a dieing race. Even at a natural rate they have so few children that their numbers are dwindling... especially when you throw wars, adventures that PCs are on, natural/unnatural disasters, invasions from other planes, etc.

I'm not saying it is right, or that this is law, just seems to be the common reply you see.

Personally I liked the storyline behind the dark sun world... in Athas everyone was oppressed equally :)

I'm impressed we can openly post Vit/Wd on the boards, good stuff :D.

Hmm, hope I didn't break any rules... I just went to google and did a search for Vitality and Wounds...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=vitality+and+wounds

and then clicked on the very first link that came up, which was a WOTC page:

https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040206a&page=3

then just copied and pasted a bunch of the info to answer his question on what Vit/Wounds are.

Combat becomes much more realistic, and heroes become much less heroic. Conan could be cut down by a Commoner 1 (yeah, that'll happen...).

Jack

Yours is an example of a great reason to add the action points(APs) in if you are going to use Vitality/Wounds. That way you can change it so that only someone with APs can inflict crit hits / cause crit fumbles (a la spycraft). This lets Conan wade through a swarm of commoners to face the big bad guy, where one solid strike (crit) can cause sudden death.

The long answer is that hit points are inherently unrealistic.

I like a more lethal and grittier game

BTW, What's the wound/vitality point thing people keep mentioning?

Yes, hitpoints are unrealistic and yes, it gets a little silly at high levels when a fighter can take 50 arrows to the chest and keep on trucking. If that isn't the style of play you are looking for, and judging by your comment of wanting a more lethal / gritty game I REALLY think that Vitality / Wounds is the way to go for you. It is outlined in the Unearthed Arcana and also used in D20 Modern & Spycraft.

Got the following from a WOTC page through a google search for Vitality and Wounds:

Vitality and Wound Points

The vitality and wound points damage system was originally developed for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game as a more cinematic method of handling damage than the traditional hit point system. The system allows for characters to improve the amount of punishment they can withstand as they go up in level, while still allowing for a single lucky attack to take down a character.

Vitality Points

Vitality points are a measure of a character's ability to turn a direct hit into a graze or a glancing blow with no serious consequences. Like hit points in the standard D&D rules, vitality points go up with level, giving high-level characters more ability to shrug off attacks. Most types of damage reduce vitality points.

Characters gain vitality points as they gain levels. Just as with hit points in the standard D&D rules, at each level a character rolls a vitality die and adds his Constitution modifier, adding the total to his vitality point total. (And, just as with hit points, a character always gains a minimum of at least 1 vitality point per level, regardless of his roll or Constitution modifier.) A 1st-level character gets the maximum vitality die result rather than rolling, as shown on Table 4-6 below.

Table 4-6: Vitality Points

Class Vitality Points
at 1st level Vitality
Die
Barbarian 12 + Con mod d12
Bard 6 + Con mod d6
Cleric 8 + Con mod d8
Druid 8 + Con mod d8
Fighter 10 + Con mod d10
Monk 8 + Con mod d8
Paladin 10 + Con mod d10
Ranger 8 + Con mod d8
Rogue 6 + Con mod d6
Sorcerer 4 + Con mod d4
Wizard 4 + Con mod d4

Wound Points

Wound points measure how much true physical damage a character can withstand. Damage reduces wound points only after all vitality points are gone, or when a character is struck by a critical hit. A character has a number of wound points equal to her current Constitution score.

Critical Hits

A critical hit deals the same amount of damage as a normal hit, but that damage is deducted from wound points rather than from vitality points. Critical hits do not deal extra damage; for that reason, no weapon in this system has a damage multiplier for its critical hits.

Any critical hit automatically overcomes a creature's damage reduction, regardless of whether the attack could normally do so.

Most weapons retain their normal critical threat range. If a weapon normally has a critical multiplier greater than x2, the weapon's threat range expands by 1 point per additional multiplier, as indicated on the table below.

Multiplier New Threat
Range
x3 19-20
x4 18-20
x5 17-20

Injury and Death

Vitality and wound points together measure how hard a character is to hurt and kill. The damage from each successful attack and each fight accumulates, dropping a character's vitality point or wound point totals until he runs out of points.

Nonlethal Damage

This system doesn't differentiate between lethal and nonlethal damage. Attacks and effects that normally deal nonlethal damage reduce vitality points, except on a critical hit, in which case they reduce wound points.

0 Vitality Points

At 0 vitality points, a character can no longer avoid taking real physical damage. Any additional damage he receives reduces his wound points.

