Sacred Cows for any edition

[Najo]

With each edition of D&D, designers have to consider which features of the game are "sacred cows" worthy of keeping. Sacred cows are elements of D&D that have to remain in the game for the game to feel like or be D&D.

I was curious which of these features do you feel a previous or new edition of D&D (or another OGL variant like Pathfinder) would need to have to be D&D so I posted this poll. The poll is multiple choice, so vote for each Sacred Cow you feel so be in D&D. If something is a cow you feel I miss, then choose other and list the missing cow in a post below.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Six stats
HP
AC
Levels

Fighters
Clerics
Rogues (or Thieves)
Wizards (or whatever they're call them this ed)

 

[Lwaxy]

Arcane and divine magic!

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Six ability scores
Alignment
HP
AC
Levels

Other:
+ Classes (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, Thief/Rogue)
+ Races (Human, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Half-elf)
+ Magic in general
+ Dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20)

 

[Doug McCrae]

Classes (#1 most important), levels, fantasy setting, lots of spells, lots of monsters, lots of magic items, maybe d20 to hit, maybe hit points, maybe armor class.

 

[ferratus]

All I really need for it to be D&D is levels, races and classes.

Which is ironically, the most awkward and restrictive part of D&D vs. other RPG systems (like GURPS or Tri-Stat).

 

[TwinBahamut]

Levels, races, and classes are the only things I consider absolutely essential. I'm rather surprised the latter two are not on this poll...

Of course, I think AC (a name change would be fine, but the concept works), HP, and the six stats are just below those three in importance, with HP being slightly higher than the other two.

 

[Dykstrav]

One thing I would've added to the poll is the race/class method of character generation. I.E., your character's abilities are largely determined by their choice of race and class, rather than alignment, character background, or whatever.

I might even go so far as to say that class should determine the majority of your abilities, with race adding a few interesting wrinkles, additional abilities, and options (such as feat choices or paragon paths). If you had a D&D without most of your abilities determined by class, it wouldn't feel very much like D&D to me.

 

[pawsplay]

Sacred cows are elements of D&D that have to remain in the game for the game to feel like or be D&D.

Rather the things that people insist must be, as in, "You must not harm the sacred cow." Naturally, they are not essential, otherwise there wouldn't be talk of slaughtering sacred cows, after which the game has thus far continued.

 

[malraux]

For me, the six stats, HP, AC, leveling, and classes; and heavy use of the d20 in resolution mechanics. And I'm not particularly wed to the idea of the 6 stats and could see some other system working about as well. But I tend to be inclusionist in my taxonomy, so if something called itself DnD, I'd probably count it as DnD.