D&D 4E My homebrew 4E, suggested for the next edition

[Chaos Trip Studios]

Bring back random hit points. Been doing this from the start, 5 hp per level equals 1d10 plus Con. Works just fine.

No at-will powers for warrior types. Fighters get to add half their level to damage for basic attacks though.

No more small ball. A bonus that gives you a +1 bonus to something for one round is going to be forgetten and usually is.

What to keep: default setting and cosmology. So glad they stopped ripping off Tolkien and came up with a very workable high fantasy setting.

That's my .02. Anybody else want to chime in?

As a PS, I am worried about all this talk about making fans of every edition happy. The Pathfinder people are already happy, with Pathfinder. Sae for those of us who think 4E is fun. Not sure where this is going.

 

[Jawsh]

Bring back random hit points. Been doing this from the start, 5 hp per level equals 1d10 plus Con. Works just fine.

Yes, works fine if you're a DM with a spine, like me and you. However, I've recently discovered a cluster of DMs who try to do the roll-your-hp thing, and crumble when players cry "I only rolled a 3!" Better if the rules inoculate against this, and firmer DMs can implement houserules that they can support.

No at-will powers for warrior types. Fighters get to add half their level to damage for basic attacks though.

Didn't Essentials basically do that?

No more small ball. A bonus that gives you a +1 bonus to something for one round is going to be forgetten and usually is.

I agree in principle. I'd have to see some examples in practice though.

I've also discovered in 4E that too many powers work off of your ability modifier, and this combined with the fact that your primary ability is often 18-20 and not particularly variable, leads to a static and inflated effect. It's power creep from the get-go.

Another houserule: any monster that is not a leader, elite, or solo will attempt to make a tactical withdrawal upon being bloodied. Subject to the DM's adjudication, the monster will make a reasonable attempt to retreat, avoiding AoOs, and continuing to snipe as it retreats.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

As a PS, I am worried about all this talk about making fans of every edition happy. The Pathfinder people are already happy, with Pathfinder. Sae for those of us who think 4E is fun. Not sure where this is going.

I wouldn't worry about it. I think this whole kumbaya thing is either extreme naivety on WotC's part or an empty marketing gimmick (more likely).

 

[SteveC]

I think as options, these are fine, but as an only option? No way. In general I've seen a lot of threads like this that want to bring back retro rules. If we're presenting them as options, hey that's fine, but as the only option? Heck no.

One thing that I really hope the new edition does not do is return us to the days where you had to sift through all the DM's houserules before playing the game.

I'd like to sentence GMs like that to play in a rolled stat game where their best stat is 9, and they roll a 1 for their hit points for the entire campaign.

 

[mkill]

Bring back random hit points. Been doing this from the start, 5 hp per level equals 1d10 plus Con. Works just fine.

No thanks.
DM Reason: Players can't level up without my supervision. The game shouldn't tempt people to cheat. Even if people don't cheat, good hp values create unnecessary suspicion.
Player Reason 1: I want complete control over my PC's stats.
Player Reason 2: If the main tank rolls poorly on hp, the whole party suffers.

No at-will powers for warrior types. Fighters get to add half their level to damage for basic attacks though.

No thanks. I want at least two or three options to choose from, no matter which class I choose.

I can understand that people criticize the martial encounter and daily powers as gamist concepts with poor in-game explanations, but what's the problem with at-wills?

 

[Chaos Trip Studios]

Most at-will powers for martial classes are not much different than a basic attack and players who skip them do not suffer. The encounter and daily powers are the ones that actually do something. The only reason casters need at-wills is because their basic attacks are worthless.

My thing is stream lining 4E so it isn't clunky.

If you are worried about your players cheating, don't play with jerks.

Seriously, rolled stats and rolled hp should be the rule, with optional rules for point buy or static hp, which was how d20 did it.

4E hit its stride when they stopped forcing all classes into the same mold. The psion class has no encounter powers at all, for example.

I know nothing of Essentials and cannot comment.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Bring back random hit points. Been doing this from the start, 5 hp per level equals 1d10 plus Con. Works just fine.

