Third-edition D&D shares quite a bit with its earlier incarnations, but it also borrows quite a bit from other modern games. What game mechanics do you just love? Are there any mechanics from earlier editions that you miss? What mechanics from other games do you really like? Can you retrofit them into D&D?
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What game mechanics do you like?
- Thread starter mmadsen
- Start date
I really enjoy Feats. I also naturally enjoy the Fighter class and its Bonus Feat list. I love the way the same simple class can represent a Knight, an Archer, a Pikeman, a Hoplite, a Centurion, etc. In fact, I wish all the classes used Bonus Feats rather than set lists of Special Abilities. (There's no reason Bonus Feats have to be combat Feats, after all.)
Not that I can think of.
From other d20 games, I love the Defense bonus, elements of the Wound/Vitality system (mainly just starting with more Hit Points), armor as DR, and Call of Cthulhu's magic with a cost. Those are all easy to retrofit into D&D, except the last one; you have to replace many of the classes (and you probably want to scale things a bit differently, so everyone isn't going insane at the drop of a hat).
From Pendragon, I like the Trait system, and I've suggested using Law/Chaos and Good/Evil as a simple Trait system for D&D (particularly for Paladins and Clerics). I also like it's notion of a Winter Phase or "off season" between adventures, with plenty of mini-scenarios to play out back in town or back at the castle.
From Hero/Champions, I've always marveled at the line drawn between game mechanics and "special effects". You can use the same rules for an ice blast, fire blast, optic blast, etc. A guy who can run up walls and over water really just has a limited form of flight. You can even fit this into D&D a bit, most obviously by modifying existing spells with cool "flavor", or by reinterpreting existing feats slightly.
Hmm...
One of the big reasons I like 3E is the skill system, and the choice of skills. The Spot skill is a case in point - it could well be considered Intuition or similar, and makes surprise something that is very interesting.
The fact that the skill bonuses don't taper off as you level up (see Rolemaster - first 10 picks are +1; then +0.5; then +0.2 in D&D terms, IIRC) does cause some issues, but the game still works.
If there's one thing I miss from previous editions, it's the simpler versions of the stat blocks. Now, don't get me wrong: I love the more complex and detailed 3E blocks, because they make running the game really easy and not dependent on looking up five or six tables, but they can be a pain to design yourself.
I miss the specialness of the 1e illusionist, with spells that only the illusionist could cast.
One thing that earlier editions occasionally did was replace the d20 die with other dice for resolution of certain tasks; I do believe that 3E could benefit from using this technique. For example, if both opponents rolled 2d4 during an arm-wrestle and added their strength bonuses, it would better simulate how the greater strength wins - at times the random/noise component of the d20 is too great, and should be modified.
All in all, however, I love 3E!
Cheers!
One of the big reasons I like 3E is the skill system, and the choice of skills. The Spot skill is a case in point - it could well be considered Intuition or similar, and makes surprise something that is very interesting.
The fact that the skill bonuses don't taper off as you level up (see Rolemaster - first 10 picks are +1; then +0.5; then +0.2 in D&D terms, IIRC) does cause some issues, but the game still works.
If there's one thing I miss from previous editions, it's the simpler versions of the stat blocks. Now, don't get me wrong: I love the more complex and detailed 3E blocks, because they make running the game really easy and not dependent on looking up five or six tables, but they can be a pain to design yourself.
I miss the specialness of the 1e illusionist, with spells that only the illusionist could cast.
One thing that earlier editions occasionally did was replace the d20 die with other dice for resolution of certain tasks; I do believe that 3E could benefit from using this technique. For example, if both opponents rolled 2d4 during an arm-wrestle and added their strength bonuses, it would better simulate how the greater strength wins - at times the random/noise component of the d20 is too great, and should be modified.
All in all, however, I love 3E!
Cheers!
Skywalker
Adventurer
My favourite mechanic that is used in a number of games (Blue Planet, Tribe 8 and Mechanical Dream) is where you roll a number of dice and choose the highest. This allows you to distinguish between potential/quantity from quality. Normally an attribute governs the raw potential and the skill represents the quality.
The type of dice rolled (with any bonus or minus) represents a range of possibilities, say 1 to 10. The additional dice don't push the result beyond this limit but rather make the result consistently better say pushing the average from 5 to 7.
This simply represents the situation where an unskilled people can hit a bullseye (which is a possible result for anyone with a bow) but that this will be a lot less likely than if done by a skilled archer.
The d20 skill system doesn't represent this at all as it is linear with attribute/skill having exactly the same effect. A person with +10 achieves a different range of possible results that someone with no bonus. The no bonus person can't hit a DC 21 and the +10 person cannot possible miss a DC 11. Even a skilled person can fumble and even an unskilled person can get lucky.
D20 system could be converted to everyone rolling a d20 and add their attribute. For every level of skill rather adding more to the roll you could roll more d20s and choose the highest. This would simplify DCS as they would all be scaled from 1 to 20, rather the slow accretion of DCs in D&D. This does mean that the current DCs would all be off so personally I wouldn't bother.
Someone on these boards talked about representing natural talent (like Anakin's ability to pilot) with allowing the PC to roll 2 d20s and choosing the highest. This would be easy to adopt in d20.
The type of dice rolled (with any bonus or minus) represents a range of possibilities, say 1 to 10. The additional dice don't push the result beyond this limit but rather make the result consistently better say pushing the average from 5 to 7.
This simply represents the situation where an unskilled people can hit a bullseye (which is a possible result for anyone with a bow) but that this will be a lot less likely than if done by a skilled archer.
