Page 280 of the PHB lists 15 different ways to gain combat advantage — and there are more. But there is no advantage to stacking these unfavorable conditions which makes the game a bit easier, but really doesn’t make any sense:
Senario 1: You are attacking a troll. The troll is unaware of you so you have Combat advantage — +2 to your attack roll.
Senario 2: You are going to attack a troll. Two of your companions have flanked the troll, and the troll is dazed from an attack by your warlock companion. You have remained hidden so the troll is unaware of you. You have combat advantage 2 ways (dazed, unaware), or 3 ways in my reckoning (flanked, dazed, unaware), but your bonus to your attack roll is still +2.
When fighting stronger opponents it is very helpful to be able to stack as many tactical advantages as possible to increase your chances of hitting and doing damage — in other words wolf pack tactics. But it doesn’t make sense to stack some of the conditions (like Surprised and Stunned). My rule:
Combat Advantage (Mental): The defender’s mental condition has been compromised such that it is less able to defend itself. The attacker gains a +2 Mental Combat Advantage bonus to attack if the defender is Dazed, Helpless, Stunned, Surprised, or Unconscious.
Combat Advantage (Physical): The defender’s physical situation limits its ability to defend itself. The attacker gains a +2 Physical Combat Advantage bonus to attack if the defender is Balancing, Climbing, Prone (melee only), Restrained, Running, Squeezing.
Combat Advantage (Tactical): The attacker (or his allies) has the defender in a advantageous tactical situation. The attacker gains a +2 Tactical Combat Advantage to attack if the defender is Flanked, Unable to see the attacker, or Unaware of the attacker.
Stacking: Combat Advantage bonuses do not stack within type, but an attacker can stack Combat Advantages of multiple types. For example, an attacker would have a +6 bonus against an unconscious opponent with a melee attack (Mental: Unconscious, Helpless; Physical: Prone; Tactical: Unaware of, Unable to see attacker).
This is more complicated but strongly rewards parties (and nasty DMs) when they think creatively to place and opponent in the worst possible situation.
From page 278 of the PHB:
Natural 20: If you roll a 20 on the die when making an attack roll, you score a critical hit if your total attack roll is high enough to hit your target’s defense. If your attack roll is too low to score a critical hit, you still hit automatically.
From a realism perspective, this rule is fine — even though the 1st level Fighter rolled a natural 20 to hit the Ancient Dragon (and thus scored a miraculous hit) she shouldn’t do critical damage because it was a fluke that she could even hit the dragon. But from a game perspective this is just an additional rule complication that shouldn’t be necessary. Just about any opponent you face should be able to be hit by a 20 + your attack bonuses (and the reverse). If not the encounter is not balanced properly. Why not just simplify matters and have a 20 always be critical?
Natural 20: If you roll a 20 on the die when making an attack roll, you score a critical hit.
The 4E rules on flanking are very similar to the 3.x rules that I didn’t like. The rules are quite clear (PHB 285): “Combat Advantage: You have combat advantage … against an enemy you flank.” [emphasis mine]. I hate this because it doesn’t make any sense that if a monster is flanked by two PCs that a third PC attacking the monster should not also have Combat Advantage over the monster. If you are distracted by two foes on opposite sides of you adding a third vector of attack should be harder not easier to defend against.
My rule change would be to add a new condition to the list of conditions on page 277 of the PHB:
Flanked
* You grant combat advantage
You would gain the Flanked condition under the same rules on page 285 of the PHB, but once flanked anyone attacking you would have combat advantage.
This rule change will help encourage parties (and nasty DMs) to use the tactical roles better. If two melee beaters maneuver to flank (perhaps with assistance from a leader), not only will they have an easier time hitting, but the fragile ranged specialists (e.g., bow wielding ranger, warlock, or wizard) will be able to take advantage of the opponents compromised position.
If I lost my job at the UW, maybe I’ll look into researching the untapped power of breast motion:
Then one day recently I had an idea. As I rode public transportation to the office, my messenger bag slung uncomfortably across my chest, I thought, “Why not put the girls to work?” Human-powered devices are showing up everywhere, from Rotterdam’s sustainable dance floor to human-powered gyms in Hong Kong. The time seemed perfect—perhaps even overdue!—for a bra that could harness the untapped power of breast motion…
I decided to run the question past some scientists. It turns out that the physics of breast motion have been studied closely for the last two decades by a gamut of researchers, most of them women. LaJean Lawson, a former professor of exercise science at Oregon State University, has studied breast motion since 1985 and now works as a consultant for companies like Nike to develop better sports bra designs. Lawson was enthusiastic about my idea but warned it would be tricky to pull off. You would need the right breast size and the right material, she explained, and the bra itself would have to be cleverly designed. “It’s just a matter of finding the sweet spot, between reducing motion to the point where it’s comfortable but still allowing enough motion to power your iPod,” she said.
I’m sure I’d be very dedicated to the research…
Dinged by a V-string:
Macrida Patterson, 52, alleges that she was hurt last May by a defective “low-rise v-string” from the Victoria’s Secret “Sexy Little Thing” line, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court. A copy of her June 9 complaint, which does not specify monetary damages, can be found below. Patterson’s lawyer, Jason Buccat, told TSG that a “design problem” caused the decorative piece to come loose and strike Patterson in the eye, causing damage to her cornea.
What was she doing to the panties to cause the “decorative piece” to shoot off of the panties and into her eye?
Today as a part of Dragon Magazine issue 364, Wizards released some new illusion based powers for the Wizard. It is nice to see some additional powers with specific flavor for the Wizard who is a bit fragmented in the Player’s Handbook — and since these powers attack an opponent’s Will defense they can be a critical part of a successful party since many tough creatures have deficient Will defenses. Additionally, while these powers don’t deal as much damage as others, they have some very useful additional effects — imposing attack penalties, slowing, knocking prone, immobilizing, and granting combat advantage. Having a party member that can degrade the capabilities of enemies at range thus allowing the melee beaters to do their job more easily will greatly improve your chances of accomplishing multiple milestones per “day”. I’ll probably draw up a wizard that uses some of these powers soon.
I’ve started posting on Twitter as an experiment. Wonder if I’ll keep it up? The TwitterFox extension does make it very easy to post and receive other’s tweets.
I only have two followers — I have no idea who either of them are and since they are following tens of thousands of others I don’t really care.
If there was ever an entirely irrational and hypocritical organization, PETA would be it. More PETA insanity:
PETA recently celebrated World Vegetarian Week in Memphis by shrink-wrapping its interns like a couple of flank steaks, despite 80+ degree weather.
When officers inquired about the well-being of intern Shawn Herbold (bottom) and volunteer Thomas Olsen, a sweat-soaked Herbold replied that she was in pain and feeling nauseated from the heat after being wrapped in cellophane for 30 minutes, and also asked how much longer she needed to stay there. Byrne let her know it wouldn’t be much longer and left her under the hot afternoon sun for 30 minutes more while debating with the officers.
Gotta hate the pet murdering PETA.
Today on my feed of application releases from Freshmeat, was an application that might be of interest to any story writers — StorYBook:
StorYBook is a free, open source story writing software for creative writers, novelists and authors that helps to keep the overview over the strands when writing a book, a novel or a story. StorYBook assists you in structuring your book.
Have all your data in one place. With StorYBook you can manage summaries, characters and locations and assign them to the related chapters.
It seems like it might be very useful organizing a multi-threaded story, but it is disappointing that there isn’t built in capacity to actually write your chapters. I was able to get it running under OS-X even without an installer so I can help any Mac users (Adam) that want to give it a try.