Taking Wound Damage

The first time a character takes wound damage -- even a single point -- he becomes fatigued. A fatigued character can't run or charge and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity until he has rested for 8 hours (or until the wound damage is healed, if that occurs first). Additional wound damage doesn't make the character exhausted.

In addition, any time an attack deals wound damage to a character, he must succeed on a Fortitude saving throw (DC 5 + number of wound points lost from the attack) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. (During that time, any other character can take a standard action to help the stunned character recover; doing so ends the stunned condition.)

0 Wound Points

Wound points cannot drop below 0; any damage that would cause a character's wound point total to drop below 0 simply causes the character to have 0 wound points.

At 0 wound points, a character is disabled must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude save. If he succeeds on the save, he is merely disabled. If he fails, he falls unconscious and begins dying.

Disabled: A disabled character is conscious, but can only take a single move or standard action each turn (but not both, nor can she take full-round actions). She moves at half speed. Taking move actions doesn't risk further injury, but performing any standard action (or any other action the DM deems strenuous, including some free actions such as casting a quickened spell) worsens the character's condition to dying (unless it involved healing; see below).

Dying: A dying character is unconscious and near death. Each round on his turn, a dying character must make a Fortitude save (DC 10, +1 per turn after the first) to become stable.

If the character fails the save, he dies.

If the character succeeds on the save by less than 5, he does not die but does not improve. He is still dying and must continue to make Fortitude saves every round.

If the character succeeds on the save by 5 or more but by less than 10, he becomes stable but remains unconscious.

If the character succeeds on the save by 10 or more, he becomes conscious and disabled.

Another character can make a dying character stable by succeeding on a DC 15 Heal check as a standard action (which provokes attacks of opportunity).

Stable Characters and Recovery

A stable character is unconscious. Every hour, a stable character must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10, +1 per hour after the first) to remain stable.

If the character fails the save, he becomes dying.

If the character succeeds on the save by less than 5, he does not get any worse, but does not improve. He is still stable and unconscious, and must continue to make Fortitude saves every hour.

If the character succeeds on the save by 5 or more, he becomes conscious and disabled.

An unaided stable, conscious character at 0 wound points has a 10% chance to start recovering wound points naturally that day.

Once an unaided character starts recovering wound points naturally, he is no longer in danger of dying.

Recovering with Help: A dying character can be made stable with a DC 15 Heal check (a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity). One hour after a tended, dying character becomes stable, roll d%. He has a 10% chance of regaining consciousness, at which point he becomes disabled. If he remains unconscious, he has the same chance to regain consciousness every hour. Even while unconscious, he recovers wound points naturally, becoming conscious and able to resume normal activity when his wound points rise to 1 or higher.

Monster Challenge Ratings

Increase the CR of any Gargantuan or Colossal creature by +1, unless the creature does not have a Constitution score.

Monsters with fractional CRs move up to the next highest fraction. The kobold (ordinarily CR 1/4) becomes CR 1/3, for example, while the goblin (normally CR 1/2) becomes CR 1.

I really like ASEO's idea on "immune to some bad things" and for things like Fort > DC of poison = immune is really an awesome idea.

The only problem I have is that I still have this nagging in the back of my head that says there should still always be a chance to succeed and always be a chance to fail in a fantasy game. The D20 is the biggest problem with it... 5% is a large number when you start dealing with masses of things. When 100 Skilled Marksmen fire bows in an archery contest and 5 of them critically miss, 5 critically hit, and everyone else hits the same (because they all needed anything but a 1) Then math and probability starts getting in the way of common sense.

Perhaps a system where if you have no chance to fail: If you roll a 1, then add 10 to the target DC and roll again. If you roll a 20, then subtract 10 from the DC and roll again. This would give a *chance* to succeed or fail where previously there wasn't one... and spreads the problem with the math a lot thinner. I know that there is something like this for epic levels, but never really read too much on it.

I would allow a Coup de Gras on a sleeping target IF the attacking rogue (assuming the class with the best ability to do this) passes both move silent and hide checks against the slumbering target's rolls (with applicable penalties for being asleep).

Failure of any of these would indicate that the assassin woke the victim and they would lose the Coup de Gras - however, the VERY flatfooted victim is still in a world of hurt....and probably unarmored...

...the victim could possibly be killed anyways, by Massive Damage (and the required Fort save).

