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Message: <blockquote data-quote="groklynn" data-source="post: 5860260" data-attributes="member: 6691336">At the moment I'm trying to compile a generic dungeons & dragons mechanics kinda stuff. I didn't play for about 5 years, and I was deeply in 2ed AD&D mainly, but recently I saw 4e and I bought it. And now 5e is coming. So, I decided to use my brains to make some kind of generic approach to D&D. First of all, it's my greed. I don't want to pay once again (AD&D/3.0/3.5/4 and now it's 5) for the same content (basically, everyone pays for content and pre-made stuff, cause it's cool and you know... well, I hope you got my point, magic missile is still magic missile; Paizo did really well since they've got this trick, I think) but I want to use all the legacy products in one way. So. I decided to clean the D&D's house, and to have my own approach. There are some questions above, so I'm going to answer like it's some sort of quiz <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Basically, each Archetype has it's strong attack from Prime Combat Modifier (equals to level + main Archetype ability modifier + race modifier + all others) and the same modifier used to determine strongest defense of the Archetype which are Fortitude/Will/Reflex (10 + PCM, depends on Archetype); also, there's Secondary Combat Modifier (equals half of level rounded down with 0 on 1st level + any ability modifier other than main ability + all other modifiers) and it stands for any combat activities different from basic combat role and also it stands for secondary defenses. Archetypes are 6 main roles, each for an attribute - fighter for STR, rogue for DEX, cleric for WIS, wizard for INT, bard for CHA and druid for CON. What da..? you may ask. But I think I need to answer a little bit more questions to make things a little bit clearer.Exactly like in 4e at the moment. But I guess there'll be some minor tweaks to make it even more easy. That's where's the magic <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/angel.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":angel:" title="Angel    :angel:" data-shortname=":angel:" />Instead of making over9000 different mechanics for each class/discovering new points-joints-whatever/cloning skills/adding new classes/deleting old rules and etc. I just made one simple thing - deleted all the difficult stuff to hell and made simple things simpler but "with attitude".So, we have an Archetype which have one strong ability, one source of his own "might and magic". This source is called PCM as you can see. But it's not the only one modifier we need. Also each Archetype has his Prime Social Modifier and Prime Mastery Modifier. The names are just as stupid and simple at this point but it's a 0.2a build of an idea, so please, accept'em as they are. So what do these guys do - Prime Social Modifier works for all the basic social actions character could do. Fighter is good at battlefield, and he is good in aggressive manner of speaking and yelling, while mages are really nerds-with-books and good at all the social activities, when intelligence and science are required. So your Prime Social Modifier works as "attack" modifier for all the social interaction. And your PMM (Prime Mastery Modifier) is some sort of "attack" modifier for tech and non-combat tricks stuff. Fighter bends bars, rogue steals and hides, wizard brews potions and scribes scrolls and etc. So all three main parts of D&D (roleplay, fight, explore) have their own modifiers. Second part of fun. All your actions could be counted as at-will (basic actions)/ encounter (complex actions)/ daily (master actions) and rituals (a set of basic, complex or master actions; routine you need to do but it's not necessary to role-play it at every step, so it has no checks at all but have a DC and some basic cost in gp)At-will/encounter/daily powers act similar to 4e but with a couple differences. You can use any untrained at-will of your level or lower level at -2 modifier if it has similar base as your trained at-will; you can use any untrained encounter of your level at -4 modifier if it has the same base as your trained power; you can use any daily at -8 modifier with same rules. So you basically have slots to spend at battle for encounter and daily stuff and there's a system/power builder for improvisation on this level also (basically, i've made it for conversion of other edition's traits and stuff, but it works as improvisation engine in combat too). That's why there's no utility powers as something different - you have utility powers of different types, they also could be at-will/encounter/daily and could be untrained/improvised if based on your trained powers. At some points you choose your favorite at-will, encounter and daily, and grab some additional bonuses for using them (+2/+4/+8 as you could guess) but you get favorite daily at 15th level of 20 (I decided that clone-like gameplay from level 1 to level 30 is toooooo much for me), so these favorites grant you improvisation/similar powers at zero cost if the power uses the same base. So this is how specialization/paragon and all these "extra sharp" builds will work there.So as I told previously, all the actions just sorted in basic/complex/master categories. I mean, ALL actions. Conversation with some