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I want OA's in the tactical module, but I prefer the 4e incarnation of them. Much simpler and less fiddly than the 3e version, IMO. Heck, if I had my druthers, the 5e tactical module would look as close to 4e's combat system as I could get it. :)

Nice, good read. This is what I hope for out of 5e. :) On a side note, a 4e wizard charging 6 orcs with battle axes would likely be dead in a round. 4e PCs start out a bit more robust than ones from earlier editions, but not that robust!

I use inherent bonuses and magic items are rare and hard to come by. Most PC magic items work more like mini artifacts. PCs may choose one Post-Essentials Expertise feat or the Master of Arms feat for free. I allow PC encounter powers to be refreshed by spending a standard action. I allow two...

The article takes an edition war cheap shot with the "4e entitlement" comment and then Shea has comments turned off to avoid edition wars? I'm disappointed in you, Mike. :( You could say that a 4e player may have certain "assumptions" about encounter balance based on how such things were...

Thinking about it more, the only thing I don't like is the wonky nature of taking wound damage on a max die roll. Though I could see some like that as a feature. I know your method features the elegance of tracking wound and vitality off the same total pool of HP, but I think I'd almost rather...

Interesting system. Very well thought out. :) I like how you borrowed from the 3.5 subdual damage rules. I could see multiple ways to customize it to taste by changing the mechanic which determines what constitutes wound damage vs. what is vitality damage. I'm definitely more in the gamist 4e...

Thanks, Agamon! And as you just made me realize in the other thread, ability damage suddenly becomes a lot more attractive in this sort of system. The numbers are transparent and easy to adjudicate. The cascading ripple effect across your character sheet from ability damage, buffs, and debuffs...

Ahh, interesting. :) I'm not normally a fan of ability damage, mostly because I don't like the cascading ripple effect it has across your whole sheet. But, if 5e looks more like the stat as bonus method I theorized here, I might be ok with it because the numbers are transparent and easy to...

Cool! There are some who do thrive on it. One of my friends is such a DM and its a real joy to play with him. But he lives far away and I don't play with him often. :( But thinking back to all of the 1e-3e games I have played in over the past 20 plus years, and how they pre-maturely ended...

I find that having played all editions that CAW can be deeply satisfying for some players, but for the DM is deeply unsatisfying over the long run. I think its a significant contributor to DM burnout. Essentially the DM never really gets to play and they bear an enormous responsibility. Either...

I don't care for this at all, but as long as there is an option for encounter healing 4e style, I'm ok with it. IMO, its basically telling the paladin player, "Sorry, we're going to keep playing D&D and having fun. But you're screwed and can't play anymore. Sucks to be you. So, why don't you go...

I think there are a couple of different questions here. In a micro sense, how often should PCs fail and how severe should the penalty be when they do? (e.g. How difficult should swinging across a chandelier be and what happens to the PC if they fail?) In a macro campaign sense, how likely...

Good stuff, Ainamacar! :) I'm about 12 years removed from college and all my calc, statistics, and probability classes, so thanks for putting it together better than I could. It was your other post about the probabilities of a d20 opposed roll system that really crystallized a lot of thoughts...

Ooh, I didn't think of that. Opposed rolls does allow you to keep monster stats a bit more hidden. That's definitely old school right there. Good point! :)

You absolutely could. But stats are iconic D&D, so I doubt they would go quite so far. Plus by keeping them, you can still generate stats using classic methods like 4d6 drop the lowest and it makes it easier for players to see how the stat maps back to your abilities in a prior edition. Plus...

Item bonuses become powerful but at the same time you can control them through transparency. In 3e, Ogre Guantlets might give you a +4 to STR. Well, what does that mean if you really break it down? It means it gives you a +2 to all 3e STR related checks, including combat. Ok, so in 5e we just...

This will be a long and rambling post, so I apologize. Based on a number of allusions made to it in the DDXP seminars and some of the playtest reports, I have a guess as to the core mechanic of 5e. And the more I think about it the more I like it. Here's why: I believe it will be a d20 based...

Yes and no. WotC effectively lost half their customer base to Pathfinder and various OGL clones and they want them back. 5e is an attempt to get them back. I applaud that goal if it results in better D&D for everyone. But I think getting even half those players back will be a challenge no...

I'll reserve final judgement till I see actual mechanics, but this really concerns me that WotC is throwing out the 4e baby with the bath water. Trying to outdo Pathfinder by going back to 3e era mechanics is a doomed business model. Those Pathfinder guys have it pretty good with Paizo, there...

I like opposed rolls. It seems swingier because it can have wilder outliers and is tolerant of a greater disparity in bonuses, but the results actually cluster closer to the mean than a single roll system. Depending on the rest of the system, I don't think its necessarily slower than a single...