How to play a dragon

Please note that the following was developed over the course of about an hour, and game balance was considered secondary to emulating dragon abilities. Also, I don't consider them technically complete.

Dragon (Metallic)

Average Length: 7' - 11'
Average Weight: 300 lb. - 400 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 6, fly 6 (clumsy flying), overland flight 8
Vision: Darkvision

Languages: Common, Draconic
Skill Bonuses: +2 History, +2 Intimidate

Dragon: As a dragon, you have the following traits:
* You are a magical beast (dragon) and are considered as such for the purposes of effects that relate to creature origin. You may select Dragonborn racial feats if you meet their other prerequisites.
* You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls at 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, and 27th level. You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to all your defenses at 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, and 29th level.
* You have a bite attack and a claw attack. Your bite attack acts as a weapon with a +3 proficiency bonus that deals 1d10 damage, and your claw attack acts as a weapon with a +3 proficiency bonus that deals 1d8 damage and has the off-hand property.
* You can't wear armor or wield weapons, though you can still use implements. Your scaly hide provides you with a permanent +6 bonus to your AC. This bonus improves to +9 at 11th level, and +12 at 21st level.
Metallic Lineage: Choose one metallic lineage: adamantine, copper, gold, iron, or silver. You are a dragon of that type, and your appearance reflects this. Each lineage provides particular benefits and defines the damage type of your dragon breath encounter power.

Adamantine: You gain a +1 bonus to your Fortitude defense and resist 5 thunder. At 11th level, the resistance improves to 10 thunder. At 21st level, the resistance improves to 15 thunder.

Copper: You gain a +1 bonus to your Reflex defense and resist 5 acid. At 11th level, the resistance improves to 10 acid. At 21st level, the resistance improves to 15 acid.

Gold: You gain a +1 bonus to your Will defense and resist 5 fire. At 11th level, the resistance improves to 10 fire. At 21st level, the resistance improves to 15 fire.

Iron: You gain a +1 bonus to your Reflex defense and resist 5 lightning. At 11th level, the resistance improves to 10 lightning. At 21st level, the resistance improves to 15 lightning.

Silver: You gain a +1 bonus to your Fortitude defense and resist 5 cold. At 11th level, the resistance improves to 10 cold. At 21st level, the resistance improves to 15 cold.

Dragon Breath: You gain the dragon breath encounter power.

Dragon Breath Dragon Racial Power
You open your mouth with a roar and engulf your foes with the deadly power of your bloodline.
Encounter * Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, or Thunder
Minor Action Close blast 3
Targets: All creatures in area
Attack: Strength + 2 vs. Reflex, Constitution + 2 vs. Reflex, or Dexterity + 2 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier damage. Increase to +4 bonus and 2d6 + Constitution modifier
damage at 11th level, and to +6 bonus and 3d6 + Constitution modifier damage at 21st level.
Special: When you create your character, choose Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity as the ability score you use when making attack rolls with this power. The power's damage type is based on your metallic lineage: adamantine dragons deal thunder damage, copper dragons deal acid damage, gold dragons deal fire damage, iron dragons deal lightning damage, and silver dragons deal cold damage.

Dragon Racial Feats

Heroic Tier

Adamantine Fury [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, adamantine metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the adamantine fury at-will power.

Adamantine Fury Dragon Racial Power
You savage your enemy, then set your eyes on it's compatriot.
At-Will
Standard Action Melee
Effect: You make two claw attacks. Improve to three claw attacks at 11th level, and four claw attacks at 21st level.
Special: You can make a bite attack against a different target at 11th level.

Bloodied Breath [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, dragon breath racial power
Benefit: When you are first bloodied during an encounter, your dragon breath racial power recharges and you can use it immediately as a free action.

Copper Guile [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, copper metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the copper guile at-will power.

Copper Guile Dragon Racial Power
You strike quickly with your claws before deftly maneuvering through the battlefield.
At-Will
Standard Action Melee
Effect: You make two claw attacks and then shift 2 squares. Improve to shift 3 squares at 11th level.

Cutwing Step [Dragon]
Prerequisites: Dragon, copper metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the cutwing step at-will power.