random guy? Make at-will PSM check. You have a "big secret" power? E.g. a power which grants you ability to find out man's biggest scare (cleric could have this one) so you make Wis-based PSM check vs. Will defence of your opponent and "win" and you get info. Need "untrained" conversation? You're welcome<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> All the characters/monsters you'll meet have their own defenses, so fighter will act better at yelling on some weak at Fortitude guy, and wizard could handle a fighter with intellectual power. So conversation is kinda combat in mechanics and you can train some social powers to manipulate people/monsters rather then fight them, and you have "encounter socials" when you find some arguments through your power and you have dailies, when you need to stop the crowd from killing innocent guy and it's really hard and you need rest basically after such grand success at negotiation. All the social and spirit based actions in combat like healing or turning or animal empathy or barbarian's rage work through PSM.And if you need to make some  "I want to find out something in taverns" your make a ritual. There is a basic ritual (costs 10gp X level and has DC = Level + 2 and takes 2 hours of time generally) which grants you basic result, complex ritual (costs 100gp X level and takes 4 hours of time generally and can't be repeated in exactly the same form; DC = Level + 4; e.g. first level complex ritual will cost basically 100 gp and you can't repeat, so you with your taverns stuff need to find another part of the city/another kind of places) which grants you bigger result (for our situation with taverns - you find out some details/names/places info) And also there's master ritual (costs 1000gp X level; DC = Level + 8; time 8 hours) that can't be done by one man (cause you need to beat in this situation with taverns DC=9 at first level with your bare PSM, so if you have +4 from your 18-ish stat and +1 from level and +1 from your race and +1 from your theme your PSM could be +7) so you can add some help and there are rules for collective rituals and these rules explain why do you need party/organisation/some goal in social progress, not in dungeon hack'n'slashing only.The same stuff with PMM - you use all the powers connected with your Prime Mastery Modifier with -2/-4/-8 if they are untrained, or with no penalties or with +2/+4/+8 if they are favored. These powers could be counted as skills, non-weapon proficiencies, crafting etc. but they are about interaction with material not with spirit (all the turn undead/animal empathy etc. stuff depends on PSM) - lock picking, forgery, disarming traps and so on.The main part of PMM and favored PMM comes from theme, another great idea I've stolen from somewhere else. Theme is your basic non-adventuring-side-of-living-and-earning-money. You could have basketweaving/ bowyerflecher/ superdupering and all that stuff with trained "powers" (I call them techniques). There's no reason to have non-combat/non-interacting encounter powers, so there are basic techniques/master techniques and rituals of basic/complex/master levels. Theme also progresses as a character gains levels. Race is a third piece of a puzzle. Race grants you additional talents, that could be combat/social/mastery, each race has it's own starting set and race also progress in it. Races basically do not have "free" rituals cause race can't grant some traditions/algorithms of solving any trouble just by genes, but race do grants nightvision/ shifting/ climbing and all the other useful stuff. Race grants you +1 for combat/social/mastery modifiers, but not for ability itself. Also these modifiers don't go straight to one ability; e.g. Half-Orc gets +1 to strength combat and social modifiers, cause it's a race of cruelty and violence, and gets +1 for constitution mastery modifier, cause it's also race of shamanism, some natural traditions in medicine etc. So it's kinda basic and could be too straightforward but design of a race is some sort of a really joy for me now, so I can do as many half-orcs as I wish, cause they'll stay in one simple system.Theme grants you additional +1 for two modifiers (e.g. blacksmith gets +1 strength combat and +1 strength mastery while hunter gets +1 dexterity combat for bows and light weapons and +1 constitution mastery for tracking) and also, as race doesn't improve your stat itself, the theme's bonus applied to modifiers only and it's also doesn't mean you'll 100% get a symmetrical bonus.So the classes, yes. At this point we have 6 archetypes. So we need to combine them to get new classes<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Paladin? Combat from fighter with Prime Combat Modifier, social and mastery from cleric also but with some -4 in levels of powers and rituals and with this scheme paladin could share pool of powers with fighter and cleric with a little amount of it's own unique powers. So every additional class mixed get -4 in levels in terms of social/mastery powers; if you mix 3 classes it'll have -2 levels combat from Prime Archetype, -4 levels in social (or mastery) from Secondary Archetype and -8 levels in mastery (or social) from Tertiary Archetype (and it sounds scary <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" /> like horror movie)So ranger could be a dex pcm/con