D&D 3E/3.5 3.N – Codex Gigas: Nonsi's complete 3.5 Revision (Final, PEACH not needed)

[nonsi256]

All in all I have to say you did a great job and as long as there aren't any blatent copyright issues I would love to see this published.

I'm not considering publishing because I'm constantly refining things.
Once things are published, you're kinda stuck with them.
As we speak, I'm working on some new improvements that are designed (hopefully) to carry only benefits with no drawbacks (the no drawbacks is the hard part).
This, for instance, is quite close to (if not already) finished.
This, OTOH, still requires some work (continued on my laptop ATM, until it is finished).
There are some more issues I'm cooking, and since I attach in bursts, it'll take me a few more days to share.

 

[nonsi256]

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Hi again people.

In my codex, I've come up with quite a few rules & brews.
They're all aimed towards several main goals:
- Game fun & satisfaction.
- Gameplay speedup.
- Theme & folklore
- Equilibrium.
- Credibility.
- The ability to create any pre-modern-era character archetype that the mind can conjure – without the need to further expand the codex (this one can never be fully achieved, I know, but I'm trying to come as close as I possibly can).

I'm well aware that sometimes meeting one might come at the expense of another to a certain degree; an outcome that in the vast majority of cases I manage to avoid. However, when I don't, I always aim for a significantly more apparent benefit than the tradeoff. I never introduce a rule or brew of which I'm not absolutely convinced that the pros significantly outweigh the potential cons.

But, being human, I'm prone to mistakes, so whenever I find them, I adjust.

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Anyways, when I posted my codex, there were several tasks that I'd given up on:
- Vitality Damage vs. Mortal Damage.
- Directly tying between attack rolls & damage scores, and finding an elegant formula that would replace critical hits.
- Resolving A-M.
- Enabling a Ranger/Paladin/Templar-esque character, without turning these archetypes into actual classes.
- One set of rules to deal with ASF reduction.

Well, I finally cracked these issues, so I've added a unified update to cover all improvements I've discovered since the codex was published.
If anyone finds things in the codex or the update that merit comments, don't hesitate to share.
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[nonsi256]

the DCs for Smell are ridiculously high (dropping them all by 10 points would be closer to 'real' values). Because noticing an obnoxious stench such as a ghast or rotten eggs is not something you would expect someone to fail at, yet the DC of 15 means that only 1 in 4 average people would notice it.

I would just drop the first two by 5.

Smell also seems to be missing any DC modulation for distance/age of a scent.

I know.
I never intended to put much focus on those. I opened the door hoping that others would bite but people didn't show much interest.

Touch suffers from the oposite problem: recognizing someone's face by touch is something no one does and as such something nearly everyone would fail at.

DC 20, to my better knowledge says just that (regarding the average person).

And reading words by accidental indentations in paper no way that is below DC 20.

In medieval times, writing was a bit more distinct than today's ballpen on manufactured paper.
Notice that "Recognize a word from a printed text" = 30.

Maybe a good and realistic modification would be to up the DCs by 5 for anyone with functional eyesight.

In my view the DCs should be more like: 5, recognize a common item. 10, read ingraved writing. 15, sense tremors of someone moving around nearby. etc.

These are good suggestions.

 

[nonsi256]

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Hey people.


It's been a long time since I last wrote on ENWorld, mainly because GiantITP has a lot more activity when it comes to 3.5 hombrewing.

When I set out to the making of this codex, I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and I did.
However, due to cumbersome solutions to some of the problems I set up to fix, I quickly became dissatisfied with how the codex turned out (which is also why I'll never again title a homebrew thread with "PEACH not needed").

I took a long 2-year break from the development of the codex to collect better alternatives.
Once I felt I was done collecting, I've set out to revivify the codex into its very last incarnation.

In the GiantITP codex, I've . . .
- Greatly improved the game tools at hand for noncasters.
- Truly balanced the classes. I've improved what required improvements and toned down what needed toning down.
- Removed PrCs: I've found a way around them entirely, using the right multiclassing tools.
- Found a way to balance weapons in a much simpler and elegant way than varied iterative-penalties.
- Further improved the usefulness of skills.
- Removed a lot of excess baggage, mostly by keeping things closer to home (e.g. gave up the idea of adding new ability scores, after I realized that the cons overshadowed the pros).
- Simplified mechanics wherever possible.


Just wanted to share, for anyone who found this codex of any use.
I truly believe that the GiantITP codex hasn't a single negative compared the ENWorld version while having improvements all across.
The GiantITP codex is basically finished, but if anyone here is (or intends to become) registered on GiantITP, I welcome any and all criticism (sans thread derailing) and balancing/improvement suggestions.