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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 4290886" data-attributes="member: 996">Rangers still have thier woodsy (and/or dungeony) skills for out of combat Skill Challenges, and they have at least a few utility powers that also aply outside of the tactical game.Have you played through many combats with a group that's at least slightly vested in thier characters yet?  I admit that I get the same impression looking at the capabilities of 1st level PCs and the hps and abilities of 1st level monsters, but I've heard claims that the game plays better than it reads.Did you really see much of that in 3.5?  The new 'stat polarity' phenomenon could readily lead to characters having as many as three 'dump stats.'  True, you start at 10, so they won't be negative, but they'll still be low compared to others'.One option is to use more abstract means of tracking tactical position.  Counters or coins instead of miniatures on a blank grid, for instance.   You can use a piece of graph paper with 'x's PCs and 'o's for monsters, if you don't have anything else.  It's not like we aren't all reading the DMG, too.  Making up new items (like cursed items) is always an option.Been reduced?  There's never been any rules for persistent injury, scaring or anything like that.I certainly get the sense that monster hps are too high - at least, if you want quick combats.  Minions are an option, of course, but an extreme one.  Considering that no one's belting out 20d spells or 120 point leap attacks anymore, the monsters really shouldn't need 800hps.  But, again, I'd like to see how combats work out before doing anything quite this drastic.The classes as listed need multiple good stats.  Not really high, but at least one high, and two decent - three 14+, at minimum.  Feat preqs often push that up to all stats 13+ (which is doable by 11st level, actually).That's not so much 'fixing' as chucking it and playing a different game.   Storyteller, maybe?  I hear Exalted's pretty popular.This would add more anoyance than mystery, but, certainly, if you wanted to creat additional items, you could inject some mystery - and suspense if you also created cursed items.  Turning back the clock a bit, but it is a classic aspect of the game.I've played with such variants in the past, and they are very frustrating.  Once you PC gets 'injured' he's meat for the monsters, so you're getting screwed just when things are at thier worst.  Leads to players turning gun shy, healing and resting after every battle, etc.If you're substantially reducing monster hps, so fights are shorter, and PCs can potentially escape from some of them unscathed, this could work.  There is some non-healing-sure healing in the game, which you might want to expand.So, what do you think?</blockquote>

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