Cutwing Step Dragon Racial Power
Your wings keep your enemies at bay, and your quickness keeps them out of reach.
At-Will
Immediate Reaction Melee
Trigger: An enemy moves to a space where it flanks you.
Target: The triggering creature
Attack: Dexterity + 2 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + Strength modifier damage, and you shift 2 squares. Increase to 2d6 + Strength modifier damage and shift 3 squares at 11th level, and 2d8 + Strength modifier damage and shift 4 squares at 21st level

Elemental Bite [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, bite attack
Benefit: When you hit with your bite attack, you deal an additional 1d6 damage. Your bite takes on the keyword of the damage type of your dragon breath racial power, and all damage from your bite is of that type.

Fiery Wing Riposte [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, gold metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the fiery wing riposte at-will power

Fiery Wing Riposte Dragon Racial Power
You counter a telling blow with a fiery buffet from your wings.
At-Will * Fire
Immediate Reaction Melee
Trigger: You are hit by a creature adjacent to you.
Attack: Strength + 2 vs. Fortitude, Constitution + 2 vs. Fortitude, or Dexterity + 2 vs. Fortitude
Hit: The target is pushed 5 squares and takes ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends). Increase to 10 ongoing damage at 15th level, and 20 ongoing damage at 25th level.
Special: When you obtain this power, choose Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity as the ability score you use when making attack rolls with this power.

Silver Onslaught [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, silver metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the silver onslaught at-will power.

Silver Onslaught Dragon Racial Power
Nothing is safe within the reach of your claws.
At-Will
Standard Action Melee
Effect: You make a claw attack against each enemy within reach.
Special: At 11th level, you also attack one creature with a bite.

True Dragon Breath [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, dragon breath racial power
Benefit: You may choose to use your dragon breath racial power as a standard action. If you do, you deal an additional 1d6 points of damage and gain an additional effect:
Adamantine: The target is knocked prone.
Copper: The target is slowed (save ends).
Gold: The target is weakened (save ends).
Iron: You pull the target 3 squares.
Silver: The target gains vulnerable 5 to all damage (save ends).

Wing Block [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, iron metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the wing block at-will power.

Wing Block Dragon Racial Power
Your enemies find that your wings make for a steely defense, and that they can be employed to attack with but a flick.
At-Will
Immediate Interrupt Melee
Trigger: You are hit by an attack.
Effect: You gain resist 5 to all damage of the triggering attack. Increase to resist 10 at 15th level, and resist 15 at 25th level. Make a followup attack.
Attack: Strength + 2 vs. AC, or Dexterity + 2 vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + Strength or Dexterity modifier damage. Increase to 2d6 + Strength or Dexterity modifier damage at 15th level, and 3d6 + Strength or Dexterity modifier damage at 25th level.

Paragon Tier

Beguiling Glow [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, gold metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the beguiling glow encounter power.

Beguiling Glow Dragon Racial Power
You present your draconic radiance, and those that would do you harm are left in awe.
Encounter * Charm
Minor Action Close burst 8
Target: Each enemy in burst
Attack: Charisma + 2 vs. Will
Hit: The target is pulled 5 squares and is dazed (save ends).

Draconic Size [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon
Benefit: Your size increases to Large. You occupy a space 2 squares by 2 squares, and your reach increases to 2.

Flyby Attack
Prerequisite: Flight speed
Benefit: As a standard action, you can fly up to your flight speed and make one melee basic attack at any point during that movement. You don't provoke opportunity attacks when moving away from the target.

Improved Flight
Prerequisite: Flight speed
Benefit: Your flight speed and overland flight speed increase by 2. You lose any clumsy attribute to your flight.

Painful Resonance [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon, adamantine metallic lineage
Benefit: You gain the painful resonance encounter power.

Painful Resonance Dragon Racial Power
You make a keening sound in your gullet that resonates in your target's bones.
Encounter * Thunder
Minor Action Ranged 20
Target: One creature within range
Attack: Strength + 2 vs. Fortitude, Constitution + 2 vs. Fortitude, or Dexterity + 2 vs. Fortitude
Hit: The target takes ongoing 10 thunder damage and is dazed (save ends). Increase to 15 ongoing damage at 21st level.
Special: When you obtain this power, choose Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity as the ability score you use when making attack rolls with this power.

Unfettered Wings [Dragon]
Prerequisites: Dragon, Dex 15
Benefit: You make saving throws against immobilized, slowed, and restrained conditions at the start of your turn as well as the end of your turn.

Epic Tier

Bloodied Resilience [Dragon]
Prerequisites: Dragon, Con 17
Benefit: While bloodied, you gain resist 10 to all damage on the first attack that targets you in each round.

