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Not that I disagree with your main reasoning, but I think the last year has proven that nothing will stop people determined to complain. It's somewhat like that thing where they said a million monkeys typing on a million typewriters would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Then the...

Originally, bards did use druidic magic, but this was an extension of the way the druid was a Celtic kludge in the first place. They wanted to fudge the arcane/divine distinction to get "nature magic" for the druid, but it was a subclass of the cleric. Then having established "nature magic"...

Yes. I agree with that also, though I think the means of interaction should include examining assumptions, such as the replacing bonus damage on 2H weapons with bonus accuracy. I didn't get into the free hand(s) equivalents to that logic, because they are more complex, and I'm not at all...

I think it is also inverted from what I was talking about. I wasn't advocating necessarily separating the simple stuff out--though that is of course yet another way to handle the problem. (DEFCON1 had a solution too. We are already up to five options in a handful of posts. I'm telling you...

I'd like a paladin distinct enough from both the fighter and the cleric that a multiclass fighter-paladin or paladin-cleric or fighter-cleric are all at least somewhat different from each other and the three antecedents. That is, the flavor and concept can overlap, but there should be at least...

They could also reconcile several competing agendas by taking a hard look at some of the early assumptions that, near as I can tell, haven't really been examined with all the other changes to the game. For example, consider: Sword and Board Two handed weapons Dual weapons Single weapon (empty...

Bad numbers generally include zero, one, and anything north of 7. You can safely go higher than 7 with good organization and design, though there are still limits. 30 classes meant to be separate islands is bad. 30 classes arranged in 4 to 6 sets can and has worked, even if one "set" has only...

To blend KM's Crystal Ball with what I've said above, I'll note that I was on record some time ago for four books core. This appears to be very much like the image in the ball, but it's got a key difference. What I proposed for the four books: BECMI-style completely playable game with a subset...

Well, I'm saying that KM's Crystal Ball may very well be correct about what we end up with, but if it is, then it will be a huge mistake on the part of WotC. That kind of stuff was ok in 1979 for a hodge-podge of updates to barely-out-of-the-mimeograph-stage rules that were being built as...

I don't have a complete answer for how to achieve it, but ideally each fighting styles would be more distinct before feats (or other such limited options) are applied, and less distinct but still different afterwards. Happily, such a system fits most agendas equally well. :D You have to think...

In a lot of tables, this particular thing doesn't matter. The players don't care. "Hey DM, you do your thing, and we'll play along." So let's say that the rules are presented as Hussar has advocated. By definition, "Hey DM, do your thing," means, "look through the list of options and decide...

I'm mostly in agreement with Balesir here, but I've got a slightly different slant on the question that might be useful. When our group is putting together a campaign, we talk it out, see what kind of characters will be played, pick a system, pick some obvious house rules/tweaks/supplements...

This, and most everything else that Li Shenron said, except that I don't personally care about the artwork very much. (Though I suspect that the game won't be successful without good artwork, and a game I like I'd also prefer to be successful, so ...) I'd also prefer that there be a complete...

In a lot of cases, it was caused by reading the rules and getting the feeling of sameness from that. Then it never really was overcome by reality. Just as 4E plays better than it reads, it reads more homogenous than it plays.

Well, there is a difference between a game that can be easily played in any of the various styles of the various versions--versus a game that will satisfy everyone that enjoyed those versions and styles, or uses the same mechanical elements in exactly the same way. It's still an ambitious goal...

emphasis added ... I get the attitude. I think the means suggested to get there are often poorly considered--and not infrequently directly counter-productive to the stated goals. That's why we get tons of posts that boil down to, "Hey, this thing isn't satisfying enough people. I think it...

I don't think it's really possible to define a game for the two polar opposites of: 1. Make a well-designed system that works under a wider variety of influences and flavor, versus, 2. Drive everything with the flavor X, and I'll tweak it, change it, fudge it, ignore it, as needed. You can...

As a default starting option, I wouldn't at all mind something like: Every PC (and major NPC) ultimately has access to "nine lives," because such characters can often cheat death. However, each such character gains access to one life per level, through 9th level. So it's possible to run out...

The availability of raise dead is tied not only to preference for how dying is handled, but also by default assumptions about appropriate amounts of fudging allowed in the game. It's pretty easy to be hard-core about no raise dead, death is permanent, if the DM is going to fudge the group out...

Armor with hit points, at least a simple version, is a pretty decent way to handle it IF you want: A) Some form of armor DR, AND B) A simple way to handle damage/repairs to armor. If you want both of those things, now you've got both of them wrapped up in one simple package. OTOH, if you...