d20 Modern Questions

[arscott]

5. Is there a penalty for shooting in low-light conditions, or in the dark beyond the normal miss chance? I'm thinking about imposing a -4 to-hit unless a firearm has tritium sites, or the character has night vision goggles, or somesuch.

Well, if you're in complete darkness, you do have to target the correct square blindly (which is pretty hard to do in and of itself). And the 40% miss chance for 'near total darkness' is also pretty nasty.

A -4 penalty on top of concealment seems harsh. I'd just adjust the miss chance based on what level of darkness you envision.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I also wonder whether it's really necessary that Improved Trip have the +4 to opposed strength checks taken away in Modern. Is it that overpowering? My best guess is that in D&D you're eventually up against things much larger than humans a lot, so the +4 helps you deal with that, whereas in Modern you're assumed to be up against human-sized targets most of your career, so you don't need the boost.

Yes, it is that overpowering! But maybe even worse was Improved Grapple - it kept the +4 bonus, and it stack with Combat Throw... you can get a +2 bonus to trip checks from Combat Throw, which is pretty good if stats are kept sane.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Actually, the D20 Modern Core Rule version of Improved Trip is pretty much the D&D 3.0 version (so it didn't lose anything). The D20 Modern Urban Arcane version of Improved Grapple, on the other hand, is clearly 3.5.

If your players regularly play D&D 3.5, you should probably adapt most D20 Modern feats to their D&D counterparts, to reduce confusion.

 

[hobgoblin]

cant say im surprised that urban arcana goes 3.5 on the grapple, as its more tuned to being a modern day d&d kinda place (bugbears and whats not walking the city streets and all that).

 

[Johnny Angel]

What about shadowy illumination? d20 Modern has the same radius as D&D for a torch, but does not include the further radius of 'shadowy illumination' mentioned in D&D. In fact, I can't find where the concept is employed at all in d20 Modern. Was this left out for a reason, or simply not bothered with? In D&D it's important for stealth, because shadowy illumination provides concealment.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Shadowy illumination wasn't in 3.0 either. Things were either illuminated or they were not. Torches had a light radius of 20 feet and then darkness came down like a curtain. Modern still uses that convention, having been written during the transitional phase. Most light sources in 3.5 grant full illumination to one radius and shadowy illumination to a second radius; the same formula is easily applied to Modern.

 

[Ranger REG]

Here's a couple:

1. Is there any reason NOT to use the D&D 3.5 revision for Combat Reflexes, which allows you to make as many AoO's against someone as you are allowed, and they inspire, but only one for movement per round per target? Or has this correction appeared in d20 Modern in any errata?

No reason.

2. While d20 Modern is certainly built for multiclassing, and encourages it, and streamlines the process, I'm curious if it seems odd to anyone else that Close Combat Shot, which is the first special ability that a Gunslinger gains, isn't more common. The soldier doesn't get it. Many of the combat builds in Blood and Guts, which is an extraordinarily well-written supplement I am going to use, nevertheless don't include it. Should I include Close Combat Shot as a feat? Because it seems rather silly to encourage a one-level Advanced Class dip just to gain the ability that most combat-trained advanced classes should have, anyway.

Not all soldiers are trained for close-quarter combat. That's usually the forte of the special forces or those who undergo urban warfare training. The rest of the soldiers are trained for battlefield readiness.

 

[molonel]

6. Once you take a talent from a talent tree, are you committed to finishing that talent tree before you begin another? Or can you take one step into a tree, and then begin another talent tree at the beginning?

 

[hobgoblin]

no requirement of the sort that i have ever found, molonel.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

6. Once you take a talent from a talent tree, are you committed to finishing that talent tree before you begin another? Or can you take one step into a tree, and then begin another talent tree at the beginning?

Absolutely not. You can take Empathy one level, then Skill Emphasis next time you get a talent. There aren't any useful heroic NPCs in the core book, though, so it's easy to see how you might have missed that. I suggest picking up Menace Manual

Generally a character is more powerful if they ascend a single talent tree, however.