Iron Wing Defense [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon
Benefit: Once per encounter as a minor action, you may gain +2 to all defenses until the end of your next turn.

Unstoppable [Dragon]
Prerequisite: Dragon
Benefit: You make saving throws against ongoing damage at the start of your turn as well as at the end of your turn.

Paladin Class Preview effect on Retribution

The Paladin Class Preview dropped today. On the whole, I'm unimpressed; for having to wait a week after the other class previews, and to be the last class previewed, it's disappointing that the details therein were somewhat vague and are more of the same - no radical gameplay changes, no groundbreaking additions, even the buffs and nerfs feel like minor adjustments at best/worst.

Because my heart belongs to Retribution, I'll only comment on the changes that affect Ret.

New Paladin Spells

Healing Hands (level 83): Healing Hands is a new healing spell. The paladin radiates heals from him or herself, almost like a Healing Stream Totem. It has a short range, but a long enough duration that the paladin can cast other heals while Healing Hands remains active. 15-second cooldown. 6-second duration.

If this is an instant cast ability, Ret might utilize this to provide more solo survivability or extra party or raid healing. That's probably not the intent behind it, but it reads like an extra panic button.

Guardian of Ancient Kings (level 85): Summons a temporary guardian that looks like a winged creature of light armed with a sword. The visual is similar to that of the Resurrection spell used by the paladin in Warcraft III. The guardian has a different effect depending on the talent spec of the paladin. For Holy paladins, the guardian heals the most wounded ally in the area. For Protection paladins, the guardian absorbs some incoming damage. For Retribution paladins, it damages an enemy, similar to the death knight Gargoyle or the Nibelung staff. 3-minute cooldown. 30-second duration (this might vary depending on which guardian appears).

This is a neat ability, if a little ill-defined. Ideally I hope for a talent in Ret that makes the guardian permanent; having a vengeful guardian angel at your side would be tops, but since it's billed as a Gargoyle-like cooldown I won't hold my breath.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
• Crusader Strike will be a core ability for all paladins, gained at level 1. We think the paladin leveling experience is hurt by not having an instant attack. Retribution will be getting a new talent in its place that either modifies Crusader Strike or replaces it completely.

Finally. Low-level paladins have an extra button to press until their spec of choice kicks in; Ret now kicks in at level 1. The new talent in its place is icing on the cake.

• Cleanse is being rebalanced to work with the new dispel system. It will dispel defensive magic (debuffs on friendly targets), diseases, and poisons.

Ret nerf, as outlined in the Dispel preview posted a few weeks back (defensive magic debuff is Holy only). Sucks for solo and PvP, but not too big a deal in PvE group content.

• Blessing of Might will provide the benefit of Wisdom as well. If you have two paladins in your group, one will do Kings on everyone and the other will do Might on everyone. There should be much less need, and ideally no need, to provide specific buffs to specific classes.

Love it. Buffing Wisdom as Ret is annoying; Holy does it better, Shaman's Manaspring Totem overwrites it (leading to people complaining that I'm not buffing it at all), and it gets confusing when buffing hybrid groups. Hoping Greater Blessing spells are changed to buff all raid members in range and not on a class-by-class basis.

• Holy Shock will be a core healing spell available to all paladins.

Did not expect this. In addition to another heal, this might give Ret another button to push as part of our rotation, depending on damage and mana efficiency issues. Could the Shockadin return under the banner of Retribution?

New Talents and Talent Changes
• We want to ease off the defensive capabilities of Retribution and Holy paladins slightly. We think the powerful paladin defenses have been one of the things holding Retribution paladins back, especially in Arenas. One change we’re considering is lowering Divine Shield’s duration by a couple of seconds. Having said that, Retribution does pretty well in Battlegrounds, and Battlegrounds will be a much bigger focus in Cataclysm since they can provide the best PvP rewards. Furthermore, the healing environment of Cataclysm is going to be different such that a paladin may not be able to fully heal themselves during the duration of Divine Shield to begin with, so this may not be a problem.

Now we get into speculation territory. In Vanilla and most of BC, the common bargaining posture for Ret buffs was giving up some or all of our shields. It seems Blizzard got the memo on that one. Still, they admit this might be a non-change, depending on Paladins' performance in Battlegrounds.

