RedShirtNo5's page

Clark, thanks for posting those materials.

I've had various hypotheses about what happened internally (e.g., what were the relative positions taken by WotC designers, WotC execs, Hasbro legal, etc.) that led to the GSL. Hopefully some day NDAs will expire and someone will be able shed more light on it.

I think it would have been great if Necro pursued 4e Classic, but I understand why it didn't work out.

Armorbane (Ex) An ardorwesp’s primary claw attacks shred armor. On a successful roll to hit that

Potential nit. Is "roll to hit" still used, or is it a 1e/2e term replaced by "attack roll"?

This is the first stat block I've looked at, but I really like it.

Linky for us lazy folks?

Linky.

My immediate question on reading this was, is a "glyph" or "sigil" the same as a "rune"? There is some ambiguity, as various spells don't use the same terminology, and you use the phrase "rune or glyph" with respect to the disable device check, but only "rune" on the absorption power. "Magical writing" might have been better term.

But still a cool item.

Yet another vote that having the hook spin the rope would have been better, but I still like this. I wonder if that was the original intent, but the description exceeded the word limit

Assuming the hook can "run" at x4 it's base movement, it can only travel 360 feet in the 3 rounds it's active. I'm not sure why there is 500 feet of rope.

As long as you can see the bottom, I think you could command the shadowy spider to leap into a pit, off a cliff, etc.

Some thoughts after reading many discussions of mega-dungeons. Two general concepts of the "classic" mega-dungeon are:

1) The players can choose their risk level by deciding how far down in the dungeon they will travel.
2) A dungeon level is sufficiently large that a given PC is unlikely to entirely explore it, and sufficiently large to accommodate simultaneous exploration multiple parties of adventures (this distinguishes the mega-dungeon from a dungeon mega-adventure, in which the expectation is that the players may clear out the levels).

With a dungeon at 400 rooms/dungeon level, assuming 50% empty space, and 30 encounters per character level, I would actually suggest 1 dungeon level per two character levels. So about 200 encounters per dungeon level, of which a given adventuring party will encounter about 1/3.

Oh, there's the high-powered 1E Unearthed Arcana method, which I haven't used in years and years. Choose order of stat generation, then roll 8d6, 7d6, 6d6, 5d6, 4d6, 3d6, in each case taking best 3, and assigning to the preselected order. So basically, a fighter can choose 8d6 for str, 7d6 for con, etc., whereas wizard can choose 8d6 for int, 7d6 for dex, etc.

Ability score generation- Don't know if it could make the cut because it has a slightly different style, but what I use is a set of cards. Two each, from 4-9. Then you shuffle them up and deal out 6 pairs and those are your ability scores.

We do something similar, but our card system mimics standard 4d6 drop lowest. Use a card set with four each aces through 6s. Deal into six stacks, drop lowest card. Again, gives good randomness while keeping total stats relatively equal between players.

Another method of stat generation that is not mentioned is a standard array, e.g., 16, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 or the like.

I converted THAC0 to a "to hit bonus" back in the 2E era, or maybe even earlier. Our group used

d20 - (21-THAC0) = AC hit

It made low rolls better and required subtraction for players to determine AC hit, but once we were used to it the players could quickly announce what AC they hit without the chart, which was what we wanted.

To me, the weakest aspect is definitely the stat block. Right in the creature description "Male nightmare rogue 2/blackguard 5", the fact that Avinash is a half-fiend is omitted. Yes, it is in the CR calculation, but that would be stripped for publication.

But Avinash still gets a vote. The twist is great. The fact that he doesn't have any over-arching plan is fine to me. He's a freaking Chaotic Evil horse!

What makes him a really usable long-term villian, however, is:
"Etherealness (Su): This ability functions just like the spell of the same name (caster level 20th); Avinash can use it at will, bringing up to 6 companions."
This, in combination with the disguise, good armor class and evasion should ensure that he's a villian the PCs can tangle with multiple times.

I don't see problem playing Avinash as somewhat reactive. "His wild spirit is ruled by lusts for power, wealth, corruption, anarchy, and slaughter." The PCs smash his current catspaw group? He returns with canabalistic horses. The PCs stop that? He replaces the trusted steed of a local noble. No long term planning, just a series of schemes for power and destruction, in keeping with his CE nature.

Although I agree with many of the criticisms above, this still made my top 5. In particular, I like the archipeligo and mysterious plateau. In addition, while the series of civilizations isn't exactly new, I think the slightly contradictory signs - the land is unnaturally hospital, yet all these civilizations "inexplicably and abruptly came to grief" - is a fresh take on idea.