This week we have a mish-mash of enchantment spells that need tweaking. I'm gonna give them the see-saw treatment, pumping a couple up (just a smidgen) and knocking the other down just a tad (you'll get that pun when you see it). Let's get straight to it.

Tasha's Hideous Laughter
Great spell. Awesome spell. Incredible spell. Too great, too awesome, and too incredible. Compare it to other enchantments of similar level and you see why. Not only does it incapacitate the target, it knocks them prone. That's a -4 penalty to AC and there is nothing the creature can do about it. And when the spell is up the creature has to endure attacks of opportunity to get up. On top of that, it can be used on a variety of creatures, while spells like charm person must target a humanoid. The spell is like lesser hold monster more than anything. Let's just get rid of that falling prone part and make it like an improved daze spell. Here is the new text.

This spell afflicts the subject with uncontrollable laughter. It erupts into gales of manic laughter, unable to take any action but laughing. The subject is not considered helpless. After the spell ends, it can act normally.

A creature with an Intelligence score of 2 or lower is not affected. A creature whose type is different from the caster's receives a +4 bonus on its saving throw, because humor doesn't "translate" well.

Sleep
Another great spell, it's coolness mitigated by the fact that it really just makes the bad guys waste a round waking their companions up. But it really outlives its usefulness pretty quickly. Then you are stuck with a dead page in your spellbook or a worthless spell slot in your repertoire. To extend the usefulness of sleep beyond 1st-3rd level, change the the first line of text to the following:

A sleep spell causes a magical slumber to come upon 4 Hit Dice of creatures plus 1 Hit Die per two caster levels (to a maximum of 9 Hit Dice at 10th-level).

Deep Slumber
Same problem as above, except change the text to the following since this is a higher-level spell:

This spell functions like sleep, except that it affects 5 HD of creatures plus 1 HD per caster level (to a maximum of 20 HD at 15th-level).

Well, there you have it. I think we've corralled enough spells for one entry. This next one's gonna take a different turn. I've already addressed a lot of the "little" changes to the game that I thought would make it better without affecting backwards compatibility. In two weeks, I will go a bit beyond that with Have a Little Class.

airwalkrr

I just got out of the hospital, so this will be a short installment. However, I will make it up to you by providing you an additional installment next week, free of charge!

Last time we broached the topic of spells, we discussed powering down a few spells. Next I'd like to turn to a couple spells that could use some powering up.

Entropic shield is my first example. This little-used spell is often neglected because it just doesn't do much. It is like blur, but only for ranged attacks. A 1 in 5 chance of missing a character against ranged attacks only isn't going to do them much good unless they are fighting arrow demons, and at that point, why not just cast blur? Let's bump this up to a 50% miss chance for ranged weapons and let it see a bit more action.

Gaseous form is often touted as the ultimate getaway spell. Maybe in a dungeon tightly packed with nothing but doors, but certainly not most places. Moving at a speed of 10 (and a fly speed no less, meaning no running) means even a heavily armed cleric can follow you wherever you go and beat down any door in his way before you get too far. Sure it has it's uses for surprising enemies and sneaking around, but those are often ancillary thoughts when it comes to this classic. Players want to vanish into a puff of smoke when they cast this spell. This is not to mention the indignant ease with which PCs can follow a vampire back to its coffin. I say give the gaseous form a fly speed equal to its base land speed and now things are a bit more interesting.

Well, that's all I have time for today. Next week, This Spells Trouble, Part IV.

airwalkrr

A number of objects in Chapter 7 of the Player's Handbook irk me because they don't fit or just have problems mechanically. Let's start with the basics.