• We feel Retribution paladins need one more mechanic which involves some risk of the player pushing the wrong button, making the rotation a bit less forgiving. In addition, we want to add to this spec more PvP utility. Right now the successes of the Retribution paladin in PvP seem to be reduced to either doing decent burst damage, or just being good at staying alive.

Giving Ret a deeper DPS mechanic and PvP utility are talking points that have been repeated since release, and are repeated here as something to look forward to with no indication what these changes may be. It's disappointing they had to be repeated in this preview.

• We want to increase the duration of Sacred Shield to 30 minutes and keep the limit to one target. The intention is that the paladin can use it on their main healing target. That said, we would like to improve the Holy paladin toolbox and niche so that they don’t feel quite like the obvious choice for tank healing while perceived as a weak group healer.

The 30 minute Sacred Shield duration buff will probably be confined to the Holy tree, otherwise Ret will have no reason not to buff themselves with SS.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Retribution
• Melee Damage
• Melee Critical Damage
• Holy Damage

Holy Damage: Any attack that does Holy damage will have its damage increased.

Concise, to the point, and a little boring. I was hoping for a new and interesting Mastery mechanic similar to that of Shadow Priests' and Balance Druids', but no such luck.

Ret burst at the beginning of WotLK was insane and Blizzard has since tried to nerf our burst while increasing our sustained DPS. The Paladin community rebelled, as they saw Ret as finally being viable after spending almost four years as a joke. I felt that our burst was way too crazy - it was incredibly easy to kill yourself from Seal of Blood's backlash damage just DPSing normally - but my solution was probably a little too simple. Virtually every talent in our tree added crit strike or critical damage to our abilities; Judgement alone had something like a 50% increased critical strike chance. Why couldn't some of the crit be throttled down or eliminated?

Currently Ret is in a good position in PvE, but a variable PvP position; it performs well in Battlegrounds and lower-ranking Arena matches, but underperforms at high end PvP. The Paladin community has been asking for years now for an interrupt and/or a gap closer, and have been summarily ignored mostly due to our variable perception of being too strong or too hard to kill. Ret's domination of 3.0 until Arena Season 4 reinforced the perception that Paladin was overtuned. Resilience didn’t exactly fix it, as had been promised, but the constant tuning down led to our current situation where Ret is fairly ineffective against most healers and targets with more than a few hundred Resilience.

In a vacuum, this preview is lackluster due to its lack of detail on important Paladin issues. However, I believe that work on Paladin can begin in earnest once it's taken out of this vacuum and placed in actual play with the myriad of other changes coming with Cataclysm.

RO PHB, Part 10: Proficiencies 2

Ten parts? Seriously? And I'm not done?

The System - Or Is It?

- The PHB proposes three different systems for character skills. That's right, there are optional rules for an optional rule. This shit gets recursive real quick.

- 'Using what you know' suggests using player knowledge and/or ability whenever the question of character knowledge and/or ability comes into play. Taken to the logical extreme, this is the foundation of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as well as Army of Darkness.

- 'Secondary skills' are broad groups of knowledge that you can choose or roll randomly (there's a lot of that). Beyond that, there's no detail as to how they work beyond DM fiat. I appreciate the effort, but if you don’t know how something's going to work, don't go to press with it. Save it for Unearthed Arcana.

- The last method is the proficiency system; you know, what the chapter is named after.

- NWPs are divided into groups based on class groups (class group groups, if you may). You can choose any NWP you like, but if it's not in the proficiency group based on your class, you have to spend an extra slot to learn it. Some of these group associations make sense: fighters pick from the warrior group, clerics from the priest group, etc. Some do not. Why do rangers have access to the wizard group? Meanwhile, why do druids get access to the warrior group? Why don't fighters, rangers, and mages get access to the rogue group? There's some crossover between groups (ancient history is in the wizard, rogue, and priest groups), but some of it doesn't make sense as to what classes have access to (jumping is a rogue group skill).

- Bards have the most availability/least restriction when it comes to proficiencies. However, they don't get any extra proficiencies, so they're tied down with thief as having the least number of slots.

- The entire proficiency system is very soft. If the three methods of proficiency weren't enough of an indication, the check mechanics for the most detailed option should be enough evidence. If the task is simple or has "limited game use" (nice definition, though it looks like crafting skills fall into this category), there's no check required. If it's difficult or subject to failure (read: whenever you use any proficiency because the DM always wants to know when/if you fail), you roll a d20 modified by the proficiency in question (with a handy-dandy table of arbitrary modifiers); if it's less than the relative ability score, you succeed. This leads to the best line in the book so far: "A roll of 20 always fails." At least it's consistent in that bonuses are good and penalties are bad.

