Core Rules Survivor: Round 2

[Nifft]

Round 2

Vote for the rule you like most. The last rule left on the island will stay on the island forever. So, choose which rule returns to your game soonest!

Last round, the clear winner was Multiclassing. For all its bad features, it's still one of the best innovations of 3rd Edition. (And seeing what SW Saga has done, the future looks bright for 4e.)

Also too well liked to remain in the competition were Level Loss, Pokemounts for the Paladin, and Skill Granularity.

So this contest continues, with less creme and more of the other stuff that floats.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The grappling mechanics are not bad IMHO.

 

[calypso15]

I don't mind the fixed skill DCs. Tends to speed things up a bit, removing the roll from one side (and allowing you to either preroll or not roll at all if you have a high enough skill).

 

[Thanee]

Quickly approaching the point, where the ferry can safely be sabotaged.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nifft]

Quickly approaching the point, where the ferry can safely be sabotaged.

Yes. Sometimes, you look at the bath water, and you realize you don't much need that particular baby.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Flynn]

I like Massive Damage Save, in its many and varied applications across D20. I think it has its place in D&D, and so I'm voting to keep it on the island. I definitely won't be writing that name on my little placard at the next tribal meeting.

With Regards,
Flynn

 

[eamon]

I think the grappling rules are unbelievably complex. It's extremely confusing once natural attack and weapon attacks and special attacks and pins and multiple grapplers, special feats, moving the grapple, etc etc etc are all are combined - and all that complexity for something which hardly ever actually occurs. Grappling might occur, sure, but all those weird corner cases hardly ever do, and I wish there was some easy, straightforward rule to follow instead of this mess.
If a grapple does occur, and the grapple goes beyond the simple standard 2 grapplers doing nothing but bashing each other or trying to get free, I also frequently find myself in a situation which grows absurd and requires DM "common sense" overruling. That's just annoying.

Not that I have a better solution, mind you, but I sure as hell hate the current rules, just about as much as fixed save DC's. The solution isn't opposed rolls (that's normally just pointless), but scaling the DC according to the situations complexity. Tumble actual does change if you're trying to go full-speed, or going through an opponents square... diplomacy is much worse. It's as easy to convince a gullible commoner that you're a friend as it is a great wyrm gold dragon... hmm... that's odd.

 

[eamon]

I don't mind the fixed skill DCs. Tends to speed things up a bit, removing the roll from one side (and allowing you to either preroll or not roll at all if you have a high enough skill).

That's not the problem - hide and move silently and so on can often be made vs. a fixed DC of say 11+opponents spot/listen modifiers. The problem is when the DC is fixed, as in doesn't scale. That would be like a hide/move silently mechanic which simply had a DC 20 with which you could instantly sneak past anything. That's the problem with diplomacy - not that it's not an opposed roll, but that it's a fixed value.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I'm OK with the trip mechanics. It's a little complicated, but each step makes a reasonable amount of sense and there's a decent payoff for the effort.

 

[eamon]

I'm OK with the trip mechanics. It's a little complicated, but each step makes a reasonable amount of sense and there's a decent payoff for the effort.

And they aren't horrifically complex unlike the grapple rules with their thousands of exceptions...