The d20 skill system doesn't represent this at all as it is linear with attribute/skill having exactly the same effect. A person with +10 achieves a different range of possible results that someone with no bonus. The no bonus person can't hit a DC 21 and the +10 person cannot possible miss a DC 11. Even a skilled person can fumble and even an unskilled person can get lucky.
D20 system could be converted to everyone rolling a d20 and add their attribute. For every level of skill rather adding more to the roll you could roll more d20s and choose the highest. This would simplify DCS as they would all be scaled from 1 to 20, rather the slow accretion of DCs in D&D. This does mean that the current DCs would all be off so personally I wouldn't bother.
Someone on these boards talked about representing natural talent (like Anakin's ability to pilot) with allowing the PC to roll 2 d20s and choosing the highest. This would be easy to adopt in d20.
Eternalknight
First Post
I have to agree with mmadsen, I really like feats. It adds a real elememt of cinematic fanatsy to the game. There is not quite anything like playing a Dwarven Fighter/Weapon Master who has managed to get Whirlwind Attack and is carrying a Vorpal Keen Battleaxe 
I don't really miss any older mechanics, though one does spring to mind - weapon type vs armor modifiers. Was a nifty little rule from 2nd edition.
I don't really miss any older mechanics, though one does spring to mind - weapon type vs armor modifiers. Was a nifty little rule from 2nd edition.
Desdichado
Hero
It's not so hard to use d20 CC magic in D&D. In fact, I'm thinking now that the campaign I'd most like to run and/or play in would be a dark, Cthulhu-ish fantasy game with intrigue, paranoia and all kinds of craziness like that. I'd use the d20 Modern generic classes (with a little retrofitting if needed to get rid of the modern "stuff" in the classes), CC magic and Sanity exactly as written and a few prestige classes from D&D tweaked to work as advanced classes.
Numion
First Post
Critical hits
They're a really big thing in my games.. the joy of scoring a critical in a difficult encounter. A few lucky hit's can really make or break the encounter. (For good or worse, from a DM's point of view.)
Take 10 & Take 20
These rules just make the game so much easier, and take away time from the oh-so-common player hesitation.
They're a really big thing in my games.. the joy of scoring a critical in a difficult encounter. A few lucky hit's can really make or break the encounter. (For good or worse, from a DM's point of view.)
Take 10 & Take 20
These rules just make the game so much easier, and take away time from the oh-so-common player hesitation.
From d20 based games, I love the Massive Damage rules presented in d20 Modern (and derived from d20 CoC). And they're immediately portable to D3D if I want to use them. Is WP/VP superior? I don't really know anymore, Massive Damage Fort saves add some really neat tension to the game. Siz of one, half a dozen of the other.
The Force rules from d20 SW revised rock the casbah. I really wish that this was how they'd handled psionics.
The base class/advanced class/ prestige class hierarchy from d20 Modern seems really great too. I especially like the flexibility of the base classes combined with the one-time "occupation" bonus. Fantastic system (and I'm not particularly fond of classes).
From other game systems, such as Ars Magica or Silhoutte (Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, etc...), I really like "zero average" attributes. Meaning, attributes begin at 0 (the average human value) and go up and down to infinity from there. This is partially implemented in d20 when one looks at the stat bonuses (10-11 = +/- 0) , but because stats don't go into the negatives, you don't really get a full range. I would've been a tiny bit happier had they ditched the 3-18 stat range and simply had an infinitely linear range of stat bonuses.
The Force rules from d20 SW revised rock the casbah. I really wish that this was how they'd handled psionics.
The base class/advanced class/ prestige class hierarchy from d20 Modern seems really great too. I especially like the flexibility of the base classes combined with the one-time "occupation" bonus. Fantastic system (and I'm not particularly fond of classes).
From other game systems, such as Ars Magica or Silhoutte (Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, etc...), I really like "zero average" attributes. Meaning, attributes begin at 0 (the average human value) and go up and down to infinity from there. This is partially implemented in d20 when one looks at the stat bonuses (10-11 = +/- 0) , but because stats don't go into the negatives, you don't really get a full range. I would've been a tiny bit happier had they ditched the 3-18 stat range and simply had an infinitely linear range of stat bonuses.
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Skills and feats. They make 3E much more like other, more flexible game systems like GURPS, which I think is a good thing.
I much prefer the GURPS 3d6 mechanism for skill rolls though! Bell curves work SOOOO much better for skills. You shouldn't have to have a 20 point difference in skills to be confident you're going to win an opposed check. +1 or +2 bonuses to a skill actually become useful.
I much prefer the GURPS 3d6 mechanism for skill rolls though! Bell curves work SOOOO much better for skills. You shouldn't have to have a 20 point difference in skills to be confident you're going to win an opposed check. +1 or +2 bonuses to a skill actually become useful.
La Bete
First Post
Sneak Attack!
I love it that now you can use this regularly, rather than once in a blue moon.
Search
Now the human rogue can look for secret doors, just like the elf
Humans being cool
Gotta love those extra skill points/bonus feat
etc.
etc.
What do I miss?
I always used to get hosed by it, but I kinda miss the 'roll to see what familiar you get" from the find familiar spell.
I love it that now you can use this regularly, rather than once in a blue moon.
Search
Now the human rogue can look for secret doors, just like the elf
Humans being cool
Gotta love those extra skill points/bonus feat
etc.
etc.
What do I miss?
I always used to get hosed by it, but I kinda miss the 'roll to see what familiar you get" from the find familiar spell.
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