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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hawken" data-source="post: 4750409" data-attributes="member: 23619">Sorry for not responding til now. I didn't see any responses after I made my reply so I kind of stopped checking for a while. Herzog, I've been on this board for a while and I've posted different things here and there, but I've never had to include a dissertation explaining the why of a proposed alternate/house rule. Why? Because it was in my head, I wanted to write it out and get some opinions on whether it would work, whether people would be interested. It doesn't have to necessarily be better--this thread isn't so much for better things as it is for different things.As for why not BAB or other stuff? That should be obvious. With the lack of responses on just one issue, I doubt I would have gotten even this many responses if I just wrote a book of Hawken's  House Rules detailing every possible change to every rule.If you don't want to comment on whether the rule even interests you or not, fine. But I shouldn't have to write a paper explaining anything more than "this idea came to me, what do you guys think?"Actually, DCs would be determined by the challenge of the source of the DC. If you're facing a wizard of equal level, your save DCs against his spells is basically a 12. Let's say you're a fighter with a 14 Con, 12 Dex, 12 Wis and no magic items or spells in effect. Your Fort save would be +4 (2 for fighter, 2 for Con), +1 for Reflex and +1 for Will. Which means if the wizard casts a spell, a Fort save would require a roll of 8 or better, or 11 or better for Reflex or Will. If that same wizard had a bonus of +3 to his caster level for some spells, then the challenge would go from Average to Hard (DC 17). Or if he had feats or other effects that increased the DCs of his spells by +2, then the save DCs would increase to 14 from 12. Maybe you're fighting the BBEG and its a Hard encounter, so save DCs are 17. Now, your Protection from Evil spell and your Cloak of Resistance +3 boost your saves by +5, making what would have been a difficult encounter more manageable--at least where saves are concerned.The idea isn't to nerf saves or DCs, but simplify the process, eliminate a lot of unnecessary math and record keeping, while also making feats or items that increase saves more valuable, or maybe as valuable as they should be. A 14 Wis is actually a big deal, while an 18 or 20 is really impressive and the saving throw feats (Lightning Reflexes, etc.) are actually cool and useful instead of being taken to shore up weaknesses or as a requirement for a feat or PrC. Plus it also helps the DM make even "mundane" monsters more dangerous. A Viper more of an annoyance than a threat to even 1st level characters, but they are damn deadly snakes. They may have only 4hp, but if their poisonous bite is now considered a Hard difficulty (save DC 17), then even an experienced fighter is going to be cautious around them. Animal poisons are weak sauce in D&D and this save system is an easy and plausible way to put some bite back into it. Traps, while providence of rogues, would no longer be an annoyance if they are triggered, but could still pose a danger. This idea in no way hinders the "progression" of the character. There are plenty of other things that go up with level; skill points, feats, hit points, new class abilities and spells, etc. It wasn't until 3rd edition that saves increased every two/three levels. In previous editions, sometimes saves took 5 levels to increase. But with 3rd edition, saves increase far faster than the DCs are allowed to increase, so they quickly become either ridiculously easy or impossibly difficult. My method gives the character roughly a 50/50 chance.</blockquote>

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