d20 that should have been core

[Desdichado]

I also agree that nothing else should have been included in the core rules. Are there other things I'd have liked to see? Sure! An all new magic system that owes nothing to fire and forget, all new classes, etc. But I can get those from somewhere else, and honestly, I think they belong somewhere else, not as core rules.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

I don't know about "core," but Book of the Righteous is what Deities & Demigods should have been. If they put out a book right now that was nothing but massively detailed looks at the churches of the PHB pantheon, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I'm a god junkie, and I need a lot more than "Pelor is the god of the sun. His favored weapon is the mace."

 

[Hand of Evil]

Different forms of magic and alternate HP system.

MotP the 3.5 added a lot from it.

 

[Zappo]

I agree that some ritual magic system should definitely be in. It comes up fairly often in D&D modules and stories, so it is part of the "D&D genre", yet there is no core system to represent it.

Psionics - there are just too many people that don't use them. Stuff that some people use and some don't is just about the definition of "non-core".

 

[cildarith]

I don't think anything else 'should' be in the core rules partly because apart from anything else, the D&D rulebooks are too big already.

I agree. A better question might be: What should be removed from the core rules?

 

[Wombat]

I like the concept of alternate HP

I would love an alternate magic system, but I think that would stray as much from the "core" notion of D&D as mass combat would

I never use psionics and avoid the Planes entirely, but I am always surprised to see how many people really, really like them

D&D, given its general direction, is fine as it is. It is very, very far from the Be All And End All of fantasy games, but it serves its over-the-top, nearly superhero vision of fantasy pretty well. That fits with a lot of fantasy literature out there.

Personally, I prefer "realistic fantasy", a la Lions of Al-Rassan and the Earthsea books -- the stories may be big, but the people are more down to earth, normal, and common. The magic is something that happens subtley or in the background, never just because it can be done. Does D&D fit this style of play? No, not really, although it can be forced to fit it after a fashion. In the end to alter the core rulebooks to any substantial level would lose core fans and would add very little to the experience. Players like myself who A) prefer another style of play and B) are used to tinkering with rules can still have our fun by cherry-picking what we do and do not like.

So, it's all good

 

[Staffan]

You mean they're gone! That's a travesty! I just assumed they weren't in the D20SRD.

Of all the weird places to put bullywugs, they chose to put them in Monsters of Faerûn. This is quite strange, on account of bullywugs not having a particularly strong connection to FR, but they do have one to Greyhawk.

 

[Desdichado]

D&D, given its general direction, is fine as it is. It is very, very far from the Be All And End All of fantasy games, but it serves its over-the-top, nearly superhero vision of fantasy pretty well. That fits with a lot of fantasy literature out there.

Yeah, but the problem is, all that fantasy literature that it fits are found on that big "D&D novels" section of the bookstore.