jgbrowning said:
Unless your one book is 1000 pages, you're going to lose information from the existing 3.5 rules-set. What 50% of material do you want to cut?
joe b.
I still love the CoC d20 book, therefore I say: Cut some classes and put them back into their original concept: Sorcerer -> Wizard (just make a variable casting stat), Barbarian -> Fighter (just make raging a talent tree a lá d20 Modern), unify the Bard with the Rogue (i.e. Rogue with spellcasting/music talent tree instead of sneak-attacking).
Don't handle spellcasting so (i.e. don't have sperate class tables, just have a single "Base Magicbonus", which gives your spells per day on a master table)... differently, make a slimmer spell-list, where spells have different functions, like 2E 'reversible' spells, just further that concept, so a "Fireball" on 3rd level makes a fireball, cast on 6th level it has a higher cap, and on 8th it's delayed.
Ditch the magic item reliability, and hence ditch a good chunk of the "Magic Items"-chapter. They're not essential, so don't put them into the Core Book, just some examples and appetizer for a sperate book.
And cut down monsters. Make a toolset for very varying monsters, like Demons, Slaads, and Summon Creatures. Put in dragons, animals, then a sampler of every CR about 1 or 2, with the new statblock, and less listing.
