I don’t know if Tolkien’s notes support this, but I always assumed that Treebeard’s Entish name was something completely unpronounceable for anyone who isn’t an ent, and “Treebeard” was a nickname that he picked for himself. Maybe because he finds it funny that other species think he looks like a tree. (I’m sure that ents look clearly different from trees to other ents.)

Edit: he says so himself.

Hrum, now, well, I am an Ent, or that’s what they call me. Yes, Ent is the word. The Ent, I am, you might say, in your manner of speaking. Fangorn is my name according to some, Treebeard others make it. Treebeard will do.

I don’t get it. Obviously hobgoblins don’t think hobgoblins are ugly.

“No” needs to be said before the roll, IMO. Then If the player insists on doing something impossible anyway, just role-play the failure. With that said, actions that are in a narrow sense impossible can still have positive outcomes and if there’s the potential for that then I’d say roll for it. The proverbial dragon seduction attempt can still possibly flatter a dragon with a big ego enough to benefit the PC even if it doesn’t get the PC laid.

Who could have known that a demigod as old as the world would be really powerful?

Well technically the barbarian can only rage for a limited time without having to rest too (although he’s a lot more dangerous without rage than a caster without spells is). Would a rogue have no limited resource other than hitpoints?

When I played GURPS we had a guy in our group with OCD (officially diagnosed). He had most of the rules memorized and he knew right where to look up the rest. It was very convenient for us. The one catch was that he had to keep a log of everything that took place in the game so he asked us not to do anything without him present. It wasn’t a big deal since he had perfect attendance.

You Caves of Qud character has just two arms? Mine fires four guns at once while high on Sphinx Salts.

I miss 3E’s sexy mephits.

IRL I’d be worried that she would still be angry about this after she got sober. I’ve never dated anyone who liked being picked up at all and the one woman small enough for me to have carried easily would have been so mad.

They’re the “Say Friend and Enter” runes. Gandalf couldn’t figure them out but Merry (accidentally) did.

You can still get the experience when someone else commits murder, but only if you do at least one damage to the victim first.

I don’t think Conan is a D&D barbarian because (at least in the Howard stories) he does not go into a state of battle rage and his fighting style is not characterized by a focus on offense at the expense of defense. I’d play him as a pure Fighter with stealth expertise.

At some point, I think just telling the players that you don’t want to run a campaign that they’re not interested in is better than trying to punish them.

In that case I can’t say anything specific because I don’t know those rules, but I still think that planning for a villain to escape alive is risky unless the fight is totally rigged.

Although if I were running this, I might just have him attack again even if the players killed him. Ideally, he’d run away the first time, they would make sure to kill him the second time, and then they would be quite surprised the third time. The original body would still be there, and so the players might end up with three or four dead Alans before they’re done with the dungeon*. Where the extras came from is not explained. This also creates an opportunity to bring Alan back much later in the campaign, because the players might have forgotten about him but he hasn’t forgotten about them.

*If they bring back evidence of more than one dead Alan to the quest-giver, he will not want to pay them because they can’t prove that the real Alan is dead.

Two casts of magic missile at level 1 (from different characters, before he can act again) will kill him 90% of the time.

These stereotypes about the undead are offensive. As soon as we move in anywhere, the local villagers start saying we ruined the place. Shambling through a haunted castle is a lifestyle as valid as any other.

18hp

Will escape as soon as harmed.

There’s an implicit assumption here that may not be warranted, especially if Alan doesn’t have legendary actions that let him escape on someone else’s turn.

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