Merlion
First Post
Its recently come to my attention that my desire to play standard Dungeons and Dragons isnt very high. There are just to many things I don’t like about it, and to many things I feel that have been done less than well. Overall, as far as playing, I’d rather play Arcana Unearthed.
I am currently running a campaign that I have heavily houseruled…I am using many of the variants in Unearthed Arcana, and many of my own houserules. Even though I would rather play, I was unable to find any group willing to make even slight changes to the basic rules to fit character concepts…and there are in core so many things I dislike, and so many rigid things that just a slight bending would really make the game more enjoyable.
Anyway, this got me to thinking about the eventual next edition of DnD ( we will assume it will be called 4th edition, since that’s what it will be). I am not going to speculate on when a new edition will come to be, but its pretty certain it will happen sooner or later. I am also assuming that 4th edition will still be d20 system, since I believe that will be the case.
I love the d20 system, and I like most of Dungeons and Dragons, but there are some things that have just gotten tiresome. For various reasons however, I foresee at least some of them changing with the new edition.
I don’t think the change from 3.x to 4th edition will be anything like as major as the change from 2nd edition to 3.0 was. Partially because I think 4th edition will keep the same core engine (the d20 system), and partially because I tend to think, as some others do as well I believe, that much of the material in Unearthed Arcana may well be a sort of test run. I think we may well see a number of things from that book either become the standard, or become “official variants” presented somewhere within the core rules.
I see Class Based Defense Bonuses, and Armor as Damage Reduction quite possibly becoming core. Many people have negative feelings about things like hit points, armor class, and the overall extremely abstract nature of DnD combat. While they are never going to remove hit points and armor class from Dungeons and Dragons, I think these 2 mechanics could bring a lot of realism to combat without severly stepping on any sacred cows. I feel that it would also be more balanced overall (as it stands armor classes and attack bonuses are not, in my opinion, always terribly well balanced with each other…with class defense it seems to be somewhat more so).
When 3.5 was in the works it was mentioned that they considered revamping the metamagic system but that they felt it was too great an undertaking for the revision. But along comes Unearthed Arcana with a number of excellent variations on the concept of metamagic. If anything like metamagic as we know it is kept in 4th edition, I foresee it being like one of the Spontaneous Metamagic variants from UA.
Now, theres lots of things big and little that I would change about DnD. Some of them (such as the removal of the Cleric class) aren’t ever going to happen. But heres a few things I would like to see happen in the next edition, in addition to what I have mentioned above, that I think do have some chance of taking place.
Remove the Arcane/Divine terminology: I would like to return to 1st edition in this respect, and have spells be categorized by class alone, without casting classes being put into groups. In other words, let Wizards and Bards just cast Wizard and Bard spells, rather than as it is now where yes, they cast wizard and bard spells, but they are also “arcane spellcasters”. The terms have little mechanical effect, and mostly just create problems in my experience.
Remove Alignment And Roleplaying restrictions: In 3rd edition they did away with racial class and level restrictions, and ability score requirements for classes…I deeply hope 4th edition will do away with having restrictions on alignment and roleplaying for classes.
Expand Feats/Change the Rogue: I think the Feat was the single most wonderful new concept in the d20 system, and that its potential is only just being tapped. In particular, I would like to see many things that are currently extraordinary class features become feats. Things like Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, Slippery Mind, and the like are things that anyone should be able to learn to do. We already saw some of this with feats like Track, Two-Weapon Fighting, and the like. But also feats that expand existing class abilities (like the Divine and Wild feats) should be expanded upon, and I would love to see more magical feats that affect spells and spellcasting.
And then for the Rogue, make them function much like the fighter, with a passle of bonus feats drawn from a list including all the former rogue class abilities, along with some “agile” combat stuff, and skill related feats.
Fix the Cleric: I can deal with the fact that the cleric is a “sacred cow”, but 2 things do need to happen with the Cleric. It needs to be balanced against the other classes properly, and in my estimation if there going to keep it despite its archetypal issues, they need to at least try to sort it out. Probably by either by making it “the Priest” properly and having its abilities actually based on its religion, or make it just “the Cleric” divorce it mostly or entirely from the idea of “the priest” and religion, and just have it be “the battle healer” class.
Fix or Remove the Sorcerer: The Sorcerer either needs to get its own archetypal and class-role identity separate from the Wizard, and be balanced within it, or it needs to be removed.
Increase Skill Points: Skills, to me, are largely a roleplaying tool, especially some of them. I think all classes should have at least 4 skill points per level. This may or may not also lead to a bump in the skill points of the “skill monger” classes.
And lastly…(that I can think of at the moment) I would like to see a 4th core rulebook released (or this matieral included in the existing three) consisting of “official variant rules” and/or advice on how to change things, swap class abilities etc. DnD has always been and will always be a pretty rigid, class based system, but with the modularity of the d20 system it should be possible, and both allowed and expanded upon in core, to change things around a bit. A system for changing the “magic level” (especially magic item dependency level) would be especially nice.
