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Message: <blockquote data-quote="3catcircus" data-source="post: 5614447" data-attributes="member: 16077">I really don't see anything wrong with the basic idea of rolling low with your ability score as the (unmodified) target.  Take a look at the (crying shame that it is now OOP) Twilight:2013's Reflex System:You have skills at various levels.  Those skill levels determine how many d20's you roll against the controlling attribute, with the goal of rolling below the attribute.  The system uses the difference between your roll and the attribute as a measure of how successful (or not) you are - 5 or more below is a crit and 5 or more above is a fumble.  For each die roll that is successful beyond the first one, you add 2 to your measure.  Untrained skill use is fixed - roll 2 d20s and pick the highest of the two rolls.How successful you are determines not only whether or not you hit, but how much damage you do, for example.This system works really really well - the more skilled you are, the better your chances of success.  The way you get more skilled is by spending your experience points to buy more skill ranks.  Additionally, the system is self-limiting in that you have a maximum number of d20s you can roll, so the equivalent of a 20th level PC isn't exponentially more powerful than a 1st level PC, while also allowing for that 20th level fighter with the 16 Str to be more skilled than the 1st level fighter with the 18 or 19 Str, since an attack would be an opposed roll (with the defender's roll reflecting armor bonuses).Would such a system (designed for a "realistic" modern combat system) work for a game like D&D?  Probably, but you'd end up having to probably adopt that game's character generation system as well, which would kill the class/level sacred cow (which isn't necessarily verboten, in my opinion).Magic items would neatly "drop in" - all those items that give a +1 - +5 to attributes or to your AC or to-hit rolls could easily fit in and would affect both the 1st and 20th level guys equally, so magic items that were valued early on would still be valued and wouldn't be overshadowed by the other bonuses and modifiers that currently occur in both 3.x/Pathfinder and 4e. The other thing it would do is eliminate the to-hit/AC bonus arms race since armor and weapon bonuses would apply directly to your attributes, so a more-skilled 1st level PC could still effectively attack a less-skilled 20th level character.</blockquote>

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