So, one thing I miss about AD&D and BECMI is the weapon specialization and mastery rules, and from AD&D especially, the martial arts system from Oriental Adventures and Complete Ninja's Handbook. I do not like that unarmed combat and mystical fighting techniques are the sole province of the Monk class. Also, given that feats have been completely reworked from their implementation in 3e and 4e, are optional and compete for precious character-building resources, I do not want this system to be feat-based.
Weapon Mastery is tricky, because most of the advantages of weapon mastery in the systems that featured it are duplicated by Fighter and Champion class features-- bonuses to hit and to damage, extra attacks, increased critical chance and effect. (BECMI had morale effects and weapons-based special effects, too.) Trying to replicate these would generally mean diminishing the Fighter's effectiveness relative to other classes; for instance, compare granting an 11th level Barbarian or Paladin a third attack compared to granting an 11th level Fighter a fourth. Bounded accuracy means that to-hit bonuses are problematic.
So, I'm not sure what weapon mastery would even do in this system. I'm stumped.
On the other side of things, the martial arts rules would basically mean cannibalizing the Monk in bite-size chunks. All of the Monk class features would be on the chopping block, with the Monk's main appeal being the ability to have all of them, and generally more martial arts goodness than the other classes.
So, the general abilities PCs of all classes should be able to obtain from the Monk:
It occurs to me that as much as I complain about the Rolemasterization of D&D by turning classes into bizarrely structured training packages, I am essentially doing the same thing here by parceling out class abilities with some kind of feat-like system. Maybe I just can't get D&D to do what I'm trying to get it to do.
Weapon Mastery is tricky, because most of the advantages of weapon mastery in the systems that featured it are duplicated by Fighter and Champion class features-- bonuses to hit and to damage, extra attacks, increased critical chance and effect. (BECMI had morale effects and weapons-based special effects, too.) Trying to replicate these would generally mean diminishing the Fighter's effectiveness relative to other classes; for instance, compare granting an 11th level Barbarian or Paladin a third attack compared to granting an 11th level Fighter a fourth. Bounded accuracy means that to-hit bonuses are problematic.
So, I'm not sure what weapon mastery would even do in this system. I'm stumped.
On the other side of things, the martial arts rules would basically mean cannibalizing the Monk in bite-size chunks. All of the Monk class features would be on the chopping block, with the Monk's main appeal being the ability to have all of them, and generally more martial arts goodness than the other classes.
So, the general abilities PCs of all classes should be able to obtain from the Monk:
- The entire Martial Arts class feature, with increased unarmed damage requiring further investment.
- Ki Pool
- Flurry of Blows
- Various Ki Abilities
- Saving Throw proficiencies?
- Resistances and Immunities
It occurs to me that as much as I complain about the Rolemasterization of D&D by turning classes into bizarrely structured training packages, I am essentially doing the same thing here by parceling out class abilities with some kind of feat-like system. Maybe I just can't get D&D to do what I'm trying to get it to do.