P.S. - (A truly Evil and sadistic assassin might just wake the victim, so he could witness his own murder...I would definitely award extra XPs in these cases)

M

True true.. of course even if a decent level rogue was denied a coup de grace, he would lay into the prone victim who is denied his dex for 2-3 (or more!) sneak attacks in a surprise round... and then if he wins init... another full round of sneak attacks... IF the opponent is somehow still alive this will be followed up by an attack of opportunity as his victim tries to stand up, weaponless and armorless... so unless you are targeting a high level monk, the sleeping victim is almost as good as dead without a coup de grace with a rogue type bringing the pain.

I have nothing against 'crits & fumbles' as long as we don't use tables. Tables tend to slow the game down. The critical hit system as it is now (with the possible threat, then the critical hit roll) works fine for us. As for the fumbles, in our group, when someone rolls a natural 1, that's a possible fumble and must roll a DEX DC10 to avoid the fumble. If successful, it is treated as a normal miss. If unsuccessful, the player drops his weapon and his round stops right there.

Now, it is true that in the long run that 'crits & fumbles' will hurt the PCs in the long run, but I think it gives an added uncertainty or sense of danger (or even hope) in every combat.

Ultradan

Nothing wrong with a cool crit hit table as long as you don't bog the game down with it. Like I said, for the one I use you need a nat 20 followed by a nat 20 = 1 in 400 to roll on the table for my normal system. It adds a little something special and memorable when they do happen... A little more work for the DM behind the scenes to make sure the table is set up and balanced, but once you have one you are happy with I think it only adds to the game.

This would reinforce the concept that 'helpless' means, "unaware of the act of attacking (NOT surprised or ambushed) or unable to respond to it in any way".

Regardless of how surprised, ambushed or unaware a victim is before an attack, as long as they can react to the attack in some reflexive way, it is not a Coup de Gras.

M

I agree completely. Magically Held, Paralyzed, buried up to your neck in dirt with the villain holding your head steady by your hair... you are completely helpless.

Sleeping would be a borderline example in that a sixth sense might click in at the last second for your eyes to open as the knife is coming down or some such typical fantasy/Hollywood example.

So basically, if you can react in ANY way to interfere with the coup de grace during a 6 second period from when it starts, to include involuntary responses that are not restrained by a force greater than what you can break free of, then it should never be a coup de grace. That means that even if 2 thugs were holding a PC’s arms and legs while a third moved up to perform a coup de grace, I would give the PC another grapple/strength check to break free at the last moment… coup de grace needs to be used sparingly IMO.

Robert Head wrote:

Also, the plan would work great with a standard sneak attack if the guy didn't have more than about 10 hp. You can't expect to knock out a 6th level NPC with one hit of a sap.

Why not? Seriously, I'm not trying to be facetious. Is it totally unreasonable to think that a character of any level has a vulnerability? Maybe characters with the uncanny dodge ability have a realistic excuse but I can't see the rationale for placing mid to high level characters above the possibility of falling victem to a stealthy knock out - especially by thier peers (PCs & NPCs of similar level).

(Please see my other comments on the difficulty and skill dedication required to engineer a situation where any character might be able to use a coup de grace as I describe.)

Cheers,
C.

I'm sure Magagumo will back me up on this after reading his post in response to my tidbit on crit hits... If you want this level of "threat / realism" added you should switch to Vitality / Wounds system. Again I'll throw in the statement that if you do read up on the Action Point system and the Crit Hits / Misses as presented in Spycraft. If you want a quick rundown check out:

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/dragon/dnd/general/critsAndFumblesAreT heyNeeded

However, the way the rules for D&D work, they really don't allow for what you want. If you don't like the rules you can always change them to suit your gaming group. Just make it VERY clear to the PCs that every rule works both ways, so that when the NPC rogue or assassin sneaks in and oneshots the __(insert character here)___ and drops him dead that they won't be able to complain. Basically every PC in your game will have to max out listen, spot, etc. to avoid instant death.

Well, I think a lot of the arguments for and against crit hits will ultimately come down to the style of play you enjoy and have become accustomed to. I’m not going to say that one way is better than the other…

In the current game I am playing in, an Age of Worms path, we use the crit hit rules right out of the books. Fumbles are a 1 followed by a 1… and I’ve yet to see one in the 5-6 sessions of this game so far. The crit hits haven’t made a big difference in the combats, and 25% of the time or so I’d say that we fight things which are immune to crits (undead, constructs, etc.)

This is a large contrast from how I usually run crit hits and fumbles in games… both ways are fun, just different. When I run games, usually campaigns, I tend to keep things more on the “heroic” level. In doing so, I would say that 60-75% of the time or more, my Players are the underdogs in the fights. I’ve inherited this style of DMing from what I consider to be my best DM/GM thus far (or the style I seem to like best from what I have experienced) My crit hit system comes from 1st and 2nd ed, so certain weapons become better than others… still working on that.

