Hello. It's my first post so I thought saying "Hi" would be good. In any case, I've been reading a bunch of stuff here and there and then I got bored and started thinking up about mechanics might be in, or at least, might be good in the next Dungeons and Dragons.
I realised that this could be rather long, so I labelled everything as nicely as I could and put summaries where applicable(and am writing this paragraph after everything else). Although I would prefer you to read it entirely, it would be appreciated if you would just read the summaries and comment on those. Thank you.
First things first, I liked Dragonblade's "core mechanic" suggestion. To sum it up: Ability scores minus ten plus d20 plus modifiers used for skill/ability checks. I think that keeps things simple; reduces the number of numbers one needs to keep track of. It also makes each point count, rather than every other point. If it's combined with the 18 "mortal" cap which was hinted at, then it keeps number inflation in check, assuming the bonuses don't get out of hand.
Health and Healing
There's been a good amount of talk about healing mechanics and what they should be. Obviously, it's impossible to please everyone; some people have dramatically different ideas of how to handle a certain mechanic or how some things should work. That's okay; everyone has their own tastes. Here's my taste: I want there to be a threat of death, although generally avoidable if the players are careful. Players should need to manage both short term and long term resources. Dedicated healers should be useful, but not necessary.
From that, here's what I think would be a good health mechanic: First off, the classic hit points system we all use and love(I think, there's been so many different opinions here that I'm not quite sure if we all like the hit points system here). The first change is that if you go down to zero, you stay at zero; you don't go down any further. Also, that brings you down to unconscious, although not in any sort of "dying" phase. You're just out of the fight. That said, you recover one hit point (per level?) every minute, so it recovers rather quickly, assuming your character isn't in combat or in a similarly stressed situation(like playing soccer).
Now, here's the major changes: If you get hit for a quarter or more of your total hit points in a single hit(actual fraction and method to be adjusted after playtesting and such, assuming I would ever get around to it), you get a wound for each quarter. So, for example, you have 40 total hit points. You get hit for 0-9 and you don't get any wounds. 10-19 and one wound, 20-29 and two wounds, 30-39 and three wounds, and 40 gets you four wounds. This is for each time you get attacked, rather than total damage, so if Kobold A and Kobold B both hit you for 5 damage each in a turn, you don't get any wounds for that. Other methods that can cause wounds is getting hit while unconscious, which gets you a wound each time in addition to the previous method(which still counts even if you're unconscious)(also, those Kobolds can give you wounds here). Also, certain attacks/abilities may also give you a wound straight out.
What do wounds do? Well, it's simple: wherever you use an ability score, apply your current wounds as a negative modifier. Also, if your character's wounds reaches their Constitution value(without the wounds modifier), they're dead. Fairly simple, isn't it? There's a few exceptions though: the wounds won't affect your character maximum hit points since that seems like it'll be a pain to calculate all the time; and wounds won't affect the Constitution value needed for death, as mentioned earlier. Of course, the amount needed for death is scalable depending on how often you want it to happen. A DM who wants to see it happen a lot may reduce the number of wounds needed to half or even a quarter of the Constitution value, although I think four, or even five should be the absolute minimum. At less than four, a character may die in a single hit before they use up their full hit points' worth.
As for healing the wounds, I think there should be a natural rate of one per day, but can be sped up using a healing skill or something. More heavy players might prefer something like one per three days, and more light players might prefer one per hour. It's easily adjustable depending on the play group. Magically, a Cure Light Wounds may heal a single point of it, and stronger spells heal more. I think something like that makes the most amount of sense.
I think a system like this work rather well. It's simple and it makes sure pain is painful. Perhaps too much so, not too sure at the moment. Values are adjustable in either case; this is just a basic idea. To summarize:
Alignments
Next are alignments. I think we should go back to the two-axis alignment, but keep it optional unless your character is worshipping a god. In which case, the alignment should match or be close to the god's alignment.
