Meeki said:
From what I can gather you don't like the power curve of the game?
No, I just dislike the way poisons and diseases are handled and some of the ways saves are handled.
Initially I just broke down some of the saves into pairs. Fortitude became Fortitude (based on Con, vs diseases, poisons, etc) and Endurance (based on Str, vs fatigue, endurance checks for forced marches, long distance swimming, etc). Will was broken more significantly into Will (based on Cha, vs charms, fear, compulsions, etc), Perception (based on Wis, vs illusions, etc), and Sanity (a new save, vs Horror, Sanity checks as used in Ravenloft). Reflex was left as it was, as it only has one use (moving out of the way), and its problems are more due to the many things associated with Dex rather than the Reflex save itself. And so the Dexterity ability score itself was divided in twain - Dex (for digits / limb movements) and Agility (for whole body movements), with the skills divided between the two, and non-skills similarly divided between the two. This seems to work - more or less, but there is still some problems in how saves are assigned the various classes. And nothing has been done in the above to address the problems of diseases and poisons.
I know that any change will propogate through the whole system, requiring alterations and refinements here and there to keep a semblance of balance (true balance being an illusion, with or without changes), but I'm not bothered by having to work to make such changes. I already use Elements of Magic instead of the slot & x/day system - which itself required notable changes before / in running some monsters.
Then, it occurred to me one day. Poisons and Diseases are partly less worrysome become of the fact that the saves to deal with them are always increasing. What if they did not increase? Ability scores do not increase all that much. They are static except for rare permanent increases (every four levels) and temporary increases (due to items and spells). If saves were like ability scores, it would also allow more variation in classes. A rogue who often uses poisons could put a higher score in their fort save than in their reflex if they wish - changing the feel of the class but for a believable reason. Or, if they entered poisons later, they could choose to increase their fort save rather than some other ability / save to reflect their new approach in life and its effect upon their character (exposure creating gradual increase in resistance).
One thing I'm considering is separating the saves from the ability scores but treating them similarly. So every two levels either an ability score or a save would increase by one, as chosen by the player. So, for example, perhaps at level 2 and every 4th level thereafter the player would choose to increase one of their save scores by +1, while (as normal) at level 4 and every 4th level thereafter they would similarly increase an ability score by +1.
Poisons and Diseases would need their DCs modified a bit, perhaps, as otherwise many upper level ones would become - as someone mentioned - save or die effects. Otherwise I do not see much of an issue with this.
