[Roodah]

First,

Thanks for all the feedback. Considering how the other reviews were received I was expecting another flame-war and was battening down the hatches. I apologize if the review was too long and I think some of the constructive criticism made some good points. (For example, if I were to rewrite the review I would tidy up a few spelling errors and probably move the timeline to the beginning of the piece.)

I also want to address a cut & paste error very quickly.

The corrected text should read:

"The 15th level cleric with 18 ranks in diplomacy coupled with a 20 charisma and a feat that drops him an additional +3 to diplomacy skill checks will successfully negotiate a favorable treaty with Asmodeus while the rest of the party cooks in the hells. If you have ever seen the rest of the party groan when a skill-based encounter came up, you know what I’m talking about."

In this case, I'm trying to point out the difference between a character who adds 26 to his diplomacy rolls at 15th level when compared to another character who may still have a penalty because Charisma is his dump stat. It's a tough encounter to balance.

3.5E
15th Cleric w/ 20 CHA and feat = 18 + 5 + 3 = +26 to diplomacy checks
15th Fighter w/ 8 CHA = 0 - 1 = -1 to diplomacy checks

4E
15th Cleric w/ 20 CHA and feat = 7 + 5 + 5 + 3 = +21 to diplomacy checks
15th Fighter w/ 8 CHA = 7 - 1 = +6 to diplomacy checks

In the 3E case, if the fighter tries to use the diplomacy skill, the entire party tackles him. In the 4E case, he can assist the cleric by trying to roll higher than a 10 and he might even succeed on some checks of his own.

This automatic skill improvement is easier for me to be comfortable with than the insta-healing every night.

The other item I want to address is D&D Insider. One of the posters pointed out that I sounded "positive" about it which I think is a mis-characterization of my position. The only pieces of D&D Insider I have worked with are Dragon, Dungeon, and the D&D Compendium. I think what could be mistaken for positive opinion in this case is more a fact of desperation for a tool that actually works. OpenRPG works on a good day and is very frustrating on a bad day. I'm ok with that because it is free software. If I had the choice to pay for software that worked better, I definitely would do it. It remains to be seen if WotC can deliver that software as was correctly stated.

Once again, thanks for all the feedback and constructive criticism.

Roodah