D&D 3E/3.5 Think I Have Finally Figured Out How To Fix 3.5 (it took a decade)

[Zardnaar]

No reason you can't add reserve feats back in. Did Pathfinder make cantrips at will? I can't remember.

 

[Zardnaar]

The part about 4e-5e cantrips that matters to me is the always-on at-will magic. It makes it clear that the character is magical. Not the bat dung.



I agree that (well thought out and balanced) prestige classes can work instead of 5e archetypes.



Give me an example, of ‘microfeats’ that you have in mind.

When I was thinking about customizing 5e D&D races, it became clear to me, that each official race was worth a certain number of feats.

If I remember correctly, all of the racial traits of a Wood Elf is worth seven feats total.

A +2 ability score improvement is worth a whole feat.
A +1 ability score improvement is worth half a feat.
A major trait (like Darkvision, Speed +5) is worth a feat.
Four minor traits (like a skill proficiency, weapon proficiency, extra language, elf-trance, resistance to sleep, etcetera) are equal to one feat.

When it comes to races, I strongly support the options of swapping out a major trait for a different major trait, like swapping out Darkvision for a significant magical ability. Likewise, I am fine with swapping out a minor trait, like a racial weapon proficiency for a different minor trait like elf-trance.

So maybe I agree with you. I havent measured classes this way, in units of feats. But in principle I am fine with swapping out features.

To drop something you dont like to gain something you do like is fine by me. The new feature wont be more powerful, but it can be more flavorful and meaningful.

On my phone I can post some microfeats later.

You might be a bot generous with some of your feat breakdowns for the races but your ideas not to far off.

 

[Yaarel]

When I allowed more powerful races to be played as characters, I ditched the system 3.5Ed had in place and simply used “Racial Class Levels”. They were full levels, just like classes, and progression got you the racial abilities the critters were noted for. That meant, for example, you could play a Minotaur from 1st level, but it might take you a while to accumulate tall the classic abilities- if you ever did.

Come to think of it, perhaps most of the monster characters work well as a ‘prestige class’ levels 1 to 4.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The one major change I had envisioned for running my 3.5Ed campaigns, but never got a chance to try, was to change the way undead drained life.

As it stood, the original was a decent way to model what the powere said it did. But it could involve a lot of math, and- though I don’t fear complexity- I felt this was too complex.

Instead, I was going to tie life draining into the system’s Fatigue rules. Each time the target was successfully drained, they’d be subject to increasing fatigue.

Fatigued
A fatigued character can neither run nor charge and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted. After 8 hours of complete rest, fatigued characters are no longer fatigued.

Exhausted
An exhausted character moves at half speed and takes a -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. After 1 hour of complete rest, an exhausted character becomes fatigued. A fatigued character becomes exhausted by doing something else that would normally cause fatigue.

Staggered
A character whose nonlethal damage exactly equals his current hit points is staggered. A staggered character may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can she take full-round actions).

A character whose current hit points exceed his nonlethal damage is no longer staggered; a character whose nonlethal damage exceeds his hit points becomes unconscious.

Unconscious
Knocked out and helpless. Unconsciousness can result from having current hit points between -1 and -9, or from nonlethal damage in excess of current hit points.

(To clarify- this shouldn't happen on 4 consecutive hits. That would be too much, too fast. It needs to be conditional.)

Simpler modifiers, much more streamlined, but still just as scary as the drains started to accumulate. And it still models the draining of vitae without necessarily doing damage.

 

[Yaarel]

On my phone I can post some microfeats later.

You might be a bot generous with some of your feat breakdowns for the races but your ideas not to far off.

I double checked the thread where I worked on assessing the core races.

In the end I was measuring them by half-feat units.

[Update]
• ability score +2 = feat
• ability score +1 = half feat
• four proficiencies = half feat
• proficiency (skill, tool, language, weapon, armor, cantrip)
• heavy armor (light → medium → heavy) = 3 proficiencies


The most powerful race, strictly speaking, is the Half Elf. The least is the Halfling.

The breakdown of the Half Elf is as follows.


Half Elf

1 feat
(Charisma +2).