- Okay, here's the kicker: the proficiency check modifiers don't modify the die roll, they modify the ability score. Somehow that's even more confusing. So if you're making a Navigation check, and your Intelligence is 13, it's actually an 11 for the purposes of making the skill roll. This accomplishes the same result, but leads to a counterintuitive and unfortunate implication: you are DUMBER when you use the Navigation skill.

- You can improve your NWPs by devoting more proficiency slots to them. Each additional slot gives a +1 bonus. Woohoo. Still, the option is there.

- There's no mention of untrained skill checks. Do characters automatically fail if they don't have the proficiency? Can they still try with a -2 to the target number?

- Some proficiencies require more slots than others. I don't know why and a reason isn't given, but I assume it's because certain skills are harder to learn than others. From the fact that many NWPs share the same cost, this implies a number of things: 1) Learning a new language is as easy as learning how to make shoes, tie ropes, sew, or how to swim; 2) Mining is twice as hard to learn as singing, pottery, or fire-building; 3) Not only is riding a winged horse twice as hard as riding a regular horse, but knowing how to ride one doesn't confer any familiarity with the other (though that's a problem with proficiency division).

RO PHB, Part 9: Proficiencies 1

A tale of nerd rage in (hopefully only) five parts.

Proficiencies (Optional) - Overview and Weapon Specialization

- We're off to a good start.

- The PHB defines a proficiency as "a learned skill that isn't essential to the character's class". It then proceeds to use a ranger as an example, which is the one class that's defined by its ability to track, which is a nonweapon proficiency (NWP).

- "Weapon proficiencies are tournament-level rules." What is this I don't even

- Despite its previous assertion, the number of proficiencies your character knows is entirely dependent on his/her class and level. I'm tired of this double-talk game.

- Something I apparently missed from all the way back to my first update: Intelligence modifies the number of proficiency slots you get at 1st level. It's the "Number of Languages" column; instead of automatically learning extra languages, you instead get extra slots which you can use to purchase those languages.

- The classes have a fairly even NWP slot distribution. Warriors and rogues have the same number of starting NWPs (despite warriors having double the weapon proficiencies), and only have one less than wizards and rogues. Players of later editions may find it funny that rogues have the least initial (at 3) and worst progression of (1 every 4 levels) proficiency slots; this may be due to the fact that rogues already have access to a class-specific, proficiency-like system.

- When fighting with weapons they are not proficient with, warriors get a -2 penalty to attack rolls, rogues and priests -3, and wizards -5. I do not know what happens when a fighter/mage picks up a shillelagh.

- If you want to include instruction and training time into your game, good luck. The book touches on the subject, but doesn't give any guidelines.

- You have to fill out your proficiencies IMMEDIATELY, DO IT OR THEY'RE LOST. They don't have to be so dramatic about it.

- Table 35 is titled "Specialist Attacks Per Round". I assume, based on previous experience, this is the number of attacks a fighter gets per round when using a weapon he's specialized in, as it is an increased rate from what was discussed in the fighter class description. However, the text doesn't call out the table so who knows. Having worked on government documentation, this is a glaring error that I'm sure no one else cares about.

- If you use a weapon that you're not proficient in, but is kinda-sorta like a weapon you are proficient in, you halve your nonproficiency penalty. That's pretty cool. I think this idea later evolves into weapon groups detailed in Player's Option: Skills and Powers.

- Multi-class fighters can't use weapon specialization. That's bullshit.

- A fighter gets a +1 to hit and +2 to damage when he specializes in a melee weapon only omg. Somehow this horribly breaks the system if this bonus applies to bows; however, bows and crossbows get a +2 to hit when used at point blank range (within 30/60 feet, respectively). Also, as a nice hidden rule I never even heard of until now, bow and crossbow specialists can fire a shot at the beginning of an encounter, before initiative is even rolled, if they have an arrow/bolt ready and can see their target. That's pretty badass.

- Now they call out the table, two pages later. I wonder if it's just my PDF copy? I'll have to check my hard copy once I remember where it is.

RO PHB, Part 8: Alignment Part 2

Update schedule only partially hosed. Finishing up alignment tonight, regular schedule to continue tomorrow at some point.