...That's about all I have to say about that. To summarize:
Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the good parts: Races, Classes, and Themes. They seem to be the three central pillars of the next edition of Dungeons and Dragons. At the very least, the key components to the character customization in it. I'm going to skip races for now and take a look at classes first.
Classes
Somebody said somewhere that they're planning on having "common", "uncommon", and "rare" classes in the next edition. I don't have any problems dividing them up into categories, although I think they could have better labels. Instead...
"Core" classes; basically the Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric; are basically the fundamental core of Dungeons and Dragons. Those four classes define the game, more or less, kinda... I haven't actually played the game that much so I'm not quite sure. Anyways, they're the archetypical classes of the game, simple to understand with clearly defined roles. A beginner player shouldn't have much difficulty figuring out these classes and I think that can be the key part of "core" classes.
"Hybrid" classes will include the Paladin, Ranger, Bard, and Druid. These classes will be a bit more complex with less clearly defined roles. Although not quite as good as the core classes in their primary strengths, "hybrid"s combine different aspects of the core classes to create something that's more versatile and package that stronger than a simple sum of their parts. A player who's looking for a bit more complexity can go for this, or for more complex variations of the core classes.
"Specialized" classes will include the Assassin, Barbarian, Warlock, and Monk. These classes have rather clear roles for the most part, but have mechanics that go a bit more against the grain than most. They naturally start little complex for specialized purposes and gets the player to rethink the basic rules a bit. These are mostly logical extensions of core or hybrid classes that require too much in terms of special rules to simply be a variation on an existing class. This is for players who're already familiar with the basic rules and is looking for something different or specific.
I'm not saying that these should be the exact classes that should be included in each category, I'm just giving examples. I don't think starting off with twelve classes, four in each category, would be too bad; it'll provide something for everyone right off the bat. That said, to summarize:
Themes
Next is themes, I guess. I think they're going to effectively replace skill selection and represent the character's background and such. I do like that it somewhat shows that the player character has a bit of a life beyond adventuring in the rules, it seems simpler yet more meaningful than assigning skill points. There was mention of a sort of "growth" mechanic also adding into it, which seems like it's going to be the way of customizing themes. I think they'll probably come in the form of some sort of traits for your character to choose from, much like feats. Hopefully there won't be too many of them.
Progression
The ideas of having flatter yet simple yet meaningful progression across levels sounds nice, but it makes me somewhat wonder how it's going to be done. Having two of the three is easy; the latter two can be fulfilled just by adding a bunch of numbers together each level. All three seems a bit more difficult. That said, I want to see how things can be.
Alright, so for the first ten levels, I've gotten... from level 1: 22 hit points, +6 to hit, 1d8 + 6 damage, 16 AC(I suppose it's something like that) and 5 movement(or something like that).
Level 10 is: 76 hit points(+54), +10 to hit(+4), 1d8+10 damage(+4, although I guess they'll probably get a better weapon at this point), 18 AC(+2), and 6 movement(+1)(or something like that). Also +2 to a bunch of skills.
The most notable progression is in the hit points, but hopefully damage from the enemies will scale up for it. That said, I wonder if this sort of scaling would work. To summarize:
I made this in mind as the "base" version where the fighter just walks up to the bad guy and bashes them with whatever weapon is in hand. It also comes with the idea that level 1 isn't too heavily loaded to prevent dipping in just for its bonuses(assuming 3E style multi-classing). I'm not quite sure if I like the idea of putting in skill bonuses like that, but I couldn't think of another way of keeping the relative power flat while still having at least something that could be replaced with more complex options.
One alternative way could be to alternate, let's say, Theme levels and Class levels, so even if you're level 10, for example, you're only class level 5. That way, you can have less spread across more levels. If you add in Race levels, then you might go through quite a bit without actually raising your class level all that much.
---END---
Er... Thank you for getting through all of this. It's just some stuff I came up with while I was bored. I'm not actually all that experienced with D&D, so if there are some critically wrong errors or something here, I would appreciate knowing. I like games in general and would like to learn more about them. So thank you again.
