If there was one thing about 3rdE that you could change, what would it be?

[Psion]

Make all flavor rules explicitly optional. Druid weapon restrictions, Paladin Monk and Barbarian alignment restrictions, etc...

5th'd.

Many of these suggestions are very personal (e.g. a lot of people are happy with alignment the way it is.) But the paladin and monk multiclass restrictions are more skirted around than any other rule I know.

 

[carrot]

I think that the BAB thing should be worked out using a similar method to the skill checks.... "I've never used a warhammer before, but since I'm a 10th level fighter I get +10 to hit with it..."

 

[Magius del Cotto]

Bring back the 2nd edition critical hit tables. They worked just fine for my old (2e) group, and I don't see why they'd be a problem in 3e rules.

 

[Bryan Vining]

A 10th level fighter who takes an arrow to the throat is dead, just the same as a 1st level fighter.

Good judgement agrees, but there is no provision for it in the rules, unless I missed something major. So, here's your first house rule for 3E.

Anyway, along these lines, I'd like to see a bit of a change in the abstract damage system, giving some specificity to hit locations and some provision for targeting specific locations with appropriate results. (The results of damage to specific locations are in the DMG, but there is no provision for targeting them).

 

[Aloïsius]

A very easy one, that will add a lot of realism to the game :
*when diying check for stabilisation every ten rounds rather than every round AND you need ten rounds to stabilize somebody with a heal check.

 

[Yonshalmnu]

I second making the splat books more balanced. And they are just 70 percent extra PrC's, spells and feats anyways. Lets have those books concentrate more on character development and strategy for the classes.

 

[Ricochet]

The thing I want to change the most... Grapple!

The rules are bad and really confusing for many people, and it's just too easy to grapple someone when you have more than one attack per round.

Honorable mention: MUCH less Prestige Classes, and more balanced at that!

 

[Apok]

Get rid of the alignment system.

 

[Sagiro]

A 10th level fighter who takes an arrow to the throat is dead, just the same as a 1st level fighter.

Good judgement agrees, but there is no provision for it in the rules, unless I missed something major. So, here's your first house rule for 3E.

I think this is a common misconception. A "critical hit" doesn't necessarily mean "arrow to the throat" or similar location. It just means "a hit that does more damage than usual." There's nothing in the core rules that says it has to be deadly. A 0-level orc is basically unable to hit a healed-up 10th-level fighter in the eye with an arrow -- the fighter's reflexes and savvy are too finely honed. He catches a glipse at the last minute and ducks, or catches the arrow with his arm, etc. The "critical hit" scored by the orc means that instead of a miss or mostly-harmless glancing blow, the orc actually managed a legitimate, damaging attack. The fighter blocked the eyeball-bound arrow with his arm, but it still does (say) 15 points of damage out of the fighter's 80 HP.

Now, once the 10th-level fighter has been worn down from 80 HP to 5 HP, that simulates that he's gotten tired, and sluggish, and it's hard for him to see with blood running into his eyes, etc. Now a 15 point critical hit might strike him in the eye and kill him outright.

I believe that's how the abstract HP system works (in 3E and previous editions).

-Sagiro

 

[hong]

Good judgement agrees, but there is no provision for it in the rules, unless I missed something major.

A 10th level fighter who gets taken to -1 hit points (or lower) goes down, just the same as a 1st level fighter. That's your arrow in the throat.

Is it as _easy_ to get that arrow in the throat against the 10th level guy? Nope, but that's what being 10th level means. A highly skilled/experienced character _should_ be better able to defend themselves against attacks, especially from less skilled/ experienced foes. And against someone else who's also 10th level, those hit points can disappear remarkably quickly.

Vis-a-vis called shots, special attack forms like trips, grapples, disarms, and attacking objects take care of most situations that will come up. Power Attack takes care of the generic "aim for a specific location and cause lots of pain" scenario. I also have a Called Shot feat somewhere on my D&D site that does the same thing for ranged attacks; and Dragon 274 had some Ranged Disarm and Ranged Pin feats.