3 half-feats
(Any ability +1).
(Any ability +1).
(Darkvision).

1 proficiency
(Primary language: Common).

6 proficiencies
(Trance).
(Charm resilience).
(Skill proficiency).
(Skill proficiency).
(Language: Elven).
(Language: Any).



So, in total, the Half Elf is worth 3.375 feats.

I decided to make all custom races equal to exactly 3 feats plus two extra proficiencies.

 

[Zardnaar]

I double checked the thread where I worked on assessing the core races.

In the end I was measuring them by half-feat units.

The most powerful race, strictly speaking, is the Half Elf. The least is the Halfling.

The breakdown of the Half Elf is as follows.


Half Elf

1 feat
(Charisma +2).

3 half-feats.
(Any ability +1).
(Any ability +1).
(Darkvision).

1 quarter-feat.
(Primary language: Common).

6 quarter-feats
(Trance).
(Charm resilience).
(Skill proficiency).
(Skill proficiency).
(Language: Elven).
(Language: Any).



So, in total, the Half Elf is worth a bit over eight half-feats.

I decided to make all custom races equal to exactly 4 feats (namely, eight half-feats).

Not all ability score combinations are created equal though. Tieflings for example.

I would also putvhalflings over Dragonborn. Not sure how Drow stack up against Tieflings either.

 

[Yaarel]

Not all ability score combinations are created equal though. Tieflings for example.

I would also putvhalflings over Dragonborn. Not sure how Drow stack up against Tieflings either.

This assessment was in 2017.

At the time, the Tiefling appeared to be a moderately powerful race.

The ranking is as follows from most to least:

Half Elf, Wood Elf, Drow Elf, Half Orc, Tiefling, High Elf, Mountain Dwarf, Hill Dwarf, Forest Gnome, Rock Gnome, Variant Human, Dragonborn, Stout Halfling, Lightfoot Halfling.



Note, the slow speed and loss of weapon access detract from the total ranking of the Halfling. The slowness cancels one of the half feats. The smallness cancels one of the proficiencies.

Note, some of the rankings differ only by a single proficiency, so one wouldnt really feel the difference in gameplay. But the distance between the Half Elf and the Halfling is over a feat.

The ranking of the variant human assumes hypothetically that all feats are created equal. Since some feats are strictly much more powerful than other feats, gaining one of the near-broken feats at level 1, can make certain human character builds way more powerful. But the problem is the feats themselves, not the human per se.



I assume players will optimize their options according to their build. I like this, because min-maxing helps create a concept with a salient flavor. Nevertheless, any combo is 100% DMs discretion and players understand that the result is a judgment call. And they know I care about balance, so they dont even bother with wonky overpowered combos.

For the most part, this assessment and ranking was to understand the implications of swapping one trait for an other. A single swap tends to be simple and easy to ballpark. I havent really needed to refer to the assessment for customizing a race. When customizing elf races, for example, I just used the Half Elf as the base, and swapped in the relevant features. Heh, my Elves are always Charisma races anyway. I pretty much just delete the name ‘Half’. Swapping out the Darkvision andor an ability +1, andor swap out a skill for a cantrip, is plenty of flexibility to achieve most concepts.

 

[Zardnaar]

This assessment was in 2017.

At the time, the Tiefling appeared to be a moderately powerful race.

The ranking is as follows from most to least:

Half Elf, Wood Elf, Drow Elf, Half Orc, Tiefling, High Elf, Mountain Dwarf, Hill Dwarf, Forest Gnome, Rock Gnome, Variant Human, Dragonborn, Stout Halfling, Lightfoot Halfling.



Note, the slow speed and loss of weapon access detract from the total ranking of the Halfling. The slowness cancels one of the half feats. The smallness cancels one of the proficiencies.

Note, some of the rankings differ only by a single proficiency, so one wouldnt really feel the difference in gameplay. But the distance between the Half Elf and the Halfling is over a feat.

The ranking of the variant human assumes hypothetically that all feats are created equal. Since some feats are strictly much more powerful than other feats, gaining one of the near-broken feats at level 1, can make certain human character builds way more powerful. But the problem is the feats themselves, not the human per se.



