Dear Unregistered! We notice you don't currently have a silver subscription here on EN World. We'd love to encourage you to give it a try, so we've made this coupon for $5 off your first 4-month Silver Subscription. Simply go to the subscription page and enter coupon code SILVER. With that subscription you get access to TWO adventure paths, which between them cover D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, and D&D 4th Edition - War of the Burning Sky (which has been completed) and ZEITGEIST: The Gears of Revolution (which is currently ongoing). You also get a whole bunch of site perks and features here on EN World, including access to the Search function, images and links in your forum signature, a larger PM box, give out more XP at a time, and more. Please give a try; we're proud of our adventure paths, and we're sure you'll love them both!
New Horizons: The Upcoming Edition of D&DD&D 5th Edition, D&D Next - whatever you want to call it, talk about it here!
All the latest EN World
official reviews, columns, and subscriber articles here.
Don't have your subscription yet? It's only $3 a month and you can grab
it right
here!
Monte talks about "Although we don't currently see universal consensus on this, it seems likely that there are a handful of things from prior editions that we don't want to bring forward into a new iteration of D&D. Not everything about every version of the game was absolutely golden."
Vote, in this poll, for rules systems that you and your friends would probably or most likely use if they were included as optional sidebars in D&D5th edition...
I voted for Action Points but I was voting for Eberron's "add +1d6 to my attack roll". I was not voting for 4e "make one turn take longer than normal every other fight". Sometimes you just really need to turn a miss into a hit.
I voted for Critical Hits but I think PCs should be the only ones allowed to crit. As game designers, like Monte, have mentioned: crits against PCs are very difficult to handle "well" (with the rules).
I voted for Magic Missiles That Never Miss because variety is the spice of life. Some spells automatically hit, some spells require an attack roll, and some spells have a saving throw.
I voted for Morale Rules but I think they should only apply to NPCs.
I voted for Saving Throws but you should never have a Saving Throw and an Attack Roll at the same time. One or the other for each spell.
I voted for Action points, Critical Hits, Feats, Magic Missiles that never miss, Morale rules, Saving Throws, Skills, Weapon Speed, and Weapon vs Armor tables.
We use Action points in Pathfinder and when we started using them in 3.5 they definitely lead to an improvement of play at table. Giving the PCs a regulated way to "break the rules" when they feel it's time to do so was very helpful to them in achieving heroic ways. I don't like the 4e version of action points, however. Far too limited in their utility.
I'd like to see a return of 2e morale ratings and rules for NPCs and monsters. At the worst, they're another stat to help characterize a monster in a quick and easy fashion even if you don't use the rule for the creature to fail morale and run.
I very much prefer saving throws to static defenses. They work in conjunction with action points very well. Plus, it puts the defense and any reroll mechanics (like luck feats) in the player's hands which is better than putting them in the DM's hands as attack rolls.
I voted for weapon speeds because I think 3e gave up too much ground to the heavier end of weapons (and that includes spells) with respect to damage and effect without bringing in their drawbacks that they tend to be slower to bring to bear. Daggers need more lovin' compared to the greataxe in some situations. Same with magic missile compared to encounter-ending save or sit spells.
I voted for weapon vs armor tables because heavy bludgeoning weapons need some lovin' too. Who takes a mace if they have a better weapon proficiency available? But back in 1e, that mace did better against armored enemies than several other more common weapons like long swords. I don't see a need for a terribly detailed table, but a weapon property that makes it better for punching through higher armor values would be welcome in my book.
__________________ Bill D
"There's a fine line between a superpower and a chronic medical condition."
- Doctor Impossible
Interesting, the two most wanted things so far is critical hits and skills.
That's not surprising to me.
Skills (in whatever form) are the primary way of differentiating characters in a non-combat capacity.
Critical hits (again, in whatever form) are fairly uncontroversial way of adding fun swinginess to combat and letting the players feel awesome.
There are more important game elements (well, more important than critical hits) further down the list like Vancian and non-Vancian magic, but there are some strong differing opinions on those rules elements. Feats are also popular as a means of character differentiation, but there are plenty of folks who didn't like how they developed (once you started having over a hundred to choose from) and we've seen other methods of in-combat character differentiation like powers, talent trees and other selectable class abilities.
Weapons vs. Armor table. If they manage to implement that in a way that is evocative and doesn't bog down play, I'd love it, but it's optional.
Not Like:
Exotic Weapons. Make all weapons equally useful. Spiked chain etc. should be roughly equal as longsword, with a special feat or so to unlock the awesome.
Lots of bonus types. Half of what made 3E such a Charop fest.
For the rest, I don't care. If 5E won't have kits, saving throws, PrCs or skills, then it will have something else with a similar effect.
__________________ Banned for a month on RPG.net for being funny.
I only checked 5 things, but go ahead with all of them, as long as none of them are core (well, almost none; feats and one of the types of magic could be core).
I voted for Action Points, Critical Hits, Feats, Healing Surges, Kits, Magic Missiles Never Miss, Non-vancian magic, Prestige Classes, Skills, and Weapon Versus Armor Table.
Action Points: I like a player being able to somewhat negate the randomness a d20 institutes when they feel an important outcome rests in their hands, and adding some form of bonus seems to be the best way to do this.
Critical Hits: Who doesn't like smacking the goblin just that much harder when your die shows up a natural 20?
Feats: Though I felt a lot was just bloat, I like being able to tweak my character to shape them into what I want them to be after level 1.
Healing Surges: I like the idea that there is a limited amount of stuff any one person's body can go through in a day. I thought the implementation in 4e could have used some work, but with a little polish I think Healing Surges make the abstraction of HP work that much more and also eliminate that "quiver of CLW wands" mentality.
Kits: I like saying "I'm not a thief-y rogue, I'm a dashing swashbuckler" and having more than fluff to represent that, no matter what mechanic lets me do it. And I want this to occur at level 1.
Magic Missiles Never Miss: Its just cool to have automatic damage when you can't throw fireballs anymore.
Non-Vancian Magic: Certain parts of Spells per Day feel artificial to me, such as not being able to "forget" your 3rd use of Fireball to use some other spell you realize now would help a lot more in the coming encounters. Though I would be fine with Vancian magic if they provided default explanations of why spells work this way.
Prestige Classes: It adds a sense of advancement and scale to the game world, imo. But, that being said, I think they should be limited in number and each should provide unique mechanics and flavor: making your character cooler, not more powerful than core classes.
Skills: We aren't defined by our innate attributes completely, and have the ability to learn things even if we are not very talented in that area. I, for example, would not consider myself a very charismatic person, but I can play the saxophone quite well. Characters should be able to become decent at things their attributes are opposed to as well. This should be a module imo though.
Weapons Versus Armor Table: Plate sucks versus crossbows, chain doesn't help versus hammers, etc. These are why so many types of armor and weapons exist in real life so I would like a module to add this layer of simulation to my game.
I think keeping saving throws would be a mistake. 4e style attacker always rolls to hit works really well.
I think you could have both; first the attacker would target your defenses (10 + saving throw bonus + other bonuses), and if it hits, you get to save at the end of your round. It'd be nice if not all effects would be "save ends", though; it could work like 4E diseases. For example, a ghast might target your Fortitude and make you slowed, and then you'd roll (say, +6 Fort vs. DC 15). If you fail, you become paralyzed, but you get another save to see if you improve your condition to slowed again (and the next successful save would end the effect on you).
Recent News
Banned for a month on RPG.net for being funny. 
Linear Mode