Armor is where we find some of the worst equipment failures. For one thing, several types of armor are redundant unless you are creating a very poor 1st-level character. Why purchase a set of scale mail when you could have a chain shirt? The same goes for chain mail and breastplate, as well as banded mail and splint mail respectively. Splint mail, for example, isn't really historically accurate. Many people have doubts if armor of this type ever really existed, and if it did, it is not very practical. A breastplate is effectively hastily donned plate. Why do we need an addendum for something that already exists. And the chain shirt? Well, that's just power creep for lightly armored characters. I say ditch all three types (splint mail, breastplate, and chain shirt) from the game. If any come up in a published adventure you are running, don't worry about making adjustments to the statistics as they are negligible for the most part, but substitute the nearest thing when the PCs loot the body. Chain shirt becomes studded leather. Breastplate becomes chain mail. Splint mail becomes banded mail.

Next we have weapons that aren't realistic. Spiked chain, I'm looking at you. Now I can swallow the idea of someone using a chain as a weapon, but the benefits it confers are simply beyond the pale of reason. Not only does it have an impressive critical threat range, it also grants the ability to strike both opponents adjacent to you and 10 feet away. Further, it lets you take attacks of opportunity as if it were a polearm. And you can use it to trip and disarm. Yikes! Now it is an exotic weapon, so it ought to be cooler than a typical weapon in at least one way, but I think the benefit of allowing you to strike as both a reach weapon and a normal melee weapon is enough without also letting you threaten opponents at reach. So just make this change; allow wielders of spiked chains to strike opponents 10 feet away, but nix the whole idea of threatening opponents that far away. You only threaten adjacent opponents while wielding a spiked chain.

Now let's address the scythe. A x4 critical threat modifier? Really? All I have to do is throw a handful of orcs wielding scythes against 1st and 2nd-level PCs and I am just asking for instant death. A x3 modifier is scary enough, so let's tone it down. Some say just use DM judgment, but on this issue, what if the DM wants to use scythes because the bad guys are followers of a cult of death?

One final issue I want to bring up is the price of masterwork weapons and armor. While the +300/+150 gp rule is nice and simple, here is an optional rule in case you find that a bit unrealistic. Masterwork light weapons cost 150 gp extra, one-handed weapons cost 300 gp extra, and two-handed weapons cost 600 gp extra. Masterwork light armor and light shields (including bucklers) cost 75 gp extra, medium armor and heavy shields cost 150 gp extra, and heavy armor and tower shields cost 300 gp extra.

A similar formula can be extended to the pricing of magic weapons and armor if you like. The base multiplier for light weapons becomes 1,000 gp, for one-handed weapons it's 2,000 gp, and for two-handed weapons it's 4,000 gp. The base multiplier for light armor and light shields is 500 gp, for medium armor and heavy shields is 1,000 gp, and for heavy armor and tower shields is 2,000 gp.

One warning if you decide to muck with pricing. Because the power level of 3rd edition D&D characters is highly dependent upon their wealth in magical items, be careful on the pricing issue so that you don't award too much or too little treasure. Make sure you periodically check to ensure your PCs are at the appropriate wealth for their level.

That wraps it up for this week. Until my health improves, this will likely remain a bi-weekly blog. Two weeks from now, This Spells Trouble Part III.

airwalkrr

I apologize for missing last week's entry. I've been having a lot of health problems lately and I haven't had a lot of free time. But without further ado, here are a few spells that my group and I have found troublesome. We tried to come up with simple solutions that didn't affect the overall functionality or nature of the spell. I hope you enjoy them.

Glitterdust
Here the problem is that a spell that was originally designed primarily as a means of highlighting invisible creatures became a highly potent offensive tool as soon as the rules regarding blindness were clarified. Imposing a 50% miss chance, -2 penalty to AC, halving movement, and denying your opponent his Dexterity modifier for the entire duration of the spell is rather prohibitive. A displacement spell only grants 50% concealment to one ally, and that is a higher-level spell. Yet, with initiative and a single 2nd-level spell, you can blind up to a dozen enemies for 1 round/level. To fix this spell, change the blindness effect to dazzled. Additionally, I allow the blindness effect but only on the first round. So the first paragraph of the description now reads:

A cloud of golden particles covers everyone and everything in the area, visibly outlining invisible things for the duration of the spell. In addition, creatures within the area who fail their save are blinded for one round and dazzled for the remaining duration. All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades.

