I am wanting to stat up some members of the Bleak Cabal and a mad deity, but can't think of many ways to mechanically express their insanity.
All that comes to mind are the confusion effects where a character's actions are whole or in part randomly determined, but more than just a little of this...
I have been following Stalker0's various skill challenge house rules and their are two main options on that front:
Obsidian: This is a complete rethink of the rules and my favourite. The players have 3 rounds or 'phases' to act and the system is designed to be very stable, simple mechanics, and...
At the back of the Dungeon Master's Guide are combat cards for players and monsters to track ongoing effects and conditions.
If this is not what you were looking for then I am not aware of anything more useful.
Hope you find what you need and good gaming!
EDIT: Silly spelling errors...
Zurai, I completely disagree with your comparison.
This setup seems arbitrary. I agree with the fighter but why a Swordsage, why Dexterity 20 and why a Shortsword? Let's look at some other scenarios.
I have not checked your calculations but I trust they are correct. They are the same...
I believe that it is unlikely 4E will have talent trees because we already know about enough design space:
Powers
Feats
Paragon Paths & Epic Destinies
Talents would be straddling the divide between Powers and Feats, which I doubt they would feel necessary. We haven't heard about them in Races...
I agree with Shroomy in this case.
They don't have to though. Wizards of the Coast released at least one new sourcebook per month for 3.5E AFAIK - between about 150 and 300 pages. They need to test these products for fun, balance, clarity, etc.
An individual DM only needs to 'check' the...