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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Harm" data-source="post: 3304903" data-attributes="member: 49173">I was going to take over a fairly high level party as GM and take them into the FFXI world and have them do some of the quests and city missions from there, and add in the hunt missions from FFXII.  Part of the reason to do this was so that I could ditch the ludicrous DnD spell system, but keep the majority of the rest of the game which works fairly well, and use the great FFXI background and world.  It would have involved the party taking some time off initially to retrain some things like learn the different spell system cleric > white mage magic, druid > red or blue mage magic, sorcerer > blue or black mage magic, wizard > black mage magic, paladin > paladin magic, bard > support white mage magic + bard song, hex blade > dark knight magic etc.  Regardless for the most part the characters would have remained as they were in DnD.  They wouldn't have had the option to pick up a support job, but at the same time native characters using the FFXI version of paladin, warrior etc. jobs who could support job had more restricted access to feats and can't multi-class, so effectivly equivalent.   There were three main things that weren't either identical in DnD or could be trivially fixed like changing how paralyze works to more reflect how it does in FFXI.  First, metamagic feats needed to be changed because of the spell system change, although mapping something like maximize spell to +10 magic attack with no spell level increase like BLM get works for wizards, it simply doesn't work well for clerics who also take maximize spell but won't be casting much damage from the white magic list.  Second, resistances and saves were a bit odd as almost everything magic is a will save and almost everything physical is a reflex save, with little to no fort save use in FFXI.  Third, weaponskills from FFXI/FFXII don't map to DnD at all, but in Book of Nine Swords I found a lot of mechanics in there with their ki weapon powers that do fit very well.  Although there wasn't much in BoNS I was going to take directly, a lot of the mechanics for how the weapon powers are used could be used easily to make the equivalent of FFXI weaponskills in DnD.   Those problems were relativly minor however and for the most part it was a drop-in replacement that would give a very FFXI feel, but stick closely to the DnD rules.  The 75 level + merits system in FFXI was converted transparantly by dividing FFXI levels by 4 and having the merit abilities and spells available at level 20+ as epic.   Anyway, it seems that from the posts of yours I've read here theres 3 things I'd suggest.  First is that by going after several games at once you're making a very large task for yourself that would be more difficult than breaking it up into several smaller tasks.  Second, it looks like you're overcomplicating things and adding in a lot more new mechanics and rules than you have to which has a few effects, among them is that it's more unweildy and dificult to balance, and it'll be frustrating for DnD players to use because of all the differences.  Third it doesn't sound like it will play like either DnD or FF.  For instance your "abstracting out equipment and putting them in as class features" is neither DnD nor FF both of which rely heavily on higher level characters having access too higher power equipment.  In fact it's a cornerstone of both games where many FF players spend ages doing the quests or finding the materials or unlocking the hidden dungeon to get the ultima weapon for each of their characters.  Likewise in DnD the monster's CR is tied to it's AC and DC on saves for it's spells which are tied to the expected attack bonus and saveing throws of players which is tied to them having a certain level of magic items at certain levels.</blockquote>

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