Greater Magic Weapon/Magic Vestment
Truly, what is so special about magic weapons and armor when a spellcaster can enhance them virtually all day long, and often with a better bonus than any magical weapon you might be able to afford? These spells are also a problem for DMs who want to run low-magic campaigns and don't want players to have 24-hour access to such powers. Fortunately, this is a simple fix. Reduce the durations of these spells to 10 minutes/level. You may find a similar change to mage armor is warranted if you find bracers of armor are always tossed into the "sell" pile.

Heroes' Feast
I have never seen any other spell so commonly burned into my players' spell pages with indelible ink than this offender. With its enticing immunity to poison and fear and it's alluring temporary hit points and bonus to attack rolls that last half a day, it is little wonder that so many adventuring parties choose to begin their day by eating their "Wheaties." That is not to mention the fact that it cures diseases, sickness, and nausea. I've tried various approaches throughout the years, but the one that seems to strike the best balance between a useful spell and a must-prepare-every-day spell is by changing immunity to poison and fear to a +4 morale bonus on saves against poison and fear. It doesn't negate the need to deal with poison and fear altogether, but it also isn't so great that players develop an abnormal attachment to it that causes them to feel they have to rest and recast it anytime it gets dispelled.

Next week, Equipment Failures.

airwalkrr

Magic and spells form one of the largest rules subsets in the entire D&D rules system. Together they take up almost half the Player's Handbook just by themselves. 7 of the game's 11 core classes are capable of spellcasting, and it would be suicide for any adventuring party to not include at least one dedicated caster amongst their ranks. Magic and spells are clearly an important part of the D&D experience. This week, I take a look at the rules regarding spellcasting, with an eye towards streamlining those rules to make perhaps the most unwieldy part of the game a bit simpler to handle.

Spell saving throw DCs is one area of the rules that causes particular trouble for late-game, high-level spellcasters. Whereas a spell like magic missile retains much of its usefulness for a 10th-level wizard, a charm person spell, with its relatively low save DC, often lacks the punch required to deal with the threats a 10th-level wizard must deal with. One could also look at the difference between charm monster and its inferior cousin and realize that the higher-level spell already has the more advantageous benefit of being applicable to any creature type. And why should all spell ranges stay the same when the DCs do not? Nestled elsewhere within the game there is a solution to be borrowed to address this unique phenomenon. A number of special abilities have DCs equal to 10 + 1/2 the level of the creature + some key ability modifier. I say spells should follow the same model. All spell saving throw DCs, regardless of level, should be equal to 10 + 1/2 the character's spellcaster level + the key ability modifier for casting. This also makes book-keeping a bit easier for casters, who have a difficult enough time as it is.

There is another aspect of spells that does not always seem to make sense: touch attacks. Melee touch attacks put the spellcaster dangerously close to enemies in the first place, but to make matters worse, they must then rely upon their Strength modifiers to help them hit. For some characters, such as clerics, this is not always horrible news, but one must wonder what a character with a high Strength score is doing casting spells instead of swinging a two-handed weapon. Many casters try to get a good Dexterity score, but not all are always so lucky. It makes sense to me that a spellcaster's key ability modifier should help in all aspects of spellcasting, including the application of touch spells. When calculating a spellcaster's attack bonus for a melee touch spell or ranged touch spell, a spellcaster may use his or her base attack bonus plus the key ability modifier for the spell being cast instead of the spellcaster's Strength or Dexterity modifier respectively.

These changes are not very difficult to make. They also fit neatly on top of existing stat blocks without really causing a fuss. For spell DCs, a simple way to effect the chance is to simply use the highest save DC listed (due to rounding, this may sometimes be off by 1, but it is close enough). Spellcasters rarely have their attack bonus for touch spells listed anyway so the DM is often forced to calculate it himself, and for players the correction is simple.