I realised that this could be rather long, so I labelled everything as nicely as I could and put summaries where applicable(and am writing this paragraph after everything else). Although I would prefer you to read it entirely, it would be appreciated if you would just read the summaries and comment on those. Thank you.
First things first, I liked Dragonblade's "core mechanic" suggestion. To sum it up: Ability scores minus ten plus d20 plus modifiers used for skill/ability checks. I think that keeps things simple; reduces the number of numbers one needs to keep track of. It also makes each point count, rather than every other point. If it's combined with the 18 "mortal" cap which was hinted at, then it keeps number inflation in check, assuming the bonuses don't get out of hand.
Health and Healing
There's been a good amount of talk about healing mechanics and what they should be. Obviously, it's impossible to please everyone; some people have dramatically different ideas of how to handle a certain mechanic or how some things should work. That's okay; everyone has their own tastes. Here's my taste: I want there to be a threat of death, although generally avoidable if the players are careful. Players should need to manage both short term and long term resources. Dedicated healers should be useful, but not necessary.
From that, here's what I think would be a good health mechanic: First off, the classic hit points system we all use and love(I think, there's been so many different opinions here that I'm not quite sure if we all like the hit points system here). The first change is that if you go down to zero, you stay at zero; you don't go down any further. Also, that brings you down to unconscious, although not in any sort of "dying" phase. You're just out of the fight. That said, you recover one hit point (per level?) every minute, so it recovers rather quickly, assuming your character isn't in combat or in a similarly stressed situation(like playing soccer).
Now, here's the major changes: If you get hit for a quarter or more of your total hit points in a single hit(actual fraction and method to be adjusted after playtesting and such, assuming I would ever get around to it), you get a wound for each quarter. So, for example, you have 40 total hit points. You get hit for 0-9 and you don't get any wounds. 10-19 and one wound, 20-29 and two wounds, 30-39 and three wounds, and 40 gets you four wounds. This is for each time you get attacked, rather than total damage, so if Kobold A and Kobold B both hit you for 5 damage each in a turn, you don't get any wounds for that. Other methods that can cause wounds is getting hit while unconscious, which gets you a wound each time in addition to the previous method(which still counts even if you're unconscious)(also, those Kobolds can give you wounds here). Also, certain attacks/abilities may also give you a wound straight out.
What do wounds do? Well, it's simple: wherever you use an ability score, apply your current wounds as a negative modifier. Also, if your character's wounds reaches their Constitution value(without the wounds modifier), they're dead. Fairly simple, isn't it? There's a few exceptions though: the wounds won't affect your character maximum hit points since that seems like it'll be a pain to calculate all the time; and wounds won't affect the Constitution value needed for death, as mentioned earlier. Of course, the amount needed for death is scalable depending on how often you want it to happen. A DM who wants to see it happen a lot may reduce the number of wounds needed to half or even a quarter of the Constitution value, although I think four, or even five should be the absolute minimum. At less than four, a character may die in a single hit before they use up their full hit points' worth.
As for healing the wounds, I think there should be a natural rate of one per day, but can be sped up using a healing skill or something. More heavy players might prefer something like one per three days, and more light players might prefer one per hour. It's easily adjustable depending on the play group. Magically, a Cure Light Wounds may heal a single point of it, and stronger spells heal more. I think something like that makes the most amount of sense.
I think a system like this work rather well. It's simple and it makes sure pain is painful. Perhaps too much so, not too sure at the moment. Values are adjustable in either case; this is just a basic idea. To summarize:
- Wounds act as a negative modifier to your character's ability scores.
- If wounds reaches your character's unmodified Constitution, they die.
- A character receives a wound for each quarter of their maximum hit points they receive in damage in a single attack.
- A character goes unconscious when they reach zero hit points. Being hit in this state results in a wound for each hit, on top of the above condition.
- Characters recover hit points at approximately one per minute and heals wounds at approximately one per day.
Alignments
Next are alignments. I think we should go back to the two-axis alignment, but keep it optional unless your character is worshipping a god. In which case, the alignment should match or be close to the god's alignment.
