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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wocky" data-source="post: 2901957" data-attributes="member: 11408">I have the idea that there were a lot of meta-rules or "metadesign principles" as called in this thread involved in the development of D&D. Recently I began searching for patterns and doing a deep analysis of the 3.0 iconics. My hunch is that there are some canonical progressions for attack bonus, AC, saves, damage, etc. and that the game was balanced around those.What I'm trying to accomplish is to rebuild the tables for expected attack bonus at each level, expected primary attribute bonus at each level, expected AC bonus at each level, etc.I already found some interesting patterns in my analysis, which is turning out to be harder than I first expected... mostly because of the gp progression given in the DMG, which gives access to some items sooner than I first expected.Examples:- There are only three armors you can choose to use in the game: Light, Medium and Heavy. Most "choices" given in the PHB (i.e. half plate instead of full plate) are sub-optimal after level 4 when you are able to afford any type of armor. From this you can extrapolate three different AC progressions.- Each class was designed for three main abilities. The main ability should have a +2 bonus, will receive all +1 ability bonuses every four levels and will be buffed with the best ability boosting equipment possible. Two secondary abilities will receive +2 and +1 bonuses, will not receive class bonuses, and will be buffed with ability boosting equipment of a lower bonus. (Of course you can depart from this meta-rule, but your choices should be no less optimal than these). The three main abilities of each class are usually mentioned in the PHB, under the "abilities" heading.- Strength is a special case in ability boosting equipment. A +2 bonus is given by the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, but +4 and +6 are given by the Belt of Giant Strength. I assume that this is a "patch" in the rules to prevent early stacking of a +2 bonus in Strength with a +2 bonus in Dexterity (with the Gauntlets of Dexterity).- The amulet of health can't be combined with the periapt of wisdom. This seems to be a patch to keep mostly clerics in check, since it has WIS as a primary ability, and CON as a secondary/third ability (CHA is the other important ability for a cleric).Does anybody know of any materials that would help me in this endeavour, or similar disections of the game? For instance,  AtiI know Iron Heroes should be of help at some point, since it should have been desing with this meta-rules in mind. Any other? Articles? Web pages?</blockquote>

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