Next week, I'll address some specific spells that have caused problems for me and my gaming group in the past, as well as our solutions for those problems.

airwalkrr

I've had a pretty terrible run of health this past week and haven't had much time to mull over this week's entry on spells in 3.5. This little project of mine is something I like to take time to think out and do it when my head isn't hurting so much so I am going to have to put it off until next week. See you then!

airwalkrr

Oh you elusive little sub-systems. You pretend like you are easy to ignore because you aren't part of the core d20 mechanics, but it seems like each week we are forced to deal with a new one like some episodic plot device. This week I deal with some of the more troublesome sub-systems within the d20 mechanics. I call them sub-systems because they either aren't tied directly to the idea of rolling a d20 or the d20 is only a small part of their overall nature.

Death and Dying
Perhaps the worst offender of the subsystems is the arbitrary "death at -10 hit points" rule. While it works well at low levels, when damage levels are low enough that a single blow is not enough to put a character well below this threshold, it can spiral out of control at higher levels when damage becomes much greater. I am not opposed to the idea of greater potential for one-hit kills at higher levels (more powerful characters should be taking greater risks), but having the poor luck of being taken down to 1 hp when the monster still has one swing left in its attack routine is vicious.

As always, I have a relatively simple fix in mind. Any time a character falls to 0 or fewer hit points, that character must make a Fortitude save equal to 10 + damage dealt. If the character makes the save, then the character is alive and stable, but unconscious, unless he succeeds by 5 or more, in which case he is disabled and conscious. If the character fails the save, then he is unconscious and begins dying. Each round on his turn he must make another save at the same DC +1 (cumulative) until he succeeds, at which point he is stable. If the character fails the save by 5 or more at any point, then he is dead.

Variant: For a less lethal version of this rule, reduce the save DC by 5 or 10.

Craft
Leave it to Wizards of the Coast to take something that only a few people would even be interested in to begin with and make the process so completely nebulous that no one would even bother to comprehend it, let alone try it. I've never seen a soul use this skill in a 3rd edition game unless it was part of fulfilling the prerequisites of a prestige class.

So let's take a crack at this shall we? What is really at the crux of this is that WotC didn't want PCs making tons of money easily without adventuring for it, nor did they want them crafting better weapons and armor than they could afford. That's all well and good but I believe barriers of time and prescient Dungeon Masters are a better protection against such things. We can do without a simulationist system like the 3.5 book provides. So lets categorize items thus: arms/armor and general equipment.

General equipment, including alchemical equipment is fairly simple to make. Anything with a DC 10 or less requires 1 day or less and a successful check. Anything up to a DC 15 requires 2 days. Anything up to a DC 20 requires 3 days. Anything up to a DC 25 requires 4 days. Only one check is made. A failed check means you lose half the time (round up) and must start over. Failing by 5 or more means half the raw materials are also ruined. You can voluntarily add 10 to the DC to reduce the time by half, to a minimum of 1 day.

Arms/armor is a bit trickier, but not much. Simple weapons (excluding crossbows) and bows (excluding composite bows) take 2 days and require a DC 12 check. Crossbows, composite bows, martial weapons, shields, and light armor take 3 days and require a DC 15 check. For composite bows an extra day and +2 to the DC is required for each +1 to the Strength bonus added. Exotic weapons and medium armor take 1 week at a DC of 18. Heavy armor takes 1 month at a DC of 20, and full plate 2 months at the same DC. Again, only one check is made, as the rules for general equipment above.

This system approximates the same results, with less complicated math. Now that I look at it, I should probably put the results into a table. I will file that away as an idea for another week.

