Gargoyle
Adventurer
3.5 Revision Peeks
We at Chainmail Bikini Games have been participating in Wizards of the Coast’s early access program for the upcoming 3.5 edition. The program was designed to give d20 companies a first look at the new revision so that we can make our product line more compatible with the upcoming edition. We are restricted by a non–disclosure agreement and cannot reveal anything about the new edition.
Unfortunately, several of WOTC’s R&D staff has forced our hands. We disagree with many of the upcoming changes, and hope that by becoming whistleblowers, they will change their minds. Therefore, I present a few of the upcoming last minute changes. You decide whether their judgment was sound. The following quotes are from Ed Stork, lead designer:
“Charisma has long been a dump stat in the game, and it is time that we finally recognized that fact. To encourage player characters with higher Charisma scores, we have eliminated all racial modifiers that penalize Charisma. Races such as dwarves no longer have Charisma penalties. There is no need to replace that penalty with some other, since Charisma is worthless to fighters and most other classes anyway. Why put a penalty in the game that has no effect?”
“Instead of rolling for hit points at each level, you now gain the maximum hit points at each level, not just at first level. This makes total party kills more rare, makes character generation easier, and makes the heroes more heroic. For instance, a 3rd level ranger would have 18 hit points (d6 x3=18).”
“Strength has always been meant to be the most powerful ability score, and that’s reflected in racial modifiers and other parts of the game. However, it has been obvious since August of 2000 to us that the game mechanics do not truly reflect this assumption. Therefore, Strength bonuses to melee damage are now doubled across the board. Items that increase Strength have been given a modest price increase to compensate.”
“Half–orcs have gained Scent and a +4 racial bonus to Intimidate. They also now have weapon familiarity with the spiked chain, and there was some heated debate over that, but we feel that it’s an appropriate change since we have also given them racial penalties to Diplomacy and Gather Information, and have restricted them from taking the paladin and bard classes.”
“Fatigue has been removed from the game as a condition. It was a pain to recalculate your Strength and Dexterity bonuses every time the condition came up, and really, the penalties didn’t make much of a difference anyway.”
“Toughness still grants +3 hit points, but also gives an additional +3 hit points per hit die to barbarians. Tough barbarians are simply tougher than ‘Tough’ members of other classes, and this was necessary to make the Toughness feat attractive.”
“I don’t understand your concerns about balance. We have playtested the new rules extensively. In our main campaign, I can assure you that my half–orc barbarian is doing just fine…”
We at Chainmail Bikini Games have been participating in Wizards of the Coast’s early access program for the upcoming 3.5 edition. The program was designed to give d20 companies a first look at the new revision so that we can make our product line more compatible with the upcoming edition. We are restricted by a non–disclosure agreement and cannot reveal anything about the new edition.
Unfortunately, several of WOTC’s R&D staff has forced our hands. We disagree with many of the upcoming changes, and hope that by becoming whistleblowers, they will change their minds. Therefore, I present a few of the upcoming last minute changes. You decide whether their judgment was sound. The following quotes are from Ed Stork, lead designer:
“Charisma has long been a dump stat in the game, and it is time that we finally recognized that fact. To encourage player characters with higher Charisma scores, we have eliminated all racial modifiers that penalize Charisma. Races such as dwarves no longer have Charisma penalties. There is no need to replace that penalty with some other, since Charisma is worthless to fighters and most other classes anyway. Why put a penalty in the game that has no effect?”
“Instead of rolling for hit points at each level, you now gain the maximum hit points at each level, not just at first level. This makes total party kills more rare, makes character generation easier, and makes the heroes more heroic. For instance, a 3rd level ranger would have 18 hit points (d6 x3=18).”
“Strength has always been meant to be the most powerful ability score, and that’s reflected in racial modifiers and other parts of the game. However, it has been obvious since August of 2000 to us that the game mechanics do not truly reflect this assumption. Therefore, Strength bonuses to melee damage are now doubled across the board. Items that increase Strength have been given a modest price increase to compensate.”
“Half–orcs have gained Scent and a +4 racial bonus to Intimidate. They also now have weapon familiarity with the spiked chain, and there was some heated debate over that, but we feel that it’s an appropriate change since we have also given them racial penalties to Diplomacy and Gather Information, and have restricted them from taking the paladin and bard classes.”
“Fatigue has been removed from the game as a condition. It was a pain to recalculate your Strength and Dexterity bonuses every time the condition came up, and really, the penalties didn’t make much of a difference anyway.”
“Toughness still grants +3 hit points, but also gives an additional +3 hit points per hit die to barbarians. Tough barbarians are simply tougher than ‘Tough’ members of other classes, and this was necessary to make the Toughness feat attractive.”
“I don’t understand your concerns about balance. We have playtested the new rules extensively. In our main campaign, I can assure you that my half–orc barbarian is doing just fine…”