psm-4/com pmm-4. A monk could be a str pcm/wis psm-4/wis pmm-4. A barbarian is a str pcm/con psm-4/con pmm-4 and so on. Hit die depends on Archetype, no more differences for fighter/paladin/etc. - str pcm 1d12/con pcm 1d10/dex pcm 1d8/wis pcm 1d6/cha pcm 1d6/int pcm 1d4. so fortitude and agile guys are the most healthy, wise and charismatic guys are ok and intellectuals suck at the battlefield but will compensate it. Logic of this decision is simple - the more you are in a close combat, the more you need hits. So druid archetype is a kinda primal shapeshifter with some instincts and simple yet powerful "nature calls" at the moment, not the cleric-of-nature as in AD&D. and these bastards in form of a bear are really powerful warriors. dex guys (rogue archetype) have some basic advantages - they have stunts, they have shooting and they have sneak attacks/dirty fightingNext, defenses. As I told - there are three. Will from cha/wis, reflex from int/dex, fortitude from str/con. so where's ac? ac is a part of misbalance in d&d in my opinion. cause at first levels you need to cover your a$s with a piece of cloth when you play a mage and at 30th level fighter in "ultraplate+30" can't do anything with some really powerful spells. So, physical defense is a part of reflex/fortitude stuff. So all light armor grants you some reflex bonus and little fortitude bonus (do you feel more "free" and "comfort" in good suit than naked on a battlefield?!<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/ponder.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":hmm:" title="Hmmm    :hmm:" data-shortname=":hmm:" />; the lighter armor gives more freedom in movement so better reflexes); all heavy armor grants you some fortitude bonus and little reflex bonus (the heavier your armor, the lesser is reflex); all magic peripherals and additional gear/spells gain any of your defenses. So, willpower is the key for real manipulation, and half of wizards Illusion/Necromancy powers including Power Words are from willpower domain. Melee weapons basically are Str PCM + D20 vs Str/Con PCM + 10 + all armory/buffs/additional upgrades; so your all the battle remains really close, excepting you could improvise<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> so you say "I do feint attack vs that stupid ogre. I want to strike him rather vital, not forcefully. Can I make my at-will vs his reflexes" - and it will be a -2 roll if you already have any at-will trained attack vs specific defense. Solo foes and NPC's can do exactly the same with you<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Also, the concept of daily powers is little bit "not fun but stupid", especially when we talk about martial masters. So, I decided that second daily could be counted as a -8 improvised daily but with consequences - second daily and you are bloodied no matter, hit or miss. And the third daily drops you unconscious. It's heroic fantasy, isn't it? Last but not least - your character is divided in 4 tiers. They are logical:* novice (1-5 level) - you know basic powers, have little experience in your theme and race abilities and solely cannot perform big rituals. you're unknown as a hero, maybe some theme's background surrounds you. * hero (6-10 levels) - you have beaten some local quests, found a place for your skills and abilities, so you a hero. but it's just a beginning - at this level you decide, which at-will power will be your favorite, so you start your specialization way, you also gain some additional traits from your theme and race.* paragon (11-15 levels) - you are the champion. you have your own style (favorited encounter power) and you have a glory of a really powerful adventurer. your race's elders respect you, your colleagues-in-craft with same theme adore you. but you have interest in global and multiverse quests at your level of power. from this point you build your own organisation to solve ritual-level problems and hire henchmen/adventurers who, with your little help keep order (remember, I have an engine to run collective rituals? and remember, that ritual could solve now everything? e.g. local war could be done as a ritual vs DC... and if you will take part in it on a battlefield it'll grant some benefit for lowering a DC)* legendary (16-20 levels) - you are the living legend. at the level of 20 you reach a peak of your mortal glory, you become a milestone in a history of your world. you gain a legendary daily power, that could defeat armies or heal dozens of people from deadly disease. your organisation has a network all over the world (or you a monarch/or you even defeated couple of other worlds?! who knows) your theme gains a legendary technique that allows you to produce miracles/make artifacts/transform matter or nature itself and your race makes you a part of a pantheon. so next step is to kill Orcus, I guess. but at the moment I have absolutely no interest in it.So that's my "generic edition" of D&D game with improvisation, multiclassing, epic adventures, simple mechanics and no content at the moment - cause I don't make money with it I just want to play and maybe DM sometimes <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious    :]" data-shortname=":]" />p.s. sorry for my bad and primitive english - I am from Putinsland</blockquote>

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