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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Markn" data-source="post: 6066708" data-attributes="member: 21827">I want to expand on my last post a little.  Keep in mind these are just ideas rattling around in my head and I am sure some tweaking would be required for the math to work.First, all simple weapons do d6 damage, all one handed martial weapons do d8 damage, all two handed weapons do d10 damage.  At this point I don't care about special weapons/ranged weapons for this example so please ignore them for now.  Since weapon damage is standardized, the weapon group and/or weapon property becomes the differentiating factor. Different groups/properties allow for different things on the battlefield.  Bludgeoning weapons push people, axes cleave, etc, and these tactical options get layered on top over time through feats/manuevers/martial dice.  I believe this approach strongly supports the "building a character concept" approach.  For example, if you picture being an axe wielder, then you probably picture cleaving someone in two and hitting his buddy.  If you picture your character as a hammer wielder, then you probably picture pushing people away in combat.  So feats could maintain the space they do now - giving access to cleave, spring attack, etc, but the prereqs for that feat fall under the weapon type instead of being open to the class - afterall it seems silly that a warhammer wielder would use spring attack for example.  I also believe there is great design space in allowing both players/monsters to attack something other than AC.  Perhaps a feat/manuever/martial die allows the character to target Str/Con/Dex/Int/Wis/Cha instead a limited number of times per day.  This encourages "combat roleplaying" - if I know an ogre is dumb and I have an attack that can target intelligence (which perhaps deals normal damage but gives the next ally advantage for putting the ogre in a bad position), then using it makes sense, and since these powers are very limited, the timeing of this type of attack could be very crucial and could create interesting decision points.  Continuing the example, a fighter begins play dealing 1W damage.  As he increases in level, both the damage he deals and the options that he gains increase.  At level 6 he would deal 2W, at level 11 he would deal 3W, and at level 16 he would deal 4W (which follows nicely with 3e's extra attack at each of these levels but without the extra decision points of who to attack with the multiple attacks and the additional delay of rolling/adding dice to determine if its a hit and how much damage it does).  At pre-determined levels he gets feats/manuevers/martial dice that increase his tactical options.  Depending on his choice, these could be limited use abilities or effects that apply when he choosese to use them.  An example of a limited ability would be the ability to target Int instead of AC (and to add just a bit more complexity here, it could be keyed of a different ability for the fighter which again encourages not just STR fighters, but to target the ogres Int score, perhaps the fighters power is keyed off of his Cha bonus).  Conversely, something that could be triggered when chosen is the ability to push someone 1 square as sometimes this is tactically advantageous and other times it is not.   While this may not be perfect, I think it is something for WotC to consider.  The end result is a low level game which is mostly about rolling dice and dealing damage and it slowly adds on the tactical options where the options change the battlefield throughout the fight, which is also mirrored with the DM monsters going from few tactical effects to more.</blockquote>

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