Alignment, Part II

- Sometime around the release of 3e, Wizards of the Coast released an online questionnaire that, supposedly, determined what your "real-life" alignment was (though I imagine you could answer in the "voice" of your character to get the desired result). One of my friends rated as neutral, mostly because he was being deliberately obtuse, demanding more information from each question. However, not one, but two others scored as chaotic evil; one of them happened to be my at-the-time DM.

- In case anyone wondered or cared, I placed as lawful neutral. To illustrate the disparity between the two editions, I don't agree with the 2e write-up for "my" alignment.

- "'My character is going to act like a person who believes this.'" Great advice in such a simple sentence. I also like this gem that people forget when edition change comes around: "[W]hat's the point of playing a game if the players don't have fun?"

- Unfortunately, you can't have fun if you play evil alignments. "A group of players who play a harmonious party of evil characters simply are not playing their alignments correctly." Probably true, but this doesn't preclude them from working together as a team (like most adventuring parties), nor does it automatically disqualify them from having a fun time at the table regardless of party dynamics. Playing evil alignments is discouraged, but it feels like a token attempt to pacify potential objectors to the game; it may help to consider the politics surrounding the game at the time.

- There's a play example in here concerning the actions of a nine member party, each representing a different alignment. They go to a ruined castle to rescue a kidnapped peasant, eventually throwing down with the kidnapper and his gorgon pet; two of them die in the fight, and conflict arises when the remainder discuss how the treasure is to be divided. I'm kind of sad that it ends before they start stabbing each other.

- Going back to my comments about alignment and intelligence, there's a real lack of it here. The chaotic neutral character could easily be a rabid boar or an animated rag; he just does whatever strikes him at the time, not because it sounds like a good idea or because it's what he wants to do, but because that's what his alignment dictates he should do. Give the CN character any capacity for rational thought, and he becomes the true neutral character, who sounds like he's just waiting for an excuse to drop the hammer on the dungeon or the party, depending on /who's winning/.

- With the exception of the neutral evil character, all of the neutral characters seem like they are (or are being played by) utter morons. I think this might be due to a lack of understanding about how neutrality operates on the ethical and moral axes. 3e's approach was to consider them as "pure" alignments: neutral good was "pure good", chaotic neutral was "pure chaos", etc., and that seemed to work pretty well. No, true neutral was not "pure pure".

- You can almost hear the nerd lisp coming out of the lawful neutral character's mouth.

- Finally, the chapter ends by reneging on its "alignment is not a straightjacket" stance. If the DM thinks you're not playing the alignment you have written on your character sheet, you'll be penalized for it through the docking of experience points (which, depending on your class, may be the least of your concerns). Change and growth of character, it seems, cost experience points rather than award them.

RO PHB, Part 7: Alignment Part 1

Does anyone even read these? I think even I am getting on my nerves...

Alignment

- Alignment, the backbone of character action, personality, identity, and decision-making, is Chapter 4. Take that as you will.

- "Always consider alignment as a tool, not a straitjacket that restricts the character. Although alignment defines general attitudes, it certainly doesn't prevent a character from changing his beliefs, acting irrationally, or behaving out of character.” We'll come back to this.

- The author asks you to picture law, neutrality, and chaos (and later, good, neutrality, and evil) as "points of a triangle, all pulling away from each other". This sounds similar to the cosmic assumptions of Dragonlance, where neutrality is an active force that balances two extremes. That said, neutrality probably should have been removed from the initial discussion and reserved for after the definitions of good, evil, law, and chaos.

- It's a noble effort to define all of human (and non-human) behavior into a 3x3 grid, but its oversimplification by necessity has caused alignment to be one of the most discussed and debated aspects of D&D, for good or ill. (As to why it doesn't work, see top of page). That said, the concept of alignment when paired with the "guideline" principle works as a good shorthand to loosely define how a given character can or will act. For player characters and BBEGs, full-fledged personality descriptions are never a bad idea, but there's nothing wrong with condensing it into two letters in a statblock.

- The alignment descriptions waffle between personal behavior and behavior of a society as a whole. Then again, due to the complexity of the subject matter, various interpretations are expected. I just like the 3e descriptions better.

- Lawful good characters "strive for those things that will bring the greatest benefit to the most people and cause the least harm". Now that's how you justify a villain!

