Cast Raise Dead on a Game Element!

[SpiderMonkey]

There's a lot of stuff above that I would second. I really miss xp for gold in particular. I used to think it was goofy, but I like that gold and the debauchery it can afford is its own reward. In current paradigms, it's really almost a form of point-buy for leveling (if that makes any sense). Plus, gold-without-xp makes the motivation a bit weird: "I need to adventure to get gold so I can be better at adventuring." I guess I'd prefer "We gotta steal that diamond so I can be in beer and loose women for the next couple months. Hey, it beats cobbling!" Although, it could be just that I'm a bit lazy and don't want to have to wrack my brain for PC motivations.

Also, Morale. I like 4e well enough, but man, could it have used an explicit morale system.

 

[CM]

A mix of the two would be better.

With x2 critical hits, you often do less damage than you would on a regular roll. (when you roll two 1's). That is even suckier than getting max damage. So if I have to choose between the two systems, I'll choose max damage any day of the week.

However, max damage + another damage die roll would be even better.

This is actually what 4e does. You get crit dice on top of the max damage, and some weapons have the high crit property which adds even more.

Pretty much agreed on crit confirm rolls--need to go away. Along with stacking abilities that increase the chance of criticals. I remember well the 3e characters whose attacks all crit on 15+.

 

[ferratus]

This is actually what 4e does. You get crit dice on top of the max damage, and some weapons have the high crit property which adds even more.

No. I think that's just because you have a good DM. Some weapons give extra damage on criticals, but critical hits are max damage. That's why when you roll max damage anyway, it is called a "poor man's crit" or "ghetto crit".

 

[ferratus]

Also, Morale. I like 4e well enough, but man, could it have used an explicit morale system.

There is an implicit one, in that generally you are allowed to intimidate bloodied oppoents into surrender.

But yeah, it would be nice to know which monsters are the types to fight to the death or not. Most DM's make you fight the until every last man is dead. For religious zealots or bloodthirsty orcs that's fine... but bandits should be running for the trees after most reversals in forture.

 

[Jawsh]

The thing I liked about crit confirmation was that it ratcheted up the action. It raised the stakes. That's a fun thing to do in a game.

It's true though, that rolling a 20 could end up being a rather deflating experience when you don't confirm.

Maybe there could be a compromise. If you roll a 20, it's max damage, plus you get to roll for confirmation to achieve double damage.

And I realize that critical hits were nerfed for a reason. Namely that monsters crit too often, causing too many TPKs. I think the obvious solution is to nerf critical hits for monsters, but make them good for players.

 

[mkill]

seriously, 4E's idea of a critical hit is a joke.

I agree for a different reason. You did get bonus damage for a critical, but it was tied to your weapon. While I get the basic idea ("your weapon glows with holy fire, and explodes as you split the demon in two!"), it was clunky at the game table.

"I crit!" ... "wait, what was my enchantment bonus again?" ... "wait, my weapon does d10, but the critical bonus die was a d6" ... "uh, can I borrow your d6?" ... "that's 26 max damage plus" ... rolls dice "12 ... 28 damage!"

Very rarely did weapons do something cool on a crit. Good idea, poor implementation.

 

[Ichneumon]

Casting spells directly from books, courtesy of 1e Unearthed Arcana.

Just coz it's dramatic and fun (for the DM, if not for the poor wizard!)