BradfordFerguson
First Post
Bias: I'm very excited about the upcoming release of 4E to the point of TOTALLY house-ruling by d20 Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords campaign in anticipation of the coming changes that 4th edition will bring. I really like the idea of streamlining D&D while giving certain classes more options in combat and other classes less options. (None of my ideas are new)
At the risk of upsetting fans of existing rules light d20 fantasy, I think those systems don't get the job done in that the players don't have many options for their characters. So, the trick is to add options (complicating things somewhat), while streamlining the unnecessary rules (simplifying things somewhat). So, I really want to run and play in games like this, and I want to do it now, and I'm a little worried that 4E will not go far enough. Maybe what I want is a little extreme, but hey, I've never been called an extremist, so at least it would be a first!
(1) If rules can be written in a third (or less) of the current space used to describe the rules, then they should be stripped down.
(2) If actions can be resolved with a single roll, all the better. Result: I'm advocating average damage, non-iterative attacks, no opposed rolls.
(3) When sensible, let the players make the rolls. Sneaking: d20 + Stealth vs target's Perception + 10... Charm Person (bard): d20 + Charisma vs target's Will defense (Will bonus + 10)... Spike Trap: d20 + Armor Defense vs trap's attack modifier + 10... etc.
Taking #3 to the extreme would mean having the player roll defense every time their character is attacked. I think this might be a bit much and violate sensibility. #3 means the monsters don't spot you on a high roll, you have to roll low on your sneak. #3 means the monster doesn't win when it rolls high on a saving throw, it wins when you roll low. It also means that combined with #2, only one die is rolled at the table.
Let's talk about #1 for a bit. What are all the implications of #1? You could certainly go on a witch hunt and simplify the 3.5 rules and that's mostly what I'm suggesting...
Skills? -> Skill Groups & getting rid of lame skills [not just craft and profession, but also skills like appraise (lame to keep track of how character appraised and what value is and then the haggling), concentration (yes, I said it, spell casters should be able to cast spells), use rope (if your PCs bother to take prisoners, let them, if they use their grappling hook to climb, the throw succeeds automatically), UMD (shouldn't be the province of rogues, they foul stuff up; but the bard can fake it, make into bard class ability).
Feats? -> Class Ability Trees & getting rid of the tiddly-wink feats & weak class abilities.
Equipment? -> remove the copper piece (that's funny for about the first session of each campaign), remove food & water & wine (who tracks bodily functions in their games? Most folks don't, it ain't fun to, "when's the last time my bard took a shower? har har" it gets old), remove 2/3+ of the weapons [most are redundant and not just pole-arms], kill all the tiddly-wink equipment (candles, chalk, heavy chain, etc) [if a player wants to put that on their character sheet, great! I just don't want it taking up space in my PHB (or SRD)] Kill encumbrance, stop taking up space in my rulebook!
Combat? -> Grappling, dead (if 4E resusitates it, I will probably kill it). The only things that can grapple are tentacled monsters and creatures that swallow whole their prey. If a PC grabs a PC to keep them from falling to their death, let them. The only function of grapple would be to stop a creature in its tracks. Roll d20 + Str + Attack vs 10 + Reflex. One roll. Success = You stopped the creature (& slowed for x rounds?). Tripping, Disarming, Sundering, etc. All this needs to be resolved with a single die roll and also needs to be limited to class special abilities (not all fighters can trip), throw in some DM fiat so you can't trip a dragon, etc.
Spells? Just like the designers are doing with monsters, kill off all the spells that aren't necessary or make the game lame (or bump up the lame ones in level, or restrict the lame ones to 1/day). Limit/Kill: save-or-be-taken-out-of-combat-for-the-rest-of-the-encounter... spells. Or, let the PCs have these spells (that make play for players boring) but do not let opponents have these spells (=opponents cannot have charm person), or reduce the duration to 1 round or 3 rounds (not the whole encounter).
Anyone else house-ruling their game to infinity in preparation for 4E?
At the risk of upsetting fans of existing rules light d20 fantasy, I think those systems don't get the job done in that the players don't have many options for their characters. So, the trick is to add options (complicating things somewhat), while streamlining the unnecessary rules (simplifying things somewhat). So, I really want to run and play in games like this, and I want to do it now, and I'm a little worried that 4E will not go far enough. Maybe what I want is a little extreme, but hey, I've never been called an extremist, so at least it would be a first!
(1) If rules can be written in a third (or less) of the current space used to describe the rules, then they should be stripped down.
(2) If actions can be resolved with a single roll, all the better. Result: I'm advocating average damage, non-iterative attacks, no opposed rolls.
(3) When sensible, let the players make the rolls. Sneaking: d20 + Stealth vs target's Perception + 10... Charm Person (bard): d20 + Charisma vs target's Will defense (Will bonus + 10)... Spike Trap: d20 + Armor Defense vs trap's attack modifier + 10... etc.
Taking #3 to the extreme would mean having the player roll defense every time their character is attacked. I think this might be a bit much and violate sensibility. #3 means the monsters don't spot you on a high roll, you have to roll low on your sneak. #3 means the monster doesn't win when it rolls high on a saving throw, it wins when you roll low. It also means that combined with #2, only one die is rolled at the table.
Let's talk about #1 for a bit. What are all the implications of #1? You could certainly go on a witch hunt and simplify the 3.5 rules and that's mostly what I'm suggesting...
Skills? -> Skill Groups & getting rid of lame skills [not just craft and profession, but also skills like appraise (lame to keep track of how character appraised and what value is and then the haggling), concentration (yes, I said it, spell casters should be able to cast spells), use rope (if your PCs bother to take prisoners, let them, if they use their grappling hook to climb, the throw succeeds automatically), UMD (shouldn't be the province of rogues, they foul stuff up; but the bard can fake it, make into bard class ability).
Feats? -> Class Ability Trees & getting rid of the tiddly-wink feats & weak class abilities.
Equipment? -> remove the copper piece (that's funny for about the first session of each campaign), remove food & water & wine (who tracks bodily functions in their games? Most folks don't, it ain't fun to, "when's the last time my bard took a shower? har har" it gets old), remove 2/3+ of the weapons [most are redundant and not just pole-arms], kill all the tiddly-wink equipment (candles, chalk, heavy chain, etc) [if a player wants to put that on their character sheet, great! I just don't want it taking up space in my PHB (or SRD)] Kill encumbrance, stop taking up space in my rulebook!
Combat? -> Grappling, dead (if 4E resusitates it, I will probably kill it). The only things that can grapple are tentacled monsters and creatures that swallow whole their prey. If a PC grabs a PC to keep them from falling to their death, let them. The only function of grapple would be to stop a creature in its tracks. Roll d20 + Str + Attack vs 10 + Reflex. One roll. Success = You stopped the creature (& slowed for x rounds?). Tripping, Disarming, Sundering, etc. All this needs to be resolved with a single die roll and also needs to be limited to class special abilities (not all fighters can trip), throw in some DM fiat so you can't trip a dragon, etc.
Spells? Just like the designers are doing with monsters, kill off all the spells that aren't necessary or make the game lame (or bump up the lame ones in level, or restrict the lame ones to 1/day). Limit/Kill: save-or-be-taken-out-of-combat-for-the-rest-of-the-encounter... spells. Or, let the PCs have these spells (that make play for players boring) but do not let opponents have these spells (=opponents cannot have charm person), or reduce the duration to 1 round or 3 rounds (not the whole encounter).
Anyone else house-ruling their game to infinity in preparation for 4E?
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