- Seem like many, if not all, of the alignment descriptions rely on an "attribute vacuum" of sorts, as they don't take into account the potential intelligence of those who might belong to them. It's hard not to think of lawful neutral characters as complete morons, for example; believing in government with absolute control, without question, regardless of its intentions, is not something we normally attribute to smart people.

- Lawful evil is probably my favorite alignment, because you can act like a jerk but you can work well with others. There's a lot of potential to add subtle nuances to your character. DMs are still hesitant to let you, though, because of the E after the L on your character sheet.

- Neutral good, on the other hand, is probably my least favorite. It's very bland and ill-defined. However, you could probably make the case that Bill and Ted are both neutral good. That would be awesome; going around as a pair of NG bards, random air guitaring, spouting things like "Be excellent to each other!" and "Party on, dudes!"

- Because of the "active neutral" approach, true neutral gets a very nonsensical description. They're "compelled to side with the underdog", to the point that they switch allegiances at the drop of a hat to make sure neither side gets ahead. I keep getting the picture in my head of a druid setting off some trap to capture an adventuring party, then immediately letting them go because the group he works for suddenly has the upper hand. If you take what the book says as gospel, true neutral characters sound like the most dangerous things you can have in a party.

- Chaotic good could easily be the anti-hero alignment.

- Chaotic neutral, on the other hand, is the alignment jerks pick when the DM won't let them play anything evil. You can behead orphans all day and justify it with "I'm chaotic neutral lol!" To further cement this: Heath Ledger's Joker is chaotic neutral.

- The description for chaotic evil doesn't paint them as credible villains or threats. Basically, they won't cooperate unless forced, and then only until an opportunity presents itself to take power. While a fundamental part of Saturday morning cartoon villainy and technically true of the alignment et al, a group of chaotic evil characters/creatures can't, by definition, get anything done without backstabbing each other whenever possible. To go beyond basic fodder levels of competency and get anything diabolical done would require a neutral evil big bad at best.

RO PHB, Part 6: Classes, Part 4 (Multi-/Dual-Class Characters)

I swear this is the last class update for the time being until I change my mind or something else comes up in the book maybe.

Multi-Class and Dual-Class Characters

- One would think that a dual-class character would be a multi-class character with only two classes. One would be wrong.

- The multi-class combinations table doesn't match the racial descriptions in Chapter 2. The multi-classing list for elves is confusing due to poor editing work, but lists that they can be multi-class ranger/whatevers and/or fighter/mage/thieves; the table doesn't list either combination. Half-elves are the multi-classers du jour, but the table says they're restricted to just cleric/ranger and not the druid/ranger in their description, nevermind its redundancy.

- Halflings have the fewest multi-classing options (next to humans, for obvious reasons). And, really, I should say "option": fighter/thief.

- Gnomes and half-elves can be cleric/thieves; dwarves, elves, and halflings inexplicably cannot.

- Gnomes are the only race that can multi-class as a specialist wizard, but only one type thereof. Half-elves are the only race that can combine the destructive power of the mage with the cleaning healing power of orange the cleric.

- The 2e multi-classing rules are largely the same as the eventual gestalt rules in 3e Unearthed Arcana. That may explain why multi-classing was such a good option. The only real balancing factor for multi-classing is the restrictions placed on individual classes, namely the armor restrictions for wizards and rogues.

- Dual-classing is unique, much like a spoon with an extra head jutting out at an odd angle. It's about as useful, too. I've confused the rules for dual-classing in my mind over the years, but reading them again does nothing to improve its utility. Basically, a human (and only a human) levels up in a class as much as he wants. At any time past 2nd level, he can jump ship and start leveling another class, keeping his statistics from his previous class. He can never again level his previous class, and if he uses any of its abilities, he gains no experience for that encounter and half experience for the adventure. In case you don't think that's so bad, this includes his old THAC0 and saving throws. That restriction disappears once he out-levels his previous class, and at that time he suddenly gains all of the hit points from his current class all at once (which would explain the use of the footnotes in the CON table; see Part One).

- A human that wants to dual-class has to have a 15 in all of the prime requisites of his first class, and a 17 in all the prime requisites of his second class. In essence, you could have a human who is already really good at once class, but is better at the class he switches to. Certain class combinations also have soft restrictions due to this prerequisite; a paladin/ranger would have to have STR, DEX, WIS, and CHA over 17, as well as a CON of 14 (which I believe is a 0.02% chance on 3d6).