D&D Design - Pushing the Envelope

[ashockney]

I'm just getting around to listening to the WoTC podcast on Complete Mage. One of the things Mike and Andy spent some time talking about with the design of that book is the focused effort they put into developing new material that pushes the envelope of D&D and allows characters to do new things that they couldn't do with their characters before throught the use of feats, prestige classes, new spells, and abilities. An example they highlighted was the use of the new feats that allow spellcasters to constantly unload (like a wand) with a "lower level/lower power" ability, until they finally cast their most potent spell.

So what things have you experimented with in your games that push the envelope? What would you like to see carried into D&D from other card games, board games, rpg's, mmorpg's, and miniatures that allow players to do new/better/different things than they can do today?

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

This may barely qualify, but I use max HP per level. I have seen too many friends roll 1's and 2's level after level, especially with fighters and barbarians. Even going core only, the heroes of the story can be all but one hit wonders, and to me this defeats the pourpose of both the game and the HP system.

 

[ashockney]

In a recent campaign, I used Mike's mechanic from Iron Heroes for hp. Essentiallynhalf your hp each level for free and roll half a die for the rest. It worked out great.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Don't know why we're stuck on hit points, but, while we're at it, here's my system.

d12-->roll d12, d10, d8, take highest, minimum of 6
d10-->roll d10, d8, d6, take highest, minimum of 5
d8-->roll d8, d6, take highest, minimum of 4
d6-->roll d6, d4, take highest, minimum of 3
d4-->roll d4, d3, take highest, minimum of 2

My players like it.

Monsters get max hit points per hit die if they're "boss" monsters or important monsters in some other way. Otherwise, I usually give them max-2 per die (i.e. 6 for a d8, etc.).

Dave

 

[jodyjohnson]

The biggest thing we've tried that pushed the envelope was gestalt.

I think it went fine. Next time we'll go with lower point buy and less other house ruled power-ups.

 

[Chimera]

In my last game, I used;

1> Auto reroll 1's.
2> Able to expend Hero Points 1:1 to increase low roll, up to 75% of max.

I think one player did just that, spending 4 hero points to increase a 2 to a 6 on d8.

Thinking that next time, assuming that I don't use hero points (which I might), I'll say;

Auto reroll 1's on d4,6,8.
Auto reroll 1's and 2's on d10,12.

 

[blargney the second]

We're using 2d10 to resolve things instead of d20. We wanted to put the focus more on our characters' abilities and skills than luck, and it seems to be working very well so far!

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

biggest thing i've done resently is changeing the wizard ans sorcerer
wizards get spell points minor spell abilits every 3 levels alone with a few other changes
sorcerers get a dc to make that incresses by howmany spells they have cast to cast spells and i also gave them an eldrich blast like a warlock..it doesnt improve as often and enschew materials my players seems to like it so far

 

[painandgreed]

Skill system with skill points independent of level and gained by spending game time studying and training. That was 1E and dropped with 2E because although non-weapon proficiencies wasn't as detailed or exandable as the skill system I (and other DMs as I got the idea from my DM) had developed, that skill system was part of the RAW and easy to teach new players. I've been thinking about allowing it in 3.5E also. Allow skill ranks to be gained outside of leveling up. Something like a number of weeks training equal to the new rank. So if somebody was learning their first rank in ride, it would only take a week. If they were going for their 13th, it would take 14 weeks. Double the time for OOC skills. Skill rank maximums would still apply.

 

[shilsen]

Action pt usage that prevents death (good thing too, since last session would have been the 21st death in 42 sessions)

XP by session, irrespective of CR or anything that happens in the game

PCs roll hit pts and, if rolling less than 50% on the die, get the 50% score

Removed tracking of healing after fights and purchase of healing wands. I assume PCs pick them up when able to, and if they have enough time after a fight, heal up to full.

Letting players seriously restructure PCs mid-game (changing skills, feats, even class levels) to better suit their taste.