Now, I would like to hear everyone else’s thoughts about future editions, and anything else that may spring to mind.
I am currently running a campaign that I have heavily houseruled…I am using many of the variants in Unearthed Arcana, and many of my own houserules. Even though I would rather play, I was unable to find any group willing to make even slight changes to the basic rules to fit character concepts…and there are in core so many things I dislike, and so many rigid things that just a slight bending would really make the game more enjoyable.
Anyway, this got me to thinking about the eventual next edition of DnD ( we will assume it will be called 4th edition, since that’s what it will be). I am not going to speculate on when a new edition will come to be, but its pretty certain it will happen sooner or later. I am also assuming that 4th edition will still be d20 system, since I believe that will be the case.
I love the d20 system, and I like most of Dungeons and Dragons, but there are some things that have just gotten tiresome. For various reasons however, I foresee at least some of them changing with the new edition.
I don’t think the change from 3.x to 4th edition will be anything like as major as the change from 2nd edition to 3.0 was. Partially because I think 4th edition will keep the same core engine (the d20 system), and partially because I tend to think, as some others do as well I believe, that much of the material in Unearthed Arcana may well be a sort of test run. I think we may well see a number of things from that book either become the standard, or become “official variants” presented somewhere within the core rules.
I see Class Based Defense Bonuses, and Armor as Damage Reduction quite possibly becoming core. Many people have negative feelings about things like hit points, armor class, and the overall extremely abstract nature of DnD combat. While they are never going to remove hit points and armor class from Dungeons and Dragons, I think these 2 mechanics could bring a lot of realism to combat without severly stepping on any sacred cows. I feel that it would also be more balanced overall (as it stands armor classes and attack bonuses are not, in my opinion, always terribly well balanced with each other…with class defense it seems to be somewhat more so).
When 3.5 was in the works it was mentioned that they considered revamping the metamagic system but that they felt it was too great an undertaking for the revision. But along comes Unearthed Arcana with a number of excellent variations on the concept of metamagic. If anything like metamagic as we know it is kept in 4th edition, I foresee it being like one of the Spontaneous Metamagic variants from UA.
Now, theres lots of things big and little that I would change about DnD. Some of them (such as the removal of the Cleric class) aren’t ever going to happen. But heres a few things I would like to see happen in the next edition, in addition to what I have mentioned above, that I think do have some chance of taking place.
Remove the Arcane/Divine terminology: I would like to return to 1st edition in this respect, and have spells be categorized by class alone, without casting classes being put into groups. In other words, let Wizards and Bards just cast Wizard and Bard spells, rather than as it is now where yes, they cast wizard and bard spells, but they are also “arcane spellcasters”. The terms have little mechanical effect, and mostly just create problems in my experience.
Remove Alignment And Roleplaying restrictions: In 3rd edition they did away with racial class and level restrictions, and ability score requirements for classes…I deeply hope 4th edition will do away with having restrictions on alignment and roleplaying for classes.
Expand Feats/Change the Rogue: I think the Feat was the single most wonderful new concept in the d20 system, and that its potential is only just being tapped. In particular, I would like to see many things that are currently extraordinary class features become feats. Things like Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, Slippery Mind, and the like are things that anyone should be able to learn to do. We already saw some of this with feats like Track, Two-Weapon Fighting, and the like. But also feats that expand existing class abilities (like the Divine and Wild feats) should be expanded upon, and I would love to see more magical feats that affect spells and spellcasting.
And then for the Rogue, make them function much like the fighter, with a passle of bonus feats drawn from a list including all the former rogue class abilities, along with some “agile” combat stuff, and skill related feats.
Fix the Cleric: I can deal with the fact that the cleric is a “sacred cow”, but 2 things do need to happen with the Cleric. It needs to be balanced against the other classes properly, and in my estimation if there going to keep it despite its archetypal issues, they need to at least try to sort it out. Probably by either by making it “the Priest” properly and having its abilities actually based on its religion, or make it just “the Cleric” divorce it mostly or entirely from the idea of “the priest” and religion, and just have it be “the battle healer” class.
Fix or Remove the Sorcerer: The Sorcerer either needs to get its own archetypal and class-role identity separate from the Wizard, and be balanced within it, or it needs to be removed.
Increase Skill Points: Skills, to me, are largely a roleplaying tool, especially some of them. I think all classes should have at least 4 skill points per level. This may or may not also lead to a bump in the skill points of the “skill monger” classes.
And lastly…(that I can think of at the moment) I would like to see a 4th core rulebook released (or this matieral included in the existing three) consisting of “official variant rules” and/or advice on how to change things, swap class abilities etc. DnD has always been and will always be a pretty rigid, class based system, but with the modularity of the d20 system it should be possible, and both allowed and expanded upon in core, to change things around a bit. A system for changing the “magic level” (especially magic item dependency level) would be especially nice.
Now, I would like to hear everyone else’s thoughts about future editions, and anything else that may spring to mind.
