William Finger's page

How do you oppose Escape Artist checks now? Is it just impossible to tie up Houdini?

I like Use Rope because it is a creative skill and rewards imagination. Maybe it could be subsumed by Climb, a skill useful to climbers and sailors, but it is weird that it requires Str instead of Dex. Perhaps it could be an exception?

I am opposed to setting a fixed DC for the CMB, as it makes it too difficult to succeed against Large creatures.

For example: Joe is a 10th level fighter with a 22 Str, and for some reason he wants to wrestle a brown bear. This act of heroism should be possible in a fantasy game. However, the base DC is 15 + 8 (str) + 4 (bab) + 4 (size) for a total of 31. Joe needs to roll a 15 on the die just to get a grab. Going out of his way to take Improved Grab only earns him a measly 10% increase in sucess rate.

At least with opposed rolls he could get lucky, which simulates battlefield conditions. Really, we should be making opposed rolls for all defenses, but that would just be too time consuming. I think allowing them for special rules is ok. Besides, since when does the speed of game mechanics drive their design? What about suspense? Drama? If I wanted fast game mechanics I would play a CRPG.