...That's about all I have to say about that. To summarize:
- Two-axis alignment
- Optional
- Unless the character worships a god, in which case it should match or at least be close.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's get to the good parts: Races, Classes, and Themes. They seem to be the three central pillars of the next edition of Dungeons and Dragons. At the very least, the key components to the character customization in it. I'm going to skip races for now and take a look at classes first.
Classes
Somebody said somewhere that they're planning on having "common", "uncommon", and "rare" classes in the next edition. I don't have any problems dividing them up into categories, although I think they could have better labels. Instead...
"Core" classes; basically the Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric; are basically the fundamental core of Dungeons and Dragons. Those four classes define the game, more or less, kinda... I haven't actually played the game that much so I'm not quite sure. Anyways, they're the archetypical classes of the game, simple to understand with clearly defined roles. A beginner player shouldn't have much difficulty figuring out these classes and I think that can be the key part of "core" classes.
"Hybrid" classes will include the Paladin, Ranger, Bard, and Druid. These classes will be a bit more complex with less clearly defined roles. Although not quite as good as the core classes in their primary strengths, "hybrid"s combine different aspects of the core classes to create something that's more versatile and package that stronger than a simple sum of their parts. A player who's looking for a bit more complexity can go for this, or for more complex variations of the core classes.
"Specialized" classes will include the Assassin, Barbarian, Warlock, and Monk. These classes have rather clear roles for the most part, but have mechanics that go a bit more against the grain than most. They naturally start little complex for specialized purposes and gets the player to rethink the basic rules a bit. These are mostly logical extensions of core or hybrid classes that require too much in terms of special rules to simply be a variation on an existing class. This is for players who're already familiar with the basic rules and is looking for something different or specific.
I'm not saying that these should be the exact classes that should be included in each category, I'm just giving examples. I don't think starting off with twelve classes, four in each category, would be too bad; it'll provide something for everyone right off the bat. That said, to summarize:
- Core classes; like Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric; are the simple basic classes that are easy to learn and recognise with clear, distinct roles.
- Hybrid classes; like Paladin, Ranger, Bard, and Druid; are somewhat more complex classes with not quite as clear roles. Typically coming from hybrids of core classes.
- Specialized classes; like Assassin, Barbarian, Warlock, and Monk; are more complex due to having special rules. Typically an extension of a core or hybrid class.
Themes
Next is themes, I guess. I think they're going to effectively replace skill selection and represent the character's background and such. I do like that it somewhat shows that the player character has a bit of a life beyond adventuring in the rules, it seems simpler yet more meaningful than assigning skill points. There was mention of a sort of "growth" mechanic also adding into it, which seems like it's going to be the way of customizing themes. I think they'll probably come in the form of some sort of traits for your character to choose from, much like feats. Hopefully there won't be too many of them.
Progression
The ideas of having flatter yet simple yet meaningful progression across levels sounds nice, but it makes me somewhat wonder how it's going to be done. Having two of the three is easy; the latter two can be fulfilled just by adding a bunch of numbers together each level. All three seems a bit more difficult. That said, I want to see how things can be.
- Level Zero: This is where characters are before they choose a class. They roll for their abilities, pick a race, yadda, yadda, yadda. Alright, I'm going with a hit point system where the character adds their Constitution value to a racial bonus to determine their starting hit points, and add their class bonus for each level. Let's say it's a 12 Constitution character with a Human bonus, which we'll say is 4. That'll be 16 pre-level one hit points.
- Level 1: Choosing their class gets them to level 1. Assuming Fighter, who'll get (let's say) 6 bonus hit points, so a total of 22. What else would a level 1 fighter get? Martial/Military Weapon and Medium Armour proficiency. And that's it for level 1. I think that's good, they know how to use the equipment. For level 1, I think that's good enough.
- Level 2: Another 6, so 28 hit points now. I'd like to just say Weapon Skill +1(which will give +1 to hit), but that seems a bit lacking, so let's say he gets +2 to Athletics too. The bonuses need to be enough so that they can be traded in for extra complexity later.
