I always have this problem multiclassing rogues, especially when it comes to Disable Device.

Multiclassing is fraught with novice traps in 3rd ed. Still major fun, though. (Not to mention chasing prestige classes.)

Hah. Nice. Touch spell sneaks are the only thing that makes that combo worth it.

We actually had a gnome rogue/illusionist/arcane trickster in the aforementioned campaign. His most-memorable moment wasn't nearly as dramatic as yours. During one battle the rest of the party was down or dead and he ended up playing hide-and-seek with a barbarian until the latter's rage ran out, at which point he sprung out of the shadows to finish him off with a sneak attack.

But yeah, unlike 1st and 2nd Ed, multi-classing a caster was a really poor choice in 3.x, though some of the prestige classes lessened the blow somewhat.

Multi-classing martial classes, though, could create some beastly characters.

You also had the skill point wonkiness, where if you wanted to be a remotely effective rogue/anything, you had to take your first level in rogue. (I had to do that with Kelric, even though backstory-wise, he should have started as a fighter.)

For my Pathfinder game I've adopted the fractional BAB rules from the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana and made custom rules for handling Save progressions to smooth out some of the wonkiness with those, while the default Pathfinder rules fixed the skill problem. (They don't give 4x skill points at 1st level. Instead you gain a +3 bonus on any class skills you put points in. Beyond that, a skill point is a skill point. So a rogue is going to better than a fighter at being sneaky, but the fighter can still spend points on Stealth if he wants and not feel like he's throwing them away. Plus you can always spend a feat on Skill Focus and effectively get the class skill bonus that way.)

I like how they're doing it in this latest round of Aquisitions Inc games. I think they're playing D&D Next. If you are trained in a skill you get to roll an extra die.

I have mixed feelings about what I've heard about D&D Next so far. I'll probably pick up at least the PHB with it comes out, but I'm happy with Pathfinder at the moment.

ION, I was just thinking about how running published adventures are less of a collaborative effort than running a homebrew game. In the latter I can easily steal ideas from my players when they're better than what I come up with. Whereas the published stuff is more set in stone (though I obviously can still pull the DM card and make changes where I see fit.)

Mild spoilers for "Rise of the Runelords":

My players are convinced the sheriff is behind the goblin attack on the town, which he very much isn't. And one of them has this whole conspiracy theory tying the sheriff to the spree of a serial killer five years ago that resulted in the death of the previous sheriff and the burning down of the old church shortly thereafter.

In a homebrew game, if I thought those theories made for a better story than what I originally came up with, I wouldn't have a second thought about running with them, but doing so with a published adventure would throw all kinds of things out of whack later down the line.

Of course, in this case it's a moot point, as I'm content to let them hare around after a red herring for now.

This may be of interest to some people here. I have now received a copy of the Battlestar Galactica Daybreak expansion. It includes the following:

• Awesomeness.

Seriously, I think there are some very nice elements in this expansion. There's only one optional module, and that part leaves me sceptical, but the rest of it looks pretty sweet. They include:

• New characters, twelve of them. There are four totally new characters, which we introduced in the last game (Romo Lampkin, Cottle, Hoshi and Hot Dog). There are also four revamped characters. You can play Apollo the politician, Baltar the cult leader, Helo the pilot or Zarek the mutineer. There are also four new Cylon leaders: Aaron Doral, D'Anna Biers, Simon O'Neill and Sharon "Athena" Agathon. (You can have both Athena and Boomer in the same game.)

• New skill cards. Each deck gets five new cards in three different flavours.

• The Treachery deck gets a full rebuild. The old cards are out, the new cards are in. All the new ones have skill check effects. The point value now varies from 0 to 5. Making checks Reckless is still risky, but function differently (there's a risk that Treachery will get added from the deck).

• New crisis cards, including six new Cylon attack cards.

• A new overlay for Colonial One, which now has four locations.

• New ships! The game comes with four assault raptors. Despite the name, they function like vipers, with a number of bells and/or whistles.

• First new mechanism: players' OPGs are now governed by miracle tokens. Cult leader Baltar's stock in trade is miracle tokens.

• Second new mechanism: Cylon leaders no longer get an agenda. Instead they get a total of four motive cards with different (simpler) conditions and a favoured team. In order to win, the leader must fulfil three of the motives, two of which are earmarked for the winning team. (I think this is a big improvement on the agendas, which varied widely in their degree of difficulty and value as a balancing mechanism.)

• Third new mechanism: Mutiny. This is a big one. There are now mutiny cards, that players can receive in various ways. They can be played as an action, and tend to cut both ways (for instance, one card lets the mutineer launch a nuke, but at the cost of all remaining nukes. However, if a player pulls two mutiny cards at the same time, they get brigged. This also replaces the Sympathiser as a balancing item. Instead, if the game has an even number of (non-Cylon leader) players, at Sleeper phase, one player becomes the Mutineer (hilarity ensues).

The optional part, The Search for Home, I'll save for another time.

The point value now varies from 0 to 5.

Oh maaaaan, that REALLY changes Treachery.

All of that does sound pretty interesting!

Yes, very interesting!

That does sound interesting!

One might think people's interest was piqued. One might even think that people would like to see Daybreaky elements in the next game of BSG.

It will take me a little while to add the Daybreak materials to my game files, but once that's done, who's in for the next game? I propose to include all the following:

• All the standard elements from the base game and the Pegasus, Exodus and Daybreak expansions. This means that you will now have 33 characters to choose from, including Cylon leaders.

• Conflicted Loyalties from the Exodus expansion.

• There'll be a couple of new mechanisms (mutiny and miracles, most notably) to work out, so I will exclude New Caprica, the Cylon Fleet and the Ionian Nebula.

• If the number of players would call for a Sympathiser, we'll use the Mutineer instead.

• We will use the Daybreak Treachery rather than the Pegasus Treachery.

• I strongly recommend that someone play a Cylon leader, because Motives. (We will use Motives.)

This is all up for discussion, of course. So! Anyone with an interest in the next outing, let me know:

1. That you're interested.

2. Anything I should know about your availability.

3. Whether the proposed game elements work for you, or if you'd like to make some changes.

4. Your vote in the vexing question of what we should call New Baltar. Your options are:

a. New Baltar.
b. Baltarnate.
c. Cultar.

In-thread or email. Who's in the crew?

BALTERNATE!