Next week, This Spells Trouble.

airwalkrr

I have intended to make regular updates every Thursday, but EN World frustrates me to no end with its intermittent stability. When I can't get the site to work with me, I find my motivation to work on the article is lost. Fret not though. I will work on the article for sub-systems apart from EN World and try to post it by next Thursday, assuming the site cooperates.

airwalkrr

We've all smelled it before, the odious scent of feats that leave us feeling a little queasy. Some feats are simply too good, some aren't good enough or in enough situations, and others are just plain cumbersome. Whatever the reason, dealing with some feats just gets downright stinky at times.

Now, I wouldn't dream of trying to address every feat in the game that causes problems. Some of the problems are predicated on a problem with another rule. Others are simply underused, but not necessarily problematic. I will ignore both of these types of feats as dealing with them is either unnecessary or will be addressed in the future. But sometimes the feat itself is the problem. Let's look at a few.

Power Attack and Combat Expertise are two particular pet peeves of mine, not because they are overpowered, but because they add to the math. Now simple addition and subtraction is not hard, but let's be honest, there are a lot of things I would just rather not do, and having the potential for 11 different attack bonuses, each with different damage bonuses, is a needless headache after I've already knocked back a couple of brews and am trying to forget the annoying things that have happened to me at work the past week.

Dodge is a great feat, but it is forgotten oh-so-often. Toughness doesn't really make much sense in the long run. Weapon Finesse not being available to 1st-level rogues does them a great disservice. There may be a few other minor offenders, but these a something of an eyesore that jump out either at the beginning of every campaign, or whenever I crack open my Player's Handbook to Chapter 5.

Fortunately, I believe in redemption. These feats can be scrubbed clean with a little bit of elbow grease. First, let's take Power Attack. While the versatility of being able to choose any number between 0 and your base attack bonus is nice, it can make the math cumbersome. I once had a player of a 12th level fighter carry around an entire page of all his possible attack iterations just so he wouldn't have to worry about it during the game. A single feat shouldn't require you to add an entire page to your character sheet. So here is the fix. You may, as a full-round action, make a single melee attack. Double your Strength bonus for the purpose of dealing damage with this attack. For each iterative attack you receive, increase the multiplier of this feat, such that you triple your Strength modifier if you receive a second attack, quadruple your Strength modifier if you receive a third attack, and so on. You still make only one attack. This makes Power Attack a tactical decision between making a full attack and making one powerful swing. A decision between two options is much simpler than the current system, and the math is easier since it only affects damage.

Combat Expertise has a similar problem, but not quite as drastic since the most of your base attack you can transfer to your AC is 5. It fortunately can be fixed just as easily. Whenever you fight defensively or use the total defense action, you add your Intelligence bonus as a dodge bonus to your AC. On top of being simpler to apply, it also rewards fighters for being smart. Imagine that!

By the time most players realize they forgot to declare the target of their Dodge feat, it is usually an opponent's turn, and thus, too late. My change fixes that problem. From now on, Dodge lets you add a +4 dodge bonus to your AC against a single attack as an immediate action in response to an opponent's attack, but before you know the result of the attack.

Toughness needs to be a bit better, but it also needs to be worthwhile if you take it multiple times. My fix is that Toughness grants 3 hit points the first time you take it plus 2 additional hit points each additional time you take it. So the second time you take Toughness it would grant you 5 hit points, the third time it would grant you 7, and so on.

Fixing Weapon Finesse is easy. There is no prerequisite for the feat, except that you must be proficient with any weapon you use to get the benefit from it.

So there you have it. Some of the most troubling feats have been fixed or made better with a little bit of headwork. Doesn't that leave a much more pleasing aroma?

Next week, Problems in the Sub-Systems.

airwalkrr

Last week, I elaborated on what I view as the problems with grappling and offered some quick fixes to the actions you can take while grappling to make it less futile and a bit more interesting. This week, I want to address some of the less obvious problems with the mechanic, such as omission of rules that I think should be there and the absence of rules for certain situations.

First off, is it really necessary to force a grappler to deal damage to his or her opponent upon successfully initiating a grapple? That should be an option, not a mandate. Sometimes you simply want to hold your opponent, not knock them out.