No at-will powers for warrior types. Fighters get to add half their level to damage for basic attacks though.

I think these are good options. Wouldn't mandate them -- my campaigns I always gave players the option of either rolling or taking a fixed number for hit points.

No more small ball. A bonus that gives you a +1 bonus to something for one round is going to be forgetten and usually is.

Agreed, big time. Little nitpicky stuff like this that is situation dependent just slows the game down.

What to keep: default setting and cosmology. So glad they stopped ripping off Tolkien and came up with a very workable high fantasy setting.

Disagree significantly on this. The wholesale changes made to D&D fluff & cosmology that broke with 30 years of established tradition was one of the deal-breakers for me in 4E. I'd like to see the assumed baseline dialed back an edition or two.

As a PS, I am worried about all this talk about making fans of every edition happy. The Pathfinder people are already happy, with Pathfinder. Sae for those of us who think 4E is fun. Not sure where this is going.

Yep, you can't please everyone; at best they'll satisfy 80%. I hope they realize this, because they can fail badly trying to go that extra mile to capture the last, irreconcilable 20%.

 

[unan oranis]

Bring back random hit points. Been doing this from the start, 5 hp per level equals 1d10 plus Con. Works just fine.

No at-will powers for warrior types. Fighters get to add half their level to damage for basic attacks though.

No more small ball. A bonus that gives you a +1 bonus to something for one round is going to be forgetten and usually is.

What to keep: default setting and cosmology. So glad they stopped ripping off Tolkien and came up with a very workable high fantasy setting.

That's my .02. Anybody else want to chime in?

As a PS, I am worried about all this talk about making fans of every edition happy. The Pathfinder people are already happy, with Pathfinder. Sae for those of us who think 4E is fun. Not sure where this is going.

Where it's going? I'm hoping you can play a nearly perfect 4e character clone, and your pal has got a nearly perfect 1e character clone in the same adventure, somehow.

Also you will be using some sort of power to save your friend from a save or die, and you won't be upset with your dm, somehow.

 

[avin]

Bring back random hit points. Been doing this from the start, 5 hp per level equals 1d10 plus Con. Works just fine.

Easy to modulate, fix for some, random for others. I see no problem at all here.

No at-will powers for warrior types. Fighters get to add half their level to damage for basic attacks though.

I would say: no more encounter powers for Fighter. That doesn't make (fluff) sense IMO, no matter how good are the efforts to justify that.

What to keep: default setting and cosmology. So glad they stopped ripping off Tolkien and came up with a very workable high fantasy setting.

This is the thing that should NOT be default per se. 4E Manual of the Planes set the new cosmology but explained how the Great Wheel (what has this to do with Tolkien???) worked.

5E must set NO default cosmology, but gives us lot of cosmologies to choose or guidelines for creating our own.

I like some ideas from 4E Cosmology (Faerie and Shadow as parallel, for example), but can't stand the duality of everything (you can't have Yugoloths because everything is watered down to Gods vs Primordials)... and I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate Elemental Chaos...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew

 

[Walking Dad]

Bring back random hit points. Been doing this from the start, 5 hp per level equals 1d10 plus Con. Works just fine.

Sounds like a nice optional rule, but I don't see personally the need to make a character stronger or weaker because of a roll between adventures.
Why do you like it?

No at-will powers for warrior types. Fighters get to add half their level to damage for basic attacks though.

I prefer essentials basic attack plus an extra, than just increased damage = boring.

No more small ball. A bonus that gives you a +1 bonus to something for one round is going to be forgetten and usually is.

Agreed for conditional bonuses. If I apply the bonus every time, I can just write +8 to attacks instead of +7 on my sheet and never forget it.

...

As a PS, I am worried about all this talk about making fans of every edition happy. The Pathfinder people are already happy, with Pathfinder. Sae for those of us who think 4E is fun. Not sure where this is going.

Agreed. Not bringing back all the slaughtered sacred cows from pre-4e and telling "this is for everyone".