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Message: <blockquote data-quote="smathis" data-source="post: 4291118" data-attributes="member: 56465">All around bad idea. Completely blows the balance of the game out of the water -- in terms of character-to-character and PCs-to-Monsters. What is it you want to keep from 4e that you're interested in gutting 25-30% of the PHB?No need. Basic algebra here. If I subtract 15% from starting HP and monster HP, what am I gaining?  A zero sum. If you want combats to be shorter, I have three words for you...Exploding.Damage.Dice.It would throw off the balance some but in a way that would be fun. And it would be easy to mitigate or scale down -- only one damage die in a roll explodes, player chooses.That and lethality would go through the roof -- which seems to be where you're going with this...Unnecessary. I'd go with 4d6, drop the lowest or the standard arrays. No need to gank the PCs out of the gate like this. 4d6, dropping the lowest, will produce wide enough fluctuations that you'd still get some pretty odd scores --- like a PC with 2 18s or a 5 and a 6.I'm inclined to pass on a suggestion from Mearls' blog where he states that giving all PCs 10 pts of GURPS disadvantages is a nice touch. I tend to agree.No one ever plays a 6 Cha or an 8 Int. At least no one I've ever known who used them as a dump stat.But if they have the disad "Likes to Gamble" or "Dark Secret". Yeah, those are the ones that tend to make it to the table.Basically, removing the powers is akin to removing Magic Items in 3e. A complete rewrite. Reference: Iron Heroes. There are better ways to go without a grid in 4e.The real trick is to figure out what all this forced movement and shifting translates to in your head. I mean, this powers say that you can move 2 squares before an attack and such. But what does that mean? How would a PC or monster use that to advantage?Once those things are understood, 4e is no more difficult to run without a grid than 3e. And if you follow the "Say Yes" advice in the DMG, you'll run into significantly fewer headaches.More here<a href="http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=4112306&postcount=25" target="_blank">http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=4112306&postcount=25</a>I have the same problem with Identify, Magic Items and Residuum. In fact, I've had a problem with the Magic Item Economy since it was brought to the forefront in 3e.Basically, I plan to treat Residuum as the D&D equivalent of Deadlands' Ghost Rock. I plan to be traipsing around in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy so that's not a big deal for me. They have a similar substance called "Magicum".I want to give Magic Items the Stormbringer treatment. Basically an item grows in power with you. So a Paladin may pick up a magic sword at 1st level. But by the time he reaches 25th the sword will be a Holy Avenger.I reviewed the Magic Items last night and this doesn't look too hard.Neither does completely removing Magic Items and just giving the PCs a straight bonus to Attacks and Defenses (AC too) at all the levels divisible by 5. I'd also throw an extra d6 per tier on crits too. But that's me being nice.Yeah. This will suck more than you realize. I know that 4e PCs look uber from the perspective of previous editions. But they're not.If you want gritty and desperate combat...Every time a PC is dropped below zero they lose a Healing Surge. Ouch.Every time a PC fails a Death Save, the total surges they can have are lowered by one until they can make it back to town and rest up. Those are your wounds right there.I'm not sure I'll be using either of those variants, though. I think they'd just be too rough.Here's how I planned to handle the full refresh issue...A full refresh only happens when the PCs get a full rest back in town. When they're out adventuring -- sleeping in the woods or in a labyrinthine crypt -- they only recover their Bloodied score in HPs (up to their max) and their Con bonus +1 in Healing Surges (again up to their max). Oh, and their Action Point.Believe me, that's all you'll really need for grit.I planned on allowing a full refresh during an extended rest once per adventure, following a PC-narrated Flashback or some sort of tale about their past and why they're in the dungeon. But that was for flavor and to lessen (somewhat) the effect of not having a full refresh every day.</blockquote>

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