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Hi Mr. Nevada,

I rarely post, but felt compelled to reply as this is a topic I've thought about a lot myself. I think the "secret" to good description is to realize your players can fill in the obvious gaps. They don't need to know every detail to construct the environment in their imagination.

They know what a ship looks like, they know what a swamp looks like. What makes a good description in my mind is something that points out something unique, something that really lets the player "settle in".

For example, on the swamp: everyone can visualize an average swamp, but maybe point out how mud-caked spouts spring from the marsh water and sputter poisonous gases into the air. Or for the ship, maybe mention the name of the ship and how the paint is baked and faded from too many voyages in the south seas.

These things take a familiar concept, but twist it and make it novel and feel more "living". Obviously you need to give some basic details like maybe the overall length of the ship or what-have-you, but those little extra splashes of detail, even just one or two, will really spice up your descriptions.

Hope this helps!

I vehemently disagree that the Universalist wizard is that much better than the specialist wizards. I have only two problems with the generalist wizard: he can pick bonus spells from any school and his capstone ability. Other than that he lacks a specialization bonus that the others gain and, even if you specialize, at any time you could choose to prepare any spell of your choice from your prohibited school at the cost of your special power - while somewhat punitive, it hardly strikes me as a harsh penalty.

I feel the generalist wizard's powers bring some unique and fun powers to the mix and would hate to see them go.

Bump!

I too am interested in someone else's interpretation of this conflicting language in the Cleric domains and Wizard specialization. If I was a level 5 Wizard and say, the rest of my levels were X prestige class that increased my caster level and granted arcane spellcasting progression what abilities from my specialty would I gain?

It seems relatively clear that you don't get the bonus spells if you're no longer in the Wizard class. The table for the abilities says Caster Level and the table for the Wizard class says school power but lists outdated levels for when those powers as gained. Which one is right?

The same problem exists with Cleric domain powers.

Also in line with Tadpole's post - does anyone else feel like the new Cleric domains, while interesting, break domain backward compatibility pretty heavily? Unless you're willing to convert every other domain to have new special abilities there's going to be a lot of clerics with quirky, mismatched domains. Just imagine the Sovereign Speaker now!

There's not a feat, as far as I know, in 3.5 that will combine your familiar and animal companion - but there is a prestige class that accomplishes the same thing.

It's called the Arcane Hierophant and it's in Races of the Wild. You gain a level in both your divine and arcane casting class for determining spellcasting and your levels stack for determining your animal companion/familiar and your animal companion gets all of the familiar special abilities. You also get a few other token abilities.

Hope this helps!