D&D 3.1E: What to change?

[I'm A Banana]

Before we implement all these house rules that everyone wants, I'd like a definate relationship between monsters, races, and classes.

Something that can be expressed simply in a stat block...

3e has the beginnings with ECL's and Advancement, but I'd like it to be clearer...

I mean, what if my human psion wants to advance as a humanoid instead of a psion for a few levels...?

What kind of statistics are appropriate for various ages in various species?

I'd like to be able to take any given entry in the Monster Manual, and turn it into a PC with a minimum of difficulty, and I want the rules to aid that transition.

As far as I can see, that's the only really glaring annoyance for me, as a DM and a player.

Everything else is house rules. There's nothing wrong with it as-is (more or less), and it *needs* no drastic overhaul, except to satisfy particular niches. The classes are balanced and flavorful, the multiclassing is remarkable, and the races work surprisingly well.

I'm not saying that the changes are a bad thing, I'm saying they're largely unnessecary for the game. Non-Vancian magic? Whoop-dee-frickin-doo. No HP? Yay for you! An alt-ranger? Yippie-fuggin'-skippie. Less magic item availability? Hoo-hah! While a lot of people are clamoring for these types of changes, they're fundamentaly superfluous. Not that they should ignore them, just that they don't need to put them into a revision as anything more than an optional variant.

The system works quite well. I'm happy with it. Not that that nessecarily means that variations aren't a good and rewarding thing to have, because they are and I'd support their development. I just wouldn't support that being forced on a system that basically works the way it is.

I *like* the alt-magic systems and alt-rangers. I *want* these kinds of things to exist. But that doesn't mean that it's nessecarily better or cooler than the original, which has it's own merits.

Basically, stop yer whinin' about how D&D doesn't cater to your style of gaming, and find things that are perhaps a bit more fundamentaly messy.

Though that's just IMHO, of course.

 

[WizarDru]

4. Magic items and spells do not cost XP to create/cast. Another mechanic will be introduced. I really dislike that aspect of the rules.

Funny, it's one of my favorite parts, and one of the best limiting factors for rampant magic item creation. It's a very simple and seamless mechanic that both adds a real and appreciable cost to item manufacture. I grant you, it could use some refinement, but there are certain parts of the game where versimilitude has to take a back seat to game-balance. Could a different system be introduced? I'm sure it could. But I don't know that it would necessarily be any better.

 

[Fictionaut]

Besides many of the ideas already mentioned, some tweaks:

1. Class skill selection. I'm still puzzled as to why the Sorcerer doesn't get any CHA-based class skills, or why Profession (even Siege Engineer!) is a class skill for everyone except Fighters.

2. Fix little details about the Ranger...virtual feats not working with double weapons, favored enemy bonuses not applying to critical-immune creatures. They just seem arbitrary, and Rangers need a wider variety of options.

3. Gnomes' favored class is an unnescessary artifact of 2E; I'd just make it Wizard. For that matter, Elves (usually chaotic) seem better suited for Sorcerer (usually chaotic) than Wizard (usually lawful), by the flavor text the PHB gives anyway. Maybe not a 3.1 change though.

4. A couple of spells could probably be bumped up a level, such as Haste and Improved Invisibility (at LEAST one level for that one).

5. Give the Holy Avenger a major power-up, even if not to its 2E level. SR 15 and Dispel as a standard action seem a bit weak both in comparison to the old version and for the level at which it will probably be found and used.

6. Maybe a slight power increase for NPC classes; some of them are almost valid multiclasses as it is.

7. Eliminate law=good situations like Solars and other celestials being potentially NG or CG but always having Law as a clerical domain, and Night Hags being NE but affecting chaotic and evil creatures. Law/chaos and good/evil are distinct qualities for a reason.

8. And yes, errata, errata, errata.

 

[Morpheus]

Sort of...

Really the most free-form magic system that I can think of off the top of my head is the Ars Magica system, which allows you to do most anything you want. You might try intermeshing that with your dnd games as well.

The magic system in Ars Magica can do almost anything you want, but it is not very effective. Spontaneous casting (making a spell up at the spur of the moment) is much weaker than formulaic casting (casting a spell that has been "invented"). Spontaneous casting is really for something simple that you might not have experience with. I wouldn't recommend using spontaneous casting as a model for "free-form" casting...

My .02

Morpheus

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

I would like to see the classes balanced a bit better (fix the Ranger, diferentiate the Sorceror and Wiz, more skill points for the Bard, etc)

The main thing I would like to see is to have the levels for spells revamped. Just take every 'must have" spell (magic missile, shield, haste, etc) and bump it up a level or two. Then take some of the lame-o spells (can't think of them off the top of my head, because I never take them), and drop them down a level or two...

 

[Dagger75]

Whoa! He said 3.1, not 4.0.

I'd include all the errata, implement a standard system for maneuvers in combat (disarming, tripping, grappling...), use exactly the same mechanics for both monsters and races, fix Craft (time required to make an item proportional to its cost? The higher the difficulty, the faster the production? What were they thinking?) and a few other skills, make Skill Focus give +3, make Toughness give more and more extra HP each time you take it... and not much else. Oh, and fix Harm.

Edit: and everything Spikey said. Persistant Haste is just wrong.

Well the good is news you can't persistant Haste anyway because you can only do spells that have a caster as the recipiant not other people, but that is for another thread.

I would just add the Errata. Am I only one who likes attacks of opprotunities. No one in my group has any issues with AoO's.
Skill focus +3 definitaly
Toughness should be a little nicer with the HP buff or a give few extra every level. Maybe Toughness Prodigy like Spellcasting prodigy

Thats my 2 cents

 

[WizarDru]

Am I only one who likes attacks of opprotunities. No one in my group has any issues with AoO's.

Nope, plenty of us think they're fine...they just could have explained them better from the outset. I remember having an hour long discussion at our first full-fledged 3E session, hashing them out. We got it, but it would saved us all some time if they'd explained it more clearly from the outset.

 

[Sulimo]

Isn't that what anyone with house rules does already?

Anyway, I'd replace HP with VP/WP and all the changes that entails, eliminate AoOs (or whatever else requires D&D combat to be played like Blood Bowl), and redo the magic classes so they're not Vancian anymore.

Oh boy. Thats just the changes I want...well most of 'em. The only other thing I'd add is some optional material to slow down the pace to advancement to 1e/2e levels as well as make it easier to deal with low magic settings. Not that its real hard to do now.

Well, I dont know about replacing the rules you mention, adding 'em in as official options might be a better way to go. Add a VP/WP option, move the 'Blood Bowl rules' to being an option and putting in an optional Power Point system to be used with all the magic using classes.

 

[Sulimo]

Really the most free-form magic system that I can think of off the top of my head is the Ars Magica system, which allows you to do most anything you want. You might try intermeshing that with your dnd games as well.

-F

The magic system in DL 5th Age is a pretty good freeform system. Doing all the calculations slows the process a bit though.

 

[evil_rmf]

Vaxalon, Femerus, Neowolf, and Kenjib:

Thanks for the pointers, I really do appreciate it.