- Level 3: +6 hit points, so 34 total. Let's say... +1 AC and +2 Heal. Since we raised offence last level, defence this time sounds good, right?
- Level 4: +6 again, 40 total now. It should be noted that if the entire Strength(minus 10) is used as a bonus, each hit would be dealing around (assuming 1d8 weapon and 16 Strength) 10 damage by now, well, since the beginning, actually. Maybe it's time to raise that with +1 close combat damage. I suppose that'll go with... +2 perception? Sure, why not?
- Level 5: Yay, Level 5, I like their games. Err... anyways, we're at 46 hit points now, finally doubled what we had at level 1. Let's say character level 5 would be where we get our first ability point, so let's put that into Strength so it's 17 now. As for the class bonus, it'll be pretty simple to just repeat the level 2 bonus, but let's do level 1 instead. Heavy Armour proficiency. You're a real fighter now.
- Level 6: 52 hit points now. I suppose going back to the +1 to the weapon skill check will be alright now, although now that I think of it, it should work with unarmed as well. Well, whatever. I'm hesitant to giving just the same skill bonus again due to potential stacking problems, so how about +2 to Intimidate instead?
- Level 7: It's now 58 hit points. On the repeat track, +1 AC, +2 Endurance, I suppose.
- Level 8: 64 hit points. +1 weapon damage, +2... what? What haven't I picked yet... Insight! Sure!
- Level 9: Almost there with 70 hit points... I'm running out of stuff to add. Oh, +2 to Initiative! I forgot about that.
- Level 10: Finally there. 76 hit points. Another ability point, again into Strength, so 18(cap). For the class feature... +1 movement. That'll be nice.
Alright, so for the first ten levels, I've gotten... from level 1: 22 hit points, +6 to hit, 1d8 + 6 damage, 16 AC(I suppose it's something like that) and 5 movement(or something like that).
Level 10 is: 76 hit points(+54), +10 to hit(+4), 1d8+10 damage(+4, although I guess they'll probably get a better weapon at this point), 18 AC(+2), and 6 movement(+1)(or something like that). Also +2 to a bunch of skills.
The most notable progression is in the hit points, but hopefully damage from the enemies will scale up for it. That said, I wonder if this sort of scaling would work. To summarize:
- Level Zero: 16 hit points
- Level 1: +6 hit points(22). Martial/Military Weapon and Medium Armour proficiency
- Level 2: +6 hit points(28). +1 BAB, +2 Athletics
- Level 3: +6 hit points(34). +1 AC, +2 Heal
- Level 4: +6 hit points(40). +1 damage, +2 Perception
- Level 5: +6 hit points(46). (+1 Ability). Heavy Armour proficiency
- Level 6: +6 hit points(52). +1 BAB, +2 Intimidate
- Level 7: +6 hit points(58). +1 AC, +2 Endurance
- Level 8: +6 hit points(64). +1 damage, +2 Insight
- Level 9: +6 hit points(70). +2 initiative
- Level 10: +6 hit points(76). (+1 Ability). +1 movement
I made this in mind as the "base" version where the fighter just walks up to the bad guy and bashes them with whatever weapon is in hand. It also comes with the idea that level 1 isn't too heavily loaded to prevent dipping in just for its bonuses(assuming 3E style multi-classing). I'm not quite sure if I like the idea of putting in skill bonuses like that, but I couldn't think of another way of keeping the relative power flat while still having at least something that could be replaced with more complex options.
One alternative way could be to alternate, let's say, Theme levels and Class levels, so even if you're level 10, for example, you're only class level 5. That way, you can have less spread across more levels. If you add in Race levels, then you might go through quite a bit without actually raising your class level all that much.
---END---
Er... Thank you for getting through all of this. It's just some stuff I came up with while I was bored. I'm not actually all that experienced with D&D, so if there are some critically wrong errors or something here, I would appreciate knowing. I like games in general and would like to learn more about them. So thank you again.
