If you had to cut one element from the D&D game...

If you had to cut one element from the D&D game...


  • Poll closed .
Spell resistance, damage resistance, and miss chances. The way to avoid spells is saving throws. The way to avoid damage is AC. Additional mechanics for this are just clutter.

I'm not a big fan of the arcane/divine split in fantasy games in general, but it seems likely to me that a game without it would lose more D&D tropes than a game called D&D ought to.
 

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Definately the Divine/Arcane magic distinction. Magic is Magic. I don't mind having a few spells that are more "divine" in nature among the mixed list, (perhaps calling for a spiritual component that can only be provided by honest belief in a deity granting the power) but the whole seperate spell-list for every spellcaster has got to go.

Robert "Prefers AE's Magic System" Ranting
 


EricNoah said:
Oh, shoot, I wish Prestige Classes had been listed. 'cause I would have picked that. There's nothing a prestige class can do that some well-crafted feats and some multiclassing can't. Nothing in 3.x is worse, to me, than a player who has to plan his character out several levels ahead of time so he can make the prereqs for some PrC.

QFT
 


Non-spellcasters' reliance on magic items, and the built-in game assumptions that x-level characters will have x-number of magic items. Fighters should kick butt due to their skill, not because they have a +5 sword and wear +5 armor with a girdle of giant strength.
 

Definitely Arcane/Divine. In older editions, cleric spells were significantly less powerful than arcane spells. This is no longer the case, and there are very few spells left which haven't crossed the divide. I'm not saying, however, that each class should have exactly the same spell list.

Create an extensive list of "Basic Magic" -- spells which anyone with magical training can
learn.

Then to distinguish the spell lists of the different classes, distribute the more unusual, exotic, and powerful spells into domains, spheres, schools, and so on. Each class would automatically grant access to a certain number of these, but a character willing to spend feats and time on the effort should be able to learn magic from a style not in his class.

Furthermore, each class should have a different way of casting magic. Leave V,S,M for wizards, make bards V only, introduce other modes like C(oncentration), R(itual), etc for other classes.

(Yes, I know I'm cribbing from Arcana Unearthed here--but I think this would be the easiest way to do something similar in D&D. Domains were one of the great ideas of 3rd edition.)
 

EricNoah said:
Divine/arcane magic distinction. I want one big juicy spell list. And I want what makes casters different to be their "method" and their source of power.

Me too. If not that than the dependence on magic items

I'd rather have level based bonuses to AC, Saves (enough to meet the real DC's) more skills and feats and so on.
 


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