Mulling simplified E6 class

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

Merry Christmas Hrothgar!

Thanks, Ryan. Hope your Christmas was wonderful. Especially with the new baby.

I am thinking of it as an armor bonus because I don't want it to stack with anything. I dunno, I'm just thinking aloud here.

OK. Sounds good, but weird, to me. I'm imagining a character's skin becoming thicker and harder and maybe eventually turning into chitin (insect-like).

I'm trying to think of what E6 would look like if D&D looked slightly different.

I mean, instead of having this crosseyed rebalanced set of underlying stats that basically amount to

Ability Modifier+Adjustment kind of based on Level+Modifiers

what if all the numbers (saves, attacks, skill rolls, defense rolls) were:

Ability Modifier+Level+Modifiers

?

It would make all the classes the same.

One of my player's and I were toying around with the idea that all weapons were capable of killing blows, so all weapons should do the same damage. It was a passing thought, though. After some examination, we began to realize that hit points were really more like dodge points (at least for most humanoid PC's) and that they were a measure of stamina rather than the ability to take physical damage. So, that started us on another line of thought... We almost set out upon a complete system re-write... Which I'm trying to avoid.

I'm rattling the ideas around in my head... thinking about writing a stripped down d20 for use with E6 specifically.

I don't know. I like the variation in the classes as far as BAB and saves. Having them all the same... Just seems a bit dull. By all rights, fighters (in my mind) should hit more often than other non-martial classes. Sure, it can be argued that wizards in fantasy stories are often every bit as good as fighters, but there's usually no proof that the wizard wouldn't actually be a multi-classed fighter wizard in DnD stats.

In our house-rules, we're using an idea that came up in the various E6 threads. The bonuses to BAB and saves do not stack when multi-classing. Instead, the character just gets the best one from whatever class gives the best bonus. It's working quite well.

Skill points, on the other hand, work just like normal with the exception that the max number of skill points that can be placed in any given skill is equal to the character's highest class level plus three (instead of his total class levels-- A ftr3/wiz3 could only have skill points of 6 in a class skill, instead of 9 by the core rules).

In short, I've tried to cut down on what stacks in order to keep the power levels a little lower. The class ideas that you present won't alter the game that much and they would simplify things, but I (personally) wouldn't go that route. I'd keep the basic SRD classes pretty much as-is from the SRD for levels 1-6 (with the various capstone feats that we all worked on in the various E6 threads). But, that's me.