Basically if you roll a 20 it’s an auto crit… you then roll another d20. 1-16 = x2 dmg, 17-19 = x3 dmg, a 2nd 20 = a % roll on a table ranging from bleeding wounds to severed limbs.

If you roll a 1 roll another d20, 20 = really bad miss, looks bad, but no other noticeable effect. 4-20 = you miss horribly… lose all subsequent attacks for the round. 2-3 = minor mishap table, weapon strikes into a rock/wall… weapon takes dmg as if sundered, weapon gets stuck in the ground, bow string breaks, etc. A 2nd natural 1 in a row results in a percentile table similar to the crit hit table… hitting your allies, breaking your weapon (if nonmagical / takes damage or a save if magical), daze yourself, etc.

For this system, feats like improved crit, and things like keen add +1 to the first roll only (and do stack… keen + improved crit = 18+)

On an entirely alternative system is the Wounds & Vitality system… where crit hits go right to your true hit points (CON). This seems REALLY deadly at first… but if you then stack on the Action Point (AP) system and change it over to the way SPYCRAFT does it… you get something a little more workable. With all these rules added together you get a system where you have to spend an AP to “back up” a potential crit. This also means that a regular orc, thug, elemental, etc… can never score a crit. Only PCs and NPCs have APs, and therefore only they can back up a potential crit hit. (Important storyline monsters can be given a feat that gives them a few action points.) Similarly a 1 isn’t a “Fumble” unless someone in the battle spends an action point to turn it into one.

I’ve tried this in one game I was running, and it worked great. It took the threat of a henchman running out and ending a hero’s life in 1 REALLY lucky hit… especially useful when you have 20-30 low level mobs attacking a small number of PC’s. I find that this system also works better when I play games where we “roll in the open.”… But we can leave the discussion for rolling in the open vs. rolling behind the screen and its effects on crits, survivability, etc for another time…

I suppose that if you wanted to really limit it like the other fellow in the post above me did... a 1 in 400 chance of double damage definitely does that!

In my groups, we're still in the stoneage of pencil & paper-maps. :)

We never considered changing to something like Dwarven Forge.
It sure looks cool, but I think it limits my flexibility as DM.
When I'm DMing i like to change elements like dungeon rooms on the spot when i find it necessary to pace the game or when i have a sudden great idea.
I love to improve and some of our most memorial encounters developed out of this technique.
With Dwarven Forge and similar tools i think a DM has to stick with his initial plans and this would rob me of a serious portion of the fun i have while DMing.

Actually if you take a look at the hirstarts page I listed above, you can create your own "modular" dungeon... I'm sure you could probably do the same thing with other premade sets. What I did was create 15-20 hallway pieces of varying lengths, some corner pieces, T-intersections, various room pieces/sizes, stairs (yes, I do multiple elevations on the same play surface for some areas with 3" of pink foam underneath an elevated area)pillars, terrain pieces (tables, chairs, etc.)

In any event, once you have your modular dungeon you place out what you need/ what they can see... when you start running out of table (3-4 rooms max is usually what I have out at any given time) I clear off what we don't need anymore and start laying down where they are moving into. Visual aids like these really add a lot of flavor to a game. I'll see if I can get some pics up onto a myspace account or something. That way I can show off some of this terrain for y'all.

*Disclaimer* I'm not the greatest artist/painter in the world, so be kind once you get to see everything...

85% of the time I tend to just draw stuff out on 2 or 3 battlemats (my collection has grown over the years)...

To answer your question though... the other 15% of the time, mostly for "end boss" or very important battles, I will cast terrain myself. I use the stuff from:

http://www.hirstarts.com/

Not sure if it's really for someone to use just for D&D... I use mine primarily for wargaming.

UPSIDE: It gives you unlimited flexibility for creating exactly what you need for any big bad D&D encounter, you can use them over and over to make more of whatever you need, and if something breaks you just make another. Over time much cheaper than the Dwarven Forge stuff.

DOWNSIDE: Requires quite a bit of prep time for a D&D encounter if you aren't making generic or modular terrain in your spare time. Also requires you to paint it all yourself as well. A bit of an initial investment.

I've created an extensive "modular dungeon" which I've used for quite a few dungeon crawls... Let me tell ya, there's nothing quite like a full-on 3-D dungeon crawl... the players all love it.