Regarding firing ranged weapons into a grapple; don't do it! As my friend David can tell you, the consequences can often have unintended, and fatal, results. But when it seems like the only option--and it usually isn't--it would be nice to have more concise rules than "Roll randomly to see which grappling combatant you strike." (Yes, this insightful bit of information does actually appear in the Player's Handbook in a footnote on page 151. If you missed it, don't feel bad. The designers apparently never thought you would find it either.) So how about this? Determine the odds of hitting each target in a grapple based on how many squares they would normally occupy. A human grappling an ogre would have a 1 in 5 chance of being targeted (a human normally occupies 1 square while an ogre occupies 4, for a total of 5 squares; divide individual totals by the total number of squares). In this case a simple % roll would suffice (20% chance of hitting the human). In the case of a dwarf grappling a behir (huge), a d10 would work (1 in 10 hits the dwarf). More complicated situations like the purple worm require more creative dice rolling, but roleplayers are supposed to be creative people. I have confidence you can figure it out.

So now we have improved upon your available options. You don't always half to succeed on a grapple check to do something while grappled, and such actions might prove useful. And best of all, you don't have to put sticky-notes by all the grapple entries in the Monster Manual! We've also addressed some of the other pesky little issues that always seem to leave my group (and perhaps yours) scratching their heads.

This brings us to my final issue with grappling. There really is no way to stick a dagger at someone's throat while you insist your demands be heard. The rules don't really support it, but it is a hallmark of dramatic tension. So I am going to take a stab (pun intended) at a relatively simple rule to accomplish this. First, let's say you must have your opponent pinned. Second, you must also have a light piercing or slashing weapon drawn--ever seen anyone hold a club to your throat? Third, you must succeed on a second grapple check as a standard action on your next turn without the opponent escaping the pin. If this second grapple check succeeds, you may, as an immediate action anytime before your next turn, deal a coup de grace to the opponent. To continue maintaining this death hold, you must continue to succeed on a grapple check each round and your opponent must not escape the pin, though you may take the immediate action to coup de grace your opponent if the latter attempt occurs. As a final stipulation, you may only use this maneuver on a creature within one size category of your character.

Whoa now! I can already hear the murmurs of "heresy" and "utter poppycock." Let's be realistic though. This tactic is not going to be
very practical to use against PCs, though it may be used against their weaker allies when the DM sees it necessary to drive a plot hook. Only humanoids and giants regularly carry weapons, few of them light weapons, and even fewer favor grapple attacks. A mean DM could easily concoct a monster of his own design that specialized in this tactic, but a DM can also abuse the assassin class. This way, when the brigand goes for the damsel on the cart, the PCs know they have at least two rounds to rescue her.

So that's my take on grappling. Take it for what it's worth. Some of these are just ideas. Others may someday worm their way into my game, or yours.

Next week, Stinky Feats.

airwalkrr

"Let me tell you about grappling," Jarrett explained to Donna at one of our recent sessions.

"You see, every monster in the game that tends to grapple has this huge 'racial bonus,'" he said, making liberal use of air-quotations, "to grapple checks. Basically what this means is that every time your character gets grappled, you are screwed."

Jarrett had taken this moment to explain why David's character, Jack, was unable to escape from a grell, resulting in his untimely death. Well, it was that and the elf archers who had inadvertently pelted him with arrows in a desperate attempt to rescue Jack from the flailing tentacles of the beast. The grell their party had just battled did indeed possess a hefty (+16!) racial modifier to grapple checks, and that coupled with the party's general run of bad luck left Jack laying lifeless on the dungeon floor.

