Armor & Coins - please, No.

[Nytmare]

However, it became clear over time that 3e had a lot in common with the huge body of house-rules my game used.

That's funny. It's probably because I was juggling between so many different groups when I first got to college, but by and large I had given up on AD&D in the early 90s because every group I was in contact with had such a confusing catalogue of "these make D&D more realistic" house rules.

It wasn't till 3rd ed came out, where they managed to start blending the combat and rp elements together and make both aspects an actual game instead of a laundry list of rules, that I fell back in love with the game.

 

[Peter LaCara]

There must be something wrong with me, because I find things like Astral Diamonds and Godplate to be awesome.

Also, for those of you mourning the loss of masterwork armors, we've seen that a suit of +1 platemail with a pretty decent special ability is a 3rd level item. Is there any reason that you couldn't call a +X suit of armor with no extra abilities non-magical, and the enhancement bonus comes from superior craftsmanship? The same could be done with +X otherwise mundane weapons.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

There must be something wrong with me, because I find things like Astral Diamonds and Godplate to be awesome.

So it was you who filled out all those customer feedback cards in the back of the rulebooks and them to WotC?

Personally, I have no trouble with it, but neither am I enthralled by it. I think this is things I need to see in the game.

 

[Amphimir Míriel]

Copernicus, Darwin, Einstein: all natural scientists.

If anyone who is not a scientist is allowed to be on the list of revolutionary intellectual figures, than Freud ought to be. Whatever the truth of his psychological theorising, his impact on the self-conception of contemporary European and American human beings is utterly profound.

Whether or not he could take on pirates and win is another matter.

There are other social scientists who have made larger contributions to the world...

For instance, I'd like to see a comic about Voltaire buckling his swash against the pawns of evil aristocrats and clergy...

And the image of Karl Marx swinging a huge warhammer at the head of an army of Morlocks is... interesting to say the least.

----

Now, back into topic, I only disliked the goofy names of the special armors... It simply invites mockery: "+5 Godplate of the Whale"

I would probably ignore those in my game, though... or rename them or something... its no big deal.

The "Int or Dex to AC with light armors" is a winner though... that should shut the mouths of those who claim that Int does nothing in 4ed.

And the addition of "astral diamonds" or whatever as casino chips for V.I.P's in Sigil and whatnot makes sense... In my game I once thought of gnomish banks issuing letres-of-credit to nobles and high level adventurers, as a way to avoid "carts full of gold and gems" for PC's on the move...

 

[pawsplay]

In order to reaction to anything, there is a mental aspect to it. Recognizing a threat, identifying stimuli. This is subconcious, and in D&D terms, I can understand how such a purely mental act would be given unto Intelligence. It shows speed of thought. Think of this as the immediate "fight or fligh" response in the mind...or in the case of combat, "dodge or block." Your brain controls the impulse.

In intelligence testing, processing speed invariably loads a lot less on general intelligence than other factors. There are reasons to question whether thinking quickly is precisely what you would call intelligence; although intelligence can help you think quickly, simply being quick does not seem to make you intelligent.

To react physically to something, you need physical movement, obviously. Raising the shield, jumping out of the way, what have you. This movement cannot happen before a mental process has occured and the brain has stimulated the muscles into action, or rather, into reaction to the interrepted stimuli. This movement is represented by Dexterity.

You mean Strength. Jumping, melee weapon use, climbing and so forth are covered by Strength.

Dexterity seems to encompass manual dexterity as well as resilience to fight or flight stress.

Professional boxers rarely have super high IQs, and they are about as fast as they come.

 

[pemerton]

There are other social scientists who have made larger contributions to the world...

For instance, I'd like to see a comic about Voltaire buckling his swash against the pawns of evil aristocrats and clergy...

And the image of Karl Marx swinging a huge warhammer at the head of an army of Morlocks is... interesting to say the least.

In terms of influence I'd rank Freud well above Voltaire.

I wasn't going to mention Marx because of the no-politics rule - but I think he would have to be ranked the most influential non-natural-scientest intellectual of the modern era (and perhaps of all time, but at least St Paul and Mohammed could contest that claim).

------------------------------------

On topic: presumably if the stat/no stat distinction between Light and Heavy armours is going to work there has to be a reasonable gap in AC (+3 Hide, +6 Chain), which means no room for intermediate AC-value armours.

 

[warlockwannabe]

ouch

Warforged Warlord in Warplate with a Warhammer on a Warhorse... all of it illustrated by Wayne Reynolds (aka "WAR")

Poor horse....can warforged actually ride horses?

 

[ff6shadow]

I wouldn't see why not.

 

[Incenjucar]

Poor horse....can warforged actually ride horses?

War(forged)horses?

 

[warlockwannabe]

Not at all. Einstein has never learned how to apply his mental agility to avoiding sharp sticks or moving out of the way of a fireball. This example only makes sense if we constrain ourselves to applying tools that are meant to model adventurers (trained combatants) to folks who have never received any sort of combat training.

Einstein Level 0 Dude
Medium natural humanoid XP 175
Initiative -1 Senses Perception +2
HP 8; Bloodied 4
AC 8, Fortitude 6, Reflex 8, Will 12
Speed 6
m Nerd Slap (standard; at-will)
-4 vs. AC; 1d4 -3 damage
Alignment Unaligned Languages English, German
Skills Science +19
Str 6 (-2) Dex 8 (-1) Wis 14 (+2)
Con 6 (-2) Int 28 (+9) Cha 6 (-2)
Equipment: Pocket Protector

You should add Craft:Nuke