I assume players will optimize their options according to their build. I like this, because min-maxing helps create a concept with a salient flavor. Nevertheless, any combo is 100% DMs discretion and players understand that the result is a judgment call. And they know I care about balance, so they dont even bother with wonky overpowered combos.

Not a bad list, I don't think I would disagree to much maybe with the Tiefling. I made a kickass halfling fighter but it used some 3pp feats.

Anyway some of my microfeats and explanations

Some are 5E ones cut into pieces.

Alert
You can’t be surprised while conscious
Other creatures do not gain advantage to hit you if they are hidden from you.

Actor
You have advantage on any deception or performance checks made to pass yourself off as a different person.
You can mimic the sounds made by another person or creature. You must have heard the person or creature talking or making those sounds for at least a minute. A successful charisma (deception) check opposed by a wisdom (insight) check indicates success.

Healer
When using a healing kit you may restore hit points to a being. You gain the following benefits.

When you stabilize a dying character you restore them to 0 hit points.

As an action you can restore 1d6+4+ your level hit points to a creature. A creature cannot regain hit points from this feat again until it completes a long rest.


Some are based on 3.5, updated to more modern mechanics.

Cleave [martial]
Once per round when you reduce an opponent to 0 hit points or less with a melee attack you can make an additional attack against an opponent within reach as a bonus action.

Combat Expertise You gain disadvantage on your attack rolls. Your opponents gain disadvantage on attack rolls against you. You can only use this feat while making melee attacks.

THe odd mechanical one.
Dagger Master [martial]
You gain gains a +2 bonus to initiative and +2 bonus to hit when using daggers.


Some bad 3.X feats got merged.

Divine Boon
The gods favor you and have blessed you with a portion of their power. You gain a +2 bonus on all saving throws.

or tweaked

Great Fortitude
You gain advantage on fortitude saves.

And others are based on 4E or ported from 4E.

Dwarven Resilience
As a reaction you gain resistance to an incoming source of damage. This ability can be used one per short rest.


Dwarven Weapon Training [Dwarf, Martial)]
Requirement: Dwarf
Benefit: You gain proficiency and a +2 bonus to damage rolls with axes and hammers.

Power Attack
You may take a -2 penalty to hit with a weapon that is does not have the light or finesse property. You gain a +3 bonus to all melee attacks.

Not I use 5E terms and round stucture, these are copy and pastes from my personal D&D I am playing with. I've done over 50 of them drawing on 3.5, Pathfinder, 4E, 5E and Star Wars Saga Edition.

.

 

[Horwath]

I double checked the thread where I worked on assessing the core races.

In the end I was measuring them by half-feat units.

[Update]
• ability score +2 = feat
• ability score +1 = half feat
• four proficiencies = half feat
• proficiency (skill, tool, language, weapon, armor, cantrip)
• heavy armor (light → medium → heavy) = 3 proficiencies


The most powerful race, strictly speaking, is the Half Elf. The least is the Halfling.

The breakdown of the Half Elf is as follows.


Half Elf

1 feat
(Charisma +2).

3 half-feats
(Any ability +1).
(Any ability +1).
(Darkvision).

1 proficiency
(Primary language: Common).

6 proficiencies
(Trance).
(Charm resilience).
(Skill proficiency).
(Skill proficiency).
(Language: Elven).
(Language: Any).



So, in total, the Half Elf is worth 3.375 feats.

I decided to make all custom races equal to exactly 3 feats plus two extra proficiencies.

I have made variant where races do not get any ability boosts, just racial features and no ability boosts from classes. only feats. 2 half feats without ability boost instead a normal feat.

Every player got the same ability array or similar to that is they wanted to.

standard array would be; 18,16,14,14,12,10.
High powered campaign: 20,18,16,14,12,10.
Low powered: 16,14,12,12,10,10

 

[Ancalagon]

Is the moon druid really broken? I thought that the consensus was that it was really strong only for a few levels then not that special.

Edit: I may have misunderstood. You are saying that the 3e wild shape is OP, not 5e?