Now we've come a long ways since AD&D when grapple rules were relegated to an appendix in the back of the book that everyone dreaded turning to as much for their complication as for their potential to wreak havoc on the player characters. However, there is something about grappling that still strikes terror in the heart of most players of 3rd edition D&D. That's all well and good. After all, a healthy respect for a colossal dragon's ability to swallow your paladin whole should be expected. But players fear grapple for (mostly) the wrong reasons. It's one thing when your character winces at the thought of being squeezed by a boa constrictor. It is quite another when everyone despairs at the sight of a purple worm because even the enlarged raging barbarian has a snowball's chance in hell of escaping its maw. There is a fine line between creating rules that mimic the way you would imagine a gargantuan worm's awesome munchability and rules that are simply too broken to be exciting.

Before I delve into the problems with grapple, I want to lay out a few points about what grappling rules do well. This will serve as the foundation for developing a more evolved set of grappling rules. First of all, grapple is an opposed check related specifically to one's combat experience (base attack), physique (Strength score), and size (size modifier). If you want to inflict serious harm on someone you are grappling, these are the things that should come into play. These are all reasonable to consider for grappling rules. Second, grapple also has a very concise set of options, and (as of 3.5) the actions these options require are well explained. They even reasonably approximate the types of things one would expect you could do in a grapple. Finally (and this is both a strength and weakness of the system) it is better for monsters than it is for players. This means that while being snatched by monsters carries a hefty amount of intimidation, it generally ends up being underutilized by players. We aren't playing a Graeco-Roman wrestling simulation after all. You wouldn't expect throwing your opponent to the floor and putting him in a headlock to be the highlight of a game where dragons and magic abound. These are things that I respect about the system and generally wish to maintain.

So what are the cons of grappling? Perhaps it is no surprise that size is the biggest offender. It is essentially hopeless when grappling a creature two or more size categories larger than your character. Such creatures already receive a Strength bonus for their size, and on top of that they receive an enormous size bonus of +4 per size category. When it comes to something like an opposed check that is an incredible advantage. As a tie-in to this problem, the Improved Grapple feat is a bit powerful with +4, considering it already negates the attack of opportunity. Creatures like that should have an advantage to be sure, but it shouldn't be insurmountable. Second, some actions while grappling are pretty pointless. How many times have you seen someone spend a full-round action to draw a spell component? And are you really willing to waste a grapple check trying to draw a short sword when your opponent can constrict you? Third, there is one rule that is really not clearly defined regarding grappling, and that involves ranged attacks into a grapple. And finally, one of the things that has always irked me about grappling is your inability to use a weapon while pinning an opponent. If my rogue has an orc pinned with a dagger to his throat, I should absolutely have some kind of advantage.

Let's first tackle the issue of grapple modifiers, particularly size modifiers. Now I may be wrong, but what I believe is at the crux of this issue is not the fact that a big creature can do just about anything it wants to with a smaller creature, but that the smaller creature cannot do anything about it when its turn comes around. It may be somewhat realistic, but it certainly isn't fun or dramatic. Now we could muck around with grapple modifiers, say, reducing size modifiers by half. Not only would that be a thankless and time-consuming option, but it would still only delay the problem a few levels (you might be able to handle purple worms, but colossal red dragons are still out of reach). And anyway, it would make the game more interesting if there were reasonable tactical options during grapple other than trying to escape. So let's take a look at the grappling options and see if we can't tweak some of them.

First of all, activating a magic item is good as is. It doesn't require a grapple check and is often a useful option, though see drawing a weapon below.

Second, attacks against an opponent you grapple suffer a -4 penalty. If I had to guess, this rule was placed there to prevent monsters from holding PCs in place for a full attack while beating them down easily. So let's cut to the quick and just apply this penalty to only natural weapons, not unarmed strikes or weapon attacks. I can't think of a good justification for it, but I'm sure I will eventually come up with something. It's minor enough that being good for the game is a good enough justification.

Casting a spell is a decent enough option, although some may claim the DC is too high. It is reasonable that it would be more difficult to cast while being grappled than while being merely threatened however. Spellcasters should have some limits so let's leave this as it is.

