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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JohnSnow" data-source="post: 3394467" data-attributes="member: 32164">I actually find myself annoyed with D&D because of its overreliance on "the Big Six." Basically, they can be broken into:* bonuses to attack and damage* bonuses to AC* bonuses to saving throws* stat boosts (indirect bonuses to attacks, damage, AC, saves, skills, and spellcasting)That said, it seems to me that to address this and make magic "magical" again, the game needs to do the following:1) Increase the Saving Throw progressions. More specifically, make it so that the PCs don't NEED those save boosting items to be good. High Level PCs are, and should be, awesome because of WHO they are, not what they carry. Why does a high level fighter need save boosting items? Besides, requiring items creates a design problem. Do you design a CR 15 critter to challenge the fighter's will save or a wizard's? If you're challenging the wizard's will save, are you challenging him WITH save enhancing items or without? As a result, you've created a vast discrepancy in character power. Either the character spreads his bonuses around, raising his poor saves, and he's not as tough against those fows who challenge his good save as he should be, or he raises his good save and he's vulnerable to attacks that target his weak saves. Deciding that would be easier if saves were inherent to the classes (which they are...until you factor magic items into the equation)2) Raise the bonuses PCs get to their attacks. You don't need a +4 sword if you get that +4 to your attacks (and +4 damage) you need to confront a CR 16 dragon without the item. To me, the obvious place to go for this is to create feats that provide those bonuses, or build them in as class abilities. Note that eliminating the mathematical bonuses still allows you to place "magic weapons" and have DR X/magic (more on that below).3) Give the characters defense bonuses that scale alongside attack bonuses to eliminate the need for items that give +X to AC. That allows that high-level fighter to confront the CR 15 dragon without being all magically blinged out. (Although, if he's fighting a red dragon, it might be a good idea if he had a ring of fire resistance.) In that vein, it might make more sense if armor reduced damage and defense reduced your likelihood of getting hit. A side effect of this is that it may make it easier to describe combat, as a miss is a miss, whereas a hit is a hit, but potentially only lightly damaging.4) Increase the number of "ability score improvements" available to characters. Honestly, what's the difference between a character with a +6 item and +5 to allocate as he sees fit, and a character with +11 points of ability score improvements? If you're worried about the character getting a +8 to a given ability score too early, you could limit the degree to which any ONE stat can be improved at a particular level.5) Have artifact style items to cover things like the plot device set of items that turns someone from low-level nobody into a "mighty warrior" (like the wargear of Ashen-Sugar in Feist's Riftwar, or Temmer in Stackpole's Dragoncrown War). I understand the flavor reasons for items like those to exist, but they're definitely more "plot device" items than things which ought to be "routine."Then you can focus on designing magical items that are cool, or let characters interact with their environment in new and exciting ways, rather than on things that increase the character's combat effectiveness. Shoes that allow the character to fly, walk on water, or operate underwater are fine, but buffs are, IMO, boring.I would allow the weapon descriptors (magic, holy, etc.) and special properties (keen, flaming, etc.) to stay. The ability to bypass DR is cool and flavorful. But, now that there's no "DR X/+3," a magic sword is a magic sword - no statistical bonus necessary. If you want to simulate the ability of magic weapons to bypass mundane armor, you can have have mundane armor grant DR X/magic.But that's just how I'd do it.</blockquote>

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