GreatLemur
Explorer
I know I'm late to the party, here, but I have to say that this is exactly how I'd do it. For the most part, the whole list of things you've got planned for Odyssey sounds great to me, but the mention of both Wisdom and a Perception ability in your initial post really jumped out at me as illogical. I strongly support replacing Wisdom and Charisma with Perception and Willpower, Unisystem-style.GMSkarka said:
Wisdom has typically been the absolute worst-defined ability score in D&D, and Charisma got pretty hazy in 3e, too. Junking those two and repartitioning the associated dependencies into an arrangement that better suits the needs of the game would make for a much better d20 system. Overcoming enchantments, powering magic or psychic abilities, haggling for a better deal in the marketplace, maintaining focus through physical discomfort, convincing others of your sincerity? That's all Willpower. Eavesdropping on a conversation, following tracks, gauging the truth in another's words, finding a clue, reacting first to a threat, contacting higher powers? That's Perception. (Hell, I'd even make a case that Perception could cover certain types of ranged attacks, and thus allow Dexterity to handle all other attack rolls without getting unbalanced, but that's another subject all together.)
I'll also add my name to the list of those who aren't so sure about getting rid of skills. Not so sure. I'll have to see how the Occupations and Edges end up working. If they're flexible and SotC-style enough, I'll definitely buy that they could be far better than skills.
Everything else is sounding really, really great. At this rate, Odyssey might be the system that keeps me from having to do my own post-D&D4e d20 hack.
