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Yeah, that was also my experience. Still, the idea was that the focus was on the universe and not player power/design/advancement. Young PCs were also very happy if they rolled high for psionic potential. It was a nice balancing factor. :) Plus the advantage of skill ranks wasn't that...

Well, let me be more precise and state that books like this were commonly available in the 1970's and 1980's. If a contemporary reference is needed then how about Miles Vorkosigan's saga or the Mote in God's Eye stuff (which brackets the 1980's quite nicely)? I think the key point is that...

I have no doubt. But the idea that the weapon is the easy target seems to be belied by the logistics of medieval warfare and the normal result of duels. There were well understood exceptions (the vikings and shields, for example) but the classic duelist did not break weapons. Just powering...

True. :)

While I recognize that weapons do break in combat all of the time, I do find it odd that in modern RPGs the sword is often a softer target than the wielder.

The Third Imperium also linked well with a lot of the popular science fiction of the era (1980's) from Asimov's foundation to the Flandry series. The idea of space empire was rich, compelling and there was a dense body of literature to give ideas as adventure seeds. In that sense, I thought...

Pity. I preferred the higher risk of death. It seemed like a risk/reward trade-off for creating a really exceptionally skilled character.

Back in the day, I remember increasing skills or attributes in Traveller to be extremely difficult. Most of the rewards that I recall involved money, achieving goals (often just "keep the Free Trader out of bankruptcy"), social connections and exploring a strange world. The last was the most...

I think that one trick that B/X does have is to make the range of power between characters (at least at low to middle levels) is relatively insensitive to design decisions and very sensitive to player cunning. That means that the concerns are different and these questions did not seem to come...

Okay, I grant you track does seem out of place. :) I agree that the 3E skill system really did scream for tweaking. It was a pretty large advance at the time but, like many novel things, there were implications that needed to be worked out.

I admit that I prefer to think of what I am sure that the 3.5E fighter does well: Achilles. A classic, by the book, fighter. His protection can be modeled in a number of ways but I remember one book that made it plate mail (that he was actually strong enough to wear). Add in feats like combat...

Yeah, normal is odd in a CR scaling game. One of the interesting things about early D&D was how 3rd level characters could run into a 10 HD vampire on the first level of the dungeon or how an 8th level mage could find herself battling kobolds. This type of power mismatch is less common in 3E...

I see the issue with skills as being the relative gap. It's not a fatal issue but consider the differences in BAB: rogue to fighter (@20th level) there is a 5 point gap in BAB (which might translate into an even larger "to hit" gap depending on a lot of factors). In the same sense, there is a...

Then let me say "Sailor in the age of Sail" (say the British Navy between 1700 and 1800) and the ship-board pirates that they fought. It's true that a ship would have a variety of different specialists on board (including marines and gunners which start looking more like good choices for...

Why can't they be 2nd level rogues? Or Warrior 1/Expert 1? The issue with Pirates, which makes them a bad example, is that they are classes that are focused on a highly skilled profession (sailing in the age of sail was an incredible mix of technology and skill). They need skills like use...

RE: Boromir I think it is challenging to model Lord of the Rings characters with 3E but I think that Fighter is a possibility for Boromir. The love of songs and lore seen in Gondor could add in a level of Bard, which would easily explain his leadership skills (and he even has a horn as an...

I think that just adding ressurection survival rolls (and costing them a point of CON) will have the desired effect. Death will be dreaded but there can be second chances.

One of the ironies of 15+ level 3.E D&D is that Mage's Disjunction shows up. It's based on a will save. Fighters and Rogues have a hard time making such a save whereas Clerics and Wizards are pretty decent. Winning a fight without magical gear is a lot more viable for the wizard than the...

I think Magic users ended up with a single point better (at the end) although most classes would save on anything but a "one" at high levels (due to gear). The idea of scaling spell difficulty is 3E; in 1E and 2E you could only get bonuses to save (and the exceedingly rare fixed penalty...

Well, let us consider a 15th level Fighter, then. Elite Array is the design statistics for 3rd edition (let's ignore Pathfinder for a moment and look @ 3.5E). So S 15 (+3 leveling) D 13 Cn 14 I 10 W 12 C 8 would be a normal array. Presume you have spent a feat on Iron Will (you have a lot...