Wizards Have No Social Skills

I have been thinking for a while about the Wizard class in Dungeons and Dragons. There had been something about the class that just didn’t feel right to me. I figured it might be their skill options. I went and put together a table cross-referencing class skills with the various classes and then I realized – Wizards are the only class without any Charisma based skills.

There are eight Charisma based skills in the Systems Resource Document: Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Perform and Use Magic Device. Every class except wizard has at least one Charisma based skill:

Class        # Of Charisma Skills
Barbarian           2
Bard                6
Cleric              1
Druid               2
Fighter             2
Monk                2
Paladin             2
Ranger              1
Rogue               7
Sorcerer            1
Wizard              0

This just seems wrong to me…in much of fantasy literature wizards are wise counseleors and diplomats as much as they are spellcasters. If there is a heavy emphasis on role-playing in a campaign, I think the fact that Wizards lack Charisma-based skills is a serious handicap.

In my campaign, at least, I am adding Diplomacy to the Wizard class skill list.

If you are interested, I have placed the skill breadown on the D&D section of my website, in OpenOffice.org spreadsheet format and and in PDF format.

Updated Campaign Log

I have updated the campaign log for last Saturday’s game session.

Updated Campaign Log and Some Thoughts On D&D

I have updated the Cormarian campaign log with the results of the fourth game session.

I have come to a couple of conclusions about DMing D&D 3.5:

1. When using a scale of 10′ per square for my map and 5′ per square on my battlemat, my battlemat is too small for running battles. This leads me to two conclusions – running battles suck and I need a to get much larger battlemat.
2. Whenever the party turns undead in an area in which they can run away, the party will inevitably give chase, turning the encounter into a running battle. Turn Undead sucks ;-).
3. It is much more difficult stocking dungeons in 3.5, as opposed to version 2. Monster stat blocks are longer and more complex. They also aren’t included in the System Resource Document, which means I need to create my own.

Posted Campaign Log

My D&D group met again last night. I have posted the campaign log for the events of the night.

I have also loaded a map of the main level of Ardivan’s Keep.

D&D Campaign Restarted

My Dungeons and Dragons campaign was restarted Saturday night. I have updated the Cormarian campaign log located here.

Casting Raise Dead on a D&D Campaign

Currently my D&D campaign is on hiatus, due to a shortage of players. I decided to try dnd.meetup.com to see if I could rustle up a couple more victims players.

Saturday, I went to my first meetup. There are 15 people registered for dnd meetups in the San Fernando Valley. 5 RSVP’ed for the meetup Saturday. 2 showed up (myself and one other person). Gamers can be such flakes….

Fortunately, the one other person who did show is interested in my game, so it wasn’t a total loss.