Has anyone created a D20/D&D3e light?

[Flexor the Mighty!]

A version minus the feats and situational mods? It's easy enough to drop the sit mods, but the whole feats issue is different. It will kind of screw the classes up.

 

[kenjib]

At some point Will Smith was making a D&D lite. I think the idea was that he was extending the D&D adventure game to scale up to higher levels and still use the simplified rules of that system.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I'd like to keep the skills and the base mechanics, but just get rid of the tons of mods that feats entail.

 

[jmucchiello]

I'd like to keep the skills and the base mechanics, but just get rid of the tons of mods that feats entail.

I don't see how you could call the feats heavy. So you drop all feats. Makes the Fighter useless. Do monks still get Deflect Arrow, Stunning Fist, etc?

Also, aren't the rules for spells and magic items far more complex? They also grant modifiers in the same way feats do: Bless, Prayer, Bull's Strength, Spider Climb, etc.

Could you be more specific about why feats are bad but spells and magic items are good?

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

This is one of my posts in another thread.

As they get higher level I find myself spending more time thinking of how to use feats for their enemies than on other more productive things. "ok Mel the 12th level Fighter is attacking, well he has expertise, power attack, great cleave, dodge, mobility, etc. Well he's attacking with a +4 to damage and -4 to hit, he's using expertise for a five points of ac bonus and the resulting mod to hit, he's in a flanking position with Jimmy Joe the Fighter and is charging so that give him a total bonus of +4 to hit on top of other mods and he has a total of - something to his AC...Oh wait, that was Jimmy Joe who was using four points of Power Attack! Mel has the improved power attack feat so he's using a plus 10 to damage, hold on let me recalulate...damn and I forgot Clem has the dodge feat! Doh!"

I'd rather just do this, "Mel charges across the room and attacks Clem the Magic User. He rolls a 13 plus his attack bonus of +4 with his longsword for a 17, that hits Clems AC of 6" He wasn't opportunity attacked and I wasn't forced to consider feats and situational mods. Sure some may enjoy that extra level of detail, hell some folks just love Champions, but I'd rather go for a more simplistic system that runs faster.

 

[Desdichado]

And here I was thinking that I'd find rules for d20 flashlights...

I'd also like a 3e lite. But I don't want to get there by chopping feats. What's to create? Just do it already -- wham-bam, no more feats!

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

And here I was thinking that I'd find rules for d20 flashlights...

I'd also like a 3e lite. But I don't want to get there by chopping feats. What's to create? Just do it already -- wham-bam, no more feats!

Yeah, but don't you think that would kind of cripple the fighters? I suppose I could just get rid of the feats, give every fighter a +1 to hit with a weapon of choice at first level then give them a +2 to damage at fouth level to simulate weapon focus and weapon specilization. a lot of the feats are fine, but the ones that give combat modifiers tend to add up when I am running the party and they are fighting several higher level fighters or monsters, and that bogs me down as I tend to have to keep rechecking the mods to make sure I'm not forgetting something. If they leveled quicker than other classes it wouldn't be an issue if they lost power relative to other classes as they would be 10th level when the Paladin was 8th level for example. But then that screws up multiclassing I would think. Maybe I could have an exp modifier to each class? A Fighter is +15% or something like that? Ideas?

 

[Desdichado]

Y'know, Flexor, after following your posts over several months, I've quite often seen you try to get people to talk you out of playing 1e and into 3e, but I'm not entirely convinced that you want to be talked out of it.

Why not just play 1e? Didn't you mention in another thread that's what you're going to do next anyway?

 

[Mark]

Any DM who doesn't use AoOs, "Rule Zeros" a bunch of magic items, and doesn't use an actual grid on which to play (AKA does it all verbally) is essentially playing a d20/D&D3E lite, aren't they?

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Why not just play 1e and use the stuff from 3e that is easily transportable? BAB instead of THACO, the simpler saves, armor class, etc. That sounds more like what you want to play. It'd save a lot more time than trying to deconstruct and reconstruct 3e as a 3e Lite.