Rules in 3.5 that need fixing and what you'd do to fix it.

[Zelda Themelin]

Here are few things. some I've done and some I intend to do.

Min skill poits per lv 4 (no those 2 points things, I hate them, houseruled it long time ago)
No cross-class skills. Instad give some classes abilites that make some skills better for the.

Drop whole favored class thing.

Skill max rank for npc class removed. So it's possible to make within rules low lv
npc (or even pc if he wants to take such class) with really high skills.

Skill bundle ideas might work, or might now, needs more comparing, really.

Undead turning rule begs changing. I don't have clear good idea yet how it should go, but first I'd remove table.

No separate epic ruleset. More stuff yes, but not x1000 magic item prices and other silliness. Level progression continues normally over that 20th level. Been there done that. Worked great. Normal attack number stayed at max 4. Barring two-weapon styles and creatures with multiple limbs.

Different kinda "epic" magic system. Current one is mess. This is not so
relevant since making really big changes through magic tends to be world related.

Drop all those +2/+2 feats. Or as I do. Give every pc two extra background feats, and let them fill them with feats like those.

Drop paladin. Make some champion class instead abilities variying depending on alignment and/or deity domains.

Drop LA. I dropped it.

I want few 3.0 and older edition spells back. Long list.

Artifacts back to artifacts.

I hate what 3.5 did to damage reduction. I don't want to carry around multiple weapons. Neither do my players. Yes there should be monsters only affected by "x", but they should be rare. Rest should be just affected by weapon magic enchantments as in 3.0.

I agree what Aaron L said about Extra ability.

Spell resistance shoudn't work as double save. Maybe caster lv should be factor here instead. And monsters could be immune to more than elements. Like immune to enchantments etc. PC already have such abilites.

Too many monster types.

Make all monsters templates that should be, like undead, but also ones like dire.

Remove limitations like no multiclassing or loose abilities. And also limitations like druid weapons. Stones and metals are part of nature too after all.

To get rid of prestige class overdose, just make all class abilites (yes even those base classes gain) available among feat list. Give them prereqs (in many cases not in form of feat chain though).

 

[solkan_uk]

I hate what 3.5 did to damage reduction. I don't want to carry around multiple weapons. Neither do my players. Yes there should be monsters only affected by "x", but they should be rare. Rest should be just affected by weapon magic enchantments as in 3.0.

I like the change in 3.5, it rewards those characters/players that research what they're facing, and removes the reliance on one particular weapon to exclusion of all others.

However I do think they're overused, most monsters should be killable with a mundane sword, of course magic makes it easier...

 

[JVisgaitis]

Speed is another thing I've changed in my games, and made it simpler, IMO.

I don't think its simpler then saying the base speed is either 20 or 30 feet, but I think its a cool way to get different speeds for characters.

 

[Crysmalon]

Simplify and/or remove (and adjust feats/skills to reflect this):
- Attacks of Opportunity
- Grappling, Tripping, Sundering, etc.

Restrict or use XP costs for the 'cheater' spells (locate 'x', detect 'y', speak w/dead) to, by default encourage solving problems w/out the spells.

 

[3d6]

I'd drop XP. The way the system works now, the DM can choose to give out XP based on the CR of the challenges overcome, and the DM can also choose to give out arbitrary XP for completing campaign goals and so forth. I think it would be much easier if the XP system was replaced with a notation that said something like "characters level up whenever the DM feels like it". The amount of control the DM has over leveling up would remain the same, but the amount of bookkeeping expected would drop dramatically. You'd also need to change the various level-loss mechanics in the game to make up for the fact that people would no longer catch up in level over time.

 

[Kid Socrates]

Something I'd like is already in place in the Rogue class: selectable class abilties. I kinda like the idea of having every odd level be a feat and every even level be a class ability. Class abilities would scale with level (if applicable), and would cover the standard class features. For example, Rogue Class Abilities would be a pool of ones like Hide in Plain Sight, Opportunist, Sneak Attack +2d6 (can be taken multiple times), Evasion, Improved Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, Skill Mastery, and whatever else they have, plus some new ones. That way you'd have more control over your rogue's character development, yet still have a base rogue class with the hit dice, BAB, saves, skill list, et cetera, et cetera.

I'd like to see that be standard across all classes.

 

[teitan]

I hate the way Buff spells got nerfed. I have houseruled tham back to an hour per caster level.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I wonder if there is a way to make the benefits of high/low Constitution and Intelligence scores apply to a character overall, but not add bonuses or penalties every level. Its only a problem with Energy Drain and such, but it is something else you need to calculate separately when you level up or down. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

One other thing I would like to do is change the rules for multiclassing in regards to skill points. This is another reason why I dislike cross-class skills. I would probably make it so that a character who goes up in a class can apply his skill points to whatever skills he knows as all classes as opposed to following what is a class skill for the class he just went up in.

 

[Nyaricus]

I don't think its simpler then saying the base speed is either 20 or 30 feet, but I think its a cool way to get different speeds for characters.

I like it because it's simple + or - %'s which are easy math on a calculator, and most of the time it simply cancels out much of it rather eloquently, IMO (like an elf with a medium load).

One other thing I would like to do is change the rules for multiclassing in regards to skill points. This is another reason why I dislike cross-class skills. I would probably make it so that a character who goes up in a class can apply his skill points to whatever skills he knows as all classes as opposed to following what is a class skill for the class he just went up in.

Y'know, for the longest time, I though this was the way you did skills. Not sure why, but it made sense to me.

In any case, this is a great option, IMO, and hardly overpowering. Let the players pecialize in what they will. The only problem is that so many PrCs are now more easily assessable by more characters (especially one with a level or tw of rogue in it's build). Not that big of a deal, but it's a point nonetheless.

cheers,
--N

 

[Li Shenron]

For the sake of making the game easier what do you think needs to be fixed?

I have no problems in the complexity of PC generation. I would like it to be easier to make NPCs and monsters quickly, but not at the expense of making PCs less variable and interesting, so I'm not actually going to suggest anything to simplify character generation.

On the other hand, I would definitely like to make action easier. Things to be simplified:

- attacks of opportunity (don't know how to simplify them)
- mounted combat rules
- aerial combat rules
- grapple rules
- SR (turn into ST bonus)
- character conditions (too many, bundle the most similar ones)
- action types (too many, use only free/move/standard/fullround or even less)
- feats whose description is more than a couple of lines (just don't design them)