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Ah yes, the dying breath of 3e double weapons. :-)

I'm not saying it's a big cost, but at least it is SOME cost. Healing Word is a common bonus action. Strange that Paladins don't have it, but it is sometimes a hassle for the ranger in my game who has to choose between Healing Word and commanding her dinosaur companion. Compelled Duel and...

Maybe if charging up your attack with a smite had some other cost, such as a bonus action.

@ilgatto Hear hear! Character design is fun, but for me as well the emergent personality of the character is more interesting and rewarding than the precise build. Now I'm not a minimalist, and when I theorycraft AD&D I am often trying to add a little more customizability to the build, so that...

It's a perpective thing -- it takes trying several options to understand what is really valuable and important, in our own personal calculus. I know a lot of people, including older gamers who have tried many systems, who settled on Pathfinder. And I understand why! But in my circle these are...

I feel the same way, the typical 8-18 range for ability scores is too wide for the d20-roll-under, for my taste. d20+bonus > fixed DC works better in that regard. I was thrilled with the customization options when 3e came out, but now as a DM I ask myself "Do I really want to make PCs pay a...

That's a good point that I haven't started thinking about yet. There is definitely room for levels of success/failure and some of the trained skills already have these conditions defined (disguise, pick pockets). Depending on the skill, some of these gradations can be set up as incentives. If...

@Celebrim Thanks for your feedback and suggestions! I can respond to some of your ideas: As I see it, in AD&D there are three types of skills. (Of course, this analysis is my own inference and interpolation; the design principles are never stated in the books.) 1. There are some "highly...

I don't have the time to make anything nicely formatted, but if you're interested here's an excerpt of my thoughts on an "AD&D skill system" that doesn't rely on d20 ability checks (like 2nd edition NWPs which were a mess)

It's not really a genre, but one game design element that I haven't seen much since Palladium and Rifts is support for combat on many different scales, like person / animal vs giant robot / kaiju. I would be interested in a game that proposed good mechanics for crossing between different...

I'm still a big fan of 1e even though I'm usually playing 5e, for many reasons: The books feel like they're describing a world with quirks, not a generic rule system this is supposed to model any fantasy story. Why is illusionist the only MU "specialty"? No one knows because almost no one...

I mostly agree with this suggestion. I think druids ought to be full casters--I see them as a better representation of many iconic magicians (e.g. Merlin) than the Wizard. But in this case the class design should focus on their spell list, not on wild shape. A druid is kind of a full caster...

I think we have enough ideas on here for a poll... 1. Spells that can backfire if misused: FB, LB, fly, haste... 2. 1e style multiclassing (it would have worked even in 3rd edition--it just needs a bit of math to make sure the XP tables would put a MC character 1-2 levels behind single-classed...

I'd love a 5e style game with 8 or more mundane classes, only 4 spellcaster classes (arcane, divine, nature, psychic), zero "half-caster" classes, and 1e-style multiclassing.

I voted for alignment because I think that PCs and monsters being explicitly aligned with cosmic forces is an iconic part of D&D. I'm ok with some humans being objectively and verifiably evil.

Very interesting. I agree with your very good post, that the essence of AD&D was to give the players options for interacting with the adventure and setting in different ways, and that the magic-user's approach was supposed to be reliant on magic and magic items. To bounce off this idea a...

If I remember right the magic mirror is a trapped sandestin, and Shimrod discusses them with Madouc. But Shimrod, Murgen, and the others frequently make use of weird extraplanar entities that like the sandestins of Rhialto are completely literal-minded and confused about the material world. I...

He refined his notions of magic again in the Lyonesse trilogy, where the magicians also use both sandestins and spells.

I seem to remember Gary Gygax explaining his decision to incorporate "Vancian" magic in a Dragon column. To paraphrase (with all suitable caveats), he thought it would be more interesting play if wizards had powerful spells even at low levels, but had to choose carefully when to use them, rather...

Just tossing out an idea, although I think it would be too far astray from mainstream 5E: Why not have 4 spellcasting classes that are organized around how they access magic, not the spell lists? For example: Hermetic magician: "wizard-like" mechanics: Pick one list from Arcane, Divine...