Damaging your opponent by making a grapple check is rarely a good idea unless you are a monster. But monsters can still do it I guess. Gotta leave them something.

Draw a light weapon...with a successful grapple check? I don't know about you, but most of the time I am being grappled, if I could succeed on a grapple check I would much rather get away. Let's make drawing a light weapon a full-round action that DOES NOT require a successful grapple check. That way, if I can't get away, at least I have a shot at doing a bit of damage with my ogre-slaying knife. For that matter, let's allow this to apply to anything I happen to be carrying, even a wand of dimension door. I mean, why carry a wand of dimension door in your pocket if you'll never be able to draw it once you get grappled?

Escape from a grapple is pretty reasonable as is, even with the sometimes exorbitant bonuses monsters get; let's face it, some monsters should not be easy to escape from. But it could use one minor fix, which is to grant a size modifier to Escape Artist checks which is the inverse of the size modifier to grapple checks. I think a halfling should be able to squeeze out of an ogre's hands more easily than a human. So a small size character gets a +4 when attempting to escape a grapple, a tiny creature +8, and so on. This is a conditional modifier so it doesn't have any backwards-compatibility issues.

Move is also reasonable. The blanket reduction to half speed might be a bit overboard though. Shouldn't I be able to carry a halfling farther than a dwarf with the same amount of effort? Instead, add the weight of the opponent and his or her gear to the character's encumbrance. If it is exceeded, the character will have to drag (hence, half-speed). Otherwise, I see no reason why a human couldn't drag a pixie along by the wings at full speed, especially considering this is a standard action so a double move is already precluded.

Retrieve a spell component requires a full-round action. Really? Spellcasters already have it rough with the DC 20 Concentration check. Let's make this a move action.

Pin your opponent is also a reasonable course of action. A nice tactical flair.

Breaking another's pin is a great way to free your buddy from bad half-orc breath.

I like the idea of using the opponent's weapon. But on top of requiring that I succeed on a grapple check you are going to saddle me with a -4 penalty? It is hard to think of a less palatable option. Doing away with the -4 penalty might mean this is at least considered on occasion.

It seems at this point, I have run out of room, so I will have to continue this discussion next week. Don't squirm though! I will have plenty of insights to offer those of you trapped in the grisly jaws of grappling.

Next Week, Tackling Grappling, Part II.

airwalkrr

I feel like I've already reached the summit of the mountain and I am now climbing down again. In my history of playing D&D, I have always felt that new editions of the game, by and large, were improvements to be heralded. Now, having allowed the release of 4e to percolate in my head for a while, I am not so sure that the game and I are still on the same page.

Now, I don't mean to bash Wizards. They certainly have a right to do everything in their power to make money, and I am certain that is exactly what 4th edition is designed to do. Whatever their plan, I hope it is working out to their liking, but after months of deliberation and diligent attempts to try to like 4th edition, I am not there. So that brings me back to the best version of the game I have seen to date: D&D 3.5.

3.5 is not without its flaws, but it performs well on the whole for all the things I want a game system to do. I have dozens of books and adventure ideas I have never even really tried, so when it came right down to it, I figured if the new system doesn't give me anything I crave and I have plenty to make me happy for years to come, why switch?

Well, I am not adopting 4th edition for my group, but that doesn't mean I have to accept 3.5 the way it is. The d20 system is brilliant in that it really opens the doors for constant evolution. And with the OGL, I am that much more free to do as I wish with the game and share it with others.

Over the years of playing 3.5 I have had numerous ideas for tweaking the system, simplifying certain aspects, adding new features, etc. Well, this blog is going to be my attempt to compile my thoughts and ideas in one place, and eventually, develop a slightly enhanced version of the rules. I don't want any drastic changes, just a few minor adjustments, even fewer than the change from 3.0 to 3.5 brought. Feel free to come along for the ride.

Next Blog Thursday, August, 14th: Tackling Grappling

airwalkrr