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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6315483" data-attributes="member: 85870">Seriously, this sounds like a TON of work. I know, because maybe 3 years ago, I was kind of in the same boat. I was in a "hardcore" search mode to find the "perfect" D&D, even if it meant doing a crapload of houseruling. I purchased several ENPublishing spell casting variants on PDF, I toyed with wholesale replacing Vancian casting with a spell point system; I looked at using Wounds / Vitality instead of straight hit points, I looked at action points, I looked at Trailblazer, I bought a bunch of Pathfinder stuff . . . . Until eventually, I just realized, I was wasting my time. Why was I trying to munch all this together? I didn't have the time, I really just wanted to game with my friends, and do so without fighting the system every step of the way, and surely wasn't there a better way of doing this than having to do it all myself? I'm not saying you shouldn't TRY . . . okay, maybe I am a bit. But really I'm saying, is the reward really worth it? If you're doing it primarily for the enjoyment of the exercise itself -- trying to figure out rules synergies, using your mental acuity to establish balance with your changes, etc. -- then go for it. The game of "making a game" can be a fulfilling pursuit all to itself. But if you're really doing it out of frustration, you really don't WANT to go through that effort but really don't see any other choice to get what you want but DREAD the idea of having to do it -- I wouldn't. For me, I eventually just said, "What the heck? It's pretty clear I don't really WANT to play or GM a 'D&D game' at all, I want something else. So why don't I just go straight to the 'something else'?"If for whatever reason you're still "wedded" to the d20 family tree of fantasy games (e.g., your players don't want to learn a new "style" of system, etc.), at the very least, start by checking out both Fantasy Craft and Radiance RPG. Both are built on the basic D&D 3.x engine, but bring a host of unique and fresh mechanics to the system "core." For me in particular, Fantasy Craft brings an elegance, coherence, and flexibility to the "D&D Engine" that nothing else I've ever seen has come close to. Not that it's any more "rules lite" than D&D 3 or Pathfinder, it just works all of the "fiddly bits" into a dramatically more coherent whole. Fantasy Craft you can pick up a used copy of pretty cheap on Amazon (less than $20, in most cases). Radiance RPG you can download the player's handbook for free direct from the creator's Web site. If you're okay drifting a little farther from the D&D family, I can't recommend Savage Worlds enough. Seriously, in some ways, to me Savage Worlds is the game that BECMI always wished it could be, even though the "core engine" looks nothing like D&D. But it's a fantastic gaming experience for "classic" D&D-style fantasy, and it ditches spellcasting and hitpoints.Anyway. Just my $.02. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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