I also have 0 respect for sacred cows and I dont think a huge percentage care that much about them either, and new players dont even know what they are much less care about them. So they arent part of my consideration.
While I'm not a fan of sacred cows for beef's sake, I'm not that quick to dispose of them. D&D is an unique game and has to stay unique. If you kill all sacred cows, you risk killing the identity, the spirit of the game. This is unacceptable. It's worth suffering the presence of some sacred cows to preserve D&D's identity.
HP
Inspired by the HP debates what i would like to see is starting HP equals size + con modifier. Giants should be able to take the sort of punishment that would squash any man flat. That just seems logical no matter how you look at HP.
I disagree with this, but I do because I prefer HP to represent minor damage, stamina loss, etc. to the character. For serious damage and critical hits I want a wound system.
Healing magic/
Heals a number of HP set by the recipient, not the caster. Cure light might heal 1pt per target level while cure serious heals 4pts per target level for instance.
That way the fact that 1 HP means something different to a 1st level fighter and a 10th level fighter is modeled better.
Don't like that because it still allows cleric to spam heals at someone to heal him. To me, if someone is seriously hurt, you need serious measure to heal him. To compare this with real life, if someone takes a shallow cut, you bandage it. If it's a deep cut however, you can't simply put twice that many bandages over it - you will need sutures.
I already proposed a solution in another thread. In short, different types of healing can only raise your HP up to a certain limit. For example, combat healing spells (spells that take a round to cast or less) will only heal a character up to his 1/3rd or perhaps 1/2nd total HP. Short rest will heal few HP, but only up to 1/3rd of total HP. etc.
HP per level optional module
I give 1-4. Those numbers could be doubled or tripled to reduce lethality. Curative magic should be increased at the same rate. More heroic campaign? double HP and healing. Supers campaign? 3X them.
A sizeable amount of HP per level is a sacred cow I'd like to keep.
ATTACKING
Attack rolls should be opposed. [...]
On that line allow players to either parry or dodge based on whats best for them for average attacks. Parry being an opposed att roll and dodge being a reflex type of save.
Make some attacks only dodge-able. Titans greatsword, fireball, flying boulder? Dodge only.
STR adds to damage only. Not to hit rolls.
Agreed on all counts.
DAMAGE/CRITS
Get rid of critical hits as they are. Every 2 pts an attacker beats the defender by ads 1 pt of damage to the attack.
I like critical hits so I want them in my game. Plus there are many ways to implement them. Critical hits could cause: extra hp loss, wounds, loss of actions, debuff conditions.
Armor/
Should be DR. Shields should add to parry rolls. Base armor DR is the same as the Armor bonuses in 3e. 1-9, add magical bonuses. Shields can add 1-4 plus magical bonus.
I say armor should be both. The material armor is made of should determine its DR. The coverage of body should determine its AC bonus.
Size/
To make large monsters scarier you could add a size mod to damage.
Seems unnecessary. Size already affects strength which affects damage.
