d20 Modern Class Structure with D&D

[Aussiegamer]

Basic problems are the:

1. bad magic system in modern/ UA compared to D&D
2. only 10 levels for basic classes
3. BAB suxs in modern with only a couple of basic and Advance classes getting 1 BAB/ level
4. you will need to use the modern monsters saves have been nurffed in modern
5. lack of bardic music
6. different skills, no alchemcy or herbalism etc
7. Modern uses 3.0 feats

I have adapted some to all of the class abilities for my system, but its an on going job still.
I changed the 10 to 20 as well, for flexiability. I also did the conversion of class abilities to feats for anyone.

I also dumped CC skills and opened the class feat for all. More flex allows PCs to have some real differences.

It needs a LOT of work to use modern for D&D, but for a low magic game then hum OK

 

[Plane Sailing]

Unfortunately that's not really what I'm looking for. What made me curious is the idea of the base classes as an underlying foundation to advanced classes. Still can't hurt to flip through Grim Tales though and see what it has to say.

I understand where you're coming from. I argued with Wulf about keeping 10 level base classes, and providing 10 level advanced classes too, but didn't win Grim Tales might be useful to you from the talents and some other points of view, but classically modern sounds more like your line.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Grim Tales expands the 10 level base classes of d20modern to 20 levels and does away with advanced classes. It adds most (all?) D&D class abilities as feats or talents, and has a new magic system.

And I can never ever forgive it for introducing the hated Trapfinding to D20 Modern.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I personally prefer d20 Modern to D&D for a fantasy campaign not set in an existing D&D world. Frankly, I'd prefer it for a campaign set in an existing D&D world.

Anyway, the d20 Modern class structure is great; it forces players out of the class = job paradigm and makes them think about what their character's role in the party and the world is. Once you get the hang of creating NPCs (which can take longer, admittedly), it's also fun to play with the players' expectations there: remember that a guy with 18 Con and 8 Dex can be a Fast Hero. In D&D, playing against your stat strengths is pretty much suicide, but a lot of d20 Modern characters actually benefit from it, using the class abilities to shore up weaknesses.

 

[Ranger REG]

Done - unfortunately the Merlin's Workshop website is unreachable.

Try this: http://www.freewebs.com/merlinsworkshop/CMsap.htm

 

[Wik]

Also wik- feat every level.

Hunh? You rang?

***

Feat every level is a neat idea - it lets people play around a bit. It'd probably go well with d20 modern, but only if you reinforce the idea that different classes have different bonus feat lists to choose from.

I use the d20 modern classes (modified) for my post-apocalyptic game. I really like the idea of two 4th level characters of the exact same class being two entirely different entities. One Tough might be highly resistant to fire and have a lot of hit points, while the second can fight at negative hit points and has damage reduction.

Should be fun to convert, but it might take a little while.

 

[EditorBFG]

I converted every base class in D&D to d20 Modern. It works pretty well, and the characters are much more customizable that way than in D&D. I should note that I use a heavily house-rules version of Modern.

The main difficulty was converting things like spellcasting into talents. If a class can cast spells, it shouldn't be as good as a fighter, so you can weaken a class, but what if someone wants to take the class and not use the spellcasting talent tree? Then you just have a weak class with no spells. Solving these problems was the big sumbling block, but now that it is down, things roll pretty smoothly.

Would people be interested in seeing this kind of thing as a product for Modern? I could ask the BFG Head Honcho what he thinks, if people thought it would be useful.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

That said, the fact that you used d20 Modern to run a fantasy-ish game set in the Three Kingdoms is encouraging.

How did the PC's work out being combinations of Strong/Tough/Charismatic/etc/etc? It didn't feel a little bizarre?

Nope. Why should it?

You pick your concept, then your class, unlike in DnD*. One character decided to play a strategist and archer - no surprise he went Fast and Smart. Another character wanted to be a swashbuckler (an archetype that doesn't work in DnD) - he went Fast and Strong. Another character became a Dedicated/Fast con-artist/archer. Another went straight Strong but took Law Enforcement, giving Diplomacy as a class skill.** Yet another character wanted to be a martial artist (I don't know if China had martial arts in those days, but I said "why not?") - she went Strong/Martial Artist. (That player couldn't design a "proper" Martial Artist to save her life, refuses to use Weapon Finesse, even when she was an elven rogue, and is always getting dropped due to lack of Defense. *Sigh*)

So, based on that last player example, check to see if your player "builds" are missing the obvious.

* Well, sometimes. There's quite a few concepts that either don't work well in DnD, or need their own class. Often they get tied down with FX, too, like the Marshall class (boo!). Someone explain to me why the Eberron Investigative class gets spellcasting. Seriously, fantasy doesn't mean everyone's a spellcaster!

** I traded out Personal Firearms Proficiency as bonus occupation feats for Archaic Weapons Proficiency, a minor and fairly obvious to make change.

However, Modern doesn't do FX well, nor does it do many "miscellaneous" abilities well. Good luck designing a druid, for instance; you could probably simulate a Celtic druid using just the six base classes, but you'll need to create a druid class if you want Wildshape.

There is a Berserker class (similiar to the Barbarian) that is available for download somewhere (I forget where, I just saved the .rtf). It's designed for the Tough class, but the player who took it only took one Tough level (and several Strong levels). Tough is great after a few levels, but usually suffers a bit from multi-classing.