hybris

Super-terrorists who have a rather good mentalist (i.e., Mentalla) among their number, though.

I'm rather fond of: Dr. Destroyer Firewing VIPER Foxbat

Which one - "most gamers are male?"

Looks like they will, but you'll need a little patience:

Reminds me... D&D 3.5 even does this to some extent. That is, many damage-dealing Conjuration spells don't allow spell resistance any more.

Re: Champions Battlegrounds is great... But... Hm. At least in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, they didn't.

Hey, that's cool enough for me. Thanks much!

What will the Grimoire's approximate page count be?

Judging from what I've heard, I'd estimate late next week or thereabouts.

D&D 3.0/3.5 It now does: It takes time to put on armor. Armor makes you slower. (There are now three "classes" of armor: Light, Medium, and Heavy. Medium armor reduces your Speed and Heavy armor also makes it impossible to run.) Hm. By the way, I'm pretty sure that heavy armor reduced your speed even in some earlier editions of the game... The heavier and bulkier the armor, the less you can depend on your reflexes for protection. (Every armor has a Maximum Dex statistic. This is the maximum bonus Dex can give you to AC when wearing that kind of armor - no matter how much your actual Dex score would give you when unarmored.) Armor encumbers you in other ways. (E.g., penalties on certain skills. Heavier armor types generally give you higher penalties.) Arcane spells (e.g., spells cast by a wizard) have a certain failure % chance depending on armor type. An unarmored combatant avoids these problems; a lightly-armored one, most of them. Well-made ("masterwork") armor has a slightly lower penalty to skills. And armor made of special materials (e.g., "mithral") often has even less disadvantages. Anyway, some examples: Chain shirt: AC Bonus +4; Maximum Dex Bonus +4; Armor Check Penalty -2; Arcane Spell Failure 20%; Speed 30' (assuming you're a human, elf, orc, etc.) Chain mail: AC Bonus +5; Maximum Dex Bonus +2; Armor Check Penalty -5; Arcane Spell Failure 30%; Speed 20' Full plate: AC Bonus +8; Maximum Dex Bonus +1; Armor Check Penalty -6; Arcane Spell Failure 35%; Speed 20' (and can't run) So a character with an 18 Dex (+4 bonus to AC) might prefer the chain shirt; a character with a 13 Dex (+1 bonus) might want a heavier armor. Might. There's more to D&D 3.0/3.5's AC system, of course - this is only a summary of the most important stuff. Now, one more consideration of note for the "light fighters vs. tanks" debate: Armor doesn't help against "touch attacks" (i.e., attacks that only need to, well, touch you to be effective) and your Dex bonus doesn't help in certain circumstances (e.g., when you're surprised). So... Yes, there are now some distinct downsides to being a tank in D&D. Still, heavy armor is hard to beat when it comes down to sheer protection value - the only question is if you're willing to pay the price.

If I was a warlord in a setting where heavy armor was both very effective and rather cheap, I'd equip as many of my warriors with it as I could afford. But I'd also look for ways to defeat heavy armor - especially if my usual tactics made the use of heavy armor impractical. (Maybe I'm a Mongol-style ruler who doesn't have the resources or technological know-how to get sufficient numbers of heavy armor, and who also wouldn't really want to since his entire army consists of light horse archers.) That is, if something is both powerful and plentiful, everybody will try to use it. But there will also be an arms race to develop something to defeat it - whether to gain an edge over the competition or because of bare necessity (i.e., if you can't use this cool thing yourself). And people will try to develop not only gear, but also fighting techniques that are effective against it. So... If heavy armor is so plentiful in your world, maybe armor piercing weapons should be common, too. And many experienced combatants might know Find Weakness. (Note the added benefit that neither of these tactics will significantly harm swashbuckler characters. Much the opposite, even. If they have access to such things, the gap between them and the "tanks" will shrink.)

The Vampire: The Masquerade conversion on Michael Surbrook's site handles this rather well, IMO.

Hehe. Doesn't Viper also have a very powerful Growth-based brick - Ripper? - among their ranks? If so, he might be a perfect match in a fight for your character.

You mean, with the leap of the clouds power? If so: Wizards can do the same at 1st level, assuming they have access to the jump spell.